The Vallotton Monument in Wygram commemorates Major Charles Vallotton.
Vallotton served as aide-de-camp to General Augustus Elliot during the Great Siege of Gibraltar from 1779 to 1783. He later served with the 56th Regiment in County Wexford.
In 1793, authorities arrested two men from Bunclody in County Wexford for carrying arms at a tithe protest organised by the Right Boys, a secret society. Officials took the men to Wexford Town and imprisoned them in Wexford Gaol. In response, their neighbours armed themselves and marched on the town. Written records from the time suggest the group planned to break down the gates of the prison.
On the morning of the confrontation, officials in Wexford Town received a threatening letter from an anonymous source demanding the release of the two men. The author warned that if the demands were not met, an army of 3,000 men would descend on Wexford and burn it to the ground. Officials did not take the letter seriously at the time.
Later that day, at approximately 2 PM, a man on horseback rode into Wexford and informed officials that a large group was heading towards the town, wielding guns, pikes, and makeshift weapons. Im response, the military barracks assembled 50 soldiers from the 56th Regiment. The soldiers, led by Vallotton, marched towards the Upper John Street area to intercept the protesters.
The two forces met at Wygram, where a confrontation occurred between Vallotton and a protester named John Moore of Robinstown, who was 22 years old.
During heated negotiations, Vallotton learned that the protesters had captured Lieutenant Buckby of the 56th Regiment. He plunged his sword into Moore, who struck back with a scythe, wounding Vallotton in the groin. The fight ended quickly, with both men fatally wounded.
Vallotton later died of his injuries on 15 July 1793. Moore also died from his wounds and was buried at Carnagh.
The precise details of the encounter are unclear, as conflicting reports from the era attempted to assign blame to different sides.
The soldiers of the 56th Regiment opened fire on the protesters and killed eleven people. Others escaped but died of their wounds in the fields around Wexford Town.
The Wexford Militia, under the command of Captain James Boyd, later killed approximately 80 fleeing protesters near Bettyville.
Later, some of those who had escaped were found hiding in a hayloft. Authorities executed five men by hanging on Windmill Hill on 26 July 1793: James Kenney, Patrick Flannery, Patrick Neil, Michael Carty, and John Crawford.
Wexford Corporation erected the stone structure at its own expense in 1794 as a memorial for Vallotton. The original inscription read: “To the Memory of MAJOR CHARLES VALLOTTON murdered at Wexford in Ireland July 15 1793 whilst in the act of expostulating with a lawless mob.”
The September 1793 minute book entry for the Wexford Corporation stated the following:
At said assembly it was unanimously voted that a monument be erected in the church of this town, and a monumental obelisk raised on the spot where he was killed, at the expense of this corporation, to the memory of the late Major Charles Vallotton of the 56th Regiment of Infantry, who fell in the defence of the town of Wexford when attacked by a dangerous and riotous mob; and that the burgesses now present, or any five of them, be a committee to determine on the plan, inscriptions, and expense thereof.
The Vallotton Monument has never been popular among the people of Wexford, many of whom felt the borough council had hastily built it to appease the British.
The structure was so unpopular that people from the countryside threw stones at it as they entered the town, a practice that may explain why the inscription is now illegible.
The events of 11 July 1793 are sometimes referred to as the “First Rebellion,” with many historians believing that the shootings and executions bred a sense of enmity that eventually culminated in the rebellion of 1798.
At a meeting of Wexford Borough Council in 1997, it was suggested that the monument be rededicated not only to Vallotton but to all who lost their lives in the 1793 confrontation.