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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2025
Achmet Borumborad's arrival in Ireland in the 1760s, during which he claimed to be a Turk fleeing political persecution in Istanbul, quickly propelled him to prominence, making him one of the country's most distinguished figures. His published works and the establishment of a Turkish bath in Dublin, supported by the Irish parliament, solidified his reputation. However, Achmet's good fortune proved short-lived upon the discovery that he was, in fact, an Irishman. Consequently, he retreated from the public eye, and his life story has become one of the most widely known tales of corruption that contributed to the dissolution of the Irish parliament. This paper explores the extraordinary account of Achmet through previously unused documents, offering not only fascinating insights into social life in eighteenth-century Ireland but also intriguing revelations regarding perceptions of the Ottoman Empire and ‘Turkish fashion’ during this era.
1 Achmet to Grantham, 31 May 1780 (Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service (hereafter B.A.R.S.), L 30/14/2/20). For more information on the trade crisis, see Kelly, James, ‘The Irish trade dispute with Portugal 1780‒87’ in Studia Hibernica, xxv (1990), pp 7‒48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Achmet to Grantham, 6 Oct. 1775 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/2/4). The project, which began exporting poplin to Spain, gradually expanded and evolved towards the Spanish Indies (from the Caribbean to the Philippines): see Achmet to Grantham, 30 Dec. 1775 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/2/5).
3 Achmet to Grantham, 31 May 1780 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/2/20).
4 Manchester Times, 28 Sept. 1872.
5 The information that Achmet fled for political reasons is mentioned only in Fleetwood, John F., ‘Irish quacks and quackery’ in Dublin Historical Record, xliii, no. 2 (1990), p. 72Google Scholar.
6 Barrington, Jonah, Personal sketches of his own times (2 vols, Philadelphia, 1827), i, 145Google Scholar.
7 The practice of imitating the clothing and appearance of a rival culture is a phenomenon deeply rooted in human history and is widespread: see, for instance, Trousdale, William, The long sword and scabbard slide in Asia (Washington D.C., 1975. 63CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Elton, Hugh, Warfare in Roman Europe, AD 350‒425 (Oxford, 1996), p. 145CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8 See, for instance, Irish Press, 25 Aug. 1954; Joyce, James, Finnegans wake, ed. Henkes, Robbert‒Jan and Bindervoet, Erik (Oxford, 2012), p. 492Google Scholar.
9 For instance, Williams, Haydn, Turquerie: an eighteenth-century European fantasy (London, 2014)Google Scholar. Also, see Atasoy, Nurhan and Uluç, Lale, Impressions of Ottoman culture in Europe, 1453‒1699 (Istanbul, 2012)Google Scholar; Bevilacqua, Alexander and Pfeifer, Helen, ‘Turquerie: culture in motion, 1650‒1750’ in Past & Present, no. 221 (2013): pp 75‒118CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Avcıoğlu, Nebahat, Turquerie and the politics of representation, 1728‒1876 (London, 2017)Google Scholar.
10 Belfast News Letter, 12 Sept. 1769; ibid., 25 Aug. 1786.
11 Dickson, David, Dublin: the making of a capital city (Cambridge, MA, 2014), p. 152CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 Pittock, Murray, Scottish and Irish romanticism (Oxford, 2011), pp 97‒8Google Scholar.
13 Paul Slack, The invention of improvement: information and material progress in seventeenth-century England (Oxford, 2015), p. 1.
14 See Edward McParland, Public architecture in Ireland, 1680‒1760 (New Haven, CT, 2001).
15 Robin Usher, Protestant Dublin, 1660‒1760: architecture and iconography (London, 2012), p. 199; Jonathan Coulson, Paul Roberts and Isabelle Taylor, University planning and architecture: the search for perfection (London, 2015), pp 77‒8.
16 Patrick Carroll, Science, culture, and modern state formation (Berkeley, CA, 2006), pp 152‒3.
17 J. H. Plumb, ‘The commercialisation of leisure in eighteenth-century England’ in Neil McKendrick, John Brewer and J. H. Plumb (eds), The birth of a consumer society: the commercialisation of eighteenth-century England (Bloomington, 1982), pp 265‒85.
18 Plumb, ‘The commercialisation of leisure in eighteenth-century England’, p. 274.
19 Roy Porter, Disease, medicine and society in England, 1550‒1860 (2nd ed., Cambridge, 1995), p. 40.
20 Registry of Deeds, Dublin, memorial number 175483, vol. 277, 1 May 1769, p. 76.
21 For instance, Mr & Mrs S. C. Hall, Ireland: its scenery, character, &c (2 vols, London, 1842), ii, 343‒4.
22 Dr Achmet, A succinct narrative of the virtues of St. Patrick's well at Finglas in the cure of scorbutic complaints (Dublin, 1769). Regrettably, no copies of this booklet have survived. See, Francis Elrington Ball, A history of the county Dublin: the people, parishes and antiquities from the earliest times to the close of the eighteenth century (6 vols, Dublin, 1920), vi, 113.
23 Registry of Deeds, Dublin, memorial Number 177367, vol. 276, 9 Sept. 1769, p. 301.
24 Freeman's Journal, 10 Oct. 1769 (and republished 14, 17, 19 Oct. 1769).
25 Probably Charles Clagget (Claget, Claggett, Claggitt, d. 1795), a renowned Irish composer and musical instrument inventor: see Theodor W. Adorno, ‘The form of the phonograph record’ in October, lv (1990), p. 60 n. 7.
26 Dublin Mercury, 10 Mar. 1770. Achmet subsequently subleased the Finglas property to George Taylor, possibly with the intention of relocating to Dublin: Registry of Deeds, Dublin, memorial number 178090, vol. 275, 7 Nov. 1769, p. 386. The searchable Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland offers additional documentation on Achmet's financial transactions.
27 Vern L. Bullough and Bonnie Bullough, Cross dressing, sex, and gender (Philadelphia, 1993), p. 125. Special announcements for ball costumes in were common at the time: see, for example, Freeman's Journal, 13 Mar. 1770.
28 Freeman's Journal, 27 Mar. 1770.
29 Regarding the prohibition of balls in Dublin, see Terry Castle, Masquerade and civilization: the carnivalesque in eighteenth-century English culture and fiction (Stanford, CA, 1986), p. 96.
30 Samuel Johnson, A dictionary of the English language (Dublin, 1768).
31 Freeman's Journal, 31 Jan. 1771. To differentiate among the numerous physicians from ancient times bearing the name Asclepiades, one of them acquired the epithet Philophysicus. It is plausible that the author intended to allude to this physician: Daniel Le Clerc, Histoire de la medecine: où l‘on voit l'origine & les progrès de cet art de siècle en siècle, les sectes qui s‘y sont formées, les noms des médecins (La Haye, 1729), p. 419.
32 Andrew Sneddon, ‘Institutional medicine and state intervention in eighteenth-century Ireland’ in Fiona Clark and James Kelly (eds), Ireland and medicine in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Surrey, 2010), pp 147‒55.
33 Francis A. Eigo, Dimensions of contemporary spirituality (Villanova, PA, 1982), p. 128.
34 Philophysicus, ‘[Gentlemen, as you were so polite and public-spirited]’ in Freeman's Journal, 7 Feb. 1771, p. 1; Philophysicus, ‘[Gentlemen, as you thought fit]’ in Freeman's Journal, 12 Feb. 1771, p. 1.
35 Avcıoğlu, Turquerie and the politics of representation, 1728‒1876, p. 198. See, Malcolm Shifrin, Victorian Turkish baths (London, 2015).
36 See Avcıoğlu, Turquerie; Bevilacqua and Pfeifer, ‘Turquerie: Culture in motion’, pp 102‒11.
37 Freeman's Journal, 23 Apr. 1771.
38 Regarding these names, see Michael Brown, The Irish Enlightenment (Cambridge, MA, 2016).
39 Freeman's Journal, 7 May 1771. The language employed still contained religious references, such as ‘me as the instrument in your Hands’: see Acts 9:15.
40 ‘Proceedings of the House of Commons of Ireland’ in Hibernian Magazine, or Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge, Dec. 1771, p. 609.
41 For the preparation of the price list, see Freeman's Journal, 10 Mar. 1772.
42 Anon., ‘A history of the fourth session of the second parliament of Ireland’ in Hibernian Magazine or Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge, Oct. 1774, p. 603.
43 Barrington, Personal sketches of his own times, i, 236.
44 Dublin Mercury, 10 Mar. 1770.
45 Thomas Robinson to Anne [Nanny] Robinson, 8 Mar. 1773 (B.A.R.S., L 30/17/4/46a).
46 Achmet to Grantham, 7 Jan. 1777 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/2/11). See, for instance, Achmet to Grantham, 7 Mar. 1774 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/2/2). He once again sent shipments of beef and mutton through the port of Cádiz, as evidenced in Achmet to Grantham, 18 Nov. 1775 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/2/3).
47 Achmet to Grantham, 6 Oct. 1775 (B.A.R.S.: L 30/14/2/4). The project is gradually taking on a larger dimension and evolving towards the ‘Spanish Indies’: see Achmet to Grantham, 30 Dec. 1775 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/2/5).
48 Achmet to Grantham, 2 Oct. 1777 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/2/17). Grantham rejects the request by saying that he does not have any knowledge about horses, and he does not want to rely on others regarding such a matter: Grantham to Achmet, 27 Aug. 1778 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/2/18b).
49 Achmet to Grantham, 14 Apr. 1777 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/109/139a); Achmet to Grantham, 17 Jan. 1777 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/2/12b-c).
50 The impression gleaned from the archival records suggests this direction. However, the relationship might have extended beyond the scope of existing documentation.
51 About Beresford, see James Kelly, ‘Beresford, John’, D.I.B., i, 465‒7.
52 William Frazer, ‘The medallists of Ireland and their work’ in Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, vii, no. 66 (1886), p. 447.
53 See, Barrington, Personal sketches of his own times, i, 245.
54 Regarding the establishment of the society, see Society for the recovery of persons apparently drowned (London, 1774); also The proceedings of the humane society, of Dublin, for the year M,DCC,LXXVII (Dublin, 1778), pp 3‒4. It was also noted that Achmet donated £10 to the Society on behalf of the duke of Leinster. Also, see Freeman's Journal, 13 Nov. 1777. About the society, see Porter, Disease, medicine and society in England, p. 35.
55 Achmet, ‘Humane society for the recovery of persons drowned and apparently dead’ in Freeman's Journal, 2 Apr. 1778, p. 4. We see that some of the society's apparatus were also kept in the bathhouse: The proceedings of the humane society, p. 12.
56 For instance, see Roderic O'Flaherty, The Ogygia vindicated: against the objections of Sir George Mac Kenzie, King's advocate for Scotland in the reign of King James II. (A posthumous work) (Dublin, 1775); Robert Hitchcock, An historical view of the Irish stage: from the earliest period down to the close of the season 1788. Interspersed with theatrical anecdotes, and an occasional review of the Irish dramatic authors and actors (Dublin, 1788).
57 Lord Charlemont visited him after the speech in Parliament. Achmet to Grantham, 31 May 1780 (B.A.R.S., L 30/14/2/20).
58 Freeman's Journal, 10 Mar. 1772.
59 Ibid., 8 Feb. 1781; ibid., 29 July 1780.
60 Barrington, Personal sketches of his own times, i, 241.
61 J. A. Froude, The two chiefs of Dunboy: or, an Irish romance of the last century (London, 1889), pp 300‒01.
62 Freeman's Journal, 25 Jan. 1773.
63 Ibid., 24 Feb. 1776.
64 ‘See, John Angel, A general history of Ireland in its ancient and modern state on a new and concise plan (2 vols, Dublin, 1781), i, 252.
65 ‘Solyman the Great, Emperor of the Turks: Doctor Achmet’: Isaac Bickerstaff and Jean-François Marmontel, The Sultan; or, a peep into the seraglio: a comedy (Dublin, 1780).
66 Anon., ‘Considerations on the state of the stage, including some authentic memoirs of Mrs Achmet, the present reigning Thalia and Melpomene’ Hibernian Magazine or Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge, May 1788, p. 227.
67 Freeman's Journal, 24 Apr. 1777. Also, it continues with the same title and page number in the issues dated 1 May and 8 May; Achmet, The report of the cases relieved and cured in the baths appropriated for the reception of the poor (Dublin, 1777).
68 See Katherine Foxhall, Migraine: a history (Baltimore, 2019), pp 76‒78; James Kelly, ‘‘‘Drinking the waters”: balneotherapeutic medicine in Ireland, 1660‒1850’ in Studia Hibernica, xxxv (2008), pp 133‒5.
69 James Kelly, ‘Health for sale: mountebanks, doctors, printers and the supply of medication in eighteenth-century Ireland’ in P.R.I.A., cviiic C, no. 1 (2008), p. 98.
70 Achmet, The report of the vases, p. iii.
71 Barrington, Personal sketches of his own times, i, 237‒45.
72 See, for instance, Brown, The Irish Enlightenment, p. 281. Here his name is also spelt as ‘Achmet Borummadal’. This spelling is also found elsewhere: see Foxhall, Migraine: a history, pp 76‒8.
73 See Turlough O'Riordan, ‘Borumborad, Achmet (Joyce, Patrick)’, D.I.B., i, 665.
74 Burke lists several John Hamiltons, but none of them correspond to this particular individual: Bernard Burke, A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland (2 vols, London, 1871), i.
75 Freeman's Journal, 15 June 1784.
76 Ibid., 29 Oct. 1785.
77 Ibid., 18 Nov. 1789.
78 Belfast News Letter, 25 Sept. 1789.
79 Here, Achmet is described as a Muslim in ‘disguise’ with many Christian virtues: ‘to Doctor Achmet, who, with many truly Christian virtues, assumes the form of a Mussulman.’ See George Parker, Life's painter of variegated characters: in public and private life, with political strokes on the ticklish times (Dublin, 1790), pp 199‒215; Julie Coleman, A history of cant and slang dictionaries: 1785‒1858 (4 vols, Oxford, 2004), ii, 193‒200.
80 Freeman's Journal, 13 Jan. 1791. About this, see A. V. Beedell, The decline of the English musician, 1788‒1888: a family of English musicians in Ireland, England, Mauritius, and Australia (Oxford, 1992), pp 18‒19; William Smith Clark, The Irish stage in the county towns, 1720‒1800 (Oxford, 1965), p. 259.
81 About Vere Hunt, see Norman Jeffares and Peter Van de Kamp, Irish literature: the nineteenth century (3 vols, Dublin, 2006), ii, 94, 263‒65.
82 About this, see Seamus Deane, Maeve Connolly and Luke Gibbons, Contemporary Irish culture and politics (Durham, NC, 2004), p. 69.
83 See Froude, The two chiefs of Dunboy, pp 279‒306.
84 The trial of Bartholomew de Dominiceti, Jan. 1779 (t17790113-39), available at Old Bailey Proceedings (https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/17790113) (23 Aug. 2024).
85 See Bartholomew de Dominiceti, Medical anecdotes of the last thirty years illustrated with medical truths and addressed to the medical faculty (London, 1781), pp 506‒11.
86 We can see the instruments used by Dominiceti in his patent application filed in 1767: Bartholomew Dominiceti, A.D. 1767. no. 882 specification of Bartholomew Dominiceti (London, 1856).
87 Bartholomew Dominiceti, An address from Dr Dominiceti, of Chelsea. Humbly submitted to the consideration of the Commons of Great Britain (London, 1782), p. 14.
88 Paul Johnson, Ireland: a concise history from the twelfth century to the present day (Chicago, 2014), p. 86; Sara L. Maurer, The dispossessed state: narratives of ownership in nineteenth-century Britain and Ireland (Baltimore, 2012), p. 52.
89 Andrews to Grantham, 4 May 1773 (B.A.R.S.: L 30/14/7/14).
90 Andrews to Grantham, 16 Jul. 1773 (B.A.R.S.: L 30/14/7/16).
91 Fisher Mss will notes (N.L.I. Genealogy Office, vol. E, MS 143, ff 19‒24, 111‒12).
92 Anon., ‘An old Belfast mansion house’ in Old Belfast, i, no. 1 (n.d.), pp 16‒19.
93 Burke's Peerage, baronetage & knightage, ed. Charles Mosley (3 vols, Wilmington, Delaware, 2003), i, p. 640; H. C. Lawlor, A history of the family of Cairnes or Cairns and its connections (London, 1906), pp 241‒2.
94 Anon., ‘Memoirs of Mrs Achmet (continued from our last)’ in Hibernian Magazine or Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge, June 1788, p. 285.
95 In a poem published in 1775, Achmet was referenced not among surgeons or doctors, but rather among pharmacists: John Gilborne, The medical review, a poem, being a panegyric on the faculty of Dublin; physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, marching in procession to the temple of fame (Dublin, 1775), pp 56‒7.
96 Joseph Haslewood, The secret history of the green-room: containing authentic and entertaining memoirs of the actors and actresses in the three theatres royal (2 vols, London, 1790), ii, 99‒106.
97 Although Jebb's name is not listed among the supporters of Achmet's bathhouse, it is worth noting that he would have been relatively young during that period.
98 W. J. McCormack, The silence of Barbara Synge (Manchester, 2003), p. 70.
99 They appeared to be members of a scientific society that met weekly to discuss various issues: Henry MacDougall, Sketches of Irish political characters of the present day, shewing the parts they respectively take on the question of the union, what places they hold, their characters as speakers, &c. &c (London, 1799), p. 237.
100 The key distinction, as previously mentioned, is Dominiceti's assertion that Achmet maintained a pretence of being Turkish, even while in London.
101 Ireland Public Record Office, Appendix to the twenty-sixth report of the deputy keeper of the public records and keeper of the state papers in Ireland (Dublin, 1895), p. 273. Additionally, see John C. Greene, Theatre in Dublin, 1745‒1820: a calendar of performances (4 vols, Bethlehem, PA, 2011), iii, 2287.
102 Anon., ‘Memoirs of Mrs Achmet’, p. 285. In some nineteenth-century sources, Achmet's name is given as Kearns: see Richard Robert Madden, The history of Irish periodical literature from the end of the 17th to the middle of the 19th century (2 vols, London, 1867), ii, 413. Considering Madden's interest in the Ottoman Empire, it is not surprising that he was intrigued by Achmet: Richard Robert Madden, The Turkish Empire: in its relations with Christianity and civilization (2 vols, London, 1862).
103 Anon., ‘Memoirs of Mrs Achmet’, p. 224.
104 Bernard Regan, The Balfour Declaration: empire, the mandate and resistance in Palestine (London, 2018), p. 26. For the family's connection, see ‘Anonymous, ‘An old Belfast mansion house,’ p. 18; Andrew Duncan, Medical and philosophical commentaries for the year M.DCCC.XCIII exhibiting a concise view of the latest and most important discoveries in medicine and medical philosophy (Edinburgh, 1794), p. 432.
105 Andrew Duncan, Medical and philosophical commentaries for the year M.DCCC.XCII exhibiting a concise view of the latest and most important discoveries in medicine and medical philosophy (Edinburgh, 1793).
106 Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim and Edward A. Langhans, A biographical dictionary of actors, actresses, musicians, dancers, managers, and other stage personnel in London, 1660-1800, volume 1: Abaco to Belfille (Carbondale, IL, 1973), pp 25‒7.
107 See Freeman's Journal, 10 Mar. 1770; ibid., 24 Oct. 1769.
108 Julia Landweber, ‘Fashioning nationality and identity in the eighteenth century: the Comte de Bonneval in the Ottoman Empire’ in International History Review, xxx, no. 1 (2008), pp 1‒31.
109 John W. Livingston, The rise of science in Islam and the west: from shared heritage to parting of the ways, 8th to 19th centuries (Oxon, 2017), p. 316.
110 Robert Travers, ‘The connected worlds of Haji Mustapha (c. 1730–91): a Eurasian cosmopolitan in eighteenth-century Bengal’ in Indian Economic & Social History Review, lii, no. 3 (2015), pp 297‒333.
111 Michael Fisher, The travels of Dean Mahomet: an eighteenth-century journey through India (Berkeley, CA, 1997).
112 Pierre Bourdieu, ‘Les trois états du capital culturel’ in Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales (1979), pp 3‒6.
113 Haslewood, The secret history of the green-room, ii, 103‒04.
114 Dominiceti, An address from Dr Dominiceti, p. 14.
115 Anonymous, Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum Division I: political and personal satires (2 vols, London, 1873), ii, 16.
116 For example, Ibn Sina's book, al-Qanun fi al-tibb, served as a standard textbook in European medical schools until the end of the seventeenth century: Gary B. Ferngren, ‘Medicine and spirituality: a historical perspective’ in Michael Balboni and John Peteet (eds), Spirituality and religion within the culture of medicine: from evidence to practice (Oxford, 2017), p. 312.
117 Nicholas Carr, The big switch: rewiring the world from Edison to Google (New York, 2009), p. 218.
118 Murat R. Şiviloğlu, The emergence of public opinion: state and society in the late Ottoman Empire (Cambridge, 2018), pp 131‒3.
119 See Murat R. Şiviloğlu, ‘The Ottoman Empire and the emergence of its ‘Irish question’’ in Middle Eastern Studies, lix, no. 1 (2023), p. 43.
120 See Ottoman State Archives, A.DVNS.MHM.d 208, Hüküm 153, Fî evâil-i Receb 1213 (December 1798).
121 The Great Thomas, a legendary dentist active in eighteenth-century Paris, was reportedly attired in ‘a fashionable Turkish (some said military) cut’: see Colin Jones, ‘Pulling teeth in eighteenth-century Paris’ in Past & Present, no. 166 (2000), p. 102.
122 Trial of John M'nally and Nicholas Ellicot, 23 May 1787 (t17870523-91), available at Old Bailey Proceedings (https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t17870523-91?text=ellicot) (23 Aug. 2024).
123 Caledonian Mercury, 18 August 1783; Joshua L. Lyte (ed.), Minutes of the right worshipful grand lodge of the most ancient and honorable fraternity of free and accepted masons of Pennsylvania and masonic jurisdiction thereunto belonging 1779 to 1801 (12 vols, Philadelphia, 1895), i, 216.
124 His emergence was reported in Belfast News Letter, 8 Sept. 1768.
125 See Freeman's Journal, 12 Sept. 1769.
126 For Scheffer's career, refer to Lars Magnusson, ‘Physiocracy in Sweden: a note on the problem of inventing tradition’ in Steven L. Kaplan and Sophus A. Reinert (eds), The economic turn (London, 2019), p. 599.