Tory

Home > History > Modern Europe > British and Irish History

tory has two meanings: originally a specifically Irish term for an outlaw or a bandit of the 17th and early 18th centuries, it also became the name of a major British (and Irish) political party.

The word ‘tory’, from the Irish toraidhe (‘raider’), has been traced back to 1646. Later it was used largely interchangeably with ‘rapparee’, from Irish rapaire, a sort of pike. In both cases the reference was to a robber, operating either singly or as part of an outlaw band, who preyed on houses and travellers, in some cases extorting protection money from those wishing to be spared from attack. Leading tories of the period following the Restoration included Redmond O'Hanlon and the Brennan brothers, James, ‘little James’, and Patrick, who operated in Co. Kilkenny during 1683–5, before being recruited to hunt down other robbers. Tory activity remained widespread in the disturbed years immediately following the Williamite War, but continued into the early 18th century only in south Ulster and part of the south‐west, where areas of still largely impenetrable bog and mountain lay conveniently close to prosperous raiding grounds.

The original tories of the Restoration period were perceived as dispossessed Catholics waging a war of revenge against the new social order created by the land confiscations of the 1640s and 1650s. Yet it remains unclear how far all toryism, even in the Restoration period, was of this character, and how far some at least of what was so described should be seen as representing banditry of the kind found in remote and underpoliced regions throughout early modern Europe.

The use of ‘Tory’ in English politics goes back to the exclusion crisis of 1679–81. The Whigs who sought to exclude the future James II, as a Catholic, from the throne, applied the term derisively to James's supporters. After the revolution of 1688 ‘Tory’ re‐emerged as the generally accepted name for one of the two sides in an increasingly bitter party conflict. The Tory Party that thus took shape, in both Great Britain and Ireland, included a Jacobite minority loyal to James and his successors. The majority accepted the revolution as a regrettable necessity, but were alarmed by the Whig language of contract theory and the right of resistance. The other central Tory tenet was the defence of the established church against Protestant dissent, seen as a threat equal to or greater than that posed by the defeated Catholics. A Tory ministry held power 1710–14 but its abandonment of continental allies to make peace with France in the treaty of Utrecht (1713), along with the party's perceived ambivalence towards the revolution, led George I (1714–27) and George II (1727–60) to exclude it permanently from favour.

In Ireland the Tories formed a strong party among the clergy of the Church of Ireland and a minority among the Protestant gentry, as well as attracting conspicuous support from surviving Catholic and recent convert interests. After 1714, however, the party declined much more quickly than its English counterpart. The loss of the 2nd duke of Ormond was catastrophic for Tory morale. The taint of Jacobitism was also particularly damaging in an Irish context, while the discovery that most Irish Whigs had little real sympathy for Presbyterianism made the defence of the established church less urgent.

From the 1760s the new Whig Party branded its opponents ‘Tories’, though many of these, including their leader, the younger William Pitt, continued to call themselves Whigs. From the mid‐1830s Conservative became the usual party label, although ‘Tory’ is still often used, either as a synonym or to highlight the traditional aristocratic and landed (or, in Ireland, the Protestant sectarian) elements within the party.

Tory , English political party. The term was originally applied to outlaws in Ireland and was adopted as a derogatory name for supporters of the duke of York (later James II) at the time (c.1679–1680) when the 1st earl of Shaftesbury was proposing the duke's exclusion from the succession because of his adherence to Roman Catholicism. (The Shaftesbury group came to be known as the Whig party.) Thus the term Tory came to designate the group of men sharing beliefs in ecclesiastical uniformity, strong use of the royal prerogative, and the doctrine of divine, hereditary right to the throne. The Glorious Revolution of 1688, which many Tory leaders supported, forced most Tories to accept some concept of limited royal power, but the party retained its close identification with the Church of England, favoring the restriction of the rights of non-Anglicans. The party at that time represented primarily the country gentry, who, in addition to their staunch Anglicanism, tended to oppose England's involvement in foreign wars. The Tories were favored by Queen Anne and reached the zenith of their early power (1710–14) under the leadership of Robert Harley , earl of Oxford, and Henry St. John , Viscount Bolingbroke. Their hegemony was broken after the accession of George I, and the party was discredited for its connections with the Jacobites . Supremacy for the next 50 years passed to the Whig factions. After the accession of George III (1760) Tory sympathizers supported the power of the sovereign as the "king's friends." William Pitt revitalized the faction after 1783, giving it a more solid parliamentary basis. The Tories again became reactionary under the impact of the French Revolution but entrenched themselves so firmly in control of the government that they were not dislodged until 1830. In the 1820s the Tories made some attempt to adopt a program of reform, but the Reform Bill of 1832 (see Reform Acts ) demoralized the party and destroyed its strength in the House of Commons. The party that grew up thereafter from the remnants of the Tory group came to be known as the Conservative party . Conservatives to the present day are still referred to as Tories. In the American colonies during the American Revolution, the term Tory was used to signify those who adhered to the policies of the mother country, the Loyalists .

Bibliography: See K. Feiling, History of the Tory Party, 1640–1714 (1924, repr. 1959); The Second Tory Party, 1714–1832 (1938, repr. 1959); L. Colley, In Defense of Oligarchy: The Tory Oligarchy, 1714–1760 (1982).

Tory A member of a British political party traditionally opposed to the WHIGS. In the political crisis of 1679 royalist supporters, who opposed the recall of Parliament and supported the Stuart succession, were labelled Tories (Irish Catholic brigands) by their opponents. In the reign of JAMES II many Tories preferred passive obedience to open defiance; they supported the royal prerogative, close links between church and state, and an isolationist foreign policy. The Tories had a brief revival under Robert Harley late in Queen Anne's reign, but were defeated in the 1715 general election and reduced to a ‘country’ party with about 120 Members of Parliament and no effective leaders. The Hanoverian succession dealt a severe blow to the Tories, as George I and George II preferred to trust the Whigs. The political power struggle in the 1760s was between rival Whig factions, despite pejorative accusations of Toryism levelled at BUTE, Grafton, and NORTH. William PITT the Younger, the independent Whig, fought the Foxite Whigs, and it was from the independent Whigs that the new Tory party of the 19th century emerged.

In colonial America loyalists to the crown were called Tories.

Tory now (in the UK) a member or supporter of the Conservative Party; originally, a member of the English political party opposing the exclusion of James II from the succession. It remained the name for members of the English, later British, parliamentary party supporting the established religious and political order until the emergence of the Conservative Party in the 1830s.

The name comes (in the mid 17th century, denoting Irish peasants dispossessed by English settlers and living as robbers) from Irish toraidhe ‘outlaw, highwayman’, from tóir ‘pursue’; it was then extended to other marauders especially in the Scottish Highlands. It was then adopted c.1679 as an abusive nickname for supporters of the Catholic James, Duke of York, later James II.

To·ry / ˈtôrē/ • n. (pl. -ries) 1. an American colonist who supported the British side during the American Revolution. 2. (in the UK) a member or supporter of the Conservative Party. ∎  a member of the English political party opposing the exclusion of James II from the succession. It remained the name for members of the English, later British, parliamentary party supporting the established religious and political order until the emergence of the Conservative Party in the 1830s. Compare with Whig (sense 1). • adj. of or relating to the British Conservative Party or its supporters: Tory voters. DERIVATIVES: To·ry·ism / -ˌizəm/ n.

Tory (hist.) from c.1645 one of the dispossessed Irish who became outlaws, rapparee; in 1679–80 applied to anti-exclusioners; from 1689, member of one of the two great political parties of Great Britain. Presumably — Ir. *tóraighe pursuer, implied in tóraigheachd pursuit, f. tóir pursue.

Tory ♀, ♂ Pet form of Victoria. In the United States this is also a boy's name, no doubt representing a transferred use of the surname derived from a Scandinavian personal name: Old Norse Þórir or Old Danish Thori(r).

Variant: Tori ♀.

Tory •Florrie, Laurie, lorry, Macquarie, quarry, sorry, whare •Rhodri • Godfrey • hostelry •Coventry • quixotry •cacciatore, Corey, dory, Florey, flory, furore, glory, gory, hoary, hunky-dory, lory, Maury, monsignori, Montessori, multistorey, Pori, Rory, satori, saury, storey, story, Tory, vainglory •Aubrey • aumbry •Audrey, bawdry, tawdry •laundry •gallimaufry, orphrey •palfrey • paltry • outlawry • centaury •clerestory (US clearstory) •understorey •cowrie, kauri, Lowry, Maori •Cowdrey • foundry • Rowntree •ochry (US ochery) • poultry •coxcombry • matsuri • Kirkcudbright •shoetree •Hurri, potpourri •kukri • century • penury • estuary •residuary • augury • mercury