 "Photo: Marianna Ludensky")
In 1794, the British Rev. William Jackson undertook a spy mission on behalf of revolutionary France. He planned to travel to London and Dublin to coordinate English and Irish uprisings with a French invasion fleet.
The goal was to overthrow the British monarchy and institute a republican government in England.
Jackson's cover was blown when he told a friend of the mission. Once he heard the plan, the friend then informed British Prime Minister William Pitt of Jackson's traitorous plot.
Jackson was soon arrested and convicted of treason.
At his sentencing hearing, Jackson appeared visibly ill and dropped dead before the judge revealed the verdict. The autopsy showed he had swallowed large amounts of arsenic smuggled into his cell by his wife.
Jackson's relatively unknown story will be the subject of English professor Matthew Kinservik's research and eventual book.
By a unanimous vote, he was recently awarded the Irish-American Research Travel Fellowship from the American Society of 18th-century Studies.
Vickie Cutting, ASECS office administrator, said the award is given annually to scholars who have original research on any aspect of 18th-century Ireland. Prize recipients also must be members of ASECS or its sister organization in Ireland, the Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society.
"The purpose is to support documentary scholarship on Ireland in the period between 1691 to 1800 by enabling North American-based scholars to travel to Ireland or Irish-based scholars to travel to North America to further their research," Cutting said.
Kinservik said he believed the topic of his research contributed to winning the award.
"Well, I think Jackson's story is what's really important about it," he said. "Nobody has ever connected the dots in his long and varied career and I think proposing a book that will really focus on him made it a strong application."
Although there are no set dates for the research trip to Ireland, Kinservik said he must go before ASECS awards the fellowship to another scholar next year.
Kinservik will travel abroad after he receives the award at ASECS's annual meeting April 1.
His research will last approximately one month and involves digging through archives, mainly legal documents, at the National Library of Ireland, in Dublin, and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast.
English professor Donald Mell said he wrote a letter of recommendation to ASECS endorsing Kinservik's application since he is familiar with Kinservik's work and supports the story idea.
"He is a sure bet and will be a wonderful exemplar and model documentary scholar to future candidates for the fellowship," Mell wrote in his letter.
Cutting said Kinservik's application was selected by a jury of three distinguished scholars from various disciplines - art history, English and history. Each application went through the hands of at least two readers in each pertinent field and at least two from outside disciplines.
The fellowship was established through donations from individual working scholars and librarians on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinservik graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he earned a Master of Arts. He received his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in 1997.
Since he began teaching at the university in 1997, Kinservik has written many works on 18th-century literature including the book "Disciplining Satire: The Censorship of Satiric Comedy on the 18th-Century London Stage."
He said he became interested in 18th-century literature due to experiences in college.
"I had a great teacher," Kinservik said.
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