Father James Coigly Is Executed by Hanging at Pennington Heath.

Father James Coigly, a Catholic priest and prominent member of the United Irishmen, is executed by hanging at Pennington Heath, England, in 1798. He had been arrested in Margate while preparing to embark for France, where he intended to secure French military support for an Irish uprising.

Crucial papers found on his person outlined plans to invite the French government to aid a rebellion in Ireland. This evidence was used to convict him of high treason. Despite pleas for clemency and widespread sympathy, Coigly was hanged and buried in an unmarked grave, becoming a martyr to the republican cause.

His execution occurred shortly before the outbreak of the 1798 Rebellion, and he remains a symbol of revolutionary fervor and sacrifice in Irish nationalist history.