Volume of copies of General Orders issued by Lieutenant General George Hewitt, Adjutant General, Ireland, 29 May 1798-26 May 1801

These orders notably cover the period of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. They are addressed to various general officers, including Lieutenant General Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake, who defeated the Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill on 21 June and Lieutenant General John Thomas de Burgh, Earl of Clanricarde, Governor and Custos Rotulorum of County Galway.

The orders cover a range of issues, including appointments, operations against the rebels, discipline, returns of captured weapons, the granting of leave, deserters, courts martial, supplies and recruitment. A notable example is an order issued on 2 June 1798 which sheds lights onto the Army's draconian approach to putting down the rebellion and the difficulty of curbing the violent excesses of the troops involved in this task:

'Lieut Gen Lake also most particularly directs the utmost regularity and good conduct be maintained by the troops. And tho' severity is requisite in punishing insurgents, yet the peaceable inhabitants ought to feel security whenever the troops are in their neighbourhood. The soldiers are therefore to be strictly enjoined not to burn houses or destroy property except such as shall be directed and no man is on any account to enter an house, but by leave of his officers'.