Following news of rebellion in Ireland, in June 1798 Governor Vice-Admiral Waldegrave cautioned London that the English constituted but a "small proportion" of the locally raised Royal Newfoundland Regiment. In an echo of an earlier Irish conspiracy during the French occupation of St. Johns in 1762, in April 1800 the authorities had reports that upwards of 400 men had taken an oath as United Irishmen, and that eighty soldiers were committed to killing their officers and seizing their Anglican governors at Sunday service.