Bromsberrow apprentices in seventeenth century Gloucester

Bromsberrow apprentices in seventeenth century Gloucester

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

 

Bromsberrow

Bromsberrow is a village and civil parish in the Forest of Dean district of northern Gloucestershire. It lies near the junction of Counties Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The ancient name of the place was Brunman’s-barrow which the Normans shortened to Bromsberrow.[1] In 1631 Edward Bromwich held the manor of Bromsberrow by ancient inheritance. He was succeeded by his son Isaac Bromwich.[2] In 1669 Isaac’s widow, Anne, was buried at St. Mary’s church in the parish.[3] This article follows where it can the young men, and they are all young men, who left Bromsberrow to become apprentices in trade in the surrounding big cities.

Apprenticeship

The origin of the apprenticeship system is unknown. The term apprentice appears as early as 1261 in a London ordinance and Bristol was one of the first cities after London to make enactments for apprentices. By the fifteenth century other towns and trade guilds followed with their own laws. Parliament soon got involved to regulate the different bye-laws which had developed across the country. Various Acts of Parliament were issued which culminated with the statute of 1563 which made apprenticeship compulsory for all who wished to enter a trade. It was not until the reign of George III that this legal obligation was repealed though it had become a dead letter long before then.^[4]

The development of apprenticeship, during medieval times, from a private contract between a master and his pupil, into a universal, recognised state system suited all concerned. To the master it gave complete control over a pupil while the latter benefited from good training. For the trade guilds, the system regulated the flow of new entrants and so prevented over-supply of the market and with consequent cutting of prices and wages by traders. It also prevented inferior workmanship. The town corporations also earned money by charging 6d to enrol an indenture, and collected a further 4s 6d for granting an apprentice freedom to trade in the borough. The state also earned money from a good tax-paying group while keeping the feudal rights of the principal government ministers from collapse.^[5]

Bromsberrow apprentices

It would seem that when people from Bromsberrow went away to become apprentices in trade that they didn’t go too far outside of Gloucestershire. No person from Bromsberrow was listed as an apprentice at Bristol between 1532 and 1573.[6] Similarly no person from Bromsberrow went to Oxford to become an apprentice between 1513 and 1602.[7]

1640 at Gloucester

The first Bromsberrow apprentice appears in Gloucester in 1640 on the eve of the Civil War. On 29^th September 1640 Thomas Stock, son of Christopher Stock, clerk of Bromsberrow, was made apprentice to James Ricketts, saddler of Gloucester, for eight years.[8] Thomas Stock was born in 1625 to Christopher and Joan Stock and was baptised on 10^th October. The birth must have been difficult as Joan became sick and died shortly after. She was buried on 19^th October at Bromsberrow. Thomas had an older brother called William born in 1624 to Christopher and Joan Stock.[9]

Christopher Stock was appointed rector of Bromsberrow in September 1620 and remained in charge into the 1630s. Christopher’s first wife, Elizabeth Stock was buried on 15^th December 1621, two days after the baptism of her daughter, Elizabeth. Child birth was a dangerous event in those days and still with all modern medicine can be a dangerous for mother and child. After the death of Joan, Christopher Stock remarried for a third time by August 1628 and his new wife was called Elizabeth. They had a number of sons who survived infancy including Charles (born 1630), John (born 1632), Herbert (born 1637), Richard (born 1639), Edward and a daughter Hanna (born 1635).[10]

 

St. Mary’s church, Bromsberrow by Derek Meek

Thomas Stock was the first known apprentice taken on by James Ricketts. On 2^nd March 1631 James Ricketts learnt his trade as apprentice to Thomas Pedlingham, saddler of Gloucester, and his wife Susannah. In turn Thomas Pedlingham, son of Richard Pedlingham, tailor of Tibberton, had learnt his trade as saddler in 1623 from Richard Batten, saddler of Gloucester.[11] James Ricketts was the son of James Ricketts, yeoman of Hardwick.[12]

James Ricketts was a possible relation of another James Ricketts, son of John Ricketts of Hardwick, who in May 1629 was made apprentice to John Wood, tanner of Gloucester.[13] In September 1635 Edward Ricketts, son of James Ricketts, yeoman of Hardwick, became apprentice at Gloucester to Richard Green, baker, and his wife Cristel.[14] It seems likely that Edward Ricketts was a brother of James Ricketts, saddler.

In October 1652 John Ricketts, son of James Ricketts, deceased husbandman of Hardwick, was taken as apprentice by Thomas Pedlingham, saddler, and Susannah his wife. This was the same Thomas Pedlingham who taught James Ricketts, the master of Thomas Stock of Bromsberrow. John Ricketts was highly likely to be a younger brother of James Ricketts.

After his training had concluded in 1648 it would seem that Thomas Stock went away from Gloucester and from Bromsberrow – he doesn’t appear in the later parish registers. This was a common occurrence in the apprentices who attended training at Gloucester, Bristol and Oxford. Many apprentices in these cities failed to become freemen of these cities and moved to other locations but the lack of extensive documentation means that a true picture cannot be determined. It was also true that a large number of people failed to complete their apprenticeships. It has been estimate that in the sixteenth century nearly half of London apprentices dropped out before completing their training.[15]

1646 at Gloucester

On 17^th May 1646 William Angell, son of Richard Angell, gentleman of Bromsberrow, became apprentice for seven years to Walter Harris, cordwainer, and his wife Elizabeth of Gloucester.[16] The business of commerce was slowly returning to normal in those May days of 1646 as the English Civil War neared its end. King Charles surrendered to the Scots on 5^th May and on 24^th June Oxford, the Royalist capital, surrendered. The last Royalist stronghold surrendered in March 1647.[17]

It is unlikely that William Angell was the son of Richard Angell who was baptised in 1641 in Bromsberrow parish.[18] Walter Harris was the son of John Harris, yeoman of Whaddon, and in 1623 learnt his trade as a cordwainer from Arnold Ockold of Gloucester.[19] In 1654, the year after William Angell qualified as a cordwainer he heard of the birth of a baby sister, Anne and the death of his brother James Angell.[20] The cycle of life and death that travels through all ages.

1669 at Gloucester

On 28^th April 1669 Robert Stone, son of John Stone, yeoman of Bromsberrow, became apprentice for seven years to Edward Clayfield junior, tanner of Gloucester, and his wife Katherine.[21] Edward Clayfield was the son of Edward Clayfield senior, tanner of Gloucester, and his wife Alice Clayfield.

1672 at Gloucester

On 28^th June 1672 Simon Lawrence, son of William Lawrence, yeoman of Bromsberrow, was made apprentice for seven years to Thomas Selwyn, currier of Gloucester, and his wife Martha.[22] A currier was a person who dressed the hides after it had been tanned, by paring the flesh side to a uniform thickness, and beating and colouring the leather.[23]

1673 at Gloucester

On 8^th February 1673 Thomas Lawrence, son of William Lawrence, yeoman of Bromsberrow, became apprentice for seven years to Josiah Randle, baker of Gloucester, and his wife Margery.[24] By 1680 Thomas Lawrence would have qualified as a baker yet it was near twenty years later in 1700 that he took on his first apprentice. That first apprentice was another member of the Lawrence family from Bromsberrow – see below.

1677 at Gloucester

On 28^th March 1677 William Stone, son of William Stone, tailor of Bromsberrow, became apprentice to William Randle, tailor of Gloucester, and his wife, Hester, for seven years.[25] Members of the Stone family appear in the 1522 Gloucester military survey as living in and around Bromsberrow.[26] The Bromsberrow parish registers record in 1665 the baptism of William Stone, son of William and Elizabeth Stone.

If this is the same William Stone that apprenticed in 1677 then he was twelve years old and would have been nineteen years at the end of term in 1684. In that year or maybe before his term was ended William Stone went to London where in 1684 he died.[27] The Statute of Artificers of 1563 stipulated that the apprentice’s term of training should not end before he was twenty four-years old.[28] Did William Stone go to London for more training in a city of greater opportunity to succeed in business? – The unanswered questions of history.

William Stone’s master in Gloucester was William Randle, son of James Randle, yeoman of Charlton Kings. On 4^th September 1660 William Randle became apprentice, for seven years, under William Bicknell, tailor of Gloucester, and his wife Dorothy.[29] William Bicknell learnt his trade outside Gloucester and first appears in the apprenticeship registers in 1652 when he took on Henry Cox to be a tailor. William Bicknell was still taking on apprentices in 1700 when he accepted Thomas Morse.[30] William Randle took on his first apprentice, Josiah Yate, in 1671 for an eight year term. In 1681 Josiah Yate began a new apprenticeship under Danial Yate, cordwainer, for an additional seven years.[31] As said previously, an apprentice’s term of training could not end before he was twenty four-years old. Perhaps Josiah Yate was too young to become a qualified tradesman after his first apprenticeship or maybe he wanted to expand his skill base. The same Statute said that the minimum term of an apprenticeship was seven years.[32]

View over Gloucester

1688 at Gloucester

On 26^th March 1688 Hugh Austin, son of Richard Austin of Bromsberrow, became apprentice for seven years to George Perkins, pinmaker of Gloucester, and Sarah his wife.[33] Hugh Austin was born in 1676 to Richard and Anne Austin and thus twelve years old at the start of his apprenticeship.[34] This was the first apprentice that George Perkins took on. It would seem that George Perkins learnt his trade outside Gloucester as he doesn’t appear in the registers before 1688. In 1700 another George Perkins operated in Gloucester as a baker but it is unclear if they are one and the same person.[35]

1700 at Gloucester

On 26^th September 1700 Eleazor Lawrence, son of William Lawrence, yeoman of Bromsberrow, was made apprentice to Thomas Lawrence, baker of Gloucester, and his wife, Margaret, for seven years.[36] Thomas Lawrence was from Bromsberrow like his apprentice and it is likely that they were related to each other.

The published registers of apprentices at Gloucester end in 1700 and so does our story. Yet the apprenticeship system continued on and in later manuscript registers it may be possible to find other people from Bromsberrow who became apprentices. Other manuscripts may add more to the life stories of the apprentices from Bromsberrow in the seventeenth century but for the moment our story comes to an end until another day.

 

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[1] W. St. Clair Baddeley, Place-names of Gloucestershire (John Bellows, Gloucester, 1913), p. 32

[2] W.P.W. Phillimore & George S. Fry (eds.), Abstracts of Gloucestershire Inquisitions Post Mortem of King Charles the First (British Record Society, 1895), pp. 189, 190

[3] http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wrag44/bromsberrow/bromsberrowvol1pt3.htm accessed on 25 June 2016

[4] Denzil Hollis (ed.), Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice Book 1532-1565, part 1, 1532-1542 (Bristol Record Society, Vol. XIV, 1948), p. 3

[5] Denzil Hollis (ed.), Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice Book 1532-1565, part 1, 1532-1542, p. 6.

[6] D. Hollis (ed.), Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice Book 1532-1565, part 1, 1532-1542 (Bristol Record Society, Vol. XIV, 1948); Elizabeth Ralph & Nora M. Hardwick (eds.), Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice Book 1532-1565, part II, 1542-1552 (Bristol Record Society, Vol. XXXIII, 1980); Elizabeth Ralph (ed.), Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice Book 1532-1565, part III, 1552-1565 (Bristol Record Society, Vol. XLIII, 1992), no. 894; Margaret McGregor (ed.), Bristol Apprentice Book 1566-1573 (Bristol and Avon F.H.S. no date)

[7] Alan Crossley (ed.), Oxford City Apprentices 1513-1602 (Oxford Historical Society, New Series, Vol. XLIV, 2012)

[8] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700 (Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Gloucester Record Series, Vol. 14, 2001), no. 1/546

[9] http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wrag44/bromsberrow/bromsberrowvol1pt2.htm accessed on 25 June 2016

[10] http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wrag44/bromsberrow/bromsberrowvol1pt3.htm accessed on 25 June 2016

[11] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 1/324

[12] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 1/401

[13] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 1/383

[14] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 1/460

[15] Alan Crossley (ed.), Oxford City Apprentices 1513-1602, pp. L, Li

[16] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 1/586

[17] Wilfrid Emberton, The English Civil War day by day (Sutton Publishing, 1995), pp. 184, 187

[18] http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wrag44/bromsberrow/bromsberrowvol1pt3.htm accessed on 25 June 2016

[19] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 1/332

[20] http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wrag44/bromsberrow/bromsberrowvol1pt3.htm accessed on 25 June 2016

[21] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 3/24

[22] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 3/72

[23] D. Hollis (ed.), Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice Book 1532-1565, part 1, 1532-1542 (Bristol Record Society, Vol. XIV, 1948), p. 203

[24] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 3/84

[25] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 3/160

[26] R.W. Hoyle (ed.), The military survey of Gloucestershire, 1522 (Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Gloucester Record Series, Vol. 6, 1993), pp. 60, 61

[27] http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wrag44/bromsberrow/bromsberrowvol1pt3.htm accessed on 25 June 2016

[28] Alan Crossley (ed.), Oxford City Apprentices 1513-1602, p. xviii

[29] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 2/260

[30] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, nos. 2/90, 3/396

[31] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, nos. 3/62, 3/219

[32] Alan Crossley (ed.), Oxford City Apprentices 1513-1602, p. xviii

[33] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 3/289

[34] http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wrag44/bromsberrow/bromsberrowvol1pt3.htm accessed on 25 June 2016

[35] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 3/395

[36] Jill Barlow (ed.), A Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700, no. 3/400

In search of a cromlech near Mocollop, Co. Waterford, part one

In search of a cromlech near Mocollop,

Co. Waterford, part one

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

 

In the 1830s a group of soldiers and academics travelled the length and breadth of Ireland. Their mission was not of conquest but to record the nation in a great geographical survey. They were the team from the Ordnance Survey with the soldiers mapping the landscape and the academics recording the place-names and the archaeological features within.

Map of Labbanacallee area

First notice of the Labbanacallee cromlech

One of these academics was John O’Donovan from south Kilkenny. In one of the letters he received from Co. Waterford was a reference to a cromlech in the townland of Labbanacallee in the civil parish of Lismore and Mocollop. This cromlech gave the townland its name.[1]

Unfortunately the soldiers who mapped the north-western end of the parish in which Labbanacallee is situated did not mark down on the first Ordnance Survey map of 1840 the exact location of the cromlech – they didn’t even place an X to mark a general location.

Canon Patrick Power said that Labbanacallee, written in Irish as Leaba na Caillige, means “The Hag’s Bed” and that the Hag alluded to at Labbanacallee and similar places was the legendary “Caille Beara”. Canon Power also noted that the cromlech was not marked down on any old Ordnance Survey map.[2]

The Labbanacallee of Mocollop civil parish is not the only place of that name in the region of east Cork and west Waterford north of the River Blackwater. The most noted place of that name is Labbacallee (spelt with no ‘na’) south of Glanworth where there is a wedge tomb of Neolithic times. The Labbacallee wedge tomb is one of the largest of its type in the country. Excavations in 1934 found a number of inhumation burials with fragments of late Neolithic pottery and a few fragments of bone and stone.[3]

Another “Caille Beara” site in County Waterford is at Ballynamona Lower in the area of Old Parish/Ardmore. This Caille Beara was described by Canon Patrick Power as a dolmen and by archaeologists as a court tomb.[4]

The most common megalithic tomb type in the east Cork/west Waterford area is the wedge tomb. The cromlech at Labbanacallee could be a wedge tomb but Ballynamona Lower is the only court tomb example within 100kms and so the cromlech could be any other the four main types of megalithic tomb.[5]

Labbanacallee townland

The townland of Labbanacallee sits on the high ridge which divides the Araglen river valley to the north and the Blackwater river valley to the south. The ridge line runs along the height marks of 969, 1026 and 1066 feet in an east/west orientation. The land of Labbanacallee on the north side of the ridge falls steeply away down into the Araglen valley.

 

View north down into the Araglen valley

The land of Labbanacallee on the south side of the ridge falls gently down the hill side.

Looking south from the earth bank which divides

Labbanacallee from Barranafaddock

The chief stone type on Labbanacallee is old red sandstone but there is also a scattering of quartz which is sometimes mixed in with the old red sandstone.

 

Labbanacallee 1850-1911

In 1850 the townland of Labbanacallee was owned by Captain James Barry of Mocollop castle. Of the 273 acres in the townland 158 acres was described as mountain land. Daniel Guinevan rented 48 acres of farm land and had a house and outbuildings. Francis Brien rented 51 acres of farm land with a house and outbuildings. David Condon rented 14 acres of farm land without any buildings. In 1850 there were two vacant houses in Labbanacallee.[6] In 1901 there were three inhabited dwelling houses with a population of 19 people. Ten years later, in 1911, there were just two inhabited dwelling houses and a population of 9 people. In 2016 there is just one dwelling house in Labbanacallee townland.

Search for the cromlech 2013

In the spring of 2013 I first went up to the townland of Labbanacallee on the road between Mocollop and Araglen in search of this mystery cromlech. On the way up to the townland I met a local resident on the road and told him of my mission. He had heard rumours of the cromlech but didn’t know where it was supposed to be. The same man also reported that it was suggested by unknown people that the cromlech was not in the townland of Labbanacallee at all but was further down the road, heading south, and on the right hand side of the road, somewhere in the townlands of Black, Lyrenaglogh or Knocknalooricaun – plenty of options there.

The wind tower blade rests on distant hill, alternative site for cromlech

With this variable knowledge I went on my way to Labbanacallee townland and to the north-west corner where the townland boundary meets the public road. From that point a farmer’s roadway travels eastwards along the northern boundary of Labbanacallee. I followed the roadway to its end and then proceeded onto the mountain land of stones, bog and gorse. The going was difficult as the ground was wet. On the top of the ridge from height point 1026 to 1066 the going was doubly difficult with the wet bog and thick gorse. After a few hours rambling through the wet ground I gave up the search without any sign of a cromlech or any other early human structure apart from the stone and earth bank which forms the boundary between Labbanacallee and Barranafaddock.

On the way home I met another local resident who said there was no cromlech in Labbanacallee and that the idea of a cromlech was one of confusion with the more famous place near Glanworth. After such a fruitless search the local man may have some merit in his comment.

Not the only cromlech to disappear

The mystery cromlech at Labbanacallee is not the only one to seemingly disappear. In about 1840 John O’Donovan was told of another cromlech in the townland of Rath in the Barony of Upperthird. This was described as having a large flat stone supported on three upright stones with another broken upright stone to one side. Canon Patrick Power suggested that this cromlech existed in 1907 but by 1989 all trace of it has since disappeared.[7] Could the cromlech at Labbanacallee have been removed since 1840?

There is another possibly that the cromlech at Labbanacallee was removed before 1840. The Rath cromlech is marked on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map but the Labbanacallee cromlech is not so marked on the map. The Ordnance Survey soldiers went up to Labbanacallee and marked a height point at 969 to use as a triangle elevation measuring point. The surveyors marked houses and roads that existed in later times and still can be seen today. But they marked no cromlech. This absence may be because the cromlech was removed before 1840 yet the memory of it remained to give the townland its name.

Barranafaddock wind farm

Since 2013 a wind farm was constructed in the townland of Labbanacallee and Barranafaddock and other adjunct townlands on the west side of the public road. Twelve wind towers were built with a number of access roadways. A team of archaeologists were present during construction but they found only an undated house site and an undated cooking site. In June 2016 a local resident told me that when digging the foundations for wind tower number 32, they engineers had to go down nearly 20 feet through the bog before they found solid rock. Could the Labbanacallee cromlech be buried under the bog like the Neolithic stone walls of the Céide Fields in north Co. Mayo?

2013 and June 2016 survey areas

Search for the cromlech 2016

In June 2016 I returned to Labbanacallee for another search. In this search I returned to the mountain land area of the townland. The going was good on this visit with the dry weather of the previous few weeks making the bog hard under foot. The gorse was not as extensive as in the previous visit and good travelling was possible. Unfortunately after surveying a larger area in June 2016 as in 2013 not sign of a cromlech of any type, be it wedge-tomb, portal-tomb or court-tomb.

Quarry feature under furze looking south towards tower 21

Two possible sites for further investigation were found. A small quarry type feature was found along the south side of the high ridge on top of the mountain land part of Labbanacallee as marked on the accompanying map. This quarry type feature is not common elsewhere on the hilltop.

The other feature found were two small mounds about five foot high and five foot in circumference. They are located just to the west of the earthen bank which runs north-south and separates Labbanacallee from Barranafaddock.

The two mounds – umbrella and coat – earth bank to right

These two features do not suggest cromlech site but they are usual features in the landscape.

Sketch map of the two features – quarry and red dots 

Future survey areas

There are presently (2016) two areas of forestry in Labbanacallee townland which are worth investigating. Unfortunately both forests have young trees and a person needs to bend down to get through them. In a few years’ time the trees will have grown up to allow a person to walk between the trees and see if any features exist. The southern forestry area has had previous crops of trees and any archaeological features within may have been removed to make way for the first crop of trees on the site. The farm land area needs surveying and the 18 acres of marsh land in the south-east corner of Labbanacallee. After that the area down the road to the south is worth investigating as suggested by the local resident. Much more work to be done.

Farm land and two areas of forestry at Labbanacallee

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[1] John O’Donovan (edited by M. O’Flanagan), Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the County of Waterford collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1841 (Bray, 1929), pp. 70, 71, no. 147

[2] Canon Patrick Power, Place names of Decies (Cork University Press, 1952), p. 50

[3] Peter Harbison, Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland (Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 1992), pp. 81, 82

[4] Michael Moore (ed.), Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford (Stationery Office, Dublin, 1999), p. 4, no. 18; http://www.ardmorewaterford.com/placenames-of-ardmore-waterford/ accessed 7 June 2016;

[5] Michael Moore (ed.), Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford, p. 1

[6] Griffith’s Valuation, Labbanacallee, Lismore and Mocollop parish, Coshmore and Coshbride barony

[7] Michael Moore (ed.), Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford, p. 4, no. 18

Margaret Ringrose of Moynoe and her mitochondrial DNA

Margaret Ringrose of Moynoe and her mitochondrial DNA

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

 

Conventional genealogies usually follow the male line of succession but it is the female line which carries the constant gene pool and can help identify ancestors you may have buried in a carpark, like King Richard III. This article follows Margaret Ringrose of Moynoe, Co. Clare and her female ancestors and descendants. These female relations would carry Margaret’s mitochondrial DNA through the gene pool.

Moynoe House once stood about 2km east-northeast of Scariff in County Clare. The eighteenth century two-storey, three bay house was demolished in the second half of the twentieth century. The demolished house had possibly replaced an earlier house on the site. This earlier house was the home of the Ringrose family for many decades before and after 1700.[1]

Margaret Ringrose

Margaret Ringrose was the second daughter of John Ringrose of Moynoe and his wife, Jane Purdon.[2] John Ringrose was High Sheriff of County Clare in 1727 and was possibly the son of Colonel Richard Ringrose who had died about 1707. The latter was a hundred years old when he died and was descendant from a soldier who came originally from Yorkshire.[3]

Jane Purdon, her mother

Jane Purdon was the second daughter of Gilbert Purdon of Ballykelly, Co. Clare, by Alicia his wife, daughter of Right Rev. George Synge, Bishop of Cloyne. Gilbert Purdon was the second son of Sir Nicholas Purdon of Ballyclogh, Co. Cork (M.P. for Baltimore) by Ellis his wife, daughter of Henry Stephens of Broghill, Co. Cork. The Purdon family originally came to County Louth from Kirklington in Cumberland in the time of King Henry VIII.[4]

Gilbert Purdon left four sons and two daughters (Elizabeth and Jane). Elizabeth Purdon married in 1693 to John Wilkinson of Johnstown, Co. Cork and left issue. Her granddaughter married Gerald Blennerhassett of Riddlestown, Co. Limerick. Much of the estate of Gilbert Purdon passed to his eldest son, Nicholas Purdon of Dysert, Co. Cork and later to the family of Richard Graves of Limerick.[5]

Alicia Synge, Margaret’s grandmother

As previously stated, Gilbert Purdon married (December 1665) Alicia, daughter of Rev. George Synge, Bishop of Cloyne by his second wife, Elizabeth Stephens.[6] The first wife was Anne Edgeworth, daughter of Francis Edgeworth of Dublin. She died in 1641 when the ship she was travelling on, going to England, sank. Five of her children also drowned in the same accident.[7]

Bishop George Synge was born at Bridgnorth in 1594 and died there in 1653 and is buried in the local Church of St. Mary Magdalene. In between these years George Synge served as a cleric in challenging times. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford where he got a M.A. in 1616. George Synge came to Ireland as chaplain of Christopher Hampton, Archbishop of Armagh. On 11^th November 1638 George Synge was consecrated Bishop of Cloyne. At the outbreak of the 1641 Rebellion he fled to Dublin and became a member of the Irish Privy Council while his family tried to get to England but never made it as noted earlier. In 1647 George Synge was nominated as Archbishop of Tuam but could not take up the position as Tuam was then under Irish military control. Shortly after 1647 George Synge returned to England where he died in 1653. George’s younger brother, Edward Synge, became successively Bishop of Limerick and after 1663 Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.[8]

Elizabeth Stephens, Margaret’s great, grandmother

In Burke’s Irish Family Records, the second wife of Bishop George Synge is given as Elizabeth Stevens and sometimes as Elizabeth Stephens but unfortunately her father’s name is not printed.[9] Other sources that mention Elizabeth Stevens also do not give her parents’ names; particularly her mother’s name for it is her mother’s DNA that is the search of this article.[10]

Margaret’s brother

Margaret Ringrose had one brother, Richard Ringrose who went to England to study law. Richard Ringrose was living at the Temple, London when he died unmarried. The cause of his death was mistake poisoning.[11] With the death of her brother Margaret Ringrose became co-heir to the Ringrose estate of her father.

Alice Bowerman, Margaret’s sister

Margaret’s co-heir was her elder sister, Alice Ringrose who married John Bowerman of Cooline, Co. Clare.[12] Alice Ringrose inherited Moynoe House on her father’s death and her son Ringrose Bowerman was living there in the 1770s. At that time Ringrose Bowerman was involved in law concerning the estate and legacy of John Bowerman.[13]

Margaret’s family

Margaret Ringrose was born on 28^th June 1698 and married on 28^th January 1718 Francis Drew of Drewscourt, Co. Limerick.[14] In 1718 Francis Drew was High Sheriff of County Limerick. Francis Drew was the eldest son of Barry Drew of Ballyduff, Co. Waterford and Drewscourt, Co. Limerick by his second wife, Ruth Nettles, daughter of William Nettles of Tourin, Co. Waterford, by Mary his wife, sister of the celebrated healer, Valentine Greatrakes.[15]

Margaret Ringrose and Francis Drew had five sons and four daughters. The five sons were Francis (died without issue), John (died without issue), Barry (descendants died out in 1845), Ringrose (descendants still living) and George (left four sons). The four daughters were Alice, Jane, Ruth and Margaret Drew and they each inherited Margaret’s mitochondrial DNA.[16] The land which Margaret Ringrose inherited from her father formed the later estate near Scariff known as Drewsborough. Ringrose Drew and his descendants lived there until it was sold in the 1850s to Michael Skehan, an Irish immigrant to Australia who returned home after making a fortune from mining.[17] It was later the childhood home of writer Enda O’Brien.[18]

Margaret Ringrose Drew died on 25^th November 1755.[19]

Drewsboro house

Alice O’Neill, Margaret’s first daughter

Alice Drew married Charles O’Neill, M.P. for Clonakilty.[20] This marriage happened about September 1747. Charles O’Neill was the son and heir of John O’Neill of Shandrum, Cork according to one source.[21] Another source says Charles O’Neill was the son of Charles O’Neill of Shane’s Castle, by Catherine, daughter of Rt. Hon. St. John Broderick.[22] In 1749 Charles O’Neill was admitted to the Middle Temple in London and in 1754 he entered the King’s Inn, Dublin.[23] Charles O’Neill sat as M.P. for Clonakilty 1784-1790. In 1790 he was elected both for Clonakilty and Castlemartyr and opted to continue to sit for the former until 1797. Charles O’Neill practised as a barrister in Dublin and lived in Ely Place and subsequently at Monkstown Castle.[24] Alice Drew and Charles O’Neill had four daughters.

The eldest daughter was called Alice O’Neill and in September 1788 she married her cousin, Henry Knight as his second wife. Henry Knight was the fourth son of James Knight of Newtown, Co. Cork. Henry Knight died in Edinburgh in 1808 without leaving any children by Alice O’Neill.[25]

Another daughter of Alice Drew O’Neill was Charlotte O’Neill and she married Thomas Prendergast of Kildare Street, Dublin. Thomas Prendergast was son of Thomas Prendergast by Jane, daughter of Samuel Gordon. The family was long settled at Newcastle, Co. Tipperary. Thomas Prendergast, junior, was called to the Irish bar in 1787 and served as a commissioner of bankruptcy. Thomas Prendergast, junior, sat as M.P. for Castlemartyr, 1796-7 and for Clonakilty, 1797-1800, i.e. in succession to his father-in-law. Charlotte O’Neill and Thomas Prendergast had issue.[26]

Jane Nettles, Margaret’s second daughter

Jane Drew married in 1773 Rev. Robert Nettles as his second wife but had no issue. Rev. Robert Nettles was a relation of Jane Drew on a number of fronts. As noted earlier Ruth Nettles married an ancestor of Jane Drew, namely; Barry Drew of Ballyduff, Co. Waterford and this Ruth Nettles was a sister of the grandfather of Rev. Robert Nettles. A more immediate connection was that first wife of Rev. Robert Nettles was Jane Bowerman who was the eldest daughter of John Bowerman of Cooline, Co. Cork. This John Bowerman had married the elder sister of Jane Drew’s mother as noted earlier. The second daughter of John Bowerman, Catherine, married the elder brother of Rev. Robert Nettles, John Ryves Nettles in 1738. Jane Bowerman Nettles died in 1762 leaving two daughters by Rev. Robert Nettles, namely; Jane Nettles who married her cousin William Nettles and Elizabeth Nettles who married Kilner Baker in 1783.[27] As Jane Drew and Rev. Robert Nettles had no children the trail of female descendants of Margaret Ringrose stops with Jane.

Ruth Hall, Margaret’s third daughter

Ruth Drew married Joseph Hall of Dublin.[28] In 1729-30 Joseph Hall was mentioned in the will of his brother, John Hall, gent, of Dolphin’s Barn.[29] In March 1756 Joseph Hall witnessed the will John Willington of Killoskehane, Co. Tipperary and in June 1760 he witnessed the will of William Phineas Bowles of Dublin.[30] In 1773 the will of Joseph Hall of Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin was made and proved.[31] It is reported that Ruth Drew and Joseph Hall had two sons and three daughters but their names and biography are unknown to this author.[32]

Margaret Nash, Margaret’s fourth daughter

In September 1752 Margaret Drew married Andrew Nash of Brinny, Co. Cork.[33] Andrew Nash was the second son of Llewellyn Nash of Farrihy, Co. Cork. He was admitted into the King’s Inn, Dublin and was an attorney at the Exchequer. In November 1767 Andrew Nash died.[34] Margaret Drew and Andrew Nash had two sons and four daughters (Margaret, Jane, Helena and Catherine).[35] Further information on the four daughters is as yet undiscovered.

Further female descendants of Margaret Ringrose

Margaret Ringrose had at least six granddaughters to carry on her mitochondrial DNA but their names and heirs have not yet been found. This is one the big stumbling blocks in search for the female blood line as the usual genealogy sources follow the male line and often omit the names of the female children. Thus in the search for the mitochondrial DNA of Margaret Ringrose (1698-1755) we could go as far back as her great, grandmother and no further and down to her own granddaughters and no further. In all six generations of mitochondrial DNA. Maybe in some future time we could expand the number of generations but for the moment that is where we must leave the story of Margaret Ringrose.

Outline chart of the female relations of Margaret Ringrose

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[1] Hugh W.L. Weir, Houses of Clare (Ballinakella Press, Whitegate, Clare, 1999), p. 203

[2] James Grove White, Historical and Topographical notes, etc. on Buttevant, Castletownroche, Doneraile, Mallow and Places in the Vicinity (Guy & Co. Cork, 1905), vol. 1, p. 135

[3] Hugh W.L. Weir, Houses of Clare, p. 203

[4] James Grove White, Historical and Topographical notes on Buttevant & Places in the Vicinity, vol. 1, pp. 134-5

[5] James Grove White, Historical and Topographical notes on Buttevant & Places in the Vicinity, vol. 1, p. 135

[6] James Grove White, Historical and Topographical notes on Buttevant & Places in the Vicinity, vol. 1, p. 135

[7] Burke’s Irish Family Records, 2007, p. 1086

[8] Tim Cadogan & Jeremiah Falvey, A biographical dictionary of Cork (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2006), pp. 321-2

[9] Burke’s Irish Family Records, 2007, p. 1086

[10] http://thepeerage.com/p36860.htm#i368599 accessed on 19 November 2014

[11] James Grove White, Historical and Topographical notes on Buttevant & Places in the Vicinity, vol. 1, p. 135

[12] James Grove White, Historical and Topographical notes on Buttevant & Places in the Vicinity, vol. 1, p. 135

[13] Hugh W.L. Weir, Houses of Clare, p. 203

[14] Drew family tree by Carol Baxter, online pdf (2011), p. 17; James Grove White, Historical and Topographical notes on Buttevant & Places in the Vicinity, vol. 1, p. 135

[15] Burke’s Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1904, p. 159

[16] Burke’s Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1904, p. 159

[17] Hugh W.L. Weir, Houses of Clare, p. 108

[18] http://www.clarechampion.ie/ednas-birthplace-ideal-as-writers-retreat/ accessed on 4 June 2016

[19] Drew family tree by Carol Baxter, online pdf (2011), p. 17

[20] Burke’s Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1904, p. 159

[21] Drew family tree by Carol Baxter, online pdf (2011), p. 23; http://members.iinet.net.au/~nickred/trees/Drew.pdf accessed on 20 November 2014

[22] C.M. Tenison, ‘Cork M.P.s, 1559-1800’, in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, vol. II (1896), p. 137

[23] Drew family tree by Carol Baxter, online pdf (2011), p. 23

[24] C.M. Tenison, ‘Cork M.P.s, 1559-1800’, in the J.C.H.A.S., vol. II (1896), p. 137

[25] Drew family tree by Carol Baxter, online pdf (2011), p. 23

[26] C.M. Tenison, ‘Cork M.P.s, 1559-1800’, in the J.C.H.A.S., vol. II (1896), p. 179

[27] Burke’s Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1899, p. 125

[28] Burke’s Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1904, p. 159

[29] P. Beryl Eustace (ed.), Registry of Deeds, Dublin: Abstracts of wills, Vol. 1, 1708-1745 (Stationery Office, Dublin, 1956), no. 419

[30] P. Beryl Eustace (ed.), Registry of Deeds, Dublin: Abstracts of wills, Vol. 2, 1746-1785 (Stationery Office, Dublin, 1954), nos. 272, 389

[31] Sir Arthur Vicars, Index to Prerogative Wills of Ireland 1536-1810 (Edward Ponsonby, Dublin, 1897), p. 210

[32] Drew family tree by Carol Baxter, online pdf (2011), p. 24; http://members.iinet.net.au/~nickred/trees/Drew.pdf accessed on 20 November 2014

[33] Burke’s Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1904, p. 159

[34] E. Keane, B.P. Phair & T.U. Sadlier (eds.), King’s Inn Admission Papers, 1607-1876 (Stationery Office, Dublin, 1982), p. 360

[35] http://www.corkpastandpresent.ie/places/northcorkcounty/grovewhitenotes/fairyhilltokanturkcastle/gw3_103_119.pdf accessed on 4 June 2016

Browneshill Dolmen, Co. Carlow

Browneshill Dolmen, Co. Carlow

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

Browneshill dolmen

Browneshill dolmen is located a few miles outside Carlow town on R726, also known as Pollerton Road. The dolmen is located on the right side of the road when heading eastwards out of Carlow town and towards Killerrig and Hacketstown. The townland name is Kernanstown and the Browneshill name comes from the fact that the dolmen was located in the Browneshill estate.

The dolmen is situated on a north facing slope under the ridge line. It consists of a massive capstone sloping to the south and resting, in 2016, on a flat stone. In former times the capstone was embedded into the earth. A sloping capstone is a feature of dolmens in which the capstone slopes towards the back of the monument.

This capstone is estimated to weight about 100 tons (the information board beside the dolmen claims 150 tons) and is claimed to be the heaviest in Europe. The north end of the capstone is held up by three standing stones, with a fourth stone standing free nearby.[1] It is not clear if the capstone was sourced locally or was brought from a distance.

 

Megalithic monument

The Browneshill dolmen is an example of the numerous megalithic monuments which dot the landscape. The word ‘megalithic’ comes from two Greek words mega and lithos which mean large stones. The 100 ton capstone at Browneshill certainly keeps to that meaning.[2]

About 40,000 megalithic monuments exist across Northern and Western Europe. Many are situated in imposing landscapes and a good number have a cult following on the tourist map. These megalithic monuments are the most visible relics of the prehistoric past in Northern Europe.[3]

There are about 1,200 megalithic monuments in Ireland of which the best known is Newgrange. The Irish megaliths, like there Northern Europe cousins, are grouped into four main types: court-cairns (329 examples), portal-tomb (161), wedge-tomb (387) and passage-tomb (300).[4]

Megalithic tomb

The megalithic monuments of Northern Europe have attracted the interest of antiquarians since the seventeenth century but it is only since the 1960s that a proper scientific study of the monuments has occurred.[5] In the past the megalithic monuments have been generally described as megalithic tombs but so few have been excavated that a blanket term of ‘tombs’ may not be accurate in every case. Of the small percentage of Irish megalithic tombs that were excavated only a certain number contained human bones.[6] But the soil type may have erased any previous remains over the centuries.

Dating the monuments

Because so few monuments have been excavated, and the structures are made from un-dateable stone, it is difficult to put a precise date on the monuments. They are generally dated by radiocarbon analysis to the middle to late Neolithic period.[7] The Neolithic period is dated to about 4,000 to 2,000 BC. This period saw the large scale introduction of agriculture across Northern Europe and the decline in the hunter/gathering culture of the Mesolithic. Wheat and barley were the new crops and Browneshill portal-tomb continues that heritage as it sits in a field of barley or wheat in most years.

From about 3800 BC the Neolithic people started to build megalithic monuments of stone. Why they started to build these grand monuments when all around them were timber structures is difficult to answer. Because cremations and human remains lie within the monuments it is presumed they were tombs to honour the Neolithic dead or maybe they were built as a combination of religious centre for the living and home for the dead.[8]

Medieval churches were religious buildings that were occasionally used as burial places within for important local people. When the churches went into ruins after the Reformation with the change over from the Roman Catholic religion to the Protestant religion, increasing numbers of locals were buried within the abandoned churches.

Portal-tomb

In the past, these megalithic monuments have been called variously druid’s altar, dolmens, cromlechs, giant’s graves or Diarmuid and Grainne beds.[9] The Browneshill monument is usually called a dolmen and in the first Ordnance Survey map of 1840 was called a cromlech.[10] To avoid confusion with other megalithic tombs the dolmen is now usually referred to as a portal-tomb.[11]

Most portal-tombs in Ireland are found in Mid-Ulster in Counties Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Cavan. Another group lie in north County Clare and south Galway while in Leinster there is a chain of portal-tombs from south County Dublin through Carlow, Kilkenny and into east Waterford. Munster south of a line from Limerick city to Dungarvan in Co. Waterford has no known portal-tombs. Another empty area for portal-tombs is in the great central plain of Leinster and the centre of Connacht.[12] On the other hand Munster just loves wedge tombs and an arc from Dublin through Meath and Westmeath onto Sligo loves passage tombs. This regional preference is not totally understood – could it be different races of Neolithic people or just changing fashion?

Scholars disagree on where portal-tombs originated. Some says that they started in Mid-Ulster and spread to Clare and Leinster before crossing the Irish Sea to Wales and Cornwall with further examples in the Cotswold/Severn area. Other scholars say portal-tombs started in Cornwall and spread into Wales and onto Ireland.[13]

The portal-tomb is generally seen as an early example of megalithic monuments. It is generally agreed among some scholars that portal-tombs are derived from court-tombs and that court-tombs are the earliest example of the megalithic tomb.[14] But other scholars question this theory and that portal-tombs because of their very simplicity may predate the other types of megalithic tombs.[15] Over time the tombs became more elaborate, complex and larger.[16] But a good portal-tomb such as that at Poulnabrone in Co. Clare or at Kilclooney in Co. Donegal can be the most dramatic of megalithic monuments when viewed against the skyline. The Browneshill portal-tomb is set into the hillside and doesn’t display the same dramatic image of its cousins.

 

A portal-tomb is an above-ground burial chamber, consisting of between three and seven standing stones holding up one or two capstones with the capstone sloping downwards to the rear of the monument. Usually a closing slab was placed between the front portal stones. The Browneshill portal-tomb has two portal stones, one closing stone and a spare free standing stone to the side.[17]

In former times there could have been other free standing stones surrounding the portal-tomb but were remove. An proper archaeological excavation would establish if any large stones are missing from the site. If stones were removed, they could have been reused on early church buildings to continue a religious attachment to the Browneshill portal-tomb.

 

The word ‘dolmen’, which was formerly used to describe these monuments, comes from two Breton words which mean ‘stone table’ and portal-tombs look like giant tables.[18] Portal-tombs usually have only one chamber but two chamber examples exist as at Ballyrenan, Co. Tyrone.[19]

Although a full examination of every portal-tomb is needed to establish beyond doubt, it is generally believed that portal-tombs were not covered by earthen mounds even if some portal-tombs are near mounds such as at Malin More in Co. Donegal. The Browneshill portal-tomb did have cairn around it up to the nineteenth century and a subsidiary chamber which stood at some distance to the rear of the tomb. What we see therefore in portal-tombs is what is left for us to see. What kind of portal-tomb the Neolithic people saw at Browneshill and elsewhere is difficult to say for certain.[20]

Within the portal-tomb, based on the few excavated examples, was discovered cremated bone or a combination of cremation and inhumation bone.[21] Also in the tombs were grave goods such as Neolithic pottery, flint leaf-shaped arrow-heads, and stone beads.[22]

Wider landscape

The Browneshill portal-tomb is no isolated monument in the Carlow countryside. Across the wider landscape are other monuments to the Neolithic people. At Haroldstown there is a well preserved portal-tomb consisting of two slightly tiled capstones supported by ten standing stones.[23]

Away from the grand monuments of port-tombs Carlow is noted for a distinct group of Neolithic single burials known as the Linkardstown type, after the excavations of Joseph Raftery there in 1944. The burials in a massive stone cist consist of a single adult with occasionally a small child and occasion animal bones. Pottery is also sometimes found as a Baunogenasraid, Co. Carlow.[24]

Of more uncertain date is a large flat stone at Aghade. This once upright stone has a hole six inches wide at one end. It was possibly a ‘port-hole’ stone to close the chamber of a megalithic tomb. Legend says it was this stone which was used by Niall of the Nine Hostages to tie up Eochaidh, son of Enna Cinnselach. But Eochaidh broke free and killed the nine men sent by Niall to kill him.[25]

Beyond the Carlow landscape

Some scholars see the megalithic tombs as territorial markers to show the centre of a district or the boundary of same. But the Neolithic landscape of those far off days has changed so much from there to here that such ideas are difficult to prove. It would be too parochial to see each megalithic tomb in isolation or a group of such tombs. The transfer of information across great parts of Northern Europe on the building and functionality of these tombs should be seen as not difficult.[26] Many tombs are within a short distance to rivers or the coast and water travel was the easiest and fastest form of communication. The River Barrow near to Browneshill portal-tomb connected the area with the outside world and allowed the tomb to be no isolated monument in a field of barley.

 

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The photos below were taken in May 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] Peter Harbison, Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland (Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 1992), p. 50

[2] Peter Harbison, Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts (Guild Publishing, London, 1988), p. 42

[3] T.C. Darvill, The megalithic chambered tombs of the Cotswold-Severn region (Vorda, Highworth, 1982), p. 1

[4] Peter Harbison, Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts, p. 42

[5] T.C. Darvill, The megalithic chambered tombs of the Cotswold-Severn region, p. 1

[6] Peter Harbison, Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts, p. 42

[7] T.C. Darvill, The megalithic chambered tombs of the Cotswold-Severn region, p. 28

[8] T.C. Darvill, The megalithic chambered tombs of the Cotswold-Severn region, p. 89

[9] Peter Harbison, Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts, p. 42

[10] Peter Harbison, Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland, p. 50

[11] Peter Harbison, Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts, p. 42

[12] Peter Harbison, Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts, p. 43

[13] M.J. O’Kelly, ‘Neolithic Ireland’, in A New History of Ireland: Vol. 1: Prehistoric and Early Ireland, edited by Dáibhí Ó Cróinin (Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 81

[14] Laurence Flanagan, Ancient Ireland: Life Before the Celts (Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 1998), pp. 44, 55

[15] Peter Harbison, Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts, p. 54

[16] T.C. Darvill, The megalithic chambered tombs of the Cotswold-Severn region, pp. 28, 29

[17] M.J. O’Kelly, ‘Neolithic Ireland’, in A New History of Ireland: Vol. 1: Prehistoric and Early Ireland, edited by Dáibhí Ó Cróinin, p. 81

[18] Peter Harbison, Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts, p. 53

[19] Laurence Flanagan, Ancient Ireland: Life Before the Celts, p. 55

[20] Peter Harbison, Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts, p. 54; Michael Herity & George Eogan, Ireland in Prehistory (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1977), p. 89

[21] Peter Harbison, Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts, p. 53

[22] Laurence Flanagan, Ancient Ireland: Life Before the Celts, pp. 56, 57

[23] Peter Harbison, Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland, p. 51

[24] Peter Harbison, Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts, pp. 85, 86

[25] Peter Harbison, Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland, p. 49

[26] T.C. Darvill, The megalithic chambered tombs of the Cotswold-Severn region, pp. 82, 91

Irish General Elections of 1832, 1835 and 1837

Irish General Elections of 1832, 1835 and 1837

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

 

The 1830s was a decade of reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland but the events of 1829 provided an important Irish element to that reform, inside and outside of Parliament.

Catholic Emancipation 1829

In 1829 the future of Ireland and England lay in the balance. Near three hundred years of history was coming to one point in time. Daniel O’Connell had mobilised the Irish people for the cause of Catholic emancipation, freedom from those ancient Penal Laws. The mighty of England were not for moving. The Protestant King, George IV, was fierce against it. The great politicians cried that it was ‘inconsistent with the constitutional oath’; it was ‘incompatible with the British constitution’; it would ‘dismember the empire’, and ‘England would spend her last shilling, and her last man, rather than grant it’. Others feared that if granted there would be a wholesale massacre of Protestants all over Ireland within the week.[1]

Yet the masses still came to Daniel O’Connell and followed his peaceful campaign. British Catholics stayed quiet but in Ireland a tidal wave was growing. The Duke of Wellington (Prime Minister) and Sir Robert Peel (Conservative leader in the Commons) passed several coercion acts and threatened war. The prospects of war were real as the government flooded Ireland with extra troops until Irish regiments were seen cheering for Daniel O’Connell. The Duke of Wellington saw that the writing on the wall and forced Peel to tell the House of Commons that Catholic emancipation must be granted. On 13^th April 1829 a Protestant Parliament admitted that Britain was no de jure and de facto Protestant nation.

After the passage of the Act, Parliament increased the voting requirements of Catholic voters to minimise the impact of the Act in Parliamentary representation. In Ireland the people celebrated freedom and there was no great massacre of Protestants. In Britain the Conservative party split over Emancipation and in November 1830 the Duke of Wellington was defeated on the civil list and resigned. The Liberal party formed a government under Charles Grey, 2^nd Earl Grey, on a platform of Parliamentary reform.[2]

Life after the great Reform Bill

The campaign for Catholic emancipation was part of a wider movement for Parliamentary reform in the 1820s. The previous century had changed Britain. Thousands of people no longer lived in the countryside but in the new industrial towns and cities. Many of the old constituencies which elected Members of Parliament by 1830 contained only a few voters or even no voters at all. The new industrial towns were greatly unrepresented or even had no M.P.s. In 1831 the Liberal party won most of the seats in the House of Commons on a wave of support for Parliamentary reform. The Conservative party was reduced to 31 members as it tried to defend the old system.[3] In June 1832 the great Reform Bill passed the Lords by 108 votes to 22 on a threat of flooding the House with newly created peers.[4] The expanded franchise in Britain changed the fortunes of the two main parties in a short space of time. The industrial towns and cities of the north and west gained many new seats and an expanded franchise while in the Counties farmers occupying land above £50 as tenants-at-will and copyholder to the value of £10 got the vote.[5]

In Ireland the size of the electorate changed because of other reasons. After the passage of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, the Irish Parliamentary Act abolished the 40s freeholder, leaving £10 freehold as the minimum requirement to vote. This was to limit the Catholic vote. The Representation of the People (Ireland) Act, 1832 extended the number of voters in several categories of leaseholders while transferring the vote from town corporations to the £10 householder.[6]

The reform legislation increased the number of Irish M.P.s from 100 seats following the passage of the Act of Union to 105 seats in 1832 when an addition seat was given to four boroughs and Dublin University got a second seat.[7] Many of the rotten boroughs abolished in England with the Great Reform Bill were in Ireland abolished in 1800 with the Act of Union.

The new names of political parties

In the years after the passage of the Reform Bill the old political parties of Whig and Tory began to change their names to reflect the new political environment. The Whig party was traditionally led by some of the richest aristocrats in the country and supported a strong Parliament with political, social and religious reform.[8] The Tory party supported a greater role for the monarch in government and the preserve of the Anglican Church and an opposition to change.[9]

In the 1830s the Whig party divided into two main divisions, Liberal (supported slow continual reform and considered the Reform Bill as the last measure for a generation) and Radicals (supported further reform and in areas opposed by the great bulk of the party). Gradually the term Liberal was used to describe the party and after 1868 permanently replace the Whig name. Within the Tory party people like Sir Robert Peel saw that simple opposition to everything was not going to gain votes among the new middle class electorate. Peel advocated an orderly progress of change within the constitution and adopted the name Conservative to signal the new party.[10] Old Tories opposite to change faded into the background but never entirely went away. The consistent opposition of part of the present Conservative party to membership of the European Union is a residue of the old Tories of pre1832.

The Irish Repeal party

After the granting of Catholic emancipation, Daniel O’Connell moved to make real his long held project of repeal of the 1801 Act of Union which abolished the Irish Parliament and gave 100 seats for Irish representatives at the Westminster Parliament. Daniel O’Connell launched a Repeal association in the country and a Repeal party to represent that view in Parliament. But the early days of the Repeal movement were far from success. Indeed no sooner had the Repeal Association been established than the government proclaimed it as an illegal organisation.

Daniel O’Connell

Daniel O’Connell established a second Repeal Association which was also suppressed. He founded a third Repeal Association called the ‘Repeal Breakfasts’. If the government suppressed this ‘breakfast’ then O’Connell would form a political lunch and then a political dinner until such time as the British government allowed the Irish people to have their own representatives.

Daniel O’Connell was arrested for crimes against the state but the prosecution was shortly after abandoned as the Liberal party needed O’Connell. The Great Reform Bill was dividing Parliament and the country and the Liberal party needed the votes of Daniel O’Connell and his supporters to pass the Bill. The promise was that the reformed Parliament would bring justice for Ireland.[11]

1832 general election

In the general election of 1832 the Liberal party carried all before it in the new constituencies in Britain with 486 members while the Conservative party was returned with 172 members with strong success in the Counties.[12] The Liberals won votes in the towns while the Conservatives were restored to some form of effective opposition.

In Ireland the 1832 general election was the first in which clear party affiliations were given for each candidate and so the strength of each party can be judged from that time. Daniel O’Connell returned 45 M.P.s (3 were subsequently unseated) under the Repeal banner. A further 5 Liberal M.P.s said they would support Repeal if the government did not address maladministration of justice and the distribution of government jobs. The Irish Conservative party was opposed to Repeal of the Union and the restoration of an Irish Parliament. Indeed they were opposed to anything which diminished the Protestant state and the British constitution. The Irish Conservatives returned 29 M.P.s but two were subsequently unseated by petition. The Irish Liberal party returned 31 M.P.s but the party was not without its own troubles. When in 1831 Irish Liberals proposed a few small measures of reform for Ireland they were told a clear no by Prime Minster Grey.[13]

For many Irish voters the 1832 general election was an non-event as in 21 of the 66 constituencies there was no contest and the declared candidates were returned unopposed.

 

1832 Irish General election	Conservative	Liberal	Repealer	Contest
Antrim co	1	1		Yes
Armagh city		1		Yes
Armagh co	1	1
Athlone			1	Yes
Bandon	1			Yes
Belfast		2		Yes
Carlow			1	Yes
Carlow co		1	1	Yes
Carrickfergus	1election	void	on petition	Yes
Cashel			1
Cavan co	2
Clare co			2	Yes
Clonmel			1	Yes
Coleraine	1unseated			Yes
Cork city			2	Yes
Cork co		1	1	Yes
Donegal co	2			Yes
Down co	1	1
Downpatrick	1
Drogheda			1	Yes
Dublin city			2	Yes
Dublin co		1	1	Yes
Dublin University	2			Yes
Dundalk		1		Yes
Dungannon	1
Dungarvan		1		Yes
Ennis			1	Yes
Enniskillen	1
Fermanagh co	2
Galway			2	Yes
Galway co	1	1		Yes
Kerry co			2
Kildare co		1	1	Yes
Kilkenny city			1
Kilkenny co			2
King’s co		1	1	Yes
Kinsale		1		Yes
Leitrim co		2		Yes
Limerick city			2	Yes
Limerick co		2		Yes
Lisburn	1
Derry city		1		Yes
Derry co	2
Longford co			2 unseated	Yes
Louth co			2
Mallow			1 unseated	Yes
Mayo co			2	Yes
Meath co			2
Monaghan co	1	1		Yes
New Ross			1
Newry	1			Yes
Portarlington	1			Yes
Queen’s co		1	1	Yes
Roscommon co		1	1
Sligo		1		Yes
Sligo co	2
Tipperary co		1	1
Tralee			1	Yes
Tyrone co	2
Waterford city	1		1	Yes
Waterford co		1	1	Yes
Westmeath co		1	1	Yes
Wexford			1
Wexford co		2		Yes
Wicklow co		2		Yes
Youghal			1	Yes
Total	29	31	45	45
Total no of MPs			Constituencies	No vote
105			Total 66	21

 

After the 1832 general election

Following the general election a number of petitions were lodged objecting to the result in a few constituencies. In Carrickfergus the result was declared void in March 1833. In May 1833 the Conservative member for Coleraine was unseated on petition and replaced by a Liberal. In Galway city one Repeal candidate unseated another Repeal candidate. In April 1833 the two Repeal members for Longford County were unseated on petition and two Conservative candidates were declared elected. In Mallow the Repeal member was unseated and replaced by the Liberal candidate. At the end of May 1833 the Irish parties stood with Conservative 29 seats, Liberal 33 seats and Repeal 42 seats.[14]

Liberal government

The passage of the 1832 Reform Bill was the great achievement of the government of Charles Grey, 2^nd Earl Grey, but the affairs of Ireland was his downfall.[15] It began almost at the start when the new government introduced a most severe Coercion Act upon Ireland.[16] The Tithe War (1830-33) caused a wave of civil disturbances across the country. In 1832 there were about 9,000 crimes including 242 murders. The government responded with the Irish Crimes Act which included a ban on political meetings and a night-time curfew. The tithe question resulted in a number of resignations from the government but the Liberals continued in power and appointed a commission to examine the tithe question.[17]

The new Liberal government also tackled the Irish established church which was a much larger institution than its members required. In 1831 O’Connell called for major change but the government contended itself with reducing the number of bishops and taxing benefices valued at over £2,000 per year. This modest change was viewed by Irish Conservatives with outrage and among sections of the English electorate.[18]

In 1834 Daniel O’Connell used his support of the Liberal government to press for the case of Repeal of the Act of Union. But there was little desire to further reform the British constitution, even among the Radical section of the Liberal party. When O’Connell introduced his Repeal bill in the House of Commons it was defeat by 523 votes to 38.[19]

Instead the government favoured a renewal of the 1832 Crimes Act. Liberal ministers were unsure about continuing the ban on political meetings. The Irish secretary gave Daniel O’Connell the impression that it would not be re-enacted but Prime Minster Grey insisted on continuing the ban and his parry followed his line. Daniel O’Connell withdrew the support of his Liberal Repeal party for the government and Lord Althorp resigned. In July 1834 Earl Grey resigned as Prime Minster. William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne, was called upon by King William IV to form a government. The Crimes Act was toned down and O’Connell renewed his support for the Liberal government.[20]

Viscount Melbourne was the son of an obscure M.P. who was possibly not his real father. An unhappy marriage made him adverse to confrontation. Melbourne served briefly in 1827 as Chief Secretary of Ireland and in 1830 became Home Secretary where he showed unexpected firmness with the Swing riots of 1831 and the 1834 Tolpuddle martyrs.[21]

Irish by-elections 1832-4

Between the general election of 1832 and that of 1835 there were six by-elections held in Ireland. The first was on the death of the Dungarvan member, George Lamb (Liberal). Ebenezer Jacob (Liberal) won the vote but was unseated on petition and a new writ was issued. At the second election Ebenezer Jacob won again with a reduced vote (307 down to 293). In the Monaghan by-election the Liberal candidate at the polls retained the seat but was later unseated on petition by the Conservative candidate who was declared the winner. Elsewhere Fermanagh was retained by the Conservatives while the Repeal party won the Liberal seat in County Wexford but lost Louth to the Liberal party.[22]

Conservative government 1834-5

Towards the end of 1834 King William IV dismissed the Liberal government and asked Sir Robert Peel to form a minority Conservative government. The government only stayed in office for a few months. In January 1835 Sir Robert Peel called a general election in search of an overall majority.[23]

General election 1835

The British general election saw the Conservative party increased its members in Parliament to 300 but it was not enough to win an overall majority.[24] On the eve of the general election in Ireland the three parties had; Conservative 30 seats, Liberal 32 seats and Repeal 42 seats. In the general election the Conservatives increased their seats from 29 in 1832 to 37 in 1835 at the expense of the Repeal party. The battle over tithes and the prospect of repeal of the Act of Union brought out the Conservative vote. The Irish Liberal party gained 2 seats. The biggest loser was Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal party which fell from 45 seats in 1832 to 35 in 1835.

Yet despite his loss, Daniel O’Connell returned with enough Irish members to affect the balance of power at Westminster because the Liberals and Conservatives were so evenly matched.[25]

 

1835 Irish General election	Conservative	Liberal	Repealer	Contest
Antrim co	1	1
Armagh city		1		Yes
Armagh co	1	1
Athlone	1			Yes
Bandon	1			Yes
Belfast	1	1		Yes
Carlow	1			Yes
Carlow co	2 unseated			Yes
Carrickfergus	1
Cashel			1	Yes
Cavan co	2
Clare co			2	Yes
Clonmel			1	Yes
Coleraine		1		Yes
Cork city	2 unseated			Yes
Cork co		1	1 unseated	Yes
Donegal co	2
Down co	1	1
Downpatrick	1
Drogheda			1 unseated
Dublin city			2 unseated	Yes
Dublin co		1	1	Yes
Dublin University	2
Dundalk		1
Dungannon	1
Dungarvan		1
Ennis		1		Yes
Enniskillen	1
Fermanagh co	2
Galway			2
Galway co		2		Yes
Kerry co			2	Yes
Kildare co		1	1	Yes
Kilkenny city			1	Yes
Kilkenny co			2
King’s co		1	1
Kinsale	1			Yes
Leitrim co		2
Limerick city			2
Limerick co		2
Lisburn	1
Derry city		1
Derry co	2
Longford co	2			Yes
Louth co		1	1	Yes
Mallow		1
Mayo co		1	1	Yes
Meath co			2	Yes
Monaghan co	1	1		Yes
New Ross			1	Yes
Newry		1		Yes
Portarlington	1
Queen’s co	2			Yes
Roscommon co		1	1	Yes
Sligo		1
Sligo co	2
Tipperary co		1	1
Tralee			1	Yes
Tyrone co	2			Yes
Waterford city		1	1	Yes
Waterford co		1	1
Westmeath co		1	1
Wexford			1
Wexford co			2	Yes
Wicklow co		2
Youghal			1	Yes
Total	37	33	35	34
Total no of MPs			Constituencies	No vote
105			Total 66	32

 

After the election, the usual petitions against certain results were lodged. The two Conservative Members for Carlow County were unseated and a new vote in June 1835 returned one Repeal member and one Liberal member. But another petition against this result unseated these M.P.s, and by 19^th August 1835 the Conservatives got the two seats. Andrew O’Dwyer was unseated as Member for Drogheda and a new poll in April return him to Parliament. But after another petition O’Dwyer was unseated again and in June 1835 the Conservative Randal Plunkett got the seat. In April 1835 the two Conservative Members for Cork city were replaced by two Repeal candidates. In June 1835 the Repeal Member for Cork County was replace by a Conservative candidate. By May 1836 Daniel O’Connell and Edward Ruthven were replaced in Dublin city by two Conservative candidates. Thus the final result of the 1835 general election in Ireland had the Conservatives with 39 seats, Liberals with 33 seats and Repealers with 33 seats.

Conservative government

After the election the Conservatives struggled on with a minority government in which they were defeated on a number of issues such as the choice of speaker and the Chatham election inquiry. In March 1835 the Irish Chief Secretary introduced a motion to abolish tithe in Ireland and replace it with a rent charge. The bill lacked a clause whereby surplus funds would be granted towards general education. After a protracted debate the motion was carried.

Sir Robert Peel

On 12^th and 23^rd March 1835 Daniel O’Connell met with the Liberal leadership at Lichfield House. There they discussed the balance of power and what measures O’Connell wished for Ireland in return for supporting a Liberal government. The resulting agreement was known as the ‘Lichfield House Compact’ yet it was not a written agreement but verbal. Lord Melbourne and the Marquis of Lansdowne at first objected to the Compact but were persuaded by Lord John Russell that no Liberal government could be formed with Irish support.[26] The Compact held for six years with the British Liberal party forming an effective coalition with the Irish Liberal Repeal party.

The Compact’s impact on the voting in the House of Commons was soon evident. On 30^th March Lord John Russell proposed that the House go into committee to discuss the use of surplus Irish church money to aid education of people of all religious persuasions. The government opposed the motion but was defeated by 33 votes at three in the morning of 3^rd April in which 611 members voted. Among the Irish M.P.s 64 voted in favour while 37 opposed. The Liberals pressed on with another vote for the Commons to consider Irish tithe in which the government lost by 262 votes to 237. On 7^th April the government lost another Irish tithe motion and the following day the Conservative government resigned.[27]

Liberals form a government

King William IV asked Lord Grey to form a government but Grey turned down the request. The King then asked Lord Melbourne to form a government, and after the difficulty of who should be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was resolved, on 18^th April the new government was announced. When the writ for the by-election in place of Serjeant Perkin was moved (he had been appointed Attorney-general for Ireland) Daniel O’Connell and the Liberal Repealers crossed the floor of the House to the Liberal benches amidst derisive cries from the Conservatives.[28]

Irish by-elections 1835-7

Between the general election of 1835 and the general election of 1837 there were fifteen by-elections. Seven by-elections were caused by the sitting M.P. receiving a government position. In those days a person appointed to cabinet or to positions like Attorney-general or baron of the exchequer had to resign their seat and contest a by-election to get it back. Five by-elections were caused by the death of the sitting Member, two by the elevation of the sitting Member to the peerage and one to get Daniel O’Connell back in Parliament.

On 16^th May 1836 Daniel O’Connell was unseated as Member for Dublin city by petition. Richard Sullivan resigned his Kilkenny city seat so that on 17^th May 1836 Daniel O’Connell could become a M.P. again. In Longford the sitting Conservative died and the by-election in December 1836 elected a Repeal candidate but on petition he was unseated and replaced in May 1837 by a Conservative candidate.[29] The state of the parties after all the by-elections was; Conservative 40 seats, Liberal 31 seats and Repeal 34 seats.

Liberal government 1835-7  

But the new Liberal government, dependent as it was on the Irish Repeal party, was under pressure to get its legislative programme through Parliament. In June 1835 Lord John Russell introduced the Municipal Corporations Bill for England and Wales. The bill passed the Commons by about fifty votes but got into trouble in the Conservative controlled House of Lords. In the Lords opposition amendments were carried against the government by 93 votes and 71 votes. The Commons accepted the Lord’s amendments but many on the Liberal benches were unhappy.[30]

In 1835 the Liberal government proceeded with reform of the various town corporations in Ireland. The corporations had ceased to have any electorate function by the 1832 Reform Act and many performed few local services. But the passage of the bill through Parliament was protracted and controversial. Irish Tories complained that the British Conservatives didn’t oppose the measure strong enough while many in the Liberal party had mixed views. It was not until 1840 that a toned down reform bill was passed.[31]

Another controversial Irish reform measure introduced in 1835 was on poverty and the Poor Law system of support. The first report of the Irish Poor Law Commission sought to not just alleviate poverty but prevent it. The Poor Law report in 1836 divided Irish M.P.s. some Irish Tories, Whigs and Repealers joined in opposition while others supported the measure.[32]

The growth of political consciousness

The movement for Catholic emancipation in the 1820s and that of Repeal in the 1830s and 40s is said to have created a political consciousness among the Irish population at local and national level.[33] But Irish people always had a strong political consciousness. How often do we hear stories from the Eighteenth century where the whole population of a constituency got involved in the election when only a very small number of the people had the vote? The distribution of drink by the candidates to all who gave the impression that they were voters, possibly help encourage involvement.

The local political machinery created by the Catholic emancipation did not translate into dominance at the polls by the Repeal party. The Liberal and Conservative parties also had their local machinery in the form of clubs and in the influence of the local landlord. Lay leadership by the new Catholic middle class in the towns would as much support Liberal and Conservative candidates and polices as much as they would of Repeal – politics and money always have a close relationship.

Helping the political parties

In 1836 two changes were made which greatly influence public opinion in political education. The first measure was the reduction in the duty on newspapers. Since 1712, when a duty of one penny a sheet was imposed on newspapers and one shilling on every advertisement, the duty of newspapers was an important source of government revenue. The duty increased over time to four pence per page and three shillings and six pence per advertisement. In 1836 Spring Rice reduced the duty to one penny per sheet. Circulation of newspapers increased rapidly and by 1854 the government was gathering more revenue than under the old duty.[34]

The Irish newspapers strongly influenced how people voted and many groups and political parties established their own newspaper to communicate their vision of the future.

The other measure was the publication of division lists in Parliament. The public had previously known who voted for or against Parliamentary bills but only by rumour. Now an official list gave authority to that knowledge. Voters now knew how their M.P. voted and how often. They also knew if they M.P. had a regular attendance at Parliament or spent his time in the gentleman reading rooms.[35]

The 1837 Irish election result

The general election of 1837 was occasioned by the death of King William IV in June 1837. In those days, and for centuries before, a new Parliament was automatically provided to a new sovereign. The tired Liberal government was glad of an opportunity to get a working majority and not be dependent on the smaller parties.

In Ireland the 1837 general election returned 33 Conservatives, 42 Liberals and 30 Liberal Repealers under Daniel O’Connell. Among the Members returned were twenty-three new Members.[36] The Conservatives had gone into the election as the biggest party in Ireland but lost six seats while the Repeal party lost three seats. The winner in the election was the Liberal party gaining nine seats to finish as the biggest party. After the usual petitions the final election result was; Conservative 35 seats, Liberal 39 seats and Repealer 31 seats.

An interesting aspect of the 1837 election was the number of uncontested seats. In 32 constituencies there was no vote with candidates returned unopposed. A highlighted feature of the 1918 general election was the number of uncontested constituencies, which facilitated the overwhelming return of Sinn Fein M.P.s, but this feature was not unique to the 1918 general election.[37]

 

1837 Irish General election	Conservative	Liberal	Repealer	Contest
Antrim co	2
Armagh city		1		Yes
Armagh co	1	1
Athlone			1
Bandon	1			Yes
Belfast		2 unseated		Yes
Carlow		1		Yes
Carlow co		1	1	Yes
Carrickfergus	1			Yes
Cashel		1
Cavan co	2
Clare co			2
Clonmel		1		Yes
Coleraine	1			Yes
Cork city			2	Yes
Cork co		1	1	Yes
Donegal co	2
Down co	2
Downpatrick	1			Yes
Drogheda		1
Dublin city		1	1	Yes
Dublin co		2
Dublin University	2			Yes
Dundalk		1
Dungannon	1
Dungarvan		1		Yes
Ennis		1
Enniskillen	1
Fermanagh co	2
Galway			2	Yes
Galway co		2
Kerry co	1		1	Yes
Kildare co		2		Yes
Kilkenny city		1		Yes
Kilkenny co		1	1
King’s co		1	1
Kinsale		1 unseated		Yes
Leitrim co		2
Limerick city			2	Yes
Limerick co		2		Yes
Lisburn	1
Derry city	1			Yes
Derry co	2
Longford co			2	Yes
Louth co		1	1
Mallow		1
Mayo co			2
Meath co			2
Monaghan co	1	1
New Ross			1
Newry	1			Yes
Portarlington	1			Yes
Queen’s co	1	1		Yes
Roscommon co		1	1
Sligo		1		Yes
Sligo co	2			Yes
Tipperary co		1	1	Yes
Tralee	1 unseated			Yes
Tyrone co	2
Waterford city		1	1	Yes
Waterford co		2
Westmeath co		1	1	Yes
Wexford			1
Wexford co			2
Wicklow co		2		Yes
Youghal		1		Yes
Total	33	42	30	34
Total no of MPs			Constituencies	No vote
105			Total 66	32

 

The Liberal Repealers

The Liberal Repealer party had 31 M.P.s in the new Parliament but the party was far from a coherent unit. Daniel O’Connell was the leader and was surrounded by four other members of his O’Connell family. But other members like Richard Lalor Sheil, Member for Tipperary Co., held no great love for O’Connell.[38] The majority of the Liberal Repealers were people who had signed the pledge of repeal of the Act of Union but differed from their colleagues on other issues.

Disraeli attack on Irish elections

In England one of the newly elected Members of Parliament was Benjamin Disraeli (M.P. for Maidstone). It was his fifth election in five years for the future Prime Minster. On 7^th December he made his celebrated maid speech to Parliament. The topic was the validity of certain Irish elections and an attack on Daniel O’Connell to avenge to the row they had in the press at the Taunton election. Irish M.P.s of the Liberal Repeal party defended their leader with hisses, boos, shouting and laughter plied upon Disraeli. Richard Lalor Sheil (M.P. for Tipperary Co. and Liberal Repealer) famously told Disraeli afterwards that the speech was far from a failure but a success. He advertised Disraeli to put away his genius of oratory and ‘try to be dull’ and in no short time the House would clamour the wit of Disraeli of old.[39]

The 1837 British election result

The result of the general election was a return of the Liberal government with 342 including support from the Radical party and Irish M.P.s. The Liberals didn’t get their majority and in fact lost a number of seats. Without the Irish Liberal Repealer support the Liberal government would have been placed in a poor minority situation or be placed in oposition. The Conservative party was returned with 315 members, a slight improvement. Yet the party was still divided within on Parliamentary reform and sore from the heated Catholic Emancipation debate and was not yet able to unite to form a government.[40] The Conservative party’s high hopes of forming a government were dashed.

Among the returning M.P.s were 38 free traders who opposed the Corn Laws and all protectionism.[41] These would cause problems for both main parties in future years.

New Liberal government

Thus the general election saw the return to power of the Liberal party under Viscount Melbourne. In his new administration Lord Melbourne famously educated the young Queen Victoria on good government while failing in the number of areas to implement good government. The fact that the government was dependent upon the Irish vote did them great harm in England. The character of Lord Melbourne further weakened the government as he cared little for further reform and was seen by many to be just the same as if a Conservative government were in place.[42]

Viscount Melbourne by Landseer

In 1837 armed rebellions broke out in Canada. The country was an uneasy place with a strong French community under threat from an expanding British community. The high commissioner of Canada, the Earl of Durham, used the extreme edges of his constitutional authority to control the country. His decision to send some guilty rebels into exile in Bermuda created Parliamentary opposition led by Lord Brougham who was overlooked by Lord Melbourne for the office of chancellor. Melbourne caved into pressure and withdrew support for Lord Durham who subsequently resigned. The cabinet backed Melbourne but a large part of the Liberal party felt bad about the affair.[43]

In 1837 an Irish Poor Law Bill was introduced to Parliament and became law in 1838. The bill established poor law unions with a workhouse in each supported by a levy on landlords and tenants, split 50/50. The Board of Guardians were elected and not appointed which displeased Irish Tories.[44]

In 1838 the tithe war was finally settled when the tithe was commuted to a rent-charge and reduced in amount. The tithe was payable by the landlords but they could recover the amount from their tenants. Previous tithe bills in 1835 and 1836 passed the Commons but were rejected by the Lords. In 1838 O’Connell ad the Liberal Repealers compromised with the Liberal government. Robert Peel and the British Conservatives supported the bill. But the measure was opposed by Irish Conservatives and a large number of Irish Liberal M.P.s who wanted the total abolition of tithe.[45]

The three main Irish political parties may have had their own, often differing policies on Ireland, but were sometimes helpless in the face of the main British parties. Westminster was the seat of power and Irish M.P.s were not given any illusions that power was elsewhere, even in the Irish benches, when it came to Irish policy. In such an environment Daniel O’Connell declared that the Liberal government was not secure.[46]

Across Britain the government faced growing agitation from two quite different classes of people. Manufacturers wished to abolish the Corn Laws so as to reduce the wages of their workers on the back of cheap grain imports. The Corn Laws received little attention until the trade depression of 1836 when manufacturers saw the price of bread was artificially raised. These manufacturers represented a sizeable proportion of the electorate in the newly enfranchised industrial towns.[47]

Inside of Parliament Charles Villiers led the opposition to the Corn Laws with a vote on the issue nearly every year but without a great following. In 1839 his motion for petitioners against the Laws to be allowed to come to the bar of the House to state their case was defeated by 361 votes to 172. It seemed that the government was unaffected by all these failed motions but winning all the battles doesn’t mean victory in the war. Later that year Charles Villiers introduced another motion against the Corn Laws which was debated for five days. On this occasion Daniel O’Connell supported the motion. He said that the Corn Laws were ‘to get more money for the landed proprietors out of the working classes. It is a principle that I repudiate.’ O’Connell declared himself to be a supporter of ‘free trade in everything’. The motion was defeated by 344 votes to 197 votes.[48]

The other group of agitators were the Radical faction within the Liberal party and outside who wanted to see further political reform. The Radicals wanted, among other things, universal male suffrage, vote by ballot so as to avoid vote intimidation, payment to M.P.s so poor people could sit in Parliament if elected, equal electoral districts so as to make the value of each man’s vote the same in each district and annual Parliaments to secure dependence of the members on the wishes of the voters. Daniel O’Connell gave his support for such demands when he said ‘There is your charter; agitate for it, and never be content with anything less’.[49]

In 1839 the government was further weakened by the Jamaica bill. Jamaica was a West Indies colony with its own self-governing status with a governor and legislative assembly. Since the abolition of slavery the planters had blocked efforts to have emancipated slaves enter the assembly and have an equal said in the government. The governor and executive council supported the slaves. With this impasse the Melbourne government proposed to suspend the Jamaican constitution for five years until the matter could be cleared. The bill was attacked by the Conservative party and the Radical party who were shocked that a Liberal government would suspend the constitution of a self-governing colony. The bill was defeat by five votes and Melbourne resigned.[50]

Sir Robert Peel and the Conservatives were asked to form a government but met with trouble. At every change of government it was usual the personal of the king’s bedchamber would also be changed to have both sides of the government of the same thinking. Many of the ladies of the queen’s bedchamber were the wives or relations of Liberal politicians. Queen Victoria refused to change her household and Peel didn’t press the matter. Lord Melbourne returned as Prime Minster for another two years.[51]

On a positive note the government did have a few successes. In 1839 the government adopted Rowland Hill’s scheme of a uniform charge for letters of one penny paid in advance by the sender by way of a stamp. The measure was opposed by the post-office and some politicians. Yet when introduced the public embraced the new system with enthusiasm and the number of letters sent increased enormously. Junk mail also increased as businessmen sent out advertisements of their goods.[52]

Also in 1839 the government increased the education grant and established an education department to oversee the schools receiving government grants. The Conservatives opposed the establishment of the department but the Irish Liberal Repealers helped carried the bill.[53]

In 1840 the government conducted a successful war against China and gained, among other things, the island of Hong-Kong in perpetuity.[54]

In 1840 the Liberal government finally passed the Irish Municipal Reform Bill but the bill had to be considerably watered down or suffer defeat. The municipal franchise was confined to £10 householders and not all rate payers while control of the police remained with Dublin Castle.[55]

In 1840 Daniel O’Connell finally established the Repeal Association to repeal the Act of Union. The Irish Liberal party, especially among its northern M.P.s, was fearful of repeal and sought Irish reform with the Union. Irish Conservatives were opposed to repeal but not always in a united group.[56]

Irish by=elections 1837-41

Between the general elections of 1837 and 1841 there were twenty-three by-elections in Ireland. The Conservatives won or retained Dungannon, Cavan County (Feb. 1839), Tyrone County, Fermanagh County, Cavan County, Carlow County (Dec. 1840), and Antrim County. The Liberals won or retained Cashel, Clonmel (July 1838), Clonmel (Feb. 1839), Carlow town (by petition), Leitrim County, Waterford city, Meath County, Armagh city, Louth County, Clonmel (Aug. 1840), Waterford County and King’s County. The Repeal party won or retained Galway city, Tipperary County (Feb. 1838), Tipperary County (Sept. 1839) and Mayo County.[57] In the by-elections the Conservatives gain one seat, the Liberals two seats and the Repeal party lost three seats. On the eve of the 1841 general election the Irish parties stood at Conservative 36 seats, Liberal 41 seats and Repeal 28 seats.

1841 general election

One of the notable characteristic of the Melbourne government was its ability to keep introducing bad budgets that failed to balance. In 1841 the government made a desperate attempt to balance the books by increasing the duties on Colonial sugar and timber and reducing the duty on foreign sugar. The foreign sugar was usually slave-grown. The protectionists joined with the anti-slavery members to defeat the budget.[58]

On 27^th May 1841 the Liberal government finally fell after it lost a vote of confidence tabled by Sir Robert Peel. The vote was carried 312 votes for and 311 against. The government appealed to the country in the hope that some good will existed for all its measures of Parliamentary reform.[59] But the years of weak government and a reaction against reform among the population increased the Conservative vote along with support gained by defending the Corn Laws. The Conservatives returned with 367 members against the Liberal vote of 286. The Conservative return was assisted by Liberal M.P.s who had broken from the party on Lord Grey’s Irish church policy. Sir Robert Peel became Prime Minster for the second time.[60]

Irish political party results 1832-41

At the beginning of this period of study the Repeal party was the largest political party in Ireland from 1832 until 1835 when the Conservative party became the largest party until 1837 after which the Liberal party became the largest. No one party dominated the Irish political scene and this reflected the political climate of the 1830s.

The 1830s saw minority governments dependent on smaller parties with some successes for each of the Irish political parties and some failures. Each of the parties thought that they had a special influence on Westminster politics but when the key decisions were made it was the Westminster parties that decided on the fate of Ireland.

 

	Conservative	Liberal	Repeal
1832 general election	29	31	35
After petitions	29	33	42
1832-5 by-elections	30	32	42
1835 general election	37	33	35
After petitions	39	33	33
1835-7 by-elections	40	31	34
1837 general election	33	42	30
After petitions	35	39	31
1837-41 by-elections	36	41	28

 

Conclusion

In the 1840s the Repeal party continued to have elective success and the Repeal movement gathered many thousands of followers. The celebrated monster meetings about repeal attracted large audiences culminating in the great meeting at Tara at which an estimate one million people attended. The British Conservative government grew alarmed at the growing movement which to their annoyance was peaceful and law abiding.

But in 1843 Daniel O’Connell committed the fatal error of promising repeal within six months. Sir Robert Peel saw his chance to discredit the magical image of Daniel O’Connell. All he had to do was hold the line for six or twelve months and break the movement. The country was flooded with troops and the monster meeting at Clontarf was called off under treat of government intervention. O’Connell and his chief supporters were arrested. Although their conviction was overturned by the law lords in the House of Lords the repeal movement was dead.

The Irish Repeal party continued until about 1848 when it ceased to exist after the death of its founder, Daniel O’Connell. Many former members of the Repeal party joined the Liberal party such as John Patrick Somers, M.P. for Sligo town.[61] Others of younger blood joined the Young Ireland movement and prepared for armed rebellion. The rebellion when it came in 1849 was a small affair and was easily crushed. The ordinary people meanwhile had more pressing issues of basic survival as the Great Famine gripped the land for near six years. The 1850s saw another independent Irish political party but it was not until after the Ballot Act of 1872 that a truly independent and effective Irish political party was born, the Home Rule party.

 

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[1] A.M. Sullivan, The Story of Ireland (M.E. Gill, Dublin, 1898), p. 547

[2] Judith F. Champ, ‘Catholic Emancipation’, in The Oxford companion to British History, edited by John Cannon (Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 177

[3] John Morley, The life of William Ewart Gladstone (2 vols. Edward Lloyd, London, 1908), vol. 1, p. 102

[4] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910 (Rivingtons, London, 1910), p. 943

[5] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, pp. 940, 943

[6] Brian Walker (ed.), Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1801-1922 (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1978), p. xii; Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 944

[7] Brian Walker (ed.), Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1801-1922, p. xi

[8] Hugh Berrington, ‘Liberal Party’, in The Companion to British History, edited by John Cannon, p. 575

[9] Andrew A. Hanham, ‘Tories’, in The Companion to British History, edited by John Cannon, p. 924

[10] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 949

[11] A.M. Sullivan, The Story of Ireland, pp. 549, 550

[12] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 944

[13] D. George Boyce, Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Search for Stability (Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 1990), pp. 59, 60, 66

[14] Brian Walker (ed.), Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1801-1922, pp. 50-55

[15] Dr. E.A. Smith, ‘Grey, Charles, 2^nd Earl Grey’, in The Oxford Companion to British History, edited by John Cannon, p. 438

[16] A.M. Sullivan, The Story of Ireland, p. 550

[17] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 948

[18] D. George Boyce, Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Search for Stability, p. 63

[19] D. George Boyce, Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Search for Stability, p. 65

[20] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 949

[21] J.A. Cannon, ‘Melbourne, William Lamb, 2^nd Viscount’, in The Oxford companion to British History, edited by John Cannon, p. 634

[22] Brian Walker (ed.), Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1801-1922, pp. 55, 56

[23] D.C. Somervell, Disraeli and Gladstone: A duo-biographical sketch (Faber & Faber, London, 1932), p. 29

[24] John Morley, The life of William Ewart Gladstone, vol. 1, p. 102

[25] W.J. Fitzpatrick (ed.), Correspondence of Daniel O’Connell, the Liberator (2 vols. John Murray, London, 1888), vol. II, p. 1

[26] W.J. Fitzpatrick (ed.), Correspondence of Daniel O’Connell, the Liberator, vol. II, pp. 2, 3

[27] J. Ewing Ritchie, The Life and Times of Lord Palmerston (6 vols. London, 1866), part II, pp. 412, 414, 415

[28] J, Ewing Ritchie, The Life and Times of Lord Palmerston, part II, p. 416

[29] Brian Walker (ed.), Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1801-1922, pp. 60, 61, 62

[30] J. Ewing Ritchie, The Life and Times of Lord Palmerston, part II, pp. 457, 458, 459

[31] D. George Boyce, Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Search for Stability, pp. 68, 69

[32] D. George Boyce, Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Search for Stability, p. 71

[33] Fergus O’Ferrall, ‘The Growth of Political Consciousness in Ireland 1824-1848(Ph.D. thesis, University of Dublin, 1978)’, in Irish Economic and Social History, Vol. VI (1979), pp. 70, 71

[34] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 952

[35] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 953

[36] J. Ewing Ritchie, The Life and Times of Lord Palmerston, part II, p. 477

[37] Dr. Steven O’Connor (ed.), The Revolution Papers 1916-1923, No. 18, The 1918 General Election: A political earthquake shakes Ireland (Albertas & National Library of Ireland, 2016), p. 3

[38] Robert Blake, Disraeli (Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1966), p. 149

[39] Robert Blake, Disraeli, pp. 147, 148, 149

[40] John Morley, The life of William Ewart Gladstone, vol. 1, p. 106

[41] J. Ewing Ritchie, The Life and Times of Lord Palmerston, part III, p. 688

[42] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 957

[43] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 956

[44] D. George Boyce, Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Search for Stability, pp. 71, 72

[45] D. George Boyce, Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Search for Stability, p. 73

[46] D. George Boyce, Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Search for Stability, p. 74

[47] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, pp. 957, 958

[48] J. Ewing Ritchie, The Life and Times of Lord Palmerston, part III, pp. 683, 685

[49] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 957

[50] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 959

[51] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, pp. 959, 960

[52] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 961

[53] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 961

[54] D.C. Somervell, Disraeli and Gladstone, p. 42; Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 961

[55] D. George Boyce, Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Search for Stability, p. 69

[56] D. George Boyce, Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Search for Stability, pp. 75, 76

[57] Brian Walker (ed.), Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1801-1922, pp. 67, 68

[58] D.C. Somervell, Disraeli and Gladstone: A duo-biographical sketch, pp. 35, 45, 46

[59] J. Ewing Ritchie, The Life and Times of Lord Palmerston, part III, p. 628

[60] Cyril Ransome, An advanced History of England, 1603-1910, p. 962

[61] Brian Walker (ed.), Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1801-1922, pp. 80, 85

Exploring Layde Graveyard – Darragh & McCurry

Exploring Layde Graveyard – Darragh & McCurry

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

 

According to Phil Harding of Time Team fame “archaeology is not just about digging holes in the ground”.[1] This article is an archaeological dig into the records of history.

In graveyards digging holes in the ground is not generally allowed unless a burial is due to take place. Yet still academic archaeology is possible in a graveyard. The inscription on a headstone usually gives the name of the deceased, date of death, residence of the deceased and possibly next-of-kin. From such information it is possible to archaeologically dig into the archives and put some more information onto the life of the decease beyond the bare facts inscribed on a headstone.

This article takes the information on a headstone in Layde graveyard in the Glens of Antrim and explores what further information can be unearthed from the records. “The old graveyard at Layde is one of the oldest and most important historical site in the Glens of Antrim”, so says the introduction to the book Survey of Layde Graveyard, published by the Glens of Antrim Historical Society.[2]

The headstone chosen for this article is number 110 in the Survey book. This was chosen because the principal deceased person buried there died in 1906 and so falls between the two published census returns of 1901 and 1911. The inscription reads = HIS/Erected/by/Rose Darragh/in loving memory of/her mother/Jane Darragh of Clough/who died 26^th March 1906/aged 72 years/also above Rose Darragh/died 10^th Nov 1933 aged 63 years/& her sister Lizzie McCurry/died 1^st Feby 1937 aged 94.[3]

Another Darragh headstone

Grave number 110 is not the only Darragh headstone in Layde graveyard as grave number 30 mentions John Darragh (died 17^th July 1854 aged 21), nephew of Duncan McKeegan of Falmacrilly.[4]

1901 census

As the principal person, Jane Darragh, died in 1906 the first record to examine is the 1901 census. Here we meet the first challenge of our archaeological dig into the past. The townland where Jane Darragh lived as given in 1906 was Clough But this name is not in the 1901 census. Instead the census return records the townland name as Cloghs.[5] In the so-called “Census of 1659” Clough is recorded as Cloches in the parish of Layde and in the barony of Glenarm.[6] In the 1901 census Cloghs was in the Barony of Lower Glenarm; in the District Electoral Division of Cushendall; in the Poor Law Union of Ballycastle and in the Parliamentary District of Mid Antrim.[7]

M.P. for Mid Antrim 1901

The Hon. Robert Torrens O’Neill was the M.P. for Mid Antrim in 1901 and held the seat from 1885 to 1910, first for the Conservative Party and from 1886 for the Unionist Party. He first contested the vacant second seat for Co. Antrim in May 1885 as a Conservative but lost to the Liberal candidate, W.P. Sinclair. Following the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885 twenty-two town boroughs were disenfranchised and Counties Down and Antrim were divided into parliamentary divisions. One of these was the constituency of Mid Antrim. In the general election of December 1885 the Hon. Robert T. O’Neill won Mid Antrim.[8]

The Hon. Robert T. O’Neill (born 1845) was the second son of the 1^st Baron O’Neill, Rev. William Chichester who was the eldest son of Rev. Edward Chichester and a collated branch of the Marquis of Donegall. In 1855 Rev. William Chichester succeeded to the estates of his cousin, Earl O’Neill (extinct) of Shanes Castle, Co. Antrim and took the surname of O’Neill.[9]

Darragh house in 1901

The 1901 census records seven people in the Darragh household on census night. Everyone was both in County Antrim and all were Roman Catholics. In fact, all 98 people living in the townland of Cloghs were Roman Catholics. Jane Darragh was head of the household and aged 67. The headstone inscription gives her age in 1906 as 72 years which corresponds correctly with that given in the 1901 census. By 1901 Jane Darragh was widow. She gave her occupation as farmer and couldn’t read.[10]

Neal Darragh (aged 70) was a brother-in-law of Jane Darragh and a widower. He could read and write and speak both Irish and English – the only person in the house who claimed both languages.[11] Only seven other people in the townland claimed they could speak both languages.

Jane Darragh had her daughter, Lizzy McCurry, living in the house along with two step daughters and two step sons. Lizzy McCurry was a widow in 1901 and aged 28 years. She could read and write and gave no occupation. As the census return records, Jane Darragh was the only member of the household to give an occupation.

The two step daughters were Mary Darragh (aged 32 years), and write and Jane Darragh (aged 26 years), both ladies were single and could read and write. The two step sons were Archibald Darragh (aged 40 years) and John Darragh (aged 32 years), and both could read and write.[12]

The Darragh house was number thirteen out of seventeen houses in Cloghs townland. Jane Darragh was head of the household but Archibald Darragh was the owner of the house. The house was classified as a third class house and was built of stone with a thatched roof and two windows in the front of the house. The family had use of two rooms within the house.[13]

The Darragh family had ten outbuildings around the dwelling house. These consisted of one stable, one coach house, two cow houses, one calf house, one dairy, two piggery’s, one foul house and one barn. The Darragh family had more outbuildings than anybody else in Cloghs townland. Between four and six outbuildings was the usual for the other inhabitants of the townland.[14]

1911 census

In 1911 there were six people living in the Darragh house, three brothers (all single) and three sisters (two girls single), namely, Archibald Darragh (aged 53 years, farmer and head of the family), Neil Darragh (aged 53 years, farmer), John Darragh (aged 44 years, farmer), Mary Darragh (aged 44 years, domestic), Lizzie McCurry (aged 38 years, domestic), and Jane Darragh (aged 35 years, domestic).[15] The ages of Archibald, John and Mary have gained more than ten years between 1901 and 1911 while Jane Darragh only gained nine years. Neil Darragh does not appear in the 1901 census and may have lived overseas at that time.

The Darragh house was enlarged before 1911 and had three rooms and four windows at the front of the house. There were eight outbuildings (down two on 1901).[16] These were one stable, one cow house, one calf house, one piggery, one foul house, one barn, one turf house and one shed. John Blayney had the most outbuildings in 1911 with twenty-two buildings, up substantially from the six he had in 1901.

1891 census

In the 1891 census there were 50,027 people living in 9,899 houses in the constituency of Mid Antrim (an occupancy rate of 5.05 people per house). In the Petty Sessions District of Cushendall there were 4,083 people living in 151 townlands and occupying 860 houses (an occupancy rate of 4.75 people per house).[17] The District Electoral Division of Cushendall contained 7,756 acres and had 1,413 people living in 304 houses (an occupancy rate of 4.65 people per house) with 940 outbuildings (about 3 outbuildings per house).[18]

In the 1891 census 132 people (68 male, 64 female) lived in the townland of Cloghs in 26 houses. This gives an occupancy rate of 5.07 people per house; the parish average was 4.75 people per house. Also in 1891 there were 116 outbuildings or 4.46 per dwelling house (parish average 3.14 outbuildings per dwelling house).[19]

In the parish of Layde there were 605 families and 2,773 people of whom 2,309 were Roman Catholics, 332 were Church of Ireland, 133 Presbyterian and I Methodist.[20] In the constituency of Mid Antrim Presbyterians were in the majority with 30,681 people out of a population of 50,027 – Roman Catholics numbered 11,318 people.[21]

In terms of literacy 1,724 people in Layde parish could read and write while 432 could read only and 969 were illiterate. There were nine schools in the parish.[22] The age profile of the parish was 389 people under seven years, 132 people between seven and nine years, 192 people between nine and twelve years, 534 people between twelve and twenty years, 647 people between twenty and forty years and 879 people aged over forty years – a parish with a young population.[23]

1882 rent reductions

In June 1882 John and Archibald Darragh received rent reductions from the Earl of Antrim for their land in the townland of Clough through the judgement of the Irish Land Commission. At that time John Darragh rented 25 acres from the Earl at £10 0s 10d per year. The Poor Law Valuation was £10. The Land Commission reduced the rent to £7 4s.

Archibald Darragh rented 36 acres from the Earl of Antrim at £22 on a Poor Law Valuation of £19 5s. The Land Commission reduced this rent to £17 5s. The 61 acres in total was a reduction on the 83 acres the family had in 1852. This may not be a real reduction but due to the absence of full information.[24]

1881 census

In the 1881 census 162 people lived in 29 houses in the townland of Cloghs.[25]

1880 distress

Diging further into the past we find the reason for the 1882 rent reductions. The economic depression coupled with a few years of bad weather in the late 1870s created distress across the country that approached the worst of the Great Famine. The area around Layde and Cushendall was described as the worst conditions since the Famine. The potato crop was almost a total failure and the turf supplies all used up. Because farmers got poor prices for their crops and livestock they were unable to employ labourers with the consequence of mass unemployment. The local clergy and gentry were besieged by people seeking aid. About 50 families or about 200 people were in the most distressed state. One head of a family of nine had neither money nor any food.[26] These distress conditions put pressure on people’s ability to pay their rents and rents went into arrears. The rent reductions of 1882 were the result.

1871 census

Digging further down into the past we come to the 1871 census. Because of the destruction of the individual census return forms before 1901 we are left with just the gross figures for the population and cannot follow individual families and people as can be done in 1901 and 1911 census returns. In the 1871 census 181 people lived in 33 houses in the townland of Cloghs.[27]

1861 census

In the 1861 census the townland of Cloghs had 175 people (87 male, 88 female). This was down from 189 people in 1851, a fall of about 7.5%. The parish population fell about 3.4% in the same decade. There were 34 inhabited houses in the townland along with 3 uninhabited and one under construction. This gives an occupancy rate of 5.2 people per house (the parish average was 5.3 people per house). The Poor Law valuation in in 1861 was £484 5s, an increased from the 1851 valuation of £424 15s. This was despite a fall of eight acres in the area of the townland.[28]

Griffith’s Valuation c.1852

At the time of Griffith’s Valuation (about 1852) John and Archibald Darragh rented plots 8a and 8b from the Earl of Antrim in the townland of Cloghs in the parish of Layde. This Earl of Antrim with an address at Glenarm Castle was Hugh Seymour, 4^th Earl of the 2^nd creation, who in 1835 assumed the surname of McDonnell and died in 1855 to be succeeded by his brother Mark McDonnell.[29]

The two plots rented by John and Archibald Darragh consisted of two houses, outbuildings and land. The land totalled 83 acres 2 roots and was worth £9 (plot 8a) and £18 (plot 8b) separately. A big area of land with a low valuation points to poor, rough land. The buildings on plot 8a were worth £1 15s and the buildings on plot 8b were worth £1. Neal Darragh rented a house on plot 8c from John and Archibald Darragh worth 5s. John O’Hara, a progressive farmer in Co. Antrim said in 1847 that ten to twelve Irish acres or sixteen to nineteen statue acres were minimum needed for a farmer to live who did not have an off farm income such as linen weaving. The Darragh family had more than the minimum even if the land quality was not the greatest. The total area of the townland was 1,349 acres 3 roots and 18 perches.[30]

1851 census

Digging further into the past history we come upon the 1851 census. Parts of the individual returns for this census survive for parts of County Antrim but unfortunately a search of the Darragh surname came across 93 people of that name in the county but none from Layde parish. Thus we are just left with the gross population figures for Cloghs and Layde.

In 1851 the townland of Cloghs in the parish of Layde had 189 people (105 male, 84 female). This was down from 276 in the 1841 census (31% decline), the decade of the Great Famine. The total parish population fell about 9% in those ten years. There were 30 houses in the townland (down 16 on 1841 figures). This gives an occupancy rate of 6.3 people per house which is moving towards the overcrowding level. The parish average was 5.74 people per house and 5.77 if you include the urban areas of Cushendall, etc.[31]

1841 census

In the 1841 census the townland of Cloghs had 276 people (135 male, 141 female). There were 46 inhabited houses and 2 uninhabited houses. This gives an occupancy rate of 6 people per house (5.7 was the parish average – 5.85 if you include the urban areas).[32]

1837 Layde parish

In 1837 Samuel Lewis described Layde as a parish of about 20,000 acres of which one third was arable. The low lying ground was good for crops but the mountain areas were only of rough pasture. In the Roman Catholic division Layde parish was known as Cushendall parish and was head of a union of parishes with a chapel at Cushendall and Redbay. There were six schools in the parish including a national school and parochial school with over 400 students.[33]

Darragh headstone and inscription in Layde graveyard

Earlier history

They say when you are in trouble you should stop digging a hole. For this armchair archaeologist historian the 1830s are as far back in history we can go. In other counties the Tithe Applotment records are online but no such online records exist for County Antrim. Parts of the individual returns for 1831 census survive but a search for the Darragh family only gave records for 60 people of that name in County Derry.

Some earlier records exist relating to the property of the Earl of Antrim such as his interests in 1637 in Cloghs which he granted Donal McCauley.[34] In 1796 Anna, Countess of Antrim made a lease of land to various people in Cloghs but no mention of the Darragh family.[35] A search of items in the Earl of Antrim paper at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland or in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin may unearth pre 1840 records for the Darragh family but this is the end of this archaeological dig into the past begun with a headstone in the old graveyard of Layde in the heart of the Glens of Antrim.

Real archaeology

For those interested in get your hands dirty real archaeology style the townland of Cloghs has two sand stone quarries, two lime stone quarries and a cromlech with a flax mill just over the townland boundary.

==============

 

End of post

 

===============

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJyquvcaXBU accessed on 20 February 2016

[2] Malachy McSparran (ed.), Survey of Layde Graveyard (Glens of Antrim Historical Society, n.d.), p. i

[3] Malachy McSparran (ed.), Survey of Layde Graveyard, p. 106

[4] Malachy McSparran (ed.), Survey of Layde Graveyard, p. 37

[5] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Cushendall/Cloghs/923155/ accessed on 20 February 2016

[6] Séamus Pender (ed.), A census of Ireland circa 1659 (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 2002), p. 5

[7] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Cushendall/Cloghs/923155/

[8] B.M. Walker (ed.), Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922 (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1978), pp. xi, xii, 129, 130249, 325, 326

[9] Debrett’s Illustrated Peerage, 1901, pp. 618, 619

[10] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Cushendall/Cloghs/923155/; Malachy McSparran (ed.), Survey of Layde Graveyard, p. 106

[11] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Cushendall/Cloghs/923155/ accessed on 20 February 2016

[12] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Cushendall/Cloghs/923155/

[13] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000262645/ accessed on 20 February 2016

[14] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000262646/ accessed on 20 February 2016

[15] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Cushendall/Cloghs/114406/

[16] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai001346355/ accessed on 20 February 2016

[17] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/18814/page/504601 accessed on 20 February 2016

[18] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/18814/page/504602 accessed on 20 February 2016

[19] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/18814/page/504629 accessed on 20 February 2016

[20] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/18814/page/504709 accessed on 20 February 2016

[21] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/18814/page/504711 accessed on 20 February 2016

[22] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/18814/page/504726 accessed on 20 February 2016

[23] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/18814/page/504716 accessed on 20 February 2016

[24] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/17148/page/456097# accessed on 21 February 2016

[25] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/18814/page/504629 accessed on 20 February 2016

[26] Anon, The Irish Crisis of 1879-80: Proceedings of the Dublin Mansion House Relief Committee 1880 (Browne & Nolan, Dublin, 1881), pp. 222, 261

[27] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/18814/page/504629 accessed on 20 February 2016

[28] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/14545/page/376481 accessed on 20 February 2016

[29] Debrett’s Illustrated Peerage, 1901, p. 45

[30] Griffith’s Valuation, Cloghs, parish of Layd, barony of Glenarm Lower, Co. Antrim; K.D.M Snell (ed.), Letters from Ireland during the Famine by Alexander Somerville (Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1994), pp. 165, 166

[31] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/13130/page/336601 accessed on 20 February 2016

[32] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/13130/page/336601 accessed on 20 February 2016

[33] Samuel Lewis, Topographical Directory of Ireland (2 vols. London, 1837), vol. 2, p. 247

[34] http://apps.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_eCatNI_IE/ResultDetails.aspx accessed on 21 February 2016

[35] http://apps.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_eCatNI_IE/ResultDetails.aspx accessed on 21 February 2016

Arrears of Rent Act, 1882 in Carlow

Arrears of Rent Act, 1882 in Carlow

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

 

Introduction

This article tells of the background and of the Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882 which Act benefited seventy-eight County Carlow landlords who would have been financially under pressure without as would their distressed tenants. For much of the nineteenth century the poverty and insecurity of the Irish tenant farmer was an explosive issue underlying Irish life. In difficult times the rise in evictions due to the non-payment of rent led to a corresponding increase in agrarian violence. After the horrors and difficulty of the Great Famine, conditions seemed to have improved for most people up to the 1870s. By 1875 increased competition from America caused a decline in agricultural prices in Ireland and Britain. This led to a double whammy for many families with declining farm prices and less money sent home from migrant workers in England. Many tenant farmers, even those on moderate rents, fell into rent arrears and the number of annual evictions increased.

To add to these difficulties a number of years of bad weather reduced yields and particularly the yield of the potato crop. In 1876 there was more than four million tons of potatoes produced but this fell by 1879 to just over one million tons. Scenes of actual starvation, not witnessed since the days of the Great Famine, were seen across Ireland and especially in the West.[1]

The Irish Land League was formed in 1879 by Michael Davitt to demand justice for the tenant farmer. Although the League campaigned by peaceful means agrarian violence quickly formed part of the mix that was developing. In 1880 there were 2,590 agrarian outrages. The government felt the pressure to restore order and introduced two Coercion Bills to control the violence. With these sticks the government introduced a carrot to control the violence and in 1881 passed the Land Act. This Act introduced fair rents, fixity of tenure and free sale along with a provision for tenants to buy their holdings. But the Act excluded from its operation 130,000 tenants who were in rent arrears.[2]

The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882

To help these people the government passed on 18^th August 1882 the Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882 (also referred to as 45 & 46 Vict., Cap. 47). The Act was a supplement to the Land Act (Ireland), 1881. The Arrears of Rent Act was to be a short, sharp correction to the landlord-tenant relationship. The application time was very short and more especially in the case of evicted tenants. The Act also didn’t apply to every holding in the country as outlined in Section 1, sub-section 1; “In the case of any holding to which the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881, applies and which is valued under the Acts relating to the valuation of rateable property in Ireland at not more than thirty pounds a-year”.[3]

If a tenant held two or more holdings the total valuation was taken into account to determine if the tenant was over the thirty pound valuation.[4] In Griffith’s Valuation (c.1852) Anne Nolan held two holdings in the townland of Ballintrane in the parish of Templepeter valued at £25 5s and £10. If she had rent arrears for one of these holdings she could have got relief under the Arrears of Rent Act but because the combined value of the holdings was over £30 (total value £35 5s) she would not qualify for relief.[5]

Sometime a number of tenants would occupy one large parcel of land valued as one holding. In such case the rent of each tenant would be divided into the total value of the holding to get the value of each tenant’s proportion. Thus an individual tenant, with rent arrears, could qualify for relief under the thirty pounds rule.[6]

The three main conditions of the Act were:

• That the rent payable in respect of the year of the tenancy expiring on the last gale day of the tenancy in the year 1881 has been satisfied on or before the 13^th day November 1882.
• That antecedent arrears of rent are due to the landlord
• That the tenant is unable to discharge such antecedent arrears, without loss of his holding, or deprivation of the means necessary for the cultivation thereof.

 

The gale day

The gale day was the day on which the rent on a holding was due and it usually fell twice a year – March and September; May and November. But a tenant had to be careful when they paid their rent. If a tenant had 1^st May and 1^st November as the gale days he had to pay on those days and not before. If a tenant paid the rent before 1^st May 1881 it would be offset against old arrears as the rent for 1881 was not legally due until 1^st May. If a tenant paid a half year rent after 1^st May 1881 it may be on account of old arrears but the Land Commission would take the payment as on the 1881 rent. In such circumstances a tenant may not be judged to have paid the 1881 rent and so not subject to relief under the Arrears of Rent Act.

The hanging gale

The antecedent arrears referred to those which accrued for 1880 and before. But this was not so simple in practice. During the passage of the Act a number of M.P.’s asked “What is to be done about the hanging gale? The hanging gale was a practice where the rent due was not paid until after the next gale day. This caused problems in some cases as the rent for 1881 had to be accrued due and not pre-paid but still paid before 13^th November 1882. If the rent was legally due on 1^st May but usually not paid until 1^st December then no rent for 1881 would be accrued due until 1^st December. If money was paid between 1^st May and 1^st December it would be judged as towards the payment of old rent and so the 1881 rent would be still unpaid.[7]

It gets more complicated if a tenant owed two or three years rent. If the gale days were 25^th March and 29^th September 1881 any payments paid between those dates would be on the earliest rent due. A half year rent paid on 25^th April 1881 would be for the rent due on 29^th September 1879. Under the operation of the Act a tenant in such circumstances would still owe the 1881 rent and may even have some or all of the 1880 rent still due and not extinguished by the Irish Land Commission.

If a landlord accredited the payment to the 1881 rent rather than to the 1879 rent, then the tenant could claim a clean bill of health as the Land Commission extinguished all previous arrears and the landlord got one year’s rent in full.

Applying under the Act

The landlord and tenant, or either of them, of any holding under the Act could apply to the Irish Land Commission for judgement. The 30^th April 1883 was the last day for people to apply for relief under the Act. The landlord or tenant had to give the tenant or landlord ten days’ notice before applying to the Land Commission.

The Irish Land Commission was to implement and operate the Act. The Irish Land Commission was established under the 1881 Land Act to fix fair rents between landlords and tenants and did much good work in this area in the succeeding thirty years. As the nineteenth century moved on the work of the Commission was more devoted to assisting tenants to buy their holdings. By 1914 twelve of the seventeen departments of the Commission worked on land purchase. The work of the Commission was so valued that it survived independence and continued in operation until recent times.[8]

The Land Commission was to pay the landlord of any holding under the Act a sum “equal to one-half of such antecedent arrears, subject to the limitation that the sum so paid shall not exceed the yearly rent payable in respect of the holding”.[9] Under this rule William R. Garrett was paid £16 10s for one holding where the antecedent arrears was £33, and where the annual rental was £16 10s.[10]

William Raymond Garrett was a member of the Garrett family of Janeville, also called Kilgarron, near Fennagh, Co. Carlow. He was born on 11^th August 1840 as the eldest son of Rev. James Perkins Garrett of Janeville by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh Moore of Elgantine House, Co. Down. On 24^th January 1867 William Garrett married Anna, daughter of William Elliot of Radipole, Weymouth. The couple had three sons; James (born 1867), John (born 1869) and Arthur (born 1875).[11] In 1875 his father, Rev. James Garett owned 874 acres and valued at £739.[12]

On the payment by the Land Commission to the landlord, the antecedent arrears was to be extinguished and any court judgement made on the holding in respect of such arrears was to be vacated. But the extinguished arrears only applied to the antecedent arrears up to the gale day of 1880. Any subsequent arrears of rent fell outside the Act.

Janeville House – home of the Garrett family

Extended life of the Act

Although the Arrears of Rent Act was concerned in the main with antecedent arrears of rent up to the last gale day of 1880 the life of the Act could be extended for up to seven years. The Land Commission were instructed to pay the landlord of the holding but establishing who actually the landlord was, could take some time. On the face of it, people like Sir Robert Paul and Philip C. Newton were the landlords of their respected holdings but Irish estates were so subject to family settlements, mortgage securities and long term leases that a number of people could claim to be the actual landlord and not necessary the landlord who collected the rent. The Encumbered Estates Court was introduced after the Great Famine because many bankrupt estates could not be sold because the actual owner could not be established.

Remitted rent

During the Land War many tenants protested at the high rents they had to pay in poor economic circumstances. A number of landlords remitted part of the rent due after protests by the tenants. But when it came to seeking relief under the Arrears of Rent Act such a happy tenant with his remitted rent would be in trouble qualifying under the Act. If a tenant normally paid £36 and paid money for the 180 rent but the landlord had remitted 25% then the landlord only received £27 but to satisfy Sub-section 4 of Section 1 of the Arrears Act, the tenant would have to pay the £9 difference to cover the 1881 rent.[13]

One could say that landlords, who formed a large majority in Parliament, wrote parts of the Arrears Act in such a manner to get the most money out of the tenant when that tenant was to benefit from the extinguish of rent arrears.

Evicted tenants

The agricultural depression of 1877-1880 caused many tenants to fall behind in their rent so much that eviction was the end result. In 1877 there were 463 evictions but with the worsening conditions this had increased by 1880 to over 2,000 evictions.[14] These landless people were provided for with some relief in the Arrears of Rent Act.

If a tenant was already evicted for non-payment of rent, before the Arrears of Rent Act came into law, that tenant could apply for relief. But the landlord had to first reinstate the evicted tenant before any relief from arrears could be obtained. If the landlord didn’t agree to reinstate an evicted tenant, the tenant could still apply to the Land Commission for relief if they came within section 71 of the Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment Act (Ireland), 1860. Yet to come under section 71 the tenant had to pay the courts all rent, arrears and costs due before he could be considered as a reinstated tenant. But in all cases an evicted tenant had to apply for relief within six months of the eviction. As the Arrears Act came into operation on 18^th August 1882 nobody evicted before 18^th February 1882 could seek relief.[15]

Purchased tenants

The long term aim of the Land War was for the tenants to become owners of the land that they farmed. The 1870 Land Act had a small provision to aid tenants to buy their holding. This was the “John Bright Clauses”, which allowed tenants to borrow from the government two-thirds of the cost of buying their holding, at 5% interest repayable over 35 years, provided the landlord was willing to sell but there was no compulsory powers for the landlord to sell.[16] A few holdings were purchased under the Act but the number was very small.

In 1881 Land Act increased the amount of money advanced by the state from two thirds to three quarters of the purchase price, to be repaid over 35 years. Yet this financial assistance was too small for most tenants and only a few hundred holdings were bought under the Act.

Yet the Arrears of Rent Act, 1882 acknowledged these tenants who had purchased their holding. Under Section 17 a person who owned their holding and would have qualified for the extinguishing of any arrears of rents, could have remittance of a year on any public taxes due. These public taxes included tithe rent-charge, income tax and quit-rent amount other taxes. If a person had already paid these public taxes they could have such amounts deducted from future taxes.[17] Landlords could also qualify under this Section if they received no rent on a holding for a number of years.

Some sheep in the Carlow landscape 

Carlow landlords

A report exists among the British Parliamentary Papers on what landlords received money under the Arrears of Rent Act and how much each received. Under the Act seventy-eight Carlow landlords received payments, totalling £4,580 7s 4d, from the Land Commission to satisfy antecedent rent arrears of £9,802 1s 8d up to the last gale day of 1880. There were 529 holdings in Carlow involved with an annual rental of £7,488 2s 7d.[18] Arthur Kavanagh had by far the largest number of holdings subject to the Act with 123 holdings (annual rent of just over £10 per each). His arrears amounted to £1,859 10s 11d and he was paid £852 19s to clear the debt.[19]

Having 123 holdings in arrears seems excessive when compared to the other Carlow landlords and suggests that the tenants on the Kavanagh estate were withholding the payment of their rents in an effort to force Arthur Kavanagh to reduce the overall rents on the estate. The Land War, which started in 1879, had the reduction of rents as one of its chief aims. Tenants would also try to delay evictions for non-payment of rents by legal and physical force methods along with preventing the replacement of evicted tenants. With such methods the landlord system was severely curtailed. The Land Act of 1881 and the Arrears of Rent Act of 1882 took the steam out of the anti-landlord campaign.[20]

Arthur Kavanagh was the fourth son of Thomas Kavanagh of Borris House and was born without any limbs yet had a full and active life. When he inherited the Borris estate in 1853 it was in a very run down state. Arthur Kavanagh built a saw mill, erected new cottages and encourage Borris lace as a cottage industry. In 1868 he was elected M.P. for Co. Carlow but lost his seat in 1880 as the county elected two Home Rule candidates. Arthur Kavanagh was bitter at the defeat as he perceived himself to be a good landlord but the days of all landlords, good and bad, was numbered from the 1880s onwards. Arthur Kavanagh died on Christmas morning 1889.[21]

The holding with the lowest rent was that owned by B.F. Bagenal at £3 3s and arrears of £1 11s. He received 15s 9d to clear this debt.[22] In 1875 Beauchamp F. Bagenal, with an address at Bennekerry, Co. Carlow, owned 1,309 acres 3roots and 23perches (worth £1,210 15s) in County Carlow.[23] Beauchamp Frederick Bagenal (born 1846) was the second son of Walter Philip Bagenal of Bennekerry House by his wife Georgina, second daughter of Hon. George Jocelyn, who was son of the 1^st Earl of Roden.[24]

The holding with the highest rent was owned by William Duckett at £50 9s 3d with arrears of £50 9s 3d for which he received £25 4s 7d.[25] A holding with a rent of over £50 possibly had a valuation over £30 and so shouldn’t be part of the Arrears Act but a provision allowed redress for holdings over the £30 and under £50 valuation. In such case the tenant pays the 1881 rent, the Land Commission paid the landlord another year’s rent and the balance of the arrears became a rent-charge of £3 per year over 35 years.[26]

The aforementioned William Duckett, of Duckett’s Grove, owned in 1875 over 3,441 acres 1root and 11perches (worth £2,687 5s) in County Carlow.[27] In the mid nineteenth century the Duckett estate extended across six counties and covered almost 12,000 acres with an annual income of about £10,000. William Duckett was born in 1822 as the son of John Dawson Duckett and Sarah Summers, daughter of William Hutchinson of Co. Tipperary. William Duckett was twice married but left no heir at the time of his death in 1908.[28]

Assisted emigration

Although the title of the 1882 Act – Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882 – may lead one to assume that it just dealt with landlord-tenant relationships this would be a false assumption. Section 18 of the Act allowed board of Guardians of any Poor Law Union to borrow money for the purpose of draying or assisting the dray of expenses connected with the emigration of poor people within their union.

Under Section 20 the Commissioners of Public Work could grant to any union money for emigration purposes up to £100,000 and the maximum payable to each individual was £5 per person. This grant only applied to unions located in Counties Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Leitrim, Clare, Kerry and the West Riding of County Cork. In 1882 the unions of Belmullet, Newport, Swinford, Clifden and Oughterard qualified for the grant and the Lord Lieutenant could add other unions within the prescribed counties on the recommendation of the Local Government Board.[29]

Conclusion

As said above, the Land Act of 1881 and the Arrears of Rent Act, 1882 took the steam out of the anti-landlord campaign of the Land War but only the steam. Over the next four decades successive Land Acts facilitated the tenants to buy out the landlords and allow those who worked the land to own the land. Landlordism in urban areas was ignored in these Land Acts and continued into modern times – a story for another day.

 

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[1] F.S.L. Lyons, Ireland since the Famine (Fontana Press, London, 1973), pp. 164, 165

[2] F.S.L. Lyons, Ireland since the Famine, pp. 165, 170, 171, 172

[3] W.H. Kisbey (ed.), The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882 (Hodges, Figgis & Co. Dublin, 1882), pp. 1, 2

[4] W.H. Kisbey (ed.), The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882, p. 21

[5] Griffith’s Valuation, Ballintrane, Templepeter parish, Forth barony, Co. Carlow

[6] W.H. Kisbey (ed.), The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882, p. 22

[7] W.H. Kisbey (ed.), The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882, p. 7

[8] F.S.L. Lyons, Ireland since the Famine, p. 80

[9] W.H. Kisbey (ed.), The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882, p. 2

[10] www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/17658/page/470801#

[11] Bernard Burke, A genealogical & heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, 1906, p. 623

[12] www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/16252/page/194438#

[13] W.H. Kisbey (ed.), The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882, p. 11

[14] F.S.L. Lyons, Ireland since the Famine, p. 168

[15] W.H. Kisbey (ed.), The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882, pp. 11, 12

[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landlord_and_Tenant_(Ireland)_Act_1870

[17] W.H. Kisbey (ed.), The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882, pp. 31, 32

[18] www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/17658/page/470802#

[19] www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/17658/page/470801#

[20] Richard Vincent Comerford, ‘Land War’, in S.J. Connolly (ed.), The Oxford companion to Irish history (Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 300, 301

[21] Jimmy O’Toole, The Carlow gentry: What Will the Neighbours Say! (Carlow, 1993), pp. 134, 135

[22] www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/17658/page/470800#

[23] www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/16252/page/194437#

[24] Edward Walford, County families of the United Kingdom (London, 1860), pp. 24, 25

[25] www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/17658/page/470800#

[26] W.H. Kisbey (ed.), The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882, pp. 26-30

[27] www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/16252/page/194438#

[28] Jimmy O’Toole, The Carlow gentry, pp. 94, 95; Edward Walford, County families of the United Kingdom, p. 191

[29] W.H. Kisbey (ed.), The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882, pp. 33, 35

Shanakill townland in the Barony of Kinnatalloon, County Cork

Shanakill townland in the Barony of Kinnatalloon, County Cork

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

 

On the first Sunday of February Tallow point-to-point races are held at a place called Shanakill Cross between Curraglass and Conna, by the banks of the River Bride, in County Cork. This article provides a few historical notices relating to the townland of Shanakill.

The name of Shanakill is usually translated as “old church” but the “kill” element of the name could also be from the Irish “coil” or wood and so the townland name could be translated as “old wood”. Local tradition calls Shanakill as “Seana Chill” which means “old church” and local tradition is usually a good clue to fact – most of the time anyway.[1]

Early Christian times

So far no archaeological discovery of any site which could be called an “old church” has been made in Shanakill. Instead Shanakill Upper is dominated by a ringfort on the land of Edward and Catherine Casey, beside the Shanakill River. This ringfort is 35 meters in diameter and surrounded by a 2 meter high bank topped with large stones. The intervening fosse is well preserved. Within the interior is a possible souterrain showing a semi-circular depression and several flat sandstone blocks resembling capstones.[2]

The majority of ringforts were enclosed farmstead. Yet some excavated ringforts have shown industrial activity of iron working and such like. It also has to be said that the ringforts we see today, sitting quietly in green fields, are but the remains of a much more complex landscape. Just as many of the medieval tower houses stand isolated in green fields with their bawn wall and secondary buildings removed over time, ringforts were possibly once surrounded by other buildings outside with banks, ditches and fences.

Shanakill Lower also has possible Early Christian remains but as this part of the townland contains the better land for tillage purposes much of the remains have been ploughed out over the centuries. Still the 1842 Ordnance Survey map shows a circular enclosure, a possible ringfort, while an aerial photograph shows the crop mark of a large univallate circular enclosure of up to 100 meters in diameter.[3]

Shanakill c.1660

The earliest record for the townland so far discovered in documents is from the so-called “census of Ireland” taken in 1659-60. The census is actually a poll tax return for the country. This record shows Shanakill as part of the parish of Mogeely in the Barony of Kinnatalloon. John Russel was the tituladoe name (chief person) of the townland which had 2 English taxpayers and 17 Irish taxpayers. Shanakill was fifth out of 15 townlands in Mogeely parish in the number of its taxpayers (Lisnabrinn had 62 taxpayers).[4]

Eighteenth century

The eighteen century is presently a “dark age” period for the armchair historian as very few of the surviving manuscripts from that century are online or in printed books. The best source of information in the research of a townland is to be had from the Registry of Deeds in Dublin. Sadly work commitments prevent me from travelling to Dublin and spend a few days at the Registry. The information there is mainly deeds relating to land – a lease agreement – land appropriated as part of a marriage settlement or land secured against a mortgage. The landowner, associated people, tenants or people with a financial interest in the property appear in the various deeds. The deeds therefore provide information towards a history of a townland and also genealogy information.

Tithe Applotment 1830

In 1830 a number people held land in Shanakill for the purposes of paying tithe to the Church of Ireland. These were Henry Peard (48 acres 1 root 9 perches & 43a 3r 17p = £11 1s 4½d in tithe payment), John Gallagher (59a 1r 2p & 20a = £14 6s 3d), Patrick and William Gallagher (104a 2r 36p & 20a = £24 13s 4d), James Halpin (5a 2r = 8s 9½d), Richard Neville (38a 1r 12p & 18a = £6 8s 1d), Martin Brien (29a 0r 17p = £2 9s 2d), Thomas Wall (8a = 11s 2d), William Buckley (3a 2r 28p = 5s 2d), Widow Higgins (61a 2r 17p = £8 13s 2½d), Widow Kenefick (3a 0r 22p = 2s 7½d ), Widow Quirke (10a 2r 32p = 14s 11d), Widow Hillgrove (8a 1r 39p = 16s 10d). This gives a total acreage of 487 acres 2 roots and 31 perches.[5]

It would seem from the amount of tithe paid by the various people in Shanakill in 1830 that the townland was mostly under pasture land as pasture land was exempt from paying tithes.

Census 1841

In the census of 1841 there were 65 people living in Shanakill Lower in 9 houses and 65 people living in Shankill Upper in 10 houses.[6]

Shanakill Lower c.1853

In Griffith’s Valuation the townland of Shanakill Lower was measured as 244 acres no roots and 25 perches of land which was worth £285 16s. Land worth above one pound per acre was considered good agricultural land as Shanakill Lower was and still is. The buildings in the townland were worth £10 5s. The townland was owned by Henry Peard of Carrigeen Hall (townland north of the River Bride and across from Shanakill Lower) and was divided into seven individual plots. Carrigeen Hall was part of the Peard estate since the first half of the seventeenth century and possibly Shanakill was owned by the family from that time. Henry Peard held plot 1 comprising of 47 acres 35 perches (£73 14s).[7]

Patrick Gallagher rented plot 2a of house, offices and land (125 acres 27 perches, worth £137) from Henry Peard. The buildings were worth £4 5s. Patrick Gallagher had two vacant plots of a house and garden; plot 2b (14 perches, worth 4s, house worth 5s) and 2c (11 perches, worth 3s, house worth 4s).[8]

John Gallagher rented plot 3a (house, offices and land) from Henry Peard. The land was 66 acres 2 roots and 15 perches worth £72 12s and buildings worth £3 16s. In turn Henry Grey rented plot 3b, a house (worth 13s), from John Gallagher.[9] On 23^rd July 1878 James Gallagher, farmer of Shanakill (aged 75), died.[10] His relationship with Patrick and John Gallagher is as yet unknown. On 28^th April 1883 Mary Gallagher, farmer’s widow (aged 75) died.[11]

Plot 4 was house, offices and land rented by James Halpin from Henry Peard. The 2 acres 1 root and 3 perches were worth £2 3s and the buildings were worth £1 2s. In addition to the above there was 2 acres 3 roots of water and waste, worth nothing, in Shanakill Lower.[12]

Shanakill Upper c.1853

The townland of Shanakill Upper was slightly bigger than its lower counterpart at 244 acres 1 root and 35 perches. But the land was of poorer quality and only worth £125 18s. The buildings in the townland were worth £7 19s, less than the buildings in Shanakill Lower even though there were more buildings in Shanakill Upper.

The townland of Shanakill Upper was owned by the same Henry Peard and was divided into fourteen individual plots with Henry Peard holding plot 7, land (49a 1r 6p worth £9 10s), for his own use. Plot 1 was 2 acres 3 roots of land (worth £2 9s) rented by James Halpin from Henry Peard. Plot 2 was 12 acres 9 perches of land (worth £8 18s) rented by John Gallagher from Henry Peard.[13]

Plot 3a in Shanakill Upper comprised of a house, offices (buildings worth £2) and land (54 acres 1 root 34 perches, worth £28) rented by Richard Neville from Henry Peard. In turn Mary McGrath rented plot 3b, house (4s) and garden (14 perches worth 4s), from Richard Neville while Michael O’Keeffe rented plot 3c, house (3s) and garden (25 perches worth 6s), from Richard Neville. Mary Heffernan rented plot 3d from the same Richard Neville, house, office (buildings worth 7s) and land (11 perches worth 3s).[14] On 4^th March 1871 Richard Neville (aged 73) died. His wife, Mary Neville, died on 14^th January 1878.[15]

Patrick Gallagher rented plot 4, house (10s) and land (30a 2r 33p, worth £18 5s), from Henry Peard while Joshua Donnell rented plot 5 from Henry Peard, house (9s) and land (12a 1r 11p worth £5 15s).[16]

Robert Hillgrove rented plot 6a at Shanakill Upper townland from Henry Peard, comprising of house, office (buildings worth 13s) and land (8a 2s 38p, worth £4 9s). In turn Hugh Cleary rented plot 6b, a house (worth 3s) from Robert Hillgrove.[17] The Hillgrove family lived in the area of Mogeely parish since at least 1755 and possibly for some time before that. In Mogeely graveyard there is a headstone for Mary Hillgrove who died in 1755. On 5^th March 1871 Susan Hillgrove, farmer’s wife (aged 58), died. She was the wife of Robert Hillgrove. On 24^th March 1877 Robert Hillgrove, widower (aged 73), died. On 22^nd May 1884 their son, William Hillgrove, married farmer (aged 32), died. On 8^th April 1874 William’s son, Robert Hillgrove, died aged just 4 weeks.[18] The Hillgrove family continued to live and farm at Shanakill into the twentieth century. On 30^th January 1965 John Hillgrove, a widower and retired farmer (aged 84), died.[19]

Thomas Quirke rented plot 8 from Henry Peard comprising of house, offices (buildings worth 14s) and land (10a 2r 24p worth £5 14s). On 5^th April 1884 Thomas Quirke died as a bachelor small farmer (aged 56).[20]

Timothy Higgins rented plots 9AaB from Henry Peard of house, offices (buildings worth £2 4s) and land (62a 3r 20p worth £42). In turn John Murray rented plot 9b, house (12s) and garden (18 perches worth 5s), from Timothy Higgins.[21] Sometime after 1850 Timothy Higgins was succeeded by Edmond Higgins. On 21^st October 1865 Edmond Higgins, bachelor farmer, died.[22]

Map of Shanakill townland

Census 1851

In the 1851 census there were 62 people living in Shanakill Lower in 9 houses and 36 people in Shanakill Upper in 6 houses. Shanakill Lower had only a slight fall from 1841 but Shanakill Upper was down from 65 people in 1841 and lost 4 houses. The Poor Law valuation was £240 6s (£296 1s in Griffith’s) for Shanakill Lower and £97 4s (£133 17s in Griffith’s) for Shanakill Upper.[23]

Census 1861

In the 1861 census there were 29 people (15 male & 14 female) living in Shanakill Lower in 4 houses and 31 people (14 male & 17 female) in Shanakill Upper in 8 houses. Shanakill Lower had lost 36 people from 1851 and lost 2 houses while Shanakill Upper was down 5 people from 1851 but gained 2 houses. The Poor Law valuation was £278 15s (up £38 on 1851) for Shanakill Lower and £109 10s (up £11 on 1851) for Shanakill Upper.[24] The story of Ireland after the Great Famine is one of decline but down at the level of individual townlands the story is of fall and rise as circumstances change.

Shanakill residents after 1861

After 1860 different people to those recorded in Griffith’s Valuation came to live at Shanakill and are noticed in various manuscripts. On 15^th December 1864, Bartholomew Daly of Shanakill, a married pensioner (aged 60), died. On 28^th October 1869 Margaret Callaghan, labourer’s widow (aged 72), died. On 1^st January 1873 Julia Walsh of Shanakill, servant’s daughter (aged 13), died.[25]

In the 1870s the Fitzgerald family of Shanakill suffered a number of tragedies. On 28^th January 1871 Johanna Fitzgerald, labourer’s daughter (aged 8 months), died. Two days later, on 30^th January 1871, William Fitzgerald, a labourer’s son (aged 7 months), died. Five years later the Fitzgerald family had another son, also named William Fitzgerald. This child lived one year before dying on 1^st May 1877.[26]

The Brien family of Shanakill also suffered a double loss. On 14^th February 1878 James Brien, bachelor of Shanakill (aged 19), died. A few days later, on 25^th February 1878, Julia Brien, service of Shanakill (aged 15), died.[27]

On 30^th November 1875 John Higgins, a married labourer (aged 43), died. On 30^th September 1880 Ida Daniels, widow of Shanakill (aged 74), died.[28]

The Healy labouring family of Shanakill also suffered a number of tragedies. On 23^rd September 1887 an unnamed Healy child, a son, died after only 5 minutes of life. On 18^th October 1889, two daughters, Mary and Bridget, both aged 4 months, died.[29]

On 19^th June 1890 Bridget Gallagher, a farmer’s wife of Shanakill Lower (aged 36), died. On 27^th December 1893, Ellen Gallagher, a spinster farmer’s daughter (aged 28), died.[30]

People who lived the religious life

The surviving records are not all about recording the deaths of Shanakill residents. Other records add something more to the passing of a life. Sister Thadeus Gallagher (died 1965) joined the Presentation Order in Cork while her sister, Sister Phillip Gallagher joined the Good Shepherd Order in Waterford and died in 1966.[31]

Shanakill Lower on race day

Census 1901

In 1901 there were 25 people living in Shanakill Upper and 13 people living in Shanakill Lower. There were five dwelling houses in Shanakill Upper, viz, Edmund Casey (3 people), Patrick O’Brien (10), Sarah Hillgrove (2), Patrick Geary (7) and Mary O’Brien (3).[32] Shanakill lower had two dwelling houses, namely, John Gallagher (5) and Michael Gallagher (8).[33]

The earlier Griffith’s Valuation (1853) often described a holding as “house, offices and land” but gave few clues as to what those offices were. The surviving census returns for 1901 and 1911 give us a view into those “offices”. In 1901 Edmond Casey has two stables and one each of a cow house, calf house, dairy, piggery, foul house, boiling house, barn and potato house. Patrick O’Brien had a stable, cow house and piggery. Sarah Hillgrove had a stable, cow house, piggery, foul house and barn while Patrick Geary had a piggery and foul house. Mary O’Brien had no out houses.[34]

At Shanakill Lower John Gallagher had a stable, cow house, calf house, dairy, piggery, foul house, boiling house, barn and a shed while Michael Gallagher had the same as John Gallagher but no boiling house.[35]

Census 1911

In the 1911 census 32 people lived in Shanakill Upper.[36] Patrick O’Brien, farmer, had six daughters and three sons living in his house along with his wife, Kate O’Brien.[37] John Scannell, labourer, lived with his wife, Kate, and one son and two daughters.[38] Sarah Hillgrove, widow and farmer, lived with her two sons and two daughters.[39] Edmond Casey, farmer, lived with his wife, Ellen and their son, James along with two servants.[40] Patrick Geary, farm labourer, lived with his wife, Nora and their son, two daughters and one grandson.[41]

There were 8 people living In Shanakill Lower. Michael Gallagher, farmer, lived with his daughter and two sons.[42] In another house John Gallagher lived with his wife Katie and two servants.[43]

Shanakill in 1945

Guy’s Postal Directory for 1945 named the principal residents of Shanakill as Mrs. Casey, farmer, Mrs. J. Gallagher, farmer, and John Lane.[44]

Conclusion

It is possible to find extra historical information on Shanakill townland on the internet, in newspapers and in manuscripts in libraries to mention a few places.

 

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[1] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition (Conna Community Council, 1998), p. 398

[2] Denis Power (ed.), Archaeological inventory of County Cork, Vol. II – East & South Cork (Stationery Office, Dublin, 1994), nos. 4636, 5145; Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 368

[3] Denis Power (ed.), Archaeological inventory of County Cork, Vol. II – East & South Cork, nos. 5010, 5472

[4] Seamus Pender (ed.), A census of Ireland circa 1659 (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 2002), p. 234

[5] http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/reels/tab//004239504/004239504_00160.pdf

[6] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/14544/page/376176

[7] Griffith’s Valuation, Shanakill Lower, Parish of Mogeely, Barony of Kinnatalloon, Co. Cork; Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, pp. 270, 271

[8] Griffith’s Valuation, Shanakill Lower, Parish of Mogeely, Barony of Kinnatalloon, Co. Cork

[9] Griffith’s Valuation, Shanakill Lower, Parish of Mogeely, Barony of Kinnatalloon, Co. Cork

[10] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records (Conna Community Council, 2005), p. 250

[11] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, p. 255

[12] Griffith’s Valuation, Shanakill Lower, Parish of Mogeely, Barony of Kinnatalloon, Co. Cork

[13] Griffith’s Valuation, Shanakill Upper, Parish of Mogeely, Barony of Kinnatalloon, Co. Cork

[14] Griffith’s Valuation, Shanakill Upper, Parish of Mogeely, Barony of Kinnatalloon, Co. Cork

[15] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, pp. 243, 249

[16] Griffith’s Valuation, Shanakill Upper, Parish of Mogeely, Barony of Kinnatalloon, Co. Cork

[17] Griffith’s Valuation, Shanakill Upper, Parish of Mogeely, Barony of Kinnatalloon, Co. Cork

[18] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, pp. 243, 248, 256, 275

[19] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, p. 303

[20] Griffith’s Valuation, Shanakill Upper, Parish of Mogeely, Barony of Kinnatalloon, Co. Cork ; Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, p. 256

[21] Griffith’s Valuation, Shanakill Upper, Parish of Mogeely, Barony of Kinnatalloon, Co. Cork

[22] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, p. 236

[23] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/14544/page/376176

[24] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/14544/page/376176

[25] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, pp. 235, 241, 275

[26] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, pp. 243, 248

[27] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, p. 249

[28] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, pp. 252, 276

[29] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, pp. 260, 262

[30] Anon, Conna Parish Death Records, p. 263

[31] Anon, St. Catherine’s Parish: Conna, Ballynoe, Glengoura, a Christian heritage (Conna Community Council, 2000), pp. 74, 75

[32] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000572163/

[33] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000572158/

[34] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000572164/

[35] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000572159/

[36] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=1911 County Cork, ded Curraglass, townland Shanakill Upper

[37] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cork/Curraglass/Shanakill_Upper/411843/

[38] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cork/Curraglass/Shanakill_Upper/411841/

[39] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cork/Curraglass/Shanakill_Upper/411842/

[40] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cork/Curraglass/Shanakill_Upper/411844/

[41] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cork/Curraglass/Shanakill_Upper/411840/

[42] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cork/Curraglass/Shanakill_Lower/411839/

[43] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cork/Curraglass/Shanakill_Lower/411838/

[44] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 393

Mill Island mill in Mallardstown parish, Co. Kilkenny

Mill Island mill in Mallardstown parish, Co. Kilkenny

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

Today in the townland of Mill Island, beside the King’s River, in the civil parish of Mallardstown, Co. Kilkenny stands the former flour and corn mill of olden days. The seven-bay six-storey flour mill is built upon a L-shaped plan with five-bay six-storey North-South elevations and two-bay six-storey side elevations.[1] This article is a brief snap shot on the history of the mill.

South and east side of the main mill building

The area around Callan and Kells and onto Gowran and Goresbridge has good fertile soils for grain growing. A journey through the landscape on an August day would be full of golden fields of ripe grain. Consequently the area is dotting with old and new grain mills. It is not known when the mill at Mill Island was first built. In the 1760s the land between the King’s River and the River Nore was one of the cradles of the Irish flour milling industry and the mill of Mill Island could be attributed to that time.[2] Some sources say the mill was built about 1790-1810.[3] Of course the site may be the location of an older mill, possibly a medieval mill, but the absence of documents may it difficult to know for sure.

Lewis Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837

The work of Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, said in reference to the parish of Mallardstown that William Phelan worked an extensive flour mill in the parish at Mill Island.[4]

1841 Ordnance Survey map

The six inch Ordnance Survey map for 1841 shows the flour mill in the townland of Mill Island as on the south side of the King’s River. Upstream was a mill pond. The King’s River was divided to the west of the mill with the mill pond feeding the mill and the north course of the river passing round by the north and so creating an island on the north side opposite the mill. The two branches later re-joined each other below the mill.

A general map showing the mill site and the different waterways

1841 census

The townland of Mill Island in 1841 had a population of eight people made up of five males and three females. These people lived in two dwelling houses while a third dwelling house was uninhabited.[5]

Griffith’s Valuation

At the time of Griffith’s Valuation (c.1850), William Phelan rented the entire area of the townland of Mill Island, containing 24 acres 3 roots and 26 perches, from Robert B. Bryan. The land was worth £17. But the most important property in the townland was the house, offices and flour mill that William Phelan also rented. These buildings were valued at £90.[6]

The Bryan family owned a number of properties in the general Mallardstown area apart from the Mill Island townland.

Mill details

The flour mill was powered by a water wheel that measured 18 feet (wheel diameter) X 8 feet (breadth) X 4 feet (fall of the water) according to the Valuation Office Mill Books.[7] Although the mill is now no longer in use most of the fixtures and fittings are still in pace.

A notable feature of the mill is the slate-hung wall on the south elevation which give the building an imposing presence on the landscape.

1851 census

In the 1851 census the townland of Mill Island had a population of six people, one male and five females. These people lived in one dwelling house. Another dwelling house in the townland was uninhabited. The Poor Law Valuation in 1851 was £75 which is a reduction from that of Griffith’s Valuation.[8] It would seem that some buildings were removed. This seems to be bared out by the fact that in 1841 there were three dwellings houses in the Mill Island townland.

1874

In 1874 William B. Bryan was the miller at the mill which was then owned by William Bryan and James Fitzgerald.[9] None of these people appear in the 1876 list of owners of one acre and upwards which would suggest that the actual owner of the mill was somebody else and that William Bryan and James Fitzgerald had a long lease on the property.

1891 census

In the 1891 census there were four people living in the townland of Mill Island in one dwelling house.[10]

1901 census

By the time of the 1901 census the flour mill at Mill Island had become a corn mill and was marked as such on the Ordnance Survey map. The mill operator was Thomas Fitzgerald (aged 38). Thomas Fitzgerald lived by the mill where he gave his occupation as a corn merchant, miller and farmer. Outside of work Thomas Fitzgerald was a Kilkenny County Councillor, District Councillor and Poor Law Guardian.[11]

In 1896 Thomas Fitzgerald appears as an elector in the Callan district with an address at Mill Island. There was another Thomas Fitzgerald as an elector in the Mallardstown Great townland.[12]

Farming buildings surround the mill

In the early maps the mill stands on its own ground surround by associated buildings. By 1901 some of these buildings were converted into agricultural use while new buildings were added on. In 1901 there were surrounding the mill two stables, one coach house, one cow house, one piggery, two fowl houses and one turf house.[13]

Local miller’s in the Callan area in c.1901 and 1911

The 1901 census records the names and addresses of some people in the wider surrounding are of the mill of Mill Island who were engaged in the milling and corn trade. William Fitzgerald (aged 18) of Baunta Commons in the Callan Rural D.E.D. Co. Kilkenny gave his occupation as a miller. Ellen Lanigan (aged 30) of Green Street in Callan was a milliner. Also in Green Street, Callan, was Ellen Sheely (aged 22) another milliner. In the same 1901 census Mary A. Dunphy (aged 19) of Bridge Street Lower in Callan Urban was a milliner.

Outside of Callan town and near the mill of Mill Island lived James Cody (aged 42) of Brimeen alias Drimeen, in the Callan Rural D.E.D. who in 1901 was a miller. Also in the 1901 census was Michael Cantwell (aged 40) of Mallardstown in the Callan Rural D.E.D. was a miller. These people may have worked at the Mill Island mill.

Back in Callan town, in 1901, John Maher (aged 27) of Green Street was a corn buyer.

The front door so to speak of the mill building

Thomas Fitzgerald and the Bryan family

As well as having the mill site and townland Thomas Fitzgerald also rented other lands in the Mallardstown area. But he fell on hard times and was not able to keep up the payments. In 1904 the Trustees of Butler Bryan evicted Thomas Fitzgerald from 38 acres of land at Mallardstown. The annual rent for these 38 acres was £115 at the time of the eviction.

But with the help of the Estate Commission Thomas Fitzgerald was able to purchase part of the holding and the mill site with an annuity payment of £28 6s 2d on a total land area of 39 acres no root and 39 perches.[14]

1911 census

In 1901 Thomas Fitzgerald was unmarried. About 1909 he married a woman called Eleanor Fitzgerald from Co. Tipperary and had two children, Katherine and James. Shortly before the 1911 census Thomas Fitzgerald died leaving Eleanor a widow.[15]

In the 1911 census Eleanor Fitzgerald held the mill with the following outhouses; two stables, one coach house, one dairy, one piggery, one fowl house, one barn house, one turf house and two sheds.[16] The Poor Law Valution of Mill Island townland in 1911 was £58 10s.[17]

The mill by 1963

In 1963 Somers Brothers held the mill and they were licence to mill wheaten meal up to 1,000 barrels.[18]

Today (2015)

Today (2015) the six story mill building of Mill Island stands among other buildings great and small by the road from Callan to Mallardstown. This article is but a brief snap shot of the history of the mill.

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[1] http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=KK&regno=12402607

[2] L.M. Cullen, ‘The Social and Economic Evolution of Kilkenny in the seventeenth & eighteenth centuries’, in Kilkenny History and Society, edited by William Nolan & Kevin Whelan (Geography Publications, Dublin, 1990), p. 277

[3] http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=KK&regno=12402607

[4] Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (2 vols. Samuel Lewis, London, 1837), vol. 2, p. 338

[5] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/13110/page/335562

[6] Griffith’s Valuation, County Kilkenny, Barony of Kells, Parish of Mallardstown, townland of Mill Island

[7] William E. Hogg, The Millers and Mills of Ireland (2011), Kilkenny county, Mallardstown parish, Mill Island townland

[8] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/13110/page/335562

[9] William E. Hogg, The Millers and Mills of Ireland (2011), Kilkenny county, Mallardstown parish, Mill Island townland with reference to Registry of Deeds 1874 15 147

[10] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/21959/page/614338

[11] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Kilkenny/Callan_Rural/Mill_Island/1444688/

[12] http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/kilkenny/xmisc/callan-elec-1896.txt

[13] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000915551/

[14] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/21623/page/606481

[15] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Kilkenny/Callan_Rural/Millisland/562182/

[16] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai002621906/

[17] http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/21959/page/614338

[18] http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1963103000027?opendocument

A Callan lease of 1839 and Griffith’s Valuation

A Callan lease of 1839 and Griffith’s Valuation

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

In the absence of census records for much of the nineteenth century most people search for their ancestors in such records like Griffith’s Valuation. But the information in these records has to be examined with a cautious mind. The Griffith’s Valuation for the town of Callan in County Kilkenny shows that Michael Hearn held ten plots in Mill Street of which one plot was held by him from Viscount Clifden. In the absence of other evidence one could conclude that Michael Hearn held all ten properties from Lord Clifden. Yet this would be a wrong conclusion. This article publishes that absence records which contribute to that different conclsion.

On 15^th June 1839 Richard Ryan, gent, of Callan, Co. Kilkenny and Michael Maher, gent, of Waterford City made a lease of 41 years of two adjoining holdings in Mill Street, Callan, to Michael Thomas Hearn, gent, of Callan at an annual rent of nine pounds. The holdings were previously known as Quinlan’s and Coonan’s.[1] John Coonan was a tithe payer with an address at Broadmore in the civil parish of Callan and may have been associated with the building on Mill Street.[2]

The two holdings measured 51 feet long on Mill Street and extended 150 feet on the rear, towards the river but not quite meeting the river as Lord Clifden’s estate bounded the holdings on the river side (north side). The two holdings were bounded on the south by Mill Street and on the east by the widow Butler’s holding and on the west by Crole’s holding. The lease agreement of 1839 was witnessed by Richard Colleton of no given address.[3]

There were a number of people called Michael Hearn listed as tithe payers for Callan but it is not possible to identify the Michael Hearn that was later associated with Mill Street.[4] The Hearn family were important merchants in Callan in the early nineteen century. In 1801 Michael Hearn was listed as operating a bank in the town.[5]

In the spring assizes of 1839 Michael Hearn was listed among the cess payers in the Barony of Callan. In the summer assizes of 1839 Michael Hearn was a cess payers living in the town of Callan.[6] Slater’s postal directory of 1846 recorded Michael Hearn as a baker in Callan but did not give the street address where his business was conducted. There were four other bakers in the town which then had a population of 3,111 people. The same 1846 directory recorded John Hearn as a publican in Callan.[7]

By the time of Griffith’s Valuation (about 1850) Michael Hearn had developed the two holdings in Mill Street into a number of different plots. He also seems to have purchased or taken a lease on other buildings to the west so that Michael Hearn had ten plots in a group to the junction of Mill Street and Clodeen Lane.[8]

Mill Street in Callan with the first three houses shown on the left held by Michael Hearn

The details of these ten plots starting at plot 103 at the junction of Mill Street and Clodeen Lane was the following. Plot 103 was a car office held by Michael Hearn from Viscount Clifden (worth £4 10s). Plot 102 was a vacant house and yard with Michael Hearn as the immediate lessor. Plots 98 to 101 were each a house and yard rented by various people from Michael Hearn. Plot 98 was rented by William Kelly and was worth £2. Plot 99 was worth £2 2s and was rented by James Jacques. Ellen Hearn rented plot 100 (worth £2) while William Cass rented plot 101 (worth £2 10s). Plots 94 to 97 inclusive were rented by the Poor Law Guardians of the Callan Union. The Guardians used the four plots as an auxiliary workhouse with offices, yard and garden (2 roots 24 perches). The buildings on the four plots were worth £40 which was the same value of the Friary Roman Catholic chapel three doors further east along Mill Street.

the Callan Poor Law Union was established on the 27th March 1839 and covered an area of 166 square miles across the Counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary. In 1840-41 a workhouse was erected in 1840-1 on a six-acre site to the south of Callan. The workhouse was declared fit for the reception of paupers on 21st December 1841, and received its first admissions on 25th March 1842. The workhouse was used as a knitwear factory in the twentieth century.

During the Great Famine the workhouses in almost every Poor Law Union was overwhelmed by people needing help. Auxiliary workhouses were established in new buildings or more usually in leasing existing buildings such as the buildings held by Michael Hearn. The Hearn buildings was not the only auxiliary workhouse in the Callan Poor Law Union. Another was established at Ballingarry.

The property of Michael Hearn as given in Griffith’s Valuation can give a misleading impression of ownership. Michael Hearn was the immediate lessor of nine of the ten plots on Mill Street. The tenth plot had Viscount Clifden as the immediate lessor. In the absence of the 1839 lease mentioned above an observer of Griffith’s Valuation could concluded that Michael Hearn held all ten plots from Viscount Clifden. But as we known this conclusion would be wrong.

Extract from Griffith’s Valuation showing the ten plots on Mill Street held by Michael Hearn

At least one and possibly two or three more of the ten plots were rented by Michael Hearn from Viscount Clifden but the 1839 lease shows that four or five plots were instead leased from Richard Ryan and Michael Maher. The column therefore that listed the immediate lessor in Griffith’s Valuation is indeed what it says, the immediate lessor. This immediate lessor is not necessary the actual owner of the property. It could be the case in some instances that the actual owner of a particular property may not appear in Griffith’s Valuation because he had leased the property to an immediate lessor who subsequently rented it to the occupier who appears in the second column of Griffith’s Valuation.

It is not known when Michael Hearn of Mill Street died. In 1876 another Michael Hearn of Callan owned 56 acres of land.[9] In the 1901 census a person called William Hearne was recorded as a baker in Mill Street and so collected the family tradition.[10] By 1901 the ten plots held by Michael Hearn, including the two holdings leased in 1839 had changed size and shape. The corner of Mill Street and Clodeen Lane was by 1901 a shop held and owned by James Lanigan. The next house was a private dwelling followed by a pub and then another private dwelling.[11]

This brief article shows not just how people should take care when searching Griffith’s Valuation but also how urban properties can change in size and function over the years. The size of property out in the countryside didn’t change as much in the nineteenth century.

The lease of 1839 for Mill Street was part of the records of Michael Buggy and Co., solicitors of Parliament Street, Kilkenny which were deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland in 1981 with an accession number of 999/317.[12] Further research among the Rate Valuation books in the County Kilkenny Archives Office would give extra information on the properties held by Michael Hearn and how they changed over the years.

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[1] Anon, ‘Kilkenny Deeds’, in Old Kilkenny Review 1982, Vol. 2, No. 4 (New Series), p. 397

[2] http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/Kilkenny/CallanTithes-A.htm accessed on 13 October 2015

[3] Anon, ‘Kilkenny Deeds’, in Old Kilkenny Review 1982, Vol. 2, No. 4 (New Series), p. 397

[4] http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/Kilkenny/CallanTithes-A.htm accessed on 13 October 2015

[5] James W. Gilbart, The History and Principles of Banking (Bell & Daldy, London, 1866), p. 181

[6] County Kilkenny general assizes and presentments (Kilkenny, 1838), pp. 97, 101

[7] http://www.failteromhat.com/slater/0359.pdf

[8] Griffith’s Valuation, County Kilkenny, Barony of Callan, Parish of Callan, Callan South, Mill Street

[9] http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlkik/records/1876land.htm accessed on 13 October 2015

[10] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Kilkenny/Callan_Urban/Mill_Street/1445004/

[11] http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000915899/ accessed on 13 October 2015

[12] Anon, ‘Kilkenny Deeds’, in Old Kilkenny Review 1982, Vol. 2, No. 4 (New Series), p. 393