Roche – Page 2 – Forgotten Victorians

Marriage Settlement – Henry Hewitt O’Brien and Mary Roche 1807

October 12, 2016 WillLeave a comment

TRANSCRIPTION OF THE MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT OF HENRY HEWITT O’BRIEN AND MARY ROCHE DATED 27^th OCTOBER 1807, no.404481

To the Register appointed by Act of Parliament for Registring Deeds Wills & so forth

Memorial of an Indented Deed of Settlement bearing date the twenty seventh day October one thousand eight hundred and seven, and made between Henry Hewitt O Brien of Broomly in the County of Cork Esquire of the first part John Roche of Aghada in the County of Cork Esquire And Mary Roche Spinster only daughter of the said John Roche of the second part, and John Roche the younger of Aghada aforesaid Esquire and Stephen Laurence O Brien of the City of Cork Esquire Doctor of Physic of the third part and what was made previous to the Marriage of the said Henry Hewit O Brien with the said Mary Roche whereby the said John Roche did agree to give as a portion with his said Daughter Four thousand pounds Stock in the Irish five per Cent Funds, By which said Deed whereof this is a Memorial the said John Roche for the consideration therein mentioned Did grant Assigne Transfer and set over unto the said John Roche the younger and Stephen Laurence O Brien All that the said Four thousand pounds Stock in the Irish five per Cent Funds To hold the same unto the said John Roche the younger and Stephen Laurence O Brien and to the Survivor of them his Executors Admst & Assigns up [sic] Trust, to permit the said Henry Hewit O Brien and his Assigns during his life to take the Interest Money, dividends and produce thereof for his own uses and after his death, to permit the said Mary Roche (in case she shall happen to survive the said Henry Hewit O Brien) and her Assigns during her life to take the Interest Money, dividends or produce thereof for her own use, by way of Jointure from and after the death of the survivor of them the said Henry Hewit O Brien, and Mary Roche, as to the said Sum of four thousand pounds upon Trust for the Issue of such Marriage if any shall be, but in Case there shall be no Issue or in Case there should, and that all such shall dye before any of them shall be entitled to their respective shares of the said Sum, then as to the intire said Sum of four thousand pounds Stock in the Irish five per Cent Funds and all benefit to be had thereby, upon Trust, for the survivor of them the said Henry Hewit O Brien and Mary Roche his intended Wife, his, or her Heirs Exrs Admrs and Assigns and it is by sd Deed expressed that the sd John Roche the younger and Stephen Laurence O Brien shall when thereto required by the sd Henry Hewit O Brien invest the intire of the said Trusts Money, or any part thereof, in the purchase of Lands in Ireland which Lands when so purchased are to remain to the same uses and Trusts as are mentioned and expressed in every aspect as to the Trust Sum of four thousand thousand [sic] pound in the Irish five per Cent Funds To which Deed the said John Roche Henry Hewit O Brien & Mary Roche put their hands and Seals, Witness thereto and this Memorial are John Cotter of the City of Cork Merchant, and John Colburn of sd City Gent.

Note:

Jointure – sole estate limited to wife, to be employed by her after her husband’s death for her life.

Pauline and William Barry’s grandchildren

September 24, 2016 WillLeave a comment

Pauline Roche (1835 -1894) has been part of the story for a while. But I’m becoming increasingly sure that she helps place a lot of things into context. This is one of a series of posts covering her marriage into the Barry family, and her daughter’s marriage into the related Smith-Barrys, and a look at where they all fit into both Irish, and British society.

Pauline & William Henry Barry had seven children, five of whom were unmarried, only two of the girls marry. Their children were:

(Patrick) Henry, born 1862; d. poss 1930, who appears to have been unmarried
William Gerard; born 1864; d. 1940 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, unmarried.
Pauline; prob born 1865 or b.1867 – d. after 1911; unmarried.
Edith,born probably 1866, but possibly as early as 1861, and possibly 1863. Edith and Mary both give their ages as 35 in the 1901 census so it’s likely they are twins.
Mary Barry, b. 1866, married Cecil Smith Barry, (b. 19 Oct 1863, d. 21 Nov 1908) so Cecil was Pauline Roche’s son-in-law.
Henrietta (Rose) , b. 1873/4,unmarried
Kate. b 1879 unmarried.

Edith marries twice, and has three sons with her first husband; William, and Joseph b. 1891 who are twins, and then Gerard b. 1893, a year later,, and a daughter, Janet b. 1905, with her second.

Mary married Cecil Smith Barry, and had two daughters Cecily Nina b 1896, and Edith b 1907

So the grandchildren are:

William Hayes 1891 – 1918, aged 27
J B (Joseph Barry )Hayes 1891-1927, aged 36
Gerard Patrick Hayes 1892 – 19??
Cecily Nina Smith-Barry b 1896
Janet Babtie b 1905;
Edith Smith-Barry b 1907

Edith married Patrick Aloysius Hayes (1847-1900) who was born in Dingle, Co Kerry in 1847, and was a surgeon-major H. M. Army Medical Department, and they had three sons; William Hayes 1891 – 1918, J B (Joseph Barry )Haynes 1891 – 1927, and Gerard Patrick Hayes. Will and Joe appear to be twins, according to the 1901 census, both aged 9, Gerry is a year younger at 8, so probably born in 1892. Patrick Hayes Senior died in Wimbledon on the 20th March 1900. Edith then married Lieutenant General William Babtie V.C (1859 -1920), as a widow in 1903, and had a daughter Janet born in 1905.

Edith died on 25th June 1936 at 18 St Patrick’s Place, Cork and her address was given as The Hermitage, Rushbrooke, Cork; probate was given to Gerard Patrick Hayes, who described himself as an advertising salesman.

Mary and Cecil Smith-Barry had two daughters, Cecily Nina b 1896, and Edith b 1907. Cecily died in Bournemouth in the winter of 1954, “aged 56” actually 58. By that point she was firmly calling herself Nina Cecily. She was entered on the General Register of Nurses on Feb 16 1923, and still on the register in 1940, where her address was given as 9 Walkers Row, Fermoy, co. Cork. 1937 her address was Ruddiford, Wimborne Road, Red Hill, Bournemouth. She got her nursing certificate between 1917-1920 at St George’s in London. By 1943 she was at 3 Bodorgan Road, Bournemouth. There is very little trace of Edith Smith-Barry to date.

All three of Edith’s sons served in the First War, both Will and Joe in the Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment, and Gerard in the Royal Fusiliers.

Will was awarded a D.S.O. (Distinguished Service Order), and Joe a M.C. (Military Cross). The D.S.O. is awarded for an act of meritorious or distinguished service in wartime and usually when under fire or in the presence of the enemy. The Military Cross is a decoration for gallantry during active operations in the presence of the enemy. The decorations rank two, and three, respectively, in the order of precedence behind the Victoria Cross, which, incidentally, was awarded to their step-father Lieut.-General Sir William Babtie during the Boer War.

William Hayes died of flu on the 20th October, 1918, in Italy, and is buried at Staglieno Cemetery, Genoa. He had served throughout the First War, having been part of the original Expeditionary Force in 1914; out of the 1,000 men of 1^st Battalion The Queen’s Royal Regiment who landed in France in 1914, only 17 were alive at the Armistice. So Will almost made it.

Gerard was wounded in 1916, when he was also mentioned in dispatches by Sir Douglas Haig, and Joe was awarded the Military Cross the same year. Will was mentioned in dispatches, and awarded the D.S.O. in 1917.

Joe survived the war, but died on December the 19th, 1927, aged 35. He had married in the winter of 1920, and his widow Gwen [nee Harold] survived him, and died almost fifty years later in 1976. Their address was given as the Very House, Worplesdon, Surrey, when Gerard Patrick was granted probate. Joe left £ 226. 13s. 11d., a present day equivalent of about £ 66,000.

Pauline Barry died in the autumn of 1894, aged 56. The registration district was Midletown, in co. Cork, so we can safely assume that she died at home in Ballyadam. All three of her grandsons had been born before she died, but none of her granddaughters.

Patrick Hayes died at Wimbledon on the 20th March 1900, presumably at 132 Worple Road Wimbledon where the boys were living at the time of the census in 1901. The house itself appears to be a relatively small two storey late Victorian semi-detached house. The greatest curiosity is that, at the time of the 1901 census, all three boys were living there without their mother, and only three servants looking after them. Elizabeth O’Shea aged 30, described as a nurse domestic on the census, but presumably their nanny; and Mary Phillips, a 21 year-old house maid, and Violet Gatling, also 21, who was the cook. The census was taken ten days before Will, and Joe’s tenth birthday on the 11th of April.

The censuses in 1901 in both Ireland, and England were taken on the same day 31st March, though the forms in Midleton in Ireland were not filled in until the 12th April 1901. They show that Edith Hayes was in Ireland staying with the Coppinger family at Midleton Lodge, rather than with her brother and sisters at Ballyadam House, nearby. There could be any number of reasons for this, Pauline, and Rose Barry are both living at Ballyadam with only one servant, in a sixteen room house outside of town, whereas the Coppingers are in the middle of Midleton in a rather larger house, with four daughters aged between eleven and twenty-one, a governess, and seven servants. Quite simply, it may well be that life at Midleton Lodge was a bit livelier, and as the widowed mother of three youngish sons Edith was looking for a rest, and some adult company. In all likelyhood, the Coppingers were also likely to be cousins of some sort.

Both families, the Barrys, and the Coppingers were living in considerable comfort, compared to the majority of the population of Ireland at the time. The Coppinger house appeared to have 22 rooms, and 20 outbuildings including 6 stables, a coach house, harness room, three cow houses, a calf house, dairy, piggery, fowl house, boiling house, barn, and a workshop, shed, and store. The house had “16 windows at the front” , in fact from the look of it, five windows at the front in a good solid double fronted Georgian house that is now the local council offices. Just to give some idea of how mobile all the families were Thomas Stephen Coppinger says in the 1901 census that he was a 57 year old merchant, born in Lucca, Italy in 1842.

Ballyadam, by contrast, was marginally smaller with 16 rooms, and 9 stables, a coach house, a harness room, 2 cow houses, a calf house, 2 piggeries, a fowl house, boiling house, barn, potato house, and 2 sheds. The Barrys were also listed as the owners of two 2-room cottages, each with 2 outbuildings next door to Ballyadam House.

The family living in the smallest house, though still more than comfortably, were Cecil, and Mary Smith-Barry. In 1901 they were in Castlemartyr, co. Cork, in the second largest house in the village, with 10 rooms, “eight windows at the front” , two stables, and a coach house. It was a mixed marriage, with Cecil a member of the Church of Ireland, and Mary and the children Roman Catholic. They only had one servant with them though, twenty-three year old Julia Casey.

At the time, 1901, Worple Road was just round the corner from the All England Tennis and Croquet Club, until it moved to Church Road in 1922. The site became the sports ground for Wimbledon High School for Girls.

By 1911, Will had been gazetted into the Army, Gerry was at Beaumont College, in Windsor, and Joe was an “army student” boarding at Edge Hill Catholic College in Wimbledon. Edge Hill became Wimbledon College, and it was a third of a mile, or about five minutes walk from 132 Worple Road. Amongst Joe’s fellow students were Charles Joseph Weld, Thomas Joseph Weld, and Cecil Chichester-Constable, whose aunt Esther had married Stephen Grehan Junior in 1883, and was the mother of Major Stevie Grehan, (1896 -1972) whose memoirs of the First War are held, and documented in the Grehan papers at University College, Cork.

So, slightly curiously, both Joe Hayes, and Cecil Chichester-Constable were both related to the O’Bryen’s at Ernest O’Bryen’s generation. Joe, Will, and Gerry’s mother was his second cousin, and Cecil’s uncle, Stephen Grehan Junior, was also his second cousin. It’s all a very small world.

It is not entirely clear as to where all the Hayes boys went to school. Both Will and Gerry went to Beaumont, in Windsor, with Will going on to Sandhurst, before receiving his commission in 1911. Joe was just short of twenty years old when he was described as an “army student” at Edge Hill, so old to still be at school. He may well have been at Beaumont as well. It would be slightly odd to send two out of three boys to one school, and one to another.

Beaumont was certainly grand, being where it was on the edge of Windsor Great Park, it rapidly developed a claim to being the “Catholic Eton”, a tag at the school was “Beaumont is what Eton was: a school for the sons of Catholic gentlemen”, though similar claims have been made for Stonyhurst , Ampleforth, and the Oratory. Beaumont was one of three public schools maintained by the English Province of the Jesuits, the others being Stonyhurst, and St Aloysius’ College, Glasgow. To be fair to all of them, Stonyhurst has much the greatest claim, having been founded in 1593 at St Omer, in France to educate the sons of Catholics, who couldn’t get a Catholic education in Elizabethan England. None of the other three were founded until the C19th.

The family were still all very close, and in the 1911 census all the unmarried Barry siblings were at Ballyadam House, along with Edith’s eight year old daughter, Janet Babtie, who was the youngest of Pauline and William’s grandchildren. They had a couple of servant girls, and amusingly, Pauline claimed to be two years younger than she was ten years before, and Rose was a year younger.

Meanwhile Mary Smith-Barry had moved to a smaller house about ten miles away at Ballynoe, on the outskirts of Cobh. She is forty-five years old, and has been a widow for three years. The house is rented from her late husband’s cousin Lord Barrymore, who seems to own most of the village. Mary seems to be living quietly in the village with her daughters (Cecily) Nina who is now fifteen, and four year old Edith, and a nineteen year old servant girl.

To put things in perspective, when Cecil died in 1908, he left just over £ 5,000 [ the best current-day equivalent is £ 3.2m]. In the same year, The Old Age Pensions Act 1908 introduced a non-contributory pension for ‘eligible’ people aged 70 and over. The pension was 5 shillings a week, about half a labourer’s weekly wage, or £ 13 p.a. Cecil’s £ 5000 was the equivalent of three hundred and eighty four years of old age pension, so Mary, and the children, were hardly paupers.

Captain Richard Hugh Smith-Barry 1823-1894

September 14, 2016 WillLeave a comment

Captain Richard Hugh Smith-Barry is Mary Barry’s father-in-law. Mary Barry is William Henry, and Pauline Barry (nee Roche)’s daughter, probably the third daughter, and fifth, out of seven, children. The Smith-Barrys seem thoroughly respectable, apart from the fact that John Smith-Barry was born illegitimately in 1793, his father, James Hugh Smith-Barry was born in 1748, and James’s grandfather, James Barry, (1667-1748) was the 4th Earl of Barrymore

Richard Smith-Barry was born on 21 February 1823. He was the son of John Smith-Barry and Eliza Mary Courtenay. He married Georgina Charlotte Grey, daughter of Colonel J. Grey, on 18 April 1850, and died on 23 January 1894, at age 70. The family lived at Fota House, in co. Cork, and then Ballyedmond, which Richard inherited from his unmarried uncle, John Courtenay. Richard was the youngest of five siblings

James Hugh Smith-Barry b. 27 Jan 1816, d. 31 Dec 1856. (Father of Arthur Hugh SB 1843-1925-Lord Barrymore)
Anne Smith-Barry b. 14 Mar 1817 d. 8 Dec 1834 unmarried.
John Smith-Barry b. 25 Sep 1818 d. 9 Apr 1834 unmarried.
Captain Robert Hugh Smith-Barry b. 13 Jan 1820, d. 25 Apr 1849 unmarried.
Captain Richard Hugh Smith-Barry b. 21 Feb 1823, d. 23 Jan 1894

ballyedmond-entrance-front — Ballyedmond House, co. Cork

He was a Captain in the 12th Lancers, and a Justice of the Peace (J.P.), and Deputy Lieutenant (D.L.) for County Cork. He was also a J.P. in Hampshire. He was Admiral of the Royal Cork Yacht Club for a while, as was his eldest brother James Hugh Smith-Barry (1816-1856), the father of Lord Barrymore. He inherited Ballyedmond, in Midleton, County Cork, from his uncle John Courtenay. Richard’s mother was a member of the Courtenay family who owned Ballyedmond, and he inherited it from his unmarried uncle, John Courtenay.

Richard and Georgina Smith-Barry had five children;

Robert Courtenay Smith-Barry b. 19 Feb 1858. He died unmarried,at Bar View Strand, Youghal on 13th March 1930 and lived at Bar View, and Ballyedmond, County Cork,. His estate amounted to £ 57,091. 8s. 5d. in England.

Nina Mary Georgina Smith-Barry b. 15 Jun 1859. She married Major Thomas Henry Burton Forster in September 1885 and lived at Holt, Wiltshire, England. Guy Smith-Barry is the only son of Major Thomas Henry Burton Forster and Nina Mary Georgina Smith-Barry. He lived at Holt, and Ballyedmond, County Cork. His name was changed to Guy Smith-Barry when he inherited Ballyedmond from Uncle Robert. He was given the name of Guy Forster at birth. They also had a daughter Nina Georgina Mary, she marries Dennis George Darren Darley. Thomas Henry Burton Forster is curiously absent from the record but that could be just an army thing

Aileen Emma Smith-Barry b. 25 Apr 1861, d. 1948 married Godfrey Hugh Wheeler Coxwell-Rogers and lived at Dowdeswell Court, Lower Dowdeswell, Gloucestershire, England, and at Ablington Manor, Bibury, Gloucestershire. They have two children Florence Aileen Coxwell-Rogers b.17 Jan 1883, and Richard Hugh Coxwell-Rogers b. 10 May 1884. Also a spectacular divorce case in 1889, she says he gave her the clap, and regularly physically, and verbally, attacked her, he says she was shagging the vicar in a field in Gloucestershire…… Her petition seems to have been dismissed.

Cecil Arthur Smith-Barry b. 19 Oct 1863, d. 21 Nov 1908 married Mary Barry. Pauline Roche’s son-in-law. They had two daughters Cecily Nina b 1896, and Edith b 1907

Katherine Winifriede Smith-Barry b. 25 Oct 1868 died unmarried

James Hugh Smith Barry (1816-1856)

September 13, 2016 WillLeave a comment

This is one of a series of posts covering Pauline Roche’s (1835 -1894) marriage into the Barry family, and her daughter’s marriage into the related Smith-Barrys, and a look at where they all fit into both Irish, and British society. John Smith-Barry (1793-1837) was the grandfather of both Cecil Smith-Barry ( Pauline Barry[nee Roche]’s son in law, and also Arthur Smith-Barry, Lord Barrymore. In turn, John’s great-grandfather, James Barry, (1667-1748) was the 4th Earl of Barrymore.

When John Smith Barry (1793-1837) died in 1837, his eldest son, yet another James Hugh,[like his grandfather, James Hugh Smith Barry (1748-1801)] inherited the family estates at Marbury, in Cheshire, and Fota Island in co. Cork. James Hugh,died in 1856, aged forty years old, and the estates were inherited by his thirteen year old son, Arthur Smith-Barry (1843-1925).

James Hugh Smith-Barry (1816-1856) inherited both Marbury Hall, and Fota House on the death of his father in 1837. His mother’s family,the Courtenays, owned Ballyedmond, in Midleton, co. Cork, which was inherited in turn by Eliza Courtenay’s brothers, George, and then John. John Courtenay, who appeared to be unmarried, left Ballyedmond to his nephew [and James Hugh’s youngest brother] Richard Smith-Barry in 1861. He, in turn, leaves it to his son Robert Courtenay Smith-Barry [Cecil Smith-Barry’s eldest brother], who, in turn, leaves it to his nephew Guy Forster/Smith-Barry on his death in 1930.

The gardens at Fota were begun in 1825 when John Barry-Smith, commissioned Richard Morrison and his son Vitruvius to transform an old hunting lodge into his principal Irish residence. The Morrisons were responsible for the ancillary buildings and probably also helped with the garden layout and demesne park, whose surrounding walls and plantations were largely created at this time. The spreading lawns and Walled Garden, with its rusticated piers and wrought-iron gates, belong to John Barry-Smith’s time.

James Hugh Smith Barry had the formal gardens at Fota House laid out, and was responsible for creating the famous arboretum in the 1840s. He constructed the Fernery and the Water Garden by reclaiming a large area of boggy ground, and the Orangery and Temple soon followed. James Hugh disliked the damp climate, however, and spent much of his time away from Ireland, but his son Arthur who became the first (and last) Lord Barrymore devoted himself to Fota; with the help of his gardener William Osbourne, he laid the basis of the famous collection of trees and shrubs that it now contains. Lord Barrymore’s work was continued by his son-in-law and daughter, Major and Honourable Mrs Dorothy Bell, who continued planting here until the late 1960s, adhering faithfully to old gardening traditions.

marbury-hall-aerial-view — Marbury Hall, Cheshire

Around the same time that this work was being undertaken in Cork, he made the decision to carry out extensive changes to the buildings and parkland at Marbury. In the 1840s, using the services of Anthony Salvin as architect and James Nesfield as landscape gardener, the extended 18th century house was transformed in the style of a French chateau. Both Salvin and Nesfield were highly regarded nationally in their respective fields and were prolific in their work in England.

It was a slightly curious commission because Anthony Salvin seemed to specialise in re-modelling castles , and cathedrals. In 1835 he worked on Norwich Castle, the following year he repaired Newark Castle. and in 1845 In the early 1840s,he repaired Carisbrook , and Caernarvon Castles, and in the 1850’s, he restored the Salt, Wakefield, and the White Towers at the Tower of London,and the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. Following this he was instructed by Prince Albert to carry out work on Windsor Castle. In 1852 he also started work on the restoration of Alnwick Castle in Northumberland.

Salvin, also worked on Norwich, Durham, and Wells Cathedrals, and he also rebuilt the keep of Durham Castle for student accommodation, and worked on restoring Trinity College, Cambridge.

The re-modelling of Marbury cost £7,700 and housed his grandfather James Hugh Smith Barry (1748-1801)’s 1770’s valuable and grand collection. Marbury Hall apparently had elegant, spacious rooms, an impressive staircase and intricate plaster work, and according to the 1911 census return signed by Alice Knappett, the thirty eight year-old housekeeper, the house had 60 rooms. The house was demolished in 1968, and the grounds now form part of Marbury Country Park.

Lt.-Gen. James Barry, 4th Earl of Barrymore 1667- 1748

September 11, 2016 WillLeave a comment

Lt.-Gen. James Barry, 4th Earl of Barrymore was born in 1667. He was the son of Richard Barry, 2nd Earl of Barrymore and Dorothy Ferrar. The Barrys were descended from an ancient, somewhat impoverished, Irish family. His grandfather had died from a wound received at the battle of Liscarrol while fighting for the Royalists, and while Barry’s father had sat in James II’s Irish parliament of 1689, his elder half-brother Lawrence had been attainted for remaining in England. Possibly the family had wanted a foot in both camps until the result of the Revolution became clear. Once William III had emerged victorious Barry’s father took his seat in the Irish House of Lords in the parliament of 1692, and his half-brother signed the Irish Association in 1697.

James Barry married, firstly, Hon. Elizabeth Boyle, daughter of Charles Boyle, 2nd Baron Clifford of Lanesborough and Lady Jane Seymour, before 1703. He married, secondly, Lady Elizabeth Savage, daughter of Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers in June 1706. It was an advantageous marriage but they married without the knowledge or consent of her father, Lord Rivers, who was informed of the event by Sir Roger Bradshaigh, 3rd Bt., in August 1706. On 12 Aug. Bradshaigh added the more reassuring information that “I am told my Lord Barrymore has in present near £1,500, and I find he is generally well spoken of about the town and indeed seems more concerned for disobliging your lordship than those who have been most active in this affair”. He married, thirdly, Lady Anne Chichester, daughter of Maj.-Gen. Arthur Chichester, 3rd Earl of Donegall and Lady Catherine Forbes, on 12 July 1716 at St. Anne’s, Soho, London, England. He died on 5 January 1748. He was buried at Castle Lyons, co. Cork, Ireland.

battle_of_the_boyne — William of Orange, at the Battle of the Boyne 1690

James Barry’s military career started in 1689, as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the service of the army of William of Orange. It came to an abrupt and unexplained halt in 1693, though the dowry of £10,000 he received from his first marriage may have removed the necessity of military service. He succeeded to the title of 4th Earl of Barrymore, 9th Viscount Barry , and 22nd Baron Barry on 17 April 1699. After succeeding to the title, Barrymore was granted a pardon in March 1700 “for all crimes and offences by him committed against his Majesty”, though these crimes were not specified, and in March 1702 he purchased a regiment of foot for 1,400 guineas from his brother-in-law, Sir John Jacobs. He was Colonel of the 13th Foot between 1702 and 1715. The regiment was sent to Spain in 1704, and Barrymore spent much of the next few years on active service in the Peninsula, though he had sufficient leave in London to get married for a second time,in June 1706. Barrymore’s regiment remained in the Peninsula, however, and he returned to Spain.He fought in the Battle of Almanza on 25 April 1707, where he was taken prisoner.and in May 1709 he was captured at Caya, being exchanged in August that year and returning to England where he was promoted to lieutenant-general in January 1710.

He was the Tory M.P for Stockbridge between 1710 and 1713, and again from 1714 to 1715 .In December 1713, Jonathan Swift wrote to the Earl of Oxford that ‘the Earl of Barrymore’s friends say he would take it kindly to be made a privy councillor’ in Ireland, and the suggestion was acted upon the following January. He was invested as a Privy Counsellor in Ireland on the 29th January 1714. In 1715, he was arrested on suspicion of treason, but nothing was proven against him.

Following the Jacobite Rebellion in 1715, Barrymore was removed from the colonelcy of his regiment, though he was one of the few Tories retained on the Lancashire bench in the aftermath of the rebellion. He was also the Tory M.P for Wigan between 1715 and 1727, and again between 1734 and 1747, largely through property rights inherited from his second wife’s father, Earl Rivers. Lord Rivers, had died in 1712, his will making no mention of his only legitimate daughter, Lady Barrymore, and leaving his estates in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and Essex to his cousin, and the inheritor of the title, John Savage, a Roman Catholic priest, and after him to a natural daughter. Lord Barrymore at once challenged the settlement, and secured possession of Wardley in Lancashire and consequently control of the Rivers interest in the parliamentary constituency of Wigan. Barrymore secured his interest at Wigan in December 1714, and was returned for the borough at the 1715 election.

In the 1740s a disillusioned and elderly Barrymore was still active in Jacobite intrigue. He died on the 5th January 1748 in his eightieth year, the family interest at the borough of Wigan having been assumed by his son, Richard Barry

James Barry, had an infant son who died aged about one, with his first wife the Hon. Elizabeth Boyle who was the granddaughter of Richard Boyle, the 2nd Earl of Cork, and 1st Earl of Burlington.

He then had three daughters with Lady Elizabeth Savage

Charlotte who died as an infant in 1708,
Anne who died just after her marriage,
Penelope who married General Hon. James Cholmondeley. Penelope ended up as the heiress of her maternal grandfather, Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers, and after her divorce from James Cholmondeley in 1737, he kept the lot eventually leaving it to his great-nephew George Cholmondeley, 4th Earl of Cholmondeley.

James Barry, and Lady Anne Chichester, who was the daughter of Arthur Chichester (1666 – 1706), the 3rd Earl of Donegall, had two daughters, and four sons. James Barry was, at best, a year younger than his father-in-law. Their children were:

Lady Catherine Barry d. 1738 who appears to have been unmarried.
Lady Anne Barry d. 21 Mar 1758, married Walter Taylor
James Barry, 5th Earl of Barrymore b. 25 Apr 1717, d. 19 Dec 1751
Hon. Richard Barry c. 1720 – d. 23 Nov 1787 M.P for Wigan between 1747 and 1761, he married Jane Hyde, daughter and h. of Arthur Hyde of Castle Hyde, Ireland, in 1749. They had an infant son who died in October 1751, just over two years after their marriage.
Hon. Arthur Barry b. 1724, d. Oct 1770 unmarried
Hon. John Smith-Barry b. 28 Jul 1725, d. 1784

3rdearlofdonnegall — 3rd Earl of Donnegall

The children’s maternal grandfather, the Earl of Donegall was an Irish nobleman and soldier. He sat in the Irish Parliament called by William III in October 1692. Made a career in the English Army, and founded the 35th Regiment of Foot in Belfast in 1701, In 1704 he accompanied the regiment to fight in the War of the Spanish Succession in Spain, and was appointed Major General of Spanish forces. He was killed in action in 1706, at the siege of Barcelona, and was buried there.

The Smith-Barrys of Fota Island, co. Cork

September 2, 2016 WillLeave a comment

Pauline Roche (1835 -1894) has been part of the story for a while, she married William Henry Barry in 1857. I’m becoming increasingly sure that she helps place a lot of things into context. This is one of a series of posts covering her marriage into the Barry family, and her daughter’s marriage into the related Smith-Barrys, and a look at where they all fit into both Irish, and British society. Pauline Roche is Ernest O’Bryen’s first cousin

The Smith-Barrys seem thoroughly respectable, certainly by the time Mary Barry [Pauline and William Barry’s daughter] marries into the Smith-Barry family in the summer of 1894. This was shortly before the death of her mother in the autumn of the same year. Both the marriage, and death are recorded in the civil registration district of Midleton, in county Cork, so almost certainly happened at the family home at Ballyadam.

Lord_Barrymore_Vanity_Fair_31_August_1910 — Lord Barrymore, Vanity Fair, 1910

This extract from “Barrymore Records of the Barrys of County Cork from the Earliest to the Present Time, With Pedigrees. London:” published 1902 rather smugly describes Mary Barry as follows

“Mary, married Cecil Smith Barry, second son of Captain Richard Smith Barry, of Ballyedmond, and first cousin of the Hon. Arthur Hugh Smith Barry, P.C. [now Lord Barrymore];”

Arthur Smith-Barry was created a peer, as Baron Barrymore, of Barrymore in the County of Cork, in 1902 the same year the Barrymore Records were published. I think there is a fair element of snobbery at work here in claiming kinship with a peer of the realm. By the late 1890’s, the Smith-Barrys were still firmly part of Ascendancy society, landed, wealthy, and members of the Church of Ireland. Arthur Smith-Barry was a major land-owner. He had almost 13,000 acres in co. Cork, and co.Tipperary.

He was the owner of Fota House, in co.Cork, as well as the family’s estates in England, based around Marbury Hall in Cheshire. In 1901, he is maintaining a large household at 20 Hill Street, in Mayfair, with a butler, valet, governess, cook, five maids, two footmen, and a hall boy; about the same number that Lord Grantham kept in Downton. The slight difference being the Smith-Barry family consisted of Arthur, his wife Elizabeth, and their six year-old daughter Dorothy.

In a slight contrast, his first cousin Cecil, and Mary Smith-Barry were living in a reasonably sized house in Castlemartyr, Cork in 1901. They had ten rooms, and a couple of stables, and a coach house. The household comprised of Cecil, and Mary, their five year old daughter Cecily Nina, and a twenty three year old house and parlourmaid, Julia Casey. Ten years later, Mary had moved to a smaller house about ten miles away at Ballynoe, on the outskirts of Cobh. She is forty-five years old, and has been a widow for three years. The house is rented from her late husband’s cousin Lord Barrymore, who seems to own most of the village. Mary seems to be living quietly in the village with her daughters Cecily who is now fifteen, and four year old Edith, and a nineteen year old servant girl.

Arthur, by contrast, was ludicrously rich. Quite how he, and his family kept it all is quite astonishing. Fota House was sold, after his granddaughter’s death in 1975, to University College Cork, and is now part of the Irish Heritage Trust.

However the past history of the Smith-Barrys is rather more chequered than this rather respectable pedigree would lead us to expect. John Smith-Barry, Cecil and Arthur’s grandfather was born illegitimately in 1793; though to be fair to his father James Hugh Smith Barry (1748-1801), James lived openly with Ann Tanner, the mother of his children, and made arrangements for them to be legitimised, and to take his name, coat of arms, and to inherit. James S-B was even richer than Arthur Smith-Barry, and actually the source of much of Arthur’s money.

Following the death of his father John Smith Barry in 1784, James Hugh Smith Barry inherited Belmont Hall, in Cheshire, and continued to live there. Three years later, on the death of Richard Barry [his uncle] in 1787, James Hugh Smith Barry also inherited the family’s estates in Cork, and Tipperary, as well as the Marbury estate, in Cheshire, next door to Belmont. As a young man on the Grand Tour, between 1771-6, he travelled widely in Europe and the Middle East, borrowing large amounts of money and amassing a huge collection of ancient statuary, vases and paintings, mostly by Italian Masters, but he also had a couple of Van Dykes, I think a Reubens, and at least one Caravaggio.

James Hugh Smith Barry (1748-1801), may have lived openly with Ann Tanner, the mother of his bastard children, but at least he lived with them rather more respectably than his first cousin’s family. Richard Barry, 6th Earl of Barrymore (1745-1773) appears to be reasonable, but his children were about the most dissolute, feral people anyone could meet, and Richard Barry’s parents-in law, William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington and Lady Caroline Fitzroy were about as bad as their grandchildren.

William Barry and Pauline Roche’s children

August 28, 2016 WillLeave a comment

Pauline Roche (1835 -1894) has been part of the story for a while. But I’m becoming increasingly sure that she helps place a lot of things into context. This is one of a series of posts covering her marriage into the Barry family, and a look at where they fit into both Irish, and British society. I think it’s useful to list her children fairly plainly so I can link off it as I delve deeper.

William Henry Barry of Ballyadam, is William Barry, of Rockville’s grandson, and the husband of Pauline Roche. Pauline Roche is Ernest O’Bryen’s first cousin on her mother’s side. Her mother Jane is John Roche O’Bryen’s eldest sister. She is also his second cousin on her father’s side, because William Roche, Pauline’s father is their ( Jane and John Roche O’Bryen) first cousin once removed. So Pauline Roche’s children are EAOB’s second cousins on their maternal grandmother’s side, and third cousins on their maternal grandfather’s side

Lineage:

William Barry, of Rockville, Carrigtwohill, gentleman, fifth son of Edmond fitzGarrett Barry, of Dundullerick and Rockville, gentleman, according to his son, John, was born 1757, and died the 24th of January, 1824, aged sixty-seven years. He was married and had issue at the date of his father’s will, 30th March, 1783. His wife was Margaret, eldest daughter of James Barry, of Desert, in the barony of Barrymore, and county of Cork, gentleman, whose will is dated 21st November, 1793, but who died the 19th of November, 1793, aged sixty-five years, according to the inscription on his tomb at Ardnagehy. Said James Barry and his brother, Robert Barry, of Glenville, are mentioned in the will of Thomas Barry, of Tignageragh, gentleman, dated 16th November, 1778, and were his first and second cousins, and were great-grandsons of Edmund Barry, of Tignegeragh, gentleman, whose will is dated 22nd April, 1675, and whose father was Richard Barry, of Kilshannig, gentleman, son of John fitzRedmond Barry, of Rathcormac, Esq., and whose wife was a daughter of Thomas Sarsfield, of Sarsfield’s Court, an alderman of Cork, and a prominent Confederate Catholic in 1641. By his marriage with Margaret, eldest daughter of James Barry, of Desert, William Barry, of Rockville, had issue—eleven sons, and three daughters.

The ninth son was Patrick Barry.

The next extract comes from “Barrymore Records of the Barrys of County Cork from the Earliest to the Present Time, With Pedigrees. London:” published 1902

Patrick Barry, of Cork, gentleman, died 1861, having married Mary Anne, daughter of Stephen Murphy, of the city of Cork, draper, and had with an elder son, Stephen Barry, of H. M. Customs, Cork, and a daughter, Kate, who both died unmarried, a younger son, William Henry Barry, of Ballyadam, gentleman, J.P., who was heir to his uncle, Henry Barry, of Ballyadam, and was for many years postmaster of Cork. He married in 1857 Pauline Roche, only child of William Roche, son of Lawrence Roche, whose brother, John Roche, amassed great wealth during the French wars, and built Aghada House. John Roche’s only daughter, married to — O’Brien, of Whitepoint, Queenstown, J.P., left a daughter, who married her cousin, William Roche, and with her husband died shortly after the birth of their only daughter, Pauline, who was entrusted to the guardianship of her uncle, Dr. O’Brien, of Liverpool, and at marriage had a fortune of £7,000.

Only Edith, and Mary Barry, out of the seven brothers and sisters, marry. Both Edith’s husbands were Army Surgeons. Mary married into the Smith-Barrys of Ballyedmond. In a slightly curious irony, the Master of the Rolls who sat on Pauline Roche’s case in 1855 ( Sir Thomas Berry Cusack-Smith) married into the Smith Barry family, as did Pauline and William’s daughter Mary, making him( Sir Thomas) and Louisa Cusack-Smith, Mary Barry’s husband Cecil’s great-uncle and aunt. It’s a small, small world…

The issue of the marriage of William Henry Barry and Pauline Roche are from “Barrymore Records”:

(Patrick)Henry, born 1862; d. poss 1930, who appears to have been unmarried

William Gerard; born 1864; d. 1940 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, unmarried.

Pauline; prob born 1865 or b.1867 – d. after 1911; unmarried.

Edith,born probably 1863, but possibly as early as 1861, and possibly as late as 1866. She married Patrick Aloysius Hayes, surgeon-major H. M. Army Medical Department, and had three sons, William Hayes 1891 – 1918, J B (Joseph Barry )Haynes 1891?-1927, and Gerard Patrick Hayes? Will and Joe appear to be twins, according to the 1901 census, both aged 9, Gerard is a year younger at 8, so probably born in 1892. Patrick Hayes Senior died in Wimbledon on the 20th March 1900.

Edith then married Lieutenant General William Babtie V.C, as a widow in 1903, and had a daughter Janet born in 1905; and possibly a son George Patrick (Babtie??)

Mary, married Cecil Smith Barry, second son of Captain Richard Smith Barry, of Ballyedmond, and first cousin of the Hon. Arthur Hugh Smith Barry, P.C. [now Lord Barrymore];

Arthur Hugh Smith Barry was the elder son (and one of two sons and two daughters) of James Hugh Smith-Barry, 1816 -1856, who in turn was the eldest son of John Hugh Smith-Barry 1793 – 1837. Richard Hugh Smith-Barry 1823 -1894 was the youngest son (4 sons, 1 daughter) of John Hugh Smith-Barry 1793 – 1837, which makes him Cecil’s father, and Lord Barrymore’s uncle.

Cecil Arthur Smith-Barry b. 19 Oct 1863, d. 21 Nov 1908 married Mary Barry, so was Pauline Roche’s son-in-law. They had two daughters Cecily Nina b 1896, and Edith b 1907

Henrietta, b. 1873/4,unmarried

Kate. b 1879 unmarried.

Pauline Roche (1835 -1894)

August 27, 2016 WillLeave a comment

To recap briefly, she runs away from home in Bristol to Ireland in 1854, aged about eighteen. She takes her uncle, and guardian, John Roche O’Bryen to court, successfully gets her guardianship changed, and within two years of her court case has married into the Barry family. The Barrys, one way or another, trace themselves back to the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 1170’s, and in various ways have managed to hold on to land, and money, or both, since then. Their original seat was Barryscourt Castle, and they were given the land from Cork to Youghal, about 50 sq. km. One of the main tactics for keeping wealth in the family was marrying cousins, or through the use of marriage settlements, so Pauline’s marriage was unusual. Having said that, she was bringing the modern-day equivalent of about £ 7,000,000 to the marriage, which helps.

So Pauline is marrying into a junior branch of an old established Anglo-Irish family. It all tends to point to her having some established pedigree, as well as cold, hard, cash. At the risk of speculating, I think it may well turn out that in Pauline’s case, the cash, as we know, comes from John Roche, who is both her maternal great grandfather, and paternal great-uncle. The pedigree, is more speculative, but here goes. Henry Hewitt O’Bryen, Pauline’s maternal grandfather, is the grandson of Daniel O’Brien (1717-1758).

Murrough_O'Brien,_1st_Marquess_of_Thomond_KP,_PC_(1726-1808),_5th_Earl_of_Inchiquin_(1777-1800),_by_Henry_Bone — Murrough O’Brien,1st Marquess of Thomond (1726-1808)

Daniel O’Brien appears to be either a bastard son of William, the third Earl of Inchiquin, or potentially more likely, the bastard son of Charles O’Brien, William’s second son. Charles is rather curiously listed as died unmarried, rather than d.s.p. (died without issue). In Irish Pedigrees by John O’Hart; 1892, O’Hart lists an otherwise unlisted elsewhere, Donal, a fourth son of William O’Brien. I don’t think we are pushing things too far to consider William O’Brien bringing up his bastard grandson as part of the household. It’s interesting that another grandson of William’s, Murrough O’Brien, the 5th Earl of Inchiquin, and 1st Marquess of Thomond was reputed to have a bastard son Thomas Carter, the composer (1769 – 1800) who lived with him at Taplow Court in Berkshire

The Irish landed gentry had a much more relaxed attitude to illegitimacy than is perhaps now realised. Henry Hewitt O’Bryen and Mary Roche were staying at Fort Richard, in co. Cork when their first three children were born, and John Galwey, who owned Fort Richard, and their probable host, and Henry’s contemporary, fathered seven children illegitimately at Fort Richard, starting in 1814, before finally settling down and marrying fifteen years later. Father O’Connor, the parish priest, wrote ‘Bastard’ next to each of those names.

So, in Pauline Roche’s case, the cash comes from John Roche who “amassed great wealth during the French wars, and built Aghada House“. We know JR was a merchant, but little more. Ireland’s exports were predominately agricultural, with a fair proportion heading across the Atlantic to the West Indies, and West Indian goods returning, so there is a reasonable possibility of part of John Roche’s money being tainted by slave labour, though no actual evidence yet.

The pedigree is rather looser; quite possibly a link to the O’Bryens at Rostellan Castle. The Earls of Inchiquin, who later became the Marquesses of Thomond lived at Rostellan, which is about a mile away from Aghada, where John Roche had built his house in 1808. In a slight curiosity, both families started spelling O”Bryen with a “y” rather than an “i” at about the same time. We’ve considered the possible link to William O’Brien earlier. Henry Hewitt O’Bryen, Pauline’s maternal grandfather, was the son of Laurence O’Brien, and Jane Hewitt. Their marriage settlement refers to Laurence having a malt house, and the Hewitt family were brewers, and distillers. There is no firm evidence to link Jane Hewitt, and Henry Hewitt, her father, directly to the Hewitt brewing and distilling dynasty, but all the signs point in that direction. The Hewitts established a distillery in 1792, and ran it until 1864 when they sold it to the Cork Distillery Company who eventually evolved into Irish Distillers, now part of Pernod Ricard.

So Pauline’s maternal great, great, grandfather seems to be the bastard son of Irish aristocracy, and Old Irish at that. Topped up with strategic marriages that bring in money at each generation. The trustees and witnesses of the marriage settlement are significant. “John Sarsfield of the City of Corke Merchant & Richard Connell of the said City Esq” are the trustees of the settlement, “Francis Goold & Wm Galway, and Richard Townsend of Castle Townsend” are signatories to Laurence O’Brien’s indentures of leases. “Thomas Hardy of the City of Corke Gent & Matthew Thomas Hewitt of Castle Townsend aforesaid Esq.,” are the witnesses to the agreements.

William Henry Barry of Ballyadam, is William Barry, of Rockville’s grandson, and the husband of Pauline Roche. Pauline Roche is Ernest O’Bryen‘s first cousin on her mother’s side. Her mother Jane is John Roche O’Bryen‘s eldest sister. She is also his second cousin on her father’s side, because William Roche, Pauline’s father is their ( Jane and John Roche O’Bryen) first cousin once removed. So Pauline Roche’s children are EAOB’s second cousins on their maternal grandmother’s side, and third cousins on their maternal grandfather’s side. All fabulously complicated…….

Pauline Barry (nee Roche) had died in the autumn of 1894, aged fifty eight,or fifty nine, almost exactly a year before the death of her cousin Mgr. Henry O’Bryen. They were both born in 1835, Pauline was born in Rome, and Mgr. H.H. was born in Montpellier, and they were brought up together in his father/ her uncle’s household.

William and Pauline Barry’s children were: (there is more detail here)

(Patrick)Henry, born 1862; d. poss 1930, who appears to have been unmarried
William Gerard; born 1864; d. 1940 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, unmarried.
Pauline; prob born 1865 or b.1867 – d. after 1911; unmarried.
Edith,born probably 1863, but possibly as early as 1861, and possibly as late as 1866. Died 19??
Mary, born 18?? d. after 1911
Henrietta, b. 1873/4,unmarried
Kate. b 1879 unmarried.

Only Edith, and Mary Barry, get married, out of all seven brothers and sisters, . Both Edith’s husbands were Army Surgeons. Mary married into the Smith-Barrys of Ballyedmond. In a slightly curious irony, the Master of the Rolls who sat on Pauline Roche’s case in 1855 ( Sir Thomas Berry Cusack-Smith) married into the Smith Barry family, as did Pauline and William’s daughter Mary, making him( Sir Thomas) and Louisa Cusack-Smith, Mary Barry’s husband Cecil’s great-uncle and aunt. It’s a small, small world…

Edith has three sons with Patrick Hayes, and a son and a daughter with William Babtie.

Mary has two daughters with Cecil Smith-Barry.

Ballyadam House, the family home seems to be large. According to the 1901 Irish census it had 16 rooms, and the out-buildings listed are

9 stables
1 coach house
1 harness room
2 cow houses
1 calf house
2 piggeries
1 fowl house
1 boiling house
1 barn
1 potato house
2 sheds

A total of 24 outbuildings

In 1901 Pauline Barry is listed as the head of household at Ballyadam, and was living there with her sister (Henrietta) Rose and a servant, and she is also listed as the owner of 2 2-room cottages each with 2 outbuildings. In 1911, both Pauline, and Rose are still living there, and they have been joined by their younger sister Kate, and eldest brother Patrick, who is listed as the head of the household. There are two servants living in the house, and their six year old niece Janet Babtie is living with them as well.

In 1901, Cecil and Mary Smith-Barry were living in a reasonably sized house in Castlemartyr, Cork. They had ten rooms, and a couple of stables, and a coach house. the household comprised of Cecil, and Mary, their five year old daughter Cecily Nina, and a twenty three year old house and parlourmaid, Julia Casey. Ten years later, Mary has moved to a smaller house about ten miles away at Ballynoe, on the outskirts of Cobh. She is forty-five years old, and has been a widow for three years. The house is rented from her late husband’s cousin Lord Barrymore, who seems to own most of the village. Mary seems to be living quietly in the village with her daughters Cecily who is now fifteen, and four year old Edith, and a nineteen year old servant girl.

William Barry of Rockville (1757 – 1824) – children of

August 21, 2016 WillLeave a comment

William Henry Barry of Ballyadam is Pauline Roche’s husband, and one of the grandsons of William Barry, (1757 – 1824) of Rockville

By his marriage with Margaret, eldest daughter of James Barry, of Desert, William Barry, (1757 – 1824) of Rockville, had issue— in fact 11 sons, and 3 daughters. For such a fecund family, it’s curious that half were unmarried, or childless.

Edmund died in infancy.
James (1782 -1846) was married in 1818; to Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Barry, of Kilbolane. They had two sons, and two daughters, and only Anna Maria Barry married. She
married (1860) her cousin, Philip W. Creagh, solicitor, had issue— Captain James Wm. Joseph Creagh, born 18th Sept., 1863 : Philip William Creagh, veterinary surgeon, Fermoy, born 5th July, 1866; Eliza Mary Josephine, born 18th June, 1862, died 15th August, 1866
David of Barry’s Lodge, gentleman. He married Julia Geran of Mitchelstown. They had Richard, a unmarried son, who was a “gentleman rider” and died in 1899, and three daughters, only one of whom, Mary, married.
Edmond M.D., died unmarried soon after having taken out his degree.
Richard of Greenville, gentleman, married Catherine, eldest daughter of John Galwey, of Rocklodge, Monkstown, county Cork, and Doon, county Clare.
William lieut. R.N., son of William Barry, of Rockville, died unmarried.
Thomas gentleman married, about the 15th of November, 1829, Julia, daughter of Stephen Murphy, of the city of Cork, draper,
Garrett of Greenville, gentleman, J.P., owner of the famous racehorses Arthur and Waitawhile, died unmarried
Patrick of Cork, gentleman, died 1861, having married Mary Anne, daughter of Stephen Murphy, of the city of Cork, draper. Pauline Roche’s Father in law
John M.D., medical officer of the Carrignavar dispensary
Henry of Ballyadam, gentleman, barony constable of Barrymore, coroner of the east riding of the county of Cork, Belgian Consul for the port of Cork, Knight of the Order of Leopold, etc., married a Miss Mary Lynch, and died on the 16th of December, 1868, without issue. Henry left his estates to William Henry Barry, of Ballyadam, gentleman, J.P., who was heir to his uncle, Henry Barry, of Ballyadam, and was for many years postmaster of Cork. He is Pauline Roche’s husband
Johanna (1784 – 1873) and died unmarried.
Ellen second daughter of William Barry, of Rockville, married James Fitzgerald, of Castlelyons, gentleman, and had issue an only son, William Edmond Fitzgerald, who died unmarried in Australia.
Mary third daughter of William Barry, of Rockville, died unmarried.

Manchester – so much to answer for…….

August 17, 2016 WillLeave a comment

The_Massacre_of_Peterloo — The Massacre of Peterloo, 16th August 1819

One hundred and ninety seven years ago yesterday, between 60 – 80,000 people gathered on St Peter’s Field in Manchester at a meeting for parliamentary reform. The crowd was charged by the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry, and the 15th Hussars; between 10 and 20 people were killed and hundreds more injured in what quickly became known as the Peterloo Massacre.

The Manchester & Salford Yeomanry were a relatively inexperienced militia recruited from among local shopkeepers and tradesmen, a large number ran or owned pubs. For some reason, this came to mind .. “They smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs, and too many right wing meetings.”

The Manchester Observer had recently described them as “generally speaking, the fawning dependents of the great, with a few fools and a greater proportion of coxcombs, who imagine they acquire considerable importance by wearing regimentals” they were subsequently described as “younger members of the Tory party in arms”, and as “hot-headed young men, who had volunteered into that service from their intense hatred of Radicalism”.

They were also drunk.

Just after 1:00pm the Yeomanry received an order that the Chief Constable had an arrest warrant which he needed assistance to execute, and sixty cavalrymen of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry, led by Captain Hugh Hornby Birley, moved into the crowd. As they became stuck, they began to panic, and began to attack the crowd with their sabres.

At about 1:50 pm, Lieutenant Colonel Guy L’Estrange commanding the 15th Hussars arrived; he ordered them into the field to disperse the crowd with the words: “Good God, Sir, don’t you see they are attacking the Yeomanry; disperse the meeting!”

The 15th Hussars formed themselves into a line stretching across the eastern end of St Peter’s Field, and charged into the crowd. At about the same time the Cheshire Yeomanry charged from the southern edge of the field.

At first the crowd had some difficulty in dispersing, as the main exit route into Peter Street was blocked by the 88th Regiment of Foot, standing with bayonets fixed. One officer of the 15th Hussars was heard trying to restrain the, by now out of control, Manchester and Salford Yeomanry, who were “cutting at every one they could reach”: “For shame! For shame! Gentlemen: forbear, forbear! The people cannot get away!”

By 2:00pm the crowd had been dispersed, leaving eleven dead and more than six hundred injured.

Peterloo was hugely influential in ordinary people winning the right the vote; it led to the rise of the Chartist Movement, which in turn led to the formation of Trade Unions; and it resulted in the foundation of the Manchester Guardian newspaper.

freetradehallcard — Free Trade Hall, Manchester

Percy Bysshe Shelley was in Italy, and did not hear of the massacre until 5 September. His poem,“ The Masque of Anarchy”, subtitled “Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester” was sent for publication but not published until 1832, thirteen years after the massacre, and ten years after Shelley’s death.

The Free Trade Hall in Manchester, built to commemorate the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, was also partly built as a “cenotaph raised on the shades of the victims” of Peterloo. The land it was built on was given by Richard Cobden.

This isn’t really a shameless attempt to bring in the UK’s second greatest city (you can pretty much guess the gold medal winner), well it probably is. Ok, so, Manchester, one of the world’s great cities, along with London (obviously), Venice, Florence, New York, probably Glasgow………

Anyway, Sir Joseph Thackwell, GCB, KH, (1781 – 1858) commanded the 15th Hussars from 1820 to 1832. So he may well have been at Peterloo. It’s probably too much to hope he was the officer “trying to restrain the out of control Manchester and Salford Yeomanry”, but it is at least possible. But, a year after the massacre, he was in command of the regiment.

He was, later, a lieutenant general in the British Army. He had served with the 15th Hussars in the Peninsular War at Sahagún (1808) and Vitoria (1813), and lost his left arm at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He was promoted to a major at Waterloo, and made a brevet (honorary) lieutenant-colonel in 1817. So he was almost as senior as Lieutenant Colonel Guy L’Estrange, but didn’t out-rank him on the day. Guy L’Estrange does sound like one of Becky Sharpe’s conquests………..

But on the day, with a joint operation combining the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry, the Cheshire Yeomanry, and the 15th Hussars, he would have had equivalent rank to L’Estrange.

Joseph Thackwell commanded the 15th Hussars from 1820 to 1832. He then served in India, commanding the cavalry in the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838–39), the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars (1845–49). The reason for bringing this in to our story is that he had married Maria Audriah Roche, [eldest daughter of Francis Roche of Rochemount, County Cork (an uncle of Edmond Roche, 1st Baron Fermoy).] in 1825, and, more importantly, he bought Aghada Hall n 1853, and died there in April 1859.

So, Joseph Thackwell was the first person to own Aghada since John Roche had built it in 1808. The house had been in the Roche family for forty five years, but JR’s dream of creating a Roche dynasty, with a landed inheritance, had failed. Both male Roche heirs, his nephews’ James Joseph, and William, had died without male heirs. So the estate was sold with the beneficiaries being JJ, and William’s daughters.

Lady Thackwell [Maria A. Roche] shares a surname with John Roche, and his heirs, but is at best a tangential relation, and more likely no close relation at all. Her branch of the Roche family were neighbours of “our” Roches, substantial landowners in county Cork, important and influential, – Maria was a first cousin of the 1st Baron Fermoy; which coincidentally makes her the first cousin five times removed from Diana, Princess of Wales. But when it comes down to it, probably not much more than someone deciding – “you know that nice house down on Cork harbour, quite close to a lot of my family……… can we buy it?”

Peterloo also resonates in other parts of the story…… It’s a shocking, shameless, massacre. It is not defendable in any way. The crowd attendance was approximately half the population of the immediate area around Manchester. But it led to the Great Reform Bill of 1832, it led to the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 in part through the efforts of Richard Cobden, and, amongst others, his next door neighbour Sir Joshua Walmsley, – another character in our story.

But most of all, one hundred and ninety seven years on, we should doff our caps to the people of Manchester.