James Hugh Smith-Barry – Forgotten Victorians

Arthur Hugh Smith-Barry 1843-1925

September 28, 2016 WillLeave a comment

Lord_Barrymore_Vanity_Fair_31_August_1910 — Lord Barrymore from Vanity Fair in 1910

Arthur Hugh Smith-Barry, 1st Baron Barrymore, PC (17 January 1843 – 22 February 1925), was an Anglo-Irish Conservative politician.

He was the son of James Hugh Smith Barry, of Marbury, Cheshire, and Fota Island, County Cork, and his wife Eliza, daughter of Shallcross Jacson. His paternal grandfather John Smith Barry was the illegitimate son of James Hugh Smith Barry, son of the Hon. John Smith Barry, younger son of Lieutenant-General The 4th Earl of Barrymore (a title which had become extinct in 1823) He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.

Smith-Barry entered Parliament as one of two representatives for County Cork in 1867, a seat he held until 1874. Smith-Barry remained out of the House of Commons for the next twelve years but returned in 1886 when he was elected for Huntingdon, and represented this constituency until 1900. He was also High Sheriff of County Cork in 1886 and was tasked by Arthur Balfour to organise landlord resistance to the tenant Plan of Campaign movement of the late 1880s. He was sworn of the Irish Privy Council in 1896. In 1902 the Barrymore title held by his ancestors was partially revived when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Barrymore, of Barrymore in the County of Cork.

Smith-Barry played two first-class cricket matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club, playing once in 1873 and once in 1875.

Lord Barrymore married firstly Lady Mary Frances, daughter of The 3rd Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, in 1868. After her death in 1884 he married secondly Elizabeth, daughter of U.S. General James Wadsworth and widow of Arthur Post, in 1889. There were children from both marriages, a son from the first, and a daughter from the second. Lord Barrymore died in London in February 1925, aged 82, and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. His only son James had died as an infant in 1871 and consequently the barony became extinct on Barrymore’s death. The Irish family seat of Fota House was acquired by his daughter from his second marriage, the Hon. Dorothy Elizabeth Bell (1894–1975), wife of Major William Bertram Bell. Lady Barrymore died in May 1930.

On the death of Arthur Hugh Smith Barry in 1925, the estates, which were entailed, passed to his brother James Hugh Smith Barry and on his death it passed to James Hugh’s son Robert Raymond Smith Barry. In 1939 the estate of Fota Island and the ground rents of areas was acquired by Arthur Hugh’s daughter, The Hon. Mrs. Dorothy Bell for the sum of £31,000. On her death, in 1975, it was left to her daughter Mrs. Rosemary Villiers, and Fota House is now the property of The Irish Heritage Trust.

Captain Richard Hugh Smith-Barry 1823-1894

September 14, 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.

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.