1850, Cork Consistory (Probate/Matrimonial) Court, Vice-Chancellor (Judge) Venerable Samuel Kyle, Holder of Multiple Benefices and Sinecures, Non Resident in London Registrar, Barrister, Mr. Henry Stopford Kyle, Work done by Deputy, All Proctors Protestant, Case of Intestate Alexander McCarthy, Butter Merchant Intestate and the Ursuline Convent.
Te Consistory Court’s jurisdiction probably went back to Norman times. In Ireland the complication was that the State Church, the Church of Ireland until 1870 represented a minority, the Irish Protestants of the Anglican tradition. The Court was abolished for civil purposes and probate transferred to an all Ireland institution, the Probate Office in the Four Courts in 1867, where it still operates at Phoenix House.
All the Consistory Court records some Wills going back to 1535 were destroyed in the loss of the Public Records Office in 1922.
The Rev Kyle was examined by a Parliamentary enquire and this is reproduced here.
The Rev. Kyle was clearly at a loss as to how his court, one of the few in Ireland well run, was subject to this line of questioning. The tectonic plates had shifted, as reflected in the line of questioning. Enclosed here are details of the personnel of the Court and Dinny Lane’s (Barrister, Businessman, Jailed United Irelander) lampoon on the Rev. Kyle:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FWBV3gRAeVpYqD5Nlq9j4by9xQGww9Y141pT1mZshpA/edit
The references to Miss McCarthy and the Ursulines in the enquiry is the case of Alexander McCarthy, an intestate Cork butter merchant. He died leaving £80,000 probably the equivalent of €100 million nowadays. Leaving no will, the McCarthy sons, not being happy with their share, commenced an action against the Ursuline Convent in Blackrock where their sister was a nun. Their father had given the convent £1,000 as her dowry. For someone of social status the norm was £400 but he also wanted some form of schooling for the poor. The case went from the Consistory Court all the way to the House of Lords in London. That Court finding for the brothers on the ground that Sister McCarthy did not have a legal personality as she was some kind of dupe to the Reverend Mother. The case caused outrage in Cork in Catholic circles.
Apart from these immediate family issues, it throws up the staggering wealth of the Catholic merchants. In the mid 18th century the provisioning trade to the Colonies and to the British Army and Navy was controlled by the Hoares, Hares (Later Lord Listowel) and various Quaker House of Pike, Beale, Penrose. By 1800 the bulk of the trade lay with the Catholic Houses of McCarthy, Callaghan, Fagan, Sugrue, Daly and others. They also took advantage of their Continental networks. The most remote townland in West Cork was involved in this trade of butter, pigs and cattle. Daniel O’Connell in Parliament gave evidence in 1828 stated that the bulk of the deposits and shareholdings at the Bank of Ireland was held by Catholics, having ben debarred by the Penal Laws from land.
The Rev Kyle said the all the Proctors were Protestant as well as the Advocates. However at least two senior Catholic Barristers Joseph Scannell and Francis Walsh appeared regularly.
Cork Lawyers:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mMDGaZCW9Z6Cq_C_gwm_FB2orzTe2WxR0WcLXjZZO40/edit
West Cork History 