Timothy O’Donovan, Justice of the Peace, Durrus, and his Extended Family Network, The O’Donovans of Squince (Myross), The Clonakilty Deasys, a Survival of Catholic Gentry in the 18th and early 19th century in West Cork

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eq_IayaxdUyWZWbpDf6LWlLNg7o-3tNJiqPGYIALy80/edit?tab=t.0

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15U1K6eXyU9zuFc9YPh2ZBCnV9FJmaJrEsYTUx7Do9QU/edit?tab=t.0

Dr. Daniel O’Donovan M.D., Edinburgh. 1818, Norton Cottage, Skibbereen, listed 1838, son Richard Esq. O’Donovan Cove, and Jane d Alexander O’Donovan, Squince.  Fond of dogs.  Brother of Timothy and Richard O’Donovan J.P. and uncle of Richard O’Donovan J.P..  Daniel O’Donovan MD has land in Knockeens, Glanroon in Griffiths.  Rented Ahakista Cottage from Charles Evanson. On the 14th August 1846, at Lee View, Cork, the residence of the Lady’s father William Harrington, Druggist, Daniel O’Donovan, M.D., J.P. Ahakista, Agnes, eldest daughter of William.  Subscriber at Woodview, Lewis Topographical Dictionary of Ireland  1837.  1850 His boat was involved in the rescue of Mountaineer at Dunmanus Bay at O’Donovan’s Point.  Buried in Harrington tomb.

Richard O’Donovan 1818, Fort Lodge, Durrus listed 1838, son Richard Esq. O’Donovan Cove, and Jane d Alexander O’Donovan, Squince.  Father of Richard O’Donovan J.P. History  Brother of Timothy and Dr. Daniel O’Donovan J.P.  He married Maria O’Sullivan on the 15^th October 1833Her father was Murty Og, of Ceimatringane House, Castletownbere. She died at Fort Lodge, aged 52. In the summer of 1847, when the Dublin Poor Law Commission published guidelines for the distribution of aid to people outside the workhouse (‘Outdoor Relief ’), the elected Guardians, all with the exception of Richard O’Donovan, vetoed  a raise in rates for this purpose. As a result of the Board’s ‘duties not being effectively discharged’, the Poor Law Commission (PLC)  dissolved the entire Board in October 1847.20.  He voted in 1850 for Denis Galwey as High Constable for Ibane and Ballyroe (Clonakilty). Lease Richard O’Donovan, Magistrate,  of Glanlough, Cork Esq. and Francis Lisabe of Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, civil engineer, of a slate and a flag quarry, and 2 acres of land near the slate quarry in Gouladoo in the parish of Kilcrohane, West Cork, 6th Feb. 1854, Solicitor Desmond, Son-in-Law of John Jagoe, Fishery Commissioner and father of Mother Beninga Townsville, Australia. Member election committee 1865 George Barry Cork, Liberal,  County Election Committee. Land record, in Chancery as ‘Donovan’ 1870, 205 acres. Land record, Carrigboy,1870, 193 acres. Member election at Ahakista committee McCarthy Downing, Skibbereen, 1868.  1879 bequest in will of Rickard Donovan, Clerk of the Peace and Crown, Co. Cork, to Mary O’Donovan, of Blackrock near Cork daughter of the late Rickard O’Donovan, of Fort Lodge near Bantry.Timothy O’Donovan (1790-1874), 1818, O’Donovan’s Cove, in ruins 1875, Durrus, listed 1823, son of Richard Esq. and Jane d Alexander O’Donovan, Squince. 1820.  Memorial to Lord Lieutenant William Swanton, Gortnagrough, Ballydehob, West Cork. High Constable (Rate and Tax Collector), Barony of West Carbery For Relief on Losses Caused to Him in Banking Collapse when He had transmitted Due Amount to Co. Treasurer, Leslies, Stephen and Roches Bank, Supported by Lord Bantry and Magistrates Timothy O’Donovan (Durrus), William Hull (Schull), Richard Townsend (Skibbereen), Rev. Edward Jones Alcock (Durrus), Nathaniel Evanson (Durrus), Robert Kenny (Bantry).  In 1823 he applied for relief of the poor of Ballydehob, which he had founded. Present at enquiry Skibbereen 1823 into enquiry into fatal affray at Castlehaven caused by Rev. Morritt’s tithe extraction. Correspondent with Antiquarian Dr. John O’Donovan re O’Donovans of Carbery.  Brother of Dr O’Donovan and Richard O’Donovan J.P. and uncle of Richard O’Donovan J.P.. His son’s wife is the granddaughter of Daniel O’Connell, the mother of his wife was Miss Lavellan, Co. Limerick, a daughter of Philip Lavellin of Water Park, Carrigaline.  in the Co. of Cork.  Her sister was married to Mr. Puxley of Dunboy Branch. The grandson the present (1860) Mr. Puxley is a man of immense wealth and the principal owner of the famous Allihies Mines in the Barony of Bere.  Signed public declaration in Skibbereen to Alexander O’Driscoll on his removal as Magistrate 1835 with Lord Bantry, Simon White, John Puxley, Arthur Hutchins, Thomas Baldwin, Samuel Townsend Junior and Senior, Thomas Somerville, Richard Townsend Senior, Rev. Alleyn Evanson, Richard Townsend, Lyttleton Lyster. 1835 Subscriber Lewis Topographical Dictionary of Ireland 1837.  In 1838 in the Liberal interest where at Bantry voter registration 15 were registered as opposed to 6 ‘Orangemen’ the tenants of Timothy O’Donovan J.P. were chiefly among those who registered.  Among these were probably McCarthys of Tulig later prominent in Nationalist politics of whom John McCarthy (1859-1931) became a leading politician  in Nebraska and wrote a poem in praise of Timothy O’Donovan.  Attended Great Meeting in Bantry 1840 re Poor Laws.  Chaired 1846 distress meeting Bantry on the proposition of Father Michael Barry PP Bantry.  Landlord and political organiser. Member Election Committee, Rickard Deasy, Clonakilty (later Attorney General) 1855  Member election committee McCarthy Downing, Skibbereen. 1857 Vice Chairman of Bantry Union.  Juror Cork Spring Assizes 1863. Member election committee 1865 George Barry Cork, Liberal,  County Election Committee.   Land record, 1870, Kate O’Donovan, O’Donovan’s Cove, 1,940 acres and Reps Timothy O’Donovan 1,940 acres. 1874, Death at 85 of Timothy O’Donovan, J.P., Esq, O’Donovan Cove, Durrus, West Cork, The Last Survivor of the Ancient House of O’Donovan Bawn or Clann Cahill, Justice of the Peace since 1818 Probate to daughter Mrs Anne Barry, widow, effects £2,000, attended 8, Grand Jury Presentments

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William O’Sullivan Esq., Carriganass Castle, John Edward Barrett , Kealkil, Bantry.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DfY6LtHGH1thZeYqY3lhch9EmrjBkW4l/edit

Son of William O’Sullivan, Senior

William O’Sullivan Junior, TCD, B.L., (1818-pre 1854), Carriganass Castle, Bantry.   1850.  On recommendation of the Earl of Bandon superseded after two days. Called to the Bar 1844.  William O’Sullivan presumably Junior  and John Shea Lalor also a lawyer  were arrested outside Killarney, pistols in hand.  They were bound to keep the peace  when the casus belli arose at a Relief Committee meeting.  They were both on the Bantry Relief Committee in 1847.He did not practise and presumably was engaged in land management on behalf of his father 1847 seizing cattle at Scart, Bantry for alleged overdue rent to his father William  Esq., with Daniel, John and Cornelius Manning and Eugene and Stephen Sullivan he was imprisoned for 3 months and fined £20 for assault.  Assisting 1848 Henry J. Fawcett, Practical Instructor on Husbandry of Visit to Bantry, father’s land being drained.   Prosecuted in Cork for criminal libel.  His married John Edward Barrett who took over the estate.  Father acquired the Cariganass estate from David Mellefont, Donemark in 1817.  By the time of his fathers will in 1854, he was dead, the will made modest provision for William Juniors  illegitimate son.

,Click here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N5_IroPG-qS26s09XRXoSHlRN1IodY0fR34MSm6CHis/edit?tab=t.0

1882 Aftermath of Bantry District Evictions

West Cork Eagle, P. 2

Marquess of Waterford presumably in the British House of Lords  Prevention of Crime (Ireland) Act. p. 6

Landlord and Magistrate Robert Hedges Eyre White, p. 8

Bantry White Estate, p. 9

Richard White,  p. 9

The eviction related prosecution were dealt with by the Resident Magistrate under the   Prevention of Crime Act 1847, Edward Bayly Warburton (1823-1888), p. 9

Other local Magistrates sitting

John Edward Barrett, p. 10

William Symms Bird, p. 13

John Warren Payne Shears or John Warren Payne, p. 13

Solicitors for Defendants

John G. McCarthy, p. 15

Joseph J. Healy, p. 15

By 1910 all was changed changed utterly

Re the transfer of Land, the Irish Land commission transferred nearly 14.5 million acres from the Landed Estates to the tenant almost 70% of the landmass of the Island of Ireland.

By my reckoning this was probably the largest voluntary land transfer in world  history.  It was motivated by the concept of killing Home Rule by Kindness. 

From around 1895 if the Estate was willing to sell the Land Commission offered market value with a premium of 25% for selling on a voluntary basis.  By that time most estates were distressed and they were only too willing to sell.

James Gilhooly (1847-1916) , Pre 1910, Main St., Bantry, son Peter, coast guard officer. Born Bantry, draper, MP for West Cork since 1885, J. Warren Payne, Stood as Conservative in West Cork Constituency General Election 1885 got 373 (9%) of the  votes his opponent James Gilhooley Irish Parliamentary Party got 3,920 votes (91%). Imprisoned five times. 1882 Stewart Bantry Regatta. He was one of the Bantry Band and a Westminster MP throughout the Parnell period and then John Redmond’s leadership. He spent time in prison. There is  an Address from the Inhabitants of the Bantry District presented to him on his release from prison, approving of his conduct leading to his imprisonment. 1895 Seeking assistance for widespread distress Durrus, Kilcrohane. Signed Requisition 1905. Cork Junction Railway Bill.  Requisition to the Right Honourable The Earl of Bandon K.P., to Call a meeting for the purpose of Approving the Cork Junctions Railway Bill.A member Bantry RDC, Co. Council 1910, m Mary d Jeremiah Collins, Kilbarry, Dunmanway, 5 children. 1892 attending the funeral of Jane Dillon nee Roycroft (1843-1892).  Attending the funeral Bantry 1899 of Miss O’Connor of merchant family.

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Full list of delegates:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/186BUgwJdmvib4ojOHp8Y3cmbPcgm7IXZb5zsbM8z49w/edit?tab=t.0

From:

Continuing our journey around Ireland, this blog from Dr Stephen Ball, of our House of Commons 1832-68 project, looks at politics in the small boroughs of county Cork, where competition between the rival parties encouraged a vibrant political culture, but also prompted sectarianism, bribery, violence and coercion.

The county of Cork was widely referred to as ‘the Yorkshire of Ireland’, due to its extent, wealth and resources. However, under the Irish Reform Act of 1832, Ireland’s largest county returned just eight MPs, compared to Yorkshire’s 37, although the latter was barely twice as populous. Half of Cork’s parliamentary representatives were elected by the four single-member boroughs of Youghal, Bandon, Kinsale and Mallow. The principle that the reformed House of Commons was designed to represent specific and distinctive ‘interests’, rather than numbers, is amply demonstrated by the fact that whereas in 1831 the population of the two-member County Cork constituency was 700,366, and that of the city of Cork, which also returned two MPs, was 107,000, the population of Youghal was only 9,820, that of Bandon, 9,608, Mallow, 7,100 and Kinsale, 6,897. While the county boasted 13,351 electors in 1851, Kinsale had only 139, and Youghal, the largest of the one-member boroughs, 261. However, defenders of the reformed system argued that the continued enfranchisement of such boroughs was justified because they each represented distinct social, economic and political interests, and allowed a diverse mixture of oligarchic and popular influences to decide their own representation in Parliament.

Regarded as the county’s second town, Youghal was a busy seaport on the estuary of the river Blackwater. The pre-reform constituency had been controlled by the corporation and freemen under the influence of the town’s main landowner, the Duke of Devonshire. The Irish Reform Act expanded the electorate and consequently increased the influence of the town’s merchants, shopkeepers, artisans and publicans, making the constituency a hotbed of local politics. The curbing of the duke’s Whig influence after 1832 created opportunities for the Irish popular interest, but also raised the possibility of electoral success for organised popular Conservatism. Consequently, sectarian rivalry, intimidation and corruption were features of the borough’s seven contested elections. Daniel O’Connell’s son, John, defeated the Conservatives on the Repeal interest at the 1832 and 1835 elections, during which the town was, according to the future Chartist leader, Feargus O’Connor, frequently in ‘a state of siege’. His father’s compact with the Whigs meant that O’Connell stood aside in 1837 and at the next two general elections the duke’s nominee held off Conservative challengers before suffering defeat at the hands of another Repealer in 1847. The collapse of the repeal campaign and a loss of confidence in the Whig ministry allowed Isaac Butt to win the seat for the Conservatives in 1852. Despite moving away from orthodox Conservatism as he became increasingly critical of Ireland’s fate under the Union, Butt held Youghal until 1865, when he was easily beaten by a wealthy Liberal banker, who in 1868 was defeated by an ‘heroically corrupt’ London merchant.

Known as the ‘Derry of the South’, Bandon was Cork’s next largest borough. A handsome market town founded by the first Earl of Cork as a plantation settlement in 1610, it had served as a rallying point for Williamite forces in 1689. Its once thriving linen industry had declined by the 1820s, but the town still contained leather works, flour mills and distilleries. A ‘rotten borough’, it had been controlled by a close corporation under the Earl of Bandon before the Irish Reform Act increased its electorate from 13 to 266. Of these 70 were resident freemen who propped up the Conservative interest. Despite being only one third of the population by the 1860s, Protestants, including a substantial number of Orangemen, made up almost three-quarters of the electorate. They were efficiently organised, and the Whig influence of the absentee Duke of Devonshire could not compete with that of the staunchly Protestant and constantly resident Earl of Bandon, whose family dominated the representation until 1868. The Liberals contested six often disorderly and violent elections but could make no headway against the Bandon interest, whose agents were was not above plying Devonshire’s tenants with drink to secure their votes, as some of them were polled with the fumes of the previous night’s ‘debauch still thick upon them’.

Click here:

West Cork Flax, Linen, Textiles.k here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u0vIz1nxG34pJua7qC7jtTCKWLjwVY81jSl0usPdojk/edit?tab=t.0

West Cork Flax, Linen, Textiles, p. 2

1783, Linen Spinners, Co. Down., p. 9

Linen Board, p. 12

Rev. Horatio Townsend (1810), survey, p. 13

1650s, Richard Brockelsby, clothier, Cork persecuted as Quaker d 1696, p. 15

Cork linen Probates, p. 15

Miscellaneous records from 1732, p. 16

Bantry/Beara from  1796, p. 18, 24, 29

1783, Cork Election List of Freemen voters, many from the county

1835.  1st Report From His Majesty’s Commission For Inquiring Into the Condition of The Poorer Classes in Ireland, p. 26

1841 Effects of Cotton, Calico, British Competition. Evidence of William Crooke Esq., Macroom, to 1841 Enquiry on Land, p. 27

1853 Local Loan Reproduction Records, Schull, p. 32

Lord Bandon was an enthusiastic exponent of flax growing in the 1860s, p. 32

Census Extracts, p. 33

1829 Census Inchigeela p. 34

Bandon Clothiers Weavers collapse to trade, p. 39

1790 Coqueberts Irish Visit Bandon, p. 60

Adderly Innishannon, p. 61

Bandon Cotton Manufacturers, p. 85

Duke of Devonshire Estate Correspondence re weavers, p. 85

1830 Distress in Bandon. Number of Active Looks Dropped from 1,200 to 200. Deplorable State of the Cotton Trade. One sixth of Bandon’s Population in Destitution, p. 89

1851 Innishannon Encumbered estates Sale p. 101

Thomas, ‘The Industrialist’ Adderley Innishannon, p. 108

Bantry p. 116

Bantry, Durus 1937 School Folklore Project, p. 131, 408

Flax meitheals, p. 134

Clonakilty, p. 138, 158

Call for revival of flax industry this was probably Written by Eamonn O’Neill, Kinsale TD, 1945, p. 200

1954 flax pays, p. 240

Drimoleague, p. 240, 307

Dunmanway, Richard Cox, p. 263

Kinsale, p. 282

The Kinsale Cloak, p. 292

Skibbereen, p. 295

Using Linen Thread for Candles, Weaving, p. 305

Flax Ponds, p. 307

World War 2, p. 307, 340, 341

Early history, estates, p. 318

Innishannon from Bishop Pocock Tour, 1752., p. 325

The Linen and Flax Industry in Dunmanway, West Cork, Fines for Steeping Flax in the River Bandon and other Rivers , 1835, p. 330

American Civil War, 1864, p. 333

World War 1 Mills, p. 340

Flax Growing 1796, p. 343

Flax Growers of Ireland, 1796 – County Cork, high concentration in Clonakilty/Drinagh/Dunmanway area, spinning wheel premium list p. 344

Exports of Cloth from Cork,1683-1777, p. 398

Distribution of Flax, Ireland, 1796, p. 400

Loom.p. 403

Exports of Linen 1791, p. 406

Fishing Nets., p. 407

Samuel Vickery (1832-1912) Reminiscences to his Daughter Martha Ellen, Evansville, Indiana, USA, Childhood in Rooska, Parish of Durrus and Reendonegan, Bantry, West Cork, p. 408

Flax Acreage Co. Cork, 1939-1945, p. 411

Gírle Guairle, from Dineen Irish Dictionary, 415

Clonakilty Linen Hall 1817  p. 415

Richard  S. Harrison on Flax in West Cork, p.  416

The Sealy, Cornwall and Allin Families, Merchants and Bandon Gentry, Catherine Fitzmaurice, 2017, 422