.,,

1845 Skibbereen Petty Sessions., 2 Starving Little Brothers. Half Fed Half Clad.  Sentenced to 10 Days Imprisonment in Cork County Gaol for Having a Few Bundles of Withered Furze and a Few Rotten Sticks At  the Prosecution of the Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald Stephens Townsend Brother and Heir at Law Of The late Colonel John Townsend, Castletownshend

This behaviour seems at odds with the family history of him being a benevolent landlord. Prosecution possibkly by his local agent Marmion.

Reverend Maurice FitzGerald Stephens Townsend (231)

Date of Birth:	7 May 1791
Date of Death:	21 Mar 1872
Generation:	6th
Residence:	Thornbury and Castletownshend
Father:	Richard Boyle Townsend [219]
Mother:	Newenham, Henrietta
Spouse:	Shute, Alice Elizabeth
Issue:	Henry John [251] Geraldine Henrietta [252] Alice Gertrude [253]
See Also:	Table II ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors’ Tree ; Descendents’ Tree

Notes for Reverend Maurice FitzGerald Stephens Townshend DL JP. See also.

Married 16 May 1826. Alice Shute (1) was the only daughter of Henry Richmond Shute (d. 25 Nov 1855) of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire. Three years before her marriage Alice had inherited her uncle Henry Stephens’ estate at Chavenage, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, when he died in 1823 without issue (2). Maurice assumed by Royal License the additional name of Stephens on 27 January 1827 as reported in the London Gazette and ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’ Volume 97 Part 1.

Maurice was educated at Westminster and Christ Church Oxford, where he read classics, at the same time as his brother Abraham Boyle Townsend [233]. In a letter (3) dated June 29th 1810 to ‘Mrs Townsend, 8 Montague Square, London’, Maurice’s tutor, Mr Frederic Ricketts, wrote “I am just come from Maurice’s examinations and although I have but little time at my disposal I cannot resist giving you some account of him…..If there is a point to be spoken of with less commendation than the others, it is the grammatical part of his knowledge. But as I said before he did on the whole very fairly. He is in my room at the moment as merry and contented as possible. Both he and Boyle are in high health.”

In the summer of 1810, whilst still at Oxford, Maurice and his brother, Abraham Boyle Townsend [233], went out to Portugal to see their brother John Townsend [230] – known to them as Jack, then a Lieutenant in the 14th Light Dragoons serving under the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsula Campaign. Letters (4) home from Maurice describe the good life of Lisbon – “Lisbon is so delightful a place I should like to stay here the rest of the winter”; “The ladies in Lisbon are delightfully pleasant and rather pretty but the men are the most uncultivated stupid, dirty, lazy, ugly bears I ever met.” In a letter to his mother from Lisbon dated September 29th 1810 Maurice said that he and ‘Boyle’ should return to Oxford for the Michaelmas term. However, the good life of Lisbon was clearly too tempting for Maurice later wrote to seek leave of absence for the term which was granted. Other letters to his mother tell of Jack being “in high health and spirits” but very frustrated that he did not yet have his own troop (5). In his last letter from Lisbon dated Saturday December 15th 1810 he wrote “I heard of Jack yesterday from Charles Syng, he is very well and has done one of the most gallant things that has as yet been done in Portugal – namely he with eight of his men surprised and brought home as prisoners fifty French troopers, it has been the talk of the town these last four or five days”..

Maurice went to Paris to meet his brother John after his release from captivity in Pau, and wrote home on 1st July 1814 from the Hotel Versailles saying that they were in high spirits and that “Jack would write but has sprained his thumb in an attempt to thrash me….We dined all of us with Walsh’s sister and had a most delightful grub”.

Having graduated (6) Maurice spent much of his time in his early years in London. He was a member of Almack’s and is reputed to have danced there in the first quadrille ever performed in England.

It is not known when he was ordained but The Clergy of the Church of England Database records that Maurice was appointed on 12th September 1823 as Vicar, St Mary’s Parish Church, Thornbury, Gloucestershire.  A letter dated 10 January 1824 in the archives of Christ Church Oxford shows that Maurice was settling into his new vicarage and was involved in “all the horrors of painting and furnishing.”  He was beginning to collect the Great Tithes owed from the year before when his predecessor died.  Maurice commented that he was getting to know his parishioners and that many of them were Dissenters of all kinds but not Roman Catholics. He lived at 11, Castle Street, Thornbury and remained at St Mary’s until his death in 1872.

According to An Officer of the Long Parliament Maurice was an accomplished classical scholar with a great wit and, like his father, had a most retentive memory. In 1844 Joseph Leech wrote ‘Rural Rides of the Bristol Churchgoer’ which described a trip to Thornbury at Christmas to attend the service at St Mary’s.  He gave a brief description of Maurice and his sermon at that time. “I hardly remember ever hearing a better reader…..he delivered in a distinct and sonorous voice, and with a clearness and correctness of enunciation …..He had other advantages too ..a good head and shoulders and he stood something like six feet, honest measure in his shoes.  His sermon, whether a holiday one or not, was a good one; and on the whole in pulpit and reading-desk, the Rev Townsend Stephens may take a very respectable stand amongst country parsons.”

On the death of his brother Colonel John Townsend [230] in 1845 Maurice inherited Castletownshend by which time the disastrous alterations undertaken by his mother had been put right. Sadly the house was burned to the ground in 1852. The blaze was so fierce that the large quantity of silver, which had been stored at the top of the house, ran down in molten streams and Maurice sent a Bristol silversmith to search the ruins to value the silver by the pound. The silversmith did so and promptly disappeared to America! Maurice was a most benevolent landlord for on acquiring the estate from his brother he dismissed £10,000 of arrears hoping thus to give his tenants a fresh start. An article dated Wednesday 23 December 1868 in ‘The Irish Examiner’ carries a report of a meeting in the Courthouse, Skibbereen called to determine the “best mode of complimenting the Rev F.S. Townsend, of Thornbury, England, in appreciation of his conduct as a landlord and liberal proprietor.” At the meeting it was resolved to hold a banquet in honour of Maurice and present to him “a piece of plate with a suitable inscription.” It was also resolved to present Maurice’s daughter, Geraldine Townsend [252], with a suitable ornament in acknowledgement of all her good works in Skibbereen.

Both Maurice and his brother Colonel John were absentee landlords who left running the estate to their agent; it is known that Thomas H Marmion from Skibbereen was agent in 1849 and his son was to follow him.

At some time between his accession to the Castletownshend estate in 1845 and his death in 1872 Maurice raised a substantial mortgage from Mr Robert Stayner Holford of Westonbirt in Gloucestershire using the Chavenage estate as security. It is not known why this was necessary, though it could well have been to repair the house after the fire of 1852. When this encumbrance on the estate was called-in in 1891, Maurice’s daughter, Geraldine Townsend [252], who by then had in equal share with her sister a ‘life interest successively’ in the Castletownshend estate’ was forced to put the estate up for auction.

Maurice altered the spelling of his name to Townshend in 1870 at the suggestion of Marquis Townshend of Raynham, Norfolk, and requested that the whole family conform – some did not do so hence the anomaly in the family of the ‘h’ in the spelling of the name.

Maurice’s will is dated 11 April 1870 and, as his son Henry Townsend [251] pre-deceased him, he left a ‘life interest successively’ in the Castletownshend property and the whole of his Dingle and Kerry estates to be divided equally between his two daughters Geraldine Townsend [252] and Alice Townsend [253]. The sad fate of the Castletownshend estate in 1897 can be found at the entry for Geraldine Townsend [252] or Charles Loftus Townsend [5C01].

Along with his brothers, John and Abraham, Maurice was made a Freeman of Limerick on 6th August 1817. He was also a Freeman of the City of Cork. Between 1710 and 1841, when the power of admitting Freemen only by birth or right ceased, a total of thirty three members of the Townsend family were admitted as Freemen.

Page 299 of the Appendix to the First report of the Commissioners Part 1 – Municipal Corporations (Ireland). Published by William Clowes, Stamford Street, London in 1835 concerns the Borough of Dingle. In the section headed ‘Burgesses’ it records that “Several of the burgesses are nearly connected with the patron of the borough. The following are the present burgesses:

– John Townshend Esquire, Lieutenant Colonel 14th Light dragoons, patron of the Borough and principal proprietor of the town. (Colonel John Townsend [230])

– Rev Thomas Townshend, his brother. (Wrong. Should read Maurice.)

– Rev Boyle Townshend, ditto. (Abraham Boyle Townsend [233])

– Richard Townshend Esq., second cousin. (Richard Townsend [236])

– Samuel Townshend Esq., Whitehall Co Cork. ( Samuel Townsend [412] or [405])”

None of them lived within the limits of the borough and it would appear that they rarely, if ever, attended borough meetings.

‘Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland 1848-1864‘ records “Townsend Rev MFS” and “Townsend Rev. MFS. Main Street, Castletownsend” owning land and property in Myross, Castle Townsend, Castlehaven and Creagh. The entry for Brade House in the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database records that Maurice owned the property “John Swanton was leasing this property from Rev. Maurice Townsend at the time of Griffith’s Valuation, when it was valued at £15 10s. Lewis had noted it as the seat of Rev. E.P. Thompson in 1837. It was the residence of Samuel Jervois in 1814. Taylor and Skinner’s 1783 map also indicate it as a Jervois residence. In 1906 it was owned by Katherine Townsend and valued at £44 5s. There is still an extant house at the site.” Katherine Townsend almost certainly refers to the wife of John Hancock Townshend [523] who would have moved to Brade when her son Richard Harvey Townshend [534] inherited the Myross estate in 1889. There are several connections with the Jervois family – see Richard Townsend [501].

‘Slater’s Commercial Directory 1856‘ records “Townsend, Rev. Maurice, T.S. (Castle Townsend House)”. The ‘Register of Landowners in County Cork 1876‘ records “Townsend, Rev. MTS, reps of 8,665 acres £4,794 5s” (2005 equivalent – £346,606). This figure is reflected in ‘Landowners of Ireland 1878’ compiled by U.H. Hussey de Burgh.

Maurice was buried at Thornbury and Alice is buried at Castletownshend.

Page 639 of the Calendar of Wills and Administration 1858-1922 in the National Archives of Ireland records that “The Reverend Maurice Fitzgerald Stephens Townsend late of Thornbury Gloucester Clerk Vicar of Thornbury”. Died 21 March 1872. Probate granted at Gloucester on 30 November 1872. Re-sealed at the Principal registry Dublin on 5 December 1873. Effects in Ireland £5,129 13s 9p..

(1) Alice was born in 1803 and died of a fever on 1 November 1831.

(2) Details about how Alice came to inherit the estate can be seen at ‘A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 11’ second and third paragraphs or for a more detailed account at ‘Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society l899’ – Notes On Chavenage and The Stephens Family by the Rev. W. H. Silvester Davies, MA, pages 128 – 135. When Alice died in 1831 the estate was left in trust for her eldest son Henry John Townsend [251] for when he came of age in 1848. Full details of what subsequently happened to the estate are given in the records for Henry and his sister Geraldine.

(3) RBT Papers 231/3.

(4) This and subsequent letters from ‘An Officer of the Long Parliament’ can be seen on pages 165 – 179; they are fascinating reading.

(5) John finally got his own troop after the Battle of Fuentes d‘Onor were he was ADC to Sir Stapleton Cotton. It was during this battle that Captain Knife of the 14th Light Dragoons was mortally wounded and John was promoted Captain on 6 June 1811, without purchase, and put in command of Captain Knife’s troop.

(6) A letter from Maurice’s brother John records “I hear that Maurice has taken his degree with great eclat”.

‘An Officer of the Long Parliament‘ Ch VII p. 184-187 refers.

..

Dunbeacon Church, 1849 Ballydehob Petty Session Court

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IVYutxU3xnT9QLLSd_ligORTe0tRT0oUxGgwisJpgwc/edit

1907 Death of Captain Anthony Morgan (1825-1907). Bunaulin/Bun na Lon: Caheragh/Skibbereen.  Magistrate 40 years. Landlord, Crimea war, Glowing Tributes at Skibbereen Petty Session Court. Significant Local Employer. Master West Carbery Hounds 1859. His son Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Hickman Morgan, unsuccessful as Unionist Candidate for Isle of Wight Constituency, UKhttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1sox-v3IFXp1SlOxvBobuMcQbA10fp0gjsIEx5QTHyTQ/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1244yMgsGwusLV5Yu2kpMAmbz2tXaGpWXR8siQNhkra8/edit

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West Cork Railways 1890

1940

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…

1877 Opening of The Ilen Valley Railway

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wlDjsig8nbwiId-_-c6rbD9EYqb5YESFNR7qw94JnZc/edit

As a child I remember my father talking about Father Kearney. As my father was born in 1921 clearly Father Kearney had entered the folk history.

Rev Michael Kearney P.P. of Durrus 1835-1897, attended Diocesan College Cork and Maynooth from a substantial farming family in Manch, Dunmanway, Durrus 9 Feb.1886-1897 built a new church Kilcrohane 1895. The Skibbereen Eagle reported in September 1865 on his move as a curate from Kilcrohane to Inchigeela that his move was universally regretted by all denominations. He preached in Irish. He bought or rented Durrus Court from Lord Bandon. He featured in some of the Ballydehob Presentments for road building at Rossmore with Thomas Shannon in May 1896 and appeared before the Bantry Poor Law Guardians appealing for relief for a blind evicted tenant in Kilcrohane. He is reputed to have been a major purchaser of land on his own account and there are a number of properties in Rossmore and Brahalish listed in the 1901 Census as being owned by William Kearney, Manch, his brother.   One of these are lands (25 acres held yearly from the Bandon Estate) at Rossmore which he acquired by mortgage from Mary Evans of £88 5s in 1887.  She acquired the interest from her late husband William and paid off another mortgage in favour of George Rawlings, shopkeeper, Bantry and it is possible that Fr. Kearney advanced the money for this.  Attending funeral, Bantry Jane Dillon nee Roycroft (1843-1892)

His land expertise was called upon by the Dukelow family in Brahalish to divide a farm between two brothers to ensure both had water and access did not interfere with the others This he did to both their satisfaction this is the holding of the late Richie Dukelow and Pat McCarthy.

He was lampooned by a local poet, part of the words referred to his brother who married a Protestant (one of Luther’s breed) perhaps reflecting the then thinking.

In 1885 he was a nominator with Father T. O’Leary, C.C. to James Gilhooley, Bantry who was elected.  Gilhooly was returned unopposed as an MP for West Cork and Father Kearney was his assentor.  

William Kearney also owned Cummer farm which was put up for auction in 1898 and

consisted of 250 acres with 80 good acres yielding 31/2 tons of hay to the acre.  He acquired Durrus Court and various lands from the Earl of Bandon in 1894 by way of lease for 99 years from 29^th Sept 1894 at a rent of £25 he died on the 2^nd July 1897 and let his interest to his successor Parish Priest of Durrus Daniel Foley he in turn assigned his interest to his successor Timothy O’Leary.  On his death the Bantry Poor Law Guardians adjourned for a week.

In a court case in Bantry June 1908 arising from the burning of hay ricks belonging to his brother William, who gave evidence that he had acquired two farms (one at Gearameen one at Rossmore, the lands on which the hay ricks had been acquired from Mr Moss and were near the village) from his brother Michael in his will.  One at Gerahameen his brother had acquired from the Evans family and he had made provision for Evan’s daughter in his will, however when William Kearney tried to sell that farm the child’s grandfather O’Connell turned up and said he had no right to sell and there were no bids, the implication was the grandfather considered that Father Kearney’s acquisition may have been improper. 

He appears in the folklore of Coomhola as collecting money for church building.  He died in the Mercy Hospital in Cork and the funeral leaving Bantry was described as one of the largest seen in years with a cortège over a mile and a half to Kilcrohane and 159 vehicles.  The contents of his house in Durrus Court were auctioned off the following month.  There is a memorial plaque to him at Kilcrohane Church.

Probably the donor of £500 in his will toward the building of the new church in Durrus

Henry Wintrop ‘The O’Donovan’ (1812-1890),  TCD, MA, DL. Pre 1910, Clann Cathal, Lis Ard, Skibbereen, son Rev. Morgan, Cork ed Dr. Coughlan, m Amelia d ‘The O’Grady’, Courcy O’Grady, Kilbollyowne, Co.Limerick.  Son Colonel Morgan William MA, J.P., ‘The O’Donovan’ and Alicia Jones. 1869 Public Appeal for Mr. Patrick Walsh, Skibbereen and His Family Whose Flax Mill Destroyed by Fire. His Landlord The O’Donovan had Encouraged him.,  1864 Cattle Show West Carbery Agricultural Society, Lissard, Skibbereen held in his grounds.  Attending 17 Grand Jury presentments. Supporter Nicholas Leader, Conservative,  1865 County Cork Election.  Interest in antiquities. Donor to the church bell fund, 1869, St. Nicholas, Cork.  (Cork Daily Southern Reporter 26th March 1869).   1884, signed a protest against the dismissal of Lord Rossmore, head of Orange Order, Monaghan.  Probate to Morgan O’Donovan, Lissard, Bishop Gregg, Cork, John Carson, Fellow Trinity College Dublin, £30,292.

West Cork Flax, Linen, Textiles

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u0vIz1nxG34pJua7qC7jtTCKWLjwVY81jSl0usPdojk/edit

See the enclosed from 1812 Skibbereen, after 2 bodies were discovered the inquest recorded a verdict of wilful murder and some of the suspects escaped.   Presumably this verdict would only be the start of a process culminating in a criminal trial?   There is provision her for payment ot informers a favoured tactic of irish 19th century criminal law.   There is probably more to this then the 2 murders looking at the massed number of Magistrates offering rewards but we will probably never get the full story.

All of the fugitives are aka Trá. I wonder what that means? It surely can’t have anything to do with trá as in strand.

Most likely a sub branch of the O’Donovan of which there are numerous branches.   Trá is probably a strand most likely this branch originated near the coast.

The lake at Castle Jean (Jane) probably Bawnlahan ancestral home of The O’Donovan. The O’Donovan in the mid 18th century a widower in his 60s contracted a second marriage to Jane Beecher either 14, 15 or 16 depending on the version and had a 2nd family. He renamed the Estate Castle Jane but the name never stuck.

1812 Meeting of Magistrates in Skibbereen Offering a Reward for the Apprehension of Persons (Florence and James Donovan Trá and John Driscoll) Against whom a Verdict of Wilful Murder was Recorded but Absconded

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_HjvNcjcUWnxsaZVEhduPgLEv3Ov9-NRb4z9Cze-TM8/edit?pli=1

 

From the School Folklore collection:

In the Harbour of Leap there is a very small point known as Simon’s point. Simon was a Landlord’s Agent and he lived at Bán Leáthan with his mother. Bán Leáthan is the second next townland directly west of Leap Harbour. At the appointed time he collected the rents from the tenants and arranged to take the money to Cork to the Land Lord. At that time the nearest market for produce of the farm etc was Cork and the only method of conveyance was a horse or boat. There was a family of the Donvan’s living in Myross Mick [?] Donovan Trágha. The were going marketing on Certain day to Cork. Simon arranged to travel with them. They set out at midnight on their voyage or their journey. The Donovan family both men and women had arranged to murder Simon and rob him. And so they did close to his home. They cut off his head and threw both his head and body into the sea at this point known since as Simon’s Point. His body after some time floated When Simon was not returning his mother raised an alarm. When the Headless Body was picked up it was believed to be that of Simon. The Donovan family fearing that the mother would give any information against them, watched her going to the well, and put her head downwards into it. When she was dead they made a grave in the Kitchen of her own home, and buried her there. The Donovan’s were arrested and tried in Cork for the murder of Simon. There was scarcely any evidence against them, and there was no one would would recognise the body. The mother was reported missing. The Donovans were set free and the Pólies were ordered from Cork to find the missing woman. When the Donovans got outside the city, one of the men offered to go back and confess to the murder of both. He thought it better to have one hanged, than the whole family. The women refused to allow him to do so. One of the women took off her boots, and some of her clothing and ran from Cork to Bán Leáthan She arrived there before the Polies. She got some friend with her and they removed the body from the grave in the kitchen. Where they hid it us one ever knew. When the polies arrived they saw the Grave and knew the body had been removed. They made a close search but failed to find the body.At that time there were a number of sand Loitess[?] dredging sand in the harbour. According to the tide they were often late coming up give any information against them, watched her going to the well, and put her head downwards into it. When she was dead they made a grave in the Kitchen of her own home, and buried her there. The Donovan’s were arrested and tried in Cork for the murder of Simon. There was scarcely any evidence against them, and there was no one would would recognise the body. The mother was reported missing. The Donovans were set free and the Pólies were ordered from Cork to find the missing woman. When the Donovans got outside the city, one of the men offered to go back and confess to the murder of both. He thought it better to have one hanged, than the whole family. The women refused to allow him to do so. One of the women took off her boots, and

some of her clothing and ran from Cork to Bán Leáthan She arrived there before the Polies. She got some friend with her and they removed the body from the grave in the kitchen. Where they hid it us one ever knew. When the polies arrived they saw the Grave and knew the body had been removed. They made a close search but failed to find the body.

At that time there were a number of sand Loitess[?] dredging sand in the harbour. According to the tide they were often late coming up.  o Leap, and they were startled by the voice at Simon’s point. They could see no one but they could plainly hear “Cur mo Ceann i dteannta mo Coirp”. They decided to drag the water close to where Simon’s body was found. They found the head and buried it in the same grave with Simon’s body and the voice was never heard since

 

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