Post Napoleonic  War Half Pay Officers in Bantry, West Cork.

 

Paddy O’Keeffe. Bantry Historian reckoned that in the greater Bantry area there wee around 24 such officers of whom quite a number were Catholic.

 

The Napoleonic Wars imposed a state of total war not seen again until World War 1.  For Ireland a time of great prosperity which collapsed after the battle of Waterloo 1815.

 

The officers were paid around £40 per annum, not enough to live their lifestyle.  The Chief Secretaries papers have a lot of correspondence from such officers seeking employment s Chief Constables of Police pre RIC.

 

They were favoured for official position in preference to affluent Catholics as in Father’s Collins evidence in 1825:

https://wordpress.com/post/durrushistory.com/23611

 

 

 

 

 

Burke, Stephen, Lieut., Chief Constable, North-st. (NGC).  Probably originally from Galway. Burke, Thos., Surgeon, HP, Blackrock-road (NGC).  May be from Caheragh, port JJ Callanan stayed with him for two years leading anti tithe and repeal activist. Carew, Wm. M., Ensign, HP, Chapel-hill (NGC) Cooke, James, Lieut., HP, Blackrock-road (NGC) Ellis, Dixie, Captain, HP, Whiddy Island (NGC) Kirby, David, Lieut., HO, Strand (NGC).  Originally North Cork Militia family later prominent as doctors in Bantry. McCarthy, Wm., Lieut., HP, Caheir Daniel (NGC).   O”Donovan, Daniel, Lieut., HO, Kealevenogue (NGC). When he died in 1830s describes as last of the Irish Brigade who after the fall of the Bastille joined the British Army retaining their rank.  Probably related to O’Donovan family of O’Donovan’s Cove, Durrus. Pottinger, H., Lieut., HP, Main-st. (NGC) Ratcliffe, Wm., Lieut., HP, North-st. (NGC)

 

1810, 1831, 1840

Dr. Thomas Burke

1824, Surgeon, HP, Blackrock-road (NGC). Possible The Square, 1810 Thomas Burke Haalf Pay Surgeon married Margaret McCarthy, (1784-1831), posssibly through her he acquired lands at Caheragh, she was likely of the Muclaghs (Clann Tighe Roe Scartaigh) and the lands from McCarthy Gurtnascreena.

May be from Caheragh the person tht poet JJ Callanan stayed with for around 2 years when he wrote Gougan Barra and Lamesnt to Morty Oge. memorial to Father Walsh PP leaving Bantry. Attending Great Meeting re Poor Law in 1840, Bantry, gave a speech promoting reeclamation of waste, mine development, employment rather than charity. 1846 distress meeting Bantry.

Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier 28 April 1831

 

https://www.google.ie/maps/@51.7089354,-9.4082163,13z?hl=en

 

1660.  Lands of The Earl of Anglesea Leased to Colonel Reid in Barony of Bantry and Bere, Co. Cork.

These would largely have been O’Sullivan lands.   They in turn probably did the same after 1230 when they moved in from Co. Limerick.

By 1910 the lands were largely the property of the former tenants subject to a Land Commission Annuity.

Some of the lands devolved to the Hollow Blade Company which financed the late 17th century wars in England between parliament adn King James.  They wee rewarded by land grants in Ireland.

An example of a deed involving them:

http://irishdeedsindex.net/mem.php?memorial=203158

Richard White of Whiddy Island ( originally Dunmanway and probably earlier Co. Limerick) acquired much of these lands by purchase.  In Beara many of the old O’Sullivan septs remained in de facto control as agents of the Bantry Estate.

 

Extract from Chichester House Claim of Joshua Doe 1700, Partial genealogy of Jagoes Dunmanway, Birds, O’Connor, Youngs of Bantry, Coughlan and Dowes, Gosnell,  Carrigmanus.

 

1830.  New Two Horse Car Bantry to Cork Leaves Bantry 7 am Cork 4 pm Through Dunmanway, Enniskeane and Bandon.

It is now possible to travel from the Jack Lynch Tunnel to Ballylickey in just over and hour,

 

 

 

 

Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier 21 September 1830

 

 

 

 

1815,  Registration of Freeholds for Voting Purposes Cork including Baronies of Carbery.

 

https://books.google.ie/books?id=zh06AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1059&lpg=PA1059&dq=registration+of+freeholders+bantry&source=bl&ots=QCl4JfIc1s&sig=hAjCkAuU-h_OXsEOYY7Scoa7pjI&hl=ga&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2o-adzcjMAhWECMAKHXMRBGk4ChDoAQgpMAQ#v=onepage&q=registration%20of%20freeholders%20bantry&f=false

 

1835 Resolution by Indeprendent Electors (Liberal) of Cork Rickard Deasy and D. Geran Thanking James O’Brien , Thomas Parsons Boland, Charles Evanson, Daniel Connell, George Wade Foot, Richard Donovan, for Their Impartiality in Conducting Recent Election.

 

1841. County Cork Election, Daniel O’Connell and Roche elected, Leader and Longfield Defeated, contested Votes in Baronies of West Carbery and Bere, Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers On Ireland.

 

Cork election 1837, Durrus Evansons elegible to vote as Non Resident Freemen of Cork.

 

1837 Cork Election. Report on Fictions Votes Electorate 8,600, Appendix Lists many for Cork City, Liberties of Cork and Country Freemen Entitled to Vote, by Address, Occupation, Valuable in view of Total Lack of 1830s Census.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1845, John Coughlan of Crookhaven, West Cork Owner of Whaler ‘The Wild Irish Girl’ Rescues Schooner  British America (Canada) ‘Exile’. Somewhat surprising to see a whaler operating out of Crookhaven.  The extended Coughlan/Coghlan family were active mariners, Royal Navy personnel.

 

1700, Dives Downes on Kilmoe (Ballydehob/Schull/Crookhaven), West Cork, Lands Recently Forfeit by Coppinger and O’Mahony now Hull, Bishop of Cork, Colonel Beecher, Earl of Cork, in Crookhaven, Arthur Hyde, Thadeus Coghlan/Coughlan, Rectories College of Youghal control Wrested from Earl of Cork by Lord Strafford, Old Chapel at Kilkanget near Dunmanus Castle, In O’Sullivan Country Universally Observed as Festival St Roan’s Day, Tithes on Fishing, later Rev. Fisher, Teampall na mBocht.

 

Geneaolgy of Arnopp family in Dunmanway, Crookhaven and Kinsale, Co. Cork from 1666, related to Hulls of Leamcon, Evansons of Durrus, Coughlans of Crookhaven

 

Case in Cork Assizes 1844 arising from Lands at Carrigmanus of Charles Coughlan Great Grand Father of Ann Jagoe and Alice Dowe, His Son Richard Married Miss Driscoll 1768 and made a Settlement. Litigation over Validity and Provenance of Wills. Names mentioned O’Sullivan, Notter, Simms, Young

 

Will Captain Jeremiah Coughlan, Royal Navy, 1796-1815, of Carrigmanus, Schull, West Cork Family and William Marcus Coughlan 1884, Proved Canterbury.

 

Case of disputed Glebe Lands at Crookhaven, West Cork c 1723, by Rector, Dr. Limerick, referes to Genealogy of Thadues Coughlan, his son Rev Dermitius Coughlan who fled 1641 from Cromwell his great grandson Jeremy (Jeremiah) Attorney and Irish Agent to Burlington Estate, on the road from Schull to Crookhaven ‘nor a bed a man can lie on nor a morsel to be eaten’, Henry Becher’s Fishing palace 1641, Captain William Hull with the wooden leg, Darby Mahony agent to Sir Richard Hull, Donagh McWilliam Coughlan proctor to Rev Thadeus Coughlan, Benjamin Sullivan Attorney Cork and East India Company Connections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cork Examiner 01 February 1847

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Castlehaven+Cross,+Co.+Cork/@51.5154591,-9.2038462,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4845afbf1e60799b:0xdf6b9f6efaa3e739!8m2!3d51.5154596!4d-9.1950685?hl=en

1823.  Inquest into Affray Occasioned by the Rev. Robert Morritt, Rector of Creagh and Castlehaven, Notorious Extraction of Tithes, Caused at Castlehaven, West Cork,  at which Fatalities Occurred, Stones Placed into Mouths of Killed Policemen, Press Excluded from Publishing Preliminary Investigation on Morritt’s Motion.

Rev. Robert Morritt, Creagh Glebe, Skibbereen, Pre 1821.  Letter 1821 to Chief Secretary re lawlessness in Creagh, lack of military forces and poor calibre of police.  Notorious tithe extractor whose actions led to an affray at Castlehaven in which life was lost.  At the subsequent hearing into affray he accepted that the Skibbereen Magistrates were hostile to him.  Later Rector Castlehaven where he was almost universally hated for tithe extraction.   He was reported as having neighbouring magistrates hear 600 summons against his parishioners re tithes owing. Lord Carbery in 1823 said Morritt was English in that year he had extracted £2,300 out of his tithes of £2,700.  He seems to have resigned his living some time after.  Later Paris 1828 Defamation action while in English Protestant Establishment In Paris against three Anglican Clergymen.

 

 

From Chief Secretary’s papers:

1823. Petition of Michael Mahony, Fornangh [Forenaght], parish of Castle Haven, barony of east division of West Carbery, County Cork, to Richard Wellesley, 1st marquis Wellesley, Lord Lieutenant, Dublin Castle, complaining of unjust treatment at the hands of Reverend Robert Moritt, Church of Ireland clergyman of Castle Haven, following Mahony falling into arrears with his tithe payments. Mahony refers to his financial distress; the refusal of Morritt’s tithe proctor to accept part-payment from Mahony; and subsequent attempts to seize the family’s mare from Mahony’s young son. States that the boy has since been served with a summons to appear at court in Skibbereen, County Cork. Emphasises his hardship and requests that government investigate his case and Morritt’s ‘method of managing His Tithes’ [annotation indicates petition received 9 August 1823]. Subsequent pencil annotation on reverse by Henry Joy, Solicitor General, stating his opinion on the matter.