Obituary of Mrs.Sarah Dukelow nee Kingston, Dromreagh, Durrus, West Cork 1911.

Oituaries such as this sample are an interesting snap shot in time describing the family, neighbours. Generally only the better off or slightly better off merited an obituary.

This is from the Skibbereen Eagle.

Courtesy Gordon Kingston.

Sarah Dukelow

‘A Thick Irish Brogue’ John Gilbert Higgins (1891-1961), Rhodes Scholar, Newfoundland Lawyer, Politician, Senator, Judge Robert Swanton (1767-1840), Ballydehob/Swantstown and New York Judge, the Atlantic Provinces of Canada and The Irish Argentinans, Crofton Croker.

In Robert A Caro’s biography of Robert Moses the man who built New York infrastructure and who poured more concrete the the Pharaohs and the Romans he refers to his friend at Oxford in 1910 John Gilbert Higgins, a Rhode Scholar which Moses was not.. He sported a long knitted scarf adn aThick Irish Brogue. Higgins came from a humble enough background and late excelled at Politics and Law. His Irish background goes back at least to his grandparents. He campaigned with success to prevent Newfoundland from being incorporated into Canada in 1948.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gilbert_Higgins

On the Canadian Maritime provinces there are close Irish links from long standing emigration. In some area the links between West Waterford area strong enough to have the Waterford accent still prevailing after perhaps 200 years.

A recent TV programme on the Irish in Argentina traced the emergence of an elite group of Ranchers. They descend from emigration for Longford and west meath in the 1880s of prosperous Irish farmers. Again when speaking in English a clear Midland accent is apparent.

Robert Swanton presided over the Admiralty Court in New York in the 1820, in later years an old New York Lawyer recalled the Judges of his youth including Swanton whose impossible Cork brogue and that of his tiptaff casey made it difficult to understand what was going on.

Judge Robert Swanton (1767-1840), Ballydehob, West Cork presiding at New York Marine Court with Tipstaff Casey 1827.

Crofton Croker writing in the 1840 of his schooling in Cork in the 1810 praised the schools which were mixed in terms of religion but broke for instruction. At the time he was writing he complained that prosperous Cork families were sending their children presumably mainly boys to be educated in England. he said they came back with a cut glass English accent.

Stamp Duty of 5 shillings and 6 pence, paid in London, 1826, on £450 Purchase of Commission for Honourable Simon White Esq., Bantry.

The National Library has a manuscript,(MS G.O. 428) which is a photographic reproduction of micro films lent by Paddy O’Keeffe, Bantry Historian c late 1950s.

This is an extract of the Account Books kept by the Rev. Somers Payne, Land Agent to Lord Bantry. The Rev Somers did not practise as a clergyman and his family hailed from Danesford, Innishannon later Upton Industrial School. It was common enough for young men of a Landed background to got to Trinity College, take Holy Orders and then do something like Land Management or Literature.

On set of the accounts in minute details notes rents, by tenant, amount townland. It is a useful guide of who lived in various townlands in the period around 1826 together with Bnatry town. Apart from cottiers there are them more comfortable farmers and the Middlemen. In the Beara area it is clear that the greater O’Sullivan family retained de facto control of much of their land. The rents are significant but well below market rents allowing a significant lifestyle from rents received from under tenants who were probably in many case rack rented. Paddy O’Keeffe had a particular interest in the various O’Sullivan Septs in the Greater Bantry area and his papers at the Cork Archives are replete with references adn genealogies of same.

On the other side of the ledges is the expenditure side and included here is an item 1826 of stamp duty paid on the British Army Commission for Simon White of £450. To get some idea of the value of this amount in the late 19th century the basic annual pay of an RIC man was £34 with allowances and housing.

In the 18th century the British Army and Navy were favoured career choices for Irish young men of the Church of Ireland. Later in the century this included well to do Irish Presbyterians and Catholics. As the 19th century progressed there was an almost limitless demand for Doctors, Lawyers an Administrators for the developing Empire and the same class provided the recruits understandable given the lack of career choices in a stagnant economy.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11urZxIDy4fdnr2ih_r8mtr4i1zI5dqmLgz6ipOIRhCM/edit#gid=0

Old priests Co. Cork, from early 18th Century.

The ‘Bible’ on the subject is Sister Evelyn Bolster’s 2 volume history of the Dioceses

http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=55867

Dioceses History:

http://www.corkandross.org/priestsHistorical.jsp

https://plus.google.com/photos/100968344231272482288/albums/6096040498184018337