1804, Loss of Nabby, En Route from Liverpool to Bandon on South Shore of Bantry Bay. Contents Pillaged by Two Hundred Men and Women. Crew Sheltered by Richard Donovan, Esq.,  David Mellifont, Esq., Magistrate, Donemark, Bantry, with Captain Scott adn Lieutenant Griffin and 40 Soldiers went to Bantry to Search for Stolen Property, assisted by Jonas Baldwin, Esq.

 

Thanks to David Coffey, Melifont descendant.

 

Local O’Donovan family, Landlords and Magistrates:

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eq_IayaxdUyWZWbpDf6LWlLNg7o-3tNJiqPGYIALy80/edit#

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Magistrate: David Mellifont, 1794. Donemark house of Carrignarontha, Bantry. May have freedom of Cork 1761 as Esq. Appears in frequent deeds as witness 1761-1775 including soe in Bandon area. 1779 Lieutenant Bantry Volunteers, Superseded 1810-30, Middleman on Lord Kenmare estate. Game Cert 1802. 1820 signed Memorial for new road Glengarriff to Castletownbere. 1822 his house and those of Pattison, Doyle, McCormack, Kingston attacked by over 400 Whiteboys searching for arms. William O’Sullivan, Esq., Carriganass Castle, native Ahill purchased Carriganass from David Mellifont, Donemark in 1817 for £250 and £50 rent. O’Sullivan prominent in anti tithe, repeal. Married 1804, Sophia Grey, Wexford, address given Mardyke, Co. Cork probably Skibbereen. Sophia Mellifont Nee Gray wife of David Mellifont had a brother called Nicholas Gray,he was secretary to the Wexford Insurgents 1798. Gray went to America and was involved in the 1812 War,he was Inspector General of the American Army. The Grays were from Whitfort House Wexford and Jamestown Co Wexford. Mellifont died Donemark 1835, significant debts, estate in Chancery and litigation.

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Irish Translation of Massahalah, Alexandrian Jewish Astronomer 815 AD, Medical Treatise

 

Online at http://www.isos.dias.ie.

 

Held by Royal Irish Academy..

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Early Appearance of Woulfe Family (Merchants) in Durrus 1730s possibly in connection with Pilchard Trade.

Deeds from Registry of Deeds project:

https://irishdeedsindex.net/mem.php?memorial=62742

Woulfe Family of West Cork , 1720-1998, 10 Generations, Descendant, Danno O’Mahony World Wrestling Champion.

An account of the Kilgariff, Clonakilty, West Cork, Eedy family to Clifton and Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada some of the names mentioned Knowles, Bateman, Beamish, French, Morris, Stanley, Woulfe, Crowley, O’Donovan, Cahalane, Donoghue, A Glass of Whiskey Ballygurteen Fair prior to Emigrating.

In a series of deeds transcribed by Ron Price the Woulfes appear, for the first time to my knowledge in the Durrus area.  David, Merchant, Four Mile Water (Durrus), Robert Woulfe, Merchant, Dublin, later in 1737 David wife appears with a clerk John Flanagan. Other names are Robert Winspear who is a farmer in nearby Rossmore but described as Gentleman aged 45 in 1727 (born 1682). The Winispeares are shipwrights in Bantry since around 1630. A Winispeare Toye appears in Clonakilty around 1810.  Richard Coppinger Gent appears 1737 as does Andrew Beazley. A lot of the old Cork Merchant families are in the Bantry area early 18th century as merchants in connection with the pilchards.

 

There are Beasleys in Cork early 19th century coopers. They are related to the Harris family.  The Harris are married into Evenson family mid 18th century with a base in Four Mile Water related to Harris medical family in Cork.

 

It is likely they are all involved in the pilchard industry which collapsed in 1745 where the fish disappears

 

			Type of deed	Date of current deed		11 Oct 1737	Vol	Page	Memorial
			Demise	Date of earlier deed			90	102	63144
No	Role(s) in earlier deed(s)	Role in current deed(s)	Family name	Forename		Place		Occ or title		A
A		P1	EVANSON	Elizabeth	of	Four Mile Water. COR		Mrs
B		P2	WOULFE	David	of	Four Mile Water. COR		Mrs		A
C		O	WINSPEARE	Robert	of	Rossmore. COR
D		WD+WM	GERAN	Michael	of	Four Mile Water. COR		Gent		A
E		WD	CALLAGHAN	Charles	of	Four Mile Water. COR		Gent
F		WM	FLANAGAN	John	of	Four Mile Water. COR		Clerk to B		A
Abstract
MS			Date registered	22nd Mar 1737/8		Date abstract added		20161222

Abstract made by: Halifax

Go to film

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			Type of deed	Date of current deed		3 Mar 1727	Vol	Page	Memorial
			Assignment	Date of earlier deed			82	159	57378
No	Role(s) in earlier deed(s)	Role in current deed(s)	Family name	Forename		Place		Occ or title		A
A	P1		BERNARD	Francis	of	Castlemahon [Bandon], Co Cork		Esq; The Hon
B	P2	P2	EVANSON	Charles	of
C	P2	P1	EVANSON	Nathaniel	of					A
D	P2	P1	COUGHLAN	Jeremy	of					A
E		WD	BEAZLY	Andrew	of	Four Mile Water [Durrus], Co Cork		Gent
F		WD WM	WINSPEARE	Robert	of	Four Mile Water [Durrus], Co Cork		Gent; aged about 45 yrs		A
G		WD	EVANSON	Arthur[?]	of	Four Mile Water [Durrus], Co Cork		Gent
H		WM	COPPINGER	Richard	of	Four Mile Water [Durrus], Co Cork		Gent		A
I		mentioned	EVANSON	Elizabeth	of			Widow & Adm of Charles Evanson [B]		A
Abstract		C&D assigned to B, their share of a lease from A of lands of Coulnahorna, Rossmore, Rossavan, Gerameen [Gearhameen, Durrus] & Classadoo [Clashadoo, Durrus].
MS			Date registered	16 Dec 1735		Date abstract added		20180730

Abstract made by: RonPrice

Go to film

 

			Type of deed	Date of current deed		3 Oct 1735	Vol	Page	Memorial
			Demise [Lease]	Date of earlier deed			87	503	62839
No	Role(s) in earlier deed(s)	Role in current deed(s)	Family name	Forename		Place		Occ or title		A
A		P1	EVANSON	Elizabeth	of	Four Mile Water [Durrus], Co Cork		Widow
B		P2	WOULFE	Thomas	of	City of Dublin		Merchant		A
C		O adj	EVANSON	Nathaniel	of			had adjoining land
D		O adj	WINSPEAR	Robert	of			had adjoining farm
E		WD	WOULFE	David	of	Four Mile Water [Durrus], Co Cork		Merchant
F		WD WM	GERAN	Michael	of	Four Mile Water [Durrus], Co Cork		Gent		A
G		WM	FLANAGAN	John	of	City of Dublin		Gent		A
Abstract		A leased to B, that part of the lands of Gearymine [Gearhameen, Durrus] called Rossavany, for 24 years
MS			Date registered	11Feb 1737		Date abstract added		20180730

Abstract made by: RonPrice

Go to film

 

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The record of Bishop Dives Downs’ visits to Bantry in 1699 referred to ‘a lack of pilchards’.  In an article by the Archbishop of Dublin in the 1726 Edition of ‘Boates Natural History’ it was stated that prior to 1688 there was good fishing of pilchards in the South coast, but since the fight in Bantry Bay the pilchards have not been seen on the coast.  There is however reference in 1735 by Mr. Jenkins, giving evidence before a Commission on the state of Irish fisheries. He had seen the books of Mr. Meade who was involved in the fisheries in Bantry Bay from 1730 to 1745, and exported enormous quantities of pilchards. In 1749 Meade of Bantry obtained a premium from the Royal Dublin Society for having caught and cured 380,000 fish.  Horatio Townsend 1810 writes of the disappearance of the pilchards and the gradual disappearance of herring and sprats. He says that by Smith’s time 1750 the pilchards had disappeared.

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Possibly Beasley connection

 

P2	P1	KINGSTON	Samuel	of	Gurtnahorna. COR		Gent
B		P2	MOORE	John	of	Inishonan. COR		Cleric		A
C	P1		MOORE	Hannah	of	Inishonan. COR		Spinster
D		WD	HODNETT	William	of	Trinity Coll. Dublin
E		WD+WM	BEASLEY	James	of	Inishonan. COR		Farmer		A
F		WM	MOORE	Charles	of	Inishonan. COR		Rev		A
G		W Reg	KELLY	William	of	City of Cork		Justice
H		W Reg	MEADE	William	of	City of Cork
I		W Reg	SPREAD	William	of	City of Cork
Abstract		C leased lands in Gurtnahorna, Co. Cork to A who then deeded them to B
MS			Date registered	1st Feb 1737/8		Date abstract added		20160301

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1805 Sample Marriage License Bond.

This is from a large bundle from St. Peters Church Cork, donated to the National Archives.

In the Church of Ireland marriage was by Licence Bond generally for the better off.  For other it was by Banns reading the intention at service three Sundays in a row.  Sometimes Catholics applied for Marriage Licence Bonds for legal reasons.

 

https://durrushistory.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/marriage-license-bonds-of-1679-and-1698-from-dioceses-of-cork-ross-and-cloyne-mid-18th-century-marriage-litigation-arising-from-marriage-of-two-protestants-white-of-bantry-an-miss-dillon-bantry/?preview_id=15410&preview_nonce=dda5de1bcb&post_format=standard&_thumbnail_id=-1&preview=true

 

 

https://durrushistory.wordpress.com/2017/04/15/1746-sample-marriage-licence-bond/?preview_id=31867&preview_nonce=aa11228e9d&post_format=standard&_thumbnail_id=-1&preview=true

 

https://durrushistory.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php?s=marriage+licence+bond&post_status=all&post_type=post&action=-1&m=0&cat=0&paged=1&action2=-1

 

1741 Deed of contemplated Marriage Rooska, Barony of Bantry and Bere, West Cork, names mentioned Varian, Vickery, Baker, Denis, Ferguson, Daly, Croston. 1790 Vickery/Warner Marriage.

 

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Gillman’s Index to Marriage Licence Bonds – Cork and Ross

Published in 1896-7, Herbert Webb Gillman’s Index to the Marriage Licence Bonds of the Diocese of Cork and Ross contains an index of marriage licence bonds made in Cork and Ross between the years 1623 and 1750. Although the marriages in question were usually between Protestants, the author notes in his preface that some Catholics also entered into these bonds; this might have been the case if, for instance, the couple did not wish to have their banns of marriage read. However, the religion of the parties involved is not indicated in the bonds themselves.

 

 

http://www.corkpastandpresent.ie/genealogy/gillmansindextomarriagelicencebonds-corkandross/

 

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Due to circumstances peculiar to the county of Cork, the Marriage

 

Licence bonds between the above dates are in most cases the only

 

official evidence now available of the marriages to which they refer.

 

The best evidence of a marriage in past times is of course the entry

 

thereof in a Parish Register, but in county Cork very few of these

 

registers contain records earlier than about A.D. 1800, and none, except

 

Christ Church, Cork (A.D. 1643 to 1878, but with a large chasm from 1666 to 1708),

 

St. Mary Shandon, Cork (1671 to 1873), St. Multose, Kinsale (1684 to 1875), extend

 

back into the seventeenth century. Kilgariffe (Clonakilty) begins in 1700, but has a

 

chasm between 1753 and 1794. The next best evidence is a Marriage Licence, but

 

the Grant Books for Cork Marriage Licences, preserved in the Public Record Office,

 

only commence in 1750, so that before that date this class of evidence also is wanting

 

in most cases in county Cork.

 

In the absence of Parish Registers and of Marriage Licence Grants, the next best

 

evidence (which in such absence becomes then primary presumptive evidence) is a

 

Marriage Licence Bond. Such a bond had to be entered into before a Bishop would

 

grant his licence for a proposed marriage, because the Bishop was open to an action

 

for damages if he issued a licence for the solemnisation of a marriage against which

 

there existed some ” canonical let or impediment,” or some other legal objection such

 

as a pre-contract of one of the parties to marry some other person; and so, to protect

 

himself, the Bishop required two solvent persons, of whom the intending bridegroom

 

was generally one, to enter into a bond for a sum stated therein—generally propor-

tioned to the status of the parties—that there existed no such impediment or objection.

 

It will thus be seen that the Marriage Licence bonds of the diocese of Cork and

 

Ross from their commencement to A.D. 1750 are of the highest value to genealogists,

 

or to those who have to prove their descent for the purposes of claiming property, or

 

making or proving pedigrees connected with that portion of the county Cork, included

 

in the diocese of Cork and Ross.

 

These bonds contain the names of the respective persons proposing to be married,

 

and of the surety who joins, generally with the intending bridegroom, in the bond, and

 

the residences or parishes of these persons, with occasionally other particulars relative

 

to them. The bonds themselves, to which the subjoined list of names and dates is the

 

Index, are on record in the Public Record Office of Ireland, Four Courts, Dublin; and

 

any person can, on application and payment of the prescribed fees (one shilling per

 

folio) obtain from that office a certified copy of any of these bonds, or of any portion

 

of a bond, e.g. omitting the merely formal part if not required.

 

The nature of the information afforded by these bonds may be gathered from the

 

following copy of one of which I happen to have an official copy : —

 

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1805 Sample Marriage License Bond.

This is from a large bundle from St. Peter’s Church Cork, donated to the National Archives.

In the Church of Ireland marriage was by Licence Bond generally for the better off.  For other it was by Banns reading the intention at service three Sundays in a row. Sometimes Catholics applied for Marriage Licence Bonds for legal reasons.

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Paddy O’Keeffe (1897-1980), Bantry Businessman, Spanish Consul, Historian, Attempt to get McCarthy Castle, Gearhameeen, Durrus Declared a National Monument .  Photos 1950s.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UN9T6eUb143ijWS37

Courtesy O’Keeffe family, Bantry, Colum Hourihane.

Obituary:

Click to access b1980-009.pdf

Obituary:

Title of Francis Bernard the Elder and Francis Bernard Junior, Castlemahon, Bandon to Six Ploughlans at Coolenlong otherwise Four Mile Water (Durrus) and the Townlands of Kealties and Tullagh, Muintervara, West Cork

https://wordpress.com/post/durrushistory.com/29388

Paddy O’Keeffe:

Map of Bantry District Reputedly 1588, Analysis 1958, by Bantry Historian Paddy O’Keeffe.

Survey St. Finbarr’s Graveyard, in Catholic Church, Bantry, West Cork, Commissioned by Paddy O’Keeffe 1955.

History of Whiddy Island, Bantry Bay, Co. Cork from 1261, from Paddy O’Keeffe papers

Obituary by Paddy Madden of Paddy O’Keeffe (1897-1980), Businessman, Spanish Consul, Historian, Local Sources such as Bob Triggs Beara, Mr Dennis Poet of North Side, Danny O’Donovan, Ballycomane Durrus, Fellow Historians, Canon T. J. Walsh Cork, Bernard O’Regan, Aughadown, Emmet O’Donovan, N.T., John T. Collins Cork.