Probates in Ireland are an absolute disaster zone, mostly all that survived post 1922 destruction of the Public Records Office in Dublin is a 1 line name sometime and address or occupation. This is an attempt to add to some of these listed from other sources or give information on the family.
Prerogative Wills
Prerogative and diocesan copies of some wills and indexes to others, 1596 – 1858
Before a will can take effect, a grant of probate must be made by a court. If someone dies without having made a will, the court can grant letters of administration for the disposal of the estate. Since 1858, grants of probate and administration have been made in the Principal and District Registries of the Probate Court (before 1877) or the High Court (after 1877). They are indexed in the calendars of wills and administrations (available on this website for 1858 – 1922).
Before 1858, grants of probate and administration were made by the courts of the Church of Ireland (the Prerogative Court and the Diocesan or Consistorial Courts). Almost all of the original records were destroyed in the Public Record Office in 1922. Most of what appears on this site are indexes to the original wills.
For the pre-1858 ecclesiastical courts, will books containing copies of the originals survive for the Prerogative Court (1664-1684, 1706-1708, 1726-1728, 1728-1729, 1777, 1813 and 1834) and some Diocesan Courts – Connor (1818-1820 and 1853-1858) and Down (1850-1858). The will books for Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry are in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
The records can be searched by name, date, residence and district or diocese.
A meticulous conservation project has begun to safeguard one of Ireland’s oldest surviving paper documents, The Guardian writes, dating back to the medieval period.
The document in question is an ecclesiastical register, approximately 650 years old, that once belonged to Milo Sweteman, the archbishop of Armagh from 1361 to 1380. Experts at the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) are now working to repair its fragile pages as part of a broader initiative to preserve vital historical records from the medieval period. The register, which contains drafts and copies of legal papers, letters, receipts, and wills, offers a fascinating glimpse into the ecclesiastical workings of the time.
Sarah Graham, the head of conservation at PRONI, explained the rarity of such documents, noting that paper of this age is incredibly scarce in Ireland. “Paper that pre-dates 1450 is particularly rare,” she said, adding that the material used in the Sweteman register likely came from Italy and Spain, regions that the archbishops frequently visited. This discovery came from research into the document’s watermarks, shedding light on the trade of paper in medieval Europe.
The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast.Albert Bridge / CC licence
The Sweteman register is not the first to undergo this meticulous conservation process. The register of Archbishop John Swayne, dating from 1418 to 1438, has already been completed, with a digitised copy and translated summary now available online. This project is part of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, an effort to reconstruct the nation’s historical archive, which was largely destroyed in a fire during the Irish Civil War in 1922.
Henry Becher (1664-1738), TCD in 1683 aged 19, son of Thomas Sherkin Island, 1705, witness to 1717 deed with Emanuel Moore. Henry Becher was Thomas Becher’s eldest son. He married Henrietta Owen in 1698. His heir was John Becher. Henry died in 1738.
Henry Beecher, (1759-1780), 1779, Creagh/Creaford, Skibbereen. 1765 11 July Cork City Newspapers. “To be Let, part of the estate of Henry Becher(aged 5) during his minority. Lands of Gortadrohid, Ardnagreena on harbour of Baltimore etc. contact Michael Becher guardian. 1779 Hibernian Magazine Dec 1779 “Henry Becher of Creaghtford to be a J.P. of the Peace for the Co of Cork”. 1780 Hibernian Chronicle 25 Dec 1780 “Died Thursday last, Henry Becher at Creagh near Baltimore.” The guardian Michael Henry Becher [1735-1778 was his uncle & my 4 x Great Grandfather. He was married to Catherine French. Poor Henry is the one who died after a shooting accident on his 21st birthday.
John R. Beecher, Hollybrook, Skibbereen, listed 1856, sitting Skibbereen 1861. 1856 Ballydehob Presentment sessions. May have married Catherine Jermyn only child of Henry and Mary of Aughadown, 1805 he assigned property to Richard Hungerford and Becher Fleming to provide £225 pa should she survive him.
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John Townsend Beecher, 1760, Anne Grove, 1755 Faulkner’s Dublin Journal 22 Feb 1755 “17 Feb Married last Thursday John Townsend Becher Esq To Miss Donovan, d Rev. Morgan O’Donovan, Magistrate, Ballinacalla, with £5000. Died 1761, at her lodgings near South Gate, Mrs Beecher, relict of John Townsend Beecher of Ann Grove”. Possibly, 1771 Limerick Chronicle 10 Oct 1771, “Thursday last at Cork Colonel John Becher of Hollybrook to Miss Bab. Townsend of Skibbereen.”Michael Beecher, 1777, Creagh, Skibbereen, member Atlantic Society literary society. Subscriber of 1766 ‘The History of the Irish Rebellion’, Cork, 1766. 1778 Dublin Hibernian Journal Aug 24 1778, “Died-Near Bandon Michael Beecher of Creagh Esq.” 1789 Cork Evening Post 12 Jan 1789, ‘Last Sat George Pigott Rogers Esq. to Mary Twogood Becher, dau of the Late Michael Becher of Creagh, Esq’. Michael Alleyne Richard Beecher (1839-, 1875, Ballyduvane, Clonakilty, Resident, £130, 1870, 2,101 acres, listed 1916. Landed proprietor, widower 1901. 1884, signed a protest against the dismissal of Lord Rossmore, Head of Orange Order, Monaghan. Sampson T.
Aughadown (Erasmus Smith) School. 1866 Invoice From John Copithorme, Skibbereen for School Supplies. School Closure 1885 for Outbreak of Scarlatina. 1909 Letter from Mrs. Alldritt teacher (Nee Elizabeth Frances Beamish, Dunmanway) seeking payment of her Salary to her Husband.
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English School Summary School Name Aghadown, Whitehall County Cork
Property Documents Correspondence 1866-1887, 1888-1919 Architectural Plans 1812 Date of Sanction 1828
Notes Patron Rev. H. H. Beecher Grant £ Salary Discontinued 1919 Other Place Names
School Name Baltimore County Cork
Property Documents Correspondence 1882-1918 Architectural Plans Date of Sanction 1883
Notes Patron Rev. J. Jones Grant £ Salary Discontinued 1916 Other Place Names
School Name Bandon County Cork
Property Documents Correspondence 1867-1882 Architectural Plans Date of Sanction 1821
Notes Patron Grant £ Salary Discontinued 1882 Other Place Names
Warrant, by the Duke of Ormond, for the payment, to the Earl of Barrymore, of the sum of twelve pounds sterling, for the building of boats for the Garrison of Crookhaven, &c, Dublin Castle: 9 December 1662
Creator
Edward Edwards (1812-1886)
Level Of Description
Item
Extent And Medium
Copy
Archival History
The Carte Collection (MSS. Carte 1-279) of historical papers was received chiefly by the Bodleian Library, Oxford in 1753-1778. This Calendar (MSS. Carte Calendar 1-75) gives an abstract of every paper in the Carte Collection in chronological order. It was formed by Edward Edwards, a librarian and writer, in 1877-1883 at the expense of the Bodleian Library. In September 2004, the Bodleian Library keyed in 32 of the original 75 volumes of Carte Calendars (Vols. 30-61). This data was shared with, and platformed by, the VRTI in 2024.
Butler, James (1610–88), 12th earl and 1st duke of Ormond, was born 19 October 1610 at Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England, eldest son of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles , and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Poyntz, of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire. Thurles was son and heir to Walter Butler (qv), 11th earl, who succeeded to the title in 1614 on the death of his uncle, Thomas (qv), 10th earl, whose one surviving child was a daughter, Elizabeth (qv). The viscount took his family to Ireland, but when returning from a visit to England was shipwrecked and drowned on 15 December 1619, leaving the 9-year-old James as the direct heir to the title. His widow Elizabeth married (a.15 June 1626) George Mathew of Thurles, Co. Tipperary, by whom she had a second family. Youth and marriage The details of James Butler’s youth are mainly derived from Sir Robert Southwell (qv), who presented a brief and laudatory life of the duke to his grandson and successor two months after the first duke’s death. According to Southwell, on his father’s death, Butler’s mother placed him in a school in Finchley to be raised in the Roman catholic faith, to which both parents were committed. However, through the manipulation of the law, James I claimed the young heir as a royal ward and in 1622 put him in the care of George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, under whose tutelage he received a protestant upbringing. The religious part of his education made a deep impression on the boy, but in other respects Abbot made little effort to educate his charge, and it was only the intervention of the grandfather that ensured some facility in writing, French, and Irish. His Latin was almost entirely neglected.
1670 Indenture Captain Samuel Jervois and His Wife sell for £60 the entire Gneeve (Old land measurement a twelfth part of a townland which can vary in size.: https://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/11941/page/282490 ) of Leap parrt of Cappanabohy
670 Indenture Captain Samuel Jervois and His Wife sell for £60 the entire Gneeve (Old land measurement a twelfth part of a townland which can vary in size.: https://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/11941/page/282490 ) of Leap parrt of Cappanabohy
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1670 Indenture Captain Samuel Jervois and His Wife sell for £60 the entire Gneeve (Old land measurement a twelfth part of a townland which can vary in size.: https://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/11941/page/282490 ) of Leap parrt of Cappanabohy
Samuel Jervois, 1654. Close family connection with Barnstaple Devon. Received land debentures for being a Cromwelian Officer bought other lands. Built Brade House, Leap. Appointed a Commissioner for Transportation 1655 reappointed 1656 to identify those locally suitable for transportation. There are papers extant for the period whereby the church clerk of Castlehaven was to identify local Catholics in particular sons and heirs suitable for transportation. Married Martha Salmon, daughter of Captain Joseph Salmon, Glandore castle. Freeman and Burgess of Clonakilty, Sovereign 1679. Fled to Chester 1688 he reported his income then at £120 per annum. He returned to Brade, 1693, died 1693.
Obtaining letters patent from Charles II, his extensive landholdings were erected into the manor of O’Donovan’s Leap, or the Manor of the Leap, in 1684.
He was also appointed Registrar of the Admiralty in Ireland by James II.
O’Donovan was the son of Daniel Mac Murtogh O’Donovan, Lord of Clan Loughlin. A Protestant, he married in 1686 Elizabeth Tallant, daughter of Oliver Tallant, and they had three children; Jeremiah, John, and Anne.
O’Donovan Lands:
1616. Surrender and Regrant. Patent of James 1 of England.
Court of Pie Powder Reserved to Donnell O’Donovan for Fairs, Ascension Thursday and Townlands Listed from Castledonovan to Castlehaven, Caheragh, Glandore, Squince, Brahalish in Durrus. Manor of Castledonovan Power to Hold Court of Leet and Baron, Friday Market at Rahine, Tuesday market at Drimoleague.
The 1766 religious census return for the Union of Kilmocomoge
The original return provided a list of householders’ names, as was required by the resolution of the House of Lords (see comment below about list of householders in Bantry), but only household and population numbers have survived.* The parishes in the union were Kilcrohane, Durrus and Kilmocomoge.
The numbers reported by Barry were:
Kilcrohane and Durrus, 71 Protestant households, and 343 Protestant individuals; 681 Catholic households, and 3,555 Catholic individuals.
Kilcrohane, 234 Catholic households, and 1,282 Catholic individuals. Protestant numbers only available with Durrus.
Durrus, 447 Catholic households, and 2,273 Catholic individuals. One resident priest. Protestant numbers only available with Kilcrohane.
Kilmocomoge, 75 Protestant and 519 Catholic households, containing 299 Protestants and 3,253 Catholics. Two priests.
William Carrigan provides the following additional information, which, importantly, confirms that the census provided the names of householders (in bold italics, our emphasis):**
Kilmocomoge: ‘Standish Barry, priest; Denis Doly, coadjutor: and in the list of the householders in “Bantry town & suburbs” we find the name of “Standish Barry, Popish priest for this parish”’.
Durrus: ‘Timothy Crowly, living in Upper Coomkeen is “Popish priest for the parish of Durrus”’.
Kilcrohane: ‘No priest given’.
Census abstracts for the dioceses of Cork and Ross can be found in NAI PRIV/M/4921, pp 16-22. For clerical succession lists for Cork and Ross see W. Maziere Brady, Clerical and parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross (3 vols, Dublin, 1863-4).
* Parliamentary Records Index, vol. ix, p. 1,952 (National Archives of Ireland RC 14/9); Brady, Cork, Cloyne and Ross, i, p. 95.
1764-1840Fr. Coombes a noted Cork historian wrote the following in respect of Robert Swanton.
The Swanton Memorial
An Historical Memorial in Skibbereen
by James Coombes
From the Swanton Family History Worldwide by Louise May Swanton
Two forgotten Ballydehob patriots are linked in a memorial in the old Protestant cemetery in Skibbereen. On the obelisk which surmounts the memorial there is a draped urn with the single word ROBERT inscribed on it. One of the four panels had the following inscription:
Sacred to the Memory of
ROBERT SWANTON
Counsellor at Law
One of the Judges of the Marine
Court of the City of New York
Who departed this life
in Ballidahab
On the 15th of February 1840
aged 76
He was a humble Christian and faithful
Friend and Benefactor
Be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted,
Forgiving one another even as God
for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Epb. iv.3
Do ghradhaigh se na Gaedhil agus an Ghaeilge
Another panel commemorates three children of Thomas Swanton, Maria (d. 21 July 1852, aged 11 years 5 months); Ellen (d. 1 April 1856, aged 17 years 9 months); Annie (. 21 Nov. 1857, aged 17 years 9 months). It also contains the inscriptions: “Omnibus inservientes sed servi unius Domini” and “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”
A third panel commemorates Sarah wife of Nathaniel Evanson, IV July 1830 aged 33. Sarah was almost certainly a sister of Thomas Swanton, who was a nephew of Robert Swanton.
Robert Swanton was born about the year 1764. Richard Deasy of Clonakilty wrote of him in 1845 that he had been a ‘most active agent of the United Irishmen’ and that he had ‘organised the country into a military preparation with sergeants and officers’.
Shortly before the rising of 1798 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the Sheares brothers and other leaders were arrested. Swanton fled to America. According to one account, he had also been arrested and had escaped from jail. The late Thomas Roycroft of Skibbereen kept alive the tradition that he had been hidden in a butter barrel, smuggled out to sea in a rowing boat, and that he had boarded a ship six miles from the coast.
He soon made his mark in his adopted country, and in the 1820’s, was a leading figure in the ‘Friends of Ireland in New York’. He was the author of ‘A Manifesto to the People of Ireland’ issued by the ‘Friends’. Among his colleagues in this society were Dr. William Power and his brother Father John Power, vicar general of New York, and one of the most eminent priests in America. They were sons of Andrew and Elizabeth Power (1), who lived in the house now (1981) occupied by Mr. Joe Connolly of Deelish Skibbereen. They were nephews of Father John Power, the saintly pastor of Kilmacabea. Further research would probably unearth more details of Robert Swanton’s American career. For the moment, we must be satisfied with the obituary published by the New York Evening Post on 4 April 1840.
“It is with heartfelt regret that we announce the death of Robert Swanton, for many years judge of the Marine Court of this city. He died on the 15th of February last in the County of Cork, Ireland, which place he revisited about four years ago after an absence of more than 36 years. The loss of this inestimable man cannot fail to be severely felt by the poor and oppressed to whom he was an undeviating protector and friend.
Possessed of considerable wealth but disdaining the vanities and luxuries for which wealth is so eagerly sought, he freely contributed to the relief of the indigenous and to promoting the interest of numerous relatives and friends. He was no less alive to the political and moral welfare of his fellow creatures. He was an unswerving and ardent advocate of the rights of man.
In the great effort undertaken at the end of the last century by a magnanimous and self-devoted band of patriots to rescue their native land from the grasp of the oppressor, he nearly sacrificed his life, was driven from his home, to become a friendless and destitute exile. But in the cherished land of his adoption, his sound sense, his intelligence, his integrity and his devotion to popular rights were soon appreciated and earned the esteem and love of a numerous circle of friends.
Neither prosperity nor advancing age dampened the ardor of his philanthropy. We have no doubt that after he had passed the alloted span of man’s existence here, he was willing to sacrifice all for the social regeneration of man as when, 44 years ago, he placed his name on the roll of the “United Irishmen”.
The Truth Teller (2) said of him “To the above just tribute to the memory of a good man – ‘the noblest work of God’ – we add that the following extract of a letter from him, for examination of which we are indebted to one of his distinguished friends, dated Cork 30th November last, showing that in his 80th year he was still the same unchanged, unchangeable and uncompromising Democrat which marked his previous course.
The octogenarian asked an old friend in New York “What are the prospects of my esteemed fellow citizen, Martin Van Buren? Electioneering rumor is busy even here. Well have you tacked British to the self-styled Whigs of the present day”. In allusion to the name the opposition have taken he continues, “You and I have often been amused with names, but never gulled by them. I know that American Democracy will — the people will — be true to themselves and Martin Van Buren will be our next President. I hope to be with you in time to give my feeble support to the good old cause”. The prophetic voice of Robert Swanton is now a voice from the grave: “appreciate, believe, act.”
West Cork History 