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The Rev. Alcock lived at Sea Lodge, Gearhameen, he later built the old Rectory in Clashadoo.
The Tithes in 1833: ‘The year’s tithe due to Mr. Alcock, the Rector Durrus, was nearly collected in one day. The summary collection was effected by the police who act as drivers. In the case referred to the determination to to obtain ‘Tithe Distress’ was so great that I have been informed that the house where the parish priest the Reverend Quin was saying Mass was forcibly entered and a bed the only item of value would have been taken but for the suggestion of some Protestant who objected to that mode of insult to a Clergyman.
The Tithes were a tax on cultivated land pasturage was exempt. In was in the popular imagination seen as being for the maintenance of the Church of Ireland clergy it then being the State Church. In fact in at least some areas it was partly used to carry out welfare function such as the care of foundlings and the burial of the poor dead. Clearly many of the Clergy lives a life out of all proportion to the ability of their own local flock to sustain them.
Tithes were a form of property and were often owned by Landed families and freely traded mortgaged and the basis for family settlements. Often the tithes were sold and the owners sub contracted their collection to Proctors who were universally loathed.
In ways the agitation mirrored the contemporary Whiteboy troubles referred to in Mr.Alcock’s article on Gougán Barra.
The agitation and the organisation of it was to form the basis of political organisation in Ireland and the current political parties North and South owe their system of organisation to these days.
Father Quin who is referred to was from Co. Tipperary. A man of great ability he built churches, schools and instituted the Parish Registers which are still extant his handwriting was however terrible.
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Edward Jones Alcock 1805-1842, son and curate of Rev. Mason Alcock. May have lived at Sea Lodge, built old rectory (Glebe House) in 1831. 1822 Lord Lieutenant sends £30 for local distress. 1822 involved in famine relief with Father Quinn. 1822. Local Fishery Committees, Kinsale, Clonakilty, Glandore, Baltimore, Crookhaven For Bantry Timothy O’Donovan JP, O’Donovan’s Cove, Durrus, Michael O’Sullivan, Rev. Edward Jones Alcock, Rector Durrus, John Jagoe later Fishery Commissioner, Michael Murphy, Newtown, Bantry, Rev. M McChean, Bantry, John Sandys Bird.
He sat on a committee in Bantry in 1824 to petition against the withdrawal of the bounty on linen production as had been agreed in the Act of Union. Magistrate. Involved in proselytising. Father Quinn’s application for National School 16th November 1830 ED1/13/74/2, signed by for Roman Catholics Richard O’Donovan, Timothy O’Donovan, Richard Tobin, Edmond Tobin, Daniel Daly, Richard O’Donovan, John Murphy, John Carthy, Thomas Cormack?, Elias Roycroft, Andrew Caverly, Richard Caverly, Protestants E. Evanson, Richard L. Blair, Thomas Ferguson, Thomas Duklow, Charles Ducklow, John Ducklow. Rev Alcock of the Church of Ireland was asked to consent but declined but his parishioners signed. His proctors, 1833, attempted to seize Father Quin’s bed while mass was being said in is house to secure tithe payment only the intervention of Protestant neighbours stopped it. Durrus Parish Tithes payable to him of which the sum of £320 Sterling is due and payable by the year to the said Reverend Edward Jones Alcock, the composition from the tithes claimable by him as figure of such part of said Parish as is commonly known by the name of Durrus or Parish of KIlcrohane is payable to the Reverend Alcock Vicar of the said Parish the sum of £170. Most of the tithes were the property of Nathaniel Evanson and Alexander O’Driscoll having leases of tithes. So it may be he who sent the proctors otherwise all outstanding tithes collected in one day. Cess payer representative Barony West Carbery 1834.
The labourers not long since employed at the building of a Glebe House for the Protestant Clergyman (Rev. Alcock) were allowed no more more for the work of a day in summer then 6d in the claim then made of them by the clergyman for the tithe, and that without diet, such is the poverty, and so little employment is there for labourers in these parishes that on the occasions referred to some 40 or 50 might be seen coming a considerable distance in search of employment on such terms and moreover understand they were obliged to to be at work before six perhaps at five each morning continue at it until eight, or even later, in the evening, with no diet but those cold and comfortless potatoes boiled in a distant cabin, and eaten by the ditch side or under the scaffolding of the new building.
1839 Gaming Certificate. Father in law Henry Jones 1799-1805, late Rector of Lislee his daughter Frances Jane July 1833 married Rev. Edward James Alcock, 1831 at Kilmacabea.
Olr Rectory Durrus:
West Cork History 