Grave Visitations

Over the past month I have accompanied my father to two church graveyards. On the first occasion he wanted to visit the grave of paternal great grandparents who had died in the middle of the nineteenth century. The headstone is made of Welsh slate and originally rested on four squat stone legs. The two at the front of the grave have been removed or disintegrated with the result that the stone now lies at a slight angle. The term for this style of headstone is I think, "table."

Neither great grandparent lived to a great age passing away when aged thirty seven years and forty two years respectively. Their daughter and only child Anne, (my father's grandmother) and who was born in 1842 was made a ward of court and was subsequently brought up by a distant relative who resided in the vicinity of Ballyshannon, Co Donegal. Family history would have it that her guardian somehow managed to get her funds mixed up with his funds but that any unpleasantness was resolved by a house being built for her and her husband.

Our second cemetery outing was to St Columb's Parish Church, Moville, (Moville Lower).This time my father wished to visit the grave of a youth by the name of Jack Bennett who had died on 1st August 1941 aged fifteen as the result of a swimming accident. His father William Bennett was the local chemist. My father had attended the funeral almost seventy six years ago. He and Jack were both pupils at Foyle, Jack a boarder and my father, two years his junior, a day boy.

Londonderry Poor Law Guardians

I recently came upon a copy of an assurance dated 7th August 1874 whereby the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland pursuant to the powers vested in them by the Irish Church Act of 1869 caused several burial grounds within the Poor Law Union of Londonderry to be vested in the Guardians of the said Union.

The term, "Union," appears to have come into usuage subsequent to the passing of Thomas Gilbert's Act in 1782 which permitted adjacent parishes in England and Wales to combine into, "unions," to provide workhouses for the old, the sick and the infirm. On 31st July 1837 , "An Act for the More Effective Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland ," authorised the formation of Unions within Ireland based on Electoral divisions which in their turn were made up of townlands. By the end of 1841 there were 130 Unions a figure which would increase between 1848 and 1850 by a further thirty three. This second tranche of Unions was created by the subdivision of existing Unions, primarily in the west of Ireland.

The Poor Law Union of Londonderry extended into Donegal hence the inclusion of Fahan and Grange Burial Grounds in the schedule to the 1874 deed. It was 217sq miles in extent. Twenty seven of the Guardians were elected from the constituent townlands. There were a further nine ex officio guardians. Weekly meetings, (on a Saturday), took place at the Union Workhouse. The tenure of the elected Guardians ran on an annual basis from 25th March. The franchise for the election of Poor Law Guardians was limited to ratepayers and was weighted, (1-6) dependant upon the valuation of the individual's property. There is a certain attraction and logic to the notion of weighted voting.

 

 

 

In the Steps of HRH.

Lisadell Church Co Sligo is in the diocese of Elphin. It is one of three churches in the Drumcliffe group of parishes. Considering its rural location it is surprisingly large, not quite as big as Drumcliffe Parish Church and of course not on the tourist trail in the manner of Drumcliffe. It doesn't have the benefit of a W. B. Yeats in its graveyard! Mind you there now seems to be some doubt as to whether it was his remains which were repatriated on board the French navy's Le Macha.

Unfortunately the Church was locked up when I called at it on Monday. The grounds are well kept, the grass cut short and the gravel paths and drives weed free and raked. If one was cynical one might postulate that this is merely a legacy from the visit of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall in May of this year but I genuinely do not believe that to be the case.

To the east of the church building and surrounded by hedging are the graves of the Gore-Booth family. Despite the family's former position as the major landowners in the area the headstones are surprisingly modest. Its most famous or some might say its most infamous member, Constance, is of course not buried with her forebearers, politics and religion resulting in her being laid to rest in Dublin's Glasnevin cemetery. She had given up the religion of her birth and converted to Catholicism circa 1916.

The church is constructed of limestone and was completed in 1860 in a gothic revival style. The proportions of the three stage bell tower are, I view, highly complimentary to the elevations of the five bay nave. The result is a sympathetically proportioned building.

 

 

Bishop Street Cathedral Schools - A Cary Connection

 

The property presently known as Bishop Street Community Centre in Londonderry has I think quite an interesting history. In the middle of the nineteenth century the lands were, with others, held by one Alfred Alexander Julius of 19 Buckingham Street, Strand London, a solicitor by profession. He had acquired the fee simple from the Irish Society. Tristram Cary of Cumber Claudy a doctor of medicine and his kinsman Arthur Lunell Cary of Beech Cottage Co Donegal in their turn held from Julius under a lease in perpetuity and consequently were able to acquire the fee simple under the terms of the Renewable Leasehold Conversion Act. By paying the sum of forty three pounds and fifteen shillings to Julius the Carys were able to obviate the necessity of paying of the ground rent that they would have been committed to pay by virtue of the provisions of the Act. The assurance in favour of the Carys is dated 4th November 1861 and they were to hold the property as tenants in common as to five sixths by Tristram and one sixth by Arthur.

The lands at Bishop Street were not the only lands which the Carys co-owned and by way of a deed of partition dated 1st November 1873 they divided their joint property between themselves with Tristram paying Arthur one hundred and thirty five pounds by way of equality of exchange. It was Tristram who was to end up as the owner of the Bishop Street property. By this time he was living at Ballybrack Co Donegal and Arthur was resident at Castlecary. Arthur was the father of Arthur Pitt Chambers Cary who in his turn was the father of the author Arthur (Joyce) Lunell Cary. Joyce Cary's mother was Charlotte Louise Joyce.

In July 1890 Tristram, who by then was resident at 48 St. Thomas' Road, Victoria Park London, sold a portion of his Bishop Street lands to a Robert Alexander for the sum of £230. Some four years later the bulk of these lands were conveyed to the Representative Church Body upon trust as and for a site for a Mission Church and School in connection with the Parish Church of the Parish of Templemore, ( St. Columb's Cathedral). The then Dean, Andrew Ferguson Smyly raised the necessary funds by way of public subscription. The building which was erected became known as Bishop Street Cathedral Schools. Ownership remained with the Church of Ireland until 21st November 1962 when the property was sold to British Oxygen Chemicals Limited. That Company converted the building into a social club for its staff and it remained as such until it was disposed of to the local authority in 1975.

 

 

 

A Clerical B. & B.

Photo by permission J. Collins of the Glebe House

 

 

The weekend of my attendance at what some of my acquaintances refer to as the zimmer frame games but which are more correctly labelled as the Irish Masters Athletics Championships resulted in me staying at The Glebe House Rathowen, Co Westmeath.

 

This property was constructed in 1817 as the residence for the Perpetual Curate of the parishes of Rathaspeck and Russagh. The total cost was £461.10.9 1/4 of which £415.7.8 1/4 appears to have been a gift from Dame Frances Elizabeth Fetherston of Ardagh Co Longford. The balance of the cost came from a small loan from the Board of First Fruits. The glebe lands extended to nine acres.

 

Not quite Georgian in looks nor yet having what would become the traditional Victorian look the property none the less has an appealing aspect with commodious accomodation which lends itself to its now use as a bed and breakfast establishment. The house is three bay, two storey over basement with a projecting single-bay, single-storey porch to the front. A rectangular plain overlight tops the doorway which is flanked by Doric type pillars. Immediately to the rear of the house is a well maintained and enclosed stable yard and adjoining this is a walled garden which extends to something over a rood. This garden is planted out with fruit trees including a fig and mulberry. Well tended lawns open out from the treelined avenue and wrap around the house. A small terrace invites contemplation by guests on the south side.

 

Internally the two principal reception rooms are entered from the vestibule and they provide secondary admittance to the two minor reception rooms behind. The latter two rooms are also entered via the inner hallway. The domestic offices are to the rear, off the living room. An open balustrade stairway rises to the first floor and its two sided gallery landing. A long pendulous light fitting hangs below an oval skylight. Five bedrooms run off the landing.

 

In one of the many codocils to her will Dame Frances adverted to an oak book case and books which she had placed in the Glebe House for the use of the incumbent for the time being and which was to be known as the, "Rathaspit Trust." The library of books which she provided for the curate's use included such potboilers as, Meditations on Death and Eternity, Dialogues on Universal Salvation and Aunt Trudy's Letters. Rathaspit is an old name for the church.

 

The Glebe House is definitely a cut above the average b & b, both internally and externally. It has history, it has properly proportioned rooms and it has comfort and appetising breakfasts. Methinks that I will be staying there again.

 

 

St. Thomas' , Rathowen.

 

I spent last Saturday night at a small village called Rathowen in County Westmeath. By no stretch of the imagination could you describe it as a heaving metropolis. Even the most ardent resident would, I suspect, accept that it is for the most part one of those places that you pass through when travelling somewhere else. That said it does have several buildings and structures which are listed on the Irish National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Included amongst these is St Thomas' Church of Ireland Church. Not having any particular plans for the evening apart from the need to stoke up on food, which I had pencilled in for eight o'clock, I ambled along to the Church to have a stroll around its grounds ie the graveyard.

 

St. Thomas' is the parish church of Rathaspeck and Russagh in the Barony of Moygoish within the combined Diocese of Kilmore Elphin and Ardagh. It is rather sad that it no longer has its own resident rector. It is now part of a Union of six churches. A reflection of twentieth century population movement and the secularisation of society no doubt.

 

The building is approached via a gravelled tree lined avenue with neatly cut verges. It was constructed in 1814 with additions in 1821. The original construction was achieved using a loan of £800 from the Board of First Fruits. A further loan of £200 allowed the two single-bay and single storey vestibules to be added to either side of the three stage tower. The castellated parapets and corner pinnacles to either side of the tower add to the gothic look of the structure. The graves of two former incumbents are in the shadow of the chancel, their headstones looking down the approach to the church.

 

When St. Thomas' was built the living was what is termed an impropriate curacy. Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) states that it was in the patronage of Sir John Bennett Piers Bt. The tithes amounted to £128.5.0 which sum was paid in its entirety to the patron, the impropriator. The curate's stipend was £92.6.7. 1/2, of which £82.2.0 was derived from Primate Boulter's Augmentation Fund with the balance being provided by the impropriator. The Ecclesiastical Register of 1827 refers to Sir John as the reputed patron. The use of the word, "reputed," may point to some debate on the matter. The will of Dame Frances Elizabeth Fetherston of Ardach in the County of Longford seems to confirm this view. In it she states that during his lifetime her late husband, Sir George Ralph Fetherston, was, "the undoubted patron of the perpetual impropriate curacy and impropriator of the parish." Her husband had died on 12th July 1853 and under his will his widow was granted the patronage during her lifetime. She states that she had built the Glebe House, (constructed 1817) for the use of the incumbent and that she had endowed the perpetual curacy in the sum of £4333.6.8.

 

 

 

 

 

Billy Old Rectory, Castlecat, Bushmills.

Another Saturday and another garden open under the auspices of the National Trust's Ulster Garden Scheme. The garden which was welcoming visitors today was that at Billy Old Rectory a few miles outside the village of Bushmills.

 

It is a good size garden, extending to about three acres. The rectory was constructed in 1810 for some £810 by the then rector, Rev. J. Babington. The doorway to the three bay dwelling is through a doorway which is situated halfway between the basement and ground floor in the three storey bow which fronts the house. Somewhat surprisingly the stairway from the entrance to the ground floor only winds from the right hand side. A pleasant symetery would have been achieved if one could advance from either of two flights of stairs from the entrance.

 

There is a small gate lodge to the property which is well kept. Leading from the entrance gates is a well maintained gravel drive with extensive lawns on the right hand side. These are flanked by a mature woodland area with bark covered walks.

 

Behind the dwelling are the orchard, the vegetable garden and herb garden. There is also a duck pond. Sadly it seems to have a solitary inhabitant. At one time there may have been bees and chickens for company. The bee hives and chicken houses remain to provide interest but they are presently uninhabited.

 

A small summerhouse overlooks the lily pond. It certainly would have attractions on a summer evening with the allure of a stiff snifter seated in front of you.

 

 

 

Female Bishop for Church of Ireland.

One wouldn't have thought that the appointment of a Bishop for the Church of Ireland's Diocese of Meath and Kildare would have raised a great deal of public attention, but it has. The original appointee, Archdeacon Leslie Stevenson, who had been elected in January of this year, subsequently declined the appointment after aspects of his personal life came to the fore. One would have thought that the reconvened Electoral College would have then appointed a very conservative, non contentious candidate, a safe pair of hands whose appointment would have passed under the radar of the media. No one obtained the requisite majority vote and the decision passed to the House of Bishops. Equally one would have expected them to, "play safe," but they haven't. They have appointed Rev Pat Storey as the first female bishop of the Anglican Communion in the British Isles.

 

I don't but doubt that she will prove to be very capable, but I have to concede that if given a vote I would have selected a male. My decision would not have been based on theological grounds, (I wouldn't pretend to be sufficiently well read to even attempt such an argument even if I supported it). No, my decision would have been on very shallow grounds. I just don't like change. I like constancy. I like tradition.

 

I wonder whether the decision of the House of Bishops is truly reflective of the voice of the laity?

 

 

Bogay House

Photo Courtesy of National Inventory of Architectural Heritage

Bogay House in County Donegal is a property which brings back many happy childhood memories. The above photograph must have been taken circa 1967. Shortly after that the driveway was tarmaced,

The property was owed by a cousin of my father and we visited he and his wife on a very regular basis. The demesne was a veritable adventure ground for a young schoolboy. The rear of the house has a southerly aspect and the lawn immediately below the the house had and presumably still has an Italianate pond. Both this pond and the rather more informal pond adjacent to the northerly turning circle were full of frogspawn every Spring and newts could always be seen amongst the pondweed.

The surrounding woodland provided me with a seemingly limitless playground. I remember visiting Bogay to view a red deer stag that had escaped from Glenveagh and found its way to this little piece of rural tranquility. There were several Spanish Chestnut trees in the woods and I recollect collecting the nuts to eat.

Below the house was the walled garden. Apparently this is one of only nine walled gardens in Co. Donegal. Unfortunately this garden is now unused and overgrown. My dad's cousin kept it in good order, indeed it was a working and productive garden. The lower half of this two acre enclave was planted with apple trees. The remainder of the garden was devoted to soft fruit and vegetables. Uncle Willie, (that's what I called him), operated the garden as a vaguely commercial venture and sold the excess produce. Self sufficiency was definitely something which he approved of. He kept bees and up until the last three or so years of his life he had a couple of dairy cows. Learning how to milk a cow by hand is another memory that remains with me. I wonder if it is one of those skills, like riding a bike, that you don't forget?

He was a nice old buffer. Certainly from another generation. Born in 1890 he was educated at Campbell College, Cambridge and St. Thomas' Hospital. Having qualified as a doctor he served as such in the RAMC during the Great War where he was awarded the MC (For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He personally assisted in getting his wounded away from the dressing station under heavy machine-gun and rifle fire. Previous to this he had gone out from the dressing station on several occasions to tend ....).

Much of his subsequent working life was spent in Palestine as a senior medical officer. He was awarded an OBE in 1936. After he had retired to Co Donegal in 1946 he and his wife, (Dorothy) would travel to East Africa for the winter months, visiting friends and relatives in Kenya, (then pronounced Keen ya, not Ken ya). Not such a bad idea methinks. He was a good source of stamps for my schoolboy collection.

The house contained various artefacts from William's colonial career. I was particularly fascinated by the huge snail shells sitting on top of the bookcases in the large three bay drawing room. He was a keen ornithologist and his notebooks are contained within the manuscript collection in the Natural History Museum in Tring.

Cutting up firewood was another of his pleasures. Unfortunately he was rather too enthusiastic at this task on one occasion and managed to sustain a ten percent reduction in digits. This however did not result in a trip to hospital. He self treated.

Built as a hunting lodge on the Abercorn Estates the Record of Protected Structures for Co Donegal states that the house was constructed in the early to mid eighteenth century. It has five bays and is two storied over a basement and with a dormer attic. There is a single bay basement to the east. A projecting porch was added to the northern aspect circa 1890. In or about 1800 the house was given to the Reverend Thomas Pemberton, rector of Taughboyne for use as a Rectory and it remained as such for in excess of a hundred years. At the time of the 1911 census, Rev A. G. Stewart had the benefit of the glebe and the twenty one room house. The ancillary buildings are listed as being, two stables; coach house ; harness room; calf house; dairy; fowl hose; broiling house; barn; potato house; workshop; shed; laundry and wood house. The census goes on to reveal three other houses on the lands, one of which was vacant and one of which was occupied by a family by the name of Best, whose head of household is described as Land Stewart. For a large part of the nineteenth century Bogay House was the residence of Rev Edward Bowen and his family. His eldest son, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, (1821 -1899) became the ninth Governor of Hong Kong on 30th March 1883, remaining in this post until 21st December 1887.

Scripophily - Railway History Documented

Some years ago, it must be nearly twenty, I came upon some old share certificates. They aren't of any great value, maybe a few pounds each, but I decided to hold on to them. I thought that they would be an interesting addition to my study wall once framed. Most of them date from the latter years of the nineteenth century and were issued to a Mrs Mary Gaussen, wife of Rev James Gaussen of Wellington Road Dublin. I have tried to discover something about this lady and her husband, but although I can find reference to various Gaussens in Dublin in the nineteenth century to date I have been unsuccessful in discovering any information regarding this pair.

They must certainly have had a very comfortable life style. Mrs Gaussen's holding of £450 of Consolidated Preference Stock in the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Company would equate to some £64,000 today, although of course the stock may have been trading at under par when it was purchased.

These old share certificates are interesting in that they do give an insight into our industrial past and the engraving is often very detailed. I suspect that it will not be long before share certificates become a thing of the past. Even private share holdings are for the most part now held on a paperless nominee basis.

The Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Company was the name adopted by the Belfast & Ballymena Railway Company after it amalgamated with/ took over the Ballymena Ballymoney Coleraine and Portrush Junction Railway in 1860.

A View the Foyle Commanding - Upper Moville Parish Church

I suppose the bean counters at Church House have to bow to financial pressures and demographics but it is still sad to see a church falling into decrepitude and being sold. Such is the fate of Upper Moville Parish Church at Tullynavin, Redcastle. The Church and grounds, but excluding the graveyard to the rear and the grave of Capt. The Hon Ernest Grey Lambton Cochrane which is situate to the front of the Church, was recently being advertised by a Donegal estate agent. The guide price was fifty thousand euro. This does seem quite cheap but I suppose there are several factors depressing the figure, the state of the Irish property market being the prime one. I wonder if a sale has been agreed as yet?

I knew that the church had not been used for some time but I hadn't realised that it is over twenty years since its doors closed. That does rather beg the question why the decision to sell was not taken during the boom days of the Irish economy.

The present church was consecrated in August 1853. It replaced a smaller building which had been constructed by the Cary family of Castle Cary in 1741 as a private chapel and which then became a chapel of ease before becoming the parish church with the division of the Moville Parish into, "Upper," and "Lower." The ruined walls of the original church are still to be seen in the graveyard and indeed there are several graves within the walls. Lewis in his, "Topographical Dictionary," of 1837 reports that the original church was too small and that there were plans for the construction of a new and larger building. Clearly these plans took a few years to come to fruition.

The present building is I think quite picturesque with its bellcote and well proportioned lancet windows and the septfoil window on the west wall. Hopefully the planners will ensure that any conversion is carried out in a sympathetic manner. It was suggested to me that it might be a good idea for the nearby Redcastle Hotel to buy the property and use it for civil ceremonies. This strikes me as an extremely good notion, but I suspect that the cost of renovation works would just not make it financially worthwhile.

Churches in Ireland

As I drive around Ireland, both north and south, I am struck by the number of victorian and earlier Church of Ireland churches  there still are. They add so much to the architectural landscape, albeit that many are beginning to show the ravages of time and lack of money.  The memorials on their walls oft give a fascinating insight into a world where elder sons of the local gentry joined the army and younger sons entered the Church.

When on the 1st day of January 1871 the Irish Church Act of 1869 came into force and disestablished the Church of Ireland all  of the Church's property vested in the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland. Subsequently on Friday 21st day of February 1871 the Commissioners vested the churches and their sites in the Representative Church Body. This remains the case. The schedule to this vesting order lists a total of 1,628 Churches. The Diocese of Armagh had the greatest number (110) with the Diocese of Kilmacduagh coming in last with 5.

It would I think be interesting to visit all the sites and see just how many have survived the intervening one hundred and forty one years with their  population movements and increasing secularity.

Province of Armagh

Diocese                                                                                      

Armagh                                                                                   110
Clogher                                                                                     78
Meath                                                                                      107
Derry                                                                                         81
Raphoe                                                                                     42
Down                                                                                        51
Connor                                                                                     85
Dromore and Exempt Jurisdiction of
                 Newry and Mourne                                              35
Kilmore                                                                                    62
Elphin                                                                                      43
Ardagh                                                                                    39
Tuam                                                                                       66
Killala                                                                                      21
Achonry                                                                                 12

Province of Dublin

Dublin                                                                                     78
Glandelagh                                                                             48
Kildare                                                                                    39
Ossory                                                                                   55
Ferns                                                                                      63
Leighlin                                                                                  55
Cashel                                                                                    32
Emly                                                                                       19
Waterford                                                                               9
Lismore                                                                                  38
Cork                                                                                       74
Cloyne                                                                                   77
Ross                                                                                       27
Killaloe                                                                                  66
Kilfenora                                                                                 6
Clonfert                                                                                 14
KIlmacduagh                                                                         5
Limerick                                                                                 49
Ardfert and Aghadoe                                                         47