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11. COLONEL RICHARD LONG OF LONGFIELD
The Irish records studied to date make no mention of Richard Long between 1783, when he returned to Ireland, and 1787, when he purchased an estate at Ardmayle, near Cashel, Tipperary. The lands of Ardmayle had long been held by the Butler Family.1 However, their estates were confiscated in 1653 when the Cromwellian government forced the Irish from their lands and granted them to English soldiers and settlers. “The Irish would be rooted out by a new and over-whelmingly plantation of English.”2
Thus, the ownership of the Ardmayle estates eventually came into the hands of Isaac and Margaret Walkden,3 and when their only daughter and heiress, Eleanor, married Colonel Chidley Coote in 1698,4 she brought the lands of Ardmayle with her as a dowry. Eleanor and Colonel Coote had two daughters, Mary and Eleanor, who married two brothers, Guy and Robert Moore,5 whom you may remember from Chapter 7; and yes, the daughters being heiresses like their mother, Ardmayle now became home to a branch of the Moore of Barne Family. After Guy Moore died, his widow married the Rt. Rev. Dr. William Gore, who now also had a vested interest in Ardmayle, and when his wife died, he took a second wife, and they had a son named William Gore.6
On November 20th, 1787, William Gore sold the Ardmayle estate to Richard Long, of Biddiford, Co. Kildare.7 The estate covered an area of 629 Irish plantation acres,8 equivalent to 1,019 English acres. The amount Richard paid for the purchase thereof is not specifically stated in the deed. However, the 1787 deed9 does recite a 1785 court decree which declared that the Ardmayle estate was to be sold to the highest bidder if Guy Moore Coote and his brother Chidley Moore Coote failed to pay the mortgage of 5,014 Pounds plus interest and court costs within three months time. The Moore-Coote brothers defaulted and therefore Richard Long became the successful buyer of the estate and probably paid approximately £6,000 for it.
According to the 1787 deed, Richard's brother-in-law, the Rev. William Ryan, acted as trustee in the transaction. No deed has yet been located to help explain why Richard had been living in Co. Kildare. Perhaps he had chosen a temporary residence while he waited for the opportunity of buying a choice property in his native Tipperary, and it wouldn't be surprising had the Reverend Ryan alerted Richard to the availability and advantages of purchasing the estate at Ardmayle.
Seventeen years after he set sail for India to seek his fortune there, Richard was now the proud owner of a handsome estate. Now to build a mansion suitable for a country squire! For the time being, Richard and Anna Maria were perhaps satisfied to live in one of the other old houses still standing on their property, possibly “Muirris,” “the former residence of the Moores when they lived there,”10 or the “castle at Castlemoyle, at present consisting of only a square tower ..... anciently the residence of the Butlers and subsequently of the Cootes.” “Cromwell is said to have attacked it, and after gaining possession, to have hanged the proprietor: it ..... appears to have been handsomely built.”11 Peter Meskell of the Ardmayle Heritage Society points out that Richard could not have lived at Castlemoyle, located opposite Ardmayle Church, since it has remained in a derelict state since at least 1654 A.D. As regards its having been ‘handsomely built,’ Mr. Meskell advises that the reference in the Topographical Dictionary of Ireland must be an error, and that it would much more accurately describe the old “Manor House of Ardmayle,” of which only the north wall still stands.12
There exists no exact date for the construction of Longfield House. It's a good guess that it was already up and standing in time for Richard's forthcoming marriage in 1790. Burke's Landed Gentry states: “Charity [Moore] m[arried] 8 March 1790, Richard Long, of Longfield, co. Tipperary.”13 A deed dated April 30, 1790, also refers to Richard Long of Longfield.14 In any event, Longfield House was certainly in existence by 1794 when Anna Maria Long married William Battersby at Longfield.15
Anna Maria had experienced some drastic changes in her short life. Family tradition has it that her Mother, Hedjeba, had died either in India or en route to Ireland. Named after her father's sister, Anna Maria had lived the first seven years of her life in tropical Bengal, only to be uprooted from her home and transported and tossed about by the fury of the ocean waves for several months, on a journey that took her around the globe. She had recently experienced the sorrow and trauma of losing her beloved Indian mother; and now we see her setting foot on her father's native soil, and holding on to him tightly, she feels for the first time the effect of Ireland's cool damp breezes on her youthful bronzed face, and looks into the bright Irish eyes that peer back at her in wonder, never having seen such an exotic child before, with her incredible intertwining of the bloodlines of India interwoven with those of England and France. Brave new world it was to be! Now at home in Tipperary!
At Ardmayle, she would soon have gotten to know her namesake aunt, Anna Maria and her husband, Rev William Ryan, who lived about five miles down the road at Spafield, just south of Cashel. And now she had young Ryan cousins to play with. Periodically, her Grandmother, Elizabeth Long, might have come up from Clonmel to stay with them. Yes, her world had been turned upside down; she had lost her mother but gained a family. Would the appearance of a kindly stepmother complete the portrait of her new world?
Richard and Anna Maria “walked down the front avenue where the stately silver firs planted at the time of the Moores towered over”16 the recently planted deodars [cedar trees from the Western Himalayas] that Richard had brought home from India. Familiar traces of the East were visible in “the oriental characters carved on the stone seats in the garden.”17 Father and daughter now approached “the tall white house, lantern-shaped, with many windows.” The mansion incorporated “much of the strength of a castle within the structure of a typically country home. It was built with walls six feet in width and all accessible doors and windows were protected by massive iron-lined shutters.”18
Richard closely examined the newly completed three-storey house. Curved bows graced the centers of both the front and the back of the house, with additional bows on each side. As they approached the front steps, they reached the heavily rusticated doorway and peered up at the central bow which rose up like a tower above them. They entered the house through the oval hall and climbed the curved wooden staircase.19 Home at last!
Captain Long was so taken by his new creation that he just had to give it a name. One could imagine that as he glanced out the window, he would notice how the lush field of grass in front of the house sloped gently down to the banks of the River Suir. He would name his new house “LONGFIELD” after his family and the field. And ever since then, his Ardmayle estate has been known by that name. From that day forth, he became known as Richard Long of Longfield.
NOTES:
1. History of Clonmel, pp 67 & 433
2. The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland, John Prendergast, Dublin, 1922, p 72
3. History of Clonmel, p 110n
4. Burke's Extinct Peerage, p 135, “Earls of Bellamont”
5. BIFR, 1976, p 861, “Thomson-Moore of Barne”
6. Burke's Extinct Peerage, p 236, “Earls of Ross”
7. RD, Mem. 259594, Book 392, p 474, 1787, “Gore to Gore, Ryan & Long”
8. RD, Mem. 274023, Book 419, p 293, 1790, “Long to Moore & Others”
9. RD, Mem. 259594, Book 392, p 474, 1787, “Gore to Gore, Ryan & Long”
10. Bianconi, King of the Irish Roads, Molly O'Connell-Bianconi & S. J. Watson, Dublin, 1962, p 141
11. Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Samuel Lewis, 1837, p 53, “Ardmayle”
12. LLC, 1996 Letter from Peter Meskell, Esq., of the Ardmayle Heritage Society
13. BLGI, 1912 edn, p 490, “Moore of Barne”
14. RD, Mem. 275971, Book 423, p 271, 1790, “Long to Wall”
15. Irish Marriages, Henry Farrar, from Walker's Hibernian Magazine, 2 vol, London, 1897, vol II, p 487
16. Bianconi, King of the Irish Roads, p 163
17. Ibid, p 141
18. “Longfield Brochure,” published by The Irish Georgian Society circa 1970
19. Burke's Guide to Country Houses, vol. I, Ireland, Mark Bence-Jones, Burke's Peerage Ltd., London, 1978, p 190, “Longfield”
12. THE MOORES OF BARNE
Captain Richard Long of Longfield was now a gentleman fifty years of age and one might suspect that he longed for love in his life, dreamy romantic that he was. To find a woman to love and make her his wife would make his life complete. “He had passed the early part of his life in India, where he had amassed a considerable fortune, which it was his wish to enjoy in his native country.”1 Enjoy it he would, but preferably together with a partner in marriage.
However, what woman would want a man already fifty years old? For his part, the chances of his finding a relatively young attractive spinster were rather slim, or were they? Had he not been down to Clonmel recently to visit his mother, and while there, been introduced to Miss Charity Moore, whom he found to be amiable, attractive, thirty and single? She had reciprocated his attentions and since then he had gone to visit her a few times at her family's estate of Barne, near Clonmel.
Fall in love they did, and on March the 8th, 1790, Charity Moore and Captain Richard Long were married2 at the Dublin residence of Charity's uncle, the 1st Earl of Bective.3 Theirs wasn't the first intermarriage between the two families. Eighty-five years earlier, Richard's great-uncle, Richard Hutchinson, had married Charity's great-aunt, Christian Moore. Theirs had been a happy marriage thus providing a good omen for this union also. In reality, it is much more likely that Richard and Charity’s marriage was not a love match, but was arranged by Richard and by Charity’s brothers, with financial considerations in mind.
Charity, whose name means “Christian love,” was born in 1760, the 5th daughter of Richard Moore of Barne, by his wife, Henrietta Taylour,4 sister to Sir Thomas Taylour (1724-1795), 1st Earl of Bective. The February 1741 Marriage Settlement of Richard Moore and Henrietta Taylor involved what was then the very handsome sum of £10,000, an amount which was set aside in trust for the future children of Richard and Henrietta.5 The Moores had long been politically powerful in Clonmel, Tipperary. Charity's second eldest brother, Stephen Moore, had served as a Member of Parliament for Clonmel and later became Comptroller-General of Ireland. Both her brother and her father had been High Sheriffs of Tipperary.6
Charity's great-great-grandfather arrived in Ireland as part of the Cromwellian settlement. The History of Clonmel advises that “By far ..... the most noteworthy of the newcomers was Richard Moore. Originally a glover in Barnstaple [Devon, England], he took up residence in Clonmel in 1655. Here he prospered exceedingly.”7 He had become a great sheep rancher by 1685,8 and by the time he died in 1690, he was possessed of several estates in Tipperary and Cork. “The part which they [the Moores] were to play in Clonmel affairs he could not have foreseen in the wildest dreams of ambition.”9
Richard and Margaret Moore had two surviving sons: Stephen, ancestor of the Earls of Mount Cashell, and Thomas, our ancestor. Thomas Moore of Chancellorstown, near Barne, was married to Eleanor, daughter of Richard Covert, Alderman of Cork, by his wife Christian, daughter of Nicholas King.10 Some dispute exists as to the surname of Mrs. Eleanor Moore's father. Whereas Burke's Landed Gentry refers to him as Richard Covert, Alderman of Cork, the History of Clonmel states: “Thomas [Moore] of Chancellorstown, by his wife, Eleanor, daughter of Alderman Lovett of Cork.”11 Furthermore, a quote from the 1690 Will of Thomas's father, Richard Moore, advises: “Said Thomas to settle 100 Pounds per annum on his now wife (being the agreement I made with Alderman Lovett of Cork).”12 Now names and the spellings thereof are sometimes deciphered from old family documents which can be extremely difficult to make out, so one can appreciate how there might exist some confusion between “Covert” and “Lovett.” Unless further investigation is made, we won't know whether we are descended from the Coverts or the Lovetts.
Thomas Moore’s brother Stephen (d 1703), was appointed governor of Tipperary by King William III who borrowed £3,000 from Stephen and never did bother to repay the debt.13 One of Stephen’s descendants, Lady Catherine [Moore] Morgan (1833-1886), earned the nickname of “Unlimited Loo,” as a result of her reputation as a noted gambler at cards.14
Colonel Stephen Moore (b 1689) was the eldest son of Thomas and Eleanor, and boy, was he a scoundrel! “Daring and unscrupulous, Moore ..... obtained a majority in the town council by means of which he set about converting Clonmel into a pocket borough for the advantage of his family.”15 He was installed as mayor of Clonmel in 1724. Stephen, whose skill with a pistol was notorious, had an ongoing feud with Counsellor Slattery, a political rival. Matters reached the boiling point in November, 1726, when they fought it out with sword and pistol, the outcome being that Stephen killed his opponent. When it comes to ancestors, we have to learn to accept that there are bound to be at least a few bad apples amongst them.
In 1712, Colonel Stephen Moore (1689-1750) of Barne married Judith (b 1678), daughter of Richard Dowdeswell (b 1653) of Poole Court, Worcestershire, England,16 Member of Parliament, by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Winnington (1634-1700), Solicitor-General to King Charles II.17 Sir Francis “was famed ..... for his skill in riding and for his love of sport.”18 “Sir Francis was eminent for his knowledge in the laws of England, was a great master of eloquence, and a most zealous defender of the liberties of his country.”19
Stephen and Judith Moore had two sons: Richard and Stephen. The elder son, Richard, is believed to have been the one responsible for the construction of the magnificent mansion which is still the home of our Moore relatives at Barne Park. In 1741, Richard Moore (d 1771) married Henrietta Taylour (d 1783) and they had a family of three sons and six daughters including Charity.20 One of the daughters, Salisbury, married her cousin, yet another Stephen Moore, and from their eldest son, Lt-Col Stephen Moore (b 1782), of Barne, descends Colijn Thomson-Moore,21 Head of the Moore Family of Barne. Salisbury and Stephen’s second son, the Right Hon Richard Moore (b 1783), served as a privy councillor to the monarch and as a judge of the Court of the Queen’s Bench22 and he is the great-great-grandfather of retired Lt-Commander Edward Stephen St. Leger Moore of London.23
Charity’s sister, Anne Moore, married Lawrence Grace Langley in 1794, and their only son, Henry Augustus Langley (1798-1834),24 eventually began construction of a medieval structure, Brittas Castle; “but in 1834, when only the great gate-tower had been built, Major [Henry] Langley was killed by a falling stone and the work was abandoned.”25 Another of Charity’s sisters, Elizabeth Moore, married Joseph Boultbee,26 and from them descends our kinsman, the Marquess of Tweeddale.27 Charity’s eldest sister, Henrietta (1747-1831), married in 1772, her cousin, Thomas Pepper, of Ballygarth Castle, Co. Meath, and they had four daughters and eight sons, many of whom pursued careers in the military and in the East India. Co.28 Of interest to the Canadian descendants of the Moores and the Longs, Henrietta and Thomas Pepper’s youngest daughter Harriet (d 1834), married James Lowry, of Rockdale, Co. Tyrone, and their grandson, Lieut. William Hay Talbot Lowry (1854-1885), of the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police [now the RCMP], was killed in action at Battleford, Saskatchewan,29 during the Riel Rebellion.
NOTES:
1. Saunders Newsletter & Daily Advertiser, Thursday, July 7, 1814
2. BIFR, p 862, “Thomson-Moore of Barne”; See below Note 29 for Transcript of the 1790 Marriage Settlement of Richard Long & Charity Moore
3. “The Ormonde Letters,” #1, 1984
4. BIFR, pp 861-2, “Thomson-Moore of Barne”
5. RD, Memorial 92, vol 10, 1846, “Long to Moore”
6. BIFR, p 861, “Thomson-Moore of Barne”
7. History of Clonmel, p 91
8. Ibid, p 102
9. Ibid, pp 91-2
10. BIFR, p 861
11. History of Clonmel, p 318
12. Ibid, p 335
13. BIFR, p 819, under “Perceval-Maxwell”
14. Ibid, p 820
15. History of Clonmel, p 115
16. BIFR, p 861, “Thomson-Moore of Barne”
17. Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford Press, 1964, vol XXI, p 668
18. Ibid
19. The Baronetage of England, E. Kimber & R. Johnson, London, 1771, vol. 3, p 136.
20. BIFR, pp 861-2, “Thomson-Moore of Barne”
21. Ibid
22. Ibid, p 861
23. Ibid
24. BIFR, p 688, “Langley”
25. Burke’s Guide to Country Houses, Volume 1. Ireland, Mark Bence Jones, 1978, Burke’s Peerage Ltd, London, p 48
26. BLG, 1894 edn, pp 192-3, “Boultbee of Springfield”
27. BP, 1970 edn, “Zetland,” p 2906; GEC’s Complete Peerage, vol XII, p 84, “Tweeddale”
28. BLGI, 1912, p 556, “Pepper of Ballygarth”
29. BIFR, 1976, p 738, “Lowry”
* * * * * * *
TRANSCRIPT OF THE 1790 MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT OF RICHARD LONG & CHARITY MOORE
REGISTRY OF DEEDS HENRIETTA STREET DUBLIN
No. 274023 Book 419 Page 293 Long to Moore & Others
Registered the 11th Day of March 1790 at or near three O’Clock in the afternoon of said Day
To the Registrar appointed by Act of Parliament for registering of deeds, etc.
A Memorial of Deeds of Lease and Release, Indentured bearing date respectively the ninth and tenth days of March 1790, the Lease made between Richard Long of Ardmayle in the County of Tipperary, Esquire, of the one part and Stephen Moore of Barne in the County of Tipperary, Esquire, and the Reverend Richard Moore, Dean of Emly in the Kingdom of Ireland of the other part, and the Release made between the said Richard Long of the first part, the said Stephen Moore and Richard Moore of the second part, Henry Jesse Lloyd of Castle Iny and Henry Langley of Brittas in the County of Tipperary, Esquires, of the third part and Charity Moore, Spinster, one of the sisters of said Stephen and Richard, of the fourth part. By which said Release, in Consideration of a Marriage then intended to be had Between the said Richard Long and the said Charity Moore, and of Two Thousand Pounds, her Marriage Portion, and for the other Considerations therein mentioned, He the said Richard Long, Did Grant Release and Confirm unto the said Stephen Moore and Richard Moore, All that the Capital Messuages called Ardmayle, Ballyroe, Part of Monroe, The House Quarter of Ardmayle, the Castle Farm, the Church Farm, Castlemoyle, Stormont’s House, Garden and Holding, Situate in the County of Tipperary, containing by Estimation six Hundred and twenty nine Acres, be the same more or less, To hold to said Stephen and Richard Moore, their Heirs and Assignees, To such uses upon such Trusts and to and for such Intent and purposes as are thereinafter mentioned, Expressed and Declared of and concerning the same, And among others, In Trust from and after the Decease of the said Richard Long, To the Intent that the said Charity Moore and her Assignees should have yearly thereout during her natural life, in case survived her said intended Husband, one Annuity yearly rent or sum of Five Hundred Pounds payable half-yearly on every Twenty fifth March and Twenty ninth September, and by said Deed a term of Five hundred is Created for the purpose of raising portions for younger Children or Daughters in Manner therein mentioned, and by said Deed a power is given to the said Richard Long during his natural Life (being in possession) to Demise or Lease said Lands for any Term not exceeding three Lives or for any Number of years not exceeding Forty one years at the best, Improved yearly, rent without Fine, which said Deeds of Lease and Release and this Memorial are witnessed by Stephen Moore of Chesterfield in the County of Tipperary, Esquire, and Thomas Prendergast of the City of Dublin, Esquire, Registrar of His Majesty’s High Court of Chancery in Ireland.
R I C H A R D L O N G m
Signed and Sealed in presence of
STEPHEN MOORE THOMAS PRENDERGAST
The above named Thomas Prendergast maketh Oath that he saw the above named Richard Long duly Sign Seal and deliver the above mentioned Deed of Release of which said Deeds of Lease and Release the above writing is a Memorial. Deponent sayth he is a subscribing witness to the said Deeds of Lease and Release and Memorial as to the Execution of them as aforesaid and sayth that the name Thomas Prendergast to them respectively subscribed, is this Deponent’s name and handwriting. Sayth he delivered the said Deeds of Lease and Release and the above Memorial to John Moore, Gentleman, Deputy Registrar, the 11th Day of March 1790 at or near three O’Clock in the afternoon of said Day.
THOMAS PRENDERGAST
Sworn before me this 11th Day of March 1790
JOHN MOORE
Deputy Registrar
13. THE TAYLOURS OF HEADFORT & COTTONS OF COMBERMERE
Before moving on to tell you more of Richard and Charity and their family, we mustn't forget to explore the background of Charity's mother, Henrietta. When Charity Moore married Richard Long on March 8th, 1790, she brought with her, as if a dowry, a lineage extending back hundreds of years into the past, and that ancient line of descent came down to her through her mother.
Henrietta Taylour Moore (d 1783) was born circa 1720, one of the two surviving children of Sir Thomas Taylour (1686-1757), 2nd Baronet of Headfort, by his wife, Sarah Graham (will proved 1787) of Platten Hall.1 The Taylour Family resided at Headfort House on their estate near Kells in County Meath. Sir Thomas was a Member of Parliament for Kells for many years and became a Privy Councillor to King George II in 1753. His only son, Thomas (1724-1795), 1st Earl of Bective, is the ancestor of our distant cousin, the 6th Marquis of Headfort. In 1803, Charity's first cousin, the 1st Marquis of Headfort (1757-1829), caused quite the scandal in Ireland when he ran off with Mrs Massy, wife of the Rev. Charles Massy.2 Lord George [Taylour] Quin (1792-1888), 2nd son of the 1st Marquis of Headfort, married Lady Georgiana Spencer,3 great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales. And Lord George’s elder brother, the 2nd Marquis of Headfort, served as a Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria.4
Henrietta's mother, Sarah, Lady Taylour (d c 1787 when will proved),5 was the second daughter of John Graham (d 1717), of Platten Hall, Alderman of Drogheda, County Meath,6 by his wife, Charity Newton (d 1731),7 sister of General John Newton (d 1715) of Drogheda.8 It should be mentioned here that Charity Newton Graham was the great-grandmother of Charity Moore Long, her great-grandmother being the first in a long line of Charitys, of which have been counted about twenty among her female descendants. My Grandmother, aware that “Charity” was a family name, wanted to give the name to my Mother; however, my Grandfather objected.
Henrietta's father, Sir Thomas Taylour, 2nd Baronet, was the eldest son and heir of the Rt. Hon. Sir Thomas Taylour (1662-1736), 1st Baronet, by his wife, Anne Cotton (1668-1758), of Combermere, Cheshire, England. This first Sir Thomas was also a Member of Parliament for Kells, and in 1704, he was created a baronet, akin to a hereditary knighthood. In 1726, he was sworn in as a Privy Councillor. His father, also named Thomas Taylour (1631-1682), came over to Ireland from Sussex, England in 1653, and “with his friend and college companion, the famous Sir William Petty, .... undertook and perfected, in conjunction with Sir William, the Down Survey. The maps, although the joint production of Petty and Taylour, were published in Sir William's name alone.”9
Some interesting connections can be made as a result of our Taylour descent which we share with such persons as: Constance, Duchess of Westminster (d 1970); the current Dukes of Manchester and of Montrose; the 2nd Earl of Gosford (1776-1849), Governor-in-Chief of Canada, 1835-7; Major George Cornwallis-West (1874-1951), who married Jennie Jerome Churchill (d 1920), mother of Sir Winston Churchill; George’s sister, Mary Cornwallis-West (d 1920), mistress of King Edward VII; and her daughter, Princess Daisy of Pless (1891-1943); and Beatrice O’Brien, who married Guglielmo Marconi, one of the inventors of the telegraph and radio.
Anne Cotton, wife of Sir Thomas Taylour, 1st Baronet, was the fifth daughter of Sir Robert Cotton (1635-1712), 1st Baronet of Combermere, by his wife, Hester Salusbury (1637- 1710), heiress of Llewenny.10 In 1685, Sir Robert Cotton “was committed by [King] James the Second to the Tower [of London] on a charge of treasonable correspondence with the Electress Sophia (mother of King George I), but was soon afterwards released.”11 Sir Robert's fortunes eventually improved for we find him entertaining the new monarch, King William III, at Combermere in 1690.
When Sir Robert Cotton died in 1712 at the age of eighty-one, he was buried with his wife in a vault at Whitchurch in Denbigh, Wales, near his wife's ancestral home of Llewenny Hall. Attached to one of the walls within the church is an inscribed monument dedicated to the Salusburys and Cottons. Part of the inscription reads:
“In the Vault adjoyning to this monument, (being the burial place of the ancient family of the Salusburys of Llewenny .....) lyes interr'd Hester Lady Cotton - daughter of Sir Thomas Salusbury of the same, Bart., the loving and much beloved wife of Sir Robert Cotton of Combermere, in the county of Chester, Bart. She changed this life for a better one the 7th day of October 1710; aged 73: Having brought her husband five sons & eleven daughters; from whom she lived to see above a hundred of her own offspring, she became heiress to the estate of her ancestors by the decease of her brother Sir John Salusbury Bart., who died without issue Anno 1684.”
“Sir Robert, as a Testimony of affection to his dear spouse; ordered by his last will & testament, that he should be buried; (separate from his own ancestors) in this vault; near to the body of his said wife: where he was accordingly interr'd january the 12, anno 1712, aged 81. He was a Gentleman of great hospitality, a loving husband, a tender father, a true friend; & a kind master, And was so well beloved in his country, that he served it for 32 years in Parliament, without interruption. There also lyes two of their children (viz), John, a young Gentleman of great hopes: and a daughter named Jane.” “Sir Robert Cotton is said to have ‘added largely to the wealth and importance of the family’ by his marriage with Hester,”12 daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Salusbury, 2nd Baronet of Llewenny, Co. Denbigh.
However, the Cotton Family itself was of ancient lineage and local eminence, having been seated at Combermere Abbey from the reign of King Henry VIII,13 and previous to that, at Cotton Hall, in the neighbouring county of Shropshire, from the reign of Henry III,14 in the 13th century. Sir Robert Cotton (1631-1712), was the son of Thomas Cotton of Combermere, by his wife, Elizabeth (b 1608), daughter of Sir George Calveley (d 1620), of Lea,15 by his wife, Mary, daughter of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley (d 1601), of Cholmondeley,16 by his wife, Mary (1562-1626), daughter and heiress of Christopher Holford (d 1581), of Holford,17 by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Randle Mainwaring (d 1557), of Over Peover.18 The aforementioned Thomas Cotton was son of George Cotton (d 1649), of Combermere [by his wife, Mary, dau of Sir George Bromley, Chief Justice of Chester], son of Richard Cotton (d 1602), of Combermere [by his wife, Mary,19 daughter of Sir Arthur Mainwaring of Ightfield], son of Sir George Cotton, of Combermere, esquire of the body to King Henry VIII.20
NOTES:
1. BP, 1970 edn, p 1299, “Headfort, M.”; the author’s nephew, Taylour Maxwell Mackay, is named in honour of our ancestor, Sir Thomas Taylour, 2nd Baronet of Headfort
2. Some Irish Loving, Edna O'Brien, p 198
3-4. BP, 1970 edn, p 1299, “Headfort, M.”
5. LLC, 1992 letter containing genealogical info researched by Colin Burleigh, of Kent, England, a descendant of the Grahams of Ballyheriden, Co. Armagh. Included in Colin’s letter was a copy of a Betham Pedigree, Ref. No. 315/4/14, pp 169-174: “Graham of Ballyheridan & Platten,” which states that Alderman John Graham (d 1717), of Platten Hall, was the eldest son of Robert Graham (d 1682), of Ballyheridan [by his 1st wife, Mary Bell (or Campbell?) (d 1673)], son of John Graham (d 1638), of Ballyheridan, Co. Armagh, by his wife, Margaret.
6. BP, 1970 edn, p 1299, “Headfort, M.”
7. Irish Genealogist, vol I, #2, Apr 1942, p 338
8. Registry of Deeds, Dublin, Abstracts of Wills, Dublin, 1956, vol I, p 39
9. BP, 1970 edn, p 1298, “Headfort, M.”
10. History of the County Palatine & City of Chester (aka Ormerod's Cheshire), 3 vol, George Ormerod, London, 1882, vol 3, p 415, “Cotton of Combermere”
11-12. Ormerod's Cheshire, vol 3, p 405, “Nantwich Hundred”
13. BP, 1970 edn, p 619, “Combermere”
14. Ormerod’s Cheshire, vol 3, p 415, “Cotton of Combermere”
15. BP, 1970 edn, p 619, “Combermere”
16. Ormerod's Cheshire, vol 2, p 769, “Calveley of Lea”; also, vol 2, p 638, “Cholmondeley”
17. Ormerod’s Cheshire, vol 1, p 672, “Holford of Holford”
18. Burke’s Extinct Baronetages, p 335, “Mainwaring of Over Peover”
19. Richard & Mary Cotton were ancestors of President Grover Cleveland - see Ancestors of American Presidents, Gary Boyd Roberts, 1989, p 148
20. BP, 1970 edn, p 619, “Combermere”
14. THE SALUSBURYS OF LLEWENNY & THE EARLS OF DERBY
Charity Long's great-great-grandmother was Lady Hester Salusbury Cotton (1637-1710), daughter and eventual heiress of Sir Thomas Salusbury, 2nd Baronet of Lllewenny (1612-43), by his wife, Hester,1 daughter of Sir Edward Tyrrell (d 1650), 1st Baronet of Thornton, Buckinghamshire,2 by his wife, Elizabeth (b 1581), daughter of Sir William Kingsmill (d 1618), of Sydmonton, Hampshire. Sir William Kingsmill entertained King James I at Sydmonton Court in August 1603,3 and it should be noted here that Sir William’s brother, Sir Francis Kingsmill (1570-1620), is an ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II. Lady Hester Cotton's father, Sir Thomas Salusbury, had a natural genius for poetry and romance, and he became “a most noted poet of his time”; 4 however, his only surviving poem is The History of Joseph, published in London in 1636.
Sir Thomas Salusbury (1612-1643) was the son and heir of Sir Henry Salusbury (d 1632), 1st Baronet of Llewenny, by his wife, Hester (d 1614), daughter of Sir Thomas Myddleton (1550-1631), of Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, a founding member of the East India Co., and Lord Mayor of London in 1613.5 In the pages of an old edition of Burke's Peerage, there can be found a description of Charity's Ancestor, Sir Henry Salusbury: “There is at Llewenny, a portrait of Sir Henry, in which he is placed sitting in his shirt, his bosom naked; over one arm is cast a red mantle; his breeches red, with points at his knees; his stockings purple; his slippers rich in lace; his beard bushy; his whiskers small. He is seated in a balcony, as if at his toilet.”6
Sir Henry Salusbury was the son and heir of Sir John Salusbury (1566-1612), Knight of Llewenny, by his wife, Ursula (d 1636), natural daughter of Henry [Stanley], Earl of Derby.7 Like his grandson, Sir Thomas, Sir John was also somewhat of a poet, and there exists a book entitled Poems by Sir John Salusbury & Robert Chester.8 In 1595, Sir John was appointed as an esquire to Queen Elizabeth I, “and in June 1601, he was knighted by Elizabeth's own hand.”9 Through his great-grandmother, Lady Elizabeth Puleston Salusbury, Sir John was descended from King Edward III.10 Through his mother, Katheryn of Berain (d 1591), it is highly likely that Sir John was the great-great-grandson of King Henry VII, founder of the House of Tudor.11
As a very young man, the future King Henry Tudor lived for a few years in Brittany, where it is believed that he sired a son, Sir Roland de Velleville (d 1535), by an unknown Breton woman. Although documents relating to his birth are lacking, a lengthy article in the scholarly Welsh History Review provides very strong evidence in support of Sir Roland's having been King Henry's base son.12 In 17th Century north Wales, Sir Roland was remembered as a “man of a kingly line” and “of earl's blood,”13 a likely reference to King Henry VII's father, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. To sum matters up, although Sir Roland's paternity cannot be proven, one can be reasonably confident that he was in fact the natural son of Henry Tudor.14
Sir Roland de Velleville's granddaughter, Katheryn of Berain (1534-1591), has come to be a legend in her own right. She married first, John Salusbury (d 1566) of Llewenny, and they had two sons: Thomas and Sir John. It is said that Maurice Wynn proposed to Katheryn as he led her from the church after the funeral of her first husband, John Salusbury. Katheryn declined as she had already accepted the marriage proposal of another man [Sir Richard Clough] on the way to the church. She did promise him, however, that if she were ever to have to perform the same sad duty again, he could count on becoming her third husband.
Lo and behold, fourteen years later, Katheryn's second husband died, and she did marry Mr. Wynn, who lasted only a few years and then died, thus permitting Katheryn to marry again for the fourth and last time in 1583. She had several children by her first three marriages, and her descendants are numerous; and as a result, she is known in Welsh as “Mam Cymru,” which means “The Mother of Wales.”15
Katheryn's son, Sir John Salusbury (1566-1612), was married to Ursula Stanley, base daughter of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby (1531-1593), by his mistress, Jane Halsall of Knowsley, by whom “he [the Earl of Derby] had several natural children - Thomas ...., Dorothy .... and Ursula, wife of Sir John Salusbury - for whom he made liberal provision.” 16 “Though of illegitimate birth, it is to be noted that Salusbury's wife was an acknowledged child and bore her father's surname.”17
Henry, Earl of Derby, was unhappily married to Lady Margaret Clifford, great-niece of King Henry VIII. Added to Lord Derby's matrimonial problems, his wife Margaret had very expensive tastes, and before long, he was experiencing severe financial difficulties. “Not surprisingly, Henry turned for solace .... to Jane Halsall.”18 A few lines from a poem written in honor of their daughter, Lady Ursula Salusbury, acknowledge her noble descent:
“so kind & courteus is m[istress] Salusbury,
ffrom princely blood & Ryale stocke she came
of egles brood hatcht in a loftie nest
The earl of Derby & the king of manne
her father was her brother now possest”19
You can imagine my surprise when I caught sight of the following article in a Toronto newspaper two years ago: “A British historian says two poems written for a wealthy family 400 years ago were probably the work of William Shakespeare. Tom Lloyd-Roberts said the works, housed in an Oxford library, were penned in a distinctive hand and he has called for the manuscripts to be re-examined. The poems were written in praise of Sir John Salusbury, a Welsh landowner, and his wife Ursula. The couple were friends of Shakespeare.”20
Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, was descended from King Edward III (1312-1377) in four different ways. Members of the aristocracy tended to marry within their own class, and eventually this led to their being interrelated to a large degree. Lady Ursula Salusbury inherited her father's four Edwardian descents, and those added on to her husband, Sir John Salusbury's single descent from Edward III, make for a total of five. Sir John's most probable descent from Henry Tudor adds a sixth likely descent from King Edward III, since King Henry VII was also one of Edward's descendants.
Elsewhere in this book can be found a chart outlining Charity Long's descent from the Royal Houses of Plantagenet and Tudor. Countless numbers of people are descended from royalty, and it makes them no better and no worse than anyone else. The real significance of royal descents is that it gives us a direct connection with history and historical figures going back 1000 years!
NOTES:
1. Burke's Extinct Baronetages, p 465, “Salusbury of Llewenny”
2. Ibid, p 538, “Tyrrell of Thornton”
3. BLGI, 1912, p 370.
4. Dictionary of National Biography, 1882, Oxford Press, vol XVII, pp 684-5, “Thomas Salusbury”
5. Dictionary of National Biography, vol XIII, pp 1337-8, “Sir Thomas Myddleton”
6. BP, 1862 edn, p 935, “Salusbury”
7. Ibid, p 935
8. Poems by Sir John Salusbury & Robert Chester, Kegan Paul & Humprey Milford, Oxford University Press, London, 1914
9. Ibid, p xviii - Introduction
10. BP, 1862 edn, p 882, “Puleston”; & Burke's Guide to Presidential Families of America, London, 1975, Appendix C, “Presidents of Royal Descent,” #13, “The Descent of President Nixon from Edward III, King of England”
11. Dictionary of Welsh Biography, p 531
12. The Welsh History Review, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, vol 15, June 1991, #3, pp 351- 367, “Sir Roland de Velleville & the Tudor Dynasty”
13. Ibid, pp 352-3
14. Ibid, pp 352-3
15. Dictionary of Welsh Biography, p 531
16. Victorian County History of Lancashire, vol 3, p 162
17. Poems by Sir John Salusbury, p xv - Introduction
18. The Stanleys, Lords Stanley & Earls of Derby, Barry Coward, Manchester, 1983, pp 31-2
19. Poems by Sir John Salusbury, p 31
20. The Globe & Mail, Toronto, Feb 11, 1994, 1st section, back page, “Social Studies”
15. THE LONGS OF LONGFIELD
Back at Longfield in the 1790s, Richard and Charity Long were busy raising a family of their own. Their elder son, Richard Long II, was born sometime between 1791 and 1795. Unfortunately his gravestone in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin gives neither his date of birth, nor his age at the time of his death. Since we know the approximate dates when his five siblings were born, we can therefore place Richard II's birth into two available time slots: either 1791 or between 1793 to 1795.
Richard and Charity's eldest daughter, Harriet Long, was born in 1792, as ascertained by her obituary contained in an album filled with 19th Century newspaper clippings collected by members of the Phillips of Gaile Family.1 The second daughter, Charity Maria Long, was born in 1796,2 and the third daughter, Caroline Anna Long, entered the earthly plane in the following year of 1797.3
In 1799, Charity gave birth to Richard's younger son, Edward Thomas Long, and according to the inscription on his gravestone which gives his exact age at the time of his death, he was born April 21, 1799.4 Richard and Charity's youngest child and fourth daughter was Louisa Salisbury Long, born in 1800 A.D. According to a “Cooper of Killenure” genealogy drawn up by a member of the Australian branch of the Coopers, “Samuel [Cooper] ... was born in 1800” and “Louisa Long ... was born in the same year as her husband.”5
It's surprising that there was no daughter named Elizabeth, after Richard's mother. Following the traditional naming pattern, the eldest daughter, Harriet, had been named after her maternal grandmother, so one would have expected their second daughter to have been named after her father's mother. Since we know only the names of those children who survived to adulthood, there's a good chance that Richard and Charity did have a daughter Elizabeth who died young.
Richard and Charity Long must have honeymooned in Dublin after their marriage there on March the 8th, 1790, since we find Richard signing a deed in Dublin on March 30th, 1790. The Deed advises that Richard Long was entitled to a sum of 300 Pounds Sterling, resulting from the lien on the lands of Lacken. Richard turned the entire sum plus interest, and his right and title to Lacken, over to his sister, Anna Maria Ryan otherwise Long. Anna was to “receive the Interest thereof for her sole & separate use without the intermedling of the said William Ryan her said husband.”6 It must have pleased Richard to have been prosperous enough to be able to turn over his share of the Lacken rents to his sister. At the same time, one can detect some mistrust on Richard's part toward his brother-in-law. Accordingly, Richard very clearly worded the deed to ensure that his sister, and not her husband, would receive the benefit of his generosity.
The next record of Richard Long is from the summer of 1792 when he served on the Grand Jury of County Tipperary. He served again in the following years: Lent 1793-4-5; Summer 1795-6 and 1802.7 A happy event occurred at Longfield House on or about the 17th of June, 1794, when Richard and Hedjeba's seventeen year old daughter, Anna Maria, was married to Lieutenant William Battersby of Bobsville.8 After having lived ten years of her short life in Ireland, six of them at Longfield, she would soon be travelling 110 miles northeast to her new home at Bobsville, near Kells, County Meath.
Robert Long had died by 1798 and his will was proved during that same year. Richard was probably his heir and a 1799 deed seems to confirm that. The Memorial of the deed advises that Richard Long of Longfield rented out part of the Longs' Cahir Abbey lands to John Fennell.9 Earlier Long deeds had made it quite clear that Robert Long was the eldest son and heir apparent of Edward Long of Cahir Abbey.10 Now Richard, the younger son, was the one administering the Cahir Abbey lands. In the following year of 1799, Richard suffered a second loss when his mother, Elizabeth, passed away. The Irish will index reads: [Will proved] “1799, LONG, Elizabeth.....Clonmel, Widow.”11
The deed recording the 1800 A.D. marriage of Richard's niece, Jane Rogers, to Frederick DeButts, doesn't make any mention at all of her parents, although her uncle, Rev William Ryan, was a party to the deed.12 Therefore, it would seem possible that Richard's sister Jane and her husband, Robert Rogers, had died by then. On the other hand, perhaps they simply couldn't make it to their daughter's wedding, living as they did up near Cookstown, County Tyrone, about 120 miles north of Dublin. Needless to say, travel was difficult then, resulting from the poor condition of the roads and the availabilty of only four-legged transportation power.
Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland refers to Richard as “Richard Long, D.L., of Longfield.” “D.L.” is the abbreviation for “Deputy Lieutenant,” of which there were two in every county, each county being presided over by one Lord Lieutenant. The positions were part of the judiciary system of the civil administration of Ireland. According to his eldest daughter's obituary, Richard also served as a Justice of the Peace.13 Burke's Landed Gentry twice refers to Richard as “Col. Richard Long of Longfield,” in both the “Phillips of Gaile”14 and the “Cooper of Killenure” genealogies.15 I'm told that Richard's designation as “Colonel” probably resulted from his service as an officer in the volunteer Munster (or Leinster?) Militia during the Rebellion of 1798.
In 1802, Richard Long built a woollen mill at Ardmayle,16 just east of the bridge that crosses the River Suir. A year later, in September, 1803, John Keating granted to Richard Long “full and free use of the Stream of Tubridora,” “full power and liberty to hold and occupy a watercourse through the lands of Tubridora into the lands of Nodstown,” “through which said watercourse was cut and excavated,” “through which the water then flowed to the Mill at Ardmayle Manufactory.”17 In other words, Richard diverted the water from the Tubridora stream, into a channel he had had excavated, and then the water flowed along the channel to his mill at Ardmayle.
A newspaper reporting Richard's death in 1814 advised that: “he had attempted the establishment of a woollen manufactory at Ardmayle, which turned out unsuccessful.”18 Now according to Bianconi's biography, Captain Long is alleged to have demolished an old Catholic Church and used its consecrated stones to build the woollen mill.19 My Ardmayle correspondent does not believe it logical to assume that Richard Long was guilty of the accusation, since, by cubic measurement, the mill is more than ten times larger than was the church.20 Therefore, the stones from the church would not have gone very far toward the construction of the mill. Richard's woollen mill venture reminds one that Richard's ancestors are alleged to have gotten into the woollen business more than 100 years before. The building that housed the mill still stands today and is now a general store.
By the year 1810, Richard was seventy years old and Charity was fifty. Having married late in life, Richard must have felt that his years in India had been worth the effort. After all, he now owned a beautiful home and a fair-sized estate, and he had become a respected gentleman of means and status in the community. Most of all, he felt himself fortunate to have a lovely wife and seven children: Anna Maria, married with children of her own; Harriet now a young woman aged eighteen; Richard Jr. in his mid to late teens; Charity, 14; Caroline, 13; Edward, 11; and little Louisa, now 10 years old.
Longfield was a bustling busy place back then, with numerous servants and other hired staff to help run the estate, which was like a community alive with the activity of people going to and fro, of the laughter of children at play, and of the calls of farm animals too. It was a happy place. Life had been good to Richard Long of Longfield!
NOTES:
1. The Phillips of Gaile Cuttings Album, property of Richard Phillips, Esq., p 5
2. Ibid, p 2
3. Ibid, p 2
4. Ironton Church Cemetery, Ironton, Wisconsin. Gravestone inscription reads: “EDWARD LONG; died April 12, 1875; Aged 75 yrs, 11 mo., 21 d[ay]s.”
5. “Cooper of Killenure” Genealogy, by Rev Father Edward Cooper, of Australia, chapter 1, p 5
6. RD, Mem. 323601, Book 501, p 279, deed dated 1790; registered 1796; “Long to Rumbould”
7. “Magistrates, Grand Juries, & High Sheriffs for Co. Tipperary,” by Thomas U. Sadleir; Genealogical Office, Dublin
8. RD, Mem. 307260, Book 479, p 373, 1794, “Battersby to Long”
9. RD, Mem. 343477, Book 521, p 522, 1800, “Long to Fennell”
10. RD, Mem. 343477, Book 215, p 356, 1762, “Long & ors to Quin”
11. Index to Prerogative Wills of Ireland, p 290
12. RD, Mem. 345402, Book 523, p 274, 1800, “DeButts & Rogers to Ball & Ryan”
13. Phillips of Gaile Cuttings Album, p 2, under “Pennefather”
14. BLGI, 1912 edn, p 563, “Phillips of Gaile”
15. Ibid; & BIFR, p 278, “Cooper”
16. Waterford Mirror, 1802
17. RD, Mem. 372430, Book 556, p 554, 1803, “Keating to Long”
18. Saunders Newsletter & Daily Advertiser, July 7, 1814
19. Bianconi, King of the Irish Roads, p 164
20. LLC, letter from Peter Meskell of the Ardmayle Heritage Society, Nov 23rd, 1995
16. THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD LONG OF LONGFIELD
“The Clonmel Advertiser, Wednesday, July 6, 1814
‘The neighbourhood of Cashel has been thrown into alarm by another outrage, not less appalling than any of those which have occurred there these two or three years back. We lament to say, that about 4 o'clock on Monday morning last, as Captain Long, of Longfield, near Ardmayle, was going to an out-office in his garden, some assassins, who had lain in wait for him, darted on him, and shot him through the head; a second ball broke his right arm, and passed thro' his body; and it is needless to add, that his immediate death was the consequence.
As we have heard no particulars of the melancholy affair, we can say nothing more on the subject. But Captain Long was a Gentleman whose honest integrity and worth secured in him the esteem of every good man, and the deplorable termination of his life is a cause of melancholy and alarming reflection to all who are not dead to the public security. On the subject of outrages in the same neighbourhood passing unavenged before, we have expressed our apprehensions frequently; it is now evident that they were but too well founded!’
Saunder's Newsletter & Daily Advertiser, Thursday, July 7, 1814
‘A letter from Cashel mentions, we are sorry to be informed of, the murder of Mr. Long, of Ardmayle, in the County of Tipperary, on Monday last (4 July, 1814), at an early hour in the morning. Mr. Long, though advanced in years, was fond of rural sports, and had risen at a very early hour in order to reach the mountains betimes, which were to be the scene of the intended sport. He had proceeded but a few steps from his house when he was fired at with two shots, both of which took place, and he fell.
Mr. Long was a gentleman who was honoured and respected by the gentry of the country. He had passed the early part of his life in India, where he had amassed a considerable fortune, which it was his wish to enjoy in his native country. With a view to the employment of the poor, he had attempted the establishment of a woollen manufactory, at Ardmayle, which turned out unsuccessful - and the building originally destined for the purpose, he was about to dispose of to the Government, to be used as a barrack, a measure which the lawless state of the surrounding district most urgently called for - when he fell by the assassin's hand.
He was an active zealous supporter of the public peace, and sacrificed his ease and repose in a fruitless endeavour to make the laws respected in his neighbourhood; and he has fallen the victim of his public zeal, and of his opposition to the savage turbulence which has convulsed so long the country in his vicinity.’
Saunder's Newsletter & Daily Advertiser, Friday, July 8, 1814
‘The atrocious murder of Captain Long, which we stated yesterday, is mentioned after the following manner in the Clonmel Herald: ‘Disgusting and alarming as have been the late accounts of our domestic morals, and the state of outrage to which this seemingly devoted part of Ireland is subject, we have today to announce an enormity which exceeds all the atrocities which have disgraced the neighbourhood for many years.
The murder of Captain Long of Longfield, cold-blooded in the early morning, just after rising from his bed, and preconcerted with the most judicious of accuracy by the assassins, who, it appears, had lain in wait for him in the way of his customary walk, and by two shots fired together at him, put and end to the life of a good, a just, and valuable man, and bereft an amiable wife and large family of the blessings of the kindest husband and father.
It is indeed hard to restrain personal feelings from mingling in the common indignation, at so damnable a murder as this. We knew him long and well, and loved him for those qualities of high honour and virtue, friendship and kind manners, that bind man to man, and secure at once respect and affection. In the range of our acquaintance, we did not know a man, except in one trait of his character, less likely to provoke the illwill, or even the incivility of his inferiors; for we believe we may assert without hesitation that he never committed one act of oppression, nor omitted one of kindness towards those, whom Providence placed within the weight of his power or the reach of his bounty, and he had beside the advantage of being connected with a family, one of the oldest and most respectable, as well as most respected stocks in the country.
But he loved justice and subordination; he hated outrage; a scoundrel in any rank met no countenance from him, and the deplorable state of his neighbourhood, and the atrocities committed at his door, excited his reprobation and resistance, both of which, from a temper too honest and manly to compromise his sense of duty, he displayed with fatal alacrity.’
The Clonmel Advertiser, Wednesday, July 13, 1814
‘At a meeting held at Cashel on the 8th day of July, in pursuance of a Public Notice and in consequence of the horrible murder of RICHARD LONG, Esq., on the morning of the 4th instant, the following resolutions were adopted: Earl of Llandaff in the chair - Resolved - That it appears to this meeting that many parts of the County of Tipperary are in a disturbed state. Resolved - That it appears to this meeting that the District of Ardmayle, in which the above horrid murder as well as many other murders and atrocities have been committed, is particularily so. Resolved - That a Memorial be presented to Government praying that the District of Ardmayle may be proclaimed.
We the undersigned Magistrates and Gentlemen of this County, in consequence of the above Resolutions, humbly request that your Excellency will take them into consideration, and declare the said District to be in a disturbed state.’
‘Signed by the Earl of Llandaff, Sir Vere Hunt, Baronet, Stephen Moore of Barne, Richard Pennefather of New Park, Thomas Pennefather of Marlow, Thomas Price of Ardmayle, Samuel Cooper of Killenure, ..... [etc].’
‘At a meeting held at Cashel on the 8th day of July, according to Public Notice, to take into consideration the atrocious murder committed on Richard Long, Esq., on the 4th inst: Resolved - We the undersigned neighbours and Gentlemen will pay the sums annexed to our names, to any person or persons who shall, within the space of six calendar months from this date, give such information to any Magistrate in this County, of the Person or Persons, his or their Aiders or Abettors, concerned in the above Murder, as shall lead to the Prosecution and conviction of the Offenders.’
‘Signed by the Earl of Llandaff, 100 Pounds; Sir Vere Hunt, Bart., 100 Pounds; Stephen Moore of Barne, 200 Pounds; and many lesser sums, total 1000 Pounds.’
The Clonmel Advertiser, Wednesday, July 20, 1814
‘Re the murder of RICHARD LONG of LONGFIELD, Notice stating that Dublin Castle has offered a further 200 Pound reward, 12 July.’
The Clonmel Advertiser, Wednesday, November 9, 1814
‘Early on Saturday morning, Thomas Keough, the son of an opulent Farmer from the neighbourhood of Cashel, was escorted into town under a large party of the mounted Police of Middlethird, and lodged in gaol, on information touching the Assassination of the late much-lamented CAPTAIN LONG of Ardmayle. This party, comprehending the greater part of the Police at Cashel, had been kept in reserve Friday night, to be ready for this service the following morning.’”1
“State of the Country Papers - Public Record Office, Dublin:
Letter dated 21 Jan., 1815, from Richard Willcocks, Chief Magistrate of Cashel, to the Right Hon. Robert Peel:
‘I have the honour to enclose you a copy of the information which has been sworn before me in the case of Mr. Long's murder. I have no doubt but that the woman will prosecute in the event of my apprehending Common which I trust I shall be able to effect. I have two confidential persons endeavouring to set him, but it appears he is continually shifting his quarters through the country, which throws considerable difficulty in my way.’
Information Received from Mayor Newsom of Cork, Oct. 1814:
‘James Comerford, a prisoner now confined in the gaol of the City of Cork voluntarily maketh oath and saith that being under sentence of transportation for seven years in the gaol of the town at Clonmell, he was at periods confined in a room or cell with one who was tried and convicted at the last assizes at Clonmell as deponent heard, for burglary, that about 18 days previous to the said last assizes, one Thomas Keough, a farmer resident at a place called Laffan, 5 or 6 miles from Cashel, came to the gaol aforesaid, and having beckoned thro' the inner latch door to said Ryan, and Ryan having gone to the said latch door, this deponent who was in the cell, and which is very near the said latch door, heard said Thomas Keough desiring said Launcelot Ryan ‘not to be in the least afraid of any person, as Captain Long was the only person to come against him, and that he was killed, and that he, Ryan, would be cleared out or acquitted in spite of the Devil,’ and then said Ryan asked, ‘who is it that killed him?’ Then said Thomas Keough replied, ‘it was I and Bill Common, and when we have Charlie Fawcett and Major Novendor out of the way with Captain Long, then we will be satisfied.’
And this deponent saith he knows said Keough and Common having lived near them, and knows that said Keough always kept a gun, having frequently seen it with him, and saith that Keough lived about 2 miles and a half, and said Common about one mile and a half, from the residence of said Captain Long deceased, and that little more than one year ago, this deponent was at the public house of one John Ryan, near Common's house, when he saw Common there, and that he had a pistol and heard him then declare that ‘I will have the lives of all the gentlemen of this county (meaning Tipperary) if I can.’
And this deponent most solemnly saith discourse between Keough and Ryan made known same or informed against said Keough, but that the deponent supposed that as he was under sentence of transportation , it would not be received as evidence, but that he caused a letter to be written to Captain Long's son, desiring to see him, to whom he told what he knew of the transaction, in hopes it might be of some use, in finding out other circumstances to bring the persons who murdered said Captain Long to justice.’
- ‘Taken and voluntarily sworn to by the said James Comerford, before me at the gaol of the city of Cork this 26th day of October 1814.
- Signed by John George Newsom, Mayor
- James Comerford - his Mark - "X"
- Truly read and explained by me to the said James Comerford, having written the foregoing affidavit according to the said Comerford's directions.
- Signed by John Harding Weld
The foregoing is a true copy of an information sworn before me this 26th day of October, 1814. Signed - John George Newsom, Mayor.’
Letter from Richard Willcocks, Chief Magistrate of Cashel, to William Gregory, dated from Cashel, 2 March, 1815:
‘I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th ult., respecting James Comerford who lodged information against Thos. Keough for the murder of the late Mr. Long; and beg leave to acquaint you that he is still in the gaol at Cork. When I was last in Dublin, I spoke to the Attorney-General in your office upon this subject, when he say'd, that there should be a pardon made out for him, and have him removed to Clonmell gaol for to give evidence at the ensuing assizes. It should also be recollected that his information was sworn before the Mayor of Cork, who is not a magistrate of this county and it strikes me that another information must be sworn before a magistrate of this county, but I suppose the Crown Solicitor will give the necessary instructions upon this point.’
Information supplied by Chief Magistrate Willcocks 12 Feb. 1815 - From a List of Persons apprehended by the Police of Middlethird since their arrival in Cashel:
‘Name: Thomas Keough; Date of Apprehension: 2nd Nov. 1814
By whom apprehended: Chief Magistrate
Crimes & Observations: For the murder of Richard Long, Esq., of Longfield near Ardmayle, for which offence he stands committed for trial.’
Letter from Chief Magistrate Willcocks to William Gregory, 27 March 1815: (Extract from a report on the prisoners awaiting trial in the Clonmel gaol)
‘The Crown put off the trial of Thomas Keough for the murder of Mr. Long till the next assizes. He has been admitted to bail, himself in 2,000 Pounds, and two surities in 1000 Pounds each.’
Report on the Waterford Assizes Summer 1815:
‘Thomas Keough acquitted of murder.’”2
Why was Richard Long murdered? To understand why, we have to learn a bit of the history of Ireland and Tipperary of that period. In Ireland, “the whole population depended on the land,”3 and “possession of a piece of land was the only security against starvation.”4 Unfortunately, the potato crop was subject to partial failure every five or ten years. “When prices fell, or a bad [growing] season led to rent being unpaid and consequent eviction,” the country was then brought to a state of near anarchy. “And these periods were frequent.”5 To make a bad situation worse, the selling price of wheat, beef and mutton all plummeted by 300 percent from January to the Summer of 1814. “For the next few years, landlords and tenants were engaged in a fierce conflict.”6
The information received from the Mayor of Cork suggests that there had possibly been a conspiracy afoot to murder not only Richard Long but other Tipperary landlords as well. It was even proposed that the District of Ardmayle be placed under martial law as a result of the many murders and other atrocities that had been committed in the vicinity over the previous few years.
Captain Long's active and enthusiastic support of law and order made him a marked man in the eyes of the “Rebels.” The biography of Charles Bianconi states that “in the grounds” of Longfield, Captain Long “had constructed a look-out tower from which he used to watch the river and the surrounding country for the activities of secret societies, until his zeal eventually cost him his life.”7 Family tradition tells it slightly differently: “He used to sit in one of the top rooms in Longfield, and observe with his spyglass, the activities of the 'rebels,' and then report [them] to the authorities.”8
The murders continued. Another landlord, William Baker of Lismacue, about fifteen miles south of Longfield, was shot in the head and killed on November 27th, 1815.9 Then just a month later on December 27th, Henry Long of Toomevara, about 25 miles north of Longfield, was stoned to death while evicting his tenants for non-payment of rent.10 It makes one wonder if Henry Long was related to Richard since his grandfather could very well have had brothers in Ireland. No connection has been made so far.
As to the murder itself, another family tradition has it that Richard “used to rise early and his first action was to visit the outside privy and he was shot while paying his dues to nature.”11 Yet another family story relates that “the [actual] murderer was hidden by the servants in the attics of Longfield for three weeks before he escaped to America.”12
It has been claimed by family members and local people alike that for many years after the murder, Captain Long's ghost was seen periodically, either roaming the grounds of the estate, or the halls of Longfield itself. In reference to the Phantom Captain, a Phillips descendant of Richard and Charity was heard to say that “as a child, [she] was afraid to walk up that dark tree-shadowed drive to the [Longfield] House.”13 Upon the same occasion as the murder, or perhaps at another time, “a gang of outlaws [who] had occupied a hideout down on the riverbank,” broke into Longfield House and attacked Charity Long, “and cut off her finger with its wedding ring of solid gold.”14
Richard Long's murder would have been a very traumatic experience for Charity and their children, the eldest of whom was now 22 and the youngest, 14. Either Charity or one or more of the children, may very well have awoken to the sound of gunshots, and having run down the stairs and out of the house, they would have found Richard bleeding and dying or already dead. What a tragic end to such an interesting life! My dear Ancestor, may you rest in peace, Richard Long of Longfield!
NOTES:
1. Copies of transcriptions of all the above-quoted 1814 Tipperary newspaper articles - Courtesy of the late Ormonde Phillips, Esq.
2. Copies of transcriptions of the above-quoted “State of the Country Papers, Public Record Office, Dublin, Ireland,” - Courtesy of the late Ormonde Phillips, Esq.
3. History of Clonmel, p 205
4. Ibid, p 205
5. Ibid, p 205
6. Ibid, p 205
7. Bianconi, King of the Irish Roads, p 164
8. “The Ormonde Letters” - 75 letters to the author from the late Ormonde Phillips, Esq. (1913- 1996), Gt-gt-grandson of Richard & Charity Long. Letter #1, 1984
9. History of Clonmel, p 205
10. Ibid, p 205
11. OL, #1, 1984
12. OL, #1, 1984
13. Ibid, Nov 16, 1987
14. Bianconi, King of the Irish Roads, p 163
17. THE BATTERSBYS OF BOBSVILLE
At the time of her father’s death in 1814, Anna Maria Battersby was about to, or had recently given birth to her tenth son. Her husband, Lt-Col William Battersby (b 1767), was the second son of Robert Battersby, of Bobsville, Crossakeel, Co. Meath, by his wife, Marianne Wade.1 During his lifetime, William Battersby served as a justice of the peace, as Deputy Governor of County Meath, and as High Sheriff of Meath in 1804.2
According to family records written in the still-extant Battersby of Bobsville Family Bible, Anna Maria bore unto her husband a grand total of fifteen children, of whom nine survived to adulthood.3 Their children’s names were: 1. Robert Battersby, born January 22, 1796; died 1888; 2. Rosetta Charity Battersby, born May 12, 1797; died June 17, 1797; 3. Richard Long Battersby, born December 13, 1798; died January 1879; 4. William Battersby, born January 1, 1800; died July 12, 1880; 5. Haynes Wade Battersby, born November 29, 1800; died December 9, 1800; 6. Marianne Battersby, born 1802; died 1821; 7. Thomas John Battersby, born 1804; died 1837; 8. Edward Haynes Battersby, born and died in 1805; 9. Henry Battersby, born 1806; died 1826; 10. Harriette Battersby, born 1808; died November 15, 1878; 11. Francis Battersby, born 1810; died June 2, 1882; 12. Charles Battersby, born 1811; died July 30, 1855; 13. John Long Battersby, born 1814; died February 9, 1885; 14. Anna Battersby, born and died in 1817; 15. Hercules Soame Jenyns Battersby, born 1820; died June 8, 1859.4
Of the children who survived to adulthood, the eldest son, Reverend Robert Battersby, obtained his B.A. from Trinity College Dublin in 1819,5 became the Rector of Killeagh, Co. Meath6 and served as senior chaplain to the 1st and 2nd Marquesses of Headfort.7 An 1885 deed indicates that Robert was married and had at least four sons, two of them identified as Robert and Thomas John.8 Rev Robert Battersby lived to the ripe old age of 92 and passed away on September 17, 1888.9
The second son was named Richard Long Battersby and his middle name is known to us from both the Battersby Family Bible and from the inscription he wrote in 1852 on the back of his mother’s [Anna Maria’s] portrait.10 Named after his grandfather, Richard Long Battersby joined the army in 1818 and rose to the rank of captain in the 15th Regiment of Foot.11 The third son, the Reverend William Battersby, also attended Trinity College Dublin, obtaining his B.A. in 1821 and his M.A. in 1832.12 In 1840, he married Mary, daughter of Col. William Caulfield, of Benown;13 however, it is not known if they had any children. Both William and his brother Richard enjoyed lengthy lifespans of eighty years.
Anna Maria and William’s fifth son was Thomas John Battersby. He too attended Trinity College Dublin, obtaining his B.A. in 1824 and his M.A. in 1832.14 Higher education was apparently valued in the Battersby Family, with three of their four eldest surviving sons having obtained university degrees. Thomas died young at the age of thirty-three in 1837, as did his next surviving brother, Henry, who died in 1826 at the age of twenty. The next son, Francis Battersby, a justice of the peace, resided at Boltown near Bobsville, and also lived to a reasonable age, dying in 1882 in his 72nd year. Charles Battersby, the ninth son, also attended Trinity, in 1829, but did not graduate.15 He died in 1855 at the age of forty-four.
The tenth son, John Long Battersby, of Bobsville, married first, in 1841, Catherine, daughter of the Rev Thomas Blakeney, of Holywell, Co. Roscommon.16 Catherine died in 1842,17 possibly in childbirth. In February 1855, John married secondly, his half first cousin, Charity Cooper (b. 1830), elder daughter of Samuel Cooper, of Killenure Castle, by his wife, Louisa Long.18 John and Charity Battersby had a family of three sons and one daughter. Their eldest child, Anna Louisa Battersby, was born December 6, 1855 and died December 5, 1872.19 Their eldest son, William Cooper Battersby, was born December 3, 185720 and was living in Bristol, England, in 1888.21 Their second son, Francis Robert Battersby, born August 12, 1859,22 was residing at Bobsville in 1905. He was Magistrate for County Meath and High Sheriff in 1903.23 Charles Austin Battersby was John and Charity’s youngest son. Born on May 16, 1864,24 he died of pneumonia in 1899, according to an entry included in a collection of Irish newspaper obitiuaries.25 It is somewhat amazing to realize that in John and Charity Battersby’s four children, were mingled the bloodlines of Col. Richard Long with those of both Hedjeba and Charity Moore. Sometimes I find myself wishing that I too had been fortunate enough to inherit the bloodlines of Mother India through Hedjeba.
The youngest son of William and Anna Maria Battersby was given the unwieldly appellation of Hercules Soame Jenyns Battersby (b. 1820). His middle name of “Soame” came down to him from his great-great-grandmother, Mary [Soame] Long (d. 1728) of Greystown. His other middle name of “Jenyns” was given to him as a result of the Longs’ distant connection to the 18th century writer, Soame Jenyns (1707-1787).
Of the five daughters of William and Anna Maria, only one survived to adulthood. Born in 1808, Harriette Battersby did not marry and lived her entire life at Bobsville, where she died in her 70th year on November 15th, 1878. It is interesting to note that of her seven brothers who survived to adulthood, only three are recorded as having married. And of her five known nephews, no marriage record has been found for any of them.
Years ago, while Dr. Beryl Moore was busy deciphering tombstones in the cemeteries of County Meath, a fellow named Johnnie Battersby told her: “A Long girl from Tipperary added a bit to our coat-of-arms.”26 One of Dr. Moore's articles on tombstone inscriptions is contained in a 1977 edition of The Irish Ancestor. An entry from her article reads: “Sacred to the Memory of Lt. Col. William Battersby [of Bobsville], 1837, aged 70. And also of Anna Maria his wife, daughter of Richard Long of Longfield in the co. of Tipperary, Esq., who died July 19, 1856, aged 81.” 27
A Cooper descendant of the Longs once wrote: “Charity Battersby ..... of Bobsville .... was known as Aunt Cherry, and as children, we stayed with her every summer. We used to drive every afternoon in a Victoria, while she visited the sick and poor cottagers in and around Crossdrum. She crocheted shawls for them.” “We loved being with her except on Sundays.” “The property [of Bobsville] was left to my father.” “He sold it - about 1923. Aunt Cherry died in 1921.”28 According to another Cooper descendant of the Longs, the late Captain Austin Cooper (1909-1972): “There are no survivors of the Battersby Family.” 29
In 1809, William Battersby's brother, Edward George Battersby, married Elizabeth Ryan,30 daughter of the Reverend William Ryan by his wife, Anna Maria Long, aunt of Anna Maria Battersby. Therefore, two cousins married two brothers. Edward and Elizabeth Battersby had three sons of whom the first two were: Robert the eldest, and William Ryan, who married Harriette Phelan in Simcoe, Ontario, in 1842.31
Their youngest son was Jenyns Charles Battersby, who emigrated to the United States in 1835. He married in 1844, a widow, Julia M'Clellan, of Quebec, and they had five daughters.32 During the Civil War, Jenyns Battersby commanded a troup in the Lincoln Cavalry. His obituary in the New York Times states that he served as a Lieut-Colonel in the First Reg't of the New York Cavalry.33 In his later years, Colonel Battersby became somewhat of an artist and he painted a mural of the meeting of Generals Grant and Lee at Appomattox.34 Col. Jenyns Battersby died in 1899, aged eighty years, at Clifton Springs, New York.35 He was a great-nephew of Col. Richard Long of Longfield.
NOTES:
1. BLG, 1858 edn, p 62, “Battersby of Lislin & Ashgrove”
2. Ibid
3. Copy of family information written in the Battersby of Bobsville Family Bible. Information obtained from Anthony Cooper, gt-gt-grandson of Louisa Long Cooper, whose daughter, Charity Cooper, married John Long Battersby of Bobsville.
4. Ibid & BLG, 1858 edn, p 62
5. Alumni Dublinenses, p 49
6. BLG, 1858 edn, p 62
7. LLC, 1998 letter from Anthony Cooper, gt-gt-grandson of Louisa Long Cooper
8. RD, Mem. 103, Book 26, 1885, “Battersby to Battersby”
9. Battersby of Bobsville Family Bible, & Irish Clerical Succession Lists, Representative Church Body Library, Dublin
10. OL, #4, 1984
11. A List of the Officers of the Army & Royal Marines, 1828 edn, p 174
12. Alumni Dublinenses, p 49
13. BLG, 1858 edn, p 62
14. Alumni Dublinenses, p 49
15. Ibid
16. BIFR, 1976 edn, p 127, “Blakeney”
17. BLG, 1858 edn, p 62
18. RD, Mem. 61, Book 35, 1856, “Battersby & Cooper Marriage Settlement,” & BIFR, 1976 edn, p 279, “Cooper”
19. Battersby of Bobsville Family Bible
20. Ibid
21. RD, Mem. 117, Book 15, 1888, “Battersby to Battersby”
22. Battersby of Bobsville Family Bible
23. County Families of the United Kingdom, Edward Walford, London, 1905 edn, p 60
24. Battersby of Bobsville Family Bible
25. “Newspaper Extracts” Filmed by the LDS (Mormon) Church, Film #0100159, “Deaths in Ireland, 1848-1904,” p 73
26. OL, #16, 1986
27. The Irish Ancestor, 1977, no. 2, “Miscellenae” p 99 -”Monumental Inscriptions at Loughcrew Graveyard, Co. Meath” - by Dr. Beryl Moore
28. LLC - 1985 Letter from Doreen Cooper, daughter of Major Austin Samuel Cooper (1870- 1926) of Killenure Castle, great-grandson of Richard & Charity Long
29. “Cooper of Killenure Genealogy,” by Rev Father Edward Cooper, of Australia, Ch 1, p 6
30. RD, Mem. 423094, Book 614, p 394, 1809, “Battersby & Ryan Marriage Settlement”
31. Marriage Notices of Ontario, William D. Reid, Hunterdon House, Lambertville, N.J., 1980,
p 253
32. BLG, 1871 edn, p 72, “Battersby of Ashgrove”
33. New York Times, Nov. 1, 1899, p 7
34. New York Times, Apr. 20, 1897, p 14
35. New York Times, Nov. 1, 1899, p 7
18. THE O'KELLYS OF CHATEAU MERLES
There existed a flurry of activity at Longfield in the month of January, 1821. It had been more than six long years since Colonel Richard Long had been murdered and with the help of Time, the great Healer, the Long Family had begun to emerge from that cloven cloud of Darkness which had shot a bellicose bolt of lightning down upon Longfield on that fateful morning of July the 4th, 1814.
Wedding bells now replaced the thunderbolts of yesteryear. Harriet, Richard and Charity's eldest daughter, was to be married that day at Ardmayle Church. One can imagine Charity opening up the treasure trunk laden with old family belongings, and reaching deep down inside, her hand emerging holding her mother's wedding veil which she herself had worn on her wedding day some thirty years before. How fitting it was that Harriet would be wearing her grandma's wedding veil, named as she was after her Grandmother, Henrietta Taylour Moore.
Thus it happened that on January the 26th, 1821, Harriet Long married James Denis O'Kelly at the parish church of Ardmayle.1 According to the Marriage Settlement, James O'Kelly was then a lieutenant in His Majesty's 11th Reg't of Foot.2 An 1856 Long deed3 advised that Lieutenant James Denis O'Kelly and his wife, Harriet Long, were then residing at Chateau Merles near Anvillars in the French Empire. Burke's 1858 Landed Gentry added a few more particulars, by stating that James O'Kelly had married Miss Long of County Tipperary.4 The 1871 edition of Burke's Landed Gentry described him as: “James O'Kelly, an officer, British Service, living in France.”5 He was the third son of Count John James O'Kelly (b 1749) of Montauban, France, Ambassador to Mayence from the Court of King Louis XVI.6
Count O'Kelly was the great-grandson of Colonel John [O']Kelly (d 1674), Lord of the Manor of Screen, Co. Roscommon, who in turn was descended from the O'Kellys, Chiefs of Hy-Many. 7 It appears that members of the O'Kelly of Screen Family fled to France after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and that is how it came to pass that Irish O'Kellys were living in France. It was the “Phillips Cuttings Album” that supplied the information necessary to pinpoint the location of Chateau Merles. Included in the album is Harriet O'Kelly's obituary which reads: “O'KELLY - Jan 27 [1889], at Chateau Merles, Tarn et Garonne, [France] Harriet, relict [& widow] of the late Capt. James Dennis O'Kelly , (11th Foot), and eldest daughter of the late Colonel Richard Long, of Longfield, co. Tip., in her 97th year.”8
I wrote a letter addressed to the proprietor of Chateau Merles, Anvillars, Tarn et Garonne, France, and much to my surprise, a few months later I received a reply, of which the following is a translation:
“Lansec, Oct. 26, 1986
Dear Sir,
I definitely did receive your letter and now I'm finally about to answer it. My father, the late Count Henri O'Kelly, died at the age of 94. I am his only daughter and I married Count Henri d'Anterrroches who died 23 years ago. I have a cousin whose mother knew Captain James Denis O'Kelly and his wife, Madame Harriet Long O'Kelly, and knew them very well. Just yesterday, I received a response from her and that is the reason my letter hasn't been sent before now.
‘While stationed in England, Captain James Denis O'Kelly fell hopelessly in love with Miss Long - not Harriet - but rather her younger sister. The Long parents insisted he become Anglican, and once he had converted, they persuaded him to marry not the younger sister, but the eldest one - Harriet - and it turned out to be a very good marriage. Therefore, she remained Protestant and they were the owners of Lansec where my mother came to know them well. They didn't have any children. They enjoyed life together; she spoke terrible French and her mistakes sounded very amusing. It was after their deaths that my great-grandparents became the owners of Lansec. When they both died, they could not be buried in the cemetery at Merles since they were Protestant, and that's why we have our own personal graveyard. That's all the information that I can give you.’
My father was the owner of Lansec. When he inherited it, the chateau was in ruins, and he had it completely restored. When he died almost 14 years ago, I became the owner. I have three children and six grandchildren. I make my home with my youngest son, Antoine, age 40, his wife, and their two children.
Please accept, dear Sir, the expression of my special regards.
[COMTESSE] O'KELLY & d'ANTERROCHES”9
The letter from the Countess gives us just a touch of insight into the lives of Harriet and James O'Kelly and of Charity Long. To have met Miss Long, James O'Kelly must have been stationed in Ireland, not England; however, “England” has often been used loosely to mean both Britain and Ireland. Since the second sister, Charity Maria, would already have been engaged by the end of 1820, it would have been either Caroline or Louisa Long with whom Captain O'Kelly had fallen in love.
Colonel Long was no longer living, so it was Charity who would have convinced Captain O'Kelly to convert from Catholicism to the Anglican faith. As to how James could have been persuaded to marry the eldest sister, Harriet, rather than the one he loved, is anyone's guess. Although James and Harriet had no children, it's pleasing to know that they enjoyed life together and had a happy marriage.
Harriet Long had married into an old aristocratic Celtic Irish family, hers having been the second such union in the history of the Longs - Harriet's aunt, Anna Maria, having married the Reverend William Ryan of the Ryans of Tipperary back in 1775. Despite tensions existing then between the Anglo-Irish and the native Celtic Irish, the irresistable force of Love would result in a few further such inter-marriages for the Longs.
NOTES:
1. OL - Long Family Extracts from the Ardmayle Parish Registers, #1, 1984
2. RD, Mem. 515661, Book 759, p 325, 1821, “O'Kelly & others to Long & others” - “Marriage Settlement”
3. RD, Mem. 263, Book 24, 1856, “Long & others to Hyland”
4. BLG, 1858, p 958, “O'Kelly of Screen”
5. BLG, 1871, p 879, “O'Kelly of Screen”
6. Ibid
7. Ibid
8. “Phillips Cuttings Album,” p 5
9. LLC - 1986 letter from the Countess O'Kelly et d'Anterroches
19. THE PENNEFATHERS OF LAKEFIELD
Exactly three weeks after Harriet got married, her sister, Charity Maria Long (1796-1874), had her turn at the altar. On February 15th, 1821, Charity Maria was married at Ardmayle Church to William Jacob Pennefather (1793-1872) ,1 third son of Lieut.-Colonel Richard Pennefather (1756-1831), of New Park,2 just six miles from Longfield.
William and Charity Maria were third cousins through their mutual descent from the Grahams of Platten, Meath. Circa 1722, John and Charity Graham's third daughter, also named Charity, married Richard Pennefather (1699-1777) of New Park [now known as Ballyowen], and they were the great-grandparents of William Pennefather.3
The Pennefathers were a prominent Tipperary family. William's brother, Mathew Pennefather (1784-1858), was High Sheriff of Tipperary in 1826, and represented Cashel in Parliament, as had his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him.4 William's cousin, Richard Pennefather (1806-1849), was Secretary of State for Ireland, and another cousin, the Right Hon. Edward Pennefather (1774-1847), was Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.5 Several members of the Pennefather Family are buried amongst the ruins of the old Cathedral up on the Rock of Cashel, a most imposing and magnificent site. Brian Boru, from whom we descend, was crowned there as High King of Ireland almost one thousand years ago.
Among the descendants of the above-mentioned Charity Graham and Richard Pennefather (1699-1777) is included Richard W. Croker (1841-1922), who emigrated to the United States and went on to become “Boss” of New York City’s notorious Tammany Hall, a corrupt and powerful political organization. Richard Croker eventually returned to Ireland where he pursued a successful career as the owner of racehorses which won for him both the Epsom Derby and the Irish Derby.6
In 1831, William Pennefather and his wife, Charity Maria Long, moved to their new home at Lakefield about fifteen miles southeast of Longfield. “Lakefield (formerly Gambonstown),” was “built 1831-33 for William Pennefather, whose family are said to have won the estate at cards, from its previous owners.”7
According to Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland, Charity and William Pennefather had only four children, all sons. However, according to information obtained indirectly from a genealogical researcher in Tipperary, they apparently had a total of eight children, two daughters and six sons, of whom only four are named.8 The eldest son and heir was Richard Pennefather (1826-1876), also of Lakefield. Three of his brothers were: William Pennefather; Mathew Pennefather who died in 1859; and John William Copley Lyndhurst Pennefather (d 1865).9
Richard Pennefather (1826-76), of Lakefield married Emma Elizabeth Vaughton and they had five children: 1. William Vaughton Pennefather (1862-1939), 2. Dr. Robert Dymoke Pennefather (1865-1951), 3. Maria Emma Pennefather (d 1896), 4. Harriet Lavinia Pennefather (d 1937), and 5. Anna Louise Pennefather.10 Of these five great-grandchildren of Richard and Charity Long, the descendants of two can be traced right up to the present day in Ireland. Harriet Lavinia Pennefather married in 1884, Thomas Robert Warren (1829-1906), and they are the grandparents of our cousin, Sir Brian Charles Pennefather Warren, 9th Baronet of Warren's Court;11 and Anna Louise Pennefather, who married John Leslie Hendley,12 grandparents of our kinsman, Captain Desmond F. Furney, of Ardavilling, County Cork.
NOTES:
1. OL - Extracts from the Ardmayle Parish Registers, #1, 1984
2. BLGI, 1958 edn, p 569, “Freese-Pennefather”
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Ibid, p 569-70
6. BIFR, 1976, p 296, “Croker”
7. Burke's Guide to Country Houses, vol 1, Ireland, Mark Bence-Jones, 1978, p 181
8. OL, July 1984
9. BLGI, 1958, p 569, “Freese-Pennefather”
10. Ibid
11. BP, 1970 edn, pp 2753-5, “Warren”
12. BLGI, 1958 edn, p 569, “Freese-Pennefather”
20. THE PHILLIPS OF GAILE
We will always wonder whether it was Caroline or Louisa with whom Captain O'Kelly was in love. If it was Caroline Anna Long, did she then feel the same way about him as he did about her? Would she have harbored any resentment toward her mother had Charity in fact persuaded James to marry Harriet rather than her? Above all, would Caroline have felt jilted by James? And how would Caroline and Harriet have related to each other thereafter? We can only hope that there were no hard feelings; and if there were, that time might heal the wounds.
It was just before Christmas, 1823, and once again Longfield found itself preparing for another family wedding. Combined with the final arrangements being made for the Yuletide festivities, the wedding preparations doubled the intensity of activity within the big house. One can imagine how excited Caroline must have felt. Had she ever been in love with Captain O'Kelly, you wouldn't know it now. She had given her heart to young Sam Phillips, who lived just a few miles away at Gaile House.
And so it happened that on December the 23rd, 1823, Caroline Anna Long was married to Samuel Phillips by the Bishop of Limerick at Ardmayle Church.1 Samuel Phillips (1800-1838) was the eldest son and heir of Richard Phillips (1779-1829), of Gaile and Foyle, by his wife, Jane Godfrey (d 1849), daughter of John Godfrey (1744-1827), of Beechmount, County Tipperary.2
The Phillips had settled in Ireland circa 1655, their earliest known ancestor being Samuel Phillips (d circa 1689), Alderman and Mayor of Kilkenny. His eldest son was Richard Phillips (1672-1727), of Foyle, County Kilkenny, who in 1697, married Alice, daughter of William Despard, a Huguenot gentleman. Their son, Samuel Phillips (b 1698), married Sarah, daughter of Simon Max of Gaile. Samuel and Sarah's eldest son, Richard Phillips (b 1733), of Foyle, married his cousin, Frances Phillips, and their son, Samuel Phillips (1756-1815), married his cousin, Mary Max (1763-1789), heiress of Gaile.3
Samuel Phillips (1756-1815) was so taken with his teenaged cousin, Mary Max, that he ran off with her in 1777. Although this caused quite the scandal, Mary's family eventually relented and allowed her and Samuel to get married two years later. Her brothers having predeceased her, Mary became the heiress to the Gaile estate, and brought with her a fortune of 40,000 Pounds which was quite the tidy sum in those days. Thus did the Phillips of Foyle also become the Phillips of Gaile.4 Samuel and Mary's eldest son was Richard Phillips (1780-1829) who married Jane Godfrey, parents of Samuel who married Caroline Long. By now, you may have noticed the naming pattern of Samuel and Richard which alternates between father and eldest son in each succeeding generation.
Caroline Long and Samuel Phillips had a large family of nine children: 1. Richard (1825-1894), eldest son and heir; 2. Cherry Louisa (1826-1872), named after her Grandmother Charity; 3. Samuel William (1827-1880); 4. Jane Harriet (1828-1892); 5. John Godfrey (1829-1851); 6. Stephen Moore (1830-1918), named after his Grandmother Long's brother; 7. Edward (1832-1906), named after his mother's brother; 8. Thomas Godfrey (1836-1902); and 9. Henry William Long (1838-1885).5
Five of the children remained single: Cherry, Jane, John, Stephen and Thomas. Cherry and Jane both moved to Dublin later on in life and lived there till they died. John died young; Stephen Moore Phillips emigrated to Australia; and Thomas Godfrey Phillips resided at Parkville House close to his mother, who had moved to Clonmel sometime after her husband's untimely death in 1838.6
Of the four sons who got married, Henry, the youngest, entered the army in 1857, and had risen to the rank of major by 1881. Major Henry William Long Phillips served in Australia, New Zealand and India where he died in 1885. He married Priscilla Forbes and they had a son named Harry (b 1878) who married Elizabeth Ram. Harry Phillips apparently had a coffee and tea plantation in Ceylon.7
Caroline and Samuel's fifth son, Edward Phillips, married Mary Hopkinson in 1864, and they resided at Thurlesbeg House, close to Gaile and Longfield. Edward and Mary had one son, John Hopkinson Phillips (1865-1925), who married Georgina Dunscombe,8 and they are the grandparents of Roma Knox, wife of the Reverend Oliver Peare of Kinsdale, County Cork.9
Samuel William Phillips (1827-1880), second son of Samuel and Caroline, married in 1851, Sarah Pilkington, and shortly thereafter, they embarked on a journey that led them first to Wisconsin10 and eventually to Memphis, Tennessee. They would have sailed to America at approximately the same time as their Long cousins, and may very well have come over with them. The Phillips of Memphis have a family story that claims that Samuel William turned down the chance to buy cheaply, the land on which much of Chicago now stands.11 Instead, Samuel became the resident superintendent of the Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. In 1880, both he and his wife Sarah perished along with more than 8,000 others, during a yellow fever epidemic then raging in Memphis.12
Samuel and Sarah Phillips had nine children: 1. Anna Louise (b 1852), who married Charles Leroy Moss; 2. Samuel Henry (1853-1923), who married firstly, Sallie Lea, and secondly, Elinor Albers; 3. Caroline Georgina (1855-1858); 4. Mary Jane (b 1857), who married James P. Jordan; 5. Emily Sarah (1859-1935), who married Edward Roleson; 6. William Pilkington (1862-1937), who married Maria Hunter, grandparents of Harry Johnson Phillips of Memphis; 7. Richard Barker (1864-1893); 8. George Pilkington (1870-1939), who married Blanche Estes, grandparents of Mrs Jean Lorton; and 9. Blanche Aimee (1873-1963), who married Charles Kesterton.13 When we keep in mind that Samuel and Sarah's nine children were all great-grandchildren of Richard and Charity Long, and that most of those children married and had issue, then we begin to realize what a numerous collection of tribes we have become.
Returning now to Gaile from Memphis, we come to the eldest son and heir of Samuel and Caroline Phillips: Richard Phillips (1825-1894), who married in 1847, Mary Elizabeth Hunt (1827-1885), daughter of Fitzmaurice Hunt (1795-1829) of Cappagh, Tipperary, by his wife Dorothea, daughter of Thomas Pennefather, of Marlow, near Longfield. Mary Hunt brought some very noble Irish ancestry into the Phillips Family. Mary was eleventh in line of descent from Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormonde (d 1539), whose wife, Lady Margaret Fitzgerald, was the daughter of the 8th Earl of Kildare (1477-1513); and she was also ninth in line of descent from Conor O'Brien, 3rd Earl of Thomond (1534-1582), who was the grandson of the last prince of Thomond, a direct descendant of King Brian Boru (926-1014).14
Richard and Mary Phillips had eight children, all descendants of Richard and Charity Long: 1. Dorothea (1848-1936), who married Charles Butler Prior; 2. Major Samuel Phillips (1849-1919), of Gaile, who married Helen Gilchrist, grandparents of Samuel Phillips (b 1929), of Northumberland, England, present head of the Phillips Family, and of Mrs Mary Pole-Carew of Clogheen, Tipperary; 3. Caroline Anna (1851-1902); 4. Fitzmaurice (1853-1853); 5. Mary Henrietta (1854-1874), who predeceased her Grandmother Caroline by one year; 6. Susan (1857-1883); 7. Richard (1859-1936), who married Esther Picken, parents of Ormonde Phillips (1913-1996) of Shropshire, my genealogical mentor; and 8. Henry Fitzmaurice Hunt (1863-1917), who took the double surname of Phillips-Hunt, and married Florence Buxton, grandparents of Patricia Lalor of Silverfort House, located about ten miles from Longfield.15 After assuming the additional surname of Hunt, Dr Henry Fitzmaurice Hunt Phillips-Hunt, was thereafter known to his friends as “Steeplechase Phillips,” and by his patients as “Dr Fitz.”16
Doreen Cooper once wrote of her Phillips cousins: “They must surely have been the best looking family in Ireland. I can just recall Major Sam Phillips, but Dick, Moira & Aileen, although all were a great deal older than me, I looked upon with much friendship and love.”17
NOTES:
1. OL, #1, 1984, Long Family Extracts from the Ardmayle Parish Records; and “The Phillips of Gaile & Foyle,” by C.O.R. Phillips, Esq.
2. “The Phillips of Gaile & Foyle,” C.O.R. Phillips
3. Ibid; & BLGI, 1912, p 563, “Phillips of Gaile”
4. OL, #64, 1990
5-6. BLGI, 1912, p 563, “Phillips of Gaile”; and “The Phillips of Gaile & Foyle,” C.O.R. Phillips
7. “The Phillips of Gaile & Foyle”
8. BLGI, 1912, p 563, “Phillips of Gaile”
9. OL, #51, 1988
10. New information obtained from Samuel Henry Phillips II, gdson of Samuel & Sarah Phillips
11. OL, #6, 1985; A 1998 letter from Anne Hughes Sayle states that her gt-gt-gdfather, Samuel William Phillips, did not want to invest his inheritance in “that swampy land outside Fort Dearborn,” (“because it seemed useless & a bad bet”), now the site of downtown Chicago!
12. Ibid; and “The Phillips Cuttings Album,” pp 25 & 32
13-14. OL, #17, 1986; OL, #40, 1987, “The Phillips of Memphis”
15. “The Phillips of Gaile & Foyle”
16. LLC, 1998 letter from Patricia Lalor, gt-gt-gd-dau of Caroline Long Phillips
17. LLC, 1985 letter from Doreen Cooper of the Coopers of Killenure
21. THE COOPERS OF KILLENURE CASTLE
It had been eight years since her eldest sister Harriet had married Captain O'Kelly, and now at last, her own wedding day was fast approaching. Was it Louisa Long rather than her sister Caroline whom Captain O'Kelly had fallen for years before? One wonders if any such thoughts strayed through Louisa's mind as she made ready for the big day.
Louisa Salisbury Long (1800-1892) was the youngest child of Richard and Charity Long who had given her the middle name of Salisbury in honor of Charity’s descent from the Salusburys of Llewenny. Louisa lived at home with her mother and elder brother Richard Long II, who was now the master of Longfield. Except for Louisa and Richard, all the other Long children were now married. Since Ardmayle Church was under repair, the wedding ceremony was to be held right there in the drawing room of Longfield House.1
Louisa descended the long curved staircase, and with her brother Richard at her side, she made her way through the oval hall and into the drawing room and proceeded up to the makeshift altar to join her intended spouse. And so it happened that on February the 26th, 1829, Louisa Salisbury Long was married to Samuel Cooper (1800-1861),2 eldest son and heir of William Cooper (1772-1850), of Killenure and Kilmore, by his wife, Rebecca Chadwick (d 1859).3
The parties to their Marriage Settlement were: “Samuel Cooper of Killenure Castle in the County of Tipperary, Esquire, of the one part; Samuel Cooper eldest son of William Cooper of Kilmore in said County of Tipperary, Esquire, of the second part; Charity Long of Longfield in said County, widow of Richard Long late of Longfield aforesaid, Esquire, deceased, and Guardian of the Daughters of said Richard and Charity Long, and Louisa Long one of the said daughters, of the third part; Richard Long of Longfield aforesaid and Austin Cooper of Kilmore aforesaid, Esquires, of the fourth part; William Chadwick of Ballinard in said County of Tipperary, Esquire, and the Revd Robert Battersby of Bobsville in the County of Meath, Clerk, of the fifth part.” 4
From the names and places mentioned in the settlement, one can glean that young Sam's grandfather, Samuel Cooper (1750-1831), was still alive and residing at Killenure. His son and heir, William Cooper and his family, lived at Kilmore, another family estate just south of Killenure and about six miles from Longfield.
Samuel Cooper (1800-1861) was sixth in line of descent from Austin Cooper (d ante 1690), known to the family as “Austin the Settler, famed for his feats of strength, such as taking two men, one in each hand, slapping them together and throwing them on a dunghill.” 5 The Coopers came to Killenure when Austin's great-grandson, William George Cooper (1721-1769), purchased the estate in 1746.6 In 1838, Louisa's husband, Samuel Cooper, narrowly escaped with his life when he and his brother Austin and Francis Wayland were shot at by three men. Austin Cooper and Mr. Wayland were killed during the gunfight that ensued.7
Samuel Cooper finally became the owner of Killenure when his father passed away in 1850, and Sam himself died ten years later.8 His widow Louisa, survived him for another thirty-one years, finally departing this life in 1892 at the age of 92,9 while her sister Harriet lived into her 97th year thereby demonstrating a definite tendency toward longevity in the Longfield Long Family. This book includes a picture of the formidable Louisa Long Cooper, whose family nicknamed her “cat o' nine tails.”10
Louisa Long and Samuel Cooper had a family of nine children: 1. Samuel (1829-1877) of Killenure, eldest son and heir, who died unmarried; 2. Charity (1830-1921), who married her cousin, John Long Battersby; 3. Richard Austin (1831-1892); 4. William (1834-1903); 5. Edward (b circa 1836), a Captain in the Mercantile Marine who died at sea at an unknown date; 6. Austin Samuel (1835-1897); 7. Maria Louisa (1837-1919); 8. Robert Astley (1843-1872), a commander in the Royal Navy, who died of typhoid fever;11 and 9. Ambrose, who died young, and for whom there exist no dates.12
Of the nine Cooper grandchildren of Richard and Charity Long, five married and had children. In 1855, Richard Austin Cooper married his cousin Katherine Chadwick (d 1855), and thereafter assumed the hyphenated surname of Cooper-Chadwick. They had one son William (b 1855), whose mother appears to have died in childbirth or shortly thereafter. Richard Austin Cooper-Chadwick married secondly in 1863, Charlotte Bourchier (d 1912), and they had five daughters and three sons, of whom the eldest, John Cooper-Chadwick (1864-1948), is remembered for having recorded his adventures in Africa in a book “which he wrote with a pen tied to his elbow joints as a result of losing his forearms in a shooting accident.”13 This amazing gentleman is the grandfather of the present Head of the Cooper Family, Robert Cooper-Chadwick of Somerset, England.14
Samuel and Louisa's third son, William Cooper, left home at a very young age and settled in Australia. His nephew's wife, Evelyn Cooper (d 1974), wrote to the Australian relatives: “All I can tell you about the young William Cooper is that he was at school in Ireland, and was expelled for beating up his school master.” “Anyway, there must have been a family conference and it was decided to let him emigrate to Australia.”15
In 1866, William married Rosanna Hamill of an Irish Catholic family, and as a result, William converted to the Roman faith.16 William and Rosanna settled at Bacchus Marsh in the Elaine area of the State of Victoria. Here they raised a family of five daughters and nine sons, including their fifth son, Austin, who is the grandfather of the Reverend Austin Patrick Cooper, Head of the Department of Church History at the Catholic Theological College in Melbourne, Australia.17 It's a pleasant surprise to learn that there are more than three hundred Cooper descendants of Richard and Charity Long presently residing in Australia and New Zealand.
Samuel and Louisa Cooper's youngest daughter, Maria Louisa (1837-1919), married in 1866, Edward Rotheram (1828-1904), of Crossdrum, County Meath, and they had six children, including a third son, Auston Morgan Rotheram (1876-1946) of Castlecor, County Meath, grandfather of Patrick Auston Rotheram of Bath, England.18
Captain Austin Samuel Cooper (1835-1897) inherited Killenure Castle when his eldest brother Samuel died in 1877. Captain Cooper married Anna Moore (d 1870) in 1868 and they had one son, Major Austin Samuel Cooper (1870-1926). Major Cooper married in 1907, Evelyn Leahy (d 1974), and they were the parents of: 1. Captain Austin Cooper (1909-1972) who sold Killenure in 1963, and whose son, Anthony Cooper of London, kindly contributed photos of “The Long Miniatures” (see front section); 2. Astley Cooper (1911-1943); and 3. Mrs Doreen Harrison-Cooper (1908-1986)19 who lived her last years close to her daughter, Mrs Sally Parkinson of Vernon, British Columbia.
Doreen Cooper recollected: “At Killenure, we had no electricity, no water ..... [and] no telephone - no refrigerator, but we had five indoor servants, a groom, a chauffeur and a gardener. We also had no central heating and the limestone walls used to run with water on damp days.”20 Violet Cooper, widow of the late Captain Austin Cooper of Killenure, recalled the past when she wrote: “Our beautiful old home, Killenure Castle”; “all the ancestors hanging in their huge frames on the dining room walls”; “all the glorious treasures, the silver and antiques.”21
The lovely old homes and their treasures have all gone now, leaving only memories of the glorious times, memories which might have been similar to those which would have been experienced by the Longs after they had departed from Longfield and Fort Edward for the last time.
NOTES:
1. Bianconi, King of the Irish Roads, p 142
2. OL, #1, 1984, “Long Family Extracts from the Ardmayle Parish Records”
3. BIFR, 1976, p 278, “Cooper”
4. RD, Mem. 566859, Book 846, p 359, 1829, “Cooper & Long Marriage Settlement”
5. & 6. BIFR, pp 275-6, “Cooper”
7. History of Clonmel, p 208
8. BIFR, p 278, “Cooper”
9.&10. “Cooper of Killenure,” by Rev. Father Edward Cooper, of Australia, p 5
11. BIFR, pp 278-9, “Cooper”
12. RD, Mem.141, Book 4, 1857, “Battersby & Others”
13. BIFR, p 278, “Cooper”
14. Ibid, p 275
15. “Cooper of Killenure,” by Rev. Father Edward Cooper, of Australia, p 8
16. Ibid, p 11
17. LLC, 1987 letter from Rev. Father Austin P. Cooper; & Who's Who in Australia, 1983, p 205
18. BLGI, 1958, p 612, “Rotheram of Crossdrum.” Maria & Edward Rotheram’s other children were: Louisa Barbara (1867-1925); Catherine Maria (1870-1959); Edward (1872-1968); George Astley (1874-1951), & Sisson Henry (1880-1956).
19. BIFR, pp 278-9, “Cooper”
20. LLC, 1985 letter from Doreen Cooper, of the Coopers of Killenure Castle
21. LLC, 1987 letter from Violet Cooper, widow of Captain Austin Cooper, of Killenure Castle.
Many thanks to Violet Cooper & Richard Austin-Cooper for sending me the photos of the paintings of Louisa Long Cooper & Anna Long Battersby (aged 17), included in this book.
22. RICHARD LONG II OF LONGFIELD
Richard Long II was somewhere between nineteen and twenty-three years of age when his father was murdered. Had he been just nineteen years old in 1814, then Charity would certainly have managed the family's business affairs herself for the next few years until Richard was old enough to assume active control of Longfield. Since there exists a paucity of personal information regarding Richard Long II, therefore he has come to be regarded as a rather enigmatic figure to present day members and descendants of the Longfield Long Family. As a result, our cousin Ormonde Phillips, dubbed him “Shadowy Richard,”1 son of “the Nabob,” Captain Richard Long.
As the young Master of Longfield, Richard Long II was a party to the Marriage Settlements of his siblings, spanning the years from 1821 to 1829. Strangely, no record of his own marriage has yet been found despite the fact that the marriages of his parents and of all of his six siblings are recorded in the pages of Burke's Landed Gentry and Burke's Irish Family Records. Since “Shadowy Richard” was a member of Ireland's landed gentry, then there should exist some mention of his eventual marriage somewhere or another. I'm therefore inclined to believe that Richard the Second did not tie the knot till later on in life.
In the realm of property transactions not involving marriage, our first record of Richard II comes from a July 1821 Deed, which advises that Richard and his mother Charity had leased sixteen Irish acres of land, at Ardmayle, to the [Anglican] Church of Ireland, represented in the Deed by Charles [Agar], Lord Archbishop of Cashel. The lease was to be held by the Church forever provided the yearly rent of 32 Pounds and two shillings continued to be paid.2 Apparently, the land was to be used for the construction of a parsonage, across the road from Ardmayle Church.
In 1823, Richard II participated in a successful fox hunt, and memories of the event have been retained in an anonymously written poem entitled The Tipperary Fox Chase - 1823. One of the verses mentions Richard and two of his Moore cousins:
“On the turnpike road Richard Long was descried,
With Moore of Regaile in a trot by his side,
With young Stephen, a lad who will tan his mare's sides
At a Tally-ho in the morning.”3
After Louisa got married in 1829, only Richard and his Mother were left living at Longfield, along with the servants. However, it's doubtful that Longfield seemed all that lonely in those days, since one can well imagine that Richard's brother and sisters often came by for visits, bringing with them their spouses and an increasing number of children. By the end of 1830, Charity Long had become grandmother to at least fourteen young ones, and Richard was known to all of them as “Uncle Long.” To the community around Ardmayle and Cashel, Richard was known as “the Young Captain”;4 and in 1833, he gained a new appellation that lasted a year, when he was appointed to the position of High Sheriff of County Tipperary.5 Unfortunately, this period of relative tranquility for the Long Family, was soon to come to an end.
In previous times, it had been an expensive process for landlords to evict tenants by taking them to court. However, even though tenants might be behind in their rents, landlords found it useful to retain them as tenants for the sole reason that they could therefore manipulate their voting habits to ensure the success of the landlords' favorite candidates whenever elections were held. After the poor tenants were disenfranchised by the so-called Emancipation Act of 1829, landlords no longer had any motive to continue to allow them to live on their properties. Soon, “whole townlands were swept of inhabitants; and without feeling or remorse, hundreds of small farmers and cottiers were cast on the roadside to perish of hunger, exposure, or typhus.”6
We can only hope against hope that our “Uncle Long” was not one of the wicked landlords to have participated in such an immoral act. In Tipperary alone, during the 1830s, the total number of people involved as a result of tenant ejections, may have run into the thousands.7 “The unhappy people, protected neither by law, by public opinion, nor by conscience, now set about obtaining” revenge through the method of assassination. Therefore evicted tenants often turned on their former landlords, and committed the most atrocious acts of violence, which tended to be regarded with indifference by many of their former neighbors, some of whome actually encouraged the crimes and even harbored the perpetrators.8 During this volatile period of Tipperary history, many landlords were shot at, some more than once: “Leinigan, Bayley, Stoney, ...... Long, Lee, and several others.” 9 From a January 1836 edition of the Tipperary Constitution comes the following report:
“DUBLIN CASTLE, December 29, 1835
Whereas it has been represented to the Lord Lieutenant, that on the night of the 16th, instant, RICHARD LONG, Esq., of Longfield, in the Parish of Ardmayle, in the County of Tipperary, was fired at by three men as he was returning from the Cashel Petty Sessions. His Excellency, for the better apprehending and bringing to Justice the Perpetrators of the above Outrage, is pleased hereby to offer a reward of TWO HUNDRED POUNDS to any person or persons (except the person or persons who actually committed the same) who shall, within Six Months of the date hereof, give such Information as shall lead to the apprehension and conviction of all or any of the Persons concerned herein. By His Excellency's Command. M O R P E T H”
Tipperary Constitution, January, 1836
“R E W A R D. Whereas on the Evening of Wednesday the 16th of December, Instant, as RICHARD LONG, of Longfield, Esq., was returning from the Petit Sessions of Cashel, he was waylaid and fired at near his own Avenue Gate, by three Ruffians, and most providentially escaped. We, the undersigned, with the hope of bringing to justice, not only the persons who fired said shots, but also such persons as may have been implicated in the CONSPIRACY of this intended murder, do hereby promise to pay the sums severally annexed to our names, for their prosecution to conviction within six calendar months from the date hereof.
Of this Reward, we will give for such PRIVATE INFORMATION as may lead to the apprehension and conviction of the parties implicated in said murder, the sum of ONE HUNDRED POUNDS for each person apprehended and convicted through such PRIVATE INFORMATION ; and of the residue of said Reward, one-third part to such Person or Persons as will Prosecute to Conviction, each of the persons who fired said shots. December 31, 1835. One Hundred Pounds each: Earl of Donoughmore, Viscount Hawarden, Earl Glengall, Earl Clonmel, Lord Lismore, R. Butler H. Lowe, Stephen Moore, William Pennefather, Samuel Phillips, Mathew Jacob, William Barker, John Bagwell (Marlfield), Richard Long, Charles Clarke. Fifty Pounds Each: Lord Bloomfield, Samuel Cooper, Mathew Pennefather, Richard Pennefather (Darling Hill), Thomas Price, William Perry.” Many others offered lesser amounts.
The nightmare had almost happened again. Richard must surely have thought he was going to meet the same fate as had his father twenty-one years before. Charity would have gone into shock and the rest of the family must have been mortified. It was only three years later that Louisa's brother-in-law was murdered.
Despite troubled times, the family had to go on living, and its numbers kept increasing too. By 1840, Charity Long had about thirty grandchildren and I would like to imagine that she was a kind and loving grandmother. She was now eighty years old and had been a widow for twenty-six years. According to her obituary, Charity Moore Long died on the 5th of October, 1842, at Longfield, in the 82nd year of her age.10 On October 8th, Charity was buried next to Richard in a plot located behind Ardmayle Church. One approaches their graves through a brick enclosure within which a gate allows access to their tombstones which are bordered by a combination brick and wrought-iron fence.
The inscriptions on their tombstones read: “Sacred to the Memory of Mrs Charity Long Relict of the late Richard Long of Longfield Esq. She died October the fifth 1842 in the 82nd year of her age”; “Sacred to the Memory of Richard Long of Longfield in the County of Tipperary, Esq., who departed this life on the fourth day of July 1814 in the 74th year of his age.”11 [It should be noted here that in 1995, the Ardmayle Heritage Society carried out extensive renovations and repairs to the Long Family graves and headstones].
From 1800 to 1841, the population of Ireland doubled from 4,000,000 to over 8,000,000. By the mid-1840s, Ireland was definitely becoming overpopulated.12 The vicious interreaction between landlord and peasant continued unabated. On October 31st, 1845, Patrick Clarke of Rapla, near Nenagh in North Tipperary, was murdered “by a disgruntled ex-employee for no valid reason as he was a good man and a just employer.”13 Patrick Clarke was the brother-in-law of Richard's brother, Edward Long. Austin Cooper, murdered in 1838, had been the brother-in-law of Richard's sister, Louisa Long Cooper. Those two murders must have hit close to home, and combined with the 1835 attempt on his life, Richard must have felt rather uneasy.
Perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back was the coming of the Great Famine. After the potato blight first hit Ireland in 1845, Richard may very well have realized that he no longer wished to live in Tipperary. A recent article in the Tipperary Star suggests he may “have been prompted to sell following the first effects of the famine which had begun the previous Autumn. If this was so, then he was one of the few landlords who can be said to have ‘got out in time.’”14 The biography of Charles Bianconi reads: “the virtual failure of the potato crop in 1845 .... had left most of [Richard's] tenants too impoverished to pay their rents.” “He finally made the fateful decision to sell his property and leave the country.”15 In March, 1846, Richard Long II sold the entire Longfield estate to Charles Bianconi for the sum of 25,000 Pounds, a fortune in those days.16 Charles Bianconi, known as “the King of the Irish Roads,” was “an Italian who, having come to Ireland virtually penniless, made a fortune by running a fast and efficient system of horse-drawn transport with his famous longcars.”17
“Bianconi had never forgotten the tall white house at Longfield, which he had first seen 41 years before; and, every time he drove from Clonmel to Thurles, he always took the road by Boherlahan where he could gaze across the river [at Longfield] with a longing undimmed by the passing of the years. Now at last his dream [had] come true.”18 We, the descendants of the Longs of Longfield, are most fortunate that it was Charles Bianconi who purchased Longfield, since he and his family kept the house in excellent shape for 120 years right up until 1968 when his great-granddaughter, Molly O'Connell-Bianconi bequeathed it to the Irish Georgian Society.19 Longfield still stands, tall and beautiful, and the estate is presently operated as a stud farm, owned by Robert Sangster and Vincent O'Brien of racing fame.
In 1854, Bianconi received a letter from the former owner of Longfield:
“17th August, 1854
My Dear Sir,
I am told I will not know Longfield, it is so much improved. How fortunate I was, and how happy my former tenants have been, because of the selection I made when parting with my property in Tipperary, which part of Ireland if I ever see again, will find me for a few days under your roof, should you be at home. Pray remember me to my old friends and neighbours, not forgetting the Rev. Messrs. Kirwan and Mackey; and tell Dennis Dwyer I am alive, though not as active as in former days. With sincere regards to my former tenants now in the land of the living, and best compliments to Mrs Bianconi and family.
My dear Sir, very faithfully yours
R I C H A R D L O N G”20
The Long Deeds tell us where Richard moved to after he sold Longfield. By June 1846, he was residing in Dublin,21 and by December, 1855, he had moved to Douglas on the Isle of Man, located in the Irish Sea between Ireland and Scotland.22 In November, 1858, we find Richard back in Ireland and living in Rathmines in the suburbs of Dublin.23
Richard Long II died on December 8th, 1860, at his home on Leinster Road, which was then the most fashionable part of Dublin. Although his will no longer exists, as is the case with most Irish wills pre-dating 1922, the still extant letters of administration fortunately include some useful information.
“Extract from 1861 Letters of Administration of the Personal Estate of Richard Long, Esq.” “- formerly of Upper Mount St., Dublin,” and of “Longfield in Cashel, Co. Tipperary, then of Booterstown, Co. Dublin, and late of 2 Eaton Terrace, Leinster Road, Rathmines, Co. Dublin - who died 8 December 1860, at same place. [Letters of Administration] Granted to Ellen Long of 2 Eaton Terrace, Widow; Robert Hare Long of same address, Esq., and John Maher of Clonakilty, Co. Cork, Gent. Effects under 8,000 Pounds. Will annexed.”24
“Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin - Internment C110-2308:
Portland stone and Granite cover. Richard Long died Dec. 8th, 1860; buried Dec. 11th, 1860; age at time of death not stated; Widow was the informant. Ellen Long died Dec. 4th, 1897; buried Dec. 7th, 1897; aged 87 years at time of death. Information supplied by J. Maher, 32 Lansdown Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin. Nephew to Ellen Long.”25
So Richard finally got married after all! His wife's name was Ellen, and although her maiden name is not known, it's quite likely that she was formerly Ellen Maher, aunt of John Maher of Dublin and Clonakilty, Co. Cork. Here we probably have yet another example of an intermarriage between the Longs and a member of a Celtic-Irish family, the Mahers. According to Landowners in Ireland, Ellen Long of Dublin owned 539 acres of land in County Cork in 1878,26 property which she had probably inherited from her family. The above Mount Jerome extract reveals that she and Richard didn't have any children of their own, Robert Hare Long being Richard's nephew.
It's surprising that Richard's estate had a value of under 8,000 Pounds. In 1846, he had received £25,000 from the sale of Longfield, and surely he had other assets and monies to augment that figure. Did he squander his fortune or did his fourteen years in retirement gradually dwindle his resources? After Richard sold Longfield, did he share any of the profit therefrom with his brother Edward? When his widow, Ellen Long died in 1897, would she have willed part of her estate to her late husband's Long nephews? Hopefully, the answer to this last question might be discovered by further research.
As to the subject of whether or not Richard might have shared with his brother Edward some of the proceeds from the sale of Longfield, one would have expected that Edward Long and his sons be designated as Richard's heirs-at-law since Richard and Ellen were childless. Had Richard held on to Longfield, then Edward would have inherited the estate upon Richard's demise in 1860. Of course, if that had happened, then Edward and his family might have remained in Ireland, and as a result, many of us would not exist!
NOTES:
1. OL, #16, 1986
2. RD, Mem. 518566, Book 764, p 231, 1821, “Long & ors to Curate of Ardmayle Parish”
3. The Tipperary Star, Oct 7, 1972
4. Bianconi, King of the Irish Roads, p 164
5. “Magistrates, Grand Juries, & High Sheriffs for Co. Tipperary,” Thomas U. Sadleir, Genealogical Office, Dublin
6 History of Clonmel, p 206
7. Ibid, p 207
8. Ibid, pp 207-8
9. Ibid, p 208
10. “Phillips of Gaile Cuttings Album,” p 2
11. OL, #1, 1984
12. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1948, vol 12, p 612
13. The Clarkes of Graiguenoe Park, by J. Vernon C. Clarke & Ralph Lionel Clarke, 1976, p 10
14. Tipperary Star, Jan 24 or 31, 1998, “Historic Ardmayle house for sale”
15. Bianconi, p 135
16. RD, Mem. 174, Book 4, 1846, “Richard Long to Charles Bianconi”
17. Burke's Guide to Country Houses, vol I, Ireland, 1978, p 190, “Longfield”
18. Bianconi, p 135
19. Charles Bianconi’s only surviving dau, Mary Anne, married Morgan John O’Connell, nephew of Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), “the Liberator” of Ireland (see BIFR, p 897).
20. Bianconi, pp 166-7
21. RD, Mem. 92, Book 10, 1846, “Long & Moore”
22. RD, Mem. 83, Book 9, 1856, “Long & ors to Hayes”
23. RD, Mem. 41, Book 37, 1858, “Long & ors to Hayes”
24. OL, #54, 1988, Extract of 1978 Letter to C. O. R. Phillips from Eric J McAuliffe, Genealogist, of Dublin, re Richard Long II
25. Ibid, Extract of 1979 Letter to C. O. R. Phillips from E J McAuliffe re Richard Long II
26. Landowners in Ireland, 1878, reprinted 1988 by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, p 128
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