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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Wicklow => Topic started by: Christopher on Monday 26 November 07 17:13 GMT (UK)
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Robert Halpin (http://www.tinakilly.ie/Pages/history.html) was born in the Bridge Tavern, Wicklow, on February 16th 1836, the youngest of thirteen children of James & Mary Halpin. He left home for a life at sea in 1847. He was the First Officer on the trans-Atlantic cable vessel the Great Eastern in 1865. Robert Halpin died in 1894 and was buried at Wicklow Parish Church.
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Hi i have just found out that i have Halpin's that come from Wicklow,how would i go about finding him there.
thanks nina
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Hi Nina,
Halpin listed in Griffiths Valuation extracts for Co. Wicklow 1852-3 which are on John Hayes failteromhat.com website.
John, Moylisha, Moyacomb
Michael, Moylisha, Moyacomb
Edward, Carrig Lower, Kiltegan
Rep. James, Wicklow, Bridge Street, Kilpoole
George H., Wicklow, The Mall, Kilpoole
Margaret, Ballinderry Lower, Rathdrum
Margaret, Copse, Rathdrum
Margaret, Wicklow, Wicklow, Fitzwilliam Square, Rathnew
George, Island, Rathnew
William, Copse, Rathdrum
William, Ballinderry Lower, Rathdrum
William, Granamore, Hollywood
Rosana, Corragh, Hollywood
Robert, Ballyerrin Lower Main St., Drumkay
William, Shroghan, Boystown
Tobias, Shroghan, Boystown
Matthew, Shroghan, Boystown
Denis, Granamore, Hollywood
Luke, Granamore, Hollywood
Patrick, Johnstown, Hollywood
Patrick, Granamore, Hollywood
Margaret, Granamore, Hollywood
Luke, Jr., Granamore, Hollywood
John, Garryknock, Boystown
Christopher
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Hi i have just found out that i have Halpin's that come from Wicklow,how would i go about finding him there.
thanks nina
Hello Nina,
When did your Halpin ancestors live in Wicklow?
There was a photograph in the Mourne Observer, "Man About Town" page, at the end of April last year , of Herbert Halpin's Entertainers at Newcastle, Co. Down, Ireland during the summer season 1909. There were twelve of them including one lady.
Christopher
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I discovered recently ( and much to my surprise :o ) that I have a Halpin in my family tree - my gg grandmother - who I thought originated in Kildare/Westmeath, but turns out to have come from Wicklow (have this on good authority from a great-uncle). Catherine Halpin b 1853 (working back from the age shown on her headstone).
Just throwing this info out there in the hope it may mean somethin' to someone. I know the Wicklow Family History Centre provides a search service, but TBH a 30 euro charge for a single record search is a fair hit when all I have is her name & year of birth which may or may not be accurate. I keep checking Irish-roots.net but the online search facility for Wicklow is under the counties "Coming Soon".
Cheers,
Sean.
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Anyone interested in the 19th cent. Halpins of Wicklow town and surrounding locale may like to read what I have uncovered during my own research. I too am a Halpin, a direct descendent of Robert Wellington Halpin, Town Clerk and Postmaster, among other things (some less savoury, depending on how long your memory is). I've yet to figure out exactly where RW was born, but I'm pretty sure he was a blow-in. He died exactly 6 months after the death of his beloved wife, Frances, on October 2 1883, and is buried "in the family grave" in Wicklow cemetery.
According to the local newsletter his son, Robert jnr, was elected Secretary to the Harbour Board on November 14 of that year. Robert jnr's brother Edwin, my great grandfather, married a Wexford girl, about 5 weeks after his father Robert's death. Since the Halpin's were staunch loyalists and devout Protestants, Edwin's marriage to Marianne (nee Murphy - her family were Catholics living in Ram st., Wexford, and her father was a Shoemaker) was considered to be a betrayal, a rejection of his own kind and of his birthright. By marrying 'out' and marrying 'down' (ie. into a class 'well beneath' his own) Edwin effectively severed all links with the Anglican (Episcople) community in Wicklow, and as far as I can tell had very little contact with his family after that, until a rather tragic episode around the time of his death in abt 1925.
By that time Marianne was dead (1915?) and Edwin's sisters (there were 3 in all - Frances, Emma and Ada...I think Frances died a young woman and her two surviving sisters continued to run their father's Main st., post office for years after his death, which left them in dire poverty by the 1920s) were in need of care. An unknown person - probably a concerned Wicklow resident - then contacted my grandfather (James Albert, Edwin's 2nd son) and notified him of his aunts' situation. He was not long married at the time (1925?), an illiterate Catholic veteran of WW1 living on Clonliffe Ave., Ballybough, North Dublin. I believe James Albert responded to the news about his aunts' difficulties by catching a train to Wicklow and returning to his home on Clonliffe ave., with at least one of his aunts (Emma), who was given a room upstairs, where she remained bedridden for a year before passing away. My aunt Kathleen still recalls Emma attempting to belt her with a wooden stick as she - a six year old at the time - taunted her from the bedroom doorway. Apart from Edwin, Robert jnr , Frances, Ada and Emma there was another brother, Samuel, who died ("much loved") in abt 1915 in Drogheda. If anyone can tell me anything about Sam, Robert, or any of the sisters, I'd be very grateful indeed.
I realise the above is rather confusing and perhaps a tad too narrow in scope to interest many, so let me put a few things into a wider context, for the possible benefit of a larger audience.
My gg grandfather, Robert Wellington, was Captn Robert Charles Halpin's 1st cousin. According to my aunt, Edwin was closer to Robert C's brother, Dr Stopford Halpin, who was based mostly in Arklow town, I believe. Stopford spent his first years in general practice in Cavan town, under the supervision of his uncle, Dr Charles Halpin, renowned for the desperation of his efforts to find a way to beat the blight that contributed so much to the severity of the Great Famine. The dates here are approximately 1845-50. Stopford often spoke of Charles whenever he visited Robert W and family at their home in Main street, Wicklow, emphasising Dr C's humanity, his disillusionment with the Anglo-Irish community after what he considered to be its unacceptable response to the Famine, and his tendency late in life to refer to himself as "an Anglo-Celt".
It ought to be said here that the fraught political climate of those years had a tremendous influence on the way the Halpin family organised itself around the country, determining strict alliances based on how strong one's ties were to the Crown. For example, Charles himself was ambivalent about the political stridency of his own brother, the Rev Nicholas John Halpin, the brilliant Shakespearean scholar and, as editor of the ultra-Tory newspaper The Dublin Evening Mail, one of Daniel O'Connell's most effective and relentless critics. It needs to be pointed out, however, that the Reverend's objections to O'Connell were not simply vulgar or bigoted, but revolved around what he felt was O'Connell's sectarianism - his apparent equation of Catholicism with what was essential about 'Irishness' - and the divisive implications of O'Connel's vision for Ireland's future. As a boy, Nicholas John Halpin had listened to horrific stories about the bloodletting and savagery of the French Revolution and was, as a consequence, deeply opposed to 'rule by the mob'.
I'm afraid I'll have to leave things there for the time being. I will return to this site on Wednesday, when I hope to complete the 'story' with details of the family's spread to the US and Canada.
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Regards for now, Raymond C Halpin.
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In Arklow recently, I picked up a copy of "The Story of the Arklow Lifeboats".
On p.7 the author writes of an incident at sea on 8th July 1876 when the Coastguard informed the Honorary Secretary of the Arklow Lifeboat Station, Dr Halpin, that a barque was aground.
The next page mentions that in March 1895 Dr Halpin died, after serving 18 years as Honorary Secretary.
Cheers
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Thanks for the reference, LH. I will have to follow it up. I know that Dr Stopford Halpin was closely associated with Arklow, but he died in 1885. His obituary is below, in case you're interested. I'll provide further details of the very large Halpin family tree over the coming weeks. Cheers, RH.
Obituary of Doctor Stopford William Halpin of Arklow, The Wicklow News-Letter, Saturday, Feb. 28 1885.
With deep regret we announce the death of Dr Stopford William Halpin of Arklow, which took place at his residence yesterday morning, after a brief but painful illness.
Dr Halpin was the fourth son of the late James Halpin, Esq, of Wicklow, and had just completed his 61st year. He was 30 years resident in and professionally connected with Arklow. For many years past he has held the appointments of medical officer of the dispensary and fever hospital, and surgeon to the local coastguards and constabulary. In his professional capacity Dr Halpin united high talents and ability with unremitting attention and industry. He treated the numerous poor placed under his care in the extensive dispensary district of Arklow with kindness and consideration, bestowing on them the same attention and pains as upon his richer patients. In his private character he was warm-hearted, impulsive, and independent – somewhat dogmatic and pronounced, perhaps, in his opinions, but always acting fearlessly in accordance with the principles he possessed. His sterling uprightness of character and kindness of heart won him many friends among his townsmen, while those with whom he differed from time to time were always among the first to bear testimony to his numerous good qualities. It is needless, therefore, to say that his unexpected death has caused widespread sorrow and regret in the neighbourhood where he lived, and that the grief of his bereved family will be shared by a large circle of friends and acquaintances, not only in Arklow, but throughout the whole of this side of the county.
Dr Halpin was a LKQCP, Ireland, and MRCS, England. Previous to his appointment to the dispensary he held that of Surgeon in the Emigration Service.
The funeral will leave Arklow at 11 o’clock on Monday, for interment in the family grave in Wicklow.
Funeral of Dr S W Halpin, The Wicklow News-Letter, Saturday, March 7 1885.
On Monday last the remains of this much-respected gentleman were interred in the family grave in Wicklow churchyard, in the presence of a concourse of people, the number and representative character of which showed the universal esteem in which the deceased was held, and the sympathy felt for his family. Many of those who attended the funeral ceremony had, in order to accord the last tribute of respect, accompanied the procession from Arklow, while all the outlying districts of Wicklow were largely represented. The hearse containing the body, and the mourning coaches, conveying the relations of the late doctor left the residence in Arklow at 11 o’clock, attended by numerous vehicles of all descriptions (including the carriages of most of the gentry of the district) and by crowds of the townspeople on foot, many of whom attended the cortege for a considerable distance out of town. The local coast-guards and police, to whom Dr Halpin was surgeon, were also represented. At different parts of the route until the town of Wicklow was entered, fresh vehicles and pedestrians joined the procession, replacing those who had gone to Arklow to meet it, and who dropped away from time to time as they came in the vicinity of their homes. In Wicklow again, large numbers of the townspeople, including most of the leading inhabitants attended the funeral to the church. The remains were enclosed in a coffin of polished oak, the lid of which was literally covered with beautiful flowers and wreaths of immortelles. The body was received at the church door by the Reverend Henry Rooke, Wicklow, and Reverend J Hoffe, Kilbride, the latter of whom read the first portion of the burial service, and afterwards delivered a touching and impressive funeral address. The coffin was then bourne to the grave where the remainder of the service was read by the Rev H Rooke, and the body lowered into the grave.
The funeral arrangements were carried out by Mr J Hall, Arklow.
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Two brothers - Nicholas and John - and the political differences between them had a great bearing on the way the Halpin family evolved over the early years of the 19th century. Nicholas, Headmaster of Portarlington School (Queen's county, or County Laois) was a Tory. John (b. 1764), engraver and book publisher/seller in Dublin, was a liberal Whig. On some other occasion I will explain how the influence of these two men affected the lives of their various descendents. At the moment I will simply list the names of some of their sons and grandsons before recording the details of three prominent and interconnected branches of the Halpin Family Tree: the Rev. Nicholas John Halpin, his son Charles Greham Halpin(e), his brother William Henry Halpin (libeller, journalist, ed. of the Cheltenham Mail and victim of the Railway mania in 1845-46); his other brother Frederick, owner of a hotel in Wicklow; Frederick's 4th son Frederick Webster Halpin, engraver in the US who challenged his father's will (which stated that his property in Wicklow was to be left to his nieces) and lost, and who later tried to exact revenge on the judge presiding over that decision (the Right Hon Judge Keatinge) by making false accusations against the Judge's brother Edward Keatinge, who ran a firm of Confederate Bond Engravers in Columbia, South Carolina in 1863...there is George Halpin, civil engineer and son of John, actually raised by aunts and uncles and who was secretive about his origins on account of the damage they might do to his prospects...James Halpin, distiller, son of John Edmund (engraver, mentioned above) and a '98 man, implicated with another distiller by the name of Hannen in an attempt to rescue Robert Emmett from imprisonment in Kilmainham gaol, later resident in Wicklow, where he opened an inn (this may have been his son, James jnr, I'm presently examining Church records for clues as to the exact lineage here) and fathered, among others, Captain Robert Charles Halpin and the good Dr Stopford Halpin...then there are John Halpin, surveyor and Orientalist who died in 'jungly' country in India; General William G Halpin, US Civil war veteran, arrested in the late 1860's for his role in a disappointing Fenian rising (he had assessed the battle readiness and strength of his volunteers in a raid on a small police station outside Dublin - to his experienced eye any further action would have resulted in the pointless slaughter of his impassioned but thoroughly unprepared troop of patriots, so he sent them home, much to the disgust and mystification of nationalist historians ever since - but he later aquitted himself exceptionally well at his trial; there, his self-defence was aimed not at the court but at the sympathies of the reading public, to which he appealed through the reporting media - it was his plan to use his testimony to rouse the sympathies of the British people, but his otherwise unprecedented approach to self-defence came to nothing after the Manchester 'martyrs' intervened and his cousin, Charles Grehem Halpin(e), from whom he had expected significant moral and political help through the US media and the US Government, died in a hotel in New York City from an accidental overdose of Laudanum)...
There'll be a tad more of this some other time. For now, glance below for the first posting of what I hope will become an extensive Halpin Family Tree, linking descendents from as far afield as the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, and Ireland.
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Lineage - Nicholas Halpin, living 1809, m. Anne du Bois - they had one daughter, Susanna, and an only (?) son -
William Henry Halpin, of Portarlington, m. Jan. 1787, Marianne Crosthwaite, and together they had -
1. Nicholas John (Rev., Ed. of Dublin Evening Mail).
2. William Henry (Ed. Cheltenham Mail).
3. Frederick, m. 1844, Maria House, together they had -
a. William Henry.
b. Arthur Neville.
c. Walter Charles.
d. Frederick Webster.
e. Herbert Beauchamp.
f. Emma Hariette (my greatgrandfather Edwin's 'aunt Emma').
g. Maria Lizzie, m. Cptn. George Bampfield.
h. Jane Keville.
i. Edith Marianne.
j. Ada Louise.
k. Kathleen Martha.
4. Victor, educ. Trin. Coll. Dublin (matric. 1 Oct. 1810, aged 19).
5. Charles, of Farnham Street, Cavan, MD., MRCS (Eng. 1830), LKQCP (Ireland, 1843), LM (Dublin, 1831), LRCSI (1834), LSA (Ireland, 1854), b. 1800, m. 28 Sept. 1836, Esther, dau of Rev. Joseph Druitt, Vicar of Denn, Co. Cavan, and d. 1859, leaving -
a. Druid (Druitt), Civil Engineer at Colchester.
b. Judith, m. - von Hoiken.
c. Mary, m. - Herring.
d. Esther, m. Col Harmann von Koppelow.
6. Marianne, b. 1785; d, unm. 1858.
The Rev. Nicholas John Halpin, Rector of Oldcastle, later ed. of the Dublin Evening Mail, b. 1790, educ TCD (BA 1815), m. 18 Oct. 1817, Ann Greham, and d. 22 Nov. 1850, leaving with other issue -
a. Nicholas John.
b. William Henry (Rev), Provost of Uni of London, Ontario, b. 1825, educ. TCD (BA 1851) and father of Henry Ross Halpin (1856 - 1930), amateur anthroplolgist, memoirist, fluent in Cree and friend and defender of Big Bear against charges of treason after the Frog Lake Massacre.
c. Charles Boyton Halpin (later C Greham Halpine - the change of name followed a failed marriage to Margaret Grace, third daughter of William Milligan Esq, MD of Nuneaton, on Jan 25 1859, and after his arrest sometime in November 1850 for a string of thefts - see the North Wales Chronicle, Nov 30 1850), General in American Civil War, editor of the New York Times, proprietor of the New York Leader, b. 20 Nov. 1829; d 3 Aug 1869.
d. Lucy, lived in USA.
e. Mary Anne, m - Russell, of USA.
That's it, for the time being. I will return to this some time next week. Regards, Ray Halpin.
Preview - Re: Halpin family of Wicklow - Link
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I am researching the Halpin family too from Wicklow for my ex mother in law. Her mother Constance Halpin was born 1917 Dublin, parents were William Robert Halpin and Matilda Henry and she recalls that William was disowned by his family as Matilda was catholic, and has told me about 2 sisters who ran a post office in Wicklow but only one of them spoke to her gran. Your story is familiar and I hope there is a connection somewhere as she would like to know about her grandparents. I hope you can help.
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Apologies fo the slow response - I'm afraid I only noticed your mssg this afternoon. Matilda and William are remembered by my relatives (as Willy and Tilly, oddly enough). William was my grandfather's brother, and got my father his apprenticeship on the Dublin docks. So, as you might imagine, I have a great deal of 'lore' to pass on to you, and promise to do so over the next couple of days. In the meantime, all the best. Talk soon, RH.
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Thanks for replying. From reading the info about the Halpins I thought Edwin and Marianne were William's parents, i will pass this on to my relative. Constance Halpin has a sister Matilda also known as Tilly. I look forward to finding out more about the family.
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Some of the information I have is difficult to access, so I'll pass it on to you here. Edwin's father, Robert Wellington Halpin, died in early October 1883. His obituary reads as follows:
DEATH OF MR. ROBERT HALPIN, TOWN CLERK.
We regret to announce the death of one of our oldest fellow-townsmen, Mr Robert Halpin, Town Clerk of Wicklow and Secretary to the Wicklow Harbour Board, who expired on Tuesday last at his residence, Main Street, Wicklow, after a long and painful illness. For nearly fourty years, Mr Halpin (who was in his 67th year), filled in Wicklow the offices above-named, and with what undoubted efficiency, faithfulness and zeal is well known and has long been recognised by everyone in the town. His discretion and experience have often been instrumental in guiding the commissioners through serious difficulties, while more than once his great tact and knowledge of corporate matters have materially aided in extricating them from unpleasant entanglements. Besides being valued and respected as an official, Mr Halpin was widely known and in his private character universally esteemed by all who knew him, and his death is sincerely and generally regretted not only in Wicklow, but far beyond the limits of the town. As a mark of respect to his memory, every shop in the town was closed as soon as the news of his decease became known. During the last two years Mr Halpin's health has completely broken down, and for some months past he has been unable to attend the monthly meetings of the commissioners, his duties, meanwhile, being performed (by permission) by his son.
The funeral took place yesterday, in the family grave in Wicklow churchyard, and was attended by almost all the townspeople, and by many from the outlying districts.
That was recorded in The Bray Herald, in October 1883. I hope this interests Constance. I'm not sure if I've mentioned Edwin's profession yet - he was a Telegraphist, working in Wexford town from around the year 1877, after a scandal involving "Miss Florence Marryat" - you can google her, she was quite a lady. I'll let you know more about that scandal some other time, but it probably led to Edwin's flight to Wexford town, where he eventually met and married (a month after his father's burial) Marianne. At the time of the marriage, Edwin was 29, and Marianne was about 16 - not as unusual a union as it might sound to you and I.
I won't go into great detail about the marriage yet, because I wan't to make sure of my facts, but I do know that the early years of Edwin and Marianne's marriage were tremendously happy ones, despite the loss of two children. Trouble began later on, after Marianne lost twin boys at a time when Edwin was away at sea (he had taken to working on the boats). Naturally, she must have been devastated by the loss of the boys, and without Edwin around to support her I believe she succumbed to depression. At this time they were living in 26 Hawthorn Tce, North Strand, an address I'm sure Constance is very familiar with. You might like to ask Constance if she remembers Mr Scarry, if she ever heard a Mr Ritson being mentioned (Edwin went guarantor for him some time around 1900 - their business dealings must have turned sour, because my grandfather, James Albert, 10 yrs younger than his brother, and guardian, William, remembers the Bailiffe bursting into Hawthorn Tce and cleaning the house out of all of its contents), and if she is aware of the Gallantry Award given to Edwin for saving an elderly woman from drowning in the Liffey in March 1906.
I will respond again in greater detail in another few days. Cheers, RCMH.
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Hello, thanks very much for all the information. Constance Halpin died in 1992 at York at her daughter Ann's home (now Meek) but im sure she will remember past events from her mum's life. When did Edwin and his family live in Dublin and were their children born there Ann thinks he was born in County Tyrone, I have the 1911 Dublin census with Matilda Henry's family. Iwill ask Ann if the Dublin address is familiar. Do you have all the dates of birth of Edwin and Marianne's children? Thanks
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Hi i have just found out that i have Halpin's that come from Wicklow,how would i go about finding him there.
thanks nina
Hello Nina,
When did your Halpin ancestors live in Wicklow?
There was a photograph in the Mourne Observer, "Man About Town" page, at the end of April last year , of Herbert Halpin's Entertainers at Newcastle, Co. Down, Ireland during the summer season 1909. There were twelve of them including one lady.
Christopher
Hi Christopher,
Halpin family married into these families:_
1- Bestall
2-Wheatly/Wheatley
3- Saunders
4-Johne
5- Wholohan
6-Kennedy
See a connection then cotact me I do have more on them
Cheers
Cara
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Hi Cara,
Bestall and Johne don't appear with a Halpin in the same parish, nor do they appear in the Valuation, but Halpin / Holohan, Halpin / Kennedy, Halpin / Saunders and Halpin / Wheatley households are recorded in the same parish in the Primary Valuation property survey of 1848-64.. One of the counties
in which four of the surnames on your list appeared was Wicklow.
Christopher
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I will attempt to find the exact information you're looking for. I have it somewhere, but I may need a week or two to put it all together. I hope you don't mind the delay. As for Edwin and Marianne's address - initially, during the early years of their marriage, they lived in Wexford town, I believe. Later, around the time Bridget was born (1894?), they lived at 26 Hawthorne Tce., North Strand, Dublin. Despite a temporary change of address at around the time of the census in 1911, the Halpins called Hawthorne Tce a family home for a couple of generations. I've read the 1901 census and the info gleaned from that will be included in the next email. Can you locate any photos of Edwin and Marianne? Until next time, cheers, RCMH.
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Ann doesnt have any photos of Edwin and Marianne as she never knew who they were until now, only that her grandparents were William Halpin and Matilda Henry. I am slowly finding out info but cant access the 1901 census so I will wait until you send it to me. Was Bridget Edwin and Marianne's daughter? Whatever info you have I will be most grateful for and dont mind the delay. Thanks
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Dear Raymond, Thought I'd say hullo from Perth Western Australia. Your information on the Halpins is terrific! I noticed your note on the brothers Nicholas and John 's separate lines. I descend from George Halpin snr and his son Jnr , civil engineers and lighthouse commissioners. George Halpin Jnr's son another George Halpin migrated to Australia. I've a photo of the youngest George and his family taken in the 1870's in the USA. They seemed to travel a lot! His daughter Mary Halpin married Alfred Mettam. They are my great grand parents. My great Aunt Fran visited the family in Ireland just after the first world war and spoke of a lovely family house in Dublin. As children we had been told of Captain Halpin's achievements and other Halpin relatives had also worked on the Great Eastern to provide trusted services in the cable laying itself as there had been concerns about possible sabotage previously. I was never clear on where we actually linked to captain Robert Halpin. Your info seems to be clearing the haze if I'm reading right John Edmund Halpin is the father of George Halpin Snr and James Halpin.
My email is (*) kind regards Kim mettam.
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Dear Raymond, Thought I'd say hullo from Perth Western Australia. Your information on the Halpins is terrific! I noticed your note on the brothers Nicholas and John 's separate lines. I descend from George Halpin snr and his son Jnr , civil engineers and lighthouse commissioners. George Halpin Jnr's son another George Halpin migrated to Australia. I've a photo of the youngest George and his family taken in the 1870's in the USA. They seemed to travel a lot! His daughter Mary Halpin married Alfred Mettam. They are my great grand parents. My great Aunt Fran visited the family in Ireland just after the first world war and spoke of a lovely family house in Dublin. As children we had been told of Captain Halpin's achievements and other Halpin relatives had also worked on the Great Eastern to provide trusted services in the cable laying itself as there had been concerns about possible sabotage previously. I was never clear on where we actually linked to captain Robert Halpin. Your info seems to be clearing the haze if I'm reading right John Edmund Halpin is the father of George Halpin Snr and James Halpin.
My email is (*) kind regards Kim mettam.
more info Commissioner for lighthouses advised the followingThe following is all we know about the Halpins—
George Halpin was appointed as Inspector of Works to the Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin in 1800. This was the Port Authority for Dublin, also known as the Ballast Board.
Halpin was a builder by trade, with no academic engineering qualifications. He was responsible for supervising various engineering works around Dublin Port, from Sutton on the north side of Dublin Bay to Bullock Harbour on the south.
In 1810 the Ballast Board was made responsible for the lighthouses around the coast of Ireland, and the Board extended Halpin’s responsibilities by appointing him Inspector of Lighthouses as well as Inspector of Works.
Halpin was an administrator of exceptional ability. Under his direction the Ballast Board established an effective management structure for the lighthouse service, standardised the level of service provided, and regularised the employment of lighthouse keepers. Gradually during the early nineteenth century a proper marine aids to navigation infrastructure was put in place.
George Halpin died suddenly in July 1954 while carrying out lighthouse inspections. His date of birth is unknown. However, his headstone in Mount Jerome Cemetry, Dublin, gives his age at the time of death as 75 years.
When the Ballast Board took over responsibility for the Irish Lighthouses in 1810 there were only 14 lighthouses around the Irish Coast. By 1867, when responsibility was transferred to the Commissioners of Irish Lights, there were 72. George Halpin directed the construction of most of the 58 additional lighthouses, and of a number of others subsequently discontinued because their location proved ineffective. He also oversaw the modernisation and re-equipping of the previously existing lighthouses. This was in addition to supervising the construction of new docks, bridges and other projects for the expanding Dublin port - a remarkable achievement.
So far as I am aware, virtually nothing is known of his family history. The Ballast Board kept very few records of their employees and certainly did not record private details of their personal lives. In any case there are almost no records extant prior to 1900. We do know, however, that his son, also George, who was a qualified civil engineer, was employed by the Board as assistant Inspector of Works and assistant Inspector of Lighthouses from 1830 and when George Halpen senior died George Halpin junior was promoted to the post of Inspector of Works & Superintendent of Lighthouses.
A History of The Port of Dublin by H.A. Gilligan (published by Gill & Macmillen Ltd, Goldenbridge, Dublin 8; 1988; ISBN 0-7171-1578-X) gives an excellent overview of the achievements of the two George Halpins.
There was also a Robert Halpin who was chief officer and later master of the Great Eastern, originally a passenger paddle steamer which was later converted to a cable layer and which laid the first transatlantic submarine cable from Valentia Island, Co Kerry, to New York. We have no information to indicate whether Robert Halpin was a relative of the George Halpins
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Re George Halpin Snr and Jnr. The note from the Irish Lighthouse Commissioners cited a date which was incorrect instead of July 1954 it should read July 1854.
I will also include the letter sent to the Irish Lighthouse Commissioners. Other records havindicated George Halpin Snr died as a result of an accident whilst inspecting one of the lighthouses in his Department.
Hullo from Perth Western Australia!
George Halpin senior was my x2great grandfather and I noticed Frank Pelly had written a very good short historical summary of George’s career in 2006.
George’s grandson came to Australia in the 1880s. Very little history of the family or records seems to be available. I’ve one or two photos of grandson also a George Halpin. (George’s eldest daughter Mary Halpin married Alfred Mettam)
As a small boy I was told of George Halpin Snr and George Jnr, and also of a Halpin family link to the ship the Great Eastern. I.e. that a member of the family was the Captain and other family members served on the ship laying the transatlantic cable.
Captain Robert Halpin was the commander of the Great Eastern and I have managed to obtain a copy of the book on his life.
Capt Robert was also involved in harbor and marine structures I think at Wicklow.
I suspect he was a cousin or nephew of George Halpin senior and am endeavoring to find out as much as possible about these early Halpins and whether anyone can confirm a link between the two famous Halpins.
They were certainly high achievers and I’m very proud of their competence and contribution.
I wondered if you might have some archive material on George Halpin senior and his family. I would also welcome any suggestions, or persons you would recommend I contact.
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photos of George Halpin snr grave Mt Jerome Cemetry Dublin
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Hi Cara,
Bestall and Johne don't appear with a Halpin in the same parish, nor do they appear in the Valuation, but Halpin / Holohan, Halpin / Kennedy, Halpin / Saunders and Halpin / Wheatley households are recorded in the same parish in the Primary Valuation property survey of 1848-64.. One of the counties
in which four of the surnames on your list appeared was Wicklow.
Christopher
Christopher it would have helped if Ihad of typed in the correct name JONES not Johne now you should have known what I was trying to type .....fingers get a little busy and miss keys and all that I apologise for this
This is a dedication within the Church of Holy Trinity Castlemacadam Co Wicklow Ireland
179 - Transcribed Cara-Links taken from my own book
Erected by ROBERT C HALPIN F.R.O.S.
The Officers and Crew of the Steamship
"Great Eastern"
In affectionate Remembrance of their much
Regretted
Brother Officer
Robert Jones L.R.C.S.I.
Assistant Surgeon of that ship on the
Submarine Telegraph Expedition
When England was Brought
Into Direct Communication With
India, China, and Australia
Who died February 10th 1876
Aged 25 Years.
I leave this here for you Christopher as I see you are an avid reader of this link and site.
Regards
Cara
Hi i have just found out that i have Halpin's that come from Wicklow,how would i go about finding him there.
thanks nina
Hello Nina,
When did your Halpin ancestors live in Wicklow?
There was a photograph in the Mourne Observer, "Man About Town" page, at the end of April last year , of Herbert Halpin's Entertainers at Newcastle, Co. Down, Ireland during the summer season 1909. There were twelve of them including one lady.
Christopher
Hi Christopher,
Halpin family married into these families:_
1- Bestall
2-Wheatly/Wheatley
3- Saunders
4-Johne
5- Wholohan
6-Kennedy
See a connection then cotact me I do have more on them
Cheers
Cara
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My attention has been brought to this discussion by Cara, so my thanks to her.
Kim Mettem in Perth, we are cousins and I would like you to get in touch. If you google "julia villiers", you should be able to find a thread at another forum that includes my address.
I have never heard any reference (other than speculation) to our George Halpins being connected to Captain Robert Halpin or to a Nicholas or John Halpin, or to Wicklow but I am always willing to learn. I would be most interested to learn more of Raymond's information and sources on this if he would care to do so. George Halpin senior, born circa 1779, wife Elizabeth, is as far back as I have been able to go. If, as Raymond suggests, George was secretive about his relations, that may explain why.
It may also explain why, if these were his family, there is absolutely no history of their names John, Nicholas, Robert, Edmund, etc in the descendants of George Halpin.
But George does appear to have had a son named Oswald and I would like to know where that relates to - possibly his wife's family.
Bill Webster
Sydney
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I would like to respond to Raymand C Halpin's post of 24 March partly about the divided families of Nicholas and John Halpin.
After some news about Nicholas's descendants, Raymond, you come I presume to John's and state:
"George Halpin, civil engineer and son of John, actually raised by aunts and uncles and who was secretive about his origins on account of the damage they might do to his prospects..."
If you are referring to George Halpin (Senior) who became Inspector of Works and Inspector of Lighthouses in Dublin, born c. 1779, died 1854, this is my ancestor.
I would be most grateful if you could give us how you know his father was John, and the other marvellous details above, who were his aunts and uncles and who were their parents.
I am sorry if somehow I have missed this in the extensive material that you have already given.
As George and his family essentially became Dubliners and the details may not concern the Wicklow list or if for any other reason you may wish to send me family news, you may pick up my email address from another source by googling "julia villiers".
Thanks and best wishes
Bill Webster
Sydney
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Thankyou, Bill, for inviting me to return to a subject I left 'hanging in the air', as it were. And my apologies to you and the other readers of this site for what must have been a frustrating wait. Like a lot of people in Ireland at the moment (and elsewhere of course) I've just been laid off. It didn't come as a total shock, but when it did come it left me gutted, naturally, with a lot to do and, for reasons that I hope are obvious, getting back to everybody here was not an immediate priority. If I'm reading you right you'd like me to be a little less 'breathless' with the anecdotes and much more substantive. That's a fair request and it was remiss of me not to be clearer about exactly what I've been able to establish as fact amid all the family lore.
The strongest factual line I've been able to establish leads from my immediate family back in time through the Wicklow Halpins and, from there, through Dr Stopford Halpin to Dr Charles Halpin, of Cavan town, who passed away in 1859. This line came down to me through family stories that I've been able to substantiate to my own satisfaction, by virtue of obituaries and death notices published in various contemporary newspapers, and by a maddening trawl through the online newspaper archives at our National Library here in Dublin. I was able to corroborate that part of the family lore that dealt with the relationship between Stopford and Charles when I located a Medical Registry in the Royal College of Surgeon's library in Kildare St., Dublin, which listed the two as working from the same surgery in Cavan in the 1840s. From there I moved through links I was able to make with the aid of sources at the Royal Academy of Science (?) in Dawson street, which contains on file a reference to a facinating letter to academy members from Charles about a recent discovery made by "my brother, the Rev Nicholas John Halpin" - he was referring to a substantial stone carving depicting a pagan god which the Rev NJ had found while riding through the Cavan countryside. I won't go any further into the history of my research into this branch of the Halpin family tree, because I intend to lay it all out here for everyone's benefit over the coming months. I just want to stress the exact route I take in my research - it isn't from fact to lore, but from lore to fact. That is, I take the stories I was told about the Halpins and try to flesh them out as best I can with the aid of what I discover in the archives. It's a slow process and it's an approach I think everyone interested in this subject has to take at some point.
This is elementary stuff so far and I'm sure you have no qualms with it. However, what I failed to do, and what I should have been clear about, is exactly what I've been able to substantiate about the Halpin story and what remains to be 'proven' by me. That was a mistake I want to apologise for, and I'll try here as best I can to clear up some of the confusion I inadvertently created.
Firstly. here are the html website addresses of two excellent sources of information on George Halpin and extended family – http://www.cil.ie/sh832x4997.html and http://www.turtlebunbury.com/published/published_books/docklands/heroes/pub_books_docklands_halpin.html
I hope both prove useful to you.
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2.
As for your question about Oswald - I can tell you that he certainly was a direct descendant of George - as far as I can recall, Oswald studied medicine at Trinity, then volunteered to serve in WW1 soon after graduating. I'm afraid he was killed in action before war's end, precisely where and when escapes me just now. I'll find out and get the facts to you asap. I think he was raised in a place called ‘The Laurals’ in Foxrock, Co. Dublin. His father was also an MD. When I have more information I’ll post it here.
The connections I’m attempting to establish between George and the Halpin lineage outlined above, stem from discoveries I’ve managed to unearth in my research, some of which I lay here, meagre though they are. I’m fairly confident that I’ve identified Robert Wellington Halpin’s father as one Robert Halpin, tide-surveyor, working for Dublin “Customs” prior to 1850. In the “Return to House of Commons, List of all persons receiving salaries, pensions, allowances, emoluments, etc...”(1849 – see House of Commons website), he is listed as receiving “£120...diff. of salary as formerly dock-master, plus £142 15 8. Total annual salary £262 15 8.” Now, this doesn’t bear directly on George just yet, except insofar as both men are in the same vicinity at the same time – the Dublin docklands. It was through men like Robert, the tide-surveyor, that James Halpin, Wicklow Innkeeper, ‘placed’ his son Robert Charles Halpin. I believe James and Robert were brothers, but I have yet to confirm this. Robert Charles Halpin became the Captain everyone is now familiar with, and he got my greatgrandfather, Edwin, a placement in telegraphy. In the same House of Commons list a certain N.S. Halpin, Landing-Waiter, Dublin “Customs”, is recorded as receiving an annual salary of £250. I include his name only because it may turn up again in subsequent research.
The Reverend Nicholas John Halpin’s eldest son, also named Nicholas John, worked in customs too. Note:
Death Of Nicholas John Halpin – The death of Nicholas John Halpin, who was for many years connected with her Majesty’s Customs, Dublin, will be received with regret. He was greatly esteemed as an able and courteous official by all with whom he was brought in contact. He was the eldest son of the late Rev. N J Halpin, for many years editor of the Dublin Evening Mail, and brother of the late Charles Graham Halpin (Miles O’Reilly), whose life and works were lately reviewed in a leading Dublin paper [I think they refer here to the collected works, which were edited in the US by “Roosevelt” – yeah, I’m wondering too]. In his private life Mr Halpin made hosts of friends, all of whom will deeply regret his decease. – The Belfast-Newsletter, Monday, November 30, 1891. I have some other newspaper citations (in the Times, about 1846 I think) putting one of the Rev NJ Halpin’s sons at work in Custom House, a fact I refer to below, as well as a score of detailed reference material on George’s working relationship with Custom House Dublin, all available through the House of Commons search engine, which I think you should be able to access through the NSW State Library.
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3.
As I said above, I move from lore to fact. So far, I've made excellent progress with the link from myself through Wicklow to Cavan, Meath and Portarlington, Co. Laois. I'm making satisfactory progress from the stories I was told about Gen. William G Halpin to something more substantial - I'll throw all of that stuff onto this site as well in the coming months. But what I'm struggling most with is the link from us, here in Dublin, to George snr, builder, architect (I recently came across references to one of his buildings, which I'll dig up and post. By the way, the retaining wall around Custom House began to subside at some point in the 1840s. Only quick action by George prevented Customs from sliding into the Liffey – I’ll track down the newspaper story and get it to you) and Lighthouse engineer.
The lore is as follows - I grew up in North Dublin, in a working class estate not far from Dollymount (or Bull Island), which sits in Dublin bay just south of Howth Head and North of the mouth of the river Liffey. Whenever we passed that low, sandy island my father would tell us that it had been created only recently, after the construction of the North Bull wall, which was "built by your great uncle George". Further on, a little south of Bull Wall and adjacent to the strand wall near Castle Ave., sat what is now a disused public baths. Passing there our father would say "You're Opah used to swim in there. He was a great swimmer. We lost count of the people he said he saved from drowning. Them baths were built by your Great uncle George as well. They used to be called 'Halpin's pool"."...Now, as a kid I was happy to regard that kind of stuff as gospel. When, at a much later date, I tried to have the stories confirmed, I met with mixed but tantalising results. George did indeed supervise the positioning of the North Wall, which was designed to prevent shifting silt from making the Liffey difficult to navigate for vessels attempting to deliver cargo to the city (a task Captain Bligh had been charged with around the turn of the 1800s). And I found out that there had indeed been something called "Halpin's Pool", but it certainly did not refer to the baths my father used to point out to us as children, but to the pool of relatively calm water created by the construction of the North Wall, in the midst of which sit the ruins of the public baths. Now, while these are reasonably close confirmations of what were indeed historical facts, they are by no means proof of a family link. They only prove that my predecessors were reasonably well-informed geographers who happened, in all honesty, to think there was a link. The task of proving they were more than that, at least in regard to George, remains to be proven, and I will try to do that.
Once again, Bill, I'm so very sorry I didn't say this first. Had I done so, it would not have caused you undue concern, I'm certain of that. The difference between fact and anecdote is absolute. But I am forced to approach this subject firstly from anecdote, and then – through archival research – to fact. As yet I haven’t quite reached a factual basis for some of the claims made by the anecdotes, but I have narrowed the gap a little. What had been in no way connected has become, through the archival material, a tangle of crossed paths and overlapping careers. The factual and the anecdotal have been brought closer together, which is one of the purposes of RootsChat. This encourages me to think that the anecdotes I’m in possession of are in part based on actual connections, which in itself helps to maintain the morale needed to grind away inordinate amounts of time in the archives following every conceivable link, no matter how tenuous. Fruitful lines of enquiry are hard to come by, but I believe I’ve found a few. What can we say at this point? With modest assurance I believe we can say that a few members of both families were in close proximity – doing some of the same things at the same time in the same place for the same people. Paths almost certainly crossed at Custom House, Dublin; George snr, jnr and Nicholas J Halpin no doubt met and spoke and were almost certainly asked by colleagues if they were related. By virtue of these reasonably safe assumptions the families are closer now than they had been – in each other’s way, even in each other’s thoughts, though not quite eating off each other’s plates. Do NJ Halpin and the George's snr and jnr form separate branches of the same family tree? The anecdotes indicate that they do, but the facts can’t yet concur, although, like I’ve said, things are just that little bit clearer now.
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4.
As for the link from George to John, that is speculative on my part (god forgive me), based on an inference I've drawn from what the lore had to say about how the Halpins split apart over the political upheavals in and around the years between the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. I've placed George next to John as a son, because that was roundabout where the family story-tellers placed him, and because if the connection to the Halpin's I've named above does in fact exist, I can't figure out where else he could possibly emerge from, if not from John - for me, George exists as a bit of a blurr at the moment, amid the lore and a hazy plethora of possibly relevant historical facts that may, at this early stage, outline the kinds of ‘connections’ that families often utilised at that time to get ahead in the world, connections I will work hard to verify.
Does the picture seem a little clearer now? Christ, I think I've even confused myself. But Rootschat, while being a venue to pass on the facts, must surely be a place to exchange lore too, in the hope that something from someone might clarify a point and allow further research to establish a link beyond doubt. Someone on rootschat - I've forgotten who - has said that they too heard tell of close family links between George snr and Capt. Robert Charles Halpin. I had not heard of that connection myself, but I wonder if the story is the same one my great grandfather - Edwin – passed down through the family to me? The story, as I've said above, simply starts the process of discovery and guides the research through the archives.
Incidently, before I sign off, let me tell everyone that after all the years sweating in the various archives, I just happened to be in the Dublin City University last month, assisting a disabled student with his research (it was how I used to make a living), when I stumbled across a two volume Burke's Peerage registry of the landed gentry of Ireland (1952, I think). There, under "HALPIN OF FORD LODGE", was a beautifully detailed family tree stretching from John Ralph Halpin of Ford Lodge, Co Cavan, "admitted a solicitor 1922, Vice President of The Incorporated Law Soc. of Ireland 1953-54, served in World War 1 as 2nd Lieut. Royal Irish Fus.; b. 14 Aug. 1899, educ. Rugby, and Trin. Coll. Dublin (B.A., LL.B.)," all the way back to the relatives I had spent so much time trying to trace an exact lineage to - to Nicholas Halpin, Headmaster of Portarlington School...which only goes to prove how much easier this task would be if I had any talent as a plotter of family trees.
I will do four things over the next week or so – I’ll track down the exact dates of birth of Bridget, William, James and Cecil, and post them here. I will show the links, by marriage, between Charles G Halpine (actual name Charles Boyton Halpin), Margaret Grace Milligan and her father, William Milligan esq, MD, and the foundation of a hospital in Perth(?); I will post all I’ve found of CG Halpine’s obituaries and some invaluable newspaper adverts listing the business transformations undergone by the distillers James Halpin, William Halpin and a chap called Hannen, including an extract from a spy’s letter damning one of them as a particularly rabid republican, all dated just prior to the Rising in the late 1790s.
For the time being, all the best. And remember, I will do my best to post far more by way of specific reference material in future.
Regards,
Ray Halpin,(*)
PS I tried to post this to your email address last night, following the links you suggested, without luck - it was returned to me with an error message.
(*) Moderator Comment: e-mail removed in accordance with RootsChat policy,
to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please use the Personal Message (PM) system for exchanging personal data.
New members must make at least three postings before being allowed to use the PM facility.
See Help-Page: http://www.rootschat.com/help/pms.php
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Quite an extraordinarily fine response, Raymond. I see that the future of our Halpin research is in fine hands and, unfortunately, you may have even more time for it, but hopefully not for long.
I will briefly respond on about 3 matters. I have been in contact with Turtle Bunbury on not only Halpin matters. I have connections into Watters, Burgess and Malone families in Co Carlow, where Turtle's Bunbury family is historically based and these families are 3 times connected to my Halpins. I support your pointing to Turtle's online account of the Halpins' involvement with Dublin's Docklands (above) and commend acquiring his new book on this.
Regarding Oswald, I believe that name may prove eventually to be a clue to either an earlier Halpin or to someone in George senior's wife Elizabeth's family. We don't yet know Elizabeth's maiden surname. Turtle kindly brought to my attention the following: LT. OSWALD HALPIN (1810- - 1834). George junior may have had a brother, Oswald Halpin, registered as 'Pen (Mr Baillie), July 4, 1825' in the Alumni Dublinenses, 1846. Oswald was born in Dublin in 1810, the son 'of George, Generosus'. The Calcutta Christian Observer 1834 (p. 536) notes the death on August 14th of Lieutenant Oswald Halpin, 7th Regiment Bombay NI, aged 25 years.
Oswald thereafter became the middle name of George junior's eldest son (William Oswald Halpin (1840 - 1908)) who settled in a lovely house at Foxrock, and then of this William's second son, William Oswald Halpin (1886 - 1918). It was this second William Oswald who, as part of the Royal Army Medical Corps attached to the 4th Hussars was killed at Caix, I believe, and is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves at Villers Brettoneux in the Somme.
While on this family, William Oswald Halpin (the father) had two sons, both of whom graduated from Trinity College as doctors. Imagine how proud he and his wife (Anna Maria Burgess from Carlow) would have been in these boys' accomplishments. Well, as we see above, their younger son's life was snuffed out early in WW1. The elder of their two children, (of course) George Halpin set up private practice near Reading in England and had a son and a daughter. His daughter is still alive aged about 95 but childless. His son, of course George Halpin, again was set on a stellar career, a graduate of Cambridge University, but he was killed in WW2 while a Captain in the Royal Army Service Corps and is buried in a Commonwealth War Grave at Alexandria in Egypt. That senior line of the George Halpin family will die out with his sister.
Finally for the moment, coming from where you do, Raymond, you may be able to shed some light on where George Halpin senior lived. In Dublin directories of the last decade before George died in 1854, his address is given as North Wall Lighthouse.
From anything I have been able to discover, the North Wall Lighthouse was moved when the North Wall was extended. Do you have any clues about this from personal knowledge or is it something that you may be able to discover. This location puts him not far from your roots, if I am right.
His abode is confirmed by the records at Mount Jerome Cemetery where George senior was buried on 12th July 1854. I quote: 1854. Burial number 470/12328; George Halpin; abode North Wall; buried July 12; (cause of death blank); from what Parish removed St Thomas; mode of burial Vault; place 6/137; number of Grant of Perpetuity 1415P; attestation Johnstone, Henry Digges undertaker.
By the way, successive family visitors from Australia have never been able to locate his gravestone or, as the above states, vault. It probably needed more time than they had to spare.
Raymond, we look further earnestly to your ongoing researches.
Thanks and regards
Bill Webster
Sydney
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Raymond, Bill again. I printed out your multi page response and it was easier to follow it that way than on-screen. From this, I just wanted to further take up the references to 'North Bull wall, which was "built by your great uncle George"'.
In the reference to George senior's burial in my earlier post, when I was advised of the burial register entry, I recorded the following comment: The caretaker, Mt Jerome Cemetery, notes: 'George Halpin was responsible for Bull Island, Liffey Brick Wall, Liffey bridges'. (Whether this was actually noted in the burial register or this was just a comment to me by a long serving servant at Mount Jerome I can't say.)
It is not unexpected that George Halpin was involved with Bull Island; that was his profession. But George died in 1854 aged 75 and it would be a long stretch for him to be your actual great uncle, presumably your father's uncle. George Halpin junior would have made more sense but I get the impression that if junior was involved with Bull Island it would only have been to further his father's works.
However, I find it a powerful remark for your father to have made. Perhaps he was right except in leaving out a 'great', as in great great uncle. Is it possible that your grandfather or great grandfather Halpin could have been a brother of George? What would their names have been? It would be marvellous to have you as a cousin.
My new found Halpin cousin in Western Australia, Kim Mettam (found through these pages), has a memory passed down from a relative who was taken to Ireland as a child in the 1930s that they visited a Halpin who had a shoe factory in the docks area. Does this mean anything to you?
50 years or so ago he remembers being told as a young child about his relative Captain Robert Halpin and other relatives who worked on the ship Great Eastern. Could that refer to your great grandfather Edwin working with telegraphy? As you rightly say today, it is now a question of working from lore to fact.
Many of the Halpin names that you have been entertaining do not resonate in George's family. We do not have Nicholas or John or Edwin or Charles or Ralph. There are William and George, of course, George junior's 3rd son was Robert and then Alfred, and with others, George and Alfred keep recurring.
But then again, as you say, George reportedly wanted to differentiate himself from the rest of his family, and perhaps these different names were deliberate (and patriotic, for British advancement?).
Also, in passing, you refer to the upheavals in the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars and in a slight way this brings me to George junior's wife, JULIA VILLIERS. George and Julia seem to have had an unconventional partnership, shall we say. Together they had nine children, at least two of whom died in infancy. I was at first confused that in their burial plot at Mount Jerome are recorded two infants named Villiers. But it now seems that George and Julia were not married and that all their children were baptised Villiers.
George junior died in 1869 aged 65 and his civil death record states that he had suffered paralysis for 5 years and disease of the brain (strokes?) of long standing. In his will drawn up 4 years before his death, in 1865, he refers to: "my son Wm Oswald Villiers, George Villiers, Annie Caroline Villiers and Louisa Villiers". And he goes on: "It is my wish and desire that my said sons and unmarried daughters should severally take and use my Surname." That was dated 21 October 1865. In the will he states that he and Julia were married on or about the 18th October 1865 (remarried?).
We have so far not been able to find Julia Villiers' origins. It has been suggested that she came from a Hugenot family. By all accounts she was haughty and difficult. The ancestor of my cousin Kim Mettam and myself, George Halpin (younger brother of the first William Oswald), emigrated to New South Wales after first trying America and South Africa. It is reported in this family that his mother Julia never accepted George's wife, Annie Watters, a farmer's daughter. Julia apparently felt that George had married beneath the family or that Annie was uncultured and she repeatedly criticised them, even across the oceans. Even so, young George took his father's name Halpin and named his last daughter born in Ireland in 1882 Julia, my mother's mother. Julia's brothers on either side of her were Alfred and George Sydney, born 1880 in Dublin and 1884 in Sydney.
But our question remains, where did Julia Villiers, my great grandmother come from? Could she have been French? She died at Foxrock in 1889 reported to be aged 74.
Raymond, good hunting,
Bill.
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The following is about Dr RICHARD F B HALPIN (1858 - 1903) of Arklow, Wicklow, and is taken from the British Medical Journal, Nov 7, 1903, p.1246
(http://www.bmj.com/cgi/issue_pdf/admin_pdf/2/2236.pdf)
IT was with deep regret that the profession and the public
generally in County Wicklow heard of the death of Dr.
RICHARD F. B. HALPIN, which occurred at his residence,
Ferrybank, Arklow, on October 19th. Dr. Halpin got a
severe wetting while seeing a patient on the night of October
12th, pneumonia setting in two days afterwards. He progressed
favourably for some days, when symptoms of heart
failure supervened, and despite all that medical skill and
careful nursing could do he succumbed on the sixth day. Dr.
Halpin was in his 45th year. He pursued his medical studies
in London, becoming a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons
in I883, and afterwards obtaining the Licence of the
Royal College of Physicians, Ireland. He was for some time
house physician to the Hospital for Diseases of the Chest,
and afterwards surgeon in the service of the Eastern Telegraph Company, of which his uncle the late distinguished
Captain R. C. Halpin, was the marine superintendent in
London. In 1885 he settled down in his native town of Arklow,
succeeding to the very extensive practice of his father,
the late Dr. Stopford Halpin, in addition to holding many
public appointments, including that of physician to Arklow
Fever Hospital, of surgeon and agent to H.M. Coastguards, and
of medical attendant Royal Irish Constabulary. He was held in
high esteem by both rich and poor, and the large attendance
at his funeral on October 22nd was in itself sufficient evidence
of his popularity, the predominant feeling in the breasts of
all being "that a thorough gentleman and an ornament to
his profession " had passed from amongst them. Dr. Halpin
leaves behind him three children and a widowed mother,
with whom sincere sympathy is felt.
I came to search for this man because someone had sent me a photo of a gravestone at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, knowing that I was searching for a Halpin burial there. It had initially been erected by him for his wife Bessie in 1896. I will try to attach this photo but please let me know if you need a transcript.
Bill Webster
Sydney
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For what its worth;
BYRNE, EDWARD. Rank: Temp 2Lt. Regiment or Service: Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry. Unit; 6th Battalion. 23-August-1917. Killed in Action. Supplementary information from De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour; Eldest son of the late Henry Byrne, of Dunlavin, County Wicklow, by his wife, Mary daughter of Andrew Halpin and nephew of Patrick Byrne Ex-Superintendant of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, born in Dunlavin, County Wicklow, 8th Dec, 1886. Educated De La Salle College, Waterford; Leeds University and London University, was subsequently employed as Teacher under London City Council. Gazetted, 2nd Lieutenant, Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry from the London University, O. T. C. 9th Oct 1915, trained at Weymouth and Wareham; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from 9th Sept, 1916, took part in the fighting on the Somme, the battle of Arras and the fighting around Ypres. Was killed in action at Inverness Copse 23rd August, 1917, while leading his platoon into action. His Colonel wrote “He was killed instantaneously by a rifle bullet through the head whilst leading his platoon very gallantly. His loss is mourned by all ranks, by whom he was universally liked and admired. Grave or Memorial Reference: He has no known grave but is listed on Panel 80 to 82 and 163A on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.
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1a.
Thankyou kindly, Bill. And thank you too, "enfield", for posting that death notice and details. Such things help convey the true extent of the losses inflicted on families by the two world wars. Bill, I'll try to answer your questions as quickly as I can. I've been banging away at the issue of the Halpins for a while, and keep running into the same difficulties - all caused by the paucity of official records. Whatever future searches reveal about our respective families, whether they prove connected by blood ties or not, the exchange of information helps to fill what can be exasperating blanks in a family's recollection of itself. The obit you've posted is terrific stuff, not only for the way it helps to set the record straight, but for the sense it can give of a man's personal character and the opinion his community had of him. Later obituaries are pretty poor stuff by comparison. As for that fascinating line in George jnr's will - that strikes me as very peculiar. It really does seem that the George's snr and jnr had real misgivings about the Halpin name, so much so that they believed, at least for a while, that by using it their children might in some way harm their prospects. Very puzzling. If you can find your way to the archives at The Times (they should be online), you will find a report about "The Sinking of the Custom House Quay" (Oct 19 1844), which describes how George 'saved the day'...
I didn't have the time to send you all I wanted to, Bill - the internet cafe shut much earlier than I expected it to. Anyhow, here it is now. I'll leave it up for a few days, until you get a chance to copy it. After that I'll take it down and clear the way for something a little more specific to the Wicklow clan.
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2a.
Bill, I’ve posted extracts of a few newsworthy items that should be included in your area of interest, since they touch on George senior’s private affairs, and may shed some light on what motivated the inner family tensions that appear to have affected Julia’s views of her in-laws. Class was no doubt a factor in her judgement of others, but there may have been another factor at play too. See what you think:
I’ve forgotten the source of this notification, so I’ll quote it briefly and post the exact reference another time –
LANDED ESTATES COURT, IRELAND. GENERAL NOTICE TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, In re Elizabeth Hanratty and James Hanratty, Owners; Exparte John Frederick Knipe and Lucy Knipe, his Wife, Petitioners. Take Notice, that on the 7th day of May, 1859, an order was made by the said Court for a sale of the...following...: The Houses and Premises numbered 1,2 and 3, Whitworth-row, in the City of Dublin, held under several leases, each bearing date the 3rd of April 1821, from George Halpin to John Read, for the several terms of 450 years; the Houses and Premises numbered 8, and 9 Coburgh-place, in the City of Dublin, each held under lease bearing date of 3rd day of April 1821, from the said George Halpin to the said John Reid, for the like term of 450 years; the House and Premises no. 78 Lower Macklenburgh-street, in the city of Dublin, held under lease dated the 11th day of May, 1818, from George Perrin [an alias?] to John Read, for lives renewable for ever.[...].the owners of any lands having any common boundary with the lands mentioned in this notice are recommended to cause an appearance to be entered for the purpose of being served with notice of any survey by which said common boundary is to be ascertained.[...].Dated this 27th day of May 1859. James McDonnell, Examiner.
Didn’t George snr die in 1859? At any rate, there’s more, advertised some 20 years later:
From the Freeman’s Journal, Sat. July 9 1870 – IN CHANCERY. VICE CHANCELLOR. To all persons concerned: In the matter of the Act 19 and 20 Victoria chap. 120, intituled “An Act to Facilitate Leases and Sales of Settled Estates”; and of the Act 21 and 22 Victoria, chap. 77, intituled “An Act to Amend and Extend the Settled Estates Act of 1856”...[it goes on for a bit, employing this sort of legalese, so I’ll skip ahead]...and in the matter of the several lots and pieces of ground portions of the North-Strand, in the Parishes of Saint Thomas and Saint George, in the County of the City of Dublin, following (that is to say), portion of acre Lot Number 46, abutting on Seville-place, and another portion of the same lot abutting on a lane off Oriel-street.[...].being parts of the estates comprised in the settlement executed on the marriage of George Halpin [italics mine], now deceased, with Julia Halpin, otherwise Villiers, and dated the 18th day of October, 1865.
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2a. cont. Pursuant to the above-mentioned acts of Parliament, notice is hereby given that on Friday, the 17th day of June, 1870, Mrs. Julia Halpin, of Healthfield, Roundtown Road, in the county of Dublin, widow; Isabella Julia Thorpe, wife of Thomas Thorpe, of Grange Hill, Thurles, in the county of Tipperary, Esquire, by William Oswald Halpin, of Healthfield aforesaid, Esq., her next friend; the said William Oswald Halpin, George Halpin, of Eglinton Cottages, South Circular Road, in the said County of Dublin, Esquire; Robert Halpin, of Besborough-parade, Rathmines, in the said county of Dublin, Esq.; Anne Caroline Halpin, of Healthfield, aforesaid, spinster, and Mary Byrne, of Flagstaff Hill, Melbourne, in the colony of Australia, widow, [my italics] presented their petition to the Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, praying that an order may be made vesting in the Reverend William Gilbert Ormsby and Joseph Hone, as the trustees of the said indenture of settlement, dated the 18th day of October, 1865, and in the trustees or trustee for the time being of the same indenture , or such other persons as to his Lordship should seem fit, general powers of granting building leases for the terms of years not exceeding 400 years [!?] in possession of all or any part or parts of the several lots and pieces of ground situate in the Parishes of St T. And St G., in the County of the city of D., mentioned in the title of the said petition, and also general powers of entering into and making preliminary contracts for leases .[...].the matter of said petition has been referred to the Right Honourable the Vice-Chancellor of Ireland.[...].Dated this 6th day of July 1870 – Messrs. Joseph Hone and Son, Solicitors for said Petitioners, No. 5 Foster-place, Dublin.
I think you’ll agree, there’s a great deal to intrigue in that document, not least within the italics. What ‘settlement’ was executed on the marriage of George and Julia? And who is Mary Byrne of Flagstaff Hill? Any relation to “enfield’s” Mr Byrne?
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3a.
From the Freeman’s Journal, Sat., July 1st 1876 –
IN CHANCERY. IN THE MATTER OF The Great Southern and Western Railway Act, 1872, and in the matter of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act 1845, ex parte the Great Southern and Western Railway Company, and to the credit of William Oswald Halpin and John Hone, Trustees of George Halpin, deceased, and all other persons interested in respect of all those pieces or Portions of land situate in the North Lots, in the Parish of Saint Thomas.[...I think the Great S & W Railway Co expanded Amiens Street station onto lands it didn’t own...]. Take notice that upon the application of William Oswald Halpin, of Laurel Lodge, Foxrock, Esq., and John Hone, of Ashton Park, Esq., to His Honour the Master of the Rolls, His Honour, by an order dated the 3rd day of June 1876, ordered that the Accountant General of this Honourable Court should draw on the Govenor and the Company of the Bank of Ireland, in favour of the said William Oswald Halpin and John Hone, for the sum of £1,252 cash, lodged by the said Railway Company in the Bank of Ireland to the credit of the matter mentioned in the title of this notice. .[...a good deal of legalese follows, before finishing thus...].Dated this 22nd day of June, 1876, William Griffin, Secretary to the Master of the Rolls.
Bill, there is a poignant series of dates recorded in the Irish Times that seemed to me to plot the decline of this line of George’s descendents. It began with the announcement of Oswald jnr’s death, killed in action during the Great War, and passed through the death of Oswald snr, an IRA raid on the Laurels during the war of independence, the sale of the Halpin Trust Estate and, finally I think, the sale of the Foxrock Lodge itself. I’m only going on memory here, so the precise sequence of events may not be exactly accurate, but it’s near enough for our purposes. What we see in that sad dateline - determined to a great extent by large historical events - is the eventual parting of a native family and its homeland. The incidents I’m referring to occur between about 1915 – 25, and one incident in particular, the Republican raid on the Laurels (I’ll send you the exact date) may bring our respective families into very uncomfortable proximity indeed. But to understand what I’m driving at, you must understand a little of the historical context in which the raid occurred.
Firstly, take a look at this, advertised in the Irish Times, Saturday, June 12 1920:
SALE TUESDAY, 6th JULY. HALPIN TRUST ESTATE. SEVILLE PLACE AND ADJACENT STREETS NEAR AMIENS ST. STATION AND THE DOCKS. [What follows then is a series of Lot descriptions, 10 in all, too many to include here, so I’ll give you a typical example]: LOT 1 – The 9 Dwellinghouses Nos., 102 – 110 Seville Place. Eight are occupied by monthly and quarterly tenants at rents varying from £44 12s 0d to £51 10s 3d a year, and no. 107 is held by a leasehold tenant at the small rent of £12 (less 10s 6d standard rate). The entire premises comprised in this Lot are held by the owner under a lease for 489 years, from 29th Sept. 1818, at the yearly rent of £46 less deductions. The gross rental received out of all these houses is £390, less the Head Rent and Rates and Taxes, and a Port and Docks rent or charge of £3 7s 11d. These houses (except no. 107) will, if desired, be offered separately, the first 7 subject to £6 each rent, and the 8th to £4 3s 3d, to be reserved by subleases made to the purchasers; otherwise the whole will be sold in one Lot.[...and so it goes in a similar vein all the way down to the 7th Lot...]. The Following Lots, Nos. 8, 9 and 10 Belong to Mrs. Anna M. Halpin, And Not To The Trust Estate. [Lot 8 is typical of the others] – The 4 Dwellinghouses, Nos. 12, 13, 14 and 15 Oswald Terrace, Lower Oriel Street, producing a gross annual rental of £97 7/4, less rates and taxes. Held under lease for 900 years from 1st May 1867, at yearly rent of £9. These houses are very attractive and well built, and are in good order. For further particulars and conditions of sale apply to HONE and FAULKNER, Solicitors, 9 Suffolk Street, Dublin.
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4a.
On the face of it, the sale of a Trust Estate like this one may seem innocent enough. What makes it different, however, is its location and date. At around that time, British soldiers were roaming the streets of Dublin in a usually futile effort to locate ‘terrorists’. The War of Independence was essentially a guerrilla war between two exceptionally violent forces, one highly visible, the other effectively invisible. Civilians were often caught in the crossfire and the community most affected by this were poor, inner-city slum-dwellers concentrated in and around the North Strand. William Robert Halpin, early member of Connelly’s Irish Citizen’s Army, a socialist and a Shinner, was Captain of H-squad – a particularly ruthless band of IRA men drawn from the North Strand tenements. William, or Willy, was my grandfather’s eldest brother, grandson of Robert Wellington Halpin, Wicklow Town Clerk. Details of Will’s activities were conveyed to me by my father, and I’ve verified some of what he said. I have not yet tried to verify the rest. But I have good reason to trust my sources on Willy, and I will include those reasons in a future posting about him on this site. At any rate, what I’d like you to consider is this: Did the sale of so many tenancies in the North Strand, particularly during the troubles, create in the traumatised locals a fear of eviction? Did the ‘Protestant’ sale of 900 year leases outrage the local IRA leaders at a time when many of them were determined to kill, indiscriminately, for the sake of political independence? More significantly, perhaps – did Willy take umbrage at these auctions on behalf of the locals; was he rankled by an imputed connection to the Foxrock Halpins? Was he behind the Republican raid on the Laurels? The suggestion is not meant to be self-serving here – it’s actually quite plausible. If Willy was indeed behind the decision to break into the Laurels, was he acting for entirely ‘patriotic’ reasons? Or was there a personal motive involved – for example: if Willy did conduct the raid, did he believe he was attacking a class of people who held proprietorial rights over ‘the rightful owners of Irish real estate’; did he believe he was about to raid the home of a distant relative of his father’s, someone who was living comfortably and securely in leafy, landed, ‘loaded’ Foxrock, one member of an extended family that had, in a sense, banished Edwin from the Wicklow fold after he married Marianne? It’s difficult to say how his mind might have worked, isn’t it? I’m trying to view those distant events through Willy’s eyes. The answer may lie with his grandson, who has agreed to meet me soon. All in all, though, say what you like about the meaning behind these events – at least my explanation has the virtue of being dramatic. In that respect, it may be more self-serving than I’m letting on.
For the time being, all the best.
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Sorry for keeping you waiting, CreamEgg. Will prioritize the material you requested and get it to you within the week. In the meantime, you may want to look at the last mssg I sent Bill Webster - it contains some interesting material on Willy.
Cheers.
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My first reply, Raymond is to thank you very much for all this information, which I dearly hope will keep coming and which I will have to find a way of storing.
But secondly, I am wondering if we may be overtaxing the Wicklow researchers. Wherever the George Halpins came from (Wicklow, I hope), the family essentially became Dubliners.
Should we perhaps conduct this valuable exchange at a Dublin list, or a Halpin list?
Cara, what do you think?
Bill.
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Raymond. Page 2a of your last.
George Halpin senior was buried 12 July 1854 at Mount Jerome.
George Halpin junior died 4 June 1869 at Rathgar and was buried at Mount Jerome.
George junior made a will dated 21 October 1865 in which he mentions his marriage with Julia Villiers dated on or about the 18th day of October 1865. His 1869 death certificate states that he had been ill in excess of 5 years, so in 1865 he was putting his affairs in order.
George senior was essentially a builder who had a genius for engineering. I knew that he had developed some rows of houses in Dublin, as you would expect an enterprising builder to do, but I knew no details. You are sure giving us some of those details now.
George senior's burial records state that he was "removed" from the parish of St Thomas I was hoping that this meant a church of St Thomas so that we could perhaps search the registers of that church hopefully to find his marriage and other family occasions. From what you write, this burial record may mean that he was removed from a location in the civil parish of St Thomas and St George, which means to me that a church of St Thomas need not have been his family church. That is a disappointment.
Children mentioned in the June 1870 Notice:
All those mentioned are known children of Julia but you have been of assistance with locations. The George Halpin mentioned is the younger brother of the first William Oswald Halpin and is my ancestor. He finally emigrated from Ireland in 1882. My grandmother was born in 1881 at 2 Raymond Street, South Dublin, which I thought from its nature would have been temporary accommodation pending their departure. Could the Eglinton Cottages mentioned here be the same? Perhaps these were George Halpin developments too. Annie Caroline married after this Notice, in 1873, to Arthur Henry Thompson. Robert Halpin, here at Rathmines, is said to have married a woman named Mettie (Unknown) in England and had children Maud and George Alfred. Now, Mary Byrne. Mary was born about 1845/6 and it had been reported to me that she had married a Patrick Byrne and had a daughter Annie Byrne. If she was a widow in Melbourne in 1870, that is news to me. I will get some sleuths to work on that.
I'll respond to your other pages separately. B.
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Raymond. Page 3a.
I think one of our family researchers may have tried to see if the solicitors firm of Hone and Faulkner still existed. I don't know of any outcome. The Anna M Halpin was the widow of William Oswald Halpin of Foxrock and now it seems there is also an Oswald Street. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I am convinced that the name Oswald is a pointer to an earlier generation, whether that of George senior or of his wife Elizabeth.
A couple of children of the Australian branch attest that for some time distributions from a trust were being received. As I have mentioned, Julia looked askance on our George Halpin's marriage and apparently some of them complained that Julia was mean in the distributions to them (while she was alive, of course - Julia died at Foxrock in 1889, 20 years after George junior). I wonder if thereafter William Oswald (died 1908) and perhaps even his widow Anna Maria (died 1933) administered what was left of the Trust as Julia would have.
The Foxrock estate started out at over 7 acres but was whittled down to under 1 and adjoining the house (the Laurels) was a separate smaller premises denoted Foxrock Lodge or Laurels Lodge. At some point these would have been separated off.
B.
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Raymond. Page 4a.
This stuff about the IRA is terrific reading and not anything I had known before (as it relates to my family). As a staunch republican, your Willy had a few loads on his back that could have explained his strident views, not least having an antecedent named Robert Wellington Halpin, a town clerk under the British order. And William Robert were not the equivalent forenames of a Paddy or a Seamus.
I got some of my information about The Laurels from a local history group that includes Foxrock. They could be interested in the IRA attacking leafy Torquay Road, Foxrock, surrounded by golf courses and Leopardstown racecourse.
In 1920, the only occupant was widowed Anna Maria Halpin who had just lost one son in the Great War and her other son was living in England.
B.
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Is this the guy?
HALPIN
Initials: J
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Royal Irish Regiment
Unit Text: 2nd Bn.
Age: 27
Date of Death: 07/06/1917
Service No: 5798
Additional information: Son of John and Anne Halpin, of Killary, Lobinstown, Slane, Co. Meath.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: I. E. 2.
Cemetery: WYTSCHAETE MILITARY CEMETERY
Born in Killeary in County Meath and enlisted in Widnes in Lancashire, There was also an Edward Halpin from the same place also enlisted in Widnes and also died in 1917
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On Byrne and Halpin, you might be interested in something I came across some time ago:-
...About 12 o'clock the people of Enniskerry were considerably enlivened, and something almost approaching to excitement was occasioned, by the appearance of three distinguished persons who walked most unostentatiously down the principal street of the little town. The form of one of the three was at once recognised as that of the most popular lord of the soil, and it very soon oozed out that his companions were none other than Mr Gladstone and Lord Talbot de Malahide. Opposite the National School the party met two well known local gentlemen, one of whom was Captain Halpin (a brother of the celebrated commander of the Great Eastern), and the other Mr Byrne, one of Lord Powerscourt's tenantry, and a gentleman somewhat largely engaged in farming pursuits. With both the ex-Premier, on being introduced by Lord Powerscourt, warmly shook hands and entered into conversation, principally on the subject of agriculture, to which it may be mentioned Captain Halpin now also devotes his attention. Mr Gladstone, amongst other inquiries, desired to know if Egyptian wheat was largely sown in Ireland, to which the burly and good-humoured-looking captain (the beau ideal, by the way, of a naval officer) replied that he believed that some of that description of wheat had come into the country, but that he had not used any of it himself. The Powerscourt National School (which receives a grant of £50 annually from Lord Powerscourt) was then visited. Mr. Gladstone inspected the hand writing of some of the pupils, and the sewing of the girls, with which he said he was much pleased. He also remarked the cleanliness of the children, and their comfortable, well clad appearance. The children sang "God save the Queen" very creditably, and when the right hon. gentleman took his departure cheered him... - Irish Times, Thurs, Nov 1, 1877.
I think you'll agree that this is an enormously rich extract.
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A continuation of one branch of the Halpin Family tree, which I began some time ago and hope to complete in the coming months.
The Rev. Nicholas John Halpin's eldest son:-
Nicholas John Halpin, of 5 Palmerston Road, Dublin, Sec. of Customs and Excise Dept. in Ire., b. 1818, educ. Portarlington Sch., and Trin. Coll. Dub (BA 1841), m. 8 Nov. 1848, Rebecca (d. 30 Jan. 1903), dau. of Michael Doherty, of Glen House, Co. Donegal, and d. 26 Nov. 1891, having had issue -
1. Nicholas John, ICS, b. 12 Sept. 1851; d, unm in India.
2. Edward Evelyn, b. 19 Oct. 1854, d. 3rd Feb. 1855.
3. Alfred Walter Charles, b. 20 Nov. 1855; d.s.p. in Australia.
4. William Henry (see below).
1. Rebecca, b. 19 Nov. 1849; d. 4 May, 1853.
2. Mary anne Isabella, b. 18th Nov. 1857, m. 17 April, 1882, William David Bradley, and d. 4 June, 1897.
3. Lucy Anne Victoria, m. 29 April, 1879, Richard Allen, and d. 25 July 1927.
4. Elinor Alexandra, m. 1stly, 1888, Major Arthur W. Carleton. She m. 2ndly, 1907, Charles Robert S Walker, and d. 25 Jan. 1950.
The yst son,
William Henry Halpin, of Ford Lodge, Cavan, Solicitor, b. 11 Aug. 1862, educ. Trin. Coll. Dub. (MA), m. 14 Sept. 1898, Caroline Isabella Emma (Ford Lodge, Cavan), dau. of Albert Hutton, JP, of Rockwood House, Swanlinbar, Co. Cavan, and d. 17 April, 1937, leaving issue,
1. John Ralph Halpin (see previous entry for details).
2. William Richard Crozier, ACA (1936), served in WW2 1939 - 1946, as Major, RASC, seconded to Treasury 1942 - 44, Dir. John Lewis Partnerships, Ltd. 1946 - 51, Sec. Lobitas Oilfields, Ltd. from 1952, Trustee and Chm., Finance Cttee. Empire Rheumatism Council (Hares Form, Great Stampford, Essex; 17 Burton Court, SW3; Junior Carleton Club); b. 28 June 1912, educ. Rugby and Corpis Christi College Camb. (BA 1933), m. 25 Nov 1939, Hilary Alicia, JP., LCC dau. of Lt.- Col. Gilbert Henry Keighley-Bell, MC, of Hurlingham Court, Putney, SW, and has issue'
1. Nicholas Richard, b. 10 april 1942.
1. Deborah Jane, b. 5 july 1944.
2. Emma Serena, b. 26 April, 1947.
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(by kind permission of Noel Farrel)
'Enniscorthy Roots' 1901
Brownswood;
Halpin William & Sarah; John, Margaret
1911;
Brownswood;
Halpin William & Sarah; John
Don't know if they are related, but they are the only family recorded there.
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In relation to Halpins listed recently, the following was contributed by CARA as part of a Dublin response and I know she won't mind my sharing it here. It seems to include Captain Robert Halpin (Wicklow).
May no doubt have these but from Hibernain Magazine comes:
A Halpen North King Street married Miss Christie - Workmans Field Nr. Cabra Co Dublin in May 1807 page 320
John Halpen of Woodville Queens County married Mrs Swettenaham relict of Alderman Kilner city of Dublin Aug 1800 page 127
Paget Halpen of Maryboro Queens COunty married Miss Delane daughter of Solomon in june 1794 page 568
Prerogative wills of Ireland ( Index only)
Mary Halpen a widow of London dead by 1770
1876 Land Owners
1-Joseph Halpin - address Gowran Hall Kingstown ( co Leitim)
2-Margaret Halpin address Care of Michl Whelan Maryborough ( queens)
3- Nicholas J Halpin address -Custom House Dublin( Queens)
4-William Halpin- address great Common Lusk ( Dublin)
5-Matthew Halpin and Mathew Halpin Jnr address Richmond Fairview ( Dublin)
6-William Halpin -address Galloping Green Stillorgan ( Dublin)
7-R Halpin - Address Dublin ( Co Wicklow )
8- Rev Thomas B Halpin address Williamsfort Fransfort Kings COunty ( Louth)
9-W O HAlpin address Laurel Lodge Foxrock ( Dublin City county)
Raymond lists descendants of Nicholas Halpin here today, and last week, and there are a few William Halpins. I also have a couple of William Halpins descended from George Halpin and one of them is in this list, W O Halpin at Foxrock. Who may the other two be, at Great Common, Lusk, and Galloping Green, Stillorgan? To my limited knowledge, Foxrock itself was spun out of greater Stillorgan.
All best, Bill.
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Thankyou CARA. I've come across some of the Halpins you list but I tended to discount many of them as unrelated to the Wicklow Halpins. The Fairview Halpins are a shady lot - their surname is usually followed by a string of aliases. Must look them up again and make a note of them. Nicholas John Halpin, address Custom House, can be found above - he's the good Reverend NJ Halpin's eldest son.
Now - there are two very good discoveries in your list CARA which may well have a connection to the Wicklow Halpin's through the Rev. NJ's bloodline - I've encountered Paget before in the House of Commons Parliamentary papers and I'll revisit him shortly. The real discovery here though is John. It's an amazing coincidence, but I came across his marriage to Mrs Sweetenaham (?) only yesterday, again through the House of Commons website. I think Mrs Sweetenaham died not long after the marriage and my gut feeling is that both bride and groom were quite old when they tied the knot. John Halpen, or Halpin - he tended to spell his name both ways - was a Dublin bookseller/engraver/liberal and there is a good deal written about him but - until now - I have come across nothing about Woodville, Queens County. That is an extremely important detail, since the Rev. NJ Halpin's bloodline begins in Queens County, Portarlington, and the dates make the men contemporaries. John was hauled before Gratton's Parliament to testify in relation to a sensational libel case that split the ruling class apart at the time (around 1796) - he was released when he satisfied his interrogators that the offending pamphlet, while published by him on behalf of a prominent liberal MP, was not circulated publically but privately, among a few friends. I will return to the incident some other time, but if I'm right (and believe me there's no guarantee of that - I'm always confusing my Halpins) CARA may have uncovered something that locates the split in the Halpin ranks precisely where I thought it was - between the 1780s and 1810s, when, in reaction to the American and French Revolutions, Liberal and Tory formed diametrically opposed ideas about the ideal structure of society. Those Halpins who wanted a politically independent Ireland took their inspiration from three precedents - from England (ie Ireland's interests were best served by Union with Eng and Empire - the Rev. NJ Halpin...the liberals opposed this, and advocated Homerule, Catholic emancipation, etc - John Halpen, bookseller); from the United States (political independence, democracy - the Rev.'s son, Charles G Halpin(e)); or from France(here you come across the distillers - James and William - no political progress would be made in Ireland without bloodshed/revolution)...in many respects these approaches to political life in Ireland divided the Halpins throughout the 19th century - driving a wedge between Edwin and his Wicklow relatives, and carrying over into the 20th cent., where Willy became an assassin of sorts, leading a raid on a military vehicle in 1919 - 1920 Dublin, during which one young British soldier was shot dead, with another two dying in hospital soon afterwards...on that raid a young medical student, one of the raiding party, 'froze' during the shootout - according to Willy, who apparently never forgave himself - and was later caught by the British as he hid under a truck at the scene of the ambush. That lad's name was Kevin Barry, and they hung him a month later...With CARA's apparently insignificant discovery, we may be able to say that the disputes and the passions which led to Willy's actions in 1920s Dublin began in the 1790s, in Queens County, between John Halpin, school master, and John Halpin(en), engraver/bookbinder-seller, the former's disowned first cousin? At least now we may have somewhere to start the search that may answer that question once and for all. Take a bow CARA.
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fouNd this index only.
marriage. EDWARD FRANCIS HALPIN TO MARY ANNE MURPHY WEXFORD 1883.
regards mary.
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Are you sitting down, Bill?
1833 (591) Report From the Select Committee on Dublin and Kingstown Ship Canal; with the minutes of evidence. - 10th july 1833.
George Halpin jnr called in and examined:
2376. What is your profession? - Civil Engineer.
2377. How long have you been so? - I was a pupil of the late Mr. Alexander Nimmo for eight years, and practicing for some time since; I have had pretty general experience in engineering works during my apprenticeship to him.
2378. Did you continue that apprenticeship with him until his death? - No, my apprenticeship expired about two years before his death.
2379. About three years ago? - About that.
2380. Are you aquainted with the Port of Dublin? - I am.
2381. What opportunity had you of aquiring the knowledge of the Port of Dublin? - My situation obliges me to have an opinion of it; I am obliged frequently to sound up and down it, in order to see what the lighters are doing in their dredging operations. I have been frequently from time to time ordered to make surveys of portions of that port to show what improvement was taking place.
2382. What is your situation? - Assistant Inspector of Works to the Ballast Board.
2383. Is your father the Inspector? - He is.
2384. Have you recently made soundings in Dublin? - I have.
2385. In the River and Bar? - River and Bar.
2386. Have you seen the map that is attached to the Ship Canal pamphlet? - I have, and this is one of them - [producing it].
2387. What do you say as to whether it be a correct or incorrect representation? - It is an extremely incorrect representation; I find it is a copy from a map published by Mr. Duncan in 1821; it purports to be a map describing the state of the Port in 1833, while it is taken figure for figure from Mr. Duncan's map of 1821, as I will show to the committee...
And so it goes for another four or five pages.
Mr. George Halpin called in and Examined by the Committee.
3378. What public situation do you hold? - Inspector of Works to the Ballast Board.
3379. How long have you known the Port of Dublin? - Since 1800.
3380. Have you been engaged in the works carried on for the improvement of the Port during that period? - I have.
3381. What were those works? - There were the building of five miles and a third of quays walls, mostly difficult of execution; raising, backing and securing a mile and 7-8ths of Pool Beg on the South Wall; building the Great North Wall breakwater, two miles long, nearly; building two graving slips; keeping in repair five miles of sea wall; and improving the line of the Liffey Channel throughout.
And so it goes on in similar vein for another four or five pages. Let me know if you can access these papers from Oz. All the best.
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I refer back to something Bill asked - about the meaning of the initials "FB" - I said I believe they represent the names Frederick and Bestall...Was it CARA, or perhaps Christopher, who said that one of the families the Wicklow Halpins married into were the Bestalls?
Also, I found this in my files, but it's accessible to everyone through the House of Commons website:
1894 [c.7488][c.7488-1]Deputy Keeper of public Records in Ireland: Twenty-sixth Report.
Halpin, Elizabeth and Isaac Orr - 1788 - Nature of record: M.L.(marriage licence)
Helen and Isaac Eades - 1995 - M.L.
Henry and Frances Jones - 1775 - M.L.
John, gentleman - 1737 - I (?).
Maria and Alexander Brairly - 1793 - M.L.
Mary and Henry Drennen - 1781 - M.L.
Patrick, Dublin - 1722 - O.W. (will?)
William Henry and Anne Crosthwaite - 1787 - M.L. (the Rev. NJ Halpin's parents).
In the 1900 edition of the same records we find George H. and Elizabeth Bourne - 1817 - M.L.There is an even more extensive list of Halpin names and corresponding records (which I'm assuming have since been destroyed) in the 1900 "Duty Keeper of Public Records in Ireland" ledger.
BillW - we might have found the surname of George snr's wife Elizabeth.
And take a look at the address listed in the following:
On the 25th ult. at Nuneaton, Warwickshire, by the Rev., RC Savage, vicar, Charles Boyton Halpin, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, third son of the Rev. NJ Halpin of Seville Place, Dublin, to Margaret Grace, third daughter of William Milligan, Esq., MD of Nuneaton.
- Manchester Times, Sat. Feb. 3 1849.
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For what its worth;
BYRNE, EDWARD. Rank: Temp 2Lt. Regiment or Service: Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry. Unit; 6th Battalion. 23-August-1917. Killed in Action. Supplementary information from De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour; Eldest son of the late Henry Byrne, of Dunlavin, County Wicklow, by his wife, Mary daughter of Andrew Halpin and nephew of Patrick Byrne Ex-Superintendant of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, born in Dunlavin, County Wicklow, 8th Dec, 1886. Educated De La Salle College, Waterford; Leeds University and London University, was subsequently employed as Teacher under London City Council. Gazetted, 2nd Lieutenant, Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry from the London University, O. T. C. 9th Oct 1915, trained at Weymouth and Wareham; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from 9th Sept, 1916, took part in the fighting on the Somme, the battle of Arras and the fighting around Ypres. Was killed in action at Inverness Copse 23rd August, 1917, while leading his platoon into action. His Colonel wrote “He was killed instantaneously by a rifle bullet through the head whilst leading his platoon very gallantly. His loss is mourned by all ranks, by whom he was universally liked and admired. Grave or Memorial Reference: He has no known grave but is listed on Panel 80 to 82 and 163A on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.
Picking up on this mention of BYRNE married to HALPIN (probably in the 1890s), I realise that neither name is uncommon, particularly Byrne. However, again for what it may be worth, Mary Villiers Halpin, born c.1846 married a Patrick Byrne about 1868, probably in Dublin, and is mentioned in an 1870 deposition by her recently widowed mother as MARY BYRNE, widow, of Melbourne.
I don't as yet know what became of her after that but I have been informed that she had a daughter ANNIE BYRNE who, under the above circumstances, must have been born about 1869. It is possible mother and daughter may have returned to Ireland as other researchers and I have not been able to find further trace of them in Australia yet.
Bill.
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I came across the following some time ago, Bill, and include it here because it might prove useful in trying to situate two Halpin families within reach of each other. On the one hand, only lore, hearsay and a few incidental facts place them on the same tree. On the other hand, the history books have them down the street from each other - one in Custom House, the other a few hundred metres away in the Ballast Offices, across the Liffey (this is post-George snr's death). Separating the two is Burgh Quay (south side of the river), and there you can still see the late Georgian facade of the Corn Exchange, reputedly built by George snr in 1813.
From The Times, Sept. 07, 1844:
THE CUSTOM HOUSE - The vacancy in the landing department of this port, caused by the death of Mr. Purcell, searcher and coast-waiter, has been filled up by the Lords of the Treasury nominating Mr. E [surely a missprint] Halpin, son of the Rev. Mr. Halpin, of this city, to a junior landing waitership. The realization of the hope of Mr. Halpin has caused a corresponding despondency in some two or three hundred other claimants on the influence of the city members, who, it appears, were of late so inconveniently beset by the eager applications of their friends, that they deemed it more prudent to retire from Dublin than to be subject to the daily clamorous remonstrances of their disinterested supporters. - Dublin Freeman.
Bill, I'll return to George in the coming weeks. In the meantime I want to focus on those Halpins living in Wicklow during the 1800s, and on those directly related to them - specifically: Robert Wellington Halpin, Edwin Halpin, Stopford Halpin, George Halpin MD, Charles Halpin MD, Gen. William G Halpin and his co-conspirator Charles Grehan Halpin(e)...I have some terrific stuff to post on them. Cheers.
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1.
ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY
An interesting presentation took place on board the British and Irish Steam Packet Company's ss Lady Roberts. The hon. representative of the Society, Captain Thomas McCombie, attended, and presented Fireman Edwin Halpin with a framed vellum testimonial and a small monetary recognition for having, in a most praiseworthy manner, saved the life of Mrs. Margaret Winter, who he rescued on the night of the 17th December last, she having slipped into the river Liffey off the quay. Halpin ran considerable risk, and found great difficulty in saving Mrs. Winter, as the space between the vessel and the quay was very limited. In making the presentation, Captain McCombie spoke in most flattering terms of the assistance rendered by Andrew Welsh, donkeyman, and James Dowd, sailor. Captain Clarke, of the ss Lady Roberts, also spoke, and the presentation was made in presence of the ship's company.
- Irish Times, Saturday, March 3, 1906.
Edwin's son, James (my grandfather), was forever 'saving' people from drowning, whether they were in trouble or not. Until I found the notice above, I had no idea he had been trying to repeat his father's exploits.
A FALL BETWEEN THE ROYAL MAIL STEAMER AND THE PIER.
On Saturday evening a rather alarming accident occurred at the Carlisle Pier which but for the presence of mind and courage of a seaman named Halpin might have had a fatal termination. The Royal Mail steamer Leinster had been brought alongside the pier and was being admired by a railway porter, named John Mulcahy, when he suddenly took a fit and fell into the harbour between the boat and the wharf. One of the sailors, named Robert Halpin, who witnessed the accident, immediately dropped along a rope to the water's edge and caught the unfortunate man by the hair when he came up and held him until a boat was brought to the rescue. Mulcahy was landed at the Victoria Wharf and taken to St. Michael's Hospital, where he was attended by Dr. Stevenson, who could give no opinion in his regard, as he could not speak.
- Freeman's Journal, Monday June 3rd 1889.
Was Edwin attempting to emulate the heroics of his brother, Robert? I can't answer that question, since I can't accurately identify the Halpin named in the piece above, nor do I know what became of Robert after he took over his father's duties as secretary of the Wicklow Harbour Board after Robert senior died in late 1883. I'd welcome clarity on the matter, if anyone can provide it.
SAD DEATH OF A YOUNG WICKLOW SAILOR.
On Sunday the meloncholy news reached Wicklow of the death by drowning at sea, on the 5th December last, of Mr. Henry G Halpin, eldest son of Captain Richard Halpin, of Wicklow. Deceased, a fine promising young man of 19, well known and deservedly popular with every inhabitant of Wicklow, was an apprentice on board the ship Belcamah, bound from London to San Francisco. The vessel was in mid-ocean, and Mr. Halpin was engaged in his duty when he was knocked overboard by a sail. Life buoys were immediately thrown out, the ship hove to, and a boat lowered with all possible speed. For some minutes the poor young man could be plainly seen from the vessel swimming strongly and well, but before the boats could reach him he suddenly disappeared and was not seen again. After lying to till every chance of recovering the unfortunate young man had disappeared the vessel proceeded on her voyage. The reception of the news in Wicklow caused the deepest grief and regret, for by all classes, both high and low, the ill-fated youth was deservedly esteemed and respected. All the vessels in the river, of which there were a considerable number at the time, hoisted their flags half-mast high as a token of sorrow and respect, while his bereaved family had the melancholy satisfaction of receiving countless messages of condolence and sympathy from all parts as soon as their loss became known. They must possess a further satisfaction in the knowledge that he died while doing his duty in the profession he had chosen - a profession the most useful and honourable a Briton can choose - one the very dangers and perils of which constitute a great portion of its charm for youth, but which, during five hundred years, has laid the foundation and built up the structure of our national and commercial greatness. Our young townsman has fallen a victim to one of the thousand dangers daily encountered by those "who go down to the sea in ships" but while we deplore his loss and sympathize most sincerely with his sorrowing relatives, we cannot help reflecting with a feeling of pride that it is the youth of our country such as he, who devote themselves by choice to a nautical life, knowing well and fearlessly braving the dangers that beset them, looking death daily in the face, and meeting him bravely and firmly when called upon - that have made our national flag known and honoured at all the ends of the earth, and our national language spoken by millions at the Antipodes.
It may be mentioned that this is the first death by drowning which has occurred in the Halpin family, although, some years ago, four brothers of that family were at sea at the same time and, of course, exposed to the constant dangers of a sea-faring life.
- The Wicklow Newsletter, March 25th 1883.
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It's hard to exaggerate the value of a mark of respect like the one above. Apart from its obvious merits as a piece of journalism (they wrote well and with flair and worldliness in those days) it tells us a great deal about the Halpins of Wicklow, about the political sensibilities of the community they belonged to - they certainly considered themselves servants of Empire - and about what from our perspective might seem dated and archaic codes of honour and morality. I know that my great-great grandfather (RW Halpin) subscribed to this very British worldview, but that he did so for wholly 'pragmatic' reasons - the world was what it was, regardless of what one's personal views on the matter might be. Just how loyally he stuck to that philosophy can be seen in his testimony to two Royal Commissions of Inquiry which visited Wicklow town in the years 1854-55 and 1877 (respectively - Royal Com. to inquire into State of Fairs and Markets in Ireland; and Royal Com. to inquire into Local Gov. and Taxation of Towns in Ireland (Belfast, Trim and Wicklow), both of which contain minutes of evidence). During the latter inquiry in particular, despite some deservedly critical comments from one of the commissioners about his personal conduct in his capacities as Town clerk and clerk to the Harbour Board, my great-great grandfather took the rap for what was clearly a collective 'misuse' of public monies by the town commissioners (a subject I hope more local historians find the time to discuss). Throughout this inquiry RW Halpin was not simply displaying extraordinary gall before his interrogators, he was protecting friends and family from possibly criminal prosecution - he was protecting their good names and reputations. That kind of 'honour' was not well regarded by RW's son, Edwin, who was very much a Parnellite and a modernist. In fact the whole worldview buttressing RW's conduct was eventually to be blown to pieces on the battlefields of France and Belgium, where his grandsons James and Cecil - both barely literate Catholics from one of the worst slums in Europe - fought for the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers (from1914-18...Jim spent the entire war in combat and returned to Dublin mute, gassed and shellshocked to recuperate at Leopardstown Hospital in Foxrock). William, older brother of James and Cecil, meanwhile fought members of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers at home on the streets of the capital - his story, and the stories of his brothers and sister, will be told at a future date, but I am not the first Halpin to wonder what remains in us of the 'ethic' so diligently practiced and defended by Robert Wellington Halpin, and the rest of Wicklow's Protestant community, during the last decade or two of Victoria's reign. Has time wiped out all trace of that old Anglo-Irish attitude? Is there such a thing as a 'Halpin character' and how much of it has been altered by the history of the intervening years? Is it sensible to even ask such questions? One of the reasons so many visit a site like RootsChat is to establish some kind of connection and continuity between themselves and their forebears, so the questions I ask here are not as self-indulgent as they might seem.
WICKLOW.
The Soiree Musicale That Never Came Off:-
Walter Sorrell, alias Martin, was brought before Samuel [illigible], Esq., R.M., on Wednesday, on the charge of obtaining money by false pretenses. It will be remembered that the prosecution was instituted by the Crown at the suit of Mr. Edwin Halpin, who, having read a printed circular, announcing a "soiree musicale" in the Marine Hotel on friday evening, the 17th September, went to the hotel on that evening, and paid 1s 6d to the accused for admission. He alleges that the accused decamped by the half-past eight train, and that no entertainment whatever took place. Mr George H Major, Sessional Crown Solicitor, prosecuted, and Mr. Charles Coates. BL, instructed by Mr. Valentine Duff, defended. Mr. Kynasten Edwards, Mr. Robert Halpin, detective Cully, and the manager of the Marine Hotel gave evidence in addition to that given on Monday, the 3rd inst. On the application of Mr. Major, the case was sent for trial at the ensuing Wicklow Spring assizes, bail to be accepted for the appearance of the accused.
- Irish Times, Friday October 15 1875.
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This case, which made him the laughing stock of the British Isles (it was reported everywhere), did more to drive a wedge between Edwin and his community than anything else, including the political issues which he was so fond of citing years afterwards. The suit was not instituted by Edwin (he was simply the front man) but by his father and some of the town commissioners, all of whom had been roped into Sorrel's ruse and publically embarrassed by the incident. Their decision to seek prosecution was no doubt the worst thing they could have done if it was their public reputations they were trying to restore, and in some respects it exposes them as an insular people with very narrow horizons - which contradicts what I said above about RW being a man of the world...I suppose they were naive about the interest the media would take in the case. They shouldn't have been, because Sorrell had convinced the good folk of Wicklow that the Italian Opera, led by Florence Marryat (she can be Googled), a prolific and immensely popular novelist of the time, as well as being a singer of repute (the Madonna of her day?), would be performing at the Marine Hotel the following night, which is why the town commissioners were so quick to notify the aristocrisy and landed gentry of the surrounding district. At any rate, I'll return at a later date to give a summary of the trial, since Ms Marryat herself appeared at it as a witness. I wonder if the Wicklow Town Council has a transcript of that trial, because it would probably contain Edwin's testimony, which I'd very much like to read. Would anyone know - can anyone help?
LOSS OF THE SHIP OUZEL GALLEY OF DUBLIN.
The loss of the ship Ouzel Galley, of and for Dublin, with a valuable cargo of sugar, was announced Friday at Lloyd's. She was from Trinadad, and on the 1st of last month, when in lat. 33.43, long. 64.18, she encountered a severe hurricane from the N.W. She was struck by a tremendous sea, which killed the man at the wheel, broke both thighs of the chief officer, fractured the legs of a seaman, and injured Captain Halpin [I think this might be Captain RC Halpin's brother, - the one who met Gladstone (see above) - rather than the Captain himself] and two others of the crew. The captain would have been washed overboard but for his legs getting entangled in the chains of the wheel, which was demolished. The bulwarks were stove, and the after-hatch broken away, so that the sea went into the hold. The ship had sprung a fearful leak, and was abandoned, when the crew, on the 4th, were picked up by the Ann E. Hooper, from Liverpool to Baltimore, in a very exhausted condition. The ship and cargo are reported to have been very heavily insured.
- Irish Times, Tuesday May 24 1859.
I'll leave things there for the time being. When I resume, I'll focus on putting some substance behind the claims my brother made in the posting that began this plotting of the extended Wicklow Halpin family tree. I'll prove that Charles Grehan Halpin(e) did not, as his potted-biographers claim, alter his name to dissociate himself from his father, the Rev. NJ Halpin (Ed. of the Hi-Tory newspaper the Dublin Evening Mail), but to try to dissociate himself from a phase of petty criminality. Cheers.
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Hi Christopher and others,
I was facinated to find, only on Saturday last the chat on the Halpin Family. I have some information on the Wicklow Halpins. On Wednesday 22nd April, I attended a lecture, given by Mr Jim Rees, a local historian and author, who has written books on Capt Halpin of the Great Eastern Fame. It was part of Internationas Day for Monuments & Sites 2009, and hosted by Wicklow County Council in association with ICOMOS Ireland. The heritage Officess for Wicklow Co. Co. can be contacted at
dburns[at]wicklowcoco.ie
As an amateure genealogist living in Wiklow Town I have copied the 1901 & 1911 Census for the town only, and try to keep it up to date if I have any information on Births, Marriages or Deaths after this time.
Census of 1901 Wicklow Town b1 Wentworth Place 62/63. Private Dwelling with 2 out offices = 1 stabe & 1 coach house. All 3 persons were Church of Ireland and could read & Write.
1 Eliza Halpin, head of household, age 70 yrs [bc 1831] Occ = Income from House property, Widow, born Co Carlow.
2 Ida I Halpin, daughter age 36 yrs [bc 1863] Assistant Registrar, single born Wicklow
3 Mary Jane Maxwell, servant age 25 yrs General Domestic Servant, single Born Co Wicklow
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Census of 1901 Wicklow Town b2 Wentworth Place 62/63. Private Dwelling with 3 out offices, stabe, coach house & store. 4 Family members ere C of I.
1 James Henry Halpin, head of house,could R & W. age 40 yrs, Phisian & Surgeon DK & GC.PLMCSI. married born Wicklow
2 Adelaide Maude wife, could R & W 29 yrs old. born Wexford
3 James Raymond son, age 1 yr born Wicklow
4 Martha Florence Sutton, Sister-in-Law c of I, could r & w, single, born Wexford.
5 Catherine MacNamara, servant R.C. age 30 yrs housemaid, Dom Serv. single born Co Wexford.
6 Annie Furlong, R.C. age 20 yrs, Nurse Dom. Serv. single born Co Wexford
7 Elizabeth Davis R.C. age 28 yrs Cook Com. Serv. sinhgle born Co Wexford.
Census 1911 Wicklow Town b2 Wentworth Place 65/62. Private Dwelling 5 windown in front of 2nd class house. 9 rooms occupied by 9 persons, with 5 out offices. Family members were C of I.
1 James H Halpin, head of house, could R & W. age 50 yrs, General Practioner FRCP & Surgeon Ireland. married born Wicklow
2 Adelaide Maud wife, could R & W 39 yrs . Married 13 yrs, 4 children born 4 alive, born Wexford
3 James Raymond Halpin son, age 11 yr, scholar, born Wicklow
4 Robert Everst Halpin, son age 9 yrs scholar born Wexford.
5 Damaris Margaret Halpin daughter age 5 yrs born Wicklow
6 George Herbert son age 5 months born Wicklow
7 Nora Guin..... age 25 yrs, Nurse Dom. Serv. single. born Tipperary.
8 Mary Ronan, Roman Catholic age 36 yrs, Cook, don. servant, signle born Wexford.
9 Johanna Clovey R.C. age 34 yrs Housemaid, dom. servant, single born Wexford
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Now for Memorial Cards of this family:
1 "Captain Thomas J. Halpin, who died at Monastery House, Ennisketty Co Wicklow on the 2nd June 1878, in the 54th year of his age.
2 Stopford William Halpin, who died at Arklow February 27th 1885 aged 61 yrs - prayer...
3 Richard Matthew Halpin (Wicklow) who died December 15th, 1889, Aged 64 years. Interred in Wicklow Churchyard.
4 Maria Griffith Gibson, Died at 18 College Green, Dublin ...prayer..
5 Louisiana, Eldist & dearly beloved daughter of George H and Eliza Halpin, who fell asleep in Jesus The 11th of February 1887 aged 24 years.
6 George Halbert Halpin, who fell asleep in Jesus The 21st of June 1887 Aged 66 years ... prayer
Two other memorial cards I dont know if they mean anything, but I was given them with the Halpin ones.
Anne Bayley, who died at Moneygrath, Myshall, Co Carlow. December 11, 1883. ..prayer... and
Dr. Samuel Hawkes of Woodland Cottage, Wanstead, who peacefully passed away on Thursday, May 21st, 1891 aged 48 years".
Halpin- May 20th at Wentworth place, Wicklow Eliza, widow of the late Dr. George H. Halpin.
Saturday May 23, 1903.
Obituary Mrs G.H. Halpin Wicklow.
"The above esteemed lady, who was the widow of the late Dr. George H. Halpin and mother of ?Dr. J. H. Halpin, Medical Officer of Health of Wicklow and of Capt. R.G. Halpin, passed away after an illness lasting for a considerable time at her residence, Wentworth -place, on Wednesday evening last. The deceased lady was held in the vewry greatest respect by the people of Wicklow, and the sincere sympathy of the entire community goes out to the members of her family, who are bereaved by her demise.
The funeral took place yesterday to the Parish Churchyard, where the Rev. Canon Rooke, M.A.. R.D.; and the Rev. G.H.
Christie conducted the Office for the Burial of the Dead.
Chief mourners were-Dr. James H. Halpin, Captain R.G. Halpin, sons; and Dr. RichardHalpin, Arklow, nephew......
Christmas Tree in Rathnew School-house. The Wicklow Newslater & County Advertiser, Wicklow. Sat 2nd Jan 1897 p.4.
Hope this will be of some help. J.M.F.
Moderator Comment: e-mail edited, to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please replace [at] with @
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Hi Raymond, Now I know where we Aussies get our rebel streak from! Sad about the records. Julia (Villiers)Halpin was mentioned by family over here as a French Hugenot. Your research is much appreciated I just love the quality info you have discovered! Like the examination in chief formats on George Halpin Jnr and Snr. To actually read their own words was such an experience!If we are defeated by history on mapping the Halpin Dublin Wicklow relationship then maybe when the cost is reasonable a DNA test might help. Of course thats assuming a relative hasn't been in someone elses sheets at some time in history to interfere with the DNA chain. Maybe we can keep the DNA test up our sleeve as a last resort. The good thing is if it does show a genetic link then our two streams of Halpins will have some time come from a common family. I was only a small child at the time but remember quite vividly being told by elderly relatives about our Halpin family links to the laying of the cable and mention of several family members on the cable ship. Including the story about fears of sabotage and another family member working on the actual section dropping the cable into the sea from the ship. Kind regards Kim ps I'm not sure on how to copy Bill
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Thanks Kim, and thank you too, JM. Both of you have received private mail from me, so I'll just plod on with a little more of the stuff I've been posting lately.
OBITUARY.
Captain R G Halpin, Wicklow.
Quite a gloom was cast over the town of Wicklow on Friday upon the receipt of a telegram from Falmouth announcing the death from blood poisoning of Captain Robert G Halpin, brother of Dr. J H Halpin, Medical Officer of Health, Wicklow. Captain Halpin, who was only 37 years of age, served his apprenticeship under his uncle, the late Captain R C Halpin, D.L., in the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, and entered the service of the Eastern Telegraph Company at an early age. When only thirty years old he was appointed to the command of one of the best cable ships in the Service, and proved himself a most successful and capable officer. He contracted blood poisoning whilst engaged in carrying out a large undertaking, of which he was in charge, for the laying of a new cable from England to Maderia. He left Cardiff on Tuesday, the 22nd ult., and two days later, whilst testing some sounding wire at sea, he received a wound in the hand. The ship put back to, and reached Falmouth last Monday, where the best medical aid was summoned. The patient had only recently recovered from an attack of malarial fever, contracted on the West Coast of Africa, and was therefore unable to combat the poison, and succumbed as stated. Captain Halpin was a general favourite in Wicklow, and his untimely death is greatly regretted.
- Irish Times, Monday June 4 1906.
If you have examined the Halpin family tree above - detailing that branch of it which spreads out over counties Laois (Queens), Meath, and Cavan and extending all the way to Canada and the US, you might have noticed the name there of William Henry Halpin, brother of the Reverend Nicholas John Halpin (Editor of the Dublin Evening Mail, Shakespearean scholar and persistent critic of O'Connell). WH Halpin was fiercely opposed to the Reverend's politics but as passionate as his brother about Shakespeare - indeed the two of them seem to have had a particular liking for A Mid-Summer Night's Dream: Reverend Nicholas wrote a number of critical essays on the Bard, the relevant one here being "Oberon's Vision in the 'Midsummer Night's Dream'", whereas his brother William H used the pseudonym 'Peter Quince' - a name taken from a character in the same Shakespearean play - to write what were considered to be very funny satirical pieces of journalism that took the mickey out of all sorts of sacred cows. For example, when the Houses of Parliament burned down in the early 1800s, 'Peter Quince' submitted to the Times a blueprint for a replacement building...the joke was that Mr. Quince was a 'humble country carpenter' who clearly presumed far more than his station entitled him to...maybe you had to be there. But the ruse shouldn't be dismissed as a mere historical footnote, because the idea of using a humble nobody to pass comment on important matters at critical moments in history was revived by the Reverend's son Charles Greham Halpin(e), who invented a character called Myles O'Reilly to provide light relief for Northerners during the American Civil War. These are matters I will talk more about in future postings, but I will say here that William H and his brother the Reveredn N did not see eye to eye at all, and it was their brother Charles - the Cavan MD, who struggled so heroically to save lives during the Famine and who was a big influence on Stopford Halpin, MD, brother of Captain Robert C Halpin of Wicklow town - who tried to act as peacemaker between the two, but who eventually fell out himself with the good Reverend when the latter used his position as editor at the Dublin Evening Mail to invite an 'expert' to ridicule in writing the method for the preservation of potatoes Charles was recommending to landlords and pesants, a method that many landlords tried and found effective, at least in the early stages of the Blight. At any rate, I've rambled on and confused the matter no doubt. All will become clear in the comming weeks. Suffice to say that William H, who made a habit of taking the piss, was eventually imprisoned after being found guilty of libel in relation to an incident other than the one reported below.
The Cheltenham Horsewhipping.
At these sessions, the Grand Jury returned a true bill against Samuel Young Griffith, the Proprietor, and William H. Halpin, the Editor of the Cheltenham Chronicle, for the assault committed on Mr. Judge, the Editor of the Cheltenham Journal, on the 28th of June last. The Indictment has been removed into the Court of King's Bench, and will come down as a Crown Office record for trial at the next March Assizes for the county; and in the event of a verdict of guilty being recorded, the defendants will receive judgement in the Court of King's Bench.
- Jackson's Oxford Journal, Sat. July 23, 1825.
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As I've said before, potted biographers of Charles Graham Halpin(e) say he changed his name to distance himself from his father, with whom he had a classically Oedipal relationship. But in my research I came across evidence that seems to point to another reason for the name-change...I've read the vestry notebooks that the Reverend NJ Halpin kept during his 17 years as rector at Oldcastle, Co. Meath. There he records the birth of a son he named Charles Boyton Halpin.
From the North Wales Chronicle, Nov. 30 1850:
Charles Boyton Halpin was brought up in custody of Mr. Enoch Williams, on three separate charges; first, for entering the dwelling house of Mrs. Andrew, in Boston-street, on the previous Sunday, and stealing therefrom a silver cruet; secondly, for obtaining money under false pretenses from Mr. Hodgson, the landlord of the Commercial Inn; and thirdly, for stealing a jug from London House, the property of Mr. Lewis.
Mr. Bodvan Griffith appeared for the three prosecutors, and said that upon the person of the prisoner the policeman had found 93 pawn-brokers' tickets of gold watches and other valuable property, pledged in London, which tickets, he had got copied and sent to the Editor of the Police Gazette, in London, which no doubt would lead to more discoveries.
Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon the police officer for the cautious perseverence he pursued in detecting and capturing the prisoner.
After an incident like this I suppose Charles had nowhere to go but to the US, where it must have seemed wise to him to alter his name and attribute the change to something like a noble aversion to High Tory - or anti-American - forebears.
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Hello Raymond,
I don't know where to start! Your history on the Halpin family is great. I usually don't join chat groups, I prefer e-mail, however, I had to join roots.chat to contact you. I was researching the Halpin family for my Dad and I came across your postings. My Dad's grandfather was, Henry Ross Halpin the fur trader you talked about in one of your postings, His father being Rev.William Henry Halpin (London, Ontario) son of Rev. Nicholas John Halpin.
This might interest you, or maybe you already have this information, I found the obituary/funeral of Charles Graham Halpin in the New York Times, his oldest sister (Lucy) obituary is also in the New York times. I tried to locate information about the his sister in Chicago, couldn't find anything. There is tons of information about Charles Graham Halpin. Just curious where do you fit into the family. Also, I think it is high time all the Halpin's had a reunion.
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I'm glad you find the site useful, MCJ, and I assure you that until I decided to post this stuff I had never joined a forum like this myself. But for our purposes - which are to find out what we can about the Halpins and to figure out what is and isn't plausible about the family lore - it is proving to be invaluable. I can't tell you how glad I am that someone from the Canadian branch tuned in. I have said very little about Canada because I know very little...your presence here, dropping in now and again, can help put an end to that. You're right about one thing - there is a shitload of stuff about CG Halpine. I often wondered if he had stayed in touch with his Canadian cousins, and if he had anything to do with the Fenian invasion of Canada. He had planned something spectacular for Ireland, with General William G (for God's sake, does anyone know what the "G" stands for? Tell me it's 'George') Halpin's assistance...I've yet to get to that part of the story, because it's difficult to compress all of the information I have on the two, but I hope to start within a few weeks. In the meantime I intend to concentrate on two forebears you must know very little about - William Henry Halpin and Charles Halpin MD...they were busy and active members of an Irish society that few mention at all these days - Irish Protestants who were passionate about their country, its people, its culture and its political future. They were patriots, plain and simple, and their nephew CG Halpine had planned to bring about an end to British rule in Ireland and might well have changed history if he hadn't let his hang-ups about his Da cause him to fall off the wagon, so to speak, while General G was languishing in an Irish prison..in an attempt to cope with his craving for alcohol, to stifel the craving, he took a dose of chloroform, and promptly died of the reaction to it, becoming a footnote in Irish history rather than Ireland's Liberator...all terribly 'Boysownish' stuff, which I hope to clarify soon. As for his obituaries, I have an extremely long one that I'm currently editing, and a postmortem report which might extend another tenuous - another tantalising - link to the Wicklow Halpins. In the meantime, glad you've joined the conversation, talk again soon.
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Hi Raymond,
My great Grandfather Henry Ross Halpin worked for the Hudson Bay Company for years, my Dad actually has his handwritten diary during his fur trading days. He married a lady by the name of Annie Elliott, and had 8 children with her, I gave my Dad most of the information I found, so the number of children may be off a bit. Annie Elliot died from a mental breakdown. Henry Ross Halpin rejoined the Hudson Bay Company and worked at Fort Alexander where he met my Great Grandmother a Metis woman beautiful lady and they had 4 children one of them being my Grandpa. If you google Henry Ross Halpin, Saskatchewan Archives of Canada there is a picture of him and a brief write-up of his life.
When I was searching for the Halpin's of Ireland, I came across ireland old news and searched many of the old newspapers and that is how I found out about Charles Halpin, when I read about him it seemed to me that he was more humble than his brother Rev. Nicholas John Halpin. I got the impression Charles really loved to help his fellow man and wanted to improve life for everyone around him.
Some questions for you, do you know how many children Prof. Rev. William Henry Halpin, my great great grandfather of London Ontario, had. I would just like to know how many brothers and sisters Henry Ross Halpin had. I think they were all born in Ireland.
My other question is John Halpin, Rev. Nicholas John Halpin's brother was he Catholic, I remember reading your posting about these two and how it divided the family. My Dad argues with me all the time that our family were all Protestant, I disagree because religion is a personal choice.
Another excellent resource for family history is www.familysearch.org, website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Utah, U.S., you probably already heard of them, however they have the biggest family archive service I believe in the world. All kinds of information about the Halpin family in their database.
If there is anything you would like me to try and find out for you on the Canadian side I will do my best. Bye for now.
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It only just occurred to me to check the unusual name of Stopford with the LDS FamilySearch site. A number of 'hits' produced the following:
To parents Stopford William HALPIN and Susanna Frances BESTALL -
1864, 05 April: Stopford William Halpin, Arklow, Wicklow (C701227)
1865, 30 July: Stopford John Halpin, Arklow (C701263)
1868, 02 January: Nannie Caldour Halpin, Wicklow (C014084)
1870, 05 June: Susanna Frances Halpin, Wicklow (C702525)
1874, 30 July: Violet Louise Halpin, Wicklow (C702537)
From the gravestone below is the calculated birth of Richard Frederick Bestall Halpin about 1858. There may have been other children between him and those recorded above.
There are a number of Wicklow BESTALL births in the 1870s recorded at the IGI. Some are to William Law Bestall and Elizabeth Bestall French at Templelyon. The remainder are to Robert M L Bestall and Mary Ellenor Bestall Askin, including Robert Frederick Bestall in 1873, one recorded at Bed Cross.
Bill.
The following is about Dr RICHARD F B HALPIN (1858 - 1903) of Arklow, Wicklow, and is taken from the British Medical Journal, Nov 7, 1903, p.1246
(http://www.bmj.com/cgi/issue_pdf/admin_pdf/2/2236.pdf)
IT was with deep regret that the profession and the public
generally in County Wicklow heard of the death of Dr.
RICHARD F. B. HALPIN, which occurred at his residence,
Ferrybank, Arklow, on October 19th. Dr. Halpin got a
severe wetting while seeing a patient on the night of October
12th, pneumonia setting in two days afterwards. He progressed
favourably for some days, when symptoms of heart
failure supervened, and despite all that medical skill and
careful nursing could do he succumbed on the sixth day. Dr.
Halpin was in his 45th year. He pursued his medical studies
in London, becoming a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons
in I883, and afterwards obtaining the Licence of the
Royal College of Physicians, Ireland. He was for some time
house physician to the Hospital for Diseases of the Chest,
and afterwards surgeon in the service of the Eastern Telegraph Company, of which his uncle the late distinguished
Captain R. C. Halpin, was the marine superintendent in
London. In 1885 he settled down in his native town of Arklow,
succeeding to the very extensive practice of his father,
the late Dr. Stopford Halpin, in addition to holding many
public appointments, including that of physician to Arklow
Fever Hospital, of surgeon and agent to H.M. Coastguards, and
of medical attendant Royal Irish Constabulary. He was held in
high esteem by both rich and poor, and the large attendance
at his funeral on October 22nd was in itself sufficient evidence
of his popularity, the predominant feeling in the breasts of
all being "that a thorough gentleman and an ornament to
his profession " had passed from amongst them. Dr. Halpin
leaves behind him three children and a widowed mother,
with whom sincere sympathy is felt.
I came to search for this man because someone had sent me a photo of a gravestone at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, knowing that I was searching for a Halpin burial there. It had initially been erected by him for his wife Bessie in 1896. I will try to attach this photo but please let me know if you need a transcript.
Bill Webster
Sydney
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1. Halpin and Wicklow.
We can't understand the Halpins without understanding a little about Wicklow.
What follows is fairly self-explanatory, so I won't waste time explaining what you can figure out for yourself. But I will draw attention to the historical value of such a document - forebears can be heard in their own words, a good part of their daily activity can be clearly deduced from their replies to the commission's questions, and if you're cute enough you can glean from the minutes as a whole a feel for the shenanigans that were part of everyday life in a mid-19th century Irish town:- the petty corruption, the organised fraud and the propensity of each group to do what it could to screw the other. The visiting Commission seems anxious to recommend for the whole of Ireland a draft of standards and regulations that it hopes will improve trade for both buyer and seller - a sort of mini version of what the EU is attempting to some extent today. Personally, I found my greatgreatgrandfather's support for the Commission's recomendations to be a delight to hear, especially as it is obvious that he - and the Town commissioners - had been using existing arrangements to generate a little 'additional income' for themselves. This sense of entitlement continued in one form or another until another Royal Commission arrived in Wicklow some twenty years later, to attempt to find out what had happened to a huge sum of money that the Wicklow Town Commission had borrowed, supposedly for the improvement of the Harbour. I'll get to that report some other time, but to me what the minutes below prove is the general attitude some Town Commissioners seemed to have in regard to their duties - Empire meant spoils, it was a racket to be exploited by those who were priviledged with administrative power and responsibility...in many respects, little has changed - Empire may be gone, but the cute hoor remains as ubiquitous as ever. And my dear old forebear was one of the finest.
1854 - 55: FAIRS AND MARKETS COMMISSION, IRELAND.
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED TO INQUIRE INTO THE STATE OF THE FAIRS AND MARKETS IN IRELAND.
PART 2: MINUTES OF EVIDENCE.
Wicklow, December 22, 1852. Mr. Robert Halpin, examined:
6618. Do you reside in Wicklow? - I do.
6619. Are you secretary to the Town Commissioners? - I am.
6620. Can you give us any information as to the patent or authority under which the markets are held in this town? - They are held by the Town Commissioners, as the successors of the old Corporation, under a charter of James the 2nd.
6621. Were the Corporation proprietors of the fairs and markets here? - They were.
6622. Did the charter give them a grant of the market? - Yes; it granted them the whole town.
6623. How often are your markets held? - On every Saturday.
6624. Is that the day mentioned in the patent? - I think it is.
6625. How many fairs are held? - Four; on 28th March, 24th May, 12th August, and 25th November.
6626. Are these fairs mentioned in the patent? - No; they were established some few years by the inhabitants of the town and the Commissioners.
6627. Did the Commissioners obtain any authority to establish them? - They did not.
6628. Are tolls paid at the markets or fairs? - No.
6629. Were they ever paid? - They were at the market under the old Corporation; but they were discontinued, because they were thought not to be for the general benefit.
6630. Where are the markets held? - In the streets.
6631. Is there a market house? - There is; but it is not used, because the market people disliked coming coming there, thinking it a backward place.
6632. Is there an enclosed market-place? No.
6633. All the agricultural produce, then, is sold about the streets and at the stores of the merchants? - Yes.
6634. Where are the fairs held? - At the upper end of the town, also in the streets.
6635. Have you public scales? - There is a public weighmaster, named John Ost, but he has nothing to do.
6636. When was he appointed? - I should think thirty years ago. If goods came to the market-place, he would weigh them.
6637. Does he keep beams and scales? - He does.
6638. Where are they erected? - In the market-house.
6639. Are they the property of the Corporation? - They are.
6640. Is there a scale of fees laid down for him to charge? - I think there was by the old Corporation.
6641. Are the scales ever used? - Not now; they were used, I believe, within the last four or five years.
6642. Is the weighmaster sworn? - I believe he was.
6643. Do the merchants make any charge for weighing at their own stores? - No.
6644. Where are potatoes weighed? - About the town, the same way as corn.
6645. Are the fairs held in the public streets inconvenient? - I think not.
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2. Halpin and Wicklow.
6646. Do the holding them there generally give satisfaction? - I think it does.
6647. Would it be more convenient to have them held in the streets than in an enclosed fair-green? - I think it would.
6648. Is not the thoroughfare blocked up? - It is a kind of fair-green.
6649. Is it sufficiently large? - At present it is.
6650. Were there any fairs held before the establishment of these four fairs? - There were two fairs before, but they failed.
6651. Have the Town Commissioners any property? - They have, in landed and house property, about £500 a-year, and in harbour dues about £200 a-year.
6652. How are they expended? - In improving the town.
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3. Halpin and Wicklow.
6653. Is any of it expended in market improvements? - Not as yet. The harbor rates are expended upon the harbor, and the town property upon the town.
6654. Have you ever struck a borough rate? - Never.
6655. Is the town lighted or cleansed? - It is cleansed, not lighted; we have not the Act for lighting yet.
6656. You mean, you have not placed yourselves under that section of the Act? - Yes.
6657.How is the £500 a-year expended? - In widening the streets, purchasing old houses, making roads and sewers, and general cleansing.
6658. Would not an enclosed market-green be more satisfactory than selling through the streets? - As regards markets it would.
6659. And as regards fairs would it not be better? - The fairs are held here upon a green; they do not go straggling through the town.
6660. Could you give an idea of the quantity of corn sold here in a year? - I could not.
6661. Are there many buyers here? - About half a dozen.
6662. Do they keep stores? - They do.
6663. Do sales of corn take place every day? - Yes; there is no particular day for corn. There are, I have just been told, from 60'000 to 80,000 barrels sold here in the year.
6664. Are potatoes sold every day? - They are.
6665. Then, in fact, a sort of market goes on every day in the week? - Exactly.
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4. Halpin and Wicklow.
Mr. William Wilkinson examined:
6683. Do you consider the system of weighing in private to be objectionable? - It may be in some respects.
6684. Would you be in favour of a general market, with proper accommodation, an enclosed market-place, and a sworn weighmaster, making it obligatory to all, and weigh all agricultural produce there, the market to begin at a certain hour and close at a certain hour? - I would be an advocate for it; it would give us a great deal less trouble.
6685. Of course the charge should be nothing more than would support such a market respectably? - Nothing more; and I think it would be a great improvement.
6686. Would it not be a protection to the farmer and the honest trader? - I think it would.
6687. Did you ever hear of instances of fraud practised in weighing at the private stores? - The farmers would not allow us to do such things; it is rather the reverse, generally.
6688. But frauds may be practised without the farmer finding them out for a long time? - The porters would have no interest in committing fraud, and it is they who weigh.
6689. But would it not be better to have a sworn weighmaster, a person of respectability, in whom all could place confidence? - It would be much better, if it could be done.
6690. Would you be in favour of an assimilation of weights and measures over the whole country? - I think it would be much better; everyone would understand it. [...]
6695. Would there not be one great advantage in a well-regulated public market thatyou could get the proper statistics of the country? - It would be a great advantage. We have very little power to do so now; but under the Act you speak of we would have the power.
6696. In such a market would it not be very necessary to have heavy penalties for frauds upon the part either of buyer or seller, and the person at the head of the market to prosecute? - It certainly would.
6697. Would you be in favour of buying by the stone or by the barrel? - I think by the stone would, perhaps, be more simple.
Mr. James Nolan examined:
6700. Would you be in favour of such a general market as has been described? - I would decidedly. I coincide entirely with the last witness.
6701. Do you think it would be a protection to the farmer and the honest trader? - Certainly.
6702. Would you be in favour of an assimilation of weights and measures? - I would. (...)
6703. You think it would be easier [buying by the stone], as a uniform system, than buying by the barrel? - I think it would.
6704. Would you abolish all deductions, and let the merchant regulate his price according to quality? - Yes; I think in the end it would be much better.
6705. Would it not be very desirable to obtain the proper statistics of the country? - Certainly; they are very much wanted.
6706. Would there be any difficulty in obtaining a convenient place for establishing a general market here? - It would require some consideration; but I think such a place might be very easily procured.
6707. I suppose you would not allow the charge to be more than would support such a market respectably? - Certainly not.
6708. You would not have it a source of revenue for any body? - No; I think it is time to abolish all these things.
6709. Do you think the farmers would object to pay a small charge to support such a market? - They would object to pay anything, I think.
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5. Halpin and Wicklow.
Mr. Halpin reexamined:
6713. Have the Commissioners taken any steps with regard to the markets of the town? - They tried to enforce having them held at a regular hour.
6714. But if corn were to be brought to the market place for sale, would not the place be very insufficient? - It would.
6715. Have the Corporation sufficient ground at present unoccupied, without interfering with private rights, to make a place for a proper general market? - They have.
6716. And I suppose they would be glad to carry out any regular measure for improving the fairs and markets? - They have always shown that they would.
6717. I suppose your barrel of corn means twenty stone of wheat, fourteen stone of oats, and sixteen stone of barley? - Exactly.
I'll leave it there for the time being, and come back to it tomorrow. But before I sign off, it might be wise to keep in mind a few self-evident facts: the Commissioners are not just on a fact-finding mission. They are clearly out to sell a set of proposals. Questions that might be asked are Who's proposals, and For what purpose?
If the Commission's recomendations are approved and markets throughout Ireland are regulated, standardised and their activities documented, then the British Administration will find it easier to properly assess the real wealth of buyers and sellers alike. This will lead to more effective - and more lucrative - taxation, it will bring about a shift in power away from local councils and towards head office (in Dublin and London), and - ultimately - it will result in a form of Protectionism that over time will allow traders (and Governments) to milk consumers for all their worth. This is what amounts to a racket - the racket that was Empire - and it was a process my greatgrandfather Edwin Halpin (son of the Halpin being interviewed above) took real exception to. The racket that was Empire had to be brought to an end - Ireland had to be relieved of British rule and politically and administratively reconfigured along American lines...Edwin was both pro-American and very much a Socialist, which wasn't a contradiction in terms in those days. He was an enthusiast for the Celtic Revival and encouraged his kids to be bi-lingual: to speak both English and Gaelic. But he had an idealised vision of what the Irish and Ireland could become. He thought, for most of his life at least, that change could be brought about peaceably, through the democratic process...his eldest son William thought differently and, in 1913, joined Connolly's Irish Citizens Army. I will reveal later what Edwin did in response to William's behaviour, but William was interned after the Rising in 1916 and, after his release, went on to become part of a squad (H-squad) of Sinn Fein assassins that ambushed a military lorry in Church street, Dublin, in 1920. During the attack one of the squad members - Kevin Barry - was captured and, very soon afterwards, convicted of the murder of 3 British soldiers and hung. After the British left Ireland William would gather up his children every Easter and arrange them round a flagpole he had erected in his front yard. There, on Hawthorn Tce. North Strand (Dublin), he and the kids would pay their respects to the fallen Heroes. According to my elderly relatives (his nieces) this ceremonial mark of respect drove the locals mad. I've often wondered what William's grandfather - the Halpin interviewed by the Commissioners above - would have made of that.
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6. Halpin and Wicklow.
Mr. John Chapman examined:
6719. Are you one of the Town Commissioners? - I am.
6720. Do you farm? - I do.
6721. Would you, as a farmer, be in favour of such a general market as you have heard described? - I would.
6722. Would you, as a farmer, object to pay a small charge to support such a market? - I would not.
6723. Do you object, on principle, to the system of weighing in private? - I do not object on my own behalf, for I believe there has been no fraud committed here; I am quite satisfied there has not; but I think the other plan would be much more satisfactory.
6724. Does it not offer great facilities for fraud? - It does; and I have heard that frauds were practised here some years ago to a great extent.
John Ost examined:
6732. What is your occupation? - Town Sergeant.
6733. Are you weighmaster? - I stopped weighing shortly after my father died.
6734. Did you ever receive any appointment? - Never.
6735. Were you sworn? - No. [...]
6742. Do you keep a book? - No; my father did.
6743. Did you keep the money you received? - I did.
6744. Are you paid a salary as bailiff? - I am.
6745. Have you been weighing lately? - Not these ten or twelve years; there has been nothing here.
6746. Was it during the time of the old Corporation your father died? - It was.
6747. Was it with their sanction you took his place? - I was allowed to remain where I was.
6748. To whom did the scales belong? - To the Town Commissioners.
Andrew William Byrne, esq., examined:
6749. Are you a weighmaster for this county? - I am.
6750. Can you give us any information with regard to the fairs of the town? - Not of the town, for they are very little attended, and scarcely talked of as fairs; ...they are tolerably well conducted under the circumstances, but upon a bad system. Some are subject to charges, and some are not, which causes a great deal of confusion, and very often fights. There is another defect; although a late law gives magistrates the power of interfering and settling disputes, still from the non-attendance of magistrates...the law is of very little use.
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7. Halpin and Wicklow.
6750 - 6756 (a summary of what remains of Mr. Byrne's testimony).
Another great defect is, that stock of every kind is jumbled up together...[Personally] I would have every description of stock classified - for instance, milch cows in one place, young stock in another, bullocks in another, and bulls by themselves, for they cause great inconvenience; stallions I would not allow in the fair, nor would I have them shown unless in some very retired place...Then I would either make the Stipendiary Magistrate attend, or let the police constable attend, and give him a summary power of settling disputes. There is another matter which causes the farmers to suffer very much with regard to the pig trade: a jobber comes in and buys a pig, and if the market falls towards evening he will give the pig a prod, and make it bleed, and then say he is measly, and he will not take it...At the fair of Roundwood [the lack of proper authority] is particularly objectionable. It has become a great fair for horses, and I was going to write to the Government several times to assist me in making some arrangements by which the public would be protected from being ridden over in the streets...A Mr. Trouten is the patentee, and he lets the fair to a man named Fagan...Some of the dealers endeavour to force their way out [of the fair] without paying, and some succeed - there is terrible work there. The horse fair is held in the town...Drinking takes place...and people gallop their horses through the crowds...accidents have occurred and unless some remedy be taken some very serious affairs will happen...[Mr. Byrne goes on to endorse the Commission's proposals for enclosed fairgrounds, a small or affordable charge for participants and for the keeping of records and statistics, which "would enable the authorities to judge of the prosperity of the county." Mr. Byrne does not think farmers will object to a charge "because they would have to pay much less than they generally have in customs at the present day. At Ashford they pay 3d. a head for cattle...Some people thinking to escape the customs [charges] expose their goods, nominally, in the public way, and then there are disputes between them and the men at the custom gaps, as to whether they will charge. At Rathdrum there is a fine roomy fair-green...but in Arklow it is a very miserable place - in fact it is all in the town. I do not think anything in the country requires reformation more than the arrangements for fairs."]
And that's the end of the Commission's questioning of mid-19th Century Wicklow residents on the state of fairs and markets in the locale.
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To BillW re Halpen of Dublin
I am descended from Mark Halpen and Mary Paget from Maryborough. Their daughter Elizbth mar. Eugene Sweny of Dublin 27.6.1777. Eugene's cousin Elizbth Toone must be the widow of Ald. Kilner Swettenham who mar. John Halpen.
Paget Halpen, engraver must be the son of Mark & Mary. Eliz Toone's brother was Sweeney Toone of the East India Co. I don't know much about the Halpens, but the names Halpen & Paget are found in 5 or 6 generations of Swenys & even the Cookes have a few.
Ken Cooke, Vic. Australia
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Found These in the National Archives:-
Richard James Agustus Halpin - 5 Aug. - Late of Leitrim Lodge Wicklow...Engineer, d. 29th June 1915 at Sierra Leone West africa...granted at Dublin to Frances M. Halpin, Spinster...Effects £319 10s 10d.
Sarah Halpin - 20th May - late of Leitrim Lodge Bachelor's Walk Wicklow Spinster d. 13 April 1915, granted at dublin to F. M. Halpin and Louise G. Halpin, Spinsters, Effects £490 17s 6d, Resworn £375.
James Henry Halpin M.D. - 9th Sept. - late of Wentworth Place, Wicklow, d. Mat 5 1916. Granted at Dublin to Adelaide M Halpin, the Widow, Effects £970, Resworn £1025.
William Halpin, Mariner - 6 April - late of Abbeyville, Wicklow, d. 17 Feb. 1916, Granted at Dublin to Edward O'Connor, Overseer, £89 11s 11d.
Robert Halpin - 5th Oct - Late of Beechwood Road., Ranelagh, Dublin, Gentleman, d. July 1933...Granted at Dublin to Roy Collie, Watchmaker, and William James, Barrister, £1319.
Nannie C. Halpin - 2nd May - Formerly of Seaview House, Wicklow and Late of 148 Rathgar Road, Dublin. Spinster, d. 19 Dec. 1933. Granted at Dublin to William L. B. Halpin, Mining Engineer, and Violet Casey, Widow, £443.
Robert George Halpin - 12th Sept., - Late of 1 Wentworth Place, Wicklow, Captain Mercantile Marine, d. 1 June 1906 at Falmouth in England. Granted at Dublin to James H. Halpin, M.D., effects £2105 9s 8d.
Jessie Kelly Halpin - 20 March - Late of Tinnakilly House, Co. Wicklow, Widow, d. 10 Dec. 1912. Granted at Dublin to Belle L. Halpin, Spinster, effects £8804 11s 0d. Resworn £9614 15s 4d.
Frances Margaret Halpin - 18th Nov., - late of 1 Church St., Wicklow, Spinster, d. Aug. 9 1926. Granted at Dublin to Louisa Grace Halpin, Spinster, effects £225.
Beddia/Bedelia Halpin - 10th Feb., - Late of Gowran Hall, Sandycove, County Dublin. Married woman d. 23 Oct., 1929. Granted at Dublin to Joseph Halpin, Merchant, and Joseph A. Halpin, Company Manager, effects 35296 11s 4d.
Edith Mary Ann Halpin - 14th Jan., - Late of 3 Cliff Tce., Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Spinster, d. 27 Aug., 1935 Granted at Dublin to Ada L F Halpin, Spinster £275 2s 5d.
Isaac Halpin - 22nd Sept., - Late of 38 Whitehall Rd., Kimmage, Dublin, d. 3rd Sept., 1935, Granted to Richard A Halpin, Engineer £1061.
William H. Halpin - 9th Aug., - Late of Ford Lodge Cavan, Co. Cavan, Solicitor d. 17 April 1937. Granted to Caroline I E Halpin, Widow, and John R. Halpin, Solicitor, £5856.
Ada Louisa Farran Halpin - 3rd April - Late of 3 Cliff Tce., Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Spinster, d. 10 Jan 1939. Granted to Henry R Maunsell, solicitor, £2318 6s 6d.
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More on Halpen of Maryboro Co Laois
Eugene Sweny, a druggist or chemist, of 40 Mary Street, Dublin married Elizabeth, daughter of Mark Halpen and Mary Paget, of Maryborough, Co. Laois, in 1777. The names Paget and Halpen/Halpin appear in at least four generations.
I have found several references to Halpens, which I believe are relevant. There was a Mark Halpen, who I believe was our ancestor, an Irishman and obviously a man of means, convicted at the Old Bailey in London in 1734 for assault and breaking the peace. The incident followed a dispute in a public office, after money due to him had been legally detained by order. Peter Hawkins, one of the Clerks of the Exchequer, who had been assaulted and wounded by Halpen, gave evidence:
Peter Hawkins:
He (Halpen) said, I am going to Tunbridge, and must have some Money.
I answer'd, I believe you'll be mistaken – You have impos'd upon the Court, and the Baron has been inform'd of it. God damn you, says he, You lie! What do you mean by that ? says I.
I tell you, says he again, God damn you, you lie! I told him it was like his Irish Manners.
If I was to be born again, says he, I would chuse to be born in Ireland, for I never was asham'd of my Country,
and damn you, you dare not go out of the Office. I reply'd that I did not fear him or any Gentleman.
He struck me on the Breast, and afterwards taking hold of the small End of his Whip, he struck me a violent
Blow over the Eye, with the Butt End.
Halpen was ordered to pay a fine of £5, and claimed that it had cost him £200 in legal fees.
There was a Paget Halpen, who seems to be Mark’s son. From about 1790 to 1810, he was a copper engraver of 44 Mecklenburg St. Dublin, one of several engravers named Halpen or Halpin. He married Margaret Delane in Dublin in 1794. Another Paget Halpen, born in 1795, appears in the U.S. later. He was a ‘shugar planter’ of New Orleans in 1824, when he was about 29. He was one of seven signatories to a public notice in the Baton Rouge Gazette, Louisiana of 17.3.1827. It read: “Charles Ash Mix is declared a liar, swindler and a villain; beware of him.” Then, in Sept.1839 his name is found on the tax list in the Texas Morning Star as owing $13.75 to the City of Houston. Later there are several entries in the Texas Land Titles Abstracts, the last one being for “the heirs of Paget Halpin” in 1906.
Ken Cooke
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Raymond and list
Replying to the list of people that you have found in the National Archives and listed yesterday, I think I can relate a few.
Richard James Augustus Halpin, engineer late of Leitrim Lodge Wicklow and Louisa Grace Halpin (Beneficiary of Frances Margaret Halpin) are twin children of Richard Mathews Halpin and of Sarah Gregg, born 05 April 1867 at Wicklow (IGI Batch C011878).
Sarah Halpin, late of Leitrim Lodge Bachekor's Walk Wicklow, spinster, granted her estate to the above Louis(e) G Halpin and F M Halpin and I think because of the names, address and spinsterhood that she can be regarded as their sister (and of Richard James Augustus).
Frances Margaret Halpin, spinster, similarly granted her estate to Louisa Grace Halpin and may be regarded as their sister. Her death is 11 years later than Richard and Sarah, and she now resides in 1926 at 1 Church Street, Wicklow. As I understand it Bachelors Walk and Church Street are back to back off Bridge Street.
That seems to be one family group. "Richard Matthews Halpin" died in the first quarter of 1890 in the Rathdrum registration district of Wicklow, age given as 64 indicating birth about 1826. But who was Richard Mathews Halpin?
Robert George Halpin, Captain Mercantile Marine late of 1 Wentworth Place Wicklow granted his large estate in 1906 to Dr James H(enry) Halpin. Dr James Henry Halpin of Wentworh Place (Number 1 ?) granted his estate to his widow Adelaide M Halpin. James Henry Halpin who died in 1916 was born about 1861 from information given at his death (FamilySearch Pilot Site).
Jessie Kelly Halpin, widow late of Tinnakilly House died 1912. Is she the widow of Captain Robert Halpin of the Great Eastern?
Nannie C(aldour) Halpin, spinster formerly of Seaview House Wicklow was a daughter of Dr Stopford William Halpin of Arklow and of Susanna Frances Bestall, born Wicklow 1868 (IGI Batch C014084). Would Seaview House have been in Seaview Road? In 1933 she dies residing at 148 Rathgar Road Dublin. A significant number of Halpins lived closely around this location over a century. She granted her estate to William L B(estall?) Halpin, mining engineer (can we speculate that he was a nephew or unknown brother), and to Violet Casey, widow. Another of Dr Stopford's children and Nannie's sister was Violet Louise Halpin, born Wicklow 1874 (IGI).
William H(enry) Halpin, solicitor late of Ford Lodge Cavan, died 1937 leaving his estate to his widow Caroline I E Halpin and to John R Halpin, Solicitor. Was John his son? Caroline Isabella Emma Hutton married William Henry Halpin in the Bawnboy registration district of Cavan or Leitrim in the 3rd quarter of 1898 (FamilySearch Pilot Site). William Henry Halpin's death registration in 1937 gives or estimates his birth year as 1863. Who does William Henry connect back to (in Wicklow?)?
Lastly, Edith Mary Ann Halpin and Ada Louise Farran Halpin are both spinsters dying in the 1930s at 3 Cliff Terrace Dun Laoghaire. An Ada Louisa Halpin was born at Govan Lanark Scotland 1874 to Robert Halpin and Jane Wilson (IGI). I am looking for a Robert Halpin, who was born about 1850, probably baptised Villiers. He is said to have married in England (Scotland?) to a woman only known as Mettie, a name I am not familiar with, and to have had children George Alfred Halpin and Maud Halpin.
I hope any of this helps. Bill.
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Somewhat random jottings following my earlier post derived from Raymond's discoveries at the National Archives.
Nannie Caldour Halpin of Seaview House Wicklow, daughter of Dr Stopford William Halpin and Susanna Frances Bestall, died in 1933 at 1 Rathgar Road Dublin. Part of her estate was left to William L B Halpin, mining engineer.
William Law Bestall Halpin born 1871 in the Rathdrum registration district (LDS FamilySearch Pilot Site). The name Bestall definitely ties him, and Nannie, to this family line.
There are many Bestall bdm events registered to Wicklow or Rathdrum. In particular, there are
William Law Bestall, b.c. 1800, d. 1867
William Law Bestall, b.c. 1831, d. 1904
William Law Bestall, m. 1873 Dublin South
William Law Bestall, b. 1877 Gorey
William Law Allen Bestall b. 1880
William Law Henry Bestall, b. 1906
Stopford's wife Susanna could well be a daughter of William Law Bestall born 1831 as she married in 1857.
Captain Robert George Halpin is found in English records dying at Falmouth in 1906, where his age is given as 35 and therefore birth at or before 1871.
More follows on Captain Robert charles Halpin.
Bill
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Captain Robert Charles Halpin of Wicklow.
The following is acknowledged to a website on the family that produced his wife, Jessie Munn: http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/a/n/Richard-J-Cannings/GENE7-0013.html.
It requires 2 pages.
[Jessie Munn] married CAPTAIN ROBERT CHARLES HALPIN October 14, 1873 in Southport, Lancs., England, son of JAMES HALPIN and MARY. He was born February 16, 1836 in Bridge Tavern, Wicklow Town, Ireland, and died 1894 in Tinakilly, Rathnew, Co. Wicklow, Ireland.
Notes for CAPTAIN ROBERT CHARLES HALPIN:
Robert Halpin was captain of the "Great Eastern". The following is extracted from biographical notes on William Thomson, Lord Kelvin:
"Thomson was actually aboard the Great Eastern, the ship which laid the cable. The first officer and key navigator was another Irishman, Robert Halpin from Wicklow Town. Halpin was soon appointed captain of the ship, and went on to earn further distinction for cable laying, earning the nickname "Mr Cable"."
From: http://www.irsa.ie/Resources/Heritage/WThom.html
"Captain Halpin befriended himself with the Dickens family. Even Charles Dickens' nephew was Bestman at Halpin's wedding to Ms. J. Munn."
From: http://www.tinakilly.ie/Pages/inc4.html
The following is from: http://www.tinakilly.ie/Pages/history.html:
The name Halpin is still honoured in Wicklow Town but outside its environs too little is known about his services to telegraphy. Robert Halpin was born in the Bridge Tavern, Wicklow, on February 16th 1836, the youngest of 13 children to James & Mary Halpin. His father, James, was the proprietor of the small tavern (built 1702) and the family were reasonably wealthy. From an early age Robert showed a great fondness for the sea and everything connected with it. He received his early education at a private school on nearby Leitrim Place, possibly that of Ellen White, the Murrough, recorded in Slaters Directory of 1846. Halpin seems to have shown little interest in formal education and, with his imagination fuelled by exciting tales of faraway lands as recounted by mariners in his fathers tavern, he left home at the very early age of 10 for a life at sea. When he joined the brig "Briton" it was engaged in the Cumberland coal trade, it was shipwrecked off Bude in Cornwall in 1851 and many hands were lost but young Halpin managed to scramble ashore.
Undeterred by this early disaster, he was beginning to earn a reputation as a seaman and he joined the crew of the 388 ton barque "Henry Tanner", later the same year the "Henry Tanner" was on the Britain - Australia run and on Halpin's maiden voyage to Australia a strange happening occurred. The docking coincided with the Australian Gold Rush of 1852 and more than half the crew, jumped ship to seek their fortunes in the gold fields. Unable to muster a crew the "Henry Tanner" was forced to remain in port until the enthusiasm of the prospectors wore thin and they returned to their posts.
Halpin then joined the ship "Boomerang" as a third mate. The "Boomerang" also worked on the Liverpool to Melbourne to Kio (Ecuador) run and back to Britain. The returning cargo for the "Boomerang" was "guano", bird -droppings which made wonderful fertiliser and huge profit. This guano was loaded in Kio by free Chinese labour, many of whom lost their sight due to the effects of the lime content of the cargo. They had hoped to earn passage to the U.S.A. but very few achieved their aim.
Promotion followed for Halpin when he transferred to "The Salem" as second mate. He worked on the wool clipper on the Australian run until he made a bold move in 1858 when he transferred from sail to steam. Halpin farsightedly believed that steam was the power of the future and he became first officer in the "Khersonese". When still only 22 years of age he was given command of the "S.S. Propellor" and later joined the "Circassian" both steamships of the Atlantic Royal Company.
In 1858 Robert became involved in a new venture. A new sea route had opened up from Galway to St. Johns Newfoundland which was the quicker and shorter Atlantic crossing. Emigration from Europe to North America was the new "cargo" and was operating on a massive scale from the major emigration ports of Liverpool, Hamburg and Galway. By 1859 the new Galway line was prospering and the darling of the fleet, the "S.S. Argo" was under the command of Robert Halpin aged 24 years. However, disaster struck in August 1859 when in thick fog on the Newfoundland fishing banks, the Argo struck an iceberg and sank. The pride of the fleet was lost and resulting from the subsequent enquiry Halpin lost his masters ticket. Despite the setback, it in no way dampened his enthusiasm for life on the ocean wave and in 1860, the Spanish Government commissioned him to deliver two troop ships, the "Isla de Cuba" and the "Isla de Puerto Rica", to South America.
cont\
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Richard Mathews Halpin was Capt. Robert Charles Halpin's brother - in about 1871 the US government wanted to put the Capt. on trial for blockade running during the American Civil War (he brought supplies to besieged Confederates, and ran Cotton home to Britain), Richard managed to prevent RC from being extradited to the US...at around that time the US was putting tremendous diplomatic pressure on the British to release a US citizen from a British gaol - Gen. William G. Halpin, US Civil War veteran and Fenian insurgent who had conspired to start an Uprising in Dub., Ireland in 1867. The two Halpins were cousins and I believe Capt. RC Halpin was being pursued by the US only as leverage in its efforts to have the General released...remember, Gen. WG Halpin and Charles Grehan Halpin(e) were intent on winning considerable political concessions from the Poms on Ireland's behalf by using the General's trial to put the British government in the dock for its treatment of Ireland and the Irish ("...a free man has a right to declare war on those trying to enslave him..." - that's the sort of thing they intended saying) - now I'll come back to this another time. I raise it here only to put the Captain's troubles into context..the US was virtually saying to the Poms You have our man, we want your's - his cousin - for virtually the same activities...ie., for attempting to aid others to attack the Gov. of the Land, only in the Captain's case he was attacking a democratically elected Gov., whereas the General was attacking a Gov. that had NOT received a mandate to govern from the people of Ireland, but ruled by strength of force...You get the drift. It's all linked.
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Cont\
Captain Robert Charles Halpin
When the American Civil War broke out Halpin saw an opportunity of exercising his adventurous spirit in another way. He ran the Yankee blockades bringing supplies to the Confederates and returning with cotton to Europe. In 1864 he was forced to run his ship aground to evade capture but was detained by Northern Officials. However, as the case against him was unproven he was released.
It was then Robert Halpin began his association with the famous steam ship "The Great Eastern". In his book "The Great Iron Ship", author James Dugan says the first and in some ways the most interesing of the ocean liners was "The Great Eastern", brainchild of the legendary Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It was certainly the new wonder of the world when it was launched at the Isle of Dogs, Kent on January 31st 1858. She was 693 feet in length (over 200 metres) 22,500 tons dead weight and with passenger accommodation for more than 3000 passengers and five times larger than any ship yet built. She had six masts named Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc..., five funnels, 6500 yards of sail, two 58 ft paddle wheels, a 24 ft screw (the biggest ever built before or since) and a coal carrying capacity of 1 5000 tons.
By the time the ship was launched in 1858, the 52 year old Brunel was very ill and had already suffered a stroke which had ended his working life. A disaster during the ships trials when a boiler exploded killing five workers was not told to Brunel who lay paralysed in his bed until five days after its occurrence. The news killed the Little Giant. The ship was dogged by misfortune. By May 1860, after further adventures that included being driven ashore in a gale, "The Great Eastern" was ready for her maiden voyage to the United States. Designed for the much longer Britain to Australia run the ship was to prove entirely uneconomical on the shorter Atlantic route. The great ship actually left Southampton on June 16th, 1860. There were 418 crew on board but only 35 paying passengers one of whom, was carrying an English fighting cock and three hens in wicker cages to a chicken fighter in California. On June 28th the ship docked successfully completing her maiden voyage. Never filled to capacity and losing money hand over fist, the vessel was sold from company to company and in 1857 was chartered by a French syndicate to bring American visitors to the Paris World Exhibition. She attracted only 191 passengers but one of them was Jules Verne who later wrote a book about her called "A Floating City".
cont\
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Cont.
Captain Robert Charles Halpin
In the 1860's there was a great interest in telegraphy - the linking of Europe to America by telegraphic cable. Pioneered by Cyrus Fields all mainland Europe had been connected by telegraphy as had Europe to Britain and Britain to Ireland. A company was formed which took over the task of converting the Great Eastern into a cable layer and Halpin applied for and was given the post of First Engineer. The task facing the company was to lay a submarine cable from Valentia Island, County Kerry to Newfoundland. The cable, all 2600 miles of it was stored in the ship's two tanks and weighed 6000 tons.
One thousand eight hundred and sixty two miles from Valentia the cable broke and the "Great Eastern" had to return to Europe. Rumour has it that the price of shares on the stock exchange hit rock bottom and that Halpin purchased many in hope (or expectancy) of making a killing. In 1866 with Robert at the helm the ship returned to the exact spot and grappled up and repaired the broken cable. In July the "Great Eastern" arrived at Hearts Content, Newfoundland completing the connection between the two continents which has never been interrupted since. Halpin was now a pillar of society despite an enquiry in 1871 into his Civil War escapades which through the assistance of his brother Richard he managed to cloud successfully. Financially he was very well off and by the mid 1870's he had achieved everything there was to do at sea. He even produced a pamphlet called "Good Guidelines for Mariners", which advised against drunkenness and proposed that all seamen should undergo a medical examination prior to departure. The idea was to reduce early shipping disasters which he felt were often due to the after effects of the abuse of alcohol.
In 1876 Tinakilly House was built by Robert Halpin who was now chairman of the Wicklow Gas Company, a member of the Harbour board and a huge influence on the early days of Wicklow Regatta. He was persuaded against his better judgement to become involved with politics. Home Rule was the topic at the time and Halpin stood for the Unionist ticker and genuinely expected to win. The results were a great shock and disappointment to him. The winner was Sweetman who was the Anti-Parnell Home Rule Candidate. Halpin managed to defeat the outgoing Parnellite Home Rule candidate, Corbett.
Some years later in 1894 at the early age of 58, Robert Halpin passed away in Tinakilly House reportedly from gangrene caused by a slight accident which had occurred while cutting his toe-nails. Buried in the Church of Ireland graveyard on Church Hill, a debate soon arose as to how he should be commemorated in his home town. Eventually a tall granite obelisk was erected on a plot of land donated by Lord Fitzwilliam and since called Fitzwilliam Square. "Civi Emerito Civitas Genitrix" (meaning "The state is mother to the worthy citizen) is written on the monument. In Halpin's case it was.
Concluded
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Bloody hell, Bill. We must be reading from the same hymn sheet - no wonder, 'cause it's all music to my ears.
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Ray
I was going to speculate that Richard Mathews Halpin, whose dates fit, could be the brother who managed to cloud difficulties in an inquiry into Robert's US Civil War escapades but (1) are you sure that Richard Mathews was Captain Robert's brother (Robert was the youngest of 13 children so there was room for many siblings), and (2) how did Richard manage this, what was his standing, was he a diplomat, or a lawyer, or well connected, ....?
Richard Mathews Halpin was about 10 years Captain Robert's senior, 2 years younger than Dr Stopford William Halpin.
And earlier in the life of Captain Robert is reference to: "The first officer and key navigator was another Irishman, Robert Halpin from Wicklow Town." Presumably this is the 'relation' whom Captian Robert wanted aboard because of his suspicions of sabotage.
It is too early for this to be the Captain Robert George Halpin who died at Falmouth in 1906 aged 35.
We have a surfeit of Robert Halpins from Wicklow, just like in my Halpin line we have a surfeit of George Halpins.
I just thought to do a check on these boys' mother's name, Halbert. Their father was James Halpin of the Bridge Tavern, also and/or later known as Halpin's, and mother Ann Halbert.
At the LDS FamilySearch Pilot Site we find:
George Halbert Halpin, deaths Rathdrum 4th qtr 1887 aged 66, estimated birth year 1821.
This surely has to be a son older than Stopford, perhaps their first. And, from my point of view trying to find a connection of my George's back to Wicklow, here is the name George. Was his father James Halpin a nephew or similar to my antecedent George Halpin, born (somewhere) about 1779?
When was Nicholas John born?
Sorry all for my ramblings. I hope you can make some sense of it.
Bill
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From the LDS FamilySearch Pilot Site:
Robert Halpin, died Rathdrum Wicklow 1883, calculated birth year 1816.
Robert George Halpin, born do., 1869
Robert George Halpin, born do., 1907
Robert Halpin, married Rathdown dist. Wicklow or Dublin, 1867
Frances Elizabeth Gilbert Halpin, born Rathdrum Wicklow, 1890
Richard Stopford Gilbert Halpin, born Rathdrum dist Wicklow, 1889
Richard "Stafford" Gilbert Halpin, marriage Rathdown dist. of Wicklow or Dublin, 1914
Aileen Grace Gilbert Halpin, born do., 1887
Stopford Richard Arthur Halpin, born do., 1895
William Law Bestall Halpin, born do., 1871
Bill.
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Bill, Your line of thinking makes a lot of sense , Somewhere in my past research I recall a list of people who served on the Great Eastern and I think there was at least 3 Halpins. The sabotage fears were at the cable laying section of the ship, I think they actually isolated this section with the modern equivalent of a security fence and recorded the people working in the enclosure and their times.
Kind regards
Kim
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Captain Robert George Halpin was called to give evidence in a trial at the Old Bailey in 1906. It concerned possible theft aboard an "auxilliary steam packet" The Pandora. Halpin's testimony was brief:
ROBERT GEORGE HALPIN . I am a master mariner and up to October last I was captain of the Eastern Telegraph Co's. cable ship Britannia, and am now at home on sick leave in Ireland—in May, 1905, the ship was at Sierra Leone when the Pandora came into port there—I saw Mr. Kerry, who offered to sell me some provisions—I sent my chief steward to the yacht, who brought back some provisions and some tools—I saw a couple of small hatchets and a kind of draw knife, like a spokes have and a fretwork saw frame—all the tools were in a good condition and not rusty—one of them was wrapped up in brown paper, others had no wrappers on them—I believe the name of Marples was on the brown paper.
Cross-examined. Steel instruments soon rust from exposure to salt water.
Re-examined. If things are oiled and then put in tissue paper and brown paper they are less likely to rust.
Halpin died this same year at Falmouth.
Richard James Augustus Halpin, engineer, died at Sierra Leone 9 years later, in 1915. He and Captain Robert George Halpin were contemporaries, born 1867 and 1869 respectively, but were they cousins? Richard, son of Richard Mathews Halpin, lived at Leitrim Lodge, Bachelors Walk, Wicklow, and Robert George's likely brother, Dr James Henry Halpin lived at 1 Wentworth Place, Wicklow, so they would, at the very least, have grown up together.
Could Robert George's father have been another son of James Halpin/Ann Halbert of the Bridge Tavern?
How much of the local Church of Ireland records survive?
Bill.
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Hi,
To answer some of your questions
Jessie wd. 1912 was the widow of Capt Robert of Great Eastern fame.
Seaview Road, is only a fairly new road. Seaview House, was situated at the
bottom of Church Hill, just below the Church of Ireland and Graveyard.
I will try to send you a small section of this Ordanance Survey Sheet, hope it works. O.Survey Sheet no xxv 2. Surveyed 1895
See excavations.ie.
County List: County Wicklow Site List.
Wicklow. 1997:620
Wentworth House, Church street/Wentworth Place
T313940: 97EO118.
I have already sent on details of c 1901 of no 2 Wentworth Place for James Henry Halpin, after reading you wounderful information I now reliase The family living at b3 next door was the Herbert Family.
Maeve
c 1901 of no 2 Wentworth Place 62/63
Private Dwelling. 5 out offies = stable, coach house, harness rood, fowl house and 1 store. All family Church of Ireland, all could read & write.
1. William H. Herbert, head, age 61 yr. Lt. Col. of Infantry, Retired List, born Cork
2 Mary S Herbert, wife, age 65 yrs born Dublin
3 Kate O Herbert, sister age 53 yrs occ = nil, single, born Cork
& 3 servants, 1 Cook, domestic servant, 2 Parlour Maid, dom serv. both born Wicklow & 3 Groom & Gardiner, domestic servant, born Co Dublin.
I know there were 13 Halpin children. Here are the names of 9 of Capt. Roberts sisters & brothers , not in correct order.
George, Eaton, James, Thomas, Stopford, Louisa, Ann, Robert, was the youngest he was born 16th February 1836 and died 20th January 1894.
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Nannie Caldow (?) Halpin, 2nd daughter of the late Dr. Stopford W. Halpin of Arklow, died 148 Rathgar Road, December 19, 1933.
Nicholas John Halpin was born in Portarlington, Queens Co. (Laois), in 1790. If you flick back to pages 2 or 3 of this forum you will find a complete family tree (in two parts) detailing all of the essentials about the NJ Halpin branch of the broader Halpin family tree. John Halpin (school teacher) -> William Henry Halpin
|
|----> NJ Halpin - WH Halpin - Charles Halpin
|
|-> Charles Grehan Halpin(e)
According to the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, John Halpen Esq. (that's 'Halpin' - the name was spelt both ways at the time) was paid £1 2s 9d for an annual or one-year governorship of the Queen's County Infirmiry.
John Edmond Halpen, engraver, bookbinder, publisher and bookseller, married Rebecca Woodriff at St. Marylebone on 29th July 1794. John had been sent to London by his father, Patrick (Paget - also a Dublin engraver), to study. He was also encouraged by Charles Macklin to 'indulge his desire to appear on stage'...he took CM's advice and promptly made a fool of himself. I've read a few of the reviews - they were not kind to him. I believe he tried the stage a few times more before settling down in Dublin again, as a publisher of pamphlets, a bookseller and engraver. Bill, you may recall something CARA drew our attention to some time ago - a marriage notice in the Hibernian - the exact date slips my mind, but it's posted above. I said at the time that CARA's discovery of the notice was important, because it described John Halpen as a bookseller, and that he had married a Ms Sweetenham (is that right? note sp?) in Queens County. I think this was his second marriage, his first being to Rebecca. See The Times, Tuesday, Feb. 14 1797 for an account of the incident I mentioned to you before - him being hauled before Gratton's Parliament to account for a pamphlet he had published for private circulation, in which a prominant Tory politician was supposedly libelled. His nephews (I believe they were his nephews) NJ Halpin and WH Halpin were to become libellous journalists in their own right, with William Henry doing jail time for it in 1829.
At this time (1797 - 1805) there was a good deal of unrest in Ireland, and the British campaign to quell the disturbances cost 30,000 Irish lives. William and James Halpin, who were distillers in Dublin and in partnership with a chap called Hannen, were heavily involved in the nationalist movement and, according to the report of a spy, about as untrustworthy (ie Anti-English) as they come, which makes me very proud of them. They used their business premises in Petticoat Lane, Dublin, which was close to Kilmainham jail, as a base for an attempt to bust Robert Emmett out of prison. The plan failed, Emmett was hung (but not before delivering perhaps the greatest ever speech from the dock by a condemned man in defence of the oppressed's right to wage war on their oppressors) and the Halpin brothers fled. I was told about a 'French connection' when I was a boy, and I recently came across a list of prisoners held in France at the time (on behalf of the English, I think, which sounds very strange), which included the Halpin name. But it's impossible to know for sure if the French captive is one of the fleeing Halpin brothers. What happened next isn't clear, but the James Halpin, Bridge Inn Tavern owner in Wicklow, was - according to my great grandfather Edwin (James's grandnephew) - either the James Halpin Dublin distiller described above, or his son...no one in my family knows which. James was anxious to maintain family ties with all of the separate family branches, and to illustrate those connections - at least along the male line - through his sons' names...this was not an unusual practice at all in those days. One of the reasons I came on to RootsChat was to try to have the family lore corroborated or corrected, and I'd really like to hear from anyone who might help in this regard.
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I came across some wills in the National Archives in Dublin, but at the time I only jotted down a few sketchy notes, however I'm pretty confident of the Richard M. - Cptn. Robert C. data...they were brothers. Richard describes himself as a 'gentleman', which indicates that he was of independant means, but in practice I think he was a solicitor: Halpin, Richard M., (gentleman), Leitrim Lodge Bachelor's Walk, Wicklow - Wife Sarah - 3 daughters Fanny, Sara and Louisa. Son Richard. His brother Robert C Halpin of Tinnakilly House...and his nephew of Main St. Wicklow, Dr. James H. Halpin.
Sara Halpin (spinster) Leitrim Lodge...d. 3rd April 1915...leaves all to sisters. Appoints Frances and Louisa as executors, signed in the presence of Kate Newsom and Aileen Halpin.
Halpin, Richard Frederick Bestall - Physician/surgeon, Arklow Co. Wicklow...d. 19th Oct. 1903, estate granted to Susanna Frances Halpin of Stokerville, Dalkey Co. Dublin (widow), lawful guardian of Aileen Grace Gilbert Halpin 16 yrs, Stopford Richard Gilbert Halpin 15 yrs, Frances Elisabeth Gilbert Halpin 13 yrs.
Halpin, Richard JA (Marine Engineer) Leitrim Lodge...d. 29th June 1915. Administration of estate Frances Margaret Halpin, Spinster, sister of deceased. Executors, his sisters Frances and Sarah. Witnesses Francis B Gregg, MD, and William Newbold, Chemist.
Halpin, Frances E, Reenmore Arklow, wife of Richard EB Halpin (MD), appoints her father John Gilbert, her cousin the Rev. Thomas White Manning, sister-in-law Nannie Caldo(?) Halpin and sister Sidney Tomasina Gilbert. Witnesses Rose Undrell (?) and Polly Gilbert....17th July 1897 Frances dies at Beaumont, Terenure Road, Dublin.
Margaret Frances G Halpin, died 6th June 1925 at 113 Chord Road, Drogheda.
Samuel Halpin, died 7th January 1918 at 113 Chord Road, Drogheda - note: Samuel was my Greatgrandfather's brother. In about 1921 a Drogheda alderman by the name of Halpin, including a young Clontarf man by the name of Halpin, were executed by persons unknown for reasons unknown - the young man (along with his friend) was shot dead as he sat on the sea wall only yards away from the public baths I told you about, Bill - the now disused baths that I thought were called "Halpin's Pool". At any rate, both men were shot because of William Halpin's H-squad activities in the North Strand...it was retaliation, but not necessarily by the Black and Tans. This, at least, is how it was explained to us. Till this day I don't think those families know why their relatives were murdered. It was a terrible time - few historians dwell on it.
As for the George Halpin, MD, of Wicklow - he worked in Wicklow all his life and, along with Robert Wellington Halpin and Stopford Halpin, was at times a Town Commissioner or involved with the Harbour Board. I'm not 100%, but I believe he was Stopford's brother - I'll hunt down his obit.
Halpin, Stopford John, 4th son of the late Dr. and Mrs. Stopford W. Halpin, Arklow, d. Jan 22 1944 in a Nursing Home, Vancouver, B.C. - Irish Times, Thurs. 10 Feb. 1944.
George W. Halpin, d. 5th July 1922 at Buenos Aires, son of late R C Halpin, Chaplain to the forces, aged 73. (Don't say a word, Bill - you neither, Kim).
I have often wondered if this is Edwin's brother, Robert - any help would be appreciated:
Alderman Robert Halpin of coventry, who died on Aug. 14 aged 80 (?), left unsettled estate of the gross value of £114, 247 , with net personalty £74,073.
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Thank you MrFlannery for the location help for Wicklow and the list of children of James Halpin and Ann Halbert of the Bridge Inn. Is this list one that has come from some source or has it come together with time, as we are trying to do?
I refer back to a posting by Raymond on May 13 quoting from the Irish Times about a meeting at Enniskerry in November 1877, from which I extract:
"Opposite the National School the party met two well known local gentlemen, one of whom was Captain Halpin (a brother of the celebrated commander of the Great Eastern), and the other Mr Byrne, one of Lord Powerscourt's tenantry, and a gentleman somewhat largely engaged in farming pursuits. With both the ex-Premier, on being introduced by Lord Powerscourt, warmly shook hands and entered into conversation, principally on the subject of agriculture, to which it may be mentioned Captain Halpin now also devotes his attention."
Who do we think this Captain Halpin was?
Also, we have Dr James Henry Halpin, 1861 - 1916, who lived at 1 Wentworth Place and who evidence points to being the brother of Captain Robert George Halpin, 1869 - 1906. Would these be the sons of one of the sons of James Halpin of the Bridge Inn and therefore nephews of Captain Robert C Halpin?
Bill.
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Reply to raymondcecilmark re Halpin/Halpen of Dublin & Queens County.
Just 2 points- Patrick H., engraver was active abt 1755-1787. He could not be the same as Paget, engraver of 32 Mecklenburg St, who mar. Margt Delane in 1794.
Do you mean that Paget is a diminutive of Patrick ? It is more likely that Paget was the son of Mark Halpen & Mary Paget, mar. abt 1740 Patrick could have been Paget’s uncle. Patrick had a son John b.1764 who was a painter of miniatures. Was he also the bookseller & stationer of 19 Sackville St. in 1801 ?
Was it the same John who mar. Mrs Swettenham in 1800? She was 45-55 yrs, so I guess he was also quite mature. She was Elizabeth, dau. of Wm Toone, skinner, of Finglas, & Mary Sweney. She mar. Alderman Kilner Swettenham in 1780, the same year that he became Lord Mayor of Dublin. She was a 1st cousin of Eugene Sweny who married Elizbth Halpen, dau of Mark & Mary Paget in 1777.
Regards to all,
Ken Cooke
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Re: assault by Mark Halpen, Old Bailey 1734 (see my post- top of page 6)
Sir Thomas Lawley, 3rd Baronet, of Spoonhill,Shropshire, married his second lady, Mrs Elizabeth Perkins, widow (who, surviving him, mar. Mr. Halfpen) by whom he had issue, one son, George Bateman Lawley, Esq. who mar. June 1738, Mary, dau of ? Tomlinson of Westminster, Esq.
Sir Thomas died 31.12.1729-30, aged near 80 (and his second lady 28 Jan 1739-40) and was succeeded by his only son by the first marriage, Sir Robert Lawley, the present (4 th) baronet,
(The English Baronetage by Arthur Collins, 1741).
Lady Elizabeth, previously Mrs Perkins was the niece of Mr John Bateman, Doctor in Physic, of St Andrew, Holborn, who died 17.9.1728 and left his estate to his niece. (Was her name Bateman ?) Sir Robert was executor of his father’s will, while his half-brother George was Lady Lawley’s. It seems they contrived to keep Halpen out of things or perhaps he exceeded his authority to gain more than his due. In any case, payment to him was stopped by the court.
From legal documents: Reciting also deed of 30 April 1736
(iia) Mark Halpen (iib) Lady Lawley, his wife (iic) Christopher Denton John Glass
By a decree pronounced in the Exchequer on 18 November 1733 in 2 causes, it was ordered that (iia) should execute proper conveyances to trustees to be named by (iib) of all her real estates and should assign her personal estate to them in trust for her separate use now (iia) assigned to (iic)
LDS familysearch:Mark Halpenn mar. 22.2.1730 Eliz Lawley at Somerset House Westminster
There is no other entry in England for a Mark Halpen/Halpin and very few in Ireland.
He seems to be the same Mark Halpen who was convicted at the Old Bailey of assaulting one of the Exchequer clerks, and we know that he was Irish. He must have married Mary Paget when he returned to Ireland.
Ken Cooke
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Ray, at your very good prompting, I am going right back to the beginning of this Rootschat thread. I may post here any number of random thoughts so be prepared for some scattiness. I am concentrating on the Wicklow Halpins and any slight possibility of connections to others.
You state that Robert Wellington Halpin was a first cousin of Captain Robert Charles Halpin. That implies his father was a brother of James Halpin of the Bridge Tavern, Wicklow. That is where we need to concentrate. Have you inspected, could you inspect, the Wicklow parish registers? I think that is the only way to get pre 1800 documentary information. Gravestones would be the next best source but so few are legible after 200 years.
When you refer (9th March) to Edwin being closer to Captain Robert C's brother, Dr Stopford Halpin and that Stopford had trained under his UNCLE Charles at Cavan, that by definition makes Dr Charles Halpin of Cavan also a brother of James of the Bridge Inn, Wicklow (unless the term ‘uncle’ was used as an honorarium).
Could Dr Charles Halpin of Cavan be the progenitor of the Halpins, solicitors of Ford Lodge? I see that you later (Page 4) show them coming from a son of young Nicholas John of the Customs House. Why Cavan? NJ came from Portarlington and Dublin.
And here (9th march) you state that Dr Charles Halpin (of Cavan) was ambivalent about the political stridency of his own brother, Rev Nicholas John Halpin. So, in one sweep, by this expression we now add Rev Nicholas John as another brother of James of the Bridge Tavern, Wicklow and an uncle of the Wicklow Halpins.
I don’t think this is what you believe but it is what the various quotes imply.
How am I going? And I have only got to the first page!
But you elsewhere put Rev Nicholas John as the son of William Henry Halpin of Portarlington, which, from this set of logic, makes William Henry the father of all the above men. Have I made any mistake? In your family tree of William Henry, you only ascribe Charles and Nicholas John, from the above men, as children of William Henry.
Next, from LH, there is mention of Dr Halpin, long time hon sec of the Arklow Lifeboat Station dying in March 1895. Who was this? Dr Stopford William Halpin of Arklow had died on 27 February 1885. Dr George Halbert Halpin died in 1887, Dr James Henry Halpin dies in 1916 and Dr Richard FB Halpin in 1903.
From Page 2, you quote the address of Dr Charles Halpin of Cavan to the Royal Academy of Science in which he quotes an antiquarian discovery in Cavan by "my brother, the Rev Nicholas John Halpin". So that connection at least seems confirmed (unless he meant something like 'my brother in science"!).
Page 4. Who was the young Henry G Halpin, son of Captain Richard Halpin (?), who was knocked overboard at sea in December 1882 aged 19?
From J M Flannery's terrific contribution:
Eliza Halpin, widow aged 70 (born c 1831 Co Carlow) in the 1901 Census at b1 Wentworth Place, Wicklow, daughter Ida I Halpin age 36 single was the widow of Dr George H Halpin and mother of Dr J H Halpin and of Captain R G Halpin, aunt of Dr Richard Halpin, Arklow. This makes her the wife of Dr George Halbert Halpin, and they lived next door at Wentworth Place to her son Dr James Henry Halpin
Who was Captain Thomas J Halpin, died June 1878 aged 54 at Monastery House Enniskerry, Wicklow? Was this the son Thomas of James Halpin of the Bridge Tavern, brother of Capt Robert C Halpin? His calculated birth year of 1824 puts him amongst the other children of James. This must be the Captain Halpin at Enniskerry from the Irish Times 1877 extract.
Eaton Halpin, another son of James advised by J M Flannery - an Eaton Cotter Halpin marries in 1852 in the Rathdrum registration district and a James Eaton Halpin marries in 1891 in the Rathdown registration district.
Finally for now, of the 13 children said to have been in this family, we have names for 10. Of those 10, I have still have 2 males and 2 daughters with no information – Charles, James, Louisa and Ann.
You would have to say that this family did excel, comprising of doctors, ships captains, perhaps a lawyer.
Bill
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I want to try to attach a tree chart that distils the accumulated information about the Wicklow Halpins that I wrote of yesterday. I have not done this before so no guarantees that it will come across well.
All this chart does is reflect known and assumed information to date and is ever subject to correction and hopefully addition.
It would be ideal to find out more about the progenitor of this lot, James Halpin, and, as I have said, the best hope for this may lie in church records or graveyards.
Bill
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To Kenneth C.
I spent 4 hours responding to your postings, Kenneth - I'm a very slow typist - and had answered all of your questions brilliantly, if you don't mind my saying, and began posting that material when the web page vanished, citing all sorts of unintelligible reasons for doing so. I didn't panic. I said: Don't panic, Ray. Just hit Refresh. So I hit Refresh, and the thing I expected to happen didn't happen. Courage, Ray, I said, it's simply a matter of hitting that little button with the arrow on it at top left-hand corner of the page. So I hit that little button with the arrow on it, and nothing happened. Something like panic began to grip me then, I'll admit to that. I set about hitting everything I could on the keyboard - I mean I HAMMERED the thing - still no luck...I called a mate of mine - a computer expert who works in the Financial Centre in town. He said "Don't panic, that's the first thing to do. Now tell me what happened." So I told him. He listened carefully. He took notes. He thought about it a bit and said "Your stuffed. You've lost the lot. Why didn't you knock it up as a Word document?" I won't tell you what I said then, Kenneth - it wouldn't get past the Moderator. Let's just say he won't be talking to me for a while.
Honestly mate, I'm gutted I lost the lot. It really was good stuff. I'll have to sleep on it tonight and when I get up tomorrow I'll attempt to do it all over again...but it won't be the same. Trust me, it won't be anything like as good.
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Early in the piece, Raymond posted the following family tree:
Re: Halpin family of Wicklow - Link
« Reply #9 on: Tuesday 24 March 09 14:34 GMT (UK) »
________________________________________
Lineage - Nicholas Halpin, living 1809, m. Anne du Bois - they had one daughter, Susanna, and an only (?) son -
William Henry Halpin, of Portarlington, m. Jan. 1787, Marianne Crosthwaite, and together they had -
1. Nicholas John (Rev., Ed. of Dublin Evening Mail).
2. William Henry (Ed. Cheltenham Mail).
3. Frederick, m. 1844, Maria House, together they had -
a. William Henry.
b. Arthur Neville.
c. Walter Charles.
d. Frederick Webster.
e. Herbert Beauchamp.
f. Emma Hariette (my greatgrandfather Edwin's 'aunt Emma').
g. Maria Lizzie, m. Cptn. George Bampfield.
h. Jane Keville.
i. Edith Marianne.
j. Ada Louise.
k. Kathleen Martha.
4. Victor, educ. Trin. Coll. Dublin (matric. 1 Oct. 1810, aged 19).
5. Charles, of Farnham Street, Cavan, MD., MRCS (Eng. 1830), LKQCP (Ireland, 1843), LM (Dublin, 1831), LRCSI (1834), LSA (Ireland, 1854), b. 1800, m. 28 Sept. 1836, Esther, dau of Rev. Joseph Druitt, Vicar of Denn, Co. Cavan, and d. 1859, leaving -
a. Druid (Druitt), Civil Engineer at Colchester.
b. Judith, m. - von Hoiken.
c. Mary, m. - Herring.
d. Esther, m. Col Harmann von Koppelow.
6. Marianne, b. 1785; d, unm. 1858.
Noting the 2nd and 3rd last children of Frederick, son of William Henry and Marianne Halpin, there are Ada and Edith, and found in the National Archives probate:
Edith Mary Ann (Marianne?) Halpin - 14th Jan., - Late of Cliff Tce., Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Spinster, d. 27 Aug., 1935 Granted at Dublin to Ada L F Halpin, Spinster £275 2s 5d.
Ada Louise Farran Halpin - 3rd April - Late of Cliff Tce., Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Spinster, d. 10 Jan 1939. Granted to Henry R Maunsell, solicitor, £2318 6s 6d.
(As an aside, in virtually every Victorian family I have researched, there have been large families and lots of unmarried children, especially women but frequently men. Were they too protected?)
Bill.
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Ray, I have "lost" lots of bits in dealing with RootsChat (but not 4 hours' worth) and I have to concur in compiling in Word and pasting to your RootsChat reply. Even if I do a short contribution, I have learned to Select and Copy my piece before I hit any buttons and it is there to paste back in if your work disappears.
Sorry for the belated sage advice. You have my very wholehearted appreciation of your guttedness.
Bill.
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To J M Farrell
I particularly wish to thank you for your professed amateur genealogy. We are all amateurs and merely do our best. Without your contributions over the last while, I would have had no chance of connecting up the various Halpins in Wicklow.
You mention two men, Mr Jim Rees, local historian and author, and D Burns of the heritage offices for Wicklow Co Co.
May I respectfully suggest that it could be good for all our recent amateur contributions to this site be run past these gentlemen for comment and suggestions (if they are not already watching). Would that be possible? Without that, we may never know what corrections need to be made or what extra bits of information could be added.
Thanks and regards
Bill.
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To Raymond
Thanks for the attempt. I know how you feel. I did the same then I got wise and now I do everything in Word first.
Have a nice cup of tea, or whatever does the trick, and try again when you feel like it.
I look forward to getting it in due course.
Regards,
Kenneth
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Hi to all Halpin researches out there I hope this information will be a little help. I will be sending you on some more on Capt. Robert C. later. The following was taken from newspaper cuttings, I was given after the death of the last Miss Halpin in a Wicklow nursing home. The newspapers name is not mentioned, however it has the date January 1894 written on it in handwriting. I would think it came from The Wicklow Newsletter, printed by the McPhail Printers in Wicklow Town.
“New Deputy Lieutenant.
Captain Robert C Halpin of Tinakelly House, Wicklow, has been, by a commission dated the 1st November, 1892, under the hand and seal of the Right Hon. The Earl of Carysford, the Lieutenant of the County of Wicklow, appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the said county”.
Death of Captain Halpin. Funeral at Wicklow
“Captain Robert Charles Halpin, R.N.R., J.P.,, D.L., died at his residence, Tinakelly, at 10.10 a.m.. on Saturday. The 20th inst., in the 58th year of his age…..
…..The chief mourners were – Dr. J. H. Halpin, Wicklow; Dr. Richard Halpin, Arklow; Mr Robert Halpin; Mr Richard Halpin, Wicklow; Mr James Halpin, Mr. S. Halpin, Mr William Halpin, (all nephews); Mr. W H H Kennedy (brother-in-law), Mr William Halpin, Mr E H Dickens, Mr R Kennedy, Mr G Newsom, V.S. ; Mr W Gregg, Mr F B Gregg. …..
Appointment of Medical Officer
“On Saturday last the Wicklow Dispensary Committee met at the Dispensary for the purpose of electing a properly-qualified Medical Officer for the district in the room of Dr. George H. Halpin, resigned. The advertised remuneration was £100 per annum, as Medical Officer and £10 as Medical Officer of Health, together with the usual Vaccination and Registration Fees; the salary named to cover all fees &c., under the Labourers Acts. …
There were two candidates for the office – namely, Dr. James Halpin son of the retired Officer and Dr. Edward J. Goode, of Rathgar, Dublin. ...Dr. Halpin was informed that he had been unanimously chosen, and he briefly returned thanks…
Naval – Dr. James H. Halpin of Wicklow, was appointed on Saturday last by the Admiralty as surgeon and agent at Wicklow”.
February 5th 1887 again taken from a newspaper cutting:
Julia
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Part 2:
Captain Robert C. Halpin Candidature, for election
… “at various periods in his service at sea he was presented with handsome and valuable testimonials. The Board of Underwriters in New York bestowed on him a gold watch and chain and a purse of sovereigns; the passengers of the s.s. “Circassian,” a silver speaking trumpet and a purse of sovereigns; the passengers of the s.s. “Argos,” in 1859, gave him a silver goblet and a purse of sovereigns; and in 1866 he was made a recipient of a second gold watch by the Anglo American Telegraph Company for the work he performed in the laying of the Atlantic Cables. A few years subsequently the Emperor of the French desired to adorn him with the Order of the Legion of Honour, but in accordance with the lay existing in this country he could not accept it. In 1874 however, the Emperor of Brazil presented him with the Order of the Rose; and in the same year the Captains, Officers, and Engineers of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company entertained him at a banquet, and presented him with a handsome or ornate piece of plate.
The Governor of Bombay, the Governor-General of the Netherlands (India), The Governor of Newfoundland, the Chambers of Commerce of Liverpool, New York, Bombay, Pernambuco, &c., have entertained him in recognition of his great qualities. In 1876 he was appointed a Nautical Assessor in the High Court of Judicature and a member of the Local Marine Board of the Port of London. He is also a Commander of the Royal Naval Reserve. This is but a very cursory sketch of Captain’s eventful career, but it enables the electors of East Wicklow to know, at all events, that he is a man who, by education and experience, is well adapted to represent a constituency whose future development must largely depend upon its maritime resources.”
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‘Give the Helm to Halpin!
Ye hardy tars of Wicklow, who toil for homes and wives,
A brother is amongst you now, and for you good he strives;
You know that you can trust him – You know that he is true;
Then give the Helm to Halpin, and let him steer you through.
Once wreck and dire disaster befell Old Arklow town,
And midst the surging floods and hulks, nigh half the fleet went down;
In the dark hour of trouble, What did the fishers do?
They gave the Helm to Halpin, and he nobly steered them through.
In Halpin there’s no humbug; in Halpin there’s no boast;
But proud he’d be to represent his native town and coast;
He only seeks to help you-To fight and win for you;
Then give the Helm to Halpin, And he will steer you through!
Published by John Kelly Toomey, Solicitor.
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James & Ann Halpin's children, The Bridge Tavern, Brige street, Wicklow Town, which is getting a new 'face lift' at the present time. There is a Halpin walk in Wicklow starting at this Inn, with placqes on the various stops.
“James Halpin of Bridge Hotel married Anne Halbert; James was almost 40 and she only 17 yrs when they married in the parish church, The Church of the Vineyard (correct name for St. Thomas Church of Ireland on 1st April 1814. by 1834 they had 12 children, two of which, Sidney Anne and John James died in infancy. In 1835 five year old Robert also died. This left Eliza aged 19, Eaton 17, George 15, Thomas
13, William 12, Richard 10, Anne 7, John 3, and Louisa who was just 1 yr old. It will be noticed that James & Anne observed the custom of the time of naming children after brothers or sisters who had died.
John James died 1830 & when another boy was born 1832 he was also named John, being christened John Augustus. It followed that when Robert died the next born son should be called after him. On 16th February 1836 Anne Halpin gave birth to the last of their 13 children, Robert Charles. Curiously, when he was baptised seven weeks later his name was registered as Charles Robert. Ref. Church of Ireland Parish records”.
Extract p. 13,14 from The Life of Captain Robert Halpin, by Jim Rees, Published by Dee-Jay Publications, (Arklow, Co Wicklow) 1st published 1992, Reprinted 1994,200. This revision 2009.
ISBN 0 9519239 0 0.
Halpin Papers, Maritime Institute of Ireland
Julia
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Thank you Julia (J M Flannery). I don't usually clutter a site with a message of thanks but in this case I want to do so in the sense that your latest information may help to widen the Halpin view. And, through you, we should thank Mr Jim Rees (assuming that he is not watching this thread himself).
Your information that James Halpin of the Bridge Hotel was almost 40 at his marriage on 1st April 1814 now gives us an indicated birth year of 1774. (As an aside, many of the men in this family seem to have been so industrious, at sea, in medical studies, away in England or in other exploits that they typically married late.)
As you so rightly say, names, and naming conventions, are to be taken seriously in family research. And it can't be forgotten that there are two parties to a marriage.
So, the first child is Eliza, to be noted. The next child, Eaton, gets a most singular name, and I have noted that there is a marriage in the registration district of Rathdrum in 1852 of an Eaton Cotter Halpin, surely this man aged about 33. For the next eldest child George Halbert, perhaps both names are a tribute to Anne Halbert’s family but possibly, and I would like to think so, the tribute is shared and George is an acknowledgement of a person or persons in James Halpin's family.
As has been stated earlier, my antecedents were a line of George Halpins from Dublin. The eldest that we know of currently was known as George Halpin, Senior, calculated birth year from his age given at death 1779. So he was born within 5 years of James Halpin, born 1774.
At present we can speculate but we do not know the parents of either but it is possible (to be hoped?) that they were brothers or first cousins. It is certainly family lore (to borrow Raymond’s term), as evidenced in these messages by Kim Mettam, that Captain Robert Halpin and others from this Wicklow family were relations, presumably cousins of our George Halpin.
Thanks and regards
Bill
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Following Julia's valuable additional information, I have amended the tree chart that I supplied a day or two ago. I have had to make some assumptions that may not be correct. (1) That Eaton is Eaton Cotter. (2) That Thomas is Thomas J(ohn?). (3) That William is Stopford William. (4) That Richard is Richard Mathews. The birth years of some of the deceased children has been estimated or guessed.
From the wording of Julia's quote from Jim Rees, I have assumed that the ages of the children given was in 1834 and I have worked from that. These dates more often than not disagreed with dates calculated from age given at death, which usually put birth dates one or more years later (not uncommon).
I don't know if our Moderator might wish to delete my earlier chart to save space.
Bill
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For what it's worth, I have found the following:
Queen's County betw 25.3.1810 & 18.9.1810- John Halpin of Woodville took out a certificate (?licence) for killing game.
Co. Cavan newspaper extracts 1849- Birth, 19 Nov 1849, the lady of N. John
Halpin Esq of a daughter, at Russell Place Dublin.
Pigot's Dir. of IRL 1824, Limerick- Patk Halpin, Spirit & Porter Dealer & Publican
Upper William St.
Ken Cooke
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In view of information that Captain Robert Halpin had as his eldest brother Eaton Halpin, born c. 1817, it is probably relevant to note from the Wicklow Parish Church home page:
The Tower with its copper cupola was constructed by the Eaton family in 1777. The family crest of a lion carrying a sheaf of straw acts as a weather vane and there is also a lion depicted on the outside of the tower. The idea of removing the cupola and replacing it with a spire was discussed in the late nineteenth century, but this idea was never carried out. Instead, much needed repair work was carried out with the financial aid of the Halpin family. (My underlining.) [http://www.wicklow.glendalough.anglican.org/index_files/Page350.htm]
Bill
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THE DEATH OF DR. GEORGE HALBERT HALPIN, TUESDAY 21ST JUNE 1887.
Dr. George Halpin’s death was announced in The Wicklow-Newsletter on Saturday, June 25th 1887, alongside an editorial on Queen Victoria’s visit to Ireland:
“Never in the history of any nation has there occurred a demonstration so intensely enthusiastic and so thoroughly universal as that which on Tuesday testified the undivided loyalty and abiding affection of Queen Victoria’s subjects to the person of her Royal and Imperial Majesty. Despite the efforts of some discordant elements, notably the Irish Parliamentary party, to throw into the proceedings a spirit of strife, the loyalty of the majority of the men and women of Great Britain and Ireland was contagious; petty party feuds were forgotten in the general rejoicing, and such a universal wave of gratitude and affection, which had been gathering during fifty years of unswerving devotion to duty, and undeviating regard for her people’s well being, broke over the whole of the British dominions as will serve to re-establish and confirm the people in that love for their monarchical institutions that has hitherto preserved them from those internal conflicts which have wrought disaster in other countries...”
My great great grandfather, Robert Wellington Halpin, Wicklow Town Clerk and Post-Master, was a personal friend of William McPhail, the editor of the Wicklow News-Letter, and both men were no doubt of a similar frame of mind when it came to loyalty to the Crown. Yet they also considered themselves to be Irishmen, but part of a privileged class of Irishmen charged with the responsibility of maintaining administrative and social control over a people who were believed unfit to rule themselves. Their position within the local community gave them tremendous material and social advantages over other people – Edwin (my great grandfather), for example, spent time as a guest at Powerscourt, mostly playing on the grounds with friends, I believe, while his father went about the Town’s business. Mail, and so forth, had sometimes to be delivered to the outlying districts. That too was an occasion for Edwin, who’d often ride out with a man hired by the Post-Master for that purpose. This kind of thing tended to occur in the summer, and my great grandfather got to know a few of those cottagers who were later forcibly evicted from their homes by landlords. Those awful events enraged Edwin, but they also appalled his father, Robert, who nevertheless defended what he knew to be indefensible out of loyalty to his own and a fear of the Catholic unrest that signs of division within the Protestant community might lead to. Displays of this kind of hypocrisy maddened Edwin, and by the time of Queen Victoria’s visit he numbered among the “discordant elements” mentioned above. When it came to mail, though, more often than not people came into Wicklow to pick it up personally. When asked, Edwin or his sisters would retire to somewhere private and read to the poor and illiterate - usually Catholic – any mail that might come for them. This, I’m told, did more to radicalise Edwin than anything else...receiving mail from sons who had been years away in America or Canada, mothers and sometimes fathers would weep at what Edwin had to read, or they’d exult in news of a son’s success and promise to return or, more often, to send enough to cover the cost of passage. Sometimes people came for years looking for ‘word’ and never received any.
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2.
The June 25 edition of the Wicklow News-Letter reported on how the Queen’s visit was celebrated in places like Greystones, Shillelagh, Glendalough, Kingstown and Dalkey, Rathdrum, Bray and Arklow. For instance, in Rathdrum the paper reports that “A party of rowdies paraded the streets shouting for the “Plan of Campaign,” but no disturbance took place.” What was the ‘Plan of Campaign’, anybody? Some initiative by the Irish Parliamentary party for greater autonomy? At any rate, celebrations in Wicklow were described as being “carried out with great enthusiasm. A special service was held in the parish church on Sunday, when an appropriate sermon was preached by the Rev. Henry Rooke, R.D. On Tuesday flags were hoisted to the church steeple, and the local coastguard stations were profuse in bunting, while from many of the houses in the town and a few vessels in port flags were displayed. The Customs office unfurled the White Ensign. Dr. Cruice, Mr. George Wynne, Captain Nott, and several other gentlemen ornamented their residences with similar tokens. Tinakilly House and the Parsonage possessed flagstaffs covered with bunting. The Constabulary barrack was gaily decorated, and a large portrait of her Majesty, with the words “God bless the Queen; long may she reign,” tastefully affixed to a banner. The only Government building in the town which did not recognise the occasion was the militia barrack and camp, where not the slightest attempt at display was made. At half-past nine o’clock huge bonfires and tar barrels were lighted on the neighbouring hills, including the Church Banks, from whence an excellent display of fireworks were let off. At Clonmannon, Ballinapark, Ballycurry, Ashford and Carrig great bonfires blazed up to a late hour, and rockets were as numerous as stars. Many houses were illuminated. Everything passed off quietly.”
In the column next to this description of the festivities in Wicklow, we find Dr. George H. Halpin’s obituary:
It is with deep regret that we have to announce the death of our highly esteemed felloe-townsman, Dr. George Halbert Halpin, second son of the late Mr. James Halpin, which took place at his residence, Main Street, Wicklow, at 3 o’clock, p.m. on Tuesday last. The deceased gentleman had only reached his sixty-sixth year, the last twelve months of which he had, we may say, retired from public life, his health having given way under the great strain of work devolving upon him in his capacity of medical officer of the populous town and district of Wicklow. Dr. Halpin, in 1847, was L.A.H., Dublin, and subsequently LRCS Ireland, and LRCP Edinburgh. He was for many years the medical officer of Wicklow and Ashford dispensary districts, Fever Hospital and Admiralty Surgeon, and medical attendant to the R.I.C., and after upwards of forty years of faithful service in these capacities he retired in January last in favour of his son, Dr. James Halpin. The demise of one so closely associated with the town cast a gloom over the neighbourhood, and an intense feeling of regret pervaded every class of the community when it became known that he, who was so kind and attentive to the sick, so ready to respond to the never ceasing calls of the poor, and so faithful in the discharge of his official duties, had passed away into a better world. Vividly can we remember the great services rendered by Dr. Halpin in the time of the cholera, when he ministered to the dying in cabins into which the bravest hearts feared to enter. These invaluable services passed unrecognised at the time, but his sorrowing family have now this consolation in their bereavement that the Great Physician, is ever ready and willing to reward those who love him and help the poor and needy.
The funeral which took place yesterday (Friday) was very largely attended. Detachments of the Constabulary, Coastguards, 7th and 4th Brigades, Royal Artillery, with many sailors of the port joined in the mournful procession to Wicklow Church, where the funeral service was gone through, and an impressive address delivered by the Rev. Henry Rooke, Incumbent of the parish. The coffin was then borne to the family grave and interred.
The chief mourners were – Dr. James H. Halpin, son; Captain R C Halpin, Captain Richard Halpin, brothers; Dr. Richard Halpin and Mr. James E. Halpin, nephews; Mr. W. H. H. Kennedy, Mr. George Newsom, Mr. H S Bond, and Mr. James Gibson [are these last his sons in law?].
Amongst those present were – Rev. Henry Rooke, Rev. George McCaughey, Rev. Arthur Bonynge, Colonel Tottenham, Dr. H P Truell, Julius Casement, William Magee, Captain Nott, Major Tabor, Captain Watson, T Dowling, W S Tighe, Deputy Inspector general Cruise, County inspector Cruise, District Inspector Maxwell, Lieut.-Col. Atkinson, Messrs Delahunt, Edwards, Padin, Murray, Flanagan, Carr, Garret Byrne, Byrne (Gerald), Collins, Roach, Hamilton, Doolittle(A), D Kennedy, P J Byrne, Darcy McCabe, Dr. L’Estrange, Shepard, Harding, Lawrenson, Burkitt, Manning, Jones (MH), W Byrne (Milltown), Trim, Clements, Wynne...etc, etc...Wreaths ‘ both numerous and beautiful’ were received from everyone of note in Wicklow (I’ll type in the names another time).
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3.
The editorial of the same day, already quoted above, concludes thus:
“We have every reason to indulge the hope that Victoria may long adorn her throne. She is surrounded by wise and sagacious statesmen who have but the welfare and integrity of her Empire at heart. They are not distracted by Court intrigues, or disturbed by influential factions who would strike at the stability of the throne. True, there is a party in the state whose professed hatred of England, and of everything English, is unbounded; and it is true also that that party is in effect at this moment led by a Privy Councillor, and the ex-chief Minister of her Majesty. But the very liberty which our Constitution allows has enabled the extreme Nationalists unconsciously no doubt, but nevertheless surely, to reveal the extent of their treachery, and the diabolical nature of their conspiracy. Upon this revelation the Government have drawn their teeth so that no harm can come to the unity of Great Britain and Ireland. The Crimes Bill has scared the revolutionists, and instead, as would have been the case had Mr. Gladstone’s schemes been consummated, of the year of Jubilee being the inauguration of England’s disintegration, it is, under the capable administration of Lord Salisbury, an epoch remarkable for Imperial union, strength, and power.”
The sentiments of a loyal subject and a true believer. But the editor’s confidence was misplaced, because even among the mourners at Dr. Halpin’s funeral there were names that would feature prominently in the movement to oust the British and serve in the Free State’s early governments – Casement, Cruise (of the Cruise O’Briens), for example...and of course one name that would not feature prominently, despite the activities of those who bore it – “Halpin”...William, James, and Cecil Halpin – the Wicklow Post-Master’s Catholic grandsons. These young men would either murder Black and Tans on the streets of Dublin in the war of Independence (William), or fight on the battlefields of France and Belgium in the First World War for a cause that seemed plausible before the war began – for Irish Independence, that is, which the British agreed to seriously discuss after war’s end, provided the Irish proved themselves loyal subjects by fighting in His Majesty’s Army. My grandfather James and his brother Cecil enlisted as soon as volunteers were called for in 1914. They were accepted, despite being only 16 and 15 respectively. Their brother William (26) followed them to Northern Ireland and demanded the Army release them. The Army refused to do so. William then had to raise the money required to buy his brothers out. He succeeded in doing so and the boys were released. According to my grandfather he and his brother were then ‘ bounced and battered’ all the way home to Dublin...but they were home at Hawthorne Avenue only a month or so when they ran away again. This time William couldn’t follow them, and neither he nor Edwin were inclined to raise the money to buy the boys out of the army again. And so as William fought the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in the North Strand 1916, James and Cecil fought for the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in Belgium and France – James as a marksman (I do not know what Cecil did)...My grandfather served the entire war in combat, I believe, and it is astonishing he got back to Dublin alive. When he did return, he was shell-shocked and suffering from the effects of poison gas. I believe he was sent to Leopardstown, Foxrock, to recover along with other damaged servicemen. It took James 6 months to recover his ability to speak, and from that point on his recovery went well. Eventually, he was well enough to leave hospital, and he went on to live until his 78th year when in 1975 he succumbed to lung cancer. As he lay dying in St. Kevin’s hospital in Dublin, he was given morphine to relieve some of the pain he was in. The drug induced hallucinations and he spent his last hours fighting the war from the trenches again, crying out in the ward “Aw Jesus Christ, here they come again. Jesus God forgive me. Jesus God forgive me I’ve shot another one.”
To my way of thinking, the arguments that split the Halpin family in Queen’s County in the 1780s and 90s, that rippled on down the generations in one form or another, affecting the attitudes and beliefs of all of the Halpin families mentioned on this site, ended that day in 1975 with my grandfather’s last words.
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Raymond, your last post about your grandfather was very moving . Life seemed to be so unjust and unfair for his generation. My grandfather (Mary Isabella Halpin's son) was in the Australian Imperial Force and had his knee cap blown off and leg split apart by a German shell explosion in a forward position at the Somme in1916. His war experiences had a profound effect on him and the family for the rest of his life and my father's life. Thank you again for all your wonderful Halpin research which is much appreciated.
Kind regards Kim.
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From Raymond's quote about a day ago from the Wicklow Newsletter concerning the death of Dr George Halbert Halpin in June 1887, I noticed:
The chief mourners were – Dr. James H. Halpin, son; Captain R C Halpin, Captain Richard Halpin, brothers.
Richard Halpin is credited elsewhere with aiding Captain R C Halpin’s escaping legal trouble in the USA. I had asked in what capacity Richard Halpin may have done this. I think that this is the first occasion in which I have seen him referred to as Captain Richard Halpin. Does this make him yet another sea captain in this family?
Interestingly here also is a reference to a nephew, Mr James E Halpin. This is not a James Halpin before documented from evidence to these pages. However Dr George Halbert Halpin has been shown to have an older brother Eaton and I had noted that an Eaton Cotter Halpin marries in 1852 in the Rathdrum registration district and a James Eaton Halpin marries in 1891 in the Rathdown registration district. [LDS FamilySearch Pilot site.]
Perhaps the funeral mention of a James E Halpin tends to support that there may have been a nephew James Eaton Halpin (perhaps then aged in his late twenties or early 30s).
Raymond, we have now seen evidence of at least 3 superbly informative obituaries from the Wicklow Newsletter. The ones that I am thinking of are this one of George Halbert, one of Dr Stopford William and another of Dr Richard Frederick Bestall Halpin. Such obituaries provide more family information than almost any other one source likely to be found.
Have you been able to find one on Robert Wellington Halpin in the Wicklow Newsletter? The only one I have seen is from the Bray Herald and what you have quoted from it is far less detailed these we have been seeing from the Wicklow Newsletter.
Bill
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Hi!
Thought if you didn't already have you might like this a photo of Captain Robert Halpin on the beach in Darwin Northern Australia, with a cable his ship had just laid on the ocean bed.
The cable was about to connect Australia to Asia.
Captain Halpin is the prominent figure in the middle of the photo. The second photo shows the ship out in the bay.
Cheers Kim.
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Hi,
I am new to Rootschat. I tried posting yesterday but I think I did something wrong.
My great grandfather, Herbert Halpin, was a descendant of William Halpin and Marianne Crosthwaite ( see posting on March 24, 2009). I was familiar with much of the information but didn't realize Nicholas had a brother John.
This is some of what I have on my family. I have various newspaper clippings and census records.
William Henry Halpin and Marianne Crosthwaite
William was born in Portarlington, Ireland. His parents were Nicholas Halpin and Anne du Bois. His father was the headmaster at Portarlington School. He had one sister Susanna.
William and Marianne were married in 1787. They had six children. On his sons’ school records at Trinity College William’s profession was given as gentleman. Not much more is known about William and Marianne.
I will post information about their children next.
I look forward to sharing information and have many questions.
Diane
Canada
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Children of William & Marianne
Nicholas John
Nicholas was born in 1790. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and received his BA in 1815. He married Ann Greham in 1817. They had six children: Nicholas John, William Henry, Charles, Lucy, Louisa and Marianne. Nicholas took orders in the Irish Church and was a rector at Oldcastle, Meath. He devoted himself largely to literary pursuits and published three works of Shakespearean criticism. For many years Nicholas was the editor of the Dublin Evening Mail, the chief Protestant newspaper in Dublin. He was a bitter opponent of Daniel O’Connell. In Shaw’s Dublin City Directory for 1850 Rev. Nicholas John Halpin was living at 14 Seville Place. Nicholas died in 1850.
His son Nicholas John graduated from Trinity College (BA 1841). He married Rebecca Doherty in 1848. They had four sons and four daughters. Nicholas died in 1891. This is the line covered extensively in Burkes “The Landed Gentry of Ireland”.
His son William Henry graduated from Trinity College and was ordained a deacon in 1851. In 1864 he accepted a post as Classical and Mathematical Professor at Huron College in Ontario, Canada. He was married twice, first to Elizabeth Gaston Regan and next to Eleanor Baynham. He had seven children. William’s son, Nicholas John, was the cousin that helped my great grandfather, Herbert Halpin, buy the engagement ring for my great grandmother.
His son Charles Greham was educated at Trinity College. He married Margaret G. Milligan in 1849. They had six children. The family moved to the United States in 1851. Charles was a prominent journalist with the New York Times. He also wrote under the pseudonym Private Miles O’Reilly. It was under this name he wrote a popular series of letters to the media defending the union. He worked at one time as a private secretary to P.T. Barnum. He was a decorated soldier in the 69th New York Volunteer Infantry and in the Irish Brigade. He was a key figure in the creation of the United States Army’s first African American regiment. He rose to the rank of Brigadier General. He died in 1869. His death was extensively covered in American newspapers.
His daughter Marianne married Charles Russell in 1857. They had two daughters. The family lived in New York, Illinois and Missouri.
His youngest daughter Louisa married Isaiah Deck in New York in 1853. Unfortunately he turned out to be a bigamist and a divorce soon followed.
Victor
Victor was born in 1791. He was educated at Trinity College.
William Henry
William was born in 1795. He married Elizabeth Prestidge in 1823. He was connected with the metropolitan and provincial press of England for over thirty years. He was the editor of the Cheltenham Mail in the 1820’s. He lost this position and spent a year in jail as a result of being charged with libel. He worked for the Salisbury & Wiltshire Herald in the 1840’s. He also was a published author of such works as The Glenfull, with other poems (1820) and The Cheltenham Mailbag, or letters from Gloucestershire. He wrote under the name Peter Quince, the younger. In 1846 he filed for bankruptcy in London. He died in Dublin in 1848.
Charles
Charles was born in 1800. He married Esther Druitt in 1836. They had four children: Druitt, Judith, Mary and Esther. Charles was a doctor in Cavan, Ireland. He was instrumental in setting up the county hospital and was honoured publicly for his hard work. Some of his surgical procedures were widely covered in various medical journals. He died in 1859.
His son Druitt was an engineer in London. He married Catharine Monsell in Brussels in 1873. He died in London in 1922.
His daughter Judith married Conrad Heucken in Germany in 1864. It appears they remained in Germany.
His daughter Esther married Hermann von Koppelow in Germany in 1873. By 1881 she was a widow living in London with her son Charles. She died in London in 1907.
His daughter Mary married Charles Herring, a retired lieutenant with the Royal Navy, in 1886. They were living in Birmingham in 1891.
Frederick James
Frederick was born in Portarlington, Ireland around 1805. In 1844 he married Maria Howse in Cullumpton, Devon. They spent their married life in Kingstown, Ireland. Frederick and Maria had twelve children. Frederick’s occupation was usually given as gentleman though on the christening records of his last two children it was given as schoolteacher (1864) and schoolmaster (1865). He ran the Kingstown Preparatory School for the Sons of Gentlemen. Frederick died in 1890.
Marianne
Marianne died in 1857. She never married.
Diane
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Church of Ireland Marriage Registers for Church of Ireland, Church Hill, Wicklow
Town. Researched 3rd April 2002 in the R.C.B. Library, Brearmor Road, Dublin
Docket Ref. 611/3/2
31st Dec. 1889 The marriage of
Robert John Kent, Bachelor, of Claremont Villa, occupation Miller, son of George Kent, Merchant, &
Georgina A Halpin, Spinster, The White House, Wicklow, daughter of
George H Halpin, Surgeon & Physician
Witnesses: Samuel Herbert Kent & James H. Halpin
George Halbert Halpin,
Who fell asleep in Jesus,
The 21st of June 1887,
In the 54th Year of his age
Ref. Memorial Card.
JMF
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Hi all family of Halpin, from Wicklow Town. I hope I am not repeating myself but will pass on these messages. I think I will have to send them in batches!
no1.
29th Dec.1906. Marriage in C of I Church, Church Hill, Wicklow Town of
George Cockshott, Full age, Bachelor, Solicitor of 31, Queens Road, Southport.
Son of John James Cockshott, Solicitor &
Mary Ellen Beatrice Kent, Full age, Spinster, Leitrim House, Wicklow.
Daughter of Samuel Mason Kent, (Occupation left blank)
Witness for George = James J. Cockshott,
For Mary Ellen Beatrice Kent = S. Mason Kent, James J. Cockshott, Beatrice Kent & George Kent.
~~~~~~~~-----------------------------------------------
c. 1901 b9 Leitrim Place 62/56 Wicklow.
Private Dwelling, 14 windows in front of 1st class house. 10 rooms occupied by 12 persons. 2 out offices 1 stable & 1 coach house. All Church of I, all children single, could read & write except Nadine, all except Parents were born in Wicklow.
1 Samuel Mason Kent 44,yr. Corn Merchant, married, born Limerick.
2 Beatrice Kent, Wife Beatrice 42 yr. married, born England.
3 George Kent son age 16 yrs
4 Ellen Kent, daughter age 15 yrs
5 Samuel Kent, son age 14 yrs
6 Anthony Kent, son age 11 yrs
7 Kathleen Kent, daughter age 10 yrs
8 Richard Kent, son age 8 yrs,
9 Robert Kent, son age 5 yrs
10 Nadine Kent daughter age 4 yrs
11 Dara Tuke age 19 yrs general Domestic Servant, single, born Wicklow
12 Elizabeth Rochford, R.C. age 21 yrs, Cook Domestic Servant single, born Wicklow
~~~~~~~~-------------------------------------------
C 1911 b9 Leitrim Place 65/55.
Private Dwelling, 15 windows in front of 2nd class house. 15 rooms occupied by 5 persons. 2 out offices 1 stable & 1 fowl house. All Church of I and all except Beatrice born Wicklow. All 5 could read & write.
1 Beatrice Kent, Mother, 52 yr. b. Dover, Widow, mar 24 yr. 8 children & 8 living.
2 Kathleen Kent, daughter age 20 yrs, single
3 Richard Kent, son age 18 yrs, scholar, single.
4 Robert Kent, son age 15 yrs
5 Jane Kent, sister-in-law age 46 yrs single, born Wicklow
~~~~~~~~----------------------------------------------
On the lighter side of things.
Dr. James H. Halpin lived in Main Street, Castle Ward, beside a flight of stone steps leading to the quay side. He was also very fond of the sea, and whenever he could, he would be on the sea in Wicklow Harbour. Legend has it, when a patient called to the house, his wife would hoist a flag to let him know he was needed. These steps are called the ‘Doctor’s Steps’, but sometimes The Docker’s steps.
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Children of James Halpin bc 1777 who died 10th October 1847, who married 1st April 1814,
In Church of the Vineyard, Church Hill, Wicklow Town.
Anne Halbert, born c 1797 and died August 1849.
I have some mix up for the ages of the children born c 1830. This list is from Jim Rees’s Book, which he got for the Church Records. He states “By 1834 they had 12 children, 2 of which Sydney Anne & John James, died in infancy. In 1835 Robert aged 5 yrs also died. This left Eliza age 19, Eaton 17, George 15, Thomas 13, William 12, Richard 10, Anne 7, John 3, and Louise who was just one year.”
1 Eliza Halpin bc 1816
2 Eaton Cotter Halpin bc 1818
3 George Halpin bc 1820 died c 1887 married ? children:
1 Louise Anne Halpin bc 1862 did Feb. 1887.
2 Dr. James Halpin
4 Thomas J(ohn) Halpin bc 1822
5 William Stopford Halpin bc 1823.
6 Richard Matthew Halpin bc 1825
7 Anne Halpin bc 1828
8 Sydney Anne Halpin bc 1830 died c 1830
9 John James Halpin bc 1830 died 1830
10 Robert Halpin bc 1830 died 1835
11 John Augustus Halpin bc 1832
12 Louise Halpin bc 1834
13 Robert Halpin b 16th February 1836, died 29th January 1894, married 14th October 1873 in
Southport in Lancashire, England
Jessie Munn bc 1849 died children,
1 Ethel (Munn) Halpin bc 1874 Beckenham, Kent, England
2 Bell Louise (Munn) Halpin born August 1875 Beckenham, Kent, England
3 Edith (Munn) Halpin born June 1879 Beckenham, Kent, England
All children remained spinsters.
The following has been extracted from:
"The Life of Captain Robert Halpin", by Jim Rees. Price £7.95. (2009, 4th reprint, price is 14 euro & 95 cent.) Dee-Jay Publications, Enterprise Centre, North Quay, Arklow, Co Wicklow. Ireland. Phone 04023 31865; Fax 0402 39162.
"Born in a dockside tavern in Wicklow town, Robert Halpin began his seafaring career at the age of eleven. Unafraid of danger, particularly when potential profit outweighed risks, he ran supplies to the Confederate ports in the American Civil War. His greatest days at sea were as Commander of the largest ship on earth, The SS Great Eastern. He laid 26,000 miles of cable linking four continents with telegraphic communications, making himself a fortune in the Process."
A Fashionable Marriage.
"A very fine specimen of the British sailor has married Jessie Munn, youngest daughter of the Hon. John Munn, Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, a member of the Legislative Assembly for that place and proprietor of one of the largest whale & seal fisheries in the world. The marriage was solemnised at Christchurch, Southport under Rev. Brownrigg of Wicklow, assisted by Rev. Clarke. Bridesmaids were sisters of the bride and Miss Halpin. Best man was Edmund Dickens, nephew of Charles Dickens, Captain W. E. Welch and Captain W. H. Thompson. A great crowd of eager onlookers assembled both within and without the church.
The pathway leading from the carriages to the church were lined with crimson cloth. All the many bouquets were supplied directly from Covent Garden, London.
On the arrival of the first contingent at the church, Mr Webster played Handle’s 'March from Sceptis' followed by Beethoven's March. As the bridal party proper came, the organist struck up 'See the Conquering Hero Comes'.
At the Breakfast in Victoria Hotel, John Munn occupied the head of the table with Rev. Brownrigg sitting opposite".
Rees, Jim, The Life of Captain Robert Halpin (2009) “the Munns of Newfoundland” Ch 13. pp 120-124. Jim's reference “Halpin papers"
Wicklow News-Letter also reported on this wedding, ever eager to follow the career of the town's most famous son.
"After the festivities, Robert & Jessie departed for Chester where they stayed before they continued their journey to Killarney, where they spent their Honeymoon. They set up home in 'Briton House' Beckenham, Kent, England
"On 2nd February 1876, the "Daily Express" carried a report that up to 300 acres at Tinakilly, rent £449.13.5 per annum, were sold to Col. (sic) Halpin, part tenant, for £12,000. Before moving to Tinakilly, he lived in Leitrim House in the heart of Wicklow. In early 1880s the family moved to the house which had recently been built at Tinakilly, Rathnew, co wicklow, at a cost of approximately £40,000. His brother George, who was 16 yrs his senior, supervised the construction of the house.
In September 1888, the grounds of Tinakilly house were open to the public to celebrate Jessie's 39th Birthday
Robert died 20 Jan 1894 in Tinakelly House, Rathnew, Co Wicklow in his 58th year, and is buried in Church of Ireland Churchyard, Church Hill, Wicklow Town."
Headstone: In Well Beloved Memory of | ROBERT CHARLES HALPIN | Late of Tinnakilly House in
this Parish | Born 16th February 1836 | Departed this life 20th January 1894
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To Julia Flannery
Thank you again for valuable source material.
Death of George Halbert Halpin. Your ref. from a Memorial card stating his age at death as 54. The index registration of his death states: George Halbert Halpin: Rathdrum: DEATHS: Oct - Dec 1887 Estimated birth year: 1821 Age: 66
Volume: 2 Page: 783 Collection: Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958.
Also other sources you have supplied show George as the second son of James Halpin and Anne Halbert, which places his birth between 1817 and 1822. Could the Memorial Card have included a mistranscription?
Could I request you to please check these cards and any other sources whenever you may be able for mentions of the names Eaton or Cotter. I feel that either or both of them hark back to a Halpin family involvement.
Many thanks
Bill.
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Hi Bill,
Hope you receive these 2 attachments, only learning how to.
Julia
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No 2
Moderator comment: image removed.
Please do not post large amounts of copyright material here. A book has already been heavily quoted. Only a certain amount is permitted. Photgraphs and articles from newspapers, maps etc are all subject to copyright and so should be used sparingly or links to the original sources posted rather than attaching them here. Thank you
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Eurika,
I know the second image is quite bad but I can tell you if you cannot read it all. This is taken from a photocopy of "Cantwell's Memorials of the Dead" by Brian Cantwell, Wicklow & Wexford, privately published. Wicklow is in 4 vols. (1973 - 1975) Wicklow Town is in the "South East" section. They are in most big liberies i.e. NLI., NAI, Dublin City Library (Gilbert Library), Wicklow County Library, Boghall Road, Bray, and of course Wicklow Town Library. They are very valuable to Wicklow researches of all cemeteries in Co Wicklow and also County Wexford.
Julia
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Bill
You are correct about the date of Stopfords death and Age, I'm so so sorry, I will have to have my glasses changed. Hope you can read the second attachment and it will clarify my mistake. ts a good job someone is awake!
Julia
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No 3
Moderator comment: image removed
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The other side of the previous notice in the Wicklow People 29th July 1994 p.8
Julia
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The other side of the previous notice in the Wicklow People 29th July 1994 p.8
Julia
sorry my file with this picture is too large, have to wait until later to send it. Its a photo of "92 year old Louise Kent, laying a wreath to the memory of her great- uncle Captain Robert Halpin at the Halpin monument, Fitzwilliam Square, Wicklow. Also in the picture is Bob Jackson, chairman of the Wicklow Regatta Festival who organised the ceremeny.
Julia,
Moderator comment: image removed.
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O.S. Map sheet xxv 77 2 (1895) showing Leitrim place other side of the river, Bachelor's Walk; Bridge Street, with The Bridge Hotel on the corner no 6. I think I referred to no 7 & 8 Church Street, from G.P.V; and Sea View House, on Church Hill, just in the picture on bottom of the map, on Church Hill. The "Smoothing Iron" local name for the triangler plot in Fitzwilliam's square, where Halpin's memorial is situated, just facing what was once the Green Tree Hotel. Hope I have mastered this attachment thing at last! Have to send it in 2 lots.
Julia
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Hi Julia! Great stuff ! Thank you ! I'm sure Raymond and Bill will also much appreciate. Kind regards Kim.
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Hi, Found this example of John Edmund Halpin's work as a miniaturist artist. Kind regards Kim.
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Kim, Julia - thank you very much for your work...I have so much information before me now I don't know where to begin. I've been busy with a new and very rich vein of research which I hope to post some time in the next month, and I was taking a bit of a breather too - to try to absorb what has been posted by both of you, and by Bill and Diane and Leah (in a private email which I'm sure she won't mind me sharing with everyone). I have to pull my finger out smartly and get back to Mr. Cooke - to tell you the truth I not only took time out to absorb all of the new stuff here, but to relax a little in this brilliant weather we've been having and to recuperate, recharge the batteries as they say...I will begin posting again over the next few days, concentrating on the confusion over John Halpin, Paget, and Patrick - on the revolutionary activities of William, James, Thomas(perhaps) and others in 1798 and shortly thereafter - on the overlapping lives of 4 brothers (Nicholas John, William Henry, Charles and Frederick) - on the period in Wicklow between the embarrassing case of Edwin, the Concert that never came off, and the commission of inquiry into corruption in Wicklow that took place a few years later - and a little more on my own direct line of the Halpin family that extends from Edwin's Wicklow departure to the activities and deaths of his wife and children.
So I'll be busy. I estimate that it should take me a little over a month - after that I'll have nothing more to say. Cheers, Ray.
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To Moerator,
Thank you for your messages. Sorry re. articles posted yesterday 27th. I will try not to repeat again.
Julia
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Who are these IDA HALPIN s? Are the first two the same person? Is anything known of GEORGE HALPIN of Ashford, married to ELIZA BRADLEY?
(1) IDA ISABELLA HALPIN, birth 20 JAN 1865 1049 Ashford, Wicklow, Ireland
Parents:
Father: GEORGE HALPIN
Mother: ELIZA BRADLY
[Source IGI, Batch C701257. I have found that the marriage of George and Eliza Bradl(e)y took place in 1859 in the Naas registration district of Kildare or Wicklow.]
(2) “Interestingly the last lady to hold a debenture was Miss Ida Isabella Halpin, a founder member, who died while still a debenture holder in 1961 at the age of 96.”
[From an article on Wicklow Golf Club, Independent.ie, By Colm Smith, Monday May 31 2004. (My underlining)]
Bill
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Further to my previous post on Ida Isabella Halpin, I submitted too early because I have answered part of my own question. Apologies.
There was submitted earlier by JM Flannery from the 1901 Census the following:
Census of 1901 Wicklow Town b1 Wentworth Place 62/63. Private Dwelling with 2 out offices = 1 stabe & 1 coach house. All 3 persons were Church of Ireland and could read & Write.
1 Eliza Halpin, head of household, age 70 yrs [bc 1831] Occ = Income from House property, Widow, born Co Carlow.
2 Ida I Halpin, daughter age 36 yrs [bc 1863] Assistant Registrar, single born Wicklow
3 Mary Jane Maxwell, servant age 25 yrs General Domestic Servant, single Born Co Wicklow
~~~~~~~~---------------------
Census of 1901 Wicklow Town b2 Wentworth Place 62/63. Private Dwelling with 3 out offices, stabe, coach house & store. 4 Family members were C of I.
1 James Henry Halpin, head of house,could R & W. age 40 yrs, Physician & Surgeon DK & GC.PLMCSI. married born Wicklow
2 Adelaide Maude wife, could R & W 29 yrs old. born Wexford
So, Eliza was the wife of Dr George Halbert Halpin and Ida Isabella was their middle child. What I had not known was that Eliza's maiden name was Bradley. They were living next door to Ida's brother, Dr James Henry Halpin.
While mentioning these families and JM Flannery, Julia's recent submissions included a 1994 photo of 92 year old Louise Kent, great niece of Captain Halpin. Her mother would have been Georgina Halpin who married Robert John Kent of Claremont Villa, miller. Georgina was the younger sister of Dr James Henry Halpin and Ida Isabella Halpin, children of Dr George Halbert Halpin, brother of the Captain.
Bill
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Yet further, and I trust finally for now, on the family of the above Ida Isabella Halpin, it appears that she was a twin with Georgina Anna Halpin, born Ashford, Wicklow on 20 JAN 1865 [Source IGI].
Georgina married on 31 DEC 1889 Robert John Kent of Claremont Villa, Miller, son of George Kent, Merchant.
Bill
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I'm looking forward to Ray's reply to my earlier query. Meanwhile I'm sending my latest efforts about the Halpens of Maryborough.
Wilson's Dir. 1801 Dublin:
Halpen, John, Bookseller & Stationer, 19 Sackville Street
Halpin, Paget, Engraver, 32 Mecklenburgh Street
Printers & Engravers Dublin 1784-1811:
Halpen John, bookseller & stationer
Halpin Paget, engraver, Mecklenburg St.
In Oxf.Dict.Nat.Biography there are 2 Halpens & a Halpin(e)
Charles Graham Halpine, son of Rev Nich John Halpin. DCarr gives a very good resumé of him (this forum, Page 8 )
Patrick Halpen, line engraver, fl. 1757-1786
John Edmond Halpen (?b.1764) miniature painter, son of Patrick & Eleanor
It seems that Patrick is John Edmund’s father. Is John Edmund the same as John, bookseller ? Why is John, bookseller & stationer, listed as a printer & engraver ? He must have been more than a bookseller.
Now, if Patrick was the only native (Irish) line engraver in Dublin 1778-1786 (ODNB), then why is he not listed as an engraver 1784-1811 ?
Could he be the same as Paget ? Was his full name Patrick Paget Halpen ?
If not, then there seems to be a link between the two Halpens, who were line engravers of Dublin. They must be related.
There are stacks of Pagets & Halpens in the Sweny and Cooke families, and
we know where these names come from. Mark Halpen married Mary Paget, and that’s all we know about them.
Their daughter Elizabeth married Eugene Sweny in Maryborough in 1777. They lived in Dublin.
So, my conclusion is, that Patrick and John must be connected to Mark Halpen and Mary Paget of Maryborough.
Ken Cooke
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Hi Kenneth - I think I'll be able to shed some light on the matter - I may not be able to resolve the issue once and for all (that would require more documentation than I've been able to uncover), but I think I come close to a good circumstantial case for regarding all the Johns, Pagets and Patricks here as - at the very least - blood relations. I've been keeping Bill up to date with the progress I'm making. Each time I'm ready to post, I stumble across something else in some obscure history book or little-considered online document, which causes me to hesitate. Other matters will have me tied up for the next few days, but I should have something to post by Wednesday or Thursday next week - and I believe it will interest you, Dianne, Leah, Kim and Bill in particular...basically, it all hinges on Queen's County, Portarlington, and the terrible events surrounding the insurrection of 1798-99. Now that I've flagged it, I hope it's not an anti-climax. Until next week - Cheers.
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I wonder who John Halpen of Woodville, in about 1800, was. Does anybody know ?
Kenneth
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I have the marriage of Marianne Crosthwaite to William Henry Halpin as JAN 1787. Can anyone prompt me as to how I got that please?
From the records of the Eustace Street Presbyterian, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, Anne Crosthwait birth 21 JUL 1746 to Thomas Crossthwait and Mary. There are many Crosthwait bdms recorded at this church. [Source IGI]
Bill.
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Hi Bill,
The write up for the Halpin family in Burke's "The Landed Gentry of Ireland" has William Henry Halpin of Portarlington m. Jan. 1787, Marianne Crosthwaite.
Diane
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Hi again diane
The author of this write up must have got this information from somewhere. I wonder if anyone knows: is the author of the Burke's article identifiable, contactable?
It would be good to find such a source.
Bill.
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Hi,
I not sure who writes up the family pedigrees for Burkes, I would imagine the information would be submitted by the individual they are featuring. In this case it was John Ralph Halpin of Ford Lodge, Cavan.
He was born in 1899 so I don't imagine he is still alive.
Diane
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Re Marianne Crosthwaite who married William Henry Halpin of Portarlington - and the possible Carlow connection?
From an 1890s recording of Co Carlow Memorial Inscriptions, there are the following:
Crosthwait, Samuel Esq, 31 August 1839
Crosthwait, Samuel Esq, 22 August 1863 aged 74
Crosthwait, Elizabeth, 4 February 1854
Crosthwait, Samuel (no date)
All the above were recorded in Dunleckney Parish, which I believe is around Bagenalstown, south of Carlow town.
Bill.
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Hello to all Irish Halpins!
Enquiry into HALPIN-GREVILLE Connection
Can anyone help me, please? I am looking for the HALPIN family in Co. Dublin around the 18th/19th century and in particular in connection to Kilmainham Estate. I understand that an antecedent of mine, John GREVILLE married Hannah HALPIN on 27 Dec 1740. Since then the GREVILLE family has taken on the HALPIN name before the GREVILLE (see Lorne HALPIN GREVILLE who has been researching the GREVILLE family tree in Australia while my great uncle (?), Sydney HALPIN GREVILLE was doing the same in the UK and Ireland).
My father, Howard GREVILLE, was the first to have lost the HALPIN but I have added it to my son’s name, ------------------.
Richard
Moderator's Note: Edited to remove details of possible living person in accordance with RootsChat policy of not publishing details of people who may still be living. This is to protect all concerned from spam, identity abuse, internet abuse, etc, etc.
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Hi Richard,
At the present time I cannot help you, but will try to make some enqueries, good hunting.
Regards Julia
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Richard, it could help those willing to assist if you could supply more information.
Where was/is the Kilmainham Estate and who owned it? How is the Halpin/Greville marriage date known? Any more details? Are you able to refer us to the research material of Lorne Halpin Greville or Sydney Halpin Greville so we can compare what we know with what they have?
Richard, I have been researching and casting about for Halpin information for many years and this is the first time I have seen mention of the name Greville. Naturally I am intrigued. Halpin was not such an uncommon name although I think those who were not Catholic were a minority of them.
Bill.
Hello to all Irish Halpins!
Enquiry into HALPIN-GREVILLE Connection
Can anyone help me, please? I am looking for the HALPIN family in Co. Dublin around the 18th/19th century and in particular in connection to Kilmainham Estate. I understand that an antecedent of mine, John GREVILLE married Hannah HALPIN on 27 Dec 1740. Since then the GREVILLE family has taken on the HALPIN name before the GREVILLE (see Lorne HALPIN GREVILLE who has been researching the GREVILLE family tree in Australia while my great uncle (?), Sydney HALPIN GREVILLE was doing the same in the UK and Ireland).
My father, Howard GREVILLE, was the first to have lost the HALPIN but I have added it to my son’s name, ------------------.
Richard
Moderator's Note: Edited to remove details of possible living person in accordance with RootsChat policy of not publishing details of people who may still be living. This is to protect all concerned from spam, identity abuse, internet abuse, etc, etc.
Please use the Personal Message (PM) system for exchanging personal data.
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Bill, Julia,
Many thanks for your replies. Unfortunately my copy of the family (GREVILLE) history is with my parents but I should get hold of it fairly soon. However, what I can say is that Sydney has researched the family tree right back to 1401 which is quite impressive! He had quite a lot of trouble finding information out about the Halpins in Ireland due the equivalent of Somerset House, let's say, suffering a mishap and records being destroyed! However, as I recall, Kilmainham Estate was in Dublin and I do not think it has anything to do with the gaol.
Sydney suspected that there was a branch of the Halpin Greville family in Australia and asked my sister, Monica, to have a look through the Sydney (Australia) phone book for Greville's! Lorne was one of the few Greville's that were listed By extreme coincidence, he had also been researching the family tree so the two started to communicate (by post as the web and e-mails were not around in those days!) Lo and behold, the two parts of the tree dovetailed perfectly!
Lorne is active on GenForum and was the first site that came up when I Googled 'Lorne Halpin Greville'. I am sure he as well as I would be very interested to find out more about the Halpin connection as it has been in the Greville family for over 200 years. I will try to send him a message.
Richard
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Hello
I hope I am not out of line posting in here but I am looking for family of a Mary Anne Halpin born 1841 Ireland. Adare. Limerick. She married in 1861 in Lancashire Liverpool to an Augustine Achilles. He was born in Leinster Ireland.
From records I can see a possibility Mary Anne Halpin was the daughter of a James Halpin & Maria Mary Adams..... other siblings James Halpin 1839 & Elizabeth Halpin 1854. On the IGI site this family reference has a notation from contributor as being related to George Teskey if that is recognisable to anyone.
On a query I posted in general someone advised me to look here. Does anyone know if these are the same line of Halpins contained in this thread... Wicklow...... or if it is unrelated? Many thanks
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The link between the Wicklow/Queens County/Dublin group of Halpins and the Halpins located in Limerick is very hard to establish, since reliable records are almost impossible to locate. My own gut feeling is that the link is non-existent, since most of the Limerick Halpins were Catholic, whereas virtually all of the Halpins mentioned on this site are - or were - Protestant. There are, however, extensive references to the Limerick Halpins in the National Library newspaper archives, which are accessible through most inter-library web services (I think). As for the research specific to the Halpins mentioned above - I hope to resume posting details shortly, after a bout of ill health and a few weeks work in rural Wexford - much needed, I can tell you. Cheers.
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My gt gt grandmother was Sarah Ann Halpin her father was Patrick and it says that he was from Wicklow.
Nina
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Any idea when Sarah Anne or Patrick were born, or their approximate ages when they died? The date of their deaths would help, and their religion.
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All i have is that Patrick was born abt 1840 in Wicklow,he moved to Northumberland England before 1864 and married a Margaret Brown,they was RC i think
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It may take us some time, but we'll see what we can do. If I come across anything that might be of interest to you, I'll send you a personal message. Cheers.
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Thank you
Nina
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Hi BillW
In reply to your June query on the Eaton name in Wicklow perhaps the following information and reference books would help.
In the 1700’s the Eaton family were tenants of the ‘Abbey’ property. In 1731 Thomas Eaton was appointed Sheriff of the County Wicklow and in 1755, J. Eaton was appointed to the same position. In 1777 the Eaton family local landowners, improved St Thomas’ Church on Church Hill, “A neat edifice with a tower & a copper cupola” adding the clock tower. The weather vane is in the form of the Eaton crest, a lion bearing a sheaf of straw.
Reference: Louis Samuel, A Topographical Directory of Ireland (1837) Vol 2. On the death in 1795 of Miss Catherine Eaton, the last of her family, the property reverted to the landlord Lord Fitzwilliam, who had inherited it on his marriage to Lady Anne Watson Wentworth.
In Abbey Street Wicklow stands the Parochial House, home to the Ver. Rev. Fr. Francis McDonald, P.P. V.F. in the garden of which is the ruined remains of a Franciscan monastery, known locally as “The Abbey”. Founded by Maurice Fitzgerald, Baron of Naas for the Friars Minor in Wicklow. It is said; the O’Byrnes and O’Tooles founded the Abbey in the reign of Henry III (1216-1272). (According to Archdall’s Monastico Hibernicum, published in 1786), a slightly later date 1279 is given by Petrie (1790-1866), in his Antiquities of Ireland [For its history, see the paper by Rev. Michael Clarks in JRSAI Ixxiii (1943) p. 1-14].
Jmf
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Many thanks, Julia.
So the query remains, why did the thrusting and successful family of JAMES HALPIN and his wife ANN HALBERT name their eldest son EATON COTTER HALPIN?
I reprise my quote re St Thomas's Church, Wicklow: The idea of removing the cupola and replacing it with a spire was discussed in the late nineteenth century, but this idea was never carried out. Instead, much needed repair work was carried out with the financial aid of the Halpin family.[http://www.wicklow.glendalough.anglican.org/index_files/Page350.htm]
So the church was substantially given its form by the Eaton family and a hundred years or more later preserved through the Halpin family.
If the last of the Eaton family died unmarried in 1795 and the Halpin son was named Eaton Cotter in 1818, does this point, possibly, to an earlier Eaton connection, to an earlier Halpin or Halbert generation?
Is there a connection to Ann Halbert's family? But their second son was named for her family - George Halbert Halpin. So, I am inclined to think the naming had more to do with the Halpins. And who was COTTER?
Thank you Julia. You have kept this line of enquiry alive.
All best,
Bill.
Hi BillW
In reply to your June query on the Eaton name in Wicklow perhaps the following information and reference books would help.
In the 1700’s the Eaton family were tenants of the ‘Abbey’ property. In 1731 Thomas Eaton was appointed Sheriff of the County Wicklow and in 1755, J. Eaton was appointed to the same position. In 1777 the Eaton family local landowners, improved St Thomas’ Church on Church Hill, “A neat edifice with a tower & a copper cupola” adding the clock tower. The weather vane is in the form of the Eaton crest, a lion bearing a sheaf of straw.
Reference: Louis Samuel, A Topographical Directory of Ireland (1837) Vol 2. On the death in 1795 of Miss Catherine Eaton, the last of her family, the property reverted to the landlord Lord Fitzwilliam, who had inherited it on his marriage to Lady Anne Watson Wentworth.
In Abbey Street Wicklow stands the Parochial House, home to the Ver. Rev. Fr. Francis McDonald, P.P. V.F. in the garden of which is the ruined remains of a Franciscan monastery, known locally as “The Abbey”. Founded by Maurice Fitzgerald, Baron of Naas for the Friars Minor in Wicklow. It is said; the O’Byrnes and O’Tooles founded the Abbey in the reign of Henry III (1216-1272). (According to Archdall’s Monastico Hibernicum, published in 1786), a slightly later date 1279 is given by Petrie (1790-1866), in his Antiquities of Ireland [For its history, see the paper by Rev. Michael Clarks in JRSAI Ixxiii (1943) p. 1-14].
Jmf
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Currently searching for the birthplace of a Sarah Halpin b.abt. 1825 married a John Bainbridge before 1852 and migrated to Northumberland Co, Eng.
Census of 1861 Northumberland Eng. with Patick Halpin b.1832, Andrew Halpin b.1842 married to Jane, and James Halpin b. 1839. All born in Ireland.
Census of 1871 Northumberland England with mother Mary Halpin b. abt. 1804
John and Sarah came to the USA around 1880 and settled in Pennsylvania. Not sure if this is the same family, however census records for Patrick and Andrew Halpin show birthplace as Wicklow Ireland.
More than willing to share my info with others interested. Any help or advice greatly appreciated. Great website!!
Thanks,
Rich
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O.S. Map sheet xxv 77 2 (1895) showing Leitrim place other side of the river, Bachelor's Walk; Bridge Street, with The Bridge Hotel on the corner no 6. I think I referred to no 7 & 8 Church Street, from G.P.V; and Sea View House, on Church Hill, just in the picture on bottom of the map, on Church Hill. The "Smoothing Iron" local name for the triangler plot in Fitzwilliam's square, where Halpin's memorial is situated, just facing what was once the Green Tree Hotel. Hope I have mastered this attachment thing at last! Have to send it in 2 lots.
Julia
Hello, I am quite interested in the map showing Sea View House as it was in my family from the 1860's till sometime in the 1900's. The family name is Nolan and is well documented in Wicklow. Do you have any more information on this property or how would I go about finding it?
Regards,
Terry
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The late Christopher replied on Tuesday 08 January 08
re Halpins of Wicklow.
Rep. James, Wicklow, Bridge Street, Kilpoole
George H., Wicklow, The Mall, Kilpoole
Margaret, Wicklow, Wicklow, Fitzwilliam Square, Rathnew
George, Island, Rathnew
Robert, Ballyerrin Lower Main St., Drumkay
All those listed below are actually in Wicklow Town.
Wicklow is divided into 3 civil parishes:
1 The parish of Rathnew, the northern end of the town:
2 The Parish of Drumkay, the north west
3 The Parish of Kilpoole, the southern side of the town.
Hope this may be of some help to those not familiar with the divisions
Julia
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Ray
I have just noticed on a letter from the Office of Arms, Dublin, from 1910,
that they refer to our Mark Halpen as living at Ballymanio, Queens Co. when
his daughter married in 1777.
Do you know where that would be ?
Regards
Ken
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Hi Ken,
In answer your query on Queen's County.
King's County & Queen's County (1549-1557) were renamed Offaly & Leix respectively in 1922.
Julia
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Made a couple of casual inquiries re. the whereabouts of Ballymanio, Ken, and came up with nothing. The national mapping offices are up in Dublin's Phoenix Park, which I intend to visit next week - if they don't know where it is, no one will. My guess is that Ballymanio was a village either decimated by the famine (reduced to a deserted ruin) or one still around but under another name. Will be in touch when I have an answer.
Finished all the research I set out to do, which took much longer than anticipated. Should have something to post shortly. All the best, Ray.
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Halpen of Q.Co.
« Sent to: raymondcecilmark on: Today at 00:58:28 »
~~~~~~~~
Hello Ray
Thanks for your help. I've looked again at two pedigrees and the first one
(which was transcribed as Ballymanio) now appears to be BALLYNANIO
or BALLYNARRIO and on the 2nd one it says
" Eliz. dau of Mark Halpin of
BALLYNAMOND or BALLYRAMOND, Queen's Co. and of Dublin."
(I think he was an apothecary there.)
Anyway, if anything turns up, I guess I'll hear from you.
Thanks again. Hope you're feeling better,
Ken
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Ken, without in any way casting an aspersion against Raymond's skills, and if you have not already done so, you could try asking a Laois list or the county library there. Either way you might unexpectedly unearth some interesting responses. (Don't forget to let us know, though!)
Bill.
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FREDERICK HALPIN, hotel keeper, Wicklow, 1850s.
Forgive me if Ray has canvassed this before but who was the above Frederick Halpin (see following)? Was his hotel the Bridge Inn of James Halpin some decades earlier?
Newspaper:WICKLOW - Irish Times May 3, 1859 HALPIN v HALPIN
Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/copyright.htm
http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/wicklow/
Contributed by Mary Heaphy
________________________________________________
3-5-1859 Irish Times. (For County Wicklow).
Court of Probate--April 30th.
Before the Right Hon. Judge Keatinge.
Halpin V. Halpin.
In this case there was an examination of witnesses to prove the due
execution of a will made by the late Mr. Frederick Halpin, hotel keeper, of
the town of Wicklow, leaving his property in equal shares to his two nieces.
The will was impeached by the next of kin on the grounds that it was not
executed according to the statute.
Mr. Clarke, Q.C. and Mr. Murphy appeared to sustain the will, and Dr. Ball.
Q.C. for the next of kin. The attesting witnesses being sworn and examined,
his Lordship established the will and granted probate. Solicitors for the
Plaintiff--Mr. Littledale. For the Defendant---Messrs Hone and Kinahan.
Bill.
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Good suggestion to Ken, Bill - and don't worry about aspertions, I'm not that sensitive. Ken, I'll approach the authorities again with those variations - there are some first rate assistants up at the national library in Dublin here and I'm sure they'll puzzle it out for us. On the question of Frederick H., hotel owner in Wicklow - I had thought that he was one of the Portarlington Halpins (see the lineage in Burke's Peerage), but Diane was good enough to place that particular Frederick at the Sandymount preparatory school (obviously carrying on a family tradition of teaching - Old Nic taught in late 18th cent. Portarlington), which leaves our Wicklow Fred a bit of a mystery man...I'd dearly love to know where he fits in to our picture.
Finally - if anyone has anything to say about Carlow and possible Halpin connections there, please notify us...my own recent research seems to suggest that the Protestant communities of Carlow and Portarlington in 18th/19th centuries were very close.
Not long now - cheers, Ray.
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Re the 1859 Will of FREDERICK HALPIN, hotel keeper of Wicklow Town.
This evidence is only a newspaper precis of the proceedings.
Presumably in the actual court proceedings, the names of the parties - the two nieces and the next of kin - would have been at least stated if not represented by counsel. Ideally also there would have been explained to the Court of Probate the relationships of the parties and some family history to back up the claims of the nieces as opposed to the next of kin.
Would it be possible to unearth the actual court record? There just could be a tiny mine of information contained in those proceedings.
Cheers
Bill
Sydney
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Thanks to Bill, Ray & Julia for info & tips.
I have another query which someone may be able to answer. (Not a Halpen this time).
" Michael purchased from his father-in-law's Executors the ‘head rent’ of a 350 acre townland called Baytown, Co. Meath, for £2,950." I would like to know if Michael became the landowner or a middleman. Later his heirs were listed in the Land Evaluations as the landowners or lessors.
Does anybody know ?
Ken
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Presumptive of me, a non Irishman, to answer, Ken, and others will do better.
But, in Griffiths Valuations, reference is made to the immediate lessor. But this person may be a head tenant who leases from the land owner. Large swathes of Ireland were owned by landlords (frequently absentee, sometimes the church). These holdings were leased out in parcels which were very frequently subleased in smaller parcels.
The landlord may well have had an estate "agent" who managed the first tier of tenancy but mostly those who sublet would have been "hands on". It was common for almost all tenancies to be heritable and it would have caused great upheaval if a landlord or head tenant tried to call in the land without good cause.
I understand that many land title records survive in which you may be able to trace the handling of the land in question. Another contributor can no doubt explain where and how.
A brother of one of my Malone ancestors in Co Carlow became agent to the Bunbury family at their beautiful estate, Lisnavagh. He would have been in charge of supervising the tenancy of his brother who held land and a corn mill on part of the estate. Those tenancies had been passed down through a few generations. In this case, the Bunburys were hands on, resident landlords.
So, your Michael may have been either, a landowner or a head tenant, but I understand that the means exist to discover more. I wish you good hunting. I suspect that if what he purchased was accurately described as a "head rent" then he was actually a lessee from a bigger landlord.
Bill.
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Thanks Bill
All info & tips are welcome. I’m inclined to agree that Michael was a middleman.
I wonder if the ‘head rent’ was a one-off payment or a recurring annual charge.
£2953 in 1762 was a lot of money, like £250,000 today. Hardly enough to buy outright a 350 acre townland in Meath, but surely too much to pay every year.
Maybe it was payment for a 100 year lease.
By the way, Michael was Alderman M. Sweeny, a Dublin merchant and uncle of Eugene who married Eliz Halpen in 1777.
Ken
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RaymondCM - Delighted to see your listing of children of Nicholas John Halpin which included my great grandmother Mary Isabella Halpin who, as you say married William David Bradley. Both Mary Halpin and William Bradley died young leaving my grandmother and the four other children as orphans. I have been trying for ages to find the parents of Mary Anne Isabella Halpin and was completely stuck, although I did have William Henry Halpin and Caroline Hutton as her brother and sister-in-law.
Only just found this website and Halpin board and still have a lot to digest to make sense of all the possible Halpin connections. I would be very interested to get the ancestry of Nicholas John Halpin and Rebecca Doherty. From your posts the male line goes back through the Rev. Nicholas John Halpin but I not clear where it goes after that and who the brothers and sisters of the two Nicholas Halpins were. Many thanks if you can help.
To add some further information, Mary Anne Isabella Halpin’s husband, William David Bradley, was a solicitor in Dublin whose family firm was founded in 1780 by William Gordon Bradley and still continues today, although the Bradley family have not been involved since the 1950’s. William David Bradley died in 16th April 1897 and is buried at Mount Jerome. Mary Anne Isabella (Halpin) Bradley died 4th June 1897 three weeks after giving birth to my great Uncle William David Bradley.
The children were of Mary Anne Isabella Halpin and William Bradley were:
Alice Maud Bradley (born 8th March 1883, Dublin), died 9th February 1965, Broadoak, East Sussex, England. Married Major William Jestyn Llewellyn Jeffreys 3rd October 1908. These are my maternal grandparents. One daughter.
William Gordon Bradley, solicitor in family firm (born 23rd March 1884, Dublin) died Bray, Co. Wicklow, December 1946. Married Constance Marguerite Inman 27th March 1912.
Arthur Percy Bradley, born Dublin 3rd July 1887, died 28th June 1952, Dawlish, England. Engineer and Clerk of the Course at Brooklands from 1929-1939. Unmarried.
Doris Evelyn Bradley, born Dublin 12th February 1894, died 31st July 1983, Broadstairs, Kent, England. Married William Archibald Craig 18th September 1915, died 2nd May 1959, Broadstairs. One son.
William David Bradley, born Dublin 25th May 1897, died 13th July 1972, England. Married 4th October 1924 Doris Kitchener Victoria Keeling born 1899, Southend, England. Worked for Standard Motor Company. One daughter.
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Welcome Tompion - glad you found our site of some assistance. It's been a while since I posted anything of value - afraid I got lost in the archives and overestimated my ability to digest everything quickly and re-present it to everyone at rootschat. I've attempted to take the story back as far as reliable evidence will go, to the decade or so immediately preceding the 1798 rebellion in Ireland, when - according to the lore - the family essentially fractured along political lines and went its separate ways, producing the three branches that feature most prominently here - the Portarlington branch, the Dublin branch and the Wicklow branch of the very extended Halpin family tree. The key to linking all three families is Dublin, and the events that caused havoc in that city in 1798. I think I've gone some way to putting George Halpin snr in the Portarlington camp, something I'll clarify when I finally post my discoveries - mind you, my discoveries are not yet definitive proof of a connection; they amount to a tantalizing circumstantial case, which is the best I can do at the moment. This news should excite Bill Webster, who's done a sterling job of making sense of the mess I make at rootschat...It also has to be said that Kenneth Cooke (among others - all of whom I hope to personally contact soon) made a few vital contributions too, and asked some very telling questions that I'm now in a position to answer.
One of the advantages of returning to the original sources is the opportunity it gives us to confirm the claims made for John Halpen (for example) - bookseller, engraver, and would-be actor - in the Oxford Dictionary of Biography. I consulted Oxford's sources and confirmed what is claimed in its entry on John. But what was also included in that source (and not in the Oxford entry) was the news that along with John there was a certain Paget Halpin working in Dublin as an engraver at the same time, although the source could not say if they were related. Now this was a lovely omission to uncover, because it links Kenneth's lineage, which can be placed in and around Portarlington, Queen's county, to your's and quite probably Bill's. I think I can safely say that all of our hitherto distinct family lines appear to meet each other in Queen's county (and Carlow) just prior to the 1798 Rising. Chronologically, geographically and professionally there is a consistent overlap - and that overlap strongly smacks of a blood link. All of this will become clearer in due course. As for my own family branch - it seems to pass through a few brewers and saddlers and tide surveyors - all brothers and most actively supporting the Society of United Irishmen during the years immediately following 1798. Initially, James Halpin was brewing with his brother William in Dublin. Both of them attempted to save Robert Emmet from the gallows. Some years later James reappears in Wicklow town, where he ran a tavern. I'm strongly of the opinion that a Dublin saddler by the name of Samuel Halpin was either father or uncle to James, and that Samuel hailed from County Carlow, which is next door to Queen's county. There were strong familial links between Protestant and Huguenot families in Carlow and Portarlington (Queen's Co.), and many Samuel Halpin's were buried in Carlow graveyards, alongside the Keatinge's. The links here are obviously more tentative than those connecting the families mentioned above, but I think I'm beginning to put the respective families in the same orbit, rounding the same places at the same time and - often - in the same professions. I realise this is probably confusing - I'm only beginning to give the material some sort of credible shape myself. That shape should be easier to glean once I begin the no doubt time-consuming task of posting my material on the rootschat site...I suppose it gives us all something worthwhile to look forward to. In the meantime, all the best - I'll try to get back to you with some answers asap.
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Thanks Ray - my paternal family are from England (and I live there) and ancestry is so much easier there with good church records and, post 1840-ish, births deaths and marriages and census data! My mother's family - all from Ireland - are difficult unless you are in Ireland and can easily access original source documents.
Coming back to my Mary Anne Isabella Halpin greatgrandmother of the Portarlington line, I gather from your posts that the line goes back to Nicholas Halpin and Rebecca Doherty, then Rev Nicholas Halpin and Ann Greham, then William Henry Halpin and Marianne Crosthwaite. Is it then Nicholas Halpin and Anne duBois or is there a John Halpin between the latter two generations? Wasn't quite sure from your posts?
Must get to a library and find Burke's landed gentry of Ireland.
All best and many thanks for all your sterling work on the Halpins. Brian
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Good to see the Forum has come to life again. I have found a Thomas Halpin
or Halfpenny of Dublin, an 'expert in informations', who was attached to Dublin police. Halpin was used by Major Henry Charles Sirr, chief of Police in an unsuccessful plot to incriminate the Egan brothers. From Nick Reddan Extracts, Part 24
There were two Catholic distillers, Daniel and Stephen Egan at Roscrea, Tipperary. The Rev. Mr.Hamilton, J.P. fabricated a plot, claiming that the Egan brothers were planning to murder the Protestants of the neighbourhood. He enlisted the aid of a groom or stableman named Dyer, and an assistant brought from Dublin, a ‘dexterous practitioner in informations’, named Halfpenny, alias Halpin. He was then in the police, an attache of Major Sirr's office. He had,in 1798, displayed great zeal as an informer.
When Halpin arrived at Roscrea,on the 28th of December 1815, he helped Rev. Hamilton and his wife to dress up a straw figure in a suit of Mr. Hamilton's and sat this figure at a table in Mr.Hamilton's house, its back towards the window.
Halpin was given a pistol by the reverend,and later,with Dyer, fired through the window at the stuffed figure, which was hit in the back.
The Egans were arrested and brought to trial, but the jury soon realized that
the prosecution was a farce, and promptly acquitted the prisoners.
Dyer was indicted for wilful and corrupt perjury. But the grand jury, thinking perhaps that he might be useful in the future, freed him.
From ‘85 Years of Irish History 1800-1885’ by William Joseph O’Neill Daunt
Thomas Halpin, the 1798 insurgent, a close associate of Michael Dwyer, eventually turned informer to save his own life. From ‘goireland.com’ & other sources.
Anne Devlin’s father is in jail, charged with being an insurgent. At his trial in 1803, he is freed after police informer Tom Halpin is discredited. From film ‘Anne Devlin’ 1984.
In 1804 Emmet sent his deputy James Hope to the Wicklow mountains to meet Michael Dwyer, leader of the Wicklow rebels. Shortly afterwards, a spy named Halpin appeared in Wicklow in the neighbourhood of Emall (Innall). Dwyer got notice and commenced a pursuit, until, in sight of Dublin, he learnt that Halpin was too far ahead. From ‘Life & Times of Robert Emmet’ by R. R. Madden.
Ken Cooke
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I am trying to identify Derek Halpin - he is somehow related to William Henry Halpin and Mary Anne Isabella Halpin of Cavan, mentioned in Ray's post 46.
When my great uncle, (Arthur) Percy Bradley, died in 1952 Caroline Halpin (the wife of William Henry Halpin) sent flowers to the funeral, as did Hilary Alicia Halpin (William Henry's daugher in law) and the unidentified Derek Halpin. Anyone know a Derek Halpin related to these Cavan Halpins? Thanks Brian
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Thomas Halpin was a close associate of Dwyer (who ended up in Australia, where he died), and I'm delighted to see his name pulled into our reckonings. He turned informer to save his own neck and was hated in Dublin, where he was known as "Halpin the pike finder". I'll have quite a bit to say about him in the coming weeks. Not yet certain he's a blood relation to any of us ( though the lore mentions 'traitors' and converts it mentions no dates, so I'm never sure who did the betraying or when the conversions took place), but he was certainly kicking around the same traps as some of our forebears. During Dwyer's long pursuit of Halpin (mentioned by Ken) he eventually tired on the outskirts of Dublin (of course, had he entered Dublin he almost certainly would have been recognised and apprehended) and, in frustration, fired off a round in Halpin's direction. The pistol he was using exploded and blew Dwyer's thumb off. I imagine he was easy to identify after that.
Just on the matter of placenames that start with "Bally", Ken. I spent some time chasing up your request and had to accept defeat. Even in Queen's county there are quite a few Bally's this that and the other, none of which correspond to Ballymania, or to any of the other variants you listed. Could it be Ballymeena? Check it again and get back to me.
As for the other requests, I expect to address some of them soon. Hope what I have to reveal will shed some light on the terrible events that erupted in 1798, sending the Halpins off in their respective directions. I'll be trying to plot the routes the Halpins took through the 19th century, touching briefly on all the historical events they became involved in.
On a final note - Charles Greham Halpine (otherwise known as Charles Boyton Halpin) wrote an account of the Sheares brothers exploits during the 1798 rebellion, as well as a 'romance' novel about a troop of Irish rebels causing no end of trouble for the English army - the story is set in the Wicklow mountains and much of the scenery would have been very familiar to Dwyer and co., and to my great grandfather Edwin. I've been dipping into those novels, and into the writings of Charles' uncle, William Henry Halpin, and his father, the Rev. Nicholas John Halpin. I came across some very interesting stuff, all of which I'll pass on. Cheers for now.
PS - the libraries are shut here and won't be open again till the 6th of Jan. Will try to find out what I can about Derek Halpin then.
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Hi Bill,
Over the holiday period I have been reading the Halpin post from the beginning, and realised you made a request to me in reply 118 on Wednesday 24th June 09 to re-examine the memorial cards in my possession.
Shame on me :-[but I hope to rectify not answering you until now by giving you the following information.
In Loving Memory/ of/ GEORGE HALBERT HALPIN / Who fell asleep in Jesus / THE 21st OF JUNE, 1887, /Aged 66 years.
Julia
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Like the UK, Ireland was buried under a sheet of snow and ice until Monday last. Travel was difficult, hence the time it’s taken me to get back to you with an answer to your question. I’ve briefly checked the online newspaper archives at the National Library here in Dublin and the only reference I can find to any Derek Halpin is in the Irish Times, Sat. March 31st 1945:
DEATH Halpin March 21, 1945, at her residence, 56 English street, Armagh, Rohna Elizabeth, dearly loved wife of Herbert S. Halpin, and darling mother of Derek and Hazel.
Hope this is of some use to you Brian. As for the confusion of my posts regarding the genealogy of the Portarlington Halpins, apologies for that. Further research has allowed me to push the line back a little further into the 18th century, but my discoveries come with no dates, unfortunately. If you consult Diane Carr’s postings, specifically those of Tuesday 23 June 2009, you will discover far more clarity than I’m usually capable of. She has an ancestor by the name of Herbert Halpin, so the death notice above may well be evidence of a cross-referencing bloodline, of one branch of the family remaining in touch with the other. Did the Canadian Halpins correspond with the Halpins of Armagh? Maybe Diane can answer that question. If you have a look at Bill Webster’s family tree ( Tues. June 09 – Reply 94) it too will make things easier for you. In the meantime, what follows is a very basic schematic that might help you find your way through the mess I’ve made of the Halpin family tree. Following the paternal line from -
Mary Anne Isabella, b. 18th Nov. 1857 – d. 4 June 1897. ->
Nicholas John Halpin, b. 1818. ->
Rev. Nicholas John Halpin, b. 1790 – d. 22nd Nov. 1850. ->
William Henry Halpin, gentleman, Portarlington, m. Jan 1787. ->
Nicholas Halpin, Portarlington Headmaster, living 1809. ->
William Halpin, Royal Navy. ->
William Henry Halpin, Royal Navy.
Those last two entries, the Williams Halpin , were hand-written entries in a lineage that was placed in the National Library of Ireland. It appears to be the source of the entry that made it into Burke’s Peerage.
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Before I go any further, I owe Ken a bit of an apology. Some of the things I’ve gone on to discover, and announce to great fanfare, have been common knowledge to everyone, it seems, bar me. I can’t explain the mind-blank, or the blind spot I seem to have in regard to Paget Halpin, someone Ken’s been quietly chatting about for some time. I have read Ken’s postings (I promise to go over them again), and he and I have corresponded privately on a few occasions in the past, sometimes about the very things I’ve subsequently overlooked. My only defence is that with all the material I’ve been shuffling lately, I somehow forgot some of the information Ken made available to us. I wish I wasn’t such a dose – it might spare me a great deal of unnecessary originality. Paget Halpin is an essential link to a more distant past than I’ve been able to reach, and he ties the Portarlington Halpins to the Halpins of Dublin – the engravers, the miniature painters, the failed thespians and libellous booksellers. I’ll post detailed information on all of the main players in the coming weeks but much of what I have to say about Paget has already been alluded to by Ken – I just went out and discovered it all over again.
That said, though, I think we may have cracked the conundrums we’ve encountered in our endeavours to link the various branches of the Halpin family. Of course, someone will come along and point out the bleeding obvious to me and I’ll end up with egg on my face. But for a laugh (at the very least), let me stick my neck out here and ask: Has Brian introduced a surname that we’ve seen before? Hasn’t Bill already drawn our attention to the Bradleys? Indeed, in our private correspondence I think Bill may have already made the point I’m about to make – isn’t it possible that the Bradleys of Wicklow town, who were related to the Halpins of Wicklow town, are linked by blood to the Bradley who married Mary Anne Isabella?
I was combing through the “House of Commons Parliamentary Papers” recently and found, in the “1808 Accounts...of the Presentments Passed by the Grand Juries of Ireland, at the Spring and Summer Assizes, in the Year 1807” the Bradleys, Keatings and Halpins all involved in the repairing of roads in Carlow and Kells (Co. Meath). John Halpin and William and Daniel Bradley are serving as sub-constables on Grand Juries during the Lent Assizes of 1807. Elsewhere there is mention of William Bradley serving as commander under Nelson during the French wars – but this probably shouldn’t concern us here. There are other reports that record George Halpin snr and a Thomas Crosthwait receiving payment for roadworks in Ringsend, Dublin. These papers reveal a good deal about Paget Halpin and others, which I’ll elaborate on in my next posting. But for the time being let’s stick to the Bradley – Halpin link, and its implications.
Bill’s posting of Wed. July 1st 09 (Reply 133) presents the following info:
Eliza Bradley, born 1831 County Carlow, married Dr. George Halbert Halpin, who was a resident of Wicklow town.
George was also Captain Robert Charles Halpin’s brother and my great grandfather Edwin’s uncle. Eliza had Bradley relatives living next door to another Wicklow resident – Doctor James Henry Halpin. If we can link the Bradleys of Wicklow/Carlow to the Bradley who married Mary Anne Isabella, then we can credibly claim something my family lore has always maintained – that the Halpins of Laois (Queen’s county, Portarlington) and Wicklow town were blood relatives. It is something we need to keep in mind from this point on.
I’ll leave things there for now – you need to think about what I’m saying here and point out the errors I’m oblivious to. In the meantime, I’ll prepare the rest of what I have on the Halpin clan in and around the years 1780 - 1810. Have another look at Ken’s entries on Paget and Mark Halpen, they will be essential to some of what I have to relate. All the best.
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Dear Ray,
Unfortunately, I don't have too much on my Bradley's. I think the direct line of William David Bradley of Dublin who married Mary Anne Isabella Halpin goes William George Halpin, then William James Halpin. (ca. 1795-1865). All were solicitors in Dublin (going back to William Gordon Bradley working in 1780) and as such these Bradleys would know many people in Dublin needing legal help. They worked in Central Dublin but their deaths are all recorded at Rathdown Registration District which I think covers South of Dublin and Wicklow? I haven't been able to check this Bradley line with original documents but these three Bradley generations are the same family as they working at the same address(es) as solicitors.
I have a note that:
Griffith's Valuations has two Bradleys in Dublin and one has Joseph Bradley as the occupier and George HALPIN as the Lessee! May 27th 1854,address 7 Oriel Place, Oriel Street, Lower, Parish of St Thomas, DublinNorth, City of Dublin.
Best wishes, Brian
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Ah well done, Brian. Now we have the Bradleys connecting Bill's ancestors to the Portarlington Halpins. It looks like we may well have cracked the Halpin nut - at least for our purposes. We can move on now confident that the bloodline connecting all three families is a reality. Great stuff.
We need Bill Webster's sobriety - when he has a look at the Bradley links, he'll subject them to proper interrogation. Of course, if anyone else has an objection to raise, I'd like to hear it.
Seriously.
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Dear Ray,
I should have said thanks for getting my Nicholas John Halpin line back a couple more generations.
I am not sure I understand how the Bradley's link the Halpins of Porarlington to Bill's ancestors. We know rather little about the Bradleys and it is a fairly common name.
You were talking about Halpins being involved in repairing roads - probably not at all relevant but the Bradley solicitors of Dublin were involved in the Trust which ran the Malahide Turnpike Roads:
In an 1832 directory od Dublin an entry says: 'Bradley (W.J) KCE. (this is William James Bradley) secretary and law agent to trust of Malahide Turnpike Roads, 26 Mecklenburgh S'. The same is said in a 1842 directory.
Best wishes Brian
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Dear Ray, Brian, Ken and Julia
I have been oblivious to the rounds of the past 3 weeks or so. I have not received the usual email advising of new contributions. It may have something to do with having (necessarily!) a new computer. Ray was kind enough today to advise me that he had contributed to the chat and I went in search of it and glad I did.
May I firstly pick up on one of the many intriguing connections being explored – namely road-building? As Ray knows, I have a particular interest in finding anything at all about the family of George Halpin junior’s wife, JULIA VILLIERS. [Love that name, Julia, as it was my grandmother’s and my great grandmother’s.] As it is, I have been able to find nothing. She is a complete mystery woman and yet, by all reports, she lorded it over the Halpins.
For some time in his later mature years, around 1865 [Thom’s Directory], George junior lived in “Elm View”, Highfield Road, Rathgar. Within a stone’s throw of that residence was Rathgar Mansion, occupied by members of the Villiers Tuthill family. It was not beyond the realms of possibility that this family had “developed” the row of villas where George lived on part of their Rathgar Mansion estate and that, as family, he came to live there.
Kathleen Villiers Tuthill is a historian/author and was easy to find, so I thought to ask her. She most kindly replied immediately but needless to say she knew of no connection to Julia Villiers. However, Kathleen was kind enough to write the following, which I quote from her email to me:
Now to George Halpin. Oddly enough, I have come across this man before! In 2006 I published a book on a Scottish engineer, Alexander Nimmo, who worked in the West of Ireland in 1820s. One of his junior surveyors was none other than George Halpin jnr. The following is an extract from the book relating to George:
'George Halpin Junior surveyed and mapped the central Connemara road and the road from Kilkieran Bay to Killary. Halpin was later appointed engineer to the commissioners for improving the port of Dublin and was responsible for seeing Nimmo's work on sailing directions for St George's Channel and the Coast of Ireland through to publication after his death in 1832.' p74-75. Alexander Nimmo & The Western District.
George wrote the introduction to Nimmo's book published in Dublin 1832: New Piloting Directions for St George’s Channel and the Coast of Ireland: Written to accompany the chart of St George’s Channel and the coasts of Ireland, Drawn for the Corporation for Improving the Port of Dublin. By Alexander Nimmo, F.R.S.E. This book can be found in the National Library of Ireland, Dublin.
It must be possible to trace George jnr, given his job and profession. Try contacting the National Library of Ireland, and the National Archives of Ireland, websites and ask them for help. They have researchers that deal with genealogy and should be able to advise you.
Small world isn't it!
Regards and good luck with your search.
Kathleen
Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill
www.connemaragirlpublications.com
I personally believe that this must have been George Halpin senior due to the facts that George junior became accredited as a civil engineer 20 years later, in 1847, and for the baptisms of 4 of his children between 1840 and 1846 his stated occupation went from army sergeant to writer.
I will post separately on other matters.
All best
Bill
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Brian, how do you come to state that your Mary Anne Isabella's family came from Cavan? I am not disputing it, merely seeking clarification.
It is my understanding that she descended from Nicholas John, son of Rev Nicholas John Halpin, but I may be wrong. In everything that I recall seeing about this branch, they were essentially Dubliners.
I think perhaps the most interesting of all this interesting family was Dr Charles Halpin who somehow set up practice in Cavan, although I don't believe that they had any prior connection with Cavan, but I could be wrong again.
Dr Charles was of course Rev Nicholas John's brother and Rev NJ was rector of the church at Meath. We know that these two at least shared in the pursuit of botanical specimens around the countryside and made learned contributions to the Dublin Botanical Gardens library.
Rev NJs son NJ obtained an office with the Dublin Ports Corporation, or similar, more than likely through the good offices of George Halpin senior. Around the same time, Rev NJ occupied (rented?) property in Dublin developed and owned by George Halpin.
Now as I understand things (please correct me), this NJ at Dublin Ports and his wife Rebecca Doherty had your great grandmother Mary Isabella (who married Bradley of a Dublin soliciting family) and 3 other daughters whose names I don’t know. Another child of theirs was yet another William Henry Halpin who somehow became the well recorded solicitor of Forde Lodge, Cavan, who married Caroline Isabella Emma Hutton.
So, did all the family at some point go (back?) to Cavan? I don't think any of great uncle Dr Charles family were still there - they had all left for different countries.
And finally, to reinforce the likely connection between families, James Halpin who established his family in Wicklow Town around 1800 (the year of the Rev NJ’s brother Dr Charles’ birth) had among his 13 children two doctor sons. The elder, Dr George Halbert Halpin born 1821 married Eliza Bradley. The other, Dr Stopford William Halpin born circa 1824, according to the Medical Registry in the Royal College of Surgeon's library in Kildare St., Dublin, listed him as working from the same surgery in Cavan in the 1840s with Dr Charles Halpin. It would seem that Dr Charles was offering his younger relative (exact connection not known) practical experience, employment and training. Stopford eventually set up practice in Arklow, Co Wicklow.
I think I have confused myself even more now so no doubt I have you too. Please set any errors straight.
All best
Bill.
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Dear Bill,
Sorry - I was sloppy. There is no connection of my great grandmother, Mary Anne Isabella Halpin, with Cavan - except that her brother William Henry Halpin lived there. I think I remember my great aunt (daughter of Mary Anne Isabella) talking quite a lot about Cavan, but she and her siblings were orphaned when Mary and husband William David Bradley both died young, and I suspect some of them were brought up in Cavan by William Henry Halpin's family.
Interesting to hear the Wicklow Dr Halpin connection with Dr Charles Halpin in Cavan - I suspect there was a connection between WH Halpin and my my Bradleys (after all they were both solicitors) and I would not be surpised in William David Bradley was introduced to William Henry Halpin's sister as a suitable girl to marry.
I have no idea who Eliza Bradley was - interesting to find out if she was a sister of one of the solicitor Bradleys. Seems quite likely.
All best, Brian
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Brian, you've no idea of the importance of that address on Macklenberg street. I was only telling Bill and Ken about it over the past few days - how it features prominently in the Halpin tale. In fact, it is the main street around which much of the Halpin tale pivots. I'll ask Ken and Bill if I can post our private correspondence on this board, it will save me a ton of unnecessary typing. Well done again, Brian - although I realise you've no idea yet just what it is you're being praised for. Bill and Ken will be in touch soon and I'll take it from there. Cheers.
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Brian, Ray and all others
May I submit here the Nicholas Halpin family as I have it currently charted. I would welcome any additions and especially corrections.
In the Nicholas John family as I have it, there is a large gap in children between the first child, Nicholas John born 1818 and the next recorded, William Henry in 1825.
Brian, I don't have your great grandmother's birth and line recorded. I also noted sometime that she had 3 other unrecorded sisters. Do you know anything about them?
I find such basic charts helpful in seeing overall relationships.
Bill.
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Ray, before putting Cavan to bed, here is another intriguing location.
That Dr Charles set up there in the 1830s by itself raises no queries. A man has to set up a medical practice somewhere and it is not all that far from either Portarlington or Dublin.
But Dr Charles died in 1859 and by that year his own family had dispersed out of Ireland, Brian's ancestor had barely been born and her brother William Henry Halpin of Forde Lodge had not yet been born.
For two branches of a family to set up professionally in Cavan quite separately and possibly 50 years apart raises a flag with me. Was there some other member of the family with an ongoing connection or base there, just like there seems to have been the other covert connection with Carlow? Is it at least possible that there may have been "aunts" there? Just something to keep in the back of my mind.
Brian, I have sometimes wondered how your great great uncle seems to have prospered so quickly. He appears in Cavan seemingly out of nowhere and flush with money and success, a landed estate and sending his sons to public school in England. But why Cavan?
All best, Bill
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People back then moved in circles we can no longer see - social circles defined by class, religion, profession and so on. These circles are what I've been trying to rediscover recently - who's connected to who, and for what reason. I have no doubt that family ties exist between the Halpins and someone else resident in Cavan in the mid 1800s, someone who is as yet unnamed. The thread we've spun over the past few days with the Bradley name, with its links to Halpins from apparently unconnected families and to Macklenburg street, is one example of what I'm talking about - these coincidental loops move through families, neighbourhoods and professions, creating as they do strong circumstantial evidence of a meaningful connection between all of the things they touch. At the moment we can't see what or who connects the Halpins to Cavan, but we suspect something does. We might discover that something if we continue to plot the linking surnames and then look for reinforcing links. Bradley - Halpin - Macklenburg street...and so on. It's late here, so I'll leave off now and come back tomorrow with much more on Macklenburg street and its significance. Sorry about the suspense.
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Ray has pointed out that several people seemed to have lived in Mecklenburg St. Dublin.
Wm. James Bradley Sec & Law Agent Malahide Roads at No 26 in 1832 & 1842 Dub Dir., (see Brian's post, top of P. 13)
Paget Halpin Engraver at 44 from 1792-1800 & 32 in 1801, Wilson's Dir.,
Mary & Martha Halpin, Haberdashers, No. 5 in 1801,
Marmion Savage, good friend of Rev Nich Halpin had his 'salon' in Meck. St
(quoted by Ray).
Ken
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Dear Bill,
Thank you very much for the descendents of the Nicholas John Halpins.
The daughters of Nicholas John Halpin (1818-1891), including my great grandmother, Mary Anne Isabella Halpin, are shown in Ray's post on 13 May 2009 (reply 46).
Mary A.I. (Halpin) Bradley was born 18 Novermber 1857 and died on 4 June 1997. Her husband, William David Bradley was born 2 November 1847 and died 16 April 1897.
I give the children of Mary A.I. Halpin and Willian David Bradley in my post of 27 December 2009.
_____________________________________________________________
Miscellaneous additions for William H. Halpin and his children:
William Henry Halpin - Late of Ford Lodge Cavan, Co. Cavan, Solicitor d. 17 April 1937. Granted to Caroline I E Halpin, Widow, and John R. Halpin, Solicitor, £5856.
His son John (Jack) married Eleanor May Hamilton (Eaton) in 1957 at 1st Holywood Presbyterian Church. I assume this is a second marriage.
November 1970: Death of Jack Halpin (Ford Lodge - son of William Henry Halpin, solicitor) in Belfast Excelled at tennis and grouse shooting.Solicitor and prominent member of Kilmore Diocesan Synod. Survived by his wife Eleanor and brother Richard.
_______________________________________________________
Hilary Alicia Keighley-Bell - I found her death registration as below:
HALPIN, HILARY ALICIA born 13 November 1916 CAMDEN 2000 May
This must surely be her.
Best wishes, Brian
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I have just found the following obituary, from the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1848:
“May 8 at Dublin, aged 53, William Henry Halpin esq. 2nd son of late Wm Henry Halpin esq. of that city. Mr Halpin was for upwards of 30 years connected with the metropolitan and provincial press of England.”
He must be the brother of Rev Nich. John from Portarlington. His dates of 1795-1846 fit exactly.
Actually I was looking for the two antecedents of Nicholas (fl.1809) mentioned by Ray recently: William and Wm Henry, both Royal Navy. I thought that (if genuine) one of them must be the father of our Mark Halpen of Maryborough (born about 1690-1710).
Unfortunately, all this is still unverified.
Ken
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May I advise that I have updated one of the attachments that I put with message 185 a couple of days ago.
After receiving further input off-list from Brian, I have updated the file "N J Halpin" and attach it here.
Thanks and regards
Bill
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Yes, Ken, you're right about the death notice being that of WH Halpin, brother of the Rev. NJ Halpin. There are a few of those notices around in different newspapers of the time and all mention William Henry's association with the provincial press in the UK. He was also writing and editing a prominent radical magazine in Paris for a while - very much the political opposite of his brother. He became heavily involved in the Railway Mania of the mid 1840's (an event that resembles the mania which dumped the world into the crisis it's enduring now). The equivalent of millions were staked in shares in commercial railway lines that hadn't even been built - lines that would make their owners a fortune in transport charges and fees once they were operational. Halpin was a board member of a number of lines that had been massively oversold - when the bubble burst he and almost everyone else were bankrupted. There is quite a lot about him, so I'll post it when I can. When his brother the Reverend NJ Halpin died, some surprise was expressed at how little he had to leave to his family. I've wondered sometimes if the Reverend's penury was as a result of his attempt to rescue his brother William from his railway debts, or was the Reverend also heavily invested in the mania, anxious to acquire a personal fortune that would allow him to live a life as 'comfortable' as the one he had become used to at a 'salon' like the one he regularly attended at the home of the Savages of Macklenburg street? We may never know for sure, but I'm tracking down the memoirs and/or biographies of some of the salon's other attendees - they may contain some material of relevance to our investigations.
Incidentally, and I know I've mentioned this before, but the Reverend's favourite son - Charles Greham Halpine - was nabbed in England in the late 1840s stealing everything he could of the family silver from the homes of people just like the Savages. In my view, it was almost certainly why he fled to the US and altered the spelling of his name. His adoption of the penname Miles O'Rielly, a lowly soldier in the Union army in the American Civil War writing letters to newspapers about his relationships with men of exceptionally high rank, struck me as very similar to the journalistic trick practiced by his uncle, WH Halpin. It was the similarity of their approach to humour that made me believe they had to be related - that was before I discovered other material proving the link.
Just a little more on WH Halpin - in the 1820s WH spent a year in prison for libelling the editor of a Cheltenham newspaper - he had a vicious pen, particularly when his target was misusing someone else's money. He was known for penning funny squibs to the press, claiming to be a lowly provincial nobody with important advice for the country's administrators. WH wrote under the pen name "Peter Quince", and when the British Houses of Parliament burnt down it was Mr Quince, a humble carpenter from the provinces, who wrote to some public committee overseeing the reconstruction with his own advice on what the new building needed to 'do'...
Peter Quince is the name of a character in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream (I think). The Reverend NJ Halpin wrote an important essay about the play, and this overlapping enthusiasm for the 'Dream' suggests to me that the play must have been something of a favourite in the brother's childhood home in Portarlington - part of Old Nic's curriculum at the town's school? This linking up of associated and overlapping references is an example of the reinforcing coincidental loops I mentioned earlier - they help me to construct a picture that brings the dead to life, so to speak, and prevents the Halpin ancestors from being little more than ciphers in a fusty old archive.
For a view of Miles O'Reilly visit http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/pfaffs/people/psearch/id-125_name-125_images-1/
Best photo gallery of CG Halpine: http://www.picturehistory.com/category/cat_id/3/subcat_id/120/page/7
Try also: http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/15992
By the way, the founders of the Democratic organisation of New York, which was fiercely opposed to Tammany Hall, were Charles G. Halpine, Nelson J. Waterbury and John Y. Savage. I'd really like to know if John Y Savage was related to Marmion Savage - Dublin Castle administrator, satirical writer and personal friend of the Rev. NJ Halpin.
For those of you interested - I have a copy of William Henry Halpin's Cheltenham Mail Bag, which I'd be glad to email. You can also check it out on:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EZoVAAAAYAAJ&dq=Halpin+Cheltenham+Mail+Bag&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=ekwPooo_Lf&sig=DHrWruo4QXlwDDtDWX8Y_nm_0F4&hl=en&ei=fxFTS9GCNY360wS8xbSzDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
From The Times, Monday May 15, 1848:
Death: On the 8th instant, at Newcomen-terrace, Dublin, in the 54th year of his age, William Henry Halpin, Esq., second son of late W. H. Halpin Esq., of that city. Mr. Halpin was for upwards of 30 years connected with the metropolitan and provincial press of England.
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May I raise the name EATON again with regard to the Wicklow Halpin family and how it just may (again?) provide a link between the Wicklow family and the N J Halpin family? I admit that this particular link is highly speculative but, however, still to be entertained
I wish to stress again the possible importance of the naming of children, particularly eldest children.
James Halpin set up in Wicklow Town (ex Dublin, Ray will attest) around 1800 and in 1814 married Ann Halbert (whose family is as yet unknown to me). Their first daughter was Eliza, 1816. Then they had 3 sons. Their first son was named EATON COTTER HALPIN, 1818, and the second was GEORGE HALBERT HALPIN, 1821, a twin with Thomas J. This second son obviously had his mother’s name preceded possibly by the King’s name or was it possibly for George Halpin in Dublin? Perhaps George was a Halbert tradition.
But EATON COTTER HALPIN? How important are these names? Although I can find no tangible trace of them in Wicklow, the EATON family was responsible for the copper cupola, an important and prominent feature of the Wicklow Town Church of Ireland. When repairs for this edifice were necessary, it is recorded that these were done with the financial assistance of the Halpin family of Wicklow. COTTER? – I just don’t know.
I don’t know what became of the Wicklow Eaton family, only that it provided the Halpin family there with a very important name. Around the mid 1800s, there is an Eaton family in Cavan, from whom Jack Halpin's bride may have descended. Could the Wicklow Eatons have relocated to Cavan and elsewhere? There was great mobility in those days of wide horizons and endless opportunity within the British empire then approaching its zenith.
In 1957, at the age of about 58, John Ralph (Jack) Halpin born 1899, solicitor of Ford Lodge, Cavan (but seemingly living at Holywood in Northern Ireland – not presently sure where that is) married a widow, Eleanor May Hamilton, whose maiden name is said to have been Eaton.
If she were about Jack’s age, she was born around, say, 1900 – 1910. Note however that an Eleanor May Eaton was baptised in June 1902 at St John, Macclesfield, Cheshire to Charles Eaton and Eleanor.
Could Jack Halpin have found late marriage with the daughter of a family with whom his own family had had long association?
Also, Eaton Cotter Halpin became a solicitor. He was alive in 1852 when he married in the Rathdrum district of Wicklow (I have not sought his wife’s name). He had a son, James Eaton Halpin, who married in Dublin or Wicklow in 1891. I have no further knowledge of this family but I wonder if James became a solicitor too. Being solicitors with real or possible family connections, it is within the bounds of reason that the Eaton Halpin family was known to Brian’s William Bradley family of solicitors in Dublin and the Halpin solicitors in Cavan.
As a postscript I merely note that in a 1943 (April 7) Government Gazette for the State of Victoria in Australia, George Eaton Halpin together with James William Andrew Crozier are appointed to be Commissioners for taking Oaths in the Geelong area. Jack Halpin’s brother’s name was William Richard Crozier Halpin. This George Eaton Halpin appears to have been a grocer.
I have also seen a request for information on the children born in Tasmania around 1840 to Margaret Eaton and Andrew Martin Halpin.
I publish the above merely so that we may not forget the possible important connection of the name Eaton to one or more branches of our Halpin family.
Best regards
Bill
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Bill, you were speaking about a 'flag' being raised over the town of Cavan - you wondered what were the connections between the Halpins and that location, aside from the obvious one of Charles Halpin MD.
Well, I was flicking through my notes last night when I came across some material I've had for nearly a year, only I hadn't made the link between it and a few other references I'd come across. Oh for a proper filing system.
Anyway, as in the Bradley case the connections we required were staring us in the face. Like I mentioned to you privately, to get out of some of the dead ends I'd wandered into in pursuit of the Halpins I decided to work sideways - to look into the lives of known Halpin associates and friends, to see if their lives had anything to tell us about the Halpins. Well, I looked into the background of Esther Druitt, wife of Charles Halpin, Cavan MD. The two were married 28th Sept. 1836.
The Reverend Joseph Druitt, Esther's father, was Vicar of Denn, County Cavan. In 1822 he and the Rev. NJ Halpin were among an audience attending "a sermon preached before Richard, Marquess Wellesley...", which was later edited by Richard Elrington.
See: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7w0HAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#V=onepage&f=false
It seems further investigation of the Druitts is required.
Also, on the issue of Eaton - I found this death notice: Eaton C. Halpin Wicklow Town Ireland - Irish American New York City New York 1857 - 8 - 15.
Unfortunately, for some bloody reason I forgot to note down the reference.
The tradition of putting the mother's surname ahead of the father's when naming a child acknowledged the higher status of the mother's family over the father's - as in Charles Greham Halpin - Greham being the maiden name of Charles' mother Ann, whose immediate family had strong connections to Portora, a famous school in Ulster, where the Grehams were headmasters (with at least one Greham sister assisting). More on the Grehams later - I posted the reference just as a matter of interest regarding the formal reasons for naming children in the Victorian era. Class and status certainly mattered to the Halpins - to some of them at any rate - which explains the tremendously hostile reaction to my greatgrandfather's decision to marry out and 'down' - to marry Marianne, a Catholic and a 'cobbler's daughter'. If we're to locate the Cotters we perhaps need to concentrate our efforts on the maternal line running through Eaton's branch of the family.
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Brian, I'm compiling something solid on the Halpins and Macklenburg street (I think I misspell that street every time I refer to it). It's lengthy, so it will not be ready until the end of next week. Cheers.
From The Times, Friday November 20, 1846 (p.6):
Court of Bankruptcy, Bassinghall-street, November 19. An insolvent of the name of Halpin, described as of Grafton-street, Fitzroy-square, and who has been extensively connected with railways, including the Tring, Reading and Bassingstoke; the Cambridge and Colchester; the Barnet and North Metropolitan Junction; Great London and Leeds Direct; the Midlands Counties Coal-fields and Carriers; the Gloucester, Aberystwith, Sheffield, and Macclesfield Direct; the Merthyr Tydvil, and other projects, applied for his final order. His debts and liabilities were for a large amount, but chiefly arising out of railway affairs. He is stated in his schedule to be an author, and has, it appears, been connected with the provincial press. Mr. Commissioner Holroyd refused for the present to name a day for the final order.
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Somebody has posted this already, but I can't find it now.
From 'Prerogative Wills of Ireland- Index only' (?Bentham's extracts):
Mary Halpen, a widow of London, dead by 1770.
This seems to indicate:
The will went up for probate in 1770,
She lived in London, but her estate was in Ireland,
Who was she ? Are there any candidates that anyone knows of ?
I have managed to get one of these wills before. It just shows the names of the beneficiaries, but no other details. You can usually get an idea of family relationships though.
Bentham had the brilliant idea of making abstracts, and then all the originals were lost, I think in the Post Office fire of the 1920s.
Ken
p.s. Ray, yes you do keep misspelling
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I was rudely interrupted !
Ray, it's Mecklenburg St, 'MECK' not 'MACK'
Cheers,
Ken
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Halpin Church of Ireland Dublin Parish Extracts
[The following were extracted selectively from the site http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/search.jsp?, transcriptions of Parish Register holdings of the NLI for Kerry and Dublin. I have concentrated on Dublin Church of Ireland entries. Most has been cut and pasted and spellings are original.]
Marriage of JOHN GREVILLE of N/R and HANNAH HALPEN of N/R on 27 Dec 1740 Clondalkin C of I Parish
Burial of ROSE HALPIN of THOMAS STREET on 7 July 1745 St James C of I
Burial of PETER HALPIN of THOMAS STREET on 14 November 1745 St James C of I
Burial of WILLIAM HALPIN of CATHERINE STREET on 8 December 1746 St James C of I
Burial of SAMUEL HALPIN of FRANCIS STREET on 7 June 1750 St James C of I
Burial of FRANCIS HALPEN of FRANCIS STREET on 30 November 1751 St James
Baptism of JOHN HALPIN of N/R on 28 October 1753 St James C of I father James Halpin; mother Abigail
Marriage of LYCENCE RICHARD POOLE of N/R and HONORIA HALPIN of N/R on 20 Nov 1753 St Paul’s C of I
Baptism of THOS HALPIN of N/R on 10 August 1760 St James C of I father James Halpin; mother Abigail
Burial of PAUL HALPIN of N/R on 10 June 1761 St Catherine’s C of I
Baptism of GEORGE HALPIN of N/R on 14 March 1762 St James C of I father James Halpin; mother Abigail
Burial of THOS HALPEN of GOLDEN BRIDGE on 22 February 1764 St James
Baptism of WM HALPEN of WATLING ST on 18 July 1764 St James C of I father James Halpen; mother Abigail
Baptism of ANN HALPIN of CORK STREET on 2 Sept 1765 St Catherine’s father Jno Halpin; mother Mary Wood
Baptism of ANTHONY HALPEN of WALR ST on 5 April 1767 St James C of I father James Halpen, occupation weaver; mother Abigail
Burial of LEIUT RICH HALPEN of GOLDEN BRIDGE on 19 December 1767 St James
Burial of JOSHUA HALPIN of N/R on 24 October 1768 St Catherine’s C of I
Baptism of MARY HALPEN of N/R on 12 July 1774 St John’s C of I father Richd Halpen; mother Mary
Marriage of HENRY HALPIN of N/R and FRANCES JONES of N/R on 27 February 1775 St Paul’s C of I
Burial of MARY HALPEN of BRITIAN STREET on 25 February 1776 St James
Burial of MARY HALPEN of JAMES STREET on 25 May 1776 St James
Burial of JOSEPH HALPEN of BRITTAIN STREET on 15 October 1776 St James
Baptism of RICHD HALPIN of N/R on 14 Jan 1777 St John’s C of I father Richd Halpin; mother Mary
Burial of JAMS HALPIN'S HALPIN of N/R on 8 April 1778 St John’s C of I
Burial of JOSEPH HALPEN of COPPER ALLEY on 11 October 1781 St James
Burial of HARPER HALPEN of KILMAINHAM on 11 December 1785 St James
Baptism of RO HALPIN of DIRTY LANE on 14 May 1786 St Catherine’s C of I father Saml Halpin; mother Ann
Marriage of JOHN HALPIN of N/R and JANE STAMER of N/R on 18 August 1786 St Peter’s C of I
Burial of RICHARD HALPIN of GOLDEN BRIDGE on 9 August 1787 St James C of I
Baptism of HENRY HALPEN of BLACK PITS on 12 Aug 1787 St Nicholas Without father Thos Halpen; mother Alice
Burial of HALPEN of GOLDEN-BRIDGE on 22 March 1792 St James
Burial of MARY HALPIN of CHURCH STREET on 25 August 1794 St James C of I
Burial of ELIZABETH HALPIN of MARYBORAH on 20 September 1799 St Catherine’s C of I
Burial of JOHN HALPEN of KEVIN ST on 14 November 1818 St Peter’s C of I aged 80
Burial of A.N. HALPEN of PORTOBELLO died 8 June 1825 St Peter’s C of I aged 60
Marriage of GEORGE HALPIN of ST. JAMES' PARISH and MARGARET CAVANAGH of ST. JAMES'S PARISH on 14 June 1830, witness Charlotte Halpin
Burial of EDWARD HALPIN of NEW STREET 1833 St Peter’s C of I, aged 3
Baptism of FREDERICK YATES of RATHMINES on 8 June 1833, St Peter’s C of I, born 28 Apr 1833, father Frederick Horatio Yates; mother Caroline Halpen
Baptism of CAROLINE LOUISA HALPIN of RICHMOND HILL on 16 March 1835 St Peter’s C of I, born 19 Sep 1834, father Frederick Horatio Halpin; mother Caroline
Marriage of FREDERICK NORATIO (Horatio?) HALPEN of GREENWICK CO KENT ESQUARE and ELIZA SARAH WOLFENDEN of SALISBURY PLACE on 1 June 1841 St Peter’s C of I
Baptism of PAGOT HALPIN SWEENY of CAMDEN STREET N/R 1841 Crumlin C of I, father John Paget Sweeny; mother Matilda Yeates
Burial of PAGET HALPIN SWEENY of CAMDEN ST on 15 August 1842, St Peter’s C of I, aged 15 months. St Kevins Cemetery
Burial of MARGARET HALPIN of MEATH HOSPITAL on 20 June 1847 St Peter’s C of I, aged 49
Baptism of MARK HALPIN SWENY of 5 CAMDEN STREET DUBLIN on N/R 1850, Crumlin C of I, father John Paget Sweeny; mother Matilda Yeates
Burial of JOHN HALPIN of 5 DUBLIN UNION on N/R 1853, St James’s C of I, dod 23 Dec 1853, aged 20
Burial of JAMES HALPIN of S DUBLIN UNION on N/R 1855, St James’s C of I, dod 21 April, aged 63
Burial of JOHN HALPIN of THOMAS STREET on 9 January 1872 St Catherine’s C of I, aged 38
Bill Webster
January 2010
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Thanks for that Bill.
I can now write in the date of death for my Gr Great uncle, Paget Halpin Sweny, 1841-1842. I've always wondered what happened to him. He was the fourth child of John Paget Sweny (2) and Matilda Yeates. Fortunately the third child survived. She was Margaret Falkner Sweny, my great grandmother. There were 14 children altogether, from 1836 to 1860. Mark Halpin was the eighth, bapt. on 24.10.1850.
J P Sweny 1811-1883 was named after his uncle, who was a Major and a veteran of Waterloo 1815. His brother Mark Halpen Sweny was a RN Captain and a veteran of Trafalgar, 1805. They were sons of Eugene Sweny and Eliz. Halpen.
I thought that we had a few new names in the Yeates family, in spite of the different spelling, but I was wrong. Horatio and Frederick were common in our Yeates line. After Trafalgar, thousands of little English boys were called Horatio, so it's just a coincidence.
Great stuff, as they say on the Halpin Forum !
Regards,
Ken
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Outstanding contributions, lads. Our little game of one-upmanship ends here, though - for the time being I've nothing more to pull out of the hat - nothing relevant to this thread, anyway.
Will try harder to distinguish me Mackles from me Meckles, Ken. But is it burg or berg?
Remember, the men of Portarlington were RN men too - at least the two preceding Old Nic the headmaster. And in the brief glance I had at the possibilities of the Bradley line, they too may well have been officers under Nelson in the French wars (NB Brian). And if we leap forward a generation or two, my great great grand father, Wicklow Town Clerk, etc, was named Robert Wellington Halpin...I think some of our distant ancestors were blue-blooded Imperial patriots. Think about that for a minute - how would such men, veterans of some of the greatest victories in British naval history, respond to the rebellious political views and actions of their sons, nephews, neighbours? Think of the Australian veterans of Vietnam or WW11. Now think of the events in the run-up to the rebellion of 1798...The RN ex-Seamen of Portarlington were no different to today's flag-bearing veterans. This isn't meant to be a criticism of anyone's loyalties (far from it), merely a reference to the emotional partialities that had to exist back then. These are things we can relate to. And they will help us form an appreciation of the fraught inter and extra familial relationships that must have existed in 1798, when my family lore says the Halpin family split along political lines...the inter-familial tensions that existed in '98 resurfaced again in the revolutionary period 1914-1926, which puts a few neat parameters around our story.
Will be away for a week or so now. Hold the fort while I'm gone.
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I have just found a GEORGE HALPIN, born WICKLOW Wicklow, discharged from the army in 1800 aged 22. This of course provides an indicated year of birth about 1788.
My George Halpin senior is a candidate, year of birth 1789, calculated from his age given at death, 75 in July 1854.
However, could the army have provided the experience described in this article under the Heading "Founding Father of the Irish Lighthouse Service":
The 8 July 2004 marked the 150th anniversary of the death of George Halpin senior. George Halpin joined the Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin (the Ballast Board) on 26 September 1800 as Inspector of Works at the age of 21 in place of Francis Turnstall, deceased. The report of the Commission of Inquiry into the municipal corporations of Ireland (1835) defined Halpin as 'not an Engineer in the professional sense but was brought up as a builder'...........
Regardless, here is evidence of a George Halpin born Wicklow about 1788 (the year the colony of New South Wales was established as a settlement of penal transportation).
This record is among pre 1854 army discharge records held at the NLA Kew. Go to
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/search.asp?j=1,
enter the surname sought and in the Series type WO 97. The particular record found is at:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=-4001855&CATLN=7&Highlight=%2CHALPIN&accessmethod=0
Bill
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There seems to be some confusion about the Halpen/Paget/Sweny line. I'll try to explain, but it involves some speculation.
Mark Halpen of Maryborough married Mary Paget about 1740. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Eugene Sweny in 1777. I believe they also had a son, Paget Halpen, b. abt 1740. He became an engraver, of Dublin, active abt 1780-1810. Another Dublin engraver was Patrick Halpin (father of John Edmund, miniature painter) who was the same generation as Paget. I believe he was either Paget's brother or cousin.
John Halpin, bookseller (d.1810), same generation, was from Woodville, Q.C. and was probably closely related too.
We know nothing at all about the Paget family.
Paget Halpen mar. Margt, dau of Solomon Delane, landscape painter in 1794, and they seem to be the parents of Paget (jnr) b. 1795, who went to the US and became a sugar planter.
The children of Eugene Sweny and Elizabeth Halpen were: Mary, 1778, (Maj) John Paget 1780-1841,
Elizabeth 1782, (RN Capt) Mark Halpen 1783-1865, Eugene (jnr) 1785-1872.
I am descended from Eugene jnr. who was a coachmaker of Camden St, through his eldest son, John Paget Sweny (2) 1810-1883, who married Matilda Yeates.
Ken Cooke
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Bill,
Your Dublin Parish Extracts- I can identify one of the Halpins.
John Halpin, who married Jane Stamer at St Peter's on 18.8.1786 was the bookseller (& libeller).
I can't find the page now, I think it must be from the Oxford DNB:
John Halpin, bookseller, 55 Henry St 1786-1795, Sackville St 1796-1810, mar. Aug.1786 Jane, dau of late Thomas Stamer of Co Clare. Will proved 1811, succeeded by wife, Jane.
Ken
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Ken, thanks for that.
Did you spot among the parish register entries I posted a couple of days ago
Burial of ELIZABETH HALPIN of MARYBORAH on 20 September 1799 St Catherine’s C of I
This presumably was another, possibly related, family from Maryborough where Halpens or Pagets came from. Unfortunately the entry does not give her age. I wonder if there could be a record of her memorial inscription? If buried in Dublin but of Maryborough, it is unlikely to have been an infant death. Halpin could be her name or her husband's.
Of course she could be from any of the Queens County Halpins, Maryborough not a million miles from Portarlington.
The first Paget Halpen, by your figures, was in his 50s when marrying Margaret Delane. Nothing wrong with that but just querying whether there wasn’t room for a generation in between.
Bill
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Bill,
Yes, I did see the entry for Eliz Halpin d. 1799 but I don't know where she fits in.
Of course there could have been 3 generations of Pagets, and two of Marks. I've got Mark in England
marrying about 1718, and his daughter Eliz marrying in 1777. That's quite a big gap. Also Paget, who was a voter of M'borough in 1760, so must have been born before 1740.
Another thing that has just struck me- John Halpen of Woodville, Q'Co. mar. Mrs Swettenham (Eliz Toone) in 1800.
I had assumed that he was the bookseller, but the ODNB entry above says that his widow Jane survived him after he died in 1811. Must be a different John.
I wouldn't mind a bet that the 'marriage broker' was Eliz Sweny, nee Halpen, wife of Eugene, who was
Mrs Swet.'s first cousin.
Ken
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Bill, another bet !
Eliz Halpin bur. St Cath. Dub. 20.9.1799 was the wife of John H. of Woodville & Dublin.
He remarried, to Mrs. Swett. in Aug 1800.
Ken
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First class work, lads. On John Halpin, libeller and bookseller - he was hauled before Grattan's Parliament (mid 1790s) and asked to explain himself (I have the transcripts and will post them when I pull the finger out). Satisfied with his testimony he was immediately released. The libel in question was actually made by Lord Aldborough (a Whig) against Lord Fitzgibbon, Chancellor (Tory), in a pamphlet printed by Halpin but circulated privately. That last fact - circulated privately - saved Halpin from prison, but not Lord Aldborough. Lord Aldborough built a splendid city mansion which is still standing in Dublin, next to the Five Lamps in the North Strand, situated less than a hundred meters from the old Mecklenburgh street...
Ken, I'm delighted to see the link to a landscape painter because I found a few myself in my "sideways search" into the early Halpins. Must flesh that thread out in subsequent research.
Bill - great discovery on George. When I was researching Portarlington during the 98 rebellion I recall that the local Militia leader was rewarded for his success with a job - as head of the city institution George worked for. Almost no one got such appointments unless they were Protestant - and George would never have been given a position there in 1800 if the authorities were not absolutely certain of his political loyalty. It got me excited at the time because it suggested to me that George's social network must have had connections to Portarlington. Will track down names and dates.
It's beginning to come together, now - the bones of the Halpin saga are acquiring flesh.
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Bill, you may already have this, but I happened across Griffiths Valuation for Arklow, Co. Wicklow, and found:
Letitia Eaton and the Rev. Richard E Eaton of Main street Arklow.
Also, Susan Crozier, and the Watters John, Mathew, Patrick and Thomas.
Mary Ann Eaton died Jan. 3rd 1868 aged 38. Think she's buried at Seven Churches, Glendalough, Wicklow (was just Googling a few surnames last night).
And I'm afraid you just haven't been ambitious enough - check this out:
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/people/villiers-g.htm
Note Clarendon's activities at customs and excise - the George Halpins snr and jnr were nearby. And the surname Villiers belongs to one of your ancestors, to George jnr's wife. And there's another 'coincidence' - Marmion Savage, novelist and close friend of the Rev. NJ Halpin, was usher and keeper of the council chamber in Dublin castle during Clarendon's term of office, I believe. Curiouser and curiouser...
Are we simply re-establishing the structure of power in Ascendancy Ireland - unwittingly exposing the web of contacts and connections that put relatively humble clergymen from the equivalent of small outback towns a handshake or two away from the most powerful civil servants in Ireland at that time? All Protestant, of course. For those locked out of this system the spectacle of an Earl being on a first name basis with a clergyman must have been enraging. Of course, The Rev. NJ Halpin was editor of the Dublin Evening Mail - a high Tory newspaper with tremendous support from the C of I community - so he wasn't too lowly a clergyman I suppose, but he would have been obliged to have been critical of Clarendon (a Whig).
Lastly, a Mrs. Hannah Villiers founded the Villiers school in Limerick in 1821.
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It would be good to follow up those Eatons, Ray.
The Cozier is interesting. I know you have included the Watters for my benefit but I would discount these ones, thanks all the same. I will get to you off-list about Villiers.
Bill
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Bill,
I'm sure you have looked up the 1911 census for Wicklow, but if not I enclose the following.
Search results Displaying results 411 for all Ireland
Residents of house number 22 in Killincarrig (Greystones, Wicklow). The only 1 for County Wicklow
McAlister Robert, age 40, Head of Family, Brethren, Co Louth, Chauffeur.
McAlister Nellie, age 40, Wife, Brethren, born Co Louth, Married 15yrs, 4 children born 4 alive
Anna, age 14, Daughter, Brethren, born Co Dublin, Scholar
Mary, age 10, Daughter, Brethren, Co Dublin
John, age 8, Son, Brethren, Co Dublin
Ileene, age 2, Daughter, Brethren, Co Wicklow
Eaton, Oscar, age 20, Boarder,Presbyterian, born England, Electrician, Read write, Single
Julia
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Hi All,
Just discovered that my William George and Charlotte Elizabeth Bradley had a son called Sibthorpe Bradley who was L.R.C.S.I. The initials are Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland and thus Sibthorpe was a medic. Very unusual christian name and probably comes from the maiden name of a wife in an earlier generation. There were Sibthorpes who were well known doctors and I strongly suspect that a Sibthorpe girl married a Bradley, presumably in or around Dublin in the early to mid 19th Century. Does the surname Sibthorpe ring a bell with any of you Halpin people?
As detailed in this thread, the eldest son of William George and Charlotte Bradley married a Halpin - the two daughters of WGB and CB married a Martelli and a Brooke (ca 1850 probably) in case these names mean anything to anyone.
Best wishes,
Brian
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Hi,
I just checked the forum the other day and have been reading all the recent postings.
I found the chart attached for James Halpin helpful when I was reading through all the information about the different families. It also helps when checking different resources.
Bill do you have one for your family? Is there one for the decsendants of Robert Wellington Halpin?
Diane
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Hi Diane
For Robert Wellington Halpin, I would be happy to produce a chart but would need Ray to supply the names and connections. I know he has done so here and there, and possibly not completely. Also, Ray, I have never quite been clear on RW's father. I think you have stated that RW was a cousin of Captain Robert Charles Halpin, son of James Halpin, making his father a brother of James Halpin.
Ray is about to expound on the most likely connections of all the Halpins and I think he has strong circumstantial evidence of my George Halpin connections to the Portarlington line of Nicholas Halpins. I am not sure yet how he connects these to the Wicklow family except that James Halpin had been a brewer or publican (or both) in Dublin where the rest of the Halpins were at the time. It is a melting pot that I will leave to Ray.
At present I know nothing further back about my family than George Halpin born about 1779 and I am happy to attach here a chart. The intriguing and juicy part is that George junior and Julia had all their children while unmarried and we have seen that the children were baptised Villiers. The surviving children adopted their father's surname around 1865 at his request when George and Julia are said to have married. Thereafter Julia referred to herself as Halpin. Cynically, this may have been for inheritance reasons because George had a large portfolio of properties inherited or entailed from his father and George was clearly in declining health.
Lovely to hear from you again. Please update us on anything you have found.
Bill
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Thank you Bill!
It is so much easier to follow everything when I have a chart. I guess I am a visual learner.
Diane
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Hi,
I was looking at the Alumni Dublinenses: a register of the students, graduates, professors and provosts of Trinity College in the University of Dublin.
I noticed the were three Halpin boys:
Richard b 1799 Wicklow son of William, officer
William b 1801 Wicklow son of William , captain
John b 1803 Wicklow son of William , officer
Does anyone know who their father William was?
How do they tie in with the Wicklow Halpins?
Diane
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Was a bit of a shock seeing a thread by Christopher come up. He's been gone a while now.
Probably sitting up there with all his ancestors and all his questions answered as well. :D
Leonie.
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Hi Diane, good to have you back on board. William was a distiller located for a while in Dublin in the run-up to the 1798 rebellion. He was running a still at one time with his brother James, who also ended up in Wicklow after the rebellion, where he opened an inn and sired 13 children, one of whom was Captain Robert C Halpin. There was also another brother kicking around at that time - a Richard. Posting this on the run, so can't go into detail here. Will be in touch again in a few days. Cheers, R.
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1.
Conclusive Evidence of a Familial Link Between George Halpin snr and the Halpins of Portarlington, Queen’s county?
One of the reasons we visit a site like this is to find out as much factual information as we can about our ancestors - dates of birth, marriage and death, for example, as well as the names of mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, grandparents and great-grandparents. Where possible, we’d also like to find out what we can about who did what for a living, where they were born, where they lived out their lives and where they were laid to rest. In addition to this crucial information, we’d also like to know what our ancestors did with their lives – what, if any, historical events they were involved in, what journeys they set out on, where they went to and what they found when they got there. Much of this sort of information is hard to come by, but descendants of the Halpins have been exceptionally lucky in this regard – some of our ancestors were prominent enough to have left behind an unusually rich trove of artefacts, buildings, written material, newspaper reports and obituaries. As you know I’ve gone to the archives here in Ireland and retrieved records and compiled summaries of the best of that material. I’ve then brought that material to this site and shared it around – something a lot of you have thanked me for many times over. The braver among you, however, have had the gumption to moan about the way I clutter my presentations – don’t overload your sentences, you say; don’t talk about so many different things at once, it’s confusing; stick to one family at a time, and be clear about who they’re related to; create a simple family tree, so people can follow your chatter; and above all, please, say a little less about the lore and a little more about the facts and figures of the story. Well, I can hardly complain about feedback like that – it’s truthful, after all, and conveyed with the best intentions. From now on I will try to be clearer and more methodical. Bill, however, will have to look after the formatting of the family trees – he’s done a fine job so far and, as I’ve told him many times in our private correspondence, I’m very grateful to him for that. On the matter of the family lore, however, I intend to persist, although not to the same extent. It was the lore, after all, that prompted me to look into the Halpins in the first place and, for entirely personal reasons, it is the lore I’m anxious to verify.
The lore I’m talking about makes two fundamental claims:
a. that the Halpins of Wicklow and the Halpins of Portarlington were blood relations, and
b. that George Halpin snr, lighthouse builder and public works engineer, was related to both.
Without documentary evidence to back up those claims, many of you expressed doubts about their veracity. Those doubts are entirely understandable - I’ve had them myself many times. But I’m delighted to say that a few recent discoveries have made it seem likely that George Halpin snr really was a blood relative of the Portarlington Halpins. I made Bill Webster aware of those discoveries last weekend, and he was kind enough to acknowledge their importance and congratulate me for making them. I’ll present the evidence to you the way I presented it to Bill – without clutter but perhaps with a little too much chatter. Sorry about that:
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2.
1. William Bigger and George Halpin "gents" paid by Grand Jury Presentment (1807 - 1821) for "road repair".
2. 1821 (477) (Ireland) Grand Jury Presentments, Dublin (pp. 43 - 44):
To L. Crosthwaite, P. Roe and R. Shaw, esqrs. and George Halpin, gent, to repair 76 perches of road from Ringsend bridge to Artichoak road, between said bridge and Beggar's Bush road...£159 12 0.
To Leland Crosthwaite, Ralph Shaw and Peter Roe, esqrs. and George Halpin, gent. to repair the road from Dublin to the pigeon house, to wit, 372 yards of filling, 20 perches of gravelling, 36 perches of footpath, and 13 perches of footpath, to be made in Thorn Castle-street, and five perches of a sewer, beginning at Mr. Lilly's ropewalk gate, and ending at the pavement in Thorn Castle-street...£96 03 1.
To Leland Crosthwaite, Ralph Shaw, and Peter Roe, esqrs. and George Halpin, gent. to repair 46 perches of the high road from Dublin to Ringsend, beginning at Lilly's rope-walk, and ending at Michael Ginties [sounds like a pub]...£104 10 0.
3. The Corn Exchange Buildings Company, Burgh Quay (Incorporated 1815).
Directors: Leland Crosthwaite and Ralph Shaw esqs. (I know you won't forget that present day historians attribute the construction of the Corn Exchange to George Halpin snr.)
4. Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin (1826).
Chair: Thomas Crosthwaite (also listed as a Director in the Bank of Ireland) and George Roe.
Ballast Master William Bigger esq. Inspector of Works and Light Houses George Halpin.
5. Chambers of Commerce (Inst. 1820), Commercial Buildings Dame st.
Committee member Thomas Crosthwaite esq. Secretary Robert Roe esq.
6. Trustees of the Royal Exchange: Leland Crosthwaite, Thomas Hutton and George Roe (to name just a few).
7. Comissioners of Wide Streets (const. 1757): Thomas and Leland Crosthwaite, and George Roe.
8. Note also that in Cavan town the year after Charles Halpin's semi-retirement, we find Physician and Surgeon George Roe MD working at the local gaol and in the town infirmiry. You will recall that Charles Halpin was the Rev. N J Halpin’s younger brother.
9. We established elsewhere in this thread that in the 1840s the Reverend N J Halpin was living at an address in Seville place, which was owned by George snr.
10. Finally, the detail that alters the nature of the connections above from a professional to a familial one is this - in January 1787 William Henry Halpin of Portarlington married Marianne Crosthwaite. Their first child - a boy - was to become the Rev. Nicholas John Halpin.
Who were the Crosthwaites?
Leland Crosthwaite snr (c.1747 – 1826), was a miller and sugar merchant.
Thomas Crosthwaite (c.1782 – 1870), merchant and governor of the Bank of Ireland, worked for Leland Crosthwaite and Sons and owned flour mills in Leixlip, Co. Kildare and Co. Carlow (NB), and established a linen mill in Chapelizod, Co. Dublin.
Leland Crosthwaite jnr (c.1783 – 1852), must be George snr’s road-making workmate mentioned above.
Three Crosthwaite sisters married three sons of Joseph Hone (1747 – 1803), and – as you have since noted, Bill, it was solicitor Hone who oversaw the legal technicalities of the sale of some of George Halpin’s properties after his death.
What are we looking at here if not a tight social network? The repetition of names over the course of many years bears all the hallmarks of a high status family using its influence to look after friends and relations. They work on road repair, then on the improvement of the port of Dublin, on the construction of an important public building, and so forth. I bet if we had a look at the contracts written up for the construction of the bridges and lighthouses that George is credited with we'd find the mark of one or more of the gang. Jobs for the boys, nepotism, an ascendancy monopoly...
Of course, you will want documentary evidence of bloodlines, but they don't exist. I think we've almost certainly solved the mystery of George's family roots. His exact lineage, and precisely why he was so silent about it, will probably never be satisfactorily resolved. But the blood group, if not the exact blood line, has in all likelihood been identified. Will the history books be rewritten? Probably not, but what we've discovered may result in the rephrasing of a few lines of history, and that's no mean feat for a bunch of hobbyists.
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Very interesting Ray,
It is now pretty cear that the Halpins from Wicklow and Portarlington knew each other. Of course 'arranged marriages' were very much the way of doing things among the upper middle classes and entirely possible that Ms Crossthwaite was introduced as a 'suitable girl' to Mr Halpin of Porarlington. Is there any data on how Miss Marianne Crossthwaite was related to the Crossthwaite's you mention?
Best wishes, Brian
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Marianne Crosthwaite's connection to Leland and Thomas Halpin has not been established, Brian. It's supposition at the moment, based on the strength of the coincidence. The key might be to find out more about the Crosthwaites, which I'm doing now, and to concentrate on Marianne's husband, William Henry Halpin, about whom we know very little. Dianne is the expert on WH Halpin, and as she has pointed out here, all she could uncover about him was that he was a "gent". I've spent a bit of time looking at WH Halpin myself, and I can't come up with more than "gent" either. I'm thinking that there might be something in another possible connection through the Halpins to a John Henry (going on memory, now), who operated a mill in the Portarlington area. Leland Crosthwaite snr also ran a few mills, one of which was located in Co. Carlow, where Bill and I have found strong suspicions of Halpin family members. Because of the period we're dealing with - pre-1800 - it's very difficult to find reliable documentary evidence of blood lines...there's no paper trail, if you get my drift. We'll just have to keep plugging away, using a time-consuming technique I (laughably) call the coincidental loop - we target a specific family member, find out all we can about him, then move through the lives of his known associates, searching their lives for anything related to our interests. The process is slow, like I said, but by next week, by which time I'll have posted my findings on a number of key Halpin figures, you will discover just how fruitful this approach has proven to be.
You will notice that the Crosthwaites dealt in sugar. Ken Cooke (Reply 202, Tues. 19th Jan. 2010) alerted us to the fact that Paget Halpin jnr. (b.1795) went to the US and became a Sugar Planter. You will also note that three Crosthwaite sisters married three sons of Hone, thus uniting two of the most powerful banking families in Dublin at the time. The Hones also produced a number of artists, and as Ken mentioned in Reply 202, Paget junior's parents were Paget snr and Mary Delane, daughter of Solomon Delane, landscape painter. Now Paget snr. was an engraver residing at Mecklenburgh street, and Ken and I believe he was probably the brother or cousin of Patrick Halpin and John Edmund Halpin, miniature portraitists and engravers. You can see where I'm going to go from here, can't you - I'll ask the question: are there connections to be found among all of the artists mentioned? If we examine their lives, will we unearth anything about the Halpins more generally? I suppose we can only find out if we look.
For Solomon Delane:
http://www.mallettantiques.com/Public/Stock/FullZoom.aspx?ref=P2H0051&filename=P2H0051.jpg
http://www.artnet.com/Artists/LotDetailPage.aspx?lot_id=E0321B6ED48DA15E538F4004F8BF2753
http://www.artnet.com/Artists/LotDetailPage.aspx?lot_id=F2CBAA7B0EB422927EE182730F03829D
http://www.artnet.com/Artists/LotDetailPage.aspx?lot_id=FE6B8348002F7BD5
For Nathaniel Hone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hone_the_Elder
http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_datasets/authors/h/Hone,N%5Bb1718%5D/life.htm
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5193946
For information on “The Infant Daughter of Charles Halpin” by one of the Brocas, see:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/30105147
For examples of Halpin's work, see Kim's post Reply 128 on Sun. 28 June 2009 (p.9 of this thread).
I also found reference to John Edmund Halpin:
68 John Edmund Halpin, A Gentleman, wearing buttoned black coat, frilled white chemise and tied cravat, his hair worn en queue £2,040
From Bonham Sale Results - Sale 12216, Portrait Miniatures - The property of a Lady part II, 27 Apr 2005
New Bond Street
(I don't know if this is an actual portrait of John E Halpin, or if it's merely one by him. It would be nice to find out).
I'll have some info on the Bradleys and Sibthorpes to post to you tomorrow, Brian - all the best.
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Ray,
I have discovered the Sibthorpe-Bradley link. Sibthorpe Bayley, a solicitor who worked with William James Bradley, was his brother-in-law. Irish Pedigrees (available on-line) gives the Bayly pedigree and mentions all my Bradley family as WJB married Caroline Foster Bayly.
Interested to hear what you discovered, Ray.
I guess you old Irish hands know 'Irish Pedigrees'. For those who don't you can read it all at:
http://www.archive.org/stream/irishpedigreeso02ohagoog#page/n6/mode/2up
Brian
Best wishes, Brian
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Looks like we are getting somewhere. Your methods seem to be paying off, Ray.
I have one reservation though, about Paget Halpen and Margaret Delane, daughter of Solomon.
Solomon's father was Rev Richard D. mother poss. Sarah. Sol born 1727 (Tipperary ?) His father died 1750 and his elder brother Richd.died 1752, leaving Sol with income from properties in Dub & other places. Associated with JOS. HALFPENNY of York, 1748-1811, topographical engraver & watercolour painter. Sol died 1812 Dublin
(?Hawkins St) .
He went to Italy about 1762 and returned to Ireland in 1782 and married. If Margt. was his daughter, she would have been too young to marry in 1794. He could have been married before, but Margt would have been at least 32 if she was the daughter of an earlier marriage.
Another scenario is that her mother was a widow, and S.D. gave his name to his wife’s child(ren).
Regards,
Ken
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- House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (HCPP) 1900 [Cd. 4] “Appendix to the 13th report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records...” –
Marriages: Homan, Emily and Luke Sibthorpe 1815
Myler, Mary and H J Sibthorpe 1815
There are many jury presentments for Luke Sibthorpe – it seems he glazed most of the courthouses of Ireland.
- HCPP – 1829 (235) Apothecaries Hall, Dublin: Henry James Sibthorpe, Licensed Apothecary Feb. 5th 1828.
Charles Halpin, Summerhill, Licensed Apothecary, June 4th 1824...Also, October 27 1814.
- HCPP – Dublin Jury lists for 1844 (357): Luke Sibthorpe, Glazier...John Sibthorpe, Corkhill, Glass Merchant...H J Sibthorpe, Corkhill, Apothecary.
Bradley, W J Solicitor and Secretary to the Trustees of the Malahide turnpike roads, 26 Mecklenburgh street.
(Almanack Registry Post Office Directory 1834). Also Halpin, James 32 Old Dominick St.
Savage, Marmion 24 Mecklenburgh street.
Savage, John Carver gilder and looking-glass manufacturer 51 Pill lane. Also agent to Foley and O’Connell Cork-glass-warehouse, 48 Sackville street.
Joshua F Bradley painter of China and stainer of glass, 27 William st. And 4 Clarendon st.
What follows is from Thom’s 1848 – Bradley, William James and William George, solicitors 123 Gloucester street.
Bradley, George esq. 26 Mecklenburgh street.
Sibthorpe Charles esq 4 Epworth Tce Leeson street
Sibthorpe, Henry and Son, painters, importers of window and plate glass and Agents to the Thames Plate Glass Co. 11 Corke street.
Sibthorpe, Henry James MD/MRCSENG Lying-in Hospital, Britain st. Great.
Keating, John 33 Lower Mecklenburgh street.
Keating, Rht Hon Richatd LL.D judge of the Prerogative Court, 21 Merrion sq sth...Maurice and Richard Keating share the same address.
- HCPP – 1847-48 (327-I-VII) 1. Public Works and Buildings...year ending 31 March 1849. For Pension to Emily Sibthorpe, retired Matron of Medical Hospitals 72yo – 16 years service - £27 p/a. (p. 139).
Ditto to Julia Halpin, superannuated Head Nurse of the Richmond Surgical Hospital – 51yo – 11 years service - £15 p/a. (p. 139).
- HCPP _ 1835-42 Poor inquiry (Ireland). Appendix (C.)—Parts 1 and 2. Reports on the state of the poor, and on the charitable institutions in some of the principal towns...
The Benevolent Strangers’ Friend Society: Mr. John Sibthorpe – I am secretary to the Benevolent Strangers’ Friend Society; it is an honorary office...The institution is similar in constitution to the Strangers’ Friend Society; none are admitted to be members but Methodists. The origin of the society, in the first instance, was by some young men uniting together for the purpose of visiting and giving religious instruction to the poor. They met with so much distress, that they raised a subscription amongst themselves...The objects of the society are to relieve all poor, except mendicants. We assist people in getting passes to England...I think, in food and clothing, the poor are much in the same situation as they were six years ago. My intercourse with the poor has not been very extensive in other districts besides my own.
(Could only give you a flavour of that testimony, Brian).
- HCPP – 1881 [C.2779]...Commission of Inquiry into the working of the Landlord and Tennant Act.
Statements of Thos. S. Sibthorpe Esq. And his agent, Robert Owen Esq. [about land leased originally by Sibthorpe’s father]...Mr. John McMahon of Crubbin, Ballyroan Queen’s Co. Leased land (£60 p/a) from the late John Sibthorpe, Cork Hill.
(Again, can’t present much of the testimony to you, Brian – but I’ve given the reference, which will help you track it down. Not all I’ve posted this time is relevant to you, but I thought it was worth noting the overlapping interests in glass – it may provide us with a useful avenue of enquiry. Cheers.)
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Thanks to Brian's reminder about Irish Pedigrees, into which I have just been delving after a long time, we find at the following link to page 544 that a John Halpen was juror who condemned Robert Emmet in 1803. Would that have been public information at the time and therefore potentially dangerous?
http://www.archive.org/stream/irishpedigreeso02ohagoog#page/n572/mode/2up
Bill
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It's more than that, Bill - it may be the first concrete evidence we've found to confirm the lore: that the Halpins split and went their separate ways over political differences. I've mentioned this before - William and James Halpin were distillers in pre-revolutionary Dublin. They were reported by a Castle spy as being among those with the most revolutionary zeal (I'll post the documentation another time). When Emmett was under lock and key in Kilmainham gaol William and James attempted to bust him out. The attempt failed. I know who your John is, but I did not know about his role in the condemnation of Emmett. This is a significant find.
By the way, I'd heard about Irish Pedigrees, but I thought it was a source book for horse breeders.
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Ray, if it is this James who went to Wicklow, how come his family became so Establishment?
And I asked Diane directly, if this James's brother William put 3 sons through TCD in about 1815, how did he become an Officer/Captain in Wicklow, starting out a brewer/distiller in Dublin?
Just curious.
Bill.
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Ray,
Thanks for all the Sibthorpe etc data. There must been a Sibthorpe who married someone to get Sibthorpe as a first name as in Sibthorpe Bayly and Sibthorpe Bradey, but as Sibthorpe Bayley was 50 years or so before Sibthorpe Bradley it was probably a Sibthorpe-Bayly marriage. Anyway, this is wandering off the Halpin topic.
Amused about the horse pedigree comment!
Bill - what software do you use to produce simple trees as pdf's that you mount on this board??
BW Brian
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They're good questions, Bill. But I wouldn't describe James - who became an innkeeper in Wicklow many years after the death of Emmett - as an "Establishment figure"...he pulled beers for a living, as did a few other insurrectionists, some of whom ended up living out their lives in Australia. A man's role in an offense against the state did not necessarily ruin him for life. The Whigs often pardoned revolutionaries and, if permitted to stay in Ireland, or to return after a period of exile, many ex-revolutionaries went into business for themselves. That didn't mean they were always free of harassment - I recall reading the memoirs of an Irish rebel who ended up in Australia. He spoke about being driven abroad by harassing government agents who used to enter his inn in Dublin for the sole purpose of starting fights or political arguments. That kind of harassment was not unusual but it wasn't inevitable, either. James's son's became well-liked and well-respected members of the Wicklow community, but only Robert C. Halpin could credibly be described as an establishment figure.
Secondly - the fact that William (a distiller) put his lads through Trinity means nothing at all. Trinity was a breeding ground for young members of the Society of United Irishmen. The Rev. NJ Halpin was awarded a university prize when he wrote an atrocious poem in praise of King George, but as one reviewer at the time put it, the tripe deserved praise if only to discourage young would-be revolutionaries studying in Trinity from becoming the real thing. But the fact that William became a ranking military man certainly does require an explanation, one I can't give at the moment. Another Halpin abroad in Wicklow during the troubles in the post 1798 period - Thomas Halpin - was almost pathological in his devotion to the Irish cause, but that didn't stop him changing his tune when Sirr caught and threatened to kill him. Despite his past, Halpin went on to become a very effective informer and operator in the British military. There seems to be a perception among some that life in and around the beginning of the 19th century was plainly black or white - either you were for Irish liberty and opposed to English rule, or you weren't. The truth is, most lived somewhere in between, in great moral and political ambiguity. Men fought on one side, and turned up years later as men of rank on the other. When the British navy went to war in 1812, it depended heavily on Irish Catholics to man its fleet, and many of those men had known links to a rebellious past.
So, as of yet I have no idea how William became a man of rank in the British army. Further research may shed some light on that issue. It could also prove me wrong, and the lore - or my understanding of it - completely inaccurate. It's not the bloody gospel I'm writing here. That fact is surely obvious to everyone who visits this site. If I've been mistaken about that - if I've misled anyone into thinking that what I say, or the replies I post, can't be contradicted, then I'm sincerely sorry. That was never my intention.
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Ray, I do not, and would not, query your methods. Please may they continue? We are all immeasurably richer for them. We can barely wait for your next posting.
My much inferior role has been to ask questions, seek explanations.
This has brought forth today your most valuable portrayal of the melting pot in which these passionate people existed.
At the equally marvellous Rootsweb Carlow list (http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/intl/IRL/IRL-CARLOW.html), recently there has been a series of accounts about the misery inflicted on a catholic tenant, Anne Watters, and her family by a pathologically bigoted anglo-irish landlord, Mr Denis Pack-Beresford. I have ancestry from a Church of Ireland family of Watters who leased about 105 acres in Carlow from Viscount Beresford from the 1840s or before. I am not sure how these Berefords may have been related but I was apprehensive that my Watters family had been given the farm lease in place of a catholic family who had been evicted by "hanging-gale" Beresford.
Today, Mick Purcell, doyen of researchers and contributors to the Carlow list, felt compelled to write a long piece making clear that many, the majority of, landlords were fair, not rapacious and even charitable and that many of the magistracy went out of their way to be just and fair. It was a continually fraught atmosphere for all. As I say, a melting pot.
But, to return to my previous posting and questioning. When I see some of this information that gives rise to questions, I feel I have to put those questions out there, which may lead sometimes to clarification or other times unfortunately to confusion. And sometimes we interpret things differently. For example, Ray assumed that William Halpin, when he put his sons through TCD around 1815, was an army officer, a captain. My assumption was that he may have been a ship’s officer or captain.
Either is possible, especially depending on connections and money. Military commissions in those days were by purchase, usually starting at ensign or lieutenant. I suppose William between 1803 and 1815 could have achieved that. On the nautical side, I can’t see him having become a navy captain in such a time but perhaps if he had purchased his own ship/s he could have described himself as an officer or captain, or he could have been such on a ship owned by a friend or relative. Maybe he was a captain of militia.
It is all interesting.
Bill
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Brian, I use a no-frills family history program, Brothers Keeper, but the pdf files do not come from within it as they may from others. I have had installed a free pdf writer program called CutePDF, which installs as far as I can see as a printer program. When Brothers Keeper brings up, say, a tree chart, and I select "Print", CutePDF is one of the printer options. Clicking on that option, I am asked where I want to save the pdf file and there it is. Simplicity itself.
Bill
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A contribution including the names raised recently can be found here:
Directory: DUBLIN- Wilson's Dublin Directory - 1801 Merchants, Traders, &c.
Copyright 2007, Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/dublin/
WILSONS DUBLIN DIRECTORY FOR THE YEAR 1801
MERCHANTS, TRADERS, &c.
Bill.
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The following has been brought here before but I now want to emphasise the solicitors acting for the defendant, Hone & Kinahan. Hones were long-standing solicitors for the Dublin Halpins, here representing the late FREDERICK HALPIN, HOTELIER OF WICKLOW TOWN in 1859.
Newspaper:WICKLOW - Irish Times May 3, 1859 HALPIN v HALPIN
Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/copyright.htm
http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/wicklow/
Contributed by Mary Heaphy
________________________________________________
Was the Frederick mentioned successor to the Bridge Tavern on James Halpin's death in1847? Were there two Halpin hoteliers in Wicklow Town, in competition? How was Frederick related? Might he have been a son to a first marriage by James Halpin or was he a son of William Halpin? If we could see the trial papers we may see who the nieces were and who were the plaintiffs (his own children or siblings?).
Bill.
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Check:
1803 County: KILDARE - EMMET'S REBELLION; Extracted from 'THE UNITED IRISHMEN - APPENDIX VI'
Copyright 2007, Ireland Genealogy Project Archives, All rights reserved.
Bill
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Directory: DUBLIN - Wilson's Dublin Directory - 1783 A-C
Copyright 2007, Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
Directory of Merchant and Traders of the City of Dublin by Peter Wilson 1783.
Available at the NLI Dublin
Crossthwaites listed
(Does anyone have access to the whole of this early Directory? This is close to the time that Marianne Crosthwaite is said to have married W H Halpin.)
Bill
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Directory: DUBLIN - Wilson's Dublin Directory - 1783 A-C
Copyright 2007, Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
Directory of Merchant and Traders of the City of Dublin by Peter Wilson 1783.
Available at the NLI Dublin
Crossthwaites listed
(Does anyone have access to the whole of this early Directory? This is close to the time that Marianne Crosthwaite is said to have married W H Halpin.)
Bill
I have a copy of this directory - Treble Almanac & Dublin Directory - 1783, which contains Wilson's Dublin Directory. The only three Crosthwaite entries that I see are the ones you have listed above.
There's a couple of Halpin entries.. in case these are of interest :
Henry Halpen, hatter, 13 E. Arran-street
Richard Halpen, Wine-cooper, 44 Winetavern-street
Patrick Halpin, Engraver, 35 Temple Bar
Shane
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Hi,
Great stuff the last few days.
I was just looking at the website Families in British India www.fibis.org and it had a number of references to Halpins.
Oswald Halpin was on an index to cadetship papers and the records themselves might give further details about his family.
Diane
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Diane
That is a great site I did not know about. Thank you. The cadetship papers are potentially very rich because they include proof of age and, I quote: usually in the form of a certified copy of an extract from his baptismal record, names and occupations of his parents, reference to his schooling plus the necessary letter of recommendation from a member of the EIC's Court of Directors.
To get this I will have to order a couple of LDS films, which could take weeks or months. The records are also apparently in the British Library, not exactly handy.
There is heaps of other information at the site. I will leave a teaser:
Information removed due to copyright violation. See http://www.rootschat.com/forum/copyright.php for more details
Ref: http://www.search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_detail.php?id=14423
Note his home address. If a Captain in 1839, estimate birth ca. 1800-1810. Anything known of "Castle Forbes"?
Bill.
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Bill,
I found a bit more about Capt Richd Halpin:
At Dinapore on the 21st inst. by drowning from the accidental upsetting of a boat,
Capt. Halpen of Her Majesty’s 49th Regt of foot, deeply regretted by his brother officers
to whom he had justly endeared himself by his high and sterling qualities as an accomplished gentleman, an officer and a friend. Parbury’s Oriental Herald 1839
Halpin - Captain Richard - 49th Foot - died 21st March 1839.
Grave at Resurgam - "Sacred to the memory of Captain Richard Halpin, H.M. 49th Regt. who departed this life March 21st 1839, aged 38 years. This tomb is erected by his brother officers as a token of their high esteem." glosters.tripod.com/offzdiedh
So we have his age, born abt 1801. By the way, At Dinapore was buried Gen. Sir William Toone, of Dublin
in Aug. 1822. His sister was Mrs Eliz. Swettenham, who (re)mar. John Halpin (?bookseller) in 1802.
Regards,
Ken
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Correction-
John Halpen (not Halpin) of Woodville Queens County married Mrs Swettenaham relict of Alderman Kilner city of Dublin Aug 1800, from page 127 Hibernian Mag.
Ken
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Hi,
Glad the website was helpful. It looked like it could provide some valuable information.
In the will index on Irish Origins there was a listing for :
Testor Name: Nicholas Halpin
Date of Will: 1836
Where proved/granted: Meath Diocese
Executor Last Name: Halpin
Executor First Name: C.
Executor Address: Spiddal
Document Type: Will
Document Status: Transcript
NA Ref: IWR/1836/F/722
Volume Name: 4/236/28
Has anyone ever seen this will?
Diane
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Just to tidy up-
Should be: Eliz. SWETTENHAM, mar John HALPEN, AUG. 1800 !
Capt Richd Halpin would be buried at the English (?military) Cemetery at Dinapore (now Danapur) on the Ganges, just to the west of Patna in Bihar State.
I think 'Resurgam' is an error in transcription. It is Latin, meaning "I shall rise again" and was used in death notices (like RIP). (It's in every Requiem)
Ken
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I did a google book search and came across an entry for a Halpin in Portarlington.
The Gentleman's and London Magazine: or Monthly Chronologer1741-1794
1785
Deaths for June & July
At Portarlington Mrs. Mary Ann Halpin.
Do you think it is possible that William Henry was married twice, both women named Mary Ann/ Marianne?
I always wondered why Marianne Halpin (1785-1857) was born before the marriage of William Halpin and Marianne Crosthwaite. I had assumed it might be a typo in Burkes Landed Gentry. Perhaps though her mother died at her birth and William remarried in 1787.
Or it could be another family entirely.
Any thoughts,
Diane
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Another Google Book search found:
Obituarys 1808
Sept 8
Much regretted Mrs Halpin, wife of W.H. Halpin esq of Dublin.
The Gentleman's Magazine: and Historical Chronicle for the Year 1808.
Could this be Marianne Crosthwaite?
Diane
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Good information, Diane.
Others will have different takes on this but - all your speculations on Mary Ann/Marianne presently seem possible. Another possibility I suppose is that Mary Ann is William Henry's mother whom we only know as Anne du Bois.
Please correct me but my recollection is that our main source for any of this is a Burke's entry on the Halpins of Ford Lodge, Cavan (can someone please redirect me to a link for this?). And that information most likely came from someone in that family, open to the usual mistakes, misrecollections, guesses and lore that gather with time and sometimes outright self-serving fibs (not necessarily here).
However, I would think that the 1808 death would be that of Marianne Crosthwaite. Her son WH had not yet married.
The 1836 will of a Nicholas Halpin is very interesting if it is not Rev NJ Halpin, who died in 1850. Could it be that this is a will that NJ made in 1836, not one that was proved then? If it is not NJ, could it be a previously unknown brother of WH and uncle of NJ? There is every logic to that. Nicholas Halpin school owner of Portarlington would surely have named a son Nicholas if he had more sons than we know of. Is there a Nicholas Halpin about (other than Rev NJ) who would fit the bill. And, it provides another link to Meath (and Cavan?).
Bill
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Hi,
In "Thom's Directory of Ireland" 1850 I found my great great grandfather Frederick Halpin living next door to a Mrs. Mary Byrne on Prospect Terrace in Kingstown.
Could it be the Mary Halpin who married Patrick Byrne?
I found it through an advanced Google book search. There were about thirty listings for Halpins and several for Crosthwaites.
Diane
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In regards to the Thom's Directory you have to click on more editions to get the one for 1850.
Diane
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Nicholas Halpin's will has been lost or mislaid - there is a reference to it as being in existence at the National Archives but a request for it turns up papers of no relevance whatsoever. Nicholas Halpin was a Catholic landholder in county Meath, and he turns up on the platform (along with quite a few others) next to O'Connell at one of the latter's Monster rallies (Tara, I think). There is a press record of the details of his will, and of his children's names - but it's buried somewhere in my files at the moment. Will try to dig it up. There is mention of a conversion in the lore, and I have wondered if Nicholas might be a candidate. But there is no mention of an exact date, nor of the direction of the conversion - from Catholic to Protestant, or the other way round. I will be too preoccupied with other archival pursuits to follow this 'connection' up.
On the matter of the names "Halpen" and "Halpin" - they were often interchangeable, as the spelling of surnames (of the language in general) prior to about the 1820s was a little slippery, mostly due to phonetic misunderstandings, I think. Will have more to say on both matters - and outstanding issues - at a later date.
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Di, Mary Villiers (by then Halpin) married Patrick Byrne about 1868. Bill
PS. Don't forget Villiers, please, in any TCD searches. B.
Hi,
In "Thom's Directory of Ireland" 1850 I found my great great grandfather Frederick Halpin living next door to a Mrs. Mary Byrne on Prospect Terrace in Kingstown.
Could it be the Mary Halpin who married Patrick Byrne?
I found it through an advanced Google book search. There were about thirty listings for Halpins and several for Crosthwaites.
Diane
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More on Oswald Halpin, only other known child of George Halpin senior, who had put Oswald up to Trinity College Dublin.
We have seen recently that Oswald applied for a cadetship in the East India Company armies in 1825-26 and that he died in Bombay in August 1834 serving as a Lieutenant with the 7th Regiment Native Infantry, aged given as 25. This would indicate an age of about 17 when he applied for the cadetship.
Ray particularly will be pleased to see that Oswald sailed for Bombay from France. This gets ever more like a family scion taking off for the French Foreign Legion except that this is for a private army in India. Was young Oswald fleeing his family, or Ireland, or just seeking adventure?
Source, the Bombay Calendar 1828. Arrival Jan 23 1827 by French ship Anna Maria, captain Pelletier. Mr O Halpin, Cadet, passenger and ship origin Bordeaux, 1st port The Cape.
Bill
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CORRECTION:
My reply to the question about Nicholas Halpin of Spiddal Co. Meath was mistaken. I doublechecked things today - a microfilm copy of the details of the will exists in the National Archives in Dublin. The executor's name is difficult to make out, but I think it's either Cahal or an abbreviation of Cathrine. There was "no inventory" and all property was "under the value of £100". The will was proved in county Meath on the 6th Dec. 1836. There were no other details.
I had confused Nicholas Halpin of Spiddal county Meath with John or James Halpin, of Nobber Co. Meath. I checked out both (and many others too) some time ago and was relying on memory when I replied first. While I'm not certain yet, I think the Halpins of Nobber might be related to Gen. William George Halpin, of Cincinnatti, who was involved in a failed Rising in Dublin in the late 1860s. I'll have more to say about him another time. I believe the rest of the info I provided is accurate.
For the sake of thoroughness I suppose it might be a good idea to follow up every Halpin name mentioned in this thread. But investigations of that sort depend on resources I don't have. Generally, research time is of the essence, and I - for what it's worth - decided to concentrate my efforts on leads other than those mentioned above - leads which appeared to me to offer more by way of information on the three Halpin families that tend to dominate discussions here. From now on my focus will be on them alone. I will concentrate on transferring every document I have (in summary form) onto this site. It will take some time, and I will defer my answers to most questions until after I've completed the transfer. The task will begin in a couple of weeks. In the meantime I'll post a few things I'm currently putting the finishing touches to. Once everything's finished, you'll know what I know.
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Spiddal and Nobber are adjacent and so this could be one of the Nobber family. But we should keep aware of all people, as you say, Ray.
Bill
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Thanks for all your interesting posts. I just noticed a website which gives biographies of journalists from 1800 (http://www.scoop-database.com/search/) and which has entries for Rev Nicholas John Halpin, Charles Graham Halpin and William Henry Halpin. Has anybody seen these 'Scoop' biographies - I suspect they will not include any information you have not already unearthed but if nobody has looked at them you can access for a day for £5.
Best wishes, Brian
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My Halpin connection appears to be from Meath rather than Wicklow, and certainly not, as far as I am aware, from such as distinguished a lineage as many of those on this thread, but a couple of co-incidences have cropped up and I was wondering if some kind person could point me in the right direction. My grandmother was Mary Ann Brennan born 1911 in Meath. I know very little about her family apart from her mother being Maggie and that she had a full sister Pauline and other unnamed brothers and a half sister Angela Halpin. I am a complete novice at Irish genealogy and have struggled to find details on Mary Anne so I thought I might be able to find her through the Halpin link. I eventually found her mother Maggie on the 1911 census listed at house 49 Betaghstown-Julianstown. The head of household is her sister Mary Anne Halpin aged 38. Maggie is also 38 and married less than one year to James Brennan aged 30, a labourer of Kings County. I then looked on IGI and found Marianne and Margaret Halpin born in 1873 to Nicholas Halpin and Mary Gynene Halpin of Meath. They seem to have a younger sister Ellemira, possibly an older brother Patrick and Mary Gynene's maiden name may have been Byrne. The family were Roman Catholics. I apologise for butting in on this thread, but the Nicholas Halpin name kept cropping up with a link to Meath, and while there seems to be no obvious connection, perhaps someone can help.
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I'm afraid I don't have much to say about Nicholas Halpin of Meath, other than what I've said already. I'll be back in the archives in Dublin in a couple of weeks and I'll spend a little time looking for anything I can find on your ancestor. If I find anything, I'll pass it on. Cheers, R.
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Hello,
My name is Robert Halpin, son of William Halpin, Grandson of William 'Willy' Halpin of Hawthorn Tce.
I hope to join your interesting discussion which I have been following closely.
My aunt Tilly(sister of Conny) told me the afore mentioned Murphy who controversially married Edwin was the sister of Fr Murphy of old Killcormac. Is this accurate by your accounts?
I have much to share with all of you and look forward to more posts from you all
Kind Regards
Robert Halpin
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Hello Robert. You and I must be cousins of a sort. Your grandfather William was my grandfather's older brother. I'm delighted to see another Halpin with Dublin roots join the discussion.
I know very little about Marianne - William's mother. She was a Wexford girl, from the town of Wexford. Her father, William Murphy, was a shoemaker and a fiercely opinionated champion of working class rights, but I don't know if he was ever an active unionist. Marianne married William's father - Edwin - in Wexford town in 1883. He was about twenty nine at the time and she was either sixteen or ninteen, depending on which documents you read. I'm told large gaps in the ages of brides and grooms were common in country towns and rural Ireland right up till the mid sixties, but I don't know how reliable that is. At any rate, all I know about Marianne is that she died in 1911 or 1913 and that she was a teacher. Beyond these slim pickings purely factual information about her is hard to come by. I certainly didn't know she had a brother - Fr. Murphy of Killcormac. If you mean the Father Murphy who featured so prominently in the Wexford rebellion in 1798 - that can't be correct, since he was nearly 70 years dead by the time she was born. She may have been a descendent - but then every Murphy in Ireland claims that. I will try to find out what I can about him.
Once again, delighted you could join the conversation. Cheers, Ray.
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Thanks Ray for the information about the will of Nicholas Halpin. One can always live in hope that it is a family member.
Diane
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thanks again for all your research look forward to read all of what you dig up
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Ken, you may have seen, but others may not, that your Paget Halpins go way back.
From Alumni Dublinenses:
HALPENNY, PAGITT, Pen (Dr Hinton, Queen's Co.), Nov 1, 1698, aged 16; s of Nicholas, Generosus; b. Queen's Co.
Here is a Nicholas Halpin who had a son born about 1682, so we can conjecture about his own birth but surely before 1660.
Bill (thanks to Diane).
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Thanks Bill & Diane,
So the name Paget Halpen stretches from 1682 to 1906 ! This is an important discovery and I'm really grateful.
It seems to confirm my suspicion about the names of the parents of Elizabeth Halpen who married Eugene Sweny in 1777. Their sons had the middle names Halpen and Paget, but there is no real proof that Eliz.'s mother was Mary Paget, wife of Mark Halpen.
I have found other examples of dubious research in Pedigrees held by the old Office of Arms and even the Society of Genealogists, London.
Now it looks like Paget was a first name from as far back as the latter 17th century. It could have been from a surname, but further back than we thought.
I have no problem with the variants 'Halpenny' or 'Pagitt'. I know that 'pen' stands for 'pensioner' meaning a student who pays his own fees & lodging.
I wonder who Dr Hinton was, perhaps his teacher, or the one who referred him. If 'generosus' refers to Nicholas, perhaps he was known as a generous man in the community. Looks like we're all descended from, or related to, a 'Nicholas'.
This is valuable information even if it poses more questions.
Regards,
Ken
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Ken, you would have come across this sometime but I was very pleased to be the bearer. As you say, this is a very important, a defining, discovery.
Diane will be providing a list, to me I think, of the meanings of terms such as generosus, and I propose to try to contribute a spreadsheet of the information she has gleaned when I have it altogether, but I couldn't wait to send you your news.
Generosus, by the way, I am confident will be shown to mean "gentleman". I believe the essence of the term gentleman is that, whatever he did do, he was not obliged to work for a living. In other words, he had independent means. In days of no income or estate taxes, if a man was prudent, such status could be passed indefinitely down generations. We had the term gentleman farmer, which in effect meant that he had so much land that he could employ workers or receive rents - or both. Such a man could even be a tenant himself but of such proportion that he could sublet.
Glad your researches are coming together.
Bill
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Full marks for all of the recent discoveries. They really can't be bettered. The discovery of Halpenny is significant - a phonetic spelling of the gaelic hAlpine. There were leaders of the Picts (a Celtic tribe that appeared to straddle the north east of Eire and the adjacent coastal lands of the UK around the time of the Roman invasion) who bore that name. In my study of old Wicklow documents many of the Halpin names vanish and are replaced by Halpennys (moving backwards through time). So it seems Halpenny became Halpin at some stage, which would vindicate the geneologists over here, who've maintained that claim for years. I think the switch from hAlpine ('people of the hills'?) to Halpenny probably took place between the departure of Cromwell and the Williamite wars. But theses are musings, on what are vital discoveries. Excellent work.
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Ray,
I beg to disagree about the name.
When you google in Halpen or Halpin, you often get 'Halpern'. That is a Jewish name, from 'Heilbrunn' (holy well) from the Jewish quarter of Wurtemberg. Some Jews of that name came to England and changed their names to
'Hallywell', meaning the same thing.
Halpenny comes from halfpenny, an English (anglo-Saxon) word.
The third variation comes from the Celtic 'Alpin' (see Kenneth Mc Alpin) whatever it means.
I believe that the Irish Halpins/Halpens come from the English 'Halfpenny', and
that it gradually changed to 'Halpenny', then 'Halpen' etc.
Of course, some Alpins could have become Halpins, but so far, I have not seen any ambiguous examples in our Forum.
Ken
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Your point's well made, Ken, and a more convincing explanation of the derivation of the Halpin surname - at least in terms of our lines of inquiry. Do you think the Halpins might have turned up in Eire as members of Cromwell's army, or as Williamite soldiers? If they did, it would make sense of the Portarlington connection, since that town was settled by Williamite loyalists, including Huguenot allies fleeing Catholic persecution. Would a check of the enlisted men in the Williamite armies turn up any Halpins? - a rhetorical question: I don't know if such a list exists.
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Ray, I wouldn't like to speculate about how and when the Halpens came to Ireland. I looked up Halpen & Halfpenny on Family search (IGI) just now.
I see that there were Halpens in England from about 1757, but there were
Halfpennys from 1562 at least.
Mark was noted in the early 1700s as Halpin, Halpen, Halpenn, Halpenny, Halfpenn & Halfpenny. All these refer to the same person. It sounds as if the name was in transition, and also as if people knew that Halpen came from Halfpenny (like Smith and Smythe today).
Bill, I found "Generosus nascitur non fit" as someone's family motto. It means:
A gentleman is born, not made. (doesn't give the rest of us much hope !)
And, as Paget's descent from Mark is no longer probable, he loses some value (for me anyway), but Nicholas is now very interesting.
Regards to all,
Ken
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There are more than a few Names sites on the web but I find attractive this one: http://www.halpenny.net/
I haven't delved into it but Ken might report if he finds anything of interest. But significantly, it differentiates the Halpennys from the Halfpennys, giving the opinion that the former come from an anglicised celtic origin and the latter have English origins related to the English currency. On that score, I don't know of many Pennys or Pences, Schilling seems more germanic and perhaps Crown and Sovereign were too high to aim for as names. What were other early English coins. Wasn't there a Mark? So, why only Halfpenny as a surviving name?
Bill
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Bill,
I've had a quick look at that Halpenny site. If you click on the link you get a page called 'The house of Halpenny'. You then click on 'General information' and then on 'Origin of the name Halpenny'.
I think I've seen it before, and I'm afraid there's still a lot of speculation about the name Halpen/Halpin. One idea was that Halpenny referred to the tenants who paid 1/2d. rent on land.
Other coins were the florin (2 sh. or 2 bob), threepence (pron.in Aust. as throopens, thripens or thruppens. I don't think the guinea was actually a coin or note. Of course, we used to say hay-penny or haepnee about the 1/2 p.
Ken
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Hi,
A partial list of professions from Alumni Dublinenses:
Generosus - Gentleman
Clericus - Clergyman
Armiger - Esquire
Publicanus - Tax Collector
Centurio - Officer
Miles - Soldier
Capitaneus - Captain
The name of the school or schoolmaster is given in parentheses, so Dr Hinton must be his schoolmaster.
Diane
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Thanks Diane,
Ken
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The National Library of Ireland has launched an online Sources database http://sources.nli.ie
An example of one of the items is a manuscript that is a Draft Pedigree of Halpin of Co Cavan and von Koffelow of Schwerin, c 1700-1912.
Dr Charles Halpin's daughter Esther married Hermann von Koppelow.
It may have some details of the Portarlington Halpins.
Diane
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Diane, I've seen that draft pedigree of the Cavan Halpins. It's identical to the one in Burke's peerage but contains two entries before "Nicholas Halpin, Headmaster of Portarlington Sch." They were written in red ink and it seemed to me that the source was having trouble being certain about them - they were William Halpin and William Henry Halpin and both were recorded as being Royal Navy men. Both were being suggested as father and grandfather to Nicholas. No dates were given. I saw nothing on von Koppelow, although I didn't look very hard. Interesting, though, that Judith Halpin (Charles' eldest daughter) married a von Hoiken. I recall seeing a death notice somewhere for an unnamed (unnamed in Burke's peerage) daughter who died in a German or Austrian nunnery. Could be a German connection we're overlooking. I smell another coincidental loop in the offing...I'm sure if I try hard enough I can connect the family to the Gestapo...I'll get on to it right away.
Incidentally, Charles' son Druid became a very well respected Engineer in the UK, and there are a few publications of his stored in the archives somewhere. I half suspect his grandson is head of the British Communist Party (Kevin Halpin).
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This comes back to my point about some entries in Burke's having to be taken as they were - contributions by descendants of the family and therefore possibly open to conjecture. Did it actually say "Headmaster of Portarlington School"?
From my dipping into trying to find anything about this Nicholas, it quickly became obvious that, at that very time and for very strange reasons, it became a fashion to send children, frequently very young children, from anywhere in Ireland to get an "education" in, of all places, Portarlington. It was a fad, a boom industry.
Nicholas Halpin's school therefore was one of many and for that reason I am sceptical that his, out of all of them, was called Portarlington School. I would be gratified to be proved wrong. About the only lasting evidence I have been able to find of Nicholas was a remark implying that there had been a death (or more?) at his school and that he had a reputation for hardness. I am pretty sure one victim was a youngish girl. From this I suspected it may have been a mixed preparatory boarding school, possibly quite small.
It is possible that his school outlasted the fad and became larger and eventually Portarlington School but you'd think it would have left some traces. I note from the TCD records that as late as 1843 when Rev NJ's son WH went up, his prior education is noted as "Portora Sch.".
Bill
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Hopefully attached is a chart I have created of Halpins who went to Trinity College up to the 1860s. The information comes from an old book, Alumni Dublinenses, A. Thom & Co., 1935. I created it in a spreadsheet but the list would not accept a spreadsheet as an attachment. That way would have allowed you to sort the material in any way you desired. This way, I have sorted according to calculated birth year.
Bill
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Hi All,
This website mentions Nick Halpin and a school called Portarlington School.
http://www.laoisedcentre.ie/Dreamemo/schoolssection/PrivateSchools.htm
Best wishes, Brian
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Sorry about the appalling German mimicry. The offending effort's been removed. Over compensating there.
On the entry in Burke's passage: "Lineage - Nicholas Halpin, Headmaster of Portarlington Sch., living 1809, m. Anne du Bois, and had issue, with a dau. Susanna, an only son..." That's an exact transcription of the first line of the actual lineage. Above that, beneath the general heading "The Landed Gentry Of Ireland", is this:
"Halpin Of Ford Lodge: John Ralph Halpin, of Ford Lodge, Cavan, admitted a solicitor 1922, Vice-Pres. of The Incorporated Law Soc. of Ireland 1953-54, served in World War 1 as 2nd Lieut. Royal Irish Fus.; b. 14 Aug. 1899, educ. Rugby and Trinity Coll. Dublin (B.A., LL.B.)." I'm not sure if this means that John Ralph Halpin submitted the lineage to Burke's and deposited the draft in the National Archives, but I'm supposing it does. Who else could it have been?
I have copies of newspaper advertisements extolling the virtues of an education for the sons of respectable gentlemen at Portarlington. As far as I can tell it was more than a fad - the schools seemed to focus on the education of Ascendancy children, equipping them with the grounding in classics and European languages that prepared them for university and an administrative post somewhere in the Empire. Without such an education, you'd have difficulty calling yourself a credible, ranking Ascendancy Protestant. Languages like French and German were considered essential "commercial" aids. Permitting Catholics access to such an education was considered sacrilegious by many Protestants, and the struggle Catholics underwent to acquire such an education is part of the nation's collective identity. For a long time, for as many as fifty years or more, the Protestant elite sent their young boys to Portarlington for 'the right stuff'. After preparation there, some of those boys were sent to a school like Portora, where the Rev. NJ Halpin's father-in-law (described as 'the Rev. Dr. Greham') was headmaster. The Greham's may have taught for a few generations at Portora (I believe wives and/or sisters assisted). The Halpins had a long association with Portora - I have seen newspaper reports of some being prominently involved as students there well into the 20th century. The ads I saw for an education in Portarlington were placed in the Dublin Evening Mail (some time in the late 1830s early 1840s), where the Rev. NJ Halpin was editor.
I have to say I haven't seen an account of an accident at a school in Portarlington, but it would not surprise me if one existed - while infrequent, fires in boarding schools during the cold winter months in particular were not unheard of. There was a particularly terrible one in Cavan in the 1930s (I think) in which a large number of students burned to death because the Nuns refused to allow the girls - who were in their nighties - out of the burning building, at least not in the presence of the men who were there to put out the fire. As for the reputation of Nicholas as a particularly hard task-master - I've heard that too. I think there might even be some verse about it by a former student.
I suppose the main thing to take away from this is an understanding of the absolute importance placed on education by the Protestant elite, and the high regard it had for the services provided by the schools of Portarlington, where Huguenot women in particular were prized for their mastery of French with a French accent. For quite a while it seems the settlement of Portarlington was almost a closed, archly Loyalist and anti-Catholic community which was both a reasonably wealthy and safe place in which to educate the elite's - and semi-elite's - children.
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What we do without you Ray. Thanks for the information about the manuscript at the National Library. Sad it didn't shed any further light on the family but at least we know.
I don't know who submitted the information to Burke's but it does have errors. My great grandfather and his brother have morphed into one boy; Beauchamp Massey and Herbert Lees become Herbert Beauchamp. I have the baptismal records from Mariner's Church in Kingstown and have seen Beauchamp's grave at Deangrange so know they are two separate boys.
Diane
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1.
I've mentioned my own suspicions to Bill, Diane. I've always thought that there were more Halpin children in Portarlington prior to the end of the 18th century. Why? I've inferred it from the presence there of other eligible Halpin males - namely Paget and John. Now I know I haven't mentioned these before, but I was sort of saving them up for a very loose and provisional "foot" to the overall Halpin family tree. What I wanted to say was - if all three Halpin families (Wicklow, Portarlington, Dublin) are related, well then their different branches must converge on the generations emerging in and around the 1780-90 period. I was going to then put John Halpin - who was a tide surveyor at Custom House, Dublin, and who retired on a pension of £300 pa, I think, which was a very substantial sum at the time - alongside Paget and Nicholas and call them three brothers or, at the very least, three blood relatives. Now that I've mentioned these men I realise I'm going to have to provide details of them soon, something I'll do over the next few days. But let me push on a little and justify my suspicion that the Halpin family tree, as published in Burke's, is not to be trusted entirely.
Some time back I posted a death notice outlining the demise of John Halpin, who was surveying out in India. He was praised as a well respected Orientalist and translator. Now, that notice was published in the Anglo-Celt (a Cavan town newspaper) in the 1840s, when the only Halpin around there at the time was Dr. Charles Halpin. Other Halpin death notices were published in the Anglo-Celt at around the same time and all of those Halpins are known to us. Now I checked as thoroughly as I can, and so far I can find no other Halpin family in Cavan at the time who might be an alternate candidate for relative of the deceased orientalist John H. I concluded, reasonably I think, that the coincidence of name and shared interests/profession meant that John Halpin's death notice was published in the local rag for the benefit of Charles and his family, who therefore had to be blood relations. I know that's all a little convoluted, but when I went to Burke's lineage looking for John Halpin, surveyor and orientalist, I couldn't find him. That's when I began to think we might not be getting the full picture from Burke's. That sent me off to the archives, where I uncovered John and Paget. I know Ken will want what I have on Paget, so I'll post what I found on him next week too (some of it was lost last year when I neglected to save what I'd prepared to post). This 'new' John Halpin of Portarlington, formerly of Custom House, Dublin (pre-1800), might well be the father of our Orientalist John (remember, this is provisional), and brother of Nicholas, Portarlington Headmaster. He is also the John who was Juror in Emmet's trial - I think. He may be the link between the Crosthwaites, who were also involved in Dublin Port, and the Portarlington Headmaster's wife. It's getting a tad confusing, I know, so I'll say no more for the time being - but he could also be George Halpin's pop. I'm piling it on, aren't I? Before I go, let me tantalise with one more recent discovery.
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2.
In three volumes of Memoirs, a Mrs. Margaret Leeson (1727-97), notorious and obviously very successful brothel-keeper in Dublin, revealed the thinly disguised identities of many of her most illustrious clients. Her memoirs must have caused a delicious scandal (provided you weren't named), and wounded the pride and respect of the wives of her clients, some of whom were city bankers and members of the aristocracy. In volume three there are a few lines that might interest us:
"Mary Roberts was kept by Mr. H - , of Custom House, Dublin...who, being amorously inclined, hired her; she lived with this gentleman some short time [and], though short, found means to ease him of a great part of his property, which was considerable, but he, inclined to dissipation, did not discover his inamorata until reduced to the last extremity; she being young, and he being unwilling to expose himself, after getting the duplicates of clothes and some few articles of plate, turned her off..." -(p.180 of the Memoirs, which are held in the Dublin National Library).
Mrs. Leeson died of VD after being gang raped one night on her way home through Drumcondra, Dublin (poor woman), but this passage in her memoirs may be of real service to us - because it's worth trying to determine if Mr H - of Custom House, Dublin, was John Halpin. It's always been my contention that George Halpin was deeply wounded by his father (I'll justify that contention another time), and if we're on to something here, we might have uncovered what that something was. Of course, all of this is speculative - but it's speculating within some loose Halpin parameters, which are all we have for the years between 1780-1810. Speculation is unavoidable, but it is not - of course - an end in itself.
At any rate, all of these 'discoveries' followed my suspicion that we were not being well served by the early entries in Burke's Halpin Lineage. Cheers.
PS - Here are a few more curly ones to consider: I found this some time ago and I think I may have already mentioned it here somewhere - Carlow Memorials: Crosthwaite, Samuel esq 31 Aug. 1839.
Crosthwaite, Sam. Esq. 22nd Aug. 1863 age 74.
Crosthwaite, Eliz. 4 Feb. 1854.
All in Dunleckney Parish, Bagenalstown, just south of Carlow town. We know the Dublin Crosthwaites had at least one mill in Carlow. Then there are the Carlow Halpins, which I must exhume and name, and maybe tie in to Nicholas Halpin's missus.
Doctors Roe and Halpin work together to save Judge Foster's life, to no avail (there are other Halpin listings in this, the Anglo-Celt) - http://www.irelandoldnews.com/Other/1842/JUL.html
And before Bill asks me - much of what I know about the schools in Portarlington comes from two sources. He has one (which I've forgotten). The other is the History of Queen's County (2 vols.), by O'Hanlon and O'Leary (think the date is 1860).
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From "Private Schools in Portarligton" (Brian's post 275):
"An advertisement for the school, dated 1891, shows that native language speakers and composers gave instruction in language and music."
Could Von Koppelow and Von Hoiken have been German teachers at the school ?
Ken
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Ray, I like everything you say. But if you have looked at any charts I have put out, for ages I have had a John as a son of Nicholas. Nicholas may also have had a brother John, of course, but, in terms of ages, wouldn't this John of the Customs House make a better son of Nicholas, brother of William Henry and uncle of Rev Nicholas John, etc.?
I definitely see where you are coming from with this John a candidate for being George's father (and being in a position to introduce George for early opportunities at the Ports). But their falling out would explain why George never acknowledged this man as a father and never had the name John in any of his descendants. Very interesting.
But of the other Halpins of about the same generation, there are overlapping names like William. So, if they are related, they have to be cousins and therefore descendants of a brother of Nicholas, perhaps in Cavan or Meath generally, or Carlow, or Wicklow???
What do you think?
Bill
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I read your charts and admired them, Bill, so I've no excuse for the oversight on John. Too many blinkers, perhaps. Will review them and pay closer attention. The issue of exact relationships, if any, will go on being a contentious one until we have more information. For the time being, it's all just supposition and conjecture. So long as we remember that, we needn't get too hung up on precision just yet. The best thing I can do is focus on finishing what I'm working on at the moment, which should take about another week. After that I'll try to get the tonnes of material I have scattered all over the place up onto the board - that way everyone can sing from the same hymn sheet, or at the very least argue their points of agreement and difference from a solid base of reliable - and referenceable - material. It will help with the speculation, which can't always be avoided.
As for John Halpin, tide surveyor, my feeling was that he had already retired by 1800, which is why I was guessing he was Old Nic's brother. But I'll have to double check things before I can be sure. On William it may well be as you say. But apart from the basic handwritten entry in the Burke's peerage draft, there's not much to go on just yet. I have another candidate to add - James Halpin. Now I know you are aware of him because you've mentioned him to me before. I kept him out of the picture because frankly I didn't have much on him. That's changed recently.
Loosely, I think there may have been three or four brothers, or two sets of brothers - the sets being first cousins. Nicholas, John, James (a wealthy Dublin merchant who had a few burglars hung around the time of the 1798 rebellion), and possibly William. I believe James had at least three sons - Richard, William, and James - and all three sons dabbled in distilling, along with many others in Dublin at the time, including three Greham brothers. There was a fortune to be made overnight in distilling, so that must account for its prevalence at that time. It was a tumultuous period in Ireland's history, and in the pubs, inns and illegal premises set up in Dublin there was a great deal of frank talk for and against reform. Central to the talk of some were the ideals of the Society of United Irishmen, which believed in a political order that recognised Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter as equals, as united Irish men. Other groups were less radical, calling for something like the status quo to be maintained, but for trade to be liberalised (for the guilds, or monopolies, to be broken up). Others still were ultra Protestants and they wanted tough action to be taken against the liberalisers - many ultras came from or lived in Portarlington, which was probably one of the most loyal towns in Ireland at the time (I'll have more to say about the politics of Portarlington another time). So you had a situation in which many forces were pulling in many different ways - hence the instability. Spies were prolific, and one reported to the Castle (this is soon after 1798) that William and James Halpin were about as opposed to the crown as it was possible to be. To make a long story short - years after the trouble had subsided there was an easing of restrictions on known participants in the rebellion, and attempts were made to make more positions available for accomplished Catholics, which would reduce the likelihood of further rebellions. My guess is that many remained fiercely sympathetic to the ideals of a united Ireland, but were less inclined to try to realise them through violent means. Some time during this period, James jnr resumed his connection to the production and sale of alcohol by opening an inn in Wicklow town, where I think Halpins with links to the Halpins of Portarlington were already living and possibly working the land.
I want to stress here the very poor historical overview you've just received, and the very fragile nature of the connections between Nicholas, John, William, James and sons...it's a working model that may well be tossed aside quite quickly. No harm in that. Exclusions are as valuable as discoveries. But at least you get a feel now for the importance I place on the need for an understanding of the context in which the Halpins moved and operated - I don't think we can appreciate their movements, their behaviour, without one. The context is as valuable to me, Bill, as the charts are to you (and everyone else, of course).
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Bill, only noticed your reply 274 now, and just viewed the names and dates. It's very interesting, and I need to think about it. But I noted the Rev. Robert Crawford Halpin there - Chaplain to the armed forces. We've known about him for a long time, of course, but I did not know he had studied at Trinity. And I've never been able to find a connection to him.
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Do we know of any other connection to Ireland of Robert Crawford Halpin? His father was a soldier, he was born in Antwerp just after Waterloo. The forenames, Robert Crawford, are typically Scottish.
I should re-do the alumni list because the Thomas at the bottom should be next to the other Thomas (or the same?) at the top. That Thomas' father was given as John, Musicus Tibicinarius. "Tibic" is Latin for flute. This entry seems to very specifically make John more than a musician or music scholar - he was a flute player or maker in 1722. Another artist Halpin to add to the engravers, miniaturists, amateur botanists and writers.
Bill
Bill, only noticed your reply 274 now, and just viewed the names and dates. It's very interesting, and I need to think about it. But I noted the Rev. Robert Crawford Halpin there - Chaplain to the armed forces. We've known about him for a long time, of course, but I did not know he had studied at Trinity. And I've never been able to find a connection to him.
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There are a few bits and pieces on the Reverend Robert Crawford Halpin, but this - his obituary - is the most informative:
The Rev. R C Halpin, late Chaplain to the Forces and to the Duke of Cambridge, died on Tuesday. His first connexion with the army was as a "boy volunteer" under Sir Francis B. Head, Governor of Canada, during the rebellion in 1839. On his return home he was Gazetted ensign in the 14th Regiment. After some years' service he entered the Church, for which profession he was originally intended, and was appointed an Army chaplain. He served through the Crimean campaign as chaplain to the 1st Division, and received the medal, with four clasps, and the Turkish medal. He also served in the China war of 1860. From 1863 until his retirement in 1880, he was chaplain to the Household Brigade. Mr. Halpin was in receipt of the distinguished service pension.
- The Times, March 22nd 1889.
Rev. Halpin attended a number of Levees in London which were also attended by Captain Robert Charles Halpin; he was also involved in a number of schemes set up to care for servicemen's wives and establish retirement homes for aging veterans. It's interesting that they should describe a working life in the Church as a profession. Catholics would describe it as a 'calling' or a vocation. Pronounced cultural difference here. Through his apparent link to God, the Catholic priest served the worldly interests of the Church. Through his apparent link to the Anglican Church, a Protestant clergyman served the worldly interests of the Crown.
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Ray,
I can add, from another line of research, that the Duke of Cambridge was the first cousin of the Queen, and was C in C of the army. One of the Swenys wrote to him in 1858 to solicit (successfully) a commission for his nephew.
Ken
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After a message from Ray, I'll add to my last post:
The reason I mentioned the Duke of Cambridge was that I would be very surprised if Rev Halpin did not use his influence with the Duke (C in C) to recommend someone for a commission. This is what RN Capt Mark Halpen Sweny, (a Trafalgar veteran) did in 1858.
I can imagine that Rev Halpin, as chaplain to the Duke, received many such requests.
Ken
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Dear All,
I found the following about the botanical contributions of Rev Nicholas John Halpin to the flora of Cavan. Brian
THE FLORA OF COUNTY CAVAN
P.A. Reilly
Occasional Papers No. 13
Published by the
National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin
2001
ISSN 0792-0422
Rev Nicholas J. Halpin (1790-1850)
By the year 1818, a total of twenty-five wild plants had been recorded in Co. Cavan. The next series, a major contribution, was again in the form of
annotations on a working flora. At this time [ca. 1825], James T. Mackay
was collecting records for Flora Hibernica (1836). It is likely that he sent
copies of his Catalogue of the indigenous plants found in Ireland (1825) to active amateur botanists throughout Ireland, seeking their help by annotating the copies with new records and returning them to him to incorporate the results in his new flora.
One of the recipients was Rev Nicholas J. Halpin, of Oldcastle, Co Meath (Reilly, 1995). Fortunately his annotated copy, the only one known to exist, was found in the library of the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin (Nelson pers. comm.). It contains one hundred and ninety one records from thirteen Irish counties, including fifty-eight from Cavan. Nine were first county records, including Neottia nidus-avis, found by Joseph Archibald, Lord Farnham’s gardener. Some were published in Flora Hibernica (1836).
Halpin was born in Portarlington in 1790. After a successful academic
career at Trinity College, Dublin, he took Holy Orders and was given the
curacy of Oldcastle, Co. Meath, near the county border with Cavan. He
explored the rich enclosed grounds of Farnham and other demesnes north
of Cavan town, visited friends at Mount Nugent and his brother Charles, a
medical doctor and botanist, who lived in Cavan town. Dr Charles Halpin
worked in Cork before he came to live in Cavan and corresponded with his
brother Nicholas. His letters contained botanical records collected by him
in Cork, which Nicholas included in his annotations. One, Coronopus
didymus, is credited to Charles Halpin in Flora Hibernica (1836).
Halpin’s botanical predecessors searched the wild untended areas of Cavan for unrecorded plants. An analysis of Halpin’s records show that the
majority were found within demesnes or the grounds of private residences. Of his fifty-eight Cavan records: twenty-six were found in Farnham
Demesne, seven at Arley Cottage (a substantial dwelling at Lough Sheelan
owned by the Farnham family), two at the Deer Park, Virginia (the
residence of the Earl of Bective), two at the See House, Kilmore (the
residence of the Bishop of Kilmore) and four at or near Churches. Halpin’s
Cavan records include: Lathraea squamaria, Listera ovata, Ophioglossum vulgatum, Platanthera bifolia, Potamogeton lucens, and Sagittaria sagittifolia.
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Part 1.
Tremendous find, Brian. We knew the Rev. had an interest in botany, but we did not realise he was so heavily involved in the classification of Irish wildflowers. I think the Reverend's links to the Royal Dublin Society (later the Royal Irish Society) might account for his relationship with Mr. Mackay. I'll explain that in a future post - what might interest us here is the fact that the society had its gardens initially in Mecklenburgh street. I'll have a great deal to say about the Reverend and Lord Farnham in subsequent posts (both were central players in the Second Reformation movement. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Reformation), and I wonder who the friends were at Mount Nugent?
Another interest is news of Charles's early work in Cork - I for one had no knowledge of that. I will add only this - that I have in my possession a letter written by Charles to the Royal Irish Academy. In it he says that he and the Reverend were out riding in the district of Cavan when his brother chanced upon an ancient Irish stone carving. I believe the antiquity is now in the vaults of the National Museum here in Dublin, but at the time of the discovery the brothers were probably doing a little fieldwork work for Mr. Mackay. The antiquity in question was (and remains) very rare - a pagan carving of a Sheela na Gig (the Australian slang for an attractive woman - Sheela - is derived from it. You'll see why.). So, we can conclude from what you have discovered, along with memberships of the Royal Academy and their discovery of an antiquity, that the brothers were heavily committed to an Enlightenment enterprise that was well underway in Dublin at the time, the principles of which (the pursuit of knowledge through reason and scientific method) were enshrined in the Royal Academy's charter. The Reverend was a member of the Academy. I thought he was only involved in the explication of works of literature, which was also a feature of academy life. But we now know he had a part to play in the academy's scientific interests as well. Which brings me to something that has needled me for over a year now - how did the Reverend reconcile his commitment to an Enlightenment enterprise with his missionary zeal for the religion of Protestantism? Isn't there a contradiction here between the interests of science and those of religion? Well, apparently not. Many Protestant clergymen had an interest in the sciences, because they considered Nature to be an expression of God's creative work, and science merely to be the most effective tool man had to study nature. In this sense, science could shed light on the marvelous complexity of God's creation. In contrast, the Catholic church prioritised knowledge acquired through faith, valuing it more highly than scientific discovery. This puts us in touch with another of the Reverend's well documented interests - he was, for a while at least, hell bent on liberating Catholics from 'superstition'.
And so we sort of come full circle, rounding back on the Reverend's association with the movement for a Second Reformation (1820s). Lord Farnham played a central role in this poorly addressed chapter of Irish history - I have a ton of material on what occurred, which I'll post in about a month. I'm straying into areas I want to deal with separately at a later date, so I'll end this post by drawing your attention to what may have been a painful falling out between the Reverend N J Halpin and his brother Charles.
For a little more on the Second Reformation in Ireland, See: http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/3903.htm
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-SecondReformation.html
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Part 2.
When the Famine broke out in the mid 1840s Charles Halpin MD was frantic in his efforts to do something meaningful for the starving - he appears to have made a personal commitment to fight the blight with science. He came up with something called 'the Halpin method', which appeared to produce astounding results, so much so that some landlords wrote letters to the editors of contemporary newspapers endorsing the method. Halpin attended town meetings, where he called on the authorities to adopt his method and criticised their poor response to the Famine. His vocal approach to the issue, while understandable under the circumstances, might have prompted the authorities to try to discredit him. I have eye witness accounts of those meetings - at times Charles's speeches were treated to rapturous applause. Even the Crown Prince announced his satisfaction with the method. Then, out of the blue, the method was dismissed by the man sent by London to look into the blight in Ireland (off the top of my head I can't recall his name. But he was from the Royal Botanical Society, I think). That man's dismissal was published in the Castle newspaper, the Dublin Evening Mail, which was edited by the Reverend Nicholas John Halpin. It remains unknown to me how Charles reacted to the rebuttal of his method by the Evening Mail. Can we call it a betrayal? Can we say that Nicholas let his brother down? After all, who was the Reverend obliged to be most loyal to - his brother or the Castle (where Crown rule in Ireland was concentrated)? Dublin Castle was also where Marmion Savage - the Reverend's personal friend - worked closely with the Lord Lieutenant. For me, it's a fascinating nut to crack, this. Divided loyalties, brother against brother, the possibility that a method for treating the blight had been discovered by Charles but was dismissed by the Crown's scientific adviser. I will be presenting what I have uncovered about the method to a Trinity College lecturer, and I'll report back on his opinion. But it may be worth remembering that a successful treatment for potato blight wasn't discovered until the 1890s, I think. If Charles was on to something effective with his own method, the dimensions of the tragedy of what happened in the Irish Famine suddenly become a very personal one for us.
Incidentally, during the early days of the second reformation there were a significant number of Catholics - some of whom were struggling to cope with hunger - willing to convert to Protestantism, and proponents of the movement were convinced something great was underway. The Catholic Church reacted by dismissing the converts as starving, imbecilic and prostitutional. The Reverend N J Halpin wrote a response to that charge, and an eloquent one it is too. But I wonder if the appearance of so many starving Irish countrymen in the 1840s caused him to reflect on his earlier missionary work, and on the role of Britain in Ireland as a whole. I do know that there were tensions between himself and his son Charles over the issue. And I also know that the power of the media to influence public opinion was something Charles Greham Halpin(e) came to appreciate at close quarters - he saw his father shape the Protestant community's response to the famine. Later, he himself would use the media to profoundly influence public opinion in the American Civil War, and planned to do the same in response to the failed Fenian Rising in the mid 1860s - before an overdose robbed him of his life, and the chance to rewrite Irish history.
Enough for now. Again, well done Brian. Your discovery has helped me to put much of what I know into solid perspective. Cheers, R.
http://images.google.co.uk/images?sourceid=navclient&oq=Sheel&rlz=1T4GGLL_enIE316IE316&q=sheela+na+gig&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=-kaCS6jMOaj60wTl4JCpBA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCQQsAQwAw
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheela_na_Gig
Below are a few links that will shed light on the characters named in Brian's post above:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquess_of_Headfort
The only mention of James T Mackay I could locate was here, where you will also find mention of Swanlinbar, which is where the Halpins eventually established an 'estate': http://www.botanicgardens.ie/herb/floras/cavan/cavan01.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_of_Kilmore (George de la Poer Beresford was Bishop of Kilmore at the time of NJ Halpin's botanical fieldwork - he was married to Frances Bushe, who was a sister (I think) of Rev. Bushe - one of the Second Reformation's most fanatic exponents - and Henry Grattan's niece).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Farnham
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Hi,
I am new to this forum. Thanks for the useful information on the Rev. Robert Crawford Halpin, of whose family I have a fair outline [lived in Hampstead, London, married to Eleanor Wallace from Co Down]. I am interested in one of his sons, George William Halpin, a civil engineer: in your post #89 of 6 June 2009 you note his death in Buenos Aires on 5th July 1922. Do you have any more information about this (e.g. where did this notice originate?) or on him or his family? My interest is from his wife Kate, nee Wemyss and any children / descendants. George Halpin married Kate Wemyss in Edinburgh on 6th December 1876 in St Paul's Chapel, York Place; after the 1881 census there is no trace of him or his family in the UK. I am researching the Wemyss family. Many thanks.
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Good to have you aboard.
To date we have no known connection of Robert Crawford Halpin to the Halpins being discussed here but there are intriguing possibilities. I for one, being a descendant of George Halpin, civil engineer, who had sons and grandsons William and George, find the existence of George William Halpin, civil engineer, enticing. But it is possibly no more than coincidence (George and William being quite mainstream names).
Robert Crawford and his father both had rank in the army. Have you delved into the extensive army records and what did you find? If not, this is a course I highly recommend. Could you let us know all that you have discovered about these men and their origins?
Good hunting
Bill
Hi,
I am new to this forum. Thanks for the useful information on the Rev. Robert Crawford Halpin, of whose family I have a fair outline [lived in Hampstead, London, married to Eleanor Wallace from Co Down]. I am interested in one of his sons, George William Halpin, a civil engineer: in your post #89 of 6 June 2009 you note his death in Buenos Aires on 5th July 1922. Do you have any more information about this (e.g. where did this notice originate?) or on him or his family? My interest is from his wife Kate, nee Wemyss and any children / descendants. George Halpin married Kate Wemyss in Edinburgh on 6th December 1876 in St Paul's Chapel, York Place; after the 1881 census there is no trace of him or his family in the UK. I am researching the Wemyss family. Many thanks.
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For an excerpt from the letter written to the Royal Irish Academy by Dr. Charles Halpin about his fieldtrip with his brother in Cavan in 1844, a year before the famine, see:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3b7R0HZlPXAC&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=P+Halpin+Sculpt&source=bl&ots=pbTsrnEbyh&sig=O1v3xutyhkdH15v_hKRvQSYaPaI&hl=en&ei=_PaGS6uoNtOQjAfns63JDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CCMQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=Halpin&f=false
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Re: Robert Crawford Halpin and family.
I want to postulate some possibilities (that may get knocked on the head pretty quickly – that’s ok).
We have all those Trinity College Dublin Halpin records (Reply #274) with quite a few born to a William Halpin (captain, officer) in Wicklow between about 1799 and 1803. Then comes the entry for Robert Crawford Halpin shown going up to TCD in July 1833 aged 17, therefore born about 1816, born in Antwerp to William Halpin, soldier.
In my own Webster family, my antecedent who was a regimental surgeon serving under Wellington throughout the Peninsula campaigns (and at Waterloo) had a large gap in the births of his children while he was away. Something like 7 years. I suppose it is a slight possibility that should be entertained that these Williams sending sons to TCD in the 1820s and 1833 are one and the same. Of course there could have been other children (including daughters) born in the interim between 1803 and 1816 also. It seems that Spain and Portugal may have been considered too dangerous for families to accompany their soldiers whereas it is well known, from Vanity Fair that the Dutch/Belgian/French campaign was heavily burdened by wives and other female 'company'.
(Always remembering that William was far from an uncommon name, particularly among the protestants - King William of Orange and all that.)
AND/OR, could William have been an unconfirmed brother of George Halpin senior, uncle of George junior and Oswald, helping explain why there was a succession of William Oswald Halpins thereafter? Robert Crawford Halpin was born between the years of his possible cousins, George jun. and Oswald, making him of the same generation. Could George senior’s own father have been a William Halpin?
The name Crawford? William’s wife’s maiden name or William’s mother’s maiden name? The majority of the early Crawford Irish entries I have been able to find are in Belfast, Down and the north generally, but not all. This would make sense as Crawford is preponderantly a Scottish surname (as was Robert Crawford’s wife’s name, Eleanor Wallace, although they married in Swords, Dublin).
B.
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I've no objections to your approach, Bill. All new lines of enquiry necessarily begin with more speculation and conjecture than many of us are comfortable with. Given how little documentary evidence there is, a certain degree of guesswork is unavoidable - yours is educated guesswork, which is the best way to kick these things off. Over time, as you exhaust each new source of information opened up by your research, you can only hope the effort hasn't been a fruitless one. Most of mine haven't, and I suspect yours won't be either. A lot of accidental discoveries are made that wouldn't have been made had you not taken a punt and ventured out into speculative waters. So, while the going might seem pointless sometimes, persevere, because accidental discoveries can produce the definitive links that more conventional approaches sometimes miss.
You're right to mention naming conventions - William and George were common Protestant names, after William of Orange and the Kings George. We're lucky, though - "Halpin" is not that common, so the chances of a Halpin in the archives being related to a Rootschat Halpin are pretty good. That certainly wouldn't be the case if we were Murphys or Burns - the commonality of those names makes certainty of lineage almost impossible. If you add an unusual first name to an uncommon surname, then the signature becomes even more unique to the lineage you're trying to verify. First names like Stopford, and Paget, and Oswald are a godsend. And when the names of known associates are also unusual - say like the Crosthwaites and the Savages - well then tracking relatives back through the newspapers and history books becomes even easier still.
You say that Crawford is a name common across Ulster and in Scotland. Well, many Scots moved to Ulster to work in the Textile industry, so a link between Scotland and Ulster would not be out of the question. In fact, to put things into perspective here, the Wicklow Halpins may well have had connections to Scotland, since that is where Doctors George and Stopford Halpin did their medical studies (I only hope I'm not confusing them with the Portarlington Halpins - I don't think so though). Edinburgh, Scotland, to be precise.
You also wonder if William Halpin brought his wife to war with him, hence accounting for the birth of Robert Crawford Halpin in Antwerp. That doesn't sound implausible to me. Remember, my great great grandfather - Wicklow town clerk, clerk to the Harbour Board, merchant, wool agent, postmaster and first cousin to Doctors George and Stopford Halpin - was named Robert WELLINGTON Halpin and was born around 1814. All of my family vaguely maintain that his father - another Robert Halpin - was employed in Dublin as a tidewaiter (I'm still not sure what that means). But it's possible he was a military man who saw action that was in some way connected to Wellington's campaign against Napoleon. I suppose I'm trying to say that none of your suggestions should be dismissed carelessly - they are certainly worth looking into further.
One final thing - I worked with a few Russians in the contruction industry here (in the days when we had one). They said that their fathers and grandfathers fought so tenaciously in World War 2 not because they loved Stalin or believed in the Soviet. They fought for the idea of a better Russia, for the ideals of their own personal freedom and national identity, things that were not being well served either by Stalin or the Communists. In many respects this sounds like a similar attitude to the one that must have been common among Irish men who chose to fight for the British against the French (let's ignore the simply pragmatic reasons for the moment) - they were not fighting for England per say, but for an opportunity to prove themselves equals and, therefore, as representatives of a country deserving of the same political independence as England. This digression just clarifies a point I made a few weeks ago, about William's possibly divided loyalties not necessarily being a bar to service in the British Armed Forces.
So it is not at all out of the question that William is the Rev. R C Halpin's father. As to the thought that William might also be brother to George senior - that too is not impossible by the standards of any information I have in my possession, but - unfortunately - I don't have anything to prove it either. Such are the mixed blessings of unverifiability, hey?
Of course, the lore maintains that the Halpins we take an interest in here at rootschat WERE blood relations, but that's not something anyone else can depend on. Cheers for now, Ray.
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Thanks BillW for the suggestion to look at Army records and to you and raymondcecilmark for further postings. On you recent postings, Bill I assume your regimental sugeon was Oliver Halpin of the 44th East Sussex Regiment of Foot who is on the Waterloo Roll? I note you say Robert Halpin and Eleanor Wallace were married in Swords, Dublin - any more details? On Crawford, this does not necessarily have to be a family name - often officers would name a child after a senior officer under whom they served or after a fellow officer who might be a god father.
I have done a little more research, in Army Lists and elswhere on "my" Halpins and will send this in two parts:
1.
To deal with each in turn, Robert Crawford Halpin was, as his obituary stated, in 1841 an Ensign in the 14th (The Buckinghamshire) Regiment of Foot serving in the West Indies, commision obtained by purchase 10th January 1840; in 1842 the list of casualties since last edition records R Halpin 14F, so Robert had a relatively short service with the 14th Foot. His obituary said he was originally intended for the Church, thus his entry into Trinity College, Dublin (from your earlier postings) in 1833 is of interest in that he obtained his BA in 1843 - thus he must have returned to Trinity after being discharged wounded from the 14th Foot in order to graduate. From Crockford's Clerical Directory for 1868, he was made deacon in 1844 and priest in 1845 (by the Archbishop of Dublin); he was married about 1849 and all his 5 children were born in Ireland (Dublin) between about 1849 and 1864, "my" George in about 1850/51. the Rev. Robert Halpin is listed in Griffith's Valuation of 1854 at Conyngham Road, Dublin. He appears to have become an Army Chaplain from about 24 March 1854 (0nly about 12 listed at that time) and is listed in the Army Lists from then on: appointed Staff Chaplain in the Crimea on 30th March 1854 and served at the seige of Sebastopol; he had the Crimean Medal with four clasps and the Turkish Medal from this campaign. Thereafter he was Chaplain 3rd Class, in Dublin, appears to have served in China in about 1861, and became Chaplain 2nd class with seniority from 5th December 1861 in Dublin (1861-4), then in London from 1864. He was made M.A. by Trinity College Dublin in 1868 and Chaplain First Class (equivalent to a full Colonel) on 5 December 1866; from Crockford's, he was Chaplain to George, Duke of Cambridge (Commander in Chief of the Army) and Chaplain to the Forces in London. He had a reward (pension) for distinguished or meritorious service and in 1884 - 6 (after retirement) was Acting Chaplain to the School of Music at Kneller Hall. He died in 1889 at Belsize Square, Hampstead, London "aged 69". On census returns for 1871 and 1881 Robert is stated as born in France and Ireland respectively, not Antwerp!
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2.
I have assumed, from the Trinity College data, that Robert's father was William Halpin and a soldier. There are only two Halpins in the Army Lists in 1831 to about 1860 (other than surgeon Oliver), both called William, one of which was in the Indian Army (EIC) [of whom more later]. The other William Halpin was a Paymaster in the 1st Light Dragoons, King's German Legion: he was commissioned as Paymaster on 6th January 1807 in Ireland [The King's German Legion was formed in 1803, HQ in Bexhill on Sea and Weymouth but almost all quartered in Ireland from about 1806 - several thousand men, in infantry and cavalry regiments - of which there is an interesting history, too much to go into here] - although most officers were German, most of the paymasters of the different regiments appear to have been British. Paymasters were staff officers and wore distinctive uniforms, although only ranking as captains. William Halpin served with the 1st Light Dragoons in the Peninsular War and received the War Medal with clasps for Salamanca, Vittoria, Orthes and Toulouse; on Challis's Peninsular Roll he is listed as Wilhelm Halpin but in the History of the King's German Legion (by Beamish from Cork, where the German Legion troops all landed) published in 1832 and 1837, he is listed as Paymaster William Halpin 1st Dragoons, with service in the Peninsular 1812-1813, South of France 1813-1814, the Netherlands 1814 and on the 1815 Campaign (although not on the Waterloo roll). So it may well be possible that Robert Crawford Halpin was born in France or Belgium. [While doing this I also came across a James Halpin born in Cambrai, France, in 1816]. The KGL, which had notable service, both in the Peninsular (1st Dragoons battle honour, Garcia Hernandez) and at Waterloo (La Haye Sainte farmhouse), was disbanded in 1816, the Light Dragoons (which were part of the KGL attached to the Anglo-Belgian Army) at Celle in Germany (Hanover) on 24 February 1816; all officers not going into the re-constituted Hanoverian Army were placed on half pay. The Colonel in Chief of the KGL interestingly was Field Marshall Adolphus Duke of Cambridge, father of the George above. From the Army lists from 1831 to 1864, Paymaster William Halpin in consistently listed as on half pay, finally listed as died in 1864. The 1861 census for England has a William Halpin, widower, Captain h.p. 1st Light Dragoons living at 39 Leinster Square, Bayswater, London; he is recorded as being 84 years old, i.e. born about 1777, born in Wicklow, Ireland (Connection to your Halpins at last!!) with two unmarried daughters Anna (b 1808, Wicklow) and Sophia (b 1811, Wicklow) and a son William (unmarried, b 1801, Limerick). William Halpin "junior" is described as a Colonel Madras Army (thus must be the other William Halpin in the Army Lists - see above). Captain William Halpin died in December 1862 and was buried in All Souls Cemetery, Kensal Green, London on 31st December 1862. There is no trace of the family in the 1851 census, so my guess is that they were in Ireland before about 1860. Interestingly 'Major General' William Halpin died "aged 60" in April 1865 and was buried in All Souls Cemetery on 28 April 1865; his address was given as 54, Belsize Road, Hampstead (see Robert above). The two daughters / sisters do not appear in the 1871 census so I guess they may have returned to Ireland. If William was born in 1777 he was about 29 when he was commissioned - it would be interesting to know what he was doing before that.
Thus "my" Halpins do come from Wicklow and are almost certainly related to your own families - I will be interested to see if William fits in with your data - any ideas who his wife may have been? Unfortunately though, none of this gets me any nearer my George Halpin and his wife Kate Wemyss or where they went after 1881 in Scotland or how Goerge got to Buenos Aires!
Thanks for your help and for introducing an interesting area for research. I will follow further postings with interest.
Ronald
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Hello to all who have been posting on and reading this Halpin thread. It's now gotten to 20 pages (which we consider a good cut-off point) so it's a good time to lock this topic. Since Christopher, who started this thread, is no longer here I'm going to lock it now.
However, if anyone is interested in continuing, please feel free to start a new thread (supplying a link to this one) and I'll add a link here to the new one.
Aghadowey (Moderator)
Link to the next thread- Halpin of Wicklow Part 2 (http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=440561.msg3038041#msg3038041)