Enquiry - Bray Landlord's in the late 1890's

[AlanR83]

Hello,

I was wondering if someone more familiar with Bray than myself could offer an opinion on this - I am trying to ascertain why my ancestors who were Gardeners and had deep roots in Bray throughout the 19th century would need to move from Bray in the late 1890's and ended up living in the Dublin tenements by 1900 and were seeking help from St Vincent de Paul? I don't know what Landlord or estate they were Gardener's for - it may have been Powerscourt or maybe someone else, but if anyone knows of a prominent Landlord / Estate owner who went bankrupt or left Ireland between 1895 & 1900 please let me know, this would make sense why the whole family had to move to Dublin for employment. The last address I have for my ancestor Christopher Doyle is 3 Casey Cottages, Glen of the Dawes parish Bray in 1895 (at this time he was working as a Gardener in Bray for over 40 years as did his father before him) then by 1901 he is living on Charlemont Street in Dublin City. If anyone has any ideas on this please let me know?

[Sinann]

May be connected to the Land War.
I don't know if there was a Plan of Campaign on any of the Wicklow estates, (Tried to google it but keep getting results for Parnell) if there was it's quite possible staff would be let go, or later as Landlords were forced to sell land they may have reduced staff.

Powerscourt was greatly reduced by forced redistribution of land but that would have been more in the early 1900s than the 1890s.

The 1890s was a very unstable period for Landlords and there was a global economic downturn at the same time so it's not at all surprising to see people lose long held positions at that time.

If the estate the family worked on was sold the new owner often replaced all the staff, that happened to families within living memory, I know people forced to move into the town who had lived and worked for generations on the grounds of a 'Grand House'.

[eadaoin]

"Glen of the DAWES" is probably "Glen of the Downs" on the main Wexford road.

eadaoin

[myluck!]

I have many gardeners in my OHs side that were Bray/Wicklow based and then ended up in the inner city

Each generation brought more gardeners than was required and people moved to where there was work or the hope of work

There were many houses/estates in Wicklow at that time
List for reference

[AlanR83]

I have looked further into this and I have determined that they must have worked as Gardeners for the La Touche family at Bellevue House. "Major Octavius La Touche was born on 27 March 1824.1 He was the son of Peter La Touche and Hon. Charlotte Maude.1,2 He married Elizabeth Cecilia La Touche, daughter of George La Touche, in 1860.2 He died on 28 December 1897 at age 73.
He gained the rank of Major in the service of the Army.2 He lived at Bellevue, County Wicklow, Ireland"  I think when Octavius died in December 1897 his son Peter inherited his estate and it appears my ancestors were out of employment from then on. I would love to find more information and possibly even photos of Bellevue House around this time but I cannot find much online

[conahy calling]

http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=WI&regno=16301058

This is a link for a Bellevue House.