Halpin family of Wicklow - Part 1

[Christopher]

Robert Halpin 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. 

[docthetinman]

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

[Christopher]

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

 

[Christopher]

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

[SeanC3]

I discovered recently ( and much to my surprise  ) 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.

[Raymondcm]

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. 

Moderator comment: email address removed to prevent spam and other abuses. Please use the secure Personal Message system to pass such information to interested parties

Regards for now, Raymond C Halpin.   

[LH]

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

[Raymondcm]

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.

[Raymondcm]

     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.