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Hi Dathai,

Again, many thanks with your invaluable research concerning the Quigleys in Wicklow/Belfast.

I have been trying to nail the other end of the equation - the family that Eleanor Quigley married into when she moved from Enniskerry to Belfast.

I have a big block concerning her husband Robert Chambers. I can see - from the marriage certificate in 1886 that he was born in County Down - and that his father was Joseph Chambers, a Land Steward.

Robert, a carpenter at the time of his marriage, later became an important builder in Belfast as well as a supporter of the unionist cause. He died in March 1934 and had obituaries printed in both the Belfast Newsletter and Northern Whig. However nothing was mentioned of his father. He signed the Ulster Covenant in 1912 - together with his sons Robert Tweedie, Eric Hicks, John Hilliard and Ernest Joseph Chambers. I also understand that all the male members of the family were freemasons.

One other oddity - he appears as one of the beneficiaries of the will, 14 Dec 1886,  of Eliza Brand (b1826) together with William Brand - the husband. William was also a Land Steward form Ballaknock, County Down. Eliza came from Drumnabreeze, County Down.

If you have any time to work your magic and find a way past the Chambers "wall" - I would be very grateful.

BTW - I am going Enniskerry this August to visit the various places the Quigley's lived.

Kind regards,

Michael

Dathai -

Well you certainly live up to your name - that was quick and very helpful indeed - go raibh míle maith agat! I will now update the family records with the Enniskerry connection secure.

I saw a Mary Carr in the records but couldn't connect her with James Quigley - presumabley James's father is the (only) tenant farmer with land on the (Viscount) Powercourt estate - as listed in Griffiths. Wife is Eliza(beth) Hicks from Kilmolin (?)

I also notice that the draper's shop - run by Mary Quigley in Enniskerry - has a Wogan family next door but one - not the Wogan family surely!!

Robert Chambers witnessing the wedding of Cullum/Quigley was a big surprise. I wonder why Eleanor (as sister) didn't witness the certificate? Also Robert being there at all is surprising - Down to Wicklow would have been an onerous journey in those days - and speaks of a much closer connection between the Quigleys and Chambers than we had realised. (Perhaps the connection was a victim of partition - certainly the Quigley connection has not been really talked about or recognised - until now).

One other point on this. I notice that the wife of Thomas Quigley (Beresford Buckley) records her father as Allan Buckley - Steward (on marriage cert). The father of Robert Chambers was Joseph Chambers and he was also a Steward - the Chambers family having a number of properties leased from Viscount Londonderry of Mount Stewart fame in Newtownards/Comber, County Down. I wonder if there was some connection here between the Powerscourt and Mount Stewart estates (I know one of the daughters of Viscount Powerscourt married into the Londonderry family around this time...). All a bit vague - but intriguing..

Final point takes me back to Eleanor Quigley. If the 1912 death certificate in Belfast is her (Eleanor Hillard Chambers) I wonder who the Hillard family are - perhaps connected to the Carr family? (The Hillard/Hilliard name has been passed down the generations since).

And the question that really intrigues me... why would a young woman with a secure occupation and large family - living in the "prettiest village in Ireland" - venture north to work in the soot, grime and noise of industrial Belfast. She worked as a school teacher in St Mary Magdalene CoI School on Great Victoria Street and lived in a small terraced house in Fairview Street - opposite the Crumlin Road Gaol. It could not be more removed from leafy Enniskerry.

In later life she moved out of the centre to live on the Antrim Road -  a prosperous part of North Belfast. Robert Chambers became a builder and they had several children - including an Ireland rugby international.

However, many questions remain about how the Quigley and Chambers family became connected.

Many thanks indeed for your help! Kind regards, Michael

I have information from the Offaly and Laois family history society that my Gorman family may have lived in Rathdowney before 1860. Thomas and Mary Gorman, with children Catherine, Mary Dennis and John. The family moved to Manchester in the Uk.