Halpin family of Wicklow - Part 1

[Bigbird68]

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!

[Bigbird68]

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

[aghadowey]

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