Some information about the Portarlington Halpins from Google Books advanced search using - Halpin + Portarlington. Most of this information we probably know about but may be something of interest for someone.
From “Willis’s Current Notes” – published 1855
“The following memorandum from a manuscript by the late Mr Halpin of Portarlington, Queen’s County, Ireland: in the possession of Dr Hanlon of that town, may possibly be of interest to readers of Current Notes.
“The first master of the French School at Portarlington, was Mr Le Fevre, who kept boarders, a most worthy character, a friend and correspondent of Dr Henry Maude, Bishop of Meath, the original founder and promoter of the Protestant Charter Schools. From Le Fevre’s school others were established, particularly for infant children, so that the town of Portarlington, for more than half a century has been celebrated for its schools, there being at present (1811) six reputable seminaries for the instruction of the youth of both sexes; three for males and three for females, which conjointly contain three hundred children”.
Le Fevre is of course a well know Huguenot name and a Huguenot settlement existed in Portarlington from the early 18th century. An article in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol 6, pp 327-346, 1858 “The Huguenot Colony of Portarlington” by Sir Erasmus Borrowes says that 64 French families (i.e. Huguenots) were living in Portarlington as early as 1701.
It also says that besides Mr Le Fevre, Cassel, Buliot, Durand, Macarel, Bonafou, La Cam, Hood, Baggs, Willis, Halpin, Lyons were all 18th century schoolmasters in Portarlington and Mrs Dunne, Dennison, and Despard had schools for young ladies.
Mr Halpin married Miss Anne Du Bois who would have been a Huguenot – tempted to suggest she was a pretty French Huguenot teacher at Nicholas Halpin’s school in Portarlington!
“French books in eighteenth-century Ireland, Issue 7”, 2001, mentions the dates of some Portarlington schoolmasters/mistresses:
1784-1791 Mr Halpin, English grammar school.
1794 Mme Dunne, boarding school for girls.
1796-1798 Mr La Cam, Portarlington academy.
1797 Mrs Dennison and Miss Mathews, English and French boarding school
The geographical distribution of Irish ability David James O'Donoghue, 1906
Halpin, Rev. Nicholas J. (1790-1850); scholar, born Portarlington.
Halpine, Charles Graham (1829-1868); soldier and poet, born oldcastle.
The Gentleman's magazine, Volume 78, Part 2
8th Sept 1808; Much regretted, Mrs Halpin, wife of W.H Halpin Esq. Of Dublin. (This must be Marianne Crosthwaite)
The Patrician, Volume 5 edited by John Burke, Sir Bernard Burke 1848
Halpin, William Henry. Esq., for upwards of 30 years connected with the Metropolitan and Provincial Press, second son of W. H. Halpin Esq., of Dublin, 8th May, aged 54, at Dublin.
Mr Halpin Subscribed to “A View of Irish Affairs Since the Revolution of 1688: To the Close of the Parlimentary Session of 1795”. Published 1795
Brian
