Halpin family of Wicklow - Part 1

[Shanachai]

2a. cont.  Pursuant to the above-mentioned acts of Parliament, notice is hereby given that on Friday, the 17th day of June, 1870, Mrs. Julia Halpin, of Healthfield, Roundtown Road, in the county of Dublin, widow; Isabella Julia Thorpe, wife of Thomas Thorpe, of Grange Hill, Thurles, in the county of Tipperary, Esquire, by William Oswald Halpin, of Healthfield aforesaid, Esq., her next friend; the said William Oswald Halpin, George Halpin, of Eglinton Cottages, South Circular Road, in the said County of Dublin, Esquire; Robert Halpin, of Besborough-parade, Rathmines, in the said county of Dublin, Esq.; Anne Caroline Halpin, of Healthfield, aforesaid, spinster, and Mary Byrne, of Flagstaff Hill, Melbourne, in the colony of Australia, widow, [my italics] presented their petition to the Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, praying that an order may be made vesting in the Reverend William Gilbert Ormsby and Joseph Hone, as the trustees of the said indenture of settlement, dated the 18th day of October, 1865, and in the trustees or trustee for the time being of the same indenture , or such other persons as to his Lordship should seem fit, general powers of granting building leases for the terms of years not exceeding 400 years [!?] in possession of all or any part or parts of the several lots and pieces of ground situate in the Parishes of St T. And St G., in the County of the city of D., mentioned in the title of the said petition, and also general powers of entering into and making preliminary contracts for leases .[...].the matter of said petition has been referred to the Right Honourable the Vice-Chancellor of Ireland.[...].Dated this 6th day of July 1870 – Messrs. Joseph Hone and Son, Solicitors for said Petitioners, No. 5 Foster-place, Dublin.
I think you’ll agree, there’s a great deal to intrigue in that document, not least within the italics.  What ‘settlement’ was executed on the marriage of George and Julia?  And who is Mary Byrne of Flagstaff Hill?  Any relation to “enfield’s” Mr Byrne? 

[Shanachai]

3a.
From the Freeman’s Journal, Sat., July 1st 1876 –
IN CHANCERY.  IN THE MATTER OF The Great Southern and Western Railway Act, 1872, and in the matter of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act 1845, ex parte the Great Southern and Western Railway Company, and to the credit of William Oswald Halpin and John Hone, Trustees of George Halpin, deceased, and all other persons interested in respect of all those pieces or Portions of land situate in the North Lots, in the Parish of Saint Thomas.[...I think the Great S & W Railway Co expanded Amiens Street station onto lands it didn’t own...].  Take notice that upon the application of William Oswald Halpin, of Laurel Lodge, Foxrock, Esq., and John Hone, of Ashton Park, Esq., to His Honour the Master of the Rolls, His Honour, by an order dated the 3rd day of June 1876, ordered that the Accountant General of this Honourable Court should draw on the Govenor and the Company of the Bank of Ireland, in favour of the said William Oswald Halpin and John Hone, for the sum of £1,252 cash, lodged by the said Railway Company in the Bank of Ireland to the credit of the matter mentioned in the title of this notice.  .[...a good deal of legalese follows, before finishing thus...].Dated this 22nd day of June, 1876, William Griffin, Secretary to the Master of the Rolls.
Bill, there is a poignant series of dates recorded in the Irish Times that seemed to me to plot the decline of this line of George’s descendents.  It began with the announcement of Oswald jnr’s death, killed in action during the Great War, and passed through the death of Oswald snr, an IRA raid on the Laurels during the war of independence, the sale of the Halpin Trust Estate and, finally I think, the sale of the Foxrock Lodge itself.  I’m only going on memory here, so the precise sequence of events may not be exactly accurate, but it’s near enough for our purposes.  What we see in that sad dateline - determined to a great extent by large historical events - is the eventual parting of a native family and its homeland.  The incidents I’m referring to occur between about 1915 – 25, and one incident in particular, the Republican raid on the Laurels (I’ll send you the exact date) may bring our respective families into very uncomfortable proximity indeed.  But to understand what I’m driving at, you must understand a little of the historical context in which the raid occurred.
Firstly, take a look at this, advertised in the Irish Times, Saturday, June 12 1920:
SALE TUESDAY, 6th JULY.  HALPIN TRUST ESTATE.  SEVILLE PLACE AND ADJACENT STREETS NEAR AMIENS ST. STATION AND THE DOCKS.  [What follows then is a series of Lot descriptions, 10 in all, too many to include here, so I’ll give you a typical example]: LOT 1 – The 9 Dwellinghouses Nos., 102 – 110 Seville Place.  Eight are occupied by monthly and quarterly tenants at rents varying from £44 12s 0d to £51 10s 3d a year, and no. 107 is held by a leasehold tenant at the small rent of £12 (less 10s 6d standard rate).  The entire premises comprised in this Lot are held by the owner under a lease for 489 years, from 29th Sept. 1818, at the yearly rent of £46 less deductions.  The gross rental received out of all these houses is £390, less the Head Rent and Rates and Taxes, and a Port and Docks rent or charge of £3 7s 11d.  These houses (except no. 107) will, if desired, be offered separately, the first 7 subject to £6 each rent, and the 8th to £4 3s 3d, to be reserved by subleases made to the purchasers; otherwise the whole will be sold in one Lot.[...and so it goes in a similar vein all the way down to the 7th Lot...].  The Following Lots, Nos. 8, 9 and 10 Belong to Mrs. Anna M. Halpin, And Not To The Trust Estate.  [Lot 8 is typical of the others]  – The 4 Dwellinghouses, Nos. 12, 13, 14 and 15 Oswald Terrace, Lower Oriel Street, producing a gross annual rental of £97 7/4, less rates and taxes.  Held under lease for 900 years from 1st May 1867, at yearly rent of £9.  These houses are very attractive and well built, and are in good order.  For further particulars and conditions of sale apply to HONE and FAULKNER, Solicitors, 9 Suffolk Street, Dublin.

[Shanachai]

4a.
On the face of it, the sale of a Trust Estate like this one may seem innocent enough.  What makes it different, however, is its location and date.  At around that time, British soldiers were roaming the streets of Dublin in a usually futile effort to locate ‘terrorists’.  The War of Independence was essentially a guerrilla war between two exceptionally violent forces, one highly visible, the other effectively invisible.  Civilians were often caught in the crossfire and the community most affected by this were poor, inner-city slum-dwellers concentrated in and around the North Strand.  William Robert Halpin, early member of Connelly’s Irish Citizen’s Army, a socialist and a Shinner, was Captain of H-squad – a particularly ruthless band of IRA men drawn from the North Strand tenements.  William, or Willy, was my grandfather’s eldest brother, grandson of Robert Wellington Halpin, Wicklow Town Clerk.  Details of Will’s activities were conveyed to me by my father, and I’ve verified some of what he said.  I have not yet tried to verify the rest.  But I have good reason to trust my sources on Willy, and I will include those reasons in a future posting about him on this site.  At any rate, what I’d like you to consider is this:  Did the sale of so many tenancies in the North Strand, particularly during the troubles, create in the traumatised locals a fear of eviction?  Did the ‘Protestant’ sale of 900 year leases outrage the local IRA leaders at a time when many of them were determined to kill, indiscriminately, for the sake of political independence?  More significantly, perhaps – did Willy take umbrage at these auctions on behalf of the locals; was he rankled by an imputed connection to the Foxrock Halpins?  Was he behind the Republican raid on the Laurels?  The suggestion is not meant to be self-serving here – it’s actually quite plausible.  If Willy was indeed behind the decision to break into the Laurels, was he acting for entirely ‘patriotic’ reasons?  Or was there a personal motive involved – for example: if Willy did conduct the raid, did he believe he was attacking  a class of people who held proprietorial rights over ‘the rightful owners of Irish real estate’; did he believe he was about to raid the home of a distant relative of his father’s, someone who was living comfortably and securely in leafy, landed, ‘loaded’ Foxrock, one member of an extended family that had, in a sense, banished Edwin from the Wicklow fold after he married Marianne?  It’s difficult to say how his mind might have worked, isn’t it?  I’m trying to view those distant events through Willy’s eyes.  The answer may lie with his grandson, who has agreed to meet me soon.  All in all, though, say what you like about the meaning behind these events – at least my explanation has the virtue of being dramatic.  In that respect, it may be more self-serving than I’m letting on.
For the time being, all the best.       
 

[Shanachai]

Sorry for keeping you waiting, CreamEgg.  Will prioritize the material you requested and get it to you within the week.  In the meantime, you may want to look at the last mssg I sent Bill Webster - it contains some interesting material on Willy.

Cheers.

[BillW]

My first reply, Raymond is to thank you very much for all this information, which I dearly hope will keep coming and which I will have to find a way of storing.

But secondly, I am wondering if we may be overtaxing the Wicklow researchers.  Wherever the George Halpins came from (Wicklow, I hope), the family essentially became Dubliners.

Should we perhaps conduct this valuable exchange at a Dublin list, or a Halpin list? 

Cara, what do you think?

Bill.

[BillW]

Raymond.  Page 2a of your last.

George Halpin senior was buried 12 July 1854 at Mount Jerome.
George Halpin junior died 4 June 1869 at Rathgar and was buried at Mount Jerome.

George junior made a will dated 21 October 1865 in which he mentions his marriage with Julia Villiers dated on or about the 18th day of October 1865.  His 1869 death certificate states that he had been ill in excess of 5 years, so in 1865 he was putting his affairs in order.

George senior was essentially a builder who had a genius for engineering.  I knew that he had developed some rows of houses in Dublin, as you would expect an enterprising builder to do, but I knew no details.  You are sure giving us some of those details now.

George senior's burial records state that he was "removed" from the parish of St Thomas  I was hoping that this meant a church of St Thomas so that we could perhaps search the registers of that church hopefully to find his marriage and other family occasions.  From what you write, this burial record may mean that he was removed from a location in the civil parish of St Thomas and St George, which means to me that a church of St Thomas need not have been his family church.  That is a disappointment.

Children mentioned in the June 1870 Notice:

All those mentioned are known children of Julia but you have been of assistance with locations.  The George Halpin mentioned is the younger brother of the first William Oswald Halpin and is my ancestor.  He finally emigrated from Ireland in 1882.  My grandmother was born in 1881 at 2 Raymond Street, South Dublin, which I thought from its nature would have been temporary accommodation pending their departure.  Could the Eglinton Cottages mentioned here be the same?  Perhaps these were George Halpin developments too.  Annie Caroline married after this Notice, in 1873, to Arthur Henry Thompson.  Robert Halpin, here at Rathmines, is said to have married a woman named Mettie (Unknown) in England and had children Maud and George Alfred.  Now, Mary Byrne.  Mary was born about 1845/6 and it had been reported to me that she had married a Patrick Byrne and had a daughter Annie Byrne.  If she was a widow in Melbourne in 1870, that is news to me.  I will get some sleuths to work on that.

I'll respond to your other pages separately.  B.

[BillW]

Raymond.  Page 3a.

I think one of our family researchers may have tried to see if the solicitors firm of Hone and Faulkner still existed.  I don't know of any outcome.  The Anna M Halpin was the widow of William Oswald Halpin of Foxrock and now it seems there is also an Oswald Street.  As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I am convinced that the name Oswald is a pointer to an earlier generation, whether that of George senior or of his wife Elizabeth.

A couple of children of the Australian branch attest that for some time distributions from a trust were being received.  As I have mentioned, Julia looked askance on our George Halpin's marriage and apparently some of them complained that Julia was mean in the distributions to them (while she was alive, of course - Julia died at Foxrock in 1889, 20 years after George junior).  I wonder if thereafter William Oswald (died 1908) and perhaps even his widow Anna Maria (died 1933) administered what was left of the Trust as Julia would have.

The Foxrock estate started out at over 7 acres but was whittled down to under 1 and adjoining the house (the Laurels) was a separate smaller premises denoted Foxrock Lodge or Laurels Lodge.  At some point these would have been separated off.

B.

[BillW]

Raymond. Page 4a.

This stuff about the IRA is terrific reading and not anything I had known before (as it relates to my family).  As a staunch republican, your Willy had a few loads on his back that could have explained his strident views, not least having an antecedent named Robert Wellington Halpin, a town clerk under the British order.  And William Robert were not the equivalent forenames of a Paddy or a Seamus.

I got some of my information about The Laurels from a local history group that includes Foxrock.  They could be interested in the IRA attacking leafy Torquay Road, Foxrock, surrounded by golf courses and Leopardstown racecourse.

In 1920, the only occupant was widowed Anna Maria Halpin who had just lost one son in the Great War and her other son was living in England.

B.

[enfield]

Is this the guy?
    HALPIN
Initials:    J
Nationality:    United Kingdom
Rank:    Private
Regiment/Service:    Royal Irish Regiment
Unit Text:    2nd Bn.
Age:    27
Date of Death:    07/06/1917
Service No:    5798
Additional information:    Son of John and Anne Halpin, of Killary, Lobinstown, Slane, Co. Meath.
Casualty Type:    Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference:    I. E. 2.
Cemetery:    WYTSCHAETE MILITARY CEMETERY

Born in Killeary in County Meath and enlisted  in Widnes in Lancashire, There was also an Edward Halpin from the same place also enlisted in Widnes and also died in 1917