Halpin family of Wicklow - Part 1

[kenneth cooke]

To Raymond
Thanks for the attempt. I know how you feel. I did the same then I got wise and now I do everything in Word first.
Have a nice cup of tea, or whatever does the trick, and try again when you feel like it.
I look forward to getting it in due course.
Regards,
Kenneth

[J.M. Flannery]

Hi to all Halpin researches out there I hope this information will be a little help. I will be sending you on some more on Capt. Robert C. later. The following was taken from newspaper cuttings, I was given after the death of the last Miss Halpin in a Wicklow nursing home. The newspapers name is not mentioned, however it has the  date January 1894 written on it in handwriting. I would think it came from The Wicklow Newsletter, printed by the McPhail Printers in Wicklow Town.

“New Deputy Lieutenant.

     Captain Robert C Halpin of Tinakelly House, Wicklow, has been, by a commission dated the 1st November, 1892, under the hand and seal of the Right Hon. The Earl of Carysford, the Lieutenant of the County of Wicklow, appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the said county”.

Death of Captain Halpin. Funeral at Wicklow

“Captain Robert Charles Halpin, R.N.R., J.P.,, D.L., died at his residence, Tinakelly, at 10.10 a.m.. on Saturday. The 20th inst., in the 58th year of his age…..
…..The chief mourners were – Dr. J. H. Halpin, Wicklow; Dr. Richard Halpin, Arklow; Mr Robert Halpin; Mr Richard Halpin, Wicklow; Mr James Halpin, Mr. S. Halpin, Mr William Halpin, (all nephews); Mr. W H H Kennedy (brother-in-law), Mr William Halpin, Mr E H Dickens, Mr R Kennedy, Mr G Newsom, V.S. ; Mr W Gregg, Mr F B Gregg. …..

Appointment of Medical Officer

“On Saturday last the Wicklow Dispensary Committee met at the Dispensary for the purpose of electing a properly-qualified Medical Officer for the district in the room of Dr. George H. Halpin, resigned.  The advertised remuneration was £100 per annum, as Medical Officer and £10 as Medical Officer of Health, together with the usual Vaccination and Registration Fees; the salary named to cover all fees &c., under the Labourers Acts. …

There were two candidates for the office – namely, Dr. James Halpin son of the retired Officer and Dr. Edward J. Goode, of Rathgar, Dublin.  ...Dr. Halpin was informed that he had been unanimously chosen, and he briefly returned thanks…

Naval – Dr. James H. Halpin of Wicklow, was appointed on Saturday last by the Admiralty as surgeon and agent at Wicklow”.
February 5th 1887 again taken from a newspaper cutting:

 Julia

[J.M. Flannery]

Part 2:
Captain Robert C. Halpin Candidature, for election

… “at various periods in his service at sea he was presented with handsome and valuable testimonials. The Board of Underwriters in New York bestowed on him a gold watch and chain and a purse of sovereigns; the passengers of the s.s. “Circassian,” a silver speaking trumpet and a purse of sovereigns; the passengers of the s.s. “Argos,” in 1859, gave him a silver goblet and a purse of sovereigns; and in 1866 he was made a recipient of a second gold watch by the Anglo American Telegraph Company for the work he performed in the laying of the Atlantic Cables. A few years subsequently the Emperor of the French desired to adorn him with the Order of the Legion of Honour, but in accordance with the lay existing in this country he could not accept it. In 1874 however, the Emperor of Brazil presented him with the Order of the Rose; and in the same year the Captains, Officers, and Engineers of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company entertained him at a banquet, and presented him with a handsome or ornate piece of plate.

The Governor of Bombay, the Governor-General of the Netherlands (India), The Governor of Newfoundland, the Chambers of Commerce of Liverpool, New York, Bombay, Pernambuco, &c., have entertained him in recognition of his great qualities. In 1876 he was appointed a Nautical Assessor in the High Court of Judicature and a member of the Local Marine Board of the Port of London. He is also a Commander of the Royal Naval Reserve. This is but a very cursory sketch of Captain’s eventful career, but it enables the electors of East Wicklow to know, at all events, that he is a man who, by education and experience, is well adapted to represent a constituency whose future development must largely depend upon its maritime resources.”
~~~~~~~~-----------------------------------------


‘Give the Helm to Halpin!
Ye hardy tars of Wicklow, who toil for homes and wives,
A brother is amongst you now, and for you good he strives;
You know that you can trust him – You know that he is true;
Then give the Helm to Halpin, and let him steer you through.

Once wreck and dire disaster befell Old Arklow town,
And midst the surging floods and hulks, nigh half the fleet went down;
In the dark hour of trouble, What did the fishers do?
They gave the Helm to Halpin, and he nobly steered them through.
In Halpin there’s no humbug; in Halpin there’s no boast;
But proud he’d be to represent his native town and coast;
He only seeks to help you-To fight and win for you;
Then give the Helm to Halpin, And he will steer you through!

Published by John Kelly Toomey, Solicitor.

[J.M. Flannery]

James & Ann Halpin's children, The Bridge Tavern, Brige street, Wicklow Town, which is getting a new 'face lift' at the present time. There is a Halpin walk in Wicklow starting at this Inn, with placqes on the various stops.

“James Halpin of Bridge Hotel married Anne Halbert; James was almost 40 and she only 17 yrs when they married in the parish church, The Church of the Vineyard (correct name for St. Thomas Church of Ireland on 1st April 1814. by 1834 they had 12 children, two of which, Sidney Anne and John James died in infancy. In 1835 five year old Robert also died. This left Eliza aged 19, Eaton 17, George 15, Thomas
13, William 12, Richard 10, Anne 7, John 3, and Louisa who was just 1 yr old. It will be noticed that James & Anne observed the custom of the time of naming children after brothers or sisters who had died.
John James died 1830 & when another boy was born 1832 he was also named John, being christened John Augustus.  It followed that when Robert died the next born son should be called after him. On 16th February 1836 Anne Halpin gave birth to the last of their 13 children, Robert Charles. Curiously, when he was baptised seven weeks later his name was registered as Charles Robert. Ref.  Church of Ireland Parish records”.

Extract p. 13,14 from The Life of Captain Robert Halpin, by Jim Rees, Published by Dee-Jay Publications, (Arklow, Co Wicklow) 1st published 1992, Reprinted 1994,200. This revision 2009.
ISBN 0 9519239 0 0.

Halpin Papers, Maritime Institute of Ireland
Julia

[BillW]

Thank you Julia (J M Flannery).  I don't usually clutter a site with a message of thanks but in this case I want to do so in the sense that your latest information may help to widen the Halpin view.  And, through you, we should thank Mr Jim Rees (assuming that he is not watching this thread himself).

Your information that James Halpin of the Bridge Hotel was almost 40 at his marriage on 1st April 1814 now gives us an indicated birth year of 1774.  (As an aside, many of the men in this family seem to have been so industrious, at sea, in medical studies, away in England or in other exploits that they typically married late.) 

As you so rightly say, names, and naming conventions, are to be taken seriously in family research.  And it can't be forgotten that there are two parties to a marriage.

So, the first child is Eliza, to be noted.  The next child, Eaton, gets a most singular name, and I have noted that there is a marriage in the registration district of Rathdrum in 1852 of an Eaton Cotter Halpin, surely this man aged about 33. For the next eldest child George Halbert, perhaps both names are a tribute to Anne Halbert’s family but possibly, and I would like to think so, the tribute is shared and George is an acknowledgement of a person or persons in James Halpin's family.

As has been stated earlier, my antecedents were a line of George Halpins from Dublin.  The eldest that we know of currently was known as George Halpin, Senior, calculated birth year from his age given at death 1779.  So he was born within 5 years of James Halpin, born 1774.

At present we can speculate but we do not know the parents of either but it is possible (to be hoped?) that they were brothers or first cousins.  It is certainly family lore (to borrow Raymond’s term), as evidenced in these messages by Kim Mettam, that Captain Robert Halpin and others from this Wicklow family were relations, presumably cousins of our George Halpin.

Thanks and regards

Bill

[BillW]

Following Julia's valuable additional information, I have amended the tree chart that I supplied a day or two ago.  I have had to make some assumptions that may not be correct.  (1) That Eaton is Eaton Cotter.  (2) That Thomas is Thomas J(ohn?).  (3) That William is Stopford William.  (4) That Richard is Richard Mathews.  The birth years of some of the deceased children has been estimated or guessed.

From the wording of Julia's quote from Jim Rees, I have assumed that the ages of the children given was in 1834 and I have worked from that.  These dates more often than not disagreed with dates calculated from age given at death, which usually put birth dates one or more years later (not uncommon).

I don't know if our Moderator might wish to delete my earlier chart to save space.

Bill

[kenneth cooke]

For what it's worth, I have found the following:
Queen's County betw 25.3.1810 & 18.9.1810- John Halpin of Woodville took out a certificate (?licence) for killing game.
Co. Cavan newspaper extracts 1849- Birth, 19 Nov 1849, the lady of N. John
Halpin Esq of a daughter, at Russell Place Dublin.
Pigot's Dir. of IRL 1824, Limerick- Patk Halpin, Spirit & Porter Dealer & Publican
Upper William St.
Ken Cooke

[BillW]

In view of information that Captain Robert Halpin had as his eldest brother Eaton Halpin, born c. 1817, it is probably relevant to note from the Wicklow Parish Church home page:

The Tower with its copper cupola was constructed by the Eaton family in 1777. The family crest of a lion carrying a sheaf of straw acts as a weather vane and there is also a lion depicted on the outside of the tower.  The idea of removing the cupola and replacing it with a spire was discussed in the late nineteenth century, but this idea was never carried out. Instead, much needed repair work was carried out with the financial aid of the Halpin family.  (My underlining.) [http://www.wicklow.glendalough.anglican.org/index_files/Page350.htm]

Bill

[Shanachai]

THE DEATH OF DR. GEORGE  HALBERT HALPIN, TUESDAY 21ST JUNE  1887.
Dr. George Halpin’s  death was announced in The Wicklow-Newsletter on Saturday, June 25th 1887, alongside an editorial on Queen Victoria’s visit to Ireland:
     “Never in the history of any nation has there occurred a demonstration so intensely enthusiastic and so thoroughly universal as that which on Tuesday testified the undivided loyalty and abiding affection of Queen Victoria’s subjects to the person of her Royal and Imperial Majesty.  Despite the efforts of some discordant elements, notably the Irish Parliamentary party, to throw into the proceedings a spirit of strife, the loyalty of the majority of the men and women of Great Britain and Ireland was contagious; petty party feuds were forgotten in the general rejoicing, and such a universal wave of gratitude and affection, which had been gathering during fifty years of unswerving devotion to duty, and undeviating regard for her people’s well being, broke over the whole of the British dominions as will serve to re-establish and confirm the people in that love for their monarchical institutions that has hitherto preserved them from those internal conflicts which have wrought disaster in other countries...”
My great great grandfather, Robert Wellington Halpin, Wicklow Town Clerk and Post-Master, was a personal friend of William McPhail, the editor of the Wicklow News-Letter, and both men were no doubt of a similar frame of mind when it came to loyalty to the Crown.  Yet they also considered  themselves to be Irishmen, but part of a privileged class of Irishmen charged with the responsibility of maintaining administrative and social control over a people who were believed unfit to rule themselves.  Their position within the local community gave them tremendous material and social advantages over other people – Edwin (my great grandfather), for example, spent time as a guest at Powerscourt, mostly playing on the grounds with friends, I believe, while his father went about the Town’s business.  Mail, and so forth, had sometimes to be delivered to the outlying districts.  That too was an occasion for Edwin, who’d often ride out with a man hired by the Post-Master for that purpose.  This kind of thing tended to occur in the summer,  and my great grandfather got to know a few of those cottagers who were later forcibly evicted from their homes by landlords. Those awful events enraged Edwin, but they also appalled his father, Robert, who nevertheless defended what he knew to be indefensible out of loyalty to his own and a fear of the Catholic unrest that signs of division within the Protestant community might lead to.  Displays of this kind of hypocrisy maddened Edwin, and by the time of Queen Victoria’s visit he numbered among the “discordant elements” mentioned above.  When it came to mail, though, more often than not people came into Wicklow to pick it up personally.  When asked, Edwin or his sisters would retire to somewhere private and read to the poor and illiterate - usually Catholic – any mail that might come for them.  This, I’m told, did more to radicalise Edwin than anything else...receiving mail from sons who had been years away in America or Canada, mothers and sometimes fathers would weep at what Edwin had to read, or they’d exult in news of a son’s success and promise to return or, more often, to send enough to cover the cost of passage.  Sometimes people came for years looking for ‘word’ and never received any.