Halpin family of Wicklow - Part 1

[tompion]

Dear Ray,

I should have said thanks for getting my Nicholas John Halpin line back a couple more generations.

I am not sure I understand how the Bradley's link the Halpins of Porarlington to Bill's ancestors.  We know rather little about the Bradleys and it is a fairly common name.   

You were talking about Halpins being involved in repairing roads - probably not at all relevant but the Bradley solicitors of Dublin were involved in the Trust which ran the Malahide Turnpike Roads:

In an 1832 directory od Dublin an entry says: 'Bradley (W.J) KCE. (this is William James Bradley) secretary and law agent to trust of Malahide Turnpike Roads, 26 Mecklenburgh S'. The same is said in a 1842 directory.

Best wishes Brian

[BillW]

Dear Ray, Brian, Ken and Julia
I have been oblivious to the rounds of the past 3 weeks or so.  I have not received the usual email advising of new contributions.  It may have something to do with having (necessarily!) a new computer.  Ray was kind enough today to advise me that he had contributed to the chat and I went in search of it and glad I did.
May I firstly pick up on one of the many intriguing connections being explored – namely road-building?  As Ray knows, I have a particular interest in finding anything at all about the family of George Halpin junior’s wife, JULIA VILLIERS.  [Love that name, Julia, as it was my grandmother’s and my great grandmother’s.]  As it is, I have been able to find nothing.  She is a complete mystery woman and yet, by all reports, she lorded it over the Halpins.
For some time in his later mature years, around 1865 [Thom’s Directory], George junior lived in “Elm View”, Highfield Road, Rathgar.  Within a stone’s throw of that residence was Rathgar Mansion, occupied by members of the Villiers Tuthill family.  It was not beyond the realms of possibility that this family had “developed” the row of villas where George lived on part of their Rathgar Mansion estate and that, as family, he came to live there.
Kathleen Villiers Tuthill is a historian/author and was easy to find, so I thought to ask her.  She most kindly replied immediately but needless to say she knew of no connection to Julia Villiers.  However, Kathleen was kind enough to write the following, which I quote from her email to me:

Now to George Halpin. Oddly enough, I have come across this man before! In 2006 I published a book on a Scottish engineer, Alexander Nimmo, who worked in the West of Ireland in 1820s. One of his junior surveyors was none other than George Halpin jnr. The following is an extract from the book relating to George:
'George Halpin Junior surveyed and mapped the central Connemara road and the road from Kilkieran Bay to Killary. Halpin was later appointed engineer to the commissioners for improving the port of Dublin and was responsible for seeing Nimmo's work on sailing directions for St George's Channel and the Coast of Ireland through to publication after his death in 1832.' p74-75. Alexander Nimmo & The Western District.
George wrote the introduction to Nimmo's book published in Dublin 1832: New Piloting Directions for St George’s Channel and the Coast of Ireland: Written to accompany the chart of St George’s Channel and the coasts of Ireland, Drawn for the Corporation for Improving the Port of Dublin. By Alexander Nimmo, F.R.S.E. This book can be found in the National Library of Ireland, Dublin.
It must be possible to trace George jnr, given his job and profession. Try contacting the National Library of Ireland, and the National Archives of Ireland, websites and ask them for help. They have researchers that deal with genealogy and should be able to advise you.
Small world isn't it!
Regards and good luck with your search.
Kathleen

Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill
www.connemaragirlpublications.com

I personally believe that this must have been George Halpin senior due to the facts that George junior became accredited as a civil engineer 20 years later, in 1847, and for the baptisms of 4 of his children between 1840 and 1846 his stated occupation went from army sergeant to writer.
I will post separately on other matters.
All best
Bill

[BillW]

Brian, how do you come to state that your Mary Anne Isabella's family came from Cavan?  I am not disputing it, merely seeking clarification.

It is my understanding that she descended from Nicholas John, son of Rev Nicholas John Halpin, but I may be wrong.  In everything that I recall seeing about this branch, they were essentially Dubliners.

I think perhaps the most interesting of all this interesting family was Dr Charles Halpin who somehow set up practice in Cavan, although I don't believe that they had any prior connection with Cavan, but I could be wrong again.

Dr Charles was of course Rev Nicholas John's brother and Rev NJ was rector of the church at Meath.  We know that these two at least shared in the pursuit of botanical specimens around the countryside and made learned contributions to the Dublin Botanical Gardens library.

Rev NJs son NJ obtained an office with the Dublin Ports Corporation, or similar, more than likely through the good offices of George Halpin senior.  Around the same time, Rev NJ occupied (rented?) property in Dublin developed and owned by George Halpin.

Now as I understand things (please correct me), this NJ at Dublin Ports and his wife Rebecca Doherty had your great grandmother Mary Isabella (who married Bradley of a Dublin soliciting family) and 3 other daughters whose names I don’t know.  Another child of theirs was yet another William Henry Halpin who somehow became the well recorded solicitor of Forde Lodge, Cavan, who married Caroline Isabella Emma Hutton.

So, did all the family at some point go (back?) to Cavan?  I don't think any of great uncle Dr Charles family were still there - they had all left for different countries.

And finally, to reinforce the likely connection between families, James Halpin who established his family in Wicklow Town around 1800 (the year of the Rev NJ’s brother Dr Charles’ birth) had among his 13 children two doctor sons.  The elder, Dr George Halbert Halpin born 1821 married Eliza Bradley.  The other, Dr Stopford William Halpin born circa 1824, according to the Medical Registry in the Royal College of Surgeon's library in Kildare St., Dublin, listed him as working from the same surgery in Cavan in the 1840s with Dr Charles Halpin.  It would seem that Dr Charles was offering his younger relative (exact connection not known) practical experience, employment and training.  Stopford eventually set up practice in Arklow, Co Wicklow.

I think I have confused myself even more now so no doubt I have you too.  Please set any errors straight.

All best
Bill.

[tompion]

Dear Bill,

Sorry - I was sloppy.   There is no connection of my great grandmother, Mary Anne Isabella Halpin, with Cavan - except that her brother William Henry Halpin lived there.  I think I remember my great aunt (daughter of Mary Anne Isabella) talking quite a lot about Cavan, but she and her siblings were orphaned when Mary and husband William David Bradley both died young, and I suspect some of them were brought up in Cavan by William Henry Halpin's family.

Interesting to hear the Wicklow Dr Halpin connection with Dr Charles Halpin in Cavan - I suspect there was a connection between WH Halpin and my my Bradleys (after all they were both solicitors) and I would not be surpised in William David Bradley was introduced to William Henry Halpin's sister as a suitable girl to marry.

I have no idea who Eliza Bradley was - interesting to find out if she was a sister of one of the solicitor Bradleys.  Seems quite likely.

All best, Brian
 

[Shanachai]

Brian, you've no idea of the importance of that address on Macklenberg street.  I was only telling Bill and Ken about it over the past few days - how it features prominently in the Halpin tale.  In fact, it is the main street around which much of the Halpin tale pivots.  I'll ask Ken and Bill if I can post our private correspondence on this board, it will save me a ton of unnecessary typing.  Well done again, Brian - although I realise you've no idea yet just what it is you're being praised for.  Bill and Ken will be in touch soon and I'll take it from there.  Cheers.

[BillW]

Brian, Ray and all others

May I submit here the Nicholas Halpin family as I have it currently charted.  I would welcome any additions and especially corrections.

In the Nicholas John family as I have it, there is a large gap in children between the first child, Nicholas John born 1818 and the next recorded, William Henry in 1825.

Brian, I don't have your great grandmother's birth and line recorded.  I also noted sometime that she had 3 other unrecorded sisters.  Do you know anything about them?

I find such basic charts helpful in seeing overall relationships.

Bill.

[BillW]

Ray, before putting Cavan to bed, here is another intriguing location.

That Dr Charles set up there in the 1830s by itself raises no queries.  A man has to set up a medical practice somewhere and it is not all that far from either Portarlington or Dublin.

But Dr Charles died in 1859 and by that year his own family had dispersed out of Ireland, Brian's ancestor had barely been born and her brother William Henry Halpin of Forde Lodge had not yet been born.

For two branches of a family to set up professionally in Cavan quite separately and possibly 50 years apart raises a flag with me.  Was there some other member of the family with an ongoing connection or base there, just like there seems to have been the other covert connection with Carlow?  Is it at least possible that there may have been "aunts" there?  Just something to keep in the back of my mind.


Brian, I have sometimes wondered how your great great uncle seems to have prospered so quickly.  He appears in Cavan seemingly out of nowhere and flush with money and success, a landed estate and sending his sons to public school in England.  But why Cavan?

All best, Bill

[Shanachai]

People back then moved in circles we can no longer see - social circles defined by class, religion, profession and so on.  These circles are what I've been trying to rediscover recently - who's connected to who, and for what reason.  I have no doubt that family ties exist between the Halpins and someone else resident in Cavan in the mid 1800s, someone who is as yet unnamed.  The thread we've spun over the past few days with the Bradley name, with its links to Halpins from apparently unconnected families and to Macklenburg street, is one example of what I'm talking about - these coincidental loops move through families, neighbourhoods and professions, creating as they do strong circumstantial evidence of a meaningful connection between all of the things they touch.  At the moment we can't see what or who connects the Halpins to Cavan, but we suspect something does.  We might discover that something if we continue to plot the linking surnames and then look for reinforcing links.  Bradley - Halpin - Macklenburg street...and so on.  It's late here, so I'll leave off now and come back tomorrow with much more on Macklenburg street and its significance.  Sorry about the suspense.

[kenneth cooke]

Ray has pointed out that several people seemed to have lived in Mecklenburg St. Dublin.
Wm. James Bradley Sec & Law Agent Malahide Roads at No 26 in 1832 & 1842 Dub Dir., (see Brian's post, top of P. 13)
Paget Halpin Engraver at 44 from 1792-1800 & 32 in 1801, Wilson's Dir.,
Mary & Martha Halpin, Haberdashers, No. 5 in 1801,
Marmion Savage, good friend of Rev Nich Halpin had his 'salon' in Meck. St
(quoted by Ray).
Ken