Halpin family of Wicklow - Part 1

[kenneth cooke]

Thanks Diane,
Ken

[Diane Carruthers]

The National Library of Ireland has launched an online Sources database http://sources.nli.ie

An example of one of the items is a manuscript that is a Draft Pedigree of Halpin of Co Cavan and von Koffelow of Schwerin, c 1700-1912.

Dr Charles Halpin's daughter Esther married Hermann von Koppelow.

It may have some details of the Portarlington Halpins.

Diane

[Shanachai]

     Diane, I've seen that draft pedigree of the Cavan Halpins.  It's identical to the one in Burke's peerage but contains two entries before "Nicholas Halpin, Headmaster of Portarlington Sch." They were written in red ink and it seemed to me that the source was having trouble being certain about them - they were William Halpin and William Henry Halpin and both were recorded as being Royal Navy men.  Both were being suggested as father and grandfather to Nicholas.  No dates were given.  I saw nothing on von Koppelow, although I didn't look very hard.  Interesting, though, that Judith Halpin (Charles' eldest daughter) married a von Hoiken.  I recall seeing a death notice somewhere for an unnamed (unnamed in Burke's peerage) daughter who died in a German or Austrian nunnery.  Could be a German connection we're overlooking.  I smell another coincidental loop in the offing...I'm sure if I try hard enough I can connect the family to the Gestapo...I'll get on to it right away.

     Incidentally, Charles' son Druid became a very well respected Engineer in the UK, and there are a few publications of his stored in the archives somewhere.  I half suspect his grandson is head of the British Communist Party (Kevin Halpin). 

[BillW]

This comes back to my point about some entries in Burke's having to be taken as they were - contributions by descendants of the family and therefore possibly open to conjecture.  Did it actually say "Headmaster of Portarlington School"?

From my dipping into trying to find anything about this Nicholas, it quickly became obvious that, at that very time and for very strange reasons, it became a fashion to send children, frequently very young children, from anywhere in Ireland to get an "education" in, of all places, Portarlington.  It was a fad, a boom industry.

Nicholas Halpin's school therefore was one of many and for that reason I am sceptical that his, out of all of them, was called Portarlington School.  I would be gratified to be proved wrong.  About the only lasting evidence I have been able to find of Nicholas was a remark implying that there had been a death (or more?) at his school and that he had a reputation for hardness.  I am pretty sure one victim was a youngish girl.  From this I suspected it may have been a mixed preparatory boarding school, possibly quite small.

It is possible that his school outlasted the fad and became larger and eventually Portarlington School but you'd think it would have left some traces.  I note from the TCD records that as late as 1843 when Rev NJ's son WH went up, his prior education is noted as "Portora Sch.".

Bill

[BillW]

Hopefully attached is a chart I have created of Halpins who went to Trinity College up to the 1860s.  The information comes from an old book, Alumni Dublinenses, A. Thom & Co., 1935.  I created it in a spreadsheet but the list would not accept a spreadsheet as an attachment.  That way would have allowed you to sort the material in any way you desired.  This way, I have sorted according to calculated birth year.

Bill

[tompion]

Hi All,

This website mentions Nick Halpin and a school called Portarlington School.

http://www.laoisedcentre.ie/Dreamemo/schoolssection/PrivateSchools.htm

Best wishes, Brian

[Shanachai]

     Sorry about the appalling German mimicry.  The offending effort's been removed.  Over compensating there.

     On the entry in Burke's passage: "Lineage - Nicholas Halpin, Headmaster of Portarlington Sch., living 1809, m. Anne du Bois, and had issue, with a dau. Susanna, an only son..." That's an exact transcription of the first line of the actual lineage.  Above that, beneath the general heading "The Landed Gentry Of Ireland", is this:
     "Halpin Of Ford Lodge: John Ralph Halpin, of Ford Lodge, Cavan, admitted a solicitor 1922, Vice-Pres. of The Incorporated Law Soc. of Ireland 1953-54, served in World War 1 as 2nd Lieut. Royal Irish Fus.; b. 14 Aug. 1899, educ. Rugby and Trinity Coll. Dublin (B.A., LL.B.)."  I'm not sure if this means that John Ralph Halpin submitted the lineage to Burke's and deposited the draft in the National Archives, but I'm supposing it does.  Who else could it have been?

     I have copies of newspaper advertisements extolling the virtues of an education for the sons of respectable gentlemen at Portarlington.  As far as I can tell it was more than a fad - the schools seemed to focus on the education of Ascendancy children, equipping them with the grounding in classics and European languages that prepared them for university and an administrative post somewhere in the Empire.  Without such an education, you'd have difficulty calling yourself a credible, ranking Ascendancy Protestant.  Languages like French and German were considered essential "commercial" aids.  Permitting Catholics access to such an education was considered sacrilegious by many Protestants, and the struggle Catholics underwent to acquire such an education is part of the nation's collective identity.  For a long time, for as many as fifty years or more, the Protestant elite sent their young boys to Portarlington for 'the right stuff'.  After preparation there, some of those boys were sent to a school like Portora, where the Rev. NJ Halpin's father-in-law (described as 'the Rev. Dr. Greham') was headmaster.  The Greham's may have taught for a few generations at Portora (I believe wives and/or sisters assisted).  The Halpins had a long association with Portora - I have seen newspaper reports of some being prominently involved as students there well into the 20th century.  The ads I saw for an education in Portarlington were placed in the Dublin Evening Mail (some time in the late 1830s early 1840s), where the Rev. NJ Halpin was editor. 
     I have to say I haven't seen an account of an accident at a school in Portarlington, but it would not surprise me if one existed - while infrequent, fires in boarding schools during the cold winter months in particular were not unheard of.  There was a particularly terrible one in Cavan in the 1930s (I think) in which a large number of students burned to death because the Nuns refused to allow the girls - who were in their nighties - out of the burning building, at least not in the presence of the men who were there to put out the fire.  As for the reputation of Nicholas as a particularly hard task-master - I've heard that too.  I think there might even be some verse about it by a former student.

     I suppose the main thing to take away from this is an understanding of the absolute importance placed on education by the Protestant elite, and the high regard it had for the services provided by the schools of Portarlington, where Huguenot women in particular were prized for their mastery of French with a French accent.  For quite a while it seems the settlement of Portarlington was almost a closed, archly Loyalist and anti-Catholic community which was both a reasonably wealthy and safe place in which to educate the elite's - and semi-elite's - children. 

[Diane Carruthers]

What we do without you Ray. Thanks for the information about the manuscript at the National Library. Sad it didn't shed any further light on the family but at least we know.

I don't know who submitted the information to Burke's but it does have errors. My great grandfather and his brother have morphed into one boy; Beauchamp Massey and Herbert Lees become Herbert Beauchamp. I have the baptismal records from Mariner's Church in Kingstown and have seen Beauchamp's grave at Deangrange so know they are two separate boys.

Diane

[Shanachai]

1.

     I've mentioned my own suspicions to Bill, Diane.  I've always thought that there were more Halpin children in Portarlington prior to the end of the 18th century.  Why?  I've inferred it from the presence there of other eligible Halpin males - namely Paget and John.  Now I know I haven't mentioned these before, but I was sort of saving them up for a very loose and provisional "foot" to the overall Halpin family tree.  What I wanted to say was - if all three Halpin families (Wicklow, Portarlington, Dublin) are related, well then their different branches must converge on the generations emerging in and around the 1780-90 period.  I was going to then put John Halpin - who was a tide surveyor at Custom House, Dublin, and who retired on a pension of £300 pa, I think, which was a very substantial sum at the time - alongside Paget and Nicholas and call them three brothers or, at the very least, three blood relatives.  Now that I've mentioned these men I realise I'm going to have to provide details of them soon, something I'll do over the next few days.  But let me push on a little and justify my suspicion that the Halpin family tree, as published in Burke's, is not to be trusted entirely. 
     Some time back I posted a death notice outlining the demise of John Halpin, who was surveying out in India.  He was praised as a well respected Orientalist and translator.  Now, that notice was published in the Anglo-Celt (a Cavan town newspaper) in the 1840s, when the only Halpin around there at the time was Dr. Charles Halpin.  Other Halpin death notices were published in the Anglo-Celt at around the same time and all of those Halpins are known to us.  Now I checked as thoroughly as I can, and so far I can find no other Halpin family in Cavan at the time who might be an alternate candidate for relative of the deceased orientalist John H.  I concluded, reasonably I think, that the coincidence of name and shared interests/profession meant that John Halpin's death notice was published in the local rag for the benefit of Charles and his family, who therefore had to be blood relations.  I know that's all a little convoluted, but when I went to Burke's lineage looking for John Halpin, surveyor and orientalist, I couldn't find him.  That's when I began to think we might not be getting the full picture from Burke's.  That sent me off to the archives, where I uncovered John and Paget.  I know Ken will want what I have on Paget, so I'll post what I found on him next week too (some of it was lost last year when I neglected to save what I'd prepared to post).  This 'new' John Halpin of Portarlington, formerly of Custom House, Dublin (pre-1800), might well be the father of our Orientalist John (remember, this is provisional), and brother of Nicholas, Portarlington Headmaster.  He is also the John who was Juror in Emmet's trial - I think.  He may be the link between the Crosthwaites, who were also involved in Dublin Port, and the Portarlington Headmaster's wife.  It's getting a tad confusing, I know, so I'll say no more for the time being - but he could also be George Halpin's pop.  I'm piling it on, aren't I?  Before I go, let me tantalise with one more recent discovery.