Halpins of Co. Wicklow, Portarlington and Dublin City - Part 2

[Diane Carruthers]

Hi,

Also on the British Library website is John Halpin born July 3 1805 died November 30 1848 was with the Madras Army.

Diane

[Diane Carruthers]

Bill

I was also pondering the question you posed about whether the Halpins went from Portarlington to Dublin and Wicklow or was it the other way around.

In the Portarlington Directory for 1787 the only Halpin listed is Nicholas Halpin, English Grammer School. I had expected to see more Halpins listed.

In the directories for the 1700's most of the Halpins seem to be in Dublin.

Mind you directories don't list everyone but it does bear thinking about.

Diane

May I extrapolate and speculate upon some other points about ages, dates, etc, from the recent material?
We have from these Wicklow gravestones new information about James Halpin and his mother Elizabeth, who is new to us; and we also learn of his sister, Margaret.  (By the way, if Louisa Halpin came down to Wicklow from Dublin about 1830 to her uncle James, she also came down to her older aunt Margaret.)

Elizabeth’s age was stated as 75 when she died the same year, 1814, in which her son James married in Wicklow, he aged about 37 that year.  So, Elizabeth would have been about 38 when James was born, around 1777.

These ages leave room for a few things (all speculative).
1.   It is highly likely that Elizabeth had more, earlier, children than James, who was born when she was about 38.  So, including Margaret (born about 1762), James more than likely had other siblings born in the 1760s and 1770s.  (Was William one of them?  And George?)  We have to be awake for Halpins who may fit this timeframe.
2.   If William Henry Halpin was also born in the 1760s, to Nicholas Halpin schoolmaster and Ann du Bois, it would possibly fit neatly that Elizabeth’s husband was a brother or cousin of Nicholas.
3.   If so, did Elizabeth’s branch leave for Wicklow/Dublin as early as the 1760s from around Portarlington, or did perhaps the Portarlington lot come from Wicklow.  As I have alleged before, the education boom in Portarlington would have sucked in people as booms do.  Did Nicholas go where the opportunity was rather than deriving from Portarlington?
4.   James, at about 37, was relatively late marrying.  William and George had children born a decade before James married Anne Halbert.  While I know of many men of this era who married late, or never married, the possibility remains that there was room for James to have had an earlier family to a wife who may have died.  However, to date we have noticed no evidence for this, but the possibility has to be there.
5.   Ray has suggested often, if I have it right, that James started out as a hot-headed distiller in Dublin with his brother William.  Is that right, Ray?  He has also painted the picture of many ardent Irish, especially protestants, seeing where their bread was buttered and quite quickly taking up with the establishment, where they were welcomed.  William seems not to have taken up his paymaster army commission until about 1807, with a developing war against Napoleon creating opportunities.  William would have been about 30.  Was this his settling down, just as James went (back?) to Wicklow to run a tavern and raise a very successful family?  Could someone in the Castle (who knew the Duke of Cambridge?) have got William his entry to the army at a relatively advanced age?
Bill.

[Diane Carruthers]

Hi,

In the Freeman's Journal, Dublin,  Friday, March 22, 1839

On the 20th instant at his residence, North Great Georges Street, in the 79th year of his age, William Henry Halpin, Esq., late of the Military Account Office.

That would make him born around 1760.

I was hoping that he was the William Henry who married Marianne Crosthwaite but I guess it could also be the William who was the paymaster in the army.

I don't know how to prove it one way or another.

Diane

[kenneth cooke]

Diane & others,
I have made a summary of the 1500 entries for Halpen/Halpin/Halfpenny etc.in the IGI Index, (not inc. Ancestral, Pedigree Resource files or Census).

County/ No. of entries/ Time span

Antrim  26, 1841-1950s
Armagh 1, 1865
Carlow 32, 1808-1879
Cavan  15, 1846-1878
Clare  75, 1788-1882
Cork 13, 1788-1877
Donegal 1, 1833
Down  9, 1864-1879
Dublin 217, 1 fem.mar.1727, rest 1760-1908
Fermanagh  10, 1865-1904
Galway  18, 1864-1880
Ireland (no county)  300,  1734-1946
Kerry  64, 1830-1880
Kildare  8, 1864-1878
Kilkenny  2, 1843-1866
Laoighis  5, 1756-1849 (inc 1 mar. & 2 approx birthdate for Eliz Halpen)
Leinster Province 19, 1781-1840 (few W’meath, mostly Ossory)
Leitrim  1  1834
Limerick  327, 1741-1905 (& 1 dubious 1676)
Longford 6, 1844-1880
Louth  55, 1783-1993
Mayo 1 1866
Meath  122, 1819-1966
Monaghan 13, 1812-1873
Tipperary  44, 1810-1912 (inc 4 birth & 4 mar. for same Honora H.)
Tyrone  3, 1846-1866
Waterford  19, 1709-1917
Westmeath  9, 1860-1878
Wexford  1, 1845 (mar.)
Wicklow  48, 1845-1879 (mostly 1860s & 1870s)

These figures are of course not conclusive, they are an indication only. Many events have been duplicated, and many others, probably the majority, are missing.
Leinster Province covered a number of counties, but most entries are from the Diocese of Ossory, which I believe was based in Kilkenny town.
The earliest reliable Halpen we know is Padgitt Halfpenny, of Queens Co. b. 1682 (from TCD Register).
Ken

[BillW]

Di, Captain William Halpin, paymaster, gave his age as 84 in the London 1861 Census.  While census ages are notoriously unreliable, this one rings true with other events in his life.  This gives him a birth year around 1777, very close indeed to the estimated birth years of James and George.  Also we have seen no evidence of him having a middle name.

By comparison, if William Henry Halpin married Marianne Crosthwaite in 1787, 1760 makes a very comfortable fit for his year of birth.  In fact, it is the approximate year that I have given in my tree charts.

I intend to tentatively accept your find as his death.  In which case, his published position, late of the Military Account Office, is very interesting news.  Has anyone else seen this before?  Could he have helped the 17 years younger William get an army commission as a Captain/Paymaster in 1807?  Which, of course, again ties up these families.

Does anyone know anything of the Military Account Office?  Also, where does North Great Georges Street fit into the disposition of the Dublin Halpins in 1839?

A very compelling find, Di.  Bill.

Hi,

In the Freeman's Journal, Dublin,  Friday, March 22, 1839

On the 20th instant at his residence, North Great Georges Street, in the 79th year of his age, William Henry Halpin, Esq., late of the Military Account Office.

That would make him born around 1760.

I was hoping that he was the William Henry who married Marianne Crosthwaite but I guess it could also be the William who was the paymaster in the army.

I don't know how to prove it one way or another.

Diane

[BillW]

I Googled "Military Account Office", which brought up an 1815 Almanack by John Watson (I think) which showed this entry to be on page 151, which by sods law was missing!
However, doing an internal search for Halpin brings on page 55, under Merchants and Traders:

Halpin (Mary and Martha) Haberdashers, 5 Mecklenburgh-street.

I suppose these are the "Misses Halpin" that appear regularly in other directories.  Don't know who they are, yet, but they are in Ray's Mecklenburgh Street.  B.

[BillW]

I have just amended my list of Halbert/Eaton/Cotter by adding two references to an Eaton Cotter in 1808 and 1827 living at what I think is now called Coolawinna or Coolawinnia, about a mile equidistant north of Rathnew and east of Ashford.  He was succeeded there by a Richard Cotter.

Because of James Halpin's and Anne Halbert's first son being named Eaton Cotter Halpin, about 1818, I conjecture that Anne Halbert's mother may have been of this Cotter family, who, in turn, may have married with the last of the Eaton family.

The Halbert family seems to have derived from around Ballinabarney, just west of Wicklow and south of Rathnew and also from Kilmullin, which is further north, near Newtonmountkennedy and Newcastle.   All these distances are so close.

If their BDMs do not turn up in the registers of Wicklow Church of Ireland, where would have been alternate, closer C of I parish churches for them to attend and to possibly have left records?

Bill

[Diane Carruthers]

Bill,

If you do a Advanced Google Book Search putting Halpin in the first line and military account in the exact phrase spot you come up with a little more information.

Diane

[tompion]

Hi All,

Interesting recent posts. Google books avanced search is very nice!

I found Halpin entries in 'The fifth (-thirteenth) annual report (covering 1829-1834) of the Juvenile association for promoting the education of the deaf and dumb poor of Ireland. It seems as though most of the gents and their wives gave to this charity and are listed according to the location of their local branch.

The only entries are:

Wicklow - Mr James Halpin and also, separately, Mrs Halpin.

Oldcastle - Rev N.J. Halpin and, separately, Rev G. Halpin



Also in The Gentleman's and London Magazine or Monthly Chronologer 1785:

Deaths June-July 1785 at Porarlington, Mrs Mary Ann Halpin.

Now who is she??

All best Brian