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

[Bigbird68]

Re: Other Halpins (3)

Among other Halpins picked up during my recent research were:

a Mr M. Halpin, Bengal Ordnance Commissariat Department (1855)

From Army lists for 1877 and 1883: Nicholas John Halpin MD with the Bengal Medical Department

From the Medical Directory for Ireland of 1858: George H. Halpin, Wicklow, LRCSI 1851, LSA Irel 1847, LM Combe Hosp. 1847

Several Halpins in the Medical Register for 1913, including William Oswald Halpin, MB, MD (Dublin 1912) of The Laurels, Foxrock, Co. Dublin and a James Henry Halpin, LRICS, KQ Coll Phys. Irel. registered 1885, of Wicklow (no address).

From the Times of London 15 May 1848: Died: "On the 8th inst., at Newcomen-terrace, Dublin, in the 54th year of his age, Wliiam Henry Halpin, Esq., second son of the late W. H. Halpin, Esq., of that city. Mr Halpin was for upwards of 30 years connected with the metropoilitan and provincial press of England." [ I believe well known in connection with newspapers in the west of England].

William Halpin, born Limerick about 1846, served as Quartermaster (Hon. Lieutenant) with the Norfolk Regiment [Quartermaster from 20 Sept 1882], made Hon. Captain in 20 Sept 1892 (Times London, 17 Sept 1892) although the 1900 Army List has him as Hon Captain from 20 Sept 1887; he served with the Burmese Expedition 1885-88 and had the Medal with two Clasps; he lived with wife in Norwich (where the regiment was based) in 1891 (son Arthur W F Halpin) and retired on retired pay on 10 March 1900, living in Beccles, Suffolk in 1901.  There is also listed earlier in the London Gazette for the 20th September 1882, The Royal Munster Fusiliers, Quartermaster-Sergeant William Halpin from Devonshire Regiment to be Quartermaster. He was with the Royal Munster Fusiliers until at least 1886. The Royal Munster Fusiliers were formerly the Royal Bengal Fusiliers.

[BillW]

Sterling work, Ronald.  If I had known you were going, I have two other burials in that cemetery from about the same time, two direct antecedents on my father's side.  I once asked about whether gravestones can be protected from further decay or if indeed they should be.  In essence I recall that the answer was that they can't and that you have done the right thing by photographing and re-covering them.  The other suggestion was to put near to them a new sign transcribing what can be deciphered from the inscriptions.

Dr William Oswald Halpin 1886-1918 was a grandson George Halpin junior, killed at the end of WW1 serving with the RAMC, buried in the Commonwealth War Graves at Villers Brettoneux.

Dr James Henry Halpin 1861-1916 was a son of George Halbert Halpin and Eliza Bradley, lived at Wentworth Villas, Wicklow Town, and was married to Adelaide Maud Sutton.  From 1900 they had 4 known children: James Raymond, Robert Everst, Damaris Margaret and George Herbert Halpin.

From my point of view, the confirmation of a George Halpin in the family of William Halpin of Wicklow only further adds to my belief that my George Halpin in all likelihood is connected to the Wicklow Halpins, wherever in Wicklow that was.  There is zero use of the name George in the families of the Portarlington Halpins.  Or, perhaps as Ray would possibly maintain, this is all part of a family schism, a differentiation among branches of the one family.

Your news will take a while to assimilate and I will add much of it to my records.

Bill.

[kenneth cooke]

To Bigbird 68,
Diane gave us a short list of Latin titles in the old Forum, Post 269:
Generosus - Gentleman
Clericus - Clergyman
Armiger - Esquire
Publicanus - Tax Collector
Centurio -  Officer
Miles - Soldier
Capitaneus - Captain
Ken

[kenneth cooke]

Latin dictionaries online give 'armiger' as 'arms bearer' or 'bearing arms'.
But the use of Latin by clerics and officials can be erratic.
What they actually meant is sometimes anyone's guess.
Ken

[BillW]

Robert, if on his 1891 gravestone Colonel George Halpin is described as the second son of Capt William Halpin, what happened to Richard, the eldest?  If Richard had died over 50 years earlier, unmarried, in a boating accident in India, it seems he may have become forgotten.  Robert Halkett and/or his wife Eleanor, daughter of the youngest son Robert Crawford, may never have known of him.  Her father had died two years earlier.

So, to your later musings on Richard.  A William Halpin’s son Richard went up to TCD in 1818 and was, with John and Robert Crawford, one of the ones who completed to graduation, in 1822.  He started with his father’s KGL regiment but this was disbanded more or less after 1815, so it seems he went to university.  (Cornets.  Richard Halpin.  8th - 22nd July 1815. [Campaign of 1815] -  History of the King's German Legion by North Ludlow Beamish (via Google Books)).  Then, after graduating, he joined the regular army, as an ensign by purchase with the 98th Foot, in 1825.  All those dates fit although he was old to be an ensign at about 26.  However he was a lieutenant by 1828 and a captain 5 years later aged about 34.

Why no rank was mentioned for William Halpin of Castle Forbes I don’t know.  Perhaps it was not the custom with estates or probate records.  We would need to sight Richard’s army records to confirm his parentage (what a good idea – are you able to visit the NA at Kew?).  Or, to maintain an open mind, there may be no relationship, but I doubt this.

Robert, to complete the picture, what are your sources for the John Halpin of the Madras Army?  I think we should be including him as the missing John.  What are the details you have found?  I believe we can see reference to his application for an East India Company cadetship in 1825/6 at http://www.search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_detail.php?id=724370. 

It would seem that of all William and Eliza Halpin's children who had been so well educated and for the careers found for the sons, the only grandchildren came from Robert Crawford Halpin.  For them I have son George and daughter Eleanor.  Any more?
Bill

[J.M. Flannery]

Hi all

I found this report from Frank Pelly of the Irish Lights Service, which he had written in Beam Magazine. I had filed with my Wicklow Halpins and forgot I even had it, until your mail of today Bill. Hope it will answer some of your questions. Sorry not to have found it before now. Happy reading. It is too large to post in one lot so have to break it down. hope the 4 sections make it to you all.

Julia

26BEAM No. 25BEAM No. 24

 BEAM Magazine No. 33. George Halpin Senior 1779 - 1854. Founding father of the Irish Lighthouse Service. by Frank Pelly
THE 150th ANNIVERSARY of the death of George Halpin senior fell on 8 July 2004. George Halpin joined the Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin (the Ballast Board) on 26 September 1800 as Inspector of Works in place of Francis Turnstall, deceased. The report of the Commission of Inquiry into the municipal corporations of Ireland (1835) defined Halpin as ‘not an Engineer in the professional sense but was brought up as a builder’.

This description understates Halpin’s actual attainments and responsibilities—the design, construction, and maintenance of all civil and mechanical works within Dublin port, from Sutton to Bullock Harbour, including the management and containment of the River Liffey from Islandbridge, and the lower reaches of the rivers Tolka and Dodder. A number of Dublin’s bridges was built by Halpin and port works for which he was responsible resulted in the creation of Bull Island.

In 1810 responsibility for Irish lighthouses was transferred from the Revenue Commissioners to the Ballast Board. The Board extended Halpin’s responsibilities by appointing him Inspector of Lighthouses in addition to Inspector of Works. His extra responsibilities encompassed identifying the requirements for aids to navigation; the design, construction, and maintenance of lighthouses; and the appointment and management of construction and quarry personnel, lighthouse keepers, tenders, tender crews, and stores personnel. During the following 44 years Halpin oversaw the construction and establishment of 53 new lighthouses and the modernisation or rebuilding of 15 others, in addition to the establishment of numerous minor aids to navigation—buoys, beacons, and perches. Most of the construction was by direct labour. He also set in place the management and administrative procedures for the Lighthouse Service.

During Halpin’s period the Corporation’s statutory functions were financially controlled and managed as three separate departments: the Port Department: the Anna Liffey Department, and the Lighthouse Department. Halpin’s input into the management of all three departments was such that he received a salary from each. Halpin was the public face of the Lighthouse Department, and its chief liaison officer with Trinity House and other bodies. In around 1830 his son George Halpin, a qualified civil engineer, was appointed as his assistant.

George Halpin senior died suddenly in July 1854 while carrying out lighthouse inspections. His date of birth is unknown; however, his headstone in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, gives his age as 75 years. He was succeeded by his son George Halpin (junior).

With the increased administration resulting from the enactment of the Mercantile Law Amendment Act, 1853 and the continuing expansion of the Lighthouse Service the work load of the Port and Lighthouse Departments became too much for one person. During the 1860s both remits were gradually separated.

The Dublin Port Act, 1867 finally separated the control and management of the Port and Lighthouse Departments into two independent organisations—Dublin Port & Docks Board, and the Commissioners of Irish Lights. Frank Pelly is Civil Engineering Operations Manager in the Commissioners of Irish Lights.  

[J.M. Flannery]

Part 2.
Published Works: BOOKS. THE DOCKLANDS - GEORGE HALPIN, FATHER & SON
'Dublin Docklands - An Urban Voyage’ is a work in progress, commissioned by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, and due to be completed in the autumn of 2008. The following tale represents research undertaken for the project which may or may not be used in the final book.

George Halpin Senior (1775 – 1854). George Halpin, Senior, was one of the most competent civil engineers operating in Ireland during the 19th century. He was an administrator of exceptional ability, praised in equal measure for the number of works he carried out and the intense perfectionism applied in each case. Following the death of Francis Tunstall in 1800, Dublin Corporation sought a new Inspector of Works to the Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin (commonly called the Ballast Board). On 26th September 1800, 21-year-old George Halpin emerged from nowhere to take up the challenge. We do not know where he was born or who his parents were. The report of the Commission of Inquiry into the municipal corporations of Ireland (1835) defined him as 'not an Engineer in the professional sense but was brought up as a builder'. In other words, he was a trained mason, a builder by trade. He never attained any academic engineering qualifications. And yet he was responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of all civil and mechanical works within Dublin Port, from Sutton on the north side of Dublin Bay to Bullock Harbour on the south. This included he management and containment of the River Liffey from Islandbridge and the lower reaches of the rivers Tolka and Dodder. He also oversaw the building of at least 53 lighthouses, as well as the modernisation and re-equipping of the previously existing lighthouses. This was in addition to supervising the construction of new docks, bridges and other projects for the expanding Dublin port.

Halpin, the Port and the Estuary: His work on both port and estuary was remarkably extensive. To ensure he had absolute mastery of the latest techniques in port organization and marine building, he made several visits to England and Wales. In 1810, for instance, he spent more than a month in London and the south of England studying dock design, lighthouse equipment and the latest techniques in stream dredging and tunneling. It was after this visit that he remarked how he ‘would rather have 2 Irish than 3 English labourers’ and how he had dismissed a lantern maker in London as ‘the most trifling and unsatisfactory kind of man I ever had any dealings with’. In 1814, he introduced stream dredging techniques to the Dublin estuary.

Halpin & the North Bull: In 1818, he was asked to carry out a new survey of the outer harbour at Dublin and of a proposed northern breakwater, the North Bull Wall, in order to make Dublin a deepwater port. As research, he went to study the breakwater at Plymouth but found little to assist him. He duly recommended Francis Giles be commissioned to survey the harbour and bar. Giles commenced this survey in June 1818, aided by Halpin, and their joint report was submitted to the Board in May 1919. The design for the breakwater was based on earlier proposals from 1786 by William Chapman and two members of the board, Maquay and Crosthwaite. When built, the north and south breakwaters enclosed a large volume of water and this was employed on the ebb tide to scour the sand deposits from the bar, thus allowing Dublin to develop as a deepwater port.

OTHER PROJECTS. In 1816, while preparing to construct the Bull Wall, Halpin also oversaw the creation of a new channel for the River Tolka from Clontarf Island across Brown’s Patch to the Liffey. Among the other major and manifold projects he was involved with were: raising part of the South Wall east of the Half Moon Battery to its present height; strengthening the base of the Poolbeg lighthouse; conferring with Charles Blacker Vignoles on the extension of the Kingstown railway on a causeway across the old Dun Laoghaire harbour; consultations with Thomas Telford and Sir William Cubitt about the deep-water berths at North Wall Quay; constructing the large new berthing-pool in the earth-banked basin of East Wall (known as Halpin’s Pond and later incorporated into the Alexandra Basin) and steering the first graving dock projects through to the appointment of William Dargan as contractor. In 1846, he helped ward off a proposal by the Tidal Harbours Commissioners to divert the Dodder through Irishtown and form a new basin by the South Bull. He designed the structure for the first patent slip to be built in the port. In 1839, he proposed a bascule or swivel bridge where the Talbot Memorial Bridge would be built 140 years later.

[J.M. Flannery]

Part 3 of 4
Halpin & the Lighthouses: In 1810 the Ballast Board was made responsible for all lighthouses, beacons and seamarks around the coast of Ireland. The Board extended Halpin’s responsibilities by appointing the 31-year-old Superintendant of Lighthouses as well as Inspector of Works. At the time there were only 14 lighthouses around the Irish Coast, many of them in what Halpin described as deplorable condition, badly maintained and baldy managed. By 1867, when responsibility was transferred to the Commissioners of Irish Lights, there were 72 lighthouses. Over the next four and a half decades, Halpin oversaw the construction and establishment of 53 new lighthouses and the modernisation or rebuilding of 15 others, in addition to the establishment of numerous minor aids to navigation - buoys, beacons, and perches.

Some other lighthouses were subsequently discontinued because their location proved ineffective. In other words, he designed and built a new lighthouse every fifteen months. Most of the construction was by direct labour. These included the Bailey (1813) at the entrance to Dublin Bay, the Tuskar Rock (1815) guarding the approach to Rosslare Harbour, as well as Inishtrahull (1813), Skelling Michael (1826), Tory Island (1832) and Fastnet (1854). Arguably his greatest achievement was the Haulbowline Lighthouse, built on a dangerous semi-submerged rock at the entrance to Carlingford Lough. Strong tidal conditions of up to five knots added to the danger and technical difficulties but the lighthouse was successfully completed in 1824. Halpin also oversaw the repair and re-equipping of the previously existing lighthouses, effectively rebuilding the Poolbeg lighthouse (1819-20).

Under his direction the Ballast Board established an effective management structure for the design, construction, and maintenance of the Lighthouse Service, initiated a vital program of inspection and regularized the employment of construction and quarry personnel, lighthouse keepers, tenders, tender crews, and stores personnel. Gradually during the early nineteenth century a proper marine aids to navigation infrastructure was put in place.

Private Work. Somehow Halpin also found time to engage in some private architectural work. It seems likely he was involved with the new Corn Exchange on Bugh Quay.

Sudden Death. George’s wife Elizabeth died in July 1850 and was buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin. Four years later, George Halpin collapsed and died suddenly while carrying out a lighthouse inspection in July 1854. He was buried in Mount Jerome, where his headstone gives his age at the time of death as 75 yrs.

George Halpin Junior (1804 – 1869): So far, virtually nothing is known of the Halpin family history. It is known, however, that George Halpin, Junior, was a qualified civil engineer employed by the Board as assistant Inspector of Works & assistant Inspector of Lighthouses from June 1830. As such, George Halpin junior shared a good deal of the workload. Between 1834 & 1840, the younger George was greatly involved in deepening the channels & building new quay walls east of the Custom House. During this time, he married Julia Villiers (1815 – 1889),who begat him nine children, two of whom died young. The first three were daughters - Isabella Julia Halpin (who married Thomas Thorpe & had 7 children), Mary Halpin (who died before 1880, married Patrick Byrne and left a daughter Annie Byrne) & Margaret  (who died in Ireland aged10 months). Next came two boys, William Osborne Halpin (see below) and George Halpin (see below). Then, a fourth daughter, Annie Caroline Halpin (who married Arthur Henry Thompson and had three girls) and a third son, Robert Halpin (who married Mettie in England and had two children, Maud and George Alfred). The fourth son, Alfred Halpin, died aged four in Ireland while a fifth daughter Louisa Halpin was born in 1856 and died unmarried in 1934).

Like his father, George also went to England to converse with the likes of Telford, Giles and Cubitt. In later life, he carried out the design of the single-span metal arched Rory O’More Bridge. He designed several lighthouses, including that at Aranmore in Donegal, completed in 1865. In 1847, he was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland (to which body his father never belonged), and served as a member of its council from 1848 to 1851. Two months after George Halpin senior died in 1854, George Halpin junior was promoted to the posts of Inspector of Works and Superintendent of Lighthouses. However, by 1859, George was dogged by ill-health, probably due to 'the burden imposed on him by reason of his necessary attendance on new lighthouses or those being renovated in various parts of the country'. The Ballast Board decided to reduce his duties in respect of the Port and leave him to focus on lighthouses. His duties at the Port were carried out by Bindon Blood Stoney who had been his assistant since 1856.

[J.M. Flannery]

part 4

THE FALL OUT WITH STONEY: By 1861, 33-year-old Stoney was acting as executive engineer. A rift soon emerged between Halpin and Stoney. Halpin was frequently out of Dublin on lighthouse duties. The travel and long absences did his health no good. While away, his ambitious assistant submitted a proposal to the Port and Dock Board advocating the extension of the North Wall Quay by using 350 ton super-blocks, to be put in position by means of a special floating crane and diving bell. Halpin was furious Stoney had gone to the Board without first consulting him. He argued that the size of the proposed blocks was unfeasible. Stoney begged to differ, pointing out that blocks of that size had been successfully used in the port of London for many years and were also being used at Southampton. The Board were eager to act on Stoney’s cost-effective proposals but did not wish to offend Halpin. As it happened, George Halpin saved their embarrassment when he retired in March 1862. Stoney was appointed the new Inspector of Works and, in 1868, became the first chief engineer of the newly constituted Dublin Port and Docks Board. George Halpin Junior died in Dublin in 1869.
LT. OSWALD HALPIN (1810- - 1834): George may have had a brother, Oswald Halpin, registered as 'Pen (Mr Baillie), July 4, 1825' in the Alumni Dublinenses, 1846. Oswald was born in Dublin in 1810, the son 'of George, Generosus'. The Calcutta Christian Observer 1834 (p. 536) notes the death on August 14th of Lieutenant Oswald Halpin, 7th Regiment Bombay NI, aged 25 years.

WILLIAM HALPIN George Halpin Junior's eldest son was William Osborne Halpin. In 1869, he purchased a grave plot at Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin. William's sister Louisa (1856 - 1934) was buried there on 29th October 1934. William appears in Thoms Dublin directories from about 1880 to at least 1900 and lived at The Laurels, Torquay Road, Foxrock, now a very wooded, upmakret area between the golf course and Leopardstown racecourse. In the 1911 Census of Ireland, his presumed widow Anna Maria Halpin was living at The Laurels with a servant and her son, William Oswald Halpin. She is registered as 62 years of age, Church of Ireland, married for 30 years and mother of two sons, William and George.

William Oswald Halpin was most likely at school at the High School, then in Harcourt Street, but later removed to Rathgar, Dublin. He seems to have left there in 1900 aged 13 or 14 and then gone on to Trinity College Dublin aged 17 in 1904. In 1911, he was described as a 24 year old medical student. He obtained a BA from Trinity College Dublin. During the Great War he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps. He seems to have died aged 31 of wounds received on 10th August 1918, the day after a hostile aeroplane dropped a bomb on the regimental headquarters of the 4th (Queens Own) Hussars with whom he was working. He is buried at the at the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery near Ameins in France. His name is etched on the war memorial in the Tullow Church of Ireland on Brighton Road, Carrickmines, Co. Dublin.

William's brother George, a doctor based in Reading, England, married Antoinette Berthe Ermerins, of Dutch origin. They had a daughter, Elizabeth (who was living in France in 2003) and George Ermerins Halpin (a doctor who died in service in 1942 and is buried in Egypt).

* 1911 Census, Stillorgan DED, Galloping Green South Townland. GEORGE HALPIN III
George Halpin Junior's second son, George Halpin III (1843 – 1910) is of personal interest on two accounts.

Firstly, his wife Annie Watters (1849 – 1927) was a daughter of a farmer, Bartholomew Watters and Mary Malone of Rathmore, a former Bunbury property in Co. Carlow. George and Annie were married in my local village of Rathvilly, Co. Carlow, on 4th June 1868.
Secondly, their daughter Eva Halpin went to South Africa and married the ill-fated Alfred Rudall, nephew of my wife’s great-grandfather. The extraordinay Tale of Alfred and Eva may be found here.

George Halpin III was born in Tinryland, County Carlow, in 1843 or 1844. Why was he born in Carlow? Perh

Thats all for now folks. Was this helpful?