On Paget Halpen / Halpin
Kenneth Cooke summarised information on Paget Halpen very well on 2 March 2010.
Following my delving into Army Lists etc. for William Halpin, I would add the
following (with, apologies, some repetition of Kenneth Cooke's information):
"A Handlist of Voters of Maryborough, 1760." shows a Pagett Halpen "in the Army"; as a voter he presumably was a freeholder.
1760 Army List: 92nd Regiment of Foot Paget Halpen, Ensign 25 Jan. 1760 [92nd Foot, the Donegal Light Infantry, was formed in 1760 by Lieut-Col. Commanding Sir Ralph Gore Bt (later General, the 1st Earl of Ross, onetime CinC Ireland), announced in the London Magazine and the Scots Magazine of February 1760].
Appointment as an Ensign would suggest Paget was about 16 - 18 in 1760, making him born possibly between 1742 and 1744.
1762 Army List: Ensign Paget Halpen crossed out on 92nd Foot; Paget Halpen, Lieutenant, 124th Regiment of Foot (Cunninghame's) 13 Feb. 1762 [Regiment formed by Lt-Col Robert Cunninghame [later General, Adjutant General of Ireland 1772, Irish CinC 1795] Regiment disbanded in 1763 [1763, Treaty of Paris, peace after 7 years' war with France, Spain etc.]. The 1770 Army List shows the whole 124th Regiment (Officers) on Irish Half Pay list, Lieutenants included Paget Halpen. Irish Half Pay for a Lieutenant was about £41 per annum (same as English). Paget Halpen remains on Army Lists 124th Regiment, Irish Half Pay from 1770, through 1798, 1799, 1803, 1805,1810 to 1818 (not in 1819 list), so he continued to receive Half Pay for some 55 years!
Paget Halpin, Esq. of Maryboro', Queen's County, married Margaret Delane of St James, Dublin on 7 May 1794 in Dublin [Perogative Marriage License]. Although from the possible date of birth above Paget Halpin would have been about 51 at this marriage, there is no doubt this is the same man since his widow applies for an Army pension in 1818 (see below).
In 1807 Paget Halpin of Maryborough, Queen's County received £43-9-9d for damages he sustained by a new road [Accounts presented to the House of Commons of the Presentments passed by the Grand Jury of Ireland, at the Summer Assizes].
From the Eleventh Report of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the fees etc ... in Ireland, published by the House of Commons in 1812, for Queen's County there is liability of £23-14-9d for a Bond due from Paget Halpin, as a Surety, of Ballynamoney, Queen's County.
The National Archives (WO 42/20 H43) has papers from Mrs Margaret Halpin for an Army pension: Mrs Margaret Halpin of No 32 Aungun (?Arran) Street (Dublin), wife of Paget Halpin, Lieutenant 124th Regt. of Foot, died 14 January 1816, married 10 May 1794, "to whom no provision was left for a maintenance", signed by Margaret Halpin and dated Dublin August 13th 1819. Certification that "Lieut Paget Halpin upon Half pay on 19th April 1763 as a reduced Lieutenant of the late 124th Regt. of Foot, his affidavits were regularly and correctly returned to this office to Decr. 1815 to which time he was paid". Where the Colonel of the Regiment would have signed there is a statement that "The Colonel and every Officer of the 124th Regt. are long dead except a Lieut. J. Maxwell". There is a certified copy of marriage of Paget Halpen in the Queens County, Esq., and Margaret Delane of the Parish of St James in the Diocese of Dublin, Spinster, by the Most Revd. Father Richard 'and so forth' (sic), dated 9th day of May 1794; by Special Licence from the Perogative Court in Ireland. Margaret Halpin is described as "now resident in Ashby de la Zouche in the County of Leicester" in a sworn statement from there, dated 19 October 1818. If the possible date of birth above is correct, he would have been about 75 when he died.
Paget is a very unusual first name. Paget Halpen / Halpin (above) was born 1742-4, possibly the son of Mark Halpen of Maryborough and Mary Paget who married about 1740. Paget Halpin is listed in the "A Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade 1550-1800" [2000] as an engraver of 44 Mecklenburg Street, Dublin, with Philip Halpin, 1792 - 1795 and then at 32 Mecklenburg Street alone from 1801 - 1810. Paget's wife Margaret Delane was the daughter of Solomon Delane [c.1727-1812], a well-known landscape painter in Rome and Dublin [appointed Cork Herald by patent of 11th January, 1797], probably from his first marriage [his eldest daughter Susanna, "a great beauty" married the portrait painter Robert Home on 8th September 1783 in Dublin (Irish Arts Review)].
Also listed in the above Dictionary and in the Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913 is the possibly better known Patrick Halpin, engraver 1757 - 1807, of Blackamoor Yard and then 35 Temple Bar, who was also firstly Assistant Teller and then Teller of Stamps in Dublin from 1793 to 1807 (died June 1807). Apparently Patrick Halpin signed his works as HP, PHP and Patt.Halpin; it is suggested that other engravings signed PH are those of Paget Halpin.
This association of Halpins through their highly skilled engraving work suggests Patrick, Paget and Philip Halpin are all closely related (?brothers). Patrick Halpin's son was John Edmond Halpin, a miniature painter and actor, born in 1764, the "son of Patrick Halpin and his wife
Eleanor" [A Dictionary of Irish Artists, 1913], of which more later.
