Halpins of Wicklow - Part 3

[kenneth cooke]

In my last reply, I referred to Paget Halpin (3) and asked if he had returned to Ireland.
I have now found the reference in the Landed Estate Court Rental Files of 1856. It seems to refer to Paget (2) who died 40 years earlier. It has nothing to do with Probate, but perhaps it was meant to refer to his estate, as he was deceased.
It involves another property 'on the green at Maryborough' of less than an acre, which was 'bounded on the east by Paget Halpin'.

[Shanachai]

Terrific effort, Ken.  It's remarkable how much detail you've managed to uncover.  Tremendous work.  I'll need a few days to absorb it all.  In the meantime, you might take a look at this -

Paget Halpin to Harris (or Halpin to Halpin) Vol. 649 Page 538 Record No. 452451

Indented deed of annuity dated 31st October 1812 between Paget Halpin, Maryborough, Queen's County, Esquire, of the first part and Margaret Halpin, of the City of Dublin, wife to said Paget Halpin, of the 2nd part and Mich. Harris of said city, Esquire, of the 3rd part whereby after reciting that several disputes have [taken place?] between PH and Margaret his wife in consequence of which the said Margaret has lived apart from her husband for several years without any kind of [support] from him and did institute a suit in the [...?...] Court of the [...?...] of [...?...] and Terms against her said husband for divorce a Mensa et Thoro ["from table and bed"*] and for the recovery of alimony and in which suit several proceedings were had and an order of said Court found in favour of said Margaret for interim alimony which now amounts to a sum of £800 or thereabouts, exclusive of costs and in order to adjust said disputes and to make some provision for the said M., who it was thereby agreed should as she had theretofore done live separate and apart in future from her said husband.  The said parties have come to an agreement that the said Paget should grant an annuity as hereafter [...?...] to the said Mich. Harris for her support and that she should from the date thereof live separate and apart from her said husband and that he should not in any way molest the said Margaret in her so doing and should also ensure a sum of Five Hundred pounds payable to her or to her Executors...upon the death of said Paget in lieu of alimony...[£800 being the whole of the costs incurred in the Ecclesiastical Court, plus £100 per year support, plus insurance to cover the £500... What the hell did Paget do to her?  Paget's collateral appears to be] "all of the Town and Lands of Ballinamona, Ballyclider (?), and Ballumackin, situate in the Barony of Maryborough in Queen's County.  Witnessed by Wm. Geraghty and Wm. Clarke - Paget Halpin, seal.

Apologies for textual omissions - the records I have access to in the Registry of Deeds are copies of the originals.  Sometimes those copies are readable.  Sometimes, however, they're not.  Unfortunately, I can't photograph the deeds I'm having trouble with as that isn't allowed (I'd like to insert them into this thread and ask your help with transcription, which is often very difficult).  If you'd like to see the originals yourself, you can purchase copies of them from the Registry for a fee of €20.

*It it refers to a type of divorce in which the couple is legally separated, but the marriage is still considered valid.  When a couple receives an a mensa et thoro divorce, it is essentially a court-sanctioned separation, meaning that the partners may legally live apart, but they are still legally married. The legitimacy of children in the marriage remains intact, and the partners may not remarry. This type of divorce allows partners to live apart without fear of being taken to court for desertion.  Sometimes, this type of divorce is used when one partner is extremely abusive, keeping the marriage legitimate while the couple is separated; it may give them a chance to work out the problems in their relationship while living in legally sanctioned separate dwellings. Spouses may also request it to protect themselves from accusations of desertion or abandonment.  (See -  http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-mensa-et-thoro.htm).

[kenneth cooke]

Thanks for that, Ray. Sounds like it was a stormy marriage. Paget was 52 when he married, and perhaps was short of patience, and used to being independent.
If the American Paget was their son, as I believe, I can imagine that he had good reasons for emigrating, to escape the warring between his parents.
He would have been 21 when his father died, so no doubt came into some money then, enough to set him up as a planter in the USA.

Referring back to the Landed Estates 'Court Rentals', they were in fact sales catalogues,
printed to facilitate the sale of bankrupt estates, in order to discharge debts as the value of land plummetted from the time leading up to the Famine (1840s).
The stumbling block was the fact that most land was ‘entailed’ meaning it could not be sold or disposed of at will. The new laws allowed the state to take ownership of the land in question, and then sell it with a ‘parliamentary’ title, free from the threat of contested ownership.  From findmypast.ie

It is interesting to note that Halpens no longer leased the land near Maryborough in 1856. It seems that the ‘head rent’ was held by Robert Onions, and the land was part of the estate of Sir Henry Parnell (great uncle of Charles Stewart Parnell), who had committed suicide in 1842.
‘The lands called the House Quarter of the lands of Ballinamoneen, otherwise Ballinamony, otherwise Bloomfield, with the subdenomination thereof called Ballycliden, situate in the Parish of Stroboe, Barony of Maryborough East, Queens County.
Held under Lease dated 10th. November 1837 for three lives, with a covenant to renew for one additional life.’  From Ireland Landed Estates Court Rental Files 1850-1885 (findmypast.ie)   

[Shanachai]

Very interesting, Ken.  There are a few Halpin connections to the Parnells, which I'll dig out and post over the next few days. 

Here's a curly one for you -

Death

.

Captain William Halpin Paterson Sweny, CBE, RD, RNR, formerly Marine Superintendent of the P + O, died at Belvedere, Kent, recently at the age of 79.

- The Times, August 23, 1951.

[kenneth cooke]

Yes Ray, we know him. In fact, I have just realised, he was my grandfather's cousin.
His father was Rev. Eugene Sweny, Rector of Stiffkey, (pron.'stewkey') Norfolk, who was the brother of my gr.grandmother, Margaret Sweny. They were cousins of the chemist of Lincoln Place.
WPHS was awarded the CBE, I believe it was for accompanying King George V to the Delhi Durbar of 1911.
He's another example of all the Halpens and Pagets in the Sweny, Cooke and other related families.
WHPS preferred to spell it 'Halpin'. Must have done well, as he left an estate of £32,804 !
His son was Noel Frederic Carl Halpin Sweny 1901-1977.

[kenneth cooke]

The C.V. for Mark Halpen (1) which I posted, No.284 on 1 March, has several gaps. One is from 1714, when he was an apothecary’s mate at Dunkirk, to 1730, when he married Lady Lawley in London.   

I have found baptism records of five children to a Mark and Catherine Halpenn in London:
Mary 1719 at St. Martin in the Fields, and Grace 1721, Morrice 1723, Mary 1725, and Nicholas 1726, all at St. James, Westminster. So, they were residents of St. James parish between 1721 and 1726. (n.b. Nicholas was also the name of our Mark’s father)

From ‘Survey of London Vol.31 & 32, St. James Westminster Part 2’  F H W Sheppard (gen. editor) 1963:
Great Pulteney St., Westminster, St. James, was laid out during the redevelopment of the Pulteney estate in the early 18th century. Between 20.3.1719 and 27.8.1722, Sir William Pulteney granted 38 leases, all due to expire around 1780, to 20 odd lessees, most of whom were building craftsmen, from whom tenants rented.
 
No. 40 Great Pulteney St. East side:
Lease: 60 years from Xmas 1718, dated 15.9.1719, Frontage 19 ft., £5 p.a., Lessee Wm.Ludby, citizen & carpenter of St. James. First occupant- Mark Alpen or Halpenn, period of residence 1720-1728.

These two records seem to be connected, and it is most likely the same Mark in both of them. But there is nothing to indicate that he was Irish or an apothecary. What is certain is that these residences were up-market at the time, so he was obviously well off.
But if this is our Mark, one problem that arises is- what happened to his first family when he married Lady Lawley in 1730 ?
 
A Mrs. Halpen (non-conformist) was buried on 6.11.1727 at Bunhill Fields, London.
A Catherine Halfpenny was buried 11.12.1760, Westminster, Middlesex.

[Shanachai]

.

[Shanachai]

Part 1.

The circumstantial evidence connecting your ancestors to the Portarlington Halpins is looking stronger every day, Ken.  I've said in private correspondence to other rootschat contributors that politics and patronage are (or were) the key to the Halpin tale.  I've had a good look at dozens of documents held at the Registry of Deeds here in Dublin, and many of them detail complex real estate deals between George Halpin, Richard Halpin, and John Beresford's extended family.* Most of those transactions involved large applotments along the length of Mecklenburgh Street (now Railway Street) before, during and immediately after the Act of Union in 1800 .  As you've mentioned in some of your posts above, a few of Mark Halpin's descendants ended up living in and running businesses from addresses in Mecklenburgh Street.  And while I've yet to confirm this, I suspect those houses and business premises were leased from George. 

Just to be clear: the George I'm referring to here is George Halpin Snr, Lighthouse builder and Civil Engineer.  At the time of the Young Ireland rebellion in 1848, the Reverend Nicholas John Halpin* was living at an address in Seville Place, which he leased from George Halpin.  It's my view that both men were moderately important members of the embattled colonial administration that ran Ireland in the first half of the 19th century.  By helping to build Ireland's colonial infrastructure, George Halpin was helping to secure the colony for the British Crown.  The Reverend N J Halpin's role was essentially the same.  Samuel Ferguson* and John Anster* were personal friends of the Reverend and sat on the editorial board of the Dublin University Magazine, founded in 1833 to counteract the spirit of reform that had led to Catholic Emancipation in 1828.  In the words of one commentator at the time, the DUM strove to 'beat back the forces of emancipation and democracy'.  This is also what the Dublin Evening Mail sought to do - it was a reactionary publication opposed to further concessions to Catholics.  It galvanised Protestant opinion in Ireland, reminded London of the loyal administrative role it played in protecting British interests, and expected that loyalty to be reciprocated.  For the most part, and in spite of occasional reservations, London remained dutifully loyal until Gladstone assumed office in the late 1860s.  So, while the Reverend lived at a property leased to him by George Halpin, it's probably fair to say that both men shared very similar political views.  They were part of a belligerant anti-Catholic generation of Anglo-Irishmen who - with few exceptions (Dr Charles Halpin being a case in point) - blindly supported the social and economic policies that exacerbated the effect of the potato famine and contributed to the deaths of a million Irish Catholics and the immediate emigration of millions more.

Prior to 1922, Ireland was a colonized state.  The Anglo-Irish community, to which George and the Rev N J Halpin belonged, had effectively dispossessed Ireland's indigenous people of their land and wealth.  They then worked in tandem with Dublin Castle and the British government to establish a form of apartheid that allowed them to seize for themselves and their descendants a disproportionate amount of Ireland's future wealth at the expense of the Catholic population.  The success of that racket depended ultimately on force, but its day-to-day administration hinged on commercial alliances, political patronage and family connections.  When we see so many Halpins availing of addresses on Mecklenburgh Street and in Seville Place, addresses which were also predominantly leased by Halpins, I believe we're looking at a manifestation of the colonial habit of 'keeping it within the family'.  I'll have much more to say on this matter at a later date, but in the meantime we might want to keep in mind the ugly bigotries that characterised the attitudes of British colonists towards subject races.  It's a matter we're going to have to address sooner or later.  In fact, in regard to Dr Stopford Halpin (Captain Robert C Halpin's brother), it's a subject we simply can't avoid, particularly in relation to an incident that took place in Arklow in the winter of 1880, when Stopford's actions as the town's Sanitation Officer - actions motivated by a distinctly repellent form of racist spite - provoked hundreds of starving Catholics to riot. 

George Halpin secured his place in 19th century Irish society by working extremely hard at the opportunities created for him by his patrons the Beresfords.  What was true for the Halpins in the 19th century was certainly true for them in the 18th century as well.  It might be worth your while looking into the background of Sir William Pulteney, Ken.  He may have had some interesting connections to Ireland which could shed light on how the Halpins gained a foothold in this country.

[Shanachai]

Part 2.

The dramatic arc of the Halpin tale extends from the colonisation of the island of Ireland, right the way through the most dramatic events of Irish history, to the end of British rule in 1922.  There are Halpins involved at every important juncture along the way, from the rebellion in 1798, through to the Act of Union (1800), the Second Reformation (mid to late 1820s), the Great Famine and, ultimately, the Great War and the Easter Rebellion in 1916, when William Robert Halpin, along with two dozen members of the Irish Citizen Army under the command of Captain Sean Connolly, stormed the gates of Dublin Castle and occupied City Hall.  Yeats described the 'terrible beauty' of that event, and there's a kind of terrible beauty to the Halpin tale as a whole, in that is includes good deeds and bad, heroes and villains, and a great deal more than we've seen so far.

By the way, William Robert Halpin (1886 - 1951) was my grandfather's brother.  He was the grandson of Wicklow's Liberal Town Clerk and Post Master, Robert Wellington Halpin (1815 - 1883), and the eldest surviving son of Edwin Francis Halpin (1855 - 1924).  Most of my research over the past two years has been focused on these three men.  In a sense, their lives neatly summarise the tremendous struggle that took place in Ireland before the Rising, between the liberalising forces of reform and the illiberal forces of oppression and colonialism.  You might say that my family - the Main-Street Halpins - were political and social liberalisers and the Bridge-Inn Halpins (Captain R C Halpin's mob) were not. 

R W Halpin was, as I've said elsewhere, a faithful Protestant, a Liberal party supporter and a free marketeer.  E F Halpin was an atheist and a Socialist; he believed in forcing constitutional change through trade union activism and was fiercely opposed to the physical force tradition in Irish politics.  Edwin's son, William R Halpin, was a Catholic and a Nationalist.  During the War of Independence (1919 - 1922) William 'and his brother' were heavily involved in a bombing campaign in the Eastwall area of North Dublin that killed and injured many innocent bystanders and civilians.  In one such incident in 1921, a ten year old boy by the name of Patrick* Hanratty of Moy Elta Road, Eastwall, was killed and another fourteen people were injured, resulting in bitter arguments between Edwin and Willy over the moral legitimacy of political violence.
Details corrected 22nd March 2013 : The boy's death certificate has been purchased and discovered that his actual name was "Andrew Hanratty"

The tragic trajectory of this story, which took place within three generations of the one family, saw the Main-Street Halpins change from peaceable Liberal reformers to murderous Nationalist terrorists, and indicates what can happen to otherwise law-abiding people when reasonable claims for reform and political independence are denied for too long.

More to come on all of these matters in the weeks and months ahead.

*John Beresford: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Beresford_(statesman)

*The Rev N J Halpin, born in Portarlington in 1790, edited the Dublin Evening Mail from 1837 onwards (during the height of Daniel O'Connell's Repeal campaign).

*Samuel Ferguson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Ferguson

*John Anster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Anster