The Bunburys of Johnstown descend from the Baron de St. Pierre, a Norman soldier granted lands at 'Bunbury' in Cheshire in 1066. During the English Civil War, the Baron's descendent Sir Henry Benjamin Bunbury was stripped of his lands and imprisoned for his support of King Charles I. Sir Henry's clergyman half-brother Thomas Bunbury was simultaneously hounded out of his vicarage in Reading by Presbyterian's. In time, Thomas was granted a license to preach the word of God under the public seal of the University of Oxford. Thomas's second wife Eleanor came from the Birkenhead family, of whom Henry Birkenhead founded the Oxford Chair of Poetry. Eleanor's sister Bridget Birkenhead was married to John Chetwode who was, I believe, a pal of Jonathan Swift, while another sister Mary Birkenhead married William Downes of Shrigley and Worth. The family moved to Ireland during the 1660s and, in the coming decades, Joseph Bunbury served as High Sheriff of County Carlow and set up residence at Johnstown. As the threat of French invasion rose in the 1770s, so Joseph's son Major Henry Bunbury co-founded the Irish Volunteers in Carlow. The Major fathered several children, including Henry Bunbury of Bunbury Lodge, a Carlow magistrate who found himself at the centre of several violent episodes in the course of his life. Another son, Colonel Robert Bunbury served in the Napoleonic Wars and married a granddaughter of a former Primate and Chancellor of Ireland. The Colonel was succeeded at Johnstown by his eldest son, the Rev. Henry Bunbury who remodeled Johnstown House and sired an impressive fifteen children, including Robert, Vicar of Swansea, who married a first cousin of Charles Darwin; Selina who became a well-known travel writer; and Clara, whomarried a wealthy Liverpudlian hemp and flax merchant. Also of this branch was British Post Office hero Sir Henry Noel Bunbury, KCB (1876-1968). Bankrupt by 1819, the Rev. Bunbury sold Johnstown to John Campion and moved with his family to Liverpool, although the Bunbury connection to Johnstown survived until at least 1937.
Benjamin Bunbury of Killerig was the father of the Bunbury family in Ireland. Born in 1643, he moved to Ireland shortly after the death of his father in 1668 with his wife, five sons and daughter. Burke's Peerage proposes that Benjamin first obtained Killerig from the Earl of Arran in 1669, the year he married Mary Sheppard. There are also some deeds, dated 1702, to suggest he started out as a tenant of the Duke of Ormonde. In 1695 he served as High Sheriff for County Carlow. He died on 3rd April 1707, aged 63, and is buried in St. Mary's of Carlow.
Of his five sons, the eldest son, Joseph Bunbury, settled at Johnstown, near Benekerry, two miles east of Carlow town.The second son was Thomas Bunbury of Cloghna & Cranavonane in Co.Carlow. The third son William Bunbury established the family seat at Lisnavagh , Co.Carlow. The fourth son Matthew Bunbury moved to Kilfeakle, Co. Tipperary. The youngest son, also Benjamin Bunbury, inherited Killerig. A daughter, Diana, married Thomas Barnes, one of the Duke of Ormonde's soldiers from Kilkenny. A second daughter Deborah was married to John Humfreys, forefather of the Humfreys of Cavanacor.
Johnstown (parish of Urglin, Carlow) has been home to humanity since ancient times being only a mile or so from the Brown’s Hill dolmen and boasting its own bullaun stone. It is said that Johnstown is named for the Knights of St John who ran a hostel here in the 12th century. This was probably during the age when William Marshall, the ‘Great Earl’ of Pembroke who ruled over much of these lands at the time. In 1393-4, Sir Geoffrey de Valle, Sheriff of Carlow, was seised of Johnstown and other lands in the county. Geoffrey is credited with the killing in 1375 of Donnchadh MacMurrough (MicMhurcchadha), the sixth clan leader to be so killed since 1354. The de Valles (or Wall) pitched a castle and lived at Johnstown for nearly 300 years. As adherents to the Catholic faith, they were dispossessed in the wake of Cromwell’s conquest and relocated to Galway.[1] Johnstown (spelled Johnston) is one of the few places outside Carlow Town listed on Visser’s 1690 map of Ireland (de Wit).The Couchmans who live at Johnstown today believe the house to be the oldest continually occupied building in Carlow; they suggest the foundations date back to the time of the de Valles.
Joseph Bunbury who settled at Johnstown, was married on July 1st 1713 to Hannah Hinton, a daughter of the Venerable Archdeacon Dr. Edward Hinton, Dean of Ossory. (3a) In November of that same year, Joseph,a former High Sheriff of County Carlow, and his brother Benjamin, the then High Sheriff, were drawn into a controversy over an apparent fixing of a result in the election of that year. (3b) Joseph began to make an increasing impact in Carlow at this time, purchasing a substantial interest in the town itself. The Dublin Land office contains a memorial of a mortgage dated March 12th 1713 between John Green 'of the town of Catherlogh, Gent' and 'Joseph Bunbury of Johnstown'. Having had a lifelong fear of land law ever since I purchased Wylie's magnum opus, I do not understand the actual linguistics of the memorial. However, it seems that, for £165 pounds, Joseph purchased the estate right, title and interest on 'all that tenement and plot of ground situated in Dublin Street in the Town of Catherlogh', as well as a tenement and plot 'in Southcott Lane in the town of Catherlogh along the River Barron'. Among the witnesses was his younger brother, Thomas Bunbury. (4a) Another deed, dated June 5th & 6th 1717, concerns a memorial of mortgage 'by way of lease and release between Hugh Fagan of Kilewick, co. Carlow, gent of the one part and Joseph Bunbury of Johnstown, co. Carlow Esq. of the other part'. By this deed, Fagan 'conveyed unto Joseph Bunbury part of the lands of Rathdean, co. Carlow, lately Wentworth Harman’s part containing 130 acres profitable land'. The lease also covered 'the lease for three lives renewable for ever made to the premises by Wentworth Harman to Richard Butler, Gent who assigned the same to Hugh Fagan to hold unto Joseph Bunbury, his heirs and assigns during the three lives in the lease'. Once again, Thomas Bunbury of Cloghna was a witness, as was John Smith, Publick Notary in the City of Dublin. (4b)
In about 1725, Joseph built a house at Johnstown which architectural historians have described as 'a detached four-bay two-storey double-pile house with dormer attic on an asymmetrical plan with projecting chimney breasts'. Bence-Jones claims that the house was built on the site of a monastery (Bence-Jones 1978, p.161). The two recorded archaeological sites at this immediate location are the castle site and a graveyard. No archaeological remains of a monastery site per se have yet been identified at this location or in the immediate vicinity.
Joseph died on 14th January 1731; Hannah followed him on 19th December 1738. They left at least one son, Henry Bunbury, dealt with below, and a daughter, Henrietta Bunbury (1708 - 1761). Henrietta married Paul Minchin, variously described as of Ballynakill and of Bogh (or Bough), just outside Rathvilly. He was the the grandson of Charles Minchin, born about 1628. By this marriage, Henrietta had a son and two daughters. She was grandmother to Minchin Carden of Fishmoyle. For further details, see page on William Bunbury I of Lisnavah.
Joseph's son, Henry Bunbury of Johnstown was born in 1716 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, from which he graduated with an M.A. in 1736. On 14th July 1767 he presided over the case of Sarah Conners of Hacketstown who claimed to have been attackedthree days earlier by a man called Hugh Conneron who had come to her house 'in a very Gross Manner ... a Razor open in his hand and made Several Attempts with said Razor to cut [her] Throat [and] verily Believes he would Murder her on the spot' were it not for the intervention of bystanders. The fate of Sarah Conners and her intended terminator is unknown. [See below for full text] Henry served on the Carlow Council in 1768 and, as Major Bunbury, was co-founder of the Carlow branch of the Irish Volunteers in 1778. He represented the parish of Fennor as a prebendary in Cashel from his collation on May 14th 1781. He died in 1785 and was buried in Tipperary. His wife, Henrietta Pysint [sic], a daughter of Captain Robert Pysint, was sister and sole heiress of Sir Robert Pysint. She was also apparently 17 years older than him but nonetheless bore him at least two sons, Joseph and Robert, and two daughters.
Henry's name frequently appears in the Pat Purcell Papers. The earliest reference is from 11th April 1785 when 'Henry Bunbury of Rathdaniel' and Johnstown claimed he had been attacked by Thomas Byrne, farmer, also from Rathdaniel, who did 'wickedly and unlawfully endeavour to provoke and excite the said Henry Bunbury to fight a duel against him, the said Thomas Byrne, with Pistols to the evil example of all others'. Byrne apparently gave Henry a lash of his whip 'with violent oaths' taunting that if Henry did not take up the challenge to 'battle', Byrne would 'publickly horsewhip' Henry 'in every place he should meet him'. Henry duly ran into the townhouse of one John Burrowes on Carlow's Dublin Street where he was chased from room to room and 'in a most abusive and violent manner, both in gestures and in language, abused' and called 'a rascal and a scoundrel and challenged this informant to battle'. In a paper document relating to this event, Henry gives his address as Johnstown). For reasons unclear, the case against Byrne was subsequently quashed. (Pat Purcell Papers)
Another document of interest relating to timber theft in June 1800. It would seem that Johnstown House had been abandoned, probably since the 1798 Rising, and that 'the Joice Floors Doors Windows, Door and Window Cases Boards Rafters Lentals and other Timber and valuable Articles' had since been 'feloniously stolen at different times and carried away'. Henry set off at the head of a party of the Tullow Yeoman Infantry, then quartered at Grangeford, searched several houses and found a good deal of the missing timber in 'the dwellings' of Michael Wall and Lawrence Dempsey, both of Johnstown. (Pat Purcell Papers)
On 14th November 1807, Henry Bunbury of Bunbury Lodge, Justice of the Peace,
came before Hardy Eustace esq. another of His Majesty's Justices of the
Peace. He gave the following account of a violent assault the previous day.
At 'about four o'clock in the afternoon of Friday the 13th of November',
Henry was walking down Tullow Street in Carlow town when he came
upon 'a mob or crowd assembled a ring formed at a standing or standings
of fruit and other things usually there upset and tossed about the centre
of Market Cross'. Henry asked James Smyth, a saddler watching
from the steps of his nearby shop what was going on. Smyth told him the
racket was being caused by a man called Mathew Byrne, 'a fellow
of very bad character and ill behaviour, who lived in a neighbouring cellar
and who had been beating his wife' - along with other violent public
outrages - 'and was continually doing so, even within a day or two of
her lying in, raising rids in the street and a nuisance to the neighbourhood'.
Smyth observed 'it would be a very proper act or words to that effect'
for Henry 'to interfere and prevent further riot and mischief'. 'Conceiving
himself in some degree called upon', Henry felt it his 'undoubted
Duty as a Magistrate to interfere'. Smyth pointed out Byrne upon which
Henry approached the villain and commanded him 'to go home about his
business and desist from such outrageous and violent conduct'. Byrne
'positively refused to comply' and 'used some very impertinent
and abusive language'. Finding himself 'so disobeyed and insulted
in the execution of his duty as a Magistrate', Henry endeavoured 'by
force' to take Byrne to the stocks. Byrne 'violently resisted',
struck out at Henry and 'seized or collared' him 'with such rage
and violence' that had it not been for a silk handkerchief Henry was
sporting about his neck, and which came away in Byrne's grip, Henry 'verily
believes said Matthew Byrne would have strangled or choked this Deponent'.
As it was, Byrne tore Henry's shirt and great coat in several places. Henry
'made every effort to extricate himself' from this situation 'and
got said Matthew Byrne down, yet he would not let his grip go', until
Smyth with Sergeant Dobbs of the Carlow Militia and some others came
to Henry's assistance. 'With extreme difficulty [they] unloosed said
Mr Byrne's hold' and managed to drag him away, with Byrne kicking and
gouging all the way. Dobbs got Byrne into Smyth's cellar and sent out for
Colonel Phare of the Wexford Militia who swiftly sent a guard to
apprehended Byrne and chuck him in the county gaol. Byrne continued to resist,
'striking two officers of said Regiment by seizing one private's bayonet
and assaulting several of them and attempting to draw one officers sword'
but, eventually, 'with much difficulty and great exertion after much
struggle and time', Byrne was lodged in the gaol 'and further saith
not'. [Pat Purcell Papers - Case of Mathew Byrne - 1807].
In April 1809, there is reference to Henry Bunbury of Bunbury Lodge looking for recovery of 12 pounds 14 shillings 9pence 1/2 penny from John Murphy. Seven years later, on 17th May 1816, Henry Bunbury's name was back in court when his servant John Walsh pressed violent assault charges against Anne Lacey, one of Henry's former servants. Walsh claimed that, two mornings earlier, he had been quietly herding some of Henry's cattle across Russellstown and had dropped in to visit Widow Cullen at her house in the Deer Park. Here he encountered Miss Lacey who, without apparent provocation, hurled a 'a Large Sauce Pan with long handle at him' and 'swore vehemently that She would have the Old Thief's Life'. 'The said Anne Lacey [also] said in the presence of several men then in the House that Examt's [ie: Walsh's] whole Tune was Croppy Lie Down in about the House alluding to Bunbury Lodge'. (Pat Purcell Papers)
Henry Bunbury died in 1819. His youngest son Abraham, was born in 1792,
lived variously at Castledermot and Russellstown. On 13th October 1819,
the year of his father's death, he married Margaret Leonard in St
Anne's. There may have been a daughter who married a Lieutenant Horwood
in India but further evidence is needed for this. In October 1810, Abraham
Bunbury was living at Russelstown in the Parish of Killerrig in the
Barony of Carlow when he swore before Fishbourne that he had been assaulted
by Michael Dwyer and others. By 1st March 1815, Abraham was stating
that he lived on the Pollerton Road outside Carlow and maintained
himself 'by his Income arising out of Tythes', suggesting that he
was closely connected to the Church of Ireland. In 1821, Abraham Bunbury, Householder and Farmer, and John McGuinnes, Cabinet Maker, were recorded as going bond for Richard Walsh of Johnstown who was in trouble with the Excise Officer, Edward Waters. (PPP) Richard was perhaps Abraham's cousin on his mothers side. In September 1822, the Carlow Morning Post reported that Abraham Bunbury of Castledermot
was lying dangerously ill following a gunpowder explosion. (PPP) There is a gap in the Morning Post from Dec 1822 until his
death in January 1828, so his immediate fate is unknown. Margaret
died in 1827. As to Russelstown, a report from 4th April 1835 states that
'Thomas C. Bunbury of Russelstown, Gentleman' (an brother of
Abraham) had a Freehold in Russelstown 'of the clear Yearly Value of Twenty
Pounds at the least' signed to him on 27th May 1819 by Henry Bunbury of
Russelstown. It was certified that Thomas C. Bunbury was 'duly registered
as a voter in Carlow on above date'. (Pat Purcell Papers)
The eldest son of Henry and Henrietta Bunbury was the Rev. Joseph Bunbury, Rector of Urglin, or Rutland, 2¼ miles from Carlow. The church where, the families of Ducket, Burton, Denys, Crosbie and Bunbury gathered to pray in the 18th and 19th centuries, was located a few fields away from Johnstown. Erected in 1821, the church is just as Lewis described it in 1837 - 'a neat plain building with a spire'. Its construction was paid for 'by aid of a loan of £700 from the late Board of First Fruits'. Joseph's name can be seen on a weather-beaten slab above the front door. The fields of Johnstown occupy the foreground, with new roads and bridges in the distance, and the fairy tale towers of Ducket's Grove on the eastern horizon. Framed by his fellow peers,Sir Edward Crosbie, the so-called 'head' of the 1798 rebels in Carlow also has a prominent connection to the church. Joseph Bunbury married Elizabeth Nixon, a daughter of Abraham Nixon (or Nickson) of Munny House, County Carlow. She may well have been a sister of Rachel Nickson who, in December 1765, married the Rev. Christopher Harvey of the Bargy Castle family in Co. Wexford. (5) They had three sons - two of whom died young and a third, Abraham Bunbury, died in 1833 and was buried in Rutland Churchyard, County Carlow. (6)
The second brother, Robert, was a Colonel in the 12th (Prince of Wales) Light Dragoons. It is not known exactly when Colonel Bunbury served in the army but one might assume he was in action when the regiment left Ireland in 1793 to go to the assistance of Admiral Hood at the siege of Toulon. The regiment was also involved in suppressing the Nottingham food riot in 1795, in the defense of Lisbon in 1797 and in the battle for Egypt in the early years of the Napoleonic Wars. One of his fellow officers was Major Philip Walsh and at some point Robert married Major Walsh's sister, Jane Walsh. Jane's father, also Philip Walsh (d. 1745), was a barrister in Georgian Dublin, graduating from Trinity College to become a Bencher at the King's Inn and a senior counselor. Philip's father, the Rev. Philip Walsh (1655 - 1740), rose from his position as Chaplain to Archbishop Michael Boyle to become Primate and Chancellor of Ireland. Jane's uncles were all clergymen - the Rev. John Walsh (d. 1756), Rector of Kilcoole, Co. Tipperary, Rev. Jeremiah Walsh (d. 1789), Rector of Killiah, Co. Meath and the Rev. William Walsh (d. 1781), Vicar of Blessington and Rector of Ardnurcher, Co. Meath, and Kill and Lyons, Co. Kildare. The latter is a forbear to Lesley Fennell (nee Walsh) of Burtown House, Athy, Co. Kildare.
Colonel Robert Bunbury died in 1772 and was succeeded by his young son, Henry. Born in c. 1768, Henry followed family tradition, holding various Church of Ireland posts and, later in life when the family had moved to England, posts in the Church of England. In 1790, the Rev. Henry Bunbury married (Henrietta) Eleanora Shirley, the 18-year-old Bath-born daughter of the Hon. Rev. Walter Shirley. The marriage took place at married at Annadale in County Dublin. The couple had an impressive fifteen children of whom Robert Bunbury married a first cousin of Charles Darwin, Selina Bunbury became a well-known travel writer and Clarissa Bunbury married a wealthy hemp and flax merchant by name of Robert Jones. Among Henry and Eleanora's other children were their eldest daughter Harriet Jane Bunbury (born c 1792, died unmarried at Liverpool in 1854), their third daughter Frances Bunbury (born 1801, died unmarried at Liverpool in 1855) and Augusta Bunbury (born 1816, of whom little is known exceptshe was living in Liverpool with her mother Henrietta Eleanora and sister Harriet in 1841). There were also four who did not survive childhood - their second daughter Maryanne Bunbury (c. 1795 - 1801, died at Kilsaran), a son Henry Bunbury (c. 1800 - 1801, died at Kilsaran), another son Henry Bunbury who died aged 12 and of whom little is known, and a younger daughter, Louisa Bunbury, born c. 1809 and died c. 1817 of whom little is known.When Selina was born in 1802, her father was based at Kilsaran House in County Louth. Henry appears to have gone bankrupt in 1814 and may have sold Johnstown House as early as 1814. Eleanora moved to Dublin with the family and from there to Liverpool where she died in 1841. Henry died in 1845.
The Rev Henry Bunbury's eldest son, James Hamilton Bunbury, was born in 1792 or 1793. In 1840, he married Johanna (or Anna) Kettlewell, daughter of Col. J.W. Kettlewell, R.A., of Hammondsville, Co. Waterford. They had a son Henry Shirley Bunbury who married his cousin Clara (Clare) Augusta Jones, daughter of Clarissa Bunbury (see below), his father’s sister. The author Selina Bunbury was particularly fond of young Henry. James and Anna also had a daughter Harriet.
In 1839, James Bunbury, late of Raheen, Co. Carlow, and described as a Yeoman, is charged with theft on 5th July. His crime was to 'feloniously' steal, take, and carry away 'against the Peace of our Lady the Queen, her Crown and Dignity', one Frieze Coat, value one shilling, 'of the goods and chattels of one Thomas Watson of Ballydarton'. (Pat Purcell Papers). At this time, Thomas Watson was Master of the Hunt, a position he held for 62 years from 1807-1869. He was grandfather of Myra Bunbury, who married Jack Bunbury, and ancestor of the present Chairman of the Augusta Golf Club, Joe T. Watson). This 'James Bunbury' could feasibly have been Henry and Eleanora's son. He appears in Griffiths Valuations as owning considerable amounts of property and there are several Dublin Deeds relating to his failure to pay his sister Selina Bunbury her due inheritance. But does this James really fit the yeoman description?
Henry and Eleanora's second son Molesworth Bunbury was born about 1797 and died on Army service in America in 1815.
Henry and Eleanora's third surviving daughter Selina Bunbury was a well known early Victorian travel writer and novelist. Henry Boylan's Dictionary of Irish Biography states that she was born in Kilsaran, County Louth, in 1802. She was a twin of the Rev. Robert Bunbury, Vicar of Swansea (see below). Selina's mother moved to Dublin with the children shortly after her father went bankrupt in 1819. Selina took up a job as a primary school teacher and began to write books about pre-famine Ireland, such as A Visit to my Birthplace (1820, 12 editions in her lifetime), Cabin Conversations and Castle Scenes (1829) and Tales of my Country (1833). In 'Cabin Conversations', she slammed both the 'evils of Popery' and the proselytising efforts in the west of Ireland. Her most successful work was Coombe Alley (Dublin: Curry 1844), a Guy Fawkes narrative set in the reign of James I. Another hit was the two-volume Sir Guy D’Esterre (London: Routledge 1858), following the adventures of an English soldier in the train of Sir Henry Sidney who is captured in Ireland -'the cursedest of all lands', falls in love and meets Hugh O’Neill. In Liverpool, she wrote many popular novels while keeping house for her twin brother, Robert. After Robert's marriage to Adele Galton in 1845, she visited most of the countries of Europe and published a number of travel books, such as The Pyrenees (1845), Summer in Northern Europe (1856) and Russia After the War (1857). She visited every country of Europe except Greece and Portugal. Her output was very large but hardly reached the 'Hundred Titles' mark sometimes attributed to her. Selina moved frequently between Ireland and England and was very fond of her nephew Henry Shirley Bunbury and her niece Clara (Clare) Augusta Jones, to whom she provided support. These two cousins eventually married and it was at their home in Cheltenham that Selina died in 1882. (8)
The Rev Henry Bunbury's second son, Robert, was born in about 1802 and was twin brother to Selina. In 1845, he married (Millicent) Adèle Galton who was born at Ladywood, Birmingham, on 21st July 1810. She was a first cousin to Charles Darwin (through her mother Frances Ann Violetta Darwin) and a brother of Sir Francis Galton. In March 1846, Robert and Adele had a daughter, Millicent but, just weeks later, tragedy struck when Robert died of gastric fever. The last service he performed was christening his own child. He was much mourned as the popular Vicar of Swansea. His death is described in the memoir's of Adèle's sister Elizabeth Ann Galton, extracts of which follow below with kind thanks to Yvonne ____.
......'I mentioned that Adèle had been upset in her donkey carriage and her face cut and plastered up. The day after my Mother and I went to St. Leonards and Adèle was left alone, Mr Robert Bunbury called to see her. He had been curate to Mr Craig at the Parish Church for some time and knew Adèle, seeing her at the school and at Dr Marsh's. He left Leamington and soon after got a living in Lancashire, and immediately came to Leamington to propose to her, saying that he had long been attached to her, but had not means to marry her till then. Adèle, with her patched face, told him that she must think about it and talk it over with her family before she could give him an answer. When she joined us, she told me what had happened, and we both agreed nothing could be said or done while my Father was so ill. Adèle wrote to tell him she could not think about it under the circumstances. He however was very persevering and, soon after we returned home, he told my Mother and came to Leamington and was soon after accepted. He was an excellent clergyman, much liked and respected wherever he had been. His Mother was a Shirley, his Uncle and Aunt a good old couple in Derbyshire, respected and liked by everyone.'
........ 'On 24th January (1845) I returned home, Mr Bunbury came to Leamington
and called every day, and was finally accepted by my sister. His cousin
became Bishop of St. Asaph, and a curious thing happened. Mr Shirley, to
escape legacy duty, made over all his money to his son the Bishop, who however
died before his father, so that he had to pay all the expenses to get his
own money back!....
.......'On 13th May, my sister Adèle was married to Robert Bunbury
at St. Mary's Church. As we were all in deep mourning, the wedding was perfectly
quiet: Darwin, Mary, James and Lucy, Erasmus, Francis, Mr
Thomas Bunbury, Emma and I went to Church. Darwin gave her away, and Archdeacon
Shirley (afterwards Bishop of St Asaph) married them. Dr Marsh and Mrs
Chandos Pole came to breakfast with us and, soon after, Adèle
and her husband set off to the Isle of Man. We were delighted with
Archdeacon Shirley, so truly religious a man, without any cant. Religion
seemed to pervade everything he said, and we were sorry when he went.'.....
......'About this time Robert Bunbury had the living of Swansea given to him, the value about £860 a year, and he and my sister were glad to leave St. Helens and remove there. Swansea was a large place, and many of the inhabitants were Unitarians, but Robert gradually made friends with them by conciliating manners, and was much liked by all the Protestants. He preached excellent practical sermons, and he and my sister did much good during the short time they were there."....
.......'My sister Adèle Bunbury was getting near her confinement and, as I was so near, it was settled we should go to Swansea that I might be with her. We therefore left Cross, after a pleasant visit, went by post to Ilfracombe, and the next day went in a small sailing packet across the Bristol Channel, being assured we should soon get across. All went well till we were half way, when the wind fell and there was a dead calm, and not an inch could we move. The cabin was a small place one could not move in, and no room to lie down in, and we began to think we should be all night. The sailors whistled for a wind, and after not moving for an hour at so, one exclaimed "She's coming," and soon after, a breeze came on and we landed at six o'clock at the Mumbles, not far from Swansea. A large omnibus, capable of carrying sixteen people inside, was just starting, and we went in it to Swansea. There was no one but ourselves in the vehicle, and we were consequently jolted all the way. We were received very kindly by Adèle and her husband in their comfortable house, and we found her pretty well. The next day we took a lodging near her, which was fortunate, for I was laid up for some days and not able to leave the house.'......
.......'I have said before that many of the principal families and others in Swansea were Unitarians, and soon after Mr Bunbury came, they challenged him to prove they were wrong in their belief. Mr Bunbury wished to decline controversy, but they insisted. In consequence, he preached a sermon, a copy of which I have, which created a great sensation in Swansea. It was delivered a Sunday or two before we arrived, and everyone was talking about it and praising it. The Church was crammed to hear it - many Unitarians present. A young officer, Mr Wills, told me the interest was so great, you might have heard a pin drop, as the saying is; though the service lasted three hours, everyone was sorry when it was over. As soon as I was well, I spent most of the day with my sister, who was confined on 13th March of a little girl, Millicent. She made a good recovery, and we stayed in Swansea till 26th March. It was a large town and not well kept. The pipes which carried the water down from the tops of the houses did not go down into a drain, but stopped about a foot from the ground, and consequently the water ran upon the footpath after rain. Many lobsters were caught in curious baskets; the bay was covered with these baskets.'.......
......'On 5th May we went to stay at Claverdon and saw a letter come from Adèle, saying that Robert Bunbury was dangerously ill of gastric fever, which was just then very prevalent in Swansea; nearly every house suffered more or less. At one time the account of Robert was better, and we quite hoped he would recover.'.........
........'In the meantime, Adèle was in constant anxiety about her husband and sent her baby and its nurse to my Mother, for fear it should take the fever, and she and Robert would follow as soon as he was well enough, but on 25th May he had a relapse and became worse every day till the 28th, on which day he died. My poor sister had gone through much trouble, the two doctors disagreeing about his treatment and quarrelling by his bedside. Robert Bunbury was only forty-two years old'.
'It was agreed among us that Edward and I should go at once to Adèle, and we set off on the 30th, as far as Bristol, where we slept, and the next day we went on in the Swansea mail, a long day's journey. Being Sunday, there were scarcely any passengers but ourselves. An intensely hot day, and the dust covering everything, I was alone inside, and vary glad when Edward recommended me to come outside with him. We arrived very late and slept at the hotel. I went to see my sister as soon as I arrived and found the house full. I was with Adèle all day, and we urged her to return with us after the funeral, for sickness and fever were raging in the town.
'On 3rd June the funeral took place. Mr Thomas Bunbury, my Husband,
three clergymen, and three doctors attended, and this scarcely a month after
I had left them so happy with their child. The last service Robert Bunbury
performed was christening his own child. The day after, the Bunburys left,
and we began packing away everything in the house safely till she returned.
Great sorrow was expressed by all at Swansea at the loss of their Vicar,
and Mr Warner preached a very good sermon on the occasion.'.....
Robert's widow, Adele Bunbury, died on 31st December 1883 at Edymead House, Launceston, Cornwall. Her daughter, Millicent Galton Bunbury, married John Christopher, Baron Lethbridge of Tregeare, had nine children, and died 29 July 1942.
The Rev Henry Bunbury's third surviving son, the Rev. Thomas Henry Bunbury, Vicar of Great Warley, Essex, was born at Kilsarana House in 1805. Educated at Trinity College Dublin, he married Mary Ball from Nottingham (born 1805) on 28th September 1837 at St Nicholas Church, Nottingham. The marriage produced four sons - Thomas Henry Bunbury (father of British Post Office hero Sir Henry Noel Bunbury, KCB (1876-1968)), Shirley Bunbury (born 16th May 1841, forbear of Frederick Molesworth Bunbury), Robert John Bunbury (born 1842), and Walter Francis Bunbury - and two daughters Dorothea Bunbury (born 1838) and Mary Henrietta Eleanora Bunbury (born 1846). He was presumably the man who attended his brother Robert's funeral in 1846. Mary died on 19th January 1869 at Great Warley. Mary Bunbury died aged 64 in 1869. Thomas died on 2nd January 1888 and was buried at Great Warley.
The Rev Henry Bunbury's youngest daughter, Clara (Clarissa) Bunbury, was born in Drogheda in 1823. In 1850, the 27 year old was married in Liverpool to Robert Henry Jones. Born in Lancashire in 1824, he was a a Flax and Hemp Merchant in Liverpool. His father John Jones started the business in the 1820s, ultimately bequeathing it to his two sons Alfred and Robert in the 1840s. In the mid- 1840's, Alfred Jones & Co., Flax and Hemp Merchants, had their base at 17 Goree Piazzas. The family resided on the Wirral. By the time of the 1851 census, Robert Henry Jones had married Clarissa Bunbury. Robert and Clarissa Jones moved to London circa 1856 where he continued the Flax and Hemp Business and became a Commission Agent. By 1871 they had returned to the Wirral. It is not known what happened to Clarissa or her husband Robert Henry Jones post 1871 or where they died. The family's hemp and flax business appears to have dwindled during the early 1860's.(9)
Robert and Clarissa had four children. Their eldest son Robert Shirley Jones was born in 1851, later changed his name to Robert Bunbury Jones and went to New Zealand in the early 1870’s where, in 1875, he married Hannah Elizabeth Bennett at Dunedin. They had eight children, all born in New Zealand. A complex character, Robert Bunbury Jones died in 1901 at Bygalorie, Australia, under the assumed name of 'Alan Forbes'. His wife Hannah Elizabeth Bennett remarried and died at Auckland in 1930. Robert and Clara's second son Alfred Henry Jones was born at Tranmere, Cheshire, in 1853 but nothing else is known of him. Robert and Clara's eldest daughter, Henrietta Louisa Jones, was born in Liverpool in 1856 but died in London just three years later. Robert and Clare's youngest daughter Clara (Clare) Augusta Jones was born in London in 1858. A favourite of her novelist aunt Selina Bunbury, Clare married her cousin Robert Shirley Bunbury in 1879 and then emigrated to Cuba and Jamaicain. Clare died in 1826.
When the family left Johnstown is as yet unclear. (10) It has been suggested that the Rev Henry Bunbury went bankrupt and sold it to a John Campion in 1814. His sisters or daughters moved to a cottage on Johnstown Lane and were still living there when Mary Moore of Gragecon was a young girl. Johnny Couchman believes the last of the Johnstown Bunburys died in about 1937. Bun's Bog exists today nearby.
Johnstown
House was substantially renovated in the 1840s, with Tudor Revival façade
enrichments added, including stepped gable, crenellations, turrest finials
and paired chimney stacks. By 1837, John Campion had sold the house to a Thomas Elliot. In 1867, Mr Elliot's eldest son, Nicholas G Elliot, was married in Dublin to Anna, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Ross of Castletown, Co. Carlow. (The Gentleman's Magazine, 1867, p. 809). In 1870, it was registered as belonging to Robert Tighe with Mr Elliot as agent, and had 1,652 acres. From Elliot it went to Arthur Fitzmaurice, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquarians. It was
rented in 1913 and purchased in 1918 by Corry Langrishe Connellan.
His daughter, Phyllida, married Admiral
Sir Walter Couchman, KCB, CVO, DSO, OBE, a former Vice-Chief of
Naval Staff. At the Coronation Naval Review in 1953, he led the Fleet
Air Arm Fly Past in a Vampire jet. The Admiral died in 1981.
Johnstown is now the home of the Admiral's son John, his wife Mary and
their family. Mary Couchman is godmother to this author, and a damned good
one too.
With thanks to Peter R Bunbury, Ken Baker, Gill Miller, Michael Purcell, Tom La Porte, Ron Medulison, John Couchman, William Minchin and Yvonne _____.