In 1933 the National Museum of Ireland acquired the fragments of an ornamented wooden cauldron of the Iron Age (c. 500 BC - 450 AD). Laurence Clarke made the discovery while cutting turf in the townland of Altartate near Clones, on the Monaghan - Fermanagh border in Northern Ireland. Buried deep in the bog, the cauldron was in poor condition when found but was carefully restored. The fibre-glass copy on view in Monaghan County Museum is a reproduction of the original. (1) In the 1851 census, the townland of Altartate Glebe comprised 228.2.26 acres; it is situated in the barony of Dartreein and the Parish of Clones. At its heart stands Bishopscourt, a magnificent bow-legged pile which my late father-in-law, Archie Moore, purchased in the early 1980s. The house was in a ruinous condition at the time; the 'Clones Cyclone' Barry McGuigan confessed to my wife Ally (nee Moore) that he had frequently played amid the abandoned ruins as a child. The building dates to the early 19th century and was built for the Roper family who were Rectors of Clones until 1847 and who were intermarried with the Lennard family of the Earl of Essex, for whom the Lennard Arms in Clones is named. It then became home to the Rev. Thomas Hand whose wife Cassandra pioneered the Clones Lace movement. The house was named 'Bishopscourt' by Dr. Charles Frederick d'Arcy and his wife Harriet when they moved in from about 1905 to 1905. Dr. D'Arcy was Bishop of Logher at the time and would go on to become Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. The house then passed to the Mealiff family (who leased the top flat to Baldwin and Judith Murphy from about 1928 to 1932) and went through several owners before Archie and Miriam Moore moved in with their four daughters and eighty seven pets and made it, very much, their own family home. Anyone with further information or anecdotes about this marvelous home, where our wedding was celebrated, or the people who have lived here, is encouraged to contact me at turtle@turtlebunbury.com
The Ropers seem to have been based at Bishopscourt for at least two generations. The first of these was the Rev. Hon. Richard Henry Roper, Rector of Clones. He was born in November 1723, the youngest son of Henry Roper, 8th Baron Teynham (1676 - 16th May 1723) by the Baron's third marriage to Lady Anne Lennard (17 August 1684 - 26 June 1755). Lady Anne was a daughter of Thomas Lennard, 1st Earl of Essex and Lady Anne Palmer. The Rev. Roper was married twice, firstly to Hon. Mary Chetwynd, daughter of William Richard Chetwynd, 3rd Viscount Chetwynd of Bearhaven and Honora Baker, on 20 May 1755. He married, secondly, Mary Tenison, daughter of Captain Thomas Tenison, in 1760. She died on 16 February 1795. The Rector died in November 1810. (2) It is often said that Bishopscourt about rebuilt at this time.
By his marriage to Mary Tenison, the Rev. Richard Roper had three sons and two daughters. The eldest son, the Very Rev. Henry Roper, succeeded to Bishopscourt and was also Rector of Clones and later Dean of Clonmacnois. The second son, Cadwallader Blayney Roper was born on 8th February 1765 and married twice, firstly in 1796 to Elizabeth Anne Reveley, daughter of Henry Reveley, by whom he is forbear of the Trevor-Roper family. He was married secondly on 24 September 1817 to Eliza Agnes Gayton, daughter of Rev. Clerk Gayton, and died six years later on 20 October 1823 at age 58. The third son, William Roper (1768 - 16 July 1832) married Elizabeth Fish, lived in Rathfarnham and was father to three daughters and two sons, including Sir Henry Roper (1800 - 1863). (3) The Rev. Richard and Mary Ropers' two daughters were Anna Maria Roper (1773 - 1810) and Caroline Roper (b 1787). (4) One assumes all these children were raised at Bishopscourt.
The Very Rev. Henry Roper, DD, was born on 19th March 1761. On 19th December 1796, he married Mary Chamberlayne who would remain his wife until her death 47 years later. They had four sons and a daughter. Henry succeeded his father as Rector of Clones in November 1810 and later became Dean of Clonmacnois. The house at Bishopscourt has been dated to 1804 although, writing in 1837, Lewis states that 'the glebe house [in Clones] of the Very Rev. H. Roper, Rector of the parish and Dean of Clonmacnois' was 'rebuilt in 18l6'. It makes sense that, with at least five children, the Bishop wanted to increase the size of his fathers' house. Lewis adds that the Board of First Fruits granted Roper 'a gift of £100 and a loan of £1500 … towards defraying the expense'. In 1837, 'the glebe comprises 700 acres'. Mary Roper died on 25th October 1843. Her husband surived her by 3 years, passing away on April 18 1847, at the age of 85. (5) Their firstborn son William Lennard Roper did not long survive them, passing away on 13th August 1849. The second son was John Henry Roper (8 Nov 1803 - 15 July 1890). The third son was Major Henry Welladvice Roper (25 October 1806 - Oct 1833). The fourth son was Blayney Tenison Roper (10th Feb 1811 - 30 March 1886). The daughter, Caroline Roper, died on 23 May 1864.
It is my belief that the Rev. Thomas and Cassandra Hand moved into Bishopscourt shortly after the death of the Very Rev Henry Roper in 1847. They called the house 'Altartate Glebe' (Táite na hAltórach). Griffith's Evaluations of the late 1840s lists tenants at Altartate Glebe as including Thomas Aull, Philip Brady, Thomas Browne, John Cole, Pierce Cullen, John Forker, Joshua T. Hoskins, Samuel Johnston, Bernard Lynch, Henry McAtee, John Purvis, John Swift, William Thompson and, most importantly for this purpose, the Rev. Thomas Hand.
The Rev. Thomas Hand was Rector of Bulphan in Essex before moving to Ireland. His wife was Cassandra More-Molyneux. While In Essex they had several children including John Sidney (1833), Thomas (1834 - 1857), George Molyneux (1838), Mary Adelaide (1841) and Cassandra Caroline (1843). The presence of the Molyneux name may indicate a link to the Maddens of Hilton Park outside Clones who were closely related to the Molyneaux family in the 17th and early 18th century. The Rev. Thomas Hand succeeded the Very Rev Henry Roper as Church of Ireland Rector of Clones in 1847. It was his wife Cassandra who introduced the making of crochet lace to the area. She worked in conjunction with a crochet teacher from Co. Kildare; their technique was a less time-consuming variation of Venetian Point Lace. The lace-making tradition became particularly popular in the Roslea area of South Fermanagh during the post famine period of the 1850's. In a few years about 1,500 people were employed through crochet work and a cottage industry was born. Cassandra is buried at Clogh Church of Ireland, Roslea (The present Rector in Clogh is Revd Edwin Kille, phone 048 67 751 206). The inscription on a tablet in Clones Church of Ireland, dedicated to Cassandra Hand reads:
'This tablet is erected by the parishioners of Clones, to the memory of Cassandra, the beloved wife of the Revd. Thomas Hand, Rector of this parish who died the 21st day of October 1868. During the Famine of 1847, and subsequent years she contributed largely to relieve the distress then prevalent, and was the means under God of bringing comfort to many families. To posterity she has left enduring monuments which testify to her zeal and self-sacrifice, in promoting the moral and spiritual well-being of the people of this district, by whom she was held in high estimation, and who now deeply deplore her loss.'
Clones lace supplied markets in Dublin, London, Paris Rome and New York. By 1910 Clones was the most important centre of crochet lace-making in Ireland, its produce worn by royalty and gentry throughout the world The coronation dress worn by Queen Mary in the 1940's was made by local women of Clones. As the present day marketing blurb reads: "This beautiful and intricate hand craft has been passed on from mother to daughter and from generation to generation since then". (6)
Tragedy struck the Hand family on 27th January 1857 when Thomas and Cassandra's son, Lieutenant Thomas More Hand (born October 1834), was killed during the Crimean War while serving with the 51st Bengal Native Infantry. He was buried at Jamrud Road Cemetery, Peshawar, where his gravestone reads: "In memory of Lieutenant Thomas More Hand of the 51st Regt N.I. who was shot by an assassin near the Khyber pass on the 27th January 1856 & died the same day deeply regretted by his brother officers aged 22 years & 3 months."
In about 1905, Bishopscourt became home to by Charles Frederick D'Arcy, Bishop of Clogher from 1903 - 1907 and subsequently Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh. He was born in Dublin on 2nd January, 1859, the only son of John Charles d'Arcy (1828 - 1902) of Mount Tallant, County Dublin, a grandson of John d'Arcy of Hydepark, County Westmeath. As such, he was a direct descendant of John d'Arcy, first Lord d'Arcy de Knayth who fought at the Battle of Crecy in 1346. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin where he was first mathematical scholar of his year and senior moderator and gold medallist in Moral Philosophy. He graduated BA in 1882 with a first-class Divinity Testimonium and proceeded to the degree of MA in 1892. In 1898 he qualified as BD and two years later was granted the degree of DD. He was ordained to the curacy of Saint Thomas's, Belfast, in 1884. In 1890 he was appointed Rector of Billy in County Antrim. Three years later he was elected Rector of the united parishes of Ballymena and Ballyclug. On the election of Dean O'Hara to the See of Cashel, Dr d'Arcy was chosen to succeed him as Vicar of Belfast and was appointed Dean of Saint Anne's at which time he resigned a canonry in Connor Cathedral. He was also examining chaplain to Bishop Welland and served as chaplain to both Earl Cadogan and the Earl of Dudley during their respective tenures as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Shortly after his father's death in September 1902, Dr D'Arcy was elected to succeed Dr Stack who had just retired from the Bishopric of Clogher. Dr. d'Arcy was consecrated to the office in Armagh cathedral on 24th February 1903.
In his autobiography, The Adventures of a Bishop (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1934), Dr. D'Arcy explains how there was no see house when he was elected Bishop, the original Bishop's palace at Clogher having been sold when the diocese was united with Armagh in 1850. The see of Clogher had been re-established in 1886 (with Bishop Stack at the helm), after 36 years of union with Armagh, due in no small part to the generosity of 'Mr. Porter of Belle Isle, grandson of a former bishop of the diocese'. For the first year and a half of his tenure as Bishop, Dr. D'Arcy and his wife Harriet (nee Lewis) lived at Ballynure House outside Clones, the home of the Rev. Arthur Haire -Forster, then Rector of Clogher parish. With his duties in Clogher, Haire-Forster was obliged to live closer to that parish and was thus 'glad to get a tenant for his old family place'. However, 'there was a strong feeling among both clergy and laity that a permanent residence should be provided for the bishop, and the large old Rectory of Clones was secured for this purpose, a smaller house having been obtrianed for the rector'. And so, they moved from Ballynure to 'Bishopscourt, as we named it'. 'The place had the advantage of nearness to Clones, and was therefore much more convenient for all diocesan purposes. Here we also rejoiced in our country life; for Bishopscourt proved a real country house, with spacious grounds, a very fine old garden, and best of all, a large bog. The bog lay behind a high ridge, secluded from all roads, a place of infinite delight. Here we spent many a long summer day, and here we pursued our researches in natural history. Here on summer evenings we could hear the whirring of the nightjar, and in springtime the bleating of the snipe. Here were wild duck, teal, widgeon, shovellers, and even rarer creatures. In a little lake close by, the crested glebe made a home. In this same lake we found the rare cladophora, with its perfect spheres of moss-like growth; and in the bog a number of rare plants, especially the beautiful Andromeda polyfolia. My old friend , Nathaniale Colgan, hearing of these discoveries, came on a vist, and, within a radius of a mile from the house, we catalogued six species never before recorded from County Monaghan. All this was pure delight, and afforded endless interest to our younger people'. (p. 137)
Dr. D'Arcy remained in the diocese of Clogher for four years when he was then elected to succeed Dr Crozier as Bishop of Ossory, Crozier having been appointed Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore. Coincidentally, d'Arcy then replaced Crozier after an election by the Synod in Clarence Place Hall, Belfast on 28th March 1911. He was consecrated Bishop of Down, Connor & Dromore on 9th May 1911. His enthronement as Bishop took place in Belfast Cathedral on 9th May 1911. Four days later his enthronement as Bishop of Connor took place in Lisburn Cathedral. In August, 1919, Dr d'Arcy was appointed Archbishop of Dublin, Bishop of Glendalough and Kildare and Primate of Ireland Metropolitan. He was succeeded as Bishop by C T P Grierson. The following June Dr d'Arcy was elected to succeed the Most Reverend Dr Crozier as Primate of All Ireland and Metropolitan.
Dr d'Arcy's wife was Harriet Le Byrtt Lewis, eldest daughter of Richard Lewis of Comrie, Co. Down. They were married on 12th June 1889 and had one son, John Conyers D'Arcy, and three daughters, Ellinor Marian, Henrietta Grace Lewis and Dorothy Frances. Captain John Conyers d'Arcy, MC, Royal Artillery, was wounded on the North-West Frontier of India in 1931. His mother Harriet died from a heart attack while on a cruise to the West Indies in the summer of 1932. That same August, Henrietta married Charles Henry George Mulholland, 3rd Baron Dunleath, son of Henry Lyle Mulholland, 2nd Baron Dunleath and Norah Louisa Fanny Ward. In June 1937 it was announced that Dr d'Arcy would retire due to ill health but he continued until his death at the Palace, Armagh, on 1st February 1938. Details of his distinguished Church career are contained in 'Clogher Clergy and Parishes' by Rev J. B. Leslie, 1929, the updated edition of which has been published recently. A more detailed account of his time in Belfast Cathedral is available on their website. For those who are interested, Amazon also lists an Obituary of Charles Frederick D'Arcy (1859 - 1938), paperback offprint, Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol 24.
When Dr D'Arcy moved on to succeed Dr Crozier as Bishop of Ossory, the
see of Clogher was filled by Rt. Rev. Maurice Day, DD, the former
Dean of Ossory, who, in 1908, also gave his address as Bishopscourt, Clones.
He remained Bishop of Clogher until 1923, when succeeded by James
MacManaway (1923-1943). (*a) 'The Day family of Kerry, like three
or four other families of Kerry gentry, gave many ministers to the Reformed
Church of Ireland, but the Day family gave more than any at least two score,
including three bishops ; and unlike some other families-- noble and gentle
in other parts of Ireland who are suspected, with some reason, of sending
sons into the Ministry for what they could get out of it, the Days entered
the Ministry in order to give, not get, and they gave of their best. Maurice
Day, of Clogher, was a typical example, who won the affection and respect
of all who came in contact with him'. (*b) His father was the Very
Rev. John Godfrey Day, Dean of Ardfert. Maurice was born on September
2nd, 1843 on Valentia Island, Co. Kerry, and educated at Beaumont College,
Cork, Queen's College, Cork, and the Historical Science School (1860). He
graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BA in Maths and seems to have
aquired severalk further BAs and MAs, as well as a BD and a DD. Ordained
in 1866, he gradually made his way up the clerical hierarchy, becoming Dean
of Ossory in 1905-8. He was elected Bishop of Clogher on December 10th 1907,
and consecrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral on January 25th, 1908, by the
Bishop of Meath (Keene), assisted by the Bishops of Killaloe (Archdall),
Cashel (O'Hara), Down (Crozier) and Ossory (D'Arcy). He was also Commissioner
of National Education (1911-22). On 29th April, 1873, he married Charlotte
Frances Mary Forbes, daughter of Herbert Taylor Ottley, of 28
York Terrace, Regents Park, London. It was the first marriage celebrated
in St. Matthias's, Dublin. They had issue three sons and a daughter:
(i) Right Rev. John Godfrey FitzMaurice Day, D.D., Bishop of Ossory,
b. 12th May, 1874 , who married Oct 1922, Cicely Dorothea Langrishe, in
Kilkenny
(ii) Herbert Taylor Ottley Day, B.A., B.A.I., T.C.D., Lt. R.E. and
R.A.F. 1917 to 1919, A.M. Inst. C.E., b. 27th May, 1875
(iii) Maurice FitzMaunce Day, M.C., Lt.-Col. 1st K.O. Y.L.I., who
served in the S.A. War (Medal and three Clasps) and also at Ypres, etc.,
in the Great War, P.S.C. G.S.O. at the War Office 1921 to 1926, b. 27th
August, 1878, married at Washington, U.S.A., Eleonora Morgan, November 1918);
(iv) Kathleen Mary Agnes Day.
Maurice died suddenly, in the Vestry of Broomfield Church (before Morning
Service at which he was to have preached) while conversing with some of
the parishioners, on Sunday, May 27th, 1923. He was buried at Dean's Grange
Cemetery, May 31st. The Provost delivered a funeral address in St. Matthias's
and spoke of him as "a truly patriotic Irishman, warm- hearted as
became his good Southern blood, always forward to promote
the best interests of his country and his Church .... Benignus, humanus,
stabilis, certus, securus."
During the 1920s, Bishopscourt came into the ownership of William and Kathleen Mealiff who farmed the surrounding land. They had five sons - William, James (Jim), Jack, Gordon and Fred - and three daughters - Jean, Audrey and Merle. Jim Mealiff was the former owned the Lennard
Arms Hotel. In 1981, Jim's daughter Sandra
married the Clones Cyclone, boxer Barry McGuigan. Jim's son Ross Mealiff, an independent politician, is the present Mayor of Clones. A former director of Quinn Direct and general manager of the Hillgrove Hotel in Monaghan, he now runs the Hotel Kilmore in Cavan.
Any further information on the Mealiff family would
be most welcome.
From about 1928 to 1932, the top flat at Bishopscourt was leased to Baldwin and Judith Murphy. (John) Baldwin Murphy was the eldest of four sons and a daughter born to Mary and Henry Murphy (1867 - 1948), Crown Solicitor and County Register for Co. Monaghan. Henry descended from a Tipperary / Wexford family who came into their own when Patrick Murphy saved the life of a son of Captain Tudkin, an officer in William of Orange's entourage. The King rewarded Patrick with a grant of land at Ballymore near the Rock of Cashel. (7) Henry's father, John Baldwin Murphy, was a Trinity educated solicitor and Queen's Counsellor during the Victorian age. Henry's mother was Alice Morrogh of Kilworth House, Co. Cork. Henry was born on 1st December 1867 and married Mary Frances Donnelly, daughter of Peter Donnelly of Farney Hill, Clones. From the mid 1920s to 1937 when they moved to Dublin, Henry and Mary rented Altartate Glebe, a charming redbrick house between Bishopscourt and Clones, from the Gunn family. Baldwin was born in December 1898 and educated at Mount St. Benedict in Gorey. In December 1928, shortly after his 30th birthday, he married Judith Flood, daughter of Robert Samuel Flood of Killycreeny, Cootehill, Co. Cavan. Baldwin and Judith then leased the top flat of Bishopscourt from the Mealiff family. Their daughter Nora recalls 'the top flat everywhere was chilly but that was not a problem - we just wore more clothes!'. Baldwin worked alongside his father, with offices (now Henry Murphy & Sons) at The Diamond in Clones and on Main Street, Lisnakea, Co. Fermanagh. For more information it is worth contacting the Murphy's spiritual heirs, Morgan McManus Solicitors who mention the Murphys on their website. Henry died on 21st May 1948 and Mary on 15th March 1954. They had moved to Dublin in 1937, at which point Baldwin and Judith moved into Altartate Glebe. There they raised a son Henry Murphy (born in 1934 and educated at Glenstal Abbey and the National University of Ireland) and two daughters Nora (b. 1930, admitted as a solicitor in 1952 and married (1955) to John Lynne McDowell of Dundrum, Co. Dublin) and Anna White (b. 1947).
Archie Moore came to Monaghan as the County Surgeon. He originally lived in a wing of Hilton Park but moved to Bishopscourt with his wife Miriam (nee Craigie) and four daughters in about 1985. Archie died in 2002 and Miriam continues to live at Bishopscourt where life is always busy and bountiful. Their eldest daughter Elizabeth Moore (aka Liz Moore) was married in July 2007 to Andy Cairns and runs the Belle Isle Cookery School. Liz and Andy have a bouncing boy called Jasper. The second daughter Gilly Moore married Canadian writer Larry Fogg and lives in Hubbards, Nova Scotia, with their daughters, Harriet and Pearl, where Gilly is a dynamic player in the world of animation. The third daughter is the beautiful Ally Moore and became the wife of Turtle Bunbury on 20th May 2006, just over ten years after their first meeting at Hilton Park. Ally operates as a PR guru and full-time mother to Jemima Bunbury, born 17th June 2007. The fourth daughter Faenia Moore lives in London where she alternates between cooking astonishingly good meals and mesmerising crowds with her soul-filled vocals.
To be continued …
With thanks to Grace Moloney, Henry Skeath, Brian Morgan, William Mealiff, Nora McDowell,
Maire Treanor and the Moore family.