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Bishopscourt, Co Monaghan, was built
as a rectory in the early 19th century.
People associated with the house
include the founder of Clones Lace,
a future Primate of All Ireland,
the boxer Barry McGuigan and
the inestimably beautiful Ally Bunbury.
(Photo: James Fennell)
HISTORY
HOUSE HISTORY
Bishopscourt, Co. Monaghan
Cyclones & Lacemakers
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 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, descendents of Charles II, who were Rectors of Clones until 1847 and who were intermarried with the Lennard family of the Earl of Sussex, 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 1908. 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
1. There is a story in the Royal Irish Academy Journal of 1934 referring to this cauldron ("A Wooden Cauldron from Altartate Co. Monaghan", A. Mahr, III, May 1934).
THE LENNARD FAMILY, BARONS DACRE & THE EARL OF SUSSEX
The history of Bishopscourt is intrinsically linked to the history of the Lennard family, not least because the Very Rev. Henry Roper who most likely built the house circa 1810 was a grandson of the Lennard heiress, Lady Anne Lennard, Baroness Dacre (who was herself a granddaughter of King Charles II). Although the Dacre story and the Lennard story roll back through the centuries, it might make sense to begin this tale with Lady Anne’s gambling-addicted, cricket-loving father, Thomas, 18th Lord Dacre. He had come to Court as a young man and was Lord of the Bed-Chamber to Charles II who, in 1674, elevated him in the peerage as the Earl of Sussex. The Earl had secured a £20,000 fortune when he married the King’s ‘natural’ daughter, Lady Anne Palmer (alias FitzRoy), a daughter of Barbara, Countess of Castlemain (and Duchess of Cleveland in her own right). However, as with many of his class and generation, the Earl of Sussex ‘fell into the expensive way of living’ and ‘through this unlucky setting out, and by great losses at play, to which he was for the great part of his life addicted’, blew the family fortune. Careless and ill-tempered he also ‘neglected to take a proper care of his affairs’. As such, the Earl became ‘so much entangled that he was obliged to sell several of his estates, including the family seat at Herstmonceaux, East Sussex. By the 1680s, all that remained of his fortune was Chevening in Kent, along with his other Kentish estates and some manors in Cumberland and Westmoreland. He lived his latter years quietly at Chevening and was among the aristocrats to sign the invitation bidding William of Orange to take up the British throne. The Earl died in 1715 and his Countess in 1721. Their two sons died in infancy and that left them with two daughters, Lady Barbara and Lady Anne. (While in France, Lady Barbara became acquainted with Charles Skelton, a lieutenant general in the French service. As the Skeltons had supported James II, the Earl of Sussex was understandably slow to give his consent to the marriage).
The Earl' second daughter, the thrice married Lady Anne Lennard (1684-1755) provides us with a direct link to Bishopscourt. Born on 17 August 1684, her first husband Richard Barrett Lennard was her cousin. His grandfather, Richard Lennard, a son of Lord Dacre, was a well-travelled intellect, patron of the arts and intimate friend of the Great Duke of Ormonde (who would stay with him at Belhouse, Essex, for a week every summer). In 1644, this young man succeeded to the wealth and estates of Sir Edward Barrett, Lord Newburgh, sometime Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Richard’s wife Anne was the daughter and heir of Sir Robert Loftus, eldest son of Adam, Viscount Loftus of Ely, Lord Chancellor of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth. Rather more relevantly, her mother was the eldest daughter and co-heir of the military commander Sir Francis Rushe, an Irish Privy Councillor with substantial lands in Co Monaghan. When Richard Lennard married Anne Loftus, the Lennards thus acquired a considerable estate at Clones, Co Monaghan.
Richard Lennard died at Belhouse in 1696 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Dacre Barrett Lennard, Sheriff of Essex in 1706. He was married three times.[i] Like his father, he was a man of learning, being particularly interested in astrology and physics. He suffered a shock in his early life when his only brother Richard, a bachelor, was killed by a fall from his horse in the park at Belhouse. Dacre was an ‘active and avowed advocate’ of Protestantism ‘in the most difficult times’. He died at Belhouse in 1723.
FOOTNOTE
[i] Dacre Lennard’s first wife, Lady Jane, was the eldest daughter of Arthur Chichester, 2nd Earl of Donegal. They had a son, Richard, and three daughters, Jane (who, after her father's death, married John Ranby, Esq, serjeant surgeon to his late Majesty, and died without issue), Dorothy (married in 1 722 to Hugh Smith of Weald Hall in Essex, by whom he left two daughters, his heirs) and Henrietta (died unmarried).
Dacre Lennard’s second wife Elizabeth was a daughter and coheir of Thomas Moor, of Co Monaghan, a younger branch of the Earls of Drogheda. Their only son died in infancy, while their daughter Elizabeth married William Sloane, nephew of Sir Hans Sloane, founder of Sloan Square.
Dacre Lennard’s third wife was Sarah, daughter of Sir Capel Luckin of Messing Hall, Essex, and widow of Richard Saltonstall of Groves, Essex. Their daughter Catherine married Sir Philip Hall of Upton in Essex, by whom she had one son Philip and three daughters.
RICHARD BARRETT LENNARD
Dacre’s eldest son Richard Barrett Lennard (born from his first wife, Lady Jane, eldest daughter of the 2nd Earl of Donegal), predeceased him. Richard was the husband of the aforementioned Lady Anne Lennard, Baroness Dacre, and had lived at Chevening for the short 8-month tenure of their marriage. As it happens, he managed to produce a posthumous heir in the form of Thomas, 17th Lord Dacre. When Richard died, his widow and her sister, Lady Barbara Skelton, sold Chevening, the old seat of the Lennards, to Earl Stanhope, and Dacre Castle, with the lands in Cumberland, to Sir Christopher Musgrave. The sale was controversial at the time as Richard was engaged in negotiations to keep the estate in the Lennard family at the time of his premature death. It appears he was in bad books with his father over ‘some unlucky misunderstandings’ that took place before the marriage. (see Arthur Collins, Collins's peerage of England;: genealogical, biographical, and historical Peergae of England, p. 583, 1812).
THE ROPER MARRIAGE
In 1718, the widowed Lady Anne Lennard married Henry Roper, 8th Lord Teynham(1676 - 16th May 1723), being his third wife. They had two sons, Captain Charles Roper (father of the 18th Lord Dacre) and the Rev Richard Henry Roper, Rector of Clones, and a daughter Anne.[ii] After Lord Teynham’s death IN 1723, Lady Anne married thirdly the Hon. Robert Moore of West Lodge upon Enfield Chase, a younger son of Henry, 3rd Earl of Drogheda, by whom she had one son, Henry.[iii] When her sister Lady Barbara died in 1741, Lady Anne sister became sole heir to the Dacre fortune, and as such became Baroness Dacre. Lady Anne died on 26 June 1755 and was succeeded by her eldest son Thomas Barrett-Lennard, 17th Lord Dacre, (d.1786). (Lord Dacre married Anna Maria, daughter of Sir John Pratt, Lord Chief Justice of England). When Lord Dacre was presented at court soon after his succession, it propelled his Roper half-brothers forward also. Richard Roper became Rector of Clones. When Lord Dacre died, he was succeeded as 18th Lord Dacre by his half-nephew, Charles Trevor Roper.
FOOTNOTES
[ii] Charles Roper, Lord Teynham’s eldest son, was a captain of dragoons and died in 1754, leaving issue by Gertrude, his wife, sister and coheir of John Trevor Esq, of Glynd, in Sussex, two sons: (1) Charles Trevor Roper, 18th Lord Dacre, and (2) Major Henry Roper, 66th Regt of Foot, killed in a duel at Chatham in 1788, and one daughter (3) Gertrude, now Baroness Dacre. Lord Teynham’s daughter Anne Roper married Peter Tyler Esq, a captain in the 52d regiment of foot, by whom she had three sons and two daughters.
[iii] By the will of his great uncle, Arthur, Lord Ranelagh, this man was possessed of the manors of West Dean &c in Wiltshire. He died unmarried.
Rev. Hon. Richard Henry Roper, Rector of Clones
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 fifth and youngest son of Henry Roper,
8th Baron Teynham by his marriage
to Lady Anne Lennard. He married firstly, on 20 May 1755, the Hon. Mary Chetwynd, a daughter of William Richard Chetwynd, 3rd Viscount Chetwynd of Bearhaven, by his wife, Honora Baker. The following year, the death of his mother elevated his half-brother Thomas in the peerage as Baron Dacre. On 12th October 1754, the Archdeacon of Cloger was relieved of his duties as Rector of Clones and Richard was appointed the new Rector, retaining the post for sixty years. Clones was at the heart of the large Lennard-Rush estate in Monaghan. (See Shirley's Monaghan, pp. 310, 327). Richard and Mary apparently had children but it is unclear what happened as Debretts claim she died in January 1780, which indicates a divorce along the way, but a premature death seems more likely. At any rate, in October 1759, Mrs Delaney recorded a visit by Richard in her diary, saying he had married secondly, another Mary, a daughter of Captain Thomas Tennison, just two months earlier.[i] Mary died on 16 February
1795. (ii) When Richard died ‘at the advanced age of 87’ in October 1810, The Gentleman’s Magazine noted that RHR, the brother of the late Lord Dacre, had been rector of ‘that opulent and extensive parish for upwards of 60 years’. It is said that Bishopscourt
about rebuilt about 1810.
FOOTNOTES
[i] The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, by Augusta Waddington Hall Llanover, p. 568.
[ii] Much of this information came from Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes, Charles Mosley, editor, (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 766.
The Sons of the Rev and Mrs. Mary Roper
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.
3. William and Elizabeth's other children were Jane Anne Roper (d. 9 Feb
1849), Eliza Roper (d. 18 Feb 1881), Isabella Roper (d. 5 Apr 1876) and
Sir Henry's younger brother Charles Roper (1816 - 9th May 1861).
4. L. G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct,
Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms (London,
U.K.: Heraldry Today, 1972), page 100.
Very Rev. Henry Roper, Rector of Clones & Dean of Clonmacnois.
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. Upon the Rev. Richard Roper’s death, he was succeeded as Rector of Clones by John Brinkley, DD, Archdeacon of Clogher since October 1808. Brinkley was an Englishman educated at Caius College, Cambridge, and became a Prebendary of Elphin in 1806. However, the Rev Henry Roper successfully contested Dr Brinkley’s appointment and was himself made Rector of Clones by the Primate in 1812. (Cotton, 1849). (In 1826, Dr Brinkley was raised to the bishopric of Cloyne). On December 6th 1811, Rev Henry Roper also became Dean of Clonmacnois when he succeeded Thomas Vesey Dawson (uncle of Richard Thomas, Baron Cremone, and Dean since 1806). 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.
5. The Anglo-Celt, published in Cavan, April 23rd 1847. Henry was succeeded as Dean of Clonmacnois in December 1847 by RICHARD BUTLER, BA, Vicar of Trim, who was my kinsman.
Thomas & Cassandra Hand of Clones
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)
6. See an account of the Great Famine in Clones, published in the Clogher Historical Society's 2000 Clogher Record, which makes some reference to the Hands and includes a photograph of a memorial to Cassandra Hand in Clones Church of Ireland (contact Ivor Lendrum, Clonboy, Clones for records).
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."
The Bishop of Bishopscourt - The Most Rev Charles D’Arcy.
A studio portrait of Archbishop Charles F. D’Arcy, sometime resident of Bishopscourt. After a distinguished career at Trinity College, Dublin, C.F. D’Arcy entered the ministry of the Church of Ireland, becoming Dean of Belfast in 1900. He became Bishop of Clogher in 1903 and moved to Altartate Glebe, which he named Bishopscourt, remaining there until 1911 when elevated to Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore in 1911. He later became Archbishop of Dublin and was enthroned in Armagh in 1920, remaining Primate of All Ireland until his death in 1938.
Charles Frederick D'Arcy, Bishop of Clogher (1859 - 1938)
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.
'Bishopscourt, as we named it'
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 near Newbliss, 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'. (His eldest son and heir to Ballynure was Captain Harry Haire Forster (1878-1936), a Royal Navy officer whose ship was sunk at Gallipoli in 1915, but he survived. Another son Arthur Haire Forster (1879-1965) emigrated to the United States via Canada in about 1920).
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)
Onwards to the Primacy
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 Family
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.
Rt. Rev. Maurice Day, Bishop of Clogher
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.
The 1911 Census records that the 67-year-old Bishop was living at 'Altartate Glebe' with his wife Charlotte (58 yrs), son Herbert (a 35 year old engineer), daughter Kathleen (30), and five servants, general labourer William Duncan (25), cook Annie Campbell (35), parlour-maid Hannah Greer (28), housemaid Charlotte Sherwood (19) and kitchen-maid Sarah Houston (18). Nineteen rooms of the house were occupied at the time.
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."
(a) 'When MacManway took over in 1923, St Anne's Parish Church, Enniskillen was designated St Macartin's Cathedral with the intention of replacing the cathedral at Clogher. (His brother was then rector of Enniskillen). However Clogher cathedral was never reduced to parish church status, and so Clogher diocese has the unique distinction of having two diocesan cathedrals, yet with a single dean and chapter'. (MACARTAN 1500).
(b) From: Clogher clergy and parishes [microform] : being an account of the clergy of the Church of Ireland in the Diocese of Clogher, from the earliest period, with historical notices of the several parishes, churches, etc.", by REV. CANON J. B. LESLIE, Kilsaran Rectory, Castlebellingham.
The Mealiff Family
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.
The Murphy Family
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).
FOOTNOTES
(7) The head of the Ballymore branch, Major John Moran Murphy, was living
at the Ridges, Woodbury Salterton in Devon in 1959.
(7b) Henry and Mary's second son Gerard Murphy was born in May 1901
and married, aged 23, to Mary O'Neill, daughter of David O'Neill
of Drombana, Co. Limerick. They had a son, Daniel Lonan (b. 25 March
1941) and daughter Ann Barbara (b. 26 March 1934). Gerard was Professor
of the History of Celtic Studies at the National University of Ireland.
Perhaps his career was inspired by the discovery of the Altatate cauldron?
Henry and Mary's third son Dermot Murphy was born in February 1903
and educated at UCD where he obtained an MB, BCh and BAO in 1927). In September
1933 he married Kitty Taunton, daughter of Henry Grosvenor Taunton.
They had three sons - Brain (1934), Kevin (1937) and Philip
(1947) and a daughter Elaine (1935).
Henry and Mary's fourth son, Lonan Murphy, was born in March 1907
and worked as a solicitor. He died prematurely in September 1947, eight
months before his father
(8) Henry's grandmother, Bridget Murphy, was a sister of Lieutenant
John Charles Baldwin who fought at the battle of Salamanca and later
became a Colonel in the Colombian army.
The Moore Family
Archie Moore came to Monaghan as the Consultant Surgeon to Monaghan General Hospital and was widely acclaimed as a genius with his hands. 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. He appears to have purchased the house from Brian and Eugene McMahon (who had acquired it in September 1980). Archie died in 2002 and Miriam continues to live at Bishopscourt where life is always busy and bountiful. Her eldest daughter Elizabeth Moore (aka Liz Moore) was married in July 2007 to Andy Cairns. Liz is head chef at the Belle Isle Cookery School while Andy runs Taste, an upmarket restaurant in Enniskillen. Liz and Andy have a son Jasper Cairns and daughter Pippa Cairns. The second daughter Gilly Moore married Canadian writer Larry Fogg and lives in Hubbards, Nova Scotia, with their daughters, Harriet Fogg and Pearl Fogg, where they run a Supper Club; Gilly is also 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, and Bay Bunbury, born 4th February 2009. 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, Matthew Gallagher, Catherine McMahon, Tom Hanchett and the Moore family.