Analysis: Records compiled by land agents can reveal intimate details about tenants' personal lives and that of their extended communities
Many genealogists eagerly await the release of the 1926 Irish census next year hoping it will reveal new information about their ancestors. Along with census records, details on births, marriages, deaths, burial records, are among the most sought-after pieces of information in Irish genealogy forums. But do these vital records tell us anything about the daily lives of our ancestors? To some extent they do, but this information can remain impersonal, just another name on an extensive family tree.
Not revealed for example are the thoughts, feelings or personal traits of an individual. We do not learn, for example, that in the 1890s, Mary Connors, Knockeenatuder, Banteer was still calling herself Mrs Daniel Connors even though her husband had been dead for 45 years or that her son, Timothy 'wronged his mother’ when he sided with ‘the Kerry woman.’ The venom in Mary’s words remains palpable even now, over 130 years later.
Census returns do the reveal that Nora Sullivan, Shronebeha, County Cork, was nine years old when she had to take on the responsibility of caring for her five younger siblings after her stepmother's death in 1894. Her elderly father Matthew, was unable to support the family and the family lived in a house that was 'so damp and unhealthy with water coming trough [through] bad walls.’
So, where can these personal insights expressed in people's own words be found? The answer lies in landed estates records, compiled by land agents who were once integral to managing Irish landed estates. These accidental legacies can reveal intimate details about tenants' personal lives and that of their extended communities.
Land agents in Ireland still carry a poor reputation today. Figures like William Steuart Trench, his son John Townsend Trench, and George Sandes ("the terror of North Kerry") have left behind particularly notorious legacies. Were they truly 'devils one and all,’ 'ruthless exterminators and heartless tyrants’, whose legacy ‘stinks in the nostrils?’ Or were they misunderstood, and perhaps even leaving a more positive legacy? Either way, land agents are responsible for the vast volumes of estate records that exist today which can offer invaluable glimpses into the past lives of our ancestors.
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Many records remain with the descendants of the families responsible for the generation of the records, while others are deposited in repositories in Ireland, England and globally. Finding those records can be at times, frustrating and exhausting but the thrill when records are located can be exhilarating.
When they are located, what can you expect to find in them? There are usually large and dusty ledgers that may contain details about the rental payments, outstanding monies owed, details of county cess payments, tithe payments, allowances given to tenants to repair a shed or help pay for funeral expenses and types of tenure (year to year lease or longer leases). Other details such as charitable donations, pension payments and even details of marriage settlements, wills and land transfers agreements may be recorded. At times, lurking between the pages of these ledgers, letters exchanged between the land agent and tenants may be found.
From Tipperary Studies, Margaret O'Sullivan's lecture on Tipperary land agent William Rochfort
These letters and ledgers can reveal vignettes about the tenants and the lives they led. For example, Nora Sullivan's letter to land agent William Rochfort around 1902 shows her confidence and determination. She was not afraid to write the land agent, looking for rent forgiveness so that the family could apply to the Board of Works for a loan to build a new home. She was protective of her elderly father and younger siblings and wanted the best living conditions for them that the family could afford under their circumstances. Despite assuming maternal responsibilities at a young age, her articulate writing suggests that she received a good standard of education.
Co Tipperary businesswoman Mary Jane Sayer's response to the stern letter she received reminding her that her rent was overdue, was that she was simply too busy to find the time to go to Clonmel to pay the rent. John Ryan, Ballydrehid, Cahir, stopped inviting people to hunt rabbits on his farm, after he was threatened with losing his rent abatement. Rabbit catching was a lucrative domestic trade with meat and fur exported to England.
Some of the difficulties that people faced mirror the difficulties that people face today. Bryan O’Donnell, Ballydrehid, Co Tipperary was faced with the choice of clothing, feeding and educating his large young family or paying his rent, while the Kelleher family of Banteer had to deal with the loss of both of their parents with six months of one another in 1890. The eldest was the only one of the family old enough to work so he joined the R.I.C. and spent over £150 in the following years supporting the family until they were old enough to fend for themselves.
The personal information contained in estate records add to the vital records and enhance our knowledge of our ancestors. What might you uncover about your ancestors in these records? Will you discover that they had the same good temperament as John Dilworth, or were they more like Maurice Cremin, who was very tough or were their eyes blue like John Aherne, and were they teetotal like William Walsh, who never drank a glass of whiskey? Or will you discover an adventurer like James Morrissey, Banteer, went through the Khyber Pass in 1839 during the First Afghan War under Sir John Kaye?
The author's book The Lismore (O'Callaghan) estate under William Robert Hood Rochfort, 1891-1902, in Counties Cork, Limerick and Tipperary is published by Four Courts Press
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
