Originally published in The Laois Heritage Society Journal Vol 10
Woodworm, dry rot and blocked gutters and slipping slates are natural hazards for Irish historic houses which may lead to their decay.
The IRA and the Land Commission are political hazards which have often led to their destruction.
Even the electric blanket has not been without its victims.
But in the 1940s a race horse owning, Glaswegian scrap iron merchant called Davy Frame, who owned the Hammond Lane Foundry, was their greatest enemy. In 1944 he demolished both Lamberton and Brockley Park. The list of houses that he demolished during the Emergency (1939-45) include Tara Hall, Navan, Waterpark, Limerick and Allenstown, Kells.
Brockley Park was probably the finest house in Laois. Three storeys over a basement with, according to the census enumerators (both in 1901 and 1911, so they can’t have both been wrong) 30 windows on its façade, it was designed by Davis Ducart, of Kishannig and the Hunt Museum fame, in 1768.
“In the chapel are four painted widows and in the dining and drawing some good paintings.” (Anthologia Hibernica 1794). “It contains seven rooms on the first floor” (Post Chaise Companion). In his article in Country Life in 1967 on Ducart the Knight of Glin notes that Brockley had very fine plasterwork. We know that Ducart worked with the Lafranchini brothers in various houses, and even though they would have been in their late 60s in 1768, they may well have been the stuccodores.
Everything is probable because so far I have located only a few photographs of Brockley in its splendour (a drawing room ceiling) and one of the ruin (kindly supplied by Lavinia Turner of Aldourie). The last inhabitant John William Young, a bachelor, died in Woodview, Stradbally in 1945 and his “adopted niece” a lady from County Down, Mary Ann Crowther, died a year later at the age of 61.
All that remains now are the outhouses, built around two courtyards, with an impressive three-centred cut-stone arch, and three of the four gate lodges, the earliest of which is the East lodge; c. 1810, described in Dean’s magisterial “Gate Lodges of Leinster“ as a charming single-storey structure, seemingly once octagonal on plan, with an umbrello roof rising to a central stack. It assumed rather more generous proportions c. 1860 with the addition of a back return and a gabled hall breakfront with chamfered stone corners and elliptically fanlit doorway below fancy scrolled bargeboards and a little turned hip-knob.
But to return to the beginning. The lands were anciently called Derrybrock and belonged to the Franciscan monastery at Stradbally which stood north of the bridge in the middle of the town (Anthologia Hibernica 1794 p 185 . Rather confusingly there is another Derrybrock, 5 miles to the North, close to where the Stradbally River enters the Barrow, on the site of Ballymanus Castle. As derry broc just means the oakwood with badgers, there were probably quite a lot of them. An Inquisition, taken at Maryborough, 17 June, 1566, “Rory O More was Captain of Leyse at the time of his death, and he had no more lands in possession in right of his Captainship as O’More, but only the town of Stradbally, with the appurtenances, being unto him every year worth £100. The said Rory had at the time of his death, in his own seizin, of his own proper inheritance, and not as captain, these towns following, that is to say, Derrybroke, and the great wood with the appurtenances, Derryloghcomer, both the Cullenaghs, viz., Cullenagh and Cullenaghmore, Disert Enos, Carrigneparke, Ballynockan, Graignehoyn, and the whole parish of Tulloryne, which land was unto him worth three score and ten marks, lawful money of Ireland.“
On a deed dated 10 May 1749, Pole Cosby of Stradbally Hall, Esq, demised unto John Pigott the leasehold of the Town and Lands of Knocknacarrol and Knocknabrahar (containing 140 acres) in the Parish of Stradbally, at the yearly rental of 53 pounds sterling by equal half-yearly instalments, for the term of three lives – his own, and the lives of his daughters Frances Pigott and Constantia Maria Pigott – or 31 years, whichever should last the longest. This deed was witnessed by William Weldon of Portarlington, Queen’s County, Esq, and Lewis Jones of the fort of the said county, Esquire; but it was not registered until 19 September 1757, by Lewis Jones and William Justice of the City of Dublin, Gent, with Jones swearing on oath that he had witnessed the original Deed being signed by John Pigott. John Pigott is something of a mystery, discussed at length by Chris Pigott http://pigott-gorrie.blogspot.com/2012/12/john-pigott-of-dublin-tax-collectors.html
In 1563 John Pigott had been granted the estate of Dysart, between Stradbally and Portlaoise. His grandson another John married Martha Colclough, daughter of Sir Thomas C.. Their younger son Thomas Pigott, was sent by Sir William St Leger to London to convey news of the Rebellion in Ireland, November 1641; returned to Ireland and served as Captain in Lord Inchiquin’s Regiment in Ireland; travelled with that Regiment into England after the 1st Cessation of Arms in September 1643; with Inchiquin, changed allegiance after King Charles began negotiations with the Irish Catholics; raised to the rank of Colonel; agent in Bristol for the Parliamentary cause, reporting on possible rebel Irish troop movements through Bristol to join the Royalist cause; on the Restoration, appointed Master of the Court of Wards and Livery in Ireland, 1660; Member for Queen’s County in the Irish House of Commons; and purchased Brockley Court, later called Brockley Hall near Bristol after his wife Florence Poulett declined to move to Ireland. Her portrait at The Red Lodge Museum suggests that she is not one to be trifled with (her first husband died of smallpox during the Cromwellian wars in October 1642). Brockley Park was named after the Somerset Pigott’s Brockley Hall.
On 7 Nov 1763, John Pigott having died, a deed drawn up in October 1756 was registered that part of the lands of Knocknocarol and Knocknabraher then called and known by the name of Brockley Park were transferred to Robert Jocelyn. RoD, Volume 227, 426, Number 148095.
Robert Jocelyn married Lady Anne Hamilton, daughter of Lord Clanbrassill of Tollymore on 11 December 1752, . “Nannie ‘ Hamilton was the beloved friend of Emily Lennox’ s girlhood and their friendship continued when Emily became Lady Fitzgerald and Anne Lady Roden. Emily Fitzgerald and Louisa Connolly (of Castlletown) were regular guests at Brockley It was while at Brockley Park in August 1774 that Louisa received a letter with the news that sister Emily really had married Mr Ogilvie . She could hardly believe her eyes! Anne and her brother James had been tutored when young by the highly individualistic designer, Thomas Wright of Durham (1711-1786), so she had a keenly developed aesthetic sense.
The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland , Vol. 8, No. 4 (Dec. 31, 1898), p338 has an article on Mount Merrion, Robert’s childhood home. Robert’s father had been created Lord High Chancellor of Ireland in 1739 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Newport in 1743 and became Viscount Jocelyn in 1755. His wife having died on 16 Nov 1754 he married Frances, daughter of Thomas Claxton of Dublin, and niece of Edward Lovett Pearce, architect of the Irish house of commons and widow of Richard Parsons, Lord Rosse, founder member of the hellfire club.
The purchase of Brockley may have been because Jocelyn’s house at Mount Merrion was too small for two families.
The Bedford papers have a letter dated 3 July 1758 from Viscount Jocelyn , Brockley Park , to Bedford thanking him for a mark of the king’s favour [ appointment to the privy council ) . Bedford Papers T.2915 / 5 / 3 ( vol . xxxvii )
In May 1759 Lord Kildare is writing to his wife Emily at Brockley, lamenting about the impossibility of getting the builders to finish their work t Carton. “I saw but two carpenters about the house and enquired where the others were. I was told, one in the stables, one in the drying yard, and two at the chapel; now was not that provoking when I am in such a hurry to get the house done. For if it was possible, I wou’d get the attic storey painted while I am at Brockley Park” Poor Lord Kildare!
In the 1760s Brockley burnt down and in 1768 the Sardinian architect Davis Ducart was employed to design a new house
Lady Roden must have been a bit of an ichthyologist . The Aquarist and Pondkeeper, 1959, Volume 24, pg 69 has an account of “the most unique fishpond was designed and constructed in 1768 by the Italian architect Ducart for Lady Roden at Brockley Park. It was 20 feet in diameter and 3 feet deep. The walls were built of cut limestone to a perfect radius and coped and oversailed by a neat moulded capping in the same materials. The last foot of the wall base on the bottom of the pond was in fact a flue, built in brick.” It would be fascinating to know the source of the author’s information.
Lord Roden was a keen huntsman and kept his own pack of hounds first at Mount Merrion and then at Brockley, but in June 1780 was offering for sale, with the huntsman.
When James Hamilton of Tollymore died in 1798 his estates passed to his sister Anne, Lady Roden whose husband had died the year before. On her death in 1802 Tollymore passed to her eldest son Robert Jocelyn, second Earl of Roden, who decided to sell Brockley. His last guest was the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Cornwallis, America’s favourite British General who surrendered to Washington at Yorktown.
Cornwallis travelled through the south of the country in July 1799. Before he left, Lord Shannon went to Dublin Castle and informed Cornwallis that he would be delighted to receive him in his house at Castlemartyr, Co. Cork. According to Shannon, he was very well received by the lord lieutenant, as he wrote to his son: ‘Nothing could be more handsome or considerate than he was, and he gave me the general sketch of his route . . .’. He intended to dine and sleep at Lord Roden’s house, Brockley Park, on 22 July. On the following two days he intended to stay with the Earl of Ormond and then journey to Curraghmore, the home of the Marquis of Waterford. The Lord Lieutenant did not pass his time exclusively with peers. He included a visit to Marlfield, Clonmel, where one of the MPs for County Tipperary, John Bagwell, would receive him. On Tuesday 30 July he intended to dine with Lord Donoughmore, and the next day he hoped to visit the Archbishop of Cashel.
However County Down was a safer place for Roden. He appears to have been far more conservative and intolerant of other beliefs than his father. 18th century liberal enlightenment was morphing into 19th century conservative narrow mindedness. He commanded the 1st Irish fencible dragoons (nicknamed ‘Roden’s Foxhunters’ because of their superb horses) who were highly active in putting down the rebellion of 1798. They routed insurgents at Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin (24 May), and saw action in Co. Wexford (May-June), at Castlebar, Co. Mayo (27 August), and in pursuit of the French invasion force through Connacht (September). Fiercely anti-Catholic, at the battle of Vinegar Hill (21 June), Roden pursued a priest from Enniscorthy, Father John Clinch, who was killed by one of his officers; he was also a member of the court martial that condemned Father John Murphy of Boolavogue. He was a leader of the Orange Order. Though he visited Tollymore he spent most of his time at Dundalk House and at Hyde Hall in Hertfordshire. In one account it is claimed that in 1820, facing trial for alleged attacks on catholic homes in Dundalk. However this is not backed up by any newspaper reports. In June 1820 his eldest daughter Lady Frances Powerscourt died. And on July 2 he died at Hyde Hall, Hertfordshire (a house completely re-modelled 1806-7 by Jeffry Wyatville), the seat of the Rodens in England since the 13th century, except for a brief period in the 17th century when it belonged to Sir Julius Caesar.
On the 2nd of May 1802 Charles Haskins as trustee of the will of the late of Arthur Riky of Airfield, co. Dublin, (the father of Thomas Kemmis’s wife Mary had a very successful tailoring business. (Saunders’s News-Letter – Friday 04 June 1779)) advanced out of the assets £2000 to the Rev Thomas Kemmis which together with a sum of £2000 belonging to the latter was laid out by him in the purchase of the estate of Brockley Park in the name of a trustee William Kemmis (Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery in Ireland 1835).
Between 1811 and 1827 the Rev. Thomas Kemmis was building Shaen Castle on the site the 14th century castle which had been fitted up in the last century by Dean Coote, who had converted it into a very pleasant residence during his long tenancy there. Thomas had inherited his father estates in 1823 and died at Brockley park in 1827.
After his death Brockley was advertised to be let or sold and the contents were sold in 1828.
Richard Trench became the next tenant. His father was Frederick Trench (1724-1797 of Woodlawn, his uncle was Dean Trench of Glenmalyre. His wife was Melesina Chenevix who came from a Huguenot family of notable Church of Ireland churchmen, including her grandfather, Richard Chenevix (1698-1779), Bishop of Waterford, who brought her up when she was orphaned at the age of 3. Melesina was a poet, diarist and woman of letters. She travelled extensively in Europe, and especially in Germany, between 1799 and 1800 meeting many well known figures of the day including Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, Rivarol, Lucien Bonaparte, and John Quincy Adams. She also, in 1805, petitioned Napoleon in person, successfully pleading for her husband’s release after he had been detained in France by Napoleon’s armies. In 1829 moved from Elm Lodge, Hampshire and rented Brockley Park.
As the Dublin Evening Packet reported on Tuesday 26 March 1833, he had a short tenure. “Mr. Trench, a gentleman of family and property, came from England to reside at Brockley Park. He and his family did all in their power to give employment, and relieve the wants of those about them. His eldest son especially devoted his time to the relief of the poor; constantly visiting them in their houses, &c.; In return—first, petty and annoying robbery of various kinds; next, a fancy cottage close to his house maliciously consumed, and the windows of his out-offices demolished ; then his steward (a humane and well conducted Scotch man) waylaid at night, and knocked down by a blow of stone on the forehead ; shortly after a threatening notice to himself to discharge the steward ; finally, the said steward murdered ! ! and the murderer (at least the principal out of two) is, it is well known, at this moment fostered and protected through the country. The sequel has been, that Mr. Trench has sold his place, and quitted Ireland in disgust.” It is interesting that the writer did not for a moment consider how annoying and patronising “the poor” might have found his attentions.
I recall in the 1970s a lovely young couple who had moved from a salubrious London suburb to a Georgian pile in East Galway. Perfectly groomed, and attired in “smart country casual” (as defined by Harpers & Queen magazine), they used to patronise the local pub, and enthused over the charm and quaintness of the local peasantry. They were totally bemused when a shotgun was discharged trough their drawing room windows and “Brits Out” daubed on their gates. I suspect that such was the clash of cultures experienced by the Trench family .
The son went on to be Archbishop of Dublin and a poet. Archbishop Trench was “a man of singularly vague and dreamy habits”. In his old age he once went back to pay a visit to his successor, Lord Plunket. Finding himself back again in his old palace, sitting at his old dinner-table, and gazing across it at his wife, he lapsed in memory to the days when it was his house, and gently remarked to Mrs Trench, “I am afraid, my love, that we must put this cook down among our failures.”
The next tenant was only there for 4 years and there was a sale in 1837 when William Dent Farrer bought Brockley.
The baptismal record of William Dent Farrer (1795- 1854) suggests that he was born in Surrey to John Farrer (1771-1810) and Julia Maria Lindner (1762-1810). https://www.ancestry.co.uk/genealogy/records/william-dent-farrer-24-2nzmxk The Morning Chronicle – Monday 23 July 1810 advertises a 2 day sale of the handsome furniture, jewels, watches, cut glass and harpsicord by John Farrer’s executors at Clapham Rise.
William Dent Farrer married Elisabeth Hickman Hart (1796-1866) in Dumfries on 6 Mar 1814. Dumfrieshire had a reputation at that time for elopements – Port Patrick and Gretna Green were the favoured wedding venues for runaway couples. She was a minor, the daughter of William Harte, solicitor of Knockferry, Co. Limerick and his wife Hannah, dau. of Poole Hickman. One son Henry Hickman Hart (1790-1848) graduated from Trinity in 1809 and became a noted mathematician and clergyman in Derry. Another, Richard, became a clergyman in Montreal. William Harte died 1796 and his widow Hannah married Edward Galway of Lota in 1807. The newspaper do not mention the daughter’s Dumfries wedding.
The source of Farrer fortune is not clear. I wonder was Robert Dent, who was a partner in Child’s bank, a relative? He very quickly became a respectable member of Dublin Society.
The birth of their first child in 1817, Julia Maria, is not recorded in the press
In Saunders’s News-Letter – Monday 23 February 1818 Mrs Farrer is at the Dublin Castle Drawing Room wearing a most elegant embroidered petticoat on tulle, in beads and velvet, white satin under dress, with robe to correspond, trimmed with lace. Head-dress, feathers and diamonds.
Wednesday 09 February 1820 The Freeman’s Journal carries the announcement “On Sunday last, the Lady of William Dent Farrer, Esq. of 26 Merrion-square South, of a son and heir. (John)” Mrs Farrer’s contribution to the education of the deaf and dumb poor of Ireland that year was recorded as well.
In 1830 he was living at 3 Merrion Square. Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier – Tuesday 07 December 1830. This might be wrong as Wilson’s Dublin Directory, for the Year 1830 has him at 6 Merrion Square East
In 1832 he was of 6 Merrion Square East, when Mrs Farrer once again contributed to the education of the deaf and dumb poor of Ireland
They had 6 children, the last being announced on Tuesday 26 May 1835 “at 11 Upper Merrion-street, the lady William Dent Farrer, Esq . of daughter Ada)”
The regular moves suggest that they were short term tenants.
On 17 April 1838 Mrs Farrer is at a bazaar in aid of The House of Mercy, Baggot Street, held in the Rotunda, patronized by Her Excellency The Countess of Mulgrave, and Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent.
By now they had already bought Brockley and in 1838 Farrer engaged Frederick Darley to modernise the house. From the OS surveys one can see that, amongst other things, he added a range of offices to the East.
Farrer already had a significant collection of Old Masters. This is Christie’s advertisement in the morning post in May 1858, following his death.
MESSRS. CHRISTIE and MANSON respectfully give notice, that they will SELL, by AUCTION at their Great Room, S, King-street, St. James’s-square, on SATURDAY, June 19, at one o’clock precisely, The Valuable and Choice Collection of PICTURES, of a high class the property of William Dent Farrer, Esq., deceased, of Brockley Park, Queen’s County, comprising a superb landscape, by Berghera presented by George IV. to Alderman West ; two beautiful works’ of Ruysdael; a fine landscape, by Hobbema, from the Earl of Bristol’s collection ; a charming composition, by Wouverman, a, capital sea piece, by Backhuysen ; a view of a town, by Van der Heyden ; an exquisite cabinet gem, by G. Dow ; Saint Francis, by Rembrandt (the Orleans picture) ; a pair of capital works of C. Bega, and many other choice specimens of the Italian and Dutch masters ; also, Peg Woffington. by Hogarth ; and Dr. Leland, the Irish historian, by Sir Joshua Reynolds”
As a landlord Farrer was not such a success. Was it a lack of empathy, a sense of entitlement, pure evil or simple ignorance? Hard to say.
William Dent Farrer, Esq., of Brockley Park, has given instructions to his agent to supply at very considerable expense, all the tenantry his estates, who have paid their rents, with meal. Mr. Farrer’s property in Tipperary is situate Upper and Lower Ormond, but not in or near the town of Nenagh. We deem this statement necessary, consequence of an application being made by the Belief Committee to Mr Farrer for donation, which that gentleman declined giving for the reasons above mentioned. Kings County Chronicle – Wednesday 29 April 1846
In the 1870s William Dent Farrar of Gurtalougha, Borrisokane, owned 8,297 acres in county Tipperary, based on Gurthalougha House, which he had built as a hunting lodge. More recent occupants include Michael Wilkinson and bis wife Bessie, daughter of Ken Besson of the Royal Hibernian Hotel, and the Getty family.
Back during the famine there were over 200 of Farrer’s tenants who were not getting any meal because they could not afford to pay the rent. 200 were evited in one court sitting.
Tipperary Vindicator – Saturday 30 May 1846 :- The weekly meeting of the Relief Committee of this town was held on Monday, and I regret to be obliged to state, that no landlord’s subscription has been received in addition to those already announced. One of the most extensive proprietors in the country is Mr. Farrer, and, as far I am aware, he has not contributed a shilling in any of the many parishes in which he holds property. But if his tenants have not felt his bounty, you will perceive that they are likely to feel his outstretched hand in another shape. I send you a copy of an ejectment which his agent, Mr. Tuthill, has served upon nearly two hundred tenants, a great number of whom reside in the parish of Eglish, in this district. This is the way Mr. Farrer administers relief in a season of universal distress? I have some knowledge of the parish of Eglish, and I can assure readers that few, if any, of his tenants there owe more than a year’s rent to my belief and knowledge. I have been, moreover, informed that a few years ago this same Mr. Tuthill called upon all the tenants in the parish of Eglish to take out leases for thirteen years. This term of years, I am told, would not give them the franchise. I heard they all had to pay for the stamps , and for these leases, it is said, he has pocketed some hundreds of pounds. Up to the present, I have heard, no lease, with the exception of, I believe three, has been given. I do not vouch for this, but I have received it on very credible authority. I had also intended to send you the names of a few other absentee non-contributors, but as Mr. Farrer is without a parallel, 1 did not like to degrade him by an association with any lesser delinquent. Great God, when is this system to end !!
In 1846 Farrer had considered selling Brockley and moving to Ballinderry, but there were no
takers.
William Dent Farrer died in Oct 1854 at Cullenswood House, Ranelagh which is where Pearse later founded St Endas
Capt. Robert Carr Coote, brother of Sir Charles Henry Coote 9th Bart., who bought Ballyfin, of Queen’s County Royal Rifles, son of Robert Coote and Margaret Grier, was born around 1825. He married, in St. Peter’s, Dublin South, Ireland, on 28 May 1856, Ada Wilhelmina Adeline Alethe Farrer, daughter of William Dent Farrer Esq., of Brockley Park.
The eldest son Captain John Farrer (1820-1873) of the 1st Regiment of Life Guards married Augusta Louisa Newton (Wigney)(1837-1920) in 1852. They had five children Reginald Elphinstone Astley Edward Rupert Farrer (1874-1933), William Dent Mountjoy Cecil Phillips (1854-1901) and Thornton Harte Farrer (1857-1900), Violet Augusta (1957-1874) and Hyacinthe Jacqueline Ormond Blanche (1867-1938). Only Hyancinthe married (which she did three times) and there were no grandchildren.
The second son Richard Henry Farrer joined the 18th Royal Irish in 1838 and served in India and China till he retired in 1852, becoming agent at Mitchelstown Castle before emigrating to Poverty Bay, New Zealand in 1883. Ironically he emigrated on a “flash iron ship and of three decks, of which the spar or upper deck constitutes a superb promenade and lounging place in fine weather” called The Lady Jocelyn.
Their mother, the runaway bride, died in December 1866 at Anaverna House, Ravensdale, co Louth, the home of the Thompson family whose most prized possession was a leather coat which King William was wearing, when he was shot in the shoulder at the Battle of the Boyne.
Following the sale of contents in March 1858, James Young who had actually bought Brockley in 1856, moved in. The Youngs were a Scottish family who settled in county Antrim in the 17th century. Though he shares the same arms as the Young of Fenaghy, County Antrim, Samuel Young of Portglenone does not appear in their genealogy. It is difficult to see whence Dr William Young, the father of James Young, was able to provide the funds for such a purchase.
In the 1870s William Young of Brockley Park, Stradbally, county Laois and Doohulla Lodge, Clifden, county Galway, owned 1888 acres in County Galway and 821 acres in Laois.
In the 1901 census the elderly Mr and Mrs Young are at Brockley with their Irish speaking daughter, Patrick Sutherland the butler, Jane Horan the cook, a kitchen maid and a housemaid. There were seven other families living in cottages on the demesne. By 1911 William Young has died and his son is back from America. The butler has gone, to be replaced by a parlour maid, and there is still a kitchen maid, a house maid and a cook.
Mr. John W. Young spent much of his early life abroad, mostly in the U.S.A. He was for some years a member of the Queen’s County Committee of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, and took a keen interest in its operations on the agricultural side, as well as in the work of the Queen’s Co. Agricultural Society. Better known, perhaps, to the people of Laois was his sister, the late Miss Una Young (Una Ni h-Ogain), who took a prominent part in the Irish Revival Movement from, if not before, its inception in this county. When Dr. Douglas Hyde (then President of the Gaelic League, now President of Ireland) came down here to open the Queen’s County feis, some thirty-live years ago, he was the guest of the Youngs at Brockley Park for some days, and from Stradbally was driven, at the head of a big procession, into Portlaoise for the opening function. Nationalist and Leinster Times 1883-current, Saturday, April 29, 1944
Mr Young knew of Frame’s intentions, and got in first with the sale of the conservatory, shown attached to the west end of the house on the OS map
We have received instructions from J. W. Young. Esq. to sell by PUBLIC AUCTION BROCKLEY PARK, on MONDAY. 1st MARCH 1943 A fine and spacious Conservatory, measuring 40′ x 21’ x 20. fitted with 3 1/2 “ piping, 2 glass doors and shelving. Sale 3 o’clock (s.t.) – (standard time, as some county people still stuck to “Old Time” or Dublin Time that was 35 minutes earlier than GMT till it was done away with in 1916). Leinster Leader – Saturday 20 February 1943
In the Young family plot, awaiting a Church of Ireland resurrection, lie
John Young, b. 24 Feb 1789, d. 25 Nov 1867, and his wife Jane, b. 20 Sep 1796, d. 9 May 1870
Their son William Young Esq b April 4th 1831 d April 14th 1910/And his wife Margaret Emily b Sept 11th 1830 died Oct 12th 1913
Her brother is also there – John William Kirk of County Durham who d March 26th 1908/ aged 67 years ( he died at 50 Morehamption Road)
And their children Jane Agnes Emily (Una) Young, b. 24 Aug 1868, d. 12 Aug 1927
John William Young, b. 25 Jan 1861, d. 22 Mar 1945
Mary Ann Crowther, , b 15 Aug 1885, d. 20 Nov 1946,, interred in Young grave, John William’s adopted niece
That there were then four demolition sales, on 26 June 17 July, 28 August and 25 September gives an idea of the scale of the house
More Minor than Major 