Help please identifying book
Dear Friends,
I have an extract from a book but not the name of the book. Perhaps the extract below might enable someone to identify it.
A couple of points to note. The book must hve been published post 1940's because the extract is of events on and around those years and before 1977. The book belonged to an Irish lawyer friend and I think might have been a compilation of accounts of well to do or interesting Irish Families. It could I suppose have been a reference book once used by lawyers.
Here is the extract;
"Harbourstown House, Stamullen, Co. Meath was a large cut stone Georgian type manor house. It was the home of the Carey-Caddell family and stood on 600 acres of prime farmland with extensive woods. The last of the family became a Mrs Boylan of Hilltown and there was no male heir. Mrs Boylan had the power to appoint the manor house and parklands and about 8,000 acres of mountain land in Cos. Sligo and Roscommon to a cousin provided the appointee adopted the surname of Caddell. There were two possible young men and Mrs Boylan arranged for each of them to come and stay in the area. About 1922-23 the estate was appointed to Robert Arthur Francis Nicholl who had been living in South Africa and he complied with the provision.
Robert married a Miss Paulina Dames Longworth who was an actress in London but who came from a well established Co. Westmeath family, the house being Glynwood Athlone. Mrs Boylan disapproved of the marriage as she had not been consulted and of course the lady was on the stage. On their return to Harbourstown Mrs Boylan let it be known in the area that she was not "at home" consequently they were ostracised.
The marriage did not prove very successful as both were wild and improvident and of the three children born of the marriage only one was normal. The marriage ended in divorce and the estate was broken up.
The mansion house was bought by the Cistercian monks in Collon Co Louth who demolished it stone by stone and removed it to their new monastery at Collon.
The out buildings still stand and also a most interesting folly erected on a rise. The sacred vestments from the oratory were removed by the Trustees and given on loan to the convent of the visitation at Stamullen. The family vault at Stamullen was permanently sealed.
The architects model of the manor was found in the basement when it was being demolished and has been given to the Irish Georgian Society who have mounted it in a special room in their headquarters in Castletown House Co Kildare" [Now moved to Dublin]
Harbourstown is in ;
Province of Leinster
County of Meath
Civil Parish of Stamullin (NB sp)
Poor Law Union of Drogheda
Roman Catholic Parish of Stamullen (NB sp)
The Barony of Upper Duleek
Thank you all..
Peter
