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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

 

 

Peter Meath Stamullen Balbriggan Harbourstown Caddell Jerningham Nicholl

6 replies

Peter previously here on this site there were two large postings on the Caddell family if you search on the queries. I am aware of this book having attended a lecture by the author but Stamullen is south of the Nanny river I think so may not be the one, however if you give me some time I will ask some others who may know more.

https://www.gettextbooks.com/isbn/9780953632602/ not suggesting you pay this price for the book as it may be still available new.

Regards

Pat

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you so much Pat  I am most grateful

Peter

 

 

Peter Meath Stamullen Balbriggan Harbourstown Caddell Jerningham Nicholl

Peter this will take time, my friend has looked over his collection of books to no avail but have two leads, there is a well known local historian in Stamullen and I will try to contact him, we are all on lockdown currently and restricted to 5km distance from home unless we have goodr reason. There is also another gentleman who is extremely knowledable in the area but he is more tricky to contact, 

On the better news front I was sent a couple of pictures from the Drogheda Facebook page but only 1 is of quality good enough to attach and there are names on the other ones but it is small and does not blow up well, it is an ad for a 1942 auction, at this point only 92 acres etc, also in the late 1930s there was a programme to get school children to write stories on folklore and thier areas and there are a number already on on Hilltown and you can read the actual copies here https://www.duchas.ie/en/src?q=HILLTOWN&t=CbesTranscript ;

Also you could try the Meath library local history section to see what they have, do not think they are fully open either but maybe dealing on email but I am not sure.

Regards

Pat

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

Dear Pat,

Thank you so much for going to such trouble on my behalf and thank you too for the newspaper extract which is new to me.

May I ask if you could give me the link to the Drogheda facebook you mentioned and where within the site I might find the other images you mentioned .

I hope your other leads may come up with the goods - again thank you.

  Best wishes

Peter

 

 

Peter Meath Stamullen Balbriggan Harbourstown Caddell Jerningham Nicholl

Peter the Facebook page is Drogheda Down Memory Lane, apply to join, I could no find the thing myself and wonder if the man who forwarded it got it from the local historians page, I am not on his friends list so cannot look but will post anything I find, my site email is stpeters@irelandxo.com and I can mail you the things, I just do not like posting peoples names on an open forum.

You might like as an aside a 9 minute video on You Tube called Ghosts of Drogheda, Drogheda is about 7 or 8 miles from Stamullen which technically is not Drogheda, it has expanded hugely in the last 15 or so years, Stamullen that is and is a satellite of Dublin really.

Regards

Pat

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

Hello Peter, a friend has located this book in his collection and is dropping it over for a perusual this afternoon, will let you know where it was printed but the nature of local history books is the are a limited once off run so do not get your hopes up of finding it. Picture of cover attached.

Regards

Pat

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

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