Thom's Almanacs

Hello, Winston. Which years contain the information you listed? 

 The term esquire once meant that a man was a member of the gentry, a gentleman, which was a rank below the lowest rank of nobility. By the 19th century it might be applied to a man who had some standing in the community, or who belonged to a higher class of society than working men or tenant farmers,  e.g an owner of an estate or someone who had a private income and didn't need to work. I don't think that Peter Murphy, esq. and Peter Murphy, contractor would have been the same man. 

 

Thank you, Maggie.  So far, I have found Peter Murphy, esq. living at Cintra on Vico Road in Dalkey (not to be confused with the other Cintra on Glenageary Road in nearby Kingstown!) in 1852, 53, 55, 56 and 58.  In addition a 'J. Murphy, esq.' is there in 1863.  This Cintra is identified as the childhood home of my great grandfather Daniel Christopher Murphy (1854-1929) and his sisters Elizabeth (1848-1914) and Rosanna E (1856 - after 1919) in a series of postcards from Rosanna to Daniel (living in San Francisco) in my possession.  The name of their father is given as William and the sisters' baptismal records aditionally show their mother's name as Catherine.  Dalkey has a number of William Murphys (and a few Catherines) in Thom's of that period but it's hard to tell if any of them are the right one since they are not connected to Cintra.

As common as the Murphy name is, it stands to reason that these Murphys are connected because of Cintra, but I haven't found out how.  There is also a Peter Murphy, contractor in Dalkey during this period.  He lives at Eastmount and I have found some tenuous connections between Eastmount and Cintra.  A Daniel Murphy shows up on Victoria Raod, Dalkey in 1880 but all indications are that my Daniel was already in the U.S. by then.

Kind Regards,

Winston Dutton