The name 'Patrick Boyd Everard' has surfaced several times now in relation to county Mayo, but where he fits in with the Sligo Everards is not certain.
The marriage certificate of Ignatius Everard, seaman in the Royal Navy, revealed that he was the son of Patrick Boyd Everard, who had died by the time Ignatius married in 1858.
The Registry of Deeds Index Project has two mentions of a Patrick Boyd Everard and one for Patrick Everard:
10 April, 1775: seven people mentioned.
John Browne esq, Westpoint, Mayo; Alexander Clandinning Rev, Westport, Mayo; Patrick Everard; Peter Browne Kelly, Hon, known as Lord Viscount, Westport; Francis Tollett, son of John Tollett; John Tollett Esq, Morehanin, Mayo, almost 840 acres in half-barony of Erris, Mayo; William Tollett, son of John Tollett.
* The Patrick Everard mentioned here would have been Paddy Everard, father of Ignatius.
25 October, 1794: Lease, four people:
Denis Bingham; Dominick Cosgrove, farmer, Kumaleragh, Mayo; Patrick Boyd Everard; John Tollett, gentleman of Monaghin, Mayo, for 250 pounds, mortgaging a moiety of Mooraghin.
21 September, 1805. Post-marriage, nine people-
Mary Bourns, Ballina Mayo; Patrick Boyd Everard of Drum, Trustee; Thomas Hea, hammerman, Mount-melick; Harry Huston Esq, Ardnara, Sligo-Trustee; Francis Knox, attorney, Ballnacloy; Arthur Shaen, Sir, Kilmore-lands of Glenclara and Morahan; Samuel Smith, Esq, Ballina Mayo; Gambell Tollett Esq, Morahan Mayo-the groom. Granting to trustees a moiety of Glenclara and Morahan, also Bannash and Aughlasheen; Jane Tollett, Mrs, Morahan, Mayo-the bride.Als Smith, daughter of said Samuel Smith.
Drum is about 8 or 9 km from Belmullet in Mayo, and very close to Rinanagh, which is where Ignatius Everard, merchant of Sligo, and his father Patrick were from. It is a possibility that Patrick Boyd Everard may be the eldest son of Ignatius Everard and Bridget Higgins...we know that he was born in 1775 and attended Trinity College, but after that his life is a complete mystery. To be continued...
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Another Ignatius Everard-where does this one belong???
Above: Ignatius Everard's Medal awarded for services during the Crimean War whilst serving on the ship HMS 'London'.
Above: Ignatius Everard's naval record, spanning from 22 March, 1840 to 19 July 1869
Ever since the discovery of the name 'Ignatius' being associated with my John Everard, I have clutched this precious clue to my chest and hunted for mentions of the name 'Ignatius Everard' world wide. As you would imagine, mentions are very few and far between, so several years ago when I found an 'Ignatius Everard' in the 1861 and 1871 English census returns I duly noted his details and placed him carefully aside. His birthplace was Mayo, Ireland, and my John Everard had only mentioned Sligo or Kildare as places significant to him. Since I have discovered recently the fact that the Sligo Everards originated in Mayo, my interest in this Ignatius has been reignited and I have broadened my research into his life.
Ignatius Everard was born in c. 1818-19 at Belmullet, County Mayo, the son of Patrick Boyd Everard. The census returns for 1861 and 1871 suggest a birth year of 1823 and 1818 respectively, and the Naval record shown above favours c. 1819.
Merchant Seaman records have recently appeared online at Findmypast, and two exist for Ignatius Everard. The first gives his date of birth as April 21, 1820, and birthplace as Belmullet, Mayo. It also states that he first went to sea in 1839.
The second record gave Ignatuis Everard's birth date as April 21, 1819, and his birth place as Belmullet. His first year at sea was given as 1840. His description details were as follows: Height: 5 feet, 5 1/2 inches; red hair; blue eyes, ruddy complexion. Served in the Royal Navy five years. Lives at Belmullet when unemployed. Age when ticketed: 27 years.
Merchant Seaman records have recently appeared online at Findmypast, and two exist for Ignatius Everard. The first gives his date of birth as April 21, 1820, and birthplace as Belmullet, Mayo. It also states that he first went to sea in 1839.
The second record gave Ignatuis Everard's birth date as April 21, 1819, and his birth place as Belmullet. His first year at sea was given as 1840. His description details were as follows: Height: 5 feet, 5 1/2 inches; red hair; blue eyes, ruddy complexion. Served in the Royal Navy five years. Lives at Belmullet when unemployed. Age when ticketed: 27 years.
Ignatius joined the Royal Navy on March 22, 1840, at the age of 21 years. He spent his first two years on board the ship 'Cleopatra'. This ship's complement was 152 officers and men ; 33 boys ; 25 marines. At the time Ignatius boarded her, Cleopatra was being used between Jamaica, Bermuda and Quebec. Her main activity seems to have been boarding ships suspected of being slave vessels and sentencing them for adjudication if slaves were found.
In August 1842 Ignatius transferred to the ship 'San Josef''. From 1839 San Josef was used as a gunnery training ship. From 10 August 1841 she was commanded by Captain Joseph Needham Tayler, serving as a guard ship at Plymouth (established gunnery school). Ignatius spent eleven months on the San Josef, then on May 27, 1843 transferred to the ship 'Fisgard'. The Fisgard came under the command of Captain John Alexander Duntze on 13 May 1843 and spent some time in the Pacific before returning to Woolwich.
The next transfer, in December of 1847, was to the ship 'Hydra', where Ignatius remained until January 1850. In 1849, the Hydra captured the armed slaver 'Unaio' on the south-east coast of America.
For three years Ignatius Everard served on board the ship 'Phaeton', from January 1850 until January 1853. In March 1853, he joined the crew of H.M.S. London , and remained on this ship for almost the entire duration of the Crimean War (October 1853-February 1856). About 200 sailors and Royal Marines from H.M.S. London served ashore during the Crimean War. The sailors serving in the Royal Naval Brigade did good service in the batteries before Sebastopol.
Out of the approximately 25,000 men of the Royal Navy to serve in the Crimea, the men of the H.M.S. London, along with the crews of H.M.S. Niger, Rodney and Wasp, were the only men of the Royal Navy to receive their Crimea medals with officially impressed naming, most of the men of the Royal Navy receiving their Crimea medals unnamed.
The ship HMS Brunswick was Ignatius Everard's next vessel, and he remained with her from January 27, 1856 until June 12, 1858. In 1856 and 1857 the Brunswick , captained by Henry Broadhead, sailed the Mediterranean.
It was noticed that after Ignatius left the Brunswick on June 12, 1858, he had shore leave for ten days before resuming with another ship. This date is significant, because on June 21, 1858, Ignatius Everard took himself a wife. At St. Mary's Parish Church, Devonport, on June 21, 1858, seaman Ignatius Everard, aged 36 years, married 32 year old widow Caroline Semmens. Their place of residence at the time of their marriage was 31 Mount Street, Devonport. Fathers were noted as being Patrick Boyd Everard and John Williams, both deceased. Witnesses to the marriage were Richard Bennett and Elizabeth Guy.
Caroline was the widow of William Martin Semmens, a blacksmith from Ludgvan, Cornwall, who she married in 1848. The 1851 census shows that Caroline had given birth to a daughter, Jane Ann Semmens, in c. 1849, and a son William Martin Semmens was 2 months old at the time of the census. In March 1866, William joined the Navy at the age of 15 years, and gave his birthdate as 17 March, 1851. Another son, John Semmens, was born on July 18, 1852, and he also had a long career in the Navy, joining in May 1867.
When Caroline Williams Semmen married Ignatius Everard in 1858, her sons would have been aged seven and six respectively. There has been no further mention of their sister, Jane Ann Semmens, and checking the death records for Cornwall we find an entry for Jane Ann Semmens for the June quarter of 1851- just after the 1851 census was taken.
From June 22, 1858 until November 9, 1861, Ignatius was serving on board the HMS Orion, with the rank of Captain of the Mast, a 2nd Class Petty Officer rank. Most of this time was spent in the Mediterranean.
Ignatius appeared in the 1861 census on board the Orion:
Ignatius Everard, Captain mast/ married/ 38 years old/ born Belmullet, Mayo, Ireland.
His wife and stepsons were living at Fairfield Inn, 127 North Road, St Andrew, Plymouth:
Caroline Everard/ head/ married/ 35/ born Ludgvan, Cornwall/
William M Semmens/ son/ 10/ scholar/ born Ludgvan
John Semmens/ son/ 8/ scholar/ born Ludgvan
John Williams/ boarder/ 46/ labourer/ born Ludgvan.
The last person, John Williams, may have been a brother or other relation of Caroline Everard as her maiden name was Williams, and both she and John Williams were born at Ludgvan.
On November 10. 1861, Ignatius began service on his final ship, the HMS Indus. This ship became Guard ship at Devonport 14 July 1860 and remained there until sold in Nov 1898, when the Valiant was renamed Indus and took her place. According to the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia :" A guard ship is a warship stationed at some port or harbour to act as a guard, and in former times in the Royal Navy to receive the men impressed for service. She usually was the flagship of the admiral commanding on the coast."
Ignatius Everard remained with the Indus until July 17, 1869, when he finally left the Navy. His character for the duration of over 29 years of service had always been noted as being either "good" or "V.G".
The 1871 census reveals Ignatius and his wife Caroline to be living at 7 Queen Street, Stoke Damerel, Devonport:
Ignatius Everard/head/ married/ 58/ Pensioner R.N/ born Mayo Ireland
Caroline Everard/wife/ 45/ tailoress/ born Ludgvan, Cornwall
Ann Williams/ mother/ widow/ 80/ milliner/ born Ludgvan.
There were three other Royal Navy Pensioners and their families living at 7 Queen Street-Thomas Short, Thomas Cobb and John Williams.
In 1871, Ignatius Everard's stepsons were found as follows:
William M. Semmens/ prisoner at police station, The Guildhall, Stoke Damerel/ unmarried/ 20/ seaman R.N/ born Ludgvan, Cornwall
John Semmens/18/ ordinary seaman/ born Ludgvan Cornwall/ on board ship HMS Leven, entrance Osaka River Japan.
Caroline Williams Semmens Everard died in 1877 at Stoke Damerel, Devon. I can find absolutely no trace anywhere of the death of her husband, Ignatius Everard, or what his movements were after the death of his wife.
Caroline's sons both ended up working for the Coast Guard, and both married- John to Florence Keturah Gillett at Romney Marsh early in 1882, and William Martin Semmens to Mary Ann Barker at Stoke Damerel in early 1875.
The 1891 census for Cheriton, Kent, has:
John Semmens/ head/ married/ 38/ chief boatman H.M Coast Guard/ born Ludgvan, Cornwall
Florence Semmens/ wife/ 32/ born Lydd, Kent
George Semmens/ son / 8/ born Lydd Kent
Kate Semmens/ daughter/ 6/ born Kent
Clive/ son/ born Sandgate, Kent
George John Semmens was born at Romney Marsh, Kent, in 1883.
Kate Caroline Semmens was born in Kent in 1884
Clive William Semmens born 1889, Kent
John Semmens died at Fair View, Chilton, Alkham, Kent, on April 2, 1935, at the age of 82 years. He left an estate of just over 271 pounds. His wife Florence Semmens died in November 1946 at Alkham, Kent, aged 87 years.
Ignatius Everard's elder stepson, William Martin Semmens, died in 1889 in Hampshire, aged 38.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Bryan Higgins Everard.
Bryan Higgins Everard was the son of Ignatius Everard and his wife Bridget Higgins. His siblings have been identified as Patrick Everard and Richard Higgins Everard, born c. 1775 and 1780 respectively. Bryan's birth year, or the existence of further siblings, has yet to be discovered.
Thanks to the records of Trinity College, Dublin, we know that Bryan had at least two sons:
IGNATIUS HOUSTON EVERARD: born c. 1809. From Registers of Admissions to Grays Inn 1521-1889: April,28, 1834: Ignatius Houston Everard, Senior Sophister, Trinity College, Dublin, Aged 23, eldest son of Brian H Everard., of Dublin, Esq.
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns.
RICHARD HOUSTON EVERARD: born c. 1811. Attended Trinity College, Dublin, also and became a surgeon in the Royal Navy.
I can find no mention of a marriage for Bryan Everard...perhaps the 'Houston' which appears as a middle name for both of his sons is a clue as to the family of their mother, just as Bryan Everard's middle name of 'Higgins' is the maiden name of his mother.
Bryan Everard was noted in an article about his mother's family as being a 'gentleman farmer', but I have found mention of him being a merchant and also a 'labour agent' responsible for recruiting Irish labourers to send to Canada.
In the latter occupation, Bryan Everard was the recruiting agent for Thomas Selkirk, an English aristocrat who in 1811 tried to establish a new colony in what is now south Manitoba. Selkirk purchased 300,000 square km of land from the Hudson's Bay Company ( an old and established fur trading company), and brought in settlers from Scotland and Ireland to populate it. Bryan Everard, based in Sligo, was appointed as Selkirk's Irish labour recruitment agent, and had also worked for the Hudson's Bay Company in the same capacity. The settlement only lasted several years, as existing settlers who were exclusively fur traders resented the farming lifestyle of the new settlers, as well as the latter encroaching on their fur business. In 1815 the fur traders burned down the settlement and forced the new emigrants to flee.
Bryan Higgins Everard was declared bankrupt in London in 1817:
“Bankrupts: Bryan Higgins Everard late of Sligo in Ireland, merchant, but now of the city of London, merchant.”- London Gazette, May 31, 1817.
We know that Bryan's financial problems were serious, because he ended up in a London Debtor's prison, and was resident there in 1822 when he was called to give evidence at a court trial.
The trial concerned the legitimacy of a marriage between Henry Higgins and widow Mrs Isaacs (maiden name Donovan) that Bryan had supposedly witnessed at Versailles, France, in 1818. Bryan’s credibility was a witness was questioned as he had written letters to the plaintiff’s attorney offering to withdraw from the country so as to avoid appearing as a witness if they paid him fifty pounds. The plaintiff was Mrs Lacon,a dressmaker, trying to get Mrs Higgins to pay an account worth over 400 pounds.In reference to Bryan Everard, it was stated in an article from the 'Times newspaper', London, Dec 23, 1822 that “The witness, who had come up from Whitecross Street Prison..”.
I have located no death for Bryan Everard in any country.
Of his two known children, Ignatius and Richard, the following has been discovered:
Ignatius Everard: graduated from Trinity in Law. Found references to an Ignatius Everard from Sligo in the Irish Wills Index regarding a will made in 1839. This is far too late to be the will of Ignatius Everard, merchant from Sligo, who died in 1823. The executor of the will was JWO Richards, who by the time of the Griffiths Valuation in 1856-57 possessed all of the former Everard lands. This Ignatius Everard from 1839 could possibly have been the son of Bryan Higgins Everard, who would have been aged about 28 years at this time. Bryan's eldest brother Patrick Everard is an unknown quantity at the moment, so it is also possible that he may have married and had children, including a son named Ignatius. My bet, however, would be with the 1839 Ignatius Everard being Ignatius Houston Everard...as soon as I figure out how and where to purchase a copy of this will, I will do so and hopefully solve the mystery!
Richard Houston Everard: studied Medicine at Trinity and became Senior Assistant Surgeon of the 54th Regiment. Hart's Army List for 1840 reads:
"54th (West Norfolk) Regiment Of Foot serving in the East Indies.
Assistant Surgeon: Richard Houston Everard, M.D., 19 June, 1835."
The Freeman's Journal from November 2, 1838, carried the following article:
" The Army: Doctor Everard, senior assistant-surgeon of the 54th Regiment, on the Madras Presidency, has the entire medical charge of the Corps, which suffered severely from influenza, but under his very judicious care and treatment the regiment enjoyed excellent health and spirits in July last. The 54th was to leave Trichonopoly and to be in Madras in September last to embark in December for England."
Richard Houston Everard came to a sad end in Kent in 1841. From 'The Gentleman's Magazine', 1841:
"KENT, DECEMBER. At Dover, Richard Houston Everard, M.D., Assistant Surgeon of the 54th Regiment(1835). He met with his death from the violence of two sailors, against whom a verdict of manslaughter was returned. His funeral took place at the new cemetery at Dover, and was attended by nearly 7000 spectators."
NOTE: There was another Richard Everard in the Army around the same period as Richard Houston Everard. He was Richard Nugent Everard, youngest son of Thomas Everard Esq. of Randalstown in Meath. He was captain of H.M's 86th regiment. On June 17, 1843, at St. James Church, he married Arabella Mathilde, youngest daughter of George Henry Alexis, Viscount d' Amboise.
Thanks to the records of Trinity College, Dublin, we know that Bryan had at least two sons:
IGNATIUS HOUSTON EVERARD: born c. 1809. From Registers of Admissions to Grays Inn 1521-1889: April,28, 1834: Ignatius Houston Everard, Senior Sophister, Trinity College, Dublin, Aged 23, eldest son of Brian H Everard., of Dublin, Esq.
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns.
RICHARD HOUSTON EVERARD: born c. 1811. Attended Trinity College, Dublin, also and became a surgeon in the Royal Navy.
I can find no mention of a marriage for Bryan Everard...perhaps the 'Houston' which appears as a middle name for both of his sons is a clue as to the family of their mother, just as Bryan Everard's middle name of 'Higgins' is the maiden name of his mother.
Bryan Everard was noted in an article about his mother's family as being a 'gentleman farmer', but I have found mention of him being a merchant and also a 'labour agent' responsible for recruiting Irish labourers to send to Canada.
In the latter occupation, Bryan Everard was the recruiting agent for Thomas Selkirk, an English aristocrat who in 1811 tried to establish a new colony in what is now south Manitoba. Selkirk purchased 300,000 square km of land from the Hudson's Bay Company ( an old and established fur trading company), and brought in settlers from Scotland and Ireland to populate it. Bryan Everard, based in Sligo, was appointed as Selkirk's Irish labour recruitment agent, and had also worked for the Hudson's Bay Company in the same capacity. The settlement only lasted several years, as existing settlers who were exclusively fur traders resented the farming lifestyle of the new settlers, as well as the latter encroaching on their fur business. In 1815 the fur traders burned down the settlement and forced the new emigrants to flee.
Bryan Higgins Everard was declared bankrupt in London in 1817:
“Bankrupts: Bryan Higgins Everard late of Sligo in Ireland, merchant, but now of the city of London, merchant.”- London Gazette, May 31, 1817.
We know that Bryan's financial problems were serious, because he ended up in a London Debtor's prison, and was resident there in 1822 when he was called to give evidence at a court trial.
The trial concerned the legitimacy of a marriage between Henry Higgins and widow Mrs Isaacs (maiden name Donovan) that Bryan had supposedly witnessed at Versailles, France, in 1818. Bryan’s credibility was a witness was questioned as he had written letters to the plaintiff’s attorney offering to withdraw from the country so as to avoid appearing as a witness if they paid him fifty pounds. The plaintiff was Mrs Lacon,a dressmaker, trying to get Mrs Higgins to pay an account worth over 400 pounds.In reference to Bryan Everard, it was stated in an article from the 'Times newspaper', London, Dec 23, 1822 that “The witness, who had come up from Whitecross Street Prison..”.
I have located no death for Bryan Everard in any country.
Of his two known children, Ignatius and Richard, the following has been discovered:
Ignatius Everard: graduated from Trinity in Law. Found references to an Ignatius Everard from Sligo in the Irish Wills Index regarding a will made in 1839. This is far too late to be the will of Ignatius Everard, merchant from Sligo, who died in 1823. The executor of the will was JWO Richards, who by the time of the Griffiths Valuation in 1856-57 possessed all of the former Everard lands. This Ignatius Everard from 1839 could possibly have been the son of Bryan Higgins Everard, who would have been aged about 28 years at this time. Bryan's eldest brother Patrick Everard is an unknown quantity at the moment, so it is also possible that he may have married and had children, including a son named Ignatius. My bet, however, would be with the 1839 Ignatius Everard being Ignatius Houston Everard...as soon as I figure out how and where to purchase a copy of this will, I will do so and hopefully solve the mystery!
Richard Houston Everard: studied Medicine at Trinity and became Senior Assistant Surgeon of the 54th Regiment. Hart's Army List for 1840 reads:
"54th (West Norfolk) Regiment Of Foot serving in the East Indies.
Assistant Surgeon: Richard Houston Everard, M.D., 19 June, 1835."
The Freeman's Journal from November 2, 1838, carried the following article:
" The Army: Doctor Everard, senior assistant-surgeon of the 54th Regiment, on the Madras Presidency, has the entire medical charge of the Corps, which suffered severely from influenza, but under his very judicious care and treatment the regiment enjoyed excellent health and spirits in July last. The 54th was to leave Trichonopoly and to be in Madras in September last to embark in December for England."
Richard Houston Everard came to a sad end in Kent in 1841. From 'The Gentleman's Magazine', 1841:
"KENT, DECEMBER. At Dover, Richard Houston Everard, M.D., Assistant Surgeon of the 54th Regiment(1835). He met with his death from the violence of two sailors, against whom a verdict of manslaughter was returned. His funeral took place at the new cemetery at Dover, and was attended by nearly 7000 spectators."
NOTE: There was another Richard Everard in the Army around the same period as Richard Houston Everard. He was Richard Nugent Everard, youngest son of Thomas Everard Esq. of Randalstown in Meath. He was captain of H.M's 86th regiment. On June 17, 1843, at St. James Church, he married Arabella Mathilde, youngest daughter of George Henry Alexis, Viscount d' Amboise.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
The family of Ignatius Everard of Mayo and Sligo
Still believing that my John Everard is somehow tied up with the family of this man Ignatius Everard, I have persevered in trying to trace his family both forwards and backwards. I tapped into the knowledge of the very helpful regulars on the Rootsweb forum for Sligo, several of whom have been incredibly generous with their help and advice. I also became a member of the National Library of Australia so as to access their fantastic online database of old Irish newspapers and various other data bases from my home computer. Without having seen one single church record for this family, I have managed to scrap together a somewhat patchy tree based on old papers, Googlebooks searches and bits and pieces in obscure databases.
On Irish Origins I found an index to "Memorials of the Dead Galway & Mayo" by Brian J. Cantwell, which led to the following inscription :
"God be merciful to Margaret Gibbon Eliz Tallett Mary Williams both conut(e or r)…Patr Evrard the husband by whome this monument was erected 1786."
This gravestone was located in the beautiful Cross (also known as Cross Abbey or Holy Cross) graveyard, which is situated on the western side of Belmullet peninsula, four miles west of Belmullet.
This 'Patr Evrard', who died in 1786, is most likely the Paddy Everard referred to in an article written by Rahilly about a well-known poet from Kilmore Erris called Richard Barrett(died 1819, aged 80) In part it read:
" 'II. There is a parcel of people with cows and sheep going to fairs and getting a great deal of trouble sending them to mountain
and from thence to arable or finer grass-
Wise points as seems to them.
But let this month witness that they will be crying and shedding tears.
Then and for that reason
there is no wiser trick than to be always putting a stir in the drink.'
This verse has particular allusion to old Paddy Everard, the grandfather of the late Councellor, who was considered the wisest man in the country and a great stock farmer, but a bad month came and he was "shilla dore". "
T.F. Rahilly, Gadelica: A Journal of Modern Irish Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1912), pp. 112-126.
"The Late Councellor" referred to was Richard Higgins Everard, the son of Ignatius Everard who was born in c. 1780. This means that Ignatius Everard was the son of Patrick 'Paddy' Everard from Erris in Mayo. The fact that Ignatius called his eldest son 'Patrick' also supports this.
Ignatius Everard was born in Mayo around the middle of the 18th century. When he died in 1823, his age was reported simply as being 'advanced'. He married in 1774, and must have been at least 20 or so, which takes his year of birth back to c. 1750s, if not earlier.
Ignatius Everard married Bridget Higgins, the only surviving daughter of Bryan Higgins, who also had sons Andrew, Thomas and Bryan. Bryan Higgins Senior was a distinguished Doctor from Collooney, Sligo. He died in 1777, and like his son-in-law Ignatius Everard, was described upon death as being 'of an advanced age.'
An article written about William Higgins ( (1763-1825), a famous Irish Chemist who was Bryan Higgins' grandson and nephew of Bridget Higgins Everard, gave me an insight to the structure of Ignatius Everard's family that I have not been able to locate anywhere else:
"Faulkner's Dublin Journal for 7-10 March 1778, refers to the death of Bryan Higgins, M.D., of Collooney, Co. Sligo, at an advanced age. There is another reference to Bryan Higgins in Deed No. 399/56/262,861, of 24 January 1774 (Registry of Deeds, Dublin), a deed of intermarriage between Bridget, only daughter of Bryan Higgins of Collooney, " doctor of physik," and Ignatius Everard of Neenanagh, Co. Mayo.
A study of the Alumni Dublinenses shows that Ignatius Everard, merchant, of Co. Sligo, had at least three sons, Patrick (b. s 1775), Bryan Higgins, gentleman farmer, and Richard, a barrister, (b. 1781). Bryan Higgins Everard had two sons who went to Trinity College, Dublin ; Ignatius Houston (b. ca. i 8o9), and Richard Houston (b. ca. 1811)."
From : William Higgins, Chemist (1763-1825)Author: Thomas S. Wheeler Source: Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 43, No. 171 (Autumn, 1954), pp. 327-338.
I searched for a reference to a place called 'Neenanagh' in Mayo to no avail, and it was the lateral thinking of an expert in early Irish history, Peter Schermerhorn, from the Sligo Rootsweb group, who came up with the explanation of why 'Neenanagh' wasn't to be found:
"Less than a mile SE of the ruined Cross Priory (aka St. Brendan's, St. Mary or Holy Cross) is the townland of Rinanagh. Now, if someone might have misread or mistyped an initial "n" for an "r" at some time...."
The Tithe Applotment books for Kilmore parish, County Mayo, Belmullet Poor Law Union, Erris Barony, for 1834, reveal that a Patrick Everard resided at Old Village, Reinanagh ...Reinanagh/Rinanagh/Neenanagh. This was of course too late for Paddy Everard, father of Ignatius who died in 1786, but it must have been a descendant- possibly even the eldest son of Ignatius, Patrick Everard, about whom I know absolutely nothing!
From the Alumi Dublinense 1593-1846, there was mention of two of the Everard sons, and two grandsons:
"EVERARD.
PATRICK EVERARD: Pen (Mr. Wilson), July 8, 1791, aged 16. Son of Ignatius Everard, Mercator; born Sligo.
RICHARD EVERARD: Pen (Mr Bagnall) July 4, 1796, aged 15. Son of Ignatius, Mercator. Born Co. Sligo. B.A. Vern 1801. M.A. November 1832. Irish Bar 1808.
IGNATIUS HOUSTON EVERARD: Pen (P.T) October 16, 1826, aged 17; son of Bryan Higgins Everard, Privatus; born Co. Sligo.
RICHARD HOUSTON EVERARD: Pen (P.T) November 3, 1828, aged 17. Son Of Bryan Everard, Agricola; born Sligo."
Ignatius Everard was a well-respected merchant and landowner in Sligo
"EVERARD, Ignatius (fl. 1811), landowner and merchant, Sligo; repres. Co. Sligo (signatory); Cath. Cttee min., 28 Sept. 1781; chmn of Co. Sligo Catholic meeting, Sept. 1811; father of Richard Higgins Everard (i78i?-i836?) who entered T.C.D. July 1796 aged 15 and was called to Irish bar 1808 (D.E.P., 7 Sept. 1811; Alumni Dublinenses (Dublin, 1936); Kings Inns admission papers', Tone, Writings, i (1998), pp 233-4). "
- From: The Personnel of the Catholic Convention, 1792-3Author(s): C. J. WoodsSource: Archivium Hibernicum, Vol. 57 (2003), pp. 26-76
Another Rootsweb forumer, Jim McDonald, was kind enough to lend his expertise to the quest for Everard knowledge, and sent me the following:
"The EVERARD name is in Ireland since at least 1177 when King Henry 2nd gave them grants of land in Meath, Waterford and Tipperary. It is one of the rare names but the families were "highly distinguished"according to Rev. Patrick Woulfe (Irish Names and Surnames, 1923). The Sligo connection is said to have come from Mayo as you stated. McTernan (Olde Sligoe, 1995) writing about Sligo Abbey graves noted that the "memorial slab, ... of Bridget Higgins, wife of Ignatius Everard, is dated 1704."
In 1800 J. EVERARD and I. EVERARD were in Sligo (maybe the same person, John Ignatius?). Ignatius EVERARD was a prosperous merchant in the town and Chairman of the Sligo Catholic Association. McTernan (A Sligo Miscellany) writes of him:"A man of culture and learning, Everard had a deep interest in the language and literature of Ireland. Writing from Sligo in September,1808, Edward Bunting, the noted collector of Irish music, stated that he had dined that day with Mr. Everard "who is an excellent judge of the Irish language". Everard also carried on discourses with Thady Connellan, the Gaelic scholar from Tireragh, and with Dr. O'Connor, an expert on ancient Irish Mss. On his death in 1825 he had been predeceased by his wife Brigid, only daughter of Bryan Higgins, M.D.of Collooney, and was survived by Bryan Higgins."
This Ignatius was "succeeded" by Richard Higgins EVERARD (1780-1836)Barrister-at-Law Dublin and Sligo.Ignatius EVERARD lived in Old Market Street in a house called Everret's. He is listed in the Commercial Directory 1820. In Pigots Directory 1824 Richard is living there. Presumably Ignatius was either retired or in ill health at that time as he died the following year.
Brian H. EVERARD was a shipping agent with emigration at the Port of Sligo at the beginning of the 1800s. They were also dealers in linen. This man appears to have resided in Cregg townland. In the O'Hara Papers: "Agreement dated 7 July 1803 between Andrew Higgins and Ignatius Everard appointing Charles O'Hara (the younger)and Daniel Webber as arbiters in their dispute over lands in the barony of Tyreragh, County Sligo. 1 item, 1803."
(NOTE: Andrew Higgins as named in the last paragraph was the son of Andrew Higgins Senior( died 1793), the brother-in-law of Ignatius Everard, and as such was the nephew of Ignatius and his wife Bridget)
Bridget Higgins Everard predeceased her husband. Freeman's Journal of July 15, 1794, reported:
" DIED- In Sligo, on the 17th, Mrs Everard."
There is no report of her husband Ignatius ever remarrying, although he did become smitten with a young Irish lady, as I will discuss a little later!
Ignatius Everard died on December 26, 1823, in Sligo. His death notice was published in the 'Enniskillen Chronicle and Erne Packet' on January 1, 1824:
" DIED: On Friday morning in Sligo, at an advanced age, Ignatius Everard, Esq."
KNOWN CHILDREN OF IGNATIUS EVERARD AND BRIDGET HIGGINS.
The article written by Thomas Wheeler about Irish Chemist William Higgins (nephew of Ignatius Everard and his wife Bridget) reveals that Ignatius and Bridget had "at least three children"- Patrick, Richard Higgins and Bryan Higgins.
Two of these three sons all attended Trinity College in Dublin, and it is from the registers of this university that Wheeler obtained his information re. Ignatius Everard's children...other children, especially a daughter or daughters, may have been born during the 20 year period between the marriage of Ignatius to Bridget Higgins in 1774 and her death in 1794.
1. PATRICK EVERARD: eldest son of Ignatius and Bridget Everard, and named after his paternal grandfather Patrick Everard from neighbouring Mayo. No other information after he entered Trinity College at the age of 16 in 1791. The Tithe Applotment books for Kilmore Parish, Mayo, for 1834, reveal that a Patrick Everard was living at Old Village, Reinanagh. As the eldest son it is possible that he inherited the Everard lands in Kilmore Erris from his father Ignatius, although various records seem to suggest that it was "Councellor Everard" (Richard Higgins Everard, a younger son), who had control of the Erris lands by this stage.
2. RICHARD HIGGINS EVERARD: born c. 1780, Sligo. Richard became a barrister in Dublin. I have no record of a marriage, but I did find reference to a court case which suggested that an affair with a woman that continued for over a decade resulted in the birth of an illegitimate son. The affair with the unnamed woman started in 1820 when Richard was 40 years old, and continued until his death in 1836. Neither the woman or the child were named, although the child's mother was noted as being a "respectable lady".
Prior to this affair, Richard Everard achieved infamy amongst Irish society circles for his public and unrequited love for Sydney Owenson (later to become Lady Morgan when she married, in 1812, Sir Charles Morgan, a widowed physician). Sydney was the daughter of an Irish actor named Robert Owenson and his Shropshire-born wife. She and her sister Olivia lost their mother quite early in their lives, and lived a Bohemian existence with their father.
In c. 1805-06, when he was about 25 years old, Richard Everard fell madly in love with Sydney Owenson, who was several years older than him. The tale that followed was told in print by various sources, such as the following extract which comes from an article entitled "Miss Owenson's Lovers", published by Fraser's magazine in 1863:
" Then there came lovers eleven and twelve, in the persons of a son and his old father. The son, Richard Everard, we are told, fell ardently in love with her, and "he had no money and no profession." The year of the love fit is not given, but this Richard Everard, we find on inquiry, was born in 1780, and was consequently five years the junior of Miss Owenson. In 1801 he was in a commercial house in Dublin, but this he soon left, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1808, at which, from his subtlety as a special pleader, he acquired the sobriquet of Dicky Demurrer.
The father of Richard Everard was one Ignatius Everard, of the town of Sligo, a man who had made a good deal of money as a grazier and commercial speculator. Everard, the father, we are told, called on Miss Owenson to remonstrate about his "son's imprudence", when she spoke so wisely and pleasantly, in a word, with so sage and silvery a tongue that the old fool fell desperately in love with her himself.
Will it be believed that the old man's letter is given in extenso, dated Sligo 1807, in which he tells Miss Owenson "his heart, his hand, his purse, are freely at her command." He feelingly asks if there is any prospect that her father may be rescued from his miserable state?" Strangest of all, old Everard and his son figure as Lord M_____ and Mortimer, in the pages of 'The Wild Irish Girl'."
"The Wild Irish Girl" was a novel written by Sydney Owenson and published in 1806. From "Lady Morgan's memoirs", which were published after her death in 1859, comes the following exerpt:
" 'The Wild Irish Girl', or, as it was first intended to be called, 'The Princess Of Innishmore', was, in some measure based on a curious circumstance in Miss Owenson's own life. A young man, Richard Everard, had fallen violently in love with Miss Owenson; his father discovered it and was displeased. This son had no money, no profession and was a very idle young man. Miss Owenson had no money either, and it looked a very undesirable match. Mr. Everard, the father, called upon Miss Owenson, stated his objections, and begged her to use her influence to make his son Richard take to some employment, and tried to obtain her promise not to marry him. Miss Owenson had not the least inclination to marry him, but nobody like to be peremptorily desired to refrain even from a course they are "not inclined to".
Still, Sydney Owenson spoke so wisely, and conducted herself so pleasantly, that the father actually became desirous of doing himself what he had forbidden his son to think of. Miss Owenson was no more disposed to marry the father than she had been to marry the son. He became, however, a very kind and firm friend to her father, assisting him both with counsel and money. Mr Everard kept up a long and earnest correspondence with Miss Owenson, confiding to her with singular frankness, all his own concerns and private affairs; and constantly entreating her to use her influence over his son to turn him from his idle courses.
The history of this curious friendship is detailed in the story of The Wild Irish Girl, where her father figures as the prince of Innismore, Mr Everard and his son as Lord M____ and Mortimer; though the beautiful atmosphere of romance which clothes the story in the novel was entirely absent in the matter of fact.
The following letter is from Mr Everard, the original of Lord M___, the father of the Mortimer of the novel:
'J. Everard to Sydney Owenson.
Sligo, November 10, 1807. Tuesday night.
I have read a letter from Richard- poor fellow! After dissipating much of his own time, and a great deal of my money, he has been obliged to enter into a special pleader's office (for which I was forced to pay one hundred guineas as his admission fee), in order to become what is called a black letter man- a mechanical lawyer. This is no great proof abilities!
I must very shortly leave this for Dublin, perhaps for England, if my health permits.I would like to see you before I went. I would gladly spend an hour with you some morning, if I could do it without annoying your family; but doubtful of my reception, I am somewhat afraid of adventuring. Tell me, if I can go, will I see you without inconvenience? Tell me more, in confidence. Can I be anything to you? for my hand, my heart, and my purse are freely at your command. You can't confer a greater obligation on me than to suffer me to minister to your convenience. With cordiality and truth,
I am your attached and faithful friend, J. Everard.
Wednesday morning.
I beg to know where your father is. What is he doing, or what prospects does he entertain? Is there any prospect that his decline of life will be rescued from that miserable state? How, or where, is your sister? I am interested for everything that concerns you. Unjustly were you dissatisfied at her writing to me; tis she who ought to be displeased, not you.
Do you spend the winter at Longford? When do you go to Dublin? I am anxious to see you, and loiter away a little time with you; but alas, neither you nor I can afford to be idlers, at least indulgence is not for me; but I am trifling, adieu, J. Everard.
P.S. Would to God you would write less indistinctly, I am only eternally guessing at your meaning. Perhaps, like the oracles of old, you wish your characters may have double meanings."
The previous July, 1806, Sydney had been in Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, visiting her maternal relations, and she wrote of the visit to her sister Olivia...
"...Do you know I have had a most extraordinary packet from old Everard...six pages! mostly about Dick. He seems afraid his son is going over to marry me; but says he throws himself on my generosity,- and that he begs of me to save him from himself, for that without an independence and without industry, a connection of that kind would weigh him down for life. He then recommends him to my care, and begs me to be his preceptress and guardian, that I will guide his actions and direct his study , and to sum up all, he encloses me an order on his banker for twenty guineas for pocket money! You know my spirit- the order I returned- and gave him a true and circumstantial account of my acquaintance with his son from beginning to end- assuring him that the expected arrival of his son hurried my departure from London; as my obligations to the father precluded every idea of continuing any intercourse with the son, unsanctioned by his approbation. I wrote very proudly and very much to the purpose. He told me you looked well and handsome (Is he not an angel?)."
NOTE: rather than Ignatius Everard inexplicably signing his letters 'J.Everard', I think that the letters 'J' and 'I' were confused- a very easy mistake to make with writing from that period.
The novel "The Wild Irish Girl" was Sydney Owenson's most well-known and successful published work. From "The Wild Irish Girl: the life of Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan (1776-1859) by Lionel Stevenson; Chapman & Hall, Ltd., 1936:
" Owenson's affairs had been gradually declining, and the rebellion of 1798 brought a crisis, the military forces being too busy, and the civilians too anxious, to patronise the theatre. As Owenson's rent was far in arrears, the landlord seized his scenery and costumes,and although he was helped out of his most pressing difficulties by a leading merchant of Sligo, Ignatius Everard, his professional career seemed to be at an end.....
.....It may be remembered that when Owenson was in financial straits in Sligo, the friend who came to his rescue was a prosperous merchant named Ignatius Everard. Seven years later when Sydney Owenson revisited the district, his young son Richard fell in love with her. As he was not an industrious youth, and had made no choice of a profession, his father did not favour the idea of a marriage, and came to Miss Owenson to state his objections. Not being particularly interested in the young man, she agreed with her visitor so cordially that he formed a high opinion of her meritsand began to pay her attentions herself. They had much in common- in 1792 he had been an associate of Wolf Tone and the "United Irishmen", and he was now interested in Irish music ( a little later he helped Bunting to collect tunnes in his district. At the time when Sydney was at work on The Wild Irish Girl, he wrote to her frequently, offering his hand and purse, and little suspecting that he was helping to supply a plot for her story."
Once the air had cleared over the Sydney Owenson debacle, Richard Everard was admitted to the Irish Bar, an event which took place in 1808. In 1820 his affair with the 'respectable lady' started, to continue for the next 15 years. The only mention of his mistress and son comes from "Irish Equity Reports, High Court Of Chancery, Ireland".
'Monday, July 27, 1839. Security for costs, Plaintiff Out Of The Jurisdiction- reference for Scandal. EVERARD v _______."
The first name of the plainiff was never mentioned- at all times he was referred to as 'the plaintiff'. Similarly, Richard Everard's mistress and son were never named. In a nutshell, Everard the Plaintiff declared that in 1835 he had been 'conned' out of 500 pounds of a 1500 pound settlement by Richard Everard, who at the time of this claim had been deceased for two or three years. Plaintiff Everard was an officer in H.M's Service on duty with his Regiment in India. The most probable candidate for his identity is one of the two sons of Bryan Higgins Everard- Ignatius Houston Everard born 1809, or Richard Houston Everard born 1811. Both boys attended Trinity College in Dublin, and Richard definitely joined the Army as a surgeon.
The report of the court case reads, in part, as follows:
" The Plaintiff is an Officer in H.M's Service on duty with his Regiment in India. The passages of the bill specified are grossly scandalous, as they charge one of the defendants, a respectable lady, with having lived for several years in improper intercourse and having had an illegitimate child, thereby obtained unbounded influence over the mind of the owner of the estate, which is the subject of the present litigation.
Plaintiff's case: He was entitled to a paramount charge on the estate of Richard Everard of 1500 pounds. In 1835 he was under fraud and coercion obliged by R. Everard to execute a release of such charge, and accept, in lieu thereof,the personal security of the said R. Everard, conditioned for the payment of the sum of 1000 pounds. Being a very young man, just entering the Army, and having no experience in legal transactions, the Plaintiff signed the release without any personal advice.
In the year 1820 an improper intercourse commenced between Richard Everard and the female defendant, which continued until his death in 1836, and that there is issue of the said improper intercourse one son. That by reason of such improper intercourse, the said female defendant acquired unbounded influence over the said R. Everard
On January 6, 1829, Richard Everard executed an indenture, purporting to be made between himself of the first part, and of the second a trustee and the female defendant. She handed over and vested in R. Everard, as her trustee, Government debentures and sums of money of her own seperate property to the amount of 3500 pounds, and that Richard Everard stood indebted to her in said sum, and that to secure the payment thereof, with interest at 4 percent, he had agreed to charge the same upon the said several lands. The female defendant alleges that after the execution of the said deed she made several further advances to the said R. Everard, the receipts of which were regularly indorsed upon the back of the said deed in the handwriting of the said R. Everard.
This deed was never given up by Richard Everard to the defendant or her trustee, and he retained possession of it during his life. The same was found after his decease, which took place in 1836, in an old travelling bag which had belonged to him.
After the decease of the said R. Everard, the said female defendant stated to the several persons in the bill particularly mentioned that she was no aware of the execution of the said deed until after the decease of the said R. Everard, and that the same was found after his decease in ahis travelling bag.
In February 1837, the defendant and her trustee filed their bill in this court against the heir-at-law of Richard Everard and several others, alleging that at the time of Richard Everard's death, they were due 4538 pounds and a considerable arrear of interest. The estate is insufficient to pay both demands upon it.- from: Irish equity reports By Ireland High Court of Chancery, Ireland. Rolls Court. 1838-1839.
I can find no other references to the two cases mentioned above, nor any mention of the names of the lady or child.
From the book "ANECDOTES OF THE CONNAUGHT CIRCUIT. FROM ITS FOUNDATION IN 1604 TO CLOSE UPON THE PRESENT TIME", BY OLIVER J. BUEKE, A.B., T.C.D. DUBLIN: HODGES, FIGGIS, AND CO., GRAFTON STREET, PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 1885, comes the following exerpt:
"Duelling was not yet dead on the Circuit. In 1836, Mr. Walker, K.C., fought his brother circuiteer, Mr. Casserly, at Sligo, on some question that arose in Court on Registry Appeals; and Mr. Baker, K.C., fought on the field of battle Mr. Richard Everard, commonly called " Dicky Demurrer; " for Mr. Baker, an extremely irritable man, could not brook the affront of Mr. Everard's successfully demurring to pleadings that he (Mr. Baker) had signed. There was a Mr. Courtenay on the Circuit also, counsel to the Bank of Ireland ; and he sent Mr. Everard a challenge to fight him in " the fifteen acres, be the same more or less," for setting aside a score or so of his declarations."
Richard had control of the Everard Estate lands in County Mayo according to several reports which usually referred to him as "Councellor Everard". In the publication "ERRIS IN THE IRISH HIGHLANDS" by P. Knight, published 1836 at Dublin, the Everard state as it existed in 1832 was mentioned:
"Within The Mullet- Improvements etc. The Messrs Rowland's plans for improving Aghalasheen, a farm taken two years since from Councellor Everard, containing about 950 Irish acres, deserves to be recorded here. The lease to them from Mr Everard is for lives renewable forever, the rent 100 pounds yearly; Mr Everard allowing 200 pounds out of the first five years rent towards improvements...
...Before the erection of Belmullet, Mr Everard could with difficulty get 30 pounds yearly for the whole of his farm; it was considered a monstrous price to get 100 pounds."
From 1833 to 1836, a Commission into the condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland undertook to interview cross-sections of communities from the parishes of the various counties, including Mayo, to determine the true state of poverty in the country.
When interviewing people from the parish of Kilmore Erris in Mayo, one of 18 residents of the parish chosen to be interviewed was the bailiff to Richard Everard, one William Feargus. Others included farmers Edward Burke and Brien Deane; bailiffs William Feargus and James Donoghoe ( the latter working for Major Bingham "the principal proprietor in the parish"); widows Early, Geraghty and Reilly; police constable Mr William Meredith; magistrate Captain Nugent; stipendiary magistrate Captain Ireland; labourers Pat Lavelle, Dominick Frekill, Martin Hoban and Frank O'Donell; parish priest Mr. Rev. John Lyons; Mr O'Brien, parish school master; cottier Hugh O'Mally and mendicant Edmund Dickson. ( A 'mendicant' is a person who depends on begging or alms for a living)
The report was certainly an eyeopener for me...I was well aware of the dreadful circumstances which enveloped the Irish people in the 1840s in the form of the Great Famine, but had no idea of the dire poverty that the people of Mayo found themselves in a decade earlier. Following are some exerpts which paint a picture of the parish in which the Everard lands were situated:
"There is a great number of orphan children through the villages, their number being greatly increased since cholera visited this district.They live mostly by begging, their relatives being for the most part too poor to undertake the support of them. Many of them between the ages of 12 and 18 hire with the small farmers, for perhaps one quarter, and beg the next. The elder beg for the younger children; and if any be old enough to marry, all the others fall in upon them for support."
" The demand for labour is so insignificant that there is no class who are called labourers; because no class can subsist altogether on their hired labour. Those persons paying no rent for the spot of ground on which they build their cabins, or the course mountain land on which they plant a few month's consumption of potatoes, are called by the burlesque name of "freeholders".
Feargus (bailiff to the property of which he speaks) says "On Mr Everard's estate there are living altogether under 200 families; 50 or 60 of these are 'freeholders' having no holdingd of their own, but trespassing on this man and that. The men are as able and willing to work as any men in the country, but there is no work for them, and they must be trespassers on their neighbours.
They take a few ridges of ground for the season from a holder and pay him in labour. This gives them potatoes, but not as much as they would consume in 2 months; they must then turn out and beg at home until summer comes, and they are believed to steal nearly as much as they beg. The tenants make great complaints of them, that they steal their cabbages and potatoes, and that their pigs root up their ground. I have orders from Mr Everard to clear them off. We cannot look to what becomes of them afterwards, but we can see that when they are cleared out of one village, they go and settle down in another.
By a census of his parish made two years ago, by the Rev Mr Lyons, it appeared that of the 1,648 families then constituting the whole polulation of the parish, 371 belonged to this class. Some of these "freeholders" are ejected tenants, others never held land."
Freeholder Dominick Frekill stated " When potatoes are scarce in the summer, and few of the neighbours have them to spare, we must often live without them. My wife then goes through the fields and gathers some of the green weeds and boils them. We sometimes have a small share of potatoes to eat with them, but we have often lived three or four days without a potato, on the weedsd alone. I have not brought a shoe or stocking these seven years. I have not bought a new coat for four years, nor trousers for five. I was three weeks in the house, I could not go out for want of clothes, and you see (showing us his clothes) whether I am fit to go out now either, for the cold or for the shame. I have one pair of blankets, the whole family (seven in number) lie under them on one bed, lying heads and points; they are warm and spent now, and are the only pair which I have had since I was married, 17 years ago."
" As regards the clothing of the labourers, they are without shoes or stockings, and their other clothes are mere rags, leaving them everywhere open to the weather. O'Brien says ' We have told you that the beggars are naked, but it is not the beggars merely, but the persons that relieve the beggars that are naked; the old clothes that I wear on weekdays I lend to my neighbours, decent people, to go to mass on Sundays." Evidence was then given of a man who had been ill in bed for 18 months, and when he was well enough to again go outdoors he could not because his wife and children, being freezing and having no warm clothing of their own, had been wearing his clothes until they were worn out, leaving him none to wear.
It is upsetting to think of Richard Everard giving orders to his bailiff to "clear out" the freeholders from his land...orders given, no doubt, from the warmth and security of one of his two residences in Dublin or Sligo. Even those with very little to give shared with those who had even less, whether it be potatoes or the very clothing from their backs...it seems as though those who were in a position to give far more chose to turn their backs and move these suffering families on to another place...out of sight, out of mind.
The 'Morning Chronicle' of April 9, 1831, published an article that showed a slightly more compassionate side of Richard Everard:
" DISTRESS IN IRELAND. PUBLIC MEETING IN DUBLIN.
...Councellor Everard rose and said: He had come to the meeting with no intention of trespassing on its attention more than to hand in his subscription, but he thought it might be useful to state to the meeting what he himself had witnessed within the past ten days. With regard to the present situation of County Mayo, he could assure the meeting that he was quite unable to give an adequate description of its heart-rendering situation. The distress that existed in that county could not be conceived. Superadded to the horrors of famine was the dreadful visitation of disease. Typhus fever and cholera morbus had already set in and were rapidly doing their work of death. There was no public medical institution in the entire county but the public infirmary. He knew a particular district where those frightful maladies were particularly prevalent, and from one part of it there was no medicinal assistance to be procurred within a shorter distance than fifty miles.
...Everyone knew that proverbial charity and hospitality of the Irish peasant. He took his meals with open doors, and the passing stranger or the wandering merchant was cheerfully welcomed to their participation.. What was the fact? Even so considerable was the distress as far back as last Christmas, that at that period of festivity they used to take their meals with closed doors, and at unusual hours, to be relieved from the pain of refusing that hospitality which was no longer in their power.
...The learned gentleman in conclusion urged the necessity of promptitude in administering relief, and sat down amidst the appluase of the meeting."
Even as early as 1822, the district of Erris in Mayo was making the newspapers in relation to its terrible poverty levels:
" The distressed of Ireland are now assuming the form of famine and pestilence. With horror we read the following statement in the Dublin Patriot received this morning- " We regret to say, that a letter from Erris, County Mayo, received on Saturday last from T. Everard Esq, forwarding a statement by Mr. James McDonough, who resides in the district, contained the afflicting account that a MAN, HIS WIFE AND NINE CHILDREN ALL PERISHED FOR WANT OF FOOD!!! Of those who, having the means, still hesitate as to the propriety or necessity of subscribing for the unfortunate Irish, we beg leave to call the attention to the first article in this days publication." - Glasgow Herald, July 5, 1822.
(NOTE: I wonder if the letter writer named as 'T.Everard' was in fact 'I.Everard', as Ignatius was still alive and in possession of the Everard estate in Erris, Mayo, at this time).
The Freemans's Journal of July 1, 1822 also reported the above event:
" SLIGO- from the Rev. Thomas Smith, Vivar of Easkey, 17 June.
There are 305 families, consisting of 1282 persons, in absolute starvation. From the Bishop of Killalla, Edward Wingfield, and William Browne, Union of Castlecomber and Kallyglass: Population is 8270 persons, approaching a state of starvation. Many are unable to get money for seed potatoes, for the last 2 months the people have lived on shellfish, seaweed and herbs.
We regret to say that a letter from Erris, County Mayo, received on Saturday last, from T. Everard, Esq, forwarding a statement by Mr James McDonough, who resides in the district, contained the afflciting account that a man, his wife and nine children all perished for want of food. On this information being communicated, The Mansion House Committee immediately directed a further supply to be forwarded to that neighbourhood."
Richard Higgins Everard died in c.1836, and I can find no mention of a marriage prior to his death. Of course, this does not mean that he was not married, as I have been unable to locate ANY official birth, death or marriage records for the Sligo or Mayo Everards of this generation.
There is a mention of Richard Everard's ill health in a testimony that he gave in court when he was called as a witness in a trial held at the Court of the King's Bench, Dublin, in February of 1828. The case was quite intricate, but basically involved the removal of a 17 year old boy, John Henry Hely Hutchinson Grady, from his public school at Donnybrook, by Mrs Elizabeth Richards and her daughter Helena Henrietta for the purpose of elopement between the two young people, and "a conspiracy to impose upon the said John Henry Hely Hutchinson Grady the burden of maintaining an illegitimate child". John H.H Grady's father, Henry Dean Grady, of Merrion Square, Dublin, and his wife Dorcas, accused Helena Richards of being " a person of unchaste name,reputation and conduct". They had never before met Mrs Richards or her daughter, and had certainly never given them permission to remove their son John from his school.
Despite trying to make the Richards mother and daughter appear as the sole instigators in the whole affair, when cross-examined Henry Grady had to admit that his daughter had previously run away to Gretna Green in Scotland to be married without his permission, and that his son John had, prior to his latest school at Donnybrook, run away from his three previous schools at Eton, Windchester and the Feneglian Institution.
It was alleged by the prosecution that Miss Richards was 23 or 24 years of age, and that both she and her mother were of very shady character:
" Some few years ago Mr Richards had parted from his wife, and if he had been rightly instructed, the gentleman had good cause for the seperation. In fact, the conduct of Mrs Richards was such as to render it impossible for a high--minded gentleman, solicitous for the peace and honour of domestic life,to live with her. Mrs Richards was remarkable for habitual intoxication, and he (Sergeant Gould)need not inform the Jury of the consequences to which such a habit of life lead. She had an annuity of about 400 pounds, and though her years advanced she nevertheless retained her charms and continued to indulge in those vicious and guilty propensities which had tarnished her early life...."
"...Miss Helen Richards, alias Mrs. Grady, was so far as he could learn, a creature of lovely and beauteous countenance but, unfortunately, a victim to her own charms and the bad example of her parent. It would be satisfactorily established upon evidence that this young lady was as lascivious in her habits as she was witching in her form; that she was in the habit of meeting young gentlemen in the porter's lodge; that she received and communicated letters through her chamber window; that she used to be seen in the shrubbery, in company with young gentlemen, at so late an hour sometimes as twelve; that she availed herself of facilities of access through her chamber window, which was only five feet from the ground; that this was demonstrable in more instances than one; that she was pregnant at the time of her marriage at Gretna Hall, and that medicines were administered to her for purposes not to be doubted..."
"He was third or fourth son of Mr. Henry Deane Grady, and was born in the month of February, 1811—of course he was only sixteen years and nine months old at the time in question. He was not only a very boy in appearance, but he was of a peculiarly weak character of intellect—he was addicted to boyish plays and amusements—(laughter)—one of his passions was an attachment to a favourite donkey— (great laughter)—and from what I have heard there was a great congeniality between the two animals. But he was therefore the fitter person to be practised upon, to be duped and imposed on. His habit was to go from school to visit his mother with whom he was a pet, and to see his favourite donkey. His father at last sent him to school at Winchester, from whence he returned without the consent of his master. He was sent back and became a favourite there ; and was proceeding to take advantage of the liberal education his father was inclined to give him, when, unfortunately, he came home to pass the long vacation of last summer with his father and mother at Stillorgan; and recollect that their residence is not in a bird line, more than a few yards from the habitation of Mrs. Richards. Finding that the boy was not disposed to the pursuit of serious studies, Mr. Grady thought it right to look to the army as a provision for him, and he was sent to the Rev. Prince Crawford’s school at Donnybrook, where two of his brothers were already placed, to pursue a course of reading which might fit him for that profession. The Learned Sergeant here proceeded to state the details of Mr. Grady’s introduction to Miss Richards, while at Mr. Crawford’s school, by John Lynch, the lodge-keeper—their subsequent elopement in ten or eleven days."
" Remarking on the certificate, Sergeant Goold said, Gentlemen of the Jury— I call your attention to this fact—part of this document is printed, and part of it is in manuscript—it is headed with the King’s arms, and is in this form :--“ These are to certify to all persons whom it may concern, that John Hely Hutchinson Grady, of No. 8, Merrion-square, East, Dublin, son of Henry Deane Grady, and Helen Richards, daughter of John Richards, of the County of Fermanagh, came before me, and declared themselves to be single persons, and were lawfully married by me, according to the laws of the Kirk of Scotland.—Helen Richards, aged 17, John H. H. Grady, aged 18.” Whose hand-writing, Gentlemen, do you think the manuscript part of the certificate is ? Every word of it is the handwriting of Miss Richards, and in the description of the ages, she makes the boy two years older than he really was ; and with all the complacency and modesty of a virtuous young female, the young lady makes herself six years younger."
As a friend of the Richards family, Richard Everard was called upon as a witness to give evidence in their support:
" Richard Everard, barrister, examined. Knew Mr & Mrs Richards. Has visited them since 1821. Previously to that he was concerned as counsel for Mrs Richards. She has two sets of trustees- one in her marriage settlement, and the other for her private property; he acts as the trustee in the latter. Has been in the habits of intimacy with them since they first became acquainted. Is in strict habits of intimacy with them for the past three years. Within the past two years, since his health has declined, he has been in the habit of visiting, dining and sleeping there very frequently. Did not think while in town that any period of ten days had lapsed without him seeing them.
'On my oath, I never knew of any improper conduct of these ladies. I never saw it, knew it or even suspected it. When I left town for the summer assizes, on August 4, I believed the girl to be as pure and as chaste as any girl in existence.' "
Richard Everard also swore that letters purported to have been written by Miss Richards to another young lover, O'Connor, were most definitely not written by her.
I have devoted so much space to this case, even though it has nothing directly to do with the Everards, because it is such a fascinating slice of 19th century Ireland...a novel or movie based on these actual events would be considered "As If!!!", in today's terminology.
In the defence of the Richards mother and daughter, their team provided the arguement that it was an employee, Lynch, who organized the elopement in view to extract from Mrs Richards her fortune. They argued that it was Elizabeth Richards who organised the legal seperation from her husband as the result of him having an affair with some "low girl" on his estate in Fermanagh. They also produced witnesses to swear that Helena Richards was most definitely not pregnant at the time of her elopement, and that John Hely Hutchinson Grady was at least 18 years old when the elopement took place, not 16 as claimed by his father.
On Irish Origins I found an index to "Memorials of the Dead Galway & Mayo" by Brian J. Cantwell, which led to the following inscription :
"God be merciful to Margaret Gibbon Eliz Tallett Mary Williams both conut(e or r)…Patr Evrard the husband by whome this monument was erected 1786."
This gravestone was located in the beautiful Cross (also known as Cross Abbey or Holy Cross) graveyard, which is situated on the western side of Belmullet peninsula, four miles west of Belmullet.
This 'Patr Evrard', who died in 1786, is most likely the Paddy Everard referred to in an article written by Rahilly about a well-known poet from Kilmore Erris called Richard Barrett(died 1819, aged 80) In part it read:
" 'II. There is a parcel of people with cows and sheep going to fairs and getting a great deal of trouble sending them to mountain
and from thence to arable or finer grass-
Wise points as seems to them.
But let this month witness that they will be crying and shedding tears.
Then and for that reason
there is no wiser trick than to be always putting a stir in the drink.'
This verse has particular allusion to old Paddy Everard, the grandfather of the late Councellor, who was considered the wisest man in the country and a great stock farmer, but a bad month came and he was "shilla dore". "
T.F. Rahilly, Gadelica: A Journal of Modern Irish Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1912), pp. 112-126.
"The Late Councellor" referred to was Richard Higgins Everard, the son of Ignatius Everard who was born in c. 1780. This means that Ignatius Everard was the son of Patrick 'Paddy' Everard from Erris in Mayo. The fact that Ignatius called his eldest son 'Patrick' also supports this.
Ignatius Everard was born in Mayo around the middle of the 18th century. When he died in 1823, his age was reported simply as being 'advanced'. He married in 1774, and must have been at least 20 or so, which takes his year of birth back to c. 1750s, if not earlier.
Ignatius Everard married Bridget Higgins, the only surviving daughter of Bryan Higgins, who also had sons Andrew, Thomas and Bryan. Bryan Higgins Senior was a distinguished Doctor from Collooney, Sligo. He died in 1777, and like his son-in-law Ignatius Everard, was described upon death as being 'of an advanced age.'
An article written about William Higgins ( (1763-1825), a famous Irish Chemist who was Bryan Higgins' grandson and nephew of Bridget Higgins Everard, gave me an insight to the structure of Ignatius Everard's family that I have not been able to locate anywhere else:
"Faulkner's Dublin Journal for 7-10 March 1778, refers to the death of Bryan Higgins, M.D., of Collooney, Co. Sligo, at an advanced age. There is another reference to Bryan Higgins in Deed No. 399/56/262,861, of 24 January 1774 (Registry of Deeds, Dublin), a deed of intermarriage between Bridget, only daughter of Bryan Higgins of Collooney, " doctor of physik," and Ignatius Everard of Neenanagh, Co. Mayo.
A study of the Alumni Dublinenses shows that Ignatius Everard, merchant, of Co. Sligo, had at least three sons, Patrick (b. s 1775), Bryan Higgins, gentleman farmer, and Richard, a barrister, (b. 1781). Bryan Higgins Everard had two sons who went to Trinity College, Dublin ; Ignatius Houston (b. ca. i 8o9), and Richard Houston (b. ca. 1811)."
From : William Higgins, Chemist (1763-1825)Author: Thomas S. Wheeler Source: Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 43, No. 171 (Autumn, 1954), pp. 327-338.
I searched for a reference to a place called 'Neenanagh' in Mayo to no avail, and it was the lateral thinking of an expert in early Irish history, Peter Schermerhorn, from the Sligo Rootsweb group, who came up with the explanation of why 'Neenanagh' wasn't to be found:
"Less than a mile SE of the ruined Cross Priory (aka St. Brendan's, St. Mary or Holy Cross) is the townland of Rinanagh. Now, if someone might have misread or mistyped an initial "n" for an "r" at some time...."
The Tithe Applotment books for Kilmore parish, County Mayo, Belmullet Poor Law Union, Erris Barony, for 1834, reveal that a Patrick Everard resided at Old Village, Reinanagh ...Reinanagh/Rinanagh/Neenanagh. This was of course too late for Paddy Everard, father of Ignatius who died in 1786, but it must have been a descendant- possibly even the eldest son of Ignatius, Patrick Everard, about whom I know absolutely nothing!
From the Alumi Dublinense 1593-1846, there was mention of two of the Everard sons, and two grandsons:
"EVERARD.
PATRICK EVERARD: Pen (Mr. Wilson), July 8, 1791, aged 16. Son of Ignatius Everard, Mercator; born Sligo.
RICHARD EVERARD: Pen (Mr Bagnall) July 4, 1796, aged 15. Son of Ignatius, Mercator. Born Co. Sligo. B.A. Vern 1801. M.A. November 1832. Irish Bar 1808.
IGNATIUS HOUSTON EVERARD: Pen (P.T) October 16, 1826, aged 17; son of Bryan Higgins Everard, Privatus; born Co. Sligo.
RICHARD HOUSTON EVERARD: Pen (P.T) November 3, 1828, aged 17. Son Of Bryan Everard, Agricola; born Sligo."
Ignatius Everard was a well-respected merchant and landowner in Sligo
"EVERARD, Ignatius (fl. 1811), landowner and merchant, Sligo; repres. Co. Sligo (signatory); Cath. Cttee min., 28 Sept. 1781; chmn of Co. Sligo Catholic meeting, Sept. 1811; father of Richard Higgins Everard (i78i?-i836?) who entered T.C.D. July 1796 aged 15 and was called to Irish bar 1808 (D.E.P., 7 Sept. 1811; Alumni Dublinenses (Dublin, 1936); Kings Inns admission papers', Tone, Writings, i (1998), pp 233-4). "
- From: The Personnel of the Catholic Convention, 1792-3Author(s): C. J. WoodsSource: Archivium Hibernicum, Vol. 57 (2003), pp. 26-76
Another Rootsweb forumer, Jim McDonald, was kind enough to lend his expertise to the quest for Everard knowledge, and sent me the following:
"The EVERARD name is in Ireland since at least 1177 when King Henry 2nd gave them grants of land in Meath, Waterford and Tipperary. It is one of the rare names but the families were "highly distinguished"according to Rev. Patrick Woulfe (Irish Names and Surnames, 1923). The Sligo connection is said to have come from Mayo as you stated. McTernan (Olde Sligoe, 1995) writing about Sligo Abbey graves noted that the "memorial slab, ... of Bridget Higgins, wife of Ignatius Everard, is dated 1704."
In 1800 J. EVERARD and I. EVERARD were in Sligo (maybe the same person, John Ignatius?). Ignatius EVERARD was a prosperous merchant in the town and Chairman of the Sligo Catholic Association. McTernan (A Sligo Miscellany) writes of him:"A man of culture and learning, Everard had a deep interest in the language and literature of Ireland. Writing from Sligo in September,1808, Edward Bunting, the noted collector of Irish music, stated that he had dined that day with Mr. Everard "who is an excellent judge of the Irish language". Everard also carried on discourses with Thady Connellan, the Gaelic scholar from Tireragh, and with Dr. O'Connor, an expert on ancient Irish Mss. On his death in 1825 he had been predeceased by his wife Brigid, only daughter of Bryan Higgins, M.D.of Collooney, and was survived by Bryan Higgins."
This Ignatius was "succeeded" by Richard Higgins EVERARD (1780-1836)Barrister-at-Law Dublin and Sligo.Ignatius EVERARD lived in Old Market Street in a house called Everret's. He is listed in the Commercial Directory 1820. In Pigots Directory 1824 Richard is living there. Presumably Ignatius was either retired or in ill health at that time as he died the following year.
Brian H. EVERARD was a shipping agent with emigration at the Port of Sligo at the beginning of the 1800s. They were also dealers in linen. This man appears to have resided in Cregg townland. In the O'Hara Papers: "Agreement dated 7 July 1803 between Andrew Higgins and Ignatius Everard appointing Charles O'Hara (the younger)and Daniel Webber as arbiters in their dispute over lands in the barony of Tyreragh, County Sligo. 1 item, 1803."
(NOTE: Andrew Higgins as named in the last paragraph was the son of Andrew Higgins Senior( died 1793), the brother-in-law of Ignatius Everard, and as such was the nephew of Ignatius and his wife Bridget)
Bridget Higgins Everard predeceased her husband. Freeman's Journal of July 15, 1794, reported:
" DIED- In Sligo, on the 17th, Mrs Everard."
There is no report of her husband Ignatius ever remarrying, although he did become smitten with a young Irish lady, as I will discuss a little later!
Ignatius Everard died on December 26, 1823, in Sligo. His death notice was published in the 'Enniskillen Chronicle and Erne Packet' on January 1, 1824:
" DIED: On Friday morning in Sligo, at an advanced age, Ignatius Everard, Esq."
KNOWN CHILDREN OF IGNATIUS EVERARD AND BRIDGET HIGGINS.
The article written by Thomas Wheeler about Irish Chemist William Higgins (nephew of Ignatius Everard and his wife Bridget) reveals that Ignatius and Bridget had "at least three children"- Patrick, Richard Higgins and Bryan Higgins.
Two of these three sons all attended Trinity College in Dublin, and it is from the registers of this university that Wheeler obtained his information re. Ignatius Everard's children...other children, especially a daughter or daughters, may have been born during the 20 year period between the marriage of Ignatius to Bridget Higgins in 1774 and her death in 1794.
1. PATRICK EVERARD: eldest son of Ignatius and Bridget Everard, and named after his paternal grandfather Patrick Everard from neighbouring Mayo. No other information after he entered Trinity College at the age of 16 in 1791. The Tithe Applotment books for Kilmore Parish, Mayo, for 1834, reveal that a Patrick Everard was living at Old Village, Reinanagh. As the eldest son it is possible that he inherited the Everard lands in Kilmore Erris from his father Ignatius, although various records seem to suggest that it was "Councellor Everard" (Richard Higgins Everard, a younger son), who had control of the Erris lands by this stage.
2. RICHARD HIGGINS EVERARD: born c. 1780, Sligo. Richard became a barrister in Dublin. I have no record of a marriage, but I did find reference to a court case which suggested that an affair with a woman that continued for over a decade resulted in the birth of an illegitimate son. The affair with the unnamed woman started in 1820 when Richard was 40 years old, and continued until his death in 1836. Neither the woman or the child were named, although the child's mother was noted as being a "respectable lady".
Prior to this affair, Richard Everard achieved infamy amongst Irish society circles for his public and unrequited love for Sydney Owenson (later to become Lady Morgan when she married, in 1812, Sir Charles Morgan, a widowed physician). Sydney was the daughter of an Irish actor named Robert Owenson and his Shropshire-born wife. She and her sister Olivia lost their mother quite early in their lives, and lived a Bohemian existence with their father.
In c. 1805-06, when he was about 25 years old, Richard Everard fell madly in love with Sydney Owenson, who was several years older than him. The tale that followed was told in print by various sources, such as the following extract which comes from an article entitled "Miss Owenson's Lovers", published by Fraser's magazine in 1863:
" Then there came lovers eleven and twelve, in the persons of a son and his old father. The son, Richard Everard, we are told, fell ardently in love with her, and "he had no money and no profession." The year of the love fit is not given, but this Richard Everard, we find on inquiry, was born in 1780, and was consequently five years the junior of Miss Owenson. In 1801 he was in a commercial house in Dublin, but this he soon left, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1808, at which, from his subtlety as a special pleader, he acquired the sobriquet of Dicky Demurrer.
The father of Richard Everard was one Ignatius Everard, of the town of Sligo, a man who had made a good deal of money as a grazier and commercial speculator. Everard, the father, we are told, called on Miss Owenson to remonstrate about his "son's imprudence", when she spoke so wisely and pleasantly, in a word, with so sage and silvery a tongue that the old fool fell desperately in love with her himself.
Will it be believed that the old man's letter is given in extenso, dated Sligo 1807, in which he tells Miss Owenson "his heart, his hand, his purse, are freely at her command." He feelingly asks if there is any prospect that her father may be rescued from his miserable state?" Strangest of all, old Everard and his son figure as Lord M_____ and Mortimer, in the pages of 'The Wild Irish Girl'."
"The Wild Irish Girl" was a novel written by Sydney Owenson and published in 1806. From "Lady Morgan's memoirs", which were published after her death in 1859, comes the following exerpt:
" 'The Wild Irish Girl', or, as it was first intended to be called, 'The Princess Of Innishmore', was, in some measure based on a curious circumstance in Miss Owenson's own life. A young man, Richard Everard, had fallen violently in love with Miss Owenson; his father discovered it and was displeased. This son had no money, no profession and was a very idle young man. Miss Owenson had no money either, and it looked a very undesirable match. Mr. Everard, the father, called upon Miss Owenson, stated his objections, and begged her to use her influence to make his son Richard take to some employment, and tried to obtain her promise not to marry him. Miss Owenson had not the least inclination to marry him, but nobody like to be peremptorily desired to refrain even from a course they are "not inclined to".
Still, Sydney Owenson spoke so wisely, and conducted herself so pleasantly, that the father actually became desirous of doing himself what he had forbidden his son to think of. Miss Owenson was no more disposed to marry the father than she had been to marry the son. He became, however, a very kind and firm friend to her father, assisting him both with counsel and money. Mr Everard kept up a long and earnest correspondence with Miss Owenson, confiding to her with singular frankness, all his own concerns and private affairs; and constantly entreating her to use her influence over his son to turn him from his idle courses.
The history of this curious friendship is detailed in the story of The Wild Irish Girl, where her father figures as the prince of Innismore, Mr Everard and his son as Lord M____ and Mortimer; though the beautiful atmosphere of romance which clothes the story in the novel was entirely absent in the matter of fact.
The following letter is from Mr Everard, the original of Lord M___, the father of the Mortimer of the novel:
'J. Everard to Sydney Owenson.
Sligo, November 10, 1807. Tuesday night.
I have read a letter from Richard- poor fellow! After dissipating much of his own time, and a great deal of my money, he has been obliged to enter into a special pleader's office (for which I was forced to pay one hundred guineas as his admission fee), in order to become what is called a black letter man- a mechanical lawyer. This is no great proof abilities!
I must very shortly leave this for Dublin, perhaps for England, if my health permits.I would like to see you before I went. I would gladly spend an hour with you some morning, if I could do it without annoying your family; but doubtful of my reception, I am somewhat afraid of adventuring. Tell me, if I can go, will I see you without inconvenience? Tell me more, in confidence. Can I be anything to you? for my hand, my heart, and my purse are freely at your command. You can't confer a greater obligation on me than to suffer me to minister to your convenience. With cordiality and truth,
I am your attached and faithful friend, J. Everard.
Wednesday morning.
I beg to know where your father is. What is he doing, or what prospects does he entertain? Is there any prospect that his decline of life will be rescued from that miserable state? How, or where, is your sister? I am interested for everything that concerns you. Unjustly were you dissatisfied at her writing to me; tis she who ought to be displeased, not you.
Do you spend the winter at Longford? When do you go to Dublin? I am anxious to see you, and loiter away a little time with you; but alas, neither you nor I can afford to be idlers, at least indulgence is not for me; but I am trifling, adieu, J. Everard.
P.S. Would to God you would write less indistinctly, I am only eternally guessing at your meaning. Perhaps, like the oracles of old, you wish your characters may have double meanings."
The previous July, 1806, Sydney had been in Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, visiting her maternal relations, and she wrote of the visit to her sister Olivia...
"...Do you know I have had a most extraordinary packet from old Everard...six pages! mostly about Dick. He seems afraid his son is going over to marry me; but says he throws himself on my generosity,- and that he begs of me to save him from himself, for that without an independence and without industry, a connection of that kind would weigh him down for life. He then recommends him to my care, and begs me to be his preceptress and guardian, that I will guide his actions and direct his study , and to sum up all, he encloses me an order on his banker for twenty guineas for pocket money! You know my spirit- the order I returned- and gave him a true and circumstantial account of my acquaintance with his son from beginning to end- assuring him that the expected arrival of his son hurried my departure from London; as my obligations to the father precluded every idea of continuing any intercourse with the son, unsanctioned by his approbation. I wrote very proudly and very much to the purpose. He told me you looked well and handsome (Is he not an angel?)."
NOTE: rather than Ignatius Everard inexplicably signing his letters 'J.Everard', I think that the letters 'J' and 'I' were confused- a very easy mistake to make with writing from that period.
The novel "The Wild Irish Girl" was Sydney Owenson's most well-known and successful published work. From "The Wild Irish Girl: the life of Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan (1776-1859) by Lionel Stevenson; Chapman & Hall, Ltd., 1936:
" Owenson's affairs had been gradually declining, and the rebellion of 1798 brought a crisis, the military forces being too busy, and the civilians too anxious, to patronise the theatre. As Owenson's rent was far in arrears, the landlord seized his scenery and costumes,and although he was helped out of his most pressing difficulties by a leading merchant of Sligo, Ignatius Everard, his professional career seemed to be at an end.....
.....It may be remembered that when Owenson was in financial straits in Sligo, the friend who came to his rescue was a prosperous merchant named Ignatius Everard. Seven years later when Sydney Owenson revisited the district, his young son Richard fell in love with her. As he was not an industrious youth, and had made no choice of a profession, his father did not favour the idea of a marriage, and came to Miss Owenson to state his objections. Not being particularly interested in the young man, she agreed with her visitor so cordially that he formed a high opinion of her meritsand began to pay her attentions herself. They had much in common- in 1792 he had been an associate of Wolf Tone and the "United Irishmen", and he was now interested in Irish music ( a little later he helped Bunting to collect tunnes in his district. At the time when Sydney was at work on The Wild Irish Girl, he wrote to her frequently, offering his hand and purse, and little suspecting that he was helping to supply a plot for her story."
Once the air had cleared over the Sydney Owenson debacle, Richard Everard was admitted to the Irish Bar, an event which took place in 1808. In 1820 his affair with the 'respectable lady' started, to continue for the next 15 years. The only mention of his mistress and son comes from "Irish Equity Reports, High Court Of Chancery, Ireland".
'Monday, July 27, 1839. Security for costs, Plaintiff Out Of The Jurisdiction- reference for Scandal. EVERARD v _______."
The first name of the plainiff was never mentioned- at all times he was referred to as 'the plaintiff'. Similarly, Richard Everard's mistress and son were never named. In a nutshell, Everard the Plaintiff declared that in 1835 he had been 'conned' out of 500 pounds of a 1500 pound settlement by Richard Everard, who at the time of this claim had been deceased for two or three years. Plaintiff Everard was an officer in H.M's Service on duty with his Regiment in India. The most probable candidate for his identity is one of the two sons of Bryan Higgins Everard- Ignatius Houston Everard born 1809, or Richard Houston Everard born 1811. Both boys attended Trinity College in Dublin, and Richard definitely joined the Army as a surgeon.
The report of the court case reads, in part, as follows:
" The Plaintiff is an Officer in H.M's Service on duty with his Regiment in India. The passages of the bill specified are grossly scandalous, as they charge one of the defendants, a respectable lady, with having lived for several years in improper intercourse and having had an illegitimate child, thereby obtained unbounded influence over the mind of the owner of the estate, which is the subject of the present litigation.
Plaintiff's case: He was entitled to a paramount charge on the estate of Richard Everard of 1500 pounds. In 1835 he was under fraud and coercion obliged by R. Everard to execute a release of such charge, and accept, in lieu thereof,the personal security of the said R. Everard, conditioned for the payment of the sum of 1000 pounds. Being a very young man, just entering the Army, and having no experience in legal transactions, the Plaintiff signed the release without any personal advice.
In the year 1820 an improper intercourse commenced between Richard Everard and the female defendant, which continued until his death in 1836, and that there is issue of the said improper intercourse one son. That by reason of such improper intercourse, the said female defendant acquired unbounded influence over the said R. Everard
On January 6, 1829, Richard Everard executed an indenture, purporting to be made between himself of the first part, and of the second a trustee and the female defendant. She handed over and vested in R. Everard, as her trustee, Government debentures and sums of money of her own seperate property to the amount of 3500 pounds, and that Richard Everard stood indebted to her in said sum, and that to secure the payment thereof, with interest at 4 percent, he had agreed to charge the same upon the said several lands. The female defendant alleges that after the execution of the said deed she made several further advances to the said R. Everard, the receipts of which were regularly indorsed upon the back of the said deed in the handwriting of the said R. Everard.
This deed was never given up by Richard Everard to the defendant or her trustee, and he retained possession of it during his life. The same was found after his decease, which took place in 1836, in an old travelling bag which had belonged to him.
After the decease of the said R. Everard, the said female defendant stated to the several persons in the bill particularly mentioned that she was no aware of the execution of the said deed until after the decease of the said R. Everard, and that the same was found after his decease in ahis travelling bag.
In February 1837, the defendant and her trustee filed their bill in this court against the heir-at-law of Richard Everard and several others, alleging that at the time of Richard Everard's death, they were due 4538 pounds and a considerable arrear of interest. The estate is insufficient to pay both demands upon it.- from: Irish equity reports By Ireland High Court of Chancery, Ireland. Rolls Court. 1838-1839.
I can find no other references to the two cases mentioned above, nor any mention of the names of the lady or child.
From the book "ANECDOTES OF THE CONNAUGHT CIRCUIT. FROM ITS FOUNDATION IN 1604 TO CLOSE UPON THE PRESENT TIME", BY OLIVER J. BUEKE, A.B., T.C.D. DUBLIN: HODGES, FIGGIS, AND CO., GRAFTON STREET, PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 1885, comes the following exerpt:
"Duelling was not yet dead on the Circuit. In 1836, Mr. Walker, K.C., fought his brother circuiteer, Mr. Casserly, at Sligo, on some question that arose in Court on Registry Appeals; and Mr. Baker, K.C., fought on the field of battle Mr. Richard Everard, commonly called " Dicky Demurrer; " for Mr. Baker, an extremely irritable man, could not brook the affront of Mr. Everard's successfully demurring to pleadings that he (Mr. Baker) had signed. There was a Mr. Courtenay on the Circuit also, counsel to the Bank of Ireland ; and he sent Mr. Everard a challenge to fight him in " the fifteen acres, be the same more or less," for setting aside a score or so of his declarations."
Richard had control of the Everard Estate lands in County Mayo according to several reports which usually referred to him as "Councellor Everard". In the publication "ERRIS IN THE IRISH HIGHLANDS" by P. Knight, published 1836 at Dublin, the Everard state as it existed in 1832 was mentioned:
"Within The Mullet- Improvements etc. The Messrs Rowland's plans for improving Aghalasheen, a farm taken two years since from Councellor Everard, containing about 950 Irish acres, deserves to be recorded here. The lease to them from Mr Everard is for lives renewable forever, the rent 100 pounds yearly; Mr Everard allowing 200 pounds out of the first five years rent towards improvements...
...Before the erection of Belmullet, Mr Everard could with difficulty get 30 pounds yearly for the whole of his farm; it was considered a monstrous price to get 100 pounds."
From 1833 to 1836, a Commission into the condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland undertook to interview cross-sections of communities from the parishes of the various counties, including Mayo, to determine the true state of poverty in the country.
When interviewing people from the parish of Kilmore Erris in Mayo, one of 18 residents of the parish chosen to be interviewed was the bailiff to Richard Everard, one William Feargus. Others included farmers Edward Burke and Brien Deane; bailiffs William Feargus and James Donoghoe ( the latter working for Major Bingham "the principal proprietor in the parish"); widows Early, Geraghty and Reilly; police constable Mr William Meredith; magistrate Captain Nugent; stipendiary magistrate Captain Ireland; labourers Pat Lavelle, Dominick Frekill, Martin Hoban and Frank O'Donell; parish priest Mr. Rev. John Lyons; Mr O'Brien, parish school master; cottier Hugh O'Mally and mendicant Edmund Dickson. ( A 'mendicant' is a person who depends on begging or alms for a living)
The report was certainly an eyeopener for me...I was well aware of the dreadful circumstances which enveloped the Irish people in the 1840s in the form of the Great Famine, but had no idea of the dire poverty that the people of Mayo found themselves in a decade earlier. Following are some exerpts which paint a picture of the parish in which the Everard lands were situated:
"There is a great number of orphan children through the villages, their number being greatly increased since cholera visited this district.They live mostly by begging, their relatives being for the most part too poor to undertake the support of them. Many of them between the ages of 12 and 18 hire with the small farmers, for perhaps one quarter, and beg the next. The elder beg for the younger children; and if any be old enough to marry, all the others fall in upon them for support."
" The demand for labour is so insignificant that there is no class who are called labourers; because no class can subsist altogether on their hired labour. Those persons paying no rent for the spot of ground on which they build their cabins, or the course mountain land on which they plant a few month's consumption of potatoes, are called by the burlesque name of "freeholders".
Feargus (bailiff to the property of which he speaks) says "On Mr Everard's estate there are living altogether under 200 families; 50 or 60 of these are 'freeholders' having no holdingd of their own, but trespassing on this man and that. The men are as able and willing to work as any men in the country, but there is no work for them, and they must be trespassers on their neighbours.
They take a few ridges of ground for the season from a holder and pay him in labour. This gives them potatoes, but not as much as they would consume in 2 months; they must then turn out and beg at home until summer comes, and they are believed to steal nearly as much as they beg. The tenants make great complaints of them, that they steal their cabbages and potatoes, and that their pigs root up their ground. I have orders from Mr Everard to clear them off. We cannot look to what becomes of them afterwards, but we can see that when they are cleared out of one village, they go and settle down in another.
By a census of his parish made two years ago, by the Rev Mr Lyons, it appeared that of the 1,648 families then constituting the whole polulation of the parish, 371 belonged to this class. Some of these "freeholders" are ejected tenants, others never held land."
Freeholder Dominick Frekill stated " When potatoes are scarce in the summer, and few of the neighbours have them to spare, we must often live without them. My wife then goes through the fields and gathers some of the green weeds and boils them. We sometimes have a small share of potatoes to eat with them, but we have often lived three or four days without a potato, on the weedsd alone. I have not brought a shoe or stocking these seven years. I have not bought a new coat for four years, nor trousers for five. I was three weeks in the house, I could not go out for want of clothes, and you see (showing us his clothes) whether I am fit to go out now either, for the cold or for the shame. I have one pair of blankets, the whole family (seven in number) lie under them on one bed, lying heads and points; they are warm and spent now, and are the only pair which I have had since I was married, 17 years ago."
" As regards the clothing of the labourers, they are without shoes or stockings, and their other clothes are mere rags, leaving them everywhere open to the weather. O'Brien says ' We have told you that the beggars are naked, but it is not the beggars merely, but the persons that relieve the beggars that are naked; the old clothes that I wear on weekdays I lend to my neighbours, decent people, to go to mass on Sundays." Evidence was then given of a man who had been ill in bed for 18 months, and when he was well enough to again go outdoors he could not because his wife and children, being freezing and having no warm clothing of their own, had been wearing his clothes until they were worn out, leaving him none to wear.
It is upsetting to think of Richard Everard giving orders to his bailiff to "clear out" the freeholders from his land...orders given, no doubt, from the warmth and security of one of his two residences in Dublin or Sligo. Even those with very little to give shared with those who had even less, whether it be potatoes or the very clothing from their backs...it seems as though those who were in a position to give far more chose to turn their backs and move these suffering families on to another place...out of sight, out of mind.
The 'Morning Chronicle' of April 9, 1831, published an article that showed a slightly more compassionate side of Richard Everard:
" DISTRESS IN IRELAND. PUBLIC MEETING IN DUBLIN.
...Councellor Everard rose and said: He had come to the meeting with no intention of trespassing on its attention more than to hand in his subscription, but he thought it might be useful to state to the meeting what he himself had witnessed within the past ten days. With regard to the present situation of County Mayo, he could assure the meeting that he was quite unable to give an adequate description of its heart-rendering situation. The distress that existed in that county could not be conceived. Superadded to the horrors of famine was the dreadful visitation of disease. Typhus fever and cholera morbus had already set in and were rapidly doing their work of death. There was no public medical institution in the entire county but the public infirmary. He knew a particular district where those frightful maladies were particularly prevalent, and from one part of it there was no medicinal assistance to be procurred within a shorter distance than fifty miles.
...Everyone knew that proverbial charity and hospitality of the Irish peasant. He took his meals with open doors, and the passing stranger or the wandering merchant was cheerfully welcomed to their participation.. What was the fact? Even so considerable was the distress as far back as last Christmas, that at that period of festivity they used to take their meals with closed doors, and at unusual hours, to be relieved from the pain of refusing that hospitality which was no longer in their power.
...The learned gentleman in conclusion urged the necessity of promptitude in administering relief, and sat down amidst the appluase of the meeting."
Even as early as 1822, the district of Erris in Mayo was making the newspapers in relation to its terrible poverty levels:
" The distressed of Ireland are now assuming the form of famine and pestilence. With horror we read the following statement in the Dublin Patriot received this morning- " We regret to say, that a letter from Erris, County Mayo, received on Saturday last from T. Everard Esq, forwarding a statement by Mr. James McDonough, who resides in the district, contained the afflicting account that a MAN, HIS WIFE AND NINE CHILDREN ALL PERISHED FOR WANT OF FOOD!!! Of those who, having the means, still hesitate as to the propriety or necessity of subscribing for the unfortunate Irish, we beg leave to call the attention to the first article in this days publication." - Glasgow Herald, July 5, 1822.
(NOTE: I wonder if the letter writer named as 'T.Everard' was in fact 'I.Everard', as Ignatius was still alive and in possession of the Everard estate in Erris, Mayo, at this time).
The Freemans's Journal of July 1, 1822 also reported the above event:
" SLIGO- from the Rev. Thomas Smith, Vivar of Easkey, 17 June.
There are 305 families, consisting of 1282 persons, in absolute starvation. From the Bishop of Killalla, Edward Wingfield, and William Browne, Union of Castlecomber and Kallyglass: Population is 8270 persons, approaching a state of starvation. Many are unable to get money for seed potatoes, for the last 2 months the people have lived on shellfish, seaweed and herbs.
We regret to say that a letter from Erris, County Mayo, received on Saturday last, from T. Everard, Esq, forwarding a statement by Mr James McDonough, who resides in the district, contained the afflciting account that a man, his wife and nine children all perished for want of food. On this information being communicated, The Mansion House Committee immediately directed a further supply to be forwarded to that neighbourhood."
Richard Higgins Everard died in c.1836, and I can find no mention of a marriage prior to his death. Of course, this does not mean that he was not married, as I have been unable to locate ANY official birth, death or marriage records for the Sligo or Mayo Everards of this generation.
There is a mention of Richard Everard's ill health in a testimony that he gave in court when he was called as a witness in a trial held at the Court of the King's Bench, Dublin, in February of 1828. The case was quite intricate, but basically involved the removal of a 17 year old boy, John Henry Hely Hutchinson Grady, from his public school at Donnybrook, by Mrs Elizabeth Richards and her daughter Helena Henrietta for the purpose of elopement between the two young people, and "a conspiracy to impose upon the said John Henry Hely Hutchinson Grady the burden of maintaining an illegitimate child". John H.H Grady's father, Henry Dean Grady, of Merrion Square, Dublin, and his wife Dorcas, accused Helena Richards of being " a person of unchaste name,reputation and conduct". They had never before met Mrs Richards or her daughter, and had certainly never given them permission to remove their son John from his school.
Despite trying to make the Richards mother and daughter appear as the sole instigators in the whole affair, when cross-examined Henry Grady had to admit that his daughter had previously run away to Gretna Green in Scotland to be married without his permission, and that his son John had, prior to his latest school at Donnybrook, run away from his three previous schools at Eton, Windchester and the Feneglian Institution.
It was alleged by the prosecution that Miss Richards was 23 or 24 years of age, and that both she and her mother were of very shady character:
" Some few years ago Mr Richards had parted from his wife, and if he had been rightly instructed, the gentleman had good cause for the seperation. In fact, the conduct of Mrs Richards was such as to render it impossible for a high--minded gentleman, solicitous for the peace and honour of domestic life,to live with her. Mrs Richards was remarkable for habitual intoxication, and he (Sergeant Gould)need not inform the Jury of the consequences to which such a habit of life lead. She had an annuity of about 400 pounds, and though her years advanced she nevertheless retained her charms and continued to indulge in those vicious and guilty propensities which had tarnished her early life...."
"...Miss Helen Richards, alias Mrs. Grady, was so far as he could learn, a creature of lovely and beauteous countenance but, unfortunately, a victim to her own charms and the bad example of her parent. It would be satisfactorily established upon evidence that this young lady was as lascivious in her habits as she was witching in her form; that she was in the habit of meeting young gentlemen in the porter's lodge; that she received and communicated letters through her chamber window; that she used to be seen in the shrubbery, in company with young gentlemen, at so late an hour sometimes as twelve; that she availed herself of facilities of access through her chamber window, which was only five feet from the ground; that this was demonstrable in more instances than one; that she was pregnant at the time of her marriage at Gretna Hall, and that medicines were administered to her for purposes not to be doubted..."
"He was third or fourth son of Mr. Henry Deane Grady, and was born in the month of February, 1811—of course he was only sixteen years and nine months old at the time in question. He was not only a very boy in appearance, but he was of a peculiarly weak character of intellect—he was addicted to boyish plays and amusements—(laughter)—one of his passions was an attachment to a favourite donkey— (great laughter)—and from what I have heard there was a great congeniality between the two animals. But he was therefore the fitter person to be practised upon, to be duped and imposed on. His habit was to go from school to visit his mother with whom he was a pet, and to see his favourite donkey. His father at last sent him to school at Winchester, from whence he returned without the consent of his master. He was sent back and became a favourite there ; and was proceeding to take advantage of the liberal education his father was inclined to give him, when, unfortunately, he came home to pass the long vacation of last summer with his father and mother at Stillorgan; and recollect that their residence is not in a bird line, more than a few yards from the habitation of Mrs. Richards. Finding that the boy was not disposed to the pursuit of serious studies, Mr. Grady thought it right to look to the army as a provision for him, and he was sent to the Rev. Prince Crawford’s school at Donnybrook, where two of his brothers were already placed, to pursue a course of reading which might fit him for that profession. The Learned Sergeant here proceeded to state the details of Mr. Grady’s introduction to Miss Richards, while at Mr. Crawford’s school, by John Lynch, the lodge-keeper—their subsequent elopement in ten or eleven days."
" Remarking on the certificate, Sergeant Goold said, Gentlemen of the Jury— I call your attention to this fact—part of this document is printed, and part of it is in manuscript—it is headed with the King’s arms, and is in this form :--“ These are to certify to all persons whom it may concern, that John Hely Hutchinson Grady, of No. 8, Merrion-square, East, Dublin, son of Henry Deane Grady, and Helen Richards, daughter of John Richards, of the County of Fermanagh, came before me, and declared themselves to be single persons, and were lawfully married by me, according to the laws of the Kirk of Scotland.—Helen Richards, aged 17, John H. H. Grady, aged 18.” Whose hand-writing, Gentlemen, do you think the manuscript part of the certificate is ? Every word of it is the handwriting of Miss Richards, and in the description of the ages, she makes the boy two years older than he really was ; and with all the complacency and modesty of a virtuous young female, the young lady makes herself six years younger."
As a friend of the Richards family, Richard Everard was called upon as a witness to give evidence in their support:
" Richard Everard, barrister, examined. Knew Mr & Mrs Richards. Has visited them since 1821. Previously to that he was concerned as counsel for Mrs Richards. She has two sets of trustees- one in her marriage settlement, and the other for her private property; he acts as the trustee in the latter. Has been in the habits of intimacy with them since they first became acquainted. Is in strict habits of intimacy with them for the past three years. Within the past two years, since his health has declined, he has been in the habit of visiting, dining and sleeping there very frequently. Did not think while in town that any period of ten days had lapsed without him seeing them.
'On my oath, I never knew of any improper conduct of these ladies. I never saw it, knew it or even suspected it. When I left town for the summer assizes, on August 4, I believed the girl to be as pure and as chaste as any girl in existence.' "
Richard Everard also swore that letters purported to have been written by Miss Richards to another young lover, O'Connor, were most definitely not written by her.
I have devoted so much space to this case, even though it has nothing directly to do with the Everards, because it is such a fascinating slice of 19th century Ireland...a novel or movie based on these actual events would be considered "As If!!!", in today's terminology.
In the defence of the Richards mother and daughter, their team provided the arguement that it was an employee, Lynch, who organized the elopement in view to extract from Mrs Richards her fortune. They argued that it was Elizabeth Richards who organised the legal seperation from her husband as the result of him having an affair with some "low girl" on his estate in Fermanagh. They also produced witnesses to swear that Helena Richards was most definitely not pregnant at the time of her elopement, and that John Hely Hutchinson Grady was at least 18 years old when the elopement took place, not 16 as claimed by his father.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Back to John Everard Senior- International man of Mystery!
I hadn't realised that I had neglected my Everard blog for so long...it has been months, and I seem to have stalled before even getting to my most frustrating ancestor, John Everard Senior. I have written about what little I know of John in my blog about the family of his wife, Jane Sanders, so rather than rewrite his story I will copy it verbatim from the Sanders blog:
JOHN EVERARD & JANE SANDERS.
This couple are my great-great-great grandparents, and although I have been researching them for over 20 years, I still cannot crack the mystery of their relationship, or the story behind John Everard.For many years I had searched for their marriage certificate to no avail, deciding in the end that it simply didn't exist..that it had not survived from c. 1849 and thus was not recorded in any of the Government or other marriage indexes for Victoria. Then, several years ago, I was absolutely gobsmacked to find the "missing" certificate...John and Jane had married, all right, but not until 1894, when John was 84 years old and almost on his death bed, and Jane was 64!!!!The certificate itself was marvellous...it gave John Everard's parents- or at least, he gave the names of two people whom he claimed were his parents- and gave his birthplace as County Sligo, Ireland. John switched and changed between two birth places when he had to nominate his origins on official documents, writing "Sligo" or "Leixlip, Kildare" as the mood took him. John Everard's usual and present place of residence was given as 'Melbourne' and Jane's as Warrnambool, and the couple were married at Swanston Street, Melbourne by the Reverend Robert Angus according to the rites of the Presbyterian Church. This was a surprise...the Presbyterian faith had never been associated with this branch of the family. The witnesses who signed the certificate were strangers to me...James Holt and Annie Holt. I noticed that this couple had also acted as witnesses for the other two marriages on the page, both of whom were also married by Rev. Angus.This was unusual, I thought...perhaps they were a married couple who were employed by the church as caretakers and who were called upon occasionally to serve as witnesses to small, private wedding ceremonies?
How wrong I was... James Holt and his wife Annie were the proprietors of a thriving business, Holt's Matrimonial Agency, who pre-1895 operated from 345 Swanston Street! The Reverend Robert Angus was just one of a series of ministers of varying denominations who could be relied upon to be called up at short notice to officiate at marriage ceremonies.The Holt's Agency not only conducted marriage ceremonies, but also arranged marriages between parties who had not even met before. In a famous example of this, wife murderer Frederick Bailey Deeming, after killing his wife and burying her under the fireplace in their home in Windsor, Melbourne, on Christmas Day 1891, wrote to Holt's Matrimonial Agency in January 1892 indicating his "matrimonial intentions" in meeting a woman..."she must be good-looking, age 18 or 20 and know something of housekeeping." Luckily for any prospective wives, Deeming was captured and hung before he could find himself another victim.Reverend Robert Angus found himself in the newspapers on occasion as the result of his association with Holt's. He was a Scotsman who had arrived in Victoria in c. 1879, and as well as preaching sermons at Melbourne's Presbyterian churches, also aligned himself with Holt's Matrimonial Agency to earn himself a bit of extra pocket money...25 shillings on a good week, to be exact.In October of 1896- two years after he married Jane Sanders and John Everard- Robert Angus was being quoted in papers Australia-wide as he stood witness in a trial in which a woman was accused of lying about being the guardian of an underage girl who had been married by Rev. Angus.Following are some excerpts of articles that were printed about the case, which help to paint a good picture of the character of both the Reverend Angus and the establishment for which he worked:" Witness(Robert Angus) said that he derived his income from occasional employment in connection with the Presbyterian Church, and that he also had private means. He had been attached to Holt's matrimonial Bureau for 3 or 4 years, and he received 25 shillings per week for celebrating marriages there. He would marry any couple, Jew or Gentile, who came before him so long as they complied with all legal requirements.Annie Holt, who carries on the business of a matrimonial agency, stated that one or more marriages were celebrated at the bureau nearly every day. She had had about 11 years' experience in these registries. Other clergymen besides Mr Angus officiated there. The latter had several allowances besides his 25 shillings per week, and his emoluments altogether might amount to about three pounds per week."
"The Reverend R. Angus stated that he took them as they came without respect to denomination, provided the law of the land was complied with."" The Reverend R. Angus's evidence evoked much laughter. He said he was engaged by Holt's Matrimonial Agency to celebrate marriages, and he had married as many as 14 couples a week. Holts paid him 25 shillings a week. He married all denominations, and would marry aboriginals for love."" Much amusement was created in court by the cross-examination of the marrying man, Mr. Angus, who said he would marry a Jew and Jewess or two Roman Catholics according to the Rites of the Presbyterian Church if they came before him."
Okay..we get the gist of what sort of place Holt's Matrimonial Agency was- legal but with very few questions asked- but why would John Everard and Jane Sanders choose to get married there? An even bigger question...why would they choose to get married at all, after raising an adult family and spending 45 years together without marrying? John was 84 years old and just 16 months away from death, and Jane was twenty years his junior.What had stopped the pair from marrying in 1849-50 when they first met and Jane fell pregnant with their first child? They pretended to be married for over 40 years..I would imagine that not even their children would have known their secret. I wonder if their children knew of the late marriage in 1894, or if just Jane and John stood before the Reverend Angus and the Holts, signed the certificate with crosses and buried yet another family secret?
I can think of three possible scenarios which would have prevented John and Jane from marrying in 1849-50.... the previous marriage of one of them with a wife or husband still alive; religious issues, or something specified in a will or official document that prevented marriage between the couple.
As far as I can tell, the latter situation is out of the question. There was no money in this family...John was a humble carpenter, and the family certainly never enjoyed the trappings of wealth as they worked hard for a living in Warrnambool. Religion is a possibility...John was from Ireland, and may have been Catholic when he emigrated, and Jane was from a mixed background of Episcopalian and Quaker back in England.
It is the first scenario that rings true with me...I honestly think that John had been married before, and that his wife was still alive when he took up with Jane Sanders.He was 20 years older than Jane, and the only indication of when he arrived in Victoria is an estimation on his death certificate that states he had spent 48 years in Victoria. This puts his year of arrival at c. 1847, when he would have been aged about 37 years- plenty of time to have been married and had another family somewhere.
I don't think it could have been Jane who was previously married- she was only 18 when she arrived from England in 1849, and by 1850 had given birth to Elizabeth Everard, her first child. Because John Everard is such a mystery, I believe that he is the catalyst behind the late-in-life marriage arrangements. He hasn't been located in any State's shipping records, and both his pre-Australian life and his life in Victoria are blank canvasses. All that we know about him is that he was a carpenter born in c. 1810 in either Sligo or Kildare, Ireland, and that his parents were supposedly John Everard and Catherine Clark. He lived initially in Melbourne, then moved to Warrnambool, and finished his life in Melbourne Hospital at the age of 85 years.The name 'Ignatius' may or may not be associated with John Everard...when he registered the birth of his daughter Annie Everard in 1863, John noted that a son, Ignatius, had previously died. This is the only mention of this child. Similarly, on the death certificate of one of his daughters, John's full name is given as "John Ignatius Everard".
This name 'Ignatius' may hold the clue to John's Irish background. When we look for early Everards in Sligo, only one family shows up...that of Sligo merchant Ignatius Everard and his wife Bridget Higgins. Official church records seem to be non-existant for the 18th century and early 1800s, or if they do iexist I have not been able to find out where they are located. I was lucky that Bridget Higgins was related to a famous chemist named William Higgins, and her marriage to Ignatius Everard, along with the births of three of their sons, was mentioned in an article about said William Higgins.
The article," William Higgins, Chemist", written by Thomas S. Wheeler and published in "Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review" in 1954, stated that Bridget's father, Bryan Higgins, was a "Doctor of Physik" of Collooney, Sligo. The only daughter of Bryan Higgins, Bridget married Ignatius Everard, of Neenanagh, Mayo, in 1774. Three sons from this marriage were named- Patrick born 1775; Bryan Higgins Everard, a gentleman farmer; and Richard Higgins Everard, born 1781, a Dublin barrister.
There may have been more children, but they were not named in the article, which was more centred around the Higgins family. If another son existed named John Everard, he may very well have been my John's father. My John stated on his marriage certificate that his father was "John Everard, gentleman", which was an unusual fact considering that the former was a very poor carpenter. Being a gentleman from Sligo would have placed my John's father quite nicely into the family of Ignatius and Bridget.
Taking the Everard search back even further, I had to switch counties, and start looking in Mayo, since that was Ignatius Everard's place of origin. I could not find any reference to a location called 'Neenanagh', but in June 1822, a notice appeared in Freeman's Journal concerning the distribution of funds in various counties for relief of the poor. It stated that "The Committee of Management have allocated the following sums for the relief of the poor in the distressed districts in the South and West of the Kingdom, viz..
County Mayo, 150 pounds.
Reverend W.R Smith, Castlebar, 30 pounds
Rev. Paul MacGreal, Ballyhaunis, 30 pounds
Rev. Charles Hargrove, Castlebar, 20 pounds
John Knox Eqs, Killabar, 30 pounds
Ignatius Everard, Eris, Sligo, 30 pounds
Rev. James Kinelyand Mr Mitch Flanerry, Clare, 10 pounds."
Erris was a region in Mayo...the parish of Kilmore Erris had a long history of association with the Everard family. Other references referred to Ignatius Everard and then his son Richard holding property in Erris, Mayo, although it had passed out of Everard family hands by the time of the Griffiths Valuation in 1856-57.
" The Everards settled in the parish of Kilmore, barony of Erris, county Mayo, in the early 18th century and held lands on renewable leases for ever from Sir Arthur Shaen. The Ordnance Survey Field Name Books help to identify the townlands belonging to the Everards, most of which were in the possession of John W.O.Richards by the time of Griffith's Valuation. At the time of Griffith's Valuation John William Owen Richards had an estate in the parish of Kilmore, barony of Erris, county Mayo. This property was previously held on a lease for ever from Sir Arthur Shaen to the Everards. In 1876 Richards owned 2228 acres in county Mayo and 3219 acres at Tempo, county Fermanagh.
Sir James Shaen, Surveyor General of Ireland, left his estates to his son Sir Arthur Shaen, who had 2 daughters and heiresses. One daughter, Frances, married Sir John Bingham of Newbrook, county Mayo in 1738 and the other daughter, Susannah, married Henry Boyle Carter of Castle Martin, county Kildare in 1750.
Sir Arthur Shaen's property was left in equal shares between his daughters and their families. The Carter half still remains entire, in the present possessor, William H. Carter, Esq. ; but of the Bingham half, part is now held in fee by Counsellor Everard, Knox of Rappa, Mr. M'Donnell of Carnacon, Kirkwood of Cottlestown, Miss Nash of Cam, within the Mullet; Major Bingham still retaining a considerable part. Major Cormick and the Bishop of Killala are the other proprietors.''
- from the website http://www.nuigalway.ie/ , which has a very useful database of landed estates.
There is a reference to a Paddy Everard living in Mayo even earlier...
" This verse has particular allusion to Paddy Everard, the grandfather of the late Councellor, who was considered the wisest man in the country and a great stock farmer, but a bad month came and he was shilla dore."
This came from an article about well-known Mayo poet Richard Barrett, who was born in the Mullet, Mayo, in c. 1740, and died December 8, 1819. According to Patrick Lynch who visited Barrett in 1802: "He keeps a little Academy, for the gentleen's children of the Island. There are a great many genteel people, men of landed property, in the Mullet. I suppose the young men of them had most of their education from Mr Barrett; they pay him great respect, and are very fond to see him in the evening in the whiskey hour."
In light of this information, it is highly likely that some Everard lads would have been amongst his pupils, although perhaps not those sons of Ignatius Everard as he had removed to Sligo city after his marriage in 1774.
The question must be asked of the identity of the man referred to as "Councillor Everard", particularly as he is specified as being the grandson of Patrick Everard, and the owner of the Kilmore Erris lands in Mayo. Further research has shown "Councillor Everard" to be Ignatius's son Richard Everard, the Dublin barrister, which means that Patrick Everard WAS the father of Ignatius.
JOHN EVERARD & JANE SANDERS.
This couple are my great-great-great grandparents, and although I have been researching them for over 20 years, I still cannot crack the mystery of their relationship, or the story behind John Everard.For many years I had searched for their marriage certificate to no avail, deciding in the end that it simply didn't exist..that it had not survived from c. 1849 and thus was not recorded in any of the Government or other marriage indexes for Victoria. Then, several years ago, I was absolutely gobsmacked to find the "missing" certificate...John and Jane had married, all right, but not until 1894, when John was 84 years old and almost on his death bed, and Jane was 64!!!!The certificate itself was marvellous...it gave John Everard's parents- or at least, he gave the names of two people whom he claimed were his parents- and gave his birthplace as County Sligo, Ireland. John switched and changed between two birth places when he had to nominate his origins on official documents, writing "Sligo" or "Leixlip, Kildare" as the mood took him. John Everard's usual and present place of residence was given as 'Melbourne' and Jane's as Warrnambool, and the couple were married at Swanston Street, Melbourne by the Reverend Robert Angus according to the rites of the Presbyterian Church. This was a surprise...the Presbyterian faith had never been associated with this branch of the family. The witnesses who signed the certificate were strangers to me...James Holt and Annie Holt. I noticed that this couple had also acted as witnesses for the other two marriages on the page, both of whom were also married by Rev. Angus.This was unusual, I thought...perhaps they were a married couple who were employed by the church as caretakers and who were called upon occasionally to serve as witnesses to small, private wedding ceremonies?
How wrong I was... James Holt and his wife Annie were the proprietors of a thriving business, Holt's Matrimonial Agency, who pre-1895 operated from 345 Swanston Street! The Reverend Robert Angus was just one of a series of ministers of varying denominations who could be relied upon to be called up at short notice to officiate at marriage ceremonies.The Holt's Agency not only conducted marriage ceremonies, but also arranged marriages between parties who had not even met before. In a famous example of this, wife murderer Frederick Bailey Deeming, after killing his wife and burying her under the fireplace in their home in Windsor, Melbourne, on Christmas Day 1891, wrote to Holt's Matrimonial Agency in January 1892 indicating his "matrimonial intentions" in meeting a woman..."she must be good-looking, age 18 or 20 and know something of housekeeping." Luckily for any prospective wives, Deeming was captured and hung before he could find himself another victim.Reverend Robert Angus found himself in the newspapers on occasion as the result of his association with Holt's. He was a Scotsman who had arrived in Victoria in c. 1879, and as well as preaching sermons at Melbourne's Presbyterian churches, also aligned himself with Holt's Matrimonial Agency to earn himself a bit of extra pocket money...25 shillings on a good week, to be exact.In October of 1896- two years after he married Jane Sanders and John Everard- Robert Angus was being quoted in papers Australia-wide as he stood witness in a trial in which a woman was accused of lying about being the guardian of an underage girl who had been married by Rev. Angus.Following are some excerpts of articles that were printed about the case, which help to paint a good picture of the character of both the Reverend Angus and the establishment for which he worked:" Witness(Robert Angus) said that he derived his income from occasional employment in connection with the Presbyterian Church, and that he also had private means. He had been attached to Holt's matrimonial Bureau for 3 or 4 years, and he received 25 shillings per week for celebrating marriages there. He would marry any couple, Jew or Gentile, who came before him so long as they complied with all legal requirements.Annie Holt, who carries on the business of a matrimonial agency, stated that one or more marriages were celebrated at the bureau nearly every day. She had had about 11 years' experience in these registries. Other clergymen besides Mr Angus officiated there. The latter had several allowances besides his 25 shillings per week, and his emoluments altogether might amount to about three pounds per week."
"The Reverend R. Angus stated that he took them as they came without respect to denomination, provided the law of the land was complied with."" The Reverend R. Angus's evidence evoked much laughter. He said he was engaged by Holt's Matrimonial Agency to celebrate marriages, and he had married as many as 14 couples a week. Holts paid him 25 shillings a week. He married all denominations, and would marry aboriginals for love."" Much amusement was created in court by the cross-examination of the marrying man, Mr. Angus, who said he would marry a Jew and Jewess or two Roman Catholics according to the Rites of the Presbyterian Church if they came before him."
Okay..we get the gist of what sort of place Holt's Matrimonial Agency was- legal but with very few questions asked- but why would John Everard and Jane Sanders choose to get married there? An even bigger question...why would they choose to get married at all, after raising an adult family and spending 45 years together without marrying? John was 84 years old and just 16 months away from death, and Jane was twenty years his junior.What had stopped the pair from marrying in 1849-50 when they first met and Jane fell pregnant with their first child? They pretended to be married for over 40 years..I would imagine that not even their children would have known their secret. I wonder if their children knew of the late marriage in 1894, or if just Jane and John stood before the Reverend Angus and the Holts, signed the certificate with crosses and buried yet another family secret?
I can think of three possible scenarios which would have prevented John and Jane from marrying in 1849-50.... the previous marriage of one of them with a wife or husband still alive; religious issues, or something specified in a will or official document that prevented marriage between the couple.
As far as I can tell, the latter situation is out of the question. There was no money in this family...John was a humble carpenter, and the family certainly never enjoyed the trappings of wealth as they worked hard for a living in Warrnambool. Religion is a possibility...John was from Ireland, and may have been Catholic when he emigrated, and Jane was from a mixed background of Episcopalian and Quaker back in England.
It is the first scenario that rings true with me...I honestly think that John had been married before, and that his wife was still alive when he took up with Jane Sanders.He was 20 years older than Jane, and the only indication of when he arrived in Victoria is an estimation on his death certificate that states he had spent 48 years in Victoria. This puts his year of arrival at c. 1847, when he would have been aged about 37 years- plenty of time to have been married and had another family somewhere.
I don't think it could have been Jane who was previously married- she was only 18 when she arrived from England in 1849, and by 1850 had given birth to Elizabeth Everard, her first child. Because John Everard is such a mystery, I believe that he is the catalyst behind the late-in-life marriage arrangements. He hasn't been located in any State's shipping records, and both his pre-Australian life and his life in Victoria are blank canvasses. All that we know about him is that he was a carpenter born in c. 1810 in either Sligo or Kildare, Ireland, and that his parents were supposedly John Everard and Catherine Clark. He lived initially in Melbourne, then moved to Warrnambool, and finished his life in Melbourne Hospital at the age of 85 years.The name 'Ignatius' may or may not be associated with John Everard...when he registered the birth of his daughter Annie Everard in 1863, John noted that a son, Ignatius, had previously died. This is the only mention of this child. Similarly, on the death certificate of one of his daughters, John's full name is given as "John Ignatius Everard".
This name 'Ignatius' may hold the clue to John's Irish background. When we look for early Everards in Sligo, only one family shows up...that of Sligo merchant Ignatius Everard and his wife Bridget Higgins. Official church records seem to be non-existant for the 18th century and early 1800s, or if they do iexist I have not been able to find out where they are located. I was lucky that Bridget Higgins was related to a famous chemist named William Higgins, and her marriage to Ignatius Everard, along with the births of three of their sons, was mentioned in an article about said William Higgins.
The article," William Higgins, Chemist", written by Thomas S. Wheeler and published in "Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review" in 1954, stated that Bridget's father, Bryan Higgins, was a "Doctor of Physik" of Collooney, Sligo. The only daughter of Bryan Higgins, Bridget married Ignatius Everard, of Neenanagh, Mayo, in 1774. Three sons from this marriage were named- Patrick born 1775; Bryan Higgins Everard, a gentleman farmer; and Richard Higgins Everard, born 1781, a Dublin barrister.
There may have been more children, but they were not named in the article, which was more centred around the Higgins family. If another son existed named John Everard, he may very well have been my John's father. My John stated on his marriage certificate that his father was "John Everard, gentleman", which was an unusual fact considering that the former was a very poor carpenter. Being a gentleman from Sligo would have placed my John's father quite nicely into the family of Ignatius and Bridget.
Taking the Everard search back even further, I had to switch counties, and start looking in Mayo, since that was Ignatius Everard's place of origin. I could not find any reference to a location called 'Neenanagh', but in June 1822, a notice appeared in Freeman's Journal concerning the distribution of funds in various counties for relief of the poor. It stated that "The Committee of Management have allocated the following sums for the relief of the poor in the distressed districts in the South and West of the Kingdom, viz..
County Mayo, 150 pounds.
Reverend W.R Smith, Castlebar, 30 pounds
Rev. Paul MacGreal, Ballyhaunis, 30 pounds
Rev. Charles Hargrove, Castlebar, 20 pounds
John Knox Eqs, Killabar, 30 pounds
Ignatius Everard, Eris, Sligo, 30 pounds
Rev. James Kinelyand Mr Mitch Flanerry, Clare, 10 pounds."
Erris was a region in Mayo...the parish of Kilmore Erris had a long history of association with the Everard family. Other references referred to Ignatius Everard and then his son Richard holding property in Erris, Mayo, although it had passed out of Everard family hands by the time of the Griffiths Valuation in 1856-57.
" The Everards settled in the parish of Kilmore, barony of Erris, county Mayo, in the early 18th century and held lands on renewable leases for ever from Sir Arthur Shaen. The Ordnance Survey Field Name Books help to identify the townlands belonging to the Everards, most of which were in the possession of John W.O.Richards by the time of Griffith's Valuation. At the time of Griffith's Valuation John William Owen Richards had an estate in the parish of Kilmore, barony of Erris, county Mayo. This property was previously held on a lease for ever from Sir Arthur Shaen to the Everards. In 1876 Richards owned 2228 acres in county Mayo and 3219 acres at Tempo, county Fermanagh.
Sir James Shaen, Surveyor General of Ireland, left his estates to his son Sir Arthur Shaen, who had 2 daughters and heiresses. One daughter, Frances, married Sir John Bingham of Newbrook, county Mayo in 1738 and the other daughter, Susannah, married Henry Boyle Carter of Castle Martin, county Kildare in 1750.
Sir Arthur Shaen's property was left in equal shares between his daughters and their families. The Carter half still remains entire, in the present possessor, William H. Carter, Esq. ; but of the Bingham half, part is now held in fee by Counsellor Everard, Knox of Rappa, Mr. M'Donnell of Carnacon, Kirkwood of Cottlestown, Miss Nash of Cam, within the Mullet; Major Bingham still retaining a considerable part. Major Cormick and the Bishop of Killala are the other proprietors.''
- from the website http://www.nuigalway.ie/ , which has a very useful database of landed estates.
There is a reference to a Paddy Everard living in Mayo even earlier...
" This verse has particular allusion to Paddy Everard, the grandfather of the late Councellor, who was considered the wisest man in the country and a great stock farmer, but a bad month came and he was shilla dore."
This came from an article about well-known Mayo poet Richard Barrett, who was born in the Mullet, Mayo, in c. 1740, and died December 8, 1819. According to Patrick Lynch who visited Barrett in 1802: "He keeps a little Academy, for the gentleen's children of the Island. There are a great many genteel people, men of landed property, in the Mullet. I suppose the young men of them had most of their education from Mr Barrett; they pay him great respect, and are very fond to see him in the evening in the whiskey hour."
In light of this information, it is highly likely that some Everard lads would have been amongst his pupils, although perhaps not those sons of Ignatius Everard as he had removed to Sligo city after his marriage in 1774.
The question must be asked of the identity of the man referred to as "Councillor Everard", particularly as he is specified as being the grandson of Patrick Everard, and the owner of the Kilmore Erris lands in Mayo. Further research has shown "Councillor Everard" to be Ignatius's son Richard Everard, the Dublin barrister, which means that Patrick Everard WAS the father of Ignatius.
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