The Irish family story of Robert Noonan, author of ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’

A memorial at 37 Wexford Street, Dublin, to Robert Tressell or Robert Noonan (1870-1911), who was born there as Robert Croker in 1870 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing earlier this week about Seven Dials, an interesting and bustling area beside Covent Garden that was once a notorious slum in London that was once known as ‘Little Dublin.’

There are many literary references to Seven Dials, from John Keats to Charles Dickens, from the lyrics of Gilbert and Sullivan to the crime novels of Agatha Christie. I also discussed the references to the area by Robert Tressell in his politically influential novel The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists.

I read The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists avidly in my mid-to-late 20s. But, until Charlotte introduced me to Seven Dials last week and I began to research the history of the area, I was not aware that that the writer Robert Tressell was born in Dublin.

So, when we were in Dublin earlier this week, we were staying on Camden Street, and I visited 37 Wexford Street where Robert Tressell was born Robert Croker on 18 February 1870. I am familiar with this part of Dublin: my grandfather Stephen Edward Comerford (1867-1921) was born 80 metres away at 7 Redmond’s Hill, between Camden Street and Aungier Street, Dublin, 2½ years earlier on 28 December 1867.

The writer known by the pen name Robert Tressell was known for most of his life as Robert Noonan (1870-1911), and he was known for a short time as Robert Zumbühl, using his step-father’s name. Yet he was born Robert Croker and he came from a family background that is almost as fascinating a story as any of his fiction. It is a story that took me back this week to streets in the area where my grandfather was born and brought back memories of childhood years near Cappoquin, Co Waterford.

Robert Tressell or Robert Noonan was born Robert Croker in 37 Wexford Street, Dublin, in 1870 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Robert Tressell or Robert Noonan was born Robert Croker in 37 Wexford Street, Dublin. His father Samuel Croker was a former police inspector in the Royal Irish Constabulary and a retired Resident Magistrate; his mother Mary Noonan gave Crocker as her married surname; but they had never been married.

Samuel Croker was then aged 79 or 80 and a member of the Church of Ireland; Mary was a Roman Catholic and had the child baptised on 26 April in Saint Kevin’s Church, Harrington Street, within 800 metres or a 10-minute walk from Wexford Street.

Tradition says the Croker family of Co Waterford is descended from the Croker family of Lyneham in the parish of Yealmpton, near Plymouth, Devon. The family was living in Ireland from the late 16th century, and this branch of the family owned lands and estates in Co Waterford, including the Cappqoquin area, from the 1590s.

Members of the family included Samuel Croker-King (1728-1817), the first president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (1784-1785) and who is said to have saved the life of the child who became the Duke of Wellington. John Wilson Croker (1780-1857) from Galway was an MP and the Admiralty Secretary (1809-1830) Richard Welstead Croker (1843-1922) from Cork became ‘Boss Croker’ of Tammany Hall.

One branch of the family lived in Co Limerick, where John Croker bought Croom Castle in 1721 and rebuilt it. For over a century, the Croker family of Croom Castle provided the rectors and vicars in the parishes of Adare and Croom from the mid-18th until the second half of the 19th century.

Samuel Croker’s branch of the family in Co Waterford once lived at Cappoquin House. It was razed to the ground in the 17th century, and later became the site of Cappoquin House, the home of the Keane family. The memory of the castle survives in the name of Castle Street in Cappoquin.

The church ruins at Affane, 3 km south of Cappoquin, Co Waterford … Samuel Croker and Jane Ussher Quin were married there in 1827 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Captain Samuel Croker was the elder son of Samuel Croker senior, and was born in Woodville. Co Waterford, in 1790 or 1791. He married Jane Usher Quin, a daughter of Arthur Quinn of Dungarvan, in the Church of Ireland church in Affane, 3 km south of Cappoquin, Co Waterford, on 4 September 1827.

Samuel was a police inspector in the Royal Irish Constabulary from 1823. He was moved from Dungarvan to Carrick in 1830, and was posted to Cappoquin in 1837 as a sub-inspector. When he retired, he served as a Resident Magistrate first in Co Waterford and then in Ennis, Co Clare, from 1838 until he retired in 1843.

Sameul and Jane Croker were the parents of six children:

1, Samuel Croker (1828-1834).

2, Annie Elizabeth (1829-1880), she died on Easter Day 28 March 1880 and was buried with her mother in Mount Jerome.

3, (Surgeon Major) Arthur Robert Croker (1832-1900), of East Blachington, Sussex. He married Frances Smith in Llysfaen, North Wales, in 1866, and they were the parents of five children: Henry A Croker (born 1868); Jane Harding Croker (1874-1922), born Cork, died Southsea; Edward Ussher Croker (1875-1907), born Cork, died Fiji; Thomas Joseph Croker (1877-1956); and Anne Ussher.

4, John Wilson Croker (1834-1903), born Carrick-on Suir, died Dublin. He married Rebecca, Franklin of Limerick in Saint Anne’s Church, Dublin, in 1857.

5, Samuel Croker (1836-1889). He joined the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1846. This Samuel Croker served in the RIC in Queen’s County and prosecuted several cases in Maryborough up to the mid-1850s. He deserted in 1856, perhaps to join the army during the Crimean War, and later became a manager in the Bank of Ireland. He married Josephine Johnston on 25 November 1859 in Saint Thomas’s Church (Church of Ireland), Dublin. Josephine took Samuel to court in 1885, accusing him of assaulting her. He moved to Australia, and later returned to Ireland, penniless. Josephine moved to Canada, where she died in 1885. Samuel may have followed Josephine to Canada, but he died in Dublin on 1 January 1889 and was buried with his mother at Mount Jerome.

6, Melian (Minnie) Jane (1844-1908), born in Ireland, died in Birmingham; she married Richard Millington in Dublin in 1872 and they were the parents of a daughter Jane E Millington (born 1874).

After retiring, Samuel Croker also lived from the late 1850s with Mary Anne Noonan as husband and wife in Dublin. She may have been a teenager when they started living together, and they were the parents of at least seven more children when Samuel was in his late 60s and in his 70s:

1, Mary Jane (Jenny) (1858-1927), born in Athlone, Co Westmeath, married John Bean Meiklejon (1852-1925), a draper, and they lived in St Leonard’s.

2, Henry John Croker (1860-1935), born 8 August 1860, 47 Montgomery Street, Dublin, died London, baptised in the Pro-Cathedral.

3, Teresa Croker (born 1862), born Dublin, 17 February 1862, 18 Mabbot Street, baptised in the Pro-Cathedral.

4, Zellah Ellie Croker (1866-1946), said to have been born at sea in 1866, she married William Maguire in Liverpool and they were the parents of three sons, Francis, William and Leo Maguire.

5, Adelaide Anne (1867-1945), born 3 May 1867, at 53 Wellington Street, Dublin, and baptised in Saint Michan’s Catholic Church. She married a man named Rolleston, and they had a son Arthur Herman Rolleston.

6, Robert Philippe Noonan (1870-1911).

7, William Croker (born 1872), born at 25 George’s Place, Dublin, on 20 January 1872; on the birth regiester, Samuel’s occupation is given as sailor.

The baptistry in Saint Kevin’s Church, Dublin, where Robert Noonan was baptised in 1870 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

These seven children were all baptised Roman Catholics and in each case the baptismal register made no reference to the parents not being married to each other. Robert was the sixth of these seven children. He was baptised in Saint Kevin’s Church, Harrington Street, on 26 April 1870 by Father James Baxter. The sponsors were Michael Noonan and Mary Joannah Croker. The birth certificate records his mother as Mary Croker, formerly Noonan, but they were not married.

Mary Ann’s last adress in Dublin was at 38 Bessborough Avenue, a small cottage off North Strand, Dublin.

Samuel Croker moved from Dublin to London in 1874, but he left Mary Ann with substantial property in Dublin, including a four-storey commercial building at 145 Great Britain Street. He died at 91 East India Road, Poplar, on 6 January 1875.

Walsh’s Hotel, Cappoquin, on the corner of Green Street and Barrack Street stands at the site of the former RIC barracks … Samuel Croker was an RIC inspector in Cappoquin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Less than four months after Samuel Croker died, Mary married again, or married for the firest tim as Mary Ann Croker. She was married on 29 March 1874, in Saint Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Pekin Road, Poplar, to Sebastian Zumbühl, a 26-year-old cabinet maker of 40 Upper North Street, Poplar, and the son of a Swiss farmer. She gave her address as 91 East India Road, her status as a ‘widow’, with the word ‘spinster’ crossed out, and her age as 30.

She and Sebastian were the parents of at least two more children:

1, Joseph Sebastian Zumbühl (1876-1915).

2, Leo Zumbühl (born 1879).

Mary and Sebastian Zumbühl lived for a few years at 37 Fitzroy Street, London, later the home of George Bernard Shaw and his mother in 1881. Mary and Sebastian jad moved to Liverpool in 1884.

Meanwhile, Samuel Croker’s first wife and only wife and his legitimate widow, the former Jane Usher Quin, was also living in Liverpool. She died on 22 January 1887 at 32 London Grove, Prince’s Park, Liverpool and she was brought back to Dublin where she was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold’s Cross.

Saint Kevin’s Church, Dublin, where Robert Noonan was baptised in 1870 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Robert Noonan’s daughter Kathleen said he had ‘a very good education’ and could speak a variety of languages. It seems he may have had the opportunity of entering Trinity College Dublin. In his late teen he changed his surname to his mother’s maiden name and was recorded as Robert Phillipe Noonan.

But little is known of Robert Noonan’s early life during this period until 1890, when he was jailed for six months for burglary and larceny in Liverpool. At that time he was described as a signwriter, living in Queen’s Road, Everton.

On his release, Noonan emigrated to South Africa where he found work as a decorator. On 15 October 1891, he married 18-year-old Elizabeth Madeline Hartel in Cape Town and their they had a daughter, Kathleen was born in September 1892. By 1894, they had separated, and Robert moved to Johannesburg. Elizabeth became pregnant by another man and Robert Noonan obtained an uncontested divorce in 1897 and custody of their daughter.

Noonan became involved in the trade union movement and socialist politics in South Africa, although it is possible that Noonan acquiesced in a later notorious aspect of the labour movement in Johannesburg at this time: its support for movement towards racially-segregated workplaces.

He was the secretary of the Transvaal Federated Building Trades Council in 1897. In 1898, he became a member of the Transvaal Executive Committee of the Centennial of 1798 Association, commemorating United Irish Rising. He attended the launch of the International Independent Labour Party in May 1899. While he was living in Johannesburg he got to know some of the leading figures in Irish nationalism, including Arthur Griffith and Major John McBride, father of the late Seán MacBride.

But he left South Africa before the second Boer War started, and for a time he lived his daughter, his widowed sister, Adelaide, and her son in St Leonard’s, East Sussex. When he returned to England, he worked as a painter and decorator in Hastings and wrote The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists between 1906 and 1910, ‘about exploitative employment when the only safety nets are charity, workhouse and grave.’

Robert attended meetings of the Social Democratic Federation in 1908-1909, and started writing his book, describing the struggles and sufferings of painters and decorators working in the seaside town of Muggsborough, a thinly disguised portrayal of Hastings.

He finished writing The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists in 1910 under the pen name of Robert Tressell. He failed to find a publisher, and returned to Liverpool that August, with plans to emigrate to Canada and his daughter Kathleen.

He died in the Royal Liverpool Infirmary on 4 February 1911. None of his family contributed to or attended the funeral, and he was buried in a pauper’s grave in Walton Park cemetery, opposite Walton Prison.

His daughter Kathleen sold his manuscript to Grant Richards for £25. The publisher described it as a ‘damnably subversive, but extraordinarily real novel.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists has been cited as a factor in the landslide Labour victory in 1945, and even for the election of two non-Labour-endorsed Communist MPs that year. It has been taught in schools and universities, and adapted for stage, television and radio, and readings have been performed at trade union meetings.

George Orwell regarded it as a wonderful book. Alan Sillitoe later called it ‘the first great English novel about the class war.’ Michael Foot praised its ‘truly Swiftian impact.’ Declan Kiberd has argued that Pádraic Ó Conaire’s seminal novel in Irish Deoraíocht has many parallels in its progressive socialism with The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists.

Cappoquin House, the home of the Keane family, stands on the site of Cappoquin Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A Comerford countess with links to the Fitzgerald family of Askeaton Castle

The ruins of Askeaton Castle … the brother of the ‘Sugán’ Earl of Desmond married a Comerford from Danganmore, Co Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

It is almost four years ago since I moved to Askeaton I have often pointed out that I have no immediate family connections with this part of west Limerick. There are other branches of the Comerford family that lived for short periods in Pallaskenry and near Castleconnell, and one Comerford family that lived for generations in Limerick City. But I am a complete ‘blow-in’ when it comes to this part of west Limerick.

However, as I was going back over my notes of my visit late last summer to Dromana House, outside Cappoquin, Co Waterford, I realised that there was one – albeit remote – connection between my side of the Comerford family and Askeaton and this part of Co Limerick. And this link involves the story of a Comerford woman who became a countess and fled into exile in Barcelona 400 years ago.

Richard ‘Boy’ Comerford was a younger son of Richard ‘Oge’ Comerford of Ballybur Castle, Co Kilkenny, who died ca 1579/1580, and a younger brother of Thomas Comerford of Ballybur. In the late 1560s, and certainly by the early 1570s, this Richard ‘Boy’ Comerford was living at Danganmore Castle, and probably worked as the equivalent of a legal clerk to the Butlers of Kilkenny Castle, witnessing numerous Ormond legal documents.

Richard was the father of two sons – Edmund Comerford and Richard Comerford, who eventually inherited Danganmore Castle – and one daughter, whose name has been forgotten in time, but who married John FitzThomas FitzGerald, who became the claimant to the title of Earl of Desmond at the end of the last Desmond rebellion.

John FitzThomas FitzGerald was a younger brother of James FitzThomas FitzGerald, the ‘Súgán’ Earl of Desmond, and they were the sons of Sir Thomas FitzGerald, commonly called ‘Thomas Roe,’ ‘Tomás Ruadh’ or ‘Red Thomas,’ and his wife Ellice Le Poer, daughter of Richard Le Poer, Baron Le Poer.

Thomas Rue FitzGerald, in turn, was the son of James FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond and Joan Roche, daughter of Maurice Roche, Lord Fermoy. As Joan Roche was his own grandniece, their relationship fell within the proscribed limits of consanguinity. Because of this, their marriage was annulled and their son, Thomas Roe FitzGerald, father of James and John FitzGerald, was declared illegitimate and disinherited.

Instead, the title of Earl of Desmond was handed to Thomas’s younger, but decidedly legitimate, half-brother, Gerald FitzJames FitzGerald, who was recognised as Earl of Desmond by the Parliament in Dublin.

However, Gerald first entered into a bloody conflict with the Ormond Butlers of Kilkenny, and was heavily defeated at the Battle of Affane, near Cappoquin, by ‘Black’ Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1570.

After his release, Gerald returned to Ireland and rebelled in 1579. He was killed in battle on 11 November 1583 and his severed head was displayed on London Bridge.

After the suppression of the rebellion in 1583, Thomas Roe FitzGerald and his son James FitzThomas claimed the title and estates of the Earl of Desmond. Their petitions failed, however, and Thomas Roe died in 1595 and was buried in Youghal.

His son, James FitzThomas FitzGerald, assumed the title of Earl of Desmond. He became known as the ‘Sugan’ Earl of Desmond. He soon gathered an 8,000-strong force and engaged in a three-year struggle. He took Desmond Hall and Castle in Newcastle West in 1598, but lost them the following year. In 1599, the Earl of Essex also brought to an end the 147-day siege of Askeaton Castle the ‘Sugan’ Earl of Desmond.

After escaping from Kilmallock, he was finally captured on 29 May 1601 while he was hiding in a cave underground, near Mitchelstown.

FitzGerald was placed in irons and taken to Shandon Castle, where he was found guilty of treason. He was then brought to England, and he was made a prisoner in the Tower of London. Historians suggest that he died sometime in 1608, and was buried in the chapel of the Tower.

Richard Comerford’s tomb in the ruined church in Kilree, south of Kells, Co Kilkenny … his daughter married John FitzThomas FitzGerald, ‘Earl of Desmond,’ and they fled to Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The next male heir in this line of the Desmond FitzGeralds was his younger brother, John FitzThomas FitzGerald, who had taken part in the Desmond rebellion. John fled Ireland in 1603 with his wife, the daughter of Richard Comerford of Danganmore, Co Kilkenny, to Spain. There he was known as the Conde de Desmond. John died a few years later in Barcelona, probably after 1615.

Meanwhile, his father-in-law, Richard Comerford, continued to live at Danganmore Castle, Co Kilkenny. He died at an advanced age on 5 October 1624, and was buried against the wall in the north-west chancel of Kilree Church, Co Kilkenny, with his wife Joanna St Leger, who had died on 4 October 1622.

Their grandson, Gerald FitzJohn FitzGerald, claimed the title as 17th Earl of Desmond, according to the family tree in Dromana House, and was also known as the ‘Conde de Desmond.’ He served in the Habsburg armies of the Emperor Ferdinand in Spain and Germany, and died in Germany in 1632. As he had no male children as heirs to his claims, with him ended the male heirs of the four eldest sons of Thomas FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Desmond.

As for Richard Comerford, brother of the exiled ‘Countess of Desmond,’ he inherited Danganmore Castle in 1624, and was the ancestor of the Ryan and Langton families who later lived there.

Richard Comerford of Ballybur Castle, first cousin of this exiled Comerford countess, died in 1637, five years after the death of her son Gerald in Germany. The descendants of this Richard and his wife Mary (Purcell) include the Bunclody branch of the family, and so they are my immediate ancestors.

The connections with Askeaton – and with Dromana – are distant and may even seem obscure. But, almost 400 years later, they are still there.

The FitzGerald connection with the Comerford family … a corner of one of the family trees in Dromana House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Keynsham Abbey, its Co Limerick churches, and legends about the Knights Templar in Askeaton

The octagonal tower at Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton … but is there any evidence for the presence of the Knights Templar? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford 2020)

Patrick Comerford

It is a common belief in Askeaton that Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick, was a foundation of the Knights Templar, and that the neighbouring octagonal tower was built by the Knights Templar.

However, it seems, there may be no primary, documentary evidence or sources to show that the Knights Templar ever had a foundation in Askeaton.

On the other hand, I have been challenged by my findings in recent weeks that the Augustinian Abbey of Keynsham in Somerset held Askeaton in the early mediaeval period, along with a number of other parish churches in this part of west Co Limerick, including Askeaton, Ballingarry, Bruree, Croagh, Lismakeera, and, for a time, Rathkeale.

Keynsham Abbey also had close links with successive proprietors of Askeaton Castle until the Reformation. Could it be, I was forced to ask, that Saint Mary’s was a dependent house of Keynsham Abbey, and was never associated with the Knights Templar?

The remaining ruins of Keynsham Abbey, between Bath and Bristol (Photograph: Rick Crowley/Wikipedia)

Keynsham Abbey in Somerset was founded ca 1166 by William, Earl of Gloucester. It was founded as a house of Augustinian canons regular, and continued until the dissolution of the monastic houses in 1539. Keynsham Abbey stood on the south side of the River Avon, where the River Avon meets the River Chew in the Keynsham Hams, an alluvial flood plain with open fields, pastures and meadows, divided by hedgerows and ditches.

This was the site of a fourth century Roman settlement, possibly called Trajectus, that was abandoned when the Roman legions left Britain. The Abbey was built near the old Roman Road that became the Bath Road connecting London with Bath and Bristol.

There was a religious settlement in Keynsham from the ninth or tenth centuries. Some sources say a later mediaeval abbey was established ca 1170, when Bartholomew de Sancto Mauro (Seymour) witnessed the founding charter. Other sources say the main abbey was founded by William de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, in 1166, the year his son Robert de Clare died, traditionally at his son’s dying request, or in the year 1180.

The priests at Keynsham Abbey were Augustinian canons regular and they adopted the rule of the Order of Saint Victor, so that the head of the religious house was always called an abbot, and the house was known as the House of the Canons of Saint Austin and Saint Victor. Other abbeys following this rule included Worspring (also called Woodspring), near Weston-super-Mare, and Stavordale near Wincanton, both in Somerset; Saint Augustine’s Abbey, Bristol; and Wormeley and Wigmore, both in Herefordshire.

At its foundation, the abbey was endowed with the Manor and the Hundred of Keynsham, totalling 9,920 ha (24,520 acres), and the parishes of Brislington, Burnett, Chelwood, Compton Dando, Farmborough, Keynsham, Marksbury, Nempnett Thrubwell, Pensford, Priston, Publow, Queen Charlton, Saltford, Stanton Drew, Stanton Prior, and Whitchurch. It also included many parish properties such as the church of Saint Mary and Saint Peter and Saint Paul and the chapels of Brislington, Charlton, Felton (or Whitchurch), Publow and Pensford.

The abbey also acquired considerable property in Ireland, including the churches at Askeaton, Rathkeale, Lismakeera, Croagh and Bruree in Co Limerick.

Askeaton Castle … part of the large estates granted to Hamo de Valognes in 1199 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

King John granted large parts of mid-west Limerick to Hamo de Valognes, justiciar of Ireland, in 1199, including Askeaton, Rathkeale and Bruree, an area where the manor of Askeaton held sway. Hamo de Valognes had died by 1207, and his son and heir, Hamo de Valognes, was a minor. King John then granted much of the de Valognes estate to Hugh de Neville in 1207, and other lands in the area to Sir Roger Waspail, who held extensive estates in Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, and also owned estates in present-day Co Laois, Co Dublin and Co Kildare.

Waspail, who became Seneschal of Ulster, granted the church of Rathkeale to Keynsham Abbey ca 1213-1226. He died in 1226 and was succeeded by his son, Henry Waspail, who reconfirmed his father’s grant of Rathkeale to Keynsham Abbey ca 1226-1228.

Henry died in 1233 and was succeeded by his brother Roger Waspail, who received a grant of Rathkeale in 1251 and became Deputy Justiciar of Ireland in 1262. He exchanged the manor of Rathkeale with John Maltravers in 1280 for a life interest in the manor of Wolcomb Maltravers, Dorset.

Following Roger Waspail’s grant of Rathkeale, Keynsham managed its new benefice, collecting income and appointing clerics. But the politically unstable situation in Ireland made it difficult to collect revenue.

Some time after 1237, under the direction of John de Bureford, a canon of the abbey and their proctor in Ireland, Keynsham granted the church of Rathkeale and nine dependent chapels and property rights in the cantred of Askeaton to the Bishop of Limerick. These nine chapels were Rathofergus [Rathfergus], Mayntaueny [Moytawnach], Mayryne [Kiltanna], Browry [Bruree], Culbalysward [Howardstown], Karracnefy [Cathernasse and Cahernarry], Mayncro [Croagh], Maymolcally [Kilnecally] and Orosse [unknown].

At the same time, Keynsham granted the church of Askeaton to the Priory of Saint Catherine outside the walls of Waterford. This priory was founded before 1207, and, like Keynsham, it followed the Augustinian rule of Saint Victor.

The ruins of the Augustinian Priory of Saint Mary in Rathkeale … the church of Rathkeale and nine dependent chapels were part of the possessions of Keynsham Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The grants to the Bishop of Limerick benefitted both sides. Keynsham realised capital without the expense of collecting while the bishop acquired another source of income. At the time, Bishop Hubert de Burgh was involved in costly disputes with the pope in Rome and the government in Dublin, and was forced to borrow money from Italian bankers. He had difficulty repaying these loans and interest was accumulating. In 1237, the year he received the Keynsham parishes, Bishop Hubert repaid 160 marks on a loan that included 54 marks of interest.

The early 13th century grant by Roger Waspail of Rathkeale to Keynsham Abbey failed to mention any other parishes. But the grant to Bishop Hubert ca 1237 shows Rathkeale had nine dependent chapels in area that extended from Askeaton to Bruree. The church of Askeaton was not named as a benefice but must have formed part of Waspail’s grant to the abbey. The church in Askeaton was given to the priory of Saint Catherine in Waterford ca 1237. Sometime afterwards, Askeaton was granted to Bishop Hubert of Limerick by the priory. Before 1250, Bishop Hubert granted Askeaton to Keynsham.

An early Vicar of Askeaton, Thomas de Cardiff, is named in 1237, and it is said that Saint Mary’s Church in Askeaton was built in 1291. It is also said that the Knights Templars had a commandery in Askeaton from 1298 until they were disbanded in 1307. But all the available documentary evidence shows Askeaton remained in the hands of Keynsham Abbey and its dependency in Waterford.

Keynsham Abbey also held the parish of Ballingarry from the mid-1200s, and by the 15th century, Ballingarry was the chief parish held by Keynsham, with Askeaton a junior parish. Ballingarry may have been transferred by Keynsham to another religious house in the 13th century, like its other Limerick possessions, but it is also possible that the abbey kept control of Ballingarry without interruption.

From 1294 on, the Abbots of Keynsham appointed attorneys to manage their Irish property, which suggests that Ballingarry and Askeaton were under its direct ownership. These attorneys collected the tithes and incomes from the Limerick parishes and sent the surplus back to Keynsham.

The former parish church in Ballingarry … Ballingarry and Askeaton were owned directly by the Abbots of Keynsham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The barony, castle and manor of Askeaton were held by the late Thomas de Clare, son of Richard de Clare, in 1320.

At the same time, the Abbot of Keynsham held the Rectory of Askeaton in 1320, and the income from the rectory was for the abbot’s own use. The abbey also had the right to nominate the Vicars of Askeaton. The rectory of Askeaton was valued at 16 marks while the vicarage was valued at 8 marks.

The responsibilities of the abbey’s Irish attorneys increased in the early 1320s. But the abbey suffered considerable financial losses in England, its revenues could not meet its needs, and it lost the income from many parishes through fraud, default, theft, the death of cattle, poor crops, flood damage and wars.

Those wars were caused mainly by Maurice FitzThomas FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond, as he tried to acquire the Irish estates of the de Clare absentee heirs. When Thomas de Clare, son of Richard de Clare, died in 1321 without any direct heirs, his possessions were divided between his aunts, Margaret, wife of Sir Bartholomew de Badlesmere, and Maud, wife of Sir Robert de Wells, while the de Clare estates that included the Limerick parishes owned by Keynsham Abbey passed as dower land to Joan, widow of Richard de Clare.

Maurice FitzGerald regarded all the former de Clare lands in Co Kerry, Co Limerick and Co Cork as his by descent, along with those in Thomond. However, the losses suffered by Keynsham in these wars is unknown.

The church ruins at Affane, near Cappoquin … one of the parishes in west Waterford acquired by Kenynsham Abbey in 1413 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

When the Bishop of Bath and Wells visited Keynsham Abbey in 1350, he reported the abbey neglected to keep its gates safely closed, leaving the church ornaments and valuables open to being stolen. Lay people were allowed into the refectory contrary to the rules, nightly offices were irregularly kept, poor financial accounts were kept, estates were let out at low rents, and the title deeds and charters of the abbey were not stored in a secure location. Lay men and women entered the abbey at unlawful hours, the abbey’s staff were involved in stealing, the poor were not being served, and the monks used sporting dogs.

Keynsham Abbey acquired the Rectory of Dungarvan, Co Waterford, from Thomas FitzGerald, 5th Earl of Desmond, in 1413, and with it the right of presentation to 13 parishes across mid-Co Waterford: Affane, Aglish, Clashmore, Clonea, Colligan, Fews, Kilgobinet, Kilronan, Kinsalebeg, Lisgenan, Ringagonagh and Whitechurch.

It has been suggested that Keynsham gave Desmond the advowsons for its Co Limerick parishes in exchange for Dungarvan, but there is no evidence to support this. A document in 1427 shows Keynsham as holding two Limerick parishes, Askeaton and Ballingarry.

The Limerick parishes of Askeaton and Ballingarry were situated in the heart of the earldom. A stable earldom was to the obvious benefit of Keynsham. It would appear that the abbey opened doors for the Earl of Desmond in London and among the regional magnates.

Sometime before 1427, a new vicar was appointed to Askeaton. Edmund McAdam, had tendered his resignation to Cornelius O’Dea, Bishop of Limerick. The Rector of Ballingarry, John Kyndton, was asked by William, Abbot of Keynsham, to present a new vicar. Kyndton selected James Oleayn, a priest of the Diocese of Killaloe, and Bishop Cornelius instituted Cleayn, despite Gillabertus Ykatyl illegally holding Askeaton for more than a year.

But James Oleayn had doubts about whether the presentation and institution were valid, and petitioned the Pope for papal letters to make good his position. He held Askeaton in June 1427 when he was charged to pay 6 marks in first fruits.

Edmund McAdam later revoked his resignation and recovered possession of Askeaton. But McAdam resigned as Vicar of Askeaton again by 1458, and the public notary of Limerick and other judges gave the vicarage to Thomas Macega. John Maclanchie presented a claim of false possession and took his case to Rome, although the vicarage had not lawfully devolved to the Pope.

Pope Eugene IV sent the case to a papal auditor who favoured Thomas Macega over John Maclanchie. Subsequently, Philip Offlait, a priest of Limerick, brought false charges against Macega and demanded the removal of Macega from Askeaton. Macega appealed to Rome where Pope Nicholas V sent the case to a papal auditor who ruled against Offlait.

The Bishop of Limerick then admitted Macega to Askeaton, but Offlait objected, and faced with a choice between two priests in his diocese, the bishop expelled both candidates and appointed Philip Ocathill, a priest of Limerick, to Askeaton.

Macega appealed to Rome once again, was granted a dispensation from his illegitimacy as the son of unmarried parents, and received a new mandate for Askeaton. The vicarage was valued at 8 marks and the previous Vicars of Askeaton were named as Gilbert Itaschill and William Ymolcorkra, along with Edmund McAdam. It is not known if Macega succeeded to the vicarage or if more appeals were made, and Keynsham Abbey is not mentioned in these cases.

The Rector of Ballingarry was proctor of Keynsham Abbey in 1427 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The rights of Keynsham Abbey’s in Ballingarry were also challenged. Sometime ca 1399-1426, John Fitzgerald of Pobbnesheagh had founded a Franciscan house at Kilshane. In 1488, John Lesse, the minister of the Ballingarry community was in a dispute over tithes.

The vicarage of Ballingarry became vacant ca 1409 with the death of William, son of Thomas Ymalcorkra. The vicarage was then valued at 12 marks. Thomas Saleys alias Cristour, was presented to Ballingarry by Keynsham Abbey as patron of the parish. But Thomas had doubts about the abbey’s authority and petitioned the Pope for a mandate that was issued to the Chancellor of Limerick.

John Kyndton, Rector of Ballingarry, seems to have acted as the abbey’s proctor a in 1427, collecting tithes and income from farming the landed estates.

Gilbert O’Liathain or O’Loan, the Vicar of Ballingarry in 1445, exchanged the parish for Croom with Malachy O’Condoub (O’Conify), with the sanction of the Bishop of Limerick. But Malachy had doubts about the exchange and in July 1445 he received a papal mandate to confirm the exchange. Ballingarry was valued at 16 marks. At the same time, Malachy was made Prebendary of Kilrossanty in Lismore.

Gillacius (or Walter) O’Keyt, a canon of Lismore, became Dean of Lismore and Prebendary of Kilrossanty in 1450, as well as Prebendary of Saint Munchin’s (Limerick) and Vicar of Ballingarry. O’Keyt got a papal dispensation on account of charges of simony, perjury and other irregularities to legitimise these appointments. Keynsham Abbey was acknowledged as holding the right of presentation to Ballingarry and a new claimant emerged in 1452, when William Torriger was presented to Ballingarry by Keynsham Abbey.

Torringer was instituted by John Mothell, Bishop of Limerick, in succession to Malachy O’Conify, but he was opposed by Gillacius O’Keyt, the former vicar. Torriger and O’Keyt both petitioned Pope Nicholas V. The papal auditor judged in favour of Torriger, and issued a perpetual silence on O’Keyt.

O’Keyt surrendered the vicarage to Torriger, but a sentence of excommunication threatened his role as Dean of Lismore. O’Keyt was further reprimanded when he tried to celebrate masses. He petitioned the pope in 1454, and the Bishop of Lismore received a mandate to lift the sentence of excommunication and to restore Okeyt to full cleric status.

O’Keyt filed another petition relating to Ballingarry in 1457, receiving absolution from the pope for simony and a mandate to remain Dean of Lismore.

Matthew (Mahon or Malachi) O’Griffa, a canon of Limerick, received a Papal dispensation because his illegitimacy as the son of a priest. He was then appointed Vicar of Dysert in Killaloe Diocese, Prebendary of Saint Munchin’s (Limerick), Archdeacon of Limerick, and Vicar of Ballingarry in 1458. He was also Dean of Cashel (1455), and later became Bishop of Killaloe (1463-1483).

The financial details of some of Keynsham’s Limerick parishes are disclosed in a papal mandate in 1460. According to Cornelius Ydeayd, a priest of the Diocese of Limerick, the abbey held a number of rectorial tithes in the parishes of Ballingarry and Askeaton. These tithes were not collected by the abbey’s representative, but were leased to lay people who paid a yearly rent. Ydeayd feared they could easily pass to these lay people to the loss of Keynsham, and Pope Pius II asked the Bishop of Limerick to investigate.

Nicholas Wale, a priest of Limerick diocese, was appointed the Vicar of Ballingarry in 1488, and Philip O’Kail was to be removed. William O’Muleoni, a priest of Limerick, became Vicar of Ballingarry and Kilscannell in 1492.

Saint Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore … Gillacius O’Keyt was Dean of Lismore and Vicar of Ballingarry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

As for Keynsham Abbey, Edward I stayed at the Abbey in 1276 on his way from Bath to Bristol. A small town eventually grew up around Keynsham Abbey, and in 1307 Edward II granted the abbey a weekly market on Tuesdays and a yearly fair on the Feast of the Assumption (15 August).

As the centuries progressed, the abbey became embroiled in a number of disputes over monastic life and discipline. When the bishop visited Keynsham in 1350, he found the canons were failing to properly guard and secure the outer gate of the abbey, so that the ornaments of the church and treasures of the house could be easily stolen. The canons were also admonished to keep better household accounts, attend prayers more regularly, and give up luxuries such as hunting dogs and dining abroad.

When the bishop visited again in 1353, he found there was great neglect throughout the abbey. The doors were unguarded, household accounts were not properly kept, prayers were not attended to regularly, and up to two-thirds of the canons were regularly missing community meals and engaging in gaming.

Similar issues arose again in 1450, when the bishop made more complaints about the management of the abbey. Bishop Beckington of Bath and Wells found several poor standards at Keynsham in 1451, but Abbot Walter Bekynsfield was aged and unable to introduce changes. Another commission in 1455 found no improvements and forced the abbot to resign. Thomas Tyler was appointed the new abbot, but resistance was still strong.

When Canon John Ledbury, a leader of this resistance, was transferred to Worspring Abbey in 1458, matters began to settle. But resistance resurfaced, and further commissions were issued in 1458 and 1459.

The fortunes of Keynsham Abbey received a boost in 1495 when Jasper Tudor (1431-1495), Duke of Bedford and Earl of Pembroke, asked to be buried in a tomb within Keynsham Abbey and gave 100 marks to make the tomb. He was a maternal half-brother of King Henry VI and uncle of Henry VII. He left income for four priests to sing perpetually in the abbey for his soul and the souls of his father, mother brother and his predecessors. Jasper Tudor also gave his best gown of gold to the abbey for vestments.

But Keynsham Abbey and its English and Irish interests was facing increasing and eventually irresistible demands for reform. The Augustinian general chapter in 1518 heard that without reform the order faced imminent ruin.

Cardinal Wolsey obtained papal approval to reform all monastic houses in England, including the Augustinians following the rule of Saint Victor at Keynsham. His new rules were presented at a conference of leading Augustinians, Benedictines and Cistercians in 1519. The Benedictines rejected the rules almost immediately, followed by the Augustinians in 1520.

Keynsham Abbey was in urgent need of reform and visitation in 1526 on behalf of the bishop of Bath and Wells found a deplorable situation. Things were so bad that the abbot, John Stourton, admitted the abbey was in ruins. The choir of the church was in a filthy state, frequented by dogs as if it were a kennel, water and fuel were scarce and there was a lack of books for divine service. None of the brothers studied at Oxford and many of the novices were illiterate.

The last Abbot of Keynsham, John Staunton, the prior, William Herne, the subprior John Arnold, and 12 other canons, subscribed to the Act of Supremacy at the Tudor Reformation in 1534.

The Irish properties of Keynsham Abbey were seized under the Act of Absentees (1536), and this prevented the Earls of Desmond from having any further claims to Dungarvan.

John Tregonwell and William Petre, Henry VIII’s and Secretary of State were sent to the abbey as ‘visitors’ in 1539. The abbot and ten monks surrendered the abbey, and the abbot and canons received pensions or annuities.

When Keynsham’s possessions in Co Waterford were surveyed in 1541, they included the rectory of Dungarvan and its vicarages. The income from Dungarvan and its vicarages was granted for 21 years to James Butler, Earl of Ormond, and James Butler, Viscount Thurles. The Vicar of Dungarvan, Maurice Connell, was left in office for life, as were any vicars of the dependent parishes.

For many years after the dissolution the name of Keynesham Abbey and its Irish possessions continued to appear in the state papers.

The surrender of Keynsham Abbey began a 400-year period of the buildings and site being torn apart and plundered for building materials. Within two years of the surrender of the abbey, the conventual church was torn down and sold off. Richard Walker was paid £12 for melting the lead on the church, the cloister, and the steeple. Frances Edwards bought the seven bells of the church and other buildings attached to it.

The site was sold to Thomas Bridges, who tore down the remaining buildings and built a family house on the site and who handed over and left-over stone from the abbey church for the repair of the bridge and causeway over the River Avon.

The family home built by Bridges was demolished in 1776. Victorian housebuilders and excavators began actively taking stone from the site in 1865, and this continued until the beginning of the 20th century, when only isolated stretches of unsuitable stone or stone buried under discarded material were left. In some places, so much material was disturbed and excavated for reuse that quarrying had reached down to bedrock.

There were proposals in 1964 for the Keynsham bypass of the A4 to pass directly through the site of the abbey, destroying what was left on the site. Since then, the remains have been designated a Grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument. The abbey ruins can be seen in the Memorial Park at Keynsham, near the A4 and Keynsham railway station.

Saint Mary’s Church and the tower at Askeaton … the Abbots of Keynsham retained the Rectory of Askeaton until the Reformation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The Abbots of Keynsham (and Rectors of Askeaton):

William, fl 1175, 1205
George de Eston
Richard, fl1225, 1230
John, fl 1233
Peter, fl 1253, 1259
Gilbert, 1274
Robert, fl1272, 1277
Adam, 1308
Nicholas de Taunton, fl 1308, 1343
John Bradford, elected 1348
William Peschon, 1377
Thomas, occurs 1396, 1427
Walter Bekynsfield, fl 1438, 1455
Thomas or John Tyler, elected 1456
John Gybruyn, 1486
John Graunt, elected 1496
Philip Keynsham, 1499, died 1505
William Rolfe, elected 1506, fl 1514
John Staunton or Sturton, 1528-1539

The tower at Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Sources include:

JB Leslie (ed), Clergy of Limerick, Clergy of Ardfert and Aghadoe, Biographical Succession Lists, (2015 edition, ed DWT Crooks, Ulster Historical Foundation for the Diocesan Council of Limerick and Killaloe
‘Houses of Augustinian canons: The abbey of Keynsham,’ in A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 2, ed William Page (London, 1911), pp 129-132. British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol2/pp129-132 (last accessed, 14 December 2020)
(Revd) Iain Knox (ed), Clergy of Waterford, Lismore and Ferns (originally compiled by Henry Cottom, JB Leslie and WH Rennison (Ulster Historical Foundation, for the Diocesan Councils of Cashel and Ossory, and Ferns, 2008). Niall C.E.J. O’Brien, ‘Keynesham Abbey in Ireland’ (Medieval News, 30 September 2014), http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.com/2014/09/ (last accessed, 14 December 2020)
Patrick J Cronin, Eas Céad Tine, ‘The Waterfall of the Hundred Fires’ (Askeaton: Askeaton Civic Trust, 1999)

How the former church in Villierstown has survived changes and closure

The former church at Villierstown, 8 km south of Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

While I visited Cappoquin, Co Waterford, last month on the first leg of this year’s ‘Road Trip,’ I visited two churches in the area that no longer serve as churches in the Church of Ireland: the church ruins at Affane, close to the entrance to Dromana House, and the former church in Villierstown, built as part of the Villiers Stuart estate.

Villierstown is on the banks of the River Blackwater in west Waterford, about 8 km south of Cappoquin. The village was founded by the Villiers-Stuart family, who give the place its name. The family and their direct ancestors have lived in Dromana House in its different forms for over 700 years, making it one of the oldest family estates in Ireland up to the 20th century.

John Villiers (1684-1766), 1st Earl Grandison, established the village in the 1740s to develop a linen industry. The original village consisted of a church, a rectory, a school, 24 houses, a court, a police barracks and a quay on the river. It was initially populated with linen-weavers, some of whom were from Lurgan, Co Armagh.

There were just 16 churches in repair in the Diocese of Lismore in 1746. But the religious landscape on the Dromana estate was changing. Grandison decided to build a new church to serve the new village and its new residents. The new chapel was built in the Queen Anne style 1748, and the interior fittings, including the seats, pulpit and altar, all in oak, were installed by 1755. The finished chapel could accommodate about 400 people, and by 1757 regular Sunday services were being held.

Villierstown was laid out in the 1740s by John Villiers (1684-1766), 1st Earl Grandison (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

This is a three-bay, double-height church, built on a cruciform plan, aligned on the liturgically-correct axis. It has a single-bay, double-height nave. There are single-bay, single-bay deep, double-height transepts; a single-bay, double-height chancel at the east end; and a single-bay, double-height pedimented narthex at the entrance or west front.

Two cut-limestone steps lead up to the square-headed front door and narthex. The cut-limestone doorcase with a cornice on a pulvinated frieze frames timber panelled double doors.

Inside, the full-height choir gallery stands on fluted cast-iron Doric pillars, and there is a moulded plasterwork cornice at the coved ceiling. The notable features include the coupled windows showing conventional Georgian glazing patterns, and the chancel has a classically-detailed Venetian window.

The bellcote embellishes the pedimented roof. The clock over the front door was erected in 1910 by Mary Villiers-Stuart of Dromana as a gift to the people of Villierstown ‘to whom she was deeply attached.’

The clock on the façade was donated by Mary Villiers-Stuart (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The church was completed in 1748, but remained outside the parochial and diocesan structures of the Church of Ireland. It was a ‘chapel of ease’ and marriage services, for example, could not take place there without a special licence.

The chapel was endowed by John Fitzgerald Villiers, 1st Earl Grandison, in his will in 1763. His personal chaplain, the Revd Francis Green, became the first Chaplain of Villierstown. The chaplain was to provide ‘divine service’ and catechise but he had no parochial district and the village of Villierstown remained part of the parish of Affane and Aglish.

While Green was chaplain of Villierstown, he was also a Vicar Choral of Lismore Cathedral and Vicar of Tallow. He died in February 1768.

There are no records of chaplains in Villierstown from 1768 until 1781, when the Revd Michael Greene was chaplain of Villierstown. The chaplaincy first appears in the bishops’ visitation books in 1784.

Later chaplains include the Revd Harris Oldfield, who married Ann Greatrakes from Affane, from the family of Valentine Greatrakes, the healer known as ‘The Stroker.’ One their daughters, Charlotte, married the next chaplain at Villierstown, the Revd Thomas Sandiford (1818-1820).

A plaque at Villierstown remembering the Revd Philip Homan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The appointment of the Revd Philip Homan (1799-1846) in 1822 was due to family connections: Sir William Jackson Homan had married Lady Charlotte Stuart, a daughter of John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute; Lady Charlotte’s brother, Lord Henry Stuart, married Lady Gertrude Emilia Villiers, only child of George Villiers, last Earl of Grandison, and heiress to the Dromana estate.

Philip Homan died of Famine Fever on 20 November 1846 while ministering to the sick of all denominations. He was regarded as a saintly man and was mourned by rich and poor alike who attended his funeral in large numbers. He is buried in a vault below the altar in the church and a memorial tablet in Saint Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore, describes him as a religious scholar and a benefactor of the poor in times of distress.

After Philip Homan died, Lord Stuart de Decies sought to appoint a successor, but was opposed by the Bishop of Cashel, Waterford and Lismore, Robert Daly. A protracted argument ensued, with Bishop Daly insisting he had the final say on all clerical appointments.

Eventually, the Revd Hans Butler was appointed in 1847, and remained until 1886. He also a Vicar Choral of Lismore Cathedral (1839-1850). During his time at Villierstown, Affane Parish, which included Villierstown, was united with Cappoquin in 1874.

The Revd Richard Bartlett Langbridge (1886-1887) had been headmaster of Dartford Grammar School (1870-1876), a missionary in Chile and a consular chaplain in Montevideo, Uruguay, before coming to Villierstown.

The Revd George Gillington was the chaplain at Villierstown in 1887-1899. The Revd Arthur Wellesley Chapman (1899-1901) had studied at Harvard and was a curate at Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick, before coming to Villierstown. The Revd John George Disney (1901-1904) was both chaplain at Villierstown and curate in Cappoquin. He died in 1933.

The Revd William Henry Rennison (1904-1914) was also curate in Cappoquin and chaplain at Villierstown. He became the Rector of Ardmore in 1914, and Rector of Portlaw in 1921. He compiled the Succession List of Bishops, Cathedral and Parochial Clergy of the Dioceses of Waterford and Lismore (1920), and published a series of papers in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society on the early 17th century history of the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore.

He was 52 when he died in 1937 on a family holiday in Annestown near Tramore.

The Revd Charles Geoffrey Nelson Stanley (1914-1916) was a former curate of Tramore before becoming curate of Cappoquin and chaplain of Villierstown. Later, he became Dean of Lismore in 1934. Lismore and Cappoquin were united in 1955. He retired in 1960 and died in 1977.

The Revd William Skuse (1916-1919) had worked in the bank in Templemore, Co Tipperary, and was a curate in Kenmare, Co Kerry, before becoming chaplain at Villierstown and curate of Cappoquin in 1916. The position of chaplain at Villierstown came to an end in 1919, and from then on, the chapel was served by the clergy of Lismore Cathedral and the curate of Cappoquin.

The Villiers-Stuart fountain on the Green opposite the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The glebe land in Villierstown was sold in 1941 and the money was transferred to a diocesan endowment fund. The Villiers-Stuart family also donated another parcel of land near Villierstown.

Sunday attendance figures had dropped to about six by 1955, and the chapel closed in 1958. A church commission recommended removing the roof and capping the walls, retaining the porch as a mortuary chapel for the churchyard. But the Villiers-Stuart family was unhappy and James Henry Ion Villiers-Stuart (1928-2004) donated the church to the village in 1965 to prevent it from ‘falling into disrepair and ruin.’

After a meeting with the Roman Catholic bishop, Dr Daniel Cohalan, it was agreed that it would become a church for the Catholic villagers. It was the first time a Church of Ireland church was given to a Roman Catholic parish. The gift was welcomed by Bishop Cohalan and the parish priest, Father Hackett. A local committee raised £1,500 for its adaptation as a Catholic church.

However, Bishop Cohalan and Father Hackett died within weeks of each other. Their successors, Bishop Michael Russell and Father Quinlan, were less than enthusiastic, and decided the three existing churches were enough for the parish.

The Villiers-Stuart vault behind the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The building continued to deteriorate, and the furnishings were removed by the Dean of Lismore. In the late 1960s, the parish of Aglish transferred the church to Helen Villiers-Stuart, then living in Dromana House and some work was carried out with the assistance of the State Training Agency (AnCO). President Erskine Childers visited Villierstown in 1974 and dedicated the chapel for ecumenical use.

When Helen Villiers-Stuart died in 1986, her family agreed to transfer the church to a charitable trust in the hope of securing its future. Some improvements were made, the central crossing of the roof structure was replaced, the building was rewired, and toilets and heating were installed.

However, in the decades that followed, many members of the local trust died. A new Villierstown Church Company was formed by the three remaining trust members and four new members were added. Despite decades of neglect, much of original form and fabric of the chapel, outside and inside, survive, including the glazing panels in the windows. The clock on the church façade was restored by Mary Villiers-Stuart’s grandson, James Villiers-Stuart, in 1990.

Many members of the Villiers-Stuart family are buried in the family vault behind the church, while other family members are buried in the churchyard.

The Celtic Cross in front of the former church in Villierstown (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The inscription on the limestone Celtic cross in front of the church gates reads: ‘To Henry Villiers Baron Stuart de Decies Died January 23rd 1874 and to his wife Therse Pauline Lady Stuart de Decies who died August 7th 1867. This monument is erected by their son in affectionate remembrance. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.’

On the opposite side of the street, on a prominent corner site on the Green, an elegant memorial fountain dates from 1910 and remembers members of the Villiers-Stuart family. It is an attractive landmark in the village.

The church in Villierstown built by Lord Grandison in 1748 is now an arts, entertainment, community and wedding venue. It remains an important part of the mid-18th century ecclesiastical and architectural heritage of Co Waterford.

Paired Venetian windows in the church in Villierstown (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The church ruins in Affane and the grave of a Restoration ‘healer’

The church ruins at Affane, 3 km south of Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

While I visited Cappoquin, Co Waterford, last month on the first leg of this year’s ‘Road Trip,’ I visited two churches in the area that no longer serve as churches in the Church of Ireland: the former church in Villierstown, and the church ruins at Affane, close to the entrance to Dromana House.

Affane is a small village in west Waterford, 3km south of Cappoquin, on the north side of the Cappoquin-Aglish road and close to the banks of the River Blackwater.

The first references to a town at Affane are limited. It was included on a list in 1300. The parish church of Affane was listed as Athmethan and valued at over £6 in the ecclesiastical taxation in 1302-1306. There are reports of an incident in 1312.

The presence of a church and castle 300 metres apart indicates how Affane was an important mediaeval settlement. The list of Vicars of Affane dates from the late 15th century, although it is incomplete after that.

The Battle of Affane between the Fitzgeralds of Desmond and the Butlers of Ormond clans was fought in the area in 1565 at a ford over the Finisk, a tributary of the Blackwateron, and close the later bridge and gate lodge at the entrance to Dromana House.

By the mid-16th century, Affane had been united with the church of Dungarvan, but in a visitation of 1588 it was in the Deanery of Ardmore. The list of Vicars of Affane resumes in the early 17th century, and they were often also Vicars Choral of Saint Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore, or chaplains to the Earls of Cork in Lismore Castle.

John Lane was later Dean of Waterford in 1602 and Archdeacon of Lismore in 1610.

Stephen Jerome, who was Vicar of Affane in 1631, was later committed to prison by the Irish House of Lords for preaching a sermon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, ‘traducing their majesties.’ However, escaped to Manchester.

After the Caroline Restoration, the Parish of Aglish was united with Affane in 1662.

John Walkington, who was Vicar of Affane in 1714-1717 was also Rector and Vicar of Clonmel (1688-1717) and was elected Mayor of Clonmel in 1712. Henry Gervais (1738) was later Archdeacon of Cashel.

A new church was built in Affane in 1819 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

A new church was built in Affane in 1819, and in 1837 the church was described the church as ‘a neat building’ built by the late Board of First Fruits with a loan of £500.

The church at Affane was a typical Board of First Fruits Church and it cost £500 to build. It had seating for 200 people and was built to a very simple design with a single-bay, three-stage entrance tower at the west end.

The church had a nave-with-entrance tower and was aligned on a liturgically-correct axis. The slender profile of the windows underpin a mediaeval Gothic-style design, and the chancel had an East Window with curvilinear glazing bars. The tower was embellished with battlements.

The church is now closed and the picturesque ruins are surrounded by a graveyard. Many of the graves date from 1820 to 1920, indicating a large Church of Ireland community in the area until the early 20th century.

The last separate Rector of Affane was Canon William Fitzgerald in 1869-1872, in the immediate aftermath of the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. In 1874, the Parish of Affane was united with Cappoquin in 1874, with the Revd William Going as Perpetual Curate (Vicar) of Cappoquin (1874-1898), the Revd Robert Cleary as curate of Cappoquin (and later Archdeacon of Emly), and the Revd Neville Parry as curate of Affane.

Valentine Greatrakes (1628-1682), who is buried in the churchyard, was a 17th century faith healer popularly known as ‘The Stroker’ who toured England in 1666, claiming to cure people by the laying on of hands.

Valentine Greatrakes was born on Saint Valentine’s Day, 14 February 1628, in the family home at Norrisland, New Affane. His parents were William Greatrakes and Mary Harris, daughter of Sir Edward Harris, Second Justice of the King’s Bench in Ireland and Chief Justice of Munster.

Valentine’s grandfather had moved from Derbyshire to Co Waterford after the Plantation of Munster. At the outbreak of the Munster Rebellion in 1641, his mother decided to move the family to England to live with her brother Edward Harris in Devon. Valentine returned to Ireland in 1647 and for a year he lived in ‘contemplation’ at Cappoquin Castle, later the site of Cappoquin House.

He became a lieutenant in the Earl of Orrery’s regiment in the Cromwellian army in 1649. On leaving the army, he returned to his family home in 1654. He was appointed Clerk of the Peace for Co Cork and Register of Transplantation, but he lost these positions after the Caroline Restoration.

Valentine Greatrakes believed he could cure people of illnesses and diseases. He was popularly known as ‘The Stroker’ because of his method of stroking his patients with his hands. His first patient, William Maher of Salterbridge, Cappoquin, was a young boy who suffered from scrofula (‘the king’s evil’).

His fame as a healer spread quickly and he was so inundated with people visiting his home that he was forced to move to Youghal. However, he was summoned to the Bishop’s court in Lismore, and because he had no licence to practice, he was forbidden to lay hands on anyone else in Ireland.

Nonetheless, he was invited to England to practice his cures, and he attracted huge crowds in London. Robert Boyle of Lismore Castle, an early pioneer of modern scientific method, witnessed many of his healing sessions in London.

Greatrakes published an account of his life and cures in 1666. He was married twice and was the father of three children, two sons and a daughter.

His funeral entry at the Ulster Office of Arms or Herald’s Office in Dublin recorded that he died on 28 November 1682 at Affane, Co Waterford, and was buried in Lismore Cathedral. However, the Revd Samuel Hayman, writing in the 1860s, stated that he is buried in the aisle of the old Affane Church, beside his father.

In the churchyard surrounding the church ruins at Affane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)