The elaborate 300-year-old death certificate of John Comerford, dated 18 May 1725 … he died on 27 October 1723
Patrick Comerford
The year 1725 was significant for a number of events I have been researching or looking back on in the history of the Comerford family in recent weeks.
At a
special tercentenary event in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, organised by Tamworth and District Civic Society last month (1 April 2025), I spoke about the family plaque erected in the Comberford Chapel by
Joseph Comerford in 1725, and shared with the Vicar of Tamworth, the Revd Andrew Lythall, in rededicating the memorial.
In my lecture that evening, I tried to explore some of the reasons Joseph Comerford erected that plaque in the Comberford Chapel. But perhaps one significant stimulus may have been the formal issuing in Spain 300 years ago this month, on 18 May 1725, of the death certificate of Major-General John Comerford, who may have been the senior representative of the
Ballymack branch of the Comerford family.
Joseph Comerford had bought the chateau in Anglure in Champagne and called himself Marquis d’Anglure. But he had no son to inherit his French chateau and titles as his male heir. In his wills, made in Paris and Dublin, Joseph designated the male descendants of his brother,
Captain Luc (Luke) Comerford of Sézanne, as his heirs male, and, in default of Luc Comerford having male heirs, Joseph settled his estates and titles on the heirs male or descendants of his kinsman, Major-General John Comerford (
ca 1665-1723).
Badajoz, close to the Spanish border with Portugal … John Comerford was stationed there with his regiment until he died on 27 October 1723 (Photograph: Wikipedia / CCL)
Sone sources say John Comerford was born in Loughkeen, in north Co Tipperary, but is more likely he was born in Waterford. Spanish genealogies name his parents as Don Henrrique (Henry) Comerford, ‘natural de Borough’ and Doña Leonora Graze (Grace) ‘de Balmicourte, natural de Borough’. They are not explicit about the name of the ‘Borough’, but it is almost certainly Waterford.
John seems to have spent his formative and early adult years in Waterford. He was sworn a freeman of the City of Waterford on 23 August 1686, and became an ensign or junior office in Bagnall’s Regiment of Foot in the army of James II, alongside his brother Henry Comerford.
After the Jacobite defeat and the Treaty of Limerick, John Comerford left Ireland and was one of the ‘Wild Geese’ who found refuge in France and Spain and he became an officer in the Spanish army.
He lived in Barcelona and Madrid for much of military career, and on 13 November 1709 he raised a regiment during the Spanish Civil War from a regiment in James II’s Jacobite army, previously commanded by Colonel Dorrington and Colonel Roth. Comerford’s regiment was composed mainly of Irish officers and men and he named the regiment after himself.
Soon after their move to Spain, many of these Irish officers and their regiments were caught up in the Spanish War of Succession (1701-1714). Charles II of Spain died in 1700 without heirs, and Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV of France, was proclaimed King of Spain, triggering the Spanish War of Succession.
Badajoz was controlled in 1705 by the allies in 1705. The supporters if the Habsburg claims conceded the throne to Philip V in the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 in exchange for his renunciation of any claim to France, Philip V was confirmed as King of Spain and renounced any claims to the French throne, Barcelona was recovered by Spain in 1714, and Portugal signed a peace agreement with Spain in 1715 in which it surrendered its claims to Badajoz.
The Spanish army had a brigade of five Irish regiments: Ireland, Hibernia, Ultonia, Limerick and Waterford. Philip V reformed the regiments in the Spanish army in 1715 and renamed them after places instead of their colonels: O’Mahony became Edinburgh, in honour of the Jacobites and the Scottish capital; Crofton whose new colonel was Julian O’Callaghan, became Dublin; Castelar became Hibernia; MacAulif became Ultonia (Ulster); Vandoma became Limerick; and the Regiment of Comerford, with John Comerford as colonel-in-chief, became the Regiment of Waterford (sometimes spelt Guaterford or Vaterford in Spanish documents).
John Comerford was still in active service in the Spanish army in Barcelona in 1718, when he married the widowed Henrietta O’Beirne, and in Badajoz, when he died on 27 October 1723.
The death certificate was formally signed and witnessed in a very elaborate document 300 years ago on 18 May 1725. This fascinating document first came to light with the publication of Micheline Walsh’s research in the National Historical Archive of Spain,
Spanish Knights of Irish Origin, published by the Irish University Press and the Irish Manuscripts Commission in four volumes between 1960 to 1978.
John Comerford’s death certificate was drawn up by an Irish-born Catholic priest who was the regimental chaplain in Badajoz, Fray Eugenio O’Maly and was witnessed by several Irish officers in the regiment which was then was stationed in Badajoz: Demetrio O’Dwyer, Diego Tobin, Diego de Poer, Terence O’Kelly, Phelipe O’Reilly, Tadeo Macarty, Gelasio Magenis, Mateo Butler, Juan O’Donell, and by Colonel Daniel O’Sullivan, Conde de Biarhaven (
sic). Brigadier Daniel O’Sullivan, the Count of Berehaven and Governor of Coruna, was born in Bantry, Co Cork.
John Comerford’s step-daughter, Maria Therese O’Beirne, married Philip Wharton, 2nd Duke of Wharton, who once owned Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)
John Comerford married the widowed Henrietta O’Beirne (née O’Neill) in 1718, while he was on active service in the Spanish army as a colonel in Barcelona.
Henrietta was the widow of Colonel Henry O’Beirne, another Irish colonel in the Spanish army, and a daughter of Henry O’Neill of Eden, Co Antrim, and his wife, Sarah O’Neill, of Shane’s Castle. Henrietta’s brother, John O’Neill, was the father-in-law of Richard Butler, 7th Viscount Mountgarret, and was grandfather of Lord O’Neill, who was killed at the Battle of Antrim during the 1798 Rising.
Henrietta and her first husband, Henry O’Beirne, were the parents of one daughter:
1, Maria Therese O’Beirne (d. 1777), Maid of Honour to the Queen of Spain, who married in 1726 the attainted Philip Wharton (1698-1731), 2nd Duke of Wharton, Marquess of Catherlough, Earl of Rathfarnham and Baron Trim.
Henrietta and her second husband, John Comerford, were the parents of one son and four daughters:
1, Joseph John Patrick Comerford (Don Joseph Jordi Patricio Comerford) (1719-post 1777) – I shall return to his life story further on in this essay.
2, Elinor, married … O’Beirne, and was living with her half-sister the Duchess of Wharton at her house in Golden Square, Soho, London, when she died in 1777. She was the mother of three daughters: ‘Mrs Elinor O’Beirne’, living at the court of Spain in 1777; and two other daughters who were under the age of 21 in 1777.
3, Frances (Doña Francisca) Magdalene.
4, Dorothea, who appears to have been dead by 1777, when her half-sister, the Duchess of Wharton, died in London.
The Royal Palace in Madrid … John Comerford’s step-daughter, Maria Therese O’Beirne, was Maid of Honour to Queen Elisabeth of Spain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The widowed Henrietta Comerford died in Madrid in August 1747. She and her first husband, Colonel Henry O’Beirne, were the parents of Maria Therese O’Beirne (d. 1777), Maid of Honour to the Queen of Spain. Elisabeth Farnese (1692-1766) of Parma was the wife of Philip V and the
de facto ruler of Spain from 1714 to 1746, managing the affairs of state on behalf of her husband, and she was the Regent of Spain in 1759-1760.
While Maria Therese O’Beirne was her Maid of Honour, Queen Elisabeth of Spain gave birth in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid on 11 June 1726 to a daughter she named Marie Thérèse Antoinette Raphaëlle (1726-1746). I canonly speculate whether the Infanta of Spain who would become the Dauphine of France sas named after John Comerford’s step-daughter at court.
A month later, on 23 July 1726, and a year after the death of her step-father, John Comerford, Maria Therese O’Beirne married as his second wife the attainted and widowed Philip Wharton (1698-1731), 2nd Duke of Wharton, Marquess of Catherlough, Earl of Rathfarnham and Baron Trim.
The Duke of Wharton had inherited Rathfarnham Castle, Knocklyon Castle and other estates in south Co Dublin through his mother, Lucy Loftus of Fethard-on-Sea, Co Wexford. He sold those estates to Sir William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, for £62,000 in in 1723, two years befor he married Maria Therese O’Beirne.
Wharton led a dissolute life and died aged 32 in the Franciscans monastery in Poblet on 31 May 1731, and was buried next day in the church there. His widow left Madrid for London. There she lived at Golden Square in Soho, was known as Mrs Wharton rather than the Duchess of Wharton and subsisted on a small pension from the Spanish court. A writer in the
Gentleman’s Magazine later referred to her step-father, John Comerford, as her father, and in her will made 250 years ago in 1775 she referred to her half-brother, Joseph Comerford, as ‘my deceased brother Comerford’.
She died at Golden Square on 13 February 1777, and was buried at Old Saint Pancras on 20 February 1777. Her will, dated 23 December 1775, went to probate on 1 March and 28 July 1777.
John Comerford’s step-daughter, Maria Therese O’Beirne, was buried at Old Saint Pancras, London, on 20 February 1777 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
John Comerford’s elaborate death certificate, and the detailed genealogies prepared for his children and grandchildren and signed by Irish archbishops and bishops were important for his family in the social climate in 18th century Spain.
Documents such these were essential for proving their status of nobility and so allowing them to hold senior rank in the Spanish army, for giving his step-daughter to marry to an exiled duke, for her daughter to became a maid of Honour to the Queen of Spain, for his only son to become a Knight of the Order of Calatrava, and for later descendants to marry into noble families, including the de Sales family, and to assume the titles of count and countess.
But it is interesting that, among these documents, John Comerford’s death certificate is drawn up and witnessed at the same time as Joseph Comerford is erecting the Comberford monument in the Comberford Chapel in Tamworth, and making his wills in Dublin and Paris that assign his titles and claims in France eventually to the descendants of John Comerford.
Don Joseph Jordi Patricio Comerford was born in Barcelona on 5 April 1719, and was baptised in Barcelona Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
As for John Comerford’s descendants, this branch of the Comerford family continued in the male line into at least the early 19th century and the death of Enrique (Henry) Comerfort, Conde de Bryas, sometime after 1815. His niece, Doña Josefa Eugenia Maria Francisca Comerford MacCrohon de Sales, (1794-1865), generally known as Josefina de Comerford, is a romantic figure in Spanish political upheavals in the 19th century and a
femme fatale in Spanish revolutionary wars.
John Comerford’s only son and heir, Joseph John Patrick Comerford (1719-post 1777), was also known as Don Joseph Jordi Patricio Comerford. He was born in Barcelona on 5 April 1719, and was baptised in the Cathedral in Barcelona by the Rev Dr Pedro Soro. His godparents were Don Patricio Hogan, a captain of grenadiers in his father’s regiment, and Doña Isabel Grifit y Tobin. He was probably named after Joseph Comerford of Anglure, who was nominating the male members of this branch of the family as his heirs.
Don Joseph Comerford was a Knight of the Order of Calatrava, one of the four Spanish military orders, was the first military order founded in Castile and the second to receive papal approval. He married Maria Magdalena de Sales, Madame de Sales, a widow sometimes described as Marquesa de Sales, and he was still living in 1777. They were the parents of two sons:
• 1, (Major-General) Francisco Comerford (d. 1808), of the Regiment of Ireland – and I shall return to his life in a few moments.
• 2, Enrique (Henry) Comerfort y de Sales, Conde de Bryas. He married Juana Francisca de Comerford y Sales. He moved to Dublin in 1809 with his orphaned niece Josefina. He attended the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and died soon after.
The elder son of Don Joseph Jordi Patricio Comerford was Major-General Francisco Comerford (d. 1808), of the Regiment of Ireland. He was a sponsor in 1772 at the baptism in Spain of Carlos Manuel O’Donnell y Anhetan (1772-1830), father of Leopoldo O’Donnell y Jorish (1809-1867), the first Duke of Tetuan, who was Prime Minister of Spain on several occasions in the mid-19th century.
Joseph Comerford was stationed in Tarifa and died there in 1808 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Joseph Comerford proved the will of his aunt, the Duchess of Wharton, in 1777. He was stationed next to Gibraltar and in Tarifa with his regiment. He was an eyewitness of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He married Maria MacCrohon, and died in 1808. They were the parents of
Doña Josefa Eugenia Maria Francisca Comerford MacCrohon de Sales (1794-1865), or ‘Josefina’ de Comerford, a
femme fatale in the Spanish revolutionary wars and political upheavals in the 19th century.
Josefina was born in Ceuta in Spanish North Africa in 1794, and was baptised on 26 December 1794 in the Church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios in Ceuta. In her childhood, she moved to Tarifa, where her father died in 1808. She was adopted by her uncle Enrique Comerford, moved with him to Dublin and was with him at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. She moved to Rome before returning to Spain, and became involved on the ultra-royalist side in the political wars in Spain.
The Spanish Regency gave her the title of Condesa de Sales on 21 June 1822, and this was confirmed by Fernando VII. At the fall of the constitutional regime in 1824, she moved to Barcelona. She was imprisoned in the Ciudadela in Barcelona in November 1827, but her death sentence was commuted and she was exiled to the Convent of Encarnación in Seville.
Josefina regained her freedom after the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833. She then
lived in Corral del Conde on Calle Santiago in Seville, and is said to have returned to Ireland the 1850s. She died in Seville on 3 April 1865, and was buried in the Cemetery of San Fernando.
Josefina’s life has been the subject of many popular Spanish romantic novels, so that the historical biographical details of her life are often lost in the fictional retelling of her legend. She is often described as ‘the woman general’, ‘la dama azul’, and ‘the fanatic’, while other writers have defended her as ‘a defamed heroine’.
Countess Josefina de Comerford’ depicted by Vicente Urrabieta y Carnicero in an illustration for the novel by Francisco José Orellana, ‘The Count of Spain or The Military Inquisition’ (Madrid: León Pablo Library, 1856)
Further reading:
Micheline Walsh (ed),
Spanish Knights of Irish Origin, Documents from Continental Archives, vol iii (Dublin, Irish University Press for the Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1970).
