Comerford profiles: did this Richard Comberford ever move from Lichfield to Ireland?

The Guildhall in Lichfield … four generations of the Comerford family were members of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist, including Richard Comberford’s wife Isabella (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Joseph Comerford’s pedigree registered in 1724, and the pedigree compiled at the College of Heralds in 1786 for the Countess of Crequy, claim the Comerford families of Co Kilkenny and Co Wexford are descended from Richard Comerford.

But who was this Richard Comberford, and, whether he ever came to Ireland, what his career in England, and where does he fit in the story of the Comberford family of Comberford Hall?

(Judge) Richard Comberford (ca 1512-post 1547), was born ca 1512, a younger son of Thomas Comberford who died in 1532 and his wife Dorothy Fitzherbert. He was the ancestor of the Bradley branch of the family, but he was also claimed as the putative ancestor of the Comerford family in south-east Ireland.

Richard Comberford’s father, Thomas Comberford (1472-1532) of Comberford, had been admitted to membership of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist in Lichfield in 1495. Two generation earlier, Thomas’s grandfather, William Comberford, as ‘Will’s Combford,’ was admitted to membership of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John in Lichfield, in 1469.

Within a few years, William Comberford’s son, John Comberford (ca 1426-1508), as ‘Joh’s Cumberforde,’ was admitted to membership of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist in 1476. The guild acted as the city government until Lichfield received a charter.

Thomas Comberford was the third generation of his family to become involved in the governance of Lichfield when, as M’r Thomas Cumberforth, was admitted to membership of the Guild in 1495.

We have a good account of Thomas Comberford’s land holdings in Lichfield and the surrounding area around the year 1525, when John Archard, Master of Saint Mary’s Guild, recorded the land holdings of the guild on the outskirts of the city. He provides a thorough account of the neighbouring estates held by Thomas Comberford, particularly in Wall and Wigginton. In that account, Archard spells the family’s name variously as Comberfort, Combyrford, Combyrforde, Combyrfort, Cumberforde, Cumberforte and Cumbyrford.

Thomas Comberford’s wife Dorothea was a sister of Canon Thomas Fitzherbert, Precentor of Lichfield Cathedral, and Canon William Fitzherbert, Chancellor of Lichfield Cathedral, while another sister Alice was the Abbess of Polesworth.

Thomas Comberford’s son, Richard Comberford, the putative ancestor of the Irish branch of the family, was born ca 1512. His records at Cambridge note that he was born at Comberford, Staffordshire. In all, three Comberford brothers, Humphrey, Henry and Richard, benefited from the terms of a bequest from John Bayley, who had funded a fellowship at Saint John’s College, Cambridge, stipulating that preference be given to men from Tamworth.

His eldest brother, Humphrey Comberford (ca 1496/1498-1555) of Comberford Hall and the Moat House on Lichfield Street, Tamworth, was educated at Cambridge (BA 1525, MA 1528). However, his principle commercial interests were in Lichfield, and he was the fourth generation of the family to be involved in the civic governance of Lichfield when he became the Master of Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist in 1530.

A second brother, Henry Comberford (ca 1499-1586), was admitted to Saint John’s College on 31 March 1533. He graduated BA (1533), MA (1536) and BD (1545). He went on to become a Fellow of Saint John’s College and a Proctor of Cambridge University, and later, as Canon Henry Comberford, was the Precentor of Lichfield Cathedral (1555-1559).

Saint John’s College, Cambridge … Richard Comberford was a Fellow and Senior Bursar, but did he ever move to Ireland? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Richard Comberford, who was born ca 1512, married Isabel Biggs before going to Cambridge. As ‘Dame Isabella Cumberforde,’ she was admitted to membership of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist in Lichfield in 1530, in the year her brother-in-law, Humphrey Comberford, was the Master of the Guild.

Richard Comerford was admitted to Saint John’s College, Cambridge, on 8 April 1534, and became a Fellow of Saint John’s College that year. He proceeded MA in 1537, and, like other members of his family at the time, he was known for his Catholic sympathies during the Tudor Reformation.

In his history of Saint John’s College, Peter Linehan notes that ‘the Fellows were constitutionally quarrelsome.’ Richard Comberford was one of two fellows of Saint John’s, along with Richard Swayne, who led a conspiracy of regent masters in 1539 to take control of the Senate House in Cambridge and to stop an adjournment of the election of William Buckmaster of Peterhouse, former Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity (1532, 1534), as the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge.

When Comberford gave the signal, ‘nowe playe the men and I will begyne,’ Swayne barred the doors and there was a rush to assault Dr Geoffrey Glynn, who was presiding over the assembly.

Nevertheless, Richard continued as a fellow of the college’s seven seniors in 1542, and he was the Senior Bursar of Saint John’s in 1542-1544.

A senior barrister, after leaving Cambridge Richard Comberford was a serjeant-at-law or servillus ad legem, according to the Visitation of Staffordshire. He held one of the highest judicial posts as the King’s Remembrancer from about 1547.

Richard Comberford of Cambridge and his brother John Comberford both leased lands at Much Bradley in Staffordshire from Saint John’s College.

Richard and Isabel Comberford were the parents of a son and two daughters:

1, Dorothy, who married Edward Bulkeley.
2, Elizabeth, who died in childhood.
3, Francis Comberford, who was the ancestor of the Comberford family of Bradley.

Richard Comberford has sometimes been named incorrectly as the father also of:

4, John Comberford, whose daughter Alice married Walter Littleton [however, see Comberford 4: Comberford wealth from Wednesbury].

Richard Comberford has often been confused by 18th century genealogists with Richard Comerford of Ballybur, Co Kilkenny, and so in a confused way, the Comberford and Comerford family trees became entangled.

Joseph Comerford’s pedigree registered in 1724, and the pedigree compiled at the College of Heralds in 1786 for the Countess of Crequy, make an even more fantastic claim, saying Richard moved to Ireland and became Lord of Ballymacken and Danganmore, Co Kilkenny, through his marriage to Mary, daughter and heiress of Allen de Comerford, last Baron of Danganmore, said to have died in 1504, and niece of Edmond Comerford, Bishop of Ferns, who died in 1509.

According to these Irish pedigrees, Richard Comberford and his wife Mary Comerford were the parents of:

Thomas de Cumberford, who married Anne FitzGerald of the House of Kildare, and was ancestor of many of the Comerford families in Ireland, including: the Comerfords of Danganmore, Co Kilkenny; the Comerfords of New Ross, Co Wexford; Edward Comerford, Archbishop of Cashel; Joseph Comerford, soi-disant Marquis d’Anglure, who erected the Comerford memorial in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth; and the Comerfords of Athy, Co Kildare, ancestors of the Countess of Crequy.

Of course, these pedigrees are of a fantastical nature, composed to boost the claims of 18th century members of the family, and are totally unreliable. Yet they show how the family claims to links with Staffordshire continued to be part of family lore down through the centuries.

Saint John the Evangelist at Saint John’s College, Cambridge … Richard Comerford was Senior Bursar at a time he was said to be living in Co Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This Comerford profile is written for the Comerford Genealogy site and I plan to migrate it to that site in due time

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)

The church ruins and castle in Toomdeely and links with the Precentors of Limerick

The ruins of the Bishop’s Palace or castle and Toomdeely Church, seen through the mist on a winter afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing yesterday how, apart from Saint Mary’s Church, there are three church ruins within walking distance of Askeaton that have served as Church of Ireland parish churches in times past: the church at Morgans North (or Dysert), which I visited at the end of last month, and the churches at Lismakeery, near Creeves and Toomdeely, near the point where the River Deel flows into the Shannon Estuary.

I recently visited the site of the church ruins at Toomdeely, north of Askeaton, and although the ecclesiastical ruins were difficult to see in the winter fog moving in from the Shannon Estuary, it was an interesting visit because of the links of the former parish with my predecessors as Precentors of Limerick, and the links of the castle ruins with the mediaeval and early modern Bishops of Limerick.

The church at Toomdeely, about 3 km north of Askeaton, near the mouth of the River Deel, was built ca 1201. Research shows that Toomdeely or Droomdeely was an independent parish.

The name of Toomdeely or Droomdeely is said to be derived from the tuaim, tumulus or burial ground, represented by a group of pillar stones near Knockeegan fort nearby. However, the 19th century antiquarian and topographer John O’Donovan (1806-1861), who surveyed the site for the Ordnance Survey, believed the name signifies the ‘Bush of the River Deel.’

Other spellings of the name include Drumdell, Orundell, Tonndaily, Drimdel, Arundel, Dromdily, Dromdelthy, Drumdyll, Drumdele and Drumdelie.

The parish of Toomdeely, measuring 1,275 acres, was bounded on the east by Askeaton, separated from it by the River Deel, bounded on the west by the parishes of Morgans and Robertstown, and on the south by Lismakeery.

The church and parish were granted by Henry Mineter in the early 13th century to Hubert de Burgo, Bishop of Limerick (1223-1250). The imposing building attached to the church was known as the Bishop’s Palace, although other local accounts say the castle was built by the O’Mahony family.

Hubert de Burgh was a Dominican friar and Prior of Athassel in Co Tipperary. He was one of the great benefactors of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick. The Pope ordered commission in 1226 to investigate if the Bishop of Limerick was illegitimate, simoniacal, ignorant and disobedient to his metropolitan, the Archbishop of Cashel.

He was favoured by the Crown, and the king asked the clergy of Armagh to elect de Burgh as Archbishop of Armagh in 1227 in succession to Luke Netterville. Instead, however, they elected Donatus Ó Fidabra, Bishop of Clogher.

Meanwhile, de Burgh refused to co-operate with the papal commission, and was declared illegitimate in 1238. However, perhaps through royal favour, he remained Bishop of Limerick until he died on 14 September 1250.

The lands of Toomdeely were granted to Margery, widow of Tyrry de Kardyff, in 1251. She was probably related to Thomas de Cardiff or Thomas de Kerdiff, who was the Chancellor of Limerick ca 1223-1250 and Vicar of Askeaton in 1237.

The church and parish of Toomdeely were in the possession of Maurice de Rupe forte or de Rochfort, when he became Bishop of Limerick in 1336. He died in 1353.

Thomas fitzJames FitzGerald held Toomdeely in 1580 as part of the Lordship of Cleanlish, which probably took its name from Greenish Island at the mouth of the River Deel, where it meets the estuary of the River Shannon.

Toomdeely was granted in 1590 to Francis Berkeley, whose brother, Edward Berkeley, had been sent to Askeaton ten years earlier by the Lord Deputy, Leonard Grey, to assist the Crown in the suppression of the Desmond rebellion.

The inhabitants of Toomdeely were pardoned in 1601 for supporting the rebellion of James FitzThomas FitzGerald, the ‘Sugán’ Earl of Desmond. The Sugán Earl had attacked Askeaton Castle in 1598, but he was captured in May 1601 and he later died at the Tower of London in 1608. The title was then claimed by his younger brother, John FitzThomas FitzGerald, who had fled to Barcelona with his wife, a Comerford from Danganmore, Co Kilkenny, and their son, Gerald FitzGerald, known as the ‘Conde de Desmond.’

Toomdeely is listed in 1615 as a manor of the Bishop of Limerick, at a rent of 5 Marks, or £2 13s 4d. This rent was probably paid to Maurice Berkeley, son of Francis Berkeley, at Askeaton Castle that same year. However, by then, the manor was in a state of neglect, and the rent was only paid by the bishop as a nominal fee.

Roger Boyle (1621-1679), Lord Broghill, third surviving son of Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, was the landlord of Toomdeely in 1655. He spent many years abroad, and when he returned to Ireland, he became a leading Cromwellian or Parliamentarian officer.

Boyle was MP for Arundel, which may explain why the name of Toomdeely was sometimes rendered as Arundel. At the restoration of Charles II, he was given the title of Earl of Orrery in 1660 and became Lord President of Munster. He was also responsible for the early development of Charleville, Co Cork, which was named in honour of Charles II.

The church ruin at Toomdeely dates from the 15th century. John O’Donovan noted in the mid-19th century that the church was divided into a nave and choir or chancel. The nave then measured 34 ft by 24 ft 2 in and the chancel measuring 21 ft by 15 ft 3 in. The side walls of the choir were 10 ft 6 in high and those of the nave 12 ft 6 in.

He said that by then all the features of the church were destroyed but that one could ‘clearly see from the breaches in the walls where its doorway and windows were placed.’ The was gable was ‘in good preservation and remarkably sharp at the top, but the east gable, which was of considerable size, entirely disfigured.’

The south wall of the nave was near the west gable but had been reduced to ‘a formless breach.’ He also found a small window on the south wall near the choir arch, but it was entirely disfigured.

The north wall and west gable had no features.

All the walls were built of limestones of considerable size, and cemented with lime and sand mortar.

O’Donovan also notes that the surrounding churchyard had been tilled and by then was part of a green field.

The ruins of the rectangular, castle-like house to the south and west of the church measured about 72 ft in length and 40 ft in breadth.

The living was in the gift of the Precentors of Limerick, who were Rectors of Dromdeely, and the parish was part of the Union of Nantenan and what was known as the ‘corps’ of the precentorship.

The tithes once amounted to £75, of which £50 was paid to the Precentor and £25 to the Vicar. In the Church of Ireland, a list of Vicars of Dromdeely or Tomdeely survives from 1622, when the Revd John O’Teagh was vicar. He was followed by the Revd John Wood, who was in the parish in 1628.

From the mid-17th century, many of these Vicars of Dromdeely were also Vicars of Askeaton.

The last appointed Vicar of Dromdeely was Canon Henry Wilson Stewart (1772-1857), who was vicar from 1812 until he died on 14 April 1857 at the age of 84. At the same time, he was the rector of parishes in the Diocese of Ross in Co Cork, and never lived in the Askeaton area.

The parish was finally suspended in 1862, although the Revd George Maxwell (1809-1870), Rector of Askeaton (1838-1870), is listed as the Curate of Dromdelly in 1862-1869.

The banks of the River Deel, near Toomdeely, on misty and foggy afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

A weekend visit to the Collegiate Church inthe heart of Kilmallock

The south side of the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Kilmallock, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Two of the mediaeval church ruins that once made Kilmallaock known as the ‘Baalbec of Ireland’ are still standing in the town: the ruins of the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and the ruins of the Dominican Priory of Saint Saviour.

Kilmallock, Co Limerick, is one of the few towns in Ireland that owe their name to a monastic settlement. The name Kilmallock originates from Saint Mocheallóg, who established a monastery in the area in the seventh century.

The site of the monastery was moved in the 11th century, and what remains of the early monastery that its name to the town can be found at the ruins of the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the centre of the town.

The 13th century doorway in the south wall of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

During a weekend visit to Kilmallock, two of us strolled around the ruins of the Collegiate Church, which was substantially complete by 1241. It incorporates the base of a round tower that is the only visible remains of the monastery that relocated to the site in the 11th century.

The church and its ruins stand in a small, well-kept graveyard in the centre of the town, about 150 metres south of the Dominican Priory. The two churches are separated by the River Loobagh.

The Collegiate Church was dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul in 1410 and housed a college of priests, including a dean and canons, who did not follow a monastic rule.

Other collegiate churches in Ireland included Saint Mary’s in Youghal, Co Cork, Saint Nicholas’s Collegiate Church in Galway, and Saint Patrick’s in Dublin was both a cathedral and a collegiate church. A well-known example of a collegiate church in England is Saint Editha’s Church in Tamworth.

Facing east in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Kilmallock, and the chancel with a five-light lancet window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Kilmallock was expanded and added to from the 13th to the 15th century, and the nave and transept were substantially altered by Maurice Fitzgerald in 1420.

The church consists of a nave, two aisles, a chancel and a south transept. There is a fine 13th century doorway in the south wall and three two-light windows in the south wall. The chancel has a five-light lancet window. The arcades are still standing.

The nave and transept were substantially altered in the 15th century when a south porch was added. The 17 metre round tower in the north-west corner of the nave incorporates the stump of a round tower from the early monastery.

Facing west in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Kilmallock, and the tower in the north-west corner of the nave (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The list of chaplains and vicars dates from 1291, and from the Reformation until the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland the rectory of Kilmallock was held by the Dean and Chapter of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, with vicars of the College of Kilmallock being appointed from the early 17th century.

James FitzThomas, FitzGerald, the ‘Sugán’ Earl of Desmond surrendered to the Crown in this church in 1600. Gerald FitzGerald, 16th Earl of Desmond, attended the Anglican liturgy in the church, offending his followers who rebelled against him. He died in London in early November 1601, but his death was not announced until January 1602.

The ‘Súgan’ Earl’s younger brother, John FitzThomas FitzGerald, escaped to Spain with his wife, a daughter of Richard Comerford of Danganmore Castle, Co Kilkenny. In Spain, he was known as the Conde de Desmond, and he died a few years later in Barcelona. His son Gerald FitzGerald, also known as the Conde de Desmond, entered the service of the Emperor Ferdinand and was killed in 1632.

The large south transept in Kilmallock is the only part of the church with a roof and it contains several mediaeval tombs. It was closed to the public during our visit at the weekend, and it is impossible to have a closer look at the altar tombs inside.

The FitzGerald tomb in the south transept, depicted on a display board in the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

There is an effigy of Maurice FitzGerald, who died in 1635, and a number of monuments with important examples of coats of arms carved in stone.

The FitzGerald tomb features a carved cadaver and the Fitzgerald coat of arms.

The Verdon Tomb was erected by Walter Coppinger to commemorate his wife, Lady Alison Haly and her first husband Sir John Verdon, and bears the Verdon coat of arms, two effigies representing Sir John and Lady Alison, and two angels. A long Latin inscription is carved around the edges of the slab and around the effigies.

The richly decorated tomb of George Verdon displays his coat of arms and a lengthy Latin inscription and the motto Non fugiam! Prius Experiar. Non mors mihi terror (I shall not flee! I shall attempt first. Death does not terrify me).

The church was partly destroyed by Cromwell and was roofless from 1657, although the choir and chancel continued to serve as the Church of Ireland parish church.

In 1776, this was a collegiate church under the dean and chapter of Limerick, but administered by a perpetual curate or vicar.

The Evans coat-of-arms on a family mausoleum in the south aisle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Among the 19th century mausoleums inside the ruins is one to the Evans family of Ash Hill, near Kilmallock, with the Evans coat-of-arms and the inscription: <>Sic transit Gloria mundi, ‘We know neither the day nor the hour wherein the son of man cometh.’

The chancel and choir of the church continued to be used as the Church of Ireland parish church until a fire destroyed it in a sectarian arson attack in 1935.

The attack was part of a short-lived but vicious sectarian campaign in July 1935. The worst disturbances took place in Limerick city on the night of 20 July, when an attempt was made to burn down the Presbyterian church.

During the early hours of Monday 22 July, the Church of Ireland parish church within the former collegiate church in Kilmallock was burnt down, while the windows of the local rector’s home were smashed along with those of a shop owned by Protestant family.

The west end of the Collegiate Church in Kilmallock (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

In the years that followed, community trust was regained. A new parish church was built on the outskirts of the Kilmallock and was consecrated on Saint Peter’s Day, 29 June 1938.

And so, from the collegiate church, we moved on to visit the ruins of Saint Saviour’s Dominican Priory and the new Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

The north side of the Collegiate Church in Kilmallock (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

How Murphy bought a title from the Pope and saw his daughter marry a Wolseley

The confirmation by Pope Leo XIII of Anita Murphy, later Lady Wolseley … a painting in the Villa Magistrale on the Aventine in Rome identified by Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen

Patrick Comerford

I wrote last Saturday [20 June 2020] of my memories of Sir Charles Wolseley, and how his plans for the Wolseley estate in the late 1980s and the 1990s eventually led to financial disaster and, finally, the loss of the Wolseley estate, which had been in his family for 1,000 years.

But a century earlier, in the 1880s, another Sir Charles Wolseley – the ninth baronet and the great-grandfather of the late eleventh baronet – also thought he was going to save the Wolseley estate from threatened financial ruin when he married a rich and titled Irish-American heiress who had been confirmed by Pope Leo XIII and whose father had been given the papal title of marchese or marquess.

This Sir Charles was born in 1846. Already the income from the family estates had been diminished by the exploits of his father and grandfather – both also named Sir Charles Wolseley – and his aunt Marianne Wolseley, as I wrote last night (25 June 2020), had managed to avoid her own possible financial and social ruin in 1834 when she married Count Francis Baruch Lousada (1813-1870), a member of a rich family of sugar planters in Jamaica who had bought his own aristocratic titles from the Duke of Tuscany.

While the Irish branch of the Wolseley family were well-known members of the Church of Ireland with many senior clergy, including deans and archdeacons, the Staffordshire branch of the family had become Roman Catholics by the end of the 18th century, and married into some of the best-known Staffordshire Catholic families, including the Clifford, Talbot and Weld families.

Sir Charles Wolseley (1846-1931) of Wolseley Hall, the ninth baronet and a Roman Catholic, seems to have taken his aunt Marianne as a role model, deciding to marry into a wealthy family, with a title that had been bought, and with the hope of rescuing lost fortunes and social status.

Esther (née Chichester) Grehan wrote from London in 1882 to her husband in Dublin, Stephen Grehan (1859-1937), a solicitor, describing how Sir Charles came to London to look for an heiress. (I was interested to note that Stephen Grehan was descended through his mother from the Langton and Comerford families of Danganmore Castle, Co Kilkenny.)

In her letters, filled with snobbish elitism and scathing disdain, Esther Grehan describes how Sir Charles was introduced to two Irish-American Murphy sisters from San Francisco, who were ‘vulgar but pretty.’ He fell in love, but had a reputation as a fortune hunter, and was distraught when he was rejected. But in 1883, he married the elder sister, Anna Theresa (Anita) Murphy.

Anna Theresa or Anita Murphy was one of the four daughters of the Irish-American entrepreneur Daniel T Murphy, founder of the pioneer house of Murphy, Grant & Co, who was then living in San Francisco.

Anita, her sisters and her mother had moved to London, and moved in fashionable circles in England and Europe. Anita was confirmed by Pope Leo XIII and was presented at the Court of Saint James. She visited Osborne, the royal residence on the Isle of Wight, where she met Queen Victoria and Princess Beatrice, ancestor of the Mountbatten family.

In her private diary, she tells how she turned down a proposal of marriage from Prince Luigi del Drago, a member of an Italian aristocratic family that included many cardinals and princes. Back in England, her first choice of husband was George Brundenell-Bruce, then known as Viscount Savernake and later 4th Marquess of Ailesbury. But Willie, as he was known, was an excessive gambler with an excessive lifestyle, and he brought his family to the brink of financial disaster. Eventually, Willie married a music hall actress known as Dolly Tester, and Anita had a fortuitous escape from certain calamity.

In contrast to Anita’s first choice of husband, her father, Daniel T Murphy, was a self-made multi-millionaire who seems to have made more money than he could spend. Murphy and Grant started in 1851 and became the largest wholesale dry goods house on the Pacific coast.

Murphy was born in Albany, New York, in 1833, and when he was still a boy left home for Lexington, Kentucky. He then joined the gold rush in California in 1849, going to Santa Fe, San Diego and San Francisco, where he became a partner in a dry goods house that became Murphy and Grant. The firm established branches in Manchester, Paris and New York, and became the leading house on the Pacific coast. It is said Murphy made a personal fortune of about $30 million.

After Murphy had become a commercial success, he returned to Lexington, and in 1857 married Anna Geoghagan, also from an Irish background. The couple returned to San Francisco, where they lived for many years, taking several trips to Europe at intervals.

Anna and Daniel Murphy were the parents of four daughters, Isabella (Issy), Helene (Nellie), Anna Theresa (Anita) and Frances (Fanny), and three sons, Eugene, Daniel and Samuel. Anna Murphy later moved to London with her daughters, while their sons remained in the US, and Daniel visited his wife and daughters in London at least once a year.

Daniel Murphy was a staunch Roman Catholic and donated an estimated $5 million to Pope Pius IX to be used for the Church. In return, the Pope first made Murphy a Knight, then a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory. Later, Pope Leo XIII confirmed two of their daughters in Rome, gave him the Grand Cross of Saint Gregory, and with a royal and papal patent of nobility, gave him the papal title of marchese or marquis, with the right of succession to his eldest son and his heirs.

Murphy enjoyed showing his American friends the papal patent, but he never used the title in public and his wife was known in London only as Mrs Murphy.

A painting of two of the Murphy girls at their confirmation by Pope Leo XIII was once among the most prominent paintings in the Wolseley family collection. It was still at Wolseley in the early 1970s when I interviewed Sir Charles Wolseley for the Lichfield Mercury and the Rugeley Mercury.

When Charles and Imogen Wolseley were moving out of Wolseley to Penkridge, Imogen talked about the painting being so large that it would be better placed in a museum in San Francisco. Although I cannot ascertain its fate, a similar painting in the Villa Magistrale on the Aventine in Rome has been identified recently by Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen, the Hungarian Ambassador to the Vatican and the Order of Malta.

The people in this painting of Pope Leo with the Murphy family are, from left, Cardinal Macchi, Father Armilini SJ, Pope Leo XIII, Isabella (Issy), Helene (Nellie), Anna Theresa (Anita) and Frances (Fanny) Murphy, Monsignor Cataldi, Mrs Anna Murphy and, I guess, Daniel T Murphy.

The Wolseley Arms … near the former seat of the Wolseley family near Rugeley, Staffordshire (Photograph: fatbadgers)

Anita Murphy and Sir Charles Wolseley were married on 17 July 1883 in the Catholic Pro-Cathedral in Kensington – the site for Westminster Cathedral was not bought until the following year. The four bridesmaids were the bride’s three sisters, Nellie, Frances and Isabella, and a Miss Bedingfeld.

The wedding Mass was said by the Revd Cuthbert Wolseley, OP, a Dominican priest and a younger brother of the groom – he was born Robert Joseph Wolseley (1850-1920). The wedding was blessed by Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, and there was a telegram from Pope Leo XIII.

The clergy in the sanctuary included Bishop (later Cardinal) Herbert Vaughan of Salford, later Archbishop of Westminster, Bishop James Lair Patterson, titular Bishop of Emmaus and auxiliary bishop of Westminster, Cardinal Edward Howard of the English College, Rome, and the English Provincials of the Dominicans and Passionists, as well as prominent Benedictines, Jesuits and Redemptorists.

The newspapers of the day delighted in lengthy lists of the titled and public figures who were present, including the US ambassador and poet James Russell Lowell, the Duke of Norfolk, Prince Doria Pamphilji, son-in-law of the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Marquis of Bute, and Lady Londonderry.

The genealogists John Burke and Sir Bernard Burke once described Staffordshire as ‘a district proverbial for the antiquity of its families.’ So, of course, many of the titled, landed and Catholic families of Staffordshire were at the wedding, including Talbots from Alton Towers, Lord and Lady Stafford, and members of the Littleton, Fitzherbert, Jerningham, Weld and Clifford families.

Mrs Murphy hosted the wedding breakfast at her residence in Queen’s Gate. In toasting the bride and groom, Cardinal Vaughan spoke of the wedding as another link uniting the Old World and the New.

On the day Anita and Charles were married, Mrs Murphy gave her first-born a cheque for $5 million on the Bank of England. The newly-married couple left for Devonshire, for the first part of their honeymoon. They arrived in New York from Liverpool on the Cunard line’s SS Servia in September, and made their way to San Francisco, where her father had made his fortune.

Daniel T Murphy died in the Windsor Hotel, New York, on 3 June 1885. Many of his business interests passed to his brother Henry M Murphy and son, also Daniel T Murphy. His wife, who arrived from England earlier that week, was with him when he died, as were two of his sons, a daughter, and his former business partners, Eugene Kelly and Joseph Donohue. There was no funeral in New York. Instead, Murphy’s embalmed body was sent to San Francisco, where he was buried in Lone Mountain Cemetery.

Murphy’s will, dated 15 May 1883, named his executors as Edward C Donnelly, Joseph H Donohue and John T Doyle of San Francisco, Eugene Kelly of New York, and his widow, Anna L Murphy.

Murphy left $5,000 to Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco for charity. He left an annuity of $6,000 to his widow, with his silver plate and personal effects. His mother, Julia Murphy, was left an annuity of $1,500 and a house on Hudson Avenue, Albany, New York. His sister Mary was to receive an annuity of $1,500 after her mother died.

The rest of Murphy’s estate was to be divided among his children, with each daughter receiving at least $50,000 each, even if that meant his sons received less.

In September 1893, Anita Wolseley’s sister, Helene (Nelly) Murphy, married Don Vincente Dominguez, a son of the Argentinian Ambassador in London. How much Nelly received from her mother on wedding day is not known – presumably she fared as well as her sister with a cheque for $5 million.

Anita’s inheritance was put at $2 million, at first, but Charles never got his hands on it. By the time the marriage contract had been signed, Daniel T Murphy had died and her sisters contested his will. When Anita received her money, it was for her personally and not for her husband.

Imogene Wolseley, wife of the late Sir Charles Wolseley, wrote that marriage was relatively happy to begin with, and they had two sons, Edric born in 1886 and William born in 1887. But Anita soon tired of life at Wolseley Hall and began travelling abroad alone. She sent Charles a regular allowance, but this dropped steadily. By 1919, he had to sell almost all the contents of Wolseley Hall and several hundred acres of his estate. He moved to Surrey a broken man, and died on 30 January 1931; Anita died on 11 October 1937.

When Sir Charles died, the Wolseley title and estates passed to his elder son, Sir Edric Wolseley (1886-1954), father of the late Sir Charles Wolseley.

But I am still wondering what happened to the painting of Anita (Murphy) Wolseley’s confirmation, whether it ever made its way to San Francisco, or whether the painting in the Villa Magistrale on the Aventine in Rome is the original.

The original Wolseley Hall, near Rugeley, Staffordshire, before its demolition

A return visit to Castle Durrow

The Bridge over the River Erkina at Durrow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

A few days before Christmas, I was at a fund-raising ball for Christ Church Cathedral in Castle Durrow, Co Laois, and won the last spot-prize of the night – a voucher for midweek dinner, bed and breakfast in Castle Durrow.

And so, I took full pleasure in returning to Castle Durrow last night, enjoying two days in the countryside of counties Laois, Kilkenny and Carlow.

On the way, two of us first stopped in Monasterevin, on the banks of the River Barrow in Co Kildare, where my grandfather’s second cousin, Bishop Michael Comerford, had been parish priest at the end of the 19th century and became friends with the English poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, who was regular visitor to Monasterevin.

This small town has wide streets and squares lined with elegant Georgian houses, and tree-lined avenues and walkways. It became known as “the Venice of Ireland” because of the river, its many bridges and the Grand Canal, which arrived in Monasterevin in 1786.

From Monasterevin, we drove south and then across The Heath in Co Laois to the Rock of Dunamase, near Stradbally. The Rock, which looks like Mystras in miniature, stands 46 metres high in the heart of a flat plain, with expansive views across the countryside to as far as the Slieve Bloom Mountains.

The Rock of Dunamase ... like a miniature Mystras in the Irish Midlands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The Rock was first settled in the ninth century and the castle at the top of the outcrop was built in the 12th century. Over the centuries, it was owned by the Marshal and Mortimer families, but eventually was captured by local Irish lords before it became a ruined shell in the mid-14th century.

During the Cromwellian wars, it was blown up in 1650 to stop it being used in battle. By the 18th century, it was owned by Sir John Parnell who tried to build a banqueting hall here. But his efforts were in vain, and once again it was abandoned. This is now a mysterious but majestic ruin that captivates the imagination, almost as romantic in its setting as the Rock of Cashel.

Holy Trinity Church seen from the Rock of Dunamase (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

From Dunamase, we drove on to Abbeyleix for lunch. Since the M8 bypassed the town two years ago, Abbeyleix has reclaimed its charm as planned estate town, built by the de Vesci family. As we are all recalling the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic this week, it was interesting to learn that the former carpet factory in Abbeyleix produced the carpets for the Titanic before it set sail in 1912.

The site of the carpet factory is now Bramleys, an elegant interiors shop with an excellent coffee shop. We decided to have lunch there, and were pleasantly surprised by both the attention and the food – without realising that Bramleys is owned by the same couple who own the hotel at Castle Durrow.

Pembroke Terrace in Abbeyleix ... town planning by the de Vesci family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford

From Abbeyleix, we were only a few minutes’ drive from Durrow, a planned Georgian estate village built on the banks of the River Erkina, close to the point where it joins the River Nore.

The Georgian elegance of the Square at the gates of Castle Durrow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Durrow celebrated its tercentenary four years ago, although the pub by the river claims it dates back to 1692. The village was redesigned by William Flower of Castle Durrow in 1708, has elegant Georgian townhouses built around a village green in the shape of a diamond and known as The Square, with hotels, coffee shops and Sheppard’s Auction House.

Bluebells in the grounds of Castle Durrow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We strolled around the village green, through the narrow streets, by the banks of the river, and through the grounds of the castle, with its ageing trees, fresh bluebells, grazing horses and walled gardens. At the end of the drive, a gate leading into the churchyard was half-open, like an invitation into a secret garden. Later, dinner was served in a room looking out onto the stepped terrace.

I awoke before dawn to find a clear half moon streaming into the room, and the garden and terrace below bathed in its moonbeams.

The 18th-century multi-arched bridge over the King’s River in Kells, Co Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

After strolling through the castle grounds and the village once more this morning, we drove down to Kells at midday to see the unusual bridge over the King’s River. The eight-arch bridge was built over the river in 1725 and widened in 1775, and there is a five-arch stone parallel road bridge to the south-east with three elliptical arches.

From Kells we drove past the ruins of Kells Priory, which I had visited last year, then south past the round tower and monastic site at Kilree, before taking a tiny lane down to the hamlet of Danganmore.

The ruins of Danganmore Castle, once owned by the Comerford family, are incorporated into the Forrestal family home (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

In Danaganmore, the ruins of a Comerford castle dating back to the 16th century have been incorporated inelegantly into a farmhouse owned by generations of the Forrestal family. The castle once gave rise to the eccentric Joseph Comerford’s claims to the tile of Baron of Danganmore in the early 18th century. A nearby church and churchyard, where the Comerfords of Danganmore may have been buried, is now desolate and in ruins.

We had lunch in Café Sol in Thomastown, and stopped on the banks of the River Nore to look at Grennan Castle on our way to Inistioge, where we walked through part of the Woodstock Estate, strolled by the banks of river, and checked out the ruined castles before having coffee in the warmly-welcoming café, ‘Circle of Friends.’

From Inistioge, we drove on to The Rower to see the sad ruins of the Church of Ireland parish church, where the Revd Thomas Comerford had been Vicar from 1630 until his death in 1635.

The gates of Borris House in Borris, Co Carlow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We turned back north, drove along the banks of the river through Graiguenamanagh, and stopped one last time in Borris, Co Carlow, to see the gates of Borris House, the ancestral home of the Kavanagh family.

On the way back to Dublin, through Bagenalstown – which once prided itself in being the “Versailles of Ireland” – and Leighlinbridge there were occasional hailstorms, but every now and then we were rewarded with a full rainbow bursting through the clouds, and views across green and golden fields.

From the “Venice of Ireland” to the “Versailles of Ireland,” these were two joyful days in Easter Week.