Introduction: Setting the scene

Our story begins in the 18th Century in Cork with Thomas England - formerly an escaped prisoner, and his wife, Honora Lordan. They had eleven children.

The first child was ordered to America. The second child waited with those about to be hanged or transported. The third was a tobacconist whilst the fourth had a famously controversial child who was thought too unworthy to be hanged. The fifth and sixth were twins. The seventh joined a convent and the eighth was born but has since remained anonymous. The ninth was most likely a bankrupt and the tenth died, aged twenty six, in a foreign land. The eleventh was only recently 'discovered' in the baptism records, so he's an unknown quantity. All of these children but the eleventh were mentioned by the official biographer of the first child who became famous - more of him later.

The settings in this story were many and varied. In Ireland: Cork, its environs and many other parts of Eire. In the USA: Philadelphia, Charleston and San Francisco. There was Melbourne and Adelaide in Australia and Offenburg, Leipzig and Berlin in Germany. In England: London, Liverpool, Hull and Prestwich mental asylum. In Wales: Cardiff, Cowbridge Road and Splott! Don’t forget Haiti or Valparaìso in Chile. There were many more.

Names closely associated with this branch of the England family were: Lordan, O’Connell, Barry, Bransfield, Reynolds, Walsh, Lane, Nunan, Shaw and Lawlor.

There was a mystery element. There were two brothers, both priests with the surname of England. Documents claim that they were nephews of Thomas and Honora's first child. They have their own chapter in our story, but they weren't the only ones ready to claim connection to the family who were well known at that time.

The information concerning The Englands was gleaned from many sources. For births, marriages and deaths three useful internet sites were Ancestry, Find My Past and Irish Genealogy. The British Newspaper Archive, Census returns, electoral registers, passenger registration records and Irish parish registers also proved invaluable.

Luckily, books and journals about the first child helped hugely but had to be drastically summarised. After all, this family research was not just the story of one child.

Acknowledgements will be made at the end but enormous amounts of material were unearthed by two relations some years ago. I have, of course, made use of this.

The text for each child normally follows a pattern but not always.

• Facts known.
• Other possible or probable links to that particular child 
• Historical context
• Footnotes
• Place names mentioned

The text also follows the children of each child and then their children if known.●Michael England, the third child was the most important in terms of our particular family of Englands, as this is our direct line. Direct line descendants are marked with a red dot. ●

Two final sections deal with the various Englands who popped up during the course of this research and a list of place names and acknowledgements.

The question might be asked why I started with Thomas England and Honora Lordan? Surely there must have been Englands before them? Obviously there were but linking them to these particular Englands proved, and is proving, very difficult. There are still significant gaps in Irish records for a variety of reasons.

Many mysteries concerning these eleven children and their families remain. Hopefully future generations may find further solutions.

Lastly, the present generation of people linked to the Englands of Cowbridge Road, Cardiff, have not been named or listed.

For me, this was clearly a very personal journey; but I hope others who have a connection with this family tree will find it just as interesting.


John England

                                   

Thomas England and Honora Lordan

     ●Thomas England                               ●Honora Lordan

       (17?? – 1812)                                    m 15.4.1785                                   (17?? – 31.12.1820)

                                                               ↓

              John   Thomas  ● Michael   Patrick   Anne   Edward Ellen [twins]   Elizabeth   Richard   Joseph   Joanna    James

●Thomas England

Facts known

We don't know the Christian name of Thomas England’s father but we do know that he was born around 1734 or 1735 and that he had been imprisoned for four years due to the Penal Laws which were operating in Ireland at that time. These laws affected Roman Catholic worship, education, employment and the possession of property and land.

Thomas, the eldest child, was just eighteen when his mother died. On the very same day, his father was imprisoned. He had two brothers and two sisters who now needed support. In order to do this Thomas taught Maths to a few individuals. This was, for a Catholic, against the law and transportation was a possibility if caught. He was. An offer was made to him that if he renounced his faith he would not be prosecuted. Thomas escaped, possibly from prison, and fled into the mountains and survived there for a year.

After the USA Declaration of Independence on the 4th July 1776 some relaxation of the Penal Laws occurred. This enabled Thomas to return to the city, most probably Cork, and to become a land surveyor. This occupation was open to Catholics. He helped to get his father released from gaol and the rest of the family settled. ^[1]

St Finbarr's Church
Photo: MonikaLisa2

On the 15th of April 1785, Thomas married Honora Lordan at St Finbarr’s Church, Dunbar St, Cork. The witnesses were Thomas and Timothy Lordan – brothers of Honora.^[2]  Apparently, Honora’s parents did not approve of Thomas.^[3]  In some documents the name Honora is spelled Honour or Hanora and the surname Lordan - Lourdan.

Two years later we learn from the Cork City Directory that a Thomas England was a tobacconist living in Blarney Lane, Cork.^[4]  Blarney Lane is in the Sunday Wells area of North West Cork and is now the longest street in the city. It became Blarney St in the early years of the twentieth century.^[5]  These areas and Winter’s Hill in Cork city featured prominently in the lives of many of the Englands who lived in and around Cork.

By 1810 Thomas was also a linen draper and still lived at Blarney Lane.^[6]

Where did Thomas and the Englands come from? Guilday, their first child's biographer (yes, John became famous - more of him later), implied that Thomas might have come to Cork from County Tipperary.^[7]  But the Bandon Parish Bulletin claimed the Englands were born in Cork City. Many of the Englands were born there but did they originate there? We don’t know. Thomas died in 1812 according to at least two sources.^[8]

Thomas and Honora had eleven children. Guilday, the biographer, stated there were ten, omitting James, the last born.^[9]

Historical Context

The Penal Laws: From 1607 Roman Catholics were barred from holding public office or serving in the Irish army. They had to pay ‘recusant fines’ for non-attendance at Anglican services. Catholic churches were transferred to the Anglican Church of Ireland. By 1652 Catholics were barred from membership of the Irish Parliament and major landholders had most of their land confiscated. They were: excluded from voting in 1728, (repealed in 1793) excluded from the legal profession, (repealed in 1793) and the judiciary, (repealed in 1829). They were banned from inheriting Protestant land:

No person of the popish religion shall publicly or in private houses teach school, or instruct youth in learning within this realm upon pain of twenty pounds fine and three months in prison for every such offence.

This was repealed in 1782.

In May 1823 Daniel O’Connell launched the Catholic Association and campaigned for Catholic Emancipation which was largely achieved by 1829. [See further notes on Daniel O’Connell in ‘The First Child: John England']

Footnotes

[1] Bishop John England, Thomas and Honora's first son, wrote to the Rev. Richard Fuller, of Beaufort, South Carolina in 1839 about his early life and family circumstances.

More than forty four years have passed away,^[a]  since a man, then about sixty years of age,^[b]  led me to a prison,^[c]  and showed me the room in which he had been confined, during upwards of four years in consequence of the injustice to which the Catholics in Ireland were subjected in those days of persecution.

On the day he was immured^[d] , his wife was seized by a fever, the result of terror; whilst she lay on her bed of sickness, she and her family were dispossessed of the last remnant of their land and furniture; she was removed to the house of a neighbour, to breathe her last under a stranger’s roof. Her eldest child [Thomas] had completed his seventeenth year a few days before he closed her grave.

Two younger brothers and two younger sisters looked to him as their only support. He endeavoured to turn his education to account. It was discovered that he was a Papist, as the law contumeliously designated a Roman Catholic, and that he was guilty of teaching some propositions of the sixth book of Euclid to a few scholars that he might be able to aid his father and to support his family. Informations were lodged against him for this violation of the law, which rendered him liable to transportation.

Compassion was taken upon this youth and instead of proceeding immediately to prosecution, an opportunity was given him of swearing before the Protestant bishop that he did not believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation, of penance, and of the invocation of the saints; and a certificate of the prelate would raise a bar to his prosecution. The youth knew no principle in his church which would excuse his perjury.

He escaped and fled into the mountains, where he remained during more than a year, subsisting upon the charity of those to whose children he still communicated the rudiments of learning, but in the most painful anxiety as to the state of his father, brothers and sisters. The declaration of American Independence and the successful resistance of the colonies, produced some mitigation of the persecutions which the Irish Catholics endured.

This fugitive returned by stealth to the city, and was enabled to undertake the duties of a land surveyor, to have his parent liberated, his family settled, and he became prosperous.^[e]

Guilday Peter. The Life and Times of John England 1786-1842 Vol 1 pages 38-39 The America Press, New York 1927.

[A] So, a date of 1794 or 1795.

          [B] Thomas’s father, Bishop John’s grandfather, was born around 1734 or 1735.

[C] The bishop was born in 1786 so he would have been eight or nine. John’s grandfather was sixty in 1794 or1795? 

[D] When, what date! His wife died on the day he was imprisoned. 

[E] So the youth was Thomas England and by the age of twenty one or twenty two he helped to obtain the release of his father from prison. Thomas had two younger brothers and two younger sisters. Did Thomas get his father released after the declaration of Independence in 1776? His brothers and sisters were living after 1776.

[2] See Ancestry.com under Ireland, Find My Past or other online sites, for a record of their marriage. These sites have also been used for other births, marriages and deaths.

[3] Guilday Peter. The Life and Times of John England 1786-1842, The America Press, New York 1927.Vol 1 page 40

[4] Cork City Directory, 1787

[5] In Cork Past and Present: Old Lanes and alleys of Cork, website.

[6] William West’s Directory of Cork, 1810.

[7] Guilday Peter, The Life and Times of John England, 1786-1842, The America Press, New York 1927. Vol 1 page 39

[8] Thomas’s death was recorded in The Ireland Diocesan and Prerogative Wills and Administration Index. Guilday also mentioned the year – Vol 1 page forty

[9] Guilday, page forty

                                                                                                                     

●Honora England (née Lordan)

 

Facts known

Like her husband, Thomas, we don't know when she was born and there are conflicting accounts as to where she was born and lived before her marriage. Her first son, John, stated that his maternal grandfather came from the town of Bandon.

Rev. Timothy McCarthy was P. P. of Kilbrogan, Murragh and Templemartin at the beginning of the last century. (1700) I could not learn who was his predecessor but my maternal grandfather who was resident in the town [Bandon] told me he recollected when Fr McCarthy was appointed Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.[1]

Bandon is a town in County Cork. It turns up quite frequently in this particular story. In the 2011 census it had a population of 6,640. It is nineteen miles south west from Cork City and was famous for the inscriptions on the city wall.

Entrance to Jew, Turk or Atheist any man except a papist.

A wry response was written underneath the sign noting:

The man who wrote this wrote it well, for the same thing is writ on the gates of hell. [2]

The Bandon Parish Bulletin stated that Honora was a Lordan from Enniskeane.[3] Guilday said Thomas met her at Dunderrow, nr Kinsale, County Cork. He also added that Thomas was not approved of by Honora’s father! [4]

On the 10th of October 1820, John, her first son, wrote in his Diurnal that he travelled to Fermoy to see his mother before he left for America.

That evening my mother was so affected at my departure as not to be able to leave her bed.

Honora England (Lordan) died on Sunday the 31st December 1820 according to the following Death Notice from a Dublin newsletter.

On Sunday morning Mrs England relict of the late Thomas England and mother of the Rt Rev the Bishop of Charleston.[5]

Another newspaper notice announcing Honora’s death stated that she lived at Blarney Lane [Cork]. [6]

Other possible links to Honora

An Honora England was a sponsor at the baptism of a John England, of Bishop’s Lane at St Finbarr’s church, Cork. The father was Timothy England, the mother, Catherine England. The other sponsor was James England. The date was July 1802. If it was the Honora she wasn’t pregnant for once!
Could Timothy and James have been the younger brothers of Thomas?

An Honora England and Edward Scanlon were witnesses to the marriage of Dennis McCarthy and Catherine Murphy on the 23-1-1813 at St Mary’s, Cork.

An Honora England was a witness at the marriage of Edward England in 1819. This may well have been her son who was married on the 19th July 1819. [7]

Footnotes

[1] Continuation of notes by the Rev. John England from the Matrimonial Register of the old Catholic Parishes of Ballymodan, Kilbrogan and Desertserges United. In Parish Annals by the Very Rev. J. C. Walsh PP [There is no date and this comes from Carol Jones research in a file named ‘Advert’ under ‘Bishop and Joanna’ in Thomas England and Honora.]

[2] Bandon, County Cork, Wikipedia.

[3] Bandon Parish Bulletin, The Parish Annals by the Very Rev. J. C. Walsh. PP

[4] Guilday: Vol 1 page forty

[5] Saunders' News Letter, Dublin. 5-1-1821

[6] Limerick Chronicle, Jan 1821

[7] See Birth, Marriage, Death records online at Ancestry.com Find My Past. com or other record sites like irishgenealogy.ir

Place names mentioned:

Kilbrogan: a parish north of Bandon centre.

Cloyne: a small town to the south east of Middleton in eastern County Cork. The Diocese of Cloyne includes such places as Aghada, Fermoy, Killavullen, Macroom and Youghal.

Enniskeane: a village twenty seven miles south west of Cork City. It lies between Bandon and Dunmanway.

Dunderrow: a small village in County Cork. It is located between Innishannon – four and a half miles and Kinsale – four miles.

Fermoy: a town on the river Blackwater in County Cork. It lies between Bandon and Dunmanway.

Ballymodan: a parish in the town of Bandon, County Cork.

Desertserges: this parish lies between the towns of Enniskeane and Bandon, six miles away. In the Griffiths Valuation of 1853 there was a Jeremiah Lordan living at Kilcolmanpark, Desertserges. A Jeremiah Lorden lived in nearby Cappaknockane.

Place/street names: A full set of place names will appear at the end of the family history

The England Family Tree

The England Family Tree showing ●Direct Line Ancestors to the children of Tom and Gwen England.


●Thomas England (17?? - 1812)                         m  8.4.1785                ●Honora Lordan (17?? - 31.12.1820)

                                                                         ↓

John    Thomas    ●Michael    Anne    Edward/Ellen    Elizabeth    Richard    Joseph    Joanne    James


●Michael England (bap 15.6.1792-21.10.1870)      m 1815        ●Mary Bransfield (bap 23.3.1794 - 12.11.1853)

                                                                          ↓

                           Honora                                   Thomas                                     ●John


●John England (bap 2.12.1825 - 18.3.1916)          m 21.7.1863        ●Jane O'Connell (? - 14.1.1874)

                                                                         ↓

Jane     Mary     John-Joseph     Philip-Augustus     Thomas-Alphonsus     ●Patrick-Joseph


●Patrick-J England (3.3.1871-12.5.1945)             m   26.11.1904   ●Josephine M. Walsh (about 1877-June 1932)

                                                                         ↓

Josephine             Patrick             ●Thomas             Bernard             Philip             Monica


●Thomas England (11.10.1910 - 9.12.1967)          m 29.6.1940      ●S J Gwenllian Hicks (13.3.1916 -15.11.2004)

Thomas and Honora England: First Child ... John England

John England (23.9.1786 – 11.4.1842)

Facts known

There doesn’t seem to be a record of his baptism unlike all the other children.

John England was educated at Carlow College in 1803 and was ordained on 11-10-1808, aged twenty two, in North Chapel, Cork. (Known also as The Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne and St Mary's). He was in charge of St. Mary’s Seminary, Cork, from 1814-1816 and then was a curate in Bandon until 1820. [1]

He edited The Cork Mercantile Chronicle and associated with the Irish political leader, Daniel O’Connell, who strove for Catholic Emancipation.

In September 1816, in connection with this newspaper, there was an action for libel. Not only was John England the editor of the paper he was its proprietor. Thus the case of: The Rev. Freeman Wills Crofts v the Rev. John England.

The Rev. Crofts was a clergyman of the Established Church and he had brought this case to court because he considered that his character and conduct had been maligned.

A Mr Goold, acting for Crofts, commented, in his opening address, on the novelty of seeing –

a clergyman of the Established Church compelled to appeal to the Laws of his Country to obtain redress against a Clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church for a wanton and cruel aspersion of his character.

More than this though, Goold argued that it was unprecedented to find a Catholic priest as a proprietor of a political newspaper and that surely Fr England had more spiritual duties to perform rather than, “engage in political controversy, and to become the slanderer of private character.”

The case itself concerned a tenant who, according to Goold, had been unwilling to pay his rent arrears of five pounds.

The newspaper alleged that everything of value that the tenant had was sold, in order to pay the debt “even to the last bushel of potatoes.” The tenant’s wife and their twelve children had been distressed. Crofts, on seeing this, was reported to have said, “upon his honour, it was a pity that one half of them were not shot and he departed.”

According to the paper the real reason behind all of this was not the recovery of the five pounds but that the landlord wanted to drive the occupant from the land. “We regret to say that the Landlord is a Clergyman.”

This, Goold argued, was a blatant attempt to make the landlord hated and detested in the country. He would be seen by the world as a, “monster, destitute of honour, morality, feeling or humanity.” England, the editor of the paper, had been asked to reveal the author of the article but he said he was unable to do so unless he consulted the writer.

A jury of twelve landowners found for the plaintiff and £230 was awarded.[2]

The Dictionary of American Biography maintained that Daniel O'Connell and friends donated the money to pay the costs.

Main St, Bandon
Photo: Robert French    [Public Domain] 

In 1817 John England was, at thirty one, appointed parish priest at Bandon. Then, in 1820 Pope Pius V11 appointed England Bishop of Charleston, USA and he was consecrated on the 21-9-1820 at St Finbarr’s, Cork. He set sail from Belfast on 24-10-1820 for the USA accompanied by his sister, Joanna Monica. He arrived in Charleston on the 30-12-1820 and became its first Catholic Bishop. The states of Georgia and North and South Carolina came under his jurisdiction.

It didn’t take him long to ruffle a few feathers.

In a letter to Cardinal Consalvi, dated the eighth of September 1822, Archbishop Curtis of Armagh wrote,

I have often heard that Dr. England is a man of the keenest intellect and piety and a man of great zeal, but that he lacks sacerdotal meekness and prudence, and that in political matters he does not act with equanimity and sufficient caution.... I have before me his letters recently printed in which he criticizes us Irish Bishops (without even a shadow of reason), and submits us to the ridicule of our people. It is your Eminence’s duty to restrain these and similar acts of his impetuous temper, and to teach him at the same time not to be more wise than it behooveth to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety. [3]

In the same year John founded the United States Catholic Miscellany, the first Catholic Journal to be published in America. He also preached in New York and met President Monroe.

In 1824 he addressed the Legislative Assembly of Carolina and obtained his certificate of naturalization on the 6-2-1826.

John England wrote extensively, travelled widely and on January the eighth, 1826, addressed the President, John Quincy Adams, and Congress in the senate house. In his speech John refuted some anti Catholic sentiments that the President had expressed some years earlier. He proclaimed that Catholic belief was not an enemy of democracy and stressed its compatibility with republican values.

The following year, The Cork Constitution reported that an Anti-Duelling Society had been formed in Charleston under the auspices of the Rev. Dr England.

He was appointed the apostolic delegate to Haiti in 1833 and visited that country twice. There he ordained a black seminarian, George Paddington, to the priesthood. He was the first American bishop to do so.

It was wrongly reported, in 1834, both in a May edition of the Dublin Observer and The Pilot that,
"the celebrated Bishop of Charleston, the Right Rev. Dr. England has been appointed a Cardinal by the Pope. He is the first Irishman that ever attained that dignity."

In 1835 he opened a school in Charleston for free negroes that caused an attack on church property. Initially he accepted slavery maintaining that slaves were better cared for than Irish peasants. Later, in The Miscellany of 1842 he said that he was opposed to the continuation of slavery but that the abolition of slavery was up to the legislature and not him.

Critics maintained that he meddled too much in other American dioceses, that his extended absences meant his own diocese suffered and that his essays were "marred by bitterness as well as an impatience with the American attitude towards his creed and by a touch of Celtic exaggeration."

He died on the 11th April 1842 from enteritis and was buried in the crypt of the Cathedral of St John the Baptist, Charleston.

In 1843, The Dublin Weekly Nation announced that,"a subscription list has been opened for a monument to John England, Bishop of Charleston.”[4]

The following year a donation of £10 was given by Carlow College,"to the monument which is to be erected in the memory of the illustrious and deeply lamented Doctor England." [5]

The monument never materialised but there is a bust of John England in Cork Cathedral.

There is an oil painting of the Bishop at Carlow College done by Haverty. [6] A family member has an oil painting too.

The Bandon Parish Bulletin summed John England up as, "a profound scholar, an eloquent preacher and a powerful writer."

In an article concerning Bishop Doyle and Bishop England, the Cork Examiner stated that:

"Dr England by his masterly writings and his matchless sermons, not only in the South but throughout the Union overthrew Protestant prejudice which was a spiritual emancipation."

He preached in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York where, “his eloquent voice was so often heard.”[7]

John Augustus Shea, writer and friend of Edgar Allan Poe, wrote a poem celebrating the Bishop’s life. [8]

Historical Context

The Cork Mercantile Chronicle was, according to the Cork Ancestral Archive and Genealogical Research, "the written mouthpiece for the Liberator O'Connell and his emancipation efforts."The author maintained that John England was, "exiled for his political views and agitations by Bishop John Murphy."

Daniel O’Connell: (1775-1847) was an Irish political leader. He campaigned for Catholic Emancipation including the right for Catholics to sit in Westminster, the home of the British Parliament. He also wanted the repeal of The Act of Union which combined Great Britain and Ireland. He was a barrister and despite his opposition to the use of violence he was willing to defend those accused of political crimes.

Footnotes 

[1] There were a number of books written about Bishop John England, many now out of print, which detailed his education, ministry in Ireland and his time in Charleston. Examples being:

• O’Brien Joseph L., John England A Man of God [The author was the Rector and Founder of Bishop England High School, Charleston which is still thriving.]
• The Encyclopedia Of American Catholic History edited by Michael Glazier and Thomas J. Shellax. The Liturgical Press, Minnesota.
• The Dictionary of American Biography Vol 111 edited by Alex Johnson and Dumas Malone. Published by Charles Soribner's sons, New York, 1958
• Don’t forget the official biographer, Guilday, see below, who got a few things wrong!
• The Bishop wrote extensively himself and there is even a DVD video about him called Fire Tried Gold by Fr. John Geaney, CSP.

[2] Dublin Evening Post, 5-9-1816.

[3] Guilday Peter: Life and Times of John England, Volume 1, 1927, pages 322-323.

[4] Dublin Weekly Nation, 2-9-1843. Cork Examiner, 19-1-1844.

[5] Cork Examiner, 19-1-1844.

[6] Joseph Patrick Haverty (1794-1864) was an Irish painter born in Galway City. He painted landscapes and portraits including one of Daniel O’Connell

[7] Cork Examiner, 28-4-1863.

[8] Cork Examiner, 15-3-1843

This narrative of the ‘First Child’ ignores huge chunks of his life. For example, he met the Pope, the Austrian Emperor and returned to Ireland.

Place names 

Carlow: the county town of County Carlow. It is situated in the south east of Ireland, fifty miles from Dublin and one hundred and fifteen miles from Cork. The college opened in 1793 and was notable for educating many Catholic priests. There is a lecture hall there called the John England room.

Bandon: a town nineteen miles south west from Cork City.

Thomas and Honora England: Second Child... Thomas Richard England

Thomas Richard England (1790 – March 1847)

Facts known

Thomas studied at Carlow from 1809 to 1812 and was then at Maynooth College - the ‘National Seminary of Ireland’- from 1812 to 1815. He was ordained in the same year.[1]

After a short spell in Glanmire, a small town six miles from Cork city, he was appointed parish priest of Passage West, a port town ten miles south east of Cork.[2]

He was also the Roman Catholic chaplain present at the executions at the city gaol.[3]
Then in 1824 The Rev. Thomas R. England was a lecturer at St. Mary’s College, Cork.[4]

In February 1827, the mayor announced, at a meeting for the relief of the poor in Cork, that an anonymous donor had given £500 so that unemployed cotton weavers could emigrate to Philadelphia, USA. Present at the meeting were Fr England and an M. J. Barry.[5]
The Englands and the Barrys were very close. In fact Thomas's sister married a Barry - as noted in the footnote.

In 1828 he again linked up with Michael Joseph Barry to raise funds for the Mendicity Asylum. This ‘House of Industry’ and the ‘Lunatic Asylum’ were in Barrack St, Cork.[6] The charity still runs today.

A convict ship that transported prisoners from Ireland
to New South Wales at the beginning of the 19th century
[Artist unknown, image from State Library of Victoria]

Thomas was a chaplain to convicts on Spike Island and prison ships in Cork harbour destined for Van Dieman’s Land. [Tasmania][7]

From 1833 to at least 1841 he gave charity sermons. In 1839, for example,

A charity sermon in aid of the Shanbally Poor Schools will be preached by the Rev. Thomas England, PP [Parish Priest] of Passage West.[8]

Funds were raised for a Fever Hospital and in aid of the “numerous poor of Passage.”[9]

Thomas died in Passage in 1847. The Dublin Evening Post remarked:

We have just heard of the death of this pious, learned and estimable clergyman brother to the late distinguished Bishop of Charleston.[10]

The Cork Examiner gave a much fuller account.

... He suffered from a painfully acute disease, mortification of the bowels... He expired at 11o'clock p.m. after having arranged his spiritual and temporal affairs and "set his house in order." Thomas England was equally remarkable for his piety and learning, for his high order of eloquence and his sound common sense.... he was eminently distinguished as a Lecturer.... If true eloquence be defined as the art of speaking to the purpose and ruling to the minds of men Thomas England was truly eloquent. He could startle as well as console - terrify as well as soothe - convince as well as persuade....We witnessed the impression he produced upon his breathless congregation who felt and carried home with them, every word he uttered.

...Thomas England was a Patriot as well as a Scholar - a Social Reformer as well as a Christian Priest. He directed his most scathing eloquence against the brutality of capital punishments, and often illustrated the rage and blindness of so called Justice by many a melancholy tale of innocent blood spilled on the scaffold - of stolid insensibility and desperate impenitence facing the throne of God.

Mr England was an able writer; his contributions graced some of our local publications and are remarkable for the same vigour that characterised his discourses.... He was the uncle of our gifted fellow citizen Michael Joseph Barry.[11]

Just a week after his death there was an announcement of an auction to sell Thomas’s
entire household furniture comprising," mahogany tables and chairs, sofa, carpets and rugs."[12]

See: Thomas Richard England in Wikipedia.

Historical Context.

Michael Joseph Barry married Anne England, the fourth child, in 1813. Their second child, Michael Joseph Barry, took a prominent part, for a time, in ‘The Young Ireland’ movement and is a well known historical figure in Irish history. Much more detail will be found in ‘The Fourth Child.’

Footnotes

[1] For details of Thomas’s early career see Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Vol 1X Second Series, 1903, pages 146-7.

[2] Saunders' News Letter, 27-11-1823

[3] Saunders' News Letter, 1-3-1822

[4] Pigot’s Directory, 1824

[5] Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier, 20-2-1827

[6] Southern Reporter, 20-5-1828

[7] Walsh, J. C. The Heritage of St Finbarr, Cork, 1987

[8] Southern Reporter, 15-8-1833, 7-9-1839

[9] Southern Reporter, 15-8-1833

[10] Dublin Evening Post, 20-3-1847

[11] Cork Examiner, 19-3-1847

[12] Southern Reporter, 30-3-1847

Place names

Carlow: the county town of County Carlow. It is situated in the south east of Ireland, fifty miles from Dublin and one hundred and fifteen miles from Cork. The college opened in 1793 and was notable for educating many Catholic priests.

Maynooth: a university town in north County Kildare. Part of the university is Ireland’s main Roman Catholic Seminary.

Spike Island: an island of 103 acres in Cork Harbour. It remained in use as a garrison and prison throughout the Irish War of Independence when IRA prisoners were held there. The prison closed in 2004 and it is now a tourist site.

Thomas and Honora England: Third Child...Michael England

Letter to Michael England in Bandon dated 1834

●Michael England                                                           ●Mary Bransfield

               
(bap 15.6.1792 – 21.10.1870)                                                                                  (bap 23.3.1794 – 12.11.1853)                       

                                                                             ↓
                 
                   Honora                                          Thomas                               ●John

Facts known

Michael’s sponsors at his baptism, on 15-6-1792 at St Mary’s, Cork, were Timothy Hurley? [the original written record is unclear] and Ellen Benson. Michael was important to the future Englands who had links with Cowbridge Road, Cardiff. We came from his family line.

He married Mary Bransfield in 1815 and the Rev. John England was the celebrant. The Cork Mercantile Chronicle reported that, “Miss Bransfield was from Leitrim,” and that Michael’s address was North Main Street, Bandon, County Cork.[1]

In 1824, Michael England, now of South Maine St, Bandon, was a tallow chandler [an animal fat candle maker] and tobacconist.[2]

Two years later he was secretary at a meeting that called for the “restoration of the civil and religious liberties of their Catholic countrymen.”[3] The following year a fund was set up to pay a £20 reward for any information concerning a burglary at the office of Bandon Mills. Michael contributed a pound.[4]

In 1828, “a respectable meeting” was held at the school room attached to the chapel at Bandon, “for the purpose of establishing a Liberal Club.” Michael was the secretary and spoke about “the evils attendant on the un-emancipated state of the country” and of the “grievances Roman Catholics and other religious persuasions had in this country.” The farce of rotten boroughs was, “dwelt on with considerable humour.”[5]

In the Bandon Parliamentary elections of 1832 Michael England, a tobacconist of South Main St, voted for Jacob Biggs Esq. and not for the Hon. W. S. Bernard. Voting was a public affair at this time and was not yet conducted by secret ballot.

In July 1833, Michael England wrote a letter to Mr F. O’Connor MP about the, "usual Orange Procession" and "the consequent tumult and riots in Bandon."[6] This letter was referred upwards to the Irish Secretary, a Mr Littleton.

The enquiry into the riots at Bandon lasted two days and witnesses declared that,"many of the orange men were armed, firing shots as they passed," and that, "Captain Vignolles, a Stipendiary Magistrate, was there and not doing anything about it."[7]

In 1841 there was to be road widening from Skibhereen between a Michael England’s house and the Irish Town bridge in the town of Bandon.[8]

Michael was also trying to rent out,

a large and commodious dwelling house, No 3, Main St, Bandon. The shop and entire establishment are in the best condition. The situation is the best and the most central in the town and the concern is well adapted for any trade. Application to Michael England, No 11 Bridge St or Mr Maurice Fitzgerald.

Adverts were placed in the local paper in 1840 and 1841.[9] In 1846 Michael was listed as a Shopkeeper and Dealer in Sundries, in Bridge Street. [10]

In 1853, the parishioners of Bandon paid for a newspaper notice thanking a Fr Dominick Murphy, parish priest at St Finbarr’s, Cork, who was transferring to another parish. Michael was the secretary of the parishioners.[11] Two years later he donated £6 for the erection of a new Catholic church in Bandon.[12]

By 1856 Michael's address had moved back to South Main Street, as listed in Slater's Directory 1856.

Michael Patrick England, born about 1792, was registered dead – date of registration 1871 - aged 79, in Cork. The Cork Examiner gave the date of death as 21-10-1870 at 79, Sunday’s Well, Cork, not in his home town of Bandon nineteen miles away. Sunday's Well was the district John, Michael's son, lived.

Little is known about Mary, his wife. She was baptised on the 23-3-1794 at St Finbarr’s, Cork city. Before her marriage she lived at Core Lane, Cork. Her parents were Ellen Fanning and David Bransfield. She had three brothers and three sisters. Her sister, Grace, married a John Seymour. Her brother, Daniel, studied medicine in Paris and died in Jamaica. The names 'Seymour' and 'Bransfield' are mentioned as 'Aunts' in Mary's son's letters from America more than once, so the connection with her relations appears strong. Extracts from these letters will appear later.

“Deaths: On Saturday the 12th, Mary, wife of Mr Michael Patrick England of Bandon.”[13]

Historical Context

Rotten Boroughs. Before the 1832 Reform Act, the number of electors in some parliamentary constituencies was so few, that they could be bribed by one rich landowner or peer to vote for whoever he chose. By the 1831 general election out of 406 elected members, 152 were chosen by fewer than 100 voters each and in 88 by fewer than 50 voters. Only men over the age of twenty one had the vote and they also had to own property over a certain value.The Reform Act of 1832 disenfranchised rotten boroughs.

The Orange Order is a Protestant organisation based primarily in Northern Ireland. It was founded in County Armagh in 1795. Its name is a tribute to the Dutch-born Protestant king, William of Orange, who defeated the army of the Catholic king, James the second, at the battle of the Boyne in 1690. Its members wear orange sashes and are referred to as Orangemen. The Order is best known for its yearly marches, the biggest of which are held on or around the 12th of July.

Footnotes

[1] The Cork Mercantile Chronicle, 9-8-1815

[2] Pigot’s Directory, 1824

[3] Southern Reporter, 9-11-1826

[4] Southern Reporter, 5-7-1827

[5] Southern Reporter, 23-9-1828

[6] Newry Telegraph, 6-9-1833

[7] Southern Reporter, 29-8-1833

[8] Waterford Mail, 13-3-1841

[9] Southern Reporter, 12-3-1840, 28-11-1840, 27-2-1841, 27-3-1841

[10] Slater's 1846 Directory, Bandon and Neighbourhood.

[11] Southern Reporter, 17-2-1853

[12] Cork Examiner, 11-6-1855

[13] Cork Examiner, 14-11-1853

Place names mentioned


Cowbridge Road: West of Cardiff city centre and in the district of Canton. Number 89 became the family home of Patrick and Josephine England and after their deaths became the same for Tom and Gwen England until they moved to 65, Cardiff Road. Llandaff. Opposite 89 was St David’s Hospital previously known as the City Lodge or City Lodge Infirmary.

Leitrim: a village in County Leitrim. It is 191 miles from Cork.

Bandon: a town in County Cork. In the 2011 census it had a population of 6,640. It is nineteen miles south west from Cork City.

Skibbereen: a town 50 miles from Cork City and 30 miles from Bandon.

Sunday’s Well: a suburb of Cork situated in the north west of the city on a ridge on the northern bank of the River Lee. This suburb features prominently in the lives of the Englands of Cork city. Blarney Lane, which also appears regularly, is part of Sunday’s Well.

Michael England and Mary Bransfield had three children: Honora, Thomas and John.

         --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The First Child of Michael England and Mary Bransfield

Honora England

Honora (1821-1913) Nora, as she was known, was baptised on the 9-4-1821 in Bandon, County Cork. It is probable that she was named after her Grandmother as this was the practice at the time. The sponsors at her baptism were John Seymour and Anne Barry. This could well be the former Anne England, the fourth child, and Michael’s sister. Anne married a Barry, hence the probable Anne Barry connection.

Honora received a letter from a cousin, Mary, who lived in Killavullen, dated 22-11-1869. It was about the death of Honora’s brother, Thomas. In it Mary referred to Nora’s father, Michael.
"It was distressing to witness the grief of your poor aged father ... for his favourite child Thomas."

Mary also mentioned a Fr Tom, “who has just returned from England where he has been staying for a few weeks.”[1]

Her death certificate described Nora as a ninety two year old spinster who died on the 14-10-1913 at 2, Ardeevin, St.Luke's, Cork. She was the housekeeper, and the cause of death was senile decay. Nora was buried with her brother, John, at St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Cork city.

Possible links to Honora

A Hanora England was a sponsor at the baptism of William Sullivan 9-12-1838 in Bandon.

Seven years later.

The Very Rev. Richard S. Baker, V. G. [Vicar General] of Charleston arrived in Philadelphia from Liverpool on the 14th of September. Mrs Borgia McCarthy of the Ursuline Community and Miss Nora England, of Cork, niece of the late lamented Bishop of Charleston and several candidates for the religious state were passengers in the same vessel.[2]

Was this Nora the daughter of Michael or was this Nora T. England, daughter of Edward, the fifth child, who went to Charleston four years earlier and became a nun? [3]

Footnotes

[1]England family private collection.

[Michael England and Carol Jones have many original sources including a large number of hugely interesting and descriptive letters from Thomas, the architect, who lived in Philadelphia and San Francisco. Thomas wrote quite frequently to his elder sister Honora and his younger brother, John. Extracts from a few of the letters will feature in a later post.]

[2] The Dublin Weekly Nation, 25-10-1845

[3] See Honora England daughter of The Fifth Child.

Place names  

Killavullen: a village 20 miles north of Cork City. Nano Nagle, founder of the Presentation Sisters, was born in Ballygriffin, near to Killavullen, in 1718.

Ardeevin: an area of Cork City very close to the University College Cork where the youngest son, John, was a professor.

                                                                  

The Children of Michael - the third child [1]

Michael England and Mary Bransfield had three children - Honora, Thomas and ●John. This post concerns the second child - Thomas England.

The second child of Michael England and Mary Bransfield was:

Thomas England (bap 24.8.1823 – 22.10.1869)

Facts known 

Thomas England [Photo from England family collection]

Thomas was baptised on the 24-8-1823 and his sponsors were John Stanton and Ann Falvey/Hurley? [Again, the original written record is unclear.]

He was involved with the Young Ireland Movement and apparently could not bear British rule so left for America.

In September 1847 a Thomas England was present at the Formation of the Desmond Confederate Club. This meeting was concerned with: “The Restoration of Ireland’s Legislative Independence.” While Thomas England did not speak, Michael Joseph Barry, Thomas's cousin, did and was greeted with, “the loudest cheers.”[1] Subscription fees of 10 shillings for the new club were paid by Thomas.[2]

On the ninth of August 1848 Thomas wrote to his brother John.

The reason I did not write on receipt of your letter was as I was making preparations for America...From our former conversation you must be fully aware of my intention so I feel confident you were prepared for this news...M. J. Barry is in jail under the Habeas Corpus Act. I saw him on Monday.[3]

A Thomas England, aged 25, who came from Ireland, left Liverpool on the Susquehanna and arrived in Philadelphia on 17-10-1848. His occupation was given as tobacconist! [4] Thomas was born on the 24-8-1823 so he would have been 25 in 1848 and this was most likely him. Historically, he left Ireland at a momentous period in its history - The Great Famine.

In the 1850 USA census a Thomas England with a birth date about 1823 and a birthplace, Ireland, was living in Philadelphia at Pine Ward. He was there with twenty other people.

In 1851 he lived at 118 South 4th St, Philadelphia. This is known from the letters he sent home to Ireland.

Thomas left this city on March 9th 1852 for San Francisco on the ship the Asa Packer. While he had had a cabin on his trip with the Susquehanna, he was in steerage now as he hadn't done well financially in Philadelphia. For the whole of his life he was short of money for a variety of reasons, despite many seemingly good commissions. His descriptions of life on board the Asa Packer included scenes of drunkenness and confusion.[5]

He had become an architect in Philadelphia and later designed, with his partner, William Craine, the cathedral of St Mary of the Immaculate Conception, San Francisco, USA 1853-1854. He also designed St Mary’s College, San Francisco, a college occupied by the Christian Brothers, Grass Valley Cathedral, Stockton church, St Francis church, San Francisco and many other buildings in California. [6]

In 1860 The Cork Examiner commented on the church in Grass Valley.

The church of St Patrick is the most beautiful and harmonious structure in the State and a perfect specimen of Gothic Architecture. St Patrick’s church was designed and the work conducted by Thomas England and it is exceedingly creditable to him.[7]

According to the US City Directories, 1822-1995 and the San Francisco Business Directory Thomas England, Architect, had premises at 528 Clay, San Francisco from 1862-1865.

From 1867-1868 he had an architect's office at 622 Clay, San Francisco.

Thomas died of consumption aged forty six in San Francisco.

The Cork Examiner recorded that his death was on the 22-10-1869 in San Francisco. The following day, on the 23-10-1869, he was buried at Calvary cemetery, San Francisco. In 1930 his remains were removed to the Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, San Mateo County, California.

The Cork Examiner praised Thomas, “...who may justly be considered the pioneer of ecclesiastical architecture in California.”[8]

The San Francisco Monitor of the 30-10-1869 informed us that Thomas was,"unassuming in his manner, generous to a fault, gentle and considerate in his dealings with others, the soul of honour, and a warm and constant friend."

Whoever wrote this didn’t read the letters Thomas sent to his sister, Nora or his brother, John!

Historical context

Young Ireland was a political, cultural and social movement of the mid 19th century. Initially it had strong links to Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal Association and The Nation newspaper but split to form the Irish Confederation in 1847. In 1848 Young Ireland led an unsuccessful uprising and many of its leaders were transported to Tasmania. Some of the junior members went on to found the Irish Republican Brotherhood. [Thomas wrote about The Brotherhood in his letter to his younger brother John dated 9-10-1865. See the next post.]

Michael Joseph Barry was the second son of Anne England and Michael Barry. He is dealt with much more fully in ‘The Fourth Child.'

Habeas Corpus: A person who objects to his own or another’s detention or imprisonment can file for a writ of habeas corpus [Latin: You have the body.] The writ must show that the court made a legal or factual error in detaining or imprisoning the person concerned.

The Great Famine: In Ireland from 1845 to 1852 there was starvation, disease and emigration. For example, about one million people died and the same number emigrated. The immediate cause of the famine was potato blight but land acquisition, absentee landlords and the Corn Laws all played their part.

Footnotes

[1] Cork Examiner, 13-9-1847

[2] Limerick Reporter, 17-9-1847

[3] Many of these letters are in the possession of members of the England family.

[4] Pennsylvania Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1962.

[5] Extracts from the letters will be given in a separate chapter.

[6] San Francisco Monitor, 30-10-1869

[7] Cork Examiner, 23-1-1860

[8] Cork Examiner, 23-11-1869

Place name


Grass Valley: the largest city in the western region of Nevada County, California. Many of those who came to settle in Grass Valley were tin miners from Cornwall whose skills were ideal for mining gold.

Extracts of Letters from Thomas to his elder sister Honora and his younger brother John follow in the next post.