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