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.

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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.