The Grandchildren of Michael - the third child. [1]

Michael England and Mary Bransfield had three children: Honora, Thomas and John. The youngest, John, had six children with Jane O'Connell: Jane, Mary, John Joseph, Philip Augustus, Thomas Alphonsus and Patrick Joseph. This blog deals with the first four children.

Facts known

Cork City at the time these children lived there

Jane: (1864-1932) became a nun in Offenburg, Germany. This is a city located in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg. It has a population of nearly 60,000. The French city of Strasbourg lies twenty five kilometres away, directly west across the Rhine.

England family letters indicate that Jane and her sister Mary (Minnie) were in school at Offenburg for about two years between 1880 and 1881. A finishing school perhaps?

Jane entered the convent when she was twenty one in 1885. She was known as Sister Mary Benedicta. Occasionally she sent postcards to some members of the family.

Mary: (1865-24-7-1913) Also known as Minnie.

In the 1901 and 1911 Census, Mary was living in Ardeevin, Cork with her father, Professor John England. She never married and was buried in the same grave as her father.

John Joseph: (1866-1931) John Joseph was born at 37, South Mall, and his father’s address was given as 36, Sundays Well. South Mall was the family home of his mother - Jane.

He was baptised on 26-8-1866. His sponsors were a Timothy O’Mahoney and a Susanna O’Connell. This could well be Jane’s sister and later John’s second wife, Nannie (Susanna).

John Joseph was not at Ardeevin in 1901 but he was living there in 1911 according to the census of those years.It mentions his occupation as a Civil Engineer.

In 1913 he was the chief beneficiary of his father’s will.

In 1919, it is highly likely that he was living with Thomas, his brother, and Elizabeth, his sister-in-law, in London. The electoral registers mention a John England living in the same house as them.

John Joseph was definitely living with the both of them in 1931, the year of his death.

On the 9-10-1931 he died at 20, Luxemburg Gardens. According to the death certificate he was sixty five and died from pneumonia, progressive muscular atrophy and bronchial catarrh. His brother, Thomas Alphonsus, was present at his death.

Philip Augustus:

He was born on the 28-8-1867 and a Philip Augustine England died in Cork in 1872. His age at death was 4. The estimated birth year was 1868. We don't know why or how he died so young.

John England and Jane O'Connell had two more children. The next chapter deals with the fifth child - Thomas Alphonsus England and his wife Elizabeth Reynolds.