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Archive for the ‘Enniscrone, Co Sligo, Ireland’ Category

Marcella’s Bible : an example of the value of a website for family history research!

Posted in Alfred Joseph Beatty, Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Beatty family, Enniscrone, Co Sligo, Ireland, James Beatty 1842-1903, James Paget (1802-72), James Paget Beatty, Kinard Lodge, Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, Ireland, tagged , on December 30, 2023| 3 Comments »

James and Marcella Beatty with James, Emma and baby Archie in Dublin late 1877.

When our Beatty ancestors emigrated from County Mayo and Sligo in 1878 they brought with them a Bible given to Marcella Beatty (nee Paget) at her wedding to James Beatty in 1873. Four generations of the details of births, deaths and marriages were subsequently carefully written in it. The location of the actual Bible is currently a mystery and possibly it has been lost. If it resurfaces I’ll certainly post about it here. The information, particularly of the earliest generation has been invaluable. For example it gives the address in Ballina where both James and Emma were born, confirming the home address of the Beattys there as “Commercial House, Arran St.” it tells us that Archibald Beatty was born at “The Lodge” in Enniscrone, County Sligo. This will be Kinard Lodge, the home of Marcella’s father James Paget near Enniscrone. Possibly the Beatty’s lived there for a while after James Paget died, before their emigration. It’s a pity it doesn’t name the ship they came to Australia on, as extensive research has still failed to solve that mystery! The Bible was inherited by James, the eldest son of James and Marcella and passed down through the generations of his family. This means that the entries “Mother’s birthday August 10th. Father’s birthday October 31st” probably refer to James and Marcella themselves. I’m guessing that this is written in a different hand to Marcella’s, probably that of her son. Their dates of birth were previously a mystery as birth certificates can’t be found for either James or Marcella – quite common for Ireland at that time.

I only know about the Bible, and have a transcript of the family notices in it because of one of the many people who found my website and contacted me through it. What a lot of second cousins etc. I have connected with! It has been really fun and I learned so much to round out the family story. Anyway, Janet Godfrey (nee McTaggart) (1933-2007), a great-grand-daughter of James and Marcella through their son James, and whose own mother (Kathleen McTaggart (nee Beatty) (1906-1944) was an only child, was keen to connect with extended family. She saw the announcement of the Queen’s birthday Honours List in 1983 when Alfred Paget Beatty (1916-1998) was awarded the OA. Suspecting that with that name he must be a relation, she wrote to him about the Bible, with all the family details. They had planned to meet up, but she died before that happened. In 2011 Alfred Paget Beatty’s daughter Jocelyn Cooper found my website and sent me a copy of Janet Godfrey’s letter to her father. It would be great if Janet’s family could find the actual Bible, but it’s thanks to her that we do have all the information. I’m so grateful to her and to Jocelyn who found my website, and regret that I’ve taken so long to tell this story.

Here’s the transcript of the family notices in Marcella’s Bible

Source: Letter from Janet Godfrey to Alfred Paget Beatty, 1983

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Things you’d have preferred not to find out! The perils of family history research.

Posted in Archibald Beatty (c1836-1897), Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Co. Sligo, Ireland, Enniscrone, Co Sligo, Ireland, Hannah Dempsey, James Beatty 1842-1903, Kinard Lodge, Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, Ireland, tagged , on December 4, 2013| 2 Comments »

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Kinard at Landed estates Court from Belfast News-Letter, 27 June 1874

Oh Dear! No wonder the Pagets and Beattys emigrated in 1878. I have found James Paget’s will. He made our gg grandmother Hannah Dempsey (note use of her maiden name) the sole executor. Subsequently she sold all his remaining land in Ireland at the Landed Estates Court in 1874 to one of James’s second cousins John Paget Bourke for £6,225. Hannah continued living at Kinard Lodge with the children until they emigrated 3 years later. It’s pretty clear now that James and Hannah were not technically married.

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From Freeman’s Journal – Dublin, 16 February 1877

Also, I had wondered why James Beatty didn’t set up as a Draper in Melbourne and instead worked in clerical or travelling salesman jobs. Well he evidently wasn’t such a great businessman since his Ballina drapery business went broke! This fire sale was just a couple of months before Archie’s birth. I wondered why Archie was born at Kinard Lodge and not in Arran street, Ballina like his siblings James and Emma.

Anyway, on the far side of the world nobody knew  (until now!) about illegitimate births or bankruptcies. Hannah was the widowed Mrs. Paget for the rest of her life and she and her eldest son James Paget both bought farms at Baddaginnie in Victoria while James Beatty and Marcella (nee Paget) were friends of the bishop in South Yarra, Victoria and all highly respectable.

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From Belfast News-Letter late July 1861

I did find out something that might be a good lead on the elusive Beatty ancestors though. At about the same time as our g grandfather James Beatty the draper (who was born somewhere in county Fermanagh) appeared on the record in Ballina, Mayo, an Archibald Beatty, merchant, appeared there too. Of course his name (Archibald) made me wonder if they were related even apart from their sudden appearance in Ballina at about the same time. The earliest mention of this Archibald in any source I’ve found so far was 1861 and he isn’t mentioned in connection with Ballina after 1871 and I don’t know where he went. [Update Apr 2015: He moved to Liverpool in 1874]. Anyway, look at this notice about the birth of his daughter in 1861. It would have been more useful if it had named either his wife or daughter, but it does have three VERY interesting words “late of Lisnaskea”. Where is Lisnaskea I wondered? Have you already guessed? It’s in County Fermanagh 🙂 The plot thickens!

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Who was James Beatty senior and did he “swim with Captain Webb”?

Posted in Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Enniscrone, Co Sligo, Ireland, James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged on December 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Records are so sparse for nineteenth century Ireland that we may never know much about our Beatty ancestors before the emigration to Melbourne in 1878.

While awaiting the outcome of an upgrade from 37 to 67 markers on our DNA test which may or may not help find out more, I’ve been pondering the usefulness of the only surviving family anecdote about the first known James Beatty. HAP was told that his Great Grandfather James Beatty, father of the James Beatty who came to Australia, was a strong swimmer who “used to swim with Captain Webb”. HAP will have been told this by his father Archie because HAP himself was a strong swimmer and the school breaststroke champion. His proud father probably saw it as an hereditary trait. Sadly HAP was told (or remembered) nothing else about his Great Grandfather.  Archie has a credibility issue as he was the source of the (since debunked) rumour of our close relationship to Admiral Beatty. However I think the Captain Webb thing may have a grain of truth. Why would Archie have known otherwise that there was a west coast of Ireland connection to Captain Webb? At least one whole book (“The Crossing” by Kathy Watson) has been written about the famous Channel swimmer which doesn’t mention that he ever went to Ireland at all. David Elderwick in “Captain Webb : Channel swimmer” says “A trip to the Faroe Islands as Chief Officer of the ‘Ballina’ and a six-month spell as captain of the steamship ‘Emerald’ preceded Webb’s departure for new pastures … His employers were sorry to see him go. The rapid passages he had made between Liverpool and Ballina on the west coast of Ireland had boosted the company’s trade considerably.” Terry Reilly in “Ballina : a storied place…” says “Captain Matthew Webb became the first man to swim Killala Bay in 1874, from the Enniscrone (Sligo) side to the Kilcummin (Mayo) side. He boasted to fellow drinkers in McDonnells Pub on Bridge Street (now the Bolg Bui) that he would buy them all a drink after successfully completing his Channel challenge.” http://www.everytrail.com describing the “Yeats country drive” claims that “Captain Matthew Webb used the lake [Lough Gill] as part of his training for the feat [his Channel swim]. He was a friend of W.B. Yeats grandfather who lived in the area”. Lough Gill is close to Sligo town and it turns out that Yeats’ grandfather was William Pollexfen of Sligo town, one of the largest ship-owners in Sligo and the grateful employer of Captain Matthew Webb as mentioned above.

Anyway, for the lack of much other evidence I’m going to explore the possibility that our gg grandfather did know Captain Matthew Webb. It doesn’t matter whether he swam with him or was just a fellow drinker at the pub, this would mean that he was still alive in 1874 and lived a short buggy ride from either Lough Gill and Sligo town or (more likely) Ballina. Have a look at County Sligo in google maps to see what I mean. We know (from the marriage certificate of his son James who was born in county Fermanagh in 1842) that he was a farmer. By the dob of his (eldest?) son, he must have been in his 50s when he “swam with Captain Webb” who was much younger. HAP was a formidably strong swimmer into late middle age too though.

So James and his family evidently left county Fermanagh (in the 1840s or 1850s?) to farm near either Ballina or Sligo town. This probably isn’t surprising either as a lot of people moved around during and after the potato famine. HAP said the swim was “across Sligo Bay”, but, never having been to Ireland he may have meant Killala Bay. Whichever bay it was, that’s a smaller haystack to examine for our elusive ancestors. At the moment I think Ballina more likely. That’s where James’ son James set up his drapery business and his brother (or another son?) Archibald was a storekeeper/auctioneer in the 1870s. Also, Peg Beatty went to Enniscrone and Ballina in the 1950s expecting to find Beatty relations there. Surely this was because her father had lead her to believe they would be there?

What do you think? I think I feel another trip to Ireland coming on.

 

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