Showing 122 results

Box of conacre, grazing, weekly, monthly, yearly or caretaker proposals/agreements.

Probate (1919) of the will (1918) of the 5th Earl, together with legal papers and costs in connection with the will and later accounts relating to the cost of repairing his memorial in St Brendan’s Church in Birr, and much later (2005-6) correspondence and accounts about having the memorial photographed in connection with the War Memorial Projects.

Patents appointing the 5th Earl Lieutenant and Custos rotulorum of King’s County in succession to his late father,
including two letters from [the Lord Lieutenant], Lord Aberdeen, on the subject (one of them making unsubtle reference to the necessity for the 5th Earl’s committing himself to political support of the government of the day), letters to the 5th Earl giving confidential opinions as to the suitability of various people for appointment as J.P.s, and a tradesman’s account for supplying a Lieutenant’s flag for Birr Castle. [Not in chronological order.]

Letters, tradesmen’s accounts, inventories of plate, specifications, tender and other papers of the 4th and 5th Earls, all concerning the contents of Birr Castle or improvements and alterations to Birr Castle and demesne and
to houses and cottages owned by the estate – the installation of motors and turbines, plumbing, lighting, heating, redecorating, ‘hacking off’ plaster-work, etc. [Not in chronological order. For other inventories of plate, etc, see H/8 and T/83.]

Papers about Birr Church of Ireland church and parish, including historical compilations of the rev. Dr Samuel Hemphill, Rector of Birr, covering the period 1612-1903. The compilations consist of a small quarto notebook containing MS. Copies of 1642 depositions concerning the neighbourhood of Birr; another containing a history of Birr Church of Ireland church (taken from vestry books, parish registers, etc), 1760-1903); and two succession lists of Birr incumbents, 1612-1912. The sub-section also includes a series of printed annual reports on the parish and on the diocese of Killaloe and Kilfenora, 1900-10.

Miscellaneous leases, which seem to have it in common that they are of premises and fields near the Birr Castle demesne. [In date order.]

Letters and tradesmen’s accounts to the 5th Earl relating to seeds, shrubs, trees and planting, including 3 letters from Augustine Henry [botanist renowned for his flora-collecting explorations in central and western China], 1908-10. One of
Henry’s letters, dated 26 July 1909, is about [Chinese?] plant specimens at Birr; it has been photocopied by PRONI, T/3498/4.

Letters and papers, mostly of the 4th and 5th Earls and Dr Otto Boeddicker, concerning Parsons family history and genealogy, including information about the Oxmantown/Phoenix Park property, sold by the elder branch of the Parsons family to the crown in 1672. Of particular interest is a paper entitled ‘How the Parsons, Earls of Rosse, got the Titles of Baron and Viscount of Oxmantown’.

Letters and papers of the 4th Earl about Parsonstown/Birr: the Castle – his youthful recollections of it, extensions to it 1867-72 [see also M/25], a magazine portrait of his way of life there, 1898, and magazine obituaries of him, 1908; an incident which took place on the road between Banagher and Parsonstown and in which the 4th Earl and his party were stopped and temporarily put in gaol by a drunken R.I.C. man, 1868; the Parsonstown Barracks, 1869, 1899 and N.D.; the Parsonstown Town Commission and Commissioners, 1870 and 1885; admissions to the demesne of privileged locals, 1876-1910; and one of the bridges in the Birr Castle demesne, and the Rivers Brosna and Camcor, 1880 and 1896. The correspondents include Gladstone, W.E. Forster and Lords Strathnairn and Roberts. The sub-section also includes a small account book recording local subscriptions to the Parsonstown Defence Association, the Property Defence Association, the legal fund of the Irish Land Committee, and the Field and Rossmore Testimonials, c.1882.

Original bundle of letters and papers concerning the 4th Earl’s patents for a machine which he had invented for removing leaves and other matter from turbines, 1901-4; together with notes on his experiments with electro-plating, 1908. [Not in chronological order.]