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Correspondence and maps concerning Lisheen military rifle range, beside the 4th Earl’s property at Clonoghill, on the outskirts of Birr.

Box containing six miscellaneous letters and papers of or about junior branches of the Parsons family, [all of them probably the children of the Hon. Laurence Parsons, youngest brother of the 3rd Earl – see J/29], including an epitome of the settlement made on the marriage of one of the Hon. Laurence Parsons’s daughters, 1878; together with numerous case papers and court orders concerning the lunacy of the Hon. Laurence Parson’s eldest son, Capt. Laurence Hardress Hector Parsons (d. 1924), 1897-1924.

Formal invitations to the 4th and 5th Earls – to civic functions in Belfast, and to Edward VII’s and George V’s coronations.

Diaries of the 4th Earl (including a largely empty diary for 1872 of [his wife, Cassandra]) recording a tour in England, 1871; tours in the United States, 1884 and 1891; a visit to Jamaica, 1891; and a tour of India, 1897-8: together with two of his passports, 1890 and 1897.

Letters and papers of the 4th Earl reflecting his membership of learned bodies – the Royal Irish Academy (member 1870; president 1896), the Royal Institute, the Royal Society, the Institute of Naval Architects, etc; the correspondents include W. Burne Jones and [the 1st Marquess of] Dufferin and Ava.

Includes letters about Disestablishment, Poor Law reform, Orangeism, Conservative registration, Home Rule and the Irish Land question. Also includes letter from M. McCormack, CC, Kinnitty to Lord Rosse concerning agrarian dispute in Kinnitty parish between Francis Foley and Delaney at Newtown (3 March 1911).

Correspondence of the 4th Earl about yachting, Cowes, etc. [See also J/25 and 0/8.]

Original bundle of applications/ recommendations for the post of head gardener at Birr (Andrew Hume being the successful applicant).

Small bundle of family settlements, the deeds of 1868 being a sequel to the 3rd Earl’s marriage settlement of 1836 [see E/39], the deeds of 1870 together constituting the settlement made on the marriage of the 4th Earl to the Hon. Frances Cassandra Hawke [see H/114].

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.