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Draft index to Birr town leases, prepared in 2005 by Margaret Hogan. Properties are arranged by street and ordered chronologically within each street. The index (copies of which are included on a CD and diskette) also
gives the name, occupation, and other particulars about the lessees.

Box of leases of The Green and The Upper Green. [Some of the earliest leases of Cumberland Street (see Q/58) state that it was built on The Green, so it is probable that, as building progressed, leases of The Green change names to leases of sundry streets.] The box also includes papers relating to the sale of properties and fee farm grants in Green Street to the Birr Urban District Council and other purchasers.

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.

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.

Original box of Birr Estate Office in-letters to the then Rosse agent, A.E. Telford, many of them from the 6th Earl and Anne Countess of Rosse. Lord and Lady Rosse’s letters do not confine themselves to estate business, but include arrangements for house parties at Birr Castle. [For the other side of the correspondence with Lord and Lady Rosse, see T/34].

‘S’ - principally Stokes Bros. & Pirn of Dublin (the Rosse accountants [see Q/269-70]), E. & G. Stapleton, solicitors, of Dublin (who write about the Barrett estate [see V/7]), etc, etc.

‘P’, ‘Q’, ‘R’ and ‘T’ - including letters from the Hon. Geoffrey L. Parsons, in Basingstoke, relating to the affairs of Birr Castle Demesne, during the period in which he acted on behalf of the sixth earl in his minority (1918-1924). Also includes letters from members of the Pigott family [see V/24], Mrs Manning Robertson, the 5th and 6th Earls of Rosse, J.H. Tyler (the Womersley agent [see H/117]), etc, etc.

‘N’ and ‘0’.

Bundle of deeds and copy deeds constituting a re-settlement of the Rosse estate by the 4th and 5th Earls (1898), with sequel releases and appointments of new trustees of the settlement.

‘K’ and ‘L’ - a very miscellaneous lot, but including Colonels Kingscote and Lodwick (two more of Garvey’s employers -[see Section V/21-2]).