Ballynahinch Castle

RICHARD BERRIDGE WAS THE GREATEST VICTORIAN LANDOWNER IN IRELAND, WITH 160,152 ACRES

RICHARD MARTIN MP (1754-1834) owned much of Connemara, so much so that he boasted to GEORGE IV that he had "an approach from my gatehouse to my hall of thirty miles' length".

He was nicknamed "Humanity Dick" due to his beneficence towards the RSPCA.

Colonel Martin was born in 1754, the son of Robert Martin FitzAnthony, a member of an old tribal family of Connemara.

His mother died when Richard was only nine years old and his father soon remarried to Mary Lynch, who later gave Richard two brothers.

The families' combined wealth allowed Richard to receive an excellent Anglican education.

He attended Harrow and Cambridge while studying law, and afterwards started a most extensive 'Gentleman's Tour' to round out his knowledge.

With his cousin, James Jordan, Richard travelled all over Europe.

They eventually left Bordeaux bound for Jamaica, and later ended up in New England for the start of the American War of Independence.

The two young men promptly returned home, and by the end of the 1770s, Richard's education and his family's influence combined to make him an MP; a Colonel in the Galway Volunteers; and gained him a wife, Elizabeth Vesey.

His duties kept him away from home quite a bit, but the couple had several children, one of whom is rumoured to be the child of a liaison between Elizabeth and the tutor hired to educate Richard's sons, Theobald Wolfe Tone.

It was during this period that he began to acquire a reputation and nickname relating to his many duels, as "Trigger Dick", a nickname which was also held by his uncle.

In 1783, he duelled with "Fighting" Fitzgerald, a Mayo Landlord, over the man's shooting of a friend's dog.

He also apparently made friends with the Prince of Wales, later GEORGE IV, as the two men shared many ideals and both were seen in Parliament quite often.

Richard's wife Elizabeth continued to show her knack for indiscretion, and the two divorced in 1794 after a scandal over her affair with a Mr Petrie of Paris. Dick Martin remarried in 1797, and had several more children.

By the early 1800s, Martin's estate was vast and the biggest in Ireland, encompassing over 200,000 acres.

His wealth and friendship with the Prince of Wales continued to increase his influence in Parliament and elsewhere.

Dick was persuaded to vote for the Act of Union in 1800, something he soon bitterly regretted, and was responsible for excising the death penalty for forgery.

In 1809, Lord Erskine presented a bill in Parliament to prevent cruelty to such animals as horses, pigs, oxen, and sheep.

The bill failed, however and, later in 1822, Richard was responsible for the passing of the Martin Act, which applied to large domestic animals.

It is at this time that Dick acquired the nickname of "Humanity".

His friend, the Prince of Wales, later GEORGE IV,  gave him the nickname.

Two years later, Richard created the first animal welfare society - the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, with other like-minded people.

Richard Martin remained a Member of Parliament until his election to Westminster in 1826 was invalidated.

The scandal and his ensuing debt forced Richard to flee to Boulogne in France.

He died peacefully on the January 6th, 1834.

The great family estate, which he helped to create, was lost during the Great Potato famine within 20 years.

Richard Martin's life is largely marked by his efforts to attain human and animal rights.

He supported Catholic Emancipation, and is generally considered the founder of the RSPCA.

It is rather ironic, that his families' great wealth, some of which came out of human injustice, was later lost during the Irish Famine.

His estates were heavily mortgaged and, as a consequence of this, his granddaughter and heiress, Mary Martin, was ruined after the Irish famine.

Ballynahinch was disposed of by the Encumbered Estates Court. Mary Martin and her husband emigrated to the USA, where she died shortly afterwards during childbirth.

Ballynahinch Estate was bought by Richard Berridge, whose son sold it in 1925; thereafter it was acquired by a celebrated cricketer, "Ranji".

ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY

The seat of Richard Berridge was Ballynahinch Castle, County Galway, Ireland, which became the residence of his son, Richard, who was a justice of the peace for the county and, in 1894, High Sheriff.

Richard Berridge the elder lived for over twenty years in Bloomsbury, first at 36 Bloomsbury Square, then, from about 1856 to 1877, at 18 Great Russell Street. Prior to this he had resided in Rochester, Kent, and he acquired property in that county as well as in Middlesex.

A return of landowners in 1873 describes his holdings in Middlesex as over 300 acres with a gross estimated rental of £577, and a smaller amount in Kent, 79 acres worth £184.15s. He also had mining interests and property in other counties.

Berridge entered into partnership with Sir Henry Meux of the Horse Shoe Brewery, Tottenham Court Road. He retired in July 1878 on the establishment of the new firm of Meux and Company.

In the late 1870s Berridge left Bloomsbury for an address in Putney, Surrey, and, after a few years, went to live in Bridgewater, Somerset. He died on 20 September 1887 leaving five daughters and one son, Richard, born in 1870.

The estate was administered by trustees until Richard Berridge the younger came of age. In his will, Berridge bequeathed a charity legacy of £200,000 to be applied for the advancement and propagation of education in economic and sanitary sciences in Great Britain.

The legacy was administered by his trustees, who donated large sums to the Worshipful Company of Plumbers and the British Institute of Preventive Medicine, and smaller amounts to other institutions and societies, such as the Sanitary Inspectors' Association and Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses.

Berridge's name was legally changed to Richard Berridge when he adopted his mother's surname in lieu of his father's surname. He was born with the name of Richard MacCarthy.

Richard Berridge, a London brewer, from the Law Life Assurance Society, also acquired Clifden estate (as well as Ballynahinch Castle).

In the mid 1870s, Berridge is recorded as owning over 160,152 acres, making him by far the largest landowner in County Galway.

The Berridge family retained a house in the locality and some fishing at Screebe until the late 20th century.

A grandson of Richard Berridge married an Orme of Owenmore, Crossmolina, County Mayo; and a great-grandson currently produces well known Irish cheeses on his farm, Carrigbyrne, in County Wexford.

BALLYNAHINCH CASTLE, Connemara, County Galway, is a long mansion with an abundance of windows, built in the late 18th century by Richard Martin MP.

Both the entrance front and the garden front (eight bays) have battlements and other distinguishing features.

Inside, the main rooms have particularly thick mahogany doors; the drawing-room, a chimney-piece of Connemara marble.

First published in April, 2011.

Lord O'Neill & Agent 007

SHANE'S CASTLE, COUNTY ANTRIM, IS THE SEAT OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE RAYMOND ARTHUR CLANABOY BARON O'NEILL KVCO TD

Lord O'Neill is related to the James Bond creator, Ian Fleming; hence, 007 has an Ulster connection, in a sense.

Raymond O'Neill's late mother, Anne, married Ian Fleming in 1952 (Lady O'Neill's third marriage), so Lord O'Neill became Ian Fleming's stepson.

Fleming lived at Goldeneye, his estate in Jamaica during the latter part of his life and, as a boy, Lord O'Neill visited the island.

O'Neill arms courtesy of European Heraldry. First published in July, 2009.

Ram's Island

Ram's Island is on the eastern side of Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the British Isles.

It lies across the entrance of Sandy Bay, the place where we departed on the 7th July, 2018, for our trip to the tiny island.

In fact Ram's Island used to be considerably tinier, because the water level of the lough has been lowered by about eight feet since 1847.

Prior to 1847, the island extended to a mere six acres; whereas today it comprises over forty acres, a cause of some debate between the owner of the island and the owner of the lake-bed.

Ram's Island ca 1830 (historic OS map)

This little islet was greatly beautified in the 18th century by a previous owner, James Whittle, who planted a profusion of shrubs and trees, laid out an orchard and a garden, and maintained it all most assiduously.

The short journey from Sandy Bay to the island takes less than ten minutes.

We embarked on the good boat Island Warrior and motored across the stretch of water (which occasionally froze over in the past) to a large jetty, where we all disembarked.

There is an old barge adjacent to the jetty, used as a kind of visitor centre for catering and so on.

Refreshed with a good beaker of tea and a bun, we were given a tour by our guide, Michael Savage, who showed us the ancient round tower and the ruins of Lord O'Neill's former cottage.

I should mention that the stump of the tower, about forty-three feet in height, thirty feet in circumference, stands among tall trees.

Its walls are almost three feet in thickness.

This charming islet is a haven today for doves, ducks, blackbirds, finches, even a few hens!

It had a herd of goats until twenty or thirty years ago.

Ram's Island had a monastery in the 11th century, which was seemingly destroyed or plundered by a local tribe in 1121.

Una Brankin wrote an interesting article in 2013 about life on Ram's Island and its resident caretakers.

Lord O'Neill's Cottage  (Image: Timothy Ferres, 2018)

Charles, 1st Earl O'Neill, purchased the island in 1804 for £1,000 (about £84,000 in 2024) and erected a singularly pretty and tasteful cottage.

The 1st (and last) Earl never married. He spent a great deal of time on Lough Neagh, and in a number of cottages which he built at various points in and around the lough. He kept several yachts, including one of the very first steam-powered vessels.

Lord O'Neill adopted it as his occasional residence, and converted the island into a most luxurious demesne.

The entire ground was laid out into walks, and covered with lush green flora.

Several hundred rose trees, exquisite plants and flowers all thrived luxuriantly.

Even those sides of the island which were almost perpendicular were adorned with all those creeping plants and hardy shrubs which were suitable for the location.

The 1st and last Earl also built a resident caretaker's residence.

Lord O'Neill's cottage stands almost directly below the round tower, the remains of which still dominate its roofless shell today.

It was maliciously burnt to the ground in 1944, some seven years after the last caretaker had left the island.

The O'Neill coat-of-arms proudly adorned the front of the cottage overlooking the lough, between two gothic windows, though I examined the walls myself and absolutely nothing remains today to indicate its existence.

There is still some plasterwork inside, though scorch-marks betray the ferocious fire which engulfed the cottage over seven decades ago.

Pebble-dashing (Image: Timothy Ferres, 2018)

It was pebble-dashed, with a very wide, overhanging thatched roof.

This history aroused my interest to the extent that I wrote a bit about the cottage some years ago.

In 2005, Lord O'Neill signed a thirty-year lease with the River Bann and Lough Neagh Association for the custodianship of the island.

During our tour I asked Michael if the O'Neills still had photographs of their times on the island, though he explained that in 1922 the Victorian Shane's Castle had been maliciously burnt, thus destroying all mementoes and Victorian photographs.

Lord O'Neill remarked that their first priority, naturally, had been to save valuable works of art, furniture and so on, and the likes of photographs perished.

So if any readers possess old images of Ram's Island in their attics or lofts, send them to me, please, for publication on the blog.

Our island trip concluded at about three-thirty in the afternoon, and we left a dozen or so campers outside their tents nestling in the woods.

First published in July, 2018.

Gussie's Veggie Diet

JEEVES:  'I regret to inform you, sir, that Miss Bassett has insisted on Mr Fink-Nottle adopting a vegetarian diet. His mood is understandably disgruntled and rebellious.'

I tottered. In my darkest hour I had never anticipated anything as bad as this.

You wouldn't think it to look at him, because he's small and shrimplike and never puts on weight, but Gussie loves food.

Watching him tucking into his rations at the Drones [club], a tapeworm would raise its hat respectfully, knowing that it was in the presence of a master.

Cut him off, therefore, from the roasts and boileds and particularly from cold steak and kidney pie, a dish of which he is inordinately fond, and you turned him into something fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils, as the fellow said - the sort of chap who would break any engagement as soon as look at you.

At the moment of my entry I had been about to light a cigarette, and now the lighter fell from my nerveless hand.

 BERTIE:  'She's made him become a vegetarian?'

'So Mr Fink-Nottle informed me, sir.'

'No chops?'

'No, sir.'

'No steaks?'

'No, sir.'

'Just spinach and similar garbage?'

'So I gather, sir.'

Dunnamanagh Castle

Dunnamanagh Castle, Donemana, County Tyrone, also known as Earlsgift, is an abandoned three-storey, three-bay Georgian-Gothic dwelling, believed to date from the late 18th century.

Old maps of 1813 describe it as ruinous, though it isn't mentioned thus on maps of 1905.

In 1828-40 it was listed as an "old castle and tower," providing dimensions and declaring that the castle was uninhabitable.

The well-known publisher Samuel Lewis wrote in 1837,

"The greater part of this parish was granted by JAMES I to Sir John Drummond who founded the town of Dunnamanagh and built a bawn 109 feet square, no part of which remains as the bawn was removed some years since and the modern building called the Castle was erected on its site."

Another publication of 1666-78 described Downemanagh [sic] as the property of "Sir William Hamilton, of Elston [Manor Elieston], Knight and Protestant."

His descendant, Sir John Stuart Hamilton, first Baronet and MP for Strabane, is mentioned several times in late 18th-century correspondence between the 1st Marquess of Abercorn and his agent, James Hamilton, as being in residence at Dunnamanagh Castle or Earlsgift.

James Hamilton wrote in 1793, that "Sir John Hamilton’s brother died last week at Donemanagh, his weight 42 stones ... it took 16 planks to make his coffin…"

In 1798 Mr Hamilton remarked:

"Your Lordship will be astonished when I tell you that Sir John Hamilton has subscribed his entire pension £300 a year towards the war [and] is living the life of a hermit at Donemanagh".

James Hamilton’s letters recount Sir John Hamilton's death in 1802 and speculate that the baronetcy would expire following the death of "Young Sir John."

Dunnamanagh Castle (Image: Irish Architectural Archive)

He added: "If I can credit his surgeon and housekeeper he will never leave an heir."

Sir John Hamilton, the second and last Baronet, died in 1818.

Hamilton, Lord Abercorn's agent, suggested that his lordship endeavour to obtain the reversion of  the second and last Baronet's estates.

First published in September, 2018.

Luttrellstown Castle

THE BARONS ANNALY WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY DUBLIN, WITH 3,954 ACRES

LUKE WHITE (c1740-1824), of Woodlands, County Dublin, High Sheriff of County Dublin, 1804, and County Longford, 1806, MP for Leitrim, 1818-24, who had acquired considerable wealth, purchased Lord Carhampton's estate of Luttrelltown.

Luke White, By Gilbert Stuart - http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/
Collection/art-object-page.1122.html,
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50758244

He married firstly, 1781, Elizabeth, daughter of Peter de la Mazière, of Dublin, of a Huguenot family, and had issue; and secondly, in 1800, Arabella, daughter of William Fortescue, and by her had a son, William.

His fourth son, by his first marriage,

HENRY WHITE (1791-1873), of Woodlands, County Dublin, and subsequently of Rathcline, County Longford, served in the 14th Light Dragoons during the Peninsular War; was MP for County Dublin, 1823-32, County Longford, 1837-47 and 1857-61; Lord-Lieutenant of County Longford, 1841-73.

Having succeeded to the Longford estates of his next elder brother, Luke White, in 1854, he was elevated to the peerage, in 1863, in the dignity of BARON ANNALY (third creation), of Annaly and Rathcline, County Longford.

His lordship married, in 1828, Ellen, daughter of William Soper Dempster, by Hannah, only daughter and heir of John Hamilton Dempster, of Skibo Castle, Sutherland, and had issue,

LUKE, his successor;
Henry;
George Frederick;
Francis Samuel;
Charles William;
Robert;
Eleanor Eliza; Emily Beaujolais.

He died at Sunbury Park, Middlesex, and was succeeded by his eldest son,

LUKE, 2nd Baron (1829-88), KP, who wedded, in 1853, Emily, daughter of James Stuart, and had issue,

LUKE, his successor;
Henry Frederick;
Charles James;
Robert;
Francis William;
Ellen Harriet; Alice Emily; Violet.

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,

LUKE, 3rd Baron (1857-1922), GCVO JP DL, who wedded, in 1884, Lilah Georgiana Augusta Constance, daughter of Henry, 3rd Viscount Clifden, and had issue,

LUKE HENRY, his successor;
Lilah Charlotte Sarah; Lucia Emily Margaret.

His lordship was succeeded by his son,

LUKE HENRY, 4th Baron (1885-1970), MC JP,

• Luke Robert White, 5th Baron (1927–90);
• Luke Richard White, 6th Baron (b 1954).

LUTTRELLSTOWN CASTLE, Clonsilla, County Dublin, dates from the early 15th century (ca 1420).

It has been owned variously by the eponymous and notorious Luttrell family; the bookseller Luke White his descendants the Lords Annaly; the Guinnesses; the Primwest Group; and, since 2006, JP McManus, John Magnier and Aidan Brooks.

The Castle has hosted visits by Queen Victoria in 1844 and 1900, and its media profile was raised when David and Victoria Beckham were married there in 1999.

Luttrellstown and its remaining 560-acre demesne currently form a 5-star resort. 

Henry, 2nd Earl of Carhampton, sold Luttrellstown Castle to the publisher Luke White, described as one of the most remarkable men in Ireland.

Luke White changed its name to Woodlands, but the 3rd Lord Annaly reverted back to its former name.

In 1778, Luke White started as an impecunious book dealer, buying in Dublin and reselling around the country.

By 1798, during the rebellion, he helped the Irish government with a loan of £1 million (at £65 per £100 share at 5%).

He became MP for Leitrim, and died in 1824 leaving properties worth £175,000 per annum.

An extract from The illustrated London News of 1864 describes a series of festivities at Woodlands, "the beautiful seat of the Rt Hon. Henry White, the newly created Lord Annaly".

These festivities consisted of theatrical and social entertainments.

A new theatre was built especially for the occasion and the festivities lasted for a fort­night.

The plays `Still Waters Run Deep' and `Samuel in Search of Him­self' were performed, and a ball to which `most of the principal families of Dublin and the neighbourhood received invitations', concluded the festivities.

Queen Victoria paid two visits to Luttrellstown: Firstly in 1844, as Her Majesty passed through to visit the Duke of Leinster at Carton; secondly in 1900, when The Queen stayed at Viceregal Lodge.

To commemorate these visits, Lord Annaly erected an obelisk made of six blocks of granite from the Dublin mountains, which together measure 8 feet, 6 inches in height.

It is at the head of the Glen, near the Waterfall, where Her Majesty drank some tea.

Prince von Puckler-Muskau (c1820) remarked,

"The entrance to the demesne is indeed the most delightful in its kind that can be imagined. Scenery, by nature most beautiful, is improved by art to the highest degree of its capability, and, without destroying its free and wild character, a variety and richness of vegetation is produced which enchants the eye. 

Gay shrubs and wild flowers, the softest turf and giant trees, festooned with creeping plants, fill the narrow glen through which the path winds, by the side of the clear, dancing brook, which, falling in little cataracts, flows on, sometimes hidden in the thicket, sometimes resting like liquid silver in an emerald cup, or rushing under overhanging arches of rock, which nature seems to have hung there as triumphal gates for the beneficent Naiad of the valley to pass through."

In the dining-room (above) the architect, Mr Harbord, used the same eagles at Oving House, near Aylesbury, that he incorporated in the plasterwork here.

As a room it succeeds brilliantly. The ceiling is painted by de Wit.

The entrance hall (above) retains its Gothic character of about 1800, but the mantel and black-and- white floor are recent improvements.

It leads on to the staircase hall, which was transformed by Mr Harbord in 1963 when a magnificent painted ceiling by Thornhill, from a house in Suffolk now demolished, was inserted; the staircase and window were altered at the same time.

The far end of the Ballroom opens into the Grisaille Room (above), created to rake the series of nine Grisaille paintings by Peter de Gree, one of which, signed and dated 1788, represents Irish trade and commerce.

The library, in the centre of the south front, was originally the entrance hall and it has an unusual eighteenth century plaster ceiling with bow and arrow in full relief.

he chief glory of the house is the ballroom, which has plaster decoration that could be eighteenth century, but was most likely done for Luke White at the time of his purchase.

The design is unusual and original, and does not fit easily into any particular category of plasterwork; it was probably done by local stuccodores working in a somewhat outdated manner.

It blends in admirably with the Adamesque Grisaille room, and the magnificent dining room, with its plaster birds and painted ceiling.

The Whites were also major landowners in County Longford, with 12,560 acres.

Former residences ~ Porters, Shenley, Hertfordshire; Baldwyn's, East Grinstead, Sussex; town house: 19, Belgrave Square.

First published in September, 2011.

Wodehouse Gems: IV

Lady Glossop: Do you work, Mr Wooster?

Bertie: What, work? As in honest toil, you mean? Hewing the wood and drawing the old wet stuff and so forth?

Lady Glossop: Quite.

Bertie: Well... I've known a few people who worked. Absolutely swear by it, some of them. Boko Fittleworth almost had a job once.