Introduction Blayney/Hope Papers
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INTRODUCTION BLAYNEY/HOPE PAPERS November 2007 Blayney /Hope Papers (D1421, D1406 and D971) Table of Contents Summary .................................................................................................................3 Family history...........................................................................................................4 The 'Stewartstown Affray' ........................................................................................6 The Caledon connection..........................................................................................7 The 11th Lord Blayney as an original thinker...........................................................8 Lord Blayney in private life.....................................................................................10 The real founder of Castleblayney .........................................................................11 The 'Hope Diamond' ..............................................................................................12 Hope deferred........................................................................................................13 The Blayney archive ..............................................................................................14 Rentals...............................................................................................................14 Leases ...............................................................................................................14 Maps, surveys, valuations, etc. ..........................................................................14 Irish Land Commission sale papers ...................................................................14 Papers deriving from the Upton family, Viscounts Templetown (D971, etc) ..........16 Public Record Office of Northern Ireland 2 Crown Copyright 2007 Blayney/Hope Papers Summary The Blayney/Hope papers comprise c.3,000 documents, 1639-1950, relating to the Blayney estate at Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan (part of which was sold to the Upton family, Lords Templetow, of Templepatrick, Co. Antrim, in 1723 and the rest to the Hope family in 1853), elsewhere in Co. Monaghan, and in Carrickfergus and Cullybackey, Co. Antrim. Additional records, from another source, the office of John Old Castleblayney Corrigan, Solicitor, Castleblayney (D/1406), comprise a rental with accounts of Mrs Anne Hope's estate at Castleblayney, 1878-1879, and cash books of the 8th Duke of Newcastle's estate at Castleblayney, 1931-1943. There are also some Templetown records (D/971, etc) which add a little more information to the Blayney papers proper. By 1876, the former Blayney estate at Castleblayney was owned by Viscount Templetown with 12,846 acres and Mrs Anne Hope of Castleblayney with 11,700 acres. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland 3 Crown Copyright 2007 Blayney/Hope Papers Family history It is hard to dissent from the verdict of E.P. Shirley that 'The consequences of the rebellion of 1641 and the revolution of 1688 were hardly less disastrous to the loyal [from E.P. Shirley's perspective] family of Blayney than they were to the native chiefs and others of the Irish who still retained their property ...'. The following account of the Blayneys has been taken from The Monaghan Story by Peadar Livingstone. 'Edward Blayney the governor of Monaghan was granted the thirty-two townlands of Ballynalurgan and in 1611 he obtained the termon of Muckno as well. Blayney built a castle, around which a Planter village soon began to grow up. This was the origin of the present town of Castleblayney. Permission was granted to hold fairs and markets in 1613 and in 1617. Castleblayney remained a village consisting of a few shops and inns and a collection of thatched cabins centred round the present Market Square till the closing quarter of the 18th century. The Blayney family claimed descent from Cadwallader, king of Cambria. Edward, the first of the Blayneys in Ireland and the founder of the town, became Baron Blayney of Monaghan on 29 July 1621. He died on 11 February 1629 and was succeeded by his son Lord Henry who took his seat in the Irish House of Lords in 1634. His castle was attacked by the Irish rebels under Hugh Mac Patrick Dubh MacMahon on 21 October 1641. Blayney made his escape and was one of the first to inform the authorities in Dublin that a rising had taken place. His wife and children were captured. Lord Henry Blayney was killed at the battle of Benburb in 1646 and his son, Edward, became the 3rd Lord Blayney. Edward sold both the family's estates in Monaghan and Castleblayney to Thomas Vincent, a London merchant, in 1649 and 1653. In 1653 Richard brother of Edward married Thomas Vincent's daughter and she brought the estates back to the Blayney family as a wedding present. Richard's son Henry Vincent became 5th Lord Blayney in 1680 and he sold off most of the Monaghan estate which, after passing through the Cairnes, Murray, and Cuninghame families, was inherited by the Westenras who became the Lords Rossmore. Henry Vincent fled Castleblayney at the outbreak of the Williamite Wars and was chosen as commander-in-chief of the Protestant forces raised to defend Monaghan and Armagh against King James II. Henry Vincent died in 1689. His brother William succeeded him as 6th Lord Blayney and he was the first of the family to be buried in Castleblayney. His son and successor Cadwallader sold part of the Castleblayney estate to the Uptons, Lords Templetown, in 1723 and died in 1732. His son Charles Talbot became the 8th Lord Blayney. He was a clergyman and was both Rector of Muckno and Dean of Killaloe. He died in 1761. His brother Cadwallader became the 9th Lord Blayney and he was a distinguished soldier. Cadwallader was succeeded by two of his sons, Cadwallader who became the 10th Lord in 1775 and Andrew Thomas who became the 11th Lord in 1784. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland 4 Crown Copyright 2007 Blayney/Hope Papers The 11th Lord, Andrew Thomas, was perhaps the most famous Blayney of all. He ruled the estate for fifty years from 1784 to 1834. He was one of the most illustrious soldiers ever to come from Co. Monaghan and as commander of the 89th Regiment of Foot, 'Blayney's Bloodhounds' as they were called, he fought with distinction in the Napoleonic Wars. He was taken prisoner when making a raid from Gibraltar into Spain and was kept prisoner for some years by the French government. He wrote a two-volume account of his experiences in the Napoleonic Wars [Narrative of a Forced Journey through Spain and France as a Prisoner of War in the Years 1810 th to 1814, by Major-General Lord Blayney (London, 1814)]. Andrew, 11 Baron Blayney He was captured by one of the O'Callaghans of Culaville, a colonel in the French army and a prominent United Irishman who escaped after 1798. It is said he insisted on Blayney being held to ransom for some of the United Irishmen who were in British prisons.' Public Record Office of Northern Ireland 5 Crown Copyright 2007 Blayney/Hope Papers The 'Stewartstown Affray' Blayney's mainly Orange yeomanry (who, incidentally, are much more likely to have been called 'Balyney's Bloodhounds' than the 8th Regiment of Foot) were involved in the so-called 'Stewartstown Affray' of 1797, which actually took place at nearby Newmills, Co. Tyrone. At a time of heightened sectarian tension and of fears of United Irish penetration of the militia, Blayney's yeomanry fired on the mainly Catholic Kerry militiamen, killing nine of their number. The Fitzgerald, Knight of Kerry papers (PRONI T3075) provide graphic details! Public Record Office of Northern Ireland 6 Crown Copyright 2007 Blayney/Hope Papers The Caledon connection The Blayney/Hope papers are a purely estate archive: for correspondence, not least about the administration of the estate during the enforced absence of the 11th Lord Blayney, reference has to be had to the Caledon Papers in PRONI (D2433). The Caledon estate, in Tyrone, is just a few fields away from that of the Leslies in Glaslough, Co. Monaghan, and the Earls of Caledon themselves owned a few acres in Co Monaghan. Because of the family connection between the lst and 2nd Earls of Caledon and the 11th Lord Blayney, who was their son-in-law and brother-in-law respectively, the correspondence between Blayney and the two Earls yields a lot of information about his military and political careers, for example, the siege of Alexandria and as a prisoner of war in Napoleonic France. During Blayney's long incarceration, the 2nd Earl of Caledon looked after his financial, domestic, and political affairs, thus being drawn into the Monaghan sphere. This brought political figures such as Dawson and Leslie beating a path to Caledon's door, because during this period he was the representative of Blayney and 'the Blayney interest'. On his return, Blayney was given a seat in parliament for Caledon's infamous 'rotten borough' of Old Sarum, Wiltshire. Later, he attempted to get Caledon to use his influence with the Government to get him elected an Irish Representative Peer. This yields a very illuminating and often pained correspondence between the two men. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland 7 Crown Copyright 2007 Blayney/Hope Papers The 11th Lord Blayney as an original thinker The following letter from Blayney, still a POW in Verdun, dated 10 July 1813, to his brother-in-law, the 2nd Earl of Caledon, is virtually his political credo. This displays not a little of the Social Darwinism that was only to emerge much later in the century.