By Enda McEvoy, Laois County Library
If one were to ask a Laois person to name somebody famous who hailed from within the county, alongside contemporary names from the world of television such as chef Darina Allen, RTE’s Claire Byrne, ‘Supervet’ Noel Fitzpatrick or actor Robert Sheehan, there is a good chance that the following notable persons from Laois’s past would feature prominently among the replies: the engineer William Dargan; the writer James Fintan Lalor; Lucy Franks, who was responsible for reviving the organisation which came to be known as the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA); Bartholomew Mosse, who was the founder of the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin; the lauded historian and folklorist Helen M. Roe.
One name that would be unlikely to feature too highly among the responses, if indeed at all, would be that of John Kinder Labatt, who was the founder of the world-famous Canadian Labatt Brewing Company in the mid-nineteenth century.
If the two main criteria for achieving such recognition are that the person has made an outstanding contribution within their chosen field of activity along with having received widespread acclaim for this contribution, then John Kinder Labatt, who was born in Mountmellick circa 1803 and who spent half his life in the town, comfortably fulfils both of these requirements in order to take his place in the company of the more celebrated sons and daughters of Laois.
The brewery which he founded in Ontario back in 1847 grew to become the largest in Canada and subsequently the brand name Labatt became synonymous with beer, not only in North America but right across the world, and has been responsible for numerous innovations in the production and marketing of beer since then.
The Labatt family connection to Laois does not originate in Mountmellick, however, but instead can be traced back to the rich Huguenot heritage of nearby Portarlington.
The final decades of the seventeenth century were marked by severe religious enmity between Protestants and Catholics throughout Europe. In 1685 Louis XIV, the fiercely Catholic French King, revoked the Edict of Nantes – a royal decree that permitted French Protestants the right to religious freedom.
This resulted in the widespread persecution of Huguenots in France: Huguenots such as André Labat (the forename and surname would become anglicised over time to the more familiar versions we know today of ‘Andrew’ and ‘Labatt’ as they were passed down through the generations), who was born circa 1670 and was a native of Claret, which is near Montpellier[i] in France. He later became the Marquis of Clairac. André was forced to flee France as a result of this persecution and is believed to have settled either in Flanders or in the Netherlands.[ii]
At the same time anti-Catholic sentiment grew in Protestant Europe. In England, King James II’s Catholic allegiances drew the ire of Protestants, and during the Glorious Revolution he fled to France and was replaced in England by the Protestant Dutch royals – William III and Mary of Orange. King James mobilised French military support in a bid to reclaim his throne and in 1689 made his attack on England.
To increase the number of soldiers in his army, King William called upon displaced French Protestants who had been forced into exile in Flanders and the Netherlands. One of these soldiers was André Labat, who was a Lieutenant in La Meloniére’s Huguenot Infantry Regiment, and who served in Ireland on behalf of King William at the Siege of Derry (1689), the Battle of the Boyne (1690) and the Battle of Aughrim (1691).
In about 1699 André settled in Portarlington along with other Huguenot soldiers and their families, thereby contributing to this vibrant and thriving French community living beside the River Barrow, and as reward for his loyal army service he received not only a military pension as a Captain but also tracts of land which had been surrendered by Irish landowners who had supported King James during the conflict.
A connection to the Sabatier and Chateauneuf families already residing in Portarlington may well have influenced André’s decision[iii] to settle here.
All of the soldiers were planted under the authority of Henri de Massue de Ruvigny, who was one of King William’s Generals, and who later became Lord Galway. The Labat surname appears throughout the first half of the 1700s in the registers of Portarlington’s French Church. One such entry involves the baptism[iv] in 1729 of Anne Chateauneuf, who was the daughter of Marc Chateauneuf and Marie Labat – André’s daughter.
It is believed that André Labat lived for a time at Kilmalogue House at the start of the 1700s, and the lands he acquired were principally located in the townlands of Ballinakill and Raheen in neighbouring county Offaly, both of which lie within proximity to Geashill.
Records[v] indicate that these lands were retained under the Labatt name throughout the eighteenth century and it appears that it is within this area where the larger Labatt family were primarily based during this time.
As it transpired, both of John Kinder Labatt’s parents came from this part of Offaly. His father was Valentine Knightly Chetwode Labatt (the great grandson of André Labat) and his mother was Jane Harper, the daughter of Rev. Ephraim Harper who lived in Bloomville[vi] located in the townland of Down, which is outside Geashill.
It is in St. Mary’s Churchyard in Geashill, amidst the ever-present clamour emanating from the murder of crows nesting in the trees on the church grounds and the adjacent Village Green, where Rev. Harper and his wife Christiana were buried on 1st November 1810 and 24th December 1808 respectively, alongside Jane’s eleven year old brother John who was buried on 7th April 1804.[vii]
Grave Inscription Reads:
The burial place of
The Rev’d Ephraim Harper
Here lies the body of his son
John Harper
Who died the [6th?] of April 1804
In the eleventh year of his age
A youth of great promise
Also the body of his wife
Christiana Harper
Who died [22nd?] December 1808
Aged [fifty?] [five?] years
The Rev’d Ephraim Harper died
30th October 1810 aged 84 years
We know that Rev. Harper was based in this part of Offaly since at least 1784 as it was in that year when a man named Edward Smith[viii] was sentenced to death in Daingean (then known as Philipstown) for the highway robbery of the said Reverend.
We also know that Rev. Harper made arrangements in 1804 for rent from lands of Bloomville[ix] to be paid to two of his grandsons – John Kinder and Ephraim Hart – for the duration of both their lifetimes.
Valentine and Jane Labatt, like so many others at the turn of the nineteenth century, were drawn to Mountmellick – a distance of ten miles from Geashill – as a place of employment and opportunity to set up home for their emerging family as the Industrial revolution came to life in this town located in the Irish Midlands.
By this time, Mountmellick was proclaiming itself as a town of immense economic prosperity due to the high levels of Quaker-led[x] industry that had been established there and which would continue to expand in the decades ahead. This boom in manufacturing would result in Mountmellick being labelled ‘The Manchester of Ireland.’
According to the existing biographical[xi] and genealogical references relating to the Labatt family, Valentine and Jane had seven children: three sons (Andrew Valentine, Ephraim Hart and John Kinder) and four daughters (Christiana, Ismena, Louisa and Mary Ann). However, there is a record from 9th December 1805[xii] in the registers of St. Mary’s Church in Geashill for the christening of another child named Thomas Sabatier, son of Valentine and Jane Labatt, but it may very well have been the case that he died at a very young age.
The Labatt family did lose their patriarchal figure on 12th December 1813 with the death of Valentine, who is buried in Killaderry Graveyard[xiii] in Daingean, county Offaly. Killaderry holds a particular significance in the Labatt story as this was where the aforementioned André Labat married Christina Peppard on 17th February 1707, thus beginning the family lineage in Ireland.
Grave Inscription Reads:
Here lieth the body of Valentine Knightly Chetwood Labat
Departed this life December 12th 1813
Erected by his father Andrew Labat
Unfortunately, we know very little of John Kinder’s life in Mountmellick before he left the town for London, England in 1830 when he made contact with an Irish-Huguenot family there named Claris and took up a clerical job in the city with a timber merchant.
Incidentally, we know from English census records in 1841 and 1851[xiv] that John Kinder’s brother Ephraim Hart lived in St George Hanover Square, London where his occupation was recorded as that of a saddler. Ephraim Hart later died there in 1855. Perhaps both Labatt brothers departed Mountmellick for London together at the same time?
Making contact with the Claris family in London had a major impact upon John Kinder’s life as it was through this family that he met Eliza Kell (1816-1897), who was the daughter of Robert Pritchard Kell – a senior clerk with the Bank of England. Though thirteen years her senior, he married Eliza on 15th August 1833[xv] at Christ Church, Southwark; a union which required the special consent of her father.
Robert Pritchard’s willingness to consent to his daughter’s marriage could well have been intensified by the financial dire straits he found himself in during the summer of 1833 when he suffered a huge loss from a speculative investment that went badly wrong. Faced with the burden of repaying a huge debt, along with the stark fear of not being able to provide for his family for the foreseeable future, he encouraged the marriage as he believed John Kinder could offer far more support to his family than he possibly could while he was burdened with such a heavy liability.[xvi]
And so it transpired that only a few short months after their marriage, John Kinder Labatt, his wife and three of his new in-laws – mother, brother and sister – embarked into the complete unknown in search of a new life for themselves on the long and perilous journey from England to the frontier of Upper Canada aboard a ship called the William Osborne.
Operating on the premise that an individual is strongly influenced by the environment they encounter during their formative years, it is therefore worth examining the world of commerce which John Kinder Labatt would have orbited during the first half of his life.
For the duration of the time he lived in Mountmellick, it was a thriving economic centre based around a diverse range of manufacturing. Cotton, linen, wool and soap were all produced in the town and it also had a flour mill, a tannery, a distillery and a pottery along with a whole host of other smaller businesses and trades which operated there. The fact that there was a savings bank in place during the early part of the nineteenth century is testament to Mountmellick’s industrial might at this time.
Outside the boundaries of this industrial hub located in rural Ireland there was a traditional agrarian economy in operation, which is also pertinent to the story of John Kinder Labatt seeing as he worked as a farmer for over a dozen years in Canada before stepping into the world of brewing. However, there is no available evidence to suggest John Kinder was directly involved in agriculture during his time in Mountmellick.
Considering he would later become acutely aware in Canada of the intrinsic connection between an expanding rail transportation network and the expansion of markets for his brewery, it is worth remembering that, although it officially opened a year after he had left for England, work on the Mountmellick Line of the Grand Canal commenced in 1827[xvii] and John Kinder must surely have been aware of the value that such an enhanced transportation system would bring to the town’s economy.
The population, which increased from over 2,000[xviii] in the early 1820s to almost 5,000[xix] by the early 1840s, was as diverse as its industries with a primary mix of Catholic, Methodist, Protestant and Quaker communities in residence.
Mountmellick was a hive of activity with a continuous buzz radiating from the relentless hustle and bustle taking place on its streets.
However, one industry in particular that was especially strong in Mountmellick during John Kinder Labatt’s time there was that of brewing which, seeing it was the field in which he made his mark on the world, is certainly noteworthy.
By the start of the 1820s there were four known breweries in Mountmellick – Calcutt’s, Gatchell’s, Kenny’s and Pim’s. Another brewery – Tierney’s – would begin production towards the end of that decade. The main considerations[xx] for setting up a brewery in the early 1800s were:
- An immediate market encompassing a large local population who would steadily and readily consume the product (techniques were not so advanced at this stage to preserve beer for any great length of time).
- An abundant supply of locally produced barley along with a plentiful fresh water source (both the Barrow and Owenass rivers flow through the town).
- An adequate transport infrastructure to carry, not only the finished product to customers within the locality, but also the other raw materials vital to the brewing process such as coal and hops.
- Access to local labour and a variety of requisite tradespeople.
All of the above were available in Mountmellick, and brewing appeared very much to be a highly profitable business in the town during this period.
It is a remarkable coincidence, when you consider the path John Kinder would later take in life, that when his widowed mother – Jane Labatt – married Benjamin Gatchell in 1822[xxi] this was to a man whose family owned one of the breweries in the town.
John Kinder’s stepfather was a member of one of the eminent Quaker families of Mountmellick and the Gatchell brewery[xxii] was located at a site which would years later became known as ‘Mac’s Corner’ at the junction of Pound Street (now O’Moore Street) and Forge Street (now Emmet Street).
It is unclear when exactly Gatchell’s brewery first commenced production, but it appeared to cease around 1823[xxiii] – in this guise at least – and it may be a possible reason as to why the brewery was not listed in Pigot & Co’s Provincial Directory of Ireland from 1824.[xxiv]
One can’t help but wonder whether it was in Mountmellick where the seed was first firmly planted in the mind of John Kinder Labatt to establish his own brewery?
In spite of the apparent prosperity and economic opportunities that were available, John Kinder did leave the town in 1830 to seek his fortune elsewhere.
One possible factor which may have contributed to his decision to depart was the rising tide of religious tension that escalated in Mountmellick throughout the 1820s, and which would become symbolised by the antagonism surrounding the town’s Orange Pole[xxv] which served as a focal point for sectarian clashes between the Catholic and Protestant communities.
Without doubt, such sectarian strife contributed to an extended and impending mood of violence that seemed to linger over the town.
The brewing industry in Mountmellick was deeply affected by this discord due to the organised boycotting of beer produced from Protestant brewers by its Catholic consumers. Allied to this, the Temperance movement in Ireland which, although in its embryonic stages at this point, could very well have begun to make some impact upon the quantities of alcohol being consumed across the country.
In another notable coincidence, one of the Mountmellick brewers from this era – James Calcutt – also emigrated to Canada in the early 1830s to escape this tension which ended up having had a tangible impact on his own business. Mr. Calcutt[xxvi] packed up his brewing apparatus and moved to Cobourg, also in Ontario, where he set up a new brewery.
One also can’t help but wonder whether John Kinder Labatt and James Calcutt were acquainted with each other when they both lived in Mountmelick?
In terms of attempting to place a barometer on the social climate of the time in Mountmellick, it is also worth mentioning that John Kinder may well have also witnessed possible discrimination levelled at his stepfather, Benjamin Gatchell, who was ‘disowned’ by the Quaker hierarchy[xxvii] in 1823 for having ‘join[ed] himself in marriage with a woman not progressing our principles,’ which is to say marrying someone who did not belong to the Quaker faith. Although by all accounts this appeared to be a relatively common transgression within the Quaker community[xxviii] at this time.
Taking all of this into account, it may very well have been the case that John Kinder Labatt had personal ambitions in life which exceeded the limits of what he believed a constrained Mountmellick could offer him at the start of the 1830s.
When John Kinder and his travelling party eventually reached Upper Canada after their arduous journey from England at the end of 1833/beginning of 1834, they settled in Westminster Township. Here he farmed[xxix] the plot of land he acquired upon his arrival and over time expanded his acreage and apparently made a success of farming, chiefly through growing barley to supply to local breweries. He also involved himself in the local society and became well-known in public circles. John Kinder and Eliza ended up having fourteen children: all but four of whom lived into adulthood.
In 1846/47 he made the journey to England and Scotland in order to explore potential business opportunities there along with his brother-in-law Robert Kell, as John Kinder and Eliza had given serious thought to bringing their family back to the United Kingdom.
He also looked at possibilities in Ireland, but of course the country by that time was in the deathly grip of The Great Famine, and the harsh reality was that the people here were fleeing the country in order to improve their existence, so the options available on the Emerald Isle were severely limited to say the least.
In the end, he found no worthwhile business ventures on this side of the Atlantic Ocean that would justify uprooting his family from the good life they had made for themselves in Canada.
While in England, John Kinder wrote in a letter[xxx] to Eiza: “I fancy I should like brewing better than anything else.” These words turned out to be prophetic as following his return to Canada in 1847 he entered into partnership with the brewer Samuel Eccles and they formed Eccles & Labatt.
The rest, as they say, is history.
In 1855 John Kinder bought out his partner’s share of the brewery and over the course of the following decades the company evolved under the stewardship of the Labatt family into the global brand which we know today.
John Kinder Labatt died on 26th October 1866 and is buried in the Woodland Cemetery in Ontario. As a measure of the man’s popularity and the esteem in which he was held, the attendance at his funeral was reported to have been exceptionally large.
When John Kinder left Mountmellick in 1830 that was not the end of his family’s connection to the town. Nevertheless, it seems that by the mid-1860s none of his immediate family members were living there.
He did, however, once return to the town to visit his remaining relatives during that trip to England and Scotland to seek out possible new business ventures. Accompanying him on this visit was his son Robert Pritchard Labatt, who was around twelve years old at the time. A letter dated 21st January 1847[xxxi] was addressed to Robert Pritchard Labatt in Mountmellick, which was probably sent by a female relative from the Kell side of the family based in England, and which makes reference to his aunts living in the town of Mountmellick.
It would be fascinating to learn of John Kinder’s thoughts upon returning to Mountmellick after a period of seventeen years away, not only for his personal reflections on the changes that the town had undergone during the intervening period, but also for his own insights into the country itself which at that time was living through one of the darkest periods in its history.
As already mentioned, his mother remarried Benjamin Gatchell and she lived in Mountmellick until her death in 1838.[xxxii] According to Valuation Office records[xxxiii] from 17th February 1843, Benjamin Gatchell lived at 23 Upper Main Street (now Patrick Street), beside where The Sanctuary is located on that street today. An earlier map from circa 1820[xxxiv] identifies the house as belonging to the late Jonathan Gatchell – Benjamin’s father. Benjamin passed away in 1849[xxxv] and is buried in the Quaker Cemetery at Tineal, Rosenallis.
Ismena Labatt lived in Mountmellick until she herself moved to join her brother John Kinder in Ontario. She died there in 1872. According to Valuation Office records[xxxvi] from November 1844, Ismena lived at 14 Pound Street (now O’Moore Street) where she owned a grocers that was listed in Slater’s Commercial Directory in both 1846[xxxvii] and 1857.[xxxviii] We know that her lease of this premises was ending in 1858 in advance of her move to Canada and the location of which would have been the current building on O’Moore Street which was most recently occupied by the Gold Star Dry Cleaners & Laundrette.
Andrew Valentine Labatt lived at 36 Upper Main Street in a house, according to Valuation Office records[xxxix] from 10th December 1850, which was a few doors down from Benjamin Gatchell’s. It was located across the street from the site of the former Presbyterian church building – which is now The Forum -approximately where Horan DMC is situated today. Valuation Office records indicate that Andrew Valentine also had a shop on this premises, however it is unclear what the nature of the business was.
We know that Andrew Valentine was christened in St. Mary’s Church in Geashill, where the parish register[xl] records this as having taken place on 23rd November 1801.
By the way, this record would appear to suggest that the year of birth commonly attributed to John Kinder Labatt – 1803 – may be incorrect. Assuming both that John Kinder was in fact the eldest child in the family, as is generally reported, and that Andrew Valentine was christened relatively soon after his birth then this would indicate that John Kinder would have been born closer to 1798/99 than 1803.
Andrew Valentine died on 18th May 1865[xli] at his place of work which was Robert’s Mill in Tullamore, county Offaly where he was employed as a Mill Clerk. His death certificate also states that he was a bachelor. As a point of interest, this mill was owned at the time by Mr. Thomas Roberts and the remnants of which were converted into the current block of apartments which are situated between the car park of The Bridge Centre and Main Street in the town of Tullamore.
When his brother Ephraim Hart passed away in England ten years earlier, his Will[xlii] made mention of this Labatt brother residing in Mountmellick.
Christiana Labatt was mentioned in her mother Jane’s Will[xliii] which appeared to indicate at the time of Jane’s death in August 1838 that Christiana was no longer in Mountmellick, but was by then living as a spinster on Nicholas Street in Dublin.
Louisa Labatt, like Ismena, ended up moving to Ontario where she lived until her death in 1892. As with her brothers, Andrew Valentine and Thomas Sabatier, we do know that Louisa was also christened in St. Mary’s Church in Geashill, where the parish register[xliv] records this as having taken place on 11th July 1807.
Finally, Mary Ann Labatt married John O’Donoghue, and just like her sisters Ismena and Louisa, she too moved to Canada where it is believed she lived in Montreal.
We’ll never know for sure whether John Kinder Labatt looked back on his life in Mountmellick with fondness, regret or with mere indifference.
Regardless of his personal view of the town, it doesn’t change the fact that here was a man, born and raised in Mountmellick, who went out and put his own stamp on the world. It is a testament to his life’s achievements that he would become recognised in 1971 as a National Historic Person in his adopted home of Canada. Still to this day, he is credited by many for having introduced the idea to Canadians of making Victoria Day[xlv] a national Holiday.
Throughout the course of my research into the life of John Kinder Labatt, one particular thought kept returning to my mind.
During the 1990s I went to school with a couple of fans of Nottingham Forest Football Club. Labatt’s were the principal sponsor of the Nottingham Forest team for most of this decade and played with the company name emblazoned across the front of their jerseys. The two Forest fans in question would proudly wear their replica jerseys around Mountmellick with the Labatt’s signature logo prominently displayed.
The thought that kept coming to mind was
that of a tentative John Kinder Labatt leaving Mountmellick in 1830 unsure of
what lay before him and where his life would take him, yet on the streets of
that very same town 160 years later there would be children wearing an item of
clothing bearing his family’s name as a result of the successful brewery which
he founded and the subsequent worldwide recognition it achieved.
References
[i] The Huguenot Settlements in Ireland by Grace Lawless Lee, Maryland: Heritage Books, 2008
[ii] Gaubert and Labat Families
http://www.gaubertgenealogy.freeola.org/GaubertandLabat.html
[iii] The Huguenot Settlements in Ireland by Grace Lawless Lee, Maryland: Heritage Books, 2008
[iv] Registers of the French Church, Portarlington
https://archive.org/details/registersoffrenc00port
[v] Equity Exchequer notice appears in the Leinster Express of 8th January 1842 listing members of the Labatt family in connection with lands at Raheen, King’s County (Offaly)
https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/
A History of Walsh Island & Surrounding Townlands by Michael O’Rourke, Donovan Printing Ltd: Newbridge
Cloneygowan & District – History, Heritage & People of a Midlands Village by P.J. Goode, Self-Published: 2002
[vi] The Rediscovery of Bloomville, County Offaly
[vii] National Archives, Dublin: Church of Ireland Parish Registers on Microfilm – Film Number MFCI 65/1 – Geashill
[viii] Dublin: Tuesday, March 30 in the Volunteers Journal or Irish Herald of 31st March 1784
https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/
[ix] Landed Estates Court Rentals 1850-1885
[x] The Quakers of Mountmellick – A Short History of the Religious Society of Friends in the Town of Mountmellick: 1650-1900 by Regina O’Keeffe, FAS: 1994
[xi] Dictionary of Canadian Biography http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/labatt_john_kinder_9E.html
[xii] National Archives, Dublin: Church of Ireland Parish Registers on Microfilm – Film Number MFCI 65/1 – Geashill
[xiii] Offaly Tombstone Inscriptions: 4. Daingean Graveyards and the Story of Father Mullen by John Kearney, Tullamore: Offaly Historical Society, 1985
[xiv] UK census records available on www.ancestry.co.uk
[xv] Marriage record available on www.ancestry.co.uk
[xvi] A Different Road – A Memoir by Arthur Labatt, Toronto: BPS Books, 2012
[xvii] The Mountmellick Canal
https://www.laois.ie/wp-content/uploads/Mountmellick-Canal-Laois.pdf
[xviii] Pigot & Co’s Provincial Directory of Ireland 1824
https://www.failteromhat.com/pigot/0226.pdf
[xix] Slater’s Commercial Directory of Ireland 1846
https://www.failteromhat.com/slater/0385.pdf
[xx] Industrial Ireland 1750-1930: An Archaeology by Colin Rynne, Cork: The Collins Press, 2006
[xxi] Diocesan and Prerogative Marriage Licence Bonds Indexes, 1623 – 1866
http://census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/dm/IRE_DIOC_007246535_00098.pdf
[xxii] A plan showing sheets and properties in the town of Mountmellick in Queen’s [Leix] County. Names of tenants & acreage of holdings shown.
National Library of Ireland, MS 21.F.42 (13).
[xxiii] A bankruptcy notice appears in the Freeman’s Journal of 14th February 1823 for ‘James Gatchell, of Mountmellick, Queen’s County, brewer.’ James Gatchell was Benjamin’s brother.
https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/
[xxiv] Pigot & Co’s Provincial Directory of Ireland 1824
https://www.failteromhat.com/pigot/0227.pdf
[xxvi] Protestant Emigration Kerry Evening Post 2nd June 1832. https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/
[xxvii] Religious Society of Friends in Ireland Archives – Record from Congregation Meeting in Mountmellick on 23rd April 1823
[xxviii] The Quakers of Mountmellick – A Short History of the Religious Society of Friends in the Town of Mountmellick: 1650-1900 by Regina O’Keeffe, FAS: 1994
[xxix] On Tap: The Odyssey of Beer and Brewing in Victorian London-Middlesex by Glen C. Phillips, Ontario: Cheshire Cat Press, 2000
[xxx] Don’t You Just Get Thirsty Looking At ‘Em? The Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario) 30th June 1994
[xxxi] The Labatt Brewing Company Collection https://www.lib.uwo.ca/archives/accesstothelabattbrewingcompanycollectionattheuniversityofwesternontario.html
[xxxii] A Death notice in the Freeman’s Journal of 13th August 1838 states Jane Gatchell died on 8th August 1838. Interestingly, the notice refers to her as the ‘widow of Valentine N.[sic] C. Labatt, Esq. of Ballinakill, in the King’s County.’ No mention in the notice is made of then-husband Benjamin Gatchell.
https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/
[xxxiii] Valuation Office Books 1824 – 1856
http://census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/vob/IRE_CENSUS_1821-51_007250644_00932.pdf
[xxxiv] A plan showing sheets and properties in the town of Mountmellick in Queen’s [Leix] County. Names of tenants & acreage of holdings shown. National Library of Ireland MS 21.F.42 (13)
[xxxv] Religious Society of Friends in Ireland Archives – Register of Deaths for Mountmellick records Benjamin Gatchell’s death on 24th July 1849
[xxxvi] Valuation Office Books 1824 – 1856
http://census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/vob/IRE_CENSUS_1821-51_007246887_00466.pdf
[xxxvii] Slater’s Commercial Directory of Ireland 1846
https://www.failteromhat.com/slater/0386.pdf
[xxxviii] Who Was Who In Mountmellick One Hundred Years Ago Leinster Express 26th December 1959
https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/
[xxxix] Valuation Office Books 1824 – 1856
http://census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/vob/IRE_CENSUS_1821-51_007246887_00237.pdf
[xl] National Archives, Dublin: Church of Ireland Parish Registers on Microfilm – Film Number MFCI 65/1 – Geashill
[xli] Death Certificate obtained from the General Register Office
[xlii] Prerogative Court of Canterbury and related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D48777
[xliii] Prerogative and Diocesan Copies of Some Wills and Indexes to Others, 1596 – 1858
http://census.nationalarchives.ie/search/dw/details.jsp?id=287286
[xliv] National Archives, Dublin: Church of Ireland Parish Registers on Microfilm – Film Number MFCI 65/1 – Geashill
[xlv] The Leader-Post (Regina, Saskatchewan) 22nd June 2005
