More about the Ballyanne and Templeudigan Fitzhenrys

Before I go onto the next Cantwell memorial for the Fitzhenry families in this area of County Wexford, here's a couple of follow-up pieces of information about the Ballyanne and Templeudigan Fitzhenrys.

Templeudigan
Wendy Rutter constructed the family trees from these gravestones and like me, had a random Catherine Fitzhenry that didn't really fit in.
She was the first Catherine Fitzhenry in the lower section of the gravestone text, and I have reprinted the text here:

Nicholas Fitzhenry who died
Nov 21st 1904 aged 31 years
also Nicholas Fitzhenry who died
Jan 24th 1909 aged 62 years
also Eliza Fitzhenry died Feb 19th 1935
aged 56 years also
Catherine Fitzhenry died
May 17th 1956 aged 89 years also Bernard
Fitzhenry died Dec 10th 1935 aged 66 yrs
also Catherine Fitzhenry who died 14th April 1944 aged 72 years.

What was wrong with it?
Firstly, if this was Catherine Doyle, the wife of Nicholas Fitzhenry Sr, (who was born somewhere between 1841 and 1847, died 24 Jan 1909, "aged 62") then this gravestone gives a birth year for her of 1867, and we know this was the year when the couple married.

The second thing is that the dates are out of order.
Eliza Fitzhenry died in February 1935
Bernard Fitzhenry died in December 1935
So why have Catherine's death (allegedly 21 years later) between the two?

So we have come to the conclusion that this is must be a transcription error, and
Catherine died in May 1935 aged 89, making her birth year 1846 and her age 21 years when she married Nicholas.
If anyone can checkout the stone in Templeudigan graveyard to prove this theory, then Wendy and I would be very grateful!

Constructing this tree showed that all of these people were in Family Group 10 and hence related to Jeremiah Fitzhenry, one of the leaders of the Irish Uprising of 1798.

Nicholas Fitzhenry (husband of Catherine Doyle) was the son of
Bryan Fitzhenry, "Gentleman farmer of Gobbinstown" (1800-1862) who was the son of
Bryan Fitzhenry, (1766-1832) whose grave is in Ballybrennan churchyard and who is the son of
Nicholas Fitzhenry (1732-1793) of Gobbinstown and also buried at Ballybrennan
Nicholas was the brother of William "Billy" Fitzhenry (1728-1811), the father of Jeremiah.

And with a Templeudigan - Ballyanne link, Wendy found this website
http://www.teachnet.ie/jstacey/website/poorschool.htm
about the Ballyanne Poor School.

The main Fitzhenry mentions in this history are:
Bryan Fitzhenry (1800-1862, Nicholas' father) who leased parts of the land of Gobbinstown known as the Chapel-yard for the replacement school building to accommodate the increasing numbers of pupils.
From Griffiths' Valuations, the Parish of Ballyanne included the villages of Gobbinstown and Rathagarogue.
Bryan Fitzhenry owned a sizable proportion of the properties in Gobbinstown.
The link leads to a search page. Contemporary valuation maps of the area can be viewed by searching for Wexford County, Ballyanne parish.

One of the masters was Patrick Fitzhenry who lived in the master's house next to the church (rented from Father Rickyard) in Griffiths' valuations in 1853. He married Margaret Hayes of the Rathgarogue female school. He was master from 1843-56. He also taught in Newbawn, Carrigbyrn and Rathgarogue and retired in 1865.

The most famous teacher at this school was Michael Fitzhenry who took over from Patrick Fitzhenry (no relation) in January 1857. He came from Monamolin, County Wexford and married Mary Roche, the principle of the Girls' School, in 1858.
In May 1863, Michael was murdered by Joseph Kelly, a cousin of Mary's, and there is the story of the murder here.
Joseph Kelly was the last man to be publicly executed in Ireland for his crime.

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