Wexford Bridge 1795

Edward Hay, the Irish Historian and member of the Royal Irish Academy wrote of the old Wexford Brdge:

The remarkable wooden-bridge built in 1795, over the mouth of the Slaney, leading northward from the town, is undoubtedly a very great curiosity, being fifteen hundred and fifty-nine feet long, with a portcullis, and thirty-one feet wide through its whole extent, with a toll-house at each extremity.
On each side are foot-ways, ornamented with chinese railings supported by strong bars. There are also two recesses, with seats for shelter against sudden showers for it is the beau walk of the town, and thus contributes much to the tolls collected to defray the expence of the building

.
From:
History of the insurrection of the County of Wexford, A. D. 1798:
including an account of transactions preceding that event, with an appendix
Edward Hay
Printed for the author, by J. Stockdale, 62 Abbey Street, Dublin. 1803

You can read the whole book on Google books.

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Jeremiah Fitzhenry and Boro Hill

Continuing from my last post, here is a precis of the other article from the Journal of the Wexford Historical Society. Entitled "The House that Jack, Bryan or Jeremiah Built" it looked at the history of Boro Hill, the main house of the estate that the Fitzhenry family held from the Carews. Tom McDonald has thoroughly researched the history of the house, and here are the edited highlights of an excellent article.

Jeremiah is described as the "wayward and notorious son" of William ("Billy") Fitzhenry, the tennant of all Ballymackessy and estate agent to the Carews from about 1750 to his death at 83 in 1811.

Until 1745 Ballymackessy was leased to Jack Hogan, who ran into debt and lost the tenancy. From 25th March 1746, the Carews leased Ballymackessy to Bryan Fitzhenry, father of Billy. Bryan was married to Mary King of the wealthy Macmine family. Tom McDonald speculates that he could be the same Bryan Fitzhenry living at Killegney who was given a lease of Clohass by his father John Fitzhenry in 1736.

On 3rd February 1756, Bryan Fitzhenry and Luke Hegarty (of Kilcoletrum, Co. Carlow) made arrangements for the upcoming nuptuals of their children Billy Fitzhenry and Kitty Hegarty (although the actual year of the marriage is not stated). Bryan demised Ballymackessy to Billy and in parallel, Myhill King of Macmine (Billy's uncle) demised to Billy one half of the town and townlands of Courtnacuddy. Kitty brought a dowry of £200 to repay Myhill King for the lands. The significance of this arrangement was that if Billy died, Kitty could not bring a second husband to the estate and that the lands would transfer to any issue of the marriage.

The first son of this marriage Bryan, died in childhood. As well as Jeremiah born in 1772, the Carew estate ledgers suggest there were two other sons Myles and Luke, and possibly a John.
Jeremiah was married sometime just before the Rebellion of 1798 to Mary Catherine Colclough sister of John Colclough of Ballyteigue castle, the executed leader of the United Irish. He leased lands from his father, possibly the equivalent of Boro Hill farm but these were demised back to his father when he went to France after the Rebellion.

Billy also had a daughter Mary, who married William Evans a widower of Ballymacwilliamroe County Carlow in 1812. Billy had made Mary "devisee and sole legatee" of his will, and in anticipation of the marriage he directed that the Fitzhenry coat of arms be amalgamated with the Evans coat of arms and that henceforth that William Evans should be known as William Evans-Fitzhenry.

Billy Fitzhenry died in December 1811, and as we saw from the other journal article about Jeremiah, it was April of that year when he deserted from Napoleon's army. The pressing need to sort out the family estates may have had something to do with his decision. It seems that Jeremiah and Mary were in bitter dispute about the lands and also the money that had come into the Fitzhenry estate from their mother's dowry. In 1816 when Mary and her husband had run up debts after prolonged litigation, they had to remorgage, amongst other estates, Ballmackessy. In 1818, Jeremiah bought out the mortgage and this is when his permanent residence of Boro Hill began up to his death in 1845.

THe full text of this article is due to be available on-line through the Wexford Library service. So far, they have reached volume 17 of the Journal and this is from volume 19. I will add a link when it arrives. It's well worth a read.


The House that Jack, Bryan or Jeremiah Built
Tom McDonald
Journal of the Wexford Historical Society
Number 19 2002-3

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Hot news!

The "Wexford Road Trip" series will be back next week.
The next few posts will be taken up by some new and exciting news that Wendy Rutter has sent us about her ancestor Edgar Fitzhenry's activities in South America.

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Jeremiah Fitzhenry- Irish rebel who fought for Napoleon

The first of the articles form the Journal of the Wexford Historical Society which I obtained from Wexford library was about Jeremiah Fitzhenry, one of the leaders of the 1798 rebellion. Here's a summary of his history. When the full text of this article is available on-line via the Wexford library (the digitisation process is happening at the moment) I'll add a link.
I'm indebted to William Sweetman, a member of the Wexford Historical Society who wrote this article as it gives us more information about the Wexford Fitzhenrys. As he said:"During the commemoration of the bicentenary of the 1798 rebellion, no mention was made of Jeremiah Fitzhenry: this article attempts to redress that omission"

Jeremiah Fitzhenry was born in about 1772, the son of William Fitzhenry and grandson of Bryan Fitzhenry of Ballymackessy. The Fitzhenrys were tennants of Lord Carew of Castleboro and Bryan held about 300 acres.
In 1790 the lands were divided and the part held by Jeremiah was named Borohill.
In his mid-twenties, he married Mary Colclough, sister of John Henry Colclough of Ballyteigue, who was executed by the English for his part in the 1798 rebellion.
In the spring of 1798, Jeremiah was made a freeman of Enniscorthy.

Jeremiah's part in the rebellion is unclear. Miles Byrne, (whose autobiography is now digitised on Google books) and who like Jeremiah, went to fight in the Irish Battalion of the French army, wrote

I met Jeremiah Fitzhenry in Paris in 1803. He had taken an active part in the County Wexford insurrection in 1798 being with Bagenal Harvey at the battle of New Ross on the 5th June. After the execution of his wife's brother... he came over to France with his wife and two little girls. He went to live at St. Germain-en -Laye... Fitzhenry's wife was brought to bed of another little girl at St. Germain and he, seeing hostilities were on the point of breaking out between England and France in 1803, hastened to send his wife and three childen back to Ireland.

Mrs Fitzhenry took a house at Ballyteigue and then moved to her in-laws at Ballymackessy in 1804.

By 1807 Jeremiah had joined the Irish battalion fighting for the French (under Napoleon) in Spain. Byrne describes him thus:

No man rode better than he did... He was a very handsome man, six feet high and about thirty six years of age

However Fitzhenry was passed over in promotion, and in April 1811 he deserted from the French army. He was received into the camp of the Duke of Wellington at Salamanca and returned to Ireland, not having seen his family for 8 years. He was granted a Royal pardon both for his participation in the 1798 rebellion and for fighting for the French army.
He returned to Ireland to spend the rest of his days at Borohill with his family. He died on 25 February 1845 and is buried in Ballybrennan graveyard.

The full text of the article is from:
Jeremiah Fitzhenry - a chief who knew how to command
William Sweetman
Journal of the Wexford Historical Society:17 (1998-99), 144-158. ISSN 0790-1828.


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Updating the Google map links from the last post.

Apologies to all those who got a "Error 440" message from the Google map links in the last post. Some glitch in the code didn't translate.
It's now sorted.

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Wexford Road Trip - the Wexford Library

I had phoned the Wexford library before I started my holiday, to make sure that they would be open and also that I would be allowed to use their facilities. As I have come to expect from librarians and archivists, they couldn't have been more helpful. I had expected the library to be a large modern building befitting the county town of Wexford, but in fact it was a (very) small and homely single storey building tucked away in the middle of Wexford city itself. Significant Other was dispatched off to amuse himself in Wexford for an hour and I settled down to find Fitzhenrys. One end of the reading room was taken up by a crowd of elderly ladies having either book club meeting or a parish council meeting (tea and biscuits provided). I found myself a small desk next to the microfilm readers and chatted with a late middle aged man from London who was trying to find the family of his illegitimate grandfather who had been adopted out as a baby.

I had gone to get copies of two articles about Jeremiah Fitzhenry, one of the leaders of the Irish uprising of 1798, published in the Journal of the Wexford Historical Society. By chance, in the local studies section, I also found a book* written and published by the people of Templeudigan or Templeludigan about their village. Here's where it is on the map.

One of the chapters about the priests of Templeudigan had two Fitzhenry mentions

Rev. James Fitzhenry was a native of Monamolin. Born in 1846 he was son of Michael Fitzhenry and his wife Mary (nee Meyler, Adamstown). Ordained to the priesthood, he ministered to the Cape Colony South Africa and died in Grahamstown on 30 April 1919. In August 1888 he donated the 14th station of the Cross to the new Catholic church at Templeudigan in memory of his parents.

Rev. Walter Fitzhenry was a nephew of the above Fr. James Fitzhenry. He was born on 22 December 1904 in South Africa, the son of Edward Fitzhenry and his South African born wife Mary J Coughlan. The family returned home to Monamolin. He was ordained to the priesthood in Rome in 1928 and was a member of the Order of St Augustine. He died at St john's Priory Dublin on 5 February 1961.

I hope I can get permission from the book's authors to put the pictures of these two priests on this website as Father James is just the spitting image of my Dad as a young man - there must be some shared genes in there!

*Templeudigan - Yesterday and Today
Templeudigan Historical Society
ed. Seamus S. de Val
Dec 2001


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Wexford Road Trip - The Bridge

After the disappointment of finding a modern Wexford Bridge on our first night in the city, I started my quest for the old one at the tourist information office the next morning. When I asked about the old bridge, the woman behind the counter seemed pleasantly bemused, but directed me about half a mile upriver "next to the yacht club" but warned me that all that was left of it now were the ends each side of the river.
We took a stroll along the quay next to the fishing boats now pulled up for the day, and passed the shops, the Bullring Square with its statue of the Pikeman to commemorate the 1798 rebellion, we passed the railway station... and seemed to be heading out of town.
There was no sign to the old bridge, but a right turn off the main road took us to the yacht club ... and there we were. The south-eastern end of the bridge was an extension of the yacht club car park. No plaque or memorial. I took a few pictures and wondered why the bridge, the site of so many executions on both sides, seemed to have been forgotten... and why it was so far out of the town centre.



The question was answered when I later took a proper look at the new bridge and its commemorative plaques.

The 1790s bridge which I had been looking for stood on the same site as the modern bridge. The ruined bridge I had found earlier was an 1850s replacement - it had played no part in the rebellion hence no-one had marked its demolition.
The other plaque marked the most notable persons to have been executed on the bridge. Amongst the names on the Loyalist side was Samuel Atkin from Wendy Rutter's Fitzhenry-Atkin family of Oulartwick. Amongst the names of the United Irishmen was Dr John Colclough, the brother in law of Jeremiah Fitzhenry, one of the leaders of the Rebel forces.

Here are the transcriptions of both plaques:

WEXFORD BRIDGE
1795 Timber bridge constructed on this site by Lemuel Cox of Boston
1827 Bridge repaired and strengthened after storm damage
1856 Replaced by a new bridge constructed 3/4 mile upstream by Pierce Brothers
1959 Prestressed concrete bridge constructed by Ascon Limited
1997 Replaced in 10 weeks with steel structure
Main contractor Ascon Limited
Consulting Engineers: John B Barry & Partners Limited













During and after the insurrection of 1798
Wexford Bridge was the site of many executions

Some ninety Loyalist prisoners
were put to death, among whom were
Edward Turner, Magistrate; David Dalton,
Thomas Ganford, Samuel Atkin,
Francis Plumer, William Baubier,
Benjamin Sunderland, George Sparrow,
John Smyth and Kenneth Mathewson.

Amonst the sixty-five United Irishmen
executed were the leaders Beauchamp
Bagnal Harvey, Dr John Colclough,
John Kelly, Cornelius Grogan, Patrick
Prendergast, Fr. Philip Roche, John
Herron, Edward Frayne, Esmond Ryan
and Matthew Keugh
AH DHEIS LAMH DE GO RAIBH SIAD

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The Wexford Road Trip - Wexford City

When me and my better half Andy went to Ireland last month, he thought he was getting a relaxing few days of sight-seeing, good food and whale-watching. I also managed to sneak in a few bits of Fitzhenry family history research which makes up the "Wexford Road Trip" series.

After arriving by ferry from Wales we spent the first night in Wexford City itself. Here's its page on Wikipedia. The old part of the town is very compact and on the south east side of the estuary of the River Slaney. There are a lot of the old buildings (and by old we're talking mediaeval and some old Norse battlements too) all mixed up with the new.
Wexford was the centre of the 1798 Irish uprising against English rule which I touched on briefly in a previous post. I hoped to see some monuments which may have given me some more information about Fitzhenry involvement in the uprising. I knew from previous research that there had been executions on the Wexford bridge of both the Loyalists taken prisoner by the Irish rebels, and the rebels themselves once the English recaptured the town.
So imagine my disappointment that first evening when we walked down the road next to the river and there was a very modern steel and concrete structure going over the river.
Looking at it I confidently said to Andy "They could never have built a bridge with that span back in the 1700s. There must be an older Wexford bridge further up the river at a narrower point. There will be some monument there to the uprising."
Tomorrow's installment is about how we found the bridge. In the meantime, here's a photo of the Wexford skyline taken from the modern bridge on our first night.

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Anastasia Welch - the "She was Irish" theory

Bear with me on this one, as I have nothing but a big heap of circumstantial evidence about this theory, but I think it is more likely that she was Irish than English.

The only census that Anastasia featured on was the 1841 census. The options for stating your place of birth on this census were tick boxes for "in this County", "not in this County", and a "born abroad" box in which the enumerator entered S for Scotland, I for Ireland and F for "Foreign Parts".
In this census, Anastasia and her husband Michael Fitzhenry are living in Silver Street, Bloomsbury, London with their four children. They are entered as being born "not in this County" (which for that part of London was Middlesex) rather than Ireland.
By the 1851 census, Anastasia had already died and Michael is living with his son John. Here Michael is registered as being born in Ireland. So as Michael had his place of birth wrongly entered in the 1841 census, this may have happened to Anastasia too.

The second piece of evidence is the Catholic link.
Looking at the date for Michael and Anastasia's wedding (Nov 1825) and the birth of first son Patrick (April 1826 - from his baptism record), they "had" to get married.
In the early 1800s, the only religions allowed to sanction their own marriages apart from the Anglicans were Quakers or Jews. Catholic marriages were not legally recognised and it was not until the mid 19th century that Catholics were allowed to build their own churches. Hence Michael and Anastasia were married in the Anglican church of St Marys Lambeth, but all of their children were baptised in the Catholic chapel of St Mary Westminster.

Here's a note I had against the baptism of their second son Michael
From the Catholic Family History Society Library, Lancing Street London
Westminster St Mary's Baptisms
Vol 78 1809-1838
Page 83
Three seemingly related baptisms on 23 March 1828

David Sullivan to David and Ann (nee Welch)
Sponsors Michael and Anastasia Fitzhenry
Born 25 January 1828

Michael Fitzhenry to Michael and Anastasia (nee Welch)
Sponsors David and Ann Sullivan
Born 17 February 1828

Patric Regan to Michael and Ellen (nee Sullivan)
Sponsors John Sullivan and Catherine Welch
Born 17 March 1828

I think that Ann Sullivan (nee Welch) is Anastasia's sister - and she's Irish.

The Sullivans are still in Lambeth in the 1841 census - David senior is a plasterer. David junior has the right birth year. Here's the census entry
SULLIVAN, David M 35 1806 Ireland
SULLIVAN, Anne F 35 1806 Ireland
SULLIVAN, Joseph M 15 1826 Surrey
SULLIVAN, David M 13 1828 Surrey
SULLIVAN, Ann F 10 1831 Surrey
SULLIVAN, John M 6 1835 Surrey
SULLIVAN, Dominick M 4 1837 Surrey
SULLIVAN, Catherine F 2 1839 Surrey
Princes Road, St Mary Lambeth, Surrey

Unfortunately I haven't found the Sullivans in either the 1851 or the 1861 censi yet, but when they do turn up they may give us a clue to whereabouts in Ireland the Welches (and maybe Michael Fitzhenry) hailed from.

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The right Anastasia Welch!

It's twenty to two in the morning here in England, and I've been like a kid in a sweet shop all evening.
Why?
Because the London parish registers are scanned and up on Ancestry.
Hurrah!!
So for you delight and delectation, having been thwarted once in finding the wrong Anastasia Welch, I can now present the right one.
Or more prescisely her marriage to Michael Fitzhenry
So here goes (drum roll)

Marriages solomnised in the Parish of St Mary's Lambeth in the County of Surrey in the year 1825
Michael Fitz Henry of this parish bachelor
and
Anastasia Welch of this parish spinster
were married in thIs Church by Banns
on the 1st day of November in the One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty Five.
By me, Charlton Lane, curate

This marriage was Solemnised between us
Michael FitzHenry
X the mark of Anastasia Welch

In the presence of James Longman Gawler and (this one I can't read but it looks like the surname is Seager)
Here's a scan of the signatures - let me know what you think.

I suppose I'd better go to bed now






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Charles Edward Fitzhenry - 9th Battalion Australian Infantry Forces

Gary Wemyss sent me an email after he had taken a trip to France and found the mark of a Fitzhenry in an unusual place.
He writes:

I came across this tourist brochure a while ago in France. The brochure is for the Caves of Naours an underground city built in the 3rd century and used during the 2 world wars by the Australians during WW1 and the Germans during WW2. Not terribly interesting on a first look but one of the pictures shows some graffiti from the WW1 made by members of the 9th Battalion Australians. What's interesting is the name of one of them being C Fitzhenry.

Full text is:
9th Batt Australians
C Fitzhenry
Paddington Sydney NSW
1916 July

Alistair Ross
Lismore
July.

It is possible that this could have been made by Charles Edward FITZHENRY?
(b. 1889, Sandy Ck,Casino NSW, son of William Herbert and Elizabeth Fitzhenry. Occupation shearer, d. 21 Aug 1918, France, buried Aug 1918, Le Treport, France. Memorial of death found on parents grave at Waverley. NSW.)

I think this indeed the same man. Charles Edward Fitzhenry is a member of Alan Hagenson's Fitzhenry tree and Alan's information about him supports him being there in France at this time. Interestingly Charles Fitzhenry enlisted and served as William Doyle.

Gary has put a super photo of the graffiti on his website, and also scans of the front and back of the brochure.


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"Dwarf Overwhelmed by Snow"

... is not a headline that you come across too often.

From the New York Times March 7 1900

BUFFALO NY - March 6:- "Major" Fred Fitzhenry, the dwarf, who has travelled with Barnum's Circus for a number of years, was found buried up to his neck in a snowbank early this morning, more dead than alive. He was sent to the station house.

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Henrietta Fitz-Henry, daughter of William Fitz-Henry of Ashtead

When I obtained the will of William Fitz-Henry of Ashtead (1830 -1885) I wondered why his eldest daughter Henrietta (by his first wife Barbara Morrison) was not mentioned, even though she was still alive. All his other living children by Barbara (George William, Norman and Annie Eliza) were provided for, and his four surviving children by his second wife Martha Eagles were still too young to be independent from her.

Brian Bouchard, who has done extensive research onto the local history of Ashtead sent me the text of William's army service record. This showed that Henrietta was born in 1855 but William and Barbara were not married until December 1856.

I knew that Barbara had been married before, so I asked the Channel Islands Family History Society to have a search around and this is what they came up with.

Barbara was originally married to Charles Le Sauteur who was a merchant in Jersey from an old Jersey family. He died of a fever on 11th October 1855.
They had at least 2 children. The elder Elizabeth Morrison Le Sauteur died on 23rd May 1855 aged 19 months.
The other was Henrietta Le Sauteur born 25th February 1855 in St Nicolas in the parish of St Peter, Jersey.

William and Barbara were married in St Saviour December 12th 1856. Here's the details from their marriage certificate:
William Fitz-Henry
aged 27 bachelor, Colour Segt. 60th regiment, resident in St Peters
Place of birth St Marys Dublin
Father: Robert Fitz-Henry, linen draper

Barbara Morrison, widow of Charles Le Sauteur
Aged 28 Widow resident in St Peters
Place of birth Inverness Scotland
Father Charles Morrison, gardener

This partially answers the question as to why Henrietta was not mentioned in William's will (although I can't believe this is the whole reason) as she was not actually his daughter. However, from the 1861 census onwards she is always referred to as Henrietta Fitz-Henry and referred to as a daughter rather than a step-daughter. She did not marry as far as I am aware, so I can't check on a marriage certificate if she knew who her father really was.

The other striking thing is the name and occupation of William's father. In this marriage certificate, his father is Robert a linen draper. In his second marriage to Martha Eagles from the wealthy and socially superior Eagles family, his father is Hester a Dublin lawyer. I have several other anomalies like this in my research - in fact my great great grandfather was a dock porter in the East End, but all 5 of his daughters put on their wedding certificates that he was a master butcher!

I also wonder if there was another Fitz-Henry child between the marriage and the birth of George (1859) as this pair were quite prolific. If they had another child in this 1856-1859 gap, this child would have died before 1861, as he or she is not mentioned in the 1861 census when the family are resident in the Winchester barracks.
In order I have so far:
George 1859-1860
Alexander 1861-1862
George William 1862-1940
Charles Robert (knowing the names of William and Barbara's parents this now makes sense!) 1864-65
Norman Edward 1865 -1901
Annie Eliza 1865 - after 1885 (mentioned in her father's will)


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Can I mention the cricket now?

No.
Because that would be rude and insensitive to our Australian readers (including one of my co-authors) and completely bemusing to most of our other subscribers.
Just to say that Swann and Broad are Nottinghamshire lads, and that makes me very happy.

(For those who have no idea what I'm rambling on about click here.)


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Miles Fitzhenry, cowkeeper in Birmingham (Fites Henry - another deviant spelling of the surname)

From the Wright's Directory for Birmingham 1869
FITZHENRY Miles, Cowkeeper, 68 Warwick Street

So where was he in the 1871 census?
Firstly in the intervening 2 years he had moved - to King's Norton in Worcestershire.
Secondly, the enumerator had written his name (in beautiful handwriting) as
Miles FITES HENRY, and all the other members of the household as "(Forename) ditto".
Ancestry copied this inaccuracy throughout the family.
When FindMyPast got hold of it, Fites became Miles' middle name so he is found indexed as
Miles Fites HENRY, with all the other members of the family indexed as (Forename) Henry.

So where had this variant spelling come from?
Looking at Miles' marriage to Betsy Young in the 1st quarter of 1859, his surname is correctly spelt as Fitzhenry.
Their eldest daughter was also born in the 1st quarter of 1859 and she is registered as Esther FITESHENRY
The next child is Edward and I can't find him registered under any variant of Fitzhenry, but putting "Edward" and "Aston" as the registration district (which was where all the subsequent children were registered) I found an Edward MILES registered in September 1860 (Aston 6b page 224 if anyone has the certificate and wants to share). The other children were all registered as Fitzhenry (when there is a registration listed for them).

Here's the corrected version of the census entry.
1871 census England
FITZHENRY, Miles
Head M 35 1836 Ireland county Galway milkman

FITZHENRY, Betsy (nee Young)
Wife F 32 1839 Worcestershire Northfield

FITZHENRY, Esther
Daughter F 12 1859 Worcestershire Northfield Scholar

FITZHENRY, Edward
Son M 10 1861 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, William
Son M 9 1862 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, Thomas
Son M 7 1864 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, Jane
Daughter F 4 1867 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, George
Son M 1 1870 Warwickshire Birmingham

FITZHENRY, Betsy
Daughter F 3 months 1871 Warwickshire Birmingham

RGnumber:RG10 Piece:3080 Folio:118 Page:13
Address: 52 Thomas Street, Kings Norton County:Worcestershire

Missing from this list are 2 children who died in infancy:
Mary Ann Fitzhenry born and died in the 4th quarter 1867
John Fitzhenry born and died in the 1st quarter 1869

Miles Fitzhenry himself died in the 2nd quarter of 1893. His age of death was given as 68 which would have actually made his date of birth 1825 rather than 1836 as was stated in the census.

Are any of these Fitzhenrys your family? Drop us a line and let us know.

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Daniel Fitzhenry - rugby league legend ... and some more cricketing Fitzhenrys!

It's not often when you're doing the Sunday ironing with the sports channel on the radio, that the name "Fitzhenry" breaks through your half-time* lapse of concentration.
Daniel Fitzhenry had just scored the winning try for the English rugby league team Hull Kingston Rovers.

This prompted me to open up the laptop and do the first of several pieces that will be posted over the next few days. We don't often do posts about the living members of our family, but everything that is here is on the web (so no secret).

This first bit is from Wikipedia

Daniel Thomas Fitzhenry born 8 December 1979 in Macksville, New South Wales, Australia.

Macksville is a small town of about 2600 and (again according to Wikipedia) has a noted rugby league team, the Macksville Sea Eagles. However Daniel started his rugby career at Dorrigo & Nambucca Heads. He made his pro debut for Wests Tigers in 2002 and played for them until 2007 after which he moved to Hull. Apart from the various rugby league stats pages, there's not much else on the web about Daniel. He hasn't even updated his myspace page since 2007!

Googling Macksville and Fitzhenry, I found Adam Fitzhenry playing cricket for Nambucca-Bellingen. Another cricketing Fitzhenry! And completing the whole rugby league - cricket crossover thing, we have Andrew Fitzhenry, the former Parramatta rugby league half back described as "an accomplished keeper/batsman" by the Australian Times On-line.



* it was half-time between Tottenham Hotspurs and Liverpool. Regular readers know of my allegiance to Spurs, as my family have been supporters since the early 1900s when two of my great -great uncles allegedly had trials for the club.... something that the club has no record of at all.
And in the time it's taken me to write this entry Spurs have won 2-1. Hurrah.

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Christmas weddings

Dennis Miller wrote to me to tell me that I had made a mistake with the marriage of his great-grandparents John Joseph Marney and Ellen Fitzhenry.
I had recorded that they were marrried on 20th December, when actually they wed on the 25th December 1897.
Dennis commented that this was the sixth Christmas wedding in his tree. I have 3 couples in my database who were married on Christmas day - my great-great-great grandparents Michael Fitz-Henry and Sarah Phillips in 1839, Edward Clement and Mary Fitzhenry in 1862 (from Lesley Champion's family tree) and the Marney/Fitzhenry marriage as metioned above.
I'm sure that I read somewhere that weddings and baptisms were done free of charge on Christmas day which was why it was such a popular date amongst the working classes. The couple were also likely to have one of their rare days off work together on this date.
From previous trawls through parish registers, I imagine the churches must have been busy places on Christmas day!


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The Thin Shadow of Patrick Fitzhenry

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In the ongoing search for the connections of my mysterious Michael Fitzhenry, only one other Bristol based Fitzhenry appears to have left his gossamer trail. Patrick Fitzhenry, a trader and adventurer of fleeting - and dubious - success, is recorded in the Bankrupcy records from the 1790s. However, recently a small entry referring to the afore mentioned Patrick came to light, which not only tells us a little bit about one of his business adventures, but names another probable family member.
The book " Bristol Privateers and Ships Of War" by D.Powell (published by J.W Arrowsmith Ltd Bristol 1930) has a chapter dealing with the French Revolutionary War (1793-1815), in which the ship LANGRISHE was mentioned. The owner of this 266 ton ship was none other than Patrick Fitzhenry. The following declaration was made 5 March 1793 in relation to this ship by Captain John Fitzhenry. "In May it was reported that the Langrishe had taken the French ship Double Union from Martinque to Marsaiiles, with a cargo of sugar, coffe and cocoa, and sent her to Gibralter. The prize arrived at Kingroad [the area of the Severn estuary leading into the mouth of the Avon River on which Bristol lies] on 8 June and was sold the following month. The Langrishe was wrecked at Montego Bay, Jamaica on 21 October 1793".
Who was Captain John Fitzhenry ? It beggars belief that there was no family connection between the owner - Patrick - and Captain - John Fitzhenry.
Clearly Patrick ("late of Bristol, for ten years past a merchant trading in England, Africa, Newfoundland, and Ireland") had displayed his success through his purchasing of property at Westbury on Trym, Bristol, as the bankrupcy proceedings required him to sell off his Mansion house, coach house, messuages and tenements, pothouse, pottery, closes, pieces and parcels of land, to settle some of his debts. The enforced auction took place 16 April 1793, raising the not insubstantial sum of 3550 pounds (assessed as being around 400,000 pounds today). His major creditor was listed as John Chivers, and a John Fitzpatrick (should they be Fitzhenry?) received a further 1000 pounds.

So though frustratingly limited, we now have a little more meat on the bones of the mysterious Patrick Fitzhenry, but also a new connection - naval Captain John Fitzhenry. The search continues!

John Fitzhenry - born in ?Wolverhampton in 1828 to Australia

Alan Hagenson sent me some details about another unrelated (to him) Fitzhenry line which his sister had put together and I put on the Blog in June. Here it is.

I was intriged that the origin of this line John Fitzhenry came from Wolverhampton, now part of the great metropolitan conurbation of Birmingham in the West Midlands. But in 1828 was an up and coming but still relatively modest industrial town in the County of Staffordshire. Fitzhenrys didn't come from there.

So today I had a road trip to the County Archives in Stafford.

In 1828, Wolverhampton had one Anglican church (St Peters) and one Roman Catholic church (Ss Peter and Paul). I started off with the first - I've found it's always easier to track down Anglicans(!) but he wasn't there, allowing for a couple of years each way.
As Fitzhenrys around this era were more likely to be new immigrant Irish and therefore Catholics, I looked in the range 1826-1832 for the Ss Peter and Paul registers. It did help that the Catholic population was considerably smaller than the Anglican one (and therefore fewer entries to wade through), but still no John FH.

So...checking his life in Australia, I found that he had married Julia Carter in Scots Church Sydney which is a Presbyterian church. Were the family non-conformists? I'd never spotted a non-conformist Fitzhenry this far back, but there were a scattering of Presbyterian, Methodist, Independent Congregation and Quaker chapels and meeting houses around the Wolverhampton area.

Unfortunately the Fitzhenry family didn't seem to attend any of these chapels either.

John may have been born in Wolverhampton but either it was outside the time span I was searching in or he didn't get baptised or otherwise recorded in the area. Any pointers to this man's origins gratefully received.

As an intersting side issue, the records for the Quaker births were interesting - not only was there a witness to the baptism of the child but there had to be a separate witness who had seen the child being born. And the marriage records were just lovely - each page was a written record of the words used by the couple plighting their troth and then everyone at the wedding signed the marriage certificate.


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More about Norman Fitz-Henry in Portland Oregon

The past month has been hectic with work and the cricket season, but now at least work has lightened up a bit...
The wonderful Brian Bouchard who is a local historian covering the Ashtead, Surrey area has given me another lead with Norman Edward Fitz-Henry, last seen working in Portland Oregon and dying in Tahoma, Washington in 1901. (Brian has also been an invaluable source of leads for other aspects of the Ashtead Fitz-Henrys)
The entry that I found in the Portland Commercial Directory for 1897 read:
"Norman E FitzHenry (Portland Ptg Co) 204 Stark, bds 29 4th N."

Brian wrote:

I suggest the abbreviated word is "Portaging" and Norman was involve in the portage round Celilo falls on the Columbia River - see Oregon Steam Navigation Co history.

Which may explain why Norman was up in Washington when he died.

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