Little Moyle House, Co Carlow – ruinous? 

not in Bence-jones 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/10300801/littlemoyle-house-moyle-little-county-carlow

Detached four-bay two-storey farmhouse, c. 1865, on an asymmetrical plan with two-storey bay window and gables to front and to side. Designed by John McCurdy. Extended to rear. Remains of stable complex to rear on a quadrangular plan. Now in ruins. 

http://www.igp-web.com/Carlow/Little_Moyle_House.htm 

Little Moyle is a lovely house, surrounded by chestnut trees, with big windows that reach down to the floor. It stands on a hill above the River Burrin, once filled with trout, close to the farmyard. This is good fertile tillage land with sturdy sheaves of wheat.  

The house was built in the 18th century and is believed to have originally been an eight room farmhouse. Some work may have been done on the house when Colonel Kane succeeded to his share of the Kane family fortune on the death of his mother in the 1830s. 

Jeremy Williams, a kinsman of the Kane Smiths, believes the house was re-modeled in 1867 by John McCurdy who was simultaneously working on the Shelbourne Hotel. The contractor was Joseph F. Lynch. As steward to Colonel Bunbury, he appears to have moved into Little Moyle at this time. The house included an ‘atmospheric drawing room that retained its original decoration until 1993’ and a fine stained glass window. 

Record of Protected Structures: 

Littlemoyle House, Kellistown. Townland: Moyle Little 

Detached four-bay, two-storey farmhouse, c. 1865, on an asymmetrical plan with two-storey bay window and gables to front and to side. Designed by John McCurdy. Extended to rear. Remains of stable complex to rear on a quadrangular plan. Now in ruins.  

http://www.turtlebunbury.com/family/bunburyfamily_related/bunbury_family_related_kanesmith.html 

KANE SMITH OF MOYLE  

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Col. Kane Bunbury was the second son of William Bunbury of Lisnavagh, MP for Carlow, and his wife, the Dublin-born heiress Catherine Kane. He served twenty nine years in the British Army with the Princess Royals, a time not without controversy. Dismissed in 1823, he spent the rest of his life as a cattle farmer at Moyle, Kellistown, Co. Carlow. From 1865 until his death aged 97 in 1874, he lived at Rathmore Park between Tullow and Rathvilly, Co. Carlow. 

Kane’s grandfathers were Thomas Bunbury of Kill and Redmond Kane of Swords. Kane was a small boy when his father died, leaving the family estate at Lisnavagh to his elder brother Thomas. In 1797, their sister Jane married John McClintock of Drumcar, and she was mother to the 1st Baron Rathdonnell and Captain William McClintock Bunbury of Lisnavagh. Kane’s aunt Letitia Bunbury married George Gough and was mother to Field Marshal Sir Hugh Gough, an icon of the Napoleonic, Opium and Sikh Wars who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army in British India during the 1840s. Kane and Sir Hugh were close friends as well as first cousins.  

When Colonel Bunbury died in 1874, he left no legitimate heir. However, it is believed that he was the father of Kane James Smith, who was raised as the son of James Smith, the Colonel’s steward at Little Moyle and one of the most remarkable cattle breeders in Ireland during the 1860s and 1870s. At least, I am assuming it was Kane and not James who was Kane’s son. Perhaps I am wrong! Also into this colourful mix can be added Willie Wilde, brother of Oscar, who was a friend of Colonel Bunbury’s granddaughter, the Kane-Smith family, and Vera, Countess of Rosslyn. 

THE BIRTH OF KANE 

Kane Bunbury was born in 1777, probably while staying with his mother’s father, Redmond Kane at Mantua in Swords. His father William Bunbury of Lisnavagh, County Carlow, then aged 33, had been elected MP for Carlow the previous year and was almost certainly in Dublin on parliamentary business at the time of Kane’s birth. William had married Katherine Kane four years earlier and they already had one son, Thomas. As Sir Bernard Burke said of Kane’s cousin and direct contemporary Hugh Gough: “When he was born, the independence of the United States of America had yet to be achieved. Napoleon and Wellington were then schoolboys. George III and Queen Caroline, both still young, were holding their stately receptions at St. James’s, and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, their gay and fascinating Court of the ancien regime at Versailles. The Queen of France was ‘just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she began to move in, glittering like the morning star, fl of life and splendour and joy’. Edmund Burke and William Pitt and Charles Fox were the names on every politicians’ mouth; and Goldsmith and Johnson and Gibbon reigned supreme in literature. Frederick the great was still alive and Voltaire had only been a few months dead’.” 

THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER 

Kane was less than two years old when his father William Bunbury was thrown from his horse and killed while hunting near Leighlinbridge in Co. Carlow. Plans to build a new house at Lisnavagh were abruptly cancelled. When Redmond Kane, Kane’s wealthy grandfather, died in 1778, he left his estates to be held in trust by the Hon. Barry Barry, Sir James Nugent and Charles King for the use of Kane (then aged two) and his heirs, or otherwise to Thomas Bunbury (then aged four) and his heirs. According to Kane’s obituary in The Carlow Sentinel from 1874, “the youthful family, however, enjoyed the blessings of a prudent and loving mother, as well as the counsel and protection of their uncles, Messrs. George and Benjamin Bunbury, and the affectionate solicitude of their aunt, the wife of Colonel Gough, and of other relatives and friends – With such advantages, the sons were well and early trained for the position they were destined to occupy in future life.” 

Above: This is believed to be  
Kane Bunbury in the uniform  
of the Princess Royal’s. 

THE PRINCESS ROYAL’S 

On 1st January 1794, sixteen-year-old Kane was gazetted to a Cornetcy in the 7th (or Princess Royal’s) Regiment of Dragoon Guards. (I think the Dragoons were originally named for the small fire-spitting, dragon-like muskets they carried. It looks like he may have been encamped at Southampton at about this time, as two cavalry troops of the 7th Dragoons were garrisoned there in September 1794.[i] First raised as Lord Cavendish’s Regiment of Horse to meet Princess Anne in 1685, the regiment had been stationed in Ireland from 1745 to 1788 when transferred back to the British establishment for Princess Charlotte, eldest daughter of George III, who was officially designated as Princess Royal on 22 June 1789. The regiment had last seen action with a heroic and battle winning cavalry charge at the battle of Warburg in the Seven Years War, but it would not actively participate in any further conflict until the outbreak of the Second Kaffir War in 1846. Their motto was ‘Quo fata vocant’ (Where fate calls).  

The regiment also possessed a Military Lodge under Warrant No. 305, issued by the Grand Lodge of Ireland on 2nd November 1758. As such there was a strong Masonic connection to the regiment and at least 114 brethren were registered up to 11th August 1806 – and, by 28th September 1822, a further 115 brethren registered.[ii] Kane continued his association with the Princess Royal’s until his final retirement from the services in 1823. In August 1794, his cousin Hugh Gough – the future Field Marshal – commenced his career as an Ensign in his father’s regiment. 

STAB CITY, 1795 

On 26th December 1795, three troops of the 7th Dragoons arrived in Limerick from Mallow.[iii] These were heady times in Georgian Ireland and, just four days later, the regiment went on high alert and began patrolling the streets after three members of the Antrim Militia, also stationed in Limerick, were ‘most inhumanely stabbed’ by ‘some unknown ruffians’ in Irishtown, leaving one man ‘at the point of death’. [iv] Just over a year later, on 1st January 1797, Kane “obtained his troop” and was gazetted as Captain. Five months later, the Princess Royal married The Hereditary Prince Frederick of Württemberg, the eldest son and heir apparent of Duke Frederick II of Württemberg. And on 11th July, Kane’s sister Jane Bunbury married John McClintock. 

RIOTS IN THE ENGLISH MIDLANDS 

However, while he “witnessed the deplorable campaign of 1798, in the miserable and abortive Irish rebellion of that year, when his regiment was in active service”, Kane seems to have “happily escaped the bloody scenes in which so many of his companions in arms were necessarily engaged”. (Carlow Sentinel). On 1st August 1799, the 7th Dragoons arrived in Liverpool from Dublin and, the following day, marched for Worcester.[v] On November 18th 1799, the regiment’s Major General Dunne was transferred to become Colonel of the Pembroke Fencible Cavalry in the place of ‘Davies, who is removed from service by the sentence of a court martial’. In December 1800, a troop of the 7th Dragoons were stationed at Stourbridge to help support local militia at a time when there seems to have been much unrest in the English Midlands.[vi] Tension was still high on 21 March 1801 when the 7th Dragoons helped arrest sixty rioters at Bolton in Manchester. Just one month later, on 29th April 1801, Kane’s sister Jane McClintock was killed in a hunting accident in Bath, just as his father had been 23 years earlier. Kane would take a lifelong interest in her three small McClintock children, John, William and Catherine. 

COURT MARTIAL 

On 22nd November 1802 Captain Kane Bunbury of the 7th or Princess Royal’s Regiment of Dragoon Guards appeared before a General Court Martial held at the Royal Hospital at Chelsea to face three charges, namely (1) Disobedience of Orders, (2) Unofficerlike Conduct and (3) ‘Disrespectful and unofficerlike language towards his Commanding Officer’, Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Mahon. This was connected to the case of Zacharia Jones, one of his troopers, who Kane had seemingly permitted to ride a horse not belonging to the regiment, with a pair of saddle bags behind him, on 30 September and 1 October 1802 whilst on a march from Leicester to Birmingham. The details of this heinous crime appear in a book with the catchy title of ‘A Collection of the Charges, Opinions, and Sentences of General Courts Martial: As Published by Authority; from the Year 1795 to the Present Time; Intended to Serve as an Appendix to Tytler’s Treatise on Military Law, and Forming a Book of Cases and References; with a Copious Index’, edited by Charles James (T. Egerton, 1820). Kane was aquitted of the first two charges but found guilty of the third, for which he was obliged to pen an aplogy to Mahon, as well being ‘suspended from Rank and Pay for three calendar months’. Evidently Kane had lost his cool in the mess-room on 3rd October. His letter was written in Birmingham on 6th October 1802 and read:  

‘SIR, The late event which took place in the mess-room, on the 3d instant, is of that nature that it is impossible to justify, and I cannot, on reflection, imagine what could induce me to have been led to such an unwarrantable length. To say that I am sorry, perhap, is but little; but if apologizing to you can lead to an oblivion of the business, I shall be happy to do so. I have &c. K. BUNBURY, Captain, 7th Dr. Guards.’  

By the time of his death aged 60 in 1828, Mahon – a brother of Lord Hartland – had been Lieutenant Colonel of the 7th Dragoons for over 30 years.  

PROMOTIONS & PORTUGAL 

Kane Bunbury was promoted to the rank of Major on 25th October 1809, a year after the birth of his friend and future steward James Smith. In 1811, the 7th Dragoon Guards were stationed at the Barracks in Great Brook Street, Birmingham. During their stay in Birmingham, the members of the regiment’s Irish Military Lodge initiated at least six Birmingham citizens who were joined by three other Birmingham Brethren in applying to the Antients’ Grand Lodge for a Warrant. It is worth looking at the Archives to see how much Major Kane Bunbury was involved in all of this. On 21st October 1811, The Times announced that the 7th Dragoons were to form part of the reinforcements being sent to Portugal during a stalemate that had evolved in the Peninsula War.[vii] 

COLONEL BUNBURY & THE BAR BRAWL OF OLDHAM 

On 4th June 1815, eleven days before the conclusive battle of Waterloo, Kane Bunbury was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. It appears the 7th Dragoons were stationed in Belturbet, Monaghan and Dundalk earlier in May when inspected by Major-General Burnett who applauded the good condition of both men and horses. There were also inspections in Clonmel in May 1816 and May 1817 by Major-General Doyle who bestowed similar praise. 

The regiment does not appear to have seen any action at this time and they were back in the English Midlands by October 1819 when involved in escorting prisoners to the gaol in Preston.[viii] (In 1819, Kane learned that his uncle George Bunbury of Rathmore had passed away and he inherited lands at Phrumplestown.) The following spring there was something of a rumpus when five Privates went for an afternoon drink at the Bull’s Head public-house in Oldham. Here they encountered other drinkers who commenced ‘singing disloyal songs [one called Peterloo], giving disloyal toasts, throwing about the beer, which fell on the soldiers, and further conducting themselves in a manner the most likely to incur their displeasure’. Things came to a head when one of the citizens, by name of Samuel Cheetham, eloquently burst out: “Those are the last clothes you shall wear. You will never proclaim another King George. Damn the King. May the skins be torn off the backs of the bastard butchers and made up into parchment for Reformers to beat to arms”. According to a letter from their commander, Major W.M. Morrison, dated April 26th 1820 and published in The Times, the soldiers were making their way to a different room when Cheetham and the crowd attacked them with every weapon they could find. It was a nasty business and when a newly arrived Corporal attempted to intervene, he was slashed on the forehead with a carving knife. Nobody sustained fatal injuries. The incident, possibly connected to another the night before, became the subject of a trial at the Manchester Sessions in July. Cheetham received an 18 month sentence for his seditious words and the assault. One wonders what Kane made of all this.[ix] 

In 1820 the 7th Dragoonswere sent to Piershill, Edinburgh. During this time, their commanding officer, the mild and easy-going Colonel Francis Dunne, a brother of General Edward Dunne (see Finlay of Corkagh), wrote a detailed set of Standing Orders, laying out the duties of every specialist officer in the regiment.  

Above: The lands at Moyle circa 1847. 

DISMISSAL FROM THE ARMY 

On May 27th 1823, The Times reported that the 7th Dragoons, who had been stationed in Glasgow, had left for Ireland three days earlier.[x] Although based in Dundalk, they were split up to cover a large area and some of the men were sent 50 miles west to Enniskillen where they spent the summer raiding illicit stills and hunting down smugglers and dealers of contraband. On 4 October 1823, Colonel Francis Dunne received a message from Major-General Sir Colquhoun Grant stating that there would be an inspection of the regiment on the 10th Oct. This was shocking news to Dunne who knew that it would be nearly impossible to bring in all his scattered men, smarten them up and rehearse a parade within six days. The regiment had not paraded in such a manner for 16 months. Nonetheless, the various Troops had gathered by 9th October and Grant duly inspected them the next day, first in Watering Order, then in Full Dress. They performed drill movements for him on Dundalk Sands but he left them standing in the wind and rain for four hours while he went off to meet with Lord Combermere, the Commander-in-Chief of the army in Ireland, who wished to inspect them himself. The regiment was inevitably unable to put on a good show and a very unfavourable report was sent to the Duke of York. The regiment was sent to Newbridge to be drilled to a high standard while the unfortunate Lieutenant-Colonel Dunne was dismissed, along with Major (and Brevet Lieut. Col) Kane Bunbury, Captains Younghusband, Power, Smyth and Bennet, and Lieutenant and Adjutant Dunwoody. This news came ina letter dated 15 November 1823 from Major J. Finch at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, and written on behalf of the Duke of York. Finch advised Kane and his fellow officers that he would be “laying your names before the king, in order that you should be removed from the regiment.” He left them with “the option … whether you will retire on half-pay, or by the sale of your commissions.” Hence, at a stroke, seven of the regiment’s most senior officers were retired on half pay. This prompted General Dunne to write to Lord Cobermere on his brother’s behalf from Brittas Castle on 20 November, but the damage had by then been done. [With huge thanks to Kevin Akers for unearthing this].  

THE MOYLE INHERITANCE 

Dimissed from the army, 46-year-old Kane Bunbury evidently called it a day and retired from the service at half-pay with the rank of colonel. The timing was reasonably serendipitous. On 10 October 1823, Kane’s 72-year-old uncle Benjamin Bunbury had passed away, leaving him the 520 acre cattle farm at Moyle, as well as estates at Corredeven, Clonkeen and Trillickatemple, Co. Longford. The inheritance included the house at Little Moyle where the Kane-Smiths would later live. 

Judging by his subsequent attitude, I suspect he was the Mr Bunbury referred to here: 

“Carlow Landlords.— A Carlow correspondent, under date April 25, writes thus :—”There is some report of Mr. Bunbury giving an abatement to his tenants in my neighbourhood here. There is an act of this gentleman’s which I wish to record. A Mr. Kehoe of Garmana was ejected, and a Mr Maher (brother of Mr. James Maher, of Jordanstown) agreed with him for his good will of the land. He paid the rent due by Kehoe on Friday, and Mr. Bunbury gave him an abatement of 2s. per acre, and did not charge him the costs of the law proceedings against Kehoe. To many other tenants he gave an abatement of from three to four shillings per acre. The tenants ot Slyguff, all Protestants as they are, have sent a petition to Lord Beresford for a reduction of their rents. But their chance of success is extremely slight.”  
Cork Examiner – Wednesday 03 May 1843 

DEATH OF MRS BUNBURY 

Mrs Katherine Bunbury, widow of William III and mother of Kane, died in Bath aged 81 on 29 November 1834. Kane subsequently inherited half of her estate, namely the Meath estate, at a rental of £584, the Co. Kildare estate, at a rental of £442, the Co. Monaghan estate, at a rental of £166, the rest of the Co. Dublin estate, at a rental of £305, and the rest of the Co. Tyrone estate, at a rental of £196.[xi] On the death of Thomas Bunbury in 1846, his share of the Kane estates also passed to Kane.  

SUCCESSION TO CARLOW ESTATES 

When his elder brother Thomas Bunbury died unmarried and without issue in 1846, he gave, devised and bequeathed all his estates, freehold, copyhold and leasehold, to trustees named therein …, upon trust for his 70-year-old cattle farmer brother, Kane Bunbury, for life, with two-thirds remainder falling to his nephew, Captain William Bunbury McClintock and his heirs, and one-third remainder to his other nephew, John McClintock. The seventy-year-old Colonel Bunbury thus inherited the Carlow family estates, “and from that time to the period of his demise he was a constant resident on his property”. It seems he gifted his nephew William at least £10,0000 towards the building of Lisnavagh in 1847.[xiii] William’s brother John (later 1st Lord Rathdonnell) was quick to insist that he be gifted a like sum. ‘Kane is an easy-going man, and he may not have thought of the effect of his apparent partiality, but it is for you to point out to him, and insist upon his taking, the just and impartial course. …’, he wrote to William. 

THE CARLOW SENTINEL.. 
February 1849. 
MUNIFICENT DONATION. 
Colonel Bunbury, of Moyle, has presented the Rev. J.B. Magennis, the Rector of Rathvilly, with the sum of £500, as his subscription towards the repairs and improvement of the Parochial Church of Rathvilly. This munificent donation reflects credit on the kind and generous donor, who thus secures encreased accommodation in the Parochial Church of his ancestors. 
(Thanks to PPP) 

FREEMAN’S JOURNAL 
Sep 22, 1849 
On Sunday night last, about ten o’clock, a body of about 300 men, many of them armed, followed by 130 horses and cars, proceeded to Rathmore, where a man named Fenlon holds a farm of sixty acres from John Leonard, Esq., of Newtownmountkennedy. This formidable body carried off the produce of twenty acres of corn, in the presence of the agent, who lives on the spot, and his assistants, and also of a party of police. On the following morning it was ascertained that the corn was stacked at Ardristan and on a farm near Kilbrid; the agent seized on it, and place it in the charge of bailiffs. 
(Thanks to Susi Warren) 

TOBINSTOWN FALLS UNDER COLONEL BUNBURY’S PROTECTION 

Operations of the Poor Law. —The Carlow Sentinel has the following remarkable case: – “The townland of Tobinstown, in this county, is the property of Colonel Bunbury, upon which there is not even a single pauper. Adjoining the river Dereen, on the same townland, there are about three roods of land, partly rock, the property of John J. Bagot, Esq., upon which there are no less than 11 cabins, containing a population of about 60 persons. In spring, and during the autum, these poor people obtain employment from the neighboring gentry and farmers and, when out of employment, they are thrown on the workhouse for out-door relief. Now, although this small patch of land belongs to Mr. Bagot, who, we believe, receives very little rent from it, the burden of their support falls on Colonel Bunbury and the ratepayers of the neighborhood within the Carlow- union, for the remainder of Mr. Bagot’s property in another locality is situate within the Baltinglass union!! (Newry Examiner and Louth Advertiser – 7 February 1849)  

REDUCTION OF RENTS 

On 10th November 1849, The Carlow Sentinel carried the following report from the Monaghan Standard: ‘REDUCTION OF RENTS – THE BUNBURY ESTATES – Joseph St. Clair Mayne Esq, agent to Colonel Bunbury, has intimated to that gentleman’s tenantry in the county of Monaghan that he has received directions from his principal to reduce their rent 25 per cent. Mr Mayne has also determined to wipe away all old arrears, and to suffer the tenants to start in a new race for life, without the burdens of bygone rents, which weighed them down. This is beginning at the right end.’ The same article concluded: ‘Mr Greer visited his estate in the parish of Tydavnet, in this county, lat week, and allowed his tenants a reduction of 25% on the rent in course of payment’. 

Above: The house at Little Moyle, circa 1801. 

LITTLE MOYLE 

Little Moyle is a lovely house, surrounded by chestnut trees, with big windows that reach down to the floor. It stands on a hill above the River Burrin, once filled with trout, close to the farmyard. This is good fertile tillage land with sturdy sheaves of wheat.  

The house was built in the 18th century and is believed to have originally been an eight room farmhouse. Some work may have been done on the house when Colonel Kane succeeded to his share of the Kane family fortune on the death of his mother in the 1830s.  

Jeremy Williams, a kinsman of the Kane Smiths, believes the house was remodelled in 1867 by John McCurdy who was simultaneously working on the Shelbourne Hotel. The contractor was Joseph F. Lynch. As steward to Colonel Bunbury, he appears to have moved into Little Moyle at this time. The house included an ‘atmospheric drawing room that retained its original decoration until 1993’ and a fine stained glass window. [xii] 

HIGH SHERIFF 

On November 5, 1852, the Anglo-Celt published news from Dublin Castle announcing that Colonel Kane Bunbury, Moyle, would be High Sheriff of Carlow, along with Peter Fitzgerald, Esq., Knight of Kerry, of Ballinruddery, Valentia Island, and William Duckett, jun., Esq. of Duckett’s Grove.  

JOSEPH MALONE & THE RATHMORE MILL 

Among those leasing land from the Colonel was Joseph Malone who had 24 acres, including the mill, at Rathmore. Bill Webster notes: ‘In the Griffith’s Survey done in 1852 in those parts, he leased 6 parcels of land from 3 landlords and they totalled just over 335 acres, namely: 
* Ballyhacket Lower in Kineagh parish he leased from Henry Bruen – 44 acres 
* Raheendaw and Rathdaniel, also in Kineagh, totalled just under 200 acres leased from John Dawson Duckett of Duckett’s Grove. (His daughter Anne married Captain Hardy Eustace (b. 1827) of Castlemore and Hardymountt; their son John James Hardy Rowland Eustace of Castlemore and Hardymount assumed the surname Eustace-Duckett in 1909 after his Uncle Wiliiam Duckett died without heir, leaving his nephew the family name and little else. With thanks to Belinda Sibly). 
* Straboe, in Straboe parish, he also leased from Duckett – 45½ acres 
* Rathmore, in Rathmore parish, he leased 20 acres from Rev John B Magennis (part of the living?), plus the 24 acres including house and mill from Kane Bunbury 
Six years prior to this survey, Rev Megennis (sic) had officiated at the marriage of Joseph Malone’s eldest daughter Mary to Bartholomew Watters of Tinryland. 
This was all prime farming country bordering the Slaney. Adding in his mill, Bill rightly proposes that old Joe must have quite a prosperous man. And that mill would have been quite a specimen of its kind, you would think.  
Joseph Malone’s brother was farm manager at Lisnavagh during the 1850s and early 1860s. 

ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 

Kane Bunbury was proposed for membership of the RDS by Henry Kemmis and W. E. Steele, and elected an annual member on 28 April 1853. He remained an annual member up to the time of his death in 1874. Henry Kemmis had proposed Kane’s nephew William McClintock Bunbury for RDS membership back in 1848. 

HENRY LURWAY, COACHMAN 

On the 1841 census, the Irish-born Henry Linway [sic] was recorded as Bunbury’s servant at Westminster, suggesting that he worked for Thomas Bunbury, MP for Carlow and elder brother of Colonel Kane Bunbury. Born in Ireland circa 1820-1822, Henry was a son of Thomas Lurway (1793-1858), a man who appears to have simultaneously operated as a forester, a Hackney Fly Proprietor and a Licensed Victualler, owning the Adam & Eve Tavern in Hotwells, Bristol. In 1820, Thomas was married in St Mary’s Parish Church, Henbury, to Mary Ann Smith (c.1796-1874), daughter of John Smith (1760-1839) and Alice Smith (1766-1845) of Burnett, Somerset. If Henry was born in Ireland in 1822, as the census suggests, Thomas must have been based in Ireland at the time. Mary Ann may have been a kinswoman of James Smith, future steward of Moyle. The Lurways lived in Lime Kiln Lane, Bristol, also Windsor Terrace and later in Power Street. Thomas had a brother James Lurway.  

Henry was the second of Thomas and Mary Ann Lurway’s six children – Thomas (1820-39), Henry (1822-95), Frederick (1825-87), Louisa (1830-93), Mary Ann (1832-1910) and Julia Ann Lurway (1838-41). Thomas went bankrupt in 1848 and does not appear in the 1851 census. He died whilst living with his wife at 31 North Gardens, Hove, Brighton, in January 1858. 
 
Henry and Mary Ann moved to Ireland shortly after their marriage in 1849, presumably to work for William McClintock Bunbury, MP, or his uncle Kane. Henry was based at Moyle until 1861 when, following the death of his wife, he returned to Bristol with his three children who were all born at Moyle, namely William in 1851, Francis in 1852 and Marion in 1854. By 1870 he had remarried, found work as a coachman and had an address at 45 Chester Square, London. The McClintocks had a house at 80 Chester Square which may suggest a link. There were only 8 people in the UK with the name Lurway in 2010. 
 
Henry’s sister Louisa married a man called George Steer and lived in a large, six bedroom house (now gone) on Stanley Park Road in Wallington, Croydon, which they called Rathmore, presumably after the Colonel’s home in Carlow. She had apparently amassed a fortune of around £40,000 by 1880’s.  

The above information was provided by George and Louisa’s great-great grandson Andrew Bennett of Hove, Sussex, and Jennie Polyblank. Andrew’s grandfather Cyril Leslie Isted was a son of George and Louisa’s daughter Florence Louisa Steer and her husband Walter William Isted. 

AN IMPROVING LANDLORD 

The 1876 Registry for the “Owners of Land of One acre and Upwards” suggests that the Moyle estate comprised of 3,098 acres. The Lisnavagh Archives contain (G/21) a number of personal letters written to Colonel Kane Bunbury by an old friend, W. Power, from Paris between 1843 and 1850. He mentions, amid social and personal news, the good reports he receives of Colonel Bunbury’s record as a landlord and ponders the importance of being an improving landlord if you live in Ireland. Between 1872 and 1874, for instance, he paid Messrs McCurdy & Mitchell [the architects of the wings added to Oak Park, Co. Carlow] for ‘Mr Corrigan’s house on the estate of Colonel Kane Bunbury’, for Rathvilly cottages, for Rathvilly glebe-house, for Rathvilly police barracks, etc, and for repairs to the roof of Lisnavagh. 

The Carlow Sentinel evidently agreed on his generosity, as this from his Obituary suggests: “How well he discharged the duties of his position it is needless to repeat. He never aspired however to any territorial or official honours. From his advanced years, he declined the Shrievality, and the same reason forbade the acceptance of a Deputy Lieutenancy and the Magistracy. The more quiet and unobtrusive engagements of private and domestic life, the improvement of his estates, the comfort of his tenantry and dependents, the amelioration of their condition, and the exercise of innumerable offices of charity and good will, are the traits which signalise the character and hallow the career of the departed worthy.” 

LATTER DAYS 

In later life, he and Lord Gough relived “the days of “auld lang syne”, when they were striplings together, and mutual visits of courtesy and affection were interchanged by the veteran friends”. (Sentinel) He alsio wrote a diary, mainly about the weather and his illness, from 1866 until his death in 1874. He continued to sponsor the family. In December 1871, for instance, he sent Pauline McClintock Bunbury (widow of his nephew Captain William McClintock Bunbury) £1,000 which purchased her son Jack Bunbury a commission as a sub-lieutenant in the 2nd Dragoons.  

In October 1865, Saunders Newsletter noted that the Colonel had just moved into Rathmore Park, presumably leaving the house at Little Moyle to the Smiths who had apparently just had a baby son, Kane Smith. The article, which was also published in The Times, described ‘one of those happy reunions – the friendly mingling together of an excellent and esteemed landowner and his happy, prosperous tenantry took place on Monday last at Rathmore Park, Tullow, the new residence of Colonel Kane Bunbury, on the occasion of his taking up abode there for the first time. ‘ To mark the occasion, his tenantry presented him with ‘a suitable address, beautifully got up in vellum, in book form, with richly-coloured illuminated borders, crest & c’.[xiv] This was the same week former Prime Minister Lord Palmerston died. 

NB: A local Carlow publication called ‘History of Our Area – Past and Present’ details accounts of Rathmore and the surrounding areas. It was compiled by members of Rathmore Foroige. With thanks to Cathy Goss. 

Above: James Smith of Little Moyle (1808-1892) 

THE JAMES SMITH CONNECTION 

James J. Smith was born in 1808 and died on 30th September 1892 aged 84 years. His future mentor Colonel Kane Bunbury was a 31-year-old Captain in the British Army at the time of James’s birth which certainly leaves room to speculate that it was he and not his son Kane James Smith that was the Colonel’s illegitimate son.  

James Smith’s acknowleded connection to the Bunbury family dates to at least 1851 as the Lisnavagh archives hold correspondence (one letter each way) between George Philips, a tenant who had emigrated to New York, and his landlord, Colonel Kane Bunbury. In these letters, Philips complains of the behaviour of the steward at Moyle, James Smith, and Colonel Bunbury defends James Smith. The gables of the two-storey steward’s house where James Smith originally lived still stand amid the ruins of the farmyard at Moyle today. 

On January 28th 1854, The Carlow Sentinel gave the following report from the Carlow Petty Sessions, which appears courtesy of Michael Purcell and the Pat Purcell Papers: 

‘Michael Clowry summoned Mr James Smith, steward to Colonel Bunbury of Moyle, for the recovery of 14 shillings for work done by him in his capacity of stonemason on the lands of Moyle. Mr Mulhall appeared on behalf of Clowry. 
Michael Clowry on being sworn stated that he built 26 perches of mason work, at 1/6 pence per perch, he was paid 25 shillings but there is still a balance of 14 shillings due. Clowry stated he was employed the entire summer at Moyle, he had a man named Sheean working with him and had a man named Tallon to measure the work. 
[Michael Purcell added a note in 2013 stating how, after much debate, the case was dismissed but Clowry was allowed 2 shillings and 6 pence for his attendance at court. Mr Mulhall told the court he would appeal]. Michael Clowry is third great grandfather to Trevor Clowry, the genius who designed and maintains the History Festial of Ireland website (www.thehistoryfestivalofireland.com)! 

The Lisnavagh archives also refer to a lease, dated 28th May 1857 and described as ‘missing’, from Colonel Kane Bunbury to James Smith, hotel keeper, of Kildare Street, Dublin, of part of ‘Phrumplestown’ [sic]. Thom’s Irish Almanac and Official Directory for the Year 1862 lists James Smith of Little Moyle as the proprietor of Kearn’s Hotel, 43 Kildare Street, with Colonel Kane Bunbury, William La Touche of Harristown and Edward George Barton also named as residents. Henry Grattan stayed at Kearns Hotel the previous century, it being perfectly situated for proximity to Parliament House, Trinity College, Stephen’s Green and Merrion Square. Thackeray dined here in the 1840s when Edward Kearns was proprietor. In the late 1870s, after Colonel Bunbury’s death, Parnell addressed a meeting of the National Land League here. Carriages and hackney coaches from the hotel often waited by the waterside at the Pigeon House to escort passengers directly when the ships had landed.No. 43 was occupied by the Language Centre of Ireland in 2011. A list of Bankers Returns filed by the Inland Revenue in 1870 also lists James Smith as a hotel-keeper. [xv] (It may be relevant that Mary Anne Lurway, the mother of Colonel Bunbury’s coachman Henry, was seemingly born Mary Anne Smith).  

The Moyle servants’ wages book, which are also at Lisnavagh, show particular regard to the wage paid to the steward, James Smith, by Colonel Bunbury from 1857 until the Colonel’s death in 1874. There is also a weekly household account book for Moyle, 1872-1874 and a ‘bundle of account books and vouchers relating to James Smith’s accounts with the Colonel dated circa 1874. 

JAMES & MATILDA SMITH 

James Smith’s wife was called Matilda. As such, it seems they were almost certainly the James Smith and Matilda Hardman who were married at the Parish Church in Kellistown on 17 January 1854. James’s occupation was given as ‘steward’ and his father was listed as William Smith, farmer. Matilda was described as a ‘servant’ while her father William Hardman was a ‘furniturer’. The witnesses were F. Johnson and Mark Croft. 

James and Matilda Smith had two daughters, Alice Courtney Smith and Mary Maud Smith, born in 1856 and 1857 respectively. Young Alice did not live long. In 2008, I was contacted by Geraldine Murphy, a great-granddaughter of Mary Maud Smith of Moyle, who lives in New Zealand. Geraldine is the owner of Mary’s christening mug, dated 1857 and she alerted me a reference in the Kellistown Journals of the Memorials of the Dead which read: 

“Just Known And Lost – This is the resting place of ALICE COURTNEY the beloved child of JAMES and MATILDA SMITH Who died 3rd of April 1857 aged 9 months Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of God Also of JAMES SMITH, Little Moyle Who died 30th September 1892 aged 84 years So he giveth His beloved sleep.” 

 
CATTLE BREEDER EXTRAORDINAIRE 

During the 1860s and 1870s, James Smith, tenant farmer, of Little Moyle was one of the most remarkable cattle breeders in Ireland, often operating on behalf of Colonel Kane Bunbury.[xvi] Starting in about 1862, he bred everything from prize Alderney cows to Kerry heifers, and the annual auction of his purebred shorthorns at Little Moyle was one of the big events on the calendar for cattlemen across Leinster. On Thursday August 27th 1863, The Irish Times noted that James Smith of Little Moyle had won five sovereigns for a short horned roan cow called Poplin, winner of Section 25 which was ‘for the best cow, in calf or in milk, of any age’ and which was open to ‘bone fide Tenant Farmers of Ireland not paying more than £160 a year of rent.’ He also won a further five sovereigns for Section 26, ‘the best heifer, in calf or milk, calved in 1860’, with a roan heifer called Kitty. 

On 30th August 1864, the Freeman’s Journal ran a story originally published in the Carlow Sentinel under the heading ‘LAMBING EXTRAORDINARY’. It described how some ewes, the property of James Smith, had just dropped a number of lambs. The “new arrivals” are from pure Dorset ewes of a superior description and Mr. Smith expects a large addition to his flock before the expiration of the coming month. It is scarcely necessary to say that in this country at this season of the year, we very rarely hear of lambs dropping.’[xvii] The story was picked up by the Nenagh Guardian the next day and both it and the Freeman’s Journal ran the story again in mid-September. 

ANNUAL SALE AT LITTLE MOYLE, THE PROPERTY OF MR. JAMES SMITH.  

(Via the Carlow Post – Saturday 24 October 1863) 
This auction, which came off on Saturday last, was conducted by Mr. Thomas Dowse, the highly respectable auctioneer, and gave universal satisfaction. The weather was favourable and the attendance was very large.  
Several of the gentry from the neighbourhood were present, amongst whom we noticed the following:- Sir John R. Wolseley, Bart.; General Johnson, Mr. Devon, agent to Captain M‘C. Bunbury the Messrs. Fishbourne,Mr. T. G. Mosse, the Messrs. Humphrys, Ardristan; Mr. Brangan, Carton, Co Kildare; Mr. Phipps, Athy; Mr. D. Campion; Mr. O’Donnell, Kyle; Mr. Edward Birch, Dublin ; Mr. Nolan, Tineclash; Mr. Cummins; Mr. Furney ; Mr. Curran. Blackcastle, &c., &c.  
At one o’clock the company were invited to a splendid dejeuner, served out in a spacious room, tastefully deco- rated for the occasion with evergreens, &c. 
The chair was taken by Sir John R. Wolseley, Bart., and the vice-chair by Frederick Devon, Esq.  
After all had partaken of a sumptuous luncheon, the Chairman proposed the usual loyal toasts, which were duly honoured.  
The Chairman next proposed the health of ‘the Lord Lieutenant, and prosperity to Ireland”, which was warmly received.  
The Chairman in proposing the next toast, said he felt entirely inadequate to the pleaaing task of pointing out the many amiable and excellent qualities of Colonel Kane Bunbury (loud cheers). They had only to look around to see what the noble-minded Colonel had done for his tenantry, and for the promotion of agriculture, and he could only wish that every other Irish landlord would follow such a worthy example. They saw how that example was followed by his worthy manager, Mr. Smith, of whose noble hospitality they were partaking. In conclusion, he would give the health of Colonel Bunbury, the universally respected proprietor of the soil.  
The toast was received with deafening outbursts of applause, which were kept up for several minutes. 
Mr. Branagan, a tenant on Colonel Kane Bunbury’sproperty at Swords, county Dublin, said that the many good qualities displayed by Col. Bunbury were hereditary in the family, as his good mother, the late Madam Bunbury, stood equally high in the estimation of the county Dublin tenantry (cheers), and he felt proud to say that she was a Swords woman, and he (Mr. Branagan) being a Swords man, he took pride in bearing testimony to the good acts of the Bunbury family for the last century (renewed cheers). With reference to Colonel Bunbury, he wished to mention an incident which would serve to illustrate the manner in which he acted towards those resident upon his property. On one occasion he (Mr. Branagan) accompanied him when visiting his tenantry at Swords, and a poor woman, to whom he had given a house and bit of ground rent free, came to speak to him knowing that he was kind and familiar to all. “What do you want, mv good woman,” said he “sure you don’t want anything?’’ “Your honour,” said she, “my house is tumbling down, and I want it to be thatched;” and, although she held it rent free, the generous-hearted Colonel replied, “Well I’ll give directions to have it repaired” (loud cheers). From that incident alone they could see that there was not a better family in Ireland (applause).  
Mr. James Smith, in responding to the toast, said he felt at loss what to say for the kind and cordial manner in which Colonel Bunbury’s health had been recieved, and also for what had been said on his behalf by the Chairman, and his esteemed friend. Mr. Brannagan, who like himself, was a tenant of Colonel Bunbury’s. He had proposed to be amongst them that day, but he regretted very much not being able do so, although he had fully intended to have met and mingled amongst his happy tenantry, and those kind friends of his (Mr. Smith’s) who were present on that occasion. Hewould, however, communicate to Colonel Bunbury the warm and enthusiastic manner in which his health had been received, for which he (Mr. Smith) again begged to return his best thanks, on the part of Colonel Bunbury (renewed applause).  
Mr. David Campion proposed the health of their host Mr James Smith (cheers). His name and character spoke volumes, and they were all prepared to bear evidence to the princely hospitality which they had received from him on more than one occasion (hear, hear). They had only to look at his farm —at his house, and at everything connected with it, and they would freely admit that there was not a man in England or Ireland but might well proud of such an establishment…

ANNUAL SALE OF STOCK AT LITTLE MOYLE, 1864 

Saunders’s News-Letter of Wednesday 12 October 1864 reports: ‘SALE AT LITTLE MOYLE. COUNTY CARLOW. (FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.) On Monday an auction of short-horns, fat cattle, sheep. &c., took place Little Moyle, County Carlow, the residence of Mr. James Smith. An excellent luncheon was prepared in one of the new granaries, and after the repast a number of toasts were proposed by the chairman, Mr. William Johnson (agent to Colonel K. Bunbury), and by Mr. Frederick Devon (agent to Captain M’Clintock Buubury). Mr. Thomas Dowse conducted the sale with entire satisfaction. Some fat bullocks went as high as £l9 10s. each, and heifers brought as much as £19, but these were top prices.’ The Carlow Post provided further details on it all as follows: 

On Monday last the third annual sale of stock held at Little Moyle, the residence of Mr. James Smith, by Mr. Thomas Dowse, auctioneer. The attendance was large, and the competition animated throughout.— Luncheon commenced at one o’clock. In the earlier puli of the day Colonel Bunbury visited the place, and was loudly cheered by those assembled. The Colonel acknowledged the compliment paid him, and inspected the arrangements for the sale. On entering the refreshment room, Mr. William Johnson was moved to the chair, and those present drank health and happiness to the generous and noble-minded lord of the soil. Colonel Bunbury, in returning thanks, expressed the gratification it afforded him to see everyone about him happy and contented. He regretted very much not being able to remain, as he had to leave for Dublin, but trusted that Mr. Smith would have as good a sale as he could wish.  

Colonel Bunbury then left amidst renewed cheers. About two hundred persons sat down to luncheon, the Chair being occupied by Mr. William Johnson, and the Vice Chair by Mr. Frederick Devon. Luncheon having concluded, The Chairman proposed the usual loyal toasts. The Vice-Chairman then proposed in very appropriate terms the health of Colonel Bunbury, and referred to his many inestimable qualities as a resident and improving landlord, an excellent employer, and generous benefactor to the poor and destitute. In all the relations of life he was performing his part nobly, and in wishing him a long career of health and happiness, he hoped every other landed proprietor in Ireland might be induced to follow his example. The toast was enthusiastically received.  

Mr. Smith returned thanks for the cordial manner in which the toast had been received. He could not possibly find words to express his feelings on hearing Colonel Bunbury spoken of in such complimentary terms by their esteemed vice-chairman (cheers). Colonel Bunbury came amongst them that morning, and expressed his regret that he could not remain with them, owing to his being obliged to leave for Dublin, to fulfil an engagement. For the manner in which they had received the toast, and their kindness in listening to the few words he had said on behalf of Colonel Bunbury, he felt very thankful, and highly complimented (cheers).  

Mr. David Campion said he wished to propose the health of a gentleman with whom they were all well acquainted, and whose kind hospitality they had all so freely partaken of (cheers). Independent of the good things which Mr. Smith had set before them, he did not spare expense in producing some of the best stock in the country, and afforded them opportunities of selecting from those animals. Both he and Colonel Bunbury had done much towards improving the stock of the tenant farmers of the county, and he had much pleasure in proposing the health of their host, Mr. James Smith. The toast was warmly received. Mr. Smith responded. He begged to return his sincere thanks for the kind manner in which his health had been proposed Mr. Campion, and received by the company.  

Mr. William Burgess proposed the health of Mr. William Johnson (cheers). Without a good agent tenant never could get on, no matter how indulgent considerate the landlord. Mr. Johnson they had gentleman who acted fairly between landlord and tenant, and who could not be surpassed as an agent, always ready to promote the interests of the farmers, and cariy out to the fullest extent the wishes a liberal and generous landlord (cheers). Mr. Johnson briefly returned thanks. He said he felt extremely obliged for the compliment paid him, particularly as his health was proposed by one of Colonel Bunbury’s tenants. It was highly satisfactory to him to know that the tenantry with whom he had dealings in connection with that gentleman’s property, were perfectly satisfied with him as an agent (cheers) He always endeavoured to act fairly towards them as well as towards their landlord; but with regard to Colonel Bunbury’s property his task was a very easy one indeed, as his instructions were to give every facility to tenants and not to act harshly towards any man, but to help those who were at all likely to succeed (cheers). The result was that the rents were paid regularly, as a glance at Colonel Bunbury’s rent roll would show, and even during the bad times, and since he became agent to Colonel Bunbury in ’52, there was not a tenant ejected from the estate. If other landlords in Ireland followed his example, they would not have emigration, or anything else of the kind to complain of. For his own part he had always metwith the greatest kindnes* from his tenant farmers, andfor the kind manner in which his health had been proposed byone of them, he begged to return his best thanks.  

At half-past one o’clock, Mr. Thomas Dowse of Naas, proceeded to dispose of the following lots at the prices affixed to each.  

1. Softly, light roan, calved 20th March, 1860; got Cornet—Mr. Michael Neill, £l7 10s. 
2. Stella, roan, calved May, I860; got Cornet —Mr. Michael Neill, £l7.  
3. Poplin, roan, calved 29th January, 1853; got by Tomboy—Mr. Michael Neill, £l7.  
4. Fanny Chaloner, roan, calved 11th March, 1853, got by Druid—Mr. Lacey, £2O.  
6. Fairy Queen, light roan, calved 12th May, 1831; got by Cornet—Mr. (Drogheda), £42.  

(Carlow Post, Saturday 15 October 1864) 

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James Smith also regularly exhibited at the RDS’s Spring Show (such as April 21-23 1867 [xviii]) and the Royal Agricultural Show. On Wednesday 9th December 1868, James Smith was noted in The Irish Times as a tenant farmer ‘whose success deserves more than honourable mention’ having been ‘awarded a good many prizes, not merely for indoor, but also for out-fed stock.’ The Kane-Smith family owned a silver tray which was made in Sheffield with Sheffield mark 1909. Gerry said the silver was melted down from nine medals which James Smith (7) and Colonel Bunbury (2) had won.  

  

‘Four houses are in course of erection at Celbridge, Co. Kildare, for Col. Bunbury. Mr. John M’Curdy, architect; Mr. J. F. Lynch, Carlow, builder.’ (The Dublin Builder – Monday 1 April 1867, p. 16) 

The following glowing review of Moyle and Rathmore appeared in the Irish Times in December 1867 and was printed by the Carlow Post on Saturday 14 December 1867. 

CARLOW—RATHMORE PARK—TULLOW—MOYLE, THE SEAT OF COLONEL BUNBURY—LITTLE MOYLE, THE RESIDENCE OF MR. JAMES SMITH.  
During our recent travellings through the interior of the country, we availed ourselves of the pleasing opportunity of visiting the major portion of the County of Carlow, and of noting some features of interest to our general readers. The county of Carlow is essentially agricultural in character. Its broad acres are exclusively devoted to arable husbandry, and the feeding and rearing of stock. Its opulent resident proprietors have manifested in the most convincing manner the peculiar fitness of the soil for the display of agricultural enterprise.  
The county would measure 29 miles in length by 20 ½ in width, and gives an area of 228,342 acres of land, of which 184,059 are arable, and 31,249 uncultivated, 4,927 acres plantations, 602 acres occupied by towns and villages, and 503 under water. The surface throughout is, generally speaking, level, except where it adjoins the county of Wicklow, where it partakes of a hilly character. On the western side of the river Barrow the colliery range extends to a considerable distance, exploring the baronies into which the county is subdivided. The irrigation of the county consists in the filtering streams of the rivers Slaney, Barrow, and Burren, on which latter the arterial process has been much resorted to by the Board of Works.  
Perhaps there is not in Ireland a county so peculiarly suited or better adapted for general agricultural purposes as the county of Carlow. It enjoys the patronage of some of the wealthiest aristocracy, whoso names are conspicuous by being the most popular class of proprietors in any part of Ireland. The rental of the county becomes the more enhanced by reason of the fact that the tenants meet their engagements as punctual as the clock strikes twelve. Throughout the county there is scarcely a square foot of waste, and hence it is that the rental is sovaluable. In all directions the amplest proof of industry amongst the holders of the soil prevails. Their farm steadings are tidy, their homesteads neatly kept, and their farm equipments of a very superior order. The rent, considering all circumstances, is moderate, ranging from 30s. per acre upwards. The occupiers enjoy the happy reputation of being prosperous and perfectly secure in their occupancy. Tullow, which is rather a subordinate town in the county, is peculiarly constructed on undulating grounds. Some few and respectable houses present themselves here and there, and their general renovation and reconstruction denote care and supervision the part of the proprietor of the town.  
Convenient to the town, and occupying a most prominent position, we find Rathmore Park, the modernised winter residence of Colonel Bunbury, who is, without exception, one of the most popular landlords in Ireland. His seat here covers 1,000 acres of land, which is beautifully situated over the river Slaney, and of the care extended to the demesne and premises it may indeed be truly said:  
“Oh, woodman, spare that tree,  …