Barntick House, County Clare

Contact: Ciarán Murphy

Tel: 086-1701060

Open dates in 2024: May 4-31, July 1-31 Mon-Sat, 4.30pm-8.30pm, Aug 17-25, 2pm-6pm

Fee: free

We visited Barntick in May 2023. Owner Ciarán welcomed us and showed us around. I was excited to see a house so old – it dates from 1665. [1] A date plaque has been moved to a barn and used as a lintel, upsidedown! Barntick is thought to be the oldest continuously inhabited house in County Clare, and is certainly one of the oldest houses in County Clare.

*The date stone, 1665, which was probably originally a chimneypiece.*

The initials “T.H.” are carved into the date plaque with an interesting circular figure beside – the initials probably stand for Thomas Hickman who built the house.

The house is an important part of the history of the area, and Ciarán is working hard to maintain the house. He is doing tremendous work. There is great interest in the house: this year (2023) during Heritage Week Ciarán gave tours of the house, and he had 110 visitors!

Thomas Hickman, Ciarán told us, owned much land in Munster. The Landed Estates database tell us that Gregory Hickman was an English merchant in the south of England in the first half of the 17th century. He married twice, the Hickmans of “Barntic,” barony of Islands, County Clare were descended from his first marriage and the Hickmans of Ballyket, Brickhill, Kilmore and Fenloe, County Clare, from his second marriage. [2] Barntick was leased to the Hickmans from circa 1620s. [2]

In the Notes of Sheriffs of County Clare 1570-1700 By Thomas Johnson Westropp we find:

“1671. Thomas Hickman of Ballyhenan, eldest son of Gregory, son of Walter Hickman of Kew (Gregory settled in Clare before 1612, and his farm of Barntick was plundered by the O’Briens, 1642). Thomas Hickman’s will dates September 12th, 1677. Proved by his son Thomas in Dublin, 28th November, same year. He was buried in the chancel of Ennis Abbey with his wife, a daughter of John Colpoys, and was ancestor of the extinct Hickmans of Barntick. Arms (as on his seal, and his son-in-law Hugh Perceval’s funeral entry at Dublin). He prays, in his will, “for the happiness of the house of Thomond, wherein I have long served, and to which I have natural respect and love.”

A Thomas Hickman of “Barntic” married Elizabeth Stratford (b. 1672), daughter of Robert, MP for County Wicklow. [2] Another record from tNotes of Sheriffs of County Clare 1570-1700 By Thomas Johnson Westropp tells us:

“1678. Thomas Hickman of Barntick, son of Thomas Hickman, 1671. His settlement with his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Stratford of Belan, Kildare, dates 15th May, 1693. His will dates 1st June, 1715, and contains a voluminous settlement of estates, extending over every branch of the family. Proved by his son, Robert, 31st January, 1719, at Dublin.”

We can see that the two sources have Elizabeth Stratford as daughter of either Robert or of Edward. On The Peerage website created by Robert Lundy, Elizabeth (b. 27 Sep 1672) is daughter of Robert (d. 1698/99), and Edward Stratford (d. 23 Feb 1740) is a son of Robert. Edward also has a daughter named Elizabeth but she marries Charles Patrick Plunkett of Dillonstown, County Louth.

Robert O’Byrne tells us that Thomas Hickman was succeeded by his son, another Thomas, who died in 1719, and then the property passed to Colonel Robert Hickman, who represented Clare in the Irish House of Commons from 1745 until his death. [3]

*The carved limestone “shouldered” door frame with entablature above is very impressive.* There is a stringcourse between the ground and first floor. A stringcourse is a thin projecting course of brickwork or stone that runs horizontally around a building, typically to emphasize the junction between floors.

*The door is up several limestone steps.*

*The outbuilding ruin to the right whose stone gable we see was originally thatched.*

The Landed Estates database tells us that by the mid 18th century the Hickmans owned almost 3,000 acres in the parishes of Clareabbey and Killone, barony of Islands and controlled the village of Clare. They also held land in many other parishes but by the end of the 1750s their estates were heavily mortgaged. Colonel Robert Hickman of Barntick died without heirs in 1757 and his estates were sold in 1763.

Barntick was purchased by George Peacocke who, Robert O’Byrne tells us, already owned another substantial property, Grange, County Limerick. George (d. 1773) married Mary Levett, daughter of Joseph, Alderman of Cork. Their son Joseph (d. 1812), who was Justice of the Peace and High Sheriff of County Clare, was created 1st Baronet Peacocke, of Barntic, County Clare in 1802, O’Byrne tells us that this was because he supported the Act of Union. [3]

Joseph married Elizabeth Cuffe, daughter of Thomas Cuffe and Grace Tilson, who married Reverend Charles Coote (1713-1796) when her husband died, and went on to have another family, so that Elizabeth’s half-brother was Charles Henry Coote (1754-1823) 2nd Baron Castle Coote. When Joseph died the estate was divided between his two sons, Nathaniel Levett Peacocke (1769-1847) 2nd Baronet and Reverend William Peacocke. [see 3]

*An impressive double-height window with red brick surround in the back lights the staircase inside.*

Nathaniel married Henrietta Morris, daughter of John 1st Baronet Morris, of Clasemont, Co. Glamorgan, Wales. They had a son, Joseph Francis Peacocke (1805-1876) 3rd Baronet of Barntic. A second son, George Montagu Warren, changed his surname to Sandford in 1866, and lived in England.

By the 1820s the estate was put up for sale by the Court of Chancery.

Barntick next belonged to David Roche (1791-1865), O’Byrne tells us, who was M.P. for Limerick 1832-1844, and was created Baronet of Carass, County Limerick, in 1838. He married Frances Vandeleur, daughter of John Ormsby Vandeleur. They had several children but she died in 1841 and he married Cecilia Caroline O’Grady, daughter of Henry Deane O’Grady (1765-1847). We came across the O’Grady family before, as he sister Frances married Arthur Thomas Blennerhassett of Ballyseede Castle in County Kerry (see my entry on Ballyseede Castle, another Section 482 property).

In 1855 the house, along with 238 acres, was recorded as being leased to John Lyons and later his family bought the property. [3]

Ciarán’s grandmother Margaret was a Lyons and married into the Murphy family. She was very resourceful and Ciarán showed us many of her repairs. The estate would have been self-sufficient.

Ciarán is doing many of the repairs and maintenance of the house himself. Stephen was very impressed by the fact that he purchased a “cherrypicker” and can thus weed the roof!

*The side of the house facing the outbuildings.*

*In the centre of the roof is a lead valley that led to a cistern for water on the top floor.*

Ciarán pointed out the place on the side of the house where the stonework is exposed. This part of the wall collapsed at one point and Ciarán had to fix it.

There used to be an orchard in front of the house. The view is beautiful, as the house is situated on an elevated site. In the nineteenth century, Ciarán told us, land was reclaimed from the Fergus River.

Robert O’Byrne describes the house:

“The building is a deep square, the east-facing rendered facade of three storeys and three bays, its carved limestone entrance doorcase approached by a shallow flight of six stone steps. Inside, the front half of the house is divided into three almost equal spaces, comprising a hall with drawing room and dining room on either side. To the rear, a handsome staircase, lit by a single tall window on the return, leads to the bedroom floor. Here the space is divided by a thick central wall running north to south and with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, indicating the house’s early date of construction. The stairs then climb to the top of the building where the entire front is given over to a single room...”

*The front hall, where the front door is reflected by a double door opposite with an arched fanlight.* *A picture rail runs sides of the hall.*

Ciarán pointed out in the front hall that one can see the dried rushes used for construction through a hole in the ceiling.

Below the shutters there is a carved diamond that is a characteristic design of the seventeenth century. The ceiling dates from the 1950s as the ceiling collapsed in the dining room when Ciarán’s father was a child in the house.

Ciarán’s grandmother Margaret fixed the wall in the room. The wall was always wet due to the roof leaking. She attached sheets of plywood to the walls, attached vertically from the skirting boards. The boards remain in situ today.

*The casement windows have shutters* *and an impressive pelmet.*

Upstairs has a wide landing with broach archway. I think the house could be described as “double pile”: “single pile” is a house with a single row of rooms and double pile has two rows of rooms, and as with this case, a corridor between the two halves. This broad corridor is on each storey in Barntick.

We didn’t go up to the second floor as it is too unstable at the moment. It had a ballroom to the front, and servants’ quarters in back, Ciarán told us. The ballroom could have been like that of the Ormond castle in Carrick-on-Suir, a long room on an upper storey that was used for exercise in inclement weather.

In that attic, the timbers of the oak pegged roof are numbered with Roman numerals. Ciarán told us that they denote the import tax owed on the timber at time of import!

*Roman numerals on the roof beam timbers were written on the beams at the time of import and denote import taxes.* *Photograph courtesy of Ciarán Murphy.*

We saw the similar feature in 9 Aungier Street in Dublin, another building from the 1600s, and were told that the numbers there could have helped in their placement during construction. The beams are hand-hewn, and are fixed in place by oak pegs rather than with nails.

*Oak peg used to secure timbers, photograph courtesy of Ciarán Murphy.*

After the roof was fixed it took about five years for the house to dry out. Seeing a house in the daunting process of repair and upkeep, one appreciates how much work it takes to maintain such a house. Although most of the bedrooms are habitable, Ciarán showed us the front bedroom which is not, due to water damage caused by water ingress from the roof.