https://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/woodbrook-house-woodbrook-mountrath-laois/4279878

Clement Herron Real Estate is pleased to welcome this fantastic period property in excellent condition to the market. This fine property was built in c. 1713 and is set on c. 3 acres which can be accessed via 2 separate driveways. The property boasts original features such as timber sash windows with wooden shutters, high ceilings, fanlight & period fireplaces.

The property comprises of entrance hall, living room, formal dining room, study, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathroom, family room, kitchen & store rooms.

The five double bedrooms are distributed over the two upper floors. The master bedroom is particularly bright and spacious. Three of the bedrooms have original fireplaces.

The basement area comprises of large kitchen, dining, sitting room, utility space for laundry, fuel/ boiler housing and other storage.

The main garden affords full southerly aspect and is laid out in grass lawn with tarmac driveway and ample parking space. There is a fabulous collection of mature trees and shrubs with a boundary wall with creates a private and secure residence. To the left of the main residence is a disused stable block and former garage, which can be converted back to stables if required. Location: Woodbrook House is located on the outskirts of Mountrath town centre. Mountrath is a small town in Co. Laois, approx 15 minute drive to Portlaoise and approx 1 hour to Dublin. Local amenities include the historic Roundwood House with its wonderful cultural evenings, Ballyfin Demesne and numerous woodland walks. Primary schools and the well regarded Mountrath Community School are all within a few minutes walk. Also walking distance to shops, banks, pubs, restaurants, churches etc. This property represents an opportunity to acquire a distinctive period house on a terrific private site at a reasonable price. 

Accommodation 

Basement : Hall: 3.16m x 3.06m Porch: 1.61m x 2.20m Tiled floor, alarm.  

Bathroom: 2.56m x 2.11m Bath, w.c. w.h.b.  

Kitchen: 4.82m x 5.33m Fully fitted kitchen, cooker, hob, integrated fridge freezer, integrated dishwasher, dual aspect.  

Sitting Room: 5.40m x 4.21m Carpet, Fireplace, light fittings x 3, curtains, curtain rail, built in shelves. Storage: 4.76m x 3.25m Carpet. Garage: 4.34m x 4.25m Pumphouse: 0.96m x 0.92m Ground Floor : Entrance Hall: 4.29m x 4.27m Carpet, coving, light fitting, fan light. Office: 3.36m x 4.27m Carpet, fireplace, curtains, curtain poles, sash windows & shutters.  

Living Room: 5.52m x 4.23m Carpets, red velvet curtains, with decorate valence, picture rail, coving, period fireplace, light fittings, sash windows with wooded shutters. Dining Room: 5.42m x 4.18m Carpets, Curtains with decorate valence, feature fireplace, coving, picture rail. Landing: 5.05m x 1.20m Carpet.  

Kitchen: 2.17m x 2.01m Fitted kitchen, cooker, hob & oven, tiled splash area. Hotpress: 1.76m x 2.32m Landing: 1.97m x 5.41m Carpet.  

Toilet: 1.00m x 1.58m W.C. Stairway to basement: 3.52m x 0.93m Carpet  

First Floor : Landing: 1.92m x 4.57m Carpet, feature window. Bathroom: 2.14m x 3.06m Tiled walls & floor, w.c., w.h.b, electric shower, bath. Hall: 4.74m x 4.31m. Carpet  

Bedroom 1: 3.47m x 4.28m Carpet, sash windows with wooden shutters, fireplace, coving. Bedroom 2: 5.55m x 4.21m Carpet, sash windows with wooden shutters, fireplace, coving. Bedroom 3: 4.18m x 5.38m Carpet & fireplace. Wardrobe: 0.47m x 0.83m Second Floor Bedroom 4: 4.35m x 3.51m Carpet. Bedroom 5: 4.38m x 3.14m Carpet. Water tank: 1.57m x 1.42m Shed Outdoors: 11.05m x 4.99m 

Features 

Period property on c. 3 acres. Timber sash windows. 

https://laoishouses.wordpress.com/2021/06/30/woodbrook-house-mountrath/

A Most Interesting House!

& a little bit about New Park, Mountrath

The imminent publication of Regina Dunne’s Book on Lucy Franks and Helen Roe, “Opening A Window on the Past”  prompted me to look at Woodbrook House, Mountrath, a house to which they were both connected.

I had always presumed it to be a pleasant but not madly interesting house, and guessed on stylistic grounds that it dated from the late 1830s.

I was wrong on all counts!

Architecturally it is not very exciting.    A 3 storey over basement, 3 bay house, with a very unusual detail of the staircase leading off the hall to the left as you enter the house, crossing the front window, and a remarkable first floor with a double height landing and a tall arched window.    At the back of the front hall a pair of mahoganized doors set in an elliptical arched opening with reeded pilasters lead into the north west facing drawing room and dining room.  The front door looks like a Victorian replacement, perhaps when the plate glass windows were first inserted, though the tear drop fanlight is original.  There is a gateway at the side of the house with a very fine doorcase.  I wonder was that originally around the front door. The attic floor windows are sqeezed in beneath the fully hipped roof, with a central valley.

The earliest reference that I found was in Volume 8 – Page 155  Irish Memorials Association · 1913.  There is a monument in the C of I church in Mountrath  “Sacred to the Memory of Thomas Dodd late of Woodbrook near Mountrath | who departed this life 18 of June | A.D. 1819 Aged 41 years | Here also lies the Body of | Robert only son of Thomas Dodd | Born 13th Sept 1815 died 30th April 1837.”  Next door to it is the tomb of his parents, Mary and Robert Dodd (1744-1812).  In 1810 Robert Dodd is listed as holding lands at Redcastle from the Cootes.  The Dodds seem to have come from Moyanna at Stradbally.  The indexes to Irish Wills has the wills of Stephen and William Dodd of Stradbally in 1739.  In 1772 Michael Dodd, Stradbally, gent., is a witness to the will of Dudley Alexander Cosby, Lord Sydney.

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In 1808 Thomas Dodd was the 1st Lieutenant of the Mountrath Yeomanry.  There is a marriage settlement of Thomas Dodd and Harriet Hunt (b 11 Aug 1791) in 1814 – Thomas Dodd of Mountrath (1st part) James Short of Newtown and Joseph Calcutt of Coldblow (?) (2nd part), Harriet Hunt Spinster (3rd part), Vere Dawson Hunt of Cappagh and Revd Val Griffiths of Mountrath (4th part).   Harriet was the eighth daughter of Vere Hunt and Elizabeth Davis and the sister of Elizabeth Shortt (nee Hunt) of Larch Hill.   Their son  Robert was born in 1815 and Elizabeth was born about 1816.  So It might be assumed that Thomas Dodd built Woodbrook around 1814.

By 1829 it was to let on 7 acres and was rented by Rev Alexander Nixon, who went to Coolbanagher in 1837  from which he resigned in 1845.

Alexander, from Fermanagh,  had married Mary Kentinge in Dublin in March 1828.  In 1832 he officiated at the marriage of George Nixon of Dunbar, Fermanagh to Anna Maria, daughter of Alexander Nixon Montgomery of Bessount Park, Monaghan.  Mary died 1 Jan., 1857, and on 25 Feb., 1858 he married Anne Catherine, dau. of the Rev. Thomas Harpur, of New Park, Maryborough, whose son John married Nixon’s niece Ellen in July 1859. 

On Thursday April 19  1829 the Duke and Duchess of Northumerland held a drawing room at Dublin Castle.  The Rev. Nixon and his bride were there, she wearing a white tuille dress, richly trimmed with satin and flowers, over a white satin slip, a train of bird of paradise trimmed with blond, and a head dress of white feathers, blond lappets and diamonds. 

Saturday 13 March 1830  Nixon was in Woodbrook and had engaged Messrs Semple of Marlborough St to enlarge the church. 

On Jan 11 1833  Mrs Nixon had a daughter, Frances Maria, at Woodbrook.  Frances married  1 July, 1869, Bernard George Shaw, D.I., R.I.C., only son of George Nathaniel Shaw, of Monkstown Castle, Cork, a junior branch of George Bernard Shaw’s family whose principal home was Bushy Park in Dublin.

From Coolbanagher Nixon moved to Gweedore where he proved to be an unpopular landlord and in October 1858, when returning from Sunday service with his wife and daughter at about 2 pm,  half way between his house Heathfield, and the village of Falcarragh, a group of three apparently drunk women blocked the road.  As the carriage drove up one seized the reins and stopped the horses, while another commenced singing, and the third began to leap and fling herself about.  Alexander put his head out of the window to see what was going on and one of the men (for that is what they actually were) shot him in the mouth.

His unpopularity had been exacerbated by his evidence to a Parliamentary Committee, which was totally at variance with the appeal of the 10 local parish priests. Mr. Nixon claimed that his lands were let at low rents, and that his tenants were in more comfortable circumstances than they had been some years before, and that the money placed at the disposal of the Roman Catholic priests was disbursed in some cases among “the undeserving”.  I am reminded of Alfred Dolittle in the other Bernard Shaw’s play, Pygmalion :-“ I ask you, what am I? I’m one of the undeserving poor: that’s what I am. Think of what that means to a man. It means that he’s up agin middle class morality all the time. … I don’t need less than a deserving man: I need more. I don’t eat less hearty than him; and I drink a lot more.”

Nixon’s critics noticed that in the 11 years that he had been in Donegal he had deprived his tenants of their mountain grazing in Gweedore and Cloughaneely, raised the rents enormously, made them pay duty days, poor rates, income tax, turf money, seaweed tax, and “other tributes scarcely credible”. A few days before the attack he informed his tenants that unless they consented to pay these charges in advance all the small holders would be ejected, and large 10 acre farms would be made of the small ones.  He was not killed, but survived another 24 years, having moved to the safety of the Earl of Erne’s agent’s or dower house at Knockballymore, Newtownbutler.   By the time of the OS 1890 survey Heathfileld was marked as “In Ruins” and now it a desert of Sitka Spruce.  Sadly the country villa designed by Walter G Doolin for W Doherty in 1884 was never built.

When Nixon left Woodbrook in 1837 an even more colourful tenant arrived.  William Hawkesworth (1792-1871) does not appear in the family tree of the Hawkesworths of Forest, agents to the Coote family.  It really is not at all clear why he came to Mountrath and moved into a house less than 1 mile from Forest, the principal seat of the Hawkesworths.

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Williams named his sons Frederick  Amory (1841-1908) and William Connell.  There was a distinguished late 18th Century Dublin barrister called Amory Hawkesworth, who is also missing from the Hawkesworth family tree, but perhaps an antecedent of William?  According to the Kings Inn Admission Papers, Amory Hawkesworth was the 2nd son of Timothy Hawkesworth, of Ennis, Co. Clare, shopkeeper, decd., and Mary Amory; ed. T.C.D. I.T., April 1788, and was called to the bar in 1790.  So William could well have been his son.  Another son might be Amory Hawkesworth who was described as a plumber of Lisle Street,  London in the Morning Chronicle – Saturday 02 June 1832 when he was an expert witness in a case of arson and murder of Miss Eliza Twamley by Jonathan Smithers in Oxford Street.  By the 1850s he was living in Torquay where in 1853 he patented an improved design for lifeboats. 

I had hoped that the William who emigrated to find a fortune in the 1850s, and returned to scandal was this William.  But sadly no, as this William was in debtor’s jail whilst it was his more colourful son William Connell who was fighting for the Confederates. 

Hawkesworth had left when the house was advertised to let in 1850.    In Leinster Express Saturday, July 06, 1850 in a Landed Estates Court notice regarding the estate of Thomas Murray Prior it refers to a house in Rathdowney in the occupation or possession of William Hawkesworth and his wife Jane Prior – they were married in 1825 (Marriage License Bonds Indexes).  Whether this is our William it is hard to say.    He might also have been the William Hawkesworth,, esq, father of John Hawkesworth who married the splendidly named Goold Isabella Power (1817-1883), a widow of Ballygeehan, near Aghaboe, and daughter of Richard Moore on 10 Feb 1849.    She died at 24 Sandycove Avenue West, nearly opposite Somerset, the home of William C Hawkesworth in 1878.

There was another William Hawkesworth (1791 -1871) at the time who was importuning Thomas Jefferson for a job on  6 January 1824.  He writes:- I am a native of Dublin in Ireland, in which city I received my education, I have pursued my present occupation of teaching, ever since my residence in the U States, which commenced in, and has continued since, the year 1811, of this State I have been an Inhabitant, since the fall of 1815, I am a married man, 33 years of age, having made law part of my study both in Europe, and in this country, I obtained license to practise in Virga but, deeming the bar already preoccupied by members, and all the avenues to which are crowded, too precarious a mode of supporting a family, I determined to devote myself to a pursuit, the emoluments of which are more certain.

He was Professor of Latin and Greek at Charleston College, SC, 1838-1865 and claimed that he was a graduate of Trinity, though does not appear in the Alumni Dublinenses.. However his students found him excellent “In classic literature few men in our country have accumulated such stores and hold them so unobtrusively”.

William of Woodbrook had terrible financial problems, which resulted in at least two sojourns in debtors jail.  

On 15 May 1863 in Queely v. Hawkesworth. Mr. Martin moved that the defendant be discharged from custody. It appeared that the defendant was proceeding from his residence at Sandford Villa, Ranelagh, to attend, pursuant to the advice of his attorney, a motion in the Court of Exchequer, in the cause of Samuel Moore v. Hawkesworth, in which he was defendant, and that he was arrested on his way and conveyed to prison. Mr. Sidney, Q.C., appeared at the other side, and said he could not resist the discharge of the defendant, as his attendance in court was bona fide declared to be necessary by his legal advisers. The Court ordered that William Hawkesworth be discharged accordingly.

On 19 September 1866  William Hawkesworth was an insolvent held in the Marshalsea Prison.  Of the Marshalsea John Dillon wrote in 1898:  In that gaol we had a nice suite of rooms, and we had balls there, and many a pleasant hour I have spent there, in the society of many of the most delightful men in Dublin, who were in the habit of spending some time at that resort. This was 25 years ago, and it was perfectly well recognised then that there was no kind of punishment in the debtors’ gaol. They were held there until they made an arrangement with their creditors, but they had everything that their means would allow them to have in prison.

Unless debtors’ friends paid rent for private cells, they were housed in the Pauper Building, six rooms, each to contain eight persons. They were fed 2 lbs of bread and 2 pints of milk a day. It was closed in 1874 and demolished in 1975.

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In March 1868  The Irish Law Times and Solicitors’ Journal,  reported Hawkesworth, William of Sandford Villa Ranelagh Co Dublin previously of Merrion Lodge Co Wexford formerly of Woodbrook Mountrath Queen’s County Esquire Bankruptcy Hearing on Wednesday April 22.    William Spencer Hakesworth, widower,  died at 15 Harrington Street aged 79 on 15th July 1871.  His will was proved by William Connell Hawkesworth of Amory Lodge, Kingstown, and Frederick Amory Hawkesworth of 15 Harrington Street.

The tale of his wild son is as follows:-

On 28th September 1876 a petition for divorce on the grounds of adultery and for alimony was filed by Ellen Murphy, who stated that she was married on the 3rd December, 1856, to William C. Hawkesworth, in the residence of the pastor of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Peter, New York. Three children were born of the marriage, of whom two girls survive. In 1862 the respondent entered the United States army a volunteer, leaving the petitioner and her two children residing at Fifty-fourth-street, New York, and she had not since seen him.  He continued to correspond with her until 1874, since when she had not received any communication from him. “The petitioner charged that the respondent at divers days between Ist January and Ist March, 1876, committed adultery with one Gertrude Victor, with whom he continues reside at Somerset House, Kingstown, County Dublin.”

The respondent, in his reply, denied the alleged marriage with the petitioner, and also denied the adultery. He stated that the 1st October, 1864, he was lawfully married to Gertrude Victor, at New Orleans by the Rev. Dr Guyon, and had issue four children of the marriage. He had no recollection of any such ceremony with the petitioner, but did remember that he cohabited about the time charged with some woman named Walsh or Murphy, whose Christian name was Ellen. He mentioned that the lady to whom for the past fourteen years he had been married was of the highest lineage, and was grandniece of Napoleon’s famous marshal, Victor

He had lived in New Jersey, being employed there on the coast survey, and had rooms in New York whenever went there.

Did you know anybody of the name of Holland in New York? — I knew Miss Holland. There was a party of that name connected with a murder.

Do you mean to say she was a murderess? — She was connected with the poisoning of somebody. Afterwards she kept a kind of improper house.

Did you send Ellen Hawkesworth money 1864?  —  I think I did send some woman money. I don’t know whether it was that woman.

Did you send money to the one who passed as Ellen Hawkesworth ?—(Alter some hesitation) —I did send her money.

Counsel handed in letter admitted to be in witness’s handwriting, in which in 1864 addressed petitioner as “Dearest Nelly,” and subscribed himself as “Your loving husband,” telling her he had sent her 100 dollars.

In another letter, dated 1862, when respondent was captain in the 88th Regiment, U.S.A., he said “Kiss Josey and baby for me.”   Dr. Houston—Who was Josey ?—I suppose her child. Judge Warren—Whose child ?—Her child, I suppose. Dr. Houston—Whose else ? —  Oh I suppose it was in reference to myself.

Who was Josephine ? Peraps some girl I knew. Were they your own children, sir ? —  No, they were not my knowledge. Josephine was one that was said to be my child, but I don’t recollect. Yes, that must have been she.

Witness stated he had not got employment in this country but made $500 a month and sometimes $1,000 a month by his profession in the United States. He got £200 for his property in the Queen’s County from the Rev. Singleton Harper, since dead, for the benefit of his present wile, who had $1,000 a year when he married her.

Mr. Curtis said there were proceedings bankruptcy against the respondent for £200. He endeavoured to get employment as engineer under the Corporation but had failed.

After this William C disappears from the historical record and does not appear in street directories, newspapers or even in civil records.

To return to Woodbrook.  On 28 January 1852  the  Limerick Examiner reported the marriage of William Roe junior of Woodbrook, Mountrath, to Maria, only daughter the late Heyland Maybury, Esq., of Killarney at Churchtown.   On Christmas Eve 1852 their first daughter, Jane Sharp Roe, was born, who sadly died in 1853. 

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William Roe (1809-1887) was the son of William senior (1777-1852) who moved to Mountrath around 1798 from Knockfin, near Rathdowney, which had been rented from the Jacob family.  He bought the woollen factory and converted it into a flour mill.  The claim that these Roes are descended from James Roe of Inchiquin’s Regiment is possible, but the claim is generally based on the confusion between Granstown Castle, Rathdowney, Laois and Grantstown Castle Kilfeacle co. Tipperary.

Mr. William Roe,” the baker,” of Mountrath, had not opportunity in of acquitting “the dearly beloved” White feet, which they would as willingly have done as they had in 1824 convicted the police.  Dublin Evening Packet and Correspondent – Tuesday 12 June 1832

A meeting of the respectable inhabitants of Mountrath and its vicinity, held in the market house, it was unanimously resolved that a mutual fund society be established ; for which purpose was £1500  subscribed the spot—and William Roe, jun.. Esq., appointed treasurer, and Mr. James Delany, secretary.   Dublin Monitor – Saturday 16 March 1839

William’s sister married the local doctor –  Lewis, Esq., surgeon, youngest son of the late Richard Lewis, Esq. Cork, to Anne second daughter of William Roe. Esq.. of Mountrath, _  General Advertiser  Saturday 27 May 1837.    They later emigrated to Australia “PRESENTATION of ADDRESS and SERVICE of PLATE to DR. LEWIS, of Mountrath, on bis leaving Ireland for Australia. On Wednesday last deputation from the Parishioners of Mountrath, and the Subscribers to the Ballyfin Dispensary, waited on Dr. Lewis. They were received at the residence of William Roe, Esq., by Dr. Lewis and his family, surrounded a numerous circle of relatives and friends. The Very Rev William Roe, the Dean of Clonfert, one of the deputation, read the address.”   Dublin Evening Mail – Monday 05 May 1851.

The Cootehill Mills, purchased some time ago by the Messrs. Roe, of Mountrath, were destroyed by fire on Wednesday night last. It is thought the fire originated from the friction of some part of the machinery in consequence of the person in charge having neglected to keep them properly oiled. The damage done is estimated at £2,000. The building, machinery and stock, we regret to say, were only insured for £1, 300 —  Freemans Journal, Monday, January 19, 1852;

The Roes had 4 more children – George (who died when he was 1),  Jessie,  Rebecca and William Ernest.  A growing family tempted them to lease New Park from Sir Charles Coote – he apparently rented it from 1858 and signed a lease in 1862. 

Newpark was the residence of the Cootes Earl of Mountrath until 1802 when the title became extinct and his property was inherited by Orlando Bridgeman, Earl of Bradford.  Lord Mountrath is never likely to have inhabited New Park.  An eccentric aristocrat, he had a dread of smallpox and when travelling would avoid Inns. He solved this problem by building five houses between his estates in Weeling Hall in Norfolk (“in point of decoration…a gilded palace, the most superb in its interior that I have ever seen” – Hake 1810) and his seat at Strawberry Hill in Devon   Ballyfin was not then part of the Coote estate, but was bought later from the Wellesley Pole Family and the present Ballyfin was built. 

Around 1804 New Park was rebuilt.  Tierney in “Buildings of Ireland” is unkind, describing it as ungainly, but suggests that it might have been designed by Thomas Cobden (who designed Braganza and Duckett’s Grove in Carlow and whose father was a builder who worked for John Nash).  He notes “Segment headed double sash windows flanking a central nivhe. Hipped roof wit boldly bracketed eaves. To the righ a fan lit porch merging into a two storey bow on the side elevation.” For many years it was the home of James Smith (1780-Oct 1849), F. R. C. S. I.; J. P.; Surgeon to the Queen’s County Militia; who married, 1811, Maria, daughter of Joseph Pemberton, Lord Mayor of Dublin. He may have built the present house.   His father, Henry Smith, was Comptroller of Customs for Sligo, Ireland, died at Dublin, prior to 1816; he married Jane, daughter of John Johnston of Friarstown Co Leitrim.   They had 6 children at New Park..

1. Anna Maria, born 1816; married Rev, John Hancock Scott of Sierkyran. 2. Henry Joseph (1818-85), married, 1841, Maria Louisa, daughter of Captain Theodore Norton of Wainsford. 3. Charlotte Jane, born 1820. 4. Georgiana Hester, born 1822; married the Very Rev. Thomas Le Ban Kennedy of Kilmore Rectory in 1851. 5. Louisa Margaret, born 1823. 6. Frederick Augustus  became a Clerk in Holy Orders and emigrated to Montreal.

Nixon’s critics noticed that in the 11 years that he had been in Donegal he had deprived his tenants of their mountain grazing in Gweedore and Cloughaneely, raised the rents enormously, made them pay duty days, poor rates, income tax, turf money, seaweed tax, and “other tributes scarcely credible”. A few days before the attack he informed his tenants that unless they consented to pay these charges in advance all the small holders would be ejected, and large 10 acre farms would be made of the small ones.  He was not killed, but survived another 24 years, having moved to the safety of the Earl of Erne’s agent’s or dower house at Knockballymore, Newtownbutler.   By the time of the OS 1890 survey Heathfileld was marked as “In Ruins” and now it a desert of Sitka Spruce.  Sadly the country villa designed by Walter G Doolin for W Doherty in 1884 was never built.

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The Rev. Thomas Le Ban Kennedy was the priest who buried Emily and Mary Wilde, Oscar’s illegitimate half sisters in 1871.  A tragic story, the girls died of burns at a ball at Drummaconor House, Smithsbborough when their crinolines caught fire.

William Roe did not enjoy constant success and in Kilkenny Moderator on Wednesday 12 December 1883 there was an advertisement for the auction of pretty much everting he had.

On 05 June 1894 William’s son William Ernest Roe (1856-1927) married Annie Lambert Shields, the daughter of Francis Henry Shields, proprietor of The King’s County Chronicle.  Their daughter, Helen Maybury Roe was born ion 18 Dec 1895.  I wonder who the H Roe was who was the witness at the marriage?  And was she born in New Park? They seem to escaped the 1901 census, but by 1911 William, Annie and Helen were living in in an 8 roomed house Portlaoise, without even a live in maid!  Times must have been hard.  

By November 1858 Woodbrook was the home of Dean Kennedy.  The Evening Press reported on “Unedifying Pewyism” –Mr. Senior, of Castletown, a village adjoining Mountrath, possessed a pew in the parish church of that town, which he occupied with his sister and her female attendant. The introduction of person of inferior caste into so prominent a position appears to have struck the Chief Moonshee, a high dignitary of the church, as a violation of the decencies of public worship, he required, therefore, that the young parvenue (she was a Protestant orphan, whom Miss Senior had received into her household) should be packed into a less conspicuous situation. What it was in the girl’s demeanour that particularly jarred against Dean Kennedy’s sense of Christian humility we are not informed; but he did not like her look in that front seat, and, after a good deal of fruitless negotiation by letter and word of mouth, the sexton was directed to settle the question by  forcible ejectment.  In the ensuing case,  assault being clearly proved, and neither denied nor attempted to be palliated, the magistrates fined the sexton, James Garrett, ten shillings and costs, or in default of payment sentenced him to be imprisoned for one week.   Dean Kennedy addressed a letter to Mr. Senior last Saturday, the spirit of Christian kindness, wherein, with an expression of sincere regard of long standing for himself and his sister, he advises them both to absent themselves from the church. Mr. Senior, however, did not quite understand that kind of pastoral invitation, but went to church Sunday usual, regardless of the interdict, and found his pew padlocked.

On Dec 15 1861 at Woodbrook Mountrath, the seat of the Dean of Clonfert, to the wife of Thomas Le Ban Kennedy Esq of a daughter, Catherine Mabella.  Thomas had married on  March 14th, 1861.

The Dean was Robert Mitchell Kennedy, whose wife was Anne Studdert, who came from Elm Hill, Rathkeale, a house whose sad, but not irreversible, fate is noted by Patrick Comerford http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2020_06_02_archive.html

Thomas was in the RIC and by the time their 2nd daughter, Harriet Elizabeth,  was born he was a sub inspector in Kilrush.  His wife was Catherine Mabella Staples, step granddaughter of William Connolly of Castletown, granddaughter of Lord Moleswoth,  and youngest daughter of the Rev. John Molesworth Staples, Rector of Upper Moville, County Donegal.  She died in 1870 at the age of 36. He then married Susan Mary Welsh the daughter of the Rev Robert Matthews and widow of Joseph Welsh, M.D., in Ennis in 1872, was transferred to Belmullet and had three more children – what else would you do in Belmullet!

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His nephew was Revd Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, MC (1883-1929), the Anglican priest poet who was known as ‘Woodbine Willie’ for giving cigarettes along with spiritual pastoral care to injured and dying soldiers in the trenches in World War I.

By Nov 1867 there was a new rector in residence at Woodbrook  – William Smyth King, who had moved from Lorum, Co Carlow,  where he had just built a new rectory.   He was the eldest son of Hulton King, Commissioner of Customs. Hulton assumed the Smyth surname upon his marriage to Anne Sarah Talbot, co-heir of her grandfather William Smyth.  The genealogies say  “of Borris House in County Carlow” which is obviously incorrect.  Nor was this a William Smythe of Westmeath, all of whom were well supplied with male heirs.  The newspaper announcement in Dublin Evening Post – Saturday 06 February 1808 refers to her as Miss Talbot of Borris Castle.  In May 1787 Frederick Thompson, of the Middle Temple married Miss Sally Smyth, of Borris in Ossory, and in Nov. 1789 Thomas Woods, of Birr, married Maria Smith,  of Borris Castle, at Borris Ossory and from “The Baronetage and Knightage” By Joseph Foster we know that Anne Sarah Talbot was the only child of Anne, the eldest daughter of William Smyth of Borris Castle,  and Thomas Talbot.

In 1841 he married Jane Elizabeth Ellington, eldest daughter of Rev. Henry Preston Ellington. They had four daughters.  Isabella married John Finlay (27 June 1842 – 12 June 1921) who was Dean of Leighlin from 1895 until 1912.  Finlay was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and ordained in 1867. He began his ecclesiastical career as a curate in Clonenagh. He was the incumbent at Lorum from 1873 to 1890 when he moved to Carlow.  He was murdered at the age of 80 by the IRA on 12 June 1921 for objecting to his home in Cavan being burned.

Emily Louise Smyth-King married Charles Paulet Hamilton of Roundwood in 1878

Alice Matilda Smyth King married Henry Marsh of Springmount in 1879

On Duchas.ie is Maura Costigans story of Woodbrook House.  “There was a Rape Oil Mill before Minister King came to live there. Rape was grown very extensively locally. It was used much as a vegetable by the people; to fatten sheep which were let in on it and it was let to seed which was sent to the above mill and made into rape oil. Remains of this mill covered with ivy, are still to be seen at the back of Kelly’s, where the mill-race enters the river.“

In 1881 it was the home of Rev J Whyte Fisher, the son of William Shute Fisher, a naval doctor.

In a sudden volte face it went from being a home to vicars to a Patrician Brothers Novitiate. The Novitiate was transferred to Tullow in the summer of 1894

In 1895 it was bought by the newly married Henry Franks who was born on July 17th , 1871 at Westfield. His father Matthew Henry Franks was also a land agent, as well as owning Garrettstown near Kinsale and Dromrahane, Mallow and his sister Gertrude Maria Lucy Franks was one of the founders of the ICA and the subject of Regina Dunne’s book.   The founder of the Franks family was a Cromwellian soldier and may have lived at Frankfort Castle, and Matthew’s ancestry is in  “The Royal Lineage of Noble and Gentle Families”, vol. 3.  P 476, tracing him as 20th in descent from Edward I. 

 In 1895 he married Sarah Gardner, (my wife’s great aunt)  whose father Sir Robert Gardner was the founder of the accountants Craig Gardner (now part of Price Waterhouse).  He was agent for several large farms, including the Pim Estate.  By 1914 he was the chairman of The Surveyors Institution, secretary of the hunt, JP, High Sherriff of the county… a busy country gentleman.   Though his elderly father’s house Westield, was burnt during the Civil War Herny Franks main loss was his motor car taken at Woodbrook by Irregular forces on 4 May 1922;  (Post-Truce (Damage to Property (Compensation) Act 1923) compensation files).

The most recent news about it is from the Independent “Woodbrook House, Mountrath, was sold in May 2020 for €260k through Clement Herron Real Estate” 

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And though this account may not appeal to those who dislike fish, especially red herrings, I find to my amazement that Woodbrook IS an interesting house!