Continuing my work on the Keeffes of Cork, the following is a log of information on the family I’ve uncovered over the past couple of years from record groups overseas. I hope to discover plenty more when I travel to Dublin later this year and get a chance to research in the National Archives and National Library of Ireland. Here is a recap of the discoveries made on this side of the Atlantic: Catching Up With the Keeffes During COVID.
As to information I’ve gleaned from Ireland’s resources of late, one of the most beneficial was by an Irish local. The site IrelandXO functions as a message board and information hub for the public to reconnect to their Irish roots. Mostly managed by volunteers, the website’s mission is to seek out the Irish diaspora worldwide, knowing full well that millions of natives left the island in the mid to late 1800s and settled in all parts of the world.
I posted a query on one of the virtual boards in regards to the exact location of Lismonihis in County Cork, the reputed residence of my 4th great grandfather, Terence Keeffe. While the place was consistently recorded as Terence’s hometown throughout his local church records, I struggled to find any mention of it on a single modern or historical map. Plus, in the church’s registers, the spelling also varied widely. I knew it had to be in the general vicinity of the Kildorrery church, as Terence was not the only parishioner listed from that place, and I also found a couple headstones in Farahy church graveyard etched with the name as well. However, I was left wondering why I could not find the placename on any map or any list of townlands. Initially, it was extremely important for me to understand this, because learning the name of the townland of your ancestor is the critical starting point for genealogy research in Ireland.
I came to learn that the townlands that were published on maps in the mid 1800s did not encompass all of the placenames throughout the country. One of the IrelandXO volunteers likened Lismonihis to a sub-townland, which could be an area as small as a few farms in a locality. As an American, I can understand this being similar to what we would call a neighborhood. It’s not necessarily a formal name of a place, but more so a recognized name by locals.
Another IrelandXO volunteer went out of their way to drive through the Farahy area and ask around. Sure enough, here’s what they were able to find out in April 2023:
I visited Farahy a while ago and was able to find the exact location of Lismonihis. If you travel about half a mile from Farahy towards Mallow on the N73, Lismonihis is a few fields on the left hand side. Currently, there are only two houses in what is considered Lismonihis. The people I spoke with are in it but they don't use the name in their address. The other house used to use it but they left a few years ago. So now nobody uses it in their address. A few people know where it is, but not many.In the past it was a much bigger area with alot of houses. But when the mapping was done for the 1840s map, Farahy was picked as the townland name and Lismonihis began to decline as the name of a place. As time goes by fewer and fewer people will know it.
Google Maps, marked up image denoting location of residences situated in sub-townland Lismonihis, in the civil parish of Farahy, Co. Cork, Ireland, 2023.
This helped sort out my questions regarding Terence Keeffe’s residence in County Cork. His church records had led me to believe he lived in a townland called Lismonihis, but in truth, the townland was formally named Farahy, and Lismonihis was known as some acreage surrounding Bowen’s Court (the “big house” in Farahy).
Another pivotal moment in my research of Terence’s homeland was learning that the maps which accompany the Griffith’s Valuation records on AskAboutIreland.ie were not published in the same time period that the valuation was taken. In fact, most of the undated maps offered on the site were renumbered and published circa 1860s. They are unreliable in determining the exact location of an ancestor’s residence.
AskAboutIreland.ie, Griffith's Valuation red outlined map in the civil parish of Farahy, Co. Cork, Ireland, using map data from 2020, overlayed on top of undated historical map.
It is likely that the valuation of Farahy took place some time between 1847 and 1850 and was then published in 1851. Originally, when I had thought the maps provided on the website corresponded to the residences on the valuation, I had placed Terence’s house mid-way down Farrahy Road, on the plot of land marked as number 15.
AskAboutIreland.ie, Griffith's Valuation outlined topographical map in the civil parish of Farahy, Co. Cork, Ireland, using map data from 2020, overlayed on top of undated historical map.
Having learned the maps on this site were unreliable for the time period, I re-examined this finding and realized the plot of land marked as number 15 would have been too small a property in comparison to the 26 acres of land belonging to Terence, taxed on the valuation. I learned the Ordnance Survey Ireland website had additional historical maps that dated between 1829 and 1842, portraying a better representation of the land divisions during the valuation’s time period. However, none of the maps provided on that site either gave a certified location for Terence’s residence at the time of the valuation.
Combining this knowledge with the information about Lismonihis’ current location and taking a look at the neighbors on Griffith’s Valuation, I fancy Terence’s farmland may actually have been situated nearby where I had originally seen number 15 plotted, but about 2 farms to the north on Farrahy Road. However, it’s also possible the farm was on the Mallow-Dublin Road between Bowen’s Court and Kildorrery. Both locations seem feasible. It’s entirely possible it encompassed both properties, at least at some point in time.
On the map below, note the number 15 crossed out on the land marked as Bowen’s and situated next door to Edward Flynn’s farm on Farrahy Road. Plus, the other number 15 on Mallow-Dublin Road that could be considered in the townland of Ballynoe. Also, of course, the number 15 in the southernmost position of the map on Farrahy Road where I originally thought Terence to have lived.
AskAboutIreland.ie, Griffith's Valuation outlined topographical map in the civil parish of Farahy, Co. Cork, Ireland, using map data from 2023, overlayed on top of undated historical map supplied by Ordnance Survey Ireland.
Edward Flynn’s residence had been placed on Griffith’s Valuation as number 14, so the farm listed as number 15 (and then crossed out) could very well have belonged to Terence. It would also make sense for the map to say it was Bowen’s land, considering Terence was only leasing the land from Mrs. Eliza Bowen.
But the reason why the Mallow-Dublin Road location also appears a viable option is because of the Tithe Applotment Books of 1831. These books were earlier tax records for the land in Ireland a couple decades prior to Griffith’s Valuation. Terence Keeffe appeared in them (as did the Bowen family), but instead of being listed in the townland of Farahy, both were taxed in the townland of Ballynoe. I believe this was a clerical error due to the proximity of the two townlands, but this does open up the possibility that the Keeffes lived on that piece of land skirting the edge of Ballynoe. Some may argue the possibility that boundaries originally designated this area as Ballynoe and then later as Farahy, however, due to the historical account of how the lands came into the possession of the Bowen family and were named Farahy (or Pharighy, or some derivative of the spelling) from the start, I give little credit to this statement.
Parish of Farrihy, County Cork, Ireland, 1831 tithe applotment book, Ballynoe townland, residence 121 Terence Keefe; The National Archives of Ireland, "Tithe Applotment Books, 1823-37" (http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/reels/tab//004587441/004587441_00345.pdf : accessed 7 Aug 2023).
Other neighbors of the Keeffes and the Bowens were inaccurately attributed to the townland of Ballynoe on the 1831 tithes, including the Foleys, Hanlons, Hennessys, Duanes, and many more. The residents that were listed in the proper townland were also affected by a small error introduced by the clerk; Farahy was recorded as Fanahy. All in all, both sets of townlands were properly catalogued under the proper civil parish of Farrihy (just another spelling variation).
Another discovery concerning Griffith’s Valuation over the past couple years was to the accessibility of the original, handwritten versions of the tax record. The copies available on AskAboutIreland.ie are typewritten and were published between 1851-1853 (Farahy in County Cork’s being published in 1851). However, these were not the originals that were recorded while the clerks made their rounds throughout the villages inquiring as to each property’s owner, acreage, and holdings. The handwritten versions are also available for viewing and can be quite illuminating as to the goings-on in the neighborhoods!
For instance, a homeowner could appear in the handwritten copy with his/her taxes owed listed in the right-hand column. But should they have died or moved away prior to its publish date in 1851, they would be seen crossed off of the handwritten version, and potentially replaced by a new homeowner’s name. Their name would never appear at that residence number on the typewritten 1851 version!
Townland of Farahy, parish of Farahy, County Cork, Ireland, 27 Sep 1848 house book, residence 15 Terence OKeeffe; The National Archives of Ireland, "Valuation Office books, 1824-1856" (http://census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/vob/IRE_CENSUS_1821-51_007246793_00599.pdf : accessed 7 Aug 2023).
If a descendant is looking for their ancestor in or near a townland they believe the ancestor should be residing, but unable to find them listed in Griffith’s Valuation, it would behoove them to doublecheck the handwritten, “unpublished” version of the books. Sometimes when a name was crossed off and replaced with a new tenant, that person could very well be of a familial relation to the descendant, too. This would be a critical breakthrough for their research.
The handwritten copies are available at The National Archives of Ireland website. In the case of Terence Keeffe’s house book (pictured above), the National Archives’ index claims the date of valuation occurred on 27 Sep 1848. Note how many strikethroughs, scribbles, and scratch notes are included on these versions, specifically that the residence number encircled next to Terence’s line item had seemingly been through 2 or 3 changes already. This reemphasizes the point I made earlier about not easily determining which historical map can reliably be matched up with Griffith’s Valuation. When the valuation was officially published in 1851, it was not released with a coinciding map.
For my research on Terence, this handwritten version of Griffith’s also gives me a bit of a clue that Michael Keeffe may definitely be of relation to him. Keeffe is a very popular name in County Cork, so it’s best to not always jump to the conclusion that all of the Keeffes in a townland are related.
Townland of Farahy, parish of Farahy, County Cork, Ireland, "Primary Valuation of Tenements", residence 15 Terence OKeeffe, published 1851; AskAboutIreland.ie, "Griffith's Valuation" (https://askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/ : accessed 30 Jul 2023).
In the published version of Griffith’s, Michael and Terence are spaced quite apart from one another, both leasing land from Mrs. Eliza Bowen. Here, in the handwritten version though, his occupancy is jotted down right after Terence’s, perhaps a hint that the two men were together or nearby each other when the clerk was making his updates to the valuation. The book is also, of course, giving us a roundabout date when Michael moved into the dwelling house previously occupied by Jack Hanlon. The amount of information one could glean from these movements amongst neighbors could very well solve some genealogy mysteries.
A question I had not pondered prior to a few months ago was how I could be certain the Terence Keeffe listed in Griffith’s Valuation was the same man as Terence Keeffe, my 4th great grandfather. While I know my Terence Keeffe was the man who was from Lismonihis, married Ann Meade of Meadstown, baptized six children (including my 3rd great grandmother Margaret) at Kildorrery Church down the street from Farahy, landed in America 3 Jan 1851, and died in Cumberland, Maryland in 1853, I thought I had nothing to prove he was the same Terence taxed in Farahy in Griffith’s. This question was thrown at me by the genealogist who will lead my research trip to Dublin later this year. She helped me think really critically about this conundrum, because there is another Terence Keeffe listed in Griffith’s Valuation in County Tipperary, which shares a border with County Cork.
Dollar's Lane, part of Town of Cashel, parish of St. John Baptist, County Tipperary, Ireland, "Primary Valuation of Tenements", residence 2 Terence Keeffe, published circa 1853; Ancestry.com, "Ireland, Griffith’s Valuation, 1847-1864" (https://ancestry.com : accessed 7 Aug 2023).
Unfortunately, while there is a way to determine if a person by the same name taxed within the same townland is a unique individual or the same occupier, there is nothing noted in Griffith’s to flag individuals across county lines (or even across townland lines)! It may be quite difficult, or impossible, to figure out whether the Terence O’Keeffe taxed in Farahy and the Terence Keeffe taxed in Cashel are the same person (and to reiterate, the prefix of an O on the Farahy Keeffe also cannot be relied on as a unique qualifier, as it was common to include or drop from one’s name with no rhyme or reason).
While this other Terence Keeffe is an intriguing puzzle to one day solve, it is beyond the scope of my research for my upcoming Dublin trip. I am focusing on what I know of the Keeffe family in and around Farahy, County Cork.
However, the question still remains. How can I be sure the Terence recorded in Farahy within Griffith’s is my Terence? While his proximity to Kildorrery Church is a great clue, what concrete evidence do I have this is the same man? Well, for one, I have Terence’s query that he posted in The Boston Pilot in the year 1851.
The Boston Pilot, post by Terence Keef, 31 May 1851; Ancestry.com, "Searching for Missing Friends: Irish Immigrant Advertisements Placed in “The Boston Pilot," 1831-1920" (https://ancestry.com : accessed 7 Aug 2023).
Terence confirms he is from the townland of Farahy (and no, spelling doesn’t count). However, this can not be absolute proof that the Terence in Griffith’s is my Terence. The one taxed in Farahy has a sizeable property. It could be argued that this Terence may be an uncle, cousin, or even grandfather of my Terence Keeffe. What’s to prove that my Terence wasn’t just a member of that particular household in Farahy? To be frank, I don’t have the proof. However, that will be my main goal during my Dublin trip. I plan to visit the Valuation Office (now carrying the new state agency name of Tailte Eireann) which archives the ‘Revision Books’ or ‘Cancelled Books.’ These house books are follow-ups to Griffith’s Valuation. They recorded all of the changes that took place to the properties after Griffith’s was published in 1851.
Because I know that my Terence Keeffe emigrated from Ireland and landed in America on 3 Jan 1851, I should be able to find a change in occupancy for residence number 15 in the townland of Farahy in those ‘Revision Books.’ If the Terence in Griffith’s was my Terence, his name should be crossed off and replaced with another’s in the next set of updates. However, if the Terence in Griffith’s was, for example, an uncle of my Terence and carried his same exact name, then I’d expect to continue seeing Terence Keeffe occupying residence number 15 (until he moved away, passed on, or willed the property to another family member). This will give me the absolute answer.
One reason this question was posed was because the Terence Keeffe in the 1831 Tithe Applotment Books was listed in the townland of Ballynoe, rather than the townland of Farahy. That conflict has already been addressed above, but the question still remains a good one, especially for researchers across all of Ireland due to the Irish culture’s unique naming patterns, in which a plethora of family members could all carry the same first and last names during the same time period and in the same locality. And, of course, even unrelated neighbors may all share the same name.
To add mystery to the madness, a list of 1831 tithe defaulters names a Terry Keefe of Old Castletown. His parish was Kildorrery. While this is more than likely not the Terence Keeffe in Ballynoe in the 1831 Tithe Applotment Book or the Terence of Farahy in the 1851 Griffith’s Valuation, it’s impossible to say whether this Terry was of relation to my Terence (who also went by Terry) or even of some relation to the Terence taxed in Cashel. Further family structures will need to be built out to separate these men (or perhaps, combine them). It’s always best to play the skeptic when sketching the life of an ancestor.
It is also critical to study the historical context of your ancestor’s life, not just the details you may find about them alone, but also of their locality, acquaintances, and characteristics of others nearby in the same social or economic status. Relating the day’s headlines to how it might affect your ancestor can really bring them to life.
Google Maps, streetview, Kildorrery, County Cork, Ireland, screenshot of Failte road sign, 2023.
So far, I have found three literary sources which have enriched my understanding of Terence Keeffe’s life in Farahy in the early to mid-1800s. The first of which is the website JSTOR, known for housing a catalog of peer-reviewed journals and articles.
In chronological order of when events occurred in the area in which Terence Keeffe was living, this is the information found, per relevant source on JSTOR:
1798 January - A process server trying to collect tithes was decapitated near Kildorrery, while several others were severely beaten. This turmoil in the area would have been leading up to the birth of Terence Keeffe (born about 1800). The rebellion in Ireland occurred in this year, and tension between Catholics and Protestants, especially, was at an all time high.
Source: 'Educated Whiteboyism': The Cork Tithe War, 1798-9 by James G Patterson, History Ireland, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Winter, 2004), pp. 25-29 (5 pages), Pg. 26, Column 2
1822 – 1824 "As one observer wrote to the Dublin Evening Post, 'The state of the country between Mallow, Doneraile, and Fermoy is beyond all description. On a recent night four fires could be seen blazing at once -- near Doneraile, and at Shanballymore, Ballyhooly, and Ballyduff.'" During these years, especially in North Cork, the tenants were being squeezed with ever-increasing tithes. The area ended up under martial law to quell the outbursts by the tenants against their landlords.
Source: Review: [Untitled]; Reviewed Work: Captain Rock: The Irish Agrarian Rebellion of 1821-1824 by James S. Donnelly Jr. Review by: TIMOTHY G. McMAHON New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua, Vol. 14, No. 4 (GEIMHREADH / WINTER 2010), pp. 138-141 (4 pages), p. 139. (JSTOR; https://www.jstor.org/stable/25801035)
1859 July – In a piece of correspondence written to the Solicitor-General of Ireland in regards to local agriculture, Robert Cole Bowen, Justice of the Peace, was mentioned a healthy number of times. He had instituted an agricultural school running on his Farahy farm, near Kildorrery. A land agent, Mr. J. Bayley, said it had improved husbandry practices in the area. Bayley used Patrick Mahoney as an example for the school’s uses. He claimed the man wouldn’t have been able to farm as knowledgeably without it. Mahoney was a Poor Law Guardian, a member of the Kildorrery Dispensary Committee, a shop owner in Kildorrery, and owned over 150 acres of farms with an additional 1150 acres of inferior and mountain lands. His son trained on the "Modern Farm" and subsequently at Glasnevin. Bayley said before the school, there was little sign of green cropping, only a few turnips, and no carrots or mangels among the farmers. He said many farmers came distances to see Smith (I assume that Smith was the one teaching on Bowen's Farahy farm). There was further comment in the letter on how neighbors took direction from the Model Farm (even if they were not pupils) in 1857. It's not stated when exactly the Model Farm arose. It’s quite possible it had not yet been in existence 8-9 years prior to the letter being penned, when Terence would have lived in the vicinity. If that’s the case, Bayley’s descriptions of crops that hadn’t been grown prior to the Model Farm’s teachings are significant to Terence’s life in the area.
Source: Agricultural education in Ireland : a letter from Thomas Baldwin to Rickard Deasy, Esq., M.P., Solicitor-General for Ireland; Dublin Castle Collection, p10-11 (JSTOR; https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.29822120).
Another literary source I turned to for further context of Terence’s life on the streets and farmlands of Farahy was the novel Bowen’s Court by Elizabeth Bowen. The author was a 20th century descendant of the Cole-Bowen line, the family which owned ‘the big house’ in Farahy, as well as the land which the Keeffes leased as tenant farmers. Elizabeth Bowen titled the novel after the large estate.
Black and white photograph of Bowen's Court, Farahy, County Cork, Ireland, unknown photographer, undated.
The book was aptly named, as it was a historical account of the house itself, the lands and villages surrounding it, and how the property was transferred throughout her family tree’s branches.
The most relevant details in the novel to Terence’s life were the following:
• Lieutenant Colonel Henry Bowen was granted the Farahy lands in 1653 for his service in the Cromwellian Army
• Upon Colonel Bowen’s death in 1662, the lands transferred to his son John
• In May 1697 John Bowen II leased the Farahy lands to Mr. Andrew Nash
• The house the Nashes lived in on the property stood in just about the same location that ‘the big house’ was later built; the Bowens demolished the Nash home completely before rebuilding, but its stones were said to have been used by Robert Bowen to build the coach-house and servants’ wing
• The Nashes had been the ones to lay out, and fence in, a garden, plant an orchard, and improve the woods around what was later deemed Bowen’s Court
• In 1716, John Bowen (the 1st) willed Farahy to his wife and daughter (both named Elizabeth) on his deathbed, by unseemly means it is inferred, considering the estate was to go to his son John (the 2nd)’s son Henry; he did not die until 1718; in the meantime, his daughter immediately attempted to sell her interest to George Evans, Esq. of Caherassy and received 30 pounds for it (however, it was not a clean title, so nothing else came from the transaction though likely some bad blood between Elizabeth and George); once John did die, she attempted to sell again, but this time Llewellin Nash, Catherine Bowen, and John Bowen II were all on to her schemes.
• In 1720, John Bowen II died
• In 1722, Henry Bowen II died, having willed the Farahy lands to his widow Jane Cole (the lease to the Nashes was due to expire in 1728)
• Jane Cole was carrying the heir apparent at the time of his death, to be named Henry III (this would be the Bowen to build Bowen’s Court; the country folk called him Cooleen); the widow Jane moved with baby Henry III to Limerick but died a year later
• In 1759, a two-year lawsuit was drawn out between the Bowens and Evans in regard to the nearby Kilbolane estate
• In the late 1700s or early 1800s, during Henry IV’s time (1762-1837), there was a raid on Bowen’s house, thought by family to have been brought on by Henry IV’s bad management and tendency to show off his fortune
• In August 1830, Elizabeth’s grandfather, Robert Cole Bowen (Henry V’s elder son) was born; in his lifetime, the first train on the Dublin-Cork main line steamed into Mallow; he owned, from the time of his father’s death, 1,680 acres of County Cork and 5,060 acres of County Tipperary)
• Elizabeth Bowen felt it would be presumptuous to claim the Bowens were very popular around Farahy, yet she thought they could not have been treated any better than they were if they had been popular; she felt lonely when in England, showcasing how much Farahy made her feel at home when she was there even though many would deem her family ‘Anglo-Irish’ rather than ‘Irish’
• Bowen had never heard any disparaging remarks about “the Irish” within her household, or concerns as to them revolting against the family; she didn’t believe her father, or any ruling Bowen before him, would have stood for it
• In 1840-41, Henry V received a grant to build roads throughout County Cork which lie east of the Farahy river, sometimes at the foot of the Ballyhouras and some heading toward Doneraile; he caught a fever one rainy night in September 1841 after being out along the roads and never recovered; he died at the age of 33
• In 1847 during the height of the potato famine, Eliza Wade used the stone passage within the basement of Bowen’s Court as her own soup kitchen; starting before sun-up but never having enough to feed everyone coming to her aid; she had to serve through a trap in the barred door due to the demand; dead bodies of those too weak to reach her door were found on the grass track from the Farahy gate
• A famine pit was dug (and filled up fast) in the corner of Farahy churchyard; people were buried in it without coffins; many were folks from nearby mountainous areas coming to Bowen’s Court for soup, leading to a higher death rate in Farahy than other local parishes
• Robert Cole Bowen (the author’s grandfather) married in 1860 and died in 1888
The third literary source, I stumbled upon coincidentally. In preparation for a long drive in the car, I scrolled through a laundry list of episodes from “The Irish History Podcast” and randomly chose one to listen to. Within minutes, my ears perked up.
The episode I had played, concerned a man in County Cork with the name O’Keeffe who had murdered a landowner belonging to the Franks family in the year 1823. Not only did the murder take place in the same county my Keeffe family had been living in that year, but I was also familiar with the name of the victim. The Franks family were the landowners of Terence Keeffe’s wife’s family, the Meades in Meadstown!
The episode went on to explain of a movement around the area of North and East Cork (and other nearby counties in Munster as well) in the early 1820s called the Irish Agrarian Rebellion. The campaign was led by a fictional mascot, of sorts, a mythical folk hero named Captain Rock, a leader for the downtrodden and impoverished tenant farmers who were being constantly over-taxed by landowners and asked to pay higher rents, even throughout famine and drought. Upwards of 100 murders could be attributed to the Rockites spanning six counties in the 1820s, 22 of those deaths being in County Cork, according to James S. Donnelly, Jr., an expert in the matter.
Captain Rock animation, undated; The Board of Trinity College Dublin, Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland.
Also, while not entirely a religious war, the insurgents (likely influenced by the Whiteboys of the decades prior) were typically of the Catholic faith, vying against the local government and legislative bodies who were usually of the Church of Ireland.
So, was the Keeffe mentioned in the podcast related to my family? I had to know! I immediately conducted further research on the revolts and discovered a pamphlet penned by Denis A. Cronin on the matter, entitled Who killed the Franks family? Agrarian violence in pre-Famine Cork.
Lord Lieutenant and Council of Ireland, "A Proclamation," unknown newspaper, undated.
To not bury the lede, I’ll say now I am still not positive how, or if, the alleged Keeffe murderer is an ancestor of mine, though I suspect he was of some relation. Here were the key takeaways from the essay:
• In March 1822, a list of local outrages was compiled and forwarded on to the government by Andrew Batwell, a magistrate residing at Bowen’s Court; he reported that the entire line of country from Kildorrery to Mitchelstown to Fermoy, and along the county lines of Limerick, ‘is inhabited by men of the most violent and dissolute habits’
o His list included an event in November 1821, where a large group gathered in Kildorrery village ‘with much shouting, and greeted by several of the Inhabitants from their windows’ and dispersed only when the Rifle Brigade marched into the village to occupy a post there
o A couple months later in February 1822, the same Riflemen were stoned in the village
o Large groups of men gathered at night near the gates of large houses, such as Bowen’s Court and Rockmills Lodge, to be sworn in as members of the Rockite movement
o The houses of larger farmers were raided, either for arms or in reprisal for distraining against tenants
o On another occasion, Batwell wrote from Bowen’s Court that the countryside was in a state of near anarchy, claiming ‘not a night passes without burnings in some direction, within view of this post.’
• The most well-known incident in the area occurred in February 1822 when a band of Rockites held up and raped a group of women, wives of the Riflemen mentioned previously in Batwell’s list of disturbances, near Kildorrery
• In the area surrounding Kildorrery, the hostility of the agrarian groups appeared to be more concentrated against middlemen (typically land agents or tithe collectors) and the more prosperous tenant farmers, and less so against the leading landlords of the area (e.g. the Bowens of Bowen’s Court or Lord Kingston of Mitchelstown)
• In 1823 in Kildorrery, two Rockite notices were posted on the Catholic chapel (this was 3 years prior to Terence and Anne marrying in this church):
o "To the Gentleman Farmers of the parish of Malagga
Friends
Unless you are less severe to my poor subjects and take more moderate steps and adobt [sic] the following principles ye shall be treated after the most [?] manner that man ever devised
1. To diminish the price of the Potatoe which is the Common provision (for my poor soldiers cannot subsist without food) to the lowest price you possibly can.
2. Any person who has taken land within the period before mentioned and which if not resigned to the original possessors in the shortest time possible shall be treated as above mentioned.
J[ohn]. R[ock]. N.B. it is a Cordial Advice"
o "The tythe proctors of this parish and especially one O’Brien are cautioned to take notice that he shall suffer the greatest punishment human Ingenuity can inflict if he does not conduct himself better so let him mock the consequence but plainly tell him it is the candid truth
Signed at the Committee by Lieutenant firebrand asserter of Ireland’s rights by order,
General J Rock."
• On the evening of Tuesday, 9 Sep 1823, Thomas Franks, his wife Margaret, and their son Henry Maunsell Franks (age 24) – all members of the Church of Ireland – were brutally murdered by an armed gang at their home in the townland of Lisnagourneen (between the villages of Castletownroche and Kildorrery in north-east Cork)
o Thomas Franks was the second of four sons of Henry Franks, who seems to have come originally from Co. Limerick, and who acquired the tenancy of the townland of Meadstown, perhaps after his marriage in 1763 to Margaret, the daughter of John Maunsell, JP of Ballybrood, Co. Limerick
o Thomas and Margaret named their son Henry Maunsell Franks, likely to profit from the Maunsell’s name who ranked higher socially than the Franks
o The Franks appeared to be a family in the lower ranks of the Protestant gentry, most likely making their living as farmers and middlemen
o Thomas’ older brother, Robert, inherited Henry Franks’ lands in Meadstown
• Following the Franks murder, a curfew was enacted and anyone caught out and about past curfew was found to be suspicious and possibly entangled in committing the act
o In the wee morning hours of 10 Sep (the night of the murders), a poor labourer William Meade was arrested and turned over to the police in Lisnagourneen; he was later indicted in Fermoy under the Insurrection Act for being idle and disorderly; he had been caught walking on the road with a reaping hook in his hand and had to explain he had been reaping corn for a farmer named Callaghan who lived only three fields from the Franks’ house; he headed home when he received word from his mother to get home quickly; her own landlord Fleming was refusing to let her dig potatoes unless her son fulfilled an obligational task for him; the trial was made less smooth by the fact that William and most of his local witnesses spoke mainly Irish and required an interpreter for the English proceedings
• The Franks family were buried together in Kildorrery graveyard among local gentry; conspicuously absent were the tenant farmers of the Franks family from their funeral services
• Local magistrates gathered at Bowen’s Court to discuss the Franks case, the motive for the killings, and the general situation
• In January 1824, a man was tried under the Insurrection Act for disorderly conduct and for violating the curfew at a public house in Kildorrery, and it was reported that he sang a song which encouraged his listeners to ‘tear Orangemen and Protestants to pieces’
• Two trials came to be held for the murders, 1 against the Cremin brothers (Patrick, Maurice, and John; all convicted on 10 April 1824 and all hanged while professing their innocence on 12 April 1824) and 1 against Arthur Keeffe, who became a suspect only after the assizes of April 1824
• In June 1824, a notice was posted on the gate of Bowen’s Court warning ‘Capten [sic] Rock is going to commence to kill all the Protestants [he] will find [and] burn them alive in their houses’
• During one of the trials, a man named Edmund Magner provided a compelling confession; he spoke of a meeting that took place after Sunday Mass in early June 1823 at Patrick Power’s public house in Shanballymore, at which, a plot was hatched to kill the Franks family; he accused James Magrath of Carriglea, Patrick Meade, John Carney and the three Cremin brothers, all of Meadstown, as being involved
• A few days before one of the trials, Major Carter, who was investigating the murders, was given information on a new suspect who may have led the murder gang; a local farmer from near Rockmills, Arthur Keeffe, a short distance from Lisnagourneen, who may have been instructing a group of people to murder the Franks family all while wearing a green surtout coat and repeatedly yelling “do your duty!”
• The Cremin brothers were found guilty and were hanged for the murders, but on the same morning of their execution, the trial began against Arthur Keeffe and Patrick Meade
o Arthur Keeffe’s motive was alleged to have to do with land inheritance that was disrupted due to Henry Maunsell Franks’ courting of the daughter of Arthur’s father-in-law (by his father-in-law’s 2nd marriage), Miss Kearney
o Arthur was officially charged 18 Aug 1825, but was eventually declared ‘not guity’, mostly due to the prime eyewitness of the murders retracting her story
o It would appear Patrick Meade may have been dismissed from the charges as well (though it’s unclear what his outcome was)
Surprisingly, in the end, not only had a Keeffe been charged with the murder, but also a Meade! Regardless of whether the murderer was related to Terence Keeffe or not, the murder certainly happened in the backyard of the Keeffe family. This event would have been a wholly unsettling crisis for the local community with troubling consequences for everyone. It would have cast a wide shadow of doubt over the nearby townlands between all tenant farmers and their lessors, and vice versa. Terence would not have been immune to its effects, especially while he and his wife shared surnames with the accused.
And even had there not been a brutal murder, the Rockite movement that was flourishing in the area at the time, would have had a profound impact on my Keeffe family. I’m quite thankful to both ‘The Irish History Podcast’ and the author of Who killed the Franks family? for shining a light on this little piece of history. Were it not for either of them, I probably would have never known about any of this! It has given me so many leads to follow-up on during further research efforts.
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