2023 Ireland Research Trip with Donna Moughty Day 5: Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Ireland Library and the NLI
They say it's lucky for rain to fall on your wedding day. Well, I count myself lucky that rain finally fell on my fifth day in Dublin, and it did seem to bring with it some good finds! On Wednesday, October 11th, I was free to go out on my own and research wherever I saw fit. I had my eyes set on a repository outside the realm of where our group was headed, but physically just steps away from us -- the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Ireland Library! It was located just opposite our hotel, in fact.
DAY 5
But first, breakfast! I took a table with my fellow researchers, Pat and Bill, in the lobby of our hotel, where I delighted in a wonderful cup of hot cocoa. Then, my adventures lay literally just a hop, skip, and a jump away from our front doorstep -- at the Grand Lodge at 17 Molesworth Street.
I walked past the pillars and into the lobby, greeted by some very interesting tile work on the floor.
I spoke with the woman sitting at the entrance booth and let her know I had an appointment with Archivist & Curator Rebecca Hayes. While they fetched her, they invited me to wait in the museum at the end of the hall. When she arrived, we took a seat at the long banquet table in that room and discussed a little bit more about what I was hoping to find there.
For this library, I wasn't in search of my Keeffe or Meade lines, but rather, one of my paternal lines -- the Millers. My 3rd great grandfather, Charles Henry Miller, was said to have been a freemason who had reached the 32nd degree of the fraternity (now, whether that is true or not, who knows). There's a lot of mystery that shrouds Miller's past, but I'm hoping that if I begin proving or disproving parts of his overall tale, I'll eventually sort out fact from fiction. Family records give his birth as 1797 in Belfast, Ireland, and by the year 1840, he is living in Lisbon, St. Lawrence, New York, USA, so I theorized that in order to reach the 32nd degree of the Freemasons (which should have taken many years to obtain), that he would have first joined a lodge in Ireland.
All of the lodge correspondence (from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) is housed at the Grand Lodge in Dublin. Unfortunately, I did not know exactly which lodge Miller belonged to (or whether he belonged to one there at all), so I first looked up the freemason membership rolls on AncestryUK and searched for any Charles Millers in and around the Belfast-area lodges between 1750 and 1850. I also kept notes on any Millers or Millars that appeared in any of them, even if their first name was not Charles (or Henry).
I was able to narrow down the potential lodges to 41 & 615 of Larne, County Antrim and 94 of Kilwaughter Larne, County Antrim, all of which are on the outskirts of Belfast. Rebecca was happy to pull those records and had them waiting for me when I arrived. She mentioned that they also hold meeting minutes for lodges as well, but mostly from the Dublin lodges.
If Charles Miller's family legend holds any truth, he was said to have fled Belfast by ship over to America to escape a hanging offense. Stories also claim he abandoned a wife and three children at the time, meaning this likely would have occurred between 1830 and 1840 given his age and his appearance on the 1840 U.S. federal census.
So, my hypothesis was that if I found Miller in any of the lodge correspondence, he would have to then disappear from the rolls before 1840 to have any potential of being the proper Charles Miller. If the Miller I found in any of the lodges was still mentioned past 1840 in their correspondence, it could not be my ancestor, as mine would have already been living in Lisbon, NY by then. I was also hoping that if Miller had indeed run from a hanging charge (or similar scandal), that there would be some writings about that excitement in the lodge's paperwork.
Rebecca gave me 9 folders to search through -- all at once! It was pretty glorious, after having been working at the NLI and NAI where I was only allowed 1 folder at a time with so much oversight. Here, I was also given permission to take as many photographs as I pleased. And I had the entire museum and banquet table to myself to conduct my research! It was just so cool.
I started with Lodge 94 Kilwaughter Larne, because that lodge only had 1 folder of material to get through. I figured I'd knock it out quickly first. I opened up the folder, and wouldn't you know it, but within the first 4 pages, I had already stumbled upon paperwork mentioning a Charles Miller!
The letter is transcribed as follows:
Kilwaughter 4th May 1828 94
Sir & Brs.
I hope you will be so good as to Excuse
my writing to you at this time and
be so good as to Register to our Lodge
No 94 Br. Charles Miller your Compliance
with this will Much obliedge your
humble Servts. & Brs. The Master Wardens
of Kilwaughter Royal > William Agnew
Lodge No 94 Master
James Humpherys S Warden
Robert Doag S Warden
John White Secty
[?] I when I write before 24th June
I intend to Clear off all
Debts to the Grand Lodge
Wright as soon as this
Cums to hand and let one
know ---
If this was my 3rd great grandfather Charles Henry Miller, the admittance to the lodge in the year 1828 would make sense. My Charles would have been 31 years old if family documentation of his birthdate is accurate.
A day later, the following letter was enclosed in Kilwaughter's file, also mentioning a Chas. Miller. Was this a different Charles Miller, or the same who had just applied for membership?
This letter shed light on a very interesting scandal, indeed! It's written by Brother Burke (formerly of 587 St. Patrick's Lodge Belfast, now of 94 Larne) addressed to the Secretary of the Masonic Grand Lodge informing them they got word in the neighborhood that a fellow Brother had been approached by a man named Alise Miller requesting funds for relief, as if on behalf of the brotherhood.
The Brother did not give Miller any money. Brother Burke claims the funds were actually not for poor relief, but rather to pay for litigation in the courts contesting a will which had not paid out its legacy for 8 years. Alise Miller, now a pauper, was allegedly encouraged by his son Chas. Miller, who had also not received payout for 8 years, to take up litigation in the courts. Brother Burke claimed the will had been established first in the Ecclesiastical Court in Lisburn and secondly confirmed in Armagh.
Brother Burke further went on to note that the seal of one or two lodges in the area had been somehow obtained irregularly and addressed to the Grand Lodge in seek of further funds. He said he hoped the Grand Lodge would not appropriate any of its funds "for such unworthy purpose when Malice is the Motive of Disintended people."
Could this be my 3rd and 4th great grandparents, Charles and Alise Miller? I do not have any records hinting at a name for my 3rd great grandfather's parents. It's certainly a possibility. Regardless, was this the same Charles that was attempting to gain membership to the lodge just the day before? There is no further mention of this incident in the lodge's paperwork, and the folders do not typically carry much of the return correspondence from the Grand Lodge back to the individual lodge, so we do not know how the Grand Lodge reacted to this fraudulent news.
What we do learn from Kilwaughter 94's folder is that a Chas. Miller begins appearing in its extant membership rolls later that year, beginning the 27th of December (Chas Miller is at the bottom of the 3rd column of names on the right).
So even if this is Alise Miller's son, the lodge has accepted him into their ranks.
Chas. Miller then continued to appear on the membership rolls the following June and December of 1829. Following those lists, there were some years missing from the folder.
The next roll with Chas. Miller on it is dated June 1833. And then, on the December 1833 list and beyond, he has vanished from the lodge.
The file is thin and many years are missing, but fast forward to October 1855, and one of the Kilwaughter 94 fraternity members beseeches the Grand Lodge to lessen their dues as they can no longer afford them, having been reduced in number due to immigration and deaths to just 8 members in their local lodge!
Considering this was just a few years past the tail end of the Great Famine, it's no wonder their lodge was facing financial difficulty.
The final papers in the Kilwaughter Larne folder actually pertained to a nearby lodge, Larne Blue Lodge No. 41. Perhaps these lodges combined at some point, or their papers were just filed incorrectly.
Larne Blue Lodge No. 41 shows a Charles Millar as S W [Senior Warden] on 25 June 1842 and John Millar as Secretary also with Jas. Millar as a member. Six months later on 16 January 1843, the same lodge has Chas Miller as SW and John Miller as Secretary (no James listed). I can rule these out as my ancestor Charles, since he would have been living in the United States by this point.
In one of the folders for Lodge No. 41, a letter from Charles Millar in San Francisco in 1879 claims he had originated in No 41 in 1865 and was hoping for his discharge papers to join a local lodge in SF. The letter quoted "he was initiated, passed, and raised" in the spring of 1865. While I'm not entirely sure, maybe this was the Charles Millar who was enumerated twice in the U.S. federal 1880 census in both Monterey and Santa Cruz, California (not far from San Francisco). That Charles was listed as being born in Ireland with a father who was from Prussia. That father, also named Charles, was living with him in one of those enumerations in California.
In December 1869, brother John Millar, former secretary of lodge 41, seeked charity due to ill health by way of a letter in the lodge's folder. He claimed he had to resign from his job of clerk and bookkeeper in the Works of Mr. Ingham Bleacher, Millbrook, Larne and that he was raised in the lodge 24 yrs ago. In his own words, he has a wife and 4 children to support; 2 of his kids are apprentices in trades (one in Milliner + Dressmaking and one in Joining trade), and if he could wait a year, his children could assist him.
In the meantime, he is asking for 4 pounds; he is in the care of Mr. James Hamilton, Merchant on Point or Paint Street in Larne [there was a George Millar and family living on that street in the 1851 Ireland fragment census with sister Sarah Millar and mother Egnas Millar who had died in 1848]. John claims he or his family will repay the charity in short time and that he is suffering from Brights disease of the kidneys. In a subsequent letter, John returns a note for 1 pound with thanks claiming it was not enough to sustain them, because he is bedridden for 10 months.
It's possible the John Millar, Senr (54) who was living on Old Town Street as a grocer in the 1851 Ireland census fragment and was married twice in 1823 and 1847 but with no wife in household was this same John. He was living with 4 children: David (17), Alexr. (15), Mary (12), and James Millar (9).
A transcript of the 1851 census fragment gives more details on the entire family, including members who had died (their neighbor AGNEW was also a freemason):
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/24674:49109?tid=&pid=&queryId=de907fb0cd718c49a57e220ceb2098b2&_phsrc=Vnp3659&_phstart=successSource
Another Miller mention occurred in the papers for the Royal Larne Lodge No 615 in 1828. There was a registered Robt. Millar. And between 1831 up through June 1836, there is a John Millar and Robt Millar in this lodge. The name Robert Miller carries some significance, because it's claimed that a relative of my ancestor Charles was named Robert and was the Head of the Orange Society in County Galway, Ireland. Due to the Irish tending to use naming patterns in families, it would be a good idea to keep the Robt Millar of Larne under observation due to his close proximity and name.
Also, Henry Millar of Lodge No 788 received the degree of mark master on 11 April 1864. This year is far beyond my search range, but it's important to consider that if Charles' family legend is true, he abandoned a couple sons in the Belfast region who would be of age around this time to also join a lodge.
Through the rest of the Larne lodge folders, there are no more Miller mentions and no stories that resembled the legend of my ancestor Charles' escape from Ireland. I did not look through any other lodge's folders for the fact that in the membership rolls on AncestryUK, there were no further lodges with Millers who appeared to fit the profile of my ancestor. It's not to say that Charles couldn't have belonged to another lodge in the Belfast region, only that it's less likely or less likely to find a paper trail.
For now, the Charles Miller of Kilwaughter Larne lodge is looking like a great candidate to be my ancestor! He disappears from the Ireland records at precisely the right time to head to the Americas and start a new life there.
After I finished up with all of the lodge folders, it was time to return to the National Library of Ireland just around the corner to get back to researching my maternal Irish family lines. I still had about 1 and a half rolls of microfilm to scan through that I hadn't finished with 2 days previous. They were of rent rolls and maps concerning the Bowen family estates in County Cork and County Tipperary (the family that owned the land my Keeffe ancestors lived on).
Here is where I was certain I'd find my 4th great grandfather Terence Keeffe named, because I knew he was a tenant on the Bowen's property during Griffith's Valuation in the mid 1800s. Rent rolls are essentially private ledgers where a land owner keeps track of rent due from each of their tenants. Typically a land agent acts as a middleman between the landowner and his/her tenants. In the case of the Bowens, a William Galwey was employed as the land agent and would have been the person actively collecting dues from each of the Bowens' tenants as well as tracking who was past due and/or refusing to pay. It's quite likely William Galwey also had a familial relationship to the Bowens, as Galwey was the maiden name of both Eliza who married Robert Cole Bowen in 1806 and Eliza Wade who married Robert's son Henry Cole Bowen V in 1829.
On the following microfilm scan, page 7 shows a list of lands in County Cork owned by Henry Cole Bowen with tenants' names and the arrears in pounds owed to the land agent Wm. Galwey for March and May 1788. Note that property number 37, named Lismonahish, has no tenant listed. These are the lands I'd expect to find the Keeffe family living on. Granted, this is approx. 12 years prior to the birth of Terence Keeffe.
On the following page, the ledger claims a full year's rent is outstanding on this property, amounting to 21 pounds, 19 shillings, and 3 quid. In the Observations column, the note reads: "21 : 19 : 3 on Hands..."
I am not aware exactly what this is to mean, and there's also a possibility I am mistranscribing the word "Hands." Regardless, a Keeffe family member is not listed here as a tenant at this time, which is important to take account of.
I should also call out that Meadstown is listed as property number 68 above, and the tenant named is Henry Franks. Meadstown is where my 4th great grandmother Annie Meade hailed from before marrying Terence Keeffe. The townland is just south of Lismonihish (or Lismonihis, as I most often choose to spell it). Henry Franks would later become a not-so-liked land agent in the area, and eventually was murdered in 1823, along with his wife and son, by a mob of Whiteboys or Rockites. Arthur Keeffe was one of the men who stood charged with these murders, and whom I wonder could be of relation to me.
1788 is also a critical year because it's when Henry Cole Bowen IV became legal heir to the Bowen estate after his father, Henry Cole Bowen III (who designed Bowen's Court), passed away. This is likely the reason why the rent rolls on the microfilm begin at this year. The land agent, William Galwey, was probably told to take an accurate count of all of their arrears in order to properly value the estate following Bowen's death.
Skipping ahead to the time period when Terence Keeffe was known to be a tenant on the land of heir Robert Cole Bowen, the rent roll for the area shows the following in September 1848 in Co. Cork:
Starting at property number 20, the land of Lognagileshee includes tenants John Barry, Reps. Moses Keeffe, Reps. Ed. Keating, and Patrick Linehan. All of these names are familiar to me from the Tithe Applotment Books of 1831 and Griffith's Valuation taken within months or years of this rent roll being published.
When "Reps." is included in the tenant's name, this translates to the current tenants being the legal representatives of that person, typically meaning that person has died and now their heirs have become the new tenants on the land. Since Moses Keeffe was listed as "Reps. Moses Keeffe," it's likely Moses has passed away and his widow, or a child of his, has taken occupancy. Moses could very well have been a brother of Terence Keeffe's, but further research will need to be had to bore out that conclusion. On the map I found of this area earlier on in the week, Lognagileshee was located just to the southeast of Lismonihis.
Starting at line number 27, the tenants of Lismonhish (aka Lismonihis) are recorded as Thos. O'Mahony and Reps. A. O'Keeffe! This is where I would have expected Terence's name to be listed. This is a fantastic find, as the record states that the legal representatives of A. O'Keeffe are now the current tenants of Lismonihis in September 1848. Because Terence is listed as the occupier of Lismonihis both in 1831 in the Tithe Applotment Book and circa 1848 in Griffith's Valuation, this implies that Terence Keeffe is the legal representative of A. O'Keeffe.
It's unfortunate that Terence's name isn't specifically listed nor the given name for A. O'Keeffe, but we can reasonably deduce that this line is referring to Terence, due to his being the occupier both before and after this rent roll was published. Also, there is strong reason to believe that A. O'Keeffe's given name was Arthur, because Terence named his first and only son Arthur, and because the only other nearby Keeffes with a given name beginning with A that had been recorded thus far were Arthurs [read further for more on this A. O'Keeffe]. And remember, an Arthur Keeffe stood trial for the murder of the Henry Franks family nearby.
Finally, on line number 29, R. Franks is recorded in the rent roll as being the tenant on Bowen's Meadstown lands. This would have been a relation of Henry Franks, the man who was murdered in 1823, allegedly by Arthur Keeffe and other members of a mob.
Taking a peek back at line number 22, John Barry is listed as the tenant in Lognagileshee. On the following page, under the Observations column, the note reads:
"This was Michael Keeff's. now letting to John Barry from March 1848."
In the 1754 map I had found of the area in the Bowens' manuscripts at NLI, Michael Keeffe's land was adjoining both Lognagileshee and Lissmonaheen (aka Lismonihis). That map was dated approx. 100 years prior to the publishing of the above rent roll, so it's possible the rent roll is referencing a different Michael Keeffe than the one who owned land 100 years previous. But even so, there is a strong likelihood it is referencing the same piece of land (or nearby property) that has remained in the Keeffe family's possession. Another Michael Keefe was recorded on the 1831 Tithe Applotment as a next door neighbor to Denis Keefe (this was only a few doors down from where Moses Keefe was enumerated). In the tithes, all of this land was referred to as Fanahy [Farahy].
Analyzing property number 28 from Sep/Nov 1847 to Sep/Nov 1848 in Lismonihis further, we see the Reps. of A. O'Keeffe were subject to the following dues on their property:
Poor Rate - 2pounds 8shillings --quid
Arrears due Sep & Nov 1847 - 33pounds 1shilling 7.5quid
Yearly Rent - 32pounds 12shillings 9quid
Total Rent and Rent Charge - 32pounds 12shillings 9quid
Total Rent and Arrears to Sep & Nov 1848 - 65pounds 14shillings 4.5quid
Received Thereout Sep & Nov 1848 - 32pounds 4shillings 6quid
Present Arrears up to and for Sep & Nov 1848 - 33pounds 9shillings 10.5quid
Then, in Sept. & Nov 1848, the rent rolls capture property number 28 again. This time, the ledger is a tad more clear on the current tenant: Reps. of Arthur O'Keeffe!
This is about as close to a smoking gun as we could likely get to naming the father of Terence Keeffe during this time period in Ireland. I have found my 5th great grandfather, Arthur O'Keeffe.
The following dues were on the property this year:
Poor Rate - 2pounds 15shillings 4quid
Arrears due Sept & Nov 1848 - 38pounds 9shillings 10.5quid
Yearly Rent - 32pounds 12shillings 9quid
Total Rent and Rent Charge - 32pounds 12shillings 9quid
Total Rent and Arrears to Sept & Nov 1849 - 57pounds 14shillings 14.5quid
Received Thereout Sept & Nov 1849 - 17pounds 13shillings 4quid
Present Arrears up to and for Sept & Nov 1849 - 40pounds 1shilling 0.5quid
The following dues were on the property the following year:
Poor Rate - --pounds --shillings --quid
Arrears due Sept & Nov 1849 - 40pounds 1shilling 0.5quid
Yearly Rent - 32pounds 12shillings 9quid
Total Rent and Rent Charge - 32pounds 12shillings 9quid
Total Rent and Arrears to Sept & Nov 1850 - --pounds --shillings --quid
Received Thereout Sept & Nov 1850 - --pounds --shillings --quid
Present Arrears up to and for Sept & Nov 1850 - --pounds --shilling --quid
And in the observations column, the following note: "28. Now let to Patrick Long at L[pound] to an acre + only ect[?] to survey from 25th March 1851"
Starting in the 1850 book, Patrick Long is listed as the tenant on the Lismonlish (Lismonihis) property, noting that he began letting 25 March 1851. This change in occupancy lines up with the movement of my 4th great grandparents to the States. They sailed from London, landing in New York on 3 January 1851, so they would have no longer been living in Lismonihis by 25 March 1851.
In 1863 and onward, the rent rolls begin to lump all of these residential properties like Lismonihis (with Patrick Long still as tenant on number 22) and Lognagileshee, under the townland name of Farrahy. This may assist me in verifying exactly where the property was located and who was living on it in later years by referencing back to the records I found at the Valuation Office.
By 1877, in the microfilm there are individual ledgers held for each property. The above, residence number 20, is the new number for Patrick Long's Lismonlish (Lismonihis) property.We see he has been crossed off as the tenant and replaced by David Long (likely a son or other relation). The contents of holding contain just over 45 acres with a yearly rent of 37 pounds, 4 shillings, 6 quid (a decrease of about 2 pounds from the year 1863, as shown in a different ledger entry). The lease began on 1 August 1854 with a tenure of the life of Patrick Long.
And wouldn't you know it, but a balance sheet for the property exists beginning in 1851 when Patrick Long took occupancy over it! If only there were extant balance sheets prior to 1851, then Terence's name may have been on one (though it's likely it still would have only been listed as Reps. of Arthur O'Keeffe)!
That wrapped up the discoveries I could make via microfilm. From there, I skipped down the street to skim through two more folders of Bowen manuscript files (1 box of correspondence and 1 box of business accounts), but did not locate anything of genealogical value for my family in either.
It was finally the close of business! I walked back over to our hotel to find several of our researchers in the lobby. A few of us decided to head out to dinner.
Mary, Anne, and I tried out a local restaurant, Davy Byrne's, which was fantastic. I'm still drooling over the fried brie and pear appetizer I tried.
Upon returning to the hotel that night, I thought the hotel had misplaced my room key. They gave me a spare for the evening, but funny enough, I found the "lost" key in my purse the next morning! I guess I just needed some much needed sleep.
Half of our research week in Dublin was already over. It was speeding by so fast. Coming up in my blog is our Thursday (Day 6) adventure to the North Side of the city where we toured the Registry of Deeds.
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