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Sunday 4 November 2012

More Courtenay marriages...

This post concerns further details on Courtenay intermarriages. I'll add to it if I find more.

During a recent visit to the Registry of Deeds in Henrietta Street, Dublin, I came across a deed of assignment dated 24th November 1890.
This concerned the sale of numbers 55 and 56 Blessington Street.  Our maternal great-great grandmother, Isabella Jones, was buying the property - the deed named her as Isabella Jones, of 9 Middle Mountjoy Street, wife of Charles Jones.  Charles and Isabella Jones lived at 56 Blessington Street from 1890.
Isabella was buying the property from two people - Caroline Frances Vance of 2 Upper Beechwood Avenue, and Robert Courtenay Vance of 56 Dawson Street.
On the same day, a separate deed detailed the mortgage of £300 which she acquired from the Dublin Mutual Benefit Building Society.  This was one of the earliest properties which she took on;  by the time of her death in 1940, she owned about thirty separate houses around the city.  We had  assumed that she had been compelled to turn to property development following the death of her husband in 1893, but she had evidently caught the property bug much earlier than that.

Isabella was the daughter of Emily Courtenay, and the granddaughter of Frederick and Mary Courtenay who lived at 27 Wellington St, as did her great-uncle, Francis Courtenay, who was admitted to the Freemen of Dublin by birth, being the son of Thomas Courtenay, Shearman.  Another individual admitted to the Freemen of Dublin was Robert Courtenay Junior 22 of Ranelagh Road, admitted as a grandson of the same Thomas Courtenay, Shearman;  Robert was the son of Robert Courtenay Senior, solicitor of Lower Gardiner Street.  Also admitted, later, as a grandson of Thomas Courtenay, Shearman, was his grandson, Thomas Courtenay of the Royal Hospital, who was the son of Frederick Courtenay of 27 Wellington Street and, therefore, an uncle of our Isabella Jones who bought 55 and 56 Blessington St from Robert Courtenay Vance.

 I wondered if Robert Courtenay Vance, the vendor of 55 and 56 Blessington Street was a relation of our Isabella Jones.  And, yes, he was....

The Vance Family:
Originally French, the Vance family settled first in Scotland before moving to settle in Ireland - the first of the Vance family to come over was a clergyman, Rev. John Vauss or Vans, who had been appointed to the parish of Kilmacrenan, Donegal in about 1617 and who died in about 1661 or 1662;  his grandson, John Vance, later moved further south and settled in Coagh, Co. Tyrone, having received a grant of land there under the Act of Settlement.  There he built a brewery, a distillery, a malthouse and various other properties.

John Vance of Coagh married a Miss Williamson and had seven children.

One of his daughters married Humphrey Bell of Bellmount near Stewartstown, Co. Tyrone, while another married a Mr. Smith of Dungannon.   Of great interest was a third daughter who married Andrew Jackson of Magherafelt - this couple emigrated to America and were the parents of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States.  

The four sons of John Vance of Coagh were John, James, William and Andrew.   John Vance left his Coagh property to his second son, James Vance.
James Vance of Coagh, also had a son, James Vance, who settled in Dublin and who married Martha Sherrard in St. Lukes on  14 March 1772.  James Vance was an alderman and high sheriff of the city; he also served as Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1805 - 6.   One of Alderman Vance's daughters married Mountiford John Hay of Dublin and had a daughter, Pauline Ivy Sterling who married Colonel Maude of Lucknow; another daughter of Alderman James Vance and Martha Sherrard married a solicitor, George O'Brien.
Miss Vance and George O'Brien had a daughter who married Rev. Ratcliffe of Donard, Co. Wicklow, and another -Eliza O'Brien of Hardwick Street -  who married Every Carmichael of 18 Herbert Place on 2nd September 1836;  the son of George O'Brien was named as James Vance O'Brien,  a solicitor of Dublin.
The daughter of Every or Evory Carmichael and Eliza O'Brien was Eveline Cecilia Carmichael who married, on 28th October 1872, Rev. Abraham Herbert Orper-Palmer of Kenmare - she died on 5th November 1923 at High Park, Kiltegan.

William Vance, the son of James of Coagh, settled as a merchant in Dublin where he married a Miss Gormley and where he died in 1801.  His three sons were the Dublin solicitor, James Vance, the soldier Richard Vance, and John Vance.

Joseph Vance and Miss Usher:
A son of  James Vance and Miss Williamson of Coagh was Joseph Vance, a distiller who married a Miss Usher of Armagh. Joseph Vance, distiller, died in 1784 in Cookstown, leaving a family of six, the eldest son being James Vance of Summerhill,  Dublin, who married Mary Anne Shaw.   It was this Dublin branch of the family which married into our own Dublin Courtenay family.
Joseph Vance, distiller, had another son, John Vance, whose son was the George Washington Vance who provided the genealogical material for the 1860 Vance book written by a relation William Balbirnie, 'An Account, Historical and Genealogical, From the Earliest Days Till the Present Time, of the family of Vance in Ireland, Vans in Scotland, anciently Vaux in Scotland and England, and originally De Vaux in France'.  I accessed a copy of the book online via Internet Archive Texts.

James Vance of Summerhill, Dublin, and Mary Ann Shaw:
Dr. James Vance of Summerhill, Dublin, the son of Joseph Vance, distiller, married Mary Ann Shaw on 23rd July 1799 in St. James, Dublin. 

Following James Vance Senior's death, his property of 51 Summerhill, including its contents, was put up for auction by his son, Dr. James Vance of 8 Suffolk Street in October 1831.  He also put up for lease a new house at 27 Hardwicke Street and a house at 65 Upper Dorset Street.  Enquiries were to be directed to 8 Suffolk Street, 35 Nassau Street or to the auctioneers. ('Dublin Evening Mail', 24th October 1831.)
'Saunders Newsletter' of 14th October 1830 had run an advertisement whereby James Vance announced that he had just bought 8, Suffolk Street,  the house and establishment of the late Mr. McAlpine.  Later he operated from 10 Suffolk Street.

James Vance of 51 Summerhill, the eldest son of Joseph Vance of Cookstown and husband of Mary Anne Shaw, had six sons and four daughters:

1)  Joseph Vance who died aged 21 at Summerhill in July 1831.

2)  William Shaw Vance - a solicitor,  William Shaw Vance, son of James Vance and Mary Anne Shaw of Summerhill, married Margaret Conroy,the eldest daughter of  John Conroy of Upper Dorset Street, in St. Mary's in October 1837;  at the time of the marriage in 1837, William Shaw Vance was living at Hardwicke Street but subseuqently lived at 37 Upper Dorset Street.
Their children were  John Vance born in June 1843, Thomas Shaw Vance born December 1844, Margaret Jane McDowell Vance born January 1846 and William Shaw Vance Junior born March 1848.
The older William Shaw Vance, solicitor of Upper Dorset Street, died in Kilkenny of typhus on 31st September 1847.  This was the year of the Great Famine and typhus was rife throughout the country.

3) Thomas Shaw Vance. Born in Summerhill in 1801, he lived in Nassau Street. Thomas Shaw Vance died at 20 Nassau Street, Dublin,  in September 1852.  In the 1847 street directory he was noted there as 'Vance, Thomas,  foreign perfumery,  hosiery,  and glove warehouse.'

4) James Vance, the apothecary of 10 Suffolk Street, who married our Mary Alicia Courtenay in 1841.  James Vance, apothecary of 10 Suffolk Street, died on 12th January 1875 - his will was proved by his brother, Richard Ephraim Vance of 51 Blessington Street, and by his son, Robert Courtenay Vance, solicitor of Blessington Street.   A daughter was Eliza Courtenay Vance who died aged 44 on 14th June 1896 - her headstone in Mount Jerome noted her as the daughter of the late James Vance of Summer Hill.

5)  Richard Ephraim Vance (8th June 1819 - 28th September 1880) who lived with his brother, James Vance, at 10 Suffolk Street.  He was noted at Suffolk Street in 1847;  later, the Voters list for Dublin, compiled in 1865, noted James Vance and Richard Ephraim Vance at the same address in Suffolk Street, but when he died on 28th September 1880, he was living at 51 Blessington Street.  His will was administered by his nephew, the solicitor, Robert Courtenay Vance of 34 Kildare Street.  In 1869,  properties belonging to Richard Ephraim Vance (and also to Paul Askin, Emer and Susanna Harte, and to Edward Richard Carolin) were put up for sale in the Encumbered Estates Court.  The properties concerned were plots of building ground on the North Strand and a house at 29 Lower Abbey Street.
In December 1852, the Encumbered Estates Court also put up for sale the estate of Margaret Vance, the administratrix of William Shaw Vance and Richard Ephraim Vance, the owners.  The Rev. John George Vance was also noted as an owner;  the petitioner was James Vance, and the properties concerned were Numbers 3 and 8, Hardwicke Street.

6)  Rev. John George Vance of Manchester, who was earlier the rector of St. Marys, Dublin, and who presided there at the 1837 wedding of his brother, William Shaw Vance.  He was born 24th April 1814 and entered the church.  In 1841 he was living at Newchapel Glebe, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary ('Dublin Evening Packet,' 8th June 1841) but later served for 24 years as the rector of St. Michael's in Manchester.   'The Dublin Evening Mail' of 22nd April 1859 advertised for a curate for a church in Manchester - applications were to be made to brother James Vance of 10 Suffolk Street.
He died on 26th July 1868 at his residence, Summer Villas, Manchester, was buried in the Vance plot at Mount Jerome, Dublin.

7) Anna Maria Vance, eldest daughter of James Vance of Summerhill, died at Mountpleasant Square on 21st November 1847. ('Dublin Evening Post', 27th November 1847.)

8) Margaret Vance of 57 Harcourt Street married Dr. David Brereton of TCD and lived subsequently at 12 York Street.

9)  Jane Vance, died aged 17 at Summerhill in February 1826.

10) The youngest daughter of James Vance of Summerhill was Susanna Vance who was born on 1st February 1811 and who died on 26th May 1866 at Merrion Square North.   

The son of James Vance and Mary Ann Shaw, Dr. James Vance, an apothecary of 10 Suffolk St., married Mary Alicia Courtenay/Courtney in St. Thomas, Dublin, on 24th August 1841.  The wedding was witnessed by his brother, William Shaw Vance.
 Mary Alicia Vance of 10 Suffolk Street was mentioned as a depositor of the Cuffe Street Savings Bank in 1851.
On 13th September 1851, Mrs. Maria Alicia Vance, the wife of Dr. James Vance of Suffolk Street, died following an accidental fall from her bedroom window just before breakfast. She was 39 and left four children.  Suffering from illness, she had recently returned from a holiday in Killarney which had been intended to improve her health.

The children of James Vance and Mary Alicia Courtenay of 10 Suffolk St, Dublin,were:

1)  James Vance MD of Rathdrum, Wicklow, who married Caroline Frances Martin, the daughter of a clergyman who emigrated to Canada later, Nicholas Columbine Martin, the son of Captain Nicholas Martin and Martha Harris, and the grandson of Rev. James Martin, of Clare and Frances Janns.  

The wedding of James Vance MD and Caroline Frances Martin occurred on October 6th 1870 in Carndonagh, Co. Donegal, where the bride's father was the rector. The rector was assisted by a relation, Rev. Gerald Ivor King Moriarty.
(Later, a second member of the Courtenay family married into this same Martin family - in London in 1900, Sabina Courtenay, the daughter of Thomas Courtenay of the Royal Kilmainham Hospital, and granddaughter of Frederick Courtenay of Wellington Street, married Frederick Temple Martin, the son of Temple Chevallier Martin and Elizabeth Mary Parkyn;  Temple Chevallier Martin was a grandson of Rev. James Martin and Frances Janns of Co. Clare.)
Amongst the children of Dr. James Vance of Rathdrum and Caroline Frances were James born 1871, Henry Nicholas Martin Vance born 1872, Richard Ephraim Vance born 1874 and Mary Alicia Courtenay Vance born 1875.    A daughter, Ethel Caroline Vance, was born to the couple in Dublin at 57 Harcourt Street in 1884.
The widowed Caroline Frances Vance was one of the vendors of 55 and 56 Blessington Street in 1890, as was her brother-in-law, Robert Courtenay Vance.  They sold the properties to their 2nd cousin, Isabella Jones.
James Vance, the physician and brother of Robert Courtenay Vance, died at 57 Harcourt Street on 7th August 1885;  probate was to his widow, Caroline Frances Vance of 57 Harcourt Street.


2) Robert Courtenay Vance, solicitor. Born circa 1849, on 16th February 1884 Robert Courtenay Vance of 57 Blessington Street, married Isabella Grogan of 23 Royal Terrace, Kingstown, who had been born in Dublin in 1862 to Edwin Grogan and Isabella Courtenay, Isabella Courtenay being the daughter of Robert Courtenay and Eliza Hudson.
Given that Robert Courtenay Vance's mother, Mary Alicia Courtenay was the sister of Isabella Grogan's mother, Isabella Courtenay, then the bride and groom were first cousins. Our Isabella Jones was, therefore, second cousin to both Robert Courtenay Vance and his to his wife Isabella Grogan.  The witnesses to the wedding of Robert Courtenay Vance and Isabella Grogan were the groom's uncle, William Courtenay who had married  Elizabeth Jane Grogan, the aunt of Isabella Grogan, and also a C. Martelli.

At one stage, Robert Courtenay Vance  had offices, or perhaps lived, at 113 Stephens Green, which was immediately adjacent to Isabella and Charles Jones' showrooms.

Robert Courtenay Vance, solicitor of 15 Brookfield Terrace, Anglesea Road, Donnybrook, Co Dublin, died on 2nd November 1909 aged 60.  His widow, Isabella Vance, died on 17th February 1932 and was buried alongside her late husband in Mount Jerome.

3) William John Vance,

4) Eliza Courtenay Vance.

5) Joseph Vance who died in infancy.

6) Richard Ephraim Vance - on 22nd December 1857, Richard Ephraim Vance of 10 Suffolk Street was admitted to the Freemen of Dublin, being the son of James Vance Junior, who had been admitted himself in Michaelmas 1791.


According to a private contributor to the LDS site, the bride, Mary Alicia Courtney, had been born in Mallow, Co. Cork, in 1809 to a solicitor named either Thomas or Robert Courtenay and to his wife, Sarah. However, I recently accessed a deed (1841-17-173) in the Registry of Deeds which detailed the marriage settlement of James Vance and Mary Alicia Courtenay.  The deed confirms that Mary Alicia was living at Lower Gardiner Street at the time of her marriage, and this seems to confirm that she was the daughter of Robert Courtenay, solicitor, and Eliza Hudson who were living in Lr Gardiner Street at this time. Robert Courtenay was the son of Thomas Courtenay, Shearman, who was admitted to the Freedom of Dublin in 1789.  Robert Courtenay was the brother of our immediate maternal ancestor, the veterinary surgeon Frederick Courtenay.
Another of the witnesses to the wedding in 1841 was Joshua Pasley, and a son of Robert Courtenay and Eliza Hudson was christened as Joshua Pasley Courtenay.  An earlier Joshua Pasley was closely involved with the phlanthropist, Thomas Pleasants (his cousin), who had founded the Stove Tenters House in the Liberties in 1814, which provided indoor facilities for the drying of woollens and other fabrics in poor weather;  prior to the foundation of the Stove Tenters House, those involved in fabric manufacture in the Liberties area of the city would find themselves destitute during the winter or during spells of inclement weather.  Thomas Pleasants and his cousin, Joshua Pasley, were also involved with the foundation of the Meath Hospital. Was this the Joshua Pasley who witnessed Mary Alicia Courtenay's wedding, or was it a younger relation of his? Joshua Pasley Courtenay,  probably named after Joshua Pasley, had been born in about 1836 to Robert Courtenay and Eliza Hudson.


Timeline of these intermarriages (very difficult to visualise!):

1)  Dr. James Vance of Dublin married Mary Alicia Courtenay/Courtney in 1841 in Dublin.  A marriage deed of 1840, drawn up a year before her marriage to James Vance, gave an address of Lower Gardiner Street for Mary Alicia Courtenay, which confirms that she was the daughter of Robert Courtenay, solicitor of Lower Gardiner Street, and of his wife, Eliza Hudson.

2)   A second daughter of Robert Courtenay and Eliza Hudson,  Isabella Courtenay, married Edwin Grogan in Dublin in 1861.   The wedding was witnessed by Robert Courtenay and James Vance.  James Vance was Isabella's brother-in-law, married to her older sister, Mary Alicia Courtenay.

3)  In 1863, the son of solicitor Robert Courtenay and of Eliza Hudson, William Courtenay, married Elizabeth Jane Grogan of Garville Place, Rathgar, who was the sister of Edwin Grogan.

4)  Isabella Grogan, the daughter of Edwin Grogan and Isabella Courtenay, married Robert Courtenay Vance, the son of James Vance and Mary Alicia Courtenay, in Dublin in 1884.

5)  Mary Isabella Courtenay, the daughter of William Courtenay and Elizabeth Jane Grogan, married Rev. Gerald Ivor King Moriarty, in 1896.  She was the cousin of Isabella Grogan.

From The Belfast Newsletter - "Moriarty-Courtenay  -  At the Parish Church, Dunleer, by the Rev. M.F. Moriarty AB, the brother of the bridegroom, Rector of Castledawson, Diocese of Derry, assisted by the Rev. H. Kelly, MA, Rector of the parish, the Rev. Gerald Ivor King Moriarty AM, Rector of Kilcronoghan, Diocese of Derry,  youngest son of the late Rev. M.J. Moriarty, AB, of St. Anne's and Rector of Killaghter, Diocese of Raphoe, to Mary J.(sic.), only daughter of William Courtenay, D.L., Rathcoole Park, Co. Louth and Crosswaithe Park, Co. Dublin."

Notes on Rev. Gerald Ivor King Moriarty:  Gerald descended from Maurice Moriarty of Dingle, Co. Kerry, whose son was Denis Moriarty (1784 - 1839) of Dingle.  Denis Moriarty had three sons, Rev. Denis Moriarty of Castleisland, Rev. Thomas Moriarty of Ventry and Tralee, and Rev. Matthew Trant Moriarty of Ventry, Matthew being the father of Rev. Gerald Ivor King Moriarty.
The Moriarty family were an Irish-speaking Catholic family of Dingle, who converted to Protestantism at some stage in the early 19th century.  Rev.Thomas Moriarty (1812 - 1894), son of Denis, entered the church, and was stationed at the Protestant stronghold of Ventry, five miles west of Dingle, where he was a prominent member of the movement to convert the local Irish-speaking Catholics to the Church of Ireland, an endeavour which was greeted with much derision by the local population.  Rev. Thomas Moriarty married Matilda Bailey - the couple had Matilda, Margaret, Eliza, Emily, Katherine, Mary, Thomas, John B., Matthew and Robert.

Rev. Matthew Trant Moriarty (1821 - 9th March1888), son of Denis Moriarty of Dingle, and who was the father of Rev. Gerald Ivor King Moriarty, was noted in 1851 as the agent for Lloyds, resident in Ventry.  He married Sarah King of Cork city, the third daughter of the late Joseph King, and niece of Rev. Richard King of Wexford, in St. Anne's, Shandon, Cork, on 10th July 1845.  Sarah King's brother was Rev. Joseph King who married Lucy Jane Edgeworth, widow of George Peacocke of Longford, in December 1854.  A sister was Charlotte, youngest daughter of Joseph King, who married in Dingle in October 1852, a son of the Rev. James Goodman of Skibbereen.

The children of Rev. Matthew Trant Moriarty and Sarah King were born at Rahinane, Ventry:
1)  Robert Torrens Moriarty, born at Ventry in April 1849.  He died on 21st May 1915 at Derry, with probate to his brother, Rev. Matthew Francis Moriarty.  His will states that he had been 'late of Edenderry Rectory, Omagh, Co. Tyrone.'
2)  Rev. Matthew Francis Moriarty, born May 1851 at Rahinane, Ventry.
3) Rev. George Garibaldi Moriarty.
4) Rev. Gerald Ivor King Moriarty, born circa 1863.

Sarah Moriarty, née King, died at 4 Victoria Terrace, Portstewart, Co. Derry, on 8th March 1894;  her son, Robert Torrens Moriarty of Derry,  was the executor of her will.

The children of Rev. Gerald Ivor King Moriarty and Mary Isabella Courtenay were Freda Bessie Moriarty, born circa 1897 in Derry;  Gerald Ruadh O'Neill Moriarty, born in Tyrone in 1900;  Iris Moira Courtenay Moriarty, born in Tyrone in 1903;  Denis Trant Florence Moriarty, born in Tyrone in 1907.



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