Thomas Williams, First Secretary to the Bank of Ireland

I researched the following Williams family in order to rule out a possible family link to my own ancestor, Richard Williams (1812 - 1885), who worked for this family for many years.  I do not believe we are related in any way, but publish my research into them for the benefit of fellow researchers.

Thomas Williams, 1747- 1832, the first secretary of the Bank of Ireland. I have managed to patch together bits and pieces of information about Thomas from the internet, and also from the Dublin street directories available in Pearse Street Library.

Thomas Williams was born on 30th December 1747 to the tailor, Richard Williams, and his wife, Mary Williams, of Leighton Buzzard.

The children of Richard and Mary Williams of Leighton Buzzard were as follows:
Hutchins Williams born 26th December 1740 in Leighton Buzzard.
John Williams born 29th September 1742 in Leighton Buzzard.
William Williams born 31st March 1746 in Leighton Buzzard.
Thomas Williams born 30th December 1747 in Leighton Buzzard.
Richard Williams born 29th December 1749 in Leighton Buzzard.
Mary Williams born 12th September 1751 in Leighton Buzzard.
Watkin William Williams born 28th December 1753 in Leighton Buzzard.
Watkin Win Williams born 1761 in Leighton Buzzard.

On the day that the Bank of Ireland opened for business, 25th June 1783, Robert Watson Wade resigned as Accountant General and Thomas Williams was appointed in his stead. In the year 1788, Hill Wilson died and Thomas Williams was promoted to the post of Secretary, a post which he held for almost forty years.
In the 1780s, James Gibbons (the father of James Gibbons of Ballynegall, Westmeath?),  was appointed as notary to the bank, since Hill Wilson and Thomas Williams could not obtain the necessary legal qualifications due to the opposition of certain notaries of the city. At this time, you needed recommendations from merchants or stockbrokers to be appointed to the post.
 James Gibbons would go into business with Richard Williams, Thomas Williams' son, and would operate as notaries to the Bank of Ireland, with premises at 38 Dame Street.

It seems that the Williams family arrived in Dublin prior to Thomas William's marriage in 1777 - a deed exists in the Registry of Deeds which records a property deal in Dublin, dated 25th February 1782.  (Ref:248/143/232624)
The deed was executed by Thomas Williams on belhalf of himself and of Henry Lyons and Clifford Boldock of the City of Dublin and concerned the sale of their property of 5 Dame Street to William Shannon, public notary.  No. 5 Dame Street was described as a new dwelling-house with yard and offices, bordered on the east by Peter Wilson's holding and on the west by Daly's Chocolate House and by Mr. Keating's holding.  The deed was witnessed Watkin Wynne Williams, gentleman of Dublin, and by Edward Hamerton of Dublin and Frederick Kane, also of Dublin.
   Watkin Wynne Williams was the brother of Thomas Williams and both had been born in Leighton Buzzard to the merchant tailor, Richard Williams and his wife Mary.  Henry Lyons, Clifford Boldock and William Shannon were all associated with the Bank of Ireland.
Although Clifford Boldock originated in York, England, he was apprenticed in 1770 to the linen-draper, William Ward of Hanover Square, London;  Clifford married a Miss Drury in Ireland in 1777 and died in Dublin in 1790.
Edward Hamerton lived at 11 Castle Street and was the Clerk of Ship Entries for the Port of Dublin.
   It appears from the street directories that the above Thomas Williams started out as a haberdasher in Dublin, in business with Clifford Boldock and with Henry Lyons.  This Thomas Williams continued in business alone until 1787, four years after Thomas Williams was appointed as accountant general to the Bank of Ireland in 1783.  Could this be possibly be the same man?  Could he have run a business and worked for the bank at the same time?   Here are the entries in the Dublin street directories:
   1776 - Williams and Lyons, Haberdashers, 18 Castle Street.
   1777 -  Williams, Lyons and Boldock, Wholesale Haberdashers, 5, Dame Street.
   1778 - Williams & Boldock, Wholesale Haberdashers, 5, Dame Street.
   1778 - Williams & Boldock, Wholesale Haberdashers, 5 Dame Street.
   1779 - Williams &  Boldock, Wholesale Haberdashers, 5 Dame Street.
   1780 -  As above.
   1781 - As above.
(From 'Saunders Newsletter of 2nd August 1782 we learn that Clifford Boldock, formerly in partnership with Mr. Thomas Williams had moved from Dame Street to 25, Stafford Street.)
   1782 - Thomas Williams & Co., Merchants, 5 Dame Street.
(From 'Saunders Newsletter' of 2nd July 1782, we learn that Thomas Williams & Co, have moved from Dame Street to 17 Eustace Street;  all persons indebted to Williams, Boldash [sic] & Co, should make payment of the same to Thomas Williams & Co in Eustace Street.)
   1783 - Thomas Williams & Co., Merchants, 17 Eustace Street.
   1784 - Thomas Williams & Co., Merchants, 17 Eustace Street.
   1785 - Thomas Williams & Co., Merchants, 17 Eustace Street.
   1786 - As above.
   1787 - As above.
    There were no further entries for Thomas Williams & Co., Merchants after 1787.  (NB: The father of Thomas Williams of the Bank of Ireland was a tailor of Leighton Buzzard, and this trade seemed to have passed down through the Williams family since Roger Williams of Penrhyn and Merchant Taylors, London. )

   In 1857 some of the properties of Richard Williams, the son of Thomas, were put up for sale through the Encumbered Estates Court.  Among these properties were the neighbouring houses of 15 and 16 Gardiner Place, both of which had been leased by Thomas Williams in the year 1792.
   Gardiner Place is off Mountjoy Square, as is Belvedere Place where the family of Thomas Williams later lived.  The first mention in the Dublin directories of a member of the Williams family at 2 Belvedere Place occurs in 1814, when Charles Wye Williams, Thomas' son, was noted here as a barrister.

It appears that No. 39 Dame Street was also owned by Thomas Williams - his relation, Hutchins Thomas Williams, was operating here at this address as a banker/stockbroker when his business, Gibbons and Williams, went bankrupt in 1835.  39 Dame Street was put up for sale in 1857 as part of the estate of Thomas' son, Richard Williams.

For Sale in 1857: 39 Dame Street - Indenture of demise, dated 13th December 1786, from James Williams to Henry Wilme for 999 years.  The interest of James Williams became vested in Thomas Williams, and the interest of Henry Wilme became vested in Benjamin Poyntz....23rd December 1824, an indenture of lease was executed between Thomas Williams of the first part, John Weldon, silk mercer of the second part, and Benjamin Poyntz of the third part.   This property was offered up for sale in 1857 as part of Richard Williams’ estate.  The tenants using the premises in 1857 were the West of England Insurance Company.
(39 Dame Street - Lease: Indenture of lease dated the 13th December 1786 from James Williams to Henry Wilme for 999 years , from 1st January 1787, at the yearly rent of £100....an indenture of lease dated 23rd December 1823, was made and executed between Thomas Williams Esq., of the 1st part, John Weldon, silk mercer, of the 2nd part, and Benjamin Poyntz, hosier, of the 3rd part, whereby the said Thomas Williams (in whom the interest of said James Williams, in said premises, was then vested) demised said premises to Benjamin Poyntz (in whom the interest of said Henry Wilme therein was also vested) for the term of 961 years...with liberty of carts, cars, horses, carriages, labourers and servants to pass and repass from and through the passage then and now called Dame-lane, at the rear of said house and premises, at all hours and times, and liberty was thereby reserved to the said Benjamin Poyntz...at the expiration of every seven years of said term, to surrender said premises on giving six months previous notice in writing.
And by deed of 14th June 1842, William Hodges and others (in whom the lessee’s interest in said indentures of 13th December 1786 and 23rd December 1823 was then vested)  assigned their interest to Samuel Page, who executed a declaration of trust  that he held in trust, and for and on behalf of The West of England Insurance Company.)
   Benjamin Poyntz, named above, started out as a hosier and glover at 62 Dame Street, before being listed at  39 Dame Street on the Valuation of Dublin in 1830, and finally settled at 106 Grafton Street.

   An R.Williams, which might be Richard Williams, the second son of Thomas Williams, was noted as an attorney of 2 Summerhill in 1807 and 1808.  (Summerhill being in the same North Dublin area as Mountjoy Square.)
   The firm of notaries to the Bank of Ireland, 'Gibbons and Williams', appears in the directories from 1799 under the heading for the Bank.

Thomas's father, Richard Williams, who had been born on July 17th 1719 at Carnarvon,  claimed descent from Griffith Williams the first Baronet Penrhyn (1661) whose family seat is close to Anglesey in Wales.
 The eldest son of Richard and Mary was Hutchins Williams who was born in Leighton Buzzard, Bedford, in 1740. We possibly descend directly from this Hutchins Williams who was, of course, the brother to Thomas Williams of the Bank of Ireland.


Thomas Williams was married to Mary Ann Quin/Quine who was a descendant of the second Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1667 to 1668, Mark Quine.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/11/collection-of-quins.html

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2013/01/mary-anne-quin-wife-of-thomas-williams.html

The couple married in St. Thomas's, Dublin, on 26th March 1777 - they were married by Rev. Mr. Wye, who was the bride's grandfather.  Mary Anne Quin appears to have been the daughter of Thomas Quin and Mary Wye.

https://alison-stewart.blogspot.com/2013/02/links-between-williams-bellinghams-wyes.html

 

Thomas and Mary Ann Williams had three known sons - Charles Wye Williams 1779 - 1866, shipping magnate of Dublin and Liverpool;  Walker Williams who didn't survive childhood, dates unknown;  Richard Williams 1778 - 1868, a notary of Dame Street and Drumcondra Castle, who was married to Anne Palmer.


Thomas Williams and Mary Ann Quin had a daughter, Mary Williams, who married George Simpson Carleton in April 1834. The papers of the day noted her as the eldest daughter of Thomas Williams of Hampton Lodge, which of course means that there must be either one, or more, daughters floating about somewhere.
  Deed 1857-27-21, dated 14th September 1857, records that, on the occasion of the marriage between Mary Williams and Carleton, Mary Williams granted to Richard Williams and Francis Carleton a sum of £2000.  A sum of £1000 was also lent to George Simpson Carleton by Richard Williams for a house in Eustace Street.  Mary Carleton, née Williams, died without children;   the deed of 1857 records that Richard Williams of Dame Street was the surviving trustee of the earlier marriage settlement of April 9th 1834.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/11/carleton-family-of-eustace-street.html

From 'The Treble Almanac' of 1815: 
Williams (Thos. Esq.) 2 Belvedere Place.  

'Saunders's News-Letter' of 19th February 1803 noted the marriage of the youngest daughter of Thomas Williams and Mary Ann Quin to attorney William Farran of Eccles St.

'MARRIED. Wm Farran, of Eccles-Street, Esq, to Miss Eliza Williams, youngest daughter of Thomas Williams, of Belvedere-Place, Esq.'

An announcement in 'The True Briton' confirmed Eliza as the daughter of Thomas Williams of the Bank of Ireland:

Thomas and Mary Ann Williams later moved north to Hampton Lodge in Drumcondra  - their son, Richard Williams,  lived nearby in Drumcondra Castle.
Drumcondra Castle had been built in 1555 by a Meath man, James Bathe, on land which had originally belonged to the Priory of the Holy Trinity.  In 1591, the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, married Mabel Bagenal there. In 1677, James II granted the Drumcondra lands to a Giles Martin. The castle had several owners over the centuries including Captain Chichester Phillips and Edward Newenham. It was sold to its current owners, St. Josephs School for the Blind, in 1859.

Following her husband's death in 1832 or 1833, Mary Ann Williams continued to live in  Hampton Lodge in Drumcondra and can be seen there on Griffiths Valuation of 1852.

Thomas's son, Richard, was one the executors of his will, the other being the widowed Mary Anne Williams.  In 1836, a deed was drawn up (1836-3-67) by which Richard and Mary Anne transferred the mortgage on a house in North Sackville Stree  to Elizabeth Burgh of Clogrennan, Carlow. This property had been sold in 1818 to Thomas Williams by Nathaniel Sneyd.

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/p/index-to-williams-posts.html

(An interesting aside:  The Williams family of Cochwillan, the Williams of Meillionydd, the Williams-Bulkeley family of Penrhyn  and the Griffiths family of Penrhyn (amongst other North Wales families) descend directly from  a Welsh nobleman named Sir Tudor ap Ednyfed Vychan who was married to Adlais, the granddaughter of Griffith ap Cynan, the King of North Wales.
This Ednyfed Vychan later married a second woman, Gwenllian, the daughter of Rhys ap Griffith, a Lord of South Wales.  Their grandson was Tudor ap Grono of Penmynedd, who built the priory at Bangor and did homage for his lands to Edward I at Chester.
 Tudor's great-great- grandson, Sir Owen Tudor, married Catherine de Valois, the youngest daughter of Charles VI, the King of France. Catherine was the widow of Henry V of England, and the mother of Henry VI.
Catherine and Sir Owen Tudor, who was beheaded in 1461 for his role in the Wars of the Roses, had a son, Edmund Tudor, who was created the Earl of Richmond in 1452 by Henry VI.  Edmund married Lady Margaret Beaufort, the daughter and heir of John, Duke of Somerset and died in 1456, leaving an only son, Henry VII who was the King of England and the founder of the royal house of Tudor. )