The Palmer Family of French Street

While researching the origins of my immediate ancestor, Richard Williams (1812 -1885) of Eden Quay, Dublin,  I researched the family of Richard Williams of Drumcondra Castle in order to rule out a family link.  Please note that, to the best of my current knowledge, I am not related to the following families but include the research here for the benefit of anyone who might find it useful.

Ann Palmer (1777 - 1858) married Richard Williams of Drumcondra Castle and 48 Dame Street.   Her grandfather was George Palmer, the rector of Kiltullagh near Castlemaine, Co. Kerry, who was the 2nd son of Rev. Thomas Palmer of Kenmare. (The eldest son of Rev. Thomas Palmer of Kenmare was Thomas Palmer who married Ellen McCullough - the descendants of this branch of the family later settled in Dublin, living at Dominick Street. They intermarried with the Orpen family of Kenmare.)

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.com/2011/07/rev-thomas-palmer-of-kenmare.html

The parents of Anne Palmer who married Richard Williams, were George Palmer, the governor of the Bank of Ireland, and Anne Bickarton, the only daughter and heir of Daniel Bickerton of Milestone, Castlebellingham.   (Daniel Bickerton was the son of Robert Bickerton of Chatilly, Armagh, and of Anne Bellingham.) George Palmer and Anne Bickerton married on 12th August 1766.
They settled in Dublin and this branch of the Kenmare Palmers lived at French Street, modern name Mercer Street, near Stephens Green. George Palmer of French Street was buried in St. Peter’s on 25th January 1813;  Anne Palmer of French Street died and was buried on 23rd January 1830.


The will of George Palmer was made 12 Dec, 1810.  The details were: leaves his eldest son, Rev. Daniel Palmer, £200, and recites deed of settlement made 10th Feb., 1773, giving him power to charge £1,000 on the lands of Mylestown and Wootens-town, to which deed Daniel Bickerton and Thomas Bickerton, his son, and Abigail, Thomas's wife, John Foster, Robert Sibthorp, Benjamin Kearney and Edward Tandy were parties. He releases these lands from this charge for the benefit of his son Daniel, who is entitled to a life estate therein on the death of his mother Anne, dau. of Daniel Bickerton. Leaves his second son George lands in Dublin and £300, and his 3rd son ultimate heir to Milestown, etc., and residuary legatee. Bequeaths his four daughters Margt. (wife of Robert Barnewall), Lucy, Jane, and Anne, £2,000 each. Mentions a legacy left his wife by her great aunt, Mrs. Jane Peppard. Leaves in trust to Thomas Ball and Richard Williams his interest in part of the lands of Castlebellingham, which he purchased lately from John Woolsey, to be annexed to the demesne of Miles-town. £5,769 is due him by Waterford bankers.

The children of George and Anne Palmer were as follows:

1)  Rev. Daniel Palmer of Milestone, Louth (1770 - 1834) who married Elizabeth Alleyne.  Rev. Daniel Palmer worked at Barnstable in Devon.  They had two sons, George Fortescue Palmer of Milestone (who matriculated from Oxford in 1819, aged 18)  and John Alleyne Palmer.  George Fortescue Palmer was a baptist minister who died 7th July 1866 at Harcombe Bottom, Devon (but was formerly of Lyme Regis); his will was proved by the oath of Eliza Lane, wife of William Lane, of Harcombe Bottom.

2) George Palmer Junior (born 1771), married Mary Franks, the daughter of Matthew Franks of Dublin, on 19th April 1799.  George was an early shareholder - in 1823 - in the Williams’ business, the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company.   George Palmer Junior was a secretary in 1815 to the Commissioner for Reducing the National Debt.
      The Treble Almanack of 1815 mentions George Palmer Junior as a corn factor of Pim Street.  Elsewhere, the Almanack mentions that George and Richard Palmer of 4 French Street were merchants.  (Perhaps one address was the residence, and one was the business.)

3)  Richard Palmer (born 1778) married Frances or Fanny Woolsey, the daughter Rev. William Woolsey and Ann Bellingham. The bride and groom were cousins. Richard Palmer invested in the fledgling CDSPCo, as did another member of the Woolsey family, John Woolsey.  Richard Palmer, in 1815, was living at 7 French Street.

The Woolsey family of Castlebellingham, Louth:  John Woolsey married Lucy Palmer, the daughter of Rev. Richard Palmer, who was the son of Rev. Thomas Palmer of Kenmare.  (Rev. Richard Palmer was the rector of Killorglin, Knockane, Kiltallough, Kilgarrinlander etc. from 1735;  prior to this he had been Vicar Choral in Armagh Cathedral....he also did a stint in Kilsaran Parish which is the closest one to Castlebellingham.)
The will of John Woolsey of Priorland, dated 16th July 1752, the son of Rev.William Woolsey (there were two of these, grandfather and grandson.) Mentions his wife Lucy, the daughter of Rev. Richard Palmer, and his sister-in-law, Mary Palmer.  Leaves Priorland to his son, Rev. William Woolsey, with remainder to his brother Rev. Thomas Woolsey of Forkhill.  One of the trustees appointed was James Fortescue.

The son of John Woolsey and Lucy Palmer, Rev. William Woolsey, was married to Mary Anne Bellingham.  Rev. William Woolsey was the rector of Kilsaran Parish, Castlebellingham, and lived at Priorsland. His daughter was Frances/Fanny Woolsey who married her cousin Richard Palmer.
Another child of Rev. William Woolsey and Mary Anne Bellingham was Captain John Woolsey who married Janet Jameson, the daughter of John Jameson, a Scottish lawyer who founded Jameson’s Distillery in Bow St, Dublin in 1780. (Her brother, James Jameson, was an early proprietor of the CDSPCo and was also a director of the Bank of Ireland;  he ran the Marrowbone Lane Whiskey distillery, while his father, John Jameson, ran the one in Bow Street.)  A son of John and Janet Woolsey was John Woolsey who married a member of the Portarlington Willis family, Elizabeth Lucy Willis, who was the daughter of Rev. Henry de Laval Willis.

4)  Henry Palmer, who was later killed in India.

5)  Margaret Jane Palmer (born 1769) married Sir Robert Barnewell, Bart of Greenanstown, Meath.  Margaret Jane Palmer was Robert’s second wife, the first having been Catherine Rose Aylmer who died in 1790.  He was of the ancient family of Barnewall who had settled in Meath in the 12th century.
Sir Robert Barnewall, 8th Baronet (1757–1836) (claimed title 1821)
Margaret Jane Barnewall died 18th August 1844 and is buried in the parish church in Castlebellingham.
(From The Limerick Chronicle:  'At Castlebellingham, Lady Barnwell, relict of the late Sir Robert Barnwell, Bart., and daughter of the late George Palmer of French-street, Dublin, Esq.')

Obituary of Sir Robert from ‘The Gentlemans’Magazine, Vol. 161’  “Lately, aged 80, Sir Robert Barnwall, Bart. (1622) of Crickstown Castle and Greenanstown, Co.Meath. This very ancient baronetcy remained dormant from the decease of Sir George the fifth baronet, about the middle of the last century, until the late possessor of the dignity established his right to it in Nov. 1821.   Sir Robert was fourth in descent from Michael Barnewall, fourth son of the first baronet.  He was born October 6, 1757, the eldest son of Bartholomew Barnewall esq., of Ballyhost, Co. Westmeath, and Boyne-lodge and Greenanstown, Co. Meath, by Mary, second daughter of Isaac Brand Colt, esq., of Brightlingsea-hall, in Essex.    He was married twice. His first wife was Catherine Rose, eldest daughter of Charles Aylmer esq., of Painston, co. Kildare, by whom he had an only son, now Sir Aylmer John Barnewall, an officer on the half-pay of the army.  Sir Robert married secondly, Margaret-Jane, eldest daughter of George Palmer,esq., of Dublin, and of Milestown, co. Louth, onoe of the original directors, and subsequently Governor, of the Bank of Ireland. By this lady, he has left an only surviving daughter, Mary-Anne.”

6)  Lucy Palmer (born 1772) married Rev. John Mee of Chantilly Glebe, Tynan, Co. Armagh on 14th March 1798.  Lucy was of St.Peter’s parish, Dublin.  John Mee, the son of John and Elizabeth Mee of Dublin, and brother of Joseph Mee,  was educated at Trinity, Dublin, and served as curate of Middletown Church in Co. Armagh for 26 years, dying there, aged 57, on 9th November 1828
    On Jan.4th 1828, the daughter of Rev.John Mee of Shantilly Glebe, Ann Elizabeth Mee, married Rev.R.C.Loftie, the son of William Loftie, of Tandragee, Armagh.

7)  Jane Palmer  (1773 - 1851) married Thomas Ball, Master in Chancery, of High Park, Drumcondra, Co. Dublin.

8)  Anne Palmer, the youngest, married Richard Williams of Drumcondra Castle and Dame St.

In 1818, a Mr. Palmer of French Street was a member of the firm ‘Gibbons and Palmer’;  the Gibbons in question may well be a member of the Gibbons family who were in finance with the Williams family in 48 Dame Street.  I can find no further reference to the business ‘Gibbons and Palmer’ after 1818.  Another member of the Palmer family who invested in the CDSPCo was Thomas Palmer, but I’m unsure whether he is one of the Kenmare Palmers.