The Woolsey Family of Castlebellingham

Researching this post has been a nightmare!  These people are so interconnected and bewildering that it's taken FOREVER to figure them out.
However, the Woolsey/Palmer conglomeration had stronger links to our Williams/Willis family than I had at first thought, so it had to be done.
I've tried to make this entry logical and easy to comprehend, but it really isn't. My apologies.

The first of the Woolsey family to make a will was Benjamin Woolsey of Portadown who died in 1690, whose son was John Woolsey, the father of another Benjamin Woolsey whose will was proved in 1740. 
John Woolsey was also the father of Rev. William Woolsey who was the rector of Dundalk from 1709 till 1728 and who bought Priorland just south of Dundalk, Co. Louth.  Rev. William Woolsey, rector of Faughart, Co. Louth, married Isabella Walker at some stage before 27th August 1726.   They had a son John (his will was proved in 1752) who married Lucy Palmer and had a son, Rev. William Woolsey of Kilsaran who follows, and a son, Rev. Thomas Woolsey, Rector of Ballymascanlon from 1754 to 1759 whose will was proved in 1780 - in this he made mention of a Miss Anne Woolsey, the daughter of Benjamin Woolsey of Portadown.

Rev. William Woolsey (1750 -1832) and  Mary Anne Bellingham:
Rev. William Woolsey was the only son of John Woolsey and Lucy Palmer. John Woolsey of Priorland made his will on 16th July 1752 in which he  named his wife as Lucy Palmer, the daughter of Rev. Richard Palmer;  his brother was named as Rev. Thomas Woolsey.
Rev. William Woolsey, son of John Woolsey and Lucy Palmer,  had a sister, Frances Woolsey, who must have been born much later than him, probably to a stepmother.

Rev.William Woolsey's married his first wife, Mary Anne Bellingham, in 1777 - she was the daughter of Colonel Alan Bellingham and Alice Montgomery.   Her brother was the baronet William Bellingham of Dunany, Castlebellingham, Co. Louth, who was married to Hester Frances Cholmondeley, both of whom left detailed wills.
William Bellingham of Castlebellingham died first in November 1826, having drawn up a generous and extensive will on 24th November 1825, the trustees being named as Major James Sweeney of Castlebellingham who had married a member of the Bellingham family, Elizabeth Bellingham, and O'Brien Bellingham Woolsey of the Navy Office, London, w ho was the son of William's sister, Mary Anne Bellingham and Rev. William Woolsey.  William Bellingham names, as his relations, the following people, most of whom have variations of the same name.
...the primary beneficiary to take over the main estate being his nephew, Alan O'Brien Bellingham, son of his late brother O'Brien Bellingham, Alan's wife, Christianna Bellingham, née Nicholson, and  Alan and Christianna's son, Alan Edward Bellingham.
...great-nephew, O'Brien Bellingham, third son of nephew Alan Bellingham.
...William Stewart Bellingham, and Alan Bellingham, sons of nephew John Bellingham and his wife, a Stewart,  whose first name William Bellingham didn't seem to know, leaving a gap where this should have been.
...Nephew William Bellingham, son of his late brother, Alan Bellingham.
...Nephew Alan O'Brien Bellingham, son of his late brother O'Brien Bellingham.
...Nephews John Woolsey, oldest son of his late sister Mary Anne Woolsey, née Bellingham, and her two younger sons Thomas Woolsey and O'Brien Bellingham Woolsey who was one of the trustees.
....Sisters Alice and Lucy Bellingham.
....Elizabeth Sweeney, née Bellingham, who was married to Major James Sweeney, one of the trustees of the will.
....Niece Eliza Somerville, wife of William Somerville.
....The two daughters of nephew Major Henry Bellingham of the East India Company.
....Niece Mary Ann Cairnes, née Woolsey, wife of William Cairnes.

William Bellingham's widow, Dame Hester Frances Bellingham, died in July 1844, having herself made a will on 6th December 1841.  She was the daughter of the Rev. Hon. Robert Cholmondeley and Mary Woffington.  The following were all named in Hester Frances' will...
...James Jameson of Montrose, Dublin.
...O'Brien Bellingham Woolsey of the Admiralty, London.
...Elizabeth Woolsey of Grays Inn Lane, London, widow of the late Thomas Woolsey.
...Elizabeth Woolsey and Sophia Woolsey, daughters of Elizabeth and Thomas Woolsey.
...William, O'Brien and Thomas Woolsey, sons of Elizabeth and Thomas Woolsey.
...John Woolsey of Castlebellingham who owed her £3000.
...Elizabeth Bates, widow, of Woodstock, Oxford, and spinster Ellen or Elizabeth Brown, of Dukes Place, St. Pancras.
...Spinster Lucy Woolsey of Castlebellingham.
...Frances Palmer, wife of Richard Palmer of Liverpool.
...Mary Ann Woolsey, wife of Delaval Willis of Limerick - they married on October 16th 1841 just before Hester Frances made her will.
...By the will of her late husband William Bellingham, legacies to two daughters of his nephew, Henry Bellingham, Henrietta and Maria Bellingham.  Also a Jane Bellingham wife of William Bellingham. (?)
...All the servants of Hester Frances were generously provided for.
...She was owed money by Sir Alan Edward Bellingham of Castlebellingham.
...She was due money from the present Lord Cholmondeley by way of her grandfather's will, ie, the Right Honorable George, Earl of Cholmondeley whose will was dated 9th June 1768.

But to return to Rev. William Woolsey - the second wife of Rev.William Woolsey was Bridget O'Neill, who he married in St. Peter's, Dublin (date unknown) - this was witnessed by Richard Palmer, and Susanna Davis. (I found this on Irish Genealogy.)
Rev. William Woolsey spent some time with the 61st Regiment, before becoming the rector of Kilsaran Parish, Castlebellingham;  he lived at Priorland House in Dundalk.  He died suddenly in Dublin at the height of the cholera epidemic on 11th September 1832, aged 80. ('Waterford Mail', 19th September 1832.)

The children of Rev. William Woolsey and Mary Anne Bellingham:

1. Alice Woolsey who married Richard Moore of Summerhill, Tipperary.

2. Lucy Woolsey who died unmarried aged 73 at 13 Church Street, Everton, England, on 24th November 1853. ('Belfast Commercial Chronicle', 30th November 1853.)

3. Frances Woolsey, who married her relative, Richard Palmer. 'Burkes Genealogical and Heraldic History, Vol. 2' states that Frances Woolsey was the daughter of John Woolsey of Castlebellingham; other records state that she was the daughter of Rev. William Woolsey which seems much more plausible mostly because John Woolsey died in 1852, and Frances would have been born circa 1778 - her husband, Richard Palmer, had been born in this year. All the genealogies maintain that the bride and groom were cousins, but I've been so far unable to ascertain how this could be. 

4. Mary Anne Woolsey  (died 24 Sep 1865) who married William Elliot Cairnes (died 29th December 1863.) They were cousins. William Cairnes was the founder, in 1825, of the Drogheda Brewery which would later amalgamate with the Castlebellingham Brewery. Their eldest son was the political economist John Elliot Cairnes who had been born in Castle Bellingham on 26th December 1823.  William Cairnes was succeeded as head of the brewery by his son, Thomas Plunket Cairnes of Stameen, Co. Meath/Co. Louth.  Thomas had married, on 1st June 1855, Sophia Gaussen, the daughter of solicitor Charles Gaussen.    Another son of William Cairnes and Mary Anne Woolsey, who both died at Stameen, Co. Meath, was Captain Willam Henry Cairnes of the 48th Regiment, who married on 9th February 1858, Isabella Jameson, the only surviving daughter of the late John Jameson, distiller of Prussia Street.

5. Elizabeth Sophia Woolsey married, on 28th September 1815,  James Jameson, son of the Scot, John Jameson, who founded the famous distillery in Dublin.

6. Captain John Woolsey  (b. 6 Jan 1772, d. 1 Aug 1835) married, on 30th March 1812,  Janet Jameson, sister of James and daughter of John.

Notes on the Jameson Family:  John Jameson (1740 -1824) was the founder of the famous Dublin Distillery. He had been born in Alloa, Scotland, and married Margaret Haig, the eldest sister of James Haig of Blairhill, Perthshire, in 1768. John Jameson and Margaret Haig had the following children:

a) Robert Jameson (1771 - 1847). He was the Sub-Sheriff of Clackmannanshire and died unmarried.

b) John Jameson, (born 1771 - 13th October 1851), of 55 Prussia St, who married Isabella Stein, daughter of John Stein. He was succeeded at Prussia Street by his son, John Jameson Junior who was a director of the Bank of Ireland and who married Anne, daughter of William Haig. Another son, James Jameson of Delvin Lodge, married Lucy Cairnes of Stameen, Co. Meath, daughter of William Cairnes, founder of the Drogheda Brewery. The Cairnes family intermarried with the Bellingham and Woolsey families, and entered into the brewery business with the Woolseys. Another son, Rev. William Jameson, married Elizabeth Guinness, the daughter of Arthur Guinness of Beaumont.  Son Andrew Jameson of Clackmannanshire married Miss Cochrane. Son Henry Jameson married Margaret daughter of Andrew Philp.  Daughter Isabella Jameson married Captain William Henry Cairnes of the 48th Regiment, also a son of the Drogheda brewer, William Cairnes and Mary Anne Woolsey.

c)  William Jameson (29th July 1777 - 1822) of Merrion Square, Dublin.

d) James Jameson who married Elizabeth Sophia Woolsey, daughter of Rev. William Woolsey of Priorland, on 17th July 1816. He succeeded his older brother, William, as the director of the Marrowbone Lane Distillery in Dublin.  He bought the estates of Winfield, Co.Galway, and Mount Rose, Co. Dublin. James was a Director of the Bank of Ireland.  Upon his death in 1847, he was succeeded at his Windfield estate by his eldest son, Rev. John Jameson.  On 2nd January 1845 in Donnybrook Church, John Jameson, eldest son of James Jameson of Mount Rose, married Isabella Anne, the eldest daughter of Lt-Col. H. Jones of the Royal Engineers. On 7th October 1847 in Donnybrook, Rev John Jameson officiated at the wedding of his sister-in-law, Gertrude Jones, daughter of Lt. Col. Harry Jones, Chairman of the Board of Works in Ireland, when she married Francis Dukinfield Astley of Dukinfield Lodge, Cheshire.  In March 1855, by Rev. John Jameson, minister at Leamington, William Jameson of Mount Rose married Emily St. Leger O'Neill, second daughter of Lt. Col. H.A. O'Neill of St. Anne's, Co. Dublin.  In Alloa on 10th January 1849, James Jameson, son of the late James Jameson of Mount Rose, married Alicia Trimlestown, daughter of Robert Robertson, advocate.   The Rev. John Jameson officiated at the wedding of his brother Robert O'Brien Jameson (1828 - 1890), late a Captain in the 11th Hussars, when he married on 11th July 1870 in Westminster, Emily Margaret Mitchell, youngest daughter of the late Col. Hugh Mitchell of the Madras Army.

e) Andrew Jameson, born 1783.

f) Margaret Jameson married, in 1801, William Robert Robertson of Prendergast.

g) Helen Jameson died unmarried.

h) Anne Jameson married Major Francis Stupart of the Scots Greys or of the 2nd North British Dragoons.

i) Janet Jameson, the youngest daughter, married the brewer, Captain John Woolsey, of Milestone/Milesdown.

Captain John Woolsey of Milesdown, son of Rev William Woolsey and Mary Ann Bellingham, was the High Sheriff of Louth in 1826, and was the founder of the brewery in Castlebellingham which employed about 70 people there. He was an early shareholder in the Dublin Steam Packet Company which had been co-founded by Richard Williams of Drumcondra Castle.

Janet Woolsey, widow of John Woolsey, died aged 72 at Milesdown  on 10th April 1861.

The children of Captain John Woolsey and Janet Jameson were:
 
a)  Mary Anne Woolsey (1813 - 1881) who married Major John W. Simmons Smith, Major in the 14th Light Dragoons,  on 25th October 1836.
 
b) John Woolsey (1815 - 1819).
 
c)  Margaret Woolsey (1816 - 1877), married to Rev. Charles Thornhill.
 
d)  William Woolsey (1818 - 1887) married twice.  His first wife was Frances Rose Vesey, the daughter of Samuel Vesey of Derrabard House, Co. Tyrone - the marriage took place in Fintona on 1st October 1846.  Frances Rose, drowned in the River Clyde on 4th October 1866 and William Woolsey married again. On 11th July 1868 in Blofield, Norfolk, he married Mary Elizabeth Heath, the 7th daughter of the late William Heath of Bolfield Lodge.  William Woolsey ran the brewery with his younger brother John. 

e)  Helen Jameson Woolsey (1819 - 1908).
 
f)  Robert Jameson Woolsey (1821 - 1838). Robert Jameson Woolsey died aged 16 of scarlet fever in Rouen, France, on 6th March 1838.
 
g) Frances Hester Bellingham Woolsey (1823 -  28th September 1838).
 
h)  Major General O'Brien/O'Bryen Bellingham Woolsey (1827 - 1910).  On 12th April 1855 in Dinnington, Northumberland, O'Bryen Bellingham Woolsey, Captain in the Royal Artillery, married Anna, the eldest daughter of Sir John Walsham of Knill Court, Hereford.

i)  John Woolsey (1830 - 1887).  He ran the family brewing business along with his older brother, William Woolsey. On 5th June 1866 John Woolsey married his cousin, Elizabeth Lucy Willis, the second daughter of Rev. Henry de Laval Willis, incumbent of St. John's, Bradford.  John Woolsey and Elizabeth Lucy Willis lived at Castle Cosey, Castlebellingham.
    'In memory of William Woolsey of Milestone, died 11th May 1887, aged 68 years, and his brother, John Woolsey, of Castle Cosey, Castlebellingham, who died 23rd May 1887 aged 56 years. This tablet has been erected in loving remembrance by their employees.'

7. Thomas Woolsey  (b. 1784, d. Sep 1834)  married Elizabeth Gibson.  Thomas Woolsey died in Brighton on 29th August 1834 where he'd gone for the benefit of his health.

The children of Thomas Woolsey and Elizabeth Gibson were all born in London, where Thomas was working in the Admiralty, and were baptised in the Old Church, St. Pancras -

William Woolsey, baptised 16th November 1814.
Mary Anne Woolsey, later wife of Henry de Laval Willis, born 4th August 1817.
Elizabeth Lucy Woolsey, born 26 August 1821.  (In July 1856, Elizabeth Lucy married, in St. Pancras, London, Thepphilus Moon of HM's Customs. From Limerick Chronicle.)
Thomas Frederic Woolsey, born 2nd Dec 1823.
Sophia Frances Woolsey, born 21st Feb.1828.
O'Brien Woolsey, named in Hester Frances Bellingham's 1841 will.  O'Brien Woolsey of 4 Marsden (?) Row, Chiswick, made a will which was probated on 18th September 1857 - O'Bryen Woolsey, late of the Admiralty, died in Chiswick on 5th August 1857.  In his will he left bequests to his unmarried sister Sophia Frances Woolsey and to his unmarried aunt Catherine Gibson. The executors were named as his Uncle O'Bryan Bellingham and his brother-in-law Rev. Henry de Laval Willis.

Rev. Henry de Laval Willis married Thomas Woolsey's daughter, Mary Anne, in Kilsaran, Co. Louth, on October 16th 1841.   Henry de Laval Willis was the cousin of Geraldine O'Moore Creighton who married Richard Williams of Eden Quay - Richard Williams was most likely a relation of Richard Williams of Drumcondra Castle who had married Anne Palmer.

The children of Rev. Henry de Laval Willis and Mary Anne Woolsey were:
Frances Hester Bellingham Willis, born Limerick, 17th December 1842. (She would later marry, in 1861,  John Walker of Bolling Hall, Yorkshire.)
Elizabeth Lucy Willis, born 1844.
Henry Thomas Gilbert Willis, born St. Mary's, Lancaster, in 1849.
Francis William Willis, born in Bradford, York, England, on 23rd February 1851.

The daughter of Rev. Henry de Laval Willis and Mary Anne Woolsey, Elizabeth Lucy Willis (1844 - 1870), married yet another member of the Woolsey brewing family, John Woolsey, who was the son of Capt. John Woolsey and Janet Jameson.

8. Commander William E. Woolsey (b. 1785, d. Sep 1805) who died at sea onboard HMS Papillon of which he was the captain.  He married, in February 1850 in Clones Church, Charlotte Marion Ross, the daughter of John Ross, Captain and Adjutant of the Monaghan Regiment of Militia. ('The Advocate', 27th February 1850.)

9. O'Bryen Bellingham Woolsey (b. c 1792, d. 16 Jan 1874) who married Emily Holt of London - they had  no children; he was the Accountant-General of the Admiralty.

Woolsey/Palmer Leases:
Milestone House and Estate, 1871 - 'Lease dated 2nd June 1824, made between Anne Palmer, widow of George Palmer of the first part; the Rev. Daniel Palmer and George Fortescue Palmer of the 2nd part; and John Woolsey of Castlebellingham of the 3rd part;  for the lives of William Woolsey, eldest son of John Woolsey, the lessee, then aged about 6 years;  Robert Jameson Woolsey,second son of said John Woolsey, then aged about 3 years;  and John Jameson, eldest son of James Jameson of Harcourt-street in the City of Dublin, then aged about 8 years, and the survivor or survivors of them, for the term of 61 years, from the 1st May 1824 at the yearly rent of £526  9s. 6d....'
   Comments on the above, dated 1871:  'There are but two of the three lives in this lease now in being, namely, Wm.Woolsey, Esquire, the present tenant, who is now about 53 years of age, according to the statement in the lease, and the Reverend John Jameson, who is now about 55 years of age,  according to the statement in the lease, and of the term of years there are about 14 years left to run.'

Let me try and explain the above 1824 lease - Anne Palmer was the widow of George Palmer of the Bank of Ireland;  she died in 1830 at home in French St, Dublin.  Her father was Daniel Bickerton of Milestone, Castlebellingham and it was through her that Milestone entered the Woolsey family. Her son was Rev. Daniel Palmer, whose son was named George Fortescue Palmer, both of whom were named in the lease.
Anne Palmer was the widow of George Palmer (of the Bank etc.) whose aunt, Lucy Palmer, was the mother of Rev. William Woolsey.
The John Woolsey mentioned above was Captain John Woolsey (his parents were Rev. William Woolsey and Mary Ann Bellingham)  who was married to Janet Jameson, hence the name of his son, Robert Jameson Woolsey.

Also:  'Fee farm grant, dated 24th February 1826, made between Anne Palmer, widow, of the 1st part;  the Right Honorable and Most Reverend Lord John George Archbishop of the Diocese of Armagh, of the 2nd part;  and the Rev. William Woolsey, minister of the parish of Kilsaran, of the 3rd part, of a plot of ground part of the lands of Milestone, containing one rood, Irish plantation measure, or thereabouts, to be hold to the said minister and his successors forever, in trust for the use of a resident schoolmaster.  The grant provides for the appointment of a schoolmaster and the conduct of a school, and contains a covenant that the sum of £203 would be expended on the erection of a house of residence on said lands for such schoolmaster, and with suitable accommodation for the convenient instruction of scholars to be taught at such a school.'
(The tenant in 1871 was the Rev. Robert Le P. M'Clintock.)

A deed concerning the property named Woottenstown or Wottonstown, Louth: 'Lease dated 25th January 1848 made between George Fortescue Palmer, of the 1st part; Richard Palmer of the 2nd part; George Palmer of the 3rd part; Bickarton Palmer of the 4th part; and John Woolsey of Milestown, Esquire,  in the County of Louth, of the 5th part, for the lives of William Woolsey, eldest son of said John Woolsey, the lessee, and the Reverend John Jameson of Lancaster, clerk, eldest son of James Jameson, then late of Montrose in the County of Dublin, esquire, deceased, and the survivor of them,  or for the term of 37 years and 6 months from the 1st of November 1847, at the yearly rent of £269 11s...'
  (In 1871, as before, only William Woolsey and John Jameson were still alive.)

And a quick explanation - George Fortescue Palmer was the son of Rev. Daniel Palmer, who was the son of the governor of the Bank of Ireland, George Palmer, and of Anne Bickerton.
Richard Palmer was also the son of George of the Bank etc., and brother of Anne Palmer who married Richard Williams of Drumcondra Castle;  he was also the brother of Rev.Daniel Palmer.
Bickerton Palmer was Bickerton William Palmer, born 24th May 1822, to Richard Palmer and his wife, Frances Woolsey.
George Palmer was another brother of Richard Palmer, both of them being merchants of French St in Dublin.