Frances BARROW of Potterspury, Northamptonshire. Was she the wife of John COOKE the Regicide?

John COOKE (1608-1660), the Gray's Inn Barrister turned Solicitor-General for the Commonwealth who prosecuted the case against King Charles the First, became a Justice in Ireland under CROMWELL, and was subsequently hanged, drawn and quartered as a Regicide.
However, the full identity of his wife Frances remains, as yet, an unsolved mystery.

Several sources have stated that she was Frances CUTLER when she was married to a John COOKE in London in 1646 [see Wilfrid PREST's on-line biography of COOK for the Oxford D.N.B.; perhaps used as source by Geoffrey ROBERTSON in his "The Tyrannicide Brief", Vintage, London, 2006]. 

Detailed research over the last decade has revealed a perhaps more likely origin - among the family of BARROW living in and around Potterspury, Northamptonshire.

[Part of a 1727 "Bird's Eye View" Map of Potterspury, held in Northamptonshire Records Office. 

The dwelling highlighted in orange had been the BARROW family residence.

North points roughly towards the left of the picture.
The road running on an angle across the bottom of the image is the old Roman road known as Watling Street.]

But conclusive proof of this potential BARROW connection remains elusive.

The following is my summary of a considerable amount of circumstantial evidence for it, much of which has been sourced from documents purchased from The National Archives in Kew (TNA) and from paid and private research conducted in the Northamptonshire Record Office (NRO). Further evidence comes from Vere Langford OLIVER's monumental "History of the Island of Antigua," published in 3 Volumes in 1894-1895.

By established convention, I have recorded pre-1752 (Julian Calendar) dates, for events occurring between 1 January and 24 March, with both Civil and Ecclesiastical year numbers - as an illustration of this convention, a year given as 1661-62 is for an event occurring between, but not including, 31 December 1661 and 25 March 1662.
Where vital date information is sourced to a Parish Register, the details will be found in the usual on-line web-sites such as ancestry.library, findmypast.co.uk and familysearch.org, except as otherwise noted.

As at the end of 2015, COOK's entry in the online version of the Oxford D.N.B had been amended by the Editors to include some of the research results which are discussed below.
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A CHRONOLOGY OF DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE POSSIBLE IDENTITY OF JOHN COOKE'S WIFE FRANCES, 1620 - 1693.

With my SPECULATIVE suggestions and deductions in red.

1 November 1618 - Elizabeth BARROW was baptised at Lillingston Lovell, Buckinghamshire, daughter of Edward and Elizabeth BARROW.

Lillingston Lovell parish register.

There is no specific evidence yet available, other than what appears speculatively below, to indicate that Elizabeth survived into adulthood; but if she did, then she was of an appropriate age to have been the wife of Nicholas BACON of the City of London, and after him of Peter FARREN of Northampton, and finally of Robert MASSEY also of Northampton. Her father Edward was the son of John BARROW of Potterspury, Northamptonshire, by his second wife Mary STANDISH; her mother Elizabeth was probably a daughter of Thomas CHEYNE of Sundon, Bedfordshire, by his wife Frances BROCAS, and the widow of Samuel BRYAN (died Northampton, 1616), who married Edward BARROW at Luton parish church on 29 March 1617. John BARROW made his will on 1 September 1615, making a bequest to his daughter Anne DILLINGHAM of "... a grissell roane nag two years old or thereabout young in the [little] stable at Lillingston" - clearly the BARROW family of Potterspury did occupy premises in one of the Lillingstons (Lovell and/or Dayrell), about 4 to 5 miles south-west of Potterspury, just across the county boundary with Buckinghamshire.

4 April 1620 - Frances BARROW was baptised at Lillingston Lovell, second daughter of ditto.

Ditto. Possibly, even probably, the wife and widow of John COOKE the Gray's Inn Barrister, after him of William PROCTOR of Antigua, and finally of Acquilla STOUGHTON also of Antigua. See below.  

2 March 1626-27. Isaac COOKE was baptised at Leicester St Nicholas, the son of William COOKE and Ann STANFORD.

This may have been the other or "cousin" Isaac COOKE mentioned in Rev John TWYCTON's 1657 will (see below). William was probably the one named (as were his sons John and Abraham) in the 1655 will of his sister Anne FORRYAN (whom evidence indicates was also Isaac COOKE's sister, being the widow firstly of John LICHFIELD and then of Richard FORRYAN), and if so, an uncle of John COOKE, the Regicide. If so, this Isaac the younger born 1626-27 was a nephew of Isaac Senior and a first cousin of John COOKE. However, neither Isaac Senior nor Isaac Junior was named in the Ann FORRYAN will, which does present a bit of an evidentiary difficulty.

1634 - Mr Edward BARROES, deceased, had "... carried twoe loads of the like stone... from the honor howse of Grafton to Stoke lodge since Sir Francis CRANE came thither."

NRO, Ref Ph 35288, Northampton Deposition.

Probably Edward BARROW of Potterspury. Edward had been acting on instructions from Sir Francis CRANE or his agents, perhaps as some sort of a contractor. Sir Francis CRANE (1579-1636) was a highly successful Tapestry dealer and manufacturer in Mortlake, Surrey, and an M.P.; in 1628 he made a loan of £7,500 to the Crown, with a parcel of the honour of Grafton in Northamptonshire (an old Royal hunting demesne) as security, which he would have if the loan principal was not repaid within 2 years (it evidently was not); he was granted the Keepership of two more Grafton honour parks in 1633; he had Henry VIII's old hunting lodge there cannibalised of timber and stone to build his own grand and elaborate Italianate Villa of Stoke Lodge. Edward BARROW's widow Elizabeth married secondly, Mr COOKE (probably Isaac).

1635 - Mr BARROES "pays" 3s. for Ship Money, Potterspury.
NRO, Ref YX 4393.

There appears to be a date problem here if this was Edward BARROW, reported as dead in 1634, especially if he was "paying" the tax rather than it being an assessment of his obligation prior to the collection of it. Although this may have been the first time Ship Money was collected so far from the coast, and the list used for the assessment of it may have been a residual list from an earlier taxation, corrected/amended as the current tax was collected (see further below in connection with the ca 1660 Poll Tax list). Alternatively, this may perhaps instead have been Thomas BARROW, his son, who would probably therefore have to have been of age, and if so, born in or before 1614, and well before his father Edward BARROW married Elizabeth BRYAN alias CHEYNE. The answer to this is critical, therefore, as to whether Thomas may have been an older half-brother of Elizabeth and Frances, or their younger full-brother - which latter scenario does ask questions as to why he played no part in their later lives.

1640 - John COOKE was witness to deeds associated with two closes in Potterspury, Northamptonshire; evidently being a mortgage, dated 25 March 1640, between John HILLIER, Yeoman of Potterspury, and his second son William HILLIER of Potterspery, for £65.
NRO, Ref F XIII.6.

Possibly, even probably, John COOKE the Gray's Inn Barrister.

1641 - Isaac COOKE and Thomas BARROWES witnessed the deed of sale of a house in Potterspury by John HILLIER the elder to John HILLIER the younger, citing a deed of 1577 between Thomas MEADE of Lillingston and John HILLIER of Potterspury.

NRO, Refs F XIII.3 and F XIII.7.

Isaac was probably the father of John COOKE, Gray's Inn Barrister. Thomas was probably the son of Edward BARROW of Potterspury, possibly by his wife Elizabeth BRYAN alias CHEYNE. But as he would probably have been of age, and therefore born in or before 1620, it appears more likely that he was instead the son of an earlier marriage.

3 January 1641-42 - Frances's sister Elizabeth married Nicholas BACON of Bishopsgate Street, parish of St Peter Upon Cornhill, City of London. The marriage settlements were made on 27 December 1641 - Isaac COOKE of Potterspury, Gent, was a party to the settlements and paid the marriage portion of £100, by which a part of the BACON family premises in Bishopsgate Street, near Leadenhall Street, St Peter Upon Cornhill, was set aside for the use of Nicholas and his wife Elizabeth - namely a shop, cellars, garrets, two sets of stairs (otherwise identified as a hallway) and several small rooms convenient to the shop.

TNA, Chancery Court, 1654, Ref C 5/23/97, FARREN and COOKE v. BACON (the Bill of Complaint, and the part Answer of John FREEMAN and his son John), and Ref C 10/35/72, FARREN v BACON (the other part Answer of Clement and Martha BACON).

The marriage may have taken place at Potterspury, for which parish the Registers, and the Bishop's Transcripts of them, do not exist, or cannot now be found, for dates before 1674. Isaac COOKE was probably already of Potterspury in 1641, and perhaps already married secondly to the widow Elizabeth, whose most recent BARROW husband Edward had died in or before 1634. If so, when Isaac made Elizabeth Junior's marriage settlements in 1641, he would have done so as her step-father. I speculate that there is very likely to have been some sort of "kinship" relationship between them for this to have taken place anyway, and a step-father/step-daughter relationship would satisfactorily fall within that category. See further below.

August 1642 - Mr John COOKE of Gray's Inn gave his nephew Luke CLAPHAM (Junior) a 1577 edition of the book "The firste volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande and Irelande, etc," by Raphael HOLINSHED.

Original volume now located in the National Trust collection, Saltram, Devon; Inventory Number 3043865; with inscription on verso of the title page.

Luke CLAPHAM was then about 3 years of age, and a son of Luke CLAPHAM Senior by his wife Elizabeth, a sister of John COOKE the Gray's Inn Barrister; Luke's death, on 2 April 1676, aged 37, was recorded on his Monumental Inscription in Islip Church, Oxfordshire.

17 August 1643 - Nicholas BACON was buried in the East Churchyard.

St Peter Upon Cornhill parish register.

Probably the first husband of Elizabeth; evidently without issue, and aged 25 years. Elizabeth continued to reside in their part of the Bishopsgate Street house, alongside her BACON parents-in-law, for another 5 years after Nicholas died.

November 1643 - John CLAPHAM was born in Isaac COOKE's house in Baldwin's Garden, Gray's Inn Lane, London, the son of Luke CLAPHAM and his wife Elizabeth, and baptised 24th.

St Andrew's Holborn parish register.

Isaac's relationship to CLAPHAM is not stated in the Register. We know that John COOKE's father Isaac had a daughter Elizabeth, and that she probably married Luke CLAPHAM (Senior) in about 1639. See above. If this was the same Isaac as the one of Potterspury at that time, it appears likely, therefore, that he kept his residence in Gray's Inn Lane for the convenience of him and his son John. The fact he had a residence there may have been the means by which Elizabeth BARROW, by now probably Isaac COOKE's step-daughter, met her first husband Nicholas BACON, a Londoner. Unless this was instead the other or cousin Isaac COOKE? And if so, this may present a bit of an evidentiary problem - unless this other Isaac was the nephew born in 1626-27 (see above); and if so, then it follows that Potterspury Isaac was therefore almost certainly the father of John COOKE the Regicide.

1645 - The date of her marriage recorded by Frances COOKE, Widow, in her 1664 petition to King Charles II.

Original manuscript petition in TNA, Kew.

I sighted the original document at Kew in 2010. It bore neither date nor signature, and may have been a clerk's copy. If so, it may be possible that there was a copyist's mis-reading of the marriage year as 1645 in error for 1646. See further below. But, unverified, and probably now unverifiable from any other source anyway, this does present a bit of an evidentiary difficulty.

Percival BOYD, in his "Inhabitants of London" [S.O.G. on Findmypast.co.uk] also recorded the marriage in the year 1645, but identified the bride, evidently in error, as Frances MASSEY.

BOYD probably deduced the MASSEY connection from COOKE's condemned cell letter to his daughter Freelove, published after the Restoration; alternatively, he may have had access to OLIVER's "History of the Island of Antigua" published in 1895, in which an abstract of Elizabeth MASSEY's will named her niece Freelove GUNTHORPE.

19 May 1646 - Frances BARR... married Mr John COOKE, Counsellor.

St Peter Upon Cornhill parish register.

Notwithstanding the previous item, this may be our Frances. The term "Counsellor" undoubtedly refers to a Barrister at Law, although "our" John COOKE may not have been the only one in town. Frances may well have been residing with, or visiting, her sister Elizabeth, who was at that time known to be residing in this parish as a widow in her and her late husband's premises in Bishopsgate Street. If, contrary to her petition evidence, Frances was instead married in 1646, then this marriage would appear to be more likely for COOKE than the Frances CUTLER marriage assumed by PREST. However, I should note that the marriage register of St Olave's, Hart Lane, which records the CUTLER marriage on 12 September 1646, made no mention of any of the occupations of grooms during this period (although one proximate entry did describe a groom as "Esquire"). So her husband may perhaps also have been a Counsellor, although I think that is more than just a little unlikely. Indeed, I might cite the result of a quick and approximate estimation of the statistics involved to make my point - based on the ten years between 1837 and 1847, the Statutory Registration of  English births numbered 5.7 million, with 438,183 being named John, 31,911 named Frances, and 15,912 named COOK or COOKE, with the result that the chances of their being two marriages between a man named John COOK and Frances is calculated as being about 1 in 200,000 - which did actually happen in 1646 (presuming that the numerical ratios might have been similar 200 years earlier, which, of course, they may not have been, but it is a starting point, and the likelihood of major shifts in frequency of naming is, in my view, probably quite low). But if we then factor into this equation a 4th quantifier, that of the profession of Barrister for the groom (estimates of roughly 2,500 in England in the 1640's among a population of around 5.2 million, so about 1 in 2,000 for the whole, or more accurately 1 in 1,000 of the male population), then this reduces the chances of them both being barristers down to one in 0.2 billion (English reckoning - or one in 200,000,000), which is a very tiny number indeed - some might say so close to zero as to statistically "prove" that the other John COOKE, with the CUTLER spouse, could not have been one. Notwithstanding the oft-quoted adage concerning "... lies, damn lies and statistics"! As things stand at present, the "BARR" in this record is the ONLY match I find with the surname beginning BARR (otherwise BARROW of Potterspury) associated with the COOKE family. And I find no similar match with the name CUTLER or any part of it.

28 June 1648 - Elizabeth BACON was married to Peter FARREN.

St Clement Dane's, Westminster, parish register.

Elizabeth had continued to live in her late husband's residence in Bishopsgate Street, and for 5 years after his death (in 1643), as stated by Clement and Martha BACON in their 1654 Chancery Court Answer (see below); whereupon, they said, she went off into the country with friends.
Peter FARREN was probably the former Baker and later Innholder of the Town of Northampton, and the widower of Sarah RO(LE)SON (the daughter of Roger HIGHAM) who had died in Northampton in 1647. This marriage is certainly consistent, date-wise and geographically, with the BACON Court evidence of 1654.

1649 - John COOKE sailed for Ireland, probably in late September or early October 1649, with his wife Frances and 3 servants; they evidently arrived in Wexford "... shortly after" that city had been taken by storm by troops under command of Oliver CROMWELL, on 11 October 1649; he may have been settled by CROMWELL into confiscated premises in Waterford at this time.

The COOKE party embarked in Wexford on the ship "Hector" on 1 January 1650, bound for Cobh harbour, near the City of Cork; but the ship was blown well off course in a severe gale, as far west as Mezne Head to the west of Cape Clere by about 5 or 6 January, and eventually found safe harbour back up at Kinsale on 9 January.
See "The Tyrannicide Brief," by Geoffrey ROBERTSON, Vintage Press, London, 2006, page 230. See also the full account of the voyage published by COOKE in Cork in April 1650 with an addendum by his wife F. COOKE.

Evidently none of COOKE's baggage was lost in the storm, which, given his description of it (the storm), is rather remarkable, perhaps even providential. If he was the son of Isaac of Potterspury, I do not know whether he still had his father's deed (see next item) with him on the voyage, or if it had been left in Waterford, or whether it had already been dispatched back to Potterspury.

1650 - Isaac COOKE, Gent, held three tenements in Potterspury by copy. Rent for them all was £3 10s., fine £7, herriot 2 s. Annual value 13s. 6d. farthing, 28 trees worth £12. "Isaac COOKE says his copy is in Ireland with his son, by which means no date appears."

TNA, Ref E 317/Northants/40, fol.21. [As abstracted in V.C.H. Slips deposited in N.R.O.]

I speculate that "... his son" was very likely to have been John COOKE, the former Solicitor General for the Commonwealth, who is on the record as having then only very recently arrived in Ireland and taken up his appointment by CROMWELL as Chief Justice of Munster. See previous item. The chances of the other (or "cousin") Isaac COOK having a grown-up son in Ireland at this time are, in my view, probably fairly remote - and, indeed, impossible, if it transpires that he was the nephew born in 1626-27. But why John COOKE had his father's deed in his possession is a bit of a mystery - was he a party to it, or was he assisting his father in the due legal processing of it? And was his exit for Ireland therefore a bit sudden - or was he just a bit absent-minded in relation to family matters under the pressure of National duty? I have not yet sighted the original document at Kew.

9 August 1650 - Elizabeth's second husband Peter FARREN, Innholder, was buried at All Saints, Northampton. Parish Register. His administration was granted on 21 October to Elizabeth FARREN, the relict.

TNA, Ref "Index of Acts of Administration in the P.C.C." 1649-1654, PROB 6/25, MS fol. 152.

His widow being named Elizabeth does not in itself prove that she was the widow of Nicholas BACON. But there do not appear to be any other Peter FARREN marriages in available English parish registers in the time frame, let alone with a wife named Elizabeth.

24 April 1653 - Army Tax Assessments for Potterspury: Mr COOKE, 17s. 3d. Mr BARROW, (amount deleted and unreadable).

NRO, Ref YZ 4395.

Probably Isaac COOKE and his or his wife's step-son Thomas BARROW.

1654 - Elizabeth FARREN, Widow, and Isaac COOKE, of Potterspury, Gent, brought their Bill of Complaint before the Court of Chancery, concerning part of premises in Bishopsgate Street, near Leadenhall Street, Parish of St Peter Upon Cornhill in the City of London, granted by Clement and Martha BACON in December 1641 as part of the marriage settlements for their son Nicholas to Elizabeth, and for which Isaac COOKE paid the marriage portion of £100.
TNA - C 5/23/97 - FARREN v. BACON, Plaintiffs Elizabeth FARREN, Widow, and another; Defendants Clement BACON, Martha BACON his wife, [unknown] FREEMAN and others; Bill and Answer (part only - that of John FREEMAN and his son John Junior); 1654.
TNA - C 10/35/72, FARREN and COOKE v. BACON, date range 1 January 1654 to 31 December 1654; Answer (part only - that of Clement and Martha BACON).

Elizabeth's maiden surname is nowhere recorded in these documents; I speculate that she was probably Elizabeth BARROW. See further above.

ca 1655 - BOYD's "Inhabitants of London" recorded the birth of John and Frances COOKE's daughter Freelove.

28 July 1655 - Mrs Elizabeth FARREN was married thirdly, by Banns, at All Saints, Northampton, to Robert MASSEY, Gent.

NRO, Parish Register.

The register does record Elizabeth as Mrs, but not as a widow. Once again, there do not appear to be any other Robert MASSEY marriages in available English parish registers in the time frame, let alone with a wife named Elizabeth.

April 1657 - Justice John COOKE was back in London.

See ROBERTSON, "Tyrannicide Brief," page 253 and Chronology.

4 June 1657 - Rev John TWYCTON, Rector of Corby, Northamptonshire, made his will, mentioning his brother(-in-law) Isaac COOKE, his nephew John COOKE "... now or late Justice in Ireland... and oh what I would have given him had he not, had he not..." and others, including another Isaac COOKE whom he identified as his cousin.

TNA - P.C.C. Probate grant with will copy.

Rev John TWICTON was a brother of Isaac COOKE's first wife Elizabeth TWIGDEN; he was evidently a Royalist, or perceived a need to appear so. I suspect that Frances COOKE 's wider family circle may have been of a similar persuasion, and that any residual "toleration" for her husband's Commonwealth activities may well have entirely evaporated by the time of the Restoration. This may account for the lack of mention of her and her sister in BARROW and CHEYNE family wills over the period, and for the very small core of close family members to whom John COOKE committed the care of his daughter Freelove in 1660. See below. Rev John may have mis-identified the "cousin" Isaac COOKE in error for nephew - if the latter, he may have been the one born in 1626-27 (see above).

9 December 1657 - John COOKE was in Northampton, having "... been all the last tearme attending his highness, in order to my return to Ireland, as he commanded me" - his letter of congratulations to Henry CROMWELL in Dublin, now Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with his stated (but unfulfilled) intention to "... attend your lordship in March." 

See "A Collection of the State Papers of John THURLOE," 1657-58, page 666.
 

Justice COOKE was recorded as having subscribed a sum of 10s. for the furnishing of "... leatherine buckets" in the Town of Northampton for the purposes of fighting fires - the date of his subscription is unrecorded, but the date range for them all was from 1643 to 1657.
See "The Records of the Borough of Northampton," edited C. COX, 1898, page 244.

Justice John COOKE probably made his contribution while there, in or before December 1657. I speculate that he and Frances were probably visiting his father, and/or her sister, Mrs Elizabeth MASSEY.

1658 - Isaac COOKE died.

See ROBERTSON, "Tyrannicide Brief," Chronology.

It seems likely that he may have died in Potterspury. As already mentioned, the Parish Registers for Potterspury and the Bishop's Transcripts of them no longer exist, or cannot be found, prior to 1674.

1 February 1658-59 - Justice John COOKE was still in London. His letter to Henry CROMWELL stated the reasons for the delay to his return, including the death of his aged father, and the consumptive illness of his wife.

See ROBERTSON, "Tyrannicide Brief," page 255.

ROBERTSON presumed that Frances had also died about this time, from the consumptive illness mentioned in this letter. I believe, as some of these documents collectively show, that this presumption was in error.

1659 - Easter: John COOKE resumed duties on the Upper Bench in Ireland at the beginning of Easter Term.

See ROBERTSON, "Tyrannicide Brief," page 263.

16 May 1660 - John COOKE departed Dublin under close arrest; he was in Chester, 6 June, en route to prison and his trial in London.

See ROBERTSON, "Tyrannicide Brief," page 278.

15 October 1660 - John COOKE wrote his letter to his daughter Freelove from his condemned cell, mentioning her three close blood-relations - her dear mother, her good grandmother, and her loving aunt MASSEY. COOKE was executed the following day.

Letter published.

Her mother was Frances COOKE; her grandmother was probably Elizabeth CHEYNE, the widow of Isaac COOKE, and before him of Edward BARROW of Potterspury, and earlier again of Samuel BRYAN of Northampton; her Aunt MASSEY was Elizabeth, probably born BARROW, the widow of Nicholas BACON and after him of Peter FARREN.

1660 - Crown Survey of Potterspury: Elizabeth COOKE, copyholder, two properties with old rents of £1 13s. 4. and of 6d.; Thomas BARROW, copyholder, old rent of £1 7s.

NRO, Ref G 3199.

Elizabeth was the widow of Edward BARROW of Potterspury (cited in 1634 as deceased), and probably the second wife of Isaac COOKE; Thomas was probably the son of the late Edward BARROW, and the son or step-son of Elizabeth.

[Part of a detail from the 1727 survey of Potterspury, held in the Northamptonshire Record Office, as shown in Rod CONLAN's paper "Renewal and Replacement in a Northamptonshire Village: Housing in Potterspury, 1727-1910," published in Vernacular Architecture, Volume 40 (2009), page 43.

The BARROW house is highlighted in orange.]

9 August (ca 1660?) - Poll Tax assessment for Potterspury. Mr COOKE (£2), his wife, one daughter and 2 servants (2s.), goods £50.
NRO, Ref YZ 4397.
The Poll Tax was instituted to finance the disbanding of the New Model Army; the Bill was given its first reading in the Convention Parliament on 12 June 1660; a Committee was established to examine it on 6 Nov; and it seems that the final machinery may not yet have been in place for the actual collection of it until the first Parliament of Charles II had met in early 1661.

There is an obvious problem with this year date, ca 1660, evidently attributed to it (and probably in the absence of an actual year number on the original) by the Archivist at Northamptonshire Record Office some years ago when the list was indexed. However, if the list that was used for the assessment was a pre-existing or residual list from an earlier taxation, which was then corrected and upgraded as the tax was actually collected, then the date for that earlier list may have been 1659 or 1658 or even earlier - in which case this Mr COOKE may have been either John COOKE (1659) or Isaac (1658 or earlier). But if the list was actually made in 1660, then I have a problem in assimilating this particular piece of "evidence" into my currently speculated BARROW saga. However, and irrespective of the year date, if the tax was applicable to all persons aged 16 and over, and by implication to none under that age, then the "daughter" could not have been Freelove COOKE, then only aged about 4 - so this Mr COOKE is unlikely to have been John. Further, several web-sites indicate that the Tax was assessed according to rank, ranging from £100 for a Duke, down to 6d for "anyone else" not otherwise identified in between and aged 16 or over - with Judges rated at £20, Advocates at £5, and Attornies at £3 - all clearly in excess of this Mr COOKE's assessment. Anyone with property (land, etc) was assessed at 40s per £100 earned from it - so Mr COOKE, probably therefore Isaac, may have been assessed on £100 worth of assets or annual income. 

12 February 1661-62 - Elizabeth COOKE "... late wife of Edward BARRONES" (or BARROWS) and Thomas BARRONES (sic) "... his son" made a petition concerning a copyhold messuage in Potterspury.
See "Calendar of Treasury Books," Volume 1, 1660-1667, Historical Manuscripts Commission, London, 1904, as abstracted on British History Online.

I have not yet sighted the original manuscript Treasury Books at Kew. It appears that the letter "w" may yet again have challenged quill-wielding clerical hands, and the transcribing eyes of those who followed. At any rate, the name BARRONES nowhere else appears in connection with the village of Potterspury - all that do, and which bear any resemblance to it, and there are many, are for the name BARROW or BARROWES or BARROES.

1664 - Frances COOKE, widow, made her petition to King Charles II for restitution of her own personal losses in Ireland.

See Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, 1663-65, London, 1907, page 514.

Presumably she was still in England; she probably went to Antigua before about 1670. The original manuscript petition copy at Kew was undated and unsigned; the 1907 printed abstract was published among other papers dated 1664.

13 June 1675 - Freelove COOKE married John GUNTHORPE. 

Parish Register of St Mary's, Newington, Surrey, page 114.

BOYD's "Inhabitants of London" recorded the year in error as 1678, and identified the groom as Major John GUNTHORPE, which militia rank he did not acquire until much later, and in Antigua.

27 August 1678 - Census of Antigua. Lt William PROCTOR was named as head of a household in Falmouth Division, comprising two men, one woman and two children (of European origin), and four men, three women and four children (of African origin).
See OLIVER, "History of the Island of Antigua," Volume 1, pages lviii (PROCTOR and GUNTHORPE) and clix (MUSSENDEN). 

The European woman was probably Frances; and the two children probably her younger daughters by her presumed second husband William PROCTOR - the younger child probably Frances PROCTOR, later the wife of John PIGOTT.

Also at Falmouth Division was John GUNTHROPP, his household comprising three men (European).

Probably John GUNTHORPE, the husband of Freelove COOKE; she was still in England (see below).

At Old North Sound Division was Major MUSSENDEN, his household comprising two men, one woman and three children (European), and seven men and six women (African).

Probably Buck's Plantation, purchased very soon after by John GUNTHORPE. See below.

5 September 1678 - Elizabeth's third husband Robert MASSEY, Attorney, made his will (proved 18 September 1678), leaving his estate to his "... beloved wife Elizabeth," and which "Fr: GUNTHORPE" signed as a witness. He was buried at All Saints, Northampton, on 9 September.

NRO, Ref N Will 3rd Series E, 37.

I speculate, with some confidence, that the witness Fr: was Freelove; evidently, therefore, Freelove GUNTHORPE had stayed behind in England, perhaps not wanting to subject her first confinement to the rigours of a long sea voyage; her child Robert was probably named after this MASSEY uncle.

17 September 1678 - By deed of sale, John GUNTHORPE, of London, Goldsmith, purchased 500 acres in New North Sound, Antigua, formerly called Buck's Plantation, from Major William MUSSENDIN, for "... a valuable consideration (of which four negroes have been already received)..."  and with "... (three white servants and nine negroes still to be handed over)." 
The patent for the sale was granted to GUNTHORPE by Sir W. STAPLETON on 10 January 1681-82, at the rent of one ear of Indian corn every Christmas Day.
Buck's Plantation had been granted to Archibald HENDERSON in 1669, and after his banishment in 1674, was re-granted to Major William MUSSENDINE in 1677. 
See OLIVER, "History of the Island of Antigua," Volume 2, page 40.

OLIVER also recorded that GUNTHORPE and MUSSENDIN were "partners." I speculate that this sale was not a case of MUSSENDIN acting in Antigua for an investing (or "sleeping") partner still living in London, as GUNTHORPE's title might suggest; and he does appear to have already arrived in Antigua, being recorded in the Census twelve days earlier (see previous item). Goldsmith Company records show GUNTHORPE's admission as apprentice in 1671, but there is no record of his Freedom.

5 February 1680-81 - Elizabeth MASSEY, widow of Robert MASSEY, made her will as she was about to set out on a voyage to Antigua; she named her niece Freelove "... now the wife of John GUNTHORPE of Antigua" and their son Robert GUNTHORPE. The will was proved P.C.C. 10 April 1686.

See OLIVER, "History of the Island of Antigua," Volume 2, page 39.

Given the date of her probate, Elizabeth probably survived her voyage to Antigua. She may have died there, but if so, no evidence survives. If this was Elizabeth BARROW, she was aged 62 when she made her will, and would have been 68 if she survived until just before probate. Her niece Freelove's husband John and eldest son Robert were evidently dead before 1693. See below.

12 May 1685 - Mrs Margaret HENDERSON first made claims in the Court of Common Pleas in Antigua concerning Buck's Plantation, New North Sound, which had been originally granted in 1669 to her late brother-in-law Archibald HENDERSON. Her petition was subsequently forwarded by the Council to the Board of Trade in April 1687, and in her reply to the Board in December 1687, she claimed the property had been "usurped" by John GUNTHORPE, whom she described as "... the son-in-law to that egregious traitor John COOKE, Solicitor to the pretended High Court of Justice against King Charles the Martyr."

See OLIVER, "History of the Island of Antigua," Volume 2, page 40.

Margaret HENDERSON's claim concerning GUNTHORPE's relationship to John COOKE could hardly be regarded as "hard" evidence. Probably vexatious, perhaps well-informed, there is no indication that this part of her claim was disputed or challenged at the time by GUNTHORPE, or anyone else. But Margaret would have had few friends in Antigua, where Royalists were probably still very much outnumbered by old Commonwealth supporters who had emigrated to the extremities of the new King's demesnes around the time of, and after, the Restoration, including, it appears, the members of John COOKE's immediate family.

June 1690 - Admiral WRIGHT's West Indies squadron of ten Men-of-War with 3,000 men arrived in Nevis, to protect English colonial interests against French aggression. The Squadron brought the Duke of Bolton's Regiment, now commanded by Henry HOLT, and in which was serving Captain John PIGOTT, about 22-23 years of age, a native of Queen's County, Ireland. John PIGOTT "settled" in Antigua for about 8 years.
The Duke of Bolton himself had accompanied Prince William of Orange on his arrival in England, and his Regiment had originally been ordered to go to Ireland with the new King in early 1690, but those orders were changed at the last minute.

Captain John PIGOTT married Frances PROCTOR, the (probably third) daughter of Mrs Frances PROCTOR who was probably the widow of John COOKE; their first child (Elizabeth PIGOTT) was probably the unborn child evidently due in late 1693 or early 1694 (see below); their first-born son (Thomas PIGOTT) was born about 1695 (he came of age in Ireland in 1716); their youngest son (Captain John PIGOTT of Stradbally, who may have been my ancestor) was born in Ireland in 1704.

17 July 1691 - Acquilla STOUGHTON made his will, naming his wife Frances as his sole executor; the will was proved on 21 June 1693. STOUGHTON was first mentioned in Antiguan records on 9 January 1679-80, as a Deputy Secretary "... sworn to the acts of Trade."
See OLIVER, "History of the Island of Antigua," Volume 1.

Frances was probably the widow of William PROCTOR, and before him of John COOKE.

9 September 1693 - Frances STOUGHTON, widow, made her will in Antigua (proved 8 February 1693-94), naming grandsons John and William GUNTHORPE, and noting a prior bequest to her "... for £20 to buy mourning" from Major John GUNTHORPE which she directed should go to her son-in-law John PIGOTT.

See OLIVER, "History of the Island of Antigua," Volume 3, page 25.

If this was Frances BARROW, she was aged 73. If another, she was still aged in her mid 60s (if aged 18 at her marriage in 1645-46) or older. Major John GUNTHORPE, probably only recently deceased, was almost certainly the widower of Freelove COOKE; the grandsons John and William, inevitably John and Freelove's two surviving sons, the evidence here indicating that the elder son Robert mentioned in 1681-2 had probably since died as a young child.

Frances STOUGHTON also named her daughter, Frances PIGOTT, the wife of John PIGOTT, and made a bequest of £5 for plate for the first child she has.

Frances PIGOTT was identified by OLIVER in his "History of the Island of Antigua" as a daughter of Lieutenant William PROCTOR of Rendezvous Bay, Antigua, and on that evidence probably the second husband of the widow Frances COOKE. The "first child she has" may well have been already on the way.

Frances STOUGHTON made further mention of another grandchild, Frances KERBY.

I speculate that her mother was yet another but unknown daughter of Frances by a husband unknown but probably William PROCTOR; her father may have been Dr Thomas KERBY of Antigua.

MAGUIRES & METHODISM IN DUBLIN - a view from a Church of Ireland Cathedral

William MAGUIRE was my great-great-great grandfather. He was buried in Dublin in 1844 in that part of the Churchyard of Saint Patrick's Cathedral known as the Vicar's Bawn, aged 62. He had served as the Sexton of the Cathedral since 1810; he was Inspector of Taxes for the Paving Board of the Corporation for Paving, Lighting and Cleansing the Streets of Dublin; and he was a Primitive Wesleyan Methodist.

Saint Patrick's Cathedral had an important part to play in the life of Dublin Methodists. From as early as 1747, it had been a place where Methodists went to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion, or the Lord's Supper; and on a number of occasions, the numbers brought there by the Rev John WESLEY himself were so large that he was called upon, by the Methodist-friendly Dean of Saint Patrick's, Francis CORBET, to assist in the dispensation of that sacrament - in order, I venture, that they all might get home in good time for dinner.

[James MALTON's View of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, 1791, from the south-west, looking over the Vicar's Bawn.]

This article sets out to investigate this arrangement, and whether it played any part in the later advancement of the MAGUIRE family into important civil posts within the Cathedral itself.
It will look at some early involvement of William's parents, Thomas MAGUIRE and his wife Letitia PHAIR, with the Methodist Society in County Cavan, before they left their farm in Mullalougher Townland, parish of Castleterra, in the year 1777, to live in Dublin.

But we will begin with Dublin, the early days of Methodism there, and their connection with the communion chalices at Saint Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral.

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METHODISM IN DUBLIN BEFORE 1777.

Methodism made its introduction in Dublin in 1746, when an English Methodist preacher, Mr Thomas WILLIAMS, under instructions from the English Methodist Conference, arrived and established a society there.
Rev John WESLEY himself followed up with his first visit to Ireland in the ensuing year, as we learn from his Journal, for August 1747:
"Sunday 9 August. Before ten we came to Saint George's Quay... About three I wrote a line to the Curate of Saint Mary's, who sent me word he should be glad of my assistance; so I preached there...
Monday 10. Between eight and nine I went to Mr R. (the curate of Saint Mary's). He professed an abundance of good will, commended my sermon in strong terms, and begged he might see me again the next morning. But at the same time he expressed the most deep rooted prejudice against lay-preachers, or preaching out of a church, and said, the Archbishop of Dublin was resolved to suffer no such irregularities in his Diocese. I went to see our brethren, that we might pour out our souls before God. I then went straight to wait upon the Archbishop myself; but he was gone out of town...
"Tuesday 11. I awaited on the Archbishop at Newbridge, ten miles from Dublin. I had the favour of conversing with him two to three hours; in which I answered abundance of objections...
"Sunday 16. We went to Saint James's church in the morning (there being no service at Saint Patrick's), and in the afternoon to Christ Church..."

The Archbishop was Charles COBBE (1689-1765), whose Episcopal seat was in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin; but on the south side of the River Liffey was another Church of Ireland Collegiate and Cathedral church named Saint Patrick's, built beside the River Poddle on the site of the well which folk-lore has it Saint Patrick himself used for baptising early Irish converts to Christianity.
And there, in January 1747, was installed a sympathetic Dean, Francis CORBET.
From the Journal of Charles WESLEY, who followed his brother John shortly after in his first visit to Ireland, we see that contact had already been made with Saint Patrick's, probably by Mr WILLIAMS; Charles made this entry for October 1747:
"Sunday October 25. Passed three hours at Saint Patrick's, under my usual burden among the dry bones of the House of Israel [fn - Ezek 37: 1-14]. I seldom enter this place but they are ready to drag me out as a profaner of the temple. The Dean I must except, who has always treated us with great courtesy; looks pleased to see us make the bulk of the communicants; appointed us a set by ourselves; and constantly administers to me first, as the rubric directs."

Thereafter, the nexus established between the Dublin Methodists and the Dean of Saint Patrick's continued, in particular in connection with the administration of the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
WESLEY himself notes his attendances at service there from time to time, even up to within a couple of years of his death, and mentions several occasions when the numbers of Methodist communicants was so great that it became necessary for the Dean to seek his assistance, as we see from his Journal entries:
"Sunday 19 July 1752. I preached at five and eight, but not to so large a congregation as I expected. I was greatly shocked at the behaviour of the congregation in Saint Patrick's church..."
"Sunday 9 April 1775... The good old dean of Saint Patrick's desired me to come within the rails and assist him at the Lord's Supper..."
"Sunday 23 August 1775. I again assisted at Saint Patrick's in delivering the elements of the Lord's Supper..."
The 9 April entry was Dean CORBET's last mention by WESLEY - he may not have been there on 23 Aug, as he died two days later, on 25 August 1775, aged 87; he was succeeded as Dean by William CRADOCK, who continued the arrangements of his predecessor, and appears to have presided over the employment favours shown subsequently to members of the MAGUIRE family.

John WESLEY's diary entries continued:
"Sunday 5 October 1777. I was much comforted at Saint Patrick's, where an uncommon awe seemed to rest on the whole assembly..."

"Sunday 3 July 1785. We had a larger congregation than ever at Saint Patrick's, where many of our brethren found such a blessing, that they will not easily be so prejudiced against the church as they were in time past."

"Monday 30 March 1789... Meantime, I had letter upon letter concerning the Sunday service; but I could not give an answer till I made a full inquiry both into the occasion and the effects of it. The conversation was this:- About two years ago it was complained, that few of our society attended church on Sunday; most of them either sitting at home, or going on Sunday morning to some Dissenting meeting. Hereby many of them were hurt, and inclined to separate from the Church. To prevent this, it was proposed to have service at the Room; which I consented to, on condition that they would attend Saint Patrick's every first Sunday in the month. The effect was, (1) That they went no more to meetings, (2) That three times more went to Saint Patrick's (perhaps six times) in six or twelve months than had done for ten or twelve years before. Observe!  This is done not to prepare for, but to prevent, a separation from the Church...
"Sunday 5 April. I preached in the new Room at seven. At eleven I went to the Cathedral. I desired those of our Society who did not go to their parish churches, would go with me to Saint Patrick's. Many of them did so. It was said the number of communicants was about 500, more than went there in the whole year before Methodists were known in Ireland...
"April 12 - Being Easter Day. We had a solemn assembly indeed; many hundred communicants in the morning; and in the afternoon far more hearers than our Room would contain, though it is considerably enlarged..."

Archbishop COBBE's resolve to have no lay-preachers in his churches, and no preachers in his diocese preaching out of church, meant that the Methodists had no option but to build their own Meeting House. The Methodist Society had commenced meeting in a former Lutheran Church located in Marlborough Street (evidently on the site of the present Roman Catholic Pro-Cathedral), although some local opposition did see it damaged by rioters.
But WESLEY also wanted permanency, by purchasing their own land; however, he had to settle for a 99 year lease, on land in Whitefriar Street, on which a Meeting House was built, and which was opened for preaching in 1752.

The site was undoubtedly the one shown on ROCQUE's 1756 map of Dublin, marked "M.H" in the top right corner of the above map image - standing on the east side of Whitefriar Street, just south of Whitefriar Park, immediately opposite Wood Street (and across the street from the Presbyterian Meeting House marked "P.M.H" on the north side of Wood Street).
And the site was very convenient to Saint Patrick's Cathedral, which lay a short 3 or 4 minute walk to the west, along Wood Street, across Saint Bridget's Street, along Petty Cannon Lane, and into the North Close of Saint Patrick's.

The Meeting House in Whitefriar Street continued in use until 1843, when the "Centenary Church" was built by the Methodist Society on the south side of Saint Stephen's Green. The Society had hoped to renew their 99 lease after it's due expiry in 1849, but found that the Carmelites had gazumped them. After the new church was opened, the Methodists continued to use the old building at Whitefriar Street as a school, until the actual lease term expired.
Subsequently, the Carmelite, Father SPRATT, ran a school there for female children of the neighbourhood, and it was later demolished to erect a custom-built school, which was opened in 1895, and was still standing in 2010. A Carmelite publication produced to mark their centenary (see the Whitefriar Street Church Centenary Souvenir web-site) has a slightly hazy photograph of the old Methodist Meeting house.

It was this Meeting House which the MAGUIRE family would have attended after their arrival in Dublin in 1777 - up until the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist schism in 1818, when they attended the newly constructed Primitive Wesleyan Methodist chapel, opened in 1820, in South Great Georges Street.

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EARLY METHODISM IN COUNTY CAVAN.

John WESLEY early ventured into the north of Ireland.

Henry Charles CROOKSHANK, M.A., published his "History of Methodism in Ireland" in 1885; at Chapter VIII, page 113, concerning events taking place in June or July of 1756, he wrote:
"At Castlebar, the rector, the Rev Mr ELLISON, having intimated that Mr WESLEY might have the use of the church, he preached there morning and evening to large audiences. Mr WALSH also addressed a numerous and serious congregation in the Courthouse. A good work was then going on in the town, similar to that in Athlone some years previously. WESLEY remarks, 'the stream runs very wide, but very shallow.' He also preached in Newport church, at the invitation of the rector, the Rev James HERN. 'More than all the Protestants in the town' were present, and 'deep attention sat on every face.'
"After having preached at Aughrim, Ahascragh, and Abbeyderg, Wesley went to Longford, where many supposed the mob would be too violent to allow him a peaceable hearing. A great crowd flocked to the yard of the old barrack where he preached, while many of the Romanists stood at the gate, or just outside the wall. They were all as still as night, nor did he hear an uncivil word, while he walked from one end of the town to the other. Having preached at Cleggill, Coolalough, Tullamore, and Tyrrell's Pass, accompanied by WALSH, he rode to Bally beg, near Drumcree, where they found 'a little company of earnest people, most of them rejoicing in the love of God.' To these were added a few from the county of Cavan. Joseph CHARLES having gone thither some time previously on secular business, spoke of the things of God, many believed his report, and some found his words 'the power of God unto salvation.'
"Such is the brief and simple record of the introduction of Methodism into Cavan."

At some time, a Methodist or two in that part of Ireland met up with Letitia PHAIR - but whether she was, at the age of 17, one of the few from County Cavan mentioned here by CROOKSHANK, we do not yet know.

Thomas McFANN, in his obituary tribute [Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1845, pages 26-37] commemorating the lives of two of Letitia's sons, Thomas Junior and the above-mentioned William MAGUIRE (they both died in 1844), recorded that Letitia:
"... was made the happy partaker of true religion some years before Methodism was introduced into that part of the country. It was in his [Thomas MAGUIRE's] house shortly after his marriage, that that able minister of the New Testament, Mr John BREDIN, preached his first sermon...
"Soon after, the travelling preacher [John SMITH] came, and on his first visit, a class of thirty-three members was formed, '... amongst whom,' says Mrs MAGUIRE, '... was my poor, aged, blind mother, who continued to be self-righteous until within a year of her death. When at the Lord's Table, after the cup had passed, the words repeated by the Minister came with power to her heart, and she returned home praising and glorifying God, saying - 'I am seventy-seven years old, and was only born this day'."

It is not possible to abstract a date for Letitia's embrace of Methodism from this brief mention by McFANN. We know, from her son William's Memoir (commenced in 1823, and now in the possession of CRAWFORD descendants of William's son Henry MAGUIRE, and living in Buckinghamshire), that her marriage to Thomas MAGUIRE took place at Ballyhaise in 1763.

But we do have a date for the enrolment of the 33 new members at Mullalougher from another source. CROOKSHANK had earlier, in 1881, published his "A Methodist Pioneer: or the Life and Labours of John SMITH," with the following account of Methodism's first appearance in County Cavan:
"In 1766, however, in connection with the zealous and faithful labours of John SMITH, a large number of Societies were formed, including those at Mullalougher, Killashandra, Bawnboy, Belturbet, Cavanagh, Ballyconnell, Swanlinbar, Furnaceland and Gortnaleg.
"Early in the year, as John SMITH travelled between Clones and Ballybay, seeing a man lying on the road-side asleep, he awoke him, and found that he had been drunk and lain there all night, having spent all his money and parted with most of his clothes. John SMITH brought before him earnestly the wickedness and danger of his course, and then prayed with him. As he pleaded with God, the poor inebriate wept in penitence of spirit. That man was John BREDIN, a Roman Catholic schoolmaster, who lived at Tullyvin, about three miles from Cootehill. He accompanied John SMITH round the Circuit, and soon obtained a sense of sins forgiven.
"The young convert felt an earnest desire to lead others to a saving knowledge of Christ; and with this end visited Mrs MAGUIRE, of Mullalougher, whom he had previously known. He spoke to her of what the Lord had done for him, and his words sank deep into her heart..."

About Letitia PHAIR's origins, we know almost nothing. From her age at burial, we know that she was born about the year 1739.
That her mother was aged 77 in 1766 indicates her birth in about 1689; and if this is correct, she was aged about 50 when Letitia was born, which would suggest that Letitia was probably one of the last of her brood, and may well have had older siblings, including brothers, who may have been ancestors of the PHAIR family members who continued to farm small leaseholds in that part of County Cavan for another 200 years.
Several of these PHAIRs were recorded, aged in their 70s, in surviving fragments of a Census taken in 1821, living at Drumliff, also in the parish of Castleterra, about a mile from Ballyhaise - they were children in 1763, when Letitia was married nearby, and would probably have wanted to know who she was - and whether she was a relation. I think it likely that she was.

CROOKSHANK ["History of Methodism"] mentions John SMITH (1713-1774), originally from Tandragee, County Armagh, and later of Cootehill, County Cavan, who heard WESLEY preach there in 1758, and became a convert and class leader there; in 1766 WESLEY appointed him to be an itinerant preacher on the circuit that encompassed the Counties of Cavan, Fermanagh and Monaghan; one community he did visit was Kilmore, but this he recorded as being in County Monaghan.
John H. LENTON ["British Preachers in Ireland etc," Bulletin of the Methodist Historical Society of Ireland, Vol. 16, 2010, p. 14] wrote about SMITH's activities between 1766 and 1774:
"Yet in this brief period he led a significant popular revival in the border regions of Ulster, both the Lough Erne triangle and the Armagh triangle and much of the country in between. This is the area where Methodism grew fastest in Wesley's lifetime and it became its stronghold, an area where Protestant and Catholic were relatively closely balanced and Anglicans were as strong as Presbyterians. Smith converted at least 14 of those who became Irish travelling preachers, including such leaders as John BREDIN, Thomas BARBER & James McDONALD. Out of 100 Irish born preacher, this is high percentage in an astonishingly short period. He converted at least 500, and started 33 societies."

Robert H. GALLAGHER [Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, Volume XXVIII, 1951-52, Notes and Queries, pages 166-7], wrote of John BREDIN, as having been born about 1737 (and so a year or two older than Letitia PHAIR), "... a Schoolmaster in the Roman Church" who was "... soundly converted" in 1766 by "... John SMITH, a pioneer Methodist preacher"; and "... called into the itinerancy by John WESLEY in 1769, three years after his conversion." He died in Belfast on 2 November 1819, and was buried in Lambeg churchyard, where his Monumental Inscription recorded his age as 82 years.

CROOKSHANK mentioned another member of the PHAIR family. In 1790, William PHAIR addressed a Methodist meeting in Ballyhaise, County Cavan, as CROOKSHANK ["History of Methodism in Ireland," Volume 2, Chapter II, page 14] recorded:
"On Jan'y 23rd, 1790, a young man named Matthew LANKTREE, a native of Oldcastle, visited at Drumliff, in the county of Cavan, some friends who had recently become Methodists, accompanied them on the following Sabbath morning to the chapel at Ballyhaise, and was much impressed with all he saw and heard. The preacher was Mr James IRWIN, the house well filled, and the whole congregation appeared influenced by the spirit of devotion. They sang with melody, prayed with fervency, and heard the word with affectionate attention... In the evening he attended a meeting, conducted by William PHAIR, a leader whose exhortations and prayers powerfully impressed his mind. On the following Lord's day, he commenced meeting with these simple earnest servants of God..."

Church Register holdings at PRONI, for Church of Ireland parishes in County Cavan, contain some vital events for a family named Fair, in the parish of Kilmore, including:
1. John FAIR; died "... near Kilmore," 13 May 1778, and buried at Kilmore C. of  I. Parish (age not recorded).
2. Zephora FAIR, baptised at Kilmore C. of I. Parish, 18 July 1780, daughter of Richard FAIR (address not recorded) and Mary FAIR.
3. Joseph FAIR; died 29 December 1782, and buried at Kilmore C. of I. Parish (age not recorded).
4. Richard FAIR, baptised at Kilmore C. of I. Parish, 4 May 1788, son of William FAIR, of Breeckhill, and Rebecca FAIR.

It is further possible, perhaps even likely, that William's wife/widow Rebecca may have been the Rebecca PHAIR who was buried in Dublin in 1795, in Thomas MAGUIRE's plot at Saint Patrick's Cathedral (see below).
And if this is so, then the above four FAIR family events may well be for Letitia PHAIR's relations.

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THE MAGUIRE FAMILY MOVES TO DUBLIN.

There are several versions as to the reason behind the MAGUIRE family's leaving County Cavan.

Although he was not yet born, Thomas and Letitia's youngest son William MAGUIRE (born in 1782), commenced his Memoir in 1823 (the W.M. Diary). In it, William stated that Colonel NEWBURGH's widow:

"... having a particular liking for my mother, when she married the Dean and came to Dublin, induced my parents to come and settle also."

The widow was Martha CARY, who came to County Cavan from Londonderry.
The Colonel was Thomas NEWBURGH, proprietor of Ballyhaise House, and of a large acreage of tenanted land in the district; he married Martha CARY on 16 January 1747 [St James's Evening Post, London, Thursday 22 January 1747]; Thomas was made a widower in November 1745 when his first wife, Charity Julia BLAKE, died without issue; and as Tom NEWBURGH, he had published a volume of poetry.
And the Dean was William CRADOCK, who married the widow Martha on 26 January 1777 ["Exshaw's Magazine, 1777, page 152" - as cited in Notes and Queries, 6th Series, VI, 16 September 1882, page 223].

I had wondered whether Letitia and Martha may have been related, but research has not yet established whether this was the case, and probably will not.
I had also speculated that the connection may have been through Letitia's mother, perhaps in service with Martha at Ballyhaise House, where she may have met Mr PHAIR, possibly also working on the NEWBURGH estate at Ballyhaise. Estate Accounts, if they still exist, might prove interesting.

But there may be a simpler explanation - Martha may also have been a Methodist.
Indeed, she would undoubtedly have met John WESLEY on 29 May 1775, when he visited Ballyhaise on his way from Belturbet to Clones:
"... and spent an hour with that venerable old man, Colonel Newburgh. It does me good to converse with those who have just finished their course, and are quivering over the great gulf..." [WESLEY's Diary].

Martha may have been a force behind CRADOCK's desire to renovate the old Deanery in Saint Kevan Street, so that they might live there - and evidently able to invite the MAGUIRE family to make their home there as well around the mid 1780's; widowed again in 1794, Martha died in Dublin on 13 December 1804, and was buried in the Vicar's Bawn at St Patrick's Cathedral, aged 73, and without issue.

There is a second source that provides another reason for the MAGUIRE family's departure from Mullalougher. CROOKSHANK ("History of Methodism in Ireland," Chapter 27, page 308), records the following details for the year 1776:

"Mr [John] SLOCOMB, who had been appointed to the Clones circuit, and is described by WESLEY as 'an old labourer, worn out in service,' came to the house of Mr MAGUIRE in Mullalougher, ill of fever, the week before Christmas. Although he was tended with unremitting care and affection, on the last day of the year he sank under the virulence of the disease...

"When Mr and Mrs MAGUIRE returned from the interment... they found that two of their children had taken the infection, and soon after Mr MAGUIRE and two others of the family caught the disease; but the Lord supported and healed them. Mr MAGUIRE then resolved to move to Dublin, which he did as soon as practicable..."

Perhaps the timing of Mrs CRADOCK's removal to Dublin was just coincidence, but a fortuitous one in Thomas's case, leading, as it appears, to an immediate employment and accommodation package.

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A SERVANT OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH - THOMAS MAGUIRE.

Thomas MAGUIRE and his wife Letitia, with a young family of seven children, arrived in Dublin in the year 1777.

On 21 March 1779, he was appointed to succeed Fergus GIBBONS as Sexton of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. His predecessor, and his daughter Isabella CROSS, the Robe Keeper, had been dismissed under suspicion of being involved in a theft from the Cathedral:

"... some villains (who it is imagined concealed themselves for the purpose in the church) broke through the Chapter Room of Saint Patrick's Cathedral into a place where the Cathedral plate was deposited and carried it entirely away, together with the pulpit cloth, &c. Strict searching is making in order to discover these sacrilegious wretches..." [Saunder's News-Letter, 20 March 1779.]

The replacement plate, evidently including two large chalices, was manufactured by Dublin Silversmith Richard WILLIAMS in 1779; and they had Methodist connections, suggesting that the Methodists who took communion there may have dug deep in making contributions for the purchase of them.

In 1782, Thomas and Letitia's youngest child was born in a cottage in the walled garden on Long Lane known as Naboth's Vineyard, the creation of Dean Jonathan SWIFT.

 [Part of John ROCQUE's 1756 Map of Dublin.

The later Sexton's house, No 5, is one of the dwellings shown on the south side of  Saint Patrick's Close,
perhaps on or near the corner of Mitre Alley.

The Deanery is the larger building on the north side of Saint Kevan Street, set back from the street frontage, 
under the "Sepu" of Saint Sepulchre's.]

Later, the family evidently lived in the Deanery; and probably later again in the house at No 5 South Close, occupied by Letitia in her widowhood, and their son William, when they occupied the post of Sexton.

In 1785, John WESLEY commenced a brown leather-bound volume of Dublin Membership Lists of the Methodist Society, which survives among the holdings of the Library of the Wesleyan Historical Society in Ireland, Edgehill College, Belfast; dated 28 June, it included entries for Thomas MAGUIRE, Sexton, and Letitia MAGUIRE, both of Deanery House. Subsequent entries were made, but in a different hand, and in June 1787, they were recorded as Thomas MAGUIRE (#26/2nd Class) and Letty MAGUIRE (#29/1st Class), both at Deanery House, June 1787; and there were separate entries in June 1788 for Thomas at Deanery House (Samuel DAN's 2nd Class), and Letty at Vineyard Row (Thomas PATRICK's 2nd Class) - I do not know whether this apparent "separation" has any significance - perhaps they had moved from the Deanery, but Thomas's details alone had not yet been up-dated.

[The Deanery, on Saint Kevans Street, south of Saint Patrick's Close. Photo courtesy of Patrick COMERFORD.]

The Cathedral Register records the detail of his burial:

"Mr Thomas MAGUIRE, late Sexton (for 16 years) was interred 9 February 1794 in the Vicar's Bawn." [Cathedral Register, Volume 1, Marsh's Library, abstracted in 1983.]

When Thomas died, he was succeeded as Sexton by his widow Letitia (appointed 31 March 1794), although the physical side of the role may have been too much for, as her son Thomas "returned" to Dublin to assist her. To which responsibility she added the post of Robe Keeper (appointed 13 April 1797, in the Room of Mrs FERNS, deceased). Letitia resigned both these positions on 5 June 1810, aged 70, and was succeeded as Sexton by her youngest son, our William, and as Robe-Keeper by her daughter-in-law, William's wife of 6 years, Mary MAGUIRE alias VICKERS.
Letitia MAGUIRE also appears in the List of the Bands of Dublin, taken in March 1789, as the 2nd of 6 so named in the 6th Women's group; and she was named as one of the Stewards Leaders in the Methodist Society in Dublin, 23 April 1794, as Sister MAGUIRE.

Letitia herself died two years later, on 21 March 1812, aged 72 (W.M. Diary):

"Mrs Letitia MAGUIRE, late Sextonness and Robe-keeper of the Cathedral, interred 24 March 1812 in the family burial place, aged 72 years."

[Cathedral Register, Volume 2, Marsh's Library, abstracted in 1983 - now at the R.C.B. Library.]

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THE NEXT GENERATION OF METHODIST MAGUIRES IN CATHEDRAL POSTS.

Three sons of Thomas MAGUIRE and his wife Letitia PHAIR maintained the family connection with Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and at least two of them were Methodists.

1. Joseph MAGUIRE was their second but eldest surviving son, who was born in County Cavan on 5 May 1770. He was appointed Clerk of the Cathedral, 17 March 1788; and he was buried in the Vicar's Bawn, "... near the end of the French Chapel," on 3 November 1791, evidently unmarried.

2. Thomas MAGUIRE was their third son, also born in County Cavan, on 10 May 1772. He joined the Methodists early, probably in 1788 under the ministry of Andrew BLAIR - although his obituary, published in the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Magazine (1845), recorded his having been "... in the fold" for 52 years, which would indicate the year as being instead 1792 - and in that latter year, 1792, he was in Bennett DUGDALE's Class.
Thomas was apparently one of the early members of the Dublin branch of the Stranger's Friend Society, established by Dr Adam CLARKE  "... among the Methodists of the Methodist Chapel, Whitefriar Street, Dublin, in the year 1790" - the inaugural Membership List comprising 35 names, headed by Bennett DUGDALE. This Society visited prisons and paupers, and dispensed charity irrespective of religious affiliations.
After some time working at the trade of Glass Cutter, Thomas worked as a Delf Seller in Camden Street (1803-1815); as a House Tax Collector for the Dublin Foundling Hospital (1808-1827), still residing in Camden Street (1818, 1820); at Saint Stephen's Green (1824-1829); and he afterwards resided at Harcourt Road.
Thomas also held the post of Constable of Saint Patrick's Cathedral from 1789 until 1814; the post of Beadle in 1795 and again from 1796; and the post of Verger from 1818 until his death; his directory listings after 1829 recorded him as Verger and Marshall of Saint Patrick's. He was Representative of the Dublin Circuit in Annual Conferences of the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Society in 1824 and 1826; and for many years he was Treasurer of the Methodist Society's Widow's Fund.
He was married in the Cathedral, by Consistorial License, on 13 May 1796, to Miss Lucinda KENNY of Abbey Street. They had issue 4 children baptised in Saint Patrick's between 1796 and 1809 - Rev Robert MAGUIRE (see below), Thomas (died an infant), Letitia (died aged 14) and Lucinda (who married William ROBERTS, Wine Merchant and a Dublin Methodist) .
CROOKSHANK [History of Methodism, Vol. II, p. 58], evidently citing his 1845 obituary, wrote:
"A young man named Thomas MAGUIRE, son of Mr and Mrs MAGUIRE, formerly of Mullalougher but now of Dublin, was converted; at once became a member of the Society, joining the Class of Mr DUGDALE, and from this time until his death - a period of 52 years - maintained his integrity, and evinced an unabated attachment to Methodism. He was an active member of the Stranger's Friend society; and for 40 years sustained the office of Leader, with comfort and credit to himself, and satisfaction and profit to the members of his Class."
Thomas died in 1844, shortly after his brother William; he was eulogised in the same obituary, published in the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Magazine in 1845, which first alluded to the effect his younger brother's death had upon him:
"Mr Thomas MAGUIRE was tremblingly alive to the progress of disease in his much loved brother. He watched all its variations with extreme solicitude, and when the solemn hour of his death arrived, he meekly bowed to the Divine will. When the funeral procession was moving off from his late brother's residence, he said, with his usual simplicity and meekness of soul, 'this is the last journey I shall ever take with my brother to the cathedral.' How many sacred recollections must have then rushed upon his memory, regarding both the place and the brother..."
How many recollections indeed.
The double obituary went on to tell of Thomas's own demise:
"For a few days previous to his last illness he had been complaining a little of the cold, but went as usual to attend his duties in the Cathedral on Sunday; and there in the House of god, where with scarcely an omission he had been worshipping every Sabbath for upwards of fifty years, the angel of death smote him. When the time came that he should have proceeded with the officiating clergyman to the communion table, he was observed by some of his nephews to be sitting in his place with his head bent down over his seat; he was assisted into the chapter-room, when restoratives were administered to him, which caused him to rally a little, and when he was brought home he seemed cheerful and happy. The disease with which he was attacked proved to be cholera; he did not speak much the following day, and on the morning of Tuesday the 6th of August, his happy spirit was dismissed from its tenement of clay, in the 72nd year of his age, just six weeks after his brother's decease."
He was buried in one of the several MAGUIRE plots in the Vicar's Bawn.
Thomas had also had the painful duty of burying his son, Rev Robert MAGUIRE, which occasion was mentioned in Thomas's own obituary:
"Some years since, Mr Thomas MAGUIRE was called upon to sustain a painful bereavement in the death of his only son... In connexion with this, an incident is mentioned which deserves to be recorded, as it shows the faithfulness of God in answering prayer, and in giving grace according to every trial. The night before Mr MAGUIRE's death, his father retired to rest; but such was the extreme anxiety of his mind, that sleep departed from him. after a short time he arose and betook himself to the mercy seat, where for several hours he continued to plead with God; when he came to his afflicted partner, with his very countenance, like Moses, reflecting the blessing he had received, 'Now.' he said, 'I am like a giant refreshed with new wine, and prepared for whatever may occur'."

Bennet DUGDALE was born about 1756; he was apprenticed to John EXSHAW, the Dublin Printer; he was himself referred to as a "Pious Dublin Printer" and was a Methodist; his diary (John Ryland's Library, Manchester University) mentions a "Band love feast" on 7 April 1778, and another in January 1780, "... a comfortable Band love feast, at which I spoke a few words"; he died at his residence in Belvidere Place, on 10 January 1826; he was married at Saint Werburgh's, Dublin, on 15 January 1779, to Mary SHAFTON; she died at Bath in 1799.

3. William MAGUIRE was their fifth and youngest son, born in Dublin in 1782, in a cottage in Naboth's Vineyard, on Long Lane, not far from Saint Patrick's Cathedral, where he was baptised. He did not actively engage in Methodist Society activity until a bit later than his older brother Thomas, to whom he was early on, after their father's death in 1794, apprenticed as a Glass Cutter, until 1799.
But William benefited from Methodist and Cathedral contacts at several stages in his subsequent career - in March 1800 he was recommended by Bennett DUGDALE for the post of 2nd Master at the General Free School, in Abbey Street, which William described as being run by a committee largely comprising Quakers [his Memoir] - in September 1803, he was recommended by the Dean of Saint Patrick's, Rev James VERSCHOYLE, for the post of Supervisor of Works for the Paving Board, under the Commissioners for Paving, Lighting and Cleansing the Streets of Dublin (the precursor to the Dublin Corporation) - and in 1823, he commenced his "Methodist" Memoir (or Diary) at the urging of yet another Methodist, the Preacher William HERBERT, and in a note book that appears to be identical to the one in which Wesley had first recorded Membership lists for the Society in Dublin in 1785.
William worked briefly as a Clerk for several Dublin Merchants between 1801 and 1803 - Mack MONSARRAT, Wine Merchant in Abbey Street, and Mr James T. ALLAN, Brass Founder in Cook Street - but it is not yet known whether either of these Merchants had Methodist connections.
William was promoted in August 1807 to Tax Collector for the Paving Board, and, in April 1826, to the post of Inspector of Taxes, which position he held until shortly before he died. He also held the post of Sexton of Saint Patrick's Cathedral from 1810 (in the room of his mother who had resigned) until his death.
After 1823, William became more closely identified with Primitive Wesleyan schism of the Methodist Society; he was Representative of the Dublin Circuit at Annual Conferences of the Society, in 1825, 1829-32, 1836-37; he may have earlier been the Representative there for the Clonmel Circuit in 1824 and 1827-28; and was Treasurer of a number of the Society's funds and committees, including the Family Fund (from 1834 to 1838), the Missionary Fund (1834, 1836), and the Committee for the Erection of Preaching Houses, Preachers Lodgings, etc, (from 1835).

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William MAGUIRE died at 9 Peter Place on 24 June 1844, aged 62; a notice of the death was published in Saunder's News-Letter and Dublin Gazette, on 27 June:

"DIED - On the 28th (sic - and impossible!) inst., at his residence, 9 Peter-place, after a painfully lingering illness, Mr William MAGUIRE, deeply and deservedly regretted by his family and circle of numerous friends."

His obituary was published in the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1845, at page 34, and referred to William's last illness:

"In the early part of the last winter [late 1843], in a letter to his wife Mrs MAGUIRE, who was then on a visit with her daughter, Mrs HOLDEN, in Belfast, he remarks, 'I am beginning to feel I am in a tenement of clay.' In January, 1844, he was obliged to take his leave of his office at the Paving Board... His cough had become very troublesome, and his strength gradually declined, yet no serious fears were entertained of the issue until about the month of May. A consultation on his case was then held by the most eminent medical men in this city, when they pronounced his case to be hopeless. His disease proved to be an inward cancer, and his sufferings occasionally were very severe and protracted."

The Cathedral Register recorded his burial:

"28th June 1844: Mr William MAGUIRE, for 34 years Sexton of this Cathedral, aged 62, interred in the family burial ground, Vicar's Bawn."

Again, we turn to his obituary for the detail:

"His funeral took place on the Friday morning following. It being the time of the Annual Conference, of which body Mr MAGUIRE had been an official member for many years, as Treasurer of the Family Fund, the morning session of the Conference was suspended, and all its members attended, and preceded the hearse three abreast. They were followed by the leaders and members of the Strangers' Friend Society, and nearly all the male members of the Society; the family followed in mourning coaches, and a long line of carriages of clergymen and gentlemen closed the mournful procession. When the funeral arrived at the north entrance to Saint Patrick's Cathedral, those preceding the corpse formed into a semi-circle; and the coffin was met by the present Dean, the Hon and Very Rev Henry PAKENHAM. The writer of these pages never recollects to have heard the beautiful burial service of the Church of England more impressively or solemnly read than on this occasion. At the grave the Dean delivered an address, distinguished by fervid eloquence, deep feeling, and important evangelical truth. Thus was our respected brother honoured in death as well as in life."

So, yet another Methodist was laid to rest in sanctified cathedral ground, by yet another in a long line of Methodist-friendly Deans of Saint Patrick's Cathedral.

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William MAGUIRE was married in the Cathedral in March 1804 to Mary VICKERS, by the Rev James NEVINS, Curate of St Andrew's parish; in 1810, Mary succeeded her mother-in-law as Robe-keeper of the Cathedral; and she was of a Methodist family before her marriage.
Mary was born at Elbow Lane, Dublin, on 25 January 1786, the 2nd daughter of John VICKERS by his wife Elizabeth STINSON. Her father was a Weaver, admitted to his Freedom of the City of Dublin, Weavers Guild, in 1790; and he was a Warden of that Guild in 1794. John VICKERS was of 5 Elbow Lane, in June 1788, when he was admitted to membership of the Methodist Society, in Samuel DAN's First Class, aged 25; and of the Coombe, Dublin, in March 1789, when he was listed in the Bands of the Methodist Society. His wife was probably also a Methodist - Elizabeth VICKERS was at 2 Elbow Lane, June 1787, when admitted as member of the Second Class of the Methodist Society of Dublin (although this may have instead been John's elderly mother, perhaps already a widow).
Her aunt, John VICKERS' younger sister Mary VICKERS, was born in July 1769; aged 19, she too became a Methodist, in Ann Singleton's Class, in June 1788; and in 1793, she married John PIGOTT (1759-1838), whose son John PIGOTT Junior (1796-1877) we will meet with shortly.

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All sixteen of William and Mary's children were baptised in Saint Patrick's Cathedral, between December 1804 and 1828; of these there was one set of twins, and one set of boy triplets; but four of them did not reach adulthood, and were buried in the Vicar's Bawn.
The most poignant for William was his eldest son Thomas, who died in 1828, aged 19; William wrote an obituary, published in the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Magazine [Volume VI, 1828, page 62]:
"When he was about eight years old, having a very fine voice, he was appointed a chorister of Saint Patrick's Cathedral; and when about twelve, he was appointed a chorister of the Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle. His serious and retiring disposition was observed and spoken of in high approbation... His voice was so much admired, that many applications were made to me to permit him to attend musical parties; but I feared the temptations that some of those associations excited, and very seldom permitted him to attend them, although the solicitations came from people of high rank... he submitted entirely to my advice and that of his dear mother, and naturally shewed a disinclination to appear in public, except in his place in the choir, where his sweet voice was raised above his fellows, chaunting the praises of his Maker and Redeemer.
"On the change from youth to manhood, as usual, his voice failed... he appeared desirous of entering College, and made the necessary preparation, by assiduous study. when he was seventeen years of age, the place of Organist in Saint Anne's Church became vacant: I applied for the situation for him, and his good conduct, while a boy in the choir, was not forgotten. when it was known that he was a candidate, several friends came forward unsolicited, and so strongly recommended him that the Hon. and Rev. Rector, that he obtained the situation at once, although professors of celebrity were candidates. He soon after this entered College, but the preparatory course, and his very rapid growth (being at this early age near six feet high), appear to have laid the foundation of consumption...
"During the last three months of his illness, he repeatedly expressed his gratitude to the Lord, who in his mercy afforded him time to reflect on his lost and ruined state: he was convinced that his strictly moral life could not save him, without an interest in the atonement of his Redeemer..."
It was an age when parents buried their children much more frequently than occurs nowadays - but it could never have been an easy task.
His own obituary, 16 years later made reference to the effect his son's death had on him:
"Mr and Mrs MAGUIRE... were called upon to sustain a sever trial in the death of their eldest son Thomas... He was a lovely youth, had made great proficiency in music, and had passed several terms in College; but the flower of youth was cut down ere it was full blown; he died with these words on his lips, 'Lead on, thou captain of my salvation!' thus triumphing over death and the grave. This afflictive dispensation proved very salutary to the mind of Mr MAGUIRE, affording him a proof not likely to be forgotten, 'that religion alone has majesty over death'."

4. Joseph VICKERS, a son of John and Elizabeth VICKERS, and a brother of Mrs Mary MAGUIRE, was born in 1792; he was appointed Constable of Saint Patrick's in 1814, in the room of Thomas MAGUIRE (resigned); he married Mary Ann SPRATT in 1818.

5. George VICKERS, born in 1794, was another son and brother; he was appointed Constable and Beadle in 1819. He died in July 1828, and was buried in the Vicar's Bawn; he was married in 1817 to Margaret CONNELL, who died in 1847, and was buried with him.

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THE THIRD GENERATION OF KIN HOLDING CATHEDRAL POSTS.

A number of Thomas and Letitia MAGUIRE's grandchildren, and their spouses, also occupied lay positions at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and I expect, under Letitia's watchful eye, that they too were Methodists. Full details of their appointments are recorded below in Appendix 2.

6. Letitia PHAIR was the daughter of Thomas PHAIR and Mary Anne MAGUIRE, and so a grand-daughter of Thomas and Letitia MAGUIRE. She held the post of  assistant Sexton from 1817; and as Letitia WHITE, the post of Robe-keeper, washing surplices. Her husband, William WHITE, was Beadle from 1836.

7. Robert MAGUIRE was the son of Thomas MAGUIRE and Lucinda KENNY, and so a grand-son of Thomas and Letitia MAGUIRE. Robert held the post of Schoolmaster at the Cathedral from 1824 until he resigned in 1828; he was appointed Residentiary Preacher in 1827; and Minor Canon in February 1837. He died on 23 March 1837, and was buried in the Vicar's Bawn.
His earlier career was detailed in his obituary, published in the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1838, at page 191 et seq.:
"Mr MAGUIRE was born in this city in the year 1797. He was the only son of Mr Thomas MAGUIRE, now one of the oldest leaders in the Dublin Society... He was blest with parents who were anxious about his eternal welfare, and also a pious grandmother, who took the earliest opportunity of instilling into his mind the principles of pure religion; and it appears as if from the very first their united instructions had taken deep root in his youthful mind...
"Mr MAGURIE was not at this time especially designed for the ministry, yet the earnest desire of his own heart was to be employed in the sacred office. Soon after... he intimated his wish to his father, and expressed a desire to enter college... the situation he then filled in one of the government offices occupied a large proportion of his time... While thus pursuing his studies in college... a dignitary of the church having occasion to make a search in the office in which he did business, for some ancient records... finding what the bent of his inclination was, and having a perpetual curacy at his disposal, in the county of Cavan, he awaited on his father, and at once made an offer of inducting his son into it... and in his 24th year he entered upon his arduous and responsible work...
"The severe duties of a country parish, however, soon began to affect his naturally delicate constitution... The circumstances having been mentioned by his father to the Dean of Saint Patrick's, he at once offered him a situation in the cathedral. Accordingly he returned to his native city in 1822... his clerical duties only requiring him to preach and read prayers...
"On the promotion of the present Dean of Saint Patrick's in 1828, he was employed to take an account of Protestants residing in the Deanery; and on his report that it contained about six hundred, who had been previously entirely neglected, he was appointed assistant curate."
Shortly before this appointment, in August 1827, Robert was nearly drowned while bathing near Black Rock, when he got into difficulties in unusually rough seas. The children he had left his clothes with raised the alarm, and with luck, a young man went to his assistance, and eventually raised him from under the water, where it was said he had lain for 10 minutes, and got him ashore; where a passing surgeon finally revived him after working on him for an hour.
Robert's death was mentioned in his father's obituary, seven years later:
"Some years since, Mr Thomas MAGUIRE was called to sustain a painful bereavement in the death of his only son, the Rev Robert MAGUIRE, a holy and devoted minister of the gospel; it was by means of a malignant fever that this useful and exemplary clergyman was cut off in the midst of his years..."

8. John PIGOTT Junior (1796-1877) was the husband of Elizabeth MAGUIRE (born 1804), the eldest daughter of William MAGUIRE and Mary VICKERS, and so another grand-daughter of Thomas and Letitia MAGUIRE. When John married Elizabeth on 18 June 1824, he was already related to her, as her mother was his 1st cousin; the marriage, by Consistorial License, was celebrated in Saint Peter's Parish Church by her cousin, Rev Robert MAGUIRE. John served as Assistant Sexton at Saint Patrick's from 1839; and as Beadle from 1844.
He was also a Tax Collector, serving the Dublin Foundling Hospital (along with his wife's uncle Thomas MAGUIRE), later the Paving Board (under his father-in-law William MAGUIRE), and finally the South Dublin Union. In June 1842, he wrote an affecting obituary on the death of his son William Frederick PIGOTT, aged 15, which was published in the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Magazine [Volume XX, New Series, 1842, page 318]:
"He ...from the earliest period evinced a lively, affectionate and amiable disposition which endeared him, whilst very young, to all his relations and friends, particularly to his grand-papa and grand-mamma, Mr & Mrs W. MAGUIRE, of Peter-place, with whom he spent almost every Sabbath for some years past. This led to his constant attendance at preaching in South Georges-street, where he also attended the Sunday school for many years; and from his great anxiety to increase his knowledge of the Bible, would on no account absent himself therefrom. He also  joined the Methodist Society and was exemplary in his attendance at the several meetings..."
"He took great delight in Wesley's hymns... His Bible and hymn book had always to be placed on his pillow or within his reach during his illness... on the day of his death... looking steadfastly in his mamma's face, he, with great earnestness exclaimed, 'Oh, mamma, I believe I am going to die, I AM going to glory... to meet my Saviour; yes, to heaven where we shall meet to part no more,' and immediately commenced singing with a clear sweet voice - 'Glory, honour, praise and power, Be unto the Lamb for ever; Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, Hallelujah... Praise the Lord.'
"...He then became apparently insensible to surrounding objects... he spoke no more. He remained in this state from four o'clock P.M. on Friday (without any symptom of pain) until 12 o'clock at night, when in the most quiet and serene manner he fell asleep in Jesus, and his happy spirit took its flight to the bosom of his Saviour.
"May our last end be like his! Amen."
John went to America in 1858 to visit his sons, and settled in Brooklyn; he died in 1877, while in Kansas, visiting his son George Maguire PIGOTT.

9. Charles Aylmer KELLY was married in 1827 to Susannah PIGOTT, a sister of John PIGOTT Junior. He was appointed as Beadle at Saint Patrick's in 1839; and was the Sexton who succeeded William MAGUIRE in 1844. Susannah Kelly was, in 1855, performing the duties of Robe-keeper, although her appointment is not recorded. She resigned on 17 November 1871. Their son Joseph Aylmer KELLY was appointed Assistant Sexton in 1855, to succeed Charles KEATING, having been performing the duties, without pay, since 1845; and he was appointed Beadle in 1858.

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METHODIST MAGUIRE CONNECTIONS BEYOND THE CATHEDRAL.

William MAGUIRE, of Patrick's South Close South, County of the City of Dublin, Gent, was named as the Grantee in an Indenture of Lease, dated 24 March 1819, concerning one lot of ground on the east side of Patrick Street (which he had from the three Commissioners of Wide Streets); and he was granted additional leases of land on the east side of Patrick Street in April 1824 and February 1825. On these lands William had erected several substantial brick dwellings.
William MAGUIRE, by now of Peter Place, county of Dublin, Gent, made an Indented Deed of Mortgage, dated 31 August 1840 [Register Volume 20, page 90, Deeds Registry, Henrietta Street, Dublin], by which he made the 1819 lot over to a Committee of the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Society - comprising John HAYES of Ormond Quay, Merchant; Robert QUEALE of Back Lane, Merchant; John SIBTHORPE of Cork Hill, Merchant; Henry James SIBTHORPE of Cork Hill, Medical Doctor; and William ROBERTS of Dublin, Merchant).
Of these, the names HAYES, SIBTHORPE and ROBERTS became part of the wider MAGUIRE family story, as we shall see shortly. Here too we see more connections with the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Society. And it appears from several later wills (his son Rev Robert MAGUIRE's in 1890; and his grandson William Robert MAGUIRE of Tower Hill Lodge) that William made bequests of property in Patrick Street, Dublin. William's will has not survived.

William's second daughter, Letitia MAGUIRE, was born in December 1806; she was the Mrs Holden of Belfast mentioned in her father's 1845 obituary. She and her older sister Elizabeth were the only two daughters of William who were ever married. Letitia married John HOLDEN, a Merchant in Belfast, and an eminent figure in the Sewn Muslin trade in the north of Ireland. John HOLDEN represented the Belfast Circuit in Annual Conferences of the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Society in Dublin, from 1829 until 1841.

William's second but eldest surviving son, William MAGUIRE Junior, was born in 1811; he studied law, and worked as Solicitor in Dublin before emigrating in 1838 to South Australia (in 1852 he moved to Sydney, where he died in 1877). In 1836, he married Hannah HENEY, a daughter of Henry HENEY and Hannah SIBTHORPE, of the same family as John and Henry James SIBTHORPE, mentioned above.

Joseph MAGUIRE, William's fifth son, was born in 1820, the youngest of triplet sons; an Architect, he designed a school which was erected for the Methodists by John HAYES, his brother-in-law; he married at Rathfarnham, in May 1845, Mary HAYES (born Dublin, February 1817, daughter of Andrew HAYES and Mary SPARLING) - she was a sister of John HAYES mentioned above, who became a Methodist at the age of 16.

Lucinda MAGUIRE, born September 1809, was a daughter of William's brother Thomas MAGUIRE; in April 1839, she married William ROBERTS, the Dublin merchant mentioned above; he was a Wine Merchant in Abbey Street, Dublin; and at 17 Ranelagh Road, 1849-1859; they had issue.

And John PHAYRE, born in Dublin in May 1790, was a son of Thomas PHAIR (died 1802) and his wife Mary Ann MAGUIRE (1764-1802), and thereby a grandson of Thomas MAGUIRE and Letitia PHAIR. He was aged 12 when his parents died, and was subsequently raised by his maternal grandmother, the widowed Sextoness Mrs Letitia MAGUIRE. He emigrated to New York in 1817, where he was connected with the old Forsyth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, as Local Elder, Deacon; and for 42 years as an exhorter and Local Preacher, "... he devoted himself especially to work at the Almshouse, House of Refuge, House for Old People, asylums, hospitals and the Penitentiary of New York" [Matthew SIMPSON, "Cyclopedia of Methodism, etc," ca 1882].

John died suddenly at his residence, 201 West 30th Street, New York, 4 December 1866, and was buried in his own plot, Cypress Hills Cemetery. He married twice, with issue by both wives; including, by his first wife Frances BOGERT, a daughter Sarah Ann PHAYRE (1827-1894), who married her second cousin, Thomas Lancelot PIGOTT, a son of John PIGOTT and Elizabeth MAGUIRE.

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METHODIST MAGUIRES IN CANADA.

Yet another branch of the MAGUIRE family in County Cavan were probably also Methodists, and appear to have been part of a large number of Cavan Methodist families who emigrated to Canada, taking their Methodism with them.

Bruce S. ELLIOTT, in his "Irish Immigrants in the Canadas: a new approach," 1988, McGILL-Queen's University Press, at page 125, wrote the following:
"A third group of settlers in Carleton County was represented in Colonel Cockburn's List by William Kemp of Cavan. Several dozen families of Protestant farmers and weavers from north Cavan parishes of Annagh, Annacliffe and Castleterra petitioned the Colonial Office for assistance to emigrate to join relatives in the Richmond military settlement between 1820 and 1830 [fn.31].
"Though the government refused them aid, most came in any case, and settled in Goulburn, Huntly, March and Nepean Townships,where they were joined by a number of families from their old neighbourhoods, who did not bother to petition the government before leaving Ireland. Many of the emigrants were pioneers of Methodism in Carleton County, and their faith, which they adopted in Ireland and not on the Canadian frontier, helped keep the families close for many generations."
And at page 327:
"Footnote 31. ... James WILSON and John MAGUIRE, 18 December 1822; CO 384/9, f.357, petition of John and Matthew MAGUIRE, Mullaloghter, Redhills, 5 December 1823; PAC, RG 1, L 3, P14/83, petition of William, Isaac & Abraham PRATT, John McGUIRE Senior & Junior, Matthew McGUIRE and John MOORE, Huntly, read 28 September 1825 ."
The 5 December 1823 petition reveals that John and Matthew McGUIRE, both of Mullaloughter, Redhills, County Cavan, were both then over 23 and of the yeomanry; they were probably also Methodists.

There can be little doubt that these Mullaloghter McGUIRES were related to the family of Thomas MAGUIRE, of Mullalougher, the Sexton of Saint Patrick's, and his wife Letitia PHAYRE. Their son John MAGUIRE (the second of the name, and born County Cavan, probably at Mullalougher, on 10 May 1774), was recorded in William MAGUIRE's 1823 "Memoir" as having gone to America on 18 March 1795; and of having died there (this additional entry was not in William MAGUIRE's hand, so may have occurred after William's death in 1844).
He is certainly of the right age for the John McGUIRE who was enumerated at No 2 Township (Edwardsburgh), Grenville County, Canada West (Ontario), in the 1851 Census, then aged 77, Married, a Farmer, and born in Ireland, with his wife Leticia McGUIRE, aged 51, also born in Ireland; daughter Margaret E. THOMSON, aged 21, married (but not of this family), and sons Jacob (aged 18) and James (11), both labourers and both born in Canada.
In the adjacent dwelling was Mathew McGUIRE, his wife Sarah (both aged 37 and born in Ireland), and their children John (aged 13), Sarah (13), Helen (12), James (10), Matthew (8), Jacob (6), Fanny (4) and Mary Ann (2); also in this dwelling were James BOYDE, aged 17, born Ireland (undoubtedly a brother of Mrs Sarah McGUIRE), and Thomas McGUIRE, 40, born Ireland (probably Matthew Senior's brother).

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CONCLUSION.

Methodists and MAGUIREs have both had a long history of association with Dublin, and the Church of Ireland Collegiate and Cathedral Church of Saint Patrick.
For the Methodists that began in the very early days of Methodist Society activity in Ireland, and probably continued unabated until the later re-unification of the Dublin Methodists, who used their own churches for administration of the Sacraments.
For the MAGUIRE family, as lay office holders, that period was shorter, from 1777 until 1844, although their PIGOTT family connections extended their association until the 1870s.

For the Methodist Society, we have seen that their association was strongly connected with the administration of the sacrament of Holy Communion; the numbers of Methodists attending for the sacrament was greatest when they went with John WESLEY himself; and the tradition continued as a regular feature of Annual Conferences of the Primitive Weslyan Methodists in Dublin, even well after Wesley's death.

Not only did the MAGUIRE family and their relations partake of the sacrament, but they also held positions of trust within the Cathedral as safe-keepers of the silverware by which that sacrament was dispensed.
The first appointment was in 1779, when Thomas MAGUIRE, perhaps through his wife Letitia's close friendship with Martha CRADOCK, wife of the then Dean William CRADOCK, was appointed Sexton, after his predecessor had been dismissed over the theft of the Cathedral plate - and Thomas probably took a personal interest in and a particular care of the splendid replacement plate and chalices, to make sure the administration of that sacrament could continue uninterrupted for the congregation, and particularly for his Methodist brethren amongst them.

Inside the Cathedral, on many other occasions, the infant members of the MAGUIRE family & their kin were baptised. And in the churchyard outside, to the south of the Lady Chapel, lie buried 30 members of the related MAGUIRE, PHAIR, VICKERS and PIGOTT families, probably all of them Methodists, and 6 of them my own direct ancestors.

It is to their memory, as they lie there in the peace and quiet of a leafy city churchyard, once known quaintly as the Vicar's Bawn, from the very young to the very old, that I dedicate this article.

But in particular to Letitia PHAIR, who characterised the resolute Methodist women whose strength led to husbands becoming members, and the wives of their sons and the husbands of their daughters as well; and whose friendship in Ballyhaise with another influential woman, Martha CARY, the widow of the local Landowner, and wife of the newly appointed Dean of Saint Patrick's, who encouraged her to move to Dublin, and who undoubtedly encouraged her family to apply for lay positions in the cathedral.

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APPENDIX 1 - THE 5 RELATED PLOTS IN THE CATHEDRAL'S SOUTH CHURCHYARD, KNOWN AS THE VICAR'S BAWN.
 

A plan of the Vicar's Bawn was drawn up in the Register in 1821 (the above illustration was abstracted from it) by the Sexton, William MAGUIRE, and on it is shown the Maguire plot, immediately adjacent to the southern wall of the "French" or "Lady" Chapel, directly under the last two windows nearest to the corner of the Chapel. Thomas was almost certainly buried in this plot.

By 1812, it is probable that a second plot had been purchased; it is almost certainly shown by William in 1823 as the PHAYRE plot, adjacent but one to the south of the original MAGUIRE plot. Letitia may have instead been buried there.
It is highly likely that this MAGUIRE grave was disturbed when work was carried out on the cathedral foundations, and it is possible the remains were re-buried elsewhere (perhaps filling up the PHAYRE plot).
There were 25 burials in the five plots shown on the plan, which suggests that there 5 layers per plot; I have speculated that these 25 burials are distributed as follows, with several uncertainties being identified in the usual way (?). The details were abstracted from the original registers in 1983 and 1992 in Marsh's Library.

A. The plot marked "MAGUIRE #1" in the above plan, immediately adjacent to the Lady Chapel, and in a grave which was cleared during foundation work in the 1860s, to a nearby site now unclear:
3 November 1791 - "Joseph MAGUIRE, Clerk of Saint Patrick's, interred in the Vicar's Bawn, near end of French Chapel."
9 February 1794 - "Mr Thomas MAGUIRE, late Sexton (for 16 years), interred in the Vicar's Bawn."
27 October 1801 - "Thomas, son of Thomas Maguire, interred in the Vicar's Bawn."
          [This was the son of Thomas MAGUIRE Junior and Lucinda Kenny.]
24 March 1812 - "Mrs Letitia MAGUIRE, late Sextoness and Robe Keeper of the Cathedral, interred in the family burial place, aged 72 years."
May 1837 - "Rev Robert MAGUIRE." [Son of Thomas MAGUIRE Junior and Lucinda KENNEY.]

B. The plot just south of plot A, marked "PHAIRE" in the above plan, and marked by the tabular stone, with an inscription now unreadable:

29 July 1795 - "Rebecka PHAIR, interred in Thomas MAGUIRE's ground."
5 August 1802 - "Mrs Mary PHAIR, interred in the Vicar's Bawn." [Mary Ann MAGUIRE, aged 38.]
5 December 1802 - "Mr Thomas PHAIR, interred in the Vicar's Bawn." [Husband of Mary MAGUIRE.]
          [These last two were married in 1785, by License of the Dublin Diocese.]
19 January 1808 - "Mrs Rebecca PHAIR, interred in Thomas MAGUIRE's ground, aged 81 years."
1 June 1815 - "A child of Robert PHAIR, interred in Mr MAGUIRE's burial place."

C. The plot marked "PIGOTT" in the plan, immediately adjacent to and north of plot D:
24 April 1849 - "Mrs Mary PIGOTT, interred." [Mary VICKERS Senior, wife of John PIGOTT Senior, aged 79.]
12 May 1837 - "Miss PIGOTT, interred in the churchyard." [Mary Georgina PIGOTT, aged 8, daughter of John PIGOTT Junior and Elizabeth MAGUIRE.]
2 October 1838 - "Mr John PIGOTT, of Charlotte Street, interred in the Vicar's Bawn, aged 78."
6 June 1842 - "William Frederick PIGOTT, interred in the Vicar's Bawn, Aetatis 15."
25 March 1853 - "Mrs Elizabeth PIGOTT, aged 49." [Elizabeth MAGUIRE, wife of John PIGOTT Junior.]

D. The plot marked "MAGUIRE #2" in the plan, and where the granite obelisk stands (part of the low tabular stone covering plot A above is visible to the right, immediately behind the small standing stone):


(?) 7 March 1822 - "Robert MAGUIRE, interred, Ae 2 years." [Son of William MAGUIRE and Mary VICKERS Junior.]

20 September 1828 - "Thomas MAGUIRE Junior, Ae 19." [Son of ditto.]
22 July 1830 - "James MAGUIRE, interred, Ae 12." [Son of ditto.]
31 October 1840 - "Miss Lucinda MAGUIRE, interred in the Vicar's Bawn, Ae 22." [Daughter of ditto.]
28 June 1844 - "Mr William MAGUIRE, for 34 years Sexton of this Cathedral, interred in the family burial ground, Vicar's Bawn."

E. The plot marked "VICKERS" in the plan:

29 July 1828 - "Mr George VICKERS, interred in William MAGUIRE's ground, Ae 34."
(?) 7 August 1844 - "Mr Thomas MAGUIRE, interred in the family burial ground, Vicar's Bawn." [The Verger.]
1 July 1847 - "Mrs Margaret VICKERS, interred in the Vicar's Bawn, Ae 54." [Wife of George VICKERS.]
(?) 25 March 1853 - "Mrs Lucinda MAGUIRE, interred in the family burial ground." [Lucinda KENNEY, widow of Thomas MAGUIRE Junior, the Verger.]
30 March 1866 - "Miss Georgina MAGUIRE, Ae 37." [Daughter of William MAGUIRE and Mary VICKERS Junior.]

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APPENDIX 2 - THE RELATED CIVIL APPOINTMENTS IN SAINT PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL, DUBLIN.

5 July 1779 - Thomas MAGUIRE, appointed Sexton, in the room of Fergus GIBBONS (dismissed). He died in 1794.
24 November 1789 - Thomas MAGUIRE (son of the Sexton), appointed Constable. He resigned in 1814.
31 March 1794 - Letitia MAGUIRE, appointed Sexton, in the room of her husband Thomas (deceased). She resigned in 1810.
27 June 1795 - Thomas MAGUIRE (the son), appointed Beadle. Re-appointed 20 October 1796.
13 April 1797 - Letitia MAGUIRE, appointed Robe-keeper, in the room of Mrs Ferns (deceased). She resigned in 1810.
5 June 1810 - William MAGUIRE, appointed Sexton, in the room of his mother, Letitia MAGUIRE, (resigned). He died in 1844. His wife Mary MAGUIRE (alias VICKERS) was appointed Robe-keeper, in the room of her mother-in-law Letitia MAGUIRE, resigned.
28 May 1814 - Joseph VICKERS (brother of Mrs Mary MAGUIRE, the Robe-keeper), appointed Constable in the room of Thomas MAGUIRE (resigned).
December 1817 - Letitia PHAIR (her mother Mary Ann was the eldest daughter of Thomas and Letitia MAGUIRE), appointed assistant Sexton.
1 December 1818 - Thomas MAGUIRE (the former Constable), appointed Verger, having been deputy since May 1817. He died in 1844.
11 January 1819 - George VICKERS (brother of Joseph and of Mrs Mary MAGUIRE), appointed Constable and Beadle.
1824 - Rev Robert MAGUIRE (son of Thomas, the Verger), appointed Schoolmaster. He resigned on 5 December 1828.
1836 - William WHITE (husband of Letitia PHAIR, the Assistant Sexton), appointed Beadle.
16 February 1827 - Rev Robert MAGUIRE, appointed Residentiary Preacher.
28 February 1837 - Rev Robert MAGUIRE, appointed Minor Canon. He died on 23 March 1837.
7 January 1839 - John PIGOTT (son-in-law of William MAGUIRE, the Sexton), appointed Assistant Sexton.
4 July 1839 - Charles Aylmer KELLY (married to John PIGOTT's sister Susannah), appointed Beadle, to succeed William WHITE.
4 July 1844 - John PIGOTT (formerly Assistant Sexton), appointed Beadle, in the room of George VICKERS (his cousin).
1844 - Letitia WHITE (formerly Letitia PHAIR, the Assistant Sexton), styled as Robe-keeper, but not formally appointed - the Chapter Books describe her duties as washing surplices.
9 January 1850 - Joseph Aylmer Kelly (son of Charles, the Sexton), appointed Assistant Sexton, to succeed Charles KEATING, having been performing the duties, without pay, since 1845.
1855 - Susannah KELLY (wife of Charles, the Sexton, and a sister of John PIGOTT, the Beadle, and mother of Joseph Aylmer KELLY), was performing the duties of Robe-keeper, although her appointment is not recorded. She resigned on 17 November 1871.
16 June 1858 - Joseph Aylmer KELLY (formerly Assistant Sexton), appointed Beadle.