The Yank (James) Kenny and his wife Mary |
From the
start I was enchanted by the house and I wanted to know everything about it.
Questions were spinning round and round in my head. Who built it? When? Had it
been a happy house? Had children lived here? Why had it been left to get into
such bad repair?
Early on
when we were cleaning out the house I had found an old bag on top of a
wardrobe. Inside the bag was a brown envelope, containing documents headed
‘Land Registry of Ireland, Register of Freeholders’. These documents showed
Mary Kenny as the owner of the property and burdens due to the Irish Land
Commission, dated 18th March 1920. They also showed the ownership of
the lands changing to the Doyle family, namely Charles and Elizabeth Doyle in
1945.
I asked
Brendan, the gardener from Ardagh if he knew who had built the house or if he
had ever heard of Mary Kenny. A few weeks later he phoned me, very excited, he
had news. An old lady, once married to an uncle of Brendan’s, remembered people
talking about James Kenny. She said he was a yank. He had built the house after
he returned from America.
This was the first mention of the Yank.
At a guess
I was pretty sure the house had been built in the eighteen hundreds, possibly
after the famine. I wanted to narrow the date down better than this. My first
port of call was the Ordinance Survey Office. I wanted to check any available
old maps to see if the house was on them but when I called it was almost
lunchtime and I was told the system goes down over lunch. However I did get a
web address where I could pay online to view the first edition
Ordinance Survey maps. On these maps I could pick out the site of the house.
The old buildings in the yard were shown but not the new house.
My next
port of call was the map library at Trinity College Dublin. Here there were
maps dated later in the eighteen hundreds. But yet again there was no sign of
the new house on these maps. However they suggested I check the records at the
Valuation Office in the Irish Life Mall.
I called on
a friend, Jim, who is interested in this kind of research to help. We spent a
few lunch hours in the Valuation Office. Once we knew the town land we were
able to locate the area on the maps and in the records books. This was very
exciting. The Records showed the rates were paid by Patrick Kenny up to 1867
when James took over. Mary Kenny (widow) took over payments from 1891 at which
time James must have died. There was also a later entry showing Mary’s name
scratched out and replaced by James, probably a son, in 1938. But the most
exciting entry of all was for 1884 when the records showed the rates on the
house had gone up from £1.15.0 to £4.10.0—and in the column was an entry ‘New
House’. Staff in the valuation office explained that this entry did not mean
the house had been built in that year, only that it had been built prior to
1884. Often notification of a new house would be delayed to avoid paying the
extra rates. Still I had narrowed the date down to between 1867 and 1884.
One evening
I phoned Brendan, the gardener from Ardagh. I hoped he could recommend someone
with a High Mac who might do some work around the site for us. Brendan was
delighted to hear from me. He had lost my number. He told me he had found
someone who loved the house as much as I did. After discovering a link between
the Yank and a family living in the village, he had called to visit them ─ they
told him the Yank had a Grandson. He gave me a phone number and said I was
expected to call.
That first
phone call was very exciting. The Yank’s Grandson was called Gerard. He sounded
lovely. He lived in Glasnevin, in Dublin.
He remembered so much about the house and the family who lived there. He had
spent many happy summer holidays there with his mother and brother. He told me
his grandfather, James married local girl Mary Ward after he returned from America.
Mary was only seventeen when she married the Yank. They had eight children, two
girls Mary (Molly) and Gertrude and six boys, James, John, Tommy, Frank,
Patrick and Bill. The Yank died around 1891 leaving Mary with a young family to
rear on her own. She lived until 1934. James and John continued to work the
farm for another ten years. But when John died leaving James alone on the farm
he decided to sell. In 1945 James sold the farm to Charley and Lizzie Doyle and
he moved to Cabra to live with Mary (Molly) and her family. Molly was Gerald’s
mother. The family lost track of Gertrude over the years and the other boys all
ended up in America.
Gerard and his brother Seamus were the only grandchildren. None of the rest of
the Yank’s family had any children.
Meeting
Gerard was a real bonus. I had never expected to come face to face with the
Yank’s grandson. One evening after work, Theresa my daughter and I called out
to visit him. He was delighted to meet us. He had photos for us to look at and
to my utter delight he had a small brown photo of his grandfather and
grandmother, James and Mary. Here in my hand was a photo of the Yank. It
brought his whole story to life for me. Gerard had never met his grandfather.
He had died well before Gerard was born. But he remembered his grandmother and
told us at age seven he had attended her funeral. He had very fond memories of
his uncle James and the farm and house. Every summer he visits his friends in
Ardagh and he always goes out to see the old house. He had been there in August
and had seen the new roof. He promised to visit again next summer.
Wow! What an incredible story! I too desire to buy a ruin. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWow! What an incredible story! I too desire to buy a ruin. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel, sorry for not getting back to you when you left this message. I am afraid the Yank's house project is at a standstill so I have not been checking on the blog. I hope if you buy a ruin you get to finish it not like us. It looks like we will have to sell our on and let someone else finish it, but such is life. Good luck with your dreams.
ReplyDeleteCatherine