Denny | muschamp

Denny Muschamp of Northern Ireland

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE of NORTHERN IRELAND

The de Vesci Papers

(PRONI's Register of Irish Archives)

Summary.

The de Vesci papers formerly at Abbeyleix. Co. Leix, consist of c.21,500 documents, the uncounted (and largely unopened) contents of 60 original bundles of vouchers, and over 600 volumes of widely varying sizes, ranging in date from 1552 almost to the present day. These were sorted and listed in situ by PRONI in the period 1980-1985. In addition, there is a modern estate office archive of approximately equal size, beginning c.1920, and not covered by the PRONI arrangement. All this material was purchased by the National Library of Ireland from Viscount de Vesci towards the end of 1995. A further 2,100 documents, 1533-1968 (but mainly 1660-1775), were separated from the rest of the archive, and were deposited (apparently in the late 1960s) in the Roscrea Heritage Centre, Damer House, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, where they were sorted and listed by PRONI in 1985 according to the arrangement devised for the main part of the archive at Abbeyleix. This material was reunited with the rest of the archive in NLI at the end of 1995, and the PRONI lists of both sections have now been amalgamated.

The papers from both locations relate to the estate, financial, political, administrative, architectural, etc, concerns of the Vesey family (who were created Viscounts de Vesci in 1776) and the related families of Muschamp, Boyle/Blessington and Lane/Lanesborough, and mainly to estates in Co. Leix, Cork City and County, Co. Down, Dublin City and County, Cos Carlow, Galway, Kildare and Kilkenny, Limerick City and County, and Cos Mayo, Offaly and Roscommon, Waterford City and County, and Co. Wexford, and (outside Ireland) in Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Kent and Wiltshire.

PRONI has copied small parts of the archive (T/3738 and MIC/616). But, essentially, the description which follows is an introduction to the list which PRONI holds in its Register of Irish Archives. Researchers should consult the originals in NLI, where a copy of the PRONI list is of course available.

The previous history of the archive.

The previous history of the Abbeyleix part of the archive can be briefly told. In 1970, the late (6th) Viscount de Vesci invited the late Dr J.G. Simms of the Modern History Department, T.C.D., to examine and report on the archive, which Dr Simms did on behalf of the Irish Manuscripts Commission. He also made proposals for the sorting and listing of the archive which came to nothing. Later in 1970, the late Sir John Ainsworth, also of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, visited Abbeyleix, and though no National Library of Ireland report on the papers resulted from his visit, he did borrow for microfilming by NLI a number of volumes and documents. The basis on which these were selected is obscure, and it is possible that by no means all of the archive was inspected by him.

The Abbeyleix papers were most of them stored in the basement of the house, the majority in a large room which was once a 'train' room, and the rest (mainly consisting of volumes of accounts and a number of rolled maps, c.1875 onwards) in a strongroom along the corridor from the 'train' room and through the old kitchen. In general, the physical condition of the papers is not bad, except for the photograph albums which, subsequent to listing by PRONI, were severely damaged by a burst pipe in the corner of the train room where they were located. (In any case, these are not included in the purchase by NLI.) Although a good deal of the pre-1730 material was obviously at one point scattered to the four winds and then subsequently (c.1875) tied up in bundles in any old order, a substantial minority of the bundles are original and coherent. Indeed, these latter seem not to have been opened since the death of Sir Thomas Vesey, Bishop of Ossory, in 1730.

The 18th-20th century estate archive.

There is a fine 18th-20th century estate archive, some of the oldest components of which were listed and microfilmed by NLI (P.6797-6801) in 1970, as follows: Abbeyleix rentroll, 1671-1673, bound in with cargo lists from Flushing and other ports in the Low Countries, 1665; 'Return of forfeiting proprietors in Queen's and King's Counties, with maps of the townlands affected by their forfeiture, c.1700; Vesey household accounts (Edward Wilson in account with John Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam), 1712-1713; Co. Leix estate accounts, 1734-1739, 1757-1762 and 1776-1793; rent ledgers, 1739-1765, 1766-1783 and 1801-1811 (the last including household accounts); Abbeyleix wages books, 1767-1784, 1771-1779 and 1787-1807 (including sawmill accounts, 1800-1804); estate cash book, 1780-1783; building and carpentry accounts, 1805-1817; accounts relating to the manufacture and sale of cotton and other textiles, 1806-1808 and 1806-1810; and analysis of farm stock and fodder, 1838-1839. It should be noted that the above material microfilmed by NLI by no means represents all the material of similar date and nature which exists.

In addition there are 18 PRONI boxes of expired Co. Leix leases for the manor of Abbeyleix, barony of Cullenagh, and the adjoining lands of Colt, Corbally, Togher, the commons of Maryborough, etc, barony of Maryborough, from c.1620 (but mainly c.1775) to c.1930, arranged alphabetically by townland (which was, basically, the original Estate Office arrangement), and 9 further boxes of expired leases relating to other properties, mainly in Co. Cork, 1668-1974. There are also numerous 18th, 19th and 20th century maps, plans and surveys, including two fine volumes of maps of the de Vesci estate in Co. Leix (by Bernard Scal‚), 1769, and in and around Passage West, Co. Cork, 1805, and volumes containing 1847 and 1852 surveys of the Co. Leix estate and listing in convenient alphabetical order the townlands which then comprised it. Another tin box contains unbound Co. Leix rentals and agents' accounts, 1815-1875. These are summaries, made for purposes of audit, rather than the detailed Estate Office volumes of the type microfilmed by NLI, but they are almost the only form of rentals and accounts extant for the period concerned. From c.1875 the detailed volumes resume and multiply; so that there is a complete record of estate income and expenditure from c.1740 to c.1810 and again from c.1875 to the present day.

Family, political and business correspondence.

The family, political and business correspondence of the Vesey/de Vesci family (none of which is of Estate Office provenance, although much of it relates to the estate) spans the period c.1660-1960 and derives mainly from seven members of the Vesey/de Vesci family: John Vesey, Bishop of Limerick (1673-1679) and Archbishop of Tuam (1679-1716); his [brother-in-law], Denny Muschamp (c.1640-1700); his son and successor, Sir Thomas Vesey, 1st Bt, Bishop of Killaloe (1713-1714) and of Ossory (1714-1730), who as well as being the nephew of Denny Muschamp, was also his son-in-law, having married in 1698 Muschamp's daughter, only surviving child and heiress, Mary; and Sir Thomas Vesey's successors, the 1st Lord Knapton and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Viscounts de Vesci.

Family history.

In a Country Life article of 26 September 1991, entitled 'Abbeyleix, Co. Leix, Ireland: The Seat of Viscount de Vesci', John Cornforth writes: '... The Veseys first appeared in Ireland in the second quarter of the 17th century, and, like a surprising number of families, rose through service in the Church of Ireland. The first of them, the Venerable Thomas, ended up as Archdeacon of Armagh in 1655 and died in 1662. Both his sons followed him into the church, the elder one, John, becoming Archbishop of Tuam, a Privy Councillor and a Lord Justice of Ireland. Three of the Archbishop's five sons also entered the church, with Thomas, the eldest, being made a baronet and a bishop in his father's lifetime. He had the foresight to marry the granddaughter of an even more distinguished Archbishop, Michael Boyle, who was both Primate and Lord Chancellor. ...

The 1st baronet acquired Abbeyleix through his marriage in 1698 to Mary Muschamp, whose father Denny Muschamp, ... gave the couple ... [the estate as Mary's marriage portion in 1699]. Muschamp was a tax farmer and land speculator as well as adviser to his father-in-law, Archbishop Boyle, and he became involved in Abbeyleix in 1675 through buying the rest of a 99-year Crown lease from the trustees of the will of Sir Edward Massey, an act that immediately led to litigation with the trustees and the beneficiaries of the will. That, together with other complications, led to a series of claims and counterclaims that caused the case to drag on until 1770. ...

The name Abbeyleix has a medieval ring to it, and there is an air of antiquity to the relationship between the Monks Bridge over the River Nore, the old church and the tomb in the King's Garden of Malachias O'More, Prince of Leix, who died in 1486. The estate, on the other hand, has all the hallmarks of progressive management in the 18th and 19th centuries, ranging from the richly planted woods to the layout of the new town of Abbeyleix, some two miles from the present house. Much of the credit for this is usually given to the 2nd Viscount de Vesci between 1805 and 1855, and the 3rd Viscount, whose wife was particularly keen on coronets, monograms and bargeboards. In fact, the tradition of improvement was established by the builder of the present house, the 2nd Lord Knapton, created Viscount de Vesci in 1776. ...'

Papers of Archbishop John Vesey.

The papers of Archbishop John Vesey include many important documents about the organisation of the Church of Ireland, principally in the archdiocese of Tuam, 1679-1716, and these overlap with his political correspondence of the same period, which principally concerns the interests of the Church, the pretensions of the Dissenters, etc, etc. There is a long series of rentals and accounts between the Archbishop and his agent, Edward Wilson, c.1690-1716, which seem to relate to hisprivate estates (principally the Hollymount estate, Co. Mayo) as well as the estates of the archdiocese. Estate and business correspondence and accounts from other agents, lawyers, employees, tenants, etc, are also plentiful. The Archbishop kept a journal, 1683-1705, which, though primarily concerned with matters of accountancy, contains a good deal of incidental information besides.

Papers of Bishop Sir Thomas Vesey.

The papers of the Archbishop's son and successor, Sir Thomas Vesey, also abound in material of great importance to any study of the Church of Ireland. His time at Killaloe is represented by only 2 documents, both of them formal commissions from the crown, 1713: one a commission to consecrate him Bishop of Killaloe, the other [a grant of the temporalities of the see?]. Although he did not succeed to the bishopric of Ossory until 1714, his papers include many earlier documents relating to that diocese, including title deeds to see lands in Cos Cork, Kilkenny, Leix, Limerick, and Offaly back to 1579 (the oldest original document in the archive), and bishops' counterparts of many see leases back to the early 17th century. Indeed, it is hard to imagine how the temporal and financial affairs of the see were conducted post-1730 in the absence of these essential documents.

In addition, there are preserved in Sir Thomas Vesey's papers documents relating to ecclesiastical administration which obviously must have been handed over to him by his predecessor. These include some 'states' of individual livings returned by the incumbents to the then Bishop of Ossory, 1672, a contract with carpenters for repairing the bishop's house in Kilkenny, 1672, and a detailed account and another paper concerning the hanging of the bells in St Canice Cathedral, 1675. There is also a 'state' of the whole diocese at the time Sir Thomas Vesey succeeded to it, 1714.

Numerous business letters and accounts also survive, relating both to the see and to the Bishop's private estate affairs (and they are often difficult to distinguish), particularly for the period 1720-1730. There are, besides, a run of letters to him from Rev. Dr William Andrews, Provincial Registrar of Ossory, about see affairs, and many letters from clergy and their patrons soliciting episcopal patronage. One interesting business enterprise of the Bishop which is documented in the archive is a lease he obtained in 1725 of Glanballyvally, barony of Ida, Co. Kilkenny, and ensuing correspondence about his iron-mining operations there. There are also family and personal letters to him from his mother, wife, brother (Agmondisham Vesey of Lucan, Co. Dublin), and son-in-law, Caesar Colclough of Duffy Hall and Tintern, Co. Wexford. In particular, there is correspondence about the financial embarrassments of Colclough. Politics are represented by a small, artificially created bundle of letters about electioneering in the episcopal borough of St Canice, Co. Kilkenny, in Co. Kilkenny itself, in Queen's County and in the Queen's County borough of Ballynakill, 1713-1727.

Denny Muschamp (c.1640-1700).

The other family member from whom these 17th and early 18th-century paper derive is Denny Muschamp who, although he does not bear the Vesey name, is a more crucial figure in the family's history than either Archbishop or Bishop Vesey. In fact, all the Irish estates which remained down the centuries in Vesey/de Vesci possession came from Denny Muschamp: most obviously, the manor of Abbeyleix, which he made over to his daughter, Mary, and the issue of her marriage to Sir Thomas Vesey, in 1699; less obviously, lands in the manor of Buttevant, Co. Cork, and in Cork City, in part acquired by Muschamp and in part inherited by him from his father, Colonel Agmondisham Muschamp of Buttevant and Ballybricken, Co. Cork (d.1658); and, least obviously of all, the deVesci half of the Longford/de Vesci estate in Dunleary, Co. Dublin, in and near Passage West, Co. Cork, in Cork City, in Limerick City and county and at Silchester, Hampshire.

The fee simple of the manor of Buttevant had been owned by the Hon. Robert Boyle, the famous scientist, and was conveyed to Denny Muschamp by Boyle's executors in 1693. The Dunleary property had been owned by Denny Muschamp's father-in-law, Michael Boyle, successively Archbishop of Dublin and Armagh (d.1702), and on failure of the slightly more direct heirs of Archbishop Boyle, an undivided moiety of it passed in 1778 to the 1st Viscount de Vesci. At the outset, it produced only £1,100 a year (plus £400 from the rest of the Longford/de Vesci estate), in relation to £4,675 from the existing family estate. Even by the 1880s (when it was valued at £31,713, out of a total annual valuation for the family's landed property of £45,214), it was producing to the 4th Viscount only a little over £3,000 a year. This was because a large proportion of it had been let for 99 years in the early 19th century, with the result that the financial potential of it was not fully realised until the early 20th century.

Denny Muschamp's political career.

Quite apart from his crucial role in de Vesci family history, Denny Muschamp is clearly a figure of such importance in his own right that the discovery of a considerable quantity of papers deriving from him is greatly to be welcomed. He was a member of the syndicate which farmed the Hearth Tax in 1665-1666 (an episode documented in his papers), and later (1678) became involved in the more extensive tax farm held by the Earl of Ranelagh. He was appointed a Revenue Commissioner in 1666, Clerk of the Crown and Peace for Ulster in 1667 and Muster Master General of Ireland in 1677, and he purchased the constableship of Maryborough, Co. Leix, in 1679. He sat as MP for Swords (a borough under the influence of the Archbishop of Dublin), 1665-1666, and for the borough of Blessington, Co. Wicklow (which was owned by Archbishop Boyle in his private capacity), 1695-1699. From the evidence of his papers, he seems to have acted as secretary and agent to Boyle c.1670-1685, and to have assisted him in his private and public capacities during all of the time that he was Archbishop of Dublin (1663-1678) and Lord Chancellor (1665-1685), and part of the time that he was Archbishop of Armagh (1678-1702). The papers also show that he acted as Secretary to the Lords Justices during at least the first and last of Boyle's terms of office in that capacity (he was a Lord Justice from 12 June 1671 to 5 August 1672, from 5 July 1675 to 24 August 1676 and from 20 March 1684 to 9 January 1686).

Denny Muschamp's date of birth is unknown, although it is known that his parents, Agmondisham Muschamp and Anne (née Denny), were married in or before 1637. He predeceased his patron, Boyle, by two years, dying in 1700. He was twice married: first (in 1661) to Boyle's elder daughter, Elizabeth, and secondly (in 1692) to Frances, daughter of Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset, and widow of George Lane, 1st Viscount Lanesborough. By his first wife he had at least three children: Boyle Muschamp (d.1683); a 'second son' (living c.1675); and Mary, wife of Sir Thomas Vesey, his heiress.

Denny Muschamp's property and papers.

Denny Muschamp's papers include two PRONI boxes of title deeds, leases, bonds, etc, relating to the manor of Buttevant, barony of Orrery and Kilmore, the lands of Ballybricken, barony of Kerrycurrihy, both in Co. Cork, and property in Cork City, c.1600-1707. They also document his dealings with his Co. Cork connections, via Archbishop Boyle, the senior (Cork and Burlington) branch of the Co. Cork Boyles, and the junior Orrery and Shannon branches, and his dealings with the perennially improvident Earls of Barrymore (also Boyle connections, and the Hon. Robert Boyle's predecessors in the ownership of the manor of Buttevant), and the O'Briens of Cos Cork and Clare (one of whom, a daughter of the 5th Earl of Inchiquin, was the second wife of Archbishop Boyle). There is also similar material about Muschamp's Dublin City property, consisting of houses in Skinner's Row and Kevin Street, property in the Liberty of St Sepulchre's, in Cornmarket, etc (all or some of which derived from Archbishop Boyle), 1657-1698. The affairs of the manor of Abbeyleix, which Muschamp acquired on long lease in 1675 and which with to involve him and his Vesey successors in furious litigation for the next 100 years, also feature prominently among his papers, as do parliamentary and municipal disputes in the Co. Leix boroughs of Maryborough (where Muschamp's brother-in-law, Archbishop Vesey, also had a political involvement and proprietorial interests), 1672-1692, and Ballynakill, 1672-1686.

Land in the barony of Lecale, Co. Down.

Muschamp seems to have been a considerable speculator in land, because his papers reflect an interest in a number of estates all over the country, notably the barony of Lecale estate, Co. Down, of the Earls of Ardglass. In 1675, Thomas, 3rd Earl of Ardglass, granted a rent charge of £300 a year to Henry Muschamp [Muschamp's cousin?], and this transaction seems to have been the origin of Denny Muschamp's association with the barony of Lecale. In the early 1680s Muschamp purchased, or at any rate thought that he had purchased, the whole estate from Vere Essex Cromwell, 4th Earl of Ardglass, only to find himself involved as a result of the transaction in litigation with the Ardglass/Cromwell family and with one of their chief tenants, the Maxwell family [of Finnebrogue, Downpatrick. The outcome of this litigation must have been unfavourable to Muschamp, as the Ardglass family continued to own the fee and the Maxwells to be chief tenants.] This lawsuit generates a PRONI box of case and other papers, including names and particulars of the members of Lord Ardglass's 'troop', 1682.

The Lanesborough estate.

Another, and exceedingly scattered, estate with which Muschamp became involved was the estate of his second wife, Lady Lanesborough, which had come to her, either in fee or for life, through her first marriage. These lands were in Cos Cork, Dublin, Waterford, Kilkenny, Limerick, Galway, Roscommon (the town of Tulsk), Mayo, etc, etc (and are thus not always easy to distinguish from other Muschamp properties, and from properties which Archbishop John Vesey and Bishop Thomas Vesey held or owned, either in right of their sees or in their private capacities). Lady Lanesborough's title to some of these estates appears to have been disputed; which accounts for the bulk of the documentation (1639-1640 and 1660-1698). After Muschamp's death in 1700, there was half-hearted litigation between Lady Lanesborough and Thomas Vesey over the life interest Muschamp seems to have left her in his estates in Cork, Dublin and Waterford and even in part of his Co. Leix estate. Moreover, when she died in 1721 it was discovered that omissions from her will had the effect of leaving more property to the heirs of Lord Lanesborough, the [Lane] Fox family, than either Muschamp or she had apparently intended. This involved Thomas Vesey, Bishop of Ossory, in litigation, particularly over the house in Skinner's Row and other components of Muschamp's personal estate, which was the more considerable because of his activity as a speculator in land.

Muschamp's association with Archbishop Boyle.

A substantial proportion of Muschamp's papers reflect his association with Archbishop Boyle. They include 2 original commissions from Charles II to the Archbishop, as Lord Chancellor, to implement a new tax on ecclesiastical revenues, 1670, with related correspondence on this subject, a run of signed copies of warrants issued by the Lord Justices, with Muschamp as their Secretary, June-July 1671, and correspondence of Muschamp (again as Secretary to the Lords Justices) about the composition of the commission of the peace in various counties, 1685.

There are also bundles of rentals and accounts for the 1670s relating to both the Archbishop's private estates and the estates he held in right of the Archbishoprics of Dublin and Armagh; these include building accounts for his mansion at Blessington [later, after it had passed to the 2nd Marquess of Downshire, destroyed by the rebels in 1798], 1672-1675, a rental of the see lands of Armagh, 1678, and 'A copy of the true state of the whole revenue of the Primacy ...', 1678 [microfilmed by NLI, and sharing a volume with an Abbeyleix rent ledger]. Another bundle consists of papers and calculations assembled/made by Muschamp in advance of the second marriage of the Archbishop's son and heir, Murrough Boyle, 1st Viscount Blessington, to Anne, daughter of Charles Coote, 2nd Earl of Mountrath, 1672.

Among the most potentially interesting parts of Muschamp's archive is a run of letters between Muschamp and his 'man of business', one Thomas Fitzgerald, who lived in the Archbishop's house in Dublin, 1688-1698; this correspondence probably relates to Muschamp's as well as the Archbishop's affairs, and is continued in a similar run of letters between Fitzgerald and Sir Thomas Vesey, Bishop of Ossory, 1699-1717.

Some title deeds to the Archbishop's private estate in Co. Wicklow (Blessington and Brittas), 1668-1681, also survive among Muschamp's papers, even though this property did not descend to Muschamp's heirs, the de Vescis, as does one Dunleary title deed of 1673.

The Hundred Years' War over Abbeyleix.

In sheer bulk, the 17th and early 18th century papers, and indeed the whole archive, are dominated by the voluminous legal case papers generated by the 100 years' war over the manor of Abbeyleix The manor of Abbeyleix had been acquired by the crown in 1637 from the future 1st Duke of Ormond, and in 1663 had been leased for 99 years (from 1662) to one Sir Edward Massey. This Sir Edward died in 1674 and by his will of the same date left the property to his nephew and namesake, Sir Edward Massey of Twickenham and of Lisbigny (Abbeyleix), subject however to sundry legacies and trusts. In the following year, the trustees of the will, Thomas Starkey and Capt. Henry Chambers (or, more probably, Starkey only), sold the whole manor for the residue of the 99-year term to Denny Muschamp, for £2,500. Litigation then ensued between Muschamp, on the one hand, and Massey and other beneficiaries of the will on the other, and also between Massey and Starkey, as a result of which a compromise agreement was entered into in 1683. By the terms of this agreement, Muschamp paid Massey the sum of £1,200 and leased the bulk of the estate to him for a 21-year trust period, during which the claims of the other beneficiaries of the will were to be satisfied out of the proceeds from the estate.

In the meantime, in 1675, the crown had granted the fee simple of the manor to Sir John Temple, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and in 1681 Temple had sold it (for just over £400) to Robert Ridgeway, 4th Earl of Londonderry. Lord Londonderry, who owned the nearby Lordship of Ballynakill, clearly was anxious to extend his landownership in the area (although, for the duration of the 99-year lease, his purchase of the fee of Abbeyleix meant no more to him than a head rent of £100 a year from the chief tenant, Muschamp). Accordingly, in 1684 he acquired from Massey, in return for another sum of £1,200, the residue of the trust term of 21 years for which Muschamp had let most of Abbeyleix in 1683. Since the purpose of the trust was to clear legacies and other debts and, ultimately, Muschamp's title to the estate, this lease of 1684 was obviously a violation of the terms of the agreement of 1683. Further litigation accordingly ensued, both between Massey and Muschamp, and between Muschamp and Lord Londonderry. Having done the rounds of the Irish and English courts of law and the Irish and English Houses of Lords the case was eventually brought by Massey before the Irish House of Commons (of which he was a member), c.1698. Ultimately, it must have been determined in Muschamp's favour, by which time he had transferred his interest in Abbeyleix to Sir Thomas Vesey.

The second major phase of litigation was over the fee, or reversion, of the manor. In 1716 this was settled by Lord Londonderry's widow on her daughter, Lucy, and on the children of Lady Lucy Ridgeway's marriage to the 4th Earl of Donegall, which took place in that year. Between 1716 and 1718, Sir Thomas Vesey, by then Bishop of Ossory, succeeded in purchasing the fee by means which it was alleged were fraudulent, from the weak-minded Lord Donegall for £4,000. As, however, he was already in possession and enjoyment of the estate, subject only to a nominal head rent to Lady Londonderry/Lord Donegall of £100, this purchase was of no practical benefit to him until his lease expired, in 1761 (by which time his £4,000, if put out at interest, would have earned him over £33,000!), and possibly would never have been of any benefit to him if Lord Donegall's marriage had not proved childless (a fact which could not have been known in 1716). The childlessness of the marriage naturally caused Lord Donegall's trustees and advisers to repent of the bargain, and the result was a further lawsuit over Abbeyleix which lasted until 1769.

Title deeds and legal case papers.

In view of the extent and duration of this litigation, it is not surprising that the title to the Abbeyleix estate is complicated: with the result that inquisitions, deeds, bonds and other documents of title, 1552, 1635, 1663-1718 and 1800 occupy two PRONI boxes. Title deeds to the individually acquired lands in the barony of Maryborough, 1622-1624 and 1660-c.1700, occupy a further box. Three more box-fulls relate to estates, not all of them of the Veseys, in counties other than Leix and Cork, 1657-1781: these include the Vesey estate of Bray and Nicholstown, Co. Kildare, 1691-1781, and a 'mystery' estate at Stilton, Devonshire, c.1702-1706. Another l3 boxes contain deeds of settlement, mortgage, annuity, etc, 1658-1984, mainly of the Vesey and Longford/de Vesci estates in Queen's County, Cork, Limerick and Dublin, but also relating to the estates of families connected with the Veseys, notably the Pery estate in Newtown Pery, Co. Limerick, 1769 and 1833, and the Staples estate in Cos Leix, Londonderry, and Tyrone, 1774-1873. There are also two boxes of Vesey and other wills, 1600 and 1658-1958, and two boxes of succession duty papers, 1856-1973.

Papers of the 1st Lord Knapton and the 1st Viscount de Vesci.

Sir Thomas Vesey, Bishop of Ossory, was succeeded in title and estates, and in the lawsuit over Abbeyleix, by his son, Sir John Denny Vesey, 2nd Bt, lst Lord Knapton (d.1761), and grandson, Thomas Vesey, 2nd Lord Knapton and lst Viscount de Vesci (d.1804). Their papers, in addition to those about the lawsuit, consist mainly of tradesmen's accounts and letters about estate and business affairs, 1730-1804: the Muschamp estate in Co. Cork, 1730-1790, the Hollymount estate, Co. Mayo (which appears to have been conveyed to Sir John Denny Vesey's uncle-by-marriage, Henry Bingham of Newbrook, Co. Mayo, c.1735), 1732-1744, and the Longford/de Vesci estate in Dunleary, Co. Dublin, and at Silchester, Hampshire, Passage West, Co. Cork, Cork City and Limerick City and county, 1774-1804. In addition, the lst Viscount's papers include: a letter describing the execution of 'Levellers' at Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, l766; a notebook containing minutes by Lord de Vesci of the evidence heard before the Irish House of Lords in the Anglesey peerage case, [1771] (microfilmed by NLI, P.6798); and c.30 letters written to him and other members of his family about the French descent on Bantry Bay, December 1796-January 1797 (microfilmed by NLI, P.6799).

The building of Abbeyleix.

The 1st Viscount de Vesci is particularly associated with the building of the present house at Abbeyleix, and the accompanying re-location of the village from a site near that house to the site of the present town of Abbeyleix. According to John Cornforth, the 1st Lord Knapton '... may have built and lived in the house at Knapton, the property adjoining Abbeyleix. It was only in 1769, when the 2nd Lord Knapton decided to marry Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Arthur Brooke of Colebrooke, and when the case [over Denny Muschamp's lease] was nearing its end, that his thoughts seem to have turned to building. That year he had the Abbeyleix estate surveyed by Bernard Scalé, and on the plan of the demesne the new house is crudely indicated in pencil by another hand ...'

John Martin Robinson writes, in the sale catalogue of the residual contents of Abbeyleix, 25 April 1995: '... He chose James Wyatt as his architect, and Wyatt's designs dated 1772 still survive, divided between the three Wyatt albums in the National Library, Dublin, The Metropolitan Museum, New York, and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. As executed, the house has a simpler plan than proposed by Wyatt, with straightforward rectangular rooms rather than elaborate geometrical forms, and this no doubt reflects the fact that Wyatt never visited Abbeyleix but delegated the construction to local Irish builders. The foundation stone (at the north east corner of the house) is dated 1773 and the shell was finished by 1778. Mark Tidderman supervised the work on site, and the stone was supplied by William Colles of Co. Kilkenny. ... It seems that the interiors with their fine Wyatt decoration including ornamental stucco ceilings and marble chimneypieces in the drawing room and dining room date from the 1780s. The dining room is the best room in the house and has grisaille paintings in the manner of de Gree. (This room was carefully decorated after a fire in 1959 and the contractors at that date signed their names on top of one of the doorcases which can be read by looking through a mirror on a long handle.) ...'

Tradesmen's accounts, a contract and a couple of letters in the archive throw light on the building of the house, as do an [autograph?] ground plan for the house at Abbeyleix by Wyatt, with another not in his autograph [pre-1773].

Papers of the 2nd Viscount de Vesci .

The 2nd Viscount de Vesci's papers, 1800-1855, include - in addition to documentation of the Longford/de Vesci and Queen's County estates - letters and papers about local government and charitable organisations on Abbeyleix and Queen's County generally, and papers as Lieutenant of the county, 1809, N.D. and 1824-1845. There is also correspondence about Queen's County elections, 1811-1812 and 1818-1820, and about the Co. Carlow election of 1835.

Papers of the 3rd Viscount de Vesci.

The papers of his son, the future 3rd Viscount, include: schoolboy, undergraduate and sporting correspondence, 1812-1825, while he was at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford; papers and correspondence as sheriff of Co. Leix, 1827-1828, and further Co. Leix election material, 1832-1835, N.D. and 1864-1865; an hilarious run of scurrilous letters from Lord Clements [the future 3rd and 'wicked' Earl of Leitrim], 1826-1832; and voluminous correspondence (11 PRONI boxes) about the Longford/de Vesci and Co. Leix estates, 1840-1875. John Martin Robinson resumes: '... The 2nd Viscount refurnished the main rooms [at Abbeyleix] in the Regency style, and ... the 3rd Viscount was responsible for the present external appearance of the house. He called in James Wyatt's cousin, Thomas Henry Wyatt, who had been born in Ireland at Lough-Glinn House, Co. Roscommon; T.H. Wyatt was employed at Abbeyleix through the influence of Lady de Vesci, who was a Herbert from Wilton. She was the youngest daughter of the 11th Earl of Pembroke and Catherine Woronzow. T.H. Wyatt had built the magnificent Church at Wilton for the Pembrokes and at Abbeyleix he designed a new Church of Ireland church with a tall spire in the town and embellished the house itself, adding the balustrade to the roof, the architraves to the windows, and the formal gardens, said to be inspired by the Villa Aloupka, the Woronzow house at Yalta.

Abbeyleix under the 4th, 5th and 6th Viscounts de Vesci .

The 3rd Viscount died in 1875 and his son the 4th Viscount and wife Evelyn (daughter of the 10th Earl of Wemyss) then moved into Abbeyleix. In their times the house enjoyed a golden age as an Irish outpost of 'The Souls' - that group of cultivated aristocrats that revolved around the Charteris, Wyndham, Manners and Paget families. Evelyn, Lady de Vesci, like all the Souls, was a great admirer of William Morris and redecorated Abbeyleix with his papers and textiles. The magnificent blue India pattern Morris paper in the drawing room survives from her time, its colouring hardly dimmed by a century of Irish light; it makes an unexpected foil to Wyatt's ceiling. Under the direction of Ivo, 5th Viscount de Vesci, influenced by his Aunt Evelyn, a successful carpet factory was established in Abbeyleix in 1903. ... [It had] originally [been] founded by Lord Ashbrook in a neighbouring property in 1902, but did not flourish. The factory was acquired by the de Vescis ... and moved to Abbeyleix and given up-to-date plant. The output of the factory was for the most part Turkey patterns, deep-pile and of good quality. It supplied carpets to ... [the] Earl of Aberdeen, Lady Wemyss, Lady Balcarres, [the] Marquess of Bath, Lady Duncannon, Lady Jellico, L.H. Buckmaster, Lady Clanwilliam, the Astors, Spencers and Ogilvies (ie, English, Irish and Scottish houses), to the White Star Line for ships including the "Olympic" and "Titanic", for the coronation of George V in 1911, to department stores including Harrods, [the] Army & Navy, and Marshall Field in Chicago, to decorating firms like Waring & Gillow, Watts & Cowtan [, etc]. A good proportion of the output was exported to America and the Empire. ... Most of the carpets still at Abbeyleix were made in the factory, which won medals at the Irish International Exhibition in Dublin in 1907, [the] Franco-British exhibition in Paris in 1908 and the Imperial International Exhibition in London in 1909. ... The site of the factory was later moved to where Bramley's Store is now located in the town, but subsequently amalgamated with [the] Kildare Carpet Factory [in 1911].

Abbeyleix has long been famed for its demesne and gardens, and these were very much enhanced by the present Lord de Vesci's mother, Susan, who was herself the daughter of Anne, Lady Rosse (née Messel, a legendary gardener at Birr in Ireland and Nymans in Sussex) and the sister of Lord Snowdon. Lady de Vesci inherited the artistic tastes of her family, arranging the rooms at Abbeyleix with great flair, and replanting the gardens which were regularly open to the public. The gardens are renowned for their beauty, especially in the bluebell season when swathes of azure beneath the ancient oaks vie with the William Morris drawing room wallpaper in brilliance of tone. ...'

The archive from 1875 onwards.

From the death of the 3rd Viscount in 1875, letters and papers of a family, personal and political nature dwindle. It is assumed that this is because material of this kind passed to his only child, his daughter Mary, who in 1910 married the Hon. Aubrey Herbert (of the Carnarvon, not the Pembroke, branch of the family). If it survives, it is now in the Wiltshire Record Office. The 4th Viscount was succeeded in the viscountcy and at Abbeyleix by his nephew, Ivo, 5th viscount, who is also represented by very little family and personal material (probably because his widow either removed it or destroyed it). He, too, was succeeded by a nephew, John, 6th Viscount (the father of the present Viscount de Vesci), whose papers are fuller of material of this kind and document, for example, the wedding of his brother-in-law, Lord Snowden, to Princess Margaret in 1960.

>From 1875 to the present day, account books, rentals, vouchers, receipts and other estate and business material (some of it relating to the Abbeyleix Carpet Factory) abound. Indeed, the unlisted section of the archive, which consists of material of this kind from c.1920 onwards, almost equals in quantity the material from Abbeyleix which has been listed.

Miscellaneous papers.

Some miscellaneous items of note, not hitherto referred to in this introduction, are: two PRONI boxes of papers about family history, c.1665-1986; two boxes of patents, commissions, clerical institutions and other formal documents of appointment, 1694-1974; 60 bundles of estate and personal vouchers, c.1810-1825, 1843-1844, 1862-1890 and 1917-1922; and two printed notices to the Co. Leix and Longford/de Vesci tenants in connection with the Great Famine, l845-6 (these last microfilmed by NLI, P.6801).

Papers of the Veseys of Lucan .

One final important component, which has been engrafted on to the de Vesci archive from the papers of the long-established and now defunct Dublin solicitors, Barrington & Son, are estate papers of the Vesey family of Lucan, Co. Dublin (the descendants of Archbishop Vesey of Tuam by his second marriage), and of the Pigott family, baronets, of Knapton, Abbeyleix (who leased that property from the de Vesci family, c.1760-1920).

The Pigott papers amount to no more than a bundle, documenting Pigott property in Cork City and county, 1759-1820. The Vesey of Lucan papers are extensive. They occupy nine PRONI boxes, and consist of title and other deeds, leases, maps, valuations and sale papers, all relating to the Sarsfield and (from 1696) Vesey estate at Lucan, on the Kildare-Dublin county boundary and in the baronies of Connell, Co. Kildare, and Newcastle, Co. Dublin, 1625-1932.

The importance of the de Vesci papers.

The de Vesci archive is of major importance in Irish national terms: (a) because at least two of the Vesey forebears (Archbishop John Vesey and Denny Muschamp) were major figures in Irish history; (b) because the location of the Dunleary part of the property means that the archive is vital in documenting the development of South Dublin; and (c) because it is most unusual in containing a disproportionately large quantity of material on the 17th century. In local terms, its importance is equally marked. The Co. Leix estate was compact and concentrated, and for this reason the 'big house' archive documents the life of an entire community, including the lives of many, many very ordinary people. The fact that one head of the family, Sir Thomas Vesey, 1st Bt, was Bishop of Ossory as well as landlord of Abbeyleix gives additional weight to this consideration, as does the fact that no other Leix landowning family has left behind anything resembling the size and importance of the de Vesci archive.

This material is subject to Crown copyright and, except for personal study, any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring, is prohibited.Head of Reader Services, PRONI, 66 Balmoral Avenue, Belfast BT9 6NY, Northern Ireland.