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Daniel O’Connell: income, expenditure and despair

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2017

Maurice R. O’Connell
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Extract

The barony of Iveragh in County Kerry forms the extreme western part of the peninsula that runs out from Killarney. It is mountainous and weather-beaten tourist country, facing the Atlantic and separated from the rest of Ireland by a range of mountains. The O’Connells had been the principal family in the barony for some centuries before Daniel O’Connell was born in 1775. Several branches of his family along with other Gaelic families—McCarthys, O’Mahonys, O’Sullivans and Sugrues—had survived the turmoil and confiscations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the penal laws of the eighteenth. By the time of O’Connell’s birth these families were small landlords—frequently middlemen—whose distinction owed more to lineage and ‘following’ than to landed wealth. The one substantial landlord among them was Maurice O’Connell of Derrynane, usually known as Hunting-Cap, the head of the senior branch of the O’Connells. As a smuggler, farmer and landlord, by lending money to landlords and by thrift, he had greatly increased his inherited property so that by the beginning of the nineteenth century he could be described as a rich man. A childless widower, he adopted his nephew Daniel as his heir.

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Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 66 , September 1970 , pp. 200 - 220
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1970

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References

1 Mary O’Connell was the daughter of a ‘mixed’ marriage, her father a protestant (established church), her mother a catholic. Her paternal grandfather, Maurice O’Connell of Emlaghmore, Waterville, Co. Kerry, had become a protestant in 1730. In accordance with the custom of the time she and her sisters were reared as catholics, her brothers as protestants. On first consideration it might seem that Hunting-Cap’s hostility to the marriage was prompted by the thought that Mary’s branch of the O’Connell family had behaved dishonourably in becoming protestant but there is no /evidence whatever to support this view. The lack of a dowry was unquestionably the vital consideration. This conclusion is strengthened by much evidence throughout O’Connell’s correspondence of the importance attached by his relatives and even by himself to dowries. In 1825, after twenty-three years of married life and having borne eleven children, Mary was still sensitive of having brought her husband no dowry.

2 Mary O’Connell to O’Connell, 18 or 19 Nov. 1803 (N.L.I., O’Connell papers, hereafter cited as O’C. P.).

3 Mary O’Connell to O’Connell, 14 Dec. 1803 (O’C. P.).

4 Mary O’Connell to O’Connell, 12 Aug. 1805 (O’C. P.).

5 This information is contained in a document entitled ‘Copy of a case on behalf of Daniel O’Connell [grandson of O’Connell] for the advice and opinion of Abraham Brewster, Q.C.’ in the O’Connell MSS in University College, Dublin.

6 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 31 Mar. 1806 (Papers of Lt-Col. M. O’Connell Fitz-Simon, m.c., dencullen House, Co. Dublin, hereafter cited as F.-S. P.).

7 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 13 Oct. 1809, 2 Apr., 20 Aug., 5, 30 Sept., 8, 14 Oct. 1810 (F.-S. P.).

8 Based on a list of townland rents in the Fitz-Simon Papers.

9 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 26 Oct. 1811 (University College, Dublin, O’Connell MSS, hereafter cited as O’C. MSS). The figures actually given by James O’Connell are for a half year. They have been doubled to produce the figures stated in the text.

10 Count O’Connell to O’Connell, 30 July 1819 (F.-S. P.).

11 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 19 Nov. 1823 (O’C. P.).

12 ‘Copy of a case on behalf of Daniel O’Connell.’ (as above).

13 Ibid.

14 Maurice O’Connell to Pierce Mahony, 11 Nov. 1848 (Papers of Lt-Col. and Mrs R. K. Page, Rathcon, Grangecon, Co. Wicklow, here after cited as RathconPapers).

15 Correspondence of Daniel O’Connell, ed. Fitzpatrick, W J. (London, 1888), i, p. 26 Google Scholar.

16 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 1 Aug. 1814; 9, 12 Mar., 12, 18 July, 1815; 21 Mar., 30 July, 14, 22 Aug. 1816; 12 Mar. 1817 (F.-S. P.).

17 Reynolds, James A., The catholic emancipation crisis in Ireland 1823-1829 (Harvard University Press, 1954), p. 38n.Google Scholar

18 O’Connell, M. J., Last colonel of the Irish Brigade (London, 1892), ii, p. 272Google Scholar.

19 Hunting-Cap to O’Connell, 15 Feb. 1798 (O’C. P.).

20 O’Connell to Denis McCarthy, 20 Jan. 1806 (N.L.I., MS 5759).

21 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 31 Mar. 1806 (F.-S. P.).

22 Mary O’Connell to O’Connell, 2 Apr. 1806 (O’C. MSS).

23 Splinter was the nickname of another Daniel O’Connell, an attorney in Tralee. He was a distant cousin as well as a brother-in-law of O’Connell and was disapproved of by O’Connell’s family.

24 Mary O’Connell to O’Connell, ‘31 Mar. 1808 (O’C. P.).

25 Mary O’Connell to O’Connell, 18 or 25 Sept. 1809 (O’C. P.).

26 Hunting-Cap to O’Connell, 16 May 1811 (F.-S. P.).

27 The existence of this promise can be inferred from Mary’s letter to her husband of 14 March 1815 (O’C. P.).

28 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 13 Mar. 1815 (F.-S. P.).

29 Mary O’Connell to O’Connell, 14 Mar. 1815 (O’C. P.).

30 Mary O’Connell to O’Connell, 9 Aug. 1816 (O’C. P.).

31 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 4 Jan. 181 6 (O’C. MSS).

32 Ibid.

33 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 17 Feb. 1816 (O’C. MSS).

34 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 21 Mar. 1816 (F-S. P.).

35 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 1 Mar. 1817; 13 Jan. 1826 (O’C. MSS).

36 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 1 Mar. 1817 (O’C. MSS).

37 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 28 Dec. 1821; 13 Jan. 1826 (O’C. MSS).

38 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 8 Apr. 1822 (F.-S. P.).

39 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 5 Apr. 1822 (F.-S. P.).

40 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 8 Apr. 1822 (F.-S. P.).

41 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 17 Feb.; 28 Mar. 1822 (O’C. MSS).

42 O’Cormell to Mary O’Connell, n, 12 Mar.; 3, 4, 11 Apr.; 3, 15 May 1822 (F.-S. P.).

43 O’Connell to Mary O’Gonnell, 4 May 1822 (F.-S. P.).

44 O’Gonnell to Mary O’Connell, 18 May 1822 (F-S. P.).

45 Mary O’Connell to O’Connell, 26 May 1822 (O’C. P.).

46 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 28 Mar. 1822 (O’G. MSS).

47 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 8 Sept. 1823 (O’C. MSS).

48 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 11 Sept. 1823 (O’G. MSS).

49 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 16 Sept. 1823 (O’G. MSS).

50 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 3 Nov. 182З (O’C. MSS).

51 Rev. Peter Kenney, S.J., to O’Connell, 6 Nov. 1823 (O’C. MSS).

52 Denys Scullv to O’Connell, 23 Nov. 1823 (O’C. P.).

53 Mary O’Gonnell to O’Connell, 4 Feb. 1824 (O’C. P.).

54 Ibid.

55 Mary O’Gonnell to O’Gonnell, 10 Feb. 1824 (O’G. P.).

56 O’Gonnell to Mary O’Connell, 16 Feb. 1824 (F.-S. P.).

57 Mary O’Gonnell to O’Gonnell, 10 Feb. 1824 (O’G. P.).

58 Mary O’Connell to O’Gonnell, 27 Feb. 1824 (O’G. P.).

59 O’Gonnell to Mary O’Connell, 22 Jan. 1823 (F.-S. P.).

60 This information is contained in a statement of Hunting-Gap’s assets, apart from land, signed by John Primrose, Jr., O’Gonnell’s land agent (O’C. MSS).

61 James O’Gonnell to O’Connell, 27 Jan. 1825 (O’G. MSS).

62 This information is contained in the statement of Hunting-Cap’s assets (ibid.).

63 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 27 Jan. 1825 (O’C. MSS).

64 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 9 Apr. 1825 (O’C. MSS).

65 In 1818 O’Connell calculated that his income from land after Hunting-Cap’s death would be £4,000 a year (O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 26 Mar. 1818, F.-S. P.). This estimate is supported by Count O’Connell’s letter to O’Connell of 20 Mar. 1825 (F.-S. P.).

66 O’Connell to A. V Kirwan, 8 Nov. 1837 (Corr. of O’Connell, ii, pp 117-19).

67 Count O’Connell to O’Connell, postmarked io Feb. 1826 (F.-S. P.).

68 Ibid.

69 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 23 Sept. 1826 (O’C. MSS).

70 Count O’Connell to O’Connell, 30 July 1819 (F.-S. P.).

71 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 19 May 1827 (O’C. MSS).

72 Ibid.

73 A book-keeping account of the payment is in the Fitz-Simon Papers.

74 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 21 June 1827 (F.-S. P.): O’Connell to John Primrose, Jr., 5 Aug. 1827 (O’C. MSS).

75 O’Connell to John Primrose, Jr., 14 June 1825 (Papers of Mrs Maurice Quinlan and Miss Katie Fitzgerald, Kenneigh House, Aghatubrid, Co. Kerry).

76 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 1 Dec. 1827 (F.-S. P.).

77 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 4 Dec. 1827 (F.-S.P.).

78 Reynolds, Emancipation Crisis, p. 38n.

79 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 3 Apr. 1822 (N.L.I., MS 5759).

80 O’Connell to Mary O’Connell, 31 May 1822 (F.-S. P.).

81 O’Connelil to Mary O’Connell, 5 June 1822 (F.-S. P.).

82 Mary O’Connell to O’Connell, 13 Sept. 1819 (O’C. P.).

83 Mary O’Connell to O’Connell, 1 Dec. 1825 (O’C. P.).

84 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 28 Mar. 1822 (O’C. MSS).

85 Information in a letter of 8 January 1969 from Rev. Mother, Presentation Convent, Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry, to the author.

86 FitzPatrick, J D., Edmund Rice (Dublin, 1945), p. 266 Google Scholar.

87 This figure is calculated on a hurried examination of the lists of subscriptions in the Freeman’s Journal, Apr.-Dec. 1829.

88 O’Connell to P, V FitzPatrick, 12 May 1846 (Corr. of O’Connell, ii pp 373-5).

89 James O’Connell to O’Connell, 18 Dec. 1837 (O’C. MSS): Maurice O’Connell to Pierce Mahony, 24 Dec. 1848 (Rathcon papers).

90 O’Connell to Christopher Fitz-Simon, 13 Sept. 1826 (F.-S. P.): James O’Connell to O’Connell, 23 Sept. 1826 (O’G. MSS): Morgan O’Connell to O’Connell, 21 May 1846 (O’C. P.).

91 This quotation and subsequent information are taken from the certified copy of O’Connell’s will in the O’Connell MSS.

92 Most of the information on O’Connell’s financial affairs after his death has been found in the letters written to Pierce Mahony in the Rathcon Papers. That funds were not sufficient to pay the whole of the £8,000, or even the greater part of it, is suggested in particular by the letters to Pierce Mahony from O’Connell’s son John of 13 and 16 Dec. 1848 and 9 Mar. 1849.

93 After his father’s death Maurice O’Connell bought a yacht for £1,260 (Daniel Leahy to Pierce Mahony, 11 Oct. 1848: Maurice O’Connell to Pierce Mahony, 10 Dec. 184.8, Rathcon papers). Mahony insisted that the yacht must be sold and Maurice agreed to sell it (Maurice O’Connell to Pierce Mahony, 19 Dec. 1848 and 4 Apr. 1849, Rathcon papers). In one of his letters Maurice said wistfully, ‘I am ready therefore to do as you and my other friends point out. I have been too long trained to suppress and sacrifice my own feelings, in order to give way to my dear father’s wishes and orders, to suffer much from any struggle against them at present’ (Maurice O’Connell to Pierce Mahony, 17 Dec. 1848, Rathcon papers). In defending his purchase of the yacht Maurice wrote: ‘There is nothing men are more intolerant in than in their ideas of matters of amusement, and they do not see why all men should not be pleased with their own peculiar recreations. It was the only weak point in the Liberator’s character. His only touch of bigotry was as a hare hunter’ (Maurice O’Gonnell to Pierce Mahony, 25 Dec. 1848, Rathcon papers).

94 The furniture in the house in Merrion Square was sold in September 1847 [Freeman’s Journal, 11 Sept. 1847). The books were sold in a six-day auction in May 1849 for disappointing prices [Freeman’s Journal, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28 and 29 May 1849). It is a rather vague tradition in the O’Connell family that most of the furniture in Derrynane was also sold.