What happens when your landlord dies? Ireland's Encumbered Estates and the fate of the Allen's and Sweeney's in Ireland Part 1

In 1875, Charles Powell Leslie III, the wealthy landlord for the Allen's and Sweeney's in County Meath, choked on a fish bone and died at the family mansion in Glaslough, County Monaghan. He was 50 years old, unmarried, and childless, so his vast estates were inherited by his younger brother, Sir John Leslie, who built the current Castle Leslie in Glaslough.

Although the tenant farmers had been on the land for generations, after the famine many landlords were selling or consolidating their lands, which surely provoked fear in the hearts of those who had only year to year leases on the land.

In 1858, Richard Allen, my 2nd great grandfather, had a year to year lease on 17 acres of land in Great Umberstown. Patrick Sweeney (likely Margaret Sweeney Allen's brother) had a year to year lease on 16 acres. (These records also show us other Allen's in the area- Rose Allen and James Allen in Ballinrig) 

But in 1874, Richard's son, John Allen, our only male Allen relative to stay on the family farm in Umberstown, had a change of fortune. 

In 1874, John Allen was leasing 17 Irish acres of land for 10 pounds a year, due on the first of May and the first of November, from John Leslie, Esquire (the heir of Charles P. Leslie.) 

But now John Allen's lease differed in a very important way from those of most of his neighbors, in that his lease was for an extended period of 35 years, while the others were almost all year to year tenancies- they could lose their lease or have the terms re-negotiated after only one year. This brings the obvious question of why John was granted what was basically a lifetime lease for the property. Why was he favored in this way by the Leslie landlord? 

His neighbors, Thomas Murrin, widow Mary Reilly, and Patrick Corcoran were all given only year to year leases on their farms. John Allen was 41 in 1874, so 35 years would bring him to age 76, in 1909, when he would be too old to continue farming. (He would die on the farm in 1918.)

The tenure, however, does hold restrictions. This was prime sporting land for the wealthy, and that is protected. 

"All mines, trees, etc. are excepted, and the exclusive right of shooting, sporting, fishing, and fowling, reserved."

"The right of the public to use the county roads running through these lands will be preserved."

"The right of way of the public on foot along the center of the double ditch which forms the south-eastern boundary of part of the lands of Umberstown Great ...will be preserved."

This clause gives us some insight into life of the tenant farmers during and after the hard times of the famine; the families were not permitted to hunt or fish for food on their leased land, and they could not cut down trees for fuel.

In addition to the agreement, there is a map of the Allen farm which shows land features on the adjoining Dangan lands, including the fairy fort by the Allen farm. At the base of the map we see that this is the estate of Charles P. Leslie, deceased. The 1847 lease is from his son, John Leslie, to John Allen and his neighbors.

Here is a close up of the map, showing John Allen's farm next to the fairy fort. (The Allen farm is the top spike next to the circle labeled "fort." The fairy fort and the lands to the right  are the Dangan estate. You can also see a curvy line running through the Allen land that is the Knightsbrook river- a river the tenants were forbidden to fish in.

There is a similar agreement for our Sweeney family. In 1875, Patrick Sweeney was given a 35 year lease on his 16 acre farm, versus the one year leases of his neighbors. His restrictions concerning hunting and fishing mirrored those of his neighbor and relative John Allen. 

So- while many of their neighbors remained on insecure, year to year leases, John Allen and Patrick Sweeney were given security in a 35 year lease, which would last their lifetime. The question is WHY?

Source:

Ancestry.com. Ireland, Encumbered Estates, 1850-1885[database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2020.

Original data: Landed Estate Records, The National Archives of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.

"The Encumbered Estates' Court was established to facilitate the sale of Irish estates whose owners were unable to meet their obligations because of the Great Famine, regardless of whether the land was entailed. The need for the Court was caused by the impoverishment of many Irish tenant farmers during the 1840s famine, rendering it impossible for them to pay their rents to the landlord who in turn could not make his mortgage payments. Until this Court was established, the lending bank could not get a court order to sell the mortgaged land because of the entail."

Children of Richard Allen and Margaret Sweeney County Meath- marriage traditions Before and After the Famine

            
               Hugh Allen and Margaret Durney's Marriage- April 25, 1864

When Hugh Allen got married at age 30, his marriage was influenced by Irish cultural patterns that had existed for hundreds of years, some of which changed abruptly after the Great Famine of 1845-1852.

He knew, like all Irish farmers, that acquiring land for farming was the basis on which a marriage was built. He bought his land and established a farm a year before he actually married and started a family. But he had to leave Ireland to achieve this goal.

Before the Famine (Before 1845)

Before the famine, most Irish fathers traditionally divided their farms to provide farms for their married sons. With the willingness to divide land into smaller plots, every son could expect the possibility of marriage by their early 20's. Even if a father could not/would not oblige, a young man could turn to a neighbor to get land. The last resort was to sublet a "conacre" where he would pay a portion of his crop or his own labor to the main tenant in exchange for a short-term lease- but this arrangement offered little security to a young couple. Even holdings of a few acres would likely be enough of a start for a young couple. It was not unusual to see holdings of only 3 acres supporting a family.

Hugh's father, Richard Allen, was much better off than this; he leased a house and 17 acres in the tiny townland of Great Umberstown directly from the wealthy landowner, Charles P. Leslie, and subleased a house and garden to John Allen, who, no longer needing land to farm, was likely Hugh's aging grandfather.

A nearby neighbor in the same townland was Patrick Sweeney, who had 16 acres of land. Since Richard's wife Margaret was a Sweeney, and there are no other Sweeney's in the Parish, we can assume that Patrick is Margaret's kinsman.  Richard and Margaret's parents likely followed a traditional pattern of marrying their children to nearby neighbors - often in order to protect their land interests.
Like most couples, Richard and Margaret had probably known each other from childhood. Even those that did not marry a next door neighbor likely knew their intended from childhood. Couples were likely to marry from within the same Parish- in the case of Richard and Margaret, both attended the nearby Dangan Church in Summerhill Parish. Travel was by foot in those times so courtships were almost always within the close community.

Marriages in those days (and those that followed) were rarely a romantic concern. If fathers did not arrange marriages themselves, matchmakers and marriage brokers stepped in to bring couples together. They worked with the fathers of the bride and groom to come to an agreement based on the dowry or "fortune" the bride could offer in order to balance out the value of the groom's farm. Land was the key to marriage; men without land who were just hired laborers were not considered for marriage to a farmer's daughter.

As fathers subdivided their land leases to provide for married sons, many farms became smaller and smaller- some as tiny as those of 3 acres that make us wonder how the families survived.

After the famine (1850's)

After the famine, things changed. So many people had died, been evicted, or emigrated, that the larger landlords began consolidating holdings in order to allow for more profitable pasture land. Small tenant farmers were inspired by the letters from family abroad, many of whom, like our ancestor Hugh, were now very successful farmers. Fathers were less likely to subdivide their farms, and held on to the property until their death or old age.

As a result of this, sons often delayed their marriages, having little of their own to offer a wife. If single, they could more easily save their money for the dream of emigration and hope of a better future. Many sons who did not emigrate abroad moved elsewhere to find employment. Others entered religious orders, which grew dramatically after the practice of subdivision had faded away. Others stayed single, helping as laborers and often contributing greatly to the success of the farm. Some perhaps hoped that they might one day inherit and then left to seek their fortunes elsewhere if they did not. Inheritance was not limited to the eldest son, in fact it was often the youngest son, who stayed on the farm with his aging parents, who ended up the heir.

Marriage was not easy for young girls in these circumstances. Fewer young men were marrying and finding a husband became more difficult. A woman with a good temperament would be an attractive addition to the family; caring for aging parents and providing grandchildren. But a woman who also had a good dowry might allow for others in the family to emigrate abroad, or help provide a dowry for the girls within the family so that they could marry. After the rigors of the famine, parental controls over the practicalities of marriage increased more than ever, and children understood the need to help support and maintain the family as a whole.

We see these patterns in the Allen family. The eldest daughter, Mary, married Patrick Burns at the Dangan Church in 1851 when she was 25. They quickly emigrated to start a family in America. The eldest son, Frank, also emigrated, and by 1861 they were both in Jersey County, Illinois.

The next eldest son, John Allen, stayed on the farm in Ireland with his parents, along with the youngest son, Edward, and youngest daughter, Catharine.

The middle five sons had little hope of inheriting land; Hugh, Patrick, Peter,Tom, and Richard emigrated as single young men, hoping to make their way in the world and find their brides in America. They helped each other out until they could each save enough money to buy a farm and marry, except for Richard Allen, who emigrated but never married, dying in 1872.

Little Catherine, born at the height of the famine in 1847, married in April 1872, when she was 24 years old. But she married a man twice her age; 49 year old Owen Byrne.

The youngest son, Edward Allen, still single at age 36, finally left home in 1880. We might guess that he waited to leave until after his parents death, as they married in 1825 and would have been elderly by that time. Edward married Mary Bryne in 1885 in Jerseyville, later moving to a farm in Nebraska.

The farm was eventually left to John Allen, who never did marry. Richard Allen and Margaret Sweeney had died by the time of the 1901 census, but John was still living on the farm, with a 19 year old cousin named Jane Moran. This goes along with Aunt Helen's stories of writing letters back from her Uncle Tom Allen to John Allen in Ireland. John could not write either (as is noted on the census) but had a young female relative who would write letters for him. But when John reached his later years, he had no children of his own to care for the farm. In 1911, when he was 76 years old, his sister Catherine's son, Thomas Byrne, age 37, was doing the farming. We don't know when John died, or who inherited the family farm in Ireland, as he had no sons of his own.

The pattern of marriages after the famine worked out well for our family in America. Despite (or because of) delaying marriage, most of those who emigrated managed to save money, buy a farm, and marry. Most became successful farmers with large, healthy families. But for those who remained in Ireland, marriage after the famine was so difficult that many never married at all.
The population decrease because of death, emigration, and single adults who never married or delayed marriage, having fewer children had a significant impact in the years to come.

Children of Richard Allen and Margaret Sweeney County Meath- Catherine Allen Byrne Part 1

Catharine Allen was baptized in the Dangan Church in Summerhill Parish on May 21, 1847- at the height of the famine. Her sponsors were Thomas Murren and Ellen Sweeney- likely her mother's sister.

She was the youngest in a family of ten surviving children of Richard Allen and Margaret Sweeney. Times were hard and there were many mouths to feed. She must have watched her parents struggle through those lean years following the famine. As a very young child, she watched Mary, her eldest sibling and only sister marry and emigrate to America. Then, one by one, she watched her brothers go. First Frank and Hugh, then Patrick, Thomas and Richard. There were no prospects for them on one tiny rented plot of land in Umberstown. It could not sustain them or permit them to marry and raise additional families. But the cherished letters that came back from them in America were full of hope and promise. They owned their own farms now, and several of them were married and had growing families. They had great plans for the future. Even her parents, who mourned knowing that they would never again see their beloved children, must have been joyful that their lives in America were so different from the bleak future that would have faced them in Ireland.

Catherine stayed on the farm to care for her aging parents- probably until their deaths. We don't know for sure, but believe that they had both died by 1866. After that only John, Edward, and Peter remained on the farm, and Edward and Peter were anxious to follow their brothers to America. Catherine would have cared for the three brothers; cleaning the house, doing the laundry, and cooking the meals. It was a dreary life for a young girl. After the famine, there were few enough young men of her own age who had the means to go courting. Many of the survivors who had the courage and the means for travel had left Ireland for good. Others stayed single, realizing they could never afford to marry and raise a family.

The man who asked for her hand was settled with a farm but was much older than she. Owen Byrne was 49 years old to her 24. He was a widower with 5 children, the eldest few barely younger than herself. Two of the boys were grown; Richard 21 and Edward 18. James was 15, Elizabeth 12. The baby, Eugene, was only 4; his mother had died after his birth. 

For a time the Byrne family had lived in Dangan, so Catherine knew them from church. She surely understood what her life would be after the marriage. She would take on housekeeping as both a step-mother and a wife. And yet it must have been a good match, for Catherine agreed.

. 

She married Owen Byrne at the church in Dangan on April 10, 1872.

By that time, Owen and his family were living in Clonmahon, on the edge of the town of Summerhill. Catherine's first son, Thomas Byrne, was born on May 4, 1873.

Her next child was a daughter, Margaret "Maggie" Byrne,  born April 25, 1875. Catharine's brother Edward "Ned" Allen was one of the baptismal sponsors.

A third child followed in June 1877. This daughter was named after her mother, and Catharine's brother Peter Allen was one of the baptismal sponsors.

I cannot find another baptismal record for ten years, but in 1877, Edward Byrne was born.

The 1901 census shows Owen Byrne 78, Catherine 50, Thomas 26 and Edward 13, living in Summerhill Parish in the townland of Clonmahon- about a mile from the Dangan church. Owen and his son are farming, and Edward is still in school. Everyone in this family can read and write, and they live in a nice house with 5 rooms- unusual for this time.

Ancestry.com. Web: Ireland, Census, 1901 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

In 1907, daughter Catharine, now 30 years old, married Joseph Proffitt at the church in Dangan. Her witnesses were her brother Thomas Byrne, and Anne Sweeney (likely a cousin.)

In 1911, the census shows Owen age 90, and Catherine age 69 with Edward Byrne, age 23, who would now be doing the farming. His brother Thomas, as noted before, is now living with his uncle Edward Allen in Great Umberstown, and helping him with his farm.