All writing © 2009-2015 by Colin Salter unless indicated otherwise. All rights reserved.
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Saturday 8 September 2012

WILLIAM GEORGE COOPER (1721-1769) AND THE PRICE OF PORTER


I’ve written before about Killenure Castle, my ancestral home. Sadly for me (and the rest of the Cooper diaspora) it had to be sold out of the family in 1963, after 217 years of occupation.

The Coopers had already been in Ireland for more than 100 years when, in 1746, my 5x great grandfather William George Cooper leased Killenure in Co Tipperary from the Coppinger family who were using it as a hunting lodge. Before then the Cooper family homes had been the houses of Beamore in Co Meath and Butterhill in Co Wicklow.

William George Cooper (1721-1769)

William’s relocation to a new county was prompted, as all of mine have ever been, by a new job. In 1745 he was appointed to the post of Diocesan Registrar by the new Church of Ireland Archbishop of Cashel, Arthur Price (who himself had only been appointed the previous year). The Registry is the administrative office of any Diocese, the repository of all church papers including title deeds and other Episcopal records.

Cashel is an ancient Christian centre. Very briefly, Ireland was originally divided north and south between the archbishoprics of Armagh and Cashel, jurisdictions established in the year 1111. Henry VIII extended his 1534 Protestant Reformation of the Church of England to Ireland in 1541. The upshot was, from 1567, parallel Protestant and Roman Catholic archbishoprics. The Irish ruling class with its English roots were known as the Protestant Ascendancy and the Anglican Church of Ireland was the official church of state (despite the fact that the majority of the Irish population remained resolutely Catholic).

Cashel’s Anglican Cathedral , Co Tipperary
commissioned by Archbishop Price in 1749 
to replace the ancient cathedral on Cashel Rock 
(which he gutted and unroofed to prevent its re-use)

The Diocesan Registrar played a vital part the financial well-being of the Church of Ireland. Records were important because the C of I was funded in large part by tithes, proportions of income paid by all households regardless of faith – an arrangement unsurprisingly unpopular with the Catholic majority, as a future Cooper and his cousin found out to their cost. William Cooper’s brother John was a Chief Clerk in the Dublin Treasury, and perhaps William too acquired skills there which made him a suitable candidate for the Cashel post. His membership of the Protestant Ascendancy was probably a more crucial factor.

William’s role at Cashel moved him very quickly to the heart of local society. The same year that he acquired Killenure he retired from the Registry to concentrate on his new estate. A year later, in 1747, he married Jane Wayland, my 5x great grandmonther, whose father Henry owned the neighbouring estate of Kilmore to the south of William’s (having, according to the family historian Richard Austin-Cooper, also recently moved to the area with Archbishop Price). The Killenure Coopers had arrived.

Killenure Castle, Co Tipperary
my 5x great grandparents’ home, former stronghold of the O’Dwyer Clan until Oliver Cromwell dispossessed them of it in the 1650s

Archbishop Price remained in office until his death in 1752. He was the son of the vicar of Kildrought near Dublin, and before he took holy orders Arthur Price ran the town’s brewery. His production manager there was a certain Richard Guinness, and the two men became great friends and business partners, to the extent that Guinness may even have named his son after Price, who became the boy’s godfather.

When the archbishop died, he left £100 to Richard’s son, whose name was Arthur Guinness, to fund the expansion of the brewery which Arthur was by now running with his brother. Arthur soon struck out on his own and in 1759 bought a small brewery at St James’s Gate in Dublin. The rest is history.

Arthur Guinness (1724-1803)

6 comments:

  1. Is there a portrait of Jane Wayland Cooper?, I descend from Henry Wayland through his son Nevil.

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  2. Hi Ronald, if there is I don't have it, I'm afraid.

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  3. "He was the son of the vicar of Kildrought near Dublin" true "and before he took holy orders Arthur Price ran the town’s brewery." nonsense. "His production manager there was a certain Richard Guinness," more nonsense. Richard Guinness was Price's agent or steward. "and the two men became great friends and business partners, to the extent that Guinness may even have named his son after Price, who became the boy’s godfather." They certainly were not business partners.

    "When the archbishop died, he left £100 to Richard’s son, whose name was Arthur Guinness, to fund the expansion of the brewery" nonsense "which Arthur was by now running with his brother." more nonsense.
    Almost totally nonsense from beginning to end, in fact. Price never ran a brewery. Richard Guinness was his agent, not his business partner. Arthur Guinness never ran a brewery until 1755, three years after Price died. That brewery was in Leixlip. And Kildrought is the old name for the place now much better known as Celbridge.

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    Replies
    1. I am always happy to be corrected about inaccuracies in my articles here, but not in the arrogant, hostile manner of Mr Cornell.

      I wrote this piece seen years ago now and although I did look into the things I wrote about I may have made one or two wrong assumptions or got my information from inaccurate sources.

      I would be more inclined to pursue any errors if it weren't for the gratuitously blunt, offensive style of Mr Cornell's comments, which incidentally refer only to the final two paragraphs of the piece. Good manners, especially from someone of whom I have never heard, cost nothing.

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. I wonder if any information has come to light of the generation before Jane Wayland, namely her parents Henry Wayland of Kilmore, and his wife Ann(e) Rea (or Rae, or Wray). I find it tantalizing that Jane’s brother, Francis Wayland, who succeeded at Kilmore, named a son Palliser Wayland (who, in turn, also named a son Palliser - my 3x great grandfather). There seems to somehow be a connection to the Palliser family (via the descendants of Archbishop Palliser of Cashel, one would surmise), which runs through the Bury/Palliser family - i.e, that of Wray Bury Palliser. It is tempting to assume that Henry Wayland’s wife, Ann(e), is connected to them. Anne appears to have died in 1765 at Cashel, two years after her husband Henry. Their son, Francis of Kilmore, is listed has holding the freehold of “Trayerland” in 1776, and died in 1791. His wife was Amy, eldest daughter of Robert Smithwick of Barnalough House (near Bansha) and his wife, Mary Hardin.

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