Address of Prof William King

yaledo

Hi,

A nice puzzle here, I think:

I'd like to find the address of Professor William King (1809-1886) in Galway in 1859. The maps for Griffiths Valuation at askaboutireland.ie seem to be down at the moment, and I'm drawing a blank otherwise.

His entry in the calendar of wills gives his residence as "Glenoir, Galway" but I can't find any sign of that placename anywhere else.

Of his discovery of the first lesser horseshoe bat in Ireland at his house, he wrote:

As regards the habitat of the specimen which has been described, I
have not been able to obtain any knowledge ; but I suspect that its sta-
tion was within a radius of a few miles beyond where it was captured. I reside about two miles from Galway on the Dublin Road ; and not far
from my residence there are two or three places, an old castle in Merlin
Park, and a subterranean passage in a so-called Danish fort

I'd also love to hear your speculation as to what is meant by a "so-called danish fort". This is a term I haven't come across before.

My interest here is not one of genealogy: I live in this area, and I'm interested in bats, and I'm trying to establish exactly where the discovery of this bat took place.

Hermy

Perhaps Glenoir was the name of a house but I've searched the old OSI maps and don't see it marked in.

yaledo

The Griffiths Valuation maps are available now, but the numbering in GV for the townland of Ballybaanbeg (1-19) doesn't match the numbering on the map (1 - 10)

I've often seen this kind of discrepancy before - is it because the map and the valuation sheets on askaboutireland.com are from different editions?

pinkypinky

Where did he teach?

You could look up Thoms directory for academics.

ETA: Slater's has a William King, geology and mineralogy professor in Galway (Queens College) but no address.

yaledo

pinkypinky wrote: »

Where did he teach?

You could look up Thoms directory for academics.

ETA: Slater's has a William King, geology and mineralogy professor in Galway (Queens College) but no address.

Yes, that's him - he was the geology & mineralogy professor at Queens College Galway - sorry I should have mentioned this.

yaledo

Wow - the maps with Griffiths Valuation allow you to switch between versions, and version 3 & 4 have numbers that match the valuation records. I think this puts him in "Mount Browne". Can anyone double-check this for me? It does fit very well with his description of being "about two miles from Galway on the Dublin Road"

I have looked at the GV maps a million times, never noticed this feature before. Only reason I spotted today was because the maps weren't loading.

This explains the discrepancy which has puzzled me many many times before looking at GV records.

KildareFan

The various deaths/birth notices for Professor King in the newspapers give his residence as Glenoir, Galway, or Glenoir near Galway.

I've found a Glenoir in Taylor's Hill on the 1900 OSI map http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,528050,724842,12,9 - but that's not on the Dublin road.....

pinkypinky

Did you get his actual death cert? There might be further detail on the address.

KildareFan

Looks like Taylors Hill is right see https://www.kennys.ie/News/OldGalway/28052009_aroundtheworld/
"Bill King was born in Farnborough in Hampshire in 1910. His mother was Scottish and his father was born in Glenoir, Taylors Hill. His great-grandfather was one of the founders of UCG and the first Professor of Natural History and Geology there. ,,,,,,"

KildareFan

I would say Prof William moved to Glenoir, after the Griffiths survey. The Griffiths reference to William King has him in Breanloughan in 1855, renting 17 acres of land, plus house and offices. Breanloughan is on the Ballybrit side of Galway, north of Merlin park which the Prof mentions. http://bit.ly/2rMeWF3

yaledo

Nice work Kildarefan, thanks.


Once I found William King in GV at Ballybaanbeg, it fit the other information so well that I stopped looking.

For completeness,
In fact GV has the name William King 3 times, all within a few miles of each other.

In County Galway: (survey completed June 1857)
- William King at Breanloughaun has a house valued at ?1 10d

In the Town of Galway: (survey completed July 1856)
- William King at Doughiska has a house valued at 8d

- William King at Ballybaanbeg has 'Browns Lodge' at Mount Browne, valued at ?16 10d


Why do we have a William King renting 3 different houses in the same locale?
Could be:
- 3 different guys with the same name
- 2 guys with the same name, one of them has 2 houses at (or near) the same time
- 1 guy had 3 different houses at (or near) the same time


Certainly, the location of the house at Ballybaanbeg corresponds fairly exactly with his description of being "about 2 miles from Galway on the Dublin Road".

I'm inclined to rule out the Breanloughaun house as being the residence he described, since he mentions the proximity of the castle at 'Merlin' but doesn't mention the castle at Ballybrit (which would be quite near to Breanloughaun)

I can't see what place in Doughiska belonged to a William King... the GV sheets have this townland split into holdings numbered 1 thru 7, but the accompanying map shows plots numbered 1 thru 26.

pinkypinky

It could be any of those options, that's the trouble with Griffiths. You'd have to research the name William King in the GRO records to establish if there were 3 different men.