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Help Finding a Petty Court Record

  • 27-09-2020 11:54am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭


    I'm trying to find the petty court record that would be related to the attached prison record for Peter Kelly. He was in prison for assault in 1886 but there is no information on who was assaulted or any sort of context. He was only in prison for 14 days so it would seem like a case that would have been in the petty courts rather than a higher court. Here's a link to the transcription of the prison record: https://www.findmypast.ie/transcript?id=IRE%2FPRISR%2FRS00018281%2F4492692%2F00751%2F001

    Thanks for reading my message and I'd appreciate any help.


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 228 ✭✭ath262


    the records may not have survived for the area his trial took place , there's a list on the FindMyPast website.

    It looks like the magistrate lived in Frenchpark, and Petty Session courts did take place in the town, but no mention of records for Frenchpark on findmypast


  • Registered Users Posts: 228 ✭✭ath262


    I think the best bet may be newspapers, I would narrow down the search using the date and the name of the magistrate


  • Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭srmf5


    Thank you very much for the reply. I didn't realise that Petty Court Sessions took place in Frenchpark. I had assumed that the case would have been in Castlerea since he was in the Castlerea court on another occasion. However, the incident took place in Castlerea that time.

    I had been trying to find something in the newspapers but couldn't find a mention of Peter prior to 1904. I tried to find the magisstrate of Frenchpark. I found an article in December 1886 starting with 'To-day at the Frenchpark petty sessions, before Cecil Roche, Esq, R M, one of the most extreme cases of landlord cruelty that have yet come to light was heard at the suit of Lord de Freyne'.

    I take it that Cecil Roche was the magistrate at the time and possibly in early 1886 as well. Unfortunately, I don't see any relevant article mentioning both Cecil Roche and a Kelly. I can't seem to find too many mentions of Cecil Roche in relation to the Frenchpark Petty Sessions. I only have access to the FindMyPast newspapers so I might have better luck if I had access to the Irish newspaper archive. Thank you for your help.


  • Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭srmf5


    The only thing that I can manage to find around that time is that Peter was committed on 10th March 1886. I think that his father might have been a member of the Irish National League. On 14th November 1885, it was mentioned in a newspaper that 'much satisfaction was felt when it was announced that Martin Kelly's farm was relinquished'. In August 1885, he had been praised for his energy in enrolling members. They were tenants of Lord de Freyne so maybe the assault could have been in relation to a land dispute. Of course, there's no way to know without a court or newspaper record. It could have just as easily been a drunken assault or disagreement with a neighbour, etc.

    In 1893, a series of evictions were carried out on this property with the houses being levelled for the purpose of disheartening the tenants and driving them from the district. Mr. T W Russell wrote a reference to the 'Times' in relation to this estate. Luke P Hayden, William Field, Patrick O'Brien, John Lavin and John Fitzgibbon stood trial for in Roscommon for re-erecting the houses and reinstating the victims of eviction. One tenant was a poor widow who was sherifed out and her house was levelled to the ground. During the night, a mason from Castlerea named Hawthorne (there are still Hawthornes in Castlerea who make headstones for cemeteries) with Patrick O'Brien who undertook the work of re-erecting the house.

    The first mention of Peter Kelly that I have been able to find is in 1904. In that case, the article was written about Clooncheevers bog and the risk posed by a bog slide that could result in tenants waking up to find themselves surrounded by bog to the depth of 10 or 15 feet. The article was putting the fault with the landlord in not having a proper system of drainage carried out on his estate. The necessity for proper drainage had been highlighted by two previous bog slides. In 1904, it was first realised that there was a risk of another bog slide in the morning on 17th September when a tenant was horrified at a volume of liquid bog, stone and heath dashing in her front door and filling the house. Her house was almost completely submerged. The neighbours only managed to save some of her possessions before the house was inundated. The nearby houses were quickly cleared and stock moved to higher ground. The patches of tillage land was returned to the condition in which it was found by the tenants who after much hard labour had made it capable of producing oats and potatoes. 8 acres of Peter's land had been turned into bog (in Griffith's Valuation his father Martin only had 8 acres 1 acres 10 perches of land along with 5 acres 2 roods 20 perches of bog so it looks like all his land became bog). Six families had to flee for their lives including one who was a poor widow who was recorded as now wandering aimlessly throughout the country.

    Peter's son (my great grandfather) left Cloonsheever in 1923 when he married and moved to his wife's townland. Peter finally left Cloonsheever in 1924 with his wife and children when he purchased a hotel in Castlerea. He was likely able to afford the purchase of a hotel after his daughter had good fortune when she emigrated to America.


  • Registered Users Posts: 228 ✭✭ath262


    srmf5 wrote: »
    I take it that Cecil Roche was the magistrate at the time and possibly in early 1886 as well


    I believe there would have been a number of magistrates at any one time for each area, I've seen lists in directories for each county, sometimes nearly a page long, might be worth checking on FindMyPast. Searching by sections in these directories can be a little awkward.

    The John French mentioned re the committal of this Peter Kelly would likely have been part of the French family based at Frenchpark.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭srmf5


    ath262 wrote: »
    I believe there would have been a number of magistrates at any one time for each area, I've seen lists in directories for each county, sometimes nearly a page long, might be worth checking on FindMyPast. Searching by sections in these directories can be a little awkward.

    The John French mentioned re the committal of this Peter Kelly would likely have been part of the French family based at Frenchpark.

    Thank you! I'll see what I can find. I agree that it is likely that John French was a member of the French family of Frenchpark. They're the only French family that I know of in the area. There are birth records for children of a John French between 1880 and 1892. This John was living in Ratra House and on his children's birth records was recorded as a land agent, gentleman farmer or resident magistrate. It could have even been John French who was the magistrate for that case?


  • Registered Users Posts: 228 ✭✭ath262


    srmf5 wrote: »
    It could have even been John French who was the magistrate for that case?

    I believe that's what the 'by whom committed' column on the prison record refers to, I think the rest of the names on that list would also be other magistrates, Moloney esq, Sir Crofton, Gore Jones, Palmer etc


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