Purcell (No. 2.) family genealogy

Of Esker, County Kilkenny

As the Purcells of Esker married into the family of “Dillon,” Barons of Drumrany, the Arms of the two families are here empaled. (See also the “Dillon,” Barons of Drumrany, pedigree.)

Arms: Quarterly, 1st and 4th argent, on a bend over two bars, wavy, gules, three black boars’ heads, proper armed and tongued, argent, for Purcell; 2nd, argent, within a border, ermine, a lion rampant, gules, bearing in his dexter paw a ducal coronet, or, debruised by a bar, azure, for Dillon (as given in Lodge’s Peerage, for the Dillons of Drumrany); 3rd, gules, a bend, chequy, azure and argent, three mullets, argent, for Lyndsey. Crest: A cubit arm, gules, the hand holding a sword erect, thereon a dove, volitant, proper, for Purcell. 2nd, a demi-lion, rampant, gules, issuing out of a ducal coronet, or holding in his dexter paw a like coronet, or, for Dillon. Motto: “Dum Spiro, Spero.”

The name of Purcell[1] first appears on record in Normandy, about A.D. 1035. We learn from a Charter of that date that the tithes of the assarts of Porceval[2] had been granted by the Lord of that vill to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity at Rouen.[3] It was also embodied in the name of several other vills in the province. In the time of William the Conqueror, Hugh Porcel granted the tithes of Montmarquet, a vill on the frontiers of Picardy, and near Aumerle, to the Abbey of Aumerle. According to family tradition, Hugh was the first of the Normans to land at Pevensey Bay, the first to do a deed of Arms by storming the ruins of the old Roman Castle, where a party of Harold’s soldiers lay entrenched, and the first to win a grant of Land from William the Conqueror in guerdon of the deed. He founded a Baronial family, hereditary ushers of the King’s Chamber, and holding their lands by tenure of that office, which continued in the direct male line for more than 100 years, i.e. to the end of King Henry the Second’s reign, and threw out flourishing branches in several counties, some of which endured to the seventeenth century. From one of these—Lords of Newtown Purcell, Oxon—sprang, again, according to family tradition, another Hugh,[4] who took part in the English Invasion of Ireland, in 1171, and was the unnamed knight mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis, as slain at Waterford; he had been left in command of the city on the King’s departure for Dublin, and on the morrow, seeking to cross the river in one of the native boats to hold parley with the King, the boatmen rose upon him in the middle of the stream, stabbed him with their long “skeans,” and threw the body into the river. However that may be, he was succeeded in the next generation by his sons, Walter and Hugh Purcell. The latter, before the close of the century, by marriage with Beatrix,[5] the childless widow of Thomas de Hereford, and daughter of the first Butler of Ireland, acquired the Barony of Loughmore; she was at the time an only child, and thus heiress of a splendid inheritance.

The aged Butler, however, married again, and to the disgust, we may suppose, of poor Sir Hugh Purcell, left an infant son and heir at his death, in 1205. The House of Loughmore (or Loughmoe) nevertheless remained of historic eminence, and endured in the male line to the eighteenth century. In the female line it is now represented by the Purcell-O’Gormans.

The successor of Sir Hugh Porcel, who came to England with William the Conqueror, was Dyve Purcell, who about 1120, received a grant of the manor of Cotshill, Surrey, from King Henry I. (v. Testa de Neville, p. 225). He married a daughter of Nigel de Broc, a famous Justiciar of the time. In 1129-30, his elder son Geffrey paid his relief for his father’s land (v. Hunter’s Pipe Roll, 31. K. H. L, p. 50 and 151), and obtained the signal favour of a royal remission of the Dane-Geld, then due by him. The original Charter of Confirmation of his lands and Court Office, subsequently issued by K. Stephen, is still extant among the archives of the Duke of Westminster, at Eaton. He granted a hide of land in the manor of Windsore (v. T. de N., p. 128), the earliest plot of ground held by the family in England, to the abbey of Reading; was shorn a monk in that House, and there died. The land was sold by K. James I. to the Corporation of Windsore, and is now part of the town property. His brother and heir, Ranulph or Ralf, assumed his mother’s name of De Broc apparently in 1156, as in the Pipe Roll of that year for Hampshire he is styled De Broc, and for Surrey he is still called Purcell (v. Hunter’s Pipe Roll, K. H. II., pp. 12, 55, 172). By the former name he is known in history, being one of the most eminent men of the day. He and his brother Robert were arch-enemies of St. Thomas of Canterbury, and it was from his castle of Saltwood that Henry’s emissaries sallied forth to do their deed of blood. A charter of confirmation by that King (v. Inspeximus in Cart. Rot. K. John, an. sept.), styling him son of Dyve Purcell, contains a long list of his acquisitions, among others his maternal uncle, Wido de Broc’s gift of the manor of Angmar, Sussex, the grant of which was possibly the occasion of his assuming that name. The king gave him a wealthy Shropshire heiress for his wife, but he left no male issue at his death in 1187. His barony was divided among five daughters or their issue, and was the subject of prolonged litigation (v. Eyton’s Hist. of Shropshire). Neither had his nephew Robert, who as Justiciar is frequently mentioned in the public Records, any male succession; he came to be represented by the De Lodges' and the Peto’s (v. Test. de N., p. 87).

The male representation then passed to the family of the lords of Newton-Purcell, Oxon., and Shareshull, Staffordshire. Ralph, the founder of this line, inherited those manors and others in Normandy, near Rouen, together with the Court Office, viz.: Usher of the King’s Chamber, from his maternal uncle Robert Burnell, who was living in 1129-30, and enjoyed the Royal favour shewn by the remission of the Dane-Geld (v. Pipe Roll, K. H. II., pp. 5 and 76). About 1154, a charter of confirmation of his uncle’s lands and office passed attested, among others, by St. Thomas à Beckett, the Chancellor (v. Rymar’s Fædera, V. I., p. 43). About 1160 he made a grant of land in Normandy to the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, Rouen (v. Archives of Normandy, in the Prefecture, Rouen). He must have lived to a great age, as he obtained another confirmation under payment from K. John, A.D. 1200 (v. Harly Oblate Rolls, A.D. 1200, p. 83). He was the Patriarch of a numerous tribe in England and Ireland; one of his sons being Hugh, who, in 1171, went to Ireland, and became the founder of the House of Purcell in that country. His heirs in name and blood continued in Oxfordshire till the sixteenth century, the most noteworthy being Sir Otwell Purcell, who is recorded in the Rolls of Parliament as insisting upon redress of grievances as Knight of the Shire for Oxon.

A Cadet, Roger Purcell, by a fortunate marriage planted the name in Shropshire at the close of the 12th century, from whom sprang two lines, of Winsbury and of Norbury, which lasted till the seventeenth century. The earlier descents are given in full by Eyton, the later in the Herald’s Visitations. From an offshoot of the latter descended the famous musician, whose career is well known. His brother, like him a page in Charles II.’s Court, became a Colonel in the army, and took part in a famous exploit—the storming of Gibraltar. He threw up his commission on the succession of the House of Honover, and some years after died suddenly at Lord Abingdon’s house in Berkshire.

In some counties of England the name still lingers among the humbler classes.

Walter Purcell was Baron of Bargy,[6]—an extensive tract extending into Kilkenny, Queen’s County, and Carlow, and stretching from the base of Slieve Margy or the Bargy Bills near the town of Carlow to the rich lands on the western bank of the Nore, and including the north-eastern portion of the present county of Kilkenny. It was originally possessed by the O’Brennan Clans. Frequent feuds took place, and we find by the Patent and Close Rolls, in 1318, Symon Purcell with other gentlemen receiving special license from King Edward II. to hold parley with the O’Brennans; and in 1327, being then High Sheriff, he was slain with twenty others by that Sept.

In 1385 ten Marks were paid by order of the Irish Privy Council to Thomas St. Leger, Baron of Bargy, for the taking of Henry O’Logan and others.

In the year 1307, Joanna, heiress to the Bargy line, had been given in marriage by the Crown to Sir William St. Leger, who thus carried the barony into that name.[7] Its demesnes were reconquered in the course of the fifteenth century by the native clans, and the barony appears to have been escheated to the Crown.[8] The Kilkenny manors on the Dinin were then necessarily converted into tenures, in capite, i.e. held immediately from the Crown; and in that condition accordingly we find them described in the public records of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

In the north-east of Kilkenny several cadets of the Purcells, Barons of Bargy, had been planted in contiguous manors, each guarded by one or more strong castles, stretching between the Barrow and the Nore, and forming a barrier for the protection of the county at large. Esker (see Kilkenny Archæological Society’s Proceedings, Vol. I.) was the most northerly of these. In the records of the 17th century, accordingly, we find them as Lords of Ballyfoyle, Esker, Foulksrath, Lismayne, and Clone. They all adhered to the Old Faith and to the Royal cause; and thus they were swept away by the great “Rebellion” of 1641, and but in part regained their old seats at the Restoration. The three latter families seem to have disappeared; but that of Ballyfoyle may be traced to the present day through a Cadet, and is now represented by Purcell-Fitz-Gerald, Boulgee, Sussex, England.[9] The descent of the Esker family is as follows:

1. Redmund Purcell, living circa 1580, had issue three sons: Richard; William, of Kilneboliskehannagh; and Geoffrey, of Kilcallan. He was dead in 1612. (See Inquests in Chancery, A.D. 1615, No. 11.)

2. Richard: his son and heir. He, jointly with his brother Geoffrey, purchased the vill of Ballihlogh from Sir Richard Butler (see Inquests in Chancery, as above). The said Richard had issue four sons: William, his heir; Patrick of Ballincomo, of whom presently; Geoffrey and Edward, of Coolbane; the three latter were living in 1635, each possessed of lands in the territory of Odogh, on the borders of Queen’s County (see Inquests in Chancery, A.D. 1635, No. 64).

3. William, son and heir. His Will is dated July 4th, 1632. He d. on July 20th, following, leaving seven surviving children, viz.: Edmund, Redmund, Perse, Margaret, Ellen, Elizabeth, and Mary. He died seized of the Castle, Vill, and Lands of Esker, Castle Boban, Kilcullan, Ballincomo, and of lands in Coolbane and Dromgoile. The premises were held in capite by military service (see Inquests in Chancery, A.D. 1632, No. 50).

4. Edmund,[10] son and heir; in 1632 he was twenty-one years of age and unmarried. He was the last possessor of Esker, which was confiscated in 1653, and passed into the possession of Colonel James Hacket, of the Parliamentary Army.

5. Redmund, his heir. He obtained Listow, co. Mayo, under the Cromwellian settlement, and was M.P. for Knocktopher, co. Kilkenny, in King James’s Parliament. The estate was confiscated in 1691. In Redmund the elder line appears to have become extinct, and the representation of the family to have passed to the descendants of Patrick Purcell, of Ballincomo, uncle of Edmund of Esker, second son of Richard (as above), and grandson of Redmund of Esker. Patrick was living in 1635, when he held Ballincomo by grant of William Purcell, of Esker, and divers other lands in various townships, for the most part, on the borders of the Queen’s County, adjoining the vills of Moyadd, Doonane, and Kilbane (see Inquests in Chancery, A.D. 1635, No. 64). The heir of the said Patrick Purcell probably was Tobias, of Moyadd,[11] Queen’s County. He was attainted in 1691. Theobald (or Tobias) Purcell held a commission in Colonel Nicholas Purcell’s troop of Horse, as appears by D’Alton’s King James’ Irish Army List; the names Theobald and Tobias being then convertible. The estate of Patrick Purcell, of Ballincomo, passed to the Wandesfords (under whom most of it had been held). They were Protestants, and although loyalists, took no part in the civil war, the heir being a minor. Their descendants hold it at the present day. (See Ormonde MSS.: Transactions of Kilkenny Archæolog. Soc., Vol. I., p. 244.)

6. Redmond, of Doonane,[see Purcell (No. 2) addenda] b. 1618, d. 1738, buried at Clough, county Kilkenny. He was a descendant of Patrick Purcell, of Ballincomo and Kilbane, and probably the nephew or son of Tobias Purcell, of Moyadd. His sons were:—(1) Patrick, of Doonane, d. 1797, of whom presently; (2.) Richard, d. 1779, whose only son, Joseph R., d.s.p. in Trinidad, W. I.; (3) Joseph m. Catherine O’Leary,[12] widow of Archibald Johnson; born 1731, died 1803, at Somerstown, London; buried in Old St Pancras. By his Will (dated Feb. 14th, 1803), after leaving a legacy to his dear grand-daughter, Celia Catherine Lyndsey, he directs his real estate in Grenada, W. I., to be sold, and, together with his personal property, to be held in trust for his wife, for life, with remainder to his son, Patrick-Joseph (d. 1807, s.p.), and to his daughter Bridget-Maria Robertson, for life, with remainder to her children, Celia-Catherine Lyndsey, only child by her first husband, Thomas-Joseph Lyndsey; and Jas.-Burton, George, Ann, and John-Thomas Roberston, by her second husband, Thomas Roberston, of Perthshire; (4) Pierce, of whom presently.

7. Patrick, of Doonane-House: his son and heir; died 1797, aged 78; buried in Clough, Queen’s County. His sons were:—Patrick, of Snell Hall, Grenada, West Indies (d.s.p.); and Hugh, of Cloneen-House, near Doonane, d. 1824, aged 78, and buried in Clough. His son and heir, Patrick, d.s.p., 1845; his second son, Redmond, d.s.p. in Trinidad, West Indies.

8. Pierce: the fourth son of Redmond; died 1777, aged 43, and was buried in Clough churchyard, co. Kilkenny. He m. Arabella Dillon, eldest dau. of Thomas Dillon, of Kilbane, by Margaret, his wife, dau. and co-heir of Gerald Dillon, of Dillon’s Grove, Roscommon, the representative of the feudal Barons of Drumrany, who were chiefs of the whole House of Dillon. She was born at Barm-Vil, Queen’s County, and had an only sister, who m. — Bogan, of Waterford. Arabella Purcell died at Carlow, in 1821, aged 80, and was buried in Clough alongside her husband. He had Patrick-Richard, his son and heir; and three daus.: Bridget, d. 1796; Mary (d. 1797), who m. — Wall, of county Waterford, and had Mary, who d. in Grenada, West Indies, in 1815, unmarried; and Barbara, died 1801.

9. Patrick Richard: son and heir of Pierce. By the demise of the male issue of his uncles, he became the representative of the Purcells, of Esker, and through his mother Arabella (Mabel) Dillon, the co-representative of the Dillons of Drumrany. For further particulars of the family, see Nos. 16 and 17 on the pedigree of the “Dillons of Drumrany,” p. 175, ante.

Notes

[1] Purcell: For the quaint legend accounting for the origin of the name, see Moreri.

[2] Porceval: The name is now corrupted into Perceval. The manor was feudally dependent upon the Tankervilles, Chamberlains of Normandy.

[3] Rouen: See Chartulary of la Ste. Trinité, Rouen; and Chartulary of Aumerle; Arthæologia, V. 26, as to the Aumerle grant.

[4] Hugh: See Hanmer’s History of Ireland, p. 135.

[5] Beatrix: See Lodge’s Peerage, Vol. IV., p. 5.

[6] Bargy: Walter Purcell was summoned to Parliament as a Baron in 1298.

[7] Name: In 1380 Thomas St Leger received his summons as Peer.

[8] Crown: In page 68 of his History of Ireland, Hanmer says: “A gentleman of the name dwelling at Dunganstown, near Carlow, affirming himself to be directly descended from Baron St. Leger, made claim unto the title, with what success I have not searched after.”

[9] England: The illustrious Major-General Sir Patrick Purcell, Vice-General of all Munster in 1651, belonged to the Purcells of Croagh, co. Limerick. After the capture of Limerick he was hanged, his head cut off and fixed on a stake over the southern or St. John’s Gate of the city.—See Morison, Threnodia-Hibernico-Catholica; also F. Murphy’s, S.J., Cromwell in Ireland, p. 29.

[10] Edmund: In 1638, when in pursuance of the unhappy policy of the Government, fines were levied upon most of the gentry under threat of making inquisitions into defective titles, he sued out a confirmation of title to his estate, and duly paid his fine, as did others of his kindred, such as Purcell of Foulkorath, of Clone, and others (see Inquests in Chancery).

[11] Moyadd: Moyadd was doubtless held by leasehold tenure, and thus, under the penal laws, would unavoidably pass away from the family unless it conformed to the Established Church.

[12] O’Leary: Catherine O’Leary belonged to an ancient Irish family, and was related to the well known Father O’Leary, St. Patrick’s, Soho, London.