Messrs. Beddy Brothers, Gorey - Wexford Guide and Directory, 1885
About “Wexford County Guide and Directory,” 1885
George Henry Bassett produced 7 Irish county directories in the 1880s: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Kilkenny, Louth, Tipperary and Wexford. Each provides useful history of the respective counties as well as lists of office holders, farmers, traders, and other residents of the individual cities, towns and villages.
The directories are naturally an invaluable resource for those tracing family history. However, there are a few points to bear in mind.
- This online version of Bassett’s Wexford County Guide and Directory is designed primarily as a genealogical research tool and therefore the numerous advertisements in the original book, many full page, and quite a few illustrated, have been excluded.
- The text has been proofed with due care, but with large bodies of text typographical errors are inevitably bound to occur.
- Be aware that there were often inconsistencies in spelling surnames in the 19th century and also that many forenames are abbreviated in Bassett’s directories.
With respect to the last point, surnames which today begin with the “Mc” prefix, for example, were often formerly spelt as “M‘,”. For a list of some of the more common forename abbreviations used in the directory, see Forename Abbreviations.
FOR nearly a century Gorey has been famous for coach building. By the efforts of the Bates family the superiority of its work in this line has been made manifest in various parts of the world. By the employment only of the best materials and the best workmen has this eminence been secured. In the United States there is nothing commoner than the transplanting of foremost workmen from large factories to the head of factories of their own. In Ireland many causes combine to prevent natural and praiseworthy development of this nature. Prominent among these are lack of capital and self-reliance. In Gorey there is an example of what may be accomplished by self-reliance with a small amount of capital. In 1879 Messrs. Robert and David Beddy, after ample experience as boys and men in the Bates factory, began to work on their own account in premises near the railway station. Their spirited attempt attracted attention, and orders followed. In 1882 the firm had secured such a foothold as to warrant a test of its abilities in competition with the greatest coach builders in Ireland at the Dublin Exhibition, and the result justified the ambitious desire to excel. The judges awarded a certificate of merit. An “Irish gadabout,” designed by Mr. Robert Beddy, was the exhibit, and it speedily found a purchaser. Since then the business has gone on increasing, until it has reached a point to justify the use of the word extensive in describing it. Before the end of 1882, it had a show-room capable of holding sixteen two-wheel vehicles, and a harness-manufacturing department. In 1884, arrangements were made for greater extension, by securing a lease, for 999 years, of building ground attached to the factory, with a frontage of 50 feet, on New Road. Mr. Robert Beddy, who now controls all the interests of the firm of Beddy Brothers, takes an honest pride in mentioning the fact that he was foreman of the Bates’ Factory nine months before the completion of his term of apprenticeship. This special mark of distinction was conferred upon him by the late Mr. Joseph Bates. It was in recognition of services rendered in constructing a croydon for the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the then Marquis, and now Duke, of Abercorn. Mr. Beddy was twice foreman of the Bates’ Factory, and worked in Dublin sufficiently long to discover that the Gorey methods are equal to any in the United Kingdom. In the course of their short career, Messrs. Beddy Brothers have sent vehicles to most of the Irish counties, and to England. They shipped a jaunting-car to Melbourne, a four-wheeled dog-cart to the Argentine Republic and a Lorne cart to Hong Kong.
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