Johanna Phelan Family History
Johanna's Paternal Grandparents
Johanna’s paternal grandparents were William Phelan and Johanna Durney.
William Phelan
Johanna's paternal grandfather was born about
18011.
The first official record for William is his marriage to Johanna Durney on 1st
December 1838, which shows his address as Jamestown, just outside Piltown.
William acquired the house at The Tower2 in Piltown, which remained in the family until the 1970s and he is the recorded leaseholder in the primary valuation by Richard Griffith in 1849[1].
William was a stonemason and is listed as a such in Bassett’s guide of
1884[2].
Family lore suggest he was involved in building the “new” Anthony’s pub on the
site of the old Bianconi coach
stop3
in Piltown. Anthony’s pub survives in the village today.
William extended the
house at the tower and built the house in Jamestown for his son James.
William and Johanna had a large family. William erected a fine headstone in
Templeorum cemetery to the memory of his wife and his son William who died as
a child (The headstone is the left of the pair in the full picture.)
William died of old age on 25th November 1885 at the age of 84. His son Richard was present at his death. Oddly, his death is not recorded on the family headstone although some of his children’s details were added later.
Johanna Durney
Johanna's paternal grandmother was born about 1817 and lived in the Owning area. The first official
record for her is her marriage to William in 1838. Despite few official records Johanna
has a strong identity in family lore. Her great
grandchildren4
all knew of Johanna Durney and thought she was their grandmother rather than their
great-grandmother. This is probably because the children grew up in the house with
their great uncle Richard and great aunts Elizabeth and Margaret, who were children
of Johanna Durney. Her death on 1st January 1878 is recorded on the Templeorum headstone.
Mary I
1839 - bef. 1852
Thomas
1843 - ????
Richard
1845 - 1922
Margaret
1850 - 1936
William II
1857 - 1877
William Phelan
c.1801 - 1885
Johanna Durney
c.1817 - 1878
Mary I
1839 - bef. 1852
James I
1840 - bef. 1844
William I
1842 - 1847
Thomas
1843 - ????
Richard
1845 - 1922
Anne
1848 - ????
Margaret
1850 - 1936
Mary II
1852 - ????
Elizabeth
1854 - 1942
William II
1857 - 1877
Johanna Durney and William Phelan had 11 children between 1839 and
1857 based on baptismal records.
All the children were baptised in the local church in Piltown.
The current church was built between 1889 and 1899, so the
Phelan children were baptised in the old church. This old building was
demolished in the 1940s and only the bell tower stands today, across the road
from the current church.
Like many families of the time, there was a high childhood mortality rate. It appears that six children had short lives. Two children, Mary (1839 – before 1852) and James (1840 – 1844) must have died in childhood based on the fact that their names were reused for later children. Another son William was born in 1842 and died at the age of five in 1847. He is the first person recorded on the Templeorum headstone.
Another son, also called William, died at the age of 19 in 1877 and is commemorated on the second Templeorum headstone. No records apart from baptismal records have been found to date for Thomas (b. 1843) and Mary (b. 1852); it is presumed they died in infancy. The five children who survived into adulthood were James (Johanna’s father), Richard, Anne, Margaret and Elizabeth.
Richard, known as Dick, was born about 22nd December 1845 and baptised on 23rd December 1845 in Piltown. Richard lived all his life in the family home at The Tower. He is recorded there on the 1901 and the 1911 census. He ran the farm as a market garden producing strawberries and daffodils which he sold in Carrick-on-Suir. Family lore5 reports that Richard was very religious. He read a chapter of the Bible to the family every night and had a very strict Sunday ritual. This was fairly unusual in rural Catholic Ireland. Richard died at home in Piltown on 21st August 1922 of senile decay. He was aged 76. His niece Bridget Phelan from Jamestown was present at his death.
Anne was born on 27th July 1848 and baptised in Piltown. We know she was alive in 1869 when she was left a bequest of five pounds by her mother’s cousin Catherine Carew. No further records of Anne have been found to date and there is no mention of her in family lore, so she may have died as a young adult.
Margaret, known as Mags, was baptised in Piltown on 11th February 1850. She lived all her life in Piltown. Her father built a house and shop for her in the village near the present Garda station. Although she had the shop and lodgers, she was unable to keep up with the rent payments and was evicted and returned home to the house at The Tower. Based on Bassett’s Guide of 1884 (shown below) she sold groceries and other provisions. When she was evicted, Dick collected her with her furniture to take her back to the house at The Tower. She did not leave the house for a long time due to the shame of the eviction. The Keating family moved into the house and this caused much resentment in the village.
Reference to Margaret's shop in Bassett's Guide, 1884
Mags was left a bequest of five pounds by her mother’s cousin Catherine Carew in 1869, Johanna’s daughter Hannah (1921 – 2006) recalls Margaret as a funny and entertaining lady. She was very short-sighted and her hair remained dark into old age.
Mags was present at the birth of her niece Johanna in Jamestown in 1882. She is recorded living at the house at the Tower in the 1901 and 1911 census. Her occupation in the 1901 Census is listed as shopkeeper. She died at home on 9th March 1936 at the age of 86. Johanna was present at her death. Johanna’s children clearly remembered their Aunt Mags fondly during their childhood.
Elizabeth , known as Betsy, was born about 28th April 1854 and baptised on 29th April 1854. She lived all her life at home at The Tower in Piltown. She does not appear to have had an occupation outside the home. On the census she described herself as “Farmer’s daughter”. She acted as housekeeper for Richard and Margaret until Johanna’s family moved in.
Betsy was with Johanna’s mother Anastatia Fahy in Jamestown at the time of Anastatia’s death. She and Mags subsequently reared Johanna. Elizabeth died on 21st January 1942 of senile decay. Johanna’s children recalled her as an elderly lady confined to bed in later years in the room called the “parlour”.
1 Based on death record. ↑
2 See here for more information about the Ponsonby Tower. ↑
3 Bianconi established regular horse-drawn carriage services on various routes in Ireland from about 1815 onwards. These were known as “Bianconi coaches” and the first service, Clonmel to Cahir, took five to eight hours by boat but only two hours by Bianconi’s carriage. Travel on a “Bian” cost one penny farthing a mile. There were also a series of inns, the Bianconi Inns, two of which still exist in Piltown, County Kilkenny and Killorglin, County Kerry. More information available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bianconi. ↑
4 The Lynch children – Betty, Hannah, Jennie, Philip, Patrick etc. ↑
5 Reported by Hannah in the 1970s. ↑