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Keane of
Kilnamona
Mathew Keane
(ca
1760's - 1830's)
¥
John (Jack) Keane
(ca
1790's - 1850's)
Mathew:
According
to the Clare Tithe Applotments of 1827 two Keane families* resided
at Ballyasheea (now spelled Ballyashea), one headed by Mathew and
the other by Frank - very likely brothers, e.g. see Tithes
Applotments below (also see
Australian Branch).
Thus the first written reference to the Ballyashea Keane's of import
to this website was to
Mathew Keane who appears to have lived ca
1750's - 1830's (probably a realistic estimate). This Mathew
Keane was father to Jack Keane.
Jack:
Jack lived in the latter years of the 18th
century and the first half of the 19th century, probably
born in the 1780's. He was married
ca 1813 and his first son, Matthew, was born
in 1814 (verified by age given in Matthew's death certificate).
A second son was born in 1830 (see age of John (sen.) in
1901 census). This separation of 16 years is surprising. Jack's
wife was Catherine Kelly - thus whether she was his only wife or
that he remarried after the death of a first wife is not known
(Catherine died ca 1879 but a death certificate is proving difficult
to locate, it would appear that she was considerably younger than
Jack). There was a third son Michael whose date of birth is
uncertain, and there is no information on daughters, but assuming
Catherine was Jack's only wife some may have been born between
Matthew and John, and indeed we might
speculate that Michael was older than John.
Tithes
Applotments
In the Tithe Applotments Survey
Mathew Keane and Frank Keane
(note: Cork printed in error for Clare) holdings were combined as
one unit for the purposes of assessment (unusual but not unique
occurrence in the lists). They were deemed to have 28 acres between
them attracting Tithes of £1 0s 6p.1 An inference that
can be drawn from the tithes survey is that Mathew
and Frank Keane were in all likelihood brothers.
Regarding
the sequencing of events from the Tithes Applotments records (1827),
Mathew continued to be a named tenanted owner of the Ballyashea
farm, which is a little puzzling since Jack had been married since
1813 - this may have been due to a failure to regularize matters.
Family lore has it that Jack in his time divided his Ballyashea farm
between his three sons,
Matthew,
John
and Michael.
Inference to be drawn from Ennis Cout
case...
Subsequent events
suggest Michael may have been born before
John. In
an inter family court case reported in the 'Clare Chronicle' in
August 1896 (see Chapel pew dispute here),
it was stated that Michael purchased a pew in the Kilnamona chapel
renovation project of the late 1840s. Normally, a chapel pew might
be expected to have been purchased by the head of the household. So
its surprising that Michael had done so - it is clear from the 1896
case that his older brother Matthew did not do so, probably because
he could not afford it. So the question arises: did Michael
own his portion of the farm at the time of purchase in the 1840s and
more importantly at what age was he to be able to come up with the
price of £4.10s for the pew - hardly in his teens!
Back to Matthew....
Jack's eldest son
Matthew built a new house and married Mary Sexton from Ballinacally
in 1847/8 (suggesting that that may have been the year when the farm
was divided). It should also be recalled that 1847 was the
third and final year of the great famine in Ireland. The Griffith
Valuations census of 1855 lists only two Keane families as tenanted
to the Charles G O'Callaghan lands in Ballyasheea. These were
as follows:-Catherine
Keane; land (39 acres, 3 roods and 0 perches) with rateable
valuation of £20 (pounds sterling) and buildings £1-5-0 =
£21-5s Matthew Keane; land (18 acres, 2 roods and 5 perches) with
rateable valuation of £11-2s-0p, and buildings at £1-0s-0p =
£12-2s-0p.
From the foregoing,
we can conclude that Jack's wife Catherine was in possession of the
home farm and that Jack had died probably sometime in the late
1840s/early 50s. Also combining Catherine's and Matthew's
holdings it seems Jack's farm amounted to some 58 acres. This
compares very favourably with the Keane holding as reported in the
Tithe Applotment Book which amounted to 26 acres.1,2
While Matthew had married in c. 1848 (Kilnamona
parish records only date from 1852) at the age of 33/4 years, and
moved into a new house, Jack's widow, Catherine, with her two other
sons stayed in the old homestead farming the remaining two third
section of Jack's land. Michael is thought to have emigrated
to Australia (whereabouts unknown), and
eventually John got his portion of the land in addition to his own. The
timing of Michael's going may have something to do with John's
marriage which took place in 1864 (also see supporting evidence from
the Ennis court case
here).
Catherine lived on until 1879 and in her
turn retained title to the farm despite her son John (Fady) having
married in 1864 (one suspects the title matter was left unattended
to until her death, Land Registry Office, Dublin). For more
information on this line, see
John (Fady). Also
of note is that Frank Keane (or his descendants) no longer possessed
a farm in Ballyashea in 1855 - perhaps he may have fallen into hard
times or been evicted as others were in the 1840's (see
Australian Branch or the
O'Dea
experience
for example).3
Famine
Relief Works:
During the later phase of the great famine, Relief Works were put in place
to assist the by then destitute Irish.
Towards the end of 1846 there was a
review made of the number employed on the scheme. With
regard to Kilnamona, out of 275 heretofore in employment a list of
89 names was drawn up for removal from scheme due, it was deemed,
they having (excess) stock and land. Thomas and Mathew Keane of Ballyashea were included in this list of omissions- Thomas was
deemed to have 10 acres with 2 cows whereas Mathew (note one t) was
said to have 15 acres but there was no record made regarding stock. As to who this
Thomas was, is uncertain, perhaps a son of Frank's in lower Ballyashea. The Mathew (note one t) mentioned here seems to have
been Jack's father and thus Matthew's (note two t's) grandfather -
probably the land holding had never been properly transferred to
Jack! The original list, the work of an official, lead to public
controversy and a revised Relief Works list eligible for employment,
including some with stock and land, was produced by a Committee.
From Ballyashea were: Mat Keane (with 4 dependants, a holding of 12
acres (but who admitted to one recorder, a certain Michael Lynch! (ML),
as having 10
acres, 3 cows and 3 sheep), and the Widow Kean (family of 8 and a
holding of 24 acres (ML 20 acres, 4 cows, 1 horse and 6 sheep).
It is to be regretted that the original list of 275 relief labourers
are not available.
In the case
of the Widow Keane, it is unlikely that she is Catherine due family
size, so one wonders was she Patrick Keane's mother, Patrick who
later endowed the Kilnamona Church with a stain glass window (see
Australian Branch).
----------------------------------------------------
Notes:
1In
determining the rate for the Tithes the quality of the land
was assessed on a scale 1st (best) to 4th (poorest).
Regarding the Keane land Mathew and Frank's holding was calculated
accordingly on a quality rating as follows: 1st, 0; 2nd, 18; 3rd, 8;
4th,0 (total 26 acres). In relation to Kilnamona as a whole, land
was assessed quality wise as follows: 1st (20%), 2nd (41%),
3rd (25%) and 4th (14%). The Keane holding can be seen to have been
small and of 2nd and 3rd quality only. In calculating the Keane
Tithes, Rectorial Tithe was deemed to be 12s 2p and Vicarial Tithe
as 8s 4p totalling £1 0s 6p.
2A
striking anomaly arises if we compare the total land area for
Ballyashea as assessed for Tithes to that in the Griffiths
Valuations, i.e. ~218 acres (incl. Knockinanamagh sub-domain
of Ballyashea) to 500 acres respectively. The difference in part it
seems arises because the 1827 composition for Tithes used 'Irish
Plantation Measure', probably that of the Irish acre which was
greater than the statute acre by a ratio of 1.6 to 1 (the above
figures would suggest however a ratio of 2.3 to 1).
3It has been suggested that
another Keane family resided at Ballyashea. As no such land owner is
recorded in the relevant 1855 census, this may refer to that of the
widow Keane's recorded in nearby Knockatemple in 1827 Tithes.
For direct line now go to the
next generation
Matthew
last updated April 2, 2014
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