Clonakilty Museum Material

Below is some material relating to the Hungerford family of Inchadoney, Clonakilty, county Cork, a landed family. Clonakilty Museum, situated on Western Road, Clonakilty, also contains exhibits and material relating to the War of Independence period, and many aspects of the fascinating political, commercial and social history of Clonakilty.

Head on stained glass of Sir Thomas Hungerford

Head on stained glass of Sir Thomas Hungerford. The drawing is from the original in a stained glass window at Farley (Farleigh) Church, Somerset, England. (1389)

Head on stained glass of Sir Thomas Hungerford

Head on stained glass of Sir Thomas Hungerford. The drawing is from the original in a stained glass window at Farley (Farleigh) Church, Somerset, England. (1389)

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Head on stained glass of Sir Thomas Hungerford. This is the man that the Irish Hungerfords looked to as the father figure of their family. The drawing is from the original in a stained glass window at Farley (Farleigh) Church, Somerset, England. (1389)

Captain Thomas Hungerford settled in Cork where he was married in 1640. The Census of 1659 shows him as owner of Croaghna and Gortngrenane (Rathbarry area) with a population of 2 English and 13 Irish. He purchased considerable estates in the Rosscarbery area and on 28th October 1674 purchased Rathbarry Castle from Edward Williams. Died 1680-81, buried in Rosscarbery Cathedral where there is a monument to him. His son Richard left rathbarry in 1691 and occupied the Island of Inchidoney, Clonakilty.

Portrait of Thomas Hungerford (c.1770)

Portrait of Thomas Hungerford b. 1745. Married Mary Cranfield Becher of Skibbereen in 1770. On returning from a hunt in 1790, he was killed in a fall from a horse near Inchidoney. (c.1770)

Portrait of Richard Hungerford (c.1793)

Portrait of Richard Hungerford, who married another Becher of Skibbereen and in 1797 was commissioned as Captain of Ibane and Barryroe Infantry of the Yeomanry. He was particularly noted for his harsh activities during the 1798 uprising. He built the present day Inchidoney House close to the original house which was erected by the first Hungerfords in 1696. (c.1793)

Portrait of Emanuel Hungerford (c.1814)

Portrait of Emanuel Hungerford (1785-1872). Grandson of Richard Hungerford, Inchidoney he married a Catherine Loane. Captain of South Cork Militia. Due to poor health he left Cork for Australia in 1827 taking with him his wife, 8 children, schoolmaster, overseer and several servants. Based in Sydney, he was the first Hungerford to settle in Australia. (c.1814)

Portrait of Thomas Hungerford (c.1850)

Portrait of Thomas Hungerford (1789-1861). He established the present day estate of Cahirmore and married Alicia Jones, the daughter of a landed family from Glandore. In 1851 the Cahirmore estate covered the townlands of Cahirmore, Freehanes, Maulyregan, Maulantanavally and Gounbrack with total acreage of 2780 acres and a valuation of Ł962. Hungerford let the estate at a yearly rent of Ł4.0.0 an acre. This was usually increased depending the quality of the land in some areas. Despite the huge income the estate was practically bankrupt by 1900. (c.1850)

Portrait of Alicia Jone Hungerford (c.1814)

Portrait of Alicia Jone Hungerford, Wife of Thomas Hungerford (1789-1861) whom she married in 1814. Both are buried in the family vault at Rosscarbery cathedral. (c.1814)

Photograph of Henry Jones Hungerford (1870)

Photograph of Henry Jones Hungerford (1870)

Photograph of Henry Jones Hungerford (1870)

Photograph of Henry Jones Hungerford (1870)

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Photograph of Henry Jones Hungerford, the last effective owner and resident landlord of the Cahirmore Estate. He qualified as a Barrister and had little interest in the Estate. His income from rental was foolishly spent and on his death the Land Commission took it over. (1870)

Mary Boone Cowper Hungerford (1853)

Mary Boone Cowper Hungerford. Wife of Henry Jones Hungerford (1853)

Mary Boone Cowper Hungerford (1853)

Mary Boone Cowper Hungerford. Wife of Henry Jones Hungerford (1853)

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Mary Boone Cowper Hungerford. Wife of Henry Jones Hungerford. This picture of her was taken in Antwerp, aged 17. (1853)

Photograph - Thomas Hungerford (1850)

Photograph - Thomas Hungerford, born 16/01/1795. Died 1870. Buried in the Island. (1850)

Picture-Richard Hungerford (1834-1909) (c.1900)

Picture-Richard Hungerford (1834-1909). Son of William Hungerford and Jane Toye he was Deputy Surgeon General of the 53rd Regt. This family lived at Shannon (Presently Emmet) Square, Clonakilty and had a number of other properties in Clonakilty. (c.1900)

Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (c.1880)

Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (c.1880)

Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (c.1880)

Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (c.1880)

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Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, (1855-1897). Daughter of Canon Hamilton, Rector of Rosscarbery, she married Edward Argles, a Dublin Solicitor, with whom she had three daughters. He left and went to America and she then remarried Thomas Henry Hungerford (1858-1906) of Cahirmore House. Due to the disaproval of the marriage by her Hungerford father in law, the family lived at Bandon where she took up writing to support the new family of two sons and one daughter. She is officially credited with the saying "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". She died of typhoid 1897. (c.1880)

Drawing of North view of Farley/Farliegh Castle, Somerset. (1733)

Farleigh Castle was originally the property of the D'montford family and was sold to Sir Thomas Hungerford in 1369. Speaker of the House of Commons in 1377. Died at Farliegh 1398 and is buried in the church he built onto the castle. His son Sir Walter was also Speaker of the Commons. In 1426 he was M.P under the title Baron Hungerford and from that date Farleigh became known as Farleigh Hungerford.

Photograph of Cahirmore House, Rosscarbery (c.1890)

Photograph of Cahirmore House, Rosscarbery. It was outwardly of the style of the typical landlord house with some of the main rooms furnished accordingly but the owner never put a stairs from the basement to the main house with the result that the parlour maids often finsihed up in a pile of broken dishes at the foot of a rickety ladder,. The house was burned by in 1921 after word was received that it might be garrissoned by a detachment of the British Army. (c.1890)

Drombeg House, Glandore (House dates from c. 1750)

Drombeg House, Glandore, home of the Jones family. Alicia Jones married Thomas Hungerford of Cahirmore in 1814. The house is still occupied and owned by the descendant of a worker on the estate. The Jone's were described as fair landlords and not given to excesses. (House dates from c. 1750)

Photograph of the Armorial Plaque of the Hungerfords

Photograph of the Armorial Plaque of the Hungerfords

Photograph of the Armorial Plaque of the Hungerfords

Photograph of the Armorial Plaque of the Hungerfords

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Photograph of the Armorial Plaque of the Hungerfords. This appears to be a collage of coats of arms of various branches of the Hungerford family. Through marriage each family particularly in the colonies devised their own arms. (n.d.)

Coat of Arms of Thomas Hungerford, Cahirmore (c.1850)

Coat of Arms of Thomas Hungerford, Cahirmore (c.1850)

Coat of Arms of Thomas Hungerford, Cahirmore (c.1850)

Coat of Arms of Thomas Hungerford, Cahirmore (c.1850)

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Coat of Arms of Thomas Hungerford, Cahirmore. A frontispiece from a book in the Library of Cahirmore House. (c.1850)

Typescript of address by Tenants to Henry Jones Hungerford J.P., Cahermore House (January 1870)

Typescript of address by Tenants to Henry Jones Hungerford J.P., Cahermore House. The original of this document is held by a family member in London. The tenants named here would be the more substantial tenant farmers of the estate. (January 1870)

Copy letter, Mary Hungerford, to Clonakilty Urban District Council (1905)

Copy letter, Mary Hungerford, to Clonakilty Urban District Council. The Hungerfords were concerned about keeping all strangers and locals out of the Inchidoney Estate. Gates were erected and traps placed on the grounds. Locals felt they had a right to travel to the beach by an old roadway past Inchidoney House. Clonakilty U.D.C. mediated but Miss Hungerford refused all approaches. A group of locals marched from town, tore down the gates, and asserted their right to travel to the beach. This gave rise to a local song "Who broke the Island Gates", although the words were never recorded. (1905)

Copy of the will of Henry Jones Hungerford (1905)

Copy of the will of Henry Jones Hungerford. He willed the entire estate to his wife but it was all but bankrupt at that stage. His eldest son Thomas Henry, was to inherit it but he had little interest in the estate having left for Canada in disgust at the manner in which he was treated when he married against his father's wishes. By this stage all the other sons had emigrated, mainly to Australia. (1905)

Photograph of Hungerford tomb (c.1703)

Photograph of Hungerford tomb (c.1703) at Castleventry, Clonakilty. Records show that a Hungerford was buried here in 1790. In 1702 a Branch of the family from Inchidoney built a house nearby and established their estate in the townland of Foxhall and called it Maryville.

Photograph of Silver Soup Tureen (1877)

Photograph of Silver Soup Tureen (1877)

Photograph of Silver Soup Tureen (1877)

Photograph of Silver Soup Tureen (1877)

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Photograph of Silver Soup Tureen. The original is in Australia with a family member. Presented to Alice Hungerford (1857-1945), Cahirmore House, Rosscarbery, on her marriage to Frank Beamish at Rosscarbery Cathedral on June 19th 1877. On his death she married in 1898 her cousin Kenneth Stewart Hungerford in Australia. (1877)