Introduction
Tullow, County Carlow, is the location of a well-known hotel and golf course, Mount Wolseley. This property was once home to the dynamic Wolseley family.
In 1996, after more than a thousand years, the English branch of the Wolseley family lost its lands in Staffordshire, due to bankruptcy. In 1925, after two hundred years of the family in Tullow, County Carlow, the four Irish Wolseley sisters sold Mount Wolseley and its 180 acres of land to the Patrician Brothers, who renamed it Mount St Joseph. 1994 saw the property revert to the name, Mount Wolseley when it was sold to a Carlow businessman, Donal Morrissey to become Mount Wolseley Hotel Spa and Golf Resort.
Both Wolseley families carried the title of baronet. The Tullow branch of the family was remarkable by any standard. It produced outstanding individuals in the military, naval, clergy, and entrepreneurial areas. It was, however beset by a shortage of direct male heirs, which meant that the title passed to far out relatives. One of the recent Irish baronets to hold the title was a former cobbler, Sir Garnet Wolseley (1915-91).
The link between the two Wolseley family branches was re-established when the late Sir Charles Wolseley (1944-2018) visited Tullow’s Mount Wolseley for the Wolseley Centenary Weekend held in 1995.
Origins of the Wolseley Family
The Wolseley family lived in Staffordshire, England for over a thousand years. Hugh Stafford Northcote began his 2018 obituary of Sir Charles Wolseley Bt., by noting that in 1966, the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, various newspapers looked around to see if there were any families who could say, without doubt, that they were in England before the Norman conquest. After an exhaustive search they came up with two families whose claim could be justified. Both families lived in Staffordshire – one was the Cliffords, the other was the Wolseleys. [1] The Wolseley name is taken from a place name. The word ley comes from the Anglo-Saxon, meaning a water meadow. According to tradition the Wolseley family rid that water meadow of wolves to facilitate King Edgar’s[2] hunting interests. Hence the family has ‘from time immemorial…borne on its arms the Talbot Dog, the wolfhound of the Saxons’; the Wolseley crest incorporates a wolf’s head, and the family has the motto, homo hominis lupis, which means ‘man is wolf to man’[3]
Despite the upheavals of the English Reformation, the Wolseley family of Wolseley tried to remain Catholic. Because of this they were heavily fined. Cassandra and Rasmus Wolseley were sentenced to be executed for their Catholic faith. This sentence was reprieved. However, their priest, Reverend Robert Sutton, was hanged for saying mass[4]. When the family could no longer afford to pay their fines, they borrowed heavily from their Protestant cousin, Robert Wolseley, who ultimately called in the debt and took possession of the estate. Robert became the first baronet in 1628 and the family remained Protestant until his descendant, Sir Charles Wolseley became Catholic in 1839. Robert’s grandson, Richard Wolseley founded the Irish branch of the family.[5]
The Wolseleys as baronets
Two baronetcies were created for members of the Wolseley families, one the Baronetage of England, created in 1628, and one the Baronetage of Ireland, created in 1745. As of 2018 the Wolseley Baronetage of Mount Wolseley, Ireland is dormant. The Order of Baronets, a hereditary dignity next to the peerage, was instituted by King James l in 1611 for the purpose of raising money for army pay during the English and Scottish colonisation of Ulster in 1609. Each baronet had to pay the king £1,080. The baronets were to be of ‘good birth’, owning land yielding an annual rent of £1,000, and their initial number was limited to 200. They must be prepared to pay eight pence per day wages for thirty soldiers over three years. A baronet has precedence over all knights except bannerets, knights of the Garter and Privy Councilors.[6]
Sir Charles Wolseley, the second baronet represented the county of Stafford in the parliaments of Charles I and Charles II. He was also high in favour with the protector, Oliver Cromwell.[7] Many members of the Wolseley family of Wolseley Hall, Staffordshire, are buried at Saint Michael and all Angels church in Colwich, a short distance from Shugborough Hall. Inside the church are many tombs, wall tablets and other memorials connected with the landed gentry in the parish.
Richard Wolseley
Jimmy O’Toole states that Richard Wolseley was the first member of the family to settle in Tullow. He settled there in 1725. A grandson of Sir Charles Wolseley, the second Staffordshire baronet, Richard came originally from Staffordshire.[8] His father, Colonel Richard, had served with King William III in Ireland[9]. The Wolseley family had benefitted from land grants after the Cromwellian settlement[10].
Sir Garnet Wolseley (of whom more later), in his autobiography, refers to his great-grandfather, Colonel Sir Richard Wolseley as coming to Ireland in the reign of George ll to make good a claim to the confiscated Irish land which had been allotted to his uncle, Brigadier-General the Right Hon. William Wolseley. William Wolseley raised his own regiment in Enniskillen, ‘Wolseley’s Horse’. He crossed the Boyne in 1689 at King William’s side and, according to family tradition, gave his horse to King William whose own horse had become bogged down in the river.[11] This horse was black in colour, and not white, as usually depicted!
William Paton states that Richard Wolseley married Frances Burnestone on 16 January 1688. Their third son, also Richard, inherited the family’s Irish estates and, in 1744, he became the first Baronet Wolseley of Mount Wolseley, Tullow, County Carlow[12]. He married a daughter of Sir Thomas Molyneux Bart. in 1722.[13] After 1725 the Wolseleys purchased portion of the estate of Sir Charles Butler, Earl of Arran, near Tullow, County Carlow. This estate had been known as Mount Arran; on purchase its name was changed to Mount Wolseley.
The elder Richard was MP for Carlow during the reign of Queen Anne (1703-13). The younger Richard served as MP for County Carlow in the Irish House of Commons from 1727 to 1768. As already stated, he was created baronet in 1744. The family had 2,500 acres of land in County Carlow and 2,600 acres in County Wicklow.
The Wolseley family association with St Columba’s Church, Tullow
The Wolseley burial vault, which lies under St Columba’s Church, contains the remains of generations of the family. The church itself has many artefacts recording the family as generous benefactors of their parish.
On the north wall is found a memorial plaque erected by Sir Richard Wolseley to the memory of Lieut. General Clement Neville (1674-1744). Neville’s mother was a sister of Sir Charles Wolseley of Staffordshire. The inscription on the plaque reads as follows:
Underneath lieth the Body of the Honourable Lieut.
General Clement Neville, who departed this Life the
fifth day of August, 1744, in the 70th year of his age.
He was the eldest Commissioned Officer in his present
Majesty King George the Second’s Service, and had the
honour to receive his first Commission, from the Ever
Glorious King William the third, when Prince of Orange,
which bore date the 31st December, 1688:
as he set out in military service, under that great Patron
of Liberty, so he had the happiness
to be first employed under General Kirk in the relief
of London Derry, and Soon after carried the Colours
at the Battle of the Boyne,
both memorable events, by which this Kingdom in
particular, was delivered from impending Slavery.
He afterwards Served as Lieutenant Colonel in Spain
and acquitted himself with great honour,
when Paymaster to the unhappy Persons who were left
Prisoners in that Country[14]. His Publick Services ended
as they began, in the defence of his Country at the
Battle of Preston[15], where his treatment of those deceived
Men, when in his care as Prisoners, will allways be
mentioned as an example, that true courage, and the
tenderest humanity, ever go together.
He was descended by his Father’s Side, from a Younger
Branch of Lord Abergaveneys Family, and his Mother,
was Sister, to Sir Charles Wolseley, of Wolseley, in the
Kingdom of England,
and County of Stafford Baronet.
At the base of the monument is found the Latin inscription: ‘David Sheehan, Fecit, 1725’.[16]
This memorial is the only surviving item from an earlier church built on the present site. The Neville family crest is positioned above the tablet, as well as its motto, ‘Ne vile vihil’, which translates as, ‘Wish nothing base’. It is remarkable how similar the Latin motto, ‘Ne vile’, is to the name, Neville.
The East stained-glass window of the church represents Christ imparting the Sermon on the Mount. Its inscription reads, ‘Dedicated to the Glory of God in loving memory of our father Sir John Richard Wolseley, Baronet of Mount Wolseley who died 20th June 1874 and of our fondly loved and devoted mother Frances Anabella his wife who died the 30th May 1907’.
The stained-glass window on the North wall depicts two scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist. The first shows the Baptist preaching, while the second shows his execution and a maidservant waiting with a platter for his head. Its inscription reads, ‘To the Glory of God and in memory of John Richard Wolseley, Baronet born on the feast of St. John the Baptist, June 24th, 1834. Died June 20th, 1874 aged 40. This window is erected as a tribute of affection by his loving mother Alice E. Wolseley 1875’.
Mount Wolseley in 1798
The bitterness anger and resentment that followed the execution of rebellion leader Father John Murphy and his friend James Gallagher in Tullow in July 1798 led to the burning of the Wolseley house as an act of reprisal. This was the only such act of arson of a landlord’s house in County Carlow during the rebellion. This original Wolseley house was on the opposite side of the road to where the present Mount Wolseley was built, over half a century later. The attack destroyed the old house. Over one hundred people were reported to have been killed in the Tullow area during the rebellion.
In the first volume of his 1903 autobiography, The Story of a Soldier’s Life, Viscount Garnet Wolseley – about whom more is written in the next section – gives a vivid account of the burning in 1798 of ‘our home at Tullow’ where his grandfather was born,
‘In some amusing letters to her people in England my grandmother describes the sudden approach of the rebels, and the panic which ensued, for they seemed bent upon ridding Ireland of at least one family of the hated Saxon settlers. Everyone ran, some on horseback. others in any wheeled conveyance they could secure, all making for Carlow, about nine miles off, where there was a small English Garrison… A very plain aunt, to whom as a boy I was very much attached, was forgotten in the hurry and confusion. Finding she had been left behind, she set off on foot, but being soon overtaken by a Yeomanry trooper, he kindly took her up behind him. She did very well thus until about half-way to Carlow, when unfortunately for her, they overtook a very pretty girl out of breath and much frightened. The trooper said she was a cousin and insisted upon my ugly aunt giving up her place behind him to his handsome kinswoman. My poor aunt had to finish her flight on foot… Not content with burning our house but being short of ammunition they stripped the church spire of its lead, and also smelted into bullets the leaden coffin in which my great-grandfather had been recently buried’[17].
Admiral William Wolseley (1756-1842)
William Wolseley was born in Nova Scotia, where his father, Captain William Neville Wolseley was garrisoned. His mother was Anne Crosby, sister of Admiral Phillips Crosby. Wolseley was educated in Kilkenny and at the nautical school in Westminster. Wolseley saw service in the Indian seas against pirates. He was severely wounded at Fort Ostenburg in 1782 in what is now, Sri Lanka. In 1783 Wolseley was captured by a French fleet at Ganjam Roads, India. He was treated civilly and sent as a prisoner to Mauritius, transferring to Ile Bourbon, now called Reunion. After his release Wolseley participated in the capture of the famous Martello tower in Toulon, France.
In 1795 Wolseley married Jane Moore from Clough House, County Down. He lived in retirement for some years near Clough. In 1798 he commanded a company of volunteers, taking part in the Battle of Ballinahinch, County Down. This was fought on 12 June 1798 between British forces led by Major-General George Nugent and the local United Irishmen led by Henry Munro (1758-98). After the passing of the Acts of Union in 1800, the Presbyterian population of the Ballinahinch area became predominantly Unionist.
In 1799 Wolseley was appointed to 74-gun ship, Terrible, later serving on the St George and the San Josef. He commanded the sea fencibles[18] of the Shannon until his appointment to rear-admiral in 1804. He was then given command of the sea fencibles of all Ireland, retiring in 1805. He was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral in 1809 and admiral in 1819. Following an operation in 1842 which was deemed necessary due to the opening of the wound which Wolseley had received sixty years before, and which led to the extraction of a jagged piece of lead and a fragment of cloth lodged in his body, he gradually lost strength and died. His wife had died some years earlier, leaving issue of two sons and two daughters.
Field Marshal Viscount Garnet Wolseley (1833-1913)
Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley, first Viscount Wolseley, had a distinguished career in the British army. The most popular general of his era, he was recognised for his resourcefulness, bravery, and strong organisational skills, transforming the British army into a modern fighting force. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli had this opinion of him, ‘Wolseley is an egoist and a braggart. So was Nelson’.[19]
Born in Golden Bridge House[20] in Dublin, Wolseley was the eldest son of Major Garnet Joseph Wolseley and Frances Anne Wolseley (nee Smith). Frances was twenty-two and her husband was forty-seven when they married. Lacking the cash for promotion to lieutenant-colonel, Wolseley sold his commission on marriage. The younger Garnet Wolseley inherited strong religious beliefs from his mother – ’round whose memory there clings as a halo the holiest and loftiest of my childish thoughts and aspirations’[21]– and an interest in things military from his father.
Wolseley’s early life
Wolseley traced his ancestry to the Danish Vikings, and wrote in his autobiography, The Story of a Soldier’s Life, ’the fact that I inherited a very old name had a marked influence on my boyhood and early life. It was a spur to boundless ambition that filled my brain in my youth and has been an active factor in the events of my subsequent career’. He noted that the year of his birth, 1833 was a hundred and one years after his paternal grandfather was born. He himself was one of the third generation born in Ireland. ‘There (Tullow) my grandfather and two brothers were born, the first of the family entitled to wear the shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day. It is always pleasant to me to remember that the year of my birth was that in which we abolished that execrable sum of all villainies, commonly called the Slave Trade’. [22] Garnet Wolseley Senior died in 1840, aged sixty-two. Garnet Junior was then just seven years old. His mother found herself left alone to raise seven children on a small army pension. Consequently, Wolseley was sent to a local school, leaving at age fourteen to work in a surveyor’s office.
Wolseley’s original career choice was holy orders; his grandfather, six uncles, and four first cousins were clergymen in the Church of Ireland[23]; but unable to find a patron he decided to pursue a military path. Here he also met obstacles.[24] He could not afford to attend Sandhurst military college or to buy a commission, as was the custom at the time. Wolseley and his mother wrote repeatedly to the Duke of Wellington, then commander-in-chief of the British army and to his secretary, Lord Raglan, seeking an appointment to a regiment. Eventually he received his military appointment as an ensign in 1852, aged nineteen; this was in recognition of his father’s service in the crown forces. Wolseley went on to become a major player in the promotion and maintenance of the nineteenth century British imperial project, acting as its chief trouble-shooter.
Wolseley’s early military career
Wolseley first saw action in Burma, where he was wounded. He quickly rose through the ranks, eventually reaching the rank of Field Marshall, becoming commander-in-chief of the British army from 1895 to 1901. He lost the sight of an eye in the Crimea; he served in China, and then in India during the 1850s Sepoy mutiny[25]. Within his first ten years in military service he had served in four campaigns, been wounded four times, and was mentioned in dispatches nine times. In the 1860s Wolseley saw service in Canada; he was sent there in response to what was known as the ‘Trent Affair ‘, where two Confederate diplomats had been taken from a British ship by the U.S. Navy. The resulting political furore almost resulted in a war between the United States and Britain. Wolseley even met with Confederate Generals, Robert E. Lee – ‘the most perfect man I ever met ‘- and Stonewall Jackson during the American Civil War.[26] In 1866 Wolseley was involved in repelling the Fenian raids in Canada.[27] His experience of the American Civil War gave him an understanding on the new reality of war on an industrial scale. In 1870 Wolseley commanded a successful campaign against French-speaking secessionists led by Louis Riel[28] in what is now Manitoba, Canada; Wolseley had led his troops through 6oo miles of wilderness.
Later military career
From 1871 Wolseley served in the War Office in London where he was the principal leader in the movement to foster military efficiency, often against fierce internal opposition; and he was active in the successful campaign to stop the purchase of commissions. He was also a champion of the private soldier. In 1874 he received £25,000 for his defeat of King Koffee in the Ashanti (Gold Coast – now Ghana) war. On 22 July 1878 Wolseley arrived at the Cypriot port of Larnaka with 1,500 British troops. A week later he took up residence in Nicosia as the first British High Commissioner or governor and commander -in-chief. For much of his career Wolseley had as his aide-de-camp, Lord Charles William Beresford from Portlaw, County Waterford.[29]
In 1878 Wolseley left Cyprus for South Africa, where he was given the task of capturing Zulu King Cetsywayo. Following further military successes in Egypt in 1882 he was paid £30,000 and given the title Baron Wolseley of Cairo and Wolseley. His last campaign was on the Nile in 1885. His victory at Tel el-Kabir earned him a peerage from Gladstone. It also gave a name to a Dublin dairy TEK.[30]
Wolseley’s writings
Wolseley was the author of several books, including Narrative of the war in China in 1860 (1862); in the publication, Soldiers’ Pocket Book for Field Service (1869) he advocated that soldiers be taught to despise those in civilian life and should not be brought into contact with softening influences such as old men and respectable women![31] And he advocated that false stories be planted in newspapers to confuse the enemy – an early example of ’fake news’. On security grounds he was very much against the idea of a proposed channel tunnel linking Britain and France. Wolseley also wrote The Story of a Soldier’s Life (Two Volumes, 1903), The American Civil War: An English View (published 1964), Marley Castle, a novel in two volumes, (1877), and England as a military power in 1854 and in 1878. While occupying the post of commander- in-chief in Ireland (1890-94) Wolseley wrote The Decline and Fall of Napoleon (1895) and completed two volumes of the Life of Marlborough (1894). In 1895 Wolseley became field marshal and commander-in-chief of all British forces (1895-1901). In that post he mobilised the British army with characteristic thoroughness for the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902).
Wolseley’s death and memorials
Wolseley died from influenza at Mentone in the South of France in 1913. He and his wife, Louisa, a Canadian, had been wintering there. The Wolseleys had only one child, a daughter, Frances Garnet (b.1872); she died unmarried in 1936. Field-Marshal Viscount Garnet Wolseley is buried in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, in the company of other British national heroes like Nelson and Wellington.[32]
An equestrian statue of Wolseley stands in Horse Guard’s Parade in London. His military training manuals are still in use. He is commemorated in the UK and in Canada by several barracks, military training schools and residential areas being named after him. Gilbert and Sullivan, in their operetta, The Pirates of Penzance, based their character, ‘the very model of a modern major general’ on Sir Garnet Wolseley.[33] Rather than being offended, Wolseley would sometimes sing the song to amuse friends. An expression arose in the British army: ‘All Sir Garnet’, meaning that everything is in good order. Wolseley’s brother, General George Wolseley also had a distinguished military career, and served as aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria (1882-92).[34]
Frederick York Wolseley (1837-99)
Frederick York Wolseley was the younger brother of Sir Garnet Wolseley. He was also born in Golden Bridge House in Dublin.[35] Coming from a family of seven, he emigrated to Australia at the age of seventeen. He was responsible for transforming Australia’s rural economy by his invention of the mechanical sheep shearing machine, and he facilitated the early British motor industry by his work.
In his lifetime he received neither fame nor fortune for his contributions, dying at age sixty-two with an estate valued at a modest £115, and for almost ninety years his grave in a south London Cemetery remained unmarked.
Wolseley arrives in Australia
When he arrived in Australia, Wolseley was employed on a sheep station in New South Wales. As a ‘jackaroo’ (apprentice), he worked with his brother-in-law, Ralston Caldwell. Wolseley soon realised that shearing sheep by hand was not going to be able to keep up with the rapidly increasing sheep population. He began to investigate the possibility of a mechanical means to speed up the production of the Merino wool then in demand in the mills of Britain, America and elsewhere. He spent much time and money in trying different mechanical methods with little success. Much of the £15,000 spent on the project came from his brother Sir Garnet Wolseley.[36] After about twenty years Frederick Wolseley bought his own sheep station where he continued development work on a new machine.
Herbert Austin joins the company
At this stage, a young apprentice engineer arrived from England and joined the project. The young man’s name was Herbert Austin. And with his help a successful design was produced and finally patented in 1884. The increasing demand for the new product led to production being switched to Birmingham in the United Kingdom, where Wolseley set up the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Co. Pty Ltd. Austin was induced to return to England and was appointed manager of the company. In addition to the mechanical sheep shearer many other products were developed including bicycles, electrified fences, stationary engines and an ’engine driven carriage’ – a three wheeled car which soon developed into a four wheeled vehicle. The design was developed by Austin. He introduced the first British designed motor car in England in 1895 which he named the ‘Wolseley’ after his long-time employer.
Wolseley’s illness and death
Wolseley had resigned the managing directorship of the company for health reasons in 1894. He had contracted cancer some years previously. And, having moved back and forward from Australia to England a number of times, Wolseley finally settled in Norwood, Surrey, dying less than six months later on 8 January 1899. He left a widow, his nurse, Ellen Elizabeth Clarke (1850-1922), whom he had married in 1892, but no family. Wolseley’s estate at his death was valued at a mere £115. When his wife died in 1922 her estate, valued £414, was bequeathed to Frances Garnet Wolseley, only daughter of her brother-in-law, Field-Marshall Viscount Garnet Wolseley.[37] Wolseley was buried in Beckenham Crematorium and Cemetery, Elmers End cemetery, Kent. Remarkably, his grave remained unmarked for nearly a century until, in 1988, a headstone was erected by family members in association with the members of the car club, Wolseley Register, around the world. The headstone inscription reads as follows:[38]
BURIED HERE IS
FREDERICK YORK
WOLSELEY
16 MARCH 1837 – 8 JANUARY 1899
INVENTOR OF
THE SHEEP SHARING MACHINE
IN AUSTRALIA
AND PRODUCER OF
THE FIRST BRITISH MOTOR CAR
IN ENGLAND
THIS STONE ERECTED IN 1988
FOR THE AUSTRALIAN BICENTENIAL
BY WOLSELEY ENTHUSIASTS WORLDWIDE
WHO CHERISH HIS MEMORY
(See photo on http://www.sussexstoryforum.co.uk)
The Australian Dictionary of Biography summariseshim and his contribution as follows, ‘Handsome, likeable and well built, Wolseley lacked practical mechanical experience and had to rely on others, but he was inventive and, above all, persevering. He has the honour of inventing the shearing machine which revolutionized the wool industry in Australia.’[39]
The Wolseley car (1895-1975)
In 1891 Vickers Sons and Maxim Ltd. took over the machine tool and motor side of the Wolseley works, and began trading as Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Co. Ltd. Austin was the general manager until 1905 when he started the Austin Motor Co.[40] Before the First World War the Wolseley firm was producing more cars than any other British company. It ran into financial difficulties in the 1920s and became part of Morris Motors. The British Motor Corporation was then formed which later became British Leyland. The last car to carry the Wolseley badge was produced in 1975. Those of us of a certain generation remember the prevalence on Irish roads of the Morris, Austin, and Wolseley vehicles. In the 1960s Wolseley acquired several UK heating and oil distribution companies, focusing from 1979 on distribution rather than manufacturing. In 1982 it acquired the US company, Ferguson Enterprises Inc. July 2017 saw it change its name to Ferguson plc. Wolseley UK is the operating company for Ferguson plc., the world’s largest specialist trade distributor of plumbing and heating products.[41]
The Irish Wolseley line of succession widens
O’Toole and Paton name and date twelve successive Tullow Wolseley baronets, with details of their marriages and professions. As well as being landlords, most seem to have had military careers or to have been ordained to holy orders. Their professions were carried out in foreign countries and in Ireland. A noteworthy fact is their lack of direct successors. In all, five successive holders of the title died without heirs. Sir Cement Wolseley (1837-89), eighth baronet was the last immediate descendant of the Irish Wolseley family. He died, aged 52, of food poisoning, after eating a ‘less than fresh’ dish of oysters in the Kildare Street Club, Dublin, on 16 October 1889[42].
Sir Clement was succeeded by his cousin, Very Rev. Sir John Wolseley (1803-90), ninth baronet, Dean of Kildare. Sir John had no heir, so the title passed to his cousin, Sir Capel Charles Wolseley (1870-1923), who was British Vice-Consul at Archangel, Russia (1900-09). It was after his death that the decision was taken to sell Mount Wolseley. Sir Capel was succeeded to the title by his cousin, Sir Richard Beatty Wolseley (1872-1933), tenth baronet, who in turn was succeeded by his cousin, Rev. Sir William Augustus Wolseley (1865-1950), the eleventh baronet, Rev. Sir William was a Hebrew scholar and first-class exhibitioner at Dublin University and ministered in parishes in Australia and in Northumberland, U.K.
The Irish title passed, in 1950, to a cobbler. He was Sir Garnet Wolseley, twelfth baronet (1915-91), the son of Richard Bingham Wolseley (1853-1938) of Wallasey, Cheshire, a descendant of the first baronet. According to newspaper reports at the time, the discovery that the 35-year-old cobbler, Garnet Wolseley II, was entitled to become the twelfth baronet in succession to his kinsman Reverend Sir William Augustus Wolseley, who died 19 February 1950, was made by his mother, Mary Alexandra Wolseley. By leafing through old family papers, she found a will showing her son’s right to the title.[43] At the time Sir Garnet Wolseley was earning £5.10s. per week. In World War Two Wolseley served with the Northlands Regiment in Madagascar, Sicily, Italy, and Germany. He had been a corporal, but, ’I lost my stripes in a bust-up in Italy’. Also, in 1950, Wolseley married local telephonist, Lilian Mary Ellison. The couple moved to Canada the next year to find work, ’so long as it is not a cobbler’s job. I want no more of that’.[44] Wolseley died in 1991, without leaving a male heir.[45]
James Douglas Wolseley (b.1937) is the possible thirteenth baronet. He is son of James Douglas Wolseley (1903- 60) of Fort Worth, Texas, USA.[46]
Mount Wolseley House, Tullow
Burkes’s Guide to Country Houses, by Mark Bence-Jones, describes Mount Wolseley House as, ‘A two story slightly Italianate Victorian house with camber headed windows, ornate balustraded porch and a roof with bracket cornice. The wing has a pyramidal roof.’[47]
The house was completed in 1865 by Sir John Wolseley who tried unsuccessfully to have the property classified as a demesne. It replaced the previous house across the road which had been burned down in the 1798 rebellion. Tradition says that the surrounding parkland trees +were planted in groups to represent the arrangement of Wellington’s forces at Waterloo.
By the end of the nineteenth century, as the era of the Irish gentry waned, Mount Wolseley was the venue for an all-night fancy-dress party on Friday 22 January 1897, hosted by Mrs. Archdale. TheCarlow Sentinel reported that it was the first such ball held in Carlow for many years, and that it proved a brilliant finale to the Carlow season, which had been in full swing since New Year’s Day. Bad weather deterred very few, and those who braved the elements were rewarded by a most enjoyable evening and a fine drive home to breakfast.[48]
Sale of Mount Wolseley to Patrician Brothers in 1925
Sir John Richard Wolseley (1834-74) had served in the Crimean War. His wife, Frances Annabella, died in 1907. Their four daughters, Ada, Amelia, Eva, and Frances decided to sell the Mount Wolseley House and the attached 180 acres. The interested buyers were the Patrician Brothers, a teaching order founded in Tullow by Bishop Daniel Delany in 1808. This congregation has, over the intervening two hundred years, spread its network of schools to every continent; its latest school was established in Ghana in 2008.
The Patrician Annals outline the difficulties involved in the Mount Wolseley negotiations: ‘Our Brothers got possession of Mount Wolseley in January 1925. One of the difficulties which lay on the way was a penal clause in the lease that the property was never to be sold to any Religious Order’.[49]
Bishop Foley had given permission to the Patricians to purchase Mount Wolseley if they sold their land in Paulville and in or around Tullow. The negotiations were carried out between Tullow’s parish administrator, Fr James Fogarty, and Mr Gainsford for Mount Wolseley. ‘By his prudence, diplomacy and business tact’, Fr Fogarty succeeded in buying the property for £4,500.[50] The Patrician Brothers after the purchase of Mount Wolseley, renamed it Mount St. Joseph. Many additions were made to the complex to enable it to become a boarding facility for aspiring brothers and the world-wide headquarters of the congregation.
Mount St Joseph reverts to Mount Wolseley
After nearly sixty years in residence in Mount St Joseph, falling numbers of Irish vocations led to the Patrician congregation’s decision to close the boarding school. The present author taught the last science class there in May 1983, before the school finally closed its doors the following August. The Patrician community continued to reside there and to farm the land for the next eleven years. In 1989 the school’s gymnasium was used for First Communion and Confirmation ceremonies during the renovation of the local parish church. The author’s daughter and her classmates, together with the boys from the Patrician primary school received their First Holy Communion in this unique setting. ‘The Mount’, as it was known locally, was sold in 1994. The house and 180-acre farm were purchased by local businessman, Donal Morrissey. Re-named Mount Wolseley, it now comprises a hotel, a housing complex, and a championship golf course.
Sir Charles Wolseley (1944-2018), eleventh English baronet
Wolseley Hall, the family seat, was at Wolseley Park near Rugeley, Staffordshire. The old house was demolished in 1954, and the commercial ventures of the eleventh baronet, Sir Charles Wolseley (1944-2018), created financial difficulties which led to the unforced sale of the 1,490-acre estate in 1996;[51] this estate had been in the family for about a thousand years. His obituary in The Times had the heading, “Good-humoured aristocrat and watercolourist who was dubbed ‘the bankrupt baron’ after his plans to save his family estate went awry”. As his debts mounted to several million pounds, he was able to joke that his new tailors were ‘Messrs O.X. Fam’.[52]
Charles father, Stephen was an officer in the British army in Caen, France in 1944. Stephen heard from his wife that she had just given birth to a son. Stephen told Jack Evans, his friend, that he was sure that he would never see his son. Jack told him he was being silly. Nevertheless, Wolseley asked Evans to look after the family and the estate. Wolseley was a forward spotter for the artillery. He was doing his job and returning to his regiment when he was shot by ‘friendly fire’. Stephen Wolseley died leaving a widow, Pamela and two children, Patricia, and Charles. True to his word, Jack ran the estate until Charles reached his majority.
In 1954, when his grandfather, Edric died, Charles became the eleventh baronet at the age of ten years. He attended St Bede’s prep school, Bishton, and at age thirteen went to Ampleforth College[53]. From there he progressed to Cirencester Agricultural College and earned a Fellowship of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
Jack Evans believed that Wolseley was taking a big risk in trying to turn his estate into a famous garden. However, Wolseley went ahead with his ambitious plans, and the garden was officially opened by Lord Rothchild in 1990,[54] closing in 1996 with Wolseley ‘s bankruptcy. His debts amounted to £4.6m.[55] Renamed the Wolseley Centre, the garden is now (2020) the centre of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.[56]
Sir Charles Wolseley visits Tullow’s Mount Wolseley
In 1994 the former Irish seat of the Wolseley family, then known as Mount St Joseph, Tullow, County Carlow, reverted to its former name, Mount Wolseley, when its ownership passed to the Morrissey family. The Develop Tullow Association commemorated one hundred years since the Wolseley car came into being, by staging a Wolseley Centenary Weekend in its grounds. Sir Charles Wolseley and his second wife, Lady Imogene (Jeannie) Brown, an American author, were the guests of honour.
The weekend saw such attractions as a display of Wolseley and other veteran, vintage and classic cars from Ireland and the UK, as well as demonstrations of traditional crafts such as dairying, bread making, basketry and blacksmith skills in the magnificent granite farmyard buildings. This author met the Wolseleys and secured Sir Charles’ signature on Jimmy O’Toole’s book, Frederick York Wolseley[57] which was also produced for the occasion to commemorate the centenary of the first Wolseley car built in Birmingham in 1895.
Sir Stephen Wolseley becomes the twelfth English baronet
When he died in 2018, Sir Charles was succeeded by his son, by his first marriage, the twelfth baronet, Sir Stephen Garnet Hugo Charles Wolseley (b. 1980). Sir Stephen married Mary Kate Quinlan, daughter of Anthony Quinlan, Sultanate of Oman. Their children (20 May 2019) are 1. Nicholas Wolseley (b.2010) and 2. Patrick Anthony Charles Wolseley (b.2014).[58]
Conclusion
The Wolseley family played a significant role in Irish history – not least in Tullow, in the military development of the British Empire, in the mechanisation of agriculture, and in the motor car industry. Their story mirrors the changing status of the landed gentry in Ireland and in England. Much more could be written of a family whose influence lasted more than a thousand years and whose memory is still alive on many continents.
Bibliography
Annals of the Patrician Brothers, now stored in the Delany Archive, Carlow
Comerford, P., An Irishman’s Diary, in The Irish Times, 9 May 2000
Edge E. (1994/95), Tullow’s Forgotten Hero, Lord Wolseley in Ogham (Editor: John Keogh), Tullow: Tullowphelim Historical Society
Harmsworth Encyclopaedia, Vol1, (1906), London: Thomas Nelson & Sons
O’Toole, J. (1993), The Carlow Gentry, Carlow: Jimmy O’Toole
O’Toole J. (1995). Frederick York Wolseley, Carlow: Jimmy O’Toole
Paton, W., (1992) The Wolseleys in Ogham (Editor: John Keogh), Tullow: Tullowphelim Historical Society
Wolseley, G., (Two Volumes, 1903), The Story of a Soldier’s Life, Pickle Partnership Publishing (2014), available on Kindle
Newspapers
The Daily Telegraph, 2 April 2008
The Irish Times, 9 May 2000
The Nationalist, 2 June 1995, 9 June 1995, 23 June 1995
The Times, 7 May 2018
Websites
http://adb.anu.edu.au/ (Australian Dictionary of Biography)
www.gov.ie Ryan Report 2009
www.libraryireland.com Strickland, W. A Dictionary of Irish Arts.
http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2020/06/memories-of-wolseley-family-and-road-to.html
Acknowledgements
Myriam Cahill
Richard Codd
Sheila Kenny
Pat Kirwan
Paula Lalor
Karl McDonagh
Mary McQuinn
Tim Madden
Donal and Breda Morrissey
Laz Murphy
John Nolan
Teresa Nolan
Jimmy O’Toole
[1] Northcote, H.S., www.ambleforth.org.uk (accessed 19 June 2020)
[2] Edgar, known as Edgar the Peaceful was king of England from 959 until his death in 975.
[3] Sir Charles Wolseley in O’Toole (1995), p.9 and Wolseley, G., The Story of a Soldier’s Life, p.1
[4] Robert Sutton was born in Burton-on-Trent about 1544 and baptised in Saint Modwen’s parish church in 1545. His father was a carpenter. Robert was ordained an Anglican minister in 1566 and took the degree of M.A. from Christ Church Oxford, 9 July 1567. He became rector of Lutterworth, Leicestershire in 1571. He was converted to Catholicism by his younger brother William, who later became a Jesuit. Robert was ordained priest in Cambrai, France in 1577. He was arrested while saying mass at Stafford, was condemned for being a Catholic priest, and was martyred at Gallows Flat, Stafford on the 27th of July 1588. He was beatified by Pope St John Paul II in 1987
[5] Wolseley, Sir Charles in O’Toole, Jimmy, Frederick York Wolseley (1995) p.9. Field-Marshal Viscount Wolseley in his autobiography, The Story of a Soldier’s life, chapter 1, states that all the family had been strongly Protestant since the Reformation, until his father’s cousin, the English baronet, Sir Charles Wolseley – ‘the curious, clever, half-cracked Chartist, who had taken part in the assault of the Bastille – joined the Church of Rome’. Chartism was a working-class movement from 1836-48 which aimed to gain political rights and influence.
[6] Harmsworth Encyclopaedia Vol. 1 p. 567 and O’Toole (1993), p. 209
[7] Edge, Emmeline in Ogham 94/95 p. 27
[8] O’Toole (1993)., p. 211
[9] In the 1688 ‘Glorious Revolution’ Protestant William III displaced Catholic James II as English monarch. The two kings met in the decisive 1690 Battle of the Boyne with a Williamite triumph.
[10] Oliver Cromwell landed in Dublin in 1649 with his New Model Army. He swept away all opposition and left Ireland in total English control. He ordered all Catholic landowners in the rich provinces of Munster and Leinster to forfeit their land and to remove to Connacht. These new Protestant replacements were the antecedents of the eighteenth-century Irish ascendancy.
[11] Wolseley, G., The Story of a Soldier ’s Life, p.1
[12] William Paton ‘The Wolseleys of Mount Wolseley, Tullow’, in John Keogh (ed.), Ogham, (Tullow, 1992), p.3
[13] Paton, W., op. cit., p.3 and Wolseley, G., op. cit., p. 2
[14] This item appears to refer to the War of Spanish Succession (1701-14), a European conflict triggered by the death of the childless Charles ll of Spain in November 1700, the last Hapsburg monarch of Spain, and the disputed succession to the throne.
[15] The Battle of Preston, Lancashire (9-14 November 1715), was fought during the Jacobite Rising of 1715. The Jacobites supported the restoration of the House of Stuart. English Jacobites joined with a force of Scottish Borderer Jacobites, and were defeated by Government forces at Preston
[16] This translates as, ‘David Sheehan made it 1725. Sheehan was a Dublin stonecutter working in Marlborough street in the middle of the 18th century; he appears to have been principally employed in monuments for churches. In addition to the Tullow plaque he made monuments in Castle Lyons, County Cork to James, Earl of Barrymore. Sheehan worked in collaboration with Houghton in Christchurch, Cork, and was employed in the stone carving on the front of Trinity College, Dublin about 1751. Sheehan died in 1756 and was buried in a churchyard at Drumcondra, Dublin. In his will, dated 16 January 1749 he mentions his stock of stones in Dublin Cork Kilkenny and elsewhere. [Strickland, Walter, A Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913) , in www.libraryireland.com, accessed 24 March, 2020]
[17] Quoted in O’Toole (1993), p. 215. The autobiography can be found in www.books.google.ie and on Kindle.
[18] Fencibles (from the word defencibles) were military which could only be called up for service on home soil.
[19] O’Toole, J., (1995), p. 34
[20] 1858 saw the establishment at Golden Bridge of a Sisters of Mercy convent, a national school and a commercial laundry on the premises which had by then been acquired by Cardinal Paul Cullen. Two years previously in 1856 the Sisters of Mercy opened a successful rehabilitation refuge there for women who had been incarcerated in Mountjoy Prison. In 1880 a building within Golden Bridge convent was certified as an industrial school, named St Vincent’s Industrial School. This closed in 1983. In 1993 Gay Byrne interviewed a former resident, Christine Buckley on the Late, Late Show. A 1996 RTE dramatised documentary, Dear Daughter made serious allegations about physical and emotional abuse at the industrial school. These were investigated in the 2009 Ryan Report which was highly critical of the treatment of the children in the care of the authorities at Goldenbridge, stating that ‘the regime … which was flawed from the outset did not change for 30 years’ (7.592.8). The regime became ‘kinder and more child-centred in the 1960s. (7.592.9). ‘The Sisters in charge during the relevant period were harsh and unfeeling towards the children’. (7.592.10).
[21] O’Toole, J., (1995) p. 32
[22] Quoted in O’Toole J., (1995), p.33
[23] Comerford, P., ’An Irishman’s Diary’ in The Irish Times, 9 May 2000
[24] Comerford, P. op. cit.
[25] The Indian Rebellion of 1857-58 was a major, but ultimately unsuccessful uprising against the rule of the British East India Company. It is sometimes referred to as the first Indian War of Independence. The uprising began in the British Bengal army with the introduction of the Enfield rifle. To load it the sepoys had to bite the ends of lubricated cartridges. The rumour spread that the grease used to lubricate these was a mixture of pigs’ and cows’ lard, thus insulting the beliefs of both Hindus and Muslims.
[26] ’General Lee’, Macmillan’s Magazine, LV (March 1887), p.321
[27] The Fenian raids were carried out by the Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish Republican organisation. Fenians, many of whom had fought in the American Civil War, carried out raids on British Army forts, custom posts and other targets in Canada in 1866, and again in 1870-71. The aim of the raids was to bring pressure on the United Kingdom to withdraw from Ireland,
[28] Louis David Riel (1844-85) was a Canadian politician. He was a founder of the province of Manitoba and political leader of the Metis people of the Canadian prairies. He led two rebellions against the government of Canada. He was executed by hanging in 1885.
[29] Comerford, P. , op. cit.
[30] Comerford, P., op. cit.
[31] O’Toole, J., (1995), p.35.
[32]O’Toole. J., (1993) p.212
[33] www.songfacts.com (accessed 18 June 2020).
[34] Paton, W., op. cit., p.8
[35] Some sources, e.g. Walsh, G.P. in The Australian Dictionary of Biography give his birthplace as Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire), Co. Dublin
[36]O’Toole, J., (1995), p.39.
[37] O’Toole, J., (1995), p. 41
[38] http://www.sussexstoryforum.co.uk
[39] Australian Dictionary of Biography, adb.anu.edu.au (accessed 29 June 2020)
[40] Australian Dictionary of Biography
[41] http://www.corporate.wolseley.co.uk
[42] O’Toole (1993), p. 208 in conversation with the eighty-nine-year-old Mrs Daphne Hall-Dare of Bunclody. Paton op. cit., p. 4 quotes from John Bateman’s book, The great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland, June 1882, p. 486, ‘WOLSELEY Sir Clement James, Baronet of Mount Wolseley, Tullow, Co. Carlow. Club – Kildare Street, Dublin. Born 1837, succeeded 1874, Married 1872. Co. Carlow 2,547 acres, Co. Wicklow 2,643 acres. 5.190 acres in total’.
[43] O’Toole, (1993), p. 208
[44] O’Toole, J., (1995), p.26.
[45] O’Toole (1995), p. 208, Patton op. cit., pp. 3,4
[46] Debrett’s Peerage and Baronetage, ed. Patrick Montague-Smith (1980), p. B-880
[47] Paton, W., in Ogham (1992), p. 4
[48] O’Toole, J., (1993), p.216
[49] From the Annals of the Patrician Brothers, courtesy of Br Linus Walker, quoted in Paton, W., op. cit., p.4
[50] Ibid. P.4
[51] The Daily Telegraph, Features p.27, 2 April 2008
[52] The Times Obituary, 7 May 2018
[53] Established in 1802, Ampleforth College claims to be one of the world’s foremost Catholic boarding schools
[54] Stafford Northcote, H., Sir Charles Wolseley, obituary, Ampleforth Society, 5 March 2018
[55] http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2020/06/memories-of-wolseley-family-and-road-to.html
[56] www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk, (accessed 26 March 2020)
[57] O’Toole, J., Frederick York Wolseley (1995)
[58] www.cracroftpeerage.co.uk (accessed 30 March 2020)
A version of the above article appears in the 2021 edition of Carloviana, journal of the Carlow Historical and Archaelogical Society, and is reproduced with the kind permission of the editor.
Tullow Historian 
I have read with great interest this article as I have a real interest in the Wolseley name and history.
First let me introduce myself and my interest in the name.
My name is Colin Campbell and I am a very amateur genealogy researcher who dabbles a little in DNA analysis.
It is in regards to my wife’s (Sarah Elizabeth Fraser) genealogy that I am responding to the article as her great grandfather Richard Wolsey who was born in Elgin, Scotland on the 21st of July.
Immediately we can say a different spelling to Wolsey verses Wolseley and I could easily just forget any possible connection however there are a couple of things that potentially could assist in making some kind of a connection.
As I said above Richard Wolsey was born in Elgin, Scotland the son of William John Wolsey and Rebecca Gillies. On Richard statutory birth record it states that William John Wolsey is a private in the 74th Highland. aged 30, Port a Down, County Armagh, Ireland. What I have from this information is he must have been born in 1824/25.
On to William John Wolsey OPR (Old Parish Record) marriage record to Rebecca Gillies. It states William John Wolsey, Private in the 74th Highlanders, presently in Aberdeen on the second day of November 1854 married in Aberdeen to Rebecca Gillies, there is more about Rebecca, One of the Witnesses was George Hanks Corporal Royal Marines.
Rebecca Gillies died very young in London in 1860 and in 1861 William John Wolsey married Mary Pentland and on the marriage certificate it states that his father is Sloan Wolsey. William John died in 1863 aged 40 in London. This would make his birth year as 1823. I later years John was an Iron Worker.
I do have some service records and William John Wolsey discharge papers, he was active in the kaffir wars in South Africa in the early 1850’s.
I have no further details on William John Wolsey including no birth or parents names apart from reference to Sloan Wolsey as father.
Now on to DNA and the Y chromosome testing of Richard Gillies born Dundee 1935 (Living). Richard Wolsey born 1855 although born as a Wolsey actually died in Dundee, Scotland in 1943 as Richard Gillies. After the death of his father William John Wolsey in 1863 his son Richard Wolsey changed his name to his mothers maiden name of Gillies reason unknown. Richard Wolsey born 1855 was married twice and Sarah and Richard Gillies born 1935 are descended from his son Richard Wolsey Gillies born Dundee in 1905. So on paper we have a Y chromosome link between William John Wolsey born 1823/24 in Portadown, Ireland and Richard Gillies born Dundee 1935.
The results of the Y111 chromosome test is very interesting with a number of good matches at genetic distance 200 to 500 year range including two Woolsey who claim George William Woolsey born about 1610 in England as their earliest documented Woolsey ancestor. The two Y chromosome testers that Richard matches with are Norman Glade Woolsey and Edwin Woolsey.
So now I am back to the beginning with the article highlighting the family in both England and Ireland and understanding the spelling difference could there be a connection between William John Wolsey and the Irish Wolseley family mentioned in the article.
Are there any living member of the Wolseley family that have taken or are willing to take the FTDNA Y chromosome test.
Regards Colin d Campbell
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Yes, I am the grandson of Sir Edric Wolseley in Staffordshire. I would be willing to take any DNA test provided it is done at no cost to me.
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Hi Anthony, thanks for reply and appreciate your offer however, I am assuming by your name that you are a Wolseley through your mother.
If I am correct you would not carry the unique haplogroup Wolseley Y chromosome as you would have inherited that from your fathers Wilmsen line.
So the only DNA option left if my assumption above is correct is the autosomal test that is very good for modern day matching. It is guaranteed at 3 generation back however DNA dilutes very quickly through the recombination and inheritance process and by the time it is 4 generations back one may not carry any shared DNA due to the random nature of the recombination process.
Another option would be a male sibling of your mothers or male descendant of her Wolseley family.
Lets remain it touch, my email is clancampbell(at)mac.com
Regards Colin D Campbell
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This made for a very interesting read indeed. My thanks goes to the author.
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Thank you for your comment. This will form a chapter in my forthcoming book.
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Will do
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Hi E L, below I have copied from a spreadsheet details of DNA matches that Richard Gillies (should be Wolsey) has through Y chromosome testing. The details may be difficult to read so I shall help with the column headings.
Name of Tester
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Match Date
Markers Tested
Genetic Distance
Big Y STR Differences
Y-DNA Haplogroup
Paternal Country of Origin
Earliest Known Ancestor
Edwin Woolsey Edwin Woolsey July 28 2022 1 to 67 Exact Match Not Available R-M269 England George Woolsey circa 1610
Mr. James Elmore Woolsey Sr. James Elmore Woolsey July 28 2022 1 to 37 1 Step Not Available R-M269 England George Woolsey, b.1610
Mr. Norbert Glade Woolsey Norbert Glade Woolsey July 28 2022 1 to 111 1 Step Not Available R-M269 England George William Woolsey, Sr.
It is difficult to fully analyse the relationship with these three Woolsey and Richard Gillies (Wolsey) due to all the testers taking different level of tests (see column markers tested). You can also see that the Genetic Distance between Richard and the three other testers are either Exact Match or 1 Step.
As I have said above very difficult to fully analyse due to the different level of testing however I shall put my head on the block and state that the common Woolsey ancestor between Norbert Glade Woolsey and Richard Gillies.(Woolsey) is between 300 and 400 years ago ie between 1600 and 1700 AD.
Just thought you would be interested in some DNA supporting evidence the Woolsey line.
Regards Colin D Campbell
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Wolseley article will feature in a future book on Tullow.
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It is my wife (Sarah) and my intention to visit Tullow in May 2024 as part of family research.
I have no evidence at the moment regards parents of William John Wolsey other than a reference to a gentleman called Sloan Wolsey, however I believe the name Sloan was used to indicate the gentleman’s characteristics rather than a christian name.
What we do have going for us is through Y DNA Chromosome testing is a number of matches between the paternal great grandson of William John Wolsey and a number of fellow testers with the name Woolsey who claim Staffordshire to be origins of their Woolsey line.
Sarahs uncle Richard James Gillies who took the Y111 chromosome test was assigned a Haplogroup of R-M269. (same as the majority of males in NW Europe).
Richard James Gillies fathers name was Richard Wolsey Gillies whose father was born Richard Wolsey and died as Richard Gillies (reverted to his mothers maiden name after his fathers (William John Wolsey) death in 1863). Richard was raised by his grandmother Margaret Gillies after both his parents died before he was 10 years old.
On William John Wolsey OPR marriage in 1854 to Rebecca Gillies it states that he is a private in the 74th Highland Regiment and was born in Portadown, Armagh, It is believed the William John Wolsey was born about 1823/24 based on age at death in London in 1863.
It is recognised that there is a differences in the spelling of Wolsey /Woolsey / Wolseley however it is my intent to see if I can research documented evidence back to Richard Wolseley quoted above.
“Robert’s grandson, Richard Wolseley founded the Irish branch of the family.[5]”
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A great article, offering a wonderful window into the wider Wolseley family. I have very recently just distantly connected to Amelia Cecelia Louisa Wolseley. Amelia married Dr. James Joseph MacGrath (Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow). James Joseph’s brother, Patrick Robert MacGrath is my Great Grandfather. Interestingly, the Patrick Robert MacGrath family were deeply republican, settled in Dublin (Rathgar) with their son Paddy MacGrath being shot by DeVelera in 1940. I have an image & location of Dr. JJ MacGrath & Amelia’s grave in St. Pauls Glasnevin if of interest. Lorcan Scott
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Thank you Lorcan for your feedback and interesting information. The photo might prove to be an additional note to the article.
Christopher McQuinn
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Dear Tullow Historian,
I live in Victoria Australia and my home was built in the 1850s for the Fetherstonhaugh family, who immigrated here during the Gold Rush era. They were cousins to the Wolseley family and Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh wrote affectionately about his friendship with Frederick in particular, but as a youth, the families had lived near and had considerable contact.
Recently I came across a photo album belonging to a descendant of the D’Ombrain family here in Australia. They are also connected closely to the Wolseley family. The album contains many images of all three families – Wolseley, Fetherstonhaugh and D’Ombrain. Of special interest would be the unknown photos of Lord Wolseley’s parents (the image of his father taken from a painting as he died in 1840 – pre-photograghy ). There is also another unknown image of Frederick, which is signed and taken in Sydney. Also an image of his wife of whom so little is known and an image of another brother Richard and wife.
John Wolseley Fetherstonhaugh and family are also amongst others. He came with his family to Australia and his brother Richard Fetherstonhaugh was in partnership with Frederick at one stage. They were first cousins.
I would be happy to share more of this if you are still interested.
Thanking you for your illuminating article on the Wolseley family.
Sincerely,
Wes
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Thank you Wes for your interesting and positive comments. I am including a chapter on the Wolseleys in my forthcoming self-published book,
Tullow through the ages. I should welcome any photos.
Christopher McQuinn.
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Christopher.
Thank you for your prompt reply.
I think the photos and information I have would compliment your forthcoming book and I applaud your initiative and good work to record and renew interest in the story of this extraordinary family – the Wolseley’s.
As these images have not been made public before, may I suggest that I forward them to you via email. I believe you have mine, so could you please make the most suitable address for me to send to and I will oblige.
Sincerely,
Wes
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