‘It is quite plain that if the other landlords were
like Mr Julian the country would be better off’
A man by the name of McAuliffe made the above remark during a meeting of the Lixnaw United Irish League. The meeting was about compulsory purchase and landlordism, and it throws light on the life of little-known landlord, James Edward John Julian, JP. His remark was backed up by Mr T Dowling, VC, who presided, ‘If all the landlords were like Mr Julian they would never want a compulsory purchase.’[1]
Michael Joseph Flavin, MP, mirrored the above during a speech given at a Nationalist meeting in Brosna:
To his own knowledge, Mr Julian was the only landlord in Kerry who, without outside interference, made a friendly and a fair bargain between himself and his tenants – a landlord who, in his opinion, was entitled to some consideration owing to the fact that he had no agent, and that he always lived in the closest and friendliest relationship with the tenants under him.[2]
James Edward John Julian was born in Cheltenham on 22 September 1854, son of Samuel Julian of Crotta House, Kilflynn, Co Kerry, Riversdale (Kilmorna House), Co Kerry and later of Swindon Village, Oakley Villa (now Burston House) and Beaufort Villas, Pittville-circus, Cheltenham.[3]
His mother was Georgina Mary, youngest daughter of merchant, Lewis Griffith Esq of Marle Hill, near Cheltenham.[4] He was educated at Cheltenham College (1864 to December 1873) and at Trinity College, Oxford. In 1876 he was called to the English Bar (Inner Temple). He lost his father on 1 December 1877.[5] In 1883-84, he was a member of the Veterans Rifle Volunteers and in 1890, resigned his post as captain of the 1st Volunteer Battalion Royal Fusiliers, City of London Regiment.
Julian’s mother, Georgina Mary Horniblow Julian, died in on 12 August 1889 at Gwynfa, Cheltenham aged 65. It appears that Julian took up residence in Ireland in the short years that followed. In 1895, writing from Abbeyfeale, he addressed a letter to the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette about fishing in the county.[6]
In 1898, James Edward John Julian Esq of Lismore House, Tralee, and Thomas McDonogh Mahony Esq, of Castlequin House, Caherciveen, were appointed to the Commission of the Peace for Kerry upon the recommendation of the Right Hon the Earl of Kenmare, Lieutenant of the County Kerry.[7]
Later that year, it was rumoured that Julian was buying a property:
We understand that Leebrook House has been purchased by Mr Julian, JP, Lismore House and that he intends residing in it in future. The price is stated to be £750.[8]
He was called to the Irish Bar in 1899 but had political aspirations.[9] In that year, he presented himself as an Independent Nationalist for West Kerry. A notice about his candidature with his manifesto appeared in the local press:
I am in favour of a large control over our own affairs being given to the Irish people
I am in favour of granting without delay the just demand now made for a Catholic University
I am ready to support any practical proposal which may offer a solution of the Land Question
I shall do my best to secure for the labourer sufficient land attached to his house without extra charge to the rates to encourage by technical education and other means Irish industries and manufactures
I will use my best endeavours to keep the rates low
I will do all I can to safeguard and forward your interests and those of our common country[10]
He had the full support of his tenants in the General Election of 1900, obtaining a third of the vote, losing to Thomas O’Donnell, National School Teacher, Killorglin:
We, the undersigned, being all the Tenants of Mr Julian, most earnestly and unanimously request the Electors of West Kerry to do all in their power to return him as their Member and we do so for the following reasons:
1. Unasked, he forgave all arrears on his property when he became his own agent two years ago
2. Unasked, he has reduced judicial rents 20 per cent. No tenant ever asked when in distress for assistance and was refused
3. Unasked, he subscribed to the Parliamentary Fund of the Lixnaw Branch of the United Irish League before there was a thought of a contest in Kerry. He is a Nationalist, and has been for a long time, and has signed the pledge to act with the Irish Party. He is in favour of Compulsory Purchase and has offered to sell his property[11]
He had an interest in current affairs. In 1900, he compared the state of affairs in the Transvaal to a passage from John Fletcher’s Women Pleas’d A Tragedy-Comedy produced three centuries earlier.[12]
Closer to home, he had concerns about afforestation. Writing from Ballygarry (otherwise Lee Brook) in June 1901, he asked, ‘Can we not through our local authorities arrange on some date next autumn for a tree planting day on the system so successfully adopted in the United States?’[13]
He was, unusually, in favour of his tenants purchasing their holdings. In another letter from Ballygarry in June 1900, addressing M O’Connell Esq, he wrote:
In answer to your communication of the 27th April, I beg to state that in the event of my tenants expressing a wish to purchase their holdings I would do my best to meet their views.[14]
In 1901, a weekly newspaper entitled New Ireland, founded in London in 1898 by George Martin Sheridan, carried a feature about Mr Julian. A reviewer remarked it was of some concern to Kerrymen for the biography of ‘Mr Jas E J Julian, Barrister-at-Law, Ballygarry House, Tralee, written by a well-known journalist writer and Kerryman, Mr P H MacEnery’ included some strong philippics on absentee landlordism.’[15]
Ballygarry House, Tralee, was evidently his residence at this time, one he seems to have shared with his sister, Catherine Maud Goodlake. On 6 July 1901, his 22-year-old nephew, Lieutenant Samuel John Garrard Goodlake, 4th Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers was accidentally drowned in Caragh Lake during an excursion. At his funeral, it was observed that ‘several tenants from the Julian property in North Kerry were in attendance on cars and on horseback, and were most conspicuous wearing large white mourning bands on their hats.’[16]
In 1902, Julian culled some interesting information about postal services in the 1770s from the Earl of Kerry’s family papers which was published in a local newspaper.[17]
He clearly had an interest in literary affairs:
On the initiative of Mr J E J Julian JP BL who is doing everything possible to improve the position of the people of the district, both materially and intellectually, a reading room is about to be established at Kilflynn.[18]
In 1903, the land question was being addressed. Julian was quick to act:
Following immediately on the passing of the Land Bill, it is gratifying to note that Mr J E Julian, BL is negotiating a sale with his tenants. Up to the present nothing has been definitely settled but considering Mr Julian’s past record as a landlord it may be confidently assumed that his tenants will have nothing to complain of as the result of a purchase. This is a good lead for the other Kerry landlords.[19]
The tenants on the Julian Estate were quick to defend their landlord when a rumour circulated that he had made ‘a really good bargain for himself’:
We wish to state that the figures which we here give are taken from the estate books of Mr Julian, and any person who has the slightest doubt as to their accuracy can see for himself as that gentleman will have no hesitation in allowing anybody interested to inspect his books.[20]
The tenants compared rent rolls on the estate from the year 1823 until 1897, when Julian took up the management, and ‘one of his first acts after having seen and interviewed his tenants, was to practically wipe out all the arrears’:
He has, furthermore, from time to time during the last six years given temporary reductions to the tenants to recoup them for any losses they may have sustained in consequence of bad harvests or other unforeseen difficulties in connection with farm management. And this present year he has given an all-round reduction of 25 per cent off the September Gale.
As far as the purchase of the estate was concerned, the sum total of what the tenants would pay was calculated at £252 instead of £385, in other words a 35 per cent reduction. ‘Again, the total valuation on the estate is £326, so that on an average the rents will be almost 23 per cent under the valuation’:
The game rights, mines and minerals on the estate will belong to the tenants, and it may be noted that the majority of them have an almost inexhaustible supply of turbary. On the whole, taking all the facts of the case into consideration, it must be admitted that the tenants will have nothing to complain of in the event of a purchase, and that Mr Julian and his predecessors have always acted generously and humanely towards their tenantry, never seeking to use the power placed in their hands to oppress the people … the terms which Mr Julian is giving are fair and just.[21]
Julian’s political agenda was always to the fore. In November 1904, writing from Kilflynn, he voiced an objection to the Agricultural and Technical Committee of Kerry County Council for refusing to continue paying an Horticultural Instructor ‘at a time when everyone is agreed that what Ireland wants is new industries.’[22]
At the end of 1904, Julian gave a New Year’s Eve dance for over 200 of his tenants at Kilfeighney. The celebrations took place at the home of Michael Mangan, Bedford, who lent his house for the occasion. A magnificent supper was enjoyed ‘as the old year and the new were joining hands.’ Dancing was kept up until 7am on New Year’s Day:
It was a most charming sight to see so many handsome boys and girls, their faces shining with mirth and happiness, dancing the reel of their country with such perfect grace and harmony, while no less delightful was it to see the kindly host, with his easy grace of manner, moving about amongst his guests, greeting now an old and respected tenant, sitting beside another with a few words of welcome, finding out a child to be made perfectly happy with a load of sweetmeats, not as landlord and tenant, but as the man whom they loved and honoured for his kindly nature and they whom he respects for their honest worth.[23]
‘One cannot help thinking with sorrow,’ wrote a correspondent, ‘how many homes rendered desolate and dreary this New Year’s Day by the absence of their loved ones, how many hearts aching for their home on a foreign shore, how many weary hopeless grey heads bent with a bitter tear over their poor supper in some godforsaken workhouse because landlords like Mr Julian are the rare exception, not the rule, in our country.’[24]
In 1905, Julian set his sights on the General Election of 1906. He appealed to John Redmond, outlining what he had to offer:
It if was my good fortune to get a seat in the House I should be able to devote my whole time to parliamentary work. I am unmarried and having a small income of my own I should be quite free from anything likely to cause interruption to or fetter my freedom and I should not require any financial assistance from the party funds. If I could be of any use in other ways as a speaker or organizer I should be very happy to do the best in my power.[25]
He addressed his West Kerry electorate:
I have the honour to offer myself as a candidate for the vacancy in the representation of West Kerry. I am a landlord, and refer you to my tenants for my character. I am in favour of Home Rule, Compulsory Purchase Bill, Catholic University, and Readjustment of the Financial Relations with England.
He set out his manifesto:
To get better Housing for the working classes and the betterment of their condition
To encourage home manufacturers and technical education and the Gaelic language
To work in the interests of the Kerry fishermen
To try to pass a Bill for the acquisition of land for working men’s dwellings in towns
To watch of the interests of the vintners of Ireland
He was defeated once again by Thomas O’Donnell but it did not dampen his ambition. In later years, in conjunction with running a Motor Garage in Tralee, he sought votes as candidate for the Lixnaw Division of the County Council and seemed ahead of his time with his agenda:
To get the spawning beds on the upper rivers properly watched
To obtain grants for fishermen
To improve the condition of labourers by extended schemes of housing
To aid the prosperity of farmers by keeping down rates which have assumed alarming proportions
To carry through a scheme to alleviate the damage done by floods and build a quay at Lixnaw
To support the principle that offices under the County Council be filled by competitive examination[26]
With the advent of the First World War, he gave his services first with the YMCA in France, and then with the French Red Cross (1916-1918). Shortly before (and during) he had been selling off his Kerry lands.[27]
After the war, he lived mainly in France and Spain. He returned to England from Spain in June 1929, seriously ill, and died on 3 November 1929 at a nursing home in Cheltenham, aged 75.[28]
Julian never married, and was survived by his sister, Mrs Garrard Goodlake, who died in British Columbia, Canada on 27 September 1930, and his brother, Rev Francis Lewis Julian, Kingsholme, who died on 26 April 1943.[29]
_______________
[1] ‘A Landlord’s View on the Matter,’ Kerry Weekly Reporter, 17 November 1900. During the meeting, at which the landlord was present, Mr Julian commented on the poor shape of government, that ‘it was a strange law that the government could carry a man from Kerry and try him in Belfast’ to which Mr Galvin replied, ‘You might be brought up yourself after today.’ [2] Kerry Evening Star, 8 December 1904. The meeting took place in 1904. Flavin continued, ‘A point he wished to deal with – and a point which had been preached from every landlord platform and sent forth from every rent office – was that the landlords could not get, by investing their monies in trust or other securities, more than three or three and a quarter per cent interest on the capital sum. He pointed out in Ballylongford, as he pointed out there that day, a living example of an Irish landlord who made a friendly and a fair settlement, and who invested his money in sound securities at 4 per cent. That landlord was Mr Julian, and he thought that that point would dispose of the rotten and unsound argument of landlords, and especially a landlord like theirs, who, he was told, was paying himself 5 and 6 per cent interest on his mortgaged property.’ M J Flavin MP was correcting a speech he had made the week before in Ballylongford. During that meeting, at which the audience was also addressed by W Lundon MP, W McMahon MCC, and J E J Julian, JP, Mr Julian ‘was loudly cheered.’ He said he considered it ‘an honour to be allowed stand on the same platform with a fighter like Mr Flavin, and that hero of a hundred fights, Mr William Lundon MP.’ Mr Flavin had informed those present that Mr Julian was not the worse off for having sold his property and Mr Julian confirmed this, and ‘hoped his tenants were none the worse off either.’ He said, ‘A new era was dawning for Ireland and he hoped in a few years the road would be clear for Home Rule – a parliament of their own … he hoped that in the future some humble place would be found for him in which he may be able to work for the good of the nation … and that the voice of Ireland would soon again be heard amongst the nations of the earth.’ See report of event in Kerry People, 3 December 1904. [3] ‘James Edward John Julian, barrister, was the owner of a large estate, Lismore House, near Lixnaw. His father had been Samuel Julian of Crotta House, who had moved to Cheltenham in 1824 at the age of four after the family home, Riverdale, had been burned down in an outrage of those times’ (From A Century of Politics in the Kingdom A County Kerry Compendium (2018) by Owen O’Shea and Gordon Revington). Colonel Henry Kitchener, father of Sir Herbert Horatio Kitchener, a friend of Pierce Mahony of Kilmorna, purchased Crotta House from Samuel Julian Esq whose father, in the early part of the century, had purchased the estate from the representative of the Ponsonbys who had been granted Crotta at the settlement of 1688. (Reference, Miss A M Rowan, Kerry Evening Post, 17 July 1915). Riversdale, later known as Kilmorna, was again destroyed by fire in 1921. [4] The couple married at Prestbury on 29 July 1851. ‘Lewis Griffiths, of Marle Hill, a gentleman who, after a prosperous career as an East Indian merchant, was for thirty years chairman of the old County of Gloucester Bank (now merged with Lloyds). It is interesting to note that Mr Griffiths above referred to was the father of no fewer than four boys who were amongst the 129 boys who entered Cheltenham College when it was founded in 1841. Mr Griffiths was much interested in the foundation of the college and manifested his interest in other practical ways besides sending his own boys to be educated there.’ From obituary, The Echo, 4 November 1929. [5] Samuel Julian Esq, BA, JP for County Kerry, ‘of Kilfeyhney, Co Kerry and 1 Oakley Villas, Cheltenham’ died at Southsea, aged 57. In 1861, the foundation stone for a new church was laid at Lixnaw on the site of the old one which was built in 1805. The architect was J J McCarthy Esq and the building contract was won by Messrs Braidwood, Westland Row, Dublin. Samuel Julian Esq gave ‘the free use of Kilfeighney quarry whence the cut stone is being procured.’ See the Tablet, 14 September 1861. [6] Pall Mall Gazette, 10 December 1895. [7] Kerry Sentinel, 9 April 1898. Names associated with Lismore House include Martelli, Collis, Lunham, Huggard and Prendeville. Martelli: Valerie Bary (Houses of Kerry) suggests that Lismore was erected by Captain Norton Martelli of the 69th Foot, who married at Kilcolman, Co Kerry, on 20 October 1789 to Letitia, daughter of Sir William Godfrey of Bushfield, Co Kerry and Agnes Blennerhassett. Captain Martelli died at Lismore House in December 1819. Mrs Letitia Martelli died at Bray, the residence of her daughter, Mrs Crawley, in 1850. Their son, Francis Godfrey George Martelli (1792-1836) was in possession of the estate in 1820 when a marriage settlement was drawn up for marriage to his cousin, Charlotte Anne, eldest daughter of (late) Horatio Martelli Esq of Norfolk-street, London (their only daughter, Catherine Greenwood Martelli (1824-1910), niece of Horatio Francis Kingsford Holloway Esq of Marchwood, married Rev Edward Ansley Peck, rector of Houghton, Huntingdon). Other children of Captain Martelli include eldest daughter, Anne Elizabeth, who married David Syme Esq of Dundalk and died on 18 March 1870 at Monasterevan aged 63; second daughter Agnes, who married at Blennerville, Co Kerry in August 1836 to Robert Crawley Esq of Richard’s-town, Co Louth; William Godfrey Martelli (1801-1875) of Clonliffe, Co Dublin, who married in Lurgan Church in 1832 to Mary, youngest daughter of Joseph Wilson Esq of Lurgan (their eldest son, Charles Norton Martelli Esq married Elizabeth, daughter of Arthur Greene Esq of Mountjoy in January 1860); John Godfrey Martelli (1809-1880); Thomas Chaloner Martelli (1811-1896) and Horatio de Courcy Martelli (1812-1898) of New Zealand. The last named married in Jersey on 19 June 1854 to Jane (b 30 October 1829), one of the twelve children of Robert Leeson and Elizabeth Marshall Leeson. Horatio died intestate on 21 September 1898 and was buried in Purewa Cemetery, Auckland. His wife, Jane Martelli, predeceased him; she died on 1 May 1890 and was buried in Purewa Cemetery. In the same cemetery are the graves of Claude Leeson Martelli (1861-1909) and Florence A C Martelli (1867-1894). In 1909, leave was granted to sell land in the Horatio de Courcy Martelli Estate. From this document (held in Castleisland District Heritage IE CDH 15) it is discerned that Horatio left at his death in 1898 five children surviving: Sydney (or Sidney) Montague Martelli of Tauranga, New Zealand; Horatio de Courcy Martelli, Palmerston North, New Zealand; Alfred Godfrey Martelli of Waiheke Valley, Wairarapa, New Zealand; Claude Leeson Martelli, Auckland; Charles Rawson Martelli of Tamaki East, near Auckland. Claude Leeson Martelli, who died on 22 January 1909, was survived by his wife Elsie Butler Martelli and their son, Leeson Martelli, a minor. Collis: The case of [Robert] Lunham v Busteed (Kerry Evening Post, 25 March 1862), an action for the recovery of rates at Lismore and Lisatanavalla, gives some background to the Collis association: ‘Edward Collis Esq, being seized of the lands of Lisatanavalla (Lissatanvally), did, by lease bearing date 24th May 1798, demise those lands to one William Wilson, to hold for the lives of the said William Wilson, John Collis of Barrow, and Barry Denny, eldest son of the Rev Maynard Denny, and for the life of the survivor of them at a yearly rent … The estate of the said Edward Collis became vested in his son and heir-at-law, William Collis, who sold the estate to John James Hickson Esq and his estate was sold in the Encumbered Estates Court and bought by Edward Day Stokes Esq … William Wilson the lessor in the foregoing… set up to be sold, and George Gun Esq, the grandson of William Wilson, became the purchaser including the leasehold interest in Lisatanvalla …’ Huggard: Mary Agnes Hickson, writing about the genealogy of various Kerry families, (‘The Borough of Dingle, 1749,’ Kerry Evening Post, 18 January 1893) notes the following relating to the Huggard family: ‘Richard Meredith of Dicksgrove, whose name is signed to the Return of Writ of Election for the Borough of Dingle in 1749, married a daughter of the Knight of Kerry, by Elizabeth Crosbie, sister of Lord Brandon, but left no surviving male issue so that his estate passed to his next brother, William, who married a daughter of the same. William Meredith served the office of Hight Sheriff of Kerry in 1736 and was, by his Geraldine wife (who through the O’Briens, Viscounts Clare, and FitzMaurices, Lords Kerry, descended from the Plantagenets), great-great-grandfather of the present owner of Dicksgrove, who married Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Huggard Esq of Lismore House, near Tralee, Clerk of the Crown and Peace for the County Kerry, and has issue. Mr Huggard is descended in the female line from John MacGillacuddy of Gortnescarra [Gortnascarry] … The name of Huggard or Hogard or Hugard appears in East of England records at an early period. One of the family was an officer of the household of Mary Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry the Eighth … ’ In another article, Miss Hickson writes, ‘Charity, eldest daughter of the MacGillacuddy and his wife, Catherine Chute, married Edward Collis of Lismore House near Tralee and had, with other issue, an elder son William, High Sheriff of Kerry in 1816. He married his cousin, Catherine Collis, and had with other issue an elder son, Samuel Collis (d 12 April 1897), retired Major in the Royal Munster Fusiliers, and William, who married Miss Stephenson, and had surviving issue an only child Francis’ (Kerry Evening Post, 16 (and 26) August 1893). Stephen Huggard, third son of Thomas Huggard Esq, Quartermaster in the Kerry Militia, married Mary, daughter of Thomas Healy Esq of Knocknamuckalough, and niece of the Right Rev Dr Egan, Catholic Bishop of Kerry, at Molahiffe on 31 January 1850. They had at least seven children including Richard Huggard, who died at Lismore House from typhoid fever in March 1890 in his 35th year. Stephen Huggard died at Clonmore Terrace, Tralee on 7 December 1900. Midwood: In 1903, the name Charles Haig Midwood appears at Lismore House. Col Midwood, a calico printer from Manchester, had a hunting accident during his residence there. He later moved to Devonshire but the effects of the accident caused him to commit suicide at Westward Ho, North Devon, in 1905. Midwood, age 46, left a widow, Agnes. Bourke: Richard Bourke, Local Government Board Auditor, appears in 1905 and 1906. Baker/Weston: In 1907, 32-year-old Mrs Norah Baker of Lismore House, Tralee, committed suicide at the Imperial Hotel, Cork following the death of her husband, George Henry Baker, in 1904. Miss Maude Weston was also in residence with her at this time. Prendeville: In 1908, Mrs Huggard instructed the sale of Lismore House and lands (which had been purchased under the Ashbourne Act eleven years previously) in two lots containing 86 and 104 acres respectively (details of sale in Kerry Evening Post, 4 March 1908 and Killarney Echo, 18 April 1908). Lot 1, which included the house, was purchased by Patrick Prendeville of Droumtacker for the sum of £750. The following year, Mr Prendeville (who died on 19 July 1920) published the following notice: ‘To be let, Lismore House, Tralee, commanding a lovely view of mountain and sea. The house contains a spacious hall and staircase, large drawing-room, dining-room, breakfastroom, smokeroom, library, 8 spacious bedrooms, 2 lavatories, bathroom, hot and cold water laid on; servants’ apartments, kitchen, sculleries, wine cellars; also magnificent out-offices, consisting of stabling for four horses, coachhouse, etc. The house is beautifully situated on lovely grounds with kitchen garden, orchard, greenhouse, etc. A charming gentleman’s residence. For particulars apply to P Prendeville (Kerry Weekly Reporter, 1 May 1909). Stack: In 1918, the following notice appeared: ‘I Augustine (usually called Austin) Stack of Lismore House, Lismore, Tralee, in the County of Kerry and now of Belfast Jaol, a candidate at the present election to serve in parliament for the West Kerry Division of the County of Kerry do hereby give notice that I have appointed J D O’Connell of Lismore House, Tralee and of 6 Nelson Street, Tralee in the County of Kerry, Solicitor, to be my Election Agent’ (Killarney Echo, 30 November 1918). On 26 February 1923, John D O’Connell, solicitor, was arrested at Lismore House by military troops of the Free State and was detained at Hare Park Internment Camp. Lismore House is now in complete ruin. [8] Kerry Weekly Reporter, 15 October 1898. Leebrook House is named Ballygarry on the later OSI map. [9] A review (Londonderry Sentinel, 2 April 1949) of The Old Munster Circuit (1948) by Maurice Healy described Julian as one of two Englishmen who ever came over to practice in Ireland. ‘We believe that Mr Julian never practised to any great extent either at the English or the Irish Bar’ (The Echo, 4 November 1929). [10] Kerry Sentinel, 1 March 1899. [11] Kerry Weekly Reporter, 6 October 1900. ‘Electors of West Kerry, consider the merits of both candidates, and ask yourself who will you vote for. Can you hesitate? We appeal to you to vote for Mr Julian and the best interests of the Tenant Farmers of West Kerry. Signed Michael Mangan, Chairman UIL. Lixnaw; John Fuller, Kilfeighney; Thomas Barton, Knocknakilla; Denis McCarthy, Kilfeighney; Michael O’Connell, Ballincraheen; Mrs Quilter, Ballincraheen; Arthur Parkinson; Robert Stack, Tullig; Michael Stack, Leam; Denis Riordan, Leam; Denis Riordan, Leam; Mrs Catherine Barry; Mrs Anne Barry; Mrs James Lynch; Mrs Elizabeth Fuller; Stephen Fuller, Glenoe; William Fuller, Glenoe; William Riordan, Glenoe; Denis Daly, Leam; James Quilter, Leam; Edmond Daughton, Leam; Maurice McElligott; Denis McElligott; John McElligott, Glenlema; Maurice Reidy; William McElligott, Glenlema; Michael Molyneux, Leam; Maurice McElligott, Dromaddra; Matthew Dillon, Dromaddra; Daniel Sullivan, Dromaddra; Thomas Roche, Rockclare; Timothy Horgan, Cloghane; John Sheehy, Cloghane; Mortimer Donoghue, Knockclare.’ [12] Letter to the editor of the London Evening Standard, 4 June 1900. ‘We must not be too hasty. Remember, sir, the wrong and violence you have offered us, burnt up our frontier towns, made prey before you both of our beasts and corn, slain our dear subjects, opened the fountain-eyes of thousand widows that daily fling their curses on your fury. What ordinary satisfaction can salve this?’ [13] Cork Examiner, 2 July 1901. [14] Kerry Evening Post, 9 June 1900. [15] Kerry Evening Post, 11 September 1901. The newspaper, founded in May 1898, aimed to have no political agenda: ‘A new Irish journal is to see the light on the 14th inst. It is being projected by a Galway man, resident in London, who intends to make it what is best described as a magazine newspaper. Special articles on various subjects of national interest by well-known Irishmen are to be published, and I am informed that one of the first contributions to the new venture will be Dr Sigerson. Politics, as such, are to be avoided, but a Parliamentary letter by an Irish MP is to be a standing feature of the paper. Special attention is to be devoted to Gaelic sports and pastimes. The name of the journal will, I am informed, be New Ireland (Irish Daily Independent, 4 May 1898). It received favourable reviews: ‘It gives promise of a long and lusty life. It is printed on green paper and is admirably arranged, its contents bearing exclusively upon Irish subjects’ (Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, 4 June 1898). One commentator hinted at input from Wexford MP James O’Connor (1836-1910): ‘Unless we are greatly mistaken this is the identical stuff supplied by Mr James O’Connor MP to the Wexford Free Press. If Mr O’Connor can be non-partisan when dealing with the Parnellite Party he must have changed wonderfully of late’ (Irish Independent, 23 May 1898). A newspaper in Tuam discussed the man behind the venture: ‘New Ireland is the title of a new penny London weekly of which Mr George M Sheridan of Chancery Lane is proprietor. Mr Sheridan is a well-known finance agent and company promoter and prospector – a Mayo gentleman – a Castlebar man, hailing from Pheasant Hill’ (Tuam Herald, 21 May 1898). The newspaper was short-lived; George Martin Sheridan died on 29 December 1902: ‘I regret to announce the death of Mr George Martin Sheridan, which occurred yesterday at his residence at Bedford Road, Clapham, after a long illness. The deceased gentleman was a member of a well-known West of Ireland family, and brother of the late Mr J B Sheridan, Postmaster, Castlebar, being the eldest son of the late John Martin Sheridan, of Pheasant Hill, Castlebar, who was the first Catholic magistrate appointed in Connaught after the passing of the Emancipation Act. Mr Sheridan was resident in London since 1876, and was connected with various financial undertakings. He was also proprietor of ‘New Ireland’ the Irish weekly newspaper started by him in London. There will be a Requiem Mass at the Redemptorist Church, Clapham previous to his interment at Kensal Green Cemetery’ (Freeman’s Journal, 30 December 1902). In 1903, presentations were made to Frank Sheridan and his younger brother at the Shamrock, Fetter Lane, London on their departure to Canada. They were described as sons of ‘the late proprietor of New Ireland’ (Irish Independent, 22 April 1903). [16] Kerry Evening Post, 10 July 1901. Catherine Maud, only daughter of Samuel Julian Esq of Kilfeighney, Co Kerry and Oakley Villas, Cheltenham, who married on 16 May 1876 at St John’s Church, Cheltenham, Lt William Henry Garrard Goodlake (of HMS Warrior), son of Rev Thomas William Goodlake (died 14 October 1875) rector of Swindon, Gloucs and his wife Mary, second daughter of Rev William Price, rector of Coln St Dennis, Gloucs and Farnborough, Berks. Lt W H G Goodlake (appointed to HMS Shannon in June 1877) died in Hong Kong on 27 June 1878 at age 29, in which country he was buried in Hong Kong Cemetery, Happy Valley. His younger brother, John Price Goodlake, died at Bournemouth the year earlier on 9 January 1877, aged 22. Lt William Henry Garrard Goodlake and Catherine Maud Julian had two sons, Thomas Julian Goodlake and Lt Samuel John Garrard (Garrett) Goodlake. Mrs Garrard Goodlake died in British Columbia, Canada on 27 September 1930 and was buried at the Royal Oak Burial Park Cemetery. Her surviving son, Thomas Julian Goodlake (1877-1951), died on 3 January 1951 and was buried in the same cemetery. [17] ‘North Kerry in the 18th Century,’ Kerry Weekly Reporter, 5 April 1902. The content is as follows: A century and a quarter is a long time, and if we read old letters we come across statements which help us to realise how different things were then to what they are now. Some time ago I had access to and spent many days in reading a collection of papers and letters whose owner was the last Earl of Kerry, who died in the year 1819. The collection covered a period more or less of twenty years previous to 1791. I culled several facts from them relating to Kerry. They were mostly taken from letters written to the Earl by his agent, the Rev Christopher Julian. Here are a few of them, relating to the postal arrangements of the period. This to the Earl from his agent: 27 November 1774. Your postage will run very high this year. The charge of your last two packets only is £1 7s 8d. Mr P’s letter one shilling and eightpence, paid tenpence, forward tenpence, in all £1 11s. This was, I believe, concerned with letters from Paris where the Earl was then living, but to what town they were addressed in Kerry I do not know. For though the agent was living near Listowel, as a matter of fact at Tullamore, we learn from the next extract that there was no post office at Listowel. 27 November 1777. I am afraid your Lordship could not obtain a post office at Listowhill (sic) but by being yourself at the expense of the posts and the postmaster’s salary. There are but two post offices in the county, Tralee and Killarney. The first is perhaps the worst and most irregular in the Kingdom, yet no redress can be had for it. The last has been set up and supported by Lord Kenmare’s bounty, and the aid of a populous town and neighbourhood. From a letter written eight years later, in 1785, I gather there was a post office at Listowel, but when it was set up and at whose expense there is no information in the letters. From the next extract, dated 18th Nov 1778, things appear to have been unsatisfactory, to say the least: If your Lordship has any acquaintance with Lord Claremount, it may be of some use to make some complaint of the shameful piece of curiosity and of the general irregularity of our posts, which seldom in summer and never in winter come in from Dublin till the sixth evening, though the conveyance to Cork and Limerick is very quick and our distance from those places not more than fifty miles. Think of that, ye people, who are annoyed if the Dublin mail of today is an hour late. Perhaps the posts were not so very much to blame, for in a letter of the sixteenth of January 1782, we find the agent stating that he had arrived in Dublin after a disagreeable journey of six days. Probably he had made the journey on horseback. There were other things which upset the postal arrangements in those days. In 1778 Lord Kerry wrote to the agent: The London letters of the 14th inst, just arrived (in Paris) bring an account that the Dublin packet which sailed on the 7th inst was taken. As this is dated the 23rd of March we may infer from it that the letters from London to Paris took nine days to do the journey, which is now done in nine hours, just as the train will now do in six hours what it took the agent six days to complete. Who took the Dublin packet I do not know. Maybe it was the great Paul Jones, who used to worry the English Navy in those days, after the manner of De Wet. In September 1779, we find the Earl writing to the agent as follows: I beg of you let me know whether an account I see in the papers of a landing in Kerry, under Paul Jones is true and all the circumstances of it. I am sorry to say I could not find the answer to this letter. Again, under date the fifth of March, we learn that the mail from London to Dublin was robbed in England, and all the Irish letters carried off. So much for the references to the postal arrangements of the time. I have a few facts also about Listowel at that period, which may be of interest to those who dwell in that town, of which another time. Can anyone tell me who Aboin, Caliph and Clorinda Fitzmaurice were? [18] Kerry Weekly Reporter, 29 November 1902. [19] Kerry Evening Post, 5 September 1903. [20] Letter to the Editor of the Kerry Reporter, 5 December 1903, signed by Thomas Barton, Michael Mangan, Denis McCarthy, Mary Quilter, Michael O’Connell, Robert Stack, Arthur Parkinson, Maurice McElligott, Mike Molyneaux, Mrs Michael Stack, Daniel Regan (eleven of whom were Mr Julian’s tenants). The letter in full: ‘At the present time when the number of years purchase, the percentage, and the probability of sale in the various estates are freely discussed and commented upon, it may not be inopportune to give a few facts and figures in connection with the estate of Mr J E J Julian BL and the terms which he is giving his tenants as the notion seems to have gone abroad that that gentleman has made a really good bargain for himself. In the first place we wish to state that the figures which we here give are taken from the estate books of Mr Julian, and any person who has the slightest doubt as to their accuracy can see for himself as that gentleman will have no hesitation in allowing anybody interested to inspect his books. To begin with, the rent roll in the estate in the year 1823 amounted to £497 10s 10d and in the year 1850 to £582 8s 7d an increase of £84 17s 9d. It should be borne in mind that in those years the raising or lowering of the rents rested with the landlords and in the great majority of cases they took advantage of this power in order to place on the shoulders of their harassed and downtrodden tenants rents which ground them in the dust. In this particular estate the rise in the rent was not a very exorbitant one, when we consider the circumstances of the country at that period, and the almost unlimited power in the hands of the landlords. When the opportunity arose, the majority of the tenants as a matter of course went into the Land Court, the remainder had their rents fixed by agreement. This reduced the rent roll from £582 6s 7d to £385. Owing to various causes the tenants were unable to meet their demands and in the hands of an agent the arrears accumulated up to £800. In the year 1897, Mr Julian took the management of the estate into his own hands and one of his first acts after having seen and interviewed his tenants, was to practically wipe out all the arrears. He has, furthermore, from time to time during the last six years given temporary reductions to the tenants to recoup them for any losses they may have sustained in consequence of bad harvests or other unforeseen difficulties in connection with farm management. And this present year he has given an all round reduction of 25 per cent off the September Gale. Now, coming down to the real question at issue, namely the purchase of the estate, the sum total of what the tenants will have to pay as peasant proprietors will be £252 instead of £385, or approximately 35 per cent reduction. Again, the total valuation on the estate is £326, so that on an average the rents will be almost 23 per cent under the valuation. The game rights, mines and minerals on the estate will belong to the tenants, and it may be noted that the majority of them have an almost inexhaustible supply of turbary. On the whole, taking all the facts of the case into consideration, it must be admitted that the tenants will have nothing to complain of in the event of a purchase, and that Mr Julian and his predecessors have always acted generously and humanely towards their tenantry, never seeking to use the power placed in their hands to oppress the people. In conclusion, we will only add that when everything is thought out and carefully weighed it must be granted by every honest-minded man that the terms which Mr Julian is giving are fair and just ones, and if the other landlords throughout the country meet their tenants in the same spirit, we are confident that the land question will be speedily settled and that the people will be contented and prosperous.’ [21] ‘The tenants on the Julian Estate, Glenoe [Glanoe, Kilfeighney] Co Kerry, purchased their holdings on terms which will make their annual instalments 35 per cent, or 7s in the £, less than their second term rents’ (Irish Times, 19 November 1903). [22] Kerry Reporter, 5 November 1904. [23] ‘Dance at Kilfeighney,’ Killarney Echo and South Kerry Chronicle, 14 January 1905. [24] The correspondent concluded, ‘Where landlords will be remembered only as a bad nightmare, Mr Julian’s name will live in the hearts of his tenants and their children as their truest friend, their wisest councillor, their ablest supporter in all concerning their welfare … it will be remembered by many as the happiest New Year’s Night they ever enjoyed.’ [25] Letter dated March 1905 held in the National Library of Ireland, John Redmond Papers. [26] Kerry Reporter, 23 May 1914. Julian regretted being unable to call on his electors as he had in the past as he had the care of an extensive business in Tralee. In 1913, he was general manager and secretary of Tralee Motor Garage Ltd, 17-19 Edward Street, Tralee (later owned by Benner). He had been co-opted back onto Kerry County Council in February 1910 (A Century of Politics in the Kingdom A County Kerry Compendium (2018) by Owen O’Shea and Gordon Revington). [27] He sold Garrynagore, a holding of eleven acres, which adjoined Crotta Creamery at Abbeydorney; some land in which Curraheen water had been laid in the parish of Rathass ‘it adjoins the sportsfield, and is bounded on the north by the railway line, and on the south by the public road, on which it has a great length of frontage suitable for building …Tralee is growing so rapidly and suitable building ground in select localities is so scarce that this holding should prove a secure and profitable investment’ (1912); in 1916 number 5 Edward Street ‘’within three doors of the new Post Office and two minutes’ walk from the Railway Station … the former owner Mr Donovan has recently spent £70 in its renovation.’ [28] Obituary, Glouchestershire Echo, 4 November 1929: Mr James Edward John Julian JP of Co Kerry, Ireland who died in a Cheltenham nursing home on Sunday aged 75 was at Cheltenham College from 1864 to December 1873 and had a notable career both in school and in sports. He rowed in the college boat in 1872, was a member of the gymnasium team in 1872-73-74 and of the football XX in 1873. In the latter year he won the Ladies’ Prize (for the largest aggregate of points in events of the college sports) and the same year won the Wylie Scholarship, of which he was the first holder. At Trinity College, Oxford, he took his BA degree with honours. In 1879 he was called to the English Bar (Inner Temple) and in 1899 to the Irish Bar. Mr Julian was a JP for Co Kerry, with which county his family was long connected, his father being the late Mr Samuel Julian, of Crotta House, Co Kerry. This gentleman long lived in Cheltenham where he came in 1824 at the age of four years, the family having been burnt out of their home, Riversdale [subsequently Kilmorna House, which was destroyed again by fire in 1921] Co Kerry, in one of the outrages of those times. They lived for some time at Swindon village, and Mr Samuel Julian married a Miss Griffiths, daughter of Mr Lewis Griffiths, of Marle Hill, a gentleman who, after a prosperous career as an East Indian merchant, was for thirty years chairman of the old County of Gloucester Bank (now merged with Lloyds). It is interesting to note that Mr Griffiths above referred to was the father of no fewer than four boys who were amongst the 129 boys who entered Cheltenham College when it was founded in 1841. Mr Griffiths was much interested in the foundation of the college and manifested his interest in other practical ways besides sending his own boys to be educated there. The subject of this notice was born in Cheltenham, to which town his father, after spending a portion of his life on his property in Ireland, returned, residing a considerable time at Oakley Villa (now Burston House), Pittville-circus. We believe that Mr Julian never practised to any great extent either at the English or the Irish Bar but apparently he had political aspirations, for some time before the war he contested West Kerry as an Independent Nationalist. In this contest he was not successful. In 1883-84 he was a member of the Veterans Rifle Volunteers and when the Great War broke out he gave his services first with the YMCA in France, and then with the French Red Cross (1916-1918). Since the war he had lived mainly in France and Spain. From Spain he returned to England in June, seriously ill; and from that time until his death he had been under treatment at nursing homes. The late Mr Julian, who was a bachelor, is survived by a brother and a sister. The brother is Rev F L Julian of Kingsholme, Hales Road, Cheltenham, who was curate of Holy Trinity, Forest of Dean, from 1878 to 1888, perpetual curate of Minsterley, Salop 1890-91, and SPG chaplain at the Azores 1891-92. The sister is Mrs Garrard Goodlake, of Victoria, British Columbia.’ [29] Rev Francis Lewis Julian, youngest son of Samuel Julian Esq, was married to Edith Lucy, third daughter of Captain Edward Thompson, 95th Regiment, Overton House, Cheltenham, on 23 April 1889. The following is noted for genealogy: Died at Swindon near Cheltenham, Honoria, relict of James Julian Esq of Tullamore House, Galey, Listowel, county Kerry and beloved mother of Samuel Julian Esq of Crotto, Kerry (Limerick and Clare Examiner, 27 January 1849 and Northern Standard, 10 February 1849). Died at Rockhampton, Queensland, James Julian Esq youngest son of the late James Julian Esq of Tullamore, Co Kerry (Tralee Chronicle, 2 December 1870). The following article about the Julian family by James Franklin Fuller was published in the Kerry Evening Post, 13 September 1913. ‘Christopher Julien, 1821, mentioned in your issue of September 10th, was brother of Stephen, and both were elected burgesses of Maryborough in 1751. The former describes himself a ‘son of an ancient burgess’ and the latter ‘son and grandson of a burgess’ (see Index to Parliamentary Records, vol 9, page 2063, Record Office). Their sister, Elizabeth, married the Rev James Bland of Derryquin. The father was Christopher Julien of Tullamore, Listowel (agent to Lord Kerry) and their mother was Mary, daughter of Colonel Kirkby or Kirby (her sister, Jane, married James Julien, brother of the agent). Their grandfather was Christopher Julien, Governor of Queen’s County (who married Castiliana, daughter of Stephen FitzGerald of Monet – ‘Yellow Tom,’ by Martha Gilbert) who was the son of Colonel Alan Julien, of The Ridge, Maryborough. Martha Gilbert, above-mentioned, was the daughter of Henry Gilbert, of Kilminchy (by Martha, daughter of John Pigott of Grange, Queen’s County) son of Sir William Gilbert, Governor of Leix (by his wife, Thomasine Peyton) and grandson of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. The wife of John Pigott, above-mentioned, was daughter of Sir Thomas Colclough of Tintern by Martha, daughter of Archbishop Adam Loftus. I possess a quarto volume, entitled A True Account and Declaration of the Horrid Conspiracy against the Late King, his present Majesty, and the late Government. As it was ordered to be printed, 1685. On the title page is written, Christopher Julian bought this book the year of one thousand seven hundred and five; and on another page and different writing, Here lyes the Good and Servisable hand of Christopher Julian of his son, Nathaniel does Be as good as he was in Every Thing. I am certain that I will – 1784-5. Christopher, the owner of the book, was evidently the man who married Miss Kirby, and he who scribbled the other sentence was his son (a brother of the Rev Christopher, ancestor of the present representative of the family). The old volume has a Herbert book-plate, impaling the arms of Brewster. Dean Bland (the first of the name in Kerry) married Lucy, daughter of Sir Francis Brewster. If I were not the great grandson of the Rev James Bland and Elizabeth Julien, I should be disposed to present the book to the present representative of the Julien family; but I find I am too genealogically selfish to part with it.’
