File 31 - Correspondence relating to sixth earl, Lawrence Michael Harvey Parsons (1921-1937)

Identity area

Reference code

IE BCA ROSSE/T/31

Title

Correspondence relating to sixth earl, Lawrence Michael Harvey Parsons (1921-1937)

Date(s)

  • 1921-1937 (Creation)

Level of description

File

Extent and medium

Context area

Name of creator

(1866-1946)

Biographical history

Toler Roberts 'Rob' Garvey was the third generation of Garvey land agents. He took over the land agency business, with its headquarters at his residence at Tullynisk Park, Birr, in 1914 on the death of his father, Toler Roberts Garvey Sr. He looked after the estate at Birr Castle and other estates of gentry in south Offaly and north Tipperary during the revolutionary period 1916-23 and beyond. As a result he managed the estates through turbulent times, notably the requisitioning of Birr Castle by the Free State Army during the Irish Civil War (1922-23). He died at the age of 80 on 1 April 1946 and is buried at Clonoghill cemetery, Birr.

Name of creator

Biographical history

Name of creator

Biographical history

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Name of creator

Biographical history

Name of creator

(1882-)

Biographical history

Daughter of Sir Cecil Lister-Kaye, 4th Baronet, and Beatrice Adeline Lister-Kaye, she married William, 5th Earl of Rosse in 1905, with whom she had three children, Michael, Bridget and Desmond. Following Lord Rosse's death from injuries sustained in the Great War, she subsequently married Major de Vesci of Abbeyleix. During the war years at Birr Castle she organised a prisoner of war parcel service, mainly for soldiers from the Irish Guards, her husband's regiment.

Archival history

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Letters to the Viscountess de Vesci, mother of the sixth earl, to her brother-in-law, the Hon. Geoffrey L. Parsons, and to the agent for the Rosse estates, Toler R. Garvey Junior, (the only person permanently on the spot at Birr during the minority of the sixth earl), concerning the Civil War as it affected Birr Castle and other places; and also including a letter from the Countess of Bandon about the destruction of Castle Bernard, Co. Cork, and the kidnapping of her husband, Lord Bandon, 1921. The principal topic however, is the Free State government’s responsibility to the Rosse family for loss and damage incurred as a result of the Free State army’s occupation of Birr Castle from 1922 to 1924, which the shrewd and resourceful Garvey construes as extending to the cost of Lord and Lady de Vesci’s London house, No. 1 Hyde Park Street. Included in the bundle is a copy of a letter from Garvey to the Irish Land Commission arguing that compulsory acquisition of any more of the home farm at Birr would serve as a major disincentive to the sixth earl’s taking up residence and therefore giving widespread employment there on his coming-of-age, 1926.

Includes quotation for removal of six vans of furniture from Birr Castle to London by John Dooly, & Sons, Birr (April 1923)

Includes list of goods taken over by the National Army 28th September 1923, Property of the Trustees of the Earl of Rosse. Value of £235.16.0

Includes draft claim against Free State Government seeking rent and remedy £3000 and rent of Hyde Park (£600).

Includes letter from Office of Public Works settling claim for £3502.2.11 (7 August 1925)

Includes letter from Captain J.F. Hollins, Quartermaster No 2 Brigade, Athlon to Toler Garvey: ‘I wish to inform you that the Troops presently in occupation of the castle will evacuate same as from the 28th inst. In accordance with our regulations it will be necessary for a representative of the Owner, a representative from the Board of Works and of the Military Authorities to examine the premises after evacuation and compile a report as to its condition in comparison to that in which it was taken over by the Military (12 August 1924)

Includes a list by A. Panton Watkinson, painter and decorator, Stephens Green, Dublin, of wear and tear and damage in Birr Castle due to the military occupation. (July 1923)

Includes list of articles missing from Birr Castle May 1927.

Also includes letter from the Committee involved in arranging a plaque to be erected at the archway to the front of Birr Castle in memory of the three young men executed by Free State Troops in 1923. Appends text of the address given by Margaret Hogan, local historian, on the events of 1923. (2003)

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

By appointment only. Contact Offaly Archives at [email protected]

Conditions governing reproduction

May be reproduced in accordance with provisions of the Copyright and Related Rights Acts (2000). No reproduction online, in print or broadcast without express permission of copyright holder.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

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Finding aids

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

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Rules and/or conventions used

ISAD(G)

Dates of creation revision deletion

July 2019, Sarah Dunning

Original descriptions by A.W.P. Malcomson, Calendar of the Rosse Papers (Dublin, 2008)

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Shortall, L. Sources for the study of the revolutionary period in King’s County/Offaly (1912-1923) in Offaly Heritage 9, 2016

Accession area