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Original bundle of letters and papers concerning the 4th Earl’s patents for a machine which he had invented for removing leaves and other matter from turbines, 1901-4; together with notes on his experiments with electro-plating, 1908. [Not in chronological order.]

Papers about Birr Church of Ireland church and parish, including historical compilations of the rev. Dr Samuel Hemphill, Rector of Birr, covering the period 1612-1903. The compilations consist of a small quarto notebook containing MS. Copies of 1642 depositions concerning the neighbourhood of Birr; another containing a history of Birr Church of Ireland church (taken from vestry books, parish registers, etc), 1760-1903); and two succession lists of Birr incumbents, 1612-1912. The sub-section also includes a series of printed annual reports on the parish and on the diocese of Killaloe and Kilfenora, 1900-10.

Letters and papers of the 4th Earl as Chancellor of T.C.D., including his patent of appointment, 1885.

Largely empty, quarto volume into which the 4th Earl has stuck ‘puzzles’ and other jokes, one of the jokes being a characteristically illegible letter to him from Lord Ashbourne [Lord Chancellor of Ireland], c.1886-1903; and largely empty folio volume, dated 1823, but containing [a child’s?] ms copy of parts of the Book of Survey and Distribution for Co. Galway, [c.1880s?]

Original bundle of letters and papers of the 4th Earl concerning a bill to prevent rabies by muzzling dogs, including numerous answers to a circular which, clearly, he had addressed to Poor Law Unions all over Ireland seeking information about the incidence of rabies within their respective localities. [Not in chronological order.]

Personal and military papers of William Edward Parsons, Major Lord Oxmantown, (from 1908 the fifth earl of Rosse) including commissions; illuminated addresses from the Heaton and Shipley tenants on his coming-of-age, 1894; and from the Birr Parish Vestry on his marriage, 1905; a fairly savage attack on him in The Midland Tribune at the time of his return from the Boer War in 1900 to join the newly formed Irish Regiment; letters from him to Toler R. Garvey during the Boer War and the first World War; a page recording the signatures of Lord Oxmantown and other Irish notabilities who attended a shoot at Ashford, Cong, Co. Mayo; during a visit by the Prince of Wales, 1905; and the fifth earl’s London address book, 1911.

Also includes copy of his birth certificate (1873); commissions and applications to Officers’ Reserve (1908); appeal to be allowed to appear before Medical Board in Dublin, not London (1916); detailed medical reports on the extent of his wound, by shell to the head, where a palm-sized piece missing, damage to his speech, comprehension and gait causing 80% disability with epileptic attacks; his death certificate plus further obituary of the fifth earl by Michael Pegum prepared for the Kildare St and University Club for publication in a book of memorials to those members of the Club who gave their lives in WWI and WWII (2010).

Includes letters to Toler R. Garvey (‘Rob’) from the front describing poisonous gas attacks in the trenches (26 April 1915 and 11 May 1915).

Letters, tradesmen’s accounts, inventories of plate, specifications, tender and other papers of the 4th and 5th Earls, all concerning the contents of Birr Castle or improvements and alterations to Birr Castle and demesne and
to houses and cottages owned by the estate – the installation of motors and turbines, plumbing, lighting, heating, redecorating, ‘hacking off’ plaster-work, etc. [Not in chronological order. For other inventories of plate, etc, see H/8 and T/83.]

Letters and papers of Lord Oxmantown, subsequently 5th Earl of Rosse, as a trustee of the marriage settlement of the 5th Earl of Malmesbury. [Not in chronological order.]

T.C.D. exercise book [of the 4th Earl?] on ancient and British history, with related printed papers, and the 4th Earl’s degree in Physics.