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--- thomas_murray_prior [2022/01/17 17:13] – [Thomas and Catherine Murray Prior] judith
+++ thomas_murray_prior [2022/07/30 12:18] – judith
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 Thomas M-P was High Sherriff of Queen’s County from 1799, and a Member of the Irish Parliament for Lesburne and {{http://www.libraryireland.com/topog/B/Bannow-Bargy-Wexford.php|Bannow}} (remembering that this is still a time when only the wealthier male landowners voted in parliament and they could control multiple seats). He was buried at [[wp>Newry|Newry]], County Down (now in Northern Ireland) under the name of Murray on 5 November 1854.((‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry.)) His wife  Catherine was the elder daughter of Joseph Palmer Esq. of Cuffsborough, Queen’s County; he commanded a militia corps as a Colonel.((John & John B. Burke, //A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland: M to Z//, London: Henry Colburn Publisher, 1846, p.1076; Bernard Burke, //A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry//, Melbourne: E.A. Petherick, 1891-95, p.49; Robert M-P, //The Blood Royal of the Murray-Priors//, ms written 1901-05, p.12, NLA; Thomas Bertram M-P, //Some Australasian Families Descended from Royalty//, ms, n.d. p.5, NLA.))
-Catherine and Thomas married when young, doing so by eloping to [wp>Gretna_Green|Gretna Green]], the famous town in Scotland for runaways who could marry under the more lenient Scottish marriage law. Presumably to quash gossip, the couple had a later, conventional marriage ceremony in Donnybrook, Dublin.((‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry; Robert M-P, //The Blood Royal of the Murray-Priors//, p.12, NLA; Thomas Bertram M-P, //Some Australasian Families Descended from Royalty//, ms, n.d., p.5, NLA.)) They had five children: two daughters who died young, [[Ellen and Catherine]]; and three sons ([[thomas_murray-prior|Thomas]], [[Lodge Morres]], and [[Hervey Morres]]).((Robert M-P, The Blood Royal of the Murray-Priors, p.12, NLA.)) Their mother Catherine died in Dublin and was buried there in approximately 1802, when her youngest son (Hervey) was three years old.((‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry.))\\
+Catherine and Thomas married when young, doing so by eloping to [wp>Gretna_Green|Gretna Green]], the famous town in Scotland for runaways who could marry under the more lenient Scottish marriage law. Presumably to quash gossip, the couple had a later, conventional marriage ceremony in Donnybrook, Dublin.((‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry; Robert M-P, //The Blood Royal of the Murray-Priors//, p.12, NLA; Thomas Bertram M-P, //Some Australasian Families Descended from Royalty//, ms, n.d., p.5, NLA.)) They had five children: two daughters who died young, [[Ellen and Catherine]]; and three sons ([[thomas_murray-prior|Thomas]], [[Lodge Morres]], and [[Hervey Morres]]).((Robert M-P, The Blood Royal of the Murray-Priors, p.12, NLA.)) Their mother Catherine died in Dublin and was buried there in approximately 1802, when her youngest son (Hervey) was three years old.((‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry. Note that My Heritage website says their was another daughter Charlotte, but also claims she was born in 1806, four years after her mother died.))\\
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 A record in the Irish National Archives is of a complaint Thomas Prior made about a magistrate in 1829. No further details are given online - a task for anyone who can spend time in the Irish Archives in person!((NAI REFERENCE: CSO/RP/OR/1829/654; File of papers relating to complaint made by Thomas Prior, Rathdowney, against constable Joshua Finlay; SCOPE & CONTENT: Letter from Thomas Prior, Rathdowney, Queen's County [County Laois], to William Gregory, Under Secretary, outlining his complaint against constable Joshua Finlay. Additional letter from William Wood, magistrates’ clerk, Borris in Ossory, to Prior, informing him that his complaint will be investigated. Also letter from magistrates Charles White, R[H] Fitzgerald and William Hamilton, assembled at the Petty Session’s Room, Rathdowney, to Francis Leveson Gower, Chief Secretary, outlining their report in relation to same; EXTENT:3 items; 8pp; DATE(S):3 Jul 1829-17 Aug 1829))
-This Thomas Murray Prior was the last to be able to describe himself as 'Esq. of Rathdowney'. Rosa Praed stated that the estates were 'bankrupt'((Rosa Praed, //My Australian Girlhood//, p.ADD )). If the estate was taken over by creditors, it was not a straight-forward process. Thomas's son entered into a legal agreement in 1827, 1845 and 1846 that appears - to my non-legal eye and without further context - to indicate that he put down a bond of £1,000 which he would pay if the other party (Richard Newcomen) could prove his title to Rathdowney. The document states: //The true intent and meaning of the Bond you this day executed to me for the sum of one thousand pounds Sterling is that in case you shall not succeed in establishing your title to the Lands of Rathdowney in the Queens County that then & in such case s[ai]d. Bond shall be null and void and of no effect but in the event of your Establishing your title to said Lands that there and in such case same shall remain in full force as virtue in law//.((NLA, M-P papers, Mss7801,Box 4, folder 20/1, special set 14)) \\
+This Thomas Murray Prior was the last to be able to describe himself as 'Esq. of Rathdowney'. Rosa Praed stated that the estates were 'bankrupt'((Rosa Praed, //My Australian Girlhood//, p.ADD )). While the estate was taken over by creditors, it was not a straight-forward process. Thomas's son entered into a legal agreement in 1827, 1845 and 1846 that appears - to my non-legal eye - to indicate that he put down a bond of £1,000 which he would pay if the other party (Richard Newcomen) could prove his title to Rathdowney. The document states: //The true intent and meaning of the Bond you this day executed to me for the sum of one thousand pounds Sterling is that in case you shall not succeed in establishing your title to the Lands of Rathdowney in the Queens County that then & in such case s[ai]d. Bond shall be null and void and of no effect but in the event of your Establishing your title to said Lands that there and in such case same shall remain in full force as virtue in law//.((NLA, M-P papers, Mss7801,Box 4, folder 20/1, special set 14)) \\
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 More light is shed on this by an article on Laois houses. It claims that "Leet’s directory lists Water Castle as the seat of Thomas Prior esq in 1814, who had been living at Attavilla in Borris in Ossory in 176[?], when he was letting a mill in Rathdowney, and was sheriff of the Queen’s County for 1799, and Captain of the Rathdowney Infantry. Sadly in 1824 he was up in the Insolvent Debtors Court in Maryborough [later named Portlaoise]."