Colonel Wingfield’s Estate, Enniscrone, Co Sligo (By Kevin McLoughlin

THE CORRAN HERALD • 2021/2022 Colonel Wingfield’s Estate, Enniscrone, Co. Sligo

by Kevin McLoughlin

Colonel Edward Wingfield was born in 1771. He inherited the extensive Scurmore Estate in the barony of Tireragh from his father (Richard Wingfield, 3rd Viscount Powerscourt). The Scurmore estate extended widely along the Moy Estuary to Ardnaree, Ballina. The land first came into the possession of the Wingfields around the year 1600 when Lewis Wingfield came to Ireland with the English army and obtained from the Crown a grant of lands in Co. Sligo. Wingfield took an active interest in his tenants - the old school on the Ballina side of Killanley on the Quay Road was initially a dispensary built by Wingfield to assist in healthcare and he converted a residence into a schoolhouse about a mile from Scurmore. He sought a strong police presence on his lands and built a station in Corballa which he leased to the police and is quoted as saying “disconcerting Patrick Howley and his faction and be able to keep the Molly Maguire family from settling in our district”. It didn’t always go to plan however, as he later preferred charges against Constable Gardiner in which he alleged he was guilty of disobedience of orders and disrespectful conduct, neglect of duty, being absent without leave and other manifestations of insubordination. He claimed that on several Sundays in July 1825, Gardiner failed to alert the district magistrates (Wingfield and Reverend James Burrowes) to outbreaks of disorder in the area under his jurisdiction. These related to the area around Culleens, Corballa and Carrowhubbock where ‘a number of idle and disorderly people collected at unlicensed public houses and illegally assembled horse racing and ball playing in profanation of the Sabbath’. In the 1840’s he enlarged Scurmore House and built farm offices (which are still there). He preferred Protestants in positions of responsibility and had a man called Burrow manage his farm at Scurmore. The beef cattle were sent by ship from Sligo port to Liverpool. His fishery at Scurmore (still visible) was managed by William Holliday and its annual catch of salmon was also mainly transported to Liverpool. A progressive landlord (though some might have said aggressive landlord), Wingfield set about squaring (stripping) his land in the 1840’s which meant many tenants had to level their own houses and move from one location to another – some entirely removed from the land and some small tenants dispossessed in the process. He provided some assistance for tenants to emigrate, though still on a small scale as the famine had not yet arrived. Some tenants surrendered their land for compensation alone as squaring peaked by the mid-forties. Wingfield also set about drainage of his estate with the deepening of some streams and allowed a limited burning of some low-lying bottoms for reclamation. A lot of roadworks took place at that time to access the newly acquired squared holdings. By August 1846, Wingfield wrote “there was full employment here and most of the cottages thatched and inhabited and the old ones eradicated”. Yet some tenants were in financial difficulties and some evictions did take place e.g., those of Patrick Howley and Pat Manning who blamed the potato failure, which had been extensive on the Wingfield estate in late 1845, for their difficulties. Some evictions were to encourage others in arrears to surrender their holdings and save him time and money in gaining possession. When the potato crop failed again in 1846, the outlook for collecting rents was gloomy. The potato crisis was being aggravated by the Corn Laws and when the laws were repealed by Prime Minister Robert Peel - in part due to the famine in Ireland, Wingfield (a Tory) was very unhappy, writing “I regret we lost our battle of Protection, but with some desertion from our ranks we have kept our character”. However, Wingfield had some meal distributed to tenants at his own expense and later decided to build a corn-mill. Two builders applied to do the job – Michael Howley from Ballina, a ‘Holy Roman’ he wrote in a letter and Evans Grosse from Ardnaree, a Protestant – the latter selected to build the mill at Ballyholan, near Ardnaree. One of Wingfield’s larger tenants grew fields of turnips which helped alleviate some of the starvation. Wingfield’s efforts to use the government’s new schemes of famine relief to carry out public works such as building roads were largely not successful as his proposals were rejected by the Board of Works – possibly as Wingfield would be the greatest beneficiary of the proposed roadworks. Some drainage works were approved but too late by the end of 1846 the poor were in a wretched state with 13 to 15 daily deaths in the poor house. In 1847 – the worst year of the famine – Wingfield organised a programme of assisted emigration from his estate mainly from the port of Sligo to North America. If his tenants were in arrears of rent, he allowed them to sell whatever property they had on their holdings to finance their departure. By 1848, due to death and other forms of depopulation – voluntary surrender or eviction – many of the holdings on Wingfield’s estate lay idle and going to waste. Yet he believed it was “better to have an empty house than a bad tenant” in correspondence to his deputy “you acted very judiciously by putting such a rent on the 40 acres

Scurmore House later became Scurmore Hotel. Here is an artist’s impression of the hotel in the middle of the last century. Image courtesy of http://www.enniscrone.ie/scurmore_house

Priest Duffy wants to get into his clutches, as to prevent any further application from him, for you know they are not the description of persons I would think of having as tenants”. Wingfield preferred to have English farmers settle on his lands and was writing about this in 1849 “preferring Protestants at all times”. He also sensed unease about times to come; “we are all anxiety about the intended revolution in Ireland, that in France being now an old story, but tho’ the priests seem to be gagged by the Pope’s mandate I see no prospect of peace or tranquillity in Ireland”. Wingfield was now spending more time in England or at his home in Dublin, though he still maintained an active interest in his Sligo estate and his tenants. He respected the industrious tenants but had little time for the idle, especially if they were heavy drinkers. He continued to support his dispensaries in Killanley and Ballina and the Fever Hospital in Ballina. While his principal residence was in Dublin, Edward had occasionally lived in Moyview, (Ringroe) until 1840 and later in Scurmore House. He fished for salmon using nets on the Moy Estuary and in 1854 caught 4791 salmon valued at £600. In 1857 a case was brought against Wingfield by Mary Anne and Andrew Clarke who claimed they had 1000 year lease (having an annual payment of £250 to Lord Arran) to fish in the tidal part of the river - the jury found in their favour, ending Wingfield’s fishery in the area. Edward died in 1859 leaving a legacy that included other estates including one near Tubbercurry. He had one daughter, Harriet from his marriage to Harriet Westenra and she married Sir William Verner. On Wingfield’s death, his Dublin estates passed to the Verners and merged with their estates in Armagh and Tyrone, while his other estates reverted to the Wingfields (as he had no son). Some of the estate was sold in the late 19th century when the family seemed to reside mostly in England. In the 1870s John Wingfield Stratford, nephew of Edward, owned 6555 acres in Co. Sligo, 2361 acres in Co. Mayo, 2213 acres in Co. Clare, 2502 acres in Co. Limerick, 201 acres in Co. Wicklow and 2 acres in Dublin city.

References

Thanks to documents belonging to the late Canon Tom Finan, Professor of Ancient Classics, Maynooth College, for the information on Wingfield’s Estate - from communications between Wingfield and Steward/Kincaid who were the agents for his estate (Steward/Kincaid Papers). Townlands on Wingfield’s Estate - Cabragheel, Bartragh, Muckduff, Scurmore, Carrowcardin, Knockagower, Carrowurlar, Ballymoghany. Dooneen, Rinroe, Lecarrownaveagh, Rathmurphy, Bunnanilra, Newtown, Carraun, Knockbrack, Ballyholan, Behy More, Behy Beg, Breaghwy, Lissard More, EllaghBeg, Graffy and the townland of Coolrecuill (1300 statute acres) west of Tubbercurry. Some of the Estates records come from Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland 1850 - 1858.