CARNEW
CARNEW
– Kevin Lee
The assassination of Coollattin land agent, Frank Brooke, 30 July 1920 In 1887, Francis Theophilius Brooke became the eleventh of the fifteen consecutive land agents who guided the Coollattin estate through 282 years of smooth operation from 1695 to 1977. During the dark years of the mid-nineteenth century, none were more adroit stewards of lands, resources and tenant farms than Robert Chaloner Sr. and his son Robert Chaloner Jr. In their combined 26 years of administration, they served the population of the estate in times better and worse, richer and poorer, abundance and famine. Father and son shared a highly developed sense of moral obligation, a respect for transparency, and an ability to make consistently wise decisions in difficult circumstances. As representatives of the Earl Fitzwilliam, they had day-to-day responsibility for the entire Irish enterprise, and that required constant interaction with the tenants on Coollattin lands. While issues regarding Coollattin leases were often brought to them by their own estate staff, many of the Chaloners’ interventions were in response to appeals for justice made directly by the tenants themselves. Those cases often concerned matters of a deeply personal nature. Thanks to their scrupulous record keeping, we still have access to the full range of problems they dealt with and the solutions they engineered.
Frank Brooke. Photo: Courtesy of Kevin Lee
7th Earl Fitzwilliam. Photo: Courtesy of Kevin Lee
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