T.E.LAWRENCE'S IRISH ANCESTRY AND RELATIONSHIP TO SIR WALTER RALEIGH - AN UPDATE

  In 2000 I published the above 153-page paperback book, in a limited edition, all copies of which have since been sold. It was briefly mentioned in my blog post of Tuesday, January 8th, 2008. Copies may occasionally however be found on Internet selling sites. As there is no likelihood of any form of a reprint, this blog gives me an opportunity to publish further material that would have gone into a revised reprint.

  At the end are many photographs of properties and locations mentioned in the book, which would not in any other circumstance have been published.

PREFACE

Pages 5-6. Add:
RAWLEY/RALEIGH A toponymic of English origin. The family was established in the late 16th century in co. Limerick, where Rawleystown, formally Ballinrawley. locates them. There is evidence to suggest that the de Rallye, alias de Rolly, who was decribed in 1307 as of Ang, co. Limerick, was their ancestor. Rawley has occasionally been used as an anglicized form of Rahilly (see 'More Irish Names')
FETHERSTON An English toponymic well known in counties Roscommon and Westmeath since the Cromwellian period. This name is also sometimes an abbreviated form of Fetherstonhaugh, another north of England toponymic.
CHAPMAN This English occupational name is fairly numerous in all provinces of Ireland, except Connaught, and there too it appears in co. Roscommon in 1629. Other 17th century references are in Westmeath, Wexford, Clare and Dublin. There are occasional references to le Chapman in Irish records as far back as the 13th century.
Sources: The Surnames of Ireland by Edward MacLyacht, and also his Irish Families: Their Names, Arms & Origins - see Bibliography.

THE PERCEIVED EARLY CHAPMAN FAMILY ANCESTRY.

Add:

Page 8. Lawrence wrote to Edward Eliot on 16th June 1927:
"Walter Raleigh, for whom I have a certain regard, gave it [land] to my father's first Irish ancestor. I have a feeling that it should be kept in the line."
Letter to Lawrence from John Buchan dated 13th July 1927 (probably in answer to Lawrence's to him on 20th June 1927):
"I cannot tell you how deeply interested I am in what you tell me about your family. I am delighted to think that you can claim far-away kin with Sir Walter Raleigh, who has always been an object of my affection ever since I won a prize for an essay on him at Oxford."
Lawrence wrote to John Buchan on 26th December 1928:
"How strangely like the dying verses of Montrose are to Raleigh's 'Blood shall be my body's balmer.' (I quote from memory, but I expect you know the poem)."

WERE THEY CHAPMANS?

Pages 22-25. Bere Ferrers church, Devon, and the Roger Champernowne memorial c.1449.

Pages 26-29. Modbury church, Devon, and memorial to Philip Champernowne  -1684 and his daughter Margaret  -1715.

Effigy of Sir John Champernowne 1457-1503.

Pages 29-32. Dartington old church, Devon, and Champernowne memorial of 1578. Does this include John and William Chapman of Kerry?

THE PLANTING OF MUNSTER IN THE 1580s

Page 41, line23, amend to read 'subsequently'.
Page 42. Add:
Lawrence wrote in a letter from Karachi to Edward Garnett, dated 1st August 1927, "The Smerwick massacre was more Grey than Raleigh. R. was picturesque, and a braggart. People ascribed to him more action and less sensibility than the truth. Did you ever read his poem?"
Page 43, ad end of first paragraph add:
This monument has carved on its reverse side in Irish script (exactly reproduceable here):

I scuimhne

oh un an oIr

samhain

1580

Page 51, add:
23rd May 1582 Paris - Charles Doyly to Secretary Walsingham: "I wrote 15 days since to Mr Champernon at Toulouse, advertising him of the money you sent him."
21st August 1589 - Captain Chapman's band shipped for the Low Countries in the ship 'Roger and Catherine' of Newcastle.
7th February 1600(?) - George Whitton to Dudley Carleton, Puddle Wharf. "Commend me to Mr Champernon."
(Source: Calendar of State Papers - Domestic. 1580-1625 Addendum.)

THE BARONY OF CORKAGUINY

Page 73, add:
6th September 1588 - Dominick Ryesse, the Suffrein of Dingle Cush reports that on Thursday afternoon in Blaskets Sound (3 miles west of Dingle), 2 ships and a frigate arrived.

LOCATIONS OF CHAPMAN GRANTS IN MUNSTER
county KERRY

Page 78, ACKRIE/ACKRY. Add: Acres can be easily viewed at close distance from Minard.

Page 79, BALLY McDONNELLS. Add: Whilst visiting here in 2000, the author was pleased to meet a helpful Mr Scanlon.

Pages 82-87 DINGLE town and harbour.

Page 88, line 18. Amend 'fir' to read 'for'.
 BLASQUET/BLASKET ISLANDS




Page 89, FARREN EDYLLE. Add: Farren was originally spelt FEARRAN = Land.
Page 91, MENARDE. Line 19, amend to read 'storeys'. Add: The Grid ref. of the well of St John the Baptist is V553991, being with its simple Latin cross. Tobar Eoin Baiste, a dry stone built well about 150 metres north-east of Kilmurry church. On staying at Minard during his 2000 researches, the author visited the ruins of Kilmurry church, and was advised that a carved stone had been recently found in a nearby bungalow; and another stone was in the wall of a shed.
RATHETOWE alias ARRAGENSIS. Add: The small ruinous church in the cemetery may date to the 15th century, and is partly built with stone from a more ancient church near to Ratto.

county CORK

Page 96. Timolage or Timoleague, c.1780 and 2000.

THE MUNSTER REBELLION OF 1598

Page 99. Add: 9th January 1588/9. Sir William Herbert to Sir. V. Browne. Answers 14 objections brought against him, including Receipt of the rents of Corkydwiny. The reparations of Currins.
24th March 1588/9. Nicholas Browne to Sir Edward Denny. He is discouraged at Sir William Herbert's likelihood to have Ballymacdaniel.
25th June 1589. 'From my castle of the Currins.' Sir Charles Herbert to Sir William Herbert. 'I intend to obtain the lands of Bally M'Danyell by exchange or otherwise.'
Page 102, second paragraph. Add: The lands of Ballyloughrane were granted to Maurice Stack in 1596. The following year, Patents of Pardon were passed in favour of Maurice and his brother Thomas. In 1600 Maurice Stack was murdered in Beal Castle (on Lady Kerry's orders) and Thomas was hanged the next day by Lord Kerry.

CHAPMAN LATER FORTUNES IN IRELAND

Page 131. Add: At the end of December 1796 a French fleet arrived off Bantry Bay. Amongst the militias raised  was that of Westmeath at Bandon in June-July 1797, and it saw some action.

Page 140. At KILLUA the Clonmellon Lodge in Gothic style, and the similar gate-lodge.

KILLUA CASTLE cemetery. Ruins of church, and headstones of Montague Chapman 1853-1907, Maria Chapman  c.1850-1898, Dora Chapman c.1850-1921, and Benjamin Chapman 1865-1914.






Page 142. WILLIAM CHAPMAN. Add: His Club was said to be the Reform. His estate comprised:  Westmeath: 5,042 acres, value £3,398; Meath: 1,386 acres, £1,217; Mayo: 2,664 acres, £88.
Page 144. Add: In the 1911 Dublin census, the residents of the house at 39 Northumberland Road in Pembroke West, Dublin are shown as:
Edith Sarah Hamilton Chapman. Age 63. Church of Ireland. Born Dublin.
Eda J. L. Chapman. 36. C of I. Born Dublin.
Ros Isabel Chapman. 32. C of I. Born Dublin.. 30. C of I. Born Dublin.
Florence Luis Chapman. 30. C of I. Born Dublin.
Mabel Cicell Chapman. 29. C of I. Born co. Westmeath.
Bridget Blaney. 33. Catholic. Cook. Single. Born co. Kildare.
In Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Oficial Classes for 1915, the 7th Baronet's (T. R. T. Chapman) heir presumptive was his brother Francis Vansittart Chapman D.L., J.P.(born 1850), co. Westmeath. Sheriff 1890. Club: Arthur's, and Kildare Street, Dublin. At South Hill, Delvin, co. Westmeath. He died unmarried in 1915.

The entrance doorway of South Hill, co. Westmeath, with one of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary. 1999.

RECAPITULATION

Page 149. Add:

27th January 1924. TEL wrote to Florence Hardy: "But that picture of Killua . . . surely that was Frampton property. Am I to think of it as a gift (once I meant to earn money & buy the place; but now I'm wiser & want only to buy Cloud's Hill . . . I've earned the worth of it in the cottage); it's one I'd value very much, but I hardly like to assume it, when it may be only a loan. If it's a gift, then please who's gift - for I'd owe a letter of thanks. Will you be good enough to enlighten my darkness?" This referred to Killua Castle in co. Westmeath, north-west of Dublin. The property belonged to another branch of the Chapman family, and was never inherited by TEL's father, Thomas Chapman, whose younger sister Caroline married her cousin Sir Montague Richard Chapman of Killua, the 5th Baronet. The title, but not the Killua property, passed to Thomas Chapman in 1914. No reply to this letter is known. Had the picture come fom the Frampton family Collection? But see 18th May 1924 below.

Page 149. Add: Lawrence was to include a Raleigh poem in his posthumous book Minorities.

  Jeremy Wilson in his Lawrence of Arabia: The authorised biography, on pages 789 and 1130 quotes from a TEL letter of 16th June 1927 to Edward Eliot, in which Lawrence mentions what he understands about his Chapman ancestry. And in his Appendix I, Wilson deals at some length with Lawrence's ancestry and his immediate Chapman family fortunes.

BIBLIOGRAHY

Pages 152 et seq. Add:

Orlans, Harold  T.E.Lawrence. Biography of a Broken Hero.  McFarland & Co. Inc, North Carolina  2002.

MacLyacht, Edward  The Surnames of Ireland  Irish Academic Press, co. Dublin  1989

MacLyacht, Edward  Irish Families: Their names, Arms & Origins  Helicon Ltd, Dublin.  1957

BACK COVER

Penultimate paragraph. The author is no longer Secretary of the Weymouth Branch of The Royal British Legion.

Last paragraph. The author is no longer a Vice-President of the T.E.Lawrence Society, having been made instead an Honorary Member for services to the Society.