Looking for information on the Powell family, in Cork and ?

Hi Linz, I may be able to help you with some information about this family from the Registry of Deeds. My Powell ancestors are from Limerick and probably not related to yours but I take note of anything about Powells in Ireland. I see this is an old message so won't go into any more detail unless I get a response from you. Regards, Lori

Dear Lori,

Thank-you so very much for your posting!

How exciting to hear from you.

I would be most interested to see where Mary Powell's father's family is originally from.

And any details of Mary Powell's mother.

Any information regarding the Powells would be much appreciated.

Thank-you again!

Yours sincerely,

LINZ. 

Dear Linz,

I'm pleased that you saw my message! It would be easier to communicate by email. My email is loried101@gmail.com  

The first document I have found seems to be the marriage settlement of John Powell of Sea Court. (Memorial 293348 from the Registry of Deeds)  Unfortunately it is difficult to read and a bit obscure but it seems to indicate that John Powell married Rachel Sealy (daughter of John Sealy of Currahavern(?) in the county of Cork on (or about) 28 April 1792. I've also found that John Powell had a brother Robert who lived in Cork city. Any further information that I find is likely to be less interesting but I shall read through all the relevant memorials of deeds. 

Regards

Lori

Dear Lori,

Many thanks for you prompt reply.

I now have another family name to look into: Sealy! It seems they were Anglo/Irish/Norman  in Cork and Limerick from the

1500's. I found a link about possibly the same Robert Powell you mention.

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=756002.0.

BTW is this your Powell family? Hassard Powell : Birth bet 1644 -1650 - Cork, Ireland

Death May 1685 - Mitchelstown, Limerick, Ireland

Mother Jane Herbert

Father Giles Powell 1618-1692

And what about this theory? 

Powells were also found at Banlahan in Cork from 1683. They traced back to the Powell Penkelly family in Wales.

Powell in Ireland could also be an anglicization of the Gaelic Mac Giolla Phoil or Guilfoyle sept in Offaly. The name here meant “son of the servant of St. Paul.”

Dear Lorin, anything you have found would be of interest.

Thanking you in anticipation,

~Linz.

Hi Linz,

I think there was more than one Robert Powell in Cork city at that time so no way of knowing if that was the correct one. I'm now not absolutely sure that he was John's brother, I need to search through documents more thoroughly. Certainly a Robert Powell was a witness to one of John's deeds. At present I think we are looking at Robert Powell who was a pewterer, almost certainly the son of another Robert who was also a pewterer. Robert Powell the elder had a wife named Mary. I suspect that they may have been your John Powell's parents but don't know if it will be possible to prove it. 

Hassard Powell was a distant relative of mine. His father Giles Powell (~1618-1692) was the brother of my ancestor Robert Powell (~1615-1674). (Y-DNA testing has confirmed this research). They were rumoured to have come originally from Oswestry in Shropshire, England or another rumour is that they were related to Judge John Powell of Gloucester. Still working on that!  I have written a history of my Powell family and would be pleased to send you a link to it if you would email me so I have your email address. 

I'll try to attach to this message the image of the memorial of John Powell's marriage settlement. Memorial 293348 - it begins about half way down the first page. 

There are several memorials about Mary Powell's marriage settlement which I may attempt to send later - it seems that John Powell was quite wealthy. Have you seen the pictures of Sea Court on the internet? It is a lovely house. 

Regards, 

Lori

Hi Linz, 

I am now certain that John and Robert Powell were brothers. Although I have not found anything which clearly states this, there is evidence because of the proximity of some of the properties they each owned/leased. Then I found Betham's abstract of the will of their father, Robert Powell pewterer who died in 1769 which states that he had sons John and Robert. I think the relevant marriage for Robert Powell senior is to Mary Austin in 1728.  So, if I am correct, I would guess that John Powell of Sea Court may have been quite advanced in years by the time of his marriage in 1792. 

Have you actually seen the will of John Powell of Sea Court? I see they have a copy in Cork city archives. (catalogue entry attached)  I would guess that several of the items listed in this collection are relevant for you. 

'Home' for your Powells seems to have been the parish of St Peters in the NW of the city of Cork. 

Regards,

Lori

Hi Linz (and Lori),

Perhaps I can help here as I live at Sea Court.

Robert Powell Jr was the son of Robert Powell Sr - a Welsh immigrant to Cork who set up a Pewter business in Cork and Bandon (small town 15 miles SW of Cork city).  Robert Jr continued this business and appears to have successfully invested in land.  Robert Jt's brother John was much younger and inherited his brother's quite extensive estate in 1769 including the lands around Sea Court.  John built the mansion at Sea Court in 1786 and married the daughter of a neighboring landowner.  Mary, his only daughter and heiress, married Henry Longfield in 1813 and, with her dowry, built Waterloo House near Mallow, in north Co Cork.  Mary's second oldest son, another Henry, inherited Sea Court after John died.  The Longfields continued to live at Sea Court until 1920.

-Ian

Dear Ian,

How thrilled was I this morning to see your IRO message with all the details about the Powell connection.

Thank-you so very much for your input. I am SO grateful 

that folks like you (and Lori) make Ireland Reaching Out such a success 

 for Irish-connected waifs and strays like me, who struggling to make sense

  of fragments of family history from afar.

The funny thing is I was in Cork in August 2022 on a once- in- a-life- time road trip hunting down family history, and I

ALMOST came down to Butlerstown to see the beautiful Sea Court, however, we sadly ran out of time.

And you live there at Seacourt!  By the way, is it currently up for sale?

My main question left is, do you know where I can find out the name of  Mary Powell's (Longfield) mother, from the

neighbouring landowner?

Thank-you so much again Ian.

All the best,

LINZ

Hi Linz,

I bought Sea Court in late 2006 - it is not for sale and it is private.  However, if you are in Ireland again you are welcome to visit.  Send a message.

Mary Powell's mother was Rachel Sealy of Curraheen townland (John Powell lived in the neighboring Ballinvrokig townland).  Rachel's father was John Sealy.

Margaret O'Dwyer's book "Principal Houses of the Parish of Barryroe" describes Sea Court as well as John Sealy's house.

Happy Thanksgiving,

-Ian

Dear Ian,

Thank-you so much for your new prompt response.

I feel slightly foolish because I had not looked at the Powell family history thread on Ireland Reaching Out for AGES,

and just now when I looked back at the messages, of course Lori had mentioned Rachel Sealy previously.

I have also found a Sealy link here: https://landedestates.ie/estate/2582.

Apologies Lori if you had also sent that link before !

          Thank-you so much for your kind offer to visit. It would have been quite lovely to have visited Sea Court as Mary

Powell Longfield obviously had a deep attachment to the place. It looks so pretty in the photos. I really long to see the

view out to the Atlantic Ocean.

         I am rusty on actual details at present, as  for the past year I have been following other parts of my family 

tree, however, I think she may have given birth to more than one child there, and of course, she died there. 

        We visited Waterloo House at Mallow where she brought up her large brood of children, and the current friendly

owner welcomed us inside, and shared stories, which was so kind.

         To have come from the other side of the world, specifically to touch base with ancestral roots, and have warm  Irish 

hospitality helping us on our search was quite special.

         By the way, thank-you for your Thanksgiving wishes. I do recall an American family bought Sea Court and I wish you

Happy Thanksgiving also, if that is you, and even if it is not.

        My ancestors migrated to New Zealand and where I live there are many feral turkeys, besides  peacocks and

pheasants, but no-one eats them. Thank-you again Ian, regards Linz.

Hi Linz,

Sorry, I thought you were American hence my Thanksgiving wishes.  No, we are Irish - the previous owner was American.  It has been a long time since I visited New Zealand (1998) but I fondly remember it as a beautiful country.

Looking at photos of Waterloo, I see a similarity between Mary's birthplace and her new house. I'm going to leave you with today's view to the Atlantic ocean that Mary must have seen by the garden wall.

PXL_20220915_143120608.MP_.jpg

-Ian

Dear Ian,

I am so grateful for your "reaching out" and the photo sent  is very much appreciated, thank-you from the bottom of my

heart.

I like the fact that Mary's grandfather was an enterprising and successful  Welsh merchant, it is a welcome relief amidst all

the other grand stories which flood my family tree.

By the way do you know where there may be any portraits or photos of portraits of any of  Powells or Longfields ?

I wish you well,

Thank-you again,

Yours sincerely,

Linz.

Sorry Linz, I have never seen any portraits of the Powells (nor of Henry Longfield).  It appears that the family has either died out or emigrated.  I did try and contact a Longfield descendent from Mallow who lives in England, but I never heard back.

It is possible that some family portraits survive at Longvielle House in Mallow (now a hotel), you could ask them.

Best of luck,

-Ian

Dear Ian,

Thank-you for your suggestions regarding portraits and so on.

I was hesitant to respond due to this being a public forum, however I will just say we were refused any form of contact

with Longueville House ( I had written to them prior to my travels) and also  a couple of friendly Big House owners nearby

did not encourage us to attempt a visit.

There is a privately published  book on the Longfield family. Too expensive for me.  I paid on-line  to listen to an interview

with an elderly Anglo Longfield reminiscing about a few things back in Ireland but it was a waste of time and money, and

most uninformative.

On another note, it is a strange thing when we know that before photographs anybody who could had portraits painted

for posterity. These families we are writing of would have most definitely had them!

When we went on our Irish Ancestral road-trip last year, the beautiful Georgian bed and breakfasts we stayed in had

their family portraits in pride of place.

However, who knows what happens in families, fires, floods, famine and flight, to family mementoes and large paintings,

especially in the crazy upheaval of what was going down in County Cork in the 19th century and early 20th?

Here in NZ there are NO portraits of family . A copy of a photo of my beloved Longfield (Waterloo House) ancestor as an

elderly woman, and one of her husband (a Roche) as an old man, no doubt taken in Auckland, New Zealand is all I have.

They left Ireland in 1879 (!!?!) with their grown-up family. Their youngest child, my great grandfather was 15.

Little did they know the hardships they were heading for, but there was, as you know, absolutely  no future for them in

Ireland.

I like to think that her kind (and formerly pretty ) face is from her Powell ancestry. We know that the Longfields at Waterloo

House were seen locally as good people and hence their house was not torched  in the early 20's.

However, there were Longfields at Castle Mary who were not so loved and as no doubt you know, Castle Mary was

burned in 1920.

If I am ever in Ireland again, I would love to visit Sea Court. My son is spending Christmas in Ireland, but in County Down.

Which reminds me of how crazy some of our Irish ancestry can be.

We have an Irish ancestor from County Down so enamoured of Napoleon that he named his home Longwood

in his honour, when he migrated to New Zealand. Then, as you know, in County Cork my ancestors at Mallow built

Waterloo House,  and planted oak trees in the victorious battle formation of Waterloo !

Once thank-you Ian for "Reaching Out",

I wish you a rich Advent and Christmas time, 

Regards,

Linz.

Hi Linz,

It is a shame that Longueville House Hotel were not helpful.  I've read the privately published Longfield book - it is uninteresting.

Clearly someone like Mary Powell Longfield would have a portrait and it must have once hung at Waterloo House.  John Powell's will is interesting: it seems that he didn't quite trust his Longfield son-in-law and delayed the execution of his will until his grandson came of age.  This gave Mary some security since, even though she was wealthier than her husband, she was 'marrying up' as Henry was gentry and Mary was trade.  Bizarre times.

Two of the Longfield houses in Cork were burned in 1920 - Castle Mary and Kilcolman.  Sea Court, Waterloo, and Longueville survived.  Often these reprisal burnings were carried out by IRA not from the locality if the landlord was well liked.  A terrible shame and it really has only been in the last 40 years that Irish people have realized the value of these houses - but of course, I'm biased.

Mountifort Longfield left Sea Court in 1920 and moved to Tremough House (now part of Exeter University) where he lived until 1943(?) - it is possible that they might have some more clues.

If you ever come across a portrait of John or Mary Powell, let me know.  I've love to get it copied and hang it at Sea Court.

I hope your son is having a great time in Co Down.

-Ian