Mary Biddulph [1842-1914]

                                         Birr View, Crinkill. [MyHome.ie]

Mary Biddulph was born in 1842, the second daughter of Nicholas Biddulph and his second wife Isabella Digges La Touche, and is likely to have been a twin of her brother James Digges La Touche Biddulph.

In the 1901 Census she is living in Bunrevan with her sister Annie Biddulph after the death of her brother James. She was 52. Annie was two years younger. By the 1911 Census she is living in Birr View, Crinkill, alone, Annie having died in September 1901. It appears that she was leasing from Patrick Corboy. There was no land involved, only a residence.

Mary Biddulph died in 1^st January 1914. She was 72 years old. She, like James, is buried in Congor graveyard at Ardcroney.

In memory of Mary Biddulph who died 1st January 1914.

She left £4, 671 15s  9d.  She had appointed her brothers Robert and Richard as her executors. In her will she made a bequest of £100 to the church at Ardcroney.[1] Her sister Annie is commemorated below a window in this church, but there does not appear to be any commemoration of Mary. The Ardcroney church is now situated in Bunratty Folk Park.

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[1] Legal Notices, The Irish Times, 07 Feb 1914.

James Digges La Touche Biddulph [1842-1895]

James Digges La Touche was the second son of Nicholas Biddulph of Congor, but the first son of his second wife Isabella Digges La Touche. His sister Mary was born the same year. It seems likely that they were twins but there are no surviving baptismal records. The church records for Ardcroney were destroyed in 1922.

James Biddulph died in Parsonstown in 1895 from general debility five years certified according to his death record. He was fifty years old. His sister Mary Biddulph was present at the de

BIDDULPH - October 14, at Bunraven, Parsonstown, J. Digges la Touche Biddulph, son of the late Nicholas Biddulph, Congor, Borrisokane. Funeral at 9 o'c. tomorrow (Thursday) morning for Congor.[1]

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[1] Deaths. The Irish Times, Wed., October 16th, 1895.

Nicholas William John Biddulph [1890-1958] in Canada

Nicholas William John Biddulph was born on the 22^nd of December 1890, the eldest son of William Biddulph [1848-1915] of Congor House, Borrisokane, County Tipperary, and Fortal, King’s County and his wife, Rebecca Clarke. He is recorded in the 1901 Census living with his parents in Birr, King’s County. In the 1911 Census he is still living with his parents, but now in Park Avenue, Pembroke East, Dublin, with six sisters and brothers. He is described as a commercial clerk.

He married Kathleen Taylor in 1945, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her brother Richard Taylor lived at 28 Broughton Road, Edinburgh. Kathleen and Richard were the children of Benjamin and Elizabeth Taylor. Elizabeth Taylor and Rebecca Clarke were sisters making Nicholas and Kathleen first cousins.

They had three children, two daughters and one son. All were born in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Their eldest daughter, Doreen Elizabeth Biddulph, was born in 1947 in Saskatchewan, Canada. She married Ronald John Swann. She died in 2012.

Nicholas William John Biddulph died in Saskatchewan, Canada on the 21^st of January, 1958 and is buried in Young Cemetery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. His grave can be found on findagrave.

His wife Kathleen died in 2000 and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She was predeceased by a granddaughter Rhonda Lee Swann who died in 1978 aged 5.

Centenary of the sinking of R.M.S. Leinster 10th October 1918

One hundred years ago, on the 10th of October 1918, the R.M.S. Leinster was torpedoed and sunk off the Kish Bank in the Irish Sea, by a German submarine UB-123. Over 500 people lost their lives.