North Street, Newry, County Down

North Street, Newry, County Down
North Street, Newry, County Down

Wednesday 22 July 2020

Edward Jennings [1827-], North Street, Newry, County Down

Edward was the eldest son of Andrew Jennings [1793-1869], North Street, Newry, County Down,  and his wife Mary Anne Clarke, daughter of Edward Clarke.
He was baptised in Newry on December 1st 1827 and named after his maternal grandfather Edward Clarke of High Street, Newry..
Edward of Andrew Gennings [sic] and Mary Ann Clarke, 1827, sponsors Charles Gennings and Eliza Markey and M. Jennings per procurationem.   Per procurationem means by proxy.[1]  
Edward may have died as a child as another son, Edward Daniel, was born in 1845.


[1] Catholic Church Records, Newry 05502/01 P. 19

Tuesday 21 July 2020

Ellen Jennings [1834-1870], North Street, Newry, County Down


Ellen was the second daughter of Andrew Jennings [1793-1869], North Street, Newry, County Down and his wife Mary Anne Clarke daughter of Edward Clarke. She was baptised in Newry two weeks after her cousin Ellen Jennings daughter of Charles and Sophia.
2 March 1834 Ellen of Andrew Jennings and Marianne Clarke sps. John O'Callaghan and Elizabeth Markey. £0.10.0.[1]
She died at 2 St Paul’s Terrace, Goldsmith Street, Phibsborough, Dublin on the 14th of September 1870. She was 36 years old.
Jennings, Sept. 14 at 2 St Paul’s Terrace, Goldsmith Street, Dublin, Ellen, second daughter of the late Andrew Jennings, distributor of stamps, Newry.[2]
Her brother Charles Clarke Jennings died three months later on the 15th of December at the same address.
Ellen is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin[3] together with Anty Markey from Sea Point, Drogheda, who died in 1832. Elizabeth Markey had been Ellen’s baptismal sponsor. Anty [Anthony] Markey had married Ellen's aunt Martha Clarke in 1817 in Newry.

The grave is close to the gate into the Botanic Gardens and is one of the earliest graves in the cemetery which opened in February 1832.


[1]   NLI Pos 5502 Baptism Register Newry.

[2]  The Evening Freeman, 15 September 1870


[3]  Glasnevin Cemetery S 63 Garden

Sunday 19 July 2020

Charles Clarke Jennings [1830-1870] North Street, Newry, County Down


Charles Clarke Jennings was the third son of Andrew Jennings [1793-1869] North Street, Newry, County Down, and his wife Mary Anne Clarke daughter of Edward Clarke. He was baptised in Newry on August 23rd, 1830.
August 23rd, 1830. Charles Clarke Jennings of Andrew and N. (?) Jennings. Sp. Charles Jennings and Catherine Jennings.[1]
Charles C. Jennings, Newry, was the secretary of Newry Institute Savings Bank in Sugar Island, Newry in 1852.[2]  He was also Secretary to the Forestbrook Linen Manufacturing Company.[3] The Company had warehouses on Merchants’ Quay, Newry as late as 1898.[4]

He died in Dublin, aged 40, at 2 St. Paul’s Terrace, Goldsmith Street in 1870. His death notice appeared in a number of newspapers, though his death was not registered until 1871.[5]
15 December 1870 - Newry Reporter
15 December 1870 - Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier
14 December 1870 - The Evening Freeman
24 December 1870 - Weekly Freeman's Journal
He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.[6]



[1] Newry Church Records, 05502/01 NAI.
[2] Ros Davies www.rosdavies.com
[3] Crossle Genealogical abstracts, NAI.
[4] 1898 Newry Directory
[5] Dublin North 1871 Returns Quarter 1, Vol. 2,  P. 405
[6] Glasnevin Cemetery, MB, 11, SOUTH.

Saturday 11 July 2020

Mary Catherine Jennings [1826-1864], North Street, Newry, County Down

 Mary Catherine was the eldest daughter of Andrew Jennings [1793-1869], North Street, Newry, County Down, and his wife Mary Anne Clarke, daughter of Edward Clarke. She was baptised in Newry.
1826 July 22nd. Mary Catherine Jennings of Andrew and M. Anne. S. Peter Jennings and Eleanor Clarke.[1]
Her baptismal sponsors were likely to have been an uncle, Peter Jennings, brother of her father Andrew, and an aunt, Eleanor Clarke, sister of her mother Mary Anne Clarke.
Mary Catherine died aged 38 in Dublin in 1864, presumably at 35 Goldsmith Street. 
Deaths Jennings August 19, at Phibsboro’, Dublin, Mary Catherine, eldest daughter of Andrew Jennings Esq., Newry.[2]
She is buried at Newry Old Chapel Catholic Cemetery. Plot Section- Old C Plot- 461. Her father had bought four graves after her death. The purchase is noted in the burial registers.
List of graves...1864 Sept. 4. Four graves for Mr. Andrew Jennings.[3]
It’s possible that tuberculosis, so prevalent at that time, was a factor in the deaths that followed her death so closely. Her niece Ellen McDonald died in 1866. She is also buried in Newry. Her father Andrew died in 1869, her brother Charles died in Dublin a year later in 1870.
Distant relative Richard Jennings from Ironpool, Kilconly, County Galway, was to die at 3 Richmond Place North, Dublin in December 1870. His daughter, Harriet, and his son, Richard, both died at the same address in 1872.  Harriet was 23, Richard was 22. Their mother, Mary St Clair Lyster, died in 1877.
Mary Catherine’s cousin Daniel Corley Jennings would lose two of his children in Clontarf, Dublin. Ellen Jennings died in 1878 aged 26, her brother John Bray Jennings in 1881 aged 27.



[1] Baptism. Diocese: Dromore. Parish: Newry. NLI P5501

[2] Belfast Newsletter , 25 August, 1864


[3] NLI Pos 5502

Tuesday 7 July 2020

Elizabeth Jennings [1839 - ], North Street, Newry, County Down. Artist.

Elizabeth Jennings was born in 1839, the third and youngest daughter of Andrew Jennings [1793-1869] of North Street, Newry, County Down, and his wife Mary Anne Clarke, daughter of Edward Clarke.
She was baptised in Newry on the 28th of December 1839.
Eliza of Andrew Jennings and Eliza Clarke, 1839. Sponsors  Charles and Mary Jennings.[1]
Her sister Mary Catherine died in Phibsborough, Dublin, in 1864 and is buried in St. Mary’s Catholic graveyard, Newry.  Her sister Ellen, who died in 1866, is also buried there along with their father Andrew who died in 1869. There is a gravestone marking their burial place.
Erected by Andrew Jennings of Newry in memory of his daughter Mary Catherine who departed this life on 19th August 1864, also Ellen McDonald who departed this life on the 16th February 1866, Andrew Jennings departed this life on the 12th April 1869 aged 76. Requiescant in pace.
Elizabeth and her mother Mary Anne moved to 35 Goldsmith Street in Dublin. Her brother Charles Clarke Jennings died in 1870 aged 40 at 2 St. Paul’s Terrace, Goldsmith Street, in North Dublin.  Her mother also died in 35 Goldsmith Street  in June 1876 and both are buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.[2]
At this time the entry in Thom’s Directory describes Eliz as an artist.
1876. Miss Jennings, 35 Goldsmith Street, Dublin.  Jennings, Eliza, artist.[3]


In 1867 a silver medal was recommended to Miss Elizabeth Jennings for a drawing in chalk of a full length antique figure at the annual distribution by the Royal Dublin society of prizes to pupils attending the School of Art in Kildare Street.[4]
The origins of the College date from 1746, when a private drawing school was taken over and run by the Dublin Society. Throughout the 18th Century there were three schools covering figure drawing, landscape, ornamental drawing, and architecture drawing. A school of modelling was added in 1811 and from 1854 the institution was controlled by the Department of Science and Art, London. In 1877 it was renamed the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art.
Two years later in 1869 she was listed among prizes awarded by the Department of Science and Art, London: Selections for National Competition.[5]
In ‘Irish Art Loan Exhibitions 1765 - 1927’ (Index of Artists Vol. I.   A.- L.) by Anne M. Stewart - Loan Treasures of Art Museums Dublin - ‘Storm at the Lizard, Cornwall’ (15 pounds 15 shillings. 0. pence.) is listed as lent by E. Jennings in 1873.[6]
In 1874 the Queen’s Institute published the results of examinations in Science and Art held in May. Eliza was successful in Practical Geometry and Freehand Drawing. She also won two prizes. Three of her works were selected for national competition.[7]
In 1875 she won a prize for an exceedingly pretty design for a silk damask window blind.[8]
In November of that year she won a Third Grade Prize for Timb’s Anecdotes of Nature.[9]
In 1877, when she was 38, Elizabeth won a prize at the Queen's Institute, Dublin for drawing foliage from nature. The Queen’s Institute of Female Professional Schools was on Grafton Street, and included the Dublin Female School of Art. It had been founded by a Quaker, Mrs Anne Jellicoe, who went on to found Alexandra College. The Institute was run by Miss A. B. Corlett.
She was also noted on a prize list for Shading from the Cast [Figure] and an Apple Design.[10]
Nothing more is known about Elizabeth Jennings. She does not appear in the 1901 or 1911 Census records. She is not buried with her mother and brother in Glasnevin Cemetery.



[1] Catholic Church Records, Newry 05502/01. P. 155
[2] Glasnevin Cemetery, MB, 11, SOUTH.
[3] Thom's Directory, 1876
[4] Saunders’s News-letter 24 Dec 1867
[5] The Dublin Builder 1 Feb 1869
[6] National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
[7] Belfast News-letter 31 August 1874.
[8] Irish Times 21 December 1875
[9] Belfast News-letter 12 November 1875
[10] Irish Times 19 December 1877.