Bernard family vault, Kinnitty Church of Ireland, Co. Offaly

Francis Harrison Biddulph of Vicarstown [1774-1827]

Francis Harrison Biddulph was the only surviving son of Francis Biddulph and Eliza Harrison of Vicarstown. He married Mary Marsh, the daughter of Francis Marsh, barrister-at-law, in Stradbally, Laois, in 1797. They had fourteen children, thirteen of whom survived to adulthood.

His daughter Elizabeth, born in 1799, is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery, County Dublin. She died in 1893. Although her gravestone states that she is his eldest daughter, he had another daughter, Anne, who was born in the previous year, 1798. She married Simon Biddulph, son of Sir Theophilus Biddulph, 5^th Bt.  Her husband died young.

Death: Died Friday se'nnight, at the house of his aunts, the Misses Biddulph, where he was visit for his health, Captain Simon Biddulph, of the 25th regiment, the 30th year of his age. [Hampshire Chronicle, Mon. 05 May 1823, p.4]

A third daughter, christened Mary after her mother, was born and died an infant in 1801. Another daughter, born in 1803, was christened again Mary. Frances Biddulph, born abt 1804 or later, married Mathew Meredith of Lillart, Clonaslee, Queen’s County in 1847 in St Peter’s Church.

The first son of Francis and Mary was christened Francis Marsh Wellesley Biddulph. Born in 1802, he married Lucy Bickerstaffe in 1845.

Their second son, Nicholas Marsh Biddulph, was born on the 20^th December 1805.  He married Elizabeth Maria Steele, both of the parish of Donnybrook, at Gretna Green, in 1824.

Their daughter, Margaret Anne Biddulph, was born at Elm Villa, Irishtown, on October 1826.

William Francis Biddulph, born in 1809, died young.

Harriet Biddulph, born on the 8^th of November 1810, is believed to have gone to America and married there, as did Jane Biddulph, born the 8^th of May 1812.

Sarah, born the 11^th of December 1814, went to Australia.

Charlotte was born on the 9^th of December 1815, and her sister Patience in 1817.

Caroline was born on the 16^th May 1819. She died in Kingstown [Dun Laoghaire], County Dublin on the 28^th of May 1874.

Deaths. Biddulph - May 28, at 84 Upper George's-street, Kingstown, Miss Caroline Biddulph, daughter of the late Francis Harrison Marsh Biddulph, Esq.

Francis Harrison Biddulph was the Registrar of the Court of Exchequer from 1805 until his death in 1827. There appears to have been an inquiry into his raising his charges without applying for permission.

Mr. Francis Harrison Biddulph was appointed to this situation in the year 1805. His duties are stated to be, “to attend the sitting to the Court of Exchequer; to take down notes of the decrees, rules and orders,  in Equity causes by the said Court, which he does in a rough book kept by him for that purpose; to see that such rules, orders and decrees as are made and pronounced, are properly posted from such rough book, in the rule books and books of hearings, which books are kept as records of the office; (these rules and decrees he compares;) to receive and file notices, and list of Equity motions; to peruse and examine all drafts of decrees, to see that they contain the proper recitals; to amend such drafts, conformable to the notes of hearings, and to the decrees pronounced by the Court previous to such decrees, being signed and settled by the Chief Remembrancer; and to inrol all final decrees.”

His emoluments arise from fees, and a salary of 100l. paid by the Chief Remembrancer. On the amount of the fees, Mr. Biddulph has not enabled us to speak with any certainty; he states that he has kept no regular account of them; but he estimates, rather vaguely, the amount of his net annual emoluments at from 900l. to 1,000l. per annum, after deducting from his receipts 160l. a year for disbursements. [EPPI 1818 Vol. 10, 140. Fourth Report of Commissioners of Duties, Salaries and Emoluments, in Courts of Justice].

According to Burke’s  he had a protracted dispute from 1811 to 1824 in regard to the Rathrobin and Fortal estates with Sir Robert Waller on the death of his cousin Margaret, Mrs Bernard.  Having died childless, Margaret Biddulph, wife of Thomas Bernard, left the moiety of her estates to her cousin Elizabeth, Lady Waller.

He eventually succeeded by compromise to the Rathrobin portion, while Fortal went to his cousin Nicholas Biddulph, of Congor.

After the death of Francis in 1827 the family ceased to have any connection with Vicarstown. Francis and his father are buried in Curaclone graveyard. In his will he requested a simple headstone with their names and dates upon it. This does not appear to have survived. His widow Mary died in August 1861, at no. 3 Kingstown Parade, Kingstown, County Dublin and is buried with two of her daughters in Carrickbrennan graveyard.

Mary, Caroline, and their mother Mary Biddulph widow of Francis Biddulph of King's County, late Registrar of the Court of Equity.... buried at Carrickbrennan [Monkstown], County Dublin. [The Irish Genealogist].

Cumberland Square, Birr, King's County

Francis Biddulph of Vicarstown [1727-1806]

 Francis Biddulph was born on the 21st June 1727, the son of John Biddulph and an unknown mother. He married Eliza Harrison, the daughter of William Harrison of Leeds, Yorkshire, in 1765. Francis was a Justice of the Peace. The family lived in Vicarstown House, Queen’s County. The house was probably constructed by Francis. They had eight children, three of whom died in infancy, Patience, Frances Margaret Sarah and Nicholas John. The surviving children were Elizabeth, Mary, a second Patience, Francis and Harriet. It was not unusual at the time, with the high infant mortality rate, macabre though it may seem to us now, to christen a new baby with the name of a dead child, as happened here with Patience.

Elizabeth, who was born in 1766 and Francis’ eldest daughter, married Richard Grattan in St. Mark’s, Dublin in 1788. They too had eight children.

A second daughter, Mary Anne, born three years later in 1769, married William Scott in Vicarstown in 1785.

Patience Biddulph married Henry T. Warner in 1801. They had seven children.

The first and only surviving son of Francis and Eliza, Francis Harrison Biddulph, was born in 1774. He married Mary Marsh in 1797. They had 14 children.

Harriet Biddulph, the youngest daughter of Francis and Eliza, was born in 1781. She married the Reverend Richard Clarke, Rector of Geashill, King’s County, on 26th January 1799.

Life in the rural area of Vicarstown was not without its excitements.

Maryborough – April 8. Yesterday came on a trial before the Hon. Justice Crookshank, and a respectable Jury of the Queen’s county, a cause wherein Thomas Fitzgerald, of Corbally, Esq. was prosecutor, and Francis Biddulph, of Vicarstown, Esq. was Defendant. It was an issue out of the King’s Bench, to try whether certain expressions therein stated, were used with an intention to provoke the said Thomas Fitzgerald to fight a duel with the said Francis Biddulph – when after a full investigation of the matter, in said information stated, Mr Biddulph was honourably acquitted. [Dublin Evening Post 15 April 1797].

The following year, 1798, a year of insurrection, the house itself was attacked.

Saturday night last, a banditti attacked the house of Mr. Francis Biddulph, of the Queen's county, with a view to plunder it, but meeting with a spirited resistance, they decamped, after wounding a female servant in the house, and destroying some of the furniture, and breaking the windows. [Mirror of the Times, Sat, March 3, 1798, Issue 10]

The Express and Evening Chronicle gives a more graphic account of events.  It seems that this may have been the catalyst for the family leaving Vicarstown House forever.

On Sunday night the 24^th ult, a most daring banditti, at about eight o’clock in the evening, attacked the house of Francis Biddulph Esq., of Vicarstown, in the Queen’s County, Ireland, where they secured all the servants; but Mr. Biddulph, with his wife and daughter  having time to get up stairs, he made such a resistance, though they carried on their attack for upwards of an hour, that he deterred them from forcing a door which he had fortunately erected on the stairs; they fired several shots at Mr. Biddulph, and wounded a servant-maid in the shoulder, hit Mrs Biddulph with slugs in the clothes, filled the upper rooms with a number of bullets broke all the windows and furniture in the house; so that the gentlemen and his family are now obliged to go and reside in a town. [Express  and Evening Chronicle, St, Mar 3, 1798. Issue 538].

Francis Biddulph died on 11^th September 1806. His widow Eliza survived him. She died in 1827, the same year as their son Francis. Francis and his son are buried in Curaclone graveyard near Vicarstown. There is no headstone.

The Barracks, Birr, Offaly

Nicholas Biddulph of Fortal and Rathrobin [b. abt 1714–d. 1762]

Nicholas Biddulph of Rathrobin and Fortal, King's County, was the son of Francis Biddulph and Mary Jackson.  He inherited both Fortal and Rathrobin from his father Francis Biddulph.

Nicholas married Patience Colley, daughter of Thomas Colley, of Killurin, Geashill, King’s County, on 26^th April 1736. They had two daughters Margaret, and Sarah.    He was a Justice of the Peace, and High Sheriff in 1741.  

Rathrobin and Fortal remained in his posession.
We hear that on Monday last the Decree of the Court of Exchequer in Irleand, made in the cause wherein Nicholas Biddulph Esq., was Plaintiff, and the Right Hon. Henry Earl of Shellburn, and Lord Dunkeron, his son, were defendants, decreeing the Renewal of Leases to the  said Mr. Biddulph, was affirmed, and the Appeal of the said Earl of Shellburn and his son therefrom, dismissed with Costs [Whitehall Evening Post or London Intelligencer, Thur, May 12, 1748, Issue 352 ]

His daughter Sarah married Gifford Nesbitt of Tubberdaly House, King's County, in 1769.

Marriages. A few days ago, Giffard Nesbitt, Esq; to Miss Biddulph. [Limerick Chronicle Vol 1. no 6. Thur, March 9, 1769]

Sarah died childless in 1772. She bequeathed the moiety of her estate to her sister Margaret. Gifford Nesbitt died in 1773.

Nicholas'  daughter Margaret married her first husband Alexander Cornewall in 1762.

Cornwall, Alexander, gent, of Lishmote, Co. Limerick and Margaret Biddulph of Fortell, Kingscounty, spinster. Bondsmen: Richard Harrison of Aghress, Co. Clare, gent, and Derby Ryan of Killaloe, merchant, 11 June 1762. (Killaloe, Co. Clare Marriage License Bonds, 1680-1720 and 1760-1762. from Ms 31883, folio 188).

After his death in 1779 she married her second husband Thomas Bernard of Castle Bernard, King’s County, in 1780.

Margaret Biddulph also died childless on the 31^st March, 1811. She left the moiety of her estates to her cousin Elizabeth, Lady Waller, [nee Biddulph].

After the death of his first wife Patience, Nicholas Biddulph married Alice Scott of Carhircon, County Clare in 1754. They had one son, Angel Biddulph, who died in 1769, while still a child. His name, Angel, came from Alice Scott’s family.

In 1712 the Earl of Thomond leased Cahercon/Cahiracon, parish of Kilfiddane, and Killadysert, parish of Killadysert, barony of Clonderalaw, county Clare, to Angel Scott in perpetuity.

Nicholas Biddulph died in 1762. His widow, Alice, married again, John Biddulph, a lieutenant in the Army and  first cousin of Nicholas, on 30^th November 1769.

Stone Face, Cadamstown