Small Sources No. 7: These 17 tenants are listed in the ‘Ledger Accounts’ of the Paul Estate in Waterford. It also shows the annual rental amount. John’s Hill is now part of Waterford city but at the time would have been outside the city boundary. The houses are of very variable sizes as is evident from the rental amounts which vary from £1 to £155. The original ledger is in the Paul Estate records in the National Library of Ireland NLI: Ms. 12,985.
The Paul Estate had holdings in several counties, principally Kerry and Carlow but also some holdings in County Waterford. Further information on the estates of this family can be found on the Landed Estates Database. Backgound information on landlord-tenant practices in this period can be found in our article on Rentals. John’s Hill was an upmarket address and many of the buildings are now on the register of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
The names of tenants are listed as spelled, and with the abbreviations used, e.g. Patk. = Patrick, Edwd. = Edward etc. Many are common names which are associated with Waterford, such as Power, Walsh and Hennessy. Other less common names which are mainly found locally include Quan (a variant of Quain) and Leake (a variant of Leckey).
The images of the document above and below were created by Ancestor Network in the National Library of Ireland and are reproduced here through their courtesy. If you need help in following up on anything related to this source, or any other Irish research, you can outline your requirements here and we will let you know what we might be able to do for you. Ancestor Network will offer 1 free hour of research by a professional researcher to conduct further research on these individuals, or on other tenants of this estate. We can also obtain images of the original documents. Click here and quote ‘Waterford SS7’ in the subject line.
Rev W. Kennedy – £60
R. Watson Esq – £18.9.2
J. King Esq. – £4.2.2
Patk Hanly – £15
W.E. Cummins – £26
William Walsh – £40
William Quan – £15.19.9
Geo. Moran – £19.3.1
Patrick Conry – £2.15.5
Phil Hennessy – £3.10.0
Patk. Daly – £4.15.0
Edwd. Leake – £1.5.10
W.R.Fennessy – £32
Ellen Power – £4
Thos. Sheppard Esq. – £155
W. Edwd. Cummins – £14
Paul Heany – £33
Further articles in our series on Irish Family History sources include:
- Petty Sessions– the records of local courts
- Catholic Church records
- Grand Jury Presentments – records of local councils on payments for public works and staff
- Rentals – management of tenants by estates and the records created
- Middle names – the use (or non-use) of second or middle names in Irish records
- How comprehensive are Irish Civil Records?
- Census returns in Gaelic or Irish language
- 70+ blogs with names extracted from manuscript sources from many counties. A handy map index to these is available here.
