Tenants on Ram Estate, Gorey, Co. Wexford in 1826

Small Sources No. 6: This is a list of Tenants from a single-sheet rental of part of the estate of Abel Ram Esq. in county Wexford for 1826. It shows tenant’s names, location, acres held, and yearly rent (see Fig.1 below). Rentals are the records of the landlord on tenants, their holdings, and their payments. Although these might appear to be purely business records, many contain rich family information. A full description of rental formats and practices, and on the useful family information they can provide is in our blog Rentals as a resource for Irish family history.

The 40 holdings vary from 2 to 152 acres and rents vary from ~£2 to £200. The properties are mainly in the Gorey area (Civil parishes of Liskinfere, Kilmacilloge, Kilcavan and Kilnahue) and one property is in Finglas, Dublin. The original is in the National Library of Ireland Ms.8238 (18). It includes some interesting names including StEloy, Woodroffe and Oughton. At this time landlords effectively had absolute power over their tenants, and most other local issues. This landlord Abel Ram, for instance, was not well-disposed to Catholics and it is evident that there are very few tenants on this list with names which would be typical of local families. The exceptions are Murphy, Redmond and Doran. Abel Ram also prevented the establishment of a Catholic church in Gorey until the early 184os. Some information on the families listed may be found in our publication ‘Sources for Irish Family History‘ (see cover at left) which is a guide to books, monographs and periodical papers on Irish families.

The names are listed as spelled, and with the abbreviations used, e.g. Reps. = Representatives; Robt. = Robert, Jun.= junior, Esq. = Esquire which is a term of respect used for minor gentry etc.

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 ‘Wexford SS6’ in the subject line.

Fig. 1. Heading of the rental document showing the layout, which gives the tenant, denomination (i.e. townland in which property is located), acres held and yearly rent.

Tenant Property (Townland)

John Fidler                       –   Ballytegan
Reps. Humphrey Fidler                “
John Fidler Jun.                            “
Thomas Cook                                 “
Reps. John Cook                         “
Reps. Timothy Crane                  “
Matthew Oughton                       “
Robt. Wheatley                             “
Reps. Robt Hatton                      “
Mary Smith                                  “
Michael Duggan                          “
Benjamin Godkin                        “
Cornelius Conners                       “
Michael Coote                               “
Reps. A. Butler                – Churchtown
John Higginbotham      –   Coolanstud
Rev. Henry StEloy                      “
Reps. James Peppard    – Clonattin
Lewis Miller Esq.                       “
John Bryan                                 “
William Cooke                           “
John Fiddler                             “
Thomas Fidler                          “
Dr. Hamilton                           “
Reps. A. Woodroofe               “
Benjamin Goodkin                  “
Wm. Brownrigg Esq                 “
Moses Golan                           “
Henry Furney                            “
Peter Murphy                            “
John Redmond                      “
Thomas Dowse                         “
Richard Brownrigg     –     Moneynelane
Reps. John Darey (Davey?)   “
Reps D. Doran                         “
Widow H. Butler                     “
Wm. Mitchell    –                Moneycoss     (probably Moneycross)
Rev. H. St Eloy                          “
Nathaniel Whitmore                “
Reps. John Trotter       –    Finglas (Dublin)

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.Wexford Sources