Margaret Brew, 19th century Kilrush authoress

Genealogy, Archaeology, History, Heritage & Folklore

Moderators: Clare Support, Clare Past Mod

mcreed
Posts: 118
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:47 am

Re: Margaret Brew, 19th century Kilrush authoress

Post by mcreed » Tue Apr 01, 2014 9:51 am

Here's a link to the paperback and ebook versions of Shell From The Shannon available on lulu.com, mentioned by Janet in a previous post.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyW ... ulu.com&q=

Roy Stokes
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:43 am

Re: Margaret Brew, 19th century Kilrush authoress

Post by Roy Stokes » Mon Jul 23, 2018 12:46 pm

Dear 'Brew' Poster,
I have very little experience of genealogy, so my enquiry might seem a little amateurish, but I feel I have a little something to add here, and maybe more to ask please.

I am interested in Anne Brew, wife of Barry Duncan Gibbons. You will have noticed that she does not seem to have been buried with her husband, and I wondered why. She too seems to have been buried in Glasnevin and I wondered if you knew if she was Protestant, or the reason why she was not interred with her husband.
Barry gibbons might have met Anne when he worked on the new pier in Kilrush in 1828/9. As an engineering supervisor, he also visited Kilrush several times in the 1840's and 50's.
My interest is in William Campbell a diver who worked under Gibbons on several harbour projects in the West of Ireland, and eventually took over from from as supervisor of harbour works in Kingstown.
Regards,
Roy Stokes

Sduddy
Posts: 1826
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Re: Margaret Brew, 19th century Kilrush authoress

Post by Sduddy » Thu Jul 26, 2018 10:32 am

Hi Roy

Have you checked the Glasnevin cemetery records? Are you sure that Anne was buried in the grave of her aunt and sisters in Glasnevin, and not with her husband, also in Glasnevin? Janet’s posting (above) lists Honoria Foley, Margaret Brew, Elizabeth Cornelia Brew and Catherine Brew as buried in one grave, but does not include Anne Gibbons.

Sometimes wives were not buried with their husbands. There are various reasons for this: for instance, sometimes a very recent burial in the husband’s grave made another burial impossible. Probably the most common reason was that the widow had moved to a long distance away and it was no longer convenient to bury her with her husband. But that does not apply here. Barry Duncan Gibbons is buried in one grave in Glasnevin and Anne, you say, is buried with her Brew sisters in another grave there.

There was custom, which sounds a bit barbarous now, but was practiced right up to a hundred years ago - among the farming class, at least, that if a wife had no children she returned to her own people after her husband’s death. It was all about keeping property within the family. I don’t know if Anne Gibbons had children, or not, and I doubt if this custom would have applied to her anyway - she belonged to another strata of society.

I think it’s quite possible that she simply expressed a wish to be buried with her aunt and sisters. She had been a widow for 37 years when she died in 1899 and maybe she thought of herself as belonging more with the Brews, than with the Gibbonses.

Sheila

Polycarp
Posts: 80
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:50 am

Re: Margaret Brew, 19th century Kilrush authoress

Post by Polycarp » Mon Jul 30, 2018 10:56 am

Hi Roy,

I presume you have seen the entry on Barry Duncan Gibbons in Brendan O'Donoghue's book on the Irish county surveyors (pp. 183-184).

The following newspaper entry from 1853 might be relevant, perhaps.

The Limerick Chronicle

Saturday 26 March 1853

By the death of Mrs Campbell, of Aghnish, Duncan Campbell, eldest son of the late James Paterson, of Kilrush, succeeds to the estates of Lochgair and Aghnish, in Argylshire; becomes Laird of Aghnish and Chieftain of the Clan Maciver. Mr Paterson will now assume the name of Campbell.

Polycarp

Roy Stokes
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:43 am

Re: Margaret Brew, 19th century Kilrush authoress

Post by Roy Stokes » Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:32 pm

Hello and thank you Polycarp and Sheila.
Just to be clear - I don't know which grave Anne Gibbons (Nee Brew) is buried in at Glasnevin. Although she erected her husband's gravestone, she is not recorded on it. I will check with Glasnevin and get to the bottom of it.

And on William Campbell, Poycarp, I don't understand the connection you are making with the details in the Limerick notice. My William Campbell emigrated to Australia in 1864.
Regards & thanks again,
Roy Stokes

Roy Stokes
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:43 am

Re: Margaret Brew, 19th century Kilrush authoress

Post by Roy Stokes » Fri Aug 10, 2018 1:21 pm

Anne Gibbons, wife of Barry Duncan Gibbons, died 06/10/1899, catholic, was buried in her husband's plot in Glasnevin. There is no indication on the headstone of her interment. (Glasnevin authorities.)

Post Reply