Re: Michael G. Considine and Daniel O'Connell
Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2019 11:06 am
I’m wrong about John Constantine, Merchant. He was not a Burgess. Chapter 5 of Corporation Book of Ennis (edited by Brian Ó Dálaigh), ‘The Test-Oaths of Ennis Corporation’, includes a list of Provosts, Deputy-Provosts and Burgesses, and P[aul] Constantine (1749) is listed as a Burgess, but not John.The Index of Persons* shows John Considine held various positions of responsibility (some of these were held from year to year), i.e. Juror, Market Juror, Overseer, Scavenger, Way Warden and Weighmaster, but he never made it into the Burgesses. It’s possible therefore that he was a Catholic. Although Catholics were not supposed to hold such positions, the numbers of Catholics in Ennis so far exceeded the numbers of Protestants that the Corporation could not have functioned without some of them (probably carefully chosen).
In his introduction, Ó Dálaigh says,
I found an interesting mention of John Constantine on page 194 (May, 1762):
The Tithe Applotment Books for Drumcliff (1833) show a Michael Considine living in Hunt’s Lane: http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarc ... _00631.pdf and various other Considines living around the town (Mill Street, Jail Street, Causeway, etc.). High Street is not used as a placename in the Tithe Applotment books for Ennis, so maybe John Considine in Mill Street is one of the two John Considines who were listed in Pigot’s Directory as Tobacconists in High Street in 1824 - Mill Street is a continuation of High Street (Mill Street was named Parnell Street in the 20th century):
http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarc ... _00635.pdf
Sheila
In his introduction, Ó Dálaigh says,
*There’s also a Subject Index and an Index of Place Names. Brewery Lane is not listed, but Hunt’s Lane is listed a few times, and Hunt’s Lane may have been the name for the whole of the lane at the time.By the end of the seventeenth century the charter as originally framed was wholly unsuited to the situation that prevailed in Ennis. Only those merchants and traders who would take the oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy could validly secure their freedom [become freeman of the borough]. Only freemen could legally engage in commerce and participate in municipal affairs. The Catholic community who dominated the trade and commerce of the town were officially excluded from the corporation by virtue of their religion. In order to allow the commons or ordinary inhabitants to participate in corporate affairs a body called the grand jury was established. No oaths or fees it appears were required of this body and membership was open to Catholics. There was no provision in the charter and thus no legal basis for such a body; however, in a town so overwhelmingly Catholic it would have been impossible for the corporation to function without substantial Catholic involvement….The setting up of the jury appears to date from the late seventeenth century and was clearly based on the model of the county grand jury system. (p. 32)
I found an interesting mention of John Constantine on page 194 (May, 1762):
At first I wondered what “chair house” could be, but I think it must have been a place where a chair could be hired to carry someone a short distance: page 181 has this piece,Whereas it appears to us by the affidavit of Patrick o’Hara that two hundred and fifty four yards of pavement in Mr Hunt’s Lane, beginning near the house of Jonathan Sears and ending near John Constantine’s chair house, is in a ruinous condition …
However, linking John Constantine, who died in 1774, to any 19th century Considine is just impossible, I think.Whereas it appears to us that the standing of potatoes and milk in the public streets are very detrimental and prejudicial to the inhabitants of said borough and that coaches, chairs and other carriages are daily in danger of being overturned by the vast number of horses, baskets and other lumber that on market days take up the whole street….
The Tithe Applotment Books for Drumcliff (1833) show a Michael Considine living in Hunt’s Lane: http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarc ... _00631.pdf and various other Considines living around the town (Mill Street, Jail Street, Causeway, etc.). High Street is not used as a placename in the Tithe Applotment books for Ennis, so maybe John Considine in Mill Street is one of the two John Considines who were listed in Pigot’s Directory as Tobacconists in High Street in 1824 - Mill Street is a continuation of High Street (Mill Street was named Parnell Street in the 20th century):
http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarc ... _00635.pdf
Sheila