Re: Researching Family of Andrew Donnellan and Mary Connole
Posted: Fri May 29, 2020 9:34 am
Hi Phil
It’s great that you have been able to get to grips with all of that.
Here’s just one more thing, which has more to do with social life than genealogy: Sharon picked up something I had missed, which is that Andrew’s occupation in the record of the birth of James in 1864 is Herdsman (not Labourer).
Unfortunately Herds are not mentioned in Griffith’s Valuation because they were not leasing land. But where you see Lessor’s name and “Herd’s house and Land” you know that a herd lived in that house. The job of Herd, as far as I can gather, was quite a “handy” number, in so far as there were certain perks going with the job. He was provided with a house (maybe not very commodious), plus he had the grazing of a cow, or two. An article entitled ‘A Class Quite Distinct’, by John Cunningham *, describes the contract been the herd and his employer as being somewhat elastic – the elasticity being generally in the favour of the herd. The grazing of a cow was called a collop, and a collop was decided by the quality of the land rather than by the quantity. It was difficult to lay down the law as to where the collop began, or ended. Cunningham says that the herd had a certain status in the community and could expect to marry a farmer’s daughter.
* ‘‘A Class Quite Distinct’: Western Herds and their defence of their Working Conditions’, by John Cunningham (p. 137), in The West of Ireland: New Perspectives on the Nineteenth Century, edited by Carla King and Conor McNamara (The History Press Ireland, 2011).
I forgot to say that Gortaficka is one of the townlands in the parish of Inchicronan (Crusheen). Click on No. 34 here – and read all about it: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... nlands.htm
Sheila
It’s great that you have been able to get to grips with all of that.
Here’s just one more thing, which has more to do with social life than genealogy: Sharon picked up something I had missed, which is that Andrew’s occupation in the record of the birth of James in 1864 is Herdsman (not Labourer).
Unfortunately Herds are not mentioned in Griffith’s Valuation because they were not leasing land. But where you see Lessor’s name and “Herd’s house and Land” you know that a herd lived in that house. The job of Herd, as far as I can gather, was quite a “handy” number, in so far as there were certain perks going with the job. He was provided with a house (maybe not very commodious), plus he had the grazing of a cow, or two. An article entitled ‘A Class Quite Distinct’, by John Cunningham *, describes the contract been the herd and his employer as being somewhat elastic – the elasticity being generally in the favour of the herd. The grazing of a cow was called a collop, and a collop was decided by the quality of the land rather than by the quantity. It was difficult to lay down the law as to where the collop began, or ended. Cunningham says that the herd had a certain status in the community and could expect to marry a farmer’s daughter.
* ‘‘A Class Quite Distinct’: Western Herds and their defence of their Working Conditions’, by John Cunningham (p. 137), in The West of Ireland: New Perspectives on the Nineteenth Century, edited by Carla King and Conor McNamara (The History Press Ireland, 2011).
I forgot to say that Gortaficka is one of the townlands in the parish of Inchicronan (Crusheen). Click on No. 34 here – and read all about it: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... nlands.htm
Sheila