Series 2 - Estate Administration

c. 1,820 items

Estate administrative papers are the main component of this collection. They include different classes of records such as rentals, Land Commission Papers, accounts, correspondence and maps. The papers are arranged separately under each class of document and have been divided into those relating to the two main estates of Belvoir, Co. Clare and Duras, Co. Galway, the small estate of Renmore, some property at Loughwell and two Galway city properties.

Estate employees generated many of the estate administrative records. The rentals sent to John Wilson Lynch by the land agent give an account of the estate income half yearly and a summary of cash expenditure. John Brady, 10 The Crescent, Limerick held the agency for Belvoir from 1866-86 and for Duras from 1866-79. His account books of the income and expenditure of the estates [see LE6/B/63 and B/542] give a detailed insight into the running of these properties over almost 20 years. Major John Joseph Lopdell was agent on the Duras estate in the 1880s. On John Brady's dismissal in 1886, John Wilson Lynch ran the Belvoir estate himself for a short time, followed by the employment of Kendall and Hazell on both estates until 1896 and then A W Hazell, who remained as agent until the Belvoir estate was sold. A W Hazell was involved in Kendall and Hazell before he began to operate on his own. As the land agents John Brady and A W Hazell were employed at both Belvoir and Duras it is important to consult their letters under each estate as both estates may be mentioned in one letter. Other estate employees were John Murphy, steward and Bailiff at Belvoir, Mrs McNamara, housekeeper at Belvoir, John Connelly, bailiff at Duras and James Connor, steward at Renmore. John Wilson Lynch kept account books of his own, one relates to his administration of the Belvoir estate between 1888-91 [see LE6/B/328] and another records wages and salaries paid to house employees, stewards, and bailiffs [see LE6/B/327]. Most of the Land Commission Papers concern the tenants' applications for the fixing of a fair rent for a second judicial term. John Wilson Lynch was strongly opposed to any further reductions in his rents. The correspondence for both estates begins in the early 1880s and concerns the fixing of rents, applications for reductions in rents and the rise in rural unrest. There are letters from tenants, from priests writing on their behalf, and from solicitors involved in legal proceedings. Other letters concern the grazing farm at Ballycullen, game rights and the sale of timber on the Belvoir estate and incidents, such as the cattle drive on the Duras estate in May 1910 [see LE6/B/580, D/57 and 'Galway Observer' May 1910]. Two large subsections relate to the sale of part of the Duras estate in 1889 and to the sale of the Belvoir estate, which was finally completed in 1922.

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19/06/2013
28/07/2025