Fonds P10 - The Coote Papers

8 standard boxes, 2 outsize boxes and 1 outsize volume

Purchased by Dr John Logan from John O’Dwyer, antiquarian bookseller, Old Charter School, Newport, County Tipperary. Earlier chain of custody unknown.

Donated by Dr John Logan to the University of Limerick on 7 June 2002.

The Coote papers comprise in the main early twentieth-century correspondence and accounts maintained by the Coote family’s land agents Guinness, Mahon & Co. and, from 1953, William Montgomery & Son Ltd. The correspondence is routine by nature and illustrates the less glamorous side of estate management involving leaky roofs and inadequate sewage pipes. There is an interesting set of deeds, the earliest of which date from the second half of the eighteenth century; a lengthy marriage settlement drawn up on the eve of the marriage of Grace Coote and the Reverend Henry Bathurst; and letters of administration relating to complications arising from the will of Charles Henry Coote whose heir and two executors all died before probate could be granted. There is also an extensive set of grazing and letting agreements from 1876 to 1953, mostly dealing with plots of ground in the vicinity of the town of Maryborough (now Portlaoise) in county Laois. Perhaps the most important item in this collection is a bound hardcover volume of hand-drawn maps of the estates of General Sir Eyre Coote (1726-1783) surveyed in 1803 by Robert Ely (P10/5/1). Each page in the book is devoted to a single townland, with a helpful index providing the name and total acreage of each townland and the name of its tenant.

All records have been retained.

No accruals are expected.

No original order of the material was discernible at the time of receipt of the collection. Consequently, the material was arranged into six series by document type. Series 1 contains deeds, wills, marriage settlements and other documents of legal nature and is further divided into five sub-series by function. Series 2 contains tenants’ agreements and is further divided into two sub-series by agreement type. Series 3 contains rentals, valuations and other documents of financial nature. Series 4 consists of correspondence of the Coote family’s land agents and is further divided into three sub-series by the main correspondent. Series 5 comprises ordnance survey and other maps relating to the Coote family’s holdings in counties Laois and Dublin. Within each sub-series, documents have been arranged chronologically by date.

Unrestricted access to most items. Some items require conservation treatment and are too fragile to be safely handled. These documents have been identified in the finding aid and are not accessible until they have been conserved.

Standard copyright regulations apply to all items. For photocopying or reproducing material, please consult with the staff.

• Béarla

Paper documents in fair or fragile condition.

At the time of donation, this collection included 153 documents created and generated by Maxwell, Weldon & Co. solicitors with premises at 15 Eden Quay, Dublin. As no discernible connection between this firm and the Coote family could be identified, the documents were removed and listed as a separate entity, for which see P106.

A detailed account of the papers in this collection can be found in Fleming, David, 'The Papers of a Coote Estate in Laois and Dublin: A Genealogical Source', Genealogical Society of Ireland 2:3 (Autumn 2001), 165-174. A hard copy of the article is available in the Special Collections and Archives Department upon request.

Many of the letters in this collection date from the early twentieth century and contain a mixture of Irish and English spellings of Irish place names. To aid keyword searching, English variants have been used throughout the catalogue (e.g. Portlaoise instead of Portlaoighise).

This description follows guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd edition (2000), Irish Guidelines for Archival Description (2009), National Council on Archives: Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names (1997) and EAP Guidance on Data Protection for Archive Services (2018).

Papers arranged and described by Anna-Maria Hajba in May 2022.