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This collection comprises two folio manuscript letter books bound in vellum containing copied letters from Thomas White to various named persons between 1702 and 1719. White writes mainly from London, and the letters are mainly concerned with the letting and management of his extensive portfolio of farms and properties, some in England but including a substantial number in County Limerick. Hovering in the background is the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), and the letter book provides insights into the effects of the on-going conflict on rents and land transactions. There is also a more personal side to the letter books, with several copies of letters to an aunt and cousins, rich in detail, with frequent references to court gossip, political and current affairs and personal family matters. The letter books open a vivid and multi-faceted view into the life of the prosperous middle class in the first decade of the eighteenth century.

Map survey by George Hugh of the lands of Lisnedubrod [Lisnatubbrid], Temple-eny [Temple-etney] and Cooleonine [Cooloran] held by Walter Hackett on a scale of 40 perches to an inch.

Map survey by Richard Baker of the lands of Kooleilly [Inchidaly, Clonmeen North, Clonmeen South and Gougane] on a scale of 40 perches to an inch.

Bound hardback letter book containing copies of some 1,200 letters sent by shipping merchant Samuel Monsell of Tervoe, county Limerick in the course of managing his extensive trading activities in Ireland, England, France, Holland and Spain. The letters deal in the main with the buying and shipping of goods, the insuring of cargoes and the complex financial transactions on which trading depended. The letters provide information on the names of ships and their captains going in and out of Limerick harbour, the cargo they contained and the fluctuating prices of goods over the years. The most common items in which Monsell traded included wheat, beans, hops, beef, pork, butter, tallow, hides, tanned leather, staves, coal, turf, salt, soap, candles, wine, vinegar and tobacco. The letters illustrate the difficulties of trading in perishable goods and the utter dependence of the business on good weather. In a letter to William Cleavland, written on 29 December 1723, Monsell notes that Captain Thomas Tarlton ‘was seen at the rivers mouth with 2 or 3 more sailes that has been outward bound and ready to saile these six weeks or 2 months past and the wind has Continued S. E. ever since till this morning.’ As a consequence of the vagaries of winds, trade fluctuated wildly between shortage and excess. Many of Monsell’s letters are written in response to queries from merchants seeking information on the current price of goods or attempting off-load goods that had flooded the market. On 8 September 1723, Monsell advised Robert Low of Liverpool that ‘this is no markett for leaf tobaco unless extraordinary good… sugars of noe kind will do here they are supplyed from Corke with refined sugars cheaper than you can afford…’

One way to protect goods was to ensure that the casks used for transportation were of the highest quality. To safeguard himself against potential loss, Monsell took extra measures as he explained in a letter to Arthur Hamilton of Liverpool, 24 September 1723: ‘I oblidge Every Cooper I deal with to burn their names att length on the Cask and any Cask that proves bad by leaking pickle they must pay for the barrell, att least itt will keep them in awe and make them take Care & Make their barrels good’. Insuring not only the cargo but also the vessel was paramount. Merchants often pooled together to hire a vessel, each insuring their own part of it. One insurer Monsell used was Joseph Percival of Bristol. On 26 May 1724, Monsell instructed him to ‘make the Insurance soe that in Case of Loss I should Recover soe much as I mentioned for the goods Cost me £815 Irish and the ⅛ of the Ship £64 English’.

In 1724, Monsell had to deal with the failure of his Cadiz-based business, Monsell & Stacpole, and its near-catastrophic financial consequences. Tired of the high-risk nature of trading and constant delays in payments, he decided to retire ‘to my country house within 3 miles of the town’ and only ‘Export the produce of my owne grounds and resolve Intirely to Quit trading onely what I doe to Cadiz’ (Monsell o John Moniers, 9 April 1725). From this date onwards, Monsell’s letters deal mainly with land transactions as he set about increasing his estates in counties Limerick and Clare. In December 1723, he ‘purchased the Manor of Doonass which Cost me £3000 it is worth me about £400 per annum a Lease for 99 Years’ (Monsell to Messrs Monsell & Stacpole of Cadiz, 17 January 1724). Almost exactly two years later, he took ‘from our new Bishop my owne part and Twigs part of Mungrett as also I have purchased the fee of KilGobbin near Adare 262 acres of as Good Land as any I know… I have likewise Got Castle Ceale near Carrigoran for £1000… my Bargain In Castle Keale Is worth a Thousand pound more than It Cost me, with a little Improvement’ (Monsell to his son Samborn Monsell, 26 December 1725). In the end, he came to learn that land speculation was almost as wrought with complications as trading.

In addition to trading and land speculation, Monsell’s letters are rich in vignettes of other aspects of his life. He describes contentious council meetings, during one of which ‘Jack Roach began to use me with such freedom as I was nott able to beare… and was oblidged to make use of my Cane to Correct the old Raskell for his unmanerlyness…’ (Monsell to General Pierce in Dublin, 12 October 1725). In 1722, he purchased a wig but was obliged to return it to the manufacturer Francis Montgomery, it ‘not being fitt for my use tis neither full Enough of hair nor wide Enough on the head’ (18 October 1722). In November 1724, his life took a dramatic turn when he ‘had the Misfortune to have a dispute with a Gent in a narrow room & both our swords being drawn & my Servant man in & endeavouring to part us run himself in the Other Gents sword & recd it in his right breast of which he died Instantly[.] Thank God I have no hurt but one through my left hand which is in a fair way of doing well & the other Gent in his right breast which will likewise do well…’ (Monsell to Robert Adair, both 13 November 1724 ). The sword severed the tendons in Monsell’s hand and caused an injury from which he never fully recovered.

Monsell’s wife and children, particularly his three eldest sons, also feature prominently in his letters. He took care to provide his sons with a good education and find suitable positions for them. His eldest, William, who eventually succeeded to Tervoe, was sent to London to study law. The second son, Samborn, was set up in Dublin as a merchant, but proved a unreliable business partner to his father, repeatedly failing to deliver his messages or to act upon his instructions. Exasperated by his antics, Monsell warned him sternly to ‘for Godsake never omitt any business I give you on charge what you think may be no consequence may be of the most to me.’ (Samborn Monsell, 15 March 1727). When his third son, John, was about to set off on a voyage with shipment of beef, Monsell offered him this fatherly advice: ‘keep the men to their duty, pray take care how you behave yourself, for your life dont drink more than what you can well bear, nothing makes a man of business more ridiculous than being in drink & nothing recommends a man more than being a sober man…’ (24 December 1726).

The most frequent recipients of Monsell’s letters include his sons William and Samborn Monsell; the latter’s father-in-law Daniel Conyngham, merchant of Dublin; Monsell’s business partner Thomas Stacpole in Cadiz; merchants Arthur Hamilton of Liverpool, John Finlay of Dublin, John Monier of London, William Crosbie & Co. of Liverpool, Francis and William Lynch of Cork, Dublin, London and Nantes, Brian Blundell of Liverpool, Crisp Gascoyne of London, Edward Webber of Cork, James Browne of Dublin and William Cleveland of Liverpool; attorney Bryan McMahon; the private bank of Messrs Burton and Harrison of Dublin; Thomas Sinnott of Ratoath, Dublin; Messrs Harper & Morris of Cork; Sir Henry Hugh of Dublin; Messrs Webb and Addis of Limerick; Joseph Perceval of Bristol; and Lucy Southwell (née Bowen) of Dublin.

Account and commonplace book, bound in vellum, kept and compiled by Colonel Edmund Pery between 1671 and 1681. The first part of the book contains brief memoranda of financial transactions, mainly monies lent to and borrowed from various individuals, and more complete accounts under headings such as ‘An Acount of All receits of my Cousin Sextens Interest since his death’; ‘Disbursements likewise on the same Account’; ‘An account of what moneys I payed my uncle att my being in London 1679/80’; ‘Receits since my returne from Kinsaile December 1681’; ‘Receits for the use of my uncle Mr Nicholas Batteley since the death of my Cousin Sexten being 23 of November 1671’; ‘Disbursements on the same account Feb the 20th 1671’; and ‘Due to my uncle since accounted for when in England last then owing him £56’. Upside down from the back are further memoranda of sums on money borrowed or lent. In addition to accounts, the book contains ‘A Collection of Several things fit to be knowne’. These include notes on weights and measures; a list of foreign coins and their value in pounds, shillings, and pence; various conversion tables; and a list of the countries of the known world and their acreage. There are several pages of explanations of terms of scientific nature, particularly relating to geography, topography, astronomy, physics, and mathematics. These are followed by instructions on how to ‘Know the Age of the Moon’, ‘know when the Moon is at the South by which you may know what tyme of the night is is [sic] by the Moon on a Sun Dual [sic]’; ‘find when it will be new moon in any given Month’; and ‘find Shrove Sunday’. There are also notes relating to orthography and the pronunciation and usage of English, and a table of the symbolic significance of various colours. Fifteen pages of the manuscript have been dedicated to instructions about horses. These include tips on how to identify a good horse, how to tell its age, and how to keep one in good condition, with further notes on equine ailments, and recipes for salves and potions for their treatment. These are followed by recipes for ‘A Liquor for Bootes’; ‘How to make a Cement which lasteth like marble & resisteth aier or water without disjoyning or uncementing’; ‘To make Iron or Steel exceeding hard’; ‘To make a Candle burne & continue 3 tymes as long as otherways it would; ‘To keep Wine fresh in the heat of summer tho carryed on horse back & exposed to the sun; ‘How to melt mettall quickly yea in a shell upon a little fier; ‘To make quart of good Inck’; ‘To make shott’; ‘To make Iron strong & look like silver’; ‘To make steel cutt Iron as it were Lead’; ‘To make Red Inck’; ‘To make Letters that cannot be read without the paper be put in water’; ‘To make letters that cannot be read but at the fier’; ‘To make Mellons or Cowcumbers ripe before their season’; ‘To keep Grapes fresh all the winter’; ‘To make the hands white’; ‘To take a spot of Oyl out of Cloath’; ‘To keep young Children from having pain in breeding Teeth’; ‘To mak hair not to grow’; ‘To keep flyes from flesh’; ‘To kill fleas’; ‘To take away the Tooth ach’; ‘To renue old & woren letters’; ‘To cure the sting of waspes or Bees’; and ‘To make Hair Curle’. The book concludes with a gardener’s calendar with advice on farming and gardening activities for every month of the year, and ways to predict ‘Dearth or Scarcity, Plenty, Sickness, Heat, Cold, frosts, snow, winds, Rain, Hail, Thunder &c’ from nature. To Pery’s observations have been added sheep, cattle, and butter accounts for 1724, 1725-1726, and 1729 by a different hand, possibly by Pery’s son, the Reverend Stackpole Pery.

This series contains material pertaining to Colonel Edmund Pery and his son the Reverend Stackpole Pery.

First part of a document by an unidentified hand providing an account of Cornelius Callaghan’s purchase of various townlands in Banteer, county Cork from Abraham Dickson in 1703, and his subsequent legal disputes with Dickson and a neighbouring landowner Richard Allen. Lacking last page(s).

Map of the townland of Killcolman [Kilcolman] in the parish of Kilshannock [Kilshannig], barony of Duhallow certified by John Deane, Deputy-Surveyor-General as agreeing with the map of the Down Survey.

Paginated manuscript, with an index, bound in tooled leather covers and embossed on the front cover Abstracts & Copys of Records, Relative to the Sexton, Casey, & Stackpole Familys. The manuscript comprises abstracts and copies of seventeen documents relating to the Sexten family; eight relating to the Casey family; and two to the Stackpole family. The documents relating to the Sexten family include a memorandum of a decree in favour of George Sexten in a dispute against James Roche concerning a title and possession of a store house (17 October 1531); grant to Edmond Sexten to be Chief Sewer of County Dublin (2 September 1532; in Latin); warrant to pass a grant of the monastery of St Mary’s House in Limerick to Edmund Sexten (24 September 1537); grant to Edmond Sexten of the fee farm of Limerick, with a release of all arrears then owing (1 August 1542; in Latin); free pardon to Edmond Sexten of all offences committed by him (14 December 1545); certificate by the Sheriff of County Limerick of Edmond Sexten having entered into security for his good behaviour (14 December 1545); grant of the office of Gauger and Searcher of Limerick to Humfry Sexten (10 June 1548); a protection to Humfry Sexten (23 April 1555; in Latin); grant to William Sidney of the custody and wardship of Stephen Sexten, brother and heir of Nicholas Sexten deceased (13 September 1558); grant to Edmond Sexten (son of Stephen Sexten) of the livery of his estate and lands (1 June 1559; in Latin); letter of King James I of England on behalf of Edmund Sexten’s favour (7 February 1608/9); grant to Edmond Sexten, his heirs and assigns for ever of several lands in the County and City of Limerick (10 July 1609/10; in Latin); abstract of an inquest held by Edmond Sexten in 1614 which proves that he was that year High Sheriff of County Limerick; abstract of letters patent showing that the wardship of John Gold, son and heir of Thomas Gold, deceased, was granted to Edmond Sexten (4 February 1623/4); inquisition taken at St Francis’s Abbey in County Limerick following the death of Edmond Sexten (22 January 1638; in Latin); inquisition (for which see P51/1/1/6) taken at the Tholsel of Limerick City in 1639 after the deaths of Edmond Sexten and his son Nicholas (9 October 1639; in Latin and English); and an inquisition taken at St Francis’s Abbey in County Limerick in 1639 after the deaths of Edmond Sexten and his son Nicholas (9 October 1639; in Latin and English). The documents relating to the Casey family include abstracts of letters patent creating William Casey Bishop of Limerick (23 October 1551); letters patent granting the wardship of Thomas Thornton, son and heir of Sir George Thornton Provost Marshal of Munster to James Casey and his assigns (5 June 1605); letters patent granting a pardon of alienation and mesne rates of lands in County Cork to James Casey and Ulick Roche (8 March 1629); letters patent granting special livery to Thomas Casey (18 November 1633); inquisition taken at Kilmallock after the death of Thomas Casey of Rathcannon, incorporating a family settlement made by Thomas Casey, his will, and a variety of other matters (12 March 1637; partly in Latin); inquisition taken at Newcastle, County Limerick after the death of Thomas Casey (10 July 1638; in Latin); bill filed in chancery by the Rev Stacpole Pery and other against Lord Vere Bertie and others relative to the Casey estate and family (25 January 1735); and Lord Bertie’s answer to the same bill (15 February 1737). The documents relating to the Stackpole family include a grant to Bartholomew Stacpole of Stacpole Court and several other lands in County Clare with liberty of keeping annual fairs (17 July 1676); and a deed of feoffment by way of family settlement made by Bartholomew Stacpole (3 November 1685).