Showing 208 results

Laminated pedigree of the Pery family of Limerick, compiled by Sylvia Rosalind Pery, Countess of Limerick, widow of the 6th Earl of Limerick in March 2005 and updated in 2010.

Laminated pedigree of the Earls of Limerick, descendants of the Pery family, compiled by Sylvia Rosalind Pery, Countess of Limerick, widow of the 6th Earl of Limerick in April 2005, and updated in May 2010 and in 2016.

The main portion of this collection consists of wills, accounts, correspondence and statements from the mid- to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries relating to the family’s financial affairs, mostly arising from the will of the 1st Earl of Limerick and the dramatic reduction in rents at the turn of the century, which necessitated the sale of holdings through the Land Commission Court in the early 1900s. There is a small but interesting series of leases of property in Limerick City (P51/3/1/1-3 and P51/4/1-2) and a comprehensive set of documents (P51/3/2/1-28) relating to a dispute over title to St George’s Church at No. 1 Mallow Street, Limerick, which was demolished to make way to the Provincial Bank of Ireland, designed by James and George Richard Pain (for a ground plan of the bank by the Pain brothers, see P51/3/2/11).

While much of the early material relating to the Earls of Limerick and their antecedents is deposited in the National Library of Ireland, some interesting early documents can also be found in this collection. Of particular note is a compilation of manuscript transcripts of letters and petitions (P51/1/1) by Edmond Sexten the elder (1486-1555) and his grandson Edmond Sexten the younger (1595-1636) concerning among other things their disputes with Limerick Corporation. The document is written in secretary hand, but a more easily legible version can be found in P51/1/2. Also worth noting is a compilation of abstracts and copies of early deeds relating to the Sexton, Casey and Stackpole families (P51/1/3). A wonderful example of the emergence of the Age of Enlightenment can be found in P51/2/1 in the shape of a commonplace book, in which Colonel Edmund Pery kept notes between 1671 and 1681 on weights and measures, foreign coins, chronology, geography, astronomy, orthography, pronunciation and usage of English, significance of colours, instructions concerning the keep of horses, recipes for ink, boot polish etc., gardening activities and meteorological predictions.

A shortcoming of this collection is its limited scope. There are no rent rolls, no estate correspondence and no personal correspondence of family members. The building of Dromore Castle remains unrecorded, except for a scrap book (P51/5/4/1) compiled in 1868-1869 to contain sketches by the architect Edward William Godwin and rare photographs of Dromore Castle taken at various stages of its construction and a sketch of fireplace tiles by Godwin (P51/5/4/2). The only item of personal nature in the collection is an album of photographs, sketches, and signatures collected by May, Countess of Limerick during house parties (P51/6/3/2/2).

It should be noted here that the material deposited in the National Library of Ireland dates primarily from 1371 to 1806. A significant gap of the nineteenth-century material therefore exists, both in terms of estate and personal documentation.

Christmas greeting to Patrick, 6th Earl of Limerick and his wife Lady Sylvia from her sister Muriel. The card originally accompanied the Countess of Limerick’s album (for which see P51/6/3/2/2), which was found in a second hand shop and given to the couple as a Christmas present by Muriel and her husband.

This sub-series contains mortgages and related documents concerning the 4th Earl of Limerick.

Bound volume containing the rental, maps, particulars and conditions of the sale of ground rents, portion of the City of Limerick estate of the 4th Earl of Limerick, by public auction on 3-7 June 1907 by Messrs James H. North & Co., Dublin. The volume provides a detailed description of each of the 247 lots in tabular form, listing the lot and map numbers; denominations; grantees’ and lessees names; dates of gale days; yearly rent; tenure; and observations. The columns ‘yearly rent’ and ‘tenure’ of Lots 42 (p. 47) and 51 (p. 55) have been cut out. In addition, the pages containing Lots 3-4, 17-18, 33-38, 48-49, 66-67, 99, 121-122, 215-218 and 228-231 have been removed. Several maps are inserted between the pages, but some of these are now missing. Of the surviving maps, numbers 3, 4, 5 and 7 are loose and maps 8, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 17 are bound into the volume, but not in numerical order. Also see P51/6/1/2/3/7.

Schedules of deeds submitted to purchasers of lots at the sale of ground rents, portion of the City of Limerick estate of the 4th Earl of Limerick, by public auction on 3-7 June 1907 by Messrs James H. North & Co., Dublin (for which see P51/6/1/2/3/7). The schedules are in tabular form, listing the number of deed submitted, date of deed, parties’ names and nature of document (i.e. whether a lease, renewal, conveyance etc.). With gaps and duplicates. Some schedules have been signed by the buyer.

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.