Tombstone Tuesday - Bryen & Pennella Coughlin

BRYEN COUGHLIN

Died June 27, 1909

PENNELLA COUGHLIN

Died May 15, 1903

***

Holy Cross Cemetery

Lackawanna

Buffalo, Erie County, New York

***

Alan's great-grandparents - Bryen and Pennella's son John and daughter Bridget emigrated from Nenagh, Tipperary, Ireland to America in  1890 and later brought out their parents and two sisters. Both of the other two sisters, Catherine and Mary came to New Zealand where Catherine would marry Mark Anthony Toomey. 

Temperance Toomey nee Hoysted (1781 - 1819)

Temperance was born on the 6th October, 1781, the first child of John and Anne Hoysted of Foxhill (near Athy) , County Kildare, Ireland.


She was named Temperance for her paternal grandmother , Temperance Hoysted nee Bagot who herself had been named for her grandmother, Temperance Browne nee Perry.
It's an unusual name which has continued to be used through each generation although over the years it is more likely to be seen as Tempe or Tempey.

The Hoysted's were an old and well established family and with their connection to the Bagots had an impeccable social standing. Temperance was exactly the sort of woman that Mark Toomey needed to consolidate his newly acquired position and grace Eagle Hill as his wife. I hope it wasn't a completely mercenary contract and the two had an affection for each other.

Temperance Hoysted and Mark Toomey were married in the Ballyshannon Church at Fontstown on the 25th August, 1799. The groom is 30 years-old ...........his bride is a month short of her 18th birthday.

This is the beginning of what would become known as the Regency Era which is so wonderfully described in Jane Austen's novels and if you've seen the film and TV adaptations it's not hard to imagine what Temperance's life would have been like.

Temperance and Mark would have 10 children: (I'll add links to their individual posts as I do them)

1. Martha - 1800
2. Mark Antoney - 1801- 1833 ( Alan Toomey's great-great grandfather)
3. Anne - 1803
4. John Hoysted - 1805 - 1881
5. Elizabeth - 1807 - 1807
6. George - 1808
7. Temperance - 1810 - 1888
8. Mark - 1812 - 1864
9. Jane - 1814
10. Alicia - 1816

At first sight it seems strange that there are two Marks but I think the elder Mark would have been known as Antoney (this is possible a misspelling) or Anthony to avoid confusion with his father . Alan's father and grandfather were both Mark Anthony but his father was always Anthony/Tony.

Temperance Toomey died on the 27th March, 1819 and is buried at the Ballyshannon Church in Fontstown.
She was only 37 years-old and her youngest child was only three. Her mother-in-law Martha who had lived with them throughout the marriage outlived her by 5 years. She didn't live to see her children married or to hold her grandchildren - nor could ever have thought that so many of these young people would leave Ireland and her descendants would be found  in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Temperance Toomey is Alan Toomey's great-great-great grandmother.

Surname Saturday - The Bagot Lineage

The following information was included with our copy of the family tree compiled by Garry Toomey. There are also several very interesting links about this family branch to be found on the internet including...
The Irish Branch of the Bagot family
thepeerage.com 


1.......... Patrick Bagot, born abt. 1518; died abt. 1553 in Bagotstown, County Limerick. He married Maria O'Dwyer, born abt.1520.
                                          son - Edmund

2.........Edmund Bagot, born abt. 1545; died abt, 1623 in Bagotstown, County Limerick, Ireland. He married Honora Bourke, born abt, 1550
                                          son - James

3..........James Bagot, born abt. 1577; died abt 1635 in Ballinstown, County Limerick, Ireland. He married (2) abt, 1595, Ellen Purcell. 
                                           son - Edward

4...........Edward Bagot, born abt. 1620 in Harristown, Kings County, Ireland; died abt 1711 in Waterstown, County Kildare, Ireland.
Royal Commissioner of Kings County - 1663
High Sheriff of County Kildare - 1667
He married (2) abt. 1659 , Catherine Colbourne, born abt. 1622 in Great Connell, County Kildare, Ireland; died 1691
                                       son - Christopher

5.............Christopher Bagot, born abt. 1665; died before 1737. Married (2) in 1704, Catherine Fitzgerald, born in Kilmead, County Kildare, Ireland.
                                       son - John

6. ...........John Bagot, born abt. 1705; died 5 June, 1753 in Nurney Castle, Ireland. He married (2) on 26 August 1736 in Riverstown, County Kildare, Ireland, Alicia Browne, born abt 1720 in Riverstown, County Kildare; died 5 June 1756 in Riverstown, County Kildare, Ireland.
                                       daughter - Temperance

7..............Temperance Bagot, born 24 July 1737 in Nurney Castle, County Kildare, Ireland; died 1789 in Foxhill (near Athy), County Kildare, Ireland. She married in 1754 in County Kildare, James Hoysted, born 1731 in County Kildare; died 1789 in Foxhill, County Kildare - son of Thomas and Rose (nee Naughton) Hoysted.
                                        son - John

8..............John Hoysted, born abt. 1775 in Foxhill, County Kildare; died 1808 in Walterstown, County Kildare. Buried at Kildangan, County Kildare. He married (2)  Anne Richardson, born abt. 1760 in Athy, County Kildare; died abt.1795.
                                        daughter - Temperance

9.......Temperance Hoysted married Mark Toomey.

Mark Toomey 1769-1832 ... Irish Gentleman

The family historian says " my Grandfather gave up the shoemaking trade and lived a private gentleman all the rest of his life,"


For Mark the sudden appearance of a substantial inheritance must have felt like winning the lottery . An opportunity , not to step up in the world , but to return to the lifestyle that he must have felt was his birthright and had been denied for the first 28 years of his life. I wonder if he ever acknowledged the gift his mother gave to him . She may have 'had no means to leave him or give him a profession' but she raised him a Protestant and that was his entry ticket into the world of the landed gentry.

He buys a property at Eagle Hill, a townland of 337 acres so presumably he bought it as an entire estate and the house would have looked something like this................County Kildare is littered with beautiful Georgian houses of varying size and magnificence.

The next step is to find himself a bride and in 1799 he marries Miss Temperance Hoysted, the eldest daughter of John and Anne Hoysted of Foxhill. The Hoysteds were a well-off and long established family so presumably Temperance was quite a catch although I do wonder whether her parents thought the same about Mark. ( I'll be doing a separate post on the Hoysteds and Temperance later). The happy couple proceed to fill their home with an ever increasing number of children and to live the good life. A gentleman does not work for a living - heaven forbid!

I may be doing the man an injustice but I can't like him . I have a feeling he is the type of person described in the book A History of Ireland.

" At the beginning of the 19th century Ireland was divided up among landlords who rented land to tenant farmers. Large holdings with owners who thought of themselves as squires, not farmers, and with little interest in the land or estate management other than a means to pay for their prodigal lifestyle."


It's understandable that in the early years his expectations would be to continue to live the privileged lifestyle of the Protestant Irish country set but he will live 30 years into the 19th century and at a time when there would be massive changes , socially and economically, in Ireland. Mark was either blind to what was going on  in his country or chose to ignore it and his attitude indicates a complete lack of foresight or concern for the future of his land or his children, something at least one of his sons was aware of.........the grandson writes...

" My father was a solicitor and I often heard him say he took a profession as he came to the conclusion that most of the old generals 20,000 Punts had been spent and he should look out for himself."


Mark Toomey died at Eagle Hill on the 23rd May, 1832 and is buried at Fontstown.