Bessie Reilly's Husband ~ Edmund Burke Browne

In about 1830, after years of solicitations from local businessmen, the Bank of Ireland finally opened a branch in Ennistymon.

Instead of following the lead of other banks, the Bank of Ireland had been slow in expanding to cities and towns far from Dublin.

One of the reasons for their delay was finding qualified bank managers to run these offices.

According to Philip Ollerenshaw in Banking in Nineteenth-century Ireland, the Bank of Ireland demanded that its branch managers deposit at least £10,000, as security, in Government or Bank stock together with an additional £10,000. Sometimes twice this sum was required.

It is hardly surprising that the Bank occasionally had trouble finding men able to meet these stringent requirements.

So, it was a happy day in Ennistymon when the Bank of Ireland finally opened its doors for business on Parliament Street.

Bank of Ireland, Parliament Street

The future son-in-law of our great great grandfather, Edmund Burke-Browne, was one of Ennistymon’s first managers.

We do not know exactly what year he started his position but it was before 1860.

As a prominent businessman in town, P.E. Reilly must have fostered a relationship with the 30-something unmarried gentry Banker……

Edmund Burke-Browne (1823-1891) was the fourth child and second son of Anne (Nancy) O’Grady (1789-1872) and Thomas Burke-Browne (1779-1870) of Castlepark House in Kilmihil.

The Burke-Brownes descend from the Tribes of Galway.

The Tribes were fourteen merchant families who dominated the political, commercial, and social life of the city of Galway up until the 1850s. They include the families of Browne and Blake ~ both of whom are in the Burke-Browne Family Tree.

More than likely, P.E. must have been thrilled with Bessie's choice of husband (if it were her choice) because the Burke-Browne Family was pure gentry class. 

The Browne Family Seat ~ Castlepark House ~ is located in Kilmihil, Tulla. 

Castlepark House, Kilmihil

Castlepark House is described as a 19^th century, two story, three bay home. Its front door has side lights and a central fan on top which faces Cahermurphy Lough (lake).

The ground floor corners at the back of the house are rounded so coaches would not get caught as they passed by the rear of the house.

What I love best about this description from Hugh Weir’s Houses of Clare: “The initials E.B.B. are carved on the doors.” 

From Houses of Clare by Hugh Weir

Tragically, in 1850, Edmund’s older brother, Patrick died.

He was struck by lightning while sitting in a friend’s house near the fire and having a smoke.

Newspaper Account of Patrick's Death

There were three other Burke-Browne children in the family: two daughters and another son named William.

Marcella (1818-1846) was the first born and married William O’Brien when she was 17 years old in 1834.

They had four children but when she died suddenly at 30 years of age, William ~ an unsuccessful farmer ~ could not cope.

Leaving his youngest daughter, Attie, with his mother-in-law, he took the older three with him to America.

Attie never saw her family again.

A delicate child, Attie never went to school nor had any sort of systemic education yet she became a published poet and novelist.

She was a regular contributor to a periodical called “Irish Monthly” but had trouble breaking into the English market.

In 1863, Attie moved in with her Aunt Fanny (Edmund's sister) at Kildysart House and rarely left this beautiful spot overlooking the Shannon and Fergus Rivers.

She died in 1863.

In New York, Attie’s brother, William Mahon, joined the 88^th Infantry Regiment during the Civil War and served gallantly at the Battle of Bull Run.

He mustered out in 1863 as a Captain at the age of 21.

Settling in the San Francisco area, William became the Manager of the Hibernia & Dime Savings Bank.

Years later, as he lay dying, he told those with him ~ if he could only sit on the bank of the river in the “old land” where he had fished as a boy, he knew he would recover.

Edmund’s second sister was Frances ~ Fanny (1820-1890).

In 1843, she married the manager of the Kilrush branch of the Bank of Ireland, James O’Brien, Esq.

James was the son of the manager of the Ennis branch of the Bank, Terence O’Brien, Esq.

When Terence retired in 1848, guess who succeeded him as Bank Manager in Ennis?

John Harnett Milward

John Harnett Milward ~ our great great grandfather!

Do you see the social circle that had developed with these bankers?

Edmund Burke-Browne married P E’s daughter, Bessie Reilly at the Chapel of Ennistymon on November 23, 1860.

Chapel of Ennistymon

When they wed, Bessie was 27 and Edmund was 37.

The newlyweds moved into Castlepark House and started their family of seven daughters right away.

UPDATE: June 9, 2017

New information has just surfaced which totally negates my charming introduction to this essay.

The Archivist of the Royal Bank of Scotland (which acquired the National Bank of Ireland in 1966) graciously responded to my recent inquiry for the career information of several of our ancestors.

Evidently, the Ennistymon branch of the National Bank did not open in the 1830s but in 1871.

AND ~ Edmund Burke-Browne NEVER worked for the National Bank.... At least, she could locate no records for him.

I am sorry for the misinformation..... I distinctly remember Father Edmund O'Keefe telling me this story in 1999 when we were in Ireland at Tom McCormick's home.

In my research of the newspaper archives, I have not discovered any connection between the Bank and EBB....... or anything indicating that he held a job.

Edmund Burke Browne must have been PURE gentry ~  I have not seen any mention of his having a "land agent", either.....

He obviously lived off his land and did not need an "outside" job.

I still don't know how he and Bessie Reilly met nor how they even knew each other.

Research will continue!

EPILOGUE 

History gives a nation its bearing on what it is and how its people are affected by what has happened in the past. 

Its kings and queens, its wars - with victories and defeats - these all mold a nation’s culture into the way it views itself in the present. 

In the same way, a family history presents how a family has survived and come to terms with the great social and cultural experiences of the ages.

We hope these stories will give each member of our family a foundation and, in some small way, explain how we came to be what we are today.

Hopefully, through these vignettes, our future generations will gain a knowledge of the energy and dynamism, the loves and hates, the errors and mistakes, the victories and failures, the struggles and successes that make us what we are.

Our family history presents a fascinating read - and, hopefully, some lessons to be learned in the process.