Abstract of title of Joseph Empson Esq. to the house and premises on Walkin Street commonly called ‘The Munster Arms’, parish of Saint Mary, Kilkenny City. The abstract commences with a recital of a lease (dated 8 Apr. 1769) by William Colles to George Chapman of the said house for three lives at the yearly rent of £14 10s (see CA KK/2/1/1/1/1). The abstract concludes with a reference to an assignment of lease (dated 5 May 1893) by Frederick Reynell Pack to Joseph Empson Esq. of the said house and premises for ever at the yearly fee farm rent of £13 7s 8d. Endorsed on title page: ‘Abstract prepared on the sale by Joseph Empson Esq. to Reverend F.M Neary and Reverend Thomas O’Connor completed by conveyance dated 1 Aug. 1895. Joseph Empson Esq., 1st part, Mrs M.H. Doxey, 2nd part, Rev. F.M Neary OSFC and another, 3rd part’.
Abstract of title of Rev. Andrew Craig Robinson and Rev. Willoughby Richard Knox Robinson to premises on Walkin Street, Kilkenny. The abstract commences with a recital of a fee farm grant of 9 Sept. 1705 from James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde to Mary Pape of ‘a stone house slatted with a thatcht house and garden in hightown quarter also a wast piece of ground in Walkinstreete twenty one foote in front and forty two foot backwards …’ in consideration of £24 13s 4d at the yearly rent of £6 3s 4d with four turkeys and eight capons or £1 6s in lieu thereof. (See CA KK/2/1/1/3/16). The abstract concludes with reference to the granting of the administration (19 Aug. 1912) of the personal estate of Rev. Richard Samuel Owen Robinson to his widow Henrietta Robinson.
This property formed part of the historic Munster Arms’ site (see section 2.1.1.1). It was situated on the north side of Walkin Street approximately two hundred yards from the junction of that street with High Street and immediately opposite the entrance to the Capuchin Friary. The property was bounded to the north by the Regent Cinema (demolished in 1998), to the west by Garden Row, to the south by Friary Street, and to the east by the Friary Street Car Park which was owned by Kilkenny Corporation. By the late twentieth century, the property at 17 Friary Street comprised a three storey nineteenth-century residence, formerly end-of-terrace but afterwards detached. The property had been left vacant for many years. The file relates to the sale of the property by the Capuchin Order to property developers in the late 1990s.
