Minutes of board meetings of the Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests regarding a deed appointing the FMC Trust to be a trustee of the property comprising of a dwelling house fronting onto Friary Street and situated at the junction with Garden Row. The property is to be vested in the FMC Trust to benefit the charitable functions of the Capuchin Order in Kilkenny.
Copy assignment by Jeremiah Easter Esq., County of Essex, Lieutenant, 23rd Regiment of Light Dragoons, to Frances and Grace Blair, Upper Berkeley Street, Dublin. The assignment recites the will made by the late James Montgomery Blair (dated 6 Nov. 1838) and the appointment of Jeremiah Easter as his sole executor (See CA KK/2/1/1/3/1). The deed assigns all the real estate and leasehold property situated in Kilkenny city formerly belonging to James Montgomery Blair and which were bequeathed to Jeremiah Easter by the aforementioned will to his daughters Frances and Grace Blair. Consideration: £100.
The letters relate to the purchase of the ground rent of a property known as ‘Morrissey’s, 17 Friary Street’, from AIB Bank by the FMC Trust for £1,000 and to the proposed purchase of the said premises by Kilkenny Corporation. Correspondents include John Lanigan & Nolan, Abbey Bridge, Dean Street, Kilkenny, Fr. Leo Cullen OFM Cap., the Town Clerk’s Office, Kilkenny Corporation, and the Charitable Commissioners Office. A letter from John Lanigan & Nolan refers to the property as being let to tenants called ‘the Floods … [comprising] two Alms Houses i.e. the old “Munster Arms” at an annual rent of £11.50 due half yearly’.
Deeds, correspondence and related legal documents concerning negotiations for the purchase of premises on Walkin Street (later Friary Street) by the Capuchin Order. The principal vendor and fee farm grant holder was the Rev. Andrew Craig Robinson (Church of Ireland Rector of Ballymoney, County Cork). Some of Robinson’s relations also had interests in the properties. The file relates primarily to the protracted negotiations for the purchase, and to efforts to trace title to the properties (Robinson had inherited the fee farm grant of rents accruing from the premises through his mother, Margaret Anne, a daughter of Captain James Montgomery Blair). Reference is also made to various mortgages on the properties and to the original fee farm grant of 1705 made by James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde. The Capuchins eventually secured the property in 1919 for £650 (See CA KK/2/1/1/3/13). The final conveyance contained a covenant by the vendor to indemnify the property transferred against all rents accruing out of any other premises which he continued to hold on Walkin Street.
Lease from Frances and Grace Blair, spinsters, Dublin, to Fr. James Lewis O’Reardon and Fr. John Laurence O’Flynn OSFC, Kilkenny, of a gateway and yard formerly held by Humphrey Semple, and a house currently occupied by Thomas Aylwood, situated on Walkin Street, forever at the yearly rent of £6. With a manuscript copy.
Copy mortgage from Charles William West (at the request of Grace and Frances Blair) to Richard Bell Robinson and John Wynne of several houses, hereditaments and premises situated on Walkin Street and Patrick Street, Kilkenny, for £250.
Copy conveyance by Grace and Frances Blair to Richard Bell Robinson of all the right and equity of redemption in houses, tenements, hereditaments and premises situated on Walkin Street, Kilkenny, in consideration of the payment of annual annuity of £20 to Grace and Frances Blair. Robinson to hold said properties forever upon trust to keep said properties in repair, to pay the mortgage interest and also upon trust for Samuel Owen Robinson and Andrew Craig Robinson in equal proportions as tenants in common after the death of the survivor of Grace and Frances Blair. Copy made on c.3 June 1916. It is noted that Grace Blair died on 8 Dec. 1880 and Frances Blair died on 15 Oct. 1884.
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.
Documents relating to an application to the Charitable Commissioners by the FMC Trust. The documents relate to an application by the Trust for a sale of the trustee’s interest in 17 Friary Street located at the junction of Friary Street and Garden Row with the yard at the rear thereof held by the Capuchin Order under a fee farm grant dated 29 Oct. 1898. The file includes: • Draft and copy application forms. • Copy declarations by Fr. Leo Cullen OFM Cap. in which he states that the said property has been in the possession of the Capuchin Order since at least 1912. 26 July 1996; 2 Dec. 1997. • Copy public notices. • Copy of orders from the Charitable Commissioners. • Copy affidavit of Seamus Brennan, solicitor, Abbey Bridge, Dean Street, Kilkenny. 1 Dec. 1999. • Copy statutory acknowledgment and undertaking of the FMC Trust. • Copy memorandum and articles of association of the FMC Trust.
Copy valuation report for 17 Friary Street, Kilkenny, by Ganly Waters Boyd, 5 William Street, Kilkenny. The report affirms that the vacant property has an open market value of £101,000. With attached copy ordnance survey extract.
