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A history of the Capuchin novitiate in Kilkenny, 1875-77 by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. Referring to the decision to found a novitiate, Fr. Angelus wrote ‘In the month of May 1875 a visitation of the Irish Custody was made by Very Rev. Arsenius, the Provincial of Paris Province. At the conclusion of the visitation he called the Custos [Fr. Patrick O’Reilly OSFC] and his two assistants [Fr. Edward Tommins OSFC and Fr. Aloysius Hennessy OSFC]. They met in our Convent at Dublin on May 25th. At this meeting it was decided to apply to our Superiors General in Rome, for permission to establish a Novitiate for the Irish Custody’. The novitiate was transferred from Kilkenny to Rochestown on 14 Feb. 1877. Fr. Angelus concludes by noting that the ‘account of the Novitiate in Rochestown from 1877 to 1886, when it returned to Kilkenny may be given in another paper’.

Assignment from Fr. John Laurence O’Flynn OSFC to Fr. James Edward Tommins OSFC, Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC, Capuchin Convent, Dublin, Fr. Patrick Joseph Columbus Maher OSFC, Capuchin Convent, Kilkenny, and Fr. Edmund Thomas Dillon OSFC, Capuchin Convent, Cork, of the leasehold interest in premises on Walkin Street in consideration of 5s. The lease recites an earlier lease (dated 31 Aug. 1855) from Frances and Grace Blair to Fr. James Lewis O’Reardon [var. Louis O’Riordan] and Fr. John Laurence O’Flynn of the ‘gateway and yard formerly held by Humphrey Semple and the house at present occupied by Thomas Aylward … and the plot of ground in the possession of the said Rev. John Laurence O’Flynn which said demised premises are situate in Walkin Street in the parish of Saint Mary, City of Kilkenny … forever at the yearly rent of £6’. The file also includes a conveyance (19 Aug. 1897) from Beledia Juliana Maher to Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC and others of the said gateway and premises on Walkin Street to hold in fee farm subject to the rents payable. It is noted that Beledia Juliana Maher was the principal heiress-at-law of the estate of the late Fr. Patrick Joseph Columbus Maher OSFC.

Assignment from Fr. Albert David Mitchell OSFC, Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC, Fr. Michael Louis Hennessy OSFC, Fr. Goodwin Peter Augustine Lawless OSFC, North King Street, Dublin, and Fr. Stephen Bolger OSFC, Chester, to Fr. Pacificus Anthony Perucci OSFC, Chester, Fr. Simeon Gaudillot OSFC, Charlotte Quay, Cork, Fr. Joseph Martin Harkins OSFC, Fr. Thomas B. Kavanagh OSFC, North King Street, and Fr. Nicholas Maurice Murphy OSFC and Fr. Bernard Joseph Jennings OSFC, Charlotte Quay, of the residue of a lease dated 8 Mar. 1875 (CA HT/2/1/2/13) of premises on Charlotte Quay in consideration of 10s. Endorsed on title page: ‘Assignment of lease of Convent’.

• Notes from the register of the Dublin Capuchin community re novitiate arrangements in the early nineteenth century. It reads ‘Fr. Celestine Corcoran, Provincial Minister, in a letter to the Fr. General on Sept. 2nd 1815 mentions that he had arranged with the “Patre Provinciale Baeticae” to send young men to be received in that province. Six young men were received in the Convent of Seville, Spain, on Sunday, November 19th 1815, and were professed there on November 24th 1816. … At the request of Fr. Mathew in accordance with a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Regular Discipline of Dec. 20, 1825, the Convent of Frascati was appointed as a novitiate for Irish novices. … Irish friars were received also in Convents in Italy, and in Fr. Mathew’s time (1850) four were received in Bruges, Frs. Tommins, Dillon, Mitchell, and O’Reilly, and in the following year (1851) five entered in Frascati, Frs. Muldoon, Rourke, Dunne, Knaresboro and Maher’. The file also includes notes relating to Fr. Mathew taken from the Capuchin General Archives in Rome. The notes refer to the appointment of Fr. Mathew as Provincial Minister of the Irish Capuchins from c.1813-52. ‘In a letter to the Fr. General dated Sept. 2nd 1815, he signs himself “Provincialis Hiberniae”’. Also includes a copy of the decree by which the Irish Capuchins were permitted to have a novitiate in their houses in Ireland dated 29 May 1808. It is noted that a copy of this decree is preserved in the Franciscan Library, Merchants’ Quay, Dublin. Typescript, 3 pp.
• Extracts from the account book of the Capuchin Friary in Cork relating to the building of Holy Trinity (Father Mathew Memorial) Church. The extracts were compiled by Br. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. The notes refer to the difficulties in securing funding for the completion of the church. It reads ‘During the great excitement of the temperance movement Fr. Mathew was pressed from many parts of Ireland to allow the church to be finished by subscriptions of teetotallers but would not allow the matter to be accomplished’. The following statement of accounts is also given in the notes:
‘Mr. Anthony, contracting architect received £13,000
Sir Thomas Deane & Co. received £1,000
Since 1848 to various parties £2,500
Total: £16,500
Collection made in 1854: £500
Total: £17,000’
Manuscript, 3 pp.
• Copy letter of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC to David O’Meara, his secretary, affirming that he is attending to his sick brother in Kenmare, County Kerry. 30 Jan. 1848. Typescript, 1 p.
• Copy letter of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC to Larry Egan, Herbert Park, Gardiner’s Hill, Cork, regarding his life assurance which he has assigned to William Rathborne of Liverpool, merchant. 11 May 1849. Manuscript, 1 p.
• Copy letter from Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC to Symon Carew, 96 Lower Mount Street, Dublin, re his brother’s (Charles) illness and the payment of rent. He writes ‘The persons who at present hold the land are no tenants of mine, neither have I any control over them. The will continue to keep possession and pay no rent’. 5 Feb. 1848. Typescript, 1 p.
• Copy letters of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC from Maurice Denham Jephson, 'An Anglo-Irish Miscellany / Some Records of the Jephsons of Mallow' (Dublin: Allen & Figgis, 1964). The three copy letters are from Fr. Mathew to Lady Browne and Sir Denham Jephson-Norreys, (1799-1888), MP for Mallow, and date from 2 July 1844-5 Nov. 1844. Printed, 4 pp.
• Copy letter from Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC to Mrs Cronin re an Altar Stone consecrated by the late Pope Gregory XVI which he is happy to forward on to her. 24 July 1846. A note appended to the letter reads ‘The original [letter] is in the South Presentation Convent, Douglas Street, Cork / The original, from which I typed this copy, is in the hand of one of the secretaries of Fr. Mathew, David O’Meara’. Typescript, 1 p.
• Copy letter from Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC to the Rev. Guardian [possibly Fr. Vincent McLeod OSFC] re an accusation that Fr. Laurence O’Flynn OSFC (1807-1863) had ‘repeatedly hunted upon and destroyed game’ on the lands of Reginald Greene. Fr. Mathew writes ‘That a member of the Capuchin Order should subject himself to such a charge, and partake of such amusements, must fill a religious mind with horror. You will Rev. Father Guardian deliver the enclosed obedience to the Rev. Father O’Flynn, and take care that my mandate shall be strictly obeyed’. The letter is dated at Cork, 20 Sept. 1846. With a typed copy of the letter in Italian held in the Capuchin General Archives in Rome. Typescript, 2 pp.

Account book of Fr. Bernard Jennings OSFC, Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC and Fr. Patrick Joseph Columbus Maher OSFC, Church Street, with the National Bank. The book is annotated on the front cover: ‘To be sent at least once a month to be written up from Bank’s ledger – Reverends Murphy and Maher’. The entries relate to deposits in cash and payments by cheque.

Account book giving details of donations and collections for the Church Street Friars. Reference is made to the collections for vestments and to the sale of Adoration Cards (Oct. 1852). Information is given in respect of the name of the donator and the amount received. Reference is made to Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC (d. 1894) and to Fr. Albert Mitchell OSFC (1826-1893). A short note re expenditure from January-February 1850 is made on the final the page including the payment of £8 8s for ‘rent for school’.

Conveyancing agreement of Bryan Kavanagh, 98 North Brunswick Street, cattle dealer and dairy proprietor, with Fr. Lawrence Gallerani OSFC, Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC and Fr. James Edward Tommins OSFC. The agreement relates to a portion of ground and premises on North Brunswick Street acquired by the aforementioned Capuchin friars from Patrick Regan in a deed of assignment dated 3 June 1862 (See CA CS/2/2/4/14). Bryan Kavanagh was seized in fee simple of a dwelling house on the aforementioned holding situated on North Brunswick Street. The conveyancing agreement stipulates that the parties ‘shall mutually convey or assign by way of exchange certain portions of said holdings … as delineated and described on a map and coloured red on the margin hereon drawn’. The map (24 cm x 12 cm) denotes the proposed boundary between Kavanagh’s yard and the premises held by the Capuchin friars. The portion coloured yellow is to be given in exchange by Kavanagh for the portion coloured red (23 feet 4 inches by 21 feet 6 inches) described as ‘formerly Mr Patrick Regan’s bake houses’. The map was drawn by H. Boylan in Sept. 1863. Map scale: 20 feet to 1 inch. With counterpart conveyance and agreement.

Memorandum of agreement between Mary Anne Magrane, widow, Church Street, and Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC and other Capuchin friars, North King Street, regarding the purchase of the houses and premises known as nos. 22-23 Bow Street held by the former under a lease (dated 1 Jan. 1849) from William Bagot for the life of the Duke of Leinster or for the residue of a term of 31 years at the yearly rent of £18. The purchase price is stated as £250. With draft (28 Nov. 1874) compiled by Terence O’Reilly, solicitor, 5 North Great George’s Street.

Copy probate of the will and testament of John McGrane, Sandymount Green, County Dublin, dated 2 May 1863. He bequeaths his leasehold tenements, lands, stocks-in-trade and household goods to his wife Mary Anne McGrane. The probate is dated 18 Sept. 1868. The copy was compiled by Terence O’Reilly, solicitor, 5 North Great Georges Street. With a cover letter from Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC to Terence O’Reilly. 4 Feb. 1881.