Saturday 28 May 2011

The parish of Killegney, County Wexford (1)

Killegney was originally a huge parish (in area that is, it was sparsely populated) sitting in that band of land between Templeludigan near the County Carlow border to the west, right over nearly to Clonroche in the east. It included the area around Castleboro and Ballymakessy, associated with the family of Jeremiah Fitzhenry. A description of the parish in 1837 in Lewis' Topographical Dictionary can be found here.

When the Rev. Thomas Furlong took over as parish priest in 1816, he beautifully inscribed his new register as:
"A register of the Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths of the United Parishes of Killegney, Chapel, Killann and Tampleodigan [sic] 1816"

...and the very first entry in the register is

March 17 1816
Married James Doyle to Mary Fitzhenry
Present Walthe [sic] Fitzhenry and Philip Fitzhenry

Who were they? I don't know - yet another random piece of the whole puzzle. I suspect "Walthe" should be "Walter". Philip Fitzharris appears in the register as a husband and father in his own right, but is he the same man? He may well be as a Walter and Philip Fitzharris pairing of witnesses turn up again the following year:

Feb 16th 1817
Married Roger Kehoe and Jude Green
Present Philip Fitzharris and Walt Do.~

The registers are on the National Library of Ireland film P.4250

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