John 'the Dancer' FitzGerald, 19th Knight

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John Fitzgerald (Cf. Fig 3) eldest surviving son of Thomas and Mary succeeded to the title and estate of Glin on the death of his father in late 1.732. When John himself deed suddenly in Cork in August 1737 at least five Irish poets composed elegies for him and in some of the introductions it was stated that John died aged only 26 years. This statement is clearly incorrect as John is first mentioned in the records on the 5th of May 1718 (48) as having taken part with his father in a raid on the lands of Glenalappa in the Parish of Murher (modern Moyvane) Co. Kerry.

It seems that John must then have been a teenager at least and not a mere youth of about seven years of age, when this raid took place, because of the dangers involved. John con firmed to the Protestant faith on the 23rd August 1730. (49) According to the 'Alphabetical list of Converts' (50) originally held in the Rolls Office, Dublin (51) and quoted by Lenihan (52) and others (53) this read:

Fitzgerald, John, Gent, Eldest son of Thomas Fitzgerald of Glyn, Co. Limerick, Knight of the Glyn. August 23rd, 1730 Culhane misread this document when he stated 'Something of John who conformed in 1730... was undoubtedly Knight from 1730 to 1737. The document relative to his change of religion which was in the Old Record Office definitely stated that he was returned as Knight in 1730.' (54) As can be clearly seen above the original document listed Thomas as Knight in 1730.

There was considerable pressure on John to conform at this time, as under the penal laws (55) where there were two or more sons (in Thomas's case there Were four) a Catholic owned estate could be handed on intact only if one of the sons became Protestant not later than three months after the fathers' death. O'Byrne (56) and Power (57) have made the point that most of the converts up to circa 1731 appear to have been people of substance. Between 1703 and 1709 the total number of converts for all of Ireland was the surprisingly low figure of 36 and in the first two decades of the century the number remained low with mainly landed heirs conforming.

However after 1731 the number of converts accelerated and in 1741 four Irish Catholic bishops were greatly alarmed that the well to do were everywhere deserting the old religion. (58) However even then they were not talking about large numbers generally and were referring to the moderate to very rich Irish Catholics who had most to lose and who suffered most under the penal laws. It is possible that John converted at the suggestion of, or prompting by, his parents who would have been anxious to pass on the Glin estate intact to their eldest son, Without John's conforming this would not have happened - the estate would go in equal shares to the four sons.

Another reason why John converted was that there was rapacious people about in Co. Limerick and elsewhere - the Barkers and the Southwells have been mentioned (59) only too willing to become 'Protestant discoverers to get their greedy hands on the Fitzgerald's lands. A Protestant discoverer was one who filed a bill of discovery (or information) about a Catholic property and then under the obnoxious penal code lay claim to it.

These 'discoverers' were usually from Dublin city; publicans, hucksters, bridlecutters, wig-makers and other low types who rushed to file bills of 'discovery against landed Catholics or crypto - Catholics. They were in the words of Chenevix Trench always 'on the prowl, snooping and prodding and ferreting round for any transaction which could be turned to..., advantage' and they were 'the nightmare of every Catholic landowner.' (60) John, after his conversion, does not appear to have taken advantage of the penal code to make his father his tenant for life nor does he appear to have let or set portions of the Glin lands on long-term leases until after his father's death. Culhane has suggested that John remained a crypto - Catholic and that, according to local tradition he died in the old faith. (61)

There is some evidence from a legal source that this was so, When John made his will (dated 8th June 1735) (62) leaving his estates, with remainders, to his brothers Edmond, Richard and Thomas, on his death, he and they were only six years later, described by the Protestant discoverer Brice of Dublin, as having been 'all of them Papists'. (63) However, on the other hand, when in 1737 Edmond and Richard, with Edmund Shaughnessy of Glin and other prominent Limerick Catholics, had successfully used their influence by means of a signed petition (64) to have Robert de Lacy appointed Catholic bishop of Limerick, John Fitzgeralds' name is notably absent.

Perhaps John Fitzgerald was like his near contemporary in west Glare, John Williams of Querrin, who fluctuated in religious matters and was 'sometimes a papist, sometimes a Protestant.' (65) What is certain is that John remained on friendly terms with his mother long after his conversion (66) and also with his brothers.

During the tenure of Thomas 'Snub-Nosed', tenants on his estate do not appear to have received any long-term (i.e. 21 years or more) leases. They were mainly tenants 'at will', that is, at the will of the landlord and in most cases· in fact they were tenants on a verbal agreement for a term of one year· only, and at most 5 years, renewable only if the lesser was willing. Such were the majority of the tenants listed on the earliest surviving Glin rental - that of the 1857 year ending March 1858. (67)

However his son John saw the advantage of some long-term leases and shortly after he succeeded, in January 1733 he made an indented lease of Killeny (Killeany) at the yearly rent of £75 to George Studdert (68) of Bunratty, Co. Glare and his brothers Henry and Maurice 'for and during the life of the longest liver of them.' (69) The bounds were shown to Studdert by Edward Shaughnessy and Denis Kelly at the home of Edmund Russell, presumably at Killeany. This letting was to have far-reaching effects on the Glin estate later.

The following year (1734) John leased 364 acres of Clounoughter (Clonoughter) to Patrick Felan of Cahirmoyle, Co. Limerick, together with 34 acres of bog, which were let rent free and a rent of 4s. 6d. per acre was charged for the profitable acreage which Felan held for three lives. (70) The letting of turbary free of rent was an old Glin custom, particularly on the bog of Clonoughter for in a deed of 1820 we read.... "with liberty and right of Turbary sufficient for the consumption of said premises on the Bog of Clounoughiler as is customary with the tenants on the Glin Estate who cut turf on said bog..' (71) This letting also was to have repercussions for the Glin family.

At this time (1735/36) John appears to have been in serious financial difficulties, probably due to debts incurred by his father to pay legal fees in his protracted dispute with Trinity over the Kerry border lands. By long-leases to people like Studdert and Felan, John was able to secure some much- needed cash from the head rents of Killeaney and Cloonoughter while the two lessees acted as middlemen and in turn sublet their denominations. In May 1735 John leased 63 acres of Farranmiller to Alexander Eliott of Co. Limerick' at the yearly rate of £17 (72) This deed was witnessed by Thomas Kean (73) of the County of Glare and by William Leary of Killane, Co. Limerick - the latter is described as a cordwainer' or shoe maker. This lease was for the unusual term of four lives.

Later m June (1735) John made his will. (74) We do not know what induced him to do so, perhaps illness or a possible engagement to Isabel Butler who he would later marry. Apart from his estates, which were then substantial, probably about 15,000 acres, John had little to leave. This ~will has not survived though some of it's terms are mentioned in later documents.

By 1736 John was in dire financial straits. In that year he executed two bonds 'with warrants of attorney for confessing judgement thereon' (75) to a London banker, George Fitzgerald - one bond was for £2,276 16s 8d. conditional for the payment of £1,138 8s 44. (plus legal interest) and the second for a similar sum also conditioned for the payment of £569 4s 24. (with legal interest) In other words John mortgaged his estates for the sum of £1,707 12s 6d for which he was to pay George Fitzgerald the sum of £4,553 13s 4d. plus legal interest, over an unspecified number of years. In the Trinity term of 1736 judgements were entered in the Court of Exchequer in Ireland· on these two bonds. (76) Probably to finance his forthcoming marriage to Isabel Butler, John borrowed a further sum of £300 (sterling) from a Limerick merchant - tailor, one James Connor, of which sum the Knight had received £243 us 6d by early August 1737.

(77) Four days before his untimely death John, in order to satisfy Connor, drew up a memorandum or minute dated the 6th August 1737, by which he agreed to let all the lands of Caheragh (estimated by John 0 Donovan in 1839/40 to contain 461 statute acres) (78) to him for the term of 99 years'- the longest lease of all in the Fitzgerald 18th century lettings - to commence 1st May, 1737. This memorandum or minute was registered after John's death in May 1739. (79) John was probably in Cork city, preparing for his forthcoming marriage when this memorandum was drawn up as it is witnessed by John Stack, of Cork city, Innholder and by Simon Connor of the same place. John was married to Isabel Butler at Youghal, Co. Cork on the 9th August 1737.

His bride is described, as 'of the house of Ormond' (80) and she is one of the many intriguing mysteries in the story of the Fitzgeralds of Glin. Beyond two facts, that she married John on the 9th of August, 1737 and that she' was 'of the house of Ormond' she is an enigma clouded in antiquity. Lord Dunboyne, an authority on the various branches of the Butlers and a Vice-President of the Butler Society writes of her as 'Isobel Butler of Kilmoodan' and suggests that 'Kilmoodan may mean Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford where there was, a Le Poer stronghold before Cromwell's time; and there are many Butler - Le Poer links' (81) Isabel departed from the Glin genealogy as mysteriously as she had entered it.

The wedding feast at Youghal would appear to have been arranged by John's mothers' family and after the wedding ball, where John had danced excessively the happy couple repaired to 'Cork where John died suddenly on the following day - 10th August 1737.

As mystery surrounds Isabel so too does mystery surround John in death. Five elegies have survived written by the Munster poets - Fr. Liam English, (82) James Fitzgerald (83) Joseph O'Keeffe (84), Edmond Wall (85) and Donal Ahearn (86)· on John's sudden demise. Two have been printed (without translations) by Dr. Risteard Ó Foghludha ('Fiacha Éilgeach') those by English (87) and Wall. (88) In his introduction to Fr. English's elegy, Ó Foghludha has written 'Ar bhás Shéain mac Ridire an Ghleanna, 10th August 1737, deis m6r chuid ringce a dhéanamh an oidhche roimhe sin, in Eochaill. In aon roilg amháin do chuireadh é féin agus an file. i. Reilig Eóin, I Sr6id Dhubhghlaise, I gcathair Chorcaighe' (89) (Trans: On the death of John son of the Knight of Glin, 10th August 1737, after much dancing the previous night at Youghal.

He was buried in the same graveyard as the poet (English) that is to say, St. John's graveyard, in Douglas Road, Cork City). Writing of John's death in 1844 Thomas Crofton Croker noted 'I believe the Knight of Glin, or the Heralds, have confounded John Fitzgerald, the brother of Thomas, Knight of Glin, who married Mary.. ..with his nephew, John Fitzgerald, who, it appears, from the keen,(90) died in Cork, and, according to tradition, was interested in the church yard of the Cathedral there (St. Finbar's) where this inscription records the circumstances:
"HERE LIES A BRANCH OF DESMONDS RACE
IN THOMAS HOLLANDS BURIAL PLACE" (91)

Mrs. M. A. Hickson has quoted Crofton Croker (92) and others have followed but few have noticed one glaring discrepancy in the story that John Fitzgerald Knight of Glin is buried in 'Thomas Hollands' burial place'. A native of Cork, named John Fitzgerald, who knew the Cathedral graveyard well and who had made many sketches of the old stone with the couplet quoted above, writing in the Cork Weekly Examiner (9th May 1903) stated: 'And now I am come to the melancholy story, in connection with that fort (the· old military fort in Cork)... Historians tell of a prisoner confined therein, for what reason is not stated, but it is stated that he was a son of the Fitzgerald, Knight of Glyn. It is stated that he died in the fort, but was buried in the old graveyard of St. Finbarr' s and in a stranger's spot of earth.

But a tradition still lingers round the place that he made an attempt to escape from the rampart of the fort by making a rope of his bed - clothing but found when he got to the end of it that it was entirely too short. He was too weak to climb up, and had to let go, and was so much injured by his fall, which was many feet, that he died soon after. I remember well a small headstone, but little than two feet over the grass, in old Finbarry's, and I often made sketches of that old stone. There was nothing ornamental about it, but the inscription was as plain as daylight-
"Here lyes a branch
Of Desmonds Race
In Thos. Hollands' Burying Place 1720"

John Fitzgerald added "The only ornamental touch about the stone was the shape of the top, Cupid's bow style. The old church that preceded the present Cathedral was not built until 1735-7. The forgotton Geraldine is lying there since 1720. I could put my foot at any time over the spot where the little stone stood, and I fully believe it is there still, but covered with many feet of earth through the changes in buildings...." (92) Note the date 1720 (repeated) but could it be the burying place of John, the Knight's uncle, also named John, known as 'Seán na gComhrac', a wild sort of man? John (obit. 1737) was a poet.

A love poem which he addressed to either Eleanor, (93) daughter of Seán Láidir (Strong John) O'Connor Kerry of Dingle or to the daughter (94) of Seán an Fhíona (John of the Wine) O'Connor of Carraig - an - phoill, is still extant and was a great favourite of the poets and scribes, judging by the very large number of transcripts which survive. From a notice which was published in a Dublin newspaper in October 1736 we learn that John advertised his dwelling - house etc. and near 200 acres adjoining and several woods consisting of 'full grown oaks, ash, beech, sally and alder trees' on the Shannon's banks to be set for 21 years from the following May. (95) From this it is clear that John was not ostracised by his mother, who was then living 'at her house in the city of Limerick'.