Roundwood and the Sharps
By Brian de Breffny
Vol. V. of The Georgian Society Records attributes the present house of Roundwood near Mountrath, Co Leix, to the architect Richard Castle and says it was built for one of the Flood family. The attribution is doubtful and the second statement certainly incorrect, although repeated by later writers. Neither was Roundwood built for a “Mr Flood-Sharp,” as asserted by John O’Connell in his article on “Roundwood House” in the Oct-Dec. 1973 Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society. In fact Roundwood was built for Anthony Sharp, who inherited the lands and an older house in 1735 on the death of his father Isaac. I surmise that the present house was built about 1741, at which date the name Roundwood first appears in registered deeds in lieu of the former name, Killinure: proof that this new name was substituted for the older one appears in a deed of 1783 (Reg. Of Deeds 353 289 228920) which mentions “Killinure now known as Roundwood”
The fortune, which enabled Anthony Sharp to build this elegant house, had been amassed by his grandfather, also named Anthony Sharp, and here called Anthony Sharp 1. He was born at Tetbury in Gloucestershire, a son of Thomas Sharp, wool merchant. When aged fourteen he was apprenticed to a lawyer at Marlborough, Wiltshire, and several times accompanied his master to Ireland on business. He did not, however, complete his training for he found himself unsuited to the legal profession. Returning to Tetbury, he learned the trade of wool-comber and at the age of twenty-one married Esther, the daughter of a neighbour Thomas Curtis. Two years later, while on a journey to Warwick, he heard a Quaker preaching: the tenets of the Society of Friends immediately appealed to him and he joined that faith, abandoning the established Church of England. He remained a steadfast, zealous and active Quaker for the rest of his life.
In 1668, learning of the low price of wool in Ireland, he went to Dublin, having apparently retained an agreeable impression of that country from his visits in the 1650’s. Although Ireland was still suffering from the ravages of the late civil war, he was astute enough to perceive the advantageous business prospects of the capita,l which was just beginning to enjoy its era of prosperous expansion under the Viceroy Ormonde. In 1669 he returned to Dublin to settle there permanently, bringing his wife and infant son. Two older children had already died in England, this little boy died the year after the move, a daughter, born soon after their arrival, died in 1671 and Esther herself died the following year, leaving Anthony a childless widower in a strange land. He thereupon wrote to Thomas Crabb, a Quaker friend in Marlborough, Wiltshire, to know whether he had a daughter to dispose of in marriage. On receiving a reply in the affirmative, Anthony went to Marlborough where he married Ann Crabb on 17th August 1674 and brought her back to Ireland.
The marriage was a happy one, saddened only by the premature deaths of eleven of their sixteen children, tragic evidence of the prevalence of infant mortality. Of the five who survived childhood one dearly loved son died in his fifteenth year while at home in Dublin on holiday from his school at Penketh in England, where all Anthony’s sons were educated. A notebook containing a biography of this lad, Jonathan, with a touching testimony to his memory from his bereaved parents and written in 1702, survives with some of Anthony’s letter-books, which are of interest since he met and corresponded with many leading members of the Society of Friends including William Penn. He same source also retains a manuscript biography of him entitled A Journal of the life and action of that Eminent Man of God, Anthony Sharp; in 2 parts by John Crabb his last wifes, Ann Sharps, Brother.
In 1675, three years after his arrival in Dublin, Anthony was admitted Freeman of Dublin (without oath), and eventually became an alderman. Interesting details of his life may be found in Olive Goodbody’s monograph “Anthony Sharp, a Quaker Merchant of the Liberties,” published in the Dublin Historical Review, Vol. XIV, No. 1, June 1955. He and his wife resided in a house at Ormonde Gate near the junction of Cooke Street and Bridge Street, and were noted for their charity and generous hospitality, especially to distressed and indigent Friends and members of the Society travelling through Dublin. Anthony earned a reputation as a wise and honest trader and under his able supervision his business prospered and expanded so rapidly that by 1680, a mere eleven years after he settled in Ireland, he was employing five hundred workmen, combers, spinners, weavers, fullers and dyers. To his credit, and disregarding prejudice and criticism, he employed men of all religious persuasions in his industry. The firm handled hundreds of thousands of pounds of wool annually and Anthony was able to invest the very considerable profits in buildings and lands in Ireland, England and North America. On sites leased from the Earl of Meath and from Bernard Brown he built twenty-nine houses in Dublin, twenty-three of these in Meath Street, Cole’s Alley, Elbow Lane and Marrowbone Lane, and six in Pimlico of the Coombe. In England he owned property at The Lea and Cliverton, Wiltshire, at New Creek, Gloucestershire and in the City of Bristol in North America he speculated with a purchase described in his will as a “one twenty-fourth share of New West Jersey and New East Jersey.” His Irish country acquisitions included land in the Barony of Collerstown, King’s County, and over 2,000 acres in Queen’s County (Leix), amongst which were the lands of Clonaheen near Mountmellick, and also Lackagh, Lea and Killinure, all mentioned in his will.
For his descendants, Killinure proved the most important. It was then known as Friendstown since several Quaker families settled there as Anthony’s tenants of employees. He ran large flocks of sheep on his Queen’s County properties, thus assuring a good supply of wool for his Dublin clothing business. The first of these Quakers at Killinure of whom I have found record was Moses Pim and his wife Anne Raper whose twin children were born there in 1688, which must have been very shortly after Anthony acquired the property from Thomas Sharkey of Abbeyleix and Mountrath (as mentioned in Reg. of Deeds 100 278 70479). Before 1692 the Pims moved to Lackagh (also owned by Anthony) where they remained through the 18th century. They were replaced at Killinure by Thomas Jackson and his second wife Dorothy: Jackson was a Quaker from Co. Down who had been living at Mountmellick. Jackson children were born at Killinure between 1692 and 1700, and Anthony’s will of 1706 mentions Thomas Jackson as the lessee of Killinure. Jackson died there on 15th June 1716 aged 60, as did a son of his in 1717, in which year a daughter of his was married from there. One John Jackson, possibly either a son or brother of Thomas, died at Killinure on 6th August 1715 (will proved at Ossory 1717), and John’s widow Joan died there in 1728: three of their daughters were married from there, Catherine in 1722, Abigail in 1726 and Alice in 1732, after which the association of the Jacksons with Killinure appears to have ceased.
Two other Quaker families were also there during Jackson’s lease; Thomas and Barbara Bell had eight children born there between 1699 and 1714, and James and Anne Vipond had six children born there between 1699 and 1713. Then these two families seem to have been replaced by others. John and Sarah Coakley (nee Nevitt) came from Lackagh to Killinure, where their two youngest children were born in 1718 and 1722, and the son John (b.1718) was still a Killinure in 1742 when he married Hannah Gatchell. Richard and Abigail Manders (nee Mayo) were at Killinure from their marriage in 1714 until at least 1722 during which time hey had five children born there. All this suggests there was probably one principal dwelling house occupied by the Jacksons and two subsidiary houses or cottages occupied first by the Bells and Viponds and then by the Coakleys and Manders. Later there was yet another Quaker family on the Killinure lands: in 1746 John Jellicoe of Poormansbridge married Mary Sproule and they had four children born at Killinure between 1747 and 1755.
Local tradition holds that there was an “Eliabethan” house on the site of Roundwood. The 1659 “Census” shows Tomas Paul as titulado of Killinure with 24 English and 4 Irish inhabitants. Certainly there was a “mansion” on the lands when Anthony Sharp acquired them at the end of the 17th century. This must have been the house in which the Jackson’s lived but it seems to have fallen into some disrepair between Thomas Jackson’s death in 1716 and 1725 when Anthony Sharp’s son Isaac let the lands of Killiniure to John Duffield, gent, of Kincor, King’s County “in the same manner as Patrick Rafter and Garrett Ansloe had enjoyed them” (Reg. of Deeds 50 160 32424). By this deed Isaac Sharp obliged himself and his heirs “to cover the dwelling house of Killinure with slates and to repair the chimney and to glaze the windows and to repair the stable, cow-house and barn and to put the oat kiln and mills in repair.” The present stable building with its steeply pitched roof is in the style favoured early in the 18th century and I believe that it dates from the renovations promised in 1725. Traces of the mills have been found on the lands. I believe that the old mansion or dwelling house is the two-storey building, 47 feet long by 17feet deep with a massive central chimney, standing at the back of the yard behind the present house. Its early brick floor was revealed when the wooden one was lifted in the course of restoration in the 1970s. The building has been mauled, having been used in the 19th century as an agent’s dwelling and offices and later as a barn, but essentially it retains the characteristics of the long, low settlers’ houses of 17th century Ireland. Prior to 1725 it was undoubtedly thatched, as the deed specifies to “cover…with slates” rather than to repair the slates.
At Anthony Sharp’s death in 1706 his four surviving children were well provided for. His daughter Rachel, then only fifteen, later married a Quaker, Patrick Henderson, who set up as a merchant in Mountmellick. Of the tree sons, the second Joseph went to live at The Lea in Wiltshire (where his only child Catherine was living, unmarried, in 1731), and the third, Daniel, died in 1731 only a few days after his marriage and leaving no issue (Reg. of Deeds, 85 27 58893). Both Daniel and the eldest son, Isaac, seem to have drifted away from the Society of Friends for there is no record of their marriages or deaths in the Irish Quaker registers.
It was Isaac, the eldest son, who continued the family line. I have found no record of his marriage, or the name of his wife; she may have been Frances, a name borne by two of her granddaughters. Possibly Isaac was married either in Bristol or in North America, where he resided for a time. A deed of 13 July 1725 (Reg. Of Deeds 50 160 32424), made while on a visit to Dublin, describes him as “of Blessington in West New Jersey.” In 1731 he was back in Queen’s County, described as of Killinure (Reg. Of Deeds 100 278 70479) and in his will, dated 15 March 1734/5 he calls himself “late of Killinure, Queen’s County but now of Dublin gentleman,” (abstract in P.R.O.N.I., T.319).
Isaac’s eldest son, Anthony Sharp ll, took up residence at Killinure to lead the life of a country gentleman, and is included in a list of magistrates for Queen’s Co. in 1739. Clearly he found the old “mansion” there too small, too antiquated and too lowly for his taste and requirements. He was a man of means, recently married and raising a family. Visitors came from England: Edward Pocock “late of the City of Bristol in England but then of Killinure in Queen’s County” made his will on 20th August 1736, mentioning his cousin Anthony Sharp and his cousin Mary Sharp (Reg. of Deeds 105 189 73452) – he was probably in Ireland to advise Anthony concerning the Sharp property in Bristol. With holding in England, Ireland and New Jersey, Anthony was not short of funds wherewith to commission and build an elegant country house. This he proceeded to do. As to the architect responsible, some amateurish features of the design belie the earlier attribution to Richard Castle, being incompatible with his masterful technique. In an article on Francis Bindon (Irish Georgian Society Bulletin, April-Sept. 1967) the Knight of Glin advances some plausible reasons for ascribing Roundwood to him; in particular the handling of the five-bay cut-stone façade, the unusual rustication of the central Venetian window and a galleried hall are all characteristic of Bindon’s work. Whoever was the architect, I am inclined to believe that it was probably the same man who designed Summergrove, a mere nine miles away. It, like Roundwood, was given a new English name by its owners, and was build around the same time (between 1737 and 1748): it has some features in common with Roundwood although admittedly none of them are sufficiently distinctive to really add weight to my suggestion that they are by the same hand.
The small front door of Roundwood, with its attractive Gibbs surround, gives the building a dolls-house appearance, so that it is surprising that the small door leads into a spacious and lofty hall, two storeys high, well lit by the Venetian window over the entrance and the staircase window at the rere. The actual form of the gallery, which occupies the upper back part of the hall, is, so far as I know, unique in Ireland. The stair rises from the centre back of the hall to a landing between the ground and first floors, * & from which twin stairs to right and left rise to twin landings linked at the staircase end* to form a gallery with convex curving ends to its two side wings projecting over the hall. Access to the two principal bedrooms at the front is from each side of this gallery. The whole gallery is enclosed by a handsome fretwork screen, while the stuccoed frieze beneath it, which continues round the hall, is decorated with a Vitruvian scroll design. The rooms of the house are arranged symmetrically and conveniently, four on each side of the three floors plus a large apartment on the top floor over the hall.
One can imagine the pleasure and pride with which Anthony and his wife Catherine must have left the plain old house to cross the yard to the new one that they had watched being built. The old kitchen behind the old house was joined to the back of the new house enclosing one side of the year, and it remained in use for the new premises. New furniture and furnishings must have been procured for thehouse and a flurry of shopping in Dublin as well as orders to the artisans of Mountrath and Mountmellick must have ensued to provide suitably stylish contents. These have now all been dispersed for nearly a century later Anthony’s great-grandson lost the property to mortgage holders. Only the panelling of the study, the door surrounds, some stucco decoration and the fretwork gallery survives to show the taste of the interior.
Anthony’s only son died in his nineteenth year, and his only daughter Frances married Luke Flood of Middlemount. The wealthy bride was evidently a very acceptable asset to the Floods, for Luke’s father was in considerable financial difficulties, as may be seen from the post marriage settlement of 1757 (Reg. of Deeds 188 325 125824). The Flood financial troubles may in some way account for the peculiarity of Anthony Sharp’s testamentary arrangements. He made a will on 30 May 1763 bequeathing his estates to trustees for his wife Catherine during her life and then to his grandson Robert Anthony Flood, directing him to take the name of Sharp, and then with remainder to his own brothers, Isaac and Joseph Sharp. He himself registered this will on 14 February 1767 (253 176 164143), a truly remarkable proceeding since it was not proved and he lived on for another fourteen years! On 7 October 1775 he made another will to which he added a codicil on 25 May 1781, and this will was proved in the Prerogative Court in 1781. The basic provisions remained the same but it mentions “disagreements” with his son-in-law, Luke Flood (abstract in P.R.O.N.I., T320).
The Flood imprudence with money was inherited by Anthony’s grandson and heir, Robert Anthony Flood Sharp (the surname was never hyphened). His first registered deed was his marriage settlement in 1783 with the daughter of a prosperous Dublin merchant: his second was a mortgage the following year on all the Sharp property in Dublin (355 69 243841). He died in 1803 and was succeeded a Roundwood by his son, William Edward Flood Sharp, then aged only about a year. Whether due to mismanagement during the ensuing long minority or through his own profligacy and extravagance I do not know, but the estates became so encumbered with mortgages that in 1835 William Edward and his wife were obliged to assign the Roundwood estate and premises in Dublin to John Gray of Dublin attorney to cover their debts (Reg. of Deeds, 1835 18 103). The Roundwood demesne then still comprised its original 1,680 acres. As was usual after such a debacle, the family emigrated: in 1848 William Edward was living at Brighton in Sussex when he assigned 2,500 already mortgaged acres in the Barony of Tinnahinch to the Rev. Joseph Verschoyle for £12,000, and in 1859 he was resident at No. 1 Bridge Street, Westminster, London.
One of the witnesses to the unhappy deed of 1835 was William Hamilton, then of Peafield, Queen’s Co., the first cousin once removed of William Edward Flood Sharp, being the third son of the Rev. Alexander Chetwood Hamilton (later Hamilton-Stubber)) by his wife Eleanor, a daughter of the Rev. Sewell Stubber and his wife Catherine daughter of Luke Flood and Frances Sharp. Two years later, in 1837, Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary shows this William Hamilton as being in possession of Roundwood. There his descendants remained until 1968 when Chetwode Maurice Charles Hamilton, great-grandson of William, sold the house with the remaining 200 acres of its demesne to the Irish Land Commission for £10,000. Mr. Hamilton and his wife moved to a smaller, modern house in Mountrath, which they found more suited to their need and where they now reside. (Both now deceased)
In order to save Roundwood from disrepair and eventual ruin, the Irish Georgian Society purchased the attractive house from the Land Commission in 1970; the price of £6,000 included 14 acres of the demesne, taking in the fine tree-lined avenue, the stables, walled garden and a garden flanking the house. Brian G.F. Molloy was in charge of the repair and restoration work and accomplished this arduous task with praiseworthy perseverance and highly satisfactory results. In the course of this some ungainly 19th century excrescences at the back of the house were demolished; the fabric is now in good condition. Each of the eight bedrooms now has a bathroom en suite, neatly installed in the former dressing rooms. This convenience is seldom possible in the conversion of a Georgian house without major reconstruction and alteration of the original plan. Mr Molloy now manages the property for Mr and Mrs John L. Tormey of Akron, Ohio, U.S.A., who purchased it from the Irish Georgian Society in 1974 to help preserve and maintain it. The interesting stable block has recently been re-slated and is now being restored thanks to their generous interest. Mr and Mrs Tormey also kindly provide hospitality at Roundwood to volunteers working on other restoration projects such as that on the Damer House in Roscrea
* A single staircase rises to twin landings……
Note:
Roundwood was returned to the ownership of the Georgian Society and was then sold to Frank and Rosemarie Kennan in 1983. They have carried on the restoration and have opened the house for accommodation for the past 26 years. Their daughter Hannah and her husband Paddy are now running Roundwood.
The lineage of the Sharps as I have been able to deduce it in Ireland and without any research in England or America is as follows:
THOMAS SHARP, of Tetbury, Glos., England, wool merchant, and wife Elizabeth had issue at least two sons,
And had issue,
ANTHONY SHARP of Dublin, clothier and wool merchant, b. 1642 at Tetbury, m. (1) 27 March 1663 at Tetbury, Esther, dau. Of Thomas Curtis of Tetbury and by her (who d. in Dublin 1672) had issue,
He m. (2) at Marlborough, Wilts., 17 Aug 1672 Ann, dau. Of Thomas and Sarah Crabb of that town and by her (who d. in Dublin 29 June 1702) had issue, all born in Dublin.
His will, dat. At Dublin 4 Oct. 1706, with codicils of 11 and 28 Oct. and 8 Nov. 1706, was proved in the Prerogative Court and a copy survives in the Quaker archives.
The eldest surviving son,
ISAAC SHARP, of Blessington, New Jersey, of Killinure, Queen’s Co., and of Dublin, b. 13 Jan. 1680-1, will dat. At Dublin 15 March 1734-5, proved Prerog. 16 July 1735. The name of his wife (possibly Frances) has not been found: she may have been a connection of the Pocock or Hackett families for Edward Pocock of Bristol (son of Thomas Pocock by his wife Lydia dau. Of Edward Hackett of Bristol) in his will made at Killinure on 20 Aug. 1736 mentions his “cousing” Anthony Sharp of Killinure and Mary Sharp. Isaac’s will mentions the following issue:
The eldest son,
ANTHONY SHARP, of Killinure, later called Roundwood, parish of Offerland, Queen’s Co., included in a 1739 list of magistrates for Queen’s Co., built the present house, Roundwood, about 1741. On 30 May 1763 he made a will which he registered on 14 Feb. 1767; a later will, dat. 7 Oct. 1775, with a codicil of 25 May 1781, was proved in the Prerogative Court in 1781. He and his wife Catherine (whose maiden surname I have not discovered) are buried in the old churchyard of Anatrim, then the church of Offerlane parish, but the monumental inscription does not give their death dates. Catherine was still alive in 1783, as shown by her grandson’s marriage settlement. They had issue,
The only surviving child,
FRANCES SHARP m. (post mar. set. dat. 4 Oct. 1757) Luke Flood, son of Robert Flood of Middlemount, Queen’s Co. After his father-in-law’s death in 1781 he resided at Roundwood, and made his will there (proved Prerog. 1800) They had issue,
The eldest son,
ROBERT ANTHONY FLOOD SHARP, b. before 4 Oct. 1757, inherited Roundwood from his grandfather, in accordance with whose will he changed his surname to Sharp. He lived partly in Dublin, where he was married and where he made his will which was proved Prerof. 1803. He m. (set. dat. 6 Aug. 1783) Mary, “youngest dau.” of Alderman James Horan, of St. Catherine’s parish, Dublin. As his son and heir was born 19 years after This marriage, he may have been the child of a second wife. He was,
WILLIAM EDWARD FLOOD SHARP, of Roundwood, b 1802 in Queen’s Co., ent. T.C.D. 1819 aged 17, m. Isabella Jane Donovan. On 25 May 1835 he and his wife assigned Roundwood with 1,680 acres t John Gray of Dublin attorney to cover mortgages. In 1859 he was living at Westminster, London.
Subsequent owners of Roundwood were:
WILLIAM HAMILTON, son of Rev. Alexlander Chetwood Hamilton by his wife Eleanor, dau. Of Rev. Sewell Stubber (see above), who m. 1829 Henrietta, dau. Of Charles Paulet Doyne of Portarlington, and d. 1861, being succeeded by his son,
ROBERT HAMILTON, who m. his first cousin Ethel, dau. Of Rev. Sewell Hamilton, and d. 1882, being succeeded by his brother.
CHARLES PAULET HAMILTON, b. 1837, d. 1907, m. 1878 Emily Louise, dau. Of Rev. William Smyth-King, Dean of Leighlin, and was succeeded by his son,
MAURICE WILLIAM CHETWODE HAMILTON, b.1882, m. 1914 Enid Helen, dau. Of Right Hon. Thomas Sinclair, P.C., D.L., of Hopefield House, Belfast, and d. 1955, being succeeded by his son,
CHETWODE MAURICE CHARLES HAMILTON, B. 1917, m. 1955 Eliiabeth, dau. Of Gilbert Allen of Dublin, and sold Roundwood in 1968.
THE IRISH LAND COMMISSION, 1968-1970.
THE IRISH GEORGIAN SOCIETY, 1970-1974.
JOHN L. TORMEY of Akron, Ohio, U.S.A., who purchased Roundwood in 1974 and returned it to the Georgian Society.
FRANK AND ROSEMARIE KENNAN who purchased Roundwood in 1983 and are the present owners.