If Walls Could Talk: Singing the praises of the Limerick townland of Singland

NOW occupied by a large retail park on the edge of the city, the lands of Singland were once home to a long-lost house known as Henry-Ville, a substantial 25-metre-long farmhouse; the north elevation featured projecting bays bordering the main block of the house.
To the south side was a single return with central entrance porch. It had a stable block to the west. Henry-Ville was named after its owner John Joseph Henry (1771-1846). He was the son of Joseph Henry and Lady Catherine Rawdon, half-sister to Francis, Marquess of Hastings. The Henrys of Tipperary and Limerick were a branch of the Henry family of Straffan, Kildare and were closely related to the Henry family of Tuam, Galway. John Joseph Henry held extensive property in Limerick and Tipperary.
In landed families, marriage was a significant factor in maintaining and increasing wealth and social standing, often involving strategic alliances, dowries, and property settlements to ensure the continuation of family estates. The Henrys were no different and several good marriages were contracted. On March 13, 1801, John Joseph Henry married Lady Emily Fitzgerald, daughter of the 2nd Duke of Leinster, the premier dukedom in Ireland. Lady Emily’s uncle was Lord Edward Fitzgerald, United Irishman who was executed for his role in the 1798 Rebellion. John and Emily’s son, William Wentworth Henry was born in Dublin on June 7, 1802. He married Catherine Lovett, daughter of Sackville Hatch Lovett Esq., of Monkstown, Dublin on January 10, 1832. Sackville held the position of Comptroller of Taxes in Ireland.

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The Lovett family was very well-connected and resided at their large 17th century mansion, Liscombe in Buckinghamshire. Their cousins included Sir Jonathan Lovett, Bart., whose wife Sarah Darby was from Leap Castle, Co Offaly. The Lovetts claimed descent from Richard de Louvet who accompanied William the Conqueror to England in 1066 as master of the hounds. Another branch of the Lovett family lived in Limerick. Another Henry sibling also married well. In July 1831, at the British Ambassador’s Chapel in Paris, the Baron de Robeck married Emily Elizabeth Henry. The ceremony was performed by the Right Rev. Bishop Luscombe. Emily was the eldest daughter of John Joseph Henry and Lady Emily. When she died in 1859, Emily Elizabeth de Robeck, Dowager Baroness left an estate worth a staggering £40,000 (approximately £2.8m in today’s values). Another member of the Fitzgerald family lived close to Henry-Ville for a time. For a few years in the 1820s, Plassey House was the home of Sir Guy Campbell and his wife Pamela, daughter of Lord Edward FitzGerald. Guy and Pamela’s infant son, John died on February 4, 1828 and his gravestone is still extant in Kilmurry Cemetery, Castletroy.
In March 1831, the lands at Singland were offered for rental. The notice in the Limerick Chronicle stated that ‘thirty-one divisions of the lands of Singland, the estate of John Joseph Henry contains about five to twenty-five acres in each division’ were available to rent. In addition, a small mill on about six acres with a plentiful supply of water’ was offered to a solvent tenant. The notice advised that ‘several vegetable gardens with houses adjoining the mail coach from Limerick to Dublin’ were also available to rent. Maps from the time show small houses with neat gardens attached. The lands extended from Groody Pike to Clare Street and from St Joseph’s Hospital along the new Tipperary Road. Proposals, in writing, were to be directed to Thomas Leland at the house of James Lysaght, George’s Street. Prospective tenants were shown the lands by Thomas Quane who lived at Groody Pike, Singland.
In 1835, John Joseph Henry’s agent, John Murphy of 6 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin placed a notice in the local press notifying tenants that ‘all rents and arrears were to be paid.’ The following year Murphy advertised 183 acres of farmland at Cragg in Co Tipperary for rental. Like many landowners of the period, Henry experienced agrarian unrest and in 1837 a ‘number of country people assembled on the mountain of Curraghmore, Co Tipperary and dug up an acre of Henry’s land. They left a notice nailed to Thomas Ryan’s front door threatening the occupants with immediate death if they did not return to Limerick, they also broke his windows and fired a shot on their departure.’ John Joseph Henry died at Chatou, an affluent suburb of Paris, on June 28, 1846.
He was described as ‘proprietor of extensive estates in Limerick and Tipperary’. His lands were inherited by his son, Charles who added to the property. When Charles John Henry’s estate in Tipperary was advertised for sale in 1858 it extended to over 4,000 acres. The annual rental roll for the lands at Singland amounted to approximately £1,500.
The house and lands of Henry-Ville were acquired by a cousin, Robert Henry Esq., of Toghermore House, Tuam, Galway. He offered twenty-five acres for rental in November 1864 along with ‘the fine dwelling house.’ The Henry family’s primary seat was Lodge Park in Straffan, Kildare. Completed in 1776 for Hugh Henry to the designs of John Ensor (1715-1787), a prolific and noted architect. In 1770, Hugh Henry of Lodge Park married his first cousin, Anne Leeson, half-sister of the 2nd Earl of Milltown. Robert Henry of Toghermore House was their grandson. He died December 30, 1899. His wife, Isabella Jane Henry continued to reside in Galway. She was recorded in the 1901 census along with her daughter, Maria and five servants.
While Henry-Ville House was demolished sometime between c.1870 and 1890, the family continued to own land in the area. In June 1895, Cecil Robert Henry, younger son of Robert, offered sixty acres at Singland for sale.
In the intervening years, the family’s association with the area was lost to time, however when you next visit the Parkway Retail Park think of the grand house that once occupied the site and remind yourself of the story of the well-connected Henry family, including the recently deceased Aga Khan, great, great, great grandson of John Joseph Henry.

Dr Paul O’Brien lectures at Mary Immaculate College.