Month: November 2020

The Sentinel with the Sonorous Voice: Bramley of the Law Library, 1869-1904

From the Belfast Newsletter, 15 January 1904:

“A celebrity of the Four Courts has joined the majority, and the frequenters of the Law Library will miss the stalwart form and the stentorian voice of Bramley.  Every solicitor in Ireland knew Bramley.  He sat as trusty sentinel at his rostrum within the portals of the Library.  Nobody unless under escort of a barrister dared pass within the precincts sacred to the gentlemen of the long robe, and Bramley, like Justice, was no respecter of persons.  For thirty-five years he filled the position of crier, calling the names of the members of the Bar as they were required by the solicitors.  His commanding figure and deep voice excited admiration, and among solicitors’ clerks inspired awe.  He commenced life soldiering in the Engineers, and served in the Crimean campaign, attaining the rank of sergeant if not sergeant-major.  At the close of last sittings his physical powers were visibly waning, and it was a tense struggle to stay till the last day, when the Christmas-boxes were bestowed on him, as all anticipated, for the last time.  The news of his death today elicited expressions of regret.”

A brief additional obituary contained in the Nenagh News of 30 January 1904 gives the deceased’s first name as ‘William’. This corresponds with the 1901 Census which identifies a William Bramley, ‘Court Crier,’ aged 72, residing at Amiens Street, North Dock with his (step-) daughter Agnes Turner (43) and his son-in-law Henry Turner (59).

A William Bramley, Sergeant, joined the 12th Company of the Royal Sappers and Miners in 1851 around the time of the Crimean War; he is later recorded in 1861 as a sergeant in the Royal Engineers stationed at Chatham, and it seems that he may subsequently have been stationed in the Curragh. The Leinster Express of November 7, 1868, contains a report of a bigamy trial at which Sergeant William Bramley, storekeeper in the Royal Engineers Curragh Camp, gave evidence of having attended the accused’s wedding at Newbridge.

Given his period of service, Sgt. Bramley must have started his term in the old Law Library behind the Round Hall before moving to the new Law Library in the Eastern Wing when it opened in 1894. A nostalgic 1920 article of times past,  ‘Fun in the Irish Law Courts,’ references

“[a] genial giant, with a voice loud and round as the deep note of an organ, to whom the hurrying solicitors appeal to send a sonorous name thrilling through the hum of gossip and laughter, and bring the chosen one hurrying through the throng in eager expectation of a brief.“

It would be interesting to have a fuller account of Sgt. Bramley’s life, and how he came to be an employee in the Law Library, where connections with the Crimean War were few and far between. Perhaps his appearance at the bigamy trial in 1868 was so impressive that it led to him being headhunted? The trial was in late 1868 and he would have to have started at the Law Library by early 1869 to have accrued 35 years service by 1904. If one of his descendants were alive, perhaps they could fill in the gaps in the history of this much-loved figure of the 19th century Four Courts?

In the meantime, thank you to @mallowtom, James Doherty and Ian Thomas Walsh for their very kind help with the military and genealogical research on this post. Much appreciated!

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The Wimple Life, 1908

From the Preston Herald, 22 August 1908:

“Unless the widow of Mr Michael J Hanmore, a solicitor, late of 3, Prince of Wales Terrace, Bray, Co Wicklow, consents to enter a convent and devote the remainder of her life to prayer. His executors are instructed that she is to receive her jewellery and wearing apparel only.

This is one of the conditions governing the disposal of the testator’s fortune of which the net personalty has been sworn for probate at £7,801.  It was, Mr Hanmore explained in his will, his desire that, after his death his wife should go into a convent, where she was to spend all her life in prayer, and he left £1000 to the superioress of any convent she might select as her future.”

Solicitors often left unusual bequests. The Belfast News-Letter of 15 January 1935 reports a bequest by Patrick Gallagher, solicitor, Donegal, of monies to be expended in the erection in the town of Donegal of a monument to the Four Masters, constructed in Mountcharles sandstone. The memorial remains in place at the Diamond, Donegal to this day.

Nor was Mr Hanmore the only Edwardian solicitor to distrust his wife. Only the previous year, a will of Mr JH Russell, solicitor, of Newry, excluding his wife, had been held invalid for insanity. Russell had employed private detectives to watch his wife during the period of their engagement and that, later, on his deathbed, had replied to her professions of love by saying that, if he did not know her, he might almost believe her. Mrs Russell, a former musical governess. must have made a good impression in court!

In contrast, there is no evidence of any legal challenge to Mr Hanmore’s will. His obituary in the Roscommon Messenger, 20 June 1908, describes him as a native of the town of Castlerea and extends sympathy to his sister, niece and other relatives.

Was Mrs Hanmore estranged or predeceased or was the will composed on the basis of an expected marriage, which never occurred? Possibly because the anticipated candidate was informed of his plan for her in the event of his death?

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Barrister Overboard, 1873

From the Ballyshannon Herald, 21 June 1873:

“FATAL ACCIDENT TO A DUBLIN BARRISTER

Yesterday afternoon, after the steamship Sarmatian reached her wharf at South Quebec, a most melancholy accident occurred to Mr JS Barrett, barrister, of Dublin, a cabin passenger on his way to Toronto.  He went on shore to look after the baggage of a lady passenger.  Coming to the edge of the pontoon, the lady being on the dock of the steamer, he made a sign to her by waving his umbrella that all was right.  While holding up his hands he walked over the edge and fell between the pontoon and the steamer into the river.   He evidently must have struck the side of the vessel in his descent for, while ropes were lowered and every effort made to save him, nothing was seen of him after the fatal plunge, but his feet, which appeared for an instance on the surface.  The body has not yet been recovered…

Messrs Allan Brothers & Company, of Liverpool, have just returned the luggage of the unfortunate young gentleman to his sorrowing father and family in Ireland, and also his hat which was picked up immediately out of the water.  The space between the ship and pontoon, or floating landing stage, was only about eighteen inches at that time, and the current was very rapid at that place.  The deceased was eldest son of Mr JB Barrett JP, Greenhills, Co Galway and was in his 29th year a widower.  He leaves one child, an infant son, to mourn his sad fate.  He sailed from Londonderry on the 22nd May for a professional engagement in Toronto.  The lady alluded to in the report was a stranger to him up to the time he went on board.  She was proceeding from Wales to join her husband in Toronto.”

The message is clear – stay well away from stray unaccompanied females on shipboard!

There was indeed a very junior barrister called JS Barrett practising in Ireland until 1873.   Poor Mr Barrett!

I wonder what the ‘professional engagement’ was that called him to Toronto?

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Bullet-Piercings, Bombs, Whiskey and Cigars: The Four Courts after the Rising, May-June 1916

The occupation of the Four Courts by rebel forces in 1916 led to much anxious speculation as to the extent of the resulting destruction.

An initial gloomy report from the Northern Whig of the 1st May 1916 recounted that

“Most extensive and indeed irreparable damage has been done by the Sinn Feiners. They threw a number of the books and documents into the Liffey and tore up and burned many records which it will be impossible to replace.”

Particular ire was provoked by the discovery that the Law Library had been dismantled by the rebels, with the heavier and more bulky books used to take the place of sandbags. It was remarked that any rebels who had felt such a structure would afford any protection from the fire of the troops must have been quickly disillusioned, with the survivors hopefully now having a much better conception and a proportionate appreciation of the penetrative powers of the service bullet.

Annoyance at the rebels had calmed down somewhat by the 3rd May, when an inspection of the entire Four Courts building, carried out by the Lord Chancellor, showed that no wanton damage had been done save that the furniture and other movable woodstuff had been improvised as barricades.

By the following day, the Belfast News-Letter was reporting that:

“It is gratifying to learn that the damage done to the Four Courts is much less serious than was first feared…  Much anxiety was felt as to what was going on in the Record Office, where thousands of valuable historical documents, wills, deeds and conveyances are stored, and great relief was experienced when it was found that the majority of these documents, though much tossed about, had not been seriously damaged.  Some bundles containing wills had been blown out on the adjoining streets, and had been taken away by residents in Church Street, not so much, it is believed, as ‘loot’ but rather curious souvenirs of the rebellion. When these people learnt that the authorities were again in possession of the Record Office it is to their credit that many of them brought these documents back to their custodian, and it is to be hoped that any other documents taken away will also be returned.”

By the opening of the Easter Sittings on the 20th May 1916 the News-Letter was reporting that

“Surprisingly little damage has been done.  True, the wing nearest the river has suffered from shell and rifle fire and the dome is pitted with bullet marks but beyond the breaking of many windows and the disturbing of books and further not much is amiss… A small army of glaziers, charwomen carpenters and such like have been working hard to restore order.  The Law Library was practically untouched.  The windows, of course, were broken, and the books taken from their shelves and piled up in the window frames to former barricades, but there are now no signs beyond a few bullet marks to indicate that it was a rebel stronghold for nearly a week.  Some of the Judges’ rooms were entered and robes and furniture destroyed, but no private papers nor public records appear to have been lost or damaged.  On the whole the rebels seem to have treated the building with respect.”

That is not to say that inspection did not turn up a number of surprises!  A number of bombs, placed by the rebels in the Law Library and found in the initial inspection of May 3rd were carried away and placed in a more secure quarter.

The Illustrated War News of May 1916 also carried the above photograph of a ‘throne room’ allegedly improvised by the rebels in the hall of what is now the current Law Library, adding disapprovingly that bottles of whiskey and boxes of cigars had been scattered around the foot of the throne and that every window on the four sides of the Four Courts was broken.

Not to mention the following interesting relic of the occupation referenced in the Irish Independent of June 16, 1916:

“During the rebellion a bullet pierced a Four Courts window frame, entered a press, slipped across the edges of many volumes, invaded a second press, hustled without discouragement through a haystack of writs and judgments, and reached the rules of court, where it got disgusted with foolishness at page 10 and stopped.  A dismal end to a promising career? The officials don’t think so. They treasure the bullet as an example for Juniors – to get to page 10 of the rules being a test of unusual tenacity and application.”

Little has changed! I wonder if that bullet-pierced copy of the Rules is still about?

Derry Girl’s Application to Become Barrister Rejected by Benchers of King’s Inns, 1901

From the Irish News and Belfast Morning News, 26 October 1901

“The usual monotony of the meeting of the Benchers to-day was varied by an incident which should serve as a reminder to them and to all men that the slow-going nineteenth century has come to an end, and that we are now in the full blaze of the enlightened twentieth century. A young lady, hailing rom Derry, applied to be admitted as a law student. ‘Nolumus mutari’ is the motto of the Honourable Society of King’s Inns, and that the ruling members of that society should be aghast at such a revolutionary proposal is only to be expected. At any rate, they refused the application, and the dining hall of King’s Inns and the sacred precincts of the Law Library are safe for still a little longer from the footsteps of encroaching womanhood. St Kevin could not have acted more firmly.”

Who was this Derry girl who was the first to apply for admission to the Bar in Ireland or England?

A subsequent article in the Derry Journal of 28 October 1901 identifies her as Miss Johnston, daughter of Sir John B Johnston, of Boom Hall, Derry, and states that her application, being the first application by a woman for leave to be admitted to study at King’s Inns, aroused the greatest interest, and led to discussions by the Benchers for over an hour before they ultimately decided to refuse her application.

Miss Johnston’s full name was Isabella Marion Weir Johnston and she went on to be the first woman student to enter Trinity College, Dublin in January, 1904, where she left before taking her degree after marrying a lecturer in Mathematics.

An article in the Westminster Gazette of 26 October 1901 entitled ‘No Lady Irish Barrister – Yet,’ describes Miss Johnston as highly cultured and with an exceptionally good educational record. It is stated that ‘although she had several supporters among the Benchers, her application was refused.’ The Bournemouth Daily Echo of the same day describes the application as ‘having created a mild flutter in legal circles.’

Another woman, Bertha Cave, applied in 1903 to be the first female barrister in England. Her claim failed after a hearing before the House of Lords. Other than that she subsequently opted for bacteriology, we know little of Bertha’s subsequent life. But we know even less about the post-Trinity life of Miss Weir Johnston, whose application to be a barrister was the very first in England or Ireland..

Not even a photo! Time to redress this?

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