The Silver Bowl: 1842 February 3

Rev. Daniel Gunn BROWNE gave evidence after this trial: He was asked: In what did the outrage in the case of Mr. Powell outrage originate?

BROWNE: Mr. Quinn was making improvements in Loughross with the view of building a residence there, and he found it necessary to remove some of the tenants from Loughross to Carrickavaddy ... From a feeling that prevailed in that country among all descriptions of people? I do not think you could except any class? It is very dangerous to meddle with what a farmer considers his right of possession. It was thought that Mr. Powell interfered in a particular case to prevent Mr. Quinn giving a sum of money for the good-will of a small farm at Loughross. It was so imagined. It was stated that the party who heard the conversation between Mr. Powell and the landlord immediately determined to make him an example ... I passed the spot about twenty minutes before the murder was committed and must have met some of the parties on the road ... It is generally supposed that the parties who committed that murder (Bryan McCreesh's)committed Mr. Powell's murder . . .SOURCE: : Seanchas Ard Mhacha. Vol. 10 No. 2 pp380-416. Agrarian Disturbances around Crossmaglen, 1835-1855. Part III. Kevin McMahon and Thomas McKeown.

1842 February 3 Newry Telegraph

Thanks to Kieran McConville for sharing the clipping.

ARREST OF A PERSON CHARGED AS PRINCIPAL IN THE MURDER OF MR. POWELL. -- we are informed that Sub-Inspector's Armstrong[1] and Holmes[2] -- the former from Newtonhamilton, the latter from Crossmaglen -- proceeded, on the night of the 29th ultimate, with a strong police force, to the lands of Corleaghlaskagh, within 4 miles of Ballybay, County of Monaghan; and after close search, succeeded in arresting Henry McCabe[3] in the house of a widow Hughes[4]. McCabe stands charged, on oath, with being a principal in the murder of the late Mr. Thomas Powell[5], at Newton Hamilton, on 2 January, 1841. Too much praise cannot be given to the above named officer; and is to be hoped that they would derive something more substantial, from the untiring energy and zeal in bringing the perpetrators of this atrocious murder to justice.

[1] Sub-Inspector Christopher ARMSTRONG. He was the Senior Turnkey.

[2] Sub-Inspector Gordon S. HOLMES. He died bef. 1864, and his wife was named Elizabeth. Their daughter Margaret married William STITT. He was CHuch of Ireland.

[3] Henry McCABE. He was one of the four to remain in custody Newry Telegraph Feb 3, 1842.

[4] Widow HUGHES

[5] Thomas POWELL (?-1841) was an “agriculturalist” who was hired by William QUINN to put in drainage on lands at Lough Ross in the townland of Tullyard (lands that QUINN had inherited from an aunt who died in 1840). POWELL received a threatening letter days before his murder. It was likely connected with the fact that QUINN, the landlord, was displacing some tenants. QUINN alleged that he was giving them alternate and comparable land, but this is likely a generous estimate of what was on offer. For the small cottiers, such acts by landlords were to them literally a matter of life and death. Moved off their farms, they would die. As a consequence, Thomas POWELL was murdered January 2, 1841. SOURCE: Seanchas Ard Mhacha. Vol. 10 No. 2 pp380-416. Agrarian Disturbances around Crossmaglen, 1835-1855. Part III. Kevin McMahon and Thomas McKeown. (NOTE: This series of articles is well worth reading!).