GRIFFINs of Newry
My interest in this is because of its likely connection to
my JACKSONs. Here are my current conjectures – based on circumstantial evidence
which still needs more factual buttressing:
1 Phil
GRIFFIN
+ Sarah
JACKSON b: 1774 d: 29 Feb 1828
2 Philip
GRIFFIN d: Aft 1836
+ Rachel
KIDD b: 1802 d: 21 May 1866
3 Sarah
GRIFFIN b: Abt 1832
2 Jackson
GRIFFIN d: Bef 1851
+ Elizabeth
JOHNSON b: Abt 1817 d: 7 Oct 1851
2 George
GRIFFIN d: Aft 1836
3 Philip
George GRIFFIN b: 1830 d: 1905
+ Margaret
GILMORE b: 7 Sep 1834 d: 6 Dec 1904
4 Anna
Eliza GRIFFIN b: 20 Dec 1854
4 Samuel
George GRIFFIN b: 3 Sep 1856
4 John
Gilmore GRIFFIN b: 23 Oct 1858 d: 16 Jul 1912
+ Eleanor
Sarah PELAN b: Dec 1863 d: 16 Feb 1955
4 Frederick
Richard GRIFFIN b: 23 Oct 1858 d: 10 Jun 1890
+ Mary
JACKSON b: 23 Nov 1844 d: 9 Aug 1921
4 Eva
GRIFFIN b: Abt 1860
4 Nancy GRIFFIN b: ? (she will be added to the Rootsweb tree in my next update).
3 Richard
GRIFFIN
3 Sarah
GRIFFIN
+ James
CHRISTIE
3 Sophia
GRIFFIN
Here are the some of the recent clues that I have been
referencing:
- I have a photo of Samuel GRIFFIN – who is he? See my post
on ROD
1836-8-26.
- I assume that the P. GRIFFIN referred to as a husband of
Sarah JACKSON was a Philip GRIFFIN. Died. On Friday the 29th ult. aged
54, SARAH, wife to Mr. P. Griffin of this town, after a long and painful
illness which she bore with that patience and resignation ever
characteristic of a pure conscience. She was an affectionate wife, a kind
and indulgent mother, and is sincerely regretted by all who knew her worth.
Transcribed by Alison Causten SOURCE: Newry Commercial Telegraph March
30, 1828.
- Newry Telegraph May 5, 1866. GRIFFIN – on the 21st inst, at her residence, Queens Street, Newry, after a lingering illness,
Rachel, relict of the late Mr. Philip Griffin, aged sixty-four years.
NOTE: Est age at death of 64 in BMDs suggests a birth date of 1802.
- Rachel is a fit with The Belfast Newsletter Jan 8, 1830: On
the 1st inst. At St. Mary’s Newry, by the Rev Mr. Glenny, Mr.
Philip GRIFFIN to Miss R. KIDD. NOTE:
St. Mary’s is Church of Ireland. It seems worth assuming that Rachel was a
daughter of John KIDD of this Memorial.
- Belfast Newsletter April 8, 1842: At Newry, of
scarletina, on the 19th ultimate, Sarah eldest daughter of Mr.
George Griffin, aged 17 years. Also of the same disease, her sister
Charlotte, on the 23rd aged 10 years, and her sister Jane, on
the 28th, aged 7 years.
- Belfast Newsletter December 30, 1831: On Monday last in
St. Mary’s Church Newry, Mr. Richard GRIFFIN, Ballybot to Miss Jane
McALESTER, eldest daughter of the late Mr. R. McALESTER of Buckle. NOTE: Richard GRIFFIN may be a son of Phil GRIFFIN & Sarah JACKSON.
- Belfast Newsletter December 30, 1853: December 23 in St.
Mary’s Church, Newry by the Rev the Dean of Dromore, Mr. William CAMPBELL,
to Miss Sarah GRIFFIN, both of Newry. NOTE:
His father was John CAMPBELL and her father was Philip GRIFFIN. Source:
LDS.
- Belfast Newsletter November 10, 1851. October 7, at
Naahill [sic? Nashville] , Tennessee, US., America, after a lingering
illness, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Mr. William JOHNSON, Warrenpoint,
and wife of Jackson GRIFFIN late of Newry. NOTE:
Jackson GRIFFIN was a painter & glazier in Rostrevor in 1824. So was
George GRIFFIN of Water St, Newry; in 1824. The forename of JACKSON makes
me strongly suspect that he was a son of Sarah JACKSON. Fred GRIFFIN
recollections make it clear that these were brothers.
- daughter of Philip Griffen aged 21 married William
Campbell 23 Dec 1853. Newry
- Because of the New Zealand connection, it is worth noting:
South Canterbury Cemetery records: David GRIFFIN d, April 29, 1899 a. 28
also Mary KING d. July 12 1894 a. 84 and Margaret GRIFFIN d Dec 6th 1804 a 70. 6/1548 Pte A.J. GRIFFIN Canterbury Regiment d. 13.2.1955. a.
79. NOTE: The estimated DOB is a fit with
Margaret GILMORE whose husband Phillip George GRIFFIN also died in New
Zealand.
Fred GRIFFIN (1889-1946), a well-known journalist in Canada and
great-grandson of Philip GRIFFIN, wrote down a great deal of what he knew:
Father's
forebears were, if not gentry since they were in business, at least genteel.
They were an old Newry family, Mother loved to tell us. My
great-grandfather and his brother had a business as decorators and sent
painters all over Ireland, England and Scotland, even to France -- though
why the French should have hired Irishmen to paint their houses I never could
understand, unless it was in gratitude for Fontenoy. Mother relished the
shadow, however faint in her day, cast by this nobility of her husband's folk
and gathered to her heart every little scrap of information about it she could
find.
"Your
great-grandmother and your great-great-aunts," she would tell me in a tone
that never failed to inspire awe, "all wore white silk stockings,"
This in a period when only rich and great ladies wore even black silk
stockings, lesser women being content with woolen or cotton stockings.
"They were magnificent women, your great-great-aunts being very tall like
your Aunt Eva in Dublin, and were very proud. When they passed in their
carriage or walked through the streets of Newry people turned their
heads." Poor Mother! Newry people had ceased to turn their heads when a
Griffin passed.
The New Zealand part of the saga is also described by Fred
GRIFFIN:
In the meantime my gay
grandfather went from bad to worse. Neither by training nor temperament a
farmer, he lost his stock and land. Then, little more than a year after my
grandmother had borne him a fifth child, he left her, left Ireland and sailed
for New Zealand with another woman. And what do you think my fool grandmother
did? She found a job as nursery governess with an army officer and his family
going out to New Zealand and followed her errant husband, leaving behind five
children. Aunt Eva just learning to walk, the twins, Father and Uncle Richard,
three years old, the other two a little older. Whether my grandmother, when
she was looking after the army officer's children on the way out, ever thought
of the children she left behind I cannot say; in the years to come they must
have often haunted her for she never saw one of them again. She reached New
Zealand and there joined my grandfather and his light o' love. Nothing that I
could ever learn threw light on the coming together; the scene that may have
taken place must be imagined. It is sufficient to know that for some time the
three of them, grandfather, grandmother and his concubine lived together in
apparent amity. He certainly must have been a man of parts and of charm. In
the course of time, according to the gossip which reached distant Ireland,
either the other woman left or died and Grandfather and Grandmother found themselves
once more alone as man and wife. In the course of the years she bore him four
or five more children, but only one of the original family, the second one,
Aunt Nancy, years later, when she was grown up, joined them. The other four
never saw their parents again or were seen by them, though the latter lived to
be old, old people. NOTE: Philip George
GRIFFIN would have left his Ireland-based family in 1861. Perhaps Mary KING was
the concubine. Perhaps David GRIFFIN was a son of either his wife or his
other partner.
Ros
Davies listings for GRIFFINs from Newry. NOTE:
I have shaded the ones in the family tree.
CR = Civil Registration
POD = Post
Office & Trade Directories
IIW# = Index
Irish Wills 1484- 1858
MI = Monumental Inscriptions from
various graveyards
NCT = Newry Commerical Telegraph
newspaper- from a transcription by Alison Causton, by permission of the British
Library; see http://www.irelandoldnews.com/
PPNZ = Papers Past New Zealand
Betty Ann |
GRIFFIN |
. |
wife of John Duffey; mother of Ann b. 1868 & Bridget
b. 1870 |
CR |
Catharine |
GRIFFIN |
. |
of Fathom, Co Armagh; will probated 1817 |
IIW V4 p 168 |
Catherine |
GRIFFIN |
. |
wife of Thomas Caassidy of Upper Fathom ; mother of
Margaret b. 20 Jul 1865 |
CR |
George |
GRIFFIN |
. |
of Water St, Newry; a painter & glazier in 1824 |
POD |
George |
GRIFFIN |
. |
of 21 Sugar Island; charity donation in 1836; an oil merchant
& painter & glazier in 1852 |
V3 p100,104 OSM; POD |
Mary |
GRIFFIN |
. |
wife of John McGivern; mother of Michael b. 1873 |
CR |
Matthew |
GRIFFIN |
. |
of Chapel Street; father of Ellen (d. 1897) & Bridget
(d. 1899) & Lawrence( d. 1918 aged 25) & buried St. Mary's Catholic
graveyard |
MIs |
Michael |
GRIFFAN |
. |
husband of Mary McAnulty; father of Rose b. 23 May 1868 |
CR |
P. |
GRIFFIN |
. |
his wife Sarah, died 29 Feb 1828 aged 54 after a long
& painful illness |
NCT |
Patrick |
GRIFFIN
GRIFFITH |
. |
of Fathom , Co Armagh; will probated 1824 |
IIW V4 p 168 |
Philip |
GRIFFIN |
. |
of Water St, Newry; a publican in 1824 |
POD |
Philip |
GRIFFIN |
. |
of 2 Queen Street, Newry; a publican in 1846 & 1852 |
POD |
Philip George |
GRIFFIN |
. |
son of George Griffin ; aged 24 married Margaret
Gilmer 15 Apr 1854 |
CR |
Richard |
GRIFFIN |
. |
of 44 Water Street; charity donation in 1836; a baker in 1846 |
V3 p100,104 OSM; POD |
Sarah |
GRIFFIN |
. |
of Queen St, Newry; a publican in 1824 |
POD |
Sarah |
GRIFFEN |
. |
daughter of Philip Griffen ;aged 21 married William
Campbell 23 Dec 1853 |
CR |
Sarah |
GRIFFIN |
. |
youngest daughter of George Griffin , late of
Newry; married James Christie of Wangaroa, New Zealand (late of Glasgow,
Scotland) 16 Jan 1866 in NZ |
PPNZ |
Sophia |
GRIFFIN |
. |
4th daughter of George Griffin, late of Newry ;
married Oliver Payne Sweeting (eldest son of James Sweeting of Watford,
Hertfordshire UK) 3 Jan 1866 at St. Paul's Church NZ |
PPNZ |
|