RARE BOOK, LITERATURE & COLLECTORS’ SALE May 30th & 31st

114 IMPERFECTIONS NOT STATED Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 774. An Irish Officer’s Diary, May-October 1790 Manuscript: Vellum-bound Notebook, 20cms x 12cms, c. 90 ff, containing daily entries from 1 May to 13 October 1790. The writer, whose identity has so far proved elusive, was an officer in a British regiment and came from Ennis, Co. Clare (see entries for 6-13 October). During May, he is stationed with his regiment at Windsor; in June they march to Portsmouth; on 7 July he leaves London for Ireland, reaching Waterford after a journey of five days. He continues to Kilkenny, Waterford again, Carrick-on-Suir, Clonmel, Cashel, Limerick, Cork, Mallow, and finally home to Ennis. He spends a great deal of time visiting and socialising. Each day he records, not only what he did but who he was with, and how he spent his evenings. There are frequent lapses into German with cryptic references to letters (all numbered) to and from“meine liebste”, delivered via his uncle. Many names are mentioned, and he has caustic comments to make about some people and places - of Castletown in Co. Kilkenny he writes (25 July): “Mr Cox’s place a very handsome one, the House a superb one for this Country, but everything about the House most dirtily kept. N.B. The Stables Coach Houses are too near the House a great Error”; and of John O’Brien (Limerick, 12 September): “I find him what I always expected him to be, a damned good for nothing cringing scoundrel.” As a manuscript, w.a.f. All in all, an important and intriguing account of five months in the life of an Irish officer, just before the outbreak of war between Britain and revolutionary France. (1) €400 - €600 775. Carrick-on-Suir: Thomas McGrath & Co., Main Street, Carrick-on- Suir, A small collection of manuscript rent and expense ledgers, shop counter books, etc., c. 1910 - 1943, & Bank Books for Account at The Provincial Bank of Ireland, c. 1908-1926, some with letters, bills etc., loosely inserted. Together 11 items folio & 8vo, cloth & vellum. As a coll. of m/ss. (11) €275 - €350 777. Dublin Corporation re Planning Applications, 1898, 1911-1913 Manuscripts: Correspondence between the Paving Committee of Dublin Corporation and Albert G. Wood andWilliam Neill of Nos. 4 and 5 Charlemont St. re proposed projection onto the pavement of a shop front to Wood’s premises, 1911-1912. With a page of plans and elevations on a scale of 4 feet per inch. Also with the Dublin Bread Company re proposed awnings for their restaurants in St. Stephen’s Green and O’Connell St., 1912-1913. Plan (torn) for two new shops proposed for Harrold’s Cross Road for J. Caffery, 1898. As manuscripts, w.a.f. (1) €125 - €175 778. Two Royal French Charters Relating to the MacCarthy Family (A) Charter on vellum issued by Charles X of France, dated 15 April 1829, confirming the title of Comte to Charles François Fontaine, “écuyer, officier du garde de corps”. With grant of arms (illustrated). Royal seal on green wax, intact, in metal container. (B) Charter on vellum issued by Louis-Philippe of France, dated 2 Sept 1843, granting the petition of Charles MacCarthy Fontaine de Mervé (born Nov 1813, widower of Marguerite MacCarthy who died 18 June 1842) to marry his sister-in-law Marie MacCarthy (born 4 Feb 1811). Royal seal (broken) in metal container. Charles MacCarthy was the son of Sir Charles MacCarthy (1764- 1824), who had served with the pre-Revolution Irish Brigade and then with the British forces. In 1812 he was appointed governor of Senegal and Gorée and in 1814 governor of Sierra Leone. An indefatigable campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade, he was killed in battle against the Ashanti (his skull was used as a drinking-cup by the Ashanti rulers). Charles MacCarthy junior, then aged twelve, was adopted by his uncle, the Comte Charles François Fontaine de Mervé, who had married Sir Charles’s sister. €220 - €320 776. Archive of the Gough, Going & Cobden Families, & Lands in Cos Limerick & Tipperary, c.1700-1950 An important Archive of approximately 150 documents plus miscellaneous papers relating to the Gough family of County Limerick (of which the illustrious Viscounts Gough of Goojerat were a junior branch), the Going family of Ballyphilip, Killenaule, Co. Tipperary, and the Cobdens of Raheen and Grove, Co. Tipperary. The collection comprises: • 8 0 indentures relating to leases and sales of land, 1705-1883 • 1 5 marriage settlements, 1745-1908 • 7 bonds relating to debts, 1764-1779 • 15 testamentary documents, 1822-1952 • 4 0 other items, 1766-1956 (legal papers, grants of commissions of the peace, army commissions, death certificates, schedules of deeds …) The earliest material relates to the Gough family of Woodsdown or Woodstown in the parish of Killeengariff, Co. Limerick, and their lands in that area which they acquired in the 1720s. The material covers four generations of the family, ending with the eldest brother of the first Viscount Gough, and fleshes out the rather sketchy pedigree of the family given in Burke’s Peerage. The collection also provides much information on the Going family of Ballyphilip and their lands in Tipperary. It also includes some material relating to the family of Frend, who had genealogical links with both families, while the Cobdens were connected to the Goughs through the marriage of George Edward Cobden of Raheen with Georgina Gough. As a collection of manuscripts, w.a.f. (1) Julian C. Walton. 2023 €2000 - €3000