24/07/2018
Captain Patrick Trant of Waterview House, Portmagee. Son of James Trant Junior of Castleisland.
He was born in Castleisland c1751.
In 1773 when aged 22 he was in command of the smuggling brig ‘Unity’ which was owned by Thomas Trant of Cork and others.
Thomas was married to Elizabeth Trant, Patrick's Aunt.
Thomas Trant is described as 'a merchant and ship-owner.' He was a respectable busuness man with a smuggling interprise on the side.
The 'Unity' was commissioned to buy goods in Liverpool and ship them to Di**le for onward transport to France. She was a two masted ship requiring a skilled crew and was a large financial risk.
At that time there was a demand for French wines, liquors and brandy throughout England and Ireland and an equal demand for English goods in France and Spain. Black tea, called Bohea was in demand in Ireland and was brought to Liverpool from China in fast clipper ships. But all foreign trade in and out of Ireland had to be carried on English ships. It was illegal for Irish ships to trade to the Continent.
Patrick was young to be given the command of such a ship so the fact that he was known and related to Thomas Trant of Cork must have accounted for their trust in him.
On arrival in Di**le the ship's cargo manifest was stamped by a Crown official, thus legalising the voyage from Liverpool. On the departure of the Crown Official the 'Unity' then sailed on the unlawful leg of the voyage, to France. These smuggling brigs generally carried superior arms to Revenue cutters.
Irish goods exported to France tax free were butter, fish and hides.
This trade between Kerry and France explains the high numbers of Irishmen in the French armed forces before the French Revolution. It is also believed that in about 1770 a ship returning from Spain brought the Natterjack toad in sand ballast to Kerry. There is no record of the toad anywhere in Ireland before that time and since its arrival it has been confined to a coastal strip around Di**le Bay.
On returning to the Irish coast the ‘Unity’ put in at Portmagee where an auction was held on deck for traders and gentry. Portmagee was used because the channel has two entrances and if a Revenue Cutter arrived on the scene the ‘Unity’ could escape out the other entrance.
The goods sold were sugar, to***co, bohea, brandy and wine. These were then carried by horses over the mountains to buyers elsewhere. The 'Unity' then proceeded to Cork for stores and to pay the profits of the voyage at the house of Thomas Trant of Cork. Patrick would have known his cousins Dominick Trant of Dunkettle and Sir Nicholas Trant, son of Thomas.
In 1775, war between England and her American colonies began. The Irish generally sympathised with the Americans. In 1776 there was an embargo on exports from Irish ports and this gave rise to a flourishing smuggling trade from the coasts of Cork and Kerry. The embargo was lifted in 1778.
In 1778 when age 27, Patrick Trant switched sides and joined the revenue service.
In 1780 in the English Channel, 4 armed smuggling vessels, manned by English, Irish and French crews attacked the Revenue Cutter ‘Repulse’ but failed to sink her.
The following was published in Walkers Hibernian Magazine; Tralee, July 10th 1786:
On Tuesday, about the hour of two in the morning, Whitwell Butler, Captain of the Revenue Cutter, ‘Parnell’ landed two parties of his crew, one under the command of Mr Thomas Hewett first mate, and the other under the direction of Mr Patrick Trant, second mate of the said vessel who proceeded on their march for Blackwater and Drummore, in the barony of Dunkeron (near Kenmare) in consequence of information which the captain received of a quantity of contraband goods secreted in those places; but on the way to Drummore, they were attacked by a party of smugglers from a wood and other ambuscades, who fired several volleys of small arms and at the same time bid defiance to Mr Butler and his men, who spiritedly returned the fire, when a general engagement ensued which lasted some time in which one of the smugglers was killed and several wounded on both sides; but at length the smugglers were totally routed, and a seizure of 70, sixteen gallon kegs of brandy accomplished, which was lately conveyed to the stores of Denis Mahony Esq. who, as a Magistrate has given every assistance in his power on this occasion.
Captain Whitwell Butler lived at Bellville House, outside Portmagee. He was Protestant but one of his descendants married a Catholic and the family then changed religion. Bellville House was abandoned by the Butlers about 1980.
The design of Bellville House, (beautiful town – French) was similar to the Caherciveen Workhouse.
The last of the Portmagee Butlers, James, died in 2013.
In August 1779, a large French and Spanish invasion fleet approached England to attack the Isle of Wight and take the naval base of Portsmouth.
John Paul Jones (1747-1792), a Scot, a Freemason and a founder of the U.S. Navy, created a diversion by attacking English shipping on the Irish coast. He commanded the American flagged, 42 gun ‘Bonhomme Richard,’ four other warships and two privateers with a total force of 2,000 mainly French.
The following is from the ‘Scots Magazine’ Sept. 1779. ‘John Paul Jones’s squadron lay at the Skellix, in full view. Seven men landed at Ballinskellix in the county of Kerry from the frigate Bon Hommne mounting 42 guns with the Alliance of 36 guns, the Pallas of 32 guns, the Revenge of 32 guns, the Le Grand of 14 guns and a large cutter of 18 guns, about 2,000 men in all.’ According to Peter Berrell, Valentia, ‘seven men deserted Paul Jones’s squadron becalmed off the Skelligs and 14 more landed to search for them.
12 in total were captured and sent to Tralee gaol. One of them was a Kerryman called Wall.’ The Tarter privateer of 22 guns was attacked and engaged with one of Jones’s ships in Di**le Bay for one hour. The privateer, being a prime sailor escaped.
The French/Spanish invasion of England was abandoned because of weather, disease and incompetence.
Daniel O’Connell’s uncle, Maurice O’Connell of Derrynane acquired the name of Hunting Cap.
Catholics were forbidden to wear top hats which Protestant gentlemen liked to wear when hunting but Maurice also hunted and wore a flat cap when following the hounds. He used the ‘natural facilities’ of Derrynane for smuggling.
In 1782, when his goods were seized by Captain Whitwell Butler and his excise men, Hunting Cap was accused of raising a mob to attack Whiewell Butler near Waterville. He was charged with assaulting an officer of the King. Before his trial in Dublin he wrote to barrister, Dominic Trant of Dovea and Dunkettle addressing him as ’good friend and kinsman of my kinsman,’ telling him there was a ’foul plot against him’ and asking him to help.
Before the trial, Dominic wrote to Lord Annaly whom he knew and asked him to allow the trial to be held locally to help his client.
Lord Annaly agreed and in due course Hunting Cap was tried in Tralee where the jury was friendly and he was acquitted. In this matter there was mention of Mrs O’Connell of Ballinabloun where Captain Patrick Trant’s wife, Clara O’Connell was from. Ballinabloun is in the Glen near Portmagee.
In about 1787 Patrick Trant was placed in command of the Revenue cutter ‘Winder’ which was stationed on the Kerry coast.
He was Catholic and the fact that he was given the command of a British ship at that time was due to his knowledge of the coast.
Although, when young he was a smuggler, joining the Revenue would have made him enemies, unless he had an arrangement with old friends. Revenue men were often bought off and the Revenue boat-man was paid a ’prey’ of 5 shillings and 5 pence. It was the official custom to post Revenue men away from their place of birth to avoid collusion between them and the smugglers.
Revenue Cutters were generally 210 tons with a crew of 50 men and a boy, and carried 16 carriage and 12 swivel guns.
From his house in Portmagee, beside a stream and about 300 feet from the sea, he could see his ship ridding at anchor in the Portmagee Channel.
It was here, Waterview House, that he raised six daughters and a son, Patrick.
ln 1793 France declared war on Britain and the French coast was blockaded by British war ships. The captain of a ship caught trading to enemy ports now faced the gallows and his crew press-ganged into the Royal Navy so smuggling to France was greatly reduced.
In December 1796, Wolf Tone and a force of 15,000 veteran French troops under General Hoche arrived in Bantry Bay, County Cork in 43 ships.
Their plan was to take the port of Cork, be reinforced by a much larger French army and then march on Dublin.
The 'Winder' was sent to investigate the arrival of this fleet and was captured by the French. Captain Patrick Trant was taken prisoner.
Edward Morgan compiled ‘A Journal of the movements of the French Fleet in Bantry Bay.
’The French arrived 22 December 1796 and encountered severe weather conditions. They captured two merchant ships which had sought shelter in the Bay, the ‘Sifter’ of Liverpool outward bound for Guinea and an American, the ‘Beaver’ of Charlestown. The ‘Sifter’ was plundered and set on fire.
The British ship ‘Kangeroo’ sailed from Cookhaven for England to raise the alarm but was delayed by bad weather and did not reach Portsmouth until early January.
On 24th December 1796 the British in Cork dispatched the Revenue Cutter ‘Bush’ commanded by Captain Townsend from Cove to make all speed to the English coast to alert the British fleet. Next day the ‘Bush’ was storm damaged and forced to return to Cove. She was speedily repaired and finally reached the English coast on 30th December 1796.
French ships captured, lost or destroyed.
Le Seduifant 74 guns. Lost near Brest, all except 50 men perished.
Les Droits de’homme. 74 guns. Driven ashore.
L’Scaevola 74 guns. Foundered in battle.
La Torue. 40 guns. Taken by Polyphemus.
I’Impatiente. 40 guns. Wrecked off Ireland, 592 men perished.
La Surveillante. 40 guns. Scuttled in Bantry Bay.
La Atalanta. 26 guns. Taken by the British.
La Mutine. Taken by the British.
Unremitting storms and poor seamanship combined to prevent the French from landing and they were forced to return home.
Patrick Trant was a prisoner in France for nine months. On his release he was restored to the command of the ‘Winder’ which had been retaken during his imprisonment.
On 22 August 1798, 1,000 French troops under General Humbert landed at Kilcummin, county Mayo. After some successes they were finally defeated by British forces at Ballinamuck, county Longford on 8 September 1798. The French were repatriated to France in exchange for British prisoners. All Irish caught helping the French were executed.
At that time, Revenue vessels were often employed on naval duty and in October 1799, the ‘Winder’ received at Duncannon fort, county Wexford, a number of French prisoners for conveyance to Bristol.
But the French managed to arm themselves and attacked during the voyage. They wounded some of the crew and took over the ship. Trant tried in vain to rally his crew so fought the French alone. He shot dead the helmsman, wounded another and managed to retake the ship. This action brought him a promise of promotion while his crew was dismissed for cowardice. Five years later in 1804, he was given command of the ‘Old Brown.’
Captain Patrick Trant retired to Waterview House, Portmagee in 1809 on full pay of £191-1-3 per year. In old age he suffered from rheumatism.
He was a Justice of the Peace. In 1818 he died in Cork, aged about 67.
He built Waterview House in the early 1800’s. The land was leased from Trinity College and valued at £6-15s. The house and land is owned by the Moriarty’s since 1927.
His death was announced in a newspaper of the time, ‘on Tuesday, in Cork, Patrick Trant of Waterview in this county, Esq., one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace, a gentleman who through life supported an unblemished reputation, and whose death will long be a source of unaffected regret to all who knew and appreciated his many virtues.’
There was a song in Irish, now lost, 'baid a Trawnta' (Trant's boat) dated to this period.
Patrick Trant's Will: Patrick Trant of Waterview leaves to his wife interest of £700 due to me by repayments of late Daniel O’Connell of Portmagee and also £550 due by John O’Connell of Grenagh.
I leave my wife my dwelling house and furniture and salt house and pan. I leave my son Patrick all my lands of Corroghnane and my interest therein.
Witness, Dominick Rice, Bridget Foley, John Trant. Executors and guardians, my wife and Kean Mahony Barrister-at- law.
The production of salt for curing butter, fish, and hides was an industry in the area then and later. Large pans filled with sea water were heated by turf fires until the water boiled off, leaving the salt.
Patrick married Clara O’Connell, daughter of Charles Geoffrey O’Connell and grand-daughter of Geoffrey O'Connell of Ballinabloun, The Glen.
This was his second marriage. Clara was alive in 1841. Clara was also known as Clara Fitzjeffrey (thepeerage.comp.35117). Patrick and Clara had one son Patrick and six daughters, Catherine, Christine, Johanna, Ellen, Barbara, and Mary. He had another son, John Trant, born c1795 about ten years before his second family.
His son, Patrick Trant J.P. born 1807. Lived in Portmagee. Died unmarried 1851. In the O'Connell 1834 census, under the place name 'Riverview' there was one house occupied by Patrick Trant Esq. with 4 males and 8 females in it. All Catholics. He owned land in Corroghnane which he got from his father and he is listed on Griffith's valuation 1855 as owning land in Doory. At that time 'Riverview' also called 'Waterview' was in the town land of Doory.
Those living in Waterview did not use 'Portmagee' in their address.
Catherine Trant born 1805, married Charles McCarthy of Springmount, Cork in 1830. They had one son, Samuel Trant McCarthy, Sub-Inspector of the R.I.C. who died unmarried 1871.
Christine Trant born 1813, married John O’Dowd D.S.P.
Johanna Trant born 1813, married Daniel McGillicuddy in 1842. They had two sons, Frank and Valentine of San Francisco.
Ellen Trant born 1815, died 1914, married Daniel McCarthy (1807-1878) in 1841. They lived at Srugrena Abbey (Greina, Irish for Sun), Caherciveen and had three sons: Daniel (died unmarried 1887), William (married Harriett Bentley in 1892 died 1901, 3 sons),
and Samuel Trant McCarthy, 1843-1927, of Srugrena Abbey, Caherciveen. He was in the Madras Civil Service 1863-1890, a Judge in India, a J.P. and D.L. for County Kerry and was High Sheriff in 1912. He wrote a history of the Trant family (1914 and 1924). He was Catholic. He claimed the title of McCarthy Mor, a claim strongly disputed by other McCarthy’s. In 1921 he adopted the surname McCarthy Mor by Deed Poll. For his historical research he had access to the Dublin Public Records Office and the Four Courts before they were destroyed during the civil war in 1922. In an open letter to the Sunday Times in 1989 the McCarthy Mor of the day wrote of Samuel Trant McCarthy, 'he did not hesitate to corrupt genealogical evidence, simply leaving out any one with a superior claim from the pedigrees he published in 'The McCarthy’s of Munster' and also, he suppressed evidence of the existence of branches of the dynasty with better claims than his own.' When he was researching his 'History of the Trant Family' he visited Reencaheragh and interviewed the Trants there but made no mention of them in his book. This suggests that although related to them he did not want to be associated with them. He corresponded with the Trants of Dovea and received from them historical information which formed the basis of his history of the Trants. The Trant-Dovea papers were deposited with the National Library, Dublin in 1952. (Collection List A14). Srugrena Abbey is a ruined church with a grave-yard containing the Workhouse dead and others. The abbey and Workhouse are a half mile apart and about five miles from Caherciveen. The Caherciveen Workhouse, ‘Sanctuary to the Destitute,’ a magnificent ruin in 2010, was opened 1846. It housed a school, hospital, soup kitchen, living quarters for 800 and a church. It was a huge source of income and employment for the local economy. For 70 years it sucked paupers from South Kerry and passed them like finished products to the graveyard at Srugrena Abbey. It was occupied by Free State troops during the Irish civil war in 1922. It was closed and sold to Keating in 1923. Airbrushed from local history, its ruins have the spectre of Auschwitz. Young women thrown on its charity had pregnancy forced upon them, and armed with letters from fictitious relatives were abandoned penniless on the shores of America.
The McCarthy’s named their house Srugrena Abbey after the church and the Workhouse was built later on the sight of a gate-house to their main residence. Samuel Trant McCarthy left Srugrena Abbey in 1921 and in 1924 was living in Folkestone, Kent. He died 1927 without surviving male issue but his great nephew, Barry Trant McCarthy, a retired accountant, an Englishman, was alive in 1980.
During the war of independence 1919-1921 and the civil war of 1922-1923, two hundred and seventy five houses of the Anglo-Irish landed class were destroyed in Ireland. Srugrena Abbey may have been one of them even though Samuel Trant-McCarthy was clearly native Irish and Catholic. He was, however, a land owner and a British Judge. Why he departed Srugrena Abbey abruptly in 1921 and went to live in Folkestone is not explained. In 2016 the ruins of Srugrena Abbey were located near the Workhouse in the grounds of a modern house. There are traces of fire on the old walls.
A local woman said that Samuel Trant McCarthy is buried in the garden outside the ruins but this is not so because he clearly died in 1927 in Folkestone.
The title ‘Mac carthy Mor’ fell into disrepute when it was fraudulently claimed by a Mac Carthy in about 1980. It is not now a recognized title.
Barbara Trant married Berry and left a son O’Brien-Berry of Denver, U.S.A.
Mary Trant, died 1889, married Geoffrey O’Connell in 1828. They lived at Waterview house, Portmagee.
Their children:
Maurice Geoffrey O’Connell b. 1832 d.1868 unmarried in Australia.
John Geoffrey J.P. b.1842, d. in Australia 1889. His one son Geoffrey married Rose Little who died 1965.
Charles Geoffrey O’Connell J.P. of Waterview house, Portmagee. A shopkeeper, nick-named ‘
The Commodore’. Died unmarried 1919.
Ellen d. 1914.
Kate b. 1831, d. 1839.
Mary b.1836, d. 1912.
Daniel b. 1837.
Elizabeth b. 1845, d. 1924.
The parish around Portmagee is known as Killemlagh. In 1821 the population of Killemagh was 2207, in 1831 it was 2548, in 1834 it was 2566 and in 1841 it was 2728.
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