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SEATOWN WINDMILL FAMILIES
Part III - The Callan Windmill
Caroline McCall, MGSI
The Will of Patrick Callan
Deeds in the possession of the current owners of the Seatown windmill indicate that Patrick Callan made his will on 22 August 1822. This will was to have a devastating impact on the Callan family and spark a legal battle that was to last until the following century.
He devised, ‘among other things’, the windmill to his sons John Callan and Patrick Callan in equal shares subject to the payment of ‘a legacy of eight hundred pounds then Irish Currency to his son Thomas Callan and a legacy of five hundred pounds like currency to his daughter Rosetta’. Thomas Callan died on 7 June 1825, and his mother Susanna extracted administration in his estate. The other family members also became entitled to a share in Thomas’s estate, including his inheritance from his father.
Disaster struck in December 1826, when the windmill was badly damaged by fire. In his journal of 1826 Henry McClintock writes of ‘a dreadful fire that took place at Callan’s windmill …the fire broke out before dinner just about four o’clock & lasted for about ten hours.’
The mill was completely destroyed but owing to considerable exertions no further damage was done. By prompt action of the local people and the military the surrounding buildings were preserved. The windmill itself was ‘burned to a shell without a single article of the property being saved’ as ‘an unquenchable mass of flame … burst through every window and opening in a most awful and alarming scene’. The property was ‘insured to a considerable amount’ and was noted as being ‘in possession of an English company’.
The company in question were Bryans, Herd and Haworth of Liverpool. The Callan brothers had taken a mortgage of £1750 using their property as security. Although the windmill was insured, the family had lost a valuable source of income. The windmill was later restored and some members of the family continued to reside there.
On 20th December 1832 at Aghnamullan, Rosetta Callan married Thomas Brunker, a widower. One of the witnesses at the wedding was Thomas Brunker junior. In 1837, some fifteen years after the death of her father Patrick Callan, her legacy had still not been paid and the couple began legal proceedings for payment. At this time the Brunkers were living at Belgreen one of the principal seats in Cootehill, Co. Cavan. There was no issue of the marriage of Thomas and Rosetta. However, the parish register for Aghnamullan indicate that two illegitimate children were born to a Thomas Brunker in 1833 and 1835 by two different mothers.
Susanna Callan, a sister of Rosetta, married Mr. Thomas Joseph Horan of Cootehill. The Pigot & Co. Directory of Ulster for 1824 describes Thomas Horan of Market Street, Cootehill as ‘Surgeon and Accoucheur’ (midwife).
The family fortunes of those who remained in Dundalk had obviously changed. The windmill had been out of commission during its reconstruction and the money was still not forthcoming to pay the legacies. In 1838 agreement was reached between John and Patrick Callan and the rest of the family, and the money to pay the legacies was borrowed from Owen Neary at the rate of six per cent.
The Valuation Office Field Books indicate that the windmill was leased to John Robinson c. 1837 although Patrick and Elizabeth (Ellen) Callan (nee Kelly) still apparently lived there. The couple had married in 1833. Elizabeth Teresa Kelly was the daughter of John Kelly of Blackrock near Dundalk. Three of their children, Patrick, Elizabeth and Catherine Callan were born at the windmill during the years 1835 to 1842. Two other children, Susanna and Anne were born in Wellington Place and Bridge Street respectively during the same period.
Valuation Office Miscellaneous Books indicate, ‘The windmill was doing good business and also did business at the starch factory’. ‘The house was well kept, the starch factory was in good order and one building was used as the clerk’s office’. Difficulties arose, however, within a short period of time. The windmill was leased for thirteen years at ‘£250 for all together’. The Robinsons were apparently unhappy, in a comment in Cancelled Valuation Book 5.3109 of September 1839 the surveyor writes, ‘WR states that he may give up the mill in three years and that he will not take it at the same rent again’. Whether this was due to economics or the ongoing Callan family disagreement over the legacies is uncertain.
In 1843 John Callan died followed by his brother Patrick, who died in 1849 at the relatively young age of fifty-one. He was buried with his daughter Catherine, who had predeceased him in 1847, aged five. His widow Elizabeth continued to lease the windmill to John Robinson. As part of her marriage settlement she was to receive fifty pounds a year if she survived her husband but within a few short years she too had died leaving the Callan children orphaned. The family’s financial situation became more precarious.
In 1851, Owen Neary presented a Petition to the Courts for the sale of the Callan properties under the Incumbered Estates Act. Following his petition, some of the Callan lands and premises, but not the windmill, were sold at auction in Dublin on Tuesday 12th December 1854. However, insufficient money was raised to pay the debts owing. Again, Owen Neary approached the courts and eventually ‘a receiver was appointed to receive the rents on the Seatown premises’. The Windmill sails were removed c. 1870 for safety reasons. Advances in technology, and competition from other mills also contributed to its demise. Another factor was the change in ladies fashions. The advent of the crinoline and the invention of patent starch were two of the reasons for the closure of the starch factory that was attached to the windmill.
Patrick Callan junior, then in his late teens, fled to America. In a certificate filed on the 12th December 1895, the Chief Clerk certified among other things that ‘Patrick Callan had not been heard from for over forty years’. He was presumed to have died ‘intestate and unmarried’. Extensive searches of the parish records for the County of Louth revealed no marriages for his sister Susanna up to the year 1900. Rose’s name does not appear on the list of the Callan family in any of the papers relating to the Incumbered Estates sales of 1854 and 1856 and it is presumed she died before then. Also missing from the petition under the Incumbered Estates petition are Patrick, John and Elizabeth Victoria, children of John Patrick Callan and Catherine Darcey. It is presumed that these children were also dead before this time.
Unless relatives took them in, there would have been very few options open to the Callan orphans at this time, apart from the Dundalk Workhouse. According to the Minute Books General of the Board of Guardians of Dundalk Union it too had a policy in the 1850’s of assisting families to emigrate. On 26th November 1853 another family of Callan orphans from Castletown, Mary, Anne, Patrick, James, Eliza and Peter of Castletown D.E.D. were assisted with their passage to the new world. While at the workhouse, the inmates were taught the skills of sewing, tailoring and weaving. In addition boys could be apprenticed to the Merchant Sea Service or Royal Navy.
The Valuation Mill Books indicate that the windmill ceased trading in the 1850’s though it continued to be used for storage and was rented to the Brown family. The court proceedings begun by the Nearys, however, continued.
In 1861 Owen Neary died. Three years later his executors Bernard Neary and James Patrick Neary, brothers of Owen Neary, reinstated the suit against the Callans. They succeeded in obtaining an order from the court to revive the proceedings against Patrick Callan, son of Patrick, and Catherine Callan, widow of his uncle John. Following the death of Catherine Callan, the suit was directed at her daughters Mary and Catherine, the only survivors of six children born to John Callan and Catherine Darcy or Darcey during the years 1829 and 1838.
A second receiver, William Tempest, was appointed to collect the rents, the first receiver Chichester Hamilton having died. During the time of his receivership Mr. Tempest allowed the windmill to be used as an observatory by the Harbour Commissioners. Following the deaths of Bernard Neary and James Patrick Neary, Christopher Neary their nephew and the principal legatee and devisee in the will of Owen Neary, applied for a De Bonis Non grant in his estate, and in 1895 the suit was again revived. This involved further difficulties for the Neary family. There was, apparently, some doubt as to who should be pursued for the debt to Owen Neary and the matter was referred to chambers for legal opinion. In the meantime, the windmill was still under the authority of the Court of Chancery and continued to be rented for storage until settlement of the Callan/Neary legal proceedings.
In 1909, however, just when it seemed that legal difficulties had been sorted out, Christopher Neary died. In 1910 letters of administration De Bonis Non in the estate of Owen Neary were granted to Christopher J. Neary and Kevin P. Neary, the sons of Christopher Neary. They again revived the suit in 1911. A third receiver, Bernard Mullen, was appointed in 1919 to collect the rents, Mr. William Tempest having died.
In 1926 the longstanding legal battle of the Callans and Nearys finally ended. The representative of the Callan family was John Callan King, son of and heir at law to Mary King (nee Callan). John Callan King died in 1933 in Dublin. His son John King later disposed of the windmill to O’Rourke’s Mills.
Over the years the condition of the Seatown Windmill deteriorated further. An entry in the cancelled valuation books of 1933 expressed surprise that it was ‘not demolished’ and indicated that it was ‘housing a motor lorry’. All proposals to restore it have ended in failure, due to its landlocked position, and objections by local residents. In the meantime, the tallest Windmill in Ireland, one of the great landmarks of Dundalk remains forelorn and empty.
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