The Bowles of Kilcooly, co. TipperaryBack to The Bowles of Tipperary
Generally thought of today as having been a settlement of German speaking refugees from the German Palatinate that was not quite the reality. A Bit of HistoryWhen Sir William Barker succeeded to the Kilcooly Estate in 1770 one of his first actions was to increase the Protestant population of the estate. He had acquired an estate in Limerick when he married Mary, daughter and heir of Valentine Quin of Adare, county Limerick where a large Palatine settlement had been made in 1709 which provided him with a source of tenants. "He persuaded German Palatines from Adare to come to Tipperary and as well advertised for tenants in Finn’s Leinster Journal in March 1772.” ref He created the two new settlements of Bawnlea and Newpark in the hills of Kilcooly.
It seems that only one lease from these settlements has survived.
The Switzer family has preserved their lease signed in 1772 under which
5 Palatines from Adair, Adam Baker (Bäcker), Paul Smeltzer, Daniel
Ruckle, John Switzer and Sebbastian Lawrence (Lorenz), received land in
Newpark on which they had to each build 5 stone houses within 2 years.
A condition on the lease was that the land could not be subleased to any
person professing the 'popish' religion nor let grazing land to any
'papist'. The list of Protestant Freeholders in Kilcooly in
1775/76 includes, from the Palatinate community, only those 5 names in
Newpark plus 4 members of the Miller (Müller) family in Bawnlea.
Also in Newpark was Richard Pennyfather from the Rathsallagh, co.
Wicklow family and in Bawnlea there was John Cooke, likely from the old
Fethard family, and an Andrew Young. There was also an Ambrose
Young at Ballyphilip in Lower Crohane parish where we also find a George
Bowles of Coolquill (Lower Crohane parish), farmer, amongst the list of
those appointed as Freemen of Fethard in 1771 and 1773-75.
The second branch, The Bowles of The Commons, which is about 1 mile south of Bawnlea, emigrated to Quebec. For their story see The John Bowles Family of Valcartier, Quebec. Another Bowles family from The Commons moved to Ballingarry, co. Tipperary and then on to Oola, co. Limerick which provides us with a clue which may yet lead to Oola as the origin of the Bowles of Kilcooly. See The Connection Between The Bowles of Kilcooly and The Bowles of Oola, Limerick. While it was initially denied by the descendants of both branches in
Canada, it seemed obvious that these were descendants of the same
family. The significant difference between the two
families was that the George Bowles family were Methodists and became
staunch supporters of the Methodist Church in Canada while John Bowles'
family were Catholic and helped found an Irish Catholic settlement in
Quebec. However, DNA testing done through the
Bowles
DNA project has found a familial match between current descendants of
both lines and it seems the relationship has been grudgingly accepted.
On the Bowles DNA project page the Bowles of Valcartier are kit # N36565 and the Bowles of
Peel are kit # 38140. Despite the difficulties between the two religions in Ireland over the centuries this two-religions-in-one-family situation was not as unusual as it would seem especially at this particular time. In the 1600's and the early 1700's many laws were enacted which severely limited the legal rights of Catholics. However, by the late 1700's these laws had been considerably relaxed or were just not being enforced. An Irish middle-class was forming which saw itself as Irish first of all and then as either Protestants or Catholics. For the first time in centuries the two religions could legally inter-marry. This lead to a rise in National spirit which spanned the religions in a common opposition to the English foreigners who controlled their government. This in turn led to the failed United Irish Rebellion of 1798 after which the government broke up that developing union by choosing to ignore the Protestant role in the rebellion and instead blaming it only on Catholic activists. The anti-Catholic laws were re-enacted and were once again strictly enforced. The Catholics responded by organizing increasingly active underground resistance groups while the Protestants, under the protection of the Government and now even more privileged than before, became the targets of the Catholic organizations. In turn the Protestants organized to protect themselves resulting in the establishment of the Orange Lodge and the firm entrenchment of sectarian barriers which resulted in ever increasing violence between the groups. By the 1820's South Tipperary was one of the main areas where confrontations between the groups occurred on a regular basis. Extract from a letter published in the Times of Aug. 18, 1810 Neighbours were now at war with each other and even families were split apart as apparently occurred with the Bowles. For their stories see The Bowles of The Commons and The Bowles of Bawnlea
NEW DISCOVERY UPDATE (May 2017) In following the departure of the Bowles families from Bawnlea and The Commons I found out quite a bit about both families from local sources. I also found that one Catholic Bowles family from The Commons did not emigrate to Canada with the others but instead remained in Ireland. In fact they moved to Oola, co. Limerick where a Catholic Bowles line had lived for a generation before the Bowles lines appeared in Kilcooly. The Oola line had descended from a Protestant Bowles line of the mid to late1700's so it's the perfect situation for a common origin of the two Kilcooly lines. I have long thought that the Kilcooly Bowles would connect back to the Oola Bowles and this find goes a long way towards confirming it. See The Bowles of Kilcooly's Connection to the Bowles of Oola, co. Limerick At the same time I found that some of John Bowles of The Commons' brothers and sisters married people with connections to land which had formerly been held by John Bowles of Woodhouse or his immediate neighbours. Taking a closer look at the Bowles of Woodhouse family tree I did find a gap in the family tree and some parish records in Dublin which would fit into that gap and also which fit nicely with the earliest known Bowles of the Kilcooly line. These records don't constitute proof just circumstantial evidence of a potential connection which if correct would give the Bowles of Kilcooly a family tree going back to the Boles of Cork in the 1620's. See The Bowles of Kilcooly's Connection to the Bowles of Woodhouse for the details. See also Sorting Out the Bowles of Kilcooly and Killenaule
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