Hugh Purcell (abt. 1195 - 1240)

Born about 1195 in County Kilkenny, Ireland [uncertain]

Ancestors

Died 1240 at about age 45 in Loughmoe, County Tipperary, Ireland [uncertain]

Note: For background on the Irish Purcells, including an overview of all the Barons of Loughmoe over the centuries, please see the page Purcells in Ireland 1200-1600.

Biography

Extracts from Knights' Fees in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny, Eric St. John Brooks, 1950:

• Hugh Purcell of Loughmoe, co. Tipperary, was the son of Walter.

• Before 1229 Walter Purcell and Hugh his son witnessed a grant in 'Dunhod' in Ossory [Ormond Deeds, i. 282]. Dunhod is equated to Donghamore, parish of St. Patrick's, by [Rev. William] Carrigan.

• Walter and Hugh Purcell, knights, witnessed also in 1229-30 a grant of land which William de St. Leger^[1] had made to St. Thomas' Abbey [Regr. St. Thomas, 141]. Walter Purcell therefore held Kilmenan before 1205, and was alive in 1229-30.

Hugh Purcell was the 2nd husband of Beatrice Walter, daughter (by an unknown wife) of Theobald FitzWalter, 1st Chief Butler of Ireland:^[2]

• Theobald FitzWalter died in 1206, and left by his 2nd wife Matilda de Vavasour:
  • Theobald Walter the second (1200-1230)
• He also left, by a former wife:
  • Beatrice Walter, who married 1) Thomas de Hereford and 2) Hugh Purcell
  • Matilda Walter, who married Gerald de Prendergast

Research Notes on Walter's Family

There were several generations of "Hugh Purcell" and "Walter Purcell" which appear in early Irish records after 1171 and up until 1277. See the page Purcells in Ireland (1200-1600) for details.

The first Hugh Purcell in Ireland is often cited in the context of the Anglo-Norman invasion ca.1171. Historian Thomas Carte^[3] mentions Hugh ("Hugone") as witness ca.1185 in a Gowran land grant of Theobald FitzWalter, 1st Chief Butler of Ireland. This same Hugh (born ca.1150) is widely believed to be the patriarch of the Purcells in Ireland. He was the father of Sir Walter Purcell (ca.1175-1230) and the grandfather of Sir Hugh Purcell (ca.1195-1240).

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Theobald FitzWalter, 1st Chief Butler of Ireland:

• "It is ingeniously suggested by [historian Thomas] Carte (pp. xii-xiv) on the strength of a plea-roll of 1295-6 (Plac. 24 Ed. I, m. 68), that Theobald [FitzWalter] had, by a previous marriage, a daughter Beatrice, who married, firstly, Thomas de Hereford, and secondly, in her father's lifetime [= before 1206], Hugh Purcell. This is not improbable."

1234: The King pardons to Hugh Purcel, the King's ire conceived against him because he stood against the King in the war between the latter and Richard Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, and receives him into grace for the fine which he made with the King. Mandate to the justiciary of Ireland, that having taken from Hugh security for the fine, he cause him to have seisin of his land, and of all chattels found therein after proclamation of the King's peace. The fine shall be accounted to Gilbert Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, in the 1,000 marks which the King granted to him for the ransom of his men of Ireland.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Dennis Walsh, "The St. Leger Family: Early Documented History":
   • http://sites.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/history/stleger.html
2. ↑ Constance Mary Butler & John Henry Bernard (editors), The Charters of the Abbey of Duiske (Dublin, 1918), p.32:
   • https://archive.org/details/chartersofabbeyo00butl/page/32/mode/2up?q=purcell
3. ↑ Thomas Carte (1686-1754), The Life of James, Duke of Ormond, Vol.1 (Oxford University Press, 1851), p. xliii:
   • https://archive.org/details/lifeofjamesdukeo01cartuoft/page/n53/mode/2up?q=purcell
4. ↑ Calendar of Documents for Ireland (1171-1251), p.326:
   • https://archive.org/details/calendardocumen00sweegoog/page/n412/mode/2up

• Wikipedia: Hugh Purcell of Loughmoe

• Crawford, Henry S. “The Ruins of Loughmoe Castle, County Tipperary.” The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 39, no. 3, 1909, pp. 234–241:
  • www.jstor.org/stable/25513999

• Knights' Fees in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny, Eric St. John Brooks, 1950.

• William Healy includes a 40-page section on the Irish Purcells in his History and Antiquities of Kilkenny (1893), with a focus on the Loughmoe branch beginning on p.182:
  • https://archive.org/details/historyandantiq00healgoog/page/n195/mode/2up

• Col. Brien Purcell Horan, A Brief History of the Purcells in Ireland (well-researched family history published in 2020):
  • https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e5ad6d49070ef2e922658b1/t/5e5ee360f837bb344944f18a/1583277059741/History+of+the+Purcell+Family

• The Ormond Deeds cover land and legal transactions in counties Kilkenny and Tipperary between 1172 and 1603. Many Purcells are mentioned. Search here for "Ormond Deeds" to see all 6 volumes in PDF format:
  • https://www.irishmanuscripts.ie/product-category/imc-digital-editions/

• John O'Hart, "Families in Ireland from the 11th to the end of the 16th centuries", showing county of settlement:
  • https://www.libraryireland.com/Pedigrees2/families-in-ireland.php

• O'Hart, Purcell family genealogy, from France (1000s) to Ireland (1200s):
  • https://www.libraryireland.com/Pedigrees2/purcell-2.php

• Very brief history of Purcell surname:
  • https://www.libraryireland.com/names/p/puirseil.php