Irish Palatines in the News

Date: 1709 [unknown]
Location: Ireland

Excerpted articles from old newspapers mentioning Irish Palatines

The Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier, 20 February 1823, p.3. (Viewed 27 Apr 2021 via FindMyPast.)

Provincial Intelligence from Limerick.

Sunday last, between the hours of 11 and [?] o’clock, at noon, a man went into the house of William Ball, a Palatine, and member of the Adare Yeomanry, on the lands of Tuogh, in this County, and seeing no person there but Ball’s wife and an infant, he went out and returned in a few minutes, accompanied by another man, with drawn bayonets. They demanded Ball’s fire-arms, which the wife denied; they then threatened her with death if she persisted in refusing them, and having shewn them into a room where three muskets and fifty rounds of ball cartridge lay, she with great presence of mind locked the door and raised a hue-and-cry amongst her brother’s family, who immediately came to her assistance, which the fellows perceiving they got out through the windows without taking either arms or powder. An instant pursuit was set up by Ball and Wm. Piper, and a few other Palatines, which was continued for some miles, and had the good fortune to succeed in securing one of the ruffians in the wood of Curra; his companion, concealing himself in the woods, escaped. The villain who is apprehended is from the neighbourhood of Ballingarry and is charged with taking Mr Fosberry’s arms last year, and also with robbing the Shanngolden mail. The conduct of Ball’s wife is above all praise, as to her noble management the detection of this ruffian is ascribed.

The Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier, 25 September 1823, p.3. (Viewed 27 Apr 2021 via FindMyPast.)

Reporting from Limerick.

Late on the evening of Friday last, an attempt was made on the lands of Croughill, near Ardagh, in this County, to burn a large rick of turf, the property of Jacob Miller, (a Palatine), by setting it on fire in four places; fortunately, an acquaintance of his who was returning home perceived the fire, and extinguished it. This is the second attempt which was lately made to destroy turf, the property of these people, who are always marked as objects of vengeance for no other cause but their being remarkably industrious.

The Cork Examiner, Friday evening, 27 January 1843, p.2. (Viewed 10 Apr 2021 via FindMyPast.)

Records a meeting of the Loyal National Repeal Association, which had been established some years earlier to campaign against the Acts of Union between Great Britain and Ireland. Alderman O’Connell, M.P. handed in various monies received from supporters around the country, including the sum of 28 pounds and 10 shillings collected in Co. Limerick. The commentary on the level of support from that county exposes prejudices on both sides of the political divide.

It was when he had the honour of being received by thirty or forty thousand of the independent inhabitants of the county Limerick that he received those subscriptions … One of the Tory rags, the "Limerick Chronicle", had had the impudence to state that no gentlemen attended the meeting there. There were as good gentlemen there as those smoke-dried Palatines in the "Limerick Chronicle" office.

The Cork Daily Reporter, 9 Mar 1864, p.4 (Viewed Apr 2021 via FindMyPast)

Reports a case to be heard at the Limerick Assizes regarding the “ejectment” by Lord Viscount Southwell of “Adamson, a descendant of one of the Palatines”. The article recounts the history of the arrival of the Palatine refugees in Ireland, and notes that “the greater portion … settled about Court Matrix, Killiheen, Ballangran, etc, on the estate of Lord Viscount Southwell”, where they were charged 5 shillings per acre per year in rent. The Palatines asserted that the arrangement had been expected to stand in perpetuity, but this was disputed in the case being heard. The case was apparently settled amicably.

The Tipperary Free Press and Clonmel General Advertiser, Tuesday evening, 29 November 1870, p.2. (Viewed 10 Apr 2021 via FindMyPast.)

Provides a brief and imaginative history of the inhabitants of “a country called Palatine, on the south part of the Netherlands bordering on Germany”, who were “a mixture of Dutch and German, and were all Protestants.” It relates that six thousand of them sought refuge in the camp of the Duke of Marlborough from the conflict with France, but that “they were an incumbrance [sic] to the British army” and were thus sent to England, and thence to the Southwell estate in Limerick. While some eventually returned to the Continent or emigrated to America, others remained in Ireland. The article specifically mentions those who remained in counties Carlow and Tipperary.

… Among the Protestants of the parish of Kilcooley, the majority are the descendants of the Palatines, as the names Uzell, Frizelle, Sparling, Switzer, Ruckle, and Smeltzer still testify of the fact.

O’Leary, Pat, “Gorey’s Christmas Link”, New Ross Standard, 15 Dec 1988 p.32. (Viewed 10 Apr 2021 via FindMyPast.)

Describes the recent publication of a book by Michael Fitzpatrick of Clusinin, Gorey, concerning the settlement of "upwards of eight hundred German-speaking Protestant refugees" in Ireland in 1709. He notes that most were on the Southwell (Rathkeale) and Oliver (Kilfinane) estates in Co. Limerick, but that there were some in other parts of the country. He goes on to detail those families who settled in Gorey, Co. Wexford, and quotes Fitzpatrick's recollections of some families who settled in Co. Tipperary.

... The following is an extract of a letter which [Colonel Abel Ram] wrote from Ramsfort, Gorey on 28th July, 1722, to the officials in charge of the Ordnance Office in Dublin. It serves to show that he was a gentleman who was not unfamiliar with the use of a parade ground. He writes : “Be pleased to acquaint their Excellencies that ye (the) number wanting to complete my Regiment of Dragoons and a half-foot company of Palatines, which are my tenants, have 120 firelocks, etc”

A local tradition that families in the area such as Bass, Hendrick, Hanstock, Millar and Sludds are descendants of the Palatines and Palatine tenants from Gorey area. Many of the Gorey Palatines went on to live in Old Ross on the Ram property.

The following is a list of the Palatine families who settled on the Ramsfort Estate in 1725 : Mary Ashbagh; Phillip Altimer; Hans George Chouse; Pete Berker; Margaret Grien also Ring; Matthew Hofeman; John Poole; Jacob Poole; William Poole; Henry Reynholt; John Rappell; John Caspar Real; Jacob Ryling; Matthew Sheafer; George Swartz; Matthew Tyse; Henry Wise; Jacob Wise; Moses Wafer; Mary Young. Reynholt probably became Rynhart. The Pooles are still evident today and a Mary Young is interred in Clonattin Cemetery, Gorey.

... [quoting Fitzpatrick] “In my father’s native village of Sliabhardagh, Co. Tipperary, there are many descendants of the Palatines, Switzers, Fitzelle, Delmage, Sparling. Other names also associated with the Palatines are Shire, Hartwick, Piper, Embury, Glazier, Teskey, Heck, Ruttle, Smelzer, etc. Millar or Miller was originally Muller and it was a Christy Switzer who left Co. Tipperary to establish the well-known Switzes of Grafton Street, Dublin. The Switzers came from Assenheim, Germany, to Ireland.”

The Kerryman, 20 October 1989, p.2. (Viewed 10 Apr 2021 via FindMyPast)

Brief announcement of a “Palatine gathering” in Rathkeale, Co. Limerick, bringing together Palatines “better known as Huguenots” from all over the country. The occasion was used to launch a book (author not named) entitled “People make places : the story of the Irish Palatines.”

Kerry Palatines include such well known names as Benner, Glazier, and Williams