Where would we be without our Planter families? There were the first occupiers (another book will cover the present generation) who lived in the Big House at Castle Coole on the outskirts of Enniskillen whose the luxurious fittings and surrounds are the subject of, 'Belmore: The Lowry Corrys of Castle Coole 1646-1913' by Peter Marson.
The author was well profiled in last week's issue. Here, we examine his subject matter and how he handles same. It is a most impressive work that runs to almost 300 pages and contains some excellent period photographs and fascinating diary extracts featuring local people involved in a major refurbishment (£30,000-plus) of house and grounds in the late 1780's which was undertaken by Armar Lowry Corry.
In December 1789, there is the first recorded injury to a workman: 'on Friday, 4 December, labourer McCaffrey is hurt by a young bullock. After that, he is only able to hold the wagon (horses) while others gather hay for the bullocks'.
Such mundane events as these sit easily with the loftier goings-on of the family with the double-barrelled name that reflected a Tyrone/Fermanagh marriage tie. By the way, the name, 'Belmore' (the present occupant is Lord Belmore) was the name suggested to Baron Belmore in 1780 by his young wife, from the mountain of that name nearby.
The Corrys, we are told, came from Dumfries in Scotland, and it was John Corry who in 1655 purchased Manor Coole, and Castle, for £860. As seems to be the trend amongst families of landed gentry, chronic sickness and premature deaths saw no bounds ('death, the 18th century scourge of family arrangements'), and so too did their acquisition of property. At today's soaring property values, the prohibitive land prices then now appear laughable; for instance, the first Earl of Belmore forked out £3,000 for 12,000 acres at Killyhevlin, Derryvullen, Derrychara and Tamlaght.
And, while family members lived at the Castle, others lived where the Townhall in Enniskillen now sits. The old Castle was deliberately torched during the 1798 Rebellion to prevent the Rebels gaining an advantage, but when that emergency was over, plans were drawn up for a new house.
Our author treads nimbly among and between the generations. Names and dates abound, necessarily so, but they are accompanied by much detail. We are told, for instance, how in 1700, improvements to the estate included the planting of beech trees and a formal garden in the Queen Anne House.
Tree planting, one would have to admit, was one of the strengths of the Planter. The 'meer Irish', led a hand to mouth existence and, far from erecting banks ('ditches') of hedging plants around fields, their priority was to grow enough to pay the landlord first, and then feed the family second.
Generally speaking, the Belmores were good landords, the more so, then, they felt slightly aggrieved when their tenants started kicking up in the wake of the Land Act (to do with fair rents), and the Ashbourne Act (which provided loans to them to buy their lands). And, to cap it all, there was the Arrears Act under which no tenant owing less than £30 was required to pay up.
The Lowry-Corry connection was struck in 1733 when Galbraith Lowry married Sarah Corry at Castlecoole. The groom's family seat was near Caledon and he was elected MP for Tyrone in 1748. Their son, Armar Lowry Corry became the first Earl Belmore and was created a Viscount in 1789. As noted above, he built Castle Coole as it is seen today. He succeeded his father as MP for Tyrone, 'having been elected by a show of hands and at great expense'. We hear. In fact he and a Parliamentary colleague spent £6,048 on election expenses of which £4,429 went towards buying endless rounds of drink in public houses in Omagh!
On the death of his mother in 1779, he became sole heir of all of the Lowry Corry estates in Tyrone, Fermanagh, Longford, Monaghan, Armagh and Dublin, amounting to 70,000 acres.
So, what were things like inside the Big House?
The author brings us forward for a taste of life above and below stairs, through the childhood eyes of Brigadier G. W. Eden whose mother was Lady Florence Lowry Corry. One can share in his wonderment.
'At the dining room meals, my grandmother sat at the head of the table. Every morning, before breakfast, prayers were held in the saloon (sic) which were attended by the servants. After breakfast, my grandmother would go down to the kitchen to give orders to the cook.
'In the evenings after dinner, we would sit in the drawing room till it was time to go to bed. On a table at the foot of the stairs there were candles which were lit for us to take to our rooms. My aunts did a lot of visiting in the cottages on the estate, sometimes taking food with them'.
The Brigadier recalled one old cottagier, 'who always kept some kind of woollen cap or hat on her head and then put another on top of it as it wore out, so that her headgear got higher and higher over the years'.
Sundays were strictly religiously observed, either at services in Derryvullen or Enniskillen and for afternoon walks in the grounds. Later, hired cars brought them to fetes and, he remembered one occasion he attended 'sports at a lunatic asylum in Omagh where Uncle Armar presented the prizes'. As can be guessed, the men shot rabbits, wild duck, woodcock, snipe and grouse, and the women were dab hands at tending to the gardens.
But, life was never as serene as this. There were the sickness and deaths as already noted, some tragically, For instance, Ernest, the son of the fourth Earl, who managed a ranch in Buenos Aires, was fatally wounded in a shooting incident in March, 1912, and what makes his death the more poignant is that he was preparing to sell the ranch and return to Castlecoole.
Here and there, marriages crumbled.
One memorable broken liaison that is given protracted coverage in the book had the gushing blessing of the father of the bride, the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Earl of Buckingham. His son-in-law, Armar Lowry Corry seems to have been cursed with a very large nose that even Buckingham joked about.
Anyhow, his daughter, Armar's young wife, born in England, wasn't laughing. The author records that they were married for just a year and how Belmore was, 'upset, smarting and angry at the disgust that Henrietta (his wife) constantly and publicly showed at the sight of him'.
There is also an extensive blow by blow account of feuding between the Belmores and the Abercorns, something akin to the traditional Fermanagh versus Tyrone GAA rivalry that will be renewed at Clones on 20th May.
It all goes to show that, wealth and influence aside, we are all the same under the skin. Even the Lowry Corrys' day in the sun was shadowed by punishing death duties that led to part of their splendid home, and the entire estate at Castlecoole being taken over by the National Trust.
This is a mighty effort by Peter Marson, and this review can only give a sample of the wealthy and variety of his research into a family who link in to a time when, ironically, the Earls of Ulster had just emigrated, leaving a rich Gaelic tradition behind. A new tradition supplanted it, but not totally and, today, we can enjoy a shared experience.
'Belmore': The Lowry Corrys of Castle Coole 1646-1913' is now available in hardback, at £29.99 at - the National Trust shop at Castle Coole, in Eason's, High Street, Enniskillen; at Waterstones, and at the Queen's University Bookshop.
