Chapter:The Estate-Its breakup and sale to the tenantry.

The Warburton Estate was far flung, extending as it did over both the King's and Queen's Counties. In the former it comprised Rathmore, Garryhinch, Annamoe, Benfield, Killeeduff, Cloneyhurk, Magnaskaugh, Borderers, Borriness and Debenture. In the latter it comprised Tinnakill, Dangans, Ballymacrossan, Clonterry, Strahard, part of the property which now comprises the Parish of Port arlington and part of the property which comprises the parish of Mountmellick and Portarlington, Bracklone, Crilly-Close, Riverclose, part of the townland of Tierhogar and Rathleash, Rathmoyles, Huntingdon, Ballybrittas and Ballyshanduff.
In 1876, a Parliamentary Return, which the Freeman's Journal described as the "Irish Doomsday Book", enumerated the proprietors of Ireland and the quantity and value of land held by each. Here it was shown that Richard Warburton of Garryhinch owned 5,336 acres, the valuation of which was £1,564.
The years roll on. In 1900 the Warburton family was still in possession of the estate. But old moulds were broken. The agrarian movement had brought about great change. The Irish tenant farmer was claiming his right to purchase his holding as the big estates were breaking up on foot of the Land Purchase Acts, 1903.
In line with the national aspirations, the Garryhinch farmers formed a united front to press their claims. The petition for sale was first presented to the Land Judge in 1885.
In March 1906, at a meeting to discuss the sale of the estate, Mr. Delaney, County Councillor, asked the Chief Secretary, Queen's County, for information regarding the matter. The Chief Secretary in reply said "The order made by the Judge was for the sale of the life interest only of the owner. In such case, it is, I am informed" impossible to convey the fee simple to purchasing tenants".
Meetings continued to be held and in 1908, in the Land Judges Court, the estate was before Mr. Justice Ross for consideration of a number of matters affecting its proposed sale to the tenants -a number of whom were present. Mr. Brunskill, instructed by Messrs. Collins & Ward, appeared on behalf of the petition.
Mr. D. J. O'Brien, instructed by Mr. P. J. Meehan, Solr., represented the tenants. Among the matters discussed were the allocation of certain land among the smaller tenants and also what was described as Cush Bog, which was opposed by Mr. Warburton on the grounds that it immediately adjoined his demense and formed a valuable adjunct to the shooting.
The vast estate, as was well known, was heavily mortgaged, the Patriotic Assurance Co., being the mortgagee. The rental previous to the operations of the Land Acts amounted to £5,400 and at the time (1908), was reduced to £4,000. But in order to give the tenantry an opportunity to purchase the property by Mr. Warburton's consent, it was passed into the Lands Estate Court which appointed Mr. Franks, Solr., as Agent and Receiver, and he invited offers from the tenantry.
A further meeting of the court was held in 1910 in the Owenass Hall, Mountmellick, to again discuss the matter and on a motion of Peter McEvoy, seconded by Mr. Lawrence, it was resolved that "we the town tenants in the Warburton estate, claim the right to have our holdings included in the sale of the estate now pending; that we request the co o~eration of the country tenants in the matter and that a further meeting wIll be held on a date to be fixed for the consideration of the terms to be offered and that the Rev. Fr. Breen, P.P. and Mr. P. J. Meehan, Solr., be requested to attend said meeting".
A further meeting was indeed held and in June 1910, in the Land J u~g~s Court before Mr. Justice Ross, the parties appeared with a view to arriVIng at a settlement and sale under his Lordship's ruling. Mr. Justice Ross said his desire was to help a settlement and in this proceeding as all the parties were aware, he had no power to enforce anything. The settlement must be by agreement. There was the question of turbary and he thought from what previously appeared there was also a question of grazing land.

Counsel on both sides agreed that the grazing land, which was not a large area, would not offer any difficulty. His Lordship asked -"did the proposal as to terms stand". Mr. Brunskill said the tenants offered to buy at a reduction of six shillings and six pence in the pound on the present rent and five shillings reduction on the second term. Mr. Franks suggested instead a reduction of five shillings and six pence on the first term and four shillings on the second term, now that they were paying a reduced amount. He asked six pence less under the old Act.
Mr. Justice Ross said everyone was under a more unfavourable position under the new Act, which he called the Birrell Act. He said there was only six pence between them and would be disposed to suggest twenty-one and a half years purchase in respect of purchase under the last A;ct, and ni.neteen and a half under the Wyndham Act. If the parties, he saId, see theIr way to accept that, we can work out a settlement easily enough.
Justice Ross said "it must be remembered that the amount of money gOIng out of the country for Irish land is enormous and the requirements of the State for old age pensions and other purposes including that which appears to have been rendered necessary by the action of the European Powers -at all events, expenditure which has been for one reason or the other, undertake~ -I say that, having regard to these things, persons of common sense wIll probably see their way not to have very much more money spend on land in Ireland. .." "It would be better for the sake of everyone concerned to settle now; on the one hand the tenants should be content with a substantial reduction and, on the other hand the vendors should be satisfied with a reasonable price. The terms as mentioned were very good for the tenants and they should not occupy themselves with what other people in the neighbourhood had got in the shape of terms. There was a good many bankrupt estates out for big prices.But the tenants ought to consider their own circumstance and what would be good for them."
Rev.Mr .Cole,in the course of some further proceedings,said he was authorised to say on behalf of the landlords that his Lordship's terms in his ruling would be accepted.
His Lordship said he would take as a basis for settlement nineteen and three-quarter years' purchase of rents settled before August 1906 and twenty-one and three-quarter years arrived at subsequently. Turbary and grazing questions must be settled separately on the merits of each case.
The end was near. Settlements were agreed and the property was finally sold to the tenantry in 1911. The wheel had turned full circle.
A sizable portion of the estate -up to 700 acres -was retained by the Warburton family.
The fine old mansion which had "looked into the eye of the wind" for so long would appear also to have changed position. In Canon O'Hanlon's History of The Queen's County we read: "Garryhinch, the fine seat of Colonel Warburton, is situated on the borders of the King's and Queen's counties. It is disputed in which county the house now stands, as the course of the river, which is the boundary, has been changed and consequently, the house is not now on the same side it formerly was". Yet even n1its old age and as settlement talks were afoot to divide the great estate among the tenants, the old mansion, for just one more time, heard the cry of new-born life, when, in 1910 Richard Henry Warburton was born. A baby daughter had been born there in 1905. The mansion was destroyed by fire in 1914.
Garryhinch: in King's County -Garrdha-Hinse, garden of the island or River-Holm (on the river). The inch was cultivated as a garden.

Across the centuries: Following the fire at the mansion at Garryhinch, in 1914, the Warburton family retired to Portarlington where they lived for a short time at Upper Main Street -in the house where this writer's forebears once lived, and which is now the home of the Captain of the Golf Club, Mr. Eugene Boland, (1987). Later the family moved out of the town and were soon forgotten by most people. Richard Henry was still a child. It was in high summer of 1987 that this writer made contact with the wife of Richard Henry Warburton at her home in Co. Kildare. Richard Henry is dead, but two of his sons, Richard and Nigel, are alive and well and are living in Dublin. And the young man who started it all -and who came to Ireland almost two and a half centuries ago with his two brothers, George and John, and who married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Lestrange, of Castlestrange, Roscommon, was -Richard Warburton -Clerk of the Council to Henry Cromwell, Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1654; afterwards Clerk Assistant to the House of Commons in Ireland in 1662. Styled of Garryhinch in the King's County: M.P. for Ballyshannon, 1695 to 1711. Born in 1637; Died, February, 1717.