On the 25 September 1867 the Derry Journal carried the following announcement:

September 18, at Windsor Place, Edenderry. the wife of the Rev. Wm.J. Burke, Incumbent of Castlejordan, diocese of Meath, of a daughter.

Emily’s Birth Announcement

Windsor Terrace, Edenderry

The child named Emily Arabella Maynard Burke, was Baptised in St. Peter’s Church on Auinger Street, Dublin, where their parents married.

Emily, the second daughter was called after her mother, as was customary at the time. Her second name Arabella, did not show up in the family anywhere, there was an outside chance that she was given the name because of a connection between her parents and Joly family. The Joly’s were prominent landlords of East Offaly (Kings County) at the time, Emily’s family lived in Edenderry. One was called Annie Arabella Joly. It is easily a coincidence but it might be more than that as Emily’s younger brother was named John Jasper Joly Burke, similar to the great book collector Jasper Robert Joly.

Sources

25 September 1867 – Derry Journal – Londonderry, Londonderry, Northern Ireland

https://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/General-Register-Office.aspx

Ní Dheirg, Íosold. Emily M. Weddall: Bunaitheoir Scoil Acla. Beann Éadair, Baile Átha Cliath: Coiscéim, 2010.

https://www.offalyhistory.com/shop/books/john-plunket-joly-and-the-great-famine-kings-county

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/King_s_Co_/Clonbulloge/Ballydermott/1464828/

Emily’s father Rev Burke, courted quite a bit of controversy and  was no stranger to standing in the dock. In the decade he lived Edenderry he appeared in courthouse at least five times, both as a complainant and defendant at the Petty Sessions. Although none of the cases were seeped in serious issue, they spoke volumes where he stood with the local population.

The courthouse in Edenderry, stands exactly like it did when Emily’s family lived there

The Petty Sessions handled the bulk of lesser legal cases, both criminal and civil. They were presided over by Justices of the Peace, who were unpaid and often without any formal legal training. The position did not have a wage, so the role was usually taken by those with their own income – in practice usually prominent landowners or gentlemen. Justice was pronounced summarily at these courts, in other words, without a jury.

The cases dated between 1864 and 1868 ranged from unpaid bills to the local blacksmith to allowing his cattle to roam freely on the public road, to an unpaid dog license. The most serious complaint and probably the most perplexing for him and his family was in 1866, when he took action against Patrick Dempsey, also of Edenderry, for throwing a stone with the intention of causing Rev. Burke bodily harm. The Judges, E. J. Boss Esq., T. R. Murray, and J. H. Rogers dismissed the case. It could have been difficult to prove, they sided with Dempsey or they distrusted Emily’s father.

Sadly the violent persecution that dogged his life in the West of Ireland followed him to Edenderry. This was not an isolated incident as the violence continued for his duration there.

The courthouse in Edenderry, stands exactly like it did when Emily’s family lived there

Sources

findmypast.co.uk/results/world-records/irish-petty-sessions-court-registers-1828-1912

Rev William John Burke moved to an address at Windsor Terrace, in the town of Edenderry in 1863. It became home to he, his wife son William and daughter Miriam Sophia. The Burkes would live at that address until 1872, when Rev Burke was transferred to Ballinasloe, Co. Galway.

In the decade that Emily’s family lived in Edenderry, it was a thriving little town. On the banks of the Grand Canal, much traffic passed through it.

Without the Grand Canal, Edenderry in the nineteenth century would have not prospered as it did the canal providing a much needed communication network and transportation for goods such as peat, corn and flout to Dublin.

In 1862 a branch of the Ulster Bank opened as did Edenderry’s first post office in February. This boosted the amount of local businesses and trades men. By the time Emily was born in 1867, Edenderry was a prosperous little Leinster town, and a hub of activity. As a clergyman Rev. Burke would have been part of the establishment and status quo, but was not liked by all.

The statue of Arthur Hills, 3rd Marquess of Downshire, overlooking Edenderry

Sources

Reilly, Ciarán. Edenderry 1820-1920: Popular Politics and Downshire Rule. Dublin: Nonsuch, 2007.

findmypast.co.uk/results/world-records/irish-petty-sessions-court-registers-1828-1912

Rev Burke Widowed
The threat of violence was a factor that loomed constantly in the life of Rev Burke and extended to his family. Such an incident that happened in Tuam, Co Galway  in 1856 caused Mrs Burke an injury that never healed. In fact it lead directly to her death two years later. A stone thrown at the Revered Burke had missed him and hit his wife instead. The injury caused her much pain and could not be cured.

When Mr. Burke left this place with his family he removed, after some time, to Tuam, and subsequently to Clifden, and it is believed that the persecution which Mrs. Burke, in common with her husband endured in these places laid the seeds of a mortal disease in a naturally strong constitution.

Her obituary was in the Achill Missionary Herald of August 17 1858.

On the 17th ult., Mrs Burke, wife of the Rev. William Burke, entered into rest at the Parsonage Castelkerke.

The write up talked of her popularity in the mission and her kindness to all. What was particularly poignant was a the mention of her children:

…Some time after, on of her sons, in an adjoining room, played on a violin an old Irish air, which she set the sixth Irish hymn. After a while she said “I will soon, my darling hear more delightful music than that; it will be heavenly music and I will join in it.

Mrs Burke gave instructions for her funeral and requested a low key and no money should be wasted on extravagances, which was customary for the time. She requested to be buried in Oughterard graveyard.

Rev was now a widow with seven stepchildren, although most of them were grown up by now. The couple had one child together, William Junior, who played the music to his dying mother, and was only a young boy when she passed away.  This early trauma along with other hardship he had suffered, being the son of a convert priest may have played a part in the great difficulties he suffered later on in life.

Rev Burke went to live in Dublin for a while, taking young William with him. He stayed at an address in Harrington Street, near the South Circular Road. The boy was sent to school at the prestigious school Hollyville in Monkstown.

The churchyard in Oughterard, the final resting place of Mrs. Burke

Sources

Achill Missionary Herald August 17 1858

Rev Burke traveled the country preaching the Gospel to anyone who would listen, and bravely went where few would venture. He was reliable and fearless, and was called upon to assist with new converts. An incident in Clifden, Co. Galway in 1856 illustrates how dangerous his work was. In the letter below from Rev Hyacinth D’Arcy (Evangelical landlord and founder of the Clifden Mission) to an unnamed recipient, gives an insight into how an innocent reading of the Bible could end up in a violent outburst, what missionaries called ‘disturbances of the peace’.

…Convert widow sent for Hyacinth D’Arcy, who asked Mr Burke to go to her, HD heard a noise, saw that ‘an immense multitude of people pressing up the street’

 Mr Burke had been reading with the widow when people collected and threw stones at the door.  Police sent for HD[Hyacinth D’Arcy] addressed the crowd. HD thought trouble was due to idleness or keeping the day by way of Holy Day contrary to the commandments of God. (Corpus Christi) Fr Mac Manus [parish priest of Clifden] accused HD of ‘parading through the streets a man obnoxious to the good people of Clifden, namely Rev. Burke…

The incident happened well over a decade after William John Burke converted. The backlash against him never went away. He was persecuted everywhere he went. This persecution would in time cause a tragedy that would be far reaching enough to impact on at least two generations of the Burke family.

Sources

http://www.irishchurchmissions.ie/1849-1869/

(Letter from Hyacinth D,Arcy to unnamed recipient, 27^th May 1856, MS Number G3/3/12 in Copley

Papers, University of Durham)

Special thanks to Miriam Moffett, author of Soupers & Jumpers: the Protestant Missions in Connemara, 1848-1937, who shared her knowledge and expertise with me