McCormick dynasty of Blackrock, Dun Laoghaire and Monkstown
The merchant McCormick family was a large one and had a number of branches living in some of the grand houses in the general area of Blackrock, Dun Laoghaire and Monkstown in south county Dublin. The branches were generally known by the name of their houses, ie The Stradbrooks, the Shandons, etc. Intriguingly, the family patriarch Charles McCormick was a Wesleyan Minister who spent most of his life ministering to Methodist groups throughout Ireland as the preaching of Wesley grew more popular. By contrast, their children became merchants, established a family coal and shipping business that eventually became Tedcastle McCormick.
The Rev Charles McCormick and Henrietta Smith
Charles McCormick was born circa 1778 in Co Tyrone to James McCormick and unknown Crozier. It seems that as a small child in Co Tyrone, he was taken by his mother (who was herself a member of the Established Church) to hear John Wesley himself speak. As an adult in 1800 in Co Tyrone, Charles McCormick heard a Methodist preacher and was immediately converted. The conversion, it is alleged in Methodist sources, had the drama of a ‘Road to Damascus’ experience. Seven years later he committed himself to the life of a travelling preacher of the Methodist gospel and went immediately to preach in Co Mayo. There he met Henrietta Smith (b 1790 to Samuel Smith and Jane Huston) whom he married in 1811. Having spent most of their married life following Charles’s mission, the couple came to Dublin in 1853 to live in Pottery Cottage (Monkstown). Charles and Henrietta had seven (known) children. None of them followed Charles into ministry although the family identified as Methodist and at least one son, William Ormsby, was active in his church in Dun Laoghaire. Charles died at Pottery Cottage in 1863 and Henrietta in 1865. Both are buried in Deansgrange cemetery.
Offspring:
1. James c. 1812
2. John c. 1814-1900 – see below Stradbrook McCormicks
3. Jane c. 1816-1901, m 1839 Rev Edward Banks
4. William Ormsby 1819-1894, – Ashgrove and Yapton McCormicks, m 1848 Maria Emily Hearne
5. Charles Ormsby 1821 died in infancy
6. Samuel 1824-1831
7. Samuel Crozier 1833-1911 – m (1) 1873 Mary Latchford, (2) 1886 Maud Faussett
John McCormick and Eliza Rice – the Stradbrooks
John McCormick, son of Rev Charles McCormick and Henrietta Smith (see above), is listed in Thom’s Directory as residing in Stradbrook House in 1860. When he came there is not clear. He had earlier lived in Mallow Co Cork where he married Eliza Rice in 1838. Eliza was the daughter of Samuel Rice and Catherine Gardiner. John and Eliza had 11 (known) children, four daughters and seven sons.
Unlike his Minister father, John became a coal merchant and began his business in Mallow where where at least five of his children were born. By 1850 however the family had moved to Dublin where John acquired a coal business, formerly owned by Thomas Peile, at Luke Street and Great Brunswick Street or had bought him out. Peile’s business was well established by this time, being listed in trade directories since the 1820s. The McCormick coal business acquired further storerooms at City Quay and eventually had its main offices at 7 D’Olier Street. In 1897 McCormicks merged with Tedcastle to become Tedcastle McCormick. John was a tough business and in 1890 he banned unionisation from his dockyard, causing a strike that spread well beyond his own dockyard and involving some 2000 men. When he died of old age in 1900, John left effects of some £11,500s with administration being granted to his son Thomas Charles McCormick of Somerset and Blackrock House. He was pre-deceased by five of his children. His wife Eliza died of chronic bronchitis in 1881. They are buried in Mount Jerome cemetery.
John McCormick m. 1836 in Mallow Eliza Rice
b. 1814 b. 1813 in Mallow
d. 1900 Stradbrook House d. 1881 at Stradbrook House
Offspring:
1. Catherine (Kate) 1840-1912, m 1868 Richard Latchford
2. Charles 1841-1842
3. Henrietta 1843-1926, m 1868 John Chalk Barrett
4. Samuel Smith 1845-1921 – see below Shandon McCormicks
5. Elizabeth 1847-1850
6. John Gardiner 1848-1934
7. James Gardiner 1849-1860
8. William 1851-1858
9. Thomas Charles 1853-1935 – see below Somerset and Blackrock McCormicks
10. Susan Jane 1855-1884
11. Edward Nathan 1856-1933, m 1892 Maria Alexandra McCormick his first cousin and daughter of William Ormsby McCormick of Ashgrove and later of Yapton.
Samuel Smith McCormick and Julietta Gardiner – the Shandons
Samuel Smith McCormick of Shandon belonged to the third generation of the coal and shipping McCormick family in the Monkstown-Blackrock area of Dublin. He was the fourth child of John McCormick and Eliza Rice of Stradbrook House (and thus brother to Thomas Charles McCormick of Somerset and Blackrock House and grandchild to Rev Charles McCormick and Henrietta Smith). Samuel was born in 1845 in Mallow. In 1883 in London he married Julietta Maria Emily Gardiner who was born 1862 in Hendon Middlesex of John Gardiner and Julia Gossett. Julietta identified her religion as Church of England and Church of Ireland in census records.
John McCormick was certainly living at Stradbrook House in 1860 and possibly earlier as he was already in business in Dublin by 1850. In either case it is likely that Samuel was brought to Dublin with his parents. It is not known if he lived in London where he married Julietta or had met her elsewhere but by 1885 they were in their in residence in Monkstown which they renamed Montpelier House to Shandon. Winifred, their first child was born there in December of that year. The couple had eight known children, four sons and four daughters among whom was a pair of twins. The fourth, Hilgrove, was the only one born away from Shandon.
In the 1901 census all eight children were at home with their parents, all ‘scholars’. Curiously the eldest child (Winifred) is described as Church of Ireland while the others are listed as Methodists like Samuel. in 1911, five of the children are at Shandon on the night of the census. Winifred, Francis and James Gardiner are absent. John Gardiner is a farmer and a member of the armed forces, and Hilgrove is a law student.
Two of Samuel’s son predeceased him, both losing their lives in WW1. He had this in common with his brother Thomas Charles of the Somerset/Blackrock McCormick’s whose son John Arthur Rice died in action in 1915.
Samuel was actively involved in the family business, McCormick Coal and Shipping that became Tedcastle and McCormick (see above John McCormick of Stradbrook). He is listed at the company’s main premises 7 D’Olier Street in various trade directories. The 1901 and 1911 census records describe his occupation as director of companies and his means as annuities and dividends. By 1890 he had been appointed a Peace Commissioner. He was a chairman of the Port and Docks Board and a member of the Blackrock Urban District Council.
Samuel died of cardiac failure in 1921 at Shandon where he had lived since 1855. Julietta survived him by 30 years, dying of atherosclerosis at Shandon in 1951 aged 88. They are buried in Mount Jerome.
Samuel Smith McCormick m. 1883 in London Julietta Maria Emily Gardiner
b. 1845, Mallow, Co Cork b. 1862, Middlesex
d. 1921, Shandon, Co Dublin d. 1951, Shandon, Co Dublin
Offspring:
1. Winifred Eliza 1885-1955, m 1916 Adeline Thompson Waters Taylor
2. John Hugh Gardiner 1886-1914. Died in action in Belgium
3. Francis 1887-1951
4. Hilgrove 1888-1952, m (1) Margaret Anne Cliff 1930 in London (2) Dorothy Strick 1939 in London.
5. Eileen Maria 1890-
6. Julie Rose 1890-1972
7. Norah 1893-
8. James Gardiner 1894-1915. Died in action in France
Thomas Charles McCormick and Charlotte Kathleen née McCormick – the Somerset/Blackrocks
Thomas Charles McCormick, or TC as he was commonly called, was the 9th of the 12 children of John McCormick and Eliza Rice, and brother to Samuel Smith McCormick of Shandon. He was born in 1853 in Dublin, possibly in Stradbrook House. It was the address given as his residence at the time of his marriage in 1886 to Charlotte Victoria Florence Kathleen McCormick (called Kathleen but referred to here as Charlotte to avoid confusion). Charlotte was the daughter of William Ormsby McCormick J.P., a merchant and ship-owner who lived at Ashgrove in Monkstown at the time of the marriage and was later to move to Yapton. The couple were first cousins by virtue of their fathers being brothers and the sons of Rev Charles McCormick and Henrietta Smith.
Despite Stradbrook House being indicated as his address in 1886, it appears that Thomas was had already been the owner of Somerset since the previous year. The couple spent all the years of their short marriage living at Somerset. Charlotte died of cancer at her parent's house in Monkstown in 1899 before Thomas moved his family to Blackrock House in 1900. Thomas and Charlotte had five children, of whom four were daughters, all born in Somerset.
Thomas was the managing director of the family firm of Tedcastle & McCormick – coal and shipping merchants. He involved himself in charitable work, being for example a member of the board of the Royal Hospital at Donnybrook.
He continued to have an interest in property at Stradbrook. In 1928 he was part of the resistance to a government initiative to build new housing in the vicinity, saying that that if artisan dwellings were built around his house it would become a white elephant like Temple Hill House.
TC died 1935, aged 81, of senility and cardiac failure. He and Charlotte are buried in Deansgrange cemetery. The chief mourners at his funeral were his daughters Violet Kathleen McCormick and Elizabeth Ivy Norman and his son-in-law Hugh Norman. He had outlived three of his children – see below.
His son John Arthur joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and had reached the rank of Lieutenant when he was killed in action at the Dardanelles in 1915. His cousins James Gardiner McCormick and John Hugh Gardiner McCormick had died in action in 1915 and 1914 respectively. Probate of John Arthur's will was granted to his father, his effects amounted to £236.3.6.
Minnie Ella, too, died young. She was just 14 when she died suddenly in January 1911 with her father at her side. Her estate amounted to £23.2.6 and administration was granted to her father.
Maria died at home in Blackrock House in 1933 aged 46, also in the presence of her father.
Elizabeth Ivy married Hugh William Norman in 1918.
In 1935 Violet Kathleen McCormick and her sister Elizabeth Ivy Norman sold some of the grounds to builder T Archer for the development of Maretimo Gardens East into single residences. The McCormicks were the last to occupy Blackrock House as a single-family residence.
Thomas Charles McCormick m 1886 in Blackrock Charlotte Kathleen McCormick
b. 1853 b. 1860
d. 1935 d. 1899
Offspring:
1. Maria Ethel 1887-1933
2. John Arthur Rice 1889-1915
3. Violet Kathleen1892-1990
4. Elizabeth Ivy 1895-1985 m Hugh William Norman 1918
5. Minnie Ella 1896-1911
Profile of Charlotte V F K McCormick
Born c1860
Died 1889
Parents William Ormsby McCormick 1819-1894
Maria Emily Hearne 1828-1912
Siblings John Hearne abt 1850
William O abt 1852
Charles abt 1853
Arthur Herbert abt 1854
James E abt 1857
Cormac abt 1859
Charlotte abt 1860
Jane Emma 1864
Maria Alexandra abt 1865
Frederick 1866
Ormsby 1868
Albert 1870
Sources General Registry Office UK, General Register Office Ireland, Census records, Church records, Directories, Press reports.
Contributor Bríd Nolan & Ross Nolan
Date July 2017. Updated Jan 2020
The merchant McCormick family was a large one and had a number of branches living in some of the grand houses in the general area of Blackrock, Dun Laoghaire and Monkstown in south county Dublin. The branches were generally known by the name of their houses, ie The Stradbrooks, the Shandons, etc. Intriguingly, the family patriarch Charles McCormick was a Wesleyan Minister who spent most of his life ministering to Methodist groups throughout Ireland as the preaching of Wesley grew more popular. By contrast, their children became merchants, established a family coal and shipping business that eventually became Tedcastle McCormick.
The Rev Charles McCormick and Henrietta Smith
Charles McCormick was born circa 1778 in Co Tyrone to James McCormick and unknown Crozier. It seems that as a small child in Co Tyrone, he was taken by his mother (who was herself a member of the Established Church) to hear John Wesley himself speak. As an adult in 1800 in Co Tyrone, Charles McCormick heard a Methodist preacher and was immediately converted. The conversion, it is alleged in Methodist sources, had the drama of a ‘Road to Damascus’ experience. Seven years later he committed himself to the life of a travelling preacher of the Methodist gospel and went immediately to preach in Co Mayo. There he met Henrietta Smith (b 1790 to Samuel Smith and Jane Huston) whom he married in 1811. Having spent most of their married life following Charles’s mission, the couple came to Dublin in 1853 to live in Pottery Cottage (Monkstown). Charles and Henrietta had seven (known) children. None of them followed Charles into ministry although the family identified as Methodist and at least one son, William Ormsby, was active in his church in Dun Laoghaire. Charles died at Pottery Cottage in 1863 and Henrietta in 1865. Both are buried in Deansgrange cemetery.
Offspring:
1. James c. 1812
2. John c. 1814-1900 – see below Stradbrook McCormicks
3. Jane c. 1816-1901, m 1839 Rev Edward Banks
4. William Ormsby 1819-1894, – Ashgrove and Yapton McCormicks, m 1848 Maria Emily Hearne
5. Charles Ormsby 1821 died in infancy
6. Samuel 1824-1831
7. Samuel Crozier 1833-1911 – m (1) 1873 Mary Latchford, (2) 1886 Maud Faussett
John McCormick and Eliza Rice – the Stradbrooks
John McCormick, son of Rev Charles McCormick and Henrietta Smith (see above), is listed in Thom’s Directory as residing in Stradbrook House in 1860. When he came there is not clear. He had earlier lived in Mallow Co Cork where he married Eliza Rice in 1838. Eliza was the daughter of Samuel Rice and Catherine Gardiner. John and Eliza had 11 (known) children, four daughters and seven sons.
Unlike his Minister father, John became a coal merchant and began his business in Mallow where where at least five of his children were born. By 1850 however the family had moved to Dublin where John acquired a coal business, formerly owned by Thomas Peile, at Luke Street and Great Brunswick Street or had bought him out. Peile’s business was well established by this time, being listed in trade directories since the 1820s. The McCormick coal business acquired further storerooms at City Quay and eventually had its main offices at 7 D’Olier Street. In 1897 McCormicks merged with Tedcastle to become Tedcastle McCormick. John was a tough business and in 1890 he banned unionisation from his dockyard, causing a strike that spread well beyond his own dockyard and involving some 2000 men. When he died of old age in 1900, John left effects of some £11,500s with administration being granted to his son Thomas Charles McCormick of Somerset and Blackrock House. He was pre-deceased by five of his children. His wife Eliza died of chronic bronchitis in 1881. They are buried in Mount Jerome cemetery.
John McCormick m. 1836 in Mallow Eliza Rice
b. 1814 b. 1813 in Mallow
d. 1900 Stradbrook House d. 1881 at Stradbrook House
Offspring:
1. Catherine (Kate) 1840-1912, m 1868 Richard Latchford
2. Charles 1841-1842
3. Henrietta 1843-1926, m 1868 John Chalk Barrett
4. Samuel Smith 1845-1921 – see below Shandon McCormicks
5. Elizabeth 1847-1850
6. John Gardiner 1848-1934
7. James Gardiner 1849-1860
8. William 1851-1858
9. Thomas Charles 1853-1935 – see below Somerset and Blackrock McCormicks
10. Susan Jane 1855-1884
11. Edward Nathan 1856-1933, m 1892 Maria Alexandra McCormick his first cousin and daughter of William Ormsby McCormick of Ashgrove and later of Yapton.
Samuel Smith McCormick and Julietta Gardiner – the Shandons
Samuel Smith McCormick of Shandon belonged to the third generation of the coal and shipping McCormick family in the Monkstown-Blackrock area of Dublin. He was the fourth child of John McCormick and Eliza Rice of Stradbrook House (and thus brother to Thomas Charles McCormick of Somerset and Blackrock House and grandchild to Rev Charles McCormick and Henrietta Smith). Samuel was born in 1845 in Mallow. In 1883 in London he married Julietta Maria Emily Gardiner who was born 1862 in Hendon Middlesex of John Gardiner and Julia Gossett. Julietta identified her religion as Church of England and Church of Ireland in census records.
John McCormick was certainly living at Stradbrook House in 1860 and possibly earlier as he was already in business in Dublin by 1850. In either case it is likely that Samuel was brought to Dublin with his parents. It is not known if he lived in London where he married Julietta or had met her elsewhere but by 1885 they were in their in residence in Monkstown which they renamed Montpelier House to Shandon. Winifred, their first child was born there in December of that year. The couple had eight known children, four sons and four daughters among whom was a pair of twins. The fourth, Hilgrove, was the only one born away from Shandon.
In the 1901 census all eight children were at home with their parents, all ‘scholars’. Curiously the eldest child (Winifred) is described as Church of Ireland while the others are listed as Methodists like Samuel. in 1911, five of the children are at Shandon on the night of the census. Winifred, Francis and James Gardiner are absent. John Gardiner is a farmer and a member of the armed forces, and Hilgrove is a law student.
Two of Samuel’s son predeceased him, both losing their lives in WW1. He had this in common with his brother Thomas Charles of the Somerset/Blackrock McCormick’s whose son John Arthur Rice died in action in 1915.
Samuel was actively involved in the family business, McCormick Coal and Shipping that became Tedcastle and McCormick (see above John McCormick of Stradbrook). He is listed at the company’s main premises 7 D’Olier Street in various trade directories. The 1901 and 1911 census records describe his occupation as director of companies and his means as annuities and dividends. By 1890 he had been appointed a Peace Commissioner. He was a chairman of the Port and Docks Board and a member of the Blackrock Urban District Council.
Samuel died of cardiac failure in 1921 at Shandon where he had lived since 1855. Julietta survived him by 30 years, dying of atherosclerosis at Shandon in 1951 aged 88. They are buried in Mount Jerome.
Samuel Smith McCormick m. 1883 in London Julietta Maria Emily Gardiner
b. 1845, Mallow, Co Cork b. 1862, Middlesex
d. 1921, Shandon, Co Dublin d. 1951, Shandon, Co Dublin
Offspring:
1. Winifred Eliza 1885-1955, m 1916 Adeline Thompson Waters Taylor
2. John Hugh Gardiner 1886-1914. Died in action in Belgium
3. Francis 1887-1951
4. Hilgrove 1888-1952, m (1) Margaret Anne Cliff 1930 in London (2) Dorothy Strick 1939 in London.
5. Eileen Maria 1890-
6. Julie Rose 1890-1972
7. Norah 1893-
8. James Gardiner 1894-1915. Died in action in France
Thomas Charles McCormick and Charlotte Kathleen née McCormick – the Somerset/Blackrocks
Thomas Charles McCormick, or TC as he was commonly called, was the 9th of the 12 children of John McCormick and Eliza Rice, and brother to Samuel Smith McCormick of Shandon. He was born in 1853 in Dublin, possibly in Stradbrook House. It was the address given as his residence at the time of his marriage in 1886 to Charlotte Victoria Florence Kathleen McCormick (called Kathleen but referred to here as Charlotte to avoid confusion). Charlotte was the daughter of William Ormsby McCormick J.P., a merchant and ship-owner who lived at Ashgrove in Monkstown at the time of the marriage and was later to move to Yapton. The couple were first cousins by virtue of their fathers being brothers and the sons of Rev Charles McCormick and Henrietta Smith.
Despite Stradbrook House being indicated as his address in 1886, it appears that Thomas was had already been the owner of Somerset since the previous year. The couple spent all the years of their short marriage living at Somerset. Charlotte died of cancer at her parent's house in Monkstown in 1899 before Thomas moved his family to Blackrock House in 1900. Thomas and Charlotte had five children, of whom four were daughters, all born in Somerset.
Thomas was the managing director of the family firm of Tedcastle & McCormick – coal and shipping merchants. He involved himself in charitable work, being for example a member of the board of the Royal Hospital at Donnybrook.
He continued to have an interest in property at Stradbrook. In 1928 he was part of the resistance to a government initiative to build new housing in the vicinity, saying that that if artisan dwellings were built around his house it would become a white elephant like Temple Hill House.
TC died 1935, aged 81, of senility and cardiac failure. He and Charlotte are buried in Deansgrange cemetery. The chief mourners at his funeral were his daughters Violet Kathleen McCormick and Elizabeth Ivy Norman and his son-in-law Hugh Norman. He had outlived three of his children – see below.
His son John Arthur joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and had reached the rank of Lieutenant when he was killed in action at the Dardanelles in 1915. His cousins James Gardiner McCormick and John Hugh Gardiner McCormick had died in action in 1915 and 1914 respectively. Probate of John Arthur's will was granted to his father, his effects amounted to £236.3.6.
Minnie Ella, too, died young. She was just 14 when she died suddenly in January 1911 with her father at her side. Her estate amounted to £23.2.6 and administration was granted to her father.
Maria died at home in Blackrock House in 1933 aged 46, also in the presence of her father.
Elizabeth Ivy married Hugh William Norman in 1918.
In 1935 Violet Kathleen McCormick and her sister Elizabeth Ivy Norman sold some of the grounds to builder T Archer for the development of Maretimo Gardens East into single residences. The McCormicks were the last to occupy Blackrock House as a single-family residence.
Thomas Charles McCormick m 1886 in Blackrock Charlotte Kathleen McCormick
b. 1853 b. 1860
d. 1935 d. 1899
Offspring:
1. Maria Ethel 1887-1933
2. John Arthur Rice 1889-1915
3. Violet Kathleen1892-1990
4. Elizabeth Ivy 1895-1985 m Hugh William Norman 1918
5. Minnie Ella 1896-1911
Profile of Charlotte V F K McCormick
Born c1860
Died 1889
Parents William Ormsby McCormick 1819-1894
Maria Emily Hearne 1828-1912
Siblings John Hearne abt 1850
William O abt 1852
Charles abt 1853
Arthur Herbert abt 1854
James E abt 1857
Cormac abt 1859
Charlotte abt 1860
Jane Emma 1864
Maria Alexandra abt 1865
Frederick 1866
Ormsby 1868
Albert 1870
Sources General Registry Office UK, General Register Office Ireland, Census records, Church records, Directories, Press reports.
Contributor Bríd Nolan & Ross Nolan
Date July 2017. Updated Jan 2020