Flood Estate Papers

Context

Creator(s): Flood Estate, Kilkenny

• Administrative History ↴

  From the seventeenth century, this 4000 acre estate was held under the various names of one family: Warden, Flood, and Hanford. The estate was originally granted to William Warden who fought in the Confederate wars. In 1692, William's grandaughter, Anne Warden, married a Longfordman, Major Francis Flood, and thus introduced the Flood name to the property. The renowned parliamentarian, scholar and orator, Henry Flood, was born to a son of Anne and Francis named Warden Flood. Like other family members, Warden trained as a lawyer in London. It was Warden who, around 1759, built the family house, Farmley, in Kilkenny. Warden was a Member of Parliament for Callan and went on to become Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. In 1759, after an education at Trinity College Dublin, Oxford and London, Warden Flood's son Henry followed his father and grandfather into Parliament. There, he ably used his oratorical skills in the campaign for increased constitutional freedom for Ireland. Henry Flood died in 1791. His will stipulated that, on the death of his wife, the bulk of his property should go to Trinity College Dublin to establish a chair of Irish and for the purchase of Irish books and manuscripts. The will was successfully challenged by his cousin John Flood of Flood Hall, Co Kilkenny on the grounds that Henry had been born out of wedlock. John thus took over the property and his son Robert succeeded him in 1807. When Robert died unmarried in 1836, Robert's brother, another John Flood inherited. This John Flood had two children, both born out of wedlock: William Lloyd and Anne LLoyd. Anne Lloyd married Rev Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, 8th Baronet and became Lady Cullum. In 1839, her brother William Lloyd inherited the Flood estate and took the name William Lloyd Flood. In 1847, William Lloyd Flood married Frances Hanford, an English heiress. This couple and their large family divided their time between Ireland and England. When Frances succeeded to her family's estate at Woollas Hall in Worcestershire in 1861, the family name became Hanford-Flood. Frances Hanford Flood died at Farmley, Kilkenny in 1875. It is three of William and Frances' children, John, Robert, and Mary whose tenure of the Flood estates is covered in the KAS papers. Each of these children successively inherited. The eldest was Colonel John Compton Hanford Flood (1849-1911). John was educated at Eton and Trinity College Cambridge. He joined the 19th Hussars and served in the Egyptian war and in Sudan. He assumed the name of Hanford in lieu of Hanford-Flood. John's brother, Major Robert Thomas Hanford Flood (1850-1921) succeeded to the Flood estates in Kilkenny in 1911. The third child of William Lloyd Flood and Frances Hanford was Mary Frances Flood Hervey. In 1886, she married Col. Constantine R W Hervey, JP. The couple came to live in Flood Hall in 1925. After her death in 1937, the Flood Estate was sold to the Irish Land Commission.

• Archival History ↴

  The papers were donated to Kilkenny Archaeological Society by the family in 1985.

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Donation