Hely Hutchinson Collection

Identity Statement

Content & Structure

• Scope & Content: Hely Hutchinson family of Swords, Co. Dublin ↴

  As this collection was gradually pieced together by the remaining descendants of the Hely Hutchinsons of Swords, there was no original order to speak of. The family members and the local historian Peadar Bates, who was given the job of creating an inventory, sorted and arranged the collection according to both document type and subject matter. Thus correspondence, legal deeds, maps and photographs were separated, and then further divided by subject matter e.g. all deeds dealing with a particular property put together.

  The collection is divided into two sections, one relating to the estate, and the second relating to the family, and extended family.

  Section 1 A ‘Estate Ownership’ contains records such as marriage settlements and wills, deeds of title to, and leases of, the lands inherited and owned by the family. Sophia Hely Hutchinson was the main beneficiary of the will of her father Sir Samuel Synge Hutchinson. He had married the daughter, Dorothy, of John Hatch and Barbara Synge. John Hatch had been the agent of the properties belonging to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the Liberty of St. Sepulchre, often referred to as the farm of St. Sepulchre. This position enabled him to become a speculator and property developer and to amass quite considerable wealth. He was largely responsible for the development of Harcourt St. In the hundreds of deeds relating to land transactions in the farm of St. Sepulchre one is able to follow, from the 18th century, the development of quite a large area of Dublin City. Hatch had a residence in Lissenhall Swords, where he served as an M.P. Sophia inherited these lands, and lands in Rathfarnham, Palmerstown, as well as property in Offaly, and Wicklow. The family also acquired additional residences at Seatown, Newport, and Meudon.

  Section 1 B ‘Estate Management’ contains records regarding the day-today management of the various estates, and its tenants and their eventual sale. Section 1 C contains various maps and surveys of the lands of the estate, mostly of those around Swords. Many of the leases in Section A, particularly those relating to Dublin City contain plot drawings and sketches of the areas concerned.
  Section 2 contains the family correspondence, D, notes on the family tree F, a collection of ephemera including newspaper cuttings and collections of mass booklets and wedding invitations, G, and a large collection of photographs E.

  The photographic collection includes photographs in a wide variety of formats including a Daguerreotype, glass plate negatives, platinum, silver and albumen prints, dating from the 1860s to the 1920s, and more recent colour prints. There is a very good selection of portrait prints from studios in Ireland, England, Italy and elsewhere, with two high quality studio portraits from the Lafayette studio in Dublin. There were also some very good photographs of Dublin city around the turn of the last century which were on cellulose nitrate. These have been digitised, for safety reasons, and preserved on disk.

  Among the family correspondence are some interesting letters from Richard G. Hely-Hutchinson (Dick) direct from the World War I trenches, and two letters from the HMS Highflyer to Sophia Hely Hutchinson from her son Francis, giving a very detailed account of a naval battle from a much earlier war, the second battle at the Taku Forts, China, in 1859, which include sketches of the defence battlements used by the Chinese.

  Dick was wounded and awarded a D.S.O., and his brother Colonel Coote R. Hely Hutchinson, who went on to inherit his father’s estate, was awarded an O.B.E for their services in the British Army. Coote returned to Lissenhall after his military service, and served on Dublin County Council as an elected member.

  John Hely Hutchinson was made a Commissioner of the Peace in 1862, and Deputy Lieutenant for County Dublin in 1886. He was also admitted to the Free Masons in 1857.
  Colonel Coote R Hely Hutchinson, his son, was made Commissioner of the Peace in 1901, and appointed High Sheriff of County Dublin in 1919.
  The Hely-Hutchinsons lived in the Broadmeadow Estuary area until 2003.

• Appraisal Destruction ↴

  Permanent Retention

• Arrangement ↴

  A ESTATE OWNERSHIP

  1. MARRIAGE SETTLEMENTS AND WILLS
  2. LEASES AND DEEDS OF TITLE
  2.1 LISSENHALL
  2.2 SEATOWN
  2.3 SWORDS
  2.4 MEUDON
  2.5 NEWTOWN AND PIGEON PARK
  2.6 LANDS PART OF PARISH OF ST. SEPULCHRE
  2.6.1 MILLTOWN RD
  2.6.2 CAMDEN ST.
  2.6.3 STEPHEN’S GREEN AND CUFFE ST.
  2.6.4 CHARLOTTE ST. AND WOOD ST.
  2.6.5 EARLSFORT TERRACE, LEESON ST. AND OTHERS
  2.7 HARCOURT ST.
  2.8 FOWNE’S ST., ST. MONTAGUE ST., DOLPHINS BARN, IRISHTOWN AND CHAPELIZOD
  2.9 LANDS IN RATHFARNHAM
  2.10 LANDS IN PALMERSTOWN
  2.11 LANDS IN OFFALY
  2.12 LANDS IN VARIOUS COUNTIES

  B ESTATE MANAGEMENT
  1 ACCOUNTS
  1.1 ACCOUNTS
  1.2 LISSENHALL WAGES AND FARM ACCOUNTS
  2 CORRESPONDENCE
  2.1 CORRESPONDENCE WITH SOLICITORS
  2.2 CORRESPONDENCE WITH FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
  3 IRISH LAND COMMISSION AND BOARD OF WORKS
  4 STOCKS, BONDS, AND INSURANCE POLICIES
  5 SALES BROCHURES
  6 RAILWAYS

  C SURVEYS AND MAPS

  D FAMILY PAPERS
  1 CORRESPONDENCE
  1.1 SOPHIA AND SIR SAMUEL SYNGE HUTCHINSON
  1.2 SOPHIA AND FRANCIS
  1.3 SOPHIA AND JOHN
  1.4 SOPHIA DOROTHEA AND JOHN
  1.5 DICK AND CISSY
  1.6 DICK AND MARY LOUISA
  1.7 DICK AND JOHN
  1.8 DICK AND COOTE
  1.9 OTHER
  2. APPOINTMENTS TO POSITIONS

  E PHOTOGRAPHS

  F EPHEMERA
  1. NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS/ALBUMS
  2. NOTES RE FAMILY TREE
  3. MASS BOOKLETS AND WEDDING INVITATIONS

Conditions of Access & Use

Allied Materials

There are no Allied Materials

Descriptive Control Area