The Quaker Archive

Context

Creator(s): Margaret Grubb, Mary Leadbeater, Richard Shackleton, Elizabeth Leadbeater, Samuel Grubb, Robert Fayle, Abraham Grubb,

• Administrative History ↴

  The Quaker Archive consists of a series of letters written between members of the Shackleton and Grubb families, principally between Margaret Grubb (née Shackleton) (1751-1829) and her sister Mary Leadbeater (née Shackleton) (1758-1826). It also includes letters from Richard Shackleton (1726-1792) and Elizabeth Leadbeater (b.1792) and from members of the extended family. Members of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, first settled in Ireland in the late seventeenth century, with the area of Ballitore, county Kildare first being settled by two Quaker farmers in the 1680s. Abraham Shackleton (1696-1771), a schoolteacher originally from Yorkshire settled in Ballitore, opening the first school in the village in 1726. The school prospered and gained a reputation for excellence and Abraham was succeeded as headmaster by his son, Richard Shackleton (1726-1792) in 1756. Richard was a contemporary and lifelong friend of the school’s most famous graduate, Edmund Burke (1729-1797). He married firstly, Elizabeth Fuller (d. 1754) and had four children, Deborah (1749 -1824), Margaret (1751-1829), Abraham (1752-1818) and Henry (1754-1756). He married his second wife, Elizabeth Carleton (1729-1804) in 1755 and had four more children, Rachel (1756-1757), Mary (1758-1826), Sarah (1760-1847) and George (1762-1764). Richard Shackleton’s daughters were educated with the boys at their father’s school, and each married into prominent Quaker families. His second daughter Margaret married Samuel Grubb (1750 – 1815) from a successful Tipperary family of merchants and millers. Mary (1758-1826), his eldest surviving daughter from his second marriage, married Ballitore farmer William Leadbeater (1763-1827) in 1791. Mary Leadbeater, poet, and memoirist, is probably the best known of the Ballitore Quakers. She demonstrated skill as a writer and artist from an early age and was accomplished in herbal medicine. Mary’s first work was published anonymously in 1794 and consisted of a series of poems entitled ‘Extracts and original anecdotes for the improvement of Youth’. This was followed by a book of poems in 1808. In 1811 she published, ‘Cottage Dialogues among the Irish peasantry’, which contained advice on household management and information on the medicinal qualities of herbs. ‘Memoirs & letters of Richard and Elizabeth Shackleton, compiled by their daughter’ (1822) and ‘Biographical notices of members of the Society of Friends, who were resident in Ireland’ (1823) followed. Mary had kept a diary from the age of 11, recording details of the residents of Ballitore and their daily lives. The diaries were published posthumously as ‘The Leadbeater papers. The Annals of Ballitore’, edited by her niece Elizabeth Shackleton. Mary and William had six children, Elizabeth (b.1792), Jane (c.1794-1798), Richard (1796-1881), Sarah (c.1798-1843), Lydia Jane (1801 -1884) and Deborah (d.1829). The Grubb family arrived in Ireland in 1656. John Grubb (b.1620-1696), an Anabaptist preacher, was a Cromwellian grantee and settled at Annaghs Castle in county Kilkenny with 1000 acres. He established a successful linen business and the family converted to Quakerism in 1677. His grandson Joseph (1709-1782), established a successful milling business in Clonmel, eventually buying mills for his five sons, and the family expanded into several other prosperous businesses in the town. Joseph’s son, Samuel Grubb (1750- 1815), was born in 1750 in Clonmel. He attended Ballitore school for five years, where he met Margaret Shackleton. The couple married in 1776 and had eleven children. Samuel began to buy and develop mills around Clogheen, about fifteen miles from Clonmel, and the family moved there in 1800. Margaret was considered the matriarch of the family and was a prolific writer of letters. Margaret and Samuel had a happy marriage despite their many losses including five of their children. Margaret died in 1829.

• Archival History ↴

  Acquired by Maynooth University Library in 2019. Previously held privately.

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Purchase