Source: The Leonards of Queensfort by Catherine Corless

The townland of Queensfort lies about half way between Tuam and Dunmore, on the N83, and comprises of about 270 acres. The 17th Century Book of Survey and Distribution lists it as ‘Ranamary’, a gruff Anglicisation of the Gaelic ‘Rath-na-Banri’. Donovan correctly translates it as ‘Fort of the Queen’ or Queensfort.  Indeed it’s a townland you could easily pass by unnoticed. There is no hint on the village name-stone to suggest or herald the extraordinary associations that this little townland once had with bureaucracy, aristocracy, and military importance. Queensfort was owned, farmed, and lived in, right throughout the 19th Century by the Leonard family

From Waterford to Connacht

The Leonards were originally from Waterford, but they were one of the many Roman Catholic landed families who were transplanted by Cromwell to Connaught in the 17th Century. Pigot’s Directory of 18243, which lists professionals, shop owners etc., is the first introduction we get to Stephen Leonard, attorney, of Queensfort. Then in Samuel Lewis’s Topography for 1837 he tells us that “the principal seats for Tuam in 1837 were Birmingham, property of the Earl of Louth, (which was then unoccupied), Gardenfield of J. Kirwan, and Queensfort of S. Leonard.”

Parents

Stephen John Leonard, born in 1793, was the son of Patrick Leonard. His mother was Jane Davis, daughter of John Davis, Esq. Tuam. In 1818 he married Barbara Blake at Anville Lodge, near Galway. Barbara was a daughter of Dominic Blake from Meelick House, Lough Derg and Mary Yelverton of Bellisle, Co. Tipperary, who was a niece of Baron Yelverton.  Her father Dominic was a brother of Sir John Blake, Baronet of Menlo Castle. Barbara’s brother Walter Blake married their cousin Mary Blake of Bridge House Tuam. Stephen Leonard was marrying into good, wealthy stock. Stephen and Barbara took up residence in a fine country house, namely “Queensfort House”.

Left a very important footprint

Henry John Wellington Leonard, the seventh child of Barbara and Stephen, was born in April 1829. With a name like that, I thought surely that this man was destined for important things. Indeed my research was to relate that he left a very important footprint behind him. The fact that, (like his brother Patrick Marcellinus), Henry John Wellington used his full title in all his academic achievements, meant it was not too difficult to locate him. He is listed in Thorns Directory 29 as a Medical Officer for Athenry in the Loughrea Union for 1862. Then in Slater’s Directory 30 for 1881, he is listed as a Surgeon and Registrar for Births, Deaths, and Marriages.  Slater’s Directory for 1894 gives the address of ‘Athenry House’ and the name of Alice Leonard, Private Residence’.

Medical Qualifications

Armed with this information, my next move was to visit the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, to try and find a record of Henry J. W.’s attendance.

Their Records Department has now moved to Kildare Street, near the National Library, and there they held a copy of the Annual Medical Directory of 1863, and it included the name of Henry John Wellington Leonard, Athenry, Co. Galway L.F.P.S. (Licence of Faculty & Psychiatry), Glasgow, and L.M. (Licence of Mid-Wifery) 1860;  L.A.H. (Licence Apoth. Hall), Dublin 1856; L.M. Coombe Lying-in hospital Dublin 1852;  R.C.S. Drct. (Studied in Royal College Ireland). Medical Officer Athenry & Attymon Dispensary Districts; Medical attendance Constabulary Athenry, Craughwell and Moyville.

Family in Athenry

It was the record assistant who kindly filled me in on the meaning of the qualification initials. Henry John Wellington was also included in the 1893 and 1894 copies of this Directory also held by the Records Department, as still practicing in Athenry.   On checking the 1901 census for Athenry, Henry John Wellington was not listed, but his wife Alice was there as head of family and widow, along with his son Stephen, and daughters Barbara, Jane and Henrietta.

At this stage of my research, I wanted to find out some more about Henry as a doctor, and was hoping to find some Leonard descendants, from this family, that I thought might be living around the Athenry area. A letter I wrote to the ‘Galway Advertiser’, stating my project, and requesting any relatives of the Leonard family of ‘Athenry House’ to get in touch with me, provided great dividends.

Charles Taylor

I did not find a relative, but I did find Charles Taylor of Athenry, who not only remembered the Leonard sisters, but who had lived, as a child, with them in Athenry House.

This is Charles Taylor’s Story:

“In the 1940s the Taylor family had a corn and saw mill just outside the walls of Athenry House, which is situated in the town. My father had a hobby of fixing radios in his spare time, and the Leonard sisters asked him in to have a look at their broken radio. Knowing that he was soon to be married, they asked him where he was going to live. When they realized that he had not found a place, they offered to rent half of Athenry House to him. The deal was made, and my parents moved in.

There were just the three sisters alive at this stage, Henrietta, Barbara and Jane, all in their golden years. Their brother Stephen had died unmarried. He had tried to follow in his father’s footsteps, as a doctor, and studied for a while in the Medical School in London, but never graduated. The cause being, it was stated, that he had a weakness for alcohol, but he was well liked in the area, and was affectionately known as “Staff”. He had learned enough about medicine to administer remedies to those who called on him, and it was said that he would pull a tooth in exchange for a pint!

There was another Leonard sister called Mary, who had served as a nurse in the Boer war. She had a boyfriend who was killed in World War 1. Mary died unwed, of pneumonia in 1948.

Athenry House was a mansion, with twenty rooms, and sixteen windows to the front of the house. It had a huge garden with tall trees, and the Leonard sisters very kindly allowed the street children to come in and play whenever they wanted. It was an enchanted world for my sister Mary and me, and we have wonderful memories of growing up there.

I remember the sisters as being very petite, but very gracious and friendly. Henrietta, known as Henry, once gave me a tiny wind up children’s gramophone, which I treasure to this day. She died in 1954.

It is Barbara’s death in 1953 that my family remembers most, on account of my disappearance on that day, at the age of five. After several hours of searching stables, outhouses, the orchard, garden, and the house itself, thoughts were being diverted to the river that ran along the back of the garden, when a servant heard the faint strains of music coming from the far room where Barbara was laid out. There I was found, sitting quite content, at the foot of the four poster bed, playing my beloved gramophone, quite oblivious to the corpse laid out above me.”

Remembered for quelling Smallpox Epidemic

Charles Taylor also informed me that Dr. Henry Wellington Leonard was remembered in particular for his success in quelling a smallpox epidemic that broke out in Athenry in 1875, and that a local woman had written an article on him in a Galway Journal. I found that article in the ‘Journal of the Galway Archaeological & Historical Society in the chapter ‘Smallpox in Athenry 1875’.

This chapter details how the first to fall foul to the disease was a youth from Tyaquin called William Burke who was employed as a baker’s assistant in Tuam. When Dr. Leonard visited him at his home, on Saturday, 17th February 1875, he ordered that his bed and blankets and clothes be disinfected or burned, lest the infection should spread. It was too late to save William, and he died some time later.

The next to contract the disease was the local curate Fr. Walsh who had given the deceased his last rites, and who was treated at his residence in Kineen’s Hotel. Dr. Leonard, in his capacity as the Athenry medical and sanitary officer, served a notice on Mr. Kineen, the proprietor of the hotel, to close down the hotel.

Alas, Fr. Walsh, too, succumbed to the disease, and Dr. Leonard, fearing the result of prolonging interment, gave orders for the priest to be buried on the evening of his death. Dr. Leonard played his part in obtaining a house outside the town as a makeshift hospital for smallpox patients to keep them in isolation, and there he devoted his time and expertise to the afflicted, working both day and night, and is remembered as a hero during the epidemic.

By 13th July 1875, Dr.Leonard was able to confirm, that every house in Athenry where smallpox appeared had been thoroughly disinfected, and on the 1st of October 1875, he was able to state that all patients had been discharged from the smallpox hospital.

Headstone

A large headstone, in the small graveyard just behind the new Catholic Church in Athenry bears the names of ‘Wellington Leonard, died 27/3/1893’ and of ‘Alice, Stephen, Mary, Barbara, Henrietta and Jane E. died 27/3/1955.’