THE LONG READ: Three killed on the night of the Big Wind in Offaly village

Last week we looked at an account of the night of the Big Wind in Birr on 6 January 1839 from the pen of Birr historian and solicitor Thomas Lalor Cooke. This week we have an account from another contemporary of three deaths in Kinnitty arising from the storm.

One of those killed in 1839 was a Mrs Elliott of Lettybrook, a sister of the High Sheriff of the county in 1821. We can add to this account, based on the 1821 census that Mrs L. Elliot was a daughter of John Armstong Drought of Lettybrook (aged 60 years in 1821, High Sheriff in 1801) who farmed 500 acres there in 1821 and that she was a widow of 30 years. His son John Head Drought was High Sheriff in 1821 and married in 1853 Frances Spunner, daughter of Henry Spunner of Corolanty near Shinrone.

The household in Lettybrook was comprised of six family members in 1821 with a coachman, butler, seven more indoor staff and a gatekeeper and family. There was a chapel in the townland and a school in the chapel attended by 50 boys and 16 girls. Perhaps this was the first school supported by Mrs Elliott née Drought. By 1824 the new school in Lettybrook was the largest in the Kinnitty area and based in a good slated house value £70 and with two Protestant teachers – Frederick and Sarah Heath. The school was both free and pay with 10 Protestants and 145 Roman Catholics as pupils and a good gender mix. Mrs Elliott paid the salaries of the two teachers (£40 in total) and gave them a house and garden. Her brother gave £10 to the building of the school, Kildare Place £60 and Mrs Elliott the residue.

By 1839 John Head Drought (Mrs Elliott’s brother0 had succeeded to the 500-acre estate at Lettybrook.

The second fatality on that night of 6 January was in the house of Thomas Foster, a miller living close to Kinnitty and with Hobbs relations in Frankford/Kilcormac. He had tried to persuade Mrs Hobbs to move out of her room, but to no avail and fatal consequences for here and Mr Foster’s six-year-old daughter.

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The delay in the publication of the Kinnitty writer’s letter (not until 19 January) was due to the column inches devoted to the political fallout from the murder of Lord Norbury at Durrow, Tullamore a few days before the storm:

On Sunday night, the 6^th inst, [January 1839] this town (Kinnitty) and its neighbourhood were visited with one of the most awful and tremendous hurricanes ever witnessed by the oldest inhabitant of the place.

It commenced blowing about ten o’clock at night and continued without intermission until three o’clock the next morning. So violent was the storm that houses were unroofed, and in many instances, levelled with the ground; the slates were hurled to an immense distance and height, in so much that no person dared to venture out without fear of having their skulls fractured or otherwise hurtled. It was almost certain death in either case, to stop within doors or venture abroad. Large ash and other forest trees were broken and torn up from their original position; indeed, there is nothing but a continuous scene of devastation on all roads leading to and from the town. Farmers convenient have suffered severely; their haggards blown about, and some we have been visiting had them actually scattered four or five acres away, by which means many have suffered so severely that it will be many years before they recover from the effects, independent of their dwellings being otherwise injured. The beautiful demesne and lawn of Castle Bernard have been most providentially spared; yet some of the trees were uprooted and dashed to atoms. One extraordinary circumstance was a rookery on the right of the house, of very fine large ash trees, were nearly levelled; out of large plantation not more than then or twelve were left standing. There was no injury done in the castle.

But we have to record, with the most heartfelt sorrow, the untimely death of Mrs Elliot, of Lettybrook, sister to Captain J.H. Drought [the High Sheriff of the county in 1821] owner of the estate. The sad event occurred about twelve o’clock at night. Mrs Elliot was in bed, and hearing the storm rage so violently, she became alarmed and arose, determined to quit her room, when a large stack of chimneys, which overhung her bedroom, upwards of fourteen feet high, came down just at the moment with tremendous crash, and buried beneath its ponderous weight that amiable and ill-fated lady. She was a sincere Christian; pious without affection; humane, benevolent, and charitable, almost to a fault; she built, out of her own private purse, a schoolhouse on part of her brother’s demesne, and liberally paid a schoolmaster and mistress to instruct the poor children of the country, for many miles about; and, not content with doing so, she attended every day regularly herself for hours, to see that the scholars were properly taught. The boys’ reading, writing, and arithmetic; the girls, sewing, working, and such like. She expended a large, yearly jointure on such good and charitable works, and at every Christmas clothed a number of the poorer children, and distributed blankets and other necessaries to the adults. The family are in the utmost grief at her premature and long to be deplored loss. She was a near relative of the late lamented Earl of Norbury [killed at Durrow on 3 January 1839, after whose father is remembered in Norbury Woods, Tullamore], and niece to the late General Head.

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We were told by the Kinnitty writer of two more fatal casualties on that awful night of 6 January 1839

On the same night, between the hours of 11 and 12 o’clock, the dwelling house of Mr Thomas Foster, who keeps a very extensive flour and starch mill within a quarter of a mile of this town, was visited by that tremendous storm; and most unfortunately a large stack of chimneys, which also over hung the bedroom of an elderly lady, a Miss Hobbs, (aunt to Mr Foster, as also of Captain Hobbs, of Frankford [Kilcormac]) gave way. And was precipitated into a room underneath where the ill-fated lady was then in bed, with a most prepossessing child, about six years old, daughter to Mr Foster; both were killed by the bricks and rubbish. What makes the occurrence more painful is that. Mr F., on hearing the howling and fearful roaring of the storm, fearing something dreadful might occur, went to Miss Hobbs and begged of her to get up and leave the room, which she declined doing; he then wanted to take the child from her, but she also positively refused giving her up, and also chided Foster for not having a greater dependence on the Almighty.

Whereupon Mr Foster quitted the apartment and was scarcely one minute out when the chimney fell and crushed them to death. Miss Hobbs was a very pious and really charitable person.

No doubt there were other casualties we will never hear of. So many people of the population of eight million in 1839 were living in cabins (at least two million) who had no defence against the storm, but in spite of all may have been better off out than those afflicted in two of the finer houses in Kinnitty.