Honoraria Maria Townshend (541)

Date of Birth: 27 Sep 1861
Date of Death: 9 Jan 1908
Generation: 8th
Residence: Ben Eadan, Co Antrim & Russagh, Skibbereen
Father: John Hancock Townshend [523]
Mother: Tower, Katherine
Spouse:
  1. Whitla, James
Issue:
  1. George Townshend
  2. Edith Constance
  3. Norah Kathleen
  4. Alice Mildred
See Also: Table V ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors' Tree ; Descendents' Tree

Notes for Honoraria Maria Townshend

Married 4th August 1881. Major James Whitla (1) of Ben Eadan, Co Antrim (2) was the eldest son of George Alexander Whitla JP of Ben Eadan, Co Antrim. See Burke's Irish Landed Gentry 1912 - Whitla.

The April 1901 Irish Census shows Honoraria and her husband living in house 3 in Bawnlahan, Myross, Cork, with their eight year old daughter, Alice Mildred, and five domestic staff. The house consisted of 18 rooms, six stables, a coach house and seven further outbuildings. The Census records that James was a 'Late Lieut in the Army'. The daughters Edith and Norah are not listed.

The April 1911 Irish Census records James as a Retired Major Auxilliary Forces, aged 52, living in an eleven-roomed house at Russagh, Skibbereen, Co Cork, with two unmarried daughters (Edith and Norah) and four servants. Alice is not listed.

Of the children:

George Townshend Whitla was born on 7 June 1882 and joined 4th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.

Edith Constance Whitla was born in Belfast in 1884.

Norah Kathleen Whitla was born in Belfast in 1887.

Alice Mildred Whitla was born in Ben Eadan in 1893.

James Whitla was an executor of the will of his brother-in-law Richar Harvey Townshend [534]. Page 511 of The Calendar of Wills and Administration 1858-1922 in the National Archives of Ireland records that probate of the will of "Richard Harvey Townshend late of Myross Wood Leap County Cork Esquire JP", who died on 30 August 1899 at the Priory Roehampton County Surrey, was granted at Dublin on 11 May 1900 to "Richard S Reeves Solicitor and James A Whitla Major”. Effects £2,965 9s 7d.

(1) James was born in Woolwich, England on 4 April 1859. He served as a Major in 4th Battalion The Royal Irish Rifles and as a Lieutenant in 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and 5th Dragoon Guards. His father, George Alexander Whitla, was born in February 1818 and was a Captain in the Royal Antrim Rifles. He married on 1 June 1858, Isabella Frances, youngest daughter of Rev John Hammond of Priston Rectory, Bath, Somerset, and grand-niece of George Hammond of Portland Place, London, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and first British Minister to America.

(2) ‘Slater’s Royal National Directory of Ireland, 1894’ records under the heading ‘Belfast Directory’ - “Whitla Captain James A. Ben Eden, Antrim rd.”