Memories of Gentry Houses in Skibbereen and Douglas, County Cork

This book documents life in two gentry houses in County Cork from the 1860s to the early 1900s. It is told through the memoirs, written later in life, of three of the four Fleming sisters of New Court House, Skibbereen.

These recollections were initiated by Judith Chavasse (1867–1935), who wrote her memoir of her childhood home in 1925. A year later, her older sister Sue Fitzgerald (1865–1944) added her memories of New Court. In 1932, Judith wrote a memoir about the home of her mother, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Fleming, née Reeves (1825–1911), giving vivid descriptions of Tramore House, Douglas, and her unmarried Reeves aunts, who lived there until the last, Miss Mary Reeves, died in 1906.

In 1945, the youngest Fleming sister, Hats Haythornthwaite (1868–1954), recorded her recollections of Tramore and her aunts, later compiling all four memoirs into a single volume. A photocopy of this volume has survived in the family papers of the eldest Fleming sister, Bess Somerville-Large (1864–1923), who had died before the first memoir was written.

This edition presents the transcripts of the four memoirs, supplemented by a substantial introduction to the authors, their families and their homes. Complete with footnotes and an index, the book offers a rare and intimate view of the lives of gentry women in County Cork, including their daily routines, domestic life, church and community ties, and servants. It concludes with anecdotes concerning Cork City and a heroic ancestor of the memoirists.

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