The Farm Records of Rev. Ralph Sadleir, Castleknock, 1857-611

David R. Stead

Farm diaries and account books are an important, if imperfect, primary source.2 For Ireland during the period 1850 to 1914, Ó Gráda observed that ‘[d]etailed analyses of … individual farms have been few’ and discussed two such articles, including one for a farm near Bray.3 What follows adds another case study to the literature4 by considering the records for glebe land5 at Castleknock, County Dublin, kept in five annual diaries by the Rev. Dr Ralph Sadleir (1815-1902), the long-standing and well connected Church of Ireland vicar there. A distant family member living in New Zealand, Dr Richard Sadleir, kindly deposited these diaries in the Representative Church Body (RCB) Library, Dublin, in 2014.6 If lacking the organization and temporal coverage of other nineteenth-century farm records (including the diary for Lowther Lodge, Balbriggan),7 nonetheless Rev. Sadleir’s diaries provide useful insights about farming on the fringes of Dublin city at the turn of the 1860s, even though he was not a typical farmer (or clergyman).

The manAlongside his position at Castleknock (comprising part of a union with the neighbouring parishes of Clonsilla and Mulhuddart), which he held from 1848 for more than 50 years until his death, Rev. Sadleir was a canon and sometime sub-dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral and prebendary8 of Castleknock (but not Mulhuddart). He was also private chaplain to at least four lord lieutenants of Ireland, and owned or occupied well over 900 statute acres at Cong, County Galway, overwhelmingly in Carrick East and West. To his great-grandson, he was ‘colourful and unconventional … [a] legendary character’. Lacey recently described him as ‘a strong, forthright individual’ (Figure 1).9

[Figure 1 about here]

Probably born in Kilkenny, Sadleir graduated with a BA from Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), in 1837, later achieving a doctorate in divinity. He was ordained in 1838, and a year later married his first wife, his first cousin Letitia, a daughter of the TCD provost Franc Sadleir; indeed most of his Galway land was leased from TCD. Immediately prior to his years at Castleknock, he served as rector of Rincurran, County Cork. Sadleir published several sermons and letters on subjects such as lay preaching, and died suddenly on holiday at Geneva, away from his house at Merrion Square, where according to the 1901 census he lived with his second wife (about 35 years his junior, also named Letitia), only daughter Serena and four (Catholic) servants. His son, Franc, was born in 1841. At the time of his diaries he resided at the Castleknock vicarage, Mount Hybla (now a care home), situated just north of Farmleigh. Sadleir left a very substantial personal estate of £26,855, mostly in England – putting him in a different

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league to most local clergy (and County Dublin farmers) in terms of his finances as well as his personal connections. Highly regarded by his affluent congregations, his life was not without controversy, including being sued for libel (unsuccessfully) in 1893 for repeating a claim about a mother’s ‘immoral’ intentions for one of her daughters. Two children who knew Sadleir in his old age later remembered him as ‘an autocrat’ who undertook good charitable work, an extremely impressive reader and ‘a law to himself and a surprise to others’, for instance asking one congregation to repeat a hymn sung languidly, and another for a corkscrew to open the Communion wine. He once took his cook to Paris for giving the lord lieutenant an excellent dinner, and was greatly concerned with educational matters locally and nationally, which brought him into conflict with others.10 Buried in Geneva, there are memorial plaques to him in St Brigid’s Church, Castleknock, and St Patrick’s Cathedral.11

His diariesRev. Sadleir wrote his diaries for 1857 to 1861 in five preprinted paperback pocket volumes. He made succinct entries (usually daily) noting parish duties, social engagements, family matters and other everyday activities. Examples include services conducted (‘I read & pd [probably preached] at C.Knock’); visits (‘Letty & I lunched with Ld Carlisle’), including to his Galway estate (‘Carrig’) at least annually and fairly frequent day trips to Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire); haircuts; his weight (‘11 stone 13 lb’); illnesses (‘Doubled in two with inflammation of Kidneys’) and treatments (‘Bishop Leached me’); the weather (‘wet day’); and the slowness of his pocket watch. The most tragic incident recorded was the suicide of a brother-in-law, ‘Poor dear William’, who had been staying with him at the time.12 Some entries were aides-memoires (‘Chapter 2 O.C.’), and there are relatively few mentions of current affairs, church matters or local or national events.13

Instead most of the contents comprise details of his farming activities. Sadleir recorded such information in many of his daily entries (‘Reaped winter Oats’; ‘largest cow bulled’); in the small preprinted weekly bookkeeping tables of receipts and expenditure; and especially on the blank endpapers and notes pages (Figure 2). These entries range from copies of veterinary remedies to long lists of the consumption and production of farm inputs and outputs (such as loads of manure applied), reflecting Sadleir’s meticulous, quantitative mind: he also, for instance, itemized the costs of long trips away, and the distance and time taken riding to the Curragh. These agricultural data pertain to the glebe land at Castleknock, there being none at Clonsilla or Mulhuddart.14 There are also a small number of references to his Galway estate, which he seemingly rented out. Unfortunately, as the sections below show, Sadleir’s record-keeping is characterized by the types of limitations identified by historians working with such sources. Understandably there are no farming entries when he was away from home, which on average appears to have been more than 40 nights a year (usually visiting County Galway, Bray or relatives in the midlands; together with three trips to England and Wales). His 1861 diary contains fewer agricultural details, perhaps because he became absorbed with his new hobby of photography.15 Overall, while there are much numerical data in particular, at best the material is

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rarely systematically organized, and at worst it is ambiguous, inconsistent, incomplete or illegible.

[Figure 2 about here]

Reassuringly, though, Sadleir’s arithmetic is normally correct, and where cross-checking against other sources is possible, the match is usually very good. For instance, almost all of the family genealogy contained in the diaries fits with what is known; and of the minutes of the annual vestry meetings held during those five years, and three events involving Sadleir reported in the press, all but two accounts are consistent with the diary contents (and the exceptions are not inconsistent).16

The glebe farm: outputs and sizeRev. Sadleir’s diaries suggest that the Castleknock glebe at the turn of the 1860s was a mixed farming system, with much of the crops grown used to feed the farm’s livestock. The first three columns of Table 1 report Sadleir’s ‘guess’ of his crops output for 1857.17 His chief crop (as measured by both acreage and estimated value) comprised hay, closely followed by oats. Straw must have been obtained from the area devoted to oats and barley, and Sadleir also grew mangel-wurzels (alternatively called mangolds) and, as he sometimes abbreviated it, the ‘Pot.8.o’. Table 1 is not completely comprehensive because cabbages, parsnips, wheat and turnips are mentioned elsewhere in his 1857 diary; however presumably it includes the major crops. Sadleir’s summary of the farm’s requirements three years later (final column) does not suggest that any radical changes occurred during the brief time period under consideration.

[Table 1 about here]

An entry in his 1857 diary, and the sum of the 1857 acreages in Table 1, both indicate that Sadleir was farming around 12¼ acres. Evidence from his crop yields, given in a subsequent section, suggests that he most likely used Irish acres (rather than statute acres). If so, the farm comprised nearly 20 statute acres, placing it in the top two-fifths of holdings (by size) in County Dublin in that year.18 According to Griffith’s valuation and the accompanying Ordnance Survey map, four small pieces of glebe were located in and immediately north of Castleknock village, totalling about 4½ statute acres (one of which looks to have been where ‘Sadleirs Field’ is now situated). A much larger parcel put at 24 statute acres, 2 roods and 10 perches was situated south of the village surrounding Mount Hybla vicarage, with an outlying piece (around 4¼ statute acres) south of Hybla at the edge of the River Liffey.19 The land Sadleir retained in hand probably consisted of the largest part of the glebe beside the vicarage, with him leasing out the other five parcels. This was the practice of his immediate predecessor, Rev. Samuel Hinds, and very similarly seven years after Sadleir’s last diary of 1861, he reportedly held 24 acres, 3 roods and 16 perches in hand, while renting out almost six acres of glebe and cottages to tenants.20 Sadleir’s (likely) figure of virtually 20 statute acres may differ from those stated in these

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sources21 due to error or incompleteness (if, in particular, he omitted some grazing land). Nowadays the area is a housing estate.

According to Leslie and Wallace, glebe land ‘was usually rented out to augment the clergyman’s income’.22 Sadleir’s motive for not doing so can only be speculated upon because there is no obvious clue in any sources. Inability to find a suitable tenant was unlikely over such a sustained period of time, and hence most probably he simply enjoyed being a gentleman farmer – although there is no direct evidence of this in (say) the titles of his known publications. Nor was he known to have been a member of a society concerned with agricultural improvement, unlike some of his relatives.23 Rev. Hinds (who later became Bishop of Norwich) did not provide the only local precedent for clerical involvement in farming. For example, in 1787 the then Castleknock curate leased some 70 acres as a sub-tenant; and Sadleir’s Catholic counterpart at neighbouring Blanchardstown, Fr Michael Dungan (who also kept a diary), attended cattle fairs and farmed on the 8½ acres attached to the parochial house.24 Sadleir’s choice, though, would not have been approved by the 1868 Commission on the Established Church, who believed ‘it unadvisable that the parochial clergy should be involved in the personal management of [glebe] land, beyond the portion requisite for household and residential purposes. Leases of the remaining portions of these lands at fair rents should be encouraged’.25

Regarding the farm’s livestock operations, diary entries assessing animal feed requirements in 1857 and 1858 suggest a possible total stock (excluding horses) of two dairy cows, two store (beef) cattle, two or three calves or other cattle, several sheep, fowl and three pigs (one being fattened for slaughter). Table 2 shows the estimated total annual market transactions, and selected ‘animal events’, reported for cattle (including cows and calves). As with the other Tables herein, it was compiled by collating material across the five volumes, with some assumptions required where entries were unclear or inconsistent. Numbers given in italics are especially uncertain. Even if the figures in Table 2 are incomplete, or contain misinterpretations and other errors, they too are not indicative of livestock farming on a large scale. At most, Sadleir probably purchased only one or two head of cattle per annum, and sold just two animals annually – except in 1860 when sales included three heifers at Maynooth fair in May (and also four calves). His cattle breeds included the Alderney (Channel Island) and conceivably what would later be classed as a Dexter, a small cow becoming increasingly popular at the time, including among the landed gentry, being an excellent milker with excellent beef producing qualities and a graceful appearance.26 Dairying, meanwhile, receives almost no mention. The main exceptions are comments in autumn 1860 that the two cows each produced (a relatively low) six quarts of milk per day, perhaps plus two pounds of butter weekly; and what seem to be brief notes regarding milk sales in 1861, which amounted to just a few pounds. Similarly only three pigs and two piglets were recorded as being bought during the diary years, with (for instance) Sadleir’s calculated ‘Profit’ from selling 10 pigs in 1861 comprising just £6 5s.

[Table 2 about here]

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Sadleir’s sheep enterprise chiefly involved purchasing ewes and wethers from his tenants (and perhaps other farmers) in County Galway, and transporting them (by rail and other means) for ultimate sale in Dublin markets such as Smithfield and Palmerston.27 For example, in June 1860 he bought 31 sheep from two Galway tenants for £23 (including ‘One in for luck’), making payment in cash and in kind (timber and in lieu of rent due). Sometimes he sold the sheep almost immediately, while in other cases they were fattened for sale during the next calendar year. Sheep breeding at Castleknock was minimal, judging by Sadleir only recording the birth of five lambs during the five years covered by his diaries. Even more so than for Table 2, compilation of Table 3 required making assumptions where diary entries were unclear, and errors and omissions certainly exist (for instance, it is not possible to trace what happened to every sheep). As far as can be ascertained, Sadleir usually brought around two or three dozen sheep to Castleknock per annum, with known sales revenue exceeding £40 only for the cohort of animals purchased in 1857.

[Table 3 about here]

Farm managementMany entries demonstrate Rev. Sadleir’s knowledge of farming. Regarding potato production, for instance, he knew that ‘Every drill 118 yards long takes 1 load of Dung 1½ stone of Seed & has 20 [stone] of produce worth 10/-’. He occasionally attended cattle shows, consulted at least one farmers’ guide (not Skilling’s The science and practice of agriculture, a copy of which his late father-in-law had owned),28 planned ahead and reflected on issues such as the utilization of manure (‘Dont throw away dung on them’) and crop choice: ‘I cd [could] put in mangel Plants then but I cd do the same after Early potatos wh wd [which would] be a more Val [valuable] crop & grains will do cattle as well as cabbage’. He did not obviously undertake any experimental farming. Other entries highlight the perennial challenges faced by farmers, such as weather induced interruptions to work (‘Great storm Pot.8.o plantg stopt’) and premature livestock mortality: alongside the cattle deaths shown in Table 2, probably 10 of the 39 piglets noted as being born died prematurely. He seemingly did not keep a bull or a boar for breeding purposes, but instead used those of his neighbours, in particular the bull owned by James Hans Hamilton of Abbotstown, member of parliament for Dublin County since 1841 – the Hamiltons were closely associated with the church at Castleknock.29 For one cow brought to Dublin from Galway, Sadleir wrote ‘bull unknown’, something unacceptable nowadays. He probably also paid for grazing in Phoenix Park.

What stands out most from the diary pages, though, is Sadleir’s concern with the availability, and to a lesser extent cost, of livestock feed. The majority of his most detailed entries are calculations of animal feed requirements, frequently with comparisons to his actual or likely stocks of fodder crops. Estimated daily consumption was often aggregated to monthly or annual totals. These computations produced conclusions such as: ‘2 Barrels of oats i.e. 26 a year do 1 horse the donkey & fowl, but not pigs’; and ‘Pigs dont pay for the Mangold they eat’. On

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occasion difficulties apparently arose: for example, while fattening sheep ought to have been given a stone of turnips and a pound of hay daily, ‘mine got of late [1857] but 3 lb Each of Turnips’. Not many significant improvements are noted as being undertaken, although a water pipe to the dairy was put up, for example. Possibly more was unnecessary: Sadleir’s predecessor, Rev. Hinds, had completed substantial works to the glebe house and outbuildings in 1843 after finding them in a dilapidated state.30

Employment and wagesIt is not possible to fully assess the employment opportunities available to local residents, since the diaries lack any systematic record of the weekly/monthly workforce, individuals’ wages or hiring agreements. However the sporadic details of specific tasks, and records of aggregated spending on ‘Labour’ (which could include non-agricultural work), show that the farm provided some limited employment, including over the winter. When Rev. Sadleir stated the number at work, it was often only one or two men, and typically no more than four, sometimes accompanied by a few women and/or children. He rarely named his labourers, although a Connor appears in every diary, implying that there was at least one regular employee (or perhaps only one, who potentially held some day-to-day managerial responsibility). This might well have been his tenant John Connor, who rented a house by Hybla and (if it is the same man) also one of the small parcels of glebe.31 Yet perhaps not too much should be made of Sadleir’s infrequent naming of other labourers, since Martha Dooley, who worked for him for 51 years,32 is only mentioned once in the diaries.33

Of course the need for workers was greater at certain points of the farming year, such as at harvest time. Quantifying the size of peak labour demand is hindered by Sadleir sometimes using ‘men’ for ‘man days’.34 Nonetheless there are clear instances of notable numbers at work on particular days, including nine men and five women reaping in September 1860; eight men and a boy sowing oats in March 1860; and nine women, a boy and a girl binding and then stacking in August 1859. Judging from the few wages recorded, Sadleir utilized a mix of daily rates (such as paying men 2s or 2s 6d a day, and women 1s, for reaping) and piece rates (including 1d per perch for cutting hedges). There is little or no suggestion that workers received payment in kind, but wages might still have been paid on extremely wet days when outdoor work was impossible. Indeed the weather was one reason why the total amount of employment and wages varied between years, as depicted in Figure 3 which attempts to reconstruct aggregate annual labour expenditure. At an average wage of 2s a day (and hence approximately £30 per year),35 the farm probably provided the equivalent of about two or three full-time jobs per annum (but with most of the labourers actually working for short periods when extra hands were required). Several entries note the cost and/or duration of a particular task (‘Mowed Barley 1 rood in 4 hours’). Unfortunately it is unclear if such remarks are representative or whether they were written because the work was completed particularly efficiently or inefficiently.

[Figure 3 about here]

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Potatoes and hayTwo crops were chosen for more detailed analysis. The potato was obviously fundamental in nineteenth-century Ireland, while (as noted above) hay was Rev. Sadleir’s chief crop as well as an important crop in County Dublin and increasing greatly in importance nationally. He largely sowed clovers and Italian ryegrass, the hay plants most widely recommended by contemporaries,36 working on the basis that an acre yielded somewhat over three tons (combining the first and second cuts). His data on actual yields, while very limited, show that figure to be a reasonable average. As noted earlier, it is not clear if Sadleir used Irish or statute acres. Over three tons per statute acre would have been a very high yield relative to the mean for County Dublin during these years (1.8 tons per statute acre, from official estimates), but not necessarily infeasibly so given the generally positive evidence regarding land fertility locally.37 However if Sadleir used Irish acres, his expected yield (at around two tons per statute acre) would only have been slightly above the estimated county average and this may well be more realistic.38 His calculations for 1857 suggest an anticipated surplus of hay over and above that year’s livestock feed requirements, but the outturn (just over 15 tons) apparently fell short of expectations (Table 4). While this amount lasted until around late August 1858, when the first of the ‘New Hay’ from that summer was put on the lofts, in 1857 the old hay had lasted into November. By contrast the 1858 and 1859 harvests appear to have matched the (then) annual feed requirement of approximately 20 tons, and after the good 1860 harvest Sadleir must have been pleased to write that his stock totalled ‘about 30 tons’. Overall the farm seems to have been broadly self-sufficient in hay, reflected in the apparently small scale of purchases (with perhaps no sales).

Total annual potato production varied considerably (Table 5) on an acreage which, as far as it is possible to tell, remained quite stable over time (like that for hay). Thus the actual or expected yields stated or implied by the diary entries (on aggregate, or for individual fields) also varied considerably, from perhaps less than 3 to up to 20 tons per acre depending on factors such as the weather and the potato variety: possibly with some dry humour, Sadleir mostly used ‘Protestants’ – a synonym for the principal variety grown nationally at the time, Rocks.39 Even more so than for hay, the Castleknock potato yields appear more credible if he worked in Irish acres, especially considering his highest yields: 20 tons per statute acre would seem to be verging on infeasibility.40 Most of Sadleir’s purchases occurred during the first half of the year, and hence at least partly reflected the abundance of the previous year’s harvest (each year he sourced potatoes from County Galway, usually around March). If the volume bought was usually stable year-on-year, that regular purchases were required indicates a lack of self-sufficiency in potatoes (including seed potatoes), unlike the apparent situation for hay. His sales were very limited, if not non-existent, except during 1859 when across several pages he painstakingly listed sales, often in quite small quantities. The vast majority were to the local Morgan’s and Mercer’s schools, alongside a few transactions with (in all probability) his tenant/labourer Connor, another man who did work for him, his curate (it is unclear if he was charged) and several wives/housekeepers (‘Mrs Flynn’) among others. A substantial surplus must have arisen from good harvests in 1858 and 1859. Conversely in early November 1860 Sadleir calculated an approximate 9 cwt shortage on the 68 or so cwt estimated as needed over the coming months,

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and in the event his stock may have lasted a month less than predicted. He mostly planted potatoes in drills, viewed as general best practice by contemporaries, but stored some of his crop in his cellar and barn – which was actively discouraged as it made the stock especially vulnerable to blight.41

[Tables 4 & 5 here]

Overall financial performanceUnsurprisingly, many of Rev. Sadleir’s accounting practices look peculiar to modern eyes. Depreciation of the value of capital assets was not undertaken, for example, and also in common with many of those farmers who did keep records around this time, he usually combined his farm accounts with those of his domestic household. Unfortunately this essentially precludes even a basic reconstruction of the overall financial performance of the glebe farm, since for numerous entries – some for relatively large sums – it is not clear to which category they pertain (‘Berrys Bill’ of over £4).42 While tentative estimates of some elements of the accounts have been given above, in combining these with all of the other components it is likely that the errors will compound, rather than cancelling themselves out.

From Sadleir’s own reckonings, however (for what they are worth), the farm was a clear drain on his income. A summary of ‘House Expenses in 1857’ includes: ‘Spent on Own Expenses above what I red [received] from farm’, £45. Summary statements for 1858 put sales of ‘Crops &c’ at £78 2s, which was insufficient even to defray that year’s wage bill. His self-reported ‘Total loss’ that year approached £116, which included expenditure on clothes, a camera, carriage wheels, his wife’s allowance and his son’s university fees (additionally there was a small excess on his ‘house act’). ‘Can Carrig pay that?’ he queried. The notably lower ‘Loss on Self & Farm’ of virtually £79 in 1859 was divided almost equally between both categories, while in 1861 the latter was somewhat higher (roughly £50). This 1861 ‘Final Summary’ provides the clearest overall picture of Sadleir’s finances, and indicates a £12 ‘Profit’ after all spending that year. A reported approximate £197 surplus from his County Galway estate, plus £25 interest received, offset the very large stated deficit from the Castleknock living (including farm and household expenditure). Such significant shortfalls perhaps confirm the 1848 claim that income from the Castleknock union of parishes ‘would not be more than a moderate maintenance for a resident Incumbent’, considering that it may not have been anticipated that the incoming vicar would visit London, get a £24 watch or take up photography.43

The shortfalls also suggest that the Sadleir household was not immune from financial pressure (obviously by their own standards, not those of the rural poor), notwithstanding some lavish spending and the very large estate Sadleir left on his decease (the origins of which require additional research, but presumably this wealth was largely tied up in land and other illiquid assets and therefore unavailable for day-to-day expenditure). Indeed at the very start of 1857, Sadleir’s first wife Letitia noted in her diary that they had to make their butler redundant ‘in consequence of being unable to keep one any longer, or at least till we get better off in the

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World’. (No live-in butler is listed in the family’s entry in the 1901 census.) The couple nearly gave up their brougham carriage too.44 Sadleir’s farming losses do, though, appear exaggerated because they seemingly include the value of farm produce eaten by his household. The best available evidence here is a note that his servants and parlour consumed two stone of potatoes daily, representing an annual figure of approximately £17. This alone would go some way to offsetting his self-reported farming loss of around £40 to £50 per annum.

The beginning of the crisis years, 1859-64Between 1859 and 1864, a succession of poor national harvests led to severe privation in Ireland, although nothing like on the scale of the late 1840s.45 Perhaps the most significant evidence from Rev. Sadleir’s diaries covering the early years of this crisis period is the apparent step decline in his annual labour expenditure during 1859 to 1861 of approximately a quarter (Figure 3). This must have adversely affected local labourers at a difficult time. His daily entries for 1859 do not indicate many discernible production problems at Castleknock glebe, other than some low potato yields (possibly) and two spells of dry weather. Much the same conclusion applies to 1860. In August that year two attempts to sell sheep were seemingly unsuccessful, and his garden was robbed (two days after he had put up paling). Yet little can be read into the former situation since this also occurred in 1857, and indeed no marked change is obvious in his sheep and cattle operations during 1859 to 1861 (Tables 2 and 3), except perhaps a reduced level of cattle purchases. Moreover his best known hay harvest occurred in 1860 (Table 4).

Conversely the winter of 1860/1 was characterized by snows, severe frosts and bad storms: for Sadleir, 24 March 1861 was the ‘1st mild day’ and 5 April the ‘1st fine day’. Subsequently ‘2 months drought’ occurred during April and May, and on 4 June he ‘sowed turnips where mangold failed’. Four months later he ‘Began to dig out potatoes 11 Cwt a ridge, & only 7 cwt on Early ridges’; other potatoes planted may have failed. According to his figures, probably 18.3 per cent of the 1861 potato crop was ‘bad’ (not ‘good’), higher than the 14.6 per cent in 1860 (unfortunately no comparable figures exist for earlier years). However Table 5 gives a different impression: the total potato harvest was apparently larger in 1861 than in 1860, and there was seemingly no upsurge in potato purchases in either year (although the mean price paid increased, reflecting general scarcity issues).46 An unsuccessful livestock sale also occurred in 1861 (of nine pigs). Significantly, Sadleir’s self-calculated overall farming loss in 1861 was the largest of the three years for which clear figures exist (suggesting that the impact of crop failures and poor yields outweighed the positive effect of scarcity prices on the value of his farm output).

ConclusionAccording to Rev. Sadleir’s five pocket diaries, that part of the Castleknock glebe which he held in hand at the turn of the 1860s was a mixed farm, probably sized 20 to 24 statute acres or so. The farm was seemingly largely self-sufficient in its livestock feed requirements, and appears to have provided the equivalent of about two or three full-time jobs per annum (with actual numbers at work being substantially higher during short periods of peak labour demand). Sadleir (who was not a typical farmer or clergyman) reduced his spending on labour during the crisis

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years 1859 to 1861, and his apparent deficit on the Castleknock union living more generally seems to have been cross-subsidized by income from his estate in County Galway. As with many other surviving farm documents, analysis is hindered by Sadleir’s unsystematic and frequently unclear record-keeping and distorted accounting practices. Nonetheless his diaries highlight the challenges contemporary farmers faced, especially during the bad weather of 1861.

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Figure 1. Rev. Ralph SadleirNote: photograph courtesy of Jim Lacey and The History Press Ireland.

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Figure 2. Example of diary entriesNote: photograph courtesy of Richard Sadleir.

12

0

20

40

60

80

100

1857 1858 1859 1860 1861

Figure 3. Indicative total annual expenditure on labour, Castleknock glebe, 1857-61 (£)Note: the three darker shaded columns, reporting Sadleir’s calculations, are the most reliable; the two lighter shaded columns aggregate obvious payments from his weekly bookkeeping tables and may be incomplete (the corresponding total for 1861 was 7% short of Sadleir’s figure, and the discrepancy was far higher in 1857-8). Sources: as for Tab. 2.

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Table 1. Rev. Sadleir’s ‘guess’ of output of major crops, Castleknock glebe, 1857; and stated requirements, 1860 Crop Acresa Value (£) Volume (tons) 1860 ‘We require’Hay 5½ 54 18 20 tons i.e. about 6 acresOats 4¾ 53.2 6.7 7 tons: 4 acresMangel-wurzels >½ 20 20 15 tonsStraw 5 15 7.5 10 tonsPotatoes 7/8 9.5 2.4 5 tonsCarrots 3/8 7.5 3Barley ¼ 4 0.4

Note: a more likely to be Irish than statute acres.Sources: RCB Library, MS 1000/1/1, 4, Sadleir’s diaries.

Table 2. Indicative total annual cattle transactions and events, Castleknock glebe, 1857-61

Year PurchasesNumber Total cost (£)a

Calving eventsb,c

Animaldeathsc

Salesd

Number Total revenue (£)1857 2 9.5 3 0 2 14.6e

1858 1 14.0 ≥5 1 2 18.01859 0 0 2 0 2 0.9f

1860 2 25.0 ≥4 2 8 32.6f

1861 0 0 1 1 2 23.0

Notes: a purchase price only; b a cow giving birth to a calf or calves; c including stillbirths; d live and dead; e ‘net’ income; f ‘profit’ for one or more sales. Some assumptions required where the original data are unclear: numbers in italics are especially uncertain.Sources: RCB Library, MS 1000/1/1-5, Sadleir’s diaries.

Table 3. Indicative sheep transactions, Castleknock glebe, 1857-61 (total annual cohorts)Year purchased Number Total cost (£)a Number soldc Total revenue (£)1857 68 52.0 50d 57.0d

1858 24 18.1b 18b 24.7b

1859 10 8.7 5 4.21860 31 26.1 31 37.81861 38 38.0 16e 16.5e

Notes: a purchase and transport (where stated) but not feed; b for 18 sheep almost certainly from Co. Galway; c live and dead, including sales during the next calendar year; d excludes 30 sheep sold for £33 ‘gross’, perhaps purchased in 1856; e to end 1861. Includes lambs. Assumptions required: italicized numbers are especially uncertain. Sources: as for Tab. 2.

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Table 4. Indicative total annual hay production and transactions, Castleknock glebe, 1857-61

YearProduction (tons)a

PurchasesVolume (tons) Total cost (£)c

Salesd

Volume (tons) Total revenue (£)1857 15 1.1 3.9 0e 0e

1858 21 0b 0b 0 01859 20 0 0 0 01860 ≥25 0 0 0 01861 n/a 1.2 2.9 0 0

Notes: a given to the nearest ton to avoid spurious accuracy; b one possible purchase; c unclear if includes transport; d excluding 7 sacks of seed; e one possible sale. Assumptions required: italicized numbers are especially uncertain. Sources: as for Tab. 2.

Table 5. Indicative total annual potato production and transactions, Castleknock glebe, 1857-61

YearProduction (tons)

PurchasesVolume (tons) Total cost (£)b

SalesVolume (tons) Total revenue (£)

1857 2.5a 2.1 7.6 1.7 5.01858 10.8 2.6 9.9 0 01859 >4.5 1.2 2.2 11.6 40.31860 5.0 1.2 6.8 0.3 1.31861 ≥8.5 1.0 4.5 0 0

Notes: a may exclude the potatoes sold; b including transport (where known). Data limitations necessitate aggregating all types of potatoes, including seed potatoes. Assumptions required, including estimating unrecorded volumes/revenues using the mean price paid/received in that year. Italicized numbers are especially uncertain. Sources: as for Tab. 2.

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1Endnotes This article would not have been possible without the generosity of Richard Sadleir. For invaluable comments, the author also thanks Cormac Ó Gráda, Susan Hood, Jacqueline O’Reilly and participants at meetings of the Blanchardstown-Castleknock History Society, the Economic and Social History Society of Ireland and a History of European Agricultural Statistics workshop.2 E.g. M. E. Turner et al., Farm production in England, 1700-1914 (2001).3 C. Ó Gráda, Ireland: a new economic history, 1780-1939 (1994), 259-61; R. M. Barrington, ‘The prices of some agricultural produce and the cost of farm labour for the past fifty years’, Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland 9 (1886/7), 137-53; W. E. Vaughan, ‘Farmer, grazier and gentleman: Edward Delany of Woodtown, 1851-99’, Irish Economic and Social History 9 (1982), 53-72. 4 E.g. R. Ó Muireadhaigh, ‘Farm account books, 1802-1860, from Gaulstown, Monasterboice’, Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society 17 (1972), 235-49, together with numerous studies of individual estates/parishes – and clergymen e.g. D. Doyle, The Reverend Thomas Goff, 1772-1844: property, propinquity and Protestantism (2015). 5 Land owned by parishes. J. B. Leslie and W. J. R. Wallace, Clergy of Dublin and Glendalough: biographical succession lists (2001), xxiii.6 RCB Library, MS 1000/1/1-5. He also kindly transcribed them: MS 1000/4. The 1859 diary is now without a few back pages.7 E. Balcombe (ed.), Extracts from the farm diary of Lowther Lodge, Balbriggan, 1803-1822 (2008). 8 A clergyman enjoying a revenue from a cathedral’s estates. Leslie and Wallace, Clergy, xxiii.9 Biographical information from Irish Times, 4 Aug. 1893, 6; 4 Oct. 1902, 13; 31 Jan. 1903, 15; 4 Jan. 1960, 7; 13 Jan. 1960, 7; 15 Jan. 1960, 7; W. M. Brady, Clerical and parochial records of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, I (1863), 239; Return of owners of land of one acre and upwards … in Ireland (1876), 19, 299; H. J. Lawlor and M. S. D. Westropp, ‘The chapel of Dublin Castle’, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 13 (1923), 60; G. D. Burtchaell and T. U. Sadleir (eds), Alumni Dublinenses (1935), 727; Burke’s Irish family records (1976), 1144; J. O’Driscoll, Cnucha: a history of Castleknock and district (1977), 30, 32-5; Leslie and Wallace, Clergy, 66-71, 81, 145, 1030; R. Sadleir, Thomas Ulick Sadleir, 1882-1957: a memoir (2004), 9-12, 19-20; J. Lacey, A candle in the window: a history of the Barony of Castleknock (2007), 56, 77, 91, 183; id., The Barony of Castleknock: a history (2015), 104, 164; E. Cronin, Charting change: Blanchardstown, 1837-2012 (2012), 58-9, 61-2; S. Hood, ‘Sadleir, Thomas Ulick’; B. Hourican, ‘Sadleir, Franc’, Dictionary of Irish biography online, http://dib.cambridge.org/home.do; Griffith’s primary valuation, www.askaboutireland.ie; Census of population, 1901, www.census.nationalarchives.ie; Calendars of wills and administrations, 1903, www.willcalendars.nationalarchives.ie; Castleknock and Mulhuddart with Clonsilla parish website, www.castleknock.dublin.anglican.org/history/history.html.10 E.g. National Archives of Ireland, ED/1/29/128/3, letter from Sadleir, Mar. 1854; ED/1/32/72/4, postcard, Jan. 1890; id., Remarks on the subject of education, addressed to his Protestant parishioners at Clonsilla (1850, apparently unpublished); id., Letters upon the subject of national education (1863).11 Irish Times, 20 Dec. 1960, 11; V. Jackson, The monuments in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin (1987), 86.12 Reported in The Gentleman’s magazine, Aug. 1858, 199; P. Boyle, Trinity College Dublin: the provosts, 1592-1927 (2015), 289.13 For the last-mentioned, see T. W. Moody and C. J. Woods, ‘Chronology, 1801-1921’, in Moody et al. (eds), A new history of Ireland, VIII (1982), 332-5. 14 RCB Library, D6 Castleknock box 11, order for union with Mulhuddart, Nov. 1848 (hereafter Mulhuddart order); S. Lewis, A topographical dictionary of Ireland, I (1837), 375-6; II, 410; Griffith’s valuation and transcripts of Ordnance Survey name books, www.askaboutireland.ie. See also O. Ryan and L. Glanville, ‘The united dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough’, in C. Costecalde and B. Walker (eds), The Church of Ireland: an illustrated history (2013), 287; ‘Our parish history’ (Castleknock and Mulhuddart with Clonsilla Parish News, Sept. 2015), 15-7. 15 One of his photographs is at www.buildingsofireland.ie/Surveys/Buildings/BuildingoftheMonth/Archive/Name,2989,en.html.16 RCB Library, P352/5/3, Castleknock vestry minute book; Irish Times, 24 Oct. 1859, 3; 23 Oct. 1861, 4; M. Quane, ‘Mercer’s school Rathcoole & Castleknock, Co. Dublin’, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 93 (1963), 28-9; Richard Sadleir (pers. comm.).17 Some quantity conversions made using P. M. A. Bourke, ‘Notes on some agricultural units of measurement in use in pre-famine Ireland’, Irish Historical Studies 14 (1965), 244-5.

18 Agricultural statistics of Ireland, 1857 (1858), viii (excluding holdings ≤1 acre). An Irish acre equalled 1.62 statute acres. 19 The discrepancies with the Ordnance Survey name book are relatively trivial. 20 Griffith’s valuation; Report ... on the revenues and condition of the Established Church (Ireland) (1868), 330.21 And others: RCB Library, Mulhuddart order; Lewis, Topographical dictionary, I, 300; Return of owners, 19.22 Leslie and Wallace, Clergy, xxiii.23 Royal Dublin Society (RDS) Archives, Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland subscriptions book, 1874-81; Proceedings of the RDS, 1856/7-61/2, members lists; RDS members database, 1731-1850, www.rds.ie; Royal Irish Academy Library, C/21/9/A, members lists (secretary’s copy), 1846, 1869, 1895; Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, www.ssisi.ie.24 O’Driscoll, Cnucha, 20; Cronin, Charting change, 34.25 Report on the Established Church, xv.26 J. Bell and M. Watson, A history of Irish farming, 1750-1950 (2008), ch. 14; id., Irish farming life: history and heritage (2014), 116.27 Compare id., History, 256, 260.28 University College Dublin Library, special collections, 27/C/5.29 E.g. Lacey, Candle, 110, 112-3.30 RCB Library, D6 Castleknock box 11, documents re dilapidations, 1843.31 Griffith’s valuation. 32 Headstone in St Brigid’s Church graveyard. 33 It was hard to find unambiguous references to the long-standing clerk at Clonsilla church, Henry Maguire (headstone in St Mary’s Church graveyard).34 I.e. one man at work for one day. E.g. ‘23 men reaping’ clearly did not involve 23 men reaping simultaneously, but a smaller number working over several days. 35 Assuming 50 working weeks of 6 days.36 Bell and Watson, History, 153.37 Ordnance Survey name book, 113, 119; J. F. Collins, Soils of Phoenix Park, Dublin (1974); Lacey, Barony, 52; Irish Soil Information System national soil map, http://gis.teagasc.ie/soils/map.php. 38 Agricultural statistics of Ireland, 1861 (1863), xlix. Compare Bourke, ‘Agricultural units’, 242. Assistance from Jim Collins is appreciated.39 J. Choiseul et al., Potato varieties of historical interest in Ireland (2008), 5, 52-3.40 Inter alia, Bourke, ‘Agricultural units’, 240, 242.41 Bell and Watson, History, ch. 8.42 Turner et al., Farm production, 47, note this problem.43 RCB Library, Mulhuddart order. The Castleknock parish account book shows a close balance between collections income and expenditure during 1857-61, with no details of the latter. Ibid., P352/7/3.44 Ibid., MS 1000/3/16, 1 Jan. 1857. Twenty-three of Letitia’s diaries survive. Judging from her 1857 diary, these contain much colour on local society, marital quarrels etc. (she seemingly encouraged her husband to apply – unsuccessfully – for the bishopric of Cork) but unsurprisingly no additional agricultural material. 45 Ó Gráda, Ireland, 250-2; id., ‘Famine in Ireland, 1300-1900’ (Centre for Economic Research working paper, University College Dublin, 2015), 24-5.46 E.g. Barrington, ‘Prices’, 140, 143.