The Henry Wade of Cloonfree was not the only Wade in County Roscommon in the nineteenth century. There are four individuals with the surname Wade in Griffith’s Valuation, including two other entries for a Henry Wade. Other Wade families can be found in parish records and civil records as well. Based on geography alone, some of these are more likely than others to be related to our Henry Wade family, at least relatively close in time to the nineteenth century. But there is other evidence to be considered pro and con.
The first two Wades discussed below may well have been closely related to our Henry Wade family, and one may possibly be the father of Henry Wade.
Michael Wade and James Wade of Strokestown
The civil death records for County Roscommon contain two entries, just three weeks apart in 1884, documenting the death of James Wade, from Strokestown, and Michael Wade, also from Strokestown. James died in the Strokestown Workhouse on the 27th of November at the age of 95. He was married, and a laborer. Michael died in the Workhouse on the 19th of December. He was a widower, and also a laborer. As this image shows, their deaths were recorded one after the other on the same page. It is possible, perhaps likely, that James and Michael were brothers.
There is a possible connection between James and Michael with Mary Wade, who died “a pauper” at the age of 82 in the Strokestown Workhouse a few years after James and Michael, on August 22, 1888. Mary was a widow from the Townland of Clooneen Hartland, located just two-and-a-quarter miles from Strokestown.
Mary Wade might have been the wife of James Wade, shown as married at the time of his death. If so, the reference to her residence in Cloneen Hartland possibly connects her to the Michael Wade who is shown in Griffith’s Valuation in 1857 in the Clooneen Hartland townland in the civil parish of Kilglass.
This is the entire entry for the Cloneen Hartland townland. Michael Wade was only of only nine occupiers on a 455 acre property that was likely given over to sheep herding. The local police barracks and a graveyard were also located on the leased property.
Strokestown Parish records show a Michael Wade as the father in the three baptismal records listed below, for children born between 1846 and 1861.
- Thomas Wade, bap. 21 April 1846, mother Mary Donlin.
- Johannem (John) Wade, bap. 18 November 1859, mother Julia Cronan.
- Mariam (Mary) Wade, bap. 3 February 1861, mother Julia Cronan
It’s quite possible that the same Michael Wade was the father of all three of these children, if his wife Mary Donlin passed away and he subsequently married Julie Cronan and had two additional children.
The Michael Wade who was the father of the latter children two children, John and Mary, and his wife Julia Cronan, almost certainly knew our Henry Wade family. The baptism of Henry Wade and Ann Casey’s daughter Alicia Wade in 1861 took place in the same parish, just one day after the baptism of Mary Wade. In fact, the baptismal records are just two lines apart on the parish baptismal ledger.
Not only did the families likely know each other, they could very well be closely related. I do not think that either James or Michael was Henry Wade’s father, although both were of sufficient age. Based on his death in 1884 at 95, James was born in approximately 1770; Michael was 89 at the time of his death in 1884, giving him an inferred birth year of approximately 1775. Henry Wade’s inferred birth date is approximately 1831, so either James or Michael could have been his father based on the respective years of birth. However, none of the sons of Henry Wade and Ann Casey are named Michael, which strongly suggests that Michael was not Henry Wade’s father.
James Wade cannot be dismissed on the same logic, however, as we know that Henry and Ann had a son (perhaps more than one!) named James. But if James was married to Mary Wade, as the above analysis suggests, then we would expect to have one of Henry and Ann’s daughter named Mary, which we know is not the case.
The above is mere speculation, of course, based on probabilities and likelihoods. In the absence of additional records to establish the relationships between Henry, James, and Michael, I believe it is more likely that James Wade and Michael Wade were uncles of Henry Wade.
What about the children of Michael Wade, Thomas, John, and Mary? I have not been able to locate any records beyond their baptismal records that can be definitively connected to them. One would like to think that the lives of James, Michael and Mary would not have ended in the Strokestown Workhouse if they had remaining family to care for them. Perhaps their children left Ireland, just as so many did during this period of time, and just as Henry and Ann and their family did in 1883.
Henry Wade of Stonepark
A search in Griffith’s Valuation in County Roscommon returns not only Henry Wade of Cloonfree, but another Henry Wade who occupied a leasehold in the Townland of Stonepark. I’ll refer to him as “Henry Wade of Stonepark” to distinguish him from Henry Wade of Cloonfree. According to the Valuation, this Henry was the sole lessee of 19-plus acres including a house and a corn mill.
It is tempting to conclude that Henry Wade of Stonepark was related to our ancestral Henry Wade, based simply on the fact that they are the only two individuals listed in the Griffith’s Valuation with the same name. However, I have concluded that while they may be related, the relationship is more remote than father and son or even grandfather and grandson, or uncle and nephew. My conclusion is based on geography and on an examination of records pertaining to the family of Henry Wade of Stonepark.
Stonepark is located just 4 km south of the Town of Roscommon and about 24 km distant from the Town of Strokestown. While 24 km (about 15 miles) is a trivial distance from the modern, car-driving perspective, it was a significant distance in rural Ireland. Based on distance alone, it is unlikely that there is a recent, direction connection between these two Henry Wades. This conclusion is backed up by genealogical research.
Records in the Parish of Roscommon and Kilteevan, which encompasses the Townland of Stonepark, document the baptism of two children of Henry Wade and Elizabeth Wade, in 1839 and 1843 respectively. According to those parish records, Henry (“Henrici”) Wade and Elizabeth (“Estheri”) Higgins were the parents of Edward Wade, who was baptized on August 13, 1839. Their son Joseph Wade was baptized in the same parish on March 26, 1843. Note that in a number of family trees on Ancestry.com these records have cited as supporting the proposition that Henry Wade and Elizabeth Higgins were the parents of our Henry Wade of Cloonfree or his son Henry a/k/a Harry. This is simply incorrect, as additional research will show.
Unfortunately, these parish records do not specify the townland where Henry Wade and Elizabeth Higgins resided when their children were baptized, and no marriage record for Henry Wade and Elizabeth Higgins has been located in any parish in County Roscommon. However, this Henry Wade is almost certainly the same Henry Wade who is identified in the 1857 Griffith’s Valuation as the lessee of property in Stonepark, based on geography alone.
In addition to Edward and Joseph whose baptisms are documented in parish records, Henry and Elizabeth also had a third son, Franciso (Francis, or Frank), likely born circa 1838. While Frank’s baptism was not documented in parish records, his existence and age can be inferred from parish and civil records pertaining to his children. These records document Frank’s residence in Stonepark, and the presence of his descendants in Stonepark into the twentieth century.
The recorded and inferred ages of the various individuals shown in Stonepark-related records suggest a more remote connection between our Henry Wade and Henry Wade of Stonepark than father and son or even uncle and nephew. By inference from the 1850 known date of Henry of Cloonfree’s marriage in 1850, he was born no later than 1834 (it would make him just 16 in 1850; he was likely older than that). Francis Wade was a few years younger than Henry of Cloonfree, having been born no earlier than 1838. The relative ages of Frank and Henry would make our Henry of Cloonfree the eldest son of Henry of Stonepark were they son and father. However, it is highly unlikely that if our Henry Wade was the eldest son of Henry of Stonepark, that he would have departed his family home in Stonepark to become a tenant farmer in Cloonfree.
It is apparent from subsequent Stonepark-related records that Francis Wade took over the property in Stonepark and raised his family there. This supports the conclusion that Francis was the eldest son of Henry and Elizabeth. A record in the Parish of Roscommon and Kilteevan documents the baptism of Henry Wade (“Henry II of Stonepark”), son of Francis Wade and Anne Connolly, on October 23, 1867. While the baptismal record is partially illegible, there is corresponding civil birth record, excerpted below, that shows the birth of Henry Wade in Stonepark to Francis Wade, occupation farmer, and his wife Anne Connolly, on October 20, 1867.
This record places parents Frank and Anne Wade and their son Henry II in Stonepark just 10 years after the date of the Griffith’s Valuation showing the elder Henry Wade as a lessee of 19 acres in Stonepark. Frank Wade passed away at some point prior to the 1901 Census in Ireland; Ann is shown in Stonepark as a widow in both the 1901 and the 1911 censuses.
My research into this branch of the Wade family was ultimately eclipsed when I located the well-documented Kelley Family Tree by user “silverfoxcy” on Ancestry.com from which some of the above information is abstracted. Incidentally, the Kelly tree provided the information that Henry II of Stonepark emigrated to the U.S. around 1893. That information subsequently led me to an 1898 marriage record for a Henry Wade in New York City, whose parents were given as Henry Wade and Anne Connolly.
Before I stumbled upon the Kelly Family Tree, I had done quite a bit of research into records pertaining to the Stonepark Wades of County Roscommon. It became a bit of a rabbit hole and not part of the main story, but it did involve digging into two interesting topics: Dog Licenses in Ireland, and the Commission on Encumbered Lands. To preserve that information I have moved it to RESEARCH & RABBIT HOLES.
Samuel Wade of Fairfield, County Galway
Twenty seven of the 32 entries in Griffith’s Valuation in County Roscommon for the surname “Wade” refer to Samuel Wade as the immediate lessor of numerous properties in County Roscommon. Samuel Wade was of the landed gentry class of Ireland; he was an immediate lessor of properties not only in County Roscommon, but adjacent County Galway. His heritage was English. Samuel Wade’s his estates in Ireland derived from an ancestor who was a major in the Commonwealth Army of Oliver Cromwell, who acquired his wealth and position in Ireland from land confiscated from Roman Catholics in the seventeenth century.
Oliver Cromwell depicted during his exploits in Ireland.
At the time of Griffith’s Valuation, Samuel resided on an estate in Fairfield, in Galway. Samuel Wade married well, into the the Eyre family, whose ancestors similarly came to Ireland with the Army of Cromwell and acquired their wealth and position from confiscated land.
That Samuel Wade and Henry Wade of Cloonfree share a last name is may be mere coincidence. If these Wades are related, it is further back than can be found in available records.
Emigrants and Immigrants 