Great Irish Households: Inventories from the Long Eighteenth Century presents in a single volume transcripts of inventories of fourteen great country houses, three Dublin town houses and one London town house, published as a tribute to the last Knight of Glin. The inventories, all but two published for the first time, span the period from 1702, the year of William of Orange's death, to 1821, the year of George IV's coronation.
In 2003, Jane Fenlon, the historian of Irish art and architecture of the early modern period, had lamented the fact that inventories were a "rather neglected area of study" and had stressed how important it was that they "should not be treated as mere records of house furnishings", but "be seen as valuable research sources rich in information . . ." Regrettably, as Simon Swynfen Jervis's book British and Irish inventories bears out, there is still a dearth of Irish household inventories available in published form. By making more of them available in transcript, however, the book Great Irish Households has helped meet this acknowledged need.
Structure
A preface by Leslie Fitzpatrick and a foreword by Toby Barnard give a broad historical setting for the transcriptions. The inventories themselves, drawn up for probate or for a variety of other purposes by specialist appraisers together with family members or their staff, are given preambles by way of introduction to the houses and are supplemented with a glossary and indexes to personal names and to the items listed. There are also appendices identifying the books listed in abridged form in inventories from three of the houses: at Kilkenny Castle, in the second Duchess of Ormonde's closet (1705); at the bishop's mansion house, Elphin, County Roscommon, in the study (1740); at Newbridge House, County Dublin, in the library (1821).
The inventories are grouped as follows: 1 Lismore Castle, County Waterford, 1702/3
The Ormonde inventories
2 Kilkenny Castle, County Kilkenny,1705
3 Dublin Castle, 1707
4 The Duke of Ormonde's house at St James's Square, London, c. 1710
5 Bishop's mansion house, Elphin, County Roscommon, 1740
6 Captain Balfour's town house, auction sale, Dublin, 1741/2
7 Hillsborough Castle, County Down, 1746 and 1777
8 Kilrush House, Freshford, County Kilkenny, 1750
9 No. 10 Henrietta Street, Dublin (Luke Gardiner's house), 1772
10 Morristown Lattin, County Kildare, 1773
11 Baronscourt, County Tyrone, 1782
12 Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, 1798
13 Killadoon, County Kildare, 1807–29
14 Shelton Abbey, near Arklow, County Wicklow, 1816
15 Borris House, County Carlow, 1818
16 Carton House, County Kildare, 1818
17 Newbridge House, County Dublin, 1821
18 Mount Stewart, County Down, 1821
The end matter comprises: Glossary Appendix I: Sales by buyer at Captain Balfour's town house sale, 1741/2 Appendix II: Books in the 2nd Duchess of Ormonde's closet at Kilkenny Castle, County Kilkenny, 1705 Appendix III: Books in the bishop of Elphin's study, County Roscommon, 1740 Appendix IV: Books in the library at Newbridge House, County Dublin, 1821 List of inventory sources List of plates Bibliography Index of personal names General index
Other than Castlecomer House and the bishop's mansion house at Elphin, all the houses featured, some since modified, refashioned or rebuilt, are still standing to this day. Several of them are still the abodes of the same families.