Main website navigation:
Seemingly a quintessential English gentleman, Jeremy Irons has always felt a natural affinity for Ireland, where he now lives. He knows that one of his ancestors has a colourful past but until now has never probed further into his family history.
Jeremy’s great-great-great-grandfather Thomas was one of the first Metropolitan Policemen. He was dismissed after 6 years of service for drunkenness and deserting his post. He went on to become a Chartist, an activist for a political movement aimed at widening the vote to include the working classes.
Thomas was arrested in 1848 for his part in a series of planned insurrections and, escaping deportation to Australia, was imprisoned for 18 months. You can read the entry for Thomas Irons in the Newgate Prison Register. Upon his release he abandoned his family and went to sea as an engineer, dying in Rio.
Jeremy’s Irish blood comes from his great-grandmother’s family. Tracing her ancestors using census returns showed that her family were landowners in Cork, where Jeremy now lives, as far back as the start of the 18th century.
If you discover that an ancestor served in the Metropolitan Police force you may be able to trace their service records. The MEPO 4 series contains various registers, giving information as varied as address to heights of recruits. Police Orders in MEPO 7 should also be consulted for appointments, promotions and dismissals.
References to the Chartist movement appear in Home Office records, mostly listed as Disturbances.
For details of trials, refer to the CRIM series for proceedings from the Central Criminal Court. The Newgate Prison Calendar, containing details of prisoners from 1782 to 1853, can be found in the Catalogue under CRIM 10. Criminal Papers before 1849 can be found in PC 1; after 1849 in HO 12.
Regarding Irish migration, no passenger lists or records of arrivals exist. You need to trace families in all census returns in the hope that they give a town or county as place of birth, rather than simply listing ‘Ireland’. Try searching the local district, as Irish families often settled together in the same areas and also often settled next to people from the same part of Ireland. Again, check for towns or counties as possible places of birth and therefore a possible area of origin.
Tracing Irish ancestors
Contact The National Archives of Ireland for general advice or, if you know the county of origin, try the local family history research centre or heritage centre.
www.nationalarchives.ie.
Chartists
Surviving Chartist petitions can be found in the House of Lords Record Office and The Parliamentary Archives.
