James O'Reilly: Bequests

In previous posts I mentioned the ties between my O'Reilly ancestors to Mr. James O'Reilly of Mount Albion, Dundrum, as well as the probate case of O'Malley v O'Reilly, fought out between the estate executors, the O'Malleys, and Mr. O'Reilly's brother.  Today's notes feature a published notice from the newspaper regarding James's bequests.  Notices such as these are immeasurably important for researching Irish probate records since the original wills, stored in the GRO in Dublin, were destroyed by a fire in 1922.

Freeman's Journal, 2 October 1873

CHARITABLE BEQUESTS.

NOTICE is hereby given that JAMES O'REILLY, late of Mount Albion, in the County of Dublin, Esquire, who died on the 16th day of November, 1872, by his last Will and Testament, bearing date the 4th day of May, 1872, bequeathed the sum of £50 to the Rev. John E. O'Malley, of Westland-row, in the city of Dublin, Roman Catholic Clergyman, for Masses for the repose of his (Testator's) soul, and Testator also bequeathed unto the said Rev. John E. O'Malley, and Richard O'Malley and Thomas O'Malley, both of Woodlands, in the County of Dublin, certain Shares in the Dublin and Kingstown Railway Company in trust for Charles O'Reilly, as therein mentioned, and in case of the death of the said Charles O'Reilly, under the age of 21 years, in trust for Saint Peter's Orphanage, York-street, Dublin, attached to the Roman Catholic Church of Mount Carmel, Whitefriar-street, absolutely; and said Testator appointed the said Rev. John E. O'Malley, Richard O'Malley and Thomas O'Malley, Executors of said Will, all of whom duly obtained probate thereof on the 18th day of July, 1873, forth of the principal Registry of her Majesty's Court of Probate in Ireland.
Dated this 29th day of September, 1873.
JAMES PLUNKETT, Solicitor for said executors, 1, Capel-street, Dublin.
To the Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests, and all others whom it may concern.

The important part pertaining to my research is the mention of Charles O'Reilly.  As mentioned in previous posts, Charles was the name of one of the sons of my great-great-great grandfather Laurence O'Reilly.  Our Charles was the godson of a James O'Reilly (his baptism took place in 1865 in Aghamore, Mayo) and appears on both the 1901 and 1911 Irish census living in Dublin off the annuities of stocks.  The Charles in the census records is most definitely our Charles, despite his birthplace being recorded as Dublin City, which the baptism record refutes.  The head of household for both those census years is a Marion Glynn, who is stated to be a cousin, and the records of Glasnevin Cemetery show both Marion and Charles buried in the O'Reillys' plot along with his parents, Laurence and Bridget (Treston), and an infant girl named Norah, the daughter of Laurence and Bridget's oldest son, Sergeant Laurence O'Reilly of the Dublin Metropolitan Police.

Presumably Charles was singled out for inheritance as the godson of James (if, as I believe, the same James who wrote this will was the James who stood sponsor at Charles's baptism), though I do not know the reason why James set up his will to pass the trust on to an orphanage in the event of Charles's death rather than to another O'Reilly family member.  James himself had at least two brothers then living and possibly a sister, while his heir Charles had several brothers and sisters also living.

Later: what became of the siblings of Charles O'Reilly?

Cane River Transaction: Rachal to Chopin

After several generations of their families living along the Cane River, my great-great-great-great grandparents, Ciriaque Rachal and Anaïs Compère, decided to move along with some of their friends and neighbors to form the nucleus of a small colony of Natchitoches Creoles at Liberty, Texas.  The 1845 document by which they transferred their Cloutierville landholdings can be found among the Cane River Collection of the Historic New Orleans Collection, which has been digitized as part of the "Free People of Color in Louisiana" collection of the Louisiana Digital Library.  A few things stand out about the document.  One is that it required the presence and signature of Madame Rachal, née Compère, for her portion of their property in a time when women's property usually defaulted to their husbands.  The Creole society they grew up in, however, was different and married women had more rights to ownership of the property they brought into a marriage than they did in Anglo America.  Another thing notable about the document is that Anaïs signed her own name to it in a clear and legible hand, only a generation or two removed from a time when most documents signed by women were marked by a cross next their name, which was written by someone else.  (Her mother-in-law, Ciriaque's mother Marie Rose, was another notable exception.  Her 1813 marriage contract shows an elegant signature of her own.)

Also of some interest to historians of the area is the name that follows the Rachals: J. B. Chopin, the man to whom they sold their Cane River frontage.  Chopin was a French immigrant to the area and was an in-law to the extended Rachal family through his marriage to Julia Benoist, one of Anaïs's cousins (Julia was a great-granddaughter and Anaïs was a granddaughter of Julien Rachal).  Madame Chopin was also a cousin to Ciriaque, but the relationship to his Rachal line was more distant.  J. B. Chopin was to become the father-in-law of the writer Kate Chopin, who was married to his son Oscar.