D is for Dymphna

4th day of the A to Z challenge

My fifth great grandmother Dymphna Cashell (before 1762- after 1793) was the daughter of Henry Cashell of Bushfield, county Tipperary, and Rebecca née White, daughter of John White of Cappaghwhite. Dymphna’s parents were married in 1742.

Dymphna (‘poetess’, the name of a 7th-century saint), was listed as the youngest of Henry’s seven daughters in his will, made on 26 January 1762, probated 31 January 1763. Three brothers were also named.

Dymphna’s mother Rebecca died on 7 December 1781. Her will, made on 5 December 1781 and probated 14 September 1782, mentions two unmarried daughters, one son, and two married daughters, one of whom was Dymphna, by then Dymphna Gardiner.

Dymphna and her husband had at least two children, a son and a daughter, also named Dymphna.

Mrs Dymphna Gardiner was mentioned in a September 1791 newspaper advertisement in the Limerick Journal for millinery on sale at Rutland Row, Limerick.

A month later Dymphna was in the parish of Saint Andrews, Dublin, two hundred kilometers to the north-east. On 28 October 1791 Dymphna Gardiner widow, of St Andrew, married Henry Eagle, linen draper of Dublin, at Saint Andrew’s Church of Ireland, Dublin.

In 1792 Dymphna gave birth to a daughter, Mary Ann Eagle. She was baptised on 31 December 1792 in Saint Werburgh, Church of Ireland, Dublin.

In 1793 Henry Eagle and his wife Dymphna were plaintiffs in a suit concerning the administration of the will of Rebecca Cashell.

“Ireland, Court Of Exchequer Bill Books 1627-1884” retrieved through FindMyPast Date: 20/04/1793; Place: Dublin; Bill book: Equity Exchequer Bill Books 1793; Volume: 91.

In 1810, when the younger Dymphna married Daniel Nihill, she was said in an announcement in the Limerick Chronicle to be the “daughter of Samuel Gardener, late of London, Esq., with a handsome fortune”.

Henry Eagle died on 5 April 1811 at the age of 68 in the parish of Swords, Co. Dublin.

I have found no later mention of Dymphna, nor her daughter Mary Ann Eagle.

In 1835 Dymphna Nihill nee Gardiner emigrated to Australia with her family.

Some sixteen years later Robert Kirkman Gardiner, a widower from Limerick, arrived in Adelaide, South Australia, on 5 September 1851 on board the Thetis from Plymouth 29 May 1851. He was a farmer, aged thirty nine (born about 1811 or 1812). Robert was accompanied by two children, Henrietta Cashell Gardiner age seventeen, occupation servant, and Francis Cashel Gardiner, age fifteen, occupation labourer. Robert died in South Australia in 1868 and was said on his death certificate to be sixty two years old (born about 1808). Robert was buried at Magill St George cemetery in the plot adjacent to his Nihill relatives.

Sarah Jane Nihill, the daughter of Dymphna Nihill née Gardiner, stated in her reminiscences (a transcript is held at the State Library of South Australia) that Dymphna was the only daughter of Colonel Gardiner, an officer of the Indian Army. Sarah Jane also stated there was one son Robert, who, when his wife died, came to South Australia with his two children. Neither of these children married. Francis Cashell Gardiner died in Queensland. Henrietta Cashell Gardiner died in Sydney. Henrietta was said to have been named after her mother whose unmarried name was Cashell.

I think Sarah Jane Nihill was not entirely correct. I have not been able to find any records of Colonel Gardiner. I think Robert Gardiner was too young to be a child of the marriage of Dymphna Cashell and Samuel Gardiner. He seems likely to have been their grandson. He was certainly acknowledged by the Nihill and Cudmore families as a close relative.

I would like to know more about Dymphna Eagle nee Cashell formerly Gardiner. For the moment, however, my research efforts have stalled.

Related posts

• Beginning to look at my Irish family history

Wikitree:

• Dymphna (Cashell) Eagle (abt.1760-?)