RIGGS SURNAME STUDY: Descendants of Edward Riggs, of Riggsdale, Co.Cork, Esq.

FAMILIES IN
IRELAND

MAJOR EDWARD RIGGS, MP
of RIGGSDALE, co.Cork

Charting his Descendants, including
Rt Hon. EDWARD RIGGS of Dublin, PC, MP
and ANNE, LADY RIGGS MILLER

CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE


	INTRODUCTORY NOTE ON REFERENCES

	LORD STEWARD TO LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND

	RIGGSDALE/RIGSDALE, co.CORK

	THE FIRST EDWARD RIGGS (OF KINSALE?)

INTRODUCTORY NOTE ON REFERENCES

Researching ancestors in Ireland presents far greater difficulties than researching elsewhere in the British Isles or in America, because most of the early Irish records traditionally used as the sources for family history research no longer survive.

Initially, the information was obtained from secondary sources researched at the Society of Genealogists Library in London, including the work of ffolliott [S1], Low [S3], and Holworthy [S4]. The three disagree in a number of details, and none of them quote the primary sources they had used.

The research was then expanded by exploring other references at the Society of Genealogists Library in London, and from online resources. Subsequently, a research consultant in Ireland [S90] provided copies of the entries in "History of The Irish Parliament 1692-1800", by Edith Mary Johnston-Liik [S7] which contained new information relating to Major Edward Riggs and his son the Rt.Hon. Edward Riggs. Importantly, this work does quote the sources used. As well as the wealth of new information, it contained other information that corroborated a lot of what had already been established from a large number of other sources in the meantime. Once again, though, it disagreed on some of the details.

There is therefore a need to refer more frequently than normally to the source of the information, to clarify "who says what". Because of that, to avoid unnecessary 'clutter' if the source referred to is ffolliott, Low, Holworthy, or Johnston-Liik. the corresponding cross-reference link to the SOURCES page is often omitted.

In the same vein, to minimise any potential confusion between the various members of the RIGGS family/ies in Ireland with the forename EDWARD, each of them is suffixed with a number to distinguish between them more easily, as follows:

EDWARD#1 - The first Edward Riggs of Riggsdale
EDWARD#2 - Major Edward Riggs MP, the second Edward Riggs of Riggsdale
EDWARD#3 - Rt.Hon. Edward Riggs, PC MP, of Rigsdale (sic)
EDWARD#4 - Edward Riggs of the Middle Temple
EDWARD#9 - Edward Riggs, husband of MARY TARTERINE/TARTARAIN

The surnames ALLEN, WEBB and PIGOTT occur more than once in marriages with EDWARD's descendants, but relationships (if any) between the persons concerned have not been fully established.

LORD STEWARD TO LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND

GRANT OF ARMS

RIGGS, Lord Steward "The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales", by Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms, reported the grant of a Coat of Arms to a RIGGS (forename not quoted), who was Steward of the Household to Charles, Lord Mountjoy, Lord Deputy of Ireland. The office of Steward of the Household is customarily referred to as that of the Lord Steward.

It was reported as having been recorded in the office of the Ulster King of Arms as a Funeral Entry in the year 1600, so that is presumably the year in which the Lord Steward with the surname RIGGS died.

The blazon (description) of the Coat of Arms as quoted by Burke is "Ermine a cross patonce purpure a mullet for difference".

When a person is entitled to bear arms, each son of that person is entitled to bear the same arms but with a mark of cadency on the shield to distinguish them. The type of mark identifies which son that is, and a mullet, or star, denotes the arms are borne by the person's third-born son.

Burke ascribes a similar Coat of Arms to "RIGG or RIGGES", without giving further details or what his source was. He describes them as "Ermine a cross flory purpure"

Both Coats of Arms therefore are "Ermine a cross purpure". Although Burke describes the cross for "RIGGS OF IRELAND" as a cross patonce and that for "RIGG or RIGGES" as a cross flory, the images in this section demonstrate that the shapes of both these forms of crosses are almost alike.

Burke's works are known to contain errors and, by including a Coat of Arms similar to that for "RIGGS OF IRELAND" but without the mullet as a mark of cadency, Burke may have argued that this would have been the arms granted to an ancestor of the Lord Steward.

However, there is apparently no record of the same coat of arms without the mark of difference, so we cannot deduce who the father of the Lord Steward was.

THE OFFICE OF LORD STEWARD

The post of Lord Steward to the Lord Deputy of Ireland (the King's Viceroy) would have been one of comparatively high status. The Institute of Historical Research website provides a job description for such a post within the English Royal Household:

"The office of Steward of the Household, customarily designated that of Lord Steward, was in the gift of the crown. The Lord Steward was the principal officer of the household below stairs in whom was vested the bulk of the patronage in that department... In 1539 he was accorded special precedence by statute. About 1540 the office was redesignated Lord Great Master but the title Lord Steward was revived in 1554... There were certain functions which the Lord Steward was obliged to undertake whenever Parliament was in being. There were the customary duties of keeping a table for the members of both Houses and recording the appearance of the Commons at the opening of Parliament to which was added in 1563 the statutory duty of presiding over the administration of the oath to members of that House."

As an indication of the status of the position within the Royal Household, the last holder of the post before it was left temporarily vacant from 1588-1615 was Robert Dudley, the 1st Earl of Leicester, and during the vacant period the 4th Earl of Derby and the 1st Earl of Nottingham each served at times as temporary Lord Steward.

RIGGSDALE or RIGSDALE, co. CORK

THE ORIGINAL MOATED SITE

Rigsdale is a Townland in Dunderrow Parish (686+ acres on map OS97 in the Barony of Kinalea and under the Poor Law Union of Kinsale) [S40][S43]. The Medieval Rural Settlement Project states that a moated site has been excavated at Rigsdale. It says: "Only five out of a possible thousand moated sites have been excavated to date in Ireland. It is argued that three of these excavated sites were the homes of substantial peasants of English origin. ...The moated sites at Rigsdale, Co. Cork, and ..., date to the late 13th century. Yet these two sites are not necessarily typical as they seem to be associated with lordship."

A full archaeological assessment of the site was carried out in 2000, to ensure that associated external archaeological features were not destroyed, after a planning application had been made for the construction of a house adjacent to it. The resultant report stated that "The moated site consists of a rectangular enclosure covering an area 38m x 30m. Excavations by Sweetman (1981) revealed an enclosing bank 2m high and a ditch, which reached a maximum depth of 2m. An Edward I penny (1279–80) was found under the south bank and provided an accurate date for the construction of the monument. The remains of a rectangular hall-like structure with stone footings were uncovered in the interior of the fort to the south. Numerous structural post-holes and eight informal hearths were also excavated. A square stone structure outside the north-east corner of the site was interpreted as a refuse collection area or latrine. The site is now completely overgrown."

The map below on the left shows the moated site is marked on large-scale modern Ordnance Survey maps (this one is based on a section of the O.S. map number 86 in the Discovery Series). It's not known whether Edward Riggs would have inhabited the hall at the moated site or possibly the buildings to the south-west, in the centre of the townland on the right-angle bend of the present day R607 road to Kinsale.

The map on the right shows the townland of Rigsdale (with its boundary outlined in red) plotted by the original OS survey in 1842. It is part of a larger A3 size Site-centred Town Map produced for me by Irish Townland Maps (and is reproduced here with their kind permission as copyright holders). They produce a large range of maps which can be viewed and ordered from their web site - and, serendipitously, their sample A1 size Full Colour First Edition Full Sheet is of Sheet 97 for County Cork which includes Dunderrow and Rigsdale Townland. To see the degree of detail shown on the original map they produced for me, you can view a section showing the centre of Rigsdale (recommended only if you are using broadband because although I reduced the number of colours used in the original - with a slight loss of quality - the image file is still 2,708KB in size).

THE BATTLE OF KINSALE

An entry under Dunderrow in a topographical dictionary states: "The doon, from which the parish derives its name, has been partly removed: the queen's forces secured themselves upon it in 1601, prior to the siege of Kinsale, when the Spanish forces were in possession"[S67]. In the Battle of Kinsale Lord Charles Mountjoy, England's Lord Deputy in Ireland, was heavily outnumbered but inflicted a decisive defeat on a combined force of Irish troops supported by their Catholic Spanish allies. Their defeat brought to an end the Nine Years War in Ireland (sometimes called the Elizabethan Wars).

After the War, the areas regained by Lord Mountjoy were seized and the lands granted to English Protestant landlords (under the Plantation policy). One of the many web-pages on the Battle of Kinsale states that "The battle took place approximately 4 miles North-West of the town on Christmas Eve morning near a creek off the Bandon river", which places it near the village of Dunderrow. I therefore thought that Lord Mountjoy may have granted land in the parish where he won his greatest victory to the son of the late Steward of his Household, and that the resultant estate was named after the son - RIGGSDALE, or Rigsdale.

Whilst this may still be true, subsequent research has shown that the parish of Dunderrow was split into two separate areas, as is shown in the first of the two maps below. This is based on information obtained from the Irish Town Lands web site maintained by Past Homes Limited, and it shows that the townland of Rigsdale is in the larger, northern area of the parish. There is a reference in the will of an Andrew Drinan in 1802 to "lands of Coolsekin (sic), Tureen (sic), Armagh beg (sic) and Riggsdale held under Sir John Riggs, Bt" [S42] (I believe this should refer to Sir John Edward RIGGS MILLER, Bt.), and it can be seen from the map that the first three townlands are all adjacent to Riggsdale. MAJOR EDWARD RIGGS gave leases for life in 1697-98 for the townlands of Dunkerreen and Killaminoge, which are in the adjacent parishes to Dunderrow.

The modern map on the right shows that the place now called Rigsdale is about 1 mile south-west of Halfway on the R607 road from Kinsale. Halfway is between Ballinhassig and Inishannon, on the main N71 road from Cork to Bandon.

THE NAME RIGGSDALE

Johnston-Liik quotes that "Major Riggs 'settled at Rigsdale about the year 1651'."

However the 1659 Census of Ireland lists "Edward Riggs, gent" as a 'titulado' - the person owning the title to land - in the Townland of "Island Effinshy" in the Parish of "Downdurrow" (a Daniel Stinchmaker was also listed as a titulado in the same Townland).[S94]

When SAMUEL RIGGS was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1680, he was described as "son and heir of Edward Riggs of Finchey Island Co.Cork, Ireland, Esq" which is either an error in transcribing or an attempt to anglicise the name 'Island Effinshy'.

Therefore the Townland of Riggsdale was originally known as 'Island Effinshy', certainly until 1659 and probably until 1680.

THE FIRST EDWARD RIGGS (of KINSALE?)

1. EDWARD RIGGS [EDWARD#1]
THE FIRST EDWARD RIGGS OF RIGGSDALE

Major EDWARD RIGGS, MP (EDWARD#2), is referred to by ffolliott as the second Edward Riggs of Riggsdale, county Cork. It is therefore reasonable to assume that there had been a first Edward Riggs (EDWARD#1), and EDWARD#2 could have been his son.

THOMAS DELAUNE

THOMAS DELAUNE (1635-1685) was born at Brinny (which, as can be seen from the map of Townlands above, is the next but one parish to the west of the northern half of Dunderrow parish, and only four miles or so from Riggsdale). "His parents were catholics and rented a farm under a landlord named RIGGS, who, struck by the quickness and capacity of Delaune, placed him at a priory at Kilchrash, about seven miles from Cork."[S65] He was educated there for 9 years until upwards of 16.[S65][S66]
This establishes that there was a RIGGS owning land near Riggsdale around 1642.

Delaune was later employed in Kinsale to a protestant who persuaded him to renounce catholicism, and that made him so persecuted that he emigrated to England. He became a schoolmaster in London, married the daughter of a Baptist preacher and became a Protestant Dissenter. He wrote a number of works including in 1683 "A Plea for the Non-Conformist". This was in the reign of Charles II and he was immediately tried and found guilty of writing "seditious and dangerous matters against the Government". Unable to pay the fine levied, he was kept in Newgate Prison with his wife and children, where all of them died in 1685. He was subsequently honoured as a Baptist Martyr.[S65]

This patronage of someone later persuaded to renounce catholicism and become an ardent protestant is consistent with Johnston-Liik's quote describing Major Riggs (EDWARD#2) as someone who 'did not fail to encourage proselytes or such who being under conviction [of the] abominations of Popery were discouraged by the threats of their relations or friends from coming over to the Protestant religion'. However, Johnston-Liik also states that "Major Riggs 'settled at Rigsdale about the year 1651'" and that he had been born about 1620, which if correct means he would only have been about 22 in 1642. It is therefore possible that the 'landlord named RIGGS' may have been EDWARD#1, or a close relative of his.

GRANT OF ARMS

Nothing has yet been discovered about EDWARD#1, and no link has yet been confirmed with the Steward who received the Grant of Arms. However, I believe that the Lord Steward, who apparently died in 1600, might have been an ancestor of EDWARD#1, and the timescale for the birth of EDWARD#2 (before 1620) suggests the Lord Steward may have been EDWARD#1's father.

This belief is based on the rarity of the surname, especially in Ireland, the above facts about Riggsdale and the Battle of Kinsale, and the fact that, when RICHMOND RIGGS was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1725, his father THOMAS RIGGS was described as an "armiger", i.e. a 'person entitled to heraldic arms', which is also a rarity. Those Arms were therefore probably passed down from the RIGGS who was Lord Steward.

In theory, Thomas should have displayed the arms of the Lord Steward with a mark of cadency to denote he had been the fifth-born son of EDWARD#2. According to the strict rules of heraldry, because the arms of the Lord Steward already included a mullet as a mark of cadency to denote a third-born son, then (assuming EDWARD#2 inherited the arms through a chain of first-born sons from the Lord Steward, i.e. no other marks of cadency applied) Thomas should have displayed the arms with an annulet (a fifth-born son) on a mullet (a first-born son). However, adhering to that rule through successive generations would soon become impracticable, and so such a system has rarely survived a second generation.

INTERMARRIAGES

Edward#2 and his descendants intermarried with some of the highest-status families in Ireland:

EDWARD#2 married as his third wife Anne ALLEN, daughter of Captain Stephen ALLEN of Killoning, co.Tipperary and Elizabeth WEBB alias RICHMOND.
EDWARD#2's son ALLEN married Mary COX, daughter of "the great" Sir Richard COX, Lord High Chancellor of Ireland.[S35].
ALLEN's daughter CATHERINE married Harding Parker, Esq., first cousin twice removed of Colonel ST.JOHN WEBB.
EDWARD#2's son STEPHEN married Margaret WEBB alias RICHMOND, the daughter of James WEBB alias RICHMOND. James was the brother of Elizabeth, STEPHEN's mother, and therefore Margaret WEBB alias RICHMOND was STEPHEN's first cousin.
EDWARD#2's son THOMAS is said to have married Judith ALLEN.
EDWARD#2's daughter ELIZABETH married John NEVILL, the great-grandson of LORD BERGAVENNY.

Some of these relationships may have arisen from EDWARD#2's own status, as Deputy Governor of Cork and MP.

But some may have resulted from his possible descent from the Lord Steward to Charles, Lord Mountjoy. Charles's surname was BLOUNT and his grandfather was a third cousin of Elizabeth BLOUNT the wife of Nicholas ST. JOHN. This is documented on the separate page showing Extracts from The Family Trees of Charles Blount and Oliver St John. Oliver, who was the son of Elizabeth and Nicholas, became Lord Deputy of Ireland after Lord Mountjoy's successor (Sir Arthur Chichester). Their daughter Catherine ST JOHN married Edmund RICHMOND alias WEBB of Rodbourne Cheney, Wiltshire, although his relationship (if any) with the family of WEBB alias RICHMOND, into which EDWARD#2 and his son STEPHEN married, has not been established.


© 1999 - 2006 Geoff Riggs [the RIGGS Surname Study] and the original contributors, if any This information may be exchanged between other researchers into RIGGS families BUT must not be sold in any form whatsoever: database & intellectual property rights reserved.
	Total visitors to page since it was initially published on 31JAN2000:
	Any queries? contact: webmaster@riggs.org.uk Text in red denotes recent addition/amendment Contents were last updated: 14th August 2008

GRANT OF ARMS

THE OFFICE OF LORD STEWARD

THE ORIGINAL MOATED SITE

THE BATTLE OF KINSALE

THE NAME RIGGSDALE

1.

EDWARD RIGGS [EDWARD#1] THE FIRST EDWARD RIGGS OF RIGGSDALE

THOMAS DELAUNE

GRANT OF ARMS

INTERMARRIAGES

EDWARD RIGGS [EDWARD#1]
THE FIRST EDWARD RIGGS OF RIGGSDALE