Winters Genealogy
Winters farm in Upper Sunville
The Winters Farm in Upper Sunville
The townland of Upper Sunville is located within Particles Parish, near the town of Ardpatrick. It was historically part of the Castle Oliver estate and was originally called Ballingreny. The first mention of the Winters family in Upper Sunville was in 1829 in the Voter Registration list for John WINTER. The lease of the land at Upper Sunville gave him the entitlement to vote.
The farm was recorded in a valuation survey of Upper Sunville in 1849, the land being described as “Arable & pasture good sharp brown clayey soil medium depth on a calcareous gravely subsoil 28 acres 0 roods and 6 perches.” The subsequent Griffith’s Valuation of 1851 described the farm as being just over 28 acres with an annual value of £23–5–0 leased from Fred. Chas. Trench Esq. and Miss E. O. Gascoigne.
The following map from 1852 shows the location of the farm as plot number 23 with its boundary marked in red. The farmhouse itself is marked by the lower case letter “a” inside the plot. The close proximity to Castle Oliver itself in the lower right of the map is apparent.
Periodically, the valuation carried out by Griffiths was revised and documented in Valuation Revision Books; these show the continued occupancy of the farm and land as tenants of the Castle Oliver Estate, until a major change in 1898.
The Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1891 allowed the Irish Land Commission to advance funds to tenants to buy their land from their landlords, with repayments spread over decades. Andrew Winters took advantage of the scheme and secured an advance of £431 on April 15, 1898 to purchase the farm from the Hon. W. C. Trench of the Castle Oliver Estate. The area of land was listed as 28 acres 0 roods 6 perches, with a rateable value of £28 and a rental value of £25. The annuity rate for repayment of the advance to the government was typically 4%. The 1891 Act estimated the repayment period to be around 49 years.
Winters farmhouse in Upper Sunville ca 1912
Winters farmhouse, derelict, ca 1970s
The photo (above left) from around 1912 shows the farmhouse as being a classic Irish single-story thatched house. It was described in the 1911 Census of Ireland as 3 rooms occupied by 4 people, with 3 outbuildings.
Subsequent to the purchase of the freehold of the farm in 1898 by Andrew Winters, it passed on his death in 1917 to Joseph, (his first son by his second marriage to Rachael Mahoney). Andrew’s daughter Georgina Jane Winters married George Francis Henderson in 1918; according to the Valuation Revision Books, their son Francis Sydney Henderson took over the farm from his uncle Joseph Winters in 1952. It was finally sold in the 1970s, after being in the family’s possession for over 140 years.
A new house was built alongside the old farmhouse, which was still standing but derelict, as shown in the photo (above right) from the 1970s. The present-day entrance on Google maps shows only a small change in the layout of the farm from the 1852 map.