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Descendants of James Orr (1793-1835) James Orr,
a son of William Orr and Mary Appleby, was born
in Ireland ca. 1793 and died on 6 Nov 1835 aged 42 at Parramatta, NSW,
Australia, buried Parramatta
Cemetery 1,
2.
He married in 1815 3 in
the Diocese of Cork & Ross in County Cork, Ireland, Sarah Spencer,
born ca. 1799 in Ireland and died 17 Dec 1841 aged 42
in Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW 1,
2, daughter of Ebenezer
Spencer and Ann Baker who married in County Cork in 1791.
Parramatta Cemetery Headstone Surname Origins
The ORR surname is
common throughout the English-speaking world and especially in
Scotland, Ulster, the United States, Canada, and in northern England.
It is considered to have numerous origins being that it is
derived from an Old Norse byname; a Gaelic nickname; an Old English
topographical name or similar place-name. In Scotland the
name is first known recorded in Renfrewshire and it is suggested
in Ireland the surname originates from the Anglicisation of
the old name of a sept of the Campbell's in Renfrewshire earlier
spelt Mac Ure. Historian Edward MacLysaght suggests the name in Scotland derives from the parish of Orr in Kirkcudbrightshire through which the river Orr flowed. A tradition of some of the Orrs in Northern Ireland has it that they descend from outlawed brothers whose original family name was McLean who crossed this river and then made their way by boat to Donaghadee in County Down in the early 17th century, where having escaped persecution, they took the river's name as their surname and settled in Newtownards. In Ireland the name is common only in Ulster and mainly found in County Antrim, County Down, County Londonderry and County Tyrone. The first recorded evidence of the name in Ulster is of those who came from Scotland in 1606 with Sir Hugh Montgomery to settle in North Down on lands ceded by the O'Neill family. One writer on the surname origin found that the earliest record of the name in Ireland is of a family in County Tyrone in 1655 and another that the earliest was a Richard Orr of Clontarf in 1563. Thus the occurrence of the Orr surname in Ireland is relatively recent 4. County Cork - IrelandTo have come from Ireland,
no matter how long
is to be of Ireland, in some part forever.
County Cork in the province of Munster is the largest
county in Ireland. On its east coast the city of Cork
was founded in the sixth century by the establishment
of a monastery and school on the site by St. Finbarr.
In the early ninth century the Norse Vikings raided and
later settled in the town establishing it as a trading post.
Next came the Normans in the twelfth century who brought
over Anglo-Norman settlers who like the Norsemen
before them gradually merged with the native Irish
and adopted the Irish way of life.
InnishannonJohn Harding Cole writing in 1903 wrote that Innishannon in County Cork was an ancient place mentioned in the twelfth century manuscript "The Book of Leinster" as having been plundered by the Danes in the ninth century circa 838 5. Before the building of bridges over rivers there were only tracks with river crossings at fords. Innishannon developed on the banks of the Brandon River as it was the first place up-river from Kinsdale harbour where at low tide it was possible for animal drawn wagons to cross the river which led to the crossing there becoming the main commercial route linking West Cork with the rest of County Cork. The village developed around the ford and became a large walled community with several surrounding castles built by major landowners etc. History records the lands of Innishannon were granted by Oliver Cromwell to an English supporter Captain Edward Adderley whose descendant Thomas Adderley (1712-1791) about 1750 built houses in the village and introduced some linen weavers from France and about 1765 he and son Thomas Hale brought French Huguenot refugees to the area to develop a silk production and silk fabric manufacturing industry. Land was leased to them and houses built. In 1766 the Royal Dublin Society resolved that a gold medal be presented to Thomas Adderley for his large plantation of white Mulberry trees in Innishannon. However the plantation of Mulberry trees planted for the feeding and rearing of the silk worms to produce the silk thread failed to thrive dooming the venture to failure and in time it was abandoned with most of the Huguenots leaving for other areas.However Innishannon was well suited for linen making as the Bandon river provided good water for bleaching of the flax grown as a cash crop by local farmers on land well suited to that pursuit. To assist in the establishment of the industry on a major scale Thomas Adderley brought a number of protestant weaver families from Northern Ireland and to each leased a house and three acres of land. As recounted in an article based on what former Innishannon C of I minister John Harding Cole wrote in 1907 among them were the Orrs who became the principals in the industry and managed the mills and associated infrastructure and the area in Innishannon known as Bleach Green through which river water flowed in channels to bleach the flax. The industry in Innishannon and nearby Bandon became a very large employer of spinners and weavers with hand looms in many of the houses. Pigot's Directory for 1824 had re Bandon that - "the staple trade of the town is that of spinning, and manufacturing cotton into corduroys, &c., which if continued to be carried on with that spirit and activity that now characterise the manufacturers will undoubtedly make it one of the most flourishing towns in this part of the kingdom". The optimism was misplaced. Although like most industries there were also periods of ups and downs in markets for linen and cotton goods it was not until 1824 there was a major market failure which may have been the catalyst for the decision of James and wife Sarah it was time to hit the road for pastures greener down under in Australia. On 23 February 1825 a Cork newspaper reported that 1100 weavers were idle in nearby up-river Bandon and the women and children thrown out of employment exceeded that number causing great distress. The 1837 Lewis Dictionary had the much reduced in population village of Innishannon as then comprising 108 houses with 653 inhabitants and that the manufacturing of cotton once carried out to a considerable extent was almost extinct. The Orrs of Innishannon were also involved in flour milling where it is said their mills were erected near the eastern end of the village. Establishing James (1793-1835) was of the second generation of the Orr family of Inishannon village in Inishannon (sic) parish, located about 23 km south-west of Cork city, is that his death notice in the Kerry Evening News of 17 July 1836 stated he died in Parramatta in New South Wales and was "of Innishannon" 6. Likewise to his sister Hannah, who at a court hearing in 1845 stated in evidence she had attended Miss Milliken's school in Queen-street in Cork city, James Orr would likely have obtained his early education at the Innishannon Charter School before furthering it in Cork. His brother John was an attorney-at-law and as evidenced by the responsible public service positions held by James during his ten years in Australia he would also have had a good level of education. In writing of his ca. 1788 born father John, who left the Innishannon school at the age of ten to attend the Naval School at New Cross, Major Meade (later General Sir Richard) wrote that the village schoolmaster named Horhan had grounded his pupils well, perhaps in spite of or in consequence of having scrupulously obeyed the injunction against 'sparing the rod ' 7. Today (2017) linked pages on the village school web page have summaries of the history of the village including a mention of the role of the Orrs in the carrying on of the linen manufacturing industry there. Many orally handed down stories of long ago whilst often containing an element of fact became garbled when passed down from generation to generation. One in that category concerning James is that he was a British army officer serving in Ireland that was correct in so far as from 1812 although not British he was a part-time army officer in Ireland. However completely incorrect was the claim that after land he had purchased in Ireland was seized during an insurrection he emigrated to Australia. What insurrection and seized by whom? The Orrs of Innishannon were not Catholic they were a protestant family. It is assumed the insurection referred to would have been the 1798 one when James was only five years of age. In short the story was a garbled nonsense 8. Military ServiceJames was a part-time army officer. In 1907 in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society (JCHAS) Cole wrote at the time of the 1798 rebellion in Ireland that Edward Hale Adderley, the son of Thomas Adderley, raised a corps of Yeomanry at Innishannon who were not exclusively Protestant nicknamed the "The Blackbirds" due to the dark uniform worn, and subsequently another corps was raised consisting of about 100 men all of whom were Protestant. In the first months of 1812 there were a series of alarms that arose from rumours that reached the government in England late in 1811 of a French scheme to invade Ireland. All references noted for the raising of a second corps had no date for its raising. However a 1820 War-Office publication listing the officers of the kingdom's militia, yeomanry cavalry, and part-time volunteer infantry had the unit's official name as "Innishannon Infantry" and indicates the date of raising was 22 January 1812 being listed therein as the date of appointment of all three officers. The then Captain was Philip Ellard, the 2nd Captain William Orr, and 2nd Lieutenant James Orr. Seemingly William was 1776 born William and the 2nd Lieutenant his then 19 years old half-brother James. On 4 Feb 1822 Freeman's Journal carried an announcement that the Lord Lieutenant had signed commissions promoting James from Sub Lieutenant to First to fill the vacancy created by the death of Lieutenant Baker and appointing Chamber Corkers, who was later to become Captain of the infantry unit, to fill the Sub Lieutenant position made vacant by the promotion of James. Cole wrote of Corkers that he held a large property about Innishannon and built "Downdaniel House" and afterwards "Cor Castle". In the 1825 War-Office publication of officers names James was no longer listed having that year departed Ireland for Australia 9. A century later during the Irish War of Independence, with the Innishannon volunteer infantry unit long disembodied, following the December 1920 burning out of the centre of Cork city by the British forces and before the 11 July 1821 truce, of the stately homes surrounding Innishannon known as "Big Houses" on 25 Jun 1821 the IRA destroyed with petrol or explosives the above mentioned Cor Castle and three others - River View House, Prospect House and Innishannon House.History & Genealogy
When the Orr family of
Innishannon first arrived in County Cork and from where
has not been established and likely never will be. The
1787 Lucas directory listed both a William and a
James Orr as cotton manufacturers in Innishannon.
Although unproven they were likely brothers but
they could have been uncle and nephew. James was
likely the James Orr who married Martha Reynolds in
1788 who is said to have died in 1804. William who
died in 1814 by his second marriage to Mary
Appleby was the father of 1793 born James who
emigrated to Australia with his family in 1825. All
that is known is the Orrs likely settled in the village
of Innishannon in the 1770s and most likely came
from the north of Ireland where most Orrs were of
Scottish descent and the weaving industry was well
established. |