11 - Catalogue of the Contents of the Rochestown Capuchin Local Archives

11

Catalogue of the Contents of the Rochestown Capuchin Local Archives

2 pp; manuscript

A catalogue listing the administrative, legal, and historical records preserved within the local archives of the Franciscan Capuchin Monastery in Rochestown, County Cork, compiled and signed by Fr. Martin Hyland OFM Cap., Guardian. The record comprises an inventory of the community’s safe deposits, institutional chronicles, and title deeds tracing the land and personnel development of the Irish Capuchin Province from 1852 up to 1923. The first leaf chronicles foundational property and construction documents, detailing an 1852 abstract of title and an 1860 conveyance involving Miss Ellen Maria Harris Purcell, an 1873 novitiate building contract made by Barry & McMullen with Fr. Cherubini Mazzini, historical notes on the 1878 building of the Rochestown Church, and institutional records documenting the 1886 transfer of the Seraphic School. It also inventories correspondence from Dr. O’Callaghan (Bishop of Cork) regarding the Father Mathew Centenary, letters from Fr. Bernard of Andermatt, Minister General, and biographical notes on benefactors Timothy Mahony and Edward Dunne. The second leaf tracks ongoing estate management and community life, logging letters from Mr. Stanton, Solicitor, regarding the purchase of the Rochestown woodlands, insurance policies, plans for the premises’ water supply and sewage networks, an unbuilt church plan, and a plan of the Rochestown Cemetery matching names to the religious buried therein. It concludes by noting the storage of other house papers, including wills of members of the Order, files relative to the establishment of the Third Order, the private diary of Pierce A. Riordan, records of missions, and a master register containing the ‘Names of those received into the Order since Oct. 28th, 1875’.

ISAD(G) 2nd edition