Esther Ann MAKIM

Notes:

Died:
Ref:Ireland, Civil Registration Deaths Index, 1864-1958

Esther married William SCANLON, ,Land Steward,of Lough Rynn.Son of Francis Scanlon on 9 Aug 1880 in Drumlish, County Longford, Ireland. William and died. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Married:
Ref:Ireland, Civil Registration Marriages Index, 1845-1958

Notes:

(Research):
The Makim name is recorded in the 1674 Hearth Money Rolls for Staffordshire ,U.K and it is quite possible a branch of this family was transplanted by the English landlords to Tipperary in Ireland ,to run their farms in that area.This will require additional research to ascertain a link,if any.

(Record keepers and census takers assumed that tenant farmers ,labourers and servants were all illiterate,which many were in fact, and would use the phonetic spelling i.e they wrote the name as it sounded,resulting in much confusion in later times when researching family history) Some possible variations are Makem, Macom, Macoom, Meakom


Makemie, McKemey was a name not uncommon in the Fanad area of Northern Ireland in the 17th and 18th century ,and McKim,McKimm was of the Ramelton area.

John married Ellen Jane SCANLON. Ellen was born in 1815 in Ireland; died on 17 Jul 1879 in Lurgan, Parish of Cloone, County Leitrim, Ireland. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Married:
A young 24 year old by the name of William John Makim(surname spelt as Macken in the Dublin Gazette of the time) was murdered on the 2nd of April 1878 ,when the carriage carrying William Sydney Clements ,the hated 3rd Lord of Leitrim,was attacked by several of his tenants,about three miles from Milford,Donegal. Whether this lad is a nephew of John and Jane is not certain, although his age would suggest he could be.His widowed mother, Sarah Makim,of Lough Rynn ,was granted seven hundred pounds compensation for his death by the Donegal Grand Jury.

Killing of the Earl of Leitrim

In the decades before land reform in Ireland the Leitrim Estate was one of the largest in County Donegal, and included large swathes of land in the West of Ireland as well as Donegal, where the family ran their affairs from their seat at Manor Vaughan outside Carrigart.

The Estate leased 12,176 acres in Fanad, around half the area of the parish, from Trinity College, Dublin, along with a further 42,669 acres around Milford. This was the greater part of their Estate, as their land in Galway, Leitrim and Kildare came to 40,655 acres in total. William Sydney Clements, who held the title of 3rd Earl of Leitrim from 1854 to 1878, was a quick-tempered man who was forever falling out with his tenants. Constant criticism from liberal newspapers had little effect on Leitrim's behaviour, but the way in which he met his end still caused shock and outrage.

Early on the Tuesday morning of the 2nd April 1878, he was on his way to Letterkenny from Manor Vaughan when he, his driver Charles Buchanan and John Makim his clerk were set upon at Woodquarter, on the western shore of Mulroy Bay. All three lost their lives. Although no-one was ever convicted of his murder, there is little doubt that he was killed by three of his tenants from Fanad, Neil Shiels of Doaghmore, Michael McElwee of Ballywhoriskey, and Michael Heraghty of Tullyconnell. Shiels and Heraghty were Fenians and McIlwee was a member of the secret society known as the Ribbonmen.
Heraghty was the only one of the three arrested and charged with the murder, but 6 other men were charged with him: his brother Patrick, the three brothers Anthony, Bernard and Thomas McGrenaghan of Gortnatraw North, and their first cousins Anthony and Michael McGrenaghan from the same townland. Circumstantial evidence - a gun butt and a piece of paper used to wrap lead - linking Michael Heraghty and the McGrenaghans respectively to the murder was found at the crime scene.
It is quite possible that the evidence was strong enough to convict Heraghty but he died of typhus while in custody in Lifford Jail. His funeral cortege was met by a crowd of 3,000 when it approached the Fanad peninsula. The others were never brought to trial and released in February 1879.

Shiels lived the remainder of his life in Fanad until his death in 1924, living long enough not only to see the end of landlordism but an Irish Free State.