 1849 - 1867 (18 years)
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| Name |
Alexander MAKIM |
| Born |
1849 |
Lurgan, Parish of Cloone, County Leitrim, Ireland  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Marital status |
Never Married |
| Died |
1867 |
Mohill, County Leitrim, Ireland |
- Ref:Ireland, Civil Registration Deaths Index, 1864-1958
|
| Person ID |
I20320 |
Kirkpatrick Family |
| Last Modified |
19 Oct 2016 |
| Father |
John MAKIM, ,of Cloone, County Leitrim, Ireland, b. 1811, Ireland , d. 5 Jan 1881, Lurgan, Parish of Cloone, County Leitrim, Ireland (Age 70 years) |
| Mother |
Ellen Jane SCANLON, b. 1815, Ireland , d. 17 Jul 1879, Lurgan, Parish of Cloone, County Leitrim, Ireland (Age 64 years) |
| 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.
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| Family ID |
F25 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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