Voyages In Time ~ Family, Friends & Places

"SMYTHE of BARBAVILLA" (Westmeath, Ireland)
descended from Thomas Smyth (b.1520) who married Jane Layton.
William Smyth 1750-1810 (Billy the Saint) married (1783) Catherine Meade Ogle (1763-1826) elder daughter and eventual heiress of William Meade Ogle, MP for Drogheda, and his wife Mary Barlow.: Smyth(e) Barbavilla Line - the direct continuation > its conclusion.

The children of William Smyth and Catherine Meade Ogle were: (7 sons and 3 daughters)

1. Ralph Smyth (1784-1814) "of Newpark" married (1808) Elizabeth Lyster.

Their eldest son, William Barlow Smythe (1808-1889) DL, JP, High Sheriff of Co. Westmeath 1832, married (February 1837) Lady Emily Monck. She was the 5th daughter of 1st (and last) Earl of Rathdowne. She died 22nd. November, 1837. There was one daughter of the marriage, Emily Smythe, b. 8/11/1837 and d. 1842.

Their second son, Henry Matthew Smythe (1810-1893) (of Dublin) married (1855) Maria Coote.She was the 2nd. daughter of Capt. Robert Carr Coote, 8th Royal Irish Hussars. (Maria was murdered (shot) in her brother-in-law's carriage on 2nd April 1882) (see Note 1 below)

A third son was born in 1812. He died an infant.

The fourth son, Frederick Smythe 1814 -1897 was a Major in the 66th Regiment. He married (1841) Ellen Johnson (d. 1901) daughter of Benjamin Johnson of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There were four children of the marriage: Henry Gerald Smythe, Ellen Smythe, Emma Smythe and Helena Smythe.

1851 Census Oxford

11/42/ST JOHN STREET/50/
FREDERICK SMYTHE /HEAD/MAR/37//LIEUT ARMY STAFF OFFICER OF PENSIONERS/-//IRL
ELLEN SMYTHE /W/MAR//31//YKS/THIRSKE
ELLEN S SMYTHE /D///9/SCHOLAR/LAN/SALFORD/
EMMA M SMYTHE /D///5/SCHOLAR AT HOME/OXF/ST MARY MAGDALEN/
HENRY G SMYTHE /SON//3///OXF/ST MARY MAGDALEN/
HELENA E SMYTHE /D///1//OXF/ST MARY MAGDALEN/
MARY WOODCOCK /SERV/U//27/COOK/BRK/CUMNOR/
ELIZABETH BUBB /SERV/U//24/HOUSE SERV/OXF/ST PETER LE BAILY/
AMY POOLE /SERV/U//29/NURSE/WIL/ASHTON KEYNES/

The 5 daughters of Henry Matthew Smythe and Maria Coote were -

Margaret Althea Maria Smythe married (1880) her cousin, William Edward Smyth (d.1890) JP of Glananea Co, Westmeath. She died in 1945 leaving two sons and a daughter. See line of Thomas Smyth, (High Sheriff of Co. Antrim in 1691) - progenitor of Smyth(e) families in Drumcree, Glananea and Coole - Westmeath.

Elizabeth Ada Mary Smythe married firstly (1878) Christopher Bailey of Moorock House, Co. Clare. She married secondly (1885) James Hume Dodgson. She married thirdly Clement Locke-Smiles. She died in 1927.

Louisa Ellen Lyster Smythe died unmarried.

Lydia Lucy Lyster Smythe married (1887) Robert Darley Guinness (d.1938) JP of Wootton Hall, Wootton Wawen, Warwickshire. She died in 1947. There were children of the marriage.

Frances Maud Lyster Smythe O.B.E. 1919 married (1891) Sir Henry George Richards K.B.E., K.C., M.A., (d. 1928) Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature for the NW Provinces of India. He was the eldest surviving son of John Henry Richards, Chairman of Quarter Sesions for Co. Mayo. Frances Maud Lyster Smythe died in 1938. There were children of the marriage. One source says there were no children. (Follow link for information from Christopher Richards to whom gratitude is extended.)

The son of Henry Matthew Smythe and Maria Coote was -

William Lyster Smythe of Barbavilla (1859-1920). He married (1885) Agnes Mary Henrietta Litton (d. 1952). She was the only child of Capt. Richard Weld Litton and Mary Stewart, youngest daughter of Sir Hugh Stewart 2nd. Bt. of Athenree.

Their first child was a daughter, Gladys Mary Lyster Smythe, who was born in 1887. She married (1922) Thomas Henry Wilson MD, (d. 1941) elder son of Captain John Wilson. She died in 1961. There were no children of the marriage.

Born in 1890, their first son, Henry Ingoldsby Lyster Smythe of Barbavilla, married (1919) Elizabeth Palaemona Unger-Vetlesen (of Jersey Ch..Is. with Norwegian ancestry). They had no children. In 1955 Barbavilla was sold by the family. He died in 1968. End of 'Barbavilla' Smyth(e)s Line.

Their second son, Cecil St. George Lyster Smythe (1895-1948) married (1933) Patricia Angelina Speevack (daughter of John Smart of New York, USA). Their daughter and only child, Valerie Barbara Lyster Smythe (b.1934) married (1966) John Anthony Bunn. He was the only child of Frank William Bunn of Twickenham, Middlesex. Children of John Anthony Bunn and Valerie Barbara Lyster Smythe : Hazel Jean Bunn and Richard John Bunn.

Note: The Bunn family's Douglas Bunn is a celebrated equestrian in his own right. A tireless promoter and patron of British (and international) eventing, he has ensured that Hickstead, in England, remains as one of the great equestrian venues; it owes its status as an international arena to his vision and determination.

Born in 1897, their youngest son, Army Captain, Richard Litton Lyster Smythe, drowned in Palastine in 1919.

In 1903, Elizabeth Olwen Lyster Smythe was born. She married (1922) Giuseppe Fasulo (dec'd), the youngest son of Giovanni Fasulo of Rome. There was one son of the marriage, Richard Smythe Fasulo

She married secondly (1933) Capt. Kenneth Henry Litton Mackenzie RN (d. 1970), son of E.L.T. Mackenzie of Worthing, Sussex. Daughters of the marriage were Fiona Elizabeth Jean Mackenzie b.1935 and Althea Mackenzie b. 1938. The latter married (1961) Marcus Baillie-Gage.

2. William Meade Smythe - born 1785 - of Deerpark, Devon, MP for Drogheda 1822-1826. Married, 1815, (LDS has ! 17 March 1851) Lady Isabella Mary Howard (d. 1840) eldest daughter of 3rd. Earl of Wicklow (d.1818) and Eleanor Caulfield. (d. 1807)

This Eyre family text may be found via the internet. "John, Lord Eyre d. 30 Sep., 1781, leaving issue an only dr., the Hon. Mary Eyre m. Hon. James Caulfield, son of the 3rd Lord Charlemont. They were both lost at sea with their infant child in a hurricane between England and Ireland in 1775, their surviving issue being James Eyre Caulfield and Eleanor Caulfield, who m. the Hon. William Howard, 3rd Earl of Wicklow."

William Meade Smythe died in 1866. Children of the marriage: Eleanor Smythe (died unmarried), Catherine Stuart Smythe (died 1840 unmarried) and Isabella Smythe (died 1856 unmarried).

3. Henry Meade Smythe (1787-1862) (aka "Tiger Smythe") - the family of Ronald and Patricia Smythe.

4. John Smythe (the Rev.) 1791-1850 - Rector of Dromiskin, Co. Louth. Prebendary of Louth in St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral, Drogheda (1840). He married Harriet Elford Wyatt (d. 1842), daughter of Rev. John Wyatt of Suffolk.

5. Michael Smythe 1795-1812 - lost at sea.
6. Robert Leavens Smythe 1796-1812 - died young.
7. Frederick Smythe 1798-1821 - died unmarried in Ceylon.

i. Altha Maria Smythe 1789-1879 married the Rev. Thomas Rice Fosbery, (d.1828) 3rd son of George Fosbery of Kildimo, Co. Limerick. There were no children of the marriage.

ii. Frances Ann Smythe 1792-1850 married Col. Thomas Francis Wade, CB, Deputy Adjudant-General of Ireland, (d.1846) the youngest son of Robert Wade of Clonebraney, Co. Meath. There were children of the marriage.

iii. Catherine Elizabeth Smythe 1800-1878 married (1819) John Hamilton (d.1847) of The Grove, Co. Meath, 3rd son of Henry Hamilton of Ballymacoll, Co. Meath. There were children of the marriage.

In April 1882, the murder of an innocent woman on her way home from a village church in County Westmeath sent shock waves throughout the civilised world. This study sets out to examine the murder in the context of the local tenant community, which in turn is evaluated in reference to landlord-tenant relations in Westmeath and the broader context of the Irish land question. Moreover this study contributes to the existing knowledge of the land question by appraising the complexities associated with the Barbavilla murder, which on the face of it appears to be simply one of the many agrarian crimes perpetrated during the land war. However, the author demonstrates that it also had a unique quality due to certain local characteristics.