Pawnbrokers in Clare and Limerick, 1800s, master list

[smcarberry]

Joynt, Wm, 1828 Limk p'broker, Derrymore surety.jpg (17.31 KiB) Viewed 7501 times

Clare p'brokers 1835, '36.jpg (56.41 KiB) Viewed 7501 times

This is the link to an extensive British report on pawnbroking in Ireland in the 1800s. The appendix with names and locations starts on the EPPI p. 164, with a table of contents appearing on p. 164. The EPPI name for this report is "Pawnbroking in Ireland." Count Clare listings appear in various places: pp. 172, 176,177, 180, 183, 185, 198. It seems that a small number of people continued in this business in Clare: James Byrne, Michael Byrne, Thomas Curran, Anne Bunton, Patrick Burke, William Lardner, plus the ones shown in the screenshot of p. 177. The chart showing details on the volume of business for each pawnbroker starts at EPPI p. 162. As the screenshot shows, there are many details on the sureties that are helpful for genealogy. Even the Limerick section is useful, as indicated in the other screenshot, from EPPI p. 205. The link might start on EPPI p. 217 which is the Limerick city section. Note that the city and county sections do not appear next to each other.

http://eppi.dippam.ac.uk/documents/1119 ... ges/257924

posted by Sharon Carberry
not researching this topic

[Polycarp]

Thanks for drawing this valuable source to our attention, Sharon.

If a student of economics or economic history is looking for a dissertation topic, the story of capital and access to capital in nineteenth century Clare would be a most interesting topic. I imagine it would involve the monts de piete, the pawnbrokers and the loan funds societies (the latter the subject of a parliamentary committe enquiry in May 1855).

This tale is largely untold and I imagine would be most revealing on many fronts.

Polycarp

[smcarberry]

A definitive treatment on the flow of money to the upper classes of the 1800s in Clare would be a wonderful addition to the Local Studies Centre. We here in the U.S. have had the recent spectacle of stimulus money and bail-outs of our economic corporate giants, so it would be intriguing to know more about Irish loans made throughout the 19th century, well detailed in various reports appearing now on the EPPI site. I show this one for East Clare, with names of landed gentry some of whom were evicting with one hand and accepting huge loans with the other. I am supposing that such huge amounts of money were obtained for public works that were intended to provide employment, but in that era without government regulations I wonder how much of it actually trickled down to families. I don't suppose there were building permits and planning permissions back then, to track what improvements were actually done (rather than maintenance or embellishment of estate houses).

I should state my bias regarding this, as my family was evicted in Dec 1849 from its rural townland in East Clare along with several dozen other people. Their houses were flattened to the ground.

Sharon C.

East Clare landlords' loans 1848,'49.jpg (91.09 KiB) Viewed 7448 times