Reside Collection

The Reside Collection 

The collection is the product of the professional lives of Samuel Wilson Reside and Major Gerald Reside who were architects and engineers and Margaret Reside, who was a solicitor. There are also elements that reflect their interests and hobbies, primarily local history. 

There are around 12,000 artefacts, mainly archival, dating from 1708 to the 1990s in the Collection, which is wide ranging and sheds light on many aspects of local history in the Newry area. 

Estate Records 

The papers include estate records such as rental books, titles deeds, maps and estate surveys. The records relate to the Earls of Kilmorey, Marquises of Downshire, the Hall family of Narrow Water and the Ross family of Rostrevor. The Collection also contains some documents relating to the Fivey, Meade and Richardson estates and a number of smaller landowners. 

Rental volumes relating mainly to the Kilmorey estate can be found within the Collection. Part of this estate was centred in Newry and the other part in Mourne (Kilkeel area). The earliest volume from the Newry estate is dated 1802 and that from the Mourne estate is dated 1829. The rentals provide lists of the heads of households in each townland. They also give details of expenses and note the transactions that were carried out between the estate and various businesses and tradesmen in the locality. Included in these rental books is a complete series of rentals for the Newry estate for the Great Famine period, 1844 to 1851.  

There are number of title deeds ranging from 1708 to 1906 and these refer to land transactions in Newry, Kilkeel and surrounding areas. There is also an abundance of Kilmorey estate maps including a series of fifty-eight small, but exceptionally detailed, lease maps (1783 – 1900) showing tenants’ holdings in various townlands in the Kilkeel area. Another interesting set of maps are those belonging to the Kilmorey’s Newry estate, some of which date as far back as 1781.  

Among the Downshire estate records in the Collection are seventeen leases (1755 – 1840) relating to property in the ‘Low Ground’ or Hill Street in Newry.  

The material relating to the estate of the Hall family comprise a number of 19th century maps of part of Rostrevor. There are a few leases concerning the Ross estate, but the most significant document relating to this estate is a very detailed (although damaged) 1810 survey of the estate and village of Rostrevor.  Also included are a number of maps relating to the Hall estate especially a set of hand coloured maps relating to their estate at Mullaghglass dating to 1835.  

Encumbered Estate Records 

In the years following the Great Famine, many large landed estates were burdened with debt as they were unable to collect rents due to emigration and the general state of the country. In 1849 the Encumbered Estates Court was established to sell off parts of, or entire, estates on behalf of landlords who could no longer afford to keep their land. Prior to the sale of the estate a detailed rental or catalogue of the estate was produced. The Collection includes many of these rentals from the locality and cover both urban and rural areas around Newry, Warrenpoint and Rostrevor (county Down) and also Omeath, Carlingford and Ballymascanlon (county Louth). The rentals vary in detail but generally give the occupier’s name, the size of the holding, the type of lease and (if it applies) the lives on the lease. A number of the rentals also contain maps which show where each property was located and are invaluable for any researcher studying the area in the immediate aftermath of the Famine.   

Architectural Plans and Survey Maps 

The architectural plans in the Collection drawn by Samuel Wilson Reside and Major Gerald Reside range in date from the late 19th century to the 1980s. These relate to a broad range of architectural and engineering projects including private houses, schools, commercial and business practices including factories and industrial installations.  The architectural plans are complemented by day books.   

There are a large number of hand drawn maps which were prepared for a variety of purposes including land conveyance, as evidence in legal cases and to illustrate engineering and architectural projects. The conveyance maps in particular are an important source for the reconstruction of the historic topography of Newry and Warrenpoint and the agrarian history of townlands in the region.  

Land Purchase Commission Papers   

The Land Commission was set up as a result of the Land Act of 1881 and was empowered to purchase estates from landlords and to transfer them into tenant ownership. Many of the Land Commission papers in the Reside Collection relate to the Northern Ireland Land Act of 1925 and most of these relate to land formerly owned by the Earls of Kilmorey, the Hall family at Narrow Water and the Richardsons at Bessbrook, county Armagh. However, some lesser landowners are also represented.  

Legal Papers  

Papers from local legal cases are also an important element of the Collection. Of particular interest are papers relating to a legal case resulting from the Lady Cavan shipping disaster in Newry Port in 1937 and a celebrated case relating to the Fairy Glen, near Rostrevor in 1939. In both instances, these papers complement relevant material among the newspaper cuttings in the Collection.