Francis Young 1781 : Short Biography

Main image above: Young's Point memorial plaque

The Lineage of Francis Young of Young’s Point by David Kerluke, Ottawa, Ontario. 2018.

Francis Young and his nine children William, Eliza, John, Samuel, Honora (Nora), Patrick, Francis (Frank), Robert, and Matthew were among the approximately 2,000 Irish emigrants who emigrated to Canada in the 1825 Peter Robinson Expedition and who settled in Ennismore, Peterborough and the surrounding area. There are likely hundreds of Francis Young's descendants alive today in this area, given that he and his children were Catholics who typically had many children, and the Young name is common today in this region. Also, at least two of Francis Young’s children moved to Chicago at some point, so many descendants are also now living there and in other parts of the USA, as well in other parts of Canada.

I have recently definitively confirmed a direct descendancy from Francis Young ( i.e. through a continuous line of fathers or mothers) to 6 successive Plantagenet Kings of England who reigned from 1137 to 1377 AD, starting with King Henry II (who reigned AD 1154-1189) to King Edward III (who reigned 1335 -1377). Also, Edward III's mother was Isabella of France, who was the daughter of King Phillip IV of France, who in turn was the son of 9 successive Kings of France of the Capet Dynasty, back to Henry I who reigned AD 1008-1060, and then another 10 Counts, Dukes or Lords in parts of present-day France, Belgium or Germany in a continuous line of fathers and sons down to a Lambert Lord of Hesbaye (Belgium) who lived AD 669-742, who in turn was a direct descendant of Clovis I, who was the son of Childeric I, the son of Merovech (AD 415-458), the founder of the Merovingian Dynasty. If you are a direct descendant of one of Francis Young's nine children, then you hold this same lineage. However to put this into perspective, everyone in the world today has a few hundred-thousand persons from the era of Edward III (which is about 20 generations ago) who were direct ancestors, and double that with each successive earlier generation, into the many, many millions as you go back another 10 generations or so, so many people alive today have descended from European royalty: the difference here is that very very few of these people are able identify an unbroken line of specific ancestors in each generation. This entire lineage is attached as Appendix I.

Image: King Edward III

The following explains why we can be certain of this. It is a lengthy and somewhat complicated narrative and, while it is a very interesting story, it is not necessary for you to read it, however it does give the definitive proof of this lineage.

Background

Francis Young was the 3rd great-grandfather (i.e. great-great-great grandfather) of my wife, who’s mother's father was Frank Scollard, whose mother was Mary-Anne Young, whose father was Francis (Frank) Young, the seventh child of Francis Young of Young's Point. Appendix II gives information on him, and an interesting note that states that he was from Newport, County Tipperary, which is about 30-40 km east of the city of Limerick, Ireland. It goes on to say that he was born into a Protestant family, but took up the Catholic faith as a young man and was consequently disowned by his family.

[Note: Regarding Francis Young's year of birth: most references I have found were 1781, but there were also references to 1776, and 1778.  There was one comment that I ran across, that said that he was in fact born in one of these earlier years, but had to lie to give a birth date of 1781 to qualify as an emigrant on the Peter Robinson Expedition in 1825 which was restricted to men under 45 years of age.]

It also says that his wife Elizabeth Blackall-Barrington, who came from a leading and apparently well-to-do family, also switched from Protestantism to Catholicism as a young woman and was similarly disowned by her family. She died in 1822, after having 9 children, and 3 years later Francis emigrated to Canada with all 9 children and settled in the Canadian wilderness, and became one of the more successful members on the 1825 Peter Robinson expedition. 

The Shipslist website gives the complete passenger list of the John Barry, one of the 9 ships on the 1825 Peter Robinson expedition, and the ship that carried Francis Young and his children, and confirms his origin as Newport, County Tipperary.

We made a trip to Ireland in 2016 to visit 7 locations in Ireland where my wife’s ancestors had originated, and one of these was Newport, County Tipperary. We asked a man on the street (Tom) in the centre of the town if he had any knowledge of Youngs, Blackalls or Barringtons and he led us to a friend who knew that the Barringtons were a major family in the area in the 1800s. That man directed us to the head of the local historical society who confirmed that the Barringtons were the leading family in the area in the 1800s, had built and funded the Barrington Hospital in the nearby city of Limerick, had built Glenstal Abbey in the town of Murroe 10 km south of Newport, as well as a major local bridge, and had many family members that were leaders in local and indeed national matters in Ireland in the 1800s. He recommended that we visit Glenstal Abbey and Croker’s Pub in Murroe where we could find a Barrington family tree displayed on the wall. He also recommended that we contact a Younge (they spelled it with an ‘e’) family who he knew had done some genealogy research on the local Younge lineage, and owned a farm about 10-12 km NE of Newport. Tom offered to guide us there where we met them. They were very gracious and helpful, and showed us their lineage of the Younge family back to the late 1700s, but we couldn’t find a link in it to Francis Young of Young’s Point (however, we later confirmed that they did indeed share a common ancestor with Francis Young, and thus with my wife). They promised to ask some of her relatives about this and get back to us.

Image: Barrington Family Tree from Crokers Pub in Murroe, County Tipperary.

Tom then led us to Glenstal Abbey. It was really a castle, and it turns out that it was built by a Sir Matthew Barrington in 1841, which was 16 years after Francis Young had emigrated. At some point it was turned into an Abbey, and more recently into a private boys’ school which it remains to be today. After visiting it we next visited nearby Crokers Pub (there were two or three well-known Croker Barringtons in the late 1800s) where we found and took a photo of the Barrington family tree (see Appendix III) hanging on the wall. It started with a Samuel Barrington who died in 1693 and was a famous master large clock and chime maker (like those in town halls and churches) in the late 1600s, who had a son Benjamin who was at one time the Sheriff of Limerick, who also had a son Benjamin and was also a Sheriff of Limerick, and had 4 sons. The family tree then expanded into many of the descendants of these four sons (Croker, Matthew, John and Benjamin) including Sir Matthew Barrington and several other Barringtons who held important positions in Ireland. However, at this point we still had no link to Francis Young or Elizabeth Barrington-Blackall.

This was the limit of the main information we discovered on our trip to Ireland. Then in October 2017 the Younges emailed me with a crucial document (see Appendix IV) that they had received from one of their cousins. This shows the lineage of the younger Benjamin Barrington with 4 sons (Croker, Matthew, John and Benjamin) and 3 daughters. The names of the 4 sons were identical to the Barrington lineage in Crokers Pub which it now became obvious had excluded the 3 daughters! This certainly demonstrates how women were considered secondary to men back in those days. This lineage chart showed clearly that one of the daughters was Catherine Barrington, who married William Younge, and one of their children was none other than our Francis Young! (William Younge’s father, it turns out, was an ancestor of the Younges we met.) Not only that, it also showed that Francis had married Elizabeth Blackall, daughter of John Blackall, whose mother was Elizabeth Barrington, one of the other daughters of the younger Benjamin Barrington! That means that Elizabeth Barrington-Blackall and Francis Young were first cousins once removed, i.e. Francis’ mother and Elizabeth’s grand-mother were sisters. At first this may seem odd, but when you think it through this is quite possible, given the age difference between Elizabeth and her sister Catherine Barrington. Also, marriages between first cousins were not uncommon back in those days; apparently they wanted to keep the bloodlines as ‘clean’ as possible.

This meant that Francis Young’s grandfather was Benjamin Barrington (Jr.), that his great-grandfather was Benjamin Barrington (Sr.), and his great-great grandfather was Samuel Barrington, the master clock and chime maker. Furthermore, Appendix IV shows that Benjamin Barrington Jr.’s son Matthew, was the grandfather of Sir Matthew Barrington, so therefore Sir Matthew was the son of Francis Young’s cousin Sir Joseph Barrington, and that they were common direct descendants of Samuel Barrington. This turns out to be an important point in our story.

http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/Media,4027,en.pdf gives detailed information on Sir Matthew Barrington, including information on Samuel Barrington, saying that he died in 1693 and is buried in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Limerick (showing his importance in that city) and giving the inscription on his tomb:

'Memento Mory. Here lieth littell Samuell Barington, that great undertaker of famous cittis clock and chime maker. He made his one time goe early and latter, but now he is returned to God his creator: the 19 of November, then he pleast and for his memory this here is placed by his son Ben. 1693’

More importantly, it states that Samuel’s father was Francis Barrington, also referred to elsewhere as Colonel Francis Barrington, who was also buried in St. Mary’s Cathedral in 1683 and who came to Ireland with Oliver Cromwell, the ‘Lord Protector’ of England. The natural thing for me to do at this point was to simply Google “Francis Barrington” to try to find his descendancy. What pops up immediately is the Wikipedia page of “Sir Francis Barrington c. 1570-1628”, but this was clearly not the (Colonel) Francis Barrington who was the father of Samuel Barrington. However two things hinted that he may have been a direct descendant. First, I found references on the internet that the 4 th son (and therefore not eligible to first succeed him as 2 nd Baronet) of Sir Francis Barrington (c. 1570- 1628) was a Francis, who also had a son named Francis, and Colonel Francis’s death date of 1683 would be consistent with either possibility. Second, Sir Francis Barrington’s nephew by marriage (i.e. his wife’s brother’s son) was none other than Oliver Cromwell, and Colonel Francis Barrington is recorded as having “come to Ireland with Oliver Cromwell”. However this is not yet sufficient proof that Colonel Francis was either the son or grandson of Sir Francis.

[Note: in the early 1600’s, the English Parliament led by Oliver Cromwell rose up against the then King Charles who was ultimately beheaded by them, and Oliver Cromwell became “Lord Protector” of England. In 1641, the indigenous Irish who were mainly Catholics and treated poorly by the English, not unlike how indigenous peoples in the New World were mistreated by their European masters, rose up against their English overlords and massacred many of them. In retribution, in 1649 Oliver Cromwell brought an army to Ireland to punish the Irish Catholics and murdered and starved thousands of them. To this day Oliver Cromwell remains a reviled figure in Ireland.]

There are also several references on the internet (e.g. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hatfield-forest/features/the-barrington-family and several others) pointing out that the Barrington family was a historic one in England going back to the time of William the Conqueror in 1066, when Odo du Barrentin came to England with him from Barrentin, France (near Rouen) and was given a land grant that became Barrington Hall in Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex. There are some indications online that he may have joined an even older prominent Anglo-Saxon line who were in England for generations before the Norman invasion of England. In particular, Sir Francis Barrington (c.1570-1628) was a leading barrister and a member of the English parliament and hob-nobbed with many of the leading figures in England at that time. In 1611, he was made a Baronet of Barrington Hall, in Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, England presumably because of his wealth and influence, and because he came from a historic English family. He was therefore 1 st Baronet, and his successive male issue ran through to the 10 th Baronet Sir Fitzwilliam Barrington who died in 1831 without male issue, thus ending the baronetcy. Then, that same year, the Barrington baronetcy was re-instated with the Barringtons of Limerick, Ireland with Sir Joseph Barrington becoming 1 st Baronet, followed by his son Sir Matthew Barrington, 2 nd Baronet, right up to the 8 th Baronet who is still alive today. It was, in fact, Sir Matthew who raised the Barringtons to the level of one of the leading families in Limerick with the building of the Barrington Hospital, Glenstal Abbey, and the Barrington Bridge in the early- to mid- 1800s and, as you will see, was instrumental in resurrecting the old Barrington English Baronetcy in Limerick, Ireland. (One can only assume that Sir Matthew pursued the transfer of the Barrington baronetcy for his father so that Matthew himself, and his descendants, would also eventually become Baronets.)

Furthermore, through Sir Francis Barrington’s Wikipedia page you can easily trace his parents, and then their parents, and so on, and in short order you will trace his lineage back to no less than 6 Plantagenet Kings of England (Edward III, II, I; Henry III and II; and John) as well as Norman Dukes of Anjou and other parts of present-day France, all the way back to the year 900!

So, the crucial link becomes confirming that Colonel Francis Barrington of Limerick was indeed the son or grandson of Sir Francis 1 st Baronet. I followed up on this question with the cousin of the Younges who had provided me with the crucial information in Appendix IV confirming that Francis Young of Young’s Point was the direct descendant of Colonel Francis Barrington. She replied with the following crucial information:

(This is an excerpt and a direct quote from the Old Limerick Journal, with emphasis in Capital Letters from the Younge’s cousin):

“The first of the Limerick Barringtons was Francis, who came to Ireland with his cousin, Sir John Barrington. John served in Cromwell's army and received grants of land. Francis settled in Limerick and was buried in St. Mary's Cathedral in 1683. It is accepted that Francis had a son, Samuel, known familiarly as 'Little Sam Barrington'. He was living in Dublin, in St. Michan's parish, with his wife and family, from 1665 to 1674. …………………. However, one of the principal matters uppermost in Matthew Barrington's mind in 1831, apart from the opening of the Barrington Hospital, was the question of a baronetcy for his father, Joseph Barrington. Throughout 1830 and 1831, MATTHEW HAD BEEN INVESTIGATING THE POSSIBILITY OF CLAIMING A TITLE FOR HIS FAMILY, BASING IT ON THEIR RIGHTS TO A TITLE THROUGH SIR FRANCIS BARRINGTON, AN ANCESTOR. The matter took a long time to receive final approval, as it had to go through the British Prime Minister, Lord Grey, and also await the good pleasure of his Majesty, King William IV, who reigned from 26 June 1830 until 20 June 1837. Matthew took upon it himself to see the matter through, and it was to him that Lord Stanley, the Chief Secretary, wrote announcing the good news of a successful conclusion to the matter. The letter from Whitehall is dated 8 September 1831.”

[NOTE: If Mathew was a descendant of Sir Francis, the Francis who came to Limerick must have been his son (or grandson). I have seen this Francis referred to as a Colonel.]

THE LIMERICK CHRONICLE ANNOUNCED THE BARONETCY IN ITS ISSUE OF 21 SEPTEMBER 1831:

“Limerick has the gratification of seeing one of its most respected and esteemed citizens elevated to the dignity of a Baronet, in the person of Joseph Barrington, Esq. This is not the first member of the ancient house of Barrington so elevated and so honoured. One of the oldest baronets is Sir Fitzwilliam Barrington, the sole representative of Sir Francis, created a baronet in l611. He was grandson to Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, and thus allied to the Royal blood, and was nephew to Cardinal Reginald Pole [who was the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury]. The members of this family were numerous, and many quitted their paternal soil to seek their fortunes in other countries. During the wars, one of the family settled in Limerick, as appears by a monument in the cathedral of that city in 1691; his descendants have since continued to reside there.”

So none other than the Prime Minister of England, signed off by King William IV of England, confirmed that Sir Matthew was a direct descendant of Sir Francis Barrington 1 st Baronet. This descendancy could only be through his father Joseph, whose father was (another) Mathew Barrington, brother of Catherine Barrington, who was Francis Young of Young’s Point’s mother. In other words, Sir Joseph 1 st Baronet and Francis Young had a common grandfather, namely the younger Benjamin Barrington, whose great-grandfather was Colonel Francis Barrington. This definitively confirms Francis Young as the direct descendant of Sir Francis Barrington 1 st Baronet, whose descendancy in turn back through the Plantagenet Kings of England to the Norman Dukes of Anjou in the 10 th century can easily be confirmed by successively searching each member of this lineage on Wikipedia.

When you click through the ancestors of Sir Francis Barrington on Wikipedia, you may notice that Edward III's mother was Isabella of France, daughter of Phillip IV, King of France. [Note: in this time period due to ongoing wars the borders of France were fluid, with France usually being referred to as the north-central portion of modern day France centred on Paris, and with changing borders with Burgundy, Anjou, Normandy and Aquitaine.] Of course, since at that time England was one of the most powerful countries in Europe, and indeed the world, you would expect that the Plantagenet Kings would marry off their children, and especially their heirs to the throne, to the daughters of royalty of other powerful European states, and this appears to be exactly what has happened.

I searched Isabella of France's lineage on Wikipedia, and quickly and easily found that she directly descends from no less than 11 successive and uninterrupted Kings of France or their predecessors, the Franks, from Phillip IV, King of France (1268-1314) and belonging to the House of Capet, back to Hugh Capet, King of the Franks (AD 941-996) and founder of the Capet Dynasty. This uninterrupted line then stretches back through another 8 generations of Dukes and Counts in what is today France, Germany and Belgium to Lambert, Count of Hesbaye (in today's Belgium) (AD 667-742), who was a direct descendant of Clovis I, the first King of the Franks (AD 466-511). Clovis I was son was Childeric I (AD 440-481) whose son was Meravech (AD 415-458), founder of the Merovingian Empire, who Wikipedia notes fought with the Romans against Attila the Hun at the fall of the Roman Empire! That's where the trail ends, but just another dozen generations or so and we'd be back to the time of Christ! As another example, Edward II's mother was Eleanor of Castile, daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile, son of Alfonso IX of Leon, whose mother was Urraca of Portugal, etc. (Castille and Leon were major states in today's Spain). Also, Henry II’s mother was Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England, who was the son of William the Conqueror. And so it goes. I suspect that many other such lineages can be discovered by successively searching wives of these direct ancestors of Francis Young on Wikipedia, although I don't intend to do this any further.

Some other interesting facts (and one fiction!):

• Hugh Capet, King of the Franks (see above) was a direct descendant of Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor (AD 742-814). Also, Phillip I, King of France (1052-1108) married Anne of Kiev, daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, son of Vladimir the Great, both Kings of Kievan Rus, part of today's Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.I haven’t taken the time to explore other lineages of the wives of these British, French and other European Kings, Counts and Dukes, but one can anticipate that there are many interesting linkages.

• Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury and a direct ancestor of Francis Young, was one of only two women in 16th century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband, and at one point was the fifth richest peer in England. She was in and out of the court of Henry VIII and was appointed lady-in-waiting to Catherine's daughter Mary when she was an infant, the future Queen Mary ("Bloody Mary") by King Henry VIII after Catherine of Aragon was banished and later died. She was a devout Catholic and eventually fell out of favour with Henry VIII and was executed by him. In later generations she was considered a Catholic martyr and in 1896 she was beatified by the Pope.

• Edward III had 5 sons, however the oldest, Edward the Black Prince, died before his father.When Edward III died in 1377, a battle ensued among the families of the other remaining four sons (one of which was Edmund, 1 st Duke of York, who is in the direct lineage of Francis Young) to claim the throne. This became known as the Wars of the Roses. A direct descendant of Francis Young, Richard 3 rd Duke of York and great-grandson of Edmund almost succeeded, but died in battle, and the Plantagenet line of Kings ended with his cousin King Richard III becoming king for a short period before being killed in battle and replaced by the Tudor Dynasty.

• Many of you have heard of, or possibly have read, the popular fiction novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown that was turned into a major motion picture, and an earlier novel, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. These books suggested that Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ were married and traveled to the south of France where their children eventually begat the Merovingian Dynasty, the ancestors of the house of Capet and the French kings listed as ancestors of Francis Young. However, this premise has been widely trashed as pure fiction, and with no foundation whatever. But, if it were true and you are a descendant of Francis Young, then you would be a descendant of Jesus Christ himself!