Art Kavanagh - Agar & Blunden of Kilkenny

Agar &Blunden

of Kilkenny

By Art Kavanagh

2013

Agar & Blunden of Kilkenny

Copyright Art Kavanagh 2013

First published 2013

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Original illustrations/ Photographs

Agar & Blunden of Kilkenny

Kavanagh, Art

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Table of Contents

Agar ofGowran

James AgarsDuel With Henry Flood

When JamesAgar chose tochallenge ,the famous Kilkenny politician to a duel, little did he know he wassigning his own death warrant.

James was thesecond son of James Agar (d.1733) of Gowran Castle (grandfather of the 1 st Viscount Clifden ,another James Agar , elevatedto that creation in 1781).

The Agarswere ambitious people and when the Callan property of the Cuffes, Earls ofDesart , with its rights andprivileges, came on the market in 1765 James Agar promptly bought it up. One of thereasons for the purchase was to get the parliamentaryrepresentation which normally belonged to the Lord of the Manor. Asthe purchaser of the rights of the Ormondes (via the Cuffes) James Agar junior became the de facto Lord of the Manor.His father James senior had represented Callan from 1715-1727. Atthis stage the Flood familyhad come upon the scene. They settled near Callan and acquired theseat by the manipulative methods usual at the time bribery,blackmail and coercion. This led to animosity between the familiesof Agar and Flood. Another bone of contention was the rejection ofEllis Agar by Warden Flood in 1725, in favour of a love match witha London lady. Prompted byhis sister, the jilted Ellis, now CountessBrandon , James Agar decidedto concentrate his energies on winning control ofCallan.

Butunfortunately for James his opponent was the young HenryFlood , an energetic and ablepolitician who succeeded his father, WardenFlood , as the M.P. forCallan in 1762.

JamesAgar , now a man in his midfifties, worked assiduously to gain control over the borough, whichat the time had a Corporation. By 1768 he had managed to win overhalf of the voters. Henry Flood controlled the other half. Whoever controlled the boroughcontrolled the election of the Sovereign and that election was dueto happen in October, so it was vital for both men to gaincontrol.

The crucialtime arrived and the date set for the election of the sovereign ofCallan was to take place onthe 29 th of that month.

Disastrouslyfor Agar , as it transpired,fate seemed to gift him with a winning hand. A man calledKnapp , a tenant of the Floodsat Burnchurch , sent his wifeto see Agar at the Red Lion Inn, in Kilkenny the day before theelection. As a member of the Corporation he had a vote and heoffered to cast his vote in favour of Agar in return for beinggiven money and a farm on the Agar estate. In addition Knapprequested James Agar to go to Burnchurch and give him his personalguarantee. Agar, who was not in good health and who felt that hewas being set up, declined but sent the landlord of the Red Lionback to Burnchurch with Mrs. Knapp to give the assurance. Theytravelled in Agars coach and the landlord,Keogh , also brought Agarspistols with him in case of any trouble arising.

The sight ofAgar s coach immediatelyalerted Flood s supporters tothe fact that something was afoot. When it arrived inBurnchurch the coach wasattacked. Keogh fired thepistols in the air and fled, leaving the weapons behind. Mrs.Knapp ran for the safety ofher home. The coach was destroyed, the young driver assaulted andthe pistols stolen.

When theelection was held the next day Knapp voted for Flood snominee and so the control of the borough was secured for Flood.Agar accused Flood and hissupporters of attempting to entice him to travel toBurnchurch with the intentionof murdering him there. He also wrote to Flood demanding the returnof his pistols.

Flood asserted that he knew nothing of thepistols. Agar persisted overthe course of the next number of months but to no avail. Eventuallyon the 22 nd August 1769 he sent RichardRothe of Mountroth with amessage to return the pistols or meet him. Flood continued todeny his involvement in the loss of the pistols and it was thenarranged that they would meet at the Triangle Field inDunmore .

They met inthe afternoon of the 25 th August.Rothe acted asAgar s second and GervaseParker Bushe acted forFlood . Bushe measured the twelve paces and bothmen took their stance. When the order was given to fire Agar shotfirst but missed his target. Flood had delayed his shot as he wasin the act of taking a pinch of snuff. Agar took his second pistoland then shouted at Flood to fire. The shot was fatal and Agar fellmortally wounded. It was said that Flood was distraught when hestood over the dying man. He then rode off to get medicalassistance but Agar died a short time later.

Flood was arrested and tried for murder,but as in most cases of that kind at the time, he wasacquitted.

The Origins ofthe Agar Family

The originsof the Agar family accordingto Malcomson in his bookabout Archbishop Charles Agar were somewhat obscure. The first ofthe family in Ireland was a from Yorkshire . He came over to Ireland during the early yearsof the Cromwellian government and later settled atGowran . He married Ellis thedaughter of the dispossessed Peter Blanchville and claimed the ownership of the Blachvilleestates in Co. Kilkenny centred on Rathgarvan . However he did not get ownership to thoselands but some of them were later purchased by the Agars insucceeding generations. Charles did lease the castle and some landsin the Gowran area from the 2 nd Duke ofOrmonde . James Agar, his son,made substantial purchases of lands in the first decade of the18 th century, includingRathgarvan.

Charles andEllis had four children, two sons and two daughters. Elizabeth, theeldest married a Samuel Bradstreet and her daughter Charlotte Bradstreet married the10 th Viscount Mountgarret and that event was significant forthe Agars, as the Butlers of Mountgarret were a very high profilefamily in the county. In the very dangerous times in the 1689-1690period Charles managed to support the Jacobites initially and thenas the tide turned he was seen as favouring theWilliamites.

At a meetingof the Corporation of Gowran held in October 1690 the following resolution waspassed It is unanimously agreed upon thatKing William having honoured thisCorporation of Gowran with his presence, riding through the sameafter the rout of the Boyne, and delivering the rod and mace of said Corporation to CharlesAgar , one of our ancient Burgesses, thattherefore we elect the said Charles Agarto be our Portrieve in the ensuing year.Charles held other official posts and was sufficiently in funds in1695 to be able to loan 150 to Kilkenny Corporation to enable themto build the Tholsel. He died the following year.

The veryfirst of the Agar lands wereleased and as time progressed and as their finances improved theybought lands eventually building up a profitable estate.