Andrew Mc Donald: the Stacks of Errimore – A CHANCE ENCOUNTER (4 of 6)

A Chance Encounter – Parts 4a and 4b of ‘The Stacks of Errimore’ by Dr Andrew Mc Donald.  Update: on 31st July 2017, parts 5 and 6 of The Stacks of Errimore will be published on this site. 

Part 1

Part 2

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

Following the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745, where the French Army including brave regiments of soldiers from the Irish Brigade, defeated the English and their allies, the Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) invaded England with the support of Scottish clans. Although greatly outnumbered, the Prince’s army secured significant victories before being defeated at Culloden. During their progress they had seized many cities including that of Carslyle.

Among the officers in the Prince’s Army there was a young captain by the name of Robert, who was a Kerryman born of the Stack family of Crotta. Robert’s father was Sir Richard Stack (a grandson of Thomas Stack of Crotta) and his mother was Julianna FitzMaurice of Cosfeal (Duagh). While the Prince’s army was occupying Carslyle, Robert met Anne Tullie an educated lady who was the niece of the Earl of Essex. Robert and Anne became friends but, as Anne was married, they each went their own separate ways in 1747 when the war was over – him back to exile in France and her back to life among her family in England.

But sometimes fate isn’t satisfied with the things people are prepared to accept. Several years passed and Anne’s husband died. Her family sought to interest her in marriage with an English man, but Anne remembered Robert Stack and wrote to him in France offering her hand in marriage.

Robert, now a Colonel in the French Army, returned to England and married Anne. He then brought Anne back to live with him in the town of Cambrai in France.

So as to record the lineage of the Stack family of Errimore and Crotta, Robert had a parchment genealogy drawn up which details his direct line of descent from Sir Richard Stack (around 1390 AD). The original is still in the possession of family in France, while a draft together with a supporting testament is held in the National Library of Ireland in Dublin.

References

1 “Ireland in the Stuart Papers”, Voll. II: 1743-65, Patrick Fagan, (Four Courts Press)
2 “Carlisle in 1745”, John Waugh, George Gill Mounsey (London, 1846)