The Whitneys of Leinster: An Anglo-Irish Family - Hardcover

by Lawrence a. Tritle (Author)

Who are the Irish? Don't they have names like O'Sullivan, O'Leary, and O'Keefe, though not Obama! These are the Gaelic Irish, too often the victims of invaders from the Danes to the Normans. But there were other Irish, the Anglo-Irish with names like Wellesley, Allen, and Whitney. These are families known from medieval times as the Normans, who began settling in Ireland in the eleventh century after William the Conqueror's victory over the unlucky Harold at Hastings.

Later known as the "Ascendancy," or "Lace Curtain Irish," the Anglo-Irish, especially those of the elites, whether gentry or aristocracy, played an important role in the later emergence of Ireland. This they did as soldiers and clergy (though of the Church of Ireland!), and later as political leaders and writers leading Irish independence. Of course, this does not deny the role of O'Sullivans and Murphys and others, but only to note the assimilation of the Norman settlers into the Irish, that is Gaelic way of life.

This is the subject of The Whitneys of Leinster. An Anglo-Irish Family, at once a family story but also one of social and cultural relevance to the nature of historical assimilation.

The Whitneys of Leinster: An Anglo-Irish Family, Volume I traces the history of the Whitney family from their roots in Ireland's provinces of Leinster - through Counties Wexford, Carlow, and Waterford - to their emigration to Kansas and California. Drawing on oral tradition, family documents, wills, photographs, and personal artifacts, historian Lawrence A. Tritle reconstructs the story of an Anglo-Irish Protestant family across several generations, from their landed estates (including the still-standing Ballyine House in County Carlow) to the military service of Major Benjamin Whitney at Waterloo and beyond. A companion section recounts the Civil War service of Freeman Herrington. Part genealogy, part social history, this first volume lays the groundwork for further research into a family whose journey mirrors the broader arc of Irish emigration to America.