Carrigkilter Land Story

The Carrigkilter Land Story traces the documented landholding associated with Patrick Dargan / Dorgan and his family in Ballintemple civil parish, County Cork.

The surviving evidence begins with valuation records in 1847 through 1849 and continues through Griffith’s Valuation of 1853, which identifies Patrick’s holding as map reference 8 on Ordnance Survey Sheet 89.

These records place the family on a specific East Cork landscape and provide an important complement to the parish registers that identify Patrick, Johanna / Anne / Nancy Flynn, and their children.

Later valuation books show a Dorgan Carrigkilter holding under a different holding number, Lot 5. In 1892, Patrick J. Dorgan acquired a Carrigkilter holding in fee simple through the Irish Land Commission, and in 1896 he sold the farm shortly before emigrating to the United States.

This page follows that land evidence chronologically while distinguishing confirmed records from interpretations and unresolved questions about succession, boundaries, and title history.

This page should be read as a land-history companion to the Patrick Dargan / Dorgan of Carrigkilter family narrative and the Carrigkilter Research Hub.

Carrigkilter and Ballintemple Parish

Carrigkilter is a townland in Ballintemple civil parish, Barony of Imokilly, County Cork. It is the principal land-record location associated with Patrick Dargan / Dorgan and his family.

This geographical context matters because the family’s records also appear across nearby places including Ballybraher, Churchtown South, Ballycatoo, Ballymacoda, Cloyne, Ballycotton, Garryvoe, Ladysbridge, and Midleton.

These places formed part of the wider East Cork network in which members of the family lived, worshipped, married, farmed, and interacted.

Patrick’s Carrigkilter land evidence belongs specifically to Ballintemple civil parish and should not be confused with Dorgan households documented separately at Garryvoe Lower, Cloyne, or elsewhere in East Cork.

The 1847 Valuation Office Book

The earliest securely documented land record presently placing Patrick Dargan at Carrigkilter is the 1847 Valuation Office Tenure Book.

The book records Patrick in connection with land and with a house, offices, and land within the townland. Thomas G. Durdin is recorded as the immediate lessor.

This evidence establishes Patrick’s occupation of property at Carrigkilter several years before the printed Griffith’s Valuation and provides the earliest firm land anchor presently identified for the documented family.

The surviving Tenure Book also contains an important clue to the earlier history of the holding. Beside the house-and-land entry is a notation that appears to read “3 lives, made about 1817.”

That reading remains provisional. The original lease or agreement has not yet been located, and the notation does not establish that Patrick himself was the original lessee or identify the three named lives.

The 1847 record should therefore be read together with the 1848 House Book and the 1853 Griffith’s Valuation entry, while the possible c.1817 agreement remains an active earlier-land-history question.

The 1848 House Book

A Valuation Office House Book dated 25 April 1848 provides the next documented step in Patrick Dargan’s Carrigkilter land history.

The entry records Patrick at Carrigkilter and describes structures associated with the holding, including a piggery and cow house.

This record is valuable because it adds physical detail to the property that is not apparent from the later printed Griffith’s Valuation. It confirms that the holding included working farm buildings as well as agricultural land.

Together, the 1847 Tenure Book and the 1848 House Book show Patrick established at Carrigkilter before Griffith’s Valuation was published in 1853.

Further valuation evidence in 1849 continues the documented Carrigkilter sequence.

The 1853 Griffith’s Valuation Record

Griffith’s Valuation of 1853 provides the clearest printed mid-nineteenth-century land record for Patrick Dargan at Carrigkilter.

Patrick is recorded as occupier of property in Carrigkilter townland, Ballintemple civil parish, Barony of Imokilly, County Cork, with Thomas G. Durdin as immediate lessor.

The valuation connects Patrick’s written entry to Ordnance Survey Sheet 89 and map reference 8.

This allows the documentary evidence to be connected with a particular numbered holding on the valuation map rather than merely with Carrigkilter as a townland.

The 1853 record should be read as part of a sequence rather than in isolation: the 1847 Tenure Book establishes Patrick at Carrigkilter, the 1848 House Book adds structural detail, and Griffith’s Valuation provides the printed valuation and map reference.

Together, these records form the strongest documented early landholding sequence for the older Patrick Dargan / Dorgan of Carrigkilter.

Map Reference 8 and the Carrigkilter Holding

Map reference 8 is the principal geographical identifier associated with Patrick Dargan’s Carrigkilter holding in Griffith’s Valuation.

The reference connects Patrick’s written valuation entry to Ordnance Survey Sheet 89 and to a numbered location within the townland.

This makes it possible to compare the nineteenth-century holding with roads, neighboring properties, townland boundaries, later valuation revisions, and surviving land maps.

The map should always be interpreted together with the written valuation records. Map reference 8 identifies the Griffith-period holding, while the 1847 Tenure Book, 1848 House Book, and 1853 Griffith’s Valuation provide the documentary context for Patrick’s occupation.

Later valuation books use different holding numbers. The precise documentary relationship between Griffith’s map reference 8 and the later Dorgan holding known as Lot 5 remains under investigation.

Thomas G. Durdin and the 1855 Estate Sale

In Griffith’s Valuation, Thomas G. Durdin is recorded as Patrick Dargan’s immediate lessor at Carrigkilter.

The landlord name, townland, Ordnance Survey sheet, and map reference together provide important identifiers for tracing the history of the holding.

Durdin’s fee-simple estate, including Carrigkilter, was offered for sale through the Encumbered Estates Court on 19 June 1855. Carrigkilter formed part of Lot 2.

The surviving rental, tenant schedule, estate map, summary, and conditions of sale have been examined.

They do not establish that Patrick Dargan purchased his Carrigkilter farm at the 1855 sale.

Patrick is also absent from the surviving Carrigkilter tenant schedule associated with that sale, despite his documented appearance in Griffith’s Valuation in 1853.

The older family-history statement that Patrick purchased the farm on 19 June 1855 is therefore no longer treated as established fact.

The Durdin estate material remains important for understanding the landlord history of Carrigkilter and may eventually help clarify the earlier lease associated with the holding.

The Later Valuation Books — Lot 5

Later Valuation Office revision books identify a Dorgan holding at Carrigkilter as Lot 5.

In the 1870–1879 revision book, Patrick Dargan appears in connection with Lot 5. The holding is recorded as 35 acres, 1 rood and 30 perches.

The 1879–1885 revision book again records Patrick Dargan at Lot 5 with the same area. A red alteration on the entry corresponds with the revision year 1883.

Independent family records establish that the older Patrick Dargan / Dorgan had died by 30 April 1882.

Because his adult son was also named Patrick and later occupied and purchased Carrigkilter land, the 1883 same-name alteration may represent an administrative transition from the deceased father to his son Patrick J. Dorgan.

That interpretation is chronologically plausible, but the valuation entry itself does not prove a father-to-son transfer. Tailte Éireann has specifically cautioned that a valuation revision should not by itself be interpreted as evidence of a death.

The 1885–1893 revision book continues Pat Dargan at Lot 5. By that period, the older Patrick was unquestionably deceased, making the entry consistent with the younger Patrick J. Dorgan.

The precise relationship between Griffith’s 1853 map reference 8 and the later Lot 5 remains unresolved. Holding numbers and parcel structures changed over time, so the two references should not simply be treated as identical without supporting map or documentary evidence.

Carrigkilter Valuation Revision Book, 1879–1885. Patrick Dargan appears at Lot 5, recorded at 35 acres, 1 rood and 30 perches. The red alteration corresponds with the revision year 1883.

Patrick J. Dorgan Purchases the Holding — 1892

A major change in the Carrigkilter land story occurred on 19 March 1892.

Under the Land Purchase Acts, the Irish Land Commission vested a Carrigkilter holding in Patrick Dorgan, farmer.

Patrick had previously held the property as a tenant from year to year to the vendors.

The Land Commission advanced £433 toward the purchase, and the holding was vested in Patrick in fee simple.

The legal order describes the property as 37 acres, 1 rood and 30 perches, statute measure or thereabouts, subject to an annuity of £17 6s 4d for forty-nine years.

This is the first presently identified legal record establishing Patrick J. Dorgan as an owner of the Carrigkilter property rather than simply an occupier or tenant.

The Land Commission acreage is exactly two acres greater than the 35 acres, 1 rood and 30 perches recorded for valuation Lot 5.

The reason for that difference is not yet established. It may reflect changed boundaries, consolidation of adjoining land, survey differences, or differences between valuation and legal-title descriptions.

The 1896 Sale to Margaret Curtin

Four years after the Land Commission purchase, Patrick J. Dorgan sold his Carrigkilter farm.

The Cork Examiner of 17 August 1896 reported that auctioneer John Condon of Youghal had sold Patrick Dorgan’s interest in the farm at Carrigkilter, situated between Ballycotton and Cloyne.

The newspaper describes the holding as 37 acres, 1 rood and 30 perches, held in fee simple and subject to an annuity of £17 6s 4d to the Irish Land Commissioners for forty-nine years from 1 May 1892.

There was also a half-yearly payment of 16 shillings, covering principal and interest, to the Commissioners of Public Works.

After bidding, the farm was sold to Mrs. Margaret Curtin of Glanturkin for £142 10s.

The acreage and Land Commission annuity reported by the newspaper agree with Patrick’s 19 March 1892 Land Commission vesting order.

Later valuation evidence independently continues Lot 5 from Patrick Dorgan to Margaret Curtin and afterward to Daniel O’Connell.

That succession substantially strengthens the documentary connection between the 1896 newspaper sale and the later Carrigkilter holding.

CK494 and the Modern Land Registry

Modern Land Registry folio CK494 records a freehold property in Carrigkilter containing 15.1504 hectares, shown as Plan 494 on Ordnance Survey map reference 89/10.

That area is essentially the metric equivalent of 37 acres, 1 rood and 30 perches.

The acreage therefore agrees remarkably closely with both Patrick J. Dorgan’s 1892 Land Commission vesting order and the 1896 Cork Examiner sale report.

This makes CK494 a very strong candidate for the later registered title associated with Patrick’s Carrigkilter holding.

It does not yet constitute a complete legal chain of title, however. The surviving modern folio does not itself show Patrick Dorgan or Margaret Curtin among its recorded owners.

Tailte Éireann has been asked for the historical, predecessor, or closed folio so that the nineteenth-century title history can be examined and the connection tested directly.

The modern Registration Map should also be interpreted cautiously because Land Registry mapping is not conclusive as to exact boundaries or extent.

Tailte Éireann Registration Map — CK494, Carrigkilter. Folio CK494 contains 15.1504 hectares, essentially equivalent to the 37a 1r 30p holding documented in 1892 and 1896.

From Carrigkilter to Rhode Island

The 1896 Carrigkilter farm sale was followed closely by Patrick J. Dorgan’s emigration to the United States.

Patrick departed Queenstown aboard the Teutonic on 21 October 1896 and arrived in New York on 28 October 1896.

Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan and the children departed Queenstown on 2 June 1897 and arrived in New York on 9 June 1897.

Later records in Providence and Cranston, Rhode Island—including census returns, city directories, naturalization papers, marriage records, death records, and family documents—continue the story after the family left East Cork.

The Carrigkilter land story is therefore also a migration story.

It traces a family from documented nineteenth-century occupation and farming in East Cork through land purchase, farm sale, and eventual settlement in Rhode Island.

The surviving evidence does not by itself establish the economic or personal reasons for the decision to emigrate. The sale and migration occurred in close succession, but conclusions about motive should be made only where supported by evidence.

Why the Land Story Matters

The Carrigkilter land records place the Dorgan family in a specific physical setting and provide a framework for understanding the family beyond names and dates.

The documented sequence now extends from the 1847 Tenure Book, 1848 House Book, and 1853 Griffith’s Valuation, through the later Lot 5 valuation books, Patrick J. Dorgan’s 1892 Land Commission purchase, the 1896 sale to Margaret Curtin, and the modern evidence associated with CK494.

These records help show where the family lived and farmed, how the property was identified at different periods, how the younger Patrick J. Dorgan later occupied and purchased Carrigkilter land, and how the family’s Carrigkilter story ended immediately before emigration.

Carrigkilter is therefore one of the central places in the Dorgan Family Archive. It connects the earliest secure land evidence for the older Patrick Dargan / Dorgan with the later landownership of his son Patrick J. Dorgan and the family’s move to Rhode Island.

Just as importantly, the records define what remains unresolved.

The precise relationship between Griffith’s map reference 8 and later Lot 5, the reason for the 35-acre versus 37-acre difference, the meaning and origin of the apparent c.1817 three-lives agreement, and the complete historical chain leading to CK494 still require further evidence.

Those questions remain active research subjects rather than settled conclusions.

Related Pages

Carrigkilter Research Hub
The central research page for Carrigkilter, map reference 8, valuation evidence, maps, neighboring families, and unresolved land questions.

Patrick Dargan / Dorgan of Carrigkilter
The main family narrative connecting Patrick to the Carrigkilter land records, Johanna / Anne / Nancy Flynn, their children, and later descendants.

Johanna / Anne Flynn Dorgan of East Cork
The companion page focused on Patrick’s wife, her documented name variants, possible Flynn origins, children, and burial evidence.

Carrigkilter Founding Family
A concise overview of Patrick, Johanna, their children, and the principal Carrigkilter evidence.

Records Archive
The main collection of valuation records, Griffith’s Valuation, maps, parish registers, census records, emigration records, and other primary evidence.

East Cork Places Guide
The main guide to townlands, parishes, villages, and local reference points connected to the Dorgan / Dargan family network.

The Journey from East Cork to Rhode Island
The migration story connecting the 1896 Carrigkilter transition with Patrick J. Dorgan’s emigration and the family’s later Rhode Island life.