Many thanks to family historian, genealogist, Tara @msfrugalone on BlueSky for bringing this incredible addition to a Limerick census return to my attention.
The Adderley Family in 1901
The story begins in 1901 when Joseph Adderley completed his census return at Gortroe, Castletown, County Limerick. On the night of the census, his wife was missing from the house, but four of his daughters remained at that family home with their father. Adderley was in charge of completing the return and under the section for Christian names he added his daughters (ages) as
- 2. Dora Ellinor Marguerite (23)
- 3. Charlotte Frances Bernard (14)
- 4. Queen Victoria Committed Perjury 1869 (11)
- 5. Queen Victoria Died a Perjurer (10)
The oddity of the last two daughters was not the only striking addition. John Addderly used the remaining empty space to add a rather large complaint. Transcribed as:
The names of Nos.4 & 5 were duly tendered to the District Registrar and were arbitrarily refused entry by him. They were nevertheless entered in the Census list of 1891 as the only names selected by me for official registration.
I have been lately informed that the District Registrar, abusing professional confidence, in my absence and by his representations processed the signature of Queen Victoria Died a Perjurer’s mother to some name or other which he had already inserted in his register illegally and without authorization.
The late Queen, while it was her power to choose Abdication or Perjury, unhappily for herself and family (the only blatantly conduct) and seduced as I suppose by the plausible sophistry & devilish subtlety of Gladstone, in violation of her Coronation Oath (inasmuch as the spoliation could not be effected without her previous consent) did assent to the spoliation of the Church of Ireland.
I defy any power to control my natural right to name my children or to take advantage of the disgraceful trickery practised upon me; and relying on the omnipotence of the Truth I shall challenge the Authorities to do the utmost whatever course may be resolved upon by the Queen’s Successor – whether he dispenses entirely with a Coronation Ceremony or has a Coronation Ceremony with the Oath omitted or unchanged or changed, his action must be inevitable be equivalent to his branding his mother as a Perjurer- so truly it is written “Be sure your sin will find you out”.
Ahab, the confiscation of Naboth’s vineyard had so many as 70 sons – although Ahab humbled himself, their heads were struck off. The same Divine Power still exists and is omnipotent. I have delivered my testimony and protest when I find it convenient I shall forward this communication to the Press for publication.
Adderley was referencing the bible passage of Ahab taking possession of Naboth’s vineyard is from 1 Kings 21 and conveys the message of an abuse of power.
His wife Margaret was in Dublin with their son Thomas and his wife on the night of the 1901 census, so missed the drama unfolding in her home. Ten years later, on the 1911 Census, Margaret was back in County Limerick with Joseph and their two youngest daughters. This time both their first names remained blank and “Copy” was handwritten at the top of the return. It is possible that Adderley attempted the same protest again, but the enumerator decided not to include it.
What was the perjury?
As Adderley noted the year 1869 in the name of one of his daughters and mentions Gladstone in his text, it is probable that the perjury referred to the meeting between Gladstone and Queen Victoria on 23 January 1869 in relation to the disestablishment of the Irish Church. This meeting led to the Irish Church Act 1869 which was a significant piece of legislation as it separated the Church of Ireland from the Church of England. Enacted on 26 July 1869, it marked the end of the union between Church and State in Ireland, as the Church of Ireland had been established by law since the Reformation.
The passage of the bill through Parliament caused acrimony between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, who wanted more compensation for the disestablished churchmen. Queen Victoria personally intervened to mediate. The bill was passed on 1 January 1871
Now, Adderley was ordained in Armagh in 1871, so came under the new system which saw existing clergy of the church received a life annuity in lieu of the revenues to which they were no longer entitled: tithes, rent charge, ministers’ money, stipends and augmentations, and certain marriage and burial fees. This changed his prospects entirely as a Reverend in the Church of Ireland.
Although his grievances as laid out in the census imply that Queen Victoria and Gladstone were the greedy ones as they refused to support the church.
Who was Joseph Adderley?
Joseph Adderley was born in 1834 in Kilburn, County Cork. He met his future wife Margaret Thompson while a reverend in Armagh. She was about sixteen years his junior. In 1872, when she was about twenty-two, the couple married in England, but returned quickly to Armagh, where they had the first of their 13 children.
He was appointed to as reverend to the Church of Ireland union of Coromohide and Mahoonagh (including the civil parishes of Castletown-Conyers, Drumcolloher, and Kilmeedy) and took up residence in Castletown Conyers for almost forty years.
It was in County Limerick that his last two daughters “Queen Victoria Committed Perjury1869” and “Queen Victoria Died a Perjurer” were born. No civil certificate for the older daughter could be located but her baptismal record (Kilmeedy 3 April 1890) shows her born on 4 February 1890 as Clara Beatrice Adderley. The younger sister had the name Esther Violet Adderley on both her civil registration (11 March 1891) and baptismal record (Kilmeedy 29 March 1891).
In 1908, Adderley had to declare bankruptcy as he had 40 shares with the National Assurance Company which went into liquidation. In the debtors court, he claimed that he had bought the shares for his daughter, but the directors of the National Assurance Company refused to transfer them into her name. The newspaper reports do not state which daughter, so we do not know if it was one of the above.
The Adderley children were all well-educated, both the girls and boys alike. In 1911, the two youngest girls were both medical students, while the older sibling had various careers such as teachers, a high court clerks and a stenographer. By 1911, 4 of the 13 children had died, mostly of tuberculous, with their ages ranging from infant to 22 years. As the rest aged, they scattered all over the world, including Zimbabwe, Australia and South Africa.
A Death Notice
His obituary in the Irish Times 15 March 1915:
The death occurred at the Royal City of Dublin Hospital on Saturday of the Rev Joseph Adderley, M.A. late Rector of Corcomohide, County Limerick. Mr Adderley was in his eighty-first year, and his death was the result of an accident. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and was ordained in the year 1871. During the following six years he ministered at Keady, County Armagh: Ballymore, in the same county, and Meenglass, in the County Donegale. In 1877, he was appointed to the Incumbency of Coromohide.
The accident that resulted in his death was a collision with a motor car. Adderley had gone for a walk on the Stillorgan Road, from his home on Sandymount, Dublin when William Rourke, while travelling at about ten miles an hour, swerved to avoid hitting another car and his mudguard collided with Adderley who was crossing the road. Although he sustained a cut to his forehead and a concussion, his death was due to a heart attack which the surgeon on duty on the Baggot Street Hospital believed was brought on by the accident, but the accident would not have caused the death of a younger man. Adderley’s son Thomas was in the coroners court and when sympathy was offered to him on behalf of Rourke, he responded with “I am very sorry indeed for Mr Rourke, who is really the most unfortunate person here.” (Dublin Daily Express 16 March 1915)
He was buried in Deansgrange cemetery, Dublin.
What of the Girls
Esther Violet Adderley, aka “Queen Victoria Died a Perjurer” attended Trinity College Dublin (TCD), there in 1910 she received a scientific medal in botany and zoology. She graduated from TCD on 5 July 1916 with a M.B., B.Ch. She worked in Coombe Hospital, Dublin before becoming part of the medical team in the Dublin University Mission in Hazaribagh, India in 1923. There she married Hubert W Alderson two years later. She died in Chichester, England on 29 March 1948.
While Clara Beatrice Adderley received a prize in English literature in 1909 and honours in French in 1910 from at TCD. On 25 September 1915, she graduated from TCD with an M.B., B.Ch.. She was the only women in her term to complete the course on midwifery. By the end of her training, she had added Marguerite to her name and was recorded in medical directories as Clara Beatrice Marguerite Adderley. By 1917 was a house surgeon at Meath Hospital and Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin. She travelled to India by 1921, possibly with her sister, where she continued to work in medicine. In 1930, she was the Medical Superintendent at Lucknow Child Welfare League and was previously Medical Officer of St Columba’s Hospital, Hazaribagh. She left India in 1948. In 1962, she was living with her brother-in-law Hubert Alderson in Chichester. She never married and died in a nursing home in Dublin on 28 March 1971.