Bindon Blood Esq. : Short Biography

Bindon Blood Esq. JP DL of Rockforest House was a landlord, magistrate and a Deputy Lieutenant for County Clare (High Sheriff in 1819). He was "a staunch and firm Conservative" at the time "the Liberator" Daniel O'Connell Esq. was an MP for County Clare. 

Also known as 'The Vampire', Bindon Blood was named for his maternal grandfather Nicholas Bindon of Clooney (see Bindon Street, Ennis).

The Blood family (of Makeney House, Co. Derbyshire, England) was established in county Clare from the early 17th century at Kilnaboy Castle. His father, Young Will Blood (1749-1784) of Roxton in the parish of Rath, barony of Inchiquin.

According to Bindon Blood, his grandfather, Old William Blood of Roxton, stole his wife from her father...
"My forefather is said to have fallen very much in love with Miss Chadwick, but on approaching her father with a view to matrimony, he met with a refusal, as Mr Chadwick strongly objected to County Clare and to Clare men. Thereupon my forefather assembled some friends and followers, attacked the Chadwick house and carried off the young lady, marrying her the next morning. Unfortunately, Mr Chadwick, who defended his house with resolution, was shot dead, either in the attack or in the pursuit afterwards, during which it is said that a good deal of shooting took place."

He was born at the main Blood residence at Cranagher, parish of Clooney, barony of Bunratty Upper, which had been inherited through William Blood’s marriage to Elizabeth Bindon in 1772.  

In the mid 19th century the Blood estate was mainly in the barony of Burren, in the parishes of Abbey, Carran and Gleninagh but they also held land in the parish of Clooney, barony of Bunratty Upper and in the parishes of Kilkeedy and Killinaboy, barony of Inchiquin.

Bindon married three times and had at least sixteen children.

In 1802 Bindon Blood Esq. was residing at Fitzwilliam Square Dublin. In 1809 he married his second wife, Harriet and in 1813 was residing at 8 Charlemont Street Dublin, when he was a trustee of the newly founded Feinagle Seminary at Aldborough House aka The Luxembourg School. Bindon Blood Esq. of Cranaher M.R.I.A., F.R.S.E, F.S.A.S and A.S.S.E was a member of the Royal Irish Academy,  Member of the Archaeological Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,  Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce and more. A patron of further education, he took a particular interest in the theory of chemistry and other sciences.

By 1817, his family had settled in his maternal parish of Kilkeedy at Rockforest in the townland of Magheranraheen near Corofin. At this time he also had a property at Pembroke Street, Dublin. From the 1820s he sat at a magistrate at the Clare Azzises under Col. Vandaleur. In 1826, his wife died at Cranaher. 

"Rockforest, the residence of Bindon Blood, Esq., is situated in a finely planted demesne extending nearly a mile along the road" [Lewis1837]

STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 

About three o’clock in the afternoon Sunday, a man of the name of Quinlivan, from near Newmarket, was riding the plantation Bindon Blood, Esq., Cranaher, he was fired at from behind the high plantation wall, and received several slugs in his thigh, which knocked him off Ins horse, on which two fellows came forward, and made him get on his knees while one of them was reloading his gun, with the declared intention of taking his life; however, this purpose they abandoned, on Quinlivan’s making some promises about giving up the lands be held. the same night fourteen houses in that neighbourhood were attacked, and arms taken from them; among the rest the houses A. Enright, Esq. of Cappa and Mr Walsh, of Moyriesk. This county is every night disturbed by armed parties, who visit the houses of some of the gentry as well I as the peasantry, from whom they expect to procure arms. In no instance have they received any resistance, and the arms are handed out when demanded. In the last week, there has been, we are credibly informed, about thirty stands of arms obtained. [Evening Post. - Saturday 12 March 1831 ]

In 1829, he ventured upon "a tempestuous and dangerous voyage" from Dublin to Glasgow on the steam vessel Scotia in 1829. His son and namesake William Bindon Blood Jr. (1817 – 1894) attended secondary school in Edinburgh and went on to study civil engineering there before returning to Dublin.  In 1835, BINDON BLOOD, Esq. was residing at 22 Queen-street, Edinburgh when he advertised Rockforest house and Demesne to let, along with his other holdings in Co Clare.

TO BE LET, from such periods and for such terms as may be agreed upon, the following lands and Premises:— 

I—The House, and those parts of the Lands of Rockforest that are not under plantation, containing upwards of 300 Acres of Arable and Pasture, any part of which can be Let with the House. 

2—Ballyeighter, containing 250 Acres of Arable, Rocky Pasture, and Bottom, immediately adjoining Rockforest. 

3 Poulmacrih, containing 29 Acres Arable, also adjoining Rockforest. 

The above are situated in the Parish of Kilkeedy, Barony of Inchiquin. 

4 Several divisions of capital Winterage on the Lands of Ballyhehan. 

5 Murruigh-Kelly aka Murrooghkilty, containing 667 Acres of Arable and Rocky Pasture. 

6 Agaglenny aka Aghalinny, containing 630 Acres of Arable and Rocky Pasture. 

Those last three numbers are situated in the Barony of Burren. 

7 —Part of Cranaher aka Cranagher, containing about 30 Acres of good Feeding Land. 

Apply to BINDON BLOOD, Esq. 22, Queen-street, Edinburgh; or to Captain BAGOT, Bindon-street, Ennis, who will give every information required, and receive Proposals from solvent Tenants. [Limerick Chronicle - Saturday 07 February 1835 ]. In 1850, the lands of Aghalinny, Ballyeighter and Poulmacrih, still in Bindon Bloods possession were advertised to be let. 

Rockforest does not appear to have been an easy let as the above-listed property and land was readvertising again the following year [Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser - Thursday 24 March 1836]. In 1847, he was recorded as "Bindon Blood of Cranaher, Rockforest and Ennis" when he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Co Clare. 

In spite of his part-time absence, Bindon Blood,  was an active member of the Clare Grand Jury and Chair of the Court of magistrates in 1835. 

To the Editor of the Limerick Chronicle [7 July 1838 ]

Sir – Will you allow to me say, through this medium of your loyal and highly esteemed paper, that several gentlemen and others connected with the county of Clare, feel the greatest surprise at finding that Bindon Blood, Esq. should have been exempted from the Commission of the Peace for that county, in the late revision which has taken place. This highly respectable gentleman was the senior Magistrate in that county at the demise of his late Majesty. It is supposed and believed that his exemption from the Commission recently, was owing to his political disposition, being a staunch and firm Conservative; no other grounds can possibly be assigned for his being exempted from that office, for he is a gentleman of very independent fortune  in this county, and at the present time he has no less than three distinct establishments, on different estates, occupied by his servants; he cannot, therefore, be considered an absentee; there is not this plea for a paltry act; although he does, like other gentlemen of fortune, live a part of each year travelling abroad, yet, he very seldom is found absent from this county when his services are necessary, for his name is generally to be seen amongst the Grand Jurors of this county, even at the present assizes. INQUIRER

In 1841, at Edinburgh Bindon Blood Esq "of Cranaher" took a third wife, Maria Hinckley. In 1842 she gave birth to a son in Edinburgh and Bindon Blood was chair of the Ennis Petty Sessions. In the December 1842 issue of Frazer's Magazine a review of the "Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel"  was connected to the discovery of some ancient papers in a family cabinet by Bindon Blood. 

In 1843, his likeness was published in the book "Men of Modern Athens" (published by Hugh Paton Edinburgh).

In 1844, on the eve of the Great Famine, Bindon Blood was elected a guardian at Ennis Union. In 1846, the Mining Company of Ireland conducted searched for lead on the Burren estates of Bindon Blood Esq. and Major McNamara. 

ENNIS PETTY Captain Leyne, R.M, Thomas Keane, Bindon Blood, Luke Brady and James O’Dwyar. Esquires presiding. Thady Keane was sentenced to one month’s Imprisonment, with hard labour, for trespassing and breaking branches on the lands of Cranagher, the property of Bindon Blood, Esq. This was Keane's second conviction, basing heretofore spent a week in jail for a similar offence on said lands. [Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser - Monday 20 April 1846 ]

In 1847, he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Co Clare.  In 1848 he registered to vote as a freeholder by way of his dwelling house at Bindon Street, Ennis having a value of 10 pounds. 

Passing through Ennis I learned that Mr. Bindon Blood had commenced a counter agitation to the national movement, setting up an anti-Repeal petition, and begging signatures himself thereto ; but such was the reception he obtained on Jail-street, and the preparations on the part of the Mill-street boys to nil the precious document, that he hied himself home, and his patriotic exertions are since in status quo. Alas! poor Yorrick!  [Limerick and Clare Examiner - Saturday 10 June 1848 ]

It should be noted, that compared to other estates where Famine clearances took place, the estate of Bindon Blood was populous in 1849. 

On January 27 1855, in Ennis, Bindon Blood, Esq. senior magistrate of the county Clare died aged 80 years.

Death of Bindon Blood, Esq., J.P.; D.L.

—We regret to announce the death of Bindon Blood, Esq., the oldest magistrate and a Deputy Lieutenant of Clare. Mr Blood, who had nearly completed his 80th year, was a gentleman of great personal dignity and worth, to whose high qualities it is not easy to do justice in a passing obituary notice. Living in exciting times of change, Mr. Blood continued unchangeably Conservative in politics and incapable of sacrificing principle to expediency. He declined to take any prominent part in public life but fulfilled the several duties of his station with honour to himself and advantage to society. As a magistrate, high sheriff, grand juror, and chairman of the board of Poor-law Guardians, he will be remembered for his impartiality aud inflexible uprightness. In private life it was that Mr. Blood could beet be appreciated; of cultivated tsste, early devoted himself to philosophical pursuits, collected a fine library, and became a life member of several learned and scientific societies. He was a kind and considerate landlord; and as a husband, father, master, and friend, it would be impossible to overestimate his worth. [Dublin Evening Mail Friday 02 February 1855 ]

[Researched by Rua © 2019]

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