Brookehill House was built for James Stuart Brooke, a surgeon working in India, who planned to retire to Killybegs.

As a result of recent developments, one of my grandsons mentioned Brookehill House the other day, and I began to bore him to death with tales of how I, as a child, used to explore Brookehill with my buddies. It was a bit of an adventure to explore those woods, but we never interfered with the house, which was usually vacant.  Sergeant Mark Thornton, a great believer in preventing ‘crime’, used to tail us at a discreet distance, but he never got enough ‘evidence’ to haul any of us in. My grandson used to ramble round that area as well, so I think generations of Killybegs kids did that.  How many reading this can recall rambling through those woods long ago?

Now to the question of the date of building of the house. In fact Brookehill is the only ‘big house’ in this area that can be dated precisely.   In June 1899 building materials started arriving at Killybegs Railway Station for it.  We know this because the building foreman complained to the Railway Company which was charging freight of £2 per wagon load of 2,000 bricks, and they would need from 25 to 30 wagons of them. These were red bricks, manufactured in a location in the Lifford area, and used for the surrounds of windows, doors, and for the chimneys, etc.  Again, as to the date of building, Elizabeth Leschallas, a granddaughter of James Stuart Brooke, told me some years ago that the house was completed in 1902.

The foreman on the site was John Mulreany, who was a grand-uncle of Angela Mulreany Brady, now living in Sligo.  In recognition of his assistance Brooke presented him with a gold pocket watch, which I had the pleasure of examining a few years ago, courtesy of Chrisanna Lynch, Ardara.  I was allowed to photograph the watch, but the image is not great, as the phones then were primitive, and at that time an iPad was something you put over a sore eye.

Recent activity at Brookehill has generated a lot of interest locally, so I cobbled together this two-part background information on the place, and the people who owned it and those who rented it.

There were three branches of the Brooke family in Killybegs, from 1866 until about 1920.  Their residences were the White House, Brookehill, and Carnaween. The Brookehill branch is the subject of this blog.  The family claim descent from Sir Basil Brooke, who was granted Donegal Castle at the Plantation of Ulster.  It is not necessary to go into all that, and besides my readers will have to be introduced gently to the British Ascendancy period of Killybegs history.  You may have noticed down the years that the type of local history being promoted in Killybegs has been almost exclusively concerned with the Catholic/Nationalist culture of our district.  I introduced what was probably the first ‘ascendancy’ history in my book, Bygones, many years ago, but that part of our experience has unfortunately not been followed up since, what with the emphasis on the old McSwyne church and St Catherine’s Well.  So – get ready for a journey deep into British Killybegs.  I will try and make it as painless as possible but those of a strong Nationalist/Gaelic sensibility look away now.

James Stuart Brooke registered his degrees from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, on 11^th March 1881, and ‘signed up with the East Indian Railway Company five days later.  His first contract was for four years from 1881, at a salary of 400 Rupees per annum (haven’t a clue). His title was chief medical officer and medical Storekeeper to the Company, and he was also a surgeon Lieutenant-colonel in the East India Royal Volunteer Rifles.  It is thought that he married his wife, Caroline Foster Bradley either before he went to India, or shortly afterwards.

Although the house was finished in 1902, the Brookes did not arrive in Killybegs until 1912.  In the meantime James’s brother, Arthur, Agent of the Murray estate, who lived in the White House, Killybegs, had provided the site, and supervised the building arrangements for the new house.  When his brother was delayed in India, for whatever reason, Arthur advertised the new house for letting (in the Ascendancy papers only – sending out a strong signal that only a certain class would be considered) in April 1904:

One of the first domestic staff in Brookehill was Mary Anne Kelly, nee McSorley, from Park in Co Derry.  She married Barney Kelly in January 1908 and was employed in Brookehill at a time  not precisely known. At his time of marriage, Barney, 28, was running his elderly mother’s drapery shop on Upper Main Street in Killybegs, These premises are now vacant, and in the ownership of Pat and Celia McGee, M.P.S.I.   It will be well known to those of a certain age as ‘Mrs Thornton’s’, where Kathleen Thornton ran a very customer-friendly drapery, supplying all household linens, and the ladies with their necessaries. She had the large picture window installed, and the black marble surround was pure New York style.There is a period up until 1912 when no records have so far been found of any occupants of Brookehill, but this information is sure to turn up.

At this time Barney Kelly’s mother, Anne, who was a widow, also owned the premises which stood on the site of the present Anvil House. It was a dwelling house, with the entire left side interior configured as the Petty Sessions Court house for the Killybegs district.

In 1908 Anne Kelly gave notice to the Co. Council to quit the Court house premises in order to accommodate Barney and his new wife.  Mary Ann McSorley/Kelly died in the Court House, Barney’s residence, in 1941, being nursed in her last years by this writer’s mother.  Hence the strong relationship with our family and the Kellys.  As you will know, Barney was the late Anne Jane Kelly’s father.  The premises on Upper Main Street, mentioned above, (Kathleen Thornton’s shop) was where Josephine Kelly Rogers, proprietor of the old Bay View Hotel, mother of Gwen Rogers Quaid, (Galway), and grandmother of Siobhan Gordon Clarke, was born. It was originally the home of the Kelly family who had come from Ballyshannon, and were quite prominent people in Killybegs.

To put it mildly, the Brookes of Brookehill kept a low profile, and reports of them appearing in the dock in the Petty Sessions Court House are just not to be found.  The three main ‘crimes’ committed by the locals in Killybegs then were trespass of cattle, allowing a pig to wander on the public road, and being d & d on the public street. The Brookes were never charged with any of these.  Instead, it is possible to find reports of more genteel activities by them, such as getting married to people strictly of their own class.  The usual wholesome names such as ‘Paddy’ and ‘Bridie’ will seldom be found in connection with the Brookes.

The first of that family to be married out of Brookehill, was a daughter, Grace Ledlie Brooke, who married, in 1915, Pierce Grove-White, who was Captain, Duke of Cambridge’s Own Middlesex Regiment, Doneraile, Co. Cork.

Next up was Kathleen Carrie, her sister, who wed, in 1912, Captain Cadwallader Edwards Palmer, of the Indian Medical Service, she being 28, and he 31.  These marriages took place in St John’s church, with the receptions being held in the bride’s house.  As far as Killybegs was concerned, the ceremonies and receptions were high society affairs, and remote from the day to day humdrum life of the village.   The senior Brookes seem to have departed Brookehill in about 1919, and the house was then occupied by the daughter, Grace and her husband Pierce Grove, who may have used it as a holiday home.   A female Grove presided at the organ in St John’s church during a Harvest Thanksgiving service in 1913.

Adelaide Grove, a resident of Brookehill, married, in 1918, Claudius Willoughby Chaloner, of the Royal Irish Inniskilling Fusiliers.

From Independence time Brookehill seems to have been vacant, and changed hands a few times, and was leased out to a variety of tenants.

Next up will be the later owners and some of the temporary occupiers.