Dr. Richard Caulfield: Antiquarian, Scholar and Academic Librarian.

By J. P. McCARTHY

Appeared in Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Vol XCII, No. 251, January-December 1987

Introduction

The history of higher learning in Cork can be traced from its late eighteenth-century origins to its present standing within the extended confines of the Neo-Gothic architecture of University College, Cork. This institution, founded in 1845, was the successor and ultimate achievement of its forerunner, the Royal Cork Institution. The opening in 1849 of the college, then known as Queen's College, Cork, brought about a change in the role of the Royal Cork Institution as a centre of education. Its ambition of being the 'Munster College' was subsumed by the Queen's College even though it continued to function as a centre of learning up to the 1880s. At this time its co-habitant, the School of Design, received a new wing under the benevolent patronage of William Crawford, and the Royal Cork Institution ceased to exist as the centre for cultural, technical and scientific learning it had set out to be. The building it occupied is today known as the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery.


Caulfield In 1865
(Courtesy Nat. Lib. Ire.)

At a meeting of the managers of the Royal Cork Institution on Wednesday, 23 November 1881, it was unanimously carried that the Secretary, Librarian and Custodian, Dr. Richard Caulfield, be authorized 'to hand over to the Committee of the Municipal Schools of Science, Art and Music the Library, casts and fossils of the Royal Cork Institution'. These were to be held in trust by the Corporation of Cork for the proprietors and citizens. This committee which acquired the building from the government, was established by the Corporation under the 1877 Libraries and Museums Amendment Act. Caulfield continued to reside at the Institution until his death in 1887, a representative of the remnants of a passing age of Victorian scholarship which embraced the intellectual curiosity of the landed, professional and business classes of nineteenth century Cork. As the Cork Examiner (1) stated shortly after his death, he 'belonged to a race of scholars which the present hurry and rush of education threatens with extinction . . . we are quite satisfied that their loss will be deeply felt, while the compensation is doubtful'.

The zeal which fired this Victorian scholarship gave to Cork one of its most respected and prolific scholars. Today the writings of archaeologists, historians and archivists dealing with aspects of the history of the landscape and people of this city and county owe a debt to Caulfield. He filled all three roles and others besides. In the true spirit of a scholarly librarian and man of learning his perspective was the total field of knowledge, his speciality that of the literary antiquary. He took as his panorama the social, cultural and physical worlds of Cork's past and championed the ideals and objectives of the antiquarian society of which he was an outstanding member. These ideals and objectives are the raison d'être of the society which this year acknowledges his centenary and in whose journal this appreciation appears. They were incorporated in its constitution by his colleague, friend and admirer, Robert Day, founder member and second president of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, and a surviving member of the Cork Cuvierian and Archaeological Society.

One of Day's unfulfilled ambitions was that Caulfield's work would one day be drawn together and published under the auspices of the Society as a fitting memorial to its most prestigious forbear. Unfortunately, apart from some reprints in the early years of the Journal, this has not as yet been achieved. The constitution of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society aims at the 'collection, preservation and diffusion of all available information regarding the past of the city and county of Cork, ' a concept embodied in its first Journals by a reprint of Charles Smith's (2) eighteenth century history which was expanded using a copy of Caulfield's unpublished and unfinished revision. Also used in conjunction with this was an interleaved and annotated copy by Crofton Croker, (3) formerly in Caulfield's library. Leafing through the early issues of the Society's Journal it is remarkable how abundantly Caulfield's influence is evidenced in the articles, notes and bibliographies. It is regrettable that more of his writings and documents, now so widely scattered, did not appear in this source.

Early Years

Richard Caulfield was born in Cork city on 23 April 1823, a grandson of Henry Gosnell, physician at the Lying-In Hospital and first resident surgeon at the North Infirmary. One of six children born to Catherine Gosnell and William Caulfield. He was named Richard, a common family name. (4) Catherine Gosnell's mother was Christina Mary Hillary who as a child had been sent to France to be educated. She was the daughter of John Hillary of Greenhills near Drogheda, who married Mary Hely, niece of Rt. Hon. John Hely-Hutchinson, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. John Hillary's mother married a second time and shortly afterwards bound her son to a silversmith in Dublin. In time John came to Cork and set up in business in the North Main Street near the Exchange. Caulfield's father's line is not documented. Whether or not a native of Cork. he was certainly resident in St Peter's parish by 1818 when he first appears as a warden in the records of that church. By trade William Caulfield was a merchant who practised as an oils and colour man; for a time he was also a drysalter. In 1824 he lived and traded at No. 49 North Main Street, situated between the Exchange building at Castle Street and St Peter's Market. This was the nub of commercial life in the city at that time and Castle Street was colloquially known as 'Booksellers Row' . By 1846 William had moved premises to No. 103 North Main Street, a site located approximately above the buried foundations of Skiddy's Castle.

Caulfield spent his early years in an overpopulated, insanitary and frequently fever-ridden environment of cluttered shops, houses and tenements, for such was the state of this part of the medieval city as during the eighteenth century it adapted to economic and social changes causing a population increase sufficient to swamp available accommodation space. Illness took its toll from most families at this time and the Caulfields were no exception, Richard and his brother Henry substantially outliving all the rest. He had four brothers and a sister. Two of his brothers, William and Robert, (5) died in childhood. In 1848 he saw his sister Kate die at the age of 21. His brother Samuel perished in Bombay in 1860, aged 34. The death of his mother occurred when he was 8 years old while his father survived her by 23 years.

He was born into a family where access to education was not a difficulty considering his mother's line. His granduncle (6) was author of several literary publications. His early education is not recorded and perhaps this was taken care of within the home. Formal schooling appears to have begun at the Bandon Endowed School under the tutorship of Dr Edward Browne. It was a school for boarders and day pupils and boasted a wide curriculum comprising Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French and English; Mathematics, Book-keeping, Mensuration, Navigation, Astronomy and Practical Surveying; Geography, History, and Catechism.(7) After finishing his education in Bandon Richard returned to Cork where he studied with a Mr. Foley who appears as his master in the Entrance Marks Books of Trinity College, Dublin, which he entered as a pensioner on 16 October 1840 at the age of 17. Accompanying him on this day were Arthur Bernard of Bandon and Mr. Bowen of Cork who gives as his master Dr Browne. He was to maintain a close association with Bandon for the rest of his life, marrying into the Dowden and Lester families of that town.

Richard was intended for the church. However, in time it became necessary to make a conscious decision to change direction as his enthusiasm and love for classical studies and antiquity unfurled. Had he chosen otherwise with his high classical abilities and great attainments he could have attained one of the highest positions it could offer' according to the tributes paid to him after his death. (8) In college he attended divinity lectures and in due course received the Testimonium. In later years, according to Robert Day, he commented on the benefits he received from the set of lectures in this course given by Dr William Archer Butler,(9) author of Lectures on Ancient Philosophy. In the 1860s and 1870s annual addresses to the Cuvierian Society, which he occasionally had the honour of delivering, would show a colouring from this aspect of his education when making veiled references to the theories of Darwin and other natural scientists whose revolutionary implications threatened the social respectability of studies in Natural History and the Prehistory of Man. He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1845 and in time returned to Cork. His academic awards did not end with this however as in 1864 he received his LLB. Probably on the basis of published work, he was awarded the degree of LLD in 1866. A second honour bestowed on him in 1845 was that of a Freeman of Cork which occurred on 29 September.

Nothing is recorded of his activities shortly after graduation. It is possible that being a merchant's son he may have assisted in the family business while seeking topics for research in his spare time. In the latter context it is assured that he would have gravitated towards the principal institution of learning in the city at that time, the Royal Cork Institution with its library, museums and its plethora of amateur and professional scholars, dilettanti, literary hacks, teachers and students.

The Cork Cuvierian Society

At a meeting in October 1835 the Committee of Science of the Royal Cork Institution convened for the purpose of inaugurating a subcommittee for the promotion of Natural Science and Literature. It was proposed and agreed that the objectives of the subcommittee would be 'the more general diffusion of scientific information, the promotion of a friendly intercourse between such persons as feel a pleasure and take an interest in the advancement of science and by lectures and personal communications to extend its utility at large'. By this means the Cuvierian Society came into being. Among the original members were Abraham Abell, Thomas Crofton Croker, John Lindsay, Richard Sainthill, Rev. Fr Matthew Horgan, Robert Day and John Windele - all well-known names in the history of Cork antiquarianism in the nineteenth century. These members were to lead the way to the creation of an 'archaeological' branch of the Society. The Cork Cuvierian Society was named after a noted French natural historian.(10) By today's terms its subject coverage was very wide though it should be borne in mind that these subjects were then in their infancy. The range included Geology, Botany, Archaeology, Physics, Numismatics, Philology and 'Mechanical Inventions'. Over the years the Society gradually changed its hue until, from the 1860s onwards, it became predominantly 'archaeological'. Caulfield was an important force behind this change; the Society was a focal point during most of his adult life.

Robert Day writing in 1904 (11) enables the reader to visualize the scenario during the Society's meetings in a pen picture which reads:
Its monthly meetings for a period of sixty years were held on the first Wednesday of the Autumn and Winter months in the Library of the Royal Cork Institution where the chairs on each side of the long central table were occupied by members many of whose names will be associated with the most highly cultured and learned life of Cork during the nineteenth century.
The members included university lecturers and professors, businessmen and professional men of the church, military and navy. Meetings were postponed on occasion, as in 1871 when members attended a dinner of venison and champagne, or thinly attended, as in 1867 due to ' the panic in the city from the Fenian Rebellion' .

Richard's debut at the Society's meetings, as recorded in the minutes, was on 4 October 1848 when as a 'visitor' he made a substantial contribution to the proceedings. Evident in this is an association with the older Cork antiquary and published numismatist John Lindsay from whose collection of ancient Irish armour he exhibited some pieces to illustrate his paper. He showed also a buckle and stud belonging to the Sarsfields of Doughcloyne, reputedly worn by one of their ancestors at the time of the Crusades. A description of a seal of the Ronayne family, also acquired from the Sarsfields, completed his contribution. The fruits of his interest in this family's muniments would continue to appear at Society meetings in future years.(12) The earliest surviving correspondence to him on antiquarian matters also dates from this time showing already an astute approach to his chosen field of scholarship.(13)

His next performance was in February 1849 when he read a paper on Jewish shekels. In January 1850 he was elected an Associate of the Society and his contribution on this occasion was a description of a rubbing from the tombstone of Patrick Meade, a city merchant of Tudor times. At the last meeting of this session he presented a paper on mummification in which he identified two periods.

During these months changes occurred in which Caulfield participated at a later stage. On 13 March a special meeting was held ior the purpose of considering a change in name and the setting up of sub-committees. The next session began on 4 September when one of four sectional committees was formed. This was the Antiquities and Fine Arts Committee to be administered by Abraham Abell, John Windele, Richard Sainthill and William Willes.

At the October meeting Caulfield, continuing his current theme, exhibited the head of an Egyptian mummy brought from Thebes by Wm Hodder Westropp. After the Summer recess of 1851 he was elected a committee member replacing Abraham Abell who had died during the year. In December he continued his contributions on Egyptology by exhibiting a linen jacket from a mummy and a wooden jackal from Thebes. He did not abandon his interest in Irish antiquities, however, and other exhibits by him during the session included celts (stone axeheads) found near Bantry, and drawings of a spearhead found near Belfast. A contribution from his pen was a sketch of the later part of the genealogy of the Hedges family of Macroom castle.

In these early years of his career Caulfield was inspired by and under the influence of, the older antiquaries. It is not difficult to see the figure of John Windele behind the exhibits of Irish antiquities and field records such as the rubbing from the Meade tombstone. Interest in Jewish shekels and in Egyptology probably derived from the collections of the Royal Cork Institution's museum, rich in material from many parts of the world - the gifts of scholar-travellers, naval and military personnel, gentry on the Grand Tour. Caulfield was to maintain a close interest in these collections for the rest of his life. After Windele's death in 1865 private collecting of artefacts of Irish antiquity became chiefly the province of Robert Day - the 'indefatigable archaeologist', whose collection in later years was to be compared as equal to the National Collection in Dublin. Fieldwork in the study of the monuments of Irish antiquity, for which Windele was most noted, became the province of the architect Richard Rolt Brash. He brought to fruition the work of Windele and Fr Matt Horgan in the study of Ogham inscriptions for which the Munster School was best known. As these archaeological roles came gradually to be defined Caulfield was to choose a different path, that manuscript sources for the history of Cork. He did not begin to develop in this direction until the later part of the 1850s while his activities connected with field monuments stretched on to the late 1860s.

In the context of searching for a niche, a pattern for the growth of a scholar then as now, sigillography provided his first major topic, resulting in the publication in 1853 by a Cork press of the first of a two-volume work on Irish ecclesiastical seals entitled Sigilla Ecclesiae Hibernicae Illustrata. In February he presented the Society with a copy which was well received. His contribution to this month's meeting illustrated a changing focus in his manuscript interests. Rather than the topic of seals, his paper concentrated on ancient manuscripts used in the mending of books. During the following session of 1854-5, he delivered a paper on a new improved method for taking photographs of manuscripts, known as the Collodion process. From this point forward a trend is set for the type of antiquary he was to become. Also during this session he began to have work published in the Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society . This is perhaps partly due to the Cork society's lack of a similar periodical. Archaeological fieldwork had also occupied a little of his time. His report to the Society of his investigation of a 'souterrain beneath a church' at Dunbullogue, while an admirable piece of recording for its time, also presents an amusing picture of the gentleman archaeologist. Detection of the site in 1851 involved hiring the local blacksmith to take 'soundings' with an iron bar, locate the site and open an entrance, all under the watchful eye of the seated gentleman who then made his investigation. In later years this approach would be changed through the influence of General Pitt-Rivers.

The young antiquary's status within the Society continued to grow and by June 1855 he had become a member of Council. In May he contributed to a published account of exhibits put on display in the Athenaeum, a hall beside the Royal Cork Institution later used as a theatre and the forerunner of today's Cork Opera House. The occasion for the display was a double conversazione, one for the educated and one for the working classes, held by the Royal Cork Institution as a means of bringing its knowledge and collections before the public. This was in keeping with the spirit of social reform through education which was a hallmark of nineteenth-century thinking reflected particularly in the setting up of the public library system. At the age of 32 Caulfield was given the task of writing the report (14) on the 'Department of Antiquities' display. There is a suggestion in this that his relationship with the Institution by this time was more than casual. The report took the shape of a tour leading from the steps of the Rotundo along the great hall's central table describing Etruscan, Egyptian and Irish antiquities, the Book of Lismore on loan from Thomas Hewitt the distiller and John Windele's collection of ancient Irish weapons. He concluded his tour, in the role of museum curator, with the statement that the interest shown by all classes in such matters as these was a striking indication of the social progress of the age and finished with the hope that the subject of Irish archaeology would constitute an important branch of National Education. After over 100 years this hope is still to be found expressed in the literature of modern Irish archaeology.

In the closing address (15) for the first of these conversaziones, given by the Society's president, Professor George Boole, Caulfield received an encouraging acknowledgement as '. . . a gentleman whose ability and modest merit are deserving of a position in which he could better serve the cause of Archaeology'. He did not achieve that position until nine years later when as librarian and secretary at the Institution the museums were under his control and the Society elected him president.

In the next few years of the decade Caulfield's involvement with manuscripts continued to develop. His interest in seals also continued, drawing on lay and ecclesiastical examples from Britain and Ireland. His first venture in editing manuscript texts for publication produced the Journal of Very Rev. Rowland Davies, an eyewitness account of the 1690 siege of Cork city. It appeared in 1857 as a volume in the series of the Camden Society. It was an important beginning for him in this area of scholarship and led the way to many other publications of this type. This Journal was in the possession of Davies great-great-grandson. Crofton Croker's connection with the Camden Society is the probable avenue which led to its publication.

Caulfield's contributions to the Society from now on defined the pattern from which his publications and unpublished transcripts were to result. Topics under the umbrella of city and county history included the church. families, the Elizabethan and Tudor periods. Reports of his research on these topics occupied many of his papers to the Society during these and subsequent years. Other topics faded in and out of the limelight. They were: field monuments, museum deposits from home and abroad, geological and botanical specimens. piracy along the south coast, the history of Cork towns such as Kinsale and Youghal. history of Co. Waterford, folklore, and Irish manuscripts abroad. The papers read to the Society by him were those containing his own research, those delivered on behalf of others. the annual address and accounts of fieldwork. The range of sources used in his research covered family papers such as those of the Sarsfields, parish chests such as that at Christchurch, Cork, diocesan archives at Cloyne and Cork, the holdings of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, those of the British Museum Library, of the Public Records and State Paper Offices in London, and the muniments of urban corporations such as Cork, Youghal and Kinsale. These had begun to occupy a great deal of his time when in 1859 he received his first modest scholarly distinction. During this year the Societé Des Antiquaires De Norma die made Caulfield a corresponding member.

The east Cork town of Cloyne, notable as a diocesan centre with its round tower and cathedral church dedicated to Saint Colman, provided Cork antiquarians with much to interest them. Excavations at the base of the tower were carried out by Windele and others in 1841, an act for which they received critical, scathing comment from George Petrie.(16) In Cloyne Caulfield discovered the material for his second publication (17) which appeared in 1859. A test of his palaeographical skills, the fourteenth-century Pipe Roll of Cloyne which he found along with a seventeenth-century copy, was the subject of a talk to the Society in 1855. Research into the history of the landed families of the county, and the social relationships which existed between them and members of the Royal Cork Institution led to Caulfield's next discovery in Dunmanway. Here he located the autobiography of Sir Richard Cox, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Caulfield's edited transcript of it was published in 1860.(18)

The English Connexion

Living in the age of steam, travel by ship and rail brought Caulfield to London on annual Summer trips from the late 1850s onwards. These trips were an invaluable asset to his research. They provided the opportunity for him to search for manuscripts relating to Cork in the British Museum, Public Records Office Lambeth Palace and the State Paper Office. It Is probable that they also provided the opportunity to meet other antiquarians and literary figures. The recent opening of two of these repositories to historians and the publication of calendars and indexes under the auspices of the government was a revolutionary development with immense benefits for historical scholarship Caulfield joined the influx and celebrated the adventure of discovery in a mine of untapped resources. A welcomed entrance to the social calendar of elitist intellectual circles had already been established through Crofton Croker.

Caulfield also travelled outside London. Two of his visits to the Bodleian Library at Oxford are recorded. (19) During his first visit in July 1862 he consulted material in the Carte, Rawlinson and Tanner manuscripts.

In Rawlinson B485 he examined a life of St Finbarr which he copied and published in 1864 in parallel with a recension of the life from a manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin. He visited also in July 1865, once again consulting material from the Rawlinson and Carte collections. Much of the information gleaned would surface in later years as contributions to the proceedings of the Cuvierian Society. It is recorded (20) that at Oxford he was well received and accorded every courtesy in recognition of his scholarly status. Obviously he was similarly entertained in London as in 1862 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries. Among the three Fellows who recommended him was T. F. Dillon Croker, son of Thomas Crofton Croker.

At the first meeting of the 1862-3 session Caulfield took his seat as one of two vice-presidents. In the following months he presented the Society with the fruits of his Summer research in the Bodleian and the British Museum as in the previous year he had given those gleaned from the records in the State Paper Office. At the final meeting he was elected president for the coming year. After the Summer recess, some of which was again spent in England, Caulfield took the chair for the new session during which Colonel A. Lane Fox was admitted as a member. In the next few years a friendship was to develop between them which had a lasting impact on archaeological field monuments in the vicinity of Cork.(21) At a meeting of the Bandon Young Men's Society they declared their intention of investigating ringforts within a ten mile radius of Cork city. Trial diggings and more extensive excavations were undertaken. Souterrains were explored and Ogham stones revealed. Descriptions of their activities appeared in newspapers and in the Gentleman's Magazine. However Lane Fox's stay in Cork lasted only a few years. He returned to England to inherit a family fortune and the surname Pitt-Rivers. In later years his innovations in both the theory and practice of archaeology would earn him the accolade 'father of modern British archaeology'. Caulfield's interests were again directed back to manuscripts.

Gathering Momentum The 1860s proved to be Caulfield's floruit. By now he was contributing to several periodicals which included Notes and Queries, Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, The Gentleman's Magazine and The Herald and Genealogist. Newspapers also carried the fruits of his pen on matters of genealogy and Cork history. These were The Times, The Cork Constitution and The Cork Examiner. The types of material published were letters, reports of society proceedings, lectures, articles, and reports of field excursions.



Caulfield Excavating a Vault at St. Finbarre's


At the end of the 1863-4 session Caulfield was re-elected president for the coming year. His addresses during these two years provide a clear picture of the rise and progress of the Society and its interests, as also in the development of many branches of knowledge in their infancy when it began. Some of his papers read to the Society at this time indicate that he had been looking closely at municipal and church records and had become very involved with the new cathedral of Saint Fin Barre, the foundations for which were being dug in 1862. Not forgetting his home parish and concern for the education of all classes, he gave a lecture to the St Peters Working Men's Association in 1864 on the History of the Bishops of Cork, subsequently published as a pamphlet. (22)

Caulfield was a member of the Building Committee for the new cathedral and during the years 1865-70 his contributions to the Societies proceeding included descriptions of the taking down of the eighteenth-century building, the progress of the new structure and an account of an excavation by him during the digging of a foundation for the North-East pier of the church.(23) During this three graveyard levels were discovered reaching a depth of thirty feet. His description shows an understanding of the concept of stratigraphy as a means of establishing a site chronology, the result no doubt of his association with Lane Fox. In 1871 his Annals of St Fin Barre's Cathedral Cork was published and he also wrote the text for a privately-issued collection of photographs by T.R. Lane of the construction of the building. (24) His last publication on this'subject was the Handbook of St Fin Barre's Cathedral which appeared in 1881. (25) He was a member of the Select Vestry Committee which cared for the business of running the church and from 187S to 1885 he acted as Honorary Secretary of the Building Committee.

During this decade his popularity as an antiquary made him the focus for correspondence with people from many walks of life seeking genealogical and historical information. His correspondence with antiquaries throughout Ireland is reflected in the letters which survive, some in the Bodleian, some in St Fin Barre's Cathedral, others in the John T. Gilbert Collection of Dublin Public Libraries. They cover a period from 1848 to 1877. It would be wrong to think that his energies were totally directed to one society. He was assistant secretary and an active member from 1862 onwards of the Cork Literary and Scientific Society. It boasted (26) after his death that its growth over a period of twenty-two years was principally due to Caulfield's influence. Due to lectures given by College professors it had grown from obscurity to considerable importance. After John Windele's death in 1865 he became secretary of a committee for the erection of a monument over Windele's grave at St Joseph's Cemetery. (27) This happened in 1867. After the death of George Boole in 1864 he made an ardent plea to the Cuvierian Society for a fund to be established to support Boole's wife and children. All of this is indicative of the scope of his involvement in the scholarly and literary life of Cork at that time.

A Professional Librarian

Caulfield's first professional post came in August 1864 when he was appointed librarian and assistant secretary of the Royal Cork Institution. This was due to the death of J.D. Humphreys, an artist of some merit. It was unanimously resolved on the proposal of Mr Thomas Jennings, seconded by Thomas Hewitt MA, that 'the salary of the Librarian-to be now appointed be £60 for the first year with apartments, coal, gas and the appointment to be annual'.

He took charge of what was in essence a small scientific library of about 6,000 volumes covering the subjects Agriculture, Natural History, Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Medicine, History, Philosophy and General Literature. There were also pamphlet and patent collections. Libraries at this time were gas-lit with caged wall-shelving in dark brown mahogany and the concept of self-service at the shelves was alien to both staff and readers. Hours of service were long and cataloguing procedures were of the most rudimentary form. There was a library manual and a published catalogue which appeared in 1824. (28) Though books were mainly acquired through donations, they were occasionally purchased for the collection. Through his appointment Caulfield joined a corps of librarians whose enthusiasm and dedication in spite of trying conditions opened the way for the creation of the profession which exists today. There was no professional training available for public or academic/special librarians. The only qualities which an appointments committee could be advised to look for were 'a genuine love of books and an indomitable passion for order'. Given these it was believed that 'the right person would be sure to learn all the technicalities of his calling speedily'. (29) Judged by these standards Caulfield was amply qualified though it must be remembered that the post also made him secretary of the Institution. It was a fitting position for a man whose reputation was already widespread and whose standing within the Institution was great. His salary was average for that time and his background was in common with many other librarians in the British Isles. Caulfield remained in this post for the rest of his life, a settled scholar in command of the library and museums of an institution of learning where he resided, attended meetings of the Cuvierian Society in the library periodically, answered correspondence, transcribed manuscripts, wrote for publication at the desk in his study, performed his duties as secretary on the Manager's Committee and acted as custodian of the Institution in its dying days when he also held the post of Librarian in the Queen's College, Cork. It must have looked a secure and settled future when at 8.30 a.m. on Saturday 2I August 1869 he was married to Dora Dowden of Bandon at St Paul's Church, Cork, by Rev. Samuel O. Madden, a fellow-antiquarian.

During the next decade his career continued to flourish. He was again elected president of the Society. When not serving in this capacity he was either treasurer or secretary. He took charge of the recording of the minutes of the Society's meetings and made a collection of newspaper cuttings in a volume described as the Transactions of the Cuvierian Society.(30) They are the main source of information about the Society's activities and the compilation of this volume is an example of his fastidiousness and historiographical awareness of future interest. Caulfield's contributions to Society meetings in these years followed the pattern well established in the 1860s, with digests of his notes taken during Summer travels and reports of finds added to the museums' collections. He read papers on behalf of Robert Day and Wm Hodder Westropp. His interest in Egyptology again surfaced when during the 1871-2 session he made some observations on three embalmed Egyptian heads in one of the cases of the Institution and quoted early references to embalming. A Peruvian mummy deposited in the Queen's College also caught his interest. Near the end of the session he unwrapped the swathing from the body of a small crocodile.

At the last meeting of the previous session he gave a lengthy description of a valuable collection of oriental manuscripts presented to the Institution by Francis Hodder on behalf of his relative Augustus Honner, an Oriental scholar. A description during the 1871-2 session of portion of the bones of Bos Longifrons, the tibia of a deer, some stag teeth, shells and other remains from shell-middens in the waterville area of Co. Kerry, documents from the reign of Henry VII relating to Cork, extracts from the Treasury Papers in the Public Records Office, a recently-discovered pectoral staff from Cloyne Cathedral, correspondence of the Earl of Cork on the value of Irish dogs and the Commonplace Book of the eighteenth-century Cork mathematician, John Fitzgerald, provides a view of the collage of subjects which occupied his mind.

Caulfield gave the opening address at the first meeting of the 1873-4 session and dealt with the state of the art in historical scholarship, laying emphasis on 'the value now placed on the evidence of original documents as well as the care now observed in the preservation of national muniments' and regretting 'that today's concern was not available years ago as much has been irrevocably lost' . He went on to praise the annals, chronicles and calendars Periodically produced under the Master of the Rolls and the caution taken by its editors. He said that 'unlike former times when history was so mutilated this is the true method of writing a history based on the simple authority of the documents'. His visits to the Public Records Office had imbued him with a sense of the value of this publishing venture and he was fortunate in his acquaintance with Mr Hans Hamilton who introduced him to many new sources for the history of Cork. A comment on social changes of the time is made in relation to the Library of the British Museum of which he said:
Speaking as one who has had many years experience, the number of ladies (fair literates) who have lately taken possession of the Library is something startling. Occupied in every kind of literary work transcribing extracts from manuscripts for those who did not find it convenient to go to London.
The trend was to strike much closer to home in years to come as the year of Caulfield's death was also the year in which the first women students entered Queen's College, Cork.

At the beginning of the following session he took the floor to give the opening address which reviewed the development of the Society over the past forty years. It illustrated, he said, 'the different phases of scientific thought and the various literary pursuits of the members and the persistent energy each worked in his own sphere cultivating the talent that was entrusted to his care'.

A Librarianship At The Queen's College

In the Queen's College, Cork (3l), in 1874 the professor of Materia Medica was taken ill and subsequently resigned. In his place the College Librarian, Dr Matthias O' Keeffe was appointed for the session 1875-6. The resulting vacancy in the library was filled by Richard Caulfield who entered upon his duties early in the second term. His appointment was confirmed by Royal Sign Manual. The library he entered was a collection of some 22,650 volumes arranged in twenty-three broad classes, the largest of which was History and Antiquities. It was a well-rounded collection for its time, containing Medical Sciences, Ancient Classics, Botany and Zoology, English Literature and European Languages, Chemistry and Theology, Logic and Metaphysics, Law and Jurisprudence, Geology and Geography. Voyages, Biography, Engineering and Agriculture Encyclopaedias, Bibliographies and Fine Arts, Celtic Literature and Sanscrit. The last was necessary for medical and engineering students, often commissioned officers destined for the colonial services. The collection was located in a purpose-built structure with high wall-shelving and a gallery. It had a published catalogue and a population to serve of less than five hundred. Its problems were similar to those of most libraries of the time, such as the need for grants to fill gaps in the stock, concern over heating and ventilation, fuel for the open fire, caged fronts for the stacks and an up-to-date catalogue. Usability and conservation concerns saw to the binding of all books and periodicals in stout leather or cloth boards with spines stamped with the college crest and initials in gold.



The Library of Queen's College, Cork


One of the largest donations ever received by the library had begun to come from William Crawford and this exacerbated a problem which was until recent years perennial. There is an irony in the fact that the solution has been a building dedicated to George Boole with a computerized catalogue searchable by using an internationally recognized system of logic invented by Boole. In Caulfield's words of 1876 'the Library is altogether inadequate not only to the annual increase of the books but also to accommodate gifts . . .' He called for immediate attention in the President's Report of that year. Books were loaned to graduates on deposit of £1 and a porter attended to general tasks.

The Library functioned as 'the library of reference for the South of Ireland' and as such it required a good catalogue of its holdings. Caulfield undertook this task and completed it in a little over two years, providing an alphabetic (author) sheaf catalogue 'found so Successful in the Library of the British Museum and elsewhere'. He reported in 1878 that:
The library has been much improved both as regards light and comfort by the substitution of sheet glass for the lead-latticed windows; it has also been furnished with fittings for lighting it with gas. The Librarian's room has been fitted with shelves and additional shelves have been introduced here and there throughout the Library where ever by rearrangement of the books room could be made.
Also in this report he takes the opportunity as he would do in future years to recommend the purchase of the Rolls Series and Calendars of State Papers, asked for not only by members of the College but also by the general public.

Though his experience of working in the Royal Cork Institution's library and of researching in the British Museum, Bodleian and Trinity College, Dublin, provided him with opportunities to question and explore the problems of his profession with other librarians, these can have been no more than informal exchanges. The need for librarians to come together to discuss their mutual problems in dealing with uncharted waters in the growth of the availability of and demand for information provided the impetus for the Conference of Librarians (32) held in London in October 1877. Caulfield attended and made several contributions to the proceedings. It was an international conference with library delegates from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. According to one representative, shelf arrangement was the most important subject discussed. Another felt that 'if no other benefit grew out of the present conference the knowledge of "Dewey's Method" must repay the gentlemen present for coming together'. Melvil Dewey gave details of his decimal classification scheme during the discussion on a paper by Richard Garnett dealing with the British Museum system. Some comments were made by C.A. Cutter, another distinguished name in the annals of librarianship. Caulfield added that he was quite satisfied with the present system. For special collections he felt that the pressmark system worked admirably well as he had recently used it to arrange an old cathedral library. This was, most probably, the library of St Fin Barre's Cathedral of which he had written a detailed account. One wonders what his opinion of the Dewey scheme was. Certainly, it did not influence his approach to organizing the College library in Cork. It was a hundred years later when the scheme was introduced to that institution. Caulfield's other contributions consisted of short comments relating to the subject of binding and conservation. This meeting paved the way for the establishment of the Library Association of Great Britain of which Caulfield was an original member.

Pre-empting the Public Records Act Ireland of 1877 Caulfield began transcribing church records in the early 1870s to add to what he came to call his 'Parochial Collection'. This set of transcripts (33) formed the most valuable part of the genealogical section of his library which also contained a collection of old leases, deeds and other documents detailing the transactions of tenants and landowners from late medieval to recent times. They formed an important corpus of data on the evolution of the county's rural and urban landscapes.

He began in 1872 when the Rev. Neligan, a member of the Cuvierian Society and a noted collector of manuscripts, loaned to him the records of St Mary's Shandon. From these he compiled the annals of the parish from 1672 to 1846. He finished on 10 September and on the following day he received from the Rev. T. Warren the parish books of St Peter's. From these he also compiled an annals, covering the period 1743 to 1846 which he finished on 16 September. In 1876 he transcribed the Register of Burials for the same church for the years 1745 to 1812 in a meticulously clear hand and in typical fashion annotated it at the beginning and end with a physical description of the manuscript and the date of transcribing. The parish registers of Christ Church, Cork, were tackled the following year. These included Baptisms and Marriages in the period 1708 to 1802. His annotations, while scientifically correct in purpose, contain an occasional idiosyncracy as in the following example of excessive personal detail:
I commenced the marriages in this register on Tuesday evening June 10th 1877 at 7 p.m. and completed the Mar. and Burials on Thursday morning June 12th, 1877 at 9.15 a.m. On Friday June 13th I went to London.
The Christ Church register was published the same year. His next transcript of this kind was made in the years 1879 and 1880. In four volumes never published he recorded the Registers of the Cathedral Church of St Fin Barre along with the parish book, all of which were given to him by Rev. S.O. Madden. Judging by the inscriptions most were written in his study at the Royal Cork Institution. His final work of this kind was finished in the library of Queen's College, Cork on April 7th 1886 at 1.30 p.m. It was the Register of Innishannon.

In terms of his publications the 1870s were the years in which his greatest edited and transcribed works saw the light of day. These were the council books of the Corporations of Cork, Youghal and Kinsale. (34) Their notes and prefaces reflect the work of many years of study. Taking his example from the Rolls Series, in the spirit of the research approach of the time, he saw the necessity of giving his energies not to the writing of synthesis but to supplying learnedly edited texts of major source material. The voluminous tome which is the Council Book of the Corporation of Cork is his finest achievement of this kind.

Changing Times

After 1876 Caulfield's involvement with the Cuvierian Society began to wane as the Society lost its former lustre. The recording of minutes and transactions was abandoned though a committee still existed and it remained alive in name. The reasons may have to do with the rise of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society to the status of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland (35) and Caulfield's appointment in Queen's College, Cork. In the early days of the new society it became the pattern to hold quarterly meetings in the major centres of the country, giving emphasis to the fact that while based in Dublin it was national in outlook. The Royal Cork Institution was one of the venues used, doubtless through Caulfield's association. His involvement with this society became prominent in 1876 raising him from the position of a local to that of a national antiquary. In January 1877 he was elected Honorary General Secretary along with Rev. James Graves. However, Graves became ill and remained so-until his death several years later. As a result it would seem that much of the running of the Society was done by Caulfield until the time of his own death. (36) He compiled an index to the Journal and acted as editor during this time. It is as if the importance of local societies was transcended by this new one. Caulfield moved with the tide and set a trend which was followed by many Cork antiquarians up to the early years of the present century of being involved in the activities of both the local and national societies. The facility of a railway service in the country from the mid-nineteenth century onwards was a major factor influencing the opportunities for communication with colleagues and also the opportunities for field trips.

Entering the 1880s Caulfield's standing as a scholar and antiquary was at its height. He was now in his late fifties and subject to occasional severe attacks of bronchitis. He also carried a burden of two concurrent librarianships, active membership of the committees of three societies, a flood of correspondence and enquiries, with continuing publications in periodicals and in book form. The activities of the Cuvierian Society were superseded by the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association. In academia change occurred due to the dissolution of the Queen's University and the establishment of the Royal University of Ireland, a solely examining authority which granted degrees in most subjects regardless of whether or not the candidate had attended a college. This happened in February 1882. The effect was that many students who intended doing degrees under the Royal University felt a necessity to join a college before the Queen's University was dissolved. The result was a large increase in the number of students bringing turmoil and stress to the Cork College which from an architectural viewpoint was not designed for growth. That the architects Messrs Deane and Woodward did not understand or anticipate future needs had become clearly apparent by 1886. In his annual report for this year the President, Wm K. Sullivan, viewing the problem from a library perspective stated:
Like every other part of the College buildings, the room set apart for the library seems to have been designed without any provision having been made for the normal growth of the collection, much less for any new development of the College. The number of books has so increased by purchase and gifts, that it has long since not only overflowed into the Examination Hall but quite filled up all available space there, the books on the shelves being in many cases doubled so as to be very inconvenient for reference.

This overcrowding has disorganised the arrangement of the whole library, retarded the finding of books and rendered an annual checking of the books with the catalogue practically impossible, thus endangering the safe-keeping of the books . . .
As a result of all this one can easily imagine the difficulties faced by the Librarian with little in the way of staff to provide assistance. Also at the Royal Cork Institution the collections were being broken up in piecemeal fashion with donors or their relatives seeking the return of items from the museums, books and other library materials being transferred to other libraries. All of this happened in spite of Caulfield's pleas and recommendations to the committees involved to prevent it.

Declining Years

Wrapped up in the consequences of these changes Caulfield's scholarly activities decreased, there being little correspondence and fewer publications from this period. Undeterred by age or health and given that transportation was by ship and rail, in 1885 he made a lengthy trip to Belgium, in the libraries of which he located documents concerning the history of the south of Ireland and particularly Kinsale. In Cork his popularity was enhanced at a popular level by a series of articles on folklore which appeared in the Cork Constitution (37) much to the delight of his contemporaries and that of the general reader. He also found the time to lecture to the Skibbereen Young Men's Society on the subject of Ethnography.

Observant readers of Guy's Postal Directory of Munster published in 1886 could see ample cause for Caulfield's popularity. He appeared as Secretary and Librarian at the Royal Cork Institution, Council member of the Cork Literary and Scientific Society, President of the Cuvierian Society, Secretary of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association, Librarian of Queen's College, Cork. However, the entry in the same pages for the Crawford Municipal School of Science, Art and Music, the committee of which contained some of his colleagues including Robert Day and Denny Lane, did not connect Caulfield in any way with this new development in cultural and technical education within the city. Perhaps because of his age or health or because of a sense of responsibility toward what was past, he carried the accolade of custodian of the Royal Cork Institution and looked towards Dublin as a new centre for the type of Irish scholarship to which he had devoted the greater part of his life.

His publications during these years included The Handbook of St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork (1881) and the Annals of St Colman' Cathedral, Cloyne ( 1882) both drawing together the work of years past. In the Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association the titles of his contributions were 'The Round Tower at Kinneigh', 'A Silver oar of Castlehaven', 'Three volumes of manuscripts relating to Cork city and county', 'Lord Mountcashel's Elegy' and 'Observations on the Franciscan Abbey, Cork'. It is noteworthy that field monuments and artefacts are still on the list. Unpublished transcripts of the List of Freemen of the City of Cork, an Apprentices Enrolment Indenture Book and two copies of a revision of Smith's History of Cork were also extant around this time. The revision of Smith's Cork containing material collected since the 1860s would have been the crowning achievement of his Cork research if finished.

In 1881 he received his last recognition of scholarship when the Royal Academy of History of Madrid elected him a corresponding member. For young scholars he held a mystique and respect later to be recalled by his 'pupil' and friend Lieut.-Col. T.A. Lunham. John Fitzgerald, another 'pupil', honoured him in a paper read in 1895 to the newly established Cork Historical and Archaeological Society entitled 'By the Doctor's Fireside: Reminiscences of the late Dr Caulfield'.
c

Becoming A Memory

Richard Caulfield died aged 64 on 3 February 1887 at his residence, the Royal Cork Institution, after a severe attack of bronchitis. On 4 February The Cork Constitution published a short unsigned appreciation which said of him that on more than one occasion he was chosen as arbiter in important historical and theological controversies. The end of his library career was signalled in the President's Report of Queen's College, Cork (Session 1884-86) with the following message:
I regret to have to record the death of Richard Caulfield LL.D. Librarian to the College who was well known as an ardent inquirer in local history and antiquities. Owen O'Ryan D. Lit., F.R.U.I. and Professor of Modem Languages has been appointed to the vacant office.
The funeral took place on 7 February when he was buried in St Luke's Cemetery. Douglas, beside the grave of his friend, antiquarian colleague and historian of Youghal, the Rev. Samuel Hayman. This was the result of a wish expressed to Col. T.A. Lunham who was churchwarden there for several years. Tinted with a hint of classical serenity, Caulfield was obviously impressed with the tranquillity and pleasant setting of what was then a rural churchyard. The Cork Examiner (38) reported that among those present were the Rev. J.D. Burke, Superior of the Christian Brothers, Rev. S.O. Madden, Dean of St Fin Barre's Cathedral, city dignitaries, and a host of lecturers, students and professors from the Queen's College, including the President, Wm K. Sullivan.



Caulfield's Grave in St Luke's Cemetry, Douglas


On 11 February the Cork Literary and Scientific Society paid its tribute when three of its members spoke at a special meeting. The most heartfelt of these came from the president, Robert Day, whose remarks display a facet of Caulfield's personality not captured in his writings. Day admired his 'catholicity of spirit' and didn't think he had even one enemy. He said he was a valued friend of the late Dr W. Delany, Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork, with whom he often dined. Turning to the subject of Caulfield's scholarship he stated a wish that his unpublished manuscripts would be secured for the public library which he hoped to see in the city before long. Finally, as a mark of respect all rose from their seats.

Tributes and notices of his death continued to appear in such periodicals as The Athenaeum, The Cork Weekly News, The Irish Builder and The Times. His biography was sketched for the Dictionary of National Biography, Men of the Time, Modern English Biography. At the inaugural meeting of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society in 1891 Denny Lane paid tribute in the following words:
. . . a man with a genuine love of learning, a scholar, indeed, whose knowledge was far reaching and whose acquaintance with Medieval Latin in which old charters are written was rarely excelled. Every line in our annals, every tradition that floated vaguely or clearly in the memory of our people, every relic of our edifices, every gravestone that bore that record of the men of the past was of interest to him and with an accuracy which is not common among us he recorded his observations. Amicable, generous and kind, he passed his last days in the Library of our College, among the books he loved so much and has left behind a memory that smells sweet and blossoms in the dust.
Col. T.A. Lunham was a special friend of his for over twenty-six years and had frequently corresponded with him. His biographical sketch of Caulfield is the most detailed. It appeared in the Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Society of Ireland, in the Irish Builder and on 15 February it was published in the Cork Constitution. Lunham's observations included the comments that he delighted in church music, and from his boyhood until increasing infirmities interfered was a regular attendant at the Cathedral. Shortly before his death Caulfield remarked to Lunham that he did not regret anything he wrote. In Lunham's words, 'truly he had no occasion'.

After such poetic praise and dignified recognition, some memorial was inevitable The first was in the form of a grave-slab, the next a fitting memorial in the Cathedral. Two other memorials were never realized - the keeping intact of his library and collection of manuscripts, and the publication of his remaining works.

As can be seen by the dates of the obituaries and appreciations quoted above Caulfield' s memory did not fade quickly, there being much ado within the next few years in relation to his library, publications and memorial. The Select Vestry Committee passed a resolution on his death on 18 February 1887. Also at this meeting a letter from Captain Thomas Ronayne Sarsfield offering to make a subscription to a memorial was read. In the next few months the Committee busied itself with the details of erecting an organ at the south side of the Cathedral. On 1 March 1888 it was agreed that £75 available for a memorial be spent either on a window or a proposed bronze door. On 8 March a public meeting was held at the Diocesan Offices, 52 South Mall, at which Bishop John Gregg presided. Those attending included Wm Crawford, Thomas Hodder, Robert Day and T.A. Lunham. The purpose of the meeting was to establish a fund. It was decided that, as one of Caulfield's cherished wishes was that his name be associated with the Cathedral in death as it had been in life, a memorial placed there would but carry out his desire. Also it would be necessary to mark his grave. A subscription was opened and a committee was appointed to administer it. On 4 December 1890 the Select Vestry Committee, having noted a small outstanding balance against the Caulfield memorial, passed a resolution that the sum be paid. By now both grave-slab and memorial were in place, the former in the cemetery at Douglas, similar in design to that of Samuel Hayman.



Bronze Door In St Fin Barre's Cathedral Erected To Caulfield's Memory


The memorial took the form of a bronze door inlaid with silver erected at the south side of the ambulatory at a spot which would have made it the entrance to the organ had this not been moved to the north. It is now the doorway to the tower stairs. Over it is a tympanum with a carving of David playing the harp and for this reason it is known as the David Door. In marble on the wall beside it is an inscription recording its dedication to the memory of Caulfield. An inscription on the door bears the date 1889. Rev. Canon A.C. Robinson in his Handbook of the Cathedral published in 1898 points to the existence of a colourful tableau representative of Caulfield's friends and work captured by the positioning of the tombstone of the Rev. Rowland Davies in the floor on the first storey of the central tower reached through Caulfield's door, while past the door and set in the ambulatory wall is a tablet of white marble commemorating Bishop Isaac Mann. Caulfield was instrumental in having the remains of Bishops Peter Browne and Isaac Mann brought from the chapel of Bishopstown House to the Cathedral in 1865. (39) Beyond the tablet lies the south transept with marble-lined walls dedicated to the memory of Dean S.O. Madden.

The Legacy

Librarians, archivists, antiquarian booksellers and scholars meet Caulfield today in his published works and surviving manuscripts. some of which bear an ex-libris stamped in purple and on occasion his bookplate which is non-heraldic and pictorial. The books and manuscripts - including his personal papers, scripts and notes, collections of documents from public and private sources - which constituted his library are now scattered to many parts of the world, some in private keeping, some in institutions. Some are in Australia and South Africa, others are in England. Fortunately however, the greater part remains in Ireland. They are to be found in the Library of Trinity College Dublin, the Public Records Office, University College Cork, Marsh's Library, St Fin Barre's Cathedral and Dublin Public Libraries' Gilbert Collection.

In a humorous fashion it could be said that he left his colleagues a problem which their efforts failed to solve. The saving factor would have been the preservation of his collection intact in either Cork or Dublin. Unfortunately this was not to be, with the result that in 1888 an auction (40) was held for the sale of his library, the fruit of over forty years of collecting and recording. In Robert Day's opinion its preservation would have been Caulfield's more preferable memorial.

Attempts were made to achieve this objective. A letter to the Cork Examiner (28 January 1888) stated that it contained the 'largest and most varied memoranda of all the principal families of Munster' then in existence. The anonymous author went on to suggest that if the Queen's College, Cork, showed an interest, it would be met with favourable consideration. Alternatively, a county subscription could be raised to purchase the genealogical and historical portions of it. For whatever reason this did not happen and an unequalled opportunity was lost to Cork. It was a core archival collection upon which a future city archives and records office could have been built.

The collection was decimated by the sale which was held in Dublin. Without an original catalogue its contents are difficult to estimate. Some of the highlights were recorded by John T. Gilbert in 1869 for the Royal Historical Commission' s first report. Of the several parchment documents in the collection the earliest was of the 52nd year of Henry III, 1267-8 AD and relating to Cork. Others were an inventory of the properties of the Galway family, Visitation Books of the seventeenth century for Cork and Cloyne, Bishop Peter Browne's library catalogue, Captain Robert Parker's memoirs of military transactions in Ireland and Flanders during the reigns of William and Mary, Cork Corporation documents, - part of the archives of the old corporation dissolved at the beginning of the 1840s including transcripts of the records of the Court of D'Oyer Hundred and of the Register of Freemen. Another major archive dissolved during his time was the Cork Ecclesiastical Archives, the result of Disestablishment in 1869. Many of these records came into his care also. Private collections of documents and valuable books were also added to his library. They included some muniments of the Sarsfield family, items belonging to Bishops Peter and Jemmet Browne held by Captain Browne of Riverstown House, a descendant.

Fortunately, some of the more important transcripts of city and church documents were purchased by Robert Day, including one copy of Caulfield's revision of Smith's Cork. When Day's library came on the market in 1915 some of those items which now form the collection in University College, Cork, were purchased by Rev. Canon P. Power on behalf of the president, Sir Bertram Windle. Also at the Day sale some Caulfield items such as parish register transcripts were held back and donated to the Cathedral. Others who bought at the sale - such as Canon Webster and Cecil Woods - would also deposit their purchases there at a later date. Items were purchased by W. A . Copinger then living in England and by the Public Records Office. The report of the Deputy Keeper for this year states that the items purchased consisted of an original parish register, parochial returns and consistorial and diocesan records of the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross as well as miscellaneous original deeds and documents dating from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

Many items followed circuitous routes to their present resting-places. Trinity College Dublin, acquired the Sarsfield / Ronayne papers in 1919 along with some diocesan and other documents. Those in the Bodleian were purchased from a bookseller in Kent in 1912. Marsh's Library in 1941 acquired about a hundred Cork deeds 'many with seals remaining' of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were part of a gift from Dean Webster of Ross. Other documents still remain in private hands or surface as small donations to libraries.

In conclusion it remains to be said that Caulfield's contribution to historical scholarship in Ireland, albeit primarily as a collector and editor of texts, has yet to achieve the objective so ardently sought. Had his library remained in Cork it could have formed the foundation of an archive of the landscape and people of this county. Without it there is a significant gap in any collection of this kind constructed today. Perhaps it is not too naive to suggest that through the use of modern reprographic technology, the institution which today complements his objective should reconstitute on film the Caulfield Collection as a fitting memorial to the county's 'first archivist'.

Notes And References

In this article I have not attempted an in-depth or scholarly assessment of Caulfield's work. The intention is to provide an outline of his life in a narrative style. The amount of information which has come to light in the course of researching this topic during the past year is such however that a more detailed study needs to be done for publication in the form of a book.

To reference every statement used in this biography would make its reading awkward and tiresome. I have therefore kept references to a minimum. My sources for genealogical information were entries by Robert Day on the preliminary pages of Caulfield's revision of Smith's Cork, family notes by Caulfield in a volume entitled 'Hillariania' now in the National Library of Ireland (MS 25,050), Caulfield's annotations of his transcript of the Register of St Peter's Church, Cork, now in St Fin Barre' s Cathedral and a letter from Miss Beryl Lester, London, a great-grandniece of Dora Caulfield. Printed sources in this category used were nineteenth-century Cork directories, biographical works such as the Dictionary of National Biography and the tributes and obituaries published in newspapers and periodicals particularly that by Lieut.-Col. T.A. Lunham in the Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland (subsequently JRSAI) . Details of his antiquarian activities and career in the Royal Cork Institution are taken from articles in the Journal of the Cork historical and Archaeological Society during the period 1891 to 1920 approx., the Minutes and Transactions of the Cork Cuvierian and Archaeological Society in the MSS section of the Boole Library UCC correspondence with societies in Ireland, Britain and Europe with which he was connected, also with repositories holding material from his library and the Minutes of the Managers of the Royal Cork Institution 1861 to 1881 forming part of the Dowden papers held in the Cork Archives Institute (MS U. 140). Richard Hayes' Sources for the History of lrish Civilization has been a very useful guide. St Fin Barre's Cathedral's muniments supplied me with information on his involvement with the Building Committee and select Vestry Committee as also the transcripts of parish registers. Finally it needs to be said that a complete bibliography of his published work and a listing of his surviving manuscripts must await a future publication.


1 Cork Examiner 5.2.1887. (Unsigned).

2 Charles Smith, The Ancient and Present State of the City and County of Cork. Ed. R. Day and W.A. Copinger. Cork 1893.

3 Now preserved in the Local Collection section of Cork City Library.

4 In 1827 a Richard Caulfield died at the house of his brother in the North Main Street. (Index to Co. Cork Biographical Material in Irish Newspapers 1724-1827 (incl.) compiled by Rosemary ffolliott, UCC Library MS U.114.)

5 In his transcript of the Register of Burials in St Peter's Church, Cork, Caulfield recorded details of his relationship with some of the names entered. These were:

Burial 25 Aug. 1831. Catherine Caulfield. 'Mother of the transcriber ... '

Burial 3 April 1829. William Caulfield. 'a younger brother of the transcriber'.

Burial 31 July 1827. Robert Caulfield. 'eldest brother of the transcriber'.

6 Joseph Hillary, The Parish Priest in Ireland or the history of Mr O'Brien. London, Hughes, 1817. (He was also author of a poem on Killarney in NLI MS 25,050).

7 Royal Commission on Endowed Schools 1858. Vol. 3. HMSO.

8 Cork Examiner 12.2 .1887, p. 3.

9 Wm Archer Butler (1814-48), Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Dublin.

10 George Leopold Chretien Frederic Dagobert Cuvier (1769-1832). Professor of Natural History at the College de France and at the Jardin des Plantes.

11 Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society ( 1904) p. 117.

12 In the March 1864 issue of The Herald and Genealogist he published a history of this family. This was reprinted in JCHAS xxi (1915) pp 82-136.

13 Now preserved in Dublin Public Libraries.

14 Report of the Cork Cuvierian Society 1854-5. Purcell, Cork, 1855.

15 Op. cit., p. 29.

16 George Petrie, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland anterior to the Norman Invasion, comprising an Essay on the Origin and Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, (Dublin, 1845) pp 84-5.

17 Rotulus Pipae Clonensis ex Origin. in Reg. Cath. clonensis Asservata. Cork, 1859.

18 The Autobiography of Sir Richard Cox, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. London, 1860.

19 Personal correspondence from S. Tomlinson, Assistant Librarian, Bodleian Library, Oxford, assisted by Miss Shaw, Archivist.

20 Lunham's biographical sketch of Caulfield appeared in The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland. Vol. 8, Ser. 4, 1887-8, pp 171-5, as well as in the Irish Builder, 1 Dec 1887, p. 327.
21 See Dr E. Twohig's article on Pitt-Rivers in this issue.

22 History of the Bishops of Cork. Cork, 1864.

23 A copy of this description of the excavation appeared in the Southern Reporter, 3 Nov. 1869.

24 Thomas R. Lane, Vetusta Monumenta corcagiae: Being nine views of the late Cathedral of St Fin Barre's, Cork. Cork, 1866.

25 Handbook of St Fin Barre's Cathedral Cork. Cork, 1881.

26 Cork Examiner 12.2 1887, p. 3

27 Details of the Windele monument appeared in the Cork Examiner 30.4.1867.

28 Copy preserved in the Boole Library, University College, Cork.

29 Thomas Kelly, A History of Public Libraries in Great Britain 1845-1975. The Library Association, London, 1977, p. 99.

30 Now deposited in the MSS Collection, Boole Library, UCC. (MS 227). The Minutes cover the period 1835-1878, the Transactions the years 1853-75

31 Details concerning the history of the library at UCC are from the published Reports of the Presidents of Queen's College, Cork ( 1875-88).

32 Transactions and Proceedings of the Conference of Librarians held in London October 1877. Ed. E.B. Nicholson and H.R. Tedder. London, 1878.

33 Now in St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork.

34 (i) The Council Book of the Corporation of Cork. Guildford, 1876.

(ii) The Council Book of the Corporation of Youghal. Guildford, 1878.

(iii) The Council Book of the Corporation of Kinsale. Guildford, 1879.

35 The Society in the course of its history has had four names. They are: The Kilkenny Archaeological Society (1849), The Kilkenny and S.E. of Ireland Archaeological Society, The Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.

36 I am grateful to Mrs Siobhan de hOir, Assistant Secretary, RSAI, for this information.

37 Caulfield's folklore articles appeared in the Cork Constitution in the period 1886-7.

38 Cork Examiner 8.2.1887, p. 2.

39 'The leaden coffins of Bishops Peter Browne and Isaac Mann at Ballineaspic' in Notes and Queries 2nd Ser., No. xi, 9 Feb.

40 I have failed to locate a copy of the catalogue for this. The Cork Constitution (21 Jan 1888, pp 4-5) states that the auctioneers were Messrs Bennet, Dublin, and that the sale would begin on 26 January. A short description of the lots is given.

Acknowledgements

For information supplied on request, my thanks are due to the following: Miss A.G. Polden, Deputy Librarian, Library Association; Siobhan de hOir, Asst. Sec., RSAI; R.C. Snelling, Dept of MSS, British Library; Mr Gerard Lyne, Asst. Keeper, MSS Dept, NLI; Mr Jerry Lyons, Asst. Keeper, NLI; Mrs Brigid Dolan, Librarian, RIA; Mr S.R. Tomlinson, Dept of Western MSS, Bodleian Library, Oxford; Miss Grace Atkinson. Asst. Archivist, Times Newspapers Ltd; Mr Bernard Nurse, Librarian, Soc. of Antiquaries of London; Mrs Muriel McCarthy, Librarian, Marsh's Libraty, Dublin; Mr Stuart O Seanoir, Asst. Librarian, MSS Dept, TCD; Miss Aideen Ireland, Archivist, PROI; Dalmiro de la Valgoma y DiazVarela, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid; PNR Zutshi, Research Asst., The Royal Comm. on Hist. MSS, London; Miss N. de Brun, Sub-Librarian, UCC; Mr P. Howard, Librarian, Gilbert Library, Dublin Public Libraries.

Further assistance was provided by: Rev. Dean J.M.G. Carey, St Fin Barre's Cathedral; Mr Kieran Burke, Asst. Librarian, Cork City Library; Mr Colman O'Mahony; Mr P. Quigg, Librarian, UCC; Ms Patricia McCarthy, Archivist, Cork Archives Institute; Rosemary McCarthy for typing; Mr CJ.F. MacCarthy, as always, for guidelines.



Caulfield Book Plate



Caulfield Papers In Private Hands

The author of this paper requests anyone who knows the whereabouts of any manuscript compiled by Caulfield to contact one of the city libraries or the Cork Archives Institute. Such a MS (or even a photocopy thereof) would make a welcome addition to the Caulfield collection in the Boole Library, UCC.





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