Important Day Family Archive Co. Kerry:  An Archive, mainly...

Hammer

€3,800

Important Day Family Archive

Co. Kerry:  An Archive, mainly pictorial, of the Day family, descendants of the Rev. John Day, Rector of Kiltallagh (d. 1817), assembled by Kathleen Mary Agnes Day. 
Born in 1881, the fourth child and only daughter of the Rev. Maurice Day and Charlotte Ottley of Moyola, Co. Antrim, she lived with her parents until her father’s death in 1923, and spent much of her later life in Windsor, where she died unmarried. 

The distinguished lawyer and politician Robert Day (1746-1841) was a collateral ancestor; but the Days were above all stalwarts of the Church of Ireland: Kathleen’s grandfather was Dean of Ardfert; her father was Bishop of Clogher; her brother was Bishop of Ossory and ultimately (but briefly) Archbishop of Armagh; a grand-uncle was Bishop of Cashel and Waterford; and a cousin was Dean of Waterford.

The collection comprises photograph albums of places where the family lived or went on holiday, sketchbooks, topographical drawings, genealogical information, news cuttings, and a large assortment of loose family photos (most of which have been captioned by Kathleen Day), some mounted and framed, some printed on glass or tin.

Highlights include:
·       A framed series of 7 silhouettes, with at centre Kathleen’s great-grandmother Arabella Day (née Godfrey), surrounded by six of her children, all identified on the back.
·       A collection of miniatures and silhouettes of members of the Day family.
·       Album bound in red-brown morocco with gold tooling (18th century?), 53 x 39 cm, containing 3 illuminated addresses to the Rev. Maurice Day, acknowledging his services as pastor, regretting his imminent departure, and congratulating him on his new appointment: (1) from the parishioners of Killiney, March 1894, with Celtic scrolled borders and vignette of the church. Published by the Royal Irish Association for Employment of Women; (2) from the parishioners of St Luke’s [Cork], 28 February 1870, with elaborately decorated borders with the Day coat of arms, Celtic scrolls, flowers and beasts; (3)from the St Matthias’ Young Men’s Christian Association, February 1873. Also news cuttings, photos, drawings, a large genealogical table of the Day and Ottley families, a watercolour of Ballybrack Church by C.B. Harcourt, 1881, and many loose items.
·       Album bound in green morocco with gold tooling, 35 x 28 cm.  Illuminated address to the Dean of Ossory, 1905, from the parishioners of St Matthias Church, Dublin, with decorated borders and Day coat of arms.  List of subscribers. 6 pages. Published by J.A.S. McConnell, Dublin.  
·       Certificate presented to Mrs Charlotte Day [Kathleen Day’s mother] by the Joint Committee of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John of Jerusalem in England, in recognition of her valuable services rendered during the War, 1914-1919. Signed by Queen Alexandra and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.
·       Scrapbook (disbound), 24 x 19 cm. Commonplace book, 19th century, containing news cuttings, holy verses, topographical prints (black & white), some pencil sketches, many loose items, photos, and the charming first letter of Kathleen’s cousin Maurice William Day, written in 1865, when aged seven.
·       A diary for 1864, written by J.E. Day, civil engineer, re work done in Fermanagh, and religious notes and quotes by his sister Eleanor F. Day.
·       Album compiled by Kathleen Day during her war work in 1917 at the Soldier’s Home, Bapaume, Rouen, including photos of Rouen, sketches of personnel, autographs, etc.
·       Visitor’s book kept by the Day family at successive ecclesiastical residences, and later by Kathleen Day in Windsor, 1897-1946.

* An important and mixed collection, principally relating to the Day Family, but one which would reward much further research. As an Archive, w.a.f. (1)
Julian Walton, 2023