Trotter & Otway-Ruthven

© Donal G. Burke 2014

In the mid nineteenth century William Clifford Bermingham Trotter, seated at Raheen near the village of Killimor in the east of County Galway, applied to the office of the Ulster King of Arms for a confirmation of arms then in use by his family.

About the time of his request for a confirmation of arms William C. B. Trotter was described as ‘the only son of the late Thomas Bermingham Trotter who was son and heir apparent of Clifford Trotter of Charleville Cottage in County Wicklow, Esquire, a Justice of the Peace for the County of Down, also deceased, by his wife Lady Mary St. Lawrence, daughter of William, 2^nd Earl of Howth and co-heiress of her mother Lady Mary Bermingham, daughter and heiress of Thomas, last Earl of Louth.’[i]

The arms acknowledged by the Ulster King of Arms as ‘long borne by his family which claims by tradition to be descended from the Scottish House of Ruthven’ had never been previously enrolled and by a confirmation of arms dated 5^th April 1862 Sir John Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms, confirmed arms unto ‘the said William Clifford Bermingham Trotter of Raheen in the County of Galway, Esquire, and his descendants and to the other descendants of his aforesaid grandfather Clifford Trotter, Esquire, deceased, the arms following, viz;- Argent on a Chevron Gules between three Boar’s heads couped Sable, a Ram’s head of the field. For crest, on a ducal Coronet Or a Horse trotting Argent caparisoned Proper and resting the dexter forehoof on an escocheon paly of six Argent and Gules, over the crest on an escroll ‘Deed Shaw’ and for motto, toujours prêt.’[ii] The same confirmation gave a depiction of the quartered shield to which W.C.B. Trotter, Esq. was entitled.

The arms confirmed unto William Clifford Bermingham Trotter, his descendants and the other descendants of his grandfather Clifford Trotter by the Ulster King of Arms in 1862. N.L.I., Dublin, G.O. Ms. 108, pp. 410-411.

The escutcheon ‘paly of six Argent and Gules’ given in the crest and the ram’s head couped are heraldic references to the Scottish family of Ruthven, Earls of Gowrie and to the origin of this Trotter family in Scotland, where by tradition they were known as Ruthven prior to the early seventeenth century.

Origin of the family in Scotland

The name of Ruthven was abolished by an Act of the Scottish Parliament in 1600 following what was believed to have been an attempt by John Ruthven, 3^rd Earl of Gowrie and members of his family and supporters to kidnap the Scottish King, James VI, in August of that year.

Alexander Ruthven, described as ‘a kinsman of the Earl of Gowrie,’ was reputed to be ancestor of the family of Trotter who came into possession of various estates in east Galway in the early nineteenth century. This Alexander was said to have been at Perth at the time of the killing of the Earl and ‘involved in the ruin of his family.’[iii] Fleeing to England in 1602, he settled in the county of Durham, where he assumed his wife’s name of Trotter. He died in 1621 leaving a son, James Trotter.[iv]

Two of James Trotter’s three sons; Alexander and John are said to have quarrelled, resulting in the death of the elder brother, Alexander. John fled initially to the Isle of Man and thereafter to the north of Ireland in the late seventeenth century, bringing with him his wife and young son Samuel.[v]

Samuel’s son John, established at Downpatrick in the north of Ireland had at least five sons, the youngest of whom, William was father of Clifford Trotter who acquired considerable property in east Galway in the early nineteenth century, formerly in the possession of the last Bermingham Earl of Louth and Baron of Athenry.

Acquisition of County Galway estates

The Trotter family acquired extensive lands in east Galway, principally the Bermingham House estate in the barony of Dunmore, near Tuam, and an estate at Quansbury (or Quansborough) in the parish of Kilquain in the early nineteenth century through the marriage in 1805 of Clifford Trotter to Lady Mary St. Lawrence, heiress of William St. Lawrence, 2^nd Earl of Howth.

These County Galway estates had been acquired by William, 2^nd Earl of Howth by his marriage to Lady Mary, one of the three daughters and co-heiresses of Thomas Bermingham, 1^st Earl of Louth and last legally attested Baron of Athenry. (a fourth daughter, Lady Matilda Dorothea, died unmarried in 1788 and two sons of the Earl died in infancy). When Thomas Bermingham died in 1799 his title of Louth became extinct and none of the claimants within his wider family were found to be legally entitled to the ancient title of Baron of Athenry. The heiresses to his property were his three daughters by his second wife Margaret Daly of Quansbury, through whom Thomas, Earl of Louth, had acquired the former Daly estate of Quansbury or Quansborough in east Galway.

William St. Lawrence, 2^nd Earl of Howth, married firstly Lady Mary, one of the three daughters and co-heiresses of Thomas Bermingham, Earl of Louth in 1777. He married secondly Margaret, daughter of William Burke of Keelogues, County Galway by his wife Margaret Coleman. He died in 1822 leaving no sons but four daughters by his first wife and a son and daughter by his second wife Margaret Burke. His son inherited the earldom but as his son was not the product of the first marriage to the Bermingham heiress, his four daughters by his first marriage, Harriet, Mary, Matilda and Isabella became co-heiresses to the former Bermingham family properties.

Of these daughters the principal heiresses to the Quansbury and Bermingham House estates in east Galway were Lady Mary and Lady Matilda. Part of these two estates were acquired by William, son of William Burke of Keelogues, Co. Galway on marrying Lady Matilda St. Lawrence and part of the estates were acquired by Clifford Trotter through his marriage to Lady Mary St. Lawrence. Both husbands also assumed the additional name of Bermingham, thus perpetuating that family name.

Clifford Trotter had two sons and three daughters by Lady Mary St. Lawrence; Thomas Bermingham Trotter, born in 1816, William St. Lawrence Trotter, Mary Bermingham Trotter, Isabella Louisa and Elizabeth. Trotter’s wife died in January 1825 and he married secondly, in March 1838, Catherine Elizabeth, daughter of Major William Stirling St. Clair of Emma Vale, County Wicklow. By his second marriage he had five more sons and two daughters; Clifford Stirling, born in 1839, Mervyn Henry, Frederick St. Clair, Alfred Edward, Jocelyn Fitzgerald Trotter, born in 1849, Adelaide and Catherine.[vi]

Thomas Bermingham Trotter, eldest son of Clifford Trotter, was educated at Trinity College Dublin. He married Rosabelle Maria Frances, youngest daughter of Major William Stirling St. Clair of Emma Vale and youngest sister of his father’s second wife. The couple had a daughter, born in 1839, who died in infancy and an only son, William Clifford Bermingham Trotter, born on 14^th July 1840.[vii]

Clifford Trotter was given on different occasions as seated at Clough House in County Down and at Bermingham in the County of Galway.[viii] His son and heir apparent, Thomas Bermingham Trotter of Bermingham, died at the age of approximately twenty eight years in January 1844 in the lifetime of his father and when his only son and heir was a minor of about four years of age.[ix] (Bermingham House and estate, however, was leased by Clifford Trotter to Captain Netterville Blake in the late 1820s and to one John Irwin Dennis from about 1838.)

Encumbered Estates Court

The Great Famine of the late 1840s took a heavy financial toll on many of the landed families. Most depended heavily on the income from their estates to maintain their lifestyles. The Poor Law rates crippled many and the Famine left their estates decimated and their rental incomes seriously reduced. Many had little choice but to sell their property. Clifford Trotter advertised part of his estates for sale in the Encumbered Estates Court, including those of Bermingham House and Quansborough.

When he sold these estates Clifford Trotter was in his early seventies and about that time, in 1853, his second wife Catherine (his son’s sister-in-law) died. He died on the 24^th October 1859 aged seventy-seven years.[x]

At the time of his confirmation of arms in 1862 Clifford Trotter’s grandson William Clifford Bermingham Trotter was then aged about twenty-two years and resident at Raheen, near Killimor in County Galway. In 1864 he took a lease of, and came to reside for a time at, the nearby house of Hearnesbrook, the seat of the Kirkaldys on the outskirts of the village of Killimor and in the following year he was described as seated at Quansborough.[xi]

Grant of Ruthven arms only

While the Trotter arms confirmed in 1862 remained those of the other descendants of Clifford Trotter, three years later W.C.B. Trotter was granted new arms. By Royal Licence dated 21^st April 1865 William Bermingham Trotter of Quansborough in the County of Galway, Esquire, Justice of the Peace for that County, took and used the surname of Ruthven only in lieu of Trotter and he and his issue were given permission to bear the arms of Ruthven only, with due distinctions ‘provided that Her Majesty’s concession and declaration be recorded in the office of Ulster King of Arms in Ireland to the end that the Officers of Arms there and all others may upon occasion take full notice and have knowledge thereof.’ The Lord Lieutenant, by warrant dated 27^th April, authorised the registration of the Royal Licence by the Ulster King of Arms in his office and two days later Ulster King of Arms granted arms to ‘the said William Bermingham Trotter now William Bermingham Ruthven of Quansborough in the County of Galway Esquire and his issue the Arms following, viz. Paly of six Argent and Gules; a Canton Erminois. For crest, a Goats head erased Argent, attired Or; charged with a Mullet Gules, and over the crest on an escroll the Motto, Deed Shaw.’[xii]

The arms granted to William Bermingham Ruthven of Quansborough, County Galway and his issue in 1865, exemplified in the records of the Ulster King of Arms with the motto ‘Deed Shaw’ over the crest ‘on an escroll’ and a vacant scroll beneath the shield. N.L.I., Dublin, G.O. Ms. 109, pp. 79-80.

Assumption of the additional name of Otway

The now William Bermingham Ruthven married on 25^th October 1865 Frances Margaret, only daughter and heir of Vice-Admiral Robert Jocelyn Otway of Castle Otway, Deputy-Lieutenant for the County of Tipperary and in 1887 he assumed, by Royal Licence, the additional name of Otway. His armorial bearings thereafter were given still as those issued in his grant of 1865.[xiii]

By his wife Frances Margaret, he had children; Robert Mervyn Bermingham Otway-Ruthven, Esq., born in August of 1867 and who later served as a Captain in the Royal Artillery, Thomas Ormonde Bermingham Otway-Ruthven, gentleman, born in 1872 and a third son in Mervyn Henry Bermingham Otway-Ruthven, gentleman, born in 1877, and five daughters; Annette Rosabelle Bermingham, Marguerite Frances Bermingham, who died young in 1870 and Rosabelle Frances Elizabeth Bermingham, Edith Mary Bermingham and Cecily Harriet Beatrice Bermingham.[xiv]

His seats were given in the first decade of the twentieth century as Invernisk, on the west bank of the River Shannon in the parish of Clonfert in east Galway, Castle Otway, Templemore, Co. Tipperary, Lisgillock in County Leitrim, Charleville Cottage in Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow and Mount Campbell in County Leitrim.[xv] He died on 24^th August 1907. His wife Frances Margaret survived him by fourteen years, dying in October 1921.[xvi]

The eldest son, Robert Mervyn Bermingham Otway-Ruthven, married in April 1900 Margaret, daughter of Julius Casement, Esq., J.P., of Cronroe, Co. Wicklow.[xvii] The couple had a daughter Frances Katherine, born in June 1908 but who died at the age of six months.[xviii] In 1911 they were living at Victoria Villas, Pembroke West in Dublin City, with their two young daughters, the eldest surviving, Annette Jocelyn one year old and Pheobe Elizabeth Otway-Ruthven, an infant.[xix] All were members of the Church of Ireland.  The couple had an only son, Robert Jocelyn Oliver, born in March 1901 who was not present in the house at the time of the 1911 Census of Ireland. He family also appear to have resided for a period at Castle Otway, the ancestral seat of his mother’s family.’[xx]

Robert Jocelyn Oliver Otway-Ruthven was educated privately and at the Royal Navy Colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth. He served in World War One from 1917 to the end of the war and in 1926 married Vera Beryl Martin, daughter of Martin Alfred Cooke O.B.E., M.D., M.R.C.S., of Knowle House, Church Road, London. Their daughter Oonagh Beryl Margaret was born in 1929 and their son, Robert Mervyn Bermingham Otway-Ruthven in July 1930.

In September of 1938 Commander Robert Jocelyn Oliver Otway-Ruthven R.N., ‘only son of Captain Robert Mervyn Bermingham Otway-Ruthven R.G.A. of Castle Otway’ was granted a confirmation of arms from the Office of the Ulster King of Arms. His arms were composed of; quarterly, first and fourth ‘Paly of six Argent and Gules; a Canton Erminois’ (for Ruthven), second; ‘Argent, on a pile Azure a chevron counter-charged of the first, and Sable’ (for Otway), and third ‘Argent on a Chevron Gules between three Boars heads couped Sable, a Rams head of the field’ (for Trotter). Above the shield, two crests, each on a wreath Argent and Gules, first, ‘a Goats head erased Argent, attired Or; charged with a Mullet Gules’ (for Ruthven) and secondly ‘out of a ducal coronet Or, a cross of the first between two wings Sable’ (for Otway), and for motto ‘Deed Shaw’.[xxi]

Commander Robert J. Otway-Ruthven served again in World War Two, being awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1944. Following the war he was given as resident at Penns, Ganghill, Guildford in Surrey.[xxii]