Alderman Cornelius Egan: Owner of Earlscliffe 1844–1864
Earlscliffe’s story begins not with a grand aristocratic lineage, but with a family shaped by trade, ambition, and the shifting realities of early nineteenth-century Ireland. Long before Cornelius Egan became a Dublin alderman and property developer, he grew up within a world where business, religion, and reputation were closely intertwined.
Family history
Cornelius Egan was born around the turn of the nineteenth century into a Roscrea family rooted in brewing and distilling. His father, Stephen Egan, a brewer of some standing, had married Margaret Coffee around 1776, and together they had eight children.
Family move into brewing and distilling
Cornelius' father, Stephen’s rise was gradual. Beginning as a shopkeeper, he expanded into baking and, ultimately, into brewing and distilling—enterprises later managed by his sons Daniel and Stephen. By the early 1800s, the Egan business had become a visible and active part of Roscrea’s commercial life. 4
For a child growing up in such a household, business was not abstract. It was immediate and tangible: carts arriving, goods being handled, accounts discussed, and workers moving through the yard. Cornelius would have absorbed, almost by osmosis, how trade worked, how relationships were maintained, and how reputation could be built—or damaged.
This was also a Catholic family advancing within a society still shaped by the long shadow of the Penal Laws. These were a series of laws designed to restrict the rights of Catholics in Ireland, limiting their ability to own land, hold office, practise their religion openly, and participate fully in political and social life. Although many restrictions had eased by the early nineteenth century, full political equality had not yet arrived. Prosperity was possible, but acceptance remained conditional. Families like the Egans operated in a space where success brought visibility, and visibility brought scrutiny.
That environment placed Cornelius, even as a young man, at the intersection of commerce, community identity, and quiet tension—forces that would become dramatically visible in Roscrea during his formative years.
The Roscrea conspiracy
In 1816, Cornelius Egan’s brother Stephen was arrested and taken under military guard to Clonmel, accused of conspiring to murder the Reverend John Hamilton.
The case involved secret informers, alleged military drilling and shots fired through Hamilton’s parlour window. Yet Hamilton had not been sitting inside. In his place was a straw figure dressed in his clothes, seated beside an open Bible.
Stephen faced a capital trial before Lord Norbury, a judge notorious for the severity of his sentences. But as the witnesses were cross-examined, the prosecution began to collapse.
Move to Dublin and Early Career
By 1824 Cornelius had moved to Dublin, carving out a role for himself in the city’s expanding commercial economy during a time of urban growth and political agitation. Working as a corn merchant in Ringsend, he was part of the networks that supplied grain, malt, hops and seed to breweries, distilleries, and the agricultural sector at a time when Dublin was rapidly growing. This was not a quiet domestic trade: the supply chains he connected into were integral to Ireland’s food and drink economy, with links to both rural agricultural producers and urban consumption.
In 1831 Egan and his brother Stephen joined the National Political Union of Ireland, a reformist organisation advocating parliamentary reform and wider enfranchisement. 5 This aligns him with a broader wave of political agitation in both Ireland and Britain in the run-up to the Reform Act era, when questions about representation and political rights were reshaping public life.
Marriage and Family Life
On 29th June 1832, Cornelius married Grace Cahill in Booterstown, County Dublin. The couple settled initially in Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire), where they were living by 1834, and they went on to have ten children, establishing themselves as a substantial family in the expanding coastal suburb. 6 7
Civic and Commercial Advancement
Cornelius’s commercial success translated into civic influence. In 1841 he was elected Alderman of Dublin City Council, a position that placed him within the city’s decision-making circles at a moment of significant urban change. Aldermen were key figures in local government, helping shape policy on trade, infrastructure, sanitation and public order at a time when Dublin was wrestling with the challenges of growth and poverty. 8
By 1843, he had relocated his residence and business operations to 27 Bachelors Walk, in the commercial heart of Dublin. The following year, he founded Cornelius Egan & Co., a wholesale merchant firm specialising in hops, seed, malt, and corn. The company occupied a strategic niche within the supply chains of breweries, distilleries, and agricultural enterprises, and its establishment marked the culmination of the skills and experience Cornelius had acquired from his Roscrea upbringing through to his decades of commercial activity in Dublin. 8
The Construction of Emily Cottage / Emily House / Earlscliffe
It was in this context — commercial success, civic prominence, and an eye to emerging patterns of suburban life — that Earlscliffe came into existence. The house now known as Earlscliffe was likely built around 1845. Developing substantial residences on the coastal lands around Howth in the mid-1840s was a forward-looking move. The expansion of the Dublin–Howth railway at the end of the 1840s and improvements in road access made the peninsula increasingly attractive to affluent Dubliners seeking seasonal retreat and sea air.
The house is thought to have been built most likely by Cornelius Egan. There is a small chance that it was built by the Earl of Howth instead, but there is no clear evidence for this, and what records we do have point much more strongly towards Egan.
It seems likely that the house was built as a rental property rather than a permanent home. A comfortable house for rent intended for seasonal tenants would have made good commercial sense for a landowner like Egan.
Some details remain uncertain, but by 1848 the picture becomes clearer. That year, Cornelius Egan appears in Griffith’s Valuation, a nationwide property survey carried out to establish who occupied land and buildings, who owned them, and how much they were worth for tax purposes. Griffith’s Valuation lists Egan as the occupier of the plots known as 2a and 2b, and records that he held the land under a 99-year lease dated 1847, granted by the Earl of Howth. 9 10
There is no surviving map from the exact year of the valuation, but an 1880 map helps to join the dots. It shows Earlscliffe standing on the land marked as plot 2b, which fits neatly with the valuation records and confirms the location of the house.
What none of the records show, however, is that Cornelius Egan ever lived at Earlscliffe himself.
Evidence around the origins of Earlscliffe
Our evidence to date about the origins of Earlscliffe start with a number of houses that were regularly up for rent in the Sutton and Howth area from around 1846, all managed through 27, Bachelor's Walk, Dublin (the property of Cornelius Egan). The one that we believe that is now called Earlscliffe was advertised in 1846 as being built last summer which would date Earlscliffe as 1845. 17
Each of the rental properties were re-advertised regularly over the next fifteen years. In the early years, the property we think is Earlscliffe was not named. However, the descriptions of the property and location make it almost certain to be Earlscliffe.
In 1853, the property was described as a detached large Cottage. 18 By 1860, the property was named as Emily Cottage and by 1861 was described as a large superior Detached Cottage-House. 19 20
By 1862, the property was advertised as Emily House 21 and this was the property that the first known resident, William Bunbury McClintock Bunbury, initially rented out. Correspondence from McClintock Bunbury in 1863 stated the property name as Earlscliffe (possibly after the Earl of Howth who leased out the land).
I am still researching into Emily House and if Emily House was actually what Earlscliffe was originally called.
For more details of my research so far see The Mystery of Emily Cottage
We don't know much more about Egan and Earlscliffe, but we do know that there were legal dealings with Egan and his executors and William McDougall of Drumleck, Howth (see map above). 11
Egan's other properties
Egan owned and was landlord for many properties around Dublin and other areas, and owned a number of properties in Howth most of which, we assume, he rented out. According to Thom's Irish Almanac & Official Directory, in 1849, Egan owned Devonshire Terrace in Strand Road, Sutton (now called Beachfield House) 12 and in 1852 he also owned St Lawrence House in Howth village. 13
We assume that, when Egan lived in Howth village, it was only during the summer months, and that during the winter he lived at his main premises at 27 Bachelor's Walk in Dublin. 7 This seems to have been the normal way of living of wealthy property owners in Dublin at that time. One property for summer and another for the winter months.
This pattern — of urban commercial life combined with coastal property investment and living — reflects wider shifts in the mid-nineteenth century: the rise of a professional and mercantile class with the means to shape and benefit from the suburbanisation of Dublin’s environs.
Family tragedy
Tragedy touched the Egan family in 1853 with the loss of Cornelius Egan’s second son, also named Cornelius, who died at just seventeen years of age.
Contemporary reports in the Kerry Evening Post describe how, on 27th October 1853, the younger Cornelius was staying at his father’s country residence at Sutton, (believed to have been Devonshire Terrace, later known as Beachfield House, but could equally have been St. Lawrence House, which was also sometimes recorded as being in Sutton). While staying at the house, Cornelius junior went sailing and brought with him a fowling-piece, a light, long-barrelled smoothbore firearm commonly used at the time for hunting wildfowl and small game, broadly equivalent to a modern shotgun.
As he stepped out of the boat, the gun accidentally discharged, the shot striking him in the chest. Despite the circumstances being clearly described as accidental, the incident was devastating for the family. Cornelius Egan junior was buried at St Mary’s Church in Howth. 14
Egan's death and legacy
Cornelius Egan died on 2nd July 1863 in St Lawrence House in Howth and is buried at St. Fintan's cemetery in Sutton. 15 16 He was survived by his wife, Grace, who subsequently moved to Antwerp in Belgium in 1871 and died on the 27th Aug 1874. 7
St. Lawrence House was later converted into a hotel, which closed in the summer of 2000 and is now an apartment complex.
In terms of Earlscliffe, we know that Egan owned the land up to at least 1850. 10 However, we assume that Egan's death in 1863 prompted the sale of his other properties, as Earlscliffe (then called Emily House) was subsequently sold in 1864.
Egan In Perspective
Cornelius Egan belonged to a generation reshaping Dublin in the decades before the Great Famine . He was part of an expanding professional and commercial middle class: not aristocratic landowners, but men with sufficient capital, confidence, and foresight to invest in land and property as both livelihood and long-term legacy.
The economic backdrop to this moment was shaped less by revolution than by war. During the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath, Britain’s population grew rapidly and demand for food and agricultural produce increased. Ireland, still overwhelmingly rural, became deeply embedded in this British-centred trading system, supplying grain, livestock, and dairy products. This period brought volatility rather than simple prosperity, but it also rewarded those who understood land, location, and changing patterns of demand.
At the same time, improvements in transport were beginning to alter how people lived. Better roads, coastal shipping, and soon the arrival of the railway expanded the reach of Dublin’s professional classes. Coastal locations such as Howth, valued for sea air and accessibility, became increasingly attractive for seasonal residence. In this context, building a well-appointed house intended for rental or short-term occupation was a practical and commercially astute decision.
Earlscliffe fits squarely within this world. It was not conceived as a grand statement or family seat, but as a solid, well-situated property aligned with the aspirations of a mobile, urban-connected middle class. Egan’s decision to build there reflects pragmatism rather than romance, an understanding of where opportunity lay in a changing Ireland.
Yet Egan’s life was shaped by more than economics. The accidental death of his teenage son reminds us that behind leases, valuations, and investments stood a family marked by loss as well as ambition. The records are largely silent on how Egan bore that grief, but they show a man who continued to work and build within the constraints of his time.
Egan himself soon fades from view, but the house he commissioned endured. Earlscliffe proved adaptable enough to survive shifting markets, changing ownership, and very different ideas about landscape, science, and taste. Its later history rests on foundations laid in the 1840s by a man attuned to the opportunities of his moment.
Cornelius Egan may never have lived at Earlscliffe, but if it was his decision to build it, that places him firmly within a pivotal chapter of Ireland’s social and economic history, when a rising middle class began to leave a lasting mark on Dublin’s landscape.
Next chapter: Captain William Bunbury McClintock
Earlscliffe timeline
- 1845–1864: Cornelius Egan
- 1864–1878: Captain William Bunbury McClintock
- 1878–1896: The Knox family
- 1896–1901: John Randal Plunkett
- 1901–1922: Sir John Pentland Mahaffy
- 1922–1924: Very Rev. Charles Thomas Ovenden
- 1924–1927: Robert Rooney
- 1927–1930: Dr Ella Webb
- 1930–1945: Sir John Lumsden
- 1945–1949: William Martin Murphy
- 1949–1950: Lily Margaret Graham Gough
- 1950–1952: Olive & "Kit" Stanley-Clarke
- 1952–1961: Peggy & Bobby Woods
- 1961–1969: Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Knowles
- 1969–today: Robinson & Foley family
References & Further Reading
- See File of material relating to the investigation of a sectarian disturbance in the town of Roscrea in County Tipperary ↩
- As described in Chapter 8: 'The Zeal of a pacificator' in Daunt, William J. O'Neill, "Eighty-five years of Irish history, 1800-1885", Published 1888 London : Ward and Downey, pp.81-89. On page 105 there is an inscription that states "My account of the transactions described in this chapter is derived from a manuscript narrative lent to me by one of the Egan family, Alderman Egan of Dublin..." See https://archive.org/details/eightyfiveyearso00daunrich/page/74/mode/2up?view=theater&q=egan ↩
- "Horrible Conspiracy Against the Lives of Irish Catholics" in The Orthodox journal and Catholic monthly intelligencer ed. W.E. Andrews The Orthodox Journal and Catholic Monthly Intelligencer - Google Books ↩
- See https://offalyhistoryblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/05/the-other-egans-from-birr-and-roscrea-by-dermot-mcauley/ ↩
- See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Political_Union_(England) ↩
- As quoted on Ancestry.com here: https://person.ancestry.co.uk/tree/65874258/person/46146369365/facts. Marriage details can be seen here https://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000633702#page/19/mode/1up ↩
- Slater's 1870 commercial directory as quoted on Ancestry.com here: https://person.ancestry.co.uk/tree/65874258/person/46146369365/facts and seen in https://www.willcalendars.nationalarchives.ie/reels/cwa/005014884/005014884_00430.pdf ↩
- Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland 1846, pg 82 https://www.failteromhat.com/slater/0264.pdf ↩
- A sale notice for Earlscliffe in the Irish Times July 6 1895 mentions that it is "held as to part for 143 years from 1st November 1844, under a lease dated 15th December 1847, and a reversionary lease dated 1st May 1895..." ↩
- Griffith's Valuation 1848 and 1850 show that Egan occupied houses and land marked as 2a and 2b on the map, where 2b is shown as Earlscliffe House and lands. (On the maps, the numbers represent a lot number. Capital letters after the subdivision number (e.g. ‘2A, B ,C’) are used to label subdivisions within a lot and indicate separate parcels of property in the townland held by the same individual. Lower case letters indicate properties). ↩
- From the Lisnavagh Archives (G 8/12). As relayed to David Foley by Turtle Bunbury in July 2009. As an aside, a later owner of Earlscliffe, John Pentland Mahaffy, married the daughter of William McDougall in 1865. ↩
- https://consult.fingal.ie/en/system/files/materials/4389/Howth-Mal%20-%20Building%20Structure%20-%20Prop%20Add.pdf retrieved on 21-Sep-2021 ↩
- Thom's Irish Almanac & Official Directory, as listed in "Extracts From Various Trade Directories 1834 To 1910" https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~chrisu/genealogy/howth/howth_dir2.htm retrieved 23-Jul-2023. ↩
- As reported in the Worcester Journal, 5th November 1853. ↩
- Thom's Irish Almanac & Official Directory 1852, to 1864. ↩
- Calendars of Wills and Administrations, 1863 https://www.willcalendars.nationalarchives.ie/reels/cwa/005014884/005014884_00430.pdf ↩
- Advert placed in Saunders's News Letter on 4th June 1846. ↩
- Advert placed in Saunders's News Letter on 25th May 1853. ↩
- Advert placed in Saunders's News Letter on 31st May 1860. ↩
- Advert placed in Saunders's News Letter on 2nd July 1861. ↩
- Advert placed in Saunders's News Letter on 30th Apr 1862. ↩
Page last updated: 4 Aug 2026