and Harriett the younger. But while Harriet Molesworth had the use of the estate, Henry Hemsworth retained the fee. Therefore, a prospective buyer would have to contend with both Molesworths and Hemsworths. It was the intrepid John Roche Bourke, Sr. of Millview, Lot 49, who success- fully did battle with this jungle of legalese.

Bourke first applied to the Molesworths, residents of Dublin, Ire- land. At first for an annual rental of £10 a year, he was able to take out a 99 year lease on the Molesworth interest in an estate which comprised the greater part of the eastern half of Lot 37 l This indenture was quickly superseded by a later one, dated Dec. 19, 18154, by the terms of which Harriett sold her interest outright for the sum of £100. Three years later, on Sept. 29, 1857, Bourke purchased the Hemsworth interest for another

£100.

John Roche Bourke thus became by far the greatest landowner in the Mount Stewart area. By 1875, his possessions north of the Hills- borough, bounded on the east by the Wiggins and Holland Estates and on the west by what is now the Anderson Road, comprised some 1770 acres, all of which had been taken up by tenants, who in the main, were pro-s- perous and paid their rent promptly. This property had lately been deeded to John Roche Bourke, Jr. whose mansion was located on the site of the present St. Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church in Mount Stewart. One of the finest residences on the Island in its day, the Bourke home at first overlooked the river. It was later owned, in succession, by Mr. James Par- tridge and Mr. William MacLeod, and in 1927, it was acquired by Dr. A. B. Martin who had it turned about to face the street. After Dr. Martin’s death in 1946, the house was owned briefly by Mr. Milton Coffin, and againhby J. Doyle, before being torn down to make way for the new churc .

To the south of the river, large tracts of the Bourke property had, by 1875, been purchased by settlers whose heirs now held their farms in freehold. This was not, however, true of the Dromore area, where Mr. Bourke, Sr. still held 1345 acres. There there was an impoverished ten- antry and, consequently, very high arrears of rent. Considerable land, in addition, was inhabited by squatters who, as was the case with the delin- quent leaseholders, simply ran away if pressed too closely for their dues. The Land Commissioners, after considering the testimony of both pro- prietors and tenants, awarded the Bourkes $5,402. in compensation for their estates.

After the seizure of their lands, the Bourke family remained in Mount Stewart where they conducted an active mercantile and shipbuild— ing business. Mr. and Mrs. Bourke moved to Dunstaffnage during the early 1890’s and their family became very widely scattered. A son, Alfred, was murdered in Victoria, BC. in 1906. Sons Temple and Elcho lived in the Hawaiian Islands and San Francisco respectively, while a daughter, Lillian, later Mrs. Mange, lived in the Phillipine Islands. Only a daughter- in-law, Mrs. Elcho Bourke, the former Eve MacWilliam, continued to live in Mount Stewart. She died in 1950.

In his will John Stewart of Mount Stewart left large bequests of land to his third wife, the former Mary Rain. One such bequest involved some 2,000 acres in Lot 38 in near proximity to the boundary line of Lot 37. Over the years, Mrs. Stewart, later Mrs. James Herron Conroy and, still later, Mrs. Augustus E. C. Holland, was constantly involved in

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