Patrick Mortimer
(1870-1918)
Patrick Mortimer was born in Glasnevin on 28 March 1870. His father was Joseph, a carpenter, and his mother Mary Anne, née Conneely. [No Joseph and Mary jokes please.] The Mortimer family are originally from Grangegeeth in Co. Meath
There were 8 children in the Mortimer family. Three died as infants, and the 5 survivors were Patrick and his twin brother William, and siblings Thomas, Francis and Ellen. survived. A newborn had died in 1861, the first year of his parents' marriage, and two infants had died aged just over a year, one in 1865 before Patrick's birth and one after in 1873. Patrick's father died in 1875, when Patrick was 5, and the children were brought up by their mother. I don't know what means of support she had, but given her earlier career, she might well have made a living as a seamstress or by selling clothes or hats.
Marriage
The picture above suggests Patrick might have been a bit of a dandy. He would certainly appear to have turned Sarah Burgess's head and they married on 21 August 1901.
Children
After the marriage the couple lived briefly in Arnott St., near the South Circular Road, where their first child was born. They then moved to Park View Terrace in Old Kilmainham where their second child was born. They then moved to the northside, to a newly constructed Dublin Artisans Dwelling Company estate (Mount Temple Road) where the remaining two children were born. They subsequently moved to Birr, Co. Offaly (then King's County) where Patrick was manager of Liptons, a grocery and provisions store with branches all over the country. By 1916 they had returned to Dublin.
The two lads, Joe the eldest child and Pat the youngest, went into the civil service. The second eldest, Mary Anne, died of TB at 16 years of age, and the third eldest was Sarah Esther, my mother.
There is an interesting twist to the naming of the children. I had some difficulty getting the birth register entry for Uncle Joe (Christopher Joseph) until the General Register Office clarified that he had been first registered as Patrick but that this had been changed a week later to Christopher Joseph. The only sense I can make of this is as follows.
It was the tradition in those days that the first son would be named after his paternal grandfather and this seems to have been the case down to the naming of my own parents' generation on both sides of the family. Patrick's father was Joseph so I would have expected the first son to have been called Joseph. Instead it appears Patrick may have tried to call him after himself, until that is, Granny found out and threw a freaker. The compromise then was to call him after both Patrick's and Sarah's fathers, Christopher Joseph. In the event he was known as Joe. No doubt Patrick hoped to call the next child after himself but she was a girl and he called her after his mother, Mary Anne. The next child was also a girl who was called after Granny's mother, Sarah. Finally, and in conclusion, a second son arrived and was called Patrick (or Patrick Francis to be precise). QED.
There is also an interesting angle on ages. I had come to realise that in those days people were not as conscious of their precise age as we would be today. Patrick seems to have had a particularly blind spot in this regard. In 1902 when his twin brother, William, died at the age of 32, Patrick reported him as 29. Admittedly William was only barely 32 as he died on is birthday. When Patrick himself died the register recorded him as being 42 when, in fact, he was 48.
Career
He is described in 1901 as a commercial traveller (marriage register). In 1902 he is described as a traveller (presumably still commercial); in 1905 as a shop assistant; in 1906 as a salesman; in 1908 as a shop assistant (childrens' birth certs); in 1911 as a Grocery and Provisions Manager (census). At the time of his death in 1918, however, he was a Canteen Assistant (death cert) in Richmond Military Barracks (newspaper report).
It is hard to discern a pattern in Patrick's career, but the general impression is that he started out as a commercial traveller, graduated to an instore sales job and subsequently to a management position. His stay in Birr seems to have been the zenith of his career and perhaps also his downfall. You get the feeling looking at the whole picture that something happened in Birr which led to him losing his job. He then seems to have been fixed up with a lower grade job in the Barracks, possibly through his father in law Christopher's contacts or even those of his brother in law John.
I have the feeling, which may be entirely wrong, that Patrick may have been carried away by his social status in Birr. A local manager of Lipton's would have been a person of some consequence and it is possible he lost the run of himself. He could have taken to drink and/or got uppity with the local bigwigs or even insulted the Earl of Ross himself. [Note to myself: check out the estate papers at some stage.] On the other hand, he could have gone on to open another Lipton's branch somewhere else, or come back to headquarters. But there clearly was some problem that led to his canteen job and early death.
Death
At the beginning of June 1918 he went missing and a week later was found drowned in the Liffey at Eden Quay. The coroner said he had no evidence as to how Patrick ended up in the water. I believe the coroner because in other cases he was not shy in drawing conclusions from any evidence at his disposal. I have to wonder, though, if this was the only time Patrick went missing. We'll probably never know.
I'm not sure what significance to put on the funeral being private.
Afterlife
It is interesting also that his demise does not appear ever to have been discussed in the family. I don't know if his children (my mother and her brothers) were aware of what had happened, though it is hard to see how they wouldn't be. In any event, I hadn't the faintest idea - I had to sit down myself when I got the death cert in the General Register Office. I half thought it must have been another false hit until it was confirmed against the date of death in my Granny's papers and I also saw the news item and death notice in the Freeman's Journal.
Certainly, Granny must have had a rough time after his death and it is to her credit that she brought up her children the way she did. It also probably meant that the children had to go out to work before their time to support her and themselves. The brunt of this would have fallen on Uncle Joe (Christopher Joseph) the eldest who was 16 at the time of Patrick's death.
Outstanding Questions
- Where did did Patrick (& his mother) live between 1884 and 1900
- Did Patrick's career take a dive in Birr, and why
- Was his condition deteriorating after his return to Dublin
- How did he get the job in Richmond Barracks
- How did he end up in the water