Nicholas Patrick Fleming
(1884 -1954)
Now, thanks to leads from relations, some brute force attacks on the indices, and, in particular, Guinness employment records, which are just to hand, I can make a stab at a reasonable cameo. So, here goes:
Birth
Nicholas was born on 7 March 1884 at 20 Reginald Street, in the Coombe. His father was also called Nicholas and he was a cooper. His mother was Elizabeth Swan. His birth was reported by Mary Dunne, who may well have been the midwife.
Nicholas became an apprentice with Arthur Guinness and Co. shortly after his fifteenth birthday, on 24 March 1899. He was formally employed, on the coopers list, aged 19, on 29 June 1903. On 1 July 1905 he was promoted to Grade 5 as a Smeller.
The first marriage
The following year he married Bridget Burgess, of 45 James's St., and the couple set up house at 10 Lorne Terrace, which may well have been a move upmarket for both of them. The marriage took place just two weeks before the death of Bridget's mother from cancer of the jaw from which she had been suffering for the previous 8 months.
Their first child, Gerard Bernard, came along in 1909. This was also the year Nicholas was best man at John Burgess's marriage to Tess Fitzsimons.
The following year, 1910, Nicholas was promoted to Grade 4 as a "cooper's timekeeper and 2nd foreman repairing". In 1911 the second child, Sara, arrived and Nicholas got his first recorded reprimand at work [22/8/1911]. He had arrived a half an hour late, 6.30am instead of 6am, and his excuse of "sickness at home" did not wash. He was cautioned.
Number 3 child, Nicholas junior, arrived in 1914 and Nicholas got his 2nd and 3rd recorded reprimands: the first for "slackness" [20/8/1914] and the second for "sending 4 new damaged firkins to Magazine to be repaired on time without authority" [2/10/1914].
He was in trouble again in 1915, when he was severely reprimanded for charging cooper's time preparing Wine Pipe Staves for Butt spares against "Manufacture" rather than "Repairing", and for incorrect allocation of time spent by himself and another employee in connection with the absence of a third employee. Either he was turning into a bit of a messer or someone had it in for him?
By 1918 the couple had moved to 1 Lorne Terrace, where Bridget died on 17th November from "chronic nephritis and mitral regurgitation". At this stage the children were aged 9 (Gerard B), 7 (Sara) and 4 (Nicholas junior). It is likely Mollie Duffy, Andy's spinster sister, was persuaded by Nicholas to come and mind the children. However, when she married Nicholas's brother, Peter, in 1919, Nicholas persuaded Bridget's older sister Julia to move in and look after them.
In 1919 Nicholas got another black mark on his employment record. On 25th July he "Exceeded Time Allowance in Latrine". No punishment is reported apart from the noting of the incident on his record.
Come 1920 it was just as well he had someone reliable looking after the children because on 29 November he was lifted by the Military and interned for three months. This was apparently a case of mistaken identity. He was released on 21 February 1921 and resumed work.
Thereafter his employment record is relatively uneventful up to his retirement in 1949, as a "foreman i/c staunching - 3 Grade," when his salary had risen to 196 shillings (£9/16/-) a week.
The second marriage
The same could not be said for his personal life. On 23rd June 1921, just 4 months after his release from internment, he married Julia Burgess in Golden Bridge church, both of them giving the same address, 1 Lorne Terrace. Rumour has it the Burgess family were less than pleased, though it is not clear whether this relates to his marriage to Julia or to her earlier coming to live in and mind the children.
At this stage, Julia was 48; there were no children from the marriage; and Julia died just two years later on 7th August 1923 in the Countess of Wicklow Memorial Hospital in Arklow of nephritis and cardiac failure. The children were now 14, 12 and 9.
I understand that the children were then minded by a member of the Higgins family. John Higgins had been Nicholas's best man at his marriage to Julia. When they were older the children were living with Mollie Fleming (née Duffy), widow of Nicholas's brother Peter who died young. It looks as though Nicholas's mother, Elizabeth Swan, had been married to a Higgings before she married Old Nicholas, and there are said to have been children from that marriage of whom John Higgins may be one.
The third marriage
On 14 October 1925, Nicholas married for the third time, his wife was Julia Mary Kenny, subsequently referred to in the family as "Ju" presumably not to confuse her with No. 2 wife, Julia. They had 3 children, John F in 1927, Joyce Mary in 1930 and Olive Dolors in 1935.
There is only one Nicholas Fleming marriage recorded in the Civil Records on this day. There are, however, some odd aspects to the entry in the civil registry. Both Nicholas and his father are recorded as merchants; the bride's name is given as Sheila; Nicholas's address is given as Longford Terrace in Monkstown; and the ceremony took place in University Church on St. Stephen's Green.
When I got the cert originally I thought it was the wrong couple. The only similarities with our Nicholas were that, apart from sharing a name, both men were also widowers. I thought the "merchant" tag quite alien and could not, for the life of me, figure out where University Church came into the picture. At that stage I was not even sure of the date of our Nicholas's marriage to the nearest 20 years.
The Guinness company records narrowed down the date to 14 October 1925 and so I resurrected the cert I had previously rejected. I now think I have the right cert but the odd features still need some explaining.
The description of Nicholas as a merchant may simply be a mistake or may refer to some form of contracting out practiced by Guinness at the time. Giving his father's occupation as a merchant may well have derived from being told that father and son shared the same occupation. I had not realised it, but the names Julia and Sheila can be used as equivalent. The Irish version of Julia is Síle. The wife's maiden name is Kenny in both cases and the subsequent description of our Nicholas's wife varies between Julia and Sheila on the different children's birth certificates. University Church is explained as a chapel of ease to Harrington St., which was Julia's parish - so there is no specific university connection. The best man on the cert is the same as our Nicholas's best man at his second marriage to the first Julia. I don't know why Nicholas was in Longford Terrace in Monkstown - hopefully this can be clarified at a later stage. So I am taking it the cert applies to our Nicholas.
Anyway, our Nicholas seems to have entered a new life with a new family. His two previous wives are buried together and alone in an unmarked grave in Prospect Cemetery, Glasnevin. One might be forgiven for thinking that he wanted to sever contact with the Burgess family at this stage, but contact was maintained between him and at least two of Bridget's children, Nicholas Junior and Sara. In fact Sara was present at the birth of Nicholas and Ju's second daughter Olive in 1935.
Between 1929 and 1937 Nicholas lived in Iveagh Cottages in Crumlin. I gather these were Guinness sponsored houses, but am not aware of the terms involved. By the time of his retirement he was living in his own house in Poddle Park, variously described as being in Crumlin, Kimmage and Rathmines.
Nicholas retired in 1949 when he reached the 65 year age limit. He had no days sick in 1947 but had 35 days sick 1948 in the run up to retirement. He retired on a pension 130/- pw (£6/10/-) subject to abatement for any payments receivable under the National Health Insurance Acts. At the time of his death he was on 151/6d pw [£7/11/6d].
Death
Nicholas died, at the age of 70, on 26 December 1954.
His widow, Julia, was 58 at this stage and she lived on for a while in the house in Poddle Park, which Nicholas had owned. In 1975 she moved to her niece Julia Fleming at 2 St. Kevin's Rd., SCR. By 1988 Julia was in a Bray nursing home where she died in 1992.
When Nicholas's grandson Tony died in 2006, this brought to an end four generations of coopers in the Fleming family.
Outstanding Questions
- Where did Julia/Sheila live between 1954 and 1975?
- In 1954 which daughter was working and living at home in poddle park?
- Why are the first two wives in an unmarked grave?
- Who is the niece Julia Fleming who took in Ju in St Kevin's Rd in 1975?