Richard Dowden Papers Descriptive List

Cork, in Dowden’s lifetime , saw the growth of a variety of charitable and medical organisations committed to relieving the poor, the destitute, the sick, and the disabled, and there is a some amount of material relating to many of these in the collection, such as the Cork Charitable Loan Society, the House of Industry, the Sick Poor Society, the Magdalen Asylum, the Blind Asylum, the House of Recovery, the North Infirmary, and the Cork District Lunatic Asylum. (U140/J/05, U140/J/07 and U140/K). References to the Great Famine (1845-49) are present in a number of documents, including an address in 1847 by the Cork Repeal Association at the People's Hall referring to the 'desperate condition' of the country due to Famine, seeking 'unanimity of action among the True Friends of our Noble, though now Ruined and Unhappy Country' (U140/J/02/09/01); and a handbill on 'The Use of Indian Meal as an Article of Food', instructions for use as a porridge/suppawn, mush, bread without yeast, and ‘ hasty pudding ’ (U140/K/1/28). Dowden also received a letter from Thomas Laurent, Mexico, formerly of Kilworth, in 1846, referring to the failure of the potato crop in Ireland, relating that he sent on by steamer a basket of fine potatoes for seed and a box of 'nature/aboriginal' potato to the Chamber of Commerce (U140/J/059). The subject of emigration features in a number of items, including a material relating to John Besnard Junior's emigration depot in Cork, with lists of ships despatched in 1843 and 1844 to Sydney and Port Philip, Australia (U140/K/1/33, K/3/50, K/3/68), and a set of letters regarding the organisation of emigration to the U.S.A. in 1848, in association with the Poor Law Guardians (U140/L/34). Dowden was also a businessman and an investor, dedicated to promoting commercial and industrial development, to the benefit of society, and the relief of poverty. Commercial concerns mentioned include railways, and a proposed transatlantic packet station, and the proposed Irish Sugar Beet Company (U140/J /06, /10, /11, /12; U140/K, U140/L). There is little material in the collection concerning his work at Jennings apart from the occasional letter in a scrapbook (U140/K/3/035 etc.) An address to the Lord Lieutenant by the Cork Trades Association and People ’ s Hall, of which he was a leading member, dating from the 1835-1839 period, provides a neat summary of Richard Dowden’s world view at that time. It states that their object is to ‘ ...improve the physical and moral conditions of the destitute mass abounding in Cork city and county by extending the elective franchise, encouraging manufactures and industry, making legal provision for the poor, neutralising the effects of absentee landowners, and [providing for] the cheap diffusion of knowledge... ’ . (U140/J/02/21)

System of Arrangement A:

MS. Notebooks/Journals of Richard Dowden c1820 – c1850 (11 Items/ c700pp) B: Essays, loose notes or lectures by Richard Dowden c1830-1861 (10 items/series) C: ‘Botany in the Bohereens’ Publi cation ?1847-1858 (7 items) D: Personal Accounts and Receipts ?1820s-1849 (6 items) E: Literature and Poetry 1816 – 1853 (11 items) F: Family material, Richard Dowden 1820-1856 (2 items) G: Memorabilia 1829-1850s (14 items)

U140 Richard Dowden Papers Descriptive List