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Irish Roots of the Australian Clampett Family


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The Clampett’s of Co Limerick

Limerick, (in Irish – Luimneach, meaning Bare Land) is the county borough, port, and chief town of County Limerick, Ireland.  It occupies both banks and King's Island of the River Shannon at the head of its estuary. The Norse, who sacked the early settlement in 812, made it the principal town of their kingdom of Limerick; the Irish hero Brian Boru expelled them at the end of the 10th century. From 1106 to 1174, it was the seat of the kings of Thomond, or North Munster. Richard I granted it a charter in 1197. King John (reigned 1199-1216) granted it to William de Burgh, who founded English Town and erected a strong castle. In the 15th century, its fortifications were extended to include Irish Town, and it became one of the strongest fortresses of the kingdom. After an unsuccessful siege by William III, its resistance was ended in 1691 by the treaty of Limerick. In 1609 it had received a charter constituting it a county of a city and also incorporating a society of merchants. Fragments of the old walls remain.

The city is divided into English Town (on King's Island), Irish Town, and Newtown Pery (founded 1769), the first including the ancient nucleus of the city and the last, the principal modern streets. The main stream of the Shannon is crossed by the Thomond and the Sarsfield, or Wellesley, bridges. The Protestant Cathedral of St. Mary was originally built in 1142-80.[1]

The Clampett’s are on record in Co. Limerick from the very early 18th century when the majority belonged to the Protestant Ascendency.  This statement, that the family was largely Protestant, is supported by the facts that ‘Clampett’ is a recognised English name, and that one Isaac Clampett became mayor of Limerick in 1739, at a time when Catholics could not hold public office.[2]  In 1361 there had been a government edict which banned pure-blooded Irishmen from becoming mayors, bailiffs, officers of the King or clergymen serving the English.[3]  This edict remained law until well into the 19th Century.  At the time of Joseph Henry’s birth though all the Clampett’s were recorded as Catholic, Joseph certainly was and remained so throughout his life.

There is an interesting reference to the Clampett’s of Limerick in the book, Scattered Light by Muriel Clampett.  It describes an incident that occurred in 1879 in Clampett’s Bow, a Limerick street named after Isaac Clampett.  Clampett’s Bow was a narrow laneway off John Street, so narrow in fact that two men could scarcely walk down side by side.[4] .  Essentially, it was a street fight that got out of hand.  The incident received widespread publicity.  It was recorded in the “Illustrated London News” of October 29, 1881 with illustrations of “Scot’s Greys Charging the Mob at Limerick” and “A Limerick Lane similar to Clampett’s Bow”.  It became known as “The Siege of Clampett’s Bow” and is dealt with in great detail in Scattered Light on pages 94-98.  Joseph Henry was well established in Burrowa, New South Wales at this time and there is a good chance he would have heard of the riots.
A poem “Chalk Sunday” of “The Battle of Clampett’s Bow”
by Thomas Stanley Tracey recounts the story in mock heroic verse,
which, for interest’s sake, is quoted, in part, below:
Oh! murder, blood and thunder
Are the muses dead I wonder
Those fine old ancient maidens
That once lit the poet’s glow.
Are our bards all gone to blazes?
That none will sing the praises
Of the city of the sieges
And the siege of Clampett’s Bow.
Shure the neighbourhood of John St.
Is immortalized by one street,
Where our heroes on Chalk Sunday
Marched forth to meet the foe,
When the baton-wielding pol-ice
Where routed holus-bolus,
With stones and broken bottles
By the boys of Clampett’s Bow..
Then hurrah for drink and fightin
And the sprees we take delight in
And the good ole time when constables
Were rare as summer snow
With John Jam-e-son to feed us
And the Clampett boys to lead us
We'll never want such laurels
As we won Clampett's Bow.

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