Old Nicholas Fleming
(1846 -1912)
The Chase
The original Nicholas Fleming (aka Old Nick) has been difficult to trace.
Unfortunately Guinness don't seem to have his records, which would have been a great help. Also, his birth predates the civil records and would need to be pursued at parish church level. So far it is not clear where he started out, so I haven't gone there yet. He claims in the 1911 census to have been born in Dublin city and this, at least, narrows the field.
More surprisingly his marriage to Elizabeth (neé Swan) has not come up in the civil records (even when cross checked with her assumed widowed name Higgins). This would be understandable if he married before 1864 when the civil records for catholic marriages begin. However, the likilihood is that he married her sometime between 1880 and 1883 when Nicholas P was conceived. But I can't find anything obvious in the records.
I have now found her death cert, and details are included below.
I have also succeed in getting Old Nicholas's death cert which casts a certain amount of light on a very dark corner, and, I do have his photo.
Birth
Nicholas was born in 1846 (or thereabouts) and family tradition had it that he lived in Cow Parlour . This is in an area in Dublin city, near the tenters, associated with the weaving trade. The historical origins of many of the Flemings, who came to Ireland from Flanders, were connected with the weaving trade. However, in the context of more recent history (the last 200 years) this may not have anything to do with anything. He was certainly living there in 1886 (see below).
Marriage
Sometime before 1884, when Nicholas P was born, Old Nicholas, who probably wasn't so old then, married Elizabeth Swan. Actually, at that stage, he was probably 34 and she 27.
Children
Old Nicholas had two children (if not more?): Nicholas P, who married two of granny's sisters, and then some more in the form of a third lady from St. Kevin's Road in Portobello; and Peter, who married Mollie Duffy, whose brother married Lil Burgess, who was a sister of Nicholas P's first two wives.
Nicholas P was born in 1884 and Peter was born in 1886.
Residence
The only definite fixes I have on where Nicholas lived are 20 Reginald St. (between Meath St. and Pimlico), 12 & 14 Susan Tce., Cow Parlour, and 21 Phoenix St. (Inchicore). I also have 15 Donore Avenue from his wife's death cert.
- Reginald St.
His address is given as 20 Reginald St. in Nicholas P's birth cert in 1884. This seems to have been a new street, so his move there, in 1884, may have followed close on his marriage. From the 1901 & 1911 censuses it is clear that a lot of brewery workers lived in Reginald St. but others lived there also, so it does not look like a "Guinness Street" as such. In both censuses the "Head of Household" at No. 20 was a "brewery labourer", but not the same person.
The entry in Thom's for his occupation of Reginald St. is S Fleming. This may be a typo, but if he went under some other initial at times, it might explain why he is so hard to trace.
- Susan Tce.
He was living in 12 Susan Tce., in Cow Parlour, by Peter's birth in 1886. By 1888 he was living in No. 14, which had a £ higher valuation, and by 1891 he had left the street, possibly for Donore Avenue.
- Donore Avenue
His wife's death cert in 1898 gives 15 Donore Avenue as her address. We have to assume that Nicholas also lived there with the two children, though there is no mention of any of the three of these in her death notice.
- Phoenix St.
His address is given as 21 Phoenix St. in his death cert in 1912. He had moved in here sometime between early 1901 and early 1911. In 1901 the house was occupied by a couple in their sixties, but by 1911 it was Old Nick (67) and an army pensioner called Michael Murphy (76). Nick is described in the 1911 census as a boarder, with Michael as "Head of Family", so Nick clearly didn't own the house.
As I mentioned above, he is also said by the family to have lived in Cow Parlour at some stage, presumably in his single days (pre 1880?).
Career
We know very little about his career except that he was a cooper.
This information comes from various birth and marriage certs of his offspring, and from the 1911 census, where he describes himself as a cooper. His own death cert (1912) simply records him as a pensioner. (He is recorded as a "merchant" in Nicholas P's third marriage cert, but this is assumed to be a mistake or a very convoluted description of his cooperage employment.)
The contrasting descriptions of cooper (1911 census) and pensioner (1912 death cert) may suggest that he worked right up to the pension limit and died shortly after he retired.
Death
Nicholas died on 30 November 1912, aged 66 (or 68), at his home in Phoenix St., of bronchitis and heart failure. You can see his death notice here. He left a further three generations of coopers behind him.
Elizabeth had gone ahead of him in 1898. She died, aged 45, of interstitial nephritis and cardiac failure. Her remains seem to have gone from the hospital to her former home (for a wake?) and from there direct to the cemetery. Interestingly her death notice refers to her father but not to her husband and family. I'm not sure what, if anything, to make of this.