‘Leave Cavan or you’ll be killed’

One hundred years ago an unpopular agent for Farnham Estate faced down a group of angry, armed men and claimed to have shot three dead. The story may not be well known, but the grim tale of Travers Blackley is about to be brought to a wider audience as Dr Brendan Scott mark its centenary with an online lecture as part of the Decade of Commemorations organised by Cavan Library Services.

From Dublin originally Travers was educated in England and on his return joined the Orange Order. “Through that he gets a job on the Farnham Estate because the Farnhams are big in the Orange Order,” explains the Cavan historian in residence.

Somerset Henry Maxwell had only recently become the 10th Lord Farnham, and in 1896 he gave Travers the job of agent, a position of major responsibility.

“He is Farnham’s representative on the estate and he looks after everything from gamekeeping to forestry to the size of gardens allotted to tenants, everything. The tenants go to him if they have a problem. He decides who they are going to hire on the estate and who they are going to fire,” Brendan outlines.

Blackley showed a lack of empathy for the estate’s tenants, or as Brendan puts it, “He came in with the studs showing”.

“He is very hard, I feel, on the tenantry in general,” adds Brendan. “I think that makes him very unpopular among the tenantry.”

Blackley penned regular letters to Farnham, who at that time was living away from the estate. The letters spoke ill of various tenants. Brendan suggests that by trying to ingratiate himself in this way to Farnham, Blackley alienated himself from the tenants.

A second prong of his unpopularity came with his appointment as a justice of the peace (JP) in Cavan. The position is equivalent to an unqualified district judge dealing with relatively minor cases.

“He comes into conflict with people, in the way that you would do when you are someone who is upholding the law - there’s going to be people who don’t like you as a result of that, rightly or wrongly,” says the Belturbet native.

Brendan also notes that Blackley has received some threatening letters, regarding his conduct as JP.

The contempt in which Blackley is held sets the scene for the incident of April 8, 1922.

“Around midnight they were in bed and saw a gang of lads coming up the drive with guns,” says Brendan of the moonlit night at the Blackley home of Drumbar House, a property which still exists.

Blackley was joined by his son, aged in his 20s and also called Travers Blackley, while his wife remained inside. Blackley Junior went onto become a Brigadier General in the British Army and by 1922 he had already fought in WWI as a teenager.

“They know what’s going on, they come down with guns - the father and son - and wait until the men are close enough, and then they challenge them. Then the shooting starts - and that’s when these lads are killed, allegedly.”

Between the Blackleys, they claim to have killed three people, and the bodies were retrieved by the gang.

While Blackley faced down the men, the threat to the family is heeded.

“He’s told now in no uncertain terms - you have to get out of Cavan for your own safety or you’ll be killed.”

The Blackleys’ woes weren’t over yet. Planning their escape Blackley sends much of their possessions ahead to Cavan Train Station, from where it’s promptly stolen.

Brendan is dubious about Blackley’s claims to have shot three people, believing it could have been a ploy to get compensation through the Irish Grants Committee.

“If you were a protestant or unionist who had suffered as a result of your protestantism or unionism you could get compensation. He may well have said ‘I shot dead three of them’ to show how loyal he was. The State solicitor denied there were three men shot dead. Where are they?

“And I can’t find any record of three guys being shot at that point - now they could have been shot, but maybe not killed.”

The story causes quite the stir, and there’s much interest in the resultant court case.

“He tries to get compensation, he looks for around £37,000 in compensation,” says Brendan, which according to an online app equates to £2.24m in today’s money. “He gets around £80,” laughs Brendan at the Blackley’s punctured expectations.

“And that would have been put on the rate payers of Cavan - they would have had to pay that.”

There we no evictions leading up to the incident, to explain it. Brendan believes it was likely motivated during this volatile period of history due to Blackley’s roles as agent and JP.

“I would suspect it was a mix of both,” he says.

This was a time when many the big houses were being attacked and burned, however Farnham Estate was left alone.

“It’s interesting is the Farnhams themselves are never attacked. Now the Maxwell family go away, but it’s interesting that it’s Blackley who is the visible representation of Farnham, who is attacked.”

Blackly senior lived out his days across the water, and passed away in the 1930s.

“He has a pathetic sort of existence after that living in England, hand to mouth, trying to get jobs - he’s writing to everyone trying to get a job. He writes to James Craig when he’s prime minister in Belfast saying, ‘Can you give me a job?’ Everyone says, ‘Oh it’s awful sad you can’t get a job’, but no one’s giving him a job - including the Farnham family, they don’t do too much to help him either.”