The Lands of Elizabeth Carson

When John Potter died in 1802, aged 85, he must have left quite an empire of real estate. Sorting out these lands, and deciding who owned or who would own what seems to have taken quite some time if the 1881 Auction Lot details are interpreted correctly. 

And here in the auction documentation, a full cast of characters emerges. Elizabeth Carson, her sister Rose Nevin, her first cousin Maria West (Wombwell) to whom Elizabeth Carson was to leave the lands described in the 1881 auction, and Maria's daughter, Harriett Wombwell (Robinson), who was to inherit the lands in her turn in around 1846.

John and Joseph Richardson were also involved. This would have been the John Richardson who is recorded with his brother Joseph as operating the Down and Saul Office and Corn Merchants in Irish Street, as well as acting for agents for emigrants to Canada (1832) and operating the Saul Distillery (1846 and 1850). A John Richardson was also Director of the County Down and Liverpool Steamboat Company in 1836. (See: Ros Davies County Down website).

Catherine West meanwhile, was Maria West's sister, and hence another first cousin of Elizabeth Carson. The auction descriptions seem to suggest that she too was alive and involved in 1834.

Problems and disputes over these lands were to continue all the way to the Robinson v Neale case referred to, which was to be conducted in the High Court of London in 1863. For now however, what can be definitely concluded is that the Irish lands that were sold off in 1881 were inherited by Maria West from her first cousin, Elizabeth Carson, the daughter of John Potter and Maria Hadzor.