William Conner GUMBLETON

He trained as a barrister and was admitted to bar in 1774.

Richard Joseph Gumbleton of Castlerichard, his father, died in 1775 and passed part of his estate, including a house in Cork City and a separate townland of 110 acres, to William Conner Gumbleton , who called the latter property “Fortwilliam” after himself. (It is not known whether there was already a house there, or if he built one.)

In 1787, the coach house at the rear of William’s Cork City house was broken into and various items were stolen. William placed an advert in a local newspaper offering a reward for information that would lead to a conviction.

In 1792, a letter now in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland seems to suggest that William Gumbleton and his brother, Richard, had been given land by the Conners, in return for votes:

Mr William Gumbleton was declared to be tenant of the deer park and Kilnecarriga, consisting of 1600 acres within the borough, and it was given out three of four years before the last general election that Mr Richard G. was to have Ballyrafter, Ballygillane, etc., etc., on the other side of the town and quite close to it.

In September 1798, there was a newspaper account of an attack by sixteen United Irishmen on Fort William, the seat of William Gumbleton, near Lismore, co. Waterford. They used sledgehammers, to break windows, rob the house of all the arms, £130 of money, some linen and other valuables, as well as destroying other items.

In 1815, William Conner Gumbleton died at his lodgings in Pierrepoint Street, Bath. His will was proved in the following year. He died a bachelor.