This family was of long standing in County Armagh and had been, for a long time, settled at Church Hill.
DAVID VERNER ESQ left by his wife two sons, JAMES and THOMAS, an officer in the Army, killed at the battle of Bunker's Hill. The elder,
JAMES VERNER ESQ, sat in the Irish parliament for many years and served the office of Sheriff for counties Armagh, Meath, Monaghan, Dublin and Tyrone. He married Jane, daughter of the Rev Henry Clarke, of Summer Island, County Armagh, and had issue,
WILLIAM, his heir,who was succeeded by his eldest son,
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL WILLIAM VERNER JP DL MP, of Church Hill, Vernersbridge, County Armagh; who succeeded to the estates of his paternal grand-uncle, Thomas Verner, in 1788
HENRY VERNER ESQ, of Gullivenagh, County Antrim, whose father settled in the county of Armagh with his relatives, the Achesons, made his will in 1683.
His great-nephew, Sir William Verner, was 1st Baronet.
Henry's father, whose name is not secured, settled in Armagh about 1650. It is thought that the Verners came into Ireland with the Cromwellian settlement.
The presbytery records in "Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America" by Charles Knowles Bolton, the chapter "Home Towns of Ulster Families" 1691-1718 gives: Robert Verner, Ruling Elder 1706.
This Ruling elder, John Verner, 1617, could have been the first Verner to settle in Ireland in 1650 and the others were sons or brothers.
These records are conclusive evidence that they were all from Scotland. Possibly due to the transplantation there no records to be found between 1650 and 1691.
Stodarts "Gentlemen's Arms of Scotland" Vol II, collected during the reign of Charles I, gives the following:-
In 1291 Thomas Le Venour, burgess of Berwick swore realty to Edward I. In 1450 William Vernour and other merchants obtained an English safe conduct. In 1456 William Vernour was Bailee of Edinburgh. In 1478 William Vernour claimed land in Edinburgh as heir of his brothers John.
The Verner family, accordingly, would appear to be of Norman origin as their name first appears in England as "le Venour", in the late 13th century. They had land and property at Auchindinny, near Edinburgh, until 1650.
The Vernours, though they had no title, they had been granted a coat of arms: "argent a fesse sable between three boars' heads couped gules".
The main Verner family in Scotland most likely arrived in Ulster during the Plantation, about 1650.
Agnes Vernor, of Edinburgh, had arrived earlier as the wife of Sir Archibald Acheson, the then Secretary of State for Scotland and the ancestor of the Gosford Achesons.
The first Verner records in Ireland are in the form of two wills: In 1683 Henry Verner of "Gullivenagh", County Antrim, registered a will in Armagh; and, in 1684, John Verner left "the £200 I lent to Sir George Acheson, which is now in his hands, with interest thereon" to be divided between his two sons, and requested to be buried in his Parish of Loughgall, County Armagh.
The Verners of Church Hill trace their ancestry from the former Henry Verner, as shown in the family tree. He had a son, Henry, who married Anne Kerr, and they had a family of five, three sons and two daughters.
The youngest son Thomas married Margaret Kerr, an heiress from County Meath, in 1749.
They lived at Church Hill, became large landowners in counties Armagh and Tyrone, but were childless. For an heir, Thomas looked to his brother David's family.
David had married Elizabeth Crossle in 1743, and they had two sons and four daughters. One son, Thomas, had been killed at the Battle of Bunker's Hill near Boston, in 1775.
The other son, James, married Jane Clarke of Summer Island in 1773 and they had a family of five boys and one girl.
The wealthy Thomas appears to have first considered his great-nephew James, second son of his nephew, as his heir.
James stayed frequently at Churchill, and was sent to a Belfast school. However, Thomas made a will in 1788, the year of his death, naming his youngest great-nephew William (then aged five) as his heir.
In 1788 William Verner and his whole family took up residence at Churchill, where his parents, James and Jane, acted as guardians until 1807.
William Verner was educated at Woodville, Near Lucan, and his father would have sent him to Trinity College Dublin, but William, having commanded the Churchill Yeomanry, preferred the Army, seeing active service in many military campaigns.
He retired with the rank of Colonel. Both house and estate, which his great-uncle Thomas had referred to as Church Hill were now simply referred to as Churchill.
William Verner married Harriet Wingfield, daughter of Colonel Wingfield (of Calke Abbey) who was a son of the 3rd Viscount Powerscourt. They married in 1819 and soon afterwards purchased 86 Eaton Square as their London house.
William became MP for County Armagh in 1832. He retained his seat through ten elections until he resigned in 1868.
The Verners were never absentee landlords, but obviously much time was spent at Eaton Square, and their land agents (and relations), members of the Crossle family, did their work well.
William was High Sheriff of Monaghan in 1820, Armagh 1821 and Tyrone 1823. He was also a JP and Deputy Lieutenant of Tyrone. He was made a Knight Commander of Hanover in 1837, by William IV.
In 1846 he was granted a Baronetcy.
This was the time of the potato famine, and Sir William reduced rents by up to 50% and offered employment to any of his tenants who were in need.
His first son William helped him in constituency work, and he himself succeeded his father as MP for Armagh until his own death.
Edward Wingfield Verner, the second son, was MP for Lisburn from 1863 and, on the death of his brother, became MP for Armagh until he resigned in 1880.
The 1st Baronet was at Eaton Square for his birthday on the 25th October, and died there on the 20th January, 1871, having lived 88 years.
His body was brought by ship and train to Armagh, and he was buried at Loughgall.
The cortège left Armagh at 11.00am with over 140 carriages of various sorts following the hearse. The pallbearers were:-
Lord Lurgan, Sir Capel Molyneux Bt., J Y Burges DL., Col. Pakenham, Maxwell Close DL., Lt-Col Cross JP., Parker Synott JP., Sir James Stronge Bt. MP., Sir John Stewart Bt., the Hon Col. Knox MP., A H Pakenham JP., John Irwin JP., Joseph Atkinson DL., Col. Simpson JP., and Major Burleigh Stuart.
The number of people following was estimated at 10,000.
The 2nd Baronet, also William, was born in 1822, and joined the Coldstream Guards in 1841. He married Mary Pakenham in 1850, and they had two daughters, Alice Emily, and Edith, and one son, William.
They lived at Churchill and London from the early 1860s, the 1st Baronet and his wife having removed to Corke Abbey at this time.
Not much is known of the 2nd Baronet as he was completely overshadowed by his father, and only survived him by a little over two years. He made a will in March, 1872, and died a year later. He was buried in Loughgall.
The 3rd Baronet, also William, was born in 1856, so he must have known his aunts, his uncle Edward Wingfield, and his illustrious grandfather, the first Sir William.
William and his mother were to reside at Eaton Square and for a reasonable time each year at Churchill. He was to inherit all the estates on becoming 21, or marrying before that.
Sir William and his wife Annie had no children. They divided the time between Eaton Square and Churchill, and entertained on a lavish scale.
In 1880 the 3rd Baronet made his will, leaving the estates and Eaton Square to his wife, and then to "the boy who with my consent has assumed the name of Verner and is living under my charge".
Sir William Edward Hercules Verner died of cirrhosis of the liver on 8th June, 1886, in London, and was buried at Loughgall, in the same tomb as his father.
His widow died 2 years later and was interred in the same tomb. This was, in effect, the end of the Verners at Churchill.
The title now reverted to the 3rd Baronet's uncle, and Edward Wingfield Verner, his father's only brother, became the 4th Baronet, who lived mainly at a house known as The Aske in Wicklow and in London.
He died in 1899 and was buried at Powerscourt.
His son became the 5th Baronet and lived at Corke Abbey which he had inherited. He and his family, because of their Unionist and Orange traditions, were forced to sell up, and they went to England in 1922.
When he died in 1936 his elder son, Edward Derrick Wingfield, became the 6th and last Baronet.
He had married a French lady, Angele Becco, in 1948, but they had no children. His only brother, John Wingfield, married Sybil Leigh-Pemberton in 1934, but again there were no children and he died in 1943.
Harry "Verner" was left, a Minor, at Churchill, becoming of age on 27th July, 1889. He was on the Grand Jury for County Armagh and was High Sheriff in 1896.
Often he could be seen playing cricket at Armagh, and he frequently hosted shooting parties on the estate.
Described as tall and good-looking Harry never married. A Mrs. Logan, estranged from her husband, came to live at Churchill and acted as hostess. She was not divorced but local people referred to her as Mrs. Verner.
Sometimes Harry brought in actors and dancing girls from Dublin to enliven his house parties, and when the house was full, they were put up in Verner's Inn.
86 Eaton Square was the first place he sold. Shortly afterwards, in the 1890s, much of the outlying land was sold to pay off the £60,000 loan inherited from the 3rd Baronet, and to finance gambling debts at Monte Carlo, London and Churchill.
Churchill was put up for sale in 1898, but was not sold. The following year it could have been bought for £12,000, but much of the best timber had been sold.
In 1900 the Irish Peat Development Company bought 548 acres of bog land, and the most valuable furniture was sold in 1902. More and more bog-land was sold to the Irish Peat Development Company.
Harry was declared bankrupt in 1913. He made his will in 1914, leaving what remained to Mrs Logan, and died in London on 12th August 1916, being buried at Highgate. He was 48 years old.
The estate was valued at £39,350 but the debts were greater. Mrs Logan moved to a small cottage with what money and valuables she had.
Sometimes she would go to live at the old Maghery Hotel, owned by Mr. Mackle. On a few occasions, having sold something, she went to London. But as time went on, these flashes of prosperity ceased, and she died in 1935, being buried at Milltown.
Churchill, left empty from 1918 was known to have wood-rot in 1926. The house and remaining lands were sold in 1927, and the house was dismantled by the end of 1928.
Today there is no sign of the Churchill estate, but a few things can still be seen: Verner's Inn, at Vernersbridge, has been restored. A row of Irish yew trees remain, which were near the house.
At Maghery, the railings and gates at the old chapel were once at the Southern entrance to Churchill.
The entrance to the Masonic Hall at Markethill is adorned by the former portico of the main entrance.
The Loughgall graves in the old churchyard are interesting: The vault where the 2nd Baronet and the 3rd Baronet and his wife were interred could be entered until 1962, when, as it was no longer weatherproof it was sealed up.
A full length portrait of Sir William Verner, 1st Baronet, in the uniform of a Colonel of the 7th Hussars, is in the Armagh museum.
The marble mantelpiece from Churchill's entrance hall is said to be in Derryadd Orange Hall.
A reader of this Blog lived in the cottage mentioned; and that Mrs Logan lived therein until she died:
"There was a huge grave stone in the family cemetery that covered the remains of Sir William's beloved charger which he brought home after Waterloo – she was known locally as The Waterloo Mare. Would-be thieves tried to remove the stone in – I'm guessing – 1982, but I discovered their handiwork and the stone is now mounted in a wall in the local Orange Hall. The cottage, Yew Cottage (named, not after the avenue of yews on the estate, but after a 2,000 year-old yew in the cottage's garden), is still, I believe, the longest thatched cottage in Ireland. My parents lived in the only other surviving house on the Verner estate and coincidently, my father was also Deputy Lieutenant of Tyrone – and also High Sheriff of Tyrone".I gratefully acknowledge the article by John Kerr - Churchill, home of the Verners - and Craigavon Historical Society as a source of information. First Published in July, 2011.