Irish Manuscripts & Ephemera · Dublin · 1922
Restoring a Forgotten Grave — A Dublin Solicitor’s Receipt from the Birth of the Irish Free State, 1922
Dublin, 13 October 1922 · Original signed typescript receipt · Herbert D. Vaughan, solicitor
Catalogue details
Description
- Dimensions
- Measurements gladly provided on request
- Date
- 13 October 1922
- Place
- Dublin, Ireland
- Format
- Original signed typescript receipt
- Associated name
- Herbert D. Vaughan, solicitor
- Condition
- Please consult the photographs for condition. Additional photographs are available on request.
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Historical context & sources
An evocative document of private remembrance from the first months of the Irish Free State: a typewritten receipt dated 13 October 1922 acknowledging payment of two pounds towards the rebuilding of a headstone and side stones at the grave of Miss E. V. Sankey.
Produced on the professional stationery of Herbert D. Vaughan, solicitor and Commissioner for Oaths, with offices at 11 Hume Street, Dublin, and an additional Athlone association printed in the heading. Signed in manuscript by William Barry. The receipt preserves the exact sum, stated purpose and date of the transaction.
Historical setting
The receipt was issued during the Irish Civil War, a few weeks before the formal establishment of the Irish Free State in December 1922. The date places it in a turbulent national context, but nothing on the document establishes that the memorial was damaged by fighting. Its reason for rebuilding, burial location and the identity of Miss Sankey have not been independently established.
The legal connection is verifiable: the Law Society’s Gazette recorded Vaughan’s admission as a solicitor in 1896, his practice at 11 Hume Street, and his death in 1931. This helps place the document within a securely identifiable Dublin legal practice.
