Harriet Wheelock / Tuesday 30 November 2010 Archive Item(s) of the Month – Title Deeds to Sir Patrick Dun’s Estate This month's item of the month is a group of title deeds, recording the sale of land in county Waterford to Sir Patrick Dun by James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde. In 1702 Dun made a number of purchases of land from the Duke of Ormonde, and by the end of that year held several hundred acres of lands at Curraghbolinlea, Curraghnagarraha, Portnaboa, Templeverick, Ballyduane, Lisnagerah, Kilmoylan and Shanakill in County Waterford either outright or by Fee Farm Grant. The lands Dun purchased from the Duke of Ormonde would form the basis of the Dun's Estate Trust which Dun established under his Will of 1711. Dun left the estate in trust to the College of Physicians with the money to be spent on establishing a King's Professor of Physic in the College to teach and give anatomical demonstrations. Troubles over the management of the estate and expenditure of the trust monies led to a series of Acts of Parliament in the eighteenth century which culminated in the School of Physic Act (1800) which created four King's Professors and founded a hospital (Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital) for them to give clinical lectures in, all to be financed by the Dun's Estate Trust. The Acts also appointed a Court of Visitors to oversee the management of trust funds by the College and appoint auditors. Because of this level of oversight a large amount of material remains in the College archive relating to the Trust estates; including deeds, leases, correspondence with land agents and tenants, annual statements of accounts and rentals, a large number of receipts and vouchers covering all the trust's expenditures and other related documents. The material covers the entire span of the Trust from the purchase of the estate by Dun in 1702 up to their sale at the turn of the nineteenth century under the Irish Land Commission, and is particularly complete for the nineteenth century. This material is currently being catalogued, and will be made available through the online catalogue in the New Year. The extent of the surviving estate papers should make them a valuable asset to local and family historians of those parts of county Waterford purchased by Sir Patrick Dun in 1702. IMAGES: * Sir Patrick Dun attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller, RCPI 37 * Deed of sale of land by James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde to Sir Patrick Dun, September 1702, RCPI/4/3/1/1 * James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde by Michael Dahl, in the National Portrait Gallery, London * Deed of sale of land by James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde to Sir Patrick Dun, September 1702, RCPI/4/3/1/1