Harriet Wheelock / Thursday 17 February 2011 RCPI Archive part II – Sir Patrick Dun’s Trust Estate As mentioned in an earlier post the cataloguing of the College's own archive collection is nearing completion. In this post I am going to look at the second of the five parts of the archive collection, the papers of the Sir Patrick Dun's Trust Estate. Sir Patrick Dun was a physician who came to Ireland in 1676, and served under King William at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Dun used his influence to assist the College to petition King William and Queen Mary for a new charter which was granted in 1692. Dun was made the first President of the re-named King and Queen's College of Physicians. Dun's only son, Boyle Dun, died in 1700 at the age of only three, and in 1711 Dun drew up his will which left his considerable estate in trust to the College of Physicians, with the proceeds to go towards the endowment of a professorship of physic. A combination of mismanagement of the estate and funds led to a number of Acts of Parliament culminating in the School of Physic Act (1800) which founded Dun's Hospital and allowed for the creation of four King Professorships, all to be funded by the estate. The College of Physicians remained in control of the estate but there management was to be scrutinised by a Court of Visitors. Partly as a result of this level of scrutiny a very large number of papers survive relating to the Dun's Estate, especially the management of the finances. The collection contains twelve boxes of financial administration papers including annual accounts, bank books and receipts and invoices. There are also a small number of papers relating to Dun's Hospital and the King's Professorships. However, perhaps the most interesting collection of papers are the estate papers of the trust lands, the estates comprised the lands of Templeverick, Bonmahon, Shanakill, Ballinard, Kilmoylan, Portnaboa, Curraghnagarraha, Ballyduane, Lisnagerah, Killameeleane and Curraghbolinlea all in County Waterford. Dun purchased the lands at the beginning of the eighteenth century from the Duke of Ormonde. Some of the original title deeds survive, as well as a large collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century leases, estate correspondence, rentals and agents accounts giving insight into the estates' tenants. Management of the estates seems to have been a continuing source of trouble to the College. In 1824 Edward Hill a Fellow of the College visited the estates, he laments the suggestions in his previous report were ignored and suggests that 'the College rests in absolute ignorance of their affairs; no one of them having ever seen the estates', he suggests that someone from the College needs to visit the estates to gain a full understanding of them and work to reduce the present hostility between the College and their tenants.[1] The most profitable part of the estates was the copper mines on the estate, but there was some confusion as to whether the College owned these, resulting in a number of legal cases. Relations between the College and their tenants clearly did not improve, as the numbers of papers relating to legal cases taken by the College against their tenants for non-payment of rents show. At the end of the nineteenth century the lands were sold to the tenants under the Land Commission. The trust itself continued until 1961 when it was finally wound up. References: [1] RCPI/4/3/6/2, Report of Edward Hill Images: * Portrait of Sir Patrick Dun, RCPI 37 * Map of Portnaboe, 1775, RCPI/4/3/9/3 * Sale of land by the Duke of Ormonde, RCPI/4/3/1/3 * Portrait of Edward Hill, RCPI 38