Dr. Robert Cardiff MD The common thread that joins my three previous posts is Dr Robert Cardiff MD who lived in Summerhill - my old home - and now the residence of my brother Cyril. Robert was born in 1781 and lived for 73 years until his death in 1854. His birthplace was in Kilcowan (aka Kilquane or Kilcoan) near Baldwinstown in the depth of the Forth and Bargy baronies of South Wexford. He trained as a medical doctor but also trained as an Apothecarist so, essentially, in modern day times he was a doctor and a pharmacist!! It appears that he carried on a private practice in Kilcowan, Summerhill in Wexford town (which he rented as a town house) and also (we think) in Carrigbyrne! Simply rotating between these locations by horse was a feat in itself! There is even a record of his piped water being switched off in Summerhill in 1828 due to excessive wastage which on the one hand probably speaks well of his hygiene standards but also may have been a portent of more modern day problems!!! In 1833 he applied for the post of Physician to the County Wexford Infirmary but lost out to Dr J R Crane. It is interesting that after Dr Cardiff’s time a Dr John Crean lived in Summerhill from about 1882 and his last surviving daughter sold it in 1951 to my father! So a long history of medical practice there!! However, in due course and certainly previous to 1847, Dr Cardiff was Surgeon to the Poorhouse and in charge of the County Infirmary. I suspect that the County Infirmary at this time was in St John’s Gate St. so Summerhill was a conveniently adjacent residence. At this time also, Dr Cardiff was carrying out his Apothecary trade – in Wexford, at 24 North Main Street now the Natural Health Store near the bottom of Rowe Street and in Kilcowan at his place of birth and probably his country residence. The original dwelling house in Kilcowan no longer exists although the entrance does. The posts I have shown are of the ivy-covered ‘clinic’ with its waiting room, complete with open fire for the comfort of patients and the apothecary’s store with cubbyholes for medicine extant to this day!! Also the adjacent field was used to grow herbs for this trade and wild comfrey grows in abundance there every year still! While Dr Cardiff was living in Summerhill, his pet dog, Napoleon, died in 1845 and we have his gravestone preserved in our current clinic after all the years. This connects the other posts. In 1847, Dr Cardiff was elected Mayor of Wexford succeeding Sheppard Jeffares Esq who had to resign early. Dr Cardiff died in 1854 and was buried locally in the Franciscan graveyard in Wexford. Unfortunately, this graveyard has been wiped out so no headstone remains. A few interesting footnotes: Robert had an older brother James Cardiff. The oral tradition has it that the Co-Adjutor Bishop John Stafford of Ferns died from a fall from his horse on returning from baptizing James Cardiff in Kilcowan. Bishop Stafford was 46 at the time and had retained his position as Pastor of Duncormick, hence his involvement in the South of the County. James subsequently became a surgeon in the 79th Regiment of the British and is buried in Kilmannon cemetery. Dr Joseph Radford Cardiff is recorded as the Medical Officer in Carrigbyrne, Wexford and Coroner for South Wexford. He may have been a son or nephew of Robert’s as the Cardiffs lived in Hooks (Kilcowan) and the Radfords lived in Kilcowan itself and there was a marriage between the families which united the lands. When Joseph died, he was described as a foremost political thinker on a national scale. Dr Crean originally came from Beckfield in Baldwinstown also, not a stone’s throw away from the Cardiff residence. I often played there as a child with my friends Gerard, Mary & James White(Wexford accountant). So here I was for years conducting a somewhat similar medical life in the very yard where all of this had happened not realizing the strands of history that bind us all together!
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 22:50:41 +0000