Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Master builder and architect, of Cork. Extracts from Cork newspapers suggest the following biography: William Kearns was the son of another William Kearns, of Cork.(1) William Kearns the younger was born circa 1741 and married on 28 November 1767 at St Paul's Church, Cork, Jane Plaince, who brought him a handsome fortune.(2) Mrs Kearns died in Bradshaw Street, Cork, on 17 December 1786,(3) and on 19 April following William Kearns contracted a second marriage to a Mrs Prettie.(4) She was possibly the mother of William Prettie, attorney, who married William Kearns's daughter by his first marriage at Douglas church on 18 June 1795.(5) William Kearns died at the age of seventy-eight at his house on the South Mall on 7 August 1819.(6) In these newspaper announcements William Kearnes is variously described as master builder, house carpenter and architect. He is elsewhere described as a 'sworn measurer'.(7) William Kearns's sister, Mary, married DAVID DEANE  DAVID DEANE in 1755(8) and was the grandmother of Sir THOMAS DEANE.  THOMAS DEANE.

Addresses: Coal Quay, Cork, 1767;(9) 14 Bradshaw Street, 1787;(10) South Mall, 1819.(11)

See WORKS.



References



(1) According to the  Limerick Chronicle, 17 Oct 1771, a Wlliam Kearns, master builder, of Cork, died at the Coal Quay, Cork, on 17 Oct 1771,  but according to Hector Deane, owner of a Deane family tree compiled by Thomas Manly Deane (Aug 2009), William Kearns the elder died in 1784.
(2) Cork Chronicle, 30 Nov 1767.
(3) Cork Evening Post, 18 Dec 1786; Hibernian Chronicle, 18 Dec 1786.
(4) Hibernian Chronicle, 19 Apr 1787.
(5) Hibernian Chronicle, 18 June 1795.
(6) Southern Reporter, 10 Aug 1819.
(7)
MS. copy book of bills, estimates, bills of measurement, valuations &c. kept by William Deane, 1797-1809,  in IAA, Acc. 2009/91 (microfilm in NLI); Kearnes & Mahony, measurers, measured the new Meat Market at Cork in 1789, see R. Caulfield, ed., Council Book of the Corporation of Cork (1876), 1043.
(8) Genealogical account of the Deane family in IB 43, 13 Feb 1901, 633-635.
(9) See note 2, above.
(10) Cork Directory 1787.
(11) See note 6, above.


2 work entries listed in chronological order for KEARNS, WILLIAM *


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Building: CO. CORK, CORK, MEAT MARKET
Date: 1789
Nature: Kearns & Mahony measure same.
Refs: R. Caulfield, ed, Council Book of the Corporation of Cork (1876), 1043

Building: CO. CORK, KILBROGAN, CHURCH (RC)
Date: 1800
Nature: WK estimates for rebuilding same.
Refs: Archiv. Hib. Vol. XI (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc.2008/44)