Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, of Cork and Waterford. Edward Marks, elder son by the second marriage of EDWARD MARKS[1] EDWARD MARKS[1] , was born in Cork in 1791 or 1792.   He was admitted to the Dublin Society's School of Architectural drawing on 6 February 1812 and was awarded one of two first-class premiums on 4 June following.(1)  He is probably the Edward Marks who exhibited two architectural designs at the first Munster Exhibition in Cork in 1815(2) and certainly the Edward Marks, junior, who showed four drawings at the Cork Society for Promoting the Fine Arts in 1817 and 1818.(3)  A plan signed by Edward Marks, architect, Waterford, for a school and schoolmaster's apartments for Colonel Currey of Lismore, dated January 1819 is in the Lismore Castle drawings collection.(4)

In 1815 Marks was married at St Patrick's Church, Waterford, to Martha, daughter of Alexander Hammett of Waterford,(5) and appears to have moved to Waterford himself.   His wife died there at the age of twenty-three on 4 December 1817, eighteen months after their marriage.(6)   She had given birth to a son, Alexander Hammett Marks.   Edward Marks remained in Waterford for a time after her death but then decided to give up architecture and study for the clergy instead.  He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1821 at the age of twenty-nine, receiving his BA degree in 1825 and a Doctorate of Divinity in 1840.(7)   He became a minor canon and Dean's Vicar of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and died on 7 May 1869 at the age of seventy-seven.  According to the inscription on his memorial tablet in St Patrick's, he 'laboured zealously and faithfully in this Cathedral and Deanery  upwards of 32 years', during which 'The Schools, especially the Infant School which he established were the first and constant object of his fostering care'.(8)  His second wife, Joyce Anne (d. 1872), is commemorated in a tablet below his own.(9)

See WORKS.



References

Genealogical information in this entry was kindly supplied by David Fayle, Palgrave, Ontario, great-great-grandson of Edward Marks, Nov 2010.


(1) MS. transcript from Royal Dublin Society minutes of School of Architectural Drawing admissions and prizewinners (in IAA). 
(2) They were a design for a villa in the Grecian style (no. 62) and a design for a Gothic entrance (no. 67); see RIAI Haliday pamphlet 1166/12 and JCHAS 4, 308.
(3) In 1817 he exhibited an 'architectural design' (no. 91) and in 1818 a design for a church (no. 43), a design for the monument of the Rt. Rev. J. Power, Roman Catholic Bishop of Waterford (no. 46), and another 'architectural design' (no. 47); see RIA Haliday pamphlets 1094/16,17.
(4) Photocopy in IAA. The style of the script on this drawing and the black border suggest that Marks might have come from the same stable as Owen Fahy, i.e. either that Owen Fahy was a student at thel Dublin Society or that Marks worked in Richard Morrison's office.
(5) Cork Advertiser, 8 Jun 1815;  www.familysearch.org.
(6) Cork Mercantile Chronicle, 12 Dec 1817.
(7) , and by G.D. Burtchaell & T.U. Sadleir, eds., Alumni Dublinenses (1935), 554.
(8) For the full text of the inscription, see http://www.igp-web.com/igparchives/ire/dublin/photos/tombstones/headstones/st-patricks-dub.txt (last visited, Nov 2010).
(9) See note 10, above.


4 work entries listed in chronological order for MARKS, EDWARD [2]


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Building: CO. CORK, YOUGHAL, CHURCH (CI)
Date: 1817
Nature: 'Near the south end of the town is a chapel of ease, a neat plain building, erected in 1817 on the cemetery of the ancient Dominican friary, at an expense of £1200, of which £900 was a gift frorm the late Board of First Fruits and £300 was raised by subscription.' (Lewis)   Internal dimensions 18 x 9 metres, exclusive of bell tower and porch.  Duke of Devonshire gave £100. At least one payment to EM of £40.  (Staircase and upper floor added later perhaps when it was converted for use as Protestant parish school. )
Refs: Lismore Papers NLI MS 43,399/1 (information from David Kelly, Youghal, Nov 2011);  S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837),, II, 729; H. Wain, History of Youghal (1965), 44.

Building: CO. CORK, CORK, PAUL STREET, ST PAUL'S CHURCH (CI)
Date: 1818
Nature: 'Mr Marks' paid £1.14s.10d. for unspecified works, 1818.
Refs: RCB Library, 'An account of of all sums of money levied for building and repairing of churches...June 1824' (information from Frank Keohane).

Building: CO. CORK, CORK, PAUL STREET, ST PAUL'S CHURCH (CI)
Date: 1818
Nature: 'Mr Marks' paid £1.14s.10d. for unspecified works, 1818.
Refs: RCB Library, 'An account of of all sums of money levied for building and repairing of churches...June 1824' (information from Frank Keohane).

Building: CO. WATERFORD, LISMORE, SCHOOL ROOM & MASTER'S APARTMENTS
Date: 1819
Nature: Proposed design, for Col. Currey.
Refs: Signed drawing, dated Jan, 1819, in Lismore Castle drawings collection (photocopy in IAA)