A visitor from London to a rural Ireland now gone joined his host and family in the meadow where they were saving the hay. Enthusiastically anxious to join in, he inquired where he might find a pitchfork. The boss thought that there might be a four-prong fork in an outhouse, and although not the most suitable for the job, he wished to humour his guest, confidently assured he would, in any case, soon tire of the business.
Shortly they spied the guest hurrying towards them clutching a shovel, excitedly asking if this would do. The Calendar of Justiciary Rolls (1308-1314) notes that at Tipperary in 1308 Thomas Hulot was accused of the theft of a pitchfork. (And that reminded us of Jacques Tati's memorable 1950s film, Monsieur Hulot's Holiday!).
We wondered if this is a variant spelling of the Anglo-Norman Howlett family, who settled in Leinster and later were found mainly in Co Wexford. A fiant of 1550 notes the pardon of Margaret or Mege Howllott of Rathmore, Co Kildare, "especially for the death of Johanna Walshe, late of Rathmore". MacLysaght's The Surnames of Ireland and de Bhulbh's Sloinnte na hEireann/Irish Surnames follow Woulfe's 1923 Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall in giving Huileid as the Irish of this name. Did Woulfe find this in use amidst the public, or was this Gaelicisation his own? Hilary Murphy lists Howlett in his Families of Co Wexford, but offers no Irish form.
In 1796 the Dublin headquarters of the United Irishmen sent Charles Nowlan to recruit for that organisation in Co Wexford. Nowlan and Hugh Maguire, the schoolmaster, started distributing pamphlets and leaflets in the chapel yard at Boolavogue, but when the authorities were alerted, Nowlan, needs be, disappeared.
"The arm of the lawful authority did not, however, stop the United Irishmen's growth in Boolavogue, for the vacancy left by Charles Nowlan was filled by Thomas Howlett, the miller of Inch", (Fr John Murphy of Boolavogue 1753-1798: Nicholas Furlong 1991).
Inch names 12 townlands in Counties Kerry, Kildare, Laois, Tipperary, and Wexford.
Apart from the now obsolete measure, "inch" is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as deriving from the Irish innis (now inis) meaning "a small island", but locally "a meadow by a river". Inse, more precisely the word for "inch" holm, water-meadow, is anglicised as Inch, and inis as Inish.
Of the five Howlett holdings in the 1876 Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards, four were in the New Ross locality - 15, 302, 328, and 841 acres. The fifth Howlett holding was 390 Co Waterford acres.
There are 60 entries of this surname in current telephone directories south of the Border. Apart from the 34 in the Dublin 01 area, the greatest number is in the 05 area - mainly south Leinster. There are a mere three to its north.
The Rev J. Howlett was the author of An Essay on the Population of Ireland. Published in 1786, this estimated there were then in Ireland 477,602 houses, five persons to the house. The number of houses was rounded up to 500,000, and the occupancy to five-and-a-half, giving a population of 2,750,000.
The Howlett nationalist tradition did not die with the above Thomas. Families of Co Wexford informs us that brothers Martin and Thomas Howlett of Dunbrody took a prominent part in the War of Independence in south Wexford.
Martin was an outstanding footballer and a member of the great Wexford teams that won four All-Ireland titles in a row (1915-18). This family were involved in the commercial, farming, and public life of New Ross and Shelbourne, and a considerable number of them became priests and prominent clergymen.
In her Irish Diaries 1926-1937, Signe Toksvig relates a number of stories told by a servant when they lived in Clonsharragh, Co Wexford. "There was a boy I used to play with him myself, his name was Fred Hollett, or reely it was Fred Kitson, but his grandfather Hollett rared him." In 1876 there were but two Kitson holdings in Ireland. Totalling almost 2,000 acres, they were in Derry and in the Co Kerry parish of Listowel. Kitson (son of Kitt) has 17 entries in telephone directories, mainly in areas 06 and 07, with more than 40 north of the Border.