Overview
Many of the Gatchells in Ireland were Friends (Quakers). Friends
began emigrating from England to Ireland around 1660. It is not
clear when the Gatchells themselves arrived in Ireland. But when
they did, they played a prominent role in County Laois, County
Waterford, and Dublin.
(It is unlikely the Gatchell/Getchell brothers, John and Samuel,
were Quakers since the Friends movement did not begin until after
they emigrated to America. They left southwestern England in 1635;
the Friends movement began in northwestern England about
1647.)
The Friends in Ireland (and England) were falsely viewed as a
threat to English authority. Many were social reformers —
opposed to slavery, warfare, and the death penalty; promoted
quality education and prison reform; and actively involved in
Ireland’s famine relief efforts.
Mountmellick School
In 1786, John Gatchell, with three others, founded a private
boarding school in Mountmellick, County Laois, for the
children of poor Friends. It is a community school today, see
photo.
According to 1788 records, John, Jonathan, and William Gatchell
were merchants in Mountmellick.
Waterford Glass
Inherited from his father Jonathan Gatchell and his uncles James
and Samuel Gatchell, George Gatchell (see photo) was the last
owner of the original Waterford Crystal (then called Waterford Flint Glass Manufactory). Steep British
tariffs enacted in the 1830s made it impossible for the firm, and
other previously prosperous Irish glass works, to continue. The
last remaining glass firm in Ireland, Waterford Glass was forced to
close in 1851. It reopened as Waterford Crystal in 1947. Today,
Gatchell’s Restaurant is located at the
Waterford Crystal Visitor Center, Waterford,
Ireland.
Gatchell Coins
See photos
of the Gatchell sovereign and half-sovereign minted in Dublin,
Ireland, about 1798.