Reilly Introduction

My paternal grandmother Florence Rose O’Reilly (Florrie) was a direct descendent of the Irish Catholic Family of John Reilly and his wife Maria Rebecca Taylor, who was descended from the Shelton Family of Norfolk and Suffolk.

Although there are still many surviving Irish records, family history research in Ireland is difficult, and often very frustrating, as much was destroyed in the troubles of 1922.

John Reilly was born c1719 and from surviving deeds it appears the family were from Meath and Dublin. He married Maria Rebecca, by then the widow of Richard Dillon, in Ireland about 1756. She had inherited the Manor of Westhorpe in Suffolk through her grandfather Maurice Shelton and John and Maria came over to London and then to Westhorpe shortly after their marriage. John Reilly died in Dublin in 1795 and was interred at Kilskeer. Marie died in 1810 and was buried at Westhorpe. Their second son Thomas had a son John Reilly, and his son Nicholas Shelton O’Reilly, was my father’s grandfather.

In 1913 Florence Rose O'Reilly married my grandfather, Herbert Allen Hinton, at the Catholic Church of St John the Baptist in Brighton. Their son, my father, Herbert Oastler Hinton (Hugh) was born on the 8 July 1914. Sadly Florence died in August 1914. Herbert Allen was a protestant and in 1919 married Edith Joicey at St James Piccadilly, London. When their daughter Meriel was born, they decided that to have one catholic child in the family would not be possible, so my father, was baptised into the Church of England. As a result, his grandfather Nicholas Reilly cut him out of his Will. However during their lives, Florrie’s sisters took a loving interest in Hugh as he grew up and talked their father into reinstating him in his Will, however, by the time he died in 1929 there was little money left as Nicholas, who himself had inherited money at 21, had never worked.

Reilly Family of Westhorpe in Suffolk

Irish Deeds 1717-1877

Suffolk Deeds 1761-1822

John Reilly 1719-95

Thomas Reilly 1760-1831

Thomas Reilly 1800-69

John O’Reilly 1805-69

Nicholas Shelton O’Reilly 1853-1929