Rosalie Hart Priour Autobiography "Adventures of a Family of Emigrants" with notes and commentary by historian Frank Wagner (indicated in green).
Chapter 6 The life of a Water Guard is very dangerous and full of exciting adventures. One day it was uncovered that a great deal of smuggled goods would be landed that night on the coast during father's watch, about 3 o'clock in the morning. He came to the line which divides his beat from the next station. He did not meet the guard and as his duty compelled him to continue until he did meet the patrol, in the next station, he had no choice but to advance. About three or four miles from the line, he met several wagons loaded with goods. He followed them to the cave, where they were to hide them. He summoned them to surrender, and as they seemed about to resist, he ordered his men to fire in the air. The one who seemed to be the leader cried out, "It is Tom Hart, run!"
All obeyed orders except the teamsters, and they would not abandon their teams. He only took five prisoners. The cave was full of all kinds of costly wines, tobacco and silk. Everything was brought to the castle and stored away until sold by the government, and [as] father had taken them in another station he received double portion of the prize money as a reward from the government.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Prize money was a prominent feature of enforcement of Excise Laws during the 19th Century. Excisemen earned hardly more than subsistence, and were often in conspiracy with the smugglers. Only substantial awards of prize money could deter them from joining in the illegal traffic. The account given shows Tom Hart had information from some source about the smuggling. Hart discovered the smuggling venture rather by mischance, and that the patrol next to his beat "happened" to be absent on the early morning the crime transpired. The possibility that the officer on the next beat had been bribed cannot be excluded. Hart appears to have obtained a prize of about five thousand pounds sterling (currently worth about 150,000).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - When mother heard the firing, she was so badly frightened for fear father was killed, she was taken with a nervous chill, and hovered between life and death for a long time. She finally recovered and when father was ordered to the County Kent, in England, she persuaded him to sell his commission and go to my grandfather's in the County Wexford.
My mother was the only girl in the family, and grandfather [Leary] gave her fifty acres of land, on which father built a house.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Elizabeth Leary Hart was then apparently the only living daughter, inasmuch as she clearly had sisters.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - We moved into our new house before the kitchen was entirely finished. Mother's room was next to the kitchen and for convenience there was a door between the two rooms.
One night, father found it so long that he could not sleep, and told mother it was the longest night he had ever spent. He went to the kitchen to light the candle and looked at the clock to see what time it was. The kitchen floor was lower than the bedroom and when he started down the step, he fell into the snow. It had drifted through the keyhole of the door, and as the sand bags had not yet been put on the kitchen windows, the snow had drifted in between the window frame and the sash. What was his surprise the reader can imagine to see that it was 12 o'clock in the day, and as dark as the darkest night. When the door was opened, the mystery was explained. The snow had fallen very heavily during the night, and was as high as the kitchen walls. Every window was covered so that no light could penetrate.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The blizzard can be identified with the winter of 1828-1829, one of the worst ever experienced in Ireland. "Sandbags" were made with small tubes of scrap cloth, and filled with dry sand. They were placed under doorways, around windows and other crevices in the house to serve as weatherstripping.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - It was very pleasant for the children. We could amuse ourselves making animals out of the snow all day. But the grown people did not find it quite so agreeable to have to melt snow to get water to drink, and for household purposes, and cut tunnels under the snow to get to the barns and feed and water the cattle. But it had to be done. There was no other alternative. I think we were snow bound about ten days.
The people in the country did not suffer much in comparison to what the people in the towns had to go through. A great many families suffered with hunger and cold, before the country people could cut roads through the snow to go to their aid.
Chapter 5 - Chapter 7