Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Ironmonger, of Dublin. George Binns, the youngest son by the first marriage of Jonathan Binns of No. 21 Dame Street, Dublin, was born in September 1762. After having been a partner in his stepmother's business, he was portioned off and continued business on his own at 27 Dame Street. On 27 October 1787 he married Elizabeth Connolly at St Michan's church.(1) The couple had twelve children. Binns's son William writes: '…my father became a very celebrated character, both as a soldier and a member of the Corporation. He took an active part in the Rebellion of 98 - used to see all the guards mounted every night & rode as officer of the day & night in turn with the field officer of the Seige[sic]. During this time my dear mother took a great interest in the business. It seems she was very clever at it. My father spent too much of his time and money at the soldiering for which he never got any thing. In the year 1803 he had to come out again & failed in business & lost my mother & was bankrupt.' After the collapse of his business, Binns, who had been admitted a freeman of the City of Dublin in 1783(2) and was active in Corporation affairs, was employed by the Corporation, which first gave him 'a subordinate situation' and then in 1807 appointed him governor of Newgate at a salary of nearly £750 a year.(3) He died in 1812.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the memorandum of Binns's life written by his son William in 1860, in the Dyson Perrins Museum, Worcester, a copy of which was supplied to the IAA by Mrs Phyllis Williams, Neuadd Paradwys, Bodorgan, Ynys Mon, Wales, 1995.

(1) www.familysearch.org.
(2) 'An alphabetical list of the Freemen of the City of Dublin, 1774-1824', The Irish Ancestor XV (1983), Nos. 1 & 2, 12.
(3) For references to Binns, see CARD XIV 252,264,294,336,337,378-9,419,448; XV 7,33,70,123,146,159,181,183,188,265.