| Note |
- Robert Mallett left Devon, went briefly to London and later moved to Dublin in Ireland. Sometime after his arrival in Dublin, Robert set up in business as a cabinetmaker at 62 Capel Street. Something must have happened to his first wife, Mary Short, because by the time he had moved to Dublin in 1782, Robert had married Anne Pike. He was also described as having married into the business of his father-in-law, William Pike, who owned a plumbing and sanitary business at 16 Ship Street, Dublin. Robert and Anne then had a daughter, Thomasina. William Pike died in 1801 and it is assumed that Robert took over his father-in-law's business. According to a book entitled 'Robert Mallet: Engineer and Scientist' written by Dr Ronald C Cox, the business also manufactured:
'all kinds of water and fire engines, forcing and lifting pumps, patent and common water closests....the patent water closet (was) manufactured and sold by him, and no where else in the Kingdom'
In the two volume book entitled 'History of the Mallet Family', it is mentioned that Robert was one of three branches of the Mallet family establised in Dublin at around the turn of the century, and describes Robert as a cabinetmaker living at 16 Ship Street.
An article on the Irish Architectural Archive refers to Robert as a cabinetmaker and plumber and also a descendant of the family of the Mallet family of Ash. It also refers to Robert as being born in England circa 1759.
Sometime after Robert's nephew, John Mallet, married his daughter, Thomasina Mallet; the business referred to above became successful which traded under the name of 'J. & R. Mallet', with premises at 7, 8 and 9 Ryder's Row and further premises at Royal Canal, Phibsboro at a later date.
In the book referred to above, it is mentioned that Robert was a Freeman of the Carpenter's Guild and that he apprenticed his nephew, John, to the same Guild. However, the book explains that it is not possible to verify this as the records of the Guild when it, with others, was abolished by the Municipal Reform Act of 1840, which were then handed over to the Public Record Office (Dublin) for safekeeping in 1906. They were lost when that Office was destroyed in the Civil War in 1922.
The book also states that Robert died on 24th June 1804 and is buried in the Huguenot Cemetery on Merrion Row. Robert's grave is marked by a large recumbent tombstone, which says he was born at North Tawton in Devonshire and was 50 years of age at his death. The book refers to portraits in oils that suggested that Robert and his family were simple, respectable folk with the Huguenot extraction of his wife, Anne Pike, being particularly evident. It also explains that at the time of Robert's death, he was building a dwelling house and business premises combined at Ryder's Row in Dublin.
[Copyright 2010 - Trevor Brice and Richard Mallett. Not to be reproduced without the authors' permission]
'Robert moved to Dublin and was the founder of an Iron Foundry at Ryders Row, Dublin. Having no son of his own, he enlisted the services of his nephew John (Irish Jack), son of James and Ann Lacey, as an apprentice in the business. Irish Jack did not take happily to this life, as we know from one of his letters which I have, and he returned to Devon. On the departure of Irish Jack, another nephew, John, son of Richard, came to assist his uncle'.
[Source: Colin Mallet]
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1755 - 1804 (49 years)
