Irish lords of Northern lazio

The saga of the Denham family, lords of a large area in Northern Lazio for over 100 years, began when a poor boy from Cork joined the British army to avoid debtor’s prison and was sent to Portugal leaving his young wife Sukey behind in England.

Joseph (Giuseppe) Denham soon left the army and Portugal for greener pastures in Italy. He moved from Genoa to Livorno and finally settled in Civitavecchia as a merchant and agent for an English shipping company.

Dramatic events and the luck of the Irish saw Joseph Denham become a landed gentleman with huge estates on the border between Lazio and Tuscany, an area which was then a brigand-infested no man’s land.

One of Denham’s ships and a cargo of cloth were shipwrecked due to the poor state of the pontifical port of Civitavecchia and as payment for these losses he was granted an enfiteusi by the papal government.

This rental contract or perpetual concession over all the “beni camerali “ of Onano, Proceno and the customs house (dogana ) at Centeno was signed by the Pope on August 29, 1773, giving Denham and his male heirs the right to “rule” these towns, collect tolls and customs taxes while encouraging commerce and farming in the area.

Within thirty years however Denham as well as his sons and rightful heirs had died. His daughter Carlotta, wife of Doctor Bousquet, asked the papal government for the concession to be passed on to the female line.

She obtained the enfiteusi for herself, her daughters and their descendents and continued to “rule” over the area until the Papal States became part of united Italy in 1861.

Carlotta, a true Irish lass with flaming red hair, was much loved by the people of Onano who called her Madama Carlotta.

Her castle-home, Palazzo Monaldeschi, is still known as Palazzo Madama today. A series of frescoes in the main rooms, now the mayor’s office, showing the saga of the Denham family have recently been discovered and restored.