The Frosts Today

In the 18th century there were a large number of Frosts in the land between Ennis and Limerick, including the land on which Shannon airport is now situated. Now there are very few Frosts in the county. Those who still live there are mostly farmers.

The above family illustrates some of the reasons for this. Some died in 1845. Some emigrated. We know of one family in California and several Frosts in Australia. The California Frosts are descendants of Patrick Joseph Frost who was baptised in Newmarket on Fergus in 1890 and had then emigrated to USA. He was one of the grandsons Thomas Frost of Feenagh – Tommy the Croppy!

Some became nuns and priests. The better off Frosts educated their children well and they then left the country. The favoured profession was medicine, or teaching for the females. Nowadays there are some in the financial sector, both in England and Australia.

It is interesting that whenever we hear of a Frost from Ireland they have nearly always had forebears from County Clare!

In the branch of the family detailed above, Edmond had 10 living children. Only two sons had children. Of his three grandsons, two were killed in action, leaving only Tom Frost with the name Frost to produce sons to continue the name! Tom’s eldest grandson is Thomas, born 1994, so the name of the first Thomas Frost continues.

The Bible
In the grounds of Bunratty Castle, a Folk Park of Irish houses of different periods has been set up by reconstructing buildings from around Clare. In the doctor’s house there should be a Bible. This is the Bible that was given to Dr Edmund Frost by Rev Eugene Maloney in 1875, when he was elected to the dispensary at Newmarket as the General Practitioner and District Medical Officer. Bunratty would have been in the area of his practice. The Bible, printed in 1847, was the first English language Catholic edition published after Catholic Emancipation and was given to the Folk Park by his grandson Tom Frost. It is fitting that the Bible should return to the place where the Frosts of Clare began.