Coolmore, County Kilkenny, courtesy National Inventory.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 91. “(Connellan/LGI1912) A two storey five bay late-Georgian house with a single storey wing. Single storey Doric portico with die; entablatures over ground-floor windows; roof on cornice supported by unusually heavy brackets.”
Detached five-bay two-storey double-pile Classical-style country house, c.1800, with (single-storey) prostyle tetrastyle Tuscan portico to centre ground floor, two-bay two-storey side elevations, three-bay two-storey Garden (south) Front, and originally with single-bay double-height lower flanking bay to right continuing into three-bay two-storey wing on an L-shaped plan having single-bay two-storey projecting bay to right. Renovated, post-1903, with wing truncated producing single-bay two-storey recessed lower flanking bay leading into two-bay single-storey wing having four-bay single-storey rear (south) elevation. Hipped double-pile (M-profile) slate roof (hipped to flanking bay; hipped to wing) with rolled lead ridges, rendered chimney stack on access with ridge (rendered chimney stacks to remainder), and cast-iron rainwater goods on overhanging timber eaves having decorative timber consoles. Unpainted roughcast walls with cut-granite stringcourse to first floor. Square-headed window openings (in tripartite arrangement to side (east) elevation) with painted cut-limestone sills, rendered panelled surrounds to ground floor having foliate consoles supporting entablatures, moulded rendered surrounds to first floor, six-over-nine (ground floor with two-over-three sidelights to tripartite openings) and three-over-six (first floor with one-over-two sidelights to tripartite openings) timber sash windows having three-over-six timber sash windows to remainder. Square-headed door opening under prostyle tetrastyle Tuscan portico (approached by flight of cut-granite steps having cut-granite parapet, cut-granite columns having responsive pilasters supporting frieze, carved cornice on consoles, and blocking course to parapet having raised central panel) with carved cut-granite surround, and glazed timber panelled door having overlight. Interior with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Set back from road in own grounds with gravel forecourt, and landscaped grounds to site.
Appraisal
A very well appointed substantial country house exhibiting characteristics redolent of the emergent Regency period including elegantly-proportioned openings centred on a commanding portico, refined Classically-derived dressings, an oversailing roof, and so on all of which identify the architectural design significance of the composition. Having been carefully maintained the house presents an early aspect with the original essential attributes in place together with most of the historic fabric both to the exterior and to the interior. Forming the centrepiece of a large-scale landholding the house makes a positive visual impression on a slightly raised site overlooking the River Nore. The house remains of additional importance for the associations with the Herne, the Langrishe, the Connellan, and the Solly-Flood families.
Mount Plunkett, County Roscommon entrance front c. 1920 photograph: William English, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 216. “A house of unusual design built 1806 by George Plunkett….Passed to the Grehan family ca 1850 and in 1876, to Robert Adamson. Laster the residence of C.E.A. Cameron, Assistant Inspector General of the RIC. Dismantled 1946, now a ruin.”
In Blake, Tarquin. Abandoned Mansions of Ireland II: More Portraits of Forgotten Stately Homes. Collins Press, Cork, 2012.
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Ballynegall, County Westmeath entrance hall 1961 photograph: Hugh Doran, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 27. “(Smyth/IFR) A house built 1808 by James Gibbons, using stone from the old castle here, which was called Castle Reynall after the former owners of the estate, the Reynall family…Left by James Gibbons 1846 to his nephew by marriage, J.W.M. Berry,…who left Ballynegall to his cousin, T.J. Smyth 1855. Sold by Smyth family 1963, now a ruin.”
Ballynegall drawing room, County Westmeath 1961 photograph: Hugh Doran, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 141. “Very fine two storey classical house with a single-storey Ionic entrance portico. Built in 1808 to the design of Francis Johnston for James Gibbons. Fine interior including an entrance hall with a screen of Ionic columns, and a Portland stone staircase wiht a brass balustrade supporting a mahogany handrail inlaid with brass. The plasterwork of the house was by George Stapleton. Some of the chimneypieces on the first floor and one in the basement seems to have come from an earlier house. Single storey wings one of which incorporated a conservatory were added in the 1840s. The front elevation of the house was copied c. 1850 by George Papworth at nearby Middleton Park. The house was stripped in 1981 and the portico was re-erected at Straffan House, Co Kildare. Some chimneypieces are now in London. The house is now a ruin.”
In Blake, Tarquin. Abandoned Mansions of Ireland. Collins Press, Cork, 2010.
entry in MacDonnell, Randal. The Lost Houses of Ireland. A chronicle of great houses and the families who lived in them. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London, 2002
“The house, designed by architect Francis Johnston, was commissioned in 1808 and eventually demolished in 1981. In 1849, Mr. James Fraser wrote of the demesne, “The handsome Greek mansion accords with the rich and beautiful park around; while the schools and neat church in the demesne, together with comfortable houses for the tradesmen and labourers, show the good taste and liberality of the proprietor.”
“The history of the house goes back to the time when, following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the principal barons got their hands on large tracts of Irish land. One of the most successful was Hugh de Lacy, who obtained thousands of acres in County Westmeath. He gave the land of Baile nan Gall (or “The Town of the Foreigners”) to his followers, the Tuites, and it remained in their possession until 1720 when they sold it to Colonel Arthur Reynell, who renamed the old house on the land Castle Reynell.
The Reynells lived at Castle Reynell until 1803 when they sold it to a Mr. James Gibbons. This gentleman died shortly afterwards and his son, also named James, pulled down the old Castle of the Tuites and, in 1808, engaged Francis Johnston, the architect of the General Post Office in Dublin (as well as two of the most important mansions in the country, Charleville Castle in County Offaly and Townley Hall in County Louth) to build him a new house….James Gibbons also engaged Alexander McLeish to lay out his gardens (McLeish had already worked at the neighbouring estate of Knockdrin Castle).”
The building poorly maintained. None of the original fabric remains other than the external walls. It is suffering from structural problems that could lead to full or partial collapse, and there is an immediate threat of further deterioration.
The shell of an early 19th century house designed by Francis Johnson in demesne overlooking Lough Owel. The stable buildings remain in agricultural use. A long term conservation plan is required to secure surviving structures.
Ranges of multiple-bay two-storey stable block on U-shaped plan, built c.1808 or c.1824. Central integral carriage to southeast elevation with ashlar limestone bellcote over. Now in use as agricultural outbuildings. Hipped natural slate roofs with ashlar limestone chimneystacks. Constructed of ashlar limestone with ashlar trim, including projecting ashlar limestone string courses at first floor level and at eaves level. Projecting ashlar limestone plinth to base. Square-headed openings to exterior facades. Square-headed openings to ground floor in interior of courtyard with round-headed openings above to first floor, all set in full-height round-headed recesses. Mainly replacement window and door fittings throughout. Cast-iron lamp brackets to interior. Modern corrugated-iron canopies over stable doors to southwest range (interior). Located to the northwest of Ballynagall House (15401212) with remains of further outbuildings to northwest.
A very fine and attractive collection of outbuildings associated with Ballynagall House, which retain their early form and character. This collection of outbuildings has been attributed to Francis Johnston, the architect responsible for the designs of Ballynagall House and one of the foremost architects of his day. However, designs for stables at Ballynagall House were prepared by the architect John Hargrave c. 1824 (catalogue of auction of architectural drawings of John Hargrave – mentioned in IAA), the architect responsible for the designs of the gate lodge (15401214) and Portneshangan Church of Ireland church (15401215) to the southeast, so it is possible that he was responsible for the designs. The design, proportions and quality of the ashlar limestone masonry is of a very high standard, marking this stable block as one of the finest of its date surviving in the country. It forms part of an important group of associated structures within the former Ballynagall Demesne along with the ruins of the main house (15401212) and the gate lodge (15401214) to the southeast.
How curious that nobody in recent decades has thought to write a monograph on one of Ireland’s most prolific and talented architects: Francis Johnston. Born in Armagh in 1760, Johnston was effectively ‘discovered’ by the city’s primate Richard Robinson who sent him to Dublin to study with the Archbishop’s architect Thomas Cooley. Following the latter’s death in 1784 Johnston took over many of his commissions, not least Rokeby, County Louth which was Robinson’s country seat (see Building on a Prelate’s Ambition, February 4th 2013). Thereafter his career never faltered and demand for his services was unceasing. Among the most famous examples of his work are the General Post Office in Dublin and, on the other side of the city and in completely different mode, the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle (of which more in due course). Success allowed him to be singularly generous: appointed second president of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1824 he designed and built the organisation’s premises on Abbey Street (it was one of the casualties of the 1916 Easter Rising, ironically headquartered in another of Johnston’s buildings, the GPO). After he died in 1829 his fabled collection of paintings, sculpture, books, objets d’art and curiosities was unfortunately dispersed. But throughout the country there survive examples of his work and these consistently demonstrate the refinement and assurance of Johnston’s taste. Until recently one of the best examples was Ballynegall, County Westmeath.
Ballynegall, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne, Irish Aesthete.
Ballynegall, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne, Irish Aesthete.
Ballynegall, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne, Irish Aesthete.
Ballynegall dates from 1808 when it was designed for James Gibbons whose family appears to have been involved in banking and other business in Dublin, from whence derived their fortune. Five years earlier he or his father (also called James Gibbons) had bought the estate on which it stands from William Reynell (his forebear Colonel Arthur Reynell had acquired the estate in 172). Seemingly some of the stone from an older property called Castle Reynell was used in the construction of Ballynegall. Evidence of the Gibbons’ affluence is evidenced by the fact the house was renowned for having cost £30,000 to build: an astonishingly substantial figure at the time. James Fraser’s Handbook for Travellers in Ireland (first published 1838) describes Ballynegall as a ‘handsome Grecian mansion’ which ‘accords with the rich and beautiful park around.’ James Gibbons senior died in Cheltenham in 1834, after which the property passed to his son, James junior. He died in 1846 while hunting and since he had no children Ballynegall next passed to a nephew of his wife James William Middleton Berry. On his own death in 1855 the estate was inherited by a cousin Thomas Smyth. Ballynegall remained in the possession of the Smyth family until 1963.
Ballynegall, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne, Irish Aesthete.
Ballynegall, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne, Irish Aesthete.
Ballynegall, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne, Irish Aesthete.
In 1993 Ballnegall was judged by Christine Casey and Alistair Rowan to be ‘a most delightful villa by one of Ireland’s most refined designers – a man of European stature.’ Of six bays and two storeys, its west-facing facade was perfectly plain except for a four-column Greek Ionic portico which defined the entrance. The garden front had deep Wyatt windows flanking a broad central bow. A sunken service wing to the north was matched on the other end of the house by a large mid-19th century cast-iron conservatory attributed to Richard Turner (Casey and Rowan propose this replaced an earlier one designed by Johnston), its roof supported by pilaster shafts with lotus capitals. Internally the house was a model of neo-classical restraint, the groundfloor holding an entrance hall divided into two sections by a screen of Ionic columns. This in turn gave access to the drawing room (which benefitted from the east-facing bow), library, dining room and morning room. A staircase at right angles to the entrance hall and screened from it by a further pair of Ionic columns led via a bow-shaped return to the generous first floor bedroom corridor: the basement featured an equally fine, broad corridor running the length of the building. Throughout the house the plasterwork by George Stapleton was simple but exquisite, in particular the guilotte and palmette friezes running below dentil and foliage cornices. Much of the furniture appears to have been made for the house by Mack, Williams & Gibton (the library’s bookcases look to have been especially fine) but other captivating details included the 19th century wallpapers, that in the drawing room being pink and gilt, and stenciled to represent decorative panels and pilasters.
Ballynegall, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne, Irish Aesthete.
Ballynegall, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne, Irish Aesthete.
Ballynegall, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne, Irish Aesthete.
We are fortunate that Ballynegall and its beautiful interiors were recorded in a series of photographs taken in 1961 just a year before the contents were dispersed on the instructions of Captain Michael Smyth during the course of a three-day auction in July 1962. The sale catalogue lists many fine pieces, all scattered: where are they now, and do the present owners know their provenance? The following year the house and estate were likewise sold, after which Ballynegall went through a couple of owners. In 1981 the house itself was ruthlessly stripped of everything that could be taken out: doors, chimney pieces, columns, even the floorboards pulled up for the value of the timber, and then the building unroofed. The portico now adorns the front of the K Club, County Kildare and the Turner conservatory serves as a restaurant at Lyons Village in the same county. The fate of the rest of the fittings is unknown although some of the chimney pieces apparently ended up in England. As the photographs taken earlier this year and shown here reveal, Ballynegall has been gradually drifting into oblivion ever since that despoliationh. Back in 1993 Casey and Rowan wrote that the fate of Ballynegall was ‘one of the most tragic consequences of the laissez-faire attitude of successive governments towards the architectural inheritance of the State…There can be little satisfaction in contemplating the lacerated fragment of a Fragonard and still less pleasure in a visit to Ballynegall as it is now.’ Visiting the place is indeed a melancholy experience, not just because the building is in such lamentable condition but also because that condition is a reflection of national indifference towards our own collective heritage. Within many people’s lifetime a fine house, a masterpiece of neo-classical refinement designed by one of Ireland’s greatest architects, has willfully and shamefully been permitted to fall into dereliction. It happened because nobody cried stop. It continues to happen for the same reason…
Ballynegall, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne, Irish Aesthete.
THE SMYTHS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY WESTMEATH, WITH 9,778 ACRES
This is a branch of SMYTH of Gaybrook, springing more immediately from SMYTH of Drumcree.
THOMAS HUTCHINSON SMYTH (1765-1830), only son of Thomas Smyth, of Drumcree, by his third wife, Martha (daughter of the Ven Francis Hutchinson, Archdeacon of Down and Connor), served as High Sheriff of County Westmeath, 1792, being then described as of “Smythboro” or Coole.
He married, in 1796, Abigail, daughter of John Hamilton, of Belfast, and had issue,
THOMAS, his heir; Francis, Captain RN; John Stewart; Edward, d 1857; Arthur (Dr); Hamilton, barrister (1813-59); Anna; Emily.
Mr Smyth was succeeded by his eldest son,
THE REV THOMAS SMYTH (1796-1874), who wedded, in 1832, Mary Anne, daughter of Adam Tate Gibbons, East India Company, and niece of James Gibbons, of Ballynegall, and had issue,
THOMAS JAMES, his heir; James Gibbons, major in the army; William Adam, major in the army; Albert Edward, major in the army; Elizabeth Abigail Mary Amelia; Mary Anne; Louisa Anna.
The Rev Thomas Smyth was succeeded by his eldest son,
THOMAS JAMES SMYTH JP DL (1833-1912), of Ballynegall, High Sheriff of County Westmeath, 1858, Captain, Westmeath Rifles, who married, in 1864, Bessie, fourth daughter of Edward Anketell Jones, of Adelaide Crescent, Brighton, and had issue,
THOMAS GIBBONS HAWKESWORTH, his heir; Ellinor Marion Hawkesworth; Maud Emily Abigail Hawkesworth.
Mr Smyth was succeeded by his only son,
THOMAS GIBBONS HAWKESWORTH SMYTH (1865-1953) of Ballynegall, High Sheriff of County Westmeath, 1917, who wedded, in 1895, Constance, younger daughter of Harry Corbyn Levinge, of Knockdrin Castle, Mullingar, and had issue,
THOMAS REGINALD HAWKESWORTH, b 1897; Marjorie.
BALLYNEGALL HOUSE, near Mullingar, is said to have been one of the greatest architectural losses in the county of Westmeath.
The designs for this elegant and refined Regency house have been traditionally attributed to Francis Johnston, one of the foremost architects of his day and a man with an international reputation.
The quality of the original design is still apparent, despite its derelict and overgrown appearance.
The house was originally constructed for James Gibbons at the enormous cost of £30,000, and was reputedly built using the fabric of an existing castle on site, known as Castle Reynell after the previous owners of the estate.
Ballynagall remained in the Gibbons Family until 1846, when ownership passed on to Mr James W M Berry.
In 1855, ownership later passed on to the Smyth family through marriage.
The house was abandoned in the early 1960s and all remaining internal fittings and fixtures were removed at this time.
The original Ionic portico was also removed in the 1960s and now stands at Straffan House, County Kildare.
The remains of a very fine iron conservatory, which has been attributed to Richard Turner (1798-1881), is itself a great loss to the heritage of the county.
Ballynagall House stands in picturesque, mature parkland.
The remains of the house form the centrepiece of one of the best collections of demesne-related structures in County Westmeath, along with the stable block to the north-west and the gate lodge and St Mary’s church to the south-east.
Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny Irish Tourist Association Photographer 1942 NLI Ref NPA ITA 1214 (Box VI).
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 64. “(Wandesford, E/DEP; Butler, sub Ormonde, M/PB; Prior-Wandesford/LGI1958) A very large C18 and C19 house, consisting of a square two storey main block with fronts of five bays, and a slightly lower three storey wing of great length, recessed for its first six bays and then stepped forward. Battlemented parapet on main block and wing; rectangular Georgian sash-windows, mostly with astragals; pointed Georgian-Gothic windows on ground floor of entrance front of main block; hood mouldings over windows of main block. John Johnston, who worked at Birr Castle, was also employed here. Enclosed Gothic porch. Largely demolished in recent years.”
Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, photograph: Gillman Collection, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 89. A very large 18C house with 19C additions. Battlemented parapet. Burnt in 1965 and now largely demolished.
John Wandesford (1725-1784) 1st Earl of Wandesford and Viscount Castlecomer. Picture after Joshua Reynolds.
Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, courtesy Archiseek.Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, courtesy Archiseek.Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, courtesy Archiseek.
The original Castlecomer House, the family seat of the Wandesfordes, was built in 1638. It was burned down during the battle of Castlecomer in 1798. A replacement and larger house was constructed on the site in 1802. This house was on a far grander scale than the original, and was testament to the success of the Wandesforde enterprise in Ireland. It was a large 19th century mansion consisting of a square, two-storey main block with fronts of five bays; a slightly lower three-storey wing of great length.There was a battlemented parapet on the main wing and block; rectangular sash windows, mostly astragals. Also an enclosed Gothic porch.
Lying largely empty during the 1960s and 70s, most of the building was demolished in 1975. Nothing now remains of the house. The entrance and lodge can still be seen today, designed by G.F. Beckett in 1913.
The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy: Kilkenny. Volume 1. Art Kavanagh, 2004.
THE WANDESFORDES WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY KILKENNY, WITH 22,232 ACRES
This family was of great antiquity in Yorkshire.
JOHN DE WANDESFORDE, of Westwick, near Ripon, married, in 1368, Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Sir Henry de Musters, Knight, of Kirklington, Yorkshire, and widow of Alexander Mowbray.
He died in 1396, and was direct ancestor of
THOMAS WANDESFORDE, of Kirklington, in 1503, who wedded Margaret, daughter of Henry Pudsey.
He died in 1518, having had four sons and two daughters,
CHRISTOPHER, his heir; William; Michael; John (Rev); Ellen; Elizabeth.
The eldest son,
CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD, of Kirklington, espoused Anne, daughter of John Norton, and died in 1540, having had issue,
FRANCIS, his heir; Christopher.
The elder son,
FRANCIS WANDESFORD, of Kirklington, married Anne, elder daughter and co-heir of John Fulthorpe, of Hipswell, and had by her (who wedded secondly, Christopher, younger son of Ralph, Earl of Westmorland),
CHRISTOPHER (Sir); John; Jane.
Mr Wandesford died in 1559, and was succeeded by his elder son,
SIR CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD, Knight, of Kirklington, who received the honour of knighthood, 1586, and served as Sheriff of Yorkshire, 1578.
He espoused Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George Bowes, of Streatlam, and dying in 1590, was succeeded by his elder son,
SIR GEORGE WANDESFORD, Knight (1573-1612), of Kirklington, knighted by JAMES I, 1607, who wedded firstly, Catherine, daughter and co-heir of Ralph Hansby, of Beverley, and had issue,
CHRISTOPHER, his successor; John; Michael (Very Rev); Anne.
Sir George espoused secondly, Mary, daughter of Robert Pamplin, and had a daughter, Margaret, and a son, WILLIAM WANDESFORDE, Citizen of London, to whom, and his heirs, his eldest brother, in 1637, gave £20 per annum, issuing out of the manor of Castlecomer, and payable upon Strongbow’s tomb in Christ Church, Dublin.
Sir George was succeeded by his eldest son,
THE RT HON CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD (1592-1640), being upon close habits of intimacy and friendship with Sir Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, accompanied that eminent and ill-fated nobleman into Ireland when he was constituted Chief Governor of that kingdom, was sworn of the Privy Council, and was appointed Master of the Rolls.
Mr Wandesford was one of the Lords Justices in 1636 and 1639; and was appointed, in 1640, Lord Deputy; but the fate of his friend Lord Strafford had so deep an effect upon him, that he died in that year.
[Kavanagh, p. 218. He appears to have brought over some of his relatives to Ireland also, as his brother Nicholas was MP for Thomastown and his eldest son, George, was MP for Clogher in 1639. – see Burke’s Landed Gentry.
Christopher bought the lease of Kildare castle and manor from Sir Charles Coote shortly after his arrival in Ireland and intended livign there. He did in fact live in the castle for a year with his familoy but the Earl of Wentworth took a fancy to the place and two years later it was sold to him. In July 1637 Christopher Wandesford bought Castlecomer Castle and an estate of some 20,000 acres. These lands were formerly owned by the Gaelic Brennan clan from the barony of Odough, of which Castlecomer is the focal point.
The Brennans, in common with other Gaelic families of Leinster such as the O’Moores of Laois, Kavanaghs of Crlow and the O’Byrnes of Wicklow and Fitzpatricks of Ossory, saw their lands pilfered from them under the governments of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. …An inquisition held in Kilkenny in 1635 found that the Brennans had no title in the area as they were “mere Irish” and held only the territory by force of arms. In 1636 Christopher W. commenced negotiations to buy the Brennan lands from Ormonde and Ridgeway. The sale included the castle of Castlecomer, which was in the possession of Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret… By 1638 W.had still not succeeded in obtaining possessionso Straford sent a body of soldiers to Castlecomer where they seized the parents of about 100 families of Brennans, took them to Dublin and imprisoned them. They took possession of the castle.
Christopher’s conscience must have been causing him some trouble, as in his will he made in 1640, he made provision for the payment of some money to some of the Brennan families to the value of a 21 year lease on whatever lands they occupied at the time. He also secured the release of one of the Brennans who had been sentenced to death for sheep stealing, and installed his half-brother William as his agent. William and his wife took up residence in the castle.
He married, in 1614, Alice, daughter of Sir Hewet Osborne, of Kiveton, Yorkshire, and had issue,
GEORGE, his heir; CHRISTOPHER, successor to his brother; John; Catherine; Alice.
Mr Wandesford was succeeded by his eldest son,
GEORGE WANDESFORD (1623-51), of Kirklington, who dsp and was succeeded by his brother,
SIR CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD (1628-87), of Kirklington, who was created a baronet in 1662, denominated of Kirklington, Yorkshire.
He married, in 1651, Eleanor, daughter of Sir John Lowther Bt, of Lowther Hall, Westmorland, and had issue,
Sir Christopher, MP for Ripon, was succeeded by his eldest son,
THE RT HON SIR CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD (1656-1707), who was sworn of the Privy Council by WILLIAM III, and again, in 1702, by Queen ANNE, who elevated him to the peerage, in 1706, as Baron Wandesforde and VISCOUNT CASTLECOMER.
He wedded, in 1683, Elizabeth, daughter of George Montagu, of Horton, Northamptonshire, and had issue,
The 1st EARL OF WANDESFORD died in 1784, and his son having predeceased him, all his honours, including the baronetcy, became extinct, and his estates upon his only daughter,
THE LADY ANNE WANDESFORDE, who espoused, in 1769, John Butler, to whom the EARLDOM OF ORMONDE was restored by the House of Lords, 1791, as 17th Earl of Ormonde and 10th Earl of Ossory.
Her fourth, but second surviving son,
THE HON CHARLES HARWARD BUTLER-CLARKE-SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE(1780-1860), of Castlecomer and Kirklington, inherited his mother’s estates, and assumed, in 1820, the additional surname of CLARKE after Butler; and, in 1830, the additional surnames of SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE after Butler-Clarke.
He espoused, in 1812, the Lady Sarah Butler, daughter of Henry Thomas, 2nd Earl of Carrick, and had issue,
John, dspvp; HENRY BUTLER-CLARKE-SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE, died unmarried; Walter, father of CHARLES; SARAH, of Castlecomer and Kirklington.
The Hon Charles Harward Butler C S Wandesforde was succeeded by his grandson,
CHARLES BUTLER-CLARKE-SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE, of Castlecomer and Kirklington, High Sheriff of County Kilkenny, 1879, who died unmarried, 1881, and was succeeded by his aunt,
SARAH PRIOR-WANDESFORDE (1814-92), of Castlecomer, Kirklington, Hipswell, and Hudswell, Yorkshire, who married, in 1836, the Rev John Prior, of Mount Dillon, County Dublin, Rector of Kirklington, Yorkshire, son of the Rev Dr Thomas Prior, Vice-Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and had issue,
Charles Butler, father of RICHARD HENRY PRIOR-WANDESFORDE; Henry Wallis; Sarah Butler; Sophia Elizabeth.
Mrs Prior-Wandesforde succeeded to the Castlecomer and Kirklington estates on the death of her nephew, 1881, and in accordance with the provisions contained in her father’s will, assumed, in 1882, for herself and her issue the additional surname and arms of WANDESFORDE.
She was succeeded by her grandson,
RICHARD HENRY PRIOR-WANDESFORDE JP DL (1870-), of Castlecomer and Kirklington Hall, Hipswell, and Hudswell, Yorkshire, High Sheriff of County Kilkenny, 1894, who wedded, in 1896, Florence Jackson von Schwartz, daughter of the Rev Ferdinand Pryor, Rector of Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and had issue,
CHRISTOPHER BUTLER, b 1896; Ferdinand Charles Richard, b 1897; Richard Cambridge, b 1902; Vera; Florence Doreen.
*****
During Lady Ormonde’s time on the estate, the coal mines were mainly run by master miners who leased the land and employed teams of about fifty men to operate them.
Her son, Charles Harward Butler-Clarke-Southwell-Wandesforde, took a great interest in the running of the estate and in the welfare of his tenants and attempted to reduce the role of “middle men” by reducing rents and providing assistance.
He even helped some of his tenants to emigrate.
He was succeeded by his daughter Sarah, who married John Prior.
She outlived all her children and was succeeded by her grandson Richard Henry who inherited the estates and assumed the Wandesforde name in 1892.
When Captain Richard Henry Prior-Wandesforde inherited the estate in the late 19th Century, the family owned thousands of acres of woodland in the area.
In previous years, the mines had been operated by master miners who leased the mines from the Wandesforde family, but ‘the Captain’ took personal control of the mines.
He introduced many improvements in the mine workings including overhead ropeways to transport the coal to the Deerpark railway depot.
He also established the Castlecomer Basket Factory, the Castlecomer Agricultural Bank and the Colliery Co-operative Society and built a number of housing schemes for the mine workers.
Captain Prior-Wandesforde took personal control of the coal mines and invested his own money in upgrading and modernising the mine workings.
CASTLECOMER HOUSE in County Kilkenny, the family seat, was originally built in 1638.
It was burned down during the battle of Castlecomer in 1798.
A larger house was built in its place, in 1802, during the time of Lady Ormonde.
It was a very large 18th and 19th century mansion consisting of a square, two-storey main block with fronts of five bays; a slightly lower three-storey wing of great length.
There was a battlemented parapet on the main wing and block; rectangular sash windows, mostly astragals; and an enclosed Gothic porch.
Most of the building was demolished in 1975 as it was no longer in use and had fallen into disrepair.
Nothing now remains of the house.
Castlecomer Discovery Park is situated on grounds that once formed part of the Wandesforde family estate.
The Visitor Centre is located in what was originally the farm yard and kitchen gardens of the estate.
The stables and many of the farm buildings have been restored and now house the craft units and the education facilities.
The original walled garden is now home to a small herd of Fallow and Sika Deer and a flock of Jacob Sheep.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 165. “Godfrey, Bt/PB) A house built or remodelled in late C18 by Sir William Godfrey, 1st Bt, MP; altered 1830s by Sir John Godfrey, 2nd Bt, to the design of William Vitruvius Morrison, who threw one of his thinner Tudor-Revival cloaks over the house and gave it four slender corner-turrets with cupolas, similar to those at Glenarm Castle, Co Antrim and Borris, Co Carlow. A two storey service wing with curvilinear gables was also added. Inside the house, Morrison formed a two storey galleried hall, opening with arches onto the staircase. The house was lived in by the Godfreys until ca 1960; after which it was abandoned and has now fallen completely into ruin, most of it having been demolished.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 82. Kilcoleman Abbey, Milltown (formerly Milltown House) “A plain three storey house built c. 1800, altered in the Tudor Revival style by Richard and William Vitruvius Morrison in 1819 for Sir John Godfrey. Abandoned 1960, some ruins remain.“
Also known as Milltown House. More or less abandoned from 1800 to 1818, the house was renovated under the second Baronet, Sir John Godfrey, according to ambitious plans drawn up by architect William Vitruvius Morrison. However the general economic decline of the 1820’s and family misfortunes meant that only the stables and service wing, with its flemish gables, were completed as planned. Later, in the early 1840’s, the third Baronet Sir William Duncan Godfrey further modified the main block of the house, adding an attic storey, a turret, and assorted gables, pinnacles and buttresses. The family abandoned the house in 1958 due to severe dry rot and it was demolished in 1977.
In O’Hea O’Keeffe, Jane. Voices from the Great Houses: Cork and Kerry. Mercier Press, Cork, 2013.
p. 215. Under the Cromwellian settlement of Ireland, the Godfrey family from Romney in Kent were granted a 7,000 acre estate in mid Kerry, a grant reaffirmed under the Restoration by Letters Patent dated 13 June 1667. The estate had its origins in the Augustinian priory of Killagha, which was suppressed in 15676 and the lands granted to Captain Thomas Spring of Suffolk. It was later forfeited to Major John Godfrey (1616-75) of Ludlow’s Regiment of Horse.
The Godfrey family initially lived in Tipperary for fifty years following their arrival in Ireland, before moving to Kerry in teh early part of the eighteenth century. Major John Godfrey’s grandson, John Godfrey (1686-1711), then occupied the old Spring demesne of Bushfield as his principal residence. He was succeeded by his son William Godfrey (1707-47).
On Wm’s death the estate passed to his brother, Captain John Godfrey (1709-82) who married Barbara Hathaway, granddaughter of Thomas, Earl Coningsby. Captain Godfrey worked hard to improve the lot of his tenants and built the village of Milltown to encourage local enterprise. His son William (1738-1817) succeeded him and he built a new house within the demesne in the 1770s. In 1783 he became MP for Tralee and two years later was elevated to the rank of Baronet. Expensive tastes forced Sir William to assign his life interest in the estate to his eldest son John (1763-1841). John made a well-connected marriage to Eleanor Cromie from County Antrim in 1796, but did not come to live at Bushfield until after his father’s death in 1817.
p. 216. Sir John was sympathetic towards Catholic emancipatino and provided land for the building of a new Catholic chapel. He employed architects Richard and William Vitruvius Morrison to remodel the old house at Bushfield, which was subsequently renamed Kilcoleman Abbey.
In 1824 Sir John’s son and heir, William Duncan Godfrey (1797-1873) married a Catholic, Mary Teresa Coltsmann, daughter of John Coltsmann of Flesk Castle in Killarney, much to the surprise of the family. Sir William inherited the estate in 1841, and during the Famine it became heavily burdened by debt, but was saved by the marriage of the heir John Fermor Godfrey (1828-1900) to an English heiress, Mary Cordelia Scutt. Sir John had a keen interest in hunting and kept a famous pack of houses the Kilcoleman Hunt, but was forced to disband it in 1881 due to the constant danger of attack by the Land League. By his death in 1900 most of his powers as landlord and magistrate had been removed under the Local Government Act of 1898.
He was succeeded by his son, Sir William Cecil Godfrey (1857-1926), who married Maud Hamilton, the only child of Frederick Hamilton of Carbery, County Kildare, in 1885. Following teh birth of their daughter Phyllis, Maud died from medical complications. In 1901, Sir William married Mary Leeson-Marshall of nearby Callinafercy House. During Sir William’s time, the Godfrey estate was sold to the tenants under the terms of the Wyndham Act of 1903, all of teh proceeds going towards teh payment of debts.
Making a decisive political shift, in the 1918 election Sinn Fein, the Irish republican party, gained all four seats in Kerry, and in the spring of 1921 the first attacks on the Big Houses in Kerry by the IRA began. Kilcoleman Abbey escaped unscathed, due in part to Sir William’s local popularity. On his death in 1926, Kilcolman was inherited by his brother, John Ernest Godfrey (1864-1935), who in 1889 had been appointed an engineer to the Duke of Devonshire’s estate at Lismore Castle in Co Waterford. In 1933 he and his wife Eileen Curry moved back to Kerry. He was succeeded by his son, Sir William Maurice Godfrey, who lived in England. In 1941, unable to support the family seat, Sir William decided to sell Kilcoleman to his cousin Phyllis Godfrey (1890-1959), who was the last member of the family to reside at the old estate.
p. 218. Mary Constance Godfrey married Dick Edwards, who became agent of Lismore Castle. It is their son, Dermot Edwards, who is interviewed for this chapter of the book.
p. 219. Phyllis Godfrey, who was born in 1890 to Sir William Cecil and Lady Maud Godfrey, bought Kilcoleman Abbey, but she did not have the financial resources to maintain the building or teh gardens. Life was far from easy. After the sale in 1942, Dermot’s grandmother Eileen, Lady Godfrey, left Kilcoleman, and with her two daughters, Dorothy and Ursula, returned to live at Lismore.
[It was demolished in the 1970s. It was full of dry rot. Dr John Knightly, a native of Milltown, wrote his PhD thesis: The Godfrey Family and their Estates 1730-1850.]
p. 224. After Phyllis Godfrey’s death, Kilcoleman was inhierted for a second time by Sir William Godfrey, who at this time was determined to live in Kerry, though not to restore the ruined house. He was approached by Paulie Fenno, an American heiress, who offered to buy and restore the house and run it as a hotel. The project ran into financial difficulties, however, the the remaining lands were sold to the Land Commission to be divided up among local farmers. In the 1970s Kerry County Council bought and demolished the derelict building. An estate of modern houses now stands on teh site.
Kilcoleman Abbey was the residence of Sir William Godfrey at the time of Griffith’s Valuation, when it was valued at £33. Lewis also records it as his residence in 1837. In 1894 Slater referred to it as the seat of Sir John F. Godfrey. In 1906, it was still part of the Godfrey estate and valued at £35 10s.The Irish Tourist Association survey of the early 1940s refers to it as “Godfrey House, a fine type of Elizabethan type mansion”. Bary states that the original house, built by the first Godfrey to settle in the area at the end of the seventeenth century, was called Bushfield but that it burned down in 1774 though Wilson still refers to it by this name in 1786 and provides a detailed description of the surroundings. Knightly indicates that a new house was then built by Sir William Godfrey. This house was remodelled twice in the nineteenth century. Sir William Maurice Godfrey sold Kilcoleman in the 1960s and it was demolished in 1977.
THE GODFREY BARONETS OWNED 6,331 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY KERRY
MAJOR JOHN GODFREY, of Colonel Edmund Ludlow’sRegiment of Horse (a member of the ancient family of GODFREY, of Romney, Kent), obtained for his services in Ireland during the rebellion of 1641, a grant of 4,980 acres of land in County Kerry, and settled there.
He married Miss Davies, and was succeeded by his only son,
WILLIAM GODFREY, of Bushfield, County Kerry, and Knockgraffon, County Tipperary, who wedded Deborah, only child of Alderman Luke Lowther, of the city of Dublin, and was succeeded at his decease by his eldest son,
JOHN GODFREY, of Bushfield, who espoused Philippa, daughter of Anthony Chearnley, of Burncourt, County Tipperary, and had issue,
William, dsp; JOHN, his successor.
Mr Godfrey died in 1712, and was succeeded by his only surviving son,
JOHN GODFREY, of Bushfield, who married Barbara, daughter of the Rev Mr Hathway, and granddaughter (maternally) of the 1st Earl Coningsby, and had issue,
WILLIAM, his successor; Luke (Rev Dr), Rector of Middleton, Co Cork; Edward; Anthony; Letitia; Phillippa.
Mr Godfrey died in 1782, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
WILLIAM GODFREY (1739-1817), of Bushfield, who was created a baronet in 1785, denominated of Bushfield, County Kerry.
Sir William, MP for Tralee, 1783-90, MP for Belfast, 1792-7, wedded, in 1761, Agnes, only daughter of William Blennerhassett, of Elm Grove, County Kerry, and had surviving issue,
JOHN, his heir; William (Rev), Rector of Kenmare; Luke, a major in the army; Letitia; Agnes; Phillippa; Arabella; Margaret; Elizabeth.
Sir William was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR JOHN GODFREY, 2nd Baronet (1763-1841), who espoused, in 1796, Eleanor, eldest daughter of John Cromie, of Cromore, County Londonderry, and had issue,
WILLIAM DUNCAN, his heir; John (Rev); Henry Alexander; Robert; James George; Richard Frankland; Anne; Agnes; Eleanor.
JOHN FERMOR, his heir; William; Henry Arthur; Christiana; Eleanor Isabella.
Sir William was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR JOHN FERMOR GODFREY, 4th Baronet (1828-1900).
Sir John Fermor Godfrey, 4th Baronet (1828–1900);
Sir William Cecil Godfrey, 5th Baronet (1857–1926);
Sir John Ernest Godfrey, 6th Baronet (1864–1935);
Sir William Maurice Godfrey, 7th Baronet (1909–1971).
The baronetcy expired following the decease of the 7th Baronet, without male issue.
KILCOLMAN ABBEY, formerly Bushfield, Milltown, County Kerry, was granted in 1641 by CHARLES II to Major John Godfrey “for his services against the rebels“.
Sir William Petty, in his Reflections on Matters and Things in Ireland, called this donation “by no means an equivalent for the Major’s services”. It was built ca 1800 by Sir William Godfrey, 1st Baronet, comprising a fairly plain, Georgian, three-storey block.
The house was altered in 1819 by Sir John, 2nd Baronet to designs of W V Morrison, who gave it a Tudor-Revival makeover, with four slender turrets on each corner, topped by cupolas (not dissimilar to Glenarm Castle and Borris).
A two-storey service wing was added later.
Morrison created a two-storey galleried hall, which opened with arches on to the hall.
The Godfrey family continued to live at Kilcolman until about 1960, when it was abandoned.
Burnham Manor, Dingle, County Kerry, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 50. “(Eveleigh de Moleyns, sub Ventry, B.PB) From its appearance, a three story seven bay Georgian block enlarged by the addition of two storey wings, refaced and embellished in the late C19. Entrance front with central feature of engaged Doric columns supporting sections of entablature and a steep pediment above a balustraded and pedimented Doric porte-cochere; tympana of pediments decorated with acanthus carving. Eaved roof on centre and wings; that of the centre being on a modillion cornice. Garden front with two storey rectangular projections in the centre and three sided bows at the ends of wings. Now an institution.”
Burnham House, Co Kerry courtesy National Inventory.
Detached seven-bay three-storey late-Georgian house, built c. 1800, with six-bay elevation to rear to north-east having pair of two-bay two-storey flat-roofed advanced bays. Extensively reconstructed and extended, c. 1890, with prostyle tetrastyle granite Doric porte cochere inserted to ground floor having pedimented two-storey granite Doric frontis over. Five-bay two-storey lateral wings added to north-west and to south-east comprising three-bay two-storey links with two-bay two-storey advanced pavilion blocks having three-bay two-storey canted projecting bays to north-east elevations. Extended to south-east, c. 1925, on a U-shaped plan comprising nine-bay two-storey wing with two-bay two-storey gabled advanced end bay to south-east and pair of six-bay two-storey returns to rear to north-west. Attached five-bay double-height chapel, built c. 1925, to south-east with round-headed window openings and single-bay double-height polygonal apse to south-east gable end having bellcote to gable; now in use as school. Pitched and hipped slate roofs with clay ridge tiles, cast-iron profiled gutters forming corona of eaves cornice, rendered chimneystacks with cornices and modillion cornice at eaves. Painted and rendered walls with projecting and incised string courses, recessed plaques between first and second floors having festoons, and having render architrave with keystones at ground floor. Prostyle tetrastyle Doric portico with tetrastyle pedimented centrepiece above – all in limestone. Timber one-over-one pane sliding sash windows to centre block, two-over-two pane sliding sash windows to north west wing and six-over-six sliding sash windows to south wing having limestone sills. Timber double-leaf doors to entrance flanked by pilaster strips with consoles. Interiors are predominantly late-Victorian in style. Stable complex, built c. 1850, to north about a courtyard comprising; detached thirteen-bay two-storey stone-built building on an L-shaped plan with seven-bay two-storey range having series of segmental-headed integral carriage arches to ground floor and six-bay two-storey wing at right angle to south having single-bay single-storey lean-to recessed end bay to south gable end, wing now derelict. Detached five-bay two-storey building retaining early fenestration, now disused and partly derelict. Pair of semi-detached three-bay single-storey buildings retaining original fenestration with square-headed shared integral carriage arch to centre. Detached three-bay single-storey gate lodge, built c. 1850, to west retaining original aspect with single-bay single-storey gabled advanced entrance bay to centre and single-storey canted bay window to north elevation.
Burnham House, Co Kerry courtesy Archiseek.Burnham House, Co Kerry courtesy Archiseek.
Originally a three-storey, seven bay Georgian block of around 1790. It was later enlarged by the addition of two-storey wings. Later the house was re-faced by J.F. Fuller and the portico and porte-cochère added creating the house we see today. The garden front has two-storey, rectangular projections in the centre, with three-sided bows at the ends of the wings.
Burnham House was seat of Barons Ventry, the family sold it soon after 1922 to the Irish Land Commission with later internal alterations and extensions by Office of Public Works. It is now Coláiste Ide, an Irish-language secondary boarding school for girls.
Lord Ventry held a house valued at £49 at Burnham East, barony of Corkaguiny, at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. Lewis mentions that the family lived for much of the time in England and the house was occupied by their agent, David Thompson. The Ordnance Survey Name Books indicate that the house had been built c.1790 at a cost of £4000. Wilson, however, refers to Burnham as the seat of Thomas Mullins in 1786. Later, members of Lord Ventry’s family resided there. It was still owned by Lord Ventry in 1906 when the house was valued at £80 and ancillary buildings at Burnham West valued at £28. The property was sold to the Land Commission in the 1920s and the house became an Irish speaking secondary school for girls, Coláiste Íde, which is still in operation.
THE BARONS VENTRY WERE THE SECOND LARGEST LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY KERRY, WITH 93,629 ACRES
This noble family derives from a common ancestor with that of Molyneux, Earls of Sefton, namely,
SIR RICHARD MOLYNEUX, Knight, of Sefton, Lancashire, from whom descended
WILLIAM MOLYNS, of Burnham, Norfolk, descended from the ancient family of MOLYNS of Sandhill, Hampshire, itself a scion of the old baronial house of DE MOLEYNS OF HENLEY, whose heiress of line, ELEANOR MOLEYNS, married Sir Robert Hungerford, Knight.
Mr Molyns married firstly, the daughter and heir of William Montague; and secondly, Emily, daughter William Walrond, of Bovey, Devon, by whom he had a younger son,
RICHARD MOLEYNS or MOLINS, of Mitford, Norfolk, who wedded Jane, eldest daughter of Sir Alexander Culpeper, Knight, of Bedgebury, and was father of
FREDERICK WILLIAM MULLINS, a colonel in the army, who settled in Ireland, and obtained considerable grants in the province of Ulster, which he sold, and purchased estates in County Kerry.
Mr Mullins sat in two successive parliaments in the reign of WILLIAM III.
He wedded Jane, daughter and co-heiress of the Very Rev John Eveleigh, Dean of Cork, and by had issue,
FREDERICK; Richard; Edward; Samuel.
The eldest son,
FREDERICK MULLINS (1663-95), wedded, in 1685, Martha, eldest daughter of Thomas Blennerhassett, and granddaughter maternally of Dermot, 5th Baron Inchiquin, and by her had issue, an only son,
WILLIAM MULLINS, of Burnham, County Kerry, who espoused, in 1716, Mary, daughter of George Rowan.
Mr Mullins died in 1761, and left, with a daughter, Anne, an only son,
THOMAS MULLINS (1736-1824) who was created a baronet, 1797; and elevated to the peerage, in 1800, as BARON VENTRY, of Ventry, County Kerry.
He wedded, in 1775, Elizabeth, daughter of Townsend Gunn, of Rattoo, in the same county, and had issue,
WILLIAM TOWNSEND, his successor; Townsend, father of THOMAS TOWNSEND AREMBERG, 3rd Baron; Thomas; Richard; Edward, a major in the army; Frederick, in holy orders; Theodora; Elizabeth; Arabella; Charlotte; Catherine; Helena Jane.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,
WILLIAM TOWNSEND, 2nd Baron (1761-1827), who espoused firstly, in 1784, Sarah Anne, daughter of Sir Riggs Falkiner Bt, and had issue,
ANNA;
Elizabeth.
His lordship wedded secondly, in 1790, Frances Elizabeth, only daughter of Isaac Sage, which marriage was dissolved, 1796; and thirdly, in 1797, Clara, daughter of Benjamin Jones, and had issue,
THOMAS (1798-1817).
The 2nd Baron died without male issue, when the honours devolved upon his nephew,
The heir apparent is the present holder’s only son Hon. Francis Wesley Daubeney de Moleyns (born 1965).
BURNHAM HOUSE (or Manor), near Dingle, County Kerry, comprises a three-storey, seven bay Georgian block enlarged by the addition of two-storey wings, which were re-faced during the late 19th century.
The entrance front boasts engaged Doric columns which support sections of entablature and a steep pediment above a porte-cochère.
The roof is eaved on the centre and wings; while the centre has a modillion cornice.
The garden front has two-storey, rectangular projections in the centre; with three-sided bows at the ends of the wings.
Burnham House was sold to the Irish Land Commission in the 1920s and is now a girls’ boarding school.
Other former residence ~ Lindsay Hall, Branksome, Dorset.
Issercleran (also known as St. Clerans), Craughwell, Co. Galway
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 159. “(Burke/Cole/IFR) A plain two storey late C18 house – built by the Burkes 1784 when they abandoned their ancestral castle nearby – onto the front of which a two storey bow-ended block by Sir Richard Morrison in his villa stuyle was added 1811 by J.G. Burke. The new five bay front is, as Mr McParland points out, “a highly successful derivative of Gandon’s Military Infirmary in Dublin,” with a three bay breakfront and a grouping of three arched recesses; a giant one rising the full height of the elevation in the centre, and two smaller ones on either side over the two neighbouring ground floor windows. A bold string course serves as the springing of the central arch, the lower part of which is filled with a single-storey portico. Entance hall with domed ceiling on pendentives; paired columns in recesses. One of the sons of J.H. Burke, the builder of the new block, was Robert O’Hara Burke, who perished when leading the ill-fated Burke-Wills Expedition across Australia in 1861. Issercleran was inherited 1914 by R. O’H. Burke’s niece, who was the mother of the practical joker, Horace de Vere Cole and of Mrs Neville Chamberlain. It was sold 1954 and subsequently became the home of Mr John Huston, the film director, who sold it ca 1971. The old castle remains in the Burke Cole family.”
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 68. “(Mahon, Bt/PB) The grandest of Sir Richard Morrison’s villas, built from 1803 onwards for Ross Mahon, afterwards 1st Bt; replacing an earlier house. Square, compact plan; front of two storeys, back of three; but with a two storey side elevation. Shallow curved bow at centre of front, with die and pedimented Ionic porch; one bay on either side, with pedimented triple windows in lower storey. Four bay side elevation, the duality being resolved by a central pediment on two broad superimposed pilasters or framing bands. Rich interior, characteristic of Morrison, wiht good spatial effects. Elliptical staircase hall or saloon leading into central toplit staircase hall leading into domed back hall with Doric columns and entablature. The elliptical hall or saloon has pairs of recessed fluted Tower of the Winds columns and a domed ceiling with swags of foliage. The staircase hall, though not particularly large, has an air of great height. The staircase, which has a simple metal balustrade, rises to a magnificent domed landing, with yellow Siena scagliola columns of the Composite order at either end. The dome is carried on fan pendentives; the tympana and soffits below the dome are decorated with swags and other plasterwork. The 5th Bt, who succeeded 1893, added a service wing and built a new porch at the back of the house; so that the Doric back hall became the entrance hall. In 1898 he commissioned Arrowsmith of London to transform the dining room into a classic interior of its period; with a fretted ceiling, a massive carved oak chimneypiece and a wallpaper of scarlet and pink stripes below a frieze of female figures and yellow and green foliage by Sibthorpe. In 1904 the drawing room was done up, also by Arrowsmith; the Morrison plasterwork in the ceiling was retained; but the room was given a frieze, chimneypiece, overmantel and doorcases in the Adam-Revival style, and a pink striped “Adam” wallpaper now faded to a beautiful colour.”
THE MAHON BARONETS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY GALWAY, WITH 8,619 ACRES
BRYAN MAHON, son of Bryan Mahon, land steward to the Earls of Clanricarde, Lieutenant in Lord Clanricarde’s Infantry Regiment, in JAMES II’s army, fought at the battle of the Boyne, 1690.
He wedded, in 1693, Ellinor, daughter of Ross Gaynor, and had issue,
ROSS MAHON (c1696-1767), of Ahascragh and Castlegar, County Galway, married, in 1721, Jane, daughter of Christopher Ussher, and had issue,
ROSS, his heir; John; Alice.
Mr Mahon, who inherited most of his brothers’ fortune, was succeeded by his eldest son,
ROSS MAHON (1725-88), of Castlegar, County Galway, who espoused, in 1762, the Lady Anne Browne, only daughter of John, 1st Earl of Altamont, and had issue,
ROSS, his heir; John; Henry (Rev); James (Very Rev), Dean of Dromore; George; Anne; Harriette; Jane; Amelia.
Mr Mahon was succeeded by his eldest son,
ROSS MAHON (1763-1835), JP, MP for Granard, 1798-1800, Ennis, 1820, who wedded firstly, in 1786, the Lady Elizabeth Browne, second daughter of Peter, 2nd Earl of Altamont, and had issue, three daughters,
Charlottle; Elizabeth Louisa; Anne Charlotte.
He espoused secondly, in 1805, Diana, daughter of Edward Baber, of Park Street, Grosvenor Square, and had further issue, a daughter,
Letitia Anne.
Mr Mahon married thirdly, in 1809, Mary Geraldine, daughter of the Rt Hon James FitzGerald, of Inchicronan, County Clare, by Catherine, Baroness FitzGerald and Vesey his wife, and had further issue,
ROSS, 2nd Baronet; JAMES FITZGERALD, 3rd Baronet; WILLIAM VESEY ROSS, 4th Baronet; John Ross, joint founder of Guinness Mahon, 1836; Henrietta Louisa; Georgina; Catherine Geraldine; Jane Alicia; Caroline.
Mr Mahon was created a baronet, in 1819, designated of Castlegar, County Galway.
Sir Ross was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR ROSS MAHON, 2nd Baronet (1811-42), ADC to the 2nd Earl de Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who died unmarried, and was succeeded by his brother,
SIR JAMES FITZGERALD ROSS MAHON, 3rd Baronet (1812-52), JP DL, Barrister, who died unmarried, when the title devolved upon his brother,
THE REV SIR WILLIAM VESEY ROSS MAHON, 4th Baronet (1813-93), Rector of Rawmarsh, Yorkshire, 1844-93, who wedded Jane, daughter of the Rev Henry King, and had issue,
Ross, died in infancy, 1854; Ross (1856-76); WILLIAM HENRY, his successor; John; James Vesey (Rev); Edward; Gilbert; Mary; Alice.
Sir William was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
SIR WILLIAM HENRY MAHON, 5th Baronet (1856-1926), DSO JP DL, High Sheriff of County Galway, 1898, Major, West Yorkshire Regiment, who espoused, in 1905, Edith Augusta, daughter of Luke, 4th Baron Clonbrock, and had issue,
William Gerald Ross (1909-10); GEORGE EDWARD JOHN, his successor; Luke Bryan Arthur; Ursula Augusta Jane; Mary Edith Georgiana.
Sir William was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
SIR GEORGE EDWARD JOHN MAHON, 6th Baronet (1911-87), who married firstly, in 1938, Audrey Evelyn, daughter of Walter Jagger, and had issue,
WILLIAM WALTER, his successor; Timothy Gilbert; Jane Evelyn.
He wedded secondly, in 1958, Suzanne, daughter of Thomas Donnellan, and had further issue,
Sarah Caroline.
Sir George was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR WILLIAM WALTER MAHON, 7th Baronet (1940-), LVO, Colonel, Irish Guards, Member of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, who married, in 1968, Rosemary Jane, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Ernest Melvill, and has issue,
JAMES WILLIAM (b 1976); Annabel Jane; Lucy Caroline.
CASTLEGAR HOUSE, Ahascragh, County Galway, dates from ca 1803.
It replaced two other houses in the property.
The present mansion, built for Ross Mahon, afterwards the 1st Baronet, is a square block comprising two storeys, with three at the rear, and a two-storey side elevation.
There is a curved bow in the centre of the front, with a pedimented Ionic porch.
The opulent interior is characteristic of its designer, Sir Richard Morrison.
The 5th Baronet added a service wing and back porch following his succession in 1893; thus the Doric rear hall became the new entrance hall.
The Irish Times wrote the following article about Castlegar in 1999:-
IT HAS STOOD there since 1803, exalting testimony to the taste and distinction of late Georgian architecture.
Castlegar is hidden away among 50 acres of gardens, parkland, woods and pasture outside the village of Ahascragh, in east Galway.
It is for sale by private treaty through Charles Smith, of Gunne’s country homes division, who is quoting a guideline price of £1.5 million.
Originally, the estate was the home of the Mahons, gentry stock whose descendants linked with the Guinness family to form a land agency that eventually evolved into the Guinness Mahon merchant bank.
Sir Ross Mahon commissioned architect Richard Morrison to plan alterations to a rambling old house that existed there previously.
Rather than remodelling it, Morrison designed an entirely new building which took several years to complete.
Since 1992, Castlegar has been owned by a Frenchman with a passion for restoring old houses to their original splendour and who has spent hundreds of thousands on refurbishing it.
He is now selling it as he is unable to spend enough time there because of commitments in Paris, the US and Canada.
He is leaving one of the finest Georgian country homes in Ireland, restored with consummate care to the pristine state of its early days.
The marvel of the restoration work lies in the fact that while it has uncovered the innate beauty of the house as it was first conceived, it also has added all the appurtenances of modern living.
Castlegar has been described as the grandest of Morrison’s “villas”, the word villa being used in its original meaning of a country residence.
The house combines resplendent reception rooms with exceptionally comfortable family accommodation in an ambience of relaxed old-fashioned elegance.
In addition to the staff accommodation, there are six bedrooms, each with a fireplace and its own bathroom, and all providing views across the rolling plains of east Galway.
Oddly, the house has two entrances, one on the north side, the other on the south.
The south entrance, no longer used as such, opens into an oval hall with a magnificent ceiling adorned with classic floral friezes, a white marble mantelpiece, and columns flanking recessed doors that lead to the drawing-room on one side and a morning-room on the other.
Two other doors open on to the top-lit central stair hall, an elegant space where the Portland stone staircase has a simple, wrought iron balustrade and ascends to an imposing domed landing.
The oval hall, the huge drawing-room and the dining-room were radically decorated at the turn of the century with commendable taste and the present owner has attentively preserved and enhanced the adornments.
The drawing-room, which has a polished, pitch pine floor, is graced by a striking period mantelpiece with an Adam-style grate.
Classic Victorian-style predominates in the dining-room where there’s a high fretted ceiling, a carved oak mantelpiece and heavy oak shutters.
A spacious billiards-room-cum-library, with a large, hand-crafted oak mantelpiece, and a beautifully appointed study are other impressive features of Castlegar.
In addition to the six bedrooms on the first floor, there is another spacious drawing-room looking across a fountain and lawns to the south.
The staff quarters are located on the second floor.
There are a further two bedrooms here as well as a kitchen, sitting-room and bathroom.
Walled gardens, a stable complex and a hard surface tennis court are spread out over several acres close to the house.
The outbuildings include a beautiful lofted cut-stone coach-house, along with four garages and three stables, plus a stable-yard that has seven loose boxes, a tack room and a further spread of farm buildings.
Beneath the house is a vaulted basement, dry and airy, with six rooms, a boiler space and a wine cellar.
Coollattin (also known as Malton), Shillelagh, Co Wicklow
Coollattin, County Wicklow, photograph courtesy of Irish Georgian Society.
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 91. “Fitzwilliam, E/PB) A two storey house built 1801-4 for 4th Earl Fitzwilliam, who became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland 1795 but was recalled after three months on account of his sympathy for Catholic Emancipation – replacing a house which he built 1796, and which was burnt 1798. It was designed by the veteran English architect, John Carr of York, with whom Lord Fitzwilliam, as a great Yorks magnate, would have had contacts; and as would thus be expected, its design is conservative; the entrance front is of five bays, wiht a three bay breakfront and a wide pediment; the side elevations each with a central curved bow. The entrance door is under a simple pillared porch. In the absence of the octogenarian Carr, the work of building was supervised by Thomas Hobson, a mason from Yorks. Later in C19, the house was enlarged, the new addition being at the back and having a lower ground floor, since the ground falls away steeply on this side. The later additions include a monumental hall and a dining room. The rooms in the earlier part of the house, which include a bow ended rom with apses, were altered and redecorated late C19. Good stable yard with wide pediment on centre block. Sold 1977 to Mr Brendan Cadogan and Mr Patrick Tattan.”
Coollattin, County Wicklow, photograph courtesy of Coollattin House website.Lady Charlotte Fitzwilliam (1746-1833) daughter of 1st Earl Fitzwilliam, dated 1754 by engraver James Mcardell, after Joshua Reynolds, courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl FitzWilliam (1748-1833), later Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Engraver Joseph Grozer, British, fl.1784-1797 After Joshua Reynolds, English, 1723-1792, courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.
The house and associated yard buildings formed the centre of the Fitzwilliam family estate which once extended to 90,000 acres.
The current main block of Coollattin House was rebuilt after the 1798 Rebellion to the design of architect John Carr of York. It comprises a pedimented south facing entrance front with centrally positioned bow windows to the east and west sides. Its internal plan is designed around a central stone staircase with dome at roof level.
During the 19th Century the original house was extended with wings to the east and west. The east wing provided a new pillared entrance porch, leading to a vaulted entrance hall and Italianate staircase linking with the original house. The west wing was designed to provide service accommodation including a high ceilinged kitchen.
To the west of the main house two linked yard buildings were designed to contain additional guest and staff accommodation, stables, coach houses and a laundry and drying room.
The particular interest of Coollattin lies in its evocation of the life and working of an Irish country house in the 19th. Century. Features include the library with built in mahogany bookcases, a functioning dumb waiter lift, original kitchen fixtures including cast iron cooking range, a vaulted passageway to link the basement with the laundry, and stone floored stables with oak doors to the stalls.
20 acres of the original grounds remain with the house. These contain a collection of specimen trees and a variety of hybrid Rhododendrons with peak flowering in the April-May period .
Since 2021 the house and grounds have been in the ownership of the Coollattin House Limited Partnership which is advancing an ongoing restoration programme to reflect and enhance their historic character.
Since 2023, the Irish Government have officially recognised that Coollattin House and grounds ‘is intrinsically of significant architectural, aesthetic and historical interest’.
Detached five-bay two-storey over basement former mansion, built 1804, now in occasional use as a clubhouse for the golf course. It is to designs by architect John Carr of York. The house is finished with lined render with ashlar granite dressings. To the south front elevation there is a pedimented three-bay breakfront with a carved heraldic shield to the tympanum. To the west and rear there is a later service wing and a range of out buildings. The part-glazed front door has a radial fanlight and is set within a flat-headed opening. It is framed with two freestanding Tuscan order columns, which support a wide pediment. Window openings are flat-headed with six over six-timber sash frames; louvred external shutters were added c.1970. The hipped roof is finished with natural slate and cast-iron rainwater goods. The chimneystacks are rendered with corbelled caps and clay pots. The house is set within a large well-wooded demesne, part of which is now in use as a golf course.
Appraisal
This early 19th century country house is well preserved and although somewhat conservative in design it nevertheless compliments its setting well.
Many people will be familiar with the travails in recent years of Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, said to be the largest private house in England (and with the longest facade of any house in Europe). However, they are unlikely to know about Coollattin, County Wicklow which, at 65,000 square feet is thought to be the largest private house in Ireland. It is no coincidence that both properties – which suffered such long periods of neglect that their respective futures looked imperilled – were originally built for the same family, the Earls Fitzwilliam. In England and Ireland alike, the Fitzwilliams were very substantial landowners – here they came to have some 90,000 acres – which allowed them to build on a more palatial scale than most other peers. And the rich seams of coal on their Yorkshire property further enhanced their wealth, as was described in Catherine Bailey’s 2007 book Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty. However, their direct link with Ireland only began in 1782 when the fourth earl inherited the estates of his childless maternal uncle, the second Marquess of Rockingham: the latter was a descendant of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford who had been Charles I’s Irish Lord Deputy in the 1630s and while here embarked on what was then intended to be the country’s largest private house, at Jigginstown, County Kildare (his recall in 1640 left the building unfinished). …
Coollattin, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.Coollattin, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.Coollattin, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.
Coollattin, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.
Coollattin, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.
Last Monday’s post featured a very brief synopsis of the history of Coollattin, County Wicklow, believed to be the largest house in Ireland. The core of the building, and that first seen by visitors today, was designed in the 1790s for the fourth Earl Fitzwilliam by John Carr of York. In the mid-1870s the sixth earl decided to expand the property by creating a new entrance front as well as adding a new south range along with servants’ wing, stables and carriage houses, hence the place’s considerable size today. He gave this job to another Yorkshire resident, his clerk of works at Wentworth Woodhouse, William Dickie. Whereas the original house is finished with lined render, the extensions are fronted in local granite, so for the most part, at least on the exterior, it is possible to see which parts are by Carr and which by Dickie.
Coollattin, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.
Coollattin, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.
The most striking addition made by Dickie and his client to the building is a new entrance at what had been the rear of Coollattin. The ground slopes behind the house, so this entrance is at a lower level than its predecessor to the south, and features a great portico with paired Doric columns and a flight of granite steps leading up to the door. Inside is a fine hall with coved ceiling and flagged limestone floor. A smaller inner hall contains a large chimneypiece but to the immediate right is a flight of steps which in due course turns 90 degrees to introduce the main staircase climbing to the ground floor of the original house. Beneath a coffered ceiling and lit by a line of tall arched windows – these matched by a balustraded gallery with similar openings on the facing side of the steps – this staircase has terrific drama, reminiscent of that found in Piedmontese or Sicilian Baroque palaces. It is quite unlike anything else in the entire building, much of the rest of Dickie’s work here being competent but lacking excitement. When eventually restored, this great staircase will provide a most marvelous ceremonial access to this important Irish country house.
Coollattin, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.
Coollattin, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.
See Robert O’Byrne, The Irish Country House, A New Vision. With photographs by Luke White. Rizzoli, New York, Paris, London, Milan, 2024.
p. 33. “Soon enough, during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, the first Earl Fitzwilliam [Charles William Wentworth Fitzwilliam (1786-1857)] employing another Yorkshire architect named James Pritchett, replaced the old kitchen wing with a substantial three-storey block faced in granite ashlar and replicating the bracketed cornice detailing of the main Carr house. To the west of the new wing, a substantial stable and coach yard was created, also in granite ashlar with a stone cornice, its upper level linked to the west wing and containing extensive bachelor accommodation.
While considerable, these additions came to be deemed insufficient, because in 1875 the sixth earl [William Thomas Spencer Wentworth-Fitzwilliam 6th Earl (1815-1902)] asked his own Yorkshire-based architect, William Dickie, to further enlarge Coollattin. Cickie boldly reoriented the houses’s entrance to the north with a granite-faced east wing entered from a pillaraed porch at the basement level of the original house. This led to a vaulted entrance hall from which extended an immense Italian stone staircase with an arched balustraded gallery, the latter integrating with the floor level of the original Carr building and containing a master bedroom with boudoir over the entrance hall.”
p. 33 [after being sold by the widow Wardrop] For the next quarter-century the building stood unoccupied and, although some maintenance work was undertaken, inevitably it suffered teh effects of being empty and unused. Finally, in 2021 the house with just twenty acres was offered for sale and bought by a small group of concerned individuals who created a new charitable organisation, the Collattin House Partnership, with the objective of restoring the house as a residence, together with securing fresh uses for the various outbuildings and restoring the grounds and garden areas under its control. Work on this audacious project has begun and is likely to be ongoing for a long time to come….
p. 40. As part of the alterations undertaken in the house during the nineteenth century, a wall was removed between the original entrance hall and a morning room in order to create a large drawing room, the former division marked by a screen of fluted Ionic columns.
p. 40. The present owners have been collecting items associated with the Fitzwilliams, such as a dinner service bearing the earl’s coronet.
THE EARLS FITZWILLIAM WERE THE GREATEST LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY WICKLOW, WITH 89,981 ACRES
In 1565, HUGH FITZWILLIAM (c1534-c1576), of Emley, Sprotbrough, and Haddlesey, Yorkshire, collected the records of his family, and from these records the following particulars are partly deduced: SIR WILLIAM FITZ GODRIC, cousin to EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, left a son and heir, SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, who, being ambassador at the court of WILLIAM, Duke of Normandy, attended that prince in his victorious expedition against England, as marshal of the army, in 1066; and for his valour at the battle of Hastings, THE CONQUEROR presented him with a scarf from his own arm. This Sir William was father of
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, Knight, who wedded Eleanor, daughter and heiress of Sir John Emley, of Emley and Sprotbrough, by which marriage the Fitzwilliams obtained the lordships of Emley and Sprotbrough, which continued with them until the reign of HENRY VIII, when those lordships were carried, by co-heirs, into the families of Suthill and Copley.
Sir William was succeeded by his son,
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM,
Lord of Emley and Sprotbrough, living in 1117, as appears from a grant made by him of a piece of the wood in Emley to the monks of Byland. To this grant, in a round seal, is represented a man on horseback, completely armed and circumscribed S. Willmi Filij Willmi Dni de Emmalaia; and on the reverse, the arms of FITZWILLIAM, viz. Lozenge. This Sir William, or one of his descendants, caused a cross to be set up in the high street of Sprotbrough; which cross was pulled down in 1520.
From Sir William we pass to his descendant,
SIR JOHN FITZWILLIAM, who founded, in 1372, the Chantry of St Edward in the church of Sprotbrough; and having married Elizabeth, daughter of William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, had three sons, the eldest of whom,
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, married Maud, daughter of Ralph, 3rd Lord Cromwell, of Tattershall, and co-heir of the Lord Treasurer Cromwell, by whom he had one son and two daughters.
He was succeeded by his son,
SIR JOHN FITZWILLIAM, who wedded Eleanor, daughter of Sir Henry Green, of Drayton, and had six sons.
The youngest son,
JOHN FITZWILLIAM, of Milton Hall and Greens Norton, in Northamptonshire, espoused Eleanor, daughter of William Villiers, of Brooksby, Leicestershire, by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
THE RT HON SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM (c1460-1534), Knight, of Milton and Gaynes Park, Essex, and also of the city of London, of which he was sheriff in 1506.
Sir William married firstly, Anne, daughter of Sir John Hawes, Knight, of the city of London, and had,
WILLIAM, his heir; Richard; Elizabeth; Anne.
He wedded secondly, Mildred, daughter of Richard Sackville, of Withyham, Sussex, and had three sons and two daughters,
Christopher; Francis; Thomas; Eleanor; Mary.
Sir William was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, Knight, who espoused Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Sapcote, of Elton, Huntingdonshire; and was succeeded by his son and heir,
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM (1526-99), Lord Deputy of Ireland and Lord Justice, who wedded Anne, daughter of Sir William Sydney, and aunt of the 1st Earl of Leicester, and had issue,
WILLIAM, his heir; John; Mary; Philippa; Margaret.
Sir William was succeeded by his son,
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, Knight, of Milton and Gaynes Park Hall, who was elevated to the peerage, in 1620, in the dignity of Baron Fitzwilliam, of Lifford, County Donegal.
His lordship wedded Catherine, daughter of William Hyde, of Denchworth, Berkshire; and dying in 1644, was succeeded by his elder son,
WILLIAM, 2nd Baron (c1609-58), who espoused, in 1638, Jane, daughter and co-heir of Alderman Hugh Perry, of London, and had issue,
WILLIAM, his heir; Charles; Jane, m Sir Christopher Wren, the celebrated architect.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
WILLIAM, 3rd Baron (1643-1719), who was advanced, in 1716, to the dignities of Viscount Milton, County Westmeath, and EARL FITZWILLIAM, of County Tyrone.
His lordship married Anne, daughter and sole heir of Edmund Cremor, of West Winch, Norfolk, by whom he had four sons and six daughters.
He was succeeded by his third, but eldest surviving son,
JOHN, 2nd Earl (1681-1728), who wedded Anne, daughter and sole heir of John Stringer, of Sutton-cum-Lound, Nottinghamshire, and left, with three daughters, a son and successor,
WILLIAM, 3rd Earl (1719-56), then a minor, who was, in 1742, enrolled amongst the peers of Great Britain, by GEORGE II, by the style and title of Lord Fitzwilliam, Baron Milton, in Northamptonshire.
His lordship was advanced, in 1746, to the dignities of Viscount Milton and EARL FITZWILLIAM, in the same county.
He espoused, in 1744, the Lady Anne Watson-Wentworth, eldest daughter of Thomas, Marquess of Rockingham, and sister and co-heir of Charles, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, by whom he had issue,
WILLIAM, his successor; Charlotte; Frances Henrietta.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,
William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl FitzWilliam (1748-1833), later Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Engraver Joseph Grozer, British, fl.1784-1797 After Joshua Reynolds, English, 1723-1792courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.
WILLIAM, 4th Earl (1748-1833), Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for a very short period, in 1795, who married firstly, in 1770, the Lady Charlotte Ponsonby, second daughter of William, 2nd Earl of Bessborough, by whom he had an only child, CHARLES WILLIAM WENTWORTH, his heir.
The titles expired following the decease of the 10th and last Earl.
COOLLATTIN PARK, is near Shillelagh in County Wicklow.
The history of the Wentworth/Fitzwilliam families has been well documented, but what is less well known is the influence they had on the history of the kingdom of Ireland.
As well as the family seat of Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire (where they owned 22,000 acres in 1870), the Earls Fitzwilliam also resided at Malton House (later Coollattin House) in County Wicklow, from where they managed their vast estate.
The 4th Earl built Coollattin House (it was originally called Malton, one of his grandfather’s titles as Earl of Malton).
The house was designed by the leading architect John Carr, who was also responsible for the grandiose “stable block” at Wentworth Woodhouse as well as the Keppel’s Column and Mausoleum monuments near Wentworth.
The building was started around 1794 but before completion it was burned down in a rebellion in 1798 (along with 160 other houses in the nearby village of Carnew and several Catholic churches).
Work resumed again in 1800 and the house was completed in 1807.
As well as rebuilding their house and the village, the Fitzwilliams contributed to the repairs of the Catholic churches and gave land for other churches (whilst other landlords would not even allow a Catholic church on their estate).
Throughout the family’s time in Ireland they did not take sides in the various Irish struggles through the centuries, and perhaps as a consequence their house was left untouched in the last dash for independence.
As well as undertaking building and agricultural projects, the 4th Earl was also the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for a short time in 1795.
In 2003, The Times newspaper wrote:
When the 10th and last Earl died in 1979 the remnants of the huge Coollattin estate, for centuries the Irish seat of the Earls Fitzwilliam, was sold by the last Earl’s widow, Lady Juliet De Chairoff, and in the following years, it was broken up and sold on bit by bit. In 1983, the sprawling Coollattin House, with its vast lands attached, was resold for €128,000.
When the farm land value was removed, this amounted to just £8,000 for the house itself — which, with its 120-plus rooms, is still among the largest private houses in the country.
In the same year the average price of a standard new home in Dublin was more than four times that, at £35,000. In living memory, the once-grand Coollattin estate had spanned 88,000 acres, had 20,000 tenants and comprised one quarter of Co Wicklow.
There has long been a rumour that the estate harboured a vast tunnel used by inhabitants of the house to escape to the lodge. The estate began falling apart in 1948 when the last earl, Peter Fitzwilliam, was killed in a plane crash with JFK’s sister, Kathleen (Kick) Kennedy, with whom, it was speculated, he had been having an affair. His estate tenants genuinely grieved.
The Fitzwilliams had a history of being among the most liberal landlords in Ireland.
They had paid tenants more, invested in their education and had worked hard to ensure that the built environment in their towns was above average. When the Great Famine came, the Fitzwilliam family were at least decent enough to ship their excess tenants to America rather than simply turn them off the land as many landlords did.
Thousands were sent abroad to start new lives in this manner. Perhaps this was the reason Coollattin House survived the great burning sprees that erupted through and after the war of independence, when working classes took their revenge on the less benevolent owners of big house.
Former seats ~ Coollattin Park, County Wicklow; Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire; Milton Hall, Cambridgeshire.
Former town residence ~ 4 Grosvenor Square, London.
Detached five-bay two-storey over basement former mansion, built 1804, now in occasional use as a clubhouse for the golf course. It is to designs by architect John Carr of York. The house is finished with lined render with ashlar granite dressings. To the south front elevation there is a pedimented three-bay breakfront with a carved heraldic shield to the tympanum. To the west and rear there is a later service wing and a range of out buildings. The part-glazed front door has a radial fanlight and is set within a flat-headed opening. It is framed with two free-standing Tuscan order columns, which support a wide pediment. Window openings are flat-headed with six-over-six-timber sash frames; louvred external shutters were added c.1970. The hipped roof is finished with natural slate and cast-iron rainwater goods. The chimney stacks are rendered with corbelled caps and clay pots. The house is set within a large well-wooded demesne, part of which is now in use as a golf course.
Brief description of project: The Society pledged €5,000 for repairs to part slate roof and lead lined paraet gutter over the main access stairwell.
Coolattin Estate comprised of 80,000 acres and covered much of southwest Wicklow.·The Fitzwilliam family owned Coolattin Estate for 200 years before they sold it in the 1970s.·Before this, the area was under the control of the O’Byrnes.·The first personto own the Coolattin Estate was actually ‘Black Tom’ Wentworth. He was considered unfair.·The estate was originally called Fairwood and later became known as Malton when Thomas Watson-Wentworth (the Earl of Malton) inherited the estate in 1728.·Rents in Coolattin Estate were considered very low, sometimes as little as half of what tenants in Wexford.·In 1750, Charles Watson-Wentworth inherited the estate. He was a great supporter of Catholics and put a lot of work into improving the estate.·When Charles died, he had no sons thus the estate went to his nephew, William, the 4th Earl Fitzwilliam.Fitzwilliam was required to change his name to William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam. He renamed the estate as Coolattin.·Although a Protestant himself, William Fitzwilliam was also a supporter of Catholics and, for this reason, he was not well liked by the Irish and English Parliaments. Even some of his Protestant tenants disliked him for this reason.·When William died in 1833, his son Charles became the 5th Earl and took over the estate. Charles had been an MP and when he took over the estate his son, William Thomas Spencer Fitzwilliam became an MP. He was firstly MP for Malton in Yorkshire and later (1847-1856) MP for Wicklow.·Charles was also liberal and empathised with Catholics like his father.·While we might think that Coolattin Estate was very large, it was actually quite small compared to the Fitzwilliams’ holdings in England.·For this reason, they rarely visited Wicklow and hired an agent to manage the estate. This position was held by Robert Challoner for many years.·Land in Coolattin was divided into farms and parklands, mountains and bogs. The ‘big house’ was at Coolattin Park near Shillelagh.·Farm size could be anything from a couple of acres to up to 800 acres.·Some people sub-let their farms. These people were called head tenant and were mostly Protestants and Catholics living in Coolattin rented land from them.·Others had no land but rented a cabin and small garden.·People held leases from Fitzwilliam for either 21 years or a life –whichever was longer. Usually, you named one of your children as the life so the longer the child lived the longer you would hold the land.·Fitzwilliam charged low rents but the head tenants often charged much higher rents to the subtenants.·A landless labourer could be expected to pay £1 a year for his house, for an extra £1 he could have a garden and for £10 a year extra he would be given an acreor so of land on which he could grow potatoes.·Often, they worked to pay the rent ratherthan giving over money.·People paid their rent twice a year: Lady Day (25 March) and Michaelmas (29 September) but they had a space of a few months to pay this.Fitzwilliam rarely evicted people who could not pay their rent in full.
Despite this, many still had to borrow a lot of money to pay their rent.·If improvements were need on the estate, e.g. if your land needed to be drained, Fitzwilliam would pay for this then add a small charge to your rent to cover it.·A lot of labourers on the estate could notget work but Fitzwilliam often employed more workers than he needed.·Labourers were usually paid 10d per day in summer and 8d per day in winter as darker days meantthat the working day was shorter (remember they had no electric lights!). Employers sometimes provided food and the cost of this was taken out of your wages.·If you were employed directly by Fitzwilliam you received the highest wages.·The agent, Challoner, received £1,000 per year but he noted himself that this was excessively high.·In 1836, workers in Coolattin Park applied for an increase in wages claiming that they were ‘strangers to every food except potatoes’. Fitzwilliam did not increase wages but gave a 6d loaf every Saturday to any labourer who had worked the full week.·Both Fitzwilliamand Challoner were very interested in the welfare of the tenants on the Estate. They set up farming societies to help tenants better farm their land. They also agreed to a scholarship for the best student on the estate to go to Dublin University (Trinity).·Despite Fitzwilliam’s improvements, the poorer tenants on the estate still lived on a diet consisting mainly of potatoes, buttermilk and sometimes and salted herrings.Source used: Rees, J. (2000) Surplus People –The Fitzwilliam Clearances 1847-1856. Cork: The Collins Press.
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 269. “(Plunkett, B/PB) A plain late-Georgian house, built 1808 for James Barlow to the design of Frederick Darley. Of two storeys, entrance front with one bay on either side of a central bow; adjoining front with curved bow and five bays. In the present century, it became the home of Most Rev and Hon Benjamin Plunket, former Bishop of Meath, after he left the nearby St Anne’s. Sold ca 1950 by Mr Benjamin Plunket.”
Irish Historic Houses 