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. 254. “(Sandes/LGI1912) A gable-ended three storey early or mid-C18 house with a later porch; to the back of which a two-storey wing was added at right angles later in C18; the wing being of three bays with a three sided bow, and having bold string courses. From 1917-42, Sallow Glen was the house of Mr and Mrs John Dinan, now demolished.”
Sallow Glen, County Kerry, courtesy Mark Bence-Jones.
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. A plain early to late 18C three storey gable-ended house. A large two storey wing was added to the rere in the late 18C. In 1814 the seat of Thomas Sands. House demolished but parts of the stables remain.
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. 242. “(Fitzmaurice/IFR) Gable-ended C19 house with eaved roof and three sided bow.”
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. 241. “(McGillycuddy of the Reeks/IFR) A two storey five bay late Georgian house with an eaved roof and a pilastered porch, doubled in length with an addition of the same height and in the same style, so as to form a continuous front of ten bays, in which the original porch, now no longer central, remains as the entrance. The end two bays of the addition project slightly.”
Detached L-plan five-bay two-storey house, built c. 1825, possibly incorporating fabric of earlier house, built c. 1720. Single-bay single-storey flat-roofed projecting porch to centre and five-bay two-storey lower return to rear to north-west. Renovated and extended to south-west, post-1921, on an L-shaped plan comprising three-bay two-storey lateral wing with two-bay two-storey projecting end bay to south-west having three-bay side elevation and nine-bay single-storey return to rear to north-west. Pitched and hipped roof slate roofs with rendered chimneystacks having cornices, overhanging eaves with plastered soffit and cast-iron gutters and downpipes. Ruled-and-lined rendered walls with limestone plinth. Timber six-over-six pane sliding sash windows with limestone sills. Paired render pilasters and entablature to timber double-leaf glazed door with carvings. Round-headed paired two pane windows to sides of porch. Walled garden, built c. 1820, to south-west with red brick walls.
Rev. William de Moleyns was leasing this property from Lord Ventry’s estate at the time of Griffith’s Valuation, when it was valued at £4 15s, on a holding of 140 acres. It appears on the 1893 edition of the Ordnance Survey map as Reeks View. It is still extant.
In O’Hea O’Keeffe, Jane. Voices from the Great Houses: Cork and Kerry. Mercier Press, Cork, 2013.
p. 261. The McGillycuddy of the Reeks represents a cadet branch of the great O’Sullivan clan descended from Milesian royalty (the mythical ancestors of the Irish race). The first recorded usage of MacGiolla Mochuda (McGillycuddy) as a patronymic can be traced to Ailinn O’Sullivan, Bishop of Lismore, in the mid thirteenth century. Like other such families, the McGillycuddys’ fortunes ebbed and flowed during a thousand years of conflict over Irish soil. Yet unlike most other Gaelic chieftains, the McGillycuddys managed to survive the destruction of teh old Gaelic order during the Cromwellian and Williamite periods, eventually conforming to the established church as did other Kerry families such as the MacCarthy Mor, the FitzGeralds and the FitzMaurices. The family was thus able to retain its lands and indeed obtain additional lands in Kerry which, before the Land Acts of the late nineteenth century, extended to over 15,500 acres.
p. 269. The beautiful old house in Beaufort is now home of members of the o’Sullivan clan…Solicitor PHilip O’Sullivan with his wife June and their children Aisling and Philip.
THE McGILLYCUDDY OF THE REEKS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY KERRY, WITH 15,518 ACRES
CORNELIUS or CONNOR McGILLYCUDDY was born ca 1580; died by shipwreck, 1630, having married firstly, Joan, daughter of the Rt Rev John Crosbie, Lord Bishop of Ardfert; and secondly, Sheelagh, daughter of Richard Oge McCarty, of Dunguile, by whom he had a son, Niell, and a daughter.
By his first wife he had, with other issue,
DONOUGH McGILLYCUDDY (1623-c1695), of Carnbeg Castle, County Kerry, Sheriff of County Kerry, 1686.
This Donough obtained a grant of arms from Sir Richard Carney, UlsterKing of Arms, in 1688.
He wedded, in 1641, Marie, youngest daughter of Daniel O’Sullivan, of Dunkerron, County Kerry, and had issue,
CORNELIUS, the heir;
Daniel, Colonel, Captain Monck’s Regiment; father of DENNIS.
Mr McGillycuddy was succeeded by his elder son,
CORNELIUS McGILLYCUDDY, who married Elizabeth McCarty and dsp 1712, being succeeded by his cousin,
DENNIS McGILLYCUDDY, who married, in 1717, Anne, daughter of John Blennerhassett, by whom he had issue, with four daughters,
DENNIS, his heir;
CORNELIUS, succeeded his brother;
John, dsp;
Philip, dsp.
He died in 1730, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
DENNIS McGILLYCUDDY (1718-35), who died unmarried, and was succeeded by his brother,
CORNELIUS McGILLYCUDDY, born ca 1720, who wedded, in 1745, Catherine, daughter of Richard Chute, of Tullygaron, and had issue,
Denis, b 1747; d unm; RICHARD, succeeded his father; FRANCIS, succeeded his brother; Daniel; Eusebius; Cornelius; Charity; Mary Anne; Margaret; Ruth; Avis; Agnes.
The eldest son,
RICHARD McGILLYCUDDY (1750-1826), of The Reeks, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1793, espoused, in 1780, Arabella Mullins, daughter of Thomas, 1st Baron Ventry.
He dsp 1826, and was succeeded by his brother,
FRANCIS McGILLYCUDDY (1751-1827), of The Reeks, who wedded Catherine, widow of Darby McGill, and daughter of Denis Mahony, of Dromore, County Kerry, and had issue,
RICHARD, his heir; Denis; Daniel; Frances; Mary Catherine; Elizabeth.
Mr McGillycuddy was succeeded by his son,
RICHARD McGILLYCUDDY (1790-1866), of The Reeks, who married firstly, in 1814, Margaret (d 1827), only daughter of Dr John Bennett, and had issue, a daughter, Dorothea.
He wedded secondly, in 1849, Anna, daughter of Captain John Johnstone, of Mamstone Court, Herefordshire, and had further issue,
RICHARD PATRICK, his heir; DENIS DONOUGH CHARLES, of The Reeks; John; Charles; Niell; Agnes; Anna Catherine; Mary Ruth; Sylvia Emily.
Mr McGillycuddy was succeeded by his eldest son,
RICHARD PATRICK McGILLYCUDDY (1850-71), of The Reeks, who died unmarried, and was succeeded by his brother,
DENIS DONOUGH CHARLES McGILLYCUDDY OF THE REEKS (1852-1921), DSO, Lieutenant RN, who married, in 1881, Gertrude Laura, second daughter of Edmond Miller, of Ringwood, Massachusetts, USA, and had issue,
ROSS KINLOCH; his heir;
Richard Hugh (1883-1918).
The elder son,
ROSS KINLOCH McGILLYCUDDY OF THE REEKS (1852-1950), DSO, Lieutenant, 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, wedded Victoria, daughter of Edward Courage, of Shenfield Place, Essex, and had issue,
JOHN PATRICK, his heir; DERMOT; Denis Michael Edmond (1917-44); Phyllida Anne.
Mr McGillycuddy was succeeded by his eldest son,
JOHN PATRICK McGILLYCUDDY OF THE REEKS (1909-59), who wedded, in 1945, Elizabeth Margaret, daughter of Major John Ellison Otto, and had issue,
PIERS EDWARD DONOUGH, b 1965; Michael Dermot, b 1968; Jocelyn Patrick Spencer, b 1970; Lavinia O’Connor, b 1966.
THE REEKS, near Beaufort, County Kerry, is a two-storey, five-bay, late Georgian house.
It has an eaved roof and pilastered porch, doubled in length with an extension of the same height and style.
Effectively this forms a continuous front of ten bays, the original porch, no longer central, remaining the entrance.
The two end bays of the extension protrude slightly.
AT THE end of the 19th century, before the Land Purchase Acts, Richard McGillycuddy’s grandfather, whose mother had injected American money into the family, distinguished himself in the 1st World War, winning the DSO and the Légion d’Honneur.
From 1928 to 1936, he sat in the Senate of the Irish Free State as a supporter of the moderate WT Cosgrave and an opponent of the republican Eamon de Valera.
In the 2nd World War, he returned to the colours and became a regular informant on what was happening in neutral Ireland.
His grandson, Richard Denis Wyer McGillycuddy, was born in 1948. Richard’s father, the senator’s son, who had succeeded in 1950, himself died in 1959 as a result of wounds sustained during the 2nd World War in the Northampton Yeomanry.
At the time Richard was only 10 and still at his preparatory school before going on to Eton.
His English mother, although never feeling at home in Ireland, carried on dutifully at Beaufort to preserve the family inheritance for her son.
Every August, she organised a rather gentrified cricket match played on the lawn of the house – but it was abandoned around 1970 after young Richard, who had little interest in cricket and was not watching, was knocked unconscious by a mighty drive by a visitor who had played for the Cambridge Crusaders.
The young McGillycuddy’s passion was cars, and he went into the motor trade in London after a brief sojourn at the University of Aix-en-Provence.
He was unreceptive to the efforts of his uncle Dermot, a Dublin solicitor much beloved of McGillycuddys of every class and creed, to interest him in Ireland.
Tall and dashing, the rugged and auburn-haired young McGillycuddy of the Reeks was much in demand in London among the Sloane Rangers.
Eventually, in 1983, at the age of 35, he married Virginia Astor, the granddaughter of the 1st Lord Astor of Hever.
Feeling that he had little in common with the local people in Kerry, McGillycuddy decided to sell The Reeks, and moved to France, where he acted as a property consultant to prospective British purchasers of chateaux and lesser French properties.
After the birth of his second daughter in 1990, the family returned to live in Ireland – not, however, in their ancestral territory, but nearer Dublin, where they rented a succession of houses, the last of them in Westmeath.
He continued to dabble in property, and latterly sold insurance; but it was a handicap that his upper-class English demeanour disappointed expectations raised by his Irish-sounding name.
Although he could be charming in the appropriate company, he did not relate well to Irish people outside his own class.
Meanwhile, despite poor health, his wife carved out a niche for herself doing valuable work as a prison visitor.
McGillycuddy was active in the council of Irish chieftains who had been recognised by the Irish Genealogical Office.
Richard McGillycuddy was survived by his wife and two daughters.
He was succeeded by his first cousin, Donogh, who lives in South Africa.
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. 240. “(Gun/LGI1912) A High Victorian house with trefoil shaped recesses over the windows and some Ruskinian Gothic dormer gables.”
Detached five-bay two-storey Venetian Gothic Revival style house, built c. 1860, incorporating fabric of earlier house, built 1836. Comprising three-bay two-storey recessed central block having trefoil-headed openings, single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch, single-bay two-storey hipped gabled advanced flanking end bays and single-bay side elevations having canted bay window to south with gablet over. Pitched artificial slate roofs with half-hipped gables and ashlar chimneystacks. Rubble stone walls with ashlar dressings. Arched niches surround facade openings, with trefoil arches at first floor, timber two-over-two pane sliding sash windows set in square-headed windows, bay window at ground floor south wall. Off-centre gabled ashlar porch. Remains of detached four-bay single-storey rubble stone-built single-cell medieval abbey, built c. 1600, to east, now ruinous. Gateway, built c. 1860, to south-east comprising pair of cut-stone piers with cast-iron inner piers having cast-iron gates and railings.
At the time of Grffith’s Valuation, Rattoo House, in the possession of Wilson Gun, was valued at £20. Lewis refers to Rattoo Lodge as the residence of W.T. Gun in 1837. This would appear to be the house which Bary states was built by Wilson Gun in 1836. The 1st editon Ordnance Survey map, however, indicates “Rattoo House (in ruins)”, south west of the Round Tower, which would suggest there was an earlier house also known by this name. In 1906 it was owned by William T.J. Gun and valued at £63. The house remained in the Gun family and their descendents until the early twentieth century when it was sold to the Land Commission by Ella Browne, grand-daughter of Wilson Gun. The Irish Tourist Association Survey, however, still describes it as in her possession “a large straggling building with fourteen bedrooms and fine sittingrooms”. It is still extant and occupied. In 2010 it was offered for sale.
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. 228. “(Bateman/LGI1912; Sandes and Collis-Sandes/LGI1912) A high Victorian Ruskinian-Gothic house of polychrome brick; built 1857-60 by M.F. Sandes, a younger son of the Sandes family of Sallow Glen, presumably with money which he had made as a layer in India. Designed by William Atkins, of Cork; whose initials are over the door. Large trefoil arched porch, on square piers; windows combining trefoil and ogee arches. Similar arches in the hall, on Gothic columns with polished marble shafts, screening the staircase, which is of wood, its balustrade decorated with brass flowers. The stables of the old Bateman house stand by the drive up to the later house. Oak Park is now the headquarters of the County Committee of Agriculture.”
Detached irregular-plan three-bay two-storey over raised platform Venetian Gothic Revival style house, built 1857-1860, with two-bay recessed bay having limestone ashlar box bay window to left, single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porte cochere to centre with trefoil-headed openings and single-bay two-storey advanced end bay to right with projecting canted bay window. Designed by William Atkins for Maurice Fitzgerald Sandes. Three-bay side elevations having single-bay full-height breakfront to south-east elevation with limestone ashlar flanking box bay windows. Seven-bay two-storey lateral wing to north-west elevation on a cruciform-plan with two-bay two-storey projecting bays to north-east and south-west elevations. Extended to south-east, c. 1925, comprising five-bay double-height red brick single-cell chapel return with lancet arch openings and single-bay full-height limestone ashlar polygonal apse. In use as convent, 1939. Now in use as school. Pitched and hipped intersecting slate roofs with clay ridge tiles, grouped brick chimneystack with limestone bands, and having cast-iron gutters, hoppers and square downpipes. Red brick English garden bond walls with limestone coved plinth, string courses, corner pilasters, projecting limestone cornice on brackets, and having inset crests and roundels. Ogee arch openings with alternating brick and limestone voussoirs. Cusped reveals to facades. Ashlar bay windows at ground floor. Trefoil-headed paired windows and timber one-over-one pane sliding sash windows with profiled limestone sills. Retaining interior features. Stable complex, built c. 1860, to north-west about a courtyard. Comprising detached five-bay two-storey limestone-built house retaining original aspect with door opening to centre having lancet arch relieving arch and segmental-headed openings to first floor. Attached five-bay single-storey limestone-built wing at right angles to south-west. Detached seven-bay single-storey limestone-built range retaining original aspect with segmental-headed door openings having lancet arch relieving arches and corrugated-iron roof. Gateway to stable courtyard comprising pair of red brick piers with iron gates. Terrace to garden front with brick and limestone walls and decorative urns and limestone steps. Garden converted to golf course.
Maurice Sandes was in possession of this property at the time of Griffith’s Valuation, when it was valued at £60. It is labelled as Oakpark on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey Map. In 1837 Lewis recorded Oakpark as the seat of John Bateman. Bary writes that, Killeen, the original house at this site, was a late seventeenth century house. It was followed by Oakpark, built by John Bateman in the 1820s. This is the house mentioned by Wilson in 1786 as the seat of Rowland Bateman. Maurice Sandes purchased the estate in the late 1840s and built the later Oakpark House c.1857. In 1906 this house was owned by Falkiner Sandes and valued at £112. The house was sold in 1922 and is now used as offices.
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. 189. “(Petty-Fitzmaurice, Landsowne, M/PB) The once-magnificent seat of the Fitzmaurices, earls of Kerry, an old castle much enlarged C18 with fine gardens. By the beginning of C19, Castle was decayed, by 1837, in ruins. Now, only a few shapeless walls remain.”
William Fitzmaurice (1694-1747), 2nd earl and 21st Baron of Kerry by Stephen Slaughter, courtesy of The Irish Sale by Sotheby’s May 18, 2001.
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. “An old castle, enlarged in the 18C. The former seat of the Fitzmaurices, Earls of Kerry. In ruins by 1837, little remains.”
Lansdowne Lodge, County Kerry, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph 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. 182. “(Petty-Fitzmaurice, Lansdowne, M/PB) A three storey house on an unusual cruciform plan, built btwn 1764 and 1775 by 2nd Earl of Shelburne, the C18 statesman, afterwards 1st Marquess of Lansdowne. The arm projecting in the centre of the front is pedimented, and has a plain doorway with sidelights; the arms at either side end in semi-circular bows. Camber-headed windows. The house was originally flanked by outbuildings, which have since disappeared. In the Victorian period, the house was given a roof-line of dormer-gables, into which the top storey windows were raised; and the Georgian glazing of all the windows was replaced with plate-glass. The house was mainly occupied by the agent for the Lansdowne estate. It now stands forlorn at the back of a housing-estate.”
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. 181. “(O’Connell, Bt/PB) A two storey stucco faced C19 house with an Ionic porte-cochere.”
Detached four-bay two-storey over basement house, built c. 1870, comprising three-bay two-storey main block with single-storey prostyle diastyle Ionic porte cochere having clustered columns and single-bay two-storey projecting end bay to left with single-storey box bay window to ground floor. Five-bay two-storey side elevation with single-bay two-storey canted projecting bay to centre approached by flight of steps. Possibly in use as hotel in 1939, now in private residential use. Pitched and hipped slate roofs with clay ridge tiles, rendered chimneystacks, parapet walls with cornice and blocking course. Rendered walls. Timber one-over-one pane sliding sash windows with limestone sills and render architraves. Oriel window to advanced bay. Render brackets to sills. Glazed and panelled double-leaf door with side lights and tiled porch. Detached two-bay single-storey gate lodge, built c. 1870, to north with single-bay single-storey gabled advanced end bay to left and single-bay single-storey gabled advanced bay to north elevation. Gateway, built c. 1870, to north comprising four limestone ashlar piers with cast-iron gates and railings. Winding avenue flanked by beech trees and hedges.
At the time of Griffith’s Valuation, James O’Connell was leasing the property from the Herbert estate when it was valued at £13. Lewis calls the house Lakeville in 1837. Leet also mentions a house called Lakeville in 1814 which he refers to as the residence of Francis Russell. Bary states that the existing house was built by James O’Connell in 1870 after he was made a Baronet but that there was an earlier house here also. The latter is mentioned as the residence of Mr. O’Connell in the Ordnance Survey Name Books of the 1830s. It was built in 1740 and located in the southern end of the townland. In 1894 Slater refers to Lakeview as the residence of Sir Maurice J. O’Connell. The house is still extant.
In O’Hea O’Keeffe, Jane. Voices from the Great Houses: Cork and Kerry. Mercier Press, Cork, 2013.
p. 229. Maurice Hugh Ricardo Ross O’Connell lives beside the sea at Fenit, Co Kerry. Maurice is descended from the Lakeview, Killarney branch of the O’Connells. Sir James O’Connell of Lakeview, 1st Baronet (1786-1872) was the younger brother of ‘the Liberator’ Daniel O’Connell.
Maurice’s father Basil was the great-grandson of the 1st Baronet. James the 1st Baronet acted as his brother’s man of business, and also his political organiser in Kerry. He married Jane O’Donoghue of the great Gaelic family and genealogical heiress to The O’Donoghue of the Glens and the MacCarthy Mor. The couple’s elder son, [p. 230] Sir Maurice James O’Connell, married Emily Clunies Ross O’Connor and they had four sons and a daughter. Their daughter Ellen O’Connell was brought up in the Church of Ireland, as was her mother, and she married Lieut Gen. Charles Tucker…
p. 230. … My grandfather [ie. Of Maurice Hugh Ricardo Ross O’Connell], Morgan O’Connell, died in 1919…. He was employed by the Land Commission in Ireland… He had inherited Lakeview from his brother in 1907 and had come to live there with his family. His wife was Mary Pauline Hickie, sister of Major Gen Sir Wm Hickie…All my able-bodied male relatives served in the British armed forces during WWI, and their sons in WWII. The exception was my maternal uncle and godfather, Rickard Deasy, who joined the Irish Defense Forces and was later a high-profile president of the National Farmer’s Association during its agitation in the 1960s.
p. 231. Maurice’s father Basil applied for a position as a police cadet in the Malay States [now Malaysia].
p. 232. While in Malaysia, Basil O’Connell married Lucila Deasy, who was his first cousin
THE O’CONNELL BARONETS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY KERRY, WITH 18,752 ACRES
The surname of O’CONNELL, according to authority of Irish writers, emanated from Conal Gabra, an ancient Prince of the royal line of HEBER, son of MILESIUS, from whom likewise the districts of Upper and Lower Connello, County Limerick, acquired their denomination.
From this district the O’Connells removed to Iveragh, in the western extremity of Kerry, and remained there for a considerable period, until the rebellion of 1641 transplanted them, with many other victims of that disastrous event, to County Clare.
DANIEL O’CONNELL, of Ahavore, in the barony of Iveragh, second son of Geoffrey O’Connell, Lord of Ballycarbery, who was High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1614, and died in 1635, having taken no part in the insurrection of 1641, preserved his estate.
He married Alice, daughter of Christopher Segrave, of Cabra, County Dublin, and had issue,
JOHN, of whom hereafter; Maurice, died in 1715.
The elder son and heir,
JOHN O’CONNELL, of Ahavore and Derrynane, raised a company of foot for the service of JAMES II, and embodied it in the regiment of his cousin, Colonel Maurice O’Connell.
He distinguished himself at the siege of Londonderry in 1689, as well as at the battles of the Boyne and Aughrim; and returning to Limerick with his shattered regiment, was included in the capitulation of that city.
Captain O’Connell wedded Elizabeth, daughter of Christopher Conway, of Clahane, County Kerry, and had issue,
Maurice; DANIEL, of whom we treat; Geoffrey Octave; Anne; Clare; Elizabeth; another daughter.
Mr O’Connell died ca 1740.
The second son,
DANIEL O’CONNELL (c1701-70), of Derrynane, espoused Mary, daughter of Duff O’Donoughue, of County Kerry, and had twenty-two children, of whom the following arrived at maturity,
MORGAN O’CONNELL (1739-1809), of Carhen, County Kerry, farmer, landlord, and general store proprietor, married Catherine, daughter of John O’Mullane, of Whitechurch, County Cork, and had issue,
Daniel, MP, known as The Liberator or The Emancipator; Maurice Morgan; John; JAMES, of whom we treat; Honoria; Bridget; Catherine; Mary; Ellen; Alicia.
The youngest son,
JAMES O’CONNELL (1786-1872), of Lakeview, County Kerry, wedded, in 1818, Jane, daughter of Charles O’Donoughue, of the Glens, and Chief of the name, and had issue,
MAURICE JAMES, his successor; Daniel James; Charles James; James; Morgan James.
Mr O’Connell was created a baronet in 1869, designated of Lakeview and Ballybeggan, County Kerry.
He was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR MAURICE JAMES O’CONNELL, 2nd Baronet (1821-96), JP DL, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1850, who espoused, in 1855, Emily Clunes, daughter of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard O’Conor, KCH, and had issue,
Maurice (1858-81); DANIEL ROSS, 3rd Baronet; MORGAN ROSS, 4th Baronet; James Ross.
Sir Maurice was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
SIR DANIEL ROSS O’CONNELL, 3rd Baronet (1861-1905), JP DL, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1891, who died unmarried, when the title devolved upon his brother,
SIR MORGAN ROSS O’CONNELL, 4th Baronet (1862-1919), JP DL, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1907, who married, in 1884, Mary Pauline, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Francis Hickie, and had issue,
MAURICE JAMES ARTHUR, his successor; Donal Bernard; Basil Morgan; Lucila Emily; another daughter.
Sir Morgan was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR MAURICE JAMES ARTHUR O’CONNELL, 5th Baronet (1889-1949), MC, Captain, Royal Fusiliers, who wedded, in 1920, Margaret Mary, daughter of Matthew John Purcell, and had issue,
MORGAN DONEL CONAIL, his successor; Joan Mary Lucilla Margaret.
Sir Maurice was succeeded by his only son,
SIR MORGAN DONEL CONAIL O’CONNELL, 6th Baronet (1923-89), who espoused, in 1953, Elizabeth, daughter of Major John MacCarthy-O’Leary, and had issue,
MAURICE JAMES DONAGH MacCARTHY, his successor; John Morgan Ross MacCarthy; Frances Mary Margaret; Susan Jane Anne; Katherine Lucila Jean; Claire Helen Pauline.
Sir Morgan was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR MAURICE JAMES DONAGH MacCARTHY O’CONNELL, 7th Baronet (1958-), who married, in 1993, Frances Susan, daughter of Clive Raleigh, and has issue,
MORGAN, born in 2003.
LAKEVIEW HOUSE, Killarney, County Kerry, is a two-storey, Italianate, stucco-faced house of 1869.
The house was built by Sir James O’Connell, 1st Baronet, shortly before he died.
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. 174. “(Gun/ LGI1912; O’Mahony, sub Mahony/IFR) A Victorian Tudor house with battlemented turret. Occupied by Sir Arthur Vicars, former Ulster King of Arms, who was murdered 1921 and the house burnt.”
In 1897, Vicars published An Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland 1536 -1810, a listing of all persons in wills proved in that period.
As Registrar of the Order of St Patrick, Vicars had custody of the insignia of the order, also known as the “crown jewels”. They were found to be missing on 6 July, and a Crown Jewel Commission under Judge James Johnston Shaw was established in January 1908 to investigate the disappearance. Vicars and his barrister Tim Healy refused to attend the commission’s hearings. The commission’s findings were published on 25 January 1908. Vicars was dismissed as Ulster five days later.
Vicars left Dublin and moved to Kilmorna, near Listowel, the former seat of one of his half-brothers. He continued to protest his innocence until his death, even including bitter references to the affair in his will.
In May 1920 up to a hundred armed men broke into Kilmorna House and held Vicars at gunpoint while they attempted to break into the house’s strongroom. On 14 April 1921, he was taken from Kilmorna House, which was set alight, and shot dead in front of his wife. According to the communiqué issued from Dublin Castle, thirty armed men took him from his bed and shot him, leaving a placard around his neck denouncing him as an informer.
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.
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.
Irish Historic Houses 