Allanson-Winn, Rowland (1855-1935) 5th Baron of Aghadoe County Kerry

Aghadoe House, Killarney, County Kerry

by jenjunebug

Aghadoe House, Killarney, County Kerry – was a youth hostel 

Aghadoe House, Killarney, County Kerry, between ca. 1865-1914, photograph courtesy of National Library of Ireland, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Collection.

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. 2. (Winn, Headley, B/PB) A Victorian house of red sandstone ashlar with limestone facings, consisting of an irregular two storey main block that goes in and out a great deal, and a three storey office wing. Vast round-headed plate glass windows on ground floor of main block, either single or grouped in threes, separated by slender mullions. Much narrower mullioned windows with round-headed lights above, and in the wing; mostly two-light, and in one case, five-light. Limestone porch with three arches and balustrade. Burnt 1922 and subsequently rebuilt, when the eaves of the roof were made to overhang much more than they did previously. Now a youth hostel.” 

 
http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/property-list.jsp?letter=A 

Lady Headley was in possession of Aghadoe House at the time of Griffith’s Valuation when it was valued at £53. It is mentioned as ” a very fine building, densely shaded with trees” in the Ordnance Survey Name Books of the 1830s. Bary, quoting the Name Books, states that it was built in 1828 at a cost of £12,000 though the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage states that it was probably redesigned in the 1860s. It was the seat of Lord Headley in 1894. The house was burnt in 1922 but re-built to the same plan. The Irish Tourist Association survey noted in 1943 that it was then the property of Robin Hilliard and was being extensively renovated. It is now the Killarney International Youth Hostel.  

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/21306614/aghadoe-house-old-knoppoge-ma-by-co-kerry

Detached nine-bay two- and three-storey Lombardo Romanesque style country house, built c. 1860, possibly incorporating fabric of earlier house, 1828. Designed by William Atkins. Comprising two-bay two-storey advanced main block, single-bay two-storey flat-roofed entrance bay to right having single-storey prostyle tetrastyle limestone ashlar portico and single-bay two-storey projecting bay to left on an engaged octagonal plan. Two-bay two-storey side elevation to south-east with two-storey box bay window and three-bay two-storey elevation to south-west with single-bay two-storey return to rear and single-bay two-storey projecting pavilion block to south-west corner. Attached seven-bay three-storey service wing to north-west with single-bay three-storey advanced end bay to north-west. Burnt in 1922. Extensively reconstructed, c. 1925. Renovated in late twentieth century to accommodate use as youth hostel. Pitched and hipped profiled concrete tile roofs with deep overhanging boxed eaves to south section, rendered chimneystack with cornice, and having cast-iron hoppers and downpipes. Pink sandstone ashlar walls with limestone plinth and entablature. Round-headed windows with flush limestone surrounds and concrete sills, paired at first floor. Some triple windows with rusticated cement surrounds. Triple-arch arcade to porch with balustrade, timber one-over-one pane sliding sash windows and nine-panel door with fanlight. Detached six-bay two-storey stone-built stable building, built c. 1860, to north-west on a U-shaped plan comprising four-bay two-storey central block with segmental-headed integral carriage arches and single-bay two-storey projecting flanking end bays. Detached four-bay single-storey rubble stone-built outbuilding, built c. 1860, to north-west with open arcade; now derelict. 

http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2019/09/1st-baron-headley.html

THE BARONS HEADLEY WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY KERRY, WITH 13,913 ACRES 

The line of Wynns is descended from a cadet of Gwydir, who, in consequence of some family misunderstanding, left Wales in the 16th century, and settled in London. 

Sir William Segar (Garter King of Arms in the reigns of ELIZABETH I and JAMES I) acknowledged this to be the true descent, by exemplifying to George Wynne, the ancestor of Lord Headley’s family, the armorial ensigns of the Wynnes of Gwydir. 

GEORGE WYNN (to whom, being draper to ELIZABETH I, a patent of arms was granted in 1604) is the first member of the English branch of whom we find any particular mention. 

This George Wynn was born about 1560, and died in 1610. 

He married Margaret Green, of London, and had issue, 

EDMUND WINN (1583-c1645), of Thornton Curtis, in Lincolnshire, who wedded Mary, daughter of Rowland Berkeley, of the city of Worcester, and sister of Sir Robert Berkeley, Knight, one of the judges of the Court of King’s Bench, and had issue, 

GEORGE, his heir; 
Rowland; 
Mark; 
Katherine; Margaret; Mary; Joyce; Annie. 

The eldest son, 

GEORGE WINN (c1607-67), High Sheriff of Lincolnshire, 1657, proved himself to be a steady friend to the monarchy and to his country during the civil contests which cast a cloud over the last days of the unfortunate CHARLES I, for there is extent in his family a receipt of the date of the very year in which His Majesty suffered, signed by a deputed person on behalf of the exiled prince, his son, from which it appears that George Winn contributed, with his brother Rowland, the sum of 2,000 guilders (a sum, perhaps, in those days not inconsiderable, and certainly not advanced without serious personal risk) towards the support of what might have been considered a hopeless cause. 

In the December following the Restoration, the title of Baronet was conferred by CHARLES II on his faithful subject, as SIR GEORGE WINN, of Nostell, Yorkshire. 

Sir George was married thrice: firstly, to Rachel, daughter of John Turner, by whom he had no issue; secondly, to Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Jeffreys, alderman of London, by whom he had, 

EDMUND, his successor; 
GEORGE, born in 1645, whose grandson was created 1st BARON HEADLEY; 
Robert; 
Mark; 
Rowland. 

Sir George espoused thirdly, Anne, daughter of Sir William Pelham, Knight, but by her he had no issue. 

At his decease, in 1667, his eldest son, EDMUND, succeeded to the baronetcy, which, in 1805, devolved upon his great-grandson, Sir Edmund Mark Winn, of Acton, Yorkshire, the 7th Baronet, at whose decease, in 1833, it fell to his cousin, the second Baron Headley, Sir George, the 1st Baronet’s second son, 

GEORGE WINN, of South Ferriby, in Lincolnshire, who married Sarah, daughter of Charles Pelham (ancestor of the Earl of Yarborough), and had issue, 

PELHAM WINN, who wedded Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev Gilbert Wighton, by Elizabeth Allanson and Charles Allanson, of Syon, Middlesex, by whom he had an only son, 

GEORGE ALLANSON-WINN (1725-98), of whom it is the pride of his family to speak as an instance of rare success and celebrity under no common difficulties. 

He succeeded in 1763 to the estates of his cousin, Mark Winn, of Little Warley, Essex, and in 1775 to those of his cousin, Charles Allanson, of Brabham Biggin, Yorkshire, who was the only son of the above-named William Allanson, and died leaving no issue. 

Mr Winn was created a Baronet in 1776, owing to the eminence and talents of his exertions as a Baron of the Exchequer in Scotland, and in the same year he obtained licence and authority to assume the name and armorial bearing of ALLANSON. 

In 1797, Sir George was elevated to the peerage, in the dignity of BARON HEADLEY, Baron Allanson and Winn, of Aghadoe, County Kerry. 

His lordship married firstly, in 1765, Anne, fourth daughter of Sir Rowland Winn Bt, of Nostell, Yorkshire (son of Sir Rowland, the son of Sir Edmund, eldest son of Sir George, 1st Baronet), by whom he had issue, an only daughter, Georgiana Anne (1769-82). 

His lady died during the childbirth of a son in 1774. 

His lordship wedded secondly, in 1783, Jane, eldest daughter and heiress of Arthur Blennerhassett, of Ballyseedy, County Kerry, in which county the Blennerhassetts (a long-settled and well-known family in Cumberland), formed a distinguished house for many generations, by whom he had further issue, 

CHARLES, his successor; 
George Mark Arthur Way, grandfather of the 5th Baron; 
Jane Elizabeth; Maria. 

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son, 

CHARLES, 2nd Baron (1784-1840), who inherited the old family baronetcy in 1833, and espoused, in 1826, Miss Anne Matthews, and dsp 1840, when the family honours devolved upon his nephew, 

CHARLES, 3rd Baron (1810-77), DL, who wedded, in 1841, Maria Margaret, eldest daughter of Major d’Arley, and had issue, 

Rowland William (died in infancy, 1842); 
CHARLES MARK, his successor; 
Laura Jane; Millicent Julia; Marion Sybil. 

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, 

CHARLES MARK, 4th Baron (1845-1913), JP DL, Captain, Honourable Artillery Company, who espoused, in 1867, Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev John Blennerhassett, and had issue, an only child and daughter, AVIS MILLICENT BLENNERHASSETT ALLINSON-WINN. 

Following the decease of the 4th Baron without male issue, in 1913, the honours reverted to his cousin, 

ROWLAND, 5th Baron (1855-1935), also known as Shaikh Rahmatullah al-Farooq. 

 
The titles expired in 1994, following the decease of the 5th Baron’s younger son Charles Rowland, 7th and last Baron. 

 
AGHADOE HOUSE, Killarney, County Kerry, was built in 1828, reputedly at a cost of £12,000 (almost £1.3 million in today’s money). 

Despite this fact, the mansion is largely victorian and Italianate in style. 

It is built with red sandstone ashlar and limestone facings, with an irregular two-storey main block, and a three-storey office wing. 

The limestone porch has three arches and a balustrade. 

The house was burnt in 1922, though later re-built, when the eaves were designed to overhang considerably more than originally. 

Aghadoe House has been a youth hostel for many years. 

Aghadoe, Killeagh, Co Cork

by jenjunebug

Aghadoe, Killeagh, Co Cork 

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.] supplement 

p. 289. “(De Capell Brooke, Bt/PB1967) A plain early C19 house in the villa style, standing above a romantic wooden glen on an estate which was granted to Philip de Capell 1172, and continued to be owned by his descendents until the present century; it was known by the local inhabitants as “the Maidan estate” to distinguish it from the other large properties in the neighbourhood, all of which had, at some period in their history, been forfeited. By C16, the family name had been corrupted to Supple; 1797 Richard Brooke Supple of Aghadoe changed his name to de Capell Brooke on inheriting the estate of the Brookes in Northamptonshire. There is a design of ca 1700, probably by a French architect, for an elaborate Palladian mansion at Aghadoe, which was never carried out.” 

The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020. 

p. 458. “A plain house, primarily of interest on account of the length of tenure of the de Capel family (the name later transmogrified to Supple). As followers of Robert Fitzstephen, the de Capels were granted land at Killeagh c. 1180 which they held until the 1930s, but as absentees from the 1760s. The house is two-storeyed and gabled, with a rendered front of eight irregular bays and a datestone rs 1768. A large quare chimneystack on the back wall looks earlier and may survive from a house built in 1622 to replace the castle that once stood here. Inside, plain rooms with fielded joinery. 

To the SW, a dovecot of unknown date, with a Sheila-na-gig set into the wall and an interior lined with stone nesting boxes. 

At different times, unexecuted proposals were made for a new mansion. Unsigned mid-C18 designs in the RIBA collection show a gaudy classical mansion with straight arcades leading to pavilions. In 1837 Lewis records that the house was to be replaced by a castellated mansion. Some improvements were made at this time. In a wooded valley below the house known as Glenbower (the Deafening Valley), carriage rides and pretty bridges, with castellated abutments and iron parapets, across a thundering brook.” 

p. 21. After the Williamite wars, landowners had the confidence to invest in their property and improve their estates, building new houses and offices, and creating enclosed landscaped demesnes. Of the minor gentry, most aspired to nothing more than a house that was solidly built, symmetrical and convenient. At first, middling houses were unsophisticated in their form and planning, often only one room deep but sometimes having a return containing a staircase or service rooms, thus forming an L-plan or T-plan. Steep gable-ended roofs were almost universal, hipped roofs and the use of parapets the exception. This arrangement continued throughout the 18th century for gentry houses, and well into the C19 for larger farmhouses. Early examples include Ballinterry (Rathcormac), Velvetstown (Buttevant), Rosehill at Ballynacorra (Midleton) and Aghadoe at Killeagh.  

http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/property-list.jsp?letter=A 

Lewis writes in 1837 that “The present house is about to be replaced by a castellated mansion”. The earlier house is referred to by Wilson in 1786 as the seat of Simon Dring. Aghadoe was occupied by Thomas M. Green at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. The house, valued at £27, was held by him from Sir Arthur De Capell Brooke. The house is no longer extant.  

http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_irish/roadshow/supple.htm 

THE SUPPLES of AGHADOE, CO. CORK 

At the Adare meeting of the 2011 ‘Genealogy Roadshow’, Noel Hayes enquired about a family called Supple from whom he descends. The Supples were an old Anglo-Norman family, descended from Philippe de Capella (or de Capel), one of Strongbow’s original mercenaries. Philippe came to Ireland with Robert FitzStephen in 1177 and took part in the successful Norman conquest of Viking Cork. Sometime before 1182, FitzStephen, as lord of the surrounding manor of Inchiquin, rewarded Philippe with the grant of an estate along the Little Dissour River at Killeagh. [1]  

After the Desmond Rebellion, the Supple family suffered serious financial loss when Edmund Supple was obliged to mortgage 1150 acres of his 5200 acre estate to raise money to replace stock seized by the marauding armies of both English and Irish. Most of these mortgages went to the Dean of Cloyne, a FitzGerald, who duly forged all necessary documents to verify that these same lands had been sold to him and not mortgaged. 

Edmund died in about 1604, leaving a minor heir, William Supple. At this time, English policy dictated that minor heirs of Catholic landowners be raised as Protestants. Thus, wardship of the heir of Aghadoe devolved upon Richard Boyle, lord of the manor of Inchiquin and notorious as the 1st Earl of Cork. He duly took young William into his care at Lismore. In 1613, Boyle sent the boy to live with his brother John, the clergyman, in England and there finish his education. By 1616 William was attending Cambridge University. The Boyles seem to have been genuinely fond of William and he, educated as a Protestant, adapted to their world with ease. He returned to Ireland in 1620, a useful propaganda tool for the government, a native convert to Protestantism. He may have subsequently been employed as some sort of agent or middleman for the Boyle estates in Munster. In early 1622, for instance, he escorted Boyle’s 15 year old daughter, Sara Boyle, on a journey from County Louth to Lismore. 
 
William’s marriage in 1622 to the Earl of Cork’s niece, Kate Smyth of Ballynatray, County Waterford, and his subsequent admission as a freeman to the town of Youghal, may be taken as further proof of Boyle consolidating his patronage over the Killeagh landlord. Supple did not escape the scorn of his peers. A few months after his marriage, his face was disfigured when attacked by an Englishman with a cudgel. The Earl continued to act as patron to the Supples for many years.  

On 11th January 1634, he wrote: ‘My necc Katherye Smyth’s son was Xtened at Ballynetra by my daughter, Countess of Barrymore, Sir Richard Smyth and my self, and named Boyle Burt: God bless him’. 

On 31st December 1634, he noted:‘I sent my poor cozen Crips 20s to Ballynetra, by my Cozen Kate Supple’. 

As late as Christmas 1637, the Earl noted in his diary a gift of six lace handkerchiefs ‘by my niece Kate Supple’. 
 
It must have been during William and Kate’s time that a new mansion was built at Aghadoe. Although the house has not survived, it is shown in detail on a map of 1700 and appears to have consisted of a straightforward central block with two gabled wings. William and Kate probably lived in quarters affixed to a 15th century tower-house while the new house was built. The tower-house has also since vanished but a splendid ivy-clad ‘Sheela-nagig’ that once graced its walls survives. [2] 
 
In 1630 William Supple was appointed a famine commissioner for Co. Cork. The following year, he obtained a royal license to hold a Tuesday market and two fairs each year at Killeagh on June 1st and November 1st. By 1642, he had secured a more influential position when he became sheriff for Co. Cork. Aghadoe’s relative proximity to Youghal may have protected the castle from desecration when the Confederate Wars broke out. William was certainly resident at Aghadoe in May 1643. During the ensuing wars, William fought for the Boyles against the Irish Catholic army. By 1649 he held the rank of major in the Parliamentarian Army and was commander of the English garrison in Youghal. He died some time in the early 1650s and was succeeded by his son, another William Supple. [3] 
 
The younger William continued to forge a close alliance with the Boyle family, serving as Sheriff of Cork City in 1681. He was a direct ancestor of the De Capel Brookes, Bart, of Oakley. The Supple (or Capel) family continued to hold the Aghadoe estate until the 20th century. 

FOOTNOTES 

1. The principal evidence supporting this grant actually comes from the diary of Earl of Cork, written when he himself had become Lord of Inchiquin. On April 8th 1636, he notes: ‘Mr. William Supple [of Aghadoe] showed me the deed of his lands made by Robert FitzStephen unto his ancestor Philip de Capella’. Although this deed has not survived, legal records from the early 14th century also hold that the Capel or Supple family held their land under a feoffment of Robert FitzStephen to Philip de Capella. It was also for Philippe de Capella that Capel Island took its name. He is sometimes referred to as Philip de la Chapelle. 
2. A stone representation of a female exposing her genitalia, it appears to have had a talismanic function against evil in pagan times. 
3. William and Kate Supple also had an unnamed daughter who was the first wife of the Catholic landowner, Sir William Fitzgerald of Glenane. She bore Fitzgerald’s eldest son around 1657.