Trimleston Castle (Tremblestown, Trimlestown), Kildalkey, Co Meath
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.
as in Lord Belmont…”…Here lived 12th Lord Trimlestown, a celebrated figure in mid-C18 Ireland; he kept a large eagle chained up by the front door and he had a magnificent coach which had been presented to him by Mashal Saxe; for, as a Catholic, he had spent much of his life abroad, where he had acquired skill in medicine, so that he would treat the poor of the neighbourhood gratuitously; he also treated a fashionable lady for the vapours by getting four assistants to threaten her with rods in a darkened room. In time, the castle had a fine formal garden… Early in C19, the castle was adorned with what a contemporary described as “ornamental towers, an embattled parapet and other marks of the style which prevailed in the latter part of the sixteenth century.” soon afterwards, however, it was abandoned by the family, and fell into ruin.”
Record of Protected Structures:
Tremblestown Castle, townland: Tremblestown, town: Trim
Medieval towerhouse with18thC house added, and 19thC
crennelations – barnwell mausoleum, a plain single cell with
some simple slabs to the north in a field.
In Blake, Tarquin. Abandoned Mansions of Ireland II: More Portraits of Forgotten Stately Homes. Collins Press, Cork, 2012.
The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy: County Meath. Volume 1. Art Kavanagh, 2005.
Barnewall of Trimlestown, p. 19.
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. 115. “An 18C house incorporating a tower house. The building was further altered in the early 19C. Now a ruin.”
https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2015/12/1st-baron-trimlestown.html
THE BARONS TRIMLESTOWN OWNED 3,025 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY MEATH
This family, whose surname was anciently written De Barneval and Barnewall, deduces its lineage from remote antiquity, and claims, among its earliest progenitors, personages of the most eminent renown. It is the parent stock whence the noble houses of BARNEWALL and TRIMLESTOWN branched.
The name of its patriarch is to be found, with the other companions in arms of WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, in the roll of Battle Abbey. In Ireland, the Barnewalls came under the denomination of “Strongbowians“, having established themselves there in 1172, under the banner of Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, commonly called Strongbow.
SIR MICHAEL DE BERNEVAL, Knight, the first settler, joined the English expedition, with three armed ships, and effected a descent upon Berehaven, County Cork, previous to the landing of his chief, the Earl of Pembroke, in the province of Leinster.
Sir Michael is mentioned in the records at the Tower of London as one of the leading captains in the enterprise; and in the reigns of HENRY II and RICHARD I, he was lord, by tenure, of Berehaven and Bantry.
From this gallant and successful soldier we pass to
SIR ULPHRAM DE BERNEVAL, Knight, the tenth in descent, first possessor of Crickstown Castle and estate, and the founder of what was termed the “Crickstown Branch” of the family.
The great-grandson of this Sir Ulphram,
NICHOLAS DE BERNEVALL (fourth of the same Christian name), married a daughter of the Lord Furnivall, and left three sons,
Christopher (Sir), father of 1st Baron Trimlestown;
John, ancestor of the Barons Kingsland;
Barnaby (Sir), an eminent lawyer.
The eldest son,
SIR CHRISTOPHER BARNEWALL (c1400-46), as the name began to be spelt, succeeded to the patrimonial estate of Crickstown; and was, in 1445 and 1446, Vice-Treasurer of Ireland and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.
He married Matilda, daughter of Sir _____ Drake, of Drakerath, and had two sons, of whom the younger,
SIR ROBERT BARNEWALL, Knight, was elevated to the peerage by EDWARD IV, in 1461, in the dignity of BARON TRIMLESTOWN, of Trimlestown, County Meath.
“The next patent of creation that occurs” said the historian, William Lynch, in his work on Feudal Dignities, “is one of considerable importance, as being the first grant (in Ireland) of any description of peerage conveying, by express words, the dignity of a baron of parliament.”
The patent was dated in the second year of EDWARD IV’s reign, and thereby the King ordained and constituted Sir Robert Barnewall, Knight, for his good services to His Majesty’s father when in Ireland, as essendum unum baronum parliamenti nostri infra terram nostram prædictam, to hold to him and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, and to be called by the name of Domini et Baronis de Trymleteston, etc;
And also that the said Sir Robert should be one of his, the King’s, Council within the said land during his life, with the fee of £10 yearly, payable out of the fee-farm of Salmon Leap and Chapelizod etc.
His lordship wedded firstly, Elizabeth Broune, by whom he acquired a considerable estate, and had two sons,
CHRISTOPHER (Sir), his heir;
Thomas.
He espoused secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Plunkett, but had no other issue.
His lordship was succeeded at his decease in 1470 by his elder son,
CHRISTOPHER, 2nd Baron; who obtained a pardon for his participation in the treason of Lambert Simnel.
His lordship married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Plunkett, of Rathmore, and had issue,
JOHN, his heir;
Robert;
Ismay;
a daughter;
Alison.
His lordship died ca 1513, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
JOHN, 3rd Baron (1470-1538), an eminent judge and politician, who wedded no less than four times, and was succeeded at his decease by the only son of his first wife, Janet, daughter of John Bellew, of Bellewstown,
PATRICK, 4th Baron, who espoused Catherine, daughter of Richard Taylor, of Swords, County Dublin, and widow of Richard Delahyde, Recorder of Drogheda.
His lordship died in 1562, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
ROBERT, 5th Baron, who married Anne, only daughter of Alderman Richard Fyan, Mayor of Dublin; but dying issueless, in 1573, the barony devolved upon his brother,
PETER, 6th Baron. This nobleman dying in 1598, was succeeded by his only son, by Catherine, daughter of the Hon Sir Christopher Nugent, and granddaughter of Richard, 11th Baron Delvin,
ROBERT, 7th Baron (c1574-1639), who wedded Genet, daughter of Thomas Talbot, of Dardistown, County Meath, by whom he had issue,
Christopher, father of MATTHIAS, 8th Baron;
John;
Patrick;
Richard;
Matthew;
Mary; Catherine; Ismay.
His lordship had a memorable dispute with the Lord Dunsany regarding precedency, which was decided in favour of Lord Trimlestown by the Privy Council in 1634.
He was succeeded by his grandson,
MATTHIAS, 8th Baron (1614-67), eldest son of the Hon Christopher Barnewall, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward FitzGerald, Knight.
This nobleman serving against the usurper CROMWELL was excepted from pardon for life, and had his estates sequestered; but surviving the season of rebellion and rapacity, he regained a considerable portion of his lands.
His lordship espoused, in 1641, Jane, daughter of Nicholas, 1st Viscount Netterville, and was succeeded by his only surviving son,
ROBERT, 9th Baron, who married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Dungan Bt, and niece of William, Earl of Limerick, by whom he had two sons and five daughters,
MATTHIAS, 10th Baron;
JOHN, 11th Baron;
Jane; Bridget; Dymna; Catharine; Mary.
His lordship sat in JAMES II’s parliament in 1689, and dying in June that year, was succeeded by his eldest son,
MATTHIAS, 10th Baron, who had a commission in the 1st Troop of King James’s guards under the Duke of Berwick, and fell in action against the Germans in 1692, when the barony devolved upon his brother,
JOHN, 11th Baron (1672-1746). The 10th Baron having been attainted by WILLIAM III, that monarch granted the family estates to Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney; but those estates were subsequently recovered at law, and were enjoyed by the house of Trimlestown.
His lordship wedded Mary, only daughter of Sir John Barnewall, Knight, second son of Sir Patrick Barnewall Bt, of Crickstown, by whom he six sons and four daughters,
ROBERT, his heir;
John;
Richard;
Thomas;
James;
Anthony;
Thomasine; Margaret; Bridget; Catharine.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,
ROBERT, 12th Baron (c1704-79); who lived for many years in France, and pursued the study of medicine with great success.
After his return to Ireland he resided at Trimlestown, and gratuitously and freely communicated his advice to all who applied for it.
His lordship was succeeded at his decease by his eldest surviving son,
THOMAS, 13th Baron, a Knight of Malta, who conformed to the established church, and had a confirmation of the dignity (which, although adopted, was unacknowledged from the time of CROMWELL), in 1795.
His lordship dying unmarried, the title reverted to his cousin,
NICHOLAS, 14th Baron (1726-1813), who espoused firstly, in 1768, Martha Henrietta, only daughter of Monsieur Joseph D’Aquin, president of the parliament of Toulouse, by whom he had issue,
JOHN THOMAS, his heir;
Rosalia.
He married secondly, in 1797, Alicia, second daughter of Major-General Charles Eustace.
His lordship was succeeded by his son,
JOHN THOMAS, 15th Baron (1773-1839), who wedded, in 1794, Maria Theresa, daughter of Richard Kirwan, of Gregg, County Galway, and had issue,
THOMAS;
Martha Henrietta.
His lordship was succeeded by his son,
THOMAS, 16th Baron (1796-1879), who espoused, in 1836, Margaret Randalina, eldest daughter of Philip Roche, of Donore, County Kildare, and had issue,
THOMAS, died in infancy;
Anna Maria Louisa.
His lordship died without surviving male issue, when the barony became dormant.
In 1891, however, the peerage was was claimed by
CHRISTOPHER PATRICK MARY, de jure 17th Baron (1846-91), a descendant of the Hon Patrick Barnewall, second son of the 7th Baron.
The 17th Baron died before he had fully established his claim; but in 1893, his younger brother,
CHARLES ALOYSIUS, 18th Baron (1861-1937), was confirmed in the title by the Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords.
His lordship married, in 1889, Margaret Theresa, daughter of Richard John Stephens, of Brisbane, Australia, and had issue,
Reginald Nicholas Francis (1897-1918), killed in action;
CHARLES ALOYSIUS, of whom presently;
Ivy Esmay; Marcella Hilda Charlotte; Letitia Anne Margaret; Geraldine Christia Marjory.
He wedded secondly, in 1907, Mabel Florence, daughter of William Robert Shuff, of Torquay, Devon; and thirdly, in 1930, Josephine Francesca, fourth but second surviving daughter of the Rt Hon Sir Christopher John Nixon Bt, of Roebuck Grove, Milltown, County Dublin.
His lordship was succeeded by his second son,
CHARLES ALOYSIUS, 19th Baron (1899-1990), who espoused, in 1926, Muriel, only child of Edward Oskar Schneider, of Mansfield Lodge, Manchester, and had issue,
ANTHONY EDWARD, 20th Baron;
RAYMOND CHARLES, 21st Baron;
Diane.
He married secondly, in 1952, Freda Kathleen, daughter of Alfred Allen Atkins, of Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,
ANTHONY EDWARD, 20th Baron (1928-97), who wedded firstly, in 1963, Lorna Margaret Marion, daughter of Charles Douglas Ramsay; and secondly, in 1977, Mary Wonderly, eldest daughter of Judge Thomas Francis McAllister, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA.
His lordship died without issue, when the honours devolved upon his brother,
RAYMOND CHARLES, 21st Baron, born in 1930, of Chiddingfold, Surrey.
There is no obvious heir presumptive to the Barony of Trimlestown.
An heir presumptive may be found amongst the descendants, if any, of Thomas Barnewall, of Bloomsbury, London, a cousin of the 17th and 18th Barons Trimlestown.
TURVEY HOUSE, Donabate, County Dublin, was a late 17th century mansion comprising two storeys below a gabled attic storey.
The upper storey has three distinctive lunette windows added between 1725-50.
The house has nine bays and lofty, narrow windows grouped in threes.
This was once the seat of the extinct Viscounts Barnewall (of Kingsland); though subsequently it passed to a kinsman, the 13th Baron Trimlestown.
TRIMLESTOWN CASTLE, Kildalkey, County Meath, is a medieval tower-house with an 18th century house attached.
In the 19th century, the castle was adorned with ornamental towers, an embattled parapet, and other marks of the style which prevailed in the latter part of the 16th century.
Shortly afterwards, however, the family abandoned the castle and it became ruinous.
First published in December, 2015. Trimlestown arms courtesy of European Heraldry.
https://meathhistoryhub.ie/houses-r-z/
The ruins of Trimblestown Castle stand to the west of Trim on the banks of the Trimblestown River. The Castle was erected by the Barnwall’s, Barons Trimleston. The place is also known by variations of the name: Tremblestown also Tremleston, Trimlestown and Trimleston.
Hugh de Lacy may have erected a motte at Trimblestown and there is a large mound to one side of the castle but this has also been identified as a tumulus from earlier times. A village may have grown up around the castle, an extensive field system exists surrounding the castle.
In 1461 Robert Barnewall was created Baron Trimleston by Edward IV. The family were very active in affairs of state and also in defending the Pale against attack from the Irish. The second Baron, Christopher, was implicated in the Lambert Simnel affair but received a pardon in 1488. His son, John, the third Baron, served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1534 until his death in 1538. In 1597 Hugh O’Neill defeated the government forces, led by Barnewall, Lord Trimleston, at the battle of Tyrrell’s pass in Westmeath. Barnewall’s son was taken prisoner.
Mathias, Lord Trimleston, was one of the Old English lords of the Pale who met on the Hill of Tara in 1642 and was then outlawed by the English authorities. Mathias was sentenced to be transplanted to Connacht by Cromwell in October 1653 but managed to delay it until 1655 and was granted 1462 acres belonging to the Frenchs of Monivea, Co. Galway. The Barnewalls share the same family motto with the French family: Malo mori quam foederi, I would rather die than be dishonoured. In 1647 General Jones took the castle for the English forces. Trimleston regained Trimblestown and lands in Meath and Dublin after the Restoration and also managed to hold onto lands in Connacht. Matthias died at Monivea in 1667 and was buried in Kilconnel Abbey.
Matthias, the next baron, supported James II and his estate and title were forfeited. The next barons took the title but were not recognised as they were Roman Catholics.
Robert Barnewall, the 12th Baron was educated in France and was noted for his medicinal skills which he used to treat local residents.
There is a Barnwall County in South Carolina. This may be named after a member of the Trimblestown Barnewalls. Colonel John Barnwall acquired the nickname ‘Tuscarora Jack’ following a successful expedition against the Tuscarora Indians to North Carolina in 1711-1712. Barnwell County was called Winton County until 1785 when it was re-named in honour of John Barnwell, a Revolutionary War hero. Robert W. Barnwall, a descendant, was to the forefront of the foundation of the Confederate states of America.
The lands amounting to 681 acres were in the possession of the Hon. Anna Barnewall in 1925 when it was taken over by the Land Commission. As the only daughter of the 16th Baron she married Robert Elliot of Scotland. Her burial site is in the Scottish highlands and there a stained glass window in the church commemorates her: “A kinder hearted and most utterly unselfish woman never lived.”
The 20th Baron Trimleston died at the age of 69 in 1997 and his successor is his brother, Raymond Barnewell, a dairy farmer who lives in England, but he has no children to succeed to the title.
Trimblestown Castle was a three-storey tower-house erected in the fifteenth century possibly by the first Baron Trimleston. There is a loft above the ground floor with a barrel vault above that. High up on the tower wall is a plaque commemorating the marriage of the sixth baron to Katherine Nugent, daughter of Lord Delvin. In the mid-18th century the 12th Lord Trimleston attached a new three-storey house at the north of the tower-house. This has a fine bow projection in the east wall. Early in the 19th century the house was decorated with crenellations and ornamental turrets in the style of the late 16th century. In the early 1800s the castle was abandoned by the family. The castle was in ruins by the 1840s and the demesne was being farmed by a Mr. Allen. The noted horse trainer, Frank Barbour, erected stables and a house at Trimblestown about 1915.
To the north of the castle is an old graveyard in which is located a small stone-built chapel containing the 1680 tomb of Margaret, wife of the ninth Baron Trimleston. This chapel was recently restored by a local committee.
This poetic gravestone is from Trimblestown.
Beneath this stone Silvester lies,
Whose ashes mingles with the Blighs,
He passed through life unstained with pride,
We wept and lamented when he did
His sons whose youth he ne’er neglected
In gratitude his stone erected.
The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy: County Meath. Volume 1. Art Kavanagh, 2005.
Barnewall of Trimlestown, p. 19.
https://theirishaesthete.com/2018/12/10/trimlestown/
Fallen Out of Use
Baron Trimlestown is one of the oldest titles in Ireland, created in 1461 for Sir Robert Barnewall. The family were of Norman origin, their name originally de Berneval (from the small seaside town of Berneval-le-Grand, where Oscar Wilde stayed following his release from Reading Gaol in June 1897). Having first moved to England, following the Battle of Hastings in 1066, they followed Richard de Clare to Ireland, the first to do so, Sir Michael de Berneval, landing in Cork in 1172. Rising to power in the Pale, they were responsible for building Drimnagh Castle, now in a suburb of Dublin, and then gradually acquired substantial land holdings in County Meath. Here in Trimblestown, a few miles west of the town of Trim, they erected a mighty castle, probably in the 15th century and perhaps around the time that the title of baron was granted to Sir Robert Barnewall.
The core of Trimblestown Castle is late mediaeval, rising three storeys and with a massive square tower in the south-west corner. The main block is some 114 feet long and 40 feet wide, internally dominated by a two-storey vaulted great hall that faces towards the river Trimlestown: the exterior of this side is marked by massive corner buttresses. On the south-east side of the tower there is (or perhaps was) a shield bearing the arms of the Barnewall and Nugent families – the two had intermarried – but whether it remains in place is impossible to tell due to vegetation covering much of the walls. Considerable alterations to the building were undertaken in the 18th and 19th centuries, when a large addition was made on the northern section of the site. It is likely that at this time towers similar to those on the river front were demolished and a modern house built, the most notable feature of this being a large bow-front with views to the east. Similarities with the work undertaken during the same period at Louth Castle (see Saintly Connections, August 28th 2017) have led to suggestions that Richard Johnston might have been the architect responsible in both instances. This may have happened around 1797 when the 14th Lord Trimlestown, then aged 70, married a woman less than a third of his age: the suggestion is that she got a new house in return for an old husband. Soon afterwards, her husband also inherited Turvey, County Dublin from a distant cousin and in due course the family moved there, leaving Trimblestown Castle to slip into decay.
For much of the 18th century, although the Barnewalls held onto the greater part of their lands, they were unable to use the title Baron Trimlestown. Their problems had begun in the 1640s when Matthias, eighth Lord Trimlestown, had supported the royalist cause, deprived of his estates by Cromwell and banished to County Galway. Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, he regained the greater part of his original property, but remained true to the Roman Catholic faith, as did his son Robert who sat in James II’s parliament in 1689. The next couple of heirs, because of their support for the Jacobite cause and their loyalty to Catholicism, were not allowed to use the old title. They lived in France and it was only in 1746 that Robert Barnewall (who claimed the title of twelfth Lord Trimlestown) returned to Ireland and took up residence in the old castle. It is likely to have been during his lifetime (he died in 1779) that the building was first modernised. As an ardent supporter of the Catholic cause, it must have been a blow to him when his heir Thomas conformed to the Established Church (thereby reversing the government attainder and allowing him to be acknowledged after his father’s death as the 13th Lord Trimlestown). Thereafter one generation succeeded another, although more than once the title had to go to a cousin as there was no direct heir. However while there is still a Lord Trimlestown – the 21st – he has no known heirs. It seems likely that after more than 550 years one of Ireland’s oldest peerages will go the same way as the castle from which its name was derived, and fall out of use.
he Barnewall family has its roots deep in the soup of myth and legend that is the genealogy of medieval Britain and Ireland. It is said that ‘Le Sieur de Barneville’ hailed from Brittany and was one of the companions of William the Conqueror when he invaded England in 1066, but neither this name nor its many variants (de Barneville; de Barneval, Barnewill, Barnwell etc) seem to occur in Domesday Book. A century later, some members of the family were granted lands in Ireland and settled there, only to be slain by the native Irish. The sole survivor was Hugh (or Ulphran) de Barneville, who was away studying law in England. He is said to have made a fresh start with a grant of lands from King John at Drymnagh and Tyrenure in the Vale of Dublin which his descendants retained until the early 17th century. By the 14th century, they also owned Crickstown in Co. Meath, and Sir Christopher de Barneval (fl. 1386), with whom the genealogy below begins, was seated there. Many of the early generations of the family were both knights involved in military service and lawyers, and from the time the earliest records begin in the 15th century they were receiving their legal training at the inns of court in London. This metropolitan experience and the sophistication it bred meant that they were in demand as administrators and judges back in Ireland. Sir Christopher Barnewall (d. 1446), who was probably trained in London, was appointed a Serjeant-at-Law in Ireland in 1408, King’s Serjeant in 1420, and went on to be Chief Justice of Kings Bench from 1435 and Lord Treasurer of Ireland from 1437. He had two recorded sons, the elder of whom, Sir Nicholas Barnewall (d. c.1465), was Chief Justice of King’s Bench, 1457-63 and inherited Crickstown, and the younger of whom, Sir Robert Barnewall (d. c.1471), pursued a military career in the service of the Duke of York and was raised to the peerage as Baron Trimleston (later usually spelled Trimlestown) in 1461. Sir Nicholas’ descendants continued to hold Crickstown into the 17th century, and a cadet branch of the family became Viscounts Barnewall of Kingsland in 1646.
For the moment, however, I want to stay with Sir Robert Barnewall (d. c.1471), 1st Baron Trimlestown, and his descendants. Sir Robert himself married the heiress of the Le Brun family, who brought him a significant property in Co. Meath, including Trimlestown itself, where he seems to have erected the castle of which parts stand today, albeit in a ruinous condition. His property descended to his eldest son, Sir Christopher Barnewall (d. by 1513), 2nd Baron Trimlestown, who was involved in the Yorkist conspiracy to pass off Lambert Simnel as one of the murdered Princes in the Tower. He can only have been peripherally involved, however, for he was pardoned for his part in the affair and went on to see important military service under King Henry VII’s Lord Deputy in Ireland, the Earl of Kildare. His two sons, John Barnewall (1470-1538), 3rd Baron Trimlestown, and Robert Barnewall (d. by 1547), were both trained as lawyers in London, but it was the elder brother, John, who had the most distinguished career, ending up as Lord High Treasurer and finally as Lord Chancellor of Ireland, roles in which his duties seem to have been as much military as judicial.
The 3rd Baron’s eldest son, Patrick Barnewell (d. c.1462), 4th Baron Trimlestown, sat in the Parliament of 1541 which acknowledged Henry VIII as King of Ireland and at the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign was ‘a ready and willing nobleman in the Queen’s service’. The divisive question of the age was, of course, the breakaway of the English Crown from the Roman Catholic Church, and the attendant dissolution of the monasteries. In England, these measures commanded majority though not universal support, but in Ireland the picture was very different. We do not really know what the personal views of the 4th and 5th Barons were on religion: they probably espoused the government’s position in public and kept to the traditional ways in private. That was at first a tenable position, but Sir Peter Barnewall (c.1540-98), 6th Baron Trimlestown, found it much more difficult to sustain and by the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588 he was recognised as a Catholic and suspected of communication with the enemy. His son, Robert Barnewall (c.1574-1639), 7th Baron Trimlestown, was loyal to the Crown, but could not refrain from protesting about the increasingly severe restrictions on Catholics, and by 1615 he was regarded as ‘a busy and violent recusant’. His grandson, Mathias Barnewall (c.1614-67), 8th Baron Trimlestown, was one of the leaders of the 1641 Catholic uprising, and was outlawed and deprived of his estates in 1642, and in 1653 exiled to County Galway. Although he recovered part of his property at the Restoration (and his son recovered more in 1667), it was all lost again by the 10th Baron, who was Colonel of a Jacobite regiment after the Battle of the Boyne. For being in arms against William III he was attainted in April 1691 and forfeited his peerage and estates. After the Treaty of Limerick, he followed James II into exile in France, where he joined the Irish Brigade and was killed at the Battle of Roumont in September 1692. His son, John Barnewall (1672-1746), was just too young to have been involved in any fighting, and although there can be little doubt that he was enthusiastic about the Jacobite cause, he managed to recover his father’s estates by July 1695. His attempts to reverse the attainder and recover the peerage were unsuccessful, however, and indeed it was asserted that the outlawry of the 8th Baron in 1642, which had never been reversed, had also had the effect of suspending the peerage. Despite the outlawry and the attainder, however, the title continued to be widely used by and about John and his successors in the 18th century in all but the most official documents.
Although the de jure 11th Baron recovered possession of his estates, there seems little doubt that he divided his time between Ireland and France, and his sons made their careers on the continent. His eldest son and heir, Robert Barnewall (c.1704-79), de jure 12th Baron Trimlestown, studied medicine and botany in France and returned to Ireland on his father’s death with a considerable reputation as a physician: skills which he made available to his Irish neighbours, whether gentle or poor. In later life he became an active advocate for the civil rights of his fellow-Catholics, and in the 1770s he was responsible for drafting a form of oath of allegiance which was acceptable to both the Government and to Irish Catholics. This opened up careers in the army to the Catholic population, and laid the foundation for further measures for Catholic relief which took place after his death. It must therefore have been something of an embarrassment to one so prominent in the Catholic cause that his two sons chose to conform to the Protestant religion. Robert was succeeded by the youngest son of his first marriage, Thomas Barnewall (c.1739-96), who lived in France until the French Revolution took place. In 1790 he left his French property in the hands of an attorney (from whom it was seized by the French state in 1793) and returned to Ireland. It was now more than a century since the attainder on the title of Baron Trimlestown, and with the incumbent a Protestant, the Government seems to have made no difficulty about reversing the attainder on the title, which was done in 1795, after which he was summoned to the Irish House of Lords as 13th Baron Trimlestown. He died the following year, and the revived title passed to his nephew, Nicholas Barnewall (1726-1813), 14th Baron Trimlestown. He had been brought up near Toulouse in France, where he was a leading Freemason, and acquired through his marriage the Chateau Lamirolles, where he lived until the French Revolution. His wife having died in 1782, he then moved to England, where he seems to have lived in Bath until he inherited the Irish estates and peerage from his uncle. In 1797 he married for a second time, taking as his wife a young Irishwoman a third of his age, and this would seem to have been the occasion for a major building campaign at Trimlestown Castle to turn it into a modern house. In 1800, however, Nicholas inherited the extensive estates of his distant kinsman, the 5th Viscount Barnewall of Kingsland, which included Turvey House, and soon afterwards Trimlestown seems to have been abandoned, perhaps with his alterations incomplete.
The combination of the estates of the two most prominent branches of the Barnewall family made the 14th Baron quite rich, and he did his best to ensure that the estates and the title would remain together by entering into a new settlement in 1812 which entailed the property on his own male heirs, but with remainder to his cousin Richard Barnewall (c.1744-1826) and his heirs, who would inherit the title if his own heirs died out first. This was the basis on which the estates followed the title on the death of the 16th Baron in 1879. At the same time as drawing up the settlement, he made a new will, which made such generous provision for his widow that his son, a child of his first marriage, John Thomas Barnewall (1773-1839), 15th Baron Trimlestown – who was exactly the same age as his stepmother – went to law in an attempt to get the will set aside on grounds of undue influence. The feud expanded into a separate dispute about the payment of her jointure. Although he ultimately lost both cases, he strung matters out so that judgement was not given until 1833 and the dowager Lady Trimlestown is said to have received no benefit until 1847, by which time she had been widowed for a second time. The 15th Baron was probably responsible for remodelling Turvey House at some point after 1813, but he also seems to have had houses in London (a town house on the Grosvenor estate), Paris and Naples (Palazzo Calabritti), with a mistress in each place. They were the principal recipients of his personal wealth, for he had fallen out with his only son and daughter-in-law, who received only the entailed property. This may explain why the very comfortable finances of the 14th and 15th Barons did not continue. Thomas Barnewall (1796-1879), 16th Baron Trimlestown, leased out Turvey House and gave up the lease on his father’s London house (which the Marquess of Westminster demolished in order to build the colonnaded forecourt of Grosvenor House). He took instead a smaller house on the Grosvenor estate in Park Lane, which he remodelled in 1853. Since the 16th Baron had no surviving sons, on his death in 1879 the entailed family estates passed to a distant kinsman, Christopher Patrick Mary Barnewall (1846-91), who was the great-great-great-great-great-great grandson of the 7th Baron, who had died in 1639. With such a very distant connection, it was obviously difficult to conclusively prove his right to the peerage, and a claim was not submitted to the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords until 1891. A decision had still not been made when Christopher died in 1893, but his brother Charles Aloysius Barnewall (1861-1937) was soon afterwards confirmed as 18th Baron Trimlestown (Christopher being counted as the 17th Baron). Once again, no personal wealth accompanied the title and entailed estates, and since the new Lord Trimlestown’s family had been gentlemen farmers in County Meath for many generations, he was very much the archetypal improverished Irish peer. He sold Turvey House, which had been tenanted for many years, in about 1902. In 1907 he inherited, perhaps unexpectedly, Bloomsbury House in County Meath, but after living there briefly in the years around the First World War, that too was sold in 1920. As an aside, it may be noted that in 1930, the young John Betjeman became rather obsessed by the combination of ancient lineage and complete obscurity which was represented most notably by Lord Trimlestown, and sought him out at Bloomsbury, only to find that he had sold the place a decade before.
Despite the sales, Lord Trimlestown still owned more than 6,000 acres at his death in 1937. His heir was his son, Charles Aloysius Barnewall (1899-1990), 19th Baron Trimlestown, who farmed in Devon, and it is not clear when any remaining Irish property was sold. The 19th Baron left two sons, who succeeded in turn to the title. The present peer, Raymond Charles Barnewall (b. 1930), 21st Baron Trimlestown, also farmed in Devon until his retirement and now lives in Surrey. He is unmarried and there is no known heir to the peerage, which will become dormant on his death. It seems entirely possible that there is a legitimate heir amongst the many descendants who must exist of the earlier barons, but the chances of any of them being able to prove that they have the senior claim seem much more remote.
To return to the early period of the Barnewall family, the second son of Sir Christopher Barnewall (fl. 1386) was John Barnewall (fl. 1426) of Frankestown (Co. Meath). His son, Sir Richard Barnewall settled at Fieldston in the parish of Clonmethan (Co. Dublin), which was inherited in due course by his grandson, Sir Patrick Barnewall (d. 1552). Sir Patrick, like his contemporaries in the Trimlestown branch of the family, was trained as a lawyer in London, at Grays Inn, and became a serjeant-at-law in Ireland, King’s Serjeant and Solicitor General, 1534-50, and finally Master of the Rolls in Ireland, 1550-52. He was responsible for securing the establishment of an inn of court in Dublin (King’s Inns) in 1538, and was also an MP in the Irish parliament. Although he initially opposed the dissolution of the monasteries, he was granted the sites and lands of Gracedieu Priory in Co. Dublin and Knocktopher Abbey in Co. Kilkenny, as well as leases of some of the lands of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin in the parishes of Swords and Clonmethan where his other lands lay. This generous greasing of the wheels of the Reformation overcame his scruples and laid the foundations of his descendants’ prosperity. His son and heir, Sir Christopher Barnewall (1522-75), was, however, a man of stronger principles, and although not so quixotic as to disclaim his inheritance of monastic lands, he emerged as a steadfast opponent of the Protestant administration, who was willing to shelter the priest and future martyr, Edmund Campion, for a few days in 1569. In 1556 he was granted the Turvey estate at Donabate, on which he built Turvey House, reputedly using stone from Gracedieu Priory. Turvey House became the principal seat of his descendants for several hundred years. His eldest surviving son and heir, Sir Patrick Barnewall (c.1558-1622) was also a committed Catholic and an even more outspoken critic of the Government’s religious policy – as a result of which he spent short periods in prison or under house arrest on several occasions – but he balanced this with a personal loyalty to successive monarchs and marriage ties with the Protestant hierarchy that offered him some protection.
Sir Patrick was succeeded at Turvey House by his son, Sir Nicholas Barnewall (1592-1663), who at the outbreak of the Rebellion of 1641 had a commission to raise such troops as he could muster for the defence of County Dublin. This must have severely tested his loyalties, since many of his friends and relatives joined the rebels (his kinsman Lord Trimlestown and his son-in-law, Lord Gormanston were among the leaders), and perhaps to avoid testing his loyalty too far he was allowed to travel to London, and later to settle in Wales, where his mother’s family had lands. Despite his disagreements with the Government, he remained strongly Royalist, and in 1642, when the Civil War broke out in England, his son Patrick became a commander in the Royalist army. In 1644 he returned to Ireland, where he continued to keep out of politics as much as possible, and in 1646 he was rewarded for his masterly inactivity by being raised to the peerage as Viscount Barnewall of Kingsland (which was often, though incorrectly, abbreviated to Viscount Kingsland). Although in the 1650s he was charged with complicity in a plot against the Lord Protector, briefly imprisoned, and his estates in the Pale sequestered, he recovered Turvey House in 1658 and the rest at the Restoration.
When the 1st Viscount died in 1663 he was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Henry Barnewall (c.1627-88), 2nd Viscount Barnewall of Kingsland, who seems to have been less politically engaged than his father. However his son, Nicholas Barnewall (1668-1725), the 3rd Viscount, was inevitably caught up in the events of 1688-91. As a strong Royalist and a Catholic, it is hardly surprising that he took his seat in James II’s Parliament of 1689, or that he was later an officer in the Jacobite army. He was outlawed for his offences, but under the terms of the Treaty of Limerick in 1691 the outlawry was reversed and he was allowed to return to his estates. He may have spent some time in France at the exiled Court of James II, but the evidence for this is sparse. All that is known for certain is that his wife spent sometime at St. Germain with her mother, then Duchess of Tyrconnel, and that his elder son, Henry Benedict Barnewall (1709-74) had the Cardinal Duke of York as a godfather, which may imply that the baptism took place in France. Henry Benedict, who succeeded as 4th Viscount while still a minor in 1725, became a leading Irish freemason. He was married, but had no issue, so at his death in 1774 his title and property descended to his nephew, George Barnewall (1758-1800), 5th Viscount. He had been brought up in London as a Protestant, and he was therefore eligible to take up his seat in the Irish House of Lords, which he did in 1787. However, at some point in the 1790s, when several of his kinsmen were scrambling to get out of France, he moved there for reasons which are now obscure. One version of events says that he was confined in a lunatic asylum there, but his will, written shortly before his death, was proved without demur, so this is unlikely.
What happened to the peerage after 1800 is the stuff of romantic legend. The 5th Viscount having no sons or other obvious heirs, the viscountcy became dormant on his death. A young and uncouth Dublin waiter called Matthew Barnewall (d. 1834) believed himself to be descended from the Hon. Francis Barnewall (c.1629-97), a younger son of the 1st Viscount, and in the 1790s, hearing a false report that the 5th Viscount had died in France, he ‘mustered a strong force of the employees of the taverns and the market… and with that formidable army, proceeded forthwith to Turvey… of which he took instant possession. There he cut down timber, lighted bonfires, and for some short time indulged in the exercise of rude hospitality to the companions who had escorted him’, before Lord Trimlestown, who was acting either as guardian or attorney of the 5th Viscount, applied to the court of Chancery and secured his ejection and committal to Newgate Prison on charges of contempt. There he came to the attention of a solicitor called Hitchcock, who became convinced that he boy might really be heir to the peerage, and set about proving it at his own expense, which he was eventually able to do to the satisfaction of the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords, and the dormancy was ended in Matthew’s favour in 1814. The estates had, however, been bequeathed by the 5th Viscount to Lord Trimlestown, so the peerage was rather an empty honour, although a state pension of £500 a year was granted to the 6th Viscount for life. The 6th Viscount was thrice married, but had no surviving sons, so on his death in 1834 the peerage again became dormant. It was quickly claimed by one Capt Thomas Barnewall, whose petition to the House of Lords was never adjudicated on, but modern scholarship suggests that it was ill-founded, in that his claim that his great-grandfather. Col James Barnewall, was the sixth son of the 1st Viscount Barnewall was incorrect; he was in fact the second husband of the 1st Viscount’s daughter, Mabel, Countess of Fingall. So in 1834 the title became extinct. There continued, however, to be a Lady Kingsland as late as 1890, for the 6th Viscount’s widow survived him for many years. Having been left very little by her husband, she was defrauded of the little she did have by her own brother, and subsequently lived a life of absolute penury in a single room in a tumble-down lodging house in Lambeth, where she and her daughter subsisted on what they earned sewing shirts as piecework, and occasional parish relief. She came to public attention in 1878, when belatedly she made an application to the Universal Benefit Society for financial assistance, and with this help, she was able to live out her last years in slightly more genteel poverty.
The last branch of the family to be explored is that settled at Bloomsbury (Co. Meath). Joseph Barnewall (1781-1852), who rented Bloomsbury from 1829 and bought the freehold in 1835, was the youngest son of Richard Barnewall (c.1744-1826), on whom the 14th Baron Trimlestown had settled his estates in default of his own heirs. Since there is no evidence that he pursued a career he presumably inherited a sufficient sum from his father or through his marriage to make the purchase. Bloomsbury was not a large house at the time, but his elder son, Richard Barnewall (1821-66) doubled its size in 1858. He had no children, so on his early death it passed to his brother, Thomas Barnewall (1825-98), who died unmarried and left it to his sister, Katherine Barnewall (c.1824-1907). Having no close relatives, she chose to leave the property to her distant kinsman, the 18th Baron Trimlestown, who as we have seen was impoverished and obliged to sell off parts of the estate. He occupied Bloomsbury for a time but sold it in about 1920.
The major branch of the family which I have not considered in this post was the senior line, who were established at Crickston (Co. Meath) in the 15th-17th centuries. I have traced their descent below only in so far as is necessary to show the relationship between Barons Trimlestown and the Viscounts Barnewall of Kingsland, who were a cadet branch of the Crickston family. In the 1620s, the latter acquired a baronetcy, and they may have built a new fortified house at Crickston, although if so it was destroyed a few years later during the Civil War. Although their baronetcy is still in existence, the current baronet lives in Australia, and the descent of the honour was early separated from significant landed possessions in Ireland. I cannot see that any of the holders of the title have possessed a country house that would qualify them for detailed study here, but if anyone knows differently I should be very pleased to hear from them.
Trimlestown Castle, Co Meath (aka Trimblestown Castle)
The massive and imposing ruins of the late medieval castle built by the Barnewalls in the 15th century stand on the east bank of the Trimlestown River, some three miles west of Trim. The walls still rise for a full three storeys, with a big south-west corner tower and battlemented wall-heads that give it a romantic silhouette. The castle forms a block 114 feet long and 40 feet wide at the southern end, where the tower stands, but narrows to a fraction of that at the north end. Ivy now covers a shield on the tower said to have borne the arms of the Barnewall and Nugent families, which may suggest that the tower was an addition of the time of the 6th Lord Trimlestown (d. 1598), who married Katherine Nugent. Internally the building is dominated by a two-storey vaulted great hall of 52 ft by 17 ft, that faces towards the river and is marked by massive tapering buttresses, though this is now partially filled with the rubble of collapsed walls. The floors above the vault seem to have had timber floors, and little is therefore left of them. The corner tower is also barrel-vaulted at first-floor level.
The medieval and 16th century castle was evidently damaged in the Civil War, and although the family recovered possession of it fairly quickly, little was done by way of improvements until the 18th century. In 1686, the 9th Baron told his son that he had made ‘considerable improvements’, but this seems to have meant that he had put the castle into repair, for he went on that there was now ‘only a good house wanting’, and suggesting that ‘some little building or improvements’ could be made ‘without incommoding yourself or the fortune I leave you’. But whatever the 10th Baron’s intentions in this matter, they were frustrated by his attainder in 1691 and death the following year. It seems probable that improvements had been made by 1753, when Richard Pococke visited. He described the great avenue leading to the house and church from the Trim road, and says the house is ‘built [on]to an ancient Castle, that was mostly destroyed in Olivers time’, before waxing lyrical about the botanical curiosities which Robert Barnewall (the 12th Baron Trimlestown) had imported.
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| Trimlestown Castle: an early 19th century engraving showing the east front as altered c.1800. It had probably already been abandoned by this date. |
Further changes were made to the northern end of the site in about 1790-1800, either by the 13th Baron, who returned to England in 1790 and died in 1796, or after the second marriage in 1797 of his nephew, the 14th Baron. It appears that until then another square tower stood at the north-east corner, creating a Z-plan layout like that of some 16th century Scottish castles. This north-east tower was demolished in about 1800 to allow the creation of a new east front, the main feature of which is a three-storey bow, with three windows on each floor and miniature battlements at the top. Similarities with work undertaken at Louth Castle around the same time have led to the suggestion that Richard Johnston might have been the architect responsible in both instances, but there is no documentary evidence for this. In 1800, Lord Trimlestown inherited Turvey House in Co. Dublin, and in due course the family moved there, leaving Trimlestown Castle to slip into decay.
It was evidently still habitable in about 1840, when it was fully roofed and there were a kitchen garden and orchards around the house, but in 1849 Sir William Wilde called it ‘forsaken and neglected, a perfect ruin’. Shortly afterwards, a Dublin merchant called Fagan (perhaps the same man as rented Turvey House) rented the place and attempted to arrest the decay by putting on a new roof, enabling his successor – a farming tenant – to occupy the building. The new roof can only have been partial, however, for by the 1860s the northern end was roofless and all trace of polite grounds had disappeared. By 1915, the demesne was part of a successful stud, owned by Frank Barbour, who built a new house and stables nearby.
Descent: Christopher Browne/Le Brun; to daughter Elizabeth, wife of Sir Robert Barnewall (d. c.1471), 1st Baron Trimlestown; to son, Christopher Barnewall (d. by 1513), 2nd Baron Trimlestown; to son, Sir John Barnewall (d. 1538), 3rd Baron Trimlestown; to son, Patrick Barnewall (d. c.1562), 4th Baron Trimlestown; to son, Sir Robert Barnewall (d. 1573), 5th Baron Trimlestown; to brother, Sir Peter Barnewall (d. 1598), 6th Baron Trimlestown; to son, Robert Barnewall (d. 1639), 7th Baron Trimlestown; to grandson, Matthias Barnewall (c.1614-67), 8th Baron Trimlestown; to son, Robert Barnewall (c.1640-87), 9th Baron Trimlestown; to son, Matthias Barnewall (c.1670-92), 10th Baron Trimlestown, who was attainted; seized by Crown and granted to Henry Sydney (1641-1704), 1st Earl of Romney, but returned in 1695 to John Barnewall (1672-1746), de jure 11th Baron Trimlestown; to son, Robert Barnewall (c.1705-79), de jure 12th Baron Trimlestown; to son, Thomas Barnewall (c.1739-96), 13th Baron Trimlestown; to cousin, Nicholas Barnewall (1726-1813), 14th Baron Trimlestown; to son, John Thomas Barnewall (1773-1839), 15th Baron Trimlestown; to son, Thomas Barnewall (1796-1879), 16th Baron Trimlestown; to kinsman, Christopher Patrick Mary Barnewall (1846-91), 17th Baron Trimlestown; to brother, Charles Aloysius Barnewall (1861-1937), 18th Baron Trimlestown, who sold it before 1915 to Frank Barbour.
Barnewall family of Trimlestown, Barons Trimlestown
Barnewall, Sir Christopher (d. 1446), kt. Son of Sir Christopher de Barneval (fl. 1386) [for whom see below, under Barnewall of Turvey House, Viscounts Barnewall of Kingsland] and his wife Eleanor, daughter of Sir Nicholas Rochford of Rathcoffie (Co. Kildare) and Kilbride (Co. Meath). Serjeant-at-law in Ireland, 1408 and King’s Serjeant, 1420-34; a justice of Kings Bench, 1434-46 (Chief Justice, 1435-37, 1437-46). Deputy Lord Treasurer of Ireland, 1430-35 and Lord Treasurer, 1437-46. He married Matilda Drake, daughter and heiress of the last feudal lord of Drakestown and Drakerath, and had issue:
(1) Sir Nicholas Barnewall (d. c.1465); Treasurer of the Liberty of Trim, 1436-43; Chief Justice of Kings Bench, 1457-63; knighted 1460; married Ismay (who m2, Sir Robert Bold and died about 1478), daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Serjeant of Castleknock (Co. Dublin) and had issue three sons [from whom descended the Barnewalls of Crickstown and of Dunbrow]; living in 1465 but probably died soon afterwards;
(2) Sir Robert Barnewall (d. c.1471), kt. and 1st Baron Trimlestown (q.v.).
He inherited Crickstown Castle (Co. Meath) from his father.
He died about the beginning of October 1446. His wife’s date of death is unknown.
Barnewall, Sir Robert (d. c.1471), kt., 1st Baron Trimlestown. Younger son of Sir Christopher Barnewall (d. 1446) of Crickstown and his wife Matilda Drake. He was knighted in about 1449 while on campaign with the Duke of York, and was made an Irish Privy Councillor for life and raised to the peerage as Baron Trimlestown, 4 March 1461. It is the earliest Irish peerage to have been created by patent (earlier peerages had been created only by writ of summons). He married* Anne alias Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Christopher Browne (or Le Brun) of Roebuck (Co. Dublin) and had issue including:
(1) Christopher Barnewall (d. by 1513), 2nd Baron Trimlestown (q.v.);
(2) Hon. Thomas Barnewall, of Irishtown; married Elizabeth Cardiff and had issue one daughter (who married Sir Bartholomew Dill of Riverston).
Through his marriage he inherited a half-share in the lordship of Athboy (Co. Meath), including the manor of Trimlestown, where he settled.
He died about 1471/2. His wife’s date of death is unknown.
* Lodge’s Peerage of Ireland says he married 2nd, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Plunkett, but this seems unlikely as she would have been his great-great-niece.
Barnewall, Sir Christopher (d. by 1513), 2nd Baron Trimlestown. Son of Sir Robert Barnewall (d. c.1471), 1st Baron Trimlestown, and his first wife, Anne or Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Christopher Browne of Roebuck (Co. Dublin). He was studying law in London in 1460 and succeeded his father as 2nd Baron, c.1471. He may have been knighted before that, but no record of his knighthood has been found. He was lucky to be one of the eight Irish peers pardoned for his involvement in the Yorkist conspiracy of 1488, in which Lambert Simnel impersonated one of the Princes in the Tower, and was obliged to take the oath of allegiance before the King’s envoy in July 1488. He sat in the Irish Parliament in 1491 and 1493 and fought under the Lord Deputy, the Earl of Kildare, at the Battle of Knockdoe in 1504. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Plunkett of Rathmore, and had issue including:
(1) John Barnewall (1470-1538), 3rd Baron Trimlestown (q.v.);
(2) Hon. Robert Barnewall (d. by 1547); educated at Grays Inn (admitted before 1520); lessee of the Kings Inn, Dublin, 1541; ancestor of the Barnewalls of Roestown (Co. Meath), which estate he acquired through his first marriage to Johanna Rowe, by whom he had three sons and two daughters; he married 2nd, Elizabeth (who m2, James Bathe), daughter of John Talbot of Dardiston, and had further issue four sons and six daughters; died before 1547;
(3) Hon. Ismay Barnewall; married William Bathe of Rathseigh;
(4) A daughter; married John Netterville of Dowth, a justice of the King’s Bench;
(5) Hon. Alison Barnewall; married Sir Roger Barnewall (b. c.1472), kt. [for whom see below, under Barnewall of Turvey House, Viscounts Barnewall of Kingsland] and had issue.
He inherited Trimlestown from his father in about 1471.
He died between 1504 and 1513. On a roadside cross about 4 miles south of Drogheda Archbishop Octavian of Armagh promised an indulgence of thirty days to those performing an Our Father and a Hail Mary for the souls of him and his wife. His wife was also dead by June 1513.
…[see website]
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| Nicholas Barnewall (1726-1813), 14th Baron Trimlestown |
Barnewall, Nicholas (1726-1813), 14th Baron Trimlestown. Elder son of Richard Barnewall (fl. 1726-68) and his wife Frances, daughter of Nicholas Barnewall, 3rd Viscount Barnewall of Kingsland, born 29 June 1726. He was a leading figure in freemasonry in Toulouse until he fled to England from the French Revolution in about 1790. He succeeded his cousin as 14th Baron, 24/29 December 1796. In 1799 he was President of the Bath Harmonic Society and presumably then living in that city. He married 1st, 1 November 1768, Maria Henrietta (c.1730-82), only daughter of Joseph d’Auguin, President of the Parliament of Toulouse (France), and 2nd, 8 August 1797, Alicia (1773-1860), second daughter of Lt-Gen. Charles Eustace of Robertstown (Co. Kildare), and had issue:
(1.1) Richard Barnewall (b. 1770), born August 1770; died in infancy;
(1.2) Hon. Rosalie Barnewall (c.1771-1864), born about 1771; married, 3 December 1795, Peter, Count D’Alton (d. 1851) of Grenanstown (Co. Tipperary), and had issue two sons and one daughter; died in Florence (Italy), 2 February 1864;
(1.3) John Thomas Barnewall (1773-1839), 15th Baron Trimlestown (q.v.).
After his marriage, he lived at the Chateau Lamirolles, Verdun-sur-Garonne until the French Revolution, when he fled to England, and he subsequently divided his time between England and Ireland. He inherited Turvey House and the Barnewall estates at Roebuck (Co. Dublin) and in Galway and Offaly on the death of the 5th Viscount Barnewall of Kingsland in 1800, and entailed these estates on his male heirs in 1812. He fitted up one room in Roebuck Castle as a theatre before 1795, but sold the castle soon after 1800. In London he had a town house in Portland Place by 1810.
He died 17 April 1813. His will, which made extensive provision for his widow, was proved in Dublin in 1813 but contested by his son, and although a compromise was agreed in 1833 she did not actually receive anything until 1847! His first wife died in May 1782. His widow married 2nd, 24 July 1814 at Donabate (Co. Dublin), Lt-Gen. Sir Evan Lloyd (1768-1846) of Ferney Hall (Shrops.) and had issue one son and two daughters; she died at Stanton Lacy House (Shrops.), 25 November 1860.
Barnewall, John Thomas (1773-1839), 15th Baron Trimlestown. Only surviving son of Nicholas Barnewall (1726-1813), 14th Baron Trimlestown, and his first wife, Maria Henrietta, only daughter of Joseph d’Auguin of Toulouse (France), born in France, 29 January 1773. Member of the Royal Irish Academy. In 1812 The Globe noted that he had ‘distinguished himself by some eloquent and impressive addresses’ at popular assemblies in support of Catholic emancipation. He succeeded his father as 15th Baron, 17 April 1813, but was aggrieved by the terms of his will, which he felt made an unreasonably generous provision for his stepmother. He accordingly tried to have the will overturned on the grounds of her undue influence, and the matter was not finally settled until shortly before his death; he was also at law with his stepmother in a dispute over the arrangements for the payment of her jointure, which was not settled until 1843. He seems also, from the terms of his will, to have fallen out with his son and daughter-in-law, who received no share of his personal effects. He married, 16 January 1793, Maria Theresa (d. 1824), daughter of the Irish scientist and eccentric, Richard Kirwan of Cregg Castle (Co. Galway), and had issue:
(1) Thomas Barnewall (1796-1879), 16th Baron Trimlestown (q.v.);
(2) Hon. Martha Henrietta Barnewall (1800-36), baptised at Bath RC Church, 28 July 1800; died unmarried in Bath, 10 April 1836.
After the death of his wife he apparently solaced himself with mistresses: his ‘dear friend’ Eugenia Ponti who lived with him in Naples (to whom he left 50,000 francs*), ‘Heloisa Goury Widow Parry’ in London, who was one of his principal legatees, and Caroline, Marquise de Bailliet in Paris (to whom he left 40,000 francs*).
He inherited Turvey House from his father in 1813. He had a house in London, adjoining Grosvenor House, which was purchased after his death by the Marquess of Westminster and demolished to allow the enlargement of Grosvenor House. He seems also to have had a house in Paris, the contents of which were dispersed to friends and relatives by his will, and at the time of his death he was living at the Palazzo Calabritti in Naples.
He died in Naples (Italy), 7 October 1839; his will was proved 18 February 1840. His wife died 10 September or 12 October 1824.
* 50,000 fr. was about £2,000 and 40,000 fr. about £1,600 at the then prevailing rate of exchange.
Barnewall, Thomas (1796-1879), 16th Baron Trimlestown. Only son of John Thomas Barnewall (1773-1839), 15th Baron Trimlestown, and his wife Maria Theresa, daughter of Richard Kirwan of Cregg (Co. Galway), born 14 April 1796. High Sheriff of Co. Dublin, 1830. He succeeded his father as 16th Baron, 7 October 1839, and continued his father’s legal dispute with his grandfather’s widow until judgement was finally given against him in 1843. He was a founder member of the Society for Irishmen in London, 1844, and in 1848 was one of the few Catholic gentry to join the nationalist Irish Confederacy. He married, 3 November 1836 at Twickenham (Middx), Margaret Randalina (d. 1872), daughter of Philip Roche, and had issue:
(1) A son (b. & d. 1837), born 22 August 1837; died in infancy, 27 August 1837;
(2) Hon. Anna Maria Louisa Barnewall (1839-1914), born 8 May 1839; married, 4 June 1868, Robert Henry Elliot DL (1837-1914) of Clifton Park (Roxburghs.) and Ballybrittas (Co. Offaly), and had issue one son; died at sea on S.S. Arabia, 16 April 1914 and was buried at Linton (Roxburghs.); her will was confirmed 27 January 1915 (estate £1,475).
He inherited Turvey House from his father in 1839, but leased it out. His gave up the lease on his father’s London town house in exchange for what is now 129 Park Lane, which he remodelled in 1853 to the designs of Thomas Cundy II (for the Grosvenor estate) and George Legg (for Lord Trimlestown).
He died 4 August 1879 and was buried at Linton; his will was proved 6 September 1879 (effects in England under £80,000; in Ireland, £6,518). His wife died at Ryde (Isle of Wight), 4 September 1872; administration of her goods was granted 17 December 1872 (effects under £9,000).
Barnewall, Hon. Patrick (b. c.1600). Second son of Robert Barnewall (c.1574-1639), 7th Baron Trimlestown, and his wife Genet, daughter of Thomas Talbot of Dardistown (Co. Meath), born in or shortly before 1600. He married 1st, Katherine, daughter of Robert Barnewall of Bremore (Co. Dublin) and 2nd, Katherine, daughter of Mathew King of Co. Kildare, and had issue:
(1.1) Christopher Barnewall (fl. 1670) (q.v.).
His date of death is unknown. His first wife’s date of death is unknown. His second wife’s date of death is unknown.
Barnewall, Christopher (fl. 1670). Only recorded son of the Hon. Patrick Barnewall (fl. 1600) and his first wife, Katherine, daughter of Robert Barnewall of Bremore (Co. Dublin). He married 1st, [forename unknown], daughter of Gerald Nangle of Kildalkey (Co. Meath), and 2nd, 1670, Jane, daughter of Edward Tuite of Trimlestown, and had issue including:
(1.1) Richard Barnewall (d. 1718) (q.v.);
(1.2) Patrick Barnewall; died without issue;
(1.3) Garrett Barnewall;
(1.4) Peter Barnewall.
He lived at Woodtown (Co. Meath).
His date of death is unknown. His wife’s date of death is unknown.
Barnewall, Richard (d. 1718). Eldest son of Christopher Barnewall and his wife, [forename unknown], daughter of Gerald Nangle of Kildalkey (Co. Meath). He married 1st, Aminett, sister of James Barnewall of Bremore (Co. Dublin) and widow of James Caddell, and 2nd, 3 March 1712, Bridget (d. 1755), daughter of Henry Piers of Ballydrimney (Co. Meath), and had issue:
(1.1) Elizabeth Barnewall; married Henry Plunkett;
(2.1) Christopher Barnewall (b. 1715) (q.v.);
(2.2) Anne Barnewall (d. 1740); died unmarried.
He lived at Clonylogan.
He died in February 1717/8. His first wife died before 1712. His widow married 2nd, 1723, Robert Barnewall (b. 1702) of Moyrath (Co. Meath), son of Bartholomew Barnewall of Ballyhost (Co. Westmeath) and had further issue one son; she died in 1755.
Barnewall, Christopher (b. 1715). Only son of Richard Barnewall (d. 1718) and his second wife, Bridget, daughter of Henry Piers of Ballydrimney (Co. Meath), born 1715. He married Cecilia, daughter of Matthew Dowdall of Clone (Co. Meath) and had issue:
(1) Richard Barnewall (c.1744-1827) (q.v.);
(2) Anne Barnewall; married, 13 October 1777, Columbus Drake (1750-1806) of Roristown (Co. Meath), elder son of Patrick Drake of Drakerath (Co. Meath), and had issue two sons and three daughters.
He lived at Fyanstown.
His date of death is unknown. His wife’s date of death is unknown.
Barnewall, Richard (c.1744-1826). Only son of Christopher Barnewall (b. 1715) and his wife Cecilia, daughter of Matthew Dowdall of Clone (Co. Meath), born about 1744. In 1812, the 14th Baron settled the Turvey House estate on him and his descendants so that it continued to accompany the Trimlestown peerage. He married, 1764. Katherine (d. 1823?), daughter of George Byrne of Seatown, Dundalk (Co. Louth) and had issue:
(1) Christopher Barnewall (1765-1849) (q.v.);
(2) Patrick Barnewall (c.1773-1854); lived at Causestown; married Barbara (d. 1862), daughter of Thomas Everard of Randalstown (Co. Meath) but had no issue; died at Dalkey (Co. Dublin), 4 August 1854;
(3) Joseph Barnewall (1781-1852) [for whom see below, Barnewall of Bloomsbury];
(4) Cecilia Barnewall; married 1st, John Connolly of New Haggard (Co. Meath) and 2nd, Charles Nangle (c.1786-1847) of New Haggard and Kildalkey, son of Walter Nangle, who died bankrupt.
He lived at Fyanstown.
He died aged 82 at Greenanstown (Co. Meath) in June 1826. His wife is said to have died in 1823.
Barnewall, Christopher (1765-1849). Eldest son of Richard Barnewall (c.1744-1826) and his wife Katherine, daughter of George Byrne of Seatown, Dundalk (Co. Louth), born 3 September 1765. He married, November 1793, Anne (1772-1819?), daughter of Charles Aylmer of Painstown, and had issue including:
(1) Esmay Mary Catherine Barnewall (1794-1879), born October 1794; married, 29 September 1836 at Ardbraccan (Co. Meath), Sir Aylmer John Barnewall (1789-1838), 9th bt., of Greenanstown (Co. Meath), and had issue one son; died in London, 5 March 1879, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery;
(2) Charles Barnewall (c.1800-73) (q.v.);
(3) Cecilia Barnewall (c.1801-82); died unmarried aged 80 in Dublin, 3 January 1882;
(4) Anne Barnewall (b. c.1803), born about 1803; died unmarried and possibly young;
(5) Jane Barnewall (c.1804-81); died unmarried, 20 January 1881;
(6) Richard Barnewall (c.1806-89), born about 1806; died 11 March 1889;
(7) Mary Barnewall (b. c.1808), born about 1808; died unmarried and possibly young.
He lived at Meadstown (Co. Meath), where he was a tenant in 1805 but may have purchased the freehold when it was sold in that year.
He died in Dublin aged 84 on 14 August 1849. His wife is said to have died 14 August 1819.
Barnewall, Charles (c.1800-73). Elder son of Christopher Barnewall (c.1775-1849) and his wife Anne, daughter of Charles Aylmer of Painstown, born about 1800. JP for Co. Meath. In 1836 he was a member of the provisional committee promoting the Dublin & Drogheda Railway. Throughout his life, he was a locally prominent leader of the Catholic causes and campaigns, including those for the repeal of the Union, opposition to tithes and securing the rights of Catholic tenants. He married 1st, Katherine, daughter of John Connolly of New Haggard (Co. Meath) and 2nd, 9 October 1844 at St Michan’s RC Church, Dublin, Letitia (c.1825-86), daughter of Gerald Aylmer of Lyons, and had issue:
(2.1) Hon. Katherine Barnewall (1845-1928); a nun at Wicklow as Sister Mary Dominic; granted the rank of a baron’s daughter, 2 August 1893; died 15 July 1928;
(2.2) Christopher Patrick Mary Barnewall (1846-91), de jure 17th Baron Trimlestown (q.v.);
(2.3) Hon. Anna Maria Barnewall (1848-1930), baptised 8 October 1848 at Templenoe (Co. Kerry); granted the rank of a baron’s daughter, 2 August 1893; died unmarried, 10 November 1930; will proved 13 January 1931 (estate £548);
(2.4) Hon. Esmay (aka Esmina) Barbara Mary Barnewall (1850-1910), baptised at St Michael’s RC church, Kingstown, Dublin, 30 May 1850; granted the rank of a baron’s daughter, 2 August 1893; married, 21 November 1883 at St Andrew RC Church, Dublin, Nicholas Francis Haly Coppinger (1831-1905) of Monkstown (Co. Dublin) and had issue one son and one daughter; committed suicide, 6 April 1910; administration of goods (with will annexed) granted 27 April 1910 (estate £2,474);
(2.5) Hon. Mary Jane Barnewall (1851-1919), baptised at St Michael’s RC church, Kingstown, Dublin, 11 September 1851; a sister of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Lismore, New South Wales (Australia) as Sister Berchmans; granted the rank of a baron’s daughter, 2 August 1893; died 18 August 1919;
(2.6) Hon. Helen Cecilia Mary Barnewall (1853-1936), baptised at St Michael’s RC church, Kingstown, Dublin, 22 November 1853; granted the rank of a baron’s daughter, 2 August 1893; died unmarried, 14 October 1936; will proved 19 December 1936 (estate £6,201);
(2.7) Hon. Letitia Fanny Barnewall (1855-1933), born 12 February and baptised at St Michael’s RC church, Kingstown, Dublin, 18 February 1855; a sister of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Lismore, New South Wales as Sister Ignatius; granted the rank of a baron’s daughter, 2 August 1893; died 31 January 1933;
(2.8) Gerald Aylmer Barnewall (1856-71), born 8 May and baptised at St Michael’s RC church, Kingstown, Dublin, 13 May 1856; died young, 2 July 1871;
(2.9) Hon. Angelina Barnewall (b. 1857), baptised at St Michael’s RC church, Kingstown, Dublin, 7 October 1857; a Sister of Mercy at Arklow (Co. Wicklow); granted the rank of a baron’s daughter, 2 August 1893; death not traced;
(2.10) Hon. Cecilia Mary Barnewall (1859-1908), baptised at St Michael’s RC church, Kingstown, Dublin, 6 May 1859; granted the rank of a baron’s daughter, 2 August 1893; married, 5 October 1907, Maj. Henry Chamney CMG, son of Rev. Joseph Chamney DD of Ard Ronan (Co. Louth); died without issue at Rustenberg, Transvaal (South Africa), 11 July 1908; will proved 17 April 1909 (estate £635);
(2.11) Hon. Marcella Mary Barnewall (1862-1930), born 10 October and baptised at Dalkey (Co. Dublin), 16 October 1862; granted the rank of a baron’s daughter, 2 August 1893; died unmarried, 29 October 1930; will proved 12 December 1930 (estate £1,234);
(2.12) Charles Aloysius Barnewall (1861-1937), 18th Baron Trimlestown (q.v.);
(2.13) Hon. Margaret Barnewall (1864-1916), born at Athboy (Co. Meath), 31 January 1864; granted the rank of a baron’s daughter, 2 August 1893; married, 19 January 1899 at St Andrew RC Church, Dublin, Bertrand Thomas Lambert (who m2, 12 June 1923 Julia More-O’Ferrell), son of Ambrose Lambert, but had no issue; died 17 July 1916; will proved 5 September 1916 (estate £287).
He lived at Meadstown and had a house at 72 Eccles St., Dublin.
He died in Dublin, 2 May 1873; administration of his goods was granted 9 February 1881 (effects under £200). His widow died 3 March 1886.
Barnewall, Christopher Patrick Mary (1846-91), de jure 17th Baron Trimlestown. Eldest son of Charles Barnewall (d. 1873) of Meadstown and his second wife Letitia, daughter of Gerald Aylmer of Lyons, born 6 October 1846. He succeeded his distant cousin as 17th Baron, 4 August 1879, but did not seek to prove his title to the peerage until 1889 and died before the process was completed. He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited Turvey House from the 16th Baron in 1879, but the property was let throughout his tenure.
He died 10 September 1891; his will was proved 29 October 1891 (estate £2,202).
Barnewall, Charles Aloysius (1861-1937), 18th Baron Trimlestown. Third son of Charles Barnewall (d. 1873) of Meadstown and his second wife Letitia, daughter of Gerald Aylmer of Lyons, born 14 May and baptised at St Michael’s RC church, Kingstown, Dublin, 17 May 1861. As a young man he travelled extensively, but after his brother’s death he returned from Australia to Ireland. His elder brother having died in 1891 without establishing his right to the peerage, he proved his claim in 1893 and succeeded as 18th Baron. DL for Co. Dublin. He was a director of the Old Bushmills Distillery Company (resigned 1898). He married 1st, 26 October 1889, Margaret Theresa (c.1869-1901), daughter of Richard John Stephens of Brisbane, Queensland (Australia), 2nd, 10 December 1907, Mabel Florence (d. 1914), daughter of William Robert Shuff of Torquay (Devon), and 3rd, 12 August 1930 at Christ Church, Eltham (Kent), Josephine Francesca (d. 1945), daughter of Rt. Hon. Sir Christopher John Nixon, 1st bt., Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Ireland, and had issue:
(1.1) Hon. Ivy Esmay Myee Barnewall (1890-1971), born 14 September 1890; married 1st, 30 April 1917, John Radcliff (d. 1953) of Nigerian civil service, eldest son of George Edward Radcliff JP of Wilmount, Kells (Co. Meath) and had issue one son (killed in action in Second World War); married 2nd, 30 April 1956, John Kidd (d. 1958), son of Thomas Kidd of Linares (Spain); said to have died in 1971, possibly in Cape Town (South Africa);
(1.2) Hon. Marcella Hilda Charlotte Barnewall (1893-1965), born 29 June 1893; married, 4 July 1917, Maj. Charles Bathurst MC (d. 1942), son of Lancelot Bathurst, but had no issue; died 11 September 1965;
(1.3) Hon. Letitia Anne Margaret Barnewall (1895-1938), born 23 September 1895; married, 11 June 1919 at Corpus Christi RC church, Maiden Lane, London, Lt-Col. Cuthbert Hanson Townsend (1872-1956) of Ewell (Surrey), son of Vice-Adm. Samuel Philip Townsend, and had issue one son; died 2 May 1938; will proved 12 July 1938 (estate £2,645);
(1.4) Hon. Reginald Nicholas Francis Mary Barnewall (1897-1918), born 24 September 1897; an officer in the Leinster Regiment (Capt.) in First World War; died unmarried in the lifetime of his father when he died of wounds received in action, 24 March 1918; buried at Bronfay Farm Military Cemetery, Bray-sur-Somme (France); administration of goods granted 19 July 1918 (estate £1,908);
(1.5) Charles Aloysius Barnewall (1899-1990), 19th Baron Trimestown (q.v.);
(1.6) Hon. Geraldine Christina Marjory Barnewall (1900-02), born 14 June 1900; died young, 23 June 1902.
He inherited Turvey House, which was tenanted, from his father in 1891, but sold it in c.1902. In 1907 he inherited Bloomsbury House from his distant cousin, Katherine Barnewall (c.1824-1907), but he sold it in about 1920. He lived at Loughlinstown (Co. Dublin) and in London, and is said to have still owned 6,000 acres in Ireland at the time of his death.
He died 26 January 1937 and was buried at Mortlake (Surrey), 3 February 1937. His first wife died 9 January 1901. His second wife died 16 March 1914; her will was proved 25 April 1914 (estate £1,234 in England and £1,427 in Ireland). His widow died 15 June 1945; her will was proved 11 January 1946 (estate £9,452).
Barnewall, Charles Aloysius (1899-1990), 19th Baron Trimlestown. Second but eldest surviving son of Charles Aloysius Barnewall (1861-1937), 18th Baron Trimlestown, and his first wife Margaret Theresa, daughter of Richard John Stephens of Brisbane, Queensland (Australia), born 2 June 1899. Educated at Ampleforth. He served as an officer in the Irish Guards (2nd Lt.) in the First World War. He succeeded his father as 19th Baron, 26 January 1937. He married 1st, 16 June 1926, Muriel (1894-1937), only child of Edward Oskar Schneider of Mansfield Lodge, Whalley Range, Manchester, and 2nd, 7 May 1952, Freda Kathleen (1911-87), daughter of Alfred Allan Watkins of Ross-on-Wye (Herefs), and had issue:
(1.1) Anthony Edward Barnewall (1928-97), 20th Baron Trimlestown, born 2 February 1928; educated at Ampleforth; served in the Irish Guards, 1946-48, and was a naval architect, 1949-53; sales executive with P&O Shipping Company, 1965-74; succeeded his father as 20th Baron, 9 October 1990; lived at Boxford (Suffk) and later at Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA); married 1st, 30 September 1963 (div. 1973), Lorna Margaret Marion (1934-88), daughter of Charles Douglas Ramsey and 2nd, 14 May 1977, Mary Wonderly (1925-2006), elder daughter of Judge Thomas Francis McAllister of Grand Rapids, Michigan and formerly wife of Frederick Reese Brown (1915-2007), but had no issue; died 21 August 1997;
(1.2) Hon. Diana Barnewall (b. 1929), born 13 October 1929; lived at Farnham (Surrey) and later at Rogate (Sussex); married, 30 October 1954 at the Brompton Oratory, London, Anthony Gerard Astley Birtwhistle (b. 1928), youngest son of James Astley Birtwhistle of Hoghton (Lancs) and Wroxham (Oxon), and had issue four daughters;
(1.3) Raymond Charles Barnewall (b. 1930), 21st Baron Trimlestown (q.v.), born 29 December 1930; educated at Ampleforth; undertook National Service in Northern Ireland, 1949-51; dairy farmer at Dartington (Devon) until retirement; succeeded his elder brother as 21st Baron, 21 August 1997; is unmarried and without issue and has no heir to the peerage.
He lived at Epsom (Surrey) and subsequently at Dartington (Devon) and Chiddingfold (Surrey).
He died 9 October 1990; will proved 14 November 1990 (estate under £115,000). His first wife died 22 June 1937; her will was proved 13 August 1937 (estate £229). His second wife died 5 May 1987; her will was proved 18 September 1987 (estate under £70,000).
Irish Historic Houses 