Fitzgerald, James (d. circa 1462) 7th Earl of Desmond

Lisfinny Castle, Tallow, Co Waterford 

by jenjunebug

Lisfinny Castle, Tallow, Co Waterford 

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. 299. “A two storey house of late-Georgian appearance, built in front of an old Desmond castle, which rises above it. Five bay front, round-headed doorway not central; eaved roof. In 1837, the home of Capt Edwards Croker, recently, of Col L. P. Barrington.” 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/22902807/lisfinny-house-lisfinny-co-waterford

Detached five-bay two-storey over basement house, c.1790, on an L-shaped plan possibly incorporating fabric of earlier building, 1676 – 1677, with two-bay two-storey side elevations, and two-bay two-storey return to west. Renovated and refenestrated, c.1990. Hipped slate roof on an L-shaped plan with rolled lead ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods, c.1990, on rendered eaves having iron brackets retaining original cast-iron downpipes. Painted rendered walls over random rubble stone construction. Camber-headed window openings (square-headed window openings to basement) with stone sills, and replacement uPVC casement windows, c.1990. Round-headed door opening with doorcase removed, c.1990, timber panelled door, and spoked fanlight. Set back from road in own grounds with forecourt, and landscaped grounds to site. (ii) Detached three-bay single-storey rubble stone outbuilding with attic, c.1790, to north. Extended, c.1940, comprising single-bay single-storey lean-to end bay to right (east). Refenestrated, c.1990. Pitched slate roof (lean-to to end bay) with red clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stack, rendered coping, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Random rubble stone walls with unpainted rendered walls to end bay. Square-headed window openings with stone sills, and rubble stone voussoirs to original block. Replacement uPVC casement windows, c.1990. Square-headed door opening with rubble stone voussoirs, and replacement glazed uPVC panelled door, c.1990. (iii) Detached two-bay single-storey rubble stone coach house, c.1790, to north-west with pair of elliptical-headed carriageways, two-bay single-storey lower end bay to left (west), and single-bay single-storey lean-to lower end bay to right (east). Pitched slate roofs (lean-to to end bay) with red clay ridge tiles, rendered coping, and no rainwater goods on squared rubble stone eaves. Random rubble stone walls. Square-headed slit-style window openings with no fittings. Pair of elliptical-headed carriageways with squared rubble stone voussoirs, and timber boarded double doors. Square-headed door openings to end bay to right (east) with timber boarded half-doors. (iv) Detached single-bay four-stage tower house, pre-1579, to west on a rectangular plan. Now in ruins. Roof now gone. Random rubble stone walls with base batter. Square-headed slit-style window openings with cut-stone surrounds having chamfered reveals, and no fittings. One pointed-arch slit-style window opening with cut-stone surround having chamfered reveals, and no fittings. Profile-headed window opening to top stage with cut-stone surround having chamfered reveals, and no fittings. 

Appraisal 

A well-proportioned, substantial house possibly incorporating the fabric of an earlier medieval store house on site. Extensively renovated in the late twentieth century, the house nevertheless retains most of its original form, although the inappropriate replacement fittings to the window openings have compromised the historic character of the composition. The house is of additional significance in the locality on account of its historic associations with the Tucker and Pyne families. The survival of a small range of attendant outbuildings enhances the group and setting qualities of the site. A tower house to the grounds is of considerable archaeological significance, and, positioned on an elevated site overlooking the River Bride, forms a picturesque landmark in the locality. The tower house is of particular importance for its historic associations with Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 – 1618). 

At Lisfinny House, County Waterford, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.

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

Major Edward Croker was leasing this house from the Devonshire estate in 1851 when it was valued at £23. Lewis also recorded it as his residence in 1837 when he noted that “the ancient castle, built by the Earl of Desmond, has been converted into a handsome residence”. It is still extant and occupied.   

https://www.castles.nl/lisfinny-castle

Lisfinny Castle, County Waterford, courtesy https://www.castles.nl/lisfinny-castle

Lisfinny Castle lies on a farm next to the hamlet of Tallowbridge, in County Waterford in Ireland. 

Lisfinny Castle was probably built around 1460 by the Earl of Desmond. It was built on a hillside above the River Bride. After the Second Desmond Rebellion, during which the castle had been garrisoned by Spanish soldiers, the castle was granted to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587. 

Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) by Unknown English artist 1588, National Portrait Gallery of London ref. 7.

In 1602 the castle was purchased from Raleigh by Sir Richard Boyle, the Earl of Cork, but by 1641 it was already described as a ruin. In later centuries the castle was left a ruin and a new Georgian house was built beside it. 

Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork (1566-1643) Date c.1630, courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.

In 1888 it served as a fortified building one last time. The then lessee of Lisfinny, Douglas Pyne, choose to support the tenants in the Land War. When the authorities came to arrest him, he had baricaded himself in the castle with a big store of provisions. The police then set up tents around the castle and waited. Pyne managed to escape on a foggy morning when the police weren’t paying attention. 

Lisfinny Castle is situated on a private farm so it is not accessible. A nice tower, I am curious about its interior. 

Castle Matrix, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick (also called Castle Mattress)

by jenjunebug

Castle Matrix, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick [also called Castle Mattress] 

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. 73. “(Southwell, V/PB) A tall C15 keep of the Desmond Fitzgeralds on the bank of the River Deel; modernized 1837 by the Southwell family and a two storey castellated wing built on to it, extending right to the water’s edge. The keep has corner bartizans and Irish battlements. Unoccupied for more than 30 years from 1931, recently restored. 

Not in National Inventory 

https://archiseek.com/2014/castle-matrix-castle-mattress-rathkeale-co-limerick

15th C. – Castle Matrix, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick 

The castle was built as a fortress during the early 1400s by the 7th Earl of Desmond. In the early 1600’s the castle was granted to the Southwell family who converted it to a manor house. Sir Thomas Southwell who was a key figure in bringing Palatine refugees to Ireland, lived at Castle Matrix when he settled 100 families on his estate at Rathkeale in 1709. Visitors that came to stay at Castle Matrix were the poet Edmund Spenser and Sir Walter Raleigh. By the 1960s, the castle had fallen into disrepair and was restored by an American, Sean O’Driscoll. 

Thomas Southwell (1610-1680), 1st Baron Southwell by Balthazar Denner.

Irish Historic Houses. Kevin O’Connor 

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

In 1837 Lewis writes that the flour mill at Castle Matrix ”has been fitted up by the proprietor J. Southwell Brown esq in the most complete manner” and that the Elizabethan square castle was being repaired. The Ordnance Survey Field Name Book records Castlematrix as a large 2 storey house ”with a new castle 6 stories high adjoining”. John S. Brown held Castle Matrix from Lord Southwell. In the mid 19th century the buildings including the flour mills were valued at £90. In the 1853 sale rental which includes a lithograph, the castle is described as having been repaired and added to “regardless of expense. There are 9 bedrooms in the Castle, besides dressing closets, bathrooms, water closets, a large dining room, drawing room and library with extensive suites of servants’ apartments, and the entire fitted up in elegant and substanial style”. Castle Matrix was the headquarters of the International Institute of Military History and of the Heraldy Society of Ireland until 1991.  

http://www.patrickcomerford.com/search/label/Castle%20Matrix 

Castle Matrix was first built by the FitzGeralds, Earls of Desmond, near Rathkeale, Co Limerick, in the mid-15th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018) 
 
Patrick Comerford  
 
Castle Matrix on the outskirts of Rathkeale is difficult to find. Although I have been living in the Rathkeale Group of Parishes for more than I year, I have searched in vain for the entrance to the castle, time and again. 
 
That is, until this morning. 
 
I have spoken and lectured a number of times about the history of the Southwell family, who lived in Castle Matrix, to both the Irish Palatine Association and Rathkeale and District Historical Society. 
 
I knew where the castle is located, but there are no signs, and although I had seen it in the distance, I had failed to find the entrance. 
 
However, as I walked along the banks of the River Deel this morning after speaking at the school assembly, I caught a glimpse of the castle through trees still bare after winter. I decided to act on my instincts and go in search of the pathway leading up to the castle. 
 
This was once a welcoming place, offering hospitality, entertainment, banquets and unusual bed and breakfast. But the path leading up the castle is now overgrown, and a padlocked gate bars any entrance to the land immediately in front of the castle. 

The name of Castle Matrix may be derived from the Irish ‘Caisleán Bhun Tráisce’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018) 
 
The name of Castle Matrix may be derived from the Irish Caisleán Bhun Tráisce, although the one sign I could find gives no explanation for the meaning of the Irish name, nor does it indicate that this is the difficult-to-find Castle Matrix. 
 
Castle Matrix was built as a tower house in the 15th century by the FitzGeralds, Earl of Desmond. 
 
James FitzThomas FitzGerald (1459-1487), 8th Earl of Desmond, owned Castle Matrix in 1487. He was unpopular with his servants, so they decided to get rid of their employer by murdering him. He was murdered at Rathkeale on 7 December 1487 at the age of 28, by John Murtagh, one of his servants, at the instigation of his younger brother John. 
 
James was buried at Youghal, Co Cork,and his brother, Maurice FitzThomas FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Desmond, avenged his death by executing every servant the FitzGeralds had in Rathkeale. 
 
The explorer Sir Walter Raleigh (1552/1554-1618) was living at Castle Matrix in 1580, and the visitors to Castle Matrix in the Elizabethan era included his contemporary, the poet Edmund Spenser (1552-1599). When Edmund Spenser met Walter Raleigh here, their meeting inspired the poet to write The Faerie Queen. 
 
In the early 1600s, Castle Matrix was granted to the Southwell family, as ‘resident undertakers.’ The Southwell family converted the castle into their manor house and added a wing in 1610. Walter Raleigh presented some Virginia Tubers to Edmund Southwell, who planted these potatoes in the land around the castle and later distributed them throughout Munster. 

During the rebellions and wars of the mid-17th century, Castle Matrix captured by the Irish of Rathkeale in 1641, and fell to Cromwellian forces in 1651, when the tower was damaged by the Roundhead artillery. 
 
But Castle Matrix was soon regained by the Southwell family, and at the Restoration King Charles II gave the title of baronet to Sir Thomas Southwell, who extended his estates in the Rathkeale area. 
 
He died in 1680, and his son Sir Thomas Southwell (1665-1720), the second baronet, was a key figure in bringing the Palatine refugees to live in Ireland at the beginning of the 18th century. He was living in Castle Matrix when he settled 100 families on his estate at Rathkeale in 1709. Shortly before his death, he was given the additional title of Baron Southwell in 1717. 
 
The main tower is four storeys, although there may have been another floor, the east wall has six floors with small rooms. Battlements added 19C and windows enlarged.

Samuel Lewis writes in 1837 that the flour mill at Castle Matrix ‘has been fitted up by the proprietor J Southwell Brown esq in the most complete manner,’ and that the Elizabethan square castle was being repaired. 
 
The Ordnance Survey Field Name Book records Castlematrix as a large two-storey house, with a new castle six storeys high adjoining. John S Brown was Lord Southwell’s tenant in Castle Matrix. In the mid-19th century, the buildings including the flour mills, valued at £90. 
 
When the rental of the castle was being sold in 1853, Castle Matrix was described as having nine bedrooms, ‘besides dressing closets, bathrooms, water closets, a large dining room, drawing room and library with extensive suites of servants’ apartments, and the entire fitted up in elegant and substantial style.’ The sale included a lithograph in which the castle is described as having been repaired and added to ‘regardless of expense.’ 
 
Castle Matrix was finally sold by the Southwell family in the early 20th century, and was bought by the Johnson family, who continued to operate the mill and who lived in the castle for some decades. 

However, in the 1930s, the roof, doors and windows were removed to reduce taxes, and the castle was abandoned. By the 1960s, the castle had fallen into disrepair when it was bought by Colonel Sean O’Driscoll, an American architect who restored it to its former glory. 
 
In April 1971, to great fanfare and publicity, the castle opened for mediaeval banquets, similar to those in Bunratty Castle, serving meat from Castle Matrix livestock and fresh vegetables and fruit from the castle gardens and orchards, and offering entertainment included an ‘Elizabethan open-air theatre’ and music on piano and harp by candlelight. 
 
For some decades, the 12,000-volume castle library held a collection of original documents relating to the Wild Geese, and the tower led to an old chapel with a bell. 
 
Until 1991, Castle Matrix was open for tours and the headquarters of the International Institute of Military History and of the Heraldry Society of Ireland. 
 
Today, however, the castle looks forlorn once again, in a sad and lonely state, hidden behind a cluster of trees at the end of an unmarked track