Meade, John (1642-1707) 1st Baronet of Ballintober County Cork

Crotto, Kilflynn, Co Kerry

by jenjunebug

Crotto, Kilflynn, Co Kerry

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. 96. “(Ponsonby, sub Bessborough.E/PB) A house built 1669 by a branch of the Ponsonbys descended from Henry Ponsonby, younger brother of Sir John Ponsonby from whom the Earls of Bessborough and other Irish Ponsonbys descend. Of two storeys; entrance front consisting of five bays recessed between projecting wings with one bay forward-facing ends. Steep pediment-gable with lunette window over three centre bas; rusticated window surrounds. In 1705 Rose Ponsonby, the heiress of Crotto, married John Carrique; their descendents bore the additional surname of Ponsonby. Some alterations were carried out ca 1819 by a member of the Carrique Ponsonby family to the design of Sir Richard Morrison, who gave the wings “Elizabethan” gables with coats of arms and tall chimneys; he also added a curvilinear-gabled porch. In other respects, the exterior of the house kept its original character. The estate was sold by the Carrique Ponsonbys 1842. A few years later, the new owner leased the house to Lt Col H.H. Kitchener, whose son, the future Field Marshall Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, spent his boyhood here. Now demolished.” 

Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.

https://archiseek.com/2013/1669-crotta-house-kilflynn-co-kerry

1669 – Crotta House, Kilflynn, Co. Kerry 

Architect: Richard Morrison 

Crotto House, County Kerry, courtesy Archiseek.
Crotto House, County Kerry, courtesy Archiseek.

Original house of 1669, owned by the Ponsonby family. Additions of 1819 in a Jacobean style to the existing house by Sir Richard Morrison, who added gables and the curvilinear porch. The childhood hode of Lord Kitchener, whose father leased the house from 1850-63. Described as derelict by 1925, the ruins remained until the late 1960s. Now demolished, little remains bar a portion of a wing and the farm buildings. 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/21301501/crotta-house-crotta-cl-by-kilfeighny-pr-co-kerry

Crotto gate lodge, County Kerry, courtesy National Inventory.

Detached two-bay single-storey gate lodge with dormer attic, built c. 1850, originally with lancet arch openings to north gable end. Openings later remodelled. Now in use as private house. Pitched slate roof with added cement gable parapets. Random rubble stone walls with fragments of render. Pointed arch blocked openings in north gable and one in south gable. Red brick surrounded to first floor window. Later openings formed in west wall. Remains of rubble stone-built walls, built c. 1850, to south-west possibly originally part of walled garden. Crotto House demolished in latter part of twentieth century. 

Ballintober House, Co Cork  – demolished  

by jenjunebug

Ballintober House, Co Cork  – demolished  

Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.

p. 19. “(Meade, Clanwilliam, E/PB; Meade/LG1972) “A house of 2 storeys built during  and half of C17 by Lt-Col William Meade. Seven bay centre with gable-ended projecting wings; pediments over first floor windows; tall chimneys. Long two storey service range at side. Forecourt with railings and tall rusticated piers; Formal gardens with banked terraces and bulstraded steps to a gateway, also with rusticated piers. In 1765 Sir John Meade, 4th Bt, married the heiress of the Hawkins Magill family of Gill Hall, co Down, becoming first Earl of Clanwilliam 1776. His interests were henceforth centred on his wife’s estates, and he sold Ballintober and his other estates in Co Cork 1787 to his cousin, Rev John Meade, whose nephew was the ancestor of the Meades who lived at Ballintober until the present century. The House was demolished in the 1940s.” 

Theodosia Hawkins-Magill (1743-1817) Countess of Clanwilliam with her son Richard (1766-1805) later 2nd Earl of Clanwilliam attributed to Strickland Lowry courtesy of National Trust Castle Ward. She married John Meade 1st Earl of Clanwilliam, County Tipperary.

https://theirishaesthete.com/2019/06/12/whats-left/

“The rusticated limestone gate posts that once led to Ballintober House, County Cork. An old print shows these situated on another site, high above the now-lost house which had been built in the mid-to-late 17th century by the Meade family. Of Gaelic origin, the Meades were long-established in the Cork region, their name sometimes spelled Meagh or Miagh. Adapting and prospering according to changing circumstances, they became considerable landowners and by the early 18th century had been created baronets. In 1765 Sir John Meade, 4th Bt of Ballintober married one of the richest heiresses of the period, Theodosia, daughter of Robert Hawkins Magill of Gill Hall, County Down: eleven years later he became the first Earl of Clanwilliam. He later sold Ballintober and other lands in the area to a cousin, but the Meades remained in the area until the 1940s, after which the house here was demolished. Believed to date from c.1720 these gate posts and a few other remnants in the vicinity survive to indicate the importance of the Ballintober estate.”

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. 45.