Strong(e)/Strang(e) Research in Britain and Ireland

Researching Strong(e)s and Strang(e)s in Britain and Ireland; 2nd Edition (Rootsweb)


IRISH ESTATES & SOCIETY (1600-1885)
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CHAPTER VI

IRISH ESTATES & SOCIETY (1600-1885)

N: October, 1997

R: Saturday, February 4, 2012

Background: During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the British Crown undertook vigorously to put down the Irish, through rigorous enforcements of a series of enactments called the Penal Codes, which deprived Irish Catholics of the right to vote, serve on a jury, teach school, carry a gun, enter the army, enter a university, work for the government, or even to own a horse valued at over 5 guineas. Irish Catholics had to speak English, and had to pay tithes to support the state church, the Church of Ireland. When a Catholic died, his land had to be divided among all his sons unless the eldest became a Protestant, in which case he inherited it all. The Catholic church was suppressed, and it was illegal for it's priests to carry out their offices; they were subject to arrest and deportation. 1

By 1700, there were few Catholic landlords anywhere in Ireland. The Penal Codes enacted by the Irish Parliament in 1704 pressured landowning Catholics and Presbyterians with political ambition to conform to the sacramental tests of the Established Church of Ireland. 2 With protestant control of the land as well as an effective administrative system in place, the "Protestant Ascendancy" was established. Its members were primarily English and included descendants of those who had settled during the Tudor and Stuart periods, and Cromwellians as well as Old English Anglo-Normans. Dominated politically and socially by the landed class, but extending through all ranks, it became the most powerful political force in Ireland. Property meant power, and with nearly all of the land in the possession of the Protestants, this is where the political power lay. 3

One of the enactments which fostered the control asserted by the Protestant Ascendancy was "Poyning's Law", adopted in 1494 by the Parliament of Drogheda, which subordinated the Irish Parliament to that of England. Any legislation adopted by the Irish Parliament had to be consented to by the English Parliament before it could become law. The Irish legislature was totally subservient to the interests of the landowning class, who also controlled the English Parliament at the time. 4

It is not correct to assume the Irish Parliament was the puppet of the English crown merely because the Protestant Ascendancy was dominated by English interests. On the contrary, the political power wielded by the Protestants in Ireland in the eighteenth century was often nationalistic in nature, resentful of England's political and trade restrictions. While they did not forget their English heritage nor their need for English military support, the Protestants of Ireland came to think of themselves as Irish people. Their sense of nationalism was based upon the Protestant Ascendancy and celebrated by the Battle of the Boyne. 5

Irish commerce and industries were deliberately crushed by the English, both as a deliberate effort to put down the Irish, and also in furtherance of the general English economic policy of mercantilism, which held that England's colonies existed solely to advance the wealth of England. Any commerce in competition with English commerce was outlawed. By enactments in 1665 and 1680 the Irish export trade to England in cattle, milk, butter, and cheese was forbidden. The trade in woolens, which had grown up among the Irish Protestants, was likewise crushed by an enactment of 1699, which prohibited the export of woolen goods from Ireland to any country whatever. The linen trade was left untouched, however. 6 As a consequence, raising flax became a major agricultural pursuit, and people often worked in nearby flax mills. The famous Irish Linens were developed as a result of this phenomenon.

According to Margaret Dickson Falley,

"A significant outcome of all the confiscations, plantations and settlements of the lands of Ireland between 1540 and 1703 was the survival of some great mediaeval and later plantation estates in the possession of the old aristocracy. The final settlement of 1703 also preserved or established some hundreds of new estates, whose owners soon profited with every opportunity for further accumulations of land offered by marriage, inheritance and purchase." 7

During the eighteenth century the great families of the manors controlled life in Ireland. Research of the period must resolve around the family estate records and diaries of the families. In County Armagh, and indeed throughout Ireland, the Stronge family centered at Tynan Abbey demand research attention in this work. The authors have identified the Hamilton and Conolly families and the H.G. Murray-Stewart Estate as being significant land owners in County Donegal whose records must be examined. Everywhere Strongs can be located by townland, parish, barony and county, one must look for the identity of the overlords who ultimately owned the land. Then one may find estate records made by the overlord's family placed with the Public Record Offices in Dublin, Belfast, London, Edinburgh, and elsewhere.

Below, we examine some of these great estates. Where desireable we will include links to other on-line research materials which may be of interest, such as the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) summaries of various estates and the records held at PRONI. Note, it is not possible in the following text to proceed county by county, as many of these estates crossed county lines. However, these links, arranged by county, will help navigate to estates which are of interest to the researcher in particular counties. There are also some links to certain discussions of social and economic interest. What follows is only a sampling of the various estate materials available to the researcher. We have emphasized those estates most likely to be of interest to Strong genealogical researchers. For a complete listing of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) summaries of various estates and the records held, see Introductions to the Major Collections: Collections Described. [Note, in the event one finds a broken link in the dicussions below, be sure to double-check the foregoing link for a corrected link where needed!] Even there, it should be recognized that the PRONI collection only relates to major estates located in Ulster. There are vast additional resources available in the libraries, archives and public record offices of the Republic of Ireland which cover both Ulster and the rest of Ireland, which should not be overlooked. Click on the indicated links to "jump" to particular discussions; (please note, you may have to use your browsers "back" function to return here):



ANTRIM:
Arthur Chichester, Baron Chichester of Belfast, Marquis of Donegal:
ARMAGH:
Stronge of Tynan Abbey, County Armagh:
DONEGAL:
Hamilton of Brown Hall, Co. Donegal:
John Hamilton of St. Ernan's:
Murray of Broughton Estate, Co. Donegal: (aka:)
H.G.Murray-Stewart Estate, Co. Donegal:
Pakenham Estate in Killybegs:(aka:)
Coyngham Estate in Killybegs & Mount Charles:
Ffolliott/Folliot Family, Barons of Ballyshannon:
William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate:
The Trinity College Lands:
DOWN:
The Castlereagh Papers:
The Downshire Family of County Down:
FERMANAGH:
The Earls of Erne: The Creighton or Crichton Family:
Earls of Enniskillen, the Cole Family:

Rev. Lord Adam Loftis, Marquis of Ely:
The Leslie Estate:
Caldwell Estate; Western Fermanagh: Templecarne and Belleek Parishs.
The Colebrook Estate & the Brooke Family:
LONGFORD:
The Greville Estate:
The Lewis Estate:
The Maude Estate:
MONAGHAN:
The Shirley Estate:
The Leslie Estate:
SOCIAL & ECONOMIC CONDITIONS:
Leasing Practices:
An Improving Landlord and a Backward Peasantry:
Ulster Tenant Right:
Footnotes:

Arthur Chichester, Baron Chichester of Belfast, Marquis of Donegal: As has been seen, the foundation of the estates of Ireland in 1700 was molded by all the events of the preceding 100 years and more. One of the foremost estates was that of the descendants of the man who had commenced the plantations of Ulster in 1607. Arthur Chichester was the second son of Sir John Chichester of Raleigh, Devonshire, England. After various adventures in service of Queen Elizabeth, he was appointed Lord-Deputy of Ireland, October 15,1604. It was Chichester who proclaimed the abolishment of the semi-feudal rights of the native Irish chieftains, and he who carried out the plantation of Ulster after the Flight of the Earls. In 1613 he was made Baron Chichester of Belfast. 8 His descendants included the Marquis' of Donegal. 9 They held lands throughout Ulster, particularly in Antrim, through the 18th century and beyond. 10

The following discussion is from an article by David Dickson, appearing as Chapter 14, of "Donegal - History and Society", edited by Wm. Nolan, Liam Ronayne, and Mairead Dunlevy, published by Georgraphy Publications, Dublin, Ireland, 1995. While it deals with another part of the Marquis of Donegall Estates, it is quoted here for the insights it offers regarding the probable state of affairs regarding his Estate in Co. Antrim:

" The demands of public office, ill-health and financial difficulty had restricted Sir Arthur Chichester's direct involvement with (his estates); his brother Edward, who inherited the property in 1625, appears to have had a closer knowledge and interest, but family charges and legal displutes forced him to continue a low-risk policy of "benevolent" leasing, therby consolidating the position of the original (Irish Gaelic) tenantry. The family appears to have drawn no revenue from any of their Ulster estates between 1641 adn 1656, but under Edward's heir Arthur, raised to the earldom of Donegall in 1647, things improved and the much bruised title of the family to their huge estates was confirmed in 1668. Despite this, the first earl's regime continued the process of disengagement; for all the symbolism of the "Donegall" earldom, the centre of gravity of the estate was in Antrim and, specifically, in the estate town of Belfast. The first earl's lack of a male heir was one incident in a long history of genetic misfortune for the family: in the six transfers of the Chichester estates between 1625 and 1757 only two were from father to son. The consequences were heightened encumbrances on the core properties, and intra-family litigation. In addition at least one link in the chain of inheritance, the fourth earl (1695-1757), was feeble-minded."

".... Most of the Chichester leases expired in the 1760s, and the consequent revaluation and resetting process held out the possibility of a transformation of the .... head-tenantry."

"A shift in the management of many Irish estates, favouring the breakup of large tenancies and the shortening of lease terms, was becoming evident in the later eighteeenth century.... There was intense competition in the 1760's for new leases on what was regarded as a massively under-let property; but the spendthrift fifth earl of Donegall and his creditors saw little attraction in what would have a long-term programme of tenancy division and upward rent revision as against an immediate drive for large entry fines, discounted against future rent income, and for tenants wealthy enough to pay up-front."

"Between 1767 and 1770, new leases for holdings (mainly in the range of 100 to 1000 plantation acres) were tortuously negotiated with ... tenants to produce an (increased) annual, (and large sums in)... entry fines. The inablility to raise loans to finance such fines excluded many woul-be tenants. Around three-quarters of the successful bidders resided locally, but virtually all were- to use the new term coined by Arthur Young:- "middlemen". But, in the legal terminalogy of the day, the majority were also "yeomen"... i.e. strong farmers who employed lobour and sublet only a part of their tenancies. .... (One agent for Donegall), reminded his own heir in 1770, "never let it slip off your mind that what we now have is of a short duration, that we must and ought to make a forturne out of our Donegal leases equal to what we now have""... "...The attraction of a direct lease (from Lord Donegall) was more than as a status symbol; it offered the prospect of abundant profit in the futher shether through farming or subletting...." "The very long lease terms first granted in the 1610's (up to sixty-one years at fixed rent levels) had continued with little modification until the great re-letting. Slightly over half of the new leases after 1770 were for thirty-one years, and nearly all the rest were for three lives and forty-one years. However, by contemporary standards these were loose agreements, not obliging tenants to make specific expenditures. Heavy entry fines and light annual rents continued to be the dominant tenancy arragement for head tenants until well into the new century, by which time the Donegalls' debts were reaching another crisis, further diluting their control... The second marquess was in gaol for gambling debts around 1800, and ... the head-rents for ... parts of the estate (were bought out by other families)".

In Chapter 19 of the same book, Breandan MacSuibhne, makes the following points:

"The first Chichester-- Sir Arthur (d.1625) - assembled his estate in a peicemeal fashion, firstly through his position as an undertaker in the Ulster Plantation and then as lord deputy of Ireland (1605-1615). By 1797 the value of the family's Irish property, including some 90,000 acres in Antrim; over 100,000 acres in Donegal, and 11,000 in Wexford, was estimated at �48,000 (Sterling). Although long leases and fee farm grants were available to principal tenants from the early seventeenth century, alienation of land began in earnest from 1794, as a result ot substantial debts. At that time Ggeoge Augustus Chichester, the second marquis of Donegall, was indebted to several persons for the sum of �40,000 (Sterling) and therefore began selling the interest in land for terms of 1000 years..... "

"It was the commercialisation of agriculture and the resultant rise in land values and rent, especially in the years from 1740- 1760 and 1790-1815 that eroded the advantages of the middlemen system, at least for solvent proprietors...."

The foregoing discussion will probably be of interest to researchers of the South Carolina Strongs, and the following discussion will likely be of interest to researchers of the Strongs of County Down, Ulster.

The Castlereagh Estate: is amongst the major estates of County Down. PRONI holds The Castlereagh Papers which consist of c.7,450 documents and c.40 volumes, 1798-1822 (including some earlier and some later documents), deriving from Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, later 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, including some papers of his wife, Emily, his half-brother and successor, the 3rd Marquess, and the 3rd Marquess's wife, Frances Anne.

The largest bulk of The Castlereagh Papers seem to deal with political matters. However, of interest to genealogists, the different components of the Londonderry Papers in PRONI include the following, inter alia:
D/654 The Londonderry Estate Office Archive, 1629-c.1940, consisting of most of the Irish estate papers and the mercantile papers of Alexander Stewart and Sir Robert Cowan
D/665 The Galway, McIlwaine & Seeds Papers, a Belfast solicitor's archive including title deeds, legal papers, accounts and testamentary papers relating to the estates of the Marquesses of Londonderry in Co. Down, 1812-c.1880, with particular reference to the settlement of the affairs of the 2nd Marquess following his death in 1822
D/2977 The Antrim Estate Papers, including agent's correspondence and reports, 1840-1865, about Lady Londonderry's Co. Antrim estate
D/2846 The Theresa, Lady Londonderry Papers, the rest of which, together with those of her husband, the 6th Marquess (1852-1915), are in the Durham County Record Office.

The Downshire Family of County Down: Another County Down estate which may be of interest to Strong genealogical researchers is that of the Downshire Family. PRONI holds The Downshire Papers, which comprise c.50,000 documents and volumes, and basically consist of family, political and general correspondence, 1707-1868, and estate correspondence and legal and financial records, 1523-c.1953, relating to all the Irish estates (and some of the English) of the Downshire family, which were managed from the Irish seat and estate office at Hillsborough, Co. Down.

The following account of family history is taken from W. A. Maguire (ed.), Letters of a Great Irish Landlord: A Selection from the Estate Correspondence of the 3rd Marquess of Downshire, 1809-1845 (PRONI, 1974):

'... A hundred and twenty years ago - when a parliamentary enquiry established the ownership of the country's land - Lord Downshire's property, amounting to some 115,000 acres in Ireland and a further 5,000 in England, was among the most extensive in the United Kingdom. By far the greater part of it was situated in Co. Down, in scattered groups of townlands which stretched from the outskirts of Belfast in the northern part of the county to Newry in the south and Dundrum in the east; the area around Hillsborough, however, known as the Kilwarlin estate, was the core. North of Belfast, there was another estate in and near the town of Carrickfergus in Co. Antrim. The remaining Irish property was at Blessington in Co. Wicklow and at Edenderry in King's County (Offaly). Blessington was about twenty miles by road from Dublin, Edenderry twice that distance from the capital by the Grand Canal. Not only was the property extensive, and located within fairly easy reach of major centres of population, but it was also comparatively productive, unlike some estates of similar acreage in the western part of the country. Co. Down, though not the most fertile, was certainly one of the best cultivated areas in Ireland; and though almost half of the land at Blessington was mountain, and much of that at Edenderry was bog, there was a sufficient quantity of good land at both to yield a good return in rent. At its greatest, in the 1870s, the income from the Irish estates was not far short of �80,000 a year.

Stronge of Tynan Abbey, County Armagh: The great families of Ireland were closely related in society, religion, the economy, and every way. Examination of the records available reveal many insights. For example, in Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th edition, is the following information concerning the lineage of Sir Norman Stronge, of Tynan Abbey, County Armagh:

"Matthew Stronge, of Strabane 1670, and of Clonleigh 1616 (sic), a scion of Strang of Balcaskie, was warden of Lifford, Co. Donegal, 1713. He acquired a considerable tract of land in Co. Derry, by lease from the corporation of goldsmiths of London, and in 1689, in consideration of services done and losses sustained at the memorable defence of Derry, obtained a renewal thereof. He also purchased lands in Cos. Tyrone and Donegal. In 1688 he was attainted by James II's Parliament, and d. 1716..." 11

Mention of attainder by James II's Parliament would be a badge of honor to a Protestant. The attainders were subsequently revoked by William and Mary, and the stalwarts of the 1688 Revolution against James II were generously rewarded with titles and land. The family did very well economically and socially, and came to own extensive lands throughout Ireland, with their principal seat being the former Abbey at Tynan, County Armagh.

tynan abbey screen

The Tynan Abbey Stronges were dealing with the London companies prior to 1689 for their lands--and were likely among the early "planter" families in Ulster. The indication that they are descended from "Strang of Balcaskie" may show that they were of Scots descent, Balcaskie being in Fifeshire, Scotland. Somewhat cynically, it may also be speculated the family capitalized upon the genealogical study done by the Scottish Herald, Lord Lyon, on the occasion of the knighthood of Sir Robert Strange, the Engraver, in 1787 by King George III. Sir Robert's genealogy has been traced from his birthplace in The Orkney Islands backward in time to a Strang family in, of all places, Balcaskie! When Reverend James Stronge was awarded a Baronetcy in 1803, probably in reward for his assistance in uniting Ireland with Great Britain, it may have been all too easy for him to have "tacked on" to the "Strang of Balcaskie" lineage. See: The Strongs of Tynan Abbey and linked pages.

The Shirley Estate: Turning to County Monaghan, it will be remembered that English landlords acquired estates in that county by grant from the Lord Deputy, Arthur Chichester, at the time the Irish Earls were fleeing to the continent in 1603. By 1640, less than half of Monaghan was in Irish hands, and after the rebellion of 1641-49, more land was confiscated by Cromwell and granted to additional English landlords. When Robert, 3rd Earl of Essex died, (WHEN?) his estate in Farney Barony was inherited by his sister, Lady Francis, who married Sir William Seymour, Marquis of Hertford, and another sister's son, Sir Robert Shirley. In 1692, the estate was divided among the descendents of these, including another Robert Shirley, Lord Ferrers. 12

The Shirleys were major landholders in the Barony of Farney well into the 19th century. Mr. Evelyn Phillip Shirley, who wrote "An Account of Farney", was undoubtedly a member of the family. An Evelyn P. Shirley was listed as the immediate lessor of Joseph Strong in the 1861 Griffiths Valuation of Lisnakeeny townland in Magherclooney Parish, Barony of Farney, County Monaghan. The Shirley Estate Records are available at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 13 See also the discussion re the Strongs of County Monaghan ; and a map and listing of the Great Estates in Co. Monaghan.

The Leslie Estate: The Leslie family had huge estates, one in County Monaghan, and another in County Fermanagh. The original estate records are held at their seat in County Monaghan, and have been catalogued and described at the PRONI. The archive at Castle Leslie, Glaslough, Co. Monaghan, amounts to 128 PRONI boxes, plus several outsize albums, numerous rolled maps and the boxed patent of 1876 [F/2] creating the Leslie baronetcy. While the PRONI list and arrangement covers the entire archive, only a tiny fraction has in fact been copied by and is available in PRONI (MIC/606 and T/3827). See: A Discussion of the Leslie Estate Papers

The Earls of Erne: The Creighton or Crichton Family: The PRONI holds The Erne Papers (D/1939). The Erne papers comprise c.11,750 documents and volumes, 1611-1981, some of them relating to the family and personal affairs of the Creighton family of Crom Castle, Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh, Earls Erne, but most of them relating to the administration of their various estates: at Crom, Callowhill, Derrylin, Killynick, Lisnaskea, Knockballymore and Enniskillen, Co.Fermanagh; at Lifford, Co. Donegal; and in Dublin City, Co. Sligo and Co. Mayo.

Most of the material relates to the period 1830-1950, with comparatively few documents for the 17th and 18th centuries. This uneven survival of material is probably due to the destruction of the original Crom Castle by an accidental fire in 1764 and to the subsequent absences from Crom of the family until the 1830s, although they did at the very least maintain a summer residence on Inisherk from c.1780 onwards. The main exception, in terms of early archival survivals, are the papers relating to the Balfour estate at Lisnaskea and elsewhere in Co.Fermanagh. This was not purchased by Lord Erne until 1821, so the documents relating to it were not destroyed in 1764, and in fact provide important information about early 17th century settlement. The Erne papers comprise such material as title deeds, settlements, wills, leases, rentals, accounts, maps, surveys, architectural drawings and Land Commission sale papers relating to the various properties, together with correspondence about estate, political and family affairs, 1727-1728 and c.1775-1945. Some family and estate correspondence has found its way into the National Library in Dublin (e.g. MS 15360).

The Creightons were created Earls Erne in 1789 but, from the succession of the 3rd Earl in 1842, seem to have styled themselves Earls of Erne. A further complication is that in 1872 they changed the spelling of their family name from Creighton to Crichton. The PRONI Summary contains extensive details regarding the nature and extent of the collected papers.

Hamilton of Brown Hall, Co. Donegal: Another entry in Burke's Peerage shows the following re the lineage of the Earl of Erne in County Fermanagh:

"Abraham Creichton of Dromboory, on Lough Erne, settled in Ireland before 17 August 1616..." His son Abraham "...was High Sheriff of Co. Fermanagh, 1673, M.P. for Co. Fermanagh 1692, and for Enniskillen 1695, was celebrated for his successful defence of Crom Castle against King James Army. The younger Abraham died in 1702, leaving: -his son James married Hester, daughter and co-heir of James Hamilton of Manor Hamilton. -his daughter Jane married John Hamilton of Brown Hall, Co. Donegal and left issue." 14

This would have been circa 1697-1720. In the "Memoirs of John Hamilton" there is found an "editors note below": "Brown Hall had been in the possession of the Hamilton family since 1697." 15 See The Significance of the Hamilton Family for additional details of the estate, and see also a discussion of another related descendent, Rev. John Hamilton of St. Ernan's, Co. Donegal, below.

H.G.Murray-Stewart Estate: It remains an open question whether the Creighton's of Erne were related to Sir Robert Creighton (also spelled Crichton) who in 1658 claimed to have inherited the baronys of Boylagh and Banagh by will from James Murray, 2nd Earl of Annandale. The Irish lord McSwine's Boylagh and Banagh estate was confiscated by the crown in 1608, and regranted in 1610 to certain Scots as follows: 16

Upper Boylagh (portion of Killymard Parish) George Murrye, Laird Boughton, 1,500 acres.

Upper Boylagh (portion of Killymard Parish) to Sir John Vance of Barnbarrock and Patrick Vance of Lybrack, a total of 2,000 acres

the Rosses to Sir Robert McLellan,

Monargan (Ardara and Loughross) to Alexander Cunningham of Powton,

Kilkieran (Kilcar and Largy) to Alexander Dunbar of Egerness,

Dunkineely (Killaghtee Parish and part of Killybegs and Inver) to William Stewart of Mains, and

Cargie (Doorin and eastern part of Inver Parish to Patrick McKie of Larg; all in 1610.

All of these people were closely interrelated. Most of them came from three parishes in Wigtonshire, Scotland. Few except Alexander Dunbar spent any time in their new lands in Donegal and started selling them off. About 1620, the estates were regranted as a whole to John Murray, 1st Earl of Annandale, who was a favourite of James VI of Scotland and I of England. Annan is a small and royal burgh of Dumphrieshire, Scotland, on the Annan River, nearly 2 miles from its mouth which opens into the Solway firth. 17 Murray was originally master farrier to James VI, and helped to save his life on one occasion. Murray died in 1640, and his Boylagh and Bannagh estate passed to his son James Murray, 2nd Earl of Annandale, who died in London in 1658. He had no children and his young cousin Sir Robert Crichton claimed the estates by virtue of a will made by James Murray. 18

Another cousin, Richard Murray of Broughton, claimed the estates by virtue of a deed of conveyance made in his favor by James Murray before the will. Endless court cases followed, first in Ireland; then in Scotland, to determine whether the deed of conveyance was a forgery as the Crichtons claimed. Throughout the reign of Charles II (1660-1685) there was endless feuding between the two parties in south Donegal. Sir Robert Creighton was in residence at Castlemurray in 1659, and apparently remained there until the mid-1660's. Thereafter, Richard Murray of Broughton took possession. Sir Robert Creighton continued to claim the estate until about 1685, when he died, leaving his rights in the estates to his daughters. In that last year of Charles II's reign, Richard Murray of Broughton was confirmed in possession of half of Boylagh and Banagh and his cousin Sir Albert Conyingham who supported his claim got a "commission of grace grant" of the other half. Sir Robert Creighton's daughters, Jean and Anna, were still bringing suits in the Scottish courts well into the 18th century, but never gained a conclusive judgement. 19

The Murrays of Broughton never felt sure of their right to the estates and so had difficulty in selling them. They always lived in Scotland and mostly left their agents to run the Donegal estates. The Donegal Annual for 1977 contains an interesting account by an auditor, Thomas Addi, sent by Alexander Murray of Broughton in 1730 to report on the adequacy and accuracy of the rents received from the various tenants of the townlands on the rent rolls. Addi's reports were sent to Murray at his residence at Cally, in Scotland. 20

The last Alexander Murray of Broughton and Cally did take some interest in the Donegal estate, and stayed there on occasion. 21 When he died childless in 1845, the estates were inherited by the great-grandnephew of Alexander Murray's mother. He was Horatio Granville Stewart, a boy of nine, who was not even a descendent of the Murrays of Broughton. Being under age, the estates were administered by Irish trustees in Dublin. 22 In the 1858 Griffith's Valuations, the estates are referred to as belonging to "H.G.Murray-Stewart"; several townlands are of interest to the present research because their tenantry included Strongs in the 18th and 19th centuries.

See the PRONI "Discussion of the Murray of Broughton Estate Papers"; and see also the discussion at , for further information re this estate.

Pakenham Estate in Killybegs: Another Killybegs Estate of interest was that of the fourteen ballyboes of land owned by the Church of Ireland in the Parish of Killybegs.

According to Pat Conaghan, writing at page 104 ff in "Bygones", a book published by him in 1989,

"An area known as the parish of Killybegs has existed since at least 1307. It extended from Drumanoo Head on the shores of Donegal Bay, northwards almost to Glenties. This account ("Bygones") is concerned only with the present day Killybegs part, i.e, the area covered by the (present day) Catholic and Protestant parishes of Killybegs, which are the same. In order to be clear about what happened in Killybegs at the time of the Plantation of Ulster, it is necessary to touch on the circumstances prevailing before the planters came to these parts.

"Within the boundary of its ancient parish, the Catholic Church owned large areas of the land. It was shared with "erenagh" families, who managed it for the Church. The system of farming then meant that cattle were grazed on the lowland areas in winter and moved to mountain pastures in summer. This method was called "booleying" by the English, or "buailteachas" in Irish. For each area of lowland, therefore, there was a corresponding extent of mountain grazing. Land was measured, not in acres, but by the number of cattle it could support, the unit of land being a "Ballyboe" (baile bo). (For Example,) the present townland of Drumbarity (67 acres) was called one ballyboe. In Killybegs parish, the Church owned 14 ballyboes of lowland and a corresponding amount of mountain grazing. It can be seen, therefore, how extensive the old Churchlands were, extending from the "lowland" areas of Roshin, Glenlee, Killybegs, Drumbarity, etc. to the mountain pasures of Meenreagh, Meenaroshin and so on.

"At the Plantation of Ulster the land of Killybegs was granted to Scottish planters but the Churchlands were claimed by and granted to the new Protestant Bishop of Raphoe. By the spring of 1610 the final arragenments for the Plantation had been completed and the first civilian planters arrived in Killybegs. The remote and poor land of west Donegal was not attractive to any newcomer and so, very few planters came over during the first ten years. Those who came brought a new religion with them - Protestantism. They commandeered the old parish church of Killybegs and adapted it for their worship. .... a survey of 1622 found that there were only 17 "British and Irish" people in the new town of Killybegs. Having secured the fourteen ballyboes of Killybegs, the Protestant Bishop of Raphoe treated them strictly in a business like manner..."

In 1638, the Bishop of Raphoe leased the lands for a term of 56 years to one Archibald Erskine. At the expiration of the lease in 1699, the lessee became Brigadier Henry Conyngham of Mountcharles and Slane. He was married to a sister of William Conolly, famous speaker of the House of Commons and known as "the richest man in Ireland". Conolly was the son of a Ballyshannon public house owner and was the first of many Ballyshannon men who contributed to the development of Killybegs. Brigadier Conyngham lease was dated 1699, but he died in 1706 and his interest in the lands passed to William Conolly. The Conolly family continued the lease down through the years until the early 1830's when the teams from the Ordnance Survey arrived in Killybegs. See the PRONI "Discussion of the Conolly Estate Papers" Their task was to measure all land into acres, roods and perches and to set it out into "proper" townlands in the modern sense. 23.

The male line of the Conollys had died out by this time and the inheritor of the lease was Edward Michael Pakenham, a relative of the family. Under the terms of a will, Pakenham assumed the name of Conolly, and became Edward Michael Conolly. While the Ordnance Survey teams were at work measuring the lands, this man purchased them from the Protestant Church for the sum �2,331-1-3. The Church reserved for itself an annual rent of �294-7-01/4, which meant that Pakenham-Conolly did not own them absolutely. After Conolly died in 1848 his Killybegs lands passed to his eldest son, Thomas, known popularly as "Tom Conolly". The lands reverted to the Government at the time of Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869. In 1871, the Representative church Body bought out the townland of Glebe, where the old parish church now stands, and the Government sold the rest of the "fourteen ballyboes" for �4,134. 24.

The PRONI holds The Lenox-Conyngham Papers (D/1449, D/501, T/3161, T/406, etc):

'The Conyngham family, of Ayrshire origin, arrived in Ulster shortly after the Plantation of James I. Where it first settled is not clear from existing records but on the eve of the 1641 rebellion it owned properties in the cities of Derry and Armagh, as well as lands in those counties and in Tyrone. In 1672 the lease of the Tyrone estate, at Mullanahoe [near Coagh] in the manor of Castle Stewart, was renewed, the original title deeds "having been lost or destroyed in the recent rebellion". The recipient was Colonel William Conyngham, a strong supporter of Cromwell and one of his Commissioners for Co. Armagh during and immediately after the rebellion. An indenture dated April 23rd, 1658, refers to him as a resident of Armagh in Co. Armagh.
Unfortunately, the PRONI Summary seems to indicate the papers do not include records of the Pakenham estate acquired by Col. Albert Coyngham from Richard Murray circa 1669, and which subsequently came into the hands of the Pakenham Family. The Pakenham family was closely related to the Hamilton Family of Brown Hall... See the below discussion from Rev.H.C. White: John Hamilton of St. Ernan's). See also the discussion at .

Earls of Enniskillen, the Cole Family. See Burke's discussion re the :

"The 6th Earl of Enniskillen (David Lowry Cole, M.B.E.), Viscount Enniskillen, and Baron Mountflorence in Ireland, (etc.)...(was descended from the following)...Lineage--The first of the family who settled in Ireland was Sir William Cole, Kt., who fixed his abode, early in the reign of James I, in Co. Fermanagh, and becoming an undertaker in the northern plantation, had an assignment in 1611, of one thousand acres of escheated lands in the county, to which, in 1612, were added three hundred and twenty acres, of which eighty were assigned for the town of Enniskillen, and that town was then incorporated by charter, consisting of a provost and twelve burgesses, Sir William Cole being the first Provost. Sir William raised a regiment which he cmd'd against the rebels in 1643,with important success. He married Susannah, widow of Stephen Segar, Lieutenant of Dublin Castle, and daughter and heir of John Croft, of Co. Lancaster, and died 1653, leaving issue..." 25

The PRONI holds The Enniskillen Papers (D/1702, D/3689 and T/2094) The Enniskillen papers comprise c.40 volumes, c.2.350 documents and photographs and c.200 mainly outsize maps and parchments, 1611-1997. They derive from the Cole family of Florence Court, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Barons Mount Florence (from 1760), Viscounts Enniskillen (from 1776) and Earls of Enniskillen (from 1789), all in the peerage of Ireland, and Barons Grinstead (a corruption of Grimstead) in the peerage of the United Kingdom (from 1815).

The seat of the Earl of Enniskillen was Florence Court. See: Charles Maclosure?... p.78, per Isobel Hurlburt notes.

Rev. Lord Adam Loftis, Marquis of Ely. Another Co.Fermanagh estate of interest may be that of the Marquis of Ely. See Samuel Lewis for partial discussion. Topic needs more research. Note, the Marquis of Ely was a title for Rev. Lord Adam Loftis. The Loftis family should be a center of focus for further research.

The PRONI holds The Ely Papers:(D/496, D/527, D/535, D/580 [part], D/962, D/1096/45, D/3130, D/3805, LR1/9/4A/13, LR1/9L/1-4, LR1/980/3, LR1/1251/1, T/1041/20 and T/2904) , which as the quantity of reference numbers cited here would suggest, are not one but a host of scattered deposits in PRONI, amounting in total to c.1,550 documents, covering the period 1630-1928 and documenting the estates, mainly in Cos Fermanagh, Wexford and Dublin, the business affairs and the frequent accessions of peerage honours of the Loftus family, from 1751 Barons and Viscounts Loftus and Earls and Marquesses of Ely.

The following is quoted from notes by Isobel Hurlburt from "Charles Maclosure?":

"1641 rebellion .... largest planter, Sir John Humes or Hume, the founder of Tully Castle... passed in 1731 through the female line, there being no male heir, to the Loftus family. After peace restored, the Hume family erected a mansion, called Castle Hume, nearer Enniskillen, and which is now incorporated in the demesne of Ely Lodge. .... the soil is variable, the staple trade principally domestic consisting of butter, corn, and manufacture of linen to a slight degree..."

".... after the Battle of Lisnackea... excerpts from Rev. John Graham's history of 1688 and 1690... William of Orange arrived and James II fled Ireland in 1688. A service of Thanksgiving for the Protestant victory over the Irish... A scroll sent to King William and Queen Mary for relief of Enniskillen and Derry... Thm. Wolseley, Commander in chief... signed by Gustavius Hamilton, Governor and about 200 others, including James Devitt. See p. 62."

Note also that certain Fermanagh Strongs were tenants of the Loftis family. See Deputy Keepers Reports and cf. Griffith's Valuations. See also a 1796 Rent Roll for the Earl of Ely's Fermanagh Estate, which unfortunately does not reflect any Strong tenants at that date.

Caldwell Estate; Western Fermanagh: Templecarne and Belleek Parishs. From the Parliamentary Gazatteer of Ireland (1844-45): p. 323:

"Templecarne, a parish, partly in the barony of Lurg, Co. Fermanagh, and partly in the barony of Tyrhugh, Co.Donegal, Ulster. The Donegal section contains part of the town of Pettigoe. p. 71: Pettigoe, a village, partly in the parish of Drumkeeran, Barony of Lurg, Co. Fermanagh, but chiefly in the parish of Templecarne, Barony of Tyrhugh, Co. Donegal, Ulster.... pretty, greeen and wooded hills... the village contains a church, a Presbyterian meeting- house and a Roman Catholic chapel. Area of the Fermanagh section of the village ... 10 acres; of the Donegal section... 15 acres. Population of the whole, in 1841, 616. Houses, 90. Families employed chiefly in agriculture, 30; in manufacture and trade, 65; in other pursuits, 19. Population of the Donegal section, in 1841, 490; houses, 71."

The following is found in Lewis's "Topographical Dictionary of Ireland", Vol. 2, p.602 (1837):

"Templecarne, or Templecarn, a parish partly in Lurg... and partly in Tirhugh (Donegal). 4 miles west of Kesh, containing 5461 inhabitants.... 45,868 statute acres; of which 7719 are in Fermanagh (of these, 2140 are Lough Derg, 4400 in Lower Lough Erne and 1085 in small loughs... About three- fourths of the land consists of heathy mountain, affording during the summer only a scanty pasturage to a few black cattle; the remainder, with the exception of a moderate portion of meadow, is principally under tillage. The soil is but indifferent... Lots of fish... Waterfoot, the residence of Lieut.Col. Barton." "The church, situate at Pettigoe, is a small, old, and dilapidated structure, towards the rebuilding of which Mrs. Leslie, (the proprietor of the estates), the rector and the Protestant parishoners have contributed a large sum, and a subscription has been raised to build a chapel of ease about four miles from the town."

The following is found in Lewis's "Topographical Dictionary of Ireland", Vol. A-G, p.202 (1837):

"Belleek, a parish, in the barony of Lurg, County of Fermanagh... 3 miles East of Ballyshannon... was erected into a parish in 1792 by disuniting 36 townlands from the parish of Templecarn... the land is principally heathy mountain, but that which is under tillage is of very superior quality; the state of agriculture, though very backward, is gradually improving; there is a large tract of bog, and abundance of limestone. The seats are Castle Caldwell, the residence of J.C. Bloomfield, Esq., and Maghramena, of W. Johnston, Esq.... the village (of Belleek) consists of 27 houses .... the church, a neat plain edifice, was erected in 1790... diocese of Clogher... there are schools at Belleek and Tullynabehogue, partly suppored by the rector and at Castle Caldwell is a school supported by Mrs. Bloomfield. In these schools are about 60 boys and 80 girls and there are also three pay schools, in which are about 180 boys and 70 girls and a Sunday school. There are some ruins of the old church; on the shore of Lough Keenaghan are those of an abbey; and there are the remains of several Danish forts in the parish."

The foregoing was provided by Isobel Hurlburt, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, who in 1991 made an extensive study of Devitt and Strong family origins in western Co. Fermanagh and Co. Donegal. Much of the following is extracted from her handwritten notes:

From "Wakeman".... p. 85: Waterfoot, the demesne of Captain Barton and those of Templecarne Glebe.
.....p. 86: Belleek... about 4 miles from Castle Caldwell. The china works was originally started by Bloomfield."

From "Dundas".... p.197: Ennniskillen, the town, was planted in1612.
....p. 209: ffrancis Blennerhassett, Esq., undertaker of 1000 acres (in the plantation scheme), called "Bannaghmore"
.....p. 314: The Blennerhassett Family sold the estate to James Caldwell, (p.136: a merchant in Enniskillen) about 1662; who apparently renamed the estate "Castle Caldwell", and built the pottery. Castle Caldwell is the "Castle at Belleek". James Caldwell was created a baronet in 1683. He d. 1717.
In 1830, the Caldwell estate passed to Frances, wife of Sir John Colpoys Bloomfield (died 1830), and from her to her son, John Caldwell Bloomfield, who died in Enniskillen in 1897.
....p.154 of Chapter 65.... Col. Abraham Creighton's Regiment of Foot, Raised in 1689... List of First Militia Officers apparently includes James Devitt as one of the Lieutenants; and he was also listed as a Lieutenant in 1698 when the regiment was broken (i.e., disbanded) in Ireland.

For more material extracted from Mrs. Hurlburt's notes, see: Fermanagh Research Notes

The Colebrook Estate & the Brooke Family: The following is partially quoted from the discriptive material found on the PRONI website concerning The Brookeborough Papers:

Family history.
The best, single source of Brooke family history is chapter one of Brian Barton's Brookeborough: The Making of a Prime Minister (Belfast, 1988), to which has been added extracts from Raymond Brooke's The Brimming River (Dublin, 1961), a source on which Dr Barton himself draws extensively. '... The first Basil Brooke [1567-1633] ... was a soldier-adventurer who came to Ireland in the late 16th century ... . He came as a captain in the English army bringing reinforcements to Ireland [in 1597], and later commanded a cavalry regiment under Sir Henry Docwra in the conquest of Ulster. He distinguished himself as a servitor during the Tyrone wars and was one of those selected by the King for a proportion of the plantation. He was knighted in 1619, styled of Magherabeg and Brooke Manor, [Co. Donegal], became a Governor of [Co.] Donegal, and later was a member of the commission ordered by Charles I to enquire into how thoroughly the undertakers had fulfilled the conditions of their grants.

Plantation Donegal. Thus the Brookes first entered Ireland under English arms and initially held their property in Donegal and not Fermanagh. The former was never really colonised. Due in part to its wildness and inaccessibility colonists proved reluctant to attempt settlement. In addition, Sir Arthur Chichester described its native population as a "people inclined to blood and trouble". In 1619, Pynnar recorded of estate after estate that nothing was built and that there were no British tenants. [According to] one historian ... : "it was the pluck, skill and tact of hard-bitten, experienced soldiers such as Sir Henry Folliott and Sir Basil Brooke, that held Donegal quiet and so gave protection to the infant colony". Certainly, the latter appears to have been an energetic, determined and resourceful planter, eager to establish himself permanently in his adopted home. Sir Basil's grant of 1,000 acres was in a rugged precinct set aside for servitors and natives, and was "to be held forever ... as of the Castle of Dublin, in common socage and subject to the conditions of the plantation of Ulster". The land was of poor quality, the barony in which the land was located being described in the Book of Survey and Distribution fifty years later as "mountainous, boggy, rocky and with many ... ways hardly passable". By 1622, however, Brooke was reported as having repaired a round bawn of lime and stone, 13 feet high, 7 feet thick and 220 feet in compass, within which a house was standing which had been occupied by an English settler in 1619. He also acquired other property. One of the written complaints of the Earl of Tyrconnell was that the Lord Deputy had appointed Capt. Brooke to live in his castle, and "constrained the Earl to accept such rents as he had given order of to the said Captain to pay and to pass a lease thereof and four acres of the best lands thereunto annexed, for one and twenty years unto the said Captain". By 1611, with the help of a royal grant, Brooke had repaired the castle, voluntarily built a bawn to enclose it, and a strong house of lime and stone adjacent to it. This relatively secure and less isolated dwelling he occupied with his English wife. Thirty-five British men were said to be present in Donegal town in 1622, their houses constructed "after the manner of the Pale". That same year a commission suggested that if Brooke had "the inheritance of the castle, he would make it a strong and defensible place for his Majesty's service as he affirmeth". He was in fact appointed constable of the castle and given the ownership of it and the town of Donegal, both of which were inherited, with his other property, in 1633 by his only son, Henry, who was then married and of full age.

The latter fulfilled the confidence which the commissioners had earlier expressed in his father. During the rising of 1641, he was successful in "preserving from plunder" the town and castle and the surrounding district. He afterwards fought on the parlimentary side in the Civil War, serving as a captain of foot. In consequence, he acquired a substantial area of land, worth more than �900 yearly, mostly by grant "for his said personal services and for arrears thereof services [sic]", and one-third of it by purchase, selling in the process some of his Donegal property.

The Brookes come to Fermanagh. These new estates lay in the adjacent counties of Monaghan and Fermanagh, and had become available through the forfeitures of property by two leading local native landholders. In Monaghan, Henry gained possession of some of the lands of Hugh MacMahon in the barony of Cremorne. In Fermanagh he acquired most of the confiscated estates, including the old ancestral home at Largie, of Lord Maguire, who had been hanged at Tyburn and whose family had ruled the county for most of three centuries from their base at Lisnaskea. The latter's property, [comprising most of the barony of Magherastephana and amounting to c.30,000 statute acres], which had until then survived "as a little bit of Gaelic Ireland left untouched", now became the basis of the future Colebrooke estate. [It was confirmed to Henry by royal patent in 1667.] Despite this slightly belated entry of the Brookes into Fermanagh as major landowners, only two of its leading early 20th-century estate-holders could claim earlier links with the county. Of the names of the original British undertakers, only one survived, the Archdales, and the Coles represented the only servitor to survive ... . Henry, who became high sheriff, Governor and member of parliament for [Co.] Donegal, was knighted in 1664, and died seven years later. He was succeeded by Basil Brooke [d.1692], eldest son of his marriage to his first wife, Elizabeth Wynter [daughter of John Wynter of Dyrham in Gloucestershire]. Soon afterwards a legal dispute arose between Basil and [Major] Thomas Brooke [d.1696], eldest son of Anne St George, whom Henry had married in 1652. The former, who was Chancellor of Oxford University, claimed all of his father's property, both the "ancient inheritance" in Donegal and also the land in Fermanagh and Monaghan, mainly under the entailment clauses contained in a deed of enfeoffment drawn up by his grandfather in 1630. In 1680, he accordingly initiated proceedings in the Chancery court. During the following year, in an Exchequer bill, Thomas claimed that it had been agreed by a settlement, in 1652, just before Henry's marriage to Anne, that he "would settle on his children by her all his new estate". Eventually, the issue was resolved, and articles of agreement were drawn up under which Basil swore to "acquit and release all his right, title and interest" in Henry's estates in Co. Fermanagh, and that "his heirs and assignees ... [would] ... never pretend, sue for, or molest the said Thomas Brooke, his heirs or assignees or any of the issue of the said Anne". A financial settlement was also entered into whereby the value of the disputed land in Monaghan was shared.

The last of the Donegal Brookes. The Donegal estates of the senior branch of the family passed by direct descent through three generations to Henry Vaughan Brooke, member of parliament for the county in the late 18th century ... . In 1807, he died intestate, leaving his paternal property to a nephew, Thomas Grove [of Castle Grove, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal], "on condition that he took the name and arms of Brooke". However, their identification with the original plantation grant was only briefly prolonged, as on the death of the latter's wife in 1863, the estates passed to her nephew, James Wood, who was not bound by the earlier conditions of inheritance. [In any case, his natural identification was with the Groves, in whose house (built c.1730 and re-modelled c.1825) he lived.]

The Brookes of Colebrooke, c.1685-1761. The "issue of ... Anne", the younger branch of the family, have survived on their Fermanagh property through ten succeeding generations. Thomas married Catherine, daughter of Sir John Cole, of Newlands, Co. Dublin, and from this marriage came the name Colebrooke, given later [pre-1718] both to the estate and to the house. Prior to the Williamite wars, then a soldier in the army, Thomas was dismissed by Tyrconnell, later reinstated by William III, and his name together with about 120 other Fermanagh landholders, as well as that of his half-brother, Basil, appears on bills of attainder passed by the parliament of James II. In the more settled times that followed, the family made useful marriages and consolidated their position ... . Colebrooke was then regarded as a good estate and the Brookes as having, with the Archdales, the "principal interest" in Fermanagh.

Sir Arthur Brooke, Bt (c.1715-1785). In 1761, however, Thomas's grandson, Sir Arthur, [one and only baronet of the first (1764) creation, succeeded. He proved to be] a spendthrift, unconscious of the value of the money and a gambler on a large scale, [who] wasted his patrimony. ... [He] married in 1751 Margaret, daughter of Thomas Fortescue of Reynoldstown, Co. Louth, and sister of Lord Clermont. They had two daughters - Selina, who married Lord Knapton (afterwards) [1st] Viscount de Vesci), and Letitia, who married Sir John Parnell, [2nd] Bt, and so was great-grandmother of Charles Stewart Parnell, MP, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Both young ladies were well known for their beauty and charm, ... [but their unpaid marriage portions of �5,000 each, and Sir Arthur's gifts and bequests to them, placed a considerable strain on the estate]. Sir Arthur ... was sheriff of Fermanagh in 1752 and was created a baronet in 1764. He was also a Privy Councillor and Custos Rotulorum of the county. It would seem that he took an independent line in politics. The government manipulators complained that Sir Arthur was ready to accept any favours to be had, but when the time came to produce the help which they expected in return, nothing was forthcoming. In Sir John Blaquiere's "Members of the House of Commons 1770-1773, Notes on Same 1773", the entry under Fermanagh is: "Sir Arthur Brooke, Bt, has the principal interest in the county and will continue to do so while he unites with Archdale. He has the character of being one of the worst tempered men living and very stingy. ..."

Sir Arthur Brooke's portrait by Hugh [Douglas] Hamilton ... [does] not in any way suggest a bad-tempered man. Certainly, his successors would have been better pleased if he really had been stingy. ... Though he had inherited through his grandmother's brother, Lord Ranelagh, large and valuable property [either in possession or reversion], in the city of Dublin, Tipperary, Clare and Wiltshire, at his death in 1785 ... [little] was left but Colebrooke, denuded of trees and heavily encumbered.

.....

Recovery over two generations, 1785-1834. [In spite of Sir Arthur Brooke, Colebrooke] remained, in the words of an informed contemporary in 1783, "a good estate but involved", and in the years preceding the Act of Union the family continued to be regarded as having one of the chief interests in the political life of the county. Sir Arthur's immediate successors, his brother [Major] Francis, and ... [Francis's] eldest son, Sir Henry, first baronet of the 1822 creation, diligently set to work to restore the fortunes of the estate, living frugally, and investing rents in land drainage and replanting. ... Gradually, also, the quality of its soil was improved. The barony of Magherastephana was described in a Book of Survey and Distribution at the time of the original grant as "part mountain and part lowland, the mountain is for the most part pastureable, and the lowland is intermingled with many bogs, loughs and heathy grounds". Though the house and property were described as "well improved and elegant by a contemporary traveller in the 1730s, a professional survey by [William] Starrat, commissioned at this time [1722], indicates that the overall quality of the land had changed little from the earlier assessment. However, two generations later, Sir Henry could write that Starrat was "not entirely to be relied upon ... . The several distinctions are very faulty, there being more bog set down than there is on each farm, and the same of mountain and moor. Most of what is called moor ... is now brought in and is good land".

Sir Henry ... spent �10,000 [in 1820-1823] on rebuilding Colebrooke [to the design of William Farrell] on the site of the original house, and the Ordnance Survey memoirs suggest that he was one of the most enterprising landlords in the county. They commented that by his attention to the habits and comforts of the tenantry, [he] ... went far towards giving his dependants an opportunity of raising their general standards. The effect is evident in the very respectable appearance of the present occupiers of the district". This evaluation is confirmed by an improbable source, The Impartial Reporter. Though bitterly anti-landlord, it described Colebrooke in 1874 as "one of the most prosperous and cultivated ... [estates] ... in the Kingdom"... . At the time of the 1876 return of owners of land in Ireland, its size was recorded as almost 28,000 acres, the third-largest in the county, only slightly smaller than Crom or Florence Court. ...

The military tradition of the Brookes. Over the past three hundred years, the Brookes have established a remarkably consistent record of military service. In that period, through each successive generation, they have served with every leading regiment and in every major British theatre of war in Europe, the empire and elsewhere. It is the most outstanding feature of the family's long recorded history. The army was the almost inevitable career of their younger sons and the sons of younger sons, few entering either the Church or the professions. Unless when war came to Ireland, such service was less common for the eldest son, and in any case [was bound to be] disrupted at some stage by the inevitable burdens of inheritance. Their function was rather to use their influence to launch younger relatives in military careers, and meanwhile preserve eternal vigilance and preparedness at home, "encouraging the loyal, and never taking their eyes off the doubtful". ... The Brookes [had] acquired their estates in the 17th century at the expense of three of the province's leading native families and mainly as a reward for military service. In the Williamite wars Thomas Brooke served in the regiment raised by his brother-in-law, Lord Drogheda, Basil helped to defend Donegal against Sarsfield's army, and his brother was staff officer to the Duke of Schomberg, whilst three of their relatives, a colonel, a lieutenant and a pikeman, helped to defend Derry during the siege. In the Napoleonic wars, Sir Henry Brooke [as has been seen] had three brothers holding high military rank. ... Sir Henry's second [but first surviving] son, Arthur, served in the Royal Navy and succeeded as the second baronet of Colebrooke.

Politics and local government. The Brookes of Colebrooke, as with most of the Anglo-Irish gentry, made little contribution to the intellect and to the imagination of the province, though this is less true of collateral branches, notably the Brookes of Dromovana. They did, however, exercise and preserve an important governing role, particularly at county level, acting as governors, sheriffs, lieutenants, deputy lieutenants and magistrates, as well as sitting on various county committees and councils, and as members of parliament. Partly in recognition of such services, two members of the family were knighted, and two separate baronetcies created [in 1764 and in 1822]. If the political tradition of the Brookes over the centuries is less sustained, less illustrious and altogether less impressive than the military, it is nonetheless an important aspect of the family's history and of its significance. From the late 17th century, they held one of the leading political interests in Fermanagh, and particularly in the years prior to the Act of Union they competed with success for the county's two seats in parliament. The continuity of their parliamentary representation, nonetheless, compares unfavourably with such families as the Archdales, who successfully contested the county without disruption from 1731 to 1885, and the Coles and the Crichtons who controlled the boroughs of Enniskillen [Co. Fermanagh] and of Lifford [Co. Donegal] respectively, and who normally provided the county's second member.

The most consistent period of Brooke parliamentary representation occurred in the years up to 1785. For a short time in the 1690s, Thomas Brooke was MP for Antrim borough. His son, Henry, after sitting briefly for Dundalk, [Co. Louth], represented Co. Fermanagh between 1727 and 1761 and was thus the first of his family to do so. He was succeeded in the seat by his son, [Sir] Arthur, who defended it successfully to 1783. ... In later years he sought a peerage, without success. Both the Crichtons and the Coles were ennobled in the 1760s, ... [and Sir Arthur's] urgent requests for a peerage in the early 1780s were prompted, [partly by county rivalry, and partly], a contemporary observed, by his being afraid of losing the county. If this was the case, such fears were realised. In the 1783 election when he and Colonel Mervyn Archdale were opposed by Viscount Cole, eldest son of the 1st Earl of Enniskillen, Archdale and Cole were returned. However, Sir Arthur did succeed in retaining a seat in parliament. Sir John Parnell, who married his daughter, Letitia, ... brought him in for Maryborough ... which he represented until his death in 1785. Nonetheless, the pattern of Brooke represention of Fermanagh was broken. Sir Arthur's successor, his brother Major Francis, failed to regain the seat in 1790.

The townlands in the manor of Brookeborough/the Colebrooke estate. The following is a list, alphabetically arranged, of townlands in the manor of Brookeborough/Colebrooke estate, or at any rate of those which feature frequently in the archive, particularly among the maps, surveys and leases. Some townlands listed in the c.1685 survey (D/3004/B/1/1) may not feature because they were sold or in effect alienated by long-leasing. In any case, the spelling in the c.1685 survey is, to say the least, quaint.

Agalun Corralough/Corlongford Killartry Aghacramphill Cornakessagh Kilcarry Aghavea Cornamucklagh Killybarne Aghavoory Cornarooslan Killycloghy Agheeghter Cran Killykeeran Aghnacloy Cranbrooke Knockmacmanus Aghnagrane Creagh Largy Altagoaghan Crocknagowan Lisboy Altawark Crocknagrally Lismalore Altnaponer Curraghanall Lisnabane Ardmoney Deerpark Lisolvan Ardmore Derrinton Longfield Arduncheon Derrycrum Lurganbane Arlish Derrychree Magonragh Ashbrooke Derrychulla Mullaghafad Aughnagrawne Derrycullion Mongibbaghan Ballymacaffry Derryheely Monmurry [?Bannafily] Derryloman Nutfield Bohattan Derrynalester Owenskerry Bonnerloghy [Bunlougher] Derrynavogy Rafintan Boyhill Dooederny Ramult Breandrum Doogary Ranafely Brobrohan Dressoge Raw Brookeborough Drombrughas Sheebeg Broughderg Drumgorran Skeoge Bunlougher Drummorris Stripe Cappanagh Edengilhorn Tattenaheglish Carrickapolin Erdinagh Tattenalee Cavanagarvan Ervey Tattenbuddagh Cavanaleck Eshacorran Tattendillur Cavans Eshnasillog Tattinfree Claraghy Eskeragh Tattykeeran Cleen Foglish Tattynuckle Cleffany Foydragh Tattyreagh Cloghtogle Gorteen Tireeghan Coolcoghill Greagh Tirkenny Coolrakelly Grogey Todragh Cooltrane Guderagh Trasna Cooneen Grogey Tullreagh Corcreeny Killabran Tullykenneye Corlacky Killabreagy Tullynagowan Corlough White Hill

Title deeds, etc. D/998/27 comprises c.50 title deeds, deeds of settlement, mortgages, legal case papers, etc, 1706, 1765, 1792, 1799, 1815-1881 (with many gaps) and 1916. However, most of this type of material, comprising c.100 documents, 1575, 1639 and 1658-1896, will be found at D/3004/A. Included among these latter are 2 title deeds relating to the late Lord Ranelagh's estate of Rathurles, Kilconane, etc, near Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, 1755 and 1758, 2 legal papers about the granting to Sir Arthur Brooke, Bt, of the right to hold a weekly market at Brookeborough, 1770, and a bundle of deeds of settlement relating to the marriage of Henry Brooke, later Sir Henry Brooke, 1st Bt, and Hariot Butler, daughter of the Hon. John Butler and granddaughter of Brinsley, 1st Viscount Lanesborough, 1792.

Leases and lease-books. D/998/26 comprises 650 leases of farms in the manor of Brookeborough, Co. Fermanagh, 1713, 1733, 1740, 1747-1881, 1891, 1894, 1903 and 1916 (with gaps in the chronological sequence between 1747 and 1881, and concentrations of documentation on years when there were major re-lettings of the estate, e.g. 1833). In D/3004/A/4-6 and A/9 a further 177 leases are to be found, all falling within the same period. In addition to individual leases, there are at D/998/12 3 lease-books, compiled c.1818-c.1824 (in some instances up-dated to the 1840s), and recording leases back to 1735, together with 4 registers of leases granted during the period c.1820-c.1895. [See Fermanagh Deeds (also Known as the Brooke Deeds) on the Ulster Ancestry website. The webpage comprises the LEASES made to various tenants during the period described.]

The lease and lease-book material is completed by 10 boxes/bundles of Irish Land Commission sale papers, c.1880-c.1930 (D/998/24), some of them tracing title back to 1786.

Maps and surveys. The biggest single component of D/998, /1 and /21, is a run of c.1,070 maps and surveys of lands in the manor of Brookeborough, 1722-1938, some of them maps/surveys of the entire estate, notably the first in the series which is by the celebrated William Starrat, 'philomath', 1722. (The earliest survey, which is verbal, not pictorial, is actually to be found at D/3004/B/1/1. It is of the components of the 10,077 statute acres comprised in Charles II's patent of 1667 to Sir Henry Brooke, Knight, of the manor of Brookeborough and it is dated c.1685.) Of the c.1,070 maps and surveys in D/998, few are post-1834 derivatives from the Ordnance Survey; so this is a major series of manuscript maps and surveys. Other surveyors, besides William Starrat, who feature in this part of the archive are James Leonard (1744-1755), Arthur Darling (1756-1764), Nicholas Willoughby (1765-1777), Robert Mitchel (1786), John Piers (1770-1798), etc, etc.

Rentals. D/998/4 comprises 110 Colebrooke estate rentals, 1849-1929 (with some duplicate and some missing volumes), 12 summary Colebrooke estate rentals, 1854-1919, and 3 Colebrooke estate receiving books, 1876-1915. D/3004/B includes a rent receipt book, 1799-1815, a volume of rentals, 1831-1844, and a rental, 1884-1885. In 1799, the rental of the estate was �5,180 per annum, and in 1831 �8,358.

Account books, etc. In addition, D/998 includes 27 Colebrooke estate cash books, 1834-1875 and 1878-1945, 22 Colebrooke estate memoranda books, 1855-1876, 8 bundles of farm steward's pay sheets, 1881-1895, 7 bundles of labourers' pay sheets, 1917-1948, 2 bundles of workmen's accounts, 1876-1880, 5 registers of improvements made by tenants, of judicial rents fixed, of sales to tenants under the Land Act, etc, 1877-1915, a bundle of accounts relating to schools on the Colebrooke estate, 1865-1868, and 32 miscellaneous account books, rentals (not in particular series), etc, 1879-1963. There is also a volume containing copies of the tithe applotment books for the parishes of Aghavea and Aghalurcher, 1832.

Papers relating to Colebrooke and demesne, 1819-1889. D/3004/B/8 comprises 37 documents and volumes (original and photocopy) of material relating to Colebrooke and its out-buildings and two cottages in the Colebrooke demesne, 1819-1874. This material includes: a library catalogue, 1819; contracts and correspondence relating to the rebuilding of Colebrooke by William Farrell, 1820-1823; an indemnity bond binding the contractors to Henry Brooke in �3,000, 1820; a front elevation of the new house, 1820; two volumes of a Colebrooke cellar book, 1864-1874; and a household account book, 1864-1889. There is also a volume of daily weather records, 1906-1935, presumably recorded at Colebrooke (D/3004/B/11/1), and 11 demesne and personal game books, 1840-1844 and 1865-1959 (D/3004/B/9-10), the former mainly recording numbers and types of deer, particularly the Sika deer introduced by Sir Victor Brooke, and the latter relating to fishing as well as shooting.

Leasing Practices: The earlier Conditions Precedent to Grants in the Plantation of Ulster continued as a social and economic basis behind many of the great families who formed "The Protestant Ascendancy" following the 1689 Revolution. However, the Earls of Erne, Tynan Abbey Stronges, and other prominent families who controlled the politics, large land holdings, and social and economic life of Ireland in the 18th and 19th century now owed a much greater allegiance to the English monarchy. Their lands and titles had been received in reward for service to William of Orange and his heirs.

Irish Society was dominated by an agricultural economy. In general, four classes of people occupied the soil of Ireland. At the top of the scale were the landlords, about five percent of the population. Of these, one-fifth controlled eighty percent of the arable land. The landlords included the London Companies and their undertakers. 26 Another "landlord" was Trinity College, Dublin, the trustees of which held extensive lands as a source of revenue. 27

Below the landlords were the leaseholders, who held the land in perpetuity. These people, comprising about 2.5 percent of the population, belonged to the "established" Church of Ireland, were part of the "Ascendancy", did not engage in tilling the soil, and generally occupied grazing land. 28

Under the leaseholders, or directly under the landlords, were one or more "freeholders" or middlemen, who might hold their lands for terms such as "three lives or 31 years, whichever came first". Leases in general in Ireland at this time were of four main types:

(1) Leases for three lives renewable for ever;

(2) Leases for three lives which expired on the death of the last life;

(3) Leases for a period of years, e.g. 21 years, 31 years, 41 years, etc.;

(4) Leases for three lives, or so many years, whichever was longer. 29

These leaseholders were usually not obliged to work for the landlord. If they did, they were paid in money. Grazing land sufficient for a few head of cattle per family might be held in common. While the title of "freeholder" conferred dignity on the individuals concerned, these freehold estates lasted only for the duration of the lease or of the lives concerned, and thus were of uncertain length. 30

Often, significant changes in the lives of the "freeholders" came at the expiration of the leases. For example, an entire congregation of Scots-Irish "Associate Reformed Presbyterians" apparently emigrated to South Carolina in 1771 when their leaseholds on his Antrim estate expired and the Marquis of Donegal demanded exorbitant increases. Included in the congregation were Charles Strong and James Strong, descendants of a certain Christopher Strong, and who founded a lineage described herein as the "South Carolina Strongs". See APPENDIX One, Chart 3. 31(To be added later)

Middlemen sometimes made, or added to, their living by renting land themselves and then letting it out in small holdings on shorter term leases, usually annual in length, or even "at will", in which case the tenants could be driven off the land if the middleman could get a higher rent from someone else. These middlemen were often oppressive, looking for quick profits at the expense of their subtenants. Because of personal supervision, conditions were usually better when the landlord handled the leases himself. 32

Under the middlemen came the tenants...the most numerous class of all. There were three classes of tenants: 33

(1) The annual tenants formed about seventy-seven percent of the occupiers of farms. This was the typical "small farmer" class. They settled mainly on lands valued at perhaps less than �15 per annual leasehold, land which totaled more than fifty percent of the cultivated acreage.

(2) Next came the cotters who lived in poor cottages usually located on someone else's land. They usually rented a patch of "conacre", or land rented annually on an eleven month tenure to the highest bidder, to grow a crop of potatoes, or to pasture their sheep. Labor was often exchanged for rent.

(3) At the bottom rung of the ladder were agricultural laborers who had no land at all, but they too often rented a patch of conacre. The potato crop from one acre was enough to maintain a man and wife and six children for three-quarters of a year in a less than satisfactory condition.

By law, any improvements made by a tenant became the property of the landlord. Improved property commanded higher rent and the tenant who made the improvements was not compensated. Consequently, he was discouraged from bettering his house or his land. 34

The situation of the peasantry was indeed deplorable. A description of their condition in County Monaghan is contained in a Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, written in the early to mid-19th century: 35

"Population is dense, the number of labourers has increased, and the system of con-acre is prevalent. Marriages are, in general, early and without provision. The wages of agricultural labour average 10d per day; and the amount of work for each labourer averages about 180 days in the year. Most of the peasantry pay their rent in labour to the parties from whom they hold their con-acre and their cabins. Labourers wives occasionally earn a mere trifle by keeping poultry or by spinning; and their children sometimes earn from 10s to 15s during the summer for weeding and herding.

"The common food is potatoes with rarely a little butter-milk or sweet-milk; and is preferred, as constant food, to bread or meal. The cabins have either one room or two rooms; they may measure 12 feet square, and seven or eight feet high; they are floored with mere soil, occasionally mixed with lime; they have straw thatching, and in general, chimneys of sticks and clay, with perhaps an old firkin square (a small wooden vessel or cask 36) for a chimney pot; and their windows are usually about a foot square, and rarely glazed.

"Clothing is, for the most part, both poor and scanty. Few women make their own clothes; though since the failure of employment at spinning, many are becoming more used to the needle. When families are large, a portion of the bedding is usually mere straw spread upon the floor. Pawning and drunkenness, up to a period of about 5 years ago, were seriously on the increase; and the chief drunkards were tradesmen about the towns, and farmers who frequented the markets. Emigration, principally to Canada and the United States has been considerable."

Ffolliott / Folliot Family, Barons of Ballyshannon: What follows is a followup re the Ffolliott / Folliot family, which MAY be related to the "Ffillot" family mentioned as part of the Warham lineage discussed by Martha F.B. Strong in her "Southern Triangle" papers, which were formerly posted on Geocities.

Note, I think this material is significant because it MAY provide a link from the "Southern Triangle" to Counties Donegal, Fermanagh, Sligo, and Cork for the Strong families who can be found in the records of each of these counties! It may well be that these families were "planted" in Ireland as under-tenants of the Ffolliotts. I invite further examination and research by interested researchers!

The following is quoted from "Donegal History and Society", edited by William Nolan, Liam Ronayne, and Mairead Dunlevy, published by Geography Publications, Dublin, 1995: at pps 185-186, "....in the Civil Survey of 1654 the plain between the Drowes and the Erne, the property of Thomas Lord ffolliott, is firmly described as part of the barony of Tirhugh and the county of Donegal."

The following is quoted from "The Folliotts, Wardtown Castle and the Colleen Bawn", by Anthony Begley, published in The Donegal Annual, 1991, at p.61,62-69:

....."Henry Folliott was born at Pirton Court in Worcestershire in 1569, the son of Thomas Folliott and Katherine Lygon. He had one elder brother, Sir John Folliott, who inherited the English lands of the family and a branch of whose family subsequently settled at Hollybrook in Co. Sligo. Henry married Anne, daughter of Sir William Stroude of Stoke-under-Hamden, Co. Somerset, and they had seven children. In May 1594 Henry Folliott was based in the Ballyshannon (Co. Donegal) area, presumably in the military service of the crown....

"In December 1607 the Earl of Tyrconnell complained of "sundry rapes and extortions" of the soldiers of Sir Henry Folliott and for "the said Sir Henry's house, every month there were six beeves and six muttons taken up by his own officers within the barony of TISHERE (Tirhugh) without any payment"... In June 1608 the Castle of Lough Eske was delivered to Sir Henry, and in the same year he sacked Tory Island and killed rebels there".

"(During the "Plantation of Ulster",) The Barony of Tirhugh, in which Ballyshannon is situated, was granted to Servitors (ex-army officers), to the Church and to Trinity College, Dublin; The Irish were allowed to remain in the barony and it was planted relatively thinly with Scots and English. Henry Folliott, because of his military service to the Crown, acquired much of the lands in the Ballyshannon area by grant and he also plurchased additional land... (including subsequently the lands of the former Abbey of St. Barnard of Asheroe, located at the present site of Ballyshannon)....

"Henry, First Baron Folliott of Ballyshannon, had seven children. Thomas, who became the Second Baron, Michael, Arthur, Charles, Anne, Elizabeth and Frances, who married Sir Robert King, M.P. for Boyle. The First Baron died in 1622.... The inheritance of the First Baron passed to his eldest son Thomas who was only nine years old at the time of his father's death in 1622. During his long minority he was in ward to the King from the 26th February 1623 to 30th May 1634. Thomas, Second Baron of Ballyshannon, married Rebecca French, relict of a Mr. Waterhouse of Dublin. They had four children: Henry, Anne, Rebecca and Elizabeth. An indication of the extent of the Folliott property in the Barony of Tirhugh can be gleaned from the following survey in the 1650's:

"Parish of Innishmacsaint: "Eleven quarters and a halfe in total. Ogherous, Knockaterry, Killerlacky, Dunmuckrum, Crevagh, Donoghmore, Leckalastran, Camlin, Beleeke, Conntokker, and ye halfe quarter of Reglass". In the above parish, Thomas Folliott had and estimated 1034 acres and he had a mill on the River Erne at Ballyshannon. He also held Ballyhanna by lease from the Bishop of Clogher.

"Parish of Kilbarron: "Ten quarters and six ballibose called the halfe quarter of Shiggis, ye halfe quarter of Mullinashee, ye halfe quarter of Crevaugh, the quarter of Cashell, ye halfe quarter of Alla, the quarter of Cillcarbare, ye halfe quarter of Legaltion, the quarter of Knada, the quarter of Corlee, the quarter of Cassalard, the quarter of Teagh Leagh, the quarter of Tubber, the quarter of Garvanagh". In the parish of Kilbarron Thomas Folliott held 1187 acres

Parish of Drumhome: "Two quarters of land called Ballimagroty containing 360 acres. One quarter of land called Ballidermott containing 160 acres; a total of 520 acres....

Trinity College Lands: Trinity College Dublin had been granted land in the Barony of Tirhugh under the Ulster Plantation arrangements. The Folliotts leased the College lands in the parishes of Innishmacsaint and Kilbarron. In the parish of Innishmacsaint, they leased the 4 quarters of Bundrouse, Drumkrin, Ardfarnagh and Ramore, comprising 588 acres. In Kilbarron they leased the six ballibose called BalliMcWard containing 115 acres and "Nine ballibose called Colearrmur, one quarter one balliboe of Keran". A total of 703 plus acres.

"The Folliotts also held land in Fermanagh, including the Manor of Dumkyn, and in England where Thomas 2nd Baron resided at Ferney Hall in Worcestershire.....

"Wardtown Castle is located on the townland of Ballymacaward. The land was originally the home of the Wards who were the chief poets to the O'Donnell Irish Chieftans. As described in the Civil Survey of 1654-56, the "six ballibose of BalliMcWard begineth their bounds norward with a brooke which runneth into the sea called Ffalkinlargg and soe runeth tel wee come to a ditch with boundeth them westward from a hill called Shiggis belonging to the Lord Folliott which ditch runneth from thence to a bogg called Monin Kilbaugh and continueth westward while we come to Collchill and from thence turneth norward to Shiggis and from thence eastward to Gortnebrade and soe norwest to a brooke from which runneth a gutter norwest into a brooke which boundeth them from one partt of ye Lord Folliott's lands called Kildone and from thence southwest into the sea and soe south to ye Barr of Ballishanon and from thence eastward to Ffaulkinlard where wee began our bounds.

"No Folliotts have resided in Wardtown Castle for the past two hundred years. By famine time, John Folliott let the land and Castle to Henry Likely, who had an estate of 575 acres. The Likelys came from Parke, near Kinlough, Co. Leitrim.... The last of the Likelys to reside in the castle was Henry Likely who died in 1914. Mrs. Violet (Likely) Strong recalls that as a baby she slept in the Castle in September 1914, while her parents attended the funeral of Henry Likely. The Castle has not been lived in since that time.

wardtown castle screen

"The Jacobite-Williamite Wars saw much military activity in this area. King James II on his arrival in Dublin in 1689 passed an act ...(attainering diverse rebels including Thomas Folliott, John Folliott, and Lord Folliott of Belashannan(sic)").... After King William established his authority in Ireland the parliament passed an ...(act annulling the attainders)...

"Sir John Folliott, brother of the First Baron, had a son, Major John, who served in the army in Ireland and whose residence was at St. Finbarres, Cork. Major John Folliott was appoined Commissioner of Donegal in 1646 and he leased Ballymacaward (which was part of the holdings of Trinity College). In 1665 Major John paid taxes on three hearths in Ballymacaward. His two sons Francis and John were engaged in the Inniskilling regiments in the Jacobite-Williamite Wars. John took over the lease on Ballymacaward on the death of his father in 1682. Francis Folliott, Parkhill, Ballyshannon, was M.P. for Ballyshannon in 1692 and uniquely, his brother John was also M.P. in 1692. John Folliott died in 1697 and his wife Lucy remained at Ballymacaward until her death in 1730. Thomas, Second Baron Folliott, died at Ferney Hall, Worcestershire, and was bured in the Chancel of Onibury Church nearby in 1696. In 1697 Henry Folliott was created Lord Folliott and became the Third Baron of Ballyshannon. On acquiring his title he retired as M.P. for Ballyshannon, an office which he had assumed in 1695.

"The Third Baron, ... Lord Henry Folliott married Elizabeth Pudsey of Langley, Co. Warwick, and they had one daughter, Rebecca, who died in 1697. On the 17th October 1716 Henry died at his home, Four Oaks Hall, Co Worcester, and he was buried at Sutton Coldfield. As he died without surviving issue, all the unentailed property was divided between his five sisters. The entailed property went to the next male heir, Lieutenant General John Folliott. With the death of Henry Folliott in 1716 the title, Baron of Ballyshannon, became extinct and much of the Folliott property was sold... (to William Connelly, Speaker of the Irish Parliament)...

"Lieutenant General John Folliott who had inherited the Third Barons' estate in 1716 also inherited the estate of Robert Folliott, Sligo, who died in 1746. In this way the Sligo property (including Hollybrook) and the Ballyshannon estate of the Folliott family, came into one ownership. On the death of Lieutenenat General Johhn Folliott at Lickhill, Worcestershire, in 1762, the estates in Worcestershire, Sligo, and what remained of the Donegal estate went to his namesake and cousin John Folliott, who had been born in Ballyshannon in 1696, the eldest son of the previously named Francis...."

It should be obvious to all concerned that Worcestershire figures large in the fortunes of the Folliotts, and it should also be clear that the same English County is the home of many Strongs. However, it is too much of a coincidence that Strongs are in turn found as tenants in the very lands held by the Folliott family in Donegal and Fermanagh, and perhaps in Sligo and Cork as well (although the situation in the latter two counties has not been verified by me at this time). Recently, the Strong DNA Study has shown that the genetic "haplotypes" of the Strongs of southwest England are quite different from the haplotypes of the "Donegal Bay Strongs".

William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate: Part of the Conolly Estate of Co.Donegal was originally granted in about 1610 to Francis Gofton, Auditor to the Lord Deputy of Ireland. Gofton then sold his Ballyshannon Estate to Sir Henry Folliot. 37 According to John B. Cunningham's article, "William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate 1718-1726", his successor, Lord Folliott sold the estate to William Conolly, his legal advisor, in 1718 for �52,000. The estate had a stated rental income of �2,000 fer annum plus �450 for the Erne Fishery. The Ballyshannon estate totalled some 18,900 acres. Conolly also rented "College" lands in the area from Trinity College, Dublin, to the extent of about 1719 acres for �292-18-10.5. Additionally, he had an estate in Co. Fermanagh around Ballinamallard, called Newporton, totalling 4212 acres with a rental of �582-4-11, and lots in the town of Ballyshannon, the fishery of Ballyshannon, the warren at Ffinure, Mills, Tenements on the Carriggboys side of Ballyshannon, a tanyard and storehouse at Balleek, and Tenements and mills at Ballynemallar. 38 The PRONI holds extensive records from the Conolly Estate. See The Conolly Papers (D/2094, D/1062/1, D/663, T/2825, MIC/435, etc). See also William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate:.

The Trinity College Lands: Amongst The Conolly Papers are certain Trinity College Dublin papers copied by PRONI (MIC/435). This section of the Conolly papers (the originals of which are in the Manuscripts Department, T.C.D.) comprise c.2,000 documents and volumes, 1683-1900. They include: political, personal and estate correspondence, including details of local politics in Co. Londonderry and in the boroughs of Limavady, Co. Londonderry, and Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, 1709-1900; personal and Castletown household, demesne and farm account books, 1758-1893; and rent accounts for property in Cos Kildare, Meath, Dublin and Roscommon, 1781-1792, together with a survey of property in Drumhome, Co. Donegal, 1770. There is also a copy out-letter book of a Dutch merchant in Dublin, 1683-1685. [See "Overdue Account: Usurped Donegal lands granted to Trinity College Dublin" for a rather negative but informative version of the acquisition and tenancy of these lands by various middleman landlords during the years of "The Protestant Ascendancy".]

The Conolly Ballyshannon Estate extended roughly from Balleek to near Bundoran on the south of the River Erne, and on the north bank of the river it extended from the sea at Ballyshannon several miles northward towards Rossnowlagh and then inland to the east about five or six miles, to include Breesy Mountain about 5 miles northeast of Belleek. As described above generally, the landlord usually let out his estate in sizable areas to one substantial tenant or to a combination of sub- stantial tenants. These tenants could sublet to others below them on the economic ladder at a profit for themselves, or they could retain their own parcel and farm it themselves. 39

Cunningham indicates that in the 1690's much land had been leased for 31 years at a low rent in the aftermath of the "Williamite War". Scots emigration to the north of Ireland was apparently particularly strong in the mid-1690's due to a famine in Scotland around 1695-7. A preponderance of Scots names are noted in the estate records for this period. Cunningham's article studies the estate records of renewals of the leases in about 1726, at the end of the 31 year term of the first leases. Using the estate records from the time of the sale from Lord Folliott to William Conolly in 1718, he was able to compare the rent charges to verify the renewals were at generally higher levels. 40

The lease renewals in question related to the "freeholders" or middlemen. They did not apply to the sub-tenants. The sub-tenants only had security from year to year and would have dwelt in a "clachan", or collection, of houses and travelled to their scattered "bitty" portions of land round the locality. This was part of the "rundale" system, and gave the sub-tenant some good, some middling, and some bad land in relation to what he could pay. The middleman, i.e., the leaseholder, could quickly "tax" him if agricultural prices went up, while the landlord had to wait until the lease term finished to get his slice of the enlarged pie. Remember too, that the population density was much lower in the early eighteenth century than it was to be later in the century and in the early nineteenth century. 41

Cunningham presents several insights in his analysis. One is that in this early period of the Penal Laws, 1726, Roman Catholics held substantial sections of the Conolly Estate as middle men. At this time, many of the middlemen carried obviously Gaelic names such as McGill, O'Gorman, O'Boyle, Flanagan and O'Coen, which were known to be Catholic at the time. The Conolly family were themselves very probably "not long after" conforming to the Church of Ireland and many of their relatives or friends in the area were still Roman Catholics. 42

Another insight is that it was common in those days to name children after a local notable as a means of currying favor, probably with the idea that the child as an adult would be suitably looked after by the family he was named after; thus one finds names in the records like Folliott Lipsett (obviously named after Lord Folliott), and later one Conolly Coen, named after the Conolly family. Many of the lessees were related in some way or another to the Folliott and Conolly families. One Mrs. Crow, the wife of Captain Francis Folliott, and later after his death remarried to a Mr. Robert Crowe, held a tenancy from December 17, 1695. Other leaseholders were Thomas Dickson and Thomas Atkinson, both married to sisters of William Conolly. 43 Reference to Griffith's Valuations for the area of the Estate in 1857 reveal that one of the "immediate lessors" of many townlands was then listed as "Rep.s Col. Dickson", probably a descendant.

Ardeelane & Aghadowey Townlands: Cunningham makes no mention of Strong lessees in the Conolly Estate article. It is probable, however, they came into possession of some of the lands about 1695. Dale G. Strong found that one Will Strong leased "Ardellan" Townland from the Conolly Estate in 1718; and that William Strong had another lease of "Ardeelan" Townland in 1726. In 1727, William Strong owed "18� as tenant at Ballyshannon Manor...also...John Strong." Also, in Raphoe Wills 1684-1858" is found a reference to a will for Arthur Strong of "Ardeelane" in 1743. Finally, there is mention of Edward Strong and son at Ardeelan in 1774. 44 Analysis of the dates and events with reference to the likely length of the lease terms suggests the following sequence of events:

1695-1726: 31 years, original lease to William Strong

1726: likely renewal of the lease, probably for 31 years and/or the lives of William and his son Arthur. William probably died between 1727 and 1743.

1726-1743: After 16 years, death of Arthur Strong; with subsequent re-letting of the townland property to his son or other relative, Edward Strong.

1743-1774: 31 years lease term; re-letting of leasehold to Edward Strong and son.

1774-1805: 31 years lease term; probably to Edward Strong and son.

1805-1836: 31 year lease term. Emigrations thereafter to America. See: "The Descendants of John Strong (1770-1837) and Martha Watson (1772-1851) of Drumhome Parish, Co. Donegal, Ireland." 45

Also to be weighed is the indication found by Dale G. Strong that one Redmond O'Gollogher had a lease of "Achidooey", apparently from Lord Folliott, in May, 1684. 46 (Note: Aghadowey is later included with the Hamilton of Brown Hall Estate, so it probably was part of the Trinity College lands, and probably was under lease to Folliott until circa 1697, when the lease passed to the Hamilton Family.) This was probably the nearby townland of Aghadowey, found by Dale Strong in 1982 to have been tenanted by a Strong family to whom he traced his ancestry. Two possibilies arise. One, O'Gollogher may have been dispossessed following the "Williamite War", circa 1696; leading to a sequence of events similar to that postulated above. Two, a different, possibly related family of Strongs may have taken the leasehold subsequently. This latter scenario does not as well tie to the lease terms set out above, but may also be possible.

Rev. John Hamilton, of St. Ernan's: In the early nineteenth century, we find another Donegal landlord, one John Hamilton, scion of the same Hamilton family discussed above, who was born in Dublin on 25th August 1800, and was educated at Armagh School and at St. John's College, Cambridge. Orphaned in 1807 with his brother Edward, he came of age in 1821. Waiting for him was an entailed estate of 20,000 acres in County Donegal, the seat of which was Brown Hall, held under lease from Trinity College. Coming under pressure from the trustees for higher renewal rents, he determined in 1824 to remove himself and his family to a new residence he built on the Isle of St. Ernan's in Donegal Bay, about two miles from the town of Donegal. He ceded his interest in Brown Hall to his brother, Edward Hamilton. 47

An Improving Landlord:Upon assuming his estate in 1821, John Hamilton found a very backward peasantry. The Irish peasantry was described as being among the worst clad peasantry in Europe, albeit cheerful in rags, good-tempered on a starving stomach. It was, according to Hamilton,

"a district which ought not to be populous, and its soil pays ill for cultivation... The unhappy legislation which made leases of the value of forty shillings a year give a vote for the county representative, had led my forefathers to encourage subdivision to such a degree that instead of five or six substantial tenants I found a hundred. That they were poor I need not say. But they paid their rents duly, and were a more civilized fold than, under the circumstances in a very remote corner of a very remote county, could be expected....But poor and ill-circumstanced as they were, they had spirit and energy to provide for the education of their children." 48

Hamilton encouraged the peasantry in their efforts to better themselves, and brought in Scots workmen and skilled laborers in an attempt to introduce new technology and new methods of working the soil. He also became involved in the Methodist movement, becoming renowned as a preacher amongst protestant and Catholic alike. 49

In 1838, a system of Poor Law relief was introduced in Ireland, based upon Union chargeability. The country was divided into 130 unions, subdivided into 2050 electoral divisions. The system penalized the resident landlord who by his husbandry improved his estates. Neglected estates of absentee landlords had become veritable pauper warrens, and by virtue of their rundown condition, were taxed based on their lesser values. 50

In 1841, Mr. Hamilton took into his own hands the agency of his estate. Up to the summer of 1845, all was going on well, the extent of arable land compared with that of 1840 increasing from year to year. 51 It has also been asserted that John Hamilton was estate agent for the Conolly Estate around Ballyshannon and possibly for the Leslie Estate of Pettigo and other estates as well. 52

In the autumn of 1845, the partial failure of the potato crop was the harbringer of the terrible famine crisis, 1846-1850. Hamilton suffered pecuniarily in the coming years to give profitable employment to the poor. The great migration to America began, and Hamilton often lent funds to his tenants so that they might gain passage to the new world. Remarkably, most repaid him. 53

During the preceding century and a half of relative peace since the Revolution of 1691, the population of Ireland had been steadily on the increase. By 1800, the population was estimated at four million, and by 1841 had doubled to over eight million. Over the years as land passed from one generation to another, it was subdivided into smaller and smaller parcels. The potato, which had been introduced to Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1590, was an ideal food as it grew well in the Irish climate. It was high in nutritional value and produced an excellent yield. One acre of farmland was capable of producing up to six tons of potatoes annually. The potato became the staple food, and millions of Irish depended on it. The majority of families lived on farms of less than five acres by the 1840's. Even these farms were further subdivided to provide plots of about 1 acre of conacre for cottiers who subleased from the lease- holders. 54

In the very warm and damp summer of 1845, about a third of Ireland's potato crop was destroyed by a parasitic fungus similar to bread mould. This first failure did not spell disaster, as most had enough reserves to make it through the ensuing winter. But 1846 was again warm and humid, and the fungus destroyed two-thirds of the potato crop. The hardest hit areas were in the west, in Counties Galway and Mayo, where the population was densest. To compound matters, the following winter was severe and many died of starvation and exposure. 1847 brought a more temperate dry summer and the potato crop was free of the fungus. But many had not planted that year after the two previous crop failures. In 1848 the humidity, and consequently the fungus, returned. The potato crop was again destroyed. There were further failures in 1849 and 1851. Estimates are that over a million people died, and another million emigrated during the period. 55

The government of Sir Robert Peel took action as early as 1845. A scientific inquiry was set up to determine, un- successfully, the cause of the blight. Corn was bought from America and public works programs were set up so that the peasants would have some money with which to buy the maize. But if potatoes were the staple of the Irish diet, grain was the staple of the Irish economy. Tenants and landlords alike depended upon the production of grain to pay their bills. Peel therefore insisted on the continuance of exports of Irish grown grain, while importing American corn maize to help feed the starving. Peel's actions were considered humane for the time. He even advocated repeal of the Corn Laws, against the policy of his own political party, to help alleviate the situation in Ireland. But his insistence on the continuing exports of Irish grain has cursed him in the eyes of the Irish. 56

Peel was replaced by Lord John Russell in 1846, and his new Whig government cut off all government purchases of food, leaving the supply to free enterprise in an arrogant gesture of Laissez-faire. The situation in Ireland was desperate, however, and even this government felt compelled to introduce new public works programs. An overcrowded nation so dependant upon a single crop was flirting with disaster. The famine was primarily a scourge of the peasants, who were mostly Catholics. Protestant landlords and tenant farmers, who were the grain producers fared much better. People in the cities were better off than those in rural areas. All this combined to deepen the sectarian hatred which had existed for centuries. 57

On February 19, 1847, the Ballyshannon Herald published a very long letter from the same John Hamilton mentioned above. Another writer has observed: 58

"In his own way he seems a man sensitive to the situation and practical for the future, although badly lacking in short term solutions. He seeks to combat apathy and fatalism in the tenantry which is admirable, if the person has the energy to look some distance ahead, but useless if starvation is a matter of days away."

Hamilton's letter read: 59

"Stir yourself and be doing. Drain a rood of ground and dig it eighteen inches deep and you will be paid for it if is done right and get many years to repay this money...seed will be provided and can be paid for later. Sow corn and not potatoes in rows nine inches apart and the seed two inches apart. This requires two stone of seed and repays 200 stone if the land is well dug or well ploughed and is dry...Tenants will be allowed to burn as much as they like and (Hamilton) will say nothing for this season (burning the dried sods of the land gave a short term fertility but was ultimately ruinous and absolutely forbidden normally). Tenants were urged to burn as much as they liked on black land, i.e. bog land, and to cart it to other ground to grow turnips...Sow "pease" (sic) and barley and field and garden beans and mangle wozzels. Come to (Hamilton) for help. Uncommon work is required and (help will not be given to) anyone who holds land but will not work it."
With the 1850's came a change in the husbandry of the land...from crops to pasturage. The peasantry often surrendered their lands to the landlords, either at the termination of their leases or sooner.

Ulster Tenant Right: Anther writer asserted that,

"No tenant on (John Hamilton's) St. Ernan's estate was at any period dispossessed from his holding without compensation being paid him. This compensation, called "Tenant Right", in Ulster, varied in amount from five to fifteen years' rent of the holding. The farms had been too much subdivided by Mr. Hamilton's predecessors in order to create voters...Hamilton bought the Tenant Right in many instances. In all other instances the incoming tenants bought it from the outgoing." 60

From 1821 to 1874, Hamilton paid nearly �4000 as compensation for the Tenant Right. The fact that Tenant Right did not prevail outside the Province of Ulster until a Tenant Right Act was passed by Parliament in 1870 may explain in part the bitter feeling of many Irishmen evicted in the other three provinces of Ireland in the period 1850 to 1860, a feeling that was carried with them to the United States. 61

However, Hamilton's efforts on behalf of the peasantry seems to have mitigated much ill will, as may be demonstrated by the following poem, dated February, 1874, copied in about 1986 by Anthony Begley of Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, from the original longhand framed and hanging in a neighbor's house. The author is unknown, as are the characters "Tristram" and "The Doctor" mentioned within: 62

'Deliver us! Deliver us!'
Cried the serfs of Donegal;
'Deliver us, oh Doctor
From the tyrant landlords' thrall!
To overthrow the Saxon foe,
That's our battle-cry today
And fixity of tenure,
Without any rent to pay.

Unto the great twin brethern
We peasants send our wail;
Swift, swift, the great twin brethern
Come rushing down by rail--
Now let the Tories tremble,
The Tories doomed to fall,
When the banner of the Kennedys
Is seen in Donegal.'

Up rose the mighty Doctor
And Tristram up rose he;
'The labour might be great', they cried,
To set the county free;
But wel' rack our brains and spare no pains
To win the people's cause
And old Ireland will be happy, boys,
When we dictate her laws.

'And as for pains and labours',
Said the Doctor with a smile,
'Excuse me for observing
They are rather in my line;
How often like a mushroom
I have sprung up in the right'.
'Like a mushroom? Hang Comparisons!'
Cried Tristram in a fright!

So they placarded the county
With promises and vows
And assailed the Tory landlords
And on every wall in Donegal,
As hot the battle waxes,
I've seen the watchword of the Twins:
'Down! Down with rent and taxes!'

'Deliver us! Deliver us!'
Was still the Celtic cry.
'Now by Lucina's gentle hand',
The Doctor cried, 'I'll try';
'And if Gladstone and his cabinet
Are not laid upon the shelf,
Perhaps, by my deliverance
I'll get a berth myself!'

But up rose the men of Donegal;
Up rose a mighty band,
Ne'er yet a Hamilton has driven
A tenant from his land;
Ne'er yet did any Conolly
Oppress the struggling poor,
So we'll make a stand to save the land
From the Dublin acconcheir.

And they fought a gallant battle
And every nerve was strained
And for Hamilton and Conolly
A victory was gained;
And Donegal was not condemned
To suffer for its sins--
For an ever-bounteous Providence
Delivered it of Twins!"

Obviously, the sentiment expressed is one of gratitude and loyalty to the landlords of the Hamilton and Conolly Estates. Part of the friendly relations between these estates and their tenants may have originated in the Ulster Tenant Right. This was apparently a customary perception that an occupying tenant had a prior and prescriptive right to negotiate for renewal of his lease on its expiration, and that such negotiations should be seen to have failed before others should or could bid for the land. Over much of Ulster there was an active market in lease "interests"... the purchaser of an interest obtained both occupation of a holding during the unexpired term of the lease and the "tenant right" to negotiate subsequent renewal. Such sales apparently generated sum amounting to several times the annual rent of a farm, and were often used to provide the outgoing tenant with a capital stake prior to emigration. 63

A speculation is that the Ulster Tenant Right arose because of the number of protestant tenants who had gained their positions on the land either by virtue of service as common soldiers in the armies of James I, Cromwell, and William of Orange, or as free yeomanry from England and Scotland brought over by the Planters and their successors to consolidate protestant control of the land. These yeoman tenants, or freeholders, continued to serve the landlords, middlemen and other lessees in a somewhat privileged position over that of the Catholic cotters and agricultural laborers; a position the security of which was protected in part by the Ulster Tenant Right. In turn, the respect of the landlords for the rights of the tenants engendered loyalty on the part of the latter. Insight on the effects of the potato famines can be gained from reports extracted from the Ballyshannon Herald in the period 1845-1850. John B. Cunningham, of Beleek in Co.Fermanagh, wrote in review of the newspaper articles of the period: 64

"Sept.17th (1847): reports that no rot can be seen in the potatoes and that a great fever rages about Enniskillen. The news from Fermanagh continues in the Oct. 1st. newspaper as it reports on the dissolution of Lowtherstown (Irvinestown) Poor Law Union. The immediate cause was the raising of the salary of the R.C. (Roman Catholic) Chaplain to the Workhouse. In the row that followed the Protestant Chaplain's salary was raised. Further rows caused the dismissal of the master of the workhouse and finally the Board of Guardians themselves were dismissed.

This is the newspaper version of the dissolution of Lowtherstown P.L.U., but in fact there were much more grievous reasons why this Union was taken over by a Government appointed Commissioner. The Guardians failed to levy anywhere near sufficient funds to support the poor and starving of the locality, thus causing the effects of the Famine to be even worse than need have been and the Workhouse which they were in charge of was very badly run. An inspector who visited Lowtherstown Workshouse wrote that he found people half naked dying in their own vomit and excrement, lying on the floor. He said that Lowtherstown was the worst workhouse that he ever visited. (See Parliamentary Papers: Irish Famine).

October 15th: reported the dissolution of Ballyshannon P.L.U. Commissioners and the appointment of a new government inspector. November 19th sees a letter saying that the people of the country are living on turnips and nothing else. The Gentlemen of the country must unite to stave off famine as they did last year."

Estates of Landlords in County Longford include the following, none of which have been researched to date: 65
Richard, Lord Greville--- fourth largest landowner in Co. Longford with 8,877 Acres in 1854.
Resided Clonyn, Delvin, County Westmeath. The Grevilles originate from a John Greville of Campden, Co. Gloucester, England, in the 1300's. See also, Algernon W.B. Greville, 45 Sussex Gardens, London, in 1876. Baron Greville was residing at Clonhugh, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, c. 1900.

Lt.Col. Arthur G. Lewis, landowner in Griffith's Valuations, 1854 (800 plus acres): See also Edward Lewis, Violetstown, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath; Henry Owen Lewis, 19 Seymour Str., W. London; and Rev. Samuel Lewis, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim; all addresses in 1876

Hon. Capt. Francis Maude: landowner in Griffith's Valuations, 1854 (1235 Acres). Address in 1876: Onslow Square, London.

The foregoing has been only a sampling of the various estate materials available to the researcher. We have emphasized those estates most likely to be of interest to Strong genealogical researchers. For a complete listing of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) summaries of various estates and the records held, see Introductions to the Major Collections: Collections Described. Even there, it should be recognized that the PRONI collection only relates to major estates located in Ulster. There are vast additional resources available in the libraries, archives and public record offices of the Republic of Ireland which cover both Ulster and the rest of Ireland.

We now need to review further some of the social and economic conditions that were generating emigration from Ireland in the period. See Chapter VII: Strife, Turmoil, Famine, Revolt: Ireland to the Present.



ANTRIM:
Arthur Chichester, Baron Chichester of Belfast, Marquis of Donegal:
ARMAGH:
Stronge of Tynan Abbey, County Armagh:
DONEGAL:
Hamilton of Brown Hall, Co. Donegal:
John Hamilton of St. Ernan's:
Murray of Broughton Estate, Co. Donegal: (aka:)
H.G.Murray-Stewart Estate, Co. Donegal:
Pakenham Estate in Killybegs:(aka:)
Coyngham Estate in Killybegs & Mount Charles:
Ffolliott/Folliot Family, Barons of Ballyshannon:
William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate:
The Trinity College Lands:
DOWN:
The Castlereagh Papers:
The Downshire Family of County Down:
FERMANAGH:
The Earls of Erne: The Creighton or Crichton Family:
Earls of Enniskillen, the Cole Family:

Rev. Lord Adam Loftis, Marquis of Ely:
The Leslie Estate:
Caldwell Estate; Western Fermanagh: Templecarne and Belleek Parishs.
The Colebrook Estate & the Brooke Family:
LONGFORD:
The Greville Estate:
The Lewis Estate:
The Maude Estate:
MONAGHAN:
The Shirley Estate:
The Leslie Estate:
SOCIAL & ECONOMIC CONDITIONS:
Leasing Practices:
An Improving Landlord and a Backward Peasantry:
Ulster Tenant Right:
Footnotes:

Footnotes:
A few words about the footnotes in this Webpage are in order. When I first began writing the book that became "Researching Strong(e) and Strang(e) in Britain and Ireland", 2nd Edition (Rootsweb) , I was writing for the traditional print format, and intended the documentation to be in the form of footnotes appearing at the end of each chapter. When I subsequently published the various chapters on the above website, the footnotes were presented in that format. However, as time went on, I found that it was easier to present the documentation of particular points immediately in the screen-text. Simply, it was easier to navigate to the documentation if it was immediately at hand, rather than having to go to the end of the webpage to find the documentation relied upon. Consequently, as my webpages have been added to and updated there are two different means of documentation provided: the "on-screen" text variety, and the traditional footnotes. Anyone curious as to the context in which the material was found may consult further with the references in the Bibliography.


1 E.J. Collins, "Irish Family Research Made Simple", Summit Publications (1974), p.9.
2 J.C. Beckett, "A Short History of Ireland", Hutchison, London, 1979; p.95.
3 J.C. Beckett, p.91.
4 Encyclopedia Britannica (1959), "Poynings, Sir Edward", Vol.18, p.395. 5 J.C. Becket, p.92-93.
6 The Universal Standard Encyclopedia (1954), pub. by Wilfred Funk, Inc., Unicorn Publishers, N.Y.; "Ireland"; Vol.13, p.4711, 4716.
7 Margaret Dickson Falley, "Irish and Scotch-Irish Ancestral Research", Shenandoah Publishing House, Strasburg, VA (1962), Vol.1, p.597.
8 Encyclopedia Britannica (1959), "Chichester of Belfast, Arthur Chichester", Vol.5, p.460.
9 See mention in Brian Bonner, "Ballyharry: A sturdy of the townland", Donegal Annual (1988), p.11,13.
10 See mention in Virginia Draffin Waites, "Strong and Allied Families-- The papers of Miss Esther Strong", privately published, 1980; p.131.
11 "Burkes Peerage and Baronetage", 105th edition, Burke's Peerage Ltd., London (1970), p.2564.
12 Peadar Livingston,, "The Monaghan Story", 1971.
13 Griffith's Valuations, 1861.
14 "Burke's Peerage and Baronetage", Burke's Peerage Ltd., London (1970), p.946.
15 Rev. H.C. White, "Sixty Years' Experience as an Irish Landlord, Memoirs of John Hamilton, D.L., of St. Ernan's, Donegal", Digby, Long and Co., 18 Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, E.C., London (18..), p.162.
16 Felim O'Brien, "The Creightons of Inver and Killaghtee", Donegal Annual 1985, No.37; p.42.
17 Encyclopedia Britannica (1959), "Annan", Vol.1, p.997.
18 Felim O'Brien, "The Creightons of Inver and Killaghtee", Donegal Annual 1985, No.37; p.42,43.
19 Felim O'Brien, "The Creightons of Inver and Killaghtee", Donegal Annual 1985, No.37; p.42,43-44.
20 W.H.Crawford, "The Murray of Broughton Estate, 1730", Donegal Annual (1977), p.22,ff.
21 Alexander Murray was apparently a Catholic, and query whether he was related to the Murrays who held the Earldom of Athol. See "Athol, Earls and Dukes of" Encyc.Brit.(1959),Vol.2,p.623ff.
22 Felim O'Brien, "The Creightons of Inver and Killaghtee", Donegal Annual 1985, No.37; p.42,43.
23 Pat Conaghan, "Bygones, New Horizons on the History of Killybegs", privately published, Killybegs, Co.Donegal, Ireland, 1989. p.105.
24 Pat Conaghan, "Bygones, New Horizons on the History of Killybegs", privately published, Killybegs, Co.Donegal, Ireland, 1989. p.105.
25 Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, p.943-945.
26 E.C. Collins, "Irish Family Research Made Simple", p....
27 Rev. H.C. White, "Sixty Years as an Irish Landlord", p....
28 E.C. Collins, "Irish Family Research Made Simple", p....
29 John B. Cunningham, "William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate, 1718-1726", Donegal Annual, 1981, No. 33, p.27.
30 Marjorie R. Smeltzer (Stevenot), "The Smeltzers of Kilcooly--and their Irish-Palatine Kissing Cousins", Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore (1981) p.21-22.
31 Virginia Draffin Waites, "Strong and Allied Families...The Papers of Miss Esther Strong", privately published, Dec.1980, p....
32 E.C. Collins, "Irish Family Research Made Simple", p.10; M.R. Smeltzer, "The Smeltzers of Kilcooly", p.23.
33 E.C.Collins, "Irish Research Made Simple", p.10; M.R. Smeltzer, "The Smeltzers of Kilcooly", p.23.
34 Marjorie R. Smeltzer, "The Smeltzers of Kilcooly", p.23.
35 Parliamentary Gazeteer of Ireland, "Monaghan", reproduced from LDS film 824045.
36 Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, p.466.
37 M.Kenny, "English Silver Coins, 1560-1640", Donegal Annual (1980),p.492 citing Rev. George Hill, "The Plantation in Ulster 1608-1620",Belfast 1877, & Ramsay Colles, "History of Ireland from the Earliest Times".
38 John B. Cunningham, "William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate", p.27.
39 John B. Cunningham, "William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate", p.27.
40 John B. Cunningham, "William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate", p....
41 John B. Cunningham, "William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate", p.....
42 John B. Cunningham, "William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate", p...
43 John B. Cunningham, "William Conolly's Ballyshannon Estate", p....
44 Dale G. Strong, "The Descendants of John Strong and Martha Watson..." privately published, 1983; p.44; from personal research in the rent rolls of the Conolly Estate at the PRO Dublin in 1982.
45 Dale G. Strong, "The Descendants of John Strong and Martha Watson of Drumhome Parish, Co.Donegal, Ireland", p.44,53,59.
46 Carew Manuscripts, Connolly Estate rent rolls, ms.6917, PRO Dublin. (Transcribed into notebook by Dale G. Strong, 1982.)
47 Rev. H.C. White, "Sixty Years Experience as an Irish Landlord, the Memoirs of John Hamilton, D.L., of St. Ernan's, Donegal", Digby, Long & Co., London, circa 1890; p.iii-iv.
48 Rev. H.C. White, "Sixty Years Experience as an Irish Landlord", p.iv-v.
49 Rev. H.C. White, "Sixty Years Experience as an Irish Landlord", p.vii- ix.
50 Rev. H.C. White, "Sixty Years Experience as an Irish Landlord", p.162.
51 Rev. H.C. White, "Sixty Years Experience as an Irish Landlord", p.xi.
52 John B. Cunningham, "The Ballyshannon Herald, 1845-1850", Donegal Annual, 1983 No.35, p.67,76-77.
53 Rev. H.C. White, "Sixty Years Experience as an Irish Landlord", p.210ff
54 Kenneth Neill, ................................,p.103-105.
55 Kenneth Neill, ...............................,p....
56 Magnus Magnusson, "Landlord or Tenant, A View of Irish History", Bodley Head, London, 1978, p.83-90.
57 Magnus Magnusson, p.90-91.
58 John B. Cunningham, "The Ballyshannon Herald, 1845-1850", Donegal Annual, 1983 No.35, p.67,76-77.
59 as quoted and commented upon by John B. Cunningham, "The Ballyshannon Herald, 1845-1850", Donegal Annual, 1983 No. 35, p.67, 77.
60 Rev. H.C. White, "Sixty Years Experience as an Irish Landlord", p.xiv.
61 Rev. H.C. White, "Sixty Years Experience as an Irish Landlord", p.xiv- xv.
62 Anthony Begley, "The Deliverance of Donegal", Donegal Annual, 1986, No. 38, p.105-106.
63 G.E. Kirkham, Introduction to 1988 reprint of "Ulster Emigration to Colonial America--1718-1775", by R.J. Dickson; Graham & Sons (Printers) Ltd., 51 Gortin Road, Omagh, Co.Tyrone, N.Ireland.
64 as quoted and commented upon by John B. Cunningham, "The Ballyshannon Herald, 1845-1850", Donegal Annual, 1983 No. 35, p.67, 77.
65 per Email from David Leahy, dtd 18 October 1998.


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