Category: Uncategorized

Sir George Sherston Baker b. 1846

WillLeave a comment

BAKER, [His Honour Judge] Sir George
Sherston, Bart. — Cr. 1793.


Eldest son of Henry Sherston Baker, Esq., who d. 1875, by Maria Martha, who d.1897, dau. of the late John Burke, Esq. (The Mac-Walter);

b. 1846 ; s. his cousin the Rev. Sir Henry Williams Baker 3rd Bart., 1877; m. 1st 1873 Jane Mary, who d. 1909, younger dau. of the late Frederick James Fegen, Esq.. R.N., CB., of Ballinlonty, Co. Tipperary; 2ndly 1912 Mary Josephine, younger dau. of the late Henry Bacchus, Esq., of Lillington Manor, Warwickshire, and Cote House, Staffordshire.

Sir George Baker, who was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn 1871, and ad eundem at th Middle Temple 1874, is a Magistrate for Lincolnshire, Barnstaple, Bideford, Great Grimsby, Boston, and City of Lincoln ; was Recorder of Helston 1886-9, and
Editor of the ‘Law Magazine and Review’ 1895-8 elected Associate of the Institut du Droit International 1879, and appointed Recorder of Barnstaple and of Bideford 1889, and County Court Judge of Circuit No. 17, 1901. — Castle Moat House, Lincoln ; Devonshire Club, s.w.

Heir, his son Dodington George Richard Sherston, M.E.O.S. L.R.C.P. : Major Indian Medical Service ; b. 1877 ; m. 1901 Irene Mary Roper, youngest dau. of Sir John Roper Parkington, and has, with other issue, a son, Humphrey Codington Benedict Sherston, b. 1907.

Roche estates

WillLeave a comment
  • Roche (Trabolgan) – The Roches were established at Trabolgan, Whitegate, county Cork, from the mid 17th century. In 1703 Edmund Roche of Trabolgan purchased over 2,500 acres in the barony of Barrymore, forfeited by Walter Coppinger and his son James. In 1672 Edward Roche married Catherine Lavallin of Walterstown, county Cork, and they had four sons. The eldest, Francis, died unmarried in 1755 and all the Roche estate was eventually inherited by his grandnephew, Edward Roche of Kildinan. In 1805 Edward Roche married Margaret Honoria Curtin, a relative of Edmund Burke. Their son, Edmund Burke Roche, was created Baron Fermoy in 1856. The main part of the Roche estate was in the parish of Rathcormack, barony of Barrymore, but some of it was located in the parishes of Kilshannig, barony of Duhallow, Ardnageehy, Gortroe, Ballycurrany, Dunbulloge, Lisgoold and Templebodan, barony of Barrymore, Aghada, Garryvoe and Trabolgan, barony of Imokilly and Whitechurch, barony of Cork. Edmund B. Roche was among the principal lessors in the parish of Ringagonagh, barony of Decies-within-Drum, county Waterford in 1851. In 1877 the 2nd Baron Fermoy married the Honourable Cecilia O’Grady of Rockbarton, daughter of the 3rd Viscount Guillamore. In the mid 1870s she is recorded as the owner of 4,977 acres in county Limerick. At the same time Lord Fermoy of Trabolgan is recorded as owning 15,543 acres in county Cork and 744 acres in county Waterford. In November 1880 the Kildinan estate in the barony of Barrymore, the lands of Glashybeg, barony of Duhallow and Balinvarrig, barony of Cork, were advertised for sale with the lands of Gurtnadidhy and Ballincourty, barony of Decies within Drum, county Waterford. The total acreage amounted to 8,178 acres.
  • O’Grady (Cahir Guillamore) – Descended from a younger son of the O’Gradys of Kilballyowen, county Limerick, Standish O’Grady, son of Darby O’Grady of Mount Prospect, was created Viscount Guillamore in 1831. The O’Gradys acquired Cahir by the marriage of the 1st Viscount’s grandfather, Standish O’Grady, to Honora, daughter and co heir of Jeremiah Hayes of Cahir. The Guillamore estate was in the parishes of Fedamore and Glenogra, barony of Smallcounty, Tullabracky, barony of Coshma and Abbeyfeale, Clonelty, Grange and Mahoonagh, barony of Glenquin, county Limerick and Drumtarriff, barony of Duhallow, county Cork, at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. Lady Guillamore held land in the parish of Askeaton, barony of Connello Lower. In the 1870s the 4th Viscount owned 3,750 acres in county Limerick and 1096 acres in county Cork, while his niece, Honourable Cecilia O’Grady of Rockbarton, only surviving child of the 3rd Viscount, owned 4,977 acres. She married Lord Fermoy in 1877.
  • Roche (Rochemount) – This branch of the Roche family of county Cork was descended from Edmond, second son of Edward Roche of Trabolgan and his wife, Catherine Lavallin. Edmond, by his wife Barbara Hennessy, had two sons, the eldest, Edmond of Kildinan was grandfather of the 1st Baron Fermoy. In 1796 Edmond’s second son, Francis of Rochemount, married Esther Webb and they had two sons, Francis James and John Webb of Rochemount. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation John W. Roche held land in the parishes Monanimy, barony of Fermoy, Templeusque, barony of Barrymore, Cloyne, Titeskin and Corkbeg, barony of Imokilly. In July 1853 the estate of John Webb Roche at Ballindinisk and Pouladown, over 800 acres in the barony of Barrymore, was advertised for sale. In April 1856 his estate in the baronies of Fermoy and Imokilly was advertised for sale. This estate amounted to 3265 acres in total. The original lease of Cloughbolly or Nagle’s Mountain in the barony of Fermoy was from Hugh Millerd to Francis Roche in 1775. The lands in the barony of Imokilly were held on a lease from Edward Roche to Francis Roche dated 1770. The Freeman’s Journal reported that two lots were purchased by Mr. Smith and a third, in trust, by Mr. Kilt. Rochemount itself was again advertised for sale in July 1857.
  • Clarke (Farran) – William Clarke, a tobacco merchant of Cork, bought Farran House, parish of Aglish, barony of East Muskerry and a large estate in 1868. His company, William Clarke and Sons, became one of the largest tobacco producing companies in the British Isles. In the 1870s William Clarke of Farran owned 5,679 acres in county Cork. Thomas Clarke held 1,058 acres of untenanted land at Farran in 1906. Aghamarta Castle and Nadrid House belonged to members of this family in the 20th century. see http://www.farranhouse.com/history.htm
  • Roche (Aghada) – The estate of James Joseph Roche at Aghada, barony of Barrymore, county Cork, came into the possession of John Roche, who left it to his nephew William Roche. Part of the lands of Aghada were advertised for sale in July 1853, the estate of James and William Roche, continued in the names of Mary and Eleanor Roche. This estate later came into the possession of the Thackwell family who were related to the Roche family of Trabolgan. In the 1870s Major Joseph Edward Lucas Thackwell of Aghada House, Whitegate, owned 873 acres in county Cork and 280 acres in county Waterford. See also “The Irish Jurist”, Vol I Miscellaneous (1849), page 157, re the will of John Roche.
  • Thackwell – The former Roche estate at Aghada came into the possession of the Thackwell family in the second half of the 19th century. The Thackwells were related to the Roche family of Trabolgan. In the 1870s Major Joseph Edward Lucas Thackwell of Aghada House, Whitegate, owned 873 acres in county Cork and 280 acres in county Waterford. Lady Thackwell is recorded as the owner of over 450 acres in Waterford at the same time.
  • Barry (Dunbulloge) – The fee simple estate of Mary Theresa Barry amounting to 4,993 acres mainly in the parish of Dunbulloge, barony of Barrymore, county Cork, was advertised for sale in July 1870. Most of the tenants of the estate held on leases from Lord Fermoy dated 1857-1862 although the estate appears to have been in the possession of Lord Midleton at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. The wife of St Leger Barry of Ballyclough was named Mary Caroline Theresa (Carr) but according to Burke’s ”Landed Gentry of Ireland” he did not marry her until 1883.
  • Roche (Kinsalebeg) – In the 1870s, George Roche held 140 acres in county Waterford as well as joint ownership of over 470 acres in county Cork. This family were descended from Sir John Roch of Tourin and a branch of the Roch family, Lords Fermoy.

JAMES ROCHE 1770–1853 DNB

WillLeave a comment

ROCHE, JAMES (1770–1853), styled by Father Prout ‘the Roscoe of Cork,’ was the son of Stephen Roche, and a descendant of John Roche of Castle Roche, a delegate at the federation of Kilkenny in 1641. His mother, Sarah, was daughter of John O’Brien of Moyvanine and Clounties, Limerick.

Born at Cork, 30 Dec. 1770, he was sent at fifteen years of age to the college of Saintes, near Angoulême, where he spent two years. After a short visit home he returned to France and became partner with his brother George, a wine merchant at Bordeaux. There he made the acquaintance of Vergniaud and Guillotin. He shared in the enthusiasm for the revolution, and paid frequent visits to Paris, associating with the leading Girondins. While in Paris in 1793 he was arrested under the decree for the detention of British subjects, and spent six months in prison. He believed himself to have been in imminent danger of inclusion in the monster Luxembourg batch of victims, and attributed his escape to Brune, afterwards one of Napoleon’s marshals. On his release he returned to the south of France, endeavouring to recover his confiscated property. In 1797 he quitted France, living alternately at London and Cork.

In 1800, with his brother Stephen, he established a bank at Cork, which flourished until the monetary crisis of 1819, when it suspended payment. Roche’s valuable library was sold in London, the creditors having invited him to select and retain the books that he most prized. He spent the next seven years in London as commercial and parliamentary agent for the counties of Cork, Youghal, and Limerick. Retiring from business with a competency, he resided from 1829 to 1832 in Paris. The remainder of his life was passed at Cork as local director of the National Bank of Ireland, a post which allowed him leisure for the indulgence of his literary tastes. He was well read in the ancient and the principal modern languages, and his historical knowledge enabled him to assist inquirers on obscure and debatable points, and to detect and expose errors. He contributed largely, mostly under his initials, to the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ ‘Notes and Queries,’ the ‘Dublin Review,’ and the ‘Cork Magazine.’ In 1851, under the title of ‘Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, by an Octogenarian,’ he reprinted for private circulation about forty of these articles. He also took an active part in literary, philanthropic, and mercantile movements in Cork. He died there, 1 April 1853, leaving two daughters by his wife Anne, daughter of John Moylan of Cork.

[Gent. Mag. June and July 1853; Athenæum, 5 April 1853; Notes and Queries, 16 April 1853; Dublin Review, September 1851 and April 1890.]

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 49

James Roche Esq 1770–1853

WillLeave a comment

The Gentlemans Magazine Volume XXXIX

At Cork in his 83rd year James Roche esq, Director of the National Bank of Ireland, President of the Cork Library Society, President of the Cork School of Design, Vice President of the Royal Cork Institution, Chairman of the Munster Provincial College Committee, and of several other local boards and committees, and for some years a frequent correspondent of our Magazine under the well known signature of JR.

Mr Roche was descended both on the paternal and maternal side from ancestors occupying for many centuries a distinguished rank amongst the territorial aristocracy of Ireland. He was born in Limerick on the 30th Dec 1770, being the third son of Stephen Roche esq, by his second wife Sarah O’Bryen.  His father was lineal descendant and representative of Maurice Roche, who when mayor of Cork in 1571 received a collar of SS from Queen Elizabeth, and who was grandson of David Roche, Lord Viscount Fermoy who died in 1492. Sarah O’Bryen his mother was daughter and coheiress of John O Bryen esq of Moyvanine and Clounties co Limerick, chief of the O’Bryens of Arran, lineal descendant of the great Brien Boroimhe, monarch of Ireland. Stephen Roche esq of Ryehill, co Galway, nephew to the deceased is the present representative of this ancient house.

Mr Roche was sent to France at the early age of fifteen and for two years pursued his studies at the College of Saintes, one of those which existed previously to the Revolution. His proficiency even during that short period in every one of the preparatory branches of learning was rapid and remarkable. The purity of his pronunciation and his idiomatic precision while conversing in French were so perfect that he was frequently mistaken for a native. Having returned to Ireland at the end of two years, he made but a short stay at home, and then revisited France, where he remained for seven years, partly devoted to his favourite pursuits the accumulation of knowledge and the culture and refinement of his taste and partly occupied in the management of business into which he was early initiated entering into partnership with his brother George who conducted an extensive wine trade at Bordeaux.

In that city he principally resided for the convenience of transacting his business and taking charge of the family property entrusted to his care yet his avocations his studies or it may be the uncontrollable and feverish excitement of the hour frequently brought him to the capital where he used to sojourn for some time and where he had the opportunity of gazing at the first gladsome and glorious scenes of the new social and political drama which France tremulous alike with the unwonted joy of an unexpected deliverance and with the apprehensions inseparable from the spectacle of a grand experiment of theoretic principles reduced to practice now prepared to exhibit to the delight the astonishment the dismay the terror and the despair of the civilised world.

In 1789, on the memorable 5th May, about a year and a half after his return to France, he partook of the general delight, and shared the fervid hopes and aspirations of those who were either onlookers or actors in that most magnificent spectacle, the assembling of the States General. From that eventful day, when the hopes of the good, the true, the enlightened, and the humane, had reached their culminating point down through the successive steps of vacillation, faithlessness, indecision, bloodshed, anarchy, to the deepest and darkest political hell. The Reign of Terror, whose sanguinary orgies reached the height, or will we say the depth, of their delirium in the spring and early summer of 1794. Mr Roche either in Paris or in Bordeaux or wheresoever his duties or his business required his presence was a spectator of that appalling world tragedy and liable like other accomplished and gifted men similarly circumstanced to become at every passing moment a conv

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DboUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA658&dq=john+O’bryen+of+Moyvanine+and+Clounties&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEgQ6AEwB2oVChMIiruLzLm6xwIVJgnbCh2i4gBM#v=onepage&q=john%20O’bryen%20of%20Moyvanine%20and%20Clounties&f=false

The Church of Saint John the Evangelist in Monkstown, co. Cork

WillLeave a comment

 The Church of Saint John the Evangelist in Monkstown, co. Cork

The church was built in 1832 on land given by Daniel and Gerard Callaghan of Cork, who were the tenants of Thomas Pakenham (1774-1835), 2nd Earl of Longford, and John Vesey (1771-1855), 2nd Viscount de Vesci.

The two peers, who were the joint landlords of Monkstown Castle and the surrounding estate, also provided the income for the first vicar. The Earl of Longford was a brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, and together the Pakenham and Vesey family had inherited their interest in property in the Monkstown area through their shared descent from two heiresses, two granddaughters of Michael Boyle, Archbishop of Armagh.

But the church was built not through the generosity of these two aristocrats, but through the generosity of their tenants, the brothers Daniel Callaghan (1786-1849) and Gerard Callaghan of Cork. The Callaghan family had been the tenants of Monkstown Castle from the 1770s.

Gerard Callaghan was MP for Cork City and County as a Tory from 1826 to 1832. On the other hand, his brother Daniel Callaghan was an MP for Cork City and Cork County from 1830 to 1849, first as a Whig (1830-1849) and then as a member of the Irish Repeal Association, Daniel O’Connell’s effective political machine.

By the time the church was being built, the tenant of Monkstown Castle was Bernard Robert Shaw (1801-1880).

Thady Grehan and Jane Lyons Harman- Marriage 1805

WillLeave a comment

Jane Lyons Harman, bapt. at St. Philip’s 5 Nov. 1775;

mar. 16 April 1805 Thady Grehan, Captain 7th West India Regiment,

1st son of Peter Grehan of Dublin by Mary, dau. of Stephen Roche, Esq.,

of Co. Limerick.

From 

“The history of the island of Antigua, one of the Leeward Caribbees in the West Indies, from the first settlement in 1635 to the present time“

Mitchell and Hughes, London 1896

archive.org/stream/…/historyofislando02oliv_djvu.txt 

RORY O’MORE, (fl. 1620–1652)

WillLeave a comment

, Irish rebel, often called Roger Moore or More, son of Calvagh O’More, was descended from the ancient chiefs of Leix. After the plantation of the Queen’s County the O’Mores raised various rebellions, which were afterwards reckoned as nineteen in number. A transplantation to Kerry, Clare, and Connaught was undertaken during the reign of James I, of which the state papers contain many details. But they kept always drifting back to their own district, and it was said that they preferred dying there to living anywhere else. Chichester, with a reference to Spanish history, called them White Moors. One of this harassed clan was Roger’s father, Calvagh, who had become possessed of a castle and lands at Ballina in Kildare, and these were not affected by the transplantation. Roger, the elder son, inherited Ballina, married a daughter of Sir Patrick Barnewall [q. v.], the noted catholic champion, and was thus connected with the best families of the Pale.

It has been said that O’More, who was in poor circumstances, had hopes of recovering the lands of his family from Strafford; but there is no trace of any such idea in that statesman’s correspondence. There was a moment of weakness after the great viceroy’s final departure in April 1640; the English government were busy in Scotland, and the time seemed propitious for an effort by the Irish catholics to regain their lost territories, and to restore the splendour of their religion. O’More, who afterwards admitted to an English prisoner (Temple, Hist. of Irish Rebellion, p. 103) that a plot had been hatching for years, began negotiations with John or Shane O’Neill, the great Tyrone’s younger son and last surviving heir, who was acknowledged by the Irish and on the continent as Earl of Tyrone. He sounded some of the discontented gentry of Connaught and Leinster, having an ally among the latter in Colonel Richard Plunkett, who was his wife’s first-cousin. Plunkett, who was a needy man, was well known at the English court and in Irish society, and had seen service in Flanders. The disbanding of Strafford’s army had left a great many officers and soldiers without employment, and these very willingly listened to the plotter. O’More’s means of persuasion were mainly two: there was a chance for old Irish and Anglo-Irish families to recover their lost estates or to win new ones; and there was something like a certainty that the puritan parliament in England would deal harshly with the adherents of Rome. Many lent a favouring ear; but all agreed that nothing could be done without a rising in Ulster. His position made O’More the fittest person to mediate between the Pale and the native clans.

In February 1641 O’More applied to Lord Maguire [see Maguire, Connor, second Baron of Enniskillen], who was in Dublin for the parliamentary session, with Hugh Oge MacMahon [q. v.], and others of the northern province. Richelieu promised arms, ammunition, and money to the titular Earl of Tyrone; but the latter was killed in Spain in the spring of 1641, and the conspirators transferred their hopes to Colonel Owen Roe O’Neill [q. v.], who was then in Flanders. O’More appears throughout as the mainspring of the whole plot, and his parish priest, Toole O’Conley, was chosen as the messenger to Owen Roe. It was O’More who swore Maguire, Sir Phelim O’Neill [q. v.], and the rest to secrecy (Hickson, Ireland in the Seventeenth Century, ii. 190). About 1 Sept. 1641 it was decided to seize Dublin Castle on 5 Oct., but the day was afterwards changed to the 23rd. O’More was to lead the party charged with seizing the lesser of the two gates. He visited Ulster at the beginning of October, shifting constantly from place to place to avoid suspicion, and was one of the five who made the final arrangements on the 15th. The place of meeting was his son-in-law’s house in Armagh county, Sir Phelim O’Neill [q. v.] and Lord Maguire being present there with him. But it is hard to be hidden in the country, and Sir William Cole, in a letter dated 11 Oct., warned the lords justices that there was mischief brewing (Nalson, Collections, ii. 519). He did not name O’More, and nothing really was known until the evening of 22 Oct., when Owen O’Connolly made his statement to Lord-justice Parsons. Late that night O’More went to Lord Maguire and told him that the cause was lost. It is from Maguire’s often printed narrative that we know most of the details. O’More, with Plunkett and Hugh O’Byrne, escaped over the river, and was perhaps not at first suspected, for O’Connolly did not mention him, nor does his name occur in the first statement made by MacMahon, or in the letter of the Irish government to Lord Leicester. His brother-in-law, Lord Kingsland, was one of those on whom the Irish government at first relied for the preservation of peace.

The plot to seize Dublin Castle totally failed, but the Ulster rebellion broke out as arranged, and O’More almost at once appears in the field as colonel with a large, but only partially armed, force under him. His brother Lewis had the rank at first of captain, and afterwards of colonel. O’More fought victoriously at Julianstown, in Meath, on 29 Nov., and acted as spokesman for the Ulster Irish at the conference held a few days later on the hill of Crofty, between their chiefs and the gentry of the Pale. The substance of his speech, which had been carefully prepared, is preserved by Sellings (Gilbert, Hist. of Confederation and War, i. 36). In the proclamation of the lords justices, dated 8 Feb. 1641-2, a price was put upon his head—400l. for its actual production, and 300l. for satisfactory evidence of having slain him. He was present when Ormonde defeated the Irish at Kilrush on 15 April 1642. Carte says he went to Flanders about this time; and, if so, he probably returned with Owen Roe O’Neill, who reached Ireland in July. He was serving in the King’s County at the end of that month, the title of general being accorded to him by the Irish thereabouts. On the formation of the supreme council of the confederate catholics at Kilkenny in October he was appointed to command in the King’s County and half the Queen’s County, and was present at the taking of Birr in January 1642-3 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 218).

In spite of his many connections, O’More was not thoroughly trusted by the Anglo-Irish; he was a Celt, and towards the Celtic party he drifted more and more. The gentry of the Pale were soon sorry for the war, which ruined most of them; and when O’More confessed to his brother-in-law Fleming that he was the real originator of it, the latter answered that he found himself mistaken, for he thought the devil had begun it (Carte). In 1644 O’More’s name appears in a list of Owen Roe’s followers, his title in the Irish cipher being ‘the shoemaker’ (Contemp. Hist. i. 605). In the same year he offered himself for service in Antrim’s Scottish expedition [see Macdonnell, Randal, 1609-1683], with a half-armed regiment of fifteen hundred men (ib. i. 652). In 1648 he was living at Ballinskill, in the district where his clan once ruled (ib. i. 229). In the same year he was in arms against the Kilkenny confederation, and was employed by Owen Roe in abortive negotiations with Inchiquin (ib. i. 747, 751). Early in the following year the author of the ‘Aphorismical Discovery,’ who regarded him as a mere temporiser, says he was one of O’Neill’s cabinet council, and that he tried to bring about an understanding between his leader and Ormonde, but only succeeded in offending both (ib. ii. 21). After the declaration of Jamestown on 12 Aug. 1650 O’More and his brother Lewis both took arms, and he commanded some foot in Connaught in the following year (ib. ii. 114, 158). He had Clanricarde’s commission as commander in Leinster, with full civil and military authority (ib. iii. 1, 15). But the cause was quite lost by this time, and O’More was driven into the remote island of Bofin. The author of the ‘Aphorismical Discovery’ says that he was basely deserted there by Bishop Lynch and others in December 1652; that he escaped to the Ulster coast, and lived there for a time disguised as a fisherman; and that he was reported to have escaped to Scotland (ib. iii. 143). It seems quite as likely that he perished obscurely in Ireland. Both brothers were excepted from pardon for life or estate in the Cromwellian Act of Settlement 12 Aug. 1652, and Lewis was soon afterwards hanged as guilty of murder (Ludlow, Memoirs, ii. 8).

O’More was an accomplished man, and could speak well both in English and Irish. He was undoubtedly the main contriver of the rebellion; but he was not a professional soldier, and played no great part in the war. He was distantly connected by marriage with Ormonde, and Carte gives him credit for doing his best to check the barbarities of which Sir Phelim O’Neill’s followers were guilty. That he was considered reasonable and humane by the protestants may be inferred from the fact that Lady Anne Parsons applied to him for protection. His answer has been preserved (Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 218). He wrote like a gentleman, but did not grant the lady’s request. Popular tradition clings to the name of Rory O’More, but it is probable that some of this glory really belongs to Rory Oge, who gave the government so much trouble in Queen Elizabeth’s time.

[Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1603-25; Carte’s Life of the Duke of Ormonde, bk. iii.; Nalson’s Collection, vol. ii.; Ludlow’s Memoirs; Temple’s Hist. of Irish Rebellion, ed. 1766; Lodge’s Peerage, ed. Archdall, art. ‘Viscount Kingsland;’ Hickson’s Ireland in the Seventeenth Century; Gilbert’s Hist. of the Confederation and War in Ireland and his Contemporary Hist. of Affairs in Ireland; Carte MSS. in the Bodleian Library, passim.]

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 42
O’More, Rory (fl.1620-1652)
by Richard Bagwell

Rory Oge O’More (d. 1578)

WillLeave a comment

O’MORE, RORY or RURY OGE (d. 1578), Irish rebel, called in Irish Ruaidhri og ua Mordha, was second son of Rory O’More, captain of Leix, by Margaret, daughter of Thomas Butler, and granddaughter of Pierce or Piers Butler, eighth earl of Ormonde [q. v.] (cf. Lodge, Peerage of Ireland, ed. Archdall, iv. 19; and Harl. MS. 1425, f. 119b). Sir Henry Sidney once called him ‘an obscure and base varlet,’ but his family was one of the most important of the minor Irish septs, and also one of the most turbulent.

Rory O’More (fl. 1554), the father, was son of Connell O’More (d. 1537), and early acquired the character of a violent and successful chieftain. On the death of Connell a fierce dispute broke out between the three sons—Lysaght,Kedagh, and Rory—and their uncle Peter the tanist. Peter was for the time a friend of the Butlers. Consequently the deputy, Lord Leonard Grey, supported the sons; and, although Peter was acknowledged chief, Grey got hold of him by a ruse, and led him about in chains for some time, Kedagh then seems to have secured the chieftainship, Lysaght having been killed; but he died early in 1542, and Rory, the third brother, succeeded. He, after a period of turmoil, agreed on 13 May 1542 to lead a quieter life, and made a general submission, being probably influenced by the fact that Kedagh had left a son of the same name, who long afterwards, in 1565, petitioned the privy council to be restored to his father’s inheritance. Like other Irish chiefs of the time, O’More was only a nominal friend to the English. In a grant afterwards made to his eldest son his services to King Edward VI are spoken of; but they must have been of doubtful value, as an order of 15 March 1550-1 forbade any of the name of O’More to hold land in Leix (App. to 8th Rep. Dep.-Keep. Publ. Rec. Ireland). At some uncertain time between 1550 and 1557 Rory O’More was killed, and was succeeded by a certain Connell O’More, who may be the Connell Oge O’More mentioned in 1556 in the settlement of Leix (cf. Bagwell, Ireland under the Tudors, i. 400, and Cal. State Papers, Irish Ser. 1509-73, pp. 135,414). He was put to death in 1557 (Annals of the Four Masters, ii. 1545). Rory left two sons, Callagh and Rory Oge. Callagh, who was brought up in England, was called by the English ‘The Calough,’ and, as he describes himself as of Gray’s Inn in 1568, he may be assumed to be the John Callow who entered there in 1567 (Foster, Reg. of Gray’s Inn, p. 39). In 1571 Ormonde petitioned for the Calough’s return, and soon afterwards he came back to Ireland, where in 1582 he was thought a sufficiently strong adherent to the English to receive a grant of land in Leix (Cal. State Papers, Irish Ser. 1574-85, pp. 392, 412).

Rory Oge O’More, the second son, was constantly engaged in rebellion. He received a pardon on 17 Feb. 1565-6, but in 1571 he was noted as dangerous, and in 1572 he was fighting Ormonde and the queen at the same time, being favoured by the weakness of the forces at the command of Francis Cosby, the seneschal of Queen’s County, and the temporary absence of Ormonde in England. In this little rebellion the Butlers and the Fitzgeralds were united against him; but when, in November 1572, Desmond escaped from Dublin, it was Rory Oge O’More who escorted him through Kildare and protected him in Queen’s County (cf. 12th Rep. Dep.-Keep. Publ. Rec. Ireland, p. 78). He was mixed up in Kildare’s plots in 1574, and taken prisoner in November. But he was soon free, and Sidney, when on his tour in 1575, wrote of him: ‘Rory Oge O’More hath the possession and settling-place in the Queen’s County, whether the tenants will or no, as he occupieth what he listeth and wasteth what he will.’ However, O’More was afraid of the deputy, and when Sydney came into his territory, he went to meet him in the cathedral of Kilkenny (December 1575), and ‘submitted himself, repenting (as he said) his former faults, and promising hereafter to live in better sort (for worse than he hath been he cannot be).’ Hence we find a new pardon granted to him on 4 June 1576 (ib. p. 179). But in the next year he hoped for help from Spain, and, pushed on by John Burke, his friend, he made a desperate attack on the Pale. He allied himself with some of the O’Connors, and gathered an army. On 18 March 1576-7 the seneschal of Queen’s County was commanded to attack Rory Oge and the O’Connors with fire and sword (13th Rep. Dep.-Keep. Publ. Rec. Ireland, p. 25). There was good reason for active hostilities, as on the 3rd the insurgents had burned Naas with every kind of horror. Sidney wrote to the council the same month: ‘Rory Oge O’More and Cormock M’Cormock O’Conor have burnt the Naas. They ranne thorough the towne lyke hagges and furies of hell, with flakes of fier fastned on poles ends’ (Cal. State Papers, Irish Ser. 1574-85, p. 107; cf. Carew MSS. 1575-88, f. 110). Later in the year O’More captured Harrington and Cosby. They were rescued by a ruse. O’More’s wife and all but O’More himself and one of those who were with him were killed. Infuriated at being caught, O’More fell upon Harrington, ‘hacked and hewed’ him so that Sidney saw his brains moving when his wounds were being dressed, then rushing through a soldier’s legs, he escaped practically naked (Carew MSS. 1575-88, f. 356). He soon afterwards burned Carlow; but in an attempt to entrap Barnaby Fitzpatrick, baron of Upper Ossory, into his hands, he was killed by the Fitzpatricks in June 1578, and his head set up on Dublin Castle. He left a son, Owen McRory O’More, whom John Burke, son of the Earl of Clanricarde, took charge of. The English got hold of him after some difficulty, and foolishly allowed him to return to his own country. He became as great a rebel as his father, and, after a life of fighting and plundering, in which, however, he recovered almost all Leix, was killed in a skirmish near Timahoe, Queen’s County, 17 Aug. 1600. Moryson called him ‘a bloody and bold young man,’ ‘The Four Masters’ an ‘illustrious, renowned, and celebrated gentleman.’ After his death the importance of the O’Mores as a sept was gone.

[Bagwell’s Ireland under the Tudors; Webb’s Compendium of Irish Biogr.; Cal. of State Papers, Irish Ser., and of the Carew MSS.; State Papers; Annals of the Four Masters, ed. O’Donovan, vols. vi. vii.; authorities quoted.]

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 42
O’More, Rory (d.1578)
by William Arthur Jobson Archbold

Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormonde 1467 – 1539

WillLeave a comment

Piers [Butler], 8th Earl of Ormonde later 1st Earl of Ossory

born c 1467, mar. c 1485 Lady Margaret FitzGerald, “the Great Countess” (d. 9 Aug 1542; bur. with her husband in the Church of St Canice, Kilkenny), 2nd dau. of Gerald [FitzGerald], 8th Earl of Kildare, by his first wife Alison FitzEustace, dau. by his second wife of Rowland [FitzEustace], 1st Baron Portlester

children

1. Sir James Butler, later 1st Viscount Thurles later 9th Earl of Ormonde and 2nd Earl of Ossory

2. Richard Butler, later 1st Viscount Mountgarret

3. Thomas Butler (d. 1532)

1. Lady Margaret Butler (d. betw. 9 Sep 1542 and 25 Jul 1551), mar. (1) Hon Thomas FitzGerald (dsp.), 2nd son of Maurice FitzThomas [FitzGerald], 9th Earl of Desmond, and (2) in or bef. 1533 as his first wife Barnaby [FitzPatrick], 1st Baron Upper Ossory, and had issue by her second husband

2. Lady Catherine Butler (d. 17 Mar 1552/3; bur. at Askeaton, co. Limerick), mar. (1) bef. 1526 Richard [Power], 1st Baron Le Power and Coroghmore, and (2) bef. Feb 1549/50 as his third wife James FitzJohn [FitzGerald], 13th Earl of Desmond, and had issue by her first husband

3. Lady Joan Butler, mar. James Butler, Lord of Dunboyne, co. Meath (d. 15 Jan 1538), and had issue

4. Lady Ellice Butler, mar. Gerald FitzJohn FitzGerald, of Dromana, Lord of the Decies (d. 1553), and had issue

5. Lady Ellinor Butler, mar. as his first wife Thomas [Butler], 1st Baron Caher, and had issue

6. Lady Ellen Butler (d. 2 Jul 1597; bur. in St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny), mar. in or bef. 1533 Donogh [O’Brien], 2nd and 1st Earl of Thomond, and had issue

died 26 Aug 1539 (bur. in the Church of St Canice, Kilkenny)

created 23 Feb 1527/8 Earl of Ossory

suc. by son Sir James Butler,

Note

called “The Red Piers”; Sheriff of Kilkenny 1488/9; knighted bef. 1497; Seneschal of the Liberty of Tipperary 1505; Deputy to the 7th Earl of Ormonde for his Irish lands 1505 ‘ granted two parts of the prise of wines in Limerick 1506 ; Chief Governor of Ireland as Lord Deputy 1521/2-24; Lord Treasurer of Ireland 1524; induced by King Henry VIII, along with the coheirs of the 7th Earl of Ormonde, to resign their respective claims to the Earldom of Ormonde; Constable of Dungarvan Castle, co. Waterford 1527/8; Lord Deputy of Ireland 1528-29; granted the Irish estates of the 7th Earl of Ormonde’s coheirs 1537; restored to the Earldom of Ormonde 1537/8.

Rory Ceach O’More and Rory Oge O’More 1538 – 1578

WillLeave a comment

TIME LINE

RORY CEACH AND RORY OGE O’MORE

1538:  Rory Oge O’More is born.

1546, July: Patrick O’More invades Kildare.

1547: Patrick O’More declared a traitor. Kedach O’More, Chief of Leix, died in prison in London. Rory Ceach becomes the new Chief of Leix.

1550: Rory Ceach in active rebellion; continues until 1553.

1555: Patrick O’More kills his brother, Rory Ceach, Rory Oge’s father. Connell O’More, Rory Oge’s uncle becomes Chief.

1556: Dublin Parliament summoned to seize Leix and Offaly lands as “Crown Lands”.

1557: Conell O’More, Chief of Leix, is captured and put to death.

1558: Rory Oge O’More becomes Lord of Leix at age 20. Patrick O’More dies while in prison in London.

1565, February 17th: Rory Oge O’More receives a pardoned by Lord Deputy.

1571: In company with O’Connor, again wages war on English.

1572:  Aides the escape of Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond, from English custody in the Pale.

1572: Prosecuted by Thomas Butler in absentia for treason against the Crown.

1573, March: Piers Butler FitzEdmond, kills Tirrelaghe More, a leader of Kerne.

1573, April: Lord Deputy requests of Lord Burlghy for aid in recovery of Leix from the O’More. Additional request for ability to exterminate the entire clan.

1574: Lord Deputy takes Lysagh MacKedagh, Neal McLisagh and Melaghlin O’More Captive.

1574, August: Callough O’More granded Manor of Ballina, County Kildare.

1574 ,November:  Surprised by English troops and taken captive to Dublin.

Released shortly by Sir William Fitzwilliam, the new Lord Deputy.

1575, March 15th: The Crown gives Leix to Sir Francis Cosby to hold.

1576, June: Again in open rebellion against Enlgish in company with Clanrickard’s sons.

1577, January 1: Massacre of Mullaghmast, near Athy in Kildare.

1577, March 3rd: Burning the town of Naas to the ground.  No life lost.

1577, May: Piers Butler FitzEdmond, at Castle of Galyne in Leix, kills Edmond O’Dewie, Edmond Riogh O’Kelly and Edmond Loaghlor, all confederates of Rory Oge’s.

1577, September: Rory takes Sir Henry Harrington and Alexander Cosby hostage.  Harrington is the nephew to Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy.  Cosby is Francis Cosby’s son.  House attacked by English troops under Robert Harpole.  26 of Rory’s men killed, plus Rory Oge’s wife, and his marshall Conor O’Connor and his wife.  Harrington gravely injured by survives.

Rory Oge escapes alone with Shane MacRory reagh O’More.

1577, November: It is reported by the Lord Deputy that through his actions in the field, Rory Oge O’More cost the English Crown the sum of 200,000 pounds for that year.

1578, June 30th: Rory surprised and killed by Brian Oge MacGillapatrick of Ossory.

1578, September 30th: Shane macRory O’More submits, along with Teig McGilpatrick O’Conor, at Castledermot in Kilkenny.

from the Clan moore website