Timogue

& a little on Killone House

THE BYRNE HOUSES IN LAOIS – Part 1

by Daniel Byrne-Rothwell

We are delighted to welcome Daniel Byrne-Rothwell as guest blogger. Daniel is the author of THE BYRNES AND THE O’BYRNES and a researcher and historian.

Daniel Byrne of Timogue Castle was buried on 24 January 1684 at St Audoen’s, Dublin.  He had been a member of Dublin’s Guild of Merchant Taylors and apprenticeship records indicate that he would have been born around 1614.  The story of how he made a fortune by gaining the contract to clothe Cromwell’s army in Ireland is told by Turtle Bunbury in Ireland’s Forgotten Past (2020) and a deed preserved in the archives of Bowood House, signed by Daniel ‘Birne’ and General Oliver Cromwell, shows that he fairly purchased the estates of Timogue, Shaen and Morett from the Commonwealth government.  Ireland’s native Parliamentarians are largely ignored in history, but their existence should perhaps not be so surprising given the determination of James VI & I to deprive so many of the Gaelic gentry of lands. 

The Mill that includes the remains of Timogue Castle. (Photo courtesy of Dr Katarzyna Gmerek).

            Daniel purchased the title of baronet for his eldest surviving son, Gregory Byrne, following the restoration of the Stuart monarchy and on 16 January 1667, Charles II wrote to the Lord Lieutenant instructing, ‘A Knight Baronet Patent to be had for Gregory Byrne Esq., of Tymoge…’  Cokayne records that the title was granted on 17 May 1671.  Sir Gregory married Margaret Copley, daughter of Colonel Christopher Copley and Lady Mary Jones in 1670.  This Mary Jones, was the daughter of Roger Jones, 1^st Viscount Ranelagh of Wicklow.  Sir Daniel Byrne, the eldest son of Sir Gregory and Dame Margaret was therefore of the blood of both the old and the new lords of the Ranelagh if the genealogy showing Sir Daniel’s paternal descent from Feagh mac Hugh O’Byrne given in the History of the Queen’s County (1856) is correct. 

            Sir Gregory was admitted to Gray’s Inn, London, on 23 June 1662 to train in law but it appears that he was in trouble within a few months as the Middlesex Sessions Rolls record his part in the death of Mathew Webb on 15 January 1663:

True Bill that, at St Martin’s-in the-Fields, Co. Middlesex, on the said day, William Dillon, Thomas Sarsfield, Richard Fanning, Walter Fitz-Gerrard, Laurence Clarke, George Willis, Richard Fitz-Simons, Peter Terrell and Gregory Burne, all nine late of the said parish gentlemen, assaulted Mathew Webb, and that the said William Dillon with a rapier gave the said Mathew Webb in the left part of his breast a mortal wound, of which he then and there died instantly, being thus murdered by the said William Dillon, and that the other eight culprits were present and aiding and abetting the said William Dillon to commit the said murder.  Found ‘Guilty,’ William Dillon, Thomas Sarsfield and Richard Fanning, gentlemen, were sentenced to be hung.  Walter Fitz-Gerrard, Laurence Clarke, George Willis and Gregory Burne each produced the king’s pardon. 

The trial was held 18 February 1663 (see ‘Middlesex Sessions Rolls 1663,’ in Middlesex County Records: Vol. 3, 1625-67, London, 1888).  The surnames of the accused would indicate that this was a group of Irishmen who were members of high-status families but it is unclear what they held against Webb.  That Gregory’s family were connected to the Royal Court and had access to King Charles II, is evidenced by the speed in which he obtained his pardon. 

            Arthur Chichester, 2^nd Earl of Donegal (d.1678) (another grandson of Roger Jones) wrote to Viscount Conway in May 1677 complaining about the loss of Belfast from his estates.  Although he had hopes of recovering the estate, he was nevertheless despairing because of his uncle’s ‘debts and legacies.’  He remarked that ‘Sir Gregory Byrne looks after this business for me at London and will instruct you further.’  He also remarked that Lord Ranelagh (maternal cousin to Sir Gregory’s wife Margaret Copley) ‘will do his endeavours for him, having no friends at Court except Ranelagh and Donegal.’ 

            Sir Gregory appears in 1688 as a Burgess of Maryborough and Athy and in 1689 he was commissioned in the Jacobite army of James II as a Captain.  A True Account of the Present State of Ireland (1689) mentions the ‘valour of Sir Gregory Birne and Sir Luke Dowdall’ at the Siege of Derry in March 1689.  The Break of Dromore, which gives Sir Arthur Rawdon’s account of the repulse at Coleraine later in March, quoting from the True and Impartial Account,says that Gregory was wounded, being shot in the head:

When the foot were clearly drawn off, the dragoons followed, and then the horse marched; but in such confusion and disorder they were, that had the town sallied out with some troops of horse and a brisk party of foot, they certainly had ruined the enemy, who were so terrified at a great body of horse (being the Lord Blaney’s regiment) and some foot drawn out on a hill beyond the town, that they dropped two of their cannon on the road, with much of their baggage and luggage, and the next morning came and brought them away, having lost about sixty men the day before, and several wounded, amongst whom Sir Gregory Byrne was shot in the head, but recovered of the wound.

Gregory must have recovered quickly, because from 7 May 1689 to 20 July 1689 he was MP for Ballinakill, Laois, in the ‘Patriot Parliament.’  He was appointed Tax Assessor for the Queen’s County on 10 April 1690 and he also served as Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant for the county from 28 November 1689 to 10 June 1690.  Having survived the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, he was attainted for treason.  On 23 January 1693, Sir Gregory appears on the list of ‘Roman Catholic Officers as have been taken up by virtue of the late General Order dated the 17 day of December 1692’ (D’Alton).  In 1693 he was arrested and briefly detained in Dublin during a French invasion scare but later in the year he was included in the conditional release of Irish officers, and finally pardoned in 1694 under the terms of the Treaty of Limerick.  In 1700 Sir Gregory made a successful claim at the Court of Chichester House on a leasehold interest of property in Abbotstown, Dublin, however, his claim on his landed estates of 5,000 acres at Timogue and Killeen, Co. Laois, was dismissed as cautionary.  (D’Alton).

Portrait believed to be that of Sir Gregory Byrne. (Tabley House Collection).

            From ‘Irish Catholics Licensed to Keep Arms (1704)’ in Archivium Hibernicum, vol. 4, Catholic Historical Society of Ireland (1915), we learn that Sir Gregory Byrne of Killone, near Stradbally, had a licence granted to allow him as a ‘Papist’ to keep a sword, a case of pistols, and a gun, on 8 July 1704.  The same had been granted to a ‘Daniell Byrne’ of Dublin, probably his son, on 24 June 1704. 

            Killone House near Stradbally was part of the Byrne estate at Shaen.  In Hillary Term, January 1705, George Aylmer obtained a judgment against ‘Daniel Byrne, Baronet for £4,000 debt and court costs ‘perfected 8 August 1704 by Daniel Byrne in trust for the younger children of Gregory Byrne.’  In 1704 William Hartpole commenced a case in the Court of Chancery against Sir Gregory and his son Daniel for a redemption of a leasehold estate (Timogue).  The Hartpole claim on Timogue dated back to 1619, long before Sir Gregory’s father had purchased it in 1655, therefore Sir Gregory put up a defence that the Hartpoles were not entitled to redeem the property after so great a length of time and his son Daniel presented the same argument, further citing his title to the property as his marriage settlement in 1701.  It can therefore be presumed that Killone House became Sir Gregory’s home after the 1701 marriage settlement.  (Killone House was being leased by James Dunne by 1755).  The pleas were entered on 20 May 1708 but in August 1708 Sir Gregory entered into an agreement, apparently without the knowledge of his son Daniel, and he handed over the deeds of Timogue to Charles, Thomas and Joshua Wilcocks who had purchased the Hartpole interest for £925.  The Court considered the matter to be settled at a hearing held on 27 November 1708 but Daniel Byrne filed a complaint claiming that he had not been consulted.  This appears to be the last record of Sir Gregory in Ireland and according to Cokayne he died in March 1712. 

For more on Killone House see http://www.dunnes.net/Pages/harry/pages/killone.html

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  Killone, as rebuilt for Mr Ramsbottom in 1901

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  The 1840 OS Map. The barns may date to the 17th Century

            It may well be that Sir Gregory died in France as there appears to be no account of his death or burial in Ireland.  Sir Gregory’s second wife, Alice Fleming, the daughter of Randall Fleming, 16^th Lord Slane and Penelope Moore, was also related to Roger Jones through her mother who was a great-niece of Viscount Ranelagh who had married Frances Moore.  It is apparent by the letters of Dame Alice, his widow, that the family were hard up. 

            Cokayne is not correct in naming Daniel and Mary as the only children of Sir Gregory and Dame Margaret because the herald’s funeral entry (Ulster Office) for Lady Byrne names the children as: Daniel, Mary, Penelope, Elizabeth, Frances and Lettice.  Frances Byrne married Thomas Fitzgerald and their memorial is in Timogue church. 

Fitzgerald Memorial Timogue.

            One of the daughters, according to The History of the Queen’s County (1856) married Lord O’Neill and another married Martin Scurlog (Sherlock).  An entry in the Registry of Deeds shows that it was Mary Byrne who married Sir Daniel O’Neill 3^rd Baronet of Killelagh.  Mary made a complaint that she had loaned her brother, Sir Daniel Byrne, £1,600 in 1699, £800 of which, plus interest, as it had been agreed, was supposed to be repaid within six months of their father Sir Gregory’s death, but in 1714 she had to Sir Daniel, for the money. 

Charles Byrne, the eldest son of Sir Gregory’s second marriage to Alice Fleming, was given an estate near the Laois border, at Kilmacar (Byrnesgrove), Co. Kilkenny.  According to a story in Maria McGrane’s ‘Family Memoir,’ Charles had proved to be a troublesome youth, fighting with a local smith and wounding him.  The unfortunate man died of his wound and according to McGrane, it cost Sir Gregory Byrne a lot of money to settle the matter.  Charles married Margaret Colclough of Moherry (Duffry Hall), Co. Wexford.  McGrane goes on to say that his extravagance resulted in the sale of his estate, Byrne’s Grove, on 23 May 1744. 

Timogue from John O’Brien’s 1754 survey, reproduced in Horner’s Mapping Laois, copyright Bowood Collecion Trustees

            A deed survives dated 25 March 1727 between Colonel Thomas Warren of the City of Dublin, Dame Alice Byrne (his wife and the widow of Sir Gregory), and her son, Charles Byrne of Byrnes Grove, by which Dame Alice invalidated all previous sales agreed by Charles as she had rights over the property and had not been consulted about the previous sales.  This included the voiding of a deal made between Charles and his brother-in-law, Thomas Fitzgerald.  Usually, Dame Alice would have received Dower following the death of Sir Gregory, that is to say a third of an estate to be held by the widow for life so that she could live off the income from it.  But one of her second husband, Thomas Warren’s letters, show that Dame Alice had a jointure, which allowed for a more complex legal arrangement in regard to the property than dower.  It meant that Charles could not sell what belonged to his mother, Dame Alice, for her lifetime.  Thomas Warren and Dame Alice stipulated that none of the estates should be leased back to Charles except for Byrnes Grove, where he was already living, and a further clause indicates that she and Thomas Warren intended to let Byrnes Grove to Charles who was warned not to interfere in these proceedings.  She effectively reduced him to the status of a tenant farmer.  They brought in the Jacobite, Justin MacCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel, as a trustee. 

            Two years later however, a letter from Thomas Warren, dated from  Dublin, 29 July 1729, to Mr Sambory of Conduit Street, London, reveals that Dame Alice had relented as she had just sold Charles £200 worth of her jointure for just £18.  Payment was due on 5 October and Warren was thinking of depositing the money in a London bank.  Charles died in Dublin and his will was proven before the Prerogative Court on 6 March 1752.  His wife Margaret was his executor and the will mentions sons, Dudley Colclough, John, James and Caesar with daughters, Mary Ann, Alice, Margaret, and Frances as well as his brother-in-law Caesar Colclough.  Charles’ primary concern was that Caesar Colclough, still owed him £1000 as his wife’s fortune. 

A genealogy given in Burke connects the Timogue family to the O’Byrnes of Newrath, Wicklow and claims that the Byrnes of Cabinteely were descended from Sir Gregory’s younger brother John.  However, this does not stand up to investigation and in fact the connection to what became the Byrne of Cabinteely family was through Gregory’s younger brother John, who appears to have married Honoria, daughter of Captain Walter Byrne who belonged to the Cornel’s Court (Cabinteely) family.  Honoria’s mother, Dorcas Cosby, was a great-great-granddaughter of General Francis Cosby who lost his life at the Battle of Glenmalure in 1580. 

Chichester House claim of 1701 by Dorcas Cosby widow of Walter Byrne on a property in Dublin.

The Cosbys of Stradbally were neighbours of the Byrnes of Timogue.  Captain Walter Byrne was a brother to the John Byrne (d.1680), who married into the Cabinteely property, the inheritance of his wife Mary Cheevers.  The other John Byrne, Sir Gregory’s brother, is said to have built a mill at Timogue.  He must have been as much a victim of Sir Gregory’s financial problems as anyone else.  John’s grave is marked by a table tomb outside Timogue church. 

Byrne table tomb outside Timogue church to John Byrne 1640–1707 and his wife Honoria Byrne

Ulster Office records show that the coat of arms of the Byrnes of Timogue is distinguished by an argent bordure whilst the arms of the Byrne of Cabinteely family have no bordure but carry a distinctive ermine chevron, proving that they were two separate families. 

            Sir Daniel Byrne is commemorated by a marble memorial set into the floor of Timogue church with the following inscription:

Beneath this marble stone lyeth the body of Sir Daniel Byrne, Bart., who died the 25^th of September, in the year 1715, and of his age the 39^th.  He married Anna Dorothea, eldest daughter of Edward Warren, of Poynton, in the County of Chester and Kingdom of England, Esq.  He was a singular instance of conjugal affection; a kind and indulgent father to his children, and in the discharge of promises, which in the practice of the world meets with too little regard, a great example of justice.  Here also lyeth the body of Charles his eldest son, who was a youth of very promising expectation.  He died the 1^st of November 1713 and in the 9^th year of his age.

 Arms of Sir Daniel Byrne (Photo courtesy of Dr Katarzyna Gmerek).

            Sir Daniel inherited serious financial problems that were were eventually resolved by his widow Lady Dorothea Byrne née Warren.  Daniel’s marriage licence dated 1 January 1700 gives a London address of St Dunstan’s Parish.  Anna Dorothea Warren, his wife, belonged to a family of known English ‘Papists and Jacobites’ from Cheshire.  Their ‘official marriage,’ an Anglican ceremony, occurred in Wappenham, Northamptonshire, 18 September 1701 and was necessary because Catholic marriages had a dubious standing and an Anglican union was what mattered legally where property was involved.  In fact this was not the family’s only connection to English Catholics, as Daniel’s sister Mary Byrne (1671–1759) was herself sister-in-law to Frances Molyneux, wife of Sir Neil O’Neill (1658–1690) and grand-niece of Ambrose Barlow (1585-1641) of Lancashire, who had been executed under Charles I for being a Catholic priest.  By the time Sir Daniel died in September 1715 he had apparently been evicted from Timogue and was effectively bankrupt.  It was only the persistent legal challenges made by Sir Daniel’s widow, Lady Dorothea, and taken all the way to the House of Lords, which eventually succeeded in returning Timogue to the Byrnes. 

            In 1728, Sir Daniel and Dame Dorothy’s son, Sir John Byrne, married a young and rich widow, Merial Legh of Lyme (1705-1742) who was also the only child and heiress of Sir Francis Leicester of Tabley (1674-1742).  The story, as given by Laurence Byrne of Fallowbeg, is that Sir John Byrne visited Timogue in 1740 to renew leases, but whilst there he received news that his wife was ill with fever and returning to England he took the same fever and died of it.  His will, made in 1738, directed all who succeed him to bear the name of Byrne, but his father-in-law, Sir Francis Leicester who died in August 1742, left a will opposing Sir John’s will and insisting that the Leicester name and arms be adopted by his heirs and furthermore that the old manor house of the Leycesters and the chapel be preserved forever.  He directed that if the terms of his will were not met, that the estate was to go to the University of Oxford.  

John’s son, Peter Byrne (1732-1770), who was known as “The Irish Heir” was legally obliged under the terms of his grandfather Leicester’s will, to sell his Irish estate.  A Bill was passed through parliament, known as the ‘Byrne Estate Act,’ which effectively cancelled Sir John Byrne’s will and upheld the will of Sir Francis Leycester and so in 1744 Sir Peter Byrne became officially known as Sir Peter Leicester. 

Armorial stained glass in St Peter’s Chapel, Tabley depicting the Byrne arms. (University of Manchester, Tabley House Collection)

Sir Jonah Barrington wrote an account in his memoirs of what he called, ‘a most deeply to be regretted instance of forming an English connection.’  Sir Jonah got his genealogy slightly wrong insofar as he erroneously named his maternal great-grandfather as ‘Sir John Byrne’ when it was Sir Daniel Byrne.  His account is given below:

… my maternal great-grandfather, [Sir Daniel Byrne] lived at his old castle Timogue almost adjoining my grandfather Barrington:  His domains, close to Stradbally, were nearly the most beautiful in the Queen’s County.  On his decease, his widow, Lady Dorothea Byrne, an Englishwoman, whose name had been Warren, I believe a grandaunt to the late Lady Bulkley, resided there till her death; having previously seen her son give one of the first, and most deeply to be regretted instances of what is called forming an English connection.  Sir John Byrne; my grand-uncle; gone to England, married the heiress of the Leycester family:  – the very name of Ireland was then odious to the English gentry; and previous terms were made with him that his children should take the cognomen of Leycester, and drop that of Byrne; that he should quit Ireland, sell all his paternal estates there, and become an Englishman.  He assented; and the last Lord Shelburne purchased, for less than half their value, all his fine estates of which the Marquis of Lansdowne is now the proprietor.  After the father’s death, the son became of course Sir Peter Leycester, the predecessor of the present Sir John Fleming Leycester: thus, the family of Byrne, descended from a long line of Irish princes and chieftains, condescended to become little amongst the rank of English commoners; and so ended the connection between the Byrnes and the Barringtons.

            That Sir Peter was perhaps discontented is maybe indicated by his subtle defiance of the Leicester will because in 1761 he commissioned architect John Carr of York to build a Palladian palace.  This was to be known as Tabley House.  To keep his Cheshire inheritance, he was obliged to maintain the original manor house of the Leicesters, which became known as “Tabley Old Hall” and he was unable to build the new Tabley House at the site he initially desired, being advised to build the new house within sight of the old one in order to comply with the terms of Sir Francis Leicester’s will.  Tabley was completed in 1767 and it has to be wondered if his intention was not to employ the money obtained from his forced sale of Timogue into building a palace suitable for the descendants of the Kings of Leinster. 

Tabley House completed 1767

The Tabley Papers (Cheshire Record office) also contain receipts for the building of Timogue House in 1748 when Sir Peter Byrne Leicester was only sixteen.  Timogue Castle was at that time leased to the Purcell family and is referred to on one contemporary map as ‘Purcell’s House.’  Perhaps Sir Peter hoped that the lawyers would allow him to retain the comparatively modest house at Timogue as a foothold in his paternal country?  Collections relating to the dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin (1883) by Michael Comerford refers to a return dated 1766 which records that Rev. William Byrne, second son of Lawrence Byrne of Fallowbeg, was living at Timogue (perhaps even at Timogue House) with his mother, sister and one servant.  His mother is named in the Irish Penny Journal of 19 June 1841 as Catherine, daughter of Walter Byrne of Timogue, who according to the History of the Queen’s County (1856) would have been a first cousin to Sir Daniel Byrne. 

Sketch of Timogue House

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Collections relating to the dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin by Michael Comerford (1883).

According to one account, Sir Peter prevaricated so much on the sale of his Irish estate that he was twenty-five when he finally agreed on the sale of Timogue to the Marquis of Shelburne.  Sir Peter died aged 37 in 1770.

Sir Peter Byrne Leycester (1732-1770).

The 1840 OS Map of Timogue

For more on the early history of Timogue see http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.com/2020/05/timogue-castle-county-laois.html. It had been part of the O’Kelly lands and was acquired by The Earl of Kildare, by the expedient of inviting O’Kelly to stay at Kilkea Castle (in around 1580) and chopping his head off. The Earl of Kildare held Timogue and eight adjoining townlands of the Crown at the rent of “”one red rose a year” (Feehan- p 328)

The Earl soon after demised his ill-acquired  possessions in O’Kelly’s land to his illegitimate son. Garrett Fitzgerald, at a nominal tent. This Garrett had a  son who was known as Old Gerald and long remembered for his atrocious cruelties. He possessed the estates for a long time and was a great improver.  He built where the Old Orchard now stands at Luggacurren and planted many trees, the last of which were cut down in 1740.  He also made several roads, one leading to Rahmahowle, another called the Long Lane to Timogue, and another through Barrow house, part of the O’Kelly estates; and he planted many ornamental trees in each place. When making these roads he yoked  a plough of bullocks, drew a:strong chain round some poor widows’ cabins which stood in the way„ and pulled them down. He surrounded Luggacurren with a broad double ditch, and planted quicks (thorn) on both sides ; on these works he employed Ulstermen,  whom he: paid in cattle, with which they departed for home, and remained .first night at Portrnahinch.   Gerald pursued them with an armed force under the pretence of robbery and the unfortunate men, having made some resistance, were slain, and the cattle brought back;  

In Finns Leinster Journal Wednesday, January 19, 1774, Mr Joseph Purcell of Timogue is the agent looking after the letting of Jerpoint Hill in Kilkenny for the Marquis of Shelburne (Lord Lansdown). Previously the Freemans Journal, Tuesday, August 08, 1769 has announced the marriage of his daughter Mary to Pat McCabe, an “eminent grocer” of Essex Street. Purcell was still agent in 1776, but by 1780 Michael Phelan of Timogue was Lord Shelburne’s agent.

Lord Lansdown’s estate letting Timogue House in 1796. This could be when the Budds family arrived

Oh Dear!! What was the back story??

The first newspaper reoprt of Thomas Budds at Timogue is in Freemans Journal December 03, 1831; Page: 1 However the Budds tomb at Dysart Enos commemorates Thos Budds of Timogue,
Esqre, who departed this life the 19th of June 1817

His father was Thomas Budds (1754-1815) and his mother, Catherine Treacey (1765-1818). He married Charlotte Little in 1819. His sister Margaret married John Colclough of Freshford in 1821. Thomas Budds’ father was Samuel Budds who had married Anne Newon of Dunleckny in 1741. There is a lease dated  25 March 1743 relating to the renewal of lease made between Robert Burton, Harristown, county Kildare, esquire, of one part, and Samuel Budds, Carlow, county Carlow, gentleman, of the other part. Recites lease dated 13 July 1717 made between Benjamin Burton, city of Dublin, alderman, of one part, and Thomas Purlewent, Catherlagh (Carlow), County Carlow, gentleman, of the other part, in respect of part of the lands of Burrin Land containing 9 acres and 3 roods plantation measure. To be held for three named lives renewable forever. Interest in the lease is now vested in Robert Burton and Samuel Budds, and Burton now renews the lease in favour of Budds.  The Abstracts of Wills brings us back another generation. BUDDS, PETER, Garragh, Queen’s County, gent. 7 Aug. 1734. Narrate, 1 p., 30 June 1736. His wife Jane Budds. His son Benjamin Budds. His son-in-law William Bryon. His son-in-law Joseph Howise. His grandchildren Daniel Bryon and Mary Bryon. His three sons Rossell Budds, Samuel Budds and Benjamin Budds. His two grandchildren Peter Howise and Jane Howise. His daughter Elizabeth Harris. His daughter Christian Budds (unmarried). Rev. George Crump, Richard Grantham, junr., council-at-law, both of Carlow, and George Rossell of Clomnore, Queen’s Co., gent., exors.’ House and lands of Garragh. The Spaw house and garden. Lands of Curraghbrice. House in Castle Street, Carlow. Garragh is now known as Woodlands, near Ballickmoyler, a treeless farm!

William Samuel Fisher inherited Timogue and moved there in the early 1870s – he was still living in Cryhelp Lodge when Wilhelmina was born in 1871 but was at Timogue when William junr was born in June 1875.

William Fisher junior died at Timogue in 1953 aged 77, the end of the Budds’ 150 year connection with the house. It was bought by William T Carter whose descendants still farm there.