Civil Survey Notes - Cooldotia

 

This is a very interesting one.

In the Civil Survey –

John Ryan of Lissnaselly Gent is the owner of Cooldotia townland. Simington in the Transplantation to Connacht records a John Ryan of Cooledoty to be transplanted to Kilseily (Lr.) in Tulla Barony in Co. Clare.

In the Griffiths Valuation for Kilseily there are a number of Ryans recorded in the Parish.

Next we see if any Ryans remained in Cooldotia in Tipperary.

There is one Ryan in the Tithe Applotments for Cooldotia here

https://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?county=Tipperary&parish=Ballycahill&townland=Cooldotia&search=Search

There are no Ryans in the Griffiths Valuation in Cooldotia.

Could this suggest John Ryan went to Clare?

What is really interesting is that a much more in depth review has been done on this John Ryan in Richard Fitzpatricks thesis

THE RYANS OF INCH AND THEIR WORLD: A CATHOLIC GENTRY FAMILY FROM DISPOSSESSION TO INTEGRATION, C.1650–1831

https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/13793/

Callinan seems to suggest in the Four Tipperary Septs that John Ryan of Lisnasella is a son of Teige McShane Glas O’Mulryan who in turn was a son of Shane Glass Mulryan, “Captain” of his Country and that subsequently the Ryans of Inch descend from him.

However Fitzpatrick disagrees with this. He states (pg 21-22)

“The Ryans’ exact relationship to this individual and his successors is unclear. The Tipperary antiquarian, Dr Martin Callanan, has stated that the Ryans were descended from Shane Glasse’s younger son Teige of Lisnasella. This conclusion is based on the fact the Ryans were in possession of Lisnasella by 1641. Conversely, a family pedigree completed in 1708 makes no reference to Teige of Lisnasella or Shane Glasse. Instead, it records the Ryans’ descent from an individual named Art, son of John. This former individual was a small freeholder in Kilnelongurty in 1611 at the same time Teige McShane Glasse was in possession of the lands of Lisnasella. Despite the uncertainty of their exact lineage, it is clear that the Ryans were not the successors of Shane Glasse. This distinction was held by the latter individual’s grandson, also called Shane Glasse, who was in possession of the clan’s old mensal lands by 1611”

Basically Fitzpatrick says in his thesis that the predecessors of the Ryans of Inch managed to actually gain lands “via the new legal system and socio-economic environment” in the early 1600s and by 1641 John Ryan of Lissnadella & Cooldotia owned 720 acres.

How then did he end up having a transplantation decree written against him? He suggests that he must have been involved in the rebellion in 1641 (Pg 24)

“What evidence that has emerged from the surrounding area, albeit circumstantial (from the 1641 Depositions for example), does point to their involvement: a kinsman from Lisnasella and most of their neighbours are directly incriminated. The family’s connection to Baron Theobald Purcell would also suggest that they were drawn into the conflict at an early stage”

Fitzpatrick says that this John Ryan was likely given a dispensation to remain in Tipperary. He looks at a number of factors that may have influenced this.

He was one of the panel of local men used to confirm the particulars of the Civil Survey.

The inquisition into Kilnelongurty was the last carried out in county Tipperary and by this stage the impetus was beginning to leave the transplantation plan.

Lands also had to be surveyed for confiscation and incredibly two of John Ryan’s sons actually married two daughters of one of the surveyors (Dr Patrick Raggett) who was carrying out the survey of the lands in the area.

(Pg 27) “Given the de-population that had already occurred in county Tipperary due to transplantation, and that John Ryan resided in the area Raggett was reviewing, there is reason to suspect that Ryan may have received a second or extended dispensation in order to accompany Raggett during his surveying work. Indeed, it was reported that the territory of Kilnelongurty had been de-populated to such an extent that ‘Four native Irish recently removed to Connacht were ordered to return to assist in the surveying of the barony’”

Later Fitzpatrick says (Pg 30)

“Even so, the gears of the administrative apparatus in Ireland ground on, and in May 1656 Ryan was allotted 239 plantation acres of land in Coolagh in the parish of Kilseily, barony of Tullough, Co. Clare. It appears that Ryan resided on his new estate for less than a year, because in March 1657 he provided an individual named Richard Bentley with a power of attorney to oversee his lands in the parish of Kilseily. John Ryan is not recoded in the ‘1659 Census’ of Co. Clare, but it is unclear whether or not he had returned to county Tipperary before 1660. However, what is known is that Ryan’s second and youngest son, Daniel, did not transplant and remained in the Thurles area.”

This seems to be at Fortena and he is listed in the Hearth Money Rolls here – 

And in Penders Census here – 

(Pg 33)

“The Ryans, therefore, might have remained barbaric papists in the eyes of their English counterparts, but they were also willing to lease land and pay rents under less than ideal circumstances. In essence, practical economic necessity had trumped uncompromising ideology. The authorities for their part called an effective halt to the transplantation initiative in June 1657, frustrated by the sheer scale and confusion. generated by the task at hand, and in a face-saving move proclaimed it a success. Catholics were given a final deadline of between three and six months to take up their new estates across the River Shannon or forfeit their claims and face banishment overseas. Whether every transplantee rigidly adhered to the terms of the 1657 act and remained in Connacht is doubtful.”

These Ryans Fitzpatrick suggests also were friends with the Purcells of Loughmore and this may have helped in them remaining and prospering following this period.

John Ryan hoped that following the restoration of King Charles II, that he would be reinstated in his former lands. This didn’t happen but they did eventually end up purchasing and leasing more lands.

John Ryan did take possession of the lands in Clare and Fitzpatrick records the following (pg 55) (Teige is John’s son).

“Teige Ryan mortgaged his estate in Connacht to Edmond Ryan of Cashel in 1677. The original allotment of 239 acres had been reduced to 101 acres. The reduction was probably due to the claims of Henry Bridgman, who was in dispute with John Ryan over the lands in 1656.”

We even have some details from this John’s will. (p60)

“His will, of 25 May 1666, was written ‘at myne owne house at Rossmult’ within touching distance of his old estate, and confirms the idea that many dispossessed landowners died on or near their old lands as much reduced tenants. However, the document was produced in a context that offered a father in failing health a glimmer of hope for the posterity of his line. Rosmult was the small portion of land Capt. Mathew sold to Daniel Ryan, and since Mathew had had this land confirmed to him the day before John Ryan wrote his will, this would strongly suggest that the sale of Rosmult was a contemporaneous and celebrated event. It can be supposed, therefore, that Ryan wrote his will with some satisfaction on his family’s new estate. Added to this, he would have known other matters pertaining to land were afoot, as Daniel Ryan was positioning himself to buy Inch at this time. He petitioned the Court of Claims shortly after his father’s death on behalf of Anne Ball to have her landholdings at Inch confirmed and was duly granted in March 1668. Thus, John Ryan passed away surrounded by his wife and their young daughter, in his own house on the family’s new estate; circumstances that must have gone some way towards softening the successive disappointments he experienced over the previous decade and a half.”

So from this we can see how much more detail can behind my simple analysis and we see that John Ryan of Cooldotia did go to Connacht for a time but ended up dying near his old confiscated lands in Tipperary.