Skip to main content

Civil Survey Notes - Castletown, Castlelough, Ballywilliam, Cornode etc

 


Castletown, Castlelough, Cornode, Ballywilliam,

In the Civil Survey the following are owners in the townland.

Donogh O Bryen of Bellanaha Esqr

Richard late Earle of Corke

John Strongman Esqr

Daniell O Bryen of Garrykenedy gt.

James O Quinn of Ballywilliam

Bryen O Bryen of Liskelly

Lucas Twohy of Clonmunny Gent

This is a very interesting townland to me anyway. At first I wondered how Donogh O Bryen of Bellanaha was connected here but the Survey says that he purchased the land from “from the heires

Gennerall of Sr. Therlagh Byron (vizt) Onora. Margarett & More Bryen & others their ffeoffees.” (They were mentioned previously in connection with Monroe).

We also see that the Earl of Cork purchased his share of lands from Daniel O Byren of Cloneibrine. This must be the Daniel O Byrne whose two sons - Bryen & Marcus Mc Daniel were to be transplanted to Connacht. I think this also helped confirm that I am correct in the identification of Cunogh with Cloneybrien.

We also see that John Strongman purchases land in Cornoyde from Matthew O’Brien. There are few different Matthews listed in the Civil Survey so we can’t be sure who he is.

Comparing the Civil Survey with other records we find a few interesting correlations. In O’Harts list of those to be transplanted, there is a Murtogh O’Byren of Lisskelly. Lisskelly makes up part of the above record. There is a Mortogh McMahowny in the HMR for Castlelough. Matthew is a form of Mahown so there could be some tentative link there. In nearby Ballywilliam which forms part of the area covered in this Civil Survey record, in the HMR there is a Mortagh Byren. Could he be the same Murtogh listed for transplantation?

In the Civil Survey there are two instances of fairly prominent modern surnames in the locality – namely Quinn & Tuohy.  These are the only instances of them in that feature in the Civil Survey so may be of importance.

In the HMR for the townlands mentioned we have a number of Tuohys recorded. There is no Lucas but there must be a connection between him and those recorded.

There is also a Francis Strongman who you would have to suspect is a relative of John Strongman. There is a graveslab in Castletown graveyard with the following inscription “Here lies the body of Mary Strongman deceased 30th July 1733). So these are all obviously connected. The Ormond Historical Society notes that it also says that Mary Strongman is the wife of “illegible” so that may be worth investing more to see who she was married to.

There is Teige O Bryen but we have no way of connecting him back to any of the O Bryens mentioned in the Civil Survey.

The 1659 Penders Census features the following as Tituladoes in the area

Humphry Dymnock Esq – Castletown

Francis Strongman gent – Castlelough

John Strongman Esq - Cornodio

Edmond Hogane gent – Cornodio

Henry Feltham gent – Liskelly

All these areas equate to the area we are dealing with above.

 

Looking at the later records. In Castletown the surname Tuohy continues in that area till the Tithe Applotment Books.

https://thetipperaryantiquarian.blogspot.com/2025/03/hearth-money-rolls-castletown.html

https://thetipperaryantiquarian.blogspot.com/2025/03/hearth-money-rolls-ballywilliam.html

https://thetipperaryantiquarian.blogspot.com/2025/03/hearth-money-rolls-castlelough.html

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hag Stones, are they an example of authentic Irish folklore or a neo-pagan import?

By Darkone CC BY-SA 2.0 The first time I ever heard of Hag-stones was this year. They are more commonly known as Adder stones and described on wikipedia as follows: " An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. Such stones have been discovered by archaeologists in both Britain and Egypt ."  In Britain they are also called hag stones , [1] witch stones , serpent's eggs , snake's eggs , or Glain Neidr in Wales , milpreve in Cornwall , adderstanes in the south of Scotland and Gloine nan Druidh ("Druids' glass" in Scottish Gaelic ) in the north. In Germany they are called Hühnergötter ("chicken gods"). In Egypt they are called aggry or aggri . Adder stones were believed to have magical powers such as protection against eye diseases or evil charms, preventing nightmares , curing whooping cough , the ability to see through fairy or witch disguises and traps if looked at ...

The Origins of the surname Ryan

NOTE: This is currently a work in progress and I ask for any feedback on what I have written. Ryan is one of the top ten surnames by population / number of people in Ireland. It would be nice if there was a simple explanation as to the meaning of the surname Ryan, unfortunately to my knowledge there isn't. The most likely explanation is that it goes back to a King or Chief of Idrone circa 900AD named Rian or Rien. It was around this time that the Irish began taking on surnames and it may be that it was after him his descendants began to be called, O or descendent of Rian. We are not sure how or when exactly the O'Mulryan name came about. It is likely that it means "descendent of the followers of Rian". However, this is not certain. We will see further down in this article that the genealogies suggest they are both descended from the same ancestor circa 900AD. Although other evidence does contradict this. Just what Rian means is not known for sure. Explana...

The Tara Prince, the Egyptian Princess and other alleged links between Ireland and Egypt in ancient times

I think most of us have heard the stories that originate in the Lebor Gabala Erenn linking Scota or Scotia with Ireland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scota It is a great story but the problem is when it used as fact. I few years back I first heard of the claim relating to the Tara Prince and the faience beads that are claimed to originate in Egypt. "The Tara Prince" aka Tara Boy An excavation of the Mound of the Hostages in 1955 by Sean O'Riordain uncovered a number of items within the mound (which turned out to be a passage tomb). One was a set of faience beads now on display in the National Museum of Ireland. They were associated with a skeleton that in pseudoarchaeology has been dubbed "The Tara Prince". Copyright National Museum of Ireland When I read about the claim linking him back to Egypt curiosity got to the better of me and I had to see if there was any basis in it. You can see where the claim arose in O'Riordain's paper ...