Burke of Isertkelly and Springfield, etc.

© Donal G. Burke 2014

Thomas de Burgo, Dominican Bishop of Ossory, writing in his eighteenth century treatise ‘Hibernia Dominicana’ referred to the MacHubert Burkes of Isertkelly as descended from Walter de Burgh, Earl of Ulster.[i] This earl died in 1271 and while the heir to the earldom was his eldest son Richard, the Red Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connacht, the MacHubert Burkes, like the McCooges (or McHugos) and the MacRedmond Burkes, were believed to be descended from younger sons of Walter. (Less certainty, however, surrounds the descent of McCooge.)[ii] In the case of the MacHuberts, they were believed to be descended from Sir Hubert or Sir Hoibeard de Burgh, son of Walter Earl of Ulster and younger brother of Richard the Red Earl of Ulster.

All of these three branches were established about the later County Galway, within the territory known from the late medieval period as Clanricarde. McCooge’s lands lay about the lake and castle of Loughrea, the Earl’s chief castle in Connacht, MacHubert’s about Isertkelly, south west of Loughrea and MacRedmond’s in the barony of Kiltartan, between Isertkelly and Gort.[iii]

map showing location of Pubbell MacHubert

Map showing the location of the lands of the MacHubert Burkes or ‘Pubbell MacHubert’ in the late medieval period in relation to those of principal surrounding families, with those of the immediate family of the chieftains and Earls of Clanricarde omitted and the location of modern towns and villages in County Galway shown in red.

Before the Anglo-Norman conquest of Connacht in 1235 the lands later occupied by the MacRedmond and MacHubert Burkes formed part of the Gaelic territory of Uí Fiachrach Aidhe. While certain Gaelic families such as the O Shaughnessys retained large tracts of land in the territory following the conquest, the historian H.T. Knox was of the view that the lands occupied by the MacRedmond and MacHubert Burkes may have been the ancestral lands of the O Clerys and part of those held by the O Cahills.[iv]

When Connacht was sub-infeudated by the Anglo-Normans, Maurice Fitzgerald of Offaly acquired extensive territories under the de Burgh overlord of Connacht, including what became known as the cantred of Aidhne.[v] Knox supposed it possible that the de Burgh ancestors of the MacRedmond Burkes and MacHubert Burkes may initially have held their lands of the Fitzgeralds in the decades prior to 1300, about which time all of the Fitzgerald lands in Connacht were transferred to, or acquired by, the de Burgh earl of Ulster and lord of Connacht.[vi]

Despite their seniority in line of descent from the mainline of the Earls of Ulster, these septs came to be dominated later by a more junior line descended from a younger son of Sir William liath de Burgh, the Red Earl’s cousin. This more junior line would hold the chieftaincy of the territory of Clanricarde in the late medieval period and provide the line of the Earls of Clanricarde from the mid sixteenth century.

The origin of the MacHubert Burkes

Four principal pedigrees give the descent of the senior-most lines of the MacHubert Burke sept, but each differs from the other. Two varying genealogies are given by the seventeenth century antiquary Dubhaltach MacFirbisigh in his ‘Great Book of Genealogies’, while the third is given in a Sketch Pedigree of the family compiled in the nineteenth century by Sir William Betham, Ulster King of Arms in Manuscript No. 262 in the Genealogical Office, Dublin and a fourth was compiled about 1840 by the then senior-most member of the family, Brevet Colonel Patrick Burke.[vii]

All four pedigrees give the MacHuberts as descended from Sir Hoibeard or Sir Hubert de Burgh, whose seniority within the wider family at that time is indicated not only by his parentage but also in each pedigree noting his having taken knighthood, an expensive undertaking in the medieval period involving significant obligations on the part of the knight to his overlord. As such, few members of the most prominent Anglo-Norman families in Connacht or elsewhere in Ireland would have had the resources or, in certain cases inclination, to attain knighthood.

MacFirbisigh offers two versions of MacHubert’s pedigree, although stating that ‘one or other of those is false, or both.’ (In seeking to be thorough, he felt compelled to also mention that ‘people say that Clann Hoibeard do not belong to the Burkes but to the Herberts of County Limerick.’ This, however, was not the case.)

The first version of MacFirbisigh’s pedigrees gives Sir Hoibeard, from whom the sept derived its name, as a son of ‘Báitéar’ or Walter de Burgh, Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connacht and another gives Sir Hoibeard as son of ‘Risteard an parson son of Sir Uilliam son of Uilliam of Áth an Chip (ie. son of Richard son of William son of William of Athanchip).[viii] This William of Athanchip was killed in 1270 and was younger brother of Walter Earl of Ulster. While he was uncertain of the veracity of either, the descent from William of Athanchip is unlikely.

MacFirbisigh pedigree of the Burkes copy

A seventeenth century understanding of the descent of the Burkes, compiled from MacFirbisigh’s ‘Great Book of Genealogies’ and showing MacFirbisigh’s first version of the origin of the MacHubert Burkes.

MacFirbisigh’s genealogy of the earliest generations of the de Burghs is erroneous in that it was believed in the seventeenth century that Uilliam or William, the first of the de Burghs in Ireland, had two sons named Richard or Riocard; Riocard Mór and Riocard óg. It is now generally accepted that William had only one son named Richard or Riocard mór, who, with considerable support, achieved the Anglo-Norman Conquest of Connacht in 1235 and who died in 1243, after hiring ships for himself and his retinue to travel to France to join the King’s forces in Poitou and Gascony.[ix] The first de facto de Burgh Lord of Connacht, Riocard mór was father to at least three sons; Richard, his heir, who died in 1248, Walter, who became Lord of Connacht and first de Burgh Earl of Ulster and who died in 1271 and William or Uilliam óg, known as ‘of Áth an chip’ from the name of battle before which he was killed while captive in 1270.

It would appear that ‘Sir Uilliam son of Uilliam of Áth an chip son of Riocard mór’ as described by MacFirbisigh, was in reality the same man as ‘Uilliam liath’, erroneously given by MacFirbisigh as a son of Riocard óg. It was believed in the seventeenth century that the Earls of Clanricarde were descended from Riocard óg and the Viscounts Bourke of Mayo were descended from Richard mór. It is now generally accepted that they were both descended from Richard mór, through Sir Uilliam liath son of Uilliam of Áth an chip, younger brother of Walter Earl of Ulster, son of Riocard mór. When MacFirbisigh gives ‘Riocard an parson’ as a possible son of Sir Uilliam and a possible ancestor of the MacHuberts in his alternative pedigree of the MacHuberts, it would appear to be a mistake and this Riocard should be the man he describes elsewhere as ‘Riocard an fhorbar son of Uilliam liath’ and father of Ulick of Annaghkeen, ancestor of the earls of Clanricarde, and younger brother of Sir Edmond Albanach, ancestor of the Viscounts Bourke of Mayo.[x] This would appear to call into question this alternative descent for MacHubert, giving preference for the first version whereby they are descended from Sir Hoibeard, son of Walter Earl of Ulster.

Pedigree table of selected branches of the Burkes

Pedigree table showing selected branches of the Burkes, including the MacHubert Burkes. H.T. Knox gives an alternative line of descent for the chieftains and Earls of Clanricarde.

For further details regarding the sons of Sir Uilliam liath, refer to article entitled ‘origins of the Earls of Clanricarde.’

Both MacFirbisigh and G.O. Ms. 262 agree that Sir Hoibeard, the nominal founder of the sept, had at least one son, named William or, in the former’s pedigree, Uilliam an parson. The latter pedigree gives Sir Hoibeard as dying in 1271.[xi] If this was correct it would suggest that he died in the same year as the man given by MacFirbisigh as his father; Walter Earl of Ulster. Taking both pedigrees into account it would appear that Uilliam an parson would have flourished sometime between the mid to late thirteenth century and the mid fourteenth century.

Ardrahan served as an important settlement centre of the Anglo-Norman cantred of Ui Fiachrach Aidhne and in a 1321 Extent or valuation of the Manor of Ardrahan, taken as part of an Inquisition Post Mortem following the death of Thomas de Clare, one William fitz Hubert de Burgh (ie. William son of Hubert) was given as a freeholder of the manor, alongside various other Anglo-Normans.[xii] William fitz Hubert was one of at least three other de Burghs who appeared as either freeholders or jurors in the 1321 Extent, including one Hugh fitz Hubert de Burgh who served as a juror. (No de Burgh was mentioned by name in an Extent of the same manor dated 1289).[xiii] It cannot be said with any certainty, however, that this William was the same individual mentioned in the pedigrees as the son of MacFirbisigh’s Sir Hoibeard or that one ‘Henry son of the parson’ had any connection to the same man.

Decline of the Anglo-Norman Colony

When Walter Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connacht died in 1271 his eldest son Richard was a minor who did not obtain seisin of his lands until 1280. During the lifetime of Richard, who became known as the Red Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connacht his cousin Sir William liath de Burgh, son of William óg de Burgh of Athanchip, played a prominent part in the affairs of Connacht and was regarded by some as having acted as the Red Earl’s representative in that part of his lordship.[xiv] Sir William liath died in 1324 and the Red Earl in 1326 and considerable strife arose within the ruling house of de Burgh in the years following these deaths between the immediate family of the Red Earl and the immediate descendants of Sir William liath.[xv] Sir William liath’s eldest son Walter was suspected by some of contriving to take control in Connacht during the minority and early years of the Red Earl’s heir and grandson, William the Brown Earl.[xvi] In 1332, however, the Brown Earl had Walter taken and cast into prison where he died later that year.[xvii]

When William, the Brown Earl of Ulster, was murdered in 1333 by conspirators both within and without his immediate family, the vast de Burgh lordships in Ireland would pass legally to the husband of his only surviving daughter. With the sudden loss of the Earl without a male heir at a time when the Anglo-Norman colony was in decline and infighting among the leading members of the family, the principal lordship in Ireland began to crumble. In Ulster, the powerful O Neills, along with the Maguires and O Cahans broke free of the Crown, and in the turmoil that followed in Connacht, the native Irish such as the O Kellys and O Maddens, began to expand and regain lost ground.

The dominant figures among the de Burghs in Ireland at that time were Edmond fitz le Counte de Burgh, uncle of the Brown Earl and Sir Edmond Albanach de Burgh, the eldest son then surviving of Sir William liath. Considerable enmity existed between both men for a number of years, with Edmond fitz le Counte having taken an active part in the taking into captivity of Sir Edmond Albanach’s brother Sir Walter. In September of 1334 the King, as temporary custodian of the de Burgh lordship, granted a lease of all the late Earl’s lands of Connacht to Edmond fitz le Counte de Burgh until the heir should come of age.[xviii] In being appointed jointly with the Archbishop of Tuam as one of the two Justices of the Peace for the Connacht lordship Edmond fitz le Counte de Burgh, whose personal estates appears to have lain in Munster, had the King’s mandate to administer justice and impose order throughout Connacht and was effectively given the government of the de Burgh lordship.[xix] He was thereby placed to take the foremost position in Connacht and found himself actively opposed by Sir Edmond Albanach.

Sir Edmond Albanach was supported by his own family and allies while the supporters of Edmond fitz le Counte and his immediate family included the family group described in the Annals as the ‘Clann Riocaird.’[xx] While this would later appear to have been used to describe a junior line descended from Sir William liath who would come to rule much of southern Connacht, it would appear at this time to have indicated the ‘family of Richard’ and may have included the ancestors of the MacHubert Burkes as they were said to have been of the senior line of Earl Walter and not of the junior line of Sir William liath de Burgh.

Edmond fitz le Counte was captured and drowned by supporters of Sir Edmond Albanach in 1338 and after an initial setback following the murder Sir Edmond Albanach asserted his dominance over much of Connacht.[xxi] His lands appear to have lain mostly in the north of Connacht as he and his sons also encountered powerful opposition from the mid to late fourteenth century from a junior line descended from a younger brother of Sir Edmond Albanch. The head of this line was Richard óg Burke and his descendants came to dominate the southern region of Connacht and became partly-gaelicized chieftains of a large territory between the town of Galway and the territories of the resurgent O Kellys and O Maddens in the east. The territory came to be known as Clann Riocaird or Clanricarde and this line descended from Sir William liath came to dominate not only other junior lines in their territory but also the more genealogically-senior septs descended from Walter Earl of Ulster in this territory. This included the MacHuberts, the McRedmonds about Kilbeacanty and possibly the McCooges or McHugos, who came to recognize the authority of the chieftaincy of this line, whose head took the Gaelic title of Upper MacWilliam Burke or MacWilliam of Clanricarde. The head of the line descended from Sir Edmond Albanach came to rule much of the later County Mayo and became known as the MacWilliam or Lower MacWilliam Burke. Although the descendants of Edmond fitz le Counte in Munster were the senior-most in terms of descent from the mainline of the Earls, followed thereafter by the descendants of the Red Earl’s brothers or other sons, political power in Connacht would lie with the descendants of the senior-most sons of Sir William liath.

For further details relating to this period, refer to ‘Burke 1280 to 1333’ and ‘Burke 1334-1387,’ under ‘families.’

Pubbell MacHubert

As the population of the various branches of the Burkes expanded they consolidated their positions for the most part within the confines of the lands with which their particular family group had become associated. The territory of the MacHubert Burkes was known in the late medieval and early modern period as ‘Pubbell MacHubert’ or ‘the people of MacHubert,’ centred about Isertkelly in what was the old parish of that name and about the parish of Killinan. As such their lands lay deep within the wider territory of Clanricarde in the half barony of Loughrea, not distant from the centre of power of the MacWilliam Burke chieftains. Like many partly-Gaelicized septs of Anglo-Norman origin, by the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries the head of the sept was known by a Gaelic title or patronymic, derived from a common ancestor of the branch. In the case of the de Burghs or Burkes based about Isertkelly, the name MacHubert was said to derive from their reputed ancestor Sir Hoibeard or Hubert, that younger son of Walter Earl of Ulster.

In the late medieval period the family lands of the MacHubert Burkes were surrounded by other branches of the Burkes. To the immediate north east of ‘Pubbell MacHubert’ lay the lands of the MacHenry Burkes of Gortnamackan in the parishes of Kilchreest and Kilconickny, between Isertkelly and the lands of the MacHugos that lay about the lake of Lough Rea.[xxii] The family of Shane oge Burke of Cloghroak were an influential family group with extensive lands to the north and west of the MacHuberts and to their south west lay the seven quarters of ‘Poblemunterfahy,’ the lands of the O Fahys in the parish of Killthomas. In addition to the lands of the various constituent families the MacWilliam Burke chieftains and the later Earls of Clanricarde possessed various estates and castles across the territory of Clanricarde.

Members of the sept in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

The various surviving pedigrees of the sept serve primarily to illustrate the direct line of descent of the senior members of the family in the seventeenth century. As such they make no significant reference to collateral branches or to members who may have been head of the sept but who were not in a direct line of descent to those of the seventeenth century. The chieftaincy of the territory of Clanricarde did not always pass from father to eldest son, eligibility extending to other members of the immediate family of previous chieftains. As the MacHuberts shared a similar partly-Gaelicised background to the Burke chieftains, it is likely that the headship of their sept did not always pass by primogeniture either. As such various references in the Annals and other records to individuals who may have been heads of the sept at a particular time or senior members may not have been direct ancestors of the leading early seventeenth century MacHuberts.

This may account for the non-appearance in the pedigrees of such individuals as John son of Edmund MacHubert who died in 1369 or Meyler MacHubert, killed in 1371 by Rory O Connor.[xxiii] The same may have applied to one Redmond MacHubert who is recorded in the Irish Annals as having contended alongside the chieftain of the Burkes of Clanricarde and his ally Cathal O Connor in a battle fought at Cill achaidh in 1407 against the combined forces of O Connor Roe, the sons of Melaghlin O Kelly and the MacDermott and who was taken prisoner together with William Burke and O Heyne. It is uncertain if all of these individuals were of the MacHubert sept but they may have been and were not direct ancestors of the seventeenth century heads of the sept.

The line from Sir Hoibeard to the builder of Díseart Ceallaigh

The family genealogy compiled by Colonel Burke in the mid nineteenth century was significantly less accurate in relating the early generations of the family than the later. The descent from the first William, who died circa 1204 down to the mid to late sixteenth century contains many omissions and may be discounted in respect of these early generations. The pedigree provided in Manuscript No. 262 in the Genealogical Office, Dublin, however, agrees closely with the first pedigree of the MacHubert’s given by MacFirbisigh in his ‘Great Book of Genealogies.’

MacHubert Pedigree 1

Comparison of MacFirbisigh’s first pedigree of ‘MacHoibeard’ from his ‘Great Book of Genealogies’ (shown on the left, above) with that given in Betham’s Sketch Pedigrees G.O. Ms. 262 (shown on the right, above).

‘Manuscript No. 262’ begins the sept pedigree with Sir Hubert, whom it states died in 1271. MacFirbisigh gives three generations between Sir Hoibeard and Maoilir mór, whom it states built the tower house of Díseart Ceallaigh or Isertkelly, giving the latter as ‘son of Hoibeard son of Uilleag carrach (ie. ‘the rough-skinned’) son of Uilliam an parson son of Sir Hoibeard.’[xxiv] The Genealogical Office manuscript also accredits Maoilir or Meyler with the construction of Isertkelly but omits ‘Hoibeard’, making Meyler ‘son of Ulick son of William son of Sir Hubert.’

According to this last pedigree, the first of the family to be called MacHubert was Ulick de Burgh, son of William de Burgh son of this Sir Hubert who died in 1271. The name thereafter was retained, according to this source, by the chief of the sept.

Isertkelly Castle

The tower house of Isertkelly, situated in the modern townland of Castlepark, which together with a number of surrounding modern townlands comprised the early modern denomination of Isertkelly.

‘Maoilir mór, who built Díseart Ceallaigh’

Maoilir mór appears to have flourished in the early decades of the fifteenth century, as the deaths of his sons are recorded in the 1460s. Maoilir may have had three sons; Richard and Seaán mór (ie. John ‘the great’ or ‘senior’) and William. The historian Martin J. Blake believed that the William whom the Franciscan friars at Galway record as having died in 1460 and identified as son of ‘Myler the great’ (or ‘Willielm filii Mileri magni’) was a son of this Maoilir.[xxv] The same William bequeathed a half mark to the Franciscan friary at Galway, to be paid annually in perpetuity out of the rent of the fee of ‘Maien’ on the feast of St. Bridget. (Blake, who read the original Latin text, believed the denomination to have been written ‘Maieni’ but was uncertain as to its location.)

MacFirbisigh does not mention a William as son of Maoilir mor but does give two sons; Riocard and Seaán mór, the former being the elder of the two and from whom the senior line of the MacHuberts descended.

The junior line of Seaán mór is carried down by MacFirbisigh as Seaán mór being the father of Maoilir óg, father of Tomás, father of Uilliam father of Éamonn, this last likely to have flourished about the mid to late sixteenth century.

The senior line from Riocard son of Maoilir mór in the fifteenth century

Both MacFirbisigh’s first pedigree and Genealogical Office Ms. 262 agree in the senior line descending from Riocard or Richard son of Maoilir mór, with the manuscript calling him ‘Rickard more Bourke MacHubert.’ He would appear to be the individual to whom the Dominican monks at Athenry were referring when they recorded in their Registry Book the death in 1466 of Richard son of Meiler son of Hubert ‘de Yserkeally’.[xxvi]

It is noteworthy that Richard’s death is given in the eighteenth century ‘Hibernia Dominicana,’ taken from Ware’s seventeenth century transcription of the Athenry Register as occurring in 1406 (ie. ‘Obitus Richardo filii Huberti de Burgo de Iserkeally, Anno Domini 1406’). However, it is possible that this may have been intended to read as 1466 as Ambrose Coleman, writing at the beginning of the twentieth century, gives what appears to be the same entry from the Athenry Register as ‘Obiit Ricardus filius Mileri filoberti de Yserkeally, 1466.’[xxvii] The absence of Hubert father of Maoilir from the Genealogical Office manuscript may be accounted for in the reading of this obituary as Richard son of Meiler MacHubert rather than Richard son of Meiler son of Hubert.

Riocard’s son is given by MacFirbisigh as Uilleag carrach who was father of Uilleag mor who in turn was father of Uilleag óg. The manuscript pedigree describes Uilleag carrach as ‘Ulick Burke macHubert’, father of Ulick more and describes the latter’s son ‘Uilleag óg’ simply as ‘Ulick Burke MacHubert.’ Colonel Burke’s pedigree begins to correspond for the most part with this last individual whom he calls William MacHubert.

Uilleag óg (or Ulick Burke MacHubert or William MacHubert) appears to have flourished about the mid sixteenth century and married at least once or possibly twice. The manuscript pedigree states that he firstly married a daughter of Burke of Gortnemacken and secondly Rose, daughter of William O Kelly of Mullaghmore.[xxviii] Colonel Burke only mentions his marriage to a daughter of Henry Burke ‘of Gortnamacon.’

It is unclear whether the ‘Ulick Bowrke alias McHebert of Iserkealle,’ who was holding the office of sheriff of the county of Connacht in 1543 (an office held by the chieftain of Clanricarde in the years about the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth), was Uilleag óg or his eldest son Uilleag carrach. While MacHubert was one of the principal freeholders of the territory, a number of contemporary references in the sixteenth century would suggest that MacHugo was the more senior or more influential within the territory than either MacHubert or MacRedmond of Oireacht Redmond. The same documents would also suggest that MacHubert was more senior than MacRedmond, despite MacFirbisigh’s treating of the latter before MacHubert in his ‘Great Book of Genealogies.’ When MacHugo, MacHubert, O Heyne, O Shaughnessy and a number of the leading freeholders of Clanricarde came together in 1548 and wrote from Loughrea to the Lord Deputy and the King’s Council in Ireland to complain of the oppression they experienced under the captaincy of Ulick Burke and his brothers of Derrymaclaughna, it was MacHugo who was named first before MacHubert and a similar pattern continued in other contemporary documents relating to the territory.[xxix]

Since the death in 1543 of Ulick na gceann, 1st Earl of Clanricarde, contention had arisen as to whom should inherit the earldom, given his complicated marital situation. The government recognised his son Richard as the rightful heir but, as he was a minor, the captaincy or governorship of Clanricarde was entrusted until the heir came of age to Ulick, son of Richard oge Burke, a former chieftain whose lands lay about Derrymaclaughna, north-east of Galway in the barony of Clare. MacHubert’s prominence within the territory and among the other Burke septs was such that when, in 1544, Shane oge Burke of Cloghroak was permitted by the Crown to retain the office of Sheriff of Clanricarde, the profits to be derived by him from that office were to be limited by the Archbishop of Tuam, the Bishop of Clonfert, the Mayor of the town of Galway, McHugo, MacHubert and Thomas, son of Richard oge Burke, the order of their listing a signifier of their standing relative to one another.

By 1548 Richard, the late earl’s son, was near attaining his majority and both sides were in conflict, with Ulick son of Richard oge complaining to the authorities that Richard, his O Brien allies and supporters had besieged him in his castle. MacHubert, alongside many of the leading freeholders such as MacHugo, O Heyne and O Shaughnessy supported the heir and claimed that their complaint arose as a result of the loss and exactions they experienced at the hands of the Burkes of Derrymaclaughna. They complained that since Ulick had been appointed to govern, he and his brothers had ‘cruelly burned, spoiled and killed their men, women and children these four years past.’ Jointly they asked that Commissioners be appointed ‘to settle young Richard in his inheritance,’ but the conflict continued until late in 1550 when the Lord Chancellor forcibly intervened to displace Ulick and his brothers and to secure Richard 2nd Earl of Clanricarde in his position as ruler of the territory.

The surviving records did not make clear the identity of this MacHubert of 1548 and similarly it is also unclear to which Uilleag is referred in the records of the Visitation of the diocese of Kilmacduagh, carried out circa 1565 or 1567. At that time the Protestant Visitators noted that while one Thadeus mcNyle held the prebendery of ‘Hysekellay’ and one Dermicius O Husky the vicarage of the same, ‘McHubert’ was stated to have all the fruits of those benefices.[xxx]

MacHubert Pedigree 2

Comparison of MacFirbisigh’s first pedigree of ‘MacHoibeard’ from his ‘Great Book of Genealogies’ (shown on the left, above) with that given in Betham’s Sketch Pedigree G.O. Ms. 262 (shown on the right, above), showing the descendants given in each from that Maoilir ‘who built Diseart Ceallaigh.’ 

Ulick carrach McHubert son of Uilleag óg

All three pedigrees agree that Uilleag óg’s son was called Uilleag carrach, albeit Colonel Burke gives him as ‘Ulick Carragh-More.’ (The Irish annals, however, appear to refer to him in as ‘Ulick roe’ or ‘Ulick the red-haired’.) The Genealogical Office manuscript shows him as the son by his father’s first marriage. Other branches are given in that source as descended by his father’s union with Rose O Kelly.

It is unclear at what time Uilleag carrach succeeded his father. McHubert, together with McHugo or McCooge and the Earl of Clanricarde, were given as the three chief individuals of the barony of Loughrea about 1574. At that time Isertkelly was described as the residence of ‘McHubert chief of his sept’ while ‘MacHubert’ was also given as the possessor of the castles of Cloghan and Laveleconogher. The castle of ‘Cragrosty’ was given as being held by Ulick Caragh McHubberd, and it is not clear if he was at that time MacHubert or that he simply held Cragrosty.[xxxi] Another of this family appears to have been Edmund McHubert roe, who in 1574 held the castle of Castleboy.

It is therefore uncertain if it is to Uilleag carrach or his father Uilleag óg that the Crown records referred in September of 1577 when ‘Ullyk McHubert of Isherkeally, Co. Galway, gentleman’ was granted by the Crown the office of ‘seneschal of the country called Pobwll McHubert or McHubert’s Country.’[xxxii]

Uilleag carrach was clearly head of the family by the early 1580s at the very least, however, as he was included as one of the many who received a pardon from the Crown in the year that Richard Sassanach, 2nd Earl of Clanricarde died.[xxxiii] (In his pardon he is referred to as ‘Hugh carragh McHibert alias McHybard’ but this should more correctly read Uilleag or Ulick as in that same year and in the following pardon Ulick, son of the deceased Earl is also called ‘Hugh.’)[xxxiv] Also pardoned alongside Uilleag carrach was one ‘John mcHibart of Disert Kellye’ whose name does not appear in any of the pedigrees but who would appear to have been a senior member of the sept at that time.

Composition of Connacht

From the mid sixteenth century the officials of the Tudor Crown of England had made significant developments in extending the power of the monarch across the country. To finance their administration and military presence in Connacht, the Government resolved that a rent be agreed and charged from each division of land in the province. The rent would be payable to the crown, and called the Composition rent, after an agreement drawn up in 1585, between the Queens servants and the Connacht chieftains; the Composition of Connacht, effectively abolishing the various exactions and services imposed by the ruling Gaelic chieftain. By signing up to the Composition document, the signatories acknowledged their lands as private property, held under English law, in return for the agreed rent and on condition that they provide an agreed number of soldiers to support the administration when required. In so doing the signatories repudiated the Gaelic legal system in favour of that of England.

Ulick Carraghe McHubbert is identified as ‘of the Dissharte, otherwise called McHubberte’ in 1585, when he was among the notable landholders or ‘petty lords and captaines’ of the territory of Clanricarde party to the Indenture of that territory.[xxxv] The ancestral lands of the family within the territory of Clanricarde were identified as ‘Pubbell McHubert’ comprising 12 quarters of land.

Colonel Burke gave Uilleag carrach as married to ‘Mary Fitz John Oage of Cloacrough.’ In the manuscript pedigree, however, he was given as married to Mary, daughter of one Meyler Burke and father of four sons; William Burke MacHubert, Ulick Burke of ‘Disertkelly’ or Isertkelly, married to a daughter of one of the Burkes of Pallas, near Tynagh, Gerald and Walter Burke.[xxxvi]

Other members of the sept mentioned in State records of the late sixteenth century appear to have been Richard mcWillliam mc Ullick of Kreigharosdy, Redmund McRicarde of Castlebouy and John McRedmund McHubarde of Castlebuye who were pardoned by the Crown in 1585.[xxxvii] Riccard mcRedmond of Castleboy, who was pardoned in the following year, would appear to have been brother of John.[xxxviii]

The junior lines descended from Uilleag óg and his second wife Rose O Kelly

Genealogical Office Ms. 262 gives a number of sons as the offspring of the union of Uilleag óg with Rose O Kelly. These sons would have been half-brothers of Uilleag carrach, the head of the sept in the late sixteenth century. If these five sons were sons of this union and so of the same generation as Uilleag carrach, they would in all likelihood have flourished about the late sixteenth century or the early years of the seventeenth century.

Isertkelly remained in the senior line descended of Uilleag carrach. According to G.O. Ms. 262 Uilleag carrach had five half-brothers; Meyler, Darcy ‘of Moymode (recte: Moyode) and Fartimor,’ Edmund, Rickard and Redmond of Tyaquin. While descendants of each half-brother were listed, only those of Darcy and Redmund were associated with seats in the pedigree. In the case of Darcy, descendants of his were given in the manuscript pedigree as ‘of Carromor’ and ‘of Milford’ and those of Redmond given as ‘of Tyaquin.’

Burkes of Lavallyconor, Moyode, Fartimor, Carromor and Tiaquin

The descendants of Meyler Burke and Darcy Burke ‘of Moymode (recte: Moyode) and Fartimor’ as given in Betham’s Sketch pedigree G.O. Ms. 262.

It is noteworthy that the eldest son of the liaison of Uilleag óg with Rose O Kelly is given in the manuscript pedigree as Meyler Burke married to Cecily daughter of Edmund Burke of Cong and father of one Ulick Burke, who would marry the sister of Dominick Burke, Bishop of Elphin and have issue an only child, a daughter. A more reliable source than the G.O. Ms. 262 pedigree is the contemporary Funeral Entry of this Meyler in the records of the Ulster King of Arms dating from 1635. The personal details given therein by Meyler’s son describes Meyler as ‘Miles Bourk of Leavilly Connor in the County of Gallway, eldest son and heir of Ullick Bourke of the same.’[xxxix]

Details of the Funeral Entry were incomplete and this Ullick was described as a brother of what would appear to have been a prominent House of the name, but the name of the family was left blank. Miles was married to Cicely, daughter of Edmond Bourke of Conge in County Mayo, by whom he had numerous sons and daughters, a number of whom died while young. His eldest son was one of those who died unmarried and his next eldest son ‘Walter mcMeyler Bourk’, married to Margarett, daughter of John mcGarrett mcGillikelly of Cloughballemore, was his heir at his father’s death. Miles’ other surviving sons were Jonacke, William, Ulick and Dominick and two daughters; Mary, the eldest daughter married to Murtagh O Brien of County Clare and Cicyly, unmarried at the time of her father’s death. Miles died at Leavilly Connor on 22nd September 1635 and was buried at the Abbey of Athenry.

As the reference to the House to which Miles of Leavilly Connor was connected was incomplete it is uncertain if it was intended as a reference to that of Isertkelly. Both Miles’ inclusion in the G.O. Ms. 262 pedigree and the fact that Lavallyconor was given as a MacHubert castle about 1574 would serve to confirm the connection, despite its location at a distance from Isertkelly and the parish of Killinan and its separation from there by estates belonging to a different family group.

Lavallyconor towerhouse 1

The ivy-clad remains of the tower house at Lavallyconor, without its crenellations and with a number of its window openings blocked up, viewed from the north.

Among those of the County Galway who were granted a general pardon by the Crown in the last year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and the first of King James I were ‘Dorroghan McHubert of Labellaconer,’ ‘Moyler McHubbert of Laghvallaconnogher’ and Redmund mcUllick of the same, with Dorroghan pardoned in 1602 and Moyler and Redmund in 1603. Moyler would appear to have been that Miles of Lavallyconor who died in 1635. As Redmund was given as a son of Ulick, he may have been a brother of Miles and that Redmund given as ‘of Tyaquin’ in Betham’s pedigree of the family. The personal name ‘Dorroghan’ was used within the wider MacHubert sept as an alias for the name ‘Walter’ and occurs in Betham’s pedigree as ‘Darcy.’ It is unclear, however, if the Dorroghan pardoned in 1602 was Walter, eldest son of Miles of Lavallyconor who died in 1635 or if he was that Darcy given in the same pedigree as brother of Miles of Lavallyconor.

The line of Lavallyconor

Despite the reference of 1574, it is unlikely that the castle of Laveleconogher or Lavallyconor constituted what was defined as ‘Pubbell McHubert’ in the late sixteenth century. The tower house of Lavallyconor lay within the parish of Killeely in the barony of Dunkellin, while the twelve quarters that comprised ‘Pubbell McHubert’ lay within the half barony of Loughrea. Between Lavallyconor and the lands of the MacHubert sept in the parishes of Isertkelly and Killinan lay castles and extensive lands of one of the most influential branches of the Burkes in south-west County Galway, who had been established about Cloghroak in the parish of Ardrahan from an early period. Their family lands lay in Clanricarde between the modern villages of Craughwell, Ardrahan and Kilchreest to the west of the town of Loughrea. The principal member of this family group about 1574 was Shane óg son of John son of Edmund Burke, given as one of the three chief men of the barony of Dunkellin. During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries he or his immediate family and kinsmen held the castles of Cloghroak, Creggymulgreny, Corbally (ie. modern townland of Castledaly, parish of Ardrahan) and those of Mannin and Tullira in the barony of Dunkellin.[xl] Cloghroak, Creggymulgreny, Corbally, Mannin and Tullira lay between Lavallyconnor and the MacHubert castles at Isertkelly, Cregrosty, Cloghan and Castleboy.

The lands held by the proprietors of Lavallyconor in the early seventeenth century likewise lay principally about Lavallyconor and not about Isertkelly, while none of the principal sept members about Isertkelly at that time appear to have held lands near Lavallyconor. About 1619 Riccard McHubert Burke of Levallyconner was proprietor of the quarter of Rathbane in the barony of Dunkellin and in the half barony of Loughrea he held a half quarter of Cregduff and a half quarter of Feneragh. One Moyler McHubert Burke of Levallyconner was proprietor of one quarter of Carrowanmonyne and one quarter of Crosscornan and Redmond McHubert Burke of Levallyconnor held one quarter of Knockancarragh and one quarter of Carowmanine.[xli]

The two quarters of Lavallyconor in the mid seventeenth century appears to have been comprised of parcels in the parish of Killeely in the barony of Dunkellin, part in the parish of Kilcolgan and part in the half barony of Loughrea. It would appear to have been larger than the modern townland of Lavallyconor and included the modern townlands of Pollnagarragh West and East in which the placename ‘Knockauncarragh’ occurs. In addition ‘Cregduffe and ffanareogh,’ part of the two quarters at that time, appear to equate with the modern townland of Fawnarevagh, while ‘Carrowmanihane’ likewise formed part of the two quarters in the half barony of Loughrea.[xlii]

The only denomination held by a Burke of Lavallyconor that appears to have lain between Lavallyconor and Isertkelly was Rathbane, which appears to be the modern denomination of Rathbaun in the parish of Ardrahan and comprised two quarters in the mid seventeenth century.[xliii]

About 1641 the principal proprietors of Lavallyconor were Walter fitzMoyler McHubert Burke fitzMoyler and Edmund oge McRedmund McUlick Burke.

The lines of Moyode, Carromor, Fartimor and Tyaquin

While a descendant of Ulick, the eldest son of Darcy ‘of Moymode and Fartimor’ was seated at ‘Carromor,’ Darcy’s youngest son, Hubert ‘of Milford’ is given in G.O. Ms. 262 as married to Jane Lovelock, by whom he had a son John of Milford, a Colonel in 1688 and whose will was dated June 1721. This Hubert would appear to be the same man as ‘Hubert Bourk of Feartymore in Co. Gallway, gentleman’ who married Jennet, the third daughter of Thomas Lovelock of Aughrim, son of Thomas Lovelock of Athlone, gentleman.[xliv] Jennet’s father died at Aughrim in 1639 and details of his family were furnished to the office of the Ulster King of Arms by Jennet’s brother George that same year. The dates of the Funeral Entry would correspond to the likelihood of Hubert’s son’s will dating from 1721 and would correspond to the date of death of Darcy’s possible brother Miles Bourk of Leavilly Connor dying in 1635 but would suggest that Hubert’s father Darcy of Moymode and Fartimor, like Miles of Leavilly Connor, was at least of a generation later than is given in G.O. Ms. 262.

Fartimor or Fartamore is a townland in the parish of Kilbennen in the barony of Dunmore, north-west of the town of Tuam. As such it lies, like Tyaquin, at a distance from the traditional lands of the MacHubert Burkes. By the early 1590s the tower house and four quarters of the denomination was the property of the Earl of Clanricarde, from whom and whose heirs it was rented.[xlv]

Moyode, in the parish of Kilconieron, between Loughrea and Athenry, lay also at a considerable distance north from Pubbell McHubert. About 1619 one Walter McHubert Burke of Moyod held a moiety of the two quarters of Kilcarnan and small parcels of ‘the trine of Lishadoile in the half barony of Loughrea, three fourths of the two quarters of Moyode in the half barony of Athenry and the quarter of Killelanmore in Dunmore barony, all in County Galway.[xlvi]

Two individuals of the sept named Walter alias Doroghan were alive in the late 1630s, and both apparently holding lands in the parish of Killinan and elsewhere. One individual was a son of one Ulick oge MacHubert and the other a son of Rickard McHubert.

Walter mcUlick Burke who held the denomination of Cloghan in 1641 with Ulick oge mcUlick Burke appears to be the same man as Walter alias Doroghan.[xlvii] As Walter alias Doroghan McUlick McHubert Burke he would appear in 1641 also as proprietor of half of the quarter of Carrowmore in Kilcolgan and, as Walter alias Doroghan mcUlick oge McHubert Burke, proprietor of the two quarters of Moyode in the parish of Killconeiron.[xlviii]

At the same time ‘Walter alias Doroghan,’ but the son of one Rickard Burke,’ held a half quarter of Carrowbeg in the parish of Kilchreest in 1641 alongside Rickard mcHubert mcUlick Burke, Ulick carragh Burke and one Moyler mcShane mcWilliam mcHubert Burke.[xlix] (This latter individual would appear to have been the same ‘Moyler McShane McHubert Burke of Creggerosty, gentleman,’ who held among other lands one half quarter of Carrowmore about 1619.) Walter alias Doroghan mcRickard Burke would appear to have been the same man as ‘Walter McRiccard Burke of Creg-Irosty, gentleman,’ who also about 1619 held one cartron of Carrowmore among his other lands as he also held lands in Cregrosty in 1641, together with land in Killinan and Carrowmorogh, all in the parish of Killinan.[l]

The name ‘Darcy’, as it occurs in the MacHubert pedigree in G.O. Ms. 262, would appear to be an Anglicized version of the personal name ‘Doroghan.’ The reference in G.O. Ms. 262 to one of the descendants of Darcy Burke being seated at ‘Carromor’ may have been a reference to that denomination of Carrowmore in the parish of Kilcolgan and would suggest that Darcy Burke was ‘Walter alias Doroghan mcUlick McHubert’ who held half of the quarter of Carrowmore in 1641.[li] This individual further corresponds to the Darcy ‘of Moymode and Fartimor’ of the pedigree in also holding the two quarters of Moyode in 1641.[lii]

Walter alias Doroghan McHubert Burke had a daughter Mariota or Margaret who died in 1615 and over whose grave in the Abbey of Athenry an elaborately carved slab was placed bearing an inscription that identified her as ‘Domā Mariota de Burgo filia Walteri Als Dorhan Mc…uibeard.’[liii]  It is uncertain, however, if this is Walter son of Ulick or son of Rickard.

graveslab of Mariota Burke

The graveslab of Mariota Burke daughter of Walter alias Doroghan McHubert at the Dominican Abbey of Athenry, as given by R.A.S. Macalister in 1913. Macalister experienced more difficulty than Lord Walter Fitzgerald in deciphering the lettering about the margin and this is reflected in the illustration. Fitzgerald described the slab as lying ‘at the tower end of the choir.’ The lettering and design he described as in relief, ‘the latter being very well cut while the former is very rude and crooked. It is’ he wrote ‘the earliest dated slab in the place.’ [liv]

The G.O. Ms. 262 pedigree gives individuals of the family resident at Tyaquin, between Loughrea and Tuam, into the early eighteenth century. The Burke lands at Tiaquin lay in the parish of Athenry in the mid seventeenth century bur later formed part of the modern parish of Monivea. A reference by Dr. Thomas de Burgo, O.P. in his eighteenth century ‘Hibernia Dominicana’ to a family at Tyaquin being descended from that of Isertkelly lends credence to the pedigree’s assertion and appears to reflect the contemporary understanding of the family’s origin.[lv] The Burkes maintained a presence at Tiaquin into the mid nineteenth century but the origin of their lands there is uncertain and, if the connection as given in the manuscript pedigree is correct, may have derived through the O Kelly of Mullaghmore connection or possibly as tenants of the Earl of Clanricarde.

William Burke MacHubert

Both of the historians M.J. Blake and H.T. Knox concur that William MacHubert, the head of the sept at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the early seventeenth century was son of Uilleag carrach. While G.O. Ms. 262 gave William as the eldest of four sons of Uilleag carrach, MacFirbisigh and Colonel Burke just list Uilliam or William as son of Uilleag carrach.

It would appear likely also that William had a sister in Giles, who married twice. She first married Dermot O Shaughnessy and following his death became the third wife of Rt. Hon. Richard Lord Bermingham of Athenry. Her Funeral Entry, recorded by Ulster King of Arms, gave her as ‘Rt. Hon. Giles, Lady Baroness of Athenry’ and the daughter of ‘Ullick Bourk MccHubert of Disert Kelly in ye County of Gallway, Esq.’[lvi] As her first husband, by whom she had at least three sons and two daughters, died in 1606, it would appear likely that her father was Uilleag carrach. At O Shaughnessy’s death she was described as his widow ‘Shyly Nyn Hubert.’ By her second marriage she had two more children and she would die in 1635, being buried at the Abbey of Athenry.

According to Colonel Burke, William Burke married ‘Mable daughter to John Burke of Cloacrogh who was sister to the Countess of Clanricarde.’ In or about 1565 Onora or Honoria daughter of John Burke of Cloghroak (also known as Shane oge Burke) married Ulick Burke, the rebellious son of Richard, 2nd Earl of Clanricarde (and later 3rd Earl of Clanricarde.[lvii] If the relationship between Mable and Onora is accurate and if she was wife of William MacHubert, Mable would in all likelihood be a younger sister of Onora.

Ulick Burke succeeded his father in 1582 as the third Earl of Clanricarde. William MacHubert was described as ‘a chief follower’ of the earl and as Ulick 3rd Earl of Clanricarde remained a supporter of the Crown from his succession until his death in 1601, William MacHubert appears to have supported the earl in his politics. At the end of December 1598 forces of Red Hugh O Donnell, one of the principal rebels opposed to the Crown, unexpectedly crossed into Clanricarde, reaching Kilcolgan by the break of day. Raiding parties were sent out by O Donnell across the territory, with one band raiding to the borders of MacRedmond’s lands of Oireacht MacRedmond. MacHubert of Isertkelly, identified by the Gaelic sources as ‘William son of Ulick roe son of Ulick oge’, was taken prisoner on this occasion by Manus, the brother of Hugh roe O Donnell.  William MacHubert appears to have obtained his freedom not long thereafter, as O Donnell raided into Clanricarde at least twice in 1599 and MacHubert was present during the last raid. On his first raid O Donnell encamped at Roevehagh, north-east of Kilcolgan, before raiding south into Thomond and returning home northwards by way of Athenry. In December of 1599, in company with his allies, he again entered Clanricarde but the Gaelic annals record that he went no further than Oranmore, encamping in the neighbourhood of Machaire-raibhach and Galway. An informant for the Crown who was with O Donnell for two days described O Donnell’s camp as located at a ford, within four miles of the earl’s ‘chief house of Baleloughreough’ (ie. Loughrea) and to the camp ‘came to him that night McHubbert, a chief follower of the Earl of Clanricarde, between whom and O Donnell there was very long and very secret talk.’ While there the Countess of Clanricarde sent two ‘boards’ of wine as a gift to O Donnell, one of which was drank that night with his company. O Donnell was intent on proceeding with his depredations further into Thomond and was confident that his forces far outnumbered those of the Earls of Clanricarde and of Thomond but, following the discussions O Donnell turned back towards Ulster the following morning. The informant attributed his return northward on this occasion ‘to the procurement of McHubert.’[lviii]

As ‘William McHubbertt alias McHubbart of Iserkelly’ he was among the many granted a general pardon by the Crown in 1602 and appears to be the same man given as ‘William McHubbert de Isserkillye,’ involved in a land transaction in 1604 with William McShane óg Burke of Cloghroak and Melaghlin O Madden of Clare (ie. Claremadden).[lix] About that same time he was likely to have been responsible for certain alterations or additions to the tower house at Isserkelly. A chimneypiece or mantelpiece in one of the rooms was inscribed with the date of 1604 and bore the words ‘Titulus triumphalis defendat nos periculo animae et corporis’ which the historian Fr. Jerome Fahey took in 1893 ‘to indicate clearly the Catholic tone of the family, and at a time when indications of Catholic spirit were fraught with serious personal danger.’

There is little to indicate the full extent of the lands of William macHubert in the second decade of the seventeenth century but ‘W. MacHubert Burke’ was described as owner of three cartrons of Castleboy in 1617.[lx]

Among those issued a general pardon in the first year of the reign of King James I were ‘Walter McUllicke of Isherkelly’ and Moyler McShane McMoyler of ‘the Cloghan.’[lxi] As a son of Ulick Burke this Walter of Isertkelly may have been a brother of William McHubert Burke and possibly the son of Ulick carrach mentioned in G.O. Ms. 262.

Other landholders of the sept about 1619 appear to have been at least three individuals of Cregrosty. Edmund McHubert Burke of Creggerosty, gentleman, held one quarter of Knockancunny, one cartron of Balleanlae and one sixteenth of a quarter of Creggrostry and a fourth part of a cartron of Killinan.[lxii] That same year one Moyler McShane McHubert Burke of Creggerosty, gentleman, held one cartron of Creggrosty, one half quarter of Carowmore, one cartron of Cahermorogh, one cartron of Balleanlae and one cartron of Carrowbeg.[lxiii] Walter McRiccard Burke of Creg-Irosty, gentleman, was proprietor of a half cartron and one third of a half cartron of Creg-Irosty, one cartron of Carrowmore, one cartron of Cahermorogh and a fourth part of one cartron of Killinan.[lxiv]

The Funeral Entry of ‘William Bourke of Ishertkelly in the County of Gallway, gentleman, eldest son of Ullicke Bourke of the same, gentleman,’ was left incomplete in the records of the Ulster King of Arms, but an index related to the entry would suggest that he was buried in 1634.[lxv]

Ulick carrach son of William MacHubert

William MacHubert was succeeded by his son Ulick carrach, the senior-most member of the sept in the mid seventeenth century. His wife was not listed in G.O. Ms. 262 but Colonel Burke’s family pedigree gave his spouse as Mary, daughter of Nicholas Herbert of Killion, Esq. ‘who was of the family of the Earl of Pembroke.’ It is uncertain if Ulick carrach was married twice but he would appear to be the same man as Ulick of Isertkelly married to Evellin Lawrence alias Donnellan in the mid seventeenth century. MacFirbisigh terminated his pedigree in this Uilleag son of Uilliam. In the late 1630s or about 1641 Ulick carragh was a significant landholder in the parishes of Isertkelly and Killinan and their surrounding area.

Cromwellian confiscations

Senior members of the MacHubert sept lost possession of their lands as a result of the Cromwellian confiscations and transplantations in the mid seventeenth century. It would appear that Ulick carrach was in all likelihood the same man as Ulick Burke of Isertkelly, who, along with his wife Evellin Burke alias Lawrence alias Donnellan, was decreed lands of 618 profitable Irish acres by the Cromwellian authorities in the parish of Killoran in May of 1656 and who was regarded as having been among those whose estates had been confiscated in whole or in part ‘and whose decrees as transplanters were satisfied in whole or in part in the parishes…of the barony of Longford’ further east in County Galway.[lxvi] The date of their final settlement was given as June of the same year, while Walter McMeyler Burke of Lavallyconor was decreed 16 profitable Irish acres in April of the same year.

Following the turmoil of that period and the restoration of the monarchy in the person of King Charles II in 1660, an Act of Settlement was passed in Parliament, in an attempt to address the complaints of those whose lands had been taken or divided by the Cromwellians and to placate those who had acquired lands at that time.

Ulick Burke of Isserkelly was given as a head of family and one of the dispossessed landowners in 1664 whose lands were confiscated by the Cromwellian authorities and whose names were submitted to the Lord Lieutenant in that year for consideration for reinstatement.[lxvii] He was the same Ulick Burke allocated lands under the Acts of Settlement in Ballinruane alias Carrowreagh in Killoran parish, together with lands in Cloonreiligh and Gortvale and lands in Ballytranilla, Bogganmore and Liscacky alias Gortevally, all in the parish of Killoran.[lxviii]  Betham’s Genealogical Abstract’s record both Ulick Burk and Evelin Burke, Esquires as claimants in 1678 to lands in Ballinruane and Carrowreagh, Gortinvally, Ballitranelagh, Beganmore and Clonreliagh in County Galway, ‘saving to Bonaventure Burke his right to the lands confirmed to Ulick and Evelin Burke and likewise to the Rt. Hon. William Earl of Clanrickarde’.

Two individuals who applied jointly as the head of a family seeking reinstatement in 1661 were ‘Doroghan alias Walter and Ulick Burk of Moyode,’ while one ‘Edmund Burk of Moyode’ also sought reinstatement. As both Doroghan and Ulick submitted their petition jointly, it would suggest that this Ulick was the eldest son of Doroghan and the individual given in the pedigree as married to Mary, daughter of John Donnellan of Ballydonnellan.

The Duke of York’s Galway estates

The MacHubert lands, however, would prove difficult to recover, being granted after the Restoration to a senior member of the Royal House. The greater part of the property held in 1641 by Ulick carragh at Isertkelly and other lands he held in the parish of Killinan were included among a large grant of lands made by King Charles II in 1669 to his younger brother James Duke of York, who would eventually succeed his brother as the Roman Catholic King James II.[lxix] Other lands of Ulick carragh were granted to individuals such as John Hawes and Henry Waddington.[lxx]

The Duke of York also received as part of his Galway estate the lands of Moyode held in 1641 by Walter alias Doroghan mcUlick oge McHubert and the lands at Cloghan in the parish of Killinan held (in addition to ‘Walter mcUlick’) by Ulick oge McUlick McHubert. The former sept lands of Castleboy had been acquired prior to 1641 by Lynches, who would appear to have been prominent merchants in the town of Galway, and these also were among those lands included in the Duke of York’s grant.

Of the other landed proprietors of the sept who held lands about 1641 and who lost possession in the Cromwellian years were Walter alias Doroghan mcRickard and Moyler mcShane mcHubert of Creggrosty (apparently also given as Moyler mcShane mcWilliam Burke). Their lands in the parish of Killinan were confirmed in the possession of a number of individuals including Maw Thompson and John Hawes, Nathanial Hurd, Henry Greeneways and Edward Woolley, Protestant Bishop of Clonfert.[lxxi] A number would appear to have been either soldiers or adventurers.

Among the beneficiaries of lands was one Dean Dudley Pierce or Persse, who acquired only a small acreage in the parish of Killinan at this time but whose family acquired and purchased extensive lands in the vicinity in the succeeding decades.

William Burke ‘late of Isserkelly’

The date of death of Ulick of Isertkelly, the senior-most member of the sept, is uncertain but both G.O. Ms. 262 and Colonel Burke’s family pedigree give William Burke as his son. The former described him as ‘William MacHubert Burke’ and terminated its pedigree of the senior line in him. The latter described William as ‘late of Isserkelly, Esqr., called McHubert as his ancestors for many years have been’ and gave his wife as Frances, daughter of John Donelan of Ballydonnellan, Esq. by Dorothy Martin. If Colonel Burke’s pedigree is correct in its assertion of William’s wife being a daughter of John and Dorothy Donnellan, it is more likely that his wife’s mother was Dorothy Mostyn, by whom John Donnellan of Ballydonnellan had eight sons and eight daughters.[lxxii]

William Burke appears to have flourished about the 1670s and 1680s. No date of death is given in either source but his son was active in the 1690s and still alive in the late 1720s. Given what would appear to have been the execution of the transplantation decree by Ulick and Evellin Burke, it would appear that the senior line may have settled in the parish of Killoran on the lands confirmed in their ownership under the Acts of Settlement and it is likely that William may have been resident there at this time. His son would be seated there in the 1690s.

Jacobite-Williamite War

When the Roman Catholic King James II was deposed and the crown offered to his Dutch son-in-law, the Protestant Prince William of Orange and his wife Mary, the Irish Catholics rose up in support of King James, and an army was sent by the French King to reinforce James’ Irish supporters, the Jacobites. In March 1689 James landed in Ireland to head his army here, hoping to regain his throne through Ireland. For their part many of the Irish Catholics hoped to recover much of their former lands that they were denied under the settlements after Charles II had been restored.

At the outbreak of war in Ireland between the Jacobites and the Williamite supporters of William and Mary, many of the most prominent Roman Catholic landholders of county Galway had taken up commissions as officers in the newly formed Irish Jacobite regiments. Four regiments raised from county Galway saw active service throughout the war and among those from about the east Galway area who served as officers in those regiments was Captain Garrett Burke, son of William son of Ulick carrach.

While it is unclear if Garrett’s father served as an officer in the army, at least two other possible members of the dispersed wider sept held officer rank in the Jacobite army, with John Burke of Milford holding the rank of Lieutenant Colonel at the end of the war and Ulick of Tyaquin, son of Thomas of the same place, holding the rank of Captain.[lxxiii]

The defeat of the Jacobites and the articles of Limerick and Galway

The war concluded with the defeat of the Jacobite army and the signing in October 1691 of the Treaty of Limerick. Many prominent Irish Jacobites faced the prospect of losing their lands under the new government of King William and Queen Mary. The estates of those deemed outlaws and traitors in February 1688 were to be vested in thirteen Trustees and the same estates to be sold.[lxxiv] A large number, however, were eligible to benefit from the ‘articles of Limerick and Galway’ that formed part of the Treaty. The terms of the treaty allowed the Jacobite soldiers and people holding out at Limerick and at Galway to either sail for France or remain in Ireland and submit to the new King. Those who submitted to the new Protestant King and Queen and were eligible to benefit from the articles were to be allowed to keep their estates intact and, if outlawed, pardoned. The hearing of cases of those seeking to avail of the articles was a prolonged affair, extending into 1699.[lxxv]

Following the defeat of the Jacobite interest, more than one thousand of the Irish Jacobites indicted and outlawed for ‘high treason beyond the seas’, many of whom sought service in the French army, were declared outlaws in many cases by default and their property subject to confiscation.

Very few of those who applied to be rehabilitated under the Articles of Galway were rejected. Captain Garrett Burke, having served as an officer in the army of King James II, had his claim for admission to the benefits of the articles of Limerick at the end of the war adjudicated and admitted in December of 1694, at which time his address was given as of ‘Clanrillie’, a variation of Clonreliagh (later known as the townland of Springfield) in the parish of Killoran.[lxxvi]

The Persses and the acquisition of forfeited Jacobite lands

Any person with a claim to lands vested in the Trustees were to present their case before the Trustees before 10th August 1700, (and later extended to 25th March 1702.) The remainder of the forfeited estates not restored by the extended deadline were to be sold before 25th March 1702 (extended to 24th June 1703.)[lxxvii] The confiscated estates were to be sold only to Protestants, to secure the future of a Protestant dominated island, and the money raised from which sale to be used to pay those who had fought for King William and those who had supplied the army in Ireland.[lxxviii]

In Galway few were finally declared outlaws and several notable Catholic county families managed to retain part of their estates under the articles, and so was maintained in Connacht, unlike the other three provinces, a vestige of Roman Catholic gentry, who remained locally influential, side by side with the large Protestant landowners.[lxxix] There were only fourteen purchasers of these confiscated Jacobite Galway estates, and included among these was the wealthy English banker Sir William Scawen and one Henry Pierce or Persse.[lxxx] Among the estates declared forfeit in Ireland were the lands acquired by the deposed King James II while he had still been Duke of York. While Henry Persse purchased 371 Irish acres of forfeited land in the parish of Killinan that had formerly belonged to Ulick carrach before 1641 and was thereafter granted to the Duke of York, at least 4,729 of the 6,552 profitable Irish acres that had formed the York estate in County Galway was acquired by Sir William Scawen. Included in that acreage was much of the former lands of Ulick carragh Burke, including the lands at Isertkelly.[lxxxi]

The senior lines of the Burkes of Isertkelly at this time were severed from their former ancestral lands and were settled in the parish of Killoran and elsewhere and in the early decades of the eighteenth century the Persses acquired extensive estates about the parishes of Isertkelly and Killinan. They constructed a new mansion known as Roxborough on what was the former Burke lands at Cregrosty and in the mid eighteenth century purchased the lands about Moyode and Castleboy from a London merchant who had acquired part of the property of Sir William Scawen in County Galway.[lxxxii]

Captain Garrett Burke of Clonreliagh, parish of Killoran

By the latter part of the seventeenth century two branches of the Burke family came to be established on the lands that had been confirmed on Ulick and Evelin Burke in the parish of Killoran; that of Ballinruane and that of Clonreliagh. The lands of Ballinruane lay immediately to the west of, and adjacent to, Clonreliagh and comprised the lesser portion of the lands in Killoran confirmed upon Ulick Burke. The greater part, which included denominations such as Clonreliagh and Bogganmore, was held at the end of the seventeenth century by Captain Garrett Burke, which would suggest that this latter family of Clonreliagh was the more senior of the two.

The line of Ballinruane and Burkeville

Patrick Burke of Ballinruane, born in 1671, appears to have been the head of the Ballinruane branch of this family in the early years of the eighteenth century. He was seventy-two years of age when his son Ambrose died. The Franciscan friars at Meelick on the western bank of the Shannon recorded the death of Ambrose or ‘Ambrosius de Burgo’ son of Patrick Burke of Ballinruane, in 1743 ‘duly fortified by the sacraments of the church’. He was buried near the entrance to the chapel at Meelick.[lxxxiii] While the friars did not record the age of Ambrose at his death, he was of sufficient age to leave a will on which probate was taken out in the year of his death.[lxxxiv] The wife of Patrick Burke died prior to 1748 as, in October of that year, the Franciscans at Meelick granted to ‘Mr. Patrick Burke of Ballinruane and to his descendants dying in the Catholic faith’ a grave plot seven feet square ‘where his pious, enfeebled wife and his son are now laid’, ‘in view of the benefactions and alms’ given by Burke to the friars and their convent. The Meelick friars recorded the death, twenty years after that of his son Ambrose, on the 6th May 1763, of ‘the noble Master Patrick Burke of Ballinruane’, ‘a man pious, devoted, full of faith and good works, in the ninety second year of his age.’ Betham’s Genealogical Abstracts record that administration of the goods of Patrick Burke of Ballinruane, Co. Galway, gentleman, was granted on 19th February 1779 to his granddaughter Mary Burke.

A Burke family were seated at Ballinrooaun in the parish of Killoran in the eighteenth century, about whose residence, known as Burkeville, a demesne known as Burkeville Demesne was still extant into the early nineteenth century. The house wherein the Burkes of Ballinruane initially dwelt was no longer in existence by 1852. In July of that year ‘the lands of Burkeville otherwise Ballinruane’, the estate of Theobald Burke of Burkeville, was advertised to be sold in the Landed Estates Court at public auction in two lots. The first lot, composed of 171 acres, had thereon what was described as ‘a fine commodious dwelling-house’, which was tenanted at that time by one Maurice Barrett. This house did survive and was later altered and extended in the early twenty-first century. The house originally known as ‘Burkeville’ had stood within lot two, which composed of 134 acres. That lot was described in the Landed Estate Court Rental as containing ‘a fine commanding site for a dwelling-house where the old mansion house of Burkeville formerly stood.’

For further details, refer to ‘Burke of Burkeville’ under ‘families.’

Burkes of Garden Blake

Fr. Jerome Fahey, writing in the nineteenth century, stated that the Burkes of Isertkelly were represented in the early decades of the eighteenth century by the Burkes of Garden Blake ‘in the parish of Peter’s Well, (civil parish of Kilthomas) of which place they became owners in fee by intermarriage with the O Fahys.’[lxxxv] One of the family, he asserted, Fr. John Burke, was born at Garden Blake and exiled to France in 1691. He was said to have returned to the parish of Kilthomas, was exiled again and died in America.[lxxxvi]

While the exact connection between this branch and the Burkes at Isertkelly or Killoran is unclear, William MacHubert Burke ‘of Isherkelly, gentleman’, the then head of the family, was joint proprietor alongside four O Fahys of one fifth of Garyblakin (the later denomination of Garden Blake) about 1619.[lxxxvii]

Conversion to Protestantism of the line of Clonreliagh

According to Colonel Burke’s pedigree, Captain Garrett Burke married Giles, daughter of Captain Dermott O Daly of Killimer and had at least one son, Anthony and a daughter Bridget. Garrett or Gerald Burke was given as ‘of Bogganimore’ (later known as the townland of Lowpark in the parish of Killoran) in 1727 at the marriage of his eldest son Anthony to Anne, daughter of Joseph Maunsell of Sandy Lane, Limerick, gentleman and Caragh, Co. Galway. It would appear that Anthony Burke or his father converted to Protestantism in the eighteenth century as the marriage of Anthony was held in St. John’s Church of Ireland in Limerick. Marriage articles drawn up prior to their marriage stated that, at that time, Anthony Burke was already resident at Clonreliagh and that Clonreliagh would be transferred to him, as would the Burke lands at ‘Ballycronly’[lxxxviii](Ballytranilla) at marriage and the remainder of Garrett Burke’s holdings would legally descend to Anthony on the death of Captain Garrett Burke and Giles Daly. As Anthony Burke was in a position to let out lands at Clonreliagh or Springfield in 1731, it would appear that his father was, by that date, deceased.

Anthony Burke of Clonreliagh or Springfield

Anthony Burke retained possession of the Burke lands in the parish of Killoran and leased them out on a number of occasions, while he was resident himself at Castlemongret, near Limerick city and at Boher in County Limerick for much of the 1730s. In 1735 he mortgaged part of his property including Clonnreiligh to his relative Richard Maunsell of Limerick, but by 1741 Anthony Burke was resident at Clonreliagh in Killoran.[lxxxix] By his wife Anne he had a number of sons and daughters, the eldest son of whom was Maunsell Burke.

Anthony Burke was involved in the drawing up of an agreement in 1759 for the marriage of his son Maunsell to Mary, daughter of Thomas Roche, merchant, of Limerick, in which both Burkes were described as ‘of Springfield.’ In these articles, Maunsell, for his part, would be entitled to rents and profits from Lowpark and Ballycronally and the western half of Springfield and from lands in Killgill. Anthony Burke reserved for himself the western half of Springfield. Maunsell and Mary Roche’s married life together was brief and the bride appears to have died within a short time of their marriage. Administration relating to the will of Mary Burke was granted to her husband Maunsell on 7th June 1760.[xc] A second agreement was contracted in 1763 relating to the marriage between this same Maunsell Burke and Mary Fallon. Mary Fallon being Roman Catholic, the articles allowed for sons of the marriage to be brought up as Protestants and daughters in the Roman Catholic faith.

Anthony Burke was still resident at Springfield, as was his son, in 1767, but by 1768 Anthony Burke had removed to Knockalegan in County Roscommon. In that year Maunsell was still described as ‘of Springfield’.[xci] Anthony still retained his interest in Clonreiligh or Springfield, however, as in that year he, together with Maunsell Burke, leased the lands of that townland to one Bryan Connolly.

Maunsell Burke of Springfield

Maunsell Burke, son of this Anthony, had one son and three daughters: Patrick Burke, born in or about 1763, Celia, Anne and Jane Burke. He died in an accident ‘in the hunting field’ in 1772 before the birth of his daughter Jane and was given about his death as ‘of Ballinasloe.’[xcii] On the death of Maunsell Burke, his widow and children removed to Athlone, County Westmeath.

Brevet Colonel Patrick Burke

Patrick Burke took up residence initially in Dublin City, from where he purchased a commission in the army. He was resident at No. 22 William Street in Dublin in 1792 in July of which year ‘the fee and inheritance of the town and lands of Springfield and Lowpark, the estate of Patrick Burke, Esquire,’ containing about 360 acres in Springfield, ‘choice meadow, fattening and tillage ground’ and approximately 180 acres in Lowpark, ‘not in lease’ were advertised for sale. Those applicants who wished to view the title were advised to make contact with Bryan Connolly, gentleman and attorney and those who wished to make application relating to the sale were advised to make contact with either Patrick Burke at his William Street address or Mr. Michael Burke, whose address was given as ‘Cooluny, near Loughrea.’[xciii]  In 1795, as a Lieutenant in the King’s Irish Light Dragoons and ‘late of the city of Dublin’, Patrick sold to his brother-in-law Thomas Longworth-Dames of Greenhill the Burke estate in the parish of Killoran, comprising ‘all that and those the Town and Lands of Clonneleigh otherwise Clonnerelliagh otherwise called Springfield, Ballycronnelly otherwise Ballyhansleigh Boganmore otherwise Bagganemore otherwise Bugganemore otherwise Bagone otherwise called Lowpark and Gortinally otherwise Gortinavalla. All situate lying and being in the Barony of Longford and Co. of Galway.’ He retained possession of lands in Gortnahoon in the parish of Killallaghtan, north of Springfield, which he later willed to his nephew, George Mecham, son of his sister Celia and sometime Captain in the 3rd Dragoon Guards.[xciv]

Patrick Burke’s youngest sister Jane was the first of his three sisters to get married. She married Thomas Longworth-Dames of Greenhill, Kings County at Gretna Green in 1788.[xcv] At her wedding her address was given as Athlone.[xcvi] Anne, his second sister, married in 1791 one Samuel Bailey, then a cornet in the 12th Regiment of Dragoons, stationed at that time at Athlone and later resided at Lancester in England. Patrick Burke’s eldest sister Celia was the last of his three sisters to get married, marrying George Mecham of Athlone, County Westmeath in July of 1795.[xcvii]

During his military career Patrick Burke saw action in India and in the Peninsular War and ended his army career with the rank of Brevet Colonel on half pay ‘of Her Majesty’s ninety sixth regiment,’ a rank to which he was promoted in 1837. The senior-most representative of the MacHubert Burkes in the nineteenth century, he died unmarried in Brighton, Sussex in December 1845 aged eighty-two years and was buried in the cemetery of St. Nicholas’ Church of England, Brighton on 10th of that month.[xcviii]

 


[i] De Burgo, T., Hibernia Dominicana, Rome, Metternich, 1762, p. 225, footnote n. ‘nunc autem potior Stirpis istius Pars de Tyaquin in praelibato Agro, nuncupatur. Familia porro haec a Gualtero de Burgo, Comite Ultoniae, descendit.’

[ii] Knox, H.T., The de Burgo Clans. The Clann David Burke and the Family of William, Sheriff of Connaught, J.G.A.H.S., Vol. 3, no. 1, 1903-4, p. 55, note B.

[iii] Knox, H.T., Occupation of Connaught by the Anglo-Normans after A.D. 1237 (continued), J.R.S.A.I., Vol. 33, No. 2, 1903, p. 186.

[iv] Knox, H.T., Occupation of Connaught by the Anglo-Normans after A.D. 1237 (continued), J.R.S.A.I., Vol. 33, No. 2, 1903, p. 186.

[v] Knox, H.T., Occupation of Connaught by the Anglo-Normans after A.D. 1237, J.R.S.A.I., Vol. 31, No. 4, 1901, pp. 365-370.

[vi] Knox, H.T., Occupation of Connaught by the Anglo-Normans after A.D. 1237 (continued), J.R.S.A.I., Vol. 33, No. 2, 1903, p. 186; Martyn, G.V., Random Notes on the History of the County Mayo with Special Reference to the Barony of Kilmaine, J.G.A.H.S., Vol. 13, nos. 1 & 2, 1926, p.24; Orpen, G.H., The Earldom of Ulster. Part I: Introductory to the Inquisitions of 1333, J.R.S.A.I., Vol. 3, No. 1, 1913, pp. 43-46.

[vii] The author is indebted to Michael J. Mecham, a descendant of the Burkes of Isertkelly, for information relating to Colonel Patrick Burke, the pedigree compiled by Colonel Burke and various land transactions involving later members of the family in the parish of Killoran in the eighteenth century.

[viii] Ó Muirile, N. (ed.), MacFirbhisigh, D., Leabhar Mór na nGenealach, The Great Book of Irish Genealogies, compiled (1645-66), Vol. III, Dublin, de Búrca, 2003, pp. 130-1. Nos. 808.9-809.4.

[ix] Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland 1171-1307, ed. Sweetman and Handcock 1875-86, 2628

[x] Ó Muirile, N. (ed.), MacFirbhisigh, D., Leabhar Mór na nGenealach, The Great Book of Irish Genealogies, compiled (1645-66), Vol. III, Dublin, de Búrca, 2003, pp. 109- 111. Nos. 798F.3, 798F.5.

[xi] N.L.I., Dublin, G.O. Ms. 262 Betham’s Sketch Pedigrees, Series I, Vol. II, pp. 72-74.

[xii] Holland, P, The Anglo-Norman Landscape in County Galway: Land-Holdings, Castles and Settlements, J.G.A.H.S., Vol. 49, 1997, pp. 174-177, 188-191.

[xiii] Holland, P, The Anglo-Norman Landscape in County Galway: Land-Holdings, Castles and Settlements, J.G.A.H.S., Vol. 49, 1997, pp. 174-177, 188-191.

[xiv] Knox, H.T., Occupation of Connaught by the Anglo-Normans after A.D. 1237 (continued), J.R.S.A.I., Vol. 33, No. 2, 1903, p. 183.

[xv] Orpen, G.H., The Earldom of Ulster. Part I: Introductory to the Inquisitions of 1333, J.R.S.A.I., Vol. 3, No. 1, 1913, p. 46.

[xvi] Connolly, P., An Attempted Escape from Dublin Castle: The Trial of William and Walter de Bermingham, Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 29, No. 113, May 1994, pp. 100-108; Sayles, G.O., The Legal Proceedings against the First Earl of Desmond, Analecta Hibernica, No. 23, 1966, pp. 1,3, 5-47.

[xvii] Coleman, A., Regestum Monasterii Fratrum Praedicatorum de Athenry, Archivium Hibernicum, Vol. I, 1912, p. 212.

[xviii] Calendar of Close Rolls 8 Edward III, dated 5th September 1334.

[xix] Knox, H.T., The History of the County of Mayo to the close of the sixteenth century, Dublin, Hodges, Figgis & Co., Ltd., 1908, p. 135.

[xx] Annals of Loch Cé, 1349.

[xxi] Knox, H.T., The History of the County of Mayo to the close of the sixteenth century, Dublin, Hodges, Figgis & Co., Ltd., 1908, p. 135.

[xxii] De Burgo, T., Hibernia Dominicana, Rome, Metternich, 1762, p. 222. ‘Burgi de Mac-Henry (id east descendentes ab Henrico) de Gortnamacken’; MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, p. 244; Cal. Patent Rolls 17 James I, p. 438.

[xxiii] Annals of the Four Masters.

[xxiv] Ó Muirile, N. (ed.), MacFirbhisigh, D., Leabhar Mór na nGenealach, The Great Book of Irish Genealogies, compiled (1645-66), Vol. III, Dublin, de Búrca, 2003, pp. 130-1. Nos. 808.9-809.4.

[xxv] JGAHS Vol. VII. No IV. (1909-10), M. J. Blake, The Obituary Book of the Franciscan Monastery at Galway: with Notes Thereon, pp. 222-235.

[xxvi] Coleman, A., Regestum Monasterii Fratrum Praedicatorum de Athenry, Archivium Hibernicum, Vol. I, 1912, p. 217.; JGAHS Vol. VII. No IV. (1909-10), M. J. Blake, The Obituary Book of the Franciscan Monastery at Galway: with Notes Thereon, pp. 222-235. ‘Obiit Ricardus filius Mileri filii Oberti de Yserkeally, 1466’.

[xxvii] Coleman, A., Regestum Monasterii Fratrum Praedicatorum de Athenry, Archivium Hibernicum, Vol. I, 1912, p. 217. From Copy of Register, ‘British Museum, Add. Ms. 4784.’ There is no reference to an obituary for another Meiler macHubert in that copy dated 1406.

[xxviii] N.L.I., Dublin, G.O., Ms. 262, p.72.

[xxix] Quinn, D.B., Anglo-Irish Local Government 1485-1534, Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1939, pp. 365-6; Hamilton, H.C. (ed.), Calendar of State Papers relating to Ireland, of the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth, Vol. I, 1509-1573, London, Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1860, p.88; Cal. Carew Mss., Henry VIII, 1544, pp. 211-213.

[xxx] Nicholls, K.W., Visitations of the Dioceses of Clonfert, Tuam and Kilmacduagh, c. 1565-67, Analecta Hibernica, No. 26, 1970, pp. 144-157.

[xxxi] Fahey, Rev. J., The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh, M.H. Gill & Sons, Dublin, 1893, p.321. Among the lands granted to Dudley Persse in the late seventeenth century was ‘the mansion house at Cregarosta.’ Fr. Fahey states that Dean Persse used this as his residence and that it ‘continued to be the family residence but under the altered name of Roxboro, under which designation the place was known when Henry Persse extended the family estates by purchases in the baronies of Loughrea and Dunkellin in June 1703.’

[xxxii] Calendar of Fiants Queen Elizabeth I, The thirteenth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland, 12 March 1881, Dublin, A. Thom & Co., 1881, Appendix IV, Fiants Eliz. I, p. 47, No. 3111, dated 17 Sept. xix.

[xxxiii] The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns during the Reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Philip and Mary and Elizabeth I, Vol. 2, 1558-1586, Dublin, Edmund Burke Publisher, 1994, pp.568-9. Nos. 4078, 4079.

[xxxiv] The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns during the Reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Philip and Mary and Elizabeth I, Vol. 2, 1558-1586, Dublin, Edmund Burke Publisher, 1994, pp.568-9. Nos. 4078, 4079.

[xxxv] Hardiman, J. , A Chronological description of West or h-Iar Connaught, written A.D. 1684 by Roderick O Flaherty Esq., author of the ‘Ogygia’, edited from a manuscript in the library of Trinity College Dublin, with notes and illustrations, Dublin, Irish Archaelogical Society, 1846, p. 323-6.

[xxxvi] N.L.I., Dublin, G.O., Ms. 262, p.72.

[xxxvii] The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns during the Reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Philip and Mary and Elizabeth I, Vol. 2, 1558-1586, Dublin, Edmund Burke Publisher, 1994, pp. 662, 684, 692. Nos. 4613, 4698, 4724.

[xxxviii] The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns during the Reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Philip and Mary and Elizabeth I, Vol. 2, 1558-1586, Dublin, Edmund Burke Publisher, 1994, p. 736. No. 4874.

[xxxix] NLI, Dublin, G.O. Ms. 79, p. 43. ‘Miles Bourk of Leavilly Connor in the County of Gallway, eldest son and heir of Ullick Bourke of the same, Gent., which Ullick of a brother of the House of …..’

[xl] Fahy, Rev. J., The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh, M.H. Gill & Sons, Dublin, 1893, p.319. Fr. Fahy describes Castledaly, the residence of a Blake family, as previously known as Corbally.

[xli] Calendar Patent Rolls 17 James I pp. 438-9

[xlii] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, pp. 229, 248, 255.

[xliii] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, pp. 229, 248, 255.

[xliv] N.L.I., Dublin, G.O. Ms. 71, Funeral Entries 1639-1641, p. 31.

[xlv] The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns during the Reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Philip and Mary and Elizabeth I, Vol. 3, 1586-1603, Dublin, Edmund Burke Publisher, 1994 (Fiants, Elizabeth I, 1594), p. 244; MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, pp. 307-8; Blake, M.J., Blake Family Records, 1600-1700, Second Series, London, Elliot Stock, 1905, p. 197. ‘Brooklawn (otherwise Fartimore)’; Cunningham, B. (ed.), Clanricard letters, J.G.A.H.S. Vol. 48, p. 168.

[xlvi] Calendar Patent Rolls, 17 James I, p. 440.

[xlvii] Both the Cloghan and Moyode estates would be granted later to James Duke of York and later acquired by Sir William Scawen.

[xlviii] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, pp. 229, 248, 255.

[xlix] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, p. 245.

[l] Calendar Patent Rolls, 17 James I, p.439; MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, pp. 245, 331.

[li] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, pp. 229, 248, 255.

[lii] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, pp. 237, 255, 331.

[liii] Vigors, Col. P.D., French, Rev. J.F.M. (eds.), Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead, Ireland, 1894, Vol. II, No. III, p. 494; Macalister, R.A.S., The Dominican Church at Athenry, J.R.S.A.I., Vol. III, No. III, 1913, p. 210. The inscription of the slab was given by Lord Walter Fitzgerald as ‘IHS Hic jacet Mariota de Burgo filia Walteri als Dorhan Mc..uibeard pro cuius alce refrigerio uras spectaroes preces fundites IHS 1615.’

[liv] Vigors, Col. P.D., French, Rev. J.F.M. (eds.), Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead, Ireland, 1894, Vol. II, No. III, p. 494; Macalister, R.A.S., The Dominican Church at Athenry, J.R.S.A.I., Vol. III, No. III, 1913, p. 210. The inscription of the slab was given by Lord Walter Fitzgerald as ‘IHS Hic jacet Mariota de Burgo filia Walteri als Dorhan Mc..uibeard pro cuius alce refrigerio uras spectaroes preces fundites IHS 1615.’

[lv] De Burgo, T., Hibernia Dominicana, Rome, Metternich, 1762, p. 225, footnote n. ‘nunc autem potior Stirpis istius Pars de Tyaquin in praelibato Agro, nuncupatur. Familia porro haec a Gualtero de Burgo, Comite Ultoniae, descendit.’

[lvi] N.L.I., Dublin, G.O. Ms. 79, Funeral Entries, ca. 1619-1729, pp. 50-1, 67; O Donovan, J., The Genealogies, Tribes and Customs of Hy Fiachrach Commonly Called O Dowda’s Country, Dublin, For the Irish Archaeological Society, 1844, p. 379. The Funeral Entry gives Giles as having only two daughters by Dermot O Shaughnessy, Joan and Giles. Joan was given as married firstly to Sir William Burke, second son of Ulick Earl of Clanricarde and secondly to Teige O Brien, ‘Lord of Thomond.’ Giles was given as married to Teige Kelly of Gallagh, Esq. O Donovan, however, gives a third daughter, Honora, married to Johnock Burke of Tully.

[lvii] Cal. Pat. 9 James I. In information deposited in April 1610 by Edward Kelly, one of the prebendaries  of Clonfert Cathedral, it is stated that ‘in the lifetime of Richard 2nd Earl of Clanricarde, about 45 years ago, that Ulick was married in the parish church of Athenry to Onora Burke, daughter of John Burke of Clogheroke’.

[lviii] Calendar of State Papers relating to Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Vol. VIII, April 1599-February 1600, p. 318. ‘Intelligences out of Connaught’; Annals of the Four Masters

[lix] Reporteries of Chancery Inquisitions, Chas. I, Inquisition dated 3rd October 1631, regarding the property of Melaghlin O Madden of Clare.’

[lx] Fahey, J., The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh, M.H. Gill & sons, Dublin, 1893, p. 246. ‘They were represented about one hundred years later by the Burkes of Garden Blake, in the parish of Peterswell’, ‘of which place they became owners in fee through intermarriage with the O Fahys, the original owners.’

[lxi] Calendar of the Patent Rolls of the Chancery of Ireland, 1800, I James I, Part I, pp. 18-20.

[lxii] Cal. Patent Rolls, 17 James I, p. 439.

[lxiii] Cal. Patent Rolls, 17 James I, p. 439.

[lxiv] Cal. Patent Rolls, 17 James I, p. 439.

[lxv] N.L.I., Dublin, G.O. Ms. 69 Funeral Entries, p. 192; McAnlis, V. W., The Consolidated Index to the Records of the Genealogical Office, Dublin, Ireland, 1994. ‘Bourke, William, Bur. 1634, Res: Island Kelly, Co. Galway.’

[lxvi] The Transplantation to Connacht 1654-58, Simington, Irish University Press, 1970; Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Ormonde K.P., Presented at Kilkenny Castle, Vols. I, II, III, Historical Manuscripts Commissions, Fourteenth Report, Appendix, Part VII, London, Eyre and Spottiswode for Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1895, pp. 121, 124. ‘List of Transplanted Irish 1655-1659, No. 1, ‘An account of lands set out to the Transplanted Irish in Connaught.’

[lxvii] The Irish Genealogist, Vol. 4, p. 275.

[lxviii] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, p. 187. In the modern period, both Carrowreagh and Ballinrooaun were separate but adjoining townlands in the parish of Killoran.

[lxix] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, pp. liv, lv.

[lxx] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, p. 331.

[lxxi] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, p. 331.

[lxxii] N.L.I., Dublin, G.O. Ms. 73, Funeral Entries, p. 180. Dorothy Mostyn was sister of Robert and Richard Mostyn and daughter of William Mostyn by his wife Margarett, daughter of John oge Burke of Cloghroak. William was second son of Robert Mostyn of Athlone.

[lxxiii] Simms, J.G., Irish Jacobites, Analecta Hibernica, No. 22, IMC, Dublin, 1960, p. 91; N.L.I., Dublin, G.O. Ms. 262, p. 73.

[lxxiv] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, p. xix.

[lxxv] Simms, J.G., Irish Jacobites, Analecta Hibernica No. 22, IMC, 1960, pp. 14-5.

[lxxvi] Simms, J.G., Irish Jacobites, Analecta Hibernica, No. 22, IMC, Dublin, 1960, p. 91. Listed under ‘County Galway’, ‘Captain Garrett Burke, Clanrillie, 12 Dec. 1694’.

[lxxvii] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, p. xix.

[lxxviii] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, p. xix.

[lxxix] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, pp. liv, lv.

[lxxx] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, pp. liv, lv.

[lxxxi] MacGiolla Choille, B. (ed.), Books of Survey and Distribution, Vol. III, County of Galway, Dublin, Stationary Office for the I.M.C., 1962, p. 331.

[lxxxii] Fahey, J., The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh, M.H. Gill & sons, Dublin, 1893, p. 321.

[lxxxiii] MS 5203, Copy of records of the Franciscan Convent of Meelick, Co. Galway, made by Fr. James Hynes in 1858.

[lxxxiv] ‘Ambrose Burke, Ballinruane, Galway, 1743’, Index to Clonfert Wills 1663-1857, Supplement to ‘The Irish Ancestor’, Vol. II No. 2, 1970.

[lxxxv] Fahey, J., The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh, M.H. Gill & sons, Dublin, 1893, p. 246. ‘They were represented about one hundred years later by the Burkes of Garden Blake, in the parish of Peterswell’, ‘of which place they became owners in fee through intermarriage with the O Fahys, the original owners.’

[lxxxvi] Fahey, Rev. J., The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh, M.H. Gill & sons, Dublin, 1893, p. 435.

[lxxxvii] Calendar Pat. Rolls 17 James I, p. 440.

[lxxxviii] In a deed of 1721 Gerald Burke arranged a mortgage for Ballycranily, where he then seemed to residing, and also Bogganmore.

[lxxxix] In the will of his brother in law Laughlin Kelly of Lismoyle, Co. Roscommon, dated 1745, who was married to Bridget Burke, Anthony Burke was described as ‘of Ballycronnelly in County Galway.’

[xc] Betham’s Genealogical Abstracts, p. 93, no. 282.

[xci] In a deed of 1767 the property of Anthony Burke was given as the ‘town and lands of Ballycronnelly and Bogganmore, the town and lands of Clonnroleigh, all in the parish of Killoran, barony of Longford and County of Galway.’

[xcii] Book of Prerogative Grants, Public Records Office, Dublin; Maunsell Burke listed with the year 1773.

[xciii] Dublin Evening Post, 21 July 1792.

[xciv] The author is indebted to Michael Mecham, a descendant of the Burkes of Isertkelly, for information relating to Colonel Patrick Burke, the pedigree compiled by Colonel Burke and various land transactions involving later members of the family in the parish of Killoran in the eighteenth century.

[xcv] Visitation of Ireland, ed. J. J. Howard and F. A. Crisp. Jane Burke died at Clifton, Co. Gloucester, aged 69 years, on 29th May 1841 and was buried at Ballyburley, King’s County.

[xcvi] Marriage Register of Portpatrick, Wigtwonshire, Scotland 1720-1846, P.R.O. Northern Ireland. Witnesses to the wedding of T. Longworth Dames and Jane Burke were Margaret Donelan and Patrick Burke.

[xcvii] The author is indebted to Michael Mecham, a descendant of the Burkes of Isertkelly, for information relating to Colonel Patrick Burke, the pedigree compiled by Colonel Burke and various land transactions involving later members of the family in the parish of Killoran in the eighteenth century.

[xcviii] The author is indebted to Michael Mecham, a descendant of the Burkes of Isertkelly, for information relating to Colonel Patrick Burke, the pedigree compiled by Colonel Burke and various land transactions involving later members of the family in the parish of Killoran in the eighteenth century.