Friday, June 24, 2011

Guide to the main landed estate collections at James Hardiman Library Archives

Crofton Estates in County Roscommon (LE1)


Bound volume containing observations, memoranda and accounts connected with Lord Crofton’s estate in County Roscommon, by his agent John Carson. Memoranda cover the appointment of tenants, and the cutting of turf at Irmam. Accounts give details of receipts and expenditures. Rent comes from the townlands of Ballymurry, Ballinree, Corbally, Caleenbag, Carnamadda, Moneymore etc.

1833-1840, 155pp

Cleaver estates in County Roscommon (LE2)

Account book of John Carson, agent from the Reverend William Cleaver, relating to the administration of the estates which cover Camus & Altray, Kilcorky, Ikearan and Lissyallen, all in County Roscommon.

1834-1940, 135pp

Homan, Papers of Sir William (LE3)

This collection can hardly be said to provide a comprehensive record of the Grandison Estate, centered on Dromana, County Waterford. It provides an interesting glimpse into estate management at the beginning of the nineteenth century through the few examples of Homan's correspondence. The leases, while providing information on specific agreements and holdings, provide no discernible land-holding pattern.

1807—1809, 17 items

Eyre Family Deeds (LE4)

Deeds of lease and other material relating to the management of the property of the Eyre family in Galway in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are also legal papers relating to the property.

1750—1852, 144 items

Plan of property in Abbeygate Street, Galway, accompanying a lease of Robert Hedges Eyres to Richard Martyn, 29th September 1820. [James Hardiman Library Archives, Eyre Family Deeds, LE4/89.]


Persse Lease (LE5)


Lease between Richard and Robert Adams of Newcastle Lodge, in the County of the Town of Galway, and Burton Persse of Moyode Castle, County Galway, granting a field known as Shorefield.

17 Aug 1836, 1f + map

Wilson Lynch Papers (LE6)

Papers relating to the estate management of the lands of the Wilson-Lynch family at Belvoir, Sixmilebridge, and Kinvara in County Clare, and Renmore and other properties in and around Galway. This material includes rentals, labourers' wages and legal material relating to the leasing of lands. There is also a body of personal papers relating to the Wilson-Lynch family as well as the Redington family at Clarinbridge, County Galway.

1800—1920, 14 boxes

Blake Family of Ballyglunin (LE7)

During the 18th century the Blake family of Ballyglunin, County Galway, used their merchant wealth to buy and lease lands and by the early 19th century they had built up an extensive estate. Although part of the landed gentry they continued in business and lent money to a wide circle of the Galway merchant families. Edmund Blake of Ballyglunin married Mary ffrench of Rahasane in 1724.

1770—1830, 124 items

Kirwans of Castlehackett (LE8)

This branch of the Kirwan family were an important land-holding and merchant family in Galway from the later seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, with many of the family prominent in local politics. The most senior branch was located at Cregg, but there were many cadet branches. The Castlehackett branch of the family was established in the mid-seventeenth century by Sir John Kirwan. He had made his fortune as a wool merchant and also from ventures in the West Indies.

1749—1917, 23 items

O’Connor Donelan Papers (LE10)


Papers relating to the O'Connor Donelan family of Sylane, Tuam, County Galway. The papers cover the legal dealings of the family, the management of their various lands, and personal papers relating to various family members. The bulk of the personal material relates to Thomas O'Connor Donelan (1812-1874) and his sons. His eldest son Dermot had an interest in genealogy and forestry, and his other three sons were doctors in Dublin, Leeds and Manila.

1698—1930, 4 boxes



Daly of Dunsandle Papers (LE13)

Mainly deeds relating to the families property, as well as family business.

1751—1945, 4 boxes



Hearne of Hearnebrook Papers (LE26)

The Hearne or O'Hearne family come to our notice in the early seventeenth century, when they are closely associated with the O'Madden and O'Downy families. From 1614 Edmund Hearne of Gortnifluchii, in the parish of Lickmolassy (Lickumelasha in Petty's map), Barony of Longford, began lending sums of money to his relatives and neighbours who, in turn, mortgaged portions of their lands to Edmund as security for these loans.

Mainly 17th Century, 110 items

Lucas Family Papers, County Offaly (LE37)

Although these papers came to be owned by a member of the Lucas family, they barely contain documents that concern them. Mostly, this collection is made up of documents of the Drew family (Limerick and Waterford), and the Ryan family, with whom the Drews intermarried in 1881. It is unclear when the Lucases came into possession of the Ryans' papers.

1601—1969, 1 box

Soft bound hand-written fair-copy manuscript of an account by a Mrs. Strickland of Roscommon, giving details of her efforts to induce the local population to grow flax between 1818 and 1820 to help alleviate the poverty of the area. [James Hardiman Library Archives, Stickland of County Roscommon, LE21, page 1.]

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