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Kelly of Coolnageer William Gacquin

The townland of Coolnageer is located in the parish of Cam, This marriage took place sometime around 1639 when barony of , . The townland is Enaghane Kelly assigned lands to Daniel and Elizabeth and paid traversed by the road from to and also by £300 to Edward Osbalstonyiii the road from Curraghboy to Four Roads. On the 0.5. Sheet 45 for county Roscommon, second edition, a 'Castle, site of' is In 1663 they submitted a claim for restoration to their lands marked in the north east comer of the townland. This castle is when many Irish Catholic families tried to get their ancestral not marked on the first edition of the 0.5. map of 1837. In the lands back after the ravages of the Cromwellian wars. ix This O.P.W. Sites and Monuments Record the site is referred to as a claim gives considerable information on the family for that castle. i This short article gives a description of the site and period. Enaghane Kelly had the lands and castle of Coolnageer identifies the family associated with the castle there. in his possession in the early part of the seventeenth century. The list of lands is mostly in the area around the present The 25 inch 0.5. Sheet shows the site clearly measuring just townland and the adjoining townland of Lysterfield. However, over one acre.ii It is roughly rectangular in shape with the the family owned land in other areas in Cam parish and in the castle itself marked in the eastern comer. The site has been adjoining parishes ofTisrara, Taghboy and . Daniel Kelly greatly altered in recent years. The original fosse has been filled and Elizabeth Osbalston had at least five sons, two of whom in on three sides and is now only visible on the NW,SE side. bought lands or had lands purchased in their name. Bryan Kelly Here it is 1 metre deep along the full extent of the original was the first son; he died young without issue. The second son length and is about 2.5 metres \vide extending from the field was Enaghane Kelly; he died in 1660 without issue. The third fence. This fence may well have been part of an outer bank. In son was John Kelly; it was he who submitted the claim for 1971 Ms Gannon described the site as being roughly restoration along with his mother and guardian in 1663. This rectang.~lar and surrounded by the remnants of two earthen would indicate that he was born sometime after 1642. Daniel banks.lll The dimensions of the site were given as NE,SW Kelly had died in 1657, which gave his widow a claim on the (crest rim) 45 metres and NW,SE (crest rim) 56 metres. The estate for her lifetime. There were two other sons, Teige Kelly late owner of the site said the fosse was deepest at the east side and Laughen Kelly both minors at the time of the claim. The where it was almost 2 metre deep, 2 metres wide in the bottom lands were in the possession of Lady Dongan who must ha\'e and 3 metres wide at the top. He also said that during been assigned them in the Cromwellian settlement. However, construction of a cattle shed he had located a roadway of gravel the Book of Survey and Distribution shows the lands in the leading north of the site to give an exit to the present public possession of Lord Fitzharding after 1641. The submission to road further north than the exit from the present farmyard. iv the Court of Claims also states that Daniel Kelly and his son The whole area of the site now blends with the field to the east Enaghane had been assigned lands by the Commissioners at of the castle. There is a slight rise towards the north east of the Loughrea as part of the resettlement of Catholics within site where a gentle undulation marks the remains of an interior . These lands included land at Carrick, in Cam enclosure. The diameter of this enclosure is about 25 metres. parish, beside Coolnageer and also land in Creagh parish.x Under the Cromwellian settlement, Commissioners at The name Coolnageer gets frequent mention from the late Loughrea were functioning from early 1654 and initially dealt sixteenth century period onward. The castle at Coolnageer was with Catholics being transplanted from outside Connacht.xi It among a list of fortified dwellings known to exist in south is not clear what happened to the Kelly family of Coolnageer, Roscommon in the sixteenth century. All of the early from 1663 onward, as they disappear from the records. It is most references link the townland to a Kelly family. Pardons were likely that the castle, or fortified house, at Coolnageer was granted to the following during the reign of Elizabeth I in 1583; destroyed by the Cromwellian armies, as were many such Edm O'Kelly, gent. of Colenegir, Egnoghan O'Kelly, houses throughout south Roscommon, to prevent their being Cooleneger, a horseman, and Donogh O'Kelly, Colenegir, a used again by Irish rebels.xii The Kelly family claim to be kern (soldier) as well as others from CoolnageerY In 1590 restored to their lands in Coolnageer seems to ha\'e been Conor OgO'Kellie of Cowilnegeyer was pardoned along with rejected by the Court of Claims in 1663 and this must have others from Coolnageer. vi The Roscommon Book of Survey forced them away from the area despite their association with and Distribution shows that Egnaham mc Donnell 0 Kelly was one of the prominent new settler families in the area. The in possession of the castle and lands of Coolnageer in 1641, Court of Claims had access to the records of the Confederation over 500 acres in all.vii The Kellys seem to have lost their land of Kilkenny when considering the innocence, or otherwise, of during the Cromwellian period which is not surprising, as they the Catholics who made claims to have their lands restored.xiii seem to have had a difficult relationship with the new settlers The claims were heard for only seven months as most of the from the sixteenth century period. However, Daniel Kelly, son time allocated to the court was used up waiting for instructions of Enaghane Kelly (in possession of the castle and lands before from London. The Court first dealt with claims from people the 1641 Rebellion) married Elizabeth Osbalston, daughter of who had not been assigned lands in Connacht in the previous Edward Osbalston who was Chief Justice of Connacht in 1602. settlement.xiv The Kellys of Coolnageer had been assigned

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land elsewhere in Roscommon and this may have prevented vii Robert C. Simmington, Book of Survey and Distribution, their claim from ever being heard by the Court of Claims. Vol. I, (LM.C. Dublin, 1949), p. 101. viii Geraldine Tallon, Court of Claims, submissions and A large portion of the original town land of Coolnageer was evidence 1663, (LM.C. Dublin, 2006), p. 362. leased by the Lyster family in 1712 along with some other lands ix ibid. pp 361,2. xv in Cam parish and Kiltoom parish. The Coolnageer lands x Ibid p. 361. were purchased by the Lyster family from Lord Fitzharding xi Simmington, Book of Survey and Distribution, p. xxxiii between 1712 and 1722 and this section was renamed xii Timothy Cronin, The history of Roscommon 1566, xvi Lysterfield. Thomas Lyster (1663,1726) of Grange & tyr.escript notes, (Dept. of Education, 1976), p. 10. Lysterfield, or his son Anthony Lyster (d. 1746) of Lysterfield, Xlll National Archives, 18th Report of the Deputy Keeper of built a substantial house on his new estate following the State Papers, appendix p. 17. purchase and it seems most likely that the building materials xiv National Archives, 19th Report of the Deputy Keeper of may well have come from the ruined castle in Coolnageer less State papers, appendix pp. 41,87. that a mile from the new house. The Lyster family were relatives xv Registry of Deeds, Deed Memorial; 9,56,3236. of the Kelly family of Coolnageer as Walter Lyster (d.I622), xvi Rev Henry L. Lyster Denny, Memorials of an ancient grandfather of Thomas Lyster, was.~arried to Debora Osbalston house, a history of the family of Lister or Lyster, (Edinburgh, xvll daughter of Geoffrey Osbalston. This Debora Osbalston had 1913), p. 109. a brother Edward, most likely the father of Elizabeth, who was xvii ibid. p. 21. mother of John Kelly.xviii Thomas Lyster himself was married, xviii ibid. p. 22. firstly, to a Miss O'Kelly of who may have been xix Marie,Louise Legg (Editor), The census of Elphin 1749, connected to the Colnageer family. The Religious Census of (LM.C. Dublin, 2004), p. 237. Elphin in 1749 does not include Coolnageer as a place of abode xx National Archives, Tithe applotment book, Cam parish, but records all the people of the area as living in Lysterfield. TAB 25/51 There is only one Kelly recorded; Jp. Kelley, a Papist labourer, xxi John O'Donovan, Tribes and Customs of Hy,Many, x1x with three children over fourteen. No substantial landowner (reprint, Kansas City, 1992), p. 11I. of the name is recorded in the area in 1749 but the John Kelley recorded may have been a descendant of the Coolnageer family of 1663. However, almost two hundred years later Carrick town land was known as 'John Kelly's' in the Tithe Applotment Book for Cam parish, perhaps this John Kelly was a descendant of the John Kelly who made a petition to the Court of Claims in 1663.xx By 1749 the Lyster family had several large houses in south Roscommon and were one of the most prominent families in the county throughout the eighteenth century.

While the Kelly family of Coolnageer are not mentioned by John O'Donovan in the Tribes and Customs ofHy Many, as one of the principal Kelly families of Uf Maine, they were a substantial land owning family in Coolnageer up to the mid seventeenth century period. The Kelly family geographically The Barber nearest to Coolnageer and in the same parish 'Yas the family living at Liscor now identified as Lismoyle.xx1 This latter Church Street, Roscommon family continued in possession of their lands at Lismoyle until the nineteenth century. l,Z,Z,2,2.2.2, " I~J~ All that remains today of the Kelly castle at Coolnageer is an . \I~ obscure field monument almost unnoticeable apart from its :\ mention on the 0.5. map. i O.P.W. Sites and Monuments Record (Dublin, 1992) R0045, 17101 ii Co. Roscommon 0.5. 45, Plan 14 (Edition of 1914) iii Anne Gannon, A monuments listing for Co. Roscommon, (unpublished, 1970,71). Original in Roscommon County The Traditional Barber in Modern Surroundings Library. iv William Fallon in conversation with the author in the summer of 1993. late Opening Fridays and Saturdays v Timothy Cronin, The foundations of landlordism in the Phone: l086l 8115363 barony of Athlone 1566,1666, unpublished M.A. Thesis U.C.G. Galway 1977, p. 45. vi ibid. p. 121. '1he best has vet to come for all of us"

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