John Fitzpatrick ... "was a most respectable man and a catholic too ... owned the whole townland of Ballagh and lived in an old thatched residence or mansion, high and lofty, built up against the wall side of Ballagh castle". This was written by Rev. William Carrigan and reported by Mike Fitzpatrick in The Will of Thady Fitzpatrick. Carrigan also noted that John, who died in 1784, was the son of Joseph.
Here is that residence, illustrated in an old drawing of tower houses in County Laois.
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Ballaghrahin - an old drawing.
John Feehan, Laois: an environmental history.
Stradbally, Ballykilcavan Press, 1983, p.256, Fig.8.21c |
The castle was a tower house of unknown date but similar to others built in the 15th and 16th centuries until about 1650. The Ballagh tower house is described in The Standing Stone website. Its design suggests a later construction towards the end of the tower house era. The Ballagh "castle" was shown on Rathdowney Parish map in the Down Survey 1655-58.
A more intriguing link to the land of Ballagh is Geoffrey Fitzpatrick, of Ballyraghan [Ballagharahin] who married Mary O'Farrell and who died on 13 August 1638. In 1622, Geoffrey erected a cross in the neighbouring townland of Errill. This was in memory of his parents, Florence Fitzpatrick and Katherine Moore, Lord and Lady Upper Ossory. Florence was a younger son of Brian Oge (Barnaby) Mac Gilla Patraic, who submitted to King Henry VIII in 1537.
In 1641, Geoffrey - an "Irish papist" - owned land in several townlands in Rathdowney Parish. By 1670, they had all been confiscated in the Cromwell transplanting of Catholics, replaced by Protestant landowners. The Down Survey records other Fitzpatrick land: Florence, John MacBrian, Edmond, Taige Oge, Taidg. They all appear with their same townland in both the Down Survey and Shearman's family tree. There are several townlands of Daniel Fitzpatrick in the Down Survey. Is this the Daniel "executed for not transplanting", 3 April 1655, in the Shearman family tree? He was a great-great-great grandson of Brian Oge Mac Gilla Patraic who submitted to Henry VIII in 1537.
By 1670, the Down Survey records only one Fitzpatrick, whose land is in Cork. But in the next century Fitzpatricks still occupy land in Laois; Thady bought Ballyboodan in 1672.
In 1823, there was a notice in the Dublin Evening Post, advertising the lease of the 255 acres of land in Ballagh and part of Errill. This was part of the Estate of the Ladies Fitzpatrick. John Fitzpatrick, who was born in May 1745, married Anne, daughter of Baron Ravensworth. Anne died in 1804. Her daughters were the Ladies Anne and Gertrude FitzPatrick (Shearman family tree, 1878). John Fitzpatrick's second marriage had three children, one of whom was John Wilson Fitzpatrick, born 1809. He became the head lessor of Ballagharahin townland. .
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| Dublin Evening Post, 8 March 1823. British Newspaper Archive, 9 February 2024 |
In 1827, Joseph Fitzpatrick [older brother of John 1786-1838 who married Jane Howe] occupied 30 acres assessed for Tithe value of second and third class land in Ballagh townland, Rathdowney Parish.
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| Ballagharahin townland, Griffith's Valuation 1850 |
By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1850, Andrew Fitzpatrick was an occupier of 12 acres; the lessor was Hon John W Fitzpatrick. This is only part of the small strips of land in the south-east of the townland. This confirms Carrigan's assertion that the Fitzpatricks only leased Ballagh from the Earls of Upper Ossory (p.9). In the town of Errill, Fanny Fitzpatrick occupied a house valued at £1/12/-. This was part of a larger block west of the village; the lessor was Maurice Dowling, so Fanny could be Frances Dowling, widow of Joseph Fitzpatrick.
It appears that the Fitzpatrick family no longer occupied most of Ballagharahin and that Carrigan was correct that "in their best days the Fitzpatricks can only have held Ballagh by lease, at a low rent, from the Earls of Upper Ossory". The Will of Thady Fitzpatrick.
It is clear that the Ballagh and Errill townlands had long association with the Fitzpatrick family.
Errill
