The following is the considered opinion of the historian, John O'Donovan regarding the existence of these Tuatha-De-Dananns.

"From the many monuments ascribed by tradition to this colony, and their frequent mention in ancient Irish historical tales, it is quite evident that they were real people. And from their having been considered gods and magicians by the Milesians or Celts Gaedhil or (Scott) who subdued them, it may be inferred that they were skilled in arts which the later did not understand".

My story deals with that great Celtic tribe who had conquered the country. Their two chief leaders were Eremhon and Emher and they assumed the joint sovereignty of Ireland, dividing it equally between them. At the end of one year, however, a dispute arose as to the possession of three celebrated hills. In the resulting Battle of Geashill, Emher was defeated and slain. This battle is no myth or legend, but is a part of real history.

DETAILED ACCOUNTS

The wealth of historic material regarding the Battle of Geashill is truly remarkable. There are engagements of much more recent date of which no such detailed accounts have been preserved.

In the first place, the division of the island then (as many times since) was into North and South. Eremhon was the Northern ruler and Emher was monarch of the South. It is said that it was the wife of Emher who incited the quarrel.

The three celebrated hills in dispute were

1. Druim-Clasach, a long ridge which lies between Lough Ree and the River Suck;
2. Druim-Beathaigh, a remarkable ridge which extends along the plain of Maenmagh near the town of Loughrea;
3. Druim-Finghin which extends from Castle Lyons, Co. Cork to Dungarvan Bay, Co. Waterford.

The actual battle site was the brink of Bri-Damh (the Hill of Oxen), at Togher-idir-da-mhagh (Causeway-between-two-Plains). Mr Blake, N.T.,gave the benefit of his local research to Offaly Archaeological Society some years ago. It is remarkable that despite the changes of centuries scholars can still identify most of the places mentioned in
the old records.

BRITISH SHIRELAND

It is a long jump from Eremhon's victory to the Geashill of two centuries ago when the district had become British shireland and formed part of King's County. In between, it had been for almost countless generations portion of the O'Connor territory of Old Offaly.

Every acre of the barony of Geashill became the property of Lord Viscount Digby. We find it an entirely rural district with no town and only the two villages of Killeigh and Geashill. Ballinagar was a mean hamlet. The native Irish existed in misery. Anyone who got little farms were allowed only thirty-one-year leases. The roads were bad.

ANOTHER NEW TRACTOR!

When Charles Coote visited Geashill in 1801 he discovered yet another new type of tractor, Dean Digby, who described as "the only gentleman of fortune" in the barony, had his plough drawn by four oxen yoked after a particular manner. This was how the power was generated:-

"He uses neither collars nor hames but a long beam of wood is laid horizontally across the necks of the bullocks, which are occupied together. It embraces their throat by an iron bow, which pierces this beam and is keyed at the top. From the centre of the beam the long draught-chain is attached to the plough. It is considered easy on cattle."

We have, of course, only touched some fringes of the history of Geashill but there we must leave it for the present.

GEASHILL, which gives its name to a Barony in the King's County, lies seven miles to the south-east of Tullamore. The meaning of the name has not been ascertained; the Irish form is "Geisill."
The Annals of the Four Masters mention the place on four occasions, in A.M. 3501 and 3579, and again in A.D. 1406 and 1523. In A.M. 3501 (= B.C. 1699) a battle took place between the joint Monarchs of Ireland, Heremon, and Heber, the sons of Milesius (Milidh), on the brink of Bri-Damh (i.e, the hill of the Oxen) at Tochar-eter-da-mhagh (i.e. the causeway between the two plains, now Ballintogher), and this was called " The Battle of Geisill." The fight was won by Heremon, and as Heber was slain, the former became sole Monarch of Ireland.

Seventy-eight years later (A.M. 3579), Geashill was the scene of another battle.
From this period till after the arrival of the Anglo-Norman's, the Annalists do not again mention this place.

In Gillananeeve O'Heerin's list of the Tribes of Ireland, at the end of the twelfth century, he thus refers to the district of Geashill:-

"The bright cantred of Geisill is possessed
By a chieftain of the border of Leinster,
Whose march is rapid and strong,
He is named O'Haimirgin."¹

O'Haimirgin is now anglicised to O'Bergin or O'Mergin; they were a sub-sept under the O'Connors of Offaly. Before the close of the twelfth century, Gerald fitz Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Baron of Offaly, was in possession of the Lordships of Geashill and Lea, both situated in the O'Connor clan-territory of Offaly. Mr. G. H. Orpen, author of "Ireland under the Normans," in a paper entitled "The FitzGeralds, Barons of Offaly," which appeared in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (1915), vol. xliv, pp. 99-113, proves that these lordships were acquired by the 1st Baron through his marriage with Eva, daughter and heiress of Sir Robert de Bermingham, Knt., the first grantee of Offaly.

The Baron held these lordships from the Le Marshal family, the heirs of Stongbow. In September, 1199, there were law proceedings between Gerald fitz Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Baron of Offaly, and one Maurice fitzPhilip, concerning Gessil and Leaga" (or Lea in the Queen's County)².

A castle was erected here probably by the 1st Baron of Offaly, as in January, 1204, the King commanded Meyler FitzHenry, the Justiciary of Ireland, to cause to be handed over to William Le Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, the heir of, and the castles of Lea and Geashill belonging to Gerald fitz Maurice, who had died in the previous year³.

At this period Geashill and Lea were in the territory of Offaly, and though the former is in the King's County, and the latter in the Queen's County, they are described up to the sixteenth century as being in the County Kildare.

In 1282 an Inquisition was held at Tully, County Kildare, to ascertain what lands in the County Kildare had been held by John fitz Thomas FitzGerald, Lord of Connello, and ancestor of the Earls of Desmond, who, with his son and heir Maurice, was slain by the MacCarthys in 1261 at Callan, in the County Kerry; John's grandson and heir, Thomas, now of full age, having applied for a livery of his grandfather's estates. The jurors on the Inquisition found that:-

John fitzThomas held nothing of the King in capite in the County of Kildare, but at his death (in 1261) he held of Maurice FitzGerald, 3rd Baron of Offaly, in that County, as well in demesne as in seigniory, one theodum of land called Oregan⁴ in Offaly, for the service of half a Knight's fee, whenever royal service should be summoned, rendering suit nevertheless at the court of the said Maurice FitzGerald at Geashill. In time of peace the theodum is worth £90 13s. 4d., but is not worth more than half that sum, as the whole of it was destroyed and laid waste by the war of the Irish⁵.

In 1283 an Inquisition found that the Baron of Offaly held four Knights' fees in both Lea and Geashill, from Sir Roger de Mortimer, who had died in previous year, Sir Roger having inherited them though his wife, Matilda de Braose, one of the numerous heirs of the Le Marshal family.⁶

In 1302 John fitz Thomas FitzGerald, fifth Baron of Offaly (created Earl of Kildare in 1316), was granted free warren, or permission from the Crown to kill game in his demesne lands of Maynooth, Rathynnegan (Rathangan), Leye (Lea), Geshil, Moyrayghhyd (Morett), Corbaly ( ), Coiltagh ( ), and Rathmore,⁷ which are all described as being in the County Kildare, the King's and Queen's Counties not having been formed till the year 1556.

In 1305 the O'Dempseys, of Clanmaliere, made a slaughter of the O'Connors, of Offaly, within view of the castle of Geashill;⁸ in the previous year, Murtagh O'Connor, Chief of his Nation, with his brother Calvagh, and twenty-nine of his name, were treacherously slain during a feast, by Jordan Comyn, son of the Archbishop of Dublin, in Sir Pierce Bermingham's castle of Carrick, in the Kildare Barony of Carbury. The O'Dempseys may have purposely taken this revenge on their over-lord or head chief, owing to the disaster to the O'Connor clan. However, in the following year (1306), the O'Connors retaliated, and attacking the O'Dempseys in the castle of Geashill, they slew the chief of the O'Dempseys and many of his men.⁹

In 1307 the O'Connors of Offaly demolished the castle of Geashill, and burned the town of Lea.¹⁰ In the same year, according to the "Book of Howth," the fifth Baron of Offaly, John fitz Thomas, rebuilt "the castle of Geschell."¹¹

In 1315, during the invasion of Ireland by the Scots under Edward Bruce (brother to Robert, King of Scotland), they burned the church of the new town of Lea; and on the 14th of February, the Scottish army was encamped at Geashill, "suffering greatly from hunger, so that many perished.¹²

The following extraordinary incident which took place in the neighbourhood of Geashill, to the south, is copied from an entry in Annals of the Four Masters, which runs thus:-

The Age of Christ 1406

A great defeat was given by Murrough O'Conor, Lord of Offaly, with his son Calvach the sons of O'Connor, Roe (of Connaught), namely, Cathal Duv and Teige, who had come to Offaly on a visit, with a troop of cavalry, to the English of Meath, and to Owen, "son of the Abbot", O'Connor, who had the retained kerns of Connaught with him. Both of these armies repaired to the upper (southern) part of Geashill; and Owen, "son of the Abbot," with his own band of kerns, went to Cluain- immurois (near Killeigh), and to the town of Gillaboy MacMaoilcorra, where Calvah, the son of Morrough O'Conor, and Cathal, the son of O'Conor Roe, attended by six horsemen, came up with Owen and his people as they were collecting the spoils of the town. The proprietor of this town had a cauldron, which he had borrowed from Calvagh for brewing beer, and on seeing Calvagh coming towards him, he said, "There is thy cauldron with the kerns, O Calvagh! and I order it to be given to thee," "I accept it where it is," said Calvagh. The cauldron was at this time on the back of a young man, one of the plunderers of the town, and Calvagh O'Conor flung a stone, which he happened to have in his hand, successfully at him, and which, striking against the cauldron, produced such a noise and sound as struck a sudden terror and panic in the hearts of all the plunderers, so that they instantly took to flight. They were swiftly pursued, slaughtered and vanquished. The son of the Abbot O'Connor was slain on the bog, north of the town, and their loss was not less than three hundred persons, both English and Irish, in the route from thence to Cluain-Aine (near the hill of Croghan) in Crioch-na-gCedach (a district comprised in the parish of Castle Jordan, Barony of Warrenstown). It was on this expedition that the chief relic of Connaught, namely, the Baucach Patraig (? A mitre), which had been preserved at Elphin, was taken from the English.

There is preserved in the mansion, the residence of Mr. Reginald Digby, by the side of the ruins of Geashill Castle, a huge copper cauldron of hammered work, which was discovered in a bog in the locality; this Cauldron, which was discovered in a bog in the locality; this cauldron which is the size of an ordinary circular bath, is probably identical with the one described above, and served the same purpose. This vessel is 3 feet 8 inches in diameter, and 11 feet in circumference.

The Annals of the Four Masters contain the following entry in connexion with Geashill Church, which was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary:-

The Age of Christ 1523

Shane O' Maenaigh (i. e., John O' Mooney), who was parson of Geashill, and a canon chorister at Kildare, a clergyman of the greatest name and renown in the upper part of Leinster, died.

This is the same person as is mentioned in "the Earl of Kildare 's Rental, " an early sixteenth-century manuscript volume, now in the British Museum, and a transcript of which, made in 1848, is at Carton. The entry therein, under Fees, is brief, and to the following effect:-

Of Shane O' Mony, Parson of Geisill, yerly vi melsh kyne.

Some other names of the clergy associated with Geashill Church, to be found in the Fiants and Close Rolls (Morrin), during the sixteenth century, are given here:-

Circa 1536, Presentation of Felim O' Connor to the Rectory of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Gessyle, in the gift of the Crown. ? Gerald Walsh, &c.
1542, Dubtag O' Digenaght, clerk, &c.
1542, Thomas FitzGerald, clerk, &c. Vacant by the death of Gerald Walsh.
1547, John Darcy, clerk.
1540, Patrick Hele (? Healy), chaplain.
1551, Robert O' Dwyne, vicar.
1558, Thomas Wesley (or Wallesley),
1565, William Daly, clerk, vice Patrick Helye, resigned.
1586, Constantine MacEgan, curate of Geashill (Cal. of Carew MSS., 1575 - 88, p.428).
159, James FitzGerald.

In 1537 Brain O'Connor, Chief of Offaly, was again in rebellion; three years previously he had joined in the rebellion of the Silken Thomas, 10th Earl of Kildare, his brother-in-law, his sister, Lady Mary, being Brian O'Connor,'s wife. The Deputy, Lord Leonard Grey, writing to the Lord Privy Seal, from "the Kinges Castell of Meynoth on the last day of Desember, 1537," gives the following account of his operations against O'Connor, whose own brother Cahir "roe " was then siding with the Government, with whose aid he hoped to step into his brother 's shoes; the letter (with the spelling modernized)
describes how:-

On the 19th day of October last past, I was certified about 10 of the clock before noon, by Cahir O' Connor, and other of mine own servants, how that the arrant traitor, Brain O' Connor, was entered into the King 's country of Offaly by night next before, and had expulsed thence the said Cahir, who then fought with the said Brian, and there was slain of both sides 9 or 10 persons. The said Brain was so accompanied of horsemen, Galloglas, and Kern, that the said Cahir could not resist him. Whereupon I repaired the said 19th day to the borders, of Offaly, to the King's manor of Rathangan, and there immediate wrote out letters to divers lords and captains of the King's subjects for their repair unto me, with that intent to have entered into the said Offaly. Howbeit, there fell so great rain before that time, and then, that it was not possible for us to have entered the said Offaly without great danger and losses of men and horses, the waters were then so high risen; and so continued for the more part, till it was the 10th day of November next after. Howbeit, I remained upon the borders joining to the said Offaly, for the defence thereof, till the 30th day of October then next. [Then Lord Leonard returned to the city of Dublin to consult with the Council]. After which consultation it was agreed by them that a main journey, for 21 days victuals, should set forward towards the said Offaly the 12th day of November last. At which day with the Army assembled, and set forwards towards Mageoghegan's country, which bordeth upon the said Offaly and took the said Mageoghegan's pledges, and also O' Molloy's pledges, for their security to His Grace, who in proper persons repaired with me into Offaly. And thence the traitor (Brian O'Connor) fled, and went into O'Dunne's country, where I pursued him, and destroyed and burnt all the country, where was a great store of corn, and all we burned and destroyed. And so the traitor fled into O'Carroll's country. Then I repaired back into Offaly, and in two places there, one named "Kyllegh,"an abbey of observant Friars,¹³ and another named "Castell Geshill," in which two places there was corn enough to have sustained a thousand men a year, of which we brought great store into the English Pale, and burned the rest. And out of the said Abbey of Killeigh I brought a pair of organs, and other necessary things for the King's College at Maynooth, and as much glass as glazed part of the windows of the church of the said College, and much deal of the windows of His Grace's, castle of Maynooth. Then the said traitor sent to me that he would have been contented to have submitted himself to the King's Grace, and to abide such order and determination as should have been thought reasonable by the Council and me; and at last, he was contented to abide my sole order, so as he might have safe conduct, which was made and sent unto him, and he received the same.¹⁴

Owing to the Silken Thomas's rebellion, all the possessions of the Earl of Kildare were forfeited to the Crown, and were not restored to the Family until 1554, a period of twenty years, during which time the Crown granted leases of the lands to various Government officials, retainers, and army officers.

Thus in 1551 a Captain Patrick Sherlock was granted a twenty-one years' lease of the manor of Geashill; he is styled of Dangan (now Philipstown) in Offaly; a few months later a pardon from the Crown was granted to him and to some kerns and husbandmen of Geashill, though for what offence is not stated.¹⁵

As mentioned above, in 1554, Gerald, the eleventh (or Wizard) Earl of Kildare, was restored to the estates which had belonged to his father, Garrett oge, the 9th Earl, and by a King's County Chancery Inquisition¹⁶ we learn that on the 7th September, Elizabeth 8⁰ (1566), he was seised of the following manors and lordships in the counties of Kildare and Meath :-

In Kildare-

Maynooth, alias Maynosly, Griffinrath, Carton, Athy,
Woodstock, Castledermot, Grany, Dullerston, Kilkea,
Kildare, Rathangan, Rathmore.

In Meath-

Newton de Moyagher, Ballebogan, Castletown de
Moylagh, Portlester, Kildalkey.
Besides the County Limerick estates, the lordship of
Sligath (Sligo), the manor of Ardglass in the County
Down, the manors of Morett and Lea in the present
Queen's County, and the Manor of Geashill.

These manors and lordships he enfeoffed in certain persons to certain uses, such as charging various manors with sums of money for the use of his wife, Mabel Brown, his two sons, and his daughters.

As his attorneys the Earl appointed Peter Lacy, of Crum (Crom, County Limerick), Gerald fitz Maurice), of Thomaston (FitzGerald, of ? )
Simon Jordan, of Ardglass (County Down), Edward
Gernon, of Gernonstown (now Castle Bellingham),
Country Louth, Thomas fitz Gerald fitz Redmond (Fitz-Gerald, of Timahoe, Country Kildare), James FitzGerald, of Donower (Donore, County Kildare), and John Colgan, of …?ton.

The Earl left his estates, subject to the charges on the
Different manors, in the following "remainder": -

1. To his son, Henry (afterwards 12th Earl), and his heirs male.
2. To his son, William (afterwards 13th Earl), and his heirs male.
3. To his (the Earl's) brother, Edward, &c.
4. To Thomas FitzGerald, }of Ballagh, County West Meath, sons of the Earl 's uncle, Oliver
5. To Gerald FitzGerald, }of Ballagh, County West Meath, sons of the Earl 's uncle, Oliver
6. To Sir Maurice fitz Thomas FitzGerald, Knt, of Lackagh, his kinsman.
7. To William FitzGerald, son of his uncle, Sir James, of Leixlip.
8. To the use of the right heirs of the Earl for ever.

The Wizard Earl died in 1585

In 1587 Sir William FitzWilliam, Knt., the Lord Deputy, suggested to the Privy Council that, in order to pacify the O'Mores, they should be granted by the Crown leases of lands in Leix and Slieve Margy, on condition that they retain no strangers, do not interfere with neighbouring English free-holders, and that they shall answer all complaints against them at the Queen's Courts, "because the like experience is seen in the O'Connors under Teige mac Gillapatrick O'Connor, who hath hired of the Earl of Kildare lands in Geshill, and do live without great offence."¹⁷

In 1596, among the principal residents of Offaly, alias the King's County, the name of "William FitzGerald at Geishill" appears; this was probably William, brother of Henry, 12th Earl of Kildare, who succeeded to the Earldom on his brother's death in September, 1597.¹⁸

In 1600 Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, the Lord Deputy, wrote an account of operations against the rebels in the King's County around Geashill, and, as it is typical of the mode of warfare at this period, a full extract will be taken from his account and given here¹⁹:-

In July I despatched letters to Sir Oliver Lambert, who was gone to victual the fort of Leix (Maryborough) to meet me at Gessill in Offaly about the 26th of July. I sent to Sir Arthur Savage to gather all the forces about him, and to come by Fercal (the O'Molloy country, now the Baronies of Ballycowan, Ballyboy, and Eglish), and in the way to burn and spoil what he could of the rebels. I left the northern borders as strongly guarded as I could from incursions, and marched myself with 560 foot by the poll, and 60 horses, beside voluntaries, by the fort of Philpstown, over a great bog, into Gessill, the 25th of July. I went myself and all the company on foot; our horses were led with the baggage over hurdles that we brought with us. That night we took some 200 cows, seven or eight hundred garrans (farm horses), 500 sheep, and great store of other small cattle. The next day we burned all that quarter about us, and spoiled the corn, marching towards the passage that Sir Oliver Lambert was to pass to meet us, being one of the most dangerous passes of Ireland. About noon that day we met him, having fought all morning, and killed divers of the rebels, whereof there were 15 left in the place, and very many hurt. On his part there were 28 hurt and 7 killed. After we met, we marched that evening towards a place within their fastness, where we heard there was a great plenty of corn. At the entry whereof being a ford, with wood on both sides, and bog between the wood on the right hand, they let the vanguard of the horse pass without a shot, and began the skirmish with me, being accompanied with a few gentlemen and my own servants, a little before the vanguard of the foot, who sending their wings out somewhat slowly, the enemy came up close unto me, yet with small hurt, more than a great wound that Captain Masterson received, and the killing of the easiest going horse I had under me. I heard after that I was so much beholden to Tyrrell (Captain Richard, son of Thomas "Oge" Tyrrell), that he appointed a hundred shot (hand-gun men) to wait upon me, and gave them marks to know me. We continued, even till we encamped, a very good skirmish, beat them through their woods into their uttermost fastness, and as I hear by one that says he was that day with them, we killed 35 of their men, and hurt 75. We lost but two men, and a few hurt. We stayed in that country till the third of August. Every day we did work, both voluntaries, commanders, and soldiers, and almost every day fought, and as often beat them. We have burned all their houses, and destroyed all their corn. The most part of the wheat we cut down with our swords, unto the which with much difficulty we induced the soldiers with the example of the captains and gentlemen that began and continued the work with them. The wheat that we destroyed was valued at above ten thousand pounds, being almost the only means for them to live, but the chief treasure wherewith they do entertain their bonnaghts (hired bands of soldiers.) It is incredible in so barbarous a country how well the ground was manured, how orderly their fields were fenced, their towns inhabited, and every highway and path so well beaten. The reason whereof hath been that till this time there hath not been any of the Queen's forces in those parts since the beginning of the wars, with the which they grown proud and secure. After we had despatched the uttermost of our business, the soldiers living for the most part on a small proportion of biscuit and water, and ourselves having left nothing in the camp to drink but water, we passed our army out of another part of Gessill, over a great bog, where we had no use for our horses, which beyond us and the rebels were led over with the baggage, so the enemy had the advantage they seem most to desire, which is to fight with our foot without the assistance of our horse, yet they suffered us to pass over without any one blow. That night I hanged one Lenaugh, a famous rebel, upon a tree which by his own confession, was the meeting-place where he plotted all his villainies. When he was taken, I had eight heads brought to me; and my into the country, going to see them, found his own son's amongst them.

These be the small things, although the greatest that we can do here, and with as much pains and hazard as any poor men endure in any war of the world, that in all our proceeding find so many difficulties, that, even in the beginning of this journey, our men were forced to fast for two days, for want of carriage for our victual, and that is the only one impediment which occasions of our omitting great opportunities.

This hosting into Offaly is very briefly noticed in the Annals of the Four Masters;²⁰ the entry runs :-

[1600] The O'Connors-Faly, namely the descendants of Brian, the son of Cáhir, son of Con, son of Calvagh, were for three or four years in the Irish confederation up to this time. During this period they took and destroyed most of the castles of Offaly, Dangan and a few others excepted. About Lamas this year the Lord Justice came into their country with many harrows and pracas, with many scythes and reaping-hooks, and destroyed and cut down the ripe and unripe crops of the territory; and the consequence of this was that the inhabitants fled, and remained in exile and banishment in Ulster and other territory until the end of this year.

During the early portion of the seventeenth century very expensive and tedious litigation continued for years between the Earls of Kildare and the family of Digby concerning the Earl's manors of Portlester, Co. Meath, Athy, and Woodstock in the County Kildare. The Calendars of State Papers, Ireland, contain many references to the legal proceedings, the earliest being in 1606, wherein the case is described as "long depending between them" and, as described further on, it was not until 1619 King James I stept in and brought about an arrangement satisfactory to both parties, that there was a lull for a while. The whole trouble was brought about by the marriage of Sir Robert Digby, Knt., of Coleshill, in Warwickshire, with Lettice FitzGerald, only child of Gerald, Lord Offaly, eldest son of Gerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, who died in 1580, five years before the Earl, his father. In 1599, on the loss at sea of her uncle, William, 13th Earl of Kildare, Lettice was the senior living female representative of the 11th Earl, her grandfather, as is shown in three annexed chart :-

In the month of October, 1578, Lettice FitzGerald married Robert Digby, who was knighted in 1596, and was on of the Members of Parliament for Athy in 1613. He died on the 24th May, 1618, and was buried in the church of Coleshill in Warwickshire.

On the death of her uncle, William, 13th Earl of Kildare, who, when returning from England, perished with all on board, in April, 1599, Lettice, Lady Digby, laid claim to the Barony of Offaly, and the estates of her grandfather, Gerald, the 11th earl, as his heir general, while Sir Robert claimed the manors of Portlester, Athy, and Woodstock, which his mother-in-law, Catherine, Lady Offaly, had been granted in dower. As before mentioned, the law proceedings of connexion with these claims lasted, at a ruinous expense, for many years, till at last, a year after Sir Robert's death, King James I, in order to settle the differences, created Lady Digby Baroness of Offaly for life, and awarded to her and her heirs the whole barony of Geashill, which she held till her death, on the 1st of December, 1658, after which it went to her grandson, Kildare, eldest son of Robert, who had been created Baron Digby, of Geashill, on the 29th July, 1620. The peace of 1619 was only of a temporary character, as in 1633 the matter again crops up, owing to Lettice, Lady Digby, not yet having paid off mortgages on the manor of Lea, in the Queen's Country, and Moylagh, in the Country Meath, as had been stipulated.²¹

On the 23rd October, 1612, an Inquisition²² was taken at "Castlegeshill," to inquire into the King's County possessions of Gerald, 14th Earl of Kildare, who had died on the previous 11th of February. The jurors' names, on the original parchment, are given as follows; the surnames of several, it will be noticed, are not mentioned:-

Owny O'Dempsie, of Clongawny.
John mc Kyan, of Lynally.
Brian mc Kyan, of Ballynboher.
Neil mc Morra, of Durus.
Tully Higgin, of Gurtyn.
Dermot mc Coghlan, of Dron.
James O'Melaghlin, of Rossin.
Phelim mc Gerrald, of Ballykyne.
Richard mc Morishe, of Ardd.
Oliver fitz Gerald, of Geshell.
Henry fitz Gerald, of Killorin.
James fitz Gerrald, of Corra.
Phelim mc Owny, of Clonfad.
Richard fitz Gerrald, of Bealanagarr.
David Ewstace, of Dowghill.

These jurors found that Gerald, 11th Earl, held the manor of Geashill, which descended in succession to Gerald, the 14th Earl, and that the latter died on the 11th February, 1612, leaving a son and heir named Gerald (15th Earl), who was only seven weeks old at the time of his father's death.

They also found that the manor contained thirty-nine carucates under the following denominations (arranged alphabetically):-

Townlands in the Manor of Geashill

It should be remarked that though the Fiant list of town-lands contains several omissions in comparison with the Inquisition list, yet it gives the following six names which the latter list does not contain :-

Biellaghobbirleyn (possibly connected with "Tobbarlyhen").
Clonomrishe (the "Cluain-immurrois" of the Annals of the Four Masters, mentioned above in the year 1406).

Dromrasska.
Graige.
Kappanebrehowun, and
Shradneclaryghe.

It is very remarkable how free from English names the manor of Geashill was in 1612, Newtown being the only one mentioned, and even then it is a translation of the "Ballynowe"
(Baile-nuadh) of the Fiant.

In 1625 Lettice, Lady Digby, now Baroness of Offaly, who had been a widow for seven years, and was residing at Geashill Castle, petitioned King James in the following terms :-

By his Majesty's award made between the Earl of Kildare and the petitioner (in 1619), she was allotted the manor of Geshell, "which in times of rebellion was the only den and receptacle of all the rebels in that part of the kingdom," in order that she should make a plantation of English tenants there; but the bordering neighbours, especially the better sort of the ancient Irish, who desired not to have the English inhabit amongst them, to hinder her and her tenants from proceeding in that good work, daily perpetrated one horrid act or other, within her said manor of Geshell, to the great loss and discomfort of her honest tenants there planted. The first English tenant planted there had been robbed of all his goods, and he and one of his servants sore wounded and left for dead; the cattle of others of her tenants stolen, and in further show of their malice they killed one of her breeding hawks sitting on her eggs. And in June last one Kedagh O'Dempsey, her servant or bailiff of the manor of Geshell, in lawful manner having impounded the cattle of one Gerald Bermingham²⁴ for trespass on her land, the said Bermingham, with divers of his tenants and followers, came and broke open the pound, and forcibly took the cattle away, and on being mildly entreated by the bailiff to forbear, they violently laid hold of him and killed him, which the coroner's inquest had upon their oaths found to be murdered. Also in July last one Terence O'Dempsey, one of her tenants, for discovering some thieves that had stolen hers and her tenant' cattle, was found murdered by his house with eleven wounds upon his body, so that her servants and tenants were forced to stand upon their guard as in the time of rebellion, being in continual hazard of their lives and goods; and the said Gerald Bermingham, being at the time of the murder seised of a small quantity of land of inheritance near adjoining to the petitioner's manor of Geshell, and much of it belonging of right to her which upon his late conviction was forfeited to his Majesty, she prayed for a grant to her and her heirs by letters patent under the great seal of Ireland of all the lands of which the said Gerald was seized. Also that he would write to the Lord Deputy and council here, to require the Justices of Assize that those murderers and other offenders, who daily molested her and her servants and tenants, being apprehended, might receive condign punishment.
The result of this petition is not known; Gerald Bermingham, at any rate, unless he received a pardon, does not appear to have suffered, as his death took place on the 1st December, 1636, and he was succeeded at Grange by his son Edward.²⁵

The rebellion of 1641 broke out in the month of October, at which time Lettice, Lady Offaly, then aged about 62, was residing in Geashill Castle. During the winter she was besieged in her castle by the Confederate Irish under a Captain Brian O'Dempsey, of Knockardagur, in the Queen's County, for over a fortnight. He caused to be made:-

A great wooden ingine, under whose shelter he might undermine the same, which was called a "hog"; he killed some of the defendants, did cut them shorte of water and fuell, burned all their turfe in theire verie doore, but by ingorance and unskillfullness in that arte, had to raise the siedge and went away.²⁶

This military engine here called a "hogg" was usually called a "sow," from its ungainly shape. It consisted of a strongly roofed wooden structure on wheels, which was propelled from inside, and moved to an angle of a castle when the men inside, armed with crowbars and picks, set to work to breach an opening in the wall. The defenders would then endeavour to set fire to the "sow" by dropping lighted torches on to its roof, or else disable it by means of heavy stones dropped from the battlements. An angle of the castle wall was usually the point of attack, as unless it was protected from above by a projecting gallery, it was the part most awkward to defend, as it could not be commanded from the narrow windows and arrow-slits.

Some time after the departure of Captain Brian O'Dempsey's force, the castle was again surrounded by the Irish, under the leadership of Henry and Charles O'Dempsey, brothers of Lewis, 2nd Viscount Clanmaliere, who, before attacking the place, sent a summons to Lady Offaly to surrender the castle in these terms :-

HONOURABLE,
We, his Majesties loyal subjects, being at present imployed in his Highnesses Service for the taking of this your Castle, you are therefore to deliver unto us free possession of your said Castle, promising faithfully that your Ladyship, together with the rest in the said Castle restant, shall have reasonable composition; otherwise upon the not yielding of the Castle, we do assure you that we will burn the whole town, kill all the Protestants, and spare neither man, woman, nor child, up to taking the castle. Consider, madam, of this our offer, and impute not the blame of your own folly unto us; think not that we brag. Your Ladyship upon submission shall have a safe convoy to secure you from the hands of your enemies, and to lead you where you please. A speedy reply is desired with all expedition, and thus we surcease.

To the Honourable, and thrice virtuous Lady,
the Lady Digby. These give.

To this summons Lady Offaly returned the following answer:-

I received your letter, wherein you threaten to sack this my Castle, by his Majesty's authority. I am, and ever have been, a loyal subject, and a good neighbour amongst you, and therefore cannot but wonder at such an assault. I thank you for your offer of a convoy, wherein I hold little safety, and therefore my resolution is, that being free from offending his Majesty, or doing wrong to any of you, I will live and die innocently, and will do my best to defend my own, leaving the issue to God. And though I have been, and still am desirous to avoid the shedding of Christian blood, yet being provoked, your threats shall no whit dismay me.

For her cousin Henry Dempsy and the Rest,
LETTICE OFFALIA.²⁷

The castle was then assaulted, but as the garrison successfully resisted the attacks for several days, the O'Dempseys, force eventually retired.
Lady Offaly on the 19th January, 1642, on being threatened with a second attack from the O'Dempseys, wrote for assistance to the Earl of Ormond, in these words:-

My, VERY GOOD LO[RD],

In my extremity I have formerly made known to your Lordship by my letters, the miserable condition wherein I then was, being beseaged by the Dempsis 16 days together, so as if God of his mercy had not sent a great glut of rayn we had perished for want of water, at which time they sent me this letter, the copy whereof I send to your Lordship herewith, whereby you may see ther insolvency and blody resolution, which heatherto only God hath prevented (they have taken all my sheep catell and horses, and set fire of all my winter's provision for fiering), and now I remayn as prisoner within these walles as which they threaten to bater about my ears, all which extremitys, God willing, I am resolved to suffer rather then to fall into ther hands, that have no sence ether of honner or honesty. Hoping your LoP and the Lords Justices (to whom I have written severall times, but I fear my letters have bin intersepted will be pleased to take into your noble considerations my miserable estate, and to send relief in time (for to whom should I make my complaynt if not to your Lordship, whos inate nobleness I know cannot but pity a lady in distress, and in charity send relief to a poor widow, especially haveing forces at your command) which makes me implore your ayd. Pardon my importunity which is enforced by the necessity of, My L.:

Your Lo^ps. Affectionat and humble servant,
LETICE OFALEY.

Geashill, the 19 of January 1641 (i.e. 1642).
For the Earle of Ormond, my verie good Lord, these humbly.²⁸

This appeal for succour did not have the desired effect, as Lady Offaly had to fight her own battle unassisted till the beginning of May following .

About the month of March or beginning of April, a force, led by Lewis O'Dempsey, 2nd Viscount of Clanmaliere, appeared before the Castle, armed with a great piece of ordnance, cast, it is said, by a smith, of Athboy, out of seven score pots and pans collected in the locality. With this terror-striking cannon, placed well within view of the castle, Lord Clanmaliere sent the following summons to Lady Offaly:-

NOBLE MADAM,
It was never my intention to offer you any injury, before you were pleased to begin with me, for it is well known, if I were so disposed, you had not been by this time at Geashill, so as I find you are not sensible of the courtesies I always expressed unto you since the beginning of this commotion. However, I did not thirst after revenge, but out of my loving and wonted respects still towards you, I am pleased and desirous to give you a fair quarter, if you please to accept thereof, both for yourself, children, and grand children, and likewise for your goods. And I will undertake to send a safe convoy with you and them, either to Dublin, or to any other of the next adjoining garrisons, either of which to be at your own election. And if you be not pleased to accept this offer, I hope you will not impute the blame unto me if you be not fairly dealt withal, for I expect to have the command of your house before I stir from hence. And if you please to send any of your gentlemen of your house to me, I am desirous to confer thereof at large.
And so expecting your speedy answer, I rest your loving cousin,

LEWIS CLANMALEROE.

P.S.- Madam, there are other gentlemen now in this town whose names are hereunto subscribed, who do join and unite themselves in this mine offer unto you.

LEWIS CLANMALEROE, ART O'MOLLOY, HENRY O'DEMPSIE.
EDWARD O'CONNOR, CHARLES O'CONNOR, DANIEL O'DOYNE,
JOHN MACWILLIAM.

To this letter Lady Offaly sent the following answer:-

MY LORD,
I little expected such a salute from a kinsman*, whom I have ever respected, you being not ignorant, of the great damages I have received from your followers of Clanmaleroe, so as you cannot but know in your own conscience that I am innocent of doing you any injury, unless you count it an injury for my people to bring back a small quantity of mine own goods where they found them, and with them some others of such men as have done me all the injury they can devise, as may appear by their own letter. I was offered a convoy by those that formerly besieged me, and I hope that you have more honour than to follow their example by seeking her ruin that never wronged you. However, I am still of the same mind, and can think no place safer than my own house, wherein if I perish by your means, the guilt will light on you, and I doubt not but I shall receive a crown of martyrdom, dying innocently. God I trust will take a poor widow into his protection from all those who without cause are risen up against me.

Your poor kinswoman,
LETTICE OFFALY.

P.S.- If the conference you desire do but concern the contents of this letter, I think this answer will give you full satisfaction, and I hope you will withdraw your hand, and show your power in more noble actions²⁹

On receiving this reply Lord Clanmaliere brought his great cannon into action; on the first discharge it burst, and was rendered useless, and the only damage done to the castle by it was a piece of a chimney dislodged by the ball. The attacking party kept up a musket fire until night, when in the darkness they marched off, taking the broken cannon with them for repairs. When these had been carried out, Lord Clanmaliere's party returned, and planting the canon, again commenced the assault, but the same thing happened as on the first occasion, the cannon again burst. As before, the attacking party continued to use their muskets, and as Lady Offaly was looking out of a window, a bullet happened to strike the wall near her; she immediately wiped the spot with her hankercheif, showing how little she cared for the attack of the enemy.³⁰ By night time the siege was raised; before he left Lord Clanmaliere again wrote to Lady Offaly, as follows:-

MADAM ,
I received your letter, and am still tender of your good and welfare, though you give no credit thereunto. And, whereas, you do understand by relation, that my piece of ordnance did not prosper, I believe you will be sensible of the hazard and loss you are like to sustain thereby, unless you will be better advised to accept the kind offer which I mentioned in my letter unto you in the morning; if not, expect no further favour at my hands.

And so I rest your ladyship's loving cousin,
LEWIS CLANMALEROE.

To my noble cousin, the Lady Lettice, Baroness of Offaly.

To this request Lady Offaly replied by one of her men, who was detained a prisoner:-

MY LORD,
Your second summons I have received, and should be glad to find you tender of my good. For your piece of ordnance I never disputed how it prospered, presuming you would rather make use of it for your own defence or against enemies, than to try your strength against a poor widow of your own blood. But since you have bent it against me, let the blood which shall be shed be required at their hands that seek it; for my part, my conscience tells me that I am innocent.

And wishing you so too, I rest your cousin,
LETTICE OFFALEY.³¹

(the relationship of Lady Offaly to Lewis, Lord Chanmaliere, is shown below:)

Though the O'Dempseys did not further invest the castle, yet the garrison were continually harassed by a small force under a Captain Teige O'Connor. Till

April the twenty-seventh (1642) being Wednesday, my Lord Lile (i.e., Philip Sydney, Viscount Lisle), Lord Digby (i.e., Kildare, 2nd Baron Digby, Lady Offaly's grandson), Lord Folliot, Sir Charles Coot, Sir Richard Grinfeeld, Sir George Wentworth, and other captaines, with four hundred troopers, and a hundred and twenty musquettiers, and fourscore dragooners, and thirty firelocks on horseback under Lietenanant Coale, marched forth from Dublin; and on Friday following releeved Castle Jordan (Sir John Gifford's Castle); on Saturday they burned Phillipstowne, and tooke the fort, killed and hanged foure and twenty rogues.

May the first, being Sunday, they releeved Castle Geshil with victuals and ammunition; here they found no resistance; they returned back the same day to Philipstowne, and from thence to Castle Jordan, where they lay that night. The next day they marched to Trim.³²

In spite of the succour afforded, Lady Offaly decided, now that she was well provided with food and war stores, to remain on in the castle.³³ And this she did until the month of October, when, on being further threatened by the O'Dempseys, she was relieved by Sir Richard Grenville, and persuaded to leave the place under his escort. She then retired to Coleshill, in Warwickshire (her late husband's family home), where she died on the 1st December, 1658, and was buried in the church there, when she was about 79 years of age.

Her children consisted of seven sons and three daughters.³⁴ The sixth son, Essex Digby, was the ancestor of the Digbys, of Landenstown and Osberstown, both places in the County Kildare.

The Geashill Estates are still in the possession of the direct descendant of the Digby family.

Of the castle, at the present day, only a portion of the vaulted ground-floor remains, covered with ivy and creepers; it appears to contain no features of special interest. It was probably erected in the thirteenth century by one of the FitzGeralds, Baron of Offaly.

The Churchyard of Geashill, in which stands the Protestant Church rebuilt in 1814, lies at the foot of the rising ground on which the castle was erected. Though of large extent, there do not appear to be any tombstones of a date earlier than the year 1684.

To the south-east of the church, there are two slabs lying close to one another. One of them, which was almost covered by a sod (April, 1913), bears the following inscription:-

HERE UNDER LYETH THE BODY OF GILBERT
TARLTON OF HALE WOOD NEERE LIUERPOO^LL
IN THE COUNTY OF LANCASTER , & MURIELL
HIS WIFE, AND KILDARE THEIRE SON.
GILBERT DYED IN JULY 1656, MURIELL THE
25^TH MARCH 1673, KILDARE THE 2^ND FFEB
1675. THERE ARE NOW LIUING 2 SONS
MORE, EDWARD AND JOHN, ANNO 1684.

EDWARD TARLETON³⁵ WAS INTERED THE 28^TH FEBRUARY.
1684, AND LEFT TWO SONS GILBERT AND KILD^ARE.
JOHN TARLETON DECEASED THE 20^TH OF
DCBER , ANNO 1700. THERE YET
REMAINES HIS SON DIGBY.
KILDARE TARLETON DECEASED JAN^RY 22D
ANNO DNI 1711. THERE YET REMAINETH HIS
SON NICHOLAS³⁶

The other slab, broken in two, bears an inscription in Latin now difficult to decipher; it runs:-

D. O. M.
DEPOSITUM SAMUELIS SHAWE,
JUXTA LIBEROS VII, QUI FUIT HUJUS
ECCLESLE PREBENDARIUS
MERITISSIMUS,
UTPOTE
VIR PIETATIS EXIMÆ,
LIBERALIS IN EGONOS,
HUMILIS AC PACIFUS
OBIIT VII^MO DIE APRILIS,
ANO DNI MDCCX.
ÆTATIS XLI.

Samuel Shawe was appointed Prebendary of Geashill in February, 1708/9.Our late member, Mr. John R. Garstin, kindly supplied the following translation of the inscription:-

Deo Optimo Maximo = To God, the best and greatest.
[Here lie] the remains of Samuel Shawe, besides seven of his children, who was a most deserving Prebandary of this Church, as well as a man of exemplary piety. Liberal to the poor, humble and peaceful, he died on the 7th day of April in the year of Our Lord 1710 (and) of his age 41.

There appear to be no other tombstones worthy of notice.

NOTES ON KILLEIGH IN THE PARISH OF GEASHILL

KILLEIGH (pronounced Killy), now a small village, was once a place of importance; and in the fourteenth century could boast of a Franciscan Abbey, a Nunnery, and a Priory of the Holy Cross, as well as a castle. The full Irish name of this place was "Cill-achaidh-Droma-foda," meaning the Church of the field of the long ridge."

The first mention of it in the Annals of the Four Masters is in the year 548, where the death of the founder of the Celtic abbey, and the patron saint, is recorded thus:-

St. Sincheall the elder, son of Ceanannan, Abbot of
Cill-achaidh Droma-foda, died on the 26th of March.

St.Sincheall was known as "the old Sincheall," to distinguish him from his relative, "Sincheall Oge," or St. Sincheall the younger (venerated on the 25th of June), who also became Abbot of Killeigh. In a field, lying to the west of Killeigh Church, there are what are called "the seven blessed wells of Killeigh," still resorted to for cures, though the patron saint of them St. Sincheall the elder is not now remembered in the locality.

Omitting the deaths of ecclesiastics, the following entries occur in the Annals of the Four Masters in connexion with Killeigh:-

A.D. 800. Killeigh was burned, with its new oratory.

840. The plundering and destruction of Killeigh by the foreigners (i.e., the Danes).

843. An army was led by the foreigners of Dublin to "Cluana an - dobhair" (not identified), and burned the fold (?) of Killeigh.

937. The men of Munster plundered the church of Killeigh.

938. Coibhdeanach, Abbot of Killeigh, was drowned in the sea of "Delginis Cualann" (i.e. Dalkey) while fleeing from the foreigners.

1080. A plundering excursion into Offaly by the men of Teffia, &c., and they arrived at the Termon (church lands) of Killeigh; the men of Offaly overtook and defeated them.

1085. Finn, son of Gussan, son of Gorman, Bishop of Kildare, died at Killeigh.

1162. The O'Dempseys, i.e., Ceallach, Cubrogha, and Cuilen, were slain by Melaghlin O'Conor, Lord of Offaly, in the middle of Killeigh.

1212. An Army of the English of Munster proceeded to Killeigh, where they were overtaken by Murtough, the son of Brian O'Conor (Faly) and his army, who gave them battle, in which Melaghlin, the son of Cathal carragh (the scabbed) O'Conor (of Connaught), received wounds of which he died.

1393. The monastery of Killeigh, in the Diocese of Kildare, was founded for Franciscan friars, by O'Conor Faly (i.e., Murrough, the son of Murtough).

1421. O'Conor Faly (Murrough) was attacked by a dangerous disease, whereupon he retired among the friars in the monastery of Killeigh, and took the habit of a friar, and before his death he appointed his own kinsman, Dermot O'Conor, in his place. O'Conor was only a month among the friars when he died, after a well-spent life.

1433. Two general invitations of hospitality were given to the colleges and professional men by Margaret, the daughter of Teige O'Carroll, lord of Ely, and wife of Calvagh O'Conor, lord of Offaly.

Extract from McFirbis's Annals of Ireland:-

It is she (Margaret that twice in one year proclaimed and commonly invited all persons, Irish and Scottish, to two general feasts of bestowing both meats and monies with all other manner of gifts, whereunto gathered the matter of two thousand seven hundred persons, besides gamesters and poor men, as is recorded on a roll to that purpose by the hand of Gillaneeve MacEgan, the chief judge to O'Connor.

The first inviting proclamation was given for the feast day of Da Sinchell (i.e., the two Sinchells, 26th March) at Killeigh. And Margaret, on the garrets (?galleries) of the great church of Da Sinchell, clad in cloth of gold, her dearest friends about her, her clergy and her judges, Calvagh himself being on horseback by the church's outward side, to the end, that all things might be done orderly, and each one served successively. And first of all she gave two chalices of gold as offerings that day on the altar to God Almighty, and she also caused to nurse, or foster, two young orphans.

And she gave the second inviting proclamation, to every one that came not that, for the feast day of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady Mary in harvest (15th August), at Rathangan. &c³⁷. Margaret died in 1451.

1447 Finola, the daughter of Calvagh O'Conor Faly, lord of Offaly, by his wife, Margaret-an-einigh (of the hospitality), daughter of Teige O'Carroll, lord of Ely O'Carroll; she (Finola) had been first married to O'Donnell Niall "garv" (the rough), the son of Turlough "na-fhiona" (of the Wine), lord of Tirconnell (ob. 1439), and afterwards to Hugh "boy" (the yellow-haired), son of Brian "ballagh" (the freckled) O'Neill (ob. 1444), retired from the world, and entered the nunnery at Killeigh, where she died on the 25th of July, 1493, having been a widow for forty-nine years.

1458. O'Conor Faly, i.e., Calvagh "more" (the great), son of Murrough "na-madhmann" (of the defeats of his enemies), lord of Offaly, died; and Conn O'Conor, his son, was elected in his place, before his father was buried in the monastery of Killeigh.

1541. The religious establishments in Killeigh were suppressed by the Crown on the 22nd November, and their possessions taken into the King's hands (King's County Exchequer Inquisition, No. 18 of Elizabeth).

After the Reformation leases and, later on, grants of the suppressed monasteries and their lands were made by the Crown to various persons, military and civilian, to reward them for their services; and, as described below, it appears that the site and possessions of "the late Monastery of the Holy Cross of Killeigh, otherwise known as the Priory of Killeigh," were kept distinct from those of the Nunnery and Franciscan Abbey, which latter were leased together.

THE PRIORY OF CANONS OF HOLY CROSS OF KILLEIGH

The last prior of this establishment in 1541 was named Phelim O'Connor.

In 1566 a twenty-one years' lease of the Priory was given to John Lye (Ley or Leigh), junior, and three years later he obtained a grant of it and its possessions to be held by knights' service.³⁸

This family of Lye belonged to the County Kildare, and were seated at Clonaugh and Rathbride.

In 1583 John Lye, at the request of the Crown, surrendered this grant that it might be re-granted to him on surer footing, because the former inquisition or record of the lands procured by him, along with other records, had perished in the house of one Powesly, so that the title of the Crown being prejudiced and weakened, it would have a similar effect on Lye's interest, as the Irish were encroaching on the lands.³⁹ The mearings of these lands are set forth in a Fiant of Elizabeth (No. 4334).

A long ivy-clad wall on the north side to the village is about all that is now left of the Priory.

THE NUNNERY AND THE FRANCISCAN ABBEY

As mentioned before, the Franciscan Abbey was founded in 1393 by Murrough mac Murtough O'Connor, Chief of Offaly. A modern mansion and other buildings are erected on the site of the Nunnery and Abbey; one long vaulted building still stands near the church on the north side of the graveyard.

In 1551 a twenty-one years' lease was granted to Francis Lye (Ley or Leigh), soldier, of the sites and possessions of the Nunnery and Grey Friary of Killeigh.⁴⁰ In the following year a pardon was granted to Sir Ralph Bagenal, Kt., Lieutenant of the Army, for the death of Francis Ley, which possibly may be the same individual.⁴¹

In 1566 a John Darcy, Chaplain, was granted a similar lease of the same premises, and three years later Edmund Darcy, of Jordanstown, received a grant of the same to be held by knights' service. In 1578 Edmund Darcy made a surrender of these possessions, upon which they were granted in the same year to Gerald, 11th Earl of Kildare,⁴² whose descendants held them till 1619, when they passed by the marriage of Lettice FitzGerald, the Earl's granddaughter, into the possession of the Digby family.

THE CASTLE OF KILLEIGH

As far as can be ascertained there is no actual reference to a castle at Killeigh previous to 1584, so the date of its erection cannot even be guessed at; nor at the present day is it known where it stood. It is mentioned in a Fiant of Elizabeth⁴³ defining the possessions and limits of the site, and adjoining lands of the Priory of the Canons of Holy Cross, granted in 1584 to John Lye or Leigh, as stated above. An extract from this Fiant runs as follows:-

A meadow called Leanmore between the site of the Priory and the place where the mill was; land called Gortnedromyde by the end of the said meadow; a ruinous water mill; land on the east side of the said mill between two waters, the water course drawn from the lake (?pond) called Loghnagore by Aghenrushe, and by the lands of the parish church of Killeigh towards THE CASTLE, and so to the mill, and the water course drawn from Moniquine, alias Monydune, to the same mill, which Moniquine with the pasture about it on the further part lies from the said water course on the south of Aghenrushe, and so to the green way on the north by the lands of the Nuns, and so crosses by the lake (?pond) to the little river going to Killeigh, between the lands of the Friars Minor, etc.

Possibly anyone well acquainted with the locality might, from the above description, locate the site of the castle.

THE CHURCHYARD

The present parish church is quite a modern building, though erected on an ancient site. The burial-ground attached to it, probably greatly encroached on and so reduced in size, is not now a large one, and lies on the south side of the church. There are no monuments in it of a date earlier than the end of the seventeenth century, and yet we know that since the foundation of the Franciscan Abbey in 1393, it became the favourite burial place of the Chiefs of Offaly. Four slabs alone are worthy of notice here, all belonging to the latter half of the seventeenth century. They will be described in the order they lie in:-

1. A slab, now used as an upright headstone, near the south-end of the church. It was inscribed in English, but is now quite illegible. A coat-of-arms, identifying it with the family of O'Dunne, is cut in relief near the upper end, viz:- On a shield, an eagle displayed. The crest, over a helmet, is an oak tree, with a newt at its trunk. It is said that a Charles O'Dunne, of the Queen's County, when returning homewards, after being wounded in the battle of Aughrim in 1690, died at Killeigh, and so found a grave there.
2. A slab, lying on a raised vault of the O'Connor family, by the east wall of the burial-ground. The inscription is in Latin, and in sunk Roman capitals. After the first four lines it becomes indistinct, and after the next five it is illegible, except for a few letters here and there:-

HIC JACET HEROVM CLARO
DE STEMMATE NATVS
DONATVS PATRIÆ CVRA
DOLORAQVE SVÆ

[A coat-of-arms shield.]

VNA SEPVLTA IACET TVMVLO
DONATIQVE PARENTVM
CASTA PVDICA PIA HÆC
CONIVX MATERQVE IOANNIS
NECNON DONATI MATER
SIC PAV . . . . . . .

Several more lines follow. As far as can be gathered the Christian names of two members of the O'Connor family appear, viz.- John and Donough (or Denis). The vault is now used by the O'Connor-Morrises, of Gortnamona (at one time called Mountpleasant), in the Parish of Killoughy.

The arms on the shield consist of an oak tree, which are the arms of the O'Connors of Connaught, a clan in no way connected with the O'Connors of Offaly. The O'Connor of Offaly arms are: three bars⁴⁴.

3. A large flat slab, near the east wall of the burial ground, on which is inscribed:-

HERE LIETH THE BODY OF
MAXIMILIAN O'DEMPSY, LORD
VISC^T CLANMALIERE &C WHO
DEPARTED THE 30^TH OF NOVEMBER
ANNO DOMINI 1690

This Maximilian O'Dempsy was the third Viscount Clanmaliere (the name of the Clan O'Dempsey territory, partly in the Queen's and partly in the King's County). The title had been created in 1631 in the person of Sir Terence O'Dempsey, Maximilian's great-grandfather. The title became extinct on Maximilian's death without issue by his wife, Anne, daughter of Walter Bermingham, of Dunfierth, in the County Kildare.

4. A flat slab, lying at the south-east end of the burial-ground, on the top of which are carved a skull and cross-bones in relief. The inscription is in lightly incised Roman capitals and exceedingly difficult to decipher; it commences:-

AN EPITAPH ON THE DEATH OF JOHN MOLLOY MAPHILLIP
WHO DECEASED ON THE NINTH DAY OF MAY 1676.
HERE LIES BEFORE HIS
TIME JOHN WHOSE SWIFT FATE CAVSED HIS
DEATH EPITAPH. TWENTY YEARES FVLL DAIL (?)
HIS GALLANT BIRTH OR AGE OR WINNING FA

Eight more lines follow, but they are past recovery. Nothing is known of this John mac Philip O'Molloy.

A James FitzGerald, of Killeenmore, in the parish of Geashill, made his Will on the 20th March, 1683, and in it left instructions for his body to "be buried in the Abie of Killy"; there is no monument to him now existing.

This James was, I believe, a son of Maurice FitzGerald, of Oberstown, County Kildare (outlawed in 1641); his sister, Ellinor, was the wife of Richard FitzGerald, of Rathroane (ob. 1669), County Meath, hence James mentions in his Will "my nephew, Garrott FitzGerald, of Rathbtraone, Gent."

NOTE

THE TARLETONS OF KILLEIGH

In connexion with the Tarleton tombstone inscription at Geashill, given on p.21, the following additional information on the members of this family named on the slab has been supplied by Mr. G. D. Burtchaell, Deputy Ulster King-of-Arms.

Gilbert Tarleton of Halewood, in Lancashire, and of (?) Geashill, who died in July, 1656, married Muriell, who died on the 25th March, 1673. They had three sons:-

1. Kildare Tarleton of Killeigh, J.P., Co. Kildare, 1672, who died unmarried, 2nd Feb., 1675.
2. Edward Tarleton of Killeigh, died 28th Feb., 1684; he married Mary, daughter of Samuel Johnson of Roscrea, and had issue two sons and four daughters:-

1. Gilbert Tarleton, Will dated 1739, proved 1740; he married in 1698 Elizabeth Warren, (?) no issue.
2. Kildare Tarleton of Ballylevin, who died 22nd Jan., 1711; he married in 1701 Alice, daughter of Nicholas Biddulph of Rathrobin, King's County, and had a son and three daughters:-

 

1. Nicholas Tarleton, who died unmarried. Administration granted in 1737.
1. Mary, married, 1730, Ralph White of Park, Queen's Co.
2. Charity.
3. Muriell.

1. Muriell, married Nathaniel Smith of Corbally, Co. Tipperary.
2. Anne, married………..Wilkinson.
3. Mary, married, 1698, John Johnston.
4. Elizabeth.

III. John Tarleton of Killeigh, died 20th Dec., 1700; his wife was Anne Brereton. They had a son and a daughter:-

1. Digby Tarleton, died in 1741, aged 60; he married, 1705, Arabella, daughter of WilliamWeldon of Rahinderry,Queen's County. From them descend the Tarletons, now of Killeigh

1. Mary, who married Matthew Suberville of Benfield, King's County.

NOTES

1. Translated from the Irish, and edited by O' Donavan, " Topographical Poem," published by the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society.·
2. Cal. of Docs., Ire., 1171-1251, p. 16.
3. lb., p. 30.
4. Oregan, or I Regain, was the territory of the O'Dunne's, which comprised the present Barony of Tinnahinch, in the Queen 's County.
5. Cal. of Docs. Ire., 125-84, p. 424.
6. Ib., p. 467.
7. Ib., 1302-7, p. 11.
8. "Annals of Ireland," by Teige Dowling.
9. James Grace's " Annals of Ireland. "
10. Teige Dowling's "Annals of Ireland."
11. Cal. of Carew MSS. (Miscellaneous), p. 169.
12. James Grace's "Annals of Ireland."
13. Killeigh Abbey lies 4½ miles, as the crow flies, to the south-west of Geashill.
14. State Papers of Henry VII, vol. ii, p. 528.
15. Edward Fiants, Nos. 690 and 833.
16. No. 8 of James I.
17. Cal. of State Papers, Ire., 1586-8, p. 459.
18. Cal. of Carew MSS.
19. Cal. of State Papers, Ire., 1600, p. 337.
20. Vol. vi, p. 2187.
21. Cal. of State Papers, Ire., 1638-47, p. 19.
22. King's County Chancery Inquisition, No. 8, of James I.
23. On the Townland of Toberleheen (six-inch Ordance Survey Map)
24. This Gerald Bermingham was of Grange (of the House of Carrick) in the County Kildare. He held the lands of Ballycommon, Ballymurtagh, and Ballyteigue in the King's County. His death took place in 1636.
25. Funeral Entry, and Kildare Chan. Inq., No 57 of C.I.
26. Gilbert's "History of Affairs in Ireland," vol. I, p. 28.
27. Borlase's · "History of the Irish Rebellion" (1680), p. 77-78.
28. Carte Papers, vol. ii, p.170.
29. Gilbert's "History of Affairs" vol. i, p. 28, and Archdall's "Lodge's Peerage of Ireland," vol. vi, p. 281.
30. Gilbert's "History of Affairs," vol. i, p. 28; and Archdall, vi, 282.
31. Archdall, vi, p. 282.
32. Gilbert's "History of Affairs," vol. i, p. 427.
33. Warner's "History of Ireland," vol. ii, p. 203.
34. See Archdall's "Lodge's Peerage," vol. vi, p. 285.
35. In March, 1683, Edward Tarlton, of Killeigh, was appointed one of the overseers to the Will of James FitzGerald, of Killeenmore, in the parish of Geashill.
36. See Note on page 33.
37. The Miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society, vol. i, p. 227.
38. Fiants of Elizabeth, Nos. 944 and 1324.
39. Morrin's Patent and Close Rolls, vol ii, p. 65
40. Fiants of Edward VI, No. 708.
41. Ib., No. 1119.
42. Fiants of Elizabeth, Nos. 970, 1377, 3262, and 3313.
43. No. 4334.
44. See the Kildare Archaeological Journal, vol. vi, p. 241.