Maxwell Fox

Introduction by Michael Byrne

Captain Maxwell Fox was the owner of the fee simple of some 2864 acres in the Killoughy area carrying a valuation in the 1870's of £810. He also had lands in Co. Longford comprising of the fee simple of some 457 acres valued at £235. I say the fee simple interest because some of his lands may have been let on long leases with rental income accruing to Captain Fox.

Maxwell Fox descended from the old Gaelic family of Carney or Kearney. The head of the sept was called Sionnach or, i.e. The Fox. The late Canon Lamb of Clara pointed out to me many years ago the inauguration site of The Fox at Cloghatanny near Clara although some doubt has now been cast on this. The family was associated especially with the barony of Kilcoursey in Co. Offaly and the name is still numerous in Dublin, Longford, Tyrone and Leitrim. The immediate family of Maxwell Fox are described in Burke's Irish Landed Gentry, commencing with Sir Patrick Fox of Moyvore in Co. Westmeath who prior to 1560 is said to have purchased back from the O'Farrells lands at Rathreogh, near Fox Hall in Co. Longford. A descendant, Frances Fox is said to have financed the repair of Durrow church in the early 18th century, having married Edward Herbert, the last of the line of the Durrow Herberts. She died c. 1735. A later descendant was Richard Fox of Fox Hall, Co. Longford, who was born c. 1760 and married c. 1787, Lady Ann Maxwell, daughter of Barry, earl of Farnham. There were ten children of this marriage and the second son was Barry Fox, who was born in 1789. He served in the army and married in 1824 Sophia, daughter of the distinguished early Irish economist, landlord, Richard Lorelle Edgeworth, inventor and father of Maria and died in 1863, leaving issue, among others, Captain Maxwell Fox, of Annaghmore, high sheriff of Co. Offaly or King's County as it then was, and high sheriff of Co. Longford in 1885. He was born in 1826 and married first in 1865 Florence Jane, eldest daughter of Sir Andrew -2Buchanan BT, "Flo" died in 1882 and he married Edith Edgeworth of Kilshrewly, Co. Longford in 1886. He died on 14th September 1899 leaving issue by his second marriage. A daughter of Maxwell Fox, Charlotte, married the Rev. Maxwell Coote, son of Colonel Chidley Coote in 1865. He features in the 1868 diary because he lived at Ross, Screggan, Tullamore and was the rector of Killoughey parish.

It is uncertain when Barry Fox purchased Annaghmore, but it was probably in the late 1820s or early 1830s. He is mentioned in several letters of the second earl of Charleville and it would appear was friendly with the family and influential in King's County politics.

Annaghmore house and estate would have been one of a small but fine well wooded estate with a house which Maurice Craig would call of 'the middle size'. Interestingly William Garner in his study of Offaly churches and houses commissioned by the Offaly Historical Society in 1985, took the view that the house was circa 1835 and is probably of two dates. The rear appearing to be the earlier house and the present front of three bays and two storeys, with full height bow ends later. The original house was probably erected by the Curtis family. The late Fr. Shaw in his history of Killoughey parish states that the Killoughy lands passed from the O'Molloys to the planters, Sir Charles Coote, Charles Lyons and Colley Phillips. This is borne out by the Book of Survey. and Distribution for King's County (c. 1660), which shows that the Annaghmore/Annaghbrack lands were already in Protestant hands prior to the 1641 rebellion. An unattributed note I have suggests that the Annaghmore lands passed to Revd. Robert Curtis of Roscrea sometime before 1766 and that he willed the lands to his son Charles. In Vica's Prerogative Wills, are references to Revd. Robert Curtis of Inane, Co. Tipperary in 1786 and of the same name in 1799. Coote in his A General View of the King's County (Dublin 1801) describes the barony of Ballyboy in which Annaghamore is situate as having a wild and uncultivated appearance (page82). Among the few gentry who have invested in their estates he counted William Curtis of 'Annamore' who 'has been very conspicuous, and his expenses fall little short of £1,500 annually on his improvements. This gentleman has within the past seven years, changed the face of his part of the country, having drained and gravelled a great extent of moor, and planted above fifty acres.... all of which has given a woody appearance to the country ' Coote noted that Curtis principally farms his own estate meaning that it was not let to middlemen an a rental income basis and that he employed above one hundred men. It was noted that Curtis had reared all the trees in his own nursery. Adjoining Annaghmore was Lough Annagh, then two miles in circumference [and now almost dried up.] The other estates in the barony were that of Malone of Pallas and Connor of Mount Pleasant.

It is noted that Curtis had reared all the trees in his own nursery. Adjoining Annaghmore was Lough Annagh then two miles in circumference ( and now almost dried up ).

The Annaghmore bog is described in the Second Reprint from the Commissioners on the Nature and Extent of the Bogs in Ireland. From this report it would appear that Curtis through drainage lowered Lough Annagh at least three feet. William Curtis also played a part in 'consolidation of the bogs' by cultivation. Lough Annagh c. 1810 contained some 207 acres, the greater part of which was shallow having in general, 5 to 8 feet of water in summer.

The house is not featured in Brewer's review of King's County in the early 1820s which would tend to confirm that the house was insignificant at the time and did not fall to be noticed until the architectural improvements of the 1830s effected at the same time as Durrow and Kinnitty. At the time of the Lewis Topographical Dictionary (1837) the house was the residence of Captain Barry Fox. More about him may be found perhaps in the Edgeworth papers and in contemporary material such as Charleville Estate and Digby and Rosse papers.

Barry Fox, and later, his son - Maxwell Fox were leading landowners in the county with almost 3,000 acres to farm or to draw rent from. The enlarged house is shown on the 1836 six-inch map (sheet 24). It was valued in 1854 at £53.15s for poor law valuation purposes. To the north was the wooded demesne of Mullagh House, Killurin House, Clunagh House, Ross House and Brookfield House. To the west was Rathrobin and to the south Annaghbrack Glebe and Annaghmore Lough. Ralph Coote did not reside in the old glebe at Annaghbrack and it may be that this was left to a Francis Lamb. Ralph Coote lived as vicar of the parish of Killoughey from 1827 - 1868 and subsequently Maxwell Henry Coote from c .1868 - 1905. [See parish of Killoughey in Healy Diocese of Meath, vol. 2 p. 329.]. Ralph Coote lived at Brookefield in the parish of Lynally.

As stated in previously, Charlotte Fox, daughter of Barry Fox and sister of Maxwell Fox married Maxwell Coote in 1865. Ralph Coote seems at the time to have lived at Brookefield house at Lynally Parish where Barry Fox also had property. He was the landlord in the townland of Fertaun, Agall, Churchill, Currygurry, Derrinvillig, Oldtown, Rabbitburow, Roscore and Tullymore Rahan, all in the Civil Parishes of Lynally and Rahan. Barry Fox had 345 acres in Annaghmore in Killoughy Parish, but little else in that parish. (See diary entry 21st January 1868). Barry Fox died on the 6th November 1863 at 14, Esplanade, Dover, aged 74. It was noted that he was a grand juror of the county and one of the oldest and most respected of the Magistracy. He possessed considerable property in the neighbourhood of Tullamore.

Turning to the diary of 1868 it should be said that there is little touching on the public domain or the politics of the day save perhaps his account of the ceremonies for the judges on assizes. Nevertheless, it is interesting to observe the daily routine of an Offaly landowner in the days before fast transport or recreation other than cards and reading. Maxwell Fox had no children by his first marriage; born in 1826 he succeeded at the death of his father in 1863. Following the death of Florence, he married again in 1886 and had a daughter of the second marriage a year later and when he was 51.