Born in about 1674, William Bunbury was the third of five sons born to Benjamin Bunbury (1642-1707) of Killerig, Co. Carlow, the first of the family to settle in Ireand. (1a) The Bunbury family have been connected to Ireland at least since Elizabethan times when Thomas Bunbury was appointed one of the executors of Sir Walter Raleigh's Lismore estate in 1585. Several of William's aunts and uncles may have been living in Ireland at this point. In 1669, Benjamin Bunbury married Mary Shepherd, widow of Matthew Sheppard of Owles [sic] in Lancashire. (2a) That same year he took a lease on the lands at Killerig in Co Carlow from the the Earl of Arran, younger brother of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde.
William's eldest brother, Joseph Bunbury (d. 1731), settled at Johnstown, just outside Carlow town, married Hannah Hinton and was ancestor to the Bunburys of Johnstown.
His second brother Thomas Bunbury (d. 1743) married Rose Jackson and was ancestor to the Bunburys of Cloghna & Cranavonane.
His younger brother Matthew Bunbury (d. 1733) moved to Tipperary and was ancestor to the Bunburys of Kilfeacle, including Lord Roberts.
His youngest brother Benjamin Bunbury inherited Killerig and married Hester Huband of Dublin. (2b) In 1916, the noted historian Lord Walter FitzGerlad found ‘a small fragment of a limestone slab, now placed on a Heap of stones' on which he could make out the words Killer[rig] and [Benja]min Bunbu[ry]. However, he said the remainder of the headstone had already 'quite disappeared'. FitzGerald added that Benjamin's 'tomb-slab exists in St. Mary’s churchyard, Carlow'. The inscription footnoted below claims he was 44 but this is surely incorrect. (2d)
His sister Diana Bunbury (d. 1728) married Captain Thomas Barnes (d. 1710), one of the Duke of Ormonde's officers, and lived at Grange, Co. Kilkenny.
There may have been another daughter Deborah Bunbury who was married in 1685 to Matthew Humfrey, forebear of the Humfreys of Cavanacor. Deborah bore at least five sons, including Matthew (who died unmarried in 1744) and John Humfrey (who was married in 1747 to Elizabeth, daughter of John Geale of Mount Geale, Co. Kilkenny, and died in 1758). Deborah was married secondly to her cousin Thomas Bernard of Clonmulch. (2c) Benjamin Bunbury Senior died aged 64 on April 4th 1707.
It is variously spelled Lisnevagh, Lisnevahe and Lios na bhFiodh. (4) The Irish spelling of Lios na BhFea appeared on the brown tourist signs directing people to Lisnavagh Gardens in around 2001. This encourages the suggestion that Lisnavagh means 'a garden or enclosure of beech'. This is not an absolutely definite translation. We have no idea where this interpretaion camefrom and we can only assume that it is a realistic transcription based on sound research or knowledge. Apparently 'Fea' can mean “beech” or (more generically) simply “trees”. It depends how far back the name goes. Certainly some of the oldest trees at Lisnavagh are the beech trees around where we believe the old house was situated, or otherwise marked on the 1840 ordnance survey map? Beech trees generally don’t live longer than about 200 years, so it’s hard to know. There is also a theory that 'Lisnevagh' is an English mistranslation of 'Lios na Aoife', meaning Aoife's Fort. This last suggestion appeared in 'Place Names of County Carlow c1937' by the late Edward O'Toole of Rathvilly.
By the end of the seventeenth century, a great deal of Ireland's natural woodland had been cut down and timber was beginning to be in short supply. This coincided with the spread of estate embellishment, with planned gardens and amenity planting of trees. As early as 1672, Sir William Petty, disturbed by the rapid deforestation of wooded areas in Ireland, suggested that two million trees should be planted during the next fifty years. Although nothing appears to have come of this, the first of seventeen Acts was applied to Ireland in 1698 to enforce, or at least to encourage, planting.
Peter, 8th Earl of Ormonde, was given the Castle and town of Rathvilly (as well as Clonmore, Tullow, Powerstown, Kellistown, Leighlin and Arklow) as a reward for helping to suppress the rebellion of Silken Thomas. In 2010, a metal detector unearthed three coins at Lisnavagh - one dated to the reign of Edward III and two shilling pieces of silver minted between the reigns of Henry VII (from the 1480s) and James I (early 17th century).
Amongst the documents at Lisnavagh are an extract from an award made by James I, dated 3rd October 1618, in a dispute between the Earl of Ormonde and Lord Dingwall, in part affecting the title to the lands of Lisnavagh, Co. Carlow. The National Library holds a copy of various leases by the Earl of Ormonde of 1633: Ormonde leased 'the manor of Rathvillie' to R. Meredyth (1633), of 'Tobinstown and the site of the Abbey of Skan (Acaun?)' to H. Masterson on 20th March 1633 and 'the lands of Lisnevagh and Williamstown, Co. Carlow' to R. Cope [Robert?] on March 26th 1635. (i) I do not yet know who occupied the land immediately prior to the Bunburys. In 1641, the castles at Clonmore, Tullow, Raththvilly and Hacketsown were seized by the Confederates and held in the name of Piers Fitzgerald of Ballyshannon. (It was at this time that Hackestown Castle, which was possibly built by the de Lacy’s, was destroyed). A flavour of just how unpleasant it was to be alive in the mid-17th century can be found in this dreadful deposition by Ann Hill, extracted from an article in the 2011 edition of Carlovina 2011 by James P. Shannon entitled 'Hacketstown and the 1641 Rebellion - List of people detailing Property Lost / Damaged' relating to the 1641 Depositions at Trinity College Library.
'As she was coming to Dublin she was assaulted at Bordkillmore by Murtogh McEwn of Hacketstown and William of Killclouagh, commonly called William the Plaixsterer and nine or ten more who pulled off her back a child of about a year and trod it to death, stripped herself and her fower small children naked. And through the could they gott contracted by such vsage her other three children are since dead.'
In the 1659 survey conducted by Petty, the township of Lisnevagh was occupied by fourteen people – 9 Catholics and 5 Protestants – and registered to John Korton, gent. He may also have had ownership of Williamstown (4), Tobinstown (14), Bonecery & Busherstowne (51) and Carnescough (20). In the Barony of Rathvilly there were 176 English and 719 Irish. Other settlers in the Barony include Jeffery Paule, Hugh Doyne, the Flenters, Francis Browne and Mr. Papworth.
Speed’s map of Leinster from 1670 indicates that the lands at Lisnavgh were owned by Edmond Butler, but I am unsure who this Edmond might have been. He does not seem to have been a brother or son of the 1st or 2nd Duke of Ormond. The original lease on Lisnavagh was granted by Richard Butler, Viscount of Tullogh and Earl of Arran (brother of Lord Ossory and uncle to the 2nd Duke) to Benjamin Bunbury of Killerick in 1676. The estate is bordered by the ringforts of Knocknagan and Tobinstown on the east, Rathmore to the north, Williamstown to the south and Rathvilly to the west. In the 4th century, these raths formed the epicentre of the Hy Kinsellagh's power base.
By the 16th and 17th century it may have been connected with the Nolans of Tullowphelim. In 1982, the late Canadian poet and author Alden Nowlan published an article entitled “Nowlan in Ireland: A poet's progress" which told of his journey to his ancestral homeland. Alden descended from John Nowlan, a hedgeschool master from Bunclody, whose son Patrick emigrated to Nova Scotia in the early 19th century.[i] In his story he noted how Patrick Nowlan's forbears had fled to Bunclody ‘after the English invaders seized the fertile lands around Tullow, where from time immemorial they had kept their almost sacred herds of white cattle.' This remark appears to have been based on conversations Alden had with people in the area. The family are said to have been based at Tullowphelim, named for Feidhlimidh "Reachtmar" (the ever good), High King of Tara in the 2nd century, whose son, Eochaidh Fionn Fothairt, is the recognized ancestor of the Carlow Nolans. The last known Nolan chief was "Cahir O'Nolan" (1525-1592) of Ballykealey who, in his last years, together with Donal Spainneach (the Spaniard) Kavanagh, was in rebellion against English rule. His son Phelim was pardoned for being in rebellion in 1592 and in 1601. The Bruen family papers record that another Cahir O'Nolan and Murtagh Kavanagh forfeited land in 1641 as papists. At the time the seat of the Nolans was in Tullowphelim and after being dispossessed they seem to have established a new centre for themselves further to the southwest, their main territory extending from Kellistown and down to Tullowmagimma (Tinryland area). Their chief burial ground now became that found on the Templepeter townland and Raymond Le Gros' castle on the Castlemore townland acted as a defence against any possible hostile Nolan incursions into their former territory of Tullowphelim. It is conceivable that their fofeited territory included the lands at Lisnavagh which, if you look under Thomas Bunbury of Kill, Stephen Nowlan was farming in the 18th century.
[i] The surviving letters written between John and Patrick subsequently formed the basis of an article written by Father Seamus de Val (anglicized James Wall). Thanks to Roger Nowlan.
A map from 1685 shows that the Lisnavagh townland was by no means populated. Curiously the name of ‘Rathdonell’ is listed, just north of Rathmore.
Benjamin Bunbury also had the lease of Tobinstown which, on 16 June 1683, he leased to a Catholic soldier named John Baggott. Baggott was later attainted for serving the Catholic King James II. Many of Baggott's Carlow estates were acquired in 1702 by the Right Honourable Philip Savage, Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland. Meanwhile, on 20th December 1695, Benjamin Bunbury assigned the Lisnavagh lease to his son, William Bunbury. On 21st December 1695 - the Winter Solstice - Benjamin also assigned the lease of his Tobinstown lands to William. William was not yet 25 years old.
According to an inscription above the main staircase of Lisnavagh House (apparently etched on a relict of the original house), the first Lisnavagh House was built in 1696 - midway through the reign of William of Orange. We do not know what it looked like. It may not have been built to last. William's grandson, William Bunbury III, MP, was certainly planning to build a new house at Lisnavagh when killed in a horse fall in 1778. The original house seems to have been felled in its entirety by the time work commenced on the New House in 1847.
We do, however, have a good idea where it was situated, just off the old Carlow-Hacketstown Road, in the parklands at the top of Kinselagh's Hill and now part of the Pigeon Park, where three lime trees are now growing. The avenue started at the west side of the house, went north along what are now the Terraces, east across the edge of the Front Lawn (where there is a pathway in some old photos of the house) and on to the Kitchen Lawn from where it swung right (or north east) through the middle of where the Yew Trees now stand, then straight to where the “Grand National” rhododendron grows at the corner of the Mare’s Paddock, and on out into the Mare’s Paddock. It then turned almost due east and out to the present Rathvilly-Tobinstown road. Its entrance and Gate Lodge must have been roughly opposite where the gate goes into the Schoolhouse Field.
As my brother William notes, the 1840 plan also suggests the presence of an ornamental garden or herbaceous borders to the east side of the 1696 farmhouse (covering part of Pegasus Paddock, Cullen’s Dell and the Pigeon Park. To the north of that there appears to be a plantation of some kind which covers the rest of Pegasus Paddock and the main Pleasure Grounds area, roughly speaking. Perhaps this as an orchard? It would also have offered shelter from the cold north easterly winds. To the south of the house, there are buildings – presumably farm buildings and stock yards. There are some softwood trees planted to the south and west, again presumably to offer shelter from prevailing winds.
My father also tells me that when they first ploughed Whelan's Bank, the line of a North-South road down that line of trees was very clear. This line of trees is also evident on the 1840 map.
The fee farm grant of Lisnavagh by the Duke of Ormonde was dated 22nd February 1708 with Benjamin named as the grantee; the annual rent was £105.5s.4d. I believe it was granted to William Bunbury I and his heirs in fee farm indentures of lease and release dated 21st and 28th February 1708 respectively. On 20th December 1723, Joseph Bunbury and William Pendred purchased the fee farm for Tobinstown from the Earl of Arran for £2600 and 64 shillings.
1/20 31 Aug. 1773 Abstract of the title of Thomas Bunbury Esq. to the lands of Lisnavagh, Tobinstown, Ballybitt, etc, in the county of Carlow.
'James Duke of Ormonde and his trustees being empowered by several acts of parliament to make fee farm grants, by deeds of leases and release, dated the 21st and 22nd February 1708, did grant ... unto William Bunbury Esq., deceased, the townland of Lisnavagh, containing 666 acres more or less, part of the manor of Rathvilly in the barony of Rathvilly and county of Carlow, to hold to the said William Bunbury his heirs and assignees forever ... - see this deed which was registered the 23rd November 1709.
By virtue of which conveyance the said William Bunbury became seized and held and enjoyed during his life and upon his decease the said lands became vested in fee in his eldest son, William Bunbury Esq., since deceased. That Charles, Lord Baron Weston in England and Earl of Arran in Ireland being seized in fee of the lands of Tobinstown in the said county of Carlow, containing 512 acres more or less, by deeds of lease and release dated the 23rd and 24th December 1723 ... did grant release and confirm unto William Pendred and Joseph Bunbury, executors of William Bunbury and guardians of his sons, William and Thomas Bunbury, all the said lands except the mill and lands thereto belonging to hold to them their heirs and assignees forever ... - see these deeds which were enrolled in Chancery and registered 18 March 1723.
That by other deeds of lease and release dated 20th and 21st June 1726 the said William Pendred and Joseph Bunbury ... did grant release and confirm unto William Bunbury and Thomas Bunbury the said lands ... by virtue of which deeds the said William and Thomas Bunbury became seized and tenants in common ... .
On 24th April 1700, Joseph Bunbury officially conveyed the rectory and tithes of Graney to his younger brother William Bunbury. The Duke of Ormonde’s release to William is dated 20th April 1703.
In 1702, William Bunbury was, along with his brothers Joseph, Thomas and Benjamin, among the Carlow elite who sign the Petition from Protestants of the County of Carlow on the Act of Resumption 1702. My limited understanding of this Act is that, following the Jacobite Wars, William of Orange had tended to reward his favourites with vast tracts of land forfeited by his enemies, much as Queen Elizabeth and James I had done two generations earlier. He was particularly generous to non-English retainers like the Earl of Galway and his mistress Elizabeth Villiers. In 1699, the Commission of Irish Forfeitures Report estimated that a staggering 1,600,000 Irish acres had been forfeited by Irish Jacobites, many of whom had since fled to France and America. The Act of Resumption was tacked onto a land tax bill which few dared oppose. 'It cleared and placed all estates into the hands of a seven-member commission, nominated by the Commons. Each case was judged on its own merits and if declared null and void - as was the case with Galway's forfeiture - it would revert to the Trustees for Forfeited Estates to be auctioned'. (5)
The Bunburys in Ireland presumably benefited from the appointment of their cousin Sir Henry Bunbury, head of the English branch, to be Commissioner of the Revenue for Ireland during the reign of Queen Anne. Sir Henry was a close colleague of the Duke of Ormonde, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with whom he shared great apprehension at the prospect of the German House of Hanover occupying the British throne once Queen Anne had died. Like many of their contemporaries, they gave their support to the cause of the Old Pretender; like so many other Jacobites they discovered they had backed the wrong horse, and both men were summarily dismissed from their posts. The Bunbury allegiance to the Ormondes stood through until 1715 when, following the failure of the Jacobite Rebellion, the 2nd Duke fled into permanaent exile in France.
On 16th January 1696, 22-year-old William Bunbury was married at St Andrew's Church, Dublin. His bride was Elizabeth (Mary) Pendred, the 24-year-old daughter of Isaac Pendred (1630-1682), a yeoman farmer from Sywell, Northamptonshire, by his second wife, Sarah Beech. Isaac was one of the younger grandsons of Francis Pendred (1550-1616), husbandman, of Overstone in the parish of Sywell. Elizabeth's only brother William Pendred (1665-1736) married Catherine Eustace, heiress of Broughillstown House, Rathvilly, Co. Carlow. When Catherine died in 1701, Broughillstown passed to William Pendred. He succeeded to the Irish farms of his maternal uncle, George Beech, who died in 1703. William and Catherine Pendred had a son, Captain George Pendred (1696-1741), who married Cordelia, daughter of Morley Saunders, LLD, MP for Enniscorthy, of Saunders Grove, by his wife Frances Goodwin. Captain Pendred's son Morley Pendred-Saunders married Lady Martha Stratford, daughter of the 1st Earl of Aldborough.
William and Elizabeth Bunbury enjoyed just fourteen years of married life before their deaths in 1710, Elizabeth on 28th February and William, aged 36, on 13th October. He was buried in Tullow on the 17th. Little is known of their life but it cannot have been a happy one. The Church of Ireland in Tullow records the baptism of six of their children between November 1700 and March 1705. These were Sarah Bunbury (born 21.11.1700), Benjamin Bunbury (born 28.6.1702), William Bunbury II (born 12.6.1704, who succeeded), Joseph Bunbury (born 1705), Thomas Bunbury of Kill (born March 1706, father of William Bunbury III of Lisnavagh) and Mary Bunbury (born 26.3.1705, married the Rev. Gibson Raymond). (6) There was also a daughter Elizabeth Bunbury who, it seems likely, married Richard Lockwood.
1. (a) There is a record of Benjamin and his twin brother Joseph being christened/baptised on 13.9.1642 at Stanney - this according to Ormerod.
1 (b) The name of John Bunbury's wife is unknown; they had two sons, Henry and Thomas. The elder son, Henry Bunbury, died unmarried in Dublin in 1682. The younger son, Thomas Bunbury (1628 – 1682) lived at Ballyseskin. In 1668, Thomas married Anne Codd, daughter of Nicholas Codd of Castletown. The marriage produced at least six sons. The eldest, John Bunbury, died unmarried. The third son Thomas married and had a daughter, Anne, who married Colonel Philip Savage of Kilgibbon. The sixth son, Henry Bunbury was father to Lettice Bunbury (who married Henry Archer of Ballyhoge), Anne Bunbury (who married Cadwallader Edwards of Ballyhire) and Sarah Bunbury (who married Benjamin Hughes of Hilltown). The names Hughes and Archer return again in the last paragraph below relating to the Lockwood marriage.
1 (d) As to John and Sir Henry's other sisters, Mary Bunbury married Thomas Draper of Walton and Martha Bunbury died in 1664.
2 (a) Mary is sometimes described as Elizabeth. She appears to have lived to a considerable age - according to Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland 1912, her will was proven in 1741. There is a possibility that Mary has been confused with Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Philip Shepherd, Esq, who, according to Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry (1847), married secondly a Mr. Bunbury. This Elizabeth was previously married to Charles Bernard (b. 1615), a grandson of Francis Bernard Esq of Abington in Northamptonshire who accompanied Cromwell to Ireland and settled in Co. Carlow. Their son Thomas Bernard (1665-1720) of Oldtown and Clonmulsh Co. Carlow married his step-sister Deborah Bunbury and had three sons - Charles Bernard, Franks Bernard and Joseph Bernard [father of William Bernard, 1726- 1807] – and a daughter, Ann Bernard. Deborah is vatiously described as a daughter of Charles Franks, Esq, of Clapham, and as a daughter of Benjamin Bunbury of Killerig, so this area is riddled with inconsistences. Thomas died in 1720, leaving issue from whom descend the Earls of Bandon. It is possible that his mother Elizabeth Bernard then married Benjamin Bunbury and bore his large family before his death in 1708. After the death of Mr Bunbury, Elizabeth (nee Shepherd) was married thirdly to Richard Humphreys Esq. Certainly there seems to have been much marital alliances between the Bunbury, Shepherd, Bernard and Humphreys families at this time.The Joseph Bunbury referred to as Thomas’s ‘brother’ would thus have been Thomas Bernard's stepbrother, Joseph Bunbury, who settled at Johnstown. Thomas Bernard died circa 1720.[1]
The prerogative will of Thomas Bernard of Clonmulsk, Co. Catherlogh, Esq. 25 Feb. 1720.: Narrate, 1 ¼ p., 19 May 1721. Wife Deborah Bernard. Eldest son Charles Bernard. Second son Franks Bernard. Third son Joseph Bernard. Daughter Ann Bernard. “His brothers Joseph Bunbury and Phillip Bernard, Esqrs." The will lists Harry Dungan, Redmond and Daniel Phelan, tenants. In terms of land it refers to:
"Ballypic[k]as, Clarbarracum, Bolybegg, Queen's Co.
Drumselig, Balliglishine, Queen's Co.
Demore Bog. Bellclogh. Queen's Co. Ballybar
Clonmulsk, Co. Catherlogh.
The witnesses were William Nesbitt, Catherlogh, clerk, Thomas Doyle, Garryhunden, Co. Catherlogh, mason, Bartholomew Newton, Bushellstowne, Co. Catherlogh, gent.
Memorial witnessed by: Robert Wallis, Dublin, notary public, Isaac Walsh.
On behalf of Franks Bernard (seal) Joseph Bernard (seal)
Ref Eustace, P. Beryl. Abstracts of wills / Govt document 1954
2 (b) Benjamin Bunbury II of Killerig, Co Carlow, was the youngest of the five sons born to Benjamin and Mary Bunbury, the first of the family to settle in Co. Carlow. He appears to have inherited Killerig upon the death of his father on April 4th 1707. His elder brothers were by then established at Johnstown, Cloghna, Lisnavagh and Kilfeacle which made sense. In 1702, Benjamin joined his brothers in signing the Act of Resumption. In April 1705 he was married to Hester Huband, daughter of Edmund Huband of Dublin. They had one son, Benjamin, and at least three daughters, Mary, Hester and Hannah. Benjamin II died ion January 3rd 1716 aged 39 and was buried alongside his father in Carlow. He was succeeded at Killerig by his only son, Benjamin. Benjamin III married Mary and had issue Benjamin, Anne and Mary before his death in 1747. At least one of these Benjamin's was a lawyer. There is now a Ramada Hotel at the Killerig, complete with Bunbury Suite and Sir Harry's Bar.
2c. For Humfrey family, see A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain, Bernard Burke, Harrison, 1862). It is possible that this Deborah who married Thomas Bernard was, in fact, Deborah Franks, referred to in 2(a) above.
2d. "Journals for the Preservation of the Memorials for the Dead", Vol, Issue 1916, CARLOW, page 18. According to John Ryan's "History & Antiquities of the County of Carlow" - Page 331, their memorial reads: ' IN : HOPE : OF : A : BLESSED : RESURRECTION : HERE : LIETH : THE : BODIES : OF : BENJAMIN : BUNBURY : THE : FATHER : AND : BENJAMIN : BUNBURY : THE : SON : BOTH : OF : KILLERIG : ESQRS : THE : FORMER : DEPARTED : THIS : LIFE : APRIL : YE : 4TH : 1707 : AGED : 44 : YEARS : THE : LATER : JANY : YE : 3 : 1715 - 16 : AGED : 39.'
3b. D.W Hayton, Dependence, Clientage & Afiinity in ‘The Dukes of Ormonde’
4. The place names cited in lines 1769 – 1770, viz ‘Lios na bhFiodh’ and ‘Baile Uiiam’ are not obsolete. They are now Lisnevagh and Williamstown, (p. 252, Irish Historical Society, Dublin, published 1947, Hodges, Figgis & Co). Referred to as ‘Lisnevahe’ on p. 171 of The Calendar of Ormond Deeds, 1172-[1603] by Ormonde, Irish Manuscripts Commission, published 1932 by the Stationery Office).
5. 'Ireland's Huguenots and Their Refuge, 1662-1745: An Unlikely Haven', Raymond Hylton, p. 106, Sussex Academic Press, 2005.
6. In an earlier report, I had recorded that the above six children had all died on those dates, which led me to lament their passing and wonder what had killed them. I speculated about the endless possibilities - disease, pneumonia, typhoid, polio, measles - and how there was nothing anyone could do to prevent death, no matter how much money one had. Queen Anne experienced 17 pregnancies between 1683 and 1700. Only five children were born alive and only one, a son, outlived infancy, but he did not survive to inherit the throne. However, all this now seems irrelevant because I performed a search via the excellent www.irishgenealogy.ie/index.html in March 2011 and discovered that the children did not die on those dates. The dates in fact referred to their christenings. Such are the hazards of genealogy.
With thanks to Peter Bunbury, Roger Carden-Depper, Gill Miller, Susie Warren, Arthur Carden, George Thompson, Jane Paterson, Michael Brennan, William Minchin, Michael Purcell, Roger Nowlan and the Carlow Rootsweb.