Turtle Bunbury

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The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of Co. Kildare (Irish Family Names, 2004)

Introduction
A Short Account of the 18 Families in this book
Reviews of "The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of Co. Kildare"

Introduction

Turtle’s debut book for the IFN "Landed Gentry and Aristocracy of Ireland" series offers a unique and lively historical insight into eighteen of Co. Kildare’s most influential “big house” families. The book features fifty illustrations and covers more than a thousand years of Irish history. The families profiled are those of Aylmer, Barton, de Burgh, Clements, Conolly, Guinness, Henry, Fennell, FitzGerald, Latten, La Touche, Mansfield, Maunsell, Medlicott, More O’Ferrall, Moore, de Robeck, and Wolfe. The story of these often eccentric dynasties is set against the backdrop of the past – the violent religious wars of the 17th century, the rise of the British Empire in the 18th and the run up to Irish independence in 1921. Amongst the many anecdotes relayed are the tales of "French Tom" Barton and the vineyards of France, the bizarre death of Viscount Drogheda, the innkeepers son who became the richest man in Ireland, the Admiral from Punchestown who led the Dardanelles campaign, the Duke of Leinster’s romance with Wallis Simpson, the medieval ape who saved the Earl of Kildare’s life, the Celbridge connection to the Salem Witch Trials and the remarkable terrier who journeyed from Forenaghts to Bristol in 1798.

To order this book, contact Irish Family Names or Turtle Bunbury directly. It is also availble from www.Amazon.com at €39.90 or from Easons, Dubray Bookshops, Barker & Jones and Nas na Riogh in Naas, Farrells of Newbridge and other select shops nationwide.

Other books in this series currently available in the "Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of Ireland" are Wicklow, Meath, Kilkenny, Wexford and Tipperary. See www.irishbooks.org for more details.

A Short Look at Eighteen Families of County Kildare

BARTON OF STRAFFAN HOUSE
Three hundred and sixty years ago, the fate of the wine-producing Barton dynasty lay with a small boy, left naked on a snow-blitzed island, beside the corpse of his murdered father. During the 1720s, the boys grandson “French Tom” Barton migrated to France and purchased the first of the family vineyards in Bordeaux. His heirs managed to survive the ravages of the French revolution intact and by 1820, the Barton & Guestier clarets were being exported worldwide. Hugh Barton acquired Straffan House from the Henry family in 1831 and his descendents remained there until the 1960s. After thirty years of mixed and eventful ownership, the house now forms the backbone to the world famous K-Club, home to the 2006 Ryder Cup. The Barton family continue to produce wine at Chateaux Langoa and Leoville Barton in France.
CLEMENTS OF KILLADOON
In the mid 17th century, a Leicestershire family emigrated to Massachusetts and so escaped the ravages of the English Civil War. Only one son, Daniel Clements, remained behind, serving a commission in the army of Oliver Cromwell. For his military services in Ireland he was rewarded with an estate in Cavan. His descendents rapidly scaled the heights of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy gaining the Earldom of Leitrim in 1795. Meanwhile, in America, Daniel’s sister Mary was arrested for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. Daniel’s grandson Nat Clements was one of the great amateur architects of Georgian Ireland. Perhaps his best-known legacy is the Irish President’s residence, Arás an Uachtaráin, in Phoenix Park. In 1767 Nat’s eldest son Robert took the first lease on a property at Killadoon. A series of prudent marriages and the will of the assassinated 3rd Earl of Leitrim boosted the fortune of the Killadoon branch, but the subsequent land acts considerably reduced the size of the estate in the 20th century. Killadoon is presently home to Charlie Clements, representing the tenth generation of the Clements family since Daniel’s arrival in Ireland.
CONOLLY OF CASTLETOWN
Perhaps the greatest individual phenomenon of 18th century Ireland was the rise of Speaker Conolly, an innkeeper’s son from Donegal who the most powerful man of his generation. His magnificent Palladian residence at Castletown House, Celbridge, is one of the Irish nation’s greatest treasures. The Speaker’s eventual heir, “Squire Tom” Conolly was to the forefront of Irish politics in the lead up to the disastrous Rebellion of 1798 and married one of the beautiful Lennox sisters. In one particularly audacious adventure, another Tom Conolly attempted to run the Charlston Blockade in the American Civil War and was home in Donegal in time for an election. The house passed from the Conolly-Carew family in 1966 and is now open to the public.
DE BURGH OF OLDTOWN
With a lineage stretching back to the great Emperor Charlemagne, the de Burgh’s role in Irish affairs has made an immense impact on the shape of the island’s past. From the first Norman knights who cantered across the seas in the 12th century to the courtrooms of Georgian Dublin, the de Burghs have been intrinsically involved with some of the most pivotal events in Irish history. The Oldtown branch was established in Kildare just over 300 years ago by Thomas Burgh, one of the first great Irish military engineers. His descendents include the Georgian orators Walter Hussey Burgh and John Foster, General Sir Eric de Burgh, the singer Chris de Burgh and the 2003 Miss World, Rosanna Davison.
DE ROBECK OF GOWRAN GRANGE
The de Robecks have always been fighting men. The 2nd Baron de Robeck served with the Franco-American army against the British redcoats in the American War of Independence. His son, the 3rd Baron, fought in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. The 4th Baron opted for a quieter life, building the present family home of Gowran Grange outside Punchestown and serving as Ranger for the Curragh in the reign of Queen Victoria. His son, Admiral Sir John de Robeck (1862 – 1928, reluctantly witnessed the disastrous attempt to capture the Dardanelles Straits in March 1915. The 5th Baron commanded an artillery battalion in the Great War and married one of the Alexanders of County Carlow. In World war Two, the 6th Baron was instrumental in helping General “Punch” Cowan defeat the Japanese in Burma. The present head of the family is 30-year-old John, 8th Baron de Robeck. A military career is not amongst his plans for the future.
FENNELL OF BURTOWN
In the wake of the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland, John Fennell, a young soldier from Wiltshire, was awarded an estate in Cahir, Co. Tipperary. His acquisition of land coincided with his conversion to Quakerism, a religious phenomenon that swept across the British Isles in the late 17th century. Over the next hundred years, his descendants established themselves as prosperous millers and gradually spread across Ireland. An inadvertent wallop of a cricket ball altered everything when Burtown, an old Quaker house in Kildare, passed to Jemima Fennell, great-grandmother to the present owner. The early 18th century house lies close to the Quaker village of Ballitore, home of the illustrious Shackletons. The present head of the family is the inventor William Fennell, father of James Fennell, co-author with Turtle Bunbury of the interiors book, “Living in Sri Lanka”.
GUINNESS OF LODGE PARK
Guinness is undoubtedly one of the most famous names associated with Ireland amongst the international community. Founded by Arthur Guinness in 1759, the Guinness brewery now accounts for one million pints poured every day. Almost as famous as the stout are the Guinness family, a dynasty that spans the world with ever-growing confidence. Lodge Park is presently home to Robert and Sarah Guinness. Robert descends from Samuel, a younger brother of Arthur, who became a goldbeater in the 18th century. Samuel’s descendents founded the bank of Guinness Mahon and included Adelaide, 1st Countess of Iveagh, the financiers Loel and Dick, and Robert’s father, Richard, a prominent Engineer.
FITZGERALDS OF CARTON – DUKES OF LEINSTER
When Maurice FitzGerald decided to assist the deposed King of Leinster in his invasion of Ireland, he cannot have possibly imagined how potent a force his descendants would become over the next seven hundred years. From the Machiavellian pragmatism of Garret Mor to the doomed rebellion of Silken Thomas and the flight of the Wizard Earl, the Kildare FitzGeralds have always been a dynasty of consequence. In the 18th century, a new age of respectability saw the family head elevated in the Peerage as Duke of Leinster. But even in those times, scandal was not far away as the Duke’s son Lord Edward Fitzgerald became embroiled in the Rebellion of the United Irishmen. The outbreak of the Great War in 1914 was ultimately followed by tragedy and ruin, fostered by a compulsive heir whose passion for fast living almost wiped out the Fitzgerald fortunes forever.
HENRY OF STRAFFAN HOUSE and LODGE PARK
In the early 18th century, a Presbyterian minister’s son from Co. Antrim who struck rich in the banking world acquired the former Tyrconnell estates at Straffan on the banks of the River Liffey. A high profile marriage to the Earl of Milltown’s daughter subsequently enabled Hugh Henry’s descendants to enjoy a prominent position in Kildare society during the 18th and 19th century. Among these was Joseph Henry, one of Ireland’s greatest art connoisseurs, and Admiral Hastings Yelverton, sometime First Lord of the Admiralty. An extravagant lifestyle obliged the Henrys to sell Lodge Park to the Bartons in 1831. Lodge Park was sold to the Guinness family in 1948. Meanwhile the Henry family continued to enjoy a fruitful life that would take them from Monte Carlo to the Cold War to Kosovo.
LATTIN OF MORRISTOWN LATTIN
The Lattin family were prominent merchants in Kildare during the 16th and 17th centuries, well known and respected for their patronage of Catholicism. Like their cousins, the More O’Ferralls, they dispatched many sons to fight on the Continent during the late 18th century, losing one in battle in 1789. Patrick Lattin served in the Irish brigade and was a close colleague of Lord Cloncurry. His uncle Jack became the subject of a popular country dance tune, “Jockey Lattin”, following his premature death in 1731. Morristown Lattin was originally built in 1692 and passed by marriage to the Mansfield family in 1836.
LA TOUCHE OF HARRISTOWN
Ireland’s most prominent Huguenot family descend from David La Touche, a refugee from the Loire Valley who served at the Battle of the Boyne and went on to found the bank of La Touche & Sons. His descendants were to be instrumental in the evolution of Ireland’s banking institutions over the 18th century and to spearhead educational reform in the 19th. The Harristown branch included John “The Master” La Touche, a fanatical evangelist, and his daughter, Rose, whose tragic romance with artist John Ruskin resulted in her untimely death at the age of 25.
MANSFIELD OF MORRISTOWN LATTIN
The Mansfield family have been in Ireland at least since the 12th century when they made their presence known in Co. Waterford. Penalized for their Catholicism in the 17th century, fortune returned when they married the sole heiresses of the Eustaces of Yeomanstown House and the Lattins of Morristown Lattin. During the 1840s they acquired a curious attachment to the Danish colony of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. Latter day characters closely associated with the family include the parachuter Major Richard Mansfield, children’s author Brownie Downing, Fine Gael politician Gerard Sweetman. Morristown Lattin was sold in 1982 and is now owned by Constance Cassidy and Eddie Walsh.
MAUNSELL OF OAKLEY PARK
A heroic defence of a Waterford Castle against Cromwell’s army earned the Maunsell family considerable respect from their Irish peers when they first settled in the country in the mid 17th century. During the Georgian Age, they rose to prominence in Limerick, as bankers, politicians and Mayors. When not in Limerick, they were invariably leading an army from one international battlefield to the next. In the early 18th century, they acquired Oakley Park from the Napier family, scions of three mighty Generals. A marriage to the Orpen family ultimately sparked the end of the family’s association with Ireland and the house was sold to the St John of Gods.
MEDLICOTT OF DUNMURRY
An invitation to manage the Ormonde estates in post-Restoration Ireland changed everything for the youngest sons of a prominent London barrister. In 1714, the younger brother George Medlicott acquired an estate at Dunmurry. Despite a series of complex changes in ownership, the house remained the family base until 1955. George’s descendents excelled as horse riders, both hunting in Kildare and in action with the British Army overseas. Dunmurry House is currently owned by Peter Cole.
MOORE OF MOORE ABBEY – EARLS OF DROGHEDA
Readers of magazines such as Architectural Digest, Harpers & Queens and Nest may be familiar with the work of the prolific interiors photographer Derry Moore. These same readers might be surprised to learn that Derry Moore is also the 12th Earl of Drogheda, head of a prominent Kildare family who resided in Monasterevin for exactly 200 years between 1725 and 1925. Although the Moores left Ireland early in the 20th century, their ancestral home, Moore Abbey, built in the mid 18th century, continues to stand today, being the Irish headquarters of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary.
MORE O’FERRALL OF BALYNA & KILDANGAN
Descended from two great Catholic Irish families, the More O’Ferrals combined with the marriage in 1751 of the Balyna heiress Letitia O’More and the Dublin banker Richard Ferrall. At the close of the 18th century, Richard and Letitia’s sons played a prominent role on the battlefields of Europe. During the 1840s, Sir Richard More O’Ferrall emerged as one of the great champions of religious toleration and independence. Latter members of the family include the police commissioner John, the film director George, the horse trainer Roderic, the de Beers marketing guru Rory and the unfortunate Richard, murdered by the IRA in 1935. Kildangan is now the property of Sheikh Maktoum whilst Balyna is being developed as a hotel and golf club.
WOLFE OF FORENAGHTS
A Royalist soldier from Durham seems to be the first member of the Wolfes of Forenaghts to arrive in Ireland. Whatever his motives, within a generation he had established a family in the county that would play a dominant role in the “affairs of the Pale” through to the 19th century. Indeed, the Wolfes of Forenaghts produced no less than eleven Freemen of Dublin over the years. The most celebrated member was Chief Justice Lord Kilwarden, a contemporary of Wolfe Tone, murdered during the Emmet Rebellion of 1803. A high profile marriage to the fashionable Lady Charlotte Hutchinson in the mid 19th century produced no heirs and another heir was slain in action against the Mahdi.

To purchase this book, click this link on Irish Family Names

Reviews of The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of Co. Kildare

The Irish Times – August 2005
Richard Roche – Local History

Previous volumes in the Gentry series initiated by Art Kavanagh and the late Rory Murphy of Bunclody included histories of the “gentry” (ie: landed proprietors as well as the older, truer aristocracy) of Wexford, Tipperary and Kilkenny and the publishers promise forthcoming publications on Louth, Meath, Waterford, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Clare and Armagh. This volume, The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of Co. Kildare, consists of detailed and colourful records of 18 families, picked at random according to author Turtle Bunbury. He warns, however, that this is not intended as a compendium of pedigrees, even though much use has been made of the ever reliable Burke. It is a beautifully illustrated volume and well worth the €40 price.

Books Ireland Summer 2005 by
Hugh Oram

[This] book about the aristocracy and landed gentry of County Kildare seems to tell the story of an effete tribe indeed. However many of the histories deserve narrating, and Turtle Bunbury unearths an amazing amount of information about the families concerned. The story of the Barton family of Straffan who once owned the great house that’s now the K Club is intriguing not least for their connection with the Bordeaux wine trade. The involvement of the Guinness family in brewing and of the La Touche family in banking is also thoroughly researched. Bunbury is right up to date; in documenting the More O’Ferrall family, the famous More O’Ferrall outdoor advertising firm is there. It started in 1936 and was sold to the US multinational Clear Channel media in 2002. There are many curious little anecdotes, like the fact that an ancestor of Chris de Burgh commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry in Normandy. The research in this book is very thorough; no stone or layabout has been left unturned.

The Kildare Times – January 2005
Greatest Kildarian Ever

In the wake of the BBC’s successful hunt for the “Greatest Briton” ever – Churchill, incidentally – I would like to initiate a quest for the “Greatest Kildarian” of all time. My own six nominees all have one thing in common. They all feature in a book I have just released called “The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of Kildare”. The book offers a unique historical insight into eighteen of Co. Kildare’s most influential “big house” families. The families profiled are those of Aylmer, Barton, de Burgh, Clements, Conolly, Guinness, Henry, Fennell, FitzGerald, Latten, La Touche, Mansfield, Maunsell, Medlicott, More O’Ferrall, Moore, de Robeck and Wolfe. The story of these often eccentric dynasties is set against the backdrop of the past – the violent religious wars of the 17th century, the rise of the British Empire in the 18th and the run up to Irish independence in 1921. So, without further ado, my nominees are:

Arthur Guinness (1725 – 1803), Brewer
The founding father of the Guinness Brewery must be amongst the most famous names in the world. Across the world, more than a million pints of Guinness are now consumed every day. Arthur descended from a branch of the Gaelic sept of Magennis of Co. Down. His father, “Richard Guinis”, was principal steward to Dr. Arthur Price, sometime Vicar of Celbridge and later Archbishop of Cashel. By 1752, Richard and his second wife Elizabeth were running an inn in Celbridge called “The Bear & Ragged Staff”. Legend has it that one day Richard accidentally burned the barley while concocting some beer, producing an altogether superior brew. On December 31st 1759, Arthur Guinness, aged 34, took a 9,000-year lease on a brewery at £45 a year. That brewery was St. James' Gate in Dublin, now the largest stout brewery in the world. In 1876, Arthur’s great-grandson Edward Guinness (the Earl of Iveagh) took sole control of the brewery and swiftly became the richest man in Ireland.
Lord Edward FitzGerald (1763 – 1798), Revolutionary
A profoundly romantic Byronesque figure in Irish revolutionary history, Lord Edward was the fifth son of James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster. As a young man, he served with the British during the American War of Independence. He subsequently became one of the principal leaders of the United Irishmen, a radical but liberal society of Protestants, Presbyterians and Catholics determined to eradicate English control of Irish politics. He was arrested on 19th May 1798 but mortally wounded during the process. One cannot help but wonder whether the subsequent Rebellion, spearheaded by Wolfe Tone, might have succeeded had he lived. His French wife Pamela, widely believed to have been a daughter of the flamboyant Duke of Orleans, gave him a son and two daughters.
“Silken Thomas” (1513 – 1537), Rebel Leader
The hot-headed firstborn son of the 9th Earl of Kildare descended from the Anglo-Norman FitzGerald family who had secured almost total control of Leinster during the 14th and 15th century. When Henry VIII’s Tudor army began encroaching on the FitzGerald’s power base in the 1530s, Silken Thomas went into armed rebellion. A vast English army was rapidly dispatched across the Irish Sea; the eastern half of Ireland was plunged into a brutal war for the next eighteen months. Despite early successes, the FitzGeralds were completely outnumbered and, in March 1535, their headquarters in Maynooth was destroyed and the defending garrison put to the sword. Thomas and five of his uncles were subsequently betrayed, captured and hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn.
“Speaker Conolly” (1662 – 1729), Politician
The builder of Castletown House in Celbridge was truly a most remarkable man. His father was a Donegal innkeeper who made sufficient money providing drink and accommodation to English and Scottish settlers in the late 17th century to send young William to Dublin to study law. William returned to Donegal and quickly established himself as the foremost authority on land law. His expertise enabled him to start buying land in vast quantities and, by his death in 1729, he was the wealthiest man in Ireland. He was for many years Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. His life stands testament to the fact that, even in the 18th century, a man of relatively humble origins could, if he played by the rules, rise through the ranks to a position of immense influence. He became a legend in his own lifetime, an inspiration to young middle class Protestants throughout Ireland.
French Tom (1694 – 1780) & Hugh Barton (1766 – 1854), Wine Merchants
Tom Barton was the great-grandson of an English settler murdered by Catholics during the Ulster Rebellion of 1641. In the 1720s, Tom and his wife Margaret moved to Bordeaux in France and set themselves up as wine merchants. Tom’s grandson Hugh took on the business in 1780 at which time the company was shipping 125,000 barrels of wine annually. One of Hugh’s principal clients was Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States. It was through Jefferson that Barton met Daniel Guestier. After the French Revolution, the two men formed the partnership, Barton and Guestier, famous today for the “B & G” wine label. In 1831 Hugh purchased Straffan House (now The K Club) from the Henry family; his descendents lived there until 1949.
The 7th Duke of Leinster (1892 – 1976)
Although there have now been nine Dukes of Leinster, the 7th Duke - named Lord Edward FitzGerald after his revolutionary kinsmen - merits inclusion for his remarkable commitment to roguery. He was the youngest of three boys orphaned shortly after his birth in 1892. By 1910, he had amassed such colossal debts through gambling that he was obliged to accept an offer from a wily businessman Sir Harry Mallaby-Deeley. Sir Harry lent Edward £60,000 on the understanding that should Edward ever become Duke of Leinster, an unlikely event with two elder brothers, then all the income from the Leinster’s Irish estates would pass to Sir Harry. By 1922, both Edward’s elder brothers were dead and he became Duke. Sir Harry received an annual income of £80,000 ever after; the 7th Duke had to sell the family estate at Carton to pay off his debts. According to British State papers released in 2003, the 7th Duke later found some consolation in the arms of Wallis Simpson.

Leinster Leader – December 2004
NEW BOOK TELLS STORY OF ARISTOCRACY OF KILDARE

Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare, was an, if not the, appropriate venue for launch of a new book on the history of Kildare. The house once owned by one of Ireland’s richest men, Speaker Connolly, hosted the publication of a book the aristocracy of Co. Kildare. Historian and traveller, Turtle Bunbury, has provided plenty of detail about the life and times of eighteen of the county’s most influential “big house families,” include the Connolly family.

“The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of County Kildare,” was launched with the support of Kildare Kitchens and Tindal Wines. A large gathering, including members of some of the families portrayed, turned up on 8 December for a first look at the book which covers more than a thousand years of Irish history.

Families include the Aylmer, Barton, de Burgh (singer, Chris, is related), Clements, Connolly, Guinness, Henry, Fennell, Fitzgerald, Latten, La Touche, Mansfield, Maunsell, Medlicott, More O’Ferrall, Moore, de Roebeck and Wolfe. Mr. Bunbury, who is also working on a travel book on Sri Lanka, has provided much detail about the lives of these often eccentric families, who had their share of failure as well as success. The book, published by Irish Family Names, describes itself as a short potted history but is a neat and comprehensive overview of its field.

Leinster Leader, January 2005
Con Costello - Looking Back

The families of de Burgh and Clements are each devoted a chapter in Turtle Bunbury’s well researched “The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of County Kildare”, in a series published by Irish Family Names. The Clements family is descended from a 17th century English wine merchant, while the de Burghs claim Charlemange as an ancestor. Settled at Oldtown, Naas, since the late 17th century the family has produced many celebrated soldiers, including General Sir Eric de Burgh, who was a President of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society, and his grandson Chris de Burgh, the popular singer who has sold more than 40 million albums and performed over 2,500 concerts worldwide.

Acknowledging that Guinness is undoubtedly one of the most famous names associated with Ireland amongst the international community, the first identifiable member of the family is Richard Guinness who was born about 1690. Now the best know member of the dynasty is Desmond who, with his late wife Mariga, established the Irish Georgian Society which awakened interest in historic houses, and especially ensured the preservation of Castletown House at Celbridge. Their son, Patrick, initiated a DNA test which confirmed their bloodline’s genetic affiliation with the Gaelic sept of Magennis of Co. Down.

Families which have disappeared from the county in modern times include those of Aylmer of Donadea, Wolfe of Forenaghts, More O’Ferrall of Balyna and Kildangan, Mansfield of Morristown Lattin, La Touche of Harristown, Barton of Straffan, and of course the Fitzgeralds.

Bunbury concludes that “It will not be long before the last of the tweed-clad, Spaniel toting gentlemen vanishes in his entirety, taking with him a remarkable chapter in Irish history.”

The Leinster Leader – January 2005
BETWEEN THE COVERS WITH HENRY BAURESS
A look at Kildare’s most influential families

Historian and traveller, Turtle Bunbury, has provided plenty of detail about the life and times of eighteen of the Kildare’s most influential families. In “The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of County Kildare,” he has provided fascinating details about eighteen families whose names pepper the history of not only Kildare but Ireland it one time legal power centre, London.

The Aylmer, Barton, de Burgh (singer, Chris, is related), Clements, Connolly, Guinness, Henry, Fennell, Fitzgerald, Latten, La Touche, Mansfield, Maunsell, Medlicott, More O’Ferrall, Moore, de Roebeck and Wolfe families are among a network of around four hundred families who governed Ireland for more than 200 years after King William’s victory over the Jacobite forces at the Boyne in 1689. These families from the Protestant gentry and aristocracy - the Anglo Irish ascendancy - held great power up until the end of the 1900’s.

Turtle Bunbury and Art Kavanagh have brought together an entertaining overview of the stories of these families, whose role in Irish history will no doubt continue to be debated. Where did they come from? Some descended from old Irish chieftains. Others came via the Norman invasion 800 years ago and other arrived from England in the 1650’s. Yet others, like the La Touche and de Robeck, were the modern equivalent of asylum seekers on the run from religious and political turmoil on the European mainland. Whatever about their origin, Turtle Bunbury says they were the privileged elite and Kildare’s proximity to Dublin brought it to the forefront during those the aforementioned two hundred year period.

The lot of the gentry, while apparently privileged, has not always been a bed or roses. There have been thorns on the rosebushes. One of the Clement family, Nat, was the architect and designer of the Aras an Uachtarain and is credited with the design of Newberry Hall and Williamstown in Carbury, Lodge Park in Straffan and Colganstown in Newcastle, Co. Dublin. But other members of that family found themselves on the wrong side of the status quo on occasions. A female member was arrested for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in the United States. Much later, another was a prominent IRA supporter in the 1930’s and was interned in the Curragh during the World War 11 period.

The one time richest man in Ireland, Speaker Connolly, did not have aristocratic blood in him.The son of a Protestant inn-keeper from Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, went to study law and began collecting land in voluminous amounts at very cheap rates. All above board? One of his friends who aided his development was the London banker, Sir Alexander Cairns, whom Jonathan Swift described as “a shuffling scoundrel.”

Two of Dublin’s best known streets, Henry Street and Moore Street, are named after the Moore family of Monasterevin, Earls of Drogheda. The widow of one of the Earls married the Restoration dramatist, William Wycherly. She died before him and the playwright lost a lot of money fighting the will. One result was he spent seven years in Fleet Prison in London.

The Wolfe family of Forenaughts in Naas, whose home is now part of the Smurfit thoroughbred operation, suffered during the Emmet Rebellion in 1803 when two of them were dragged from their carriage in Dublin and murdered. Another, Richard, died in the Sudan when his army unit was sent to relieve Gordon garrison in Khartoum in 1885.

A member of the Henry family, Michael Charles Henry, the last of his family to live at Straffan House and Lodge Park, was a Commander in charge of the Port Crew on board the first Polaris submarine, Resolution.

Turtle, who is also working on a travel book on Sri Lanka, has provided much detail about the lives of these often eccentric families who had their share of failure as well as success.

What of the author himself, whose surname appears in the index of the book?

One of the Lennon sisters, Sarah, who featured in Stella Tillyards book, “Aristocrats,” married the Suffolk racing magnate, Sir Charles Bunbury. She divorced him and later, in 1787, Oakley Park near Celbridge, became her home and that of her husband Colonel George Napier. If it was not death, gambling also took its toll on the aristocracy. One of the Fitzgeralds lost Carton House in Maynooth as a result.

Turtle’s family are from Rathvilly, Co. Carlow, and came to Ireland 300 years ago. One of his ancestors, a Norman knight at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, got land in Cheshire near a place called Bunbury. One of the family lost almost everything when he supported Charles I and hopped it to Ireland. The family were settled into Carlow by the 1660’s.

There are five or six explanations as to how he was Christian named Turtle. One is because he was a third son and the Latin for that is Tertius. Another, he said, is that his grandmother gave him three turtles when he was a baby. “There are others but we will leave them aside,” he said in an interview with the Leader.

He went to school in Dublin, at Castle Park in Dalkey until he was thirteen and then headed to Perthshire in the Scottish highlands for his secondary education. He loved it there. Back to Trinity where he started law but changed to history finishing there in 1996.

A three year spell in Hong Kong in the magazine/ media area followed but he returned to Ireland and got stuck into the history business where he is now working with publisher, Art Kavanagh.The Kildare book is part of a series and there could be another Kildare related book by the 32 year old Dublin-based historian.

In between researching the gentry he has been doing a book on Sri Lanka with James Fennell of Athy and that, “Living in Sri Lanka,” will be out next year. Part of that project includes a three month spell in the country.

During his history period in Trinity, Turtle specialised in Irish history from the 17th to 19th centuries. He started work on the Kildare book in April of this year in conjunction with others such as www.Enneclan.ie. As far as the author is concerned, entry to the world of the aristocracy was not impossible. Speaker Connolly did it but, he said, Speaker played by the rules of that group of people, which contained both heroes and villains. Many of those big families are gone. If Kildare had about fifty of them in their heyday, less than half of them remain intact. He found the families he wrote about “very helpful.”

Publisher, Art Kavanagh, has produced a number of county based books on such families, including Wexford, Tipperary, Kilkenny and now Kildare. Others are due to come on stream this year. The book describes itself as a short potted history but is a neat and comprehensive overview of its field. Every school and library should have one.

Leinster Leader – October 2005
FAMOUS FITZGERALDS GATHER AT MAYNOOTH CASTLE
HENRY BAURESS

Former Taoiseach, Dr. Garrett Fitzgerald was in Kildare this week to discuss some family linen in public and the gathering at Maynooth Castle revealed a very mixed bag. Accompanied by leading Irish harpists, Anne Marie O’Farrell and Cormac de Barra, the thoroughly modern Garrett spoke about Garrett Mor Fitzgerald, the 8th Earl and Lord Deputy of Ireland in the 15th century.

Also on hand to dish up yarns on other members of the dynasty was his namesake, Desmond Fitzgerald, the Knight of Glin and Renagh Holohan, author of ‘The Irish Chateaux - In search of the Descendants of the Wild Geese.”

The Fitzgeralds were one of the most powerful families but as Turtle Bunbury and Art Kavanagh highlighted in their recently published history of Kildare’s landed gentry and aristocracy, there were ups and downs and even offs, in the case of a head or two. In the latter case, those of you who like loyalty in their fellow humans, may be consoled by the fate of Christopher Parese who had his head removed after selling out Maynooth Castle in 1534.

Dr. Garrett told us that when Gearoid Og (Young Garrett), 9th Earl of Kildare, was summoned to London to answer charges against him - the Crown thought its middle management were running away with themselves and perhaps more - he beefed up his stronghold at Maynooth Castle and left his son, best known as Silken Thomas, in charge. But soon afterwards, Silken or Thomas Fitzgerald, Lord Offaly, hearing a false account that his dad had been executed in England, led his followers in rebellion. Unwisely, as we now know, he marched to Connaught to get support and left his foster brother, Christy Parese, in charge of the homestead.

Silken thought its defence was so strong that no one could take it over. That would have been all right if Christy and his security team did the business. But when on 14 March 1535, the Lord Deputy, Skeffington, attacked the Castle, a month or so after burning the town, he got an offer which made the Castle take over easy.

Parese shot out a letter - it probably arrived faster than many of our e-mails today - offering to facilitate the take over in return for a sum of money and a “competent stay during his life.”
The corrupt bribe taker arranged it so that when Skeffington’s army arrived resistance was faint from a team which “snorted at the night like grunting hogs.” Parese, expecting knighthood if not sainthood, met the Lord Deputy himself later in the afternoon.

According to Holinshed’s Chronicles of 1570, when the pair met, the Deputy “very coldly and half sternly” casting an eye towards him, said, “Parese, I am to thank thee on my master the King his behalf. And because I may be the better instructed how to reward thee during my government, I would gladly learn what thy lord and master bestowed on thee.” Parese thinking the Deputy would better the Fitzgerald largesse, told him of all the good they had given him and done for him. The Lord Deputy replied: “Why, Parese, couldst thou find in thy heart to betray his castle who has been so good a lord to thee? Truly thou are so hollow to him, wilt never be true to us.”

The Lord Deputy ordered Parese be given his promised money on the surrender of the Castle “and after to chop off his head, declaring thereby that although he embraced the benefit of the treason, he could not digest the treachery of the traitor.” None of yer auld Tribunal with free barristers for Mr. Parese.

Another Fitzgerald ancestor was luckier.
John Fitzthomas, created the 1st Earl of Kildare in 1316 had an early escape. As a baby, he was supposedly rescued from a fire by a pet ape, thus giving the family its crest. Another, Garret Mor, the 8th Earl of Kildare, known as the Great Earl, was described in the Annals of the Four Masters as a “mighty man of stature, full of honour and courage.”

But he did have a hot temper, “not so sharp as short.” The family were often in trouble with the Crown. In 1552, Maynooth Castle, which had been taken from it as a result of the Silken Thomas rebellion was returned to Gerald, Silken’s half brother and he was restored to the title as 11th Earl of Kildare. But in 1580, he was arrested on suspicion of treachery, and his Countess, Mabel, had to humbly beseech her Majesty for mercy and crave favours. She appears to have aided the 11th Earl in his hours of need.

Not all the women appeared so supportive. In 1759, the Knight of Glin told us, Gerald Fitzgerald, the 15th Earl of Desmond was proclaimed a rebel. His wife, Eleanor Butler, Countess of Desmond, told the Privy Council that he was driven to rebel by Government provocation and his “wicked brother John’s” plotting. But she was also anxious to secure her own livelihood and went as far as to offer to divorce her husband in order “to have some livelihood to live upon.” The family faced further tough times in the 1806-1825 period and Ms. Holohan provided extracts from the diaries of Lady Isabella Fitzgerald, niece of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, recalling her days at Carton, Leinster House and Blackrock. As they left Carton after the 1798 rising, they were stopped and obliged to get a passport at Leixlip where they were “shocked at the sight of a dead body erected by the soldiers against a cart and covered in derision with green ribbons.”
Isabella left for France and when she returned in 1812 she went to see the family home, Leinster House, now hosting the Houses of the Oireachtas. It had been, she said, “quite neglected and was now more like a convent than a nobleman’s hotel”.