Lucas and Noonan, central and east Clare
Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:03 pm
I am starting a new string of postings on these two families, in response to Paddy Casey's remarking on the Lucas who lived in Ruan. I am assisting descendants in Western New York and Ontario, Canada. While both the Ontario and NY families have well documented family members in North America, an organized effort to sift through evidence of their Clare roots has been lacking, which is how I became involved. I have outlined Lucas history in Clare from its start with property gained by Col. Benjamin Lucas of Mountlucas, Co. Offaly (then Kings) during the 1640-50s, through disasterous mismanagement of the main Ballingaddy farm in the 1700s, to dispersal of sons around Clare, with the last group being in the Kilrush area. Along the way, the Lucas family rubbed elbows with some very influential people but also had family members dying of disease and languishing in the workhouse during the famine period. Just prior to that, though, the East Clare ones, who had converted to Catholicism and thus appear in the Parish of O'Callaghan Mills records, took the offer of assisted emigration by their landlord Wyndham, so a set left in 1840 and another in 1847 (in a group of young men who included a Tynan I have been tracking for my own research). The conundrum is exactly who converted and thus which graveyards to search for the Charles Lucas who last seemed to live in the town of Tulla in about 1855. He himself did not appear in any RC record, but his apparent brother Thomas did, and the James and John/Joseph who lived on Munmore Farm in Moymore (closer to Ruan) were staunchly Catholic as well. Their marriages were to Noonan women, likewise RC.
I am showing below the Ruan part of the story. As ever, the Library website was invaluable in piecing together the early
history. Also, the database of 1827-33 eviction cases which I donated came in useful as a rare instance of a record for
Charles Lucas, showing that he lost his Killuran leasehold in 1829. I think (but would like to confirm) that the 1856 Slater's
Directory mention of a __ Lucas, Esq. as poor law inspector residing in Toonagh might have been his last record. I also
know that the 1876 propertyowners list (one acre or more) shows an Andrew Lucas in Moyrhee, and I do know what
happened to him. My focus is on Charles Lucas and his wife Mary Noonan, with no birth, marriage, or death dates known
as yet. Son Thomas was born about 1822. I have photos of living family members descended from Thomas and their
resemblance to the below portrait image of their famous ancestor Dr. Charles Lucas is eerie. Dr. Lucas pulled himself up by
his bootstraps from the failed circumstances of the Ballingaddy farm operation, so that he went from apothecary to
physician to political commentator and founder of The Freeman's Journal, with a statue in his honor in Dublin. There is
much more to the overall story, most of which I have, including some 1901 residences and a 1963 photo of a John Lucas
yet in a Moymore school. It is that aggravating mid-1800s period that is missing.
Sharon Carberry
[out of contact until Nov. 1st while I conduct research at the Allen County Library in Indiana] "In the years 1740-41, a diary kept by a Mr. Lucas of Drumcavan illustrates the use the people of the rural hinterland made of the fair. Lucas, a descendant of a Cromwellian settler, lived in the parish of Ruan about eight miles north of Ennis. He attended fairs within a fifteen miles radius of his farm. Along with the Clonroad fairs, he attended fairs at Clare, Ennis, Quin, and Spancilhill. In preparation for the July fair of Clonroad,Lucas had his servants drive his cattle from his out farm at Balingaddy, north of Ennistymon, to his home farm at Drumcavan. The evening before the fair he sent 30 two-year-old bullocks by three of his servants to Clonroad. Men and cattle travelled through the night to be on the fair green in the early morning."
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/.../ei ... _fairs.htm
Dal gCais number 5 (1979)
Litton, Francis J.(ed.): Diary of Farmer Lucas of Ruan, 101-103
Listing of 286 names is taken from Brian Ó Dálaigh’s article, ‘The Lucas diary 1740 -41’ which was published in
Analecta Hibernica volume 40, 2007, at pages 73 – 187
The Lucas family held lands at Drumcavan in Ruan parish and at Ballingaddy East in the parish of Kilmanaheen.
[original diary lost, copy is preserved]
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... 0_1741.htm
Lucas, Benjamin
Lucas, Catherine
Lucas, Connor
Lucas, Doll
Lucas, Doro
Lucas, Francis
Lucas, Jack
Lucas, Nancy
Lucas, Natt
Lucas, Samuel
Lucas, Timothy
Gore, Cousin
Gore, John
Gorman, William
Hill, Aunt
Hill, Michael
Hill, William
I am showing below the Ruan part of the story. As ever, the Library website was invaluable in piecing together the early
history. Also, the database of 1827-33 eviction cases which I donated came in useful as a rare instance of a record for
Charles Lucas, showing that he lost his Killuran leasehold in 1829. I think (but would like to confirm) that the 1856 Slater's
Directory mention of a __ Lucas, Esq. as poor law inspector residing in Toonagh might have been his last record. I also
know that the 1876 propertyowners list (one acre or more) shows an Andrew Lucas in Moyrhee, and I do know what
happened to him. My focus is on Charles Lucas and his wife Mary Noonan, with no birth, marriage, or death dates known
as yet. Son Thomas was born about 1822. I have photos of living family members descended from Thomas and their
resemblance to the below portrait image of their famous ancestor Dr. Charles Lucas is eerie. Dr. Lucas pulled himself up by
his bootstraps from the failed circumstances of the Ballingaddy farm operation, so that he went from apothecary to
physician to political commentator and founder of The Freeman's Journal, with a statue in his honor in Dublin. There is
much more to the overall story, most of which I have, including some 1901 residences and a 1963 photo of a John Lucas
yet in a Moymore school. It is that aggravating mid-1800s period that is missing.
Sharon Carberry
[out of contact until Nov. 1st while I conduct research at the Allen County Library in Indiana] "In the years 1740-41, a diary kept by a Mr. Lucas of Drumcavan illustrates the use the people of the rural hinterland made of the fair. Lucas, a descendant of a Cromwellian settler, lived in the parish of Ruan about eight miles north of Ennis. He attended fairs within a fifteen miles radius of his farm. Along with the Clonroad fairs, he attended fairs at Clare, Ennis, Quin, and Spancilhill. In preparation for the July fair of Clonroad,Lucas had his servants drive his cattle from his out farm at Balingaddy, north of Ennistymon, to his home farm at Drumcavan. The evening before the fair he sent 30 two-year-old bullocks by three of his servants to Clonroad. Men and cattle travelled through the night to be on the fair green in the early morning."
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/.../ei ... _fairs.htm
Dal gCais number 5 (1979)
Litton, Francis J.(ed.): Diary of Farmer Lucas of Ruan, 101-103
Listing of 286 names is taken from Brian Ó Dálaigh’s article, ‘The Lucas diary 1740 -41’ which was published in
Analecta Hibernica volume 40, 2007, at pages 73 – 187
The Lucas family held lands at Drumcavan in Ruan parish and at Ballingaddy East in the parish of Kilmanaheen.
[original diary lost, copy is preserved]
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... 0_1741.htm
Lucas, Benjamin
Lucas, Catherine
Lucas, Connor
Lucas, Doll
Lucas, Doro
Lucas, Francis
Lucas, Jack
Lucas, Nancy
Lucas, Natt
Lucas, Samuel
Lucas, Timothy
Gore, Cousin
Gore, John
Gorman, William
Hill, Aunt
Hill, Michael
Hill, William