O'Kelly family of Cascade Lodge, Lissyneillan

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pwaldron
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O'Kelly family of Cascade Lodge, Lissyneillan

Post by pwaldron » Sun Apr 15, 2018 12:39 am

In the index to the Kilmurry Ibrickan baptismal register kept in the parish, some person or persons has written in two different colour inks above the children of William Kelly and Cath Kennedy: "Craggaknock" and "Cascade Lodge". Cath Kennedy's nephew James Griffin, born in 1870, wrote a family history which has since been edited and rewritten by his son and grandson. It says "First Daughter Kate Kennedy: – Mrs Kelly, married on a farm at Annagh near Mullagh." In Houses of Clare (p. 65), Hugh Weir lists Cascade Lodge, and says that it is in the townland of Annagh, in the north of Kilmurry Ibrickan parish.

After searching in vain in the townland of Annagh, I eventually found Cascade Lodge on the 1840 OSi map in the townland of Lissyneilan, near Annageeragh Mill and Annageeragh Waterfall and close to Craggaknock in the south of Kilmurry Ibrickan parish.

Someone with better local knowledge than mine might be able to confirm whether Annagh is used as an unofficial place name in this part of the parish.

Added to the satisfaction of locating an elusive house was the discovery in the newspaper archives of a remarkable case at the Ennis Assizes in 1832 giving a great deal of genealogical evidence about the (O')Kelly family of Cascade Lodge (see below).

The Griffin family history dismisses the Kelly family with "The family emigrated to America. None stayed at home."

Are their descendants out there somewhere looking for this story?

And who succeeded them in Cascade Lodge? Here it is in Google Street View.

Cork Constitution - Saturday 07 April 1832
LADY CLARE CASE.
Timothy Killeen and Thomas Crawford were put forward,charged with having feloniously assaulted the house of Patrick O'Kelly, Esq., of Cascade-Lodge, on the 15th of April, 1831.
Patrick O'Kelly sworn and examined by Mr. Bennett- Lives at Cascade-Lodge; was attacked and his house broken into on the night of the 15th of April, 1831; the party demanded his arms; told them that he would not part with his arms but with his life; slept on a loft in the house in order to be better able to resist the Terries should they visit him; the party broke open his chests, and upon finding a cloving-tongs in one of them, they exclaimed 'Terry, we have the gun." [Here he identified the prisoners.]
Ellen Kelly sworn and examined by Mr. Bennett. — Is daughter to the last witness — recollects the night of the attack; slept on the loft with her sister; knew the prisoners, whom she identified.
Lucy O'Kelly, a small child, sworn, and examined by Mr. Bennett. - Is daughter of the prosecutor, and sister to Ellen Montprivit Montero Noble Fitzero Shoulderman Cox O'Kelly; saw the prisoners among the gang on the night of the attack; slept with her sister on the loft.
Wm. Kelly, the son, sworn and examined by Mr. Bennett - Knows the prisoners, who were among the party that attacked the house; saw his mother among them talking for upwards of half an hour; his mother begged of his father to give up the arms; his father refused to do so; the turf cut before the attack.
Bridget Halloran swore that she slept in the house the night it was burned, but did not on the night of the attack.
DEFENCE.
Margaret Killeen, alias Lady Clare, sworn and examined by Mr. Cullinan. — She was dressed as Lady Clare, in a suit of white, straw bonnet and veil; was sent for by O'Kelly, and his daughter dressed her in her own clothes; refused at first, but young O'Kelly presented a double-barrelled gun at her, and said he would blow her brains out if she resisted; the object of so dressing her was to frighten the nephew Coghlan, in order that he might not demand the money from O'Kelly; — went out the back-door and followed Coghlan, who, upon her presenting the gun at him, went on his knees and begged for mercy; she then turned back, and on her way, told several persons whom she met not to be in dread; she threw the veil a [sic] one side, to convince them who she was; she saw many persons assembling to view her; did not know which end of the gun to put forward until young O'Kelly shewed her; Joseph Coghlan ran across the river from her; lost part of her dress; sold whiskey; returned the dress to Miss O'Kelly.
Cross-examined — Carried the gun on her shoulder.
[Here Mr. Bennett ordered her to shew how she presented the gun, and doing so with the crier's rod, she created roars of laughter, in which she herself joined — During the examination the Court was kept in roars of laughter.]
Mr. P. Foley, deposed to having seen "Lady Clare," as described by herself; that he spoke to her and knew her perfectly well; that he was fishing at the time, and was alarmed upon hearing a man plunge into the water, running away from the "lady." The Learned Judge having charged the Jury, they retired, and remained in the jury room over an hour, when they returned a verdict of guilty.

Kerry Evening Post. - Wednesday 11 April 1832
ENNIS ASSIZES.
Wednesday. Timothy Killeen and Thomas Crawford were tried before Judge Moore, for an assault with intent to rob and demand arms from Patrick O'Kelly, of Cascade-lodge, near Miltown Malbay. The prosecution for this, a transportable felony, was conducted by the Crown.
Mr. O'Kelly was examined - The prisoners, with another party, broke into his house at night, and demanded his fire arms or they would shoot him. He told told [sic] them he would only surrender the arms with his life, and bid them commence the work of death as soon as they pleased. He had a double barrel gun and musket in his room. The prisoners broke open two chests in search of them; and they went off without having got them, his house was burned to ashes by the Terries not long before.
Cross-examined - Was worth £200 a year, and took the benefit of the Insolvent Act, is now allowed £80 a year under the Court. It is likely he may have been drunk in the day time, the prisoners were in the kitchen of the house, they were disguised.
How did they disguise themselves? - Running about and speaking! - (laughter.) Knew them since they were children, had some liquor in when he called the Police to take them afterwards. Swears he never gave a double barrel gun to the Terries, it was always in his possession - was decreed by one of his neighbours, but paid the sum due since.
Ellen and Wm. O'Kelly, identified the prisoners, and corroborated their father's testimony as to the attack.
Margaret Killeen, an Irish witness, was sworn for the defence, and her answers were interpreted, she gave the following very singular account of herself:- I was dressed as Lady Clare this time last year, I was dressed in a white gown, green shawl and bonnet, which belonged to Mr. O'Kelly's daughters, who it was put them on me; their brother Wm. Kelly came for me and I went with him to their house, it was he gave me the gun, when I was going out of the room, they bid me visit Mr. O'Kelly's tenants and order them to sell their potatoes cheap, also to go to a man who had a decree against him, I followed that man but not far, for he threw himself on his knees before me, he ran away from me through a river first.
Cross-examined by Mr. Bennett - Mr. O'Kelly swore against my husband for burning his house, and I swore afterwards that he himself burned it. - it was about breakfast time I was sent out as Lady Clare, William Kelly pointed the gun at me in the room and said I should never leave it unless I consented to be dressed, the gun he gave me was loaded, I knew it was loaded, for I saw the father make his son put powder and shot into it, the man who had the decree mas in another room with old Kelly while I was dressing, Kelly's daughter went into that room and said Lady Clare was coming, and the men [sic] ran away, then I was desired by the family to go round and follow him, which I did. Young Kelly came out the door with me, and stopped me to settle the gun on my shoulder for I did not know how to carry it. I went on and presented the gun at the man about 30 yards off, & he fell on his knees at once, and begged me to spare his life - (Witness here described how she presented the gun by pointing the Crier's rod, while the awkward movement and position of the woman caused great laughter) - that man was old Kelly's nephew. I lost a belt I had round my waist that day, and the man who picked it up was afraid to come near me, until he saw who I was - I never was dressed so before or since. I had no cover or disguise on my face that day, for it was coloured enough before.
In appearance the witness was a good representative of the great and formidable heroine whose name and dress she had assumed - tall and strong the figure, with bronze rough features, and about 50 years [of] age.
A witness, on [sic] the name of Foley, swore he saw the last witness as Lady Clare come out of Kelly's house, and pursue a man who fell on his knees before her - took up a belt that fell from her and returned it. William Kelly and Ellen Kelly were recalled and directly contradicted the evidence of Margaret Killeen.
Mrs. O'Kelly sworn - corroborated the preceding evidence, and swore herself and husband were never drunk since they were born, her first child is 16 years and was born before she was herself married.
The swearing of the witnesses examined in this case was most contradictory, as three on the defence persisted they saw Lady Clare coming out of Mr. O'Kelly's house with his gun in her hand. The investigation was tedious and uninteresting unless so far as the novel and striking appearance of a Lady Clare in person on the table, and her description of the extraordinary process she was put through by Mr. O'Kelly's family as she alledged [sic].
In charging the Jury, Judge Moore declared it was the most extraordinary case that ever came for trial before him. The Jury continued in deliberation for near two hours and then found a verdict of Guilty after which the Court adjourned at 6 o'clock.

Nottingham Journal - Saturday 21 April 1832
Ennis Assizes ... Timothy Killeen and Thomas Crawford were tried, for attacking the house of Mr. Patrick O'Kelly, of Cascade Lodge. Verdict, guilty. Sentence, transportation.

kbarlow
Posts: 160
Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 12:07 am

Re: O'Kelly family of Cascade Lodge, Lissyneillan

Post by kbarlow » Sun Apr 15, 2018 2:06 am

People probably know this excellent website - containing Irish convicts sent to Oz. I found both Timothy Killeen and Thomas Crawford sent on the same ship.

http://members.pcug.org.au/~ppmay/cgi-b ... /irish.cgi

http://members.pcug.org.au/~ppmay/cgi-b ... /irish.cgi

The authorities often used "stooges" to put suspected "Terries" on trial. Some sources say they knew about animosities between various local families and played into these to try to convict "trouble-makers". Given the composition of many juries with hand-picked locals, securing convictions may not have been too difficult.

Kerry

Sduddy
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Re: O'Kelly family of Cascade Lodge, Lissyneillan

Post by Sduddy » Sun Apr 15, 2018 2:17 pm

That story rivals any of those mad stories by William Carleton. I can’t figure out for the life of me what was really going on.

There’s a mention of Cascade Lodge in the Landed Estates site in a piece about Kenny (Freigh Castle): “According to the Cecil S. Kenny material in the National Library of Ireland, Matthias Kenny of Freagh Castle, county Clare, [born 1778] married Maria O'Kelly, daughter of Patrick O'Kelly of Cascade Lodge. Matthias was succeeded by his son, Michael Kenny, who married Bridget Frost of Bunkers Hill, Ballymorris, sister of James Frost who wrote ''The History and Topography of the county of Clare''. Their third son was Mathew Joseph Kenny, a barrister and Member of Parliament, 1882-1885, and for mid Tyrone, 1885-1895. A cousin, also named Matthew Kenny, a solicitor, with addresses at Ennis, county Clare and Gardiner St. Dublin, held over 1000 acres in county Galway in the 1870s as well as over 1400 acres in county Clare. He or his son and namesake may also have held almost 500 acres of untenanted land in the parish of Moycullen, county Galway, in 1906”. http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/Lande ... sp?q=James

I like the representation of the Cascade house garden in the osi map. In the making of that map, when it came to depicting gardens, the engravers forgot about reality and used the opportunity to show their skills at designing something really fancy.

Sheila

pwaldron
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Re: O'Kelly family of Cascade Lodge, Lissyneillan

Post by pwaldron » Sun Apr 15, 2018 9:11 pm

Matthias Kenny's wife was actually a widow and by her first marriage was the mother of the Joseph Coghlan mentioned above, who appears to have obtained a decree against his uncle Patrick O'Kelly for a debt.

pwaldron
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Re: O'Kelly family of Cascade Lodge, Lissyneillan

Post by pwaldron » Mon Apr 30, 2018 1:47 pm

Not only is Annagh an unofficial place name for the area around Cascade Lodge in Lissyneillan and an official townland name for a townland in Kilmurry DED in Cragaknock dispensary district, but there is also an Annagh DED in Milltown Malbay dispensary district, adjoining Kilmurry DED. See this map.

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