Estate: Hall (Knockbrack)

Associated Families

• Bodkin (Castletown & Mountsilk)
• Hall (Knockbrack)
• Burke (Tiaquin)
• Hall (Woodfield)

Description

The Halls were an English family who settled in the north of Ireland at Narrow Water, county Down, in the 17th century. The Knockbrack branch are descended from a younger son and appear to have begun their connection with county Galway in the late 18th century, when the Reverend Francis Hall became Rector of Aughrim. Family members pursued careers in the army and church. General Henry Hall bought about half of the Tiaquin estate of the Burkes, which was advertised for sale in the Encumbered Estates' Court in October 1851. He built a house in the townland of Knockbrack, which he called Mairwarra, after a place in India, but by the late 19th century the house was called Knockbrack. The Hall estate was in the parish of Monivea, barony of Tiaquin, county Galway, and in the 1870s amounted to 4,139 acres in county Galway and 232 acres in county Fermanagh. Pádraig Lane records that Henry Hall also bought the Bodkin estate of 347 acres at Bingarra. In 1906 Henry T. Hall held over 1000 acres of untenanted land and the mansion house at Knockbrack. Deposits of Hall of Narrow Water papers in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland do not appear to relate to any property in Connacht.

Houses

House Name / Description	Townland	Civil Parish	PLU	DED	Barony	County	Map Ref
Bingarra (H858) Occupied by James Clarke in the mid 1850s, leasing from the Bodkin estate and advertised for sale in Nov 1855. Modern buildings exist at the site now.	Bingarra	Monivea	Loughrea	Graigabbey 113	Tiaquin	Galway	Lat/Lon: 53.32813 -8.69649 OSI Ref: M536311 Discovery map #46. OS Sheet #84.
Knockbrack (H870) A house built in the early 1850s by the Hall family and occupied by them until 1922. In 1906 it was valued at £36. The roof of the house was later removed. Only the outline of the basement walls now remain. The farmyard buildings are still used by the Feeney family.	Knockbrack	Monivea	Loughrea	Tiaquin 118	Tiaquin	Galway	Lat/Lon: 53.34870 -8.71334 OSI Ref: M525 334 Discovery map #46. OS Sheet #71.

Archival sources

• Public Record Office, Northern Ireland: Hall, with reference to the Co Down estate of the Rev Francis Hall of Aughrim. D/424
• Public Record Office, Northern Ireland: Hall of Narrow Water, Co Down. D/1540, D/2090 & T/1718

Contemporary printed sources

• GRIFFITH'S VALUATION OF IRELAND, 1850-1858. : Loughrea Union, 84
• HUSSEY DE BURGH, U. H. The Landowners of Ireland. An alphabetical list of the owners of estates of 500 acres or £500 valuation and upwards in Ireland. Dublin: Hodges, Foster and Figgis, 1878: 198
• PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS. Return of Untenanted Lands in Rural Districts, Distinguishing Demesnes on Which There is a Mansion..., HC 1906, c, 177: 326.
• PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS. Return of owners of land of one acre and upwards, in the several counties .... in Ireland. HC 1876, LXXX: 296
• SLATER, Isaac. Royal National Directory of Ireland: List of the principal seats. (Manchester: 1894) : xxix, 78 (Knockbrack)

Modern printed sources

• BURKE, Sir Bernard. A genealogical and heraldic history of the Landed Gentry of Ireland. London: Harrison & Sons, 1904: 238-239
• LANE, Pádraig. The Encumbered Estates Court and Galway Land Ownership, 1849-58. In MORAN, Gerard (ed). History & Society. Dublin: Geography Publications, 1996 : 395-419

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