Landed Estates
University of Galway

Kelly (Newtown)

A family with county Roscommon origins, members of 18th century generations of the Kellys served in the Austrian Army and were prominent landowners in Jamaica. In 1802 John Kelly bought the Newtown estate from the Brownes of Moyne and three generations of the family resided there in the 19th century. In the mid 19th century the estate amounted to nine townlands in the parish of Abbeyknockmoy, barony of Tiaquin, county Galway. Charles Kelly is recorded as the owner of over 2,000 acres in county Galway in the 1870s. Matilda, Countess de la Boisserie, wrote memoirs of her childhood at Newtown. In June 1885 Charles Kelly was advertising the sale of over 1,000 acres in the parish of Kilkerrin, barony of Tiaquin, county Galway and lands in the barony and county of Leitrim and in the baronies of Ballintober North and Athlone, county Roscommon. It is not clear if this is Charles Kelly of Newtown. The lands in the parish of Kilkerrin were leased to William Parke Cullen. The purchasers included John Marsham, Joseph Vaughan and the tenant of one of the properties, Michael Harrington.

Associated Families

Houses

Name Townland Civil Parish PLU DED Barony County Map Ref  
Newtown Newtown Abbeyknockmoy Tuam Abbey East 187 Tiaquin Galway OSI Ref: M531 436
OS Sheet: 58
Discovery map: 46 		Photo of Newtown
Farmhill Farmhill Abbeyknockmoy Tuam Abbey East 187 Tiaquin Galway OSI Ref: M525 426
OS Sheet: 58
Discovery map: 46

Archival sources

  • 4 letters from Miss Simons, governess at Newtown to Rev T. Dawson O.M.I., re social life, 1885. MS 18,518; National Library of Ireland
  • Copies and abstracts of wills of members of family of Kelly, mainly of Co Galway, from a narrative pedigree in French of the Kelly family, c 1680-1800. GO MS 415 ; National Library of Ireland
  • Typescript copy of extracts from the memoirs of the Countess Turquet de la Boisserie (nee Matilda O'Kelly of Newtown), with reference to many Co Galway landed families, 1865-1956. P25; James Hardiman Library, University of Galway
  • Land Judges’ Court Rentals (O’Brien), Kelly, 26 June 1885, Vol 149, MRGS 39/065, (microfilm copy in NUIG); National Archives of Ireland
  • Newtown House cuttings. 131/017 ; Irish Architectural Archive
  • Genealogical notes on Kelly of Newtown by Charles French Blake Foster, c 1865. MS 13,560; National Library of Ireland

Contemporary printed sources

Modern printed sources