Landed Estates
University of Galway

Erasmus Smith Schools, Governors (Munster)

In 1666 Erasmus Smith, a London alderman and philanthropist, was granted 21,067 acres in county Tipperary and 12,596 acres in county Louth, with about 500 acres in the barony of Coonagh, county Limerick and 300 acres in county Meath under the Cromwellian land settlement. Some of this land was used to support his schools but an estate in county Tipperary remained in his own hands and was later inherited by his granddaughters Dorothy and Lucy Smith who married respectively John Barry and Lord Strange (Stanley) in the mid 18th century. Other lands in counties Galway and Limerick were granted to the trustees for the charity of Erasmus Smith in 1667 and in counties Tipperary and Limerick in 1669. At the time of Griffith's Valuation estates in the parishes of Grean, Ballynaclogh and Doon, barony of Coonagh, county Limerick and Cordangan, Corroge and Solloghodbeg, barony of Clanwilliam, Clogher, barony of Kilnamanagh Lower, Moyaliff, barony of Kilnamanagh Upper, county Tipperary, were held by the Governors or Trustees of the Erasmus Smith Schools. The county Limerick estate amounted to 4,279 acres and the county Tipperary estate to 2,903 acres in the 1870s. http://www.ancestryireland.com/hip_statutes.php?filename=3.6

Associated Families

Houses

Name Townland Civil Parish PLU DED Barony County Map Ref  
Pallas House Pallashill Grean Tipperary No 2 Grean 146 Coonagh Limerick OSI Ref: R759 442
OS Sheet: 24
Discovery map: 65 		Photo of Pallas House
Prospect Villa (Inishannon) Laherfineen Inishannon Bandon Inishannon Kinalea Cork OSI Ref: W542573
OS Sheet: 97
Discovery map: 87

Archival sources

  • Records of the Trust's estates including rentals, maps, valuations, correspondence, land agents' letter books, Southern estate leases & property deeds, Western estate leases & property deeds, Irish Land Commission, circa 1670-1970; Erasmus Smith Trust Archives
  • 15 maps of lands of Pallas, etc, Co Limerick, estate of Governors of Erasmus Smith’s schools, with tenants’ names, 1818. 21 F 130; National Library of Ireland
  • Letters and papers of Commissioners of Education in Ireland relating to Erasmus Smith foundations; mainly evidence given to commission of inquiry into funds of endowed schools, 1788; including evidence of agent to Governors and of masters of schools at Nenagh, Tipperary, Valentia; list of pupils at Tarbert, 1809; scheme under Educational Endowments Act (1885); 1788-1892. Dr. Michael Quane Papers, Ms. 17,935 ; National Library of Ireland
  • Extracts from the registry books of the Governors of the Schools Founded by Erasmus Smith, c.1674-1942; including original documents relating to litigation (c.1929-42) of the Governors or the Attorney General for Saorstat Eireann; three bound volumes. Dr. Michael Quane Papers, Mss. 16,929-31 ; National Library of Ireland
  • Map of the Estate of the Governors of the School founded by Erasmus Smith Esq. situate in the County of Tipperary, including re-capitulation and census of the County Tipperary estate in 1835 comprising the townlands of Drumbane, Poolavarla, Solohod-Beg, Tipperary Abbey Lands, Rathsisseragh Abbey Lands. 999/448; National Archives of Ireland
  • Conveyance from the Governors of the Erasmus Smith Schools to the Commissioners for administering the laws for the relief of the poor in Ireland 27 February 1850 of part of their Tipperary estate (55 perches) parish of Cordangan (site of workhouse mapped on verso). Miscellaneous vellum deeds 137. IE TCD MS 9270; Trinity College Dublin

Contemporary printed sources

Modern printed sources