Landed Estates
University of Galway

Roe (Rockwell)

The will of Jane Roe of Dublin, widow of Doctor William Roe, dated 6 February 1744, refers to her son, Andrew Roe, and to lands at Graystown and Burnchurch, county Tipperary and also to her daughter, Mary Walsh. In June 1856 the estate of Andrew Roe Walsh [237 acres] at Tullamain was advertised for sale. At the beginning of the 19th century John Roe was living at Rockwell, county Tipperary. John Roe married Eliza Sankey and their eldest son William [born in 1810] became a barrister. In 1835 he married Elizabeth Hickman Clarke. William Roe was shot dead in 1847. At the time of Griffith's Valuation the representatives of William Roe held land in the parishes of Boytonrath and Knockgraffon, barony of Middlethird. In May 1856 the estate (1,760 acres) of Richard John Roe and of John Richard Roe a minor was advertised for sale. The Rockwell school's history states that the property "passed into the possession of Monsieur Charles Thiebault, a wealthy French Catholic with business in Dundee, Scotland". ''The Annual Register of World Events" records that his brother, Monsieur Gustave Thiebault, also bought a property nearby at Boytonrath and was murdered near the gates of Rockwell, where he lived, in 1862. The Irish Tourist Association surveyor writes that to expiate this crime Charles Thiebault established an institution to inspire future generations and so the Order or Society of Mary or Marist Fathers was established at Rockwell, to be replaced in 1864 by the Holy Ghost Fathers. The school history states that it was donated to "the Scottish Bishops", from whom it was purchased in 1877 by the Holy Ghost Fathers, who had been resident at Rockwell from 1864. Elizabeth Hickman Roe retired to Leamington in Warwickshire where she lived with her daughters until her death in the 1890s. Over 150 acres belonging to her at Curraghscarteen, barony of Middlethird were advertised for sale in 1879. In December 1875 the Irish Times reported that lands at Boytonrath, in the barony of Middlethird, the property of Jules Lobez and others, were sold by private contract to James Myers for over £11,000.

Associated Families

Houses

Name Townland Civil Parish PLU DED Barony County Map Ref  
Rockwell Rockwell Knockgraffon Cashel Killeenasteena 55 Middlethird Tipperary OSI Ref: S073 341
OS Sheet: 69
Discovery map: 66 		Photo of Rockwell
Boytonrath Boytonrath Boytonrath Cashel Killeenasteena 55 Middlethird Tipperary OSI Ref: S056 342
OS Sheet: 68
Discovery map: 66
Belle Vue Boytonrath Boytonrath Cashel Killeenasteena 55 Middlethird Tipperary OSI Ref: S042 337
OS Sheet: 68
Discovery map: 66 		Photo of Belle Vue

Archival sources

  • Encumbered Estates’ Court Rentals (O’Brien), Roe, 20 May 1856, Vol 40 (3), MRGS 39/019, (microfilm copy in NUIG); National Archives of Ireland
  • Documents relating to the Bunbury family and their estates at Gracetown, Co. Tipperary, including marriage settlements of W. Roe and Jane Greene, Sept. 1713, T. Lloyd and Elizabeth Bunbury, April, 1807, (1713, 1744, 1790-1828). M.5427; National Archives of Ireland
  • Land Judges’ Court Rentals (O’Brien), Roe, 7 Nov 1879, Vol 137 (21), MRGS 39/061, (microfilm copy in NUIG); National Archives of Ireland
  • Copy probates of wills of Elizabeth Hickman Roe (24 Feb 1880) and Mary Elizabeth Roe (19 Sept 1918) of Leamington, Warwickshire, 1898 & 1919. 999/82; National Archives of Ireland
  • Encumbered Estates’ Court Rentals (O’Brien), Walsh, 17 June 1856, Vol 40 (46), MRGS 39/019, (microfilm copy in NUIG) ; National Archives of Ireland
  • Irish Tourist Association Survey file, early 1940s, South Tipperary, No. 28 (Rockwell); Tipperary Studies Research Library (Archives), Thurles

Contemporary printed sources

Modern printed sources