Gresson

Burke’s Colonial Gentry (1895) records a John Gresson of Augher, county Tyrone, who died in 1733. He had a son George of Swanlinbar, county Cavan, who married in 1748 Mary Cross and had a son William of Swanlinbar. William of Swanlinbar married Margaret daughter of Henry Leslie and had a son the Reverend George Leslie Gresson who married Alicia Winslow. One of their sons immigrated to New Zealand. Members of the Gresson family were clergymen and solicitors, one of whom, the Reverend Skelton Gresson, ministered in county Offaly (King’s County) in the early 19th century. The county Cavan estate of the Gressons was in the parish of Kinawley where the Reverend William R. Gresson held 5 townlands and George Gresson held one townland in the mid-19th century. In 1878 George Gresson, a Dublin solicitor, owned 1,050 acres in county Cavan, 51 acres in county Dublin and 312 acres in King’s County while the Reverend William R. Gresson of Larchvale, Moneygall, King’s County owned 1,705 acres in county Tyrone and 207 acres in county Wexford. In 1860, George Gresson built Glencairn House on the outskirts of Dublin city, now the home of the British Ambassador to Ireland.