Blaquiere/Blacquiere/de Blaquiere
This family descend from an émigré Hugenot merchant. John de Blaquiere of Ardkill, County Londonderry (1732-1812) who was Chief Secretary in Ireland and an MP. Woods writes that he purchased his county Westmeath estate from the Earls of Belvedere. He built the house Portloman and ‘also laid out and completed the gardens, amongst the finest, and most perfect and productive of the day’. (Woods, 80). At the time of Griffith’s Valuation (publ. 1854), his descendant John de Blaquiere was an immediate lessor in the County Westmeath parishes of Templeoran, Portloman and Mullingar. In June 1866 the de Blaquiere estate, comprised of 1,228 acres, was for sale in the Landed Estates Court. By the 1870s the de Blaquiere estate in the county was reduced to 8 acres. The Blacquieres also owned an estate in county Galway, amounting to over 800 acres in the parish of Beagh, barony of Kiltartan, in the 1870s. James Blaquiere was the petitioner to a sale in the Encumbered estates court in January 1866 relating to property in the town of Gort, owned by the Nestor family. Later in the 1880s Thomas Blaquiere appears to have acquired an interest in the Derryowen estate of the Lopdell family, in the barony of Inchiquin, county Clare. He was advertising the sale of this estate in July 1889.
Associated Families
Houses
| Name | Townland | Civil Parish | PLU | DED | Barony | County | Map Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castle Lodge/Fiddane House | Fiddaun | Beagh | Gort | Beagh 98 | Kiltartan | Galway |
OSI Ref: R404950
OS Sheet: 128 Discovery map: 52 |
|
| Rindifin Cottage | Rindifin | Beagh | Gort | Gort 99 | Kiltartan | Galway |
OSI Ref: M457008
OS Sheet: 129 Discovery map: 52 |
|
Archival sources
- Correspondence of John Blaquière, mainly relating to contemporary politics in Ireland, 1797-1811; with seven other documents on the same subject, 1775, 1818, 1825. Ms. 877 ; National Library of Ireland
- Notes on members of the Irish Parliament, c.1782-1783 [possibly by Sir John de Blaquiere]; James Hardiman Library, University of Galway
- Landed Estates' Court Rentals (O'Brien), de Blaquiere, 28 June 1866, Vol 82 (6), MRGS 39/040, (microfilm copy in UG); National Archives of Ireland
Contemporary printed sources
- ''GRIFFITH'S VALUATION OF IRELAND'[Primary Valuation of Tenements]', 1850-1858. : Gort Union, 22.
- 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. [available online at www.askaboutireland.ie] : 37.
- LEWIS, Samuel. ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland''. London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837: Vol I. 189.
- ''GRIFFITH'S VALUATION OF IRELAND'[Primary Valuation of Tenements]', 1850-1858. : Mullingar Union, 76 (Portloman)
- LEET, Ambrose. ''A directory to the market towns, villages, gentlemen's seats, and other noted places in Ireland''. Dublin: Printed by B. Smith, 1814 : 321
- LEWIS, Samuel. ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland''. London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837: II, 466
- PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS. ''Return of Untenanted Lands in Rural Districts, Distinguishing Demesnes on Which There is a Mansion...'', HC 1906, c, 177: 369
Modern printed sources
- ''Analecta Hibernica'': MacLYSAGHT, Edward. Report on de Blaquiere letters. XV (1944), 380-381
- ''Irish Times'': Sale announcement notice, 6 July 1889, p.6.
- Woods, James. ''Annals of Westmeath Ancient and Modern''. Dublin: Sealy, Bryers and Walker, (1907): 80
- O'Brien, Donal. ''The Houses and Landed Families of Westmeath''. The author, Athlone (2nd edition 2015): 61, 162