Landed Estates
University of Galway

Prior

The Reverend John Prior and Thomas Young Prior were sons of the Reverend Thomas Prior, Senior Fellow and Vice Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. From the mid 18th century the Priors held a small estate at Crossoge and Lisnasella, parish of Ballycahill, near Thurles, county Tipperary from the Armstrongs of Farney Castle. In 1836 the Reverend John Prior of Mount Dillon, county Dublin, rector of Kirklington, Yorkshire, married Sarah Wandesforde who in 1881 succeeded to the Castlecomer and Kirklington estates of the Wandesforde family and the family became known as Prior Wandesforde. In Griffith's Valuation the Reverend John Prior is recorded as the immediate lessor of two townlands in the parish of Ballycahill. His eldest son Charles Butler Prior lived at Crossogue House, county Tipperary and married in 1866 Dora Phillips of Gaile, county Tipperary. The representatives of Charles B. Prior of Crossoge held 92 acres in the 1870s. Thomas Young Prior, barrister at law, was the youngest son of the Reverend Thomas Prior and in 1843 married at Leamington, Warwickshire, Jane Matilda, daughter of the Reverend Robert Russell of Ashbrook, county Fermanagh (see ''The Illustrated London News'', 30 June 1843). In the second half of the 19th century Thomas Young Prior leased an estate of about 1,000 acres from Robert Graham in the parish of Ballynakill, barony of Ballynahinch, county Galway. His headquarters was at Ross where the Coastguard had previously built a small house and 3 large barns. In the 1870s Thomas Y. Prior owned 1,084 acres in county Galway. Robinson writes that the estate was bought by William Armstrong Lushington Tulloch in 1894. It was later sold by the Tullochs to the Land Commission.

Associated Families

Houses

Name Townland Civil Parish PLU DED Barony County Map Ref  
Ross House Ross Ballynakill Clifden Ballynakill 28 Ballynahinch Galway OSI Ref: L667 592
OS Sheet: 22
Discovery map: 37 		Photo of Ross House
Crossoge Crossoge Ballycahill Thurles Ballycahill 127 Kilnamanagh Upper Tipperary OSI Ref: S060 579
OS Sheet: 40
Discovery map: 66 		Photo of Crossoge

Archival sources

  • Prior Wandesforde Papers, Collection List 52, Mss 35,471-35,475 & index; National Library of Ireland
  • Pedigree of Prior of Lisnesallagh, also Crossogue, Co. Tipperary, also of Mount Dillon, Co. Dublin. c.1700-1843. Genealogical Office Ms 174, 518-519; National Library of Ireland
  • Copy of grant of arms to Sarah Prior widow of Rev. John Prior of Mount Dillon, Co. Dublin and only surviving daughter of the Hon. Charles Harward Butler Clarke Southwell Wandesforde of Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, on her assuming under Royal Licence the name and arms of Prior Wandesforde, Oct. 10, 1882. Genealogical Office: Ms. 110, pp. 35-6 ; National Library of Ireland
  • Copy of exemplification of arms to Richard Henry Prior of Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, eldest son of Charles Butler Prior and grandson of Rev. John Prior by Sarah, daughter of the Hon. Charles H. B. C. S. Wandesforde of Castlecomer on his assuming under Royal Licence the name and arms of Prior Wandesforde, June 16, 1894. Genealogical Office: Ms. 110, pp. 167-8 ; National Library of Ireland
  • Copy of certificate of arms to Henry Wallis Prior-Wandesforde of Crossogue House, Co. Tipperary, Jan. 31, 1895. Genealogical Office: Ms. 110, pp. 173-4 ; National Library of Ireland

Contemporary printed sources

Modern printed sources