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Rochfort (Clogrenan)
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A junior branch of the Rochforts, who became Earls of Belvedere. This Rochfort family were established at Clogrenan, parish of Cloydagh, county Carlow, from the early 18th century. They acquired lands in the parish of Annaghdown, barony of Clare, county Galway, through the marriage of John Rochfort and a daughter of Thomas Staunton, Member of Parliament, in 1722. A sale rental of estates in counties Galway and Wexford dated 1856 shows that most of the county Galway lands were held in fee simple but some were held on a lease dated 9 April 1781 from John Skerrett to John Rochford. The county Galway estate included a townland in the parish of Ahascragh, barony of Killian, also recorded as the property of Col. Rochfort in the Ordnance Survey Name Books. The barony of Clare estate was bought by a branch of the Blake family. John Egan was agent for the Rochfort estate in the 1830s and held one of the townlands at the time of Griffith's Valuation.
By the mid-19th century John Downes Rochfort, second son of Colonel John Staunton Rochfort of Clogrenane, county Carlow, owned the Bawnboy estate in the parish of Templeport, barony of Tullyhaw, county Cavan. In 1878, he was recorded as the owner of 620 acres in county Cavan and 194 acres in county Meath.
Col John Staunton Rochfort of Clogrenan had two sons, half-brothers, Horace William Noel Rochfort, born 1809, of Clogrenan and John Downes Rochfort, born 1825, of London, Bawnboy and Lisnagree, county Westmeath according to Burkes. An estate comprised of 501 acres, including part of Lisnagree, was for sale in the Encumbered Estates Court in May 1858. Horatio William Rochfort was the owner and John Downes Rochfort the petitioner. John Downes Rochfort owned 194 acres in county Westmeath in 1878.
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