Bingham

Family title

Earl of Lucan

Description

The 1st Countess was a well known amateur painter and the 3rd Earl is best remembered for his association with the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava in the Crimea in 1854.

Estate(s)

Name	Description
Buchanan (Prospect)	The Buchanans, a legal family, had a small estate of church land at Fahburren, in the parish of Oughaval, barony of Murrisk, county Mayo, which they held from the Earl of Lucan. In 1876 Robert Buchanan of Dublin and Prospect House owned 697 acres in county Mayo. By March 1916 Mrs Buchanan had accepted an offer from the Congested Districts' Board for 535 acres in county Mayo.
Higgins (Westport)	In 1703 Bryan Higgins bought part of the estate of Gerald Dillon of Feamore, county Mayo, from the Trustees for the sale of forfeited estates. He also held some of the lands of the Browne family of Westport, county Mayo, when they were in financial difficulties at the beginning of the 18th century. These lands in time reverted to the Brownes. Later generations of Higgins held property in the town of Westport from the Marquessess of Sligo. One member of the family Charles Fitzgerald Higgins went bankrupt in the mid 1850s. In 1866 he sold his property at Streamstown, parish of Oughaval, which he held from the Earl of Lucan. In 1851 the Higgins bought part of the Glencorrib estate, which was sold by Arthur Dillon Browne following the death of his father Robert in 1850 and the townland of Ballynalty from the sale of the Cannon estate by John Fair. Like Robert Dillon Browne, George Gore Ouseley Higgins represented county Mayo in Parliament. He died in 1874 and after the death in 1903 of his sister, a nun in the Ursuline Convent, Cork, the estate was inherited by his cousin, General John Palmer Brabazon, a member of the Brabazon family of Brabazon Park, Swinford. It was sold in 1921 to the Land Commission.
Davis	Neal Davis was attorney and agent to the Earl of Lucan.
Kearney	A junior branch of the Kearneys of Blanchville, county Kilkenny settled in county Mayo in the late 17th century. Their estate mainly in the parish of Turlough, barony of Carra, county Mayo, was held from the Earls of Lucan on a lease renewable for ever in the 18th and 19th centuries. The original lease was from Sir Henry Bingham to Robert Kearney, dated 25 Apr 1700. The Kearney estate of 1549 acres was sold in the Landed Estates' Court in July 1861 .
Faulkner	James Faulkner, lessee of the tolls and customs and a prominent citizen of Castlebar, bought the Pheasant Hill estate of the Sheridans in 1876. In 1899 he sold the estate to the Congested Districts Board.
Bingham	The Binghams were military commanders sent to Connacht in the 16th century, where they settled in the Castlebar area. Sir Henry Bingham was granted large tracts of land in county Mayo at the end of the 17th century and he added to these by purchases, including some of the estate of Colonel John Browne of Westport. He also bought lands in the baronies of Carra and Gallen from the trustees for the sale of forfeited estates. Although the owners of one of the largest estate in county Mayo the Earls of Lucan were absentee landlords, pursuing political and military careers elsewhere, while their Mayo estates were administered by agents. By the 19th century their estate was concentrated in the parishes of Aglish, Turlough and Ballyhean in the barony of Carra; Ballinrobe in the barony of Kilmaine; Killedan in the barony of Gallen; Kilmaclasser in the barony of Burrishoole; Oughaval and Kilgeever in the barony of Murrisk. In 1876 the Earl owned 60,570 acres in county Mayo. From July 1898 parts of the Lucan estate in county Mayo began to be sold to the Congested Districts' Board. In 1905 over 40,000 acres were purchased by the Board for a cost of over £100,000 and in July 1911 another 10,000+ acres were bought. The Lucan Estates Company was set up in 1925. The Earls of Lucan also owned an estate of over 1,000 acres at Laleham in Middlesex. See also http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/big-houses-of-ireland/the-lucans-of-laleham/
Ellison	Burke records that this family came to the west of Ireland in the mid 17th century from Newcastle on Tyne. They settled at Castlebar and Castletown in the parish of Cong, barony of Kilmaine, county Mayo in the 18th century. Family members entered the Church and became agents to the Earls of Lucan and resided at Rockland, Soho (possibly Ballynew) and Tallyhoe in the Castlebar area. The Reverend Thomas Ellison was in Killala at the time of the 1798 Rebellion but the family appear to have moved away from the Castlebar area in the 19th century. They acquired some land in county Roscommon, 286 acres of which was vested in the Congested Districts' Board in the early 20th century. By marriage they were connected to the Binghams, Arbuthnots, Macartneys and Baron Mountjoys.
O'Malley (Hawthorn)	The descendants of Charles O'Malley of Belclare, barony of Murrisk, county Mayo, were settled in the Castlebar locality by the mid 18th century, where they leased land from the Cuffs and the Brownes. They also held land in county Galway and had a residence at Prospect, near Eyrecourt. Charles O'Malley and his son, St Clair O'Malley, acted as agents for the Earls of Lucan in the mid nineteenth century. A distinguished diplomat of the 20th century, Sir Owen St Clair O'Malley, was a member of this family. He was married to the novelist Ann Bridge.
Fair (Levally)	In the early 19th century a branch of the Fair family held the lands of Levally and Cappagory situated just outside Ballinrobe, in the barony of Kilmaine, county Mayo, from the Ruttledges of Bloomfield. By the time of Griffith's Valuation Levally was part of the farm leased by James Simpson from the Earl of Lucan. At the time of Griffith's Valuation the representatives of Robert Fair held the townland of Cloonacauneen, parish of Oranmore, in the county of the town of Galway. He had acquired this land in 1843 from the Cullinanes. The townland remained in the possession of the Fair family until 1911 when it was vested in the Congested Districts Board by Robert and Maria Alicia Julia Fair. In the 1870s Frances Mary Fair owned a total of 478 acres in county Galway.
Simpson (Cloonnagashel)	James Simpson, a Scottish farmer and innovator, held the farm of Cloonnagashel, about 2200 acres in the parish of Ballinrobe, county Mayo, from the 3rd Earl of Lucan, from 1855 until the early 1880s. There was a court case between them in the early 1880s over compensation for improvements made by Simpson. He also rented the farm at Kilrush, parish of Kilcommon, from the Lindseys and died there in 1898.
Gildea	The Gildeas were established at Port Royal in county Mayo from early in the 18th century, where they held an estate of church lands in the parish of Ballyovey, barony of Carra. Thomas Fair of Roundfort was agent to James Gildea in the 1830s. From early in the 18th century the Gildeas also leased Cloonnagashel in the parish of Ballinrobe from the Bingham family, Earls of Lucan. In 1865 James Knox Gildea was advertising for sale over 10,000 acres in the barony of Ross, county Galway and in the baronies of Carra, Clanmorris and Kilmaine, county Mayo. Most of the county Galway part of the estate was sold to the Earl of Leitrim. Part of the Portroyal estate was sold to Thomas K. Sullivan of Bandon while the Caher estate was sold to Francis Browne. The following year the Port Royal estate of 5,480 acres was purchased by the National Land and Building Investment Company for £9,000. In the early 19th century the Gildeas moved their main residence from Port Royal to Clooncormick in the parish of Kilcommon, barony of Kilmaine. In the 1870s Anthony Knox Gildea of Clooncormick owned 1,635 acres in county Mayo.
Fair (Creggagh)	John Fair of Creggagh, parish of Toomore, barony of Gallen, county Mayo, was a merchant, who held the townland of Glaspatrick, parish of Oughaval, barony of Murrisk, in the mid 19th century from the Earl of Lucan. This townland had been granted to the Protestant Archbishop of Tuam under the Acts of Settlement. He was also involved in the sale of Kilmaine village and other church lands in 1852 as executor to his brother-in-law, Henry Cannon. In the will of his father, Robert Fair, dated 1837, John's address was Bernardsville, Dublin. In 1876 he owned 475 acres in county Mayo. He married Maria Ruttledge, daughter of David Ruttledge of Tawnaghmore and died in 1877 at Creggagh. David Ruttledge Fair sold 472 acres to the Congested Districts' Board on 6 Dec 1905.