Goodbody (Clara)
Description
The Goodbody family of Clara, county Offaly.
Estate(s)
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Perry | James Perry is recorded as the occupier of two properties in the parish of Athenry at the time of Griffith's valuation. |
| Goodbody | James Perry Goodbody of Beechmount, Clara, county Offaly, owned an estate of 2,309 acres in county Galway in the 1870s. His mother was a daughter of James Perry of Obelisk Park, county Dublin, who held property in Athenry, county Galway at the time of Griffith's Valuation. Part of the estate of Lewis Goodbody at Pokoroko, in the townland of Fairy Hill, barony of Longford, was offered for sale in the Landed Estates court in June 1877. This seems to be the only instance of this property being named Pokoroko. It is generally known as Fairy Hill. The Irish Times reported that George Cheevers was the purchaser. Lewis Goodbody, of Drayton Villa, Clara, is recorded as the owner of over 100 acres in county Galway in the 1870s as well as lands in Offaly and Westmeath. Marcus Goodbody is recorded as the proprietor of over 2300 acres in county Galway at the same time. |
| Goodbody (Clara) | In the nineteenth century members of the Goodbody family of Clara, county Offaly, owned estates in counties Westmeath and Galway and in King’s and Queen’s Counties (Offaly and Laois). The various branches of this Quaker family descend from John Goodbody who settled in county Offaly in the mid-seventeenth century. Their county Westmeath estate was in the parishes of Kilcleagh and Ballyloughloe and was held by Marcus Goodbody at the time of Griffith’s Valuation (publ. 1854) while Marcus and his brother Jonathan held land in the parish of Kilbixy jointly. In the mid-1870s Marcus Goodbody of Inchmore House, Clara and Obelisk House, Blackrock, county Dublin owned 1,684 acres in county Westmeath and 2,785 acres in King’s County, Jonathan Goodbody of Castletown House, Clara, owned 986 acres in county Westmeath and 2,128 acres in King’s County (Offaly) and jointly they owned 1,087 acres in county Westmeath. |
| Piers (Tristernagh) | William Piers settled in Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth I and was granted the lands of the Abbey of Tristernagh, parish of Kilbixy, county Westmeath. In 1660 his great grandson Henry Piers of Tristernagh was created a baronet. Two later baronets, the fifth and sixth, are remembered for the destruction of the abbey church of Tristernagh and for the seduction of Lady Cloncurry. By the mid-19th century the Piers estate amounted to about 423 acres at Tristernagh with some rent charges in lieu of tithes on various parishes in counties Westmeath and Longford. The rent charges were advertised for sale in 1850 and both the lands and rent charges in 1851 in the Encumbered Estates Court. In June 1852 the lands were eventually sold. Marcus and Jonathan Goodbody were the immediate lessors of much of this estate at the time of Griffith’s Valuation (publ. 1854) having purchased it in the Court. Woods writes that the ‘late J Eivers Esq, J.P., lived for years in the cottage built by the late Sir John Piers’ while the mansion built by Sir Pigot William Piers in 1783 was ‘a crumbling ruin’. |