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Holmes (Nenagh)
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By the early 18th century the Holmes family were settled in counties Offaly and Tipperary. Daniel Grace writes that Peter Holmes of Cullen, county Offaly, bought the Johnstown estate of 540 acres from John Barry for £4,437 in 1728. His son, Robert Holmes of Johnstown, county Tipperary, married Elizabeth Malone of Ballynahown, county Offaly and had a son, Peter, who was Member of Parliament for Banagher, county Offaly in the 18th century. This Peter built the mansion house known as Petersfield. In 1765 Peter Holmes married Elizabeth Prittie, sister of the 1st Lord Dunalley. As they had no male heirs the property passed to a cousin also named Peter Holmes. George Holmes of Liscloony, county Offaly, was an uncle of Robert Holmes of Johnstown. His son, Gilbert Holmes, was father of Peter Holmes of Peterfield who married Henrietta Hamilton in 1796 (''The Monthly Magazine'' 1796) and of the Very Reverend Gilbert Holmes, Dean of Ardfert, who, in 1810, married Lydia Waller Saunderson and had six sons. The eldest was William Bassett Holmes. B.W. Holmes and the representatives of Peter Holmes held land mainly in the parishes of Nenagh and Killodiernan, in the mid 19th century. The lands of Nenagh North and South and the toll, customs, fairs and markets of the town, the estate of Mary Augusta Dundas (nee Holmes), John Hamilton Dundas and Peter Holmes, a minor, were advertised for sale in December 1856. Some lots were purchased by Mr. Holmes while the sale of others was adjourned. The estate of Peterfield (985) acres belonging to the same persons was offered for sale in December 1865. Peter Holmes is described as deceased. Peterfield was bought by the Headechs. In the 1870s William Bassett Holmes or Bassett W. Holmes, with an address at St. David's, Nenagh, county Tipperary, is recorded as the owner of over 200 acres in county Galway, over 1000 acres in Tipperary and 900 acres in county Offaly (King's County).
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