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Kelly (Rookwood)
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This family is well recorded in Vera Hughes' book. Crofton Kelly and his wife Elizabeth Threwles were the parents of Edmund Kelly born 1765. Edmund became a successful lawyer and lived at Rookwood, a property previously leased by his uncle John Thewles. In the late 1820s Edmund retired and married Sarah Birch. In 1828 he is recorded as a member of the Grand Panel of county Roscommon. Edmund Kelly was a very wealthy man and in his will of 1837 mentioned his estates in counties Roscommon, Galway, Westmeath and in Sussex, England. In 1840 he bought a property at Ballinderry, Moate, county Westmeath from Lord Clonbrock and died 5 years later. Many legal battles followed his death as various Kelly family members laid claim to his estate. At the time of Griffith's Valuation Sarah Kelly owned land in the parishes of Killinvoy, Kiltoom, Rahara, St Johns and Tisrara, barony of Athlone, county Roscommon, in the parish of Athleague, county Galway and in the parishes of Kilcumreragh, Lynn and Killucan, county Westmeath. Sarah Kelly was shot at Ballinderry in 1856. She left her Kiltoom property to her Strevans nephews and her Rookwood estate to her nephew Robert Bayley. In the 1870s Robert Preston Bayley of Rookwood, owned 294 acres in county Galway, 2,590 acres in county Roscommon and 284 acres in county Westmeath; Thomas H. Strevens owned 1,258 acres and George Strevans owned 518 acres in county Roscommon.
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