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Vandeleur (Kilrush)
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The Vandeleur family are descended from Maxmilian Van Der Leur, a Dutch merchant, who had settled in Ireland by the early 17th century. His son established himself in county Clare at Sixmilebridge. His grandson, the Reverend John Vandeleur, was rector of Kilrush, barony of Moyarta, county Clare in the 1680s. In 1712 the Earl of Thomond leased the Kilrush estate to Boyle Vandeleur in trust for his brother the Reverend John, who married Elizabeth Crofton, an heiress from county Limerick. From their eldest son John, who purchased the estate in 1749, descends the Vandeleurs of Kilrush. By the mid 19th century the Vandeleur estate amounted to almost 20,000 acres in county Clare. A large portion of their estate was in the barony of Moyarta, where they held at least 17 townlands in the parish of Kilrush at the time of Griffith’s Valuation, with additional lands in the parishes of Kilmacduane and Kilfearagh and in the neighbouring barony of Clonderalaw, parishes of Kilfiddane, Killofin, Killimer, Kilmihil and Kilmurry. They also held six townlands in the parish of Clooney, barony of Corcomroe, and some land in the baronies of Bunratty Lower and Ibrickane. Over 400 acres in the parish of Mungret, barony of Pubblebrien, and land in the parish of Monasteranenagh, county Limerick, also belonged to the Vandeleurs of Kilrush. John Ormsby Vandeleur played a major role in the development of the town of Kilrush in the early 19th century and built Kilrush House in 1808. He died in 1828. His son Colonel Crofton Moore Vandeleur gave land for the building of the Catholic Church, convent, a fever hospital and the workhouse but he is principally associated with the large number of evictions that took place in the Kilrush Union during the Famine years. Hector Steward Vandeleur inherited the estate in 1881 but spent very little time in county Clare and large scale evictions again took place under his ownership in the late 1880s. Kilrush House was burned down accidentally in 1897 and the estate was taken over by the Land Commission in the 1910s.
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Stewart (Co Clare)
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The Stewart and Vandeleur families were related through their descent from two daughters of Charles Moore 1st Marquess of Drogheda, Mary married in 1791 Alexander Stewart of the Ards, brother of the 1st Marquess of Londonderry and Frances married in 1800 John Ormsby Vandeleur. In the mid 19th century John Vandeleur Stewart of Rock Hill, county Donegal, third son of Alexander and Mary held an estate in county Clare in the parishes of Kilmacduane, barony of Moyarta and Kilfiddane and Kilmihil, barony of Clonderalaw. He was also among the principal lessors in the parish of Leck, barony of Raphoe North, County Donegal, In the 1870s his estate in county Clare amounted to 4,551 acres w at the time of Griffiths Valuation in the 1850s. Hussey de Burgh records his estate as over 500 acres in County Donegal. In 1837 John Vandeleur Stewart married Helen daughter of Hector J. G. Toler, 2nd Earl of Norbury. His cousin Crofton Moore Vandeleur married Helen's sister Grace in 1832.
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Vandeleur (Rathlaheen)
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The Vandeleurs’ Rathlahine estate was in the parishes of Feenagh and Tomfinlough, barony of Bunratty Lower, county Clare. They were descended from Boyle Vandeleu,r third son of Giles Vandeleur, who settled at Rathlahine in 1660. This branch of the Vandeleur family intermarried with the Fitzgeralds of Carrigoran, Scotts of Cahiracon and the Molonys of Kiltanon. John Scott Vandeleur was the landlord responsible for the founding of the Rathlahine Co-operative in the 1830s. Edward Craig organized the co-operative and Vandeleur was President. However J.S. Vandeleur accumulated very large gambling debts and his estate had to be sold in 1834. Pierce Creagh bought the mortgages on the house. However the family did retain much of the estate as Mrs Mary Vandeleur of Lemington, daughter-in-law of J.S. Vandeleur, owned 1,887 acres in county Clare in the 1870s. A granddaughter of John Scott Vandeleur married A. B. Stoney and they continued to farm part of the estate until the 1920s. The house was demolished in the 1940s. Hannah Villiers Boyd, a sister of John Scott Vandeleur, was the author of two books in the mid 19th century ''A Voice from Australia: or an inquiry into the probability of New Holland being connected with the prophecies relating to New Jerusalem and the Spiritual Temple'' and ''Letters on Education''.
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Vandeleur (Cos Galway and Westmeath)
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In 1803, Major Gen Crofton Vandeleur, third son of Crofton Vandeleur of Kilrush, county Clare married Elizabeth Croasdaile. Their grandson Captain Crofton Thomas Burton Vandeleur of Wardenstown, county Westmeath and Moyville, Athenry, county Galway, married Maletta Yelverton and died in 1881 without heirs. Griffith's Valuation 1855 records his county Westmeath estate in the parishes of Killucan and Killulagh and he held extensive property in the parish of Athenry, barony of Dunkellin, county Galway. At this time he was leasing a house at Moyveela to James Kineen. In the 1870s his county Galway estate amounted to 1,565 acres and his county Westmeath one to 782 acres.
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Vandeleur (Limerick)
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A junior branch of the Vandeleurs of Kilrush, county Clare, John Ormsby Vandeleur of Maddenstown, county Kildare and Ballinamona, county Limerick, had 5 sons. The eldest John Vandeleur of Mannister, county Limerick married his cousin Alice Vandeleur of Kilrush. Their son John Ormsby Vandeleur of Ballinacourty, parish of Stradbally, owned estates in the parishes of Killadysert, barony of Clonderalaw and Carran, barony of Burren, county Clare, and in the parish of Monasteranenagh, barony of Pubblebrien, county Limerick, amounting to 1435 acres and 614 acres in the 1870s. Their fourth son Thomas Pakenham Vandeleur lived at Cragbeg in the mid 19th century. George Vandeleur of Ballynamona was the fifth son of John of Maddenstown and he owned the 844 acre townland of Ballynamona, barony of Smallcounty.
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