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Medlycott
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The Burrishoole estate of approximately 70,000 acres was acquired by Thomas Medlycott, Chief Commissioner of Revenue in Ireland, from Charles Butler, Earl of Arran, and grandson of the 1st Duke of Ormonde, at the turn of the 17th century. Later on in the 18th century the Medlycotts found themselves in financial difficulties and sold the estate to John Browne, 1st Earl of Altamont, on 15 July 1774, who sold it back to the Medlycotts on a lease in perpetuity. This lease was sold by the Medlycotts to Sir Neal O'Donel in 1785. Earlier the Medlycotts had leased the property to "Mr Pratt, Clerk of the Treasury" [John Pratt of Cabra Castle, Co Cavan, Deputy Treasurer, died 1740] but when he got into financial difficulty the estate had reverted to the Medlycotts. The Medlycotts had another estate at Rocket's Castle, county Waterford, where they resided during the 19th century. Reverend John T. Medlicott was among the principal lessors in the parish of Clonagam, barony of Upperthird, at the time of Griffith's Valuation. In the 1870s he owned over 950 acres in county Waterford.
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O'Donel
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Some of the O'Donnells of Ulster settled in county Mayo in the 17th century, initially in the Ballycroy area. From there they branched out into Achill and by the 1760s were in the Newport area. They are believed to have been heavily involved in the smuggling trade and by 1781 were prosperous enough to purchase the estate belonging to the old Abbey of Cong on the Mayo/Galway border. In 1785 they bought the lease of the Manor of Burrishoole from the Medlycotts, which established them as the main landowners in the barony of Burrishoole, county Mayo. Patrick Knight, writing in 1836, stated that they also owned 30,000 acres in the barony of Erris. By 1850 the O'Donels were in severe financial difficulties. Much of the Achill part of their estate was bought by the Trustees for the Achill Mission in the early 1850s and the Cong estate was sold to Joseph Lambert and Manus Prendergast, trustees to Alexander C. Lambert. The sale of the different lots of the O'Donel estate is summarized in Appendix 2 of Peter Mullowney's thesis. In 1876 Sir Richard A. O'Donel of Newport and his son George still held over 7,500 acres in county Mayo. Sir George is also recorded as the owner of over 400 acres in County Longford.
In 1911 Melicent Agnes Thomas O'Donel sold the remainder of the O'Donel estate to the Congested Districts' Board at the suit of the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Society to whom it had been mortgaged.
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McLoughlin
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The McLoughlins held extensive lands in the parishes of Achill and Burrishoole, barony of Burrishoole, county Mayo, on perpetual leases from Thomas John Medlycott, the Earls of Altamont/Marquesses of Sligo and the O'Donels of Newport in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their estate of 12,733 acres with a rental of £1,478 was one of the first sold in the Encumbered Estates' Court in 1850. Part of it was bought by William McCormack of the Irish Beetroot and Sugar Manufacturing Company and the Newfield estate was bought by Henry J. Smith. Property in and around Newport was sold in the Landed Estates Court in May 1866. It was purchaed in trust by Robert Neilson.
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