Houstoun

Description

Matilda Charlotte Houstoun, wife of Captain William Houstoun, was author of ''Twenty years in the Wild West: or life in Connaught'', published in 1879. There is a memorial to the Captain in Aasleagh Church, Leenane,county Galway.

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Estate(s)

Name	Description
Houstoun	In 1851 Captain William Houstoun began to lease over 40,000 acres in the barony of Murrisk, county Mayo, from the 3rd Marquess of Sligo. His lease, of what became known as 'Dhulough' farm, in the parish of Kilgeever, was renewed to his son George and in the early 20th century, for a much reduced acreage, to his nephew, Alfred Houstoun Boswall. Legal documents in the Westport Estate Papers record much of the history of the Houstoun's occupation of the farm. The Houstouns also leased Delphi Lodge and fishery. The Captain's wife wrote an account of their life at Dhulough.
McDonnell (Cloonagh)	In 1837 Mathias McDonnell was given an assignment of the lease of the Octagon House in Westport, by the Revenue Commissioners, who held it on a very long lease from the Marquess of Sligo. The McDonnells, mill owners, were also leasing lands at Thornhill in the parish of Oughaval and at Cloonagh, parish of Aghagower, both in the barony of Murrisk, county Mayo from the late 1820s. Thomas MacDonnell of Cloona Lodge, Westport, subleased some of the Houstoun's vast farm at Dhulough, barony of Murrisk, from 1875. In 1876 he is recorded as owning 1878 acres in county Mayo. The Misses McDonnell had accepted an offer from the Congested Districts' Board for 1876 acres in county Mayo by March 1916.