Ellis (Letterfrack)

Description

James and Mary Ellis, Quakers who first developed Letterfrack.

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Estate(s)

Name	Description
Ellis (Letterfrack)	James Ellis, a Quaker and successful manufacurer from Leicester in England came to Letterfrack in 1849 with his wife Mary to help improve the lives of the people of the district. He leased about 1800 acres from Robert Graham and built a farm house but due to ill health he sold his lease to John Hall in 1857 and returned to England.
Hall (Letterfrack)	In 1857 John Hall bought John Ellis's lease of the Letterfrack estate, barony of Ballynahinch, county Galway. In the 1870s he is recorded as owning 972 acres in county Galway. He sold his estate in 1882 to the Archbishop of Tuam for £3000. In 1888 the Christian Brothers were given a lease to set up a school for delinquent boys. Some of the land was taken over by the Congested Districts' Board in 1916 and the remainder is now the Connemara National Park.
Graham (Ballynakill Lodge)	Patrick Melvin writes that the Grahams bought a 6000 acre estate at Ballynakill, barony of Ballynahinch, county Galway, from the Lynches of Barna in 1841. The Grahams were from Drumgoon, county Fermanagh. Villiers-Tuthill writes that the estate had been in the hands of the courts for the previous 20-30 years. Parts of the estate were let as large farms by Robert Graham to such persons as Thomas Eastwood, Thomas Butler and Joseph Reville. The Graham estate of 10,389 acres was advertised for sale in the Encumbered Estates' Court on 1 July 1858 however only a small part appears to have been sold as Robert's son, Francis J. Graham, owned 8641 acres in the locality in the 1870s. Reville's lease of Cartron was advertised for sale in February 1866. Francis J. Graham was married to Minna Lushington, a sister of William Armstrong's wife. The estate of over 10,000 acres was vested in the Congested Districts' Board on 1 June 1915.