Graham (Ballynakill)
Description
A family who settled in county Fermanagh in Elizabethan times.
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. |
| 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. |
| Henry (Kylemore) | Mitchell Henry was a doctor who was left a large fortune by his father, a Manchester merchant, in 1862. He bought an estate in the parish of Ballynakill, barony of Ballynahinch, county Galway, from the Wilberforces, Grahams and others, including sporting rights. He employed two architects, Ussher Roberts and John F. Fuller, to design Kylemore Abbey for him. It became his home and he initiated extensive agricultural improvements on his estate. He became a supporter of Home Rule and a Member of Parliament for county Galway. In the 1870s he owned over 9000 acres in county Galway. By the turn of the 20th century however he had lost most of his fortune and in 1903 the castle was sold to Mr Zimmerman of Chicago for his daughter, the Duchess of Manchester. In 1920 the Benedictine nuns from Ypres took over the Abbey and have been there ever since running, until recent years, a girls' secondary school and a very successful tourist business. |
| Lynch (Barna) | According to Burke's ''Landed Gentry of Ireland'' the Barna estate came into the possession of the Lynches through marriage with an O'Halloran heiress in the 17th century and through purchase from the Whaley family. Further additions to their estate were made through marriages with a Blake of Renvyle heiress and a French of Cloghballymore. In the late 18th century a son of Mark Lynch of Barna lived at Cloghballymore and had a daughter Anne who married Maurice Blake of Ballinafad, county Mayo. The Lynches resided at Barna, just west of Galway city. James Hardiman referred to the 'highly improved and elegant seat of Marcus Blake Lynch which for situation and beauty of prospect stands unrivelled'. Before the Famine their estate appears to have been in the Courts. Some of it in the barony of Ballynahinch was sold to the Grahams of county Fermanagh in the early 1840s and some may have transferred into the ownership of the Comyn family through marriage. What was known as the West Barna Estate was sold to Andrew Henry Lynch in 1834. However at the time of Griffith's Valuation the Lynches still retained a large estate in the parishes of Rahoon, barony of Galway and Moyrus, barony of Ballynahinch. By June 1869 their estate of 9,565 acres in the parish of Moyrus was being advertised for sale, 5 of the 8 lots were sold that year. In the early 1870s they owned 4,100 acres in the county and 1,711 in the county of the town of Galway. |
| Kendall | In the mid 19th century John Kendall, a London lawyer, bought the estate of the Morrises of Ballinaboy, parish of Ballindoon, barony of Ballynahinch, county Galway. The sale rental of the Graham estate in 1858 shows him renting 2112 acres at Addergoole, the part known as 'The Glen'. In the 1870s he owned 2892 acres in the county. He sold the Ballinaboy property back to the Morrises before the end of the century. In 1906 the representatives of John Kendall held untenanted land in the parish of Ballindoon. By March 1916 P. J. Kendall and another had accepted a final offer from the Congested Districts' Board for 2630 acres of untenanted land. |
| Butler (Crocknaraw) | In the early 1850s Thomas Crawford Butler leased land from Robert Graham of Ballynakill, county Galway. In 1862 he advertised for sale in the Landed Estates' Court an estate of more than 1000 acres at Crocknaraw, barony of Ballynahinch, county Galway, most of which he held in fee simple and presumably bought from the sale of the Graham estate in 1858. Charles Palmer Archer was tenant of 194 acres and had 'expended a large sum in building a mansion house' [at Garraunbaun]. The sale of Lot 2 of this estate was adjourned a number of times but other lots were purchased by Thomas Russell. |
| Eastwood | A farm of just over 900 acres was leased by Robert Graham to Thomas Eastwood on 10 May 1847 for ever at an annual rent of £90. Eastwood began to reclaim the land and had built a house by the time of Griffith's Valuation. The Graham interest in the lands of Addergoole and Barnaugh appears to have been sold to Charles Richardson by Robert Graham in 1859 and by Richardson to Mitchell Henry in July 1878. Eastwood's lease of Addergoole was advertised for sale in July 1862 and the sale rental includes a lithograph of Kylemore Pass and a substantial house. The property was bought by Mitchell Henry and became the location of the Kylemore Model Home Farm. The Gentleman's Magazine of 1855 records the marriage of Thomas F. Eastwood, second son of Thomas Eastwood of Brindle Lodge, Lancashire and Maria Louisa, eldest daughter of Abel Onge of Hayestown, county Dublin, in November 1854, at Moyard Church. |
| Hildebrand | At the time of Griffith's Valuation Henry Hildebrand held four townlands in the parish of Kilgeever, barony of Murrisk, county Mayo, from the Marquess of Sligo. The sale rental of the Graham estate shows him renting 201 acres in the townland of Bawnouges, parish of Ballynakill, county Galway, with an agreement for a further 727 acres. |