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Lynch (Barna)
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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.
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Comyn (Woodstock)
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From the mid 17th century the Comyn family were established at Kilcorney in county Clare. In 1796 Laurence Comyn married Jane Lynch of Barna and bought land in the Spiddal area from his in-laws and from the Frenches. Beggan states that he bought more land from the Blakes of Drum in 1814. By the time of Griffith's Valuation, Francis and Peter Sarsfield Comyn, sons of Laurence Comyn of Woodstock, county Galway, held land in the parishes of Killannin and Moycullen, barony of Moycullen and in the parish of Rahoon, barony of Galway. Francis Comyn also had an estate in county Clare in the parishes of Drumcreehy, Kilcorney and Rathborney, barony of Burren. Part of the estate of Peter Sarsfield Comyn at Spiddal was sold in the early 1860s to the Morris family. P.S. Comyn bought the Browne estate at Gortatleva in 1860 and resold it to Michael Hennessy of Galway, except for Brownville, in November 1869. Through a marriage in 1871 with the only daughter and heir of Walter Bourke of Carrowkeel, county Mayo, the Comyns inherited the Carrowkeel estate in the parish of Addergoole, barony of Tirawley. In 1878 Francis Lorenzo Comyn was recorded as owning 3,654 acres in county Mayo, over 7,000 acres in county Galway and 1,961 acres in county Clare. Holywell, the Comyn home, and 161 acres in the barony of Corcomroe, county Clare, was advertised for sale by Thomas Gibson, assignee of Thomas Francis Comyn, in June 1859. This property was held on a lease dated 1803 from Edward O'Brien of Ennistymon to George Comyn of Hollywell.
The Freeman's Journal reported that it was purchased in trust by Mr. Redington for £1900. Most of the Comyn estate of Woodstock and the Brownville property, with a portion of the Comyn estate in county Mayo, were sold to the Congested Districts' Board in 1902. 757 acres in county Clare were vested in the Board in November 1912.
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Graham (Ballynakill Lodge)
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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.
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Blake (Cloghballymore)
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Cloghballymore was originally a Kilkelly property but it was granted to the Ffrenchs in the later 17th century. In the mid-18th century it became part of the Lynch (Barna) estate through the marriage of Marcus Lynch and Surna Ffrench. In the 1850s it passed by inheritance to a branch of the Blake (Ballinafad) family of county Mayo. In the 1830s townlands in the parish of Kilcolgan are recorded as the property of Morris Blake whose agent was Anthony Blake of Brownville. Anne Blake's estate amounted to over 4000 acres in the 1870s.
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Newton (Carna)
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In the 1870s Philip Newton of the Newton family of Dunleckney Manor, Bagenalstown, county Carlow, owned 2483 acres in county Galway, 334 acres in county Roscommon and 635 acres in county Kildare. His addresses were recorded as Loughnavoy, Carna, county Galway and Ballinglen, Rathdrum, county Wicklow. His county Galway lands were in the parish of Moyrus, barony of Ballynahinch, and had previously belonged to the Lynch and Strutzer families. Strutzer had bought land from the sale of the St George of Tyrone estate in the barony of Ballynahinch. 333 acres in county Roscommon belonging to H.P. Newton were vested in the Congested Districts' Board on 16 Mar 1916.
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