A History of Castlegarde – Part 5
By David Thompson and Daniel Grace
1668 A.D. to 1750 A.D.
From death of Henry Bouchier in 1654 Castlegarde as stated in our last article was held by the dowdager Countess of Bath Rachael Bouchier (nee Fane).
In 1668 upon the marriage of her nephew Sir Henry Fane to Elizabeth Southcott, the Dowager Countess of Bath gifted him with her Irish estates. These estates included Castlegarde, and also the Bouchier lands and Castle at Lough Gur.
Rachael Bouchier (nee Fane), Dowager Countess of Bath
Sir Henry Fane was a successful Whig politician who served as MP for Reading from 1689 to 1698.
Clearly he enjoyed the favour of the new King and Queen William III and Mary II (joint monarchs), as he was appointed the Commissioner of Irish Forfeited Estates in 1690; he was also appointed to the Irish Privy Council in the same year and was made Governor of Limerick in 1699.
Sir Henry Fane had four sons, the oldest and youngest of whom were both called Henry (one born presumably after the death of the elder Henry in a duel), the second son was Charles, and the third George.
Upon his death in 1706 he passed his estates including Castlegarde to his son Charles Fane who went on to marry Mary Stanhope in 1707. Interestingly Mary Stanhope was a second cousin to John Stanhope, father of the 1st Lord Harrington of Co. Limerick renown.
Charles was an interesting character who severed as standard bearer of the Gentleman Pensioners (the king’s body guard) to both William of Orange and Queen Anne from 1696 to 1712. He was elected MP for Killybegs from 1715 to 1719 and in 1718 was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Loughgur and Viscount Fane. He was appointed to the Irish Privy Council in 1718 the same year as the grant of his titles.
His elevation to the Peerage was largely due to the influence of his brother in-law and good friend James Stanhope who served as first Lord of the Treasury of the United Kingdom at the time.
It would appear that Viscount Fane’s wife Mary was quite high maintenance financially. She spent what she described in one letter to her husband as a “vast sum of money” on painted cloths for a new house in England, which was just one small part of the decor. She also spent heavily on a grotto at their English residence, while simultaneously spending most of her time in Italy where their son was the British Resident in Florence (modern day ambassador).
We assume that this financial profligacy caused Viscount Fane to have cash flow difficulties which in 1735 resulted in the sale of Castlegarde to Marmaduke Coghill.
Marmaduke Coghill was the son of John Coghill from Yorkshire and his wife Hester, who was the daughter of Thomas Cramer the High Sheriff of County Kilkenny. The Cramer’s were a German noble family the ancestor of whom was Col Thomas von Cramer a renowned military officer of the thirty years war who came to Ireland in 1609.
Marmaduke Coghill was certainly what we would call today an overachiever at a very young age. He was only 14 years old when he was accepted into Trinity College Dublin where at 18 he graduated with a degree in law. The following year (1692A.D.) at 19 he was elected to parliament for Armagh which he served as MP until 1713. From 1713 until his death he served as MP for Trinity College.
Marmaduke Coghill was close politically to William Conolly who made his fortune from land transfers of confiscated estates in Ireland following the Jacobite wars. It is probably through Conolly that Coghill got to know Charles Fane who was the Commissioner of Irish Forfeited Estates and had also sat in the Irish parliament for Killybegs a constituency in Conolly’s home county of Donegal.
So in May 1735 when Viscount Fane needed to raise funds it is no surprise to see him selling Castlegarde to Coghill who also bought a number of other estates from Fane for a sum totalling £6,000.
In the same year that he bought Castlegarde Coghill became Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland. He was very active on boards, commissions and trusts and was involved in the building of Dr. Stevens Hospital in Dublin. He also served as Pro-Vice Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin.
He lived with his brother James in the family home of Belvedere House. He then built and lived in Drumcondra House where he passed away in 1738 leaving a will which named his sister Mary as executor. Mary also lived in Drumcondra House with her brother, and he made substantial provision for her well being by leaving her a life interest in various properties. However Castlegarde was willed to the Right Hon. Charles Lord Moore, Baron of Tullamore who had married Hester Coghill daughter of James of Coghill in 1737. This indicates that there may have been a marriage settlement, whereby Marmaduke had agreed to leave Castlegarde to Lord Moore on his marriage to Hester.
Five years after Marmaduke’s death his sister Mary erected the parish church now known as Drumcondra Church and in it placed a statue of him by the Dutch sculptor Peter Scheemakers. He is buried in the family vault in St. Andrews, Druncondra.
Charles Moore appears to be a relatively quite character historically, while he was politically involved he did live during a very stable period of Irish history. He did sit on the Irish Privy Council from 1746, and he was created Earl of Charleville in 1758. We are currently researching documentation with regards to Castlegarde during this period up to 1820 when it appears Waller O’Grady purchased the estate from what appears to be the agents of the revenue commissioners.
We would like to note here that while during this period the ownership of Castlegarde rested with those aforementioned in this article, it would appear that continuous possession of the long term lease from these owners remained with the Bailey family. This family have appeared in earlier articles and most likely their initial connection was as Warden of Loughgur castle under the Bouchier family.
We know that the connection between the Bailey’s and Castlegarde lasted over 150 years, and may have been longer, perhaps having originated at the time Brian Boy O’Brian vacated the Castlegarde estate. We note that in May 1706 a legal agreement was made between Henry Bailey of Loughgur, whose daughter Catherine had children with Richard Belsworth’s son, also Richard, of Cork, that provision would be made for their children by putting a charge of £600 on the Belsworth property in Cork, and £300 on Castlegarde – claims were made on this through the courts in 1796.
We hope to have finalised our research by the next article, where we explore the sale of the estate by the revenue commissioners and the history of the O’Grady occupants. We would also like to acknowledge the help of Marc Caball UCD who discovered the Coghill / Earl of Charleville connection to Castlegarde.