Mocollop Castle,
Co. Waterford:
A history of a
medieval castle
Niall C.E.J. O’Brien
[Link to chapters one and two = Chapters one and two]
[Link to chapters three and four Chapters three and four]
[Link to chapters five and six = Chapters five and six]
[Link to chapters three and four Chapters three and four]
[Link to chapters five and six = Chapters five and six]
Chapter seven
After the Nine Years War James
Fitz Maurice Fitzgerald left Mocollop and moved to Inchinleamy which he held
along with Ballinlovane/Cloonbeg. James took up farming and tried to adjust to
his changed circumstances. Arable farming seems to have been his chief
occupation. In the civil survey of 1641 there was no meadow or pasture acres
given for the two districts. Instead 150 acres and 140 acres of arable crops
were given respectively for Inchinleamy and Ballinlovane/Cloonbeg. The reminder
of the reduced estate was classified as mountain land of 350 acres and 260
acres respectively.
Initially after Sir Richard Boyle took over the Raleigh estates it would
appear that James Fitzgerald had ownership rights over Inchinleamy and
Ballinlovane. But consumerism and rising debts were the undoing of James. The
possible legal bills in the unsuccessful recovery of Mocollop could have added
to his financial problems. The New English settlers had access to easy money on
the London credit market and they used this to loan
out money to the Old English settlers in Ireland like the Fitzgeralds. James,
like many of his neighbours, had little sense of what mortgaging his land could
involve if he could not repay. By 1612 James Fitzgerald owed money to a good
number of people. Sir Richard Boyle made his money by buying mortgages and
acquiring property rights on mortgages that he knew had a fair chance of
falling into debt. He saw James Fitzgerald as such a easy target.
Dominick Meade was owed £10 by James and Boyle paid off Meade and got
the mortgage. Edmund Coppinger and Sir Thomas Brown also held mortgages on
other property of James Fitzgerald. Boyle paid off these people and went after
James to pay his mortgages. Fitzgerald had little means of repaying his debts
and Boyle purchased Inchinleamy in July 1613 for £100. He also secured
Ballinlovane at about the same time. Shortly after Boyle lease back to James
Fitzgerald the land
of Ballinlovane
Sometime before 1640 old James Fitz Maurice Fitzgerald died and his property
interests passed to his nephew James Fitz Maurice, son of that Maurice
Fitzgerald who got a pardon in 1601. The new James Fitzgerald continued to
lease his ancestral property from Sir Richard Boyle who was by then 1st
Earl of Cork.
By the summer of 1640 the Mocollop area had enjoyed nearly forty years
of peace and economic growth. The area around Mocollop
Castle and stretching back over the
hills to the Araglin
River
Mocollop Castle and the surrounding area as seen from the glen to the north of Mocollop
[author, 2013]
The two lieutenants also had a tucking mill. Tucking involved the
pounding of newly woven woollen cloth in an alkaline solution to produce a
stronger and denser material. The cloth was then dried by stretching it on a
tender frame.[2] The
Mocollop and Coolisheal areas had 1,000 acres and 400 acres of mountain land
for sheep rearing.[3] A lot of
people were employed in the sheep and wool industry at Mocollop. One of these
was James Barlett who lost £45 8s at the outbreak of the Confederate War in
1641.[4]
Another big employer in the Mocollop area was the iron smelter and nail
factory at Araglin Bridge in the present townland of Knockbaun. Making
charcoal, carting iron ore (from Richard Everard’s land north of the Araglin River
The charcoal came from the many woods in the district. A survey in 1626
found the woods at Kilcoran and Sheanmore to be wholly cut down with only stubs
left. The woods at Ballygomeashy (Marston), Mocollop, Ballinalovane, Ballyduff
and Sheanbeg were still standing but much had been cut down for the iron works.[5]
We mentioned earlier that when Sir Richard Boyle acquired the manor of
Mocollop from Raleigh that it contained five ploughlands. Two of these
ploughlands were held by Maxwell and Croker at Mocollop. James Fitzgerald had
two more ploughlands of one each at Inchinleamy and Ballinlovane/Cloonbeg.[6]
The fifth ploughland could possibly be the present townland of Sheanbeg which
was held directly by Boyle. This townland was not included in the civil survey
of 1641 but government surveys in the 1580s place it as part of the manor of
Mocollop.[7]
When you are the biggest landowner in Munster
it is easy to forget to tell government surveyors all the property plots you
have.
Another suggestion for the missing five ploughland could be those
townlands along the north bank of the River Bride which were held by Mocollop.
When Fleetwood was offered Mocollop in 1587 it was for four ploughlands but in
the grant to Raleigh
it was for five ploughlands. In 1640 Bridane was valued as half ploughland.[8]
The other two portions, Ballyforge and White’s Town, possibly made up the other
half ploughland.
Chapter eight
It
would appear that the castle complex at Mocollop was in fairly good condition
in 1640. The main castle building was listed as habitable and additional
buildings would be needed for the grain and wool industries. Some facilities
for the Araglin iron works could also be at Mocollop. Yet the peace and
prosperity of the previous forty years was to be soon destroyed in twelve years
of war.
The 1641 Rebellion or Confederate War or Irish Civil War or the War of
Independence depending on your political views began in Ulster in October 1641.
Munster was
initially quite but under the surface the three sides were marshalling their
troops. These three sides were the native old Irish, the Old English (descendants
of the Norman invaders like the Fitzgeralds) and the New English like Boyle. The
aims and motives for war were different for all three groups.
An additional division was within the New English camp between those who
supported King Charles I and those who supported Parliament in the concurring
English Civil War. This division among the English was suppressed in Munster as the Irish and
Old English forces were far more numerous. For much of the war it was a battle
of survival for the New English in Munster
and their internal divisions only became a factor when they were numerically
superior to the opposition after the arrival of Cromwell in 1649.
Meanwhile back at the start of war in 1641. It would appear that towards
the end of 1641 James Fitzgerald had assembled a small military force with
which he took Mocollop
Castle
James Fitzgerald had hoped to take Conna and move onto Tallow and from
there swing round to meet another Irish army advancing on Lismore from the
east. Lismore was the chief stronger hold of the Earl of Cork and its capture
would be a significant victory for the Irish. But Fitzgerald’s force was
insufficient or more lack artillery pieces of high calibre to take Conna.[10] The
defeat was a major setback as shortly after his retreat back to Mocollop he
lost his ancestral home.
Thomas Carter was in Mocollop Castle in March 1642 from where he wrote
to the Earl of Cork on the local actions. On 1st March Carter went
out a burnt Fitzgerald’s town of Ballinlavane
where he captured three score cows and 200 sheep. At this James Fitzgerald
retreated westwards into Condon country to Dungallane Castle
Carter asked to be entered in the king’s pay along with locally mustered
soldiers. A minister preached a service every Sunday in the castle along with
prayers every day. Carter says the minister has high spirits and gives
encouragement to the others. The minister had some military training and helped
train the soldiers at Mocollop.[11]
Meanwhile Captain Croker had attacked Tourin tower house where the owner
Edmund Roche had become a rebel. Roche was forced from Tourin and fled in
horseback along the high ridge between the Blackwater and Bride Rivers Tipperary .[12]
A few days later Captain Henry Tyrrell was appointed by the Earl of Cork
to take command at Mocollop and arrived in early March 1642. Here he found Thomas
Carter in self-assumed command and would not relinquish to Tyrrell. The captain
reported to the Earl at Youghal on 22 March that rebels roam the regions of
Coolisheal, Dongellan, Araglin, Inchinleamy and Kilmurry while the people of
Mocollop waste gun powder shooting rabbits.
Captain Tyrrell asked for soldiers to be posted at the church and at the
top of the Glen from where they could see rebels approaching from the north.
Tyrrell said this was the blind side of the castle and he feared a sudden
attack from that side. He was also concerned with the attitude of the people as
they went about their daily work without observing basic guard duty. But Carter
claimed to have a warrant of command from the Earl of Cork and would not listen
to Tyrrell’s advice.[13]
Into this unsatisfactory situation trouble was brewing in the west. The
Condons of Kilworth had come out on the Irish side and James Fitzgerald of
Inchinleamy came to them to get support. This support seems to have
materialised because James advanced upon Mocollop. By June 1642 Fitzgerald had
retaken the castle.[14]
But the flow of war quickly changed again. Fitzgerald didn’t have sufficient
troops to establish permanent control and it is recorded that the Irish shortly
after abandoned the castle.
The upper floors of the central keep at Mocollop as seen from the south-east
[author, 2012]
It is around this time that we last heard of James Fitzgerald. It seems
he retired for warfare following the loss of Mocollop and came to live in his
thatched house in the parish of Leitrim. The land of Inchinleamy Germany in 1632. Ten years before,
in 1622, King James I gave the title to his Scottish friend, the Earl of
Denbigh and in whose family the title still runs. James of Mocollop was head of
the senior Fitzgerald line after the death of his kinsman in Germany . But he
declined the offer to make him Earl. Having seen what happen to the last few
earls James had little desire for that poisoned chalice. Yet they took him to Dungallane Castle
Later in 1642 Richard Condon captured his ancestral home of Cloch Liath
tower house.[16]
Mocollop then became on the front line defence for Lismore. The castle was also
important to protect the iron supplies from the Araglin iron works but only for
a short time. The works were on the battle front line and were soon abandoned
in the face of Condon attacks.
Lismore was attacked by Irish forces coming from the east across the
Blackwater in February and May 1643. Both times the town was seriously
destroyed but the castle held its ground and the Irish were repulsed.[17]
By the summer of 1643 the English were ready to go on the offensive. On 3 June
1643 they captured Cloch Liath but suffered a serious defeat at Manning Ford
the next day. The Irish had hoped to follow up the victory by advancing on
Lismore and taking Mocollop on the way. Instead a truce was agreed and the
Irish army retuned northwards to County
Limerick
By the spring of 1645 the Irish army was sufficiently strengthen to
advance on the English held part of Munster. This part stretched from Youghal
to Cappoquin and westwards along the Blackwater to Mallow from where it turned
south to Bandon and the sea at Kinsale. The Irish had made many incursions into
this area but never had sufficient forces or resources to maintain their gains.
The English on the other hand were also restricted on their capabilities and
could not advance beyond their area until 1647.
The Irish commander in 1645 was the 3rd Earl of Castlehaven
and he advanced southwards from Limerick with the intention of taking Youghal
(the chief English port). The ports at Cork
and Kinsale were also under English control but the narrow inlet to both
harbours meant that Youghal was the chief supply port for the Munster English.
If Castlehaven was successful the English enclave would be seriously
compromised.
A big siege at Liscarroll castle from March to May delayed the Irish
advance. Yet Castlehaven pressed on. He crossed the Blackwater at Fermoy with
little resistance. The English commander, Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill, didn’t
have enough soldiers to defend every crossing point. His plan was to keep most
of his force on horseback as a mobile army that could quickly reach any trouble
point and overwhelm the Irish by surprise attack. This he did at Castlelyons
where the Irish were defeated.
Castlehaven retreated back over the Blackwater and advanced along the
north bank taking Mocollop Castle in mid-June on his way to capturing Lismore
and Cappoquin.[19] From
here Castlehaven went south to encircle Youghal. A major siege developed
involving army and naval forces. Slowly but steadily Castlehaven advanced near
the town walls and appeared to be unstoppable. It was only when English forces
from Cork City advanced to Castlelyons and onto Cappoquin in a large circling
movement that Castlehaven lifted the siege and retreated north over the
Blackwater. The river now resumed its role as the front line with the Irish
holding Mocollop along with other places on the north bank.
This position was maintained until February 1647 when Lord Inchiquin,
commander of the English forces, had sufficient troops to advance. On the
fifteenth he took Mocollop and advanced to the north bank opposite Lismore.[20] The Irish held the castle there since 1645
and were sufficiently bedded in that it was April before Inchiquin took the
castle. Inchiquin then advanced on Dungarvan and Cashel where he massacred many
civilians and soldiers seeking shelter on The Rock.[21]
Up to January 1648 Inchiquin had support the Parliament side in the
English Civil War. But now he changed sides and supported the Royalist cause.
The English castles and towns in Munster
received Royalist commanders who were often the same people who were Parliamentarians
only shortly before. The new royalist constable at Mocollop was Colonel Thomas
Maunsell.[22] His was
the eldest son of Captain Thomas Maunsell of the Royal Navy who had settled at
Derryvillane near Mitchelstown.[23]
Colonel Maunsell had local connections through his 1641 marriage to
Margaret, widow of Thomas Hutchins of Mitchelstown and eldest daughter of
Leonard Knoyle of Ballygally House near Ballyduff. The colonel had fought for
the Royalist side throughout the civil war while his brothers John and Boyle
Maunsell fought for Parliament. This division in the family would come to help
the colonel after the war.
The English Civil War ended in early 1649 with the execution of King
Charles I. The chief Parliamentary commander, Oliver Cromwell, was now free to
bring his battle hardened soldiers to Ireland . After hard fought
victories at Drogheda, Wexford and Waterford ,
Cromwell rested over the winter of 1649-50 at Youghal. The English soldiers in Munster had quickly
removed their Royalist commanders on the approach of Cromwell. Yet a few
Royalist held out one of whom was Colonel Thomas Maunsell at Mocollop.
Cromwell’s forces advanced on the castle sometime over those winter
months. Whether the man himself ever came to Mocollop is open to debate. If he
was to turn up in every place that tradition said he did then he had little
rest in Youghal. The Cromwellian forces established a gun battery at
Ballinaroone on the south side of the river from where they shelled the castle.
The defenders fought back and held the English at bay. Some sources say that
the Cromwellians eventually stormed the castle. Yet other say that both sides
came to a draw and the castle was given up voluntarily.[24]
To prevent reoccupation by Irish or Royalist forces the Cromwellians destroyed
the round keep by removing the east facing wall.
At this stage Colonel Maunsell should have been sent away and possibly
did some time in prison. But he didn’t long stay away. After the war while
other places were taken over by former Parliament soldiers in lieu of wages and
Glenbeg/Coolisheal fell to an Adventurer as repayment for his loans Mocollop
was not part of this process. Colonel Thomas Maunsell held Mocollop and was
living there in 1659 with his eldest son, also called Thomas.[25] It
is said that he used some of the stones from the castle to build a modern house
nearby. Possibly on the later site of Mocollop Castle House (now in ruins).
The ruined Mocollop Castle House as seen from the central castle keep looking eastwards
In this good fortune Colonel Maunsell was helped by his brothers and
cousins. As said his brother fought for Parliament and John Maunsell was a
captain in the Life Guards under Henry Cromwell, Oliver’s son. John fought at Naseby where he was severely wounded but highly
decorated.[26] This
connection possibly facilitated to peaceful handover of Mocollop following the
good show of resistance on the part of the defenders. One gets the impression
that the entire attack and defence of Mocollop was just a show piece to give a
good name to the officers of both sides. The attackers tried their hardest to
get in while the defenders kept them out.
As for Maunsell’s cousins we find his sister Ann was married in 1630 to
Rev. Robert Naylor, Dean of Lismore and Rev. Robert’s sister Joan was the
mother of Sir Richard Boyle.[27]
Who needs an expensive lawyer when you are closely related to the most powerful
family in the district?
As for the Mocollop Fitzgeralds they had no such connections to save
them. They do not appear among the transplanted persons sent to Connacht . Instead they were reduced to peasant status in
the west Waterford
area. Rev. Urban Vigors says that James Fitzgerald was an old man at the start
of the 1641 war and he may have died during the conflict or shortly after. Rev.
Vigors also said that the wife of James was an aunt of Donough McCarthy,
Viscount Muskerry and later Earl of Clancarty.[28] I
have not been able to confirm this information in the published pedigrees of
the McCarthy family but some basis in fact may lie behind the story.
It was possibly a son of James Fitzgerald who was living in 1663 but
after that date the family disappears. A person referred to as the widow
Fitzgerald was living in the Aherlow Woods, Co. Tipperary in 1675. She is recorded as
carrying wood from there to Mocollop where Thomas Maunsell junior paid her £10
for 20 tons of timber.[29]
It is not clear who this person was but her connection with Mocollop may
reflect an older connection.
The last legitimate heir of Gerald Oge Fitzgerald died in 1743 at
Grange, Co. Waterford .
He was James Fitzgerald of Kilmacow and great-great-grandson of Thomas
Fitzgerald of Kilmacow, the youngest son of Gerald Oge. His only daughter
Helena was reported as still living in 1757 but disappeared from history
sometime after.[30]
Chapter nine
Colonel Thomas Maunsell died
on 13 March 1687 and was buried at Mocollop church graveyard.[31] A
tombstone is recorded as having existed there up to at least 1870.[32]
His eldest son Thomas Maunsell took over Mocollop but soon sold it to George
Jackson before he died in 1692.
The medieval Mocollop church was located to the south [left] of the church built in 1820 and between the tree and the headstone.
This George Jackson was an ancestor of the Jackson family of Glenbeg and
of Ballysaggartmore before they sold the latter place to Arthur Kiely Ussher.
Thomas Jackson of 1641 was his ancestor. George Jackson did not keep Mocollop
for long and sold it to George Drew of Kilwinny near Tallow. George Drew was
the great grandson of Francis Drew, the first of his family to come to Ireland .
Francis Drew was a soldier in Queen Elizabeth’s Irish army and settled at
Kilwinny under lease from Sir Walter Raleigh.[33]
George Drew left no children and his sister Margaret inherited Mocollop.
She subsequently married her cousin John Drew of Ballyduff fortified house
(otherwise known as Clancy’s Castle). It is from this marriage that the later
Drew family of Mocollop is descended. This John Drew died around 1749 while
living at Old Court House in Waterpark, across the river from Mocollop.[34]
Old Court was built around 1665 and was in ruins by 1834. The last remains of
it was knocked down and cleared away around 1980.
The Mocollop house built by Colonel Maunsell was replaced with the
present Georgian house by John Drew or his son Francis before 1787. A later
north wing that was three times the size of the present structure was
subsequently built. This large wing was knocked down in the late 1940s or early
1950s to avoid a big rates bill.
The towers and buildings of the old castle were turn into farm buildings
while the round keep became a coach house. This could have occurred in 1826 as
a portrait of Richard Maunsell and his wife with some military stores was found
in that year concealed in the castle.[35]
The coach house was removed in the early 20th century. Today the
castle protects the scenic views of the Blackwater valley. In 1798 John Drew,
son of Francis Drew, saw little military value in the castle and went to
Youghal to sit out the rebellion.[36]
In 1993 John Deasy, T.D., asked the then Minister for State at the
Department of Finance would the Office of Public Works spend money on
preserving Mocollop Castle. Minister Dempsey replied that the castle was not in
state care and so could not incur state expenditure. But he recognised that the
castle was an important monument and if funds would permit the state would like
to take it into care.[37]
Nothing became of this exchange and the castle stands alone. Yet if God be good
and no great storms come to pass, Mocollop Castle should still see out many
decades and centuries to come as it provides the ‘very picturesque appearance’
so admired by the Dublin Penny Journal writer of 1834.
======================
Conclusion of the history of Mocollop Castle
======================
[1] R.C Simington (ed.) Civil
Survey 1654-1656 County Waterford (Dublin
[2] Denis Power & Sheila Lane (eds.), Archaeological inventory of County
Cork (Stationery Office, Dublin
[3] R.C Simington (ed.) Civil
Survey 1654-1656 County Waterford (Dublin
[4] Thomas Fitzpatrick, ‘Waterford during the Civil War, 1641-1653’, in
the Journal of the Waterford and South
East of Ireland Archaeological Society, vol. xiv (1911), p. 163
[5] Robert P. Mahaffy (ed.), Calendar of State papers, Ireland, Charles I (Kraus Reprint, Liechtenstein, 1979), vol. 3
(1647-60), pp. 74-76
[6] R.C Simington (ed.) Civil
Survey 1654-1656 County
Waterford
[7] Royal Irish Academy ,
Ordnance Survey, Books of Inquisitions, Waterford
[8] R.C Simington (ed.) Civil
Survey 1654-1656 County Waterford (Dublin
[9] G. O’Connell-Redmond, ‘Castles of north-east Cork
[10] Tom Barry, ‘The Munster Geraldines’, in By Bride and Blackwater (Donal de Barra, Milton Malbay, 2003), p.
82
[11] Rev. Alexander Grosart (ed.), The
Lismore Papers (1888), second series, vol. V, pp. 13-16
[12] Rev. Alexander Grosart (ed.), The
Lismore Papers (1888), second series, vol. V, pp. 14, 18
[13] Rev. Alexander Grosart (ed.), The
Lismore Papers (1888), second series, vol. V, pp. 29-31
[14] G. O’Connell-Redmond, ‘Castles of north-east Cork
[15] Philip D. Vigors, ‘Rebellion 1641-2 described in a letter of Rev.
Urban Vigors to Rev. Henry Jones’, in the Journal
of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, second series, vol. 2
(1896), p. 304
[16] Niall Brunicardi, History of
Fermoy to 1790 (no date), p. 32
[18] Niall Brunicardi, History of Fermoy to 1790, pp. 35-8
[19] Michael Moore (ed.), Archaeological
inventory of County Waterford (Dublin
[20] G. O’Connell-Redmond, ‘Castles of north-east Cork
[24] Maurice Lenihan, History of
Limerick (Limerick, 1866), p. 473
[27] Burke’s Irish Family Records 1976, p. 803; Albert Eugene Casey & Thomas
O’Dowling, O’Kief, Coshe Many, Slieve
Loughter and Upper Blackwater in Ireland
(15 vols. Wisconsin ,
1964), vol. 6, p. 806
[28] Philip D. Vigors, ‘Rebellion 1641-2 described in a letter of Rev.
Urban Vigors to Rev. Henry Jones’, in the Journal
of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, second series, vol. 2
(1896), p. 304
[29] Edward MacLysaght (ed.), Calendar
of the Orrery papers (Stationery Office, Dublin, 1941), p. 148
[35] Rev. Canon Patrick
Power, Waterford & Lismore: a
compendium history of the united diocese (Cork , 1937), p. 21
[36] Albert Eugene Casey
& Thomas O’Dowling, O’Kief, Coshe
Many, Slieve Loughter and Upper Blackwater in Ireland
