MOYSTOWN 1633 - 1800

Moystown, the principal demesne of the Irish family of L’Estrange, lies in Co. Offaly, previously King’s county.  It is situated in the angle formed by the river Shannon and the river Brosna, which flows into the Shannon from the direction of Ferbane.  The name Moystown (Maistean in Irish) refers to a townland in the parish of Tissaran, a place name which means the house of Saran. The old church of St Saran, an obscure saint, stands in ruin at about the centre of the demesne.  In 1806 a new Protestant Church was built and was in use until about the middle of the present century.  In its churchyard many of the family of L’Estrange are buried.

Moystown House itself is now in total ruin.  The appearance of the site suggests that it was intentionally demolished for the sake of its stone, lead and interior furnishing. What is left is an extensive mound overgrown with trees, shrubs and ivy.  At the north end there is a deep cavity which may have been an ice house, while at the south end there is an arch which may have led into a courtyard.  Two ranges of buildings stand at a distance across the fields, roofless and in partial ruin, while near by there is a brick-walled one-time garden.  To the east of the house on the Brasne the family built a mill, which is a large stone building standing windowless and roofless.  Regrettably little information can be obtained relating to the house or demesne.  The County library at the county town of Tullamore possesses no documents or log readings relating to them, nor any information relating to the family.

The circumstances in which the family moved from Castle Strange to Moystown are as follows.  When Thomas Le Strange, the subject of chapter one, died childless his heir was his eldest brother, Sir Nicholas Le Strange of Hunstanton, Norfolk, who by 1610 had been succeeded by his son Hamon. The later sold the family lands in Ireland, including Castle Strange, to his brother-in-law, John Jay of Norfolk.  It is possible that this transaction was in the nature of a mortgage, for the Le Strange family continued to live at Castle Strange for some years after the transaction had taken place.  In 1621, the Crown granted to one Thomas Webbe the lands of Moystown and Tieseran. Also to one Sir Thomas Rotherham the lands of the manor of Raghra (later called Shannonbridge). Both as undertakers under the terms of the plantation of the King’s and Queen’s Counties which had been begun in the middle of the previous century under Queen Mary Tudor.  The grant to Rotherham included the salmon and other fishing on the Shannon.  In 1624 Rotherham leased the Reghra lands to Thomas Le Strange of Castle Strange for a term of 240 years.  We need not enquire what kind of 17^th century conveyancing required a lease for such an unusual term, but the lease for that period is referred to in an essay by Rolf Loeber entitled ‘Civilisation Through Plantation’ contained in ‘Irish Midland Studies’ (Ed Murtagh).  Be that as it may, Rotherham later acquired Webbe’s lands and the total estates passed into the possession (and presumably ownership) of the L’Estrange family in about 1633.

With regard to the members of the family at this period, we have already seen that Sir Nicholas inherited Castle Strange on the death of his brother Sir Thomas in 1590.  Sir Nicholas continued to live at Hunstanton Hall, while another brother Richard, whose age fell between those of Nicholas and Thomas, occupied Castle Strange. It is this Richard; whose is the ancestor of the Irish family.  Richard’s immediate descendants were Thomas (living in 1616), Hamon (died 1639) and Thomas (died 1655).  The Moystown and Raghra lands were acquired in Hamon’s lifetime, while the house was built in the lifetime of his son Thomas.  This Thomas left at least two sons.  The elder Henry, who was M.P. for the King’s County, succeeded him, while a younger son, William, established himself at Castle Caffe in the Queen’s County and was the ancestor of a separate and distinct branch of the family.

Genealogical details of the family are provided in two manuscript books written by George Charles Mahon (1816 - 1894).  For the most part these two works are identical, but he deals separately, under the title of ‘Recent Lineage’, with the Moystown and Kilcummin branches.  In 1885 by the time he wrote, Moystown had come to an end, but as will appear below, a branch of the family was living at Market Hill, Co. Fermanagh.  Thus, the books are called respectively ‘Family History of Carleton L’Estrange of Market Hill’ and ‘Family History of L’Estrange of Kilcummin’.  Mahon was the son of the Reverend Henry Mahon, Rector of Tissaran and other parishes, who built his rectory and laid out his park at Killegally, on the banks of the Brosna, upstream from Moystown.  In 1859 George Mahon married Sarah L’Estrange, the daughter of Colonel William L’Estrange of Kilcummin.  They emigrated to the United States and became the progenitors of a large and extended family who are known as the cousins of Mahon.

Henry L’Estrange of Moystown who is referred to above, died in 1666.  His son Thomas had been born in 1656 and was still alive in 1732 when he was known as ‘Old Tom’.  Old Tom had married the heiress of Sir Francis Peisley.  His son William died before him, leaving as the heir to Moystown Old Tom’s grandson, Henry L’Estrange, known as ‘Handsome Harry’.  Handsome Harry was M.P. for Banagher, just south of Moystown, and according to Mahon, was the builder of the bridge at the place since known as Shannonbridge.  The bridge, which consisted of sixteen round-headed arches, lasted until the 20^th century, when it was replaced no doubt because it was too narrow. At the start of its life the L’Estrange’s collected tolls for crossing it.  It should be noted that near Moystown there is a single-span bridge, which crosses the Grand Canal the Keystones, of which bear the words ‘L’Estrange Bridge’.  This is one of the standard canal bridges and as the Grand Canal reached the Shannon in 1804, it was built long after Handsome Harry’s day. He died in 1771.

Handsome Harry’s father, William who died young, had a brother named George, who also died young, leaving his heir another William, in the care of Old Tom.  This William, who died in 1773, was William L’Estrange I of Kilcummin.  The house of Kilcummin, which is still occupied was either built by William or acquired by him on his marriage to an heiress named Anne Atkinson. By this marriage he founded the line of Kilcummin which descends in parallel with the line of Moystown.

Mahon’s books are genealogical rather than historical, but he mentioned two military episodes concerning the family.  The first relates to the civil war in Ireland which was fought contemporaneously with the civil war between King and Parliament in England and Scotland.  Thomas, the last of the Le Strange’s of Castle Strange, joined Cromwell’s army in Ireland before Cromwell himself landed in Ireland in 1649.  He commanded a troop of horse in Ulster, and later, in 1652, he was one of four parliamentary officers who received the capitulation of the royalist army in Connacht.  The second concerns William I of Kilcummin.  When Charlie landed in Scotland in 1745 William was a young man serving in the Hanoverian army.  After the Prince had captured Edinburgh he advanced eastwards along the Firth of Forth.  At Preston Pans his army of about 2500 Highlanders engaged a similar number of Hanoverian troops and routed them. It was this victory which encouraged him to start on his ill-advised march toward London in an attempt to gain the throne.  In the battle of Preston Pans William L’Estrange, then an officer was struck on the head with a claymore and left for dead.  After the battle the wounded William said something in Irish to the Highlanders who were stripping the dead and wounded.  ‘Let us save the poor Irishman’ said one of the Scotsmen.  They moved him into a hut where he was later found by his companions and consequently survived.  What proportion of the Anglo-Irish, one wonders, could speak Irish?

It is particularly striking that the major event in Irish history which occured while the L’Estrange’s were at Moystown, that is the Williamite - Jacobite war of 1689 to 1691 is not mentioned at all by Mahon.  Until the closing stages of that war Moystown was in Jacobite held territory.  Did any of the L’Estrange’s go north to join William?

In 1765 Henry Peisley L’Estrange I (1732 - 1796), the eldest son and heir of Handsome Harry, married Mary, the surviving daughter and heiress of Tullymargy Castle, Co. Fermanagh.  This union as it turned out was an important event, particularly when Moystown suffered economic collapse in 1862.  Accordingly a chapter on the family of Carleton appears following this one.