Kildavin is a pleasant
enough little village some eight miles north of the site of
Duffry Hall but it seems to have had an irresistible
attraction for the Colcloughs not only from the Duffry but
from Wexford town, Ballyteige, Boley, Kilkenny and even
Dublin. Its five large 18th Century houses, Kildavin House,
Upper Kildavin, Lower Kildavin, Crowsgrove and Elmgrove,
just outside Tullow, were at one time all occupied by
Colcloughs. Even some of 'Sir' Vesey's descendants may have
moved there. In 1648 Dudley Colclough of Monart was living
quietly at Garryhasten and was married to Katherine Esmonde,
the daughter of Sir John Esmonde of Ballinastraw. At about
the same time there was a Captain Thomas Colclough in charge
of a garrison of 62 men in Wexford.
His identity is
something of a mystery unless he is he Thomas, brother of
John of Burslem and son of William of Grays Inn, who seems
to have been in close contact with his Irish cousins. In
1656 we find that this Thomas, as part of the Cromwellian
settlement, had been granted some of Dudley's lands at
Monart. and 1,262 acres in the parish of Carnew. However
there are no further records of him after the Restoration of
Charles II in 1660. For the next 70 years there were no
Colcloughs in the area till Henry arrived
Henry was the youngest son
of Dudley of Duffry. He settled there in 1729 on his
marriage to Margaret, daughter of John Beauchamp of
Ballylogher who claimed royal descent through the houses of
both York and Lancaster, and had four sons and a daughter.
Henry's eldest son, Dudley, took over Bohermore House, Co.
Carlow, which his father had acquired, and on his death in
1759 this passed to his brother Beauchamp who had married
Bridget, daughter of John McCarthney of Dublin. Beauchamp's
descendants spread themselves over Canada, the United States
and the U.K. but there are few parts of the world in which
they have not left a record of at least temporary residence.
Beauchamp's two sons Henry and Beauchamp II married the
Crawford sisters of Millwood, Co. Fermanagh, whose uncle was
Guy Carelton, 1st Lord Dorchester and Governor of Canada.
One branch of the Henry's family went to Charleston, S.C
where there are still descendants to be found. They have
changed the spelling of the name to Colcolough. All of
Beauchamp II's children went to Canada in the early 1800s to
benefit, one presumes, from nepotism. A daughter of
Beauchamp's, Bridget, married the chieftain of the Urquhart
Clan of Aberdeenshire, and so another remarkable name begins
to appear in family christenings.
Three other Colclough
families of Kildavin should be mentioned. In a census of
Kildavin and Clonegal taken in 1811, a copy of which is in
the possession of Dr. Kevin Whelan, in the townland of
Lackabeg (the village of Kildavin) are noted Patrick
Colclough a weaver, seven in the family, 3 males and 3
females, and Patrick Colclough, farmer, with four in the
family, , 1 male and 3 females. By the time of Griffith's
valuation in 1850 there is only one Colclough in the parish
- a Patrick who lives in one of the smaller cottages of
Kildavin.
One of these may be the Patrick who in 1817
applied for an assisted passage to Canada. It is also a
possibility, though unlikely, that these Patricks might be
offspring of "Sir" Vesey. In the 19th Century another Colclough family appeared when John Colclough whose family
sprang from Clomantagh, moved into Ballonvalley Farm, near
Myshall,. John, who married Emma Melbourne in 1891 was at
Ballonvalley (possibly as Steward) in 1893 when his
daughter Olive was born.
Their son Jack was born in 1892 in
Co Carlow, probably at Ballonvalley. The family was at
Maginstown, Tipperary in 1996 when their daughter mother,
Maud, was born. His father was John of Clomantagh, who had
married Susan Claxton. The grandfather, another John, was
farming Clomantagh in 1827 and was married to Francis Headon.
John's ancestry has yet to be fully explored, though his
descendants are to be found both in the area and in Canada
and America.
BACK Gentry Houses
Please report any images or broken links which do not open to
mjbrennan30@gmail.com
The information
contained in these pages is provided solely for the purpose of sharing with
others researching their ancestors in Ireland.
© 2001 Ireland Genealogy
Projects, IGP TM By Pre-emptive Copyright - All rights reserved
TOP OF PAGE
