(113) Alloway of The Derries

Alloway of The Derries

The Alloway family were Quaker merchants in the Devon/ Somerset border area in the late 17th century. William Alloway of Bridgwater (and formerly of Minehead), probably the brother of the first Benjamin Alloway noticed below, is recorded as the leading general merchant in the town, with an international trade and ships plying regularly to Dublin and France. Benjamin Alloway (1670-?1745) seems to have settled in Dublin in about 1700, perhaps as agent for William. The family remained in Dublin over several generations, and maintained the Quaker faith for many years as is indicated by some of their marriages: for example, the first wife of Benjamin Alloway (1728-72) was a grand-daughter of the leading Quaker apologist, Robert Barclay of Urie.  It was William Johnson Alloway (c.1771-1829), who perhaps inherited significant wealth from his father-in-law, Robert Johnson, a justice of the common pleas in Ireland, who translated the family into the county gentry by buying a small estate of around 618 acres at Ballyshaneduff (Co. Leix) and building a new house there in about 1810.  His son had to partially reconstructed the house after a devastating fire in 1849, and it remained in the family until the early death of Robert Marmaduke Alloway in 1880. With his death, his young children became orphans, and were taken into the care of their mother's father, Theophilus Lucas-Clements, who acted as their guardian and trustee. He put the Ballyshaneduff estate (by then known as The Derries) up for auction in 1884. The two young sons who would have stood to inherit the estate emigrated to Canada when they reached their late teens, becoming part of the vast Irish diaspora who sought a new life in the colonies. They perhaps chose Canada because their great-uncle Arthur William Alloway (b. 1804) had previously gone there in 1855 and their cousin, William Forbes Alloway (1852-1930) was becoming established and wealthy as a banker and public benefactor in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The Derries, alias Ballyshaneduff (Co. Leix)

The Derries estate in the late 19th century, from the Ordnance Survey 6" map of Ireland

A 19th-century castellated house, built in 1810 by W.J. Alloway on the site of an old house of the O’Dempseys, and remodelled and partially rebuilt by his son after a devastating fire in January 1849.  The resulting building had two main fronts: a long, low east front (nearly 200 feet in length) with pointed doors and windows and a castellated parapet, presumably largely of c.1810, and a higher western front with a square tower.  In the 1850s, a small ivy-covered fragment of the old house of the O'Dempseys stood opposite the hall door, and near it Robert Morellet Alloway built a replica of an Irish round tower.  Like the house, this has gone, and the well-wooded landscaped demesne of some 618 acres is now given over to commercial forestry; few traces remain of the estate. No illustration of the house is known to survive.

Descent: Sir Terence O'Dempsey (d. 1638), 1st Viscount Clanmalier; to son, Lewis O'Dempsey (d. 1683), 2nd Viscount Clanmalier; seized by Parliament 1641 and granted after Restoration to Sir Henry Bennet (1618-85), 1st Earl of Arlington... forfeited 1690 and granted to Henry Massue du Ruvigny (1648-1720), 1st Earl of Galway... sold to Hollow Swordblade Co. of London, which divided it into smaller properties, one of which was sold to William Johnson Alloway (d. 1829); to son, Robert Morellet Alloway (1810-77); to son, Robert Marmaduke Alloway (1840-80); after whose death it was sold in 1884.

The Alloway family of The Derries

Alloway, Benjamin (b. 1670) of Dublin. Son of William and Susannah Alloway of Minehead, born 23 June 1670. He settled in Dublin about 1700.  He is probably the person of this name who married, 12 September 1698 at Luxborough or Luccombe (Somerset), Hannah, daughter of Peter Godwin, and had issue including:
(1) William Alloway (fl. early 18th cent.) (q.v.).
He may be the person of this name who was buried at Minehead in 1745.

Alloway, William (fl. early 18th cent.) of Dublin.  Son of Benjamin Alloway (b. 1670) and his wife Hannah, daughter of Peter Godwin, born about 1700.  He married, about 1725, Grace, daughter of Archibald Montgomerie of Ayrshire and had issue:
(1) Benjamin Alloway (1728-72) (q.v.);
(2) Hannah Alloway (d. 1796), m. Jonas Duckett (1720-97) of Duckett's Grove and had issue five sons and three daughters; died 29 February 1796.
His date of death is unknown.

Alloway, Benjamin (1728-72) of Dublin.  Son of William Alloway (fl. early 18th cent.) of Dublin, and his wife Grace, daughter of Archibald Montgomerie of Ayrshire, born 1728. He married 1st, 28 or 29 June 1753, Lydia, daughter of John Barclay (1687-1751) and granddaughter of Robert Barclay of Urie (Aberdeens), and 2nd, 27 December 1769, Anne, daughter of William Johnson of Dublin, and had issue:
(1.1) David Alloway; probably died young;
(1.2) John Barclay Alloway (1754/5-1830) of Mount Pleasant (Dublin); married, August 1787, Catherine Evans (1758-1830) but died without issue, 6 December 1830;
(1.3) Robert Alloway (b. c.1756); probably died young;
(1.4) William Alloway (b. 1757);
(1.5) Mary Alloway (b. 1759); married, 1776, Joseph Sparrow;
(1.6) Benjamin Alloway (b. 1761);
(2.1) William Johnson Alloway (c.1771-1829) (q.v.)
He died 29 April 1772. His widow married 2nd, 1781, George Holmes and had issue a further son (Maj. George Holmes, killed at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815).

Alloway, William Johnson (c.1771-1829) of Ballyshaneduff.  Only son of Benjamin Alloway (1728-72) and his second wife, Anne, daughter of William Johnson of Dublin, born 1770x1772. He married, 15 May 1802, Margaret (d. 1834), eldest daughter of Robert Johnson, a judge of common pleas for Ireland, and had issue:
(1) Robert Morellet Alloway (c.1803-77) (q.v.);
(2) Arthur William Alloway (b. 1804), baptised 3 October 1804; vetinary surgeon in 4th Regiment; emigrated to Canada, 1855; married, 26 April 1832, his cousin Mary Christina Johnson and had issue (including William Forbes Alloway (1852-1930) the Canadian banker and philanthropist);
(3) Margaret Anne Alloway (1809-35), born 22 April 1809; died unmarried, 16 April 1835;
(4) George Holmes Alloway (c.1815-80); married, 8 December 1847, Florence Gertrude, daughter of Henry McClintock of Dundalk (Louth); died in London, 1880;
(5) Anne Alloway (fl. 1835); probably died unmarried;
(6) Maria Alloway (d. 1845); married, 19 May 1844, William Conway Morgan (b. 1814), barrister-at-law  (who married 2nd, 1854, Catherine Elizabeth Kane and had issue two daughters) and had issue one son; died about 17 May 1845;
(7) John Parker Alloway (fl. 1835).
He purchased the Ballyshaneduff estate and built a new house there c.1810.
He died 2 October 1829. His widow died 18 April 1834.

Alloway, Robert Morellet (c.1803-77) of Ballyshaneduff. Eldest son of William Johnson Alloway (d. 1829) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Robert Johnson, born about 1803. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1820; MA) and Grays Inn (admitted 1826). JP for Co. Leix. Author (as Robert Montgomerie) of The Rose of Rostrevor, 1855; patented improvements in the treatment of peat for use as fuel, 1865. He married, 19 June 1832, Marian (d. 1881), only daughter of William Lewis of Harlech (Dublin) and had issue:
(1) Grace Montgomerie Alloway (1838-67), born 19 June 1838; married, 28 November 1865, John Saunders of Burnham (Somerset) and had issue a son; died 8 January 1867;
(2) Robert Marmaduke Alloway (1840-80) (q.v.).
He inherited Ballyshaneduff from his father in 1829, and partially rebuilt the house after a devastating fire in 1849.  Some of the estate land was sold in 1863, and he lived latterly at Wells in Somerset.
He died at Wells (Somerset), 8 July 1877; his will was proved 10 August 1877 (estate £450). His widow died at Exmouth, 2 November 1881; her will was proved 13 December 1881 (estate in England £418).

Alloway, Robert Marmaduke (1840-80) of Ballyshaneduff.  Only son of Robert Morellet Alloway (1810-77) and his wife Marian, daughter of William Lewis of Harlech (Dublin), born 9 June 1840. Served as a Lieutenant in Dublin City Artillery (resigned 1873). He married 1st, 19 August 1869 at St Peter, Dublin, Isabella Margaret (d. 1876), daughter of Theophilus Lucas-Clements esq. of Rathkenny (Cavan) and Dublin, and 2nd, 24 July 1878 at Weston-super-Mare (Somerset), Laura Georgina (c.1856-1951), daughter of Rev. Joseph Philip Knight, and had issue:
(1.1) Edward Lewis Upton Alloway (1872-1903), born 16 March 1872; emigrated to Canada, 1889 and became a rancher at Little Red River, Alberta; died 28 December 1903; will proved 7 May 1906 (estate in England £477);
(1.2) Robert Henry Arthur Alloway (1873-1956), born 18 March 1873; emigrated to Canada; died in Vancouver, British Columbia, 21 December 1956;
(1.3) Olivia Beatrice Alloway (1875-1938), born 13 January 1875; married, 1909, Charles Vernon Olive, bank clerk, and had issue; died 16 January 1938; will proved 25 August 1938 (estate £1,007);
(1.4) Isabella Maria Alloway (b. 1876), born 12 April 1876; unmarried in 1911.
He inherited Ballyshaneduff alias The Derries from his father in 1877. It was sold with 364 acres in 1884 by his children's trustee.
He died at Aldeburgh (Suffolk), 7 December 1880; his will was proved 15 June 1901 (estate £1,077). His first wife died 24 April 1876; administration of her goods was granted 24 April 1901 (estate £816). His widow married 2nd, 16 April 1889, Otto Ernesta Haenni, of Godalming, schoolmaster, and died 23 March 1951; her will was proved 11 June 1951 (estate £5,678).

Sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1850, vol. 2, supplement, p.4; 1871, vol. 1, p. 15; M. Bence-Jones, Country Houses of Ireland, 1988, p.28; Dublin Evening Mail, 15 January 1849.

Location of archives

No significant archive is known to survive.

Coat of arms

Gules, a lion, salient, between two crescents in chief, and as many swords in base, argent.