(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.

(22) Adair of Bellegrove and Glenveagh Castle

Adair of Bellegrove

The Adairs of Rath claimed descent from Col. Sir Robert Adair (1659-1745), knighted by King William III at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, whose ancestors were the Adairs of Kinhilt (q.v.) in Wigtownshire.  Thomas Adair of Clonterry (Leix) died in 1758, and his grandson John (c1731-1809) was apparently the first to settle at Rath (also known as Rathdaire), near Ballybrittas (Leix).  His son George (b. 1784) built a new house on the estate about 1835, which became known as Bellegrove (occasionally Belgrove).  

George's only son, John George Adair (1823-85), originally intended for the Foreign Office, proved to have too fiery a temperament and to restless a spirit for the diplomatic service, and went to America where he made money in brokerage and land speculation.  In 1857-59 he bought up land in Co. Donegal to form the Glenveagh estate, from which over 200 tenants were ruthlessly cleared in 1861.  Here, between 1867 and 1873 he built Glenveagh Castle in a Scots Baronial style to the design of his cousin, J.T. Trench.  He also added a large winter garden to Bellegrove in 1869, to the design of Sir T.N. Deane.  In 1869 he married a wealthy widow, Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie (1838-1921), and they divided their time between Ireland and America, where they lived first in New York and later in Denver.  

In 1874, during a hunting trip, they met a Texas cattleman, Charles Goodnight (1836-1929), who persuaded them to purchase land for cattle ranching on the open range in the beautiful Palo Duro country southeast of Amarillo, Texas, where the cattle had sufficient water, excellent grass in summer and could winter comfortably in the protection afforded by the canyon walls. Adair and Goodnight entered into a partnership, by which Adair put up the money for building a massive ranch in the canyon, and Goodnight would became the manager of the ranch and supplied the initial herd of cattle. Adair financed two thirds of the cost, and Goodnight borrowed his one-third share at 10 percent interest from Adair. Goodnight would also draw a $2,500 annual salary. It was Goodnight’s suggestion that the ranch be named the “JA Ranch” from the initials of his partner.  Goodnight had a free hand in managing the ranch and rapidly increased the acreage through shrewd land purchases.  As a result the undertaking had made a profit of $510,000 by the end of the first five-year contract. Goodnight continued as manager until 1888, by which time Adair had died and been succeeded by his widow.  She was sole owner of the ranch until her death, and it remained in her family, passing to the descendants of her first marriage.  Her grandson, Montgomery Harrison Wadsworth “Montie” Ritchie (1910–1999), worked at the ranch and was the manager from 1935 until his retirement in 1993.  For the history of the ranch, see here.

Cornelia Adair (1837-1921)

Although Cornelia Adair became a British citizen and continued to divide her time between England, Ireland and the USA in her widowhood, her children and grandchildren were and remained American at heart and the Irish estates did not remain in the family long after she died in 1921.  Bellegrove had anyway been burnt out in 1887 and was not rebuilt; it remains a ruin.  Glenveagh was sold in 1929 to another American, Professor Arthur Kingsley Porter.  After he disappeared in mysterious circumstances from Inishbofin in 1933 (an episode which is now the subject of a book, soon to be made into a film), the castle was sold in 1937 to an Irish-American art collector and connoisseur, Henry Plumer McIlhenny (1910-86).  He sold the estate to the Office of Public Works as a National Park in 1975, and gave the castle and grounds to the Irish government in 1981.

Bellegrove, Rath, Leix

Bellegrove in 2006. The greenery has since been removed from the ruins.

A large Regency house of c.1835, built for George Adair round three sides of an entrance court, which was later filled in as a winter garden by J.G. and Cornelia Adair.  This immense conservatory, designed by Sir Thomas Newenham Deane, had Romanesque arcades supported by pairs of ornate terracotta columns, copied from those in St John Lateran in Rome.  Having been burned in 1887 the house was not restored as the Adairs had moved their principal home to Glenveagh Castle in Donegal.  The winter garden was demolished in 1970, but the ruins of the original building were still standing and free of ivy in 2011.  A gate lodge is known to have been designed by William Farrell, who may have been the architect of the house as well.

Descent: John Adair (c.1731-1809); to son, George Adair (1784-c.1850); to son, John George Adair (1823-85), to widow, Cornelia Wadsworth Adair (formerly Ritchie) (1837-1921); sold by her or her executors... in 1935 the estate was acquired and divided among the tenants by the Irish Land Commission.

Glenveagh Castle, Donegal

Glenveagh Castle

A Victorian Baronial castle of rough-hewn granite at the end of a wooded promontory jutting out into Lough Veagh, surrounded by the bare and desolate hills of a deer-forest.  It was built in 1870-73 by John George Adair of Bellegrove (Leix), whose wife was a rich American heiress, and was designed by his cousin, John Townsend Trench.  Construction was interrupted by a fire in 1872 when the house was approaching completion. The castle consists of a frowning keep with Irish battlements, flanked by a lower round tower and other buildings; the effect being one of feudal strength; the entrance lies through a walled courtyard.  

Glenveagh Castle from above.  © Jen Doyle

In the mid 20th century, Henry McIlhenny of Philadelphia, whose hospitality was legendary, decorated and furnished the interior of the castle with a mixture of Georgian and Victorian style and modern luxury, in a way that contrasted splendidly with the rugged medievalism of the exterior and the wildness of the surroundings.  

Glenveagh Castle: the library in 1973. 

He also made what is now one of the great gardens of the British Isles: there are terraces with busts and statues, a formal pool by the side of the lough, an Italian garden, and a walled garden containing a Gothic orangery designed by M. Philippe Julian, while the hillside above the castle is planted with a wonderful variety of rare and exotic trees and shrubs.

Glenveagh Castle gardens © Chris Gunns.  Licenced under a Creative Commons licence

Descent: John George Adair (1823-85), who built Glenveagh; to widow, Cornelia Wadsworth Adair (formerly Ritchie) (1837-1921); to son, Montgomery Ritchie (d. 1924); sold 1929 to Prof. Arthur Kingsley Porter (1883-?1933); sold to Henry McIlhenny (1910-86), who gave to the Irish government 1981.

The Adair family of Bellegrove and Glenveagh Castle

John Adair (c.1731-1809) of Rath.  Elder son of Archibald Adair and his wife Jane, daughter of Mark Anthony Chateneuf; born c.1731.  He married 26 February 1776, Rebecca, eldest child of George Maquay of Dublin, esquire and had issue:

(1) George Adair (1784-after 1850) (q.v.);

(2) John Adair (1792-1839), dsp; 

(3) Elizabeth Adair; 

(4) Jane Adair, m. F.W. Fortescue of Miltown Grange (Louth) esq.; 

(5) Mary Adair; 

(6) Sarah Adair; 

(7) Charlotte Adair.

He purchased an estate at Rath (Leix) on which Bellegrove was built by his son.

He died 14 July 1809.

George Adair (1784-1873), of Bellegrove.  Elder son of John Adair (c.1731-1809) and his wife Rebecca, daughter of George Maquay of Dublin; born 13 September 1784.  JP and DL for Co. Leix; High Sheriff of Leix in 1822.  In 1850 he created a model farm on the estate which won him prizes for modern agricultural methods but led to the eviction of some tenants.  He married 16 May 1822 Elizabeth (1794-1823), second daughter of the Very Rev. Thomas Trench, Dean of Kildare, and had issue:

(1) John George Adair (1823-85) (q.v.).

He inherited the estate at Rath from his father in 1809 and built Bellegrove House there in 1835.  He probably made over the estate to his son before his death.

He died on 2 August 1873 and was buried on 6 August at Coolbanagher church (Leix).  His wife died 21 March 1823, two weeks after the birth of their son, and is commemorated by a monument at Coolbanagher.

John George (known as Jack) Adair (1823-85), of Bellegrove and later of Glenveagh Castle.  Only child of George Adair (1784-1873) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Very Rev. Thomas Trench; born 3 March 1823.  Educated at Trinity College, Dublin.  High Sheriff of Co. Leix, 1867 and Co. Donegal, 1874.  He set up a brokerage business in the United States in the 1860s and later became a ranch owner and property speculator.  Although he did not inherited Bellegrove until 1873, he was probably in control of the estate for some years before his father's death.  He married, 30 May 1867 at the English episcopal church, Paris (France), Cornelia (1837-1921), daughter of Gen. James Samuel Wadsworth of New York and widow of Col. Montgomery Ritchie, but died without issue.

Bellegrove was apparently made over to him during his father's lifetime and he was listed as owning 9,655 acres in Co. Leix in 1872.  He was probably responsible for adding a winter garden designed by Sir T.N. Deane 1869.  In 1857-59 he purchased land in Co. Donegal to form a new estate at Glenveagh, where he built Glenveagh Castle to the designs of his cousin, J.T. Trench.  At his death his estates passed to his widow and the Irish properties were sold after her death.

He died 4 May 1885 in St. Louis (USA), and is buried in The Lea Church, Killenard, Leix; his will was proved in Dublin, 2 July 1885 (estate in England, £14).  His widow died 22 September 1921.

Sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1863; M. Bence-Jones, A guide to Irish country houses, 2nd edn, 1988, pp. 139, 291; E. Malins & P. Bowe, Irish Gardens and Demesnes from 1830, 1980, pp. 56-57; http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/glenveagh-castle.html;

Where are their papers?

Adair family of Bellegrove and Glenveagh Castle: no significant archive is known.

Revision & Acknowledgements

This post was first published on 31 March 2013 and was revised 3 April 2015 and 17 February 2017. I am grateful for additional information supplied by Raymond Blair.