Person talk:Elizabeth Kelly (44)

Castle Kelly [27 September 2011]

One piece of unfinished genealogy in the "Memoirs" (page 72) relates to the second wife of Henry Archdale (1724-1790) of Dublin. She is described as "Elizabeth Kelly, said to have been of the family of Castle Kelly, Co. Roscommon".

The Kelly or O'Kelly family of Roscommon is an ancient Irish family; by the 18th century the branch of the family that retained Castle Kelly had become protestant.

Castle Kelly is also known as Aghrane Castle, and is near Ballygar on the Galway - Roscommon border.

Landed Estates provides this information:

The Kellys were settled at Castlekelly, Ballygar, barony of Killian, county Galway, from the late 17th century. Colonel Charles O'Kelly supported the Jacobite cause and a clause in the Treaty of Limerick allowed for the restoration of his estate at Aghrane, where he wrote an account of the Williamite Wars. John Kelly of Clonlyon inherited Aghrane from his cousin Denis Kelly of Dublin in 1734.The family became Protestants in the 1740s. Their estate straddled the county border so that parts of the Kelly estate were in the parishes of Athleague and Killeroran, barony of Killian, county Galway and in the parishes of Athleague and Tisrara, barony of Athlone, county Roscommon. In 1828 Denis Kelly of Castle Kelly was a member of the Grand Panel of county Roscommon. In May 1863 Denis Henry Kelly advertised for sale his 13,154 acre estate of Castle Kelly in the barony of Killian, county Galway and his 1,709 acre estate in the barony of Athlone, county Roscommon. In the 1870s Denis H. Kelly of Araghty, Athleague, owned 576 acres in county Roscommon. John Mahon was leasing land from the Kellys of Castle Kelly in the mid 19th century. He was a grandson of Thomas Mahon of Strokestown and in 1831 he married his cousin Leonora daughter of the Reverend Armstrong Kelly of Castle Kelly. In the 1870s Thomas Kelly Mahon owned 947 acres in county Galway and 584 acres in county Roscommon.

John Rylands library provides the following relating to its Kelly collection:

Denis Henry Kelly (1797-1877), Irish landowner, scholar and collector, was the son of Andrew Armstrong Kelly and was a senior member of the O'Kelly family of Uì Maine or Hy Many. He resided at Castle Kelly, Mount Talbot, Roscommon, and married the daughter of J. Salvador esq.; she was living in 1850. He was a magistrate of Galway and Roscommon and a deputy lieutenant of the former county. In the early nineteenth century, many landowners in Ireland were members of learned societies, collectors or genealogists. Kelly himself had a substantial library containing old family manuscripts, manuscripts and papers that he himself had acquired, and transcripts of manuscripts copied by or for Kelly.

Google Books :

Tribes and Customs of Hy Many Commonly Called O'Kellys Country: In Gaelic ... By John O'Donovan, p117, has the genealogy of the Kellys of Castlekelly.

From the above information, a tentative genealogy for Elizabeth could be as follows:

• John Kelly of Clonlyon inherits Castlekelly in 1734, becomes Protestant, died 1748.
• Denis, son of John, born circa 1730, married 1750, died 1794. Had 7 sons and 4 daughters, eldest Elizabeth.
• Andrew Armstrong Kelly (described as father of Denis) born 1763
• Denis Henry Kelly (1797-1877)

'Our' Elizabeth Kelly was probably born before 1754 (as she was married in 1774), but after about 1725. If she was indeed of the Castlekelly family, then she would most likely be identical to "Elizabeth" the eldest daughter of Denis Kelly (1730-1794), and therefore born between 1750 (when her father married) and 1754. To confirm this, we will need to find the marriage record of Elizabeth Kelly and Henry Archdall - probably married in Dublin, Lusk or Ballygar.

Place of Marriage [1 October 2011]

In order to establish the link between Henry Archdale's wife and the Kellys of Castle Kelly, the marriage certificate would be essential. Their marriage would have been in a Church of Ireland (Anglican) rather than Catholic church, as the Kellys of Castlekelly had become Protestant by then, as were the Archdales. This 'talk' topic seeks to identify the likely or possible places that Henry and Elizabveth could have married.

[1] close to Castlekelly:

• Killeroran parish, Ballygar, Co Galway - the CoI church at the gates of the Castlekelly demesne see map
• Athleague Church, Co Roscommon map

[2] Dublin

• St Werburgh's Church - the church frequented and patronised by Henry Archdall and his father.
• Lusk, north of Dublin, where Henry's first wife was buried, and where Henry's grandfather had been vicar for many years.

Unfortunately many Church of Ireland parish registers were destroyed in 1922. If searches of the above parish records turn up no certificates, then it is possible that Elizabeth's marriage may be in the wills of the Kellys of the time.--Honnyng 10:20, 1 October 2011 (EDT)