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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Mayo => Topic started by: scraboman on Monday 07 December 09 01:59 GMT (UK)
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Just found out my wife's Connolly ancestors leased houses from Alex Lambert in the shadow of his Brookhill Flour mill about 2 miles west of Claremorris around the time of the famine.
They are the houses occupied in Griffiths in 1854 by Thomas & Michael Connolly, farmers. They are leased from Lambert who leases the entire townland and about four others in the area from Lord Oranmore.
The houses are on the western edge of Leedaun townland, adjacent to that of Brookhill which is entirely Lambert’s house and estate and the local village of the same name.
The only other building in Leedaun is adjacent to Connolly’s houses and right on the border of Leedaun and Brookhill townlands, also on the edge of the village. This is Brookhill Flour Mill owned by Lambert.
Presumably, Lambert used his 4 or 5 townlands to grow corn for his mill. Maybe the Connollys themselves had an income from Lambert by growing corn themselves rather than depending on potatoes. Probably the Connollys (and the rest of the village) supplemented their income by working at the mill and on Lambert’s crops.
Maybe Mr Lambert was one of the good guys during the famine and would have seen to it that his workers and tenants had food to eat, or perhaps they were in a position to steal enough to exist.
Whatever way it worked out, the existence of that flour mill and the Connollys’ proximity and relationship with the owner, whatever it was, has to be the answer to how they were able to stay in Mayo and live through the 1840’s and 50’s.
Does anyone know the story here or anything relating to that time in Brookhill?
Is there anything left now?
peter
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This may interest You.
Go to Landed Estates database. There is alittle something about Lord Oranmor.
But when you go in go for B Browne and look for Castlemagarett :)
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Thanks Leprechaun, I'd already done that from google searches for Brookhill and Lambert... what I was hoping for really is some info about the sort of boss or landlord he was really, especially in the context of the famine and ensuing poverty and info on the actual mill and life in the area at the time, the sort of thing that would only be known locally, perhaps some kind of historical society or whatever... no harm in hoping eh?
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Maybe you could do with getting hold of Estate Records.
A summary is provided of revlevant,catalogued records in the NAI and NLI
for counties including Mayo,Galway,etc .A great deal of material,covering all areas of Ireland suvives in Country libraries,in the English national and local archives and above all in the Pronti. Hope this is of help. :)
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PRONI (Public Record Office of Northern Ireland) has records dealing with Northern Ireland- their e-catalogue is searchable online from their site- www.proni.gov.uk.
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Hi Peter
I grew up in Brookhill although I left it many years ago. Brookhill House - the Lambert's home still stands in good condition and is occupied. It's entrance is on the right hand side of the road from Claremorris to Ballinrobe - about two miles from Claremorris , just past the bridge over the river.
As far as I know, the Lamberts were generally good landlords. I remember something about Alexander Lambert running some kind of 'model farm'. The family had connections with the area until at least the late 1940s - Alexander Fane Lambert was a senior British Army officer - as far as I remember he was ADC to King George VI for a time during WW2. He wrote about his family - see:
http://www.landedestates.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=638
Re the mill -
At the entrance to the estate is a very nice waterfall. Across the bridge is the remains of a mill race - I often explored around this as a child - there was a 'tunnel' under the roadway. I'd say the waterfall was a dam and a duct running under the road took the water into the mill race.
There was some stonework that looked like the remains of the supports for the mill wheel - I'd say this still exists - although the mill building itself is long gone. With the river, waterfall and woods it's quite a beautiful place. In the woods at the entrance to the estate is the burial place of the Lambert family - I remember that the memorials were clearly legible.
I'm away from home for the next day or two - when I get back I'll check if I staill have any relevant information.
best regards
Gerry
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Hi,
My McEnelly relatives were tenant farners on the Brookhill estate. They emigrated to Massachusetts during the famine.
Thomas McEnelly documented his visit to the 1930s. They were from Crossboyne. He reviewed the parish records and said that McEnelly was recorded as Connolly, Kennella, Cunnella. He found the ruins of a church named Kill McEnelly.
Michael McEnelly stayed behind working for the parish priest when the rest of the family emigrated. He emigrated a few years after them and ran a dry goods store in Hopkinton, Mass. He donated a stained glass window when St Colman's Church in Claremorris was being built in honor of the parish priest Father Reynolds which is there today.
I plan on visiting the area in August and would love to make contact with any McEnellys still in the area.
Mike
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Welcome to RootsChat :)
Can't help with your McEnellys, but for others here's the civil parish of Crossboyne and the townland of Brookhill.
https://www.townlands.ie/mayo/crossboyne2/
https://www.townlands.ie/mayo/clanmorris/crossboyne/crossboyne/brookhill/
The Brookhill flour mill was situated at the most eastern extremity of Brookhill townland where the river and the road intersect.
You can see it on http://map.geohive.ie/mapviewer.html by selecting the B&W 1837-1842 map and typing 'Claremorris, Co Mayo' in the search box. Follow the road out to Brookhill. Unfortunately the Save facility in GeoHive is currently not working so no link available.
KG
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I plan on visiting the area in August and would love to make contact with any McEnellys still in the area.
Ireland Reaching Out is a family history website for the Irish diaspora. It's organised by civil parish. There are local volunteers in some parishes who may be able to assist visitors.
https://irelandxo.com
2 Facebook groups for family history in Mayo:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/clansofmayo
https://mayoppn.ie/organisation/mayo-genealogy-group/
There may be a local community website or Facebook or a church parish newsletter on which you could post an enquiry.
Welcome to RootsChat.
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Hi
These are the GPS coordinates of the bridge over the river at Brookhill:
[53.7033698,-9.0078916] or [53.7033698N, 9.0078916W]
From Google Maps (or Google Earth) Streetview there's a modern concrete parapet with railings on the right hand side of the road (as you travel south from Claremorris town). Just past the bridge on the same side is the entrance to Brookhill House (which I think is now open to visitors in Summer?). The mill area is on the other side of the main road.
From Streetview, there's now a lot of vegetation in the river on the Brookhill House side. This was formerly a wide open river just above the very attractive waterfall that's just beside the bridge. I spent many days as a kid messing in that river with rafts etc - it's a wonder I survived!
On the opposite side of the bridge there was (and probably still is) the remains of a mill-race and stonework that was probably the seating for the mill-wheel. A tunnel leading to this mill-race passed under the roadway to the Brookhill House side - originally diverting water from the upper river into the mill. I remember making my way (probably about 1970) inside that tunnel - it was blocked off after maybe 50 feet or so.
Brings back happy memories!
best regards
Gerry
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This area is in the RC parish of Crossboyne; their website:
http://crossboyneparish.ie/
Crossboyne village is about two miles southeast of the bridge.
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Thank you everyone for the quick responses,
KG, those map references are great. I did not realize that Brookhill was a townland. I thought it was just an estate. To the left of Brookhill on the map, it looks like there is a townland spelt KILMACANELLY which is very close to McEnelly.
What does it mean that a townland is named after my ancestors ?
Thanks again,
Mike
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Scraboman,
i just reread your note about having Thomas and Michael Connolly as ancestors. I think this is what my ancestor Thomas McEnelly wrote about when he said McEnelly was recorded as Connolly.
Thomas was a kid that dropped out of school in 8th grade, worked as a bellhop, ended up in America's Foreign Service, and was a Consul in Dublin during WWII. He wrote an autobiography. I would say I am probably related to your wife's Connollys based upon his research. The attached is from his autobiography.
After dinner, I inspected the register of the parish to ascertain information on the birth of my
father. I found that he was born in the month of May 1840 and baptized in the
name of Patrick Henry Cunnella; his sister Johanna in the name of Kennella,
and his brothers Tom, Mike and Jim, Connelly. I asked father Brett how I
happened to have the name of McEnelly when my father was baptized with the name Cunnella.
He told me it often happened that
Irish names were corrupted by the neighbors of a family who shortened them for easy
pronunciation, and advised me to pursue my inquiry by examining earlier records.
This I did, and in the eighteenth century I found the named spelled as I spell it today.
The book is "The Life of Thomas McEnelly - His Life in His Words". I got it off Amazon but I also have an early draft online if you would like me to send it to you.
Mike