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Blayney Estate, Castleblaney

The landlord context of Thomas McKenna's birthplace (Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan, 1772).

Best Evidence

1. Proven

   D1421/1/68 contains the Blayney estate papers for the 1749–1790 window around Thomas's birth.

2. Negative

   Livingstone's 1772 rent-book transcript names no McKenna among leaseholders or listed Catholic-surnamed tenants.

3. Proven

   Killycard remained Blayney land rather than Templetown land, so later Killycard McKennas fit the Blayney estate field.

4. Likely

   Drumillard McKennas, if present in 1772, likely held under Walsh / Molloy middleman structures rather than directly from Blayney.

Next Targets

1. OpenInspect PRONI D1421/1/68 loose papers for sub-tenant lists, bonds, wage books, or lease extracts.
2. OpenCheck D2433 Caledon papers for Blayney settlements and pre-1790 instruments.
3. OpenUse maps and surveys to locate Drumillard, Killycard, and middleman holdings in relation to Castleblayney town.

Evidence Log

Why it matters here

Thomas McKenna was born at Castleblaney in 1772, when the town was still the seat of the Blayney barony. Whether the McKennas were tenants of the Blayneys, or linked to the estate in some other way, is an open question — but any reconstruction of Thomas's early life has to start with who held the land he was born on.

Ownership timeline

• 1611 — Edward Blayney granted the 32 townlands of Ballynalurgan and the termon of Muckno; builds the castle, around which the planter town of Castleblayney grows.
• 1621 — Edward made Baron Blayney of Monaghan (29 July). Dies 11 Feb 1629.
• 1641 — Castle attacked 21 Oct by Hugh Mac Patrick Dubh MacMahon in the Irish rising. The 2nd Lord Blayney is killed at Benburb in 1646.
• 1649, 1653 — 3rd Lord Blayney (Edward) sells the Monaghan and Castleblayney estates to Thomas Vincent, a London merchant. In 1653 Edward's brother Richard marries Vincent's daughter and the estates return as a wedding gift.
• 1680 (5th Lord, Henry Vincent) — sells most of the Monaghan estate; that portion passes through the Cairnes, Murray and Cuninghame families and ultimately to the Westenras (Lords Rossmore).
• 1723 (7th Lord, Cadwallader) — sells the northern portion of the parish of Muckno to John Upton of Castle Upton, Templepatrick (father of the 1st Lord Templetown). The Blayneys retain the southern portion of Muckno — which includes Killycard and Castleblayney town.
• 11th Lord (Andrew Thomas, 1784–1832) — rules the estate for nearly 50 years. Commander of the 89th Regiment of Foot ("Blayney's Bloodhounds"), POW in Napoleonic France 1810–14. Built Catholic, Presbyterian and Established churches in the town. This is the landlord throughout Thomas McKenna's lifetime in Monaghan. Dies 8 April 1832.
• 1853 — 12th and last Lord (Cadwallader) sells the main estate to Henry Thomas Hope of Deepdene, Surrey (friend of Disraeli, who wrote Coningsby at Deepdene and dedicated it to him). Hope dies 1862; his widow Anne Hope inherits.
• 1887 — Henrietta Adela Hope's son Lord Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton assumes the name Hope. He becomes 8th Duke of Newcastle in 1928.
• 1916 — Lord Henry Francis Hope ceases to live at Castleblayney; estate heavily mortgaged. Records preserved by Capt. J. Gillespie, last agent of the Hope estate.

Holdings at the 1876 Landowners return

By 1876 the former Blayney estate at Castleblayney was split between Viscount Templetown (12,846 acres — the portion bought in 1723) and Mrs Anne Hope (11,700 acres — the residue sold in 1853). The family's direct representatives by then held 1,561 acres in Co. Tipperary and 421 acres at Carrickfergus — a long way from the original Monaghan base.

Primary archives — Blayney / Hope papers at PRONI

The Blayney / Hope papers (ca. 3,000 documents, 1639–1950) are held at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), primary reference D1421 (with related material at D1406 and D971). The archive is organised into the following series:

• D1421/1/1–61 — Hope rentals and accounts, 1828 to May 1938 (last recipient: the 8th Duke of Newcastle).
• D1421/1/62–67 — Hope estate rent arrears, 1874–1901.
• D1421/1/68 — Blayney estate papers, c. 1749–1790: rentals, accounts, bonds, extracts from leases, account/wage books, and the agent's annual statement and one year's rent for 1790 (£2,343. 14s. 1d.). This is the physical series containing the 1772 rental material transcribed by Peadar Livingstone.
• D1421/2/1–6/A–L — leases c. 1790–1850 for Blayney lands in Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan, and Dromgalvan, Tullaskerry, Carrickfergus, etc. in Co. Antrim — plus earlier leases for Copper Alley, Dublin (1639); Scotch Quarter, Carrickfergus (1655); Gortakeaghan (1679); Ardee (1754); Antrim (1721); and an 1817 rent roll of 49 tenants on Lord Blayney's Co. Antrim estate (£545 p.a.).
• D1421/3/1–13 — surveys, valuations, and maps of the estate, c. 1830–1901 (including 4 Ordnance Survey maps done for the Irish Land Commission around 1900).
• D1421/5/1A–B — Irish Land Commission sale papers for demesne lands at Drumguillew, Tullyskerry, Tattygare, etc., Co. Monaghan.
• D1421/6–8 — legal papers, accounts, income-tax returns, and correspondence, c. 1920–1950.

Critically, part of the Blayney archive is filed under the Caledon papers (PRONI D2433) — leases, deeds, reconveyances of mortgages, and marriage settlements, including the marriage settlements of the 9th Lord (1766–7) and the 11th Lord, to Mabella Alexander (daughter of the 1st Earl of Caledon), in 1797. A parallel search of D2433 is therefore warranted for any pre-1790 Blayney instruments.

Templetown (Upton) records for the 1723 half

The northern portion of Muckno bought by John Upton in 1723 is separately documented under D971 (Templetown papers) and D988 (Templetown deeds). The D/585/60 rental of 1838 lists 19 Templetown townlands in Co. Monaghan: Airyroe, Alsmeed, Annayalla, Aghnadamph, Cabragh, Carrickinare, Carrickaslane, Corrintra, Coraghy, Carracloghan, Corrotanty, Corrinshigo, Creaghanroe, Croaghan, Drumacon, Drumacrib, Drumgara, Drollagh, and Grig. Killycard is not on this list, confirming it remained Blayney land — and that any McKenna tenants at Killycard held under Lord Blayney, not Lord Templetown.

The 1772 rent book — obtained and read

The estate rent book for 1772 — Thomas McKenna's birth year — has been transcribed and published in full by the Castleblayney-born priest-historian Peadar Livingstone, and was obtained via the Clogher Historical Society on 2026-04-20:

• Peadar Livingstone, "Castleblayney Rent Book 1772", Clogher Record Vol. X, No. 3 (1981), pp. 414–418. Full verbatim transcription at raw/livingstone-1772-castleblayney-rent-book.md.

The underlying manuscript is "A Rentall of Castleblayney and Aghnamalla Estates 1772", a 22-page home-made rental presented to Monaghan County Museum by Michael Fisher of RTÉ at Christmas 1980. It covers four sections: (i) the Castleblayney Estate, (ii) the Aghnamalla Estate (9 townlands in parishes of Kilmore-Drumsnat and Killeevan), (iii) the Blayney Demesne at Onomy, and (iv) Toome Townland (parish of Donaghmoyne, Farney barony — leased from Lord Weymouth). The original sits in PRONI D1421/1/68.

The headline facts for the Castleblayney half:

• 105 lease-holders on the principal rental. 30 held at least a whole townland, 20 more held ≥100 acres, and only 13 held <15 acres outside the town.
• Tenure in transition — 9th Lord Blayney (Cadwallader, 1761–1775) was shifting from the old middleman system (leases for lives, usually for three nominated lives) toward direct landlord-tenant dealing. 18 of the 105 tenants were tenants-at-will.
• Rents rising across the century: 15p/acre on a 1700 lease, 30p in 1759, 40p in 1767, 90p on one 1768 lease (Livingstone uses post-1971 decimal pence throughout).
• "Fewer than 20 of the 105 belonged to the old race" — Catholic-surnamed tenants. Livingstone lists every one of them by name; none is a McKenna. The 35 Castleblayney town lease-holders (Barrett, Bond, Boyd … Walsh, Whitby) likewise contain no McKenna.
• Drumillard — the same townland that the 1827 Tithe records three McKenna households (Jn, Val-or-Pat, Wm) — was held in 1753 by Rev. John Walsh (the C of I curate of Muckno) on a 31-year lease of 16 acres, and earlier in 1737 by Charles Molloy (19 acres). McKennas in 1772 Drumillard were sub-tenants under these middlemen, not named on the Blayney rental.
• In 1744 the Parish Priest of Muckno and Upper Clontibret, Fr Pierce Duffy, lived with Charles Molloy in Drumillard.
• The Blayney Demesne was being assembled in 1772 itself — the 9th Lord took back 99 acres in Corragartha from Adam Noble and 30 acres in Annahale from Thomas McMahon, among others.

Implication for the McKenna line. The clean negative — no McKenna on the 1772 principal rental — is diagnostic, not a failure to find. It means Thomas McKenna's father in 1772 was a cottier sub-tenant under a middleman, on a tenure too short and too informal to reach the rental book. This is consistent with the Registry-of-Deeds negative (zero Muckno McKenna memorials 1700–1850) and with the broader pattern for small Catholic holdings in pre-Famine Ulster. The Blayney archive's short-path lookup is therefore closed — further pre-1823 attribution will have to come from tithe records, Ordnance Survey Name Books, or Clogher diocesan registers for the adjoining parishes.

Sources: Landed Estates Database, NUI Galway — estate record 3559 (../raw/landedestates-3559-blayney.md); PRONI Introduction to the Blayney/Hope Papers, Nov 2007 (blayney-hope.pdf / verbatim extract at ../raw/proni-blayney-hope-intro-extract.md); research log at ../raw/research-notes-thomas-mckenna-castleblayney.md.