lands in that county; and this life interest was granted and protected by the decree under the Act of Grace, which was to the following effect :'— "GRANT DATED 12TH JULY, 1687, UNDER ACT OF GRACE, TO MAJOR OWEN O'CONNOR AND DAME MARY TUITE, HIS WIFE. be the same more or less, lying in barony of Ballintober, Co. Roscommon. Also to him and his said wife during her life, of the town and lands of Emper and Uryre, 685. 3. 27 acres profitable, and one fishing weir, and 194 acres unprofitable, at £13 17 71. Ballnacarne, 114. 1. 17 ac. profitable; 52. 2. 5. unprofitable, at £2 6 3 Castle Caddery, 174. 1. 24 do. 53. 0. 31. do. 170. 0. 0 do. at £3 10 6 at £3 8 10 in the baronies of Moygoin and Rathconrath, Co. Westmeath, to be held in free and common socage." Major Owen O'Conor, as was to be expected, became a devoted adherent of King James II., and, at his own expense, raised three troops of horse to support that monarch. According to a Williamite diary in the Harleian collection, he was governor of Banagher for King James, and surrendered that fortress to King William's army in 1691, after the fatal Battle of the Boyne, upon view of its condition, the wants of the Irish, and their impending ruin." According to another account, he was made governor of Athlone, and being taken prisoner, was confined in the castle of Chester, where he died in 1692.5 1 See record of Grant in Bermingham Tower, Dublin Castle; also old family papers in possession of O'Conor Don. 'The expense of these expeditions caused Owen O'Conor to incumber his property very heavily. The two mortgages which he had executed to Richard Plunkett have been already noticed. These, after the death of Plunkett, came into the possession of his children, Alexander Plunkett (married to Major O'Conor's daughter), John Plunkett, and Frances Plunkett (married to a Mr. Doyle), who conveyed their interest to Edward Wingfield for the sum of £100 (although £200 named in deed) in trust for John French. Manus O'Cahane, who married another daughter of Major Owen O'Conor, and Alexander Plunkett, and their wives, in 1699, confirmed these mortgages, and conveyed the estates to same Wingfield in trust for John French. In March, 1685, Major Owen O'Conor also became bound to one Morgan Farrell in the sum of £1,000, for the payment of £500, and Farrell, by his will, left this charge to his son, Dl. Farrell, who, by deed in 1699, conveyed his right in such charge for the sum of £600 to Gilbert King, in trust for John French. Major O'Conor himself was also indebted to French in the sum of £55, under a penalty of its being doubled if he did not pay the debt before the 1st June, 1681, He had married, as before mentioned, Lady Tuite, who survived him; he had no son, but left two daughters, Mary, married to Alexander Plunkett, and Ellinor, married to Manus O'Cahane. By his will, dated 8th May, 1685, he left his estates in the Co. Roscommon to his wife for her life, with reversion to his brother Charles and his children; and he charged these estates with portions for his daughters. This will was not for some time forthcoming, and after his death his widow, and subsequently his daughters and their husbands, went into possession of the Belanagare estates. Steeped in debts, contracted mainly to support the royal cause, the property was of very little value. Most of the mortgages and charges on it had been bought up and assigned to Mr. French of Dungar,1 to whom, in July, 1699, Major O'Conor's daughters, their mother being dead, conveyed their entire estates for the sum of £300, paid to them in cash. With Mr. French, or his representatives, the estates remained, until 1720, when they were recovered, as will be hereafter described, by Major O'Conor's nephew, Denis O'Conor. and having failed to pay it, judgment for £110 was obtained and enforced against Owen O'Conor's daughters, who were also sued by Terence M'Donough, Esq., for the sum of £110, and judgment being marked, he also, in 1699, assigned his interest to French. The original deeds, proving these transactions, are still preserved amongst the family papers. See preceding note. Dungar, now Frenchpark. 2 Lady Tuite died in 1698. 3 The estates were conveyed to one Will Gore, in trust for John French. CHAPTER XXIII. CHARLES O'CONOR, SON OF "CAHILL OGE." A.D. 1692-1696. HARLES O'CONOR, the brother of Major Owen, was born about the year 1633, and married Cecilia, daughter of Fiachra O'Flynn of Ballinlough. He had three sons, Felim, Denis, and Daniel, and two daughters, Anne, who married a Mr. Conry, and Bridget. Charles O'Conor did not long survive his brother. Like him he had linked his fortunes with the ill-fated Stuart dynasty. The flight of James II. after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, the taking of Athlone in 1691, followed by the bloody and fatal Battle of Aughrim, and the capitulation of Limerick, put an end to all the hopes of the supporters of that dynasty. Attainted of treason for adhering to the cause which he believed to be that of his legitimate. sovereign, Charles O'Conor, an outlaw in his native country, and incapable of ever recovering any portion of his ancestral estates, died in 1696, four years after the death of his brother. He left the following draft will, which was probably made before his brother's death, and before his attainder, and at a time when he expected to come into possession of his father's property : "IN DEI NOMINE. AMEN. "I, Charles O'Conor of Belanagare, beeing att present feeble and weak in body, yett of perfect memory, sense, and understanding, doe heere make my last will and testament. "1. I bequeath my soul to God, and my body to be buried in the parish church of Ballintober. "I bequeath and leave by this my last will all my right, title, or intrest either derived or to be derived from my father or brother, Major O' O'Connor, or from any other person or persons whatsoever (in) the lands of Belanagare, or any other land or lands in the kingdom of Ireland, to my son and heir, Phelim O'Connor, and his issue male, and for want of issue male in him, to my second son, Denigh O'Connor, and to his issue male, and for want of issue male in him, to my third son, Daniel, and his issue male; and for want of issue male lawfully begotten of their body's or either of their body's, I doe order, appoint y' the said right, title, and interest, shall fall and decline to him who is next of blood of our famyly and House of Ballentobber, and his issue male lawfully begotten. "3 I bequeath to my son, Denigh O'Connor, and his issue male lawfully begotten as portion or maintenance the full sum of pounds st And unto my son Daniel and his issue male lawfully begotten, pounds s And unto my daughter, Nan Connor, and her issue as portion or maintenance the full sum of pounds su And unto my daughter, Bridgett Connor, the sum of s" to be payd unto them by my son, Philim O'Connor, out of the land, or lands which he shall or may enjoy in right of me, my Father, or Brother, Major Owen O'Conor. "4. I do order and appoint by this my last will and testament, y' Capt John Mahon of Stroakstown, Cap" Andrew O'Connor of Cloonalis, Capt Bryan O'Beirn, Master Edmond of Portnacranha, and M' Rob' Conry of Cloonfragh, shall be the Guardians appointed for my children during their minority, and y' the two or three of yTM shall act for my children in any point y' y' relates to this my will, or in any other matter whatsoever w may be to the advantage of my children or family." Daniel, the youngest son of Charles, died a minor, and unmarried, before his father. Felim, the eldest son, who was joined with his uncle and father in support of King James, appears, from one of the subsequent decrees of the Trustees of Forfeited Estates, to have been attainted of high treason, and to have also died unmarried; and Denis O'Conor, the second son, thus became the representative of his father's family. CHAPTER XXIV. DENIS O'CONOR, SURNAMED "DONOUGH A LIA," SON OF D CHARLES. A.D. 1696-1750. ENIS O'CONOR, born in the year 1674, was too young to have taken any part in the political struggles in which his father and brother were engaged, and thus escaped attainder; but on his father's death he succeeded to little more than a series of vexatious and doubtful lawsuits. His ancestral property had passed into the hands of the Frenches; and although, under his uncle's will, his cousins, the daughters of Major Owen O'Conor, had no right to dispose of that property as they did, yet the attempt to counteract and undo what they had done seemed almost hopeless. Shortly after his father's death, in the year 1699, an Act was passed by which the estates of those who were attainted of treason, for participation in what was termed the late rebellion, were vested in trustees for the purpose of public sale. By this statute it was enacted that "All manors, lands, possessions, and hereditaments within the realm of Ireland, whereof any person or persons who stood convicted or attainted of treason since the 13th day of February, 1688, or who should be convicted of treason before the last day of Trinity Term, 1701, or who stood convicted of treason by reason of having been found by inquisition to have died or been slain in actual rebellion since the said date, was or were possessed, &c., on the 13th February, 1688, or at any time since, or whereof the late King James II., or any one in trust for him, or to his use, was seized, possessed, or interested at the time of his accession to the crown of England, should be invested" in certain trustees mentioned, to the end "that the same might be sold and disposed of to and for such uses as are expressed in the said Act; and when any of the said persons were seized of an estate tail only in the said manors, |