School: Cill Tormóir (Kiltormer) (Buachaillí)

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1. Local Landlords

   

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   Local Landlords

   Between Kiltormer and Lawrencetown there is the ruins of an old house. This house was Belview, the residence of the Lawrence family. They owned a large estate including the town of Lawrencetown. It is from them Lawrencetown got it's name. The Lawrences originally came from England. John Lawrence with his young brother Walter came to Ireland in the retinue of Sir John Perrot in 1571. He married the daughter of O'Madden of Longford, Co. Galway, Chief of his name and thus acquired large possessions in Co. Galway. Those lands were regranted to him on the death of his wife by James 1.

   The landlords that were in Ireland long ago were cruel but the Lawrence were not like this. They did not evict anyone except a few. They did not bring in planters from other places. If they caught anyone crossing their land he would be punished. They caught one young boy crossing their land and they hanged him from the backband of the car. A certain man knew they were going to do this and he rode on his horse to Lawrences' house as fast as his horse could carry him. He knew that if he got there in time he would be able to prevent them from killing the boy. When he came to Lawrences' they had the boy hanged. He was so vexed when his horse was not able to carry him faster that he took his gun from his pocket and shot the horse. The mother of the boy prayed that a curse would fall on the Lawrences. The curse was that the man who killed him would be the last of the Lawrences to live in Belview.

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. place-space-environment
      1. land management (~4,110)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Patrick

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Ballydonagh, Co. Galway