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Memoirs of the Archdales With the Descents of Some Allied Families


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in breadth 28 foote.” The tenure was “in fee and common soccage, and not in capite or by knight's service ”

The same Inquisition gives particulars of the freeholders on this estate :   “ The said John Archdall did graunt four-and-a-half tates unto William and Thomas Lawton, gentlemen, their heirs and assignes forever. The said John Archdall did grant two tate or half-quarter of land to William Johnson and Owen Griffith, their heirs and assignes, forever. The said John Archdall, by coppie of court-rowle, at a court held for the manor of Tallanagh, did grant one- and-a-half tate, or three parts of half a quarter unto William Johnson and Thomas Clarke, their heirs and assignes ; and half a quarter, being two tates, unto Thomas Moore, Edward Moore¹ and David Byas, their heirs and assignes.” With regard to the lessees : “ The said John Archdall did in his lifetime demise two tates unto Richard Lowther and Thomas Lawton ; also half a quarter, or two tates to Edmund O’Durnine, for one yeare, the said Edmund being a mere Irishman, borne in Ireland, and descended from the stock and lineage of the meere Irish. He also demised the island of Convenishe-Aghie to Donnell O’Connelly, for one yeare, the said Donnell being a meere Irishman.” ²

Captain Pynnar made his survey, of Ulster in 1618 and 1619, to ascertain how far the settlers had carried out the conditions of the Plantation. In his report, we read : “John Archdale hath 1000 acres, called Tullana. Upon this proportion there is a bawne of lime and stone, with three flankers 15 feet high ; in each corner there is a good lodging slated, with a house in the bawne, of 80 feet long, and three stories high, and a battlement about it. Himself with his family are there resident. He hath also a water-mill ; and in two several places of his land he hath made two villages, consisting of 8 houses apiece. I find planted and estated upon this land, of British families, Freeholders, six, viz. one having 200 acres, one having 120 acres, two having 40 acres le piece, two having 30 acres le piece. Lessees for years, ten, viz. four having 240 acres jointly, two having 30 acres le piece, one having 60 acres, one having 20 acres, one having 40 acres, one having 15 acres. Cottagers, four, viz. these having each of them a house and one acre of land. And these twenty [families] are able to make forty-two men, and seven of these have taken the Oath of Supremacy.”

John Archdale had also 1000 acres called Drumragh, or Dromra, in the barony of Magherboy. The property had been granted in 1610 to James Gibb³, and by him sold to James Hamilton of Keckton, who, on February 26th 1617, “ did give and grant the said Manor of Dromra to John Archdalle, in the county of Fermanagh, Esq, his heires and assignes ; by force and in virtue whereof the said John Archdalle is lawfully seized as of fee-simple, forever.”

This estate (which lay along the opposite shore of Lough Erne, adjoining the proportions of Sir John Hume and Robert Hamilton), contained the townlands of Drumskewly, 4 tates ; Cavankeile, 4 tates ; Dromrra or Drumnaratha, 4 tates ; Moyfadda, two-thirds of a tate; Drumdown, 2 tates ; Urrish, one tate ; and the islands of InishMcMoyle and Cassill, one tate; with free fishing in Lough Erne. The premises had been erected into the Manor of Dromra, with 300 acres in demesne, the rent being £5 6s 8d.

Pynnar reported that “ John Archdale Esq. hath 1000 acres, called Drumragh. Upon this proportion there is a bawne of lime and stone, 60 feet square, 12 feet high, with two flankers, and a house now in building, it being about the first story. I find planted and estated upon this land, of British families, Freeholders, six, viz, one having 140 acres, one having 120 acres, one having 100 acres, two having 40 acres le piece, one having 4 acres and a tenement. Lessees for years, five, viz. one having 120 acres, one having 140 acres, one having 80 acres, one having 20 acres, one having 40 acres. Cottagers, three, viz. each of these has a tenement and four acres a piece, for commons for cows. Total, 14 families, all resident on the land, who have taken the Oath of Supremacy, being able to make 26 men armed. Here is some tillage.”

The name “Archdalestown,” which appears in records of the period, refers doubtless to a cluster of cottages near one of the houses built by John Archdale4. In the grant of 1612, it


  1. This may be the Edward Moore, who was one of the first Burgesses of Enniskillen. His signature appears as "Edward More," on a document at Castle Archdale.
  2. See Ultonia Inquis., at Enniskillen, 27th April 1629.
  3. James Gibb was the son of John Gibb, a Scottish servant in the Royal Household, who was one of the grooms of the bedchamber.
  4. Archdalestown has been identified with Cosbystown, in Magheraboy.
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by Henry Blackwood Archdale. Printed at the Impartial Reporter Office, Enniskillen, by Wm. Trimble , 1925
2nd Ed. (Rev.), Combs &c. Research Group, Inc., © 2000