Estate: de Courcy (Baron Kingsale)

Associated Families

• de Courcy (Baron Kingsale)
• Westhead

Description

Lord Kingsale's estate was among the principal lessors in the parish of Ringrone, baronies of Courceys and Kinsale, at the time of Griffith's Valuation. The family are said to descend from a John de Courcy who came to Ireland in the 1170s. In the later 19th century, their principal residence was at Saltash in Cornwall though Bateman records Adelaide, Lady Kingsale, as resident at Lea Castle, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, in the 1880s. In 1868, over 1000 acres in the barony of Courceys, held by the Gibbons family from the Kingsale estate, were offered for sale in the Landed Estates Court. In the 1940s, the Irish Tourist Association Survey refers to a manor house, formerly the residence of the Lords Kingsale, which had stood near the Old Head of Kinsale but the ruins of which had almost disappeared in the nineteenth century.

Houses

House Name / Description	Townland	Civil Parish	PLU	DED	Barony	County	Map Ref
Edgecliff House (H3317) James K. Jenkins was leasing this property from Lord Kingsale's estate at the time of Griffith's Valuation, when it was valued at £7 5s. It is labelled Edgecliff House on the 25-inch Ordnance Map published in the 1890s. This house no longer exists.	Ballymackean	Ringrone	Kinsale	Ballymackean 204	Courceys	Cork	Lat/Lon: 51.64104 -8.55043 OSI Ref: W619433 Discovery map #87. OS Sheet #124, 137.
Ballinspittle House (H3318) James B. Gibbons was leasing this house from Lord Kingsale's estate at the time of Griffith's Valuation, when it was valued at £18. In 1837 Lewis referred to it as the seat of J. Barry Gibbons, JP. There is still a house at the site.	Ballymacredmond	Ringrone	Kinsale	Balymackean	Courceys	Cork	Lat/Lon: 51.66960 -8.59270 OSI Ref: W590465 Discovery map #87. OS Sheet #124.

Archival sources

• British Museum, London: Papers relating to the claim of John De Courcy to the baronies of Kingsale and of Courcy of Ringrone, in 1760. Add. Ms. 23,692 Microfilm copy at NLI, n.529, p.531
• Cork County Library: Irish Tourist Association survey files, Parish of Ballinspittle
• National Archives of Ireland: Landed Estates' Court Rentals (O'Brien), Gibbons & others, 11 July 1868, Vol 90, MRGS 39/044, (microfilm copy in NUIG)
• National Library of Ireland: Pedigree of Courcy, Lords "Kinsale", 1384 c.1630. Genealogical Office: Ms.164, p.24
• National Library of Ireland: Correspondence as to the petition of William Almericus de Courcy for precedence as for younger son of a baron, 1836. Genealogical Office: Ms. 151, pp. 308-9
• National Library of Ireland: Pedigree of De Courcy, Barons Kingsale and Ringrone, de Courcy of Killnecloane, of Bandon and of Rhode Island, United States of America with de Courcy of Ballinaboy House, Co. Galway and Alderbourne Manor, Buckinghamshire, England c.980 1950. Genealogical Office: Ms.182a, pp.26-43
• National Library of Ireland: Garter's comment on the claim to precedence as for children of a Baron by William Almeric de Courcy and Catherine, wife of Francis Bernard Beamish, 1836. Genealogical Office: Ms.151, pp.447 & 451-2
• National Library of Ireland: Correspondence and papers relating to claim of John de Courcey to the Barony of Kingsale; including correspondence of James Meade, Thomas O'Leary, Dominick Sarsfield; c. 1759. Sarsfield Papers (Associated Families), Ms. 17,909
• National Library of Ireland: Agreement between Lord Kinsale and the Earl of Grandison re lands in England and woods at Ballycateen, near Kinsale; Nov. 6, 1754. Sarsfield Papers (Associated Families), D. 26,116

Contemporary printed sources

Many of these resources are now available online. For a list with Web links please see the Online Printed Sources Links

• GRIFFITH'S VALUATION OF IRELAND'[Primary Valuation of Tenements]', 1850-1858. : Barony of Courceys: 7 (Ballymackean), 8 (Ballymacredmond)
• BATEMAN, John. The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Harrison, 1883. : p.252
• BURKE, Sir Bernard. A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the peerage and baronetage....privy councillors and knights. London: Harrison, 1894. : 802-804

Modern printed sources

• Irish Ancestor: DE BREFFNY, Brian. The American sailor who succeeded to an Irish Peerage. IV (1972), 1-7
• The Irish Genealogist: MORIARTY, G. Andrews. Abigail Williams, mother of John, Lord Kingsale. II, no., 5 (1947)
• Historical Manuscripts Commission Reports: Warrant of Sir A. Chichester for a grant to John, Lord Coursie of the intrusions, profits, etc. of the barony of Coursie's Country, including the town of Kinsale Dublin Castle, May 13, 1607. Hasting Manuscripts, , Vol. IV. 1947, p.25
• MOSLEY, Charles (ed). Burke's Peerage and Baronetage. Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999: I, 1592-1595