Estate: Greatrakes

Associated Families

• Greatrakes

Description

An English Protestant landed family who had settled in Waterford in the 1580s, they were associated with the parish of Affane where they had a small estate. Valentine Greatrakes (1628-1683) was widely known as a healer in county Waterford and beyond. Smith refers to a defensive structure at Norrisland, said to have been built by the Greatrakes.

Houses

House Name / Description	Townland	Civil Parish	PLU	DED	Barony	County	Map Ref
Affane House (H4503) Held in fee by Samuel Browning Power in 1851 when it was valued at £32. Lewis refers to it as the seat of S. Power in 1837. It was the property of Samuel J. Power in 1906 and still valued at £32. Brady notes that the house incorporates material from the late seventeenth century house owned by the Greatrakes famly. In the 1780s Taylor and Skinner refer to it as a residence of the Browning family. It is now almost a ruin.	Affane	Affane	Lismore	Cappoquin 60	Decies without Drum	Waterford	Lat/Lon: 52.12219 -7.83792 OSI Ref: X111967 Discovery map #82. OS Sheet #29.

Archival sources

• Irish Genealogical Research Society Library: Pedigree of Greatrakes
• National Library of Ireland: Letter-book containing copies of letters sent to Valentine Greatrakes ("The Stroker") of Affane, Co. Waterford from Sir Edmund Godfrey and others, May 1666 - Oct. 1671. Ms. 4728
• National Library of Ireland: Memorandum of an agreement between Valentine Greatrakes and the Earl of Cork concerning the boundaries of an estate in County Waterford, May 24, 1669. Ms. 8143
• National Library of Ireland: Lismore Papers: Letters from William Greatrakes re financial matters, 1603, and from Valentine Greatrakes re Ballegallon and Killbree [Co. Cork.], 1649-1650 Ms. 13,239
• Public Record Office, Northern Ireland: Assignment by Mary Turner to Valentine Greatrakes of lands of Ballinamegh and Gortnaglogh, Co. Cork, Jan. 1655 (1656). Lease D. Enderby to V. Greatrakes of lands in Coshmore and Coshbride Barony, Feb. 8, 1655 (1656). Recognizance, D. Trante, J. Stoute and C. Casey, Youghal, June, 1657. D. 350 (8 - 11)
• Public Record Office, Northern Ireland: Bond to perform covenants of lease between Valentine Greatrakes and John Nettles and D. Enderby, Feb. 8, 1656. Assignment of part of Waterford City from C. Carnaby and T. Richardson to J. Nettles, March 8, 1656. D. 314 (5-6)

Contemporary printed sources

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

Modern printed sources

• Jnl of the Waterford and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society : BUCKLY, James.‘Selections from a general account book of Valentine Greatrakes, A.D. 1663–1679 with a pedigree. XI (1908), pp.211-224, Vol. XV (1912), p. 197,
• Éire-Ireland: ARNOLD,L.J. ‘Valentine Greatrakes, a seventeenth century “touch doctor”’, , xi, no. 1 (1976), 3–12
• MCGUIRE, James & QUINN, James (eds.) Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge University Press, 2009: BEAUMONT, Daniel. Valentine Greatrakes (1628-1683)
• NOLAN, W, POWER, T.P. & COWMAN, D. (eds). Waterford: History and Society. (Dublin: Geography Publications, 1992). : Morris. p. 324
• NOLAN, W, POWER, T.P. & COWMAN, D. (eds). Waterford: History and Society. (Dublin: Geography Publications, 1992). : KETCH, Catherine. 'Landownership in County Waterford c.1640: the evidence from the civil survey’, 217, 223.
• SMITH, Charles. The ancient and present state of the county and city of Waterford. Third edition edited by Donald Brady. Wateford : Waterford County Council, 2008. : 34 (Norrisland), 289-292 (Valentine Greatrakes)
• SMITH, Charles. The ancient and present state of the county and city of Waterford. Third edition edited by Donald Brady. Wateford : Waterford County Council, 2008. : BRADY, Donald. Appendix III, houses mentioned by Smith. p 305.