Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/245

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ARDRossAN COMPLETE PEERAGE 195 Family Estates. — These, in 1883, consisted of about 27,000 acres in CO. Galway, about 4,000, co. Mayo, and about 500, co. Dublin. Total about 31,500 acres, worth about ;^6,500 a year. Principal Residences. — Ashford, (") near Cong, co. Galway ; St. Anne's, Clontarf, co. Dublin. ARDMANACH, ARDMANNACH or ARDMANNOCH {') i.e. " Brechin, Navar and Ardmanach, " Barony [S.] (Stewart), cr. 148 1, with the Earldom of Ross [S.], which see; extinct, with the Dukedom of Ross [S.], 1504. i.e. " Edirdale or Ardmanach, " Earldom [S.] (Stewart), cr. 1488, with the Dukedom of Ross [S.], which see ; extinct 1504. i.e. " Ardmannoch, " Barony [S.] (Stuart), cr. May 1565, with the Earldom of Ross [S.] ; see " Albany, " Dukedom [S.], cr. July 1565, the grantee being the King Consort [S.]; merged in the Crown [S.] 24 July 1567. i.e. "Ardmannoch, " Barony [S.] (Stuart)^ cr. 1600, with the Duke- dom OF Albany [S.], which see ; merged in the Crown, 1625. ARDROSSAN i.e. " Ardrossan of Ardrossan, co. Ayr, " Barony (Montgomerie), cr. 1806; see " Eglinton, " Earldom [S.], cr. 1508, under the 12th Earl. (*) A correspondent of The Times newspaper (15 Sep. 1884) writes as follows — "It was in 1852 that the late Sir Benjamin Guinness bought Ashford of Lord Oranmore as a small residential estate, being captivated by the extreme beauty of the spot, and intending merely to build a cottage orn^e. In i860 he added the adjacent Rosshill, sold to him by Lord Charlemont and Lord Leitrim, who had married the two Miss Berminghams, who were co-heiresses. Oddly enough, the next purchase in 1 864 was also from co-heiresses — from the Misses Blake, nieces of the late Sir Valentine Blake. It was that of Doon, and the picturesquely situated island ruin of Castle Kirk is a part of it. I have not visited the Doon property, where there is a handsome shooting lodge, but it is said to be as rich in natural attractions as Ashford. It was about the same time, I think, that 2,000 of the most poverty-stricken of the acres which I passed through in the neighbourhood of Maan were acquired from Sir Richard O'Donnell. Lastly, in 1870, the ,6,000 acres around the white shooting lodge on the Lake of Kylemore, were bought from Mr. Finlay, a newspaper proprietor in Belfast, who had himself purchased them not very long before from the D'Arcy's of Clifden, one of the oldest of the Mayo families. The average price of these lands was 20 years of the former rents ; of course the rents since then have in many cases been considerably reduced. " C") ' Ardmannach was a generic name, including Avach and Eddirdale, held by the Douglas family previous to their forfeiture, the chief messuage of Avach being Ormond (known also as Douglas) Castle. ' (Letter of G.Burnett, sometime Lyon). See also note sub Ormond.