Page 3

This was a record kept in each county of Ireland during the 19th Century. It is similar to our own property tax assessments determined by each local municipality. On pages 2 and 3 of these records you will notice that the name of the landlords who owned the property and the tenents who were paying rent to live and farm the land are given. In the fourth column is the description of the tenement, column five indicates the area rented, column six shows the value of the land and column seven the value of the buildings that existed on the land. Finally in the last column is the total valuation of both land and property. On page 2 of the listings you will see that the Townsells of New Ireland appear. It seems that Michael has rented directly from a William R. Mahon who would be one of the large landowners in Clare. From Mahon's first name we could assume he was Protestant and most likely English. We make this assumption, as the Irish catholics usually were named after Saints or biblical personalities while the English named their sons after historical figures. We also can see that Michael allowed Patrick Townsell and a Mary Hullinan to live on the tenent land he was renting from Mahon. It shows each having a house listed after their names at a value of 5 shillings.

On page 3 you can find James Spellacy living on a piece of land in Lavally South owned by an Edward R. Gore. Using the name as an indicator we also may assume that he was an protestant landlord of English descendency. The townlands of Lisseycasey and Lavally are only a few miles apart. There are also the names of a Corry and a Carey family listed and we are wondering if they might not be part of the Cory family that found their way to New Ireland.