| Collection Description | Sir William Fownes, 2nd Baronet inherited a large estate near Inistioge in Co. Kilkenny from his maternal
grandfather in 1725, while still a minor. He subsequently had Woodstock House constructed in the mid-1740s.
By 1790 ownership of the estate passed into the Tighe family when Fownes’ only child, Sarah, married William
Tighe of Rossana. Sarah would later transfer ownership of the estate to her son William Tighe sometime in the
1790s. The Fownes/Tighe collection was donated to the University by the late Irish historian J.C. Beckett, who
was part of the history faculty at Queen’s from 1945 to 1975. [QUB Listing] |
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| Description | This collection consists of one rent book for properties owned by the Fownes family between the years 1731 to 1747, and nine account books for the Woodstock Estate in Co. Kilkenny which date from between 1790 to 1810. The rent book mentions properties near Fownes Court (a mansion owned by the Fownes family near College Green in Dublin), Kinsale, Hayes Town (Hayestown), Whites Town (Whitestown), Rath and Balscadon (Balscaddan) in County Dublin, Fasaroe (Fassaroe) in County Wicklow, Enistioge (Inistioge), Ballyshane, Ballygub, New Ballygub, Coolnemuck (Coolnamuck) and Kilcros (Kilcross) in County Kilkenny, Kilnatogue in the King’s County (County Offaly), Denbyshire (Denbighshire) in Wales, and contains the details of tenants and records of payments received between the years 1731 and 1747. The account books cover the following years; 1790, 1797 to 1798, 1798 to 1799, 1799 to 1806, 1800, 1802, 1804, 1809 and 1810. Eight of these ledgers contain details of the estates finances, including payments to workmen and money spent and received on the purchase and/or sale of various crops, livestock and products. The other volume is a house book, detailing the day-to-day expenditures of Woodstock House from 1799 to 1806. [QUB Listing] |
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