Mathew BUNBURY

  General Notes:

of Killfeacle

http://www.turtlebunbury.com/family/bunburyfamily_bunburys/bunbury_family_bunburys_kilfeacle.html :

MATTHEW BUNBURY (1675-1733)

The Bunburys of Kilfeacle, Co. Tipperary, descend from Mathew Bunbury (1675-1733), fourth son of Benjamin Bunbury (1642-1707) of Killerig, Co Carlow. His three elder brothers were Joseph Bunbury of Johnstown, Thomas Bunbury of Cloghna & Cranovonane and William Bunbury of Lisnavagh. Matthew's younger brother Benjamin succeeded to Killerig while his sister Diana married Captain Thomas Barnes of Grange, Co Kilkeny, a soldier in the Duke of Ormonde's army. The Kilfeacle branch are the one branch of the descendants of Benjamin of Killerig that has a straight male line descent direct from Mathew from eldest son to eldest son, without recourse to the distaff side, and this continues to this day.

In about 1697, 22-year-old Matthew Bunbury accompanied the brothers William and John Carden to take up leases in the rather depressed Barony of Upper Ormonde in County Tipperary.[1] Like the Bunburys, the Cardens originated in Cheshire but moved to Co Carlow during the 1680s. In moving further south to Tipperary, these young men were presumably attracted by low or graded rents, long leases and the prospect of large holdings. Matthew Bunbury settled in Kilfeacle, a parish of 7152 statute acres located 3½ miles (S.E. by E.) from Tipperary town on the road to Cashel. Over the ensuing years, with his credibility assured, he increased his landholding onto the adjacent estates such as the Matthew estate at Thomastown, and later onto the Maude, Smith and Trinity College Dublin estates.
LORD BUNBURYS ROAD

In March 2014, I was contacted by Martin Collins who told me of a path that once ran from Dromclieve to Tipperary town known as 'Lord Bunburys Road'. 'Hardly anyone would know this now,' wrote Martin. 'It was shown to me by my late father. Dromclieve is about three miles from Tipperary town in the old parish of Templenoe. If you take a right turn off the Dundrum road and two more right turns you will end up in the general area.The path would have been a shortcut between the Dundrum and Kilfeacle roads. When I was younger it was known as Lord Bunburys road. Hardly any off it exists today. My own family are from this area and would have been tenants of Rudolph Scully of Dromclieve whose family were also living in Kilfeacle.'
DOWN WITH PAPISTS!

We know little of Matthew's subsequent affairs in County Tipperary save that, as a Justice of the Peace, he appears to have adopted a hard-line policy towards Roman Catholicism generally and 'popish priests' specifically. This runs contrary to my early speculation that the Bunburys still retained a soft spot for the Old Faith as nurtured by them during the Elizabethan Age when Sir William Stanley was a kinsman. The close ties with the Duke of Ormonde also made me think there may have been some sympathy for the plights of the Jacobites and, by extension, the Catholics.

But there are allegations of Cromwellianism in the family annals and perhaps Matthew took a stronger line than his brothers. Or maybe he was simply being Machiavellian at a time of considerable uncertainty. Jacobitism was a very real threat during the first two decades of the 18th century. At any rate, in 1714, he added his signature to those of fellow JPs James Dawson, Jona Ashe and William Barker in a letter to the Deputy Lieutenant of the County in which they said that, 'in obedience to the directions which we received from his Grace the Duke of Shrewsbury, Lord Lieutenant of the kingdom' on 28th May, 'we summoned the principal popish inhabitants of the Barony of Clanwilliam to appear before us at Tipperary on the 22 instant'. It seems those summoned refused to show up, obliging the JPs 'to have recourse for information to the meaner sort of people by whom we found that Thomas Grace and David Hedderman, popish priests (and not qualified by law to exercise their function) have of late Sellebrated Mass in the Parishes of Tipperary, Latten and Sronell for which we issued warrants against them'. The JPs further wished to assure the Lord Justices of Ireland that they would 'use all proper means to discover whatsoever has been practiced to prejudice her Maiestie and the peace of her kingdom'. And finally they felt inclined to add that they had summoned some new Protestant converts 'whose conduct and behaviour gave us grounds to feare they were not sincere Protestants' to take the abjuration oath. These converts had also failed to show up, so warrants had also been issued for their arrest.[2]
MARRIAGE TO ANNE BLOUNT

Mathew Bunbury married Anne Blount, of whom I know no more. He died aged 58 in 1733, leaving [at least] four sons – including Benjamin (of Kilfeacle), Mathew (who may have been ancestor of Lord Roberts), Thomas (of Shronell) and William (of Mount William). Their eldest daughter Elizabeth was married in May 1727 to John Lane of Lanes Park, Co. Tipperary, a descendent of the Lanes of Bentley in Staffordshire and kinsman of Sir William Barker of Kilcooley Abbey.

Mathew married Anne BLOUNT. (Anne BLOUNT was born in 1679 of Kilfeakle, Tipperary, Ireland ¹.)