New Settlers in Limerick and Clare

Or Thomond

THE following were the chief families of early settlers, in the counties of Limerick and Clare: De Burgo, Fitzgerald, Fitzgibbon—a branch of the Fitzgeralds, De Clare, De Lacey, Brown Barrett, Roche, Russell, Sarsfield, Stritch, Purcell, Hussey, Harold, Tracey, Trant, Comyn, White, Walsh, Wolfe, Dongan, Rice, Aylmer, Nash, Monsell, Massy, etc. The Fitzgeralds, earls of Desmond, had vast possessions in limerick; and of the estates of Gerald, the sixteenth earl of Desmond, in the reign of Elizabeth, about one hundred thousand acres were confiscated in the county Limerick, and divided amongst the following families:—Annesley, Barkley, Billingsley, Bouchier, Carter, Courtenay, Fitton, Mannering, Stroude, Trenchard, Thornton, and Uthered.

Limerick was formed into a county as early as the reign of King John, A.D. 1210; and Clare, in the reign of Elizabeth, A.D. 1565, by the Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sidney.