Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 48, Thursday 26 June 2025

‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock’ (Matthew 7: 24) … a monastery built on a rock top in Meteora, Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The week began with the First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity I, 22 June 2025), and during the week I have been marking the 24th anniversary of my ordination as priest 24 years ago, on the Feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist [24 June 2001], and the 25th anniversary of my ordination as deacon [25 June 2000].

Later this morning, I have yet another clinical consultation in Oxford, although today’s consultation is by ’phone and does not involve repeating my recent experiences of 2-2½-hour return journeys by bus. Later, this afternoon, I may go to the Stony Last Thursday History Society event in the library in Stony Stratford.

Meanwhile, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The Acropolis at night, standing on a large rocky outcrop above Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on image for full-screen view)

Matthew 7: 21-29 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 21 ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” 23 Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”

24 ‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!’

28 Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, 29 for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.’

‘Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand’ (Matthew 7: 26) … a sandcastle on the beach at Playa de la Carihuela in Torremolinos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s reading (Matthew 7: 21-29) brings to a conclusion to our series of readings from the Sermon on the Mount in Saint Matthew’s Gospel. In yesterday’s reading, Jesus warns us of the dangers posed by ‘false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.’ We are to ‘know them by their fruits.’

Today he warns about what awaits those false prophets and wolves in sheep’s clothing, and like a foolish man who built his house on sand. On the other hand, those who both hear Christ’s words and act on them will show that their faith is built on firm foundation, ‘like a wise man who built his house on rock’.

I have, on many occasions times, stood at the top of Acropolis (Ἀκρόπολις) in Athens, taking in the breath-taking views in every direction across the city and out to the port of Piraeus.

The Acropolis is the highest point in Athens. It stands on an extremely rocky outcrop and on it the ancient Greeks built several significant buildings. The most famous of these is the Parthenon. This flat-topped rock rises 150 metres (490 ft) above sea level and has a surface area of about 3 ha (7.4 acres).

Below, immediately north-west of the Acropolis, is the Areopagus, another prominent, but relatively smaller, rocky outcrop. Its English name comes from its Greek name, Ἄρειος Πάγος (Areios Págos), the ‘Rock of Ares,’ known to the Romans as the Hill of Mars.

In classical Athens, this functioned as the court for trying deliberate homicide. It was said Ares was put on trial here for deicide, the murder of the son of the god Poseidon. In the play The Eumenides (458 BCE) by Aeschylus, the Areopagus is the site of the trial of Orestes for killing his mother.

Later, murderers would seek shelter there in the hope of a fair hearing.

There too the Athenians had an altar to the unknown god, and it was there the Apostle Paul delivered his most famous speech and sermon, in which he identified the ‘unknown god’ with ‘the God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth’ (Acts 17: 24), for ‘in him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17: 28).

This is the most dramatic and fullest reported sermon or speech by the Apostle Paul. He quotes the Greek philosopher Epimenides, and he must have known that the location of his speech had important cultural contexts, including associations with justice, deicide and the hidden God.

The origin of the name of the Areopagus is found in the ancient Greek, πάγος (pagos), meaning a ‘big piece of rock.’

Another word, λιθος (lithos) was used for a small rock, a stone, or even a pebble – it is the Greek word that gives us words like lithograph and megalithic, meaning Great Stone Age.

When you see breath-taking sights like these, you understand how culturally relevant it was for Christ to talk in today’s Gospel reading about the wise man building his house on a rock rather than on sand (Matthew 7: 24-26).

Ordinary domestic buildings might have been built to last a generation or two, at most. But building on rock, building into rock, building into massive rock formations like the Acropolis, was laying the foundations for major works of cultural, political and religious significance that would last long after those who had built them had been forgotten.

And so, the Church is to be built on a rock, with the foundations a movement, an institution, an organisation, a community that is going to have lasting, everlasting significance, and survive the crass abuse of the Gospel message by the sort of politicians I thought about in my reflections yesterday.

The Acropolis in Athens seen from the new Acropolis Museum, standing on a large rocky outcrop (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 26 June 2025):

‘Windrush Day’ is the theme this week (22-28 June) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Thursday 26 June 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord help us to always ensure that our churches are places of safety, sanctuary and hope. Where all people are welcomed, entering a community where they are surrounded by your love.

The Collect:

O God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you,
grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Eternal Father,
we thank you for nourishing us
with these heavenly gifts:
may our communion strengthen us in faith,
build us up in hope,
and make us grow in love;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of truth,
help us to keep your law of love
and to walk in ways of wisdom,
that we may find true life
in Jesus Christ your Son.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Built on rock or built on sand? The ruins of Ballybunion Castle, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

A 300-year-old Comerford death certificate offers insights into family life among the Spanish nobility

The elaborate 300-year-old death certificate of John Comerford, dated 18 May 1725 … he died on 27 October 1723

Patrick Comerford

The year 1725 was significant for a number of events I have been researching or looking back on in the history of the Comerford family in recent weeks.

At a special tercentenary event in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, organised by Tamworth and District Civic Society last month (1 April 2025), I spoke about the family plaque erected in the Comberford Chapel by Joseph Comerford in 1725, and shared with the Vicar of Tamworth, the Revd Andrew Lythall, in rededicating the memorial.

In my lecture that evening, I tried to explore some of the reasons Joseph Comerford erected that plaque in the Comberford Chapel. But perhaps one significant stimulus may have been the formal issuing in Spain 300 years ago this month, on 18 May 1725, of the death certificate of Major-General John Comerford, who may have been the senior representative of the Ballymack branch of the Comerford family.

Joseph Comerford had bought the chateau in Anglure in Champagne and called himself Marquis d’Anglure. But he had no son to inherit his French chateau and titles as his male heir. In his wills, made in Paris and Dublin, Joseph designated the male descendants of his brother, Captain Luc (Luke) Comerford of Sézanne, as his heirs male, and, in default of Luc Comerford having male heirs, Joseph settled his estates and titles on the heirs male or descendants of his kinsman, Major-General John Comerford (ca 1665-1723).

Badajoz, close to the Spanish border with Portugal … John Comerford was stationed there with his regiment until he died on 27 October 1723 (Photograph: Wikipedia / CCL)

Sone sources say John Comerford was born in Loughkeen, in north Co Tipperary, but is more likely he was born in Waterford. Spanish genealogies name his parents as Don Henrrique (Henry) Comerford, ‘natural de Borough’ and Doña Leonora Graze (Grace) ‘de Balmicourte, natural de Borough’. They are not explicit about the name of the ‘Borough’, but it is almost certainly Waterford.

John seems to have spent his formative and early adult years in Waterford. He was sworn a freeman of the City of Waterford on 23 August 1686, and became an ensign or junior office in Bagnall’s Regiment of Foot in the army of James II, alongside his brother Henry Comerford.

After the Jacobite defeat and the Treaty of Limerick, John Comerford left Ireland and was one of the ‘Wild Geese’ who found refuge in France and Spain and he became an officer in the Spanish army.

He lived in Barcelona and Madrid for much of military career, and on 13 November 1709 he raised a regiment during the Spanish Civil War from a regiment in James II’s Jacobite army, previously commanded by Colonel Dorrington and Colonel Roth. Comerford’s regiment was composed mainly of Irish officers and men and he named the regiment after himself.

Soon after their move to Spain, many of these Irish officers and their regiments were caught up in the Spanish War of Succession (1701-1714). Charles II of Spain died in 1700 without heirs, and Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV of France, was proclaimed King of Spain, triggering the Spanish War of Succession.

Badajoz was controlled in 1705 by the allies in 1705. The supporters if the Habsburg claims conceded the throne to Philip V in the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 in exchange for his renunciation of any claim to France, Philip V was confirmed as King of Spain and renounced any claims to the French throne, Barcelona was recovered by Spain in 1714, and Portugal signed a peace agreement with Spain in 1715 in which it surrendered its claims to Badajoz.

The Spanish army had a brigade of five Irish regiments: Ireland, Hibernia, Ultonia, Limerick and Waterford. Philip V reformed the regiments in the Spanish army in 1715 and renamed them after places instead of their colonels: O’Mahony became Edinburgh, in honour of the Jacobites and the Scottish capital; Crofton whose new colonel was Julian O’Callaghan, became Dublin; Castelar became Hibernia; MacAulif became Ultonia (Ulster); Vandoma became Limerick; and the Regiment of Comerford, with John Comerford as colonel-in-chief, became the Regiment of Waterford (sometimes spelt Guaterford or Vaterford in Spanish documents).

John Comerford was still in active service in the Spanish army in Barcelona in 1718, when he married the widowed Henrietta O’Beirne, and in Badajoz, when he died on 27 October 1723.

The death certificate was formally signed and witnessed in a very elaborate document 300 years ago on 18 May 1725. This fascinating document first came to light with the publication of Micheline Walsh’s research in the National Historical Archive of Spain, Spanish Knights of Irish Origin, published by the Irish University Press and the Irish Manuscripts Commission in four volumes between 1960 to 1978.

John Comerford’s death certificate was drawn up by an Irish-born Catholic priest who was the regimental chaplain in Badajoz, Fray Eugenio O’Maly and was witnessed by several Irish officers in the regiment which was then was stationed in Badajoz: Demetrio O’Dwyer, Diego Tobin, Diego de Poer, Terence O’Kelly, Phelipe O’Reilly, Tadeo Macarty, Gelasio Magenis, Mateo Butler, Juan O’Donell, and by Colonel Daniel O’Sullivan, Conde de Biarhaven (sic). Brigadier Daniel O’Sullivan, the Count of Berehaven and Governor of Coruna, was born in Bantry, Co Cork.

John Comerford’s step-daughter, Maria Therese O’Beirne, married Philip Wharton, 2nd Duke of Wharton, who once owned Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

John Comerford married the widowed Henrietta O’Beirne (née O’Neill) in 1718, while he was on active service in the Spanish army as a colonel in Barcelona.

Henrietta was the widow of Colonel Henry O’Beirne, another Irish colonel in the Spanish army, and a daughter of Henry O’Neill of Eden, Co Antrim, and his wife, Sarah O’Neill, of Shane’s Castle. Henrietta’s brother, John O’Neill, was the father-in-law of Richard Butler, 7th Viscount Mountgarret, and was grandfather of Lord O’Neill, who was killed at the Battle of Antrim during the 1798 Rising.

Henrietta and her first husband, Henry O’Beirne, were the parents of one daughter:

1, Maria Therese O’Beirne (d. 1777), Maid of Honour to the Queen of Spain, who married in 1726 the attainted Philip Wharton (1698-1731), 2nd Duke of Wharton, Marquess of Catherlough, Earl of Rathfarnham and Baron Trim.

Henrietta and her second husband, John Comerford, were the parents of one son and four daughters:

1, Joseph John Patrick Comerford (Don Joseph Jordi Patricio Comerford) (1719-post 1777) – I shall return to his life story further on in this essay.
2, Elinor, married … O’Beirne, and was living with her half-sister the Duchess of Wharton at her house in Golden Square, Soho, London, when she died in 1777. She was the mother of three daughters: ‘Mrs Elinor O’Beirne’, living at the court of Spain in 1777; and two other daughters who were under the age of 21 in 1777.
3, Frances (Doña Francisca) Magdalene.
4, Dorothea, who appears to have been dead by 1777, when her half-sister, the Duchess of Wharton, died in London.

The Royal Palace in Madrid … John Comerford’s step-daughter, Maria Therese O’Beirne, was Maid of Honour to Queen Elisabeth of Spain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The widowed Henrietta Comerford died in Madrid in August 1747. She and her first husband, Colonel Henry O’Beirne, were the parents of Maria Therese O’Beirne (d. 1777), Maid of Honour to the Queen of Spain. Elisabeth Farnese (1692-1766) of Parma was the wife of Philip V and the de facto ruler of Spain from 1714 to 1746, managing the affairs of state on behalf of her husband, and she was the Regent of Spain in 1759-1760.

While Maria Therese O’Beirne was her Maid of Honour, Queen Elisabeth of Spain gave birth in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid on 11 June 1726 to a daughter she named Marie Thérèse Antoinette Raphaëlle (1726-1746). I canonly speculate whether the Infanta of Spain who would become the Dauphine of France sas named after John Comerford’s step-daughter at court.

A month later, on 23 July 1726, and a year after the death of her step-father, John Comerford, Maria Therese O’Beirne married as his second wife the attainted and widowed Philip Wharton (1698-1731), 2nd Duke of Wharton, Marquess of Catherlough, Earl of Rathfarnham and Baron Trim.

The Duke of Wharton had inherited Rathfarnham Castle, Knocklyon Castle and other estates in south Co Dublin through his mother, Lucy Loftus of Fethard-on-Sea, Co Wexford. He sold those estates to Sir William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, for £62,000 in in 1723, two years befor he married Maria Therese O’Beirne.

Wharton led a dissolute life and died aged 32 in the Franciscans monastery in Poblet on 31 May 1731, and was buried next day in the church there. His widow left Madrid for London. There she lived at Golden Square in Soho, was known as Mrs Wharton rather than the Duchess of Wharton and subsisted on a small pension from the Spanish court. A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine later referred to her step-father, John Comerford, as her father, and in her will made 250 years ago in 1775 she referred to her half-brother, Joseph Comerford, as ‘my deceased brother Comerford’.

She died at Golden Square on 13 February 1777, and was buried at Old Saint Pancras on 20 February 1777. Her will, dated 23 December 1775, went to probate on 1 March and 28 July 1777.

John Comerford’s step-daughter, Maria Therese O’Beirne, was buried at Old Saint Pancras, London, on 20 February 1777 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John Comerford’s elaborate death certificate, and the detailed genealogies prepared for his children and grandchildren and signed by Irish archbishops and bishops were important for his family in the social climate in 18th century Spain.

Documents such these were essential for proving their status of nobility and so allowing them to hold senior rank in the Spanish army, for giving his step-daughter to marry to an exiled duke, for her daughter to became a maid of Honour to the Queen of Spain, for his only son to become a Knight of the Order of Calatrava, and for later descendants to marry into noble families, including the de Sales family, and to assume the titles of count and countess.

But it is interesting that, among these documents, John Comerford’s death certificate is drawn up and witnessed at the same time as Joseph Comerford is erecting the Comberford monument in the Comberford Chapel in Tamworth, and making his wills in Dublin and Paris that assign his titles and claims in France eventually to the descendants of John Comerford.

Don Joseph Jordi Patricio Comerford was born in Barcelona on 5 April 1719, and was baptised in Barcelona Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

As for John Comerford’s descendants, this branch of the Comerford family continued in the male line into at least the early 19th century and the death of Enrique (Henry) Comerfort, Conde de Bryas, sometime after 1815. His niece, Doña Josefa Eugenia Maria Francisca Comerford MacCrohon de Sales, (1794-1865), generally known as Josefina de Comerford, is a romantic figure in Spanish political upheavals in the 19th century and a femme fatale in Spanish revolutionary wars.

John Comerford’s only son and heir, Joseph John Patrick Comerford (1719-post 1777), was also known as Don Joseph Jordi Patricio Comerford. He was born in Barcelona on 5 April 1719, and was baptised in the Cathedral in Barcelona by the Rev Dr Pedro Soro. His godparents were Don Patricio Hogan, a captain of grenadiers in his father’s regiment, and Doña Isabel Grifit y Tobin. He was probably named after Joseph Comerford of Anglure, who was nominating the male members of this branch of the family as his heirs.

Don Joseph Comerford was a Knight of the Order of Calatrava, one of the four Spanish military orders, was the first military order founded in Castile and the second to receive papal approval. He married Maria Magdalena de Sales, Madame de Sales, a widow sometimes described as Marquesa de Sales, and he was still living in 1777. They were the parents of two sons:

• 1, (Major-General) Francisco Comerford (d. 1808), of the Regiment of Ireland – and I shall return to his life in a few moments.

• 2, Enrique (Henry) Comerfort y de Sales, Conde de Bryas. He married Juana Francisca de Comerford y Sales. He moved to Dublin in 1809 with his orphaned niece Josefina. He attended the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and died soon after.

The elder son of Don Joseph Jordi Patricio Comerford was Major-General Francisco Comerford (d. 1808), of the Regiment of Ireland. He was a sponsor in 1772 at the baptism in Spain of Carlos Manuel O’Donnell y Anhetan (1772-1830), father of Leopoldo O’Donnell y Jorish (1809-1867), the first Duke of Tetuan, who was Prime Minister of Spain on several occasions in the mid-19th century.

Joseph Comerford was stationed in Tarifa and died there in 1808 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Joseph Comerford proved the will of his aunt, the Duchess of Wharton, in 1777. He was stationed next to Gibraltar and in Tarifa with his regiment. He was an eyewitness of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He married Maria MacCrohon, and died in 1808. They were the parents of Doña Josefa Eugenia Maria Francisca Comerford MacCrohon de Sales (1794-1865), or ‘Josefina’ de Comerford, a femme fatale in the Spanish revolutionary wars and political upheavals in the 19th century.

Josefina was born in Ceuta in Spanish North Africa in 1794, and was baptised on 26 December 1794 in the Church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios in Ceuta. In her childhood, she moved to Tarifa, where her father died in 1808. She was adopted by her uncle Enrique Comerford, moved with him to Dublin and was with him at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. She moved to Rome before returning to Spain, and became involved on the ultra-royalist side in the political wars in Spain.

The Spanish Regency gave her the title of Condesa de Sales on 21 June 1822, and this was confirmed by Fernando VII. At the fall of the constitutional regime in 1824, she moved to Barcelona. She was imprisoned in the Ciudadela in Barcelona in November 1827, but her death sentence was commuted and she was exiled to the Convent of Encarnación in Seville.

Josefina regained her freedom after the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833. She then lived in Corral del Conde on Calle Santiago in Seville, and is said to have returned to Ireland the 1850s. She died in Seville on 3 April 1865, and was buried in the Cemetery of San Fernando.

Josefina’s life has been the subject of many popular Spanish romantic novels, so that the historical biographical details of her life are often lost in the fictional retelling of her legend. She is often described as ‘the woman general’, ‘la dama azul’, and ‘the fanatic’, while other writers have defended her as ‘a defamed heroine’.

Countess Josefina de Comerford’ depicted by Vicente Urrabieta y Carnicero in an illustration for the novel by Francisco José Orellana, ‘The Count of Spain or The Military Inquisition’ (Madrid: León Pablo Library, 1856)

Further reading:

Micheline Walsh (ed), Spanish Knights of Irish Origin, Documents from Continental Archives, vol iii (Dublin, Irish University Press for the Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1970).

Kilbline Castle, near Bennetsbridge, built in the 16th century by the Comerford family

Kilbline Castle, near Bennettsbridge, Co Kilkenny … built by the Comerford family ca 1539, but confiscated in the 1560s (Photograph © The Irish Antiquarian, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

On a recent question on the Facebook group Comerford Genealogy, after I posted an up-to-date photograph, one member asked: ‘Weren't there initially 4 owned by the Comerford family? Ballybur, Inchohologan, Danganmore, and Kilbline’.

I thought it would be interesting to start a new, occasional series on the castles and ancestral homes of the Comerford family, beginning with the story of Kilbline Castle, Co Kilkenny, although, when this is migrated to the Comerford Genealogy site, it shall eventually become No 4 in the series.

Kilbline Castle is a fortified 16th century tower house in Co Kilkenny. It is set on the Kilbline Estate in the parish of Tullaherin, in the Barony of Gowran, about a mile south-east of Bennettsbridge.

The historian of the Diocese of Ossory, Canon William Carrigan, suggested the name of Kilbline came from Saint Blaan, an early seventh century Irish saint and the first bishop of the See of Dunblane in Scotland.

Kilbline Castle is a typical example of the tower houses that are distinctive features of the Irish landscape. It is estimated that about 3,000 tower houses were built in Ireland between 1400 and 1650. Kilbline Castle is sometimes dated to the 14th or 15th centuries, while other sources say the castle was built in 1539 and was originally owned by the Comerford family.

If the castle was first built by the Comerford family in 1539, then the most likely original proprietor was James Quemerford or Comerford (ca 1493 – post 1560) of Ballymack, Co Kilkenny, a younger brother of Richard ‘Roe’ Comerford, ancestor of the Comerford family of Ballybur.

James Comerford was Attorney for the Earl of Ormond in counties Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow and Tipperary, from 1531. He was presented with his brother Richard ‘Roe’ Quemerford of Ballybur and the rest of the gentry of Co Kilkenny in 1537 for ‘charging of coyne and livery’.

He was in possession of Ballymartown in 1543, and held Ballymack, immediately south of Ballybur, and halfway between Kilkenny and Callan. On 26 March 1549, he was pardoned along with his brothers, Richard Comerford of Ballybur, and Patrick Quemerford and Nicholas Quemerford, who were living at Ballymack.

James Comerford was the Queen’s Attorney for Waterford in 1558, and the Sheriff of Co Kilkenny in 1549, 1555-1559, and was killed in office. Elizabeth I’s letter to Perrot in January 1585 implies he had been attainted for rebellion, but this may be a mistake for his elder son, Thomas Quemerford (ca 1523-ca 1583).

Thomas Comerford inherited both Ballymack and Kilbline Castle from his father James Comerford ca 1560. In 1566, he had a commission with his cousin, Richard ‘Oge’ Comerford of Ballybur Castle, and others to make war on Piers Grace. However, Thomas Comerford was attainted soon after, and he lost Ballymack briefly to Patrick Sherlock of Waterford, who also acquired Mothel Abbey, near Carrick-on-Suir, and also lost the townland of Kilbline.

Thomas Comerford, who was to become known as a ‘perpetual rebel and traitor,’ was pardoned on 1 March 1569. However, that summer he joined the first Desmond rebellion led by James FitzMaurice FitzGerald. The rebellion lasted for two years, and Thomas Comerford was attainted again in 1571. All his lands were granted to John Prescott in 1575, but in 1580 they were granted to Francis Lovell, and this was confirmed in 1583.

Thomas Comerford married Margaret Cowley, but they had children and his claims and interests passed to his brother, Henry Quemerford or Comerford (ca 1525-1590) of Ballymack. Henry’s family managed to hold on to Ballymack for another century, but never recovered Kilbline Castle.

Henry Comerford’s descendants included: the Revd Thomas Comerford (ca 1596/1598-1635) of Ballymack, his grandson, who was Vicar of Attanagh and Vicar of The Rower, Co Kilkenny; Thomas Comerford (died ca 1627/1629), who is commemorated in Saint Mary’s Church, Callan, with a monument that includes the coat-of-arms of the Comberford family of Comberford, Staffordshire; Edward ‘Ned’ Comerford (ca 1600-(ca1660), MP for Callan; Major-General John Comerford (ca 1665-1725) of Madrid and Badajoz; Enrique Comerfort, Conde de Bryas; and Doña Josefa Eugenia Maria Francisca de Sales (‘Josefina’) de Comerford (1794-1865) of Barcelona and Seville, a femme fatale in the Spanish revolutionary politics of the 19th century.

Kilbline Castle was never recovered by the Comerford family after it was confiscated in the 1560s (Photograph © The Irish Antiquarian, 2020)

As for Kilbline Castle, it was never recovered by the Comerford family, and the subsequent owners were members of the Shortall family who also owned Rathardmore Castle, Co Kilkenny. A large limestone chimneypiece on the first floor carries the date 1580 so it is possible this is when the building was completed, after it had been lost by the Comerford family.

Thomas Shortall of Rathardmore died in 1628 and soon after his son and heir Peter Shortall moved to Kilbline Castle and lived there. His estates, extending to 1,500 acres, were forfeited by the Cromwellians in 1653 and his sons ordered to be sent to Connaught. After the restoration of Charles II in 1660, it is said, one of the sons of Peter Shortall seems to have returned to Kilbline.

William Candler, from Newcastle, Northumberland, was as a colonel in Cromwell’s army in Ireland in 1649-1653. He received grants of land in counties Wexford, Offaly (King’s County) and Kilkenny. His principal grants of land in Co Kilkenny included 620 acres in Dunamaggin Parish, 70 acres in Kilbeacon Parish, near Mullinavat, and Kilbline Castle. He and his wife, the widowed Anne Villiers, were the parents of two sons, and their youngest son, John Candler, lived at Kilbline.

William Candler’s second son, Thomas Candler, was an officer in the Williamite Wars in 1690-1691 and later lived at Callan Castle. He was the father of four sons, the youngest of whom Daniel who left Ireland with his wife Hannah ca 1735. They first moved to North Carolina before moving to Bedford, Virginia. Daniel died in 1765 and is buried in the Quaker cemetery at South River Meeting, near his home; Hanna lived to the age of 105, outliving her husband by 40 years – she died in 1800 and is buried with her husband. Their great, great, great-grandson was Asa Griggs Candler, who in 1888 bought the formula for Coca Cola.

Meanwhile, back in Ireland, William Candler’s two eldest sons were ordained in the Church of Ireland: the eldest, the Ven Henry Candler, became Archdeacon of Ossory; the second son, the Revd Dr William Candler, was Rector of Eirke, lived in Castlecomer and died in 1753. The third son, Thomas Candler, lived in Kilbline Castle until he died in 1740.

Kilbline Castle was owned by the Shortall, Cadler, Ryan and Lannon families (Photograph © The Irish Antiquarian, 2020)

Kilbline Castle continued to be occupied with a Ryan family living in the castle until 1840, before it passed by marriage into the Lannon family, who lived there until 1979. The castle remains in private ownership.

In many ways, Kilbline Castle is a typical Irish tower house. It is five storeys high, with round bartizans or wall-mounted turrets at each corner of the east front and a slender chimney-stack between them.

A chimney-piece in the tower is dated 1580 and there is an oak-panelled room on the south-east corner of the ground floor. However, the most significant feature of Kilbline Castle architecturally is a wonderful panelled room on the south-east corner of the ground floor, with oak that may date from the late 17th or early 18th century. All the wall panelling is intact and in remarkably good condition, although the ceiling is now covered in tongue-and-groove boards. The old chimneypiece is marred only by a shelf added at a later date.

The surrounding bawn wall survives in part, with early brick walls with blank arches. But some sections were demolished as late as the 20th century when modern farm sheds were being erected.

Kilbline Castle continued to be lived in up to a few decades ago. At some point, a two storey three-bay house was added at the west end of the tower house and a further single storey structure adjoining it.

The present owners do not live in the castle and it has been empty for some time, but they are aware of its importance. Although they have are no plans to restore the castle, the interior is said to be relatively intact and in remarkably good condition.

Kilbline Castle is a protected or listed structure with Kilkenny County Council. However, it is not open to or accessible to the public.

Kilbline Castle is about a mile south-east of Bennetsbridge, Co Kilkenny (Photograph © Irish Tower Houses, 2022)

Castles and Houses in this series:

1, Ballybur Castle, Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny

2, Ballymack, Co Kilkenny

3, Danganmore Castle, Co Kilkenny

4, Kilbline Castle, Co Kilkenny

5, Castleinch or Inchyolaghan, Co Kilkenny

6, Coolgreany House, near Castlewarren, Co Kilkenny

Kilbline Castle, near Bennettsbridge, Co Kilkenny, is a protected or listed structure but is not open to the public (Photograph: Paddy O’Shea, Irish Castles / Wikipedia CCL)

This illustrated essay was posted on Comerford Way (27 May 2025), and in the occasional series ‘Comerford castles and ancestral homes’ on Comerford Family History (backdated to 18 June 2009)

The Brooke legacy in Kuching survives in old palaces and fortresses and the Old Court House

The Astana at night … the palace was built in 1870 by the second Rajah Charles Brooke as a wedding gift for his wife Margaret (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The Brooke era in Sarawak lasted for more than a century, from 1841 to 1946. Almost 80 years after the Brookes ceded Sarawak to Britain, Brooke-era buildings continue as an important part of the architectural legacy of Kuching.

These Brooke buildings in Kuching include Fort Margherita and the Astana or former Brooke palace, both on the north side of the river; the Old Court House facing them on the south side of the river and once the seat of Sarawak’s government; the Round Tower and the Square Tower, which I wrote about last week; the Brooke obelisk; and the Brooke Dockyard.

In addition, the story of the Brooke family is told in museums in Fort Margherita and at the Old Court House run by the Brooke Foundation.

Fort Margherita is a monumental landmark on a hill on the north side of the Sarawak River (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Fort Margherita stands out as a monumental landmark on a hill on the north side of the river. It was built in 1879 by Charles Brooke, the second Rajah of Sarawak, in the style of an English castle and designed to protect Kuching from pirates and invaders.

Brooke named Fort Margherita after his wife, Margaret Alice Lili de Windt (1849-1936). When they were married at Highworth, near Swindon, Wiltshire, on 28 October 1869, she was given the title of Ranee of Sarawak and the style of Her Highness.

The fort was built facing the then fast-expanding town centre of Kuching. The three-storey tower block has battlements with a watchpoint on top. Set into the wall itself are wooden windows from which the cannons were fired.

The courtyard is surrounded by a high wall inlaid with sharp glass shards for protection. Prisoners continued to be executed in this courtyard, up until the Japanese occupation and World War II.

The three-storey tower block of Fort Margherita has battlements and a watchpoint (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The fort was used as a police museum from 1971 before being handed over to the Government of Sarawak. Today, it is a tourist attraction housing the Brooke Gallery, an exhibition showcasing the history of Sarawak under the Brooke dynasty.

The Brooke Gallery opened in Fort Margherita on 24 September 2016, the 175th anniversary of the founding of the State of Sarawak. The gallery is an initiative by Jason Brooke, a grandson of the last Rajah Muda of Sarawak, Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke. Jason Brooke grew up in Dublin, went to the High School, studied at UCD and has an MPhil from Trinity College Dublin.

The Brooke Gallery runs the Aspire Programme as part of a community outreach to schools, giving pupils an opportunity to learn more about the history of Sarawak, the Brooke administration and the heritage of Sarawak.

The Astana, a former Brooke palace, is now the official residence of the Governor of Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Fort Margherita is separated by the New Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building from the Astana, a former Brooke palace that is now the official residence of the Governor of Sarawak.

The name Astana is a variation of istana, meaning palace. It was built in 1870 by the second Rajah, Charles Brooke, as a wedding gift for his wife Margaret. She arrived in Sarawak in 1870, and the royal couple then lived in the Astana as their main home. She later reminisced about life in the Astana and colonial Borneo in her memoir My Life in Sarawak (1913).

The Astana was originally three separate buildings that were interconnected by short and narrow passageways. It has undergone major renovations and alterations to make it the official residence of the Governor of Sarawak. The palace is not normally open to the public, although the landscaped gardens are, and they can be reached by a boat across the Sarawak River.

The Old Court House was built in 1871 as the seat of government in Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

On the facing, south bank of the river, the Old Court House was built in 1871 as the seat of Sarawak’s government, and replaced an earlier wooden court house built in 1847. The first building on the site was a two-storey wooden building erected in 1847 as a church and day school by a Lutheran Missionary named Rupe. However, Rupe returned to Germany and his church and school did not survive.

When Dr Francis Thomas McDougall, who later became the first Anglican Bishop of Borneo, arrived in June 1848, he and his family stayed at the upper portion of the building until the Bishop’s House was completed in 1849. The building was then taken over by the Rajah, James Brooke, who converted the classrooms into a court.

There are no further records of the original court building until the Insurrection of the Bau Gold Mine Chinese Kongsi between 18 and 21 February 1857. Liu Shanbang, the leader of the Chinese Kongsi, captured Kuching, proclaimed himself king for the day on the Rajah’s seat in the court, and ordered Brooke’s men to appear before him and report on Brooke’s position.

That first court building was demolished in 1858 on the instructions of Charles Brooke, who later succeeded as the Second Rajah in 1868. He commissioned a new building to house the courts and other government offices under the same roof, but it took seven years to complete the building.

The Court House was one of the most majestic buildings built in Kuching during the Brooke era (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Court House was officially opened 150 years ago by Major William Henry Rodway (1836-1924), the Acting Resident of Sarawak, on 3 June 1874, with parades and guards of honour also marking Charles Brooke’s birthday.

The Court House was one of the most majestic buildings built in Kuching during the Brooke era. It is symmetrically arranged, with four main buildings surrounding an internal courtyard, with two smaller annexes protruding towards the Sarawak River.

This is a superb collection of buildings, possibly influenced by Roman courthouse design, with magnificent belian or ironwood roofs, massive columns enclosing outer galleries and beautiful detailing inside and out, reflecting local art forms.

The paneling of the courtroom ceiling bore Dayak motifs depicting the tradition of the people from Baram who helped to design and complete it in 1951. Huge tapering columns support the roof along the corridors.

The clock in the court house clock tower was added in 1883 … it is to have been installed and maintained for generations by the Mok family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The main entrance has a colonial-baroque clock tower that was added in 1883. The clock is said to have been installed and maintained by the Mok family of clockmakers of Carpenter Street.

The clock is supported by twin columns at each corner of the square corridor below it. The unique carvings on the railings of its balcony are believed to be of Roman influence. There used to be a small room in the tower where the Kuching Municipal Council often held its meetings. However, it was closed after World War II.

Beside the building were the Resident’s office, the Surveyor’s office and the Government Printer’s Office. The Treasury Office, Post Office, Audit Office and Shipping Office were at the far end of the building towards Tun Haji Openg Road.

The General Council met in the court house from 1878. It was known as the Council Negeri from 1903, and continued to meet in the court house until 1973. The building was later used as the Administrative Centre of the High Court of Borneo, now the High Court in Sabah and Sarawak.

The Court House is arranged symmetrically, with four main buildings surrounding an internal courtyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Old Courthouse has recently been transformed into a cultural and art space, with frequent exhibitions, concerts and other activities. One wing of the building is home to the Commons restaurant and the Den bar.

The complex also houses the Ranee Museum with a unique collection of artefacts telling the story of the life, legend and legacy of Ranee Margaret Brooke, wife of the second Rajah, Charles Brooke.

The other buildings in the court complex include the Japanese Building separating Carpenter Street and Kuching’s China town from India Street and built by the Japanese when they occupied Sarawak in 1941-1945.

Three other Brooke-era buildings in the vicinity are the Round Tower and the Square Tower, and the Brooke Dockyard.

The Brooke Memorial or obelisk in front of the Old Court House was designed by the Irish-born architect Denis Santry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Brooke Memorial or obelisk in front of the Old Court House was designed by the Irish-born architect Denis Santry (1879-1960) of Swan and Maclaren Architects Singapore, the same architectural practice that designed Saint Thomas’s Anglican Cathedral in Kuching. Santry’s principal work in Kuching is the General Post Office (1931), with the Brooke coat-of-arms crowning the pediment.

The obelisk was unveiled 100 years ago on 13 October 1924 by Charles Vyner Brooke (1874-1963), the third and last Rajah of Sarawak in memory of his father, Charles Brooke, who had ruled as the second Rajah from 1868 to 1917.

The granite obelisk is about 24 ft with a base measuring 18 ft in diameter. On each of the four supporting pilasters are bronze tablets designed by FJ Wilkinson, showing four different ethnic groups in Sarawak, the Dayak, Malay, Chinese and Kayan, and bronze tablets with descriptive inscriptions in various languages.

On the front is a profile of Charles Brooke in marble, a replica of the bust of Brooke by Baroness von Gleichen, and the heraldic arms of the Brooke family.

Charles Brooke depicted on the Brooke Memorial, with the heraldic arms of the Brooke family above (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Almost 80 years after the rule of the Brooke Rajahs came to an end in Sarawak, the family’s legacy continues in the many fine buildings erected in Kuching during the Brooke era.

The Brooke coat-of-arms continues to be seen throughout Kuching, sometimes cropping up in the most unexpected of places, including shopfronts and on street corners.

The Brooke coat-of-arms continues to be seen throughout Kuching … images from Carpenter Street (above) and a street corner, below (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 153, Friday 11 October 2024

‘If it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you’ (Luke 11: 20) … the finger of God touches Adam in Michelangelo’s ceiling in the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIX).

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Ethelburga (675), Abbess of Barking, and James the Deacon 7th century), companion of Paulinus.

In the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance, begins this evening, and I hope to attend the Kol Nidre service in Milton Keynes and District Reform Synagogue this evening. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons’ (Luke 11: 15) … a gargoyle at Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 11: 15-26 (NRSVA):

15 But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.’ 16 Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. 18 If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? – for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. 19 Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. 22 But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armour in which he trusted and divides his plunder. 23 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

24 ‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place, but not finding any, it says, “I will return to my house from which I came.” 25 When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.’

‘When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe’ (Luke 11: 21) … Ballybur Castle, the former seat of the Comerford family near Callan, Co Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

In this morning’s Gospel reading, Christ is challenged about whether his work is the work of God or the work of the Devil.

Too often, when I am offered the opportunity to do the right thing, to make a difference in this society, in this world, I ask: ‘What’s in this for me?’ And how often do I challenge others when they are doing the right thing, questioning their motives and wondering ‘Wat’s in it for them?’

When I am asked to speak up for those who are marginalised or oppressed, this should be good enough reason in itself. But then I wonder how others are going to react – react not to the marginalised or oppressed, but to me, and then jealous or feeling hubris when others are seeing to do the right thing when I failed to respond?

How often have I seen what is the right thing to do, but have found an excuse that I pretend is not of my own making?

How often do I think of doing the right thing only if it is going to please my family members or please my neighbours?

How often do I use the Bible to justify not extending civil rights to others?

How often do I use the Bible to condemn others when I know, deep down, that they are doing the right thing for other people?

How often do I use obscure Bible texts to prop up my own prejudices, forgetting that any text in the Bible, however clear or obscure it may be, depends, in Christ’s own words, on the two greatest commandments, to love God and to love one another.

We can convince ourselves that we are doing the right thing when we are doing it for the wrong reason. A wrong decision taken once, thinking it is doing the right thing, but for the wrong reason, is not just an action in the present moment. It forms habits and it shapes who we are, within time and eternity.

The Revd Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), a prominent German Lutheran pastor and an outspoken opponent of Hitler, spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. He once said:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.

What we do today or fail to do today, even if we think it is the right thing to do but we do it for the wrong reasons, reflects how we have formed ourselves habitually in the past, is an image of our inner being in the present, and has consequences for the future we wish to shape.

As TS Eliot writes:

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past (‘Burnt Norton’).

How is the Church to recover its voice and speak up for the oppressed and the marginalised, not because it is fashionable or politically correct today, but because it is the right thing to do today and for the future?

Surely all our actions must depend on those two great commandments – to love God and to love one another.

‘Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out?’ (Luke 11: 19) … an image at La Lonja de la Seda in Valencia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 11 October 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is the ‘Humanitarian Corridors project in Leuven, Belgium.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by Rebecca Breekveldt, Second Secretary, Central Committee of the Anglican Church in Belgium.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 11 October 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for all of the chaplains throughout the Diocese in Europe and for all the projects and work they do to support displaced people.

The Collect:

O God, forasmuch as without you
we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Holy and blessed God,
you have fed us with the body and blood of your Son
and filled us with your Holy Spirit:
may we honour you,
not only with our lips
but in lives dedicated to the service
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Faithful Lord,
whose steadfast love never ceases
and whose mercies never come to an end:
grant us the grace to trust you
and to receive the gifts of your love,
new every morning,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future / And time future contained in time past’ (TS Eliot, ‘Burnt Norton’) … the clock on Donegall House in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

How four generations of the Skeffington family of Fisherwick owned and lost Comberford Hall

Comberford Hall … passed to four generations of the Skeffington family of Fisherwick for half a century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I was discussing earlier this week how the Skeffington family of Fisherwick, near Lichfield, had intermarried with the Skeffington family of Leicester, and how they were a powerful political family in Leicestershire and Staffordshire from the late 16th century into the mid-17th century see 17 June 2024 HERE).

Sir William Skeffington of Fisherwick was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1601 and again in 1623 in succession to his uncle, William Comberford (1551-1625) of Comberford Hall and the Moat House on Lichfield Street, Tamworth. William Comberford was married to William Skeffington’s aunt, Mary Skeffington, and their grandson was Robert Comberford (1594-1671) of Comberford Hall.

Robert Comberford was a second cousin of two Skeffington brothers who played political roles in Staffordshire during the English Civil War: Sir John Skeffington (1584-1651), was a royalist colonel and had been MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme and was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1637; Sir Richard Skeffington (1590-1647) was a Parliamentarian and was MP for Tamworth in 1625 and for Staffordshire in 1646-1647. Both brothers were baptised in Saint Michael’s Church, Lichfield.

After Robert Comberford died in 1669, his kinsman, Francis Comberford, the Quaker former magistrate of Bradley, tried but failed to claim Comberford Hall and the Comberford estate. Robert’s widow, Catherine (née Bates), continued to live at Comberford Hall for almost 50 years with her daughter Anne and grandson Comberford Brooke, until she died in 1718.

But the Comberford estates were heavily indebted and mortgaged, and the title to them appears to have passed to Sir Richard Skeffington’s son, Sir John Skeffington (1632-1695), who owned the neighbouring estate of Fisheriwck.

Fisherwick Hall was about 6 km (4 miles) east of Lichfield, between Whittington and Elford and immediately north of Comberford

Fisherwick Hall was about 6 km (4 miles) east of Lichfield, between Whittington and Elford and immediately north of Comberford. Fisherwick was in Saint Michael’s Parish, Lichfield, and many members of the Skeffington family of Fisherwick were baptised, married and buried at Saint Michael’s Church – the same church where the parents of Samuel Johnson were buried later.

Although Comberford Hall passed to the Skeffington family of neighbouring Fisherwick, whose members later held the title of Lord Masserene, the descendants of the Comberford and Brooke family continued to live at Comberford Hall into the early 18th century. When the Privy Council ordered a return by the parish clergy of Papists and reported Papists in 1706 , ‘with their respective qualities, estates and places of abode,’ 55 were counted in Tamworth, including Mrs Comberford of Comberford, with her three grandchildren and three servants.

This Mrs Comberford was Robert Comberford’s widow Catherine, and she and her family continued living at Comberford Hall as tenants of the Skeffington family until the mid-18th century, unable over the space of half a century to redeem the mortgages raised on the Comberford estates.

The Moat House Tamworth … Richard Skeffington, a second cousin of Robert Comberford, was MP for Tamworth in 1625 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Four successive generations and members of the Skeffington family owned Comberford Hall from the late 17th century until they too were forced to sell it in 1755.

Sir Richard Skeffington (1597-1647) of Fisherwick was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and was knighted in 1624. He was MP for Tamworth in 1625 and for Staffordshire in 1646-1647. When he died on 2 June 1647, he was buried at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.

1, Sir John Skeffington (1632-1695), 2nd Viscount Massereene, 4th Baronet, Sir Richard’s son, was the first member of his family to own Comberford Hall. He was born in Lichfield, but spent most of his life in Ireland in a political and military career. His strong Presbyterian views made him one of the leading Presbyterians in Ireland at the time, but were at odds with the High Anglicanism and Catholic sympathies of the Comberford family.

John Skeffington was born in Lichfield in December 1632 and was baptised in Saint Michael’s Church, Lichfield, on 27 December 1632. His father was a Parliamentarian or Cromwellian, and John identified as a Presbyterian from an early age.

He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where his tutor was Samuel Morland and his fellow students included Samuel Pepys. He was 19 when he succeeded his cousin, Sir William Skeffington, as the fourth baronet in April 1652 and inherited the Skeffington estates at Fisherwick, near Lichfield. Two years later, in 1654, he married Mary Clotworthy, the eldest daughter of John Clotworthy, 1st Viscount Massereene and 1st Baron Lough Neagh.

Massereene is a small townland on the shores of Lough Neagh, just outside Antrim town. The peculiar conditions in which the Massereene title was created made John the heir to his father-in-law and the name Clotworthy became a first or given name in successive generations of the Skeffington family.

John Skeffington eventually inherited that title as 2nd Viscount Massereene and 2nd Baron Lough Neagh on 23 September 1665. Meanwhile, he had become a key figure in political and military life in Ireland. He was the MP for Down, Antrim, and Armagh in the Third Protectorate Parliament in 1659. He was made the captain of a troop of militia in Co Antrim in 1660. He was elected as the MP for Co Antrim in the re-established Irish House of Commons from 1661 until he succeeded to his father-in-law’s title and estates in 1665, when he took a seat in the Irish House of Lords.

He was a justice of the peace in Antrim, but he continued to hold the strong Puritan views he held during the Cromwellian period. He was described in the early 1660s as ‘a rigid Presbyterian … his whole alliance Presbyterian,’ and he was removed from as a justice of the peace in 1663 in the aftermath of Colonel Thomas Blood’s foiled plot to install a Presbyterian administration in Ireland.

Despite this, Skeffington was appointed Custos Rotulorum of Derry in 1666, a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1667 and Governor of Derry in 1678. Skeffington was appointed Captain of Lough Neagh in 1680, in part owing to his expenditure in improving the fortifications at Antrim Castle.

Skeffington’s Presbyterian views were also a factor in managing his estates in Staffordshire, and William Palmer’s house in Fisherwick was licensed for Presbyterian teaching in 1672. Skeffington was zealous in his pursuit and persecution of Roman Catholic priests in Ireland, and in 1681 he alleged that many soldiers in the Irish army were either Catholics or married to Catholics.

In the aftermath of the Rye House Plot in 1683, Skeffington came under pressure from the Duke of Ormond to conform to the Church of Ireland, but he refused. James II excluded Skeffington from the Irish Privy Council upon his accession in 1685. Three days after the outbreak of the Williamite War in Ireland, on 15 March 1689, Skeffington fled his home at Antrim Castle home. The castle was captured the following day by Jacobite forces who looted £3,000 worth of his possessions.

After time in Derry and Scotland, he was in London by September 1689 where he was one of a committee chosen by Irish Protestant exiles to represent their concerns to the English Williamite government. He was attainted by James II’s brief Patriot Parliament in Dublin in 1689. Skeffington returned to Ireland following the war, and was readmitted to the Irish Privy Council by William III in 1692.

Meanwhile, Presbyterians continued to find support on the Skeffigton estate in Staffordshire, and in 1693 Fisherwick Hall was included in a list of houses licensed for dissenting worship.

When Skeffigton died on 21 June 1695, he was buried at Antrim. He was succeeded in his title and his estates by his son, Clotworthy Skeffington (1661-1714), 3rd Viscount Massereene.

A canopied Victorian Gothic Skeffington and Massereene monument in All Saints’ Church, Antrim (Photograh: Patrick Comerford)

2, Clotworthy Skeffington (1661-1714), 3rd Viscount Massereene, was the second generation of the Skeffington family to own Comberford Hall was born in Antrim in 1661, and was admitted to Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1679.

Clotworthy Skeffington shared his father’s religious and political outlooks. During the Williamite wars in Ireland, he joined the Earl of Mount Alexander’s Protestant militia in 1688 and received a commission as a colonel from William III in January 1689. He took part in the defence of Derry during the Siege of Derry from April to August 1689. Like his father, he too was attainted by James II’s Patriot Parliament in Dublin in 1689.

After the Williamite wars, Skeffington was MP for Co Antrim in the Irish House of Commons in 1692-1693. When he inherited his father’s peerage in 1695, he took his seat in the Irish House of Lords. He was appointed Governor of Derry in 1699.

He continued to support nonconformist and dissenting views on his estate in Staffordshire, and Robert Travers, the Presbyterian minister for the Lichfield area, baptised a child at Fisherwick in 1701.

Clotworthy Skeffington married Rachel Hungerford in 1680, and they were the parents of one son and three daughters. He died in Antrim in March 1714 and was succeeded by his son, Clotworthy Skeffington, who became 4th Viscount Massereene and inherited Fisherwick Hall and Comberford Hall, as well as a vast estate in Ireland centred on Antrim Castle.

The monument to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) by the West Door of Lichfield Cathedral … she jilted Clotworthy Skeffington in 1712 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

3, Clotworthy Skeffington, 4th Viscount Massereene, was the third generation in his branch of the Skeffington family to hold Fisherwick Hall and Comberford Hall when he succeeded his father in 1714. He is often remembered as the rejected suitor of Mary Pierrepoint, later Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762), who instead married Sir Edward Wortley Montagu in 1712.

A year later, on 9 September 1713, the jilted Skeffington married Lady Catherine Chichester, a daughter of Arthur Chichester (1666-1706), 3rd Earl of Donegall, and they were the parents of seven children. The Chichester family gave their name to Donegal House in Lichfield, and her nephew, Arthur Chichester (1739-1799), 4th Earl of Donegall and 1st Marquess of Donegall, later acquired Comberford Hall and other parts of the former Skeffington estates in Staffordshire.

Skeffington’s main political and financial interests, however, were in Ireland. He sat in the Irish House of Commons as the MP for Co Antrim from 1703 until he succeeded to his father’s title and took his seat in the Irish House of Lords in 1714.

Meanwhile, Catherine Comberford, who had continued to live at Comberford Hall as a tenant of the Skeffingtons of Fisherwick, died in 1718. Comberford Hall then passed to the Skeffington family, although they never lived at either Fisherwick Hall or Comberford Hall, and continued to live mainly at Antrim Castle.

Clotworthy Skeffington died on 11 February 1738, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Clotworthy Skeffington (1715-1757), who inherited the family titles and estates and who was made Earl of Massereene in 1756.

A portrait of Clotworthy Skeffington (1715-1757), 5th Viscount Massereene and 1st Earl of Massereene (ca 1751 by Arthur Pond) … he was forced to sell his Staffordshire estates, including Fisherwick Hall and Comberford Hall

4, Clotworthy Skeffington (1715-1757), 1st Earl of Massereene and 5th Viscount Massereene, succeeded to his father’s titles in 1738 and took his seat in the Irish House of Lords. He was the fourth and final generation in his branch of the Skeffington family to hold Fisherwick Hall and Comberford Hall in Staffordshire.

He became a Member of the Irish Privy Council in 1746, and and in 1751 he was created a Doctor of Law by the University of Dublin (Trinity College Dublin). He was given a more senior ranking in the Irish peerage on 28 July 1756 as Earl of Massereene. By then, however, he had been forced to sell his estates near Lichfield, including Fisherwick and Comberford, perhaps to pay the debts of his wayward, gambling son, Clotworthy Skeffington.

Massereene married his first wife Anne Daniel on 16 March 1738. She died two years later; he married his second wife Anne Eyre from Derbyshire on 25 November 1741, and they were the parents of six children. A year after receiving his new peerage title in Ireland, he was killed in Antrim while he was out ‘fowling’ on 14 September 1757.

Capability Brown’s landscape at Fisherwick Hall, a painting by John Spyers (1786) … Fisherwick Hall was inherited along with Comberford Hall by the Chichester family, but was demolished in 1805

Fisherwick Hall and Comberford Hall had descended with the title of Viscount Masserene, until 1755 when the 5th Viscount Masserene sold his mortgaged estates – perhaps to pay the debts of his gambling son, Clotworthy Skeffington – to Samuel Swinfen of Swinfen Hall, in Weeford, near Lichfield, as the trustee of his neighbour Samuel Hill of Shenstone Park, who built Swinfen Hall in 1757.

After Hill died on 21 February 1758, Comberford and Fisherwick, along with the Tatton Park estate, were inherited by his nephew, Samuel Egerton (1711-1780). By then, Egerton had embarked on his grand rebuilding of Tatton Park in Cheshire, with its neoclassical façade and exuberant rococo interiors, and in 1759 he sold his Comberford and Fisherwick estates back to their former trustee, Samuel Swinfen.

Samuel Swinfen sold the estates once again in 1761, this time to Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount Weymouth (1734-1796), a descendant of the Duchess of Somerset, who was a beneficiary under William Comberford’s will. In 1756, Comberford Common was enclosed under an Act of Parliament.

On 1 August 1789, Viscount Weymouth – who was about to become the 1st Marquis of Bath – and his son, the Hon Thomas Thynne, sold the Manors of Comberford and Wigginton, including lands in Hopwas and Coton, to Arthur Chichester (1739-1799), 5th Earl of Donegall, a nephew of Lady Catherine Chichester who had married Clotworthy Skeffington, 4th Viscount Massereene, in 1713.

Within a year, Lord Donegall had raised £20,000 from the banker Henry Hoare, using the Manors and Lands of Comberford and Wigginton as collateral security. Eventually, the Chichester family, crippled by the gambling debts of a profligate son, would find it impossible to pay off this loan, and would be forced to sell Comberford Hall and the manorial rights and lands that went with it.

Clotworthy Skeffington (1742-1805), the wayward and gambling son who appears to have forced the sale of Fisherwick Hall and Comberford Hall in 1755, spent almost 20 years in prison in France

As for Clotworthy Skeffington (1742-1805), the wayward and gambling son who appears to have forced the sale of Fisherwick Hall and Comberford Hall in 1755, he spent almost 20 years in prison in France, and only escaped in during the French Revolution in 1789, the year his father’s first cousin, Arthur Chichester (1739-1799), 5th Earl of Donegall, had bought the former Skeffington estates in Staffordshire.

This Clotworthy Skeffington was born on 28 January 1742, and he was styled Lord Loughneagh from 1756 until 1757, when he inherited his father’s titles as 2nd Earl of Massereene and 6th Viscount Massereene, and his estates in Co Antrim, although the Skeffington estates in Staffordshire had been sold off in 1755.

As a young peer, he entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1758. In his early days, it was said, he was a gambling dandy who ‘figured very considerably in the walks of fashion,’ and that he was vain, conceited and disagreeable.

Through his gambling and his speculation in salt imports from Syria or the Barbary Coast, he accumulated large debts in France of between 15,000 and 20,000 French livre. He was imprisoned in For-l’Évêque in Paris in 1769 for his debts. He maintained a lavish lifestyle in prison, employing a private chef and entertaining fellow prisoners and visiting prostitutes. In his first seven years in jail, his debts had risen to 1 million livres, and were growing by the day. He attempted to escape in June 1770, but his plan was foiled was those he owed fortunes to.

When For-l’Évêque was closed in 1780, Skeffington was transferred to La Force Prison. This second prison is known in literature for its fictional detainees, including Charles Darnay in Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, Lucien de Rubempré and Jacques Collins in Honoré de Balzac’s Illusions perdues and Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes, Thénardier in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, and Benedetto in Alexander Dumas’s The Count of Monte-Cristo.

There, Skeffington’s debts continued to mount, rising to 3 million livres. He was freed with other prisoners by a mob on 13 July 1789, a day before the storming of the Bastille. He fled to England with Marie Anne Barcier, the 27-year-old daughter of the Governor of For-l’Évêque or Châtelet prison in Paris, and they were married in Saint Peter’s Cornhill, London, on 19 August 1789 – although some accounts say they had already been secretly married in Paris before that date in a ceremony of dubious legality.

From England, the couple made their way back to the Skeffington family seat at Antrim Castle. But his eccentric and erratic behaviour escalated and proved to be too challenging. The woman known as ‘the beautiful countess’ returned to France and died at the age of 38 in October 1800.

Skeffington married a second wife, Elizabeth Lane, also known as Mrs Blackburn, and said to have been a 19-year-old English chambermaid. When he died at Antrim Castle on 28 February 1805 he had no children. His widow married twice again, to George Doran and then to the Hon Hugh Massy, and died on 19 March 1838. The titles and the remaining estates passed to Clotworthy Skeffington’s younger brother Henry Skeffington, as the third earl, and then to youngest brother, Chichester Skeffington, as the fourth early.

The title of Earl of Massereene and the Skeffington title of baronet died out with the death of the fourth earl in 1816, while the tiles of Baron of Loughneagh and Viscount Massereene were inherited in another, distantly related family.

As for Antrim Castle, it was gutted by fire in 1922 and was finally demolished in the 1970s.

Antrim Castle was gutted by fire in 1922 and was finally demolished in the 1970s