Ballykilmurry school was a two teacher school, opened in 1910. This school closed in 1966 when a new three teacher school was built on the present site in Ballinamere.
Middleton Westenra Biddulph was born on 17 August 1849 at Rathrobin, Mountbolus, King’s County (Offaly). He was one of six children, and the eldest surviving son of Francis Marsh Biddulph (1802–1868) and Lucy Bickerstaff (d. 1896). She was born in Preston, Lancashire and they married in 1845. The Bickerstaff connection was to be an important one for the surviving sons of Francis Marsh Biddulph, and led to a substantial inheritance in the 1890s for Middleton W Biddulph, and his brother Assheton, who lived at Moneyguyneen, Kinnitty.
The Biddulph ancestors were from Staffordshire, and later Wexford, and had arrived in King’s County from as early as 1694 or 1660. Lt Col. Biddulph held about 1,000 acres, of which perhaps 600 to 700 acres he farmed with the balance leased to his long-standing Protestant tenants. His landholding was principally in the townlands of Rathrobin and those adjoining of Clonseer, Cormeen, Kilmore and Mullaghcrohy, all near Mountbolus, in the civil parish of Killoughy and the barony of Ballyboy.
Middleton Biddulph went to Foxcroft House boarding school in Portarlington, aged 11, thereafter to the Royal School in Banagher, and joined the army when he was eighteen, enlisting with the Northumberland Fusiliers (Fifth Regiment). Initially an ensign or cornet, he rose in the ranks quickly and was a Lieutenant by 1871, Captain in 1881 and Major from 1885. Before retirement in 1896 he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He spoke French, German and Hindustani and stations included: Hythe March (1872), St Helier’s, Chatham (1879) Portsmouth (1881), Agra (1880), Mullingar (1882), Newcastle (1886), Colchester (1887) and Aldershot (1891). It was while he was at Mullingar with the Ist Batt. Northumberland Fusiliers that he was appointed adjutant of the Ist Northumberland and ordered to proceed to Alnwick. It appears that he met his future wife, Vera Flower, following on from an introduction by her brother Stanley Smyth Flower (1871–1946), who was also an officer in the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. They married in 1891. Vera Josephine Flower was a daughter of Sir William Flower, Director of the British Museum of Natural History, South Kensington, London. They did not have children.
When Biddulph retired from the army in the mid-1890s, he returned to Rathrobin and rebuilt the old house with the benefit of the Bickerstaff inheritance over the period 1898 to 1900. He employed Sir Thomas Drew as architect and William Beckett of Dublin as the builder. Once the new Rathrobin House was completed, Lt Col. Middleton Biddulph got on with his duties as a landlord and was a regular attender at the Petty Sessions, the Board of Guardians, and the County Infirmary, served as High Sheriff in 1901, and was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the County in 1910. He was also on the board of the King’s County Joint Committee for Technical Instruction and the King’s County Farming Society. He and his wife left for England in June 1921 as the military campaign of the IRA in the locality intensified, and Rathrobin House was destroyed by Republican IRA forces in April 1923. While he seemed to have planned to return to Ireland after this, an attack on his land agent, Violet Magan, and his own declining health delayed plans to do so, and he died in Chelsea in May 1926.
Old Abraham Fuller of Lehinch was the eldest son of Mary (Warren) and Abraham Fuller. He married Elizabeth Smyth of County Limerick on 9 Mar 1679. On the day of their marriage, he's quoted to have said he would have five sons and five daughters, and he did. Their names were: Abraham of Kimegad (1680-1739), Isaac [who went to America], Jacob of Waterstown, Joseph [who went to America], and Benjamin of Kilmucklan (b 1686), Elizabeth (b 1694), Hannah, Susana, Marry, and Sarah. Abraham Fuller of Lehinch accquired Woodfield Estate from John Gee, who resided at Gurteen Castle.
Elinor Pakenham was daughter of Thomas Pakenham of Pakenham Hall, Gaddaghanstown, County Westmeath. She became Elinor Fuller when she married Abraham Fuller of Violet Hill on 11 July 1748. They had four children: Lydia (20 Jan 1749 - 24 Oct 1751), Ann (14 May 1751 - 6 Nov 1752), Abraham (19 Aug 1728 - 7 Jan 1800), Joseph Thomas “Old Patch” (10 May 1758 - 1842). Elinor Fuller was very active in society, and would often drive up to the Court in Dublin in her yellow coach. She died at Woodfield House on the evening of 13 December 1802, and was buried with her husband at Kilmanaghan, County Offaly.
Maria Blanche was the daughter of Dr Matthew Stritch of Dublin. On 4 December 1817 she married Adam Fuller of Woodfield at St. Peter's Church in Dublin. They had three sons: Joseph Thomas Fuller (b 7 Sep 1818), Captain Adam Henry Fuller (b 24 Oct 1822), and Reverend Abraham Stritch Fuller (b 20 Nov 1826).
Their eldest son Joseph, who was very wild and heavily contributed to the financial troubles of the family, was sent to live in America. In order to generate income, Woodfield House was let out in 1851, and Adam and Maria Blanche Fuller moved to a house in Sandymount, County Dublin. Adam Fuller died on 15 June 1858.
Maria Blanche Fuller died at the age of 66 at 6 Cartwait Park, Kingstown, County Dublin on 5 October 1864.
Reverend Abraham Stritch Fuller, the third son of Maria Blanch and Adam Fuller was born 20 November 1826. As an adult he lived at Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin, where his brother visited him in 1866 and promptly died of typhoid fever. He lived at 24 Leeson Park, Dublin, where his niece Maria Blanch Fuller died on 10 April 1903.
Lydia Roberts, was the daughter of Isaac Roberts. Her Grandfather, Robert Roberts, moved from Wales and settled in Dublin c. 1646. He leased land from Lord Meath, and chiefly resided in Thomas Court and Cork Street. It was on this street that he gave a large piece of ground to the Quakers to be used as a burying ground. He married Miss Caridge, daughter of Alderman Caridge, one of King James’ alderman.