The present line of the Earls of Rosse (of the 2nd creation) is descended from Sir Laurence Parsons, one of four sons of James Parsons and Catherine Fenton of Diseworth Grange, Leicestershire, who had moved to Ireland by the late 16th century. The elder brother, William, was the ancestor of the Earls of Rosse of the 1st creation but the line died out in 1764. The younger brother, Sir Laurence lived in Myrtle Grove, Youghal, Co. Cork where he held several Munster-based government positions. He was knighted in 1620, the same year that he moved to Offaly, having exchanged his interest in a property at Leiter Lugna near Cadamstown with Sir Robert Meredith for the latter’s 1000 acres at Birr. In 1677, his descendent, Sir Laurence Parsons was created baronet, and successive generations of the Parsons Baronets have lived at Birr Castle since this time. The earldom of Rosse was inherited by Sir Laurence Parsons, 5th baronet, from his uncle Laurence Harman Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse, of County Longford, who died in 1807 without male issue.
Sir Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse (1758-1841), was an Irish peer, agitator against the Act of Union, an Irish parliamentarian and later joint postmaster-general of the Irish post office. His son, Sir William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800-1867), was an astronomer and in 1845 built the ‘Leviathan of Parsonstown’, the world’s largest telescope until the early twentieth century. Sir Laurence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse (1840-1908) was also an astronomer and a keen photographer like his mother, Mary Rosse. Sir William Edward Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse (1873-1918), was a solider in the Irish Guards. He fought in the First World War and died in 1918 of injuries received in action two years previously. His son, Sir (Laurence) Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse (1906-1979) was heavily involved in Irish cultural affairs and a keen dendrologist. The present Earl of Rosse, and 10th baronet, Sir (William) Brendan Parsons was an officer in the Irish Guards from 1955–57 and worked for the United Nations from 1963-80. He lives at Birr Castle and has overseen the creation of the Historic Science Centre celebrating the scientific legacy of the Parsons family, and, with the assistance of Dr A. P. W. Malcomson of PRONI, has gathered together the archives of the Parsons family, now published as The Calendar of the Rosse Papers.
The 100th (Prince of Wales's Royal Canadian) Regiment of Foot and 109th Regiment of Foot were amalgamated in July 1881 to form the Leinster Regiment as part of the Caldwell Reforms. Regiments were to consist of two regular battalions and three militia battalion. 1st Battalion formed from the 100th Regiment of Foot, 2nd Battalion from the 109th Regiment of Foot, 3rd Battalion from the King’s County Militia, 4th Battalion from the Queen’s County Militia and the 5th Battalion from the Royal Meath Militia. Birr Barracks, Crinkill became the depot for the regiment, where depot staff were permanently based. The Regiment took part in: Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War (1895-6), Second Anglo Boer War (1899-1902), First World War (1914-1919), Malabar Rebellion (1921). Disbanded at Windsor Castle on 12 June 1922, along with five other southern Irish Regiments.
Victoria Cross Receptions
• Lieutenant John Vincent Holland, 1916.
• Corporal John Cunningham, 1917.
• Private Martin Joseph Moffat, 1918.
• Sergeant John O’Neill, 1918.
Dr William Moran, parish priest of Tullamore (1949-1965), is remembered by the people of Tullamore with affection and respect. To many parishioners he was seen as a character and there are few of the older parishioners who have not some humorous story to relate concerning him. Dr Moran came to Tullamore from Trim in October 1949 where he had been parish priest. He was a native of Castletowngeoghegan near Tullamore and was educated at St. Finian’s (Navan) and Maynooth College where he was ordained in 1910. He received a doctorate in divinity in 1913 and after four years as a curate in Mullingar and Collinstown he was appointed professor of dogmatic theology in Maynooth in 1917. In 1932 he became prefect of the Dunboyne establishment and librarian in 1932. From there he moved to Trim and in 1949 to Tullamore.
Although a competent parish administrator who gave his full support to the local schools building programme of the 1950s, Dr Moran was happiest among his books and produced a number of books and pamphlets on religious topics including his well known catechism. He also published a number of historical articles including this booklet on the history of Tullamore in 1962. But if Dr Moran was interested in the past he was also a forward thinking practical man. He seemed to take a special delight in running the annual Corpus Christi procession from the organ gallery of the church with the ‘Tannoy’ system he purchased in 1951. With this system Dr Moran could broadcast a Maynooth choir for the procession together with a taped recording of his own sermon while he walked around the church and listened, presumably, admiringly, to the whole event. With his background in theology and his wide reading, Dr Moran had no shortage of material for his sermons and was a fascinating preacher who held the congregation spellbound for the duration of his homily.
Dr Moran celebrated the golden jubilee of his ordination in June 1962 and sung a high mass in the presence of Dr Kyne of Meath and Dr Cronin of the Philippines. The sermon was preached by Dr Philbin of Clonfert. After a short illness Dr Moran died at the age of 79 in October 1965. Although he had been responsible for many improvements at Clonminch cemetery he desired to be buried in the church grounds in a plot chosen by himself. His funeral was attended by thousands of parishioners and about 150 priests, many of them old students of their former professor. His tombstone is now incorporated in the wall of the entrance to the east transept of the new Church of the Assumption, Tullamore (rebuilt in 1986 after the fire of 1983).
Moran’s history of Tullamore was assisted by the notes of Fr John Johnson of Harbour Street who did a lot of work but did not publish it. Moran’s history was the first to be published based on a research process with footnotes and a good spread of sources. A recording of his lecture on Tullamore given at St Mary’s Hall in 1962. This was published as Early history of Tullamore (Athlone, 1962, reprinted by Offaly History, Tullamore, 1989)
Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse, Baron of Oxmantown, 5th Baronet, was born on 21 May 1758 to Sir William Parsons, 4th Baronet, and Lady Mary Clere. From 1782-1790. Laurence Parsons represented Dublin University in the Irish House of Commons. In the following years of 1791-1801, he sat as a Member of Parliament for King's County. In May 1797
Laurence Parsons married Lady Alice Lloyd, and they had five children. After the Act of Union in 1801, he sat for King's County in the British House of Commons until 1807, when he succeeded his uncle as the 2nd Earl of Rosse. He soon after became one of the Postmasters General of Ireland, in 1809. From 1809-1841 he sat in the House of Lords as an Irish Representative Peer, and served as Custos Rotulorum of King's County from 1828 until his death on the 24th of February 1841. The 2nd Earl of Rosse was succeeded by his son, William Parsons.
Sir William Parsons, 1st Baronet of Bellamont, was born around the year 1570 to James Parsons and Catherine Fenton. In 1602 he succeeded Sir Geoffrey Fenton as Surveyor General of Ireland. He was later knighted for his work as Surveyor General and was created a baronet on 10 November 1611. In 1639 he represented the county of Wicklow in Parliament and was constituted Lord-Deputy, first with Lord Dillon in 1640, and again with Sir John Borlace, Master of the Ordnance. Sir William Parsons was married to Elizabeth Lany of Dublin, who was notably the niece of Sir Geoffrey Fenton. In 1643 he was removed from government, and imprisoned on charges of treason. Sir William Parsons died at Westminster in February of 1650. His grandson, Sir William Parsons, succeeded him as 2nd Baronet of Bellamont.
Ann Gee was the daughter of John Gee of Gurteen Castle. She married Abraham Fuller of Kinnegad and had seven children: Joseph (b 1698), Abraham, John, Joshua, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Mary.
There is a Fuller family legend about Ann Gee. It claims that she had married a man called Unthank, that she had drawn up a lease changing the life interest she had in the Gurteen lands into a permanent lease: she hurried with the document to Gurteen Castle, where her father lay dying, but he was dead when she arrived. She took up his dead hand and made it go through the motions of signing the lease. This woman’s ghost is supposed to appear to members of the Fuller family before their death.