Small Sources 33: This is a small rental of the O’Brien estate in the town of Newmarket-on-Fergus and surrounding townlands in County Clare in 1738. The original is a small soft-cover rental document in the Inchiquin Papers which are in the National Library of Ireland (NLI Ms 14,431). See our article here for a detailed account of rentals and their relevance. This rental lists tenant’s name; denomination (i.e. the property rented); the rent for half-year ending November 1738; receipts; and allowances. As is not uncommon in rentals, some receipts are made up of several payments, and some of these are credits for payments made by the tenant for work or supplies. Although only 17 properties are listed, the document refers to 27 persons. The additional people are those referenced in the payments made by the tenants which are credited as part-payment of the rent. Presumably these payments were due to be made by the landlord (Sir Edward O’Brien) but were made by the tenant on his behalf. The denomination or property is indicated in brackets below. Tenement in this context is another word for ‘holding’ and does not have the modern meaning.
The origin of the name of the town is uncertain, but one widely accepted account is that Sir Edward O’Brien, the landlord noted above, named it after the town of Newmarket in England, which is a major horse-racing centre. This was because of his passion for horse-racing, and his plan to develop horse-racing locally. An illustration of two of his horses is shown above.
There are some interesting names listed, including Hashoa, which is repeated several times in the record. No contemporary reference could be found to this name in any on-line source, although the 
names Hassie and Hasso both appear in 19th century records for this county. We would love to hear any information on this name. Also the name McInerney, common in Clare, is spelt McInerhiny in the document. The name ‘Bawn’, which means ‘white’ in Gaelic, is not found as a surname, but is common as a nickname and the ‘Tim Bawn’ referred to appears to be a miller, which would fit the name. Other names which are associated with Clare include McNamara, O’Brien and McMahon. Less common names include Weekes, Colpoys and Broady. If you are interested in sources of information on specific families, our e-book title ‘Sources for Irish Family History 2021‘ lists 6,500 books and articles on over 2,500 Irish families. The sources listed contain a wealth of information in the form of articles and books.
Name abbreviations found include Michl. = Michael; Jno = John; Connr = Connor; Saml. = Samuel and Andw. = Andrew. The full name for each is shown below.
The images of the document above and below were created by Ancestor Network in the National Library of Ireland and are reproduced here through their courtesy. If you need help in following up on anything related to this source, or any other Irish research, you can outline your requirements to Ancestor Network and we will let you know what we might be able to do for you. We also offer 1 free hour of research by a professional researcher to conduct further research on these individuals, or on other tenants of this estate. We can also obtain images of the original documents. Click here and quote ‘SS33’ in the subject line.
The tenant names are listed below with an indication of their holdings or the nature of their mention in the record.
George Lewis (for holding in part of Rathfolan)
Michael Murphy (for holding in part of Kilkearane West)
Bryan McMahon (for 16 acres in Kilkearan West)
John McInerhiny (mentioned in receipts)
Michael Kelly (for the Red Cow Inn)
Teige McInerhiny (for Cunneen’s holdings)
Synan Nowland (noted as person receiving the rent from above tenant) also a note
Andrew Hashoa ? (for his tenement). The receipts column notes: ‘received by Synan Nowland from Hallurans Maulster‘ and also “Allowed Old Hashoa in Lady O’Brien’s note”.
Connor Fahy (for a tenement)
Thomas Wise (?) (For Chambres holdings)
Laurence Egan (for the customs & for his tenement)
John Mulloy (part of above rent was allowed for ‘diet of Jon. Mulloy’, which indicates that the tenant provided food for John Mulloy in lieu of rent).
Teige Kelly (payment to him is taken as a contribution to rent of Laurence Egan)
Teige Hashoa (payment to him is taken as a contribution to rent of Laurence Egan)
Samuel Tomson (Newmarket Mills)
John Broady (Bready?) (payment to him is credited as a rent contribution for Samuel Tomson)
Tim Bawn – (payment for ‘2 bushels of wheat’ s credited as a rent contribution for Samuel Tomson)
Dennis McDonell – (payment ‘...for his bill of work’ is credited as a rent contribution for Samuel Tomson)
Laurence Halluran (Hallinan?) (for his tenement)
Patrick Curtin – (payment ‘...for his bill of work’ is credited as a rent contribution for Laurence Halluran)
James Tobin (cooper) – (payment ‘…for his bill of work’ is credited as a rent contribution for Laurence Halluran)
Denis McNamara (for Fahy’s holdings)
Roger ….anogh? (for his tenement)
Leonard White (for a tenement)
Matthew. Weekes (?) (for a holding in Aylecotty & Kilkearane East)
Henry Colpoys (for holding in Rathfolan Begg and part of Rathfolan More)
Sir Edward O’Brien (noted as receiving rent directly from Henry Colpoys)
Some of the articles in our series on Irish Family History sources:
- Petty Sessions– the records of local courts
- Catholic Church records
- Grand Jury Presentments – records of local councils on payments for public works and staff
- Rentals – management of tenants by estates and the records created
- Middle names – the use (or non-use) of second or middle names in Irish records
- How comprehensive are Irish Civil Records?
- Census returns in Gaelic or Irish language
