Hardiman, James. The History of the Town and County of the Town of Galway [Castle Hacket Copy]. From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Embellished with Several Engravings to which is Added a Copious Appendix, containing the Principal Charters and other Original Documents. Dublin, Printed by W. Folds and Sons, 38, Gt. Strand-Street, 1820. 29 x 22 cm. xvi, 320 pages, lvi [Appendix], (4) [Index]. Complete with a folding Frontispiece and ten Plates, of which two are folding Maps. Contemporary paper covered boards. Paper spine and spine label. Fore and Tail Edges Deckle. Very good condition. Binding age darkened, worn, rubbed and bumped. Paper label partially worn. Edges and end papers age darkened. Castle Hacket Ex Libris on front paste down, signed P S Paley. Long inscription on front free end paper (see comments below). Front free end paper edge worn and missing bottom corner (see images). Internally exceptionally clean (see images) and well preserved. A very nice copy in a contemporary binding and with a very interesting provenance (see comments below).

Inscription on front free end paper reads:
Presented by James Martin of Ross in the County of Galway (the lineal descentant of the eldest [?] of me of those ancient Families [?] history this Volume records) to Thomas Benjamin Adair Esq. of Loughanmore in the County of Antrim. December 17th, 1838.
[Followed by a four line inscription in Latin – which is also printed on page 25 of the book].
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Provenance:
James Martin of Ross
The Martin family (Book Index: pages 18, 25 & 30) were established beside Ross Lake in the barony of Moycullen, county Galway, from the late 16th century, where they purchased land from the O’Flahertys. They were Royalist supporters and were dispossessed of their property in the city of Galway by the Cromwellians. Robert Martin received a grant of 2,909 acres in the barony of Moycullen, by patent dated 21 Aug 1677. Jasper Martin of Ross, who died in 1700, had two sons Jasper and Richard, from whom descend the two branches of the family settled at Ross and Ballynahinch. Nicholas Martin, who died in 1811, married Elizabeth O’Hara, daughter of Robert O’Hara of Lenaboy, and according to Burke’s ’‘Landed Gentry’’, a grandniece of James O’Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley. Their grandson, James Martin of Ross, had sixteen children from his two marriages. His daughter, Maud, married H. Callwell and they were the parents of the author, J. M. Callwell. The youngest daughter of James Martin was Violet Florence Martin of the well known literary team Somerville and Ross. The Martins of Ross owned 5,767 acres in county Galway in the 1870s. They advertised the sale of their estate in the Landed Estates’ Court in May 1885.
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Thomas Benjamin Adair Esq. of Loughanmore
Thomas Benjamin Adair (1776-1855) of Loughanmore. Only son of Charles Adair (d. 1810) and his wife Millicent, daughter of Henry Ellis of Prospect, Carrickfergus; born 1776. He was a JP for Co. Antrim and High Sheriff of the county in 1801. He married 1806 Amelia, second daughter of Lt-Col. Benjamin Adair of the Royal Marines. The couple had nine children.
He was given the Loughanmore estate by his father in 1799. He died in 1855.
P S Paley – Castle Hacket Library
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Percy Paley was the last descendant of the Kirwan family [Book Index: pages 16 & 25), which was one of the Tribes of Galway. The Tribes of Galway were 14 merchant families who dominated the political, commercial and social life of the city of Galway in western Ireland between the mid-13th and late 19th centuries. Their history is a key element of the book.
John Kirwan was Mayor of Galway in 1686 and bought the Castle Hacket Estate in the late 1600s. Castle Hacket House dates back to construction in 1703. The Castle Hacket Library was considered one of the finest libraries in Ireland. The books were auctioned by Christie’s Auctioneers after the death of of Percy Paley (1985) in 1986.

• Keywords: Archeology & Antiquities · Architecture · Classical & Old Literature · Fine Bindings & Editions · History · History & Culture · History of Ireland · Ireland · Irish Art · Maps & Atlases · Reference
• Language: English
• First edition
• Inventory Number: 103600AB

Our price: EUR 1.950,--