Sometime during the last decade of the
sixteenth century, five English brothers, the Parsons, arrived in
Ireland and proceeded to make their fortune. They were the nephews
of Sir Geoffrey Fenton, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth. Through
his kinship with Robert Boyle, later Lord Cork, Sir Laurence Parsons
(who married Anne Malham of Yorkshire), acquired the historic Myrtle
Grove in Youghal, Co. Cork, the former home of Sir Walter Raleigh,
where the first potatoes were planted and the first pipe of tobacco
smoked. He moved from the Myrtle Grove to the castle, town and surrounding
town lands of Birr in 1620. The town was later known as Parsonstown.
Earlier, his elder brother Sir William had settled in Co. Wexford,
near New Ross, and it was for this branch of the family that the
title Earl of Rosse was first created in the reign of Charles II.
Sir Laurence Parsons's son Richard Parsons (who married Anne Loftus
of Rathfarnham) succeeded his father in 1628 until his death without
heir in 1634. Sir William Parsons (who married Dorothy Philips of
Newton, Limavady) then inherited until his death in 1653.
In 1764 William's line became extinct and the title of the Earldom
of Rosse died out. The Earldom was recreated in 1805 and was passed
to the heirs of Laurence in Birr.
The dates on the family tree represent the period of occupancy
as successors to the estate. |
