Close of Drumbanagher

RICHARD CLOSE, the first of the family who settled in Ireland, was the younger son of a respectable house in Yorkshire, and held a commission in the Army.

He was sent from England, in the reign of CHARLES I, into that kingdom, where he remained after the termination of the civil wars, and became one of the lords of the soil, as we find him having four townlands in County Monaghan during the time of CHARLES II. 

After the Restoration he fixed himself at Lisnagarvey (Lisburn), County Antrim, where a Protestant colony had been located under the protection of Lord Conway.

There he lived and died, leaving a son and heir,

RICHARD CLOSE, who inherited the County Monaghan estates.

Mr Close married Mary, sister of Samuel Waring, of Waringstown, MP for Hillsborough, 1703-15, and received from that gentleman a grant of lands contiguous to Waringstown, on which he built a good house and resided.

He considerably enlarged the family estate by purchasing a tract of land on the River Bann, between Rathfriland and Castlewellan, County Down, and after the disturbances in 1688, which obliged him to leave his home and join the Protestants, then united at Lisburn, under Lord Conway and Sir Arthur Rawdon.

He returned (subsequently to the battle of the Boyne) having suffered great losses during the harassing conflicts of the times.

Mr Close left at his decease (with three daughters, the eldest married to the Very Rev John Welsh, Dean of Connor) five sons,

RICHARD, his heir;
SAMUEL, of whom presently;
Henry, of Waringstown;
John, an army captain, killed in Gibraltar;
William.

The eldest son,

RICHARD CLOSE, wedded, in 1708, Rose, daughter of Roger Hall, of Narrow Water, County Down, and had issue, now extinct.

The second son,

THE REV SAMUEL CLOSE (1683-1742), Rector of Donaghenry, Stewartstown, County Tyrone, espoused Catherine, daughter of Captain James Butler, of Bramblestown, County Kilkenny, by Margaret, Lady Maxwell, of Elm Park, County Armagh (widow of Sir Robert Maxwell, 1st Baronet, of Orchardtoun, and of Ballycastle, and daughter and heiress of Henry Maxwell, of Elm Park, who was the son of James Maxwell, third son of the Very Rev Robert Maxwell, Dean of Armagh), and had issue,

MAXWELL, his heir;
Margaret; Mary; Catherine; Elizabeth.

Mr Close was succeeded by his son and heir,

MAXWELL CLOSE (c1722-93), High Sheriff of County Armagh, 1780, who succeeded his grandmother, Lady Maxwell (d 1758), in the possession of Elm Park, and the lands settled upon him.

He married, in 1748, Mary, eldest daughter of  Captain Robert Maxwell, of Fellows Hall, County Armagh (brother of John, 1st Baron Farnham), and had issue,

SAMUEL, his heir;
Robert, died unmarried;
Barry (Sir), 1st Baronet, major-general;
Farnham, died in Guadaloupe;
Grace; Catherine; Margaret; Mary; Elizabeth.

Mr Close was succeeded by his eldest son,

THE REV SAMUEL CLOSE (1749-1817), of Elm Park, Rector of Keady, County Armagh, and Drakestown, County Meath, who wedded, in 1782, Deborah, daughter of the Very Rev Arthur Champagné, Dean of Clonmacnoise (son of Major Josias Champagné, by the Lady Jane Forbes his wife, daughter of Arthur, 2nd Earl of Granard), and had issue,

MAXWELL, his heir;
Robert, Major, East India Company;
Henry Samuel, m Jane, daughter of the Rev Holt Waring;
John Forbes (Rev), Rector of Kilkeel;
Mary; Jane; Harriet.

Mr Close was succeeded by his eldest son,

COLONEL MAXWELL CLOSE JP DL (1783-1867), of Drumbanagher, County Armagh, High Sheriff of County Armagh, 1818, who married, in 1820, Anna Elizabeth, sister of Charles, 1st Baron Lurgan, and had issue, 

MAXWELL CHARLES, his heir;
Barry, b 1833.

Mr Close was succeeded by his elder son,

MAXWELL CHARLES CLOSE JP DL (1827-1903), of Drumbanagher, High Sheriff of County Armagh, 1854, MP for County Armagh, 1857-64 and 1874-85, who married, in 1852, Catherine Deborah Agnes, daughter of Henry Samuel Close, of Newtown Park, County Dublin, and had issue,

MAXWELL ARCHIBALD, his heir;
Henry Samuel (1864-1944);
Edith; Emily Beatrice; Mary Geraldine; Flora Lucy;
Kate Violet; Grace Wilmina; Alice Evelyn.

Mr Close was succeeded by his eldest son,

MAJOR MAXWELL ARCHIBALD CLOSE JP DL (1853-1935), of Drumbanagher, and Drum Manor, County Tyrone, High Sheriff of County Armagh, 1908, who wedded, in 1891, the Lady Muriel Albany Stuart-Richardson, daughter of 5th Earl Castle Stewart, and had issue,

MAXWELL STUART, His heir;
Archibald Maxwell, b 1903;
Lilias Augusta Muriel; Agatha Katharine Rose.

The eldest son,

MAXWELL STUART CLOSE (1892-1946), of Drumbanagher, wedded, in 1915, Alexandra, daughter of M W C Cramer-Roberts DL, of Sallymount, County Kildare, and had issue,

MAXWELL WILLIAM;
Rosemary Muriel Victoria; Viola Anne; Hazel.

I have written about Drumbanagher House here.

First published in April, 2012.