Bailieborough Castle

Coat-of-arms of 1st Baron Lisgar

THE YOUNG BARONETS, OF BAILIEBOROUGH, WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY CAVAN, WITH 8,924 ACRES

THE REV JOHN YOUNG, Rector of Urney, County Tyrone, married Elspa Douglas, and left with numerous other issue, an eldest son,

JAMES YOUNG, who, being a man of good fortune, much attached to the protestant cause, he was not only an active partisan at the siege of Derry, but was enabled frequently to send aid to the besieged during their arduous struggle.

He was, in consequence, one of the citizens of Londonderry attainted by JAMES II.

He settled in County Donegal, and left issue, several daughters and nine sons, of whom the eldest son,

JOHN YOUNG, of Coolkeiragh, Eglinton, wedded Catherine Knox, granddaughter of the Rt Rev Andrew Knox, the second Lord Bishop of Raphoe after the Reformation, and had issue, with a daughter,

William, of Coolkeiragh, ancestor of YOUNG OF COOLKEIRAGH;

THOMAS, of whom hereafter.

Mr young died in 1730; his younger son,

THOMAS YOUNG, of LOUGH ESKE, County Donegal, succeeded by the will of his uncle Thomas Knox to that estate, and wedded, 1740-41, Rebecca, daughter of Oliver Singleton, of Fort Singleton, County Monaghan, and had issue, with four daughters,

THOMAS, m, 1768, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev A Forde, of the family of Seaforde;

JOHN, of whom presently;

William.

The second son,

THE REV JOHN YOUNG, of Eden, County Armagh, married, in 1766, Anne, daughter of John McClintock, of Trinta, County Donegal, and had issue,

Thomas, drowned at sea;
WILLIAM, of whom hereafter;
John (Rev), Rector of Killeeshil;
Alexander, an officer in the Royal Navy;
Susanna Maria; Rebecca; Anketell; Catherine.

The Rev John Young was succeeded by his second son,

WILLIAM YOUNG, of Bailieborough Castle, who wedded, in 1806, Lucy, youngest daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Frederick, eldest son of Sir Charles Frederick KB, younger brother of Sir John Frederick, 4th Baronet, of Burwood Park, Surrey, and had issue,

JOHN;
Thomas;
Charles;
William;
Helenus Edward;
Anna; Lucy; Augusta Maria.

Mr Young, a director in the East India Company, was created a baronet in 1821, designated of Bailieborough, County Cavan.

He was succeeded by his eldest son,

THE RT HON SIR JOHN YOUNG, 2nd Baronet (1807-76), GCB, GCMG, Governor-General of Canada, Governor of New South Wales, Chief Secretary for Ireland, who was elevated to the peerage, in 1870, in the dignity of BARON LISGAR, of Lisgar and Bailieborough, County Cavan.

He espoused, in 1835, Adelaide Annabella, daughter of Edward Tuite Dalton, of Fermor, County Meath, daughter of the 2nd Marchioness of Headfort, by her first husband, Edward Tuite Dalton.

His lordship died in 1876, when the peerage became extinct, and he was succeeded in the baronetcy by his nephew, William Muston Need Young (1847-1934), an official in the Indian telegraph department.

Lady Lisgar subsequently married her late husband’s former private secretary, Sir Francis Charles Fortescue Turville KCMG, of Bosworth Hall, Leicestershire.

BAILIEBOROUGH CASTLE, Bailieborough, County Cavan, was located in a fine demesne, and occupied the site of an ancient fortress, once described as a vaulted castle with a bawn and two flanking towers.

The mansion was an irregular two-storey Victorian house with a gabled, buttressed Gothic porch.

About 1895, most of the estate was sold off under the Ashboune Act; while the house was sold to Sir Stanley Herbert Cochrane Bt. 

In 1918 the house was gutted by fire.

It was partially rebuilt by the Marist Brothers in 1920, though sold for demolition in 1923.

The brothers lived in a rebuilt section until 1936, when they decided to sell the house to the Irish department of Lands.

The house was demolished soon afterwards.

First published in November, 2012.