Ellen de la Roche

http://fabpedigree.com/s027/f323836.htm

http://www.blackwatercastle.com/history-and-heritage/history/

Maurice, Lord Roche, Viscount of Fermoy – 1635- 1670

Maurice, the last Lord Roche, continued the Catholic tradition of the Roches and was openly a staunch adherent to the Catholic faith. In this however he had to pay the price on foot of the Penal Laws which were a series of laws imposed in an attempt to force Irish Catholics and Protestant dissenters to accept the reformed Christian faith as defined by the Anglican Church in England and practised by members of the Church of Ireland. Maurice was summoned to Dublin in 1636 by writ of Charles I to justify his contention that his lands should not be forfeited to the Crown. During this period Catholics were barred from holding public office or serving in the army and a concerted attempt was underway to disenfranchise those, such as Maurice, who refused to convert. Maurice was imprisoned for several years in England and as unrest grew in Ireland, partly due to Catholic resentment, he was released. On his return to Ireland in 1641 he joined the Catholic insurgents and was a member of the Supreme Council of the Catholic Confederates in Ireland. He was part of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and as a result skirmishing took place around the Castle by Lord Inchiquin (later Earl of Inchiquin) during Easter 1642.

Maurice held on for a further seven years until order was restored by Cromwell’s Conquest during 1649 – 1653. Roche Castle was attacked by Cromwell’s forces under Lord Broghill during the conquest in January 1650 and as Lord Roche was away at the time of the attack Lady Ellen Roche bravely led the defence. The Castle came under heavy cannon fire from the “Camp Field” where Cromwell’s troops were positioned opposite the Castle which resulted in the near destruction of the house between the 12th and 15th century towers while some damage was done to the battlements of the 15th century tower.

After a siege and a heroic defence of the territory the Castle fell to Lord Broghill and the six officers commanding the troops under Lady Roche were summarily executed and it is suggested their remains were tossed into the river valley as Lord Broghill was known to be particularily ruthless and unnecessarily cruel with the vanquished. Lady Roche herself was hanged in 1652 on a trumped up charge of murder.

“She was brought before on of those High Courts of Justice (or injustice) set up immediately after the surrender of the Irish in 1652 where they hanged women for want of men. There she was tried, condemned and afterwards hanged, on the evidence of a strumpet, for shooting a man with a pistol whose name was unknown to the witness – although it was ready to be proved Lady Roche was twenty miles distant from the spot”.

(A Brief Narrative of the Sufferings of the Irish under Cromwell – London 1660).

Shortly after Lady Roche’s death in June 1652 Lord Roche laid down his arms and surrendered. He was dispossessed of his entire estate and died in poverty in 1670. The loss of his estate marks the end of the Roche reign in Roche Country. Thereafter the title “Viscount of Fermoy” was an empty one and the family dispersed from Munster, dwindled, and died. The title“Viscount of Fermoy” passed to David until 1681, thereafter to John (1681 – 1694), David, (1694 – 1703) and finally dies with Ulick, the 12th Viscount who died without a male heir. Incidentally in 1856 Edmond Burke Roche of Trabolgan was elevated to the peerage as Baron Fermoy and it is from this line that the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is descended from.

for more information on the Roche lineage.

https://rochelineages.wordpress.com/background/brief-history/

http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p2227.htm#...

Ellen Roche1 F, #66927 Father David Roche, 1st Lord Roche of Fermoy2 d. b May 1488 Mother Joan de Burgh (MacWilliam)2

    Ellen Roche married William Barry, 8th Lord Barrymore, son of John Barry, 7th Lord Barrymore and Ellice FitzThomas.1 Family 	William Barry, 8th Lord Barrymore d. c 1480 Child	

Ellice Barry+1
Citations

   [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. I, p. 439.

   [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. V, p. 297.

Ellen ROCHE Print Family Tree

Parents

Maurice ROCHE, Deceased about 1439

   Married to

   Amy FITZMAURICE

Spouses, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren
Married to William BARRY, Deceased about 1480, 8th Lord Barry with

       M John BARRY †1486  married to Sheely Mac CARTHY REAGH ca 1448 with

           F Katherine BARRY married to Cormac Oge Mac CARTHY †1536 with :

               F Grany Mac CARTHY ca 1490-1530

               F Julia Mac CARTHY †1580

               M Teige Mac CARTHY

           M John FitzJohn BARRY married to Ellen FITZGIBBON with :

               M James FitzJohn BARRY †1558

       F Ellice BARRY ca 1423  married before 1447 to Thomas FitzJames FITZGERALD ca 1420-/1468 with

           M Sir John FitzThomas FITZGERALD †1536 married to Maud O'BRIEN 1470 with :

               M Sir Maurice FitzJohn FITZGERALD 1485-1564

           F Catherine FITZGERALD married to Finghin Mac CARTHY REAGH †ca 1505 with :

               F Catherine Mac CARTHY REAGH

               M Donald Mac Fineere Mac CARTHY REAGH †1531

           F Ellen FitzThomas FITZGERALD married to Thomas BUTLER of CAHER with :

               M Edmund BUTLER of CAHER †1513

Source: http://gw.geneanet.org/skrebs1?lang=en&pz=serge&nz=krebs&ocz=0&p=el...