Rose Purcell

From A brief history of the Whyte family in Loughbrickland By Jean Whyte, February 2012

The land where the village of Loughbrickland now stands and a lot more land in the parish of Aghaderg, Barony of Upper Iveagh and County of Down was given to Sir Marmaduke Whitechurch by Queen Elizabeth I in 1585… when he was told to set up an industry to clothe the army. The lands, of course, were probably confiscated from Catholic landowners who had been deemed disloyal to the Queen.

Sir Marmaduke had one daughter, Frances who inherited his estates. Frances married Viscount Dungannon ( also known as the Trevor family) whose home was at Lisnagade House, near here. That family name died out as there were no sons, but there were three daughters; one daughter, Rose married Nicholas Purcell of Loughmoe, Co. Tipperary, a Catholic landowner.

Rose Trevor Rose Trevor was probably not a Catholic by birth and we don’t know if she converted to Catholicism, but she kept in touch with her relations in the North – or they kept in touch with her, for she inherited some of the lands originally belonging to Sir Marmaduke through her mother and she brought them as a dowry to her marriage. She, in her turn had three daughters (and a son who died young) and each of them, in turn inherited a part of the Loughbrickland lands originally belonging to Sir Marmaduke.

It was one of Rose’s three daughters, Mary who married Colonel John Whyte of Leixlip Castle in 1704 . She was, as we have seen the great grand-daughter of Sir Marmaduke Whitechurch. So there is a Whyte family connection with the founder of the village of Loughbrickland who was the planted owner of the lands. So when Colonel John Whyte came into the lands through marriage, it was like the completion of a circle with the lands returning to Catholic hands.