Ballyragget

On the E bank of the River Nore, at a shallow fording point. Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 86-7) argues that Ballyragget was known as Tullabarry before it became associated with Richard le Ragged in the early 13th century. The Register of the Abbey of St Thomas records that it was granted ‘the churches, chapels and all the tithes of Silolethe, in which the castle of Tulah Bari is situated’ in c. 1200, the grant being confirmed in 1202 (ibid. 87). Le Ragged’s presence can be gleamed from a controversy which arose in 1220 between the Canons of St Thomas’s Abbey and a priest, regarding the tithes of Richard le Ragged’s lands, which belonged to the church of Tulachbarri (ibid. 87-8). In 1408, ‘Stephen Pembrok gives and grants to Robert Schorthals, lord of Balylorcan, all messuages, lands, rents, lordships and services of Awnadhynwor (?), Balyrathyn [Ballyragget] and Garranynanryley’ (Curtis 1934, vol. 2, 285-6 (397)). In 1542, the Ormond Deeds record a bond, ‘by Stephen Pembroke, son and heir of Nicholas Pembroke, to James Butler, Earl of Ormond, in the sum of 500 L., to make full legal assurance to the Earl for the castle and town of Bellaragged, otherwise of old time called Balyrathin, in county Kilkenny’ dated January of that year (Curtis 1937, vol. 4, 215 (268)). There follow three other deeds in the same year, on the 1st of February, ‘James Purcell of Garran and Robert Oge Shortall of Hygginstown grant to William Seysse of Kylcowle all their castles, lordships, manors and other property in Ballyrathyn alias Bellaraggid..’, on the 6th of February, ‘William Seysse grants to Leonard Blaunchvile the above-said castles, manors, etc., with remainder to John Pembroke and his heirs’, and on the 24th March, ‘Bond of Margaret FitzGerald, widow, countess of Ormond, to James Butler, Earl of Ormond, in the sum of 1000 L., to abide by the award …concerning the possession of Bellaragged….’ (ibid., 216 (268)). In 1580 Richard Butler, the youngest son of Piers Rua, the nineth Earl of Ormond, was raised to the peerage and given the title of Viscount Mountgarret (Nolan 1979, 45). Richard had inherited Ballyragget which became the principal seat of this junior branch of the Ormonds (ibid.). A commission formed to establish the extent of the Earl of Ormond’s estates in 1589-94 refers to, ‘two hundredth burges acres of land or thereabouts of the lands of Balliraghtane’ (Curtis 1970, vol. 6, 121). Lewis (1837, vol. 1, 162) describes how, in 1600, ‘the town was garrisoned by the forces of Sir George Carew, Lord-President of Munster, when the sons of Lord Mountgarret, to whom it then belonged, were in rebellion against the crown, and had engaged with O’More to arrest the Earl of Ormonde’. The garrison consisted of, ‘thirty foot [soldiers] left in a ward in Mountgarret’s house, called Balliragget’ (O’Grady 1896, vol. 1, 26). In 1619, James I constituted this place a manor, and granted to its lord, Richard, third Viscount Mountgarret, the privilege of holding two fairs’ (Lewis 1837, vol. 1, 162). The Down Survey (165-6) barony map of Fassadining shows a small cluster of buildings where Ballyragget is located, representing the settlement, with an area planted with trees adjacent to the E. Cullen (1990, 277) suggests that the town was re-shaped c. 1650, centring around a triangular green. Ballyragget Castle is a 15th tower house (KK010-001001-) located within a substantial bawn (KK010-001002-) on the S side of the town.