Roll Call: Carrolls of Ballycrenode?
by Carroll, William (USANYS)
This is my first time participating.
According to a memoir written by my great-great granduncle Patrick
Boland Carroll (1804-1890) of Baltimore in two parts dated 1856 and
1878, our earliest known Carroll ancestors were associated with the
townland of Ballycrenode, parish of Kilkeary, about 3 miles SE of
Nenagh, northern Tipperary, in the 17th-18th centuries. In Kilkeary
cemetery is a monument to William Carroll of Ballycrenode, a Gentleman
who died 19 February 1706, and the abstract of his will names his
brothers Roger and Daniel, children (daughters only, two of whom married
other Carrolls), nephews and grandchildren. My g-g-g-g-g-grandfather
William (a grandson of the above?) m. Sarah Ryan and raised his family
in Cloncannon near Moneygall where he died, his son Patrick m. Anne
Wilds, leased in Barnane near Templemore for 3 generations
(c.1740-1833), and P's son William (c.1775-1825) m. Mary Boland and
settled c.1806 with his in-laws in Ballincurra or Ballincara near
Templederry, where descendants (including the family of Daphne Carroll
of Radio Eireann) lived until 1912. Most of the memoirist Patrick's
generation, including his brother James (1819-1892), my great-great
grandfather, emigrated to the US between 1825 and 1850, settling in
Maryland and northern Virginia, and my own family has lived in Baltimore
and vicinity since 1860.
Patrick's memoir also states that, in addition to our own Catholic
tenant-farmer family, there were some well-to-do cousins also stemming
from Ballycrenode: the Carrols (spelled with one L) of Tulla and
Lissenhall, and the ancestors of Eliza Carroll who married Dr. James
Dempster of Nenagh in 1818. I have pedigrees of both families, but they
don't seem to connect directly with any of the names recorded by
Patrick. The entry on "The Carrolls of Maryland" in the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
THE IRISH IN AMERICA (Notre Dame, 1999, page 124) states that Daniel
Carroll of Upper Marlboro (1696-1751), father of the brothers Daniel who
signed the Constitution and Archbishop John Carroll, "was the son of
Kean Carroll, possibly the Kean Carroll of Ahagurton in Kings County
attainted in 1691, and the grandson of Daniel Carroll of Ballycrenode".
The genealogical tables in PRINCES OF IRELAND, PLANTERS OF MARYLAND: A
CARROLL SAGA 1500-1782, by Ronald Hoffman (U.of NC, 2000), attempt to
connect Carroll of Carrollton with Carroll of Upper Marlboro by paternal
descent, and they include names associated with Ballycrenode. More
information on the Carrolls of Ballycrenode and vicinity would be
welcome, and I'd be glad to share what I have.
William Curtis Carroll Jr.
New York City