“The Big House” Lissaroon Co Tipperary

William Fannin leased land at Lissaroon. He is the earliest Fanning ancestor I have been able to trace. The remains of his relatively large house remain although they have not been lived in for years.

The Trants owned this land and much more in the area. Landedestates.ie describes the Trant holdings in their Landed Estates of Munster database:

“The Trants had originally held lands in the barony of Corkaguiny, county Kerry but by the early 19th century were more associated with county Tipperary, residing at Dovea in that county. By the end of the 18th century they held land in counties Tipperary, Kildare, Limerick, Cork and Kerry and rentals for these estates are included in the Trant Papers. John F. Collis and Stephen E. Rice were agents at various times for the Trant estates. In 1813 John Trant sold his estate in the barony of Corkaguiny to Lord Ventry (D 27,862 NLI). The Trants had marriage connections with the Fitzgibbon family Earls of Clare, the Brooke family of Colesbrooke, county Fermanagh and Prittie family, Baron Dunalley. The Ordnance Survey Field Name Books indicate that William Trant was the proprietor of townlands in the parish of Dingle, county Kerry, in the 1840s. William Henry Trant held land in the parishes of Killeenagarriff and Stradbally, (Druminboy), barony of Clanwilliam, county Limerick, at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation the estate of John Trant was in the parishes of Ballycahill, Inch, Loughmoe West and Thurles, barony of Eliogarty, county Tipperary. In the 1870s the Trants owned 2,970 acres in county Tipperary.”

One of the mansions the Trants owned in Co Tipperary was Dovea House. This was the “Big House” for the Fannings and where they would have paid their rent.

Dovea, a house built circa 1830s and occupied by J. Trant in 1837. John Trant held the property in fee at the time of Griffith’s Valuation when the buildings were valued at £79+.

John Trant Esq owned all of the townland of Lissaroon and there were no leases in 1845.

This house was still in the possession of the Trant family at the beginning of the 1940s but by the time of the Irish Tourist Association Survey had been bought by Ballduff Co Operative, Thurles, who had plans to turn it into a model farm. It is now the headquarters of Dovea Genetics.

The Trants also owned a house at Kilrush. John Ellis was occupying a house valued at 14 pounds in Kilrush at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. He held the property from John Trant.

This  John Ellis was murdered and the Cormack brothers were falsely accused of his murder and publicly hung in Nenagh. They are now buried in Loughmore Cemetery.

Author: Kathleen

I have done an Ancestry DNA test and also have uploaded my test results to GedMatch. My GedMatch kit numbers are A029138 and T470174. Please contact me if we are a match. kathleenmfanningAThotmailDOTcom View all posts by Kathleen