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James McKenna was clerk of Tullamore Poor Law Union for approximately 40 years. Born in County Monaghan, his early career was as a teacher in Mountmellick, County Laois. He was then appointed clerk of the Tullamore Union where he remained until his retirement. He died on 4 December 1907 at the age of 92 years. An obituary published in the King's County Chronicle remarked 'An idea of his self-sacrifice to his work will be formed when it is stated that even on Christmas days instead of passing holidays at home with his family, he would be seen in his office in Tullamore Workhouse as intent upon his duties as if he was bound to have his books posted up for an immediate imperative inspection.'

Irish nationalist politician, journalist, author, barrister and Irish Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Secretary of Offaly County Council, 1920-1921;
Clerk of the Subcommittee of Banagher Refugee Committee, c. 1915

William Larkin was a land surveyor, notable for creating county maps in the early nineteenth century. Not much is known about him, other than that he attended the Dublin Society’s drawing school in 1788. He was most prolific in the early 1800s when he created a series of remarkable maps, beginning with 1805 map of the post roads of Ireland (British Library Maps 10835 (2)). He followed with road surveys for the Post Office such as Dublin – Enniskillen (1806), Dublin – Ratoath and Curragha (1807), and several other routes which saw him work across a large part of southern and western Ireland (1807-1808). 1807 also saw him complete a set of estate maps for the earl of Leitrim’s Manorhamilton estate.

Aorund this time, Larkin began to produce county maps, beginning with County Westmeath. Between 1817- 1819 he had published Meath, Waterford, Galway, Leitrim and Sligo. He had also had drafted manuscript maps for Cavan, Louth, Monagahn and King’s County.

The map for King’s County was completed in 1807 for the Grand Jury for their rooms at Philipstown (now Daingean). The map was never engraved or published due to a lack of subscribers. The manuscript map is now presumed lost.

In 1809, however, the newly constituted Bogs Commissioners engaged Larkin to produce a map of King’s County exhibiting all the bogs of the county. This was based on the manuscript county map and is now held by the National Archives of Ireland.

Larkin died some time before 1824.

The present line of the Earls of Rosse (of the 2nd creation) is descended from Sir Laurence Parsons, one of four sons of James Parsons and Catherine Fenton of Diseworth Grange, Leicestershire, who had moved to Ireland by the late 16th century. The elder brother, William, was the ancestor of the Earls of Rosse of the 1st creation but the line died out in 1764. The younger brother, Sir Laurence lived in Myrtle Grove, Youghal, Co. Cork where he held several Munster-based government positions. He was knighted in 1620, the same year that he moved to Offaly, having exchanged his interest in a property at Leiter Lugna near Cadamstown with Sir Robert Meredith for the latter’s 1000 acres at Birr. In 1677, his descendent, Sir Laurence Parsons was created baronet, and successive generations of the Parsons Baronets have lived at Birr Castle since this time. The earldom of Rosse was inherited by Sir Laurence Parsons, 5th baronet, from his uncle Laurence Harman Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse, of County Longford, who died in 1807 without male issue.

Sir Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse (1758-1841), was an Irish peer, agitator against the Act of Union, an Irish parliamentarian and later joint postmaster-general of the Irish post office. His son, Sir William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800-1867), was an astronomer and in 1845 built the ‘Leviathan of Parsonstown’, the world’s largest telescope until the early twentieth century. Sir Laurence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse (1840-1908) was also an astronomer and a keen photographer like his mother, Mary Rosse. Sir William Edward Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse (1873-1918), was a solider in the Irish Guards. He fought in the First World War and died in 1918 of injuries received in action two years previously. His son, Sir (Laurence) Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse (1906-1979) was heavily involved in Irish cultural affairs and a keen dendrologist. The present Earl of Rosse, and 10th baronet, Sir (William) Brendan Parsons was an officer in the Irish Guards from 1955–57 and worked for the United Nations from 1963-80. He lives at Birr Castle and has overseen the creation of the Historic Science Centre celebrating the scientific legacy of the Parsons family, and, with the assistance of Dr A. P. W. Malcomson of PRONI, has gathered together the archives of the Parsons family, now published as The Calendar of the Rosse Papers.

Adam Henry Fuller, the second son of Maria Blanch and Adam Fuller JP, was born 24 October 1822. On 20 Aug 1845 he married Lizzy Hyland. They had five children; Adam Augustus (13 Jul 1846 - 7 June 1919), Maria Blanch (b. 18 Oct 1848), Eva Sophia (b. 28 Jan 1853), Lizzie Helen, and Adam Henry (14 Mar 1866 - 1898). When his parents moved to Sandymount, Dublin in 1851, Henry Fuller had leased a home for his family in Coleraine, near Tullamore. After the death of his father, Adam Fuller, Captain Adam Henry Fuller became the landlord of Gurteen. At the time Gurteen was still let out, just like Woodfield House, on a lease. In 1866, Marcus Goodbody (1810-1885) requested to buy up the remainder of this lease, and Captain Fuller agreed. After this agreement, Goodbody then requested to lease Gurteen forever, at the same £1000 down, and again Captain Fuller agreed. The night before the lease agreement was to be signed, Captain Fuller dreamt that he was standing on the top of Gurteen Castle and Ann Unthank (Ann Gee) appeared to him. She showed him a lease, of which he was able to read the first four lines, and he noticed the wording was peculiar. Anne told him that if he signed the lease, it would be at his peril, threw it over the wall, and he woke up. The next morning, without telling his wife about the dream, he went to Tullamore to sign the lease. When the document was put before him he saw that the beginning was similar to the words he had seen in his dream. Remarking on their peculiarity he was told that it was a more modern way of drawing up leases, so he signed it. When he got home he told his wife, Lizzy Fuller, about the dream and she was very angry that he had signed the lease. With the money from the lease of Gurteen, Captain Fuller bought Rockfield, and moved his family from Coleraine.

Captain Fuller then went up to his regiment in County Monaghan, where he contracted typhoid fever. After being ill for some time he went to his brother, Reverend Abraham Stritch Fuller’s house in Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin, where he died within a year of signing the lease. Lizzy Fuller continued to lived on at Rockfield where her son Adam was born just after his father’s death in 1866.