1) In the mid-19th century, two brothers named James and Samuel Rothwell moved from Deerpark, Ireland to Queen's County (now County Laois) where they worked as land stewards. 2) In 1856, Samuel Rothwell was living in Clontyco near Blandsfort working for Loftus Bland. He subscribed to a local history book, indicating he was educated. 3) In 1858, while working as a steward for Mr. Doyne, Samuel discovered two cow horns and wooden enclosures in a bog near Abbeyleix, suggesting previous human activity on the land.

1. The Tiles
It seems that sometime following the
famine of the 1840s, two brothers,
james and Samuel Rothwell of
Deerpark, moved to Queen´s County,
where they both took employment as
land stewards.
Family traditions
are now obscure
but james did tell
his grandchildren
of the famine Ilustración 1Deerpark
days, when “people would fall at road
side (probably from what was known as “road
fever” or cholera) and you had to pass them
by, because there was nothing to give
them”.
Samuel Rothwell appears in 1856, then
living Clontyco near Blandsfort, and
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2. The Tiles
probably working for Loftus Bland. He
appears as a subscriber to Daniel
O´Byrne´s “History of the Queen´s
County”. This at least indicates that he
was an educated man, and of sufficient
means to pay the then substantial sum
of five shillings for a book. He appears
again in connection with O´Byrne´s in
September 1858 when O´Byrne sent the
following article to the
Kilkenny
Archaeological Society:
“About fourteen days past, Ilustración 2Kilkenny
Mr Samuel Rothwell, now Archaeological
residing in Timahoe, being Society
employed as stewart by Mr Doyne, over workmen
labouring on Derryforn bog, about two miles
south-east from Abbeyleix discovered two cow´s
horns. Each measuring about six inches long. Mr
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3. The Tiles
Rothwellis a very intelligent man and has assured
me that from the unusual marks on the horns,
that the animalthat
once bore them could
not have been less
than on verge of
twenty years. They
rested about eleven Ilustración 3Timahoe bogs
feet under the surface
of the bog. In the place where Mr Rothwell found
the horns he discovered a crib made of small
stakes and small switches and in the crib rested
an egg equally as black as the bog, not more
than eight feet from the surface to the bottom, Mr
Rothwell discovered, three feet below the
surface, the remains of a wooden enclosure. The
paling, if i may call it by that name was thus
XXXXXXX formed and fully showed that a saw
was not made use of when the paling was
erected, it gives evident marks that an axe was
used in forming the rails and that tha instrument
was very sharp, as the cuts are very long and
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4. The Tiles
smooth. The enclosing bars or stakes are about
five feet high and each one about one foot sunk
in the straturn lying under the bog. For what
purpose this enclosure was made is a matter for
conjecture...”
Samuel may have
returned to
Deerpark in about
1864, although
there is a tradition
Ilustración 5Ballyroan
church and cementry
that he lived to
about the age of 99 and lies buried in
Ballyroan, Co Loais. James his brother,
was working on the Earl of Ossory´s
estate at Grantstown Manor in 1866. He
seems to have been living in Grantstown
House, when he
married Elizabeth,
Ilustración 4mountmellick
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5. The Tiles
the daughter according to their marriage
certificate, of a labourer, Denis Wright.
The family tradition is that they were
horse traders in Portarlington or
Mountmellick and certainly a John
Wright married a Hannagh Burton in
Mountmellick in 1722.
Despite the uncertainty of
Portarlington 1 there background, the
Wright´s appear to have a good local
connections, being related to the
Mitchells who were
farmers at Tunduff
House, and army
officers; Hartfords who
were described as Ilustración 6Tunduff
“gentlemen carpenters·;
Griffiths who possessed 500 acres of
land at Boley, and also the case family,
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6. The Tiles
Neighbours of the Griffiths. (Elizabeth´s
niece, Mary Ann Griffith married
Humphrey Case of Boley.)
Both James and Elizabeth were in their
mid-forties at the time of there marriage,
and yet within a year Elizabeth gave
birth to twins, James and John, at
Raheen a Brogue, near to Tenakill,
where the family
were now settled.
Again, it is believed
that three more
children were born
to the marriage,
Raheen 1 Joseph and Hanna,
who both died
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7. The Tiles
young, and another daughter, whose
name is forgotten, who married and
settled on a farm in Co Kildare.
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