Red Lion Hotel, Kilmore, Victoria Ennis, County Clare, Ireland
Aeneas and Mary Heffernan (nee McCormick) lived in Ennis the largest town in County Clare on the Irish west coast. Griffith’s Valuation shows that between 1847 and 1864, in the Parish of Doora, Aeneas Heffernan leased a house, offices and land at Gaurus, which is shown on the map below, about 3 kilometres from Ennis. Aeneas Heffernan also leased a caretaker’s office, hose and land from Nicholas Westby who had over 22,000 acres of land in County Clare. Both properties were in the parish of Doora.
The house on the left is believed to be the house in which Aeneas Heffernan, Bridget’s father, lived.
An Interactive map of Doora parish.
Griffith’s Valuation records show listings for Heffernan in the Doora parish.
Nicholas Westby of Ennis, County Clare, Collector of Customs, was one member of a syndicate of three (Francis Burton, James MacDonnell) who purchased in 1698 the forfeited estates of Viscount Clare from the Earl of Albemarle. The Earl had bought the estates, situated in County Clare, in 1692. Westby’s descendant’s through advantageous marriages acquired estates in counties Wicklow, Kildare and King’s Co (County Offaly). Burke’s Irish Family Records (1876) records Nicholas Westby of Kilballyowen, County Clare and of London, who held extensive estates in County Clare in the mid-19th century, mainly located in the baronies of Moyarta (centred on the parish of Kilballyowen) and Islands (centred on the parish of Kilmaley) but also in at least five other baronies. In the 1870s Edward Perceval Westby of Roebuck Castle, Dundrum, County Dublin and Doon, County Clare, owned 25,779 acres in County Clare and 67 acres in County Dublin.
Aeneas died in Cloonawee on January 17, 1872 at the age of 81. Mary was born in 1795, and could possibly be the Mary McCormick who was baptised at St Michan’s in Dublin on November 30, 1795, showing her father as Michael McCormick and her mother as Mary Connolly.
Aeneas and Mary Heffernan had eight children.
Michael Heffernan was born in 1820 in the Parish of Doora. Michael arrived in Australia on April 26th, 1853 on the ship “Asia”. He married Mary O’Dea at St. Patrick’s Kilmore, Victoria, on January 15th, 1854. They had 15 children. Michael died on December 13th, 1883, in Kilmore, Victoria.
Bridget Heffernan was born in 1823 and baptised on August 15 in the parish of Doora in Ennis. She married Thomas Cleary on September 16, 1847. On November 10, 1846, they boarded the “Lady Peel” for a 99-day journey to Port Phillip Bay, arriving on February 16, 1848. They travelled to the Kilmore to work for Mr Henry Morris, the licensee of the Kilmore Inn. Bridget died on January 18, 1917, in Grenfell NSW.
Patrick Heffernan was born in 1825 in Ennis, County Clare. He married Eliza Kennedy in 1844 in the Parish of Doora, in County Clare and they arrived in Sydney on the “Royal Saxon” in June 1844. They had four children and Eliza died in 1855 and Patrick remarried in 1857 to Flora McKinnon Campbell and they had five children. Patrick died in 1903 aged 78 years in Guyra, NSW.
John Heffernan was born in 1828 in Ennis and in 1855 married Ellen Reynolds. Their large family appears to have spread to Australia and the USA, while some remained in County Clare.
Martin Heffernan was born in 1832 in the Parish of Doora. Martin also arrived in Port Phillip Bay on the “Asia” arriving in August 1853. He married Anastasia Murphy in 1854 in Kilmore, Victoria. They had eleven children. Martin died in Shepparton, Victoria in 1912.
Mary Heffernan was born in 1837 in Ennis. She married Hans Lorenz in Kilmore, Victoria in 1856. They had seven children. She died on August 19, 1922, in Stanhope, Victoria.
Thomas Heffernan was born in 1839 in Ennis. arrived Melbourne, Victoria in 1861 on the “British”. He married Bridget Finn in 1874 in Kilmore, Victoria.
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