Belmore Papers

Context

Creator(s): Lowry-Corry family, Earls of Belmore of County Fermanagh

• Administrative History ↴

  In 1656 John Corry bought the estate of Castle Atkinson (Castle Coole) for £860 and commenced the long and still continuing association with the Corry family. It is assumed that John Corry extensively repaired the Castle and made it defensible again after its destruction in the 1640s. A second destruction took place in 1689 during the Williamite wars.' The manor of Coole passed to John Corry's son, Colonel James Corry (c.1643-1726). On October 1721 Colonel John Corry made his will (D3007/A/6/37). His son, Leslie Corry, then a minor, was to inherit the estate, '... with remainder first to his sons then to his daughters in order; in default of such to the use of his own daughters and their heirs similarly in order. ... All the above persons are to take the name of Corry if they succeed to the property. If anyone does not take the name then he or she is to lose all benefit which is to go to the next in succession.' By a codicil of 1726 Margetson Armar, John Corry's nephew, was appointed guardian during Leslie Corry's minority. Leslie Corry came of age in 1733. He did not however enjoy his estate for very long as he died in 1741. Margetson Armar is an important link in the chain of succession to the Castle Coole estate. He had managed the estate during the minority of his cousin; he continued to live there even after Leslie Corry attained his majority in 1733; and in 1736 he married Mary Corry, the youngest of Leslie Corry's three sisters. His management of the estate helped to improve and increase it. Margetson Armar made his will on 5 May 1768 (D3007/A/6/59). In it he left all his Fermanagh lands to his wife and her issue, and, failing such issue, to Sarah Lowry-Corry and her heirs male. Sarah Lowry-Corry was the second of Leslie Corry and Mary Margetson's sisters. In 1733, she had married Galbraith Lowry, the second son of Robert Lowry of Finagh (alias Sixmilecross) and Aghenis (near Caledon), Co. Tyrone. According to the terms of Robert Lowry's will, dated 1 November 1738 (D3007/A/4/6), his estate was to be divided between his first and second sons, Finagh being settled on the eldest son, Robert, and the Aghenis portion of the estate on Galbraith. Robert Lowry Junior died in 1764 leaving no male heirs, so that the estate was reunited in the person of Galbraith Lowry. In the same year, 1764, Sarah Corry inherited that portion of her father's estates which had first passed to her eldest sister, Martha Corry, and in accordance with her father's will assumed the name of Corry, as did her son and heir, Armar Lowry-Corry, later 1st Earl Belmore. Armar Lowry-Corry's three names represented the three components of his future inheritance: Armar, the valuable churchlands in Fermanagh, Lowry his paternal estate in Tyrone, and Corry the rest of his Fermanagh estate and his country seat. -Extracted from a full account of the Belmore Papers in the PRONI catalogue: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni

• Archival History ↴

  Deposited by the Earl of Belmore in a number of deposits from 1974 to the 1980s.

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Donation