THE
REV. SAMUEL CLOSE, who was
presented to the rectory of Donaghhenry, or Stewardstown, in the county
of Tyrone, anno 1721, married
Catharine, daughter of Captain James Butler, of Ringhaddy, in Downshire,
by Dame Margaret Maxwell, of Mullatinny, (now Elm Park), in the county
of Armagh, relict of Sir Robert Maxwell, bart. of Ballycastle, in the
county of Derry. This Dame Margaret Maxwell was the daughter and heiress
of Henry Maxwell, esq. of Mullatinny, who was the son of James Maxwell,
the third son of Robert Maxwell, Dean of Armagh, (a younger son of the
house of Calderwood, in Scotland), who after building the house of
Mullatinny in 1626 was murdered in 1641, by Sir Phelim O'Neill, at
College Hall, the seat of his elder brother, Dr. Robert Maxwell,
afterwards Bishop of Kilmore, and founder of the Farnham family. Captain
James Butler, who was of the Ormonde branch of the Butlers, resided with
the Lady Maxwell his wife, at Mullatinny, and died there, having first
bequeathed, by his will, made in 1713, his own estates, Cloghabeg and
Knockabultoge in the parish of Gowran, in the city of Kilkenny; with all
his freehold estates in that county and lease of Bramblestown, and all
his personal estate there and arrears due out of the house in Patrick
Street, city of Kilkenny, and inhabited by Mr. Edward Butler, treasurer
to the Duke of Ormonde, to his eldest son, James Butler, esq. by a
former wife; and the estate of Ballycastle, in the county of Derry,
which he enjoyed in right of Lady Maxwell his wife, to whom it had been
bequeathed by her first husband, Sir Robert Maxwell, to his daughter
Catharine, after the death of her mother, by whom it was afterwards
settled on the Rev. Samuel Close and his issue, on the marriage of that
gentleman with Catharine Butler, her daughter; but they both died before
her at Mullatinny, leaving one son and four daughters, namely,
I.
MAXWELL.
I. Margaret, m.
to Captain Charles Woolly, and had a daughter, Mary-Anne, the wife of
Captain Amos Vereker, of the county of Limerick.
II. Mary, died unm.
III. Catharine, died unm.
IV. Elizabeth, m.
to Peter Gervais, esq. and had one son, the Rev. Francis Gervais, of
Cecil, in the county of Tyrone, rector of Carlingford, and two
daughters, Mary-Anne Gervais, m.
to the Rev. Daniel Kelly. rector of Killeshel, and Elizabeth Gervais,
m. to John Windsor, esq.
capt. R.A.
