Croboy
Croboy is in the civil parish of Clonard, the electoral Division of the Hill of Down, in the barony of Upper Moyfenrath, in the County of Meath.
Croboy Holy Well
There was a holy well in Croboy which is called St. Brigid’s Well, recorded by a school child in the 1930s. It was said to have the cure of warts. The person who had the warts had to put a straight pin into the well for every wart they had. The pins were then left in the well and the warts would disappear. No pilgrimages took place to this well.
A Story of the Lough in Crowboy (near Hill of Down)
From Andrew Rispin, Ballivor From the Schools Folklore Collection from the 1930s
In the lock of Crowboy there was a man named John Sellars. This man used be on the bog very early in the morning and very late at night and this evening he saw lovely girl with long golden hair walking round the lock; he saw her the second evening too and the third evening he dressed himself up and said he would talk to her and try would she talk to him. When he went over to her she said “O John you are nearly late, this is my last evening out” and she said “I will go with you if you promise me never to let me see this lock again”. He said to her “I will marry you tomorrow”. He invited several of the neighbours and he told the priest and he married them in the house.
The girl lived and worked with him the same as anyone else. She told him that her mother and herself were taken by some magic hand into the lock and she was now twenty-one and her mother dead She told him she had to change into a fish for four hours every day and she had three days when she would be twenty-one to see if anyone would claim her on the bank. She warned him every morning never to let her see the lock. She lived with him very happy for a month and this Sunday evening they went for a walk to the black hills that over look the lock.
All of a sudden he saw a great light just at the lock and all at once she said “O John I see the lock Goodbye”. On the spot she fell on the ground and took the form of a pike and went like a flash into the lock. Three years after that Sellar died and was buried in Clondalee on the bank of the Deal when he was buried a lovely girl came out of the Deal and wept over him and splashed into the water again.
Croboy Barrow – Mound barrow
A circular or oval earthen or earth and stone mound with no external features. Mounds found in association with other barrow types are likely to be mound barrows. They are funerary in nature and contain and/or cover burials. Excavated examples have been dated to the Bronze and Iron Ages (c. 2400 BC – AD 400). Marked as Croboy mote on maps.
Croboy Enclosure
An area defined by an enclosing element (e.g. bank, wall, fosse, scarp), or indicated as such cartographically, and occurring in a variety of shapes and sizes, possessing no diagnostic features which would allow classification within another monument category. These may date to any period from prehistory onwards.
Croboy’s Landed Families – Lynch and Barker
The property of Croboy was held by the Lynch family, this is a branch of the Lynch family of Lynch’s Knock, Summerhill.
In 1613 Christopher Lynch of Croboy died, leaving Robert, his son and heir, then aged twenty-four and unmarried, and he was the head of the Meath family during the awful visitation of Cromwell. Robert Lynch was forced to give up his estates and to accept a certificate transplanting him and his family into the County of Roscommon, where a small allotment at the foot of Slieve-Ban. The will of this Robert Lynch or Leyns, bears date in 1667, and commences with a ‘sweet reminiscence’ of his old home, directing his interment “in the sepulchre of my dear mother, children, and grand-children, in the church of Clonard, without any great cost or solemnity; being banished into Connaught, and deprived of my estate, and stript of all my moveable goods and substance.” Then, after recounting his debts, and providing for their due and early payment, he adds, “I leave and bequeath my little nag to my little grandchild Christopher Leyns, and my apparel to be distributed to such poor as are in want of clothes to cover their nakedness.” …” And in case the Ir. be restored, my will is that the feoffment I made of Croboy, in the year of our Lord 1631, shall stand and be in force according to the intent thereof.” Robert, the son of the minor Christopher, married in 1712, Anne Everard of the family of Randalstown in Meath, and, as they professed different religions, the existing state of the law necessitated the celebration of their union out of Ireland. It took place at Holyhead, and an unusually massive ring commemorating the date is faithfully preserved. The estate of Croboy was granted by patent of Charles the Second chiefly to Charles Barker.
Charles Barker was a soldier in Cromwell’s army and he was granted Croboy which was later confirmed by Charles II. His son, Oliver Barker, succeeded him. Oliver married Mary McManus of Maynooth Park in 1714. Their son, James is remembered in a plaque in Clonard Protestant church see below. Oliver was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles Barker, born 1716, married Mary Nugent of Balnacara, Co. Westmeath and they had one son, Oliver, who left Ireland and went to serve in the Austrian Army. When Charles died he was succeeded by his younger brother, Richard who was born 1719, married 1755 Alice Cusack of Clonard and their son, Oliver born 1756 succeeded to the Croboy estates. Oliver married twice firstly to Elizabeth Herbert and secondly to Margaret Coote, widow of Thomas Coote. The eldest son Richard Barker succeeded to the estates at Croboy but moved his family to Dunboyne. Born in 1785 he married Mary MacFarlane of Stirling, Co. Meath in 1817 and their eldest son was William Oliver Barker.
Memorial in Clonard Protestant Church.- BARKER – Sacred to the memory of Charles Barker Esqr. Of Croboy in this parish who died AD 1718, Also to Lieut. Col . James Barker 2nd Queens Royal Regiment of foot, second son of Oliver Barker Esqr of Croboy who died July 11th 1800 aged 84 years. And was the last of his family buried beneath. 1930
Lieutenant Edward Oliver – 96th Foot -died 12th December 1851 Son of Richard Barker, of Croboy, Co. Meath. Born 30th December 1824. Served New Zealand 1846-7. Grave at Lahore – “Sacred to the memory of Edward (Oliver) Barker Lieut H.M. 96th Regt who died at Lahore on the 12th Decr 1851 aged 27 years. This tomb is created as a token of regard by his many sincere friends.”