Castletown Geoghegan

Castletown Geoghegan is a town in County Westmeath, Ireland, and lies south west of Lough Ennell near the county town of Mullingar. Castletown was the seat of the Geoghegan family of the medieval Barony of Moycashel, County Westmeath. The family were descendants of the Southern Ui Neill. They were major landholders in south Westmeath maintained a peaceful co existence with the Tudor reconquest through surrender and regrant under with their leader accepting the Captaincy from Elizabeth I. As the reign of the Stuarts led to the Civil War and the appalling events of 1641 to the Cromwellian invasion, the family suffered great losses following the Down Survey and ensuing Plantations that followed on. The later War of the Three Kingdoms finalized the confiscation. They lost a considerable portion their estates to Gustavus Lambart (later created Earl of Cavan) through confiscation even prior to the final publication of the Down Survey. The abundant productivity of the rich grazing being self-evident, the Lambarts of Kilcoursey contrived to procure much of it very early in the process.The Restoration resettlement Acts of the late 17th century indeed favored the retention of land by some of the recently esconsced Cromwellian Adventurers and Undertakers and some to their traditional owners. Consequently, some relatively small holdings of the rich grazing lakeland was restored to the Geoghegans. It didn't help the case for a greater degree restoration of Geoghegan land that the chieftain Bryan and many of his allies of the "Irish of Meath" coalition refused to sign the mandatory pledges and undertakings of fealty to the new regime of William and Mary, Parliament and the established church. Political acumen, sadly, was not their strong suit. The Geoghegan leaders, along with many more native landholders were mostly headed for exile and Connaught (where some of them reverted to their patronymic surname of O'Neill).