Farney and the Earl of Essex

Farney is the name of the first Monaghan barony we come to from the south.
If you are of a certain age or if you watched black and white films on TV growing up you may remember Erroll Flynn playing the Earl of Essex against Betty Davis’s Queen Elizabeth. Well that Earl of Essex was given Farney (over the local Macmahon) by Hugh O’Neill, The O’Neill, way back in 1599, to make him go away. Essex did only to get into trouble with Elizabeth and was executed two years later.
Because it was ‘officially’ in English eyes owned by the Essex’s, his family, his daughter, legally held onto Farney. Farney and Monaghan for similar reasons were never ‘planted’ as such. Planted being in modern terms meaning ‘complusory purchased’ or ‘eminent domain’ without the compensation involved. So the Barony was divided between Essex’s descendants. the Baths and the Shirley’s. The Shirleys took the land west of Carrickmacross Main Street and the Baths east of it. Both families remained Landlords for the next three hundred plus years

The following is told by Mrs Mary Burns, 100 years of age in 1938 to her granddaughter Kate Anne Finegan. Both of Lisnagunnion, Co. Monaghan

Our local landlord was Lord Bath, Bath and Shirley got the big estate around Carrick and our farm is on Bath's estate. They came into possession of this land in the 17th century. Queen Elizabeth gave the whole estate to Lord Essex. He had two daughters and when he was dying he left the estate to them. One of the daughters married a Shirley and the other married the Lord of Bath and this is how they came to own the land. The estate was divided by a running through Carrick which divided the Main St. and gave one side to each.

All of Baths were supposed to be good and were liked well by the people. When they got these lands they divided them into farms. Farms were never subdivided among members of the family in marriage. The landlord had never any special powers over his tenants and they were never punished for trivial acts. Long ago the tithe money would be gathered around here. It was not gathered in money but in value. The best remembered tithe proctor was Cupid Kiarnan and anyone who did not pay the tithe money ten stooks of corn would be taken from his field. Not many people in this district were evicted. Although Lord Bath was liked well by the people he was a bit selfish. One day as he was riding on his horse over a race course he hit an Orangeman with his whip and said "A man of money can do what he likes" and the man took out his revolver and struck Lord Bath off his horse with it and said "and a man without money can do something too".

One of the unintended consequences of the takeover of Farney by Essex’s descendants was that Irish was spoken here longer than anywhere else in Monaghan. Because the land was owned by the Baths and the Shirley’s it wasn’t planted like most of the rest of Ulster. The native Irish remained in the majority and kept their own tradition. However then the Famine struck here worse and Farney lost over 40% of its’ population in less than ten years.