•  Ballymacwilliam, County Offaly

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In 1837, Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland described Ballymacwilliam like this:

BALLYMACWILLIAM, a parish, in the barony of WARRENSTOWN, KING'S county, and province of LEINSTER, 2 ½ miles (N. N. W.) from Edenderry, on the road to Mullingar; containing 1156 inhabitants. It comprises 4192 statute acres, about two-thirds of which are pasture, and one-third under tillage. ...

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The land is of very superior quality, and the state of agriculture is excellent: there are considerable tracts of bog, much of which has been exhausted and brought under cultivation. The gentlemen's seats are Jonestown, that of J. Houghton, Esq.; Mount Wilson, of R. Newsome, Esq.; and Ballybritton, of J. Hynes, Esq. The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Kildare, and in the patronage of the Crown: the tithes amount to £232. 16. 8. The church is in ruins, and there is neither glebe nor glebe-house; the Protestant inhabitants attend divine service at the churches of Ballyburley and Monasteroris. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Castropetre. There is a school in which about 80 boys and 30 girls are taught; the school-house was built by Lord Trimlestown, who also endowed it with an acre of land. Some ruins exist of the ancient castles of Ballybritton and Ballyhassil.

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