The townland was spelt “Rosberrie” in Sir William Petty’s Census taken in 1659, and it contained a population of 26 “poll tax” payers, i.e. the number of adults who were obliged to pay the poll taxes of the time. Walter Weldon, gentleman, was the landlord at the time. It is not therefore a full census but may be a rough guide to the number of houses in Rosberry at the time.Â
In the 1659 Census, the principal Irish names in the Barony of Connell were:Â Beaghan (8); Birne (13); Cullen (6); Duin (6); Doolin (12); Enose (10); Felan alias Helan (7); Farrell (6); Foran alias Horan (6); Fitzgerald (7); Hely (6); Kelly (17); Morin (7); Moran (2); Malone (8); Murphy (6); Nowlan (18); Rorque (10).Â
Rosberry and The Sarsfield Connection
Rosberry and the townlands of Cornelscourt, Clongownagh, Hawkfield, Scarletstown, Rickardstown, and Piercetown were all part of the Sarsfield estates of William Sarsfield and his brother Patrick Sarsfield. The Sarsfield’s were an old English family that acquired Lucan Manor around 1560. Sir William Sarsfield was Mayor of Dublin in 1566. The Sarsfield family remained Catholic and to preserve their estates and religious freedoms they supported the Northern Rebels and the prerogative of Charles I against Parliament in the 1640’s. By 1642, most Catholic proprietors of the Pale had been outlawed for treason.
During the interregnum prior to the restoration of Charles II in May 1660, Sir Theophilus Jones acquired the Lucan estates and was reluctant to give them up, but did so to William Sarsfield, brother of Patrick Sarsfield. When William died in 1676, he willed the estate to his brother Patrick, the same Patrick who would gain legendary status during the 1690 Siege of Limerick and who negotiated the Treaty of Limerick which ended the Williamite wars in 1691.
Nothing remains of the ruins of Sarsfield Castle in the townland of Rosberry as they were dismantled and used for the construction of the British Cavalry Barracks in Newbridge between 1815 and 1819. The ruins of Great Connell Abbey were dismantled for the same purpose. Â
Patrick Sarsfield (c.1655-1693) 1st Earl of Lucan, Viscount of Tully, Baron Rosberry
In 1691, the deposed King James II is reputed to have granted Patrick Sarsfield the above title, whilst he continued to lead the army of King James after the defeat at the Battle of the Boyne. The titles reflect Patrick’s owneship of landed estates in Lucan on the Dublin/Kildare border, Tully near Kildare town and Rosberry just outside present day Newbridge in Co. Kildare.
The Sarsfield ownership of Rosberry has continued through the Vesey line
To the victor the spoils, Patrick was exiled and in 1693 he was mortally wounded during the Battle of Landen in modern day Belgium while serving in the Royal French Army. Patrick’s estates were forfeit, but by 1696, Patrick’s niece Charlotte, daughter of his brother William and Mary Crofts, and an alleged grand-daughter of Charles II and his mistress Lucy Walter, successfully claimed that the Lucan estates had been wrongfully detained from her by Patrick (under William’s will, which they claimed was forged), and Charlotte Sarsfield successfully regained possession of the estates, including Rosberry.
On February 26th 1696, Charlotte would married Agmondisham Vesey(1677-1738), MP for Tuam from 1703 to his death, and son of the Archbishop of Tuam. Agmondisham and Charlotte had two daughters before Charlotte died October 7th 1699 aged twenty-six. Their first daughter, Anne, married Sir John Bingham, 5th Baronet, and their second daughter, Henrietta married Caesar Colclough.
Princess Diana Connection to Rosberry
Today, Prince William, heir to King Charles, can trace a line of his ancestry back to Agmondisham Vesey and Charlotte Sarsfield. Their great grand-daughter Lady Lavinia Bingham (1762-1831), married George Spencer, Viscount Althorp, whose line traces to the 8th Earl Spencer, father of Princess Diana, mother of William and Harry.
Lady Lavinia Bingham (1762-1831)
Lavinia was the eldest daughter of Charles Bingham, the 1st Earl of Lucan and miniature portrait painter, Margaret Smyth. An up and coming British politician, George Spencer, Viscount Althorp, “fell out of his senses” and proposed marriage to Lavinia. Though lacking a dowry, George’s parents accepted their son’s choice, on the basis that Lavinia was pretty, intelligent, and morally acceptable.  Â
Break in the Sarsfield bloodline ownership of Rosberry in 1699
Sarsfield in 1699. Her husband inherited the lands and remarried and it is through the Vesey  bloodlines and his second wife, Jane, daughter of Edward Pottinger of Carrickfergus, that the ownership of Rosberry passes down the generations to Charles Colthurst, as recorded in Griffith’s Valuations of Rosberry compiled c.1854.
Jane Pottinger (1677-1746) was twice widowed before she married Agmondisham Vesey. In 1695 she married James Reynolds, MP for Leitrim in 1692 and 1695, and with whom she had two children, John and Mary. James died in 1699 and in July 1700 Jane married widower Sir Thomas Butler, 3rd Baronet, but he died in early 1703. Jane married Agmondisham before the year was out.
Agmondisham Vesey owned Rosberry from 1739 to 1785
They would have eight children (Agmondisham, George, Edward, Charles, Jane, Letitia, Catherine and Semira), and the ownership of the Rosberry and Lucan estates passed through to their eldest son Agmondisham, who was born in 1708. He was Member of Parliament for Harristown, County Kildare, and Kinsale, County Cork, and later held the post of Accountant-General of Ireland from around 1767. He died in 1785.
By 1746 he had married his cousin Elizabeth Vesey (c.1715-1791), daughter of the Bishop of Ossory, Thomas Vesey. The marriage was neither fruitful nor happy but a polite façade was maintained. Agmondisham was unfaithful to the end, and when he died in 1785, he left nothing to Elizabeth and her companion Miss Handcock, but did leave £1000 to his mistress. He may have resented his wife’s endeavours as a founding member in the early 1750’s of the Blue Stockings Society, an informal women’s social and educational movement in England that set up literary discussion groups to emphasise education and mutual cooperation for women and to step away from the traditional non-intellectual women’s activities of the time.
Agmondisham Vesey had a keen interest in architecture and under his ownership, Lucan Manor was demolished in the 1770’s and replaced in 1775 by the Georgian era Palladian Villa Lucan House which still stands today. He obviously cared little for Sarsfield Castle in Rosberry for its ruins were dismantled by 1819 during the construction of the Cavalry Barracks in Newbridge.
Colonel George Vesey inherited Rosberry in 1785
Colonel George Vesey inherited Lucan and Rosberry on the death of his childless uncle Agmondisham. In 1754 in Dublin, George had married his cousin Letitia Vesey (1731-1795), daughter of his father’s brother George and Frances Stewart.
The La Touche Connection with Rosberry
Their son, Colonel George Vesey (1761-1841) of the 6th Regiment of Foot, was next to inherit Rosberry and Lucan. In 1790 he had married Amelia (Emily) La Touche, the daughter of Rt. Hon. David La Touche in 1790. Â
At this point it is interesting to note a court case in the Record Court of 1847 where La Touche as plaintiff sued Collaton, Freyne and others, for encroaching on to 70 acres of townland called the Commons of Rosberry. This townland is adjacent to the townland of Rosberry itself. Each of the defendants had fenced off their own parts of the Commons claiming holdings owned by the plaintiff. La Touche was seeking their ejection and the restoration of the townland to commonage. Evidence was given that the Commons was grazed by Colonel Vesey’s tenants but the defendants had taken the lands and fenced them off. La Touche won the case.  Â
The Colthurst Surname and Rosberry
It was Colonel George Vesey and Emily La Touche’s daughter  Elizabeth (1795-1880) who married, Sir Nicholas Colthurst, 4th Baronet (1789-1829). Elizabeth and Nicholas were also cousins, as their mothers, Harriet and Emily La Touche respectively, were sisters. Sir Nicholas had succeeded his father as 4th Baronet in 1795 at the age of 16. He was a Colonel in the Cork Militia from 1819 to his death and was an MP for Cork from 1812 to his death June 22nd 1829. Â
The Vesey Colthurst’s descendants lived at Lucan House from 1836 to 1921. Sir Nicholas served as MP for Cork City from 1812 to 1829, the year Catholic emancipation was granted, something Sir Nicholas opposed during his time in parliament.  Â
Nicholas and Elizabeth had five children, including their third child and second son, Captain Charles David Robert Vesey Colthurst (1826-1885), who was a Justice of the Peace amongst other things, and whose name was recorded in the Regional Directories of the times as Captain Charles Vesey Colthurst-Vesey of Lucan House. He was the owner of the lands at Rosberry as recorded in Griffith’s Valuations of 1854. Charles would have been single at the time for he only married Annie, daughter of David Fraser in 1858. Charles died in Lucan in 1885.
Griffith's Valuation of Rosberry c.1854
In Griffith’s Valuation of Rosberry c.1854 the immediate landlord’s name is recorded at Charles Colthurst. His full name was Colthurst Vesey. Â
Colthurst Vesey Landholdings recorded inThe Curragh of Kildare Act 1870
Under the Curragh of Kildare Act 1870 a three-man commission had been set up to establish what (if any) rights of common of pasture, rights of way, or other rights exist in, over, or affecting the Curragh, or any part thereof, either by grant, charter, or prescription.
The Commission held meetings and considered all applications, and on June 30th 1869 the Commission duly made their award which they set out in a schedule to the 1870 Act.
In that Schedule attached to The Curragh of Kildare Act 1870, the following claims pertaining to Charles Colthurst Vesey were granted. The claims state the lands held in the locality by him and the townlands where so held. When that Schedule was completed in June 1869, it recorded that Charles Colthurst Vesey held about 1,226 in the townlands of Cornelscourt, Clongownagh, Hawkfield, Rickardstown, Piercetown, Rosberry and Scarletstown, all of which are adjacent to each other. All told, he and his tenants were entitled to graze up to 387 sheep on the Curragh. His holdings were described in the Schedule as follows:
Conclusion
There is no evidence of the scale and structure of Sarsfield’s Castle in the townland of Rosberry as what was left of it was salvaged for the construction of the Cavalry Barracks in Newbridge just after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. It is unlikely to have been much more than a castle keep.
In a survey conducted in 1986, there was no visible surface trace of the castle in this gently undulating pasture. However, two sides of a possible bawn were noted, defined by very low, broad banks (H c.0.2m; W c.2m) suggesting a possible rectangular enclosure (estimated dimensions: Length East/West c.80m; Width c.50m) (information compiled by Gearóid Conroy)
The Sarsfield family most likely never lived in Rosberry, choosing instead to reside at Lucan Manor and Tully. Just like the Mansfield family of nearby Morristown Lattin Estate, the Sarsfield’s were a Catholic family of English descent. Patrick Sarsfield was a senior commander in the forces of King James II defeated at the Battle of the Boyne. Patrick Sarsfield continued to lead the forces after James II fled Ireland, negotiated the Treaty of Limerick under which he and almost twenty thousand followers were exiled under what became known as the Flight of the Earls. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Landen in 1693. Â
Patrick’s lands were confiscated, including those at Rosberry, but they would return to the Sarsfield family when Patrick’s niece Charlotte successfully sued for them. Charlotte did not have them for long for she died in 1699, but not before she and her husband Agmondisham Vesey had two daughters, through one of whom a descendant line to Princess Diana Spencer’s father can be traced.
But that was the end of the Sarsfield bloodline’s connection to Rosberry, for the ownership down to Colthurst Vesey in the 19th century descends from Charlotte’s husband, Agmondisham Vesey and his second wife, Jane Pottinger.
Nevertheless, the loyalty to Sarsfield remains tangible today, for the local Sarsfield GAA club traces its formation back to the successful Rosberry club and its predecessor, the Sons of Sarsfield. Â Â