Wiley of Cullentrya family history
2 · The Farm at Heghlane

One sheet of paper shows exactly where we lived

A Dublin surveyor's map of the Rathmolyon estate, drawn between about 1771 and 1798, names our family, measures their farm, and places their neighbours, the bog, the mill and the road to the chapel.

The map

The whole Rathmolyon estate map: a large, creased, hand-coloured survey sheet with townland names in copperplate
The whole sheet. Longwood and the River Blackwater are at the left edge; Rathmolyon village is towards the right. Cullentry is the cluster of small plots near the bottom left, above the word “Rathcore”. The sheet is torn at the foot; the total that survives is about 4,322 acres. National Library of Ireland, Longfield Map Collection, MS 21 F. 15 (014), record vtls000301817. Catalogue record

Explore the map at full resolution Pinch or scroll to zoom anywhere on the sheet, the same way the Library's own viewer works.

The National Library of Ireland catalogues it as “A map of lands at Clonmowley, Fordstown, Corballis, Cloncurry, Isaacstown, Cullentry, Moat, Coolderry … in the barony of Moyfenrath Lower and County of Meath. Scale 40 perches to an inch. Names of tenants and acreage of holdings shown.” It comes from the Longfield Map Collection, the office archive of a firm of Dublin land surveyors, Longfield, Murray and Brownrigg, whose maps were given to the Library by Robert Ormsby Longfield in the 1800s. Chris found this sheet in the Library's online catalogue late on 5 September 2026, a few hours after finding the landlord's papers, and had it fetched at full resolution the same night.

It covers the whole western half of the Rathmolyon estate: about a hundred numbered plots and roughly 4,300 acres, from the river at Longwood to the village of Rathmolyon. The surveyor wrote in the first person in one place (“in which I compute 6 Acres subject to Flood”), so this is his own working sheet, not a fair copy.

When was it drawn?

The sheet itself is undated; the Library gives it a range of 1770 to 1840. We can narrow that. Two of the tenants written in the surveyor's original hand, Joseph Charles and Thomas McClaughry, took their leases of Cullentry from the Earl of Moira in 1767 and 1771, so the map is later than 1771. A plot at Isaacstown is labelled “a Nursery planted by L[ord] Moira”, so the Rawdon family's ownership was current or fresh in memory. And the firm that kept the map, Longfield and Brownrigg, is the firm whose John Brownrigg surveyed exactly this estate in 1798 for its new owner, Robert Fowler, Archbishop of Dublin. The natural reading is that this is Brownrigg's working map for that survey.

Very likely drawn between about 1771 and 1798. Likely the 1798 Brownrigg survey specifically.

Historical background

A map like this was the landlord's working tool: it recorded each tenant's holding and its acreage so that rents could be set and collected, and the names on it were kept up to date for decades, which is why later hands and inks lie over the surveyor's original. The estate changed hands while the map was in use. In 1795 the second Earl of Moira sold his Meath lands, “including principally the Rathmolyon lands”, to Robert Fowler, Archbishop of Dublin, for £62,000, and in 1798 the new owner “had a full survey of the property made, consisting of 4,416 acres”. By 1812 the estate was yielding £4,000 a year in rent; in 1836 Rathmolyon townland was “let in small farms from 21s. to 26s. per acre”, which is the range of the pencilled rents on this sheet.

The Irish acre used here, the “plantation measure”, was larger than the English statute acre: one Irish acre is about 1.62 statute acres. Acreages are written acres, roods, perches, with 4 roods to the acre and 40 perches to the rood. Griffith's Valuation of 1854 switched to statute acres, which is one reason the same farm looks bigger in later records.

Noel French, “Rathmolyon”, Meath History Hub; Irish measure. All background sources are listed on the Sources page.

Heghlane: 183 acres

Detail of the map showing the Weily holding at Big Cullentry with the names Robert Weily, Widow Walker, William Wyley 97, Michael Wyley, John Wyley and Robert Wyley, bog plots coloured tan, and the acreage 183-2-0
The Weily farm at Big Cullentry, enlarged. The surveyor's original black-brown hand gives the holding and its acreage. The red and brown names (Wm Wyley 97, Michl Wyley, Jno Wyley, Robt Wyley) were added later. The tan shapes are bog. The green line at the right is the boundary with Rathcore. National Library of Ireland, Longfield Map Collection, MS 21 F. 15 (014). Catalogue record

In the surveyor's own hand the farm is described in five lines:

Robt Weily & Widw Walker's Holding in Big Cullintree called Heghlane

ar. & pas. (arable and pasture)

183 – 2 – 0 (183 acres 2 roods, Irish measure: nearly 300 acres in the measure we use)

scattered Bog reclaimed in sundry Places 1 – 0 – 0

scattered Waste 0 – 1 – 20

Map detail: the words called Heghlane
“called Heghlane”. The farm had its own name, and the 1825 tithe book uses the same one for the Weilys' holding.NLI MS 21 F. 15 (014)
Map detail: 183-2-0, scattered bog reclaimed in sundry places 1-0-0
“183 – 2 – 0. Scattered Bog reclaimed in sundry Places 1 – 0 – 0.” The largest farm in the townland.NLI MS 21 F. 15 (014)

Robert Weily shared the holding with a widow named Walker. A Robert Walker also held part of Isaacstown on the same estate; whether the two families were related by marriage is a guess and nothing more. The pencil figures scattered across the farm, 21/6, 22/9, 24/6, are rents in shillings and pence per acre, added later.

The name of the farm matters. In September 2026 Chris found the Tithe Applotment Book for the parish of Rathmoylan, dated 1825, and it lists Michael Weily, William Weily Senior (twice) and William Weily Junior all at Heghlane, with a Robert Weily at Castletown and a Robert Wiely in Rathmolyon town. That pins the 1825 family to the very farm the map names. The parish register lets us say who the three were. William Senior was baptised at Rathmolyon in January 1752, headed a household in the Protestant list of 1802, and was buried in September 1836, “aged 96”. William Junior, born about 1788, was the heir: he took the big lease on New Year's Day 1835 and died seventeen months later. Michael is Michael Weily, “gent, of Highlane”, who witnessed a marriage settlement in 1800 alongside the vicar of Rathcore. Our own William, born about 1796 and then 29, has no holding of his own in the book.

Certain that the map says this, and that the name is Weily. Every “Reilly” on the sheet was compared letter by letter with every “Weily” and “Wyley”: the Reillys have the looped capital R of “Robt” and “Rathcore”, the Weilys the double-looped W of “Widow”, “Walker” and “Wm”. Reilly is the commonest surname in Meath, so this check had to be made, and it was made twice, here and on the 1881 civil record.

The names written in later

When the estate office updated the map, someone wrote the current tenants over the surveyor's original in red and brown ink, with plot numbers. On the Weily farm they wrote:

Map detail in red ink: Wm Wyley 97
“Wm Wyley 97”, red ink, the north-west part of the farm.
Map detail in brown ink: Michl Wyley with pencil 22/9
“Michl Wyley”, brown ink, with a pencil rent of 22 shillings 9 pence an acre.
Map detail in red ink: Jno Wyley
“Jno Wyley” (John), red ink, written just under “called Heghlane”.
Map detail in red ink: Robt Wyley
“Robt Wyley”, red ink, the south part of the farm above the Rathcore boundary.

All four: National Library of Ireland, Longfield Map Collection, MS 21 F. 15 (014). A fifth, tiny “J. Wyley” sits in the scattered waste, and two faint pencil “Wyley” ghosts lie under the names Cunningham and McLoughlin.

These are the next generation of the family, and they match the 1825 tithe book: William Senior, William Junior and Michael at Heghlane, and Roberts nearby. They also match the leases the landlord's office kept. William Junior (the man born about 1788) took the big farm on 1 January 1835 and died seventeen months later; his widow Ellen took it again in 1841. John Wielly and John Wiely took two smaller parts of Cullentry in February and June of 1835.

Just as telling is what is not on the map. Across roughly 4,300 acres and a hundred plots there is exactly one Weily household, and it is this one. Nobody of the name is at Isaacstown or Ballynaskea, where Wileys appear in 1802 and 1854; those households are this one family spreading out. One family, one farm.

Black-brown copperplate: the surveyor's original, c. 1771 to 1798. Robert Weily and Widow Walker.
Red ink: later tenants and plot numbers. Wm Wyley 97, Jno Wyley, Robt Wyley.
Brown ink: another later hand. Michl Wyley, J. Wyley, Cunningham, Caffrey, Reilly.
Pencil: rents per acre and faint “ghost” names. Undated.

Likely that the red and brown Wyleys are the generation of about 1800 to 1835. The map does not date its own annotations; the 1825 tithe book and the 1835 leases supply the dates.

The neighbours

The surveyor named every holding around the Weilys. These are the families our people would have known all their lives, worked beside, and married among. The last two rows come from Griffith's Valuation of 1854, sixty years on, and show where our own branch's fields lay.

PlotHolding, as writtenAcresWhere, and why it matters
Robt Weily & Widw Walker's Holding in Big Cullintree called Heghlane183-2-0Our farm. The centre of Big Cullentry.
94Edwd Bryan's Holding in Big & Little Cullintree177-2-25West neighbour. The “Bridle Road from Longwood” runs through his land to the Weily farm: the road to the chapel.
101Richd & Joseph Charles's part of Big Cullintree57-3-25South neighbour. Joseph Charles took his lease from the Earl of Moira on 21 May 1767; a Richard Charles had leased “Bigg Cullentragh” from Arthur Rawdon of Isaacstown in 1745.
95Thos McClaughry, part of Little Cullintree104-3-2North. Leased from Lord Moira on 2 November 1771, with a map attached; the earliest map of the townland, not yet seen.
96Peter McClaughry, “reclaimed in the years 1763, 64, 65 & 66”7-1-5Bog turned into farmland in the 1760s.
89Wm Daly, part of Little Cullintree, Mill Land6-1-30There was a mill at Little Cullentry. A century later, in 1870, Michael Wiley of our branch (born 1845, and a different man from the Michael Weily of the 1825 tithe book, who was two generations older) married an Anne Daly.
98–100Hillocky Pasture & worn Turbary, Bog; Reclaimed Bog12-2-14 and lessThe bog on the east side of the farm. “Turbary” is the right to cut turf for the fire.
Reilly, Cunningham, Jno Caffrey, Pat McLoughlinsmallLater sub-tenants or holders inside and beside the farm, in the red and brown hands.
Ballin 5 (1854)John Flynn37 statuteGriffith's Valuation, 1854. The next farm to our branch's fields, on the old Duffy and Flynn holding by the river. In May 1854 Margaret Flynn, William Weily's widow, married him.
Ballin 8 and 10 (1854)William Wiley; Margaret Wiley27 and 28 statuteGriffith's Valuation, 1854. Our branch's two fields, side by side on the old Duffy and Flynn farm at Ballin, each worked from a house at Cullentry (lots 3 and 4). Nobody named Wiley lived in Ballin itself.

Acreages from the map are Irish measure, written acres-roods-perches. The 1854 rows are statute acres from Griffith's Valuation, Union of Trim.

We imagine

A farm of this size in the 1790s was not one man with a spade. Picture a long, low farmhouse of stone and thatch on the lane, a yard with a cow-house and a barn, and around it fields of oats, wheat and potatoes with cattle on the grass beyond. Robert Weily would have had labourers and perhaps a few cottier families working for him, turf drying in stacks at the edge of the bog to the east, and the widow Walker's household somewhere on the same land. Whether they were close friends, awkward partners or kin by marriage, the map cannot tell us.

The Flynns, along the road to Longwood

Map region from the River Blackwater at Ballin and William Flynn's holding at Clonmowley, across Edward Bryan's farm with the bridle road from Longwood, to the Weily farm at Big Cullentry
From the river to our farm. Top left: “Ballin held by John Duffy & Waltr Flynn” on the River Blackwater at Longwood, and “Willm Flynn's Holding in Clonmowly”. Centre: the “Bridle Road from Longwood” crossing Edward Bryan's farm. Bottom right: the Weily farm. The Longwood chapel lies off the left edge. National Library of Ireland, Longfield Map Collection, MS 21 F. 15 (014). Catalogue record
Map detail: Willm Flynn's Holding in Clonmowly, arable meadow and pasture
“Willm Flynn's Holding in Clonmowly, ar. mead. & pas.” 59 acres 3 roods 8 perches of farmland and a little over 2 acres of bog: 62 acres in all. A red “Fly[nn]” shows a Flynn still there when the map was updated.NLI MS 21 F. 15 (014)
Map detail: Ballin held by John Duffy and Walter Flynn, 138-2-0, in which I compute 6 acres subject to flood
“Ballin held by John Duffy & Waltr Flynn, 138 – 2 – 0, in which I compute 6 Acres subject to Flood.” Ballin lies on the Blackwater at Longwood. In 1854 William Wiley and Margaret Wiley each held a field on this same farm, and John Flynn held the next lot.NLI MS 21 F. 15 (014)

Two Flynn farms stand between the Weily farm and Longwood: William Flynn's at Clonmowley and Walter Flynn's, shared with John Duffy, at Ballin on the river. The bridle road from Longwood chapel passes them on its way to Heghlane. That is the geography behind a pattern that runs through every record our branch left:

William Wiley II's mother was a Margaret Flynn: that is what he told the priest at Alton in 1878. Whether she was the Margaret Flynn who married William Weily about 1841 and died at Cullentry in 1877, or a second woman of the name who married his son and crossed with him in 1857, is the question set out on The Family. Either way she was a Flynn of this road: the branch married Flynns twice, and had a Flynn at every wedding and at the deathbed. Likely she was a daughter of the Clonmowley or Ballin Flynns. (For years we chased a Margaret Flynn baptised in County Limerick, 150 miles away; that lead is retired. See How We Found It.)

We imagine

On a Sunday morning the Catholic Weilys of Heghlane went west along the bridle road, past Bryan's, past the Flynns at Clonmowley, and down toward the river and the chapel at Longwood. The Flynns walked the same road. Two families who met every week for a lifetime, at Mass, at funerals, at the fair: the marriages of about 1841 and of 1854, and any that followed, need no more explanation than that.

The farm through time

  1. 1711–27Deeds. Cullentragh appears in the Registry of Deeds in 1711 (Proctor) and 1727 (Crook). Registry of Deeds, Dublin
  2. 1745Lease. Arthur Rawdon of Isaacstown leases “Bigg Cullentragh” to Richard Charles, whose family are still the Weilys' south neighbours on the map. Registry of Deeds, Book 122, p. 424, memorial 84683
  3. 17493 Apr. John Weily “late of Cullenter” dies aged 69 and is buried the next day; his wife Mary Brown follows in 1752 or 1753. The family is at Cullentry, and it is Church of Ireland. Rathmolyon graveyard stone; parish burial register
  4. 175615 Feb. Their son John, who “erected this stone” to his parents, dies aged 34; the stone naming all three still stands in Rathmolyon graveyard. Stone, enfieldgraveyards.com; burial register
  5. 176721 May. The Earl of Moira leases part of “Cullindry” to Joseph Charles. NLI MS 43,574/4
  6. 17712 Nov. Lord Moira leases “Cullendragh otherwise Cullentree” to Thomas McClaughry, with a map. NLI MS 43,574/6
  7. 1770s–90sThe estate map. Robert Weily and Widow Walker hold Heghlane, 183 acres. NLI MS 21 F. 15 (014)
  8. c.1775–80Freeholders. John and William Weilly of Cullendragh are on the county list of freeholders. Meath freeholders' list
  9. 1776Ballinaskea. Mary Anne Smith “alias Weily”, wife of Thomas Smith of Ballinaskea, dies aged 26: the marriage that carried the family into Rathcore parish. Gravestone, enfieldgraveyards.com
  10. 1798Brownrigg's survey of the estate for Archbishop Robert Fowler, the new owner. NLI MS Map 492 M, not yet seen
  11. 18024 Jul. Robert Weily, very likely the map's tenant, is buried. Aug. The Protestant parishioners' lists name four Wiley households at Rathmolyon (John, William, Michael and George, each with wife and children, and a single Michael) and two Weily households at Rathcore (John at Ballinaskea, and Robert). Our William, born about 1796, is most likely one of the boys in John's or George's house. Burial register; Rev. C. C. Ellison's lists of Protestant parishioners, 1802
  12. 1821Dec. William Wyley of Rathmolyon is murdered by Ribbonmen; his brother Michael Wiley, the Crown witness, is sent to America with his family about 1828. See Ireland Then. National Archives of Ireland, CSO/RP/SC/1821/1155
  13. 1825Tithe book. Michael Weily, William Weily Senior (born 1752) and William Weily Junior (born about 1788) at Heghlane; Robert Weily at Castletown; Robert Wiely at Rathmolyon. Tithe Applotment Books, Rathmoylan
  14. 18351 Jan. Lease of part of Cullintre to William Wiely, the William Junior of the tithe book, for two lives or 21 years at £178 1s 1d a year. Two smaller leases to John Wielly (Feb) and John Wiely (June). NLI MS 43,577/1
  15. 183631 May. William Weily the lessee is buried, aged 48. 22 Sep. William Weily Senior is buried, “aged 96”. Rathmolyon Church of Ireland burials, RootsIreland index
  16. 183913 Jan. Ellen, daughter of Wm Wiley and Bridget Belagh “of Highlane”, baptised at Longwood chapel: our William's first recorded child. Longwood register
  17. 184128 Apr. Lease of part of Cullentre to Ellen Weily for two lives or 15 years at £172 9s 8d: the same farm, so this is William Junior's widow taking it on. NLI record vtls000833743
  18. 184221 Mar. Mary is born to William Weily and Margaret Flynn; she is christened at Longwood chapel on the 25th and at Rathmolyon parish church on 10 July, and dies on 13 April 1843. Longwood register; Rathmolyon register, RootsIreland index
  19. 184314 Sep. Grace is born; christened at the parish church on 16 October as William Weily's daughter, of Cullinter. Rathmolyon register, RootsIreland index
  20. 184510 Mar. Michael is born; christened at the parish church on 1 May. Rathmolyon register, RootsIreland index
  21. 184810 Apr. Robert is born; christened at the parish church on 29 June. Rathmolyon register, RootsIreland index
  22. 184912 Dec. William is born; christened at the parish church on 2 January 1850. Rathmolyon register, RootsIreland index
  23. 185019 Jan. “William (Sen.) Weily, Cullinter” is buried, aged 54: our William, seventeen days after his youngest son's christening. Rathmolyon register, RootsIreland index
  24. 1854Griffith's Valuation (statute acres). Cullentry lot 3, William Wiley, house and offices, with a field at Ballin (lot 8): 41 acres. Lot 4, Margaret Wiley, house adjoining, with lot 18 and a field at Ballin (lot 10): 40 acres. Lot 5, Ellen Wiley: 228 acres valued at £182, the leased farm. John Wiley lots 7, 9, 10 and 11; Joseph Wiley lot 24. Ballin lot 5, John Flynn: 37 acres. askaboutireland.ie
  25. 185422 May. Margaret Flynn “alias Weilly”, widow, marries John Flynn of Ballin at Longwood. Longwood register
  26. 185526 Mar. Part of Cullentry re-let to Henry Purdon for 31 years. NLI MS 43,579/5
  27. 18561 Jan and 28 Apr. The 21 years of William Junior's lease and the 15 years of Ellen's run out. The big farm is the Protestant house's, and the house keeps it (see 1861). Inference from the lease terms
  28. 1857William Wiley II, born at Cullentry, is in America by the end of the year. 1900 census
  29. 186130 Oct. John Weilly, William Junior's son (John Weily of Maryville), takes a new lease of part of Cullentry for 31 years at £105. The house that stayed. NLI record vtls000833755
  30. 187015 Aug. Michael Wiley, our William's son, marries Anne Daly at Longwood. Civil record, Trim
  31. 1871–86Michael and Anne's eight children are born, John (1871) to Michael (1886), among them Hugh, born 20 April 1876 at Moyvalley (the chapel entry was read as 9 April, which cannot be right, and is being re-checked). Two die at Enfield in December 1887, and the family then leaves Ireland; where they went is not yet known. Civil registers; Longwood register
  32. 187614 Feb. Grace Weily, “farmer's daughter, Cullentra”, marries John Brady at Longwood. 28 Nov. John Weily of Maryville dies at Cullentry, aged 61. Civil records, Trim
  33. 187713 Jun. Margaret Flynn, “married, 60, wife of a farmer”, dies at Cullentry; the informant is her son Robert Wiley, present at the death. Civil record, Trim
  34. 18814 Jul. Grace, now a widow, marries James Byrne of Clonard at Longwood chapel; her father is given as William Weily, farmer, deceased. Civil record, Trim
  35. 18863 Feb. Grace dies at Clonard, aged 43, a publican's wife. Civil record
  36. 1901Census. Cullentry house 1: Isabella Weily, widow of Charles of Cullintra House, with six daughters and her son George; house 2: Charles Arthur Weily, his wife Margaret and their children Charles Watson and Phyllis; all Church of Ireland. Ballin house 5: John Flynn, 78, widower, farmer, and “Robert Wiley, step son, 45”, Roman Catholic. National Archives of Ireland, census of 1901
  37. 190311 Dec. John Flynn dies at Cullentry, aged 83. Civil record, Trim
  38. 1911Census. Robert Weilly, 64, “brother in law”, in Michael and Mary Ann Gill's house at Ballin. National Archives of Ireland, census of 1911
  39. 191517 Nov. Robert Wiley dies in the Trim workhouse, aged 67, a bachelor labourer “from Clonmouly”: the last of William Weily's children known to have stayed in Meath. Civil record, Trim
  40. 1976Charles Watson Weily of Cullintra House, William Junior's great-grandson, dies. The family had farmed at Cullentry since before 1749. Gravestone, enfieldgraveyards.com
  41. 1991The last Weily burial at Rathcore, George Weily: sixteen of the name lie there, buried between 1901 and 1991. enfieldgraveyards.com

Why our branch left

Why 1857? The big farm's leases fell in 1856, but that was the Protestant house's story, and the house kept its land: John Weilly took a new lease in 1861 and his family was at Cullintra House until 1976. Our branch had no lease. Its father, William Weily, died in January 1850; his widow Margaret married John Flynn of Ballin in May 1854; the eighty acres the branch farmed were held at will, divided between the widow and a grown son. A family in that position in the 1850s left, and in 1857 one of them did.

Likely. The estate's yearly rent books (1837 to 1867, in the National Library) and the Valuation Office's revision books for Cullentry lots 3 and 4, neither yet read, would show the year the branch's names drop out and who took the land.

How the 1835 lease and the map fit together

The map gives rents of about 21 to 24 shillings an acre in pencil. At those rates, £178 a year buys about 150 to 165 Irish acres. Robert Weily's farm was 183 acres, of which some was bog and waste. Very likely William Junior's 1835 lease was of Robert's farm, Heghlane. Griffith's Valuation confirms it from the other end: in 1854 his widow Ellen is rated on 228 statute acres at Cullentry, valued at £182, while our branch's two holdings beside her come to 24 acres at Cullentry and two fields at Ballin.

What the map does not tell us

See it yourself

The whole sheet is on this site at the Library's full digitised resolution: open the zoomable map and pinch or scroll to zoom anywhere, or use its buttons to jump straight to the farm. The National Library of Ireland's own viewer is at the catalogue record; there, look for “Rathcore” near the bottom left, then just above it. A second sheet in the same collection, MS 21 F. 15 (035), covers the eastern half of the estate and has no Cullentry on it.