Collection LE17 - Printed Rentals for Landed Estates Court, County Galway

8 items

The Landed Estates Court was an integral part of the process started in the 1840s to sell off encumbered estates which were bankrupt and ensure that the encumbrances on these estates were settled, and that the lands were sold on as going concerns. Legal impositions and the impact of the Great Famine had caused many estates to become unviable, and the intervention of government was needed to ensure that the land-holding system did not collapse. The printed rentals and notices in this collection were usually circulated to interested parties, potential buyers and neighbouring land-holders, and they provide an interesting snap-shot of these estates at a particular time, often giving the names of tenants and the state of the property.
These items were acquired by the James Hardiman Library in December 2001. It is probable that they formed part of a solicitors collection in the nineteenth century.

There are only eight items in this collection, all of which relate to estates in eastern County Galway. They usually consist of descriptions of each lot for sale, giving existing tenancy agreements as well as ink and colour wash maps of the lands in question. There is no record series as such within this collection, and they have been arranged in chronological order.

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415

There is no one central location for this kind of material, but single items appear in many landed estate collections, with groups appearing in many solicitors collections. Most date from the 1850s and 1860s. When used in conjunction with Griffith’s Valuation they can provide detailed information on a particular estate. The most appropriate form of reference for material from this collection is title of item, date of item, reference number (LE17/?): James Hardiman Library Archives, NUI Galway.

Catalog

14/03/2013
23/06/2025