Blake of Moyne.
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Blake
In 1628 Walter Burke, son of John of Shrule, mortgaged Kinlough to Sir Valentine Blake of Menlo. Sir Valentine was Major of Galway in the reign of Charles I, representative in the parliament of 1639, he was on the side of the royalists against Cromwell and was taken as hostage after the fall of Galway in 1652.On his death his in terest passed to his son Sir Thomas Blake. It seems that the Blakes never lived in Kinlough and Sir Thomas leased Kinlough to John Darcy in 1668.
In 1683 Sir Thomas leased Moyne from Lord Clanricarde, George French was occupant there in 1678, and it must have been one of these lessees who built the old mansion north of the castle. In 1694 the widow of John Blake married Marcus French, but as there was no children of that marriage the property remained in the Blake family
Moyne Castle
In the nineteenth century they held vast amounts of land, in our parish it included the townlands of Moyne, Church park, Toorard, Carranoughter and Cloghmoyne, while across the river they had Moyne Hill, Ballyfruit and Tonroe, they had extensive possessions in Hollymount and Claremorris
The last Blake to own Moyne and surrounds was Charles Blake, an absentee landlord, he resided at the ancient family place at Merlin Park, Galway