38th Generation
356.
James O'Kelly Esq of Aughrim9,1 died during the battle of Aughrim on 12 July 1691 in Aughrim,
Co Galway Ireland.
O'Kelly of Keenagh co Roscommon.
Aughrim in the Seventeenth Century
through the Eyes of John Dunton In Edward MacLysaght's
Irish Life in the Seventeenth Century: After Cromwell, are to
be found unpublished letters by John Dunton, and the following references to
Aughrim should prove of interest:-
"From hence (Athlone) I continued my
journey through a rough country towards Galway, here the miles lengthen very
much as the country grew worse, as if the badness of the commodity made the
inhabitants there afford better measure. At the end of ten miles I came to a
place called Ballinasloe, which has nothing remarkable in it. Here the River
Suck divides the counties of Galway and Roscommon, three miles beyond this
town is Aughrim, and obscure village consisting of few cabins and an old
castle, but now made famous by the defeat of St. Ruth and the Irish army;
the bones of the dead which lie yet to be seen would make a man take notice
of the place. Tis said the Irish here lost 7000 men with their whole camp
and all their cannon, whilst the whole loss of the English did not exceed
1000. This which I am very well assured of is very strange. After the battle
the English did not tarry to bury any of the dead but their own, and left
those of the enemy exposed to the fowls of he air, for the country was then
so uninhabited that there were not hands to inter them. Many dogs resorted
to this aceldama where for want of other food they fed on man's flesh, and
thereby became so dangerous and fierce that a single person could not pass
that way without manifest hazard. But a greyhound kept close by the dead
body of one who was supposed to have been his master night and day, and
though he fed upon other corpses with the rest of the dogs, yet he would not
allow them nor anything else to touch that which he guarded. When the
corpses were all consumed the other dogs departed, but this used to go every
night to adjacent villages for food and return presently to the place where
the beloved bones lay, for all the flesh was consumed by putrefaction, and
thus he continued from July till January following, when a soldier passing
that way near the dog, who perhaps feared a disturbance of what he so
carefully watched, he flew upon the soldier, who shot him with his piece.
... It (the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham) is so large that after the battle of
Aughrim there were 1200 sick and wounded men in it, but then the hall and
galleries had beds laid in them ..." James O'Kelly Esq of Aughrim and
Elizabeth Osburn were married.
Elizabeth Osburn. The
Pedigree of Kelly reports her father as Capt Osborn who died at Aughrim
July 12 1991. The only Captain Osborne that I have found records for
was a Williamitte officer named Captain Edward Osborne who died in
1691.
He is listed on page 365 of the Index to the Prerogative Willis of Ireland. James O'Kelly Esq of
Aughrim and Elizabeth Osburn had the following children: |