Esq., of Gallagh, County Galway), but one son, Denis; already mentioned, as a Captain of Horse in the Irish army, at the battle of Aughrim. Both the father and the son having been in Limerick when the Treaty took place, and the family estate being consequently preserved, the Captain, on his father's decease, became tenth lord of the manor of Screen. Under a suspicion of planning to restore the House of Stuart, on which was founded a charge of high treason, he was, in the reign of George I., committed to the Tower of London, July 30th, 1722; but, by an order from the Privy Council, was admitted to bail, May 26th, 1723; and appearing on his recognizance, was finally discharged the 28th of November following.

Captain Denis O'Kelly intermarried with the ennobled branch in Ireland of the old Norman name of Bellew, whose leading representatives, like those of his own race, were distinguished supporters of King James II. in the War of the Revolution. Walter, second Lord Bellew, by his Lady, Frances Arabella, eldest daughter of Sir William Wentworth, North-gate Head, Wakefield, Yorkshire, sister to the Earl of Strafford, and Maid of Honour to Mary of Este, Queen of James II., had two daughters. To the elder of these, Lady Mary Bellew, Captain Denis O'Kelly was married, November 1st, 1702. Her fortune was £16,000; so that, between it and his estate, he was in opulent circumstances. By this union, he had three children, viz., a son and two daughters. The son, Thomas, was born in January, 1704, and died in June, 1709. Of the two daughters, Frances Arabella was baptized March 6th, 1703, and died November 2nd, 1733, unmarried; and Anne, born in September, 1717, died in February, 1722.

Frances Arabella was a correspondent of our illustrious patriot, Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, in whose works several of her letters are preserved. She is thus spoken of by Lady Betty Germain, writing from England to the Dean, January 11th, 1731-2: "Miss Kelly was a very pretty girl when she went from hence, and the beaux shewed their good taste by liking her." She is alluded to by Sir Walter Scott, as having had great reason to complain of her father, from his being attached to low intrigues and dissipation. On this head, she writes, from Bristol, July 8th, 1733, to the Dean: "The unhappy life of a near relation must give one a pain, in the very repeating it, that cannot be described. For, surely, to be the daughter of a Colonel Chartres, must, to a rational being, give the greatest anxiety;

In short,

dear Sir,

dear Sir, I have been fool enough to let such things make an impression on me, which, spite of a good constitution, much spirits, and using a great deal of exercise, has brought me to what I am. Were I without a mother (I mean, had I lost her in my infancy, and not known her goodness,) I could still better have borne the steps that were taken; but, while I saw how lavish he was upon his dirty * *, I had frequent accounts, that my mother was half-starved abroad. She brought him £16,000 fortune, and, having borne severe usage for near 20 years, had resolution enough to part with him, and chose to take £250 per annum, separate maintenance, rather than bear any longer; and, as she could not live here upon such an income, she has banished herself, and lives retired, in a country town in France.”

Captain Denis O'Kelly's last surviving child, who gives this dark picture of his domestic character, only outlived the writing of this letter till the ensuing November, when she died in her thirty-first year, of a consumption, connected with the melancholy effects, on her mind, of his bad and disgraceful course of life. The Captain's own decease taking place in 1740, the family of the author of the Macaria Excidium, in the male line, became extinct. The estate and residence of Colonel Charles O'Kelly reverted, in consequence, to the son of his brother John, of Clonlyon, the Lieutenant Colonel previously mentioned; and, through this branch of the name, they have descended, in our time, to Denis Henry Kelly, Esq., of Castle Kelly®.

e The authorities for the above Memoir, besides the leading contemporary publications, or other historical works, relating to the subject, and already cited in the "Notes and Illustrations," have been the following: I. The Macaria Excidium itself, with notes and keys to the names contained in the various MSS., from which the text of the present edition has been drawn. II. The biographical notice of the Author's family, among the Irish genealogies annexed to the English translation of Keating's History of Ireland, published in 1723. III. Mr. O'Donovan's valuable edition, from the Book of Lecan, of

J. C. O'C.

the tract entitled, "The Tribes and Customs of HyMany, commonly called O' Kelly's Country." IV. A brief Memoir of Colonel Charles O'Kelly, by Count O'Kelly Farrell. V. A copy of the letter of Colonel Thomas Lloyd to Marshal Schonberg, on the affair at Boyle, September 20th, 1689. This document discountenances several statements on the matter, which, from the version of it, inserted, at the time, in the London Gazette, No. 2494, were first circulated through these islands, next reprinted over the Continent, and have thus passed, from writer to writer, as Irish history, to the present day.

Macariæ Excidium;

OR, THE

DESTRUCTION OF CYPRUS;

Containing

The last Warr and Conquest of that Kingdom. Written originally in Syriac by PHILOTAS PHYLOCYPRES. Translated into Latin by GRATIANUS RAGALLUS, P. R.

And now Made into English

By

Colonel CHARLES O KELLY.

Anno Domini

1692.