Capt. Thomas James RAWSON ¹

  General Notes:

Glasseally lies five miles east of Athy, in the Barony of Narragh and Reban East. According to Dr. P.W. Joyce the name means " Early Stream." This stream rises in the high ground of Battlemount, passes close to Glasseally Churchyard, through the low-lying land between Ballindrum and Ardscull, past Inch Castle, on through Geraldine (formerly Tullaghgorey ) to the silent mill at Clonmullen, and enters the Barrow at Athy, where it is known as the "Moneeu river."

Journal of the Kildare Archaeological and Historical Society
Vol. VII, 1912-1914
Glassealy and its Tenants : with the career of Walter "reagh" FitzGerald. By Lord Walter Fitzgerald. pp. 83-108

Extract from this paper on the Rawson family of Glassealy, Athy & Carlow.
pp.95-96

On the 20th November, 1691, a lease for 21 years was granted to "Samuel Jackson, of Glassely, Gent.," by Sir William Tichborne, of the County Louth, of the lands of "Glassely, Ballyadam, and Ballindrom."
In the Glassealy churchyard there is a tombstone to the memory of this Samuel Jackson, "who lived for 55 years in Glassely," and died in 1781, aged eighty-eight.
Previous to the year 1749 the tenant of Glassealy was Thomas James Rawson, son of James Rawson, of Punchestown, who in 1749 married a Miss James, of Ballycrystal, in the County Wexford. T. J. Rawson married a daughter of Mr. Hardy Eustace, of Newstown, County Carlow. In 1797 he raised a corps of yeomanry, and was nominated its captain. They took an active part in quelling the rebellion in the locality, and fought in the battles of Athy and Narraghmore. In 1798, while Captain Rawson and his force were out patrolling, a party of the rebels under the leadership of a man known as "Black Top" attacked Glassealy House, which was defended by his steward and a few troopers, set it on fire, and sacked the place. Word reached Captain Rawson of what had taken place, and he quickly repaired to the scene, and encountered the rebels, whom he routed, and took sixteen of them prisoners, every one of whom he hanged next morning on a large ash-tree, which still stands in the centre of the lawn in front of the house.

Some months afterwards, when peace had been restored, Captain Rawson and his wife returned from Dublin, where they had taken refuge, to view the ruins of their house. Pointing to a corner of a room in the upper story; Mrs. Rawson exclaimed, "There is where my wardrobe stood, and at the back of it I hid sixty guineas in a mouse's hole in the wall. I wonder if they are still there." A ladder was procured, and her son climbed up,
examined the spot, and discovered the guineas untouched in the wall.

After the destruction of Glassealy House the Rawsons lived at Cardingtown House, near Athy. More than a year after '98 Captain Rawson was given the "hard word," that the notorious "Black Top" and a confederate were hiding in a house in Athy. Bent on arresting them, he at once proceeded to the place indicated, and, stationing his son at the door, entered the house.
The confederate in endeavouring to escape by the door was seized and bound by young Rawson ; "Black Top" leaped out of a window at the back of the house, and ran for Monavullagh Bog. Captain Rawson, seeing the line he took, rushed down, mounted his horse, and, galloping after him across country, over-took him before he could reach the bog. "Black Top" was brought to bay near a heap of stones, with which he defended himself, being unarmed ; and, as he refused to surrender, Captain Rawson drew a pistol from his holster and disabled him by a shot in the shoulder. "Black Top" and his confederate both suffered death for the murders they had committed during the rebellion.
After leading a life of great extravagance at Cardingtown, Captain Rawson died in 1814, aged sixty-six. His second son, Robert. succeeded him, and built the present house at Glassealy in 1818, the ruins of the old house being converted into farm stables and out-offices. Robert married Maria, daughter of George Mansergh, and, dying in 1854 in his eighty-second year, was succeeded by his eldest son, Lewis Rawson, at Glassealy.
His second son was Dr. Thomas James Rawson, M.D., of Carlow. Lewis Rawson was married to Barbara, daughter of James Blacker, Esq., of Dublin, and sister of the Rev. George Blacker, Rector of Maynooth. As he died in debt in 1861, aged fifty-seven, Glassealy, was sold in 1868, and purchased by Mr. Philip S. Barrington, whose son-in-law, Mr. Egerton Hammond, bought out under the Wyndham Act of 1908, at which time all the remainder of the Leinster estate also changed hands.

264 Rawson, Thomas James. Statistical survey of the county of Kildare with observations on the means of improvement; dram up for the consideration and by direction of the Dublin Society. Dublin: 1807. xlviii, 237 p.
Printed in order to procure further information on the state of husbandry in co.
Kildare. Gives the early 18th century state of Kildare's geography, agriculture, pastures, and
farms; also covers "general subjects" such as use of alcohol, the state of roads, tithes, the
clergy, etc. There are chapters on cattle and sheep, grasslands, potatoes, and Irish manners
and customs. A useful work for the study of agricultural and economic history.

https://www.dib.ie/biography/rawson-thomas-james-a7588
Rawson, Thomas James (1748?\endash 1814), yeomanry captain and author of the Dublin Society's statistical survey of Kildare, was a son of James Rawson of Punchestown, Co. Kildare. His mother was born a James of Ballycrystal, Co. Wexford. It seems both parents were of humble origin, as later it was said of T. J. Rawson that he rose 'from the lowest order of society to be a magistrate' (Reynolds, Reynolds, i, 196). Rawson took on the tenancy of a farm at Glassealy near Athy and married a daughter of Hardy Eustace of Newstown, Co. Carlow.

In April 1798 he raised the Loyal Athy infantry corps of yeomanry and was made its captain. In the months before, during and after the rebellion of 1798 he was probably the most active magistrate in south Kildare. In the summer of 1798 the Athy yeomanry fought in battles with insurgents at Athy and Narraghmore. Rawson's severity and unpopularity \endash though he was no Orangeman \endash were acknowledged by his neighbour Thomas Reynolds (qv), who once saved his life during the rebellion. Another neighbour, Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine (1753?\endash 1808), who in his politics was close to the 2nd duke of Leinster (qv), asserted that Rawson had his prisoners tortured. In Rawson's absence on patrol his house was attacked, sacked and fired (September 1798). Rawson returned to find the attackers in flagrante delicto, routed them and took prisoner sixteen, all of whom he hanged next morning on an ash tree in the centre of his front lawn. He moved to Cardingtown or Cardenton, near Athy, and a year later succeeded in tracing and disabling the chief attacker, who was afterwards hanged for murder. Again during the brief rebellion of 1803 he was active, diligently arresting (in his own words) 'every person absent from hence on the fatal Saturday' (quoted in Chambers, Rebellion, 117).

Rawson was a progressive farmer, who submitted to the Board of Agriculture in London a paper on the propagation of potatoes (1802) and compiled for the Dublin Society the Statistical survey of the county of Kildare (1807). After a life of 'great extravagance' (Fitzgerald, 'Glassealy', 96), T. J. Rawson died in 1814 aged 66. His second son, Robert Rawson (1773?\endash 1854), succeeded him and built another house at Glassealy (1818).

Sources
Saunders' News Letter, 28 Sept. 1798; Richard Musgrave, Rebellions (1801), i, 273\endash 4, ii, app. no. xv; T. J. Rawson, Statistical survey of the county of Kildare (1807); Thomas Reynolds, junr, The life of Thomas Reynolds (1839), i, 196; R. R. Madden, The United Irishmen, 3rd ser. (1846), ii, 342\endash 3; Lord Walter Fitzgerald, 'Glassealy and its tenants' in Kild. Arch. Soc. Jn., vii (1912\endash 14), 95\endash 6; Liam Chambers, Rebellion in Kildare (1998), esp. 64, 103, 117

Publishing information
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3318/dib.007588.v1
Originally published October 2009 as part of the Dictionary of Irish Biography
Last revised October 2009

Thomas married Margaret EUSTACE, daughter of Col. Robert EUSTACE CB and Catherine WHELAN, on 4 Jun 1774 in St. Werburgh, Dublin, Ireland. (Margaret EUSTACE was born in 1755 in Of, Ardristan, Carlow, Ireland ².)

  Marriage Notes:

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/4fe7aa0591767