Hi Lynn,
Purely by chance I came across your site and trawled through all of it.I can add another dimension.
My family come from the English Midlands and look to have backed the winning side in the Wars of the Roses.
Anway one, Sir Henry Colley was purse-bearer to Elizabeth 1st and was rewarded by lands in Kildare after also successfully completing work as Surveyor-General relating to the plantation of Ulster.
By about 1560 they were living in Carberry having changed the original castle and made it more comforable by "Tudorising it".
The next significant time is around 1700 when the castle was occupied by Mary and Anne Colley, Sir Henry's descendants. With no direct male heir and being unmarried there was a problem. Also about this time in came the roof tax as precursor to the notorious window tax.
Mary married Arthur Pomeroy who built Newberry Hall is close to Edenderry. In Edenderry itself at the catholic chapel are buried other Colleys including Sarah who died in 1707 who I believe married a Blundell who also had a castle in Edenderry. However this is confusing as Blundell castle was defended by Sir George Colley against the O'Neills in 1691 so presumably this is the same Sir George son of Henry.
The Wellesley connection goes back to 1728 when Garret Wesley married a Colley heiress but as a condition had to change the name to Wellesley which was already a Colley name. Their two sons became respectively Arthur Duke of Wellington and Richard Colley Wellesley who had 10 illegitimate children and emigrated to the USA in the 19th century so may have had descendants that fought in the Civil War.
All very confusing as you see. Subsequently, Sir George Colley was killed at the battle of Majuba Hill in 1881 during the first Boer war and another Colley went on to become Bishop of Natal. In 1896 there was insurgency in South Africa against the Boers and a Colley was prominent in the Jameson raid.
All Colleys appear to have two distinctive lines. We are either auburn/fair haired and blue-eyed or dark haired with dark eyes which is like my second cousin.
Traditionally all male Colleys on the one side have Henry as a forename, but I have broken the tradition as my son is Richard which is the first time that the name has been used for around 175 years and I wanted to revive it.
We have the coat of arms Or a Lyon rampant of the field Gules and also had some silver pieces with the coat of arms emblazoned. I think everything else probably went to Arthur Pomeroy when Mary married in 1748.
In 2005 we went to Carbury as I had already been in touch with Land Registry in Dublin. as you probably know Colleys are buried there but the graveyard is overgrown although the castle has not altered since the roof was taken off and the floors removed.
You may also like to know that the Colleys have another coat of arms which is very unusual and is likely older than the one above this is Pale a cross wavy Vert. From the spelling this appears to be Norman French so could have been the one used by the Colleys in the 13th century.
Finally I have another complication with my side as I observe you have numerous other family intertwines as well as my paternal Grandmother was a Pittaway which has Irish roots and has a Griffin as the coat of arms and of course in that respect the Marquis of Douro's eldest son Arthur Earl of Mornington traces back to castle Dangan and the Wesleys so it's even more complex. I have met Dick Wellesley whose sister Jane is Douro's daughter and was well known socially a few years ago but I think is still working in television.
So a bit more for your considerable research.
Best wishes,
R H Colley
