The Stoney family profess to having emigrated to Ireland in 1688 from Kettlewell in Yorkshire. George Stoney b1713 is the first to be linked with a specific place, and in his case two places "Portland" and "Greyfort". Thomas Stoney was born in Rilston, Yorkshire in England in 1677. His wife was Sarah Robinson from Knockshegowna and he died in 1726. The Stoneys eventually had several properties in North Tipperary, including Emell Castle and Portland House as well as an estate in Gortlandroe, Nenagh.
Some old annals of the Stoney family, by /Major [Franc Sadleir] Stoney, privately printed, 1879, gives that Major Stoney appears to have seen the Rilston parish register for 1676 which records "Thomas, the sonne of George Stoney of Rilston bapt : Decembr. 17th."/ /From the fact that an Isabell Stoney, widow of John, was buried at Rilston in 1690, and George named two of his children Isabell and John, Major Stoney guesses that Isabell was George's mother, who had possibly moved with him from Kettlewell to Rilston when he married Mary Moorehouse of Rilston in 1675. The Rilston parish registers record Stoney entries up to 1691, so that it seems unlikely that he came to Ireland as early as 1688. George settled at Knockshegowna according to Major Stoney, and his son Thomas married Sarah Robinson of Knockshegowna; Knockshegowna is also called Ballingarry and could have been a village at that time.
The Robinsons were a landed family of Ballingarry; George Stoney mortgaged an estate in Yorkshire for £800 in order to come to Ireland and so was not poor. (The date 1676 for Thomas Stoney's birth comes from the register and is therefore more likely to be correct than the 1677 I record, which probably originates from a memorial plaque in Borrisokane church erected after 1826. As Thomas died when his son George was only 13 it is possible that George was not well informed; Major Stoney records how the mortgaged estate in Yorkshire was lost apparently through ignorance.).
Portland House just over the River Shannon from Portumna
Greyfort House, 1 mile east of Borrisokane
An alternative name for Greyfort is Lisleagh from the Irish Lios Liath, Grey Fort. Thomas Stomey (b1676/7) leased this property from the Saunders family; his father George had taken a "lease for ever ... at a nominal rent" of the adjoining Lisleaghbeg. Thomas asked to be buried in Ballingarry which suggests that this had been his home. Col. George Stoney who may have lived in Greyfort House, commanded the Borrisokane Volunteers in the year 1779. His 1781 diary records "Armstrong [presumably his son Bigoe Armstrong] began to Recruit"; "the women of the Family all gone to Modreeny church, to see Col. Prittie's volunteers exercise"; "Armstrong ... got two Recruits"; "sent two Fifer and Drummer Recruits to meet Armstrong in Roscrea, to beat up for Soldiers";
Arran Hill
The Ormond family sold their interest about 1816.The name originates with the Duke’s second son, Earl of Arran. Thomas Stoney from Arran Hill was Deputy Governor of County Tipperary. He was the second son of George Stoney from Greyfort. He married Ruth Falkiner of Mount Falcon, Borrisokane and died in 1826 at the age of 78.
The original house at Arran Hill featured a flight of steps to the main door rising over a basement.It was built at the end of a long avenue, facing south towards the river.This house has long since been in ruins,having been badly damaged on the night of the Big Wind, January 6th.1839. Another structure which had been built within the confines of the original house is also now a ruin. In latter years it was owned by Mrs Hogan and later by the Loughnane family.
The Stoneys also lived in adjoining estates stretching from the Four Roads and comprising all the land between the Ballyfinboy river and the Borrisokane/ Ballinderry road.
Emell Castle, Cloughjordan
Eliza Johnston, married in 1745, George Stoney, of Greyfort, Co Tipperary, and though this marriage of Emell Castle, which had been purchased by the Johnstons from Richard Carroll in 1782, has at length devolved on its present possessor, Johnston Thomas Stoney, now of Emell Castle. James Johnston Stoney (b1759) was a younger brother of Thomas Stoney (b1748) of Emell Castle
In 1802 Captain Robert Johnston left Emell Castle to his nephew Thomas Stoney.
Emell Castle was built in 1814. 1837 Lewis for Templeharry Parish says Emell Castle, the seat of J. Stoney, Esq., commands from its summit a very extensive view; at its rear is the ancient castle.
A 1933 Canadian magazine states "Of course none of our relatives ever gave in to the Land League, "Death before dishonour," said my cousin, Johnstone Stoney of Emell Castle, "even though they boycott my bog".
Kyle Park, Borrisokane
Thomas George Stoney (1808-86), JP, Kyle Park, Borrisokane (in the townland of Kyletombricane a few miles from Borrisokane on the road to Ballinderry). Thomas George Stoney was son of George and Marianne (nee Smith) Stoney. As George was dead, Thomas G. had inherited Kyle Park and Kyletombricane on the death of his grandfather, Thomas Stoney, Arran Hill, in 1826. His grandfather had been Deputy Lieutenant of Co. Tipperary in 1793. Thomas George Stoney was very well educated and a skilled draughtsman. Thomas George Stoney was a brother of Revd Ralph Stoney and Dr. James J. Stoney.
Stoney opened drainage works at Kyle Park in June 1846 under the provisions of the first Drainage Act 1842. He claimed that it was 'the first instance in Ireland of works of thorough drainage having being put in course of execution under those acts'. During the six-month period June to November 1846 Stoney provided a total of 10,000 man-days of employment by task work at wages ranging from 9d to 11d per day.
"I have much gratification in stating that the entire body of labourers employed afforded me throughout the utmost satisfaction by the manner in which they performed the several works on which they were engaged; and frequently expressed to me their gratitude for having afforded them the means of supporting themselves in a season of very trying difficulty." His expenditure on famine relief drainage works contributed to his bankruptcy. In the Nenagh Guardian of 1851 we find an advertisement headed 'In Chancery In the matter of R. Hewitt, Solicitor, Petitioner - Thomas George Stoney Respondent ... on Friday 11th April 1851 ... in my Chambers Inns Quay County of Dublin ... to let to the highest bidder for 7 years three lots (1) Kyle Park with house and lands 356 acres, corn mill worked by steam; (2) Ballycasey 52 acres etc; (3) Bonaguga 34 acres".
Gortlandroe 1mile north of Nenagh
Thomas Butler Stoney in Griffiths at Gortlandroe
I had an email from John Goodwillie in Dec 2009 I am a descendant of James Johnston Stoney born in 1759. He first married Catherine Baker (born about 1770; she was the mother of all his children) and subsequently a Mrs White