Fisherwick

Fisherwick.-In the reign of Edward I. Roger Durant held this place, and was succeeded by Nicholas Durant. It afterwards passed into the possession of Sir Roger Hillary, and was allotted to Elizabeth, his eldest daughter, who was married to Sir William de la Plannche. It descended to their daughter Elizabeth, Lady Clinton, who enfeoffed it, together with other lands, to Thomas Wodevile, John Longuevile, John Barton, and others. Afterwards it came into the possession of Lord John Vernon, or his mother the countess, who sold it to Sir John Skeffington, who was an alderman and sheriff of London. He built a "very proper brick house," with immense semicircular bay windows, and a "superb and elegant stone portico." It was finished in 1774 at a cost for the house and grounds exceeding £200,000: "by the end of 1816 not a stone was left upon another." The estate continued in the Skeffington family till 1756, when Viscount Massereene sold it to Samuel Swinfen; it afterwards came into possession of the marquis of Donegal, and in 1810 was sold to Richard Howard. The township contains 93 inhabitants, 17 houses, and its real property is valued at £2122.