De Renzy & Dundas
Mathew De Rinzi variously spelled Derenzy, De Rinzy and De Renzy became Sir Mathew De Rinzy in a true-life ‘Rags to Riches’ story. He came to Ireland not alone penniless but a bankrupt who had fled from his creditors in London. In Ireland he travelled to the still lawless midlands and set himself up on a small holding in Co. Offaly on lands owned by the McColgan sept.
Mathew was a very clever man who recognized that the English officials in Ireland did not understand the Gaelic language nor could they read it. He decided to learn Irish and studied the Gaelic scripts under the tutelage of the Gaelic scholars attached to the O’Brien sept of Clare.
In time he became an expert interpreter of Gaelic landholding documents and proved to be very useful to the English administration.
During his time at Clonony he learned the Irish language and more importantly he learned to read ‘Old Irish’ which very very few Irishmen knew how to do and no Englishmen. He suggested many methods of conquering the Irish to his masters in Dublin and they listened. He and his son Matthew were also the Irish agents of the Earl of Middlesex.
Dundas
The first of the Dundas family to settle in Co. Wexford was Lawrence or Lorenzo Dundas the eldest son of Major Lawrence Dundas of the 5th Fusiliers, who lived at Blackrock, Co. Dublin, but who served in the Peninsular War as A.D.C. to the Duke of Wellington. The Major was born in 1787 the 2nd son of another military man, also a Major Lawrence who commanded the 26th Light Dragoons.
Lorenzo of Clobemon Hall, also had property and interests in Co. Westmeath and was a J.P. in both counties.
Major Lawrence’s elder brother, Michael Henry, a Lieutenant, was killed by natives in New Zealand.