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Drope Family of County Cavan and Elsewhere

CavanCastleterra (Cavan)
John Drope of Ballyhaise, gent. left a will dated 29 July 1899. See the index in Vicar’s Prerogative Wills of Ireland, 1536–1810, and the Crossle Genealogical Abstracts on FindMyPast.
Probate on the will was granted to John's daughter, Frances McIllree, widow, and her eldest son, John Drope McIllree on 24 May 1800. John Drope was living in the Ballyhaise area from at least 1763, according to
Register of Deeds Index Project, Memorial # 184519262. It is not clear whether this John Drope was the first man to lease lands and mills around Ballyhaise from Thomas and Arthur Newburgh or whether any other Drope or lessees entered into lease arrangements before him. 
What I am trying to ascertain is exactly when the first member of the Drope family arrived in County Cavan, particularly Ballyhaise and when.
Jane Morrison

3 replies

Hi Jane, I am not going to be able to put a Drope in Cavan, have ancestors myself from Castleterra / Castletara but no Drope's, nearby Belturbet was founded around 1610 by a Stephen Butler from Bedfordshire but I see no Drope's mentioned in a small booklet on the matter, not everyone listed mind you, only certain people listed in it, burgess and some shops and trades and it has no reference to those listed by name but an index of references.

On the Irish Genealogy site under church references the earliest Drope is in Dublin baptised in 1746, not all church records on the site which is free, sign in though required. https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/ Civil records on start in 1864 for everybody with Protestant marriages from 1845.

I searched John Grenhams site of surnames listing, that bit free to search and got none but a reference to the Depositions of 1641 and there is one from a Bart Drope in 1643, taken in Dublin. https://1641.tcd.ie/index.php/search-results/?Forename=&Surname=Drope&C…;

The other site mentioned is https://www.johngrenham.com/ A subscription site but surname searches free but a daily limit.

You could try the Cavan library to see if they have any info on this unusual name in Ireland at least. Cavan Genealogy are also helpful but there is a cost for research.

Also this site of the Anglican church are working on what records survey and putting them online, the records on the Dublin churchs appear to show Drope as a Church of Ireland name.

Good Luck

Pat

newohalloran.p…IrelandXO Volunteer

Dear Pat,

Thanks very much for your reply. There are some much earlier posts on Ireland Reaching Out dating from December 2012 from me and later Patricia Balasiuk re the Drope family in Ireland. Unfortunately I was unable to link this message I have posted on IXO on 11 January 2024 to the older messages. The earliest Drope in Irish records appears to be Giles Drope who studied law in Dublin in 1628. He is listed in the King's Inns Admission papers for that year. Giles Drope married Anna Drewe of Dublin in 1631. The posts dating from December 2012 outline a lot more information about members of the Drope family. What I am trying to do is find the links between my ancestor John Drope, who had mills at Ballyhaise at least from 1763 and earlier Dropes who lived in the town or nearby in County Cavan or elsewhere in Ireland. There was a William Drope who died in Balllyhaise in 1754. His brothers James Drope and John Drope (died 1758) were trustees of his estate but died without issue. Apparently James Drope of Ballyhaise (d. in 1758) had a "natural son", John, and a nephew, William. There was a John Drope of Cootehill who made a will on 11 November 1774 (Vicar's Index of the Prerogative Wills of Ireland). I am not sure who is who among these Dropes.

The Index of Irish Wills 1484–1858 includes: James Drope, Cavan 1758; John Drope, Cavan, 1774; William Drope, Cavan, 1754; John Drope, Cavan 1723; and John Drope, Cavan, 1800. This last-mentioned John Drope is our direct ancestor. On 11 January 2024, I was able to find a copy of his will written on 29 July 1799, on FindMyPast, to which I have a paid subscription, in the Crossle Genealogical Abstracts. I believe I had seen this, or a similar record, some years ago as I knew about the contents. I am still trying to work out which Drope was this John Drope's father, who was his mother and when they first arrived in Ballyhaise. Am also interested in the connections to the other Dropes mentioned in the Index of Irish Wills. I visited the Johnston Library in Cavan Town some years ago (2014?), but back then I was directed to shelves to take pot luck among the various publications available. I also visited the Cavan Heritage and Geneaolgy Centre where I obtained a copy of a birth record for a female ancestor. Unfortunately this cost Euro 30 = c. A$60 at the time so was unable to search for any more records there as the cost would have been prohibitive. From time to time I have been able to pay for membership of Roots Ireland but so far did not find any Drope records that go back as far as the 1700s. The records on Dr Jane Lyons' excellent website, From Ireland, unfortunately don't go back that far either. I suspect that I will have to manually search through Irish will records such as the Crossle Genealogical Abstracts on FindMyPast or Registry of Deeds records that are now online in the hope of finding relevant Drope wills. As I live in Australia and am not able to travel, I don't expect I will be able to visit Ireland again. IXO is one of the very helpful websites I have used over the years and will continue to do so. Best wishes for 2024 and your own family history research.

Jane Morrison

Jane Morrison

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