Hi Brian,
Yes, I tried to reach Rodney, the real estate agent, and he didn't respond to me either. I had to talk to the owner of the B&B who knew him and realized that was the only way to go. I was really lucky to have had the chance to tour it. It was taking his time not showing it to a potential buyer, but he seemed keen showing it nonetheless. I have not looked up to see the status of it today, but I imagine it's still for sale. It would take a gut job to get it beyond the damage it's taken over the years. Sad, but true.
I'm on ancestry.com so I have gone back as far as George Cochran as well. In fact, I followed his line all the way back to Robert Cochran 1390-1482. His son was Alan the Ilk Cochran 1432-1484 and his son, Robert the Ilk Cochran 1472-1530 who married Marion Stuart...which is, I believe, Henry the 8th's daughter or sister, I'm not sure and because I'm not signed up with Ancestry.com right now, I can't go in and check! But I remember being quite surprised. I'm sure you can find him in Wiki or in someone else's tree if you are in ancestry too. I find it all very much like chasing ghosts!
I'm sorry, my husband the techie, tried to put the folder in a compressed zipper file but it didn't upload. Which just means we need your email address OR, if you are on ancestry.com, look me up under Anie64. My tree is private, but if you PM me, I can send you a onedrive folder from there. I'm not sure if you know anything about Onedrive, but the folder is accesible for 2 weeks and you'd have to download the pics onto your computer before it disappears. Here is just a snippet I wrote about visiting the house.
"Last September (2013), my fiance and I went to see the Crilly House. The house was on sale for about 1.5 mil in dollars, 22 acres. I reached out to the realtor, but he didn't get back to me until I went through a local channel...the owner of the B & B we stayed at close to the village. The owner's husband had died in the house the year or two before (I hear he did not like visitors of any kind, especially 'drop by' visitors from the Pettigrew's American descendants!) and she has been trying to sell it since. Since I am a direct descendant of James Pettigrew (he is my 8th, 9th 10th?? times Great Grandfather and builder of the estate), she gave the green light for the realtor to show it to us...and what a treat!
Just driving up to the house, you are in awe of not only the size of the house but of the stately-ness of it. A gate, that is probably the original gate, must be opened to drive up. Once you start, it's a nice stretch of road up to the circular drive way. You could imagine carriages coming up the drive, it was absolutely breathtaking. There is a small moat around the house with an arched brick stoop to the front door. Walking in, right away you could smell the mildew. Sadly, the house has not been kept up properly. The carpet didn't match or make any sense with the wallpaper and the sparse furniture added to the rather squandor-like feel of the whole decor. But the wood and the architecture more than made up for all that. The railing of the staircase alone can take you back centuries. The top attic was where the servants and school teacher lived with their children. Apparently the importance of education filtered down to Miss Rebecca Jane Pettigrew (one of the first school teacher in South Dakota) from her ancestors. Since I was incredibly sick on this trip to the house, I wasn't completely alert! But I remember much of it through the pictures I took. There was a large backyard where the farm equipment and livestock were stored and taken care of, a small house for where they kept their grain and pantry. I was surprised that the property was so large, but most of it is a 'bog', so, much of the land was too marshy to utilitze, however, they did have a garden and farmed in the higher regions of the property. I heard there was over 100 acres they owned and leased out parcels of land to nearby neighbors."
