. . later Ullder Caplain Sir Richard Bingley. On the 19th May, 1611, Bingley w.as granted 500 acres of the lands of Doe at a rent of £4 per annum, subject to the uoLrnl conditions of the Plantation and also with a special clause under which Bingley was bound "to maintain and sustain the castle -Of Castledoe, situated on his lands, which is, neverthele£s, excepted out of this g'rant" ( 32) . Three years later, :i614, the castle and curtilage of Castledoe was granted to Sir .John Days, Attorney General for Ireland, and cm the :1_1 st December of. that same year he ~old lt to Captain John Sandford and Anne. his 'Wife, niece of Sit- Toby Caulfield. Sandford soon followed this initial purchase by buying up and leasing large tr.acts of land in the surrounding parishes, including ttose held by Sir Richard Bingley (33) and his brother Sir Ralph Bingley By 1619 Sandford and his family were well settled into Doe Castle <ind Pynar in that year noted that the Sandford home ·had "a bawne of .Jime and stone 40 feet square and 16 feet high and a castle within it that is very strong" ( 34). Sandford 's wife died in the year 1629 and the tombstone erected to her 1r.emory is now preserved by being set in the wall .surrounding the nearby graveyard of Ballymacsweeney. Sandford, himself died a year or so after her (35) leaving one son and five daughters. This son, Toby Sandfo•rd, died on the 7th May, 1639 (36) leaving his five sisters as his co-heiresses. Their names •were, .tn:rn, /\lltH', T.c1tir•<::, Mada and Maudlin (Magdalen). One of these 01-adies was wedded to an Irish Papist, one Mulrooney O'Carroll, w('lo is given as their representative in the Civil Survey of 1656, and as s.uch escaped the Cromwellian forfitures. Jn Hl43 O'Carroll, who described himself as "late of Castledoe," daimed tbat 1-.e had had goods to the value of £1,500, in County Donegal, and in the King's Cour~ ty, destroyed by rebellious Irish. For his -Donegal losses he blames, amongst others, the O'Donne1Js of Ramelton, the O'Boyles of Kiltorish, and the MacSweeneys of Doe and Fanad. His deposition, like the fow other Donegal d-Jcuments of ;a simil<ir nature, shows that Doe Castle was held for the Confederate Irish by "Captain ·Donnell ~fac Niall Mac Sweeney, Gentleman;" not w h a t one w o u 1 d expect; for Colonel Miles Mac Sweeney, "chief rebel" in the N-0rth-West, is described in all these d(;!position.s (37) as of Muinterme]~a n, i.e., p<irt of the lands goranted to his grandfather, Sir Miles MacSweeney. It would apear that Doe Castle fell into Irish hand:; shortly .after .the outbreak of hostilitic> in 1641 and remained in their hands fo1· the next nine years. Its most colourful associaticn with those years was on the morning of the 6th July, 1M2, when the :fdgate Saint Francis, bound from Dunkirk. saHed into Sheephaven Bay and came to anchor in the deep water off. Cannon's Point. This 30 gun man 'o war had safetly eluded units <>f the Royal Navy ~cnt out to intercept li<'I.' :trHI ~h(• had on boa1d Gl}llCf"
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