Castle, when captured by the l!·isb in 164t. w::is not taken over by Col0nel Miles MacSweeney in accord "with family vanity", but by· Captain Donnell mac Niall .MacSweeney, g1,nncbon {)f Eoghan Og 11 MacSweeney Doe. During the years JtH6/ 7 a gentleman named Mkhael Harrison laid claim to ·Doe Castle, and strange to reLate, the Crown Rentals, of 1707, reccird 1.hat he was the assignee of Captain John Sandford (45). This record >-hows something- in the natu~·e of a .Jaeuna, in the devolution of the title to the Castle as it ignores Toby Sandford, his si~ters. and Mulrooney O'Carroll. A State Paper, from 'Westminster, dated 18th Aug;.ist, 164li requested considerabon by the Committee Resident in Mt:nstcr of. a petition, from Quarter Master Harrison, for arms and ammunition for 30 warders. and to be allowed to take possession of Doe Castle "in 1.he North of Ireland." Some months later a P arliamentary Commissioner at Belfa.:;t apparently recommended the implementation of Harrison'.s petition, not to \\'eshn i·nster, but to the Ct'll1Jnittee at Derby. "May it i:·l -;a s e Your Lordships, we think it !l'eason.able that Quarter . Mas.- ter ·Harrison be restored to his own touse and furnished with ammunition, he finding the men for the present." (46). Harrison had however to wait quite a nurnhe1· of years before his d aim to Doe Cast!c material-· ised. There is no reference to him in the Civil Survey of 1656 which r ecogni!-ied "Mulroney O 'C<11-rol a~ the l'epre8ent ative of the Sancil'ord Heiresses. On the otl:er hand O'CarroH and the Sandfords arc not mentioned iii the 1659 Census wl1ich set~ Ha"·- ' ison down a" the Titulado (or r.:•i'ident c:Jaimant) to "Mogora' in foe parish of Ray, and ·:o ad<.: to tliis enigma he is tabulated as the only non-Irish person in that townland. Neither, H arrison, O'Carroll n<Jr the Sandfords, figure in the Hearthmoney Rolls of 1656 for the dish·ict around Doe. The Ormond Mss. and .State Papers of the Restoration pericd however show that llarri!?-on was then a c·ollcdor of Customs and . E'xcise in North· Ea.st lJJster and that he .had t \aimed the re.storation of his estates in virtue of being one of the "4!1 officer~" wh:> remained loyal to the King. The reference to him in the Crown Rentals of 1707 confirms his ultimate suc1:.::ss in this claim (47). There is every indication tha'\ Doe Castle was returned very reluctantly to private ownership on account of its suitability a~ a fortress and military depot fol the Norlh West. In addition to reCO!'d Vie have a very substan· tial tradition which deals with an officer of the .garrison during the years foll~w_ing. its rerapfore b\" Coote's forces from Derry, i~ February .1.650. This t!·a ditiori tells that the constable of the castle was then one {'.aptafr (Rohert) Cunningham and that he was _slain near Ard:; by two men from the Rosses ( 48) i.n revenge for · Cunningham's part in a massac~·e of ·women and : hildl'en. This, of course, is a bare outline of the traditional ar- <·mtnt, irivolving of a number ot 31la,
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