juiut p u~; ; : u: .:;1io 11 o( Ms :>lslcr:;' faniilic:-., the Uroolrns. tllc Sa111p- ~ons and the Hartes. <By ·the end of the eighteenth ce ntU.l'Y. a representative of the Harte familv. · George Vaughan Harte. afte~-wards a .<;Jistinguisbed general in India (i31) bought uu: the other family .interests and ~ef. about making Doe CastlP habitabl~ again. He caTried out. manv r.e11afrs to the ancient keep and while doing ~o made' oile or two inte"·esting dist overies (62). By way of improvements he changed the en~ trance to the ca~tle and built an annex to it in. mJno:-ial style. He also cat:.-ied out l'epairs to the walls an:i tm·rets enclosing the bawn and completed tl'iis with a touch of barbaric splendour in t he form of. numerou=> cannon (63), mounted on the tunets and on gun carriages along the te1·1·are on the sea fr cnt. His Indian servant, "the faithful Balgoo" gave the place a fu: ther touch of oriental ~i;lenclour (64) . . General Harte died at a very ripe old age- the re- .!;Ult of an accident (65) in 1832. He was !'ucceeded in the ownership of Doe Castle \Jy hi;; son, Captain J-ohn Harte, who as a boy of si·xteen took part in the Battle of Waterloo. Captain John Harte, llnlikc his father, made Doe Cast1,; i1is •·hief residence for many >·ears before his death in . 18:~8. He was very friendly with the Ma( :Sw,eeney tinker family wh<J often ·settled down. for kmg periods, to wo~·k for him in and around the castle (06). lfo' father regarded him as the oluck sheep of the fami.ly and, u~ lie ldt 110 J.cgitimatc hdts, 6;;i: L i:-.tk \llltl mo~; l of t.hc fa111ily estate~, pas,.:ed to his hroth· e:-. .Commande1· Geor_ge Vaugnan Harte. R.N. About the year 1843 Commander 11 a rte moved most of the family effects from Doe Castle to the old ancestral l1-0me. of the llartes at Kildcrt'y and i~ the vear 1864 he and his s:m. . William Ed ward Ilarte, broke... tb~ entail on Doe Ca?.tle and soid it in the Landed Es.tates Courts. It was purchased 0hv Stewart of Ards wh:i al~o found himself taking on a feud with .. the Lo:-ds Leitrim over the ·salmon fishery on the Lackagh river, ond this law suit . o nly ended when it reached the House of Lords. Doe .Castle's history as a private residence came to a close near the end -0f the hrst century. Shortly after tl1e Jlad es moved to Kilderry a .reti1'ed naval officer, a Captain Madison, became its tennant and some of hb family were born and reared there. TheY wel'e extremely popular with the 1ocal people (67) . . The Captain was succeeded by a Church of Ireland clergyman, \ho. Rev. Mr. Mu"·phy, known as "An Miaister ban". H.e became invo'.vcd in a lawsuit with his landlord;; when h~ sought to invoke clauses in the Land_ Acts fer the purpose of establishing a title to the rastle and lands. After the landlord · got rid of him Doe Castle ·v. as ·Jeft v.acant and wa~ allowed to "go from wreck to ruim" and this decay was very much accelerated through pilfering and vandalism. In 1932 the landlord sold the castle and lands to the Irish Land Com-
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