In 1598, Lettice Fitzgerald, daughter and heir of Gerald, the Lord Offaly of the time, married a Robert Digby of Coleshill, Warwickshire, who was brother of the 1st Earl of Bristol and whose son was created Ist Baron Digby of Geashill in 1620.
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An Anglo-Norman settlement was built here between 1185 and 1204 by the first Baron of Offaly, Gerald Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, an ancestor of the Earls of Kildare.
In 1199, though receiving King John's letters of protection, he was ordered to "do right" to Maurice Fitzphilip for the lands of 'Gessil and Lega' (possibly Geashill; maybe 'Lega' is in County Laois), that he had taken from Maurice.
Geashill |