The first of the Oliver family to live in Castle Oliver was Captain Robert Oliver, an officer in the Cromwellian army who was brought to Ireland for the Reduction in 1649. In 1661 Robert Oliver was elected a member of parliament for county Limerick where the Oliver family held a seat in parliament for 117 of the 140 years between 1661 and 1801 when the Act of Union came into force. The estate was passed down the Oliver family and in 1798 Charles Silver Oliver took control of the 20,000 acre estate. That same year Charles Silver hung, drew and quartered a popular local united Irish man Patrick ‘Staker’ Wallis and placed his head on a spike on the top of Kilfinane market hall.

Charles Sliver Oliver had at least 4 illegitimate children by his mistress at Castle Oliver, the youngest Eliza Oliver mother of Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert known as Lola Montez ‘the Spanish dancer’ born 1818. Lola was the mistress of King Ludwig 1 of Bavaria; she died of pneumonia aged 42 and is buried in Green-wood cemetery Brooklyn New York.

Charles Silver passed his estate onto his son Richard, he married Mary Turner only daughter of Sir Charles and Lady Turner of Kileatham. Richard Oliver’s father-in-law died and his mother-in-law remarried Sir Thomas Gascoigne of Parlington Yorkshire, a wealthy landowner with 6,000 acres, these lands included several very profitable coal mines.

Richard Oliver changed his name by Royal license to Oliver-Gascoigne a stipulation of his father-in-laws Will. Richard and his wife Mary had four children two boys died leaving Mary and Elizabeth to inherit the Anglo Irish estates.

In 1837 the estate of Castle Oliver was said to be in ruins. Elizabeth and Mary Oliver-Gascoigne set about building a new Castle Oliver, artistic and musical the sisters were actively involved in the design and decoration of the interiors. In 1850 Mary married Capt Frederick Charles Trench, and then in 1852 Elizabeth married her brother-in-laws cousin Capt Frederick Mason Trench 2nd Baron Ashtown which is why the Trench coat of arms and family motto appears on stained glass, fireplace tiles and wall coverings within the castle.

For more information please visit www.castle-oliver.com for an extensive history of the castle and the familys who lived there.

To purchase a book written by the previous owner containing the history and pictures of castle oliver, please click here.