Gerrardstown House

Gerrardstown, sometimes Geraldstown, House or Castle was located 5 miles from Navan, between Garlow Cross and Kentstown.  The neighbouring property was Staffordstown House.  In 1835 Gerrardstown house and demesne was the property of Mr. Corbally. The house is near the Nanny river.  Attached to the house was a fine lawn, a good garden and a fishpond.  In front of the house was the site of a castle and nearby was a mound, possibly a motte.

In 1854 Rev. Dr. Frederick Nolan was leasing Gerrardstown House and 369 acres from Matthew E. Corbally of Corbalton Hall. Nolan was a theologian.  He was ordained in August 1806, and served in parishes in England.  Nolan was an extreme theological conservative.  He died at his home, Geraldstown House, on 16 September 1864, and was buried in the ancestral vault in Navan churchyard.  Captain William Shirley-Ball, 8th Hussars, lived at Abbeylara, Co. Longford and Gerrardstown, Navan.  Captain William Shirley Ball married Jane Wilton and they had two sons, Thomas and Arthur William.  William Shirley Ball died in 1866.  Arthur William was a lieutenant in the 59th regiment.

Cecilia Letitia Humphrys of Ballyhaise married Arthur Shirley Ball, of Geraldstown in 1869. Arthur was High Sherrif of Longford about 1874. Races were held at Gerrardstown in the 1870's.  A new red brick house was erected at Gerrardstown in 1872.  The hosue had six sitting rooms and fourteen bedrooms.  In 1901 and 1911 Cecelia Letitia Shirley Ball, widow, lived at Gerrardstown.  The house had twenty five rooms, eleven windows to the front and twenty seven outbuildings.  Mrs. Shirley Ball died in 1924 at Gerrardstown.  Gerardstown was purchased by Mr. John Carlin, a Dublin cattle dealer.  The house was demolished after the Land Commission took over the estate.

Source: www.meath-roots.com