Paar Family, Ballyboy House, Rathmore
Ballyboy House is located on the Athboy-Navan road near Rathmore. In 1835 it was the residence of Mr. Gannon. In the 1850s Thomas Askens was leasing the house and entire townland of 327 acres from the Earl of Darnley. The Parr family acquired the property prior to 1901 and in that year Bernard W. Parr and his family were living in the house. He was a grazier and farmer. His wife, Alice Catherine, was from Cambridge. There was a related Parr family at Parkstown, Ballivor.
Bernard W. Parr died in 1922. He was a well known personality on the Turf course and ran a stud farm at Ballyboy. He had re-married shortly before his death. Major Victor Parr from Athboy was born in 1887, the son of Bernard and Alice Parr. Victor became a Major in the Inniskilling Fusiliers and served in France from February 1916. Major Victor Parr D.S.O. M.C. resided at Ballyboy. In 1925 Victor ran for the Farmer and Ratepayers Party for Meath County Council. About 1928 he married Norah Beatrice Moyne. Their only child, Annie, was killed at the age of 19, when she fell from her horse at Rathcarne in 1949. Ballyboy House was sold in 1987 following Mrs. Parr‟s death. The house and 195 acres fetched £266,000.
Source: meath-roots.com