An ‘Italian palace’ in Co. Roscommon: the creation of Rockingham House, Boyle

The Rockingham estate, centred on the town of Boyle in Co. Roscommon, was the property of the King (afterwards King-Harman, later Stafford-King-Harman) family for more than 300 years.1 The family’s first association with the area was in the early seventeenth century when Sir John King (d.1636), a Yorkshire man, obtained a joint lease of the abbey of Boyle in recompense for military services. This grant was confirmed during the reign of James I of England along with a number of lucrative political employments which made the family influential in the civil and military administration of Ireland.2 Sir John’s grandson, John (d.1676), was raised to the peerage of Ireland as Baron Kingston in 1660; this was his reward for ‘eminent services and steady loyalty in aiding the restoration’ of Charles II despite originally being an active Cromwellian.3The Kings continued to grow in wealth and status during the eighteenth century, advancing in the Irish peerage and eventually acquiring the rank and title of Earl of Kingston in 1768.4