Heraldry at Clongowes Wood (Castle Browne)

Clongowes Wood

 

Clongowes Wood - doorway

In 1718 Stephen Fitzwilliam Browne rebuilt the castle completing the western façade (front) just as it is today, comprising the central keep and the two square towers. In 1788 Thomas Wogan Browne extended and decorated the castle. The extension consists of the eastern façade and two round towers at the back of the castle all built in the Georgian style. Both building phases are recorded in the Latin inscription incised on the lintel over the hall-door of the castle beneath the impaled coat of arms of Browne and Wogan.

 

The inscription reads: 

RESTITVIT MDCCXVIII S. FITZWILLIAM BROWNE NVNC ...

AMPLLABAT ET ORMABAT MDCCLXXXVIII T. WOGAN BROWNE DE 

The impaled arms of Browne (Castle Browne) and Wogan (Rathcoffey) 

Thomas Wogan Browne died in 1812 and his younger brother, General Michael Wogan Browne, who was helping Napoleon at the siege of Moscow, inherited the property. When he returned to Ireland on hearing of his brother’s death, he found the estate heavily in debt and sold the castle and 219 acres to Fr Peter Kenney SJ in March 1814 for £16,000.

https://clongowes1978.blogspot.com/2018/03/

 

The Wogan and Browne families lived in neighbouring estates and in the early 1700’s were joined by marriage when Stephen Browne from Castle Browne (later renamed Clongowes Wood) married Judith Wogan from Rathcoffey. Subsequently, male members of the Brown family used the additional forename of Wogan until 1880 when by deed poll the double barrel name of Wogan-Browne was adopted.

 https://kildare-nationalist.ie/2022/02/10/the-wogan-brownes-a-tragic-family/

 

https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/zwrk/temp70.php

 

The arms of Wogan

The arms of Michael Browne and those of Catherine Wogan as an inescutcheon of pretence.

 https://tullowhistorian.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/25/

The Wogan arms here are quartered for Wogan with the arms of some heiress whose family bore a chevron between three escallop shells.