It may seem a strange way to begin a family history by quoting an epitaph from a headstone but it helps to set the scene as to how it developed and progressed through the generations to follow. The way the two names were used will be seen throughout the story.
We then look at the other family headstones in Kilbride Cemetery which clearly indicate that this was a burial plot where all the families that had originated in Kilbride, brought back some of their kin folk to be buried.
The Griffith Valuation records show the extent and diversity of the tenancies held by members of the family throughout the County Kildare.
The story of the Corn Mill shows the ingenuity involved, in how it was developed and how the water was procured to operate it.
So to the families themselves:
The Mullee/Molloy family in Kilbride takes us from the first Darby to his son Darby and on to his son Patrick who all worked the farm and operated the Corn Mill as tenants of the Kilbride Estates.
Patrick’s brothers Michael (Mullee) and John (Molloy) had both left in the 1830’s and appeared to have worked in tandem establishing their tenancies in the Rathmore area. That was until land at Wolfestown was transferred to Michael in his own name.
John’s story is related under the heading “The man who came back to Kilbride” which refers to his grandson also John who was inadvertently the only member of the family to return to Kilbride
Patrick had left Kilbride in the early 1800’s and started his tenancy with the Downshire Estates at Newtown Great. This was the largest single unit and passed to his son Peter and later to his son Patrick, who died a single man and intestate, leaving his sister Alice to dispose of the place in 1945.
The last man we can trace to leave Kilbride was Patrick’s son Michael, when he emigrated to America.