• General Notes

  John Fraunceis, Knight of Glin (d. 1854) known locally as Ridire na mBan (Knight of the Women) despite his Cantabrigian education was a devotee of the Irish language which he stoke with exceptional fluency.  Some knowledge of the then vernacular was very necessary in the management of a large household and estate in 18th and 19th century Ireland.
  
  It was only because of the long minority of John Fraunceis and the fact he had no other brothers and sisters to be provided for, that the Fitzgerald finances improved.
  
  In 1812 John Fraunceis attained his majority. Educated at Winchester and Cambridge, he is said to have restored the family fortunes by successful gambling and through further sales of land. Though he married an English clergyman's daughter with no great dowry, he was able to build the three Gothic lodges and added the battlements. He also changed the name from Glin House to Glin Castle in keeping with its new status.
  
  John Fraunceis was much given to womanizing but was also interested in the history of his family, an antiquarian, and a fluent Gaelic speaker. He wrote poetry and was a just magistrate. Besides being a benevolent and improving landlord, he loved hunting, was a keen sailor, and entertained hospitably at Glin. The 1820s and 1830s were high noon at the newly christened Glin Castle, a Jane Austen-like world with music and amateur painting for the ladies and of course sport and billiards for the men. The famine years from 1845 cast a deep shadow over Ireland and the 'Knight of the Women', as he was known in Gaelic, died of cholera caught in the Glin poorhouse where he officiated as chairman of the Board of Guardians in 1854.
  

Details of John Fraunceis' family with <Unknown>