The Marquis of Westmeath

The Earls of Westmeath continued to occupy Inchmore over the next two and a half centuries and some of the best stories concerning the island relate to the Nugent family. One such story is contained in a charming (and scarce) little booklet called "Lough Ree and around it" which was written by W.J. Nash and printed for him by Athlone Printing Works in 1949, it is an anecdote which was passed down to him through his father. He relates it as follows:

"The Marquis of Westmeath had a summer residence on Inchmore about the middle of the last century. The Marquis, then a very old man, who was in the army when young, used to boast that he had fought Napoleon in Egypt and helped to defeat and capture his army there. He tried to make some of his fellow islanders pay rent to him, but they claimed to be freeholders from time immemorial. One sturdy woman chased him away with a pitchfork when he came to demand rent from her. The islanders remained freeholders. I remember when we were children and Celia Kindleton an old woman, my father pointed her out to us as the woman who defeated the man who defeated the great Napoleon".

The Marquis occupied the big house on the island which is now in ruins. The boundary wall of the old walled garden survives and inside it the remains of an orchard.