Mark Lynch , of Renmore and first of Duras. He acquired the eastern half of the peninsula from the Frenches, who had been transplanted to south Galway by the Cromwellian Commissioners in the 1650s. The Frenches of Duras were a wealthy family, with extensive merchant connections in the South of France. Towards the end of his life, James French of Duras, who lived more or less permanently in France at his chateau in Chaillot, began disposing of his property in order to maintain his lavish style of living. His daughter, Frances, had married a young Bordeaux lawyer, Bartholomew de Basterot in 1770, bringing with her an enormous dowry, or at least the promise of one. After her death in 1776, James French deferred paying the remainder of his daughter's dowry, and at his death in 1786 a large sum was still outstanding. By this stage, Bartholomew de Basterot had married a second time, to the heiress of a wealthy French planter who had a large estate on the island of San Domingo. But a slave uprising on the island rendered his second wife's dowry worthless. By 1790 he was declared bankrupt and in 1792 he was given permission by a council of his creditors to travel to Ireland in the hopes of gaining the unpaid portion of his first wife's dowry. De Basterot left France just in time, for the French Revolution a short time later swept through Bordeaux, and many of his friends and relations lost not only their fortunes but also their lives. Once in Ireland de Basterot took legal action against the estate of his brother-in-law, the late Patrick French, who had died unmarried. The very costly de Basterot legal case was not settled in his favour until 1796. Unfortunately, almost as soon as he gained possession of the Duras estate he was obliged to sell off large portions of it. Kinvara and its adjoining townlands was sold to Robert Gregory of Coole Park, and the western portion of the Duras estate was sold to Mark Lynch of Renmore.
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