As a result of a legal uncertainty contained in the Marriage Settlement executed by the fourth Baronet and his wife Mary Vesey at the request of Mary's father
John Vesey the
Archbishop of Tuam and dated 12 March 1682, ownership of the Estate became the subject of protracted legal proceedings following the death of the 4th Baronet in 1714 conducted between his four surviving children; Sir John the fifth Baronet, Sir Alexander the sixth Baronet, the Rev. Thomas Staples and their sister Mary Maurice (née Staples). These legal difficulties resulted in almost a century of court proceedings which were eventually conclusively settled in favour of Sir Alexander and Rev. Thomas in the wake of the House of Lords appeal in Sir Robert Staples v Margaretta Maurice (1774) Mews Dig. vi, 328; xii, 950, by which time all the original protagonists were dead. During the course of the proceedings, Sir Alexander and Rev. Thomas had effectively divided the Staples estates between them, with Sir Alexander tending to lands in
Queen's County from his home at Dunmore House whilst Thomas operated the Estate at Lissan. When this arrangement was confirmed in 1774, Lissan became the permanent seat of a junior branch of the family under the Rt. Hon.
John Staples K.C., P.C., M.P., whilst the seventh and eighth Baronets remained at Dunmore. John Staples was a talented lawyer and one of the longest standing members of the
Irish House of Commons before its dissolution in 1801. He went on two
grand tours of Italy, furnishing Lissan with a fine collection of books, paintings and marbles and was painted twice by the famed Italian artist
Pompeo Batoni. He married, firstly, Harriet Conolly, daughter of
William James Conolly of
Castletown House. This marriage resulted in three children, a son, William Conolly Staples, and two daughters. Upon the death of Harriet Conolly in 1771, the two daughters, Louisa Anne and Henrietta Margaret were taken into the custody of
Thomas Conolly and
Lady Louisa Conolly of
Castletown House. When
Lady Louisa died in 1821, she bequeathed the Castletown estate to the eldest son of Louisa Anne Staples,
Col. Edward Michael Packenham who thereupon adopted the name Conolly by Royal Licence on 27 August 1821. His descendants remained at Castletown until 1965. His second wife was Henrietta Molesworth, younger daughter of
the 3rd Viscount Molesworth, one of the
Duke of Marlborough's generals during the
War of the Spanish Succession. He had saved the Duke from death by shouting to his
equerry as the Duke mounted his horse just in time for the equerry to hoist the Duke up thus avoiding a cannonball which decapitated the equerry. Henrietta lost a leg in a fire in her mother's house during her youth. King
George III had provided her dowry and also instructed the Court physician to fashion for her a wooden
prosthetic leg. The children of the Rt. Hon. John Staples and his wife Henrietta married into some of the best connected families in Ireland including the
Marquesses of Ormonde,
Earls of Clancarty,
Earls of Longford and
Lords Ponsonby. The couple are also the great-great-grandparents of the writer
C.S. Lewis. John's father, Rev. Thomas Staples had entered into partnership with the Archbishop of Armagh, the Archbishop of Tuam, the Rev Hon Arthur Hill and Charles Caulfield to found the
Tyrone Mining Company with a capital of £10,000. With this, they founded the coal mines in
Coalisland and brought the Sardinian architect, Davis Ducart, to Ireland to design “dry hurries” which transported coal from the pits to the Canal for transport to Dublin. He also persuaded Ducart to design the White Bridge on the Lissan Estate along with an important water garden with fountains and cascades. These survive on the estate today but are in need of restoration. In the 1830s, the balustrade on the White Bridge was reconstructed according to the wishes of Catherine, Lady Staples, wife of the ninth Baronet Sir Thomas Staples
Queen's Advocate in Ireland, to a design taken from a screen in the house. The eighth Baronet, Sir Robert, died without legitimate issue, so the Dunmore property was bequeathed to his eldest (illegitimate) son, while the
Baronetcy was inherited by John Staples' eldest son
Thomas who thus became the ninth Baronet and reunited the title with the Lissan Estate. Sir Thomas Staples
Q.C. was a notable lawyer and was appointed
Queen's Advocate in Ireland in 1845. He married Catherine Hawkins, another heiress. He purchased the largest town house on
Merrion Square in
Dublin (now the
Irish Architectural Archive) and made several significant additions to Lissan House, most notably the large ballroom built to take advantage of views over the water gardens. No expense was spared on the construction of this room which was fitted with an early central heating system, was double glazed and which had sprung floorboards to aid dancing. The curious dovetail joints of the floor boarding are quite remarkable and it is clear that the timbers were set with neither nail nor screw. The room was decorated in a striking oriental scheme of scarlet and black and was decorated with vastly expensive hand-painted Chinese wallpaper possibly originally purchased by Sir Thomas' sister Grace,
Marchioness of Ormonde for
Kilkenny Castle. Small portions of this wallpaper survive today, touched up by the last owner. Sir Thomas' younger brother, the Rev. John Molesworth Staples, Rector of
Moville in
County Donegal and Lissan commissioned the Court architect to
George IV,
John Nash to design Lissan
Rectory and
Derryloran Parish Church in
Cookstown. Nash had been introduced into his circle by his aunt, Elizabeth Stewart (née Molesworth), who had commissioned the architect to rebuild
Killymoon Castle between 1801 and 1803. ==Decline of the estate==