Apart from what he left his wife in his will of 1822, Christopilus Garstin of Braggins town, Co Louth, instructed that £700 be raised for each of his children, Christopilus, Norman, Charlotte, Frances, Mary and Anne.
Another daughter, Elizabeth, had already been "handsomely provided for" on her marriage to Digby Marsh. A last-named daughter, Martha, was to receive but a single shilling, "for urgent and cogent reasons". We know not! One of the executors was William Filgate, Kiltybegs, Co Monaghan.
Some people, on being asked the original Irish of a place name, permit not ignorance to deter them but will perforce invent one, often with considerable ingenuity and imagination. Sometimes, however, boringly obvious - and wrong. So also with unusual surnames.
In the spring 1977 edition of Macalla, a small Irish-language magazine, P. O Casaide gave an account of the Filgates of Kiltybegs as related on tape by a man who wished to remain anonymous.
"The road from Essexford to Drumheriff was called Bealach na Sasanach. It was a direct route from the Pale into the heart of Farney, Donogh moyne, and it probably got its name as a result". This story occurred at some "indefinite period of the past".
A boy from Ballingarry discovered a new-born baby at the gate of a field. He brought the baby home and, having failed to discover the parents, it was decided that the child must have a name. The boy who discovered the baby was named Phil and, as the infant had been found at a gate, it was named Filgate.
He grew to manhood. One day a British army officer stopped to inquire the location of a grant of land at Kiltybegs. The lands, even today, don't appear very inviting, but at that time must have looked a wilderness. He offered the land to young Filgate at a low price, "and that is the story of how the Filgates originally came to be in Kiltybegs".
Not so. Filgate is an English surname of Cromwellian origin in Ireland, the main family being in Co Louth, though the name is on record in Dublin earlier in the 17th century. Indeed the only two entries in current telephone directories are in Co Louth. It derives from the words "field gate".
Taylor's & Skinner's Maps of the Roads of Ireland (1778) shows Filgate esq at Lisreny, to the north of Ardee. The 1814 Directory lists Filgate Esqrs at Lowther Lodge, Balbriggan; at Filgate Lodge, Carrickmacross; at Cooks town, Co Louth, and - but again differently spelled - Lisrene, Co Louth.
All the Filgate holdings listed in Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) are in Co Louth. There was the 907 acres of Charles, Ballina sloe, Ahascragh; 61 acres of Elizabeth, Wilton Place, Dublin; the 2,250 acres of T.P.H.M., Lowther Lodge, Balbriggan; the 10 acres of T.P., England, and 883 acres of William de S. Filgate, Lisrenny, Ardee.
Now spelled Lisrenny, this townland name derives from Lios Raithni, "the ring-fort of the ferns". There was a mere three acres of this townland in the parish of Charlestown, the other 848 being in the parish of Tallonstown. These were rendered Little Lisrany and Great Lisrany in the 1659 census.
In 1899, the Agricultural and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act was passed. Among those who were provided with "competences for life" was Mr Macartney Filgate. In 1908, a Unionist Association of Ireland meeting held in Cheltenham was addressed by Lieut Col Macartney Filgate.