Castle Salem, Cork

However, it was almost certainly built around 1470 by Catherine Fitzgerald,[2] daughter of Thomas, 7th Earl of Desmond, who married Finghin MacCarthy Reagh.

Earl Thomas's daughter is probably the person who has come down to us as "The Black Lady,"[4] of whom various legends were told in connection with Benduff.

It thus differed from the generality of the feudal strongholds of old which were either perched on a rocky eminence or surmounted the summit of some rising ground.

[citation needed] Originally a strong structure, Benduff Castle was built in the usual style of the Norman fortresses which studded Ireland during the Middle Ages, distinguished for their square central keep or tower, with thick massive walls and loop holes for the use of arms as well as the admission of light, to which were generally attached side buildings furnished with bastions, and strong outer walls enclosing the entire foundation — these latter being sometimes provided with covered ways.

Benduff Castle has three internal arches; its walls were 11 feet thick, with passages and recesses, and the usual stone stairway.

[citation needed] The lands of Knocknamadogue with the Castle of Benduff had been the property of Florence McCarthy, a Roman Catholic rebel whose estates were forfeited to Oliver Cromwell's forces.

Ballihagornagh (Barley Hill) had belonged to John Marrigoe, who had a similar history, and most of the rest of the lands had been in the possession of the O'Donovans.

William Morris despite having been a Cromwellian soldier became a Quaker in 1656 and was an active member of the emerging Friends community in Ireland.

Captain of a Company, Justice of the Peace, Commissioner of the Revenues, Chief Treasurer in that Quarter, also Chief Governor of three garrisons, to whom the news of this day's work was soon carried, whereat he was much troubled in mind and told the messenger who was a justice of the peace 'it was a shame for them to suffer us to be so abused' saying 'the time would come that they would be glad to shelter under our wings'.

He attempts to prove by reference to Scripture that "Tythes are unjust to rich and poor alike" and like many Friends this was to get him into trouble with the establishment.

The true and faithfull Testimony of William Morris, a late Member of the Army in Ireland" (London, Printed for Thomas Simmons, at the Bull and Mouth, near Aldersgate.

The work seeks to challenge Parliament about the persecution of Quakers in Ireland by Henry Cromwell, Oliver’s fourth son.

By late 1656, Henry had succeeded in forcing leading Baptist officers to resign their commissions or to leave Ireland.

Having suppressed the radicals, Henry worked to reconcile the main Protestant groupings, to gain the support of the gentry and to stabilise the administration.

The work that could have cemented William as a major Quaker theologian and author, written with George Fox and John Perrot, was entitled "Severall [sic] Warnings to the Baptised People", published in 1659.

Joseph Besse[10] writing in 1753 told how in 1660: In the County of Cork, William Morris, William Brimsby, Walter Castle, and John Exham, being met with others in Edward Cooke's House at Bandon-bridge, were committed to Goal by John Laundon, Provost, and put into a nasty Dungeon, where they were kept two Weeks, their Friends not being admitted to bring them Food, but as it was given them through a Grate, and the Provost was offended with the Gaoler's Wife, for suffering some Straw to be brought them to lie on.

At this time Morris was one of the most prominent Friends in the South of Ireland and clearly respected and admired by William Penn who had him act as his agent in Cork collecting rents etc.

Penn wrote some of his Great Case of Liberty of Conscience Once More Briefly Debated and Defended at Castle Salem, as he refers to it a number of times in his diary.

Fortunatus’ house was built at its rear against the old building, and from the first landing of its stairs one could step into the Castle by the ancient doorway which was placed about 12 feet from the ground.

There was an "old house joined to a castle of still greater antiquity, standing on a rock rising in the centre of a small romantic vale surrounded by steep and lofty hills.