Cusack
[citation needed] Cusack, Kuzak, Kuzack, Cusick, and Cussack are all modern day variants of this name.
[4] The de Cussac family originally held land and influence over present-day Cussac-Fort-Medoc (45.07N, 0.43W) in France, north of Bordeaux in what was then the Duchy of Aquitaine.
[2] He married Matilda le Petit, sister of William le Petit who held a Barony at Mullingar and a castle at Donboyne (ORPED, ii, p. 120), sometime before 1181[10][11] and bore him at least two sons, Adam and William (English Public Records) however Irish Languish Pedigrees believe his eldest son was Geoffrey II.
Both the medieval and modern Cusack lines and genealogy of Geoffrey's offspring have been traced in great detail by Lt.
[13] In 1399 the manors and estates of the Lordship of Killeen passed by the marriage of Lady Joan de Cusack to Christopher Plunkett of Rathragen.
[12] In the intervening 220 years, between 1172 and 1399, there was sporadic hiving off from the parent stock (to various offspring), dividing up of land and the acquisition of new estates.
The descendants of Geoffrey de Cusack acquired many manors/townships—Gerrardstown, Ballymolgan, Lismullen, Troubly, Clonard, Clonmahon and Tullahard for example.
1177 was the year de Cusack saw Connaught for the first time however the raid across the Shannon back-fired, and Geoffrey and his friends returned ruefully rubbing their bruises.
Geoffrey II and his brother William revolted against King John and were defeated, along with de Lacy, at Carrickfergus Castle in 1210.
The record shows that Geoffrey II, had set against him "100 marks for his liberation" and the Justiciar was enjoined "to take no nonsense and to see to it that de Cusack promises his faithful service (to King John) before his discharge".
It is evident that the Cusacks interests, by the third generation, had become Irish rather than English, and also that these men could speak little or no French and had become Anglo-Irish rather than Anglo-Norman.
We enter by a steep wooden stairway, and find ourselves, having passed through the considerable thickness of the wall from the narrow doorway, in the Great Hall on the first floor.
The right hand wall is hung with the Lord's war harness, his morion (helmet), hunting trophies and a feathered lure used in falconry.
Opening off the Great Hall are spiral staircases leading to mezzanine rooms in the towers, bedrooms, closets and wardrobes, and also a chapel.
However, on entering one has to climb a staircase to reach the entrance hall proper at the ground level of the original castle.
[19] In 1100, a nobleman came across a ruined chapel in a remote Welsh valley and decided to devote himself to solitary prayer and study.
The exact date of the acquisition Charter is not known however it was witnessed by Roger, son of Geoffrey and Matilda, and Adam de Feypo, before his death in 1190/91 (ref.
)Just west of Balreach the townland is still called "Geoffreystown" this, including the Charters also the presence of the motte and ruined church, is confirmation that Geoffrey de Cusack held Biltini Manor.
The Down Survey of the Barony of Skryne dated 1657 (original in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris) shows as part of it the attached map.
This could have been because: "the intrusive wedge of Dunsany was occupied by an Irish chieftain and his retainers, who remained ensconced there wedded to their Celtic way of life, while Norman 'improvements' were imposed all round them".
"[28] The Cusack CREST is recorded and described in The Genealogical and Historic Archives of the NOBILITY OF FRANCE as Mermaid holding a sword in the right hand and a Sceptre Fleurdelys in the left.
(today worn on a signet ring) The Cusack MOTTO is shown as En Dieu est mon Espoir (In God is my Hope).
The third figure is of a boy with a bowl in his left hand and a pipe in his right through which he is blowing bubbles towards the youngest kneeling child who seems to bend slightly away from his brother.
On this is carved a family tree originating from a heraldic shield with the Cusack coat of arms on the dexter side.
Carved on it is Sir Thomas's epitaph, which has been translated as follows, by the late Professor R. M. Gwynn of Trinity College, Dublin.
Virtue begat me, Piety cherished me, Honour increased me, Skill set me on high, I departed this life.
Lady Joan de Cusack as an heiress brought not only the parish and the castles of Killeen and Dunsany but also the following manors and tenements to her husband.
It was endowed with the object of having Masses and Prayers offered for the donors, their forebears and posterity, and doubtless inspired partly by the little ruin that gave its name to the castle, and also partly by the fact that Lady Joan was the last of a long line of Cusacks to live in Killeen Castle for 269 years.
The lady is lying on her husband's right and wears a bullock's hoof-shaped head dress, her feet rest on a cushion.
A portion of the black-lettered inscription which runs along the edge can still be read and it gives their names and says they 'caused this church to be built'[38] Sir Christopher and Lady Joan had two male children—John Plunkett, the elder, inherited Killeen Castle and Christopher Plunkett, the younger, inherited Dunsany Castle.
