ORPEN, Goddard Henry. The Orpen Family. Being an account of the life and writings of Richard Orpen of Killowen, County Kerry, together with some researches into his forbears in England and brief notices of the various branches of the Orpen family descended from him. PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION

With illustrations and genealogical charts. London: Butler & Tanner, 1930. Octavo. pp. 205. Green buckram, titled in gilt. Ex libris Irish Central Library, with neat circular stamps and label. A very good copy. Exceedingly rare.

Jisc locates 6 copies only. Burke describes the Orpen family as claiming great antiquity. They settled in Ireland after the Cromwellian wars and married into some of the other influential families in County Kerry including the Herberts. Richard Orpen was agent for Sir William Petty on his county Kerry estates. Over 4000 acres of the estate of Richard Becher Opren in the barony of Glanerought were offered for sale in the Encumbered Estates Court in November 1852. The petitioner was John B. Warren, who later acquired parts of the Orpen lands in this area. Over 10,000 acres of the estate of Adrian Taylor, in which members of the Orpen and Warren families had an interest, were offered for sale in the Encumbered Estates Court in May 1855. Richard J.T. Orpen was one of the principal lessors in the parishes of Kenmare and Kilgravan at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. In the 1870s the estate of the late Sir Richard Orpen amounted to over 12,000 acres in county Kerry as well as 300 acres in county Cork. The representatives of F.H. Orpen were the proprietors of 800 acres in county Kerry at the same time.

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