John Welsted (1766-1808)

His ancestor, Thomas Welsted, was granted 3,990-acres in Counties Cork and Kerry in the Act of Settlement (1667), within which lay Ballywalter. John's grandfather, Captain John Welsted of the Doneraile Rangers, established himself at Ballywalter (an estate of just over a thousand acres) circa 1760 and the family are written up in Burkes Landed Gentry (1882). Ballywalter House was torched by the IRA in 1921, now only the outbuildings remain. In 1791, John married Bridget, daughter of John Hawkes of Sirmount, Co. Cork, and they had two sons and five daughters including Frances, mother of the notorious New York gang leader, "Boss" Richard Welsted Croker.