In 1361 John Gilbarry was in the employ of the king "to retain six hobelars and 16 foot soldiers in a ward at Gilbarryston for the maintenance of the peace and the safety of the king's people going on the king's highway near Clothesorchard".
He received further payment for additional hobelars and foot soldiers "for the safety of the king's people in Co Carlow during the war against Mc Murgh (Mac Murchu); £3 6s. 8d. granted to him on 8th August 1360 for killing McMorice Brene, one of the Mc Murghs". Galbarrystown we have failed to locate, and the surname Galbarry appears to be no longer extant. But what about Clothesorchard?
In the index of The Ormond Deeds IV is "Chorlesorchard al. Killmure, Co. Carlow", relating to a Carlow Deed of 1544.
The text of the deed, however, renders this "Clolesorchard alias Killmurre". In 1601 this is rendered the Orchard alias Cloes Orchard.
There are two townlands named Orchard in Co Carlow, one in the parish of Moyacomb, with the above in the parish of Nurney. The Irish for orchard is ullghort, now rendered ullord. Is Kilmure/ Kilmurre, the above alias, Kilmurry? There is a Kilmurry in Co Carlow but it is in the parish of Ballon in the barony of Forth.
But what was the now-discarded first element in this place-name? In the barony of Gowran, the eastern part of Co Kilkenny adjoining Co Carlow, one party to an indenture in 1390 was Walter Clow in "le Omystclaragh and elsewhere" as shown in Volume II of The Ormond Deeds.
If Clow was pronounced to rhyme with "blow", then "Clow's orchard" would fit the sound of this place-name. Also spelled Clough and Cluff, this English surname, meaning "ravine, deep valley", is to be found in small numbers around Belfast. Or might it have been the surname Close?
A townland named Closeland (alias Cloneen) is in the Co Laois parish of Lea.
There are around 100 entries of the surname Close in the Northern Ireland phone book and 15 south of the Border. These latter are in Leinster and the Limerick/ Clare region.
This surname derives from a place where "an enclosure", perhaps whence ancestors originated, though it might be of the nickname type indicating "discreet, reserved". Some families bearing this name might be basically O Cluasaigh (cluas, ear).
Was Richard Clouse, who transplanted out of Kerry to Killinaboy, Co Clare in 1654-58, a Close?
This surname, still fairly numerous in Northern Ireland, has a long association with that part of the island. Richard Close was an officer in the English army in 1640, and William Close was listed in the Census of 1659 as Titulado of Lisnagarvey, Co Antrim. James Close (also spelled Cloce) of Antrim, was listed in the Convent Rolls for the year 1776. There was a Close, Esq. at Newforge, south of Moira, Co Down, and another at Elmpark in the Co Armagh parish of Eglish on Taylor and Skinners Maps of the Roads of Ireland (1778).
In 1814, the Rev Samuel Close was at Elmpark, and the Rev Edward Close at Hollybrook, Killenaule, Co Tipperary. Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) shows 9,087 Close acres in Co Armagh, the property of Maxwell C. Close, Drumbanagher Castle, Loughbrickland, Co Down, who also had another 3,678 acres in Co Laois.
Henry L. Close, 3 Henry Street, Dublin, had 1,922 Co Wexford acres; Mrs Close, Stillorgan, had 64 acres there, and Allan P. Close, Derrymacloughney, Athenry, had 1,558 Co Galway acres.
And did Capt Thomas Cluise, Glenville Camp, the owner of 248 Co Kerry acres bear the surname Close?
Arthur Young in A Tour of Ire- land 1776-1779 tells of having breakfast with Maxwell C. Close, having come from a visit to the Archbishop of Armagh. The Rev Maxwell Close (18221903) was something of an antiquarian and a scholar, treasurer for many years of the Royal Irish Academy, and had spent years promoting the Irish language through silent funding.
He described as "Philistinism" the attitude of those who asked what use the Irish language was to children in after life, and said that the notion that Irish was a barbarous language, was "not only an egregious mistake, but, what is more to the point . . . an essentially vulgar notion".