A History of the Wexford Codds
THE first of the Wexford Codds who came with the Normans is said to have been Osbert or Osborne, the third son of Walter Cod or Code of Morevale in Cornwall, and his wife, the heiress of the Damerells of Gidleagh Castle, Devonshire. The family became established at Carne where they built castles at Castletown, Clougheast and Ballyfane.
The first definite record of the name in Ireland refers to Hivelot Cod who witnessed a charter of Raymond le Gros about 1175-1185. Next there was Hugh Cod who attested a grant to Dunbrody Abbey before 1200.
The earliest record of land held by a member of the family is in 1247 when Martin Cod held Ballywitch in the old parish of St. Helen's (Forth) in 1324. The Codds also possessed Ballyhire (St. Helen's) before it passed to the Lamberts in the fourteenth century. Around the same time they acquired the manor of Rathaspeck where Osborne Codd built a castle in 1351.
The following names appear in the Seneschal of Wexford's Accounts in the Pipe Rolls: Geoffrey Cod, 1263 to 1272; Osbert Cod, 1287 to 1289; Adam Code, 1289 to 1293; Robert Cod, 1293 to 1298. John, Robert, William and David Codd were summoned on 11 th November, 1307, to appear as jurors on the Inquisition taken at New Ross, relative to the lands in Co. Wexford belonging to the Countess of Pembroke.
Laurence Codd was Chief Justice of Assize at Wexford in 1327; Henry Cod was one of the Attorneys in Co. Wexford of Maria Countess of Pembroke in 1324; Raymond, William and Geoffrey Codd were summoned to attend the Lord Justice with horse in 1345; Roger Codd, Abbot of Tintern, died 6th December, 1354; another Roger Cod was Sovereign of New Ross in 1397. Around the mid-fourteenth century one of the Carne Codds obtained an estate at Rathaspeck where Sir Osborne Codd built a castle, c. 1351. This family became Protestant in the seventeenth century and the property passed to the Richards family through the marriage in 1680 of Jane Codd to Thomas Richards of Park. Martin Codd of Castletown was summoned with his brother Nicholas in 1476 to appear before Parliament, or lose his title to three ploughlands in Rathaspeck.
Osborne Codd of Castletown, son of Martin, married a sister of Nicholas Comyn, Bishop of Waterford, who was consecrated Bishop of Ferns in St. Paul's, London, in 1509, and later translated to Waterford and Lismore, where he died in 1551. In 1532 Osborne's son Nicholas and Jasper Codde (presumably of Clougheast) were on the jury to inquire into the plundering of the town of Fethard by the Bishop of Ferns and his allies the Kavanaghs under their chief, Cahir MacArt.
A seventeenth-century writer relates that ‘the family of Codd of Castletown expressed singular loyalty and valour in Queen Elizabeth's wars, several of them being slain' and further that the Codds in general who by now had offshoots at Clougheast, Ballyumphane (Ballyfane) and Garrylough (in the Murrows) ‘were considered with the Staffords and the Rossiters as the prime gentlemen and freeholders in the barony of Forth'. In 1608, Martin Codd of Castletown and Jasper Codd of Clougheast are mentioned by Carew as among the gentlemen of Forth.
Martin Codd (died 1627) was the first of the family to become a Protestant. He had extensive lands in the Carne area. Buncarrig and Ballyumphane were held by the Barrys and Codds of a junior line, respectively. Martin Codd left a will dated 24 April 1627 in which he named the following children: Nicholas, Ann, Chritian, John, Margaret, Andrew, Martin, Osborne, Manon, Ellen and Anthony.
The following Codds are mentioned at this time: Balthazar of Garrylough, James of Ballyumphane, John of Ballynaclash, Walter of Wexford, Jasper of Sumertown, Carne; Stephen and his son Walter of Newtown, Carne, and David of Buncarrig.
Martin Codd's son Nicholas, who succeeded him, was not only a Protestant but a Cromwellian as well. At the outbreak of the rebellion in 1641, he fled to Wales with others, leaving his house, goods and corn in the charge of his brother William. William Esmond, who was one of the Confederate leaders, and others came armed with muskets and forced themselves into the house and seized a third of Nicholas Codd's corn for the use of the Irish.
Colonel Nicholas Codd was the last of his family to hold the Castletown estate, which was sold in 1712 to Colonel Thomas Palliser for £3,597.8/-.
The Clougheast, Ballyumphane and Garrylough families remained Catholics and, having participated in the rebellion of 1641, were all dispossessed. James Codd of Clougheast was a captain in the Confederate army in Rossiter's regiment, and was killed at Duncannonin 1643, leaving, it is said, an only daughter. The Book of Survey and Distribution of 1655 notes that in 1641 James Codd, an Irish Papist, owned 194 acres in Carne parish, of which 186 acres, including Clougheast, were granted to Edmond Waddy, a cornet in the Cromwellian army. The last of the Waddy family in Clougheast was Dr John Waddy who died in 1875.
The fate of the Codds of Garrylough is typical of an Anglo-Irish family in the seventeenth century. This property was situated in St. Nicholas's Parish, Barony of Ballaghkeen, and had been land confiscated from the native Irish. It was acquired in Elizabethan days, probably through Robert Codd, knight of the shire 1585, and also a Commissioner in 1582 and 1591 to report on the lands of the Kavanaghs and their kindred septs in Co. Wexford.
In the report on the Wexford Plantation of 1622, Balthazar Codd is noted as owing 771 acres in the Murrows, and is styled a native. His two sons joined the Confederates. Jasper, the youngest, became a captain, and was killed at Carrickmines near Dublin. Thomas, the eldest, was a member of the council at Enniscorthy and in 1649 was one of the leading county gentlemen to support Ormonde, being appointed a Commissioner to raise money for the Supreme Council.
By an Inquisition taken at Wexford in 1663, it was found that on 22 nd October 1641, Thomas Codd was seized in fee of Garrylough and other property amounting to 905½ acres, all in the Barony of Ballaghkeen, and that he was in rebellion. The property was consequently forfeited.
According to Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876), there were only 5 holdings of land by Codds in Co. Wexford. The largest was the 424 acres at Churchlands, Ballycoyle, followed by the 324 acres at Whitestown, 288 acres at Ballytory, 28 at Holmestown and 12 at Commons.
It was the Catholic Codds who survived to form an important segment of Wexford families in modern times. The most distinguished of these was Dr. William Codd, Bishop of Ferns (1918-1938). A native of Wexford town, he had been parish priest of Blackwater from 1912. Previously he had been president of St. Peter's College, Wexford, from 1903.
Clougheast Castle, Co. Wexford