Extract from
The History of the Town and County of the Town of Galway
From the Earliest Period to the Present Time
1820
By James Hardiman, Esc. (Member of the Royal Irish Academy and
Sub-commissioner on the Public Records).
 Joyes or Joce
This old Galway family is of ancient and honourable English descent,
and was allied to the Welch and British princes. Thomas Joyes, the first
of the name that came to Ireland, sailed from Wales in the reign of Edward I,
and arrived with this fleet at Thomond in Munster, where he married Onorah
O'Brien, daughter of the chief of that district; from thence, putting to sea, he
directed his course to the western part of Connaught, where he acquired
considerable tracts of territory, which his posterity still inhabit. While
on the voyage, his wife was delivered of a son, whom he named Mac Mara, son
of the sea, he extended his father's acquisitions, and from him descended
the sept of the Joyces, a race of men remarkable for their extraordinary
stature, who, for centuries past inhabited the mountainous district, in Iar
Connaught, called from them, Duthaidh Sheodhoigh, or Joyce country,
now forming the barony of Ross, in the County of Galway, and from which where
formerly tributary to the O'Flaherties.38 Walter Jorse, Jorze
or Joyce, brother of Thomas, Cardinal of Sabina, of this name and family, was
Archbishop of Armagh, he resigned in 1311, and was succeeded by his brother
Roland. The former was confessor to Edward II. and was author of several
works.39 The families of Joyes-grove in the County of Galway,
Oxford in Mayo, and Woodquay in the town of Galway, with that of Merview, near
the town, are the present descendants of this old family.
Arms. Argent, an eagle displayed, with two necks, gules, over
all Fess Ermine. Crest. A demi wolf-rampant, argent, ducally
gorged, or.40 Motto, Mors aut honorabilis vita.
38 Mac Mara Joyes was first
married to the daughter of O'Flathery, prince of Iar Connaught. The most
remarkable of his descendants, besides the above, was William Joyes, who was
married to Agnes Morris, being on his travels from Italy to Greece, he was taken
prisoner by the Saracens, and brought to Africa, from whence, after a variety of
adventures, and undergoing a captivity of seven years, he escaped to Spain;
while here, his exalted virtues were rewarded by heaven according to the
pedigree of the family, in an extraordinary manner; for, as they relate, an
eagle flying over his head, pointed out to him a place, where he discovered vast
treasures; with which returning to Galway, he contributed larges sums towards
building the walls, church and other public edifices of the town. He dies,
leaving three sons James, Henry and Robert, and was interred in the Franciscan
friary.
Heaven was again propitious to another of this family;
Margaret Joyes, great grand daughter of the above names William, who was
surnamed, Margaret na Drehide, Margaret of the Bridges, from the great number
which she built. The story of this singular woman is till current amongst her
descendants. They relate she was born of reduced but genteel parents and was
first married to Domingo de Roma, a wealthy Spanish merchant who traded to
Galway, where, he fell in love with, and married her; and soon after departing
for Spain, died there, leaving her mistress of an immense property. Upon his
decease, having no issue by him, she married Oliver Oge Ffrench, who was Mayor
of Galway in 1596. So far the narrative is probable and consistent but what
follows will try the credulity of the reader. It relates that this lady, during
the absence of her second husband, on a voyage, erected most part of the bridges
of the Province of Connaught, at her own expense! and, that as she was one day
sitting before the workmen, an eagle, flying over her head, let fall into her
palm, a gold ring adorned with a brilliant stone, the nature of which no
lapidary could ever discover. It was preserved by her descendants, as a most
valuable relique in 1661 (the date of the MS. from which this account is taken,)
as a mark supposed to have been sent from Heaven of its approbation of her good
works and charity!! This fable though still piously believed, by some of this
family, was humorously ridiculed by Latocaaye, an incredulous French traveller,
who visited Galway about the end of the last century.
Cornet Joyes commanded the guard that conducted Charles
I to the scaffold, but it does not appear that he was of this descent.
Several individuals of this name have long felt
grateful to the memory of William III. from the following circumstance, on the
accession of that monarch to the throne of England. One of the first acts of his
reign was to send an ambassador to Algiers to demand the immediate release of
all the British subjects detained there in slavery, the dey and council,
intimidated, reluctantly complied with this demand. Among those released, was a
young man of the name of Joyes, a native of Galway, who, fourteen years before,
was captured on his passage to the West Indies, by an Algerine Corsair; on his
arrival at Algiers, he was purchased by a wealthy Turk who followed the
profession of a goldsmith, and who observing his slave, Joyes, to be tractable
and ingenious, instructed him in his trade in which he speedily became an adept.
The Moor, as soon as he heard of his release, offered him, in case he should
remain, his only daughter in marriage, and with her, half his property, but all
these, with other tempting and advantageous proposals, Joyes resolutely
declined; on his return to Galway he married, and followed the business of a
goldsmith with considerable success, and , having acquired a handsome
independence, he was enabled to purchased the estate of Rahoon, (which lies
about two miles west of the town,) from Colonel Whaley, one of Cromwell's old
officers. Joyes, having no son, bequeather his property to his three daughters,
two of whom only were married, one, to Andrew Roe French, ancestor to the late
Andrew French, of Rahoon, to whom, in addition to their own, the unmarried
sister left her third; the second daughter was married to the ancestor of the
late Martin Lynch, a banker, who, in her right, inherited the remainder of the
estate. In gratitude for this act of King William, this family long after
solemnised his accession to the throne by bonfires, and his victories in Ireland
by exhibiting Orange lilies, on the 1st and 12th of July. Some of Joyes' silver
work, stamped with his mark, and the initial letters of his name, are still
remaining. A very curious pedigree of this family, is recorded in the Office of
Arms. Vol. 10.
39
Ware and
De Burgo.
40
This is
the crest on the map, that now used, is a Demi Griffin, sergeant.
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