Sir Walter Synnot

Who was Sir Walter Synnot?

Sir Walter Synnot, son of Richard Synnot, settled in the parish of Ballymoyer, County Armagh in 1778 and leased eight townlands from the See of Armagh. The family had originally been large landowners in the County of Wexford, but their lands were taken from them by Cromwell, after Colonel David Synnot resisted Cromwell's troops at the Sack of Wexford. The family was involved not only in the linen trade but also owned lead mines in the vicinity.

According to Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland: "The lands were heathy and barren previously to 1778, when Sir Walter Synnot erected a house and became a resident landlord; scarcely a tree or shrub was to be seen, and the agricultural implements were of the rudest kind. He constructed good roads in the vicinity, planted forest trees to a considerable extent, and by his example and liberal encouragement of every improvement both as to their habitations and system of agriculture, affected a great change in the habits of the peasantry, and in the appearance of the country, which is now in an excellent state of cultivation, yielding abundant produce; the cultivation of green crops has been introduced, and is practised with success."²