Richard Kenefake of Carrigaline

Richard Kenefake  was evidently a man of some substance for his grave is marked by a large stone inscribed "HERE LYETH THE BODY OF RICHARD KENEFAKE WHO DEPARTED THIS LYFE THE 11 OF AGVST 1712".  (See photos below). 

He  is buried in the old section of St. Mary's graveyard in  Carrigaline, County Cork, a short distance from the side of the Protestant  Church  of Ireland.  (see photos below).  In that era, there were no Catholic graveyards so Catholics were buried in  the Protestant graveyards.  Richard was probably in Carrigaline before 1700.   I doubt there were Keneficks in Tracton or Clontead parishes
before that date.  

The Carrigaline area was part of the Boyles' family estates.  Lord Shannon, head of the Boyles family, was actually in residence in Carrigaline parish in 1712, at Shannon Park or Ballinrea.   Since the name Kenefick must have come from the Castlemartyr area, Lord Shannon's main residence, you can bet that Richard came from there in Lord Shannon's service.  He may have been a "driver," the person who collected the rents from the Irish tenant farmers on Lord Shannon's estate or some other intermediary between Lord Shannon and the Irish people.

This Richard Kenefake was probably the ancestor of all the Passage West-Carrigaline-Crosshaven-Tracton Keneficks.    If he was born, say, in 1650, he can have grown up on Lord Shannon's estate at Castlemartyr, and it would have been logical for him to find employment on another of the Boyles' estates.   Of course, Richard  may have been accompanied by other Castlemartyr Keneficks.   But the name Richard seems to occur in every Kenefick family in my database. -- [Source:  Frank Thompson]