The Abbey had been founded in 1200 by the Earl of Pembroke in fulfillment of a vow which he had made in the course of a shipwreck that if he survived he would found an abbey on whatever spot he might reach the shore, and having built the Abbey he manned it with Cistercian monks from Tintern Abbey in Wales which had been founded 70 years earlier. The Abbey itself, much of which still survives in spite of having been converted by the Board of Works into a "Monastic Ruin" to attract tourists, was of immensely strong construction. The abbot's quarters were not such as would have been built for a mitred abbot, who as a Prince of the State was expected to live in palatial luxury, but they were comfortable enough - more so than would have been found in any lay establishment of the period. The Abbots of Tintern had been exempted from the obligation of attending Parliament by a statute of 1447 but even so they had a heavy burden of public duties and were lords of several manors in the province of Leinster. They were expected to participate in the prayers and religious exercises of the monks but they did not share their spartan existence in cloister, refectory and dormitory, nor their agricultural work. They led a separate existence in a range of buildings where they could entertain important visitors and attend to their secular duties uninterrupted.

It was into this very comfortable establishment that Anthony and Clare moved after their marriage in 1562. Before they had been there many weeks the Keatings attacked the Abbey, burned down their dwelling and all the domestic buildings of the Abbey and drove Anthony and his household to take refuge in the tower. This proved an impregnable fortress with its only approach by means of a narrow staircase, its first flight straight and then spiralling clockwise upwards, on which a single swordsman could hold up an army, the stone vaulting of its lower floor making it safe from any attempt by the attackers to burn out the defenders. After the Keatings withdrew, the Colcloughs set about converting the tower into a habitable fortified residence, but even though they spread their domestic offices into the body of the church itself, it was desperately uncomfortable and its inhabitants were haunted by the constant fear of renewed Keating and Kavanagh attacks. After a few months of it they decided to move to Rosegarland, Agard's lease of which had come to them as part of the marriage settlement.

Rosegarland - an Anglicized version of the Gaelic Roscarlan - was not the gracious Georgian mansion which we know today, but a particularly grim-looking Norman castle set in the midst of the Kavanagh country and which had proved strong enough to withstand all their continued attacks. It was in the form of a square courtyard with massive crenelated towers at the four corners, the largest being the residence which the Colcloughs occupied for some eight years. It was no more comfortable as a residence than had been the tower at Tintern though certainly less open to attack. The tower still stands, adorned by a 60ft high minaret constructed by an eccentric eighteenth century member of the Leigh family who had returned from the Grand Tour inspired by the architecture of the Ottoman Empire.

If Tintern could be fortified against the Kavanaghs and Keatings and a dwelling erected there it would be a far more satisfactory place to live than Rosegarland, but it would not be worth while spending the large sums which that would involve on a building held only on a comparatively short lease. Anthony therefore petitioned the Queen to make him a fee-farm grant of the Abbey in consideration of his 28 years of unpaid service to the Crown. After a minor contretemps which might have involved him in a charge of lese majeste the estate for which he asked was granted to him on 10 October 1566 subject to an obligation to fortify the Abbey within three years and to maintain there three English horsemen and four archers or arquebusiers and to pay a rent of £22.2s.8d. The fortifications remained until recently demolished by the Board of Works on the ground they were in such good condition at the end of the eighteenth century that Grove in writing his 'Irish Antiquities' had assumed that they must have been constructed a few years before his visit by the deplorable 'Sir' Vesey who certainly never constructed anything. It is difficult, though, to see what was done to the Abbey by way of turning it into a residence. A great deal must have been done for when the dwelling was complete it was of sufficient magnificence to afford suitable hospitality to a succession of Lords Deputy in their vice-regal progresses round the country. In 1579 guests at Tintern included not only the Lord Deputy Drury but also the Lord Justice Sir William Pelham and the whole military force which he was leading against the Earl of Desmond. Rather surprisingly Pelham had suspended his military operations delaying at Tintern while he conducted the Wexford Assizes before setting off in pursuit of the enemy. After Anthony's death the guests included the Lord Lieutenant Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and Sir Henry Wallop. The new dwelling spread itself all over the Abbey and into outbuildings constructed against its walls but its main core was the fortified tower. The source of the materials for these structures as also for the fortifications was the ruins of the monastic buildings destroyed by the Keatings.

For the next two hundred years maintenance of the Abbey and keeping it standing was a constant drain on the finances of the Colclough family and each generation planned a new house in proximity to it, but apart from the work carried out by John after the death of 'Sir' Vesey nothing was ever done. 'Sir' Vesey having other interests gave up the struggle and let the place fall to pieces about his ears. When he died in 1794 John reported to his brother who was a prisoner in France that all that was left of the Abbey in habitable condition was the kitchen and one bedroom, but sleeping in that had nearly cost him his life for the ceiling fell down during the night and a lump of plaster weighing over a hundredweight had landed on his bed beside him. In 1780 the French artist Beranger mentioned that the roof of the main building had fallen in. With the money that became available after Vesey's death, John constructed a house across the west end of the Abbey, which his brother Caesar extended to cover the entire nave, but when he married Jane Kirwan she refused to live in it. Caesar put aside £10,000 to build a house to meet her requirements but no house was ever built.

In spite of its delightful situation on Bannow Bay the Abbey does not seem to have been a particularly healthy dwelling-place. An inordinately high proportion of the children born there died in infancy whilst the direct line of male succession died out there twice in as many centuries. Radioactivity of the stone of which the building was constructed or discharge of radon from the soil may have been factors while the presence of many hundreds of decomposing corpses in the floors and walls, some monastic, some dating from the time between the dissolution of the monastery and its leasing to Thomas Wood in 1552 during which the building was used as the burial ground for the neighbourhood, and one more recent burial under the kitchen floor, would seem also to have been involved. Before the discovery of these corpses any misfortune which might befall a descendant of Sir Anthony was popularly attributed to a "curse of fire and water" imposed on the family in consequence of their ancestor's misdeeds. The violent deaths which members of a family subject to such a curse are supposed to suffer have not been particularly noticeable amongst the Colcloughs. Of 350 descendants of Sir Anthony four were killed in duels, two were hanged, three died in battle, two were killed in riding accidents, one killed by the bursting of a gun-barrel and one or two given a dose of arsenic by their wives. Certainly in most Irish families not subject to such a curse the proportion who die 'with their boots on' is greater than three per cent and in any case there does not seem to have been anything in Sir Anthony's career to warrant such a curse.

Henry's policy of pacification proved successful in those provinces where there were no Englishmen apart from a few spies, government agents and merchants but in Leinster in the English Pale there was constant friction between the Irish and the English invaders. Simmering unrest would boil up into insurrection unpredictably and this was particularly so in the County of Wexford for which Anthony had been given military responsibility. He quickly developed a sympathy for the Irish and an understanding of their problems and grievances which enabled him to anticipate fairly accurately why, when and where trouble would break out. The peasantry did not have to beat their spades and plough-shares into swords and pikes. They kept their weapons hidden in the thatch immediately available when the grape-vine summoned them, but as often as not the grape-vine also reached Sir Anthony, and when they came to the mustering area they found him already there with his troops, so they would quietly disperse and return their weapons to the thatch until next time. When fighting did occur he used the minimum of force required to restore peace and did not attempt to pursue or punish a defeated enemy. Once the pikes and swords were back in the thatch they were again his friends and neighbours and in consequence on three separate occasions Anthony was charged with treason. He bore no malice against the Keatings and Kavanaghs who had burnt him out of house and home and in 1575 Lord Burghley noted

"Colclough hath given over an Abbey called St Molyns to one Brian McCahir, a Cavanagh, which was in suit, so that the said Brian shall thereby not only be a good subject and in obedience but pay £40 a year rent."

On account of this it was recommended that Anthony "known to be of good service and to have builded in a rebellious country and to have maynteyned it should be given land to the valewe of £19.5s. next adjoyning to his house in fee farm." There were other instances too of Colclough securing grants of land to former rebels.

As a justice of the peace - and he was High Sheriff in 1581 - Anthony shouldered a burden which would have daunted many a full-time Resident Magistrate in later centuries. In addition to this he was constantly having thrust on him odd jobs such as in 1558 a commission to execute martial law, in 1572 a commission to assess Wexford's obligation for the provision of horses and footsoldiers, in 1579 on the outbreak of Desmond's revolt in Munster as commissioner for Munster, and in 1580 to examine Etchyngham over the Dunbrody lands. Of his energy and ability much is said in Hore's History of the Town and County of Wexford. His wealth and his influence with the Lord Deputy and the Court made him the target of the jealousy of many of the penniless adventurers who were hoping to make their fortunes in Ireland by speculation and questionable land-dealings and up to the time of his death he was the subject of continual allegations of treasonable activities, of embezzlement of public funds, of extortion, and from time to time there were conspiracies to defraud him.

The lease of Rosegarland which had been part of Clare's marriage settlement had been acquired by Agard from John Isham who had come from Yorkshire and was a very successful property speculator. Isham's son Phillip who had become Seneschal of Wexford decided that he would like to have the property back and using his position prevailed upon the Lord Deputy to override the Colcloughs' title and convey it to him. Anthony immediately protested to the Queen that he had "been moche wronged" and she thereupon instructed the Privy Council in Ireland to remove Isham and reinstate Colclough. This was done and Anthony had made another powerful enemy. Yet another was Nicholas White who, though without legal qualifications or experience, was later made Master of the Rolls by Queen Elizabeth on the grounds that he never had a good word for anybody. In 1571 he wrote to Lord Burghley:-

"I understand that one Anthony Cockley which hath profitable farms of her Ma in this County of Wexford is gone into England. I must report him as an unprofitable man to H.M. and a great bearer with the Irishry of this County against the' administration of Lawe for his own private gayne, whose friendshipp with them dothe greatly disadvantage Her Highness. I writ this not of purpose to hinder him, but rather to prove it his disposition to hinder others. He had the lands of two principall gentilmen of this Cuntrey (named Ketyng and Nevell) in farme of H.M. and hath sold his interest in them for £1,000 ster. whereof he caryed over now with him a greate porcon, and yet upon all this scope of ground he kept not 3 serviceable men for the defence of the Cuntrey, but relied wholy to the practises of the Irishry procuring favor for them with the higher powers.

from Wexford this 15 of May 1571

Yo Lps assured and bounden to comand during life.

N.WHITE."

White was in the habit of making such allegations about everyone with whom he had dealings and Burghley, who knew Anthony well, paid no attention. In 1579 White was still complaining about Colclough. The Kavanaghs having broken out, the Lord Deputy ordered Anthony to make peace with them, but he found that owing to Masterson's clandestine dealings with them the task was extremely difficult and he duly reported this. Immediately we find White making allegations that both Colclough and Masterson had been guilty of traitorous dealings with the rebels. This was a repetition of what had happened twenty-five years before when with Nicholas Heron he had negotiated a peace with the rebelling Kavanaghs on the Wexford-Carlow border and both were charged with treason but subsequently pardoned, and the same thing happened again in 1581 when, on the instructions of the Lord Deputy, Anthony negotiated a peace with McHugh. In his administrative capacity he was responsible for levying fines and taxes and the Kavanaghs were constantly claiming that these went into his own pocket. In 1583 Masterson informed a commission of inquiry, called to investigate complaints made by Peppard, that Anthony as Constable of Ferns Castle had

"quietly enjoyed the levies imposed on the inhabitants for the defence of the castle which amounted to £700 a year."

Anthony certainly had his friends; Sir Henry Wallop writing to the Secretary of State Lord Walsingham in March 1581 said:-

"The Counte off Wexford and dyvers partes adjoyning ys farre oute of order, the Cavenaghs in rebellyon in great nombers, dissentyon between Mr. Masterson, Seneschall there, and Mr. Cokleye, an Inglishe man, the best of that Contrye, with the gretest septe of the Cavynaughes, the said Mr. Cokley having auctoryte from my Lord Deputy hath made peace untyll Mayedaye and ys now tretyng with the other septe off Arteboye.

Although I hould yt not honorabell forr a prynce to make peace with rebells, yet the myscheffe off this time considered I take yt good pollicy. The articles of the said peace I herewith send yo honor, great complaynts ther ys of both sydes betwyne Cokley and M'son untyll they may ber both hard together I wyll forbere to give sentence where the fault ys, Cokeley ys a man of gret welth and lyving and hath no entertaynement; Masterson, as I here, hath nothyng but his entertaynement ffrom the Prynce. Such ambytyon I generally fynde amongest oure fewe Inglysshe that inhabyt here, as no two of them that dwell within 20 myles can agre together, had they nothing when they came hether they accompte themselves gret parsonages here, and eche to make his profytt without regard off servyce. I pray God there be any that hath longe continued here ffree from those faultes."

His friends at Court were so numerous and powerful that they were even able to intimidate the most senior of civil servants - John Thomas, Chief Rembrancer to Cecil - into reversing his own decision after he had declared that the file was closed and the matter could not be discussed further. The circumstances were that after Anthony's petition to the Queen for the grant of the fee farm of Tintern Abbey instructions were issued to Thomas to have the necessary deed of grant prepared for the Queen's signature. When the document duly signed was handed to Anthony he saw that it was a grant of the Abbey buildings only and not even of the land on which they stood, let alone the surrounding estate possession of which was essential for defensive purposes in excluding the Kavanaghs and Keatings as well as for the support and maintenance of the Abbey and its occupants. Anthony refused to accept the grant whereupon Thomas asserted that to reject a gift from the Queen amounted to High Treason and Lese Majeste and a furious row ensued. The outcome was that in a report to Burley dated 12 August 1567 Thomas, having tried to justify his action, went on "....sythens which time I understand some of Mr Coughlers friends of good callyng and reputation in this realm have muche myslyked of me for not passing of the same leace and have also (as it is said) written some words of discredite unto your Honor againste me. Wherefore I thought it my duty to advertise your Honor of the causes that moved me to stay the making of the leace, least upon their suggestion yo honor might conceive an evill opinion of me without desert. And of H.M.'s letters, the coppy of the old leace whereby Coughler now enjoyeth it and the causes that moved me to take exception unto the warrant."

Ten days later the Lord Deputy wrote of Thomas to Lord Burghley "I come more to judge of him the better for his parts sence his trust to the office of the Exchequer, and that in two points, the one for Sir Edward Butler's lease, the other for Cockells, whose lease had passed I beleve a great way from the Queen's meaning, if he had not more syrcomspectly consyderyd thereof then some of good credit in Ireland wold have had as by serten nots which I required him to mack upon his refusing to draw a grante ther forther inclosed maye to your Lordship appere, the gyvft as it is in Cocles leace and lying in so good quarters and parts as it doth is a matter of no small vallu, and such a gyvft as wold ryght well content for a ryght good service. I had heard that some of Cocles new frynds greatly stomack Mr Thomas for refusing to passe the lease as it was receyved and that they had or wold write to you in mattewr against him.

Fro Thomas Court beside Dublin, August 22, 1567.

sd. W.FitzWILLIAMS"

After this Thomas had to get a further grant prepared giving Colclough the whole estate for which he had asked.

Sir Anthony died on 19 December 1584 but the place of his burial is uncertain. The chapel at Tintern was rebuilt by Sir Thomas in 1615 and the monument to his father installed some time later.

Sir Anthony has been "moche wronged" by many later writers. Mr and Mrs Hall in their hilarious 'Travels in Ireland' assert that the family curse of fire and water is due to his having put to the sword the remaining monks whom he found in occupation when he was granted the Abbey in 1565, although most of the monks had moved to France thirty years before, and Henry Wood who had been in occupation of the Abbey for some years before its acquisition by Colclough could hardly have failed to notice any live monks remaining about the place. Anthony is also accused of having incurred the wrath of the fairies by levelling a rath of theirs. In dealing with the grant of the Abbey to him the Halls assert that he was employed as secretary to a nobleman for whom the grant was intended and who sent him to England to collect it, but Queen Elizabeth was so charmed by the handsome young man that she had the grant made out to him personally instead of to his employer. This tale is improbable, for at the time of the grant Anthony was 50 years of age, the Queen had known him all her life as a member of the Royal Household commanding the Gentlemen at Arms, and his spelling was so deplorable that nobody, noble man or not, would dream of employing him as a secretary. Henry Goff in his contribution to Whelan's 'Wexford History and Society' having called him Thomas throughout asserts that "despite numerous attempts Colclough had not succeeded in obtaining a Crown office and was particularly envious of Masterson who had obtained a number of Crown offices in Wexford despite arriving in the country much later than Colclough." and there is also some confusion about dates. Sean Cloney in an article in the Journal of the Wexford Historical Society for 1984/5 says "smart operator that he was, he seized the opportunity of marrying Clare Agar, sister to Francis Agar, a Seneschal of co. Wexford, in other words the Queen's chief steward of the county. It is conceivable that the regularisation of the Colclough title to Tintern could have formed part of Francis Agar's marriage settlement on his sister" which rather confuses Tintern with Rosegarland. In Roger Staley's "Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland" Sir Anthony is described as "a civil servant employed by the Dublin government" and is blamed for the ruin wrought on the conventural buildings of Tintern by the Keatings. Later generations of the family are also 'moche wronged' by him in attributing to 'Sir' Vesey damage done by the Office of Public Works two hundred years after his death.