The Grant family, the branch from which I am descended, moved to Co Tipperary immediately after losing their land in the Cromwellian confiscations. It is not clear as to why they choose Tipperary, but there were not a lot of options open to dispossessed landowners without any influence.
There is no evidence of any Grants living permanently in County Tipperary prior to Cromwell. There are a number of documents which give a view of the whole country at specific dates, and we can plot the progress of the family from these records. They are:
Irelands upheavals continued in the 18th century. The population in 1740 was about 3.25 million, but the famine of 1741 wiped out 400000 people, or about 1 in 8 of the population.
In 1745 a return showed 2600 male protestants and 18000 male Catholics in Co Tipperary of fighting age (16 - 60)
Thomas from Ballinabouly had his land confiscated by Cromwell. From our earlier discussion he was a Protestant royalist. He received land in Connaught, but sold this straight away in 1656 without taking up residence there. He appears to have moved to Doon/Toem, Co Tip straight away. With his two younger brothers James and John moving to Moyne, Co Tip, which was not far away. Thomas's descendants had moved to Moyaliff, Co Tip by 1734, and the descendants of James and John remained at Moyne.
1659
The Census gives no Grants in Co Tipperary, with the main grouping in Kilkenny and Waterford. As the census is an abstract, rather than details, this does not mean that there was not a single Grant in Co Tipperary, but there were less than 5 families.
1666
The Hearth Money Rolls are complete for the whole county. Petty puts the population at 184000 houses, only 24000 of which had one or more hearths. The Rolls show:-
| Parish Moyne | William Grant | 1 hearth in townland Derryfadda | |
| Parish Burrisleagh & Ballymurrin | James Grant | 1 hearth in townland Ballydavid | |
| (now Twomileborris) | John Grant | 1 hearth in townland Ballydavid | |
| Parish Thurles | Ed Grant (or Lant?) | 1 hearth in townland Ballycarrae | |
| Parish Tipperary | Conner Grant | 1 hearth | |
| Parish Tome (now Doon) | Thomas Grant | 1 hearth | |
Only a small number of parishes are available online, and in these I have found
1776
The listing of Freeholders in Co Tipperary gives the following:
1830 Tithe Applotment It is difficult to get the complete list of parishes online, but from those I have found they split
1850 Griffiths Valuation of 1850 shows 37 Grant households in Tipperary, they are distributed as follows:-
Conclusions
The Grant family first appeared in Co Tipperary in about 1665 following the Cromwellian confiscations. From the evidence of where they were to be found before this date (virtually confined to southern Kilkenny and Waterford Town), from the Christian names of those families, and from the records of what happened over land forfeiture, we can be reasonably certain that it was the Ballinabouly family which moved to Co Tipperary in 1665.
One group settled first at Doon, then moved to Moyaliff, some 8 miles west of Thurles. A second group settled at Moyne , 5 miles east of Thurles.
A hundred years later, at the end of the 18th century, some of these families moved to Templemore (10 miles north of Thurles), to Shinrone (25 miles north of Thurles) and to Tipperary town.
In the 1980s there were still Grants living in Moyaliff, Templemore and Shinrone.
Separate histories are done for the main branches of the family.:-
Map of area with Grants marked