John’s son, Ralph, became the next lord of Rathdown. By 1270, the annual rent of two otter skins was said to be due in respect of the manor of Rathdown.The family retained interests in Dublin. In 1278, we know that Ralph was paid the sum of £4 /9s /8d by the Dublin Exchequer for expenses incurred in guarding the borders of the “Vale of Dublin” (the Dodder valley ), presumably against the incursions from the Irish of the mountains, which, by the late thirteenth century, had become a serious problem for the Norman colonists.
Ralph married Joan, who after Ralph’s death, married again to Albert de Kenley. De Kenley was Sheriff of Kildare, and his name still survives today in the two townlands, Kindlestown Upper and Kindlestown Lower.
Smal, Chris (1993) Ancient Rathdown and St. Crispin’s Cell, A uniquely historic landscape. Friends of Historic Rathdown, Greystones.
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