and Terence O'Sheridan were granted a licence to make and sell spirituous liquors in Balliconnell and throughout Tullagha barony. By 1619 Pynnar's Survey of Land Holders found that Talbot had built a strong defensive wall called a bawn, which was a square measuring along each side and 12 ft high, with two flanking towers. Within the bawn was erected a strong castle of lime and stone three stories high which "stands in a very good and convenient place for the strength and service of the country". In August 1622 another survey found that- . The castle was destroyed in a fire in 1688 and Ballyconnell House was erected on its site in Annagh townland. However, some of the ruins are still visible and a section of the bawn wall was recently uncovered in an archaeological excavation. Walter Talbot died on 26 June 1625 at Ballyconnell and his son James Talbot succeeded to the Ballyconnell estate aged just 10 years. James Talbot married The Hon. Helen Calvert, the daughter of The 1st Baron Baltimore, in 1635 and had a son, Colonel George Talbot, who owned an estate in Cecil County, Maryland, which he named Ballyconnell in honour of his native town in County Cavan. George Talbot was appointed Surveyor-General of Maryland in 1683. In the aftermath of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, James Talbot's estate in Ballyconnell was confiscated because he was a Catholic and instead he was granted an estate in 1655 at Castleruby townland, Baslick parish, County Roscommon. He died in 1687. By 1652 the Irish rebels in the Ballyconnell area had been defeated and the area was put under the control of the Cromwellian captain Thomas Gwyllym. He was a native of Glenavy, County Antrim, where his father, The Rev. Meredith Gwyllym (wife Miss Peers), was vicar of the parishes of Glenavy, Camlin, Tullyrusk, Ballinderry & Magheragall in County Antrim and Baronstown & Kene in County Louth from 1622 until sometime after 1634. Gwyllym's name first appears in the area as the owner of the Ballyconnell Estate in the 1652 Commonwealth Survey and as a Commissioner (Thomas Guilliams) for the 1654 Assessment of Tax. He also appears as a Cavan Commissioner in the 1660 Hearth Money Ordinances. In the Hearth Money Rolls compiled on 29 September 1663 Thomas Gwyllym has five hearths in Bellaconell. The other Hearth Tax payers were John Squire, Henry Jordan and Denis Alarne, all