Henry Ponsonby (1620 - 1681) was a soldier in Oliver Cromwell's army during the Irish Confederate Wars who became a significant landowner and landlord when he was granted the estates of long-established settlers in County Kerry, notably the Stack family after whom Stack's Mountains are named. His family influenced Kerry politics for the next two centuries. He was born to Dorothy (née Sands) and Henry Ponsonby at Haile Hall, near Whitehaven, Cumbria. He was part of Cromwell's army which invaded Ireland at Dublin in August 1649; his older brother, John, began the campaign as a major and had already been in Ireland a few years. Cromwell's aim was to defeat the alliance of the Catholic Confederacy and English Royalists, the latter having lost to Parliamentarians in Great Britain. The Confederate-Royalist alliance was finally beaten by 1653, but Cromwell's Act of Settlement of Ireland was drawn up the previous year. A national survey, the Down Survey, was carried out by William Petty to facilitate this. Owners of Irish land were dispossessed to varying degrees, some as punishment but in any case to pay the British troops - who had not been paid for 18 months - in lieu of wages. The Stacks, a Catholic family of Norman heritage in Kerry, had supported the Confederacy so all of their land was confiscated. Around Kilflynn and Crotta (which had been known as 'Stackstown') were the townlands owned by James Stack (Garrynagore, Gortclohy and Cloghanaleskirt), John Stack (Aghacoora), Richard Stack (Killaspicktarvin (and eight more northerly townlands)) and Thomas Stack (Gortaneare, Ballyconnell, Castletown, Crotta (also formerly known as 'Crotto'), Glanballyma, Knocknahila, Cloonnafinneela, and Cappagh). Following the Stuart Restoration, Ponsonby received a pardon from Charles II for all treasons, rebellions, levying of war etc., committed before and until December 29, 1660. Further changes to the Acts of Settlement were made but the townlands around Kilflynn formerly the property of the Stacks were newly confirmed as the property of Henry Ponsonby by 1666, along with Knocknaglough (240 acres) to the west, taken from another Catholic, Robert FitzMaurice (spelt 'FitzMorris' on the Down Survey); these townlands totalled at least 2000 acres in all. Ponsonby made the townland of Crotta the site for his home seat and built Crotta House there in 1669 in what was regarded as an Elizabethan style. He married Rose Weldon of St. John's Bower near Athy, County Kildare, daughter of Mary Newman and Thomas