In 1761, Major-General

Robert Clive Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for laying the foundation of the British ...

(1725-1774) gave orders for his estate in County Clare, centred on the

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

of Ballykilty near the village of

Quin Quin may refer to: * Quin (name), including a list of people with the name * Quin, colloquially, one of a set of quintuplets, a multiple birth of five individuals * Quin (Sigilverse), a fictional planet * Quin, County Clare, a village in County Cla ...

, to be renamed Plassey: 'the name of the place (now Palashi) where we gained our great victory in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

to which I owe all my good fortune'. The victory was the

Battle of Plassey The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757, under the leadership of Robert Clive. The victory was made possible by the defection of Mir Jafar, ...

in June 1757. In 1762, he was ennobled as ''The 1st

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

Clive, of Plassey in the County of Clare'', in the Peerage of Ireland. In 1764, Lord Clive was appointed a Knight Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(K.B.). Clive had bought this country estate in County Clare around 1760 from a Dublin banker called Henry Mitchell. A number of authors have assumed a direct link between Major-General Lord Clive and

Plassey House Palashi or Plassey ( bn, পলাশী, Palāśī, translit-std=ISO, , ) is a village on the east bank of Bhagirathi River, located approximately 50 kilometres north of the city of Krishnanagar in Kaliganj CD Block in the Nadia Distric ...

, now the administrative centre of the University of Limerick (U.L.). Plassey House is located on the opposite, County Limerick bank of the

River Shannon The River Shannon ( ga, Abhainn na Sionainne, ', '), at in length, is the longest river in the British Isles. It drains the Shannon River Basin, which has an area of , – approximately one fifth of the area of the island of Ireland. The Shan ...

, at Monaleen in Castletroy, on the outskirts of

Limerick City Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 c ...

. This university campus is connected by a bridge to County Clare. More recently, John Logan of the University of Limerick (U.L.) has asserted that there is 'no historical basis for ascribing either occupancy or ownership of Plassey House or its adjacent lands to Robert Clive.' It has been suggested that Plassey House was renamed in the late eighteenth century by Thomas Maunsell, who lived there, to commemorate his own rôle or that of a family member in the

. Robert, 1st Baron Clive, was succeeded in his

peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks. Peerages include: Australia * Australian peers Belgium * Belgi ...

and estates by his son Edward, 2nd Baron Clive (1754-1839). The 2nd Lord Clive was created 1st Earl of Powis in the

Peerage of the United Kingdom The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five Peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the ...

in 1804. The Plassey Estate in County Clare was later sold by The 2nd Earl of Powis (1785-1848), grandson of The 1st Lord Clive, in 1842.

References

* Geography of County Clare {{Clare-geo-stub