Editing Springhill House (section)

===The Conyngham family===
The Conyngham family had come from [[Ayrshire]] in Scotland in about 1609, possibly from [[Glengarnock Castle|Glengarnock]] and the first of the family in Ulster was said to have been one of the family of the [[Earl of Glencairn|Earls of Glencairn]]. Alexander Conyngham, Dean of Raphoe, ancestor of the later [[Marquess Conyngham|Marquesses Conyngham]], was probably a near relative – his son Sir [[Albert Cunningham]]'s portrait<ref>[http://artuk.org/discover/artworks/lieutenant-general-sir-albert-conyngham-d-1691-131239 Portrait of Lieutenant General Sir Albert Conyngham], died 1691</ref> is at Springhill and not [[Slane Castle]].<ref name="Old Ulster House pages 7-9">An Old Ulster House, Springhill and the people who lived in it. Author: Mina Lenox-Conyngham (pages 7-9 , 2005 edition published by the Ulster Historical Foundation)</ref> They were granted lands under [[James VI and I|James I]]'s [[Plantation of Ulster]] in [[County Armagh]] and [[County Londonderry]]. The early history of the family is something of a mystery. Mina Lenox-Conynham asserted that a document previously held in the [[National Archives of Ireland|Public Records Office]] in Dublin asserted that the lands at Ballindrum (later Springhill) were in Conyngham hands as early as 1609, but she believed this record to have been destroyed during the [[Battle of Dublin]] and the shelling of the [[Four Courts]]<ref name="Old Ulster House pages 7-9"/> It is believed that some form of farm dwelling was constructed on the estate in the second quarter of the seventeenth century (probably on the site of the present carpark) but this was destroyed during the [[Irish Rebellion of 1641]].