The Irish Branch of the Lyons family were not Irish, but English, and had been granted land in Ireland by James I. The grandson of Sir Richard Lyons, who was Governor of Calais during the reign of Henry VIII, was Captain William Lyons, a Huguenot and supporter of Henry of Navarre who fled to England, after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572, and entered the army of Elizabeth I, in which, in 1599, he commanded a company of cavalry, under the Earl of Essex, in the Tudor conquest of Ireland. William was subsequently granted the estate of Clonarrow, subsequently known as River Lyons, in King's County: the transfer of the land to Lyons occurred in 1622, after which a branch of the family settled in Ireland. William also bought the lands of Mullalough, Casement, Killeen, and Killowen, together constituting over 3000 acres, in the same County. The Irish seat of the Lyons family was Ledestown/Ledistown Hall, Mullingar, County Westmeath. Several members of the Irish family served as High Sheriff of Westmeath and High Sheriff of King’s County during the 17th and 18th centuries.
