In the MAYNOOTH STUDIES IN LOCAL HISTORY series. An exploration of the attitudes towards women, property, the law and politics in Ascendancy Ireland based on the abduction of a young woman in 1743. The author uses the study of what happened to the heiress to consider the dynamics and values of both the Limerick locality and 18th century Ireland.

At dusk on a November evening in 1743, a young woman was spirited away from a County Limerick rectory. The resulting saga lasted into the 1780s and moved between France, Dublin and Limerick. It involved illicit marriages and thwarted love. This work also throws light on attitudes towards women, property, the law and politics in Ascendancy Ireland. The author uses the detailed study of what happened to the heiress to reconsider the dynamics and values of both the Limerick locality and eighteenth-century Ireland.