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Sometime about 1680 the old house, which is still intact at the rear of the main house, was purchased from Thomas Sharkey of Abbeyleix by a remarkable Quaker called Anthony Sharp. He moved a number of Quaker tenants down to the estate which then became known as Friendstown.

His grandson, another Anthony, who was born and brought up in America , eventually inherited old Anthony’s English and Irish properties and decided to build his main residence in Killinure, now Roundwood. He lived there until his death in 1781. The house was inherited by his grandson Robert Anthony Flood Sharp and in turn by his son William Edward when he was aged only one. He lost the property to mortgage holders in 1835 and in 1836 or 1837 it was taken over by William Hamilton, a cousin of the Flood Sharps. The Hamiltons remained until 1968 when Chetwode Hamilton and his wife Elizabeth sold the house and the remaining estate to the Land Commission. To save it from ruin the Irish Georgian Society purchased it in 1970. It remained in their hands until Frank and Rosemarie bought it in 1983.