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A HISTORY

1 '5 1 -',

OF THE

COUNTY DUBLIN:

THE PEOPLE, PARISHES AND ANTIQUITIES FROM THE EARLIEST
TIMES TO THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

PART SECOND

Being a History of that portion of the County comprised within
the Parishes of

DONNYBROOK, BOOTERSTOWN, ST. BARTHOLOMEW,

ST. MARK, TANEY,

ST. PETER, AND RATHFARNHAM.

FRANCIS ELRINGTON BALL,

DUBLIN:

FKINTED and PuBI,ISHED by AI<KX. ThOM & Co. (I^IMITKD), Abbky-st.

,^ .. 1903.

■Utii

PREFACE TO THE SECOND PART.

In issuing the second part of my history I have to thank my
readers for the favourable reception which they have accorded
to my attempt to collect the annals of my native county, and
to express my appreciation of the kindly manner in which the
first part of this work has been reviewed.

It is my hope that the publication of the next part may not
be so long delayed as the present one has been, and that, as
has been suggested, I may be enabled on the completion of
the history of the parishes to write an introduction dealing with
the general history of the entire county.

I wish once more to acknowledge the encouragement and
assistance afforded me by my brother fellows and members of
the Royal Society of Antiquarians of Ireland, in whose journal,
in papers of mine on " Mount Merrion and its History," " The
Antiquities from Blackrock to Dublin," and " The Battle of
Rathmines," some of the information contained in these pages
has already appeared.

In the preparation of this part for Press I have again had the
benefit of the historical and archaeological knowledge of Mr.
James Mills, the Deputy Keeper of the Records in Ireland ;
Mr. C. Litton Falkiner, the Rev. William Reynell, and Mr.
Tenison Groves. I am also indebted in a very special degree
to the Earl of Pembroke and to his agent, Mr. Fane Yernon.
Besides these, I have received assistance, for which I am most
grateful, from the Most Rev. Dr. Donnelly, Bishop of Canea;
Dr. P. W. Joyce, Mr. H. F. Beriy, the Assistant Deputy Keeper

PREFACE TO THE SECOND PART.

of the Records in Ireland; Mr. M. J. M'Enery, Sir Arthur
Vicars, Mr. G. D. Burtchaell, Rev. P. Dinneen, Sir Frederick
Shaw, Mrs. Blackburne, Mr. Louis Perrin-Hatchell, Sir John
Nutting, and Mr. W, H. Robinson. The Director of the
Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, Dr. M. J. James, and his
assistant, Mr. H. A. Chapman, have given me every facility, as
have also Mr. Alfred de Burgh, of Trinity College Library;
Mr. T. W. Lyster, of the National Library of Ireland ; Mr. J. J.
M^ Sweeney, of the Royal Irish Academy ; and the Librarians
of the British Museum and Bodleian Libraries.

The Controller of His Majesty's Stationery Office has per-
mitted me to make use of the Ordnance Map for the purposes of
the frontispiece, and the blocks from which some of the illus-
trations have been taken have been lent me by the Council of
the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, and by the Editor
of the " Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge."

F. ELRINGTON BALL.

Dublin,

April, 1903.

CONTENTS.

Parishes of Donnybrook, Booterstown and St. Bartholomew, and
Part of the Parish of St. Mark :

Page

Merrion and its Castle,

1

Booterstown and the Blackrock Road,

22

Simmonscourt, . . . .

29

Sandymount, . . . . .

33

Ringsend, . . . . .

33

Baggotrath, . . . . .

42

Donnybrook, . . . . .

48

Ecclesiastical History,

57

Parish of Taney :

Dundrum and its Castle,

64

Balally, . . . . .

73

Roebuck, . . . . .

75

Mount Merrion, . . . .

80

Ecclesiastical History, . . . .

95

Portion of the Parish of St. Peter :

Rathmines,

Ranelagb and Sandford,

Milltown,

100
108
110

Parish of Rathfarnham :

Rathfamham and its Castle,

Rathgar,

Terenure and Kimmage,

Ecclesiastical History, .

114
144
147
152

Index,

157

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND PART.

The parishes which have been grouped in this part of the
history lie to the south of the City of Dublin in the Baronies
of Rathdown, Dublin, and Upper Cross. They are bounded
on the east by the sea, on the south by the parishes of Monks-
town, Stillorgan, Kilmaeud, Kilgobbin, and Whiteehurch, on
the west by the parishes of Tallaght and Crumlin, and on the
north by the City of Dublin, and are intersected by the River
Dodder, the most important river next to the LifEey in the
County Dublin. With the exception of portion of the parishes
of Taney and Rathfarnham they comprise thickly populated
suburban districts, forming two of the largest townships in the
metropolitan county, Rathmines and Pembroke, and portion
of the township of Blackrock.

At one time these parishes were closely connected; their
churches were portion of the corps of the Archdeaconry of
Dublin, and nearly all the lands which they contain were
divided between three owners, the Fitzwilliams of Merrion,
who are now represented by the Earl of Pembroke ; the Brets
of Rathfarnham, who were succeeded by the Loftuses; and
the Archbishop of Dublin. This history treats of these
parishes, when there were but eleven residences of any impor-
tance within their bounds, namely, the Castles of Merrion,
Booterstown, Simmonscourt, Baggotrath, Donnybrook, Roebuck,
Dundrum, Balally, Rathmines, Rathfarnham, and Terenure;
and four places of worship, namely, the Churches of Donny-
brook, Dundrum, and Rathfarnham, and the small chapel of
Merrion. The lands were entirely devoted to agriculture, and

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND PART.

in the parishes of Rathfamham and Taney the inhabitants
suffered greatly from the incursions of the hillsmen even to the
close of the sixteenth century, when Rathfarnham is described
as a waste village. Along the sea border where Sidney-parade,
Sandymount, Milltown, and Ringsend now stand, extensive
rabbit warrens and fisheries were to be seen, and in the seven-
teenth century, at Ringsend, vessels unable to enter the port of
Dublin discharged their passengers on what was then a bare
promontory, and lay on the sands without protection. Coming
down to the eighteenth century, we see the parishes beginning
to be occupied by country houses for the Dublin citizens who
sought escape from the narrow streets of the metropolis, and
the establishment along the River Dodder of various manu-
factures, but it was not until the nineteenth century that the
extensive building commenced by which the parishes have
been converted into urban districts.

AUTHORITIES,

The authorities whose titles have been condensed, and the places of preservation
of manuscripts, are as follows : —

Journal R. S. A. L refers to the Journals of the Kilkenny Archssological Society,
of the Historical and Archaeological Society of Ireland, and of the Royal Society
of Antiquaries of Ireland, following the consecutive numbering of the volumes.

Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey refers to " Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey,
Dublin," edited by Sir John Gilbert in the Rolls Series.

Fiants refers to the Calendars of Fiants in the 7th to the 22nd Reports of the
Deputy Keeper of the Records in Ireland.

Christ Church Deeds refers to the Calendar of Christ Church Deeds in the 20th
to the 26th Reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Records in Ireland, and to a MS.
Calendar preserved in the Public Record Office of Ireland.

Patent Rolls refers to " Rotulorum Paten tium et Clausorum Cancellariae
HibemiaB Calendarium," vol. i., part i.

Chancery Inquisitions refers to " Inquisitionum in Officio Rotulorum Cancel-
lariae Hibemise Asservartum Repertorium," vol. i., under Co. Dublin.

Fleetwood's Survey refers to '* A Survey of the Half Barony of Rathdown,"
made by order of Lord Deputy Fleetwood ; printed in Lodge's " Desiderata
Curiosa Hibemica," vol. ii., p. 629.

Archbishop Bulkeley's Report refers to " A Report on the Diocese of Dublin,"
by Archbishop Bulkeley, printed in The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, vol. v., pp.
145-166.

Blacker's Sketches refers to " Brief Sketches of the Parishes of Booterstown
and Donnybrook," by the Rev. Beaver H. Blacker.

Sweetman's Calendar refers to " Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland,"
edited by H. S. Sweetman in the Record Publications.

Lodge's Peerage refers to " The Peerage of Ireland," by John Lodge, revised,
enlarged, and continued by Mervyn Archdall.

The Down Survey Maps, Hearth- Money Rolls, Subsidy Rolls, Certificates for
Adventurers and Soldiers, Rolls of Innocents, Exchequer Inquisitions (see under
Co. Dublin), Book of Postings and Sale, Regal Visitation of 1616, Commission of
Grace, Religious Returns of 1766, Wills, Grants, Justiciary, Plea, and Memoranda
Rolls, and Crown Rental, are preserved in the Public Record Office of Ireland.

Cooper's Note Book refers to MSS. of Austin Cooper, f.s.a., in possession of
the Representatives of the late Mr. Austin Damer Cooper.

The Depositions of 1641 are preserved in the Library of Trinity College,
Dul^in.

The Census of 1659 is preserved in the Royal Irish Academy.

The Carte Papers are preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

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Parishes of Donnybrook,
Booterstown, & St. Bartholomew,

AND PART OF THE

Parish of St. Mark, Dublin.

' Formerly the Parish of Donnyhrooh—i.e.y Domhnach-Broc or the Church of St. Broc,
and part of the Parish of St. Kevin,)

The Parish of Donnybrook in the seventeenth century appears to have consisted
of the Townlands of Merrioii, Booterstown, Simmonscourt, Donnybrook, Forty
Acres, and Baggotrath.'

These Townhinds with an addition from the Parish of St. Kevin, are now represented
by the modem Townlands of Annefield, Baggotrath, Baggotrath East; Balls-
bridge, Beggarsbush, Blackrock, Booterstown (i.e., Baile-an-bhothair, or the
Town of the Road), Clonskeagh (i.e., Cloonske, or the Meadow of the White
Thorn Bushes), Donnybrook East and West, Forty acres, Irishtown, Merrion
(Nos. I. and II.), Priesthouse, Ringsend (i.e., Rinn-Aun, the Point of the Tide,
or more probably the end of the Rinn or point), Sallymount, Sandymount,
Simmonscoiurt, Smotscourt, and Williamstown.

The small portion of the County Dublin, in the Parish of St. Mark, was reclaimed
from the foreshore, and is known as the Townland of the South Lots.

MERRION AND ITS CASTLE.

Mebbion, now a suburb of Dublin, lying about three miles to the
south-east of the city, on the coast, and intersected by the road to
Blackrock and by the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, containsi
no building of earlier date than the eighteenth century. It was,
however, for many generations the home of a family foremost
amongst the landed proprietors in the metropolitan county, and
the ground now occupied by the Asylum for the Female Blind,
opposite Merrion Railway gates, was for several centuries* the site
of one of the principal mediaeval castles in the neighbourhood of
Dublin, the ruins of which were removed more than a hundred
years ago.

The Fitzwillia^ms of Merrion, now represented by the Earl of
Pembroke and Montgomery (their descendant in the female line
and the owner of their estates), were a family amongst whose
members the sovereigns of England found many of their most

PARISHES OP DONNYBROOK, &C.

valiant liegemen and faithful adherents, and are also remarkable
as being one of the few families in Ireland descended from early
settlers which retained their property through all the troublous
periods. The first of the house to come to Ireland are said to
have arrived in the reign of King John, and to have been members
of the great English family to which Earl Fitzwilliam, the inheritor
of the Earl of Strafford's estates in Yorkshire and the County
Wicklow, belongs — a statement which led the Fitzwilliams of
Merrion in the seventeenth century to cease to use distinctive arms
and to adopt those which Earl Fitzwilliam bears.

The fourteenth century saw the Fitzwilliam family firmly estab-
lished in the southern portion of the County Dublin, and before
long they rivalled in the extent of their possessions the monastic
owners of Monkstown and Kill-of-the-Grange. In the fifteenth
century they had acquired no less than four manors — those of
Merrion, Thorncastle, Dundrum, and Baggotrath. The three
former manors included the lands now known under the denomina-
tions of Merrion, Booterstown, Mount Merrion, Kilmacud, Dun-
drum, Ballinteer, Donnybrook, Ringsend, Irishtown, Sandymount,
and Sidney Parade, while the manor of Baggotrath embraced the
lands on which Merrion Square, Fitzwilliam Square, and the
adjoining streets now stand, as well as those forming a great
portion of the Pembroke Township. Speaking in general terms,
the property of the Fitzwilliams, which has come down in its
entirety to the Earl of Pembroke, extended from Blackrock and
Kilmacud, where it joined the lands of the Abbey of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, to Trinity
College, then the Priory of All Saints, and to St. Stephen's Green,
formerly portion of the estate of the Corporation of Dublin.

It was not until the beginning of the fifteenth century that the
lands of Merrion, which then constituted a manor, came into the
possession of the Fitzwilliams, These lands which lie within the
franchises of the city of Dublin, and over which the Corporation
had certain rights, appear to have been originally portion of the
lands of Donnybrook, and to have been always held in conjunction
with the adjoining manor of Thorncastle, which included the lands
lying between Merrion and Blackrock. The first owner of Donny-
brook and Thorncastle after the Anglo-Norman Invasion was
Walter de Rideleford, Lord of Bray, who was given the greater
portion of such of the lands to phe §outh of Dublin as were not in

MERRION AND ITS CASTLE.

the possession of ecclesiastical establishments. He was a brave and
noble warrior, who is said to have slain' the leader of the Norwegian
army which came to the assistance of the Irish when they were in-
vesting Strongbow's forces in Dublin, and in addition to the grant
of lands to the south of Dublin, he was also given a large tract at
Castledermot in the County Kildare. This warrior was succeeded
by another owner of the same name, and it was not until 1244 that a
Walter de Rideleford ceased to be identified with Thomcastle. By
marriage with an illegitimate descendant of Henry I., the de
Ridelefords had become connected with the reigning house, and
also through the same alliance with many of the leading Anglo-
Norman invaders, the founders of the houses of Fitzgerald, Fitz-
maurice, and Carew.

The last Walter de Rideleford connected with Thomcastle had
two daughters. One was twice married, first to Hugh de Lacy, Earl
of Ulster, and, secondly, to Stephen de Longespee, sometime
Justiciary or Viceroy of Ireland. The other married Robert de
Marisco, who was son or brother of a successor of Stephen de
Longespee's in the chief governorship. Robert de Marisco and his
wife predeceased her father, and on the latter's death in 1244 his
Dublin estates passed to their only child, Christiana de Marisco,
who was then an infant. As an heiress she became a ward of
the Crown, and the King, as was then customary, gave the custody
of her lands and bestowal of her hand in marriage to a guardian,
in her case one Fulk, of Newcastle; declaring, although she was
then but two years old, that it was his intention she should become
the wife of her protector. The royal decree was not infallible.
Five years later she was under the care of Ebulo de Geneve, and
described as his wife. Again man proposed but Providence dis-
posed, and she escaped from the care of Ebulo de Geneve to retain
her maiden name through life. She was on terms of intimacy
with Eleanor of Provence, the widowed Queen of Henry III. ; and,
as she accompanied her royal mistress abroad after the Queen had
taken the veil, she probably followed the example of her royaJ mis-
tress in joining a religious community. This lady was possessed of
great wealth, which she freely spent in the service of Queen Eleanor
and her son, Edward I., and on being granted lands in England she
assigned her Irish property to the Crown (i).

(1) Sweetman's Calendar, 1171-1284; "The Norman Settlement in Leinster,"
by James Mills, Journal, R.JS.A.I., vol. xxiv., p. 163 ; " Song of Dermot and the
Earl," edited by G. H. Orpen ; Giraldi Cambrensis Opera in Rolls' Series ; Lynch's
" Legal Institutions in Ireland during the reign of Henry 11." ; Cokayne's Com-
plete Peerage," vol. i., p. 13 ; " Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xvii., p.
179, vol. xxxvi, p. 161; " Chartularies of St, Mary's Abbey."

PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

At the close of the thirteenth century the manor of Thorncastle
was held from the King by William le Deveneis, who became one
of the judges of Ireland, and was knighted. He began his official
career in Ireland as Kemembrancer of the Exchequer, and, subse-
quently, it was alleged, through the goodwill of an ecclesiastical
viceroy whom he had placated by gifts of land near Coolock,
obtained other offices. The custody of the King's demesnes in
Ireland was committed to him, and he was given a grant of lands
in the mountainous country adjoining the royal forest of Glencree.
The profit from these he did not long enjoy. Until about the year
1290 the Irish and the Anglo-Norman invaders lived in comparative
concord, but from that time constant warfare was carried on
between the inhabitants of the hills, and those of the low lands.
In a petition to the Crown William le Deveneis set forth that his
tenants had fled, and although he was given authority to compel
them to return, and to enclose his lands for the preservation of
game, the lands near Glencree had to be given up as valueless, and
he was obliged to fall back upon lands like those of Thorncastle
nearer to the seat of government. From William le Deveneis the
lands of Thorncastle passed to Walter de Islip, probably a kins-
man of the Archbishop of Canterbury of that name, who flourished
about the same time. Walter de Islip was an ecclesiastical pluralist
who held amongst his benefices and dignities a cure of souls in the
diocese of Norwich, the parish of Trim in the diocese of Meath, a
canonry in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, a prebend in the
diocese of Ossory, and the precentorship of Ferns Cathedral, as well
as the lay offices of Chief Baron and Treasurer of the Irish
Exchequer. From him the lands of Thorncastle passed, about the
year 1320, to Kobert de Nottingham, one of the wealthiest citizens
of Dublin, and mayor of that city.

The earliest indication of the existence of a castle at Merrion is
in 1334, when Thomas Bagod, a member of the family from which
the district of Baggotrath derived its name, signed there a deed
relating to the lands lying to the north-west of Merrion, now
known as Simmonscourt. The lands of Thorncastle and Merrion
had before that time come into Bagod'si occupation, through his
marriage to Eglantine, widow of Robert de Nottingham, and after
his death a year or two later they passed to John, son of Matthew
de Bathe, of the County Meath, who married a daughter of Robert
de Nottingham. By John de Bathe the lands of Thorncastle and
Merrion were in 1366 assigned to Sir John Cruise, the distinguished
soldier and diplomatist, alreadj^ mentioned as owner of the adjacent

MERRION AND ITS CASTLE.

lands of Stillorgan, and from the fact that he is described as of
Merrion, and dated a deed there, Cruise appears to have resided
sometimes in the castle. From him, at the beginning of the fifteenth
century, the lands passed to the Fitzwilliams Q).

The first of the Fitzwilliams to become owner of the lands and
manors of Merrion and Thorncastle was James, son of Hugh Fitz-
william, whose near relatives were then seated at Dundrum and
Swords, and his succession to them arose like that of the Derpatricks
to Stillorgan, from his marriage to a daughter of Sir John Cruise.
About the year 1420 they passed to his son, Philip Fitewilliam,
and as the latter was then a minor the custody of his property and
guardianship of his person was entrusted, after having been for a
short time held by Hugh de Burgh, to James Comwalsh, Chief
Baron of the Irish Exchequer, who is stated to have met his death
in the Castle of Baggotrath at the hands of a kinsman of Philip
Fitzwilliam. On attaining to years of discretion Philip Fitzwilliam
became involved in the events which preceded the Wars of the
Roses, and took the side of the White Rose, or Yorkist party. In
1446 he is described as one of the counsellors of Henry VI., and
a servant of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, the father of
Edward IV. and Richard III., and is said to have rendered good
service to the Crown, not only in Ireland against the enemies of
the Pale, but also in England against the house of Lancaster.
Philip Fitzwilliam was succeeded by his son Stephen, who in 1464,
when residing at Merrion, entered into a contract with Dame
Elizabeth Fleming, doubtless one of the Slane family, to marry her
daughter Hy a previous marriage, Anne Cruise, on condition that
the Cruises relinquished any right which they might- have to his
property. On Stephen Fitzwilliam's death his lands passed to his
son James, charged with a jointure to his widow, who married,
secondly, Robert Cusack; and as James Fitzwilliam was a minor
they were for a time in the custody of guardians appointed by the
Crown (2).

At the end of the fifteenth century the manor of Merrion came
into the possession of the branch of the Fitzwilliam family seated

(^) Sweetman's Calendar, 1252-1307 ; Justiciary, Memoranda, and Plea Rolls ;
" The Royal Forest of Glencree," by T. P. Le Eanu, Journal, R.S.A.I.j vol. xxiii.,
p. 274 ; Calendar of English Patent and Close Rolls ; Cotton's " Fasti EcclesiaB
Hibemicae " ; " Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xxix., p. 74 ; Christ
Church Deeds, Nos. 589, 741 ; Patent Rolls, pp. 27, 185.

(«) Memoranda RoUa ; Patent Rolls, pp. 183. 220.

6 PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

on the lands of Dundrum. The latter lands had been assigned in
1365 to William, son of Richard Fitzwilliam, and were at the end
of the fifteenth century owned by Thomas Fitzwilliam, the fifth in
direct descent from him. In Thomas Fitzwilliam were combined
the possession of large property, a liberal education, and high con-
nections. When he had come of age in 1486, he had succeeded in
addition to the manor of Dundrum to the manor of Baggotrath,
and to other lands in the Counties of Dublin and Meath; and
in order to fit himself for the care of his estates he went three years
later to London to study law. His immediate ancestors had
married into the houses of Ferrers, Bellew, and Holywood — all
families of importance in the Pale — and to the position and pos-
sessions which he inherited he added by his own marriage. His
wife, Eleanor, daughter of John Dowdall, was, on her mother's side,
a grand-daughter of Sir Jenico Dartasse, a wealthy native of Gas-
cony, a country which in his time passed from English to French
rule, who had settled in Ireland and married into one of the old
Anglo-Norman families, the Plunketts of Killeen, and ultimately
the Fitzwilliams inherited the greater portion of the Dartasse pro-
perty.

There is a curious tale told of their succession to it. Thomas
Fitzwilliam's mother-in-law married three times, her first husband
being Thomas Bamewall, her second John Dowdall, and her third
Rowland Eustace, Baron of Portlester, sometime Lord Chancellor
and Treasurer of Ireland. She had by her last husband, amongst
other children, three daughters, who married respectively Sir
Maurice Eustace, Sir John Plunkett, and Sir Walter de la Hyde.
On a certain occasion while these ladies, with their husbands,
and Thomas Fitzwilliam and his wife, were searching in a house in
Dublin for papers concerning their mother's estate, Sir Maurice
Eustace discovered a deed by which their mother had settled her
property on her heirs by her marriage to John Dowdall. This
deed Sir Maurice Eustace secretly took away with him, and, as
soon as they had parted from the Fitzwilliams, told the others its
purport. Its provisions were considered unjust, and it was pro-
posed that the deed should be burned. To such a course Sir
Walter de la Hyde, in whose chamber in the White Friars' Monas-
tery, near the modem Aungier Street, they were assembled, would
not agree, but on the bell in the White Friaxs' Church beginning
to toll he, being a pious man, went off to his devotions, and during
his absence the deed was consigned to the flames. Of this his wife
told him on his return, much to his sorrow and discontent. The

MERRION AND ITS Ca6TL£.

next Lent, " being sore moved in their conscience," the de la
Hydes disclosed what had been done, and enabled the Fitzwilliams
to obtain possession of the whole property — a service which the
Fitzwilliams rewarded by allowing the de la Hydes to retain the
portion then held by them.

Although sometimes described as of Merrion, both Thomas Fitz-
william and his eldest son, Richard, who succeeded him on his death
in 1517, appear to have made Baggotrath Castle their principal
residence. The only record concerning Merrion in their time is a
lease made in 1519 by Richard Fitewilliam on his going to England
of all his messuages and lands within that manor to a physician
called Owen Albanagh. The lease reserves a rent of twelve marks
besides the payment of an annual custom of herrings and other fish,
and provides for the resumption of possession by the landlord on
his return to Ireland.

Richard Fitzwilliam, who succeeded Thomas Fitzwilliam as his
eldest son, and who married one of the de Bathes, was a most
trusted adherent of Gerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, the father of
Silken Thomas, who was connected with both the Fitzwilliams and
the Eustaces, and acted as intermediary in the dispute concerning
the Dartasse property. When the Earl was summoned to Eng-
land to render an account of his government as Lord Deputy,
Richard Fitzwilliam went in his train. To the Earl's influence was
doubtless due the offices of honour and emolument which Richard
Fitzwilliam held, including those of groom of the chamber to Henry
VTII., seneschal of the royal manors near Dublin, and gentleman
usher of the Irish Exchequer. His death took place in 1528, when
he was still but a young man. His will shows him to have been a
devoted son of the Church, and a man whose object it was to estab-
lish and perpetuate the position to which his family had attained.
To the White Friars' Monastery in Dublin Fitzwilliam bequeathed
an endowment for a priest to pray for him daily for ever, a legacy to
repair the monastic buildings, the rent of certain lands until his heir
came of age, arid a gown of satin and a doublet of green velvet to
make vestments; to the Church of Merrion (the mt& of which is
indicated by the disused burial ground on the Blackrock Road) he
left also a gown of camlet and a doublet of satin; and to his
ghostly father his finest black hose. On his tomb in the Church
of the White Friars he directed that a great marble stone should
be laid with a brass engraved with representations of himself, his
wife, and his children " after the custom of England." For his

8 PARISHES O^ DONNYBROOK, &C.

children and for his brothers and sisters, including William, who
rose to high favour at the English Court, Nicholas, who was in
holy orders and held the dignity of Treasurer of St. Patrick's
Cathedral, Alison, who married Christopher Ussher, a great grand-
uncle of Archbishop James Ussher, and Margaret, who married
William" Walsh, of Carrickminee, he made ample provision.

The value of the Fitzwilliams' property was then vastly different
to what it is in the present day. The only source of income,
besides agriculture and the sale of rabbits, which abounded in the
sandy lands, was the tribute from the fisheries along the shore
from Blackrock to Ringsend ; and probably as lay owners the Fitz-
williams did not derive so much profit from their property as their
neighbours, the monastic owners of Monkstown and Kill-of-the-
Grange, while their lands were equally liable to devastating raids
from the hillsmen. They were, however, the principal residents
and the largest lay landowners on the southern side of Dublin,
and they acquired in the sixteenth century additional property
which added to their importance and influence. Their loyalty to
the Crown was conspicuous, and when the Reformation came they
adopted the tenet® of the Established Church, though in some
instances their compliance with its teaching was formal. In the
reign of Edward VI. it was found necessary to remind Nicholas Fitz-
william, the Treasurer of St. Patrick's Cathedral, of the King's
injunctions for godly and true order in the Church, and before the
seventeenth century all the members of the family had reverted to
the Church of Rome Q).

Thomas Fitzwilliam, who succeeded, when about nine years old,
his father, Richard Fitzwilliam, and who made the Castle of
Merrion his principal residence, was one of the most illustrious
members of his family, and finally established the greatness of his
house. Archbishop Loftus speaks of him as a man eminent in
Ireland for His services to Church and State; and, for his bearing
in the field against Shane O'Neill, Sir Henry Sidney, in the autumn
of 1566, conferred on him at Drogheda the honour of knighthood.
His father had committed the guardianship of his son's estates and
person to his cousin, Patrick Finglas, sometime Chief Justice of the
King's Bench, and to his father-in-law, Robert de Bathe, who was

(1) Memoranda Rolls; Exchequer Inquisitions, Henry VIII., County Meatb,
No. 25, Dublin, Nos. 32, 44-46, 56, 57 ; Historical Manuscripts Commission, Rept.
ix., App., pt. i., p. 280; Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1509-1572, p. 98;
Lodge's Peerage, vol. iv., p. 308.

MERRION AND ITS CASTLE. 9

afterwards replaced by Christopher de la Hyde, one of the puisne
judges in Finglas's Court, and though some self-interest is indicated
in the fact that Finglas secured the hand of his ward for his
daughter, the faithful discharge of the trust is apparent from Sir
Thomas Fitzwilliam's successful career.

Like other proprietors of the PaJe, he led a life in which the
occupations of war were blended with those of peace. In com-
pliance with the conditions under which he held his manor of
Merrion, we find him serving in person with two mounted soldiers,
and contributing towards the supply of carts in the expedition in
1556 against the Scottish invaders, and in those of 1560 and 1566
against Shane O'Neill. He also acted in 1560 as a commissioner
for the muster of the Militia in Balrothery Barony, where he had
acquired property, and in later years as constable of the Castle of
Wicklow, which lay in the midst of the enemies of the Pale, whom
it was then sought to subdue. Meantime civil afPairs were not
neglected by him; in 1559 he was returned to Parliament as one
of the Knights of the Shire for the County Dublin, and in the same
year appointed Vice-Treasurer of Ireland. He was also prothono-
tary of the Queen's Bench, Sheriff and Chief Guardian of the
Peace in the metropolitan county (where he was granted in 1564
power to exercise martial law), seneschal of the border lands
inhabited by the Walshes, Harolds, and Archbolds; and on Wick-
low being constituted a county he was appointed a commissioner
to determine its limits.

To the English Court Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam made at least one
visit, and the success which attended his petitions was probably
largely due to the reputation of his uncle William. This uncle, who
was reared in the house of one of the Fitzwilliams' tenants near
Dundrum, was taken into the service of the great William Fitz-
william, Earl of Southampton, then Lord Admiral of England, who
appears to have acknowledged the Irish Fitzwilliams as kinsmen,
and, as has been already mentioned, under Monkstown, in con-
nection with Sir John Travers, whose sister he married, he became
the Earl's trusted attendant. After the death of the Earl
he became attached to the Court. He was appointed a member
of the Privy Council and knighted by Edward VI., and is
spoken of by Queen Elizabeth as a person who stood high in her
esteem. His principal residence was at Windsor, where he was
buried, but he kept up a connection with Ireland, where, while
holding the office of Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper, he was

10 PARISHES OP DONNYBROOK, <feC.

given in 1537 the Manor of Celbridge in the county Kildare. In
1559, shortly before his death, he was returned to Parliament as one
of the Knights of the Shire for the County Carlow.

For some time after he came of age Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam
occupied, like his father and grandfather, Baggotrath Castle, and
also the dissolved monastery of Holmpatrick, which he held by
lease from the Crown and lent to the Earl of Sussex during his
Viceroyalty. But in later life Merrion Castle became his constant
residence. From Merrion in 1566 Sir Henry Sidney, after landing
at Dalkey and spending the previous night in Monkstown Castle,
made his entry as Lord Deputy into Dublin. A large portion of
his lands was kept by Sir Thomaa Fitzwilliam in his own hands,
and in his will he bequeaths to his son, com on the lands of
Merrion, Booterstown, and Simmonscourt, as well as at Holm-
patrick. Besides the monastic lands of -Holmpatrick he acquired
also others at Kilteman belonging to St. Mary's Abbey.

During his time the Fitzwilliam family became closely allied with
the Prestons, ennobled under the title of Gormanston ; Sir Thomas
Fitzwilliam being connected with Christopher, fourth Viscount
Gormanston, in the most extraordinary manner. First his cousin,
a daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam, of Windsor, married Lord
Gormanston, and his brother, Michael Fitzwilliam, of Donore, in
the County Meath, Surveyor-General of the Crown lands, married
Lord Gormanston's sister, then his eldest son married a daughter
of Lord Gormanston, and finally his daughter, who had been
previously married to a son of Sir John Plunkett, married Lord
Gormanston as his second wife. Besides this son and daughter
Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam had a son Nicholas, who settled at Bal-
dungan, and a son Thomas, who was educated at Oxford, and who
settled at Moylagh in the County Meath.

After Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam's death in 1591 his eldest son,
Richard Fitzwilliam, occupied Merrion for five short years. He
took an equally active part in defence of the Pale. For some time
he was Constable of Wicklow Castle, and Warden of the Marches ;
and after he had succeeded to Merrion, in accordance with the
terms of his tenure, he attended in person a great assembly of the
Militia at Tara, accompanied by two armed men. His own outlying
lands were still liable to the devastating raids of the hillsmen. For
their protection he rebuilt the Castle of Dundrum, and, doubtless,
the host of retainers, who appear in his will as recipients of such
tokens of his remembrance as his best sorrel horse, his sorrel colt,

MERRION AND ITS CASTLE.

11

and his dun nag, could be relied on to guard when necessary the
property of their master. Besides the Castle of Merrion he had
a house in Dublin, but he died in the former place, and desired
to be buried in the parish church of Donnybrook, directing
that in the Chapel there belonging to his family a tomb or monu-
ment should be erected to their memory Q).

Thomas Fitzwilliam, who succeeded on the death of Richard
Fitzwilliam, as the latter's eldest son, was destined to obtain the
hereditary honours which his ancestors had earned by their valour
and devotion to the throne, and was raised to the peerage by Charles
I. as Baron Fitzwilliam of Thomcastle and Viscount Fitzwilliam

Thomas, ist Viscount Fitzwilliam.

From a Portrait hy Cornelius Janssen in
the FitztviUiam Museum.

iVlars:aret, wife of the ist Viscount Fitzwilliam.

From a Portrait by Corndius Janssen in
the Fitzwilliam Museum.

of Merrion. When his father's death took place he was still a
minor. About the time he came of age in 1602, he went to com-
plete his education in London and entered as a law student at
Gray's Inn. Three years later he married Margaret, daughter of

(^) Letters and Papers of Heniy V'lII. ; Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1509-
85 ; Manuscripts of Charles Haliday, published by Historical Manuscripts Com-
mission; Christ Church Deeds, Nos. 441, 1227, 1332;' Metcalfe's "Book of Knights,'*
pp. 104, 206; Haydn's " Book of Dignities " ; Return of Members of Parliament ;
Harris's "History of Dublin," p. 35; Lodge's Peerage, vol. iv., pp. 312-315;
" The Description of Ireland in 1698," by Rev. Edmund Hogan, p. 37 ; Foster's
" Alumni Oxonienses " ; Exchequer Inquisitions, Eliz., Dublin, Nos. 216, 253.

12 PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, <fec.

Oliver Plunkett, fourth Baron of Louth, whose mother was one of
the Bagenalls, then a most powerful family ; and in the same year
he was knighted by the Lord Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester.

Some glimpses of life at Merrion are afforded us at this period.
There we see Lord Fitzwilliam's mother, two years after her hus-
band's death, in 1597, on a November day, declaring her last will
by word of mouth and leaving all she had to her trusted brother-
in-law, Thomas Fitzwilliam, of Moylagh. There in 1605, just about
the time of Lord Fitzwilliam's marriage, William Fitzwilliam, of
Jobstown, near Tallaght, where a branch of the family had settled,
succumbed to the plague when himself only a few weeks married.
And in 1608 the Lord Deputy's messenger for the conveyance of
letters relates how he delivered to Lord Fitzwilliam's brother, at
the hall door of Merrion Castle, an order requiring Lord Fitz-
william to produce the body of Sir Cahir O'Dogherty, who was
married to a sister of Lord Fitzwilliam's mother, and for whom
Lord Fitzwilliam was a surety ; and how on returning to town he
met Lord Fitzwilliam at the cross roads at St. Stephen's Green
riding home with his wife and eight attendants, and told him the
mission on which he had been engaged.

Lord Fitzwilliam's father had broken an entail made by his
father. Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam, and in consequence Lord Fitz-
william, during a great part of his life, was involved in litigation
with his brothers and sisters. These included William, who
married the widow of Primate Henry Ussher, and lived in the
Castle of Dundrum ; Christopher, who was the principal litigant ;
Patrick, who was in the army, and was killed in 1628 in a quarrel
with Sir Robert Newcomen ; Richard, who is described as of the
Rock; Catherine, who married Henry Cheevers, of Monkstown;
Mary, who married Lord Fitzwilliam's brother-in-law, the fifth
Baron of Louth, and, secondly, Gerald Aylmer; and a sister, who
married Patrick Cusack, of Rathaldron. The outlay which this liti-
gation required was large, and was added to expenditure caused by
his devotion to the throne. After his creation as a peer in 1629,
money began to be lavished in the royal cause, and his lands in all
directions became heavily encumbered, the mortgagees including the
great money lender of the time, the Earl of Cork, who lent under
the names of his relatives and friends, the Lord Chancellor Viscount
Loftus, the Attorney-General Sir William Ryves, and the Solicitor-
General Sir William Samback.

MERRION AND ITS CASTLE. 13

The rebellion of 1641 and the years which followed were for
Lord Fitzwilliam a critical time; and the claims of family affection
and loyalty to the King did not always indicate similar paths.
The Prestons, who were amongst his dearest and closest relations,
as a ring inscribed with the words " Remember Gormanston "
reminded him, were prominent in the affairs of the Confederation
at Kilkenny. But Lord Fitzwilliam kept himself free from the
entanglements into which so many other Koman Catholic lords of
the Pale fell ; and, though it was not always possible for him to
restrain his unruly dependents, he ever retained the esteem of that
most loyal servant of the Crown, the great Duke of Ormonde, who
speaks of him as being, by chance or situation of his fortune, a
man in every way faithful in his allegiance to- his sovereign. When
some weeks after the outbreak of the Rebellion the Government
found themselves in danger of being attacked before reinforcements
arrived from England, Lord Fitzwilliam was one of the three lords
of the Pale who ventured to obey the summons of the Lords Justices
to consult on measures for the protection of the city of Dublin;
and subsequently his Castle of Merrion was garrisoned by a com-
pany of soldiers. Thither in the follow^ing March, Sir Simon
Harcourt was conveyed after he had received his mortal wound at
the storming of Carrickmines Castle, and thence his body was
carried for interment next day to Christ Church Cathedral.

A few months later, in June, the Castle was betrayed by the
treachery of some of the garrison to a party of the rebels, and three
hundred of them got in at a window before they were discovered.
Owing to the rebels' want of ammunition the soldiers, some forty
in number, were able to make good their escape by boat to Dublin,
but the Castle was left completely at the mercy of its uninvited
occupants. It was probably guests of a similar kind, or followers
over whom Lord Fitzwilliam had no control, that three years after-
wards despoiled and dismantled a barque laden with com which
was driven ashore at Merrion, and not, as the master alleged,
persons acting under the direction of Lord Fitzwilliam's two
youngest sons. Lord Fitzwilliam, who^ was occasionally to be seen
attended by a tall young servant in a red cloak riding through his
devastated estates, had no means of protecting his property or of
restraining the excesses of his retainers. He went to England and
tendered his services to the King, but they were not accepted. His
only resource was a policy of inactivity, and when his own home

14 PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

was invaded he sought refuge at Howth with his eldest son,
familiarly known- as Dickie Fitzwilliam, and his son's wife (i).

The year 1645 saw the appearance in Irish affairs of Lord Fitz-
william's second son, Oliver, who succeeded him in his titles, and
was created by Charles II. Earl of Tyrconnel. After completing
his education in London, where, with his eldest brother, he had
in 1628, like his father, entered at Gray's Inn as a law student,
Oliver Fitzwilliam obtained, with the help of the Duke of Ormonde,
about the year 1638, a commission as Colonel in the French Army,
and took out to that country under his command 3,000 men
recruited principally from amongst his own countrymen, with
whom he was most popular. He came back to England in 1642
seeking four hundred more recruits, and, though he found it impos-
sible to raise them in Ireland, he secured the required number
and returned to France with them, and with his younger brother,
William, eventually his successor in the titles, whom he appointed
his lieutenant-colonel.

When Charles I.'s position became desperate, Oliver Fitzwilliam
proposed to Queen Henrietta Maria, who was then in Paris, to go
to his assistance, expressing a confident opinion that he would be
able to induce the Kilkenny Confederates, provided their de-
mands respecting the Roman Catholic religion were satisfied, to
send 10,000 men to England to reinforce the royalist ranks. He
had gained a great reputation as a brave soldier in the French
wars, and the Queen, who would gladly have seen the privileges
which the Confederates sought conceded, agreed to the terms which
he placed before her, and recommended him to the King as a man
deserving of every encouragement and zealously affected to the
King's cause. He arrived in England shortly before the battle of
Naseby, and there, under Prince Rupert, gave proof of his valour
and martial skill. What the King said to him is not known, but
he set out from Oxford, where the Court then was, in June, 1645,

(1) Gray's Inn Admissions; Lodge's Peerage, vol. iv., p. 315, vol. vi., pp. 83,
168 ; Will of Jane Preston als. Fitzwilliam ; Funeral Entry ; Calendar of Irish State
Papers, 1606-1608, 1615-32; Chancery Decrees; " Lismore Papers," Ser. i.,
vol. iii., pp. 148, 175, 176, 212, vol. iv., pp. 183, 171 ; Chancery Inquisition, Char, i.,
Nos. 62, 64 ; Carte Papers, vol. cxviii., f. 14, vol. Ixviii., 1 383 ; Borlaae's " His-
tory of the Irish Rebellion," pp. 73, 123 ; Manuscript Letters to and from Richard
Boyle Earl of Cork, preserved in the Royal Irish Academy and also copies in
British Museum, Egerton Mamiscripts, vol. 80, p. 96 ; Depositions of 3641 (William
Hodgson of Ringsend and William Rogers of Workington).

MERRION AND ITS CASTLE. 15

for Ireland, bearing a letter to the Duke of Ormonde, in which the
King, while leaving everything to Ormonde's discretion, expressed
the wish that Oliver Fitzwilliam's services should be accepted, and
that Lord Fitzwilliam, although a Roman Catholic, should be
appointed to the Irish Privy Council. It is said that the King
promised also at that time to confer an English Earldom on Oliver
Fitzwilliam's father.

When he arrived in Ireland Oliver Fitzwilliam found that the
Duke of Ormonde had no authority to grant the concessions which
the Confederates desired ; and as he believed that by these means
alone could reinforcements be obtained, he became an active agent
in the negotiations carried on by Lord Glamorgan and Lord Digby.
In the summer of 1646 he served under his uncle, General Thomas
Preston, in the expedition of the Confederate Army against the
Parliament forces in Connaught, where he is said to have particu-
larly distinguished himself in the successful assault on Roscommon
Castle ; but, on the Confederates determining to advance on Dublin,
and to compel the King's Government to concede their terms by
force of arms, he resigned his commission, and determined to
return to Paris. As a Roman Catholic Fitzwilliam was anxious that
the fullest privileges should be granted to his Church, but he had
repeatedly expressed his intention of living and dying in the King's
service, and was not willing to assist his co-religionists except in
the paths of diplomacy. Before leaving Ireland he addressed two
letters to the Duke of Ormonde urging him to agree to the terms
which Lord Glamorgan had proposed; he told him that General
Preston was preparing to advance against Dublin with an over-
whelming army, and warned him that if he attempted to compel
the inhabitants round Dublin to adhere to him and come into the
city his possessions at Kilkenny would be burned, and all found in
Dublin, men, women, and children, put to the sword Q).

Lord Fitzwilliam had before that time returned to Merrion
Castle, for the protection of which his son had been given, soon
after his arrival from England, ten muskets out of the ordnance
store, but when General Preston's advance upon Dublin was

(*) Gray's Inn Admissions; Lodge's Peerage, vol. iv., p. 317; Cowper Papers
published by Historical Manuscripts Commission, vol. ii., p. 216 ; Carte Papers,
vol. XV., f. 88, vol. xvi., ff. 204, 368, vol. xvii., f. 182, vol. xviii., ff. 186, 440, 553,
562, vol. cxviii., f. 14; Historical Manuscripts Commission, Kept, v., pt. i.,
pp, 7, 19, 352 ; Calendar of Iri«h State Papers, 1633-1647 ; Calendar of Domestic
State Papers, 1644-1647.

16 PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

expected he received permission, as did also his son Richard, and
his son William, who was then living at Dundrum, to seek neutral
quarters at Leixlip, Luttrellstown, Howth, or Turvey, and to take
with him all his retinue and goods. Lord Fitzwilliam was then
reduced to a state of the most dire poverty. When the Duke
of Ormonde was about to give up Dublin to the Parliament, in the
following year, 1647, Lord Fitzwilliam wrote to him from Louth
begging for payment of a small sum of £15 due to him for hay
supplied for the army. Again in 1648, after the Duke of Ormonde
had returned to Ireland, a proclamation calling upon all liege
subjects to withdraw from the neighbourhood of Dublin, was made
the ground of a petition from Lord Fitzwilliam for assistance, and,
as he had no means of stocking lands if assigned to him, he was
promised a pension of £100 a year. He had probably left his castle
at Merrion, however, before that time, for it had been garrisoned
by the Parliament, and in 1648 three officers. Major Gary Dillon,
Lieutenant John Withers, and Ensign Thomas Davis, seven non-
commissioned officers, and forty-seven soldiers, were quartered there.

Several of Lord Fitzwilliam's near relatives took a more active
part than himself or his sons on the side of the Confederation.
In the year 1650 his brother, Christopher, being then a sojourner
in Carlow and on his death-bed, declared his last will, leaving all
he possessed to the children of his brother, Richard, who had died
before him. He had been actively engaged in trade between the
Irish and English- quarters during those troublous times, and pro-
bably sometimes used, on behalf, of the Confederation, a sword,
which he had obtained from Gormanston Castle, and which he
desired his relatives, Robert Preston and Robert Finglas, a priest,
to return (i).

Oliver Fitzwilliam, after his arrival in Paris, had written to the
Council of the Confederation, in February, 1647, in the most san-
guine terms of the prospects of the royal cause, owing to dissen-
sions which it was hoped would rend the Parliament, and recom-
mended the Council to persist in the demand which they had made
for the control of the churches, only advising them, as a matter of
policy, to allow one church to be open in Dublin for the English
religion. As a consequence of the middle course, which he adopted,

(}) Carte Papers, vol. xiv., f. 63, vol. clxiv., fif. 24, 315, 341, vol. xxi., f. 325,
vol. clxii., f. 61 ; Historical Manuscripts Commission, Bept. viiL, pt. i, p. 595 ;
Will of Christopher Fitzwilliam.

MERRION AND ITS CASTLE.

17

he was the victim of much misrepresentation. The English said he
was promising freely the offices of State to Roman Catholics, and
giving out that the Confederation was so powerful that he wished
there were 40,000 English and Scots in Dublin for them to defeat,
while the Irish said he was a friend to the Duke of Ormonde's
policy, and not faithful to his Church. During the two following
years he doubtless exerted himself to uphold the failing royal
cause, until the establishment of the Commonwealth and the arrival
of Cromwell in Ireland rendered it hopeless (i).

His second marriage — for he was twice married — had an im-
portant bearing on his position during the Commonwealth. His
first wife, one of the Breretons of Malpas, in Cheshire, a relative of
Sir William Brereton, who was created Baron Brereton of Leighlin,
belonged to a royalist family; but his second wife, Eleanor,

Eleanor, Countess of Tyrconnel.

From a Portrait by Sir Peter Ldy in the Fitzwilliam Mv^eum.

daughter of the first Earl of Clare, of the Holies creation, whom he
married before 1647, belonged to a family identified with the Par-
liament cause, and through the influence of her brothers, John,
second Earl of Clare, and Denzil Holies, her husband received more
considerate treatment at the hands of the authorities than he would
otherwise have met with. He owned property in Nottinghamshire

(!) Carte Papers, vol. Ixvii., f. 140, vol. xx., f. 294; Macray's "Calendar of
Clarendon Papers in the Bodleian," vol. i., p. 364.

C

18 PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

and StaflFordshire, and had an interest in a charge, held by his first
wife's mother (who had married, as her second husband, his uncle,
Silvester Plunkett), on the Brereton estate in Cheshire. In
November, 1649, became to London, probably in order to look after
these properties. He was then arrested by order of the Council of
State, and all his books and papers seized ; but after a few days'
detention he was released, on undertaking to leave England in
eight days. Two years later, when residing in"* France, he was
given permission to return to England, and in consequ^ice of
exertions on the part of his wife was allowed to remain there on
entering into a bond to be of good behaviour, for which his brother-
in-law, the Earl of Clare, became surety.

Fitzwilliam ingratiated himself subsequently with Oliver Crom-
well, and was said to be the only man of his nation in request in
London. After the death of his father and of his eldest brother he
was given, about 1655, a grant of their estates and permission to
come over to Ireland to recover them. A great portion of the
estates had been seized by the authorities of the Parliament and
leased to their friends, including Merrion, which was held by a Mr.
John Hughes ; and for their recovery Oliver Fitzwilliam became a
suitor to Henry Cromwell, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In a
letter to Henry Cromwell, written from London in 1657, Oliver
Fitzwilliam refers to the great obligations which he had conferred
upon him, and, while declaring himself and his wife to be his
Excellency's most faithful servants, offers to bring him a present
of dogs and hawks on his return to Ireland. After the death of
Oliver Cromwell he became an object of suspicion ; and it is pro-
bable that with the improved prospects of the royalist cause, he
was an active agent for the Restoration. In 1659 he was arrested,
but on his giving his parole h© was released, and his arms and horses
restored to- him, and during that winter he attended the meetings of
a debating club established in London by James Harrington, the
well-known author of Oceana, and took part in the discussions with-
out interference Q).

Immediately after the Restoration, Charles II. conferred upon
Fitzwilliam the title of Earl of Tyrconnel — a title afterwards taken

(*) Calendar of Domestic State Papers, 1649- 1659 ; Calendar of the Proceedings
of the Committee for Compounding ; Lodge's Peerage, vol. vi., p. 168 ; Cokaynas
" Complete Peerage " ; " Dictionary of National Biography,*' vol. xxvii., pp. 162,
168, 169 ; Thm-loe's " State Papers," vol. iii., p. 548 ; Crown Rental ; " Memoirs
of Edmund Ludlow" ; Lansdowne Papers in British Museum, 821, ff. 272, 273 ;
Aubrey's " Letters and Lives of Eminent f ersons/' yol ii., pt ii., p. 372.

MERRION AND ITS CASTLE. 19

also by James II. 's favourite, Richard Talbot — and was urgent that
his estates should be given back to him without delay. The Earl
was not, however, without enemies, and a letter calculated to do him
injury was produced before the Commissioners under the Act of
Settlement. It caused them to hesitate, and in 1663 the King
indited a letter to the Duke of Ormonde, recommending the Earl
of Tyrconnel to his care, and ordering that if it could not be
effected by the ordinary course of procedure, some other way should
be found of restoring the Earl to his property. As a result of this
letter he was given a confirmation of his estates described under
the denominations of Merrion, Ringsend, Baggotrath, Donnybrook,
Simmonscourt, Dundrum, Ballinteer or Cheeverstown, Ticknock,
Owenstown, Little Bray, Glencullen and the adjoining mountain
townland of Ballybrack, Kilternan and Ballybetagh, Kilmacud,
Thorncastle and Booterstown.

Merrion Castle, though much injured by the military occupation,
still remained a substantial dwelling; and after additions and
improvements had been effected by the Earl of Tyrconnel, it was
assessed as a house containing sixteen hearths — a number which
shows it to have been one of the largest dwellings in the County
Dublin. On the second storey the arms of the family were
engraved in stone, and the walls of the rooms were hung with
tapestry, some of which belonged to Lady Tyrconnel's niece, the
wife of the seventeenth Earl of Kildare, and was bequeathed by
her to her aunt as a token of her love. It was in the castle that
the Earl of Tyrconnel, who did not long enjoy his honours and
possessions, died, and thence that his body was carried to the family
burying place in Donnybrook Church, where a black marble tomb
inscribed with his full titles was afterwards raised. The Countess
of Tyrconnel survived her husband. She seems to have taken an
active part in the management of her husband's estate ; the names
of her family are preserved in the names of the streets known as
Clare Street, Denzille Street and Holies Street, and there is a letter
extant from the Duke of Ormonde, while he was Lord Lieutenant,
asking her to allow the Corporation of Dublin to cut sods on the
lands of Merrion for a bowling green which it was intended to make
at Oxmantown (i).

(J) Egerton Manuscripts in British Museum, 2618, f. 106 ; Report Irish Record
Commission, vol. iii., pp. 58, 283 ; Fleetwood's Survey : Down Survey Map ;
Hearth Money Roll (City of Dublin); ** Eari of Orrery's State Letters," vol. ii.,
p. 79 ; Russell and Prendergast's " Report on the Carte Papers," p. 184.

20

PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

As no children survived him, the Earldom of Tyrconnel became
extinct on the death of Oliver Fitzwilliam in 1667, but his brother,
William, suclceeded to the Viscounty of Fitzwilliam. In addition
to performing the military service already mentioned, the third
Viscount is said to have been Governor of Whitchurch and Lieu-
tenantrGeneral of Shropshire during the Civil War. He married
one of the Luttrells, and his daughters, of whom he had five, married
into Roman Catholic families, including the Brownes of Clongowes
Wood, the Mapases of Rochestown, and the Nettervilles of Cruice-
rath. After the Restoration, during his brother's lifetime, he had
resided in the Castle of Simmonscourt, and his death, which
occurred in 1675, took place in Dublin in the parish of St. Nicholas
Within. An account of his funeral expenses tells that on his
death-bed he was attended by a doctor, apothecary, and surgeon,
and ministered to by Roman Catholic clergymen, that rosemary
and frankincense perfumed the chamber, and that his body was
carried at night, while the bells of Christ Church Cathedral tolled,
to Donnybrook Church, and there interred with all the pageantry
that heralds could provide.

Thomas, 4th Viscount Fitzwilliam. Mary, wife ot the 4th Viscount Fitzwilliam.

From a Portrait in the FitzmUiam Museum. From a Portrait in the Fitzwilliam Museum,

William's only son, Thomas, succeeded as fourth Viscount Fitz-
william. He also was an earnest member of the Roman Catholic
Church. During the rul^ pf Jam^§ II. he was given a seat on that

MEtlRiOl^ AND ITS CASTLli. ^I

monarch's Privy Council, and appointed a Commissioner of the
Treasury, and at the time of the siege of Limerick was in com-
mand of a troop of horse, which displayed considerable bravery in
an. encounter in Kerry with King William's forces. He was subse-
quently attainted, but the attainder was afterwards reversed, and
in 1695 he appeared to take his seat in the Irish House of Lords.
Although he took the oath of fealty, he was not willing to take
the oath of adherence to the Established Church, and was obliged
to withdraw. In the two marriages which he contracted free-
dom of opinion is displayed; his first wife being Mary, daughter
of Sir Philip Stapleton, a distinguished officer under the Parlia-
ment, and his second wife a sister of the first Lord Rivers (i).

The beginning of the eighteenth century saw the removal of the
seat of the Fitzwilliams to Mount Merrion, the Irish residence of
the Earl of Pembroke, and under that place the remaining history
of the family will be found. Thenceforward Merrion Castle fell
more and more into decay, and the neighbourhood rapidly dwindled
in importance. So deserted was it about the year 1729 that
one of the leading Dublin journals of that day. The Flying Post,
told a credulous public that Merrion was completely at the mercy
of rats of an extraordinary size, as large as cats or rabbits, said to
be partly indigenous and partly imported in foreign ships, which
moved about in droves; and assured its readers that these out-
landish animals had killed a woman and a child. The ruins of the
Castle were visited by Austin Cooper, the painstaking antiquary,
to whom reference has so often been made, in May, 1780, when he
formed the opinion that the structure had been a piece of patch-
work, part of it very old and part more modern, with limestone
casements to the windows. The ground floor, used as a cowhouse,
and some outlying buildings, used as a stable, were then standing.
Two surly mastiffs prevented his making a sketch, and on returning
some months later for that purpose he found to his surprise that
the ruins were being removed, a work of no little difficulty, proving,
as he remarks, the excellence of old Irish masonry (2).

(^) Lodge's Peerage, vol. iv., p. 318; Blacker's Sketches, p. 314; Hadyn'3
Dignities ; Historical Manuscripts Commission, Rept. x., App., pt. v., p. 161 ;
Ball Wright's " Ussher Memoirs," p. 121, note ; " Dictionary of National
Biography," vol. liv., p. 98.

(«) The Flying Post, May 16, 1729 ; Cooper's Note Book.

22 PAttlSHEd OF DONNYBROOK, icC.

BOOTERSTOWN
AND THE BLACKROCK ROAD.

The lands of Booterstown, or " The Town of the Road," lying to
the south-east of Merrion, formed portion of the ancient manor of
Thorncastle, which, as has been mentioned in the history of Merrion,
was always held by the owners of that place.

The original name of the lands appears to have been Cnocro or
the Red Hill, a designation which also embraced portion of the
demesne of Mount Merrion, but this, as early as the thirteenth
century, gave place to the name of Thorncastle. At that period
Thorncastle was a more important manor than Merrion, and in the
time of Walter de Rideleford a castle stood upon the lands. This
castle, which probably gave rise to the name of Thorncastle from
its having been originally a rampart of earth protected by a thorn
fence, was approached from Dublin by a bridge across the Dodder
and by a highway which led directly from the bridge to the castle.
It most likely stood near the town of Blackrock, as in the
eighteenth century a bridge across the stream at the entrance to
the town bore the name of Thorncastle Bridge. Sir William le
Deveneis, after he had succeeded Christiana de Marisco, the grand-
daughter of Walter de Rideleford, in the possession of Thorncastle,
petitioned the Crown in 1297 to grant him the fee of the lands
which he then held on lease, and on the recommendation of a jury
empanelled by the Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer, as it
was found the Crown would thus have greater security for the rent,
and the power of disposing of the wardship of the heir, if a minor,
his request was complied with. A further application was made
in 1306 by Sir William le Deveneis, who had meantime been
appointed a judge, for privileges exercised by Christiana de Marisco
and her ancestors of seizing wreck from the sea, and escheats found
on the rocks, and also for the ownership of pools which possibly
were artificially constructed fish ponds, on the coast from Black-
rock to the river Dodder. But the jury to whom the question was
referred expressed the opinion that only such persons as were
licensed by Christiana de Marisco and her ancestors should of right
enjoy these privileges, and said that as yet they had seen no pools.
During Sir John Cruise's ownership of Merrion and Thorncastle,
the latter manor suffered so much from the incursions of the
inhabitants of the Wicklow mountains that he was allowed bv the

BOOTERSTOWK AND TfiE fiLACKROCit ROAD. 23

Crown to hold it rent free for his life, but in James Fitzwilliam's
time it was liable to a head rent of £5 85. Sd., which in 1409 was
assigned by the King to William de Mamy and his son John, and
in 1418 to John Coringham, Clerk of the Works and guardian of
the King's Palace in Dublin Q),

The modem Booterstown occupies the site of the village in which
the tenants on Thomcastle resided in the fifteenth century. After
James FitzwilWam's son, Philip, had succeeded to the property,
during a severe incursion from the Irish enemies of the King,
this village was completely destroyed and the tenants killed. A
remission of rent from the Crown was then sought by Philip Fitz-
william, in order not only to rebuild the village but also to erect
a fortified castle for its defence and that of the surrounding
country. In his petition, which was lodged in 1435, he points
out that until the village was rebuilt there would be loss to the
Crown of the rent as well as to himself of the profits of the lands.
On condition that the castle was completed within four years, and
that it was placed under the supervision of the Treasurer of
Ireland, the prayer of his petition was granted. The building did
not progress rapidly, and in 1449, when Philip Fitzwilliam was
given a remission of all arrears of rent and permission to hold rent-
free for life, it had only been begun. It was, however, subsequently
completed, and vaults belonging to it are said to be incorporated
in the house which stands upon its site, as indicated on the Ordnance
Map. It is described in the seventeenth century as being in good
repair, and a garden plot and grove of ash trees " set for ornament,''
then surrounded it (2).

The lands of Booterstown were amongst the property mortgaged
by the first Viscount Fitzwilliam, and were assigned to Sir William
Ryves, then Attorney-General for Ireland. The latter, with his
brother, an ecclesiastical lawyer of note, had been brought from
England by the well-known Sir John Davis, to whom he was
related, and after a long tenure of the Attorney-Generalship, during
which he represented in Parliament for some years the borough of
Belturbet, he was appointed a Justice of the King's Bench — an
office which he held until his death in 1648 — and acted for a time

(1) Christ Church Deeds, No. 490; Blacker's Sketches, p. 166; Plea Rolls;
Sweetman's Calendar, 1252-1307 ; Patent Rolls, pp. 156; 190, 212 ; also see for
an attempt to reconcile the ancient and modern place names, a paper by Mr. P.
J. O'Reilly, Journal, R,8.A.I., vol. xxxii., p. 178.

(a) Journal, Ii.S, A.I,, vol. xxx., p. 310, note; Memoranda Rolls; Fleetwood's
Survey.

24 PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, ic.

in the high position of Speaker of the House of Lords. It was
before him that Mr. Wolverston, of Stillorgan, was brought for
examination in connection with the murder of Mr. Smithson ; and
he was on terms of intimacy with the Earl of Cork, his first loan
to Viscount Fitzwilliam being made on the same day as one from
his noble friend (i).

The principal resident in Booterstown at the time of the Rebellion
of 1641 was Mr. Thomas Fox, a gentleman farmer. In December
of that year his stock was driven off by a party of the rebels, headed,
as he alleged, by the Goodmans of Loughlinstown and the Roch-
forts of Kilbogget, and owing to the state of the country he was
unable to pursue his avocation. In his deposition he set forth that
he had lost 60 cows of English breed, valued at £360; and 15
horses, valued at £60 ; besides brass, pewter and other household
stuff, and that the yearly profit from his farm was £100, and the
value of the buildings and improvements £1,000. Subsequently,
as appears from a deposition made in 1646, Fox was murdered near
his own house. About the time of the Restoration the population
of Booterstown was returned as 41 persons of Irish descent,
inhabiting nine houses. With the exception of one occupied by
Thomas Reyley, which had two chimneys, and another occupied by
the smith, to which a forge was attached, these had only one fire-
place each (2).

In the beginning of the eighteenth century Mr. Richard Colley,
who afterwards assumed the name of Wesley, and was created
Lord Mornington, the grandfather of the great Duke of Wellington,
had a small residence at Booterstown, which on succeeding to the
Wesley property he assigned to Mr. Christopher Ussher, his first
cousin, already mentioned as tenant under Christ Church Cathedral
for the lands of Tipperstown. Mrs. Delany, who much admired
the situation of Booterstown, describes a collation with every
variety of wine, and the best of sillibub, of which she par-
took one afternoon in the spring of 1732 in the Ussher's
house, and tells how she afterwards went to a dance, which lasted
until an early hour next morning, at Mr. Wesley's, where she had
more " peck and booze," as meat and drink were called in the
fashionable slang of that day. About this time part of the lands of

(^) Chancery Inquisition, Car. i., No. 62 ; " Dictionary of National Biography,"
vol. 1., p. 72 ; Pedigree of the Ryves family, by G. D. Burtchaell in the Irish Builder
for 1888, p. 139 ; Liamore Papers, Ser. i., vol. i., p. 256, vol. ii., p. 9, voL iii., pp.
149, 254 ; Calendar of Carte Papers under date 8th Jan., 1669 ; Deposition of 1641
(Josiah Bishop, servant of Judge Ryves).

{^) Depositions of 1641 (Thomas Fox of Booterstown and John Higginson of
Rathfamham) ; Census of 1659 ; Hearth Money RoU.

BOOTERSTOWN AND THfi BLACKROCK ROAD.

25

Booterstown were cultivated by a farmer called Isaiah Yeates, who
grow com of such superlative excellence that in two successive years
a premium for the best wheat given by the Dublin Society — a
body then in its infancy — was paid down on the nail to him, and
in one of those years he sold in the public market 400 barrels of
his wheat for 20s. a barrel, when the ordinary supply fetched from
14s. to ISs. (1).

The middle of the eighteenth century saw the transition of the
neighbourhood from an agricultural to a residential locality.
Bishop Pococke, the great traveller, mentions that in 1752 Lord
Fitzwilliam was letting the lands of Booterstown in small parcels

Entrance to St. Helen's.

From a Photograph by F. P. Darcy,

for building country houses. Bishop Pococke considered Booters-
town to have a most glorious situation. It was at this time that
Merrion Avenue, which leads from Blackrock to the gates of Mount
Merrion on the Stillorgan Road, and is unequalled in the metro-
politan county for noble proportion and fine timber, and Cross
Avenue, which connects Booterstown with Merrion Avenue, were
constructed.

St. Helen's, formerly called Seamount, now the handsome resi-
dence of Sir John Nutting, Baronet, was one of the first houses

{}) "Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany,'* vol. i.,
p. 345 ; Slacker's Sketches, pp. 162, 409.

26 PARISHES OF donkybrook, <fec.

erected. It was built by Mr. Thomas Cooley, a papular barrister,
and representative in Parliament for the borough of Duleek, who
died in 1754, when the house was only a few years completed. In
the nineteenth century it had several distinguished occupants,
including the Right Hon. John Doherty, Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas, and General Lord Viscount Gough. Sans Souci,
the fine old residence of Mr. Joseph P. O'Reilly, D.L., was erected
about the same time by the Lanesborough family, and was originally
approached by the noble gateway in rustic work, which now forms
the entrance of St. Helen's. The grounds of Sans Souci were laid
out by a landscape gardener called Gabriel Griffin, who in 1769
mentioned a shrubbery and a wall for fruit trees, which he had
constructed there, as proof of his capabilities. To Sans Souci,
in 1781, Robert, third Earl of Lanesborough, brought his bride — a
daughter of the Right Hon. David La Touche — the greatest beauty
of her time, and there in 1806, having lived for many years in
seclusion, owing to grief for her untimely decease, he died. Sub-
sequently Sans Souci was occupied by Mr. James Digges La Touche,
a man of singular piety (i).

Amongst other residents in Booterstown we find John, first Baron
Knapton, ancestor of Viscount de Vesci, who was living there in
1746; Lady Anne Doyne, widow of Mr. Philip Doyne, of Wells,
and a daughter of the first Earl of Arran, whose house at Booters-
town was sold in 1766; the Venerable Edward Wight, Archdeacon
of Limerick, who was placed in 1771 on the Commission of the
Peace for the County Dublin when living at Villa Wight, near
Booterstown ; the Countess of Brandon, a peeress in her own right,
admired for " genuine wit, elegance of taste, dignity of manners,
and superior understanding," who died in 1789 in her house in
Booterstown Avenue; Sir Samuel Bradstreet, a Baronet, Recorder
of Dublin, and subsequently a Justice of the King's Bench, who
entertained the Lord Lieutenant and a distinguished party in 1788
at his villa near Booterstown ; the Earl of Roscommon, who was
living at Booterstown in 1804; and the Right Hon. James Fitz-
gerald, the silver-tongued Prime Serjeant, well known for his part
in the Union debates, who died in 1835 at Cherbury (2).

(M " Pocockes' Irish Tour," edited bv Professor G. T. Stokes, p. 163 ; Blocker's
Sketches, pp. 29, 1 95, 201, 237, 247, 414 ; Universal Advertiser, No. 124 ; Pue's
Occurrences, vol. Ixvi., No. 6822 ; Leases in Registry of Deeds ; Will of Thomas
Cooloy ; Gilbert's " History of Dublin," vol. i., p. 24.

(*) Pile's Occurrences, vol. liv.. No. 102, vol. Ixiii., No. 6474, vol. Ixviii., No.
7025; BJacker's Sketches, pp. 95, 178, 181, 193, 241.

BOOTERSTOWN AND THE BLACKROCK ROAD. 27

The Blackrock Road was during part of the eighteenth century
in a dangerous state, and had an unenviable reputation as the
resort of highwaymen. Owing to the absence of a protecting wall
the Rev. Thomas Heany, soon after his appointment as Curate of
Monkstown, narrowly escaped meeting his death owing to his horse
backing his gig over a precipice at the edge of the road near
Booterstown, and the Hon. Colonel Loftus' coachman, when pro-
ceeding home to KilHney, was attacked near there by no less than
four footpads. About 1781 horse races, which were held near
Booterstown, were a source of annoyance to the inhabitants, and
in that year they were stopped by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who
sent the Sheriffs, " with a proper guard,'' to take down the tents
and to prevent the horses running Q).

The popularity of Blackrock led to the erection of many villas
between Booterstown and that place. Amongst these was Willow
Park, which at the time of the Union was the residence of Hugh
Viscount Carleton, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas,
already mentioned in connection with Brenanstown, and after-
wards of the first Viscount Mountmorres. Williamstown, a small
group of houses, principally known through its occupation by the
French College, assumed its present appearance about 1780 under
the improving hand of Counsellor William Vavasour, whose name
is still preserved in the Beggar's Bush district. One of the houses
occupied by the French College, originally called Castle Dawson,
was then the residence of the Hon. James Massy Dawson, second
son of the first Baron Massy, whose descendants, until lately, con-
tinued to own it; and at the time of the Rebellion of 1798, when
the inhabitants of Williamstown displayed great loyalty, Lieu-
tenantrGeneral James Stewart, to whose memory there is a tablet
in Monkstown Church, was a resident (2).

(^) Pue's Occurrences, vol. xL, No. 52, vol. Ixiii., No. 6644 ; Newspaper Cuttings
relating to Ireland in the British Museum.

(«) Brewer's " Beauties of Ireland," vol. i., p. 197 ; Lease in Registry of Deeds
Office ; Blackor's Sketches, pp. 84, 85, 187, 192, 210, 431, 474 ; Post Chaise Com-
panion ; Burke's " Landed Gentry," under Massy Dawson of New Forest.

The Viscounts Mountmorres are buried in Monkstown graveyard, and there is
in Monkstown Church a mural tablet to Lieutenant-General Stewart bearing the
following inscription : — " Inscribed to the memory of Lieut. -General James Stewart,
late Lt.-Col. of His Majesty's 5th or Royal Irish Regiment of Dragoons, who de-
parted this life in Dublin 1st May, 1798, aged 58 years, much beloved and lamented
by Miss Jane Stewart his beloved daughter. This monument is erected by Major
Maxwell of the 7th Dragoon Guards, the nephew and late aide-de-camp to the
General, in token of their love and regard "

28

PARISHES OF DOimirBROOK, <feC.

Near Merrion Avenue, on what was then part of the lands of
Booterstown, three villas worthy of notice were erected in the latter
half of the eighteenth century. These were known as Lisaniskea,
Fort Lisle, and Frescati. Lisaniskea, which is still to be seen, was
the home of Lady Arabella Denny, widow of Mr. Arthur Denny,
M.P. for the County Kerry, and daughter of the first Earl of
Kerry, the foundress of the Magdalen Asylum in Leeson Street.
She has been described as a most agreeable and extraordinary
woman, and spent her means in the alleviation of distress and
suffering. At Lisaniskea her nephew, the Earl of Shelbume,
sometimes sought repose from the cares of State, and there a few
years before the close of her long life. Lady Arabella Denny was

View of Vauxhall Gardens, Blackrock.

From a Plate in " The Sentimental and Masonic Ma^gazine.^'

visited in 1783 by John Wesley, who speaks of Lisaniskea as an
earthly paradise Q). Fort Lisle, which stood where the upper bank
of the People's Park now lies, was then the residence of John, first
Lord Lisle, whose penurious habits gave great opportunity to the
satirists of his time. After his death in 1781 the house was
occupied by his widow, whose brother. Admiral Matthew Moore,
died in 1787 at Blackrock, ordering his body to be interred at low-
water mark in the strand, and by his son-in-law, Mr. John Travers.

(1) Blacker's Sketches, pp. 171, 231 ; Lansdowne Papers, British Museum
Add. MS., 24,137, vol. i., f. 118; "Essays from the Batchelor, by Jeoflfrey
Wagstafife," p. 191.

BOOTERSTOWN SIMMONSCOURT. 29

In 1793 the house and grounds were turned into a place of public
recreation under the name of Vauxhall Gardens, which were said,
in the language of that period, to have crowned " the fasci-
nating vicinity of Blackrock with a resistless charm " (i). Frescati,
which remains, but in an altered form, was built as the seaside
residence of the Leinster family, and was said to be one of the
best mansions in Ireland. There Lord Edward FitzGrerald
exercised his taste for horticulture, there the Dowager Duchess of
Leinster gave splendid entertainments, and there, amongst tem-
porary residents, we find Sir Henry Cavendish, who, while a
member of the English House of Commons, reported for his amuse-
ment the speeches made during an entire Parliament, and his wife,
who was created a peeress as Baroness Waterpark (2).

SIMMONSCOURT.

SiMMONSCOURT, a district to the north-west (or opposite side to
Booterstown) of Merrion, forming portion of the populous Pem-
broke Township, exhibits as the only relic of its ancient state a
fragment of a fortified building in the grounds of the modern
Simmonscourt Castle. The ruins were in the eighteenth century
much more considerable, and when visited by Austin Cooper in
1780 a staircase of 38 steps was intact (3).

During the days of invasion by the Black Danes and their
Scottish allies, the lands within the confines of Simmonscourt were
the scene of a fearful massacre. This was proved by the discovery,
more than twenty years ago, on the southern side of the modern
Ailesbury Road, near Seaview Terrace, of a vast quantity of
human remains which the late Dr. William Frazer, in an exhaustive
paper read before the Royal Irish Academy, describes at length.
Those slain included men, women, and children to the number of
six hundred persons, and from the condition of the remains Dr.
Frazer was of opinion that they had been killed in cold blood, and
not in battle. Only one of the invaders, a chief, who was found
buried apart, with a Danish sword by his side, and two women at

(1) Blacker's Sketches, pp. 81, 173, 190; "Essays from the Batchelor, by
Jeoffrey Wagstafife," pp. 21, 26, 130, 184.

(«) Blacker's Sketches, pp. 193, 194 ; Moore's "Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald,"
vol. i., pp. 226-239; "Dictionary of National Biography," vol. ix., p. 348.

(3) Grose's " Antiquities of Ireland," vol. i., p. 21 ; ** The Lesser Castles of
the County Dublin," by E. R. M'C. Dix in TM Irish Builder, for 1897, p. 65 ;
Cooper's Note Book.

30 PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

his feet, appears to have fallen, his death being due to a sword
wound on his head. Dr. Frazer conjectured that the remains
were those of inhabitants of the coast who had fled before the fierce
invaders by a road which led from Merrion to the ford at Donny-
brook, and that, possibly stopped by floods, they had been over-
taken, and, after making feeble resistance, had been ruthlessly
slaughtered (i).

Simmonscourt Castle in 179a.

From an Engraving in Orose^s *' Antiquities of Ireland"

The lands of Simmonscourt, as originally constituted in the thir-
teenth century, divided the lands of Merrion from those of Donny-
brook and Baggotrath, and were described as a carucate of land in
Donnybrook near the highway from Dublin to Thorncastle,
extending from the Dodder Bridge to the meadow of Merrion. The
lands then belonged, like those of Merrion and Booteirstown, to
Walter de Rideleford, and by him they were granted in 1238 to
Frambald FitzBoydekyn, who is described as a resident on the de
Ridelefords' property in the County Kildare. Twenty years later
John Frambald, son of the original lessee, conveyed the lands at
the rent of a pair of gloves to Richard de St. Olof, a citizen of
Dublin, and from the latter they passed, through the marriage of

(M Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy , Polite Literature, Secoiijd Series,
vol ii., p. 29,

SIMMON SCOURT. 31

bis daughter, Margery to one of the Ij-ouse, into the possession of
a family called Morville. In their time a charge was executed on
the lands in favour of Thomas Bagod, then the owner of Merrion,
and later on his successor in Merrion, Sir John Cruise, exercised
some right over them.

The name Simmonscourt, or, as it was formerly spelled, Smothes-
court, is derived from a family called Smothe, who appear in the
fourteenth century as the successors of the Morvilles. There were
two owners, father and son, called Thomas Smothe, and the lands
afterwards passed through the hands of several other persons. We
find iimongst those dealing with them, in 1379, John Mynagh, a
chaplain; in 1382 Robert Serjeant; in 1386 Roger Kilmore, who
leased to three carpenters his lands in Donnybrook, excepting a
little park, a dovecote, and an acre of meadow ; and in 1391 John
Drake, who was Mayor of Dublin, and displayed during his term of
office great valour as leader of an expedition against the Irish
enemies of the King in the wilds of the Wicklow Hills. By John
Drake the lands were assigned, on condition that prayers should be
offered for himself and his relations, to the Priory of the Holy
Trinity, and from that time until the nineteenth century the lands
remained ecclesiastical property, and were held under the Priory
and its successor, the Cathedral of Christ Church, by the Fite-
williams of Merrion (i).

Places for public amusements stood upon the lands ; and in a
sixteenth century lease to the Fitzwilliams, the keeping and profits
of the courts are reserved to the landlords. On Easter Monday, or
Black Monday, as it was called on account of the dreadful slaughter
of the citizens which had taken place on that day at Cullenswood,
the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral and his servants came to
Simmonscourt for an annual outing and the tenant was bound to
receive them in the chief house, occupied about that time by one
Gerald Long, described as a gentleman, and to extend hospitality
to them. A rabbit warren planted with ash and aspen trees is
mentioned in the lease, and also a dovecote, which the tenant was
bound to stock with pigeons, and of which the landlords, who were
to share the stock with the tenant, were to have a key. With the
lands of Simmonscourt were held lands called Colcot, which had
been released in 1336 by Sir Elias Ashbourne to Thomas Smothe (2).

(*) Christ Church Deeds under Donnybrook and Simmonscourt ; Slacker's
Sketches, p. 362 ; " Obits and Martyrology of Christ Church."

(«) Christ Church Deeds.

32 PARISHES OF DONNTBROOK, &C.

A bridge across the Dodder known as the bridge of Simmons-
court existed in the beginning of the seventeenth century, but was
much out of repair in 1640, when the sum of £10 was voted by the
Corporation of Dublin for its restoration. At the time of the
rebellion of 1641 the lands of Simmonscourt, then occupied by
George Hill, were spoiled and laid waste by, as was alleged, de-
pendants and tenants of Viscount Fitzwilliam. The widow of
George Hill, who appears to have lost his life in the hardship of
those times, deposed that thirty cows of English breed, seven
heifers, and eight horses, besides a quantity of com, had been
carried off, and that some of the cattle were taken to Kilternan
and there killed on lands owned by Viscount Fitzwilliam. During
the Commonwealth the lands of Simmonscourt, which were
returned as occupied by seven English and fifteen Irish inhabi-
tants, were held by a Mr. John Weaver. After the Restoration
the Earl of Tyrconnel's brother and successor, William Fitz-
william, resided in the castle, which had four chimneys, the only
other householders being one Thomas Parker, a poor widow, and
James the carman. At the close of the seventeenth century the
Castle of Simmonscourt was in ruin, and the lands were held
under Christ Church by the Mossoms, already mentioned as tenants
under the Cathedral for Tipperstown (i).

The beginning of the eighteenth century saw a house at Simmons-
court, which was the residence at the time of his death, in 1734, of
Arthur Forbes, second Earl of Granard, the father of the distin-
guished naval commander and diplomatist, wha succeeded him in
the title as third Earl, and which possibly had been previously
occupied by Mr. Samuel Adams, who in 1720 was placed on the
Commission of the Peace for the County Dublin, and was described
as of Simmonscourt. Subsequently the Honble. Richard Mountney,
one of the Barons of the Exchequer, had a house there. In 1791 a
bridge of three arches was erected across the Dodder on the site of
the present BalFs Bridge^ and known by that name; it was re-
placed in 1835 by the existing structure. Towards the close of the
eighteenth century Counsellor Whittingham and Mr. Trulock are
mentioned as the chief residents at Simmonscourt (2).

(») Gilbert's ** Ancicut Records of Dublin," vol. iii., p. 372; Depositions of
1641 (Mary Hill of Simmonscourt); Poll Tax Return; Crown Rental Roll;
Blacker's Sketches, p. 405.

(«) Dublin Wcckb/ Journal for 1734. pp. 112, 116, 140; Pue's Occurrences, vol.
xxxi., No. 55 ; Magistrates' Warrants in Public Record Office ; Slacker's Sketches,
pp. 82, 95, 192, 408 ; M'Cready's " Street Names of Dublin " ; Post Chaise Com-
panion; Dublin Journal^ May 7-U, 1745.

SANDYMOUNT — ^RINGSEND. 33

SANDYMOUNT.

The land, on which the suburb of Sandymount stands, lying
between Simmonscourt and the sea, was in the sixteenth century
a rabbit warren called the Scallet Hill, which was covered with
furze. It had belonged to Richard de St. Olof, the original
owner of Simmonscourt, and after passing through the hands of
the owners of Baggotrath, the Bagods, and the Fitzwilliams, it
came, at the same time as Simmonscourt, into the possession of the
Priory of the Holy Trinity. Subsequently this area, together with
the land along the shore, now covered by Strand Road and Sidney
Parade, and then described as the great pasture by the sea, or the
rabbit warren, became the property of the Fitzwilliams of Merrion.
The blind rabbit warren and the marsh near Simmonscourt
are at the same time mentioned, and in the seventeenth century
the upper and lower marsh are referred to, as well as places in the
neighbourhood known then as the court of the sallies, the ridge
of the brambles, the little field, and the furze park. A herring
fishery occupied the shore from Merrion to Ringsend, and from it
the Fitzwilliams received a toll of 500 choice herrings. During
the early part of the eighteenth century the soil was found suitable
for the manufacture of bricks, and the sea border from Merrion to
where Sandymount now lies, was occupied by what were known as
Lord Merrion's brickfields. A village called Brickfield Town sprang
up, and not far from it, by the sea, there was a pretty thatched inn
called the Conniving House, kept by one Johnny Macklean,
renowned for its fish dinners and excellent ale. These at the close
of the eighteenth century gave place to the modem Sandymount,
which has now become almost merged in the metropolis Q).

RINGSEND.

Ringsend, or the end of the point, came into notice in the seven-
teenth century as a landing place for passengers bound for Dublin.
As has been already related, Dalkey was from the time of the
Anglo-Norman conquest until the sixteenth century the port of
the metropolis for merchandise as well as passengers, but with the
increasing traffic of the Elizabethan period the Dublin merchants

(1) Christ Church Deeds; BlagWsj Sketches, pp, 74, 186, 406.

34

PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

'^sm^ikJ^.

5 '*<

1^

u o

BINGSEND. 35

found it more convenient, notwithstanding the difficulties and
delay attendant on the navigation of the Liffey, to discharge their
ships near their places of business. With the merchandise came the
passengers, for vessels then served alike for both purposes, and as
the ships had often to lie for days at anchor close to Ringsend before
the tide permitted of their coming up the river, it became the cus-
tom to put passengers on shore and to take them on board afe
Ringsend. Although exigencies of weather and convenience caused
Dunleary, Howth, and Skerries to be occasionally used, Ringsend
was, from. the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, when the con-
struction of Howth Harbour and Kingstown Harbour caused
another diversion, the chief place of embarkation and disembarka-
tion for passenger traffij.

The increasing traffic to Dublin in the reign of Queen Elizabeth
led the Corporation in the year 1582 to take steps for the erection
of a fort at Ringsend, in order to secure the dues which they
charged ships using the port. In the reign of James I. violations
of the revenue laws had become so frequent, owing to the distance
of the Custom House, then situated on Merchants' Quay, from
Ringsend, that it was decided in 1620, on the advice of a custom^
officer called Thomas Cave, to station a revenue surveyor per-|
manently at Ringsend. A house was built there for his accom-
modation, and as a reward for his assiduity in this and other busi-
ness, Thomas Cave became itsi first occupant. The number of
ships which lay near Ringsend, even in the early part of the
seventeenth century, may be estimated from the fact that during a
great storm in the winter of 1637, in one night, no less than ten
barques " of the most part whereof never no news hath been heard
since " were carried away from their anchorage there. Needless
to say, Ringsend soon became a busy village. At the time thei
surveyor's house was built so worthless was the land considered that
the permission of the lord of the soil was not obtained before its
erection, and it was not for some years that Viscount Fitzwilliam
made an application for compensation, but when the Restoration
came Ringsend had a population of 59 persons of English and 21
persons of Irish descent, and the adjoining village of Irish town one
of 23 persons of English and 75 persons of Irish descent (i).

(») Gilbert's "Ancient Records of Dublin," vol. ii., p. 168; Calendar of Irish
State Papers, 1615-1625, pp. 300, 337 ; 1625-1632, p. 567 ; Blacker's Sketches,
p. 402; Roll Tax Return.

D 2

36

PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, <fec.

At the time of the establishment of the Commonwealth, Rings-
end was almost surrounded with water, which spread on its
western side over the low ground between Irishtown and Beggar's
Bush, at that time a wood, and a great resort of robbers. It could
only be approached from Dublin at low tide by means of a ford
across the Dodder, but a bridge was then constructed across that
river and measures were taken to keep the water within its channel.

Begrsrar's Bush in i8oa.

Fr(ym a Plate in " The Literary and Masonic Magazine,"

This bridge was afterwards demolished, as the erratic John Dunton
tells us in connection with a ramble he took to " that dear place,"
Ringsend, and in order to cross the river it was necessary to em-
ploy vehicles known as Ringsend cars — the predecessors of those
described under the history of Blackrock — which consisted of a seat
suspended on a leather strap between two shafts, and were remark-
able for the creaking which the leather made. Shortly after the
Restoration in 1665, while the Earl of Ossory was acting as Lord
Deputy for his father, the Duke of Ormonde, races for these cars
were held on the strand, and in presence of 5,000 spectators twenty-
five of them competed for prizes offered by the Lord Deputy (i).

Of the great historical events of the seventeenth century Rings-
end saw its share. From it set out for England in 1614 Lord

(M Hftlidav's ** Scandinavian Kingdom of Dublin," p. 234 j Blapker't* Sketches,
pp. 57, 67, 403 ; Fimt Eli55ftbeth No. 2341.

RINGSEND. 37

Deputy Chichester, and to it rode in 1626 Robert, first Earl of
Westmeath, erstwhile rebel but then a royal favourite, to embark
for the English Court. There landed in 1646 the soldiers who
accompanied the Commissioners sent by the Parliament to treat
with the Duke of Ormonde, then holding Dublin for the royal
cause, and there and in the neighbouring villages of Lazar Hill and
Baggotrath they remained in neutral quarters until on the unsuc-
cessful termination of the negotiations they re-embarked for the
North of Ireland, In Ringsend in 1648 was stationed a company
of the Parliament army, including Lieutenant-Colonel Philip
Femeley, Lieutenant Francisi Tour, Ensign Robert Walsh, seven
non-commissioned officers, and sixty-eight privates, and there in the
following year, before the Battle of Rathmines, a detachment of
royal soldiers from the Duke of Ormonde's camp at Finglas defeated
the garrison. At its port later in the year 1649 landed Oliver
Cromwell with his conquering army, and to it came in 1655, rowed
up in boats from Dunleary, where the men-of-war lay, Henry Crom-
well and his retinue on his arrival to assume the Chief Governor-
ship of Ireland. There after the Restoration in 1670 landed Lord
Berkeley on his appointment as Viceroy, and in 1671 waited for
a favourable wind to cross to England some officers of the Irish
Guards ordered to answer at court a charge of mutinous conduct.
Thence escaped in 1683, after lying concealed there for some days
in a tavern called the King's Head, the famous gang of robbers,
the Brennans, who are said to have carried off property to the value
of £12,000. There arrived in 1689 officers and soldiers of the
English army to join the standard of James II., and there in the
following year, that monarch on riding down from Dublin, saw his
ships driven ashore by a sea force of William III. under the com-
mand of Sir Cloudesley Shovel. And thence sailed in 1691,
escorted to the water side by the Lords Justices and many of the
military and gentry, William III.'s favourite General, Godert de
Ginkel (1).

The condition of the port of Dublin, then only navigable by
vessels of from fifty to one hundred tons' burden, can now hardly be
realised. At high tide the water spread over a great area, coming

(1) Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1625-1632, p. 104 ; " Dictionary of National
Biography," vol. xli., p. 266 ; Historical Manuscripts Commission, Rept. x., App.,
pt. vi., p. 165, Rept. xii., App., pt. vi., p. 189 ; Manuscript in Trinity College
Library, F. 3, 18 ; "A great Victory obtained by the Marquesse of Ormond and
the Lord Inchiqueen against the Parliament's Forces," London, 1649, preserved
in the Academy Tracts in Royal Irish Academy; Calendar of Domestic State Papers,
1671-1672, p. 27; Carte Papers, vol. xl., f. 170; Blacker's Sketches, pp. 56
66, 67, 69.

38 PARIBHES OF DONNYBRDOK, <SeC.

up on the south side to the line of Denzille Street, Great Bruns-
v/ick Street^ Townsend Street, and on one occasion even to Merrion
Square, and at low tide the liiffey made its way to the sea by
devious courses through a labyrinth of sands. Near Ringsend the
ships lay at low water on the hard sand, and were exposed to every
wind. Much of the merchandise was carried from the ships in
litters, and the annual expenditure on the conveyance of passengers
from Ringsend to Dublin was estimated at not less than £500, a
large amount in those times. The unsatisfactory state of the port
is first shown in 1673 in a survey made by Sir Bernard de Gomme,
the most famous military engineer of his day, for a great citadel
which he proposed should be erected at a cost of some £130,000 on
ground in the neighbourhood of the modern Merrion Square, but in
the following year it is treated of in the most exhaustive manner,
in a report drawn up at the request of the Lord Mayor, Sir Francis
Brewster, by Andrew Yarranton, one of the earliest political econo-
mists and pioneers of inland navigation. The latter proposed as a
remedy that locks, such as h^had seen in Holland, should be con-
structed at the mouth of the Liffey, and that cuts or canals, in
which the ships could float, with warehouses and a military store-
house on their banks, should be made in the slob land, which then
lay between Ringsend and Lazar Hill or Townsend Street Q).

Although attempts were made in 1676 by one Henry Howard,
and in 1698 by the Corporation of Dublin, to found a ballast office,
it was not until 1707 that corporate powers for the preservation
and improvement of the port of the Irish metropolis were conferred
by Act of Parliament. From that time operations for clearing and
widening the channel were actively carried on. Lighters were
employed to deepen the bed of the river, the enclosing of the ground
on the south side of the river was undertaken, and surveys for
piling below Ringsend to keep the sand within bounds were ordered.
About the year 1717 the piling, strengthened by a wooden frame-
work filled with stones, commenced, and was carried on to near the
site of the Poolbeg lighthouse. The piling and framework soon
decayed, and the construction of the South Wall, on which the
Pigeon House stands, was commenced. Before the year 1755 it
had reached as far as the site of the fort, and before the year
1796 the extension to the Lighthouse was completed — the successful

(>) Slacker's Sketches, pp. 148, 187, 335 ; " Dictionary of National Biography,"
vol. xxii., p. 103, vol. Ixiii., p. 284.

UlNGSENli.

^9

conclusion of the work being largely due to the indefatigable exer-
tions of Viscount Ranelagh, to whose prominence in the public
affairs of his day reference has already been made in connection
with his residence at Monkstown. At the end of the piles, in
1735, a vessel with a lantern at her mast head was placed, and this
was the only guide for ships entering the port until 1767, when the
Poolbeg Lighthouse first showed its light. That structure was
commenced in 1761, and has remained, as a writer of that period
predicted, " a lasting testimony of the ability, no less in design
than in execution, of the undertaker, Mr. John Smith " (i).

The Usrhthousel on the {South Wall.

From a Plate preserved in the British Museum.

Ringsend at the beginning of the eighteenth century is described
as being a clean, healthy and beautiful village, with houses on the
walls of which vines were trained ; and later on Mrs. Delany speaks
of Ringsend, where she went to buy shells for her grotto, in con-
nection with a description of the environs of Dublin which aroused
her admiration. It was then inhabited, in addition to seamen, by
officials belonging to the port of Dublin, and for their convenience,
as the Parish Church of Donnybrook was often inaccessible owing
to floods caused by rain and high tides, the Royal Chapel of St.
Matthew, commonly known as Irishtown Church, was erected, in

(1) Slacker's Sketches, pp. 21, 53, 54, 71, 74, 79, 178, 181, 408, 416, 420;
Haliday's " Scandinavian Kingdom of Dublin," pp. 241-247.

40 PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

what waa then an adjacent village. The shore near Ringseod was
famous for shrimps and cockles, and there was also an oyster bed,
the produce of which could be partaken of in their purity at the
sign of "the Good Woman," and these .good things, as well as
horse races and sear bathing, made the place a favourite outlet for
the citizens of Dublin. As the port improved the Lords Lieutenants
usually embarked and disembarked at Lazar Hill or George's Quay,
but occasionally they did so at Ringsend. Thus we find landing
there in 1709 Thomas, Earl of Wharton; in 1737, William, Duke
of Devonshire; in 1761, George, Earl of Halifax; in 1763, Hugh,
Earl of Northumberland, who spent some hours in the Surveyor's
House before proceeding to Dublin, and ordered £10 to be dis-
tributed amongst the poor of Ringsend; and in 1765, Francis, Earl
of Hertford (i).

Towards the close of the eighteenth century Ringsend is said to
have been in a very melancholy condition and to have resembled
a town which had experienced all the calamities of war. Over-
whelming floods from the mountains had descended upon it, and as
they had carried away the bridge over the Dodder which had been
rebuilt in 1727, the inhabitants were cut off from direct communica-
tion with Dublin except by means of a narrow and dangerous
wooden structure. A drawing of this temporary erection made by
a contemporary of Francis Grose, John James Barralet, is here
reproduced. It has been pronounced to have artistic merit, and
a critic has said that there is considerable vitality if no very literal
truth in the figure® which enliven it. A new stone bridge described
as of handsome design was afterwards in 1789 erected at the small
cost of £815, a misplaced economy, to which was due, doubtless, its
destruction in turn in 1802 by another disastrous inundation (2).

After the construction of the South Wall, or Pigeon House Road,
vessels began to start from the point where the Pigeon House
stands. This building, now the Electric Lighting Station of the
Corporation of Dublin, and until recently a fort and military
barracks, derives its name from a wooden house which was built
early in the eighteenth century on the piles near its site. This

(1) "Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany,"
vol. iii., p. 95 ; Slacker's Sketches, pp. 70, 74, 79, 146, 166, 412, 416, 417, 423.

(2) Blacker's Sketches, pp. 81, 87, 427 ; " Dictionary of National Biography,"
vol. iii., p. 273.

RINOSEND.

41

^

B5

?1

<5

42 PARISHES OF DONNTBROOK &C.

house was called Pidgeon's House from its occupation by a watch-
man of the name of Pidgeon, and became a well known place of
resort for boating parties from .Dublin. To his ordinary occupa-
tion Pidgeon added the supply of refreshments to such as visited his
sea retreat, and so many came that he eventually set up a boat
himself for the conveyance of his customers to and from the shore.
When the piles were superseded by the South Wall a stone
dwelling, at first known as the Block House, took the place of
Pidgeon's abode, and the Lords Justices, with the Lord Mayor of
Dublin and the Directors of the Ballast Office, on making, in 1764,
an inspection of the works, partook there of a cold repast. Subse-
quently the Block House, reverting to the older name under the
corrupted form Pigeon House, became the famous starting place
for the English packet boats, which has been immortalised in the
works of Lever and other writers of fiction, and from it the sear
tossed passengers, after escaping from the revenue officers, or the
plucking of the Pigeon House, as it was called, were conveyed to
town in a vehicle known as a Long Coach, the discomfort of which
has been pathetically described by one who endured it Q).

BAGGOTRATH,

Where Upper Baggot Street now stands was to be seen in the early
part of the nineteenth century the ruins of a mediaeval castle, the
chief residence of the manor of Baggotrath — a manor which in-
cluded, as already mentioned under the history of Merrion, not only
a great portion of the lands forming the Pembroke Township, but
also those on which Merrion Square, Fitzwilliam Square, and the
adjoining streets are built.

These lands, like those of Merrion, lay within the liberties of the
citizens of Dublin. They extended in the thirteenth century on
the west to the lands of the Convent of St. Mary de Hogges, now
College Green, on the north to the Steyne, or bank of the Liffey, on
the east to the Dodder, which separated them from the lands of
Richard de St. Olof, now known as Simmonscourt, and on the

(1) Slacker's Sketches, pp. 80,87, 94, 178, IH5, ^35 ; Dublin Penny Journal,
voL ii., p. 99, vol. iii., p. 281.

BAGOOTRATH. 43

soutli to the lands of the See of Dublin, now known as Cullens-
wood, and to the citizen's common pasture, called the green of St.
Stephen. Soon after the Anglo-Norman invasion, Baggotrath, then
known as the Rath near Donnybrook, was granted by the Crown to
Theobald Walter, the first chief butler, ancestor of the Ormonde
family, but in the succeeding century it was held by tenants, whose
title was derived from the Corporation of Dublin. The first of
these were Ralph de Mora and William de Flamstead, and they
were succeeded in 1255 by no less a person than Maurice Fitzgerald,
afterwards Justiciary or Viceroy of Ireland, an ancestor of the
Leinster family. From Maurice FitzGerald, who was under a
covenant not to build a village, which might burden the common
lands of the citizens, the lands passed to Philip de Hyndeberge,
whose grandson, Nicholas de Hyndeberge, conveyed them in 1280
to the family from which the district takes its name.

The first of the house of Bagod to occupy them appears to have
been Sir Robert Bagod, Chief Justice of " the Bench " in Ireland.
He was a man of activity and ability, and, as his friend, the Bishop
of Bath and Wells, testified, of devoted loyalty to the Crown. He
was succeeded successively in the possession of Baggotrath by his
son, who bore the same Christian name, and was also a Knight and
Justice of '* the Bench " ; by his grandson, Hervey Bagod, Arch-
deacon of GlendaJough, and by his great grandson, William, son of
Sir William Bagod. In the deed of conveyance to Sir Robert
Bagod no castle is mentioned as standing in the Manor of the Rath,
which is described as consisting of three carucates and forty acres
of land, with a site for a mill and a mill-race fed by the Dodder,
but the erection of one was at once undertaken by Sir Robert
Bagod. Leave to cut timber for building, as well as fire wood, in
the forest at Maynooth was granted to him by Nicholas de Hynte-
berge, and in a grant made by him of portion of the lands, he
reserves the right to quarry for stone, for building and fencing.
At the time of his death, in 1336, Sir Robert Bagod's son and
successor was residing in the castle, which was supplied with much
furniture and plate, and, as a long inventory of the crops and stock
shows, farming the lands (i).

(1) " The Norman Settlement in Leinster," by James Mills, Journal, R.S.A.L,
vol. xxiv., p. 168 ; Blacker's Sketches, p. 61; " Special Report of the Trial in
the case of the Corporation of Dublin versus the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert,"
Dublin, 1861 ; Patent Rolls, p. 3 ; Plea and Memoranda Rolls ; Butler's *< Register
of All Hallows " ; Sweetman's Calendar; Gilbert's " Calendar of Ancient Records
of Dublin."

44 PABISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

After the lands, described as then containing two carucates, with
the castle and a mill, had been for a time held by Walter, son of
Richard Passavaunt, and by Sir John Cruise and Stephen, Bishop
of Meath, acting as custodians under the Crown, they came into
the occupation of William Fitzwilliam, son of Richard Fitzwilliam,
of Moreton, near Swords, the most important member of the Fitz-
william family of that period. He was a man of high positdon and
influence, and held, amongst other offices, those of Constable of
Wicklow Castle, Sheriff of the Counties of Dublin and Meath, and
Guardian of the Steyne, or sea approach to the metropolis. From
1379 to 1400 the castle was occupied by him, and then after passing
through the hands of James Cotenham and Sir John Stanley, it
came, in 1403, into the possession of Sir Edward Ferrers. Ferrers
was a warrior and statesman, who rendered signal service to the
Crown during the Viceroyalty of the boy Lord Lieutenant, Frince
Thomas of Lancaster, and who, as Constable of Wicklow Castle, in
the custody of which he succeeded William Fitzwilliam, kept the
O'Bymes in check. He was given, as a mark of the royal favour,
a grant out of the payments made to the Crown by the City of
Dublin, which relieved Baggotrath of rent to the Corporation.
Ferrers made the castle his home, and soon after he became the
owner, license was given to his servants to go by sea to Wicklow and
bring from thence building materials for its repair. After his death,
as he left an only son, who died, after a visit to the English Court,
in 1428, Baggotrath passed to his widow, Johanna, who was after-
wards twice married, first to John Eustace of Newland, and,
secondly, to Sir John Bacon.

As executor of her will, executed on her death-bed in the Castle
of Baggotrath on New Year's Eve in the year 1441, James Corn-
walsh, then Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, came into pos-
session of Baggotrath. This acquisition was attended with fatal
consequences to him. The family of Sir Edward Ferrers resented
Comwalsh's occupation of a castle which they thought rightfully
belonged to them, and William Fitzwilliam, the then owner of Dun-
drum, who had married Sir Edward Ferrer's daughter, Ismaia,
deteirmined to take the castle from him. With a great multitude
of armed men in warlike array he descended, on the 28th September
in the following year, upon the castle, and finding there the Chief
Baron, who had come up from his residence at Dunboyne to hold
the Michaelmas sittings of his Court, did, as was alleged, traitorously
and feloniously murder him. Either the charge was not well

BAGGOTRATH.

45

founded, or the provocation was considered an excuse for the out-
rage, for a pardon was speedily granted to William Fitzwilliam
and his wife, and Baggotrath, which was afterwards confirmed to
him by Sir John Ferrer's nephew and heir, John Hall, remains in
the possession of his descendants to the present day Q).

Baffffotrath Castle in 179a.

From a Plate in Groans " Antiquities of Ireland,*''

The Castle of Baggotrath in the year 1489 was iii a ruinous con-
dition, but it was subsequently restored, and, as mentioned in the
history of Menion, became the principal residence of Thomas Fitz-
william, who was the great grandson of William Fitzwilliam, the
son-in-law of Sir Edward Ferrers, and also of his son, Richard Fitz-
william, who died there. After Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam, the son of
Richard Fitzwilliam, succeeded to the property we find in 1547
Robert Jans, a merchant of Dublin, and in 1561 Fatrick Sarsfield
sometime Mayor of the city, described as of Baggotrath. Before
the year 1568 the castle was in the occupation of a sister of Sir
Thomas Fitzwilliam, Katherine, widow of John Cashell, a Drogheda
merchant, and there in 1574 she died. Her will contains much

(M Memoranda and Plea Rolls; Patent Rolls, pp. 86, 169, 184, 228, 250, 251,
263 ; Blacker's Sketches, pp. 62, 109, 399 ; Calendar of English Patent RoUs,
1422-1429, pp. 95, 101, 471, 478, 583.

46 PARISHES OF DONjnrSBOOK, &c.

qurious information as to the manners and customs of that, time,
" To every dweller her tenant in Baggotrath to relieve their
poverty," and to every poor or religious house within the -city of
Dublin, she^ leaves a peck of malt and of peas ; to St. John's House
a double quantity, and to the religious house beyond the Liffey, in
order to obtain their prayers for her soul, " a pan that breweth one
peck, with a harness, to remain for the easement of the poor " ;
she mentions various articles of jewellery and apparel, including a
great and a small ring, a heart of gold, a clasp and silver buttons,
a gown of purple with green velvet trimmings and a little harness
girdle, a pair of tassels and a cloak, which she leaves to the parson
of Trim, who is to redeem it from the person then mending it ; and
concludes by bequeathing to her cousin, the Mayor of Dublin, John
Ussher, of whom we shall see under Donnybrook, " a couple of
beeves " for his kitchen, and to the Mayoress her second-best board
or table cloth (i).

About the year 1609 Baggotrath was held under the Fitzwilliams
by Sir Anthony St. Leger, a son of " the wise and wary " Lord
Deputy of that name, who held the position of Master of the Rolls.
Before 1615 the castle had passed from him into the occupation of
the Right Hon. Sir John King, the founder of the Kingston
family. King was an Irish administrator who earned much dis-
tinction on the commissions in connection with the early planta/-
tions, and it was as a reward for his services that the vast estate
in Roscommon owned by his descendants was granted to him. One
of his yoimger sons was the Edward King whose untimely fate by
the foundering of a ship in which he was crossing from Chester to
Ireland, in 1637, is deplored in Milton's Lycidds. At the time
of the Rebellion Baggotrath appears to have been taken possession
of by the military authorities. Viscount Fitzwilliam com-
plained on more than one occasion of wastage of his lands
by the commander of the ordnance, and in June, 1642, 260
horses belonging to the transport were stationed there. These, the
night before they were to leave for the country, with reinforcements
just arrived from Chester, were carried off by a party of Wicklow
mountaineers, and the soldiers had to supply their loss by seizing
next day from friend and foe alike all the horses they could find
in the neighbourhood (2).

(1) Morrin's " Patent and Close Rolls," Henry VIII.— Elizabeth, pp. 130,465;
Fiant Elizabeth, No. 421 ; Will of Katherine Mtzwilliam.

(«) "Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xxxi., pp. 128, 138, 139, 154,
155 ; Slacker's Sketches, p. 401 ; Letters to and from the Earl of Cork, preserved
in the Royal Irish Academy, f. 62, and copy in British Museum, Egerton Manu-
scripts, 80, p. 95.

BAGGOTRATH. 47

The event destined at the same time ta invest Baggotrath with
historical importance, and to cause the demolitdon of its castle, the
Battle of Rathmines, which resulted in the overthrow of the Royalist
army under the Duke of Ormonde by the Dublin garrison of the
Parliament under the command of Colonel Michael Jones, took
place in the year 1649. Ormonde, who had given up Dublin two
years before that time to the Parliament, had returned to Ireland
in October, 1648. He had landed at Cork, and after a long delay
at Kilkenny, spent in reconciling the conflicting elements of which
bis army was to be composed, he had advanced on Dublin. In
the succeeding June he encamped at Finglas^ whence, as we have
seen, a detachment of his forces made an attack on the outposts of
the besieged town at Ringsend. Towards the end of July Ormonde,
for the purpose of more closely investing the town, moved the
greater portion of his troops to the southern aide, and encamped
with them on the lands of Rathmines, near where PaJmerston Park
now lies.

The Castle of Baggotrath was the strongest building near Dublin,
and its occupation by Ormonde would have been in the highest
degree prejudicial to the besieged garrison. The fields lying
between it and the Liffey provided the only sustenance for their
horses, and it would have been easy from it to raise earthworks
along the estuary of the river to prevent the landing of reinforce-
ments and provisions. Colonel Jones had, therefore, taken the pre-
caution of partly demolishing the castle. Notwithstanding its
condition, it was determined at a council of war held by Ormonde
on August 1st, that, if it were possible to fortify it in one night,
the work should be undertaken and troops placed in it. Several
of Ormonde's generals were at once sent off to make an inspection,
and, as their report was favourable, a body of troops to the number
of 1,500 men, with materials for constructing fortifications, under
the command of Major-General Patrick Purcell, set out that night
for the castle. Owing to the treachery of the guides the troops
did not reach Baggotrath until a little before daylight, and when
Ormonde rode down from Rathmines in the morning he found not
only that the castle was not as strong as he had been led to believe,
but also that owing to the shortness of the time and the incom-
petence of the Engineer the work of fortification was little
advanced.

The design of Ormonde had been made known to Colonel Jones,
and from the high ground near the castle, Ormonde perceived that

48 PABISHES OF DONNYBBOOK, &C.

he was getting his army into battle array under the protection of
earthworks behind Trinity College. A battle was certain, but
Ormonde thought it would not take place for some hours, and as
he had sat up all night he went off to his tent to take some rest,
ordering the army to stand to their guns. He had not long gone
when Colonel Jones descended on Baggotrath with 4,000 foot and
1,200 horse. The only protection which had been erected appears
to have been a rampart thrown across the road, and, although the
defenders fought gallantly, this was soon surmounted. The royalist
horse deserted the foot soldiers, and, most of them having been
slain or taken prisoners. Colonel Jones followed up his advantage by
advancing on Rathmines, where the final conflict was waged (i).

Although the village of Baggotrath, stated at the time of the
Restoration to have been inhabited by three persons of English
and twenty-nine persons of Irish descent, continued to exist, no
attempt was made to restore the Castle of Baggotrath, and it
remained in a state of ruin until the extension of Dublin in the
nineteenth century required its removal. The ruins have been
described by Austin Cooper, who visited them in 1778, and who
mentions that a deep trench reminded the visitor of the scenes
that had been enacted there, but a picture by Francis Grose,
which is here reproduced, gives a better idea of its appearance (2).

DONN YBROOK.

DoNNYBROOK, or the Church of St. Broc, now the name of a suburb
to the north-west of Simmonscourt and south-west of Baggotrath,
was formerly the designation of a village of very ancient origin, and
at the time of the Anglo-Norman Invasion was also the designation
of a very large extent of lands. These lands, compris>ing six caru-
catee, and including those of Merrion and Simmonscourt, as well
as a townland called Forty Acres, on which Clyde Road is built.

(^ ) Carte's " Life of Ormonde " ; Gardiner's " History of the Commonwealth and
Protectorate " ; Carte's " Original Letters " ; Gilbert's " History of the Irish
Confederation and War in Ireland " ; Walsh's *' History and Vindication of the
Loyal Formulary or Irish Remonstrance," p. 609 ; " A T^tt^r from Sir Lewis
Dyre to the Lord Marquis of Newcastle," London, 1650, and " Lieut. -General
Jones's Letter to the Councel of State of a Great Victory," London, 1649, pre-
served in the Thorpe Tracts in the National Library of Ireland.

(2) Poll Tax Returns; Cooper's Note Book; Grose's ** Antiquities of Ireland,"
p. 10 ; Blacker's Sketches, p. 312.

DONNYBROOK. 49

were then given, as has been already related, to Walter de Ridele-
ford, Lord of Bray. While in possession of his family two portions
of the lands were granted away in fee, namely, the portion now
forming Simmonscourt, the alienation of which cut off Merrion from
Donnybrook and made Merrion a separate manor, and the portion
known as the Forty Acres, which was granted for the annual pay-
ment of a pound of pepper to the Priory of All Saints.
«
There was not any castle on the lands, which were divided into
farms held from Walter de Rideleford by his men of Donnybrook,
but the village or town in which these men of Donnybrook dwelt
was for the period one of considerable size. In the fourteenth
century it was governed by a bailiff, and probably possessed walls
which afforded some resistance to the raids of the hillsmen. It
must, however, have largely depended, owing to the absence of a
castle, on outlying places for protection, and it was a short-sighted
policy that induced the inhabitants in 1356 to resist a rate to pay
for watchmen on the mountains to warn them when the Irish
enemies of the King were meditating an incursion. The establish-
ment of the Fair of Donnybrook, the great mart of the citizens of
Dublin in the middle ages, made it also a place of no small
importance. The license to hold this fair was issued to the citizens
of Dublin so early as the reign of King John in the year 1204. At
first the period for which the fair might last was eight days, and it
was appointed to be held on the vigil, day, and morrow of the In-
vention of the Holy Cross, which fa-lls on May 3rd, and for five days
afterwards. The period was subsequently extended to fifteen days,
the profits from the tolls for two of those days, namely, the vigil and
the day of the Invention of the Cross, being granted to the Arch-
bishop of Dublin, and the date was changed in 1241 to the Trans-
lation of St. Thomas the Martyr, in 1279, to the Translation of
St. Benedict the Abbot, which falls in July, and finally to the
Decollation of St. John the Baptist, on the 29th of August, on
which date it continued to be held until the fair, in its sadly
degenerated form, ceased to exist in the nineteenth century.

Besides Walter de Rideleford, who was succeeded at Donnybrook
by his eldest daughter, the wife of Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster,
there were others concerned in the lands of the district. Chief of
these was Walter de Lacy, brother of the Earl of Ulster, who
granted lands in Donnybrook to one Walter Misset, in considera-
tion of the rent to the Crown, which wasi the payment for one
archer rendered at the gate of Dublin Castle. Amongst other

E

54 PAKISHES OP DONNTBBOOK, &C.

Amongst other temporary residents in the mansion house was
one of the six clerks in the Court of Chancery, Isaac Dobson. He
'was the son of a leading Dublin bookseller and publisher in the
reign of Queen Anne, of whom more will be seen as a resident at
Dundrum, and from his three daughters, of whom the eldest was
" a young lady of great merit, beauty, and three thousand pounds
fortune," are descended Lord Carew, Sir William Joshua Paul of
Waterf ord, and the Moores of Mooresfort, in the County Tipperary.
At the same time portion of the mansion house was occupied by a
young barrister, Warden Flood, who was destined to become Chief
Justice of Ireland, and to be father of the well-known statesman
and orator, but who, owing to his slender means, lived at Donny-
brook in a retired manner, and was not popular on account of his
pride and reserve (i).

The interest of the Twiggs in the mansion house and demesne
lands of Donnybrook was in 1726 sold to Robert Jocelyn, then
M.P. for Granard and third Sergeant-at-Law, and subsequently Lord
Chancellor of Ireland, the ancestor of the Earls of Roden. He was
an Englishman of good family — a grandson of a baronet — who had
come to this country in the year 1719 to practice at the bar. In
the society which his countrymen, who then filled the highest posi-
tions in Church and State, made amongst themselves, and into
which he had the entree, Jocelyn became acquainted with the
Bishop of Kilmore, Dr. Timothy Goodwyn, and little more than a
year after his call to the bar he was married to that prelate's sister-
in-law in Kilmore Cathedral. . To the Bishop his return as member
for Granard was due, which, in conjunction with the friendship of
Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, with whom he had been in chambers
in London, led to his legal promotion. After his appointment to
the woolsack, Jocelyn took Mount Merrdon House from the Fitz-
williams, and under that place something more will be seen of
him (2).

The old mansion house of Donnybrook, of which a sketch, taken
by Thomas Ashworth, a linen printer, who was murdered in 1757
on the high road from Dublin to Donnybrook, is here reproduced,
was at this time falling into decay, being finally demolished in 1759,

(M Blacker's Sketches, p. 169; Pm's Occurrences, vol. xxxvi., No. 53.

(2) Blacker's Sketches, pp. 162, 415; "Dictionary of National Biography,"
vol. xxix., p. 399 ; " Letters to and from Bishop Nicholson," voL ii., pp. 502,
525-527 ; Barristers* Oath Roll in Public Record Office ; Kilmore Grant Book ;
" Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke."

DONNYBROOK. 55

and Lord Chancellor Jocelyn appea-rs to have lived in a house which
still exists on the Eglinton Koad, and is known under the name of
Ballinguile. This house, which was approached by an avenue of
elms and was surrounded by gardens and fields, he leased, on going
to live at Mount Merrion, to Mr. Arthur Newburgh, Secretary of
the Linen Board, who was married to one of the Coles, and subse-
quently in 1749 he assigned it to his son, who succeeded to the vis-
county bestowed on him, and was created Earl of Koden. Amongst
other residents at Donnybrook in Lord Chancellor Jocelyn's time
were the Rector of the parish, Archdeacon Whittingham, who
resided in the glebe house adjoining the old graveyard in the village,
and William Roberts, an eminent doctor of laws, who resided at
Coldblow, now known as Belmont Avenue, and whose collateral
descendant, Captain Lewis Riall, D.L., of Old Connaught Hill, now
owns his property (i).

During the early part of the eighteenth century the river Dodder
was crossed at Donnybrook by a ford, and it was not until the year
1741 that a bridge was erected. This bridge was carried away by
mountain floods within six months of its construction — an occur-
rence which it was feared would ruin the contractors who had given
security to keep it in repair for fourteen years. On the Stillorgan
Road, where now lies Nutley, the seat of the Right Hon. Mr. Justice
Madden, there was then a small village known as Priesthouse, the
principal resident in which was Mr. Patrick McCarthy, a linen and
cotton bleacher. A curious advertisement appeared in 1750 from
McCarthy warning his customers, whom it was his intention to serve
with care, justice, and honour, that some employee, without his
knowledge, had used lime in the bleaching process — a thing which
he had sworn before Mr. Arthur Newburgh never to do himself —
and he announced in 1764 that he had bleached a parcel of stockings
for the Prince of Wales, and invited the public to join a royal caval-
cade of his friends adorned with orange and blue cockades, who
had undertaken to accompany him when bringing his handiwork
to Dublin Castle. Donnybrook Fair had before that time become
a place of amusement, and its drolleries, doubtless, gave rise in 1729
to a satirical elegy on the much-lamented death of Madam Bentley,
who broke her neck when riding to Donnybrook — a lady for whom
the poet predicts no good fate in the next world. Apart from the
Fair, Donnybrook was also in the eighteenth century a great resort

"^ (*) Gabriel Beranger's Sketch Book in Royal Irish Academy ; Proclamations
in PubHc Record Office : Blacker's Sketches, pp. 72, 168, 170, 279 ; Will of William
Roberts.

52

PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, <fec.

r

I

.1.
§-^

S <i

§

I

iJONNYBROOK. 53

The boldness of the rebels and the imminent peril to which the
City of Dublin was exposed in the rebellion of 1641 are forcibly
illustrated by depositions made by the owners of two farms at
Donny brook. In the first of these Richard Winstanley deposed
that in addition to the destruction of his house he had suffered the
loss of twenty cows of English breed, and eight horses carried off
from his farm within two miles of Dublin, and in the second, Robert
Woodward, whose house at Donnybrook had also been destroyed,
deposed that the rebels had followed him to College Green, where
he had taken his cattle for safety, and carried off thirty cows and
five horses. When setting out from Dublin, after taking Drogheda,
for the South of Ireland, Oliver Cromwell selected Donnybrook as
the rendezvous for his army, and there on September 22, 1649,
four regiments of light horse, four regiments! of dragoons, and four
regiments of foot assembled and encamped that night. At the
time of the Restoration the population of Donnybrook is returned
as four persons of English and nine persons of Irish descent, and a
few years later Sir William Ussher is returned as occupying the
mansion house, which was rated for the purposes of taxation as
containing thirteen hearths. The mill, which was still a source of
profit, continued to be the property of the Fitzwilliams, and is
mentioned amongst the possessions of the Earl of Tyrconnel and of
his nephew, the fourth Viscount Fitzwilliam (i).

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the mansion house
of Donnybrook was held under the eldest son of Sir William Ussher
the younger, Christopher Ussher, " a person of true piety, solid
judgment, and great estate, eminent for his great charity, and a
vast encourager of learning," by Mr. Thomas Twigg, who belonged
to the legal profession. On the death of Mr. Twigg in 1702 the
mansion house, in accordance with the terms of his will, in which he
directs that he should be buried " without noise or charge " in St.
Kevin's Church, became vested in trustees for the purpose® of sale.
One of these trustees was Sir Francis Stoyte, who was Lord Mayor
of Dublin in 1705, and, as mentioned in Dean Swift's Journal to
Stella, some of Stoyte's relatives afterwards occupied it. There
Stella stayed, and so could not write to Swift ; there she lost money
at cards with Dean Sterne and the Stoytes; there she was carried
by Dean Sterne to cut asparagus ; and there Goody Stoyte was to
give Swift a world of dinners (2).

(1) Depositions of 1641 (Richard Winstanley and Robert Woodward of Dublin) ;
Manuscript in Trinity College Library, F. 4, 16; Poll Tax Returns; Hearth
Money Roll (City of Dublin).

(«) Ball Wright's " Ussher Memoirs," p. 148 ; Blacker's Sketches, pp. 162, 405,
415; Wills of Twigg and Stoyte families.

50 PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

persons mentioned in connection with the ownerehip of the lands
in the thirteenth century are Henry de Vemeuil, who in 1222 had
a suit with Walter de Rideleford touching them; Theobald le
Butler, or de Verdon, whose mother was grand-daughter and co
heir of Walter de Lacy; and Matilda le Butler, who exchanged
with William de London and Matilda, his wife, her interest in the
Manor of Wicklow for a messuage and 183 acres of land in Donny-
brook (1).

After being for a time at the beginning of the fourteenth cen-
tury in the possession of the Bagods of Baggotrath, who held also
the Forty Acres under the Priory of All Saints, and subsequently
in that of the FitzwilHams of Dundrum, the lands of Donnybrook
passed to the Ussher family on the marriage in 1524 of Alison,
daughter of Thomas Fitewilliam, and sister of Richard Fitzwilliam,
then owner of Merrion, Baggotrath, and Dundrum, to Christopher
Ussher, a collateral ancestor of the two distinguished Primates of
his name. The Usshers were great people in the Dublin mercantile
world of that day, and Christopher Ussher filled, as his father had
done before him, the office of Mayor. Like Richard Fitzwilliam,
he was a devoted adherent of the house of Kildare, and in 1514
was presented by the Earl with a hackney. He had been previously
married, and was nearly sixty when he contracted the alliance with
Alison Fitzwilliam. He only survived this marriage two years, and
died, leaving an infant son. Thisi son, John Ussher, who succeeded
to the Donnybrook estate, followed in his father's footsteps, became
Mayor of Dublin, and rose to a position of much eminence amongst
the inhabitants of that city. When a young man of little over thirty
we find him acting as Captain of the City Levies in an expedition
against the Scottish invaders, but in later life he turned his atten-
tion to the works of peace, and is remarkable as being the person to
whose munificence and religious zeal we owe the first book printed
in Irish, which was a translation of the Catechism of the Church of
Ireland. He stood high in the favour of the Government officials
as a conscientious and God-fearing man, and was a frequent visitor
to London in connection with projects for the increase of the
revenue, his profits in which he desired to bestow in founding a
college or university.

(1) Memoranda and Plea Rolls ; Patent Rolls, pp. 4, 62 ; Sweetman's Calendar,
1171-1251, No. 1036, 1079, 1109, 1302-1307, No. 547 ; Christ Church Deeds, Nos.
501, 541 ; Butler's " Register of All Hallows " ; " The Norman Settlement in
Leinster," by James Mills in Journal, Jf.S.A.Ly vol xxiv., p. 167 ; Slacker's
Sketches, pp. 44^ 60, 139, 375, ' '

DONNYBROOK. 51

When the Usshers acquired Donnybrook, then stated to contain
three dwellings and one and a half carucates of land, as well as a
watermill, a source of much revenue, which the Fitzwilliams retained
themselves, it contained no mansion house, but during the sixteenth
century the Usshers erected there a handsome Elizabethan resi-
dence. This became the home of John Ussher's only surviving son.
Sir William Ussher, for over forty years Clerk of the Privy Council
and sometime representative in Parliament for the borough of
Wicklow. His first wife was a daughter of the great Archbishop
Loftus, who speaks of Sir William's father as " a rare man for
honesty and religion," and to his father-in-law's influence, in
addition to his own fidelity, learning, and good character, the success
which attended him in life is to be attributed. He continued to
carry on the work of printing books in Irish commenced by his
father, and in his town house in Bridgefoot Street, in the year 1602,
the first Irish version of the New Testament was printed. This was
dedicated to King James I., who thus became acquainted, befoi-e
he ascended the throne of England, with Sir William Ussher, and
did not afterwards forget him.

Sir William Ussher's eldest son, Arthur Ussher, who was drowned
while crossing the Dodder in presence of a number of persons on
horseback and on foot, including his nearest friends, who were
powerless to save him, predeceased him, and Sir William Ussher,
who died in 1637 at a very advanced age, was succeeded by his
grandson. Sir William Ussher the younger. As his grandfather
had done before him, the latter made a great match, marrying the
daughter of Sir William Parsons, afterwards a Lord Justice <>i Ire-
land, and a relative of the first Earl of Cork, who mentions young
Ussher more than once in his diary ; but it was probably to his
grandfather's interest that he owed the honour of Knighthood which
was conferred on him by the Earl of Strafford during his grand-
father's lifetime. Sir William Ussher the elder had, besides his
eldest son, a son Adam, who was Ulster King of Arms, and six
daughters ; his eldest son, Arthur Ussher, who was joined with him
in the office of Clerk of the Council, had eight sons arid four
daughters, and Sir William Ussher the younger, who was twice
married, had eight sons and four daughters. It would be impossible
to give a list of all the noble and distinguished persons who trace
descent from them, but amongst these may be mentioned the Dukes
of Wellington and Leinster, and the Earls of Rosse, Egmont, Lanes-
borough, Enniskillen, and Milltown (1).

(') Ball Wright's " Ussher Memoirs," Chapters xi. and xii. ; Historical Marui-
scripts Commission, Report ix., App., pt i., p. 282 ; " The Description of Ireland in
1598," edited by Rev. Edmund Hogan, p. 37 ; Gilbert's " History of Dublin," vol.
i., p. 388 ; Will of Sir William Ussher.

K 2

56 PABIS&ES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

of the citizens of Dublin, and in the eaxly part of that period we
find houses with the signs of the Red Cross and of the Dargle.
Later on, in addition to an inn renowned for its Wicklow ale, two
tea houses were opened — one of these known as the sign of the
Rose, occupying the glebe house, formerly the residence of Arch-
deacon Whittingham (i).

Amongst the residents in the later half of the eighteenth century
we find Sir Edward Barry, who lived in a large house known as
Barry House, on the main road to Dublin. He was a physician of
great eminence, on whom a baronetcy was conferred, and was author
of several medical works, including one on the history of wines, a
subject of which he was the first to treat scientifically. After his
death, Barry House became in 1777 the residence of Robert Hellen,
then Solicitor-General for Ireland, and afterwards a Justice of
the Common Pleas, who figures in the pages of " Baratariana,'' and
there in 1793 Judge Hellen died. He was a most popular judge,
esteemed for his profound legal knowledge as well as for his
urbanity, and was a man of literary tastes and culture, his library
being one of the best in the kingdom of his day, and his collection
of paintings and antiquities of rare excellence. Another resident
was LieutenantrGeneral Lewis Dejean, Colonel of the Regiment of
Horse Carbineers, who in 1762 entertained the Lord Lieutenant,
the Earl of Halifax, at dinner at his house on the Donnybrook
Road, and died two years later at the age of eighty; and the
Downes family, of which Lord Downes, Chief Justice of the King's
Bench, was a distinguished member, was long seated there. BaJ-
linguile had become the residence of John Fitzgibbon, the father of
Lord Chancellor Clare, the determined opponent of the Union, and
later on the fourth Viscount Chetwynd had a country house near
Donnybrook Green. At Coldblow, died in 1789, Sir William
Fortick, whose name is still preserved in an almshouse in Little
Denmark Street founded by a member of his family, and subse-
quently it was for many years the home of the Honble. Denis
George, successively Recorder of Dublin and a Baron of the Ex-
chequer (2).

(1) Slacker's Sketches, pp. 165, 425; Steele's "Notes on Ireland," Bodleian
Library MS., 18.316, f. 5 ; Leases in Registry of Deeds Office ; " An Elegy on
Madam Bentley," preserved amongst Irish Pamphlets in Trinity College Library ;
Dublin Journal, Nos. 2428, 3896; Pue'a Occurrences, vol. lvii.,*No. 84.

(«) Leases in Registry of Deeds Office ; ** Dictionary of National Biography,"
vol. iii., p. 314 ; Barrington's " Personal Recollections," vol. i., p. 119 ; Slacker's
Sketches, pp. 82, 83, 170, 182, 186 ; Tyner's " Travellers' Guide through Ireland,"
p. 78 ; Oentleman's Magazine for 1821, pt. i., p. 647 ; Pue'a Occurrences, vol. lix.,
Nos. 34, 46, 67 ; vol. Ixi., Nos. 6317, 6318 ; vol. Ixii., No. 6396.

DONNYBROOK — ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 57

The far-famed fair of Donnybrook was throughout the eighteenth
century, and down to the year 1855, when it was abolished, the
annual camdval of the Dublin populace. It has formed the
theme of innumerable ballads and himiorous descriptions, and
it would be well if history could confirm the account which
they give of a scene of light-hearted gaiety. This, however,
truth does not permit. All reference® in local literature indicate
that the fair was the occasion of drunkenness, riot, and moral
degradation which were a disgrace to Ireland, and it would serve
no useful purpose to enter more fully into particulars of revels, the
abolitio<n of which was a service to civilization Q),

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

Donnybrook was, in the opinion of that learned Celtic scholar, the
late Dr. James Henthorn Todd, the site of a Convent founded in
the early days of the Irish Church by a holy woman canonized
under the name of St. Broc, and in the Martyrology of Donegal,
Mobi, a nun of Donnybrook, whose festival fell on September 30th,
is noticed. St. Broc was one of the seven daughters of DaJlbronach,
who resided in the barony of Deece, in the County Meath, and is
mentioned in the Works of Aengus the Culdee (2).

A church, which probably had its origin in the religious establish-
ment of St. Broc, existed in Donnybrook (where a large graveyard
marks its site), at the time of the Anglo-Norman conquest. It was
then a member of the Church of Taney or Dundrum, a church of
great importance in Celtic times, and was given in the beginning of
the thirteenth century with the latter church by Archbishop Luke,
whose chaplain, William de Romney, had for a time held it, to the
Archdeacon of Dublin as part of the support of his dignity. From
that time until the year 1864, when it was severed from his corps
and made a separate benefice, it continued with short interregnums
— at the time of the dissolution of the religious houses and at the
time of the Commonwealth — to belong to the Archdeacon of Dublin.

(1) Blacker's Sketches, pp. 13, 47, 80, 86, 89, 98, 142, 170, 407.
(«) Blacker's Sketches, p. 120.

62 PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, &C.

existed at Booterstown, and in the year 1788 Bingsend was severed
from the other parishes, and made an independent charge. Amongst
the clergy serving in Booterstown we find in 1731 the Rev. Francis
Archbold; in 1766, the Rev. Matthew Kelly; in 1775, the Rev.
James Nicholson; and in 1794, the Rev. Thomas Connolly, a
preacher of great celebrity. Ringsend was in 1766 served by the
Rev. Mr. Brady, as Curate to Mr. Kelly, and after its severance
from Booterstown the following were appointed to its charge: —
in 1788, the Rev. Peter Richard Clinch, who is buried in Irish-
town Churchyard; and in 1792, the Rev. Charles Joseph Finn,
an accomplished scholar (}).

An interesting description is given by Austin Cooper of the
appearance at the close of the eighteenth century of the old Church
of Donnybrook, which was dedicated to St. Mary. It was, as he
mentions in his notebook under the date March 8th, 1780, a very
plain structure, of T. shape. Opposite the entrance stood the
Communion Table, which was severely unadorned, and on the right
hand side of the entrance was the reading desk, which was sur-
mounted by a handsome pulpit. Between the reading desk and the
Communion Table the royal arms were displayed, and on the
opposite wall there were several trophies composed of flags and
banners, a coat of armour, and a sword and shield, with the motto
" ad mortem fidelis." A fine black marble font, which was placed
in the church in the year 1729, stood at the entrance to the nave.
Adjoining the chancel was the chapel built by the Fitzwilliams, the
door of which was always locked, and from which there had been
formerly an entrance into the church near the Communion Table,
and in it there was then to be seen a black marble tomb bearing the
inscription " Here lyeth the body of the Right Honourable and
Most Noble Lord Oliver, Earl of Tyrconnel, Lord Viscount Fitz-
williams, of Meryonge, Baron of ThomcastleJ who died at his house
in Meryonge April 11th, 1667, and was buried the 12th day of the
same month " (2).

Of the ecclesiastical history of Donnybrook in the nineteenth
century and of the numerous places of worship with which the dis-
trict is now adorned much information will be found in the
charming annals of the parishes of Booterstown and Donnybrook
compiled by one of the most painstaking of parish historians, the

(M Blacker's vSketches, pp. 88, 154, 160, 205, 426, 428, 430, 447, 460, 463, 467 ;
Religious Returns preserved in the Public Record OflRce.

(«) Cooper's Note Book; Blacker's Sketches, p. 165,

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 63

late Rev. Beaver H. Blacker, who long ministered in them. Here
it will suffice to record a few of the more important event®. In
1824 a movement set on foot by Mr. James Digges La Touche, of
Sans Souci, already mentioned in the history of Booterstown,
resulted in the severance of the Booterstown district from Donny-
brook. Booterstown, the tithes of which had been enjoyed in
an anomalous manner by the Dean of Christ Church as> rector of
the adjoining parish of Monkstown, was then formed into a
separate parish, with the church, dedicated to SS. Philip and James,
in Cross Avenue, which was then erected, as the parish church.
In 1827 the old church of Donnybrook, all trace of which has
completely disappeared, was replaced by the modem church of St.
Mary in Simmonscourt-. And shortly before the Disestablish-
ment of the Irish Church, in 1867, a similar movement to that in
Booterstown resulted in the formation of the parish of St. Bartholo-
mew, which comprises lands formerly in Donnybrook, with some
additions from the original parish of St. Peter's, Dublin, and in the
erection of the handsome parish church in Clyde Road (i).

(M Blacker*8 Sketches, passim.

60 PARISHES OF DONNYBROOK, cfeC.

the inhabitants of Ringsend were only able to contribute £23, and
was completed in 1707, with the exception of a steeple, which was
in 1712 ordered to be built at the charge of the Corporation of
Dublin. It was one of the churches which the Diocese of Dublin
owes to the zeal of the good Archbishop William King, to whom,
provision for a resident minister was for many years a subject of
anxiety. In 1721 King writes to the Commissioners of Revenue
in support of an application from a Mr. Porter, who had been very
industrious in overseedng the building of the chapel and in soliciting
subscriptions, that a grant should be given for the purpose, and
says that he allowed himself £20 a year for the performance of
Sunday duty there, which had been for a time undertaken by the
Curate of Donnybrook, the Rev. Walter Thomas, and was then
performed by the Rev. John Borough, ancestor of a baronet of that
name. After great exertions the Archbishop was successful in
securing the necessary amount, and in 1723 the Rev. John Borough,
who died in 1726, and was buried in the churchyard, was appointed
the first minister. He was followed in 1726 by the Rev. Michael
Hartlib, who in early life was patronised by the Ormonde family,
and whose appointment, as he held a distant benefice. Archbishop
King did not approve; in 1741 by the Rev. Isaac Mann, who was
afterwards successively Archdeacon of Dublin and Bishop of Cork ;
in 1750 by the Rev. Theophilus Brocas; in 1764 by the Rev. John
Brocas; and in 1795 by the Rev. Robert Ball, who is buried in
Stillorgan Churchyard Q).

The Fitzwilliams continued to make use of their burying place at
Donnybrook; in 1667 Oliver, Earl of Tyrconnel was laid there, in
1676 Thomas, third Viscount Fitzwilliam, and in 1776 Richard,
sixth Viscount FitzwilHam, but besides these a host of distinguished
people were buried at Donnybrook, and, to compare great things
with small, Donnybrook Churchyard may be considered the Mount
Jerome of the eighteenth century. Amongst those interred there
were — in 1729, Archbishop King, who was buried, according to his
desire, " in the little pleasant village " of Donnybrook in a tomb
prepared by Ulster King of Arms, and whose interment was
attended by most of the nobility and gentry, and thousands of
the citizens; in 1730, his nephew. Archdeacon Dougatt, who was
buried in the same grave; in 1733, Sir Edward Lovet Pearce, the
architect of the Houses of Parliament, whose residence at Stillorgan,

(*) Archbishop King's Correspondence preserved in Trinity College library,
Class v., Tab. 3, Nos. 3 and 7 ; Diocesan Records ; Blacker's Sketches, pp. 72,
74, 77, 80, 83, 92, 93, 146, 152, 161, 162, 167, 180, 191, 201, 279, 406, 409, 446

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 61

where he died, has been noticed; in 1739, his brother, Lieutenant-
General Thomas Pearce, who was " at once Governor, Mayor, andi
Representative in Parliament of the City of Limerick "; in 1758,
Bishop Clayton and the Right Hon. James Tynte; in 1759, Dr. Bar-
tholomew Mosse, the founder of the Lying-in Hospital, who died at
Cullenswood; in 1762, Arthur Newburgh (whose residence at
Donnybrook has been noted), and his wife, who only survived him
a few months; in 1766, Bishop Clayton's widow; in 1780, the Hon.
Francis Napier; and in 1785, Sir James StratforJ Tynte, the
General of the Volunteers. At Irishtown also some persons of note
were buried, including Lord Chancellor Jocelyn's first wife, Henry,
Lord Power, and a son of Lord Mayo Q).

During the first twenty years of the eighteenth century the cure
of Donnybrook was entrusted to the Rev. Walter Thomas, but on
succeeding to the Archdeaconry in 1719 the Venerable Charles
Whittingham came tq reside, as has been mentioned, in the glebe
house next the churchyard, and ministered in the parish, with the
assistance of his curates at St. Peter's, Dublin. Amongst those
acting as curates of St. Peter's and Donnybrook were — in 1735, the
Rev. Thomas Heany, afterwards Curate of Monkstown; in 1747,
the Rev. William Donellan; in 1749, the Rev. Thomas Burton; in
1750, the Rev. James Hawkins, afterwards successively Bishop of
Dromore and Raphoe; in 1753, the Rev. John Drury, a prebendary
of Christ Church and St. Patrick's Cathedral, who died in 1791 in
Cuffe Street; in 1756, the Rev. Peter Chaigneau, who was Secretary
of the Dublin Society; in 1757 the Rev. John Owen, "a young
gentleman of extraordinary good character," who died in 1760 in
St. Stephen's Green. Then we find appointed for Donnybrook
alone in 1760, the Rev. Philip Sheills; in 1761, the Rev. Lawrence
Grace; in 1767, the Rev. Dive Downes, brother of Lord Downes,
sometime Chief Justice of the King's Bench; in 1772, the Rev.
Matthew West, the author of several poems and plays; in 1780,
the Rev. Gore Wood; and in 1800, the Rev. George Wogan, who
was murdered in 1826 by burglars (2).

During the eighteenth century the Roman Catholic Church estab-
lished a place of worship at Ringsend in addition to the one which

(M See for inscriptions on tombstones in Donnybrook graveyard and at St.
Matthew's, Ringsend, Blacker's Sketches, pp. 124-138, 152-157, 288-308, 342-356,
also for interments, extracts from the narish registers in Blacker's Sketches, pp.
271-288.

{^) Diocesan Records; Blacker's Sketches, pp. 71, 88, 92, 122, 196, 296, 411,
413, 415, 438, 444, 448, 449,451, 452, 454, 463; Cotton's "Fasti Ecdesise
Hibemicse."

58 PARisttES Of donnybrook, 4c.

Of the church in early times there is little recorded, but its valuar
tion — thirteen marks — shows that it possessed a considerable num-
ber of worshippers, and it was served by a resident chaplain
under the Archdeacons. At the time of the dissolution of the
religious houses the tithes, including those from the fisheries, and
church dues, were valued at £15 3«. 46?., and these, together with
the glebe house and three acres of land, were leased first to John
Sharp and afterwards to John Goldsmith, of Dublin, who under-
took to provide a fit chaplain for the church Q).

The chapel at Merrion, the site of which is marked by a grave-
yard, referred to under the history of that place, does not appear
to have been an edifice of any importance (2), and after the dis-
solution of the religious houses in the sixteenth century the Church
of Donnybrook, as has been already mentioned, became the burying
place of the Fitzwilliams, who had a chapel off it, in which Richard
Fitzwilliam in 1596 ordered a tomb in memory of his ancestors to
be erected. In the beginning of the seventeenth century both the
chancel and nave of the church were in good repair, and there was
a congregation of about forty. The duty was discharged by curates
appointed by the Archdeacons, and amongst those who served in
that capacity were, in 1615, the Rev. Robert Pont, who wasi mur-
dered a few years later at Rathdrum, in the County Wicklow — a
vicarage to which he had been appointed by the Crown; in 1630,
the Rev. Richard Prescott, a master of arts and a preacher, to
whom the Archdeacon allowed a stipend of £12 out of his tithes,
amounting to £100; in 1639, the Rev. Nathaniel Hoyle, already
referred to in connection with Bullock; in 1644, the Rev. John
Watson, like Mr. Hoyle, a Fellow of Trinity College; in 1645, the
Rev. George Hudson, a prebendary of St. Patrick's Cathedral, who
died the next year; in 1647, the Rev. John Butler; and in 1648,
the Rev. William Selby (3).

The Roman Catholic Church at the beginning of the seventeenth
century had enacted that parishes should be reconstructed for the
purpose of administration, and that, when from want of clergy
priests could not be found for each, several parishes should be

(1) Slacker's Sketches, pp. 60, 64, 99, 226. 370; " Crede Mibi," edited by Sir
John Gilbert, p. 136 ; Fiant Edward VT., No. 39.

(*) See for tombstone inscriptions in Merrion graveyard, Slacker's Sketches,
pp. 52, 470 ; and Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials
of the Dead.

(3) Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 148; Slacker's Sketches, pp. 65,482:
Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1625-1632 ; Cotton's " Fasti EcclesioD Hibemic» "

ECCLESrASTlCAL filSTORY. 59

united. Under this ordinance in 1630 the Rev. John Cahill was
serving Donnybrook ad well as Bingsend, Irishtown, Booterstown,
Blackrock, Stillorgan, Kilmacud, and Dundnun, and holding ser-
vices at Dundrum, under the protection of the FitzwOliams, and
at Balally, then owned by the Walshes, another Roman Catholic
family. Later on a Roman Catholic place of worship was estab-
lished at Booterstown, which in 1697 was served by the Rev.
Patrick Gilmore, who had charge cf the places mentdoned, and was
then living at Newtown on the Strand, or Seapoint, as it is now
called (1).

Under the Established Church, after the Restoration, we find
amongst the curates in charge of Donnybrook in 1669 the Rev.
William FitzGerald, afterwards Bishop of Clonfert and Kilmac-
duagh, of whom Archbishop Narcissus Marsh held no high opinion,
and in 1679 the Rev. John Sankey. During the Revolution, owing
to the resignation of the Archdeacon of Dublin, Dr. John Fitz-
Gerald, who was a brother of the Rev. William FitzGerald, and who
was one of the non-jurors, the tithes of Donnybrook, together with
those of Rathfamham, also part of the Archdeacon's corps, were
sequestrated to the Rev. John Tucker and Daniel Reading. Arch-
bishop King, in his diary, mentions that one Walker, " formerly
a cobbler, afterwards a servant to Viscount Lisbume of Rath-
famham, and then a Comet of Horse in King James's Army,"
threatened the Protestants of those parishes that if they did not
pay their tithes he would kill them and bum all their com. The
curates of Donnybrook, after the Revolution, included in 1691 the
Rev. John King; in 1694, the Rev. Thomas Leigh, a minor canon
of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and a member of a family now repre-
sented by the Balfours of Townley Hall, Coimty Louth ; and in 1698
the Rev. Anthony Raymond, afterwards Vicar of Trim, frequently
mentioned by Dean Swift in his Journal to Stella, the increasing
congregation, doubtless, being the occasion of the presentation to the
church in 1699 of a chalice and flagon, which are still in use, by the
Archdeacon of that day, the Venerable Richard Reader (2).

The beginning of the eighteenth century saw the erection of the
Royal Chapel of St. Matthew at Ringsend, now generally known as
Irishtown Church. It was built at a cost of £1,000, towards which

(1) Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 148; Documents preserved in Marsh's
Library (3-1-18).

(«) Diocesan Records ; Cotton's "Fasti EcclesisB Hibernicse " ; ' Blacker'9
Sketches, p. 160 ; Archbishop King's Diary.

64 PARISH OF TANEY.

Parish of Taney.

{Commonly called Dundrum — i.e., Dundromay or the Fort on the Ridge,)

The Parish of Taney is shown on the Down Survey Map, which was made in 1657,
as consisting of the Townlands of Dondrom, Ballintery, Rabuck, Ownenstown,
Kilmacudd, Ballowley, Tyberstowne, Moltanstowne, and Milltowne.

Dondrom and Ballint^y are represented by the modern Townlands of Ballinteer
(i.e,, Baile-an-tsaeir, or the Town of the Carpenter), Drummartin, and Dun-
drum.

Rabuck is represented by Friarsland, part of Roebuck, Mount Anville, and
Trimlestown or Owenstown.

Ownenstown now forms part of Mount Merrion or Callary.

Ballowley is represented by Balally (i.e., Bally-Amhlaibh, or the Town of Olave).

Milltowne by Churchtown Lower and Upper,. Farranboley (i.e.. Dairy Land) and

part of Roebuck.
Tyberstowne and Moltanstowne are now included in the Parish of KiU-of-the-

Grange, and Kilmacudd is a separate Parish.
The modern Townlands of Rathmines Great and Little were formerly included in

the Parish of Rathfarnham, Mount Merrion South formed part of Kilmacud,

and the lands included in Kingstown and Tiknock (».e., Tigh-cnuic,or the House

of the Hill), do not appear in the Down Survey.

The only object of archaeological interest in the Parish is Dundrum Castle.

DUNDRUM AND ITS CASTLE.

Dundrum, or the Fort on the Eidge, which lies to the west of Still-
organ and south-west of Donnybrook, still possesses remains of a
castle, occupying, possibly, the siite of the dun or fort from which
the place derives its name. These remains are in the grounds of
the modem house known as Dimdrum Castle, overhanging the river
which flows through the village, and besides being of considerable
extent are of great strength, one of the walls being nearly six feet
thick. The castle, which was built in two portions, one much larger
than the other, is now an empty shell, but still possesses several
features of interest, including windows, some more modem than

DUNDRUU AND ITS CASTLE.

65

.a

t

66 PARISH OF TANEY.

others, passages and small chambers constructed in the thickness of
the walls, a garderobe, and fireplaces, one of these being of remark-
ably large size Q).

The names Dundrum and Taney denoted in the century
immediately succeeding the Anglo-Norman conquest separate and
distinct lands, those of Dundrum being the property of lay owners,
and those of Taney, now represented by the modem townlands of
Churchtown, being the property of the Church. After the Con-
quest the lands of Dundrum and Taney were assigned to the family
of de Clahull — a family whose possessions extended to Kerry, where
its members ultimately settled — ^and at the beginning of the thir-
teenth century Sir John de Clahull, who was Marshal of the Lord-
ship of Leinster, was the owner. To his generosity and piety the
Church, under a grant from him to the Priory of the Holy Trinity
and the Archbishop of Dublin, owed the lands of Taney, to some
portion of which the Priory appears to have had previously a claim
under a grant from an Irish chieftain called by the Norman scribe
Marmacrudin, and these lands afterwards became solely vested in
the Archbishop, and were included in his manor of St. Sepulchre.
The lands of Dundrum were constituted a manor in themselves, with
all rights and privileges appertaining thereto, and under Sir John
de Clahuirs successt>r, Sir Hugh de Clahull, were farmed by free
tenants, including John de Roebuck, David Basset, and Elye,
Geoffrey, and Neininus de Dundrum, excepting some portion of the
lands with a tenement, which was part of the jointure of Sir Hugh
de Clahuirs wife, the Lady Nichola. From Sir Hugh de Clahull
the manor of Dundrum, after passing through the hands of his son-
in-law. Sir Walter Purcell, who held judicial office, and of Hugh de
Tachmun, Bishop of Meath, came about 1268 into the possession of
Sir Robert Bagod of Baggotrath.

The lands of Dundrum were similarly situated to those of Car-
rickmines, on the very extremity of the lands to the south of
Dublin, afterwards enclosed within the Pale, and suffered severely
by the raids of the Itlsh. enemies of the Crown. At the beginning
of the fourteenth century, when the invasion of Edward Bruce took
place, a state of utter lawlessness prevailed, and the lands lying
between Dundrum and Dublin, then composing the manor of St.
Sepulchre, were completely devastated. On the lands of Farran-
boley, near Milltown, then part of that manor, the native Irish,

(1) " The Lesser Castles of the County Di|blin ,'» bv E. R. M*C. Dix, In The Irish
Builder for 1897, pp, 227, 236,

DUNDRUM AND ITS CASTLE. , 67

who had become serfs under the episcopal owner, and who had to
submit to depredations from settlers like the Walshes, the Harolds,
and the Archbolds, as well as from their own countrymen, were
driven off, and the Archbishop of Dublin was subsequently forced
to lease these lands, together with the adjoining lands of Taney, or
Churchtown, at a reduced profit to free tenants, amongst whom
were Edmund Hackett, Richard Chamberlain, and John Locumbe.

It was at this time that the Fitzwilliams appear as resident on
the lands of Dundrum, which had, doubtless, undergone a similar
experience to that of the lands within the manor of St. Sepulchre.
Their coming there was probably due to that great ecclesiastical
statesman, Alexander de Bicknor, then Archbishop of Dublin,
into whose possession the manor of Dimdrum, after it had been
transferred from the Bagods to Sir Eustace de la Peer in exchange
for lands in Limerick, had passed, and to whom the Fitzwilliams
must have been known as residents near his great feudal castle at
Swords, where they had been previously settled. At Dundrum the
Fitzwilliams erected a castle, probably similar to one which a suc-
cessor of John Locumbe undertook to build on the lands of Church-
town, described as a sufficient stone house, walled and battlemented,
eighteen feet in breadth by twenty-six feet in length within the
walls, and forty feet in height, and in addition to the lands of Dun-
drum they acquired those of BaJlinteer, anciently called Cheevers-
town, from a family of that name. Although another member of
the Fitzwilliam family, Thomas Fitzwilliam, is mentioned as being
in possession in 1332 of lands near Dundrum, the first of the name
in possession of the manor of Dundrum was William, son of Richard
Fitzwilliam, to whom in 1365 a conveyance of the manor was made,
and who had rendered a few years before valiant service against the
O'Bymes and OTooles at Saggard in rescuing, after a battle in
which five of the enemy were killed, prey which those tribes had
carried off. William Fitzwilliam was succeeded by his son, John
Fitzwilliam, and John Fitzwilliam by his son, William Fitzwilliam,
who married Ismaia, daughter of Sir Edward Ferrers, of Baggotr
rath, and who has been already mentioned in connection with the
assault on that castle, in which Chief Baron Comwalsh lost his
life (1).

(1) "The Norman Settlement in I^inster," and "Notices of the Manor of St.
Sepulchre in the Fourteenth Century," by James Mills in Journal, RS.A.I., vol.
xxiv., p. 167, voL xix., pn. 31, 119 ; Christ Church Deeds, 6. 304 : Plea, Memo-
randa, and Justiciary Rolls ; Patent Rolls, pp. 48, 66, 153 : Calendar of the Liber
Niger,' by Professor G. T. Stokes in J.R.S.A.T-, vol, xxiii., p. 305; D' Alton's History
of the County Dublin, p. 812.

F 2

68 PARISH OF TAKEY.

The last named WilliEin Fitzwiliiam was a person of impor-
tance ; he had a crowd of retainers who resided together with the
tradesmen of Dundrum, the tailor and the cloth dresser, in the
village under the protection of his castle, and he served for some-
time as sheriff of the metropolitan county. His eldest son, Thomas
Fitzwilliam, who married Rosia, daughter of Sir John Bellew, pre-
deceased him, and on his death about 1452 he was succeeded by
Thomas Fitzwilliam 's son, Richard Fitzwilliam, who married
Margery Holy wood, and who was succeeded about 1465' in his turn
by his son, Thomas Fitzwilliam, husband of Eleanor Dowdall, of
whom we have seen, both under Merrion and Baggotrath.

After transferring the seat of their branch of the family first to
Baggotrath, and subsequently to Merrion, the Fitzwilliams of Dun-
drum appear to have allowed the Castle of Dundrum to fall into
disrepair. It was, however, rebuilt by Richard, son and successor
of Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam, who in his will made in 1596 desires
that all his tenants dwelling at Dundrum at the time of his building
there and giving him assistance should be forgiven the rents due
after his death. One of his younger sons, William Fitzwilliam,
who married the widow of Primate Henry TJssher, subsequently
resided in the castle, and there in 1616, on his death-bed, he declared
his will by word of mouth, leaving " all he was worth in this world "
to his wife and infant daughter. At the time of the outbreak of
the Rebellion in October, 1641, it was the residence of a nephew
and namesake of its former occupant, Lieutenant-Colonel William
Fitzwilliam, the younger son of the first Viscount Fitzwilliam, and
afterwards holder of the titles as the third Viscount, but was taken
possession of by the rebels, who were driven out of it by a body
of troops in the following January. Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzwilliam
with his family afterwards returned to live there, but found him-
self a sufferer from pillage on the part of the English soldiers. To
defend himself from the latter he obtained in 1646 from the Duke
of Ormonde a protection for his house, his lands, and goods, as well
as for his family and servants, but a few weeks after he had received
it he accompanied his father into neutral quarters.

During the period of the Rebellion Dundrum was a centre of
disaffection. A resident at Churchtown, Richard Leech by name,
who, although one of the churchwardens of the parish, is stated to
have been a Roman Catholic, was murdered by the rebels there,
and at the time Lieutenant^Colonel Fitzwilliam obtained protection
for his property from the English soldiers, a travelling clothier,
called Robert Turner, e^s he wa^ coming through Old Rathmines,

DUNDRUM AND ITS CASTLfi. 69

then, the high road from Dublin to Dundrum, was robbed by one,
Donagh Cahere, of the latter place. In a letter to Cahere, the
Duke of Ormonde states that he has been informed that Cahere,
with his nephew and thirteen horse and foot, had taken Turner
prisoner, and had seized his horse®, bridles, saddles, pistols, and a
quantity of cloth, and, after warning Cahere that if any harm befel
Turner, whom Cahere had threatened to hang unless a ransom was
paid, twenty Irish, then in the Duke's custody, should suffer for
it, demands' that Turner, with all his goods, should be delivered up
safely (i).

The Castle of Dundrum during these troublous times fell into
disrepair, but was restored by Lieutenant-Colonel Isaac Dobson,
one of the officers of the Parliament Army, to whom it was leased
in 1653, together with the lands of Dundrum and part of those of
Kilmacud and Balally, by the Parliament. It is described shortly
afterwards as being a slated castle in good repair, with three
hearths, and having attached to it a bam and a garden. At the
time of the Restoration, Dundrum is returned as containing four-
teen persons of English and thirty-three of Irish extraction,
inhabiting twenty-three houses, but on the neighbouring lands the
population was very small. On the lands of Churchtown, which
were then heM by Sir William TJssher the younger, of Donnybrook,
and by a Mr. Owen Jones, there were two English and five Irish
inhabitants, only two of whom paid hearth tax, and in the moun-
tainous disti^ict of Ticknock there were fifteen inhabitants with
only four houses paying tax (2).

LieutenantrColonel Dobson was a leading man amongst the rulers
of Ireland under the Commonwealth. He was one of those who
took evidence against the participators in the Rebellion, and was
also a Commissioner for Revenue and Transplantation, for the Civil
Survey of Ireland, and for the letting of lands. In recognition of
his position he was admitted to the freedom of Dublin by special
grace on payment of a pair of gloves to the Mayoress. After the
Restoration he came to terms with the Fitzwilliams, on their
regaining possession of their property, and continued to occupy the
castle, with a short interval during James II. 's rule (3), when he

(1) Memoranda Rolls ; Will of William Fitzwilliam of Dundrum ; Ball Wright's
** Ussher Memoirs," p. 49 ; Depositions of 1641 (John Higginson of Rathfam-
ham) ; Letter of Robert Bysse, MS. F. 3, 11, in Trinity College Library ; Diocesan
Records ; Carte Papers, vol. xix., f. 512, vol. clxiv., ff. 297, 331.

(«) Crown Rental ; Fleetwood's Survey ; Hearth Money Roll ; Census of 1659 ;
Subsidy RoUs.

(3) See an account of a find of James IL's brass money at Kingstown, near
Dundrum, by the late Dr. William Frazer in Journal, R.S.A.I., vol. xxiii., p. 164.

70 PARISH OF TANEY.

sought safety beyond the seas, until his death. This took place at
Dundrum in 1700, when he had attained a patriarchal age, and he
passed away surrounded by his children, grandchildren, and great
grandchildren. His only surviving son. Alderman Eliphal Dobson,
the most wealthy Dublin publisher and bookseller of his day, suc-
ceeded to the occupation of the castle. Like his father, he was a
Nonconformist, a member of the congregation worshipping at New
Row, in Dublin, but we are told that " he valued no man for his
starched looks or supercilious gravity, or for being a Churchman,
Presbyterian or Independent, provided he was soiind in the main
points wherein all good men are agreed." He had the misfortune
to lose one of his legs, and was remarkable for the possession of a

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Dundrum Cattle In i8oa.
From a Plate in ** The Literary and Masonic Magazine*^*

wooden substitute, which creaked horribly. The first Bible printed
in Ireland was one which bears his name in the imprint, and in his
will he bequeaths to Trinity College near Dublin one of the best
folio Bibles printed by him to be preserved in the Library, as well as
a legacy of ten pounds to buy other books.

The castle grounds in his time were greatly improved, and the
castle must have presented quite an attractive appearance standing
in a flower garden laid out with trim box borders and neatly-cut
yew trees, with a pleasure ground and kitchen garden adjacent, all
of these being surrounded by a grove of ash trees and sloping down
to the river, which then was a more picturesque object than it is in

DUNDRUM AN© ITS CASTLE. 71

the present day. As the owner of the surrounding lands, Alderman
Dobson was an important person, and, as one who could afford such
luxuries as well-fumislicd houses, plate, books, horses and carriages,
was regarded, no doubt, with great awe by the villagers as he pro-
ceeded to and from the castle in his heavy cumbersome coach. The
castle and grounds were left by Alderman Dobson (who was buried
(>n St. Patrick's Day, 1720, in St. Werburgh's Church, Dublin), to
his widow, with remainder to his eldest son, Isaac Dobson, of whom
we have seen under Donnybropk, and after her death they were
leased by Isaac Dobson to " an eminent silk weaver and a man of
unspotted character," Thomas Reynolds, whose (iescendant and
namesake bore an infamous part in the Rebellion of 1798. Al-
though the castle was partly inhabited until the close of the
eighteenth century, it was gradually falling into decay, and Austin
Cooper, who visited it in 1780, found it in possession of an owner
whose object was profit rather than beauty, and who was then
cutting down the grove of ash trees. Several sketches of the castle
were made by Gabriel Beranger, who describes it as having been
very picturesque, with a grand entrance by stone stairs from the
courtyard Q).

The principal resident at Dundrum in the latter half of the
eighteenth century was the brother of the first Earl of Lanes-
borough, the Hon. John Butler, M.P. for Newcastle, who resided in
Wickham, then called Primrose Hill. During his representation
of Newcastle, which extended over a period of forty years, he dis-
played a most zealous attachment to the King's government and
person, and received on more than one occasion the thanks of public
bodies for his efforts in the public weal. His death took place at
Dundrum in the year 1 790, when he had attained the age of eighty-
three years, and Wickham passed from his family into the possession
of Mr. John White, a barrister of eminence, whose claim to a
baronetcy led to his being sometimes styled Sir John White, and
was subsequently the residence successively of the late Sir Robert
Kane and of the late Sir Edward Hudson-Kinahan. In the middle
of the eighteenth century, in 1766, t" ere were only seven residents

(M Transactions of Boyal Irish Academy, A., vol. xxiv., pp. 46, 410 ; 14th Report
of the Deputy Keeper of the Records in Ireland, App., p. 44 ; Depositions of 1641 ,-
Gilbert's " Ancient Records of DubUn," vol. iv., p. 26 ; King's *^ State of the Pro-
testants of Ireland under James II.," p. 353 ; Wills of the Dobson family
Gilbert's " History of Dublin," vol. i., p. 13 ; Madden's " History of Irish Period
ical Literature." vol. i., p. 171 ; Hughes' " History of St. Werburgh's," p. 126 ;
" Dundrum Castle and its owners," in the Irish Builder for 1897, p. 162 ; Leases
in Registry of Deeds Office ; Pue's Occurrences, vol. lii.. No. 17 ; Seward's " Topo-
graphicje Hibemicae " ; Cooper's Note Book ; Wilde's " Memoir of Gabriel Ber-
anger " ; " Life of Thomaa Reynolds."

75 Parish of TANiE^.

bes'ides Mr, Butler of importance in the whole parish of Taney,
namely, Lord Fitzwilliam, at Mount Merrion; Anthony Foster,
afterwards Chief Baron of the Exchequer, at Merville ; Hugh Car-
michael, Dudley Rogers, James Crowe, John Hunt, and Richard
Thwaites, and the total number of dwellings was only sixty-six.
Amongst the other inhabitants we find names which are still
familiar, including those of Moulds, Messit, and Rinkle (i).

Dundrum was then a small village chiefly remarkable for being
on the high road to Powerscourt. It had a reputation, though not
in an equal degree with Carrickmines, as a health resort — a reputa-
tion which it regained at the beginning of the nineteenth century —
and lodgings where goats' milk could be obtained were advertised.
Some of the deaths announced as taking place at Dundrum are
possibly those of persons who sought benefit from the mild climate ;
amongst these we find, in 1756, the wife of Anthony Perry, master
of Lucas's Coffee House; in 1757, Lieutenant John Kellie, of Lord
George Forbes' Regiment of Foot; in 1760, Mr. William Litton, a
silk weaver; and in 1771, the wife of Mr. Shea, a linen draper.
Some years later in 1787 the discovery of a mineral spring near
Ticknock was announced, but, in spite of a strong recommendation
of its efficacious qualities, it had only a short-lived popularity. A
few houses near the old churchyard formed a separate village known
as Churchtown, and the only other neighbouring village of any
importance was Windy Arbour, on the road to Dublin, where there
was a lodging house in which the first Lord Cloncurry stayed in
early life (2).

The lawless and defenceless state of the vicinity of Dublin is
indicated by more than one outrage near Dundrum. A house at
Churchtown was in 1780 broken into by four masked robbers armed
with swords and pistols ; a gentleman returning on horseback from
the fair at Donnybrook was in 1788 stopped near the castle by two
highwaymen; a coffin containing the body of a man supposed to
have been murdered was in 1790 left on a false pretext with the
grave-digger; the house of Mr. Valentine Dunne, whose business
premises were in Castle Street, Dublin, was in 1798 broken into

(^) Pue^a Occurrences, vol. xL, No. 85; vol. Iviii., No. 83; vol. lix.. No. 97;
vol. Ixi., No. 6270 ; Exahaw's Magazine for 1790, p. 56 ; Ball and Hamilton's
" Parish of Tanev," pp. 152, 176 ; Religious Returns of 1766 ; Anthologia Htber-
nica vol. i., p. 323.

(2) lewis's " Guide to Dublin," pp. 104. 129 ; Ball and Hamilton's " Parish of
Tanev," p- 210 ; Pue^a Occurrences, vol. liii.. No. 70, vol. liv.. No. 66 ; vol Ivii.,
No. 36 ; vol. Ixvi., No. 6790 ; vol. Ixviii., No. 7051 ; Dublin Chronicle, 1787-1788,
]). 424 ; FitzPatrick'a " Life of Lord Cloncurry," p. 37.

DUNDRUM AND ITS CASTLE — BALALLY. 73

and plundered; and a farmer called Ennis in the same year of
rebellion was forced to leave his house near the Three Rock Moun-
tain after it had been three times robbed (i).

Towards the close of the eighteenth century Dundrum was the
home of Mr. John Giffard, who took a prominent part in the poli-
tical affairs of his time as a strong supporter of the Union, and who
has the distinction of being the grandfather of the present Lord
Chancellor of England, the Earl of Halsbury. There Mr. Giffard's
sons. Sir Ambrose Hardinge Giffard, Chief Justice of Ceylon, and
Stanley Lees Giffard, many years editor of The Standard, and father
of Lord Halsbury, passed their early life. At Churchtown the
Hon. WilHam Tankerville Chamberlaine, a Justice of the King's
Bench, one of the most eminent members of the judiciary of his
day, and Mr. Edward Mayne, who subsequently became a judge of
the same court, were at that time residing, and amongst other
inhabitants in the immediate vicinity of Dundrum were Mr.
Stephen Stock, a brother of the Bishop of that name, and a man
of exemplary charity; Mr. Daniel Kinahan, ancestor of a family
still identified with the parish; and Alderman Nathaniel Hone,
sometime Lord Mayor of Dublin (2).

BALALLY.

These lands, which lie between those of Dundrum and the parish of
Kilgobbin, were the site of a castle, and of a church, remains of
which were until recently to be seen in the grounds of Moreen. In
the opinion of the late Professor Stokes the name is a derivation of
Irish words meaning the town of Olave, a famous Danish saint, and
had its origin in a Danish settlement represented afterwards by the
Harolds, a clan rivalling the Walshes in the extent of their moun-
tain lands. A tradition existed in the neighbourhood a century ago
that the church had been erected by two families which had engaged
in desperate conflict near its site, and which had agreed, on their
revenge being satiated, to erect a church there, known a hundred
years ago as the Cross Church of Moreen.

(1) Hibernian Magazine for 1780, p. 118, and 1798, p. 732; Dvblin Chronicle,
1788-1789, p. 423 ; Ball and Hamilton's " Parish of Taney," p. 216.

(«) Ball and Hamilton's " Parish of Taney," pp. 103, 112, 120, 130, 143.

74 PARISH OF TANEY.

The lands of Balally were given in 1279 to John de WaJhope, an
old and valued servant of the Crown, and twenty years later
were in the occupation of John Othyr. After having been,
about 1334, in the possession of Maurice Howell and Gregory
Taunton, already mentioned as tenants to the Priory of the Holy
Trinity for the lands of Cabinteely and Brenanstown, the lands of
Balally came into the possession of the Walshes of Carrickmines.
Like other lands bordering on the mountains, those of Balally
sufPerea much from " wars and casualties of fortune," and in a grant
from the Crown in 1407 to William Walsh it was conditioned that
he should build a small castle upon them. Although a considerable
time elapsed before its completion, this castle was ultimately
erected, arid became the residence of a branch of the Walsh family.
In 1546 Thomas Walsh, who was then in possession of three houses
and eighty-one acres in Balally, besides the castle, died there,
and was succeeded by his son, John, then a minor; in 1597 William
Walsh was in possession, and in 1641 James Walsh was seized of the
castle and lands, as well as of those of Edmondstown, near Bath-
farnham Q).

The Walshes of Balally, as adherents of the Roman Catholic
Cliurch, had its services regularly performed, possibly in the
ancient church, and in 1630 the Rev. John Cahill, mentioned as
parish priest of Donnybrook, was commonly the celebrant. After
James Walsh's death in 1646 his son, Henry, disposed of Balally
for £700 to Mr. John Borr, of Dublin, but during the Common-
wealth, when there was a population of seven persons of English
and eleven of Irish descent inhabiting eight houses^ the Parliament
seized upon the lands and leased them to Lieutenant-Colonel Isaac
Dobson, of Dundrum. After the Restoration Mr. John Borr was
successful in establishing his right to the lands before the Com-
missioners of Settlement, and subsequently occupied the castle,
which contained three hearths, as his country residence. He was
the son of Christian Borr, a naturalised German, who, having come
to Ireland early in the seventeenth century, had amassed a large
fortune as a merchant, trading principally in the export of beef
and import of com, wine, and salt, and in whose will piety and
business are quaintly mingled in the direction that his body should
be buried in " a comely but not costly manner " near his pew door
in St. Kevin's Church, Dublin, and in closing a long list of debtors

(1) Ball and Hamilton's " Parish of Taney," p. 14; Post Chaise Companion;
Plea Rolls ; Sweetman's Calendar ; Patent Rolls, pp. 39, 249 ; Exchequer In-
quisition, Henry VIII., No. 191 ; Fleetwood's Survey.

BALALLY — ROEBUCK. 75

with the prayer that Providence may direct them to discharge their
considerations. Mr. John Borr, who built a great house known as
" Borr's Court," near Christ Church Cathedral, added to the wealth
which he had inherited from his father, and his son, Mr. Christian
Borr, father of several sons who met with sad and untimely ends,
occupied a good social position in Dublin (i).

In the latter part of the eighteenth century the villas which
border the high road through Balally began to be erected.
Moreen, then described as a neat, compact house, was built, and its
grounds laid out with much trouble and expense on the rocky
land, by Mr. William M^Kay, a legal official, whose descendants are
still recollected for their prowess in the hunting field in .days when
haree and foxes abounded in the wilds of Carrickmines and Foxrock,
Amongst other residents were Mr. Faithful William Fortescue,
M.P. for Monaghan; Mr. Robert Turbett, ancestor of the family
still identified with Dundrum; and Mr. William Ridgeway, an
eminent lawyer, whose name will be found as counsel for the Crown
in many of the leading prosecutions of the period, particularly in
that of Robert Emmet, and whose reports of cases are still of value
to lawyers (2).

ROEBUCK.

The lands of Roebuck, or Rabo, as they were anciently called,
which lie between Donnybrook and Dundrum, were the site of a
castle, which stood from very early times on the ground now
occupied by the modem Roebuck Castle, the handsome seat of Mr.
Francis Vandeleur Westby, D.L.

Soon after the Anglo-Norman Conquest the lands, which were
originally of greater extent than at present, became a manor with
a chief residence, and at the beginning of the fourteenth century
permission was given to the owner to keep game in his demesne on
them. They were then estimated to contain three carucates, valued
at £9, being at the rate of 6d. an acre, and the owner had sixty

(1) Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 148 ; Rolls of Innocents ; Census of 1659 ;
Crown Rental Hearth Money Roll ; Patent Rolls, vol. i., p. 366 ; Wills of the Borr
family ; Gilbert's " History of Dublin," vol. i., p. 238 ; ** Some Notes on Bal-
ally," in the Irish Builder for 1898, p. 41.

(«) Ball and Hamilton's " Pariah of Taney," pp. Ill, 134, 140, 148 ; ** Diction-
ary of National Biography." (for Ridgeway), vol. xlviii., p. 281.

76

PARISH OP TANEY.

- 1

M

If

I

ROEBUCK. 77

acres under com and twelve plough teams. Clonskeagh, or the
meadow of the white thorn bushes, now a village on the Dodder
known for its iron works, is mentioned in 1316 as belonging to the
owners of Roebuck, and then contained a mill. By Henry II. the
lands of Roebuck were granted, together with the somewhat distant
manor of Cruagh, to Thomas de St. Michael, and after passing
through the hands of David Basset, a member of a great Norman
family, came in 1261 into the possession of Fromund le Brun,
then Chancellor of Ireland, from whom they descended to Sir
Nigel le Brun, who was given in 1304 the right of free warren.
Under these owners the lands were held by a family which took its
cognomen from the place, and a member of which, Otho de Rabo,
acted as bailiff in legal proceedings for Sir Nigel le Brun.

The succession of owners for the next two centuries is almost
complete. In 1315 Fromund, son of Sir Nigel le Brun, was in
possession; in 1377 Sir Thomas, son of Sir Fromund le Brun; in
1382 Francis, son of Sir Thomas le Brun; and in 1420 Sir John,
son of Francis le Brun. Sir John le Brun had two sons,
Christopher and Richard; Christopher died before his father,
leaving two children, a son, Christopher, who died shortly after
his grandfather, and a daughter, Elizabeth. For a time the lands
appear to have been in possession of Sir John's second son, Richard
le Brun, but ultimately they became vested in his granddaughter,
Elizabeth, and by her marriage to Robert Bamewall, first Baron of
Trimlestown, passed into possession of the latter family, which
continued to own Roebuck until the beginning of the nineteenth
century (i).

It has been stated that the Castle of Roebuck, now partly
incorporated in the modern house, was the residence of John, third
Baron of Trimlestown, who was Chancellor of Ireland in the reign
of Henry VIII., but it seems probable that it owed its construction
to Robert, fifth Baron of Trimlestown — " a rare nobleman, endowed
with sundry good gifts " — whose initials, with those of his wife,
Anne Fyan, it bore. During the rebellion of 1641 the castle, then
in possession of Matthew, eighth Baron Trimlestown, who served as
an officer in the Confederate Army, was destroyed, and in the time
of the Commonwealth the lands and manor of Roebuck, together
with Clonskeagh and a mill, were held by one Edward Barry, whom
Colonel Arthur Hill sought to dispossess. The principal occupant
of the lands at that time was Mr. William Nally — said to have been

(») " The Norman Settlement in Leinster," by James Mills 'in Jourrud, R.S.A.I.,
voL xxiv., p. 167 ; Plea Justiciary and Memoranda Rolls ; Sweetman's Calendar ;
Burke's Peerage under Trimlestown.

78 PARISH OF TANEY.

an ancestor of the notorious Leonard MacNally, the lawyer — whose
death in 1669 is recorded on one of the oldest tombstones in Donny-
brook Churchyard. In 1652 Nally was ordered to attend a peram-
bulation of lands in the neighbourhood of Dublin taken under the
protection of the Commonwealth, and in 1664 he was occupying a
house rated as containing two hearths, which was probably portion
of the castle. Besides the lands of Roebuck, Nally held, under the
Fitzwilliams, the adjoining lands of Owenstown, now forming part
of Mount Merrion. The population of Roebuck and Owenstown is
returned about that time as seven persons of English and forty-
two persons of Irish extraction Q).

The castle was in a ruinous condition in the eighteenth
century, which renders it improbable that James II. lodged there,
as has been stated, after his arrival in 1689 in Ireland. Austini
Cooper, on visiting it in 1781, found only a small portion roofed,
which was used as a storehouse by a farmer who resided in a small
house close by. In Cooper's opinion the castle was originally a
large one, forming two slides of a square, and upon it, he mentions,
were engraved in stone the arms of the Bamewalls, as well as the
letters R. B. A. F. and the name Robert. At the beginning of that
century a bleach yard existed on the lands of Roebuck as well as
mills at Clonskeagh, and advertisements appeared from time to
time of the castle farm as affording excellent accommodation for a
dairyman, proposals for which were to be made to Lord Trimles-
town at his seat near Trim or at his Dublin house in Mary Street.
The Dublin Volunteers in 1784 selected Roebuck as one of thedr
camping grounds, and in 1789, when there was a great uproar about
an attempt to close the footpath from Milltown to Clonskeagh, the
vicinity of Roebuck Castle was chosen as a retired place to fight a
duel, which was happily amicably adjusted, not, however, before
shots had been exchanged (2).

Of the country seats which adorn the neighbourhood, the first
in date was Merville, in Foster's Avenue, now the residence of
Mr. J. Hume Dudgeon. This fine old house, which forms three
sides of a square, and has out-offices of a most extensive kind, was

(1) D' Alton's *' History of the County Dublin," p. 809 ; Burke's Peerage under
Trimlestown ; Fleetwood's Survey ; (>own Rental ; " Loftus's Court Martial
Book," preserved in Marsh's Library; Blacker's Sketches, pp. 90, 197, 434;
Hearth Money Roll ; Census of 1659.

(») D' Alton's "History of the County Dublin," p. 810; Cooper's Note Book;
Leases in Registry of Deeds Office ; Ptie^s OcciirrenceSt vol. xxxvi.. No. 31 ; vol.
xxxix.. No. 66 ; Dublin Journal, Nos. 1846, 1851, 6845 ; Dublin Chronicle, 1789-
1790, pp. 120, 296.

ROEBUCK. 79

built about the middle of the eighteenth century by the Right Hon.
Anthony Foster, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and father of
the last Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, whose connection
with the place is commemorated in the name of the magnificent
avenue in which it stands. Chief Baron Foster, whose ability and
social gifts in early life attracted the attention of that acute
observer, Mrs. Delany, was one of the first persons of position in
Ireland to interest himself in a practical manner in the improve-
ment of agriculture and in the development of her industries. He
has been styled by Arthur Young, who visited him on his estate at
Collon in the County Louth, where his operations exceeded any-
thing Young could have imagined, as a prince of improvers, but
few would dare to put in practice his theory that raising rents
tended to improve the condition of the tenantry by quickening
their industry, setting them to search for manures, and making
them better farmers. While a practising barrister, when he
occupied a seat in Parliament, first as member for the borough of
Dunleer and afterwards for the County Louth, Foster rendered ser-
vices to the linen manufacture by amending the laws aflFecting it.
For this he was rewarded by the presentation of an address in a gold
box and a magnificent piece of plate. He manifested throughout
his life the utmost interest in the trade of Ulster.

After his death in 1778 his son, the Speaker, occupied Merville
for some years, but ultimately sold it to Sir Thomas Lighten, on
whom a baronetcy, still held by his descendant, was conferred. Sir
Thomas Lighton, who is buried in Taney graveyard, had in early
life a career of extraordinary adventure in India, which resulted in
his making a large fortune, and after returning to his native land,
he settled down in Dublin as a banker, and obtained a seat in Par-
liament, first as a member for Tuam and afterwards for Carling-
ford. He was succeeded soon after his death in 1805, at Merville,
then said to have one of the best gardens in Ireland, by the Right
Hon. William Baron Downes, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, a
lawyer of the first distinction, and a great friend of Judge Chamber-
laine, already mentioned as a resident at Dundrum, with whom he
was buried by his own desire in St. Ann's Church, Dublin.
Subsequently Merville passed into the possession of Lieutenant-
General Henry Hall, C.B., a distinguished Indian military ofiicer
and administrator Q).

(1) Relipdous Returns of 1766; ** Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary
Granville, Mrs. Delany," vol. ii., p. 353 ; vol. iii., p 160 ; Young's " Tour in Ireland,"
edited by A. W. Hutton, vol, i., p. 110 ; Exshaw's Magazine for 1764, p. 395, and
1765, p. 126 ; Leases in Registry of Deeds Office ; Ball and Hamilton's " Parish
of Taney," pp. 27, 125, 168, 173, 223 ; Loudon's " Encyclopedia of Gardening,"
Lon./1830, pp. 88, 1096; Blacker's Sketches, pp. 91, 122, 319.

80 PARISH OF TANEY.

Other villas began to be built towards the close of the eighteenth
century, and amongst their first occupants were Alderman John
Exshaw, publisher of the magazine called by his name, whose
mayoralty was attended with much splendour, and who covered
himself with military glory during the Rebellion ; James Potts, the
proprietor of Saunder's News Letter, who resided at Richview, and
had an encounter with Mr. John Giffard, the owner of a rival
organ, outside the door of Taney Church ; Mr. Alexander JaflFray,
one of the first directors of the Bank of Ireland; Dr. Robert
Emmet, father of Thomas Addis Emmet and Robert Emmet, who
resided at Casino; and Mr. Henry Jackson, who started the iron
works at Clonskeagh, and had to flee from Ireland on account of his
complicity in the Rebellion. Before the close of that century the
Castle of Roebuck was rebuilt by Thomas, thirteenth Baron of
Trimlestown, and was subsequently occupied successively by Mr.
James Crofton, an official of the Irish Treasury, and his son, Mr.
Arthur Burgh Crofton, who were both Commissioners for the con-
struction of Kingstown Harbour. After the death of the latter the
castle was taken by Mr. Edward Perceval Westby, D.L., father of
the present owner, on his marriage to a daughter of the Right Hon.
Francis Blackbume, sometime Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who
maintained by a lengthened residence at Roebuck Hall the con-
nection of Roebuck, begun in the thirteenth century, with the
holders of the Great Seal Q).

MOUNT MERRION.

Mount Merrion, the Irish seat of the Earl of Pembroke and Mont-
gomery, can compare in the beauty of its demesne with many of
the great places in England, and has few rivals in Ireland. Enter-
ing by the high gates on the road from Dublin to Stillorgan, which
face the broad avenue from Blackrock, a straight drive with wide
borders of closely cut grass, and rows of lofty elms on either side,
leads to the house, which is covered with creepers. Across the
gravel sweep before the hall door, which faces the south, stand the
great stables forming three sides of a square, and behind them lie
the gardens entered through gates which recall the father of the

(1) Ball and Hamilton's " Parish of Taney," pp. 104, 110, 120, 138, 144, 151,
155, 175; Dublin Chronicle (for Exshaw), 1789-1790. pp. 56, 87, 528, 536, 615,
896 ; 1790-1791, pp. 128, 528,

MOUNT MERRION.

81

82 PARISH OF TANEY.

present owner, the lamented Lord Herbert of Lea, whose monogram
they bear. Beyond the house to the west, across a smooth lawn, is
a thick wood, intersected with walks and adorned with temples and
rural structures of various kinds, while through the park stretch
away two drives, one disused and grass-grown leading under an
archway of noble trees to Foster's Avenue, and the other, com-
manding lovely views of Dublin and its bay, leading to Mount
Anville and Dundrum. A modern front of singularly poor design
disfigures the original house, which was three storeys in height,
while the front, as it stands on higher ground, is only of two, but
through the verdure one sees peeping out tiers of quaint old-
fashioned windows and a tiny belfry surmounting the western wall.
In its style of architecture the original house resembled the existing
stables, which bear the date 1711, and although of small extent it
contained one or two fine rooms, now divided, with deep window
seats, curious door frames, and moulded cornices, which show it to
have been internally a handsome dwelling.

To Richard, fifth Viscount Fitzwilliam, who had succeeded in
1704 his father, Thomas, fourth Viscount Fitzwilliam, the last
holder of the title mentioned in connection with Merrion Castle,
the ancient home of the family. Mount Merrion House owed its
construction, and the selection of the site, one of the most beautiful
on his property, indicates that he was not insensible to the charms
of scenery. The lands had been in the possession of his family from
the fourteenth century. At the time of the Anglo-Norman In-
vasion, as has been mentioned in the history of Booterstown, they
had formed portion of lands called Cnocro, or the Red Hill, which
were assigned to Walter de Rideleford, Lord of Bray, but it was
probably under the name of Owenstown that the greater portion of
them came into possession of the Fitzwilliams of Dundrum about
the same time as the latter place. In the sixteenth century the hill
of Owenstown was selected as the place of assembly for a hosting or
review of the levies of the Pale, and there, on at least one occasion,
the proprietors, who held their lands by military tenure, drew out
their followers fn martial array. The fifth Viscount Fitzwilliam, who
had found a wife — a daughter of Sir John Shelley, of Michelgrove, in
Sussex, the family to- which the poet Shelley belonged — in England,
was a man of considerable ability, although of unattractive man-
ners. He was inspired with an ardent desire to take an active
part in public life, and with that object, having conformed to the
Established Church, took his seat in 1710 in the Irish House of
liOrds. It was then his intention to make Ireland his home, and

MOUNT MERRION.

83

as the Castle of Merrion had become uninhabitable, he commenced
the erection of Mount Merrion House as a country seat. From that
time, for many years, with the exception of one session, he con-
tinued to attend assiduously in Parliament, and from references to
him in connection with a rivalry which existed between him and his
near neighbours, the Aliens of Stillorgan, it is evident that he was
one of the most prominent of the Irish peers in the politics of his
day(i).

Richard, 5th Viscount FltzwilUam. Frances, wile of 5th Viscount Fitzwilliam.

From Portraits 'preserved m the Fitzmlliam Museum.

Amongst Fitzwilliam 's friends was the learned and good Arch-
bishop of Dublin, William King, and on more than one occasion the
Archbishop availed himself of the calm and repose which Mount
Merrion afforded for literary work. At the time of Queen Anne's
death the Archbishop was staying there and seeking relief in the
revision of his book, on The Inventions of Men in the Worship of
God, from the annoyance to which he was subjected as a supporter
of the succession of the House of Hanover, and from his other cares,
the non-residence of the clergy, the want of churches and of money

(1) D' Alton's " History of the County Dublin," p. 701 ; Lodge's Peerage, vol.
iv., p. 319 ; " Dictionary of National Biography," vol. lii., p. 31 ; " Autobio-
graphy and Correspondence of Mary GranviUe, Mrs. Delany," vol. i., p. 204 ; Jour-
nals of the Irish House of Lords; Coxe's "Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole,"
vol 11., pp. 359, 362

G 2

84

PARISH OF TANEY.

to pay incumbents — as in the case of the neighbouring Church of
Stillorgan — and, in a less degree, the management of the choir
which then served both the Dublin Cathedrals, and gave the Arch-
bishop and the Deans great ado to keep in order. He was not long
left undisturbed however, for on the accession of George I. he was
appointed, with the Earl of Kildare, then staying with his brother-
in-law, Colonel Allen of Stillorgan, a Lord Justice. One of the
first uses which they made of their power was to obtain the admis-
sion of their hosts to the Privy Council board, with, in the case of
Lord Fitzwilliam, the further honour of appointment as Vice-
Admiral of the Province of Leinster Q). y

Hon. William Fitzwilliam, and son of Richard,
Sth Viscount Fitzwilliam.

From a Portrait by Thomas Gainshoroiigh preserved in the FitzmUiam Museum.

At Mount Merrion the fifth Viscount Fitzwilliam's children, who
were baptized in St. Andrew's Church, Dublin, passed their early
life, and in a large picture preserved there his three sons are
depicted as boys playing in the grounds. The eldest, Richard, suc-
ceeded him ; the second, William, who appears to have been a man
of great social charm, passed his life in London, where he died at

(1) Mant's "History of the Church of Ireland," vol. ii., pp. 271-277; Arch-
bishop King's Correspondence preserved in Trinity College Library ; letter from
Archbishop King to Dr. Charlett in Ballard Maimscripts (10,794, f, 33), preserved in
the Bodleian.

MOUNT MERRION. 85

the close of the eighteenth century (i) ; and the third, John, who
made a most extraordinary disposition of his property, amounting
to £100,000, a great part of which he left to his servant, was a
distinguished officer, who attained ta the rank of General, and re-
presented Windsor for some years in Parliament (2). Besides his
three sons, the Viscount had two daughters, of whom the elder
married first, Henry, ninth Earl of Pembroke, an alliance to which
the Earls of Pembroke owe their Irish estate, and secondly,
although accounted one of the proudest dames of quality of her day,
a commoner. Major North Ludlow" Bernard (3) ; and the younger
married George, second Baron Carbery. About the year 1726,
when as an Irish peer he succeeded in obtaining a seat in the
English House of Commons as member for Fowey, in Cornwall, the
fifth Viscount Fitzwilliam went to reside permanently in England,
probably attracted thither by the wider field for a political life, and
possibly in some degree influenced by his wife's desire to live in
her own country. In England he became one of the entourage of
the Prince of Wales, shortly afterwards to ascend the throne as
George II., and his family became favourites at Court. His third
son, John, was appointed a page of honour, and his eldest daughter,
afterwards the Countess of Pembroke, a maid of honour, in which
capacity she is mentioned by Lady Hervey in describing the ladies
of the Court under the guise of books, as a volume neatly bound
and well worth perusing, called The Lady's Guide or the Whole Art
of Dress. A few years later Lady Fitzwilliam, who was a Roman
Catholic, separated from her husband and entered a convent abroad,
where she remained for twenty years, until after her husband's
death (4).

(*) See letters from the Hon. William Fitzwilliam to Eleazer Davy, British
Museum, Add. MS., 19,244, ff. 22-45.

(*) See letters from General the Hon. John Fitzwilliam and letter from Richard,
sixth Viscount Fitzwilliam (Add. MS., 32,889, f. 223) in the Newcastle Papers in
the British Museum ; " Letters of Horace Walpole," edited by Peter Cunningham,
vol. iii., p. 292; vol. ix., p. 205 ; "Correspondence of John, fourth Duke of Bedford,"
edited by Lord John Russell, vol. ii., p. 406 ; Manuscripts of Mrs. Frankland
Russell Astley, pp. 256-258, 295, published by Historical Manuscripts Commission.

(3) " Letters of Horace Walpole," edited by Peter Cunningham, vol. ii., pp. 188,
270 ; " Correspondence of John, fourth Duke of Bedford," edited by Lord John
Russell, vol. ii., p. 105.

(♦) Return of Members of Parliament ; British Museum, Add. MS., 32,707, f.
286 ; " Letters of Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk," vol. i., pp. 307, 322, 329,
334, 376, voL ii., pp. 9, 18, 230 ; " Memoirs of Viscountess Sundon," by Mrs.
Thomson, vol. i., p. 107 ; " Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Gran-
ville, Mrs. Delany," vol. i., pp. 204, 516 ; \DMin Journal, No. 2,677.

86 PARISH OF »rANfiV.

Soon after the fifth Viscount Fitzwilliam had settled in England
Mount Merrion House was let to one of the Barons of the Irish
Exchequer, the Honorable John Wainwright, a judge who is remark-
able for having lost his life in discharging his official duties. He
was an Englishman promoted in 1732 direct from the Bar of that
country to the Irish Bench. In character he was discerning and
discreet, with an even temper, attractive manners, and a most
charitable disposition, and although he was advised to .let his
attempts at English verse cool, he was a scholar of no mean attain-
ments. His friends included many persons of note in that day —
Pelham Holies, Duke of Newcastle, whose schoolfellow he had been
at Westminster School, and in whose correspondence a number of
letters from Wainwright written in a fine bold hand are preserved ;
Mrs. Clayton, the confidential friend of Queen Caroline, whom he
styles his guardian angel; Bishop Berkeley, whom he thought of
accompanying to the Bermudas, and by whom the inscription on a
monument which Wainwright erected in Chester Cathedral to his
father and grandfather, both Chancellors of that diocese, is com-
posed ; the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Duke of Dorset, who
was very civil and attentive to him ; the Lord Lieutenant's Secre-
tary, Bubb Dodington, who sought his advice; the unorthodox
Bishop Clayton, who was his constant companion ; and Dr. Stone,
afterwards Primate of Ireland, who was another old Westminster
boy. Not long after his arrival in Ireland Wainwright had narrowly
escaped being shot in his town house in William Street by a Sheriff's
officer, and was only spared to fall a victim to the famine fever of
1741, which he contracted while on the spring circuit in the crowded
courts of Munster, where the pestilence raged with especial severity.
He was hurried up to Mount Merrion House, but died there a few
days later, when only fifty-two years of age, bis body being taken
to Chester, where it was received with marks of the most extrar
ordinary respect, for interment beside his father's in Holy
Trinity Church (i).

Almost immediately after Wainwright's death Mount Merrion
was taken by the Lord Chancellor, Robert Jocelyn, who two years
later was raised to the peerage as Baron Newport of Newport, in
the County of Tipperary, a place in which he had acquired consider-
able property. Of Jocelyn's early history something has been

(^) Pue^s Occurrences, vol. xxix., Nos. 48, 71 ; vol. xxx.. No. 44; vol. xxxviii.,
Nos. 30, 31 ; Dublin Journal, No. 155 ; Letters from Baron Wainwright in New-
castle Papers in British Museum ; Foster's *' Alumni Oxonienses " ; " Memoirs of
Viscountess Sundon," by Mrs. Thomson ; Welch's " Scholars of Westminster " ;
Eraser's " Life of Berkeley," p. 216 ; Ormerod's *' History of Cheshire," vol. i.,
p. 244 ; " Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany,"
vol. i., p. 403 ; ** Memoirs of Mrs. Letitia Pilkington," vol. i., p. 73.

MOUNT H£RRI0K.

87

•^

s

1^

1^
II

88

PARISH OF TANEY.

already told in connection with his residence at Donnybrook. For
seventeen years he occupied the woolsack, earning amongst his con-
temporaries the reputation of being a great and good Chancellor.
During the protracted absences of the Lords Lieutenants Jocelyn
acted invariably as one of the Lord Justices, who, owing to the diffi-
culty of communication, were the real rulers of L^eland while in
office, and were treated with all the state and ceremony accorded to
the Viceroy. He was much interested in historical research and
Irish antiquities, and for a time filled the President's chair of the

Robert, Viscount Jocelyn, Lord Chancellor
of Ireland.

Frmn an Engraving published hy T. Jeflerys.

" Physico-Historical Society," which numbered amongst its active
members. Dr. Samuel Madden, the philanthropist; Thomas Prior,
the founder of the Dublin Society ; the curious Dr. Rutty ; John
Lodge, of genealogical fame; Charles Smith, the county historian,
who speaks in the preface to his " History of Kerry " of Jocelyn's
noble collection of manuscripts relative to Ireland; and Walter
Harris, the editor of Ware's works, to whom Jocelyn was a most
generous patron, and who left Jocelyn, " out of perfect gratitude,''
all his papers to dispose of at his discretion Q).

(1) Lodge's Peerage, vol. iii., p. 269; Harris's "Life of Lord Chancellor Hard-
wicke," vol. iii., p. 109 ; " Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xxix., p. 399 ;
" Liber Munenim " ; Minute Book of Physico-Historical Society, preserved in the
Royal Irish Academv ; " Memoirs and Letters of Ulick, Marquis of Clanricarde "
(Lon., 1757) p. xix.'; Will of Walter Harris.

MOUNT MERRION. 89

To Mount Merrion, whenever official duties permitted, it was
Jocelyn's delight to retire from his mansion in St. Stephen's Green,
and in his rural retreat he contrived to spend no small portion of
his time. There, attended by his friend and chaplain, Dr. Mann,
afterwards Bishop of Cork, who resided constantly with him, and
by his favourite servant, Mr. Wilde, his house steward, it was to
Jocelyn the most agreeable relaxation to pass the day overseeing
the haymakers or watching his horse®, his cattle, and his dogs, as
they wandered over the wide pastures. Lord Fitzwilliam must
have found him an improving tenant ; when a well was being sunk
in the demesne. Lady Newport wrote to him that if the moles, as he
called the workmen, failed to find water it would not be the first
money thrown away ; and after Jocelyn 's death, when Mount
Merrion was surrendered to its owner, difficulty was found in
dividing his property from that of Lord Fitzwilliam. At Mount
Merrion on Sunday evening Jocelyn kept open house for his friends
— his Sunday Club, as it was named by him — chief amongst those
thus received being Henry Singleton, Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas, one of the first lawyers of his day ; John Bowes, Chief Baron
of the Exchequer, who succeeded Jocelyn as Chancellor, and was
remarkable for his oratorical powers; Richard Mountney, no less
distinguished as a scholar than as a Baron of the Exchequer ; and
William Yorke, one of the puisne judges, and afterwards Single-
ton's successor as Chief of the Common Pleas, who was a kinsman
of Jocelyn's early friend. Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. Besides
these, Robert Downes, Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, was a con-
stant guest, and Lord Harrington, while Lord Lieutenant, on at
least one occasion stayed at Mount Merrion (i).

While living at Mount Merrion in 1748 Jocelyn had the
misfortune to lose his first wife, the sister-in-law of Bishop
Goodwyn, a truly amiable and charitable lady, who- was interred in
Irishtown Church, of which Dr. Mann was then the chaplain.
His only son, afterwards the first Earl of Roden, who, in the words
of Mrs. Delany, was " a very pretty man," and all a father could
desire, and who, as part owner of a pack of hounds which was
kennelled at Kilgobbin, enjoyed much popularity, was married some
years later in 1752 to a daughter of Lord Limerick, afterwards Earl
of Clanbrassil, a lady who was then supposed to have no great
portion, but who eventually brought to her children a large estate.

(1) Lord Roden's Papers in the Public Record Office ; " Dictionary of National
Biogr phy," vol vi., p. 58, vol xxxix., p. 210.

90 PABI8H OF TANEY.

After his son's mamage, Jocelyn took to himself a second wife, the
handsome widow of the Earl of Rosse, of facetious fame, who, on his
death-bed, caused a letter of good advice from his rector to be
ro-directed and sent to one of the most upright noblemen of his
day. This alliance Mrs. Delany considered in every way calculated
to put the Chancellor in good humour. He . continued to make
Mount Merrion his home; in 1754 he joined in the fund to repair
the neighbouring Church of Stillorgan, and in July of the next
year he entertained there the Lord Lieutenant, the fourth Duke of
Devonshire. A few months later he was raised to the dignity of
a Viscounty as Viscount Jocelyn, but only lived a. short time to
enjoy this honour and his domestic felicity, as the gout, to which
he had long been subject, assumed a more acute form, and having
gone to London for medical advice, he died there in December, 1756,
in the sixty-eighth year of his age, as recorded on a monument to his
memory in Sawbridge worth Church, in Hertfordshire, where he was
buried with his ancestors Q).

Mount Merrion House was now once more in the hands of its
owner. The fifth Viscount Fitzwilliam, who had never returned to
Ireland, had died in 1743 in Surrey, and had been succeeded by his
eldest son, Richard, sixth Viscount Fitzwilliam. The latter had
served in the army under his brother-in-law, the Earl of Pembroke,
and although not on friendly terms with his father, is spoken of by
Lord Chesterfield as an unexceptionable person. During his
father's lifetime he had succeeded him in the office of Vice- Admiral
of Leinster, and after his death he was made a Knight of the Bath
and appointed a Privy Councillor. He married a daughter of a
Dutch merchant. Sir Matthew Decker, Bart., who' is best known
as having feasted George I. on a pine apple (2) in his grand
house in Richmond Green, and for his piety and benevolence,
which were so great that a foolish scion of a noble house is related
to have been persuaded by some wag that Decker was the author of
St. Matthew's Gospel, and to have left him a large legacy on account

(1) Blacker's Sketches, pp. 75, 280, 283 ; Brady's " Records of Cork," vol. iii.,
p. 80 ; " Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany," vol.
ii., p. 536; vol. iii., pp. 178, 311 ; 0'Flanagan*s "Lives of the Chancellors of
Ireland," vol. ii., p. 78 ; Letters in the Newcastle Papers in the British Museum ;
Dublin Chronicle, 1787-1788, p. 246 ; Dublin Gazette, No. 398 ; Pue's Occurrences,
vol. Iii., No. 60 ; Harris's " Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke," vol. ii., p. 60 ;
vol. iii., p. 107 ; Clutterbuck's " History of Hertfordshire," vol. iii., p. 218.

(*) A picture of this pine apple painted by H. Watkins and dated 1720, hangs
in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge ; underneath is the following inscription :
" Perenni Memoriae Matthaei Decker Baronetti et Theordori Netscher Armigeri
strobilus hie regio convivio dignatus istius impensis Richmondiae crevit hujus arte
etiamnum crescere videtur."

MOUNT MERRION.

91

of that excellent work. Although not forgetful " that property has
its duties as well as its rights," the sixth Viscount Fitzwilliam wa^
for many years returned as one of the absentees from Ireland, and
it was not until the close of his life that he formed an intention of
occupying Mount Merrion, which on more than one occasion had

Catherine, wife of 6th Viscount Fitzwilliam. Richard, 6th Viscount Fitzwilliam.

From Portraits by Prince Iloare preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum.

been suggested as a country residence for the Lord Lieutenant.
Then, possibly attracted by the beauty of the place, which had
excited the admiration of Bishop Pococke and of a friend of Horace
Walpole, and had been extolled by a poetical writer to the disparage-
ment of Richmond, where the sixth Viscount had found a home in
his father-in-law's house, he began to make alterations at Mount
Merrion, including the building of the front of the house, which
does little credit to the Irish workmen whom alone he employed,
and the construction of the avenue to Mount Anville and of the
present deer park, and there in 1776 he died (i).

(1) Cokayne's "Complete Peerage," vol. iii., p. 384; British Museum, Add.
MS., 24,137, p. 119; *^ Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xiv., p. 266;
" Letters of Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk," vol. i., p. 293 ; " Letters of Horace
Walpole," edited by Peter Cunningham, vol. i., pp. 301, 303 ; vol. viii., p. 58 ;
Pue's Occurrences, vol. Ixiv., Nos. 6555, 6576; vol. Ixv., No. 6696; Pococke's
" Tour in Ireland," edited by Professor G. T. Stokes, p. 163 ; Historical Manu-
scripts Commission, Report 8, App., pt. ii., p. 114 ; *' Phoenix Park, a poem by the
Author of Killarney " (Lon. 1772) ; Freeman's Jourmil, vol. xii., No. 4 ; Exshaw's
Magazine for 1776, p. 384.

92 PARISH OP TANEY.

Mount Merrion House was then again let, and after having been
occupied for a time by Mr. Peter La Touche, M.P. for the County
Lei trim, it was taken by the Right Hon. John Fitzgibbon, then
Attorney-General for Ireland, and afterwards Lord Chancellor, with
the well-known title of Lord Clare, on his marriage to the sister
of the renowned Jerusalem WhaJey — a lady no less distinguished
for her beauty, which attracted the attention of George IV.,
then Prince of Wales, than for her qualities of heart. Fitzgibbon's
appointment to the custody of the Great Seal in 1789 was,
on the ground of his being an Irishman, the occasion of great
rejoicings, and addresses and freedoms of cities were showered upon
him. His position gave occasion for the stately magnificence which
was congenial to his character. Preparations for the celebration of
the Prince of Wales's birthday at Mount Merrion were made in
the most superb style, and great dinners and balls, at which the
Lord Lieutenant was a constant guest, were given by FitzGibbon and
his wife. On his appointment as a Lord Justice his nephew was
appointed as his Aide-de-Camp, and when visiting Limerick he was
received with a guard of soldiers and general illuminations, and
offered to knight the Mayor and Sheriffs. One of his possessions,
which attracted much observation, was his state coach, which
is now preserved in the National Museum of Ireland — a vehicle
unparalleled for its splendour. Crowds flocked to see it as it lay in
Fitzgibbon's stables in Baggot Street, at the back of his town house
in Ely Place, where it was freely shown to all, the servants being
forbidden to accept any gratuity for its exhibition. The panels are
decorated with paintings executed by William Hamilton, a Royal
Academician, at a fee of 500 guineas, and the total cost of the coach,
which was built in London, is stated to have been 2,000 guineas Q).

About the year 1793, when Fitzgibbon leased Blackrock House,
Mount Merrion was again in the hands of its owners, Richard,
seventh Viscount Fitzwilliam, who had succeeded to the titles in
1776 on his father's death. As founder of the Fitzwilliam Museum
at Cambridge, he is the best known member of his family. This
princely gift to his alma mater, with .which a romantic story has
been connected of an unsuccessful attachment for a Cambridge lady,
formed while he was a student in the quiet courts of Trinity Hall,

(*) Dublin Almanacs; Burke's "Landed Gentry," edition 1847, p. 694;
O'Flanagan's " Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland," vol. ii., p. 195 ; " Auck-
land Correspondence," vol. ii., p. 231 ; Hibernian Magazine for 1789, pp. 394,

449 ; and 1794, p. 193 ; " The Mirror," and "The Promenade or Theatre of Beauty,"
preserved in the Haliday Pamphlets (vols. 538, 572) in Royal Irish Academy ;
Jhiblin Chronicle, 1788-1789, p. 464; 1789-1790, pp. 184, 904; 1790-1791, pp. 65,
310, 480, 496, 544, 560, 648 ; 1791-1792, p. 527.

MOUNT MERRION.

93

and of undying affection for the place — a story to which his continu-
ance in the single state lends some probability — was one of almost
unexampled munificence, including, as it did, both his vast collec-
tions of rare books and pictures, and a bequest of £100,000 for the
erection and endowment of a museum. During part of his life he
courted privacy, but he represented for a number of years, through
the influence of his cousin, the Earl of Pembroke, the borough of
Wilton in the English Parliament, and had the reputation of being
not only a man of enlarged and liberal mind, but also of being one
of a kind and compassionate disposition, who was easy of access to
all. His home was at Richmond, in Sir Matthew Decker's house.

Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilllam.

From a Portrait by Nathaniel Hone preserved in the FitzwiUiam Museum

but he was constantly on the move, earning from his uncle William,
the character of being as unfixed as Mercury. His visits to Ireland
were generally of short duration ; on one occasiion he accomplished
the feat, a remarkable one in his time, of performing the journey
there and back in fourteen days, but he found time on his visits to
this country to extend his patronage to William Ashford, the first
President of the Royal Hibernian Academy, by whom a niunber
of paintings and drawings of Mount Merrion were executed. These
are now preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum, and from them the
accompanying views of the place are taken (}).

(1) " Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xix., p. 229 ; Play fair's " Family
Antiquity," vol. v., p. 44; British Museum Add. MS., 19,244, pp. 15, 17, 32;
" Letters of Horace Walpole," edited by Peter Cunningham, vol. ix., pp. 266,
323, 328 ; also see for Ashford " Dictionary of National Biography," vol. ii., p.
169, and Blacker's Sketches, p. 440.

94

PARISH OP TANEY.

n

c

MOUNT MERRION — ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 95

During the seventh Viscount's lifetime Mount Merrion House
was occupied by Mr. Richard Verschoyle and by his wife, Miss
Barbara Fagan, who was, as her mother had been before her, agent
to Lord Fitzwilliam, and the seat is still shown in Mount Merrion
where that lady used to sit and watch for her husband comino- up
the straight drive. To Mr. Verschoyle succeeded, as agent and as
occupier of Mount Merrion, Mr. Cornelius Sullivan, of whose
sporting proclivities old inhabitants have still recollections, and
subsequently Mr. John Edward Vernon, to whom the Pembroke
estate owes so much, and whose abilities were recognised in his
appointment as one of the original Commissioners under the Trish
Land Acts (i).

After the death of the seventh Viscount Fitzwilliam in 1816 his
estate passed to his cousin, George Augustus, eleventh Earl of Pem-
broke and eighth Earl of Montgomery, the descendant of Queen
Caroline's maid of honour, and the titles, after being held for a
few years successively by his two brothers, became extinct. The
eleventh Earl of Pembroke left his Irish estate to his second
son, the great and good Sidney, Lord Herbert of Lea, whose sons,
the thirteenth and fourteenth Earls of Pembroke, have since succes-
sively held the property (2).

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

The great diversity in the spelling of the name Taney in ancient
records must ever leave its origin a matter of speculation, and it is
a subject for regret that the dedication of its first church is also
lost in the obscurity of past ages (8). But it is established beyond
question that before the Anglo-Norman Conquest a church stood at
Dundrum on the site of what is now known as the old church — an
eighteenth century structure — and that under the Celtic ecclesiasti-
cal arrangement the place was one of religious importance. It is said
that it was the seat of one of the rural bishops, or chorepiscopi, and
that the extensive rural deanery attached to Taney in the thir-
teenth century, which embraced such distant parishes as Coolock,

(!) Ball and Hamilton's "Parish of Taney," pp. 149, 181; Exahaw's Maga-
zine for 1789, p. 660.

(«) "Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xxvi., p. 212; Cokayne's
" Complete Peerage."

(3) See for attempts to identify the dedicatory saint, O'Hanlon's " Lives of the
Irish Sainte," voL i., p. 408 ; voL vii., p. 271, and Paper by Patrick J. O'Reilly in
Journal^ R,S,A.I,, voL xxxii, p. 377.

06 PARISH OP TANEY.

Chapelizod, and Clonsilla, represented the limits of his authority.
After the Anglo-Norman Conquest the Church of Taney, together
with the portion of the lands of Churchtown, or Taney, assigned to
the See of Dublin, was given to the Archbishop, and towards the
close of the twelfth century Taney became a prebend in the newly-
founded collegiate church of St. Patrick, which was soon afterwards
created a cathedral establishment. Subsequently, in exchange for
the Church of Liisk, the Church of Taney, then a mother church,
with the chapels of Donnybrook, Rathfarnham, and Kilgobbin
dependent on it, was granted to the Archdeacon of Dublin, and the
prebend of Taney, which has been revived since the disestablish-
ment of the Church of Ireland, became merged in that dignity.
From that time until 1851 the parish of Taney continued to be
portion of the Archdeacon's corps, and was served, like Donny-
brook, by curates appointed by him (i).

During the temporary dissolution of St. Patrick's Cathedral in
the sixteenth century, William Power, the Archdeacon of Dublin,
was given a pension as prebendary of Taney and Rathfarnham, and
the revenue from those parishes was leased to Sir Richard Rede,
and subsequently to Sir John Allen, who successively filled the office
of Lord Chancellor, with the condition that fit chaplains should be
found for the churches. The tithes which were levied on the town-
lands of Taney, Dundrum, Balally, Ballinteer, Roebuck, " the
Chantrell'Ferme," and Callai-y, were valued at £19 per annum, and
the glebe, on which there was a house, and which, with the fees and
oblations, were assigned to the curate, was valued at 9s. Early in
the seventeenth century the church was returned as in good repair
and provided with books, but some years later it was stated to be in
ruin. The parish was served generally by the Curate of Donny-
brook. In 1615 the Rev. Robert Pont was in charge of the cure; in
1630 the Rev. Richard Prescott; in 1639 the Rev. Thomas Naylor,
afterwards a prebendary of Ferns Cathedral; and in 1641 the Rev.
George Hudson. The cure in 1647 was returned as vacant, and
probably the church became quite unfit for use during the Common-
wealth (2).

C^y Dansey's " Horse Decanicaj Rurales," vol. ii., p. 516 ; Reeves' " Analysis of
the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough " ; " Crede Mihi," edited by Sir John
Gilbert, pp. 21, 136 ; Sweetman's Calendar, 1302-1307, p. 239 ; Christ Church
Deed No. 150; Mason's " History of St.' Patrick's Cathedral," p. 44.

(«) Mason's "History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 44; Rant Edward VI.,
No. 32 ; Regal Visitation of 1615 ; Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 154 ; Dio-
cesan Record.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 97

Under the Roman Catholic Church the parish, as we have seen,
was within the Union of Donnybrook, and the Rev. John Cahill,
who had charge of the union in the beginning of the seventeenth •
century, held services at Dundrum and at Balally. Nearly all the
parishioners belonged to that faith — in 1630 there were only two
Protestant householders — and under the protection of the chief
residents, the Fitzwilliams and the Walshes, Mr. Cahill was able to
perform the service® of his church* without interference (i).

After the Restoration Taney parish was generally placed in
charge of the curate appointed to Donnybrook, and the church, in
which at that time the Archbolds of Kilmacud found a burying
place (2), was allowed to remain in a state of dilapidation. At the
beginning of the eighteenth century a church, now a ruin, was built
at Kilgobbin, and curates were appointed at the liberal stipend of
£35 a year and book money to the joint charge of Kilgobbin and
Taney, amongst them being, in 1753, the author of the " Monasticon
Hibernicum," and editor of Lodge's " Peerage of Ireland," the Rev.
Mervym Archdall, who became subsequently a prebendary in the
Ossory diocese. It was not until the middle of the eighteenth
century that the structure now known as the old church of Taney,
which stands in the graveyard, and serves as a mortuary chapel, was
erected through the exertions of Lord Chancellor Jocelyn's friend.
Dr. Isaac Mann, who was in 1757 appointed Archdeacon of Dublin,
and of his curate, the Rev. Jeremy Walsh, whom Dr. Mann nomi-
nated in 1758 to the charge of his parishes of Kilgobbin and Taney.
It is, externally, a singularly plain building, more resembling a
barn than a church, and, internally, the original reading desk and
pulpit, which still remain, rising above the Communion Table, show
that it was equally devoid of ornament. It had, however, the dis-
tinction of being consecrated by the munificent Dr. Richard
Robinson, then Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, and afterwards
Primate, and a peer, with the title of Lord Rokeby, who performed
the ceremony on Sunday, June 8, 1760, and a year later was used
by the Bishop of Limerick, Dr. James Leslie, for an ordination, at
which the Rev. Edward Ledwich, the antiquary^ and the Rev.
Beather King, aften^^ards Curate of Stillorgan, were admitted to
the Order of Priest. But perhaps the most remarkable scene its

(*) 'Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 154.

(») The only tombstones of the seventeenth century in the graveyard of Tanev
relate to members of this family. See Ball and Hamilton's " Parish* of Taney,"
pp. 27, 28.

H

98 PARISH OF TANEY.

walls ever witnessed was in July, 1787, when that famous orator,
the Rev. Walter Blake Kirwan, not long after his reception into the
Established Church, delivered one of his great sermons in support of
the schools then lately founded in the parish, and when the congre-
gation, in addition to their edification by ^' a finished piece of execu-
tion," were delighted by the " heavenly psalmody " of a choir
brought from Dublin (l).

• The Old Church at Taney.

From a Photograph by Thomas Mason.

After the erection of Taney Church the parish of Kilgobbin was
given to another curate, and the Rev. Jeremy Walsh, who lived in
the house now known as Whitehall, near Rathfamham, where he
married in 1778 the widow of Thomas Eyre, a member of the Irish
Parliament, devoted his whole time to Taney parisih. His succes-
sors continued to do the same, the appointments to the cure being
as follows: — in 1787, the Rev. William Dwyer, who only remained
a few months, and then went to Cork; and the Rev. Matthew
Campbell, who served the parishioners faithfully for twenty-five

(1) Ball and Hamilton's "Parish of Taney," pp. 24, 67, 214, 230; Pm's Oc-
currences, vol. Ivii., No. 47 ; Reports on the Churches in the Diocese of Dublin
preserved in the Parliamentary Papers in the Publip Record Office ; J)uhlin
Chronicle, 1787-1788, pp, 286, 296, 297 . .

ECCLESIASTICAL fflSTORY. * 99

years; in 1814 the Rev. Richard Ryan, a son-in-law of Mr. John
Giffard, in whose time the present church of Taney was built; in
1820 the Rev. Henry Hunt, who was thanked, on the motion of
Lord Downes, for his zeal in the parish, and was afterwards Vicar-
General of the Elphin diocese; in 1821 the Rev. William Forde
Vance and the Rev. James Bulwer, who was a most accomplished
artist and writer, and who was subsequently beneficed in Norfolk,
where he had charge of the Library at Blickling HaJl; in 1824 the
Rev. Henry Hamilton; in 1825 the Rev. Alexander Burrowes
Campbell; in 1828 the Rev. John Prior, who was presented with a
piece of plate in recognition of his activity and Christian beno-
volence; in 1834 the Rev. Samuel Henry Mason; in 1836 the
Rev. Clement Archer Schoales; and in 1837 the Rev. ' William
Henry Stanford, whose labours during his ministry of fifteen years
was the subject of an eulogistic address. On his resignation the
parish of Taney was severed from the Archdeaconry, and the subse-
quent appointments as rector have been — in 1851, the Rev. Andrew
Noble Bredin; in 1857, the Rev. Edward Busteed Moeran; in 1867,
the' Rev. William Alfiied Hamilton; in 1895, the Rev. John Joseph
Robinson; and in 1900, the Rev. William Monk Gibbon (i).

(1) Ball and Hamilton's " Parish of Taney," pp. 53, 69-86.

H 2

100 PORTION OF THE PARISH OF ST. PETER.

Portion of the Parish of St Peter,

Dublin.

{Formerly jxirt of the Pariah of SL Kevin.)

The portion of the Parish of St. Peter lying outside the City of Dublin was, in
ancient times included in the Manor of St. Sepulchre, and now comprises the
modern Townlands of Baggotrath East, North, and West, CuUenswood,
Harold's Cross East and West, Milltown, Portobello, Banelagh North and
South, and Rathmines East, South, and West. _ , . . . ...

RATHMINES.

Rathmines, which lies to the^.west of Donny brook, and is now the
largest suburb of the Irish metropolis, formed originally portion of
the property of the See of Dublin, and was included within the
Archbishop's manor of St. Sepulchre. At the beginning of the
fourt-eenth century the Rath in the tenement of St. Sepulchre,
previously held by Richard do Welton, came into the possession of
a family called de Meones, and to this fact is due the name Meones'
Rath, afterwards inverted into Rathmines. Some members of ^his
family, supposed to have come over from Hampshire in the train of
Archbishop John de Derlington, who was appointed to the See of
Dublin in 1279, occupied a high position in Ireland. William de
Meones, who was executor of Archbishop de Derlington, combined
the clerical dignity of a Canon of St. Patrick's Cathedral with the
lay offi^ces of Chamberlain and Baron of the Exchequer, and ether
members of the family acted as bailiff and Mayor of Dublin. In
1326 the Rath was held by Gilbert de Meones, a warrior, to whom
one of his kinsmen bequeathed a corselet, and in 1382 by William
de Meonee, who styled himself Lord of Meonesrath. In addition
to the Rath, the Meones family were tenants for other lands in
the manor, known as the Stoneway and the Pass, the former being
now represented by lands near Mount Argus, and the latter being
on the east side of the old highway to Rathfamham, now the
road through Harold's Cross. They were also owners of a mill
near the Dodder Q).

(1) "Notices of the Manor of St. Sepulchre in the Fourteenth Century," by
James Mills, Jourmd, RS.A.L, vol xix., pp. 31, 119 ; Manuscripts in Trinity
CJoUege Library, No. 1207-26.

llATttMlNEd. 101

During the seventeenih century Bathmines had an eventful his-
tory. Soon after the arrival of the Earl of Strafford in 1633, the
lands, which had been previously in the possession of the Barons of
Howth, were selected by Strafford's friend and counsellor. Sir
George Radcliffe, as the site of one of the great mansions which
were projected during the rule of that masterful viceroy. In this
case, \inlike others, the house wasi actually completed. It stood
close to the road through Old Rathmines, which was then the
highway from Dublin to Dundrum, not far from the site of the
modern Rathmines Castle, on the ground now lying between
Palmerston Villas and Cowper Villas. Its value was estimated at
£7,000, then an enormous amount, and it was, doubtless, as a con-
temporary writer says, a stately thing. There Radcliffe, who was
the best of good fellows, as well as an able man, heartily welcomed
his friends, and there under the guidance of Radcliffe's fowler,
Strafford, who says he would have been the most solitary of men
in Ireland without his friend, possibly indulged in his favourite
sport of hawking, for which the surrounding country at that time
was well adapted. But Radcliffe's residence at Rathmines was of
short duration — in the autumn of 1639 he dated a letter there; a
year later he was in prison in London — and in 1642 his house,
which had passed safely through the previous winter of rebellion,
was occupied by the wife and children of the Earl, afterwards
Duke, of Ormonde, who was then commanding the army in Ireland.
In August of that year, probably on account of a serious illness
which Ormonde had at that time, bis family moved into Dublin,
and three days after they had left, the house was burned. Its
destruction was generally attributed to marauding bands of the
Irish Army, but some thought one of Ormonde's own household
had been a party to it, and made much of the fact that the care-
taker had fled, and that his wife was found dead (i).

Before the cessation in 1643 the neighbourhood of Rathmines
was liable to incursions from the troops of the Confederate Army
stationed in the County Wicklow. In April of that year Thomas
Pamell, a goldsmith, of Dublin, was walking, as he subsequently
deposed, in the fields which then lay near St. Kevin's Church,
waiting for service to begin, when he was suddenly surprised by " a
company of rebellious soldiers " under the command of Captain

(') Carte Papers, vol. ii., p. 472; "Dictionary of National Biography," vol.
xlvii., p. 123 ; Down Survey Map ; Ordnance Survey Map of 1837 ; D' Alton's
" History of the County Dublin," p. 778 ; " Strafford's Letters," edited by William
Knowler, vol. ii., p. 181 ; Depositions of 1641 (William Bridges of Harold's Grange);
Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1633-1647, p. 224 ; " Memoirs and Letters of
Ulick, Marquis of Clanricarde " (Lon 1767), p. 266.

102 MRHON OP TttE PARISH OF ST. PfiTER.

Toole, and was carried away forcibly to Powerscouit. The next
day he was taken to Arklow, where he was kept for twenty-six
weeks a close prisoner, and often threatened with execution, " which
bred great terror and fear in. Tiim." In September of that year,
after the cessation had been concluded, a troop of horse and two
companies of foot came within musket shot of trenches which had
been made near St. Kevin's Church, and on their return, after
killing a herd and wounding several others, drove before them into
the County Wicklow all the cattle that they could find. The
number of cattle driven off was estimated at 359 head, as well as
29 horses, which were also taken, and amongst them were nine
cows belonging to the Archbishop of Dublin, which were grazing
in a field near Harold's Cross. This act was a violation of the
treaty of cessation, but in spite of the utmost efforts on the part
of the authorities and of several journeys undertaken by the owners
at the risk of their lives into the wilds of the County Wicklow,
only a few of the cattle were recovered, and these not the best Q).

The summer of 1649 saw the great historic event with which this
district is associated, and which has been already referred to in
connection with Baggotrath, the Battle of Rathmines, resulting in
the signal defeat of the Royalist Army under the command of the
Marquis, afterwards Duke, of Ormonde, by the troops of the Parlia-
ment, then garrisoning Dublin, under the command of Colonel
Michael Jones. It was in the immediate neighbourhood of Sir
George Radcliffe's mansion on the ground now covered by Palmer-
ston Park and the adjacent roads that Ormonde encamped his
troops on moving from Finglas, where he had lingered in a state
of fatal inaction for many weeks. There on the 27th July, at a
council of war, attended, under the presidency of the Lord-General,
by Lord Inchiquin, his Lieutenant-General ; Lord Castlehaven, the
General of the Horse; Lord Taaffe, the Master of the Ordnance;
General Thomas Preston, the well-known commander of the Con-
federate Army ; Sir Arthur Aston, who fell a few weeks later in
the massacre at Drogheda; Sir William Vaughan, Major-General
of the Horse; and Major-General Patrick Purcell, Major-General
of the Foot; the disastrous decision was made to despatch Lord
Inchiquin with two regiments of horse to Munster, where it was
apprehended Cromwell would land, as well as the determination to
tak^e Rathf arnham Castle, then garrisoned by the Parliament, which
was successfully accomplished the next day.

(M Depositions of 1641 (Thomas Parnell, John Johnson, Robert Parry, and John
Davies cf the City of Dublin).

^TfiiiiNEd.

103

e

JO

flQ ^

s ^

S

3

104 PORTION OF THE PARISH OP ST. PETER.

At Rathmines another council ol war was held on August 1st,
at which it waa decided to fortify Baggotrath Castle if practicable,
and from Rathmines, after an inspection and favourable report
had been made by Lord Castlehaven, General Preston, and Major-
General Purcell, a body of troops under the command of the last-
named set out that evening to execute the work. In his tent at
Rathmines, Ormonde sat up all night in order to be ready for an
attack should one be made, and to complete despatches which he
was preparing to send off to France to Charles II. ; and from there
at daybreak next morning he rode down to Baggotrath to see what
progress had been made with the work of fortification. At Rath-
mines, after his return some hours later, while taking in his tent a
few moments' repose, he was awakened by the sound of firing, and,
on rushing out of his tent, found, before he had gone many yards,
that the soldiers at Baggotrath had been driven off, that Sir William
Vaughan had been killed while gallantly leading some of the cavalry
to their support, and that Vaughan*s troop, a& well as others which
had been placed between Baggotrath and Rathmines, had been
routed.

The land between the Donnybrook Road and the road through
Old Rathmines was then divided into fields, and Ormonde's camp
was approached from them by narrow lanes. These it would have
been easy to defend, but owing to treachery and inefficiency, which,
doubtless, existed in an army composed largely of deserters from
the Parliament ranks, and officered in many cases by Irishmen more
conspicuous for their loyalty than for skill in arms, no attempt was
made to do so, and it is even said that barriers which had been
placed in the lanes were removed. The Parliament commander,
Colonel Michael Jones, pushed on the advantage which he had
gained until the right wing of Ormonde's army was completely
defeated. As soon as Ormonde perceived, as he tells us himself,
that the troops of which that wing were composed were running
away towards the hills of Wicklow, where some of them had been
bom and bred, and the way to which they knew only too well, he
turned his attention to the centre of his army, composed of foot,
which had served under Lord Inchiquin, and which were then
commanded by Colonel Giffard. To its support he brought other
troops under the command of his brother. Colonel Richard Butler,
and Colonel Reyley, but these failed him, and on Colonel Giffard's
men being attacked from behind by a troop of Colonel Jones' horse,
which approached them by a lane which ran from Milltown to
what is now the Ranelagh Road, and in front by a party of
Colonel Jones' foot, they gave way and accepted quarter.

tuTfliliNEd. 105

As a last resort, Ormonde, jumping his horse over a ditch, made
for the left wing of his army, which, probably, was stationed
between Radcliffe's house and Rathgar, and which Ormonde had
not called to his assistance, as there was a reserve of the Parliament
Army in front of them, but he found that news of the defeat of
the right wing and centre of the army had reached them, and that,
thinking themselves deserted, they were making good their escape.
After several fruitless attempts to rally them, Ormonde, who had
displayed much personal bravery, and whose armour had alone
saved him from a wound, or even death, made off himself towards
the County Kildare, leaving the Parliament forces in possession of
the field. The victory was a decisive one, and in the fulness of
their rejoicing the Parliament proclaimed that they had slain
4,000 of Ormonde's army, and had taken 2,517 prisoners, many of
high rank, in addition to seven cannon, many transport waggons,
two hundred draught oxen, and a camp furnished, as they repre-
sented it, with great store of provisions and wine, and with all
manner of silk, velvet, and scarlet cloth, which also fell into their
hands. This account is much exaggerated, and the total number of
men tmder Ormonde's command cannot have much, if at all,
exceeded the combined numbers returned as killed and taken
prisoners ; but it is equally impossible to rely on the Royalist reports
which, while calling the battle a drawn engagement, and a night
surprise, give the number killed on their side as not more than
600. After the battle some of the English Royalist troops took
refuge within the walls of Radcliffe's house and made so gallant a
defence that it was not for some days that they laid down their arms,
and then only did so on promises of safety for their lives (i).

During the Commonwealth the population of Rathmines,
including the residents in Sir George Radcliffe's house, which was
restored and was rated for taxation as containing six hearths, was
returned as only six persons of EngKsh and six persons of Irish
extraction. Sir George Radcliffe was still stated to be owner of the
lands, which included portions known as Lord Howth's land and
Widow Drury's land, but his house, with a demesne of sixty acres.

(1) Gardiner's "History of the Commcnwealth and Protectorate," vol. i., p.
99 ; Carte's " life of Ormonde " (Lon. 1736), p. 77 ; Gilbert's " History of the
Irish Confederation and the War in Ireland," vol. vii., p. 123 ; Carte's ** Collection
of Original Letters and Papers " (Lon., 1739), vol. ii., p. 407 ; Curry's " Memoriah
of the Great Civil War in England," vol. ii., p. 159 ; Walsh's " History and Vin-
dication of the Loyal Formulary or Irish Remonstrance," p. 609 ; " The Water
Supply of Ancient Dublin," by Henry F. Berry in Journal, U.S.A. I., vol. xxi,,

S657 ; Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, ser. i., vol. vi., p. 305 ; Journal,
.S.A.I., vol xxxii., p. 254 (note) ; Tracts preserved in the Thorpe Collection in
the National Library of Ireland and in the Royal Irish Academy.

106 PORW61I OP TttE l»ARi6fi Of sfr. pfcfEft.

was occupied by Captain William Shore. Captain Shore was con-
nected with the County Fermanagh. His first wife was a daughter
of Henry, Baron Dockwra, of Culmore; and Sir Henry Brooke,
ancestor of the baronets of that name, who had married another
daughter of Baron Dockwra, had also an interest in the house and
demesne of Rathmines. On the death of his first wife, Captain
Shore married the widow of Baron Lewis Hamilton, the brother
of the first Lord Glenawley, and father of the distinguished de-
fender of Enniskillen iii the time of James II. She was a native of
Sweden, of which country her first husband was a noble, and is
said to have been possessed of a large fortune and to have been of
very high birth. She married, in addition to Baron Hamilton
and Captain Shore, two other husbands, an ancestor of the Arch-
dalls of Fermanagh, and Montgomerys of Tyrone, and an ancestor
of the Summerville family, now ennobled under the title of Ath-
lumney. Captain Shore's death occurred about 1668, and ten years
later there were legal proceedings between his representatives and
Thomas Radcliffe, the only son of Sir George Radcliffe, with regard
to the lands of Rathmines (i).

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Temple family,
ennobled under the title of Palmerston, came into possession of
Rathmines, and to this circumstance the use of the name Palmer-
ston in the present nomenclature of a great portion of the district
is due. The rural character of the neighbourhood was still main-
tained; in October, 1704, Dr. William King, then Bishop of Derry,
and afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, stayed there temporarily, as
he had done shortly before at Rathfarnham, in order to obtain
country air, and the only residence of any importance besides the
mansion house was one called Boland Hall, the owner of which in
1727 put an end to his life by throwing himself into the Dodder at
Milltown (2).

Under a lease made in 1746 by Henry, first Viscount Palmerston,
the mansion house of Rathmines became the country seat of the
Right Hon. William Yorke, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in
Ireland. When the lease was made, Yorke occupied the position of

(*) Hearth Money Roll ; Census of 1659 ; Repertory Chancery Decrees, vol. ii.,
pp. 320, 405 ; Book of Distribution in Royal Irish Academy ; Book of Survey in
Public Record Office ; " Monea Castle and the Hamiltons," by the Earl of Belmore
in Ulster Journal of Archccology, vol. i., pp. 195, 256 ; Lodge's Peerage, vol. vi.,
p. 36 ; Burke's Extinct Peerage.

(2) Leases in Registry of Deeds Office; Archbishop King's Correspondence in
Trinity College Library ; Dublin Weekly Journal, 8th April, 1727 ; Dublin Chron-
icle, 1788-1789, p. 608.

^ATfiMlNEg. 107

second justice of that court — a position to which he had been
promoted three years previously direct from the English Bar
through the influence of his kinsman, the great Earl of Hardwicke,
then Lord Chancellor of England. In Ireland he was received with
every attention by Hardwicke's friend, Lord Chancellor Jocelyn,
and a year after his arrival in 1744 he married the widow of Mr.
William Cope, of Loughgall, who had died shortly before of fever,
a year after his marriage. Yorke thus became connected with the
chief of his court, the Right Hon. Henry Singleton, who was. her
xmcle, and with the astute Philip Tisdal, already mentioned in con-
nection with Stillorgan, who was her brother-in-law. In 1753 Chief
Justice Singleton retired in Yorke's favour, and in 1755, William^
Marquis of Hartington, afterwards fourth Duke of Devonshire, soon
after his arrival in Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, honoured the T.ewly-
appointed Chief Justice by dining with him at Rathmines. Yorke
resigned the chief ship of the Common Pleas in 1761 on being
created a baronet and appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the
room of the illustrious Anthony MaJone, but only held the latter
ofl&ce for two years, until 1763, when he retired to London, where
he died in 1776 from accidentally taking a dose of poison, and was
buried in the chapel of the Charter House (i).

At the close of the eighteenth century a school was established
in Chief Justice Yorke's residence, and about thirty years later
it presented the appearance of a farmhouse, and was used as a
boarding-house, which was frequented by persons of a consumptive
tendency. At the latter period it had been superseded by the
modem Rathmines Castle, which was built about 1820 by Colonel
Wynne, and was subsequently occupied successively by Sir Jonas
Green, sometime Recorder of Dublin, and the Rev. Thomas Kelly.
It was not until Chief Justice Yorke's time that direct com-
munication wafi made between what is now known as Old Rath-
mines and Rathgar — the latter place having until then been ap-
proached from Dublin thtough Harold's Cross — by the construction
of Highfield Road. The construction of Rathgar Road and the
modem urban districts of Rathmines. and Rathgar dates only from
the nineteenth century (2).

(*) Lease in Registry of Deeds Office ; Pue^s OccurrenceSy vol. xl.. No. 39, vol.
xli.. No. 74, vol. lii.. No. 64 ; DuUin Gazette, 2nd October, 1741, 27th October,
1742 ; Harris's " Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke," vol. ii., pp. 50, 501, 503 ;
Burke's " Landed Gentry " under Singleton of Mell ; Haydn's " Book of Dig-
nities " ; Anntuxl Begiater for 1776, p. 189.

(«) Dtiblin Journal, No. 2699 ; " Plan of Rathmines School under the direction
of the Reverend Charles Barry," preserved amongst Haliday Tracts (vol. .
Royal Irish Academy ; Dublin Penny Journal, vol. ii., p. 81.

lOd »OftTlOlt dF tS£ PAKISB OF SH. PfiTEft.

RANELAGH AND SANDFORD.

{Formerly caUed CvUenswood.)

The lands on which these suburban districts stand lie between the
lands of Rathmines and those of Baggotrath and Donnybrook,
and once formed, like the lands of Rathmines, portion of the pro-
perty of the See of Dublin, constituting a manor, subordinate to the
manor of St. Sepulchre. This manor, which appears in the four-
teenth century under the name of Colon, has been identified with a
place called Nova Colonia, where, in the thirteenth century, the
Archbishop of Dublin had a residence. In the opinion of the
Deputy Keeper of the Records in Ireland it formed the corps of
the prebend without cure of souls, in right of which the Archbishop
of Dublin occupies a seat in the chapter of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
At Nova Colonia in 1253 Archbishop Luke signed a decree, and
there in 1290 Archbishop John de Sanford, then Justiciary of Ire-
land, received a deputation from the merchants of Dublin. A great
portion of the lands was covered with the wood, whence the
name Cullenswood is derived, which on more than one occasion
is said to have afforded cover to the Irish tribes when making
attacks on the English inhabitants of Dublin. According to tra-
dition, on a certain Easter Monday, a day for long afterwards
known as Black Monday, the original English settlers from Bristol
to the number of 500, while engaged in public sports near it, were
surprised and slaughtered by a party of the Irish, and in it more
than a hundred years later the chief of the OTooles and eighty
followers concealed themselves all night before making an attack on
Dublin, which resulted in their being put to flight and pursued for
six leagues, with a loss of seventeen killed and many mortally
wounded.

The manor of Colon did not escape the devastations of the neigh-
bourhood, which, as mentioned in the history of Dundrum, resulted
from the invasion of Bruce, and a deplorable picture is presented
in 1326 of the state of the manor. The buildings, including the
Archbishop's hall and chamber, with a chapel attached, which were
built of stone and roofed with shingles, as well as offices, consisting
of a kitchen, farmhouse, stable and granary made of timber, were
part in ruin and part level with the ground, while the meadows
which extended along the highway were destroyed by trespass on
the part of the carriers and their pack horses; the pastures could
not be stocked owing to the raids of the malefactors from the

RANELAGH AND SANDFOBD. 109

mountaiiLS, and the wood had been so ravaged that there was no
profit to be obtained even from the sale of firewood, while the
ground which it had occupied was useless for pasture. The serfs,
who had worked the lands for the Archbishop, fled, and the Arch-
bishop, finally thinking it well to have some profit from the
manor land, leased it at a low rent to tenants better able to defend
his property, such as was in 1382, a stout English farmer called
Bichard Chamberlain, who held it in conjunction with the Arch-
bishop's lands near Dundrum (i).

About the middle of the sixteenth century portion of the lands
of St. Sepulchre were leased by the Archbishop of Dublin to Sir
Thomas Fitzwilliam, then described as of Baggotrath, and together
with them the office of keeper of the wood of CuUen upon the
surrender of John de Bathe, by whom it was then held, was granted
to him. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the wood of
Cullen was held by Sir William Ussher, of Donnybrook, and at the
time of the rebellion of 1641 the lands of CuUenswood were
occupied by a yeoman called Thomas Ward. In depositions made
by Ward he recounts how in April, 1642, his house and offices at
CuUenswood were totally destroyed by fire, how the rebels robbed
him of sixteen cows, a bull, and eight horsesi; how at the time
Mr. Pamell, as related under Rathmines, was taken prisoner, ha
was taken also, but was let go on surrendering his arms ; and how
subsequently at Powerscourt he saw a man wearing his sword (2).

The ground now occupied by the Carmelite Convent of St.
Joseph, close to the Dublin, Wicklow, and Wexford Railway, was
in the eighteenth century the site of a house called Willbrook.
This house was for a number of years the residemie of the Right
Rev. William Barnard, successively Bishop of Rapho© and Derry,
who, as a monument in Westminster Abbey records, after ruling the
latter diocese for twenty years with great approbation, died in 1 768
in London, where he had gone for the benefit of his health. After
the death of the Bishop, Willbrook was taken by an organ builder
from London with the object of its conversion into a place of
public amusement, and soon the episcopal residence became a grand
house of entertainment, with a theatre and gardens laid out with

(1) "Notes on the Manor of St. Sepulchre in the Fourteenth Century," by
James Mills in Journal, R.S.A.I.j vol. xix., pp. 31, 119 ; 20th Report of the Deputy
Keeper of the Records in Ireland, App.. p. 50 ; Sweetman's Calendar, 1285-92,
p. 376, 1293-1301, p. 117 ; D' Alton's "History of the County Dublin," p. 779,
" Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey," vol. ii., p. 351.

(2) Fiant Edward VT., No. 519 ; Carte Papers, vol. Ixi., p. 517 ; Depositions of
1641 (Thomas Ward of CuUenswood).

110 PORTION OF THE PARISH OF ST. PETER.

alcoves and bowers for tea drinkers. It was all modelled on Rane-
lagh Gardens in London, and thus obtained the name of that
fashionable resort. A fine band was constantly in attendance, the
favourite vocalists of the day appeared in the theatre, and some of
the earliest aeronauts made their ascents from the gardens. Not
far oflF there was then a tavern with the curious sign of " The
Bleeding Horse," and the neighbourhood was, on at least one
occasion, the scene of a duel.

The gardens disappeared after a comparatively short existence,
but left their name impressed on part of the lands of Cullenswood,
and the use of the name Sandford, derived from the foundation of
Sandford Church by Lord Mountoandford, in connection with
another part of the lands, has caused the name Cullenswood to
become almost obsolete Q).

MILLTOWN.

The village of Milltown, which is situated close to the river Dodder,
on the road from Dundrum to Dublin, still exhibits traces of anti-
quity in an old bridge, now disused except for foot traffic, and in
some large houses, which have seen more prosperous days. From a
very early period it ha« been the scene of industrial enterprise, and
until very recent years it was the site of water-mills, whose place
is now taken by a steam laundry and dye works. So early as the
fourteenth century the existence of a mill is mentioned in con-
nection with the lands, then known as Milton, which were included
within the manor of St. Sepulchre, joining on the north those of
Rathmines and Cullenswood, and were held under the Archbishop
by a family called Brigg, Hugo Brigg in 1326 and Henry Brigg in
1382 being the tenants (2).

The neighbourhood has always been celebrated for the excellence
of the stone found in it, and during the sixteenth century a glimpse
is afforded us of mediaeval quarrying operations carried on at Mill-
town to provide stone for the repair of Christ Church Cathedral.

(^) Leases in Registry of Deeds Office ; Cotton's " Fasti Ecclesiao HibemicsB " ;
Pile's Occurrences, vol. Ixv., No. 6726 ; O'Keefle's " Recollections of his Life,"
vol. i., p. 291 ; Dublin Gazette^ No. 2727 ; Dublin Chronicle, 1787-1788, pp. 181,
183.

(2) "Notices of the Manor of St Sepulchre in the Fourteenth Century," by
James Mills, voL xix., pp. 31, 119. ^

MILLTOWN.

Ill

These operations were conducted under the direction of a famous
ecclesiastical architect, Sir Peter Lewys, the builder of the bridge
of Athlone, who was precentor as well as restorer of the Cathedral.
In an interesting memoir of Lewys, the present Assistant Keeper of
the Public Records of Ireland, has explained that the stone was
cut out of the bed of the river by means of iron tools kept pointed
by a smith who was always in attendance, and, as the accompanying
illustration shows, distinct traces of these operations are still to be
seen near the foundation of the old bridge. In order to allow the

The Old Bridge of Milltown.

From a Photograph by Mr, Leonard R Strangways.

stonecutters to cut the rock, the river had to be diverted from its
course, and, needless to say, in spite of dams and bowls for baling
out the water, the work was carried on with extreme difficulty,
One day a bank of earth fell on a mason, whose life was only saved
" with much ado," and on another occasion, owing to autumn rains,
the Dodder rose to such a height that it carried away all protection
for the craftsmen (i).

At the time of the Rebellion of 1641, when the lands of Mill-
town belonged to the Loftuses of Rathfamham, a miller, John

(1) " Sir Peter Lewys," by Henry F. Berry in Transactions Quatuor Coronati
Lodge,, vol, xv., p. 4.

112 PORTION OF THE PARISH OF ST. PETER.

Bacon by name, was the principal resident at Milltown, and in
depositions made by him he recounts the loss of sundry horses of
English breed used by him in his trade, as well as of cows, and tells
how after he had taken refuge in Dublin his house was completely
demolished. In order to keep the rebels in check a troop of horse
under the command of one Hugh Booth, was stationed afterwards
?.t Milltown, but while patrolling the country in June, 1642, Booth
was surprised near Merrion by a party of the Irish Army under
the command of Captain Bernard Talbot, and after twelve of his
men had run away and two had been killed, he was taken prisoner,
with the other three, and carried oflF to Arklow, where he was kept
a close prisoner in daily fear of death for twenty-two weeks. Under
the Commonwealth, when the population of Milltown was returned
as fourteen inhabitants of English birth and five of Irish, Milltown
continued in possession of Sir Adam Loftus, of Rathfamham (i).

During the eighteenth century Milltown, which became then the
property of the Leeson family, ennobled under the title of Earl of
Milltown, was the seat of various manufactures. Amongst the
mills mentioned as existing there at different times were two com
mills, a brass mill, an iron mill, a paper mill, and a mill for grinding
dry woods. One of the best quarries for limestone in the County
Dublin was near Milltown Bridge, where there is said to have been
a rath; and the manufacture of garden pots was also carried on
by " the ingenious Mr. Heavisid." Until the latter part of the
century, when Classon's Bridge, near Old Rathmines, was built
by Mr. John Classon, the owner of the mill for grinding dry woods,
the only means of crossing the Dodder was by means of the old
bridge, which was too narrow for v-ehicle traffic, and by a ford,
where the present bridge of Milltown is built. This ford was the
cause of loss of life, as persons on horseback were reluctant to
make the short detour necessary to cross by the old bridge, and
were sometimes carried away by the rapid waters of the Dodder
when in flood. Thus in 1756 a countryman and boy going on
horseback to Powerscourt, though warned not to make the attempt
to cross the ford, persisted in doing so, and were carried away and
drowned, and in 1782 Mr. Clarke, the steward of the Home of
Industry, met his death in the same way, the occurrence being re-
markable, as his daughter, and only child, had been drowned in
the Dodder a year before. The ascent from the ford was also

(M Depositions of 1641 (John Bacon of Milltown and Hugh Booth of the City
of Dublin) ; Census of 1659 ; Book of Survey in Public Record Office.

MILLTOWN. 113

dangerous and steep, and in 1787 a child on the roof of a mourning
coach accompanying a funeral to Dundrum was thrown off there
and killed on the spot (i).

Milltown is stated in that century to have been a large and plea-
sant village, much frequented by the citizens of Dublin, and a great
thoroughfare for pleasure parties going to Powerscourt. Thither
from time to time the populace was attracted by advertisements of
sports; in June, 1728, a race for grass fed horse®, not exceeding £6
in value, from John Burr's, in Milltown, to the Cock in St. Kevin's
Port, with a saddle as first prize and a bridle as second, is
announced ; and in July, 1 758, races for horses and also for girls,
with a prize of a cap and ribbons, for which entries were to be made
at the Phoenix at Milltown, were to take place. But, doubtless,
even greater crowds assembled at Milltown in November, 1753, to
see the punishment of William Kallendar, who, for a rescue, was
so severely whipped from Milltown to Dundrum that he died a
few days later in Newgate Prison, leaving, as the newspaper records,
a wife and five small children to mourn his loss. Amongst the
inhabitants we find Mr. Hugh Johnston, who, in 1727, was made a
magistrate for the metropolitan county; Mr. John Bandall, the
owner of the paper mill, " a man of very good character," who in
1754 was thrown from his horse and killed; Mr. Dogherty, the
owner of the iron mill, who in 1758 was found dead in his bed;
Mr. Robert Tomlinson, whose house in 1779 was attacked and
plundered in the middle of the day by a set of desperate villains ;
the Viscount St. Lawrence, who in 1783 was residing near Mill-
town ; and the Ladies Eleanor and Isabella King, daughters of the
first Earl of Kingston, who were visited in 1797 in a house near
Milltown left them by a Mrs. Walcot, by the diarist already men-
tioned in connection with Seapoint, who drove out from Dublin in
a green chaise to see them (2).

(1) Leases in Registry of Deeds Office ; Exchequer Bill ; Dublin Journal^ No.
6712 ; Dvblin Chronicle, 1788-1789, p. 969 ; Rutty's " Natural History of the
County Dublin,*' vol. i., p. 93 ; Dublin Chronicle, 1787-1788, pp. 359,461 ; Pue'a
Occurrences, vol. liii., No. 3 ; Hibernian Magazine for 1782, p. 551 »

(«) Lewis's Dublin Guide, p. 186; Dublin Penny Journal, vol. iii., p. 372;
Irish Penny Journal, vol. i., p. 281 ; Warrants for Magistrates in Public Record
Office ; DMin WeeHy Journal, 15th June, 1728 ; Pue's Occurrences, vol. 1., No.
92, vol. li.. No. 86, vol. Iv., No. 58, vol. Ivi., No. 98 ; Exshaw's Magazine for 1779,
p. 487 ; Dublin Journal, No, 6633 ; MS, Diary of 'Alexander Hamilton, k.c., ll.d.

114 PARISH OF RATHFARNHA.M.

Parish of Rathfarnham.

(».e.. Rath- Fear annain or FarnarCs RcUh.)

♦

The Parish of Rathfarnham in the seventeenth century appears as containing the
Townlands of Rathfarnham, Terenure, Kimmage, Rathgar, Little Newtown,
Butterfield, Scholarstown, and St. John's Leas.

It now contains the Townlands of Ballyroan (t.c., Baile Ruadhain, or Rowan's
Townland), Butterfield, Kimmage, Newtown Little, Old Orchard, Rathfarn-
ham, Rathgar (t.e., Rath-gearr, or Short Rath), Scholarstown, Terenure (t.e.,
Tir-an-iubhair, or the Land of the Yew), Whitehall, and Willbrook.

The objects of archaeological interest in the Parish are the Castle of Rathfarnham
and a fragment of the Old Church.

RATHFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE.

The Castle of Rathfarnham, formerly the seat of the Right Hon.
Francis Blackbume, sometime Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and still
in the occupation of his descendants, is one of the few fine residences
of any antiquity in the metropolitan county. It was originally a
fortified and embattled structure built in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth by that great legal ecclesiastic, Archbishop Loftus, but
owing to alterations in the eighteenth century carried out in a
Grecian style of architecture, it no^ presents the appearance of a
modern house.

This castle is not the first dwelling which has occupied its site.
Soon after the Anglo-Norman Conquest the lands of Rathfarnham,
then joining on the north those within the manor of St. Sepulchre
and on the east those within the parish of Taney, had been given
to a family called le Bret, and during their ownership, which lasted
for many generations, a manorial residence stood upon their pro-
perty. They were people of importance amongst the early settlers,
and, in addition to Rathfai:nham, became possessed of estates
in Tipperary and Cork. The first of the family connected with
Rathfarnham was Milo le Bret, to. whom in 1199 a grant of
the lands was made. His name appears amongst the magnates of
Ireland, and he was personally known to King John, at whose
coui t in England he was, on at least one oQca^ion, a visitor.

ratHfarnham and its castle.

115

I 2

116 PARISH OF RATHFARNHAM.

Towards the close of the thirteenth century, after the lands had
been held by Walter le Bret, who in 1269 made a perpetual assign-
ment of a portion of them now known as Kimmage, Geoffrey le
Bret appears as the proprietor of the manor of Rathfamham, for
which he rendered military service valued at 68«. to the Crown.
He saw much service as a soldier. During a period of twenty years
he was one of those responsible for the protection of the marches
of Dublin, and large sums were from time to time paid to him for
expenses incurred in resisting the enemies of the Crown at Saggard,
Newcastle, and other places. In these operations he gained so
high a reputation for bravery that it reached the English Court.
In 1297 he was included by Edward I. amongst the liegemen in
Ireland whom that monarch summoned to assist him in his war
against France, — promising as an incentive to prompt compliance
that he would keep them close to his side. Again in 1302 le Bret
was honoured with a similar command to join in the war against
Scotland.

The lands of Kathfamham were occupied, under their owners,
by the great Danish clan of Harold, who, with the Walshes and the
Archbolds, then held so much of the lands bordering on the terri-
tory of the hillsmen. Their occupation was sometimes only
rendered possible by illegal compacts with their neighbours, and
in 1305 Richard, son of Reginald Harold, paid a fine because Rath-
famham had afforded shelter to some of the foes of the Crown.
The owners of Rathfamham were then resident in Cork. Milo,
son of Geoffrey le Bret, who in 1320 granted to his legal adviser,
John Graunteste, a yearly rent charge of 20s. and a robe of pro-
portionate value out of the lands of Rathfamham, was Sheriff of
Cork, and his grandson, John le Bret, filled the same position. On
account of an apprehended invasion of the O'Bymes, the latter was
ordered in 1356 to proceed with his followers fully armed in martial
array to his manor of Rathfamham, and in 1375 he was given
license to remove corn from his house at Rathfamham for his own
use.

The existence towards the close of the fourteenth century of a
bridge across the Dodder at Rathfamham is indicated by a bequest
in the w^ill, executed in 1381, of a certain Joan Douce, of St.
Audoen's Parish, in Dublin, of one mark towards its construction.
At the beginning of the fifteenth century the Harolds still appear
as tenants, and the lands were in the hands of the Crown owing
to the death of John, son of Geoffrey le Bret. In 1415 they were
committed to the custody of James Fitgwilliam, the first owner

rathfarnhaM and its CASTLU.

117

of Merrion of his name. Subsequently, owing tx) the death of
one John Galvey, two parts of the lands were committed in 1423
to Thomas Hall, and in 1424 to James Cornwalsh, the Chief Baron
of the Exchequer, who met his death in the Castle of Baggot-
rath (1).

At the time they came into the possession of Archbishop Loftus
the lands of Rathfarnham, which had passed from the Brets to
the Eustace family, were, like Monkstown, in the hands of the
Crown, owing to the rebellion of James Eustace, third Viscount
Baltinglass, and before obtaining the custody of the Castle of
Monkstown, Sir Henry Wallop, the Earl of Portsmouth's ancestor.

Rathfarnham Castle.

From a Photograph hy Thomas Mason.

had applied for a lease of them. A few months later, in the
autumn of 1582, Archbishop Loftus was soliciting a lease of some of
the lands forfeited during the Desmond Rebellion, and though for
a time his petition was withdrawn, this application was probably

(^) "The Norman Settlement in Leinster," by James Mills, Journal^ R.8.A.I.,
vol. xxiv., p. 165 ; Sweetman's Calendar ; Plea and Memoranda Rolls ; Patent
Rolls, pp. 64, 95, 167, 168, 170, 171, 227, 231 ; Haliday Deeds preserved in Royal
Irish Academy.

il8

l>ARtSd OF RAtHFARNHAM.

the origin of the grant of Rathfarnham to him. Owing to the
incursions of the hillsmen it was then described as a waste village,
and the original castle, if it remained at all, can have been only a
ruin. But within two years of his acquiring the property Arch-
bishop Loftus had built the castle which has come down to the
present day — an edifice of such magnificence in the opinion of a
contemporary writer as would for all time be a monument to the
greatness and grandeur of its builder. According to the patent of
a peerage conferred on one of his descendants the object of its
erection was to protect the English subjects of the Crown, but as

Archbishop Loftus.

From an Engraving in the yosseaaion of the Rev. William ReyneU.

the Archbishop, owing to the disturbed state of the neighbourhood,
had shortly before been obliged to vacate hisi episcopal seat at
Tallagh, it is probable that it was part of his design to provide a
country residence for himself.

Archbishop Loftus, who was a native of Yorkshire, had come to
Ireland in the train of the Earl of Sussex, who was appointed
Lord Lieutenant soon after the accession of Queen Elizabeth,
and had subsequently become Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral
and Archbishop of Armagh. That diocese was then in a distracted
state, and in 1567 he was translated to Dublin — in those days
the most important and valuable of the Irish archbishoprics. For
more than thirty-seven years he held the latter See, and with it for

RATHFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE. 119

twenty-four years the office of Lord Chancellor, to which he was
appointed after having been on several occasions the temporary
custodian of the Great Seal. Loftus stands out amongst his fellows
as a man of singular ability, with a reputation as an eloquent
preacher, and in his successful opposition to the diversion of the
revenues of St. Patrick's Cathedral to the establishment of a
university, as well as in the assistance which he gave towards the
foundation of Trinity College, of which he was the first provost,
he exhibited both high principle and independence of character.
In his time such offices as he held gave power and influence beyond
anything possible in the present day. These advantages he used,
undoubtedly, for his own advancement and that of his family, al-
though, probably not to a greater degree than others in a similar
position would have done.

Loftus took up his residence at Rathfarnham in the year 1585,
when he had incurred much enmity by his opposition to- the
diversion of the endowment of St. Patrick's Cathedral for educa-
tional purposes, and his establishment there, and the nominal
rent of 30s., for which he was granted the fee farm of the lands,
gave rise to many malicious allegations. In that year he found it
necessary to write to Lord Burghley to explain how he had means
to build a house, and some years later it was said that, while causes
were pending before him, ^' angels, beasts of the field, and birds of
the air did fly and run to Rathfarnham." As has been mentioned,
the castle was considered a stately residence, and an occasional
reference shows that its contents were in keeping with it. Couches
such as were made for the Archbishop in Ireland were thought
worthy of a place in the home of Lord Burghley 's illustrious son,
the first Earl of Salisbury, as was also a deer's head, " the rare
greatness " of which had caused the Archbishop to have it hung
in the hall of " his poor house," and which he wishes might be the
most remarkable curiosity in Christendom in order that his love
to his friend might be the more evident. In every room basins
and ewers of pure silver were to be seen, in some great standing
white bowls and others of a smaller size attracted the eye, and
after the death of Queen Elizabeth the buffet was adorned with
three handsome cups made out of her Irish Great Seal.

Archbishop Loftus had an enormous family of twenty children.
Only four of his sons came, however, to man's estate, and of these
but two survived him. All four served in the army, and it was
in the wars in Ireland towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's
reign that the two who died before their father met their deaths.

120 PAEldH 0F> ItATHFARNHAM.

Lord Deputy Fitewilliam knighted the eldest, and the unfortanate
Earl of Essex, on his hurried departure from Ireland, after appoint-
ing the Archbishop to a^ct in his absence as a Lord Justice, stayed
a moment on the sands before taking ship to confer a similar
honour on two of the younger. Seven of the Archbishop's
daughters were married — some of them more than once — finding
husbands in the families of, amongst others, Colley, Blaney,
Berkeley, Colclough, Moore, Warren, and Ussher. In these alli-
ances and in others, which, it was said, were contemplated, the
Archbishop's enemies saw grounds for accusations against him of
an attempt to secure an indispensable position in the government
of Ireland (i).

The Archbishop's eldest son. Sir Dudley Loftus, whose marriage
to a daughter of Sir Nicholas Bagenal had also afforded occasion
for suspicious whispering on the part of his father's enemies, suc-
ceeded to Rathfamham in 1605 on his father's death. In early
life he is sadd to have been an honest young gentleman, " both
loved and well disposed," and during the military operations in
Ulster, as captain of a troop of horse, he displayed conspicuous
valour. It was for the part which he took in an engagement near
Beleek, when after his horse had been killed under him he slew
with his own hand twelve of the enemy, that he was knighted by
Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam, and subsequently he was employed in
several expeditions in which he spared himself neither toil nor
hardship. He does not appear to have been prominent in public
affairs after his father's death, and resided principally in the
suppressed preceptory of Kilcloggan, in the County of Wexford,
which had been granted to him, and where in 1616, at the age of
fifty-five, he died (2).

Rathfamham Castle was in Sir Dudley Loftus's time occupied
temporarily by the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Ridgeway, then Trea-
surer for Ireland, and afterwards created Earl of Londonderry, who
in September 1611 dates a letter on affairs of State to the Earl
of Salisbury from Rathfamham, but on Sir Dudley's death, as hia

( » ) Calendar of Carew State Papers, 1575-1588, p 370 ; *' Dictionary of National
Biography," vol. xxxiv., p. 73 ; Calendar of Irish State Papers ; Manuscripts of
the Marquis of Salisbury, pt. vii., p. 31, published by the Historical Manuscripts
Commission; "The Description of Ireland in 1598," edited by Rev. Edmund
Hogan, pp. 37, 43 ; Papers relating to Archbishop Loftus from the Library of
Dr. Reeves in Trinity College Library ; Boriase's " Reduction of Ireland," pp.
148, 180 ; Will of Archbishop Loftus ; Lodge's Peerage, vol. vii., p. 249 ; Met-
oavlfc's *' Book of Knights," pp. 208, 210.

(i) Calendar of Irish State Papers; Funeral Entry.

ItATHFARNHAM AN1>^ ITS CASTLE. 121

Wexford property went to a younger son, the Castle became the
constant residence of Sir Adam Loftus, who succeeded Sir Dudley
there as his eldest son. Although a time-serving politician, Sir
Adam Loftus was one of the most able of the Archbishop's
descendants, and has the proud distinction of being the father of
Dr. Dudley Loftus, the famous Oriental scholar. He enjoyed the
friendship of the leading people in Ireland in his day. Sir Arthur
Chichester, the planter of Ulster, conferred the honour of knight-
hood on him in 1610, when he was barely of age, and appointed
him Constable of Maryborough Castle. The great Earl of Cork,
the most striking personality of that time, gave the hand of one
of his daughters in marriage to his eldest son. The great Earl's
cousins. Sir William Parsons, the well-known governor of Ireland
at the time of the Rebellion, and Sir Laurence Parsons, ancestor
of the present Earl of Rosse, who was a Baron of the Exchequer,
and is said to have died in 1628 at Rathfamham, both held Loftus
in esteem, and became related to him by the marriage of their
eldest sons to two of his daughters. And the mighty Earl of
Strafford conceived a strong affection for him, regarding him as
a man of integrity and capacity.

The career of Loftus for many years was bound up with that of
the Earl of Cork, and in the great Earl's quaint business diary and
correspondence he is frequently mentioned. There the tale is told
of the unromantic marriage of his son to the Earl's daughter. The
first reference to Sir Adam is an account of a conversation between
Sir Adam and Sir Laurence Parsons, who acted as the great Earl's
confidential legal adviser, regard>ing a widowed daughter of the
Earl whom Sir Adam desired to receive at Rathfamham. Then
a year later the betrothal of Sir Adam's eldest son, Arthur Loftus,
to the Earl's daughter, Dorothy, bom six years before in Sir
Walter Raleigh's house at Youghal, was accomplished, and the
first instalment of her marriage portion of £3,000 was paid to her
future father-in-law. Soon afterwards young Loftus went to reside
at Lismore, and the little girl with her French attendant came to
Rathfamham. Then the youth went in the Earl's train to Eng-
land, where he fell sick of the smallpox, and was provided with
money (which the Earl was careful to have refunded), and with
the use of the Earl's medicine chest, and became the constant
companion of the Earl's son, whom he accompanied to Oxford. And
finally on Shrove Monday, 1632, the girl bride, then only fourteen
years of age, was married, as the Earl records, by the good Primate
Ussher in Rathfamham Castle to the husband of her parent's
choice.

122

PARISH OF RATHFARNHAM.

A few months after this marriage had been arranged Sir Adam
Loftus became, jointly with a member of the Parsons* family,
Surveyor-General of Ireland and an official of the Court of Wards.
He subsequently acted as a keeper of the Great Seal during the
absence of his cousin, Viscount Ely, then Chancellor of Ireland,
and was made a member of the Privy Council. While the Earl of
Cork was a Lord Justice, before the arrival of the Earl of Strafford,
Sir Adam Loftus was ^t his right hand. We find him riding with

The tiall of Rathfaraham Castle.

From a Photograph by Thomas Mason,

the Earl and Sii* William Parsons on moi*e than one occasion to
give orders for the rebuilding of Maynooth Castle, and being lent
by the Earl one of his two precious copies of Stafford's '' Pacata
Hibernia." But no sooner had the Earl of Strafford landed than
Sir Adam began to worship the rising sun. He obtained a seat
as member for the borough of Gorey in the Parliaments held under
Strafford; and Charles I., in response to a request from Strafford

RATHFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE. 123

that he would give Sir Adam " a scratch of the pen," sent him a
gracious message of thanks for the help which he had rendered to
his Viceroy in the Privy Council. In spite of his devotion to
Strafford, Sir Adam managed to retain the Earl of Cork's goodwill.
With the great EarPs approval he was appointed Vice-Treasurer of
Ireland, and the Earl relates that, when going to take the oaths
of office. Sir Adam, who was accompanied hy all the judges, many
of the Privy Council, and very many of the Lord Deputy's gentle-
men mounted on his great horses, rode between him as Lord Trea-
surer and Strafford's son. When the dispute between , Strafford
and the Earl arose, Sir Adam was instant in urging the Earl to
submit himself to Strafford's judgment, and probably from that
time they drifted more and more apart, until . at last the Earl
recorded that Sir Adam had used him uncivilly, and spoke to him
in a harsh and displeasing manner. .

Sir Adam Loftus took an active part in the proceedings insti-
tuted by Strafford against his cousin, the Lord Chancellor, and
from letters written to him by Strafford from the Tower of London
he appears to have been one of the few in Ireland on whom
Strafford thought he could rely. But Strafford's execution was
not long a thing of the past when Sir Adam became deep, in the
councils of the Parliament. In this line he was followed, doubt-
less to the unspeakable regret of the Earl of Cork, by his eldest
son. Soon after Strafford's arrival in 1634 Arthur Loftus had
received from him knighthood, and in the same year — a year in
which the Earl of Cork records his thanks to God for the birth of
her first child to his daughter. Lady Dorothy Loftus, at Rathfarn-
ham — he was returned to Parliament as member for the borough
of Enniscorthy. Subsequently Sir Arthur had a very unpleasant
passage with his father-in-law touching a domestic squabble, in
which he showed himself both " heady and untractable," to the
EarFs great discontent — and is not again mentioned in the Earl's
correspondence or diary (i).

On the outbreak of the Rebellion in 1641 every precaution was
taken to prevent Rathfarnham Castle falling into the hands of
the rebels. All the Loftus family took up arms. Sir Adam
Loftus and Sir Arthur Loftus commanded each a troop of horse,
and, as they were engaged elsewhere, the care of the Castle was

(1) Calendar of Irish State Papers; "Dictionary of National Biography,"
vol. xlviii., p. 279 ; Metcalfe's *' Book of Knights," pp. 212, 214 ; Carte Papers,
vol. Ixii., f. 29 ; " Lismore Papers " ; Return of Members of Parliament ; " Straf-
ford's Letters " edited by William Knowler, vol. i., pp. 98,99, 115, vol. ii., pp.
200, 414, 415.

124 PARISH OF RATHFARNHAli.

committed to Sir Adam's second son, the learned Dudley Loftus,
then just returned from his studies at Oxford. As its custodian,
Dudley Loftus is said to have done good service in defending
Dublin from the rebels, who swarmed down from the mountainous
country. Amongst those who resorted to the Castle during that
winter of disorder was an extraordinary genius called John Ogilby,
who is said to have been nearly killed there by an explosion of
gunpowder. Ogilby, who had been brought to Ireland by Strafford,
as tutor to his children, and was then Master of the Revels, and
owner of a theatre in Dublin, had gained some military training as
a member of Strafford's guard of honour, but possibly the literary
tastes which he displayed afterwards in the publication of various
books, including the first guide to the roads of England — a noble
folio yolume — may have had something to do with his association
with the scholarly custodian of Bathfarnham Castle.

The state of siege in which the inhabitants of the Castle lived
for several years may be gathered from the outrages committed in
the immediate neighbourhood. In the Easter week following the
outbreak of the Rebellion, one Henry Jones, the tenant of Scholars-
town, was murdered, his body being found pierced with fourteen
wounds. Soon afterwards some of the rebels came to the house of
Henry Butterfield, from whom, doubtless, the modem townland
of Butterfield derives its name, and after killing one of his servants
and robbing him of his cattle, carried off Butterfield to Powers-
court, and there hanged him on a gallows. After the Cessation,
when the great sweep of cattle was made at Rathmines, Thomas
Wood, a tailor, and Ralph Morris, a wheelwright, both of Rathfarn-
ham, were also carried off to Powerscourt, but made good their
escape the next day, not, however, before ropes had been placed
round their necks and threats to hang them had been uttered . The
owner of a cloth mill at Rathfamham, John Higginson by name,
also suffered severely. He had contracted for the supply of trans-
port for the artillery, and from time to time seventy-seven of the
horses employed in that service were carried off from him at
Rathfamham. During the Cessation, when he was building a mill
at Rathfamham, a notorious rebel, whom he had seen riding one
of the horses which had been taken from him, threatened him, and
subsequently his cloth mill was broken into. The caretaker and
his family were assailed with shots and great stones, and the care-
taker only saved his life by escaping through the sluice of the mill
and taking refuge in the Castle. Besides the loss of cloth to the
value of £60, Higginson's business was destroyed, as he tells us, by
his customers being frightened away, and he was obliged to obtain

RATHFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE. 125

soldiers to guard his property, at a cost of three shillings weekly.
About the same time the house of one Edward Thorpe, at Rath-
farnham Bridge, was robbed, and his servant maid lost her eye-
sight through shots fired by the burglars, and forty cows and six-
teen horses belonging to Sir Adam Loftus were taken from the
lands of Newtown by a party of the Confederate troops, who were
called upon by the Marquis of Ormonde to make reparation for
this violation of the Treaty of Cessation Q).

During the two years succeeding the outbreak of the Rebellion
Sir Adam Loftus constantly attended the meetings of the Privy
Council, and was one of the chief supporters of Sir William Par-
sons and his brother Lords Justices ; and Sir Arthur Loftus, who
had sent his family to England, continued to act as an officer in
the King's Irish Army, serving as Lieutenant-Colonel of Sir
Charles Coote*s regiment and as Governor of Naas. When the
Treaty of Cessation with the Irish was proposed both Sir Adam
Loftus and his son joined in the opposition to it, and on account
of their sympathy with the Parliament were imprisoned in Dublin
Castle. Sir Adam Loftus underwent a prolonged confinement,
owing to a public attack which he made on Lord Brabazon, the
eldest son of the first Earl of Meath, for his loyalty to the King,
but Sir Arthur Loftus was only detained for twenty-five weeks.
On reaching England they were received with every mark of favour
by the Parliament. Sir Adam Loftus, besides being given a
command in its army, was appointed a Counsellor of State and
Treasurer for War in Ireland, and Sir Arthur Loftus was given
permission to beat his drums in London for men to join in an
expedition to relieve Duncannon Fort, and afterwards served with
Lord Broghill in Munster. But evil times came then for the house
of Loftus, and they were reduced to a state of extreme poverty.
Sir Adam Loftus, whom Colonel Michael Jones earnestly desired,
" as honest men were scarce," to have with him in Dublin, was a
prisoner for debt in London, and subsequently, while receiving a
pension of 10s, a week from the State, was obliged to ask for
assistance to take his family to Dublin. Sir Adam Loftus, who
was in an equally impecunious state, on his accounts as Treasurer
of War failing to give satisfaction, was for a time imprisoned, and
was placed on a pension of £4 a week (2).

f^) Lodge's Peerage, vol. vii., p. 258; "Dictionary of National Biography,"
\nl. xxxiv., p. 79 ; vol. xlii., p. 14 ; Depositions of 1641 (John Higginson, Thomas
Wood, and Ralph Morris of Rathfarnham) ; Cai-te Papers, vol. xv., f. 687.

(^) Calendar of Irish State Papers and of Domestic State Papers ; Carte Papers,
vol. xi., pp. 161, 556 ; vol. Ixviii., p. 503 ; Historical Manuscripts Commission,
Kept, vii., App., pp. 32, 37, Rept. viii., p. 597*

126 PARISH OF BATHFAKNHAM

Meantime Bathfamham Castle appears to have been derelict,
except so far as it may have been occupied by the military. When
in the siunmer of 1647 the Marquis of Ormonde surrendered
Dublin to the Parliament it was suggested by Lord Digby that
leave for him to remain in Ireland, with Bathfamham as a
residence, should be one of the conditions of surrender. Two
years later, in July, 1649, as has been mentioned under Rathmines,
the Castle was garrisoned by the Parliament, and a few days before
the disastrous Battle of Bathmines it was stormed and taken by
the Boyalist troops. All in it were made prisoners, and Ormonde,
in a letter to Charles II., takes credit for the fact that although
500 of his men obtained entrance into the Castle before an officer
had done so, not a single member of the garrison was killed- — a
great contrast, he remarks, to the conduct of the soldiers of the
Parliament on similar occasions. During the Commonwealth, Dr.
Dudley Loftus, who held various offices of State, and was returned
to the Parliament of 1659 as representative of the grouped
Counties of Wicklow and Kildare, appears to have been recognised
as the owner of the Castle. A considerable village then existed
round it. A census of that period gives the number of the inhabi-
tants of Bathfamham as seventy persons, occupying twenty-two
houses. Amongst these were three gentlemen, Mr. Darby
Burgoyne, Mr. James Bishop, and Mr. William Graham, and the
cottiers included a smith, a carman, and a cow herd, besides a
gardener and a cooper, who were in Dr. Dudley Loftus's employ-
ment. In addition, seventy-seven inhabitants, occupying twenty
houses, are returned as residing in Butterfield. These included
Mr. Bobert Dixon, who had thirteen servants in his employment,
a large farmer called Henry Walsh, two carmen, a brogue-maker,
and a weaver. A strong wooden bridge across the river Dodder
made communication with Dublin easy under ordinary circum-
stances, but on more than one occasion it was carried away by the
violence of the mountain torrents. The observant Dr. Gerald
Boate, in " Ireland's Natural History," dwells on the tendency of
the Dodder to rise suddenly, and says that although the bridge at
Bathfamham was so high that a man on horseback could ride
under it, and the water was usually so shallow that a child could
wade through it, the river rose frequently to such a height that it
touched and even flowed over the bridge (i).

(^) Carte Papers, vol. xxi., p. 330 ; Survey of Baronies of Upper Cross and New-
castle, in Public Record Office ; Thorn's " Tracts relating to Ireland," vol. i„ p,
55.

RATHFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE.

127

5 I

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§ 1

fig

i i>

5 I

^ 1

128 PARISH OF BATHFARNHAM.

At the time of the Restoration, Sir Adam Loftus had resumed
possession of the Castle, which was then rated as containing eigh-
teen hearths. His eldest son, Sir Arthur Loftus, had died shortly
before, but Sir Arthur's sons, Adam and Robert, are mentioned
as resident with their grandfather. Amongst the other inhabi-
tants about that time were Mr. Matthew Penoix, Mr. George
Hopkins, Mr. William Denison, Mr. George Casborough, Mr.
William Dixon, of the Old Orchard; Mr. Anthony Poulter, of
Butterfield; Mr. David Gibson, of Scholarstown ; Mr. Daniel
Reading, of Stoughton's Farm; Mr. Laurence Hudson, of New-
town Little ; and Mr. Richard Greene, of the White House. After
Sir Adam Loftus's death his daughter-in-law, Lady Dorothy
Loftus, the widow of Sir Arthur Loftus, is returned as the occupier
of the Castle, and obtained in 1665, from the Master of the Ord-
nance six well-fixed firelock muskets for its protection. She died in
1668, having married, as her second husband, a member of the
Talbot family, and was succeeded by her eldest son Q).

Adam Loftus, who appears as owner of Rathfamham Castle after
his mother's death, and who was raised to the peerage as Baron
Loftus of Rathfamham and Viscount Lisbume, was one of the
gallants of the gay court of Charles 11. Soon after the Restora-
tion, when he was returned to the Irish Parliament as member
for the borough of Lismore through the influence of his uncle, the
second Earl of Cork, he figures as the survivor in a duel with one
John Bromley, and only escaped from the sentence of the King's
Bench that he should be burned in the hand by the intervention
cf the King. Some years later he appears as owner of an Lnsh
wolf-hound which he brought to fight with an English mastiff before
the Merry Monarch — an unfortunate passage, writes Viscount
Conway to Sir George Rawdon, whom he beseeches for the credit of
their country to find a better dog, as when the wolf-hound had
almost overcome the mastiff he ran away, and the King laid a
wager that there was not a dog of his breed that would not do the
same. Abroad at Saumur we find him dancing attendance on a
great lady of his day, and forming one of a colony of English
people who brought out from England for their amusement such
luxuries as a coach and six, a pack of hounds, and half a dozen
riding horses. He appeared in Ireland in 1672 with a commission
as Captain in the Army, seeking to raise 500 volunteers for the
Duke of Monmouth's regiment, and two years later, when he was
appointed Ranger of the Phoenix Park, he dated a letter (in which
he mentions a severe family affliction) from Rathfarnham.

(1) Hearth Money Roll ; Census of 1659 ; Will of Sir Arthur Loftus ; Ormonde
Papers, vol. i., p. 323, published by Historical Manuscripts CommisQion,

RATHFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE. 129

About this time there died a maiden daughter of Sir Adam
Loftus, Grizzel by name, from whom portion of the Rathfamham
demesne derives its appellation of Grizzel's Paddock. She mentions
in her will numerous relatives to whom she bequeaths various
remembrances, including her gold bodkin, her caudle cup and
chafing dish, her father's picture, her porcelain and china, and her
essence box with her arms ; but, as a person of puritan sympathies,
she evidently viewed with disfavour her nephew's mode of life,
and refers to him with great reserve as Adam Loftus, Esq., of
Rathfamham. Her minister, Mr. Isaac Smith, is far more
favoured, and, in addition to being bequeathed two silver powder
boxes, is given a reversionary interest in the lease of the farm of
Woodtown, which she had been granted by her father. It was to
James II. that Adam Loftus owed his creation, in 1686, as a peer,
but at the Revolution he espoused the cause of William III. In
the service of that monarch he lost his life. He joined King
William's Irish Army as Colonel of a regiment of foot, and in that
capacity displayed heroic conduct at the taking of Carrickfergus
Fort, the Battle of Aughrim, and the Siege of Limerick. His
bravery there was the cause of his death. He had directed his
tent to be pitched as near the walls of the city as possible in the
trenches, and when coming out of it one day in the month of
September, 1691, he was killed by a cannon ball — a messenger of
death which was afterwards carefully gilded and hung over the
tomb of his family in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, where he
was interred Q).

By his wife Lucia, daughter of George, sixth Lord Chandos,
Viscount Lisbume had an only surviving child, a daughter, who
bore her mother's name, and by this daughter's marriage a year
after her father's death, to Thomas, Marquis of Wharton, Rath-
famham Castle became the property of the Wharton family. Of
the Marquis of Wharton, the greatest rake and one of the busiest
politicians of his day, and of his wife, who, under an affectation of
prudery, is said to have been equally unscrupulous, Rathfamham
Castle, which provided him, on an elevation in the peerage, with
the title of Earl of Rathfamham, saw little. He filled for a time
the office of Lord Lieutenant, but four months' residence in Ireland

(^) Return of Members of Parliament ; Calendar of Carte Papers under dates
April 25, and Oct. 27, 1663 ; Jan. 24, 1666, and March 17, 1674 ; *' The Rawdon
Papers," edited by Rev. Edward Berwick, p. 231 ; Historical Manuscripts Com-
mission, Rept. vi., App., pt. i., p. 368 ; Rept. vii., App., pt ii., p. 789 ; Rept. x.,
App., pt. v., p. 161 ; Montagu Manuscripts, p. 191 ; Will of Grizzel Loftus ;
Lodge's Peerage, voL vii., p. 263 ; Calendar Domestic State Papers.

K

130 PARISH OF RATHFARNHAM.

was all he thought the duties of his office required. His eldest
son, Philip, who was created Duke of Wharton, and who succeeded
his father in 1716, when only seventeen years of age, was even
more profligate, and within eight years of his coming into pos-
session of the property was obliged to sell a great portion of his
estates, including his estate at Rathfamham. The latter com-
prised, beside the castle and demesne, a great extent of lands in
the parishes of Rathfarnham, Whitechurch, Cruagh, and Tallaght,
and after a report that it had been disposed of for £85,000 to
Viscount Chetwynd, it was sold for £62,000 to the Right Hon.
William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons (i).

The village of Rathfamham, which is said to have been in 1665
the birth-place of Robert Wilks, one of the most distinguished
actors of his day, whose father was attached to the Viceregal Court,
was at the close of the seventeenth, and for part of the eigh-
teenth century, a fashionable health resort. While Bishop of
Derry in the spring of 1697, the good Dr. William King retired
there, after a long illness, in order to escape the atmosphere and
bustle of Dublin, which he could not endure, and to spend his time
free from business and company in the open air; and in the next
year that most erratic of men, John Dunton, the travelling book-
seller, while carrying on his scuffle with his Dublin brethren, some-
times took a ramble there to recruit himself in country scenes.
The curious signs and place names which appear in old leases
indicate the popularity of the place : the Sign of the Sun, the Black
Lion, the Flower Pot, the Booly or Cow Walk, Hanover Hall, the
Sally Park, the Spa Walk, the Roll of Tobacco, the White House,
the Coffee House, and the Stake Field, are to be found amongst
others. There is a tradition that some of Dean Swift's publicar
tions issued from a printing press in the village, and a ballad
on the neighbouring Spa at Templeoge published in 1730 pro-
fesses to have been printed at the Cherry Tree in Rathfamham —
a name which is mentioned in a deed of the period. In the
spring of 1728 great rains prevailed, which resulted in the bridge
of Rathfarnham being broken down and part of the deer park wall
being carried away; in the next year Rathfamham was troubled
by an invasion of monster rats similar to those which appeared in
Merrion; in 1730 Ambrose Kimberley was executed for the abduc-
tion of the daughter of Mr. Daniel Reading, of London, from the

(^) " Dictionary of National Biography,*' vol. Ix., pp. 410, 418 ; ** Letters to
and from Bishop Nicbols|on,'' yol, ii., p. 527 { D' Alton's ** History of th^ County
P^blin/' p. 787. • ^

RATHFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE.

131

house of her nurse at Rathf arnham ; and in the summer of 1740
an extraordinary shower of rain resembling blood in colour fell
there (i).

During the early part of the eighteenth century the handsome
mansion, what now forms the centre of the fine pile of buildings at
Eathfarnham occupied by the Loretto Convent, wa® erected, and
round it extensive gardens, orchards, and a deer park were laid
out. This mansion, which is approached by a high flight of steps
and is built of red brick, presents the appearance of a dwelling on

The Loretto Convent, Rathfarnham.

From a Photograph by Thomas Mason.

which money has been lavishly expended, and the reception rooms,
which display ornate ceilings, wide doors of shining mahogany, and
curious leather wall paper, are apartments of great magnificence.
Its builder was a gentleman of much wealth, Mr. William Palliser,
the only son of the Archbishop of Cashel of that name, whose
memory is preserved in the " Bibliotheca Palliseriana," which he
bequeathed to the Library of Trinity College. Mr. William Palliser,

(*) "Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xvi., p. 236; vol. Ixi., p. 280;
Correspondence of Archbishop King under March and April, 1697, in Trinity
College Library ; Dunton's " Dublin Scuffle," p. 371 ; Leases in Registry of
Deeds Office ; " Rathfarnham," by Rev. Canon Can* in New Ireland Review, vol.
xii., p. 41 ; Haliday Tracts, vol. 95, preserved in Royal Irish Academy ; Dvhlin
Gazette, March 30, and April 9, 1728 ; Flying Post, May 16, 1729 ; Irish Pamphlets
in Trinity College Library, vol v., ff. J72, 181, 183 ; Pue's Occurrences, vol
xx;5vii.. No, 55.

K 8

132

PARISH OF RATHFARNHAM.

who was himself interested in scientific and literary pursuits, and
his wife enjoyed wide popularity ; his recovery from serious ill-
ness in 1747 is announced as giving great joy to all his friends;
and by the death of his wife, a gentlewoman of exemplary piety
and virtue, and of a most benevolent and humane disposition, in
1762, her acquaintances are said to have lost an agreeable and
valued friend, and the poor a kind benefactress (i). Not far from
Mr. Palliser's house was the residence of the Worth family. This
had been originally occupied by the Honble. William Worth, who

The Drawing Room in the Loretto Convent, Rathfarnham.

From a Photograph by Thomaa Maaoru

had a seat on the Bench as a Baron of the Exchequer in the
closing years of the reign of Charles II., and retained it for four
years after the accession of James II. Worth was on terms of inti-
macy with Lord Clarendon, and having followed that nobleman in
his tortuous proceedings during the Revolution, failed to obtain
reinstatement in his judicial position from William III. He took
to himself no less than four wives, through one of whom he

(') *' Mrs. Ball, a Biography," by the Rev. William Hutch, p. 86 ; Leases in
Registry of Deeds Office ; Rocque's Map of the County Dublin ; ** Dictionary of
National Biography," vol. xliii., p. 117; Will of WiUiam'Palliser ; DvJblin Jour-
nal, 2066 ; Pue^s Occurrences, vol. lix.. No. 29.

RATHFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE. 133

became possessed of the interesting sixteenth century mansion
known as Old Bawn, near Tallaght. He was succeeded at Rath-
famham on his death in 1721 by his eldest son, while a younger
son, who took the name of Tynte, became the owner of Old Bawn.
His eldest son, Edward Worth, who died at Rathfamham in 1741,
and was buried with his father in St. Patrick's Cathedral, with
much funeral pomp, was bequeathed, in addition to the property
which he inherited, a considerable estate by his cousin. Dr. Worth,
whose library is preserved in Dr. Stevens's Hospital, and was
representative in Parliament for the borough of Knocktopher (i).

Adjoining Mr. Palliser's demesne was a house sometime occupied
by Mr. Robert O'Callaghan, an eminent lawyer, who married in
1735 one of the daughters of Mr. Edward Worth, a young lady of
great merit, as we are informed, who brought to her husband a
fortune of £10,000. Mr. Robert O'Callaghan, who represented the
borough of Fethard in Parliament until shortly before his death
in 1761, was the eldest son of Mr. Cornelius O'Callaghan, one of
the most distinguished lawyers of his day, who became, through a
younger son, an ancestor of the Yiscounts Lismore. At O'Cal-
laghan's house in Rathfarnham the Rev. Thomas Sheridan, the
friend of Swift, and grandfather of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who
had . been his schoolmaster, breathed his last, after uttering the
oracular words, " Let it blow east, west, north, or south, the im-
mortal soul will take its flight to the desired point." Soon after
Dr. Sheridan's death in 1738 Mr. O'Callaghan's house became tbe
residence of Mr. Balthazar John Cramer, who died in 1741, and
whose son took the name of Coghill, and became a baronet, and sub-
sequently of his widow, who was a daughter of the first Viscount
Lanesborough. Amongst other residents at Rathfamham about
that time we find the Recorder of Dublin, Eaton Stannard, one of
the executors of Swift's will, who represented Midleton in Parlia-
ment^ and became Prime Serjeant; Lieutenant-Colonel James
Fountain, of the Hon. Colonel Onslow's Regiment of Foot, who died
in 1739 at his house there; Mr. John Ward, a brewer, whose house,
with well-stocked gardens, was to be sold in 1741 by his widow ; Mr.
Richard Geering; Alderman Thomas How, whose niece. Miss Mary

(^) " Some Notes on the Irish Judiciary in the reign of Charles II." in Journal
of the Cork Archaeological and Historical Society, ser. ii., vol. viii., p. 184; The
Irish Builder for 1894, pp. 208, 222; Pue's Occurrence, vol. xxx.. No. 17 ; vol.
XXX viii.. No 92 ; Dublin Journal, No. 160 ; Burtchaell's " Members of Parlia-
ment for Kilkenny."

134

PARISH OF RATdFARN^ll.

Holmes, " a most agreeable lady with £20,000 fortune," married
in 1747 the Rev. John Palliser, the cousin and heir of Mr. William
Palliser ; Major Bowles, and Captain Adams Q).

About the year 1742 the house known as Whitehall, and the
extraordinary cone-shaped tower encircled by a winding staircase
adjacent to it, which stand at the back of Rathfamham demesne,
near the road to Dundrum, were erected by a Major Hall, who pro-
bably modelled the tower long known as " HalFs Bam '' on a

Whitehall, Rathfarnham, In 1795.

From a Plate in ** The SentimenkU and Masonic Magazine.^^

similar structure called " the Wonderful Bam," erected by the
Conollys about the same time near Castletown. The house, which
in the eighteenth century was described as beautiful, and in which
a curious kitchen and panelled staircase are still to be seen, was
afterwards the residence of the Rev. Jeremy Walsh, the curate of
Dundrum, who married there in 1778 the widow of Thomas Eyre,

(1) The Irish Builder for 1894, pp. 208, 222 ; " Swift's Works," edited by Sir
Walter Scott, vol. ix., p. 313 ; Pve's Occurrences^ vol. xxxii.. No. 33 ; vol. xxxv.,
No. 72, vol. xxxvi.. No. 8 ; Dublin Journal, Nos. 155, 1871, 2035, 2091, 2160,
2322, 2393 ; Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, ser. ii.,
vol. ii., p. 323; "Memoirs of Mrs. Letitia Pilkington," vol iii., p. 114; Will of
Thomas How.

HATttJ-ARNHAM AND I*S CASTLE. 135

sometime M.P. for the borough of Fore, and is mentioned as a well-
known place in the lists of carriage fares of that time (i).

Rathfamham Castle, which, owing to their possession of Castle-
town, had not been occupied by Speaker Conolly or his successor,
was, about the year 1742, purchased by the Right Rev. John
Hoadly, who was at that time translated from the Archbishopric
of Dublin to that of Armagh. Dr. Hoadly, who was the brother
of the famous English Bishop of that name, was one of the great
political prelates, but did not find the promotion of the English
interest, which was the first object with all of them, inconsistent

** Hall's Barn*' in i795*

From a Plate drawn by F. Jukes.

with exertions for the improvement of agriculture. To this he
directed both his skill and his purse, and he was beloved by the
tenantry and landowners, amongst whom he excited by his example
and judicious rewards a spirit of emulation and a strong desire to
become better farmers. In building, " as the most useful and
rational method of supporting the honest and industrious poor,"
he gave much employment. On his promotion to the See of
Dublin in 1729 from that of Ferns, which he had previously held,
he had built an episcopal mansion at Tallaght in place of the

(*) The Sentimental and Masonic Magazine, vol. vi., pt. i., p. 3; Journal of

the County Kildare Archaeological Society, vol. ii., p. 376 ; " lUthfarnham," by

Rev. Canon Carr in New Ireland Review, vol. xii., p. 38 ; Hibernian Magazine
for 1778, p. 536; Pue's Occurrences, vol. li., No. 60.

136 PARISH OF RATHFARNHAH.

ruined feudal castle which he had found there, and on coming into
possession of Rathfamham he proceeded to lavish money on the
restoration of the Castle, which he put into a state of thorough
repair and made his home.

Hoadly did not long occupy Rathfamham, his death taking place
there in 1746 from a fever said to have been contracted while super-
intending workmen in the demesne. His life had been one of
singular activity; in a letter to the Duke of Newcastle written a
few months before his death he states that for the eighteen years
and more which he had been in Ireland he had constantly, without
one failure, attended the King's service, and that for sixteen years
he had borne the burden of the administration in the Privy Council
and in the House of Lords, and, much against his will, had taken
a leading part in the management of the University. His wife> a
lady distinguished for her virtues and endowments, had died two
years before, and the Archbishop's remains were laid with hers in
the quiet country church of Tallaght Q).

Rathfamham Castle then passed to Mr. Bellingham Boyle, who
had married, in November, 1740, Archbishop Hoadly 's only
daughter and child — a young lady who inherited her father's taste
for country pursuits. Dean Swift, who subsequently expressed
great distress at hearing she had the smallpox, in one of his
delightful letters thanks her for a pig. and a bowl of butter which
she had sent to him, and threatens to tell all the ladies of his
acquaintance that the sole daughter and child of his Grace of
Dublin is so mean as to descend to understand housewifery, and
to show her letter to every female scrawler in order that they
may spread about the town that her writing and spelling are
ungenteel and unfashionable, and more like a parson's than a
lady's. Bellingham Boyle, who was nephew of Henry Boyle, then
Speaker of the House of Commons, and afterwards Earl of
Shannon, and who represented Bandon in Parliament, proceeded,
after his marriage, to hia LL.D. degree in Dublin University, be-
came a Governor of the Workhouse in room of Mr. Balthazar
Cramer, and a trustee of the linen manufacture, and on the recom-
mendation of his father-in-law and uncle was appointed a Com-
missioner of the Revenue.

(^) ** Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xxvii.,.p. 21; British Museum
Add. MS., 32707, f. 79 ; Stuart's " Memoirs of Armagh,*' edited by Rev. Ambrose
Coleman, p. 385 ; Dublin Gazette, June 16, 1744 ; BMin Journal, No. 2019.

RATHFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE. 137

Boyle and his wife were prominent in the Dublin society of their
day, and William, fourth Duke of Devonshire, while Lord Lieu-
tenant of Ireland, recognised their high position in society by
dining with them at Bathf arnham when on his way to spend some
days at Powerscourt. An advertisement of property stolen in 1751
from the Castle of Bathfamham sets forth at length descriptions
of various gorgeous articlee of apparel, including a suit of clothes of
bloom colour, cross-barred and flowered with silver; another suit
of yellow colour, brocaded with silver and colours; a third suit of
lute string striped and brocaded on a white ground; a grey
duchess night-gown; a velvet mantle of cherry colour lined with
white satin and bordered with ermine; and a piece of white sabin
quilted for a petticoat, embroidered with vine leaves in shades of
green and brown stalks. In the midst of political intrigues, in
which he is said to have been allied with the astute Philip Tisdal,
Boyle found time to superintend the farming of his demesne, and
sent in July, 1762, from Rathfamham to the Dublin market the
earliest oats ever grown in Ireland. Five years later — a few years
before his death — he disposed for £17,500 of the castle and
demesne (}).

The purchaser was Nicholas Loftus, second Earl of Ely, and the
Castle thus once more became the residence of a descendant of its
builder. He was the fourth in direct descent from the second son
of Sir , Dudley Loftus, the eldest son of Archbishop Loftus, and
inherited Sir Dudley's Wexford estate. Both his grandfather and
father had been prominent in public affairs; the former had been
created Baron Loftus of Loftus Hall and Viscount Loftus of Ely,
and the latter, after succeeding to those titles, had been promoted
to an earldom under the title of Earl of Ely. The question of the
mental capacity of the purchaser of Rathfarnham, as has been
already mentioned in connection with the history of Killiney Hill,
gave rise to a cause celebre of the eighteenth century. His father,
the first Earl of Ely, had married in 1736 the elder daughter and
co-heiress of Sir Gustavus Hume, of the County Fermanagh. She
died four years later, leaving as the sole issue of the marriage
Nicholas, afterwards second Earl of Ely, and owner of Rathfam-
ham. The child, who was two years old at the time of his mother's
death, was then sent to live with his maternal grandmother. Lady

(») " Works of Swift," edited by Sir Walter Scott, vol. xviii., p. 209* vol. xix.,
p. 298 ; Bennett's '* History of Bandon,*' p. 344 ; Donoughmore Papers published
by Historical Manuscripts Commission ; thihlin Gazette, Nov. 29, 1740 ; Dvblin
Journal, No. 2513 ; Pue's Occurrences, vol. xxxviii., Nos. 52, 67, vol. xl., No. 9,
vol. Hi., No. 62, vol. lix., No.. 59, vol. Ixviii., No. 7008.

138 PARISH OF RA1?HFARKHAM.

Hume, and remained under her care until her death, when he was
twelve years old. He was then taken by his father to live with
him. His father led a dissipated life, and kept the boy, who was
acknowledged to have been of delicate constitution from his birth,
in a state of the most complete subjection, treating him with the
greatest cruelty and neglect. Through his mother the boy, on
attaining the age of twenty-one, was entitled to her property, but
owing to his weak state of health his father was able to withhold
knowledge of this fact from him, and to spend the money to which
his son was entitled on his own pleasures. At the same time it
was in the father's interest that the youth should appear capable
of managing his own affairs, for, in the event of his incapacity
being proved, the children of his mother's only sister, who had
married Mr. George Rochfort, brother of the first Earl of Belvedere,
would have succeeded on his death to the property which he
inherited from his mother, and with the object of showing that he
was of sound mind the father had him returned to Parliament a
few years after he came of age for his pocket borough of Bannow,
in the County Wexford.

Before his father's death, which took place in 1766, the Roch-
forts had instituted proceedings to have the question of the youth's
capacity decided legally, and four months after his father's death
a commission was issued to determine it. The conduct of the
defence devolved on his father's only brother. Colonel the Hon.
Henry Loftus, the owner of Killiney Hill, who had represented
the borough of Bannow and then represented the County Wexford
in Parliament. The Rochforts alleged that the youth was an idiot
or of unsound mind, and his uncle put forward the defence that
his condition was entirely the result of the treatment which he had
received from his father, and that he was capable of instruction,
stating, in proof of the treatment which the youth had received,
that on posting down to Claremont, his brother's seat in the
County Wicklow, after his brother's death, he found the youth
miserably clad and almost in rags, so infirm and debilitated as not
to be able to walk about, totally illiterate, and in ignorance of the
property to which he was entitled. The Commissioners, who
included two Privy Councillors, two Masters in Chancery, a King's
council, an alderman, and three other gentlemen, had the assistance
of a jury, and after a trial lasting five days and a personal examina-
tion of the young Earl, this jury, on which three Privy Councillors
and other gentlemen of high degree served, found that the young
Earl was not an idiot or of unsound mind. On appeal to the
House of Lords their decision was upheld.

BAl?flFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE. 139

Three months after the trial in April, 1767, the Manor and
Castle of Bathf arnham, the estate and mansion of his ancestors,
was purchased for the young Earl, and money was raised to
modernize and improve the structure. After a personal interview
with Lord Bowes, then Lord Chancellor of Ireland, the young Earl
was appointed Governor of Fermanagh, and in December of that
year it was announced that he had been pleased to grant a pensiom
to the widow of a workman who had been killed at Bathfamham
by the fall of a wall. Afterwards the Earl's health became
more unsatisfactory, and in the beginning of 1769 he was taken
by his uncle to Bath, and subsequently to Spa, in pursuit of
health. From the latter place they returned to Ireland in October,
and on the voyage the young Earl contracted an illness from which
he died on the 12th of the following month. Eight days before his
death he signed at Rathfarnham Castle a deed before one of the
Masters in Chancery, and two days later he executed a will, leaving
all he possessed to his uncle, in the presence of the Right Hon.
John Ponsonby, the Speaker of the House of Commons ; Sir Henry
Cavendish, father of the Parliamentary reporter, mentioned in con-
nection with the history of Booterstown ; and Sir James May.

Henry Loftus, who appears so prominently in the pages of
" Baratariana " as Count Henrico Loftonzo, now succeeded to the
Viscounty of Ely and the ownership of Rathfarnham Castle. His
possession of his nephew's estate was not undisputed, and the Roch-
forts instituted proceedings to upset his nephew's will, but its
validity was upheld by Philip Tisdal in his capacity as Judge of
the Prerogative Court. Count Loftonzo's success in this and ini
everything else was imputed by his enemies to political intrigue.
There is no doubt that the Viceroy, the Marquis of Townshend,
was most anxious to secure his support, and it was announced a
year after the young Earl's death that " the great man " had been
sumptuously entertained by a nobleman not far from Rathfarnham,
and that since that time he had boasted of his conquests, which
had not, however, been attained without the promise of places of
profit to eight of the peer's dependants. Matchmaking seems to
have been an amusement of Count Loftonzo and his wife; in the
same year in which Lord Townshend visited Rathfarnham it is
recorded that a Wexford gentleman was married at Rathfarnham
Castle, the seat of the Right Hon. Viscount Loftus, to a young
lady " of great merit and beauty, with every other accomplishment
which can render the marriage state happy," and if rumour spoke
truth Count Loftonzo's wife spared no eflFort to secure Lord Town-
shend as husband for her niece, the lovely Dolly Monro.

140 PARISH OF RATHFARMHAM.

The year 1771 saw the Earldom of Ely created for the second
time in favour of Count Loftonzo, and on Angelica KaufiPmann's
visit to Ireland, which then took place, she painted a picture of
the newly-made Earl and his Countess. This picture, which now
hangs in the Irish National Gallery, is painted on one of the largest
canvases ever used by the artist, and represents in a flowery garden,
almost in life size, the Earl in his ermine tippet, and his Countess,
in the full dress robes of a peeress, while near them are two beauti-
ful girls, said to be the artist and Dolly Monro, and a negro atten-
dant holding a cushion on which two coronets rest. Three years
later the Earl had the misfortune to lose his wife, after a long
illness; but, although Provost Andrews thought it would be impos-
sible to And as amiable a successor, he was not long in filling up the
vacancy, and subsequently we see him on the eve of St. Patrick's
Day at a masquerade ball flguring as a hermit and his second wife
as a washerwoman. On the institution of the Order of St. Patrick
Lord Ely was named as one of the original knights, but was unable
to attend the installation, and died a few months later in May,
1783, at Bath, One of the obituary notices which appeared says
that his death was nothing short of a national loss, as his fortune
was spent in the improvement of his country and in encouraging
honest industry amongst the poor, and another refers to his rapid
advancement in life from the rank and revenue of a private gentle-
man to a very rich earldom and great Parliamentary influence Q).

Lord Ely's operations at Kathfarnham Castle were on a scale
of regal magnificence. In the decoration of the interior of the
house the talented artists and skilled artizans then to be found in
Dublin were employed, and in the drawing-room, the small dining-
room with its exquisitely painted ceiling, the gilt room with its
inlaid chimney-piece, and the stately ball-room, their work is still
to be seen. Amongst those who were engaged in beautifying the
house was Angelica Kauffmann, and panels painted by her adorn
the elaborate ceiling of the drawing-room. In the demesne the
noble gateway on the river Dodder exhibits the classic taste of the

( ^) Lease in Registry of Deeds Office ; *' Old Dublin Mansion Houses," by Edward
Evans in 7''he Irish Builder for 1894, p. 242 ; Prerogative Cause Papers, Ely v.
Rochfort in Public Record Office ; " Rathfarnham Castle, its sale and history,"
by John P. Prendergast in The Irish Times for May 19, 1891 ; Josiah Brown's
" Reports of Cases in the Court of Parliament," vol. i., p. 450, vol. vii., p. 469 ;
Dublin Journaly Nos. 4148. 6638 ; Pue's Occurrences^ vol. Ixiv., No. 6653, vol.
xlvii.. No. 6958 ; Will of Nicholas, second Earl of Ely ; Gilbert's " Hi.story of
Dublin," vol. ii., pp. 84, 85 ; Historical Manuscripts Commission, Rept. viii.,
App.. p. 195 ; Gentlemen's Magazine for 1783, p. 453 ; Freeman* s Journal, vol.
vii.. No. 125.

BATHFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE,

141

Earl and his extravagant conceptions. On visiting the Castle in
1781 Austin Cooper was lost in admiration, and forty years later
James N. Brewer refers to its splendours. After describing the
Castle as we see it to-day, a square building with towers at each
comer and a semi-circular extension on the southern side, Austin
Cooper tells us that it was originally embattled and had small

The Ceilins: of the Small Dlnlns: Room in Rathfarnham Castle.

From a Photograph by Thomas Mason,

Gothic windows, but that a coping of stone had been substituted for
the battlements and that the windows had been modernized. He
mentions the portico, consisting of a dome, on which the signs of
the Zodiac were painted, supported on eight Doric columns, and the
hall. The latter, he says, was lighted by three windows of stained
glass, which have now disappeared, made by Thomas Jervais, who
executed the window designed by Sir Joshua Reynolds in New
College, Oxford, and was ornamented with statues, busts, and urns
on pedestals of variegated marble. Afterwards he inspected a

142 PARISH OF RATHFARNHAM.

room, then called the gallery, in which he saw a cabinet of tortoise-
shell and brass filled with ivory ornaments of rare beauty, and con-
cludes by saying that a description of the other rooms, of the
family portraits, of the paintings collected by the first Earl of Ely,
and of the china, would require a volume Q).

Henry, Earl of Ely, was succeeded at Rathfamham by his
nephew, Charles Tottenham, the son of one of his sisters, who had
married the famous member of the Tottenham family known as
" Tottenham in the boots," from his having appeared in the House
of Commons in riding dress, and saved his country by recording
his vote at the sacrifice of the sacred conventionalities of the period.
Charles Tottenham, who took the name of Loftus, was made the
subject of renewed litigation by the Rochforts, in which they were
successful, but this defeat does not appear to have seriously
impaired his wealth, and soon after he succeeded to Rathfamham
he was raised to the peerage as Baron Loftus, and subsequently
was created Marquis of Ely. The demesne at Rathfamham, then
remarkable for an aviary in which there were ostriches and many
other rare birds, was thrown open by him to the public, for which
he received high encomiumi^i from the press, and the Lords Lieu-
tenants of his day were entertained by him frequently in the great
dining-room of the Castle (2).

The village of Rathfamham at the end of the eighteenth cen-
tury was said by Austin Cooper to be a small village with very few
houses of the better class, and the residents in the neighbourhood
were not numerous. Amongst those connected with Rathfamham
in the latter part of that century we find — the Rev. John Palliser,
D.D., who succeeded to the residence of his cousin, Mr. William
Palliser, and who died in 1795; Mr. Richard Wetherall, who died
in 1752, leaving money for the endowment of a grammar school;
Mr. Edward Slicer, who died in the same year at a very advanced
age; the agreeable widow Slicer, who married in 1757, Sir Timothy
Allen, sometime Lord Mayor of Dublin ; Mr. Benjamin Sherrard,
an eminent linen manufacturer, who died in 1766; Mr. John Lam-
prey, a young gentleman of unblemished reputation, who died in
the same year at Waxfield ; Alderman James Horan, and Alder-
man James Hamilton ; Sir George Ribton, the second baronet of

(*) Cooper's Note Book; Brewer's "Beauties of Ireland," vol. i., p. 210;
" Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xxix., p. 353.

(2) Lodge's Peerage, vol. vii., p. 269 ; Rutland Papers, voL iii., p. 83, pub-
lished by Historical Manuscripts Commission ; Post Chais© Compfinipn ; DvUin
Chronicle, 1788-1789, pp. 208, 255, 1790-1791, p. 96.

RATHFARNHAM AND ITS CASTLE. 143

the name, who built Landscape; and Mr. Garret English, an
upright and active magistrate (for an assault on whom a man was
in 1790 whipped from the bridge of Rathfarnham to the upper
end of the town), who lies buried in Dundrum graveyard. Amongst
owners of property were the Presbyterian Church, which owned
land in Rathfarnham, originally leased in 1679 by Viscount Lis-
burne to Daniel Reading, and subsequently sold by the Right Hon.
Thomas Conolly to the Rev. Richard Choppin, one of the ministers
of the meeting house in Wood Street, Dublin, and Provost Hely
Hutchinson, who owned Butterfield House, and gave the fair green
to the village Q).

The bridge at Rathfarnham was carried away once more in June,
1754, by floods, caused by the greatest rain known for years, and
one built in its place suffered the same fate. These disasters,
Austin Cooper says, were due to the supports resting in the water
on bad foundations, and a bridge of a. single arch was, about the
year 1765, thrown across the river, which, from the fact that it
rested on the solid banks, Cooper predicted would last for years.
A ford near the present bridge at Orwell Road was sometimes used,
and after crossing it in his carriage in the year 1773, Counsellor
Walsh was robbed of his gold watch valued at 50 guineas. Samuel
Derrick, who succeeded Beau Nash as Master of the Ceremonies at
Bath, and for whom the great Samuel Johnson had a kindness,
mentions that on a visit to Ireland in 1760, when driving from
the County Kildare to Bray, he dined at Rathfarnham, and an inn
bearing the Sign of the Ship existed there some years later. The
manufacture of paper was carried on to a very considerable extent
by a Mr. Mansergh, who died in 1763, and by Mr. Thomas
Slator, whose works were destroyed in 1775 by fire, and dye works,
which were owned in 1752 by Mrs. Elizabeth Fisher, were estab-
lished near the bridge. Nurseries owned by the Bruces, eminent
seedsmen of the fairest character, supplied all manner of fruit and
forest trees, flowering shrubs, and green-house plants, and the early
production of farm produce, already noted in connection with Mr.
Bellingham Boyle's occupation of the Castle, was maintained by a
barrel of new wheat being brought in 1768 on August 6th from

(*) Austin Cooper's Note Book; Post Chaise Companion; ExsJiaw's Maga-
zine for 1752, p. 669; Dvhlin Jourval, Nos. 2561, 2624 ; Pue's Occurrences, vol.
liv.. No. 81, vol. lix.. No. 31, vol. Ixii., No. 6429, vol. Ixiii., Nos. 6501, 6512 ;
Freeman^ 8 Journal, vol. xii.. No. 17 ; Dublin Chronicle. 1790-1791, pp. 416, 487 :
Hibernian Magazine for 1787, p. 387 ; Ball and Hamilton's " Parish of Taney,"
p 31 ; D' Alton's " History of the Countv Dublin." p. 787 ; " A short account of
the Funds of the Presbyterian Church," by Rev, James Aringtrpng, Dublin, 1815,
p. 44.

144 PARISH OF RATHFARNHAM.

Kathf arnham to the Dublin Market. During the Volunteer move-
ment Rathfamham was often visited by the Dublin companies; in
1783 the Light Company of the Independent Dublin Volunteers
made an excursion there on a Sunday in October, and after being
sumptuously entertained by Alderman Horan, on whose lawn they
went through their martial exercises, spent the evening " with the
greatest good humour and cheerfulness " Q).

Rathfamham Castle was dismantled by the Loftus family in the
early part of the nineteenth century, and after having been occupied
for a time by a family called Roper, under whom the demesne was
used for dairy purposes, it was bought about the year 1852 by
Lord Chancellor Blackbume. The neighbouring residence of the
Pallisers, after the death of the Rev. John Palliser, passed into the
possession of the King's Printer, Mr. George Grierson, whose model
farm was noted for the production of prize crops and cattle, and
was sold subsequently to its present occupants, the Convent of the
Loretto (2).

RATHGAR.

The lands now covered by the populous suburb of Rathgar, which
lies between Rathmines and Rathfamham, were in the centuries
immediately succeeding the Anglo-Norman Conquest, the grange or
home farm of the Abbey of St. Mary de Hogges — a convent for
nuns of the rule of St. Augustine, which stood upon College Green,
then called the Hogges or the mounds. At that time there were
to be seen on the lands the Abbey's manor house, granary, and
other farm buildings (for robbery from which one David Lugg was
at the beginning of the fourteenth century sentenced to be hanged),
and a wood of considerable extent. In the sixteenth century,
when the dissolution of the religious houses took place, the premises
and lands, which were returned as containing ninety acres arable,
and three of wood, were held under the Convent by James Richards,
and some years later they were granted by the Crown to Nicholas
Segrave (3).

(1) "Derrick's Letters," Dublin, 1767, p. 67; "Dictionary of National Bio-
graphy," voL xiv., p. 399 ; Dvhlin Journal^ Nos. 2672, 6701 ; Pmc'* Occurrences,
vol. li., Nos. 49, 74, voL Iviii., No. 27. vol. Ix., No. 25, vol. Ixiv.. No. 6620, vol.
Ixv., Nos. 6704, 6721, vol. Ixvii., No. 6959, vol. Ixviii., No. 7032 ; Freeman's
Journal, vol. xi.. No. 12, voL xii.. No. 69.

(*) Curwen's " Observations on the State of Ireland," voL ii., p. 137 ; Hand-
cock's '* History of Tallaght." See for pictures of Rathfamham in the nineteenth
century, Cyclopcedian Magazine for 1807, p. 385 ; DvUin Penny Journal, vol. iii.,
p. 369.

(«) D' Alton's "History of the County Dublin," p. 780; Justiciary Roll;
Gilbert's " History of Dublin," vol. iii., p. 1.

RATHGAR. 145

At the beginning of the seventeenth century the castle or manor
house of Rathgar had become the country residence of the Cusacks,
one of the oldest and most leading mercantile families in Dublin,
and was occupied by Mr. John Cusack, who was in 1608 Mayor of
Dublin. His son, Mr. Robert Cusack, succeeded him. The latter
had entered in 1617 as a law student at Lincoln's Inn, but his only
appearance in legal proceedings seems to have been as defendant
in a suit taken by the Prebendary of St. Audoen's in Dublin to
compel him to restore an entry to that church which some member
of his family had obstructed more than sixty years before by
building a house across it. He served as SheriflF of his county, and
during the troublous time® after the Rebellion suffered severely by
his loyalty to the throne. At the time the Duke of Ormonde was
apprehensive of being besieged in Dublin by the Confederates, Mr.
Cusack found it necessary to obtain orders forbidding the Royalist
troops from cutting timber in the wood of Rathgar and taking his
horses and carts while drawing his com, and serious injury must
have been done to his house during the Battle of Rathmines, when
it was taken possession of by some of the Royalist soldiers. Being
a Protestant, Mr. Cusack was allowed to remain in possession of his
lands under the Commonwealth, and when the Restoration came
we find him living there in a house which was rated as containing
five hearths, his household including his wife, Alice, his eldest son,
John, his daughter, Katherine, two men servants, and two maid
servants, one described as a little short wench and the other as a
full fat wench ; and the only other residents on the lands being two
poor women Q).

After Robert Cusack's death Rathgar became the residence of his
second son, the Honble. Adam Cusack, one of the Justices of the
Common Pleas. During the Commonwealth Adam Cusack, who
had attained to the position of a Fellow in Trinity College, Dublin,
entered as a law student in his father's Inn, and when the Restora^
tion came, though he had not completed seven years' residence, the
period then required, he was allowed, on undertaking not to prac-
tise in England, to be called to the Bar. In Ireland, as he had
much influence, owing to his being by marriage a nephew of Sir
Maurice Eustace, the Lord Chancellor, he came quickly to the
front, and twelve years after his call to the Bar, having filled while

(M D' Alton's •' History of the County Dublin," p. 780; Gilbert's "History of
Dublin," vol. i., p. 279 ; Lincoln's Inn Admissions ; Carte Papers, clxiv., ff. 33,
316, and under date Jan. 3, 1667 ; Survey of Baronies of Uppercross and New-
castle in Public Record Office ; Hearth Mone^ Roll ; Census of 1659.

146 PARISH OF RATHFARNHAM.

a practising barrister the position of a Justice and Chief Justice of
the Provincial Court of Connaught, he was appointed to the
Common Pleas. He appears to have been a delicate man ; during
his judicial career he was for two years unable to discharge his
duties through ill-health, and he died in 1681 at a comparatively
early age. His will indicates his benevolent character. Besides
legacies to numerous relatives, he bequeathed sums of money
to the poor in Rathfarnham and in St. Audoen's parishes;
to the hospital in Back Lane, and to that at Oxmantown,
now known as the Blue Coat School; and to the prisoners in
Newgate and '* the Black Dog." He had married a sister of John
Keatinge, who, during Adam Cusack's lifetime, became Chief
justice of the Common Pleas, and afterwards became well known
on account of the part he played at the time of the Revolution, but
had no children. His widow continued to reside at Rathgar, and
married, as her second husband, Mr. Nicholas Cusack. The latter
was outlawed in 1690 for treason, but the property was subse-
quently restored to the Cusack family Q).

During the eighteenth century the castle or manor house fell
into ruin, and Austin Cooper in 1782 found at Rathgar only the
walls of a large and extensive building, which, he says, had a modern
appearance, with the remains of several offices near to them, and
an entrance gateway, which, as a staircase indicated, had formerly
been arched over, and which looked older than the main structure.
The lands were let to market gardeners and dairymen, iilfcluding a
certain John Mooney, whose son's disreputable career and death
on the scaffold, for highway robbery, form the subject of a religious
tract of the period, and it was not until 1753 that they were
opened up for building by the construction of an avenue from the
gate of Rathmines Castle, then occupied by Chief Justice Yorke,
to Terenure. A sham fight of the Dublin Volunteers took place
in 1784 on the lands of Rathgar, and the ruined castle was fortified
and occupied by some of the troops, who were only driven out of it
with great difficulty (2).

(M " Some Notes on the Irish Judiciary in the reign of Charles II.," Journal
of the Cork Arckceological and Historical Society, Ser. ii., vol. vii., p. 226 ; Todd's
" Graduates of the University of Dublin " ; " Black Book of Lincoln's Inn,"
vol. iii., p. 3 ; Exchequer Inquisition, Wm. and Mary, Dublin, No. 6.

(«) " The Life of Nicholas Mooney," in Haliday Tracts, vol 242, in Royal Irish
Academy ; Cooper's Note Book ; DuUin Jourrml^ Nos. 2699, 6797.

TERENURE AND KIMMA6E. 147

TERENURE AND KIMMAGE.

The earliest mention of these lands, which lie between Rathfarn-
ham and Cnimlin, is a grant made in 1206 to Audoen le Bnin,
Chamberlain of the Irish Exchequer, of the tithes of two carucates
of demesne lands in Terenure and Kimmage held by Walter, the
goldsmith. Soon afterwards in 1216 Hugh de Bamewall was
granted protection for his chattels, lands, and tenements in Tere-
nure and Drimnagh, and from that time until the Commonwealth
the Bamewall family was connected as owner with Terentire and
Kimmage, as well as with Drimnagh. In 1221 the property of
the Bamewalls was temporarily placed in custody of John de St.
John, and in 1228 was restored to Reginald, brother of Hugh de
Bamewall, who had succeeded to it through the death of his
brother without heirs, and who was then actively engaged in the
defence of Ireland for the King. A portion of the lands of
Kimmage were, however, in the thirteenth century included in the
lordship of Rathfarnham, and in 1269 Walter de Bret granted
half a carucate of land in Kimmage, which touched on the water-
course from Templeogue and on the lands of Terenure, to William
de Tathcony, who transferred it for the yearly rent of one penny or
a white dove to John de Hache. The latter, together with Thomas
Russell, of Crumlin, was also granted a lease by GeoflFrey le Bret
on condition that they should supply him annually with wine value
for twelve pence and admit him to dinner, failing which hospitality
he preserved the right to claim both the wine and its value. In
subsequent legal proceedings Felicia, widow of John de Hache,
Alice, widow of John Russell, and Ralph, son of Johri Russell, are
mentioned in connection with the lands.

The owners of Terenure were generous benefactors to the church.
The Prior of St. Lawrence by Dublin agreed in 1300 with Reginald
Bamewall and Johanna, his mother, to recover a rent charge of
20^. on the lands left by Wolfran de Bamewall to that establish-
ment, and an owner of the same name granted portion of the lands,
afterwards known as St. John's Leas, extending from the manor of
St. Sepulchre to the watercourse, to the Hospital of St. John
without Newgate. In the seventeenth century a castle and six
other dwellings stood upon the lands of Terenure and Kimmage,
which were then in the possession of Peter Barnewall. He was
residing there when the Rebellion broke out, and, according to
depositions made by his tenants, escaped plunder himself and

L 2

148 PARISH OF RATHFARNHAM.

showed little real sympathy with those who were not so fortunate.
One of those tenants, Thomas Mason by name, in deposing to the
loss of cattle, horses, and household stuff, stated that Mr. Barne-
wall refused to allow him to put his cattle for safety into his pigeon
house park, and that after the cattle had been carried off, Mr.
Barnewall advised him to employ for their recovery one of his
servants called Toole, who, although he was armed with warrants
from the Lords Justices and paid a pound by Mason, failed to find
the cattle. From a subsequent deposition it appears that the
cattle had been carried off from the Caim or Pass of Killenure,
near Bathfamham, by John Woodfin, a retainer of " the grand
rebel," Toole, of Powerscourt, who acknowledged to Mason that he
had taken them, together with sixty sheep belonging to the Arch-
bishop of Dublin, and told him that some of the cattle had been
stolen from him, but that he had recovered them and hanged the
thief. Another of the tenants, William Dickinson by name, who
stated that the rent of his farm was £90 a year, deposed that Mr.
Bamewall's late servant, Toole, and John Woodfin, were amongst
those concerned in robbing him of a number of cattle and horses,
and of a barrel of beer, which he appears to have considered of
equal importance with the live stock (i).

.During the Commonwealth, Terenure, which then contained a
castle in good repair, and a dwel^ng-house which had been a mill,
and Kimmage, on which there was also a castle, were leased to
Major Alexander Elliott. The lands of St. John's Leas had before
that time come into the possession of Nicholas Loftus, the younger
brother of Sir Adam Loftus, and ancestor of the Marquises of Ely.
There was stated to be a castle upon them, but it does not appear
to have been occupied by the owner, as a return made in 1644 of
property left by him in Ireland on going to England mentions his
goods as being in Dublin, in charge of Mr. Recorder Bysse and
other persons, and in the Castle of Bathfamham. In a survey of
Terenure made by the Parliament, which gives the population as
twenty persons, a young farmer called John Sheppey is returned as
the principal inhabitant, but shortly before the Restoration Mr.
Erasmus Cooke appears as resident there in a dwelling-house with
land, for which he paid a rent of £90 a year. After the Restora-
tion Major Harman occupied a house rated as containing four

(1) Memoranda and Pleas Roll; Sweetman's Calendar, 1171-1251, No. 297;
" The Norman Settlement in Leinster," by James Mills in Journal, R.8.AJ., vol.
xxiv. p. 169 ; " Rathfamham," by Rev. Canon Carr in New Ireland Review, vol.
xii., p. 35 ; D' Alton's " History of the County Dublin," p. 775 ; Depositions of
1641 (William Dickinson and Thomas Mason of Terenure).

IPerenure and kimMage.

149

hearths at Terenure, only one of the other eight inhabitants,
Samuel Dixon, having a house with two hearths, and Kimmage
was occupied by Abel Carter, and subsequently by Thomas Pegg Q).

The site of the great house of Terenure in the eighteenth cen-
tury is now occupied by the Carmelite College, and the demesne,
divided about the beginning of the nineteenth century by the road
from the village of Terenure or Roundtown to Tallaght, ran down
to the river Dodder, joining there the lands of Rathfamham, and
including all the lands comprised in Bushy Park. It was the seat

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f--

Terenure House now the Carmelite College.

of the Deane family, whose members, as representatives in Parlia-
ment of the metropolitan county and of the borough of Inistiogue,
in the Coiuity Kilkenny, were prominent in the political life of that
period. Their residence at Terenure was due to the purchase in
1671 of its lands, together with those of Kimmage and " the
Broads," for £4,000 from Richard Talbot, afterwards Earl of Tyr-
connel, in whom the fee was then vested, by Major Joseph Deane, of
Crumlin. Major Deane, who was a brother of one of the regicides,
had served in the army of the Parliament, but was received into
favour on the Restoration, and became member for Inistiogue and

(^) Crown Rental; Down Survey; Survey of Uppercross and Newcastle;
Carte Papers, vol. xii., f. 617 ; Census of 1659 ; Hearth Money Roll ; Subsidy
Rolls ; Book of Survey and Distribution.

150 PARISH OF RATHFARNHAM.

Sheriff of the County Dublin, as well as owner of large estates. On
his death in 1699 Terenure passed to his second son, Edward, who
sat in Parliament for twenty-five years, for five of which he was one
of the representatives for the County Dublin, and for the remainder
of the time for Inistiogue. Edward Deane, on his death in 1717,
was succeeded at Terenure by his eldest son, who bore the same
Christian name, and who had been returned two years before as
the second member for Inistiogue. The latter died in 1748, and
Terenure was for a short time in the possession of his eldest son,
who also bore the name of Edward, and sat for Inistiogue. An
advertisement appeared from the last-named in 1750 announcing
that the house of Terenure was to be set, and mentioning, amongst
other attractions, that in the gardens, which contained about four
acres, there were two large fish ponds stocked with carp and tench,
and that the house commanded an agreeable prospect of the
harbour of Dublin. A year later, in 1751, this young man, while
at Harwich, was shot in a duel. As he was unmarried, Terenure,
on his death, passed to his brother, Joseph Deane, the youngest son
of the second Edward Deane, of Terenure. This owner of Terenure
was the most distinguished member of his family ; he sat for many
years in Parliament as member for the metropolitan county, and
married the daughter and heiress of Matthew Freeman, of Castle-
cor, in the County Cork, whose name his descendants bear.
Amongst the tenants who occupied houses on the lands of Terenure
under the Deanes we find at the beginning of the eighteenth cen-
tury Mr. John Falkiner, who was Sheriff of the County Dublin in
1721, and whose house afterwards came into the possession of Mr.
Travers Hartley, sometime member for the City of Dublin, through
his mairiage to Mr. Falkiner's grand-daughter — the rise in the
value of property during that century being shown in the fact that
the house with thirty acres of land was leased in 1717 at a rent of
£69 a year, in 1756 at a rent of £150, and in 1792 at a rent of
£422 (1).

The connection with Terenure of the family of Shaw, now repre-
sented by Sir Frederick Shaw, Baronet, whose residence. Bushy
Park, has been mentioned as forming part of the original demesne
of Terenure House, dates from the latter part of the eighteenth
century, when Terenure House was taken by Mr. Robert Shaw,

(^) Report Irish Record Commission, vol. iii., p. 372; Burtchaell's "Members
of Parliament for Kilkenny " ; " Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xiv.,
p. 254 ; Dublin Journal^ No. 2389 ; Exshaw's Magazine for 1751, p. 502 ; Leases
in Registry of Deeds Office

TERENURE AND KIMMAGE.

151

Controller of the General Post Office in Ireland and founder of one
of the leading Dublin banks of his day, from whom the present
baronet is fourth in descent. His appointment to the chief position
in the Irish Post Office was due to his merit and abilities, and on
his death in 1796 an appreciative notice which appeared in the
Hibernian Magazine applauds his dignity, generous temper,
unaffected piety, and extensive charity. He was succeeded by his
eldest son, Robert, who, after representing the City of Dublin in
Parliament for many years, and serving as Lord Mayor, was created

Fortfield House.

a baronet. Sir Robert Shaw married the only daughter and heiress
of Mr. Abraham Wilkinson, and through the purchase of the lands
of Terenure by his father-in-law became owner of the Deane
property. On the construction of the road to Tallaght, Sir Robert
Shaw moved his residence to Bushy Park, and Terenure House
became subsequently the residence of Mr. Frederick Bourne, in
whose time it was noted for the beauty of its gardens (i).

Fortfield House, the fine residence of Mr. Louis Perrin-Hatchell,
which stands upon the lands of Kimmage, was built about the year

(1) Burke's "Peerage and Baronetage " ; Hibernian Magazine for 1796, pt. ii.,
p. 1 ; " Dictionary of National Biography," vol. li., p. 435 ; Deeds in possession
of Sir Frederick Shaw ; Loudon's Encyclopedia of Gardening." Lon. 1830, p.
1095.

152 PARISH OP RATHFARNHAM.

1785 by the illustarious Baary Yelverton, Chief Baron of the Irish
Exchequer, and first Viscount Avonmore, one of the greatest
orators that ever adorned the Bar of Ireland. In its construction
no expense was spared, and its walls display the work of the artists
and artizans who found employment in Dublin at that period.
After the death of Lord Avonmore in 1805 Fortfield was sold to
John, first Lord Clanmorris, and was demised by him in 1811 to Sir
William MacMahon, sometime Master of the Rolls, from whom in
1858 it was purchased by the Right Hon. John Hatchell, the
grandfather of the present owner (i).

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

The remains of an ecclesiastical building in the old graveyard of
Rathfamham mark the site of a church dedicated to SS. Peter and
Paul, which stood there at the time of the Anglo-Norman Conquest.
During the thirteenth century the advowson was the subject of
prolonged litigation, first between the lord of the soil, Milo le Bret,
and the Archbishop of Dublin, and afterwards between the Arch-
deacon of Dublin and the Priory of the Holy Trinity, to whom the
Archbishop and Milo le Bret seem to have transferred their respec-
tive claims. In 1225 the Pope assigned the determination of the
dispute to the Priors of St. John and of St. Thomas, Dublin, and
of Conall, in the Coimty Kildare, and as a result the church was
assigned to the Priory. The dispute did not, however, end with
this decision, and in 1253 the question was referred to the Dean
and Precentor of the distant Cathedral of Lismore for hearing.
Ultimately about the year 1267 a settlement was arrived at between
William de Northfield, then Archdeacon of Dublin, and the Priory
of the Holy Trinity, by which the church was assigned to him and
his successors subject to the payment of twelve marks to the
Priory; and, in the appointment of one of Northfield's immediate
successors, Rathfarnham (which was assessed at the high ecclesi-
astical valuation of twenty-seven marks), is called a prebend in the
Cathedral of St. Patrick, in right of which the Archdeacon was to
be assigned a stall in the choir and a seat in the chapter. After
the death of Northfield and again in 1301 the Priory attempted to
raise a claim to the church, but from Northfield's time until the
nineteenth century it remained portion of the corps of the Arch-
deaconry. When the Cathedral of St. Patrick was for a time

( * ) Deeds in possession of Mr. Perrin-Hatchell ; " Dictionary of National Bio-
graphy," vol. Ixiii., p. 314.

UOOLESlASfTlCAL filSTORY 153

dissolved in the early part of the sixteenth century the rectory of
Rathfamham, then leased to Sir John Allen, was the most valuable
of those within the Archdeacon's corps. The tithes extended over
ix>wnlands known as Rathfamham, Newtown, Prestownland, Bow-
danstown, Scholarstown, Terenure, Kimmage, St. John's Leas,
and Rathgar, and had been leased by the Archdeacon to one
William Wirrall for £40, while the curate, who held the glebe
house and eleven acre® of arable land, and was assigned the fees
and oblations, had to pay the Archdeacon 26s. in addition Q).

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the church
was served, as well as Donnybrook and Taney, by the Rev. Robert
Pont^ the fabric was stated to be in good repair, but some years
later, when served in like manner by the Rev. Richard Prescott,
although sixty persons attended divine service, it was said to be
ruinous. Subsequently we find the church served by the same
curate as Taney, the Rev. Thomas Naylor, and from 1640 to 1647,
when the cure was returned as vacant, the Rev. George Hudson
was in charge. During those troublous times the incumbent of
Kilmannon, in the diocese of Ferns, the Rev. Davis Archer, took
refuge at Rathfamham, and under the Commonwealth the Rev.
James Bishop, already mentioned in connection with Bullock, held
for a time the cure of the parish. After the Restoration Rathfam-
ham, which, during the rule of James II., was sequestrated with
Donnybrook, continued under the care of the same curate as
Donnybrook and Taney until the year 1706, when the Rev. Henry
Brenn was appointed to the sole charge of the parish. He resigned
in 1711, and the Rev. John Owen, afterwards Dean of Clon-
macnoise, was nominated as his successor, but does not appear to
have discharged the duties, as the curacy is returned as vacant
until 1718, when the Rev. Isaac Lake was appointed. He was
succeeded in 1724 by the Rev. John Towers, in 1727 by the Rev.
William Candler, in 1728 by the Rev. Richard Wy brants, in 1733
by the Rev. Anyon Challenor, and in 1746 by the Rev. William
Grueber. A cousin of the Pallisers, the Rev. George Thomas,
followed Mr. Grueber in 1752, and continued curate of the parish
until 1768, when his death took place. He was succeeded by his
eldest son, the Rev. Walter Thomas, and subsequently by his son-
in-law, the Rev. Philip Homan, a member of the family seated at
Surock, in the County Westmeath, who had married in 1763 " the
amiable Miss Mary Anne Thomas." Mr. Homan was presented in

(1) Christ Church Deeds ; " Crede Mihi," edited by Sir John Gilbert, pp. Ill,
136 ; Sweetman's Calendar, 1171-1251, No. 1242 ; 1262-1284, No. 1492 ; Mason's
•* History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," pp. 42-46.

154 PARISH OF RATHFARNHAM.

1789 with a piece of plate to mark the great esteem in which he
had been held during a connection with the parish of twenty
years Q).

The church, of which some remains are still to be seen in the
graveyard of Rathfamham, became, about the year 1780, too small
for the parishioners, who were returned in 1766 as including 347
Protestants, inhabiting 82 houses, besides 797 Roman Catholics,
inhabiting 154 houses, and, notwithstanding the fact that it was
in 1770 selected by the Bishop of Elphin, Dr. William Gore, for the
purposes of an ordination, it was in a very decayed state, as we
are teld by Austin Cooper, who says it was a plain building with
a small chancel and a modem porch. A grant of £400 was voted
in 1783 by Parliainent for the construction of a new church, and
after an order for a change of site had been obtained the foundation
stene of the present edifice was laid in June, 1784, by the Rev.
Philip Homan. Eleven years later, on June 7th, 1795, in response
to a petition signed by, amongst others, the Marquis of Ely, Barry
Yelverton of Fortfield, and Sir George Ribton of Landscape, it
was consecrated for divine worship. In the eighteenth century the
residence of the clergymen was the house known as Ashfield, now
the seat of Mr. John Denis Tottenham, and in the early part of the
nineteenth century of the eminent Sir William Cusac Smith,
Baron of the Exchequer (2). Towards the close of the eighteenth
century two public schools for the children of the poor were
established in the village (3).

(^) Regal Visitation of 1615; Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 155; Carte
Papers/ vol. xxi., f. 555; Civil List of Ministers' Yearly Salaries, 1655-1660;
Diocesan Records ; Church Miscellaneoim Papers in Public Record Office ; Ex-
shaw'a Magazine for 1746, p. 651 ; Will of Rev. George Thomas ; Pue^s Occurrences,
vol. Ix., Nofl. 18, 24; Dublin Chronicle, 1788-1789, p. 40; 1789-1790, p. 232;
Lyons' ** Grand Juries of Westmeath."

(*) A mural tablet to the memory of Barry Yelverton was erected by Sir William
Cusac Smith (for whom see notice in " Dictionary of National Biography," vcL
liii., p. 155) in Rathfarnham Church. It bears the following inscription : —
** In the adjoining cemetery are deposited the mortal remains of Barry Viscount
Avonmore, late Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland, who
departed this life on the 19th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1805. In
consideration of having long been honoured with his lordship's friendship Sir
William Cusack Smith, Baronet, has obtained a kind permission of which he
avails himself with gratitude and pride by consecrating to his respected memory
this tablet. It is a plain one but it bears the name of Yelverton, and therefore is
not unadorned. The abilities and worth which it might with truth record it, how-
ever, cannot be necessary to commemorate here, of merits so recent and so eminent
as his, on the minds of the present generation the impression must be strong ;
while considering the eventful periods which his life embraced: and the elevated
and active sphere in which it was his lot to move, to transmit those merits to pos-
terity seems the task of the historian to whom, accordingly and fearlessly, it is
surrendered by the friend."

(®) Religious Returns of 1766; Cooper's Note Book; P«e'a Occurrences, vol.
Ixvii., No. 6928 ; Dublin Journal^ Nos. 6714, 6808 ; Diocesan Records ; Hiber-
nian Magazine for 1790, p. 94.

ECCLESIASTICAL HiStORY. 155

Under the Roman Catholic Church the parish of Kathfamham
formed originally portion of the Union of Tallaght, and in 1697 we
find it served by the Rev. Timothy Kelly, who was then living at
Oldcastle. His successors have been, in 1730, the Rev. Nicholas
Gibbons; in 1750, the Rev. Owen Smyth; in 1766, the Rev.
Robert Bethel, who is buried in the graveyard at Whitechurch, and
in whose time £200, which had been collected for the purpose of
building an addition to the chapel at Rathfamham, was stolen
from the vestry; in 1781, the Rev. William Ledwidge; in 1810,
the Rev. Nicholas Kearns; in 1832, the Rev. Laurence Roche; in
1851, the Rev. William McDonnell; in 1864, the Rev. Daniel
Byrne; in 1868, the Rev. Nicholas O'Connor, afterwards Bishop of
Ballarat; in 1874, the Rev. Robert Meyler; in 1894, the Rev.
Thomas Kearney; and in 1900, the Rev. Pierce Gossan Q).

The succession of clergymen under the Established Church, after
the Rev. Philip Homan, has been as follows: — in 1789, the Rev.
John Lyster; in 1793, the Rev. Henry MacLean (2), who served
the cure for forty-four years, and in whose time Archbishop Magee
was laid to rest in the old graveyard (3); in 1838, the Rev. George
Augustus Shaw and the Rev. Benjamin Bunbury; in 1842, the
Rev. John William Finlay ; in 1844, the Rev. John James Digges
La Touche; in 1851, the Rev. Thomas Neligan Kearney, in whose
time the parish was severed from the corps of the Archdeacon of "
Dublin; in 1854, the Rev. Lancelot Dowdall; and in 1884, the
Rev. James Sandys Bird.

(^) D' Alton's ** History of the County Dublin." p. 768 ; Pue^s Occurrences^ vol.
Ixii., No. 6384, vol. Ixviii.. No. 7028.

(*)'A mural tablet in Rathfamham Church bears the following inscription: —
*' In a vault adjoining to this House of God lie the mortal remains of the Rev.
Henry MacLean, Curate of the parish of Rathfamham and Magistrate for the
Co. Dublin, 44 years. His parishioners unite in this testimonial of love and esteem
for their departed friend whose kindly manners, strict integrity, and unostentatious
charity endeared him to the rich and poor of an extensive neighbourhood. He
died regretted on the 2nd of March, 1838, aged 68 years."

{^) See for inscriptions on tombs and mural tablets, Journal of the Association
for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead, Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 83, 479, vol.
v., p. 55.

INDEX

Adams, Samuel,
Ashbourne, Sir Elias,
Ashford, William,
Ashworth, Thomas, .

Page
. 32
. 31
. 93
. 64

Bacon, John, . . . .112

Bacon, Sir John, . . .44

Bagods, The, of Baggotrath, . 43
References to, . 4, 31, 50, 66

Bam, Wonderful, . . .134

Barnard, William, Bishop of

Derry, . . • .109

Bamewalls, The, of Roebuck, 77-

80 ; of Terenure, 147.
Barralet, John J., . . .40

Barry, Sir Edward, . . 56

Bathe, John de, . . . 4

Battle of Rathmines, . 48, 102

Bicknor, Alexander de. Archbishop

of DubUn, . . .67

Blackburne, Francis, Lord Chan-

ceUor of Ireland, 80, 114, 144
Bleaching Green at Priesthouse,

55 ; at Roebuck, 78.
Booth, Hugh, . . . .112
Borrs, The, of BalaUy, . 74-75
Bradstreet, Sir Samuel, . . 26

Brandon, Countess of, . • 26
Brets, The, of Rathfarnham, 114-116
Bridges— Ball's Bridge, 32 ;

Donnybrook, 55; Milltown,

111-112; Rathfarnham, 116,

126, 130, 143.
Briggs, The, of Milltown,
Bruns, The, of Roebuck,
Burgoyne, Darby,
Butler, Hon. John, .
Butler, Theobald de, .
Butterfield, Henry, .

Carleton, Viscount, .

Cars, Ringsend,

Casborough, George,

Cashell, John, .

Castles— BalaUy, 74 ; Booters
town, 23; Donnybrook, 51
54 ; Dundrum, 67-71 ; Mer
rion, 4-21 ; Rathfarnham
114-144 ; Rathgar, 145-14G
Rathmines, 101-107 ; Roe
buck, 77-80; Simmonscourt,
31-32 ; Terenure, 147-148.

110
77

126
71
51

124

27

36

128

45

Pago

Cave, Thomas, . . .35

Cavendish, Sir Henry, . . 29

Chamberlaine, William Tanker-
ville. Justice of the King's
Bench, ... 73, 79

Chetwynd, Viscount, . . 56

Churches, Old — Donnybrook, 57-
63; Dundrum, 95-99 ; Irish-
town, 39, 59 ; Merrion, 7, 58,
Rathfarnham, 152-155.

aahulls. The, of Dundrum, . 66

Clare, Earl of. Lord Chancellor of

Ireland, . •. . 56, 92

Classon, John, . . .111

Clayton, Bishop, . . 61,86

Clergymen, Succession of, of the
Irish Church — Donnybrook,
58-63 ; Dundrum, 96-99 ;
Irishtown, 60 ; Rathfarnham,
153-155.

Clergymen, Succession of, of the
Roman Catholic Church —
Donnybrook, 58, 61 ; Dun-
drum, 97 ; Irishtown, 62 ;
Rathfarnham, 155.
Cloncurry, Nicholas, 1st Lord, . 72
Conolly, Speaker, . . .135
Convent of St. Mary de Hogges, . 144
Cooke, Erasmus, . . . 148

Cooley, Thomas, . . .26
Cooper, Austin, . 21, 78, 141

Coringham, John, . . .23
Cork, Richard, Ist Earl of, . 121

Cornwalsh, James, Chief Baron

of the Exchequer, 5, 44, 117

Cramer, Balthazar John, . .133

Crofton, James, . . .80

Cromwell, OUver, . . 37, 53

Cruise, Sir John, 4, 22, 31, 44

Cusacks, The, of Rathgar, . 145-146

Cusack, Adam, Justice of the

Common Pleas, . . .145

Davis, Ensign Thomas, . .16

Dartasse, Sir Jenico, . . 6

Dawson, Hon. James Massy, . 27

Deanes, The, of Terenure, . . 149

Decker, Sir Matthew, . . 90

Dejean, Lieut -General Lewis, . 56

Denison, William, . . . 128

Denny, Lady Anne, , , 28

158

INDEX.

Derrick, Samuel,
Dickinson, William,
Dillon, Major Gary,
Dixon, Robert,

Page
. 143
. 148
. 16
. 126

Dobsons, The, of Dundrum, 54, 69-71
Reference to, ... 74

Doherty, John, Chief Justice of the

Common Pleas, . . 26

Doyne, Lady Anne, . . .26

Dowdall, John, ... 6

Downes Family, The, of Donny-

brook, . . . .56

Downes, William, Lord, Chief Jus-
tice of the King's Bench, 56, 61, 79

Drake, John, Mayor of Dublin, . 31
Dudgeon, J. Hume, . . .79

Dunton, John, . . 36, 130

Elliott, Major Alexander, . .148

Ely, Earls of. See under Loftuses

of Rathfarnham.
Emmet, Dr. Robert, . . .80

English, Garret, . . .143

Eustace, James, 3rd Viscount

Baltinglass, . . .117

Eustace, Rowland, Baron of Port-

lester, .... 6

Exshaw, John, Lord Mayor of

Dublin, . . . .80

Fair of Donnybrook, 49, 55, 57

Falkiner, John, . . .1^0

Farming, . . 24, 135, 13^,

143, 144
Ferneley, Lieut.-CoL Philip, . 37

Finglas, Patrick, Chief Justice of

the King's Bench, . . 8

Fisher, Elizabeth, . . . 143

FitzGerald, Lord Edward, . . 29

FitzGerald, Right Hon. James, . 26
FitzGerald, Maurice, . . .43

Fitzwilliams, The, of Merrion, 1-21,

44-47, 67-69, 80-95
References to, 23, 31, 32, 33, 35,

50,58,60,62,109,116

Flood, Warden, Chief Justice of

the King's Bench, . . 54

Fortescue, Faithful William, . 75
Fortick, Sir William, . . 56

Foster, Anthony, Chief Baron of

the Exchequer, . . .79

Fountain, Lieut -Colonel James, 133

Fox, Thomas 24

Frambald, John, . . .30

Page

Gardens, Public, at Blackrock,
29 ; at Ranelagh, 109.

Geering, Richard, . . .133

George, Denis, Baron of the Ex-

3iequer, . . . .56

Gifford, John, .... 73

Goats' milk cure for Consump-
tion, 72

Goodwyn, Bishop, . . 54, 89

Gough, Viscount, . . .26

Graham, WiUiam, . . . 126

Granard, Earl of, . . . 32

Green, Sir Jonas, . . .107

Greene, Richard, . . . 126

Grierson, George, . . . 144

Hall, Lieut -General Henry, . 79
Hamilton, Alderman, . .142

Harcourt, Sir Simon, . .13

Harman, Major, . . .148

Harolds, The, of Rathfarnham, . 116
Hatchell, Louis Perrin, . . 161

Health Resorts, Dundrum, 72;
Rathmines, 107 ; Rathfarn-
ham, 130.
Hellen, Robert, Justice of the

Common Pleas, . . .56

Herring Fishery, . . 8, 33

Higginson, John, . . .124

HiU, George, . . . .32

Hoadly, John, Archbishop of

Armagh, . . . .135
Holies, John, Ist Earl of aare, . 17
Hone, Alderman Nathaniel, . 73
Hopkins, George, . . . 128
Horan, Alderman James, . 142
Horse Races, ... .27, 113
Hospital of St John without New-
gate, 147

Houses — Barry House, 56 ; Bo-
land Hall, 106 ; Bushy Park,
150 ; Carmelite College, 149 ;
Castle Dawson, 27 ; Fortfield,
151; Fort Lisle, 28; Frescati,
29 ; Lisaniskea, 28 ; Loretto
Convent, 131 ; Merville, 79 ;
Mount Merrion, 80; Nutley,
56; St. Helens, 25 ; Sans Souci,
26; Whitehall, 154; Wick-
ham, 71 ; Willbrook, 109.
How, Alderman Thomas, . .133

Howth, Lord, . . . 101, 105

Hyndeberge, Nicholas de, . . 43

INDEX.

159

Page

Inns — at Donnybrook, 56 ; at Mill-
town, 113 ; at Ranelagh, 110 ;
at Rathfarnham, 130, 143;
atRingsend,37,40; at Sandy-
mount, 33.

Interments at Donnybrook and

Ringsend, ... .61

Iron Mills, . . 77, 80, 110

Islip, Walter de, ... 4

Jackson, Henry, . . .80

Jaffray, Alexander, . . .80

James II., King, . . 37, 78

Jans, Robert, . . . .45

Jervais, Thomas, . . .141

Jocelyn, Robert, 1st Viscount,
Lord Chancellor of Ireland,

54, 61, 86

113

Jones, Henry, .

. 125

Jones, Owen, .

. 69

Kane, Sir Robert,

72

Kauffmann, Angelica,

. 140

Kellie, Lieutenant John, .

. 72

Kelly, Rev. Thomas,

. 107

Kinahan, Daniel,

. 73

Kinahan, Sir Edward Hudson,

. 71

King, Archbishop, 60, 83, 106, 130
King, Sir John, . . .46

King, The Ladies, . . .113

Kirwan, Very Rev. Walter Blake, 98
Knapton, Lord, . . .26

Lacy, Walter de, . . . 49

Lanesborough, Robert, 3rd Earl of, 26

La Touche, James Digges, . 26, 63

La Touche, Peter, m.p., . .92

Leech, Richard, . . .68

Lewys, Sir Peter, . . .111

Lighton, Sir Thomas, . . 79

Lisle, John, 1st Lord, . . 28

Litton, William, . . .72

Loftuses, The, of Rathfarnham,

117-144
References to, . . 112,148

Lords Lieutenants and Lord De-
puties — Berkeley, Lord, 37 ;
Chichester, Sir Arthur, 22, 37;
Cromwell, Henry, 18, 37 ;
Devonshire, William, 3rd
Duke of, 40 ; Devonshire,
William, 4th Duke of, 90,
107, 137; Dorset, Duke of.

Page

86 ; Essex, Earl of, 120 ; Fitz-
william. Sir William, 120;
HaUfax, Earl of, 40, 57 ; Har-
rington, Earl of, 89 ; Hert-
ford, Earl of, 40; Northum-
berland, Earl of, 40 ; Sidney,
Sir Henry, 8, 10 ; Strafford,
Earl of, 101, 121 ; Sussex,
Earl of, 10 ; Townshend, Lord,
139 ; Wharton, Earl of, 40.
Loretto Convent, . . 131, 144

Louth, Oliver, 4th Baron, . .12

Madden, Mr. Justice, . . 55

Magee, Archbishop, . . .155
Mann, Isaac, Bishop of Cork, 60, 89, 97

Mansergh, Mr., . . . 143

Manufactures, 77, 80, 110-113, 143

Marisco, Christiana de, . 3, 22

Mamy, WiUiam de, . . . 23

Mason, Thomas, . . .148

Massacre at CuUenswood, 108 ; at

Simmonscourt, 29.
M*Kay, William,
Michael, Thomas de St.,
Milltown, Earl of,
Mineral Springs,
Misset, Walter,

Moenes Family, The, of
mines,

Mossoms, The, .

Mountmorres, Viscount,

Mountney, Richard, Baron of
the Exchequer, .

NaUy, William,
Newburgh, Arthur, .
Nottingham, Robert de.
Nutting, Sir John,
O'Callaghan, Robert,
Ogilby, John, .
Olof, Richard de St., .
Oyster Bed,

Palliser, William,
Palliser, Rev. John, .
Palmerston, Viscount,
Paper Mills,
Parnell, Thomas,
Parsons, Sir Laurence,
Parsons, Sir William, .
Pearce, Sir Edward Lovet,
Penoix, Matthew,
Pembroke, Earls of, .

; ;

77

112

. 72.

130

.

49

Rath-

100

.

32

27

ron of

32

, 89

77

55, 61

4

25

133

124

30

, 33

40

131

. 134,

144

106

. 113,

143

101

121

. 51,

121

61

128

80-95

160

INDEX.

Page
Ferrers, Sir Edward, . . .44
Perry, A^tliony, . . .72
Pigeon House, . . . .42
Poer, Sir Eustace de la, . . 67
Poolbeg Lighthouse, . . .39
Potts, James, . . . .80
Poulter, Anthony, . . .128

Port of Ringsend, . . .35

Presbyterian Church, Property of, 143
Printing Press at Rathfarnham, 130

Priory of All Saints, 49, 50; of
Holy Trinity, 31, 33, 152 ; of
St. Lawrence, 147.

Radcliffe, Sir George,

101

Randall, John,

113

Ranelagh, Viscount, .

.

39

Rats, Invasion of,

21,

131

Reading, Daniel, 59, 128, 130,

143

Rebellion of 1641, 13,

24, 32

53,

68, 77, 101, 109,

111,

123,

145, 147.

Reynolds, Thomas, .

.

71

Reyley, Thomas,

.

24

Riall, Captain Lewis,

* .

55

Ribton, Sir George, .

142,

154

Rideleford, Walter de, 2, 22

, 30, 49, 82

Ridgeway, Sir Thomas,

120

Ridgeway, William, .

75

Roberts, William,

55

Roscommon, Earl of,

26

Ryves, Sir WiUiam, .

23

Saints— St. Broc, 57; St.

Olave,

73 ; SS. Peter and Pau

1, 152.

St. Lawrence, Viscount,

113

Sarsfield, Robert,

45

See of Dublin, property of, €

►7, 100

108

Shaws, The, of Terenure,

150

Shelley, Sir John,

82

Sheridan, Rev. Thomas,

133

Sherrard, Benjamin, .

142

Shore, Captain William,

106

Slicer, Edward,

142

Slator, Thomas,

143

Smith, Sb William Cusac,

154

Smothe, Thomas,

31

South WaU,

38

Stannard, Eaton,

133

Stewart, Lieut. -General Ja

nies, .

27

Stock, Stephen,

73

Stoyte, Sir Francis, .
Sullivan, Cornelius, .
Tomlinson, Robert, .
Tour, Lieutenant Francis,

Page
. 53
. 95
. 113
. 37

Trimlestown, Lords of. See under
Bamewalls of Roebuck.

75
69
53

Turbett, Robert,

Turner, Robert,

Twigg, Thomas,

Tyrconnel, Earl of. See under
Fitzwilliams of Merrion.

Usshers, The, of Donnybrook, 50-53
References to, . .8, 69, 109

Ussher, Christopher, . . .24

Vavasour, Counsellor William, . 27

Verneuil, Henry de, . . . 50

Vernon, John Edward, . . 95

Verschoyle, Richard, , . 95

Volunteers, Dublin,

78, 144, 146

Wainwriffht, John, Baron of the

Exchequer, . . .86

Walhope, John de, . . . 74

Wallop, Sir Henry, . . .117

Walshes, The, of BalaUy, . . 74

Walsh, Ensign Robert, . . 37

Walter, Theobald, ... 43

Ward, John 133

Ward, Thomas, . . .109

Weaver, John, . . .32

Wesley, Richard, Lord Momington, 24

Westby, Francis Vandeleur, . 75

Westmeath, Robert, 1st Earl of, 37

Wetherall, Richard, . . .142

Wharton, Marquises of, . .129

White, John 71

Whittingham, Archdeacon, 55, 61

Whittingham, Counsellor, . . 32

Wight, Archdeacon, . . .26

Wilks, Robert, . . .130

Winstanley, Richard, . . 53

Withers, Lieutenant John, . 16

Woodward, Robert, . . .53

Worths, The, of Rathfarnham, . 132

Worth, William, Baron of the Ex-
chequer, . . . .132

Yelverton, Barry, 1st Viscount
Avonmore, Chief Baron of the
Exchequer, . . 152, 154

Yorke, Sir William, Chief Justice

of the Common Pleas, 89, 106

i

S£P 2 6 1956