Chapter 32.
Ballymadun, where may be seen the ruins of a church which had been dedicated to All Saints. One side of the building is perfect and thickly en...
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Ballymadun, where may be seen the ruins of a church which had been dedicated to All Saints. One side of the building is perfect and thickly en...
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Ballymadun,
where may be seen the ruins of a church which had been dedicated to All Saints. One side of the building is perfect and thickly enveloped with ivy. Here was also the cell of an anchoritess. In the village is also a small rectangular Roman Catholic chapel.
The parish bears the same name, and comprises 3,438a. 2r. 2p. in nine townlands. Its rectory being impropriate in the Gormanston family, it ranks as a vicarage embodied in the union of Clonmethan. In it are 19a. 2r. of glebe. In the Catholic arrangement it is united with Garristown. The population [500] was in 1821 returned as 601 persons; increased in the census of 1831 to 795, all of whom were Roman Catholics. The principal proprietors are Colonel Tenison, Captain Savage, Mr. Curtis of Nutstown, Mr. O’Reilly, &c. The yearly rents vary from one to two guineas per acre; wages of labour from 10 pence to a shilling per day.
About the year 1184 John Earl of Morton gave certain lands in Ballymadun to Elias le Cordewaner, [Rot. Claus. in Turr. Lond.] from whom the subdenomination of Cordwainstown derives its name. In 1200 Sir John de Courcy gave a moiety of the lands of “Ballymadunan’ to Christ’s Church Dublin. For a notice of the church about the same time see *ante *at “Garristown.”
About the year 1220 Archbishop de Loundres annexed the parish church of Ballymadun, with the chapelry belonging thereto, to the nunnery of Grace Dieu, in recompence for the parish church of St. Audeon, Dublin, which that establishment had previously held by grant from Archbishop Comyn, on which occasion the Prioress of Grace Dieu was bound to pay certain chief rents to the anchoritess here.
In 1237 Ralph de Turberville had a grant in fee from the crown of the manor of Ballymadun, at the annum rent of one pair of gilt spurs. It is remarkable that the sheriff of Dublin, having upon this occasion demanded 100 shillings as his fee, for delivering possession of said manor, his majesty forbade the exaction, on the ground that it was not the custom of England for any sheriff to demand more than one ox for giving seisin of lands, and this de Turberville had paid. [Ib.]
In 1318 the king granted to Thomas de Hereford and his heirs, all the lands which had belonged to John de Kermardyn in Nutstown, Ballymadun, &c. in Fingal, all which had come to the king by forfeiture, in consequence of said John having carried arms against the king within the province of Walter and Hugh de Lacy.
In 1344 Walter de la Joyde had a grant of the manor of Ballymadun with the vicarage appendant. In 1353 the king committed to Roger de Mortimer the custody of said manor; and in 1422 William Scrivener, Constable of the Castle of Nicholstown, had a grant of all the lands, tenements, rents, and services in Ballymadun, to hold while in the king’s hands. [Rot. in Dom. Cap. Westm.] The manor subsequently passed to the Preston family, and in 1508 Lord Gormanston conveyed it, with other estates in the County of Dublin, to trustees to the uses of his will.
At the hosting of 1532 often before alluded to, Viscount Gormanston was summoned to appear in right of his lay fee of Ballymadun; he also, about the same time, presented to the vicarage as appendant. [Repert. Viride.] That vicarage was in 1539 valued to the First Fruits at £4 18s.; while an inquisition of 1542 finds, that the Prioress of Grace Dieu was seised of a portion of the tithes here; and another of 1579 finds, that the cell of Ballymadun had been, before its suppression, seised of the manor of Ballymadun and the advowson of the parish church there, with 14 messuages and about 400a. of land in Ballymadun, five messuages and 210a. in Nutstown, two messuages and 182a. in Wyestown, and eight messuages and 238a. in Cordwainstown, besides certain chief rents.
In 1598 John Barnewall died seised of the rectory of Ballymadun, which he held of the crown in free and common socage. [Inquis. in Canc. Hib.]
The regal visitation book of 1615 states the rectory impropriate, the church in good repair, the chancel partly in ruins, but adds that the impropriator (John Barnewall) was bound by recognizance for the repairs thereof.
At the memorable period of 1641, Robert Preston was seised of the manor and 73 acres in this parish, Nicholas Hollywood of 325a., Nicholas Segrave of 115a., Thomas Conran of 105a., and Matthew. Begg of 250a., all which they forfeited on that occasion.
At the time of the Commonwealth Survey, there were reported to be 18 acres (plantation measure) of commons here.
In 1669 John Lord Kingston obtained a grant (inter alia) of [502] 537a. in Ballymadun, which he soon afterward conveyed to Sir William Domville in fee. For a notice of this parish in 1675 see at “Clonmethan.” In 1698 the rectory is stated as paying a port corn rent of £11 10s. per annum to the crown, see post at “Ballyboghill.”
At the commencement of this century there were two corn mills here; there is none now.
On the low grounds about this place the botanist will find *sium latfolium, *broad-leaved water parsnip, creeping along the muddy bottoms of the pools: its roots are highly noxious to cattle. The *drosera rotundifolia, *broad-leaved sundew, also grows plentifully here.