Chapter 4.

Corballies,

situated in this parish, the estate of the Barnewalls in the 14th century, afterwards that of John Burnell of Balgriffin, and in the 17th century the residence of Luke Netterville, the second son of Viscount Netterville, who in 1641, by proclamation made at the market place of Lusk, assembled on four days’ notice, an armed militia of 1,200 men at Swords. The Lords Justices required them on their allegiance to appear at the Castle, but they returned for answer, “that they were constrained to meet there together for the safety of their lives, that they were put in suck great terror by the rising out of some horse-troops and foot-companies [324] at Dublin, who killed four Catholics for no other reason than that they bore the name of that religion, that they durst not as they pretended stay in their houses, and therefore resolved to continue together till they were assured by their lordships of the safety of their lives, before they run the hazard thereof, by manifesting their obedience due unto their lordships.” [Temple’s Irish Rebellion] The Lords Justices and Council subsequently offered a reward of £400 for the head of Netterville. He died during the civil war, leaving issue by his wife Mabel, daughter of Sir Patrick Barnewall of Turvey, two sons, Richard, who died young, and Francis, a colonel in the Irish army, whose issue also failed. On the death of their father, the parliament in 1648 granted the capital messuage, town, and lands of Corballies, with so much of his estate adjoining as should amount to £400 per annum English, to Anne, Lady Harcourt, widow of Sir Simon Harcourt, who lost his lift in that war, and it is now part of the estate of Mr. Cobbe.

Dunabate

succeeds, with the fine remains of its church and castle. The latter is a single square, situated in the churchyard, and thickly overgrown with ivy. The former was dedicated to St. Patrick. In its ruins are several sepulchral monuments, particularly one to the memory of Patrick Barnewall of Staffordstown, and his wife Begnet de la Hoyde, dated 1592, and another to Christopher Barnewall of Rathesker, who died in 1661, and which also bears inscriptions to his wife and their children. Near it in the same enclosure is a flat tombstone to Mr. Richard Fitz Simon, who died in 1709.

The present church which adjoins it is in tolerable order, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners having granted [325] £84 7s. 6d. for its repair. It is situated on such a commanding eminence, as is always found in Irish denominations beginning with “Dun;” this of Dust-na-bate signifies the high fortress of the bay. The interior is remarkably neat, the gallery has a handsomely-stuccoed cieling [sic. KF.], and is appropriated for Mr. Cobbe’s family. There is also a pew with the Trimlestown escutcheon over it. Within this church is a handsome marble monument to the memory of Doctor Cobbe, Archbishop of Dublin, who died in 1765; of whom see the “Memoirs of the Archbishops of Dublin.” Adjacent to the churchyard is a glebe of about three acres, on which a glebe-house has been built by a grant of £100, and a loan of £320 from the Board of First Fruits.

The rectory being impropriate in the Rev. Mr. Hamilton, this parish ranks as but a vicarage in the deanery of Swords, episcopally united from time immemorial with the curacy of Portrane, and in the gift of the Archbishop of Dublin. It compounded for its tithes at £220 per annum, of which £153 6s. 8d. was wade payable to the lay impropriator, and the residue to the incumbent. The parish comprises 3641a. Or. 23p. chiefly used in tillage, while its population was returned in 1834 as 405 persons, of whom 337 were Roman Catholics. The number of labourers in the two parishes of Dunabate and Portrane are said to be 160, most of whom have constant employment. The wages of labour is from six to eight shillings per week. The rent of land here varies from £1 10s. to £2 per acre; that of a cabin, without land, is about £1 10s. [326] per annum. Mr. Cobbe and Lord Trimlestown are the chief proprietors of the fee. The soil may be said to rest upon clay slate.

About the year 1230 Dunabate, which was theretofore a chapelry annexed to Swords, was disunited therefrom by Archbishop Luke, and the rectory granted by him to the monastery of Grane. [Reportorium Viride.] The vicarage was at that time indifferently called Turvey or Dunabate, and with such an *alias *is it describeed in 1240 in the presentation of Richard de St. Martin thereto, by the Archbishop of Dublin. See ante at “Turvey?”

In 1310 the king, during the vacancy of the See of Dublin, presented William de Bathe to the vicarage of Dunabate. [Rot. Pat. in Canc. Hib.]

In 1419 Henry Marleburgh was vicar of Dunabate. He was so called as having been born at Marleburgh in Wiltshire. He wrote Annals of Ireland in Latin, which have since been translated into English, and are to be found at the close of Hanmer’s Chronicle.

Archbishop Allen in the Repertorium Viride states this church as then still appropriate to the nuns of Grane. In 1539 the vicarage was rated to the First Fruits at £7 6s. 8d., Irish.

At the dissolution Egidia Wale, the last prioress of Grane, was found to have been seised of the rectories of Dunabate, Kilmacud, and Bray, which, with their tithes and emoluments, were, as the inquisition states, appropriated to said house. Fox a notice of the possessions of the de la Hoyde family in this parish, see at “Lough Shinny” in 1542.

In this and the following century the Luttrels had the rectory of Dunabate and the advowson of its church. [Inquis. in Canc. Hib.] The Regal Visitation of 1615 reports the value of the vicarage as £15 per an annum; John Ethridge being then its incumbent.

In the rebellion of 1641 Nicholas Hollywood forfeited his life interest in Balcarrick and Baltra in this parish comprising 264a., which passed in remainder to John Hollywood. [Ib.]

In 1672 Charles, Viscount Fitz Harding, died seised of 117a. in Dunabate, which he held in free and common soccage. [Inquis. in Canc. Hib.] For a notice in [673, see at ” Esker?”

In 1697 the Reverend Charles Ternan was returned as parish priest of the parishes of Dunabate and Portrane, and resident at Turvey. For a notice in 1804, see at “Portrane.”

From Dunabate a pretty road leads by the shore of the Malahide creek, beyond which that village is seen, in white cottages scattered over its eminence. Presently Newbridge, the seat of Mr. Cobbe, appears at right, with the Turvey stream deepened into a river as it passes through it. Within this demesne are the ivied ruins of Laundestown Castle, while at a small distance to the left is the old burying-place of Ballymacdrought, near which was an ancient residence of the Walsh family.

Ch. 5. Lissen-hall