Chapter 33.

Palmerstown,

near Greenock, the succeeding locality, presents some uninteresting remains of a church, which had been dedicated to St. James; the area, measuring 14 yards by five, is closely filled with ash trees and hawthorns. This parish ranks as a vicarage in the union of Clonmethan, and gift of the Archbishop of Dublin. It extends over 1580a. 2r. 34p., comprised in five townlands; and its population in 1831 was returned as 321 persons, all of whom were Roman Catholics. According to the arrangement of that church, it is in the union of Rollestown and Oldtown. The principal proprietor here is Mr. Chamney.

The church, together with certain lands and tenements in the parish, belonged at an early period to the priory of St. John the Baptist in Dublin, the rectory subsequently passed to that of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham, whose fraternity appointed a perpetual vicar there at first, but subsequently, on account of the smallness of the profits, a stipendiary curate was substituted. [Repert. Viride.] for a notice of the chapelry of Palmerstown in the 13th century, see at “Clonmethan.”

In 1536 the prior of the house of St. John the Baptist of Dublin, demised to Alison Davy a messuage and 140a. of land in Jordanstown in this parish, (therein stated to be in the district of Fingal,) for 31 years with the customs and heriots.

In 1561 the queen granted to Richard Netterville, all the messuages, lands, &c., belonging to the priory of St. John the Baptist, and situated in Palmerstown, near Greenock, &c., together with certain rectories in the counties of Carlow and Kildare. In 1642 Sir Oliver Lambert passed patent for 255 acres, with the profits of a fair on the eve and day of St. James the Apostle, all parcel of the manor of Palmerstown near Greenock, and of the estate of the then late hospital of St. John the Baptist without Newgate, with sundry premises in Jordanstown and Cotterelstown.

In 1667 the Duke of Ormonde had a grant of Palmerstown, six messuages, and 300 acres, Jordanstown 260 acres, and various other lands in this vicinity, which he immediately afterwards sold to the Archbishop of Armagh.

In 1669 the rectory and tithes of Palmerstown near Greenock were granted *(inter alia) *to William Lord Viscount Dongan, and in 1675 the curacy was by act of council incorporated in the union of Clonmethan. For a notice in 1697, see at “Clonmethan.”

In the 18th century, the see of Dublin became possessed of two-thirds of the rectory and tithes of this parish.

Passing hence to Clonmethan, a locality before noticed, a pretty shaded road, with hedges of hawthorn and roses interlaced with woodbine, conducts to [504]

Westpalstown,

which still retains some interesting traces of its ancient church, measuring 16 yards long by six wide, with huge elder trees growing out of the walls, and ivy thickly drooping over all. In the churchyard are tombs to the Dodds from the year 1751, and a few unnoted graves,* *over which a multitude of birds were pouring a melody that filled the whole atmosphere, and seemed to assert their sovereignty in a scene by all but them deserted.

The parish comprises 1595a. 3r. 36p., in six denominations. Its population was in 1821 stated as 188, increased in the census of 1831 to 280 persons, all of whom the Ecclesiastical Report of 1835 states to be Catholics. In the Protestant arrangement it ranks as a vicarage in the union of Clonmethan; in the Catholic it is in that of Naul. The chief proprietor is Lord Langford. Rent rates from 30s. to £2 per acre; wages from 1s. to 14d. per day.

About the year 1190 the church of Westpalstown was annexed to the nunnery of Grace Dieu, [Repert. Viride.] and so continued to the time of the dissolution, at which period, and for some time previous, the Beling family were seised of the principal part of the lands in the parish, a tract of 67 acres being held by the abbot and fraternity of the house of the Blessed Virgin near Dublin.

In 1532 Thomas, son and heir of Patrick Finglas, then late of Westpalstown, had livery of seisin, pardon of intrusion, and license to enfeoff Simon Geoffrey, Rector of Howth, and others in the manor of Westpalstown and other lands in this county, which he [505] held in *capite. *In 1560 the celebrated Baron Finglas of Westpalstown, author of the able “Discourse of the Decay of Ireland,” was one of the representatives of this county, and then seised of this manor.

In 1615 the rectory was returned as impropriate, the church in good repair, the chancel in ruins, but, that the king’s farmer was bound to restore same.

In 1647 John Finglas of Westpalstown was one of the confederate Catholics who sat in Kilkenny. He also was seised of the manor and 140 acres, which he held of the king in capite by knight’s service. On his forfeiture, Sir Theophilus Jones became seised thereof, together with the castle of Westpalstown, [Inquis. in Canc. Hib.] while Sir George Lane had a subsequent grant in 1666 of a chief rent of £2 10s. issuing thereout. In the following year, the orphan daughters of “Colonel” Owen O’Conolly, the servant of Sir John Clotworthy, and the notorious informer of 1641, had a grant of the whole townland, stated as containing on survey 186 acres plantation measure, and valued at three pence per acre. They also passed patent for various other lands in the barony.

For a notice of the parish in 1675, see at “Clonmethan,” and for another in 1697, see at ” Naul.” On the forfeitures of 1688, the interest which the daughters of O’Conolly had here having vested in the crown, the Earl of Bellamont had a grant of the aforesaid 186 acres, in which Charles Wallis claimed a leasehold interest before the commissioners at Chichester house, but his petition was refused.

A flat and uninteresting road leads hence, by the course of a rivulet, that, struggling through flowery meadows and waving rushes, affords the only object of any interest, until the tourist reaches

Ballyboghill,

which he enters by a bridge, and under the shade of a noble elm tree.

[506] The first object that attracts attention here is a spacious new Roman Catholic church, of the rectangular form; near which is a poor school, attended by 127 children (in July, 1S36). A fine double row of elms, as venerable as that which excites admiration on entering the village, affords a shady avenue to the ruins of the celebrated church, where “the staff or crozier of St. Patrick” was long devoutly exhibited; and certainly the name, given from time immemorial to the locality, Ballyboughal, i. e. the town of the staff, is no small evidence of the high antiquity of the tradition. [So recently as 1529, examinations were taken upon “the Holy Mass Book, and the great relic of Ireland, called ‘baculum Christi, in presence of the King’s Deputy, the Chancellor, Treasurer, and Justice.” State Papers, Part 3, p. 146.] The area of the sacred ruin measures about 18 yards by six; the windows and doors exhibit groined arches, and the belfry is of the triple arched kind, so prevalent over the country of Fingal. Within the walls are monuments, one to the Fottrell family, in 1693, another to that of Andrews, in 1713, and a third to the Horishes, in 1722. There are none of any note in the churchyard. The National Board granted £106 for the building of male and female schools here, £30 9s. 4*d. *to fit them up, and allows £14 for their support.

The rectory of the parish is impropriate in the crown, and it ranks but as a vicarage in the union of Clonmethan, and therein annexed to that prebend. In the Catholic dispensation it is in the union of Rollestown and Old-town. It contains 2769Aa 1r. in 11 townlands, with a population, according [507] to the census of 1831, of 520 persons in the parish, and 144 in the village, of whom 14 are stated to be Protestants. The chief proprietor is Mr. Wood, of Milverton. Rent rates from one to two guineas per acre; while the rate of wages is 1s. per day

It is said that Strongbow, having early possessed himself of Ballyboghill, after overcoming its former proprietor in combat, gave it, with its appurtenances, to the church of the Holy Trinity, (Christ church,) as also the aforesaid staff, called the staff or St. Patrick, and which Allen, in the Liber Niger, states, the Apostle of Ireland was wont to carry in his hand. A confirmation, however, of the possessions of the religious house of the Blessed Virgin in 1174, enumerates amongst them Ballyboghill and its appurtenances, while in 1179 the Archbishop of Armagh confirmed the grant of the town to this religious house, which also acquired about that time the tithes of the surrounding district in exchange for the chapel of Kilbarrock, that was thereupon annexed to the prebend of Howth; and in 1185 John Earl of Morton confirmed to the abbey of the Virgin Mary, all their possessions in Ballyboghill, Ballybegan, with the chapel and tithes of Ballyboghill, free of any secular service whatsoever. Soon after which, King Henry the Second conferred same, with the other possessions of that abbey, on the religious house of Bildewas in Shropshire.

The Repertorium Viride of Archbishop Allen in the 16th century continues to report Ballyboghill, as one of the 10 chapelries dependant on St. Mary’s Abbey, whose last abbot, William Laundy, was, on inquisition, found to have been seised of this rectory, the extent of which is therein defined, and its annual value stated as £18 6s. 8d., while the same document also finds almost all the lands in the parish, as also the mill with the watercourse in the manor and grange of Ballyboghill, appropriated to the said abbey. In the following year all the lands, which it so possessed, were granted for ever to Patrick Barnewall, Esq., whose title thereto was confirmed in 1546.

[508] In 1547 the said abbot surrendered the rectorial or two-third parts of the tithes of this parish to the crown, the vicar having been previously endowed with one-third. That rectorial part was from a remote period commuted to a great extent for a certain render of oats, saved or ground, and brought to the gate of the abbey, hence called port-corn rent. Nor is it the only instance of such rents thus vesting in the crown in right of the Irish abbeys. This source of royal revenue was granted by Queen Elizabeth to the Lord Lieutenant, the Master of the Rolls, the Lord Chief Justice, the Lord Chief Baron, and the Presidents of Munster and Connaught, as part of their emoluments, and was accordingly put upon the establishment in the 42nd year of her reign, and subsequently saved to those officers by the 108th clause of the Act of Explanation, until in 1763 his majesty directed that the port-corn rents should thenceforth be paid to the Commissioners of Excise for his use. The abbot, on the occasion alluded to, had a pension of £50 per annum granted to him, charged on the manors of Ballyboghill and Portmarnock.

For a notice in 1602, see at “Dalkey.” In 1615 the church of Ballyboghill was returned as a rectory impropriate, appertaining to Christ Church, Dublin, while the curacy was stated as annexed to the prebend of Clonmethan. The visitation book further states, that Nicholas Bochan was curate, and that the church and chancel were then in good repair.

In 1641 Patrick Russell forfeited 45a. in the parish of Ballyboghill. For a notice in 1675, see at “Clonmethan.”

In 1685 Lord Kingsland passed patent for (inter alia) the Grange of Ballyboghill 305 acres. For a notice in 1697, see *ante, *at the “Naul.”

In 1793 the Rev. George Hamilton had a grant, from the Commissioners of his Majesty’s revenue, of the rectorial or two-third parts of the tithes of this parish for 41 years, at the annual rent of £30; and in 1827 a fee-farm rent of £10 6s. 3½d., issuing out of the lands of Ballyboghill, and of 10s. for the market and fair there, were sold by the crown to George Wood of Milverton. [509]

Ch. 34. Grace Dieu.