Old Law Courts, Christ Church-yard, Hell, Cock Hill, Winetavern-street.

Chapter IV.

The Old Law Courts - Christ Church-yard - Hell - Christ Church-Lane - The Cock Hill - The Winetavern-Street.

In the reign of James I. the house of the Deans of Christ Church, erected on the site of the episcopal residence built by Bishop Donogh, in the 11th century, was appropriated to the use of the Law Courts, which, as appears from the Memoranda Rolls, were removed in 1608, from the “house called the mace” to the newly constructed buildings near Christ Church, styled “the King’s Courts.” The Dean and Chapter, in their petition in 1626, relative to their rent due out of the Four Courts, state that “above 18 years agone, when his Majesty’s Courts of Justice ceased to be kept in the Castle of Dublin, as a place found inconvenient for that purpose; and that no other place or roome convenient could be found within the city, nor a new one erected without great expense to his Majesty, the Right Honourable then Lord Deputy, with the Lord Chief Justice and others of the Council, thinking certain rooms within the precinct or close of Christ Church, to be most fitting for his Majesty’s service, the subjects resorte being situate in the heart of the city, as also for the ease of his Majesty’s charge, were pleased earnestly to intreat the then Dean and Chapter for a grant thereof to the foresaid use and service, which they willingly yielded unto, and readily accepted of such rent as was then by the Right Honourable Lord Deputy and Council promised unto them, towards the maintenance of the church, namely, £10 per annum, which they willingly yielded unto, owing themselves and all they have to his Majesties behoof, their lord and patrone, though it were much less than might have been made of the said rooms, had we been left to make our most beneficial use and commodity thereof.”

The Commissioners of the “Court of Wards,” established in 1617, were ordered to hold their sittings in the Exchequer Court on “two afternoons every week during the term;” and in 1629, the Dean and Chapter demised to Charles I., his heirs and successors, at the annual rent £12, “all these, the four several chambers or rooms, commonly called the Four Courts, situate, lying, and being within the precincts and liberties of the said church of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, commonly called Christ Church, together with all void roomes, spaces, and staire rooms, within the great door leading or entering into the said Four Courts, and passage, and entry, by and through the utter staire leading to the said great door, together with a certain chamber or room, commonly called the Court of Wards, and a little closet, situate, lying, and being at the west side of the Exchequer towards the said Court of Exchequer, next adjoining unto the room commonly called the Office of Chief Chamberlain of the Exchequer, and to the said Court of Exchequer belonging, together with free passage through all ways, entries, and passages, leading to or from the said Four Courts, or either of them, or to or from the said little closet before mentioned.”

The want of accommodation here was complained of in 1635, by the Lord Deputy and Council, who addressed Secretary Coke on the subject as follows:-” How inconvenient it is that there is not a place set apart here for the Court of Wards, as there are for his Majesty’s other courts of justice here, you can easily judge. The Master, Attorney, and Surveyor, of that court, having ever since the erection thereof to this time been forced to make use of the room where his Majesty’s Court of Chief Place is held, for their place of judicature, in all causes arising before them; by which want it comes to pass that they cannot sit so frequently as they might do, nor at all but in the afternoons, by regard the King’s Bench sits there in forenoons: by which interruptions to their frequent meetings, his Majesty’s service in that court, which by the industry of his ministers here begins to yield him a considerable revenue, is more hindered than in reison is fit to be suffered.” In compliance with this petition, the Court of Wards was removed from the Four Courts, and an office for the reception of the rolls and records was erected by Sir Christopher Wandesford. Brereton about the same period describes the Dublin Courts of Justice as “conveniently framed and contrived, the rooms being very capacious and as useful as the Courts in England, but” he adds, “here is not such a stately structure or hall to walk in as Westminister Hall.”

In 1652 Sir Felim O’Neil was tried in the Chancery Court here, where the “Judges sat and were directed what questions they should ask him by a Committee, who planted themselves in an adjoining room called the Chancery Chamber. A communication was kept up between this Committee and the Judges, by means of a messenger, who went constantly between them, relating to the Committee all proceedings that passed in the court, and bringing from them instructions to the Judges on every occasion, speaking to them through a square hole in the wall.”

Chief Justice Keatinge, on the trial of John Price atWicklow in 1689, for high treason, observed:- “I remember that when Warren, Jephson, and Thompsom, were tried in 1663, for a design to surprize Dublin Castle, because this was a great matter, forsooth, they must be guarded with soldiers, they were tried at the King’s Bench; and several persons desirous to see or hear, being gotten up into the nich in the wall next the Court of Common Pleas, as they were going up stairs, a piece went off and shot a man through the head.”

An assessment was levied in 1686 for the purpose of enlarging the Law Courts, but the building having fallen to decay, William Robinson, Surveyor-General, was directed in 1695 by Lord Capel, then Viceroy, “to rebuild the Four Courts of Justice,” which was done at an expense of £3,421 7s. 8*d., exclusive of £250 6s. 6d. *“for some ornaments and alterations necessary,” the entire of which amount was discharged by a warrant in 1700.

In the process of these improvements, part of the Dean’s House was removed to enlarge the passage leading into the Courts, and in 1718 the Dean and Chapter contested with the King the right of leasing the apartments over and under the Courts. Judgment was, however, given against them, although they proved that at the making of the original lease and ever since, there were several rooms, vaults, and collars, under the said four chambers called the Four Courts, and there were ceilings over the said courts and cocklofts, garrets, or void rooms and spaces over those ceilings, that as well since the throwing down of the old, as the building of the new Four Courts, the Dean and Chapter constantly made leases of the said rooms, vaults, and cellars, and received the rents of such leases from the lessees.

During the trial of two gentlemen named Brigantine, in 1721, for killing a constable, a false report of fire was raised in the Four Courts, and many persons were crushed to death in attempting to escape from the imaginary danger.

A considerable sum was expended in 1744 in rebuilding the Exchequer Chamber and the Grand and Petty Jury Rooms, and for enlarging and rebuilding the Chancery Chamber, under the superintendence of Arthur Jones Neville, Surveyor-General. Notwithstanding a further expenditure for repairs in 1755, the buildings became so ruinous, and were found so incommodious, that Lord Chancellor Lifford and the chief Judges requested Gandon to furnish a design for a new building, and officially recommended the removal of the Courts to a more convenient situation. The hall of the old Four Courts was long and narrow, and crowned by an octangular cupola, and entered by a door leading from the lane known as “Hell:” to the immediate left of this door, on entering the hall, stood the steps leading up to the Court of Exchequer; on its right was the Chancellor’s Court; next to which was the Court of Common Pleas, the King’s Bench being placed exactly opposite to the Court of Exchequer. The various Courts not being enclosed from the hall, the Judges were to be seen sitting as in the Scotch courts of justice. The Chancellor, on entering, was always preceded by his mace-bearer and tipstaffs; the latter, on coming in, were accustomed to call out - “High Court of Chancery,” which was repeated by the Tipstaffs in the other Courts, upon which the Judges rose, and remained standing until the Chancellor had taken his seat.

The longest trial recorded to have taken place in these Courts was the case in ejectment of James Annesley against the Earl of Anglesey, which lasted from the 11th to the 25th of November, 1743, and furnished Walter Scott with the groundwork of his novel of “Guy Mannering.” The last trials of public importance here were those of Hamilton Rowan, in 1793, for publishing what was styled a “false, wicked, malicious, scandalous, and seditious libel of and concerning the government, state, and constitution of this kingdom;” and that of the Rev. William Jackson, in 1795, for projecting a French invasion.

On Rowan’s trial in the King’s Bench his advocate, Curran, introduced the famous episode on the alleged seditious phrase of “universal emancipation.” “I speak,” said he, “in the spirit of the British law, which makes liberty commensurate with, and inseparable from, British soil; which proclaims even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moment he sets his foot upon British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of universal emancipation. No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced - no matter what complexion incompatible with freedom an Indian or an African sun may have burnt upon him - no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down - no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery - the first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the god sink together in the dust; His soul walks abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of his chains that burst from around him; and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled, by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation.”

Jackson’s trial commenced in the same Court on the 23rd of April, 1795, before Lord Clonmel and Justices Downes and Chamberlaine; the jury returned a verdict of guilty at a quarter before four o’clock on the following morning, and on the 30th of the month the prisoner was brought to the bar to receive sentence.

“It is at this stage of the proceedings that the case of Jackson becomes terribly peculiar. Never, perhaps, did a British court of justice exhibit a spectacle of such appalling interest as was witnessed by the King’s Bench of Leland upon the day that this unfortunate gentleman was summoned to bear his fate pronounced. He had a day or two before made some allusions to the subject of suicide. In a conversation with his counsel in the prison, he had observed to them, that his food was always cut in pieces before it was brought to him, the gaoler not venturing to trust him with a knife or fork. This precaution he ridiculed, and observed, ‘That the man who feared not death could never want the means of dying, and that as long as his head was within reach of the prison wall, he could prevent his body’s being suspended to scare the community.’ At the moment they regarded this as a mere casual ebullition, and did not give it much attention. On the morning of the 30th of April, as one of these gentlemen was preceding to Court, he met in the streets a person who was warmly attached to the government of the day. The circumstance is trivial, but it marks the party spirit that prevailed, and the manner in which it was sometimes expressed: ‘I have’ (said he) ‘just seen your client, Jackson, pass by on his way to the King’s Bench to receive sentence of death. I always said he was a coward, and I find I was not mistaken; his fears have made him sick - as the coach drove by, I observed him, with his head out of the window, vomiting violently.’ The other hurried on to the Court, where he found his client supporting himself against the dock. His frame was in a state of violent perturbation, but his mind was still collected. He beckoned to his counsel to approach him, and, making an effort to squeeze him with his damp and nerveless hand, uttered in a whisper, and with a smile of mournful triumph, the dying words of Pierre,

‘We have deceived the Senate.’

The prisoner’s counsel, having detected what they conceived to be a legal informality in the proceedings, intended to make a motion in arrest of his judgment; but it would have been irregular to do so until the counsel for the crown, who had not yet appeared, should first pray the judgment of the Court upon him. During this interval, the violence of the prisoner’s indisposition momentarily increased, and the Chief Justice, Lord Clonmel, was speaking of remanding him, when the Attorney-General came in, and called upon the Court to pronounce judgment upon him. Accordingly, ‘The Rev. William Jackson was set forward,’ and presented a spectacle equally shocking and affecting. His body was in a state of profuse perspiration; when his hat was removed, a dense steam was seen to ascend from his head and temples; minute and irregular movements of convulsion were passing to and fro upon his countenance; his eyes were nearly closed, and, when at intervals they opened, discovered by the glare of death upon them, that the hour of dissolution was at hand. When called on to stand up before the Court, he collected the remnant of his force to hold himself erect; but the attempt was tottering and imperfect: he stood rocking from side to side, with his arms, in the attitude of firmness, crossed over his breast, and his countenance strained by a last proud effort into an expression of elaborate composure. In this condition he faced all the anger of the offended law, and the more confounding gazes of the assembled crowd. The Clerk of the Crown now* *ordered him to hold up his right hand. The dying man disentangled it from the other, and held it up, but it instantly dropped again. Such was his state, when, in the solemn simplicity of the language of the law, he was asked, ‘What he had now to say, why judgment of death and execution thereon should not be awarded against him according to law?’ Upon this Mr. Curran rose, and addressed some arguments to the Court in arrest of judgment. A legal discussion of considerable length ensued. The condition of Mr. Jackson was all this while becoming worse. Mr. Curran proposed that he should be remanded, as he was in a state of body that rendered any communication between him and his counsel impracticable: Lord Clonmel thought it lenity to the prisoner to dispose of the question as speedily as possible. The windows of the court were thrown open to relieve him, and the discussion was renewed; but the fatal group of death-tokens were now collecting fast around him; he was evidently in the final agony. At length, while Mr, Ponsonby, who followed Mr. Curran, was urging further reasons for arresting the judgment, their client sank in the dock. The conclusion of this scene is given, as follows, in the reported trial

“LORD CLONMEL. - ‘If the prisoner is in a state of in-sensibility, it is impossible that I can pronounce the judgment of the Court upon him.’

“Mr. Thomas Kinsley, who was in the jury box, said he would go down to him: he accordingly went into the dock, and in a short time informed the Court that the prisoner was certainly dying. By order of the Court Mr. Kinsley was sworn.

“LORD CLONMEL. - ‘Are you in any profession?’ *

“Mr. Kinsley.* - ’* *I am an apothecary.’

“LORD CLONMEL. - ‘Can you speak with certainty of the state of the prisoner?’ *

“Mr. Kinsley.-’ *I can; I think him verging to eternity’.’

“LORD CLONMEL. - ‘Do you think him capable of hearing his judgment?’ *

“Mr. Kinsley. -* ‘I do not think he can.’

“LORD CLONMEL. - ‘Then he must be taken away: take care that in sending him away no mischief be done. Let him be remanded until further orders; and I believe it is as much for his advantage as for all of yours to adjourn.’

“The sheriff informed the Court that the prisoner was dead.

“LORD CLONMEL. - ‘Let an inquisition, and a respectable one, be held on the body. You should carefully inquire by what means he died.’

“The Court then adjourned, and the body of the deceased remained in the dock, unmoved from the position in which he had expired, until the following day, when an inquest was held. A large quantity of metallic poison was found in his stomach. The preceding day, a little before he was brought up to court, the gaoler, having visited his room, found him with his wife, much agitated, and vomiting violently; he had just taken, he said, some tea, which disagreed with him: so that there remained no doubt that the unfortunate prisoner, to save himself and his family the shame of an ignominious execution, had anticipated the punishment of the laws by taking poison. The following sentences, in his own handwriting, were found in his pocket:- ‘Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted.’ ‘The troubles of my heart are enlarged: oh! bring thou me out of my distresses.’ ‘Look upon my affliction and my pain, and forgive me all my sins.’ ‘Oh I keep my soul and deliver me. Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in thee.’”

When Lord Clonmel was about to withdraw from the court to his chamber, the Sheriff inquired how Jackson’s body was to be disposed of, and his Lordship is said to have replied, Act, sir, as is usual in such cases”!

On the completion of the new edifice on the Inns’ Quay in 1796, the Law Courts at Christ Church were finally relinquished; a fragment of them, still standing, seems to justify Latocnaye’s observation:- “L’ancienne résidence de Thémis etait variment quelque chose d’éffrayant, tant par ses suppots, que par l’air lugubre et sombre de l’antre dans lequel ils se tenaient.”

Christ Church was closely hemmed in on all sides: on the north it was bounded by St. St. John’s-lane, on he west stood the Four Courts, the entrance to which from Christ Church-lane was through “Hell,” a partly arched and gloomy passage nearly 10 feet below the present level of the floor of the cathedral, and about nine feet in breadth, which also led to an open space, named Christ Church-yard, about 98 feet long by 50 wide, before the south front of the church, and thence into Fishamble-street.

Although many of the citizens during the Middle Ages desired by their wills to be buried in the cemetery of the Holy Trinity, that locality appears to have fallen into desuetude as a place of interment in the 16th century, and in the cathedral accounts for 1542, an entry occurs of a payment of 12 pence “to a workman for making levell the churchyard.” In the 17th century “Christ church-yard” became a public thoroughfare, surrounded by buildings, and much litigation arose between the city and the Cathedral, in consequence of the immunities claimed by the inhabitants of the Liberty of Christ Church, the territorial extent of which was about one acre and a half. In ancient times the Prior and inhabitants of the precinct of the Convent were exempt from attending in any secular court out of their own Liberty, within which they enjoyed the privilege of trying civil and criminal actions, until the middle of the 16th century, when they waived their right of holding trials there for felonies and treasonable offences; and being thus a distinct Liberty it was usual to have the ceremonies of proclaiming peace or war publicly performed in Christ Church-yard, as well as in St. Patrick’s or in the Earl of Meath’s Liberties. During part of the reign of Charles II. the Exchange of Dublin was held in Christ Church-yard, the occupants of which at that period were traders of various classes, some of whose copper tokens are still extant; and in the succeeding century among its residents were William Neale, an eminent music publisher; and, for a time, George Faulkner, the afterwards celebrated bookseller. There also was a much frequented tavern called the “Cross-keys,” kept in Anne’s reign by Thomas Ryan, an old soldier who had served through the wars of the Revolution: the “Charitable Musical Society” originated from the meetings held in this tavern by a number of amateurs in the early part of the eighteenth century, as chronicled by a rhyming member of the fraternity:-

“When London porter was not known in town,

And Irish ale or beer went glibly down,

When wine was twelve or thirteen pence per quart,

In, or without doors, to revive the heart,

With grapes in clusters drawn on every post,

Whose juice we purchased at a mod’rate cost,

And did ourselves alternately regale

Sometimes with wine or good October ale.

‘Twas in those happy, halcyon, merry days,

That old Tom Ryan liv’d at the Cross Keys.

Each Sunday night we got from that old trooper,

Good barn-door fowl, with sallad for our supper,

Or some fine ribs of roasted tender beef,

Which to young stomachs was a great relief;

With some good elemosinary cheese,

And then a pinch of snuff that made us sneeze;

At other times - if I be not mistaken -

He treated us with turkey, sprouts and bacon.

Thus far went Tom, until the clock struck one,

Then ‘twas agreed that we shou’d all be gone.

As we came out, the waiters were not slack, -

We had an hundred ‘kindly welcomes’ at our back.”

During its latter years, Christ Church-yard was occupied almost entirely by trunk makers and toy manufacturers; and of the passage styled “Hell,” which appears to have received its name from the “cellar called Hell,” mentioned in our notice of St. John’s-lane, a late writer has left the following account:- “This was certainly a very profane and unseemly soubriquet to give to a place that adjoined a Cathedral whose name was Christ Church; and my young mind, when I first entered there, was struck with its unseemliness. Yes; and more especially, when over the arched entrance there was pointed out to me the very image of the Devil, carved in oak, and not unlike one of those hideous black figures that are still in Thomas-street, hung over tobacconists’ doors. This locale of *Hell, *and this representation of his Satanic majesty, were famous in those days even beyond the walls of Dublin. I remember well, on returning to my native town after my first visit to Dublin, being asked by all my play-fellows had I been in Hell, and had I seen the Devil. Its fame even reached Scotland, and Burns the poet, in his story of ‘Death and Doctor Hornbook,’ alludes to it when he says:-

“‘But this that I am gaun to tell,

Which lately on a night befell,

Is just as true as the Deil’s in Hell,

Or Dublin city.’

As *Hell *has not now any local habitation in our city, neither has the Devil-but I can assure you, reader, that there are relics preserved of this very statue to this day; some of it was made into much esteemed snuff-boxes - and I am told there is one antiquarian in our city who possesses the head and horns, and who prizes the relic as the most valuable in his museum. At any rate, *Hell *to me, in those days, was a most attractive place, and often did I go hither, for the yard was full of shops where toys, and fireworks, and kites, and all the playthings that engage the youthful fancy, were exposed for sale. But *Hell *was not only attractive to little boys, but also to bearded men for here were comfortable lodgings for single men, and I remember reading in a journal of the day an advertisement, intimating that there were ‘To be let, furnished apartments in *Hell. *N.B They are well suited to a lawyer.’ Here also were sundry taverns and snuggeries, where the counsellor would cosher with the attorney - where the prebendary and the canon of the cathedral could meet and make merry - here the old stagers, the seniors of the Currans, the Yelverton s, and the Bully Egans, would enjoy the concomitants of good fellowship - there Prime Sergeant Malone, dark Phil Tisdall, and prior still to them, the noted Sir Toby Butler, cracked their jokes and their marrow-bones, toasted away claret, and tossed repartee, until they died, as other men die and are forgotten.”

Contiguous to Christ Church-yard stood the “Venella Sanctae Trinitatis,” or the “Trynitie-]ane,” a passage about 12 feet in width, leading from Skinner’s-row to Wine-tavern-street. In the early part of the 16th century various shops and taverns were located in the “Trynitie-lane,” which, about the reign of Edward VI., acquired the name of “Christ Church-lane,” and in it resided Thomas Smith, apothecary, to encourage whom to remain in this country a concordatum was granted on 25th April, 1566. A house called the “King’s Head,” in Christ Church-lane, is noticed in a document of the reign of Charles II.; and in this locality, later in the same century, was the establishment of Christopher Jans or J’ans, a Roman Catholic publisher, apparently descended from Robert Jans, a “worshipfull gentleman,” who, in 1547, was one of the last Bailiffs and first Sheriffs of Dublin. Jans does not appear to have published any works after the Revolution, at which period his books and machinery were seized and confiscated by the Williamites. The corner house in Christ Church-lane and Skinners’-row, opposite the Tholsel, was occupied about 1760 by Henry Saunders, bookseller, and, for a Lime, publisher of the Dublin newspaper which still bears his name. The opposite corner of this lane in High-street, from its proximity to the Law Courts and other public offices, was constantly crowded with loungers of various classes, whence it became generally known as “Idlers’-corner.” The author of a “Dissertation on Fashions,” published at Dublin in 1740, speaking of the *petits maitres *of that day, tells us that -

Some like postilions, cap-a-pié

At Idlers’ corner spead the day,

In riding-order, full of pride,

As if they’re just going to ride,

They wear their boots for weeks together,

With caps of velvet or of leather,

They walk on Change, or go to plays,

Can drive a hackney coach or chaise;

Like Phaetons upon the Strand,

Till stew or tavern makes them stand,

Where they must stay to sup or dine,

And overset themselves with wine.”

In Christ Church-lane were the “Fountain Tavern” (1730), kept by Laughlin Mac Kege; the “London Coffee-house” (1741);” Joe’s Coffee-house” (1762), kept by Arthur Clarke; and the “Four Courts Coffee-house” (1783).

A narrow passage extending front St John’s-Ian e across the upper part of Winetavern-street, to St. Michael’s-lane, is described, in a lease of the 13th century, as “Venella quae ducit a Vico Tabernariorum ad Vicum quae dicitur Gilleholmocstrete.” In old parochial documents this locality is styled the “Rowen-lane” (1528); “Venella escopiata vocat’ Le Cock lane” (1569); “RowningAane” (1572); and the “Ronnde-lane” (1594); but from the reign of Elizabeth it became generally known as the “Cock-hill,” and it is noticed in 1587 as the fish-market in the city. In 1514 William Chamberlaine, of Kilreske, Gent., set to John Rawson a house in this locality afterwards known as the “Frank house,” which he held from the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem at a rent of ten shillings a year. Rawson in 1518 let his house to Patrick Field, or De la Felde, of Dublin, merchant, who acquired a considerable property in this vicinity, which he bequeathed in 1522 to the church of St. Michael. A deed of the year 1537 notices “new houses on the hill;” and in 1569 the “Frank house,” otherwise called “Chamerlyn’s Inn,” was set by the parish to William FitzSymon, merchant, at a low rent, in consideration of his having defrayed the expense of certain repairs of the church. The “Frank house” was subsequently granted by James I, in 1610, to Lady Delvin at the annual rent of seven shillings and sixpence. In 1592 a house belonging to Nicholas Fitz Symons of Dublin, alderman, in the tenure of John Dillon, is mentioned as on the eastern part of the hill, called “Dock-hill, alias Cock-hill,” in St. John’s parish.

Patrick Naughton, surgeon, resided here in 1592; and among the patent Rolls of James I. appears a grant in 1604 of a messuage lately waste on the eastern part of Dotchill, otherwise Cock-hill, in the parish of St. Olave.

In 1619 the churchwardens of St. Michael’s parish set to Margaret Staples, for 61 years, at the annual rent of 53 shillings, a house and back-side on Cock-hill. This house in 1676 was re-set by them for a similar period, at eight pounds per annum, to Thomas and Samuel Whitshed, sons of William Whitshed, late of Dublin, merchant. Thomas Whitshed was an eminent lawyer, and his son William was appointed Solicitor-General of Ireland in 1709, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in 1714, and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1727, in which year he died, as hereafter noticed. On the rebuilding of the Dublin Law Courts in 1695, the law offices of the various courts were removed to “Cock-hill,” where the office of the Chief Remembrancer was kept in a house held from Eliza Pitt at the annual rent of £44 13s. 4*d. *The insecurity and inconveniences of the offices here occasioned the following memorial:-

“The humble representation or the Chiefe Remembrancer and the clerke of the pleas office of his Majesty’s Court of Exchequer.

“Humbly sheweth that the former patentees of the said offices were necessitated upon the rebuilding of the Four Courts in Christchurch lane, Dublin, to remove the several offices from the said Four Courts to the place where they now are, vizt to Cocke hill, Dublin, which was the most convenient place they could finde neare the said Foure Conrts, that the said offices are in greate danger of fire by reason of the adjacent houses being timber worke, and ale-houses kept therein, and even in the cellar under the sail offices there is an ale-house kept, and constant fires in the same. That about 12 yeares ago the beam of the next adjacent house to the said offices took fire and had burnt a good way, but by the timely discovery thereof the same was with difficulty extinguished, and lately the chimney of the adjacent houses took fire, and the next house thereto being a timber house was like to be fired, which if it had, the offices had undoubtedly beene burnt. That the said offices are very inconvenient and extremely too narrow and straite and small to lay up the records of the said offices conveniently, and in order as they should be kept, and humbly offer that they cannot find out any convenient and safe place to remove the said offices to, nor indeed can there be any security of the records unlesse offices and repositoryes be built in some secure and convenient place for preservation of the records of the said offices, which are very numerous.

“Thomas Maule, Queen’s Remembrancer.”

Anth. Nixon.”

The Chief Remembrancer’s office was removed from “Cock-hill” to Kennedy’s-court in 1716, and although nearly a century and a half have elapsed since the date of the above remonstrance, the great mass of the most valuable Anglo-Irish public records are at the present day in a scarcely better condition as to safety and arrangement than they were 140 years ago. Christ Church-yard, Christ Church-lane, and Cock-hill, were demolished in the present century by the “Wide Street Commissioners,” who, to carry out their plans, purchased the estate in this locality held by Michael’s parish under the will of Patrick Field, before referred to.

Winetavern-street styled in old documents “Vicus Tabernariorum vini,” was so called from having been originally occupied by keepers of wine-taverns, repeatedly described in mediaeval writings as “taverners.” Cambrensis, in the 12th century, notices the great quantities of wine imported into Ireland, and John “Sans-terre,” in his charter to the city of Dublin, enacted that no foreigner should keep a vine-tavern (taberna de vino) in Dublin, except on ship-board, and reserved to himself the privilege, that “out of every ship which should arrive there with wines for sale, his bailiff, in his stead, should choose from any part of the vessel two hogs-heads of wine, that is to say, one before the mast and one behind the mast, for the royal use, at 20 shillings for each hogshead, but nothing further to be taken, unless at the free will of the merchant.” The same prince, in 1185, granted the abbey of Thomas Court the toll of ale and metheglin payable out of the taverns then existing in Dublin; and the biographer of Lorcan O’Tuathail, in the 12th century, notices that the saint used to regale his guests with various kinds of wine. From the account of Jean le Decer and Thomas Colys, citizens of Dublin, preserved on the great Roll of the Pipe, it appears that, among other exports in 1229, they supplied the King’s army in Scotland with 55 hogsheads, and one pipe of red wine. Theobald le Botiller’s account of wines imported into the Irish ports under English jurisdiction, from 1266 to 1282, shows that the sum received for prizage during that period amounted to £1798, and the early Anglo-Irish records abound with entries of large quantities of wine supplied from Ireland to England. Divers persons having sold wine and other liquors by new measures not sealed nor agreeing with the King’s measures, to the great hurt, deceit and damage of the common people, the Parliament of the Pale, in 1450, decreed a forfeiture of the measures and a penalty of 40 shillings against any man who sold wine, ale, or any other liquor, in any franchised city or town, except with the King’s sealed measures, namely, the gallon, the pottle, the quart the pint, and the half-pint.

Stanihurst tells us that Patrick Sarsfield, Mayor of Dublin in 1554, assured one of his friends that he had spent that year in housekeeping 20 tuns of claret, over and above white wine, sack, malvoisie, muscadell, &c. In 1565 the increase of taverns in Dublin caused Nicholas Fitz-Simons, then Mayor, to issue a proclamation that no woman nor maids should sell wine, ale, or beer in the citu, unless such as should keep a sign at their doors, under a penalty of 40 shillings; and the Secretary to Lord Mountjoy, in the reign of Elizabeth, says that “at Dublyn and in some other cities, they have taverns, wherein Spanish and French wines are sold, but more commonly the merchants sell them by pintes and quartes in their owne cellers;” and be aids, that when the native Irish “come to any market towne to sell a cow or a horse, they never returne home till they have drunke the price in Spanish wine (which they call the King of Spaine’s daughter), or in Irish Usqueboagh.”

Various cellars in Winetawern-street in the early part of the 16th century are enumerated in the rentals of the property of Christ Church, and Barnaby Rych has left the following notices of the Dublin taverns in the reign of James I.:

“I am nowe to speake of a certaine kind of commodity, that outstretcheth all that I have hitherto spoken of, and that is the selling of ale in Dublin, a quotidian commodity that hath vent in every house in the towne, every day in the weeke, at every houre in the day, and in every minute in the houre: There is no merchandise so vendible, it is the very marrow of the common wealth in Dublin: the whole profit of the towne stands upon ale-houses, and selling of ale, but yet the cittizens a little to dignifie the title, as they use to call every pedlar a merchant, so they use to call every ale-house a taverne whereof there are such plentie, that there are whole streates of tavernes, and it is as rare a thing to finde a house in Dubline without a taverne, as to find a taverne without a strumpet. This free mart of ale selling in Dublyne is prohibited to none, but that it is lawfull for every woman (be she better or be she worse) either to brewe or else to sell ale. The better sort, as the aldermen’s wives, and the rest that are of better abilitie, are those that do brew, and looke how many householders there are in Dublyne, so many ale-brewers there be in the towne, for every householder’s wife is a brewer. And (whatsoever she be otherwise) or let hir come from whence shee will, if her credit will serve to borrowe a pan, and to buy but a measure of mault in the market, she setts uppe brewing then they have a number of young ydle huswives, that are both very loathsome, filthie and abominable, both in life and manners, and these they call taverne keepers, the most of them knowne harlots; these doe take in both ale and beere by the barrell from those that do brue, and they sell it for the againe by the potte, after twoe pence for a wine quart. And this (as I take it) is a principall cause for the tolleration of many enormities; for the game that is gotten by it must needes be great, when they buy mault in Dublin, at haulfe the price that it is sold for at London, and they sell their drinke in Dublyn, at double the rate that they doe in London: and this commoditie the aldermens wives and the rest of the women brewers do find so sweet, that maister Mayor and his brethren are the willinger to winke at, and to tolerate with those multitude of ale-houses, that themselves do even knowe to be the very nurseries of drunkennesse, of all manner of idlenesse, or whordome, and many other vile abominations. I have hitherto spoken but of ale-houses, that are almost as many in number as there be dwelling houses in the towne There be likewise some three or foure that have set uppe brew-houses for beere, whereof they are accustomed to making two sorts; that is to say: strong beere, and ordinarie: their ordinarie beere they do use to serve to the Englishe, that are there inhabiting in Dublyn, that doeth keepe servantes and families, and this beere they do prize at sixe shillings the barrell, which according to their measure, amounteth to xlviij.s. the tunne, and in London their iiij.s. beere, that is solde after the rate of xxxxiiij.s. the tunne, is better beere by oddes. Their strong beere is commonly vented by these ale-house queanes, taverne keepers, (as they call then) and this they do take at xijs. the Dubline barrell, and that is just after the rate of xvjs. a London barrell, which amounteth to iiij.l.xvjs.s the tunne, shameful for the magistrates of the towne to suffer, considering the cheapnesse of mault. Here is now to bee considered, that there is almost never a householder in Dublin (whatsoever trade he otherwise useth) but hee have a blinde corner in his house reserved for a taverne, and this (if he have not a wife of his owne to keepe it) shall be set out to one of these women taverne keepers, shee taketh in drinke both beere and ale, after the rate of xij.s. the Dublin barrell, she payeth moreover to the party of whom she hireth her taverne, yj.sh. out of every barrell that she uttereth: if she doth not get xj.sh. more for her selfe: she will never be able to keepe herself honest, so that here is xxiiij.s. made out of every barrell of beere, which cometh just to ix.li.xii.s. a tunne. How shameful a thing to be suffered in a wel governed citty, let wise men iudge, for with those that be called honest, I will not medle. I have been so long amongst these filthy ale houses, that my head beginnes to grow idle, and it is no wonder, for the very remembrance of that hogges wash which they use to sell for ij.d. the wine quart, is able to distemper any man’s braine’s, and as it is neither good nor wholesome, so it is unfit for any mans drinking, but for common drunkards; but I will here leave my women taverne keepers to Maister Maior of the Bull ringe to look unto,”

Notwithstanding these arguments, the taverns for the sale both of wine and ale continued to increase in the city. The Rev. Francis O’Molloy, in a Gaelic address to his countrymen from Rome, 1677, styles Dublin Atha Cliath na bhlearg bhfionol - “the city of the wine flasks;” and in the reign of Charles II. there were 1,180 ale-houses and 91 public brew-houses in the Irish capital, when its entire population was estimated at 4,000 families.

In Winetavern-street, at a very early period, was located the Guildhall, or public Court of the citizens of Dublin, who are recorded to have incurred the enmity of Dermod Mac Murchadh, King of Leinster, by having slain his father, Murchadh, A.D. 1120, in the middle of a large house used as their public Hall, “domus quaedam grandis ubi tanquam in foro pro rostris sedere consueverant.”

After the Anglo-Norman settlement the citizens obtained a charter, enacting that they should be impleaded nowhere but in their Guild-hall (Gild-halla sua), except concerning pleas and extern tenures, not appertaining to the Hundreds of the city; and the Mayor and Sheriffs were empowered to take cognizance of; and decide upon, all pleas, tenures, trespasses, covenants, and contracts arising within the city, suburbs, and liberties. The Guildhall, which is described as a messuage, with cellars and other appurtenances, appears to have fallen into disuse after the transfer of its business to the Skinners’-row early in the 14th century, and the Charter-Book of the Corporation records that in 1310 the Mayor and commonalty of the city set to Robert de Bristol the entire of their “holding where the old Guildhal (vetus Gwyalda) used to stand in she street of the taverners, said holding lying in breadth between the tenement formerly occupied by Vincent Taverner on the north, and the stone house of Radulf de Willeley;” the building, however, had totally fallen before the close of the 14th century, as in a deed of the year 1384 we find notice of a vacant place in the street of the taverners, where the Guildhall of the city anciently stood. At the northern end of Winetavern-street stool a portal, known in the 16th century as the “Winetavern-gate,” the erection of which has been erroneously assigned by Stanihurst to the era of Bruce’s invasion in 1316, but from a document of the year 1333, we learn that this edifice, anciently styled the “Kynges-gate,” was erected at a much earlier period.

Francis Edgeworth, gentleman, is mentioned as seised of a messuage upon this gate in 1627, and William Kennedy appeared as claimant in 1701 of a house called the “Wine-tavern Gate-house.”

The native annalists record the following occurrence as having taken place in 1597, in Winetavern-street, which about that period was usually styled in legal documents “Vicus vini,” the Wine-street, or “Vicus ubi vinnm venditur,” the street in which wine was sold.

“One hundred and forty-four barrels of powder were sent by the Queen to the town of the ford of hurdles (Dublin) to her people, in the month of March. When the powder was landed, it was drawn to Wine-street (co sráid an fhiona), and placed on both sides of the street, and a spark of fire got into the powder; but from whence that spark proceeded, whether from the heavens, or from the earth beneath, is not known; howbeit, the barrels burst into one blazing flame and rapid conflagration (on the 13th of March), which raised into the air, from their solid foundations and supporting posts, the stone mansions and wooden houses of the, street, so that the long beam, the enormous stone, and the man in his corporal shape, were sent whirling into the air over the town by the explosion of this powerful powder; and it is impossible to enumerate, reckon, or describe, the number of honourable persons, of tradesmen of every class, of women and maidens, and of the sons of gentlemen, who had come from all parts of Erin to be educated in the city, that were destroyed. The quantity of gold, silver, or worldly property, that was destroyed, was no cause of lamentation, compared to the number of people who were injured and killed by that explosion. It was not Wine-street alone that was destroyed on this occasion, but the next quarter of the town to it.”

In** **Winetavern-street stood, originally, the hall of the Guild of Tailors, who were incorporated by two charters, dated respectively 20th May, 1417, and 16th July, 1418, addressed to John Talbot, Lord Furnival, Thomas Talbot his brother, Laurence de Mereburil, Knight Hugh Burgh, Roger Hawkinshaw, John Wych, John Gland, Thomas Wallys, Reginald Sueterby, John Coryngham, John Passavant, Thomas Case, John Cruce, John Hynton, John Kyrkham, David Rendyll, William Barrett, William Redyard, John Lytyll, and James Yong. The charter authorized the foundation of a guild or fraternity of tailors (“artis scissorum”) within the city of Dublin, in honour of God, the blessed Virgin Mary, and St. John the Baptist; the Corporation, comprising both male and female members, was to be governed by a master and two wardens, and to have a chantry of one or more chaplains, to celebrate divine service daily in the chapel of the blessed Virgin Mary, in the church of St. John, Dublin, for the benefit of the souls of the founders and members of the guild. This grant contains the clause, usual in the charters granted in the Middle Ages to the Dublin guilds, that no member of the fraternity should take any but English youths (“Anglicae” nacionis”) as apprentices.

In the accounts of Christ Church for 1539 appears an entry of rent, received from John Bayly, for “the taverne by the Tailor’s Hall;” and in 1604, Sir Henry Broncar, President of Munster, obtained a grant of a “messuage with a wine cellar, called the “Taylor’s Hall in St. John’s parish, the estate of the late Abbey of Thomas Court.”

Notwithstanding their charter, the Guild of Dublin Tailors continued to use a seal bearing the arms of the Company of Merchant Tailors of London until the year 1684, when they procured a grant front Sir Richard Carney, Ulster King-at-Arms, whose patent having set forth that - “the said corporation much contributed and was signally serviceable in the most happy restauration of our most graticus sovereigne lord king Charles the second,” grants and confirms “unto the master and wardens and their successors for the use of the said corporation for ever these armes, crest, supporters and motto following, vizt: Argent a tent between two manches gules on a chiefe azure a lamb passant of the first between two Bizants Or; for their crest on a helmet and wreath of their collours St. John the Baptist’s head proper in a charger Or mantled gules doubled argent, supported between two camels proper Bizanted standing on a scrowle with this motto (I was naked and ye clothed me) Nudus et operuistis me.”

After the Revolution, the Protestant portion of the Guild of Tailors, anxious to obtain a monopoly by imposing disabilities upon their Roman Catholic fellow-tradesmen, petitioned William III. for a new charter, on the grounds recapitulated as follows in the King’s reply to their application:

That the Papists since the last rebellion have in great numbers repaired to our city of Dublin, out of the country, and do work at the Tailor’s trade in opposition to the petitioners, to the prejudice of our loyall subjects, and the great scandall and loss of the petitioners, they the said Papists committing many frauds and cheats, which cannot be prevented by the Protestants, unless we would be graciously pleased to grant unto them our royall charter to the like effect of their former charters, leaving out the Popish fopperies and superstitious ceremonies and uses, to which they and their predecessors were by their former charters obliged, that so the petitioners might become a Protestant fraternity or guild.”

The new charter, making the Corporation exclusively Protestant, was passed at Kensington on the 2nd of May, 1696, Charles Cox and William Ballance being then wardens of the guild; and in 1706 the Corporation removed their hall from Winetavern-street to Back-lane, as hereafter noticed.

We find notice in 1619 of a cellar in Winetavern-street called the “White Horse,” and the rooms over it, called Field’s lands; and among the various signs in this street, referred to in the parochial documents, are - the “Black Boy Cellar” (1626); “the Golden Lyon;” the ” Common Cellar” (1632); the ” Spread Eagle” (1643); the “King’s Head;” the “Golden Dragon,” (1646). The Royal Exchange of the city likewise appears to have stood in Winetavern-street in 1629, and the King’s Bench office was located in a place here known in 1646 as the “Magazine,” which contained five other houses, in one of which a society of Dissenters, formed by the Rev. Edward Baynes, used to hold their meetings in the reign of Charles II. This congregation, which removed to Cook-street in 1673, comprehended many persons of rank and fortune, among whom were Sir John Clotworthy, subsequently Lord Massereene, Lady Chichester, afterwards Countess of Donegal, and Lady Cole, of the Enniskillen Family. John Gorman kept a tennis court in this street in 1629, which appears to have been tenanted by Corporal Baile in 1663, at which period inns were held here by Thomas Kirkpatrick, Gilbert Richards, Arthur Hendley, John Webb, and Francis Norman.

Alderman Hutchinson’s house in Winetavern-street was appointed as the meeting-p]ace of the Committee nominated by the House of Commons in 1661 for receiving the money paid for the supply of the agents sent by the Parliament to England in that year. In this street also resided Daniel Byrne, tailor, ancestor of Lord de Tabley and of the Cabinteely family, of whom the following account was given by his kinsman, Garret Byrne of Fallybeg:-

“This Daniel was second son of a gentleman of fortune, whose estate was situated by the sea side, at a place called Ballintlea, near Redcross, in the county of Wicklow, and not being the heir was bred up to the business of a clothier, and afterwards carried on the trade of a tailor, and kept 40 men constantly working at that business. He used to buy all the white cloth in Dublin, get it coloured red, and clothe 40,000 men with the same for General Cromwell, and never call for money until all was finished, and then received drafts from Cromwell on the Treasury, where he got cash, for which he purchased estates. He bought, besides that of O’KelIy’s, another estate at the great heath of Maryborough, known by the name of the Lordship of Shean, from a young Squire Whitney, who, being greatly indebted to him, and required by him to marry his daughter, and that he would not only forgive him the debt, but redeem his estate from all other incumbrances, Whitney said, ‘he could not think of smothering his blood by marrying a tailor’s daughter;’ whereupon Mr. Byrne told him he had better think of paying him his money, as he wanted it to fortune her; but, not being able to raise money by any other means than selling his estate, he came and told Byrne he had thought better of the matter, and that he was now willing to accept of the proposal he had made him. Mr.* *Byrne said, if he could find a young squire buying an estate, it is with him he would be willing to match his daughter; but where he found such selling his, he could not think of giving her to him; so he compelled Squire Whitney to sell the estate and himself became the purchaser, and left Squire Whitney living in the Castle of Shean. Soon after, Whitney invited Byrne to dine with him there, and contrived that Byrne got neither knife nor fork, and being entreated by him (being master of the feast) to help himself; said he had plenty of meat, but nothing to cut it. Whereupon Whitney answered, ‘Why don’t you draw your scissors and clip it, Sir?’ ‘I drew it time enough to clip the lordship of Shean from your back, Sir.’ And for this affront he ordered him to quit the Castle next morning, and so turned him out. Besides Byrne being deemed a wise roan, he was both jocund and pleasant, and very ready in his answers, and bore with the slurs thrown on his trade very well, as may be known by his repartees. A predecessor to the now Earl of Portarlington, then Squire Dawson, and of the posterity of millers, said to Mr. Byrne, in pressing him to a dram of a morning going to hunt, ‘Take it off, Daniel, it is but a thimblefull.’ He immediately drank it, and jovially answered, ‘Yes, Willy, I would take it if it was a hopperfull,’ to let him know, if there was a fault in being a tailor, there was the same in being a miller. He gave his son, Gregory Byrne, Temple education, and bought the title of Baronet of England for him and his male heirs for ever, the creation whereof bears date in the year of our Lord 1660, and the like of Ireland, the creation bearing date the 17th day of May, 1671. And in some time after, being walking together in Dublin, Sir Gregory said: ‘Father, you ought to walk to the left of me, I being a knight and you but a mechanic.’ He answered: ‘No, you puppy, I have the precedency in three ways: first, because I am an older man; secondly, because I am your father; and thirdly, because I am the son of a gentleman,. and you are but the son of a poor taylor.’”

In the reign of Charles II., Theobald Taaffe, first Earl of Carlingford, the family of Dillon, Viscounts of Costello Gallen, together with Sir Audley Mervin, the King’s first Sergeant-at-Law (1660-1675), and several other lawyers, resided in Winetavern-street, where also was kept the office of the prothonotary of the Common Pleas, the removal of which was recommended in 1739 by the Lords’ Committee, who reported that “an old cage-work house, then an ale-house, joined it on one side, and the beams of the house on the other were lodged in the walls of the office. At the back, there was a yard of about 10 feet square, entirely surrounded with houses; in any of which, or in the office itself if a fire should break out, it would have been scarce possible to use any proper means to preserve either houses or records.” On the east side of Wine-tavern-street, nearly opposite to Cook-street, stood a large house elegantly built, and bearing on the front an escutcheon containing a coat of arms, on one side of which, on a tablet, were inserted the letters R. M.; another tablet on the oppesite side containing the date 1641. This house, which, at the close of the 17th century, was known as the “Pyed Horse,” is described in 1703, as “a brick house, strong and well contrived, having of the first floor a kitchen and another room; on the second, two rooms; and on the third two rooms, being a well frequented inn, the sign of the Pyed Horse; two back houses, two stories and a half high, strong and in good repair, with stables, coach-house, &c.; 30 feet 6 inches in front 61 feet in rere, and 165 feet in depth, - yearly value £100.” In the year 1760 the front of this house was rebuilt, and its rere, called “Pyed-horse-yard,” or “Brassils court;” was converted into a tennis court, kept by one Hoey, and frequented by some of the most nefarious characters in the city, who used to resort there to play at ball on Sundays. This is establishment, the name of which was subsequently corrupted from “Pyed-horse-yard” to “White-horse-yard,” has been recently occupied by the Paving Department of the Dublin Corporation. A newspaper, called the ” Flying Post,” was published in 1706 by Francis Dickson at the “Four Courts” coffee-house in Winetavern-street;” where also were the “Bear Tavern” (1725), and the “Black Lyon” (1735), at the latter of which a Masonic Lodge assembled on every Wednesday. The Corporation Rental for 1763 contains an entry of an annual sum of £8 paid to the city for the “common bake-house” in Winetavern-street; and Thomas Wilkinson, masonic publisher, resided here, at the corner of Cook-street, from 1774 to the close of the last century. One of Robert Emmet’s depots was located in Winetavern-street, the appearance of which has been completely changed in the present century, by the removal of the entire of its western side, together with the other alterations at its southern extremity, by the demolition of Christ Church-lane and Cock-hill.

Gilbert Index