Hight-Street, Mac Gillamocholmog's Street - Ram Lane, Bertram's Court, Rochel Street.

Chapter VI.

The High Street - Mac Gillamocholmog’s Street - The Ram Lane - Bertram’s Court - Rochel Street.

The acclivity on which “High-street” stands is stated to have been the commencement of the *Eiscir, or boundary, agreed upon in the second century, when Ireland was divided into two portions, between Owen, King of Munster, and Conn, surnamed “of the hundred battles.” In the Anglo-Norman records, High-street is styled “Altus vicus;” and an old writer, commenting on the name of Dublin, observes:- “the Irish called it Baile atha Cliath’, *that is, a town planted upon hurdles. For the common opinion is, that the plot upon which the civitie is builded hath beene a marish ground; and for that by the art or invention of the first founder, the water could not be voided, he was forced to fasten the quakemire with hurdles, and upon them to build the citie. I heard of some that came of building of houses to this foundation: and other hold opinion that if a cart or waine run with a round and maine pase through a street called the High-street, the houses on each side shall be perceived to shake.”

From the marshy nature of the ground in this locality, it is found nearly impossible, even at the present day, to obtain secure foundations for buildings in High-street, the majority of the houses in which have been consequently erected on piles and massive wooden frames.

The church of St. Michael the Archangel, in High-street, was founded as a chapel by Donogh, bishop of Dublin in the 11th century, whose Successor, Richard Talbot, advanced it to the dignity of a parochial church in the 15th century. The fraternity of shoemakers (fraternitas sutorum), or guild of the the Blessed Virgin Mary, by their charter, passed in 1404, were anthorized to found a chantry of one or more chaplains, for the daily celebration of divine service in the chapel of the Virgin Mary, in the church of St. Michael in the High-street. By another patent, dated 24th January, in the 22nd year of Henry VI. (1444), at the request of the Commons, and with the assent of a Parliament held at Dublin in that, a guild was founded for the daily celebration of divine service in the chapel of St. Catherine in St. Michael’s church.

Henry VIII., by charter in 1541, assigned this church, with those of St. Michan and St. John, to the three principal Vicars Choral of Christ church, who were likewise constituted members of the Chapter. Under this charter, John Corragh was appointed the first Vicar Choral, and Dean’s Vicar, and received the Rectory of St. Michael’s as his Prebend. In 1544, Archbishop Browne constituted the above mentioned churches permanently Prebendal, leaving them still attached to the offices of Dean’s Vicar, Precentor’s Vicar, and Chancellor’s Vicar. James I., by a new charter in 1604, changed the Vicar’s Choral into three “Canonical Prebendaries,” under which title the then occupants were confirmed in their appointments, and this constitution is continued to the present day.

St. Michael’s church, which, during the 16th and early part of the 17th century, was one of the most frequented in the city, is described, in 1630, as in “very good reparacion and furnished with ornaments befitting; the most part of the parishioners,” adds the Report, “are Recusants, yet the church most commonly is full of Protestants, who resort thither every Sunday to hear divine service and sermon.”

Thomas Patience, the Anabaptist chaplain of Charles Fleetwood, was minister of St. Michael’s Church during a portion of the Protectorate. After the Restoration it having been found necessary to rebuild and repair portions of the church, the parishioners adopted the following resolution:-

Whereas for severall yeares past the severall companies of the Royall Regiment quartered in this city have made use of the Church of St. Michaell’s, Dublin, every Friday for the service of God, but in all that tyme nothinge hath beene contributed towards the reparation of the said church, or the seates thereof, which now stande in neede of much mendinge, and the Parishioners having mett this day and considering of the charge that Will repaire the same, doe finde themselves much disenabled to defray the same charge, doe therefore make it theire request that the minister of the saide Church Mr. John Glendie and the present Church-wardens, calling with them such of the Parishioners of the saide Parish as they thinck fitt; doe waite on the Right honble the Earle of Arran and acquaint his Lordship with theire present necessity, and do entreate his assistance (as Coll. of the saide regiment) towardes the aforesaide reparations. Dated the 27th November; 1674. John Glendie, minister. Thomas Rayner. Jo Smith. Rees Phillips. Henry Aston. John Coyne. Henry Stevens. William Fisher. Nicholas Hall.”

The Royal Regiment, as hereafter noticed, made a donation towards the repair of St. Aud6en’s Church in 1672, but the application from St. Michael’s parish appears to have been unsuccessful, and the re-edification of that church progressed very slowly. A Committee appointed to examine the steeple in 1676, reported that they had “viewed and admeasured the foundation next to St. Michael’s-lane, whereon the old steeple pertayneing to the said church lately stood, and as it is nowe laid open for the building of a new one; and wee doe finde that betweene the said foundation of the old as it formerly stoode and the new steeple next to the streete as is now intended to be erected to the widdow Garland’s house on the other side of the streete, there is only nine foote and eight inches. And that from the foundation of the old steeple as aforesaid unto the church wall now newly erected is six feet and eight inches. And we further certify, that for any thing we find or is known unto us, the said foundation of the old steeple Lath not been at all removed but is intended to be built upon the old foundation.”

In 1678 the minister and churchwardens agreed with Thomas Rayner that he “should sett up and affix upon merchantable oake frames the front and the partitions of the pues that are convenient to be to the church of St. Michaell’s with good merchantable oake workmanlike wrought. The materials and workmanship to be as good as the materials and workmanship of the pues of St. Warbrowe’s Church in the said city or any other parish church within the said city, at the rate of five shillings six pence sterling for every yard of the front of the said pues, and at the rate of four shillings sterling for every yard of the partitions of the said pues.”

They agreed in 1679 for the erection of an altar with two steps, together with a table lackered and painted; also to have the columns, windows, and cornices painted in “good and fresh colours.” Among various items of expenditure we find the sum £2 13s. paid for “making and erecting a pair of stocks before the Church.” The seats appointed for the various parishioners were set out by the minister and Churchwardens in August, 1679, and April, 1680; in the latter year the Corporation of shoemakers, having paid a sum of £20, were granted a seat, “number seven in the south east corner, in the same manner as they held their former seat.” Until of late years, divine service was specially performed in this church, for the Guild of Corpus Christi, on the annual recurrence of the festival from which they received their name, and the fraternity paid an annual sum of 15 shillings to the church, which also received a yearly rent of one shilling for “Conran’s tomb, a vault on the east side of the church.”

In 1694 the parishioners resolved to add 35 feet to the steeple, which, in its then unfinished state, was about 52 feet in height; and the repairs of the church appear not to have been completed until the close of the 17th century.

Among the rectors of St. Michael’s Church, the most remarkable were Daniel Wytter (1662-1664), afterwards promoted to the See of Dromore, who, in 1673, presented to his former church “a silver flagon weighing 71 ounces;” John Francis (1665-1705), father of the translator of Horace; Francis Higgins (1705-1728), a political character, prosecuted in 1712 for disloyalty; Gabriel Jacques Maturin (1734-1735); and Edward Ledwich (1749-1761), the associate of Vallancey.

Thomas Taylor, founder of the Bective family, and the fellow-labourer of Sir William Petty in compiling the Down Survey of Ireland, was interred in 1682, in St. Michael’s Church, which was the burial-place of the Fieldings, ancestors to the present Earl of Desmond; and in this church Ford Lambart, fifth Earl of Cavan, was interred in 1772. The only old monument now existing in the church is a mural slab, placed in the vestibule, and bearing the following inscription, commemorative of Chief Justice Whitshed:-

“P. M. S. Juxta sepultus jacet Gulielmus Whitshed, Armiger, Thomae incliti non ita pridem juris consulti, films celeberrimus; suis ornamento, patriae commodo natus. A teneris annis spem bonam florentis aetatis excitavit, indole admodum felici praeditus, optimis ornatus literis, in Foro summa legum peritia inclaruit. Juris consultus causas egit lucide, strenue, facunde, Senator principi studuit simul et patriae, egregiis hisce dotibus sibi conciliavit omnium bonorum vota, Georgii primi Regis favorern, cui a secretioribus usque erat consiliis. In Banco Regis dum primas tenebat, dein (ipso hoc orante) summum in curia communium placitorum locum obtinuit: utramque provinciam per tredecim annos exornavit, Judex indefessus, perspicax, incorruptus. Ita se gessit uti virum decet qui Supremum Judicium et credit et sperat futurum. Praematura morte abreptus, caelebs obiit quinquagenarius, 26 die Augusti, 1727.”

Towards the close of the last century the building having fallen to decay, the baptisms, marriages, and other ceremonies of St. Michael’s parish, were solemnized in St. Mary’s Chapel, Christ Church, from the year 1787 until the church was rebuilt in 1815. The new church differs in form materially from the old building, of which an engraving is preserved on a portion of the parish plate. The original aisle of the church ran parallel with High-street, from which it was separated by a row of three houses. In the course of the re-edification the various old monuments disappeared, with the exception of that of Chief Justice Whitshed, and the site of the ancient churchyard is now occupied by the parochial schools. The parish of St. Michael covers an area of only five acres and two roods, containing at present 127 houses, and 1,317 inhabitants.

From the Doomsday book of the Corporation of Dublin, it appears that, in 1255, one of the conduits, or public water vases of the city, was situated in High-street, opposite to the Tholsel, and near the gate of the convent of the Holy Trinity. In the “Recorder’s Book,” this conduit is styled, in 1322, the cistern of the water course of the Mayor and Commonalty of Dublin, near the Church of St. Michael, in the High-street; and among the city archives are preserved entries of licenses granted in the 13th and 14th centuries, to various persons to connect pipes with the city cisterns, for the purpose of supplying their houses with water, it being generally stipulated on the part of the Corporation, that the calibre of the tubes so attached should not exceed that of a quill.

At the junction of Skinners’-row and High-street stood the “High Cross” of the city, at which, from an early period, it was customary to read publicly, proclamations, Papal Bulls, sentences of excommunication, and other documents of importance to the citizens.

The mode of performing public penances at the “High Cross,” is illustrated by the following extracts from the proceedings of the “High Commission Court,” for causes ecclesiastical:-

“29th Martii, 1571 - Officium dominorum versus Henricum Hinchcliffe.

“Fyrst, that he shall not come into nor kepe nor use the company of Costance Kyng hereafter, and shallbe bounde to the same effecte in a bonde of recognizance for £100, otherwise to be committed to prison, there to be kept in such sorte that neyther he to her nor she to him shall have accesse in any wise. Secondlie, That upon Saturdaie next enseweng at ix of the clocke in the mornyng he the said Eyland alias Hinchecliffe shall come unto the Crosse in the Highe streete of Dublin having on a white shete from his sholders downe to the ground rounde about him and a paper about his heade wherupon shall be written ‘For adulteri: leaving his wyfe in England alyve and maryengwith another here,’ and a white wande in his hand and then and there goe up unto the highest staire of the Crosse and there sitt duryng all the time of the markette untill yt be ended, and furder decreed that Constance Kyng shall not hereafter in any wise resort or have accesse unto him or kepe him company and to performe the same they toke hir othe which she gave upon the holie Evangelists, and furder after that Hinchcliffe hath done his penance as aforesaid, they decreed he shold goe to prison againe, there to renayne and abide untill yt shall please the Commissioners to take furder order in this cause.”

“26 Junii, 1572. - Officium dominorum versus Constanciam Kyng, civitatis Dublin, viduam.

“That upon Sondaie next ensewing the date above written the said Constance togither with the said Hinchecliffe shall come before mornyng praier unto the cathedrall churche of the blessed Trynitie in Dublin barefote and barelegged and having on eyther of them and about them on there uppermost garment a white shete from the sholders downe to the ankles and a white wand in either of ther hands and so come to the churche dore of the said churche and there from the begynning of morning praier remaine knelyng downe upon there knees untill the service be all ended and then they shall goe and stand upon a stole before the pulpitte from the begynning of the sermon untill yt be ended. And furder after the premisses they shall in lyke manner the next markett daie following from ix of the clock until xi sitte together penytent wise in manner and forme aforesaid, having besides the premises aboute either of there heades a paper hujus tenoris ‘This is for adultery and perjurie,’ and this upon the highest stepps of the Crosse in the markette place in Dublin with there faces towards the people.”

“30th Octobris, 1572. Officium dominorum versus Georgium Bateman de Kilmaynam et Benedictam, meretricem quam tenet.

“That upon Saterdaie come sevennyght next enseweing the date hereof at the pryme of the markett bothe they shall come unto the Crosse of the markette in Dublin with shetes from their sholders unto the grounde and papers on there heades whereon shallbe written ‘For adultery,’ and white roddes in their hands and so contynue from the tyme of there comyng untill the market be ended. And after and besides the premysses shall upon Sondaie sevennyght then next following in the churche of St. Owen’s, within Dublin, where there shalbe a sernon, in manner and forme aforesaid, come to the said churche at the begginning of service, and there at the entryng in of the chauncell, openly knele untill the precher goe up into the pulpitte, and then rysing shall goe and stand before the pulpitte, there faces turned to the greater part of the congregacion, untill the sermon be ended, and then penytently and openly shall acknowledge there faults and ask forgevenes. ‘Et interim Domini comiserunt eorum utrumque Marescallo salvo custodiend.’”

During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., any Roman Catholic citizens convicted of having allowed priests of their own religion to celebrate either baptismal or matrimonial ceremonies were obliged to stand in a similar penitential manner at the High Cross, the custom of publishing proclamation at which, in the presence of the Lord Chancellor and other officers of state, was continued till the time of Charles I.; and in 1644 Robert Doogan, for having assaulted a member of parliament was ordered by the House of Commons to make an acknowledgment of his offence, standing “on the highest step of the Cross of Dublin.”

High-street appears to have been one of the most important of the streets within the walls of Dublin during the middle ages, and of the flesh shambles which were held there until the reign of James I., Stanihurst in the 16th century observes:- “The great expenses of the citizens maie probalie be gathered by the worthie and fairlike markets, weeklie onWednesdaie and Fridaie kept in Dublin. Their shambles is so well stored with meat and their market with corne, as not onelie in Ireland, but also in other countries, you shall not see anie one shambles, or anie one market better furnished with the one or the other, than Dublin is.” The same author gives the following account of a riot in this locality in 1531:-

“In the second year of Skeffington his government, it happened that one HenrieWhite, servant to Benet a merchant of Dublin, was pitching of a cart of haie in the High-street; and having offered boies plaie to passengers that walked to and fro, he let a bottle (truss) of his haie fall on a souldiors bonet, as he passed by his cart. The souldior taking this knavish knacke in dudgeon, hurled his dagger at him, and having narrowlie mist the princocks, he sticked it in a post not far off. White leapt down from the cart, and thrust the souldior through the shoulder with his pike. Whereupon there was a great uprore in the citie between the souldiors and the apprentises, in as muche as Thomas Barbie being the Maior, having the King his sword drawne, was hardlie able to appease the fraie, in which diverse were wounded, and none slaine. The Lord Deputie issued out of the Castell, and came as far as the pillorie, to whome the Major posted thorough the prease with the sword naked under his arme, and presented White that was the brewer of all this garboile to his Lordship, whome the Governour pardoned, as well for his courage in bickering as for his retchlesse simplicitie and pleasautnesse in telling the whole discourse. Wherebey a man may see how manie bloudie quarels a bralling swashbuckler maie pick out of a bottle of haie, namelie when his braines are forebitten with a bottle of nappie ale.”

On the southern side of High-street resided William Sarsfield, Mayor of Dublin in 1566, in which year he was knighted for having rescued Lady Sidney from the Irish, and for his services against Shane O’Neil. This family was of French descent, and among those summoned in 1335 to attend John Darcy, Justiciary, with arms and horses, in his expedition to Scotland, were John Sarsefield de la Belagh, and John Fitz David de Sarsefield. Sir William Sarsfield held the manor of Lucan in capite by the annual service of four pair of gloves and a tabor, a tenure similar to that by which the same land had been held in the thirteenth century by the old Norman fammily of De Peche, as appears from the Pipe Roll of (46 Hen. III.) 1262. Sir William Sarsfield’s elder brothers, John and Patrick, were Mayors of Dublin in 1531 and 1554; the hospitality of the latter during his year of office has been chronicled as follows by a local contemporary

“There Lath been of late yeares a worshipfull gentleman, named Patrick Sarsefield, that bare the office of the Maioraltie in Dublin, who kept so great port in this year, as his hospitalitie to his fame and renowne resteth as yet in fresh memorie. One of his especiall and entire friends entering in communication with the gentleman, his yeare being well neere expired, mooued question, to what he thought his expenses all that yeare amounted to? ‘Trulie, James,’ (so his friend was named) quoth Maister Sarsefield, ‘I take between me and God, when I entered into mine office, the last Saint Hierome his day (which is the morrow of Michaelmasse, on which daie the Maior taketh his oth before the Chiefe Baron, at the Exeheker, within the Castell of Dublin) I had three barnes well stored and thwaekt with corne, and I assured my selfe, that anie one of these three had been sufficient to haue stored mine house with bread, ale, and beere for this yeare. And now God and good Companie be thanked, I stand in doubt, whether I shall rub out my Majoraltie with my third barne, which is well nigh with my yeare ended. And yet nothing smiteth me so much at the heart, as that the knot of good fellowes that you see here (he ment the Serjeants and Officers) are ready to flit from me, and make their next yeares abode with the next Major. And certes I am so much wedded to good fellowship, as if I could mainteine mine house to my contentation, with defraieng of five hundred pounds yearelie, I would make humble sute to the citizens, to be their officer these three yeares to come.’ Ouer this, he did at the same time protest with oth, that he spent that yeare in housekeeping twentie tuns of claret wine, ouer and aboue white wine, saeke, Malmeseie, Muscadell, &c. And in verie deed it was not to be maruelled; for during his Maioraltie, his house was so open, as commonly from fiue of the clocke in the morning, to ten at night, his butterie and cellars were with one crew or other frequented. To the haunting of which, ghests were the sooner allured, for that you should neuer marke him or his bed fellow (such was their buxomnesse) once frowne or wrinkle their foreheads, or bend their browes, or glowme their countenances, or make a soure face at anie ghest, were he neuer so meane. But their interteinment was so notable, as they would sauce their bountifull and deintie faire with heartie and amiable cheere. His Porter or anie other officer durst not for both his eares giue the simplest man that resorted to his house Tom Drum his interteinment, which is to hale a man in by the head, and thrust him out by both the shoulders. For he was fullie resolued, that his worship and reputation could not be more distained, than by the currish interteinment of anie ghest. To be briefe, according to the golden verses of the ancient and famous English poet Geffreie Chaucer:-

‘An housholder, and that a great, was hee,

Saint Iulian he was in his countrie.

his bread, his ale, was alwaie after one,

A better viended man was no where none.

Without bakte meat was neuer his house,

Of fish and flesh, and that so plenteouse.

It snewed in his house of meat and drinke,

Of all deinties that men could thinke.

After the sundrie seasons of the yere,

So changed he his meat and his suppere.

Full many a fat partrich had he in mew,

And manie a breme, and many a luce in stew.’

“Some of his friends, that were snudging peniefathers, would take him up verie roughlie for his lauishing and his outragious expenses, as they tearmed it. ‘Tush my maisters’ (would he say) ‘take not the matter so hot: who so cometh to my table, and hath no need of my meat, I know he cometh for the good will he beareth me; and therefore I am beholding to thanke him for his companie: if he resort for need, how maie I bestow my goods better, than in releeving the poore? If you had perceuied me to far behind hand, as that I had bene like to have brought haddocke to paddocke, I would patientlie permit you, both largelie to controll me, and friendlie to reprove me. But so long as I cut so large thongs of my owne leather, as that I am not yet come to my buckle, and during the time I keepe myself so farre aflote, as that I haue as much water as my ship draweth: I praie pardon me to be liberall in spending, sith God of his goodnesse is gratious in sending.’ And in deed so it fell out. For at the end of his Maioraltie he oweth, no man a dotkin. What he dispended was his owne: and euer after during his life, he kept so worthie a standing house, as that hee seemed to surrender the Prince’s sword to other Maiors, and reserued the port and hospitalitie to himself.”

Sir William Sarsfield was the grandfather of Patrick Sarsfield, created Earl of Lucan by James II.

The principal residents in the High-street in the 16th and 17th centuries were the Aldermen and merchants of the city, as John Sarsfield (1538); Walter Plunket; Andrew Lubell (1572); Philip Conran, tenant of “Holmes’ Inns” (1585); Wiliiam Fitzimons; Richard Barry, Mayor of Dublin in 1610, father of the first Lord Santry; Patrick Dixon (1619); and Alderman Walter Kennedy, brother of the Baron of the Exchequer, before noticed. Alderman Walter Kennedy died in 1672, and was succeeded by his son Christopher, whose son, Thomas Kennedy, became Aide-de-camp to the Duke of Tyrconnell, subsequently commanded a regiment in the service of Charles III. of Spain, and married Elizabeth daughter of Marinus Van Vryberge, Plenipotentiary from the States of Holland to the Court of England in the reign of Anne. After the death of Colonel Thomas Kennedy at Brussells in 1718, his family returned to Ireland, where they are at present represented by James Marinus Kennedy, Esq., who possesses a considerable portion of his ancient ancestorial estate at Clondalkin, County Dublin.

Among “the places of most publicke note whereunto the priests did resort to Masse in Dublin,” particularized in a document of the reign of James I., we find noticed certain back-rooms in the houses of Nicholas Queitrot, Carye, and the widow O’Hagan, in the High-street.

In 1647, the Countess of Roscommon, Sir Patrick Wemys, founder of the family of Danesfort, and Sir Thady Duff, were resident in HigL~street, and copper tokens are extant issued by the following inhabitants of this locality:-

Elnathan Brocke, seedman, 1657; Mathew French, 1655; Arthur Harvey, 1656; Gerrard Colley, apothecary at the sign of the Red Cross; Henry Reynolds; Henry Warren; Ignatius Browne, pewterer, 1671; John Smith, Merchant; John Betson, merchant, at the sign of the White Lion; John Warren, tallow chandler; Nicholas White; Richard Greenwood, merchant; Thomas Gould, merchant; Thomas Pagett, tallow chandler; William Hulme; Jonathan Butterton, pewterer, 1663; and William Miles, clothier, 1671.

On the south side of High-street was the residence of Mark Quin, Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1667. A branch of the clan of O’Cuinn or O’Quin appears to have settled in this city in the 16th century; Walter Quin of Dublin published in Edinburgh in 1600, a collection of epigrams, anagrams, and poems, in Latin and English, entitled “Serum poeticum in honorem Jacobi sexti, serenissimi ac potentissimi Scotorum regis.” Thomas Quin, a member of the Society of Jesus, stationed at Dublin in 1642, was untiring in his religious exertions, and used occasionally to attire himself as a soldier, a gentleman, or a peasant, to elude the vigilance of the Puritans in order to gain access to the houses of the Catholics. Father Quin, who wrote a report on the state and condition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland from 1652 to 1656, was subsequently removed to Nantes, thence to St. Malo, and died in 1663. Alderman Mark Quin, of High-street, was one of the most wealthy residents in St. Michael’s parish, the plate, money and documents of which appear from the Church records to have been kept at his house, until in a fit ofjealousy at the conduct of his wife, he cut his own throat, in 1674, “with a new bought razor between the hours of nine and ten in the morning, in or near the Chapel of St. Mary, in Christ Church.” Alderman Quin left an estate of about one thousand per annum to his son James, who studied at Trinity College, Dublin, was called to the Bar in England, and married a lady whose husband was reputed to be dead, having not been heard of for many years. By this lady, Quin had a son called James, born in 1693, some time after whose birth Mrs. Quin’s former husband returned and reclaimed his wife. Quin’s illegitimacy having been established, his father’s estate passed to the Whitsheds, the heirs at law, and the young man, being left on his own resources, appeared in the character of “Abel” in the “Committee” at Smock-alley theatre in 1714, and afterwards became one of the most eminent actors of his day. Smollett declared that Quin was “one of the best bred men in the Kingdom,” and the satirist Churchill speaking of him says

“His words bore sterling weight, nervous and strong

In manly tides of sense they rolled along.

Happy in art, he chiefly had pretence

To keep up numbers, yet not forfeit sense.

No actor ever greater heights could reach

In all the laboured artifice of speech.”

It was believed that the Whitsheds, who as noticed at page 147, were eminent lawyers, used much legal chicanery to exclude young Qnin from the enjoyment of his father’s property, and when Judge Whitshed rendered himself obnoxious by persecuting Swift’s printers, the suicide of his ancestor was recalled in an epigram beginning:-

“I am not grandson of that ass Quin;

Nor can you prove it, Mr. Pasquin;”

And also in the following lines

“In church your grandsire cut his throat;

To do the job too long he tarried:

He should have had my hearty vote

To cut his throat, before he married.”

The motto on Whitshed’s coach formed the subject of a satire by Swift, commencing:-

“Libertas et natale solum:

Fine words! I wonder where you stole ‘em.”

These lampoons were believed to have accelerated the death of the judge, the inscription on whose monument has been given at page 212. His property became vested in the late Admiral Sir James Hawkins Whitshed, K. C. B., second son of James Hawkins, Bishop of Raphoe, who having received a bequest of it from James Whitshed, the last of the family, obtained from the Irish Parliament in 1791, a private act authorising him to assume the name and quarter the Whitshed arms with his own. Sir Walter Scott and the other commentators on Swift, appear to have been totally ignorant of the circumstances above narrated in counexion with the Quins and Whitsheds.

Mark Quin bequeathed to the wardens of St. Michael’s Church, in trust for the poor widows of the parish, the sum of 52 shillings out of his house in High-street, which at the commencement of the last century was known as the sign of the “Flying Horse.” Among the taverns in High-street, were the “Swan,” kept in 1666, by Dyer Phillips; “Patt’s Coffee-Louse, over against St. Nicholas’ Church,” in which John Dunton held his book auctions in 1698; we likewise find notice of the “Golden Flagon (1701)” and the “Red Lyon Tavern (1714),” a very large establishment on the north side of the street. In High-street also was located the first Dublin Post house of which any record has been hitherto discovered.

A regular postal communication between Dublin and England appears to have been first established during the wars of Shane O’Neil in the reign of Elizabeth, when, according to a contemporary chronicler, “bicause in these troublesome times it were meet advertisements should go to and from hir majestic and councell to the Lord Deputie, and so likewise from his Lordship to them, order was taken for the more speedie conveiance of letters reciproke, there should be set posts appointed betweene London and Ireland.” Barnaby Rych, in the reign of James I., tells us that “Every great man in the country hath his rhymer, his harper, and his known messenger to run about the country with letters.” In 1656, it having been found that the horse of the army were ” much wearied, and his Highness’ affayres much prejudiced, for want of a Post-Office to carry publique letters,” the Council employed EvanVaughan, who speedily settled the stages, and eased the cavalry who had previously been the only posts for the conveyance of public letters. Thurloe subsequently appointed Vaughan Deputy Postmaster, in conjunction with a Mr. Talbot; previous to this, by order of the Commissioners of Parliament for the affairs of Ireland, the Irish Treasury had been charged with an allowance of about £100 per annum to Major Swift, Postmaster at Holyhead, for the maintenance of four boatmen added to the packet boats at the rate of eight-pence per day, and 18 shillings per mouth, to each man for wages.

In 1668 the Dublin Post-office is described as a “timber house in High-street, with a large backside or garden plott reaching to Back-lane , now called the Post house.” Post houses appear to have been first established in the principal towns of Ireland about the year 1670, which, says a writer of the time, “accommodates all persons with the conveniency of keeping good correspondency by way of letters, and that most commonly twice a week, with any, even the remotest part of Ireland, at the charge of eight-pence or 12-pence, which could not formerly be brought to pass under 10 or 20 shillings, and that sometimes with so slow a despatch, as gave occasion many times of no small prejudice to the party concerned.”

Later in the reign of Charles II., the General Post Office of Dublin was removed to Fishamble-street, and the site of the former establishment in High-street became occupied by the buildings known as “Mac Culla’s Court,” so called from James Maculla, projector of a copper coinage for Ireland, who, in 1727, published at Dublin an octavo pamphlet of 21 pages, entitled:-

“Reasons and observations most humbly proposed by James Maculla of the city of Dublin, pewterer, artificer in divers metals, viz., pewter, brass, and copper, &c. For the manufacturing copper half-pence and farthings in the kingdom of Ireland, in order to reduce, and to pay off 50,000l. of the debt of the nation, and to circulate 200,000l. more in cash, than there is now in the same, and likewise to promote the manufacturing of copper sheets and bottoms of the ore and mine of the kingdom to the profit of many thousands of pounds to the country, all which will prevent the subjects losing at least 500l. per cent by the circulation of counterfeit halfpence, and will also stop the exportation of the silver specie to the unreasonable profit of the exporters of 999l. sterl. per ann. But this will encourage the exportation of the lawful halfpence, to the exporter’s profit of 2187l. per cent. per ann. And also some observations why the nation refused Mr. Wood’s coyne, whereby they would probably have lost 383,89l. sterl., all of which will hereafter more fully appear.”

In the succeeding year he published another treatise, in quarto, on the same subject with the following title:-

“The lamentable cry of the people of Ireland to parliament. A coinage or mint, proposed. The parliament of Ireland’s address, and the king’s answer thereunto, relating to the coining copper half-pence and farthings for this nation. With several reasons and observations, showing the great necessity there is for such a coin; and a scheme laid down, demonstrating that the nation will have an increase in cash, as well gold and silver, as copper money, of 250,000l. sterl., by means thereof ; and that the said summ may be deemed all profit to the kingdom. By James Maculla of the city of Dublin, artificer in divers metals, viz., pewter, brass, and copper, &c. Dublin: printed by Edward Waters, 1728.”

Swift, in 1729, published a letter, addressed to Dr. Delany, on “Mr. Maculla’s project about halfpence,” in which he tells us that Maculla’s scheme was this:- “he gives you a piece of copper for a halfpenny or penny, stamped with a promissory note to pay you twenty pence for every pound of copper notes, whenever you shall return them. Eight and forty of these halfpenny pieces are to weigh a pound; and he sells you that pound, coined and stamped, for two shillings: by which he clearly gains a little more than 16 per cent.; that is to say, two pence in every shilling.”

The Dean suggested that Maculla should give security for the quality of the metal in his tokens, and be required to limit their issue to a reasonable amount: but, on the whole, he recommended that the Projector should be rewarded for his ingenious proposal, which he was of opinion might easily be brought to perfection by a society of nine or ten honest gentlemen of fortune, who wished well to their country, and would be content to be neither gainers nor losers, farther than the bare interest of their money. Maculla commenced his coinage in 1721, and in the ensuing year he issued tokens with the following incriptions: obverse, “Cash notes val. received Dublin: 1729. James Maculla. Penny,” in seven lines across the field of the coin; and on the reverse, “I promise to pay the bearer on demand 20 pence a pound for these,” in seven lines across the field; “Cash notes val. received: Dublin 1729. James Maculla 1 ,” in seven tines across; the reverse being the same as the former. His last coinage appears to have been in 1731, when he issued a coin containing on the obverse, “Cash notes value reced. J. Maculla;” in the centre a fleur de lis; and on the reverse “I promise 20 shillings pound ster.;” in the middle a figure of Justice standing between two pillars, in her right hand a sword, and in her left a balance, above which is the date, 1731.

In the Rule Book of the Exchequer, A. D. 1740, the old Post house in High-street is described as follows

“One messuage or tenement slated, commonly known by the name of the old Post Office, situate in High-street in the city of Dublin, extending in front about 30 feet, with yards, backsides and buildings to Back-lane, and two tenements, stable and coach house to Back-lane, 62 feet or thereabouts. Mearing and bounding on the east part to Mr. Reilly’s holding, and partly to a stable and coach house of Mr. (Cornelius) Callaghan’s on the east, partly to a concern fronting High-street belonging to Mr. Curtis, and partly to a concern fronting Back-lane belonging to Mr. Donovan, on the north to High-street, and on the south to Back-lane, and all that house and tenement wherein Mr. Kilburne formerly dwelt, containing 81 rooms, situate in Kilburn’s alley, between High-street and Back-lane, and also all that house for formerly held by Mr. William Wise, and known by the name of the back-house of the ‘Rose and Crown’ in High-street. Except the passage that leads from the said house called Kilburn’s house, through Timothy Barner’s house in High-street.” From the proceedings in this case, it appears that the old Post Office was purchased, in 1732, by Matthew Pagitt, who assigned it to Michael Reeves, Gent.; the latter was illegally dispossessed of it by James Maculla, against whom the assignee applied for an attachment in 1740.

The booksellers and publishers resident in High-street were, William Weston, printer and stationer to the Lord Deputy Tyrconnel, some of whose publications, during the reign of James II., bear the imprimatur of Patrick Tyrrell, Roman Catholic Bishop of Clogher; John Ware (1710); William Manning, publisher in 1726 of a newspaper styled “The Dublin Postman, being the most impartial advices foreign and domestick”; Thomas Fleming at the ” Salmon,” publisher of engravings; George Golding at the “King’s head,” near Corn-market (1740); T. Browne; Edward Hamilton; Richard Bulkely; Luke Dowling, a very eminent Roman Catholic bookseller, who died in 1758; and Richard Fitz Simons, 1765.

In High-street resided Humphrey French, who, from his conduct during his Mayoralty in 1735, acquired the name of the “Good Lord Mayor.” French died in 1736, and in the succeeding year, Swift, who, in 1731, had addressed to him a paraphrase of the ninth ode of the fourth book of Horace, wrote, from the Deanery house, as follows to George Faulkner:- “I have often mentioned to you an earnest desire I had, and still have, to record the merit and services of the Lord Mayor, Humphrey French; whom I often desired, after his mayoralty, to give me an account of many passages that happened in his mayoralty, and which he has often put off, on the pretence of his forgetfulness, but in reality of his modesty: I take him to be a hero in his kind, and that he ought to be imitated by all his successors, as far as their genius can reach. I desire you therefore to enquire among all his friends whom you are acquainted with, to press them to give you the particulars of what they can remember, not only during the general conduct of his life, whenever he had any power or authority in the city, but particularly from Mr. Maple, who was his intimate friend, who knew him best, and could give the most just character of himself and his actions. When I shall have got a sufficient information of all these particulars, I will, although I am oppressed with age and infirmities, stir up all the little spirit I can raise, to give the public an account of that great patriot; and propose him as an example to all future magistrates, in order to recommend his virtues to this miserable kingdom.”

The proposed biography was never published, and the sole memorial now preserved of its hero is a large mezzotinto portrait inscribed - “The Good Lord Mayor.” Humphrey French’s eldest brother, Matthew French, of Ballyhubbuck, county of Wicklow, married Elizabeth Lenthal, grand-daughter of the famous speaker of the English House of Commons.

Henry Tresham, one of our most eminent Irish painters, was born in High-street, and studied in Dublin under the elder West and Ennis, after which he was sent by Sir Clifton Wintringham to Italy, where he sojourned for several years. During his residence abroad, Dr. Hervey, the eccentric Bishop of Derry, conceiving that he was not sufficiently industrious, induced his friends to withdraw an annual pension of £100 which they allowed him, thus suddenly placing the artist in a very difficult position. On Tresham’s return from the Continent, he finished several pictures, including a large painting of Adam and Eve, which became the property of Lord Powerscourt. He painted several pictures for the Boydell Shakespeare gallery, and was engaged by the Longmans to edit their great publication of engravings from the works of the ancient masters in the collections of the British nobility and gentry.

His drawings with pen and ink, and especially with black chalk, were admitted to possess the highest excellence, and in recognition of his acquirements he was admitted to the Academies of Rome, Bologna, and London. Tresham’s critical acquaintance with the history of the fine arts was very extensive, and he was generally regarded as the highest authority of his day on all matters of vertu. On one occasion he purchased, for £100, a quantity of Etruscan vases, which had been cast aside as refuse by Thomas Hope, an eminent collector; Tresham, however, sold one-half of the parcel to Samuel Rogers for £800, and transferred the remainder, with some subsequent additions, to the Earl of Carlisle, who, in return, settled upon him a life annuity of £300. Tresham died in June, 1814, having published, - “The Sea Sick Minstrel, or Maritime Sorrows,” a poem, in six cantos, 4to. 1796; “Rome at the Close of the Eighteenth Century,” 4to. 1799; and “Britannicus to Bonaparte, an heroic epistle with notes,” 4to. 1803.

The ceremony of waking Theobald Wolfe Tone was performed, in November, 1798, at No. 65, High-street, the residence of his kinsman, William Dunbavin, who was totally opposed to Tone’s political opinions. “He was a member of a corps of yeomanry, and possessed some influence with the terrorists of the day. By means of that influence, probably assisted in high quarters by the interference of the Hon. George Knox, the body of Tone, and his effects - clothes, uniform, and sword - were given up to his friends. The two Dunbavins, provided with a written order, went with four men to the Provost for the body, and it was given up to them by Major Sandys. It was taken to William Dunbavin’s Louse in High-street (where his father and mother were then living), and laid out in a room on the second floor. The surviving relatives state, that the mother bore up astonishingly against the trials winch befell her in such quick succession; but the poor father seemed to have been overwhelmed by this last calamity.

“The body was kept two nights at Dunbaviu’s. A great number of persons came and sat in the room where the corpse was laid out. At length an order came from Government that the interment should immediately take place, and as privately as possible. The funeral, in conformity with the orders of the authorities, was attended only by two persons, William Dunbavin and John Ebbs, a brazier, who resided in Bride-street: both were members of a corps of yeomanry. The remains of Theobald Wolfe Tone were interred in the ancient cemetery of Bodenstown, close to the wall (on the south side) of the ruined abbey that stands in the centre of the grave-yard, in the same grave where his brother’s remains were recently buried, and those of his grandfather and his uncles reposed.”

Contiguous to the western side of St. Michael’s Church, and extending from the High-street to the Cook-street, stood in the 12th century, Mac Gillamocholmog’s-street, styled in mediaeval records, “Vicus de Kylholmok,” “Gilleholmoc-strete,” or “Venella Gillmeholmock;” and in its immediate vicinity was the portal called Mac Gillamocholmog’s gate, or “Porta Gillemeholmoc,” which is mentioned in a deed attested by Richard de Cogan, one of the original Anglo Norman invaders of Ireland. The chiefs of the tribe of Mac Gillamocholmog, who were lords of the territory of *Ui Dunnchadha *[Hy-Dunaghy] in the immediate vicinity of Dublin, took their hereditary surname from Gilla-Mocholmog, that is, the servant of St. Mocholmog, son of Dunchadh, son of Lorcan, son of Faelan, son of Muireadhach, son of Bran, son of Faelan, son of Dunchadh, from whom came the name of Ui Dunchadha or Descendants of Dunchadh, son of Murchadh, son of Bran Mut, the common ancestor of the tribes of O’Tuathal and O’Byrne.

Dunchadh, the first king of this race who assumed the sovereignty of Leinster, slew Flann, the son of Scannal, King of Ciannachta Bregh; Aenghus son of Maolan, King of Gaileng; and Flann the son of Fallamhan, son of Niall, King of Meath; he is also recorded to have ravaged Meath seven times, and to have established the games held at Carman, the ancient name of the site of the present town of Wexford. Cellach, his son and successor, conferred Tamhlacht or Tallaght, in perpetual freedom upon God and St. Michael and St. Maelruain; he also gave 25 villages to St. Kevin of Glandalogh, and 23 villages between his seat and the sea, and bestowed land upon every church in Leinster. Cellach died in 1032; and in 1044 Murchadh, son of Bran, Lord of Ui Faelain, is recorded to have been slain by Mac Gillamocholmog, Tanist, or presumptive heir to the territory of Ui Dunchadha. Muircheartach Mac Gillamocholmog, King of Leinster in 1103, is noticed as follows in the [ einealach Ua n-Dunnchadha] or the genealogy of the descendants of Dunnchadh, a tract preserved in the Book of Leinster, an Irish manuscript compiled in the 12th century

“The 17th chief of this race who became King of Leinster was Muircheartach, son of Gillicheile, son of Gillamocholmog, who conferred benefactions on the laity and on the Church, and made offerings to Maelruan and to Michael, through whose intercession he became the father of an illustrious son who was the source of benefits to the people and the Church of Feara Cualann, who had been heavily oppressed up to the coming of Muircheartach. For until his time, the kings who reigned in *Ath Cliath *(Dublin) used to impose arbitrary tributes and rents upon the people of Cualann, from whom they exacted land-cows (hal pepai~), boats (cabhlach), and other stipends, which were of old paid to the chiefs and provincial kings of the district. Muircheartach procured from Dermod Mac Murchadha, King of the foreigners and of Leinster, and from the foreigners of *Ath Cliath, *that the people of Feara Cualann should pay neither land-cows nor tributes to foreigners or clergy, nor be taxed beyond the proportion anciently levied off their territory. He also obtained for Ui Gabhla (in the south of Kildare), and Ui Dunnchadha, exemption from the quartering there of men or horses, and that neither provisions nor refections should be carried thence to Ath Cliath for the king of the strangers.”

Donell Mac Gillamocholmog, surnamed *Claene, *or the Perverse, was chief ruler of Dublin from 1125 to 1134, and the annals record that Conor, son of Murchadh Ua Maeileachlainn, royal heir of Tara, was slain, in 1133, by Donnchadh Mac Gillamocholmog, royal heir of Leinster, who was himself cut off by the men of Meath, at the end of a month, in revenge of Conor. In 1141, Dermod Mac Murchadha, King of Leinster, treacherously blinded Muircheartach Mac Gillamocholmog, who is styled Lord of Feara Cualann, an ancient territory almost coextensive with the present half barony of Rathdown; and, in 1154, Mac Gillamocholmog, Lord of Ui Dunnchadha, was slain by his brethren. The head of the clan, at the era of the Anglo-Norman descent, was Donell Mac Gillamocholmog, who confederated with Dermod Mac Murchadha and his allies, to whom he rendered very important military services. Donell Mac Gillamocholmog appears to have become closely connected with the chief Anglo-Norman settlers, and his signature, with those of the Countess Eva and Raymond “Le Gros,” is appended to Richard Fitz Gislebert’s grant to the Abbey of Glendaloch, executed about the year 1173.

A document of the reign of Edward IV. alleges that Donell Mac Gillamocholmog founded the great Abbey of the Virgin Mary at Dublin, with the assent of his wife, Dearbhfhorgaill, and his eldest son, Dermod. The lands of Tissock were, in 1193, granted to that Abbey by Gillamocholmog, who is referred to by Luke, Archbishop of Dublin, in a deed executed about 1240, conveying to the burgesses of Rathcool (Radcull) a common on the hill of Slescoll (communam in monte de Slescoll), together with his men in Newtown, both in the marshy and pasture land, as measured by Gillamocholmog and other upright men (probi homines) in the time of John Comyn, Archbishop of Dublin, 1181-1212.

King John, in 1207, granted to Dermod, son of Gillamocholmog, all the land which his father held - that is the land of Lymerhim with 15 carucates in the vale of Dublin, and one burgage in Dublin, to be held by him and his heir by service of one knight’s fee and two otter skins (pelles de lutro) to be paid into the king’s Exchequer at Dublin on the feast of St. Michael; reserving to the king and his heirs a cantred in the land of Limeric granted by John, when Earl of Morttagne, to the said Dermod and his brother Rotheric. For a collation of the original enrolment of this grant, now in the Tower of London, we are indebted to Thomas Duffus Hardy, Esq. The word Lymerhim or Limeric was probably entered by the enrolling clerk in the reign of John for a locality of a somewhat similar name in the county of Dublin.

The manuscript Registry of the Abbey of St. Thomas’ Court, Dublin, contains two deeds from Dermod, son of “Gillemaholmoc:” the first, witnessed byMeyler Fitz Henri, grunts to Richard de Felda all his lands of Kilrotheri, except that portion which he had given to Hammund Ruffo, for free service of two bezants annually; the second deed conveys to the same personage a carucate of land in Kilrethtran, to be held by service of certain gilt spurs, “quaedam calcaria deaurata.”

Dermod’s son John, styled Lord of Rathdown by Sir William Betham, was one of the Irish Magnates who were summoned in 1227, for the first time, to render service out of Ireland to the King of England by reason of their tenures, as appears from the close roll of 13 Henry III., preserved in the Tower of London.

In the account of the manors of the vale of Dublin, in 1262, we find, under the returns for the manor of Esker, John, son of Dermod, charged with two otter skins for his rent for that year, “duo pelles lutrinas de redditu suo hoc anno”. In the same roll there also appears an entry of 40 shillings paid by him for one service, and for the service of one foot soldier for the army at Greencastle, “Johannes filius Dermot pro uno servicio et servicio unius servientis peditis pro exercitu de Virid’ castri, xl. 5.”

From the records of the monastery of All Hallows, Dublin, we learn that John Fitz Dermod granted to that institution for the benefit of his own soul, the soul of his wife Claricia, and those of his forefathers and successors, the boat (batellum), which he had, by hereditary right, for salmon fishing in the waters of Dublin, the Canons of the monastery paying, during his life, half a mark of silver, and two shillings, to his heirs after his death. Among the witnesses to this deed were the Lady Claricia, the grantor’s wife; William his seneschal; Duvenald Mac Duneg; David, Baron of Naas, and William his son.

An unpublished plea roll of the year 1282 states that King John granted, among other lands, to Aland Fitzwilliam, the lands of the Exchequer near Dublin, with all thereto pertaining, which had been held by “Gilmeholman,” and his hostelry at Dublin, in the house of John the Bishop.

John, son of John, son of Dermod, granted to All Hallows his boat and entire right to take salmon, or other fish, in the waters of Dublin, on condition that the canons of that monastery should pray for his own soul, and for those of his ancestors and successors, and deliver to him and his heirs, a rose, annually on the festival of St. John the Baptist, in their monastery aforesaid; this document is witnessed by Thomas de Wyncester, Mayor of Dublin; and the donor was included among the Magnates of Ireland, addressed in 1302, by Edward I., relative to the termination of his wars in Scotland. An unpublished Memorandum roll of 1304-5, contains a royal writ to John Wogan, justiciary, setting forth, that John, son of Radulphus, had memorialed the king, that his ancestor Gylmeholmok held from John, sometime King of England, certain lands and tenements in Nummerin (Ummery?), county of Dublin, by one knight’s feee; which lands, by minorities, during the reigns of John, Henry III., and Edward I., had always successively been so declared, notwithstanding which he had been charged and distrained for the service of one knight’s fee on the various hostings in those parts from the above time.

O’Duvegan, the topographer, includes among the ancient chieftains of Meath Mac Gillamocholmog “the comely,” and O’Dunnchadha, “of the noble mein,” whom he styles the “two kings of bright pure Fine Gall,” adding, that they had long been known as leaders of the clans of polished spear-shafts, and that their goodness had been attested by the propitiousness of the seasons.

The apparent error of thus locating Mac Gillamocholmog in Meath or Fingal, and of citing the tribe appellation of O’Dunnchadha, as the surname of a chieftain, may be ascribed to the corruption or interpolation of O’Duvegan’s text.

In 1408, we find John, son of Dermod, charged with two otter skins for his rent of Radon (Rathdown), for the same year; five otter skins for the two years and a half preceding; and 162 otter skins for the arrears of this rent for many years then past, making a total of 169 otter skins. This, which is the last entry accessible relative to the family of Gillamocholmog, is recorded on an unpublished Pipe Roll of 10 Hen. IV., under the following head:- “Compotus comitatus Dublin ab octavo die Februarii anno regni regis ejusdem decimo per Walterum Tyrell, Thomam filium Simonis Cruys, Robertuin White et Joannem Derpatrik, vicecomites, et Rogerum Walsh ballivum Libertatis de Sancto Sepulcro.”

About the commencement of the 15th century, the name of Mac Gillamocholmog’s-street was changed to “Vicus” or “Venella Sancti Michaelis,” the street or lane of St. Michael, and, at that period, it contained several houses and shops. In the succeeding century, Michael’s-lane was inhabited by various important citizens, as Thomas Barby, mayor in 1530; Richard Fyan, mayor, 1549; Christopher Sedgrave, mayor, 1559 Patrick Gough, mayor, 1575 ; and the buildings in this locality, at that period, were generally described as “large houses with porches and cellers.” The Depositions of 1641 mention Conor Reilly, innkeeper of St. Michael’s-lane, which, from the latter part of the 17th century, was chiefly occupied by lawyers, who continued to hold their offices there till the courts were removed to the Inns’-quay.

The law or plea office of the Exchequer was kept, till 1738, in St. Michael’s-lane, where resided, till 1766, Abraham Lionel Jenkins, M.D., who wrote various essays on the Natural History of Ireland, and assisted Walter Harris in editing the “Antient and Present State of the County of Down,” published by the Physico-historical Society, in 1744. Jenkins is commemorated as follows by one of his contemporaries:-

“Lionel Jenkins, Abraham by name,

Is long register’d in the rolls of fame;

O’er warlike Gallia’s wide extended plains

He militated many long campaigns:

Then quit the standard of the stout Brigade,

And gave attention to Apollo’s trade;

Much knowledge by close application gain’d,

And has been often with a fee retain’d.

He knows botanic vegetables all,

From th’ humble Hyssop that springs from the wall,

To lofty Cedar’s uncorrupted wood,

Which long on shady Lebanon hath stood.

Shew him but half a leaf, he’ll name the plant

And on its virtues medical descant.”

Of Dr. Jenkins, the following anecdote is related:- “The late Admiral Cosby, of Stradbally-hall, had as large and as brown a fist as any admiral in his Majesty’s service. Happening one day, unfortunately, to lay it on the table during dinner, at Colonel Fitzgerald’s, Merrion-square, a Mr. Jenkins, a half-blind doctor who chanced to sit next the Admiral, cast his eye upon the fist; the imperfection of his vision led him to believe it was a French roll of bread, and, without further ceremony, the Doctor thrust his fork into the Admiral’s fist. The confusion that resulted may be easily imagined.”

A narrow passage leading from the High-street to Cook-street was known at the commencement of the 15th century as “le Ram Lane,” apparently so styled from a building in High-street called “Le Ramme.” The free school of the city of Dublin was subsequently erected in this locality, which thence acquired the name of the “School-house lane,” while the appellation of Ram-lane was given to the passage since known as ” Skipper’s alley,” running from Cook-street to the Merchant’s-quay. In 1613 John Laffan, “a young gentleman, born in the county of Tipperary, was slain at the end of School-house lane near Cook-street, Dublin, by one Edward Musgrave, a quarrelling soldier of the guard, who was therefore apprehended and arraigned in the King’s Bench, and there condemned of wilful murder, and adjudged to be drawn, hanged, and quartered.” In the early years of the eighteenth century, John Brocas (1701), and Elizabeth Sadleir (1719), publishers, resided in this locality; and of the King’s Bench office, which was held here till 1745, the Lords’ Committee in 1739 reported as follows:-

“The King’s Bench office is in School-house lane, one of the narrowest in the city of Dublin. The Clerk informed the Lords’ Committee that about two years ago a fire broke out very near the office, which gave them a great alarm, and there is now (1739) an old cage-work house, within so small a distance, as to make its situation very dangerous. In this office are kept several outlawries and attainders, those particularly of Papists, on account of the Rebellions in 1641 and 1688. If these should be burned, the Lords’ Committees fear, that the Protestant possessors would, at best, be exposed to vexatious law-suits, to defend and establish their titles to many forfeited estates.”

A passage leading from School-house lane to “Cock-hill” was styled “Bor’s-court,” from the family of Bor, who, during the first half of the 17th century, resided in St. Michael’s parish. In 1618 a patent was granted to Christian Bor and John Bor, gentlemen, of Lower Germany, “that they be freed from the yoke of servitude of the German or Irish nation, and enjoy all the rights and privileges of English subjects,” for a sum of £1 6s. 8d. During the reigns of James I. and Charles I., the Bors engaged extensively in commerce with Holland, and Christian Bor was one of the merchants interested in the Dutch trade, who contested the right of the city of Dublin to levy a tax, for harbour dues, of three-pence in the pound on their shipping, which was tried in the Exchequer in 1632, and decided in favour of the Corporation. In the beginning of the last century Jacob Bor attained the rank of Brigadier-general in the British army, and a branch of the family still resides at Ballindolan, County Kildare. The name of “Bor’s court” has, in the present century, been corrupted into “Borris court;” a very large and handsome house, which stood on its northern side, fell within the last few years, and its ruins are traditionally stated to be those of the residence of the personage from whom the court received its title.

The line of street now known as “Back Lane,” at the rere of the southern side of High-street, was in early times styled “Vicus Rupelli,” “Rochestrete,” and ” Rochelistrete,” or Rochelle-street. The original cause of these names having been applied to this street is unapparent; and Harris’ assertion that it acquired its name from the merchants of La Rochelle by whom it was inhabited, is not supported by any documentary evidence.

Outside the city wall, on the southern side of Rochel-sheet, between the New-gate and St. Nicholas’ gate, was the place where the citizens, conformably to the grant of John in 1204, used to hold their annual fairs, which commenced on the anniversary of the discovery of the holy cross, and continued for eight days. Contiguous to this locality, styled the Fairground (“locus nundinarum sive terra de la feyr”) was Bertram’s court or street (“placea, curia vel vicus Bertrami”), so called from Bertram de Verdon, who, having accompanied Prince John to this country in 1185, obtained the Barony of Dundalk, the Lordship of Clonmore, and other estates in the County of Louth, together with the office of Seneschal of Ireland. Bertram de Verdon was the friend of Girald de Barry or Cambrensis, who resided with him while compiling the materials for his writings on Ireland, after the departure of Prince John. Roesia, the only daughter of Dc Verdon’s son Nicholas, was, by the special interference of the king, married to Theobald Le Botiller, ancestor of the house of Ormond. The issue of this marriage was John de Verdon, who married Matilda, daughter and coheiress of Gilbert De Lacy, thereby acquiring one moiety of Meath, and the office of Constable of Ireland. Their son, Theobald de Verdon, from the extent of his possessions, sat as Baron in the parliaments of England and Ireland, and on the death of his son the family estates were divided among the husbands of his four daughters and coheiresses, in consequence of the extinction of the direct male line of “one of the most potent families that ever settled in Ireland, and decidedly as illustrious and as ancient a race of Peers as ever flourished in England since the Norman conquest.” Among the MSS. of Trinity College, Dublin, is preserved a grant made by the Corporation in 1305 to Roger de Asheburn and his heirs, of a certain ditch (quoddam fossatum) without the city walls, near Bertram’s court (curia Bertrami), extending from the tenements near the New-gate as far as the ground near St. Patrick’s gate towards the south, and lying in breadth between the place where the fairs are held and the wall of the city of Dublin. During the mayoralty of John li Waret, Philip de Duraham granted an annual rent of 42 pence accruing from land held by Adam de Wolbeter in Bertram’s-street, to the monastery of All Hallows, Dublin, to provide wine for divine service. No vestiges now exist of Bertram’s Court, which appears to have been obliterated in the early part of the 15th century.

Among the archives of Christ Church appears a deed executed by Peter Paraventure in 1281 conveying an annual rent of three shillings out of Rochel-street (“vicus qui dicitur Roehelstrete”), and in this locality, in 1322, resided Walter de Istelep, Lord Treasurer of Ireland, whose house, at the corner of Roche-street in St. Nicholas’-street, was granted in 1345 by the King to Stephen Crophull. The will of Nicholas Sutton, in 1478, contains a bequest of 10 shillings and three pence to the poor of Rochel-street (“pauperibus de le Rochell-street”); and in a memorandum roll of the year 1556,* *“the name of Rosipelle-street,” is applied to this locality, which appears in Elizabeth’s reign to have been more generally styledthe “Backe lane,” or the ” Rochel lane,” by which latter name it was designated in legal documents so late as the middle of the last century.

On the removal of the flesh shambles from High-street in the reign of James I., a range of buildings was erected and joined to those which formed the north side of Rochel-lane, the southern side of which, bounded by the city wall, appears not to have been completely built upon in the year 1610.

Early in the reign of Charles I., a chapel and Roman Catholic University were established in Back-lane by the Jesuits, of whose history in Ireland but few particulars have been preserved. Towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII., Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Order, sent Fathers Alphonso Salmeron and Paschasio Broet, two of his first companions, with Francisco Zapata, to this country, where they remained for little more than one month. During the generalship of Francis Borgia (1565-1572) the Irish mission began to be regularly supplied with fathers of this Order, but until 1620, they were “usually attached to the persons or houses of the gentry: after that period they obtained stations of their own, which increased to eight colleges and residences, some of which counted eight members in community and none less than three. The novitiate was at length established at Kilkenny, but shortly afterwards removed to Galway.” The Order made great progress in Ireland and became exceedingly flourishing under the government of Father Robert Nugent, who was highly distinguished both as a scholar and a mathematician, as well as for his skill in music, having, by an invention of his own, greatly augmented the melodious power of the harp. Of the Dublin Jesuits in the early part of the 17th century the most eminent were, Christopher Hollywood, or “a sacro bosco,” who died in 1626, having presided over the Order for 23 years, although he had been specially denounced by James I. in his speech to parliament in 1614; Henry Fitz Simon, for some years professor of philosophy at the College of Douay, subsequently imprisoned in the Castle of Dublin; and William Malone, who for 24 years resided in Dublin, whence he was summoned in 1635 to preside over the Irish College at Rome, from which in 1647 he was despatched to Ireland as superior of the entire mission there. In reply to Malone’s paper called “The Jesuit’s Challenge,” Ussher in 1624 published his “Answer to a Challenge made by a Jesuit in Ireland;” to which Malone rejoined in “A reply to Dr Ussher’s answer about the judgement of antiquity concerning the Romish Religion,” 4to. Douay: 1627. Large numbers of Ussher’s work were circulated, but Malone’s book was not allowed to come into Great Britain or Ireland; to which Sir Henry Bourchier alludes as follows in a letter to the Primate from London in March, 1629:- ” The Jesuit’s reply to your Grace is not to be gotten here; those that came into England were seized, and for aught I can hear, they lie still in the Custom-house: that which I used, was borrowed for me by a friend of the author himself, half a year since, he being then here in London, and going by the name of Morgan.”

The establishments of the Jesuits in Back-lane were in 1630 seized and sequestrated by Government, by whom the College there was transferred to the University of Dublin. Of those buildings a traveller in 1635* *has left the following notice:- “I saw the Church, which was erected by the Jesuits, and made use by them two years. There was a College also belonging unto them, both these erected in the Back-lane. The pulpit in this Church was richly adorned with pictures, and so was the high altar, which was advanced with steps and railed out like cathedrals; upon either side thereof were there erected places for confession: no fastened seats were in the middle or body thereof, nor was there any chancel; but that it might be more capacious, there was a gallery erected on both sides, and at the lower end of this Church, which was built in my Lord Faulkland’s time, and whereof they were disinvested, when my Lord Chancellor (Loftus) and my Lord of Corke executed by commission the Deputy’s place. This College is now joined and annexed to the College of Dublin, called Trinity College, and in this Church there is a lecture every Tuesday.” Au annuity of 40 pounds was paid for a few years by the Earl of Cork to maintain these lectures; and a writer in 1643, arraigning the Earl of Strafford’s government of Ireland, states that:- “When the late Lord Chancellor Loftus, and the Earl of Cork were Lords Justices, they endeavoured to suppress the Masse-houses in Dublin, and to convert them to pious uses, one of which was in the street called Back-lane they disposed of to the University of Dublin, who placed a Rector and scholars in it, and maintained a weekly lecture there, to which lecture the Lords Justices and State of Ireland did usually resort, to the great countenance of the Protestant religion there. But after the Earl of Strafford came to the government the lecture was put down, the scholars displaced, and the house became a Masse-house as it had formerly been.”

The site of these edifices was the property of the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, by whom they were leased for forty years at the annual rent of 12 pounds to Wentworth Earl of Kildare, whence they acquired the name of ” Kildare Hall” and “Kildare Chapel.” The “Mass-house in Back-lane which is described as a “fair collegiate building” was subsequently converted into a government hospital, for which purpose it was used till the conclusion of the reign of Charles II.

Dr. Petty resided in Back-lane in 1657, at which period we find notice of a building there styled the “Cradle.”

A grant of houses in “Back Lane” was made in the reign of Charles II.** **to Jeremy Donovan, chief of the Clan Lochlainn O’Donovan, who was elected Member of Parliament for Baltimore in 1689, and appointed Registrar of the Irish Court of Admiralty by James II. His residence in this locality was, till the middle of the last century, known as the “Donovan’s Arms.”

Jonathan Gowan, bookseller and printer of the Dublin Gazette, resided in Back-lane at the sign of the “Spinning Wheel,” opposite to Maculla’s-court, from 1734 to 1756; and a noted tavern known as the sign of “Mother Redcap,” was kept here by Robert Burrell, from the first years of the 18th century till it fell to decay about 1740. Referring to those times, Thomas Amory says, - “I have frequently thought of our frolicsome rambles in vacation time, and the merry dancings we had at ‘Mother Redcap’s’ in Back-lane; the hurling matches we have played at Dolphin’s-barn, and the cakes and ale we used to have at the Organ-house on Arbour-hill.”

The Tailors’ Hall in Back-lane was erected in 1706. On the 24th of June, the anniversary of their patron, the Guild having assembled here, used to march in procession to hear a sermon in St. John’s Church, Fishamble-street, whence they paraded to a tavern and dined together. These annual displays afforded a theme to the city satirists, in one of whose lampoons, in 1726, the following lines occur:-

“Now the sermon being ended,

And the minister descended;

To the ‘Castle’ or the ‘Rose,’

Or whatever place you’ve chose,

Be it ‘Cock’ or ‘Lyon yellow,’

Each one runs without his fellow,

As in Lent the College Scholars,

Or a Regiment without colours,

Now the dinner’s on the table,

Each one eats as fast as able,

Each one eats as much as ten,

For the Lord knows when agen;

Eat as fast as hungry dogs,

Or as fast as famish’d hogs.

Eat ‘till they are as full as leeches,

And then fill with meat their breeches,

And perhaps a plate or spoon,

Pound by Butler and the moon;

Now remov’d the cloath and dishes,

Wine they swallow down like fishes,

Now it flies about in glasses,

Now they toast their dirty lasses,

Now they see the candles double,

Now they give the Drawer trouble,

Now they throw away their poses,

Now they break each others noses,

Now they make a rabble rout,

Hats and wigs fly all about,

Now they’re sprawling on the floor,

Now they give the quarrel o’er;

Now they part with heavy curses,

Broken heads and empty purses.”

The Tailors’ Hall in Back-lane, being one of the largest public rooms in Dublin previous to the erection of the Music Hall in Fishamble-street, was in the early part of the 18th century occasionally used for meetings, balls, musical performances, and auctions. A magnificent entertainment was given here in 1731 by Lord Mountjoy to the Lord Lieutenant and chief nobility of the city: a Musical Society held its assemblies in 1748 in this Hall, which continued long to be the meeting place of various guilds - as the Hosiers, Curriers, and Barber Surgeons. The latter fraternity of the art of barbers, or Guild of St. Mary Magdalene, was established in Dublin, by Royal Charter, in 1446. A subsequent charter was granted by Elizabeth in 1576, and William Roberts, appointed Ulster King of Arms in 1642, granted the Guild the following arms:

“Parted by a crosse of England, charged with a lion passant gardant, argent, crowned or; these two coates armour quartered, viz. the first argent, a chevron gules betwixt three cinquefoyles azure; the second coate armour azure, a harpe crowned or; the third as the second; the fourth as the first; the creast, on a helme and wreath argent and gules, St. Mary Magdalene, &c. mantled gules; double urgent supported by a leopard proper and an Irish greyhound argent, each gorged with a ducal coronet, and standing on a scrowle with their motto, viz., + Christus salus nostra.” In 1687 a new charter was given to the fraternity by James II. “to renew the guild or corporation of barbers, of which the barbers, chirurgeons, apothecaryes, and periwig makers of the city of Dublin were members, to the intent that the severall arts and mysterves of barber chirurgeons, apothecaryes, and periwig makers may be the better exercised.”

James Crosby, of Dublin, barber, was one of the witnesses examined on the trial of Charles I., when he deposed: “That at the first fight at Newbury, about the time of barley harvest, 1643, he did see the king riding from Newbury town, accompanied with divers lords and gentlemen, towards the place where his forces were then fighting with the parliament’s army.”

Meetings in favour of the “Octennial bill” were held in the Tailors’ Hall in 1762: and a writer, some years later in the same century observes - that “if variety has charms, the Taylors’-hall in Back-lane must be one of the most charming places in Dublin. Other edifices are destined to one use, or two at the most. But the Taylors’-Hall exhibits a number of contrary scenes: on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, it is a dancing school; on Thursdays, would-be heroes are taught to fence; and on Tuesdays it is a swaddling meeting house.

On the 2nd of December, 1792, the general committee of the Irish Roman Catholics assembled at the Tailors’ Hall, which had been specially fitted up for the purpose. After voting Edward Byrne of Mullinahac to the chair, it was resolved, that the meeting, as then constituted, with the Peers and Prelates, was the only organ competent to speak the sense of the Catholic body. The committee next determined that a petition should be presented to the king, setting forth the grievances of the Irish Roman Catholics, and praying for their relief. A draft of the petition was read to the assembly, and passed unanimously, with the exception of the final paragraph, which was objected to by Luke Teeling of Lisburn, who declared it to be too limited in its demands, and moved, “that in place of the paragraph then read, one should be inserted, praying that the Catholics might be restored to the equal enjoyment of the blessings of the constitution.”

It was subsequently decided here that the petition should be presented to the king in person, and on the 7th of December the committee elected by ballot the following members to perform that office:- Edward Byrne, John Keogh, Christopher Dillon Bellew, John Edward Devereux, and Sir Thomas French. The committee, which sat for a week at the Tailors’ Hall, acquired the name of the “Back-lane Parliament,” from having been composed of representatives elected from the Roman Catholics of the various counties in Ireland; and their petition, combined with the state of the Continent, procured the partial relaxation of the Catholic disabilities in 1793.

At the same period the Grand Lodge of Dublin Freemasons used to assemble on the first Thursday of every month at the Tailors’ Hall,” which, in January, 1793, became the meeting place of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen; the most prominent members of which were, Theobald Wolfe Tone, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, James Napper Tandy, Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey, Hon. Simon Butler, William Drennan, Oliver Bond, Thomas Russell, Henry Sheares, and Henry Jackson.

This Society was originally constituted “for the purpose of forwarding a brotherhood of affection, an identity of interests, a communion of rights, and an union of power, among Irish-men of all religious persuasions, and thereby obtaining an impartial and adequate representation of the nation in parliament.”

Members were elected by ballot, and paid one guinea admission fee, together with one guinea annually by half-yearly payments, each member before his admission being required to take and subscribe a test, pledging himself to use all his abilities and influence to carry out the objects of the institution. The officers of the Society consisted of a President, Treasurer, and Secretary, who were severally elected every three mouths. The Society met every second Friday night - oftener when necessary - the chair was taken at 8 p. m. from 29th September to 25th March, and at 9 p. m. from 25th March to 29th September; 15 members formed a quorum, and no new business was allowed to be introduced after 10 o’clock. Every respect and deference was paid to the President, whose chair was raised three steps above the seats of the members, the Secretary and Treasurer being seated under him, two steps above the seats of the Members. On his rising from the chair, and taking off his hat, silence was established, and the Members took their seats. The President, being the judge of order and propriety, was empowered to direct an apology, and to fine refractory members in any sum not above one crown members refusing to pay the mulct, or to apologize, were expelled from the Society. There were committees of constitution, of finance, of correspondence, and of accommodation. The committee of constitution consisted of nine, that of finance of seven, and the committee of correspondence comprised five members. Each committee, in addition to occasional reports, made general reports on every quarterly meeting. The Treasurer was under the control of the committee of finance, and the Secretary under the direction of the committee of correspondence. The election for committees was, at every quarterly meeting, decided by the majority of votes. The Secretary was furnished with a seal representing a harp, at the top of which were the words, “*I am new strung;” *at the bottom, *“I will be heard;” *and on the exergue, ” Society of United Irishmen of Dublin.”

The Society continued to meet at the Tailors’ Hall until 1794, in which year one of their meetings here was dispersed by the Sheriff, who also seized upon their papers. The subsequent organization of the Society of United Irishmen for the purpose of establishing a republic in Ireland, forms an important portion of Irish history.

The entrance to the Tailors’ Hall is through an iron gate enclosed in a limestone frame, on the entablature of which is an inscription stating that the building was erected by the Corporation of Tailors in 1706. The gateway, portion of which extends under the drawing-room floor of a house, leads to a flight of seven steps conducting to a small oblong open space, which has been considerably curtailed by the offices of the adjacent houses; in the wall bounding this space of ground to the east is inserted a tablet, now much decayed, apparently containing the royal arms of England surmounted with a cap of maintenance, and bearing the following inscription:- “This wall belongeth to the Corporation of Tailors, and was rebuilt by them in the year of our Lord, An. 1710. John Holmes, master. William Sharman, John Wilson, wardens.” The “Hall” is a long brick building, containing seven windows in a line across the front, and over the entrance door, about the year 1770, was placed a large bust of George III., which has been recently removed. On the western side of the building is the board room, a spacious and lofty apartment, measuring about 45 feet in length by 21 in width. This room was decorated with portraits of Charles I., Charles II., William III., Swift, and a curious ancient painting of St. Homohon, a tailor of Cremona, who was said to have “given all his labour to the poor, for which, and his life and miraculous actions, he was

canonized in 1316.” On a veined white marble chimney-piece in the board-room is engraved the following inscription: “The gift of Christopher Neary, master; Alexander Bell and Hugh Craigg, wardens, 1784:” at the eastern end of the apartment, over the door, is a small gallery opening from an upper room, which was allocated to the audience or spectators. This is the only apartment on the second story, the other rooms in the building being next to the roof; from which they are lighted. Underneath the edifice are two kitchens and vaults, but the extent of ground at the rere is extremely limited. The paintings, plate, and other moveable property of the Guild of Tailors were hurriedly disposed of immediately previous to the passing of the Corporation Reform Act. Some of the earliest meetings in favour of the temperance movement were held in the “Tailors’ Hall,” which, since the year 1841, has been used as the school of the Corporation of Tailors or guild of St. John the Baptist.