The Sarsfields.

VIII. - The Sarsfields.

The name of the glorious Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, is inseparably connected with the history of the district. Lucan is his birthplace; in Lucan was his ancestral home. In the “Calendar of the Ancient Records of Dublin” there is a quaint memoir of a Patrick Sarsfield, Mayor of Dublin, from whom the soldier-hero was descended. It is as follows:-

“There hath beene of late yeares, a worshipfull gentleman, named Patrike Sarsefield, that bare the office of Maioraltie in Dublin [1554-5] who kept so great a port in this yeare, as his hospitalitie to his fame and renowne, resteth as yet in fresh memorie. One of his especiall and entire friends, entring in communication with the gentleman, his yeare being well neere expired, mooved question, to what he thought his expenses all that yeare amounted? [Description of Dublin, 1577.” By Richard Stonehurst.] ‘Trulie James’(so his friend was named) quoth Maister Sarsefield, ‘I take betweene me and God, when I entered into mine office, the last Saint Hierome his daie (which is the morrow of Michaelmasse on which daie the maior taketh his oth, before the chiefe baron, at the excheker within the castell of Dublin), I had three barnes well stored and thwackt with corne, and I assured myselfe, that anie one of these three had been sufficient to have 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 Mairaltie, 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 sergeants and officers) are readie to flit from me, and make their next yeares abode with the next Maior. And certes I am so much wedded to good fellowship, as if I could mainteine mine house to my contentation with defraieing of £500 yearlie, I would make humble sute to the citizens to be their officer these three yeares to come.’ Over this he did at the same time protest with oth, that he spent that yeare in housekeeping 20 tuns of claret wine, over and above white wine, sacke, malmeseie, muscadell, etc. And in verie deed it was not to be marvelled; for during his Mairaltie his house was so open as commonly from five of the clocke in the morning to tell at night, his butteries and cellars were with one crew or other frequented. To the haunting of which, ghests were the sooner allured that you should never marke him or … once frowne or wrinkle their foreheads, or tend their browes, or glowme their countenances, or make a sowre face at anie ghest, were he never so meane. But their enterteinment was so notable, as they would sauce their bountifull and daintie fare with heartie and amiable cheere. His porter or anie other officer durst not for both his eares give the simplest man that resorted to his house Tom drum his enterteinment, which is to hale a man in by the head, and thrust him out by both the shoulders; for he was fullie resolved that his worship and reputation could not be more distained than by the currish enterteinment of anie ghest. To be briefe (according to the golden verses of the ancient and famous English poet, Geffreie Chaucer), [Prologue to the “Canterbury Tales.”]

An householder, and that a great, was hee,

Saint Julian he was in his countrie.

His bread, his ale, was aiwaie after one,

A better viended man was no where none.

Without bakte meat was never 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 manie a fat partrich had he in mew

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

“Some of his friends, that were snudging pencefathers, would take him up verie roughlie for his lavishing and his outrageous expenses, as they tearme it. ‘Tush, my maisters’ (would he saie), ‘take not the matter so hot: whoso commeth to my table, and hath no need of my meat, I know he commeth 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 perceived me so far behindhand as that I had bene like to’ have brought haddocke to paddocke I would patientlie permit you both larglie to controll me, and friendlie to reprove me. But so long as I cut so large thongs of mine owne leather, as that I am not yet come to my buckle, and during the time I keepe myselfe so farre aflote as that I have as much water as* *my ship draweth, I praie pardon me to be liberall in spending, sith God of His goodness is gratious in sending.’ And, indeed, so it fell out. For at the end of his Maioraltie be owght no man a dotkin. What he dispended was his owne; and ever after during his life, he kept so woorthie a standing house, as that hee seemed to surrender the princes sword to other Maiors, and reserved the port and hospitalitie to himselfe.”

The renowned Patrick Sarsfield was on the side of his father, whose name was Patrick Sarsfield, of Lucan, descended from an ancient Anglo-Norman house, and on his mother’s side from the ancient chiefs of Leix. She was Anne, the daughter of the famous Roger O’More.

When in 1641 the Catholic religion in Ireland seemed to be on the point of extermination, it was Roger O’More, the father of the mother of Sarsfield, who in 1641 initiated the ever memorable struggle for Catholic Emancipation.

O’More,” says Haverty, “was a man of handsome person and fascinating manners, as well as of great bravery and undoubted honour.” No wonder that his grandson should inherit the same well acknowledged qualities. On the death of his only brother William, who died without issue, Patrick inherited the estate of Lucan, which realized about £2,000 per annum. First an ensign in France under Monmouth, afterwards as lieutenant in the English Guards, he acquired a scientific and practical knowledge in the warfare of the time. Having returned with King James from France to Ireland, he became privy councillor, colonel of horse and brigadier.

After the first siege of Limerick he was made brigade-general. In October 1691, he made a sacrifice of his whole estate, and the glorious prospects temptingly held out to him by the Williamite army. For the cause of God, country, and his persecuted Catholic countrymen, he joined the standard of James, who appointed him to the command of his second troop of Irish Horse Guards. In 1692 he distinguished himself at the battle of Steenkirk. It was fought on that very day when the Protestant Parliament in Dublin was framing oaths against Transubstantiation and the Invocation of Saints with the view of extinguishing the Catholic religion in Ireland. Under a burning July sun, in the gleam of which shone the banners of England and of the united provinces of Spain and the Empire - the mighty host attacked the forces of Marshal Luxembourg, whose principal generals were Berwick and Sarsfield. Sarsfield had previously driven William from the walls of Limerick. The battle raged fiercely and long. There was carnage on every side. But nothing could withstand the glorious charge of the French cavalry, with Sarsfield at their head. The shouts of the Irish and French rent the air; the allied forces, under William III., were scattered as chaff before their jubilant war-cry; and 10,000 dead bodies lay on the field, smitten by the sword of righteousness and the valour of Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan. Louis XIV. raised him to the rank of marechael de camp or major-general in the French service. The 19th July, 1693, was Sarsfield’s last day on earth. On that day was fought a decisive battle. The English call it by the name of Landen, the French by that of Neerwinden, which was the centre of hostilities. Twice the French were repulsed. Berwick fell into the hands of the Allies, but was afterwards exchanged for Ormond, who was made prisoner by the French, Luxembourg, with King Louis’s famed household cavalry, made a third desperate attack, in which Sarsfield was foremost amongst the French officers.

The Allies were routed as far as the River Gette. It was here, after one of the bloodiest engagements on record, that the French were victorious. But the price of it was irreparable to Ireland. It cost the life-blood of the gallant, patriotic and chivalrous Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan.

Before he fell,” says Mitchel, “he could see the standards of England swept along by the tide of headlong flight, or trailing in the muddy waters of the Gette; he could see the scarlet ranks that he had once hurled back from the ramparts of Limerick, now rent and riven, fast falling in their wild flight; while there was sent pealing after them the vengeful shout:

‘Remember Limerick!’”

Sarsfield was tall and handsome. “His character,” says Callaghan, “may be comprehended in the words simplicity, disinterestedness, honour, loyalty, and bravery.”

He was married and had one son, who served under Berwick. He died in Spain without issue.

His wife was Honora de Burgo, second daughter of William, seventh Earl of Clanrickarde. After the death of Sarsfield she married the Duke of Berwick.

Sarsfield’s brother William married Mary, daughter of Charles II. Their daughter Charlotte married Agmondesham Vesey. Their daughter Anne married Sir John Bingham, of Mayo. In 1776 George III. created their son, Sir Charles, Earl of Lucan.

The property was transmitted by *another heiress of the name of Vesey *into that of *Colthurst *In the old graveyard adjoining the church lie the remains of Captain Robert Colthurst. Over his grave there is a large granite stone, on which runs the inscription

In Memoriam.

Robert Colthurst,

Born 3rd January, 1830.

Died 27th July, 1864. R.I.P.

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

It is fitting that on the great Resurrection Day will rise the distinguished, noble, and generous convert from that hallowed spot from which sprang through his charity one of the grandest memorials of man, an inquisition in which religion and education hand in hand showered down their priceless treasures on the present and future generations in Lucan.

His brother, Colonel Colthurst, perfected and still expands the same munificent charity. With the same chivalrous and unstinted spirit he presented the magnificent site on which the beautiful new convent schools adorn this lovely and picturesque place.

Years passed by, and the orient sky blazed with a newborn light,

And Bethlehem’s Star shone bright afar o’er the lost world’s darksome night

And the diamond shrines from plundered mines and the golden fanes of Jove,

Melted away in the blaze of day, at the simple spell-word “love!”

The light serene o’er that island green, played with its saving beams,

And the fires of Baal waxed dim and pale like the stars in the morning streams!

And ‘twas joy to hear, in the bright air clear, from out each sunny glade,

The tinkling bell from the quiet cell, or the cloister’s tranquil shade.

Denis Florence M’Carthy.

The following description given by Captain Gandon, in Dalton’s “History of the County Dublin,” is a very accurate one of the surroundings of the ruins of the castle of the Sarsfields;-

On the northern wall, close to the eastern window, is a white marble monument much soiled and defaced, with the figure of a child leaning over a shield of antiquated form.

On a tablet beneath is* *the following inscription:-

This chapel was repaired by Lady Jane Butler, and this monument erected to her dearly-beloved husband, deceased, the 23 March, A. D. 1738, with whom she is interred

Where thou dyest, there will I dye;

Where thou art buried, there will I be buried also.

A plain headstone, of Kilkenny marble, marks the grave of Colonel George Vesey, the recent proprietor of this locality; born in 1761, died 1836; and also states that, near it lie the remains of his father and mother, George and Letitia Vesey. Another headstone of white marble has been erected, to mark the grave of an infant son of Sir Nicholas and Lady Colthurst.

“The present proprietor is Captain Charles Colthurst Vesey, Deputy-Lieutenant of the County Dublin.”

We find in the ancient records mention of two Lucan chaplains:-

In 1395 John Route was chaplain. He received charge of a manor and water-mill, until the question would be settled whether the property belonged to him or the Crown.

In 1409 the King assigned two parts of the manor of Lucan to Thomas Hunt, chaplain, and Walter Hem, conjointly during the minority of the heir.

1566.* *Sir William Sarsfield, of Lucan, knighted by Sir Henry Sidney, for his services against Shane O’Neill.

Sir William Sarsfield, of Lucan, Seneschal of New Castle, Esker, Saggard, and Crumlin.
William Sarsfield, of Lucan, seized of fifty acres in Rathcoole-forfeited in 1641.
Sir William Sarsfield received from the minor canons of St. Patrick the manor in Lucan, two castles, two water-mills, 50a. arable 100a. of wood; and 50a. in Rathcoole to which his grandson succeeded on his death in 1616.
William Sarsfield, Sheriff of County Dublin.
Patrick Sarsfield, Junior, M.P. for County Dublin.
General Patrick Sarsfield, of Lucan created Earl of Lucan by James II.

The Soldiers of Sarsfield.

Before the standards of his daughter flying,

By Boyne’s dark stream,* *even as a stag at bay,

Stood hapless James in arms, yet loathed to slay.

One faithful band alone, ‘mid foes defying,

And perjured friends, deserting and denying

Clung round him as a breastplate throught that day -

The fate they might avert not to delay.

There, where ill-omened Dane and Dutchman, dying,

Lay thickest, his wild slogan o’er the plain

Sarsfield’s indomitable soldiers pealed.

In vain, alas, for James; but not in vain

For vengeance. Soon Almanza heard once more

That cry, and Fontenoy’s disastrous field

Those fatal bayonets dyed with kindred gore.

Sir Aubrey de Vere.

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