Robin Hood and Little John in Dublin.

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CHAPTER VI.** **

Robin Hood and Little John in Dublin - Old Law Courts on Michael’s Hill - The Thingmote - Irish Secret Service Records - Location of “The Croppies’ Acre” - Names of those buried there - The Trial and Death of the Rev. William Jackson. **

The** **recalling of the death of the Rev. Wm. Jackson reminds one of the old Law Courts of the city, and a brief reference to them may be interesting.

The first institution of an Irish “Inne of Court” took place in the reign of Edward I. It was called Collet’s Inn, and was outside the city walls, where Exchequer Street and South Great George’s Street are now built. The first-named street derives its name from the Court of Exchequer; here were situated the. Superior Courts of Justice.

We are told that the Irish from the Wicklow Mountains made a raid upon this place, plundered the Exchequer, and burned every record they could lay hands on. This compelled the Government of the day to remove the seat of justice from without the walls. For some time. it was held in the Castle, also at Carlow, in the reign of Edward III. Sir Robert Preston gave his mansion, situated where the printing office of the Daily *Express *now stands.

It was used as a law factory from A.D. 1358 till the year 1541, about which time the “Innes” were removed to the dissolved monastery of the Dominicans, where the Four Courts now stand, which was granted by Henry VIII. in 1542** **to the Professors of Law, and as a compliment to the Royal Founder this Society took the denomination of the “King’s Innes.”

lawcourt.gif (36243 bytes)The lawyers of that date applied themselves to the task of remodelling the monastery to their requirements, and many were the uses it was put to. It was used as a place for theatrical performances; also as a Parliamentary meeting place. We are told the Lord Lieutenant attended several of the entertainments here given by Elrington, who in his day was the greatest Irish actor.

The income of the Society steadily declining from £1,500, to £400** per annum, (at which figure it was in 1742,) the buildings were allowed to go to ruin. New Law Courts being required, the Benchers sold their land to the Government. For some years after the event the Society had no local habitation, although it had a name, and in the year 1793 the practice of holding Commons was resumed in the Tennis Court, then in Townsend Street. In 1793 **the Benchers secured the present site in Henrietta Street, once known as Primate’s Hill.

Whilst upon the “Home” of Law, it is said, that at one time it was suggested to turn Christ Church Cathedral into a Hall of Justice. Evidently its location was in Christchurch Lane, now St. Michael’s Hill. It was in this place that the Rev. Wm. Jackson was tried and met his death. I believe it was the late J. P. Prendergast who was the writer of the following interesting description of this noted place in Old Dublin.

He writes:- “Robert Holmes, the Cato of the Irish Bar, sitting by the fire in the old Law Library, says: ‘Why it was at Christ Church I saw Jackson drop down and die in the dock.”’ The Court of Chancery was at the upper end of the Hall, and the several Courts were at the sides. As soon as the Chancellor and his train entered, his tip-staffs raised their staves, crying out at the same time, “High Court of Chancery ”; and upon this the tip-staffs of all the other Courts echoed the cry, and the Judges of the several Courts stood up and remained standing till the Chancellor had taken his seat.

“In the plan of the present Four Courts there was an attempt to preserve something of the former plan of all the Courts sitting in one Hall together, open to view, for the screens of wood below and glass above were an afterthought. It was said the Judges were glad of being relieved by the removal of the Courts from paying homage to the Lord Chancellor’s supremacy.

“There was an old custom (about 80 years ago) carried out in the Hall, which was a relic of his pre-eminence. There was a long tin tube from the crier’s box in the Court of Chancery into the Hall, above the level of the crowd, and no sooner had the Chancellor taken his seat than the crier shouted through his tube, “The Right Honourable William Saurin, his Majesty’s Attorney-General,” as if it was the highest of the “Courts.”

The buildings) now known as the Municipal Art Gallery, 17** **Harcourt Street, formerly the residence of Lord Clonmel, recall the closing incidents of the trial of the Rev. William Jackson, which has been alluded to. In Gilbert’s ,’ Streets of Dublin” the following appears

“On the 30th April, 1795, the Rev. William Jackson was brought to the Bar to receive sentence, the Chief Justice, Lord Clonmel, presiding.

“The condition of Mr. Jackson becoming worse, Mr. Curran proposed that he should be remanded, as he was in a state of body which rendered any communication between him and his counsel impracticable. Lord Clonmel thought it lenient to the prisoner to dispose of the question of law which had been raised as speedily as possible.”

The conclusion of this scene is given as follows in the reported trial:-

“Lord Clonmel - If the prisoner is in a state of insensibility, it is impossible that I can pronounce the judgment of the Court upon him.

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

“Lord Clonmel - Are you in any profession?

“Mr. Kinsley- I am an apothecary.

“Lord Clonmel- Can you speak with certainty of the state of the prisoner?

“Mr. Kinsley- I can. I think him verging on eternity.

“Lord Clonmel- Do you think him capable of hearing the judgment?

“Mr. Kinsley- I do not think he can.

“Lord Clonmel- Then he must be taken away. Take care that in sending him away no mischief be done. Let him be remanded until further orders, and I believe it is as much for his advantage as for all of you to adjourn.

“The Sheriff informed the Court the prisoner was dead.

“Lord Clonmel-Let an inquest, and a respectable one, be held on the body. You should carefully inquire by what means he died.

“The Court then adjourned. It was said that when Lord Clonmel was retiring from the Bench to his chamber, the Sheriff inquired how he should act with regard to the dead body. His lordship, without pausing in his progress, replied: ‘Act, sir, as is usual in such cases.’ The body of the deceased remained in the dock unmoved from the position in which he had expired until the following day, when an inquest was held.”

Before passing away from the neighbourhood of St Michan’s Church there is an incident in connection with it worthy of recall. Many of us Dubliners have read from time to time of the daring feats in Sherwood Forest of bold Robin Hood and his trusty lieutenant, Little John, but how few of us know that after their exploits across the water, the latter was hanged near St. Michan’s, Church Street, as may be seen from the following item taken from “Walker’s Historical Memories of the Irish Bards, etc.”

“According to tradition, Little John (who followed his master to this country) shot an arrow from the old bridge (now Church Street bridge) to the present site of St. Michan’s Church, a distance of about 11 score and seven yards, but poor Little John’s great practical skill in archery could not save him from an ignominious fate; as it appears from the records of the Southwell family, he was publicly executed for robbery on Arbour Hill.”

On our way to Oxmanstown we will meet with many places, and recall events of more than passing interest to the Dublin citizen. As we leave Church Street, turning to the right we are on Arran Quay, at one time a fashionable quarter, and inhabited by persons of rank. Close to where is now St. Paul’s Church stood Agar House, the town abode of Viscount Clifden’s ancestors.

This building was afterwards used as a Maternity Hospital. Amongst the many Arran Quay celebrities crowding upon us, two stand pre-eminent-Edmund Burke and Charles Halliday. The first was born in the house now number 12,** owned by the well-known Dublin citizen, Mr. Denis Moran, and part of his tailoring establishment. Next door to Burke’s house lived in the year 1813 **Charles Halliday, a most distinguished Irish antiquary.

Prendergast gives an interesting sketch of his life as an introduction to “Halliday’s Scandinavian History of Dublin.” In it he writes that Halliday left Arran Quay about 1834**, **and went to Fairy Land, Monkstown. About ten years after he built a villa at Monkstown Park, the previous residence of Lord Ranelagh. Exactly opposite, divided from it only by the road, is the ancient castle of the Cheeverses, built probably in the time of Henry VI. to defend this southern boundary of the English Pale.

At Cromwell’s conquest he gave it to General Ludlow, while Walter Cheevers and his household were transplanted to Connaught. He had one of the best private collections of historical works on Ireland. In his collection was the Secret Service Money Book, with the payment by the Government for secret information in 1798. Halliday bought the book from a Mr. Scully, a bookseller on Ormond Quay.

With regard to this volume, Dr. Madden said that it was kept in the Record Tower of Dublin Castle, and that a carpenter employed there purloined it, with a mass of other papers. The whole was sold to a grocer in Capel Street. This most interesting record is preserved among the Halliday collection in the Royal Irish Academy.

The extent of Mr. Halliday’s collection may be judged from this, that the pamphlets, relating principally to Ireland, numbered 29,000.** There were 21,997 in 2,211 **volumes octavo uniformly bound in one series, and about 700 pamphlets in quarto; of very early date, unbound. There were, besides, all the best works concerning Ireland, and ballads, broadsides, and a mass of rare and curious materials for the student of Irish history, ancient and modern.

This library passed with the rest of his property by will to his wife, and was by her presented to the Royal Irish Academy in the belief that she was fulfilling a wish she had sometimes heard Mr. Halliday casually express, that his collections might be kept together in some public library.

To the native of Dublin, and I might add the sojourner therein, Halliday’s “Scandanivan Dublin” is a most interesting volume, as it places before one’s mind in graphic language the meaning of many seemingly strange references which have been made from time to time with regard to Dublin, “and so fully has Mr. Halliday done his work that to this treatise might well be applied, with only a slight change, the title which Richard Verstegan gave to his - namely, a restitution of decayed intelligence in antiquities concerning the renowned city of Dublin.”

Take, for example, the allusion in the city records to the Stein or Staine, a flat piece of ground which extended southwards from the strand of the Liffey to the lands of Rath, eastwards from near the city walls to the River Dodder. It was on this plain that the Priory of All Hallows and other religious establishments were founded before the arrival of Strongbow. The piece of land derived its name from the long stone or staine, a remarkable stone pillar, which was probably a stone of memorial or mark of possession, - possession taken by Scandinavians - it also marked their landing place in a new possession. This pillar stone in Dublin stood not far from the landing place of the Danes, where Hawkins Street and Townsend Street now join, and remained in that position for many hundreds of years, about where the Crampton Monument now stands. It was removed about 120 years ago, when the district was laid out for new streets.

I may add that the former street is called after Mr. Hawkins, who in 1663 built a great wall to gain ground from the River Liffey, near the long stone, about the same time (1663) that Lord Dungan of Clane was adjudged 19 acres of ground, commonly called Staine, being upon the strand side of the College; for previous to 1607 the whole north side of Townsend Street, now covered with streets and quays was the tidal strand of the Liffey, and as such was granted in that year to Sir W. Carroll under the description of strand overflow by the sea between the point of land joining the Staine, near the College, and Ringsend, and by him this land was partially reclaimed.

The pillar alluded to stood about 12 or 14 feet above the ground. Another interesting item in connection with the Staine is that when in 1646 an attempt was made to fortify Dublin by earthworks, Carte says the Marchioness of Ormonde and other noble ladies “consented to carry baskets of earth.” To procure this earth they levelled one of the tumuli on the stem, of which there is an engraving in Molyneux’s “Discourse on Danish Mounds in Ireland,” and another in Ware’s “Antiquities.”

thingmote.gif (29809 bytes)The second edition is to the “Thingmote at St. Andrew’s. This remarkable Mount of the Thingmote of Dublin, the precise position of which was at an angle formed by Church Lane and Suffolk Street, nearly opposite the present old church, and about 40 perches east of the old edifice, stood about 40 feet high and 240 feet in circumference. It was on this mount that Henry II. met the Irish chiefs in 1172. (Pictured is a map of the Thingmore adjoining College Green).

Henry, we are told, ordered to be built, near the Church of St. Andrew, without the city of Dublin, a royal palace constructed, with wonderful skill, of peeled osiers, according to the custom of the country, and there at the “Thingmote” he held the festival of Christmas, feasting the Irish chieftains and entertaining them with military spectacles.

This mount was used by the Danes as the place where their laws were promulgated, and such is the custom to this day at the Thingmote in the Isle of Man. The Thingmote of Dublin stood until the year 1685. In 1661 Dr. Jones, Bishop of Meath, obtained a lease from the Dublin Corporation at a small ground rent. The mound was cut down in the first-mentioned year to fill up Nassau Street.

I may further add that the official title of the church, which stands hard by this place, is St. Andrew Thingmote. The drawing given is a facsimile, and forms part of a survey made in 1682, and it may be observed that the indented outline gives to the mount the appearance of having terraces or steps, as on some other “Thingmotes.” The mount was a conical hill about 40 feet high and 240 in circumference.

As we leave the quay side on our way to Arbour Hill, we pass over the “Croppies’ Acre.” Thousands of Dublin citizens, year in and year out, on their way to the Phoenix Park, gaze on the Esplanade in front of the Royal Barracks, not knowing the fact that this was in ‘98 known as the “Croppy Hole.” The late Dr. Thomas Willis, father-in-law of our respected City Coroner (Dr. Louis Byrne), after great research, located beyond doubt its exact site, and published privately the following “Memorial of the Croppies’ Acre,”

“In the year 1798 the Irish Government had information that an attack would be made on the city of Dublin by a large body of United Irishmen, then collecting on the north side about Swords and Santry, and on the south about Rathfarnham and neighbourhood.

“Although ignorant of the exact point to be assailed, the Executive (greatly alarmed) took speedy measures to defeat the project. The men assembled at Rathfarnham were dispersed by Lord Ely’s Dragoons, strengthened by a large detachment of Yeomen.

“Those on the north side were routed by Lord Roden’s Fox Hunters (so designated from the splendid horses), supported by some Light Infantry. These bodies were dispersed after feeble resistance. Some of the insurgents were sabred, and some prisoners were made.

“Nevertheless, the insurgents did make several simultaneous attacks upon various forts and garrisons with surprising pertinacity. However, the metropolis had little reason to be alarmed at such fitful and desultory attempts. The Yeomen, Infantry, and Cavalry, being placed on permanent duty, scoured the surrounding districts, and had frequent encounters with small bodies of insurgents. Rathfarnham, Crumlin, Saggard, Tallaght, Clondalkin, Rathcoole, Kilcock, Maynooth, etc., were the scenes of the petty warfare.

“The prowess of the Yeomen was estimated according to the number of prisoners and mutilated bodies which they brought into the city, and it is worth mentioning that we have no record of a single man of the various corps having been killed or wounded in any of these inglorious raids.

“Lord Cornwallis, writing to the Duke of Portland, states ‘that any man in a brown coat who was found within several miles of the field of action was butchered without discrimination.’ - (Cornwallis Correspondence, vol. ii., page 357). Every day beheld prisoners brought into the city; nor was it unusual to see a procession of carts, in which were piled the mutilated corpses of peasantry.

“The prisoners were hanged from lamp-posts, and the dead were, in some instances, stretched out in the Castle Yard, where the Viceroy then resided, and in full view of the Secretary’s windows. ‘They lay on the pavement as trophies, cut and gashed in every part, covered with clotted blood and dirt.’ - (Barrington, vol. ii., page 260).

“‘And at other times the sabred dead were suspended in Barrack Street.’ - (Musgrave, page 224).

“To avoid expensive interment, the authorities selected a piece of waste ground on the south side of Barrack Street, within about fifty paces of the Infantry Barracks, as a convenient repository for the corpses of the Irish rebels. This unhallowed spot was thenceforward known as ‘Croppies’ Acre,’ or ‘Croppies’ Hole.’ It now forms part of the Esplanade.

“It extended in the year 1798** **from the rere of the houses down to the river, and was then waste, and covered with filth. The diminishing the breadth of the river by walling in, the making its course more direct between the bridges, and the formation of the Esplanade, have very considerably altered the appearance of the ground, and have obliterated every vestige of ‘Croppies’ Hole.’

“However, the site and exact dimensions can be very accurately ascertained from maps of the period, also from very many persons still living who have a perfect recollection of the ground, and who remember reading the names of the deceased rudely carved on the surface of the stones which formed the boundary wall on the west side of that unconsecrated cemetery.

“Those strangled at the Provost Prison, and on the different bridges, together with the sabred bodies of the peasantry brought into the city almost daily, were all flung into the trenches formed in that filthy dung heap.

“‘The day will come (says Dr. Madden) when this desecrated spot will be hallowed ground, consecrated by religion; trod lightly by pensive patriots, and decorated by funeral trophies in honour of the dead whose bones lie there in graves that are now neglected and unhonoured.’

“Names of some of those whose remains moulder in ‘Croppies’ Hole’:-

“Ledwich, brother of the P.P. of Rathfarnham; hanged on Queen’s Bridge, 26th May, 1798.

“Wade, from Rathfarnham, hanged on Queen’s Bridge, 26th May, 1798.

“Carroll, cotton manufacturer, hanged on Church Street Bridge, 26th May, 1798.

“Adams and Fox, hanged at Provost Prison. (Musgrave, Appendice XV.)

“Fennell and Raymond, hanged on Church Street Bridge.

“Esmonde, Doctor, brother of Sir Thomes Esmonde, hanged on the scaffold north side of Carlisle Bridge, then in process of erection. His corpse was carried back in a cart and flung (O’Kelly, page 63) into a heap of offal in ‘Croppies’ Hole,’ 14th June, 1798.

“Byrne and Kelly, killed at Rathfarnham. Their lifeless bodies and three others were hung the morning after their death from lamp irons in Barrack Street, and afterwards consigned to ‘Croppies’ Hole.’ (Musgrave, page 224).

“Teeling and Matthew Tone, hanged at Provost Prison. (Teeling, 2nd Narrative, page 245. - Speeches from the Dock, page 7’).

“Bacon, hanged on Carlisle Bridge.

“Several poor men, employed as lamplighters, were hanged on the bridges for neglect of duty, and blood began to flow without any mercy. “Barrington, vol.2, page 261.”

cropppiesacre.gif (29385 bytes)In addition to the foregoing in the printed matter, the following notes are in the copy I possess, written by the late Edward Evans:-

“Note.-’ Croppies’ Acre’ was situated 147** feet from the boundary wall of the Esplanade, on the west side of Liffey Street (west), and 155 feet from the boundary wall of the Infantry Barracks. The area from east to west was 312 feet, and from north to south 170 **feet. (This minute description of ‘Croppies’ Acre’ is in the handwriting of the late Dr. Thomas Willis, and now in my possession.-E.E.).

“Michael Rafter, Esq., C.E., City Hall, has kindly supplied me with the following particulars of the site of ‘Croppies’ Hole ’

1st May, 1884.- The position of the ‘Croppies’ Acre’ (map on right) can be found as follows - Exactly midway between Albert Quay and Barrack Street, in the Esplanade, and opposite the centre of the Royal or Central Square, is the northern corner, from whence keeping in the centre of the Esplanade for 104** yards due east, runs the northern boundary, between which and the river lay the field in question. This field is shown on Roques’ Map of Dublin, published about 1760, **as being at the end of Flood Street, and its measurements on that map correspond with those given above. - (Michael Rafter, Surveyor and Civil Engineer).”

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