Parish of Monkstown

Parish of Monkstown.

Formerly called Carrickbrennan - i.e., Brennan’s Rock.

The Parish of Monkstown is shown on the Down Survey, which was made in 1657, as consisting of the Townlands of Mounckstowne, Newtowne of ye Strand, and Bullock.

Mounckstowne is now represented by the Townlands of Dunleary (i.e., Leaghaire’s Dun), Glasthule *(i.e., *Glas Tuathail, or Toole’s Streamlet), Glenageary *(i.e., *Gleann na gcaerach, or the Glen of the Sheep), Honeypark, Lansville, Monkstown, Monkstown Castle Farm, Monkstown House Farm, Mountashton, and Thomastown.

Newtowne is represented by Montpelier, Newtown Blackrock, Newtown Castle Byrne, Rockfield, Seapoint or Templehill, and Stradbrook. Bullock is unaltered.

The objects of archaeological interest in the parish are the remains of Bullock Castle, Monkstown Castle, and the ruined Church of Monkstown.

The Castle of Monkstown

MonkCastle1.jpg (20381 bytes)The history of the district comprised within the parish of Monkstown centres round the castle, remains of which are to be seen in the grounds of the modern house to which the designation of castle has been attached. As originally constructed, the Castle of Monkstown was a massive pile of medieval buildings. It consisted of a mansion house, standing in a courtyard, some acres in extent, enclosed by high walls and guarded by three strong towers. Of these buildings only portions of the gate tower and of the mansion house remain; of the former; which was two storeys in height the arched entrance and a chamber are standing, and of the latter a lofty shell without floors. But, as the accompanying picture shows, the ruins were a century ago much more complete, and indicated the great size as well as strength of the fortress.MonkCastle2.jpg (20147 bytes)

The Castle, which was probably built in the twelfth or 13th century, was erected by the monks of the Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary, near Dublin. This Abbey, whose site is marked by the alley off Capel-street which bears its name, stood outside the walls of ancient Dublin, on the northern bank of the River Liffey, in what was then a rural district known as the meadow of herbs, and had been founded before the Anglo-Norman Conquest. Amongst the lands with which it had been endowed were those of Carrickbrennan, now forming the greater part of the civil parish of Monkstown, and including the lands on which Kingstown, Glenageary, and Bullock are built. These were probably given to the Abbey by one of its founders, a Celtic chief called MacGillamocholmog, who held sway over the southern portion of the County Dublin, and were in possession of the monks when the Anglo-Norman invasion took place. The Conquest did not directly make any alteration in the ownership, as with lands dedicated to the Church Henry II. did not interfere when distributing his newly-acquired territory amongst the invaders; but it had indirectly the effect of producing a change of proprietors. One of the first results of the Conquest was to transform the Celtic monasteries into Anglo-Norman ones, and a new race of monks supplanted the former occupants. St. Mary’s Abbey had been affiliated early in the 12th century to the Cistercian Order, and in its case fresh tenants were supplied by the great Cistercian House of Buildwas, in Shropshire, under whose cure and disposition it was placed.

These monks brought with them new ideas and acquirements. Chief amongst their attainments was a knowledge of agriculture. Monasteries in England were famous for their system of tillage; and the White Monks, as the members of the Cistercian Order were called, on account of the colour of their clothing, were remarkable for their life of unintermitting toil, spent more in the field than in the cloister. Soon the lands of Carrickbrennan, as well as those round the Abbey on the Liffey, became subject to the plough; portion was retained in the hands of the monks themselves, and the remainder was let to tenants who, in most cases, were bound to render a certain amount of labour, either in person or by deputy, on the home farm. To their skill in agriculture the new monks joined a knowledge of fishing - an industry which the Cistercian Order, whose lands usually bordered on the sea or rivers, did much to promote, and under their auspices an extensive fishery grew up at Bullock.

After the Conquest, many of the Celtic inhabitants of the lands round Dublin remained as the hewers of wood and drawers of water, but some took refuge in the fastnesses of the Wicklow Mountains. From thence the latter made unceasing raids on the property of the colonists, carrying off their cattle, and burning and devastating their lands. The monks soon perceived that their possessions were only to be held by force of arms, and, for their defence, commenced the erection of the Castles of Monkstown and Bullock - the former to protect their farm, the latter their fishery.

As we have seen, Monkstown Castle was provided with a large courtyard, known then as a bawn, and into this, when warning was given by watchers stationed on the Dublin Mountains that an incursion was imminent, the inhabitants gathered with their flocks and herds, and the hillsmen descended on the plain to find it swept of every living thing, and to hear the lowing cattle and the bleating sheep proclaiming their safety from within the Castle bawn.

Of the history of Monkstown during the three centuries of its occupation by monastic owners, there is little information. At the close of the 13th century, its lands were returned in a taxation of the diocese of Dublin as worthless, owing to the state of war to which they were subject, and a few years later the Abbey was obliged to negotiate with the Irish enemies of the King for the restitution of goods carried away from its grange.

A determined effort appears to have been made about the middle of the 14th century to resist the incursions of the tribes. A militia force was raised, to which the Abbey undertook to contribute in respect of Monkstown two heavy and six light horsemen, and a permanent garrison was maintained at Bray, though even then the Irish at times got the upper hand. As regards the relations between the Abbey and its tenants at Monkstown, the only recorded event is that in the 15th century, owing to “felonies, extortions, and contempts” committed by the abbot and his monks, the Abbey was deprived for a year of its manorial jurisdiction.

Meanwhile the Abbey on the Liffey had become a place of national importance and convenience. Inns were then unknown in Ireland, and, if it had not been for the hospitable Cistercian monks, travellers would have been without shelter in Dublin. But in St. Mary’s Abbey, and doubtless also in its castles at Monkstown and Bullock, which were on the direct road from Dalkey, the Kingstown of the period, they were always sure of accommodation and of welcome.

When, therefore, the order came from Henry VIII. for the dissolution of the Irish religious houses, the Lord Deputy urged that St. Mary’s Abbey should be allowed to stand, on account of its being the resort of all persons of position coming from England, and the monks set forth that the Abbey existed for the benefit of others than their community. It was, however, to no purpose; St. Mary’s Abbey, in common with nearly all Irish monasteries, was demolished, and its possessions became the property of the Crown.

A few years after the suppression of the Abbey, which took place towards the close of the year 1539, the Castle of Monkstown, together with its lands (excepting those of Bullock), was granted by Henry VIII. to the Right Honourable Sir John Travers, Master of the Ordnance in Ireland, and a Groom of the Chamber to the King. The lands were described in the inquisitions under the denominations of the town and the grange. The former; which was by far the largest, was let to tenants, who occupied four houses and thirteen cottages, and paid rent in money and kind, and the latter; on which the Castle stood, had been the home farm of the monks, and was occupied by their bailiff. For the next twenty years, until his death, Travers used the Castle as his country seat and principal residence. During the greater part of that period he held a chief place amongst the military adventurers to whom the destinies of Ireland were committed in the 16th century. In England he had been a person of comparative obscurity, but he possessed capacity, interest, and adaptability-qualities which then brought a man to the front in Ireland, and enabled him to amass a large fortune. Besides, he had the advantage of previous acquaintance with the country, in which he had been born, and a knowledge of the Celtic language, together with an open - and generous character, which commended him to those with whom he was brought in contact and a fine physique, which enabled him to stand the hardships, unparalleled in their severity, of campaigning in Ireland.

We find him first residing at Oxford, where he was a Commissioner of Taxation, then acting as a gentleman at large in the household of Henry VIII.’s natural son, the Duke of Richmond, when he was given a grant of the fishing of the River Bann, and a license to export wool from Ireland, and, after the Duke’s untimely death, serving in the Army taking part in the suppression of the rising under Aske, in Yorkshire, and being present as a spectator at military operations in the Netherlands.

He had interest at Court through the Earl of Southampton, then Lord Admiral, and one of the most powerful personages in England, whose kinsman and secretary his sister had married, and on his return from abroad the King, who remembered him as one who had been in attendance on his favourite son, appointed him Groom of his Chamber and Serjeant of his Tents, and made use of his military knowledge in the construction of defence works on the Thames.

At the time of the dissolution of the Irish religious houses the Army was reduced to a perilously low condition, and it was determined to reinforce it. The opportunity was a tempting one to a man like Travers, and he secured for himself the command of the Artillery, then sent over. He had not been long in Ireland before he established a high reputation for himself as a good soldier, both in the field and in the barrack, and not less as a sagacious adviser in the Council, on which he had been given a seat. In the latter capacity, as suited the policy of the time, he was a strong advocate of firm government by military force if necessary, as well as of the establishment of the Protestant religion, and of the abolition of Irish customs, usages, and laws.

After some years, during which his time was completely absorbed by his duties which entailed expeditions to every part of the country, and the organisation of an efficient army, his reward came. On his arrival he had been given St. Mary’s Abbey as a storehouse for the ordnance, and as a residence for himself, in which he might exercise the hospitality becoming his position. To this was added a grant of the Castle and lands of Monkstown, and a number of castles and great extent of lands in various parts of the country.

From being comparatively poor; Travers became a man of wealth, and his social position was raised by the honour of knighthood, which was conferred upon him. Holding such views as he did he found no difficulty in accommodating himself to the changes made by the accession of Edward VI., and the Lord Deputies under that monarch all expressed their satisfaction with him. Sir Edward Bellingham found in him a soldier after his own heart, and Sir James Croft, who stayed at Monkstown on at least one occasion, had in him a willing assistant in his efforts to introduce the Protestant liturgy.

The transition from the rule of Edward to that of Mary cannot have been so congenial, and Travers can only have retained his office - by some sacrifice of his principles. His age prevented his taking as active a part as ho had formerly done in affairs of State, and towards the close of this reign he had to relinquish the duties of his office to another; being granted), on his retirement, a pension and a retinue of six horsemen and six musketeers. He survived for four years after Elizabeth’s accession, his death taking place- in 1562.

His place at Monkstown was taken by James Eustace, eldest son of the second Viscount Baltinglas, who, on account of his share in the Desmond Rebellion after he had succeeded to his father’s titles, plays a prominent part in the Elizabethan history of Ireland. Eustace’s possession of Monkstown was in right of his wife, who was a granddaughter of Sir John Travers. No children appear to have survived the latter, who was twice married, and his property on his death passed to the children of a son called Henry, who had pre-deceased him. This son had made an alliance with one of the great families of the Pale by his marriage to Gennet Preston, daughter of Jenico, third Viscount Gormanston, and left by her; who married, as her second husband, Robert Pipho, ancestor of the Marquess of Waterford, two daughters, Mary, who married James Eustace, and Katherine, who married John Cheevers, of Macetown, in the County Meath. Eustace after his marriage had gone to London to perfect his education and, owing to legal informalities in the transfer of Travers’ property to him and his wife, it was seized by the Crown.

In 1565 Sir Henry Sidney, the father of the renowned Sir Philip Sidney, on his arrival as Lord Deputy, spent a night at Monkstown on his way from Dalkey to Dublin, and the Castle was possibly then occupied under the Crown by one of the Barnewall family. It was, however, restored to Eustace, then Viscount Baltinglas, before he openly joined the Desmond Rebellion. There meetings of his confederates were frequently held, and there Eustace narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. After his attainder in 1580 his kinsman, the Earl of Kildare, sought to obtain from the Crown the custody of the Castle, but it was given to the Vice-Treasurer; Sir Henry Wallop, ancestor of the Earls of Portsmouth. Wallop’s occupation was, however, of short duration, for, in spite of his opposition, it was restored to the Viscountess Baltinglas, in common with all the property she had brought to her husband.

A few years later Sir Gerald Aylmer, of Donadea, in the County Kildare, whose descendants still hold the baronetcy conferred on him by James I., came into possession of the Castle, through his marriage to the Viscountess Baltinglas after the death of the Viscount in Spain, where he had taken refuge. Aylmer had not been, so far as was known, implicated in the Desmond Rebellion, but his sympathies undoubtedly lay with those who were concerned in it, and his adherence to the Roman Catholic faith and efforts to secure the amelioration of the condition of his co-religionists, led more than once to his imprisonment. Subsequently, however; notwithstanding his convictions, which he appears to have held through life, he received from Elizabeth the honour of knighthood, afterwards merged in the hereditary title of. baronet, of which he was one of the first recipients.

After the death of his wife in 1610, the Castle and lands passed from Aylmer’s possession into that of his wife’s nephew, Henry Cheevers, her sister’s second son. The latter married a daughter of his neighbour, Sir Richard Fitzwilliam, ancestor in the female line of the Earls of Pembroke, whose Castle at Merrion was the only dwelling of importance between Monkstown and Dublin, and passed an uneventful life in the Castle.

To him succeeded, on his death in 1640, his son, Walter Cheevers, who was residing in the Castle when the Commonwealth was established. He appears to have taken no part in the stirring events of the time, but, as a Roman Catholic, he was not long left undisturbed. The Castle was a tempting residence for one of the authorities of the Parliament. and commanding as it did the landing-place for the men-of-war which lay in the roads, now occupied by Kingstown Harbour, it was of importance that it should be in the hands of one trusted by the Government. Cheevers was, therefore, amongst the first who were ordered to transplant into Connaught, although, from the steps taken to give him a suitable dwelling and ample lands there, it is evident that the only cause of complaint against him was his religion, and in the depth of the winter of 1653, he received command to vacate his ancestral home, and with his wife, a daughter of Viscount Netterville, and his five children, the eldest being only seven years of age, to find a new one in the wilds of the West of Ireland. His circumstances were not too flourishing, but he was surrounded by the usual crowd of retainers, and six men and four women servants accompanied their master. Also four tenants elected to share their landlord’s fortunes, and the progress of so great a company, with their horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and goods, across Ireland in winter must have been attended with loss, as well as hardship.

An owner for the Castle was forthcoming in the person of Lieutenant General Edmund Ludlow, one of the best known of the regicides, who was then Commander of the Horse in Ireland, and one of the commissioners for its government, and who probably had something to do with Cheevers’ eviction. The Castle was then in want of repair; but this Ludlow, who lost no opportunity of acquiring wealth - even making fortune the first consideration in his choice of a wife - soon effected, and caused gardens and pleasure grounds to be laid out, in which he delighted to walk. His establishment was in keeping with his residence; no one surpassed him in hospitality, and twenty horses stood ready for service in his stables. The breeding of horses, of black cattle, and of sheep, amused him in his leisure hours, and probably he had at times opportunity of exercising his love for hunting - a sport to which he was passionately devoted. But his enjoyment of his newly-acquired possessions was brief. He strongly disapproved of Cromwell’s assumption of regal power, and when the Lord Protector’s son, Henry, came over to feel his way before his appointment as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Ludlow, who met him at Dunleary with his coach, and entertained him at the Castle, both on his arrival and departure, disclosed to him while walking in the Castle garden his dissatisfaction with the step his father had taken. From that time Ludlow’s position in the Government became untenable. He desired to go to England, but Cromwell preferred his remaining in Ireland, and it was at last without Cromwell’s leave that he set sail on a stormy day in October, 1655, for England, accompanied to the boat by a vast crowd of his neighbours, with whom he was most popular.

After four years absence, on the recall of the Long Parliament, Ludlow returned to Ireland invested with all his former power, and for a few months resided again at the Castle, which had been looked after for him by his brother-in-law, Colonel Kempston. He then went over to London; while he was there the Army began to waver in their allegiance to the Parliament, and on his hurrying back to Ireland his landing was successfully opposed. Ludlow foresaw what was coming, and before the Restoration, sent orders to his bailiff to sell his stock, valued at £1,500, but through negligence or treachery on the part of his servant there was delay in the execution of his order; and all his possessions were seized by the Army for the Crown.

Some months after the Restoration, in November, 1660, Walter Cheevers was restored to his estates. So far as Monkstown was concerned, it was probably much improved, the Castle (which was one of the largest dwellings in the County Dublin, and contained six chimneys, a most unusual number) was in excellent repair; as well as a corn mill which stood near to it, and the population of the lands was returned as eleven English and fifty-three Irish, of whom fifteen besides Cheevers were householders.

In the latter part of the 17th century the Castle and lands came into the possession of the Most Rev. Michael Boyle, who held, in addition to the See of Armagh, the Chancellorship of Ireland, a combination of ecclesiastical and legal offices common in earlier times, but last permitted in his case, and the ownership of the soil still remains in possession of his descendants, now represented by Lords Longford and De Vesci.

A description of the Castle 100 years later shows that it must have been modernised and enlarged after Ludlow’s time. These improvements were probably effected by Archbishop Boyle’s eldest son, Viscount Blessington, whose son, the second and last Viscount Blessington, and son-in-law, Viscount Mountjoy, subsequently held the lands. Cheevers’ death took place in 1678, and the marriage of a connection of Lord Blessington’s in 1686, at Monkstown, indicates that the Castle was then one of his residences.

Amongst other persons residing at Monkstown at that time were Mr. Michael Hare, who died in 1685, and was buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Mr. Edward Corker, some time M.P. for Ratoath, and son-in-law of Sir Daniel Bellingham, the first Lord Mayor of Dublin. About the time of the latter’s death, in 1702, the Honourable Anthony Upton, a kinsman of the Uptons of Antrim, now ennobled under the title of Templetown, who had just been appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, came to live at Monkstown. His residence there has been commemorated by a famous ecclesiastical lawyer and writer of that period, Dr. William King, who was then Judge of the Irish Admiralty Court and Vicar-General of Armagh, in a poem entitled “Mully of Mountown.” It describes a discussion between the Judge’s servants - Peggy, the nymph of Mountown, David, a sprightly swain, who drove the Judge’s coach, and Robin of Derbyshire, the surly herd-as to the fate of the cow Mully - whether she was to be devoted to the dairy or to the butcher-and tells of the garden produce, and refreshing beverages for which Monkstown was renowned. Upton’s death did not take place till 1718, when he terminated his life with his own hand, but he had given up his house at Monkstown before that time, on his removal from the Bench on the accession of George I., and was then living in London.

In the middle of the 18th century we find at Monkatown Dr. Robert Roberts, an eminent Doctor of Laws, and M.P. for the Borough of Dungarvan, who died in 1758, when his extensive library was sold, and subsequently Mr. Robert Elrington, a West Indian merchant, and probably a descendant of the well-known Dublin actor, Thomas Elrington.

About the same time a house was built on the opposite side of the road from the Castle, where the gate lodge of Monkstown Park now stands, by the Right Honourable Charles Jones, fifth Viscount Ranelagh, who had claimed as a descendant of the first Viscount, the title which had lain dormant from the death of his kinsman, the notorious Earl of Ranelagh.

He took a prominent part in the political affairs of his time as Chairman of Committees in the Irish House of Lords, and, in spite of his support of the English Government, to which he was indebted for a pension, was a most popular nobleman. During his long residence in Monkstown, where he lived until his death, in 1797, he was a constant attendant at the vestries, and was instrumental in establishing an association for the repression of the footpads, with whom the roads swarmed. His house was pulled down in 1843, on the erection in its grounds of the one known as Monkstown Park, by Mr. Charles Haliday, whose memory will ever be preserved in his noble collection of pamphlets and books relating to Ireland, now in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy.

The Castle was, in 1780, advertised to be sold, and was then visited by one of the best Irish antiquaries of that day - Mr. Austin Cooper, FSA. The buildings at that time consisted of two square castles with turrets, a high tower and a house in the Gothic style, which stood behind the castles. The house is described in the advertisement which is written in the most high-flown language, as the second best in the county on the south side of the Liffey. It was three storeys in height and comprised numerous apartments, including a saloon, library, gallery, and chapel. The tower, which was 91 feet high, afforded a most extensive prospect. There were numerous offices, and the gardens, of which a glowing account is given, contained ice-houses, ferneries, and greenhouses.

It was subsequently taken by Councillor O’Neill, M.P. for Clonakilty, and at the termination of his tenancy appears to have been allowed to fall into ruin. A proposal was made by Mr. James Pim, in 1838, to the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, to transfer their collection to the grounds of the Castle, but, while acknowledging his liberal and scientific spirit, the Council did not think that they were at liberty to entertain it.

Seapoint and Templehill

(Formerly called Newtown on the Strand, or Newtown Castle Byrne.)

The lands on which Seapoint and Templehill now stand formed at the time of the Norman Conquest portion of those of Stillorgan, and were known as Argortin, or the Tillage Lands. At the beginning of the 13th century they were given, as a solemn religious offering, by Raymond Carew, the Anglo-Norman owner of Stillorgan, to St. Mary’s Abbey, and, when added to its lands of Carrickbrennan, completed the contents of the civil parish of Monkstown.

On the dissolution of the Abbey, in 1539, the lands of Newtown, as they were then called, contained a small castle-house, besides other dwellings, and were held by a tenant called John Moran. They were granted by the Crown to Sir John Travers at the same time as those of Monkstown, and, like the latter, were subsequently held by Viscount Baltinglas, Sir Gerald Aylmer, the Cheevers family, and Edmund Ludlow. The tithes, which had also belonged to the Abbey, were retained by the Crown, and in the 16th century were leased to, amongst others, James Stanyhurst Speaker of the House of Commons, and Recorder of Dublin, the father of the well-known historian, and to Thomas, Earl of Ossory, the lands being then described as Newtown on the Strand, or Newtown-juxta-Mare.

In the time of the Commonwealth the Castle, which was slated, was in good repair, and the population was returned as two English and twelve Irish, of whom six were house-holders. After the Restoration the lands of Newtown were restored, together with those of Monkstown, to Walter Cheevers, and on his death, in 1678, passed to the Byrne family, through the marriage of his only surviving child to John Byrne, of whom we shall hear more under Cabinteely (1).

In the early part of the 18th century, Newtown Castle Byrne, as it was then called, after the owner of the soil, was a pleasure resort for the citizens of Dublin. As the picture shows, a small town, which stood near the site of the railway station, had been built, and in a lease of that period the square of Newtown is mentioned. A large assembly-room, known as the Great Room of Castle Byrne, which was supported by subscribers, who dined together during the summer was erected, and there, in the year 1749, the Lord Chancellor, Robert Jocelyn, then Lord Newport, and afterwards Viscount Jocelyn, ancestor of the Earls of Roden, while residing at Mount Merrion, dined with the gentlemen of his court, to celebrate, after the manner of that time, the Battle of the Boyne. Some fatalities which occurred at Newtown, indicate that sea bathing was then in vogue, and the drowning in August, 1755, of an attorney with the historic name of Boswell, perhaps deserves record.

In the year 1757 a distinguished resident, the Right Honourable Edward Willes, who had been appointed in that year Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, came to Newtown. Like many of the Irish judges of his day, he was sent direct from the English Bar to the Irish Bench. He belonged to an ancient Warwickshire family, seated at Newbold Cormyn, on the lands of which Leamington is built, and held the offices of Recorder of Coventry, Attorney-General of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the rank of King’s Serjeant-at-Law, when promoted to the Irish judiciary.

His success in life has been attributed to his being a cousin of the eminent John Willes, Chief Justice of England, but from letters and papers relat ing to Ireland, which he has left, it is evident that he was a person of striking individuality, possessed of no ordinary discernment and intellectual ability, and of a character in which honesty of intention was conspicuous. His house at Newtown was called Rockfield, and stood near the site of the old castle in what was known as the Castle Field.

He describes its situation in a letter to his intimate friend, the Earl of Warwick. After writing of the bay of Dublin, he tells him that he has taken a thatched cabin upon it for a summer retreat overhanging a cliff, as high over the sea as Warwick Castle over the Avon; and goes on to say that out of one of his parlour windows nothing intercepted his view of Warwick but the mountains of Wales, and that out of the other window he had a romantic prospect of mountains, valleys, woods, and country houses, with the little town of Newtown underneath, and the obelisk at Stillorgan, then standing in Lord Allen’s deer park, and said to be the truest monument of the kind in proportion and beauty of any on this side of the Alps, in the distance.

Willes suffered much from gout and ague, which were aggravated by the dampness of Ireland and the discomforts judges then suffered on circuit, and nine years after his appointment his health completely broke down, and he retired from the Bench. He sought relief in his native air, but only survived two years, dying at Newbold Comyn in 1768, when in the 66th year of his age.

A monument to his memory was erected in Leamington Church, the inscription on which records his many virtues. His eldest son, who took Orders, was educated in Dublin University, where he was always selected while a student to address the Lords Lieutenants in set speeches on their visits to the College, and afterwards, by his classical learning and accomplishments, did credit to his Alma Mater.

Another resident at Newtown at that time was the Honourable Robert Marshall, one of the judges of the Common Pleas, known to students of Swift as one of the executors of Esther Vanhomrigh. Swift attributed to him responsibility for the publication of the poem of “Cadenus and Vanessa,” but certainly, in after years, there was no desire on his part to injure the Dean, and he was active in promoting, after Swift’s death, a monument to his memory.

He represented Clonmel, of which place he was a native, in Parliament, before his elevation to the Bench, and probably he was one of those grave serjeants-at-law, spoken of by a contemporary writer, who, when they rose to speak in the House near midnight, were as certain though sad harbingers of day as the bird of dawning. Legal talent in Ireland was then not at a high level, and Marshall appears, from his conduct of the claimant’s case in the Annesley Peerage suit, to have been at least equal to his fellows.

In 1754 he was promoted to the Bench, and occupied a seat in the Common Pleas, until obliged to retire about the same time as Willes, and from the same cause. He continued, however, to reside at Newtown, and died, in 1774, at his residence, which was called Seapoint House. His wife, a descendant through her mother of Sir Abraham Yarner, eminent in the Ireland of the Restoration, both in the practice of medicine and the profession of arms, brought Marshall, it is said, a fortune of £30,000, and he was not destitute himself of private means. They had no children; her fortune passed to her nieces, now represented by Viscount Combermere, and his property to the children of his sister, who had married Thomas Christmas, M.P. for Waterford, now represented by the Duchess of St. Albans. Marshall’s remains were interred in Waterford Cathedral with his own family, while his wife, who survived him, was buried with her father, Benjamin Wooley, in Wicklow Churchyard.

About the same time Lieutenant-General John Adlercron came to reside at Newtown. He was a member of a Huguenot family, whose ancestors had taken refuge in Dublin at the close of the 17th century, and, as Colonel of the 39th Regiment of Foot, had seen much service in India under Lord Clive. In April, 1762, he entertained at dinner, in his house at Newtown, the Lord Lieutenant of the day, the first Earl of Halifax, and there, in July, 1766, after eating a hearty dinner, as we are told, he died of an apoplectic fit. His wife, who belonged also to a Huguenot family and was daughter of an officer, Lieutenant-Colonel John Arabin, survived Adlercron, together with two sons, who both adopted their father’s profession, and a daughter, who married Sir Capel Molyneux.

Another resident at Newtown at this time was Edward Murphy, the attached friend of the patriotic first Earl of Charlemont. He had accompanied that nobleman as his tutor when, in early days, he made the grand tour, and now dwelt, supported mainly by his patron’s bounty, in what he loved to call “his cell hard by ye sable rock,” surrounded by the curious and beautiful things which he had collected during his travels.

Amongst the most remarkable of these was a collection of busts of the Roman Emperors, which were modelled for him from the originals in the Museum at Rome by an Italian artist who had taken four years to execute the task. These busts he bequeathed to his friend and patron, and they are now in the rooms of the Royal Irish Academy, to which they were presented by the last Earl of Charlemont.

Murphy was a good classical scholar, and edited an edition of Lucian, which was long used as a text-book in the University of Dublin, of which he had been a scholar. He was beloved by all who knew him, and attracted round him a host of friends by his charm in conversation and other social gifts, and by the simple and unaffected hospitality of his cell and turret, which ever spared a chop and some fruit to his visitors, and relief of the poor. After many years of suffering, which was lightened, as far as possible, by two wonder-working leeches, the celebrated Dr. Trotter and the sage Dr. Noddy, the former, lie says, admirable in fair, the latter in foul weather, Lord Charlemont’s devoted hermit breathed his last in September, 1777, while on a visit to the Queen’s County, and was buried in Straboe Churchyard, where a monument records his merits.

Amongst other contemporary residents at Newtown were Thomas Burroughs, an eminent attorney, connected by marriage with the Nugents, of Clonlost in the County Westmeath, whose handsome house was surrounded with the choicest fruit trees and flowering shrubs; the Rev. Thomas Heany, the curate in charge of Monks-town Church; and Topham Mitchell, a most charitable and popular gentleman, who died in 1764 from a fall from his horse.

Some years later, in 1767, the land on which Temple Hill House stands was bought by Serjeant James Dennis, who was promoted to the Bench, in 1777, as Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and created a peer as Baron Tracton. There he erected the present residence, which was long known as Neptune. His career as a judge was very short, his death taking place suddenly in his house in Stephen’s-green, at the corner of Merrion-row, in June, 1782. He was a native of Cork, and his remains were removed to that city for interment in the Cathedral in the vault of the Pigott family, to which his wife belonged.

He was succeeded in Neptune by a judge who is much better known, the celebrated John Scott first Earl of Clonmell, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench. Scott was appointed to that high judicial position in 1784, with the title of Baron Earlsfort, and was afterwards advanced to the Viscountcy and Earldom of Clonmell.

He is best known through writings in which his memory has been defamed and vilified in every possible way. His character, undoubtedly, was far from perfect, but a recent writer has shown that he was not so infamous as he has been painted, and he was beyond question a man of the first ability, and not without great admirers and friends amongst his contemporaries.

At Neptune he made many alterations and improvements, which gave opportunity to his victim, John Magee, owner of the *Dublin Evening Post, *to avenge the tyranny which the Earl, in his judicial capacity, had exercised over him, and which is perhaps the greatest blot on the Earl’s career. The land which lay between Neptune and the present Monkstown Church was then open and bare, and in the middle of the 18th century it had been the scene of horse-racing) which was generally productive of good sport and close running It had belonged to Judge Marshall, and was then in the possession of his niece, the widow of Sir William Osborne. In some way Magee secured it, and then proceeded to organise on it a monster fete, at which & pig chase was the principal attraction. The result which Magee desired was attained; immense crowds gathered, and the moment they were let loose the pigs invaded the gardens of Neptune, followed by the mob in hot pursuit. Before the intruders could be turned out they had overrun the whole place, and the Earl’s grounds presented a scene of utter destruction and desolation.

In the latter part of the 18th century the neighbourhood attained its zenith as a fashionable resort. Each summer the Irish Court migrated thither from Dublin Castle, and the Viceroy of the day took up his abode in the residence known as Blackrock House. This great mansion, with its noble sea front and suite of magnificent reception rooms, “with just agreement framed in every part,” was erected by Mr. John Lees, then Secretary of the Irish Post Office, and afterwards created a baronet. The following inscription appears on a mural tablet in Monkstown Church, “Sacred to the memory of the late Sir John Lees, Baronet; what he was as a husband and father, and as a Christian, is deeply engraved in the memory of his surviving family and friends, and his great public and private character will remain long after this frail monument shall perish and be forgotten-a memorial which is rather intended as a grateful and dutiful offering of the filial affection and piety of six afflicted sons than to be the record of his virtues to posterity; he died universally lamented by all ranks and descriptions of people the 3rd September, A.D.** **1811, aged 74 years.”).

His idea, in building it was, possibly, a speculative one, and it proved a very remunerative investment. To its occupation in 1778 by some distinguished person reference is doubtless made in an ironical announcement that “the poor of Blackrock were hopeful of obtaining garden produce at moderate terms on a great personage accepting a house near the town.” At its landing-place the Earl of Northington, on his arrival in June, 1783, as Lord Lieutenant, stepped ashore, and there he dined before proceeding to Dublin.

In its large rooms his successor, the Duke of Rutland, in July, 1785, received and entertained at breakfast an aeronaut, called Crosbie, who had made an ascent from the Duke of Leinster’s lawn in Dublin the previous day, and had been rescued out at sea, where his balloon had descended.

There Rutland’s Secretary, Thomas Orde, afterwards Baron Bolton, in the spring of 1786, recruited his health, and there, in July, 1788, Lord Charles FitzGerald, a most popular nobleman, met with a severe accident while landing from his barge. From there the Marquis of Buckingham made sea excursions to Dalkey Island and every part of the bay, and there stayed his successors, the Earles of Westmoreland and Camden; the famous Lord Castlereagh, attended by his secretaries, Cooke and Elliott; and the great Earl of Clare, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, for whose protection at the time of the Rebellion a detachment of the King’s County Militia was stationed at Blackrock.

About the same time as Blackrock House, Maretimo, which also still adorns the neighbourhood, was built. It was erected by Sir Nicholas Lawless, Bart., M.P.** **for Lifford, who was afterwards created Baron Cloncurry, and has since remained in the possession of the successive holders of that title.

Lawless was the leading merchant of his day, and attained to some distinction as a member of the House of Commons. In spite of an unattractive presence and faults of delivery, he was not unsuccessful as a speaker, and displayed in committee a knowledge of the principles of commerce and of political economy. His elevation to his baronetcy and peerage was due to unswerving support of the Government.

A diarist of the period gives an interesting account of an entertainment at Maretimo, at which he was present, in the first Lord Cloncurry’s time. It lasted for the round of the clock, and truly was deserving of the name of a rout. It was summer, and tables were spread in large tents on the lawn, and in the open air. The company was great, and many who were unable to find room at the tables outside were reduced to dining in the house. The grounds of Blackrock House were thrown open, and after dinner the guests strolled about until dancing began, to the music of the band of the Kildare Militia.

A year later a similar entertainment, only more splendid, was given by the Earl of Clonmell at Neptune. The diarist describes the numerous assemblage sitting down to luncheon, after which, the day being showery, the guests sought amusement in crowding the rooms and listening to dance music, to which their host’s entreaties could not induce them to respond. At 5 o’clock the Lord Lieutenant joined the party and dinner began. It could not be served in the open air, as had been intended, on account of the rain, and “the squeeze was immense.” Some of the tables had to be laid in the bedrooms and others in the hall. After dinner, which was most sumptuous, dancing began and lasted till midnight (Diary of Alexander Hamilton, K.C, LL.D.).

Another resident at Newtown at the same time as the first Lord Cloncurry was Mr. Robert Jephson, a dramatist and poet of some note, and a member of the Irish Parliament. He had come to Ireland with Lord Halifax, on his appointment as Lord Lieu tenant. It is said that Lord Halifax was requested by Garrick, with kindly intention, to take the play-going youth to Ireland or anywhere else out of his way, as he left him no peace behind the scenes.

Prospect, now St. Joseph’s College, was then a boarding school, where the sons of many of the nobility and gentry of Ireland were educated. It was first kept by the Rev. John Burrowes, and afterwards by the Rev. Charles Meares. Amongst Burrowes’ pupils was the second Lord Cloncurry, who says that Burrowes had good qualities, but had mistaken his vocation.

A boarding-house with a spacious ballroom was erected at Seapoint by a Mr. William Jones towards the close of the 18th century. It stood near the edge of the sea, close to a well, known as Tobernea, and its site is now occupied by the terrace called by that name.

During the summer subscription dances were held in the ballroom, and our diarist on going down in July, 1800, found a full room, a good set, and a tolerable supper, but execrable wine.

At the time of his rebellion some of Robert Emmet’s friends were staying there, and Emmet is said to have been a visitor at the house. It was subsequently proposed to purchase the house as a recruiting depot for the army, but the negotiations fell through, and Beggars’ Bush Barracks were built instead.

The strand at Seapoint continued to be a favourite bathing-place, and while bathing there in September, 1797, two young women were carried out of their depth. One of them was drowned; the other was rescued; but on learning the fate of her companion she became unconscious, and died in a few hours.

The neighbourhood of Seapoint was, in November, 1807, the scene of perhaps the greatest tragedy that ever took place in or near Dublin. On a dark winter’s day two vessels, *The Princess Of Wales *and *The Rochdale, *set Sail from the mouth of the Liffey, laden with nearly 500 soldiers and officers belonging to various regiments. In the night a storm arose, and the next morning the two vessels were discovered complete wrecks on the rocks near Blackrock House. Every person on board had perished, with the exception of the captain and some of the crew of *The Princess of Wales, *who had escaped in the only boat - leaving the passengers to their fate. The shore long presented a sight too horrible for description.

The principal residents during the first half of the last century were the second Lord Cloncurry and the Rev. Sir Harcourt Lees, Bart., men who, in their political opinions, exhibited the opposite extremes. The former, who resided constantly at Maretimo, was a man of the most liberal views, who had been suspected in early life of revolutionary sentiments. The latter, who dwelt in his father’s home, the gates of which he had sheeted with iron, was a man of the strictest type of Conservatism, and has been described “as the renowned, the dreaded, and the dreadless Sir Harcourt”.

Blackrock

Blackrock cross.jpg (19962 bytes)The town of Blackrock lies at the extremity of the franchises of the city of Dublin, and the cross (pictured, on right), which stands in its main street, marks the termination of the ancient jurisdiction of the Dublin Corporation. The cross is generally thought to have been erected for that purpose, but it has recently been suggested that it is ecclesiastical in its origin.

The place is one of the points mentioned in the accounts of the riding of the franchises, but, except in connection with that event, was little known until the middle of the 18th century. It then became, under the name of the Black Rock, the holiday outlet for the Dublin populace.

Thither they proceeded in crowds on Sundays and high days on the cars of the period. These cars have been described by a contemporary writer as the drollest and most diverting conveyances imaginable, and were primitive in their construction. Two long shafts, a few boards, and a pair of very low wheels, cut out of a solid block, made the vehicle, on which a feather bed was laid, and six persons sat with their feet hanging down, almost touching the ground.

For the accommodation of the people houses of entertainment, which are marked on the view of the coast taken at that time, were opened, and Blackrock became celebrated for its immense consumption of claret and spirituous liquors.

The principal inn in 1764 was “The Sign of the Ship,” to which a spacious ballroom was attached, and where an excellent band of music, a man cook, and a good larder were to be found, and, twenty years later, “The Three Tun Tavern,” which was kept by one Bishop, a worthy host, was renowned for its good cheer.

The narrowness of the approaches to the town and the precipitous slopes to the sea were the source of frequent accidents. Bathing fatalities were also not uncommon, and with the hope of lessening them, there was, in 1754, a proposal to build a bathing place.

Blackrock was the scene, in 1754, of the suicide of Sir Charles Moore, which caused much excitement at the time, and, in 1768, of an attempt by a servant to poison an entire family; also, in 1775, it was selected as the place for a duel which, on one of the combatants, “in a gentlemanlike manner,” firing in the air, was happily compromised.

While the Lords Lieutenants were resident at Blackrock House, we read that the Rock experienced “the sweets of dissipation to so high a degree that even Bath could scarce take the lead for more gaiety, amusement, and *bon ton,” *and fruit shows, known as Melon Feasts, were then instituted, at which the gardeners of the Lord Lieutenant, the Archbishop of Dublin, and other notabilities bore away elegant gold medals.

Montpelier and its neighbourhood.

The** **name Montpelier is now mainly preserved by a row of houses called Montpelier Parade, on the road from Blackrock to Monks-town. These houses date from about the time of the Union, when they were erected by Mr. Molesworth Green, but the name Montpelier had been applied previously to a dwelling near their site. In 1748 an auction of furniture, which included a telescope of the newest and best kind, was advertised to be held for Mr. Thomas Byrne, at Montpelier, near Newtown Castle Byrne, and a house there on which he had laid out £2,500, was afterwards advertised to be sold. This house appears in the picture at the end of the parade, and is now called Shandon.

The great residence in the neighbourhood in the 18th century was Rockfield, in Newtown-Park-avenue. its grounds were then much more extensive than at present, and stretched down to Blackrock, where the places called Dunardagh and Craigmore now stand. The house, though it has been enlarged and altered, still retains much of its original plan, and, from the style of architecture exhibited in its construction, has been thought to be of French design. It was selected by Lord Townshend, towards the close of his vice-royalty, which terminated in 1772, as his summer retreat, and probably it was under his direction, in memory of his military exploits with Wolfe, before Quebec, that the martial emblems, with the words “Britain’s Glory” underneath, which adorn the staircase were executed.

There Townshend could indulge undisturbed in the scenes of revelry and dissipation in which he delighted, and there, in company with Provost Andrews and Attorney-General Tisdal, then his neighbour at Stillorgan, he doubtless often proved himself deserving of his character as an eight-bottle man. One of his last acts before leaving Ireland was to send £40 to the curate of Monkstown for distribution amongst the poor - a gift let us hope, actuated as much by charity as by the desire for popularity, which was so strong a trait of his character.

Rockfield was afterwards assigned by its owner, Mr. Thomas Manning, to Sir Frederick Flood, Bart., King’s Counsel, and M.P.** **for Wexford, a most popular politician, and one of the strongest opponents of the Union.

It was subsequently sold to Mr. Edward Badham Thornhill, and was afterwards occupied by the celebrated Sir Boyle Roche, whose admirable discharge of his duties as Gentleman Usher and Master of the Ceremonies in Dublin Castle, has been lost sight of amidst the innumerable anecdotes of his bull-making propensities.

There were several other residences at that time in the neighbourhood occupied by persons of position. William Raphson, whose three nieces married respectively Bishop Stock, of Killala; Bishop Newcome, of Waterford, afterwards Primate; and Archdeacon Palmer, and whose name is honoured as a benefactor of the Rotunda hospital, lived for many years near Newtown Park; as did, also, the second Earl of Mayo, who died near Blackrock, in 1792; Christopher Myers, the architect of the Chapel of Trinity College, and father of a distinguished officer and baronet, who died at Myersville, now Wynberg, in 1789, and Joseph Atkinson, a well-known *litterateur *and Deputy-Judge Advocate-General, who died in 1818, at Melfield.

Later on we find among the residents Sir Edward Newenham, who died at Ratino in 1814, a politician whose services in Parliament earned him the name of a patriot, and Sir William Betham, who died at Montpelier in 1853, for many years Ulster King of Arms, whose birthplace, Stradbrook, in Surrey, probably gave its name to the adjoining village (6).

**The Port of Kingstown

**(Formerly known as the Port of Dunleary.)

Within Kingstown Harbour, at its south-west corner, there is a small pier used by colliers. This pier formerly enclosed the harbour of Dunleary, and, up to the time of the construction of the refuge harbour of Kingstown, was the only shelter for vessels on the coast between Wexford and Dublin.

Dunleary, a name which is supposed to be derived from the place having been the site of a dun, or fort, erected in the 5th century by Leaghaire, King of Ireland, first came into notice in the time of the Commonwealth as a landing-place for the ships of war, which lay out in the bay.

A fishery, which probably had been established in the time of the Monks of St. Mary’s Abbey, existed there, and Ludlow mentions that, when leaving Ireland in 1655, he gained the ship in which he was to cross the Channel by means of one of the largest of the herring vessels which lay in the creek below Monkstown.

From that time, although Ringsend was the usual place of embarkation and disembarkation, the creek of Dunleary, which is now crossed by the railway, was occasionally made use of by travellers to or from England, and a quay was built. In the Restoration period the Earl of Essex, on his arrival as Lord Lieutenant landed there, and the appointment of an excise officer indicates the increasing importance of the port which became the constant station of a man-of-war.

A poet of the period commemorates the departure from Dunleary, in September, 1709, of their Excellencies the Earl and Countess of Wharton. He describes seeing, from Killiney’s craggy height two warlike vessels, gay with bunting, prepared to carry away the ruler of the land, and how the people gave way to grief and sighs, which he calls on them to suppress, since the destiny of their happy isle is committed to such Lords Justices as the famed Caesar, General Ingoldsby, and the learned Lycurgus, Lord Chancellor Freeman, who, “like comely twins, combined to fight its battles and protect its laws.” Swift, who sailed in the Government yacht in the following year, gives the Dunleary boatmen a bad character, and relates how they made him double their remuneration under threat of losing the yacht, for which he found he was in ample time.

In 1741, James O’Hara second Lord Tyrawley, then Ambassador to Portugal, landed at Dunleary, from His Majesty’s ship *Lyman, *which he had joined at Cork, where he had arrived in the Lisbon packet-boat; and, in 1743, Richard Annesley, sixth Earl of Anglesey, landed there, and proceeded to his seat at Bray, on his arrival to defend his title against the claimant, James Annesley.

Early in the morning of a September day, in 1753, their Excellencies the Duke and Duchess of Dorset arrived in the bay in *The Dorset *yacht, and were put on shore at Dunleary by their barge about 8 o’clock. They had been expected to land at Ringsend, where great preparations had been made to receive them with concerts of music, guns, and pedereroes. Most of the performers were unable to reach Dunleary in time, but many persons of importance went out in boats to pay their compliments to their Excellencies before they disembarked.

On shore their Excellencies were awaited by the coaches and servants of the Lords Justices, and proceeded to town amongst crowds, who expressed their joy by loud acclamations. The journals of the day specially note the selection by the Duchess of Irish poplin for the material of her dress.

Though less fashionable than Newtown Castle Byrne, Dunleary was then a seaside place of amusement. Swift, writing in 1721 to his sub-Dean, asks him how often he had been with his wife to Dunleary, and about the same time some verses appeared, which invited the ladies of Dublin to repair in coach or on car to Dunleary, where they would find honest residents and could procure good ale.

Such luxuries as meat and wine they were recommended to bring with them. Dunleary was also possessed of at least one good dwelling, known as the Great House. In it probably died, in 1711, Lady Mary Sheares, of Dunleary, daughter of Richard, second Earl of Barrymore, and wife, first of the Rev. Gerald Barry, and secondly, of the Rev. Christopher Sheares, of Tandragee, and in it resided, successively, Lord Tullamore, afterwards Earl of Charleville; Lord Southwell, and Viscount Lanesborough.

Later on Mr. John Carden, ancestor of the Cardens of Fishmoyne, leased a large place near Dunleary, which comprised lands known as the Seafield, the Rockfield, and the Towerfield, and which was bounded on one side by the sea, and on the other by the high road from Monkstown to Bullock.

A fishery still existed - in 1751. the Dunleary fishermen brought to shore a shark, the first ever caught there - but from the hopes expressed that foreign fishermen might be induced to settle near Dublin, and that the city might be then supplied with fresh fish, it cannot have been carried on with much vigour.

The inhabitants of the village were, owing to the frequent presence of men-of-war in the bay, constantly liable to be pressed for service in the navy, and, in 1757, during an attempt of the kind, shots were fired, and one of the townsmen was wounded.

The necessity for building a pier at Dunleary was, in 1755, represented to the Irish House of Commons, in a petition signed by inhabitants of Dublin. The petition set forth the danger which often attended the navigation of the Dublin port, and the advantages which Dunleary presented as a site for a harbour.

The House granted the prayer of the petition, and voted a sum of £21,000 for the erection of the pier. Its erection occupied twelve years, the actual sum expended being only £18,500. Its completion was superintended by the well-known archaeologist, General Vallancey.

Before it was actually finished it proved of service. In the summer of 1764, two men-of-war, *The Wasp *and *The Ranger, *were repaired alongside, and during storms in the winter of that year seven or eight vessels were safely harboured under its shelter.

It was then hoped that when the old quay was taken down, and some rocks at the end of the bay removed, there would be room for twenty sail at a time to anchor under its protection. This anticipation was, however, unduly optimistic. The harbour looked well. Austin Cooper, who probably saw it when the tide was full, describes it as a handsome, semi-circular harbour, enclosed by high banks of gravel, and by the pier, which was about 27 perches long, and which sheltered it from all winds except the north.

But for practical purposes it proved, like many of the small harbours since constructed, a complete failure. It soon fined up with sand, which the dredging machines of the time were unable to remove; and, in 1776, a correspondent styling himself “Hawser Trunnion,” drew attention to its inutility, and expressed the opinion that the pier had been built in the wrong direction. The condition of the harbour was brought under the notice of the House of Commons, by a petition signed, amongst others, by Lord Chancellor Hewitt, who was then living at Stillorgan, and by Viscount Ranelagh; and a Committee, presided over by Sir Nicholas Lawless, recommended the expenditure of an additional sum of £1,150 upon the pier.

The Viceroys and their families continued to make use occasionally of Dunleary on their arrival or departure. There the Duke of Bedford, in 1758, embarked on *The Dorset *yacht which was convoyed to England by *The Biddefort, *of twenty tons, and there again, two years later, having been accompanied from town by the nobility and gentry in their coaches and six, he embarked on the same boat under convoy of The Surprise.

There landed, in 1780, the Earl of Carlisle, who had crossed from Parkgate, on the Dee, in *The Dorset *yacht, which was commanded by Sir Alexander Schomberg, and convoyed by *The Stag, *frigate, and *The Townshend, *revenue cruiser; in 1784 the Duchess of Rutland and her three children; in 1787 the Marquis of Buckingham, who proceeded to Mr. Lees’ villa; in 1789, the Marchioness of Buckingham, who also went to “The Rock,” and, in 1790, the Countess of Westmoreland.

The packets from England then went to Ringsend, but passengers were sometimes put on shore, by means of boats, at Dunleary, when the wind was contrary. For their accommodation a coffee-house remains of which still exist was opened near the pier. Possibly it was the same house as the one known by the sign of the “Star and Garter,” which was, in 1754, advertised to be sold - a house described as fit for any nobleman or gentleman.

Dunleary was at that time an inconsiderable and dirty village the abode of a few fishermen; and the country between it and Bullock was a sterile tract covered with furze and heath, and traversed by a few footpaths.

The principal resident near the village was Mr. William Roseingrave one of the Secretaries in Dublin Castle, whose house stood on or near the site of Salthill Hotel. He had filled several offices, and belonged to a family renowned for their musical talents. His father had been organist of the Dublin Cathedrals, and his uncle who died in his house at Salthill, in 1766, was a talented, though eccentric, composer.

The house and lands of Dunleary belonged then to Sir James Taylor, Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1765; and another resident of note was the revenue surveyor, Mr. George Glover, who gave elegant entertainments on *The Newtown *barge, and was presented with the thanks of the Corporation of Weavers for his exertions to prevent the smuggling of foreign silks.

A humble resident., of the name of Lawlor, also deserves record, on account of the extraordinary feat which he frequently performed, about 1760, of swimming from Dunleary to Howth; and an African diver ought not to be forgotten, who, in 1783, attracted crowds to Dunleary to see his descents under the sea in a diving bell.

Projects in connection with the Mail Packet service from England, which would have affected Dunleary, had been more than once mooted. In 1778 it was announced that a new pier was to be built there, from which all packets were to sail.

In 1790 much conjecture was aroused in the neighbourhood by the packets anchoring in the man-of-war roads, where the mails were put on board by wherries, and, in 1801, there was a scheme to make a deep sea harbour at Dalkey, and to connect Dalkey with Dublin by means of a canal.

But it was not until 1809 that the proposal to construct the present harbour at Kingstown was made. In that year a petition was presented to the Lord Lieutenant, praying that the construction of an asylum harbour near Dunleary should be undertaken by the Government, and, six years later, an Act was passed, authorising the work, at an estimated cost of £505,000.

The first stone of the East Pier was laid, in 1817, by His Excellency the Earl of Whitworth, and the embarkation from the head of that pier of His Majesty George IV., after his visit to Ireland in 1821, gave origin to the familiar name of Kingstown Harbour.

Even at that early stage of its construction its future utility was foreshadowed. It was on Monday, September 8, late in the afternoon, that the King embarked on his yacht, but, owing to high winds, it was not until the following Friday that he could set out for England. On Wednesday his yacht hoisted sail, and put out along the coast of Wicklow, but she was soon driven back, and was glad to remain under the shelter of the pier until the storm abated.

The stone of which the piers are built, was quarried out of Dalkey Hill, and was brought to Dunleary in trucks, drawn by horses on four railroads, laid side by side. So fast was the granite poured into the sea that the East Pier is said to have progressed at the rate of 100 feet a month.

Bullock

bulloch3.jpg (29317 bytes)The Castle of Bullock (pictured right), to which a modern house has been attached, forms a conspicuous object on the road from Kingstown to Dalkey. It stands between the road and the sea, and overhangs a creek, now converted into a harbour.

Mr. J. H. Parker, c.b., an eminent authority on Gothic architecture, who inspected the Castle in 1859, formed the opinion that it was a structure of the 12th century. He says that it is built of plain and rude masonry, and that in plan it is a simple oblong. The lower story is vaulted throughout, and the rooms in it, he thought, were probably used as a store-house.

Above the vault the Castle is divided into two unequal portions. In the larger division there are two principal rooms, one over the other, with small, round-headed windows and doorways; each of these rooms is provided with a fireplace, and there is a garderobe in a turret at one corner, and a small closet in another, with a staircase between.

The smaller division of the house is divided into three stories, above the vaults, probably for bedrooms; there are no fireplaces, and the windows are squareheaded. The two ends of the building are higher than the centre, but, in Mr. Parker’s opinion, it is all part of one design and was built together; the battlements are in the form of steps.

Under one portion of the Castle there is an archway, probably used to pass from one courtyard to another, and there were, when Mr. Parker made his inspection, remains of a bawn, as well as of a tower, which has since disappeared, but which stood about 100 yards from the Castle on the Dalkey side.

Bullock was, doubtless, known in times long prior to the English settlement as the site of a rocking-stone, which stood on its lands near the Castle, until the destructive hand of man removed it at the beginning of the 19th century. The Castle, as* *we have seen, in the history of the coeval edifice at Monkstown, was built by the Cistercian Monks of the Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary, near Dublin, and was erected by them to protect the fishery, which rose to such great proportions, under their auspices, on the portion of the lands of Carrickbrennan known as Bullock.

In return for the encouragement and protection which they gave to the fishermen, the monks exacted a toll of fish from every vessel using the port, and, in the 14th century, this custom gave rise to litigation between the Abbey and the fishermen, in which the Abbey was successful.

The land immediately round the Castle, as in the case of Monkstown, was retained by the monks in their own hands, and, in 1312, the enemies of the King carried off from the grange of Bullock corn and other property belonging to the Abbey.

There was frequent opportunity at Bullock for the extension of the hospitality for which the Order was famous, and many a traveller, doubtless, found a resting-place within the Castle.

There, probably, the boy Lord Lieutenant, Prince Thomas of Lancaster, son of Henry IV., on his arrival from England, in the chilly month of November in the year 1401, partook of refreshments, and there Henry VIII.’s Solicitor-General for Ireland, Walter Cowley, spent a night on his arrival from London, in March, 1539, with money of the State in his charge.

At the time of the dissolution of St. Mary’s Abbey there were on the lands of Bullock, a portion of which was covered with firs and underwood, besides the Castle, two houses and six cottages The town appears to have been strongly guarded with walls, into which at least one tower was built, and to have contained a church.

Two tenants, Patrick Bermingham and John Gaban, were in occupation, and the tithes, which were payable in fish, were leased to Richard Edwards. After the suppression of the Abbey, the Castle and its lands were leased by the Crown in 1542, in consideration of the surrender of Powerscourt and other neighbouring lands, to Peter Talbot, of Fassaroe near Bray.

Thirteen years later, on Andrew’s Day, 1555, Talbot met a violent death, possibly while protecting his property from a party of kerns, such as we find some years later waging war at Bullock against the militia; and his son being then only an infant his possessions were for a time in the custody of his son’s guardian, Christopher, twentieth Baron of Howth, known as the Blind Lord.

At the beginning of the 17th century the town contained as many as 30 houses. The Castle was in good repair, but the tower was ruinous. The port continued to be used occasionally by other vessels besides fishing craft. In 1559, the Earl of Sussex, then Lord Deputy, landed there, and, in 1633, a Dutch ship, while lying under the walls of the Castle, was taken by a privateer, called The True Love*, *commanded by Captain Thomas Gayner, who claimed to have letters of marque from the King of Spain - an occurrence which gave rise to international difficulty

During the 16th century the Castle and the lands had been assigned by the Taibots to members of one of the great Dublin mercantile families of the day, the Fagans, whose principal residence was Feltrim, near Swords, and whose ancestors had been amongst the earliest English settlers; and we find amongst the members of the family in possession of Bullock, Christopher Fagan and his younger brother, Richard, each of whom filled the high position of Mayor of Dublin.

When the great Rebellion broke out in October, 1641, the eldest son of Richard Fagan, Mr. John Fagan, was in occupation of the Castle, and, whether from compulsion or inclination, appears, from depositions afterwards made, to have rendered the rebels much assistance. One of the first efforts to reduce to obedience the neighbourhood of Dublin was made at Bullock, and it was the scene of cruel retaliation for the outrages which had been committed.

A month after the rising a party of soldiers, under the command of Colonel Lawrence Crawford, an officer of more courage than judgement, descended on the village, and, finding that the inhabitants on their approach had put to sea, the soldiers pursued them in boats, and threw them-men, women and children, to the number of 56 - overboard.

All through that winter the southern part of the County Dublin remained at the mercy of the rebels. Shortly before Christmas, John Fagan came from Feltrim to his Castle at Bullock and, according to the evidence of his servant, finding no provisions ready for him, went on to Carrickmines Castle, which, belonged to his relatives, the Walshes.

It was the headquarters of the rebels, and to it he sent, subsequently, from Bullock supplies of fish and a small cannon, which had been on the battlements. In the following March Carrickmines Castle was levelled with the ground, and, a few weeks later, another descent was made on Bullock, this time by Colonel Gibson’s regiment, and some of the men found there were killed and others brought prisoners to Dublin.

The Castle was then seized by the Crown, and a garrison of soldiers was maintained in it until the Commonwealth was established in Ireland. At first the garrison was in charge of Colonel Crawford, but, on the cessation with the Irish, he joined the army of the Parliament in England, and a Captain Richard Newcomen succeeded him. In Newcomen’s time the garrison consisted of seven non-commissioned officers and 60 men, under command of himself, Lieutenant Valentine Wood, and Ensign Arthur Whithead, the weekly charge for the soldiers being £7, and for the officers £1 3s.

In 1644 the defences of the Castle were strengthened by the construction of a rampart, furnished with three cannon, which were conveyed to Bullock by boat under a military escort, and the erection of a guard house. The estimated cost of this work, which appears to have been exceeded, was £25; brick was the material used, and masons, carpenters, carters, and labourers, who were fed from the regimental canteen, were employed.

At the time of the Battle of Rathmines the authorities of the Parliament had friends at Bullock, and the garrison had probably joined their forces. During the Commonwealth Bullock, owing to the anchorage of the warships near it was, like Dunleary, a place of importance, and soldiers, doubtless, were kept in the Castle.

In 1656 Captain Richard Roe, who was buried at Lusk, died there, and, in 1659, Captain Abraham Aldgate, who was reprimanded for giving assistance to Edmund Ludlow, and who pleaded lack of intelligence to understand the marvellous changes of the time, fled thither on horseback from Dublin, and took refuge on his ship.

The inhabitants were not left without religious consolation and, in 1658, the Rev. Nathaniel Hoyle, B.D.,** a Fellow of Trinity College, and afterwards a prebendary in Emly Diocese, was paid £100 a year by the Parliament for acting as minister of Bullock.**

At the time of the Restoration Bullock was stated to be “a fair ancient town of fishing”; its slated Castle and bawn were in good repair, the haven was accounted a safe one, and there was a population of fifteen English and ninety-five Irish, inhabiting some twenty houses.

John Fagan had died shortly after the Rebellion, in 1643, and had been succeeded by his grandson, Christopher Fagan. The latter had been of service to the Royalist Army in the later years of Charles the First’s reign, and, on the Restoration, was restored as an innocent Roman Catholic to all the family possessions, including the Castle and lands of Bullock, and the revenue from chief fish, tithe fish, customs, and fish and corn tithe.

The Fagan family, however, did not long remain in possession, as Richard Fagan, who succeeded his father, Christopher Fagan, on his death, in 1683, was, after the Revolution, attainted for treason committed at Swords, and his property all confiscated.

Bullock and its lands were sold by the Crown, and purchased, for £1,750, by Colonel Allen, of Stillorgan, afterwards the first Viscount Allen, whose representative, the Earl of Carysfort, is now the owner of the soil.

The Rectory and tithes were at the same time given to augment the vicarages of Kill-of-the-Grange and Stillorgan, then under the charge of the curate of Monkstown, and possessing no church of their own.

So far back as the time of Charles I. there had been a revenue officer at Bullock, and, after the Restoration, one Jenkin Hopkins applied for that position. In the beginning of the 18th century the office was no sinecure and, in addition to his duties with regard to the revenue, the officer had to watch the illegal exportation of recruits for the French service.

A detachment of soldiers was, in 1731, sent to Bullock, to prevent the embarkation of men thus enlisted, and only arrived in time to find that “the wild geese,” to the number of 40, had flown the preceding night, in company with some French officers.

The prevention of smuggling led often to serious rioting and, in 1735, a great battle took place at Bullock, in consequence of the seizure of a quantity of brandy and tea, and one of the revenue officers was wounded and two of the smugglers killed. In 1743 a Mr. Anthony Robinson filled the position of riding officer at Bullock, and displayed much activity in seizing whiskey concealed in churns, as well as chocolate, seal skins, and tortoise shell, which were being brought from Gaiway to Dublin.

One of the principal residents at Bullock in the Restoration period was Mr. Kenelm Livinglyhurst, who was buried, in 1685, in the Chancel of Dalkey Church, and on the purchase of Bullock, in 1703, by Colonel Allen, a Mr. Simon Young was the tenant.

Subsequently the whole of the place was held under the Viscounts Allen by Mr. John Watson, a gentleman who exhibited much benevolence and humanity to his poorer neighbours, and to shipwrecked mariners, and who occupied a comfortable house, which he had built under the shelter of Bullock Castle.

His son, Mr. James Watson, a popular and clever young man, was killed, in 1760, while attending horse races at Bray by a blow from the loaded handle of a whip. A writer of the period says that the house was remarkable for the beauty of its situation, especially during a storm, when the waves dashed against the rocks and fell back in cascades, sending clouds of foam over the roof, but that it was still more remarkable for the hospitality and politeness which reigned within, and which made it the meeting-place for all the well-bred people of the neighbourhood.

Over the rocky country by which Bullock was surrounded, foxhounds, in those days, often pursued their game, chasing Reynard through Bullock, and across the open land known as Monkstown Common, which lay between Dunleary and Monkstown, into the shrubby woods for which Glenageary was famous.

The ancient town of Bullock, though much decayed, still exhibited at that time a complete walled town in miniature, and contained remains of a church as well as of the tower. A quay of hewn stone had been built and, towards the close of the 18th century, the town contained a number of cabins occupied by fishermen, who found a ready market in Dublin for the cod, haddock, herrings, crabs, and lobsters which they caught.

At the beginning of the 19th century, a lifeboat was placed there but, owing to the difficulty attending its launching, it was only capable of use in the finest weather. As the century went on Bullock was more and more superseded by the modern Kingstown.

Ecclesiastical History of Monkstown

The Old Church, remains of which are still to be seen in the ancient graveyard of Carrickbrennan, on the opposite side of the road to the Castle of Monkstown, stood on the site of a place of worship which was dedicated to St. Mochonna, Bishop of Holin Patrick, who is supposed to have flourished about the 6th century.

After the English Conquest, the latter, then known as the Chapel of Carrickbrennan, was given, together with the advowson and tithes, to St. Mary’s Abbey, but did not long remain in the possession of the Cistercian establishment.

In 1220, Ralph de Bristol, then Treasurer of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and afterwards Bishop of Kildare, claimed portion of the tithes of Carrickbrennan, in right of the prebend of Clonkeen, or Kill-of-the-Grange-a stall which he held with the treasurership-and the Abbey, by undertaking to pay him annually a certain sum, besides his costs, admitted that he had acquired a right over the spiritualities of Carrickbrennan.

Subsequently the Church of Kill-of-the-Grange was exchanged by St. Patrick’s Cathedral for Ballymore, the property of the Priory of the Holy Trinity and, in 1240, was confirmed to the latter religious house, which owned the land on which it stood. At the same time the Chapel of Carrickbrennan was transferred to the care of the Priory, and became attached as a chapel to the Mother Church of Kill-of-the-Grange.

The great tithes were retained by St. Mary’s Abbey, and the small tithes were given for the support of a chap-lain. At the close of the 13th century the latter were insufficient for that purpose, but, doubtless, fifty years later, when one Andrew received a pair of shoes for looking after the interests of the Priory at Carrickbrennan, they had improved.

After the dissolution of St. Mary’s Abbey, the advowson of the church and the tithes, excepting those of the lands of Bullock and Newtown, were given to Sir John Travers, and were subsequently held, in spite of their being Roman Catholics, by his successors. The advowson, however, was taken from them before 1615, when the Church was in sequestration, and the Dean of Christ Church, as successor of the Prior of the Holy Trinity, had probably, before 1630, established his right to the parish. The Rev. William Morris Lloyd was then in charge of it, as well as of the parishes of Dalkey and Killiney, as curate, and he was succeeded by the Rev. John Davis, who also held the cures of Kilmacinoge, Old Connaught, and Kilternan.

In 1642 the latter had to divide the pittance he received for Monkstown – some £6 a year - with another clergyman, the Rev. Randolph Foxwist, then curate of Leperstown, who was connected with the Cheevers family. The great tithes were still owned by Travers’ descendants, and were held by Sir Gerald Aylmer and Henry Cheevers. At that time there was also in Monkstown a Roman Catholic Church, which was served, in 1630, by the Rev. Turlogh O’Brien.

During the Commonwealth, St. Mochonna’s Church, which was, in Charles the First’s reign, in good repair, though “wanting in decency and some necessaries,” fell into ruin, owing to disuse, and some years after the Restoration it was completely rebuilt, through the munificence of Mr. Edward Corker, who had the work executed entirely at his own expense. The building is described by Mr. Austin Cooper as being very plain and small, the only ornament being a weathercock, which bore the letters E.C., and the date, 1668, of its erection.

There was then no church fit for use in the parishes of Kill-of-the-Grange, Dalkey, Killiney, Tully, Stillorgan, and Kilmacud, and these parishes were united to Monkstown, and continued to be served for nearly 100 years by the curate of Monkstown. The tithes, both great and small, were restored to the Church, and were at the disposal of the Dean of Christ Church, who, as rector, appointed the curates.

The first who acted in that capacity was the Rev. Thomas Ward, afterwards Dean of Connor (1), and he was succeeded, in 1685, by the Rev. William Deane, a Welsh-man, and a scholar of Trinity College, who also held the curacies of St. Catherine’s and St. James’s parishes in Dublin.

Then, for the long period of more than 50 years, commencing in 1690, the cure was served by the Rev. Alan Maddison, a native of the County Fermanagh, and a graduate of Dublin University. His income was augmented by his appointment to a prebend in Kildare Cathedral, given to him by his rector, who was bishop of that diocese, as well as Dean of Christ Church, and, for the last few years of his life, his duty at Monkstown was performed by the Rev. Daniel Dickinson, who was for many years assistant curate of St. Werburgh’s Church, in Dublin.

In 1742 Maddison was laid to rest under the Communion Table of his church, and was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Heany, a scholar of Trinity College, who had been previously curate of St. Peter’s Church, Dublin, and of Donnybrook. His promotion to Monkstown was due to the influence of Lord Chancellor Jocelyn, then just come to live at Mount Merrion, who possibly, sometimes attended Monkstown Church, and Heany, who enjoyed Jocelyn’s friendship, through his marriage to a daughter of Walter Harris, expresses in his will his gratitude to his benefactor for securing him a position which brought him years of happiness. During his time the church was enlarged by the erection of an aisle; and the provision, by the vestry, of a seat for the churchwardens, furnished with two large Prayer Books, and of a pair of stocks, are curiously significant of that age, Schools were established in the parish and, in 1767, the Rector, Dr. Jackson, Bishop of Kildare, preached on their behalf, and a collection, amounting to £70, was made, while, in the following year, a sum of £60 was obtained after a sermon from Dr. Young, Bishop of Leighlin.

Heany died in 1769, and was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Robinson, afterwards Chancellor of Kildare Cathedral and Prebendary of St. Michael’s, Dublin. A second seat in the desk had been provided for an assistant curate, and, in Heany’s time the Rev. Henry Wright who died in 1773, at Carrickmines, then a well-known health resort, had acted in that capacity.

He was succeeded by the Rev. Alexander La Nauze, who died in 1769 at his father’s house in Dublin, greatly lamented, and the latter was followed by the Rev. John Andrews, the Rev. Isaac Ashe, afterwards a Vicar-Choral of Armagh Cathedral, and Rector of Tamlaght, and the Rev. Edward Beatty . On Robinson’s resignation, which took place in 1775, the Rev. John Hely was appointed to the perpetual curacy, and was succeeded in rapid succession by the Rev. Edward Ledwich, the Rev. John Forsayeth, a Fellow of Tnnity College, and afterwards Archdeacon of Cork, and the Rev. William Jephson, who had previously held the dignity to which his predecessor was appointed.

A Roman Catholic Church, dedicated to St. Michael and St. Paul, existed in Monks-town at the close of the 17th century. In 1697 it was served by the Rev. Henry Talbot, and in 1704 by the Rev. Fergus Farrell. In 1766 the Rev. James Byrne who was respected by his neighbours of all denominations, was the parish priest.

The Protestant population of the united parishes increased as the 18th century drew to a close. In 1762 the parishes of Stillorgan and Kilmacud had been severed from the others, and made into a separate charge, but, notwithstanding, the Church of Monks-town was, in 1777, found insufficient for the congregation. It was ruinous as well, and the parishioners were anxious that it should be pulled down and built on a more extensive plan. The graveyard afforded little accommodation for a larger church, and it was decided to change the site to that on which the present Church of Monkstown stands. In response to a petition, signed by, amongst others, Lords Ranelagh, Longford, and De Vesci; Mr. John Lees, of Newtown; Mr. John Mapas, of Rochestown, and Mr. Robert Byrne, of Cabinteely, the change was allowed by the Privy Council and, in 1785, the foundation stone of the new church was laid by His Excellency the Duke of Rutland (who subscribed £50 to the fund for its erection), attended by the Archbishop of Cashel, the Bishop of Killala, the Right Hon. John Foster, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Right Hon. John Beresford.

Four years later, in 1789, it was consecrated by the Archbishop of Dublin, under the name of St. Mary’s, and continued the parish church until superseded, about 1832, by the present grotesque structure. St. Mary’s was considered in its day to be the finest church in Ireland, and contained, what was then thought, a good organ**.**

Dr. Jephson was succeeded, in 1791, as perpetual curate, by the Rev. John William Dudley Ryves, who was also Prebendary of St. Michael’s in Christ Church Cathedral, and who is interred in the old churchyard of Killiney; and Mr. Ryves was followed, in 1799, by the Rev. Marmaduke Cramer; in 1802, by the Rev. James Dunn; in 1804, by the Rev. Singleton Harpur; in 1815, by the Rev. Charles Lindsay, Archdeacon of Wildare; in 1855, by the Rev. William Fitzgerald, afterwards Bishop of Killabe; in 1857, by the Rev. Ronald M’Donnell; in 1878, by the Rev. Joseph F. Peacocke, now Archbishop of Dublin, and in 1894, by the Rev. John C. Dowse.

At the beginning of the 19th century the religious edifice, now known as Christ Church, Blackrock, was built, and opened as a Dissenting Chapel, by the Rev. Thomas Kelly, well-known as a writer of hymns, who was a son of the Right Hon. Thomas Kelly, one of the judges of the Common Pleas. Mr. Kelly was originally a member of the Established Church, but afterwards joined the Methodists, and founded a sect of his own, called the Kellyites. This sect was short-lived, and his chapel, which forms the transepts of the present church, was bought by trustees for the use of the Established Church.

Of the subsequent ecclesiastical history of Monkstown, the division of the parish under the Established Church, and the erection of the numerous sacred edifices of the various denominations which now adorn the district it is here impossible and unnecessary to treat.

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