Portion of the Parish of St Peter, Dublin

**

Portion of the Parish of St Peter, Dublin.**

(Former1y part of the Parish of St. Kevin.)

The portion of the Parish of St. Peter lying outside the City of Dublin was, in ancient times included in the Manor of St. Sepulchre, and now comprises the modern Townlands of Baggotrath East, North, and West, Cullenswood, Harold’s Cross East and West, Milltown, Portobello, Ranelagh North and South, and Rathmines East, South, and West. **

Rathmines**

Rathmines, which lies to the west of Donnybrook, and is now the largest suburb of the Irish metropolis, formed originally portion of the property of the See of Dublin, and was included within the Archbishop’s manor of St. Sepulchre. At the beginning of the fourteenth century the Rath in the tenement of St. Sepulchre, previously held by Richard de Welton, came into the possession of a family called de Meones, and to this fact is due the name Meones’ Rath, afterwards inverted into Rathmines.

Some members of this family, supposed to have come over from Hampshire in the train of Archbishop John de Derlington, who was appointed to the See of Dublin in 1279, occupied a high position in Ireland. William de Meones, who was executor of Archbishop de Derlington, combined the clerical dignity of at Canon of St. Patrick’s Cathedral with the lay offices of Chamberlain and Baron of the Exchequer, and other members of the family acted as bailiff and Mayor of Dublin. In 1326 the Rath was held by Gilbert de Meones, a warrior, to whom one of his kinsmen bequeathed a corselet, and in 1382 by William de Meones, who styled himself Lord of Meonesrath.

In addition to the Rath, the Meones family were tenants for other lands in the manor, known as the Stoneway and the Pass, the former being now represented by lands near Mount Argus, and the latter being on the east side of the old highway to Rathfarnham, now the road through Harold’s Cross’. They were also owners of a mill near the Dodder.

During the seventeenth century Rathmines had an eventful history. Soon after the arrival of the Earl of Strafford in 1633, the lands) which had been previously in the possession of the Barons of Howth, were selected by Strafford’s friend and counsellor, Sir George Radcliffe, as the site of one df the great mansions which were projected during the rule of that masterful viceroy. In this case, unlike others, the house was actually completed. It stood close to the road through Old Rathmines, which was then the highway from Dublin to Dundrum, not far from the site of the modern Rathhmines Castle, on the ground now lying between Palmerston Villas and Cowper Villas. Its value was estimated at £7,000, then an enormous amount and it was, doubtless, as a contemporary writer says, a stately thing.

There Radcliffe, who was the best of good fellows, as well as an able man, heartily welcomed his friends, and there under the guidance of Radcliffe’s fowler, Strafford, who says he would have been the most solitary of men in Ireland without his friend, possibly indulged in his favourite sport of hawking, for which the surrounding country at that time was well adapted.

But Radcliffe’s residence at Rathmines was of short duration-in the autumn of 1639 he dated a letter there; a year later he was in prison in London-and in 1642 his house which had passed safely through the previous winter of rebellion, was occupied by the wife and children of the Earl, afterwards Duke, of Ormonde, who was then commanding the army in Ireland.

In August of that year, probably on account of a serious illness which Ormonde had at that time, his family moved into Dublin, and three days after they had left, the house was burned. Its destruction was generally attributed to marauding bands of the Irish Army, but some thought one of Ormonde’s own household had been a party to it, and made much of the fact that the care-taker had fled, and that his wife was found dead.

Before the cessation in 1643 the neighbourhood of Rathmines was liable to incursions from the troops of the Confederate Army stationed in the County Wicklow. In April of that year Thomas Parnell, a goldsmith, of Dublin, was walking, as he subsequently deposed, in the fields which then lay near St. Kevin’s Church, waiting for service to begin, when he was suddenly surprised by “a company of rebellious soldiers” under the command of Captain Toole, and was carried away forcibly to Powerscourt. The next day he was taken to Arklow, where he was kept for twenty-six weeks a close prisoner, and often threatened with execution, “which bred great terror and fear in him.”

In September of that year, after the cessation had been concluded, a troop of horse and two companies of foot came within musket shot of trenches which had been made near St. Kevin’s Church, and on their return, after killing a herd and wounding several others, drove before them into the County Wicklow all the cattle that they could find. The number of cattle driven off was estimated at 359 head, as well as 29 horses, which were also taken, and amongst them were nine cows belonging to the Archbishop of Dublin, which were grazing in a field near Harold’s Cross.

This act was a violation of the treaty of cessation, but in spite of the utmost efforts on the part of the authorities and of several journeys undertaken by the owners at the risk of their lives into’ the wilds of the County Wicklow, only a few of the cattle were recovered, and these not the best.

The summer of 1649 saw the great historic event with which this district is associated, and which has been already referred to in connection with Baggotrath, the Battle of Rathmines, resulting in the signal defeat of the Royalist Army under the command of the Marquis, afterwards Duke, of Ormonde, by the troops of the Parliament then garrisoning Dublin, under the command of Colonel Michael Jones.

It was in the immediate neighbourhood of Sir George Radcliffe’s mansion on the ground now covered by Palmerston Park and the adjacent roads that Ormonde encamped his troops on moving from Finglas, where he had lingered in a state of fatal inaction for many weeks.

There on the 27th July, at a, council of war, attended, under the presidency of the Lord-General, by Lord Inchiquin, his Lieutenant-General; Lord Castlehaven, the General of the Horse; Lord Taafe, the Master of the Ordnance; General Thomas Preston, the well-known commander of the Confederate Army; Sir Arthur Aston, who fell a few weeks later in the massacre at Drogheda.; Sir William Vaughan, Major-General of the Horse; and Major-General Patrick Purcell, Major-General of the Foot; the disastrous decision was made to despatch Lord Inchiquin with two regiments of horse to Munster, where it was apprehended Cromwell would land, as well as the determination to take Rathfarnham Castle, then garrisoned by the Parliament which was successfully accomplished the next day.

At Rathmines another council of war was held on August 1st at which it was decided to fortify Baggotrath Castle if practicable, and from Rathmines, after an inspection and favourable report had been made by Lord Castlehaven, General Preston, and Major General Purcell, a body of troops under the command of the last-named set out that evening to execute the work. In his tent at Rathmines, Ormonde sat up all night in order to be ready for an attack should one be made, and to complete despatches which he was preparing to send off to France to Charles II.; and from there at daybreak next morning he rode down to Baggotrath to, see what progress had been made with the work of fortification.

At Rathmines, after his return some hours later, while taking’in his tent a few moments repose, he was awakened by the sound of firing, and, on rushing out of his tent found, before he had gone many yards, that the soldiers at Baggotrath had been driven off, that Sir William Vaughan had been killed while gallantly leading some of the cavalry to their support, and that Vaughan’s troop, as well as others which had been placed between Baggotrath and Rathmines, had been routed.

The land between the Donnybrook Road and the road through Old Rathmines was then divided into fields, and Ormonde’s camp was approached from them by narrow lanes. These it would have been easy to defend, but owing to treachery and inefficiency, which, doubtless, existed in an army composed largely of deserters from the Parliament ranks, and officered in many cases by Irishmen more conspicuous for their loyalty than for skill in arms, no attempt was made to do so, and it is even said that barriers which had been placed in the lanes were removed.

The Parliament commander, Colonel Michael Jones, pushed on the advantage which he had gained until the right wing of Ormonde’s army was completely defeated. As soon as Ormonde perceived, as he tells us himself, that the troops of which that wing were composed were running away towards the hills of Wicklow, where some of them had been born and bred, and the way to which they knew only too well, he turned his attention to the centre of his army, composed of foot, which had served under Lord Inchiquin, and which were then commanded by Colonel Giffard.

To its support he brought other troops under the command of his brother, Colonel Richard Butler, and Colonel Reyley, but these failed him, and on Colonel Giffard’s men being attacked from behind by a troop of Colonel Jones’ horse, which approached them by a lane which ran from Milltown to what ‘is now the Ranelagh Road, and in front by a party of Colonel Jones’ foot they gave way and accepted quarter.

As a last resort, Ormonde, jumping his horse over a ditch, made for the left wing of his army, which, probably, was stationed between Radcliffe’s house and Rathgar, and which Ormonde had not called to his assistance, as there was a reserve of the Parliament Army in front of them, but he found that news of the defeat of the right wing and centre of the army had reached them, and that, thinking themselves deserted, they were making good their escape.

After several fruitless attempts to rally them, Ormonde, who had displayed much personal bravery, and whose armour had alone saved him from a wound, or even death, made off himself towards the County Kildare, leaving the Parliament forces in possession of the field.

The victory was a decisive one, and in the fulness of their rejoicing the Parliament proclaimed that they had slain 4,000 of Ormonde’s army, and had taken 2,517 prisoners, many of high rank, in addition to, seven cannon, many transport waggons, two hundred draught oxen, and a camp furnished, as they represented it, with great store of provisions and wine, and with all manner of silk, velvet and scarlet cloth, which also fell into their hands.

This account is much exaggerated, and the total number of men under Ormonde’s command cannot have much, if at all, exceeded the combined numbers returned as killed and taken prisoners; but it is equally impossible to, rely on the Royalist reports which, while calling the battle a drawn engagement and a night surprise, give the number killed on their side as not more than 600.

After the battle some of the English Royalist troops took refuge within the walls of Radcliffe’s house and made so gallant a defence that it was not for some days that they laid down their arms, and then only did so on promises of safety for their lives.

Radcliffe’s house, which was restored and was rated for taxation as containing six hearths, was returned as only six persons of English and six persons of Irish extraction. Sir George Radcliffe was still stated to be owner of the lands, which included portions known as Lord Howth’s land and Widow Drury’s land, but his house, with a demesne of sixty acres, was occupied by Captain William Shore.

Captain Shore was connected with the County Fermanagh. His first wife was a daughter of Henry, Baron Dockwra, of Culmore; and Sir Henry Brooke, ancestor of the baronets of that name, who had married another daughter of Baron Dockwra, had also an interest in the house and demesne of Rathmines. On the death of his first wife, Captain Shore married the widow of Baron Lewis Hamilton, the brother of the first Lord Glenawley, and father of the distinguished defender of Enniskillen in the time of James II.

She was a native of Sweden, of which country her first husband was a noble, and is said to have been possessed of a large fortune and to have been of very high birth. She married, in addition to Baron Hamilton and Captain Shore, two other husbands, an ancestor of the Archdalls of Fermanagh, and Montgomerys of Tyrone, and an ancestor of the Summerville family, now ennobled under the title of Athlumney. Captain Shore’s death occurred about 1668, and ten years later there were legal proceedings between his representatives and Thomas Radcliffe, the only son of Sir George Radcliffe, with regard to the lands of Rathmines.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Temple family, ennobled under the title of Palmerston; came into possession of Rathmines, and to this circumstance the use of the name Palmerston in the present nomenclature of a great portion of the district is due. The rural character of the neighbourhood was still maintained; in October, 1704, Dr. William King, then Bishop of Derry, and afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, stayed there temporarily, as he had done shortly before at Rathfarnham, in order to obtain country air, and the only residence of any importance besides the mansion house was one called Boland Hall, the owner of which in 1727 put an end to his life by throwing himself into the Dodder at Milltown.

Under a lease made in 1746 by Henry, first Viscount Palmerston, the mansion house of Rathmines became the country seat of the Right Hon. William Yorke, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland. When the lease was made, Yorke occupied the position of second justice of that court - a position to which he had been promoted three years previously direct from the English Bar through the influence of his kinsman, the great Earl of Hardwicke, then Lord Chancellor of England. In Ireland he was received with every attention by Hardwicke’s friend, Lord Chancellor Jocelyn, and a year after his arrival in 1744 he married the widow of Mr. William Cope, of Loughgall, who had died shortly before of fever, a year after his marriage.

Yorke thus became connected with the chief of his court, the Right Hon. Henry Singleton, who was her uncle, and with the astute Philip Tisdal, already mentioned in connection with Stillorgan, who was her brother-in-law. In 1753 Chief Justice Singleton retired in Yorke’s favour, and in 1755, William, Marquis of Harbington, afterwards fourth Duke of Devonshire, soon after his arrival in Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, honoured the newly appointed Chief Justice by dining with him at Rathmines.

Yorke resigned the chiefship of the Common Pleas in 1761 on being created a baronet and appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the room of the illustrious Anthony Malone, but only held the latter office for two years, until 1763, when he retired to London, where he died in 1776 from accidentally taking a dose of poison, and was buried in the chapel of the Charter House.

At the close of the eighteenth century a school was established in Chief Justice Yorke’s residence, and about thirty years later it presented the appearance of a farmhouse, and was used as a boarding-house, which was frequented by persons of a consumptive tendency. At the latter period it had been superseded by the modern Rathmines Castle, which was built about 1820 by Colonel Wynne, and was subsequently occupied successively by Sir Jonas Green, sometime Recorder of Dublin, and the Rev. Thomas Kelly. It was not until Chief Justice Yorke’s time that direct communication was made between what is now known as Old Rathmines and Rathgar - the latter place having until then been approached from Dublin through Harold’s Cross-by the construction of Highfield Road. The construction of Rathgar Road and the modern urban districts of Rathmines and Rathgar dates only from the nineteenth century.

Ranelagh and Sandford

(Formerly called Cullenswood.)

The lands on which these suburban districts stand lie between the lands of Rathmines and those of Baggotrath and Donnybrook, and once formed, like the lands of Rathmines, portion of the property of the See of Dublin, constituting a manor, subordinate to the manor of St. Sepulchre. This manor, which appears in the fourteenth century under the name of Colon, has been identified with a place called Nova Colonia, where, in the thirteenth century, the’ Archbishop of Dublin had a residence. In the opinion of the Deputy Keeper of the Records in Ireland it formed the corps of the prebend without cure of souls) in right of which the Archbishop of Dublin occupies a seat in the chapter of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. At Nova Colonia in 1253 Archbishop Luke signed a decree, and there in 1290 Archbishop John de Sanford, then Justiciary of Ireland, received a deputation from the merchants of Dublin.

A great portion of the lands was covered with the Wood, whence the name Cullenswood is derived, which on more than one occasion is said to have afforded cover to the Irish tribes when making attacks on the English inhabitants of Dublin.

According to tradition, on a certain Easter Monday, a day for long afterwards known as Black Monday, the original English settlers from Bristol to the number of 500, while engaged in public sports near it were surprised and slaughtered by a party of the Irish, and in it more than a hundred years later the chief of the O’Tooles and eighty followers concealed themselves all night before making an attack on Dublin, which resulted in their being put to flight and pursued for six leagues, with a loss of seventeen killed and many mortally wounded.

The manor of Colon did not escape the devastations of the neighbourhood, which, as mentioned in the history of Dundrum, resulted from the invasion of Bruce, and a deplorable picture is presented in 1326 of the state of the manor. The buildings, including the Archbishop’s hall and chamber, with a chapel attached, which were built of stone and roofed with shingles, as well as offices, consisting of a kitchen, farmhouse’, stable and granary made of timber, were part in ruin and part level with the ground, while the meadows which extended along the highway were destroyed by trespass on the part of the carriers and their pack horses; the pastures could riot be stocked owing to the raids of the malefactors from the mountains, and the wood had been so ravaged that there was no profit to be obtained even from the sale of firewood, while the ground which it had occupied was useless for pasture.

The serfs, who had worked the lands for the Archbishop, fled, and the Archbishop, finally thinking it well to have some profit from the manor land, leased it at a low rent to tenants better able to defend his property, such as was in 1382, a stout English farmer called Richard Chamberlain, who held it in conjunction with the Arc-bishop’s lands near Dundrum.

About the middle of the sixteenth century portion of the lands of St. Sepulchre were leased by the Archbishop of Dublin to Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam, then described as of Baggotrath, and together with them the office of keeper of the wood of Cullen upon the surrender of John de Bathe, by whom it was then held, was granted to him.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century the wood of Cullen was held by Sir William Ussher, of Donnybrook, and. at the time of the rebellion of 1641 the lands of Cullenswood were occupied by a yeoman called Thomas Ward.

In depositions made by Ward he recounts how in April, 1642, his house and offices at Cullenswood were totally destroyed by fire, how the rebels robbed him of sixteen cows, a bull, and eight horses; how at the time Mr. Parnell, as related under Rathmines, was taken prisoner, he was taken also, but was let go on surrendering his arms; and how subsequently at Powerscourt he saw a man wearing his sword.

The ground now occupied by the Carmelite Convent of St. Joseph, close to the Dublin, Wicklow, and Wexford Railway, was in the eighteenth century the site of a house called Willbrook. This house was for a number of years the residence of the Right Rev. William Barnard, successively Bishop of Raphoe and Derry, who, as a monument in Westminster Abbey records, after ruling the latter diocese for twenty years with great approbation, died in 1768 in London, where he had gone for the benefit of his health.

After the death of the Bishop, Willbrook was taken by an organ builder from London with the object of its conversion into a place of public amusement and soon the episcopal residence became a grand house of entertainment with a theatre and gardens laid out with alcoves and bowers for tea drinkers. It was all modelled on Ranelagh Gardens in London, and thus obtained the name of that fashionable resort. A fine band was constantly in attendance, the favourite vocalists of the day appeared in the theatre, and some of the earliest aeronauts made their ascents from the gardens. Not far off there was then a tavern with the curious’ sign of “The Bleeding Horse,” and the neighbourhood was, on at least one occasion, the scene of a duel.

The gardens disappeared after a comparatively short existence, but left their name impressed on part of the lands of Cullenswood, and the use of the name Sandford, derived from the foundation of Sandford Church by Lord Mountsandford, in connection with another part of the lands, has caused the name Cullenswood to become almost obsolete.

Milltown

The** **village of Milltown, which is situated close to the river Dodder, on the road from Dundrum to Dublin, still exhibits traces of antiquity in an old bridge, now disused except for foot traffic, and in some large houses, which have seen more prosperous days. From a very early period it has been the scene of industrial enterprise, and until very recent years it was the site of water-mills, whose place is now taken by a steam laundry and dye works.

So early as the fourteenth century the existence of a mill is mentioned in connection with the lands, then known as Milton, which were included within the manor of St. Sepulchre, joining on the north those of Rathmines and Cullenswood, and were held under the Archbishop by a family called Brigg, Hugo Brigg in 1326 and Henry Brigg in 1382 being the tenants.

The neighbourhood has always been celebrated for the excellence of the stone found in it, and during the sixteenth century a glimpse is afforded us of mediaeval quarrying operations carried on at Milltown to provide stone for the repair of Christ Church Cathedral.

These operations were conducted under the direction of a famous ecclesiastical architect, Sir Peter Lewys, the builder of the bridge of Athlone, who was precentor as well as restorer of the Cathedral. In an interesting memoir of Lewys, the present Assistant Keeper of the Public Records of Ireland, has explained that the stone was cut out of the bed of the river by means of iron tools kept pointed by a smith who was always in attendance, and, as the accompanying illustration shows, distinct traces of these operations are still to be seen near the foundation of the old bridge. In order to allow the stonecutters to cut the rock, the river had to be diverted from its course, and, needless to say, in spite of dams and bowls for baling out the water, the work was carried on with extreme difficulty. One day a bank of earth fell on a mason, whose life was only saved “with much ado,” and on another occasion, owing to autumn rains, the Dodder rose to such a height that it carried away all protection for the craftsmen.

At the time of the Rebellion of 1641, when the lands of Milltown belonged to the Loftuses of Rathfarnham, a miller, John Bacon by name, was the principal resident at Militown, and in depositions made by him he recounts the loss of sundry horses of English breed used by him in his trade, as well as of cows, and tells how after he had taken refuge in Dublin his house was completely demolished.

In order to keep the rebels in check a troop of horse under the command of one Hugh Booth, was stationed afterwards at Milltown, but while aptrolling the country in June, 1642, Booth was surprised near Merrion by a party of the Irish Army under the command of Captain Bernard Talbot and after twelve of his men had run away and two had been killed, he was taken prisoner, with the other three, and carried off to Arklow, where he was kept a close prisoner in daily fear of death for twenty-two weeks.

Under the Commonwealth, when the population of Milltown was returned as fourteen inhabitants of English birth and five of Irish, Milltown continued in possession of Sir Adam Loftus; of Rathfarnham.

During the eighteenth century Milltown, which became then the property of the Leeson family, ennobled under the title of Earl of Milltown, was the seat of various manufactures. Amongst the mills mentioned as existing there at different times were two corn mills, a brass mill, an iron mill, a paper mill, and a mill for grinding dry woods.

One of the best quarries for limestone in the County Dublin was near Milltown Bridge, where there is said to have been a rath; and the manufacture of garden pots was also carried on by “the ingenious Mr. Heavisid.”

Until the latter part of the century, when Classon’s Bridge, near Old Rathmines, was built by Mr. John Classon, the owner of the mill for grinding dry woods, the only means of crossing the Dodder was by means of the old bridge, which was too narrow for vehicle traffic, and by a ford, where the present bridge of Milltown is built.

This ford was the cause of loss of life, as persons on horseback were reluctant to make the short detour necessary to cross by the old bridge, and were sometimes carried away by the rapid waters of the Dodder when in flood.

Thus in 1756 a countryman and boy going on horseback to Powerscourt though warned not to make the attempt to cross the ford, persisted in doing so, and were carried away and drowned, and in 1782 Mr. Clarke, the steward of the Home of Industry, met his death in the same way, the occurrence being remarkable, as his daughter, and only child, had been drowned in the Dodder a year before. The ascent from the ford was also dangerous and steep, and in 1787 a child on the roof of a mourning coach accompanying a funeral to Dundrum was thrown off there and killed on the spot.

Milltown is stated in that century to have been a, large and pleasant village, much frequented by the citizens of Dublin, and a great thoroughfare for pleasure parties going to Powerscourt. Thither from time to time the populace was attracted by advertisements of sports; in June, 1728, a race for grass fed horses, not exceeding £6 in value, from John Burr’s, in Milltown, to the Cock in St. Kevin’s Port, with a saddle as first prize and a bridle as second, is announced; and in July, 1758, races for horses and also for girls, with a prize of a cap and ribbons, for which entries were to be made at the Phoenix at Milltown, were to take place.

But, doubtless, even greater crowds assembled at Milltown in November, 1753, to see the punishment of William Kallendar, who, for a rescue, was so severely whipped from Milltown to Dundrum that he died a few days later in Newgate Prison, leaving, as the newspaper records, a wife and five small children to mourn his loss.

Amongst the inhabitants/we find Mr. Hugh Johnston, who in 1727, was made a magistrate for the metropolitan county; Mr. John Randall, the owner of the paper mill, “a man of very good character,” who in 1754 was thrown from his horse and killed; Mr. Dogherty, the owner of the iron mill, who in 1758 was found dead in his bed; Mr. Robert Tomlinson, whose house in 1779 was attacked and plundered in the middle of the day by a set of desperate villains; the Viscount St. Lawrence, who in 1783 was residing near Milltown; and the Ladies Eleanor and Isabella King, daughters of the first Earl of Kingston, who were visited in 1797 in a house near Milltown left them by a Mrs. Walcot by the diarist already mentioned in connection with Seapoint, who drove out from Dublin in a green chaise to see them.

To Chapter 4 To Ball Index. Home.