Parish of Whitechurch

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Parish of Whitechurch.**

In the seventeenth century the parish appears as containing the townlands of Grange, Edmondstown, and Kilmashogue.

It now contains the townlands of Ballyboden *(i.e., *the town of O’Bodan), Clarkstown, Edmondstown, Haroldsgrange, Kilmashogue *(i.e., *the church of St. Mosaomhog or Mashoge), Slackstown, Taylorsgrange, and Whitechurch.

There is a hill called Kilmashogue Mountain within the parish.

The only objects of archaeological interest are a rock monument known as the Brehon’s Chair in the townland of Taylorsgrange, and a cromlech in the townland of Kilmashogue.

Marley and the Whitechurch Neighbourhood

The parish of Whitechurch, which adjoins that of Cruagh to the east, and extends from the parish of Rathfarnham to that of Kiltiernan, contains the demesne belonging to Marlay House, formerly the seat of a branch of the La Touche family. This house is now owned and occupied by Mr. Robert Tedcastle; and another house on the demesne called Marlay Grange, which was built in recent years by the late Hon. Hercules Rowley, is occupied by Sir Robert Holmes, K.C.B. Within the limits of the parish are also to be found Glensouthwell or the Little Dargle, St. Columba’s College, and Hermitage.

Glensouthwell was built by a member of the Southwell family, from whom it obtains its name; St. Columba’s College is partly accommodated in a residence called Hollypark, built by Mr. Jeffrey Foot; and Hermitage was successively the residence of Mr. Edward Hudson, father of Mr. William Elliott Hudsnn, the generous patron of Celtic studies, and of the Right Hon. Richard Moore, sometime a Justice of the Queen’s Bench. The latter place abounds in what have been not inaptly called modern antiques, and was at one time known as the Fields of Odin, the deity worshipped by the Norsemen, to whom it was intended that the erection of the stone temple which Hermitage contains should be attributed.

As in the neighbouring parish of Cruagh, two undoubted relics of its primitive inhabitants still remain in the parish of Whitechurch. One of these, which stands in the grounds of Glensouthwell, is called from its shape the Brehon’s chair; it formed, originally, like the judgment seat at Killiney, portion of a cromlech, and, though long broken up and removed, there was formerly near it, as shown in the reproduction of a sketch by Beranger, what was evident]y the covering stone.

The other relic, which is at a place called Larch Hill, consists of an overthrown cromlech and an upright pillar stone.

The outlying lands of the parish known as Kilmashogue, near Kilmashogue Hill, where St. Columba~s College stands, were supposed, until lately, to have been the site of a sanguinary battle, described in “The Annals of the Four Masters,” between the Norsemen and the Irish, but modern research has fixed the site of the battle as being near the River Liffey.

After the Anglo-Norman conquest the lands on which Marlay House stands, then called Balgeeth, or the windy town, were granted to Thomas the Fleming, and subsequently passed into the possession of Robert de St. Michael, of Cruagh, whose son David married Margery, daughter of Thomas the Fleming, and widow of one Robert Bigarz.

But before the close of the twelfth century, through the religious zeal of David de St. Michael and one Milo Stanton and their wives, the Abbey of St. Mary the Virgin, the owner of lands adjacent to Whitechurch at Kiltiernan, as well as of Monkstown, became owner of Balgeeth.

In the next century the outlying lands in the parish, having passed through the hands of various owners, amongst whom we find Adam the forester and his son Richard, were also given to a religious establishment, the Priory of the Holy Trinity, and under it they became known as the manor of Ballyardor and Kilmashogue. From these lands the Priory obtained turf for fuel, and in a lease of the manor made in 1335 to Robert, son of Geoffrey de Moenes, a member of the Rathmines family, described as a merchant of Dublin, it is provided that the occupants of the lands should give assistance in cutting the turf and the use of their pack horses to carry it home.

But it was with their occupation by the Harolds that the lands now comprised within Whitechurch parish are most closely identified. That portion of them, on which Marlay now stands, and which was for a time called the Grange of the March, became known as Harold’s Grange, and as we have seen under Cruagh, the surrounding district was known as the Harolds’ country.

This clan, which has been thought by some to have been Danish in its origin, but which may have been descended from Saxons who came over with the Anglo-Norman invaders, first appears in connection with the neighbourhood in the persons of two prominent men. About the year 1247 we find Sir John Harold, Knight, witnessing a deed with regard to the outlying lands in Whitechurch parish, and mentioned as owner of the lands of Kilgobbin; and towards the close of that century we find Sir Geoffrey Harold, Knight, also witnessing deeds referring to the same locality and acting as collector for the Crown in the Vale of Dublin.

Then at the beginning of the next century Peter, son of Geoffrey Harold, is mentioned as owner of Ely-Haroldstown in the Coillagh, and of the church of that town. Subsequently, as we have seen, members of the clan occupied the lands of Rathfarnham and Templeogue, and at one time the territory under their dominion seems to have extended so near to Dublin as Harold’s Cross.

Like the Walshes of Carrickmines, the Harolds became responsible for the protection of the Pale in the neighbourhood of their home, and doubtless from self interest they discharged faithfully their trust.

But they were themselves a lawless people, who did not scruple to levy blackmail at times on those whom they were supposed to protect. Thus we find, in 1462, three of them imprisoning the Archbishop of Dublin, Michael de Tregury, and in the following year another of them descending on the lands of Dundrum, and after killing eight of the king’s lieges, driving off 600 cows, 40 plough horses, and 100 sheep.

The barrier of the Pale ran across the northern side of Kilmashogue Hill, where remains of it were to be seen in the eighteenth century, and under the hill, near St. Clolumba’s College, there are still ruins of a castle, which was doubtless the stronghold of the chief of the Harolds.

There probably resided, in 1462, Geoffrey Harold and his sons, Thomas and Edmund, who laid violent hands on Archbishop Tregury; in 1482 Edmund Harold, who was then described as of Kilmashogue; in 1518 John Harold, “captain of his nation,” who built a watermill on the Kilmashogue lands; and in 1567 Redmond Harold, whose son Edmund probably gave his name to the adjoining lands of Edmondstown, on which, in 1582, he was residing,

After the dissolution of St. Mary’s Abbey the lands then known as Harold’s Grange, on which there were a small castle and a watermill, were granted by Henry VIII. to Barnaby Fitzpatrick, Baron of Upper Ossory, whose son occupied the unenviable position of companion for correction, or whipping-boy, to Edward VI.

Lord Upper Ossory’s residence was far from Dublin, and it was, we are told, “for the relief of his horses on his repair to Dublin from the country” that the possession of Harold’s Grange was desired by him.

At the close of the sixteenth century, owing to the absence of the owner, the tenants of Harold’s Grange suffered severely from the visits of soldiers, who rifled their houses “beyond mercy.” This treatment was due to the non-payment of county charges, for which Lord Upper Ossory claimed that the lands, as originally monastic property, should be free, and in 1599 the third Baron sent a petition to Lord Burghley’s son, afterwards the first Lord Salisbury, praying redress. This petition was recommended to Burghley’s son by a gift of fifteen marten skins, all Lord Upper Ossory could afford at the time, “owing to the calamity of this woeful kingdom,” and was supported by a letter from the notorious Archbishop Miler Magrath, whom the messenger, one of the Harold’s Grange tenants, met when on his way to London.

The chief of the Harold clan, then a boy - Lawrence, son of Walter Harold - is mentioned by Lord Upper Ossory as being his principal tenant at Harold’s Grange; he appears amongst the men of name in the county, and is said by Lord Upper Ossory to have been allied to many residents in the Pale.

But his clan gave frequently much trouble to the Government; in 1566, as we have seen, a seneschal, with power to execute martial law, was appointed over their country, and about the time Lord Upper Ossory sent his petition to London many of them joined the mountain tribes in rebellion and proved “noisome neighbours to Dublin both by burning and preying”

Although the Harolds continued to hold the lands of Kilmashogue until the rebellion of 1641, when they were forfeited by John Harold, the proprietor at that time, the lands of Harold’s Grange appear before then to have undergone a change of occupiers owing to the ownership having passed, through a mortgage, from the Fitzpatricks to Sir Adam Loftus of Rathfarnham.

At the time of the rebellion William Bridges seems to have been the chief tenant; he deposes to heavy losses, and relates how he was forced to bring his cattle to Dublin for safety, and was robbed of his clothes and sword by the Irish fowler of Sir George Radcliffe, of Rathmines. At the same time losses of an exceptionally severe character, estimated in value at £2,570, befell the tenant of Ballyboden, one Matthew Bentley, a gentleman who held the position of messenger to the Council Board in Ireland. These losses Bentley attributes to “the rebellious soldiers and followers of Colonel Luke Toole, the sons of Phelim M’Feagh, and divers others of the O’Tooles and O’Byrnes, whose names he cannot express,” and mentions that his brother and another man were wounded “so as both of them died” in defending his property.

At the time of the Restoration the Harolds’ castle at Kilmashogue, which is stated to have been thatched, was in ruins, and there was on the lands now comprised within the parish of Whitechurch, then owned by the families of Loftus and King, no house rated as containing more than one hearth. On the lands of Harold’s Grange there were eleven houses, the chief resident being Darby Burgoyne, on those of Kilmashogue ten, on those of Edmondstown seven, and on those of Ballyboden one.

At. the beginning of the eighteenth century the lands of Harold’s Grange, or Marlay, began to assume their present appearance, under the improving hands of Mr. Thomas Taylor, an eminent agriculturist of his day, to whose memory there is a tombstone in Kilgobbin graveyard.

(The inscription is as follows :-“Here lieth the body of Mr. Thomas Taylor of Harolds Grange who departed this life the 22nd of November 1727. Underneath lie the remains of Samuel Taylor esq. who departed this life the 22nd of April 1881 aged 79 years and six months leaving only one daughter married to the Rev Dr Vesey of the city of Dublin. Mrs. Anna Taylor who departed this life Feb 22nd 1821 aged 66 years daughter of John Eastwood esq. of Castletown co Louth wife of Mathew Beresford Taylor esq. who died the 8th March 1828 aged 74 years. Mrs Isabella Taylor who departed this life 1st March 1830 daughter to Sir Barry Collies Meredyth bart. wife of John Keatinge Taylor esq. aged 36 years Capt 8th Hussars who died 3rd March 1836 aged 52 years. His widow Mary daughter of William Poole of Ballyroan esq. died 28 January 1892. Isabella their eldest child died 1834 aged 2 years.”)

After his death in 1727, the’ Grange, as Marlay was then called, was occupied by his sons. One of them, Alderman Thomas Taylor, was a prominent citizen of Dublin, where he filled the mayoral chair. When events in Scotland excited alarm in 1745, we read that Captain Thomas Taylor, of the Grange, and of the Lord Mayor’s Regiment of Foot, mounted guard in Dublin with his company, which made a very handsome figure, and that as the result of a feast which he gave: the members, they we’re ready to follow him even to battle, and in the announcement of which took place at the Grange in** **1763, he is said to a gentleman of the fairest character, whose decease was lamented.

Soon after the death of Alderman Taylor the Grange became the residence of the Right Hon. David La Touche, one of the most prominent politicians of his time. He married a daughter of the Right Rev. George Marlay, Bishop of Dromore, and from him the Grange received the name of his wife’s; family.

In the Taylors’ time a good house had been built and ornamental grounds had been laid out, as well as a deerpark, which was enclosed on the lands of Kilmashogue, near St. Columba’s College; but to these improvements Mr. La Touche added everything that wealth and taste could accomplish.

The demesne was much admired by Mr. Austin Cooper oh his visiting it in 1781, when an addition was being built to the house, and he mentions as deserving of remark the ponds with their islands, water-falls, and rustic bridges, the gardens with their hothouses and greenhouses, an aviary and a menagerie, and some elks’ horns, which adorned a gateway.

Mr. La Touche had many children, one of whom, the beautiful Countess of Lanesborough, has been mentioned in connection with Booterstown. They greatly delighted in private theatricals at Marlay, in the year 1778, the “Masque of Comus” was performed, with a prologue by the well-known Dublin schoolmaster Samuel Whyte, and an epilogue by Henry Grattan, who was Mrs. La Touche’s first cousin.

In the newspapers of the day we read that in 1789, amidst bonfires, illuminations, and every other demonstration of joy in the surrounding country, Mr. La Touche’s eldest son returned to Marlay after a long absence, and that in the following year Mr. La Touche entertained at breakfast there the Lord Lieutenant and the Marchioness of Buckingham - the situation of his seat, the fineness of the day, and the brilliancy of the company combining, we are told, to form a banquet of delight and happiness.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century other country seats began to be erected within Whitechurch parish. In 1787 an account of the beauties of Glensouthwell, then the residence of Captain William Southwell, appeared; it is spoken of in the most extravagantly eulogistic terms, and the writer dwells on the delights of a breakfasting room called Merlin’s cave, in the glen.

About the same time, on land to the north of Marlay, John Philpot Curran settled down in a house now levelled with the ground. There the club known as* *“The Monks of the Screw,” over which he presided, is said to have sometimes met, giving to the place its name of the Priory, and there the great tragedy of Curran’s life, the discovery of his daughter’s engagement to Robert Emmet, took place. **

Ecclesiastical History**

To the west of the demesne of Marlay, on the road from Rathfarnham to Kilmashogue, and nearly opposite the modern church, lies the ruined church of Whitechurch parish. It is a small building, now overgrown with ivy, and consists of a nave thirty feet by sixteen feet three inches, and a chancel twenty-two feet four inches by thirteen feet six inches internally, the walls being about three feet thick. There are two plain window slits with lintelled splays in the western gable, and similar slits to each side of the pointed chancel arch, which is only four feet wide.

The south wall of the nave and both sides of the chancel are gone, as well as the pier between the chancel arch and the slit to the south. The north wall of the nave has a late pointed doorway, chamfered, with a buttress to the east, and a defaced window.

The east window light is gone, and the splay is only slightly arched. There is a hole to each side of the door for a sliding bar.

Near the church a curious hollow stone, called the Wartstone, is to be seen on the’ side of the county road. Within the limits of the parish on the lands of Kilmashogue, at the foot of the hill, another ruined church was discovered sometime ago by Dr. Joyce who found it after some search, and speaks of it as a venerable little building.

The first record respecting the parish church states that early in the thirteenth century, after the lands of Balgeeth, on which it stood, had come into the possession of St. Mary’s Abbey, it was confirmed to that establishment under the name of Kilhunsin, or the White Church.

A few years later, it was again confirmed to the Abbey, with a saving clause as to a compromise with the Priory of the Holy Trinity - an establishment which, as we have seen, was then asserting its right to the neighbouring church of Rathfarnham.

After the dissolution of the Abbey by Henry VIII. the rectory became impropriate, and at the beginning of the sixteenth century was in the hands of Sir Adam Loftus. The cure of the parish was then vested in the Vicar of Tallaght, and the church and chancel are stated to have been in good repair.

Later on it was in charge, like Cruagh, of Henry Brereton. During the eighteenth century the parish was again in charge of the Vicar of Tallaght, but the church was then in ruins. Archbishop King, in a letter written in 1728, mentions that some of the parishioners refused to pay tithe to the Vicar, and that they alleged, what he felt certain could not be the case, that their landlord, Speaker Conolly, who had acquired the Loftus property, encouraged them in their action.

At one time Archbishop King had an idea of uniting Whitechurch with the parishes of Tipper and Rathmore, in the County Wicklow - a union which, he says, would have made a competency for a beginner, but it is not surprising to find that the idea was dropped.

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