Parish of Ballyfermot

*(i.e., Dermot’s town). *

This Parish is returned in the seventeenth century as containing the townlands of Ballyfermot and Gallanstown.

It now contains the townlands of Ballyfermot Upper and Lower, Blackditch, and Gallanstown *(i.e. *the town of the pillar stone).

The only object of antiquarian interest is the ruined church. **

Ballyfermot**

Near the ruined church of Ballyfermot, which lies to the south of Palmerston, there stood in the early part of the nineteenth century, as shown in a sketch by the late Mr. Wakeman, which is here reproduced, a ruined castle. No trace of it is now to be found, and the only remains of old buildings in the vicinity of the church are a curious brick wall built with alcoves for the protection of fruit trees, and an artificial fish pond partly faced with cut stone.

It is probable from their name that the lands of Ballyfermot were portion of the property left after the Anglo-Norman conquest in** **possession of the Irish chief MacGillamocholmog, as mentioned under Esker, but the earliest owners of whom record has been found are William Fitzwilliam and Avicia his wife, who before 1307 assigned a third of the manor of Ballyfermot to Thomas Cantock, Bishop of Emly and Chancellor of Ireland.

After the Fitzwilliams Robert de Clahull, a member of the family to which Dundrum then belonged, appears as owner of the manor. He had an only son Thomas, who died without issue, and six daughters, Johanna, Avicia, who married Philip de Cantelupe, Nichola, who married Wolfran, son of Reginald de Barnewall, the owner of the adjoining manor of Drimnagh, Anna, who married Philip Fitz Thomas, Alianor, who married John Coterel, and Alice, who married Richard Coterel. After Robert do Clahull’s death, which occurred before 1327, the manor of Ballyfermot was for a time divided amongst his daughters, but eventualy came, together with the manorof Balrothery in the northern part of the County Dublin, which the de Clahulls also owned, into possession of Wolfran do Barnewall’s son, and was held subsequently by the owners of Drimnagh for many generations.

Amongst other persons connected with the’ place at that period were Stephen and his son Richard of Ballyfermot in 1290, and Robert son of Robert Burnell in 1339. The lands of Blackditch then belonged to the see of Dublin.

In 1334, when they were partly tilled and partly stocked with cattle, they were in the hands of the Archbishop, but a century later, in 1435, they were leased, under the name of Balimknegan, to Thomas Sanguine, a Dublin butcher, one of the fields being then described as “the baron’s mede,” and one of the boundaries as “the trench,” whence arose doubtless the townland name Blackditch.

The lands of Gallanstown, which formed a manor, were also ecclesiastical property. In 1441 they were in possession of the Bishop of Killaloe, Thomas O’Ghonelan, but he was found to be “Irish of the Irish nation and an enemy of the King,” and before long the lands became the property of St. Mary’s Abbey, which held them until the dissolution of the religious houses.

About the middle of the fourteenth century the manor of Ballyfermot, together with that of Balrothery, was in the custody of Sir Nicholas Gernon, but later on in that century, in 1392, both these manors appear as possessions of Wolfran de Barnewall’s son Reginald. From that time the Barnewalls are frequently referred to in connection with Ballyfermot; but of the inhabitants only a glimpse now and then can be caught.

In 1395 Richard Butler, who was pardoned for killing one William Horsley in self defence, was living there, and in 1451 John Barnewall was a resident. Coming down to Elizabethan times we find the castle of Ballyfermot occupied in 1562 by Luke Dillon, an eminent lawyer, who afterwards became Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and is well known in connection with the history of his time; and in 1573 by Richard Wespey.

At that time portion of the Ballyfermot lands, which in the fourteenth century had belonged to Robert Burnell and had descended from him to the Burnells of Balgriffin, were in the possession of the Crown owing to the attainder of the Balgriffin family, and were held under the Crown by Thady Duffe, an alderman of Dublin, who was succeeded in occupation of them by several generations of his family.

Towards the close of Queen Elizabeth’s reign the most important resident in Ballyfermot Castle appears in the person of Sir Robert Newcomen, the founder of a family which was prominent in Ireland for more than two centuries and whose last representative was elevated to the peerage.

Newcomen was an Englishman, the son of a Government official in London, and came to this country about 1585 in the commissariat service. He acted at first as deputy to the chief officer George Beverly, and afterwards is variously styled surveyor and purveyor of her Majesty’s victuals in Ireland. His duties were arduous as well as responsible, but Newcomen succeeded in overcoming difficulties which arose no less from the scarcity of provisions in this country than from the uncertainty of communication with England.

Both the English and Irish Councils joined in a chorus of praise of ” his fruitful success in executing his business,” and bore testimony to his integrity and discretion. These good qualities led Lord Mountjoy while Lord Deputy to select Newcomen as one of his staff on all his expeditions in Ireland, and it was said a rare thing in those days-that Newcomen’s name had never been brought into question for any misdemeanour.

In 1605 the honour or knighthood was conferred upon him, in 1613 he was returned to parliament as member for Kilbeggan, and in 1623, when he had acquired further distinction as one of the Ulster undertakers, he was created a baronet.

Newcomen doubtless owed his advancement partly to the family connections which he made. He was married three times, in each case under advantageous circumstances from a worldly point of view, but particularly in the first, as the lady was the daughter of one in a position to promote Newcomen’s interests, Thomas Molyneux, the founder of the Castle Dillon family, who came to this country in the same service as Newcomen and became Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer.

In addition, through the marriages of his eldest son and daughter to children of Sir William Ussher of Donnybrook, Newcomen was allied to that powerful and widespreading family.

On his death in 1629 Sir Robert Newcomen was succeeded at Ballyfermot by his eldest son, who bore the name of his old chief, Beverly. Sir Beverly Newcomen had entered the army at an early age. At that period the navy drew its officers from the land force, and before long Sir Beverly Newcomen was attracted to the sea service and became commander of the ships guarding the Irish coasts.

He is said to have possessed great knowledge of these seas and to have banished the pirates by whom they were then infested. Owing to the high reputation which he obtained as a bold and energetic officer he received the honour of knighthood and was appointed admiral of Ireland. In spite of what seems to have been, judging from his letters, a defective education even for those times, Newcomen took a leading place in civil as well as in military affairs, and sat in the Irish parliament, first with his father for Kilbeggan and afterwards for Tralee.

When engaged in sounding Waterford harbour in 1637 Sir Beverly met an untimely fate and was drowned. By his wife Margaret Ussher he had two children, a son who was drowned with him, and a daughter who succeeded him at Ballyfermot.

She was twice married, first as his second wife to the eldest son of Sir William Parsons, one of the Lords Justices at the time of the rebellion, who has been already mentioned in this history, and will be again referred to in connection with the parish of Clondalkin in which he had a residence; and secondly to Sir Hubert Adrian, who was mayor of Dublin in the Restoration year 1660, and seems to have then assumed the additional name of Verveer. He died in 1665, and subsequently we find his widow involved in litigation with a mortgagee regarding Ballyfermot.

Besides the Castle of Ballyfermot, which was rated as containing ten hearths and as occupied by Sir Hubert Adrian-Verveer, there were about the time of the Restoration some twenty other houses in the parish, the population of which was returned as about ninety. Only two of these houses contained more than one hearth; one of them, a castle like house with the ruins of a gate house near it, on the lands of Gallanstown, was occupied by Richard Styles and subsequently by “the widow Waterhouse,” and the other was occupied by William Carden.

Before that time the Barnewalls had lost all interest in the Ballyfermot lands, and besides the Adrian-Verveers, Lady Ryves, widow of Sir William Ryves, who has been mentioned in connection with Booterstown, John Exham, and Sir Henry Talbot of Templeogue appear as owners of them.

Later on in the seventeenth century Sir Henry Talbot’s interest passed to Sir Thomas Domvile, whose representatives subsequently became the principal proprietors in the parish.** **The castle appears to have declined rapidly in importance, and towards the close of the eighteenth century a school was kept in it by Mr. William Oulton Prossor. **

Ecclesiastical History**

The ruins of Ballyfermot Church, although those of one of the larger ruined churches in the county, the measurement being some fifty-four feet by nineteen, display no architectural feature of interest, and indicate that the structure of which they formed a portion was, like the church of Kilmactalway, of late date, with possibly more than one predecessor on its site. The advowson of the church, which is said to have been dedicated to St. Laurence, was in the thirteenth century in the possession of the adjacent Priory of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham, and so remained until the dissolution of that house in the sixteenth century.

Subsequently the tithes were leased by the Crown to various lay owners, including in 1608 James Hamilton, Viscount Clandeboy, by whom they were assigned to Sir Edward Blayney of Monaghan. There is no record to show the condition of the church at that time, but it was presumably in repair, as there appear in charge of it in 1615 the Rev. Simon Swayne, in 1628 the Rev. Matthew Forster, in 1629 the Rev. John Lenox, in 1639 the Rev. Thomas Humphries, and in 1643 the Rev Gilbert Deane. After the Restoration it does not appear to have been used.

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