Parish of Palmerston

Parish of Palmerston.

This Parish is returned in the seventeenth century as containing the Townlands of Irishtown and Palmerston.

It now contains the Townlands of Brooklawn, Fonthill, Irishtown, Johnstown, Palmerston Lower and Upper, Quarryvale, Redcowfarm, Saintlaurence, Woodfarm, and Yellow Walls.

The objects of antiquarian interest are the ruined church of Palmerston and the castle of Irishtown. **

Palmerston**

The great mansion called Palmerston House, which now forms part of the Stewart Institution for Imbecile Children, has for many generations overshadowed the village and parish of Palmerston, which lie on the Lucan road to the east of the parish of Esker. But the erection of this mansion is a comparatively recent event in the history of Palmerston, and several houses of no less importance in their day had previously stood upon the lands, although all trace of these dwellings, with the exception of the remains of the Castle of Irishtown, has now disappeared.

The name Palmerston, which occurs more than once in the local nomenclature of the County Dublin, and also in that of the County Kildare, has its origin in the occupation of the lands to which the name has been given by the members of a religious house founded in connection with the Crusades of the middle ages.

This house, which stood outside the western wall of the ancient City of Dublin in what is now known as Thomas Street, was modelled on a hospital established in Jerusalem about the middle of the twelfth century under the invocation of St. John the Baptist, and was founded by a palmer or pilgrim to the Holy Land, called Ailred, who is said to have been a Dane, and who appears first in 1174 as a witness to a grant made by Strongbow.

In its early days the house was called the Palmers’ Hospital, but before long it was recognised under the same dedicatory name as its prototype, and was styled the Hospital of St. John the Baptist without the New Gate of Dublin. The active duty of the members of its community, who became ultimately merged in the Augustinian Order as crouched friars, and who were presided over by a prior, was the care of the sick, and in this work women as well as men were engaged.

When the hospital became possessed of the lands now under review does not appear, but they were probably given to it in the twelfth century by the Crown, under which it held them at a yearly rent of half a mark.

The Hospital of St. John the Baptist was not, however, the only establishment of the kind owning lands within the limits of the present parish of Palmerston. The townland of Saintlaurence, which lies between the village of Palmerston and that of Chapelizod, was then the site of a House for Lepers, which was dedicated to St. Laurence, and there the members of another community devoted themselves to the care of those outcasts.

In connection with the history of the lands of Leopardstown, the existence in mediaeval times of the Leper Hospital of St. Stephen near the ancient City of Dublin has been mentioned, and it is somewhat surprising to find that the prevalence of leprosy in the neighbourhood of the Metropolis was then so great as to require two establishments, by no means ill-endowed, for the relief of those suffering from that dreadful disease.

It was no doubt brought from the Holy Land by crusaders, and its prevalence in Dublin indicates that many crusaders settled there. The Leper House of St. Laurence had a chapel attached to it, and the head of the community was styled prior, as appears from the proceedings taken in 1300 by the then head, Brother Richard, for the recovery of a rent charge on the lands of Terenure.

Early in the fifteenth century this religious establishment was dissolved, and its possessions became vested in the Crown. By the latter the lands, together with the ruined chapel, were subsequently leased to various persons, and proved a valuable property owing to the profits of a fair held upon them on St. Laurence’s Day-a fair which appears to have been only second in importance to that of Donnybrook.

The grange of Palmerston was one of the most highly valued possessions of the Dublin monasteries in the metropolitan county, and when the dissolution of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, in common with the other religious houses, took place in 1539, there were doubtless very substantial buildings upon the lands.

Later on in that century we read of “the capital house,” which stood near the church, of the arched gateway through which it was approached, of the great bawn which had been built for the protection of the cattle, and of the mill and kiln in which the corn was ground and dried.

In addition to their material value for agricultural purposes, the lands, owing to their proximity to the Liffey, provided then, as they do now, an attractive site for a residence, and in dry legal documents we catch a glimpse of the slade and river bank which were then covered with furze and abounded in coneys, and of the hedgerows and woods in which the pigeons, then so carefully housed, found enjoyment.

The lands were not long left on the hands of the Crown without a tenant, and were finally granted to Sir John Allen, the Irish Chancellor of that day, who has been already mentioned as succeeding to lands in this district, as well as to St. Wolstan’s in the County Kildare, which became his residence.

By Sir John Allen the lands of Palmerston were settled on his wife for life, with remainder to the sons of his brother, William Allen, and subsequently we find the descendants of his brother seated upon them, sending archers to the hostings, and recognised amongst the men of position in the county.

Besides other children, including Katherine, who married William Locke, and whose name is inscribed on Athgoe Castle, William Allen had two sons, John and Matthew, who successively occupied Palmerston. John Allen died in 1587, and Matthew Allen died in 1589. The former married Mary Carnes, who survived him, and took as her second husband Alderman James Jans, and the latter married Annabella Martin, who also survived her first husband, and took as her second Alderman Patrick Browne, already mentioned as a resident in Esker parish.

These ladies held as their dower portion of the Palmerston lands, and under an arrangement made in 1601 it was agreed that Alderman Patrick Browne and his wife should build on the lands of Irishtown the castle of which remains are still to be seen.

It was thought necessary even at that period that a house in such a situation should be capable of defence, and after the Rebellion “the stone house” at Irishtown was actually put to the test. Before October 1642, a garrison of ten men under the command of a sergeant had been placed in it, and in that month the sergeant and half the men were induced to join the Confederate army.

The lands of Irishtown were then being farmed by a member of the Ussher family, and Mr. Ussher’s representative, a yeoman called John Lawless, relates that on the night on which the sergeant left an attack was made on the castle, and that the members of the depleted garrison were able to hold it, although his master’s corn in the haggard to the value of £400 and a great stable were burned.

Matthew Allen, who died in 1589, was succeeded by his son, John Allen. The latter married a granddaughter of Chief Justice Luttrell, a daughter of John Luttrell of Killeigh, and died in 1604.

He was succeeded in his turn by his son, Matthew Allen, who died in 1645 and was buried in Palmerston Churchyard, where there is a tombstone to his memory (It bears the following inscription :-” Here lyeth the body of Mathew Alen of Palmerston who departed this life July ye 14th 1645. This stone was laid here by his daughter Madam Alice Alen.”).

The latter compromised himself in the Rebellion, and the lands of Palmerston, which in November, 1646, were selected as the place for the proposed meeting between Ormonde and Preston, then encamped at Lucan with the Confederate forces, were seized by the Crown, and passed out of the possession of the Allen family.

The next person mentioned in connection with the lands of Palmerston is Sir Maurice Eustace, then Prime Serjeant at Law and Speaker of the House of Commons in this country, and after the Restoration Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

Eustace belonged to a family whose arrival in Ireland had been contemporaneous with the Anglo-Norman invasion, and whose more prominent members in past generations had been ennobled under the titles of Portlester and Baltinglas.

Although, as has been mentioned in connection with the history of Monkstown, the family had been distinguished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth for its adherence to the Roman Catholic religion, Eustace’s father, who was “Constable of the Naas,” had embraced the Reformed faith, and had sent his son to be educated in the College of the Holy Trinity near Dublin, then established less than twenty years.

There Eustace greatly distinguished himself, and was finally elected a fellow and appointed lecturer in Hebrew, a language which he had made his special study, and of which he proved himself during his occupancy of that chair a master. It had been his intention to take holy orders, but ultimately he decided upon entering the legal profession, and gained admission to Lincoln’s Inn in London.

On completion of the necessary course, during which he gained a high reputation for proficiency in legal knowledge, Eustace returned to his native country, and began to practise at the Irish Bar.

Before long his ability and great industry attracted the notice of the Lord Chancellor of that day, Adam Viscount Loftus of Ely, who attached Eustace to his person in a confidential position, and finally recommended him to Strafford for the office of Prime Serjeant.

Subsequently a coolness arose between them, but meantime Eustace had secured a new patron in Strafford, who had formed an equally high opinion of Eustace’s professional attainments. Strafford had doubtless found him a useful instrument in his first Parliament, to which Eustace had been returned as member for Athy, and it was with his full approval that on the assembling of his second Parliament Eustace, who then represented the County Kildare, was called to the Speaker’s Chair.

On that occasion Eustace delivered a speech, which was thought at the time to be incomparable for eloquence and erudition, and received from Strafford the honour of knighthood.

Eustace, who kept himself clear from the events attending Strafford’s downfall, and who in the troubled times that followed was ever at the right hand of that faithful servant of the Stuarts, James, first Duke of Ormonde, appears first as connected with the Palmerston lands in 1647, when woods, which then stood upon the townland of Irishtown, are described as his property.

The reference to the woods is in an order for their protection issued by Ormonde in March of that year, when Dublin was in daily apprehension of being besieged by the Confederate forces, and indicates that the woods were then being pillaged by the citizens for firing, as the guards at St. James’ Gate are enjoined in the order to stop any person returning to the city with wood in their possession.

About that time Eustace thought fit, possibly with a view to its greater safety in those uncertain days, to transfer his property at Palmerston to the husband of one of his sisters, and two months later a royal grant was made to his brother-in-law, Henry Warren, second remembrancer of the Exchequer, of the lands of Palmerston, Saintlaurence, and Irishtown, lately belonging to Matthew Allen, who had been indicted for treason, together with all the interest therein of one James Allen, who had been declared an outlaw.

The event, which Eustace then possibly foresaw, the surrender of Dublin to the Parliament, came in July, and Ormonde, having handed over the city to its new rulers, took his departure for a time from Ireland.

He left behind him in Dublin many royalists, Eustace being amongst the number. The city was not so secure from attack by the Confederate forces, or so well defended by the garrison as to enable Colonel Michael Jones, who had been appointed Governor by the Parliament, to despise the services of any residents who chose to offer them in its defence, but although from expediency many royalists did so, Eustace and some others were too faithful in their allegiance to their Sovereign to recognise in any way the usurped authority.

At first he and his companions were not disturbed, and during the autumn we find the cavaliers amongst them passing their time in hawking, a sport in which Eustace was only prevented joining them one day owing to a friend having taken his horse. But in the following year they were placed under arrest, and Eustace was sent off to Chester, and was detained in England for seven years.

When the Commonwealth period opened, the principal persons returned as residents at Palmerston were William Smith, who was possibly the citizen of Dublin of that name who filled the mayoral chair no less than seven times, and Walter Archbold, an old gentleman of eighty years of age; while Irishtown castle was stated to be occupied by Edward Archbold, his wife, and a large family of stepchildren called Byrne.

In addition to these, Alderman Daniel Hutchinson, one of the mayors of Dublin during the Commonwealth, had an interest in the Palmerston lands, and was represented on them by a bailiff and many farm servants.

But later on a much more important person came to the parish, a wealthy Englishman called Thomas Vincent, who took up his abode in Irishtown castle, which in his time was returned as “a habitable house,” and was rated as containing eleven chimneys.

During the troubled times Vincent had become connected with Ireland as mortgagee of the estate of Edward, third Lord Blayney, whose father had died fighting against Owen O’Neill, and who with the other members of his family had been reduced to a state of destitution as a result of the rebellion.

Ultimately, through the advances which he made, Vincent became owner of the estate; but Lord Blayney’s brother Richard, who succeeded him as fourth Lord Blayney, by “a prudent marriage” with Vincent’s eldest daughter, recovered it as his marriage portion.

He secured also by special provision in his marriage settlement a home for himself and his wife, with four servants and two horses, in his father-in-law’s house, and doubtless induced the latter to come to Ireland under the protection of the Cromwells, in whose favour he stood high.

Vincent, who became an alderman of Dublin, and represented the Borough of Monaghan in the Restoration Parliament, enjoyed the friendship of many of his neighbours at Irishtown, including Sir John Cole of Newlands and Sir Theophilus Jones of Lucan, and resided there until his death in 1666

In his will Vincent mentions that he held Irishtown under a lease from Sir Maurice Eustace, but when this lease was made does not appear, and it was possibly not executed until after the Restoration. Eustace had, however, been permitted to return to Ireland on Henry Cromwell’s appointment in 1655 as Lord Deputy.

This privilege had been granted to him on the solicitation of Sir Arthur Annesley, afterwards second Viscount Valentia and first Earl of Anglesey, whose brother had married one of Eustace’s nieces.

Although best known as a prominent advocate of the Restoration and as a statesman in the reign of Charles II., Annesley was then a trusted servant of the Commonwealth, and through him Eustace became known to Henry Cromwell, who four years later speaks of him as an eminent lawyer, to whom “he was beholden and owed a kindness.”

That Henry Cromwell’s goodwill went so far as to allow Eustace to derive any benefit from the Palmerston property, which was returned in the Commonwealth surveys as forfeited, seems improbable; but at the same time no one else is mentioned as resident in the chief house, and Eustace seems to have maintained a connection with the place during the Commonwealth period, as we find that his sister Elinor and her husband, Edmund Keatinge, the parents of the well-known Chief Justice Keatinge, were buried in Palmerston churchyard.

(A monument in the ruined church bears the following inscription: - “This monument is erected by John Keating, Esq. Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, second son of Edward Keating of Narraghmore in the County of Kildare by Eleanor Eustace his wife, daughter of John Eustace in the County aforesaid, Esq. in memory of the Lady Grace Shruckburgh the relict of the said Richard Shruckburgh of Shruckburgh in the County of Warwick, Knight; she was one of the daughters of Sir Thomas Holt of Aston juxta Birmingham in said County, Bart.; after some years viduity on the 27 October 1659 she intermarried with the said John, then a student at Lincoln’s Inn, with whom having lived with mutual comfort and satisfaction she departed this life the 12 April 1677, and is here interred in a vault wherein are likewise deposited the ashes of the said Edward and Eleanor who had both been formerly buried in this ground and when it shall please the Almighty to put an end to his the said John’s pilgrimage his desires now are that his bones may be laid by theirs if conveniently it may be.” See also Will of Edmund Keating.).

After the Restoration a Sir Maurice Eustace is returned as occupant of the chief house, then rated as containing nine hearths, but this may have been a nephew of the great lawyer, who bore the same name and was also knighted. His uncle, who had been arrested a second time not long before the Restoration, and who appears to have been in London when that event took place, was nominated soon after the return of Charles II. as Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

That office was then one of more than ordinary importance owing to the great questions to be decided in connection with the settlement, and for the first two years until the arrival in 1662 of the Duke of Ormonde as Lord Lieutenant Eustace acted also as the principal Lord Justice.

Such property as he possessed before the usurpation was quickly restored to him, and in addition he acquired by purchase or royal grant fresh possessions. Amongst the former was Harristown, in the County Kildare, which had been his father’s residence, and amongst the latter Chapelizod, where there was then a house far superior to the one at Palmerston.

These with his town house in Dame Street, now commemorated in the modern Eustace Street, are the only houses which Eustace is known to have occupied during the brief period of life that remained to him after his appointment as Chancellor.

He had accepted that office with reluctance, as he felt himself unequal to the great task that then lay before its holder, and had urged pathetically as arguments against his appointment advanced age and infirmities which had been aggravated by his restraint during the Commonwealth.

The result proved that his judgment of his own powers was a sound one. As Chancellor he failed completely to maintain the high reputation which he had gained in earlier life, and three years after his appointment broke down under the responsibilities of his great office.

After a time some measure of strength was restored to him, and Eustace was able to resume the discharge of his duties. The improvement in his health was only as the flickering of a candle before it is burned out, and after a pitiful struggle with increasing weakness, Eustace succumbed in 1665 to an attack of palsy.

Eustace had married in 1633 a daughter of Sir Robert Dixon, an ancestor of Sir Kildare Dixon Borrowes, Bart., but left no legitimate children. He appears to have been succeeded at Palmerston by his nephew and namesake, Sir Maurice Eustace, already mentioned as a possible resident in the chief house.

But the year after Eustace’s death a new owner appears at Palmerston in the person of Sir John Temple, who filled the office of Solicitor-General for Ireland during the reign of Charles II. His possession of the Palmerston lands was due to mortgages which had been placed upon them before the rebellion by Matthew Allen in favour of Arthur White, a younger son of Sir Nicholas White the second of Leixlip.

Arthur White had died in 1648 at Beaumaris, and had bequeathed the mortgages to his elder brother, another Nicholas White, who after the Restoration had established his right to them before the Court of Claims, and had sold them to Sir John Temple.

The value of the lands over the mortgages had been assigned towards the payment of the arrears due to the officers who had served in Ireland under Charles I., and Sir John Temple, who as mortgagee had prior right of redemption on paying that sum, a comparatively small one, became absolute owner of Palmerston.

Sir John Temple was a distinguished member of a most distinguished family. Sir William Temple, the favourite secretary of the accomplished and gallant Sir Philip Sidney, who became Provost of Trinity College, was his grandfather, Sir John Temple, the historian of the Irish Rebellion, who for nearly forty years, undisturbed by King or Parliament, served the State in this country as Master of the Rolls, was his father, and that statesman of incomparable reputation in his day, Sir William Temple, the patron of Swift, was his elder brother.

From him descended a Prime Minister of Great Britain whose memory is still fresh, Henry Temple, third and last Viscount Palmerston-a title which was conferred on Sir John Temple’s son, and which is remarkable for a duration of nearly a century and a half, although only held by three persons.

In writing of the branch of the Temple family to which the Prime Minister belonged, it has been remarked that it was little allied with the higher nobility, but frequently with the leading families of the commercial class, and that its members, who remained thoroughly English in spite of their connection with Ireland, enjoyed nearly uninterrupted intellectual distinction for three centuries with a pervading likeness of character in their practicability as statesmen or lawyers, in their fondness for literature, in which they were sometimes famous, and their success as men of the world without loss of higher attributes.

Sir John Temple the younger was born in 1632. His father was then resident in England, where he held some position in the Court of Charles I., which the friendship of Sir Philip Sidney’s family had doubtless obtained for him, and it was not until nine years later, on his appointment as Master of the Rolls, that his father came to Ireland.

Of Temple’s early education nothing is known. It is possible that it may have been partly conducted like that of his illustrious brother by his maternal uncle, Dr. Henry Hammond, a divine no less remarkable for his devotion to the royal cause than for his learning, and certainly Temple appears to have been more imbued with the opinions of his uncle than with those of his father.

At the early age of eighteen Temple entered Lincoln’s Inn as a law student, and fortunately for himself had been called to the Bar a few years before the Restoration. He was thus eligible to fill the office of Solicitor-General for Ireland, to which he was at once appointed by Charles II.

His selection for that office was in a great measure the result of the assistance which his father had given towards the return of the King, but Temple soon proved his fitness for the post. In the Irish Parliament, to which he had been returned as member for the Borough of Carlow, near which his father had his country seat, his talents were specially conspicuous, and during the absence of the Speaker, Sir Audley Mervyn, in England, Temple, although then not thirty years of age, was called to take his place in the Speaker’s Chair, a position for which he was again designated in 1678, when the Duke of Ormonde contemplated summoning a parliament in Dublin.

As an adviser of the Crown he gave the utmost satisfaction, and the Duke of Ormonde, who conferred on him in 1663 the honour of knighthood, speaks of him then as a man of extraordinary parts and of signal affection for the King’s service.

Palmerston became Temple’s country residence, and from thence many of his letters to the Duke of Ormonde are dated. He wass much consulted by the latter about his private as well as public affairs, and as years went on the Duke relied more and more on his advice.

In England, which he visited from time to time, Temple became well known. It is said that Dr. Sheldon, when Archbishop of Canterbury, paid him the compliment, a singular one as it has been remarked for an ecclesiastic to make, “that he had the curse of the Gospel because all men spoke well of him,” and so great did his legal reputation become that his appointment to the English Attorney-Generalship was actually contemplated.

He could more than once have obtained high judicial place in this country, but the law officerships were then far more lucrative than the chief justiceships, and, following the example of the Attorney-General, Sir William Domvile, as mentioned in connection with the latter’s residence at Loughlinstown, it was not until two years after the accession of James II. that Temple closed what is a still unparalleled term of office as Solicitor-General.

On the arrival of William III., Temple became his chief adviser with regard to Irish affairs, and after the Battle of the Boyne was appointed Attorney-General for Ireland. It was, however, then evidently his desire to reside in England, probably in order to gain for his family the advantage of being more immediately under the aegis of his mighty brother’s name.

He avoided being elected Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, a position which it was wished he should accept, by going to England and not seeking a seat in the Irish Parliament, and about the same time he sold a grant of the reversion of the Mastership of the Rolls which had been given to him.

Finally, five years later, he resigned his office and permanently took up his residence near London, at East Sheen, where in 1705 he died.

Palmerston saw the Temples no** **more. From that time Sir John Temple’s family became completely identified with England, where his youngest daughters made great matches, one of them, the Countess of Portland, attaining celebrity as governess of the daughters of George II.

At the time of Sir John Temple’s death his house at Palmerston was temporarily occupied by Sir Richard Cox, then Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who followed during an eventful life the varied paths of a lawyer, soldier, statesman, and author with equal success, and was unquestionably one of the ablest Irishmen of his day.

But not long after Sir John Temple’s death, his son, although he subsequently took his title from the place, disposed of his principal interest in Palmerston to Robert Wilcocks, a gentleman of large fortune, who was connected with Mountmellick, where he directed his body should be interred with all possible funeral pomp.

Wilcocks died while living at Palmerston in 1711, and as he left no issue, bequeathed his property there to a nephew and namesake, whom. he desired should be educated in Trinity College, Dublin, and should adopt the legal profession (3).

The fair on St. Laurence’s day still survived in the eighteenth century as a relic of the Leper House. It had become known as Palmerston Fair, and was a place of great resort for Dublin citizens. Like Donnybrook Fair, it was often the scene of disgraceful occurrences. There in the year 1737 the Ormond and Liberty boys, two noted factions at the time, met and engaged, as we are told, with the result that several of them were wounded, and one man, whose legs had to be amputated, died next day.

Houses of entertainment, needless to say, then flourished in the village, and amongst the names given to them we find the sign of the Swan, the Red Lion, the Black Bull, and the White Swan.

There were also various industrial undertakings at Palmerston, as indicated in the existence of the French Mill and Linen Mill, the Plating Mill, the Brickfields, the Logwood Mill, and the Big Skin Mill.

The most important event in the eighteenth century history of Palmerston was the arrival of the Right Hon. John Hely Hutchinson, then Prime Serjeant at Law in Ireland and subsequently Provost of Trinity College and Secretary of State in this country, as occupant of Palmerston House.

This occurred about the year 1763, when Hutchinson purchased from Robert Wilcocks and his son, who bore the same same, their fee simple interest in the Palmerston lands, together with all buildings and improvements thereon.

It is curious to notice in the long list of offices then thought necessary adjuncts of a country residence the existence of a pigeon house, a cider house, and a granary, and to find the ownership of pews in Chapelizod Church considered worthy of transfer by a formal deed.

Hutchinson was then at a height of fame which it is now difficult to understand. The satires upon him have survived, the calm judgment of disinterested spectators has been forgotten. No member was ever more extolled and more in fashion, says Francis Hardy, who had no inclination to be a friendly critic, than Hutchinson on his first appearance in the House of Commons as member for the City of Cork.

His impressive and graceful oratory, which owed much to the teaching of that master of elocution, James Quin the actor, captivated every hearer. As one “who could go out in all weathers” he was found inestimable as a supporter of the Government, and was considered to have had the advantage of Henry Flood in debate.

At the Bar his success was equally great, and the highest honours of his profession lay within his grasp. In the acceptance of the Provostship he made the fatal mistake of his life. After a long enjoyment of parliamentary fame it was then said that he was no speaker, and after the most lucrative practice at the Bar, that he was no lawyer.

But, Hardy adds, all the force of wit and talent arrayed against him could not authenticate the supposed discoveries of a want of knowledge and ability; his country thought far otherwise, and his reputation as a man of genius and an active, well-informed statesman remained undiminished to the last.

The only other resident of importance in Palmerston parish at that time was the Right Hon. and Rev. Philip Smythe, fourth Viscount Strangford, whose descendants and successors in the title have made their mark in diplomacy, literature, and politics.

Although Sir Thomas Smythe of Westenhanger, in the County Kent, on whom this Irish peerage was conferred by Charles I., is said to have been a person of opulent fortune, the fourth Viscount Strangford inherited only a small property from his father.

The latter was educated abroad as a Roman Catholic, and married a French lady, but shortly before the birth of his son in 1715 came to Ireland, and having conformed to the Established Church took his seat in the Irish House of Lords.

Although his will is written in French, he appears to have been able to take part in the politics of his day as a supporter of the English interest, and probably made friends who helped his son. The fourth Viscount, who was only a child at the time of his father’s death, entered the Irish Church at an early age, but owing to the unhappy combination of ecclesiastic and legislator, reflected little credit on his profession.

Perhaps the most remarkable event in his career was the fact that when only four years in Holy Orders he was nominated by the Crown to the Deanery of St. Patrick’s en the death of Swift, but his nomination owing to the opposition of the Charter was afterwards cancelled.

His death took place at Palmerston in 1787, and he was buried at Castleknock, where several members of his family were also subsequently interred.

The stately residence which is still to be seen at Palmerston amongst the buildings of the Stewart Institute was erected by Provost Hutchinson. There he endeavoured to compete in magnificence of living with his rival, Philip Tisdal, at Stillorgan, but in matters gastronomic he had to surrender the palm to Tisdal, and when he was honoured with the Viceroy’s company, he sought the loan of Tisdal’s renowned cook.

In his domestic virtues Hutchinson is said by Hardy to have been most exemplary, and his will bears touching testimony to his parental affection. In it he invokes on his children countless blessings, and from its terms it is evident that his chief pleasure in his riches and honours was the advantage which his children would derive from them.

His prayers for his children have been amply answered, not only in their own success in life, but in the position to which his more remote descendants have attained. The peerage of Donoughmore, which was conferred upon Hutchinson’s wife as a barony, and descended to his eldest son, in whose time the barony became merged in an earldom, has been held by a line of prominent public men, and in addition younger sons of the family have attained distinction as statesmen

Palmerston House, where Hutchinson ‘s wife died in 1787, continued to be Hutchinson’s principal residence until his own death, which took place at Buxton in 1794, and after his decease it was occupied by his descendants until the middle of the last century. **

Ecclesiastical History**

The church of Palmerston, now in ruins, lies to the north of the village, between the high road from Dublin to Lucan and the River Liffey. It consists of the remains of a nave and chancel, and resembles in its principal features many of the churches already described.

The nave has been stated to measure twenty-nine feet by sixteen feet six inches, and the chancel fourteen feet nine inches by ten feet six inches on the inside. The walls are nearly three feet thick. The chancel arch is still standing, and the western wall, which is surmounted by a bell gable, contains a primitive square-headed doorway now built up and a large window.

There is a round-headed light in the eastern wall, and a similar one in the southern wall, which also formerly contained a doorway, as a gap in the stonework indicates.

The church of Palmerston was given by Milo le Bret, who has been mentioned in the history of Rathfarnham as the first Anglo-Norman owner of that place, to the Hospital of St. John the, Baptist without Newgate, and about the year 1220 the church is returned as being in the possession of the Prior and the brethren of the Hospital.

At the close of that century, when Palmerston was valued at ten marks, the tithes were considered insufficient to pay a chaplain. In the fifteenth century the church was doubt-less used, as we find more than one bequest left to it, but after the dissolution of the religious houses there is no mention of service being held in it.

During the sixteenth century the tithes were leased to various lay owners without any provision for the supply of a chaplain, and in the beginning of the seventeenth century it was placed in charge of clergymen holding other cures. Thus it was held in 1615 by the Rev. Simon Swayne, in 1629 by the Rev. John Lenox, in 1639 by the Rev. Thomas Chantrell, and in 1643 by the Rev. Gilbert Deane, who with the exception of Chantrell were in charge of Ballyfermot.

To Chapter 10. To Ball Index. Home.