Southern Fingal, Castleknock

Southern Fingal **

The Parish of Castleknock**

(Or the Fort of Cnucha)

The parish of Castleknock is stated to have comprised in the seventeenth century the townlands of Abbotstown, Ashtown, Astagob, Blanchardstown, Cabragh, Cappoge, Carpenterstown, Castleknock, Corduff, Deanstown, Diswellstown, Fullams, Glebeland, Huntstown, Irishtown, Lakes, Mitchelstown, Pelletstown, Porterstown, Scribblestown.

It comprises now the townlands of Abbotstown, Annfield, Ashtown, Astagob, Blanchardstown, Cabragh (i.e., the bad land), Cappoge (originally Keppok), Carpenterstown, Castleknock, Corduff (i.e., the black hill), Deanestown, Diswellstown, Dunsink, Huntstown, Johnstown, Mitchelstown, Pelletstown, Porterstown, Scribblestown (i.e., the rough land), Sheephill, Snugborough. These names are largely derived from those of former occupants of the lands, viz., the families of Abbot, Blanchard, Carpenter, Deuswell, Hunt, Mitchel, Pilate, and Porter.

The chief object of archaeological interest is a mote which is surmounted by the ruins of an early castle. **

The Fort of Cnucha and its Successors**

The parish of Castleknock lies to the north-west of the city of Dublin, adjoining the Phoenix Park, and extending westward to the parish of Clonsilla. Through it the high road from Dublin to Trim, the Midland Great Western Railway, and the Royal Canal pass. It is one of the larger parishes in the county of Dublin, and, notwithstanding its proximity to the city, it is entirely rural in its character. Its southern lands border on a picturesque reach of the river Liffey, and its northern lands are intersected by the Tolka, which attains in its passage to a high degree of beauty.

At that point the principal seat in the parish, Abbotstown, the home of the family of Hamilton, ennobled under the title of Helm-Patrick, is situated, and near the valley of the Tolka the scenery in the demesne has exceptional fascination.

It seemed to Wordsworth, who saw it during his visit to Ireland in 1829, to possess a melancholy as well as a wildness peculiarly striking in the vicinity of a great town, and it affected similarly Sir William Hamilton, who was entertaining Wordsworth at the Observatory in Dunsink, as he shows by lines which he wrote on the poet’s visit

Or when beneath my roof a guest he came,

And wandered with me through the pleasant walks

That, all around, make rich my home beloved;

And visited that river-bed by me

Often remembered since, and often sung;

Around whose natural beauty even then

Some human feelings had begun to twine,

Hallowed in after-years by sorrow’s power.

But historical interest centres in a residence which stood in the southern part of the parish. Its site lies not far from the Liffey, in the grounds of a college of the Congregation of the Mission dedicated to St. Vincent, and its antiquity and importance are apparent from a mote and remains of a stout castle, by which the mote is surmounted. The mote is situated to the west of the college buildings, and a hollock of somewhat similar size, surmounted by a tower of later construction, is situated to the east. [In the” Dublin Penny Journal,” 1834-35, p.236, it is stated that the tower was erected by a Mr. Guinn as an observatory. The hillock was then known as Windmill hill]

“The mote, which is over 60 feet high, is a noble one,” writes the President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, []Mr. Tomhas Johnson Westropp, M.A.], “and the castle by which it was crowned was a very early Norman fortress. The mote was evidently a natural hillock, larger than the unaltered one on which the tower stands, and the only question is how far the makers of the castle modified the original mound. Round it two great trenches were dug, the first about thirty feet below the summit, the second about thirty feet lower. Round the western, northern, and north-eastern flanks these trenches are in good preservation; but round the southern and south-eastern slopes either they did not exist, or, which is more probable, they were obliterated. There seems to have been a small platform, perhaps for an outstanding turret or bretesche, at the north-east point, whence there is a steep descent to the base of the mote, which has been partly cut away.

“The circuit of the upper fosse, taking a line on its level round the southern face of the mote, measures about 380 feet. The outermost ring has a steep external slope of variant heights up to 20 and 25 feet. Its summit is almost uniformly 15 feet wide. The lower fosse, which is 10 to 12 feet wide below and 34 feet at the level of the ring, is 12 to 15 feet deep. The next ring, which is 12 to 15 feet on top, is 25 feet higher. The upper fosse is six to nine feet deep; except westward where it has been filled up to within four feet of the top. The steep inner slope, which is 29 feet at the base, rises for 21 feet to the level of the foundation of the bailey wall, above which the platform rises 12 to 15 feet.

“The keep of the castle stood at the east end of the mote, but all save the western half has been destroyed, together with the courtyard wall round the south of the bailey. Owing to a sheet of knotted ivy and the lower stone-work having been picked out, the examination of the keep is difficult, and its full description impossible, but it seems to have been multangular, a phenomenon found also in the early, perhaps contemporaneous, mote-castle of the Geraldines at Shanid in the county of Limerick and elsewhere. Three faces appear outside to the west. The interior seems to have been also multangular, not circular as usual, with similar shallow faces. The wall, which is over 30 feet high, is of good rubble masonry grouted, but no cut-stones, which would enable it to be dated, are visible. There was a gateway to the bailey, of which the arch remains, and over the latter a spiral stair leads to a. passage which runs northward with curving steps to a defaced doorway opening into the upper story. The main stair ran up to the battlements, and there is a circular well, perhaps of another stair, near the southern break. Inside the gateway was a higher arch. The gateway seems to stand on a mound of eight to 10 feet above the bailey, but this is probably fallen debris. In the north-east angle of the bailey a passage leading to a little projecting turret remains. It once flanked the north face of the bailey and of the keep.

“The bailey, which is now used as a cemetery, is 100 feet from east to west, and 60 feet from north to south. It is irregular in plan, its west face not being curved, but being a series of bends forming slight angles with each other. There also remain eight of these reaches on the north, measuring 30, 22, 30, 15, 30, 12, 12, and 15 feet. In the fourth reach there is the drain of a garde-robe. The broken end of the drain shows that, in consequence of the destruction of the wall to the south, much of the platform has gone. The alteration of the size of the platform at the north-east end of the upper fosse, from the ring of which it projects 40 feet, makes its character uncertain. A well was found close to the keep inside the bailey. Such wells have been found in other motes, and at Castleknock, as there are outflows from the mound lower down, a good supply of water must have been secured. As the keep and bailey are on the summit of the mound, the description of the earth-works as a mote and bailey is deceptive. If there was any base-court, all trace of it has disappeared.” [The castle has been described by Mr. E. R. M’C. Dix, amongst “The Lesser Castles of County Dublin,” in the “Irish Builder,” 1898, pp.26, 35] **

As a Royal Residence.**

The legendary annals of Ireland bring the history of Castleknock back to the shadowy Grecian immigrations, and assign the origin of the Celtic name of Castleknock, Cnucha, like that of Etar, the Celtic name of Howth, to the time of the Firbolgs;-

Dela’s five sons without trouble

Brought hither five wives;

Two of them were famous Cnucha

And Etar from the very clear strand.

Now Cnucha died here

On a hill called Cnucha,

And Etar, wife of pure Gann,

On Benn Etar at the same hour.2

During the Milesian era Castleknock is named as one of 25 places at which Conmhaol of the race of Eber, while holding the sovereignty of Ireland, defeated in battle the descendants of Eremon, and a Celtic writer mentions that Castleknock was sometimes known as duma meic Eremon, or the duma of the sons of Eremon. The mention of a duma shows that there was at a very early time an eminence of note at Castleknock; the duma may have been, Mr. Westropp observes, used for purposes of residence, sepulchre, or outlook, or, as in the case of Duma Selga, for all three.

In a poem relating to the earliest centuries after Christ the origin of the name Cnucha is connected with Conn of the Hundred Battles, and the name is said to have been borne by his foster-mother

The nurse of Conn who loved this strip of land

Was Cnucha of the comely head;

She dwelt on the dun with him

In the reign of Conn of the Hundred Fights.

Cnucha, the daughter of Concadh Gas,

From the land of Luimneach broad and green,

Died yonder in that house

To the horror of the Gaels.

The woman was hurled, a grief it was

In the very middle of the hill;

So that from that on Cnucha

Is its name until the judgment.

According to this poem Cnucha was at one time a place used for pagan rites, and was known as the Druids’ mound

The Druids’ mound was its former name

Until the first reign of Ingliaine;

Until the reign of Conn in Cnoc Brain;

Until the daughter of Conadh came.

But it was very early in the Christian era one of the residences used by the sovereigns of Ireland. Elim, son of Conn, who is said by the Four Masters to have been slain at Skreen, in the county of Meath, in the first century after Christ, is described as the brave King of Cnucha; and his successors, Tuathal the Legitimate, and Feidlimid of the Laws, the father of Conn of the Hundred Battles, are mentioned in connexion with the place

Cnucha, a hill overhanging the Liffey,

There was a time when it was a royal seat;

A fortress it was at the time,

When Tuathal Techtmhar possessed it.

Tuathal built it originally;

It was a king’s dwelling, a royal work;

There was not a better abode save Tara alone,

Or one more beloved by the King of Erin.

Feidlimid took possession of it, after that

The son of Tuathal, the son of Feradach

Conn, son of Feidlimid, a prince of Fail,

Dwelt on that white-waved mound.

During that period two battles are said to have raged round the fort of Cnucha. One was between Tuathal the Legitimate and Eochaid; and the other was between Conn of the Hundred Battles and Cumhall, the father of Finn. In the poem called the Battle of Cnucha it is related that Cumhall made war upon Conn, because he had raised Criomhthan of the Yellow Hair to the throne of Leinster; and that Cumhall was slain by the Connaught champion, Aedh mac Morna, who lost an eye in the encounter, and was thenceforth known as Goll mac Morna.

With the exception of a record, made under the year 726, of the death of Congalach of Cnucha, of whom nothing further is known, there is no reference to Castleknock until the opening years of the tenth century. [In regard to a tradition that St. Patrick visited Castleknock, Mr. Charles McNeill writes to me that he believes the Cnucha which St. Patrick is said to have visited was near Lough Erne, and that he is of opinion that it is identical with the place now called Mullyknock near Enniskillen. Tradition relates that St. Patrick cursed the prince that held the fort of Cnucha for sleeping while he preached, and it has been said that the prince rests beneath the mote at Castleknock in the posture which aroused St. Patrick’s wrath. An attempt to explore the cave failed, owing to the labourers being afraid that the prince might be aroused. Cf. “Dublin Penny Journal,” 1834-35, p.236; “Journal Roy. Soc. Ant., Irel.,” xiii, 305] It is then mentioned as a halting-place of Niall Black-Knee, the sovereign of Ireland who was slain while fighting the Norsemen at the neighbouring ford of Kilmainham; and after his death his name was associated with it

Where is the chief of the western world?

Where the sun of every clash of arms

The place of great Niall of Cnucha

Has been changed, ye great wretches.

At the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion the fort of Castleknock was evidently considered to be the chief stronghold in the vicinity of Dublin. It was selected by Rory O’Conor, King of Connaught, as his headquarters while besieging the invaders in Dublin in the summer of 1171:-

At Castleknock at this time

Was the rich King of Connaught;

and when making what proved to he his victorious sally from Dublin, Miles de Cogan appears to have been of opinion that Castleknock was too strong a fortress to attack directly, and marched against the besieging force at Finglas:-

Miles de Cogan very quickly

By the direct road towards Finglas,

Towards their stockades theicupon,

Set out at a rapid rate.

But as soon as he had routed the besiegers at Finglas, he no doubt secured the fort of Castleknock, and placed a garrison in it.

**

Under Anglo-Norman Barons. **

Amongst the grants of lands in the neighbourhood of Dublin made during the Anglo-Norman settlement, none was more important than that of Castleknock, and amongst the feudal lords who rendered service at Dublin Castle during the next two centuries, none held a prouder place than the grantee and his successors.

The grant included not only the lands in the present parish of Castleknock, but also the greater part of those comprised in the parishes of Clonsilla and Mulhuddart, and the Phoenix Park; and the grantee, Hugh Tyrrell, Baron of Castleknock, as he and his descendants were styled, was evidently chosen not only on account of his valour, but also on account of his high birth. He was descended from a long line of ducal ancestors, through whom his kinsmen claimed the title of Prince of Poix: and one of his forefathers there had gained great renown in the Battle of Hastings, and another less enviable notice as the archer who caused the death of William Rufus.

To Hugh de Lacy, who came to Ireland in the autumn of 1171 in the train of Henry the Second, Hugh Tyrrell owed the grant of Castleknock, [In the opinion of Mr. Orpen (“Ireland under the Normans,” ii, 83), the grant was made by Hugh de Lacy in his capacity as king’s bailiff on behalf of the king The owners of Castleknock rendered service to the crown undoubtedly in later times, but from the fact that the owners of Castleknock were styled baron, a title peculiar to de Lacy’s. chief tenants, it seems possible that Castleknock was at first considered within de Lacy’s palatinate of Meath as Santry was] and probably his own arrival in Ireland took place at the same time. He stood high in the regard of Hugh de Lacy

Castleknock in the first place he gave

To Hugh Tyrrell whom he loved so much;

and when Hugh do Lacy left Ireland in the spring of 1178 to join Henry in France, Hugh Tyrrell was left by him in charge of his fortress at Trim

Then Hugh de Lacy

Fortified a house at Trim;

And threw a trench around it,

And then enclosed it with a stockade;

Within the house he then placed

Brave knights of great worth;

Then he entrusted the castle

To the wardenship of. Hugh Tyrrell.

In the following year, when Rory O’Conor invaded Meath, Hugh Tyrrell sent an urgent appeal for succour to Strongbow by a page mounted on a swift horse:-

Through me the baron sends you word-

Old Hugh Tyrrell of Trim-

That you aid him in every way,

And succour him with your force.

Before Strongbow could arrive Hugh Tyrrell was obliged to vacate the castle, but as soon as Rory O’Conor had been driven off he returned to Trim and made the place impregnable

And Hugh Tyrreil went to Trim,

And refortified his fortress,

After that he safeguarded it with great honour

Until the arrival of his lord.’

Ten years later, in 1185, Hugh Tyrrell is said to have had a quarrel with Hugh de Lacy, and appears in attendance on Philip de Worcester, by whose appointment as procurator Hugh de Lacy had been superseded as justiciar. At that time it is related that while at Armagh with Philip de Worcester Hugh Tyrrell carried off from the monastery there a cauldron which he was forced to return owing to the miraculous destruction by fire of everything with which it came in contact. But there is proof that he was a benefactor rather than a spoiler of religious houses in a grant made by him of a great part of the lands now comprised in the Phoenix Park to the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham. In that grant he was joined by a son called Roger, who was the king’s bailiff of Louth and owner of lands in the county of Tipperary, but Roger appears to have predeceased his father, who was succeeded at Castleknock by a son called Richard.

At the close of the 13th century Castleknock was known as “the land of peace,” and throughout that century its history was one of uninterrupted prosperity. During that period four of Hugh Tyrrell’s descendants held sway at Castleknock.

The first, his son Richard, second baron of Castleknock, enjoyed for a time high favour with his sovereign. In the autumn of 1197 he was with Richard the First at Dieppe, and in the early years of John’s reign he was granted a cantred in Connaught, and succeeded his brother as bailiff of Louth.

In the spring of 1206 and in the autumn of 1207 he was with John in England, but before the latter visit he had undertaken to give security for Walter do Lacy, Hugh de Lacy’s son, and became involved in the disgrace into which Walter do Lacy fell. His castle and lands of Castleknock were confiscated, and although the lands were subsequently restored to him, the king was much displeased to find in the summer of 1214 that some of his Irish officials had also entrusted the custody of the castle to him, and ordered it to be demolished. But this order was not executed, and, in the summer of 1218, two years after his accession, Henry the Third issued a mandate that the castle was to be levelled with the ground, inasmuch as it was offensive to the city of Dublin, and its destruction would tend to the safety of the Crown lands in the vale of Dublin.

Negotiations ensued, and on Richard Tyrrell’s undertaking to give hostages that no injury should arise from the castle, and that the justiciar would be given possession of it in the event of war, the mandate was cancelled. In the summer of 1221 Henry sought Richard Tyrrell’s aid in connexion with a change of justiciar, by which the King hoped to increase the royal revenue from Ireland, but a year later he became again urgent that “the castle of Cnoc” should no longer remain in Richard Tyrrell’s hands, and threatened to have it levelled unless he accepted another castle in exchange for it. But as a hostage for his loyalty Richard Tyrrell then offered his son and heir, and the castle once mere escaped demolition.

Richard Tyrrell’s son and heir Hugh, third baron of Castleknock, who appears to have been at the English court in 1223 when his father died, was one of the magnates of Ireland on whom Henry the Third placed chief reliance. In 1225 the king accepted from him an assurance by deed that he would surrender the castle to the justiciar in the event of military necessity, and the king on his part undertook that the castle should be restored to him as soon as military necessity permitted.

He was one of those summoned to attend the king, in 1230, on his expedition to France, and he was commissioned two years later when he was at the English court to make inquiries in Ireland about the dower of the king’s sister, Eleanor, the widow of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke.

At that time he received a royal grant of the right to hold annually a fair lasting for eight days at Newtown-Fartulagh in the county of Westmeath, which was one of the manors owned by him, and some years later he received a letter of thanks from the king for support which he had given to the justiciar, and is mentioned as the king’s seneschal in Ireland. He married the daughter of a justiciar of Ireland, Geoffrey de Marisco, and received knighthood.

To him succeeded Richard, fourth baron of Castleknock, who was presumably his son. Richard was in possession of the lands prior to 1270, when he compounded for the royal service in respect of them by a payment of six pounds on the occasion of an expedition to Roscommon.

His son Hugh, fifth baron of Castleknock, had probably succeeded him before 1285, where his name appears in connexion with legal proceedings. He ruled at Castleknock until the spring of 1299, when his death took place. In an inquisition taken after his death it is stated that he held Castleknock from the Crown, subject to rendering suit at Dublin, and a royal service of six pounds, and that the manor contained many carucates. In addition he held from Geoffrey de Geneville “three and a half knights’ fees,” for which he rendered suit at Geoffrey’s court at Trim.

Before that time a number of families had become established on the Castleknock lands, either by grant from the Crown or from the Tyrrells. To the north-west there were at Corduff the family of de la Felde, and at Abbotstown and Blanchardstown the families of Abbot and Blanchard, [In 12999 the Blanchards appear in county Tipperary as connected with the Tyrells, Cf. Mill’s “Justiciary Rolls”, i, 231.] from whom those places derived their names. To the north-east at Cappoge, which probably in earlier times had been a residence of the Keppoks, [‘The Keppoks are principally identified with county Louth. The Carpenters, who have left their name imprinted on a Castleknock townland, appear to have been connected with them. Cf’. Mills’s ” Justiciary Rolls,” ii, 171] John Woodlock, who was sheriff of Dublin, and constable of Dublin Castle, was at the close of the thirteenth century seated, and near him the family of Serjeant had a holding.

To the south-west at Clonsilla the family of Luttrell had been enfeoffed by the Tyrrells, subject to homage and an annual service of forty pence; and at Diswellstown the family of Deuswell, from whom the place takes its name, had been similarly enfeoffed, subject to an annual service of a pair of white gloves or a payment of one penny.

A family which bore the cognomen of Castleknock rose in the thirteenth century to high importance in Dublin; and Geoffrey the Miller of Castlekhock was at the close of that century a well-known person.

Besides the lands given to the Priory of Kilmainham, other lands had been given to religious houses. The lands of Ashtown were in the possession of the Priory of St. John the Baptist outside Newgate; the lands of Dunsink in the possession of the Priory of Lismullen [Dunsink had belonged successively to the Priory of Little Malvern, of Newtown, and of Lismullen. The foundress of Lismullen Priory, Alice, sister of Richard de la Corner, Bishop of Meath, was in 1260 in the possession of lands at Clonsilla. See Sweetman’s “Calendar,” 1252-84, no.678.] lands called Kilmellon in the possession of the Priory of All Saints, which owned the adjoining lands of Cloghran-huddart; and lands at Clonsilla and Blanchardstown in the possession of the Priory of Little Malvern in England. As will he seen in the ecclesiastical history of the parish, the last priory enjoyed the favour of the Tyrrells in an especial degree, and in addition to the lands mentioned had a house near Castleknock church, and a mill on the Liffey.

When the Irish tribes began to invade the country near the mountains in the last decade of the thirteenth century, some of the inhabitants took refuge at Castleknock, which, as has been already mentioned, was then known as “the land of peace.” One of them, Paul Lagheles by name, found, however, that the land of peace was not necessarily a land of safety, and his sheep, to the number of 200, were carried off while grazing in Luttrellstown by, as he alleged, men from Louth, who were coming to fight the king’s enemies in the mountains. They offered trial by single combat, from which Paul shrank, and in the sequel he suffered imprisonment as well as the loss of his sheep.

In the opening year of the 14th century Castleknock was rudely disturbed by the Bruce invasion, and the next owner, Richard, sixth baron of Castleknock, was one of those on whom the invasion fell most heavily. He was a son of the fifth baron; and at the time of his father’s death in 1299 he was stated to be 28 years of age, and to have been married for thirteen years.

He served in Edward the First’s Scotch expeditions, to which he contributed two great horses fully caparisoned, and four light horsemen; and before one of the expeditions was honoured by a letter from the king entrusting him with the management of an affair of importance in which he was enjoined to exert himself strenuously.

About that time the loss of a falcon by the chief justice of Ireland was made the occasion of a state trial, in which the sixth baron of Castleknock figured as the defendant. While being bathed in a rivulet near the place now known as College Green the falcon had been frightened by an eagle, and according to the chief justice had flown to Castleknock and been detained by the baron, although he was aware that the loss of the falcon had been solemnly proclaimed, and a reward of 20 shillings offered for its recovery. The chief justice estimated his damages at 20 pounds; but the question of the amount was never determined, as when the trial came on the baron appeared in court, and on obtaining from David the falconer a description of the falcon, he delivered it to the chief justice, who stayed then further proceedings.

With the Priory of Kilmainham the sixth baron was also involved at that time in litigation, concerning an allowance of food which he alleged had been made to his forefathers as service for the lands granted by the first baron to the priory. According to his statement successive priors had recognized the claim, and each of his predecessors had received every day four white loaves and three gallons of ale such as the brethren of the priory who were knights enjoyed, two gallons of ale such as the brethren who were servitors were given, and courses of flesh on days flesh was eaten, and courses 9f fish on days fish was eaten, to the amount of three plates.

In his suit against the priory the sixth baron’s mother joined, in consideration of her right to a third of the allowance as part of her dower. She had remarried a few years after the fifth baron’s death with one Guy Cokerel, to whom her first husband had been heavily indebted, and by whom her son had been pressed for payment, and Guy Cokerel gave his aid in forwarding the suit against the priory.

According to a laconic record it was on the eve of the feast of St. Matthew, in the year 1817, that Edward Bruce made his way with his host towards Dublin and came to Castleknock. There he entered the castle, and made the baron and his wife prisoners until a ransom was paid. But his stay at Castleknock was but brief, as the record states that immediately after St. Matthew’s Day he retired towards the Salmon Leap.

At the time of the sixth baron’s death, which occurred a few days after Christmas, 1321, his son Hugh, the seventh baron, wanted a few months of full age. Some 12 years later he was given by the king freedom from service on assizes, juries, or recognizances, but shortly before his death, 30 years later, he acted on a commission for the trial of malefactors in the city and county of Dublin.’

His son Robert, eighth baron of Castleknock, had but a short reign, as his father’s death took place subsequent to the year 1364, and his own occurred in 1370. As he received knighthood, he saw probably much military service, and after he succeeded to Castleknock be took part in negotiations at Carbury with the Berminghams, by whom he was treacherously seized, and for a time imprisoned.

His death is said to have been due to the plague, to which are also attributed the death of his wife Scholastica, the widow of Adam, Lord of Howth, and that of his son and heir; and as he left no other issue, Castleknock passed to his sisters, of whom he had two.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century contention arose between two members of the Deuswell family and a brother of the sixth baron of Castleknock, and led to a trial for assault. According to the finding of the jury, which resulted in the commitment of Tyrrell to gaol, Tyrrell descended upon the Deuswells, who were brothers, while they were sitting in a garden, and assaulted a manservant and attempted to attack one of them. At last in self-defence, the latter drew a dagger and chased Tyrrell away. But having gone to his brother’s castle and armed himself, Tyrrell mounted a horse and returned to the house of the Deuswells’ mother, in which they had taken refuge. As they had shut the gate, Tyrrell could not get in, but having alighted from his horse he began to throw stones, and would have done “much evil,” if the neighbours, amongst whom “hue and cry” had been raised, had not come to the rescue and prevented him.

At the close of the fourteenth century the religious houses and several of the families mentioned at the close of the previous century remained in possession of their lands. The de la Feldes were still found at Corduff, the Woodlocks at Cappoge, and the Luttrells at Luttrellstown. The lands of Cabragh, known as Much Cabragh, and Pelletstown were then in the possession of Walter Kerdiff, a member of the family which has left its name impressed on Cardiffsbridge in the parish of Finglas; the lands of Porterstown and lands called Renvelstown were in the possession of the families of Porter and Renvel, from whom those lands derived their names; and Blanchardstown and Diswellstown had become the property of John Owen, an owner of wide-spreading lands, having been acquired by him about the year 1357 on the attainder of one of the Deuswell family.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century Castleknock was the seat of Thomas Serjeant, who assumed the style of baron of Castleknock. As already mentioned, on the death of Robert, eighth baron of Castleknock, the estate had passed to Robert’s two sisters. They were both twice married. The elder, Joan, was married successively to John Serjeant and William Boltham, and the younger, Matilda,to Sir Thomas Rokeby, sometime justiciar of Ireland, and Robert Burnell, lord of Balgriffin.

Until 1408 the castle of Castleknock appears to have been occupied by William Boltham in right of his wife Joan, but his death then took place, and, as her son by her first husband, Thomas Serjeant rendered homage and entered into occupation. More than 25 years before that time he had taken part in an expedition against the O’Tooles, and possibly he had a residence in 1401 on the lands of Abbotstown, in connexion with which he is then mentioned.

An impression of his seal has been found, and as three serjeants’ batons are included amongst the heraldic devices it tends to show that his ancestors derived their surname from their occupation. Owing to their connexion with Castleknock, it is probable that they acted as deputy serjeants in the time of Henry Tyrrell, a cadet of the Castleknock house, who held the office of chief serjeant of the county of Dublin in the first half of the thirteenth century, and charges the Crown with three robes for his deputies.

Thomas Serjeant did not survive his step-father many months, and died also in 1408, in September, as appears from the obits of Christ Church Cathedral, of which he was a benefactor.

He was succeeded as owner of a moiety of Castleknock by his son, Sir John Serjeant, sometime keeper of the peace in the county of Kildare. By his wife Emeline Nugent, Sir John Serjeant had two sons, Nicholas and Robert, and they succeeded in turn to the moiety of Castleknock.

But before the middle of the fourteenth century the moiety had passed to two heiresses, Joan and Ismay Serjeant. The elder, Joan, married Sir Jenico Dartas; and the younger, Ismay, married, first, Sir Nicholas Barnewall, chief justice of the common pleas, and, secondly, Sir Robert Bold, lord of Ratoath.

As the stronger man, Sir Nicholas Barnewall secured for himself the whole moiety; and in the later part of the century it passed to Roland Eustace, baron of Portlester, who had married the widow of the chief justice’s son, Thomas Barnewall.

During the 15th century few changes took place amongst the other occupants of the Castleknock lands. The most important were the transfer of the possessions of the Priory of Little Malvern to the Abbey of St. Mary in Dublin; the sale of the lands of Cabragh by John Kerdiff to Thomas Plunkett, of Dunsoghly, sometime chief justice of the common pleas; and the transfer of the lands of Porterstown from the family of Porter to that of FitzLyons. A wealthy member of the former family, who died in 1472, Richard Porter, had probably land in the parish, as he left legacies to the churches of Castleknock, Clonsilla, and Mulhuddart, and much live and dead stock; but he was evidently engaged in trade in Dublin, and desired to be buried in the Whitefriars’ church.

In the middle of that century the authority of parliament had to be invoked to cancel a series of forged deeds executed by one Philip Cowherd, of Blanchardstown, calling himself Philip Maunsell, by which he claimed various estates near Castleknock, and sold them to persons “who knew not the law, and who from one day to another menaced the tenants and free-holders.” **

As a Residence of a Gentleman of the Pale.**

The Burnells, the owners of the second moiety of the Castleknock estate, had their chief seat at Balgriffin, but during the later part of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century members of the family appear to have sometimes used Castleknock as a residence.

Amongst the adherents of Silken Thomas, the head of the Burnell house at that time, John Burnell, was prominent, and after the suppression of the rebellion he was attainted. But one of his relations, another John Burnell, was granted by the Crown a lease of Castleknock castle, and for the next 40 or 50 years passed there the life of a gentleman of the Pale, and is included amongst those to whom in the reign of Elizabeth the duty of mustering the militia was entrusted.

In his time Stanyhuret, in writing of the strange and wonderful places of Ireland, says that “there is in Castleknock, a village not far from Dublin, a window not glazed nor latticed hut open, and let the weather be stormy, the wind bluster boisterously on every side of the house, yet place a candle there and it will burn as quietly as i£ no puff of wind blew; this may be tried at this day, who so shall be willing to put it in practice.”

Around John Burnell great changes took place. The Castleknock manor was leased by the Crown in succession to various owners - in 1558 to Sir George Stanley, the marshal of the army; in 1568 to Luke Dillon, the attorney-general; and in 1574 to Thomas, Earl of Ormond.

In addition to the manor the Crown became owners of the possessions of the religious houses on their dissolution, when the Prioress of Lismullen was found to be seized of six messuages, and over 200 acres at Dunsink and Scribblestown, and the Abbey of St. Mary, in Dublin, of a holding at Blanchardstown, and the tithes.

On the other hand, Christ Church Cathedral became possessed early in the 16th century of the lands of Much Cabragh, which were granted to it by Thomas Plunkett, their purchaser from the Kerdiffs. The cathedral defended in 1589 its right to them against a claim made by Walter Kerdiff, one of the justices of the king’s bench, and leased them to John Parker, sometime master of the rolls, and afterwards to Francis Agard and his son-in-law Sir Henry Harrington, two of Elizabeth’s Irish officials, who resided successively at Grangegorman.

The lands of Pelletstown were still owned by the Kerdiffs, Judge Kerdiff, his son, grandson, and great-grandson appearing in the possession of them; and Dunsink was also occupied by a member of that family, James Kerdiff, who was a commissioner of the muster. At Corduff the do la Feldes still reigned, and in the last decade of that century sent a mounted archer from it to a hosting at Tara.

But at the beginning of the 16th century Cappoge had passed from the Woodlocks, owing to the extinction of their male line. In the year 1506, in the month of February, Catherine Owen, the widow of the last male representative of the Woodlock family, is found on a sick bed in the tower-chamber of Cappoge castle securing by charter her property to her daughter Rose Woodlock, and “swearing by her soul, and by the way her soul was about to travel,” that she had no knowledge of any other enfeoffment of her lands.

Her daughter, whom she bound to provide for seven years ” an honest priest ” to pray for her and her parents in Castleknock church, was then married to Robert Bathe; but she had been previously married to a member of the Dillon family, and in the middle of the 16th century Cappoge came into the possession of her grandson by her first marriage.

At the close of that century the Dillons of Cappoge are included amongst the men of name in Dublin county; and they sent two or three mounted archers in respect of Cappoge to the hostings of their time. Bartholomew Dillon, Rose Woodlock’s grandson, was twice married: to a daughter of his kinsman, Sir Bartholomew Dillon, and to a daughter of Edward, Lord Howth.

He was succeeded by his son Nicholas, who married Katherine Rochfort; and Nicholas was succeeded on his death in 1577 by his son Bartholomew, who was then a child.

While Robert Bathe was in occupation of Cappoge castle, in the year 1588, one of his tenants, Robert Legath, made his will, and provided carefully for the payment of rent due to Robert Bathe, whom he styles “his master.” He desired that he should be buried in Castleknock church near his sister, and charged his wife and son “to see him honestly brought to the grave.” His crops included 12 couples of corn, and his live stock six plough horses, with which are ranked as things of equal value his little pot and pan.

By the marriage of a daughter of the family of Fitz Lyons to a member of the Finglas family Porterstown passed in the 16th century to the latter family. The lady was Alson, daughter of James Fitz Lyons, who had been previously married to Edward, Lord Howth, and her husband was Roger Finglas.

During the military expeditions in the reign of Mary and Elizabeth, as the representative of the Porterstown family, Roger Finglas was very prominent, not only contributing archers to the militia, but also serving in person and acting as a commissioner of the muster.

He was succeeded by his son John, and the latter in his turn by his son Roger, who was a minor in 1591 when his father died. The adjoining lands of Diswellstown were in the middle of the 16th century occupied by Christopher FitzGerald, who appears by his will, which was proved in 1558,2 to have been closely allied to the Lords Howth of his time.

He was a man of wealth as well as of position. His household goods included much plate (a silver salt-cellar, two silver tankards, and a mazer being amongst the articles mentioned), besides pewter and brass, and many coffers, cupboards, tables, and beds, and his his stock comprised a stud of over 20 horses, a herd of cattle, a flock of sheep, a drove of pigs, and, what was evidently a feature of the place, 37 “stalls of bees.” A legacy was left by him towards providing a cover for the hearse in Castleknock church, and there he directed his body to be laid beside his brothers.

On the death of John Burnell Castleknock castle became the residence of his son, Henry Burnell, who was a lawyer of very great eminence. In the opinion of his contemporaries he was one of the best speakers and most learned men of his day in Ireland, and after a comparatively short practice at the Irish bar he had acquired such means as enabled him to live in a style that had never been approached by his father. Throughout his life he was a champion of the cause of the gentlemen of the Pale, in regard both to their temporal and to their spiritual needs, and was their chosen adviser.

While a student at Lincoln’s Inn, in the year 1562, ho joined in a representation to the government about the state of the Pale, and early in his legal career he was selected by Gerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, as his counsel. That nobleman, who was under suspicion of no friendly disposition to the government, was very irascible, and, as a statement made by Burnell in the summer of 1575 shows, it required the utmost acuteness to guard his interests. This statement was made in London, where Burnell had gone on the earl’s behalf, and two years later he was again here as an emissary for the earl and other noblemen of the Pale respecting the cess. For his advocacy of their cause he suffered then imprisonment, first in the Fleet and afterwards in the Tower, but he contrived finally to arrange a composition between them and the government.

As he complained a year later, the composition entailed on him unpopularity and loss of his own money, and evidently considerable sympathy was felt for him, as on his visiting London again, in 1583, he was recommended to the English statesmen by Archbishop Loftus and others holding high office in Ireland.

But during the parliament convened under Lord Deputy Perrott, in which Burnell represented Dublin county, he incurred once more the displeasure of the executive by his successful opposition to the government measures. One of these was the repeal of Poynings’ Act, and, as has been remarked, it is a curious circumstance that the parliament of that time should have refused to abrogate the very statute, the repeal of which was the greatest triumph of Irish patriotism in the eighteenth century.

Although Burnell seems to have consistently professed the Roman Catholic religion, he was appointed in 1573 recorder of Dublin, and in 1590 a justice of the queen’s bench, but the latter appointment was limited to one term, that of Michaelmas, and the office of recorder does not appear to have been long held by him.

When the Roman Catholics of the Pale petitioned Chichester in 1605 for toleration of their religion, Burnell was a main instrument in the movement. In the opinion of Mr. Bagwell he drafted the petition, and although be was not imprisoned, on account of age and infirmity, the government placed him under restraint first at Castleknock and afterwards in Dublin in the sergeant-at-arms’ house.

In his later years he must have been a thorn in the side of the judges who were not too well qualified, and in the beginning of the 17th century he was alleged to have boasted openly of his power in the courts. But his friendship for the FitzGeralds involved him afterwards in charges of tampering with a deed, and a heavy fine was imposed on him by the castle or star chamber of Ireland.

At the time of his death, which occurred in the summer of 1614, he is said to have been very aged. His wife, a daughter of the house of O’Reilly of Cavan, had died nine years before, in the summer of 1605, and a son, called Christopher, alone survived him of his children. In his will, which is dated the day before his death, there is no sign of mental decay. He desires to be buried with his father, mother, and wife in Castleknock church, and although he mentions that he was very sick, his “perfect memory” is apparent in the careful terms in which he makes bequests to his grandchildren, and to a number of more distant relations and servants to whom, besides money, he leaves his little ambling garren, his best gown and cloak, and his broadcloth gown.

His interest in Castleknock passed to his son Christopher, and to Christopher’s son Henry in succession. Henry Burnell married Lady Frances Dillon, the third daughter of James, first Earl of Roscommon, who died in the spring of 1640, and was buried in “the chapel of the Burnells within the parish church of Castlekuock,” and he had by her four sons and five daughters.

He is still recollected as the author of a play called Landgartha, which was acted in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day, 1639, and he is said by a contemporary to have imbibed more of the spirit of Ben Jonson, although he was never in England, than those who claimed to be Jensen’s heirs in that country.

After the rebellion of 1641 he is described as of Castlerickard, in the county of Meath, a seat owned by his grandfather as well as Castleknock, and whether the castle of Castleknock was occupied when the rebellion broke out is uncertain.

For many months after the rebellion Castleknock appears to have been in the possession of the Irish forces. In May, 1642, an order was issued that 70 musketeers with two sergeants and three corporals, under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Bringhurst, should be sent there, but this force was found inadequate, and to Monk, while marching in June to join Ormonde at Athlone, the capture of the Castleknock stronghold is attributed. [Cox’s “Hibernia Anglicana,” ii, 107. In “Castleknock an Historical Sketch,”, Dublin, 1871, p.16, the castle of Knock, in county Meath, has been confounded with Castleknock. See “Exceeding Happy News from Ireland,” Royal Irish Academy]

That the defence was stubborn may he gathered from the statement that Monk “killed 80 rebels besides those that wore hanged,” and, notwithstanding their defeat, the Irish continued to occupy the surrounding country. In the following November portion of a convoy coming from Trim to Dublin was taken by the Irish at Castleknock, and some of the soldiers in charge of the cars were carried to a camp not far off and there shot.

Five years later, in the autumn of 1647, while ravaging the Pale, Owen O’Neill visited Castleknock. Thence lie went to Drogheda, destroying as he advanced “the goodliest haggards of corn that ever were seen in those parts,” until the country seemed to be on fire. As soon as he heard of O’Neill’s arrival near Dublin, Colonel Michael Jones, who was then commanding for the Parliament in Dublin, set out against him, and drew a large force to Castleknock, but he found only O’Neill’s rearguard, and as all provender had been destroyed, he could not proceed further, and was obliged to return to Dublin.

While advancing from Kilkenny against the Parliament force in Dublin, in the summer of 1649, Ormonde halted at Castleknock, whence some of his horse advanced to the Phoenix House, and encountered a detachment sent out by Colonel Michael Jones from Oxmantown Green, where his horse lay behind ramparts. After “bickering on both sides,” Ormonde drew his main force to Finglas, and he encamped there that evening; but he placed garrisons in the castles of Lucan and Luttrellstown, and probably also in Castleknock, as be summoned some weeks later the gentlemen of the county to come thither.

At the time of the rebellion the Castleknock estate was in the possession of Christopher Barnewall and Philip Hoare of Kilsallaghan, to whom the moiety forfeited by the Burnells had before that time been leased by the crown. But Christopher Barnewall was attainted, and shortly before Dublin was surrendered by Ormonde to the Parliament, in the summer of 1647, some of his property, including the great farm of Castleknock and a disused mill there, was given into the custody of Lieutenant Thomas Bringhurst, who was then major of the Dublin garrison.

During the Commonwealth, as the survey of the parish of Castle-knock shows, there were in “the castle-town” the castle which was described as old, a thatched house, a stable, some cottages, and an orchard; and in “the church-town,” a thatched house, a stable, some cottages, a disused mill, and the walls of an old church.

At the time of the Restoration the inhabitants of full age in “the castle-town” numbered two of English and 30 of Irish descent; and in “the church-town” 12 of English and 30 of Irish descent. A few years later, the chief inhabitant in “the castle-town” was John Warren, whose house contained two chimneys; and in “the church-town,” Alderman William Cliffe, whose house contained three hearths.

There were then some 30 cottages assessed for one hearth each in the two towns, and the mill, known as the baron’s mill or the red mill, had come into the possession of John Sprotton, and was rated for two hearths. Together with it, Sprotton, who was engaged in the woollen manufacture, held the weir and fishing rights.

After the Restoration the most important dwelling in Castleknock parish was Porterstown, which was occupied by Roger, first Earl of Orrery, while acting as a lord justice. It was returned in the Commonwealth survey as only a small castle, but was said to be surrounded by an orchard, garden, and plantation; and after the Restoration the castle, or a more modern house erected near it, was assessed for nine chimneys.

Towards the close of the 18th century an arched gateway betokened the former importance of the place, but even then all other trace of the dwelling occupied by Lord Orrery had disappeared.

During the Commonwealth, when the inhabitants of full age numbered 13 of English and 15 of Irish descent, Porterstown had been occupied by Colonel Richard Lawrence, the promoter of the linen manufacture at Chapelizod; and after the Earl of Orrery, William Muschamp, a member of a family of high position, resided there.

On the adjoining lands of Diswellstown, which had been for a time the home of the widow of Thomas Luttrell of Luttrellstown, there was a house with three chimneys occupied by Nathaniel Leake, and one with two hearths occupied by James Enos, besides some 18 cottages. The inhabitants numbered nine of English and 36 of Irish descent.

At Corduff a house, built of stone and slated, with a stable and barn, stood in the midst of an orchard, garden, and grove of trees. Early in the seventeenth century Corduff had become the residence of the Warren family, who continued in occupation for the next 200 years, and contributed in the eighteenth century a marshal, Baron Warren of Corduff, to the French service.

At the time of the Restoration the inhabitants of Corduff of full age were returned as seven of English and 22 of Irish descent. Abbotstown was then the residence of James Sweetman, a descendant of a Kilkenny family, who had succeeded a family called Long, several members of which served as officers in the Irish army. [See will of Richard Hanlon, 1656, in Prerogative Collection, and will of James Sweetman, 1686, in Dublin Collection; Depositions, 1641, Richard Swinfen, of Meaxtown. In Castlekoock Churchyard there was formerly a tombstone with the inscription Here lieth the body of Edward Sweetman late of Abbotstown in the county of Dublin, son of James, son of Richard Sweetman, who was son of John, who was son of Richard Sweetman, of Castle Isle, in the county of Kilkenny, Esq., obiit 11 April, 1707.”] There were on the lands a thatched house and six cottages, and the inhabitants are returned as two of English and 34 of Irish descent.

According to the Commonwealth survey, Blanchardstown contained only two thatched houses, a barn, and a little cottage, with “a young orchard and garden and a waste mill.” At the time of the Restoration its inhabitants of full age are returned as five of English and 26 of Irish descent.

In the early part of the 16th century William Rowles, who was member of parliament for Newcastle Lyons and an officer of the prerogative court, is described as of Blanchardstown, and at the time of the Restoration Henry Rowles, his son, and Robert Ball, his grandson, are mentioned amongst its chief men.

But its principal inhabitant at that time appears to have been Richard Berford, a member of the Kurow family, who died in 1662. His will, in which he directs his interment in Ratoath church, shows that he was a man of cultured tastes; and books and a bass-viol, besides a watch and much plate, are included in the possessions that he divided amongst his kinsfolk. He bequeaths also to them live-stock, including his bay nag and his white nag, and desires them to allow his brewing-pan at Ratoath to be used by the villagers.

At Huntstown the inhabitants of full age are returned at the time of the Restoration as seven of English and 29 of Irish descent. There was on the lands a house built of stone with a small orchard and plantation.

At the time of the rebellion Martin Dillon, a kinsman of the owner of Cappoge, had been in occupation, and he had been succeeded by James Dillon, who died before 1680. The latter was married to a daughter of the Bellow house, and was succeeded by his son Martin. In his will he bequeaths Martin his signet, and desired to be buried with his predecessors in Castleknock church.

The castle of Cappoge was in ruins before the Restoration, but at the close of the 18th century there still remained sufficient to show that it was a large and handsome dwelling. The ruins comprised then portion of the main wall, a tower at the south-east corner, and a gateway. The castle stood on a limestone rock, and the wall, which was 30 feet high, was three feet thick. On the south-west corner of the wall there were remains apparently of a parapet.

In the tower, which was three stories in height, there was a staircase, leading from the ground to the roof. The ground-floor, which was vaulted, contained an entrance doorway, and another doorway leading from the staircase to the room, and two windows, one in the south wall and the other in the west. 16 steps led to the first floor, on which there was a large fireplace, 17 steps from the first floor to the second, and 15 steps from the second floor to the roof, the total height of the tower being 49 feet.

On the upper floors, as well as on the ground-floor, there were doorways of plain Gothic shape leading from the staircase to the rooms, and in the upper part of the tower there were holes in which the joists for the floors had rested. It was believed that the west side of the vaulted chamber was older than the remainder of the tower.

The gateway stood about 20 yards to the north-east of the castle, and was a square building with a large arch, of which the bond stones had been removed before the description was written. ‘The castle had been forfeited after the rebellion by Bartholomew Dillon, and the chief inhabitants on the lands after the Restoration were Captain Knowles and Henry Wood, whose house was assessed for two hearths. At the time of the Restoration the inhabitants numbered four of English and 22 of Irish descent.

During the Commonwealth there was said to be near Dunsink, which had been the residence of a family called Freind, “great improvement of the barren soil by the planting of flax, trefoil, and clover,” and after the Restoration the adjoining lands of Scribblestown appear as the site of a house assessed as containing 12 chimneys. Its owner is described as “Esquire Barrett,” and possibly may have been William Barrett of Castlemore, county of Cork, who in 1665 was created a baronet, and in 1673, on his return from the “grand tour,” bid the world farewell in a curious will, dated the day on which he died. Subsequently Scribblestown was the residence of Major Richard Broughton, of the Irish guards, who was a son-in-law of Sir Henry Tichborne, and who died in l678.

On the lands of Much Cabragh, where a Dominican Convent now stands, there was after the Restoration a house containing six chimneys, the residence of Benedict Arthur, whose family had long been conspicuous in Dublin.

Besides Arthur’s house, there were four others on the lands rated as containing two hearths each; and at the time of the Restoration the inhabitants of full age numbered four of English and 22 of Irish descent. In the Commonwealth survey an orchard, which had been recently planted, is mentioned, as well as a garde ; and there were then two houses with slated roofs.

On Benedict Arthur’s death, before 1687, he was succeeded by his son John, who had been a patient of his distinguished kinsman, Dr. Thomas Arthur, and who succeeded to his father’s “great clock-watch” and books, as well as to his real estate.

At Pelletstown several disused mills are mentioned in the Commonwealth survey, and after the Restoration John Connel appears as an inhabitant in a house rated for four hearths. He held also the lands of Ashtown on which the castle or “house of Ashtown,” now the Under Secretary’s Lodge, stood. It was then rated as containing three chimneys.

At the time of the rebellion Pelletstown had been the residence of Robert Bysse, who was then high sheriff of Dublin county. A letter addressed by him a few months later, in February, 1642, to his brother, who had taken refuge in England, is still extant, and gives a minute account of events in Dublin. In it Robert Bysse urges his brother, who was second remembrancer of the court of exchequer, to return, and suggests that he might make an honest penny by importing provisions. Excepting salt beef, he says that every kind of food was at famine price: fresh meat was especially dear ; rabbits were four shillings a pair ; hens were two shillings a piece; eggs were a penny; and milk was two pence a quart. Two years later, in January, 1643, while “pondering the momentary and uncertain end of men in this realm of misery,” Robert Bysse made his will, and did not live many weeks after its execution. **

During the Eighteenth Century and After**

At the beginning of the 18th century, on the death of the last representative of the Sweetman family, Abbotetown became the site of a residence of Robert Clements, grandfather of the first Earl of Leitrim. After his death, which occurred in 1722,” the house of Abbotstown” was advertised to be let by his eldest son Theophilus Clements. The house is described as a large one, and the demesne was enclosed, as it is to-day, by a stone wall. Within the demesne there were gardens, and an orchard, and, a great attraction of that time, a good pigeon.house As the house was not sold until after his death, Theophilus Clements, who died six years after his father, may have occupied it, and he was probably often drawn thither by six English coach-mares, which he bequeathed with his chariot to his wife. Then Admiral Sir William Rowley appears as tenant.

The family of Falkiner became afterwards seated at Abbotstown; the first of the name resident there being Frederick Falkiner, a leading Dublin banker and a commissary of the muster. He was descended from a family identified from early times with Leeds, and his grandfather was one of its first members to settle in Ireland. His father, Daniel Falkiner, who was buried in 1759 at Castleknock, was also a banker, and was sometime lord mayor of Dublin, and member of parliament for Baltinglass; and his uncle John Falkiner of Nangor has been mentioned as a resident in Clondalkin parish. After the death in 1768 of his wife, who was a daughter of James Hamilton, an ancestor of Lord HolmPatrick, Frederick Falkiner went to reside in a house called the Cottage, and there he dated his will, which was executed in 1771, eleven years before his death.

After Abbotstown was vacated by him, it became the residence of his eldest son Daniel Falkiner, who was by profession a barrister, and was appointed counsel to the Barrack Board. In 1761 he married an English heiress, a daughter of Henry Fauze, of Egham Park, Surrey, [In “Sleater’s Public Gaxetteer,” iv, 540, it is stated incorrectly that he married a daughter of William Learne, of Aston, Middlesex, with a fortune of £20,000.] and he was residing at Bath when his eldest son was born in 1768; but before his eldest daughter was born in the following year he had come to Abbotstown, and continued to reside there until his death in 1798.

His eldest son, Frederick James Falkiner, who was created a baronet, was prominent in the political world of his day, and has been described as an Irish gentleman of the old school. A year after he had attained his majority in 1790 he was returned, on the nomination of the Duke of Leinster, to whom he was related, member of parliament for Athy, and seven years later he was elected member for Dublin county. He was an opponent of the Union, and no honour or bribe of money would tempt him to support it. Until the general election of 1807, when he was defeated at the poll, he continued to represent the county of Dublin, and in the autumn of 1812 he was again returned to parliament as member for the borough of Carlow.

Two months later he was created a baronet. His popularity at that time was evinced by the presentation to him of the freedom of Dublin, and in the address presented to him on that occasion allusion is made to the very distinguished manner in which he had supported the true interest of the Empire. But his patriotism had led him to raise a regiment, the Regent’s county Dublin regiment of foot, of which he was the honorary colonel, and had involved him in financial difficulties.

His embarrassments clouded his later days, which were passed at Naples, where in- 1824 his death took place in tragic circumstances. Sir Frederick Falkiner, who married a daughter of Sackville Gardiner, but left no heir, is recorded to have been of prepossessing appearance, and to have possessed elegant manners; he is said to have been also most agreeable in society, and to have excelled in sport.

During the first half of the eighteenth century the Arthurs continued to reside at Much Cabragh. John Arthur, whose succession before 1687 has been mentioned, died in 1733. [In his will he desires to be buried in St. Michael’s Church, but in an announcement of his death he is said to have been buried at Stillorgan. -” Dublin Gazette,” September 18, 1733.] As the grant of a licence to him to carry arms shows, he was a Roman Catholic, but his son Benedict, who succeeded him, had conformed in 1723 to the established church. At the age of 17 Benedict Arthur had been married clandestinely to a kinswoman within the prohibited degrees in the Roman Catholic Church, and Archbishop King gives a curious account of his efforts to reconcile Benedict’s father to the marriage at the request of an English bishop. For some years after Benedict Arthur’s death, which occurred in 1752, the house at Much Cabragh seems to have been occupied by his children, but before 1766 it had come into the possession of Thomas Waite, then under-secretary at Dublin Castle. He was a native of Yorkshire, and during the rising of 1745 he rendered services to the government, which were in his own opinion very inadequately rewarded by his Irish appointment.

To the great Primate Stone he was recommended by the primate’s brother, Andrew Stone, and as the gift of a watch from the Duke of Northumberland, one of the viceroys of his time, indicated, he proved a valuable assistant to those in high places. In every line of his will, which was made in 1779 shortly before his death, the accurate and painstaking mind of the good official is apparent, and no less is the popularity of the testator shown by the host of friends mentioned in it.

About the middle of the eighteenth century residents of note were few in Castleknock parish. In a map made then no house is shown on the lands now enclosed in the demesne of Farmleigh, the seat of Viscount Iveagh, or adjacent to them. At Corduff the Warrens continued to reside throughout the century, and Diswellstown was long the residence of the family of Kennan, whose possession of a well with petrifying qualities interested Dr. Rutty, and whose house and garden were 50 years later thought worthy of notice in a survey of county Dublin.

Hillbrook, near Abbotstown, was then the residence of Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Sampson, who died there in 1764, “after a long life spent in the service of his king and country.” His forbears, who appear to have been of Scotch origin, were identified with Donegal county, one of them representing Lifford in parliament, and were allied to the Conollys of Castletown, under whom Hillbrook was held. The only other residents of note at that time were Captain Nixon, Stearne Tighe, Mrs. Blanchfort, and Mrs. Harpur, whose son Singleton became curate of the parish.

Towards the close of that century a place called Elm Green was the residence of Richard Malone, who was interested in pictures and prints; and Scribblestown became the home of the Rathborne family.

During that period Dunsink was also selected, on account of its commanding position and proximity to Dublin, as the site of the Observatory founded by the University of Dublin, under the trusts of the will of Provost Andrews. Its erection, which was begun in 1782, has brought to Castleknock parish as residents a long line of distinguished men, amongst whom Sir William Hamilton and Sir Robert Ball may be specially mentioned.

But the close of the 18th century is more particularly marked by the commencement of the residence of Lord HolmPatrick’s ancestors in the parish, and the erection of the present Abbotstown house. The house stands a little to the north of the house which was occupied by the Falkiners, and before the death of Sir Frederick Falkiner it was known as Sheephill. It has been long numbered among the great residences near Dublin. For three generations its owners represented the county in parliament, and the name of Hans Hamilton, James Hans Hamilton, and Ion Trant Hamilton, the first Lord HolmPatrick, remain imperishably associated with what is best in public life.

The political connexion of the owners of Abbotstown with the county began before the legislative union of Ireland with Great Britain, and was maintained for a century: a century that witnessed Hans Hamilton strenuously opposing the Union, and his grandson, Ion Trant Hamilton, as strenuously opposing its repeal. Through 13 contested elections the banner of the Conservative party was borne by the owners of Abbotstown unsullied arid unstained, and of them it may be said that they were representatives “sans peur et sans reproche.”

The builder of the present Abbotstown house was the present Lord HolmPatrick’s great-great-grandfather, James Hamilton ; and its erection on the lands of Abbotstown was due to the fact that their owner, Frederick Falkiner, was married to James Hamilton’s sister.

The ancestors of Lord HolmPatrick in Ireland, who descended from a brother of the celebrated James Hamilton, Viscount Claneboye, had been seated previously in the counties of Cavan and Carlow; and the father of the builder of the present Abbotstown house was owner of the manor of Carlow as well as its representative in parliament during the whole reign of George the Second.

For the greater part of his life James Hamilton held legal office as deputy-prothonotary of the king’s bench, and as an official won no less esteem and regard than did his descendants as parliamentary representatives. He was married three times, and is said to have had 36 children.

His eldest son Hans Hamilton, who succeeded him, served in the fifth dragoon guards as lieutenant and captain. At the general election of 1797 he was returned to parliament with his cousin Sir Frederick Falkiner as representative of Dublin county, and continued to represent the county until his death 25 years later, being always returned at the head of the poll, and generally by a large majority. He was twice married, but left only one son James Hans, by whom he was succeeded.

James Hans Hamilton, who succeeded his father when only 12 years of age, was elected member for Dublin county at the general election of 1841, and represented the county until a few months before his death 22 years later.

It has been said that no name was more honoured by his contemporaries, and evidence remains that no name could have more deserved to be held in esteem. By his wife, Miss Trant, who died at an early age, Mr. Hamilton had two sons-Hans James. who pre-deceased him, and Ion Trant.

Ion Trant Hamilton, who was raised to the peerage as Baron HolmPatrick, was elected a few months before his father’s death member for Dublin county in his father’s room, and represented the county for the same period. After his retirement from parliament, his interest in the county remained unabated, and some years later his appointment as its Lieutenant gave him again an official connexion with it.

His creation as a peer in the year of Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, which was also the centenary of his family’s political connexion with Dublin county, was made the occasion of a remarkable demonstration of esteem on the part of his political friends in Dublin, and on his death in 1898 testimony was universally borne to his popularity and patriotism,

He married Lady Victoria Wellesley, sister of the present Duke of Wellington, and left an only son Hans Wellesley, the present Lord HolmPatrick. **

Ecclesiastical History.**

The earliest references which have been found to the religious life of Castleknock occur after the Anglo-Norman invasion, and indicate that the parish was in the second decade of the 12th century the site of a monastery.

At the time of the consecration of Henry de Loundres as Archbishop of Dublin in 1213, the Prior of Castleknock is mentioned as an arbitrator in disputes between two of the religious houses in Dublin, and subsequently the prior and the monks of Castleknock granted a moiety of the tithes of Castleknock to the archbishop and the vicar of Castleknock, and are found contesting with the canons of the collegiate church of St. Patrick the right to tithes of land between the ‘Tolka and the fee of Finglas.

According to Ware this monastery was a house of regular canons of the order of St. Augustine, and was founded in the 13th century in honour of St. Brigid by Richard Tyrrell, presumably the second baron of Castleknock. But that statement is incorrect. It was the Benedictine Order that had a house at Castleknock

In the third decade of that century the Benedictine Priory of Little Malvern appears as owner of the advowson of the church, and according to a record in the Chartulary of St. Mary’s Abbey the advowson had been given to the Priory of Little Malvern, together with the chapel of Clonsilla, and churches in Meath, by Hugh Tyrrell “of good memory,” presumably the first baron.

To the Little Malvern Priory the great tithes of Castlelinock are said to have been granted by Archbishop Henry do Loundres during his episcopate, but his gift was soon shared with others, and before his death one moiety had become the corps of a prebend in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the other moiety, excepting the tithes of Blanchardstown which the priory retained, had been assigned to the economy fund of that cathedral, after the death of Robert Luttrell, the treasurer of the cathedral, to whom the tithes had been leased.

Before many years had elapsed two prebends appear in the church of Castleknock, one “ex parte decani” the other “ex parte precentoris,” and the moiety of the tithes was divided between them. To the original endowment tithes from Mulhuddart parish were added, and ultimately the prebend “ex parte decani” became known as the prebend of Mulhuddart, and the prebend “ex parte precentoris” as the prebend of Castleknock, but in each case tithes from both parishes were assigned, the prebend of Mulhuddart taking in Castleknock parish the tithes of Corduff, Abbotstown, and Deanstown, and a moiety of the tithes of Much Cabragh, Pelletstown, and Ashtown, and the prebend of Castleknock the tithes of Cappoge, and of the hamlets of Dunsink and Scribblestown. These townlands were chiefly in the northern part of the parish, and to the economy fund there fell the tithes of the more southern townlands, Castleknock, Diswellstown, and Porterstown, as well as the second moiety of Cabra, Pelletstown, and Ashtown.

The right of presentation to the vicarage of Castleknock was surrendered in 1225 by the Little Malvern Priory to Archbishop Henry de Loundres, and provision made for the endowment of a chapel in the churchyard which had been dedicated by him. Besides the small tithes this endowment included six acres of land near the priory’s mill on the Liffey, and afterwards the possessions of the vicar were returned as including a house, two parks, and six acres of land near the baron’s mill.

In 1474 Master John Fyche, the principal official of the Dublin consistorial court, held the vicarage.

During the 16th century the vicar of Castleknock served the churches of Mulhuddart and Clonsilla, as well as the church of Castleknock; and during the absence of the vicar three chaplains took his place. Master John Fyche was succeeded by vicars called Travers and Meagh; and in the second half of that century John Dongan and John Rice, who is described as ” a reading minister,” appear.’

In the second decade of the 17th century the church of Castleknock was returned as in good repair and provided with books, and 15 years later, although it is described as ruinous, service was performed in it. “Most of the parishioners are recusants,” says the author of the second report, “yet the last Easter there were above 20 communicants.”

In the second decade the Rev. John Rice was still vicar, his tenure of the cure having then exceeded a quarter of a century; he was succeeded by the Rev Roger Good, “a preacher,” who held the cure in 1680, and by the Rev. Richard Matherson, who held the cure in 1689 with that of Chapelizod.

After the Restoration, in 1674, the Rev. Henry Monypeny appears as vicar, with, in 1686, the Rev. Moses Davis as his curate; Monypeny was succeeded in 1691 by the Rev. Charles Proby, who was his brother-in-law, and who will be mentioned as a resident in Mulhuddart, and in 1695 by the Rev. Philip Whittingham.

During that century the Roman Catholic Church had two places of worship in the parish, and these were served in 1630 by the Rev. Patrick Gargan and the Rev. Mr. Harris, an Englishman, who was chaplain to the Luttrell family.

Towards the close of that century the Rev. Patrick Cruise, who was a doctor of divinity and an archdeacon, was parish priest, and had in his charge the parishes of Clonsilla, Mulhuddart, Cloghran-huddart, and Chapelizod, as well as Castleknock.

Early in the 18th century, in the year 1710, the vicarage, which had become vacant by the resignation of Whittingham, was conferred on Swift’s friend, Thomas Walls, Archdeacon of Achonry, and the church became famous by Swift’s lines on “The Little House by the Churchyard of Castleknock.” In these lines Swift suggests that the little house in which the vicar the present one, but a description of it written by Austin Cooper towards the close of the eighteenth century mentions that the belfry was a square embattled structure, which in Cooper’s time was provided with two bells and surmounted by a wooden cupola and a weathercock. ‘The church was entered through the tower, and it is said to have been a plain, neat building with about 14 seats and a gallery over the door.’ It had been the nave of the mediaeval church. ‘The latter is said to have had a chancel “of two arched aisles.” One of these was possibly the Burnell’s chapel.

Archdeacon Walls held the vicarage for more than 25 years. After the death of Stella, who counted Walls and his wife amongst her best friends, he lost favour with Swift, but he was evidently a true and devoted friend, and is said by Archbishop King to have been a most worthy man.

During the remainder of the 18th century the appointments to the vicarage included in 1788 the Rev. Thomas Walls, a son of the archdeacon; in 1745 the Rev. John Towers, another of Swift’s friends; in 1752 the Rev. Kene Percival, who was afterwards appointed vicar of Chapelizod, and in 1767 the Rev. John Conner, a Fellow of ‘Trinity College.

As curates there are found in 1703 the Rev. Charles Proby, in 1764 the Rev. Walter Evans, in 1772 the Rev. William Pentland, in 1779 the Rev. Singleton Harpur, and in 1784 the Rev. David Brickall.

After an incumbency of over 40 years, Mr. Connor resigned the vicarage in 1809, and was succeeded by his son, the Rev. George Connor, who had been appointed previously prebendary of Castleknock. After the death in 1843 of the latter, both preferments were conferred on the Rev. Samuel Hinds, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, and again in 1848 on the Rev. Ralph Sadleir, on the termination of whose long incumbency of over 50 years the present rector, the Very Rev. Charles W. O’Hara Mease, Dean of the Chapel Royal, was appointed.

During the eighteenth century the parish priest of Castleknock had three places of worship in his charge - Blanchardstown, Porterstown, and Chapelizod-as well as a school. The succession of priests is given by the Bishop of Canea as follows:-In 1700 the Rev. Oliver Doyle; in 1715 the Rev. John Walsh; in 1742 the Rev. Peter Callaghan; in 1767 the Rev. Richard Talbot, D.D., and in 1783 the Rev. Christopher Wall.

During the nineteenth century until 1884 the same arrangement continued, the succession of priests being in 1802 the Rev. Richard Benson; in 1803 the Rev. Miles M’Phartan; in 1825 the Rev. Joseph Joy Deane; in 1836 the Rev. Michael Dungan; and in 1868 the Rev. Gregory Lynch.

In 1884 Blanchardstown and Porterstown were assigned to the Rev. Michael Patterson, and Chapelizod to the Rev. Michael Donovan, but in 1887 they were again united under the charge of the Rev. Michael Donovan, who was succeeded in 1897 by the Rev. P. J. Tynan. Six years later a division was again made, and Blanchardstown and Porterstown were assigned to the Rev. Stephen Fennelly, and Chapelizod to the Rev. John M’ Swiggan.

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