Leixlip Chronology 1850 -1869
by
JOHN COLGAN
1850: Thom’s Street Directory for Dublin cites as magistrates for Co. Kildare: John D[owning] Nesbitt and Wm. George Downing Nesbitt, Leixlip; both are also Militia staff.
William Ferguson [sic] is the Medical Officer at Leixlip dispensary.
Leixlip has fair days on 3rd May, 11th July and 9th October.
Richard Colgan is Clane Petty Sessions Court Clerk (sits 2nd Saturday).
Walter Glascock, Esq. is a resident at 65 Rathmines Road, along with Matthew H. Black Esq. and Mrs Black. Glascock & Black were a firm of solicitors in York Street – most likely the same.
1850: The House book of the Town of Leixlip, February/March 1850, compiled by James Montgomery with calculations by Thos Shortall, March 1850 [Ref. OL 5.3960, NA] notes of the Bridge/Toll House [No 2 Dublin Road Street] that "all (is) in good order and finish". There are various other comments relating to the situation of the Toll House, with its doorway access from the street, by a very steep passage almost inaccessible." [Details of room dimensions and qualities, and unusually, a sectional drawing of the house are in this reference].
Across the street, at No 1 Dublin Road, is recorded: "This is a nice summer residence but lies very low and is damp in winter and exposed to flood from the river – the occupiers scarcely can remain long in it – no yard. Gardens pretty well enclosed but subject to floods". Valuation, £6.5s. The tenant was Thomas Duffy. An undated photograph, suggesting a modern house, is in JD Walshe’s newspaper clippings of Lucan & Leixlip, NLI.
At No 9 Dublin Road, ie, the house at the eastern corner of Dublin Road and Mill Lane, recently turned into an office for the Educational Building Society, is noted that the property is James Kelly’s: a house and house return into Mill lane – coal store, stables, cow sheds – "Good business situation at a corner" "House in pretty good order". Valuation, £9 15s.
The House Book provides interesting insights into the rest of the town’s houses, shops and churches. Many premises were said to be affected by the opening of the Midland and Gt. Western Railway. Of interest are no. 82, Main St., occupied by Patrick Farrell and lodgers – three paying 1 shilling each per week (valuation £4. 15.0) and next door, no. 83, also with Patrick Farrell, a house and cowsheds (valuation, £6.5.0) "all subject to floods from river". A map, to hand, provided by the Valuation Office, does not show nos. 82 or 83, but 81 – near the river Rye on the Main Street.
At no.40, Main Street, is Wm. Fergusson’s (MD): Main house [=Ivy House], including another house and shop front. [The latter are what is now the ESB shop and offices] Superior finish in house and shop. – Has about 8 acres to rear. Excellent yard and gateway to and from Street. "This is one of the neatest and most comfortable residences in Leixlip" Valuation £26 10s. Across the street, at no.39, Wm Fergusson has taken a lease on some land: "Land well fenced and enclosed – was some years ago a public nuisance just opposite Dr. Fergusson’s residence – which was the reason he took it at such a high rent – £6.0 1d – and enclosed it also." This land, known as Levy’s Holding (or part of it) is a garden to the east side of Shingled House, between the House and the bridge road.
In Mill Lane, the workers cabins attached to the corn mill, nos. 1 to 9 "All the houses from no. 1 to 9 except no. 5 which is occupied by a caretaker, have been vacant for the last 6 or 9 months and are .. in very bad repair". There are details of Ennis’s corn mills in Buckley’s Lane. In respect of St. Mary’s the valuer notes: "The front entrance to this Church has been greatly improved by the removal of the market house which formerly stood between it and the street. There is now some iron railing and large and small gates in front and tastefully laid out gravel walks in front and graveyard in rear of Church" [No.7].
No.11 Mill Lane is the Black Castle residence: Henry Beere – house, return, office stable, car house, £8.15s. "This is a large showy house and yet there are only 3 rooms in it, one above the other." "The field belonging to this is now set to Mr Mitchell" (which field, no.20, was rented for 21 years at rent of £8 p.a.). Note that there is a Beere family plot in St Mary’s graveyard from 1736. The Beeres were also in Maynooth. They are related to Molyneux of Leixlip’s iron mills; see headstones. In an earlier time a Beere was a steward in the Irish House of Commons.
1850: House book for Leixlip Parish (excl. town centre),1850: No. 21 describes Mr John Mitchell’s corn mills in Mill Lane: "Diameter of the outside wheel of the flour mill is 15ft 6 in. Breadth, 2ft; depth of float boards, 2 ft;32 in number. Fall of water 26 inches. Section of conduit is 2ft by 2ft 6in wide. Section of water wheel is 9ft deep by 2ft 6in wide, but is only 7ft over the sluice. The wheel makes 12 and a half revolutions in one minute when at regular speed but made 14 in one minute when I saw it, but the miller said it was above the regular speed. Inside wheel diameter, 16ft, undershot also. Breadth 2ft. Depth of float boards, 2ft; number, 32. Fall of water, 2ft 6in. The mill pond is 9ft deep and quite close to the wheels. There are 6 pairs of stones at the mill diameter 42 inches for grinding wheat. One for wheat, diameter 4… and two for dressing and grinding sharps?; one 4ft 6in, the other 4ft 8in. Can work five pair at a time for 9 months 22 hours a day, the same 5, 3 months 13 hours a day, allowing an hour for getting the men to work and changing the machinery. 10 screens, 8 pair of elevators, 2 flour machines. There was an iron factory quite close to the mill which had claimed the water until it only came to be only 5ft deep but it is now a ruin. On that account it can work more than before.
‘Conduit’ is the flume or man-made channel to take the water to the wheel.
1850: House book for Leixlip Parish (excl. town centre),1850: No.21b [the former iron mill]: The occupant is Mrs Frances Law, "formerly [it was] Mr Henry Courtney. Vacant dwelling, dwelling houses etc. This was formerly an iron factory but is now in ruins. The other items are of no value. The water wheels and machinery all taken away. "The dwelling is also in a bad state." [NB: the dimensions and particulars of rooms, wheels etc are all in the House Book].
1850: Summer Assizes of the Co Kildare Grand Jury [Ref. No 37] granted a contract to Garret Dalton, for three years, to repair 72 perches of the road from Mr John Mitchell’s mill (in Mill Lane, Leixlip) to the corner of the main-street at Kelly’s house, at 9d per perch for each year. At their Summer Assizes in 1855, a Thos. Campbell was contracted to do the same job for another three years, this time at 10d per perch. They paid him £1 10s per half year for this [Ref no.996]. Mr Campbell received several other contracts in 1861 and 1862 – to repair the road from Martin Connolly’s forge at Leixlip to the Ryevale mill (i.e. Distillery Lane) and to repair gullets and parapets of several bridges – all for £8! [Ref No 1055]
Thomas Campbell died in 1871, aged 51, followed by his wife, Mary, who also died aged 51, in 1875. They and two of their children, Mary (who died in 1865) and Maurice (who died in 1870 aged 20 years) are buried in the old part of Confey graveyard. The Dalton family lived in Pound Street, adjoining Gaffney’s Pharmacy; they have burial plots in St Mary’s and Confey graveyards.
1850: With the onset of the railways, the Mullingar turnpike road was in particular trouble at this time. The Duke of Leinster was trying to get a Board of Works loan to assist with the road. He exchanged letters with His Excellency, (Geo Wm Fred Villiers) the 4th Earl of Clarendon, the Lord Lieutenant, at Dublin Castle, seeking to use his influence with him. In his several replies, Clarendon noted that the Board was independent of his office; that the Board had to fund the Grand Juries, who could only borrow money from the State, whereas the Turnpike Commissioners could borrow from any source [PRONI: D/3078/3/37; MIC 541/21, Duke of Leinster Correspondence].
Augustus-Frederick Fitzgerald, 3rd Duke of Leinster (1791-1874), was Sovereign Grand Commander of the Freemasons in Ireland, which was held in high regard at the time. [Con Costello, A Most Delightful Station…, Cork, 1999, p207.]
c1851: A new trend among well-to-do shopkeepers to no longer live over the shop but to take a prestigious house remote from their place of trading. John Wright Switzer (b.1806, Newpark, co Tipperary; died, 22/12/1891 at Moyvalley House), founder of Switzer’s of Grafton St, married Lucinda Walker and bought Moyvalley House, Co Kildare, where he lived. Switzer was enabled to come up to town daily from Kildare to oversee his flourishing business by the revolutionary new transport system, the railway, which brought him to Kingsbridge Station. From there he could walk or take a side-car to Grafton St. [Anne Haverty, Elegant Times, Dublin, 1995 p17.] Switzer was interested in spas and set up a medico-hydropathic institute. His partner was William Beatty (d by 1890). Switzer was a member of the Freemasons.
c1851: Dublin’s pavements were asphalted [Anne Haverty, Elegant Times, Dublin, 1995 p22].
1851: James Goodshaw, MD, died on 27/9/1851, aged 54 years [headstone, St Mary’s] and was buried about 2/10/1851 at St Mary’s CofI Leixlip (burial records). His wife Margaret died 24/12/1885 aged 76 and is buried at Glasgow Cathedral in her father’s, John Buchanan’s, plot [Headstone, St Mary’s].
1851: Richard Fross, of Knaresborough, York county, and most likely a relative of the Tuton family, leased to John Mitchell of Leixlip, miller, and Wm. Smith Mitchell of Leixlip, his son, the mills etc. at Parsonstown for the lives of William, Walter and Laurence Mitchell, John’s three sons, then aged 22, 17 and 15 years or thereabouts respectively [Reg of Deeds memo. no. 1851-8-246]. This dates John Mitchell and Ellen Molloy’s marriage around 1828, and these boys were most likely born elsewhere, perhaps in Mountmellick, where Mitchell came from [unconfirmed]; (Mountmellick, Co Laois, "owed much of its prosperity to a colony of the Society of Friends", according to the AA Road Book of Ireland, 1965) In fact, TCD Alumni record Arthur Molloy Mitchell entering TCD as a boarder on Oct. 14, 1851, aged 19. He was born in Co Cork, the son of John, Miller, and was a scholar at TCD in 1854 and graduated in Spring, 1856 with a BA degree. His early teacher was a Dr. Graham.
1851: Freeman’s Journal carried a front-page advertisement from a John Cogan, [sic] Auctioneer, Leixlip, advertising an auction of hay, oats, turnips, high-bred stock, farming implements on 14/10/1851 at Possextown, one mile from Celbridge and 3 from Straffan. The Coogan families lived in Leixlip for the whole of the 18th century and earlier. Two John Coogans are buried in separate family plots in St Mary’s graveyard. One died in 1860, aged 51 years; the other died 10th December 1882 aged 96 years. They were trustees and benefactors of the RC Parish Church of c1844.
1851: The census of Ireland: part I showing the area, population and number of houses by townlands and electoral divisions, Vol i, Leinster, HoC, 185203.
1852: By an indenture dated 30/x/1852 Jas Thos Conolly Saunders and his wife assured unto John Young, all the houses and gardens in Leixlip in Wm McLoughlin’s possession; bounded by the stone wall on the east dividing it from Laurence Conolly, the miller’s, garden, on the west by a stone wall dividing it from Chas Fellows’ field; on the north by Mill Lane, and on the south by the mill race to the iron mills.
1852: James Goodshaw, of Leixlip, had by now moved to 16 Fitzwilliam Sq Sth, having qualified in Edinburgh as an MD in 1843, having earlier practised in Lucan, Clondalkin, Dunboyne and Rathcoole as a dispensary doctor, having earlier been an apothecary. [Medical Directory for Ireland, 1852 p 47] He had moved to 122 Abbey St Upper, Dublin by 1854 [ibid]. Henry Shaw’s "The Dublin Pictorial Guide & Directory of 1850" has Goodshaw at his Fitzwilliam Square address in 1850, and at his Abbey Street address he was in practice with a doctor Blyth, being described as "medical doctors, Dublin Homeopathic Medical Institution". Was this a second James Goodshaw, or just a late entry in various directories?
A John C. Ferguson MD was at 16 Nth Frederick Street and a Rev. Wm. Ferguson at 35 Camden St. There was no sign of a George Ferguson.
1853: Post Office Dublin Directory (for Thom’s), 1853 has the following entries:
Courtney & Stephens, iron founders, engineers and farming implement manufacturers, 1 Blackhall Place
Courtney, Henry, iron merchant, 98 Middle Abbey Street and Leixlip works
Courtney, Henry, esq., 24 Fitzwilliam Place
Courtney, Henry, esq., 13 Russell Place
1853: Walter Glascock, Esq., of Rathmines, Co. Dublin, died intestate, according to the 30th Report of the Deputy Keeper etc.
1853: Queen Victoria visited Ireland for the second time, staying in the Phoenix Park at the vice-regal lodge.
1854: On 5/10/1854, Grace Maria Courtney, nee Hilles, died at her Sandymount home. On 27/1/1866 letters of administration, with a copy of her will attached – she left less than £1,500 – were granted to her son and residual legatee, Henry Richard Courtney, of Eccles Street. [Summary Wills and Admons, NA.] However, the Freeman’s Journal of Monday, 9th October, 1854, puts the date of death as October 6th, of Asiatic Cholera, and her address as 98 Abbey Street, Dublin.
1854: Thomas Conolly, MP, of Castletown, demised unto The Rev James Thomas Conolly Saunders of Cheltenham and Augusta Sophia Saunders, his wife, by agreement of 16/2/1854, all the lands comprised in the lease of the RT Hon Wm Conolly to Chris Glascock, of Dublin, dated 10/6/1749, for ever, to their heirs and assigns at a yearly rent of £12 2s, payable 25th March and 29th September. (Glascock’s rent was £11 Stg + receiver’s fees) [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1854-27-128]. The lands conveyed were described as "the houses gardens orchards and park called the Tenther Park together with the park called the Furry Hill formerly in the possession of Robert Ingham and also the island next adjoining the said orchard between the same and the river Liffey .." The island referred to is the early site of the Bridge or Toll House.
On the same day – 16/2/1854 – Thos Conolly also demised the Black Castle lands to the Saunders couple, for the yearly rent of £3 8s Sterling, payable half yearly. This property had earlier been demised by RT Hon Wm Conolly to Christopher Glascock by agreement of 10/6/1749 for three lives at a rent of £3 7s pa and it had reverted to Wm Conolly’s successor, Thos. Conolly [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1854-27-130]. The lands conveyed were described (in the earlier lease of the 10/6/1749) as "the houses garden and premises called the Black Castle holding adjoining the holding called Robert Ingham’s holding which land and houses were formerly in the possession of the said Robert Ingham but were then in the possession of the said Christopher Glascock."
On yet the same day – 16/2/1854 – Thos Conolly demised to the same Saunders’ couple the collection of lands (of 60a 1r 20p) at the Island farm, Tyands land and Hamilton Farm formerly held by James Glascock under a lease made 16/2/1788 with Glascock; a yearly rent of £59 3s, payable 1st May and 1st November [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1854-27-129].
1854: In contemplation of a marriage between Wm Smith Mitchell of Newbridge Mills, flour miller (son of John Mitchell) and Ellen Robinson, daughter of John Robinson, Drumcondra Terrace, merchant, John Mitchell and Wm Smith Mitchell granted to William Robinson and Walter Mitchell the corn mills at Parsonstown upon trust after the said marriage to the use of Robert Robinson and Arthur Molloy Mitchell [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1854-15-111]. Robert Robinson was most likely one of two namesakes who were born in King’s County in 1810 or 1816, both of whom attended TCD as boarders. The older was the son of another Robert, a merchant and the younger, the son of Alexander, a brewer [TCD Alumni, ibid].
A memorial stone in St Mary’s graveyard to "William Robinson, seven years Sexton of Leixlip Church, died 6th of February 1897, [was] erected by the parishioners as a mark of their respect". Despite a 28-year gap in the data, there were several Robinson families listed in Leixlip parish records between 1670 and 1778: Eastor [Esther] born to John, April 7 1678; Thomas, son of Thomas, of Confy [sic], June 7, 1724; Alexander, son of James, b. December 7, 1758 Leixlip; and John, another son of James, b. 9 December, 1759.
1855: Doctor Ferguson of Leixlip drew the attention of the Turnpike Commissioners’ surveyor to the bad state of a large sewer in front of his house [Ivy House] and drained to the rear. They decided [4/1/1855] to repair it at a cost of £8. William Fergusson, MD, Esq., died on 29/5/1855 aged 69 years, and was buried in St Mary’s graveyard, immediately beside the Church. His headstone declares that he was "Universally regretted in the neighbourhood where he spent his entire life. This stone was erected by his niece."
Freeman’s Journal of 31/5/1855 reports under Deaths: "May 29, [Wednesday] at Leixlip, W. Fergusson, Esq., M.D."
1855: The Grand Jury Presentments record, under the caption, Contracts granted at Summer Assizes, 1855 (No.996): "To Thomas Campbell, contractor for 3 years, to repair 72 perches of the road from Leixlip to the mill, between Mr Kelly’s house [at corner of Mill lane and Dublin Road] and Mr Mitchell’s mill, at 10d per perch, £3 yearly; expires Summer Assizes, 1858, same act [of parliament], one half year —— £1 10s 0d".
1855: The Rev JTC Saunders and wife, of Cheltenham, created a lease [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1856-3-176] dated 30/7/1855 between themselves and Captain John Hackett of 147 Lr Gloucester St, Dublin, whereby they transferred the lands of Ryebrook, alias Music Hall and Island Farm, and about 6 acres of Knockmulroony which wereformerly leased by Jas. Glascock, Dublin City to Pierce Hackett, Dublin City, esq., on 5/3/1800.The lease was witnessed by Thomas Conolly, Gent, of 16 Cabragh Parade, Dublin.
Pierce Hackett Esq d. 28/6/1829, aged 74; Captain John became Vice Admiral and died 6/3/1865 aged 80. John, his daughter Anne (d. 13/6/1870 aged 40) and wife, Julia, d.27/9/1874 aged 79, are buried in St Mary’s graveyard [headstone]. Mr Hackett, of Moore Park, Newbridge, was commended for helping in connection with the murder of an officer near Parsonstown, Co Offaly in 1865. [Con Costello, A Most Delightful Station…, Cork, 1999, p142.]
1855:In a deed dated 3/2/1855 (but not registered until 1861), Royal Navy Captain John Hackett of the Music Hall, aka Rye Brooke, conveyed the Music Hall, ‘Island Farm’ and six acres of Knockmulroony to Alexander Wardrop, lately of Strathaven, Co Linlithgan, North Britain, and now of Dublin City for a term of 61 years at a rent of £3 per Irish acre
1855: May 31st, 1855, Freeman’s Journal, reports on the agm of the Institution of Engineers – attendance and a discussion on the merits of single line railways.
1855: Courtney & Stephens, of Blackhall Place, Dublin, submitted tenders for the construction of 430 soldiers huts, etc at the Curragh Camp; sureties were given by Henry Knox, iron merchant of Bridgefoot St and Wm Dargan, the Carlow-born railway contractor. They won the contract. [Con Costello, A Most Delightful Station…, Cork, 1999, p27.]
1856: Slater’s Directory, 1856, notes that Baron de Robeck, JP, resident at Leixlip Castle, has modernised and greatly beautified it. Martin Lyster and Mary King were the master and mistress respectively at the National Schools, Leixlip, and Mary Mooney mistress of the Infants’ School, Leixlip.
1856: William Courtney, late of Blackhall Place, ironfounder, d 7/2/1856 at Stormanstown, Co Dublin. His estate was left unadministered after a grant on 18/3/1867 by [to?] his widow, Mary. Letters of administration were granted to his son, Francis S. Courtney, of 76 Radcliffe Sq, London CE on 29/11/1894 [379].
1856: Anna Maria Courtney, a widow of Baggot Street, died this year [Deputy Keeper: 30th]: was she Henry’s Mother? Was she married in 1801 to a John Henry Courtney, at Lucan, having a child, John, christened that year? No, it seems not, as Henry’s father’s name was David, according to TCD records for Henry’s spell there (unless there were two Henry’s the same age!).
1856: In a deed of mortgage entered into by Thos. Conolly of Castletown on a great deal of his manors etc, in counties Donegal and Kildare and for a term of 1,000 years, dated 1/8/1856 [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1858-4-122], he received £16,000 in exchange from Chas. A Forde, Co Down; there was a provision for a redemption of the loan after a year, subject to interest at 6 percent [Particulars in Registry of Deeds Memo No 1859-17-27].
1856: This year John Henry, Baron de Robeck, [temporarily of Leixlip Castle] was drowned in a great flood of the river Liffey at Leixlip. [Archdeacon Sherlock, ‘Some Notes on the fords and Bridges over the River Liffey’, JKAS, Vol VI, No 4, July, 1910, p293-305.]
1857: Anna Maria Courtney, daughter of Henry Courtney, Esq., was married on 8/1/1857 to William Bonamy Maingay, Esq. with residence at Henry’s home, 24 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin. Henry and James Galbraith, Henry’s nephew, were witnesses at the wedding in St Peter’s Church, Dublin by the C of I.
1857: In a deed of mortgage, for a term of 1,000 years [Reg. of Deeds Memo No 1859-17-27], Thos. Conolly of Castletown, in exchange for £15,000 paid by Alexander Hamilton, Coxtown, Co. Donegal, esq., mortgaged many of his manors etc., in counties Donegal and Kildare. Included were: the manor of Ballyshannon, etc. Co Donegal, the manor of Leixlip, the castle, Newtown, Stacumney, Leixlip demesne, Barnhall and Easton, Marshfield, John Downes former plot with rent of £8 3s; the late Robert Lawe’s plot of 60 acres; Quarry park, a house and garden held by Richard Wilson in Leixlip town; Tyan’s land formerly with Richard Williams; Newtown far Park (Rev. John Cane); fee farm rent of £12 2s yearly issuing out of the houses, gardens, orchard and park called the Tenther Park and the Furry Hill and the island next adjoining the said orchard formerly in the possession of Christopher Glascock in the manor of Leixlip; also the Island farm and Hamilton’s farm (formerly with Jas Glascock) and the Black Castle holding (formerly with Christopher Glascock); and a plot of land with Peter Paul Labarte Touche (Ivy House?). There was a provision for a redemption if the £15K loan was repaid after a year, subject to interest at 6 percent. This loan was sequel to that in Memo No 1859-17-27.
1857: Dr. George Fergusson was in dispute with Rev. Henry Stewart over his late uncle, Dr William Fergusson’s pew in the chancel of St. Mary’s and was boycotting the church. George was William’s nephew and he was married at this time; there is no mention of children [Letter of 4/11/1857 from Rev Stewart to the Vicar General of the Diocese].
1857: On April 17th 1857 100 patients were transferred from Hardwick St hospital to Dr Henry Hutchinson’s ‘Asylum for Lunatics of the Middle Classes at Lucan’, which was by them in the old Spa Hotel. As he wished to retire (around 1866) from the management of the above, he offered to hand over his asylum as a paying concern, together with a donation of £5,000, to allow an institution for mentally handicapped children to be established. By 1869 it transferred to Palmerstown House, where it remains to this day. [Nessa O’Connor, Palmerstown – An Ancient Place, Dublin, 2003, p107-114.]
1857: A report of the CofI Archbishop’s commissioners to enquire into the value of the Leixlip Glebe was made on 21/9/1857. It noted the following improvements made by the Rev. [Henry] Stewart: a laundry with a proper boiler and a scullery with a sink stone on the ground floor; a closet and dressing room on the second storey, that is the parlour storey; a knife and shoe room and water closet nearby; a loft and a range of sheds in the stable yard of the said Glebe House, containing servants apartments and store rooms,.. and permanent stone steps to the upper floor.
1859: John Mitchell is described in the Valuation Book for Parsonstown as the tenant of Richard Fross, in Newbridge Feed and Flour Mill. By the next insertion, in 1866, William S. Mitchell (John Mitchell’s son) had succeeded John Mitchell and Mitchell had also become the lessor in place of Fross. Roe followed Mitchell as tenant and the valuer has noted "very little doing for three years, lease 100 years". In fact by deed of 12/11/1864, Wm Smith Mitchell, Robert Robinson, and Arthur Molloy Mitchell, leased these mills, including house, offices, corn mills, kilns, water wheels and water rights to S Robinson Roe at an annual rent of £150 [See 1864 entry].
1859: Arthur Molloy Mitchell, 3rd son of John, Leixlip, Co Kildare, miller, and Ellen Molloy, was b.1832, educated at TCD, admitted as a student to the King’s Inns at Michaelmas term, 1854, to the English Bar in 1855 and qualified with the degree of Barrister at Hilary term, 1859 [King’s Inn Admissions Papers, 1607 – 1867, Keane, Phair and Sadleir, Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1982].
1859: In an indenture of mortgage dated 24/5/1859, Alexander Hamilton paid £15K to Tom Conolly, using the lands of Donegal and Kildare – including the Tenther Park – as collateral [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1859-17-27].
1859: John Young, architect, of Lucan, demised to Edwin C. Seal, the Black Castle and lands, forever at a rent of £25 p.a [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1859-42-62].
1859: The names and addresses of several important local persons, all members of St Mary’s vestry, are contained in a letter of consent dated 26/3/1859; the consent was to authorise repairs to Leixlip church. Those who signed their name and address were: Charles Puschell Hoffmann, Leixlip Castle; D Simmonds, Collinstown House; William Pigott, Ryevale; Edmd. Whitmore, Stacumnie Lodge; John Alfred Trench, St. Catherine’s Park; Henry Danford A.B., Castletown; Richard Donovan, Leixlip; John Danford, Castletown; and John Coley, Eastown. [sic, Easton]. The Danfords had Danford Lodge, Leixlip Gate entrance to Castletown and later Newtown House. [Church of Ireland library loose Leixlip papers]. A John Piggott was granted lands at Disert, co Offaly or King’s County in 1563. [Nolan & O’Neill, (eds), Offaly History & Society, p252.]
Captain Pigott’s horse, Excelsior, ridded by Capt Harford, was the winner of the Prince of Wales’s Plate, for £500, at the Punchestown races held in April,1868 in the presence of the Prince of Wales. Was he of the Leixlip family, who lived at Ryevale for the next 25 years or so?
1860: The decline of Irish engineering and iron works set in [See Mallet, p.11]
1860: Colonel R. Claude Cane, owner of St Wolstan’s, noted that the New Bridge had survived a 40 foot rise [flood] in the Liffey on 6/10/1860, losing only a few feet of the parapet.
c1860: Jane Wigham Shackleton, of Anna Liffey Mills, Lucan, took a photograph of the ‘Old mill at Ryewater, Buckley’s lane, Leixlip’. Reproduced by Richard Shackleton on page 234, JKAS Vol XVII, 1987 – 1991. This was Ennis’s mill.
1860: A deed of conveyance dated 6/12/1860, Jas Thos C Saunders and his wife Augusta Sophia Saunders, acknowledging an earlier agreement dated 30/7/1855 between themselves and John Young, did assure unto John Young the houses and garden in Leixlip town then in the possession of Wm McLaughlin, mearing on the east by a stone wall adjoining Laurence Connolly, miller’s garden; on the west by a wall separating the land from that of Chas Fellows, on the north by part of the street of Leixlip and the road to Marshfield and on the south by the mill race leading to the iron mills, except the stream from the mill race to Marshfield, at a rent of £17 0s 2d. Chas Jas Seagreave, a judge of the Landed Estates Court Ireland, in consideration of £400 paid by Oliver Mills, Abbeyleix, Co Laois, to the Court and to the credit of the estate of the Rev Jas T C Saunders and his wife, owners and petitioners, did grant to Oliver Mills the said perpetual yearly rent of £17 0s 2d created by the indenture of 13/7/1855, for ever upon trusts of an indenture of 4/7/1815 made on the marriage of John Steele and Elizabeth Massy, subject to conditions in an indenture on the part of the grantor, and subject to a perpetual yearly rent of £3 8s Stg created by an indenture dated 16/2/1854 between Thos Conolly and the Saunders couple. The judge also granted to Oliver Mills the Tenter Park and Furry Hill, formerly in the possession of Robert Ingham, and the island next adjoining the orchard between the same and the Liffey which was formerly in the possession of Wm Conolly and which lands and premises were formerly in the possession of Chris Glascock – subject to a rent of £12 2s created by the indenture of 16/2/1854; and also subject to the tenancy of George Ferguson under a lease for lives for ever dated 8/12/1752 made by Chris Glascock to Wm McGowan at a rent of £5 1s 6d, the last renewal of which was dated 8/11/1848. [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1860-37-194.]
1860: Thos Conolly of Castletown mortgaged much of his property in Donegal, etc, including Tenther Park, Leixlip, to Wm Collum, surgeon major, Bombay and assay master in the mint there, for £5.5K, plus interest at 6%. The date was 25/6/1890. [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1863-23-89.]
1860: Outbreak of scarlatina this year in the Curragh; perhaps it was more widespread? [Con Costello, A Most Delightful Station…, Cork, 1999, p131.]
1861: Queen Victoria visited Ireland for the third time, staying in the Phoenix Park at the vice-regal lodge.
1861: Census of this year contrasts the decline in the number of poor quality houses between 1841 and 1861 within the County Kildare [C O’Danachair, JKAS, p234+, VolXIV, No. 2, 1966/67].
1861: Leixlip RC Church Register of Marriages records the marriage of Anne Farrell, daughter of Jane and Patrick Farrell of Leixlip to Wm Sheridan, son of Patrick & Bridget Sheridan of Leixlip, on 1/10/1861. The witnesses were Wm. Byrne and Esther Dalton.
1861: The 18th century county jail at Naas was re-modelled into the existing Town Hall there [Con Costello, Kildare, Donaghdee, Co Down, 2005, p28].
1862: Leixlip RC Church Register of Marriages records the marriage of Jane Farrell, daughter of Jane and Patrick Farrell, of Leixlip to Edmond Ellis, son of Edmond & Jane Ellis of Leixlip, on 12/10/1862. The witnesses were Wm. Sheridan and Esy Dalton.
1862: Patrick Farrell, occupier, Toll/Bridge House, according to Rates Books.
Thos. Conolly of Castletown demised to Patrick Farrell, miller, of Longford in Co. Longford, "all that and those the Corn Mills of Leixlip with the dwelling house offices garden land and the several workmen’s houses thereunto belonging.. containing according" etc. 3 acres 1 rood and 26 perches to hold the same from 29/9/1862 for 300 years with rent of £65 sterling. Reserved to Thos Conolly were the rights to fishing in the Liffey, all timber, etc standing and growing (and those in the future), all mines and minerals, the rights of access etc with horse and carts and carriages. Farrell was required to build a 3 or more storey corn mill within 5 years, spending at least £1k on it, to be at least 24 feet in height, 60 feet in length and 25 feet in depth with the necessary mill dam and sluice gates thereto … and also to put up and erect in said Mill six pair of mill stones necessary for the efficient working of said mill and carrying on the corn and flour business" and in default of which the said lease shall then become null and void. Land Registry Ref. 1862-37-71. The lease, dated 18/8/1862, is included in the Castletown Papers collection (IAA) and the map, attached to same, is virtually identical to that which is in hand relating to a later deed of 1869 between Thos Conolly and Samuel Robinson Roe.
The King’s Inns Admission papers contain several applications from Farrells from Co. Longford in the late 18th century. See m/s abstracts.
The nine workmen’s houses in Mill Lane (nos. 1 to 9, Griffith) were vacant from 1860 until and including the revision or collection of 1863; three of them were occupied sometime between then and 1866. The last of these houses – a small, single storey cottage, of about 25 square metres in floor area, was demolished in 1998.
No. 2 Dublin Road St (the Bridge House) was deemed to be occupied by the representatives of John Mitchell (then deceased?) in 1861and said by the rate collector to be vacant at that time, but occupied by Pat Farrell in 1863 when he next called. In 1861 or thereabouts the caretaker’s house, offices, store and flour mill in Mill lane were said to be vacant by the rate collector (who classified the rates due as ‘nil’ on the buildings), and they had reverted to Thomas Conolly in 1862. At the 1863 collection or review Pat Farrell was in occupation, with the rates set at £110 on the buildings, including £1 on the caretaker’s house. Farrell remained there until the review of August 1866 and perhaps ’til the following year, when the rate collector noted that the "buildings (were) in very bad repair and a great part gone completely to ruin – 5 pair of stones (were) in working order. (It) works 4 (pairs of stones) about 12 hours a day on flour except for about 3 months when two of them are used for grinding Indian corn. (The) buildings are not worth more than £15 or £17". Subsequently their valuation was reduced to £15, from £49 and from £110 (in 1866). By 1869 the mills were vacant once more.
A Patrick Farrell was the occupier of (Griffith’s) no. 83, Main Street, about 1860, as well as land (nos. 12 and 18 – about 9 acres) in Leixlip at that time and the lessor of two houses, nos. 81 and 82 Main Street. By 1866 the land at no.12 had transferred to Patrick Farrell Senior. Between 1869 and 1871 the Farrells had cut their connections with the lands and houses in Leixlip, including the Bridge House; the latter had reverted to the lessor by about 1869.
The rateable valuation of the Bridge House had stood at £13 since the original Griffith’s valuation in 1850[?], plus a valuation of £1-10s for the land (2 roods and 27 perches – a little over half an acre) until 1869, when the house and office (ie, shed or outside lavatory) was reduced in value to £10.
1862: The Medical Register,1859 – the first in the series – listed George Fergusson, MD, at Leixlip, Co Kildare, for each of the years 1859 to 1864 and not thereafter. The Medical Directory for Ireland lists a Dr George Ferguson of Leixlip, for this year; he was unlisted by 1870. He died and left his widow, Sarah. She moved to Waterloo Rd, Dublin, and surrendered the lease on Ivy House.
1863: Robert, Patrick and Jas. Farrell, of Longford, all millers, took out a mortgage for £1200 with the Bank of Ireland [Reg. of Deeds Memo No 1863-5-31] on 5/3/1863, using as collateral Patrick Farrell’s lease for 300 years on the mill buildings (3a 1r 26p statute measure) at Leixlip, which included a covenant requiring them to spend £1K within 5 years and a mill at Castlerea, Co Roscommon, which had been assigned to James Farrell (lease dated 24/3/1856, originally between Wm Sandford and Peter Dillon).
On 28/9/1863, they had another (replacement) mortgage [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1863-33-101] created for a sum of £1500 with provision to run it up to £1700, and otherwise identical to the above mortgage.
1863: Con Costello, Kildare Saints, Soldiers & Horses, Naas, 1991, P20: Thomas Lacy, Sights and Scenes in our Fatherland, 1863, described his visits by rail about the country, including Leixlip ‘a very sinking place’.
1864: Kildare County Surveyor, John Yeats, told the Spring Assizes of the County Grand Jury that in his 26 years in that post the roads under their control had increased from four or five hundred miles to 1,137 miles.
1864: Spring Assizes, Co Kildare Grand Jury, Thos. Campbell was commissioned to repair or make 45 perches of roadway, including the footpath at both sides, from Leixlip to the Manor Mill and to Dr Ferguson’s gate [i.e. Ivy House], at 1s 6d per perch, a total of £1 13s 6d. [ref no. 953].
1864: This lease [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1864 -35 –2] confirms the relationships between the Roes, Belas’s and Mitchells. In it is confirmed that John Mitchell, now deceased, is the father of William Smith Mitchell, Walter Mitchell, and Laurence Mitchell. Also confirmed is that there was an indenture of a marriage settlement (dated 14th June 1854) when Wm S Mitchell married Ellen Robinson, and Robert Robinson and Arthur M. Mitchell were the trustees of the settlement, with Samuel Robinson Roe of Monordree Mills, Mountmellick, a third party to the settlement. In pursuance of the agreement and for and in consideration of the yearly rent and covenants, Wm Smith Mitchell, Robert Robinson and Arthur Molloy Mitchell, out of their several estates did demise etc. unto Samuel Robinson Roe parts of Parsonstown, formerly called Castle Park, of 4 acres Irish, plus a further 2.5 acres adjoining, together with the stores, dwelling houses, cottages, corn mills, and kilns known as Newbridge Mills, and all the mill equipment, and rights of water etc., as lately occupied by Wm S Mitchell, for a rent of £150 sterling, during the lives of John Mitchell’s three sons. The deed was witnessed by George Henry Belas, Dublin, solicitor, and another. In 1870, this Belas was, from an address at Newbridge Mills, Celbridge, paying £3 to St Mary’s Sustentation fund.
1864: Harriet Courtney, ‘private lady’, aged 58, spinster sister of Anna Maria Courtney and brother of Henry Courtney, iron founder, Leixlip and Dublin, died of cancer of the liver and pancreas on 28/11/1864 at 118 Baggot Street, where she lived with Anna Maria and a bachelor brother, Richard, leaving Anna Maria as sole executrix. Her will was proved by oath of Anna Maria. Harriet left less than £12,000. Henry Courtney’s residence at this time, according to Thom’s Dublin Directory, was at 24 Fitzwilliam Place South, Dublin (from at least 1845).
1864: Henry Lazarus, of 86 Marlborough St, Dublin, jeweller, obtained a court judgement against Thos. Conolly for a debt of £2K on 13/10/1864. Lazarus then secured a charge or lien on Thos. Conolly’s lands in Donegal, Kildare etc, including Tenther Park, Leixlip. [Registry of Deeds, Memo No 1864-36-84].
1865: On 7/1/1865, the Royal Bank of Ireland obtained a court judgement against Thos. Conolly MP of £2141 15s plus costs and 6% interest, which led to a lien or mortgage on Conolly’s lands in Cos. Donegal and Kildare; included was the manor of Leixlip [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1865-6-43]
1865: A letter, dated 25/8/1865, was written to a newspaper editor [title, date n/a] by ‘Clericus Dubliniensis’ about the subject of Leixlip Church [of Ireland], co Dublin [sic]. The writer cites Archdeacon Cotton’s Fasti Ecclesiae Hiberniae, vol 1, p54, which provides information on William Williams, archdeacon of Cashel. He refers to the tablet in the church floor dedicated to Deborah. Says Narcissus Marsh was Archbishop of Cashel from 1690-94 and then at Dublin and later at Armagh and that .. “for some time occupied the old-fashioned house at Leixlip, which is still very commonly known as ‘the Archbishop’s Palace’, but is divided into several small tenements… the church (which has been greatly improved within the past few years, chiefly through the liberality of the present good rector of the parish)..” [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20thc, MS 11658 NLI].
1865: Sarah Fergusson, of Waterloo Road, Co. Dublin, widow, surrendered her interest in a lease dated 26/8/1848 between Edward Francis French, surviving trustee of Alexander Lawe, and Wm. Fergusson of Leixlip, medical doctor, on Levy’s holding of 1r 9p Irish, ground formerly with John Downes (2a 20p Irish) and also parts of the land called Furry Hill near Leixlip, formerly with Chris. McGowan and part with the widow Barry, including garden formerly set to Jas. Hayes [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1865-6-36]. Wm Fergusson had come by this land as the successor to George Fergusson, of Leixlip, apothecary, who had taken a lease of these premises at a yearly rent of £91 Irish from Alexander Lawe; the lease was dated 24th and 25/3/1800. The premises included what is now called Ivy House, but formerly included the ESB premises.
An Alexander Lawe Esq, d.8/1/1850, aged 78 years; his parents, Robert Esq., and Martha, had both died aged 79. Alexander Lawe’s wife erected a headstone memorial to him in St Mary’s graveyard [headstone].
1865: Rev Henry Stewart, rector of Leixlip Union, appointed James Floyd as curate on 8/12/1865 at a salary of £80 per annum [St Mary’s Cof I church records].
1865: Thom’s Directory, 1865 has the following entries under gentry, merchants etc.:
Courtney, Henry, 24 Fitzwilliam Place South
Courtney, Henry K[nox], merchant, 38 – 40 Bridgefoot Street and 1 & 2 Usher’s Island, residence, 7 Pembroke Road
Courtney Stephens & Co., iron founders and engineers, 1 & 2 Blackhall Place
Courtney Stephens & Co., paper manufacturers, 1 & 2 Blackhall Place
1865: The General Iron Foundry Co., London, got a Court judgement for £1028 plus costs against T. Conolly MP, leading to a mortgage on the latter’s property in Cos. Donegal and Kildare; included is the manor of Leixlip [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1865-20-125].
1866: John Johnstone, cabinet-maker, London, obtained a Court judgement against Tom Conolly for debts owing and secured a lien on Conolly’s property [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1866-2-250].
1866: Richard Courtney, ‘private gentleman’, aged 57, bachelor brother of Henry et al, died of cholera on 26/11/1866, late of 118 Lr Baggot Street. His brother, Henry of 24 Fitzwilliam Place, was present at his death. He left less than £6,000 for the use and benefit of his three sisters, and only surviving next of kin, Anna Maria Courtney, Sarah Galbraith and Elizabeth Kingston. Letters of administration were granted to David Chas Courtney of Fitzwilliam Place (nephew?) by order of Court, his brother Henry having failed to administer his estate before he died. Sarah Galbraith had married Rev John Galbraith, Vicar of Tuam, about 1821. Two sons, David, b. c1923 and James, b 23/1/1822 became lawyers [King’s Inns, ibid].
Richard Courtney, Henry Courtney’s bachelor son, died on 13/3/1867 at Albion Road, Clapham, London, his father’s then home, perhaps?, after spending time in hospital in Rome. He left less than £800. By order of the court, his uncle, John Maxwell Hilles, of 48 Lark Rise, Clapham, had been given powers of administration, but failed to so administer, leading to Ellen M Hilles, spinster, being granted powers of administration for £300, the residue.
1866: OS54 – Co Kildare – 13/01 Salt North and South: map of trigonometrical stations made in 1866 of parishes of Leixlip, Confey, Donaghcumper, & Stacumny; names of the owners of property may be mentioned. Leixlip Parish No = E262, NAI. Documents Nos. OS55 a, and e, respectively, entitled, Boundary Remark books, contain particulars. [Ref Nos: OS 55A/8 & 59 and OS55E/262 1-3, NAI.] Content Field books, Ref. Nos. OS 58A/ 58 & 59 1-20; and OS 58E/262 1-7; and Road field books, Ref. No. OS 59A/8 & 59; and Levelling Register originals OS 65A/8 & 59 and OS 65E/262; and Levelling register duplicates, OS 66E/262 apply. All NAI reference numbers.
c1867: After helping the suppression of the Fenian rising of this year the Irish Constabulary received the epithet Royal.
1867: Henry Irvine, of Co Fermanagh, obtained a Court judgement in 1865 for £5214 damages which was registered in 1866 against lands and goods belonging to Tom Conolly’s estates in Cos. Donegal and Kildare and there was due on security of these lands in 1866 the sum of £2K+. A John ED Mooney, of Doon, King’s County, paid £1K to Irvine to buy his £2K+ secured by the property; the property included the manor of Leixlip [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1867-17-30].
1868:
Courtney Stephens & Co., iron founders and engineers, 1 & 2 Blackhall Place
Courtney Stephens & Co., paper manufacturers, 1 & 2 Blackhall Place
Classon Courtney & Son, iron, metal, and tinplate merchants, and steel manufacturers, 38 to 41 Bridgefoot Street and 31 and 32 and 1 and 2 Usher’s Island
Courtney, John R., merchant 38 Bridgefoot Street, residence, 17 Mespil Road
Courtney, Henry Knox, merchant, 38 Bridgefoot Street, residence, 6 Warwick Terrace (off Leeson Park and Street Upper)
Courtney, Captain, 5 Islington Avenue, Kingstown [Dun Laoghaire]
1868: Henry Courtney died in Kent on 30/10/1868, leaving an estate of less than £40,000. He had been living at 24 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin up to a short time before this. Anna Maria Courtney, his spinster sister, survived him.
1868: The Prince of Wales visited Carton this year at the behest of August Frederick FitzGerald, 3rd Duke of Leinster. [Padraic Farrell, A History of County Kildare, Dublin, 2003, p81.]
1868: A General Election took place this year. The effects of the 1867 Fenian rising and the Manchester executions (which included a Larkin from Offaly) were still being felt in Ireland. An amnesty for the imprisoned did not have the same impact on the election as the Church Disestablishment and agrarian reform. The latter had the complete support of the RC clergy and the farmers’ clubs. RC priests and bishops made the running on the issues and the selection or blocking of candidates. Archbishop Paul Cullen of Dublin, set up a political association called the National Association in order to lobby for laws favourable to RCs. [Gerard Moran, ‘Political Developments in King’s County, 1868-1885’, in Nolan & O’Neill (eds), Offaly History & Society, Dublin, 1996, p767-98.]
1869: A marriage licence was granted to Sarah Courtney and the Rev. John Galbraith in 1821[30th Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records in Ireland]. This couple had a son, James, born about 1822 in Co. Galway; he boarded at TCD from October 12, 1839 [TCD Alumni, ibid]. He would be in addition to David, above (see 1866).
1869: The Church of Ireland received compensation of almost £85 million under the Disestablishment Act, 1869. [JKAS, Vol. XVIII, Pt. 4, 1989-99, Footnote, p624,].
1869: Samuel Robinson Roe, flour miller, of Newbridge Mills, Celbridge, maternal grandfather of Samuel Beckett the writer, was given a 300 year lease dated 9/11/1869 by Thomas Conolly, MP on the premises "formerly in the occupation of Patrick Farrell", effective from 29/9/1869. The premises were described as: "the Corn Mills of Leixlip with the dwelling house offices garden land and the several workmens’ houses thereunto belonging … containing according to a survey lately made thereof three acres one rood and twenty seven perches statute measure to be the same more or less meared and bounded as the same were delineated and laid down in the map or plan thereof endorsed on said Indenture… together with all and singular the rights members and appurtenances to the said Mill land and premises belonging or in anywise [sic] appertaining together with full and free liberty for the said Saml. R. Roe, his … assigns at all reasonable times in the day time and for his workmen and servants of ingress egress and regress into through and out of the garden on the western side of the Bridge marked on the said map to and from the head gates and weir appertaining to the said Mill and premises… at the yearly rent of sixty pounds.." Roe was required to proceed to rebuild the mill within the first year (rent free) and spend at least £3K sterling on at least a four storey stone or brick building, at least 70ft by 30ft and slated, using the stone from the old mill buildings, with at least six pair of mill stones and water wheel(s) and complete the work within three years. He was free to get at the sluices etc. on the west side of the bridge and he was required to insure the lot for at least £3k against fire or destruction. The mill had to ready for working by 29/9/1872. Roe’s and Conolly’s signatures were witnessed by Robert Cooper, Henrietta St and by George Henry Belas of St Andrew St. Dublin, both solicitors [Registry of Deeds Memo No 1870-3-108]. A copy of the full deed and the map attached to the deed is in hand. At this stage, the upper millrace had been channelled into the lower one; the lease included the millrace area and there was no mention of iron mill buildings on the site; the row of cottages nearest the Main Street were included, those east of the Black Castle (sic) were excluded. The dwelling house is one located at the eastern end of the site, not the Bridge House.
Comments on this entry are closed.