All Lewis entries for Taughboyne

JOHNSTOWN (ST.)

JOHNSTOWN (ST.), a village (formerly a parliamentary borough), in the parish of TAUGHBOYNE, barony of RAPHOE, county of DONEGAL, and province of ULSTER, 8? miles (N. by W.) from Lifford: the population is returned with the parish. This place is situated on the river Foyle, which is here of considerable breadth and forms a boundary between the counties of Donegal and Tyrone. It originated in the plantation of Ulster, when a grant of the lands of Dromtoolan and Gollanogh, together containing about 210 acres and 80 acres of other lands, was made by Jas. I. to Louis Stewart, Duke of Lennox, and Earl of Richmond, on condition of his settling here 13 families of English or Scottish artisans or mechanics. For the use of this settlement the Earl was to assign 60 acres for the site of a town, to be called St. Johnstown, and to consist of one street of 13 houses, to each of which was to be allotted 5 acres of land, to be held of him in fee-farm at a trifling rent. This settlement was incorporated by charter of Jas. I. in 1618, under the designation of the "Provost and Burgesses of the Borough and Town of St. Johnstown," but never attained the local importance contemplated by the founder; and the corporation seems to have exercised scarcely any of its municipal functions, except that of returning two members to the Irish parliament, which it continued to do till the Union, when the borough was disfranchised. The village is situated on the western bank of the river Foyle. which is navigable to its junction with the lough for vessels of 50 tons, and consists only of one street containing a few neat houses; it has a penny post to Londonderry. The market granted by the charter is discontinued, and of the four fairs, only one is held on the 25th of Nov. It contains a place of worship for Presbyterians, the parochial school-house, and a dispensary. In the vicinity are some small vestiges of the castle of Montgevelin in which Jas. II. held his court till the termination of the siege of Londonderry.

TAUGHBOYNE

TAUGHBOYNE, a parish, in the barony of RAPHOE, county of DONEGAL, and province of ULSTER, 5 miles (W. S. W.) from Londonderry, on the road to Haphoe ; containing, with the village and ancient disfranchised borough of St. Johnstown, 6335 inhabitants. St. Baithen, son of Brendan, a disciple and kinsman of St. Columb, and his successor in the abbey of Hy, founded Tegbaothin in Tyrconnell : he flourished towards the close of the sixth century. The parish, according to the Ordnance survey, comprises an area of 15,773- statute acres, including a large portion of bog : the land is chiefly arable, and of good quality. There are some extensive slate quarries, but the slates are small and of a coarse quality. The river Foyle, which bounds the parish on the east, is navigable for small boats to St. Johnstown, where a fair is held on Nov. 25th. The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Raphoe, and in the patronage of the Marquess of Abercorn : the tithes amount to £1569. 4. 7-. ; and the glebe, comprising 317 acres, is valued at £260. 6. 5-. per annum. The glebe-house was originally built in 1785, at a cost of £1313 British, and subsequently improved at an expense of £1399 by the then incumbent. The church was erected in 1626 ; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have lately granted £268 for its repair. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Lagan, or Raymochy ; the chapel was built about 50 years since. In the parochial school partly supported by an endowment of Col. Robertson, a school under the London Hibernian Society, and two schools supported by subscription, about 200 children are educated ; there are also nine private schools, in which are about the same number of children, and five Sunday schools : two school-houses have been lately erected by the Marquess of Abercorn. There is a dispensary for the poor.