All Lewis entries for Balrothery

BALBRIGGAN

BALBRIGGAN, a sea-port, market, and post-town, and a chapelry, in the parish and barony of BALROTHERY, county of DUBLIN, and province of LEINSTER, 15 miles (N. by E.) from Dublin; containing 3016 inhabitants. According to Ware, a sanguinary conflict took place here on Whitsun-eve, 1329, between John de Bermingham, Earl of Louth, who had been elevated to the palatine dignity of that county, Richard, Lord De Malahide, and several of their kindred, in array against the partisans of the Verduns, Gernons, and Savages, who were opposed to the elevation of the earl to the palatinate of their county; and in which the former, with 60 of their English followers, were killed. After the battle of the Boyne, Wm. III. encamped at this place on the 3rd of July, 1690. The town, which is situated on the eastern coast and on the road from Dublin to the North of Ireland, owes its rise, from a small fishing village to a place of manufacturing and commercial importance, to the late Baron Hamilton, who, in 1780, introduced the cotton manufacture, for which he erected factories, and who may justly be regarded as its founder. It contains at present about 600 houses, many of which are well built; hot baths have been constructed for visiters who frequent this place during the bathing season. In the environs are several gentlemen's seats, of which the principal is Hampton Hall, the residence of G. A. Hamilton, Esq. The inhabitants are partly employed in the fishery, but principally in the cotton manufacture; there are two large factories, the machinery of which is worked by steam-engines and water-wheels of the aggregate power of 84 horses, giving motion to 7500 spindles, and spinning upon the average about 7400 lb. of cotton yarn per week. More than 300 persons are employed in these factories, to which are attached blue dye-works; and in the town and neighbourhood are 942 hand-looms employed in the weaving department. The principal articles made at present are checks, jeans, calicoes, and fustians. The town is also celebrated for the manufacture of the finest cotton stockings, which has been carried on successfully since its first establishment about 40 years since; there are 60 frames employed in this trade, and the average produce is about 60 dozen per week. There are on the quay a large corn store belonging to Messrs. Frost & Co., of Chester, and some extensive salt-works; and in the town is a tanyard. The fishery, since the withdrawing of the bounty, has very much diminished: there are at present only 10 wherries or small fishing boats belonging to the port. The town carries on a tolerably brisk coasting trade : in 1833, 134 coal vessels, of the aggregate burden of 11,566 tons, and 29 coasting vessels of 1795 tons, entered inwards, and 17 coasters of 1034 tons cleared outwards, from and to ports in Great Britain. The harbour is rendered safe for vessels of 150 tons' burden by an excellent pier, completed in 1763, principally by Baron Hamilton, aided by a parliamentary grant, and is a place of refuge for vessels of that burden at - tide. A jetty or pier, 420 feet long from the N. W. part of the harbour, with a curve of 105 feet in a western direction, forming an inner harbour in which at high tide is 14 feet of water, and affording complete shelter from all winds, was commenced in 1826 and completed in 1829, at an expense of £2912. 7. 9., of which the late Fishery Board gave £1569, the Marquess of Lansdowne £100, and the remainder was subscribed by the late Rev. Geo. Hamilton, proprietor of the town. At the end of the old pier there is a lighthouse. The Drogheda or Grand Northern Trunk railway from Dublin, for which an act has been obtained, is intended to pass along the shore close to the town and to the east of the church. The market is on Monday, and is abundantly supplied with corn, of which great quantities are sent to Dublin and to Liverpool; and there is a market for provisions on Saturday. Fairs are held on the 29th of April and September, chiefly for cattle. A market-house was erected in 1811, partly by subscription and partly at the expense of the Hamilton family. The town is the headquarters of the constabulary police force of the county; and near it is a martello tower with a coast-guard station, which is one of the nine stations within the district of Swords. Petty sessions for the north-east division of the county are held here every alternate Tuesday.

The chapelry of St. George, Balbriggan, was founded by the late Rev. G. Hamilton, of Hampton Hall, who in 1813 granted some land and settled an endowment, under the 11th and 12th of Geo. III., for the establishment of a perpetual curacy; and an augmentation of £25 per annum has been recently granted by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from Primate Boulter's fund. In 1816 a chapel was completed, at an expense of £3018. 2. 2., of which £1400 was given by the late Board of First Fruits, £478. 15. 2. was raised by voluntary subscriptions of the inhabitants, and £1139. 7. was given by the founder and his family. This chapel, which was a handsome edifice with a square embattled tower, and contained monuments to the memory of R. Hamilton, Esq., and the Rev. G. Hamilton, was burned by accident in 1835, and the congregation assemble for divine service in a scbool-room till it shall be restored, for which purpose the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have lately granted £480. The living is in the patronage of G. A. Hamilton, Esq. There is a chapel belonging to the R. C. union or district of Balrothery and Balbriggan, also a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. The parochial school and a dispensary are in the town.-See BALROTHERY

BALROTHERY

BALROTHERY, a parish and village, in the barony of BALROTHERY, county of DUBLIN, and province of LEINSTER; containing, with the post-town of Balbriggan, 5078 inhabitants, of which number, 375 are in the village. This place, which gives name to the barony, was anciently annexed to that part of the church of tusk which in the earlier ages belonged to the archdeaconry of Dublin, and was separated from it about the year 1220 by Archbishop Henry. The village is situated on the road from Dublin to Balbriggan, from which latter it is distant about a mile, and in 1831 contained 84 houses. According to tradition, Jas. II. is said to have slept at the White Hart Inn here, before the battle of the Boyne: and the same distinction is claimed by another ancient house in the village, which was formerly an extensive inn. Fairs are held on the 6th of May and 12th of August. The parish comprises 8767 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act: about 320 acres are woodland, principally in the demesne of G. A. Hamilton, Esq., and about 80 are bog or wasteland; the remainder is arable and pasture, but is principally under tillage, and is very fertile in corn, which is the chief produce. A small portion of the bog of Ring is within the parish; and near the glebe is a reservoir of 22 acres, called the Knock, which supplies the mills of Balbriggan with water. At Curtlagh is a very fine stone quarry, and good stone for building is also obtained from the cliffs. The coast is composed of strata of transition rocks of grauwacke, grauwacke slate, clapslate, and greenstone, with spar in small portions. The Drogheda, or Grand Northern Trunk, railway from Dublin to that town will pass through the parish, close to the shore. Hampton Hall, the seat of G. A. Hamilton, Esq., is an elegant mansion situated in a rich demesne of 500 acres, finely wooded and pleasingly diversified with hill and dale: the grounds command extensive sea views alternated with luxuriant woods, with the isles of Skerries in the foreground, and the Mourne mountains in the distance, stretching far into the sea towards the north. Ardgillan Castle, the seat of the Hon. and Rev. E. Taylor, is a handsome building in the castellated style, beautifully situated in a park finely wooded and commanding some interesting views of the sea. The other seats are Lowther Lodge, that of G. Macartney, Esq., in the grounds of which is an ancient rath; Inch House, of S. Madden, Esq., having also a rath within the demesne; Knockingin, of W. O'Reilly, Esq.; and Tankerville, of T. Swan Croker, Esq.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Dublin, and in the patronage of the Rev. Fras. Baker, the present incumbent; the rectory is impropriate in the trustees of Wilson's hospital, in the county of Westmeath. The tithes amount to £530, of which £250 is payable to the impropriators, and £280 to the vicar. The church, with the exception of the tower, which is embattled and

surmounted at the north-west angle with a circular turret, and at the others with small turrets, was taken down and rebuilt by aid of a loan of £1000 from the late Board of First Fruits, in 1816. The glebe-house was built by aid of a gift of £250 and a loan of £550 from the same Board, in 1815; the glebe comprises 29- acres. There is a chapel of ease at Balbriggan, the living of which is a perpetual curacy, endowed by the late Rev. George Hamilton. In the R. C. divisions this parish is the head of a union or district called the union of Balrothery and Balbriggan, and comprising also the parish of Balscadden: there are three chapels in the union, one at the village of Balrothery, another at Balbriggan, and a third in the parish of Balscadden. There is also at Balbriggan a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. There are three schools, in which about 205 boys and 110 girls receive instruction; also three pay schools, and a dispensary, in the town. Near the church are the remains of Balrothery castle, the date of which is unknown; the roof is covered with flag-stones of great thickness, and the general style of the building refers it to a period of considerable antiquity. Within a quarter of a mile of the town are the ruins of Bremore castle, the ancient seat of a branch of the Barnewall family, consisting of some of the out-buildings and part of a chapel, with a burial-ground, which is still used by some of the inhabitants. The skeletons of four moose deer were dug up on the glebe by the Rev. Mr. Baker. At Curtlagh there is a chalybeate spring.-See BALBRIGGAN.