LISBURN PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATIVES IN THE
17TH CENTURY (1663-1700).

BY TREVOR NEILL

In their proceedings of November 10, 1662, the Irish House of Commons referred the motion that a Writ be issued for the town of Lisburne, alias Lisnegarvy, in the county of Antrim, lately made a Corporation by virtue of Letters Patent from his majesty, Charles II to the Committee of Privileges for consideration thereof the large tract of land created by Patent January 3, 1627, the Manor of Killultagh - Coill Ultach - wood of Ulster - of which the town (Lisnegarvie) was the administrative head, had been in possession of the Conway family, then represented by Edward, 3rd Viscount Conway and Killultagh for a little over half a century, that they were true to their trust and had been "vigorous and improving planters" was all too evident.

A month later the Commons in their deliberations of December 15, 1662, ordered "upon request that a warrant be forthwith drawn up and signed by the Speakers of the House directing the Clerk of the Crown to issue out a writ for electing and returning two Burgesses for the Corporation of Lisburne in this present Parliament; by this was fulfilled that part of the Charter of Lisburne proceeding thus "whereas we retain a sense of the many losses which the inhabitants of the said town of Lisburne, alias Lisnagarvie, have sustained for their allegiance towards us and our royal father of glorious memory: Know ye therefore, that we, of our special grace, certain knowledge, and were notice for us our heirs and successors, do give and grant to the dwellers and inhabitants of the said town of Lisburne, alias Lisnegarvie, that they and their successors forever hereafter can and may, from time to time, elect and chose two fit and proper persons m be Burgesses to attend and sit in every parliament hereafter to be summoned, appointed and held within our said Kingdom of Ireland.

A short time previously in 1662, an Act had passed through Parliament dealing with claims for land, or landed estates; the controversies which raged around this Act, known as the act of Settlement and the subsequent (1665) Act of Explanation were long and violent and go down to the foundation of the political structure of Ireland in the period immediately following the Restoration.

In implementation of the Act of 1662 six jurists - Sir Richard Rainsford, Winston Churchill (whose daughter, Anabella was to become the mistress of James 11, and son John the 1st Duke of Marlborough), Edward Cooke, Sir Thomas Beverley, Edward Smyth or Smith and Sir Edward Dering, with Henry Coventry - had been named as Commissioners to carry out the Act in Ireland; in terms of partisanship Rainsford, Beverley and Churchill were, we are told for the King - Smith, Dering and Cooke for the English interest.

Possibly with a view to representing the Commission two of their number Sir Edward Dering and Sir Edward Smyth were on January 6 1661, returned as the first two members for Conway's newly created borough of Lisburn, in Charles the Second's Restoration Parliament of 1661-1666.

Edward Dering, only son of Edward Dering, 1st Baronet, antiquary and politician, of Surrenden Dering in Kent, by his 2nd wife, Anne, the 3rd daughter of Sir John Ashburnham of Sussex, born November 8, 1625 at Pluckey, Kent; entered Cambridge University January 30 1639, aged 14, admitted Middle Temple, December 1641, he succeeded him as 2nd Baronet in 1644. Member for the borough of East Retford November 8, 1670; for Hythe 167819 to 1681 in the Parliament of England, and as stated for Lisburn in the Irish Parliament of 1662: Commissioner, Acts of Settlement 1662/7, when he succeeded Sir James Ware as Auditor-General for Ireland, and in 1669 one of the Lords Commissioners of the Privy Seal, and for the Treasury 167984. He married April 5, 1648, Mary, daughter of Daniel Harvey of Combe, Surrey, brother of the William Harvey whose medical achievements were distinguished by his discovery of the circulation of the blood, by whom he had three sons and four daughters. Of undoubted saxon origin, an origin confirmed not only by tradition, but by authentic family records, Dering early in fife displayed many of the qualities attributed to his father, a most accomplished scholar and learned antiquary. The library which they formed at Surrenden Dering, and the collection of early charters testified to their literary pursuits. In the correspondence of Anne, Viscountess Conway, many of whose letters are dated from Lisburn, to whom he was related by marriage, and Henry More the Cambridge Platonist he appears in the role of adviser and confident of the powerful Finch family of that period.

Though he found time to compose the epilogue to a play "Pompey" by Catherine Phillips, written for the performance given to the Kings soldiers in Dublin in 1663, he filled, we are told, his judicial position "with the greatest probity and attention to duty" - his minutes, contained in a large number of parchment bound volumes, of the trials or cases in which he had been engaged, and of his duties as Commissioner under the Settlements Acts had remained undisturbed in his library at Surrenden Dering for close on 260 years when this disappeared in 1918, shortly before the military authorities had vacated the house they had occupied during the 1914-18 war.

He has left little on record of his parliamentary duties or of his interest in the town of Lisburn; and dying June 24, 1684 is buried at Pluckley in Kent.

Edward Smyth, born c1636, the 2nd son of Edward Smyth of the Middle Temple, was admitted a student of Grays Inn 4 February, 1657, and in due course was called to the Bar. In his appointment as a Commissioner of the Court of Claims as constituted by the Acts of Settlement of 1662 and 1666, he received the honour of Knighthood

Displaying marked ability as a Commissioner, he was at the age of 29 on June 13, 1665 appointed Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, the only member of the English Bar appointed to the Irish bench in the reign of Charles II. In addition to the business of his court and circuit Smyth discharged also the duties of Chief Commissioner of the Court of Explanation of 1666. Some three years after his appointment he succeeded to the Smyth baronetcy and having obtained leave to retire went to reside at Hill Hall in Essex, the seat built by his father, Sir Thomas Smyth, Queens Elizabeth's Secretary of State, where he died in 1713 at the age of 77, and was buried in his parish church of Theydon Mount. Having married Jane, daughter of Mr Peter Vandepent of London one son Edward, born in 1685, was the only survivor of a family of six.

Strype, the ecclesiastical historian in his dedication of Sir Thomas Smith's Life of Sir Edward speaks of him as "a useful magistrate, a good churchman, and a gentleman of sobor and regular conversation in a loose and debauched age."

In resigning his seat in the Irish Parliament in 1665, Smyth in a letter dated October 4 from Dublin, to Viscount Conway conveys his thanks "for being made the first burgeas of your new corporation of Lisburne. I am sorry I am now to resign that place in your hands as being incapable of any longer holding it. I have been too busy with doing public duties to do anything else. If you have not thought of any other person to succeed me let me mention a worthy man, Mr Robert Johnston. He is 'of the robe' and but lately come to practice here, of kin to Lord Arlington, whose Lordship has written passionately to me on his behalf I know his lordship would be much your debtor if you appointed him."

On November 17, 1665 Robert Johnston replaced Smyth as member for Lisburn in the parliament of 1661/1666. The eldest son Edward Johnston, an English barrister and bencher of the Inner Temple, he was, in November 1664, admitted a student of his fathers Inn, and, in 1650 called to the bar.

He had accompanied Sir Edward Smyth to Ireland as his secretary and when here began to practice at the Irish bar. On January 31, 1669, again due to Smyth's interest, he was raised to the Bench as a junior Judge of the Common Pleas. Despite ill health he continued to discharge his duties until the death of Charles B (1685): re-appointed by James II, he was removed a year later, but died the following year in 1687, his burial taking place "in ye round of the Temple church".

His eldest son Robert born c1657 was well established as a barrister on his fathers death and having represented the Borough of Trim 1695/99 (second parliament of William III) and for Athboy 1703/13 (Queens Anne's first parliament), he became one of the Barons of the Exchequer.

In May, 1689, the parliament of James II met and was dissolved July 28, 1689. In 1697 an Act was passed declaring all attainders and all other Acts made in this parliament void.

On September 26, 1692 in the Parliament of 1692/3, the first of William III, Edward Harrison and Randal Brice appear as Lisburns representatives. And on August 2 1695, they again represented the Borough in 1695/99, the second of William III.

Randolph or Randal Brice of Castle Chichester (Whitehead), son of Robert, who also resided there who died in November 1676 having amassed much wealth in trading with Scotland. A grandson of the Rev Edward Bryce, who was collated to the Prebend of Kilroot September 3, 1619, and installed in that living on the 17 of the same month was deposed for nonconformity on August 10, 1636. Randal Brice had served in the office of High Sheriff of County Antrim in 1675 and of County Down in 1676 when he died in Dublin in September 1697 and was succeeded as a member for Lisburn by Popham (Seymour) Conway. Popham Conway was the eldest of the six sons of Sir Edward Seymour, fourth Baronet, by his wife, Letitia, daughter of Sir Francis Popham of Littlecote, he had assumed the name of Conway on succeeding to the estates of his cousin, the Earl of Conway, who dying on August 13, 1683, had bequeathed them to him. Popham Conway died in London June 18, 1699, at the age of 24, of a wound to the neck, which he had received two weeks earlier in a duel with Captain George Kirk, of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards. Kirk, charged and found guilty of manslaughter, was sentenced to be burnt in the hand January 29, 1700, he had been commissioned Lieutenant, May 8, 1684 in the Queen's Regiment of Foot, under the command of the notorious Col mercy Kirke, "a rough and brutal soldier of fortune". Known as Kirkes lambs the regiment served at Sedgemoor and was ordered to escort the judges in their circuit, which is known in history as the bloody Assiyes much of the odium which attached itself to Judge Jeffreys has fallen on Kirke and his regiment of lambs. Kirke it may be noted, commanded a body of troops sent to the relief of Deny in May, 1689 and also fought at the Boyne. Captain George Kirke, commissioned Major January 25, 1702, died in January 1704, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

 

DRUMBEG 1860 - 1910: A SUMMING UP

BY EILEEN BLACK

The development of Drumbeg from the mid - eighteenth century until 1860 - the formative years of the area - has already been discussed by the author in previous volumes of this Journal.(1) That period saw the rebuilding of Drum Church (in 1798), the erection of imposing residences at Ballydrain and Wilmont and the opening of the Belfast - Lisburn stretch of the Lagan Canal and the Ulster Railway line between Belfast and Lisburn. The second half of the nineteenth century saw the further growth of the district, with the erection of the buildings such as the parochial hall, the school and the Orange Hall.

During this period, the church was again rebuilt, in this instance by the Belfast born architect, Sir Thomas Drew (later knighted).(2) Drew's building of 1868 - 70 replaced all of the original eighteenth century church, with the exception of the west tower (with its rebuilt spire of 1833) and part of the west wall. Inside, the building was graced by the addition of a number of fine stained glass windows, those in the apse being executed by the London firm of Messrs. Heaton, Butler and Bayne, those in the southern transept being by Ward and Hughes.(3) Members of the congregation gave handsomely to the internal fittings and fixtures; the tiled floor, the font (of Caen stone), the Bible desk and chancel chairs were donated by parishioners while Drew, who designed both the Bible desk and prayer desk, himself presented the latter. The cost of the building was about £2,500. To help create a suitably imposing approach up to the church, Captain Montgomery of Ballydrain gave the strip of land between the church and the road to the parish, at a nominal rent. The building was consecrated on 20 December 1870. A number of other changes subsequently took place in the vicinity of the church. The distinctive and imposing lynch gate, also by Drew, was added in 1878, the gift of Ellen Callwell (nee Montgomery), in memory of her brother, John Ferguson Montgomery of Ballydrain, who had died two years before.(4) In the next decade - 1885 -Thomas Montgomery of Ballydrain donated the avenue of yew trees, which sweep so majestically up towards the front entrance of the church. The rectory and parochial hall were erected c. 1896.

Drum House, close by the church, was likewise rebuilt during these years, by the well-known local architect, Thomas Jackson.(5) Jackson, whose clients included merchants James Bristow (Wilmont), Joshua Richardson (Old Forge) and James Richardson (tissue), had a number of fine buildings to his credit, including the Museum in College Square North, the Music Hall in May Street and St. Malachy's church, in Alfred Street. Drum House (fig. 1), a handsome and imposing residence, was built for John Amon, of the firm of John Amott and Co., Ltd., drapers and milliners of Bridge Street, Belfast The house id undated in Jackson's output, but may perhaps have been erected during the 1860s or '70s; in 1865, Jackson designed offices for Sir John Amott and Co., in Belfast's Royal Avenue. The earlier Drum House, known to posterity through Joseph Molloy's illustration in E. K. Proctor's Belfast Scenery in Thirty Views, published in 1832, was probably built in the late seventeenth century.(6) Little, however, can be seen of it in the drawing, as Molloy depicted it from the side, as part of a wider view encompassing the church and Drum Bridge.

Two important new buildings were erected on the Ballyskeagh Road during the 1890s: the school and the Orange Hall. The school was built by Mrs. Ann Jane Stevenson and Emily Charley in 1892, in memory of their brother, William Charley of Seymour Hill, who died in 1890.(7) Opened on 3rd October 1892 as Drumbeg National School, the name was changed to Charley Memorial School in April 1909.(8) It was, and remains, a lively part of the community and has turned out numerous "scholars" over the years.

fig. 1 : Drum House in the later nineteenth century, as designed by Thomas Jackson. (Photograph from RM.Young: Belfast and the Province of Ulster in the 20th century, 1909)

The foundation stone of the Orange Hall was laid on 6th April 1896.(9) The ceremony was performed by R. H. Reade, owner of Wilmont and an important figure in the commercial life of Belfast.(10) Members of the local Orange lodge, Drumbeg Purple Star L.O.L. 638 were present, together with their friends and supporters from the district and Belfast.(11) Musical accompaniment for the occasion was provided by two flute bands: the Duke of York and a band from Purdysburn. The speeches, as were to be expected, focused on Unionist politics and the Home Rule issue. The site for the building, which was thirty - six feet by eighteen and could accommodate four hundred persons, had been donated by Sir David Taylor, who had purchased Drum House in the spring of 1883.(12) (Taylor and John Amott, for whom Jackson had designed the house, were brothers - in - law). The arrangements for the handing over of the site had been carried out by Taylor's son, John Arnott Taylor, some time before his sudden death in November 1890.(13) By the time the foundation stone was laid, some f150 was outstanding to complete the erection of the hall. The building, of modest proportions, is decidedly functional in appearance. According to family legend, the author's great - grandfather, local blacksmith Samuel Dugan (see fig. 2) made the railings around the hall.

fig. 2 : Samuel Dugan (1859-1910) outside his blacksmiths .shop on the Ballyskeagh Road, just beyond the parochial hall. His family are, from left to right, Robert, George, Hill and Sadie. The photograph was taken c 1905.

In these Drumbeg articles, published in this Journal by the author since 1982 the main focus has been on important local families and their seats and on events which took place in the area. Little has been said about the lives of the ordinary people, for obvious reasons; such persons are not recorded in history books and it is generally only family historians who pick up their trails when researching their own particular backgrounds. The Dugan family, ancestors of the author on her mother' s side, lived around Drumbeg from the early nineteenth century. The men in the family - certainly until the middle of the century - were generally labourers, although the earliest recorded member James, was a drover. By the 1880s, trades such as blacksmithing and plumbing had begun to enter the family tree. Samuel Dugan (1859 - 1910), referred to above, had his smithy on the bend of the Ballyskeagh Road, just beyond and on the same side as, the parochial hall (fig. 2). A 'well-doing' man and a Worshipful Master of the local Orange Lodge in 1902, he lived in a thatched cottage opposite the forge (fig. 3) and augmented his income by raising cattle in the nearby fields. His descendants remained in the area for many years; several are buried in the graveyard close by.

fig. 3: Cottages on the Ballyskeagh Road, opposite the blacksmith's shop, c. 1900. Samuel Dugan raised his family in one of these dwellings. The photograph appears to have been taken from (roughly) where the bungalow Richview now stands. (Photograph courtesy of Mrs. McNiece, Drum House)

For working folk in the area, employment could be had in the Drum Corn Mill and later, the Ulster Dye Works (that is, apart from work on the land or in service in one of the large houses in the locality or in towns like Belfast and Lisburn). The corn mill, shown on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1860 (and described simply as a mill on the 834 map), was situated on the spot where the Ulster Dye Works formerly stood and where The Hermitage private housing estate now stands. The mill may have been the property of W. Greenfield owner of Drum House; both mill and house were being advertised for as being for sale in October 1873.(14) The advertisement for the mill drew attention to the fact that the property 'might be made available for Dyeing and Finishing purposes: It seems possible, therefore, that the mill was subsequently converted into a dye works - and thereafter became the Ulster Dye Works (fig. 4). This latter concern, owned by the Thompson family, was opened c. 1892 and remained in business until 1965.(15) The firm, which was both a dye works and a patent steam carpet beating works had an office in Belfast, for city-based trade. By 1951, it had added dry cleaning to its operations. After closure, the premises lay vacant for many years. In recent times, the Hermitage estate was erected on the site.

fig. 4 : The Ulster Dye works on the Drumbeg Road, in the early years of the century. (Photograph courtesy Miss Bertha Thompson)

Robert Stewart's public house was undoubtedly important to the working population. The history of Bob Stewart's remains obscure. Although a building is shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map as being in the same position as the present public house, the structure may simply have been a cottage or a row of small dwellings. There was a Bryce (or Brice) Stewart of Drumbeg, publican, living in the area in 1838; however, whether Bob Stewart was descended from him or related to him is unknown - there are numerous Stewarts in Drumbeg church records. One fact is certain: Stewart's pub was in business by the early years of the present century; a family heirloom, inscribed with Stewarts occupation and place of business, is dated 1913. An early photograph of the building (fig. 5), showing Stewart outside the pub, probably dates from about this period. Stewart died in 1966, aged eighty-seven. After his death, his wife Ellen (nee Dugan) ran the business until her death in 1972. Thereafter, the pub passed to her nephew, George Dugan. A comparison of fig. 5 with a photograph taken in 1980 (fig. 6) shows how the facade was altered at some point, with the addition of a porch and pebbledash (the earlier building had been whitewashed).

fig. 5 : Bob Stewart's in the early years of the century. Note the removable wooden shutters placed beside the windows, protection against the elements - and theft. The person on the bench is probably Stewart himself. (Photograph courtesy of George Dugan; reproduced in Belfast News Letter, 7 January 1989

In March 1991, the business was declared bankrupt. After lying empty for several months, the pub went on the market in April 1992 and was subsequently purchased by Jack Gilmour. Reopened in 1993, it has been modernised and improved; however, much of the old character still remains. As the 'old' Bob Stewarts was a lively part of Drumbeg, so the 'new' one has also become. The renaissance of the pub is, in a way, a fitting end to this series of articles, which have been about change - and continuity - in this picturesque and interesting pocket of the Lagan Valley.

fig. 6 : Bob Stewart's in 1980. Note the addition of a porch and pebbledash, in comaprison with fig.5. The person to the right is Mamie Black (nee Dugan), niece of Bob and Ellen Stewart and mother of the author.

References

Eileen Black is an Assistant Keeper in the Ulster Museum's Art Department, with curatorial responsibility for the pre-twentieth century oil painting collection. She regards her Drumbeg articles as a personal tribute to her Dugan forbears, resident in the area from the early nineteenth century.

LISBURN'S CHARTER OF 1662

  by the late WILLIAM SINCLAIR CORKEN

Lisburn's Charter of 1662¹ has many interesting facts concerning it, particularly Bishop Jeremy Taylor's part in drafting it.

When, in January 1660, Jeremy Taylor was consecrated² Bishop of Down and Connor, and in June following, Administrator of the See of Dromore, he found himself without a Cathedral. The Cathedral of Down had been in ruins for close on 150 years, the old church of Connor had been serving as a Cathedral but was in many respects unsuitable, and his Cathedral Church of Dromore had lain in ruins since its destruction by the insurgents of 1641.

Continuing to reside in and around the small hamlet or village of Lisnagarvie, or at Portmore on the shores of Lough Neagh³, where he had taken up residence when first coming here, both on the estate of his patron and friend Lord Conway and Killulta⁴ , the good Bishop made his small church at Lisnagarvie, the old Chapelry of St Thomas⁵, the centre of his activities; and, in doing so, indicated his intention of elevating it to the status of a Cathedral for his united Diocese. In this decision he was no doubt guided by the fact that the settlers on the estate were largely members of the Established Church (of Ireland), which was not the case in either Down or Connor.

In 1662, some eighteen months after the Bishop's induction, Charles II, to mark his appreciation of the attitude of the inhabitants after his father was beheaded, signified his intention of granting a Charter to the town; and, in this intention Jeremy Taylor, ever mindful of his patron's interests, and of his own devotion to the Church, was, without doubt, responsible for the insertion of the major portion of the Charter which, taken in two (abbreviated) parts, reads thus:

Charles II, by the Grace of God, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland;

King, Defender of the Faith, etc., WHEREAS WE understand that the Cathedral Churches of Down and Connor, in our province of Ulster, within our Kingdom of Ireland, being at present not only ruinous and laid waste, but also were founded in inconvenient places and extreme parts of the several dioceses of Down and Connor, by means whereof, not only the service of God was much neglected, but the necessary meetings and assembly of the Bishops and Clergy in those parts obstructed and impeded.

AND WHEREAS the Church of Lisburne⁶, alias Lisnagarvie, in our County of Antrim, and Diocese of Down, being situate near the middle of the Diocese aforesaid, and now united, can more conveniently serve for a Cathedral Church for the Bishopricks aforesaid. Know ye, therefore, that we being mindful of nothing more than that true religion and the true worship of God should flourish of our royal authority and by our royal authority - have erected, created, founded, ordained, made, constituted and established the said Church of Lisburne, alias Lisnagarvie, and the place of the said church to be forever in all future times, etc.

AND WHEREAS we retain a sense of the many losses which the inhabitants of the said town of Lisburne, alias Lisnagarvie, have sustained for their allegiance towards us and our royal father of glorious memory. Know ye, therefore, that we of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, for us, our heirs and successors, do give and grant to the dwellers and inhabitants of the said town of Lisburne, alias Lisnagarvie, that they and their successors forever hereafter, can, and may from time to time, elect am! choose two fit and proper persons to be burgesses, to attend and sit in every parliament hereafter to be summoned, appointed, and held within our said Kingdom of Ireland, etc.

MUCH OPPOSITION

The Charter did not, unfortunately, provide for a municipal corporation and in the implication of that part of it relating to a Cathedral, Jeremy Taylor encountered much opposition. The intention of the Charter was never carried out as far as the endowment for the Cathedral services was concerned. The impropriations granted for the augmentation of the revenues of the Church were never made; a Cathedral was established without giving any means for its support. In the State Papers of the period many references will be found to Taylor's fight for his Cathedral at Lisburne. In one of his last letters to appear in the Papers on this subject of implementation, the estate agent, George Rawdon⁷, wrote to his master Lord Conway: 'It will, I think, be very hard to effect this Cathedral work, for I have received a letter last post from my Lord Primate⁸ who says he finds this is not an age to build Cathedrals, since it is so hard a matter to get one removed⁹'.


Rawdon, however, informed Lord Conway that 'the church yard wall will, in the meantime, be proceeded with, when it shall be provided for'. But, dying in 1667¹⁰, Taylor did not live to see the completion of his work for his new Cathedral. And perhaps one of the reasons why his wishes were never afterwards realised will be found in the life of at least one of his immediate successors.

Succeeding Roger Boyle¹¹ as Bishop of Down and Connor, Dromore having once again reverted to a separate see some five years after Taylor's death, Thomas Hacket¹² was consecrated. He seems to have woefully neglected his charge, having had licence of absence from it in 1681 and again in 1687. Selling his livings to the highest bidder, he resided for some twelve years near London without ever seeing his Diocese, and was, in consequence, nicknamed 'The Bishop of Hammersmith'.

During this period, his Vicar General, Lemuel Matthews¹³, was in full control and he also used his opportunities to enrich himself. The rector of nine parishes and livings at Lisburn, near to the Diocesan Court, he traded shamelessly in marriage licences and prerogative wills; the scandal became so great that, in 1693, as the result of a Royal Commission or Visitation¹⁴, both were deposed.

The Bishop died some four years later and is buried in Lisburn Cathedral, as recorded in the Cathedral Register:

Dr Thom Hacket, late Bishop of Down and Connor 31st August '97, inter'd in the Chancel part, part of the grave under Mr Conway's seat, next to the wall.

THE FIRST TWO M.P.s

By the return, however, on 6 January 1662, of Edward Dering¹⁵ of Surrenden-Dering in Kent, and Edward Smith or Smyth¹⁶ of the Middle Temple, Lisburn's first two Members of Parliament, the Charter was almost immediately legalised. Both jurists of great distinction, they had arrived in Ireland as Commissioners in the Court of Claims, as constituted by the Act of Settlement of 1662, and, possibly with a view to representing the Commission, had been returned for the newly created borough.

Son of the first baronet of the name who, as member for the County of Kent, once presented a Bill from the gallery of the House of Commons for 'the extermination of all bishops, deans and chapters', and father of the baronet whose name appears in Schomberg's Army lists of 1689¹⁷, Edward Dering, a most meticulous recorder, was the Commissioner before whom all cases relating to the North of Ireland were heard.

His colleague Edward Smith, afterwards, at the age of twenty nine, a Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Chief Commissioner in the Court constituted by the 1666 Act (of the Act of 1662), is described by Strype, the ecclesiastical historian, as 'A useful magistrate, a good churchman, and a gentleman of sober and regular conversation in a loose and debauched age'.

In 1692, some thirty years after the return of these two members, Jeremy Taylor's son in-law, Edward Harrison of Magheralave¹⁸ was returned as one of the two members for Lisburn in the first Parliament of William Ill.

A nephew of Matthew Harrison, Comptroller in the Household of the Lord Deputy¹⁹ and who had spent a lifetime in the service of the Ormonde family, he was the son of Michael Harrison of Belfast²⁰ where he resided in a large house on or about the site of the Provincial Bank of Ireland, then known as 'Michael Harrison, his lane, later to become Hercules Place or Hercules Street, the 'street of the butchers', now Royal Avenue.

Edward Harrison was again returned for Lisburn in the second Parliament of William HI (1695/99) and in the first Parliament of Queen Anne (1703/13) his son Michael^2l was returned for the town. In the Short Parliament of 1713/14, the second of Queen Anne, his son Francis²² appears as the town's representative.

A partner in the celebrated Dublin banking concern²³ Francis Harrison, dubbed 'the only Croesus of the bankers' race', earned, for his sins, the wrath of Dean Swift who, surprisingly, does not seem to have been aware of his identity.

ELECTORAL INDEPENDENCE

Many years later a descendant of Edward Harrison's daughter Mary²⁴ , William Todd Jones of Ballyhomra²⁵ was, in a famous struggle for electoral independence, returned as a popular member for the town in the fourth Parliament of George III.

A member of the Dungannon Volunteer Convention of 1872, a most active politician and pamphleteer, with an aptitude for verse, Jones, no doubt in the spirit of his great ancestor, in his belief in the justice of a cause, was arrested for high treason in 1803 and imprisoned for two years in the county Cork gaol. Some time previously he had challenged a well known but blessed historian²⁶ to a duel and had shot his man through the body. His death in 1818 ended the family Parliamentary connections with the town.

Michael Harrison of Belfast is buried in Lisburn Cathedral, as the burial register states:

1683 Mr Michael Harrison of Dirr(aghy) Sept ye 6th

His son Edward, Jeremy Taylor's son-in-law, is also buried there:

Edward Harrison Esqr of Maghreleve buryd in Lisburne church under the reading desk October 13, 1700

Historic Magheralave, so intimately associated with the name of Jeremy Taylor, the home for many years of his daughter Joanna and the birthplace of eight of his grandchildren, lies close to the town of Lisburn, but is located in the parish of Derriaghy.

It is first noticed in the occupation of Symon Richardson²⁷ , a receiver or steward on the old Conway estates. In the Conway correspondence of the period, a number of Richardson's letters appear, one in particular to Lord Conway, dated from Magheralave 14 March 1626, drawing attention to his seemingly sorry plight: 'Your letter comforted me but Lisnagarvie did not cure my malady'.

Towards the middle of the seventeenth century the property was acquired by Michael Harrison of Belfast, and remained in the possession of the Harrison family for close on 100 years.

In the first half of the eighteenth century, Magheralave passed to Dr William Duncan or Durkin of Lisburn²⁸ ; the date is determined when he advertised from there in the Belfast News Letter of 13 January 1749: 'To be lett for a year or longer my very commodious house in Castle Street, Lisburn²⁹

INCURRED DISPLEASURE

In Duncan's absence a few years later, his wife³⁰ incurred the displeasure of the Derriaghy parish vestry on 29 August 1754, when it enacted that "Mrs Duncan shall fine for all her (Magheralave) tenants, otherwise her fine shall be returned her, and not entitled to any benefit.

Around the end of the last century, a portion of the townland was acquired by the estate agent, Dean Stannus^3l who erected thereon a residence for one of his sons. The Duncan family resided there until 1991, their property being compulsorily purchased for security reasons as it adjoined the British Army Headquarters in Northern Ireland (Thiepval Barracks).

Of Jeremy Taylor's connection with the church, five references only will be found in the seventeenth century records of Lisburn Cathedral. In the burial entries of 1661 we find:

Edward ye son of Jeremy Lord Bp of Downe Conor and Dromore March 10th

In Book No.l of the records, he appears at the baptism of three of the estate agent's children - Arthur (Rawdon) on October 17, 1661; Francis on November 21, 1662 and George on May 2, 1664. And in Book No.2 we note:

The names of those who were confirmed by the Right Reverennd Father in God Jeremiah, Lord Bishop of Downe, Connier and Dromore at Lisburne the 7th day of Aprille, being Easter day 1667

Direct descendants of a number of the names appearing in this list³³ still reside in our midst, proud, we are sure, in the Faith of their Fathers, and of the ancestor confirmed in it by the Prince of Devines, Jeremy Taylor, the architect of the Charter of the Cathedral town of Lisburn, then, as now, with his memory ever green, a giant in an age of pygmies.

Notes:

SOME NOTICES OF ROUND TOWERS IN THE
KILLULTAGH DISTRICT

by TONY MERRICK

1. TRUMMERY, CO. ANTRIM

Trummery Old Church and Round Tower
"Illustrated Dublin Journal" 26 April 1862

The stump of the ancient Round Tower of Trummery and the ruins of the adjacent church are located in a graveyard approximately one and a half miles north-east of Moira, County Down. The ecclesiastical site is situated in the townland of Trummery, which name is a derivation of the Gaelic "tromaun" meaning "a place where elder trees grow", and in the parish of Magheramesk, anciently called Rathmesk

Little or nothing is known of its early history, the only evidence of Celtic origin being the Round Tower, and a document said to date from 1210 contains a possible reference to it. The first definite reference appeared in 1306 when, in Pope Nicholas IV's Taxation Roll for the Diocese of Down, the "Church of Rathmesk" was valued at half a mark (6s 8d), yielding a tithe of 8d. The Diocesan Terrier of 1615 states that the incumbent paid a total of 5s 4d annually, and in 1622 the Bishop of Down, in compiling his inventory of See properties, reported that the church was in ruins. Until well into the nineteenth century, both the church and the Round Tower were consistently plundered by local builders for stone, the accompanying illustration giving some idea of the damage. Today only the west gable and the bottom portions of the church walls survive. A sepulchral chapel built by the Spencer family on to the east end of the church occasioned the destruction of the original and small chancel and is itself now equally ruinous.

The Round Tower, which only survives to a height of six feet, was linked to the north side of the sepulchral chapel by means of a short vestibule. Dr George Petrie and Lord Dunraven, both leading antiquarians in the nineteenth century, were of the opinion that it was erected in the late twelfth century which is late in comparison to most round towers. They based their conclusion on the fact that it was very close to the original church building, this feature being regarded as an intermediate stage in the evolution of the church tower which soon afterwards tended to be constructed as an integral part of the church. An examination of the masonry carried out in 1842 by Edmund Getty, the noted antiquarian and Ballast Master of Belfast Harbour, strongly suggested that the tower was built slightly later than the church.

When entire, the tower stood approximately sixty feet high. A peculiar feature was that it had a rather chunky rectangular base protruding to the south and incorporating a low tunnel-like doorway, above which was the original doorway, set in its customary position eight or ten feet above ground level, the two being connected by a spiral staircase, some steps of which remain. Four windows facing the cardinal points of the compass were located near the top of the tower. The cap which was cupola-shaped was constructed of limestone slabs on concrete, the marks of the wicker form-work still being visible after its fall in 1828. One Mr Rogan, a local antiquarian living in the first half of the nineteenth century, was told by two elderly and respectable men that they could well remember the collapse of a great oak beam in the tower, known as the belltree. Mr Getty's excavations of 1842 also revealed that the tower had been built on top of a small stone-lined burial sepulchre, approximately 6'6" long by 2'3" wide and 2'6" deep, and containing human bones in an extremely friable condition.

Like the church, the Round Tower also served as a local quarry and by the 1820s, stone from nearly half of its width had been removed from much of the lower portion. Dean James Stannus, later Rector of Lisburn Cathedral, acting for the Marquis of Hertford was making arrangements to have the tower repaired, but unfortunately he was too late, for it collapsed in October 1828. When I visited the locality in 1969, I heard a most interesting tradition concerning this event It appears that while a group of farm labourers were working in a nearby potato field one rather calm and sunny day, there was a sudden and very heavy shower of rain, whereupon they all took shelter in the tower. It lasted for about half and hour and ended as suddenly as it had started; the men had not been back at work many minutes when there was a tremendous crash and the ground shook as though struck by a tremor. They looked round in time to see the dust settling over a heap of rubble that had been for nearly seven hundred years the Round Tower of Rathmesk.

2. RAM'S ISLAND, CO. ANTRIM

Ram's Island is the largest of the few islands of Lough Neagh and is located approximately one mile to the west of Sandy Bay, near the south east comer of the Lough, and in the parish of Glenavy. The origins of its present name are largely surrounded by speculation. The earliest known name was Inis-Draicrenn, first used in the eleventh century, and by the seventeenth century this had been anglicised to Ems Garden. Mgr. J.O'Laverty, the eminent antiquarian and historian of the last century, suggested that the present name may have derived from the ending "raicrenn" of the original name being confused in pronunciation with the Gaelic word "reithe" meaning a "ram".

The documented history of Ram's Island is even more scant than that for Trummery. The earliest mention is in the form of a fleeting reference to it in the Annals of Ulster under the year 1056, and again in the Annals of the Four Masters under the year 1121. In the Pope Nicholas Taxation Roll of 1306,"the church of Lennewy (Glenavy) with the chapel was valued at 10s Od yielding a tithe of 12d, and Dr.Reeves, writing in 1847, was of the opinion that "the chapel" was the church of Ram's Island. It is not mentioned in either the Terrier of 1615 or either of the Bishop's reports of 1619 or 1622. However, Speed's map of Ulster, dated 1610, and Johan Blaue's map of 1654, both mark the island as "Enis Garden". and show the symbol of a church tower. It is on record that the ruins of a church were still visible near the Round Tower in the middle of the eighteenth century.

Further proof of ecclesiastical occupation of the site came in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when human bones including several complete skeletons and remains of coffins were occasionally dug up in the vicinity of the Round Tower. A number of brass fastening pins, probably for monks' cloaks, were found in conjunction with the burials, and amongst the coins discovered was one of Edward I. A properly conducted archaeological excavation covering a wide area around the Round Tower would undoubtedly produce very interesting and important results.

The Round Tower on Ram's Island, an engraving in
"Ireland, its scenery and antiquities",
by Mr & Mrs S. C. Hall, 1843

The most obvious monastic relic is the Round Tower which stands on top of a steep eminence near the east shore of the island. It is constructed from fairly small rounded stones which may well have come from the island's shores, and is forty three feet high, but was probably somewhat higher when it was originally built. The original doorway was about eight feet above ground level on the south side of the tower and is now built up; a more recent one at ground level on the west side was built up in the late 1960s to give the tower extra strength.Two fairly small windows survive further up the tower.

In the late eighteenth century Ram's Island was owned by a fisherman named David McAreavy who sold it for one hundred guineas in 1804. At one time in the last century it was owned by Lord O'Neill who built a charming thatched cottage in the English style, just below the hillock whereon stands the Round Tower, and which can just be discerned in the accompanying engraving. One night not long after the beginning of the Second World War, vandals visited the island and burned down the cottage.

Select Bibliography:

THE CRUMLIN METEORITE

(Edited from various accounts by TREVOR NEILL)


On Saturday, 13th September, 1902 at 10.30 am., a stone coming from the sky struck the earth at the farm belonging to Andrew Walker at Crosshill, Crumlin. The stone was to become known as the Crumlin Meteorite. (1)

The news of the fall spread somewhat slowly, the first notices appearing in the Belfast Evening Telegraph on 16 September and the Northern Whig on the following day. The news had been sent by S R Millar, who had heard at Killead a noise as of an explosion, and had afterwards been to view the fallen stone at Crosshill, where he was given the particulars of its arrival by Andrew Walker. On 20 September, W H Milligan of Belfast, an enthusiastic amateur observer of luminous meteors, went to Crumlin to get more precise information than had yet been published relative to the stone and the phenomena connected with its fall. Having ascertained the details, Mr. Milligan telegraphed Mr. Fletcher, Director of the Natural History Department of the British Museum, who left London immediately and arrived at the farmhouse on the morning of the 6 September. Recognising at once that the stone was undoubtedly of celestial origin, Mr. Fletcher acquired it for the British Museum, and sailed for Liverpool the same day with the stone in his case. The particulars given at the farts to Mr. Milligan and Mr. Fletcher, and a preliminary description of the stone, were published immediately afterwards in Nature, 9 October 1902.

Mr. Milligan, then living in Belfast, was conveniently placed for continuing the inquiries relative to the circumstances of the fall, and for this purpose published in the Newsletter, 26 September and the Northern Whig, 14 October, appeals for information on anything which might throw light on the path of the stone in the earth's atmosphere. He also called attention to the fact that a fall of stone, due to the same meteor, might have occurred elsewhere in the district at the same time, and he addressed special letters of enquiry to railway station-masters and to clergy in the area. Miss A. Black, living at the farm and acting as Secretary in this matter for her uncle Mr. Walker, forwarded to Mr. Fletcher accounts given by those who were near the spot at the time the stone fell. In addition, persons further away, who had heard the noise and afterwards travelled to the farmhouse to see and handle, or inquire about the fallen stone, gave their experiences.

The essential particulars of the fall at Crosshill may be briefly summarised as follows:- At 10.30 am. on 13th September, 1902, W. Walker, M. Montgomery and W. John Adams were at work on Andrew Walker's s farm. Walker and Montgomery were building a stack of hay in the farmyard, the former on the stack, the latter forking the hay from the ground. Adams was only a short distance away, gathering apples beneath a tree near a hedge which separated the farmyard from the cornfield in which he was standing. All three heard a loud noise, (2) but Walker was the only one to catch sight of anything in the air as the stack was nearly finished and he was high above the ground. He stated that after the noise, he saw something like a "whirl" come through the air with the speed of lightning and strike the ground at a spot about thirty yards from the stack, the soil being at once thrown to a considerable distance above the standing corn, then over three feet high and ready to be cut. Adams likewise saw the cloud of dust rising about twenty yards from where he was at work. He immediately ran through the standing corn towards the dust cloud and found that a hole appeared to have been made in the ground. It occurred to him that, if any material body had penetrated the earth, it would have been immediately covered by soil and entered to an unknown and perhaps considerable depth. He therefore hurried to the farmyard to get a spade, and in less than a quarter of an hour from the time of fall, had dug out a black, dense stone, different in appearance from any of the known stones of the district. The stone had penetrated the soil about one and a half feet, at which depth further progress was stopped by an ordinary but much larger boulder in the ground. Regrettably, after it had been dug out, it was impossible, from examination of the hole, for anyone to determine the precise direction in which the stone had entered the earth and thus, the final direction of its path in the atmosphere. According to Adams power, it must have gone straight downwards. That this was the case, approximately at least, is confirmed by an observation by Andrew Walker who, immediately after the fall looked carefully, though without avail, for signs of injury to the standing corn, such as would be expected to have been produced by a dense stone travelling into it at great speed, in a vertical direction.

The stone was hot when extracted, and according to Andrew Walker, was still warm to the touch nearly an hour after it's fall, for which period it had been lying on the window-sill in the open air. Apparently, the morning of 13th September was cloudy, therefore the continued warmth of the object cannot be attributed to the sun's rays.

The Crumlin Meteorite is now a part of Solar history, and can be seen at the Science Museum, South Kensington. A cast of it is in the Ulster Museum, Belfast.

COUNTY ANTRIM ROOTS

A member requests assistance from any reader with knowledge of or who has connections with ancestors as per name/place in County Antrim and which approximate in time to dates mentioned:

A large amount of information collected from church and GRO records is available concerning the above and would be gladly exchanged with any person having similar interests. Please write to: William E. Hogg, 2 Castle Close, Sandycove, Co.Dublin

BOOK REVIEW

ORDNANCE SURVEY MEMOIRS OF IRELAND


Parishes of County Antrim, Vols.8 (1991) and 21 (1993). Published by the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University of Belfast, hb E17, pb E8.75

Two recent books from the Institute of Irish Studies' publication programme are of importance to those interested in the local history of the Lisburn area. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Lisburn and South Antrim (parishes of Blaris, Derryaghy, Drumbeg and Lambeg) are contained in Vol.8 while Vol.21 on South Antrim contains the parishes of Aghagallon, Aghalee, Ballinderry, Camlin, Glenavy, Magheramesk and Tullyrusk.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs arose as part of the creation of the first series 6" maps of Ireland in the 1830s. They provide an account of each parish, its buildings, antiquities, employment and other topics of local history. They provide an incomparable picture of local life in an era which was to be altered irrevocably by the effects of the Great Famine.