Monasterevan or Belin, 5 km south of Monasterevan, was a fording point for the Sligh Dala, or Belach Muighe Dala Meic Umhoir,, the great road of Dala, on which two chariots could pass without one having to give way to the other, as opposed to the ‘cow road’, bóthar, only as wide as two cows. Thousands of years ago five highways radiated from Tara; the Sligh Dala, went via Limerick to Kerry
A pair of chariots from the base of the cross at Clonmacnoise
In 1572 Sir Maurice Fitzgerald of Lackagh, just outside Monasterevan (it is a few trees and a bit of a mound in a field now) got a grant of the Bridge of Belan in O’Dempsey Country. It seems possible that the main road to from Monasterevin towards the South and West might have gone through Riverstown, to Fisherstown and on to Ballybrittas.
200 years later Taylor and Skinner’s Maps show three large houses – Bellgrove, of Mr Fitzgerald, Rath of Mr Adair and Jamestown of Mr Rochfort, Ballybrittas Castle is marked to the North af the road, but as can be seen in Seymour’s 1777 view, included in Beranger’s “Views of Ireland” it was already a ruin.
Dodd’s The Traveller’s Director Through Ireland of 1801 describes the area:-
At Monasterevan where the road crosses the river Barrow is a charter school there is also a harbour on the Grand Canal.
Near 2 miles beyond Monasterevan on the L is Jamesłown Mr Rochfort’s a little further Rath Mr Adair’s and half a mile beyond it Bellgrove Mr Fitzgerald’s opposite to which on the R are the ruins of Ballybrittas Castle.
Queen’s County situated in the province of Leinster is bounded by King’s County and part of Tipperary on the north and west by part of Kildare and Carlow on the east and by Kilkenny and Carlow on the south It is a fruitful pleasant country containing 258,415 Irish plantation acres thirty nine parishes eight baronies one borough and sends three members to parliament viz two for the county and one for the borough of Portrlington It is about 35 miles long and 25 broad chief town Maryborough which with the county was named in honour of Mary I Queen of England.
It has 82,000 inhabitants. (in 2016 it was about 85,000, and at its lowest around 1900 it was 73,000) Its baronies are Portnahinch, Tinnehinch, Upper Ossory, Maryborough Stradbally, Ballyadams, Cullinagh and Slievemargy. Its principal families O Moore, Fitzpatrick, O Don, O Brenan, Wandesford and Delany. The county was formerly full of bogs but is now pleasant and fruitful.
Even in the 18th century there were several houses that escaped both Dodd and Taylor & Skinner, but in the early 19th century there was a building boom of country houses here – partly because of the ready access to Dublin by both road and canal. – Belin, Fisherstown, Graigueverne, Glenmalire, Ashfied, Sally Park, and The Derries are the other main houses near Ballybrittas.
A fly boat from Hall’s Scenery of Ireland. Drawn by 3 horses, it flew at 9 miles (or 15km) an hour.
Timetable and fares – SC was State Cabin, and CC Common Cabin
Of the earlier houses my favourite is Fisherstown House “comfortable but has no peculiar character” William Shaw Mason – 1814. Apart from anything else it is opposite the wonderful Fisherstown Inn.
The pictures show it in the late 1970s, and in the late 1990s. Sadly the roof has now completely gone.
According to The Buildings of Ireland it is :- Detached two-storey house 5 bay, built c.1820, with full-height bowed entrance bay. Now in ruins. Double-pitched slate roof with curved roof to bow. Roughcast rendered walls, painted, with limestone course to eaves. Square-headed window openings with limestone sills; fittings to window openings now gone. Timber pilaster doorcase with timber panelled door with overlight. Entrance Hall with polychromatic ceramic-tiled floor; timber dado rails; carved timber architraves to window openings; plaster cornice to ceiling. Stair Hall with carved timber staircase; arch opening to Entrance Hall. House set back from road in own grounds; overgrown grounds to site. Group of detached outbuildings to site. Gateway comprising rendered piers with wrought-iron double gates.
The first reference we have to the English name Fisherstown is in the description of the lands in Lord Arlington’s new manor in 1666. It was probably invented then. Killeskeraghemore, Killeskeraghbegg, Grageneskerry and Bellingue or Bellnigue alias Fisherstowne. “It is clear from the Fiants and Inquisitions that Fisherstown covers the area formerly known as Coill an Iasgaire, the Fisherman’s Wood, and that Fisherstown is a part translation of the old name’ (JKAS XIII 103, 106). Gráig na n-iasgairidhe, ‘village of the fisherman,’ ‘Graiguenaskerry’
On 29 June 1734 Elinor Scott alias Laban (a Hugenot family from near Portarlington), the widow of William Scott late of Fisherstown Queen’s County is marrying Henry Lewis gent, of Aghmacart. Prerogative Marriages;
Henry Lewis died at Fisherstown in. 1746 but Elinor Scott did not die till 1781
In the ABSTRACTS OF WILLS it details her marriage settlement with with Henry Lewis of Aughmacart, Queen’s Co., gent; Wm. Laban, Newmarket, Co. Dublin, tanner, and Wm. Scott of Monycoughlin, Queen’s Co., gent., the elder, parties to said settlement.
My brother Joseph Laban.
My niece Margt. Laban, daughter of my brother Joseph Laban.
My sister Anderson.
My niece Mary Palmer.
My nephew.Wm. Laban, son of my brother Jon. Laban.
My brother Wm. Laban, exor., and his two sons.
My daughter Hannah Palmer and my daughter Sarah Hutton.
My nephew Thos. Laban and my niece Jane Newbold.
My nephew Thos. Anderson and my’niece Jane Baily alias Anderson.
My brother Joseph [Laban’s] children.
My nephew Samuel Laban, son of my brother Wm. Laban.
My nephew Nehemiah, son of my brother Samuel Laban, deceased.
My niece Margaret French als. Laban.
My daughter Mary Lewis.
My son Daniel Lewis.
Daniel Lewis of Aughmacart and Samuel Laban my nephew, merchant in Dublin, overseers of Will. ,
Sarah Mullin. James Cowan. Ellinor How alias Cowan. Elizabeth Bennett alias Cowan. Steven Ray my old servant. Elizabeth Tinan my old servant. Our servant John Fletcher. Lands of Rickardstown and Ballyshanduff, [? Queen’s Co.] Witnesses: John Gordon, John Doughan, servant to said Henry Lewis,
Mary Magachie, wife to Rev. Stephen Magachie, Kilnacourt, Queen’s Co., clerk.
Memorial witnessed by: Robert Hutton, currier,
Robt. Stafford, gent., both of Dublin. 127, 407, 87288 .
Saml. Laban (seal) 25
The names of Anderson and Bayly will reappear, though I have yet to find any information about on the Lewis fmily of Aghmacart or the origin of the Scotts.
Elinor and William’s son William Scott, Fisherstown (gent) died in 1757. (P. Beryl Eustace – 1956 – Abstracts of Wills).
I suspect that the house was actually rebuilt not in 1820 but around 1784 when his son John married Mary Anne Biddulph who was the second daughter of Francis Biddulph [1727-1806] of Vicarstown, Queen’s County, and Eliza Harrison. Four years later Mary Ann’s older sister married Richard Grattan, a kinsman of Henry Grattan.
Their only brother, Francis Harrison Biddulph, was for many years the Registrar of the Court of Exchequer. Born on 26th December 1774, he married in 1797 Mary Marsh, the daughter of the barrister Francis Marsh and descendant of Jeremy Taylor, the Bishop of Down and Connor. Mary Marsh’s parents married in Dublin on 9th September 1775, her mother being Anne Vero, the heiress of Neptune Vero of Georges Lane, Dublin. Along with Mary Marsh who married Francis Harrison Biddulph, Francis Marsh and Anne Vero had two sons, Digby Marsh and Rev. Francis Marsh of Ballintober, Queen’s Co., whose son, another Francis Marsh, settled at Springmount, Queen’s County, (qv)
The 1798 Rising touched them only a little – March 1 1798 On Sunday night the 24th ult about eight o clock in the evening a daring banditti attacked the house of Francis Biddulph of Vicarstown in the Queen’s County Esq where they secured all the servants but Mr Biddulph with his wife and daughter. Having time to get up stairs, he made such a resistance though they carried on their attack upwards of an hour that he deterred from forcing a door which he had erected on the stairs. They fired several shots at Mr Biddulph and wounded a servant maid in the shoulder hit Mrs Biddulph with slugs in the clothes, filled the upper rooms with a number of bullets, broke all the windows and furniture in the house and the gentleman and his family are now obliged to go and reside in town.
Whether the Scotts survived the 1798 better than the Biddulphs is not known though they don’t appear in the list of 1798 claimants
We next hear of Fisherstown in the Dublin Evening Post and Saunders Newsletter of April and May 1809.
QUEEN’S COUNTY. TO be LET, for lives renewable for ever, the HOUSE,OFFICES, and DEMESNE of FISHERSTOWN, near 40A. of highly improved Land, of the best quality, beautifully divided with plantations and ditches,— The House and Offices in the most perfect condition. Not a shilling need be spent on it. There are also a good orchard and garden, well cropped. The whole adjoining the Grand Canal, opposite the Marquis of Drogheda’s fine improvements, within 2 miles of Monasterevan, 5 of Portarlington, Stradballv, and Athy Apply Mr. Burnett, Fisherstown, or at No. 27, Stafford Street, Dublin (02/05/1809, pg 4)
The Burnetts were a Quaker family, whose best-known member was another Richard, a seedsman of Richmond, near Drumcondra. Terrence Reeves Smith was kind enough to share some of his research. Apparently Burnett imported from America and Italy, announcing (4th March 1790) ‘to the curious in planting’ that he (at Richmond): ‘has just got a parcel of fresh seeds from America; only five weeks on their passage of the most valuable trees and shrubs, the produce of that country. He has made them up in parcels. In 1781 in Sanders Newsletter he was advertising:- Half a Crown (2/6d or about 12c )Parcel, which contains Seed enough to produce three thousand Plants. Writing in 1801, Archer notes “since his death, this nursery has much declined; a great part of it is now set for building ground, and the remainder is insignificant’. Sounds so much like any modern day nursery near a city, being greedily eyed up by developers.
In 1814 Ambrose Leet has Fisherstown as the seat of William Scott. However William Shaw Mason’s 1814 A Statistical Account, Or Parochial Survey of Ireland might be more accurate, saying it was lived in by the Rev Mr Torrens. “At the distance of a mile more is Fisherstown the seat of the Rev Mr Torrens the house lies low to the right hand of the road and facing it. It looks comfortable but has no peculiar character.”
In 1823 Robert and Richard Burnett are involved in leasing Belan House, of which more soon.
For particulars, apply (if letter, post paid) to Mr. Robert Burnett, Fisherstown House, Monasterevan; or to William I.odge, Esq, Kildare-Street; or Mr. Richard Burnett, attorney, 15, Stafford-street…. 27 May 1823
ROBBERY OF ARMS—QUEEN’S COUNTY. On Friday night last at about the hour of Nine o’clock, seven or eight men armed, with their faces blackened, broke into the house of Mr. Robert Burnett, of Fisherstown by the rere, and forced the servants into the front parlour, where Mr. and Mrs. Burnett were, in which they shut them all up, and proceeded up stairs to his bed-chamber, where they took one musket, two cases of pistols, two swords, and a powder-horn; and after searching another room where his grandson lay asleep, without awaking him ,they departed, without offering any violence—demanding or taking off any other article whatsoever. It is much to be regretted that such an outrage should commence in this hitherto peaceable county. Freemans Journal Wednesday, December 22, 1824
The Disraeli School
It was then briefly the home of Richard Bayly, one of a family of lawyers in Golden Lane. His uncle, another Richard Bayly, trained Benjamin Disraeli, who is said to have been uncle of the future Prime minister and endower of the Disraeli School at Baltinglass. The odd thing is that this Benjamin Disraeli appears nowhere in the genealogy of the Earl of Beaconsfield.
Beechy Park
Benjamin D’Israeli was born in England in 1766. It is said that he came to Ireland with his mother at a very early age. He started to serve his apprenticeship with Richard Bayly at the age of seventeen. By the age of 22 he had acquired a licence to run lotteries By 35 he had bought a country estate Bettyfield House (now Jim Bolger’s Beechy Park Stables) at Rathvilly. Five days before his death in 1814, aged 48, he left £3,000 towards the erection of a school for the education of the poor at Rathvilly which was designed by Joseh Welland and opened in 1826.
Our Richard Bayly was born 1771; Attorney, of Finglas-bridge; and Fisherstown, killed by an accident coming home from a dinner party at Sir Richard Wilcock’s, St Lawrence Manor, Chapelizod (where the West County Hotel now stands), 20th Feb., 1828. He married. Susanna (his cousin), dau. of John Christian, Attorney, of Monasterevan,
St Lawrence Manor, Chapelizod
Sir Richard Henry Willcock, first Inspector-General of the Munster Constabulary, was born 26 July 1768 and died 7 April 1834 and is called the founder of modern policing. Writing in 1827, Hatherton notes Willcock’s role in the suppression of the Emmet rebellion: ‘In 1803, he obtained and communicated to the Government the first information of Emmet’s designs, and thereby prevented the insurgents from gaining possession of Dublin. On that occasion he narrowly escaped assassination; eight persons having been stationed in different places for the purpose of attacking him. Immediately afterwards he organized a Yeomanry Corps in the County of Dublin, with the assistance of which he maintained the tranquillity of his own neighbourhood. He apprehended and committed to prison 35 persons concerned in Emmet’s insurrection.’
In 1814 Sir Robert Peel, as Secretary for Ireland, introduced a bill in Parliament, the Peace Preservation Act. He appointed Richard Willcocks a Chief Magistrate to command the first detachment of the the PPF, Peace Preservation Force (the word ‘police’, being unpopular with the establishment, was not used),
The next tenant of Fisherstown was John Anderson of Elm Park, Dublin, a relative of the Andersons of Dunbell, Kilkenny, and possibly of Thomas Anderson, Elinor Laban’s nephew. A law abiding man, he paid his tithes, for which he very nearly paid with his life.
Francis M’Clean, Esq., of Leinster-street, in this city, to Eliza Frances, youngest daughter the late Thomas Anderson, Esq., Elm Park, county of Dublin. Thursday 12 November 1829, Dublin Evening Packet and Correspondent.
George Anderson of Fisherstown was a juror in Maryborough in May 1832.
ASSASSINATION. — On Monday night, at ten o’clock, as Mr. John Anderson, of Fisherstown, about three miles from Monasterevan, was returning home from his mother’s house, where he had dined, and just as he was about ten o’clock, crossing his own stile, was alarmed by voice, saying, “ now is the time,’ which was instantly’followed by shot through the body, on which he fell to the ground. He was then attacked by three ruffians, who inflicted innumerable wounds with bayonets “and swords, by one of which his hand was split down to the arm. The unfortunate gentleman was still surviving at seven o’clock on Tuesday evening : no less than three of the many wounds he received were considered mortal. Westmeath Journal Thursday 27 September 1832
From the report of the trial in July 1833. The Evidence of John Tiffan
‘Through the exertions of Captain Flinter and Mr. Anderson, of Fisherstown, two of the three men who lately entered the house of Mr Exshaw, near Monastereven and assaulted a female relative of Mr E have been arrested Saturday, August 17, 1833;
In 1834 George Robinson, formerly of Simmond’s-court, Dublin, and late of Fisherstown, Queen’s County, gent., was declared insolvent, though it is not clear when he lived at Fisherstown.
A new family now appear at Fisherstown. The Kenny connection will be nearly as long as the Scotts. More about the Kennys and Belan House will follow in the next story.
Thomas Kenny, of Belan, in the Queen’s County, Esqr, married Bedelia, second daughter of the late Thomas Anderson, of Elm Park, county Dublin, and Fisherstown House, Queen’s 1836 Wednesday 31 August 1836 Saunders’s News-Letter
The young couple seem to have taken up residence in Fisherstown:- Fisherstown House, of Thomas. L. Kenney, Esq.; Lewis 1837.
The OS map of 1835
The Scotts were still the head landlords, and they had a bad autumn in 1838. On August 25th in Upper Mount Street Dublin, Clara Theodosia, the wife of Wm. Scott, Esq., of the Exchequer Office and of Fisherstown, Queen’s County died.
On the 12th September, Henry David, second son of William Scott, Esq., of Fisherstown in the Queen’s County died in York-street, Dublin. Saturday, September 15, 1838
Thomas Kenny seems to have had his mother in law in residence with him – the Clare Journal reported that Mrs. B. Anderson, of Fisherstown House Queen’s County had died on Thursday 23 June 1842. After that the Kennys considered selling:-
Fisherstown House – lease to be sold:- The Demesne immediately adjoins the Grand Canal, where the Fly Boat passes daily, ‘Morning and Evening, to and from Dublin and Athy apply Rev Simon Kenny Calverstown Saturday, December 24, 1842 Leinster Express
At Kingstown, William Scott, Esq. of Upper Mount Street and Fisherstown, Queen’s County. died Nov 1847
The Limerick and Clare Examiner 24 Jan 1855 reported that “ In St. John’s Church, Kilkenny, William Walter Scott, Esq , eldest son of the late William Scott, Esq., Fisherstown, Queen’s County, and of Upper Mount.Street, Dublin, to Eleanor, youngest daughter of John Anderson, Esq. Kilkenny .“
William Walter Scott was born in about 1835 in Dublin, and joined the army at the age of 18, purchasing a commission as an Ensign in the Leicestershire Regiment (17th Foot) on 18th Nov 1853. He retired by selling his commission on 17 Nov 1854. The 17th Foot was involved in the Siege of Sebastopol from February 1855, so he may have been very fortunate to leave when he did.
William was promoted from Lieutenant to Captain in the County of Armagh Light Infantry Regiment of Militia on 21st December 1860, replacing Captain Caulfeild who was being promoted. On 18 Nov 1863, Archibald Brabazon Sparrow (Viscount Acheson) was appointed Captain of the Armagh Light Infantry Regiment of Militia, replacing William, who had died.
Scott—November 29. at Kilkenny, to the wife of Wm. Walter Scott. .of Fisherstown. Queen’s County, Lieutenant Armagh Light Infantry, a daughter. 5 Dec 1857 Wexford Independent
Deo. 13. at the residence of her mother in Kilkenny, the wife of Captain Scott, of Fisherstown, Queen’s County, and Sidney Terrace. Blackrock, of a son. 1861
Died October 23, aged 10 months, Edward Kent, son of Captain Wm. Walter Scott, of Fisherstown, Queen’s County, and Sydney-avenue, Blackrock. 1862
To return to the Kennys, money had obviously run out and in 1863 we find Fisherstown in the hands of the 19th Century NAMA., but they seem to have been able to buy it back themselves.
LANDED ESTATES COURT FISHERSTOWN QUEEN’S COUNTY. TWO LOTS. ln the Matter of the Estate of T. KENNY, Dublin Daily Express 29 Dec 1863
Theophilus Scott, Lieutenant 10th Regiment, youngest son of the late William Scott, Esq., of Fisherstown, Queen’s County, to Elizabeth Clementina Thomson, daughter of the late T. Deas Thomson, Esq. 1865
Cardwell—-May 19, at Tullyeltner, Armagh, after a short illness, Rebecca, the beloved wife of John Cardwell, Esq., and youngest daughter of the late William Soott, Esq., _Fisherstown House, Queen’s County. Saturday, May 29, 1869
Kenny—Feb 9. at her residence. Fisherstown. Monasterevan, Maria, relict of the late Richard Kenny, Esq. . Interment this (Wednesday) morning, at o’clock, Lea. 11 February 1885 Dublin Daily Express
Henry George Myles, Ratharney, Abbeyshrule, County Longford, to Harriet Emily, only daughter of the late Richard Kenny, Fisherstown House, Monasterevan Wednesday 13 October 1886 Dublin Daily Express. Henry was one of seven brothers, all of whom were doctors. Their father was Zachary Myles, of Limerick.
The 1911 census records Robert Kenny, age 49 as the head of the house. Robert was accompanied in the house by his brother George Kenny, age 45 and nephew Eddey Wildney, age 9. Robert and George farmed the surrounding land. They employed a housekeeper: Kathrine Meley, age 69 and one domestic servant: Mary Roberts, age 15.
By the 1930s when Robert was nearly 70 Miss Clare Cahill had arrived to be manageress of the farming business. She was learning to drive a new Morris car on Saturday December 30th, when she came into collision with a Steam roller at Fisherstown. A young mechanic named Flood was with her the time and was able to avert serious crash.
Not the actual Fisherstown Morris Minor but one photographed by Steve Glover from Bolton, Lancs.
The car was only slightly damaged. As reported on Saturday 06 January 1934 by the Kildare Observer and Eastern Counties Advertiser. Maybe the Steam Roller was on its way to The Stradbally Steam Rally! I wonder was the car, a £100 Morris Minor, a Christmas present?
KENNY (Laoighis) July 13. 1948. at his residence, Fisherstown House, Ballybrittas, Portarlington, Laoighis, Robert Wolfenden Kenny, aged 86; deeply and deservedly regretted. Funeral leaving residence tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 O’clock for family burial ground. Lea, Portarlington.
Rath Guild I.C.A. reported in January 1952
Two members were- newly-weds. The room was gaily decorated, with table setting and floral arrangement by Miss Cahlll, Fisherstown House and Miss Dunne, Coolroe. Miss P. Wilson, Miss C. Kelly, Mrs. Corcoran and Miss B. Dillon won laurels for the catering .
The new officers are:—President, Mrs. Bland, Rath House; Vice-President, Mrs. Bolger, Belin House; Secretary, Miss McCarthy, N.T.; Treasurer, B, Donoghue; P.C. Rep., Mrs. O’Connell.
FISHERSTOWN HOUSE, BALLYBRITTAS, LEIX SALE OF 74 COCKS OF HAY We have received instructions from Miss Clare Cahill to sell by Auction at above ON THURSDAY, 31st JULY 1952 47 cocks prime 2nd crop hay and 27 cocks old meadow hay, in lots to suit Sale at 8 o’clock,
The Irish Farmers Journal in March 1958 is advertising Fisherstown House , Portarllngton Co. Leix . Charming non-basement compact period house on 84 acres:
On April 19 1958 it sold by auction for £7,500.00.
On Thursday June 26, 1958 Murphy Buckley and Keogh sold by auction the remaining furniture and farm machinery.
The End!
More Minor than Major 