Lurgan’s First Century Booklet by Armagh City Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council

LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710)

Collected Essays

E Collected Essays

LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710)

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LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710)

Collected Essays

Published by Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative, April 2021. Professor Raymond Gillespie, Doctor Naomi McAreavey, David Weir Ronnie Hanna and David Weir Strong Design, Dromore Craigavon Museum Services National Library of Ireland Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast GPS Colour Graphics Ltd

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Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council Craigavon Civic Centre 66 Lakeview Road Craigavon, BT64 IAL T: 0300 0300 900 This booklet has been published as part of the Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative, supported by the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council and Lottery players through The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Cover image: 'Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland Parte of the Barony of Oneilan' by Josias Bodley, 1609/1610. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

CONTENTS

PAGE 4

LIST OF FIGURES

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FOREWORD

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LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710)

Raymond Gillespie, Professor of History Maynooth University

LURGAN, 1641: MEMORIES FROM THE 1641 DEPOSITIONS

Naomi McAreavey, Lecturer in Renaissance Literature, University College Dublin PAGE 40

PAGE 54 PAGE 60

LURGAN IN ACTION, 1660-1713

David Weir, Education and Activities Officer Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative

APPENDIX 1

Tenants of William Brownlow, 1622

APPENDIX 2

Hearth Money Roll, County Armagh, 1664 Barrony of Oneland and Parish of Shankill Lorgan Towne

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APPENDIX 3

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1693 Shankill Parish Church Cess Returns for the Town of Lurgan

LIST OF FIGURES

PAGE 6

FOREWORD

PAGE 12

PAGE 24

PAGE 4

LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710)

Print:

Professor Raymond Gillespie, Doctor Naomi McAreavey, David Weir Ronnie Hanna and David Weir Strong Design, Dromore Craigavon Museum Services National Library of Ireland Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast GPS Colour Graphics Ltd

Raymond Gillespie, Professor of History Maynooth University

LURGAN, 1641: MEMORIES FROM THE 1641 DEPOSITIONS

Naomi McAreavey, Lecturer in Renaissance Literature, University College Dublin

Texts: Editors: Design: Image Credits:

CONTENTS

PAGE 40

LURGAN IN ACTION, 1660-1713

David Weir, Education and Activities Officer Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative

Published by Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative, April 2021.

PAGE 54

PAGE 60

APPENDIX 1

Tenants of William Brownlow, 1622

APPENDIX 2

Hearth Money Roll, County Armagh, 1664 Barrony of Oneland and Parish of Shankill Lorgan Towne

PAGE 62

APPENDIX 3

PAGE 66

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1693 Shankill Parish Church Cess Returns for the Town of Lurgan

LIST OF FIGURES

PAGE 11

FIGURE 3

FIGURE 5

‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland Parte of the Barony of Oneilan’ by Josias Bodley, c.1609/1610. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

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FIGURE 10

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FIGURE 11

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FIGURE 6

Detail from the ‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: Parte of the Barony of Oneilan’ by Josias Bodley, c.1609/1610, outlining the principal townlands granted to John and William Brownlow by King James I. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

The 1641 Depositions archived at Trinity College Dublin can be accessed online at https://1641.tcd.ie/

FIGURE 9

‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: A Generalle Description of Vlster’ by Richard Bartlett, c.1602/03. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

FIGURE 4

FIGURE 8

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FIGURE 2

Professor Raymond Gillespie of Maynooth University speaking on ‘Lurgan’s First Century: The Origins and Growth of a town in the Lagan Valley’ in St. Peter’s Parish Hall on Monday 28 October 2019.

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On Monday 14 October 2019 Brownlow House hosted the second lecture of our series entitled ‘Place-names in Lurgan and the South Armagh District: From the Plantation to the Present’ by Prof. Micheál O Mainnin and Dr. Frances Kane of the Northern Ireland Place Name Project.

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FIGURE 1

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Facsimile copy of the map 'The Barony of Onealand in Ardmagh County', which formed part of the Down Survey of Ireland (1656-8) overseen by William Petty. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queens University Belfast. Detail of 'Lorgann Towne' from a facsimile copy of the map 'The Barony of Onealand in Ardmagh County', which formed part of the Down Survey of Ireland (1656-8) overseen by William Petty. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queens University Belfast. Dr. Francis X. McCorry provided the final lecture of our series, entitled ‘Lurgan in Action, 1670-1713’, in the Lurgan Friends (Quaker) Meeting House on Monday 11 November 2019.

FIGURE 12

Part of the Middle Row, Market Street, Lurgan, prior to its demolition in c.1885. Image reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Ireland.

FIGURE 13

Margery’s Lane, off Market Street, Lurgan, c.1895. Image reproduced by kind permission of Craigavon Museum Services.

FIGURE 14

Dwelling in Margery's Lane, off Market Street, Lurgan, c.1895. Image reproduced by kind permission of Craigavon Museum Services.

FIGURE 7

Detail of Lurgan town in c.1703 from ‘A Mapp of the Glan Bogg lying between the Counties of Ardmagh and Down’ by Francis Nevil. Image (D695/M/1) reproduced by kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

LIST OF FIGURES

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FIGURE 9

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FIGURE 10

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FIGURE 11

FIGURE 4

FIGURE 5

FIGURE 6

FIGURE 3

The 1641 Depositions archived at Trinity College Dublin can be accessed online at https://1641.tcd.ie/

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FIGURE 2

FIGURE 8

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Dr. Francis X. McCorry provided the final lecture of our series, entitled ‘Lurgan in Action, 1670-1713’, in the Lurgan Friends (Quaker) Meeting House on Monday 11 November 2019.

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FIGURE 1

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FIGURE 12

Part of the Middle Row, Market Street, Lurgan, prior to its demolition in c.1885. Image reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Ireland.

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PAGE 53

FIGURE 13

Margery’s Lane, off Market Street, Lurgan, c.1895. Image reproduced by kind permission of Craigavon Museum Services.

FIGURE 14

Dwelling in Margery's Lane, off Market Street, Lurgan, c.1895. Image reproduced by kind permission of Craigavon Museum Services.

FIGURE 7

Over the next four years we will continue to follow Lurgan’s history through our lecture series, with further publications to follow which we hope will preserve the research for future generations to learn from and indeed debate.

FOREWORD

Contained within this present booklet are three essays based on lectures delivered as part of the series. A special thanks is due to Professor Raymond Gillespie of Maynooth University and Doctor Naomi McAreavey of University College Dublin for taking the time to write the essays and Dr. Francis X. McCorry for providing permission for an essay to be produced themed on his talk.

Councillor Joe Nelson Chairman, Lurgan Townscape Heritage Partnership

January 2019 marked the commencement of the Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative (Lurgan THI); a five year National Lottery Heritage Fund regeneration scheme, delivered in partnership with the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council. The principal aims of the Lurgan THI are to: 1) Repair, restore and regenerate up to 25 designated buildings within the Lurgan Conservation Area which contribute to the historic townscape character of Lurgan. 2) Organise a community based activities, education and training programme to promote enjoyment and understanding of Lurgan’s built and cultural heritage. In pursuit of this second goal the Lurgan THI were proud to inaugurate the first annual Lurgan Lecture series on 8th October 2019. Over five weeks venues throughout Lurgan hosted a number of speakers who provided expert insights into the Plantation origins of Lurgan town and the events and personalities which shaped its development through the seventeenth century. The high attendances at each talk reflected both

the wide interest in local history and the quality of the talks provided. We would like to extend our thanks to all of the speakers who took part in the series and to all those who attended which made for many memorable evenings. Contained within this present booklet are three essays based on lectures delivered as part of the series. A special thanks is due to Professor Raymond Gillespie of Maynooth University and Doctor Naomi McAreavey of University College Dublin for taking the time to write the essays and Dr. Francis X. McCorry for providing permission for an essay to be produced themed on his talk.

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Councillor Joe Nelson Chairman, Lurgan Townscape Heritage Partnership

FOREWORD

2) Organise a community based activities, education and training programme to promote enjoyment and understanding of Lurgan’s built and cultural heritage. In pursuit of this second goal the Lurgan THI were proud to inaugurate the first annual Lurgan Lecture series on 8th October 2019. Over five weeks venues throughout Lurgan hosted a number of speakers who provided expert insights into the Plantation origins of Lurgan town and the events and personalities which shaped its development through the seventeenth century. The high attendances at each talk reflected both 6

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FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2 Professor Raymond Gillespie of Maynooth University speaking on

‘Lurgan’s First Century: The Origins and Growth of a town in the Lagan Valley’ in St. Peter’s Parish Hall on Monday 28 October 2019.

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FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2

Professor Raymond Gillespie of Maynooth University speaking on

‘Lurgan’s First Century: The Origins and Growth of a town in the Lagan Valley’ in St. Peter’s Parish Hall on Monday 28 October 2019.

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FIGURE 3

‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: A Generalle Description of Vlster’ by Richard Bartlett, c.1602/03.

Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

FIGURE 4 Detail of Clanbrasil from ‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: A Generalle Description of Vlster’ by Richard Bartlett, c.1602/03. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collection & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast. The town of Lurgan can trace its origins back to 1610 when John and William Brownlow, a father-son partnership from Nottingham were granted land in the territory of Clann Bhreasail (Clanbrasil). The land was granted to them by King James I as part of his Plantation of Ulster scheme, which aimed to pacify the province by planting loyal English and Scottish settlers on land confiscated from the rebellious Gaelic and Old English lords. Pre-plantation sources about Clann Bhreasail are scarce but in Edmund Hogan’s The Description of Ireland, published in 1598, it is noted that ‘CLONBRASSELL is a verie Woody and Boggie Countrie upon the great Lough side, called Oaghe or Sidney’.

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FIGURE 3

‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: A Generalle Description of Vlster’ by Richard Bartlett, c.1602/03.

Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

FIGURE 4

Detail of Clanbrasil from ‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: A Generalle Description of Vlster’ by Richard Bartlett, c.1602/03. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collection & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast. The town of Lurgan can trace its origins back to 1610 when John and William Brownlow, a father-son partnership from Nottingham were granted land in the territory of Clann Bhreasail (Clanbrasil). The land was granted to them by King James I as part of his Plantation of Ulster scheme, which aimed to pacify the province by planting loyal English and Scottish settlers on land confiscated from the rebellious Gaelic and Old English lords. Pre-plantation sources about Clann Bhreasail are scarce but in Edmund Hogan’s The Description of Ireland, published in 1598, it is noted that ‘CLONBRASSELL is a verie Woody and Boggie Countrie upon the great Lough side, called Oaghe or Sidney’.

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LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710) Raymond Gillespie, Professor of History, Maynooth University

Towards the end of 1703, Arthur Brownlow, the landlord of Lurgan, wrote to Queen Anne about his town. It was, he claimed, a large village with a great many houses, well shingled and abounding in settlers. These were ‘industrious and trading people’ who had advanced linen manufacture so that it was ‘one of the most thriving, flourishing villages and most considerable market towns of … Ulster’.1 Brownlow’s claim was supported by a number of testimonials from local landlords. Nearly a century earlier when the map-maker Josias Bodley mapped the barony in which Lurgan lay, he recorded no trace of a settlement on the site (see figure 6). The emergence of Lurgan was the result of the influx of new settlers that accompanied the Plantation of Ulster in the first half of the seventeenth century and an even larger influx after 1660. This growth was not inevitable. Other nearby places, such as Portadown, had a similar inflow of settlers but they failed to produce settlements of the size of Lurgan. Why Lurgan’s first century was so productive is the subject of this essay.

BROWNLOW’S TOWN (1610–30)

Lurgan’s success was, in large measure, the result of the initiatives of the family who were granted its site in the early seventeenth century, and remained its landlords into the eighteenth century, the Brownlows. It is among the papers of that family that many of the sources for the early history of the town can be found, in particular the leasebook made by Arthur Brownlow (1645–1711) which records much of the seventeenthcentury development of the town.2 Supplemented by the records of the Plantation, we have in Lurgan one of the best documented towns of seventeenth-century Ulster.

1 2

R. P. Mahaffy (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, Domestic: Anne, 1703–4, London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1924, pp. 232–3. See R.G. Gillespie (ed.), Settlement and Survival on an Ulster Estate: The Brownlow Leasebook 1667–1711, Belfast: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, 1988.

Lurgan was different from other successful Ulster Plantation towns such as Armagh or Dungannon. Apart from the fact that these were well-established settlements before the Plantation, they also in the seventeenth century acquired charters which confirmed their status as centres of civil administration. Hence they had the support of the Dublin administration behind them. Lurgan was not an administrative centre. It was simply a market town with no support but that of the local landlord, who needed a market that would allow his tenants to buy and sell their goods and make enough profit to pay him rent. The first grantee of the site, William Brownlow, moved quickly. By 1611 he was busy constructing a house for himself, presumably on the site of the present Brownlow House. He was already planning a town with two houses recorded as finished and ‘other frames set up, where his town shall be’.3 By 1619 things had advanced with a survey commenting that Brownlow ‘hath made a very fair Town, consisting of 42 Houses, all which are inhabited with English Families, and the streets all paved clean through’.4 Three years later, the final survey of the progress of the Plantation modified this slightly by reducing the number of houses to forty and noting that the houses were built ‘on both sides [of] the street’. We can have some confidence in this description as the surveyors in 1622 also collected a list of names of forty-seven inhabitants, presumably representing the families in the forty houses (see appendix 1).5 Most occupants of the town were English but two tenants were described as Irish. Almost half were described as either ‘yeoman’ or ‘husbandman’, farmers living in the town while cultivating their assigned lands outside of it, which varied between one acre and forty acres in size. The range of specialist occupations in the town was limited with ten occupations being listed. These included four joiners, three turners, three coopers, two shoemakers, a mason, a weaver, a smith, a tanner, a carpenter and a butcher, all tasks that one might find in a settlement dominated by farmers and their families. While three gentlemen were mentioned, there is little indication of any high-value craft occupations or trading. The position of the town as a small marketing centre was 3

Printed in Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report on the Manuscripts of the late Reginald Rawdon Hastings, Vol. IV, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1947, p. 174.

Printed in George Hill, An Historical Account of the Plantation in Ulster at the Commencement of the Seventeenth Century, 1608–1620, Belfast: McCaw, Stevenson and Orr,

1877, p. 557.

Printed in Victor Treadwell (ed.), The Irish Commission of 1622: An Investigation of the Irish Administration, 1615–22, and Its Consequences, Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2006, pp. 540, 552–5.

BROWNLOW’S TOWN (1610–30) Lurgan’s success was, in large measure, the result of the initiatives of the family who were granted its site in the early seventeenth century, and remained its landlords into the eighteenth century, the Brownlows. It is among the papers of that family that many of the sources for the early history of the town can be found, in particular the leasebook made by Arthur Brownlow (1645–1711) which records much of the seventeenthcentury development of the town.2 Supplemented by the records of the Plantation, we have in Lurgan one of the best documented towns of seventeenth-century Ulster.

1 2

Raymond Gillespie, Professor of History, Maynooth University

LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710)

Printed in Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report on the Manuscripts of the late Reginald Rawdon Hastings, Vol. IV, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1947, p. 174.

Printed in George Hill, An Historical Account of the Plantation in Ulster at the Commencement of the Seventeenth Century, 1608–1620, Belfast: McCaw, Stevenson and Orr,

1877, p. 557.

confirmed in 1629 by the grant of the right to hold a Friday market and two fairs each year, although these were probably already in existence before the formal grant was made.

Where precisely was this flourishing early seventeenth-century market town? In the late seventeenth century, the landlord, Arthur Brownlow, copied an estate rental from 1635 into his leasebook.6 From this source we can identify a number of holdings whose existence are known later. The evidence suggests that the town was laid out along a roadway, possibly much older than the town itself, that followed a ridge of high land that was safe from flooding (hence the name Lurgan from the Irish Lorgain meaning ‘a long low ridge or a strip of land’). The Pound River was to the west. The cluster of houses was laid out close to the castle around the junction of present day Castle Lane and the main street of the town, and it was here that the market house was located. From this it extended south-eastwards down what is now High Street. The surveys hint at what the town looked like. Framed houses are mentioned, which suggests that houses were made of timber. It is possible that, as in the late seventeenth century, these houses were raised up on a stone base to prevent the timber posts supporting the frame from rotting.

PROGRESS STALLED (1630–60)

FIGURE 5 ‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: Parte of the Barony of Oneilan’ by Josias Bodley, c.1609/1610.

Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

During the 1630s new settlers probably continued to arrive in the town. In c.1630, when the settler forces were mustered as a militia, Brownlow was credited with forty-two tenants, which may well represent the adult male inhabitants of the town. Certainly there were strong continuities in names with the 1622 list. About half the surnames, however, had not been there in 1622 and this suggests that there continued to be a steady influx of new settlers seeking houses, probably in the town, along with land in the surrounding countryside.7 That influx ground to a halt in the early 1640s with the outbreak of the Irish insurrection on the evening of 22 October 1641. The depositions taken in the aftermath of that insurrection provide much of the documentary evidence for Lurgan in the 1640s. Various deponents described the town as having been burnt, but how much of the settlement was actually consumed by fire is

Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, pp. 150–3.

R.J. Hunter (ed.), ‘Men at Arms’: The Ulster settlers, c.1630, Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2012, pp. 26–7.

Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, pp. 150–3.

R.J. Hunter (ed.), ‘Men at Arms’: The Ulster settlers, c.1630, Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2012, pp. 26–7.

‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: Parte of the Barony of Oneilan’ by Josias Bodley, c.1609/1610.

PROGRESS STALLED (1630–60)

FIGURE 5

Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

confirmed in 1629 by the grant of the right to hold a Friday market and two fairs each year, although these were probably already in existence before the formal grant was made.

Lurgan’s First Century Booklet

Articles inside

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FOREWORD

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LIST OF FIGURES