Jeremy Taylor and Killultagh (pt2)

SOME EXTRACTS

FROM THE

RECORDS OF

OLD LISBURN

AND THE

MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --

 Edited by JAMES CARSON. 

-- -- -- --

CXXXII.

-- -- -- --

LOCAL CONNECTION OF 

BISHOP JEREMY TALYOR 

WITH KILLULTAGH.

(Continued.)

Rev. W. H. DUNDAS, B.D.

Gosse says that Bishop Taylor probably lived at Hillsborough till 1663, when Col. Arthur Hill died. He is said to have occupied, and even to have built, a house in Castle Street, Lisburn, opposite to the entrance to the Cathedral. Canon Lett discovered that Homra House, near Lisburn, belonged to him, and that in the latter part of his life he often resided there (Gosse, Jeremy Taylor). The author of the Concise History of Lisburn (1906) says that Lord Conway fitted up for the Bishop at Magheraleave, a charming residence. The cottage is still to be seen, and the study in which he composed some of his later works. It is situate near "Duncan's Dam," off the Magheraleave Road, and is now occupied by a Mr. Beckett.

In the Ulster Journal of Archæology New Series, Vols. III. and VIII., there are full articles on the buildings associated with Jeremy Taylor by Mr. Bigger and Mr. Fennell. Portmore Castle was a magnificent house, erected in 1664 by Earl Conway, after plans of Inigo Jones, on the site of an old castle of the O'Neills. It was certainly not completed at the time of Jeremy Taylor's residence if the date be correct. The stables (140 feet by 35 by 40) had accommodation for two troops of horse; water was supplied by pumps to a series of marble cisterns.When the Lords Conway became extinct its glories departed. The Castle was dismantled about 1761 and the material sold. The remains consist at present of a parcel or two of brickwork, and the wall enclosing the bowling green. The great oak of Portmore was blown down in 1760. Its circumference was 14 yards, and it measured 25 feet to the first branch. The Deer Park, to the north of the lough, contained about 2,000 acres (Mr. Bigger says 1,000). Sallagh Island lies close below, surrounded by marshy land. It is entered at present by walking along the trunk of a fallen tree; here tradition says that Dr. Taylor had his study.

The remains of the old Church of Ballinderry are situated to the south of the Castle, which at present can only be reached from it by the lane past the mill. These ruins consist of two gables 63 feet apart and 29 feet wide. There is a window in the east gable, five feet by fifteen inches, with moulded top, and splayed inwards. This is given from notes by Canon Lett, but it is now completely hidden by the ivy. The graveyard (sometimes called Laloo) appears like an island in a bog, surrounded by a fosse and a double hedge. In it are to be seen two rude basins hollowed out of boulder stones.

This was without doubt the "half-ruined Church Of Kilulta," in which Dr. Taylor is said to have often preached to a small congregation of loyalists during the Commonwealth period, and where no doubt he used the Book of Common Prayer when it was forbidden by law. By Kiltulltagh is not meant a parish, but the manor or territory of that name. There is a townland of Derrykillultagh near the old churchyard of Templecormac to the east of the road from Magheragall to Ballinderry, which old church some have thought to be the place referred to, but a view of Portmore Castle and Portmore Church is sufficient to decide the matter. That Kilulta was used in a loose way for Ballinderry appears from a letter of Rawdon in 1666:-- "We want a a new minister in place of Mr. Evans, removed out of Kilulta." George Evans was admitted Vicar of Ballinderry in 1661. David Hardy, a Commonwealth minister, was in possession of Ballinderry Parish from 25th June, 1658, at a salary of £80.

The Middle Church.

Bishop Taylor wished to remove the church to a more convenient site, and accordingly arranged for the building of what is called "The Middle Church." It was not ready for consecration until 1668, a year after his death. It had a narrow escape in 1823 when it was agreed to build a new church on this site; however, this was subsequently annulled after much discussion, "the question being three times put" (Vestry Book), and the new church was built more to the east. By the end of the nineteenth century the Middle Church had fallen into a bad state, and the ivy threatening to destroy it. But it was restored in 1902 by Mrs. Walkington at great expense in memory of her husband, Mr. Samuel Walkington, of Oatlands, Ballinderry. The architect was Mr. Fennell, who followed the old lines exactly, and added no new feature to the building. The old oak roof was believed to have been brought from the old church by the lough, and it had to be replaced by a new one. It consisted, like the present one, of oak rafters four inches by four inches, framed and trussed together and held with strong oak pins. The trusses are two feet apart. In earlier times it had been covered with shingles instead of slates; the present slates are new, as the old ones could not be made watertight. Here, then, can be seen a country church just as it was two and a have centuries ago, with its circular-headed mullioned windows, its old "three-decker" (pulpit, reading-desk, and clerk's desk) placed on the side of the church, its high, uncomfortable pews with no fixed seats, but only forms, which could bo sup, II plied according to the number required. A space at the west end was left unpewed, for general use, as was customary in old churches.

The two front pews are larger than the rest; tradition says that the one opposite the pulpit was Lord Conway's pew. Before the restoration most of the doors had been removed; one still remains, with the carving, A.B. 1668 A.H. This was the date of consecration, and the initials may be those of the first churchwardens. It is probable that some of the fittings may also have been brought from the old church. No provision was made for heating in winter. A plan given by Mr. Bigger shows the vestry as extending from the north side behind the pulpit, and the position of the old door on the south side. He thinks the church was at some period lengthened by nine feet, when the gallery, with stairs leading to it from outside, was added.

The bell cot on the west side is now empty. The bell, which weighed 13¼ cwt., was taken down in 1869 by Rev. Jos. M'Cormick, and sold in Dublin for £6 10s 6d. The metal was recast into the bell now in Gilford Church. It bore the following inscription:-- "This Bell is cast for Portmore by order of Sir George Rawdon, AN. 1681." (It is a great pity that such a relic was destroyed; an old bell should be carefully preserved when a new and more sonorous bell is provided; Magheragall Church has probably the oldest bell in the diocese; it bears the date 1676, but has no inscription.)

From the roof of the Middle Church, over the east window, the two irons still remain from which hung the "Royal Arms," which were removed in 1859 and placed on the west gallery of the modern church. They show the lion and unicorn, etc., complete as represented during all the Stuart period, and the Royal monogram C.R. They may have been erected at the instance of the garrison in Lord Conway's Castle when it flourished in all its glory. They are painted on a heavy oak panel, with deep oak moulded frame, and weigh 2 to 2½ cwt. The old oak communion table is still preserved, and an oak chest (4ft. by 1ft. 5in x 1ft. 5in.) divided into three compartments, the centre having a slit for coins in the lid, and the date 1706. The Middle Church has also an old font, which consists of a circular stone basin on a pedestal of one solid piece of oak, with a cover of oak. One new thing alone has been added -- a funeral hatchment of Bishop Taylor, suspended on the south wall, his arms being impaled with those of the diocese.

Death and Burial.

Bishop Taylor is locally believed to have wished to be buried in this church, and that a grave was prepared for him. It is said that his will contained a provision that he should be buried here "in case it should be consecrated before his death"; but it was not to be. On his deathbed he said, "Bury me in Dromore," and there, in 1667, he was buried in the vault beneath the chancel. The Middle Church of Ballinderry was not consecrated until 1668. Yet in this church before the restoration there was a depression before the communion table about the length of a coffin, which an old woman used to point out as Jeremy Taylor's grave, and said she knew it because she saw his shin bone!

There are some interesting references to the last days of the Bishop's life in the State Papers. On January 16, 1667, Rawdon writes from Lisburn:-- "The Bishop of Down lives very well here, and says he will build a dining-room next spring"; but on August 10th he writes that the Bishop of Down is very ill; he has made his will, not in all above £2,000 to dispose of, of which £600 is for his lady and two daughters. On February 9th, 1667, he had written:-- "There is a rent of £40 a year to the Primate out of the Rectory of Derryaghy, which is leased to your Lordship (Conway) for 60 years from about 1638. The Bishop of Down refuses to pay this rent, since your bargain with him . . ." (Probably the Bishop received the rectorial tithes as in Magheragall, the resident clergyman having the vicarial tithes.)

On August 14th Rawdon wrote from Lisburn:-- "The Bishop of Down died about 3 yesterday afternoon. His Lordship desired to be buried in the church he built at Dromore, or at Ballinderry if it should be consecrated before his death," but it is not so. And on August 31st he says:-- "The news about removing trees at Portmore House a mistake. . . The good lady has asked me to put one of your servants into the house to preserve it, for the very night the Bishop died the orchard was broken into and the fruit all taken. . ."

"The funeral is to be on Tuesday, and the body was sent in my old coach to Dromore Church."

Bishop Taylor's sons all predeceased him. In 1661 the Cathedral Register records the burial of "Edward, son of Jeremy, Ld. Bp. of Down and Connor and Dromore." The last one died in London on Aug. 2nd, 1667. Soon after the Bishop fell ill of fever, caught in visiting in Lisburn, and died at his house there on August 13th, 1667, being about 54 years of age. A daughter, Joanna, was married to Edward Harrison, of Magheraleave, M.P. for Lisburn during many Parliaments. Their second son was Jeremiah Taylor Harrison, Commissary-General of Ireland, M.P. for Knocktopher, who is said to have been most like the Bishop of all his grandchildren in person, countenance, and disposition. Being a Whig, he fell under the lash of Swift in the "Legion Club" --

"There sit Clements, Dilkes and Harrison,
How they swagger from their garrison;
Such a triplet could you tell
Where to find this side of hell?"

He married Mary, daughter of the Secretary Vernon and sister to the Admiral of the same name, and died at Brookhill, near Lisburn (in Magheragall Parish) without issue. His brother inherited the property, and died intestate in 1729. (Heber's Life of Jeremy Taylor.)

Mary Harrison, a daughter of Edward Harrison and Joanna Taylor, was married to Col. Francis Columbyne, and through her Mr. George H. Clarke, J.P., of Rosevale, Lisburn, is connected with Bishop Taylor.

(Next week. -- The Parish Church of Magheragall.)

(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 9 May 1919 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week for several years. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)

Jeremy Taylor and Killultagh

SOME EXTRACTS

FROM THE

RECORDS OF

OLD LISBURN

AND THE

MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --

 Edited by JAMES CARSON. 

-- -- -- --

CXXXI.

-- -- -- --

LOCAL CONNECTION OF 
BISHOP JEREMY TALYOR 
WITH KILLULTAGH.

Rev. W. H. DUNDAS, B.D.

In this paper are collected some notes on places connected with the residence of Bishop Jeremy Taylor in Killultagh. He was born in Cambridge probably in 1613, in which year he was baptised. Having graduated at the University of Cambridge, he became Rector of Uppingham in 1638. During the Civil War he took the King's side and was expelled from his rectory, a "preacher" being put in his place. He was prisoner of the Parliament in 1645, and afterwards found refuge with the Earl of Carbery at Golden Grove, in South Wales, where, with two friends, he conducted a school.

In 1658 Lord Conway, the third Viscount and first Earl of the name, was anxious to strengthen the influence of the Anglican Church in his Manor of Killultagh, which included the parishes of Blaris (or Lisburn), Magheragall, Ballinderry, Aghalee, Aghagallon, Magheramesk, and Glenavy. At that time the Episcopal clergy had been dispossessed, and an Independent -- Andrew Wyke (or Weeke) -- was in possession of Blaris, having been appointed by the Commonwealth in 1651. Conway, by the advice of Evelyn, invited Dr. Taylor to come over, and offered him the post of assistant lecturer at Lisburn. Taylor, however, was not willing to come; he was not attracted by the prospect of lecturing under Wyke, and the stipend was very small. Further, the trouble and expense of moving his family to Ireland would be considerable. He also had a very unfavourable report of the social conditions of this part of Ireland from Major George Rawdon, Lord Conway's brother-in-law, who commanded the garrison at Lisburn. However, Conway was not to be refused, and at last Dr. Taylor consented to come. The Calendar of State Papers gives some interesting letters in this connection.

On April 2nd, 1658, Major Rawdon wrote to Lord Conway from Carrickfergus: -- "On 23rd ministers of these parts are appointed to attend at Dublin to be placed and receive their maintenance in tithes and not by salaries; but I hope it is only where the Commonwealth hath the patronage. I am told that you have assured Dr. Taylor £200 a year for his own life and his children's. You should not be mistaken in your expectations. Captain Roma's part of Ballinderry and Portmore yields now only £22 10s at 2s 6d per acre; if let at 4s an acre, as rest is, it would amount to no more than £36 a year. The cess is paid by your Lordship for those tenants that pay 4s. Sam Dawson and four English farmers have the rest of the lands of Ballinderry in leases for 41 years. The tithes do not come to above £80 a year."

Preparations were being made for his comfort at Portmore Castle, where he was to reside, for on May 26th Rawdon wrote from Dublin:-- "I have had the ill way paved from the mill at Ballinderry to the house that Dr. Taylor may pass the winter." He also says:-- "I have withheld the tithes of Lisnagarvy from Dr. Wyke, and took the land from him, and petitioned the tithes might go towards building a free school at Lisnagarvy. He went up with the 3rd Chief Baron . . . but prevailed not and now does not make account he can stay at Lisnagarvy."

On June 2nd he wrote:-- "The idea of Dr. Taylor coming over is much disliked by all the ministers in their assembly here lately. At dinner on Saturday at Chappellizard Dr. Hamilton, who sat next me, told me what offence it would give. There is great crossness among the ministers, but they are all agreed in this. If, therefore, he comes, he must he well provided with His Highness' pass or some other, that he be not subject to the trouble of petulant spirits. The ministers are now settling to receive their tithes themselves and not salaries."

The Lord Protector was induced to give him a pass, and a protection for himself and his family, and Conway helped turn to acquire a farm of 40 acres at Magheralin "at great advantage."

Before the end of the summer of 1658 he removed to Portmore, from which probably once a week he went to Lisburn to give his lecture. He also occasionally visited Hillsborough. Rawdon writes from that place on October 15th, 1658:-- "Dr. Taylor preached excellently this morning. Dr. Tandy is also considered a rare preacher, and is liked in the parish."

Imprisonment.

Tandy was destined to give Dr. Taylor trouble in the near future. He was, I believe, the Philip Tandy who was instituted as Vicar of Magheragall in 1638, and also of Glenavy in the following year, just as John Wilkinson was admitted Vicar of Magheragall and Glenavy about 1616-18, and Meredith Gwilliams Vicar of these two parishes, with Ballinderry also, in 1623. Tandy had previously held the position of schoolmaster in Lisburn, and also of agent or librarian to Lord Conway. In 1635 he wrote to Rawdon: -- "I am setting Lord Conway's books in alphabetical order, and give all the time to them that I can spare from my school. I classify them also by volumes and sciences. In the Christmas holidays I unchested the chested books and put then into the drawing-room, where they often aired by good fires. I lately tried to have an usher, but my school is not large enough to maintain one." In a letter of 1636 he says he is sending some books which Major Rawdon had asked for, and among them are a number of Latin works. This valuable library was burned at Brookhill House in Magheragall Parish by the rebels in 1641, to which place it had been moved for safety.

Tandy seems to have been removed from Magheragall by 1650, for Dr. Weeke begins to receive the tithes in that year. The reference above cited may point to his having been Commonwealth minister at Hillsborough in 1658. There is a note in the Commonwealth Papers in the Record Office, Dublin, that he was to receive £60 as schoolmaster at Lisnagarvy from 10th of July, 1658 "as an addition to his tithe." It looks as if he was a "trimmer," and tried to keep in the good graces of the Government of the day.

Taylor wrote to Evelyn on June 4, 1659: "I fear my peace in Ireland is likely to be short, for a Presbyterian and a madman have informed against me as a dangerous man to their religion, and for using the sign of the Cross in baptism. The worst event of the information which I fear is my return to England." The use of the plural "have" in the above, seems to imply two accusers, so we cannot be sure whether Tandy was the "Presbyterian" or the "madman." A letter of Lord Conway mentioned him by name in this connection:-- "I received a letter yesterday from Dr. Taylor which hath almost broken my heart. Mr. Tandy hath exhibited articles against him to the Lord Deputy and Council, so simple (as Col. Hill writes) that it should come to anything, the greatest scandal being that he Christened Mr. Bryers' child with the sign of the Cross. I have written to Hyrne to supply him with money for his vindication as if it were my own business. I hope, therefore, when you come over you will take him (Tandy) off from persecuting me, since no one knows better than yourself whether I deserve the same at his hands . . . The quarrel is, it seems, because he thinks Dr. Taylor is more welcome to Hillsborough than himself."

Elsewhere he says:-- "Mr. Tandy may have enough of these (Annabaptists and Quakers) to set himself against, without troubling his peaceable and best neighbours." (quoted in Heber's Life of Jeremy Taylor.) Hence it seems likely that Tandy was the "Presbyterian."

The Hearth Money Rolls for Magheragall Parish in 1666 give's Mr. Edward Brears; he is the only person in the parish who had more than one hearth (he had two), and, therefore, was most likely living at Brookhill, and the father of the child whose baptism is referred to.

In a copy of Harris' Ware in T.C.D. Library there is a MS. note taken from the "Book of General Orders by the Commissioners of the Commonwealth for ye Govt. of Ireland" from 22 June to 12 Dec., 1659. It inns:-- "Ordered that Lt.-Col. Bryan Smith, Gov. of Carrickfergus, do forthwith upon sight hereof cause the Body of Dr. Jeremy Taylor to be sent up to Dublin under safe custody, to the end he may make his personal appearance before the sd Commrs. (of Govt.) to answer unto such things as shall be objected agst. him in behalf of the Commonwealth. Dated at Dublin 22 Aug. 1659."

Dr. Taylor was sent to Dublin according to this Order, but as no further entry appears in the minutes. "it is probable that his friends had power to obtain his speedy discharge." (Heber.)

Lord Conway's character appears in a pleasing light when we read that Rawdon found a note among Tandy's papers (apparently after his death) that he (Conway) intended to give him £400 of his "arears." Rawdon adds-- "This will be a charity to his children, as his adventure land being put under the Doubling Ordinance will be cut short." The Cathedral Register of Lisburn records that Mrs. Mercy Tandy (probably his wife) was buried in 1703, aged 85 years, close before the Castle seat. She had been a member of the congregation, for in 1698 Mrs. Dorothy Lovel was "buryed before Mrs. Tandy's Pew in the old Ile."

Jeremy Taylor was consecrated Bishop of Down and Connor on January 18, 1661; he was also Administrator of Dromore, the election of a Bishop being temporarily suspended. He had removed to Hillsborough in the previous year, as a letter from him to Lord Viscount Montgomerie of Ardes shows. (Transcripts of Carte Papers, xxxi. 36. Record Office, Dublin.)

Letter to Montgomery of Ards.

Hillsborough. Jeremy Taylor to Lord Viscount Montgomerie of Ardes, General of the Ordnance in Ireland, Oct. 27, 1660.

My Lord, -- You are truly welcome to Ireland; your presence gives life to us in the North already, for the very expectation of your Lordship here puts sober thoughts into the heads of many, but your presence here would enable yr Lordship to give to his Majesty a better account of this country than I can yet doe, but our state is --

Here follow some very severe strictures on Presbyterians, ministers and people. No doubt the Bishop was writing under considerable provocation, but no good purpose would be served in recording here the animosities of the ancient feud. Proceeding, he says:--

I was a week since treated at Carrickfergus with great civility and nobleness by the officers, civil and military, and with great ceremony received. The delay of the consecration of the Bishops makes the ministers fancy that the King intends no Bishops in Ireland, and that keeps them off from complying. But they generally say that if they must have Bishops they are very glad they have fallen into my hands. I do not doubt, if God give me blessing and his Majesty any countenance to me and assistance by his civil officers, I shall reduce this Diocese to good temper and quiet uniform religion according to the lawes. But our delay does all the mischief that is done.

My Lord, concerning your son I remember my promise, and am very ready to perform it, and shall esteem it a blessing to me if I might have the supervision of all the young nobility of the North, and much more of your son, whom for his father's sake I must diligently serve and take care of. In order to which I must tell your Lordship my present condition. I am shut up in a little house, where I have not room for my servants to lodge, but I am close to Hillsborough Castle, and it your Lordship will be pleased to let your son have a lodging in the Colonel's house with my chaplain, who lives there and who shall teach him under my eye and perpetual conduct, and this only till the Colonel or myself or your Lordship cause a chamber to be built for Mr. Hugh at my little house -- I will then send for him speedily and take the same care of him as of my owne. This winter I am forced to this bad shift, but as soon as I can get a house convenient I shall then put your Lordship to no further trouble, but be answerable to God, the King, and to your Lordship for the education of the child, and shall esteem it a favour that your Lordship will trust me with your jewel, whom I will keep and, I hope, restore to you with lustre and advantage . . . .

(It is said that the house in Hillsborough at present used as the curate's residence was at one time occupied by Jeremy Taylor.)

(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 2 May 1919 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week for several years. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)

Bishop Jeremy Taylor

SOME EXTRACTS
FROM THE
RECORDS OF
OLD LISBURN
AND THE

MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --

Edited by JAMES CARSON.

-- -- -- --

XCIV.

-- -- -- --

BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR.

"Belfast News-Letter,"
Sept. 14, 1871.

The name of Jeremy Taylor, son of a Cambridge hairdresser, will live with the language in which was written that brilliant series of Divinity he left to the world, but little, however, is known of the inner life of the famous Bishop of Down and Connor. More than a century and a half after his death, the celebrated divine, Reginald Heber, wrote a sketch of his life, which was much read, and though superior in style to any previous work on the on the same subject, and abounding in passages of high eloquence, it is very abscure in those points of Bishop Taylor's history in which his admirers feel so much interest. Of his early career we have still to learn some details connected with his doings while private chaplain to Archbishop Laud; and how little is known of his persecution in the days of the Protectorate!

But strongest of all is the barrenness of that chapter of Taylor's history that professes to tell of his life and labours during the years he performed the duties of lecturer to the loyalists on Lord Conway's estate at Killultagh. That appointment he received through the influence of his friend, the famous John Evelyn, and his equally attached patron, Lord Edward Conway. About the close of June, 1658, Dr. Taylor left London with his wife and family, and, after various perils by sea and land, he arrived at Portmore, where in the wing of the ancient fortress erected there by O'Nial, and which for more than one hundred years had stood sentinel on the borders of Lough Neagh, a suite of apartments had been prepared far him by Lord Conway's agent. Nothing could have exceeded the romantic beauty of Taylor's residence, and there it was that, comparatively humble as was his position, he spent some of the happiest days of his life. From that period until January, 1661, when he was raised to the Episcopal Bench as Bishop of Down and Connor, we find hardly any record of his movement beyond the mere fact that he visited Lisburn every week, and delivered a lecture there in the church where the Cromwellian soldiers were wont to attend worship. But that was the busiest time of his ministerial existence. He preached every Sunday to the loyalists in the ruins of the sacred edifice from which Kill-ul-Tagh took its name: he lectured in Ballinderry, Soldierstown, and Derriaghy once a fortnight; and during his spare time toiled hard in the composition of his works on Divinity. The absence of lengthened details in the biography of Bishop Taylor is the more to be regretted when such abundant material for that purpose was to be found in the public records of the day. And besides those documents, there is the highly interesting work, entitled "The Rawdon Papers," published many years ago, abounding in passages relating to Taylor. There is also "Evelyn's Diary," a book that reads like one of Scott's novels, and in which are graphic sketches of a most exciting period of national history, many of these especially referring to the greatest divine of the seventeenth century. But so little use have his biographers made of such sources of information, that we are told little more of him that if his diocese had been seated in Timbuctoo.

We have said that Dr. Taylor was appointed Bishop of Down and Connor in January, 1661, and soon afterwards he left Portmore and went to reside at a handsome cottage which his patron, Lord Conway, had erected for him in one of the most picturesque spots that could well be conceived. Bishop Taylor's country house is still standing in Magheralave, and the little study, with its oak wainscoting and handsome windows, as shown to us some years ago, are in themselves sufficient to call forth many recollections of the great man who has been rightly called the Shakespeare of Theology. Besides this cottage, the bishop had a town house, situated in Castle Street, Lisburn, nearly opposite the entrance to the Cathedral. His favourite son died in a few months after he got settled at Magheralave, and was buried in the ground attached to Lisburn Church, but no stone marks the spot where moulder the ashes of the favourite child. This event gave a sad shock to the already weakened constitution of the bishop; still he entered on his enlarged sphere of duty determined to do the work effectually. Lord Conway had then commenced to build a castle at Portmore, and on the site of the ancient stronghold already alluded to. This magnificent pile was more like a fortress than a nobleman's mansion. The stables alone occupied a range of one hundred and fifty feet. These were two stories high. Storage to contain provisions for one year's consumption of two troops of horse was amply provided for, as well as accommodation for all the soldiers. At present not one stone of the castle is to be seen. Some portion of the stables remains and part of the garden wall, but the deerpark, with its two thousand acres of land, has long since been turned to better purposes than feeding an antlered herd. In the vicinity of the castle, and close by the shores of Ireland's splendid lake, a summer residence was erected for Bishop Taylor, and there, during the remaining years of his life, he spent a part of each season. Lord Conway and his lady resided at the castle for a great portion of each autumn. And during these times it was usual for them to visit all parts of the estate. His lordship took great delight in marking the progress of improving tenants, and never failed to encourage by something more than mere laudation every work of agricultural advancement. Bishop Taylor occupied a farm of forty Plantation acres, and while his friends remained at Portmore he was always a favoured guest at Lord Conway's table. From this time he continued to labour diligently in his diocese; he visited every parish, and occasionally preached in some of the churches; but how few of these are standing at this day! The ancient Temple of Down exhibits no assaults of time; Lisburn Cathedral yet rears its head in lusty strength; but the old Corporation Church of Belfast, with its high-peaked, straw-covered roof, and castellated gables, is only known in history.

The income of the Bishop of Down and Connor was large, and his household outlay moderate, and all his savings were invested either in works of improvement or deeds of charity. He had the Cathedral of Down completely remodelled, he spent large sums on that of Lisburn, and the other places of worship under his control were not forgotten. The See of Dromore was then one of the least valuable in point of income in Ireland. Its venerable church had fallen into decay, and although that See had no immediate claim on him, he undertook to repair the sacred edifice, and had all the work done at his own private cost. But, unfortunately for the Church of which he was so bright an ornament, his end rapidly approached. On the 24th of July, 1667, he caught fever while attending one of his town parishioners, and in his own study in Castle Street, Lisburn, expired after a few days' illness. His last words were, "Bury me in Dromore," and, in accordance with that desire, his remains were, interred there on the 6th of August, 1667. None of his sons survived him; but his widow and daughters lived long afterwards. Edward Harrison, of Magheralave, who sat for Lisburn in two Parliaments, was his grandson; and William Todd Jones, who represented the same borough from 1783 to 1971 [sic], was also a descendant of the famous bishop.

Edmund Gosse, in his Life of Jeremy Taylor (1904), introduces some new matter, and disposes of several ancient fictions regarding the history of his family.

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

ANNALS OF ULSTER -- 1790-1798,
by Samuel M'Skimin.
Edited by E. J. M'Crum -- 1906.

This work was first published in 1849 under the title "Annuls of Ulster, or Ireland Fifty Years Ago." It again appeared in 1853 as "A History of the Irish Rebellion." The present edition, 404 closely-printed pages, contains an introduction, notes, and appendix by Mr. M'Crum, and a biographical sketch of M'Skimin.

Samuel M'Skimin was the well-known historian of Carrickfergus. He was born in the year 1775, and died in 1843. Being 23 years of age when the Rebellion broke out, and having had personal knowledge of much that he describes, he must be regarded as an original authority.

The volume only deals with the Rebellion in so far as it relates to Ulster, and in its pages will be found a vivid and minute account of the rise and doings of the United Irishmen in the North, chiefly in the County of Antrim, and the events that led up to the disastrous year of '98.

From the abrupt manner in which the Annals terminate it is evident that Mr. M'Skimin had not completed his narrative at the time of his death. The Battle of Ballynahinch, and Henry Monro, of Lisburn, are merely mentioned, and no particulars whatever given regarding them.

Referring to Lisburn and the events connected with the Rebellion, it is stated:

In the towns of Belfast, Lisburn, and Carrickfergus the disaffected were awed into submission by their numerous garrisons, yet several zealous adherents from these towns passed into the country and were actively engaged in the insurgent ranks.

(Next weak: History of Killultagh, by Rev. Mr. Dundas, B.D.)


(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 2 August 1918 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week for several years. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)