 |
Use our Google Search, to find what you are looking for |
|
|
|
|
Page 1 - Page 2
THE TALLEST WINDMILL IN IRELANDCaroline McCall, MGSIThis article was originally printed in the Journal of the Genealogical Society of Ireland in 2003, Volume 3 No. 4. It gives some of the history of the Seatown Windmill and of the people associated with it.
The great windmill at Seatown, Dundalk, stands seven stories high. At one time reputed to be the tallest in Ireland, it overlooks the east end of the town. With its roof and sails long gone it has the appearance of an early Christian round tower. An increase in the production of oats and wheat during the Napoleonic Wars, to cater for the busy export trade, was probably the impetus that led to its construction. It has not operated as a working mill since the mid 19th Century. Several times in the past, great plans have been made for its restoration but, on each occasion, these have come to nothing. Each year it becomes a little more dilapidated and the ivy encroaches steadily upwards on the dark grey stone. The Windmill is located in Seatown, Dundalk, Co. Louth. The Patron day of the parish is 29th June, the festival of St. Peter. The Ordnance Survey Letters relating to Seatown dated 15th February 1836, state 'In Dundalk town there was formerly a well called Tobar Peadair; it is now closed and a windmill erected on its site.’ In his journal of 29th June 1815 a resident of Seatown, Henry McClintock wrote 'I passed the evening with Captn. Johnson - there was a great pattern in Seatown here.' Prior to the building of the Windmill, the site had been occupied by a brewery. The brewer is listed as a Mr. Henry Byrne. In a deed dated 2nd February 1768 'Mr. Gerald Byrne the younger devised unto John Foster those tenements … including a dwelling house Brewery Malt House and several other houses … for the term of three lives … under yearly rent … of two pounds fifteen shillings sterling besides other duties payable half yearly.' The brewery is referred to as 'Mr. Ford's Brewery' in the Longfield Collection of maps in the National Library. Adjacent to the brewery site on this map are 'Mr. Pat Martin's mill grounds'. Old legal deeds held by the Louth Local Authorities Archives, Dundalk, refer to Mr. Patrick Martin of Dundalk, as 'a brewer’. In his book 'Gossiping Guide to Dundalk', H.G. Tempest refers to a Mr. Martin, who was an extensive householder in the town, as the builder of the Windmill. He 'built the windmill and used it for fine flour and oatmeal manufacture, and for the grinding of Indian corn' (maize). Unfortunately, he did not cite his source for this information. However, his father, Mr. William Tempest, was a noted historian in Dundalk. He was also one of the receivers appointed by the court to collect the rent for the Windmill, when it was under the control of the Court of Chancery in the latter half of the 19th century. Although no precise date has been established for the construction of the windmill, the evidence available seems to point to the early 1790's. During the Napoleonic Wars, the windmill was operated by the Kieran and Callan families. The Kieran's are listed in the Hearth Money Rolls for the old civil parish of Castletown Belew in the Barony of Dundalk in 1664. This parish included the Pre-Reformation parishes of Philipstown, Kilcurley and Dunbin among others. The Rolls indicate that the Kierans paid tax on six hearths. They also feature in an 18th Century corn census of County Louth held at the National Archives. This survey was carried out between the years 1739 and 1741 and gives an account of the corn and other crops, in the possession of the farmers of County Louth. In his 1920s Townland Survey of County Louth, the Rev. P. Corcoran C.C. refers to the ruins of the old parish church and graveyard of Dunbin. 'Up to 80 years ago children used to be buried here, but it was also used for adults at an earlier time.' He also states 'there is a vault to the rear of Mr. John Brady's house which is said to belong to the Kieran family'. He makes reference in his article to the flogging of a member of the Kieran family at Dundalk for a breach of martial law in 1798. By the late 1700s, the Kieran family were well established as Chandlers in Clanbrassil Street, Dundalk. Owen Kieran married Margaret Dowdall and they had three sons, James, William and Laurence, and four daughters, Mary, Margaret, Anne and Ellen. An inscription on the back of an old photograph of the Windmill referred to the 1798 Rebellion, and the flogging of their son James, at the windmill yard. This story was detailed in several histories of Dundalk written in the nineteenth Century, including Anthony Mannion's history of maritime ports and D'Alton and O'Flanagan's 'The Sham Squire'. They cite as their source, a Mr. Byrne of Lisnawilly who had witnessed this event as a child. In March 1797, a proclamation was made, ordering the surrender of all arms to the authorities. In 1798 Dundalk was placed under martial law, which was upheld by a system of district yeomanry, who acquired a considerable notoriety for their ill treatment of local Catholic community. The yeomen of Dundalk were under the control of Lord Roden. Mannion writes 'the name of Catholic was synonymous with that of rebel and the pitch cap and triangle were exerted with more than ordinary severity there’. Anthony Marmion states that James Kieran had 'returned from Newry in the month of May where he had been to purchase English bills to remit to his father's London correspondent ..... he was retiring to rest when his room was entered by an armed soldiery who dragged him to the guardhouse. The Carlow Militia commanded by Col. Latouche was passing through the town and he presided at a court-martial on this young man. The following morning, and for the offence of having a candle to light him to bed he was sentenced to receive three hundred lashes; one hundred and fifty of which were inflicted forthwith.’ When he had sufficiently healed from this punishment, the remaining 150 lashes were given. Although he survived his brutal punishment it must have had a dreadful impact on his parents. By 1802, both of them had died and James was head of the family. Although no record of the court martial has survived among the Rebellion papers of the National Archives, it is referred to in his obituary, which appeared in the Newry Examiner of 22nd June 1836. The Napoleonic Wars were to mark a rapid change in the fortunes of the Kierans. During the next decade, James and his brother William Kieran became the 'principals engaged in foreign trade' in Dundalk. In 1808, William started the victualling trade and for the next three years the greater part of the contracts for supplying the Royal Navy of Great Britain with beef and pork was made up in Dundalk. In 1811 the brothers were part of a committee, which proposed the building of the Buttercrane, some of the money for which was obtained by public subscription. A deed dated 25th May 1811, between Earl Roden, James Kieran, William Kieran and others refers to 'That plot of ground with the buildings lately erected thereon - for the purposes of establishing a Buttermarket Crane and Stores ... provided the directors compleat and finish the buildings now in part erected and establish the same into a public market for the purchase and sale of butter, or into Corn or general accommodation' Also in that year William Kieran was one of the committee 'named and appointed ... at and by a numerous meeting of the principal inhabitants of the town of Dundalk' held at the Guild Hall on Saturday 23rd March 1811 'for the purpose of establishing a public bakery'. Page 1 - Page 2 Irish Ancestries provide an efficient family research service based in Ireland. Back to Top |
