Monthly Archives: October 2015

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 29 October 2015

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorized

816a. Main Street Bandon, c.1900

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 

Cork Independent, 29 October 2015 

Cork Harbour Memories (Part 35)

 

Boyle’s West Cork Towns

 

   Last week I mentioned Richard Boyle (1566-1643), the first Earl of Cork, and his interest in creating industrial complexes such as ironworks and associated plantation settlements. His main estates were in counties Cork and Waterford but he also owned significant property in county Kerry, including lands in the baronies of Corkaguiny and Dunkerron South. In the early seventeenth century maps of Munster, some of the key settlements which Boyle was involved in creating appear. In time, many of these developed into well loved and beautiful County Cork towns – for example Bandon and Clonakilty – both of which underpin West Cork’s regional heritage and identity.

   Professor Pat O’Flanagan’s Historic Town Atlas of Bandon relates that Boyle had an involvement in Bandon, in perhaps what could be described as its second phase of development. Bandon derives its name from the erection of a bridge over the river Bandon, and owes its origin to the English planters on the great Desmond forfeitures in the reign of Elizabeth. In 1609, James I granted to Henry Beecher the privilege of a Saturday market and two fairs at the town. Power was given to him and his heirs to appoint a clerk of the market in the newly erected town of Bandon-Bridge, or in any other town within the territory, with the privilege of licensing all tradesmen and artisans settling in them.

   The grants were shortly afterwards purchased by Richard Boyle the first Earl of Cork, whose efforts in promoting the town’s growth and prosperity led him to rewrite history as such and to be regarded as the founder of the town. He peopled it with a colony of Protestant merchants from Bristol and established iron-smelting and linen-weaving industries, all of which in a few short years flourished and increased in extent and importance. The manufacture of camlets, stuffs, and other woollen goods prevailed in Bandon to the close of the close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, and was succeeded by the spinning and weaving of cotton, which continued to flourish till 1825. Spinning-mills were then erected on a large scale, and more than 1000 people were employed in weaving, Both branches of industry diminished, in so much as the mills became less busy and not more than 100 weavers were employed as the mid nineteenth century progressed.

  In the early seventeenth century, Bandon was under continuous attack by dispossessed Irish native families such as the O’Mahony’s. Subsequently, in 1620 Richard Boyle began the construction of a wall around the town. The wall took approximately five years to build and enclosed an area of 27 acres. Much of the walls were nine feet thick and varied in height from thirty to fifty feet. There were six round towers with additional defences provided by cannon. The river openings were protected by iron flood gates and fences. The gates were built within an archway capable of allowing the tallest cart-load to pass through. They were imposing portals and strengthened with portcullises. The bridge was built of stone and consisted of six arches. Within the walls Boyle built 250 houses. There were also three urban tower houses.

  Nearby the town of Clonakilty was formally founded in 1613 by Richard Boyle when he received a charter from King James I. It appears to have replaced the nearby medieval settlement of Kilgarriff as the focus for urban development. Boyle was constituted lord of the town, with power to appoint several of the officers and to a certain extent to superintend the affairs of the corporation, which was to consist of a sovereign and not less than 13 nor more than 24 burgesses. The sovereign was annually elected by the lord of the town out of three burgesses chosen by the corporation, and the recorder was also appointed by him. The charter conferred the right of sending two members to the Irish parliament, which it continued to exercise till the Act of Union. He settled 100 English families here. Established as a market town it was engaged chiefly in the manufacture of linen and cotton through its elaborate mills. Breweries were developed in the eighteenth century and corn and potatoes were exported to Cork. The present town was largely laid out in the period 1788-1840.

   Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland describes Boyle’s legacy of sorts in Clonakilty in 1837; “The staple trade of the town was linen manufacture, which furnished employment to 400 looms and 1000 persons, who manufactured to the amount of £250 or £300 weekly. The cotton-manufacture also employed about 40 looms. A spacious linen-hall had been built some years previous by the Earl of Shannon…The corn trade was carried on chiefly by agents for the Cork merchants, who shipped it there and received coal as a return cargo”. In 1837, Lewis described that there were 14 lighters or boats of “17 tons burden each” regularly employed in raising and conveying sand to be used in the neighbourhood as manure. The nearby harbour was only fit for use for small vessels, the channel was extremely narrow and dangerous, and had at its entrance a sand bar, over which vessels above 100 tons could only pass at high spring tides. Large vessels, therefore, discharged their cargoes at the warehouses at Ring, about a mile below the town, the ruins of which still can be seen today.

 To be continued…

 

Captions:

816a. Main Street, Bandon, c.1900 (source: West Cork Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen, Cork City Museum).

816b. Boyle’s legacy, Mill Street, Clonakility, c.1900 (source: West Cork Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen, Cork City Museum).

816b. Boyle's legacy, Mill Street Clonakility, c.1900

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 22 October 2015

Cork History, Improve Your Life, Landscapes, Uncategorized

815a. Proposed portrait of Richard Boyle, early 1600s

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 22 October 2015

 Cork Harbour Memories (Part 34)

 Wood, Iron and a Seventeenth Century Millionaire

 

   In the first two decades of the 1600s, the Munster plantation was re-established and re-constituted by the Governor of Munster, George Carew. The plantation was successful in its endeavours to bring more planters to Ireland. By 1611, five thousand planters were recorded in Munster which rose to twenty-two thousand by 1641. On the one hand, with this colonisation came an influx of skilled craft-workers which led to an increase in the country’s productivity. However, on the other hand, the colonisation led very quickly to large scale Anglicisation, which attempted to destabilise Irish society by introducing new English ways of laws and social traditions.

   Joe Nunan of Blackwater Archaeology in his research work details the economy of the Munster plantation and how it grew grew steadily. The extraction of timber and iron yielded large profits but the plantation areas also rapidly developed a strong export trade in cattle and sheep. Ironworking was successful in Munster (and elsewhere) as there appears to have been significant amounts of woodland (for fuel). In the timber trade large numbers of New English settlers within the region were involved in large scale woodland clearance. Hardwoods of the Blackwater, the Lee and the Bandon River Valleys satisfied the English demand for ship timbers, barrel staves and charcoal. Boyle and Jephsons of Mallow were known as two key families of several who were involved in the export of timber. A Philip Cottingham was sent over by the crown in 1608 to survey Munster’s woods and in particular inspected the work of entrepreneur Richard Boyle. The survey detailed that much of the best timber had already been used up for pipe and barrel-staves. By 1620 Spain and France were importing many of their staves from Ireland. Walter Raleigh, in partnership with Henry Pyne, also forged a key role in their production and export from woodlands on the Cork and Waterford boundary, which were located along the Bride River.

    With reference to iron production, in Munster between 1607 and 1630, there was also a rapid growth in iron production. High international prices contributed to the construction of iron manufacturing in counties Cork and Waterford, which were situated near the Bandon, the Lee and the Blackwater Rivers. Timber, charcoal and labour were less costly than in England. Richard Boyle was involved in the ownership, establishment and leasing of many ironworks along the lower Blackwater and the Bride Rivers, while the East India Company established ironworks on the banks of the Bandon River.

   Recently I attended a historical walking tour of Youghal organised by the Irish Post Medieval and Archaeology Group and led by Cork author, industrial archaeologist and eminent scholar Dr Colin Rynne of UCC who is completing an Irish Research Council project (With Dr David Edwards, History UCC) entitled “the colonial landscapes of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, c. 1602-1643”. The project, which delves into the extensive archives of Boyle’s estate, details that he was viewed by his contemporaries as a model English planter, who best realised the aims of the Munster Plantation, forging a model English Protestant ‘commonwealth’ on his estates. In his lifetime Boyle was to become the wealthiest subject of King Charles I.

   Richard Boyle was an entrepreneur from Canterbury who became one of the most powerful characters in Britain and Ireland during the early seventeenth century. In December 1601, Walter Raleigh sold his 42,000 acre Irish estate to Richard Boyle for the paltry sum of £1500. The purchase included the towns of Youghal, Cappoquin and Lismore, all linked by the navigable River Blackwater, as well as castles, lands and fisheries, with the extra bonus of the ship Pilgrim. Temple Michael, Molana Abbey and the parkland at Ballynatray were also now given over to Richard Boyle. Richard Boyle had a substantial residence, known today as ‘The College’, close to St. Mary’s Collegiate Church.

   Boyle set to settle his lands with English planters, and to build towns and forts. On 25 July 1603, he married his second wife, Miss Fenton, daughter of Sir J. Fenton, Master of the Rolls. On this occasion, at St Mary’s Church, he was knighted by Sir George Carew. He was created a Privy-Councillor in 1606, Lord Boyle, Baron of Youghal in 1616, Viscount Dungarvan and Earl of Cork in 1620, and in 1629 he was made Lord-Justice, in conjunction with his son-in-law, Viscount Loftus; Boyle was made Lord-Treasurer in 1631. His mansion in Dublin, on the site of the present City Hall, gave the name to Cork-hill. He selected as his family motto “God’s providence is my inheritance.”

    Richard Boyle’s main estates were in counties Cork and Waterford but the estate also owned significant property in county Kerry, including lands in the baronies of Corkaguiny and Dunkerron South. Roger Boyle, a younger son of the 1st Earl of Cork, was created Earl of Orrery in 1660 and was granted lands in counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Kilkenny in 1666 amounting to almost 14,000 acres. Indeed the extent of Boyle’s estates will really only be revealed through the publication of the UCC project under Dr Colin Rynne and Dr David Edwards in the next year or so.

More next week…

 

Captions:

815a. Proposed portrait of Richard Boyle, early 1600s (source: Cork City Library)

815b. Youghal Main Street from the top of the Clock Tower looking towards the Blackwater Estuary, taken during a recent fieldtrip of the Irish Post Medieval and ArchaeologyGroup (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

815b. Youghal Main Street from the top of the Clock Tower looking towards the Blackwater Estuary

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 15 October 2015

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, National, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized

814a. Depiction of Cork’s interior dock, the Watergate complex

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 

Cork Independent, 15 October 2015

Cork Harbour Memories (Part 33)

 A Busy Seventeenth Century Settlement

 

 Cork in the first decades of the seventeenth century was valued as the third most important port after Dublin and Waterford. The growth in prosperity was mainly attributed to the increase in utilization of the surrounding pastoral hinterland surrounding the city. Large sections of woods were cleared in Munster to accommodate the large demand for pasturalism. However, in 1610, a report by the commission of the Munster Plantation noted that the woods were being depleted too fast in order to clear land so sheep could graze on it.

  In the early 1600s, it is recorded that the main areas that Cork was importing from and exporting to included Seville in Spain, Lisbon in Portugal, St Malo and the Saintonge area in the south-west of France, cities in the north of Italy such as Pisa, western English port cities such as Bristol, Cologne and the Rhine area in Germany and towns such as Delft in northern Holland. New trading connections were also established with the Canary Islands and Jersey. The main imports from the first four countries in the above list mainly consisted of wine while from the others iron and salt were the principal imports. This is also reflected in the archaeological evidence from sites with preserved late medieval contexts. A large percentage of the pottery discovered dating to the seventeenth century was from the warm temperate countries where wine was grown.  

  Hides, tallow, pipestaves, rugs and friezes were the main exports along with cattle, wool and some butter. There was an increasing trade in beef, which led to the moving of slaughter houses or shambles outside the city walls. Indeed, such was the extent of active trade in Cork whether it be exporting or importing, that there was increased activity in the pirate activities. It eventually reached the stage where special convoys were introduced to protect merchant ships especially around the south coast.

    The physical nature of the walled city appears constantly in Cork Corporation priority list regarding revamps. The old Corporation records detail the worsening condition of the town walls. In January 1609, a plan to build a new court house on the site of King’s Castle, which was the northern control tower of the central Watergate into the town, was delayed. The walls onto which the courthouse were be attached were crumbling and in danger of collapsing. New walls would have to be built, so the new courthouse could be built.

   The poor condition of the town walls continued to be a major issue for the Corporation into the decades of the 1610s and 1620s and even the bridges leading into the town were described as ruinous and calls were made for them to be mended. From 1614 on, all monies earned by the Corporation from taxing imports such as wine were to be spent the repairing of the walls. However, by 1620, it was agreed that the incoming revenue into the settlement’s coffers was not enough and a bye-law was passed where several municipal rates were to be brought in as well as increasing of existing rates. Taxes were raised on several regularly exported commodities such as animal feed such as oats, animal skins such as horse, deer, fox and on drinks such as beer and wine. However, the taxes regarding docking your boat, passage through the city, tax on the land you owned were abolished.

   In 1620, an English traveller described Cork as “ a populous town and well compact, nothing to commend it…the town stands in a very bog and is unhealthy”. The physical state of the town also became an issue in May 1622 when lightning struck one of the thatched roofs in the eastern part of the city which caused a large scale fire to rapidly spread from one thatched roof to the next. According to the historical records, the fire began between eleven and twelve o’ clock in the morning.   Indeed, apart from one clap of lightning there was also a second clap of lightning which lit the houses in the western part of the city. It is detailed that the since the houses overlooking the main street were in flames, the people trapped between the two fires were forced to flee into the city’s main churches, Christ church on South Main Street and St. Peter’s on North Main Street. Both of these churches are recorded as being constructed of stone and having a slated roof which saved the lives of numerous townspeople. The people who did not make into the churches were unfortunately consumed by the fire itself. In September 1622, an order was passed that the stone walls be built and the roofs be replaced by slate or timber boards.

   The early seventeenth century was an era of unprecedented social upheaval whereby a large part of society consisted of a Catholic majority ruled by a Protestant sovereign. As the seventeenth century progressed, Catholicism became more a political movement than a religious one which aligned itself and made full use the church in Rome as a reason for rebellion.

 To be continued…..

 

Captions:

 814a. Depiction of Cork’s interior dock, the Watergate complex, from John Speed’s ‘Corke’ from his Province of Munster c.1610-11 (source: Cork City Library)

 814b. Depiction of Cork Harbour and East Cork from section of John Speed’s Province of Munster, c.1610-11 (source: Cork City Library)

 814b. Depiction of Cork Harbour and East Cork

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 8 October 2015

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized

813a. Section of John Speed’s Province of Munster

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 8 October 2015

 Cork Harbour Memories (Part 32)

 The Theatre of Empire

 

  The online map archive of the city through the ages makes for great viewing at www.corkpastandpresent.ie. The early seventeenth century is well represented. One beautifully engraved and hand-coloured map is by John Speed (1552-1629) of the province of Munster taken from The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine (1611-12). In the corner of the map is a representation of the walled town of Cork. Though dated 1610 and mentioning London based publishers John Sudbury and George Humble. It was 1616 before it was actually published in Amsterdam by globe maker and map engraver Jodocus II Hondius with the assistance of George Humble, who also acted as Speed’s editor. Sudbury and Humble were the largest and most successful publishers and print-sellers in London.

   The Munster map is embellished with an engraving of a man (a cartographer?) wielding a large pair of dividers, while he stands on top of the scale of Irish miles; in Youghal harbour is a galleon ship and in the Atlantic is a boy playing the harp whilst sitting astride a remarkable winged sea creature. Present day Munster comprises six Irish counties but the province has to this day many churches and ancient castles that are depicted on this map. The map abounds with the names of local clans and families – it is inscribed in a very personal way – but its use was also political showing the controlled hidden corners of the British empire.

    There are two inset town plans on the map of the most prominent towns in the province at the time – Cork and Limerick, both of which were fortified with large town walls and built on rivers. In the Cork map, the northern suburbs, present day Shandon Street is shown along with Shandon Castle and the remains of the Franciscan Abbey on the present day site of the North Mall. In the southern suburbs, structures such as the Augustinian Abbey, the earthen ramparts of Elizabeth Fort, while further west an old medieval church associated with the remains of a round tower encompassed by a wall are depicted.

   The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography records that John Speed as beginning his working life as a tailor in the northern English county of Cheshire. He pursued his apprenticeship under his father, a local tailor, and carried on the family business for a number of years. His attention to detail and a keen interest in cartography, led him to try his hand at map making. He began to display a uncharacteristic talent for this and, despite still working as a tailor, Speed created and published his first known map in 1595 – a map of Canaan.

   Soon afterwards, Speed was patronised by Sir Fulk Revil, It was this generosity that allowed Speed to depart for London, still as a teenager, and focus on his education at the College of Antiquaries. He became absorbed in his studies, developing his keen interest in history, and soon a specialist interest in the history of cartography. With the help and advice of various associates of Sir Fulk Revil, he pursued the notion of creating a complete and precise atlas of the British Isles.

   Speed took the first step with his home county of Cheshire, completing the map with one of the earliest town plans of Chester with arms and vignettes which were to become his signature style. Engraved by William Rogers, this map was published individually in 1604. He continued to cover all the counties of England and Wales. The resulting atlas, finally published in 1612, was titled The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. This remarkable work was published in partnership with the already established house of John Sudbury and George Humble. The atlas, bought by the University Library in 1968, is now considered priceless. It contains a single sheet for each county of England and Wales, plus a map of Scotland and each of the four Irish provinces, and paints a rich picture of the countryside at the turn of the seventeenth century. Cambridge University Library is home to one of only five surviving proof sets. Their map department elegantly describes Speed’s maps: “Rivers wriggle through the landscape, towns are shown as huddles of miniature buildings, woods and parks marked by tiny trees and – with contour lines yet to be invented – small scatterings of molehills denote higher ground”.

   The ‘Theatre’ was a great success and was published again many times and by a number of publishers: Sudbury and Humble notably published their second edition of The Theatre in 1627, the last edition to be published before Speed died. In 1627, Speed released his other major work: A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World. This finely detailed and embellished world atlas, the result of many years development alongside The Theatre, includes the notable accolade of being the first world atlas to be published by an Englishman. The Prospect was to be his last major work. John Speed died on 28 July 1629 having created some of the most remarkable cartography.

To be continued…

 

Captions:

813a. Section of John Speed’s Province of Munster, from Speed’s The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, c.1610-11 (source: Cork City Library)

813b. John Speed’s ‘Corke’ from his Province of Munster (source: Cork City Library)

813b. John Speed’s ‘Corke’ from his Province of Munster

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 1 October 2015

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

812a. A description of the Cittie of Cork Plan of Cork, circa 1602

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 

Cork Independent, 1 October 2015

Cork Harbour Memories (Part 31)

The Construction of Elizabeth Fort

 

   Continuing on to explore the old maps of the City, the colourful Plan of Cork c.1600 based in the Hardiman Collection in Trinity College Dublin places an emphasis on an ordered walled town on a swamp complete with houses, laneways, drawbridges. Commissioned by George Carew, President of Munster or the plantations within the south of the country, this is the second of two known maps of the walled town by him. In this plan the emphasis is less on the height of the walls and more on the roads leading into the settlement. It shows a new dock area to the east to accommodate increased trade. But it is the showcasing of Elizabeth Fort on the left (with the Holy Rood Church within), which is perhaps why this map might of been created.

  Due to the stand-off in the Battle of Kinsale between English and Irish and Spanish, a reference in State Papers from late 1601 details Carew paid 200 labourers to expand an extensive trench in the southern suburbs, and that the project was paid by the walled town and the English administration in Ireland. A further reference in the State Papers from Carew to Lord Mountjoy on 6 August 1602 reveals Carew’s interest in creating the large earthwork; “That irregular work your Lordship saw at the south end of Corke, first intended for no other end than a poor entrenchment, for a retreat, is now raised to a great height equal or above all the grounds about it, and so reinforced with a strong rampart, as a powerful enemy shall not carry it in haste, and whilst that work holds out it shall be impossible for an enemy to lodge near that end of the town. The work is great, the Queens charge in erecting it nothing”. References in the same papers also mention the construction of a new fort at Kinsale (in time to become James Fort) and a fort on Haulbowline Island in Cork harbour.

    In April 1603, Queen Elizabeth I died and a new protestant king James I was proclaimed. The Council Books of the Corporation of Cork relate that in the case of Cork, a Captain Morgan was given the responsibility by the lord lieutenant of Ireland, Deputy Mountjoy to relate the news. In Cork, the message was received by a George Thornton, one of the Kings’ appointed commissioners for Munster who gave the news to the mayor of Cork, Thomas Sarsfield. In those days, due to previous charters, the mayor and the citizens of any royal town had the choice of refusing to proclaim a new monarch on the English throne but it rarely occurred due to the threat of military force. However, in this case, the mayor, Sarsfield was anti the crown and in favour of the rebellious Irish living in the area. He knew that he could not outright refuse but decided to use niches in the political system to delay the process of proclamation.

   Sarsfield took his right to call together elected officials of the Corporation at the city court house to decide on the matter. During this time, he was informed that the rest of the large walled towns had proclaimed James and kept Thornton, the English commissioner who was waiting for a response outside the meeting. Sarsfield managed to delay the process further by declaring that the meeting had to be adjourned until the following day. Under the pressure of time, Sarsfield and the citizens contemplated attacking a fort at Haulbowline but agreed on arming themselves and preventing any English forces from entering the town.

   This rebellion did not deter Thornton from carrying out and at this stage enforcing the proclamation that James I was the new king. Thornton and eight hundred soldiers proclaimed the new king in the north suburbs of the city around Shandon Castle. A number of principal characters are recorded in this revolt. One such man, a Thomas Fagan had an interesting personality. One incident involving Thomas included the time he fired a cannon at an Englishman, a James Grant. He had previously attacked Grant and stripped him of his clothes. Fagan was also responsible for breaking into the city’s ammunition store within a former tower house called Skiddy’s Castle. This store was located at the northern end of North Main Street, now the site of the National Rehabilitation Board. However, firing cannons at people, raiding gunpowder stores were only one part of his personality. Fagan also carried a white rod around the city and declared himself the principal church-warden in the city. It is recorded that any English person or protestant that passed him was mocked without fail.

    Even, certain Englishmen took the side of the rebels. John Nicholas, brewer and a John Clarke, tanner mounted a small portable cannon on top of the walls and fired at two soldiers, killing them. The town’s recorder, John Mead was also on the side of the rebellion and used his political clout accordingly to support the rebels. Mead ordered the king’s store keeper, an Allen Apsely at Skiddy’s Castle to be killed and his arms to be taken away. He also ordered the arrest of the clerk of the munitions, a Michael Hughes along with his wife who were sentenced to be thrown over the walls as a means of execution.

 To be continued…

 

Captions:

812a. A description of the Cittie of Cork/ Plan of Cork, circa 1602 by George Carew (source: Hardiman Atlas, Library of Trinity College Dublin)

812b. Elizabeth Fort from A description of the Cittie of Cork/ Plan of Cork, circa 1602 by George Carew (source: Hardiman Atlas, Library of Trinity College Dublin)

 

812b. Elizabeth Fort from A description of the Cittie of Cork Plan of Cork, circa 1602