The New Ross Corporation Books: a window on an age

Linda Doran

Many sets of Corporation books survive for Irish

towns (Ó Dálaigh1990; McGrath, 2006). These provide a

vivid picture of day–to–day life for the period covered

by the records (Vigors 1901). In the case of less well–

documented rural towns, these are a critical resource for

a balanced history of places that are occasionally thrust

into the limelight of national affairs but in the main

are centres of safe, solid enterprise. The Minute Books

of the Town Commissioners of New Ross, Co. Wexford,

survive from 1635 (pl.1). The earlier section is held in

the Carlow County Library while the records from c.1658

are held in the Tholsel at Ross.i One of the great

strengths of Billy’s scholarship was the highlighting of

the minute within the context of the ‘big picture’. I

hope that this paper, which attempts to consider the

mundane concerns of the officials and citizens of Ross,

as well as, their reactions to national events from the

end of the seventeenth to the end of the eighteenth

centuries, will recall this impartial respect for all the

evidence.

The town of New Ross is located 1km south of the

confluence of the navigable Nore and Barrow rivers, 40 km

from the open sea. Its situation at the lowest and

narrowest point of the Barrow made it possible to

construct a bridge. From here its traders could travel

along the rivers as far north as Athy. These were no

doubt the reasons that attracted William Marshal the

elder to continue his policy of the establishment of new

towns with the founding of La Nouvele Ville, probably during

his visit to Ireland in 1200. While it is the relic of

the Marshel foundation that we see today this was not a

‘green field’ site when he arrived. The modern Irish

place name Ros Mhic Thriúin indicates a wooded area and in

1232-1233 Richard Marshal granted a charter ‘for the

deforestation of Ross’ (Orpen 1934, 54-63; Gilbert 1884,

154-7). There are two suburbs; one at Rosbercon on

opposite bank of the river from the main town and another

at Irishtown beyond the Maiden Gate to the west of the

town. A separate constable was appointed for the area of

Irishtown, for example in 1687.ii

There is evidence for the site of an Early Christian

monastery at Ros Mhic Thriúin ‘near the river Barrow’ founded

by St Abban (Kenny 1929, 318-319; Sharpe 1991, 350-1). The

site of this monastery has never been satisfactorily

identified, although most writers have located the site

in John Street (Hore 1901, 42, n 2; Butler 1976, 79).

This has also been suggest as the possible site of the

chapel of St Evin which was granted by William Marshal

the elder to St John’s Augustinian Priory in Kilkenny.

(Orpen 1911, 11). According to St Abban’s vitae St Evin was

a contemporary who later became abbot of Ros Mhic Thriúin

(Sharpe 1991, 350). The presence of this chapel and the

fact that it belonged to St John’s, Kilkenny may explain

the name St John Street which is recorded in New Ross as

early as 1284 (Hore 1901, 151). In the deed of endowment

for the free school established by John Ivory in 1713 it

is noted that the area on the NE of North [John] Street

was ‘commonly called the Abbey’ (Hore 1901, 103). The

school in fact occupied a mansion called ‘The Abbey’. In

addition Hore notes that from time to time ‘considerable

remains of internments have been found’ there (Hore 1901,

102).

The initial name for the new town Pons Novus, villa

Willelmi Marescalli signals two significant features about this

new settlement — the importance of the bridge that linked

the town on the east bank to the caput of the lordship at

Kilkenny on the west and with the road system going east,

and that it belonged to one of the most powerful and

influential men of his day. These two facts alone almost

guaranteed success; sustaining that success, of course,

was another story. We know that a bridge was in existence

in 1207 since it was used as a location point in a grant

to Tintern Abbey. In 1313 this was replaced by one built

by Aymer de Valence and sometime in the reign of Henry IV

another succeeded that. This bridge was destroyed in 1643

and a temporary bridge was built by Cromwell to

facilitate his siege of the town. It is a testament to

the low ebb of the town’s fortunes, that following the

unrest of the seventeenth century, New Ross was without a

bridge for 150 years (Pl.2).

In the Minute Books some of the more intriguing

entries concern the standing and operation of officials

of the town. This applies in particular to the mayor

later the sovereign of Ross. In August 1688, for example,

it was ordered that any of the burgesses, merchants or

masters of the Corporation meeting the mayor in the

street were to attend him to his house or resting place.

Failure to do this incurred a fine of five shillings. In

August 1707 an order was made that the sovereign shall

for the future carry his rod of authority before him as

he walks about the streets. This is so that ‘he may be

known by strangers and others by way of distinction’.iii

The concept of identification and respect is of course a

‘two-edged sword’. There were no doubt occasions when the

mayor may not have wanted to be recognized in the street

or indeed escorted to his residence by burgesses of the

town.

The connection between the Corporation and the

Established Church is underlined by a number of entries.

In 1664 the Corporation voted money for the repair of the

church and the re-glazing of the windows.iv In 1714 monies

were voted to build galleries in the parish church of St

Mary’s.v In 1721 funds were made available to buy a prayer

book and velvet cushion for the sovereign’s seat in St

Mary’s parish church.vi Similar purchases were made in

1789, 1813 and 1828.vii In 1813 also it was decided that

the sovereign and officials should attend Devine Worship

in their full regalia. The church of St Mary’s is the

original medieval parish church. It was probably built

following the founded of the town by William Marshal, who

held the lordship of Leinster and other lands in Wales,

England and France though his marriage to Isabel de

Clare, the grand-daughter of Diarmait Mac Murchada. Our

first note of St Mary’s is in 1226 when its advowson was

granted to St John’s in Kilkenny (Dugdale 1818-1830,

1042). Among other chapels in the medieval town was that

of St Michael’s, from which Michael’s Street takes it

name. In 1588 it was granted to the nearby Holy Trinity

Hospital (Fiants Elizabeth, (5275), 72). In the seventeenth

century a residence and school of the Jesuits appears to

have been based at St Michael’s (Butler 1976, 106, note

1; Hore 1901, 100-101). In 1700 the corporation agreed to

give the site, which at that stage was being used as a

handball alley, to build a barracks (Vigors 1901, 58).

The First edition of the Ordnance Survey Map shows a

number of burgage plots terminating in a line that

probably formed the boundary of the precincts of St.

Michael's church. This was clearly an important landmark

in the town since it is marked on a small sketch map of

1649 that is the first cartographic representation we

have of New Ross (Hore 1901, 58) (Pl.2). The other chapel

in the medieval town was that of St Saviour’s it, like St

Michael’s, was granted to Holy Trinity Hospital.

Holy Trinity Hospital was founded in 1587 by Thomas

Gregory. In the 1830s it was comprised of six houses in

Priory St with fourteen women residences, each with a

two-room apartment and an allowance of around £18 (Lewis

1837, 532). In 1687 the account of the meeting of the

Corporation notes that the poor of Trinity Hospital now

have the power to choose the Master, nevertheless, it

appears that in reality the appointment of the master was

in the gift of the Corporation. This appointment features

regularly in the Corporation records and was clearly a

sought after post and as such attracted competition and

controversy. The entry in 1688, for instance, records

that William ‘Clerk’ (?) is to be appointed ‘master &

overseer’. In this case the alternative title of ‘St

Savour’s Hospital for the poor’ is used.viii The

Corporation also appointed members of the ruling board.ix

In 1672 a Mr. Stevens is appointed master while Mr.

Wilkins and Samuel Pitt are elected ‘brethren’ of Trinity

Hospital.x In 1698 Mr. Stevens and John Elly are to report

to the Corporation on the cost of carrying out repairs to

St Saviour’s Hospital ‘now out of repair’.xi

An entry in1727 gives a sense of the tensions

between the Corporation and the master of the Hospital

that surfaces in various periods covered by the Minute

Books.xii The Burgesses and Sovereign ordered William

Napper, then master of Trinity Hospital to bring the

papers of the Hospital to the meeting of the Corporation

at the next council day. This did not happen and he then

appears to have promised to deliver them to John Cliffe,

the recorder, in five or six days. This did not

materialize and he was then summoned to lay them before

Mr. Armstrong, Sergeant of the Mace. He ignored this and

was summoned to appear at the next Council meeting to

account for his ‘contempt and disobedience’ in not

appearing as ordered as this was ‘against his oath’ in

addition he was removed as master. That office was now to

be occupied by Mr. Colclough of Tintern. There were a

number of brethren also replaced at this same period.

This suggests that there may have been a general revolt

against the authority of the Corporation in relation the

affairs of the Hospital.

As befitted an important commercial location the

town attracted a number of religious orders to set-up

houses. One of the first of these was the priory of the

Fratres Cruciferi, whose hospital was founded some time

in the late 1190s. Following a dispute with the local

population the priory was destroyed; this resulted in the

town being placed under an interdict that was not lifted

until 1435 (Lewis 1837, 226-7). This house was replaced

by a Franciscan foundation before 1256, when a provincial

chapter was held there. The buildings belonging to the

house were turned into dwellings at the Dissolution and

finally pulled down in 1732. Subsequently the area became

a bacon factory, salt store and towards the end of the

nineteenth century the extensive malting house of the

Roches. A Third Order Franciscan convent stood just

behind St Mary’s church in the first half of the

seventeenth century but seems to have been abandoned by

1690. In 1267 the Dominicans established a friary at

Rosbercon. They appear to have had a preaching station at

the church of St Saviour in New Ross, designed, no doubt,

to provide access to a larger congregation. The borough

of New Ross was probably created in the late thirteenth

century by Gilbert de Clare to cash in on the success of

New Ross and to provide his capital of Kilkenny with a

sea-port (MacNiocaill 1964, 269). The foundation of the

friary may indicate that there was a settlement there at

that stage.

The Minute Books show a constant concern with the

commercial and economic affairs of the town. The control

of goods coming in to the town and the collection of the

correct customs are dealt with extensively, as is the

protection against sharp practices and fraud particularly

in the market. In this latter regard the position of

weighmaster was of specific importance. In 1764 we have

evidence that women held some of these positions.

Following the death of Widow Bradford, who was the

weighmaster for a number of items including tallow, it

was agreed to appoint William Trench in her stead.xiii

There is indication that at the end of the eighteenth

century the organization of weights and the stamping of

these weights were increasingly regularized. This was

also the start of a period when the economic and public

life of Ross would be dominated by the Tottenham family.

In 1790 the minutes record that

Mr. Tottenham having lately built a house and enclosed a yard in Nevil

Street for the purpose of having raw hides and skins examined and

weighed. Ordered that the said house and yard be the place for examining

and weighing raw hides and skins in this town according to an Act of

Parliament made for that purpose and that the present sovereign do

appoint a weighmaster and examiner.xiv

In 1695, in an entry dealing the mainly with the

establishment of guilds, there are lists of skins brought

into and traded in the town. The order listing the skins

forbids any dealing or processing of these with or by any

who are not freemen of the town. The list includes:

sheepskins, lambskins, stagskins, hindskins, buckskins,

doaskins, goatskins, calveskins and kidskins.xv From 1688

there is a list of tolls to be charged on items coming

into the town that provide a sense of the range of goods

traded. These include: wine, butter, honey, iron, coal,

wood, herring, salmon, ‘hake’, ‘cod’, English board

cloth, almonds, tallow, pipe staves and hops.xvi On a

number of occasions in the record we see a concern to

regulate trade and to prevent the sale of goods at the

gates and on the roads leading to the town. In 1747, for

example, there is an order for butter and salmon, which

are being traded outside the markets to be ceased.xvii

Policing of the markets were an ongoing problem so in

1783 a clerk of the market was appointed. His duties are

laid out in detail and indicate there was clearly a

problem with enforcing of regulations. He is to

Supervise everything that is sold within this Corporation and whose

particular (duties?) it will be to see that proper weights and measures

are used. To prevent

butchers and bakers from committing frauds in their respective

occupations. And to have the late regulations relative to the markets

strictly complied with.xviii

A constable was to be appointed to be in ‘constant’

attendance on the clerk, as he might be needed but

particularly on market days.

In the 1695 guilds ordinance there is a listing of

some of the trades in the town these include: skinners,

braziers, glaziers, nailers, smiths, broguemakers,

leather workers, skiners, saddlers, tallow chandlers,

soapboilers and curriors.xix We also get a sense of the

trades present in the town from those admitted through

the years as freemen of the town. In 1696 Nicholas

Hackett a butcher was admitted gratis, as he had been a

soldier in Derry ‘during the siege’.xx In May of the same

year, a button maker, whom we are told is a ‘Protestant

stranger’, is admitted as a freeman.xxi In 1699 one Henry

Archer successfully petitioned to be allowed to open a

tobacconist shop.xxii In 1708 a gunsmith is admitted free

gratis during his stay in the town.xxiii In the same year a

perry wigmaker was permitted to practice in the town on

payment of the fee set out.xxiv In 1718 a shoemaker was

admitted as freeman in recognition of his service in the

Militia, in 1719 a barber and in 1721 a wigmaker, two

tailors, a glazier and cooper were admitted for the same

reason.xxv In 1719 also a merchant call Thomas Shea was

admitted but we are told the same penalties were to apply

to him as to other ‘Papist merchants’.xxvi In 1702, William

Ragget, an Englishman commanding a ship engaged in the

Spanish wool trade was admitted as a freeman since he may

be able to assist the town in ‘obtaining ye wool trade as

formerly’ this having been disrupted by the war with

Spain.xxvii He was admitted without the oath, as he was a

Catholic. Rather exotically in 1750, as part of a list of

men to be admitted as freemen of the town, there is

Michael Thiring from ‘Riga in the Empire of Russia’.xxviii

In 1813, responding to petitions from the ‘journeymen

shoemakers of Ross’ a list of charges for their services

was drawn up. These include seven shillings and seven

pence to make boot and five shillings to make

Wellingtons.xxix One could also be disenfranchised. In 1687

Thomas Rooke, who had agreed to supply the Mayor every

Michaelmas day with ‘half a hundred’ each of ‘good’

lemons and oranges failed to do so and lost the freedom

of the town.xxx The advantages to merchants or traders of

being a freeman are underlined by an entry in the late

1680s. This orders that the constables are to draw up a

list of ‘shopp keepers, butchers and others using any

merchandising or commerce privately or publically that

are not free’. This was in order that they can agree to

fees that the mayor and council ‘shall conceive

proper’.xxxi

We can trace the development and the decline of the

town in the Minute Books. In 1683 the record states that

the town walls are in ‘all partes decayed’ and the

Corporation is too impoverished to repair them.xxxii In

1692 money is voted to repair the portion of the town

wall in the Priory orchard with a stone–wall.xxxiii This

period followed years of war during which the town was

occupied and re-fortified by various factions and the

bridge was destroyed, seriously impairing the commercial

prospects of the town. The bridge was not replaced until

the end of the eighteenth century and during the period

the ferry, which had always been important, was now

vital. In 1691, when tensions were understandably high it

was ordered that the ferryman, Edmund Sutton who was

Irish, should employ an Englishman approved by the

Sovereign, who would report on ‘suspicious

passengers’.xxxiv In 1730 the operation of the ferry is

outlined

The boatman of the ferryboat of this town shall attend the ferry from

six of the clock in the afternoon till ten a clock at night from the twenty

fifth day of March to Michaelmas and from Michaelmas to twenty fifth

day of March from seven of the clock in the morning to nine at night xxxv

In 1732 following the appointment of the overseer of the

ferry money was voted for the repair of the ferry

slip.xxxvi

An entry in 1688 underlines how much of the town was

still built from combustible material in the late

seventeenth century. It is ordered that ‘All bakehouses

be made hott and ready for day–light and not by

night’.xxxvii The repair of the fabric of the town and

improvement of town life can be traced throughout the

record. In 1698, for example, funds are voted for the

repair of the conduit. Following the repair it was to be

covered with timber and spikes to prevent the lead from

being stolen.xxxviii There are numerous entries regarding

the keeping of the streets. In 1711 the street of the

town were to be repaired and each person was to repair

the pavement in front of their house.xxxix There are

constant orders related to the cleaning and sweeping of

the town. In most case inhabitants were responsible, on

pain of a fine, for cleaning in front of their homes and

in the same part of their streets.xl Flooding was a

continual problem, in 1725 for instance, it was reported

to a meeting of the Council that the slip without the

North Gate and the gate itself were being undermined by

water and were to be repaired.xli Keeping the sewers clear

and clean was also a concern. In 1787 a person was

appointed to clean the public sewers and grates and when

the Corporation let a plot of land to north–east side of

the Market Gate as part of the lease the tenant was to

keep the public sewer that flowed through the site free

from obstruction.xlii Earlier, in the 1799, this concern

for public health was reflected in a vote of ten guineas

for the previous eight years towards the support of the

dispensary of the town.xliii

This largess may be related to events mentioned in

the same page of the record. In the entries for the

1790’s we see the intrusion once again of national

affairs on this strategically located town. This

culminated in the Battle of New Ross on the afternoon of

5 June 1798. In November 1799 the sum of twenty guineas

was allowed by the treasurer; this being money advanced

towards a subscription taken up by the inhabitants of the

town for the relief of the ‘poor persecuted Loyalists in

the summer of 1798’.xliv In the same year (1799) expenses

were incurred

by keeping a night guard of Yeomen in the Court House to patrole for

the protection of the inhabitants of this town during and immediately

previous to the late rebellion.xlv

In May 1798 the Minute of the meeting begins with the

following:

As all ranks of people are now contributing to the support of the

government in carrying on wars in which we are now engaged for the

defence of our good King and constitution and everything we hold as it is

now.

Ordered that one hundred pounds….be paid by our transfers out of the

revenue of this Corporation as our contribution….xlvi

The response to these international events also

reflected the disconnection politically, religiously and

economically, between members of the Corporation and the

majority of the townspeople. It was further ordered that

eight pounds per annum be paid to Alan Bedford, the

Billet Master, for the trouble in billeting soldiers

‘which has from the frequent marching of troops thro’

this town became very troublesome and laborious

office’.xlvii

The need to billet troops may have occurred as the

barrack, built c.1700 was recorded in the minutes as

being ‘out of repair’ in 1730. In 1718 there is mention

of the possibility of building a ‘barrack for a troop of

horse in this town’.xlviii This was conditional on the

government contributing five hundred pounds the project.

By 1747 money was voted towards the renting of stables

for the troop.xlix The problem of billeting troops, seen as

necessary for the protection of the town, is discussed

frequently in the minutes; both the cost of this and the

disruption that it causes in the town. Further in the

entry money is voted to pay for taking care of the arms

belonging to the Corporation.l The billeting of troops

caused its own problem and in July 1801 the Corporation

wrote to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland asking to have

the Royal Cork Militia removed as ‘the inhabitants are

extremely alarmed by the gross and outrageous behaviour

of Capt. Purcell and the Royal City of Cork Militia’.

They further request the Capt. Purcell be court

marshaled.li In the conflict a century earlier we can

similar tensions illustrated by entries in the Minute

Books.

While sometimes the intrusion of national affairs

onto the local stage recalls how ‘great events’ impact at

a local level it is in the small dealings that the

intimacy of local politics can be glimpsed. A number of

bells, for example, feature in these records. The

Hospital of Holy Trinity sometimes called the Poor House,

figures, as noted above, regularly in the accounts. The

garden of the hospital was still illustrated on the 1897-

1913 Ordnance Survey Map. The town contained a number of

other charitable institutions and health facilities

including Haughton’s Fever Hospital, established in 1809,

and a lying-in hospital founded in the same year. In 1746

following the appointment of a new master of the

Hospital, it is ordered that the papers of the poor house

are to be delivered to the new master and that the bell

and two brass pots belonging to the house are to be sold

towards its upkeep.lii Ultimately the bell is bought by

the Corporation at a rate of twelve pence a pound for its

own use.liii But perhaps the most interesting entry

concerning bells occurs in 1687. The accounts states

Father Anthony Molloy proving by the evidence of Mr Nicholas Kealy

Mr James Lawlor and others that the bell now in the Town Hall was

formally belonging to the Franciscan Abbey of New Rosse and that the

Franciscan fryers were deprived thereof in the tyme of Olliver Cromwell

by force. It is therefore ordered by mutual and unanimous consent of this

whole council that the aforesaid bell be taken down and delivered to the

said Father Anthony Molloy for the use of the Franciscans by the 1st of

June next.liv

The diversity of information in these Minute Books

and the systematic recording of orders and decisions,

sometimes with significant detail of the underlining

considerations, allow us to witness the detail of the

administration of this small, strategic, commercial town.

It is possible to trace events and places through the

record. The construction of foot–paths, drainage, the

placing of post–boxes, the purchase of a fire–engine, the

regulation of the market–places and the provision of

health, educational and recreational infra–structure

all these and more are discussed and considered by the

town officials. Often the same concerns occur again and

again over the centuries but the decisions are often

conditioned by the prevailing political, social and

economic views and interests. This aspect alone makes

these and like records across the country essential in

order to form a solid and nuanced picture of local

administration.

Linda Doran

7, St Mary’s Road

Ballsbridge

Dublin 4

0876442777

i I would like to express my thanks to the Town Manager and Council for permission to examine the Booksii Minute Book 2, no page number.iii Minute Book 2, p. 188.iv Minute Book 1, no page numberv Minute Book 2, p. 181.vi Minute Book 2, p. 476.vii Minute Book 3, p. 243viii Minute Book 1, no page numberix Minute Book 1, no page numberx Minute Book 1, no page numberxi Minute Book 1, no page numberxii Minute Book 2, no page numberxiii Minute Book 3, p. 91xiv Minute Book 3, p. 194.xv Minute Book 2, p. 98.xvi Minute Book 2, p. 27. xvii Minute Book 3, p. 105.xviii Minute Book 3, p. 782xix Minute Book 2, p. 97–100xx Minute Book 2, p.106xxi Minute Book 2, p.105xxii Minute Book 2, p.148xxiii Minute Book 2, p. 195xxiv Minute Book 2, p. 204xxv Minute Book 2, pp 438, 441, 473xxvi Minute Book 2, p. 441xxvii Minute Book 2, p. 148xxviii Minute Book 3, p. 116xxix Minute Book 3, p. 260xxx Minute Book 2, no page number xxxi Minute Book 2, no page numberxxxii Minute Book 2, p. 57xxxiii Minute Book 2, p. 78xxxiv Minute Book 2, p. 65xxxv Minute Book 2, p. 156xxxvi Minute Book 3, p. 6xxxvii Minute Book 2, p. 19xxxviii Minute Book 2, p. 124xxxix Minute Book 2, p. 252xl Minute Book 3, p. 782xli Minute Book 2, p. 489xlii Minute Book 3, p. 146xliii Minute Book 3, p. 189

xliv Minute Book 3, p. 194xlv Ibid.xlvi Minute Book 3, p. 190xlvii Ibid.xlviii Minute Book 2, p. 425xlix Minute Book 3, p.100l Ibid.li Minute Book 2, p. 156lii Minute Book 3, p. 90liii Minute Book 3, p. 93liv Minute Book 2, p. 10