The establishment and evolution of an Irish village: the case of Dunlavin, county Wicklow 1600 -1910. Vol. 1 of 2 Chris tawlor M.A., H.D.E. Thesis for the degree of PhD Department of History, St. Patrick’s College Drumcondra, A college of Dublin City University Head of department: Professor James Kelly Supervisor of research: Professor James Kelly May 2010 Declaration I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of PhD, is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: (Candidate) ID No.:ID No.: Date: ^ ^ TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents iii Abstract vi Figures, maps, tables and illustrations vii Acknowledgements xii Abbreviations xv INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale: Reasons for studying Dunlavin and defining the area of study 1 2. Sources 12 CHAPTER 1. FOUNDATION AND DEVELOPMENT: THE EMERGENCE OF DUNLAVIN, 1606-1710 21 Introduction 21 1. The beginnings of Dunlavin in the mid-seventeenth century 24 2. Sir Richard Bulkeley, the first baronet Dunlavin 41 3. Sir Richard Bulkeley, the second baronet Dunlavin 49 4. The second baronet’s impact on Dunlavin village 66 Conclusion 84 CHAPTER 2. IMPROVEMENT AND DISIMPROVEMENT: DUNLAVIN, 1710-1785 85 Introduction 85 1. Establishing the Tynte supremacy 1710-1735 87 2. Dunlavin’s urban space 1710-1785 95 3. Dunlavin’s rural hinterland 1710-1785 111 4. Religious, social and demographic developments 1710-1785 133 Conclusion 146 CHAPTER 3. DIVISION, MASSACRE AND RESISTANCE: DUNLAVIN, 1775-1805 148 Introduction 148 1. The beginnings o f politicisation: the Volunteers in Dunlavin 150 2. The polarising o f society : United Irishmen and loyalists in Dunlavin 153 3. Terror 169 4. Massacre 183 5. Michael Dwyer’s resistance 195 Conclusion 204 CHAPTER 4. A TIME OF GROWTH: DUNLAVIN IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY 206 Introduction 206 1. The impact o f 1798: Dunlavin and its upland environs 1801-1805 208 2. Landholding and landlord-tenant relationships. Dunlavin 1801-1815 211 3. Population growth in the Dunlavin area 1813-1841 223 4. Tithe, protest and criminality 1823-1841 243 5. Social developments - education, religion and health 269 6. Descriptions o f Dunlavin and its environs, 1835-1846 277 Conclusion 292 Chapter 5. DISASTER AND READJUSTMENT: DUNLAVIN, 1845-1910 294 Introduction 294 1. Famine 296 2. Demographic change in Dunlavin 1851-1901 321 3. Social developments in Dunlavin 1851-1901 339 4. Dunlavin in the early twentieth century 371 Conclusion 377 iv Chapter 6. TYNTE TWILIGHT: RELIGION AND POLITICS IN DUNLAVIN, 1850-1910 379 Introduction 379 1. Religiosity and belief in late-nineteenth-century Dunlavin 381 2. Land and politics in post-Famine Dunlavin 410 3. Canon Donovan’s involvement in agrarian and political issues 430 Conclusion 454 CONCLUSION 455 INDEX TO APPENDICES 461 BIBLIOGRAPHY 560 Abstract. Chris Lawlor. PhD thesis on Dunlavin, county Wicklow 1650-1900. This study traces the history o f the village community o f Dunlavin in west Wicklow over three centuries. The Dunlavin region straddles both counties Wicklow and Kildare. The study follows the evolution of the village in its regional setting, examining the long and formative impact of Anglophone settlers during the era of ‘Protestant Ascendancy’, positing a model, possibly applicable nationally, o f their rise in the seventeenth century, through their zenith in the eighteenth, to their decline in the nineteenth, and replacement by the emerging Catholic interest in the twentieth. Sir Richard Bulkeley erected the new village o f Dunlavin on a greenfield site after the 1641 rebellion. In 1710, Sir James Worth Tynte inherited the village. Tynte and his eighteenth-century successors pursued a model o f paternalistic landlordism, but the 1798 rebellion, and the Dunlavin massacre, fractured the relationship between the elite and the masses. The paternalistic model o f landlordism failed in the early nineteenth century, and the severe experience o f the area during the Great Famine was testament to this. In the post-Famine era, Joseph Pratt Tynte never regained the levels of deference he and his fellow landlords had previously enjoyed. Tynte’s influence was challenged by invigorated nationalism and resurgent Catholicism. The Catholic middle class took control o f local politics, and Dunlavin entered the twentieth century with middle-class Catholicism in the ascendancy. The irreversible eclipse o f the elite was already advanced, and the process was completed later in the twentieth century. This study locates the Dunlavin region in the larger tapestry o f Irish history. Dunlavin’s past is as integral to national history as the past in any other part of the island. This case study illuminates an individual section o f a complex network of past local experiences, and reveals one part o f the range o f past behaviours in Ireland. FIGURES, MAPS, TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS LIST OF FIGURES 1. Protestant baptisms in Dunlavin, 1698-1710 72 2. Protestant baptisms in Dunlavin, 1711-1740 138 3. Protestant marriages in Dunlavin, 1701-1740 139 4. Protestant marriages in Dunlavin, 1741-1770 141 5. Protestant baptisms in Dunlavin, 1741-1770 142 6. Protestant baptisms in Dunlavin, 1771-1800 144 7. Protestant baptisms in Dunlavin, 1701-1800 145 8. Strength o f United Irishmen in nine areas o f Leinster, 1798 162 9. Length o f leases on Lord Wicklow’s estate in Imaal, 1709-1826 216 10. Catholic baptisms in Dunlavin, 1815-1820 224 11. Occupations o f the people in Dunlavin village, 1821 230 12. Catholic baptisms in Dunlavin, 1820-1831 234 13. Population trends in Talbotstown and county Wicklow, 1821-1841 237 14. Population o f Dunlavin village and parish, 1821-1841 239 15. Population, families and mean household size in six townlands, 1841 241 16. Population density in six selected townlands, 1841 242 17. Number and size of holdings in Dunlavin tithe applotment book, 1823 246 18. Deaths during the Famine in county Wicklow, 1845-1850 310 19. Population change in Dunlavin D.E.D., 1841-1851 317 20. Catholic marriages in Dunlavin, 1840-1855 320 21. Catholic baptisms in Dunlavin, 1840-1855 320 22. Population of Dunlavin village, 1841-1901 321 23. Population of Dunlavin D.E.D., 1841-1901 322 24. Population o f Loughmogue Upper, 1841-1901 322 vii 25. Population of Knocknagull, 1841-1901 322 26. Population o f Blackhill, 1841-1901 323 27. Population o f Rathbawn, 1841-1901 323 28. Population o f Toberbeg, 1841-1901 323 29. Population of Boherboy, 1841-1901 323 30. Population of Milltown, 1841-1901 324 31. Population o f Logatrina, 1841-1901 324 32. Population o f Toumant Upper, 1841-1901 324 33. Population of Uppertown, 1841-1901 324 34. Population of Brewershill, 1841-1901 325 35. Population of Decoy, 1841-1901 325 36. Population o f Knockandort, 1841-1901 326 37. Population of Plezica, 1841-1901 326 38. Population of Loughmogue Lower, 1841-1901 326 39. Population o f Toumant Lower, 1841-1901 327 40. Population o f Forristeen, 1841-1901 327 41. Population o f Dunlavin Upper, 1841 -1901 327 42. Population o f Dunlavin Lower, 1841-1901 328 43. Population of Dunlavin parish, 1841-1901 328 44. Catholic baptisms in Dunlavin, 1881-1901 329 45. Catholic marriages in Dunlavin, 1881-1901 332 46. Dunlavin electoral division population pyramid, 1881 334 47. Dunlavin electoral division population pyramid, 1891 335 48. Dunlavin electoral division population pyramid, 1901 337 49. Dunlavin electoral division population, 1881-1901 338 50. Buildings in Dunlavin D.E.D., 1881-1901 360 viii 51. Buildings in Dunlavin village, 1881-1901 360 52. Denominational composition o f Dunlavin parish, 1881 365 53. Literacy o f Dunlavin’s Protestant population, 1881 366 54. Literacy o f Dunlavin’s Catholic population, 1881 366 55. Literacy o f Dunlavin’s total population, 1881 367 56. Ages o f students in Dunlavin, 1901 368 57. Population and gender composition o f Dunlavin village, 1881 -1901 369 58. Gender o f students in Dunlavin, 1901 369 59. Religion and gender o f students in Dunlavin, 1901 370 60. Landholdings in Dunlavin, 1854 412 61. Principal lessors in Dunlavin parish, 1854 415 LIST OF MAPS 1. The baronies of county Wicklow 2 2. The Catholic parish o f Dunlavin 4 3. The Dunlavin region 7 4. Lowland townlands around Dunlavin village 23 5. Schematic map of English settlers in the Dunlavin area c. 1640 31 6. Down Survey baronial map o f the Dunlavin area c. 1654 42 7. Dunlavin village, c.1710 88 8. Dunlavin village, c.1740 105 9. (a) Extract from Moll’s New Map of Ireland (1714) 115 9 (b) Sketch from Moll’s New Map of Ireland (1714) 116 10. (a) Extract from Nevill’s Actual survey o f the County Wicklow (1760) 119 10 (b) Sketch from Nevill’s Actual survey o f the County Wicklow (1760) 120 11. Dunlavin on Nevill’s Actual survey o f the County Wicklow (1760) 122 ix 12. Dunlavin bypassed on Taylor and Skinner’s Tullow Road map (1783) 128 13. County Kildare, 1798 185 14. Upland townlands around Imaal 198 15. Civil parishes o f west Wicklow 229 16. Dunlavin village, 1838 282 17. Landed estates o f the Dunlavin region, c.1838 285 18. Dunlavin D.E.D., c.1850 316 19. Dunlavin village, 1854 341 20. Dunlavin village, 1910 376 LIST OF TABLES 1. Claims by west Wicklow deponents, 1641 29 2. United Irish strength in Wicklow, 1798 (with accompanying graph) 158 3. Return o f arms of United Irishmen in Wicklow baronies, 1798 160 4.