Bective Abbey

Bective in the snow

Bective was founded in 1147 by Murdach O’Melaghlin, king of Meath. It was the first house to be colonised with monks from Mellifont.  The Latin name of the abbey is a straightforward religious formula: ‘Beatitudo Dei’, the blessedness of God.

In 1186 Hugh de Lacy, was murdered at Durrow. Bective and the Augustinian abbey of St. Thomas’ in Dublin were keen to acquire his corpse and in 1196 his body was buried in Bective abbey, his head being placed in St. Thomas’ abbey, Dublin. This led to a dispute between the two abbeys; it is thought that the feuding monks were more concerned about the lands conferred upon Bective abbey along with his corpse, rather than the actual remains of Hugh himself. In this instance burial and endowment were closely entwined. In 1205 Simon Rochfort, bishop of Meath, with two judges decided that St. Thomas had the right to the body.

In 1217 the abbot of Bective was involved in the riot of Jerpoint; he was further charged with imprisoning a man in a tree stump until he died, for which he was committed to Clairvaux for trial. In 1274 the community considered moving to a new site, from Meath to the diocese of Cashel, but nothing ever came of this proposal. Instead the original church was abandoned and replaced with a new stone structure.

Bective was in an area of heavy settlement following the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland and in 1228 the abbey was described as a strongly fortified place to which visitors from England and mainland Europe could come in relatively safety. The abbey was secured so that it could better assist Clairvaux in subduing the monks of Mellifont and Boyle, who were the main agitators in the ‘conspiracy of Mellifont’ (1216-1228).

During the fifteenth century there was a significant decline in the number of monks living at the abbey. A drastic reduction in the cloister took place; as only a handful of monks remained at Bective this was a practical and realistic modification. The south aisles of the church were also demolished and the adjoining arcades blocked off. The nave was further truncated by the construction of a new west façade, protected by a fortified tower. Another tower was erected at the south-west corner of the cloister, which dominated the abbey buildings.

At the time of the Dissolution the abbey had an annual income estimated at £83, which can be compared with the smaller English houses such as Buildwas and Croxden. The house was suppressed in 1536 and following dissolution the goods and chattels were sold off, yielding £108. The profits raised from the sale of goods from most other Cistercian houses in Ireland ranged between £10 and £20, suggesting that Bective was in fact relatively wealthy. It is thought that in many cases the monks must have hidden or sold possessions before the royal commissioners arrived, and at Bective it was discovered that the last abbot, John English, had carried away goods to the value of £35.

Following the closure of the monastery the community retired to some obscure residence in the neighbourhood. In 1540 it was reported that the abbey roof had been demolished in order to provide material for the repairs of the king’s mill at Tryme and that the hall. From 1537 the site was given over to Thomas Agard, an English civil servant employed by the Dublin government. He constructed a massive Tudor mansion around the two sides of the old cloister court, and although it incorporated the two towers, it was not designed for defence. There are extensive ruins of the abbey and mansion at the site, although it has a feel of a fortress rather than a monastery.

Nothing remains of the twelfth-century monastic buildings; the earliest stone work dates from 1274, when the abbey church was rebuilt. Only five bays of the south arcade survive from this period and these are much disfigured. The principle remains are of the claustral and conventual buildings that were reconstructed in the fifteenth century, indeed, Bective has the best preserved of all the Cistercian claustral ranges in Ireland. A piece of sculpture remains in the south range of the cloister, depicting an abbot kneeling on one of the cloister piers. It is thought that he was probably the abbot responsible for building the cloister. The cloister contains at least one other carving, this time of a bishop, which is now built into the tower of a modern church at Johnstown, County Meath.

A Book of Hours, dating from the mid-fourteenth century, also found its way into the monastery. The so-called ‘Bective Hours’ is thought to have been a private book of one of the monks. The sixteenth-century mansion was used in the filming of the movie Braveheart, chosen because of its castle like qualities.

The Cistercian monastery of Bective was founded in the mid twelfth century and had a major impact on the area but there is more to Bective than an abbey. The abbey was the landowner in the parish until the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s. The abbey buildings were adapted to create a manor house, which served as the centre of the estate. The property went through various owners until 1630 when the lands came into the hands of the Bolton family who were absentee landlords. The estate at Bective was developed in the nineteenth century when Richard Bolton came to live on the estate and it was he who erected a new mansion house at Grange.  The public road was altered to provide entrance avenues and the demesne was walled and trees planted. A new church was erected to serve the estate and parish by the Bolton. A chapel village developed at one end of the parish where the Boltons provided a site for a chapel and a school. Following Richard Bolton’s death the estate went through a number of different owners who preserved the demesne but the estate was purchased by the tenants.

The old road from Navan to Trim passed through Balbrigh in the north of the parish but the new road passed though Bective townland and Grange townland ‘convenient to Mr. Bolton’s house.’  As Bolton created his demesne he decided to re-route the road away from his house and parkland.

By 1849 the estate was completely walled in and complete with a band of perimeter plantations. These walls stretching over two miles in length made Bective a conspicuous feature on the local landscape. Gate lodges monitored visitors to the estate, preserving the landlord’s privacy and emphasising the status differential between landlord and tenant. Impressive ashlar gateways were erected at each entrance to estate with gate lodges at each and an additional number of houses to cater for workers on the estate. The gate lodge at the Trim entrance was erected in 1852 and is adorned by the Bolton crest.

The re-location of the road and the creation of parkland obviously involved the removal of various houses. A poem published in 1926 entitled ‘The corpse at Clady gate – an epic of 62’ described Bolton as ‘a landlord of the vilest type’ who levelled the cottages at the Clady on ‘Bolton’s vast demesne.’ A funeral cortege to Clady came but was barred from entering by a chain at the gate Shaun O’Reilly stepped forward and urged the people to take action – The chains were broken and the funeral proceeded. An accompanying newspaper article in 1926 described Bolton as a noted bigot, and noted for his oppression, evictions and demolition of Clady village. According to the article Bolton was marked for assassination during the Fenian period but died from a broken neck following a fall. Memories recorded in the 1930s suggest that only two families were removed when the new gates were constructed, one to a smaller farm while the other family were evicted. Another person recalled that Bolton provided a lot of employment but he never showed any kindness to his employees or tenants. An overtly nationalist ideology provides the general view of all landlords as being capable of evictions on a whim as part of popular history right up to the present day.

Mary Lavin’s first collection of short stories was called ‘Tales from Bective Bridge” and was in 1943. She lived at Abbey farm. Rock Hudson came to Bective in 1955 to star in the movie, Captain Lightfoot, which related the tale of a 19th century Irish rebel. In October 1980 a procession from Robinstown led by the Bishop of Meath Dr. John McCormack, walked to Bective Abbey to celebrate the 1500 anniversary of the birth of St. Benedict in 480.  In 1994 the abbey building was used for the filming of Braveheart. The Dublin Rugby team Bective Rangers F.C. were named after Bective School which was on Parnell Square, Dublin. Named after the earl of Bective from Headfort the club began playing rugby from 1870s but were formally founded in 1881. 

Bective – From monastery to landed estate

Introduction

This study will examine the elements of continuity between the Cistercian monastery of Bective and the later landed estate. The buildings at the centre of the monastic estate were re-used as the centre for the new landed estate in the sixteenth century. Many estates were centred at dissolved monasteries as at nearby Lismullin. There was a continuity of boundaries with the civil parish of Bective emerging from the dissolution of the monasteries and its continuance as a landed estate. The development of the house and demesne in the nineteenth century will be examined and discussed. The use of the house and demesne into the twentieth century will be studied.

The main sources for the monastic period are the religious histories such as Cogan’s The diocese of Meath: ancient and modern and Archdall’s Monasticum Hibernicum but these provide information on the religious aspects of the buildings and estate. It is only at the dissolution of the monasteries that a complete view of the landholdings of the monastery are set out in Extents of Irish Monastic Possessions 1540-41. Stalley’s The Cistercian monasteries of Ireland provide a general overview of the development of the Cistercian movement in Ireland and a detailed survey of the development of the monastic buildings.

In the absence of estate records the development of the estate has to be traced through mentions in surveys such as Lewis’ A topographical dictionary of Ireland and  by contemporary visitors to the area such as Wilde’s The beauties of the Boyne and its tributary, the Blackwater. Maps allow comparisons to be made and trace developments of the demesne and house. OS fieldname books provide information in relation to the tenantry of the estate in the 1830s while Griffith’s valuation provides similar information for the 1850s. From the late nineteenth and twentieth century a number of contemporary memoirs provide details of the residents of Bective. Records at the RCB Library provide information in relation to the church erected by Richard Bolton at Bective and its clergy which have connections to the family. As the church was in the patronage of the Bolton’s family papers also feature in the archives of the RCB library.  Census returns for 1821, 1901 and 1911are useful in document the presence or absence of the estate’s owners and the number of servants working in the house. Contemporary newspapers provide snippets of family information.

Bective is a civil parish, in the barony of Upper Navan, county Meath. Bective parish is located on the north bank of the river Boyne about half way between the towns of Navan and Trim. It contains eight townlands, comprising 3,726 acres.

The Cistercian monastery of Bective was founded in the mid twelfth century. The abbey was the landowner in the parish until the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s. The lands held by Bective Abbey correspond to the civil parish and with the landed estate which succeeded it. The abbey buildings were adapted to create a manor house, which served as the centre of the estate. The property passed through various owners until 1630 when the lands came into the hands of the Bolton family who were absentee landlords. The estate at Bective was developed in the nineteenth century when Richard Bolton came to live on the estate and it was he who erected a new mansion house at Grange.  The public road was altered to provide entrance avenues, the demesne was walled and trees planted. A new church was erected to serve the estate and parish by the Bolton. A chapel village developed at one end of the parish where the Boltons provided a site for a chapel and a school. Following Richard Bolton’s death the estate went through a number of different owners who preserved the demesne but the estate was purchased by the tenants.

Both the monastic and landed estate have left an enduing legacy in the landscape through houses, ruins, buildings, walls and trees. The abbey ruins remain as a mark of the medieval estate while the church, demesne walls, plantations and big house represent the development of the landed estate in the nineteenth century. Continuity in boundaries and name is evident in the development of the landed estate from 1147 to the twentieth century. Bolton’s walls and church remain a visible legacy of a landlord’s vision and the integrity of the house and demesne continue to impact on the local landscape.

The monastic estate at Bective

Bective on the banks of the river Boyne was a significant site as it was a crossing point on the river, possibly on a route from Tara to the west of the country. An enclosed settlement to the west of the river crossing may have been a high status site within the local kingdom. The presence of a number of souterrains within Bective townland suggests the presence of a number of settlements.[i]

Bective was the site chosen for the first daughter house of Mellifont. The first Cistercian monastery in Ireland was founded at Mellifont in 1142 and within a decade there were four daughter houses. Each community consisted of an abbot with at least twelve monks and a number of lay brothers. Bective was founded on 14 January 1147 and endowed by Murchad Ua Maelechlainn, king of Mide. Cistercian monasteries were usually located in isolated rural settings and sited along rivers. The site on the north bank of the river Boyne provided a good water supply, a source of fish and power for a mill. The abbey was endowed with good arable fertile lands on the banks of the Boyne. Located near a ford there was also a route along the river with boats being able to travel from Trim to Drogheda.[ii]

Dedicated to the Virgin Mary the monastery was given the name, Bective, from De Beatitudine or  Beatitudo Dei meaning the blessedness of God. Another derivation is from the Irish beag teach, meaning little house, contrasting with the big house at nearby Tara, but this derivation is unlikely.[iii]

Bective was located in the centre of the territory of Mide which was granted to Hugh de Lacy following the arrival of the Anglo-Normans. Gradually the Irish monks were replaced by monks of English extraction. The abbots sat in the Irish parliament in Dublin as one of the fifteen spiritual lords of the parliament.

In 1195 Hugh de Lacy’s body was interred at Bective while his head was buried at St. Thomas’s abbey, Dublin. Communities were anxious to acquire the bodies of their founders or distinguished benefactors. Endowment and burial place were closely intertwined. Further controversy over his remains ended in 1205 with a papal judgment in favour of removal of the body to St Thomas’s, where it was buried alongside that of his first wife. The feud may have had as much to do with the lands conferred to Bective rather than the mortal remains of Hugh himself.[iv]

Nothing of the twelfth century building remains. In the early thirteenth century Bective became involved in a struggle between the Irish monasteries and the chapter general of the order. In 1227 all the Irish abbots were deposed. Bective was then described as a strongly fortified place to which visitors could come in security. Following its restoration to the care of Mellifont, Bective underwent rebuilding. Five bays of the south elevation dating from 1274-1300 survive. This design is closely related to that of Hore abbey. Bective arcades are similar to those at the Benedectine abbey of Fore. Leask suggested that the same masons were responsible for both. Fore was a monastery founded by the de Lacys.[v]

The Cistercians were industrious farmers with cereals, cattle and sheep being produced. Fisheries were developed and mills, bakeries and other local industries initiated. It is probable that this land was laid out in farms which were rented to lay people or farmed by lay brothers of the monastery. Each Cistercian abbey had a number of granges or out farms which were farmed by lay brothers. When a grange was over six miles from the abbey sometimes a small monastery was constructed with a hall, dormitory, kitchen and chapel as well as farm buildings and barns. A grange could be described as an arable farm inclusive of land and buildings. Grange still occurs as a townland name but the grange buildings rarely survive into the present landscape. The townland of Grange is the furthest in the parish from Bective Abbey but the term ‘grange’ was used in some legal document to describe each of the townlands of the parish. Granges may have been rented out to lay tenants in the later medieval period.[vi]

The Black Death resulted in the numbers of monks being halved and lay numbers were also greatly reduced. The abbeys were forced to employ paid labour or lease out their granges to lay tenants. The communities dwindled and the greatly reduced numbers resulted in alterations to the buildings to reduce costs. The rebuilding at Bective c1450-1500 was prompted by the need to adapt the buildings for the smaller numbers of monks. The south aisles of the church were demolished and the adjoining arcades were blocked off. The nave was truncated by the construction of a fortified tower. Another tower was erected at the south-west end of the cloister, which dominated the abbey buildings. A large fortified tower was constructed for protection from attacks into the Pale. [vii]

The abbey continued to accumulate land and offer religious services in return. About 1488 Ismaena, widow of Jorel Comyn, brought a writ against the abbot for a third of a messuage and sixty-six acres of land at Ballybret, (Balbrigh) at which time she paid a fine of one marc, whereupon the abbot agreed that a chaplain would celebrate a constant service for the repose of her soul and the souls of her ancestors.[viii]

A regular monastic life continued into the early sixteenth century. An abbot of Bective attended the general chapter of Citreaux in 1512 and was also one of four appointed to investigate the affairs of the Cistercian nunnery in Derry in 1512.[ix]

By royal commission dated 6 May 1536 Bective and four other Cistercian houses, all within the Pale, were ordered to be dissolved. The order was delayed in September to allow the monks sow their winter corn. In October 1637 the Deputy forced the parliament to assent to the dissolution of a number of monasteries including Bective. The monastery thus became the property of the king.[x]

In 1538 the abbot, John English, was provided with a pension of £15 for life. Abbot English had removed chattels worth £35 but these were recovered by the accounting officer as well as two bells weighing 180 lbs, valued at 35 shillings.[xi]

At an extent court in 1540 a survey of the abbey’s property was carried out. The roofing of the church and the chancel was thrown down, and the timber was used for repairs of the king’s mills at Trim. There was a hall, a cloister roofed with tiles, certain chambers, and other buildings which would be of use to a new resident landowner. At Bective there were 250 acres of demesne lands, a water mill and fishing weir. The abbey owned 4,400 acres of land with the vast majority of it centred around Bective. A list of tenants, their holdings and value of such holdings was compiled. The lands were broken down into arable, pasture, waste and commonage. There were small commonages of approximately twenty acres each at the grange of Bective, Balgill, Balbraddagh, Cloncullen and twelve acres commons at Balbrigh. The tenants of messuages were required to provide certain services in return for their landholdings. The tenants were bound to cart all manner of grain and hay in the demesne. Each tenant holding a whole plough had to give five days ploughing and cart 4 loads of turf; he who had half a plough, two days of each labour. Each tenant whether of a messuage or a cottage had to give five hokes and ten hens. The abbey also held land at Monktown, near Trim and also the rectory of Balsoon. The tithes of the parish were granted to the abbey and therefore were granted to the new landowner.[xii]

The abbey had an annual income of £83 which can be compared with the smaller English houses such as Buildwas and Croxden. The goods and chattels were sold off yielding £108. The profit from most Cistercian houses in Ireland yielded between £10-£20 suggesting that Bective was quite wealthy.

Figure 1: Civil parish of Bective showing townlands

From monastery to landed estate

Following the dissolution of the monastery the estate passed though the hands of various civil servants, none of whom had the time to pay any great attention to its development but the abbey was converted into a mansion.

In December 1537 Bective was leased to Thomas Agard. Bective was a valuable property as it was within the Pale and within easy distance of Dublin. Many of the confiscated monasteries were granted to the New English, civil servants and professional soldiers who had recently entered Ireland. Agard arrived in Ireland as a supporter of Thomas Cromwell in the 1530s and became vice-treasurer of the Mint, becoming known as ‘Agard of the Mint.’ As vice treasurer of the mint Agard presided over a debasement of the coinage resulting in massive profit for the Crown. Thomas Agard also benefited from the confiscation of St. Peter’s in Newtown Trim and St. Mary’s also of Trim. Within three months of acquiring Bective Agard was making plans for a cloth weaving enterprise which would employ over a hundred people. The monastery buildings were converted to a fortified mansion. The residence was designed around the cloister. The fifteenth century tower acted as a pivot for two wings. The main approach to the building was beside the tower and a flight of steps led up to the entrance on the first floor. This opened onto the main hall, previously the refectory, which was lit by five new windows. A fireplace was installed to heat the room. From the hall a wooden stairs led up to a solar or private chamber in the south-west corner on the second storey of the tower. A door at the other end of the hall led to the old dormitory where Agard added an extra storey, which was lit by a dormer window in the gable. This may have been used for accommodating the servants. New fireplaces were installed to provide heating. Stalley described the result of the adaptations as ‘a sprawling mansion offering plenty of space, but not much architectural coherence’. The main living areas were on the first floor and below each wing were vaulted basements from the monastic era. These may have been used as cellars or kitchens. In the same range there is a large baking oven. A stone stairs leading from the hall to the basement was installed. The elevations were very irregular but a degree of visual continuity was provided by the repetitive use of the Tudor mullioned windows. The building was not designed to provide a strong defensive position as attackers could gain entry through the first floor windows. [xiii]

Figure 2: Berenger’s view of Bective Abbey 1774

In 1544 the abbey was held by John Alen, Lord Chancellor.[xiv] It was purchased in 1552 by Andrew Wyse, vice-treasurer of Ireland. The grant sets out the lands which are identical to those given in the extents of 1540. There is also mention of the church of Cladaghe (Clady). This small church, located near the Boyne, was a short distance downstream from the abbey buildings.[xv]

On 22 February 1553 license was granted to Andrew Wyse to alienate to Richard Dillon of Preseston, John Wycombe and Richard Cox, all of the possessions of this abbey which he had purchased. In 1558 Jacques Wingfelde was farming the lands at Bective for the Queen.[xvi]

Bective was conveyed by Wyse to Gregory Cole, citizen of London.[xvii] There was quite an amount of litigation between the Queen and Wyse’s widow until the property passed to Wyse’s son-in-law, Sir Alexander Fitton. Fitton’s daughter and heiress, Catherine, married Sir Bartholomew Dillon of Riverston.[xviii]

The Bolton family acquired Bective in 1630. The transfer of the manor of Bective from Bartholomew Dillon to Edward Bolton took place on 10 August 1630. Other sources suggest a date of 1639 with the purchaser being Edward’s father, Richard Bolton.[xix] Sir Richard Bolton was Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1639 and established himself at Brazeel in north County Dublin. His son Edward became the owner of Bective in the 1630s and is listed as its owner in the Civil Survey 1654-6. The family seem to have resided at Brazeel allowing the renovated abbey at Bective to fall into ruin. The Civil Survey listed a castle, an abbey, a church, two mills and two weirs in the townland of Bective. There was a bridge and a weir in the townland of Balbrigh so perhaps this townland extended to the Boyne at this time. There is also a record of a weir at Dunlough which is some distance from any significant river. Sir Edward Bolton is listed as proprietor of the parish and of Balsoon townland on the opposite side of the river.[xx]

There appears to have been a castle at Bective on the opposite side of the river to the abbey which was taken by Irish rebels in the early 1640s. In the Civil Survey 1654-6 there was a stone house in the townland of Balreask, parish of Balsoon, the property of Sir Edward Bolton. According to Moore the castle was situated where the village of Bective existed on the south side of the river. A stone house said to date to the seventeenth century stood at Bective crossroads.[xxi]

The townland of Ballina or Bective is in the parish of Balsoon and was the site of small hamlet of houses. Fairs were held on 16 May for dry cows and young heifers and on 1 November for cattle and pigs. There was a village of thirty houses and 142 inhabitants in 1836. The villagers called the road through the village towards Navan ‘the Street’.[xxii]

In 1654-6 Bective/Ballina was the property of General Taylor and by the mid 1850s it had become the property of one of his descendants, Thomas Edward  Taylor of Ardgillan, Dublin. There was a connection between Boltons of Bective and the Taylors of Headfort. Thomas Taylor took the title Earl Bective of Bective Castle in 1766.  In 1767 and 1770 Bective Castle was listed as the abode of Thomas Taylor. According to the OS fieldname books for Ballina or Bective ‘from this townland the Marquis of Headfort takes his second title.’ Richard Bolton from Bective is listed as ‘of Headfort’ in his marriage settlement of December 1827.[xxiii]

Estate development in the nineteenth century

Richard Bolton was born about 1802 and inherited the manor of Bective after the death of his father. Robert Compton Bolton married twice and by his second wife, Charlotte, whom he married in 1800, he had a daughter, Anne, and two sons, Richard and Robert.[xxiv] Richard was less than nine when his father died.[xxv] The family home at Brazeel was destroyed by fire in 1810.[xxvi] Bolton did not live at Bective until the late 1820s as there was no record of a Bolton in the 1821 census for the parish of Bective nor were there any houses with large numbers of servants.

In the 1820s Bolton established himself at Bective. Bolton married a member of the local landed class. Bolton’s marriage to his cousin, Frances Georgina Bomford of Rahinstown, took place in November 1827 probably in Dublin. These marriage patterns were replicated by other members of the landed class in Ireland and Britain and succeeded in creating a self perpetuating and limited class of landowners. Frances Georgina had become twenty one and has received £1,800 on 18th April 1827 out of her £3,000 through a mortgage on the Bomford estate at Rahinstown. A final marriage settlement payment to Frances Georgina Bomford was agreed on 8 December 1827.  Her sister, Jemima Letitia, married a man of the same name, Richard Bolton of Monkstown Castle. In the same year of 1827 Dr. Robert Logan, brother of a tenant of Bolton, became Roman Catholic bishop of Meath. Due to high debts Rahinstown was sold in 1852 through the Encumbered Estates Court.

The ownership of land provided wealth which gave this class influence in local and national politics and administration. As a member of this class Bolton took a prominent role on the local political, judicial and religious stage. Richard Bolton was High Sheriff of County Meath in 1828. As High Sheriff Bolton was the principal representative of central government in the county in relation to the execution of the law, being responsible for the execution of legal process in both civil and criminal actions issuing from the courts. Bolton was appointed by the lord lieutenant. As High Sheriff Bolton was expected to be resident in the county and possess ample disposable income as the position involved meeting the expenses incurred during the year in office.[xxvii] Richard Bolton was also a justice of the peace, a position reserved for the established active gentry of the county.[xxviii] He was a member of the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury possessed a wide range of administrative functions and Bolton’s membership would have assisted him in re-routing the road away from his mansion.[xxix] As a leading landowner Bolton was a subscriber to Samuel Lewis’s Topographical dictionary of Ireland in 1837 and in 1838 he subscribed to D’Alton’s Memoirs of the Archbishops of Dublin.

Richard Bolton provided the site for a new national school at Robinstown, Balbradagh townland, in 1840 and became patron of the new school. His father, Robert, had provided a site for a chapel and school in 1800. In the mid 1850s a dispute arose between Mr. Bolton and the local priest as to the right to visitation and the appointment of teachers. This became a bitter dispute which was finally resolved in 1861 when Bective School at Robinstown became a non vested school and Bolton’s influence ceased.[xxx]

Bolton was a resident landlord, residing on his estate and being close to his tenants and took an active interest in the development of his estate. In 1800 approximately a third of landlords did not even reside in Ireland and in the 1870s only half the landlords resided on their estates. Bolton employed an agent to supervise the collection of rents. Mr. Justice from Dublin was the agent in 1836 and Mr. Tisdall, who resided locally was agent in 1861. The agent’s duty was to collect the rent on gale days in May and November, keep accounts, draw up leases and manage the estate. Bolton erected a house for the estate, walled in the demesne and erected a parish church. He was determined to stamp his footprint on his estate at Bective, becoming a landscape architect through the creation of a demesne. These improvements to the landscape were largely carried out for aesthetic rather than economic reasons. The construction of a suitable house and demesne may have been carried out to establish Bolton as a landowner of substance to his peers, particularly as the family had not been resident in the county. Bolton must have had considerable disposable income available for these improvements. Presumably monies accumulated during his minority were used to erect the house and the demesne while economic growth from the mid 1850s facilitated the continued development of the estate. Arrears which had accumulated during the Famine were paid off which provided landlords with an additional boost of income.[xxxi]

Bolton acquired his own coat of arms and crest. The motto he adopted was Deus providebit meaning ‘God will provide’.[xxxii]

Richard Bolton died 27 February 1868 and was buried in his church at Bective on 4 March with the service being conducted by the bishop of Meath, Samuel Butcher. His widow, Frances Georgina, lived on for another sixteen years. In the surveys of landowners in the 1870’s she is listed as owning Bective.  Mrs. Bolton died aged 80 on 23 June 1884 at Suffolk House, Cheltenham.[xxxiii]

In 1836 Richard Bolton was recorded as the owner of Bective parish of 3385 acres. His agent was Mr. Justice from Dublin and the lands were let at rents from 25s. to 40s per Irish acre on leases for one life or twenty-one years to three lives or thirty-one years. These types of shorter leases became the norm in the early nineteenth century. Farms were from four to one hundred acres. The entire townland of Cloncullen and part of Dunlough were rented to Mr. Jones who resided at Cloncullen Cottage. Mr. Jones kept a two horsepower threshing machine. Most of the parish was under cultivation with the main crops being wheat, potatoes, oats and flax.[xxxiv]

In Griffith’s Valuation of 1854 Bolton was the landlord of the entire parish of Bective and also held lands nearby at Shanbo, in the parish of Rataine. Half of the farms are larger than ten acres with all the small holdings in the village of Robinstown or in the townland of Gillstown.[xxxv]

  Farm size for parish of Bective from Griffith’s Valuation, 1854.  
In excess of 300 acres1
100-299 acres8
50-100 acres8
11-50 acres22
5-10 acres11
Less than 5 acres28

Figure 3:  Farm size for parish of Bective from Griffith’s Valuation, 1854.

Bolton erected a new house in Grange townland downstream from the abbey, making the most of the local scenery. Described as ‘a cottage’ in 1836 and ‘a handsome modern residence’ in 1837 the house is linked to the river and also to the abbey. Named ‘Bective House’ to emphasise the continuity of the estate it was also occasionally recorded as ‘Bective Abbey’ or ‘Bective Lodge’. The house is in an understated architectural style in the spirit of Francis Johnston. The front is seven bay with a side elevation of five bays. Indoors the plan was simple.  The main house is two rooms deep on a tripartite plan with a large and restrained central stair hall. The house has been ascribed to earlier dates of 1790 and 1800 but no house appears on Larkin’s map of 1812 and it is more likely that the house was erected for Richard Bolton’s marriage.[xxxvi]

Figure 4: Bective House

Source: Irish Times, 20 April 2006.

Bolton created a demesne at Bective. These lands were retained by Bolton as his own private lands and were not leased to tenants. The demesne was the focal point of the estate. Sizes of demesnes varied. In a sample of 100 landed estates Dooley found seventy-three were below 600 acres in size. Features of demesnes included walls, gate lodges, plantations, open parkland, ornate gardens, lawns and kitchen gardens.[xxxvii] Plantations and woodlands were created to provide shelter and privacy and also to cater for shooting.

Bective house was surrounded by a wide expanse of parkland, dotted with clumps of trees and secluded from the outside world by perimeter belts of trees. The plantation of these trees and creation of parkland led to the walling in of the demesne and the re-routing of the Trim-Navan road.

By 1836 Bolton had planted larch and scotch pine trees at Balgill, Gillstown and Grange as part of his proposed demesne.[xxxviii] Trees were planted to screen the house and were planted in a design as features on the landscape.[xxxix] It took a number of decades for the planted trees to mature. The plantation was still being recorded as ‘young’ in 1849.[xl] In 1854 there was a plantation of approximately 12 acres in his demesne of 202 acres and there were smaller plantations on the gravely hills in six townlands of the parish including Balbrigh, Balbradagh, Balgill, Bective, Gillstown and Grange.[xli] The planting of trees marked the confidence of the landed class.[xlii]

The old road from Navan to Trim passed through Balbrigh in the north of the parish but the new road passed though Bective townland and Grange townland ‘convenient to Mr. Bolton’s house.’  As Bolton created his demesne he decided to re-route the road away from his house and parkland.

By 1849 the estate was completely walled in and complete with a band of perimeter plantations. These walls stretching over two miles in length made Bective a conspicuous feature on the local landscape. Gate lodges monitored visitors to the estate, preserving the landlord’s privacy and emphasising the status differential between landlord and tenant. Impressive ashlar gateways were erected at each entrance to estate with gate lodges at each and an additional number of houses to cater for workers on the estate. The gate lodge at the Trim entrance was erected in 1852 and is adorned by the Bolton crest.

Figure 5: Demesne Wall

Figure 6: Gates at Trim entrance

Figure 7: Gate lodge at Trim entrance

Figure 8: Bolton crest on Trim entrance gate lodge

Figure 9: Kilcarn gate entrance

A walled garden was constructed near the house which provided produce for the family and household. Later the garden produced roses and vegetables for sale.[xliii]

In 1852 Bolton removed the baptismal font from the Clady ruins and erected in his garden as an ornamental bird bath.[xliv]

The re-location of the road and the creation of parkland obviously involved the removal of various houses. A poem published in 1926 entitled ‘The corpse at Clady gate – an epic of 62’ described Bolton as ‘a landlord of the vilest type’ who levelled the cottages at the Clady on ‘Bolton’s vast demesne.’ A funeral cortege arrived at the demesne gates to go to Clady graveyard but was barred from entering by a chain at the gate. Shaun O’Reilly stepped forward and urged the people to take action. The chains were broken and the funeral proceeded. An accompanying newspaper article in 1926 described Bolton as a noted bigot and noted for his oppression, evictions and demolition of Clady village. According to the article Bolton was marked for assassination during the Fenian period but died from a broken neck following a fall.[xlv] Memories recorded in the 1930s suggest that only two families were removed when the new gates were constructed, one to a smaller farm while the other family were evicted. Another person recalled that Bolton provided a lot of employment but he never showed any kindness to his employees or tenants.[xlvi] An overtly nationalist ideology provides the general view of all landlords as being capable of evictions on a whim as part of popular history right up to the present day.[xlvii]

Figure 14: The corpse at Clady gate.

Figure 10: Bective Church

When Richard Bolton inherited Bective the local Protestant parishioners attended church at Trim or Kilmessan. As the patron of the parish and the owner of the tithes Bolton decided to erect a church for his tenants and servants. The Church of Ireland was associated with the ascendancy. Bolton was linking his estate and his family firmly to the Church of Ireland and thus religion created a gulf between the Protestant landlord and Catholic tenant. Bolton was creating a Protestant world of his own within the demesne. Designed by Joseph Welland the church was erected on lands provided by Bolton and the cost of construction was also met by Bolton. The laying of the foundation of the new church at Bective was attended by a number of Bolton’s friends and a strong muster of tenantry. A fine cut-stone building with crypt and bell-tower, the church was designed in a plain gothic style and dedicated to St. Mary. The church bears a plaque: ‘To promote the worship of God, Richard Bolton Esq. of Bective Abbey erected this church at his sole expense for his tenants and neighbours in the year of Our Lord MDCCCLI.’ The church was consecrated 15 June 1853 and enlarged in 1858. A glebe house was also erected in 1853. Mrs. Bolton left a substantial amount of money and property to the church. After the death of Mrs. Bolton the parish was in poor financial state and this continued until its union with Trim parish in 1934. In 1953 when the centenary of the church was celebrated the old font was taken from the gardens of Bective House and erected in the church. The Birds, later owners of Bective House left a bequest to the church at Bective. The church closed in 1990 and was purchased in 1994 by the artist, John Ryan, who converted it to a studio and living quarters. Bolton’s remains were removed from the vault under the church and re-interred.[xlviii]

A railway line was laid from Dublin to Navan by the Dublin & Meath Railway and opened in 1862. The station at Bective, on the Clonsilla to Navan line, became a component of the estate. In 1892 Bective station was described as a thriving station.[xlix]

Figure 11: Bective Railway Station

A post office was established near the church. It is possible that Bolton was considering the establishment of an estate village on the main Trim-Navan road which might have replaced the chapel village at Robinstown.

Francis Georgina Bolton died in 1884 and bequeathed Bective to her nephew, Rev. George Henry Martin. He resigned his position as rector of Agher in that year and became resident at Trinity College, settling at Palmerston Park, Rathgar.

Bective House was leased by him for a number of years to General Sir Charles Fraser, a bachelor and a cavalry-man. He held house parties there and hunted with the Meath Hunt.[l]

In 1889 a public meeting to be held at Bective abbey to raise funds for the support of evicted tenants due to the Plan of Campaign was prohibited by the government.[li]

A number of Martin’s tenant sought a reduction in rents though the judicial rents system of the Irish land commission. Rents were fixed for Patrick McCann, John Sheridan, both Bective and Thomas Clerkin, Balbradagh in 1890-91. The rents were reduced by 30-40%.[lii] Bective Abbey ruins were vested in the Board of Works in 1894.[liii]

Martin’s daughter, Frances Georgina Martin was born on 24th April 1874 and was named after her great aunt, Frances Georgina Bolton of Bective.  Together with her brothers and sisters she was brought up as a teenager at Bective. In 1898 she married her cousin, the Reverend Richard Frederick Mant Clifford, who went to Bective as curate and then as rector from 1902 to 1903. Clifford then spent three years as curate at Castleknock, Dublin, before returning to Bective where he was installed as rector in 1910. He stayed at Bective until 1917. The Boltons and their immediate successors had considerable influence in church matters relating to Bective.[liv]

George Henry Martin died on 12th December 1896, aged 63. Bective was bequeathed to his fourth child, Mary Louisa, who lived there from perhaps as early as 1895. She farmed Bective for a period but later sold the house to John Watson and the majority of the estate to the Land Commission. She retained a small portion which was named the ‘Abbey Farm’ being located near the ruins of the abbey.[lv]

In 1906 a survey of untenanted lands was carried out throughout Ireland. This usually illustrated the state of demesnes and in the townland of Bective there was 104 untenanted acres presumably part of the demesne of Bective. There were smaller portions of untenanted lands in the townlands of Balbradagh, Balgill, Bective, Gillstown and Grange, all recorded as the property of the representative of F.G. Bolton.[lvi]

House and demesne in the 20th Century

John Watson purchased Bective House and demesne after retiring from the army. He was master of the Meath Hunt from 1891 until 1908 when he died. Watson erected kennels for the Meath Hunt at Bective. Watson was highly regarded as a huntsman and well known for his temper. Neighbouring landowners such as Lady Fingall and Lord Dunsany make considerable reference to him in their memoirs. An active polo player he created a team at Bective and introduced the game to America. The hunt and the house created a great deal of employment. Servants brought their own difficulties especially if the owner was as short tempered as Watson. In 1902 Kate Lawlor, parlour maid, took Watson to court for wrongful dismissal after working at Bective for two weeks. She left her employment because Watson let out a curse after she dropped a plate. Watson was absent on the night of the census in 1901. He died at Bective House 14 November 1908 after which the estate was put up for sale.[lvii]

Following Watson’s death Bective was acquired by Captain Henry Stern, late of the 13th Hussars. He and his wife Constance made a home at Bective. The 1911 census show the family in residence.  A house of Bective’s size required an adequate number of servants. In 1911 Stern, his wife and three children were present at Bective House in addition to one nurse, one nursery maid, two housemaids, two lady’s maids, two footmen, two laundresses, one between maid, one kitchen maid, one scullery maid and a cook. Six of the fourteen servants were from outside Ireland and all the others were from Ireland with just one from Meath. In 1911 only 14% of domestic servants in Ireland were born in the county in which they worked, 47% were born elsewhere in Ireland and 39% born in England.[lviii] Like other Protestant employers Stern employed Protestants in preference to Catholics. Only five out of the fourteen were Roman Catholic.[lix] In 1911 71% of servants in big houses in Ireland were Protestant.[lx] Twenty-one per cent of all males working in domestic service in Meath in 1911 were Protestant.[lxi] In 1912 Bective house was altered for Captain Stern.[lxii] James, the captain’s son, went on to have a career as a writer and used the Bective as a house name. The Sterns were unsettled by the troubled times in the early 1920s. In February 1921 the public house at Robinstown, although owned by a Protestant family, was plundered by the Auxiliaries.[lxiii]

An American paper manufacturer, Charles Bird came to Meath to hunt in the early part of the twentieth century.   In 1926 Bird with two friends put in a bid of £3,000 for Bective only to be amazed when a telegram arrived in the States saying “Congratulations, you own Bective”. The syndicate wished to become involved in hunting in Ireland. When the friends sold their shares, the Birds owned the place outright. The house and garden were rejuvenated. The estate’s most famous horses, Heartbreak Hill, came sixth in the 1932 Grand National at Aintree and won steeplechases all over Ireland.[lxiv] The steward at Bective was Tom Lavin whose daughter was Mary Lavin, the short story writer. In September 1942 Mary married William Walsh, a lawyer, who later entered politics. They took over the management of Bective estate on the death of her father. Following her husband’s premature death, Mary Lavin devoted her energies to running Abbey Farm, beside ruined Bective Abbey, rearing her children, and continuing her writing. Her first collection of short stories entitled ‘Tales from Bective Bridge” was published in 1943.

George Briscoe, who had sold the neighbouring estate and house at Bellinter, took over the management of Bective in 1952.  Briscoe and his wife moved into the wing at Bective. The Tara Harrier kennels and Briscoe’s horse were re-located to Bective. Bird became the joint master of the Meath Hunt so there were two hunts centred at Bective. The cost of upkeep of the house and hunts was considerable.[lxv]

In 1960 the Birds and the Briscoes moved across the river to Assigh and Bective House became home to Norman Wachman until the mid 1970s. Wachman allowed the Tara Harriers to continue using the kennels at Bective and began to develop a stud farm. [lxvi]

Bective was purchased by Michael Wymes in 1975. Wymes, a major shareholder in Bula Mines, developed a pheasant shoot on the property.[lxvii] As a result of commercial pressures due to his holding of the lead-zinc ore deposit, Wymes put the property on the market on a number of occasions. In 1986 the demesne was described as having 140 acres in permanent pasture, 130 in tillage and the remaining 105 in mature woodland and amenity grounds. There were twenty six loose boxes and six estate houses. The house had an enclosed porch, reception hall with doric columns, study, drawing room, family room, breakfast room, modern kitchen, old kitchen with flagstone floor, pantry, back kitchen, games room, master bedroom, five further bedrooms, staff quarters and domestic offices. In November 2003 Wymes lost a High Court bid to prevent 950 metres of a new road between Navan and Trim passing through Bective demesne. This new road opened in 2008 and cut though the demesne, isolating the church building from the house. In July 2006 Wymes sold Bective House and demesne.

Figure 12: Aerial view of Bective House and surrounds

Conclusion

Continuity is demonstrated in Bective with the landed estate succeeding the monastic estate. Landlord residences were often located at the centre of pre-Reformation parishes.[lxviii] Bective estate was based on the territorial divisions of parish. The core of Bective estate had roots going back to medieval times with the foundation of a Cistercian monastery in the twelfth century. This monastery and its holdings were confiscated in the sixteenth century and became the centre of an estate held by the Boltons from the seventeenth century. Many country houses in England originated as confiscated monasteries.

There were a number of major changes. The monastic building served as the centre of the estate until the sixteenth century, after which it fell into ruins. Richard Bolton erected a new mansion in the nineteenth century to serve as the new centre for the estate. Bolton moulded the landscape to his own vision and he possessed the power and resources to carry out his vision. The legacy of the Bolton’s nineteenth century developments are engrained on the local landscape. Hunting and outdoor pursuits were popular among the landlord class and these continued to be the basis of the use of Bective  for the twentieth century.

The settlement, land holding and buildings of Bective are a metaphor for the history of Ireland over the last nine hundred years from the introduction of continental orders in the twelfth century to the businessman of the late twentieth century.

Figure 13: Clady Bridge

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[i] Mark Clinton, ‘Settlement dynamics in Co. Meath: the kingdom of Lóegaire’ in Peritia (2000), xiv, pp 377, 379, 383; Michael Moore, Archaeological inventory of County Meath (Dublin, 1997), p. 60; Goddard H. Orpen, ‘Subterranean chambers at Clady, Co. Meath’ JRSAI Second quarter (1890), pp 150-4.

[ii] Roger Stalley, The Cistercian monasteries of Ireland (London, 1987), p. 13; Aubrey Gwynn and R. Neville Hadcock, Medieval religious houses: Ireland. (London, 1970), pp 115-6, 128; F.H.A. Aalen, Man and landscape in Ireland (London, 1978), p. 123.

[iii] Stalley, The Cistercian monasteries of Ireland, p. 40; Flannan Hogan, ‘The last monks and abbots of Bective’ in Ríocht na Mídhe, vol VI, no 2 (1976), p. 12; Anthony Cogan, The diocese of Meath ancient and modern (Dublin, 1862), i, p. 116.

[iv] Stalley, The Cistercian monasteries of Ireland, p. 205; Cogan, The diocese of Meath ancient and modern, i, p. 117; M. T. Flanagan, ‘Lacy, Hugh de (d. 1186)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15852, accessed 8 February 2009].

[v] Stalley, The Cistercian monasteries of Ireland, pp 45, 107, 158-60, 193-4; Harold G. Leask, Irish churches and monastic buildings vol III, (1996, Dundalk), pp 27-8, 145-7; Gwynn and Hadcock, Medieval religious houses Ireland, p. 128.

[vi] Aalen, Man and landscape in Ireland, p. 123; B.J. Graham,  Anglo- Norman settlement in Ireland (Athlone, 1985), pp 25-6; Gwynn and Hadcock, Medieval religious houses Ireland, p. 119; Cogan, The diocese of Meath ancient and modern (Dublin, 1862), i, pp 118-9; Will of Frances Georgina Bolton, dated 4 April 1879, D7/10/8, 1&2, RCB Library.

[vii] Stalley, The Cistercian monasteries of Ireland, p. 160.

[viii] Mervyn Archdall, Monasticum Hibernicum vol iii, (London, 1786), p. 517.

[ix] Hogan, ‘The last monks and abbots of Bective’, p. 3.

[x] Hogan, ‘The last monks and abbots of Bective’, pp 6-8.

[xi] Hogan, ‘The last monks and abbots of Bective’, p. 8.

[xii] Newport B. White, (ed.) Extents of Irish Monastic Possessions 1540-41 (Dublin, 1943), pp 267-70; Archdall, Monasticum Hibernicum iii, pp 517-8; Cogan, The diocese of Meath ancient and modern, i, p. 120; Hogan, ‘The last monks and abbots of Bective’, pp 8-9; Gwynn and Hadcock, Medieval religious houses Ireland, p. 128.

[xiii] C. E. Challis, ‘The Debasement of the Coinage, 1542-1551’ in  The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Dec., 1967), pp  441-66; Brendan Scott, Religion and Reformation in the Tudor diocese of Meath (Dublin, 2006), p. 97-8;  Stalley, The Cistercian monasteries of Ireland, pp 228-32.

[xiv] Scott, Religion and Reformation in the Tudor diocese of Meath, p. 97.

[xv] Calendar of patent and close rolls of chancery in Ireland, Henry VIII-Elizabeth James Morrin (ed.) (1861), i, pp 280, 281; Cogan, The diocese of Meath ancient and modern, i, pp 118-9.

[xvi] Calendar of patent and close rolls of chancery in Ireland, Henry VIII-Elizabeth, i, p. 293; Cogan, The diocese of Meath ancient and modern, i, p. 119; Harold G. Leask, ‘Bective abbey, Co. Meath’ in J.R.S,A.I.  series VI, vol VI (1916), p. 48.

[xvii] Leask, ‘Bective abbey, Co. Meath’, p. 48.

[xviii] Cogan, The diocese of Meath ancient and modern, i, p. 119.

[xix] A rent roll of Bective [Co. Meath] under the Tenants Names set by Barthol: Dillon, sold at  Bloomsbury Auctions Sale 614, 24th May 2007; Leask, ‘Bective abbey, Co. Meath’, p. 49; Cogan, The diocese of Meath ancient and modern, i, pp 119-20.

[xx] The civil survey, A.D. 1654-56. (ed.) R.C. Simington. vol. v, (Dublin, 1940), pp 239-41.

[xxi] Leask, ‘Bective abbey, Co. Meath’, p. 46; The civil survey, A.D. 1654-56, p. 136; Beryl F.E. Moore, Bective Abbey notes, Meath County Library; Moore, Archaeological inventory of County Meath, p. 178; John Healy, History of the Diocese of Meath (Dublin, 1908), i, p. 289.

[xxii] Edward McKeever, History of Kilmessan and its environs (Bective, 1972), p. 14; Fairs and Markets Commission Ireland HC, 1852-53, p. 100.

[xxiii] Art Kavanagh, The landed gentry and aristocracy Meath (Dublin, 2005), p. 45; Ordnance Survey field name books, County Meath, 1835-6, Balsoon parish. (typescript, Meath County Library, Navan); G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, (eds) The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (Gloucester, 1910-1959), i, p. 283.

[xxiv] Bernard Burke, Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary  of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain And Ireland (London, 1868), p. 109. 

[xxv] Freeman’s Journal, 28 September 1811.

[xxvi] Kavanagh, The landed gentry and aristocracy Meath, p. 48. Weston St. John Joyce, The neighbourhood of Dublin (Dublin, 1913), pp 316-7.

[xxvii] The Newry Commercial Telegraph, 7 March 1828; Virginia Crossman, Local government in nineteenth –century Ireland (Belfast, 1994), pp7-9.

[xxviii] W.E. Vaughan, Landlords and tenants in mid-Victorian Ireland (Oxford, 1994), p. 6.

[xxix] Freeman’s Journal, 20 February 1840; Crossman, Local government in nineteenth –century Ireland , p. 2.

[xxx] Cogan, The Diocese of Meath ancient and modern, iii, p. 323; Dan Daly, Robinstown Education 1800-1995 (Robinstown, 1995), p 3.

[xxxi] L.J. Proudfoot, ’Spatial transformation and social agency: Property, society and improvement, c. 1700 to c. 1900’ in B.J. Graham and L.J. Proudfoot (eds) An historical geography of Ireland (London, 1993), pp 227-8; Terence Dooley, The decline of the Big House in Ireland (Dublin, 2001), pp 30-1; Terence Dooley, Sources for the history of landed estates in Ireland (Dublin, 2000), pp 3-4, 8.

[xxxii]  James Fairbairn, Fairbairn’s crest of the families of Great Britain and Ireland (Clearfield, 1905), p. 61.

[xxxiii] Bective parish registers, burials; Bective D7/10/8 1&2 RCB library, Landowners in Ireland, Return of owners of land of one acre and upwards (Dublin, 1876) p. 65; John Bateman, The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland (London, 1883), p 46; U.H. Hussey de Burgh, The landowners of Ireland ( Dublin, 1878), p 43.

[xxxiv] Ordnance Survey field name books, County Meath, 1835-6, Bective parish. (typescript, Meath County Library, Navan); Dooley, Sources for the history of landed estates in Ireland , p. 5.

[xxxv] Valuation of Ireland. 1854. Parish of Bective.

[xxxvi] Ordnance Survey field name books, County Meath, 1836, Bective parish. (typescript, Meath County Library, Navan); Samuel Lewis, A topographical dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837); Christine Casey and Alistair Rowan, The buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (London, 1993), p. 162; Mark Bence-Jones, A guide to Irish country houses (London, 1988), p. 35; Terence Dooley, The decline of the Big House in Ireland (Dublin, 2001), p. 40.

[xxxvii] Terence Dooley, The decline of the Big House in Ireland (Dublin, 2001), pp 39-40.

[xxxviii] Ordnance Survey name books, County Meath, 1836, Bective parish. (typescript, Meath County Library, Navan)

[xxxix] The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland  (Dublin, 1846); www.excavations.ie Meath 2000:0746 Bective (viewed 30 March 2009)

[xl] William Wilde, The beauties of the Boyne and its tributary, the Blackwater (Dublin, 1849), p. 109.

[xli] Valuation of Ireland. Parish of Bective.

[xlii] L.M. Cullen, ‘Man, landscape and roads: The changing eighteenth century’ in William Nolan (ed.) The shaping of Ireland; The geographical perspective (Cork, 1986), p 127.

[xliii] George Briscoe, The best  of times: Memoirs of a countryman (Bective, 2005), p. 90.

[xliv] Helen M. Roe, Medieval fonts of Meath (Longford, 1968), p. 25.

[xlv] Meath Chronicle, 25 December 1926.

[xlvi] UCD Dept of Folklore MSS 190. Schools Collection, Robinstown.

[xlvii] Terence Dooley, Sources for the history of landed estates in Ireland (Dublin, 2000), p. 1.

[xlviii] Anglo-Celt, 12 September 1850; Bective D7/10/8 1&2 RCB library; Irish architectural archive www.dia.ie (viewed 30 March 2009); Bective D7/19/2.10 RCB library; Biographical succession list for the diocese of Meath Canon Leslie, RCB Library; Irish Times, 5 May 1859; Healy History of the Diocese of Meath ii, p. 236; Samuel Lewis, Topographical dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837); Roe, Medieval fonts of Meath, p 25.

[xlix] Jones Hughes, ‘Landholding and settlement in the counties of Meath and Cavan in the nineteenth century’, p. 114; John O’Meara, ‘The Meath Road’ in Journal of the Irish railway record society (spring, 1957) p. 234; Stephen Johnson, Lost railways of Dundalk and the North East (Catrin, 2006), pp 7-9.

[l] Elizabeth, Countess Fingall, Seventy years young (London, 1937), p. 135.

[li] Hansard HC Debate 23 July 1889, vol 338, c 1100, HC Debate 8 August 1889, vol 339, cc 852-70.

[lii] Irish land commission. The Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881 Judicial rents as notified to the Irish land commission during the months of September, October,and November 1890, HC 1890-91, (C.6263), p. 515.

[liii] Leask, ‘Bective abbey, Co. Meath’, p. 49.

[liv] Biographical succession list for the diocese of Meath Canon Leslie, RCB Library; Irish Times 5 May 1859.

[lv] UCD Dept of Folklore MSS 190Schools Collection, Robinstown.

[lvi] Return of untenanted lands in rural districts HC (1906)  (205) p 345.

[lvii] Fingall, Seventy years young, pp 198-201; Lord Dunsany, My Ireland (London, 1937), pp 123-8. Kavanagh, The landed gentry and aristocracy Meath, p. 213-20; Meath Chronicle, 1  November 1902, 17 February 1906, 19 May 1906, 14 April 1979; Bective D7/19/2.10 RCB library; Irish Independent, 14 November, 1908; Irish Times, 22 December 1908; Slater’s national commercial directory of Ireland. (Manchester, 1894)

[lviii] Dooley, The decline of the big house, p. 160.

[lix] Census returns, 1911. upublished census returns, NAI.

[lx] Dooley, The decline of the big house, p. 161.

[lxi] Kim O’Rourke, ‘Descendancy? Meath’s Protestant Gentry’ in David Fitzpatrick (ed) Revolution? Ireland 1917-1923 (Dublin, 1990) p. 100.

[lxii] Irish architectural archive www.dia.ie (viewed 30 March 2009)

[lxiii] George Briscoe, The best  of times: Memoirs of a countryman (Bective, 2005), pp 77-8; Meath Chronicle, 12 March 1923..

[lxiv] Irish Times, 20 April 2006; Meath Chronicle, 30 January 1926; Irish Tourist Association. Topographical and General Survey, 1942; Local studies section, County Library, Navan; Briscoe, The best  of times: Memoirs of a countryman, p. 135.

[lxv] Briscoe, The best  of times: Memoirs of a countryman, pp 79, 84,119.

[lxvi] Bence-Jones, A guide to Irish country houses, p. 35; Briscoe, The best  of times: Memoirs of a countryman, p. 120.

[lxvii] Briscoe, The best of times: Memoirs of a countryman, p. 121.

[lxviii] T. Jones Hughes, ‘Landholding and settlement in the counties of Meath and Cavan in the nineteenth century’ in Patrick O’Flanagan, Paul Ferguson and Kevin Whelan (eds) Rural Ireland 1600-1900 : Modernisation and change (Cork, 1987), pp 111-2.

Bective Homes and Families 1840-1911

Introduction

Using the statistical reports for the census for the years 1841 to 1911 an examination will be made for the civil parish of Bective as to the number of persons per habitable house and to plot changes. Bective is a civil parish in the barony of upper Navan in the county of Meath, situated on the river Boyne and on the road between Trim and Navan. (Figure 1) It contains eight townlands, comprising 3,726 acres. There was one large house, Bective House, erected in the early 19th century. In the north of the parish there is a small village, Robinstown, which in 1901 consisted of an RIC barrack, post office, a chapel and two national schools.[1]

Source Material[2]

Censuses of population are taken by governments to establish numbers and characteristics of a country’s inhabitants. The first full government census of Ireland was taken in 1821 with further censuses at ten-yearly intervals from 1831 through to 1911. The censuses from 1851 to 1911 were taken under the supervision of the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The original census returns for 1861 and 1871 were destroyed shortly after the censuses were taken. Those for 1881 and 1891 were pulped during the First World War, probably because of the paper shortage. The returns for 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 were, apart from a few survivals, notably for a few counties for 1821 and 1831, destroyed in 1922 in the fire at the Public Record Office at the beginning of the Civil War.

The census provides details of population and the number of houses at a particular point in time. The Census Report for 1881 provides statistics for the number of houses and the population per townland for the census of 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881. The Census Report for 1911 provides statistics for the number of houses and the population per townland for the census of 1891, 1901 and 1911. The 1901and 1911 census are arranged by District Electoral Divisions and by townlands within these divisions. The earlier censuses are arranged by civil parish.

The 1901 census is the earliest Irish census for which the original household returns survive. The 1901 census lists, for every member of each household; name, age, sex, relationship to head of the household, religion, occupation, marital status and county or country of birth.  The census also records an individual’s ability to read or write and ability to speak the Irish language.  All of this information is given on Form A of the census, which was filled in and signed by the head of each household. (Figure 2)

The same information was recorded in the 1911 census, with one significant addition: married women were required to state the number of years they had been married, the number of their children born alive and the number still living. The household returns and ancillary records for the censuses of Ireland of 1901 and 1911, which are in the custody of the National Archives of Ireland.

The returns for both censuses also give details of houses, those inhabited, uninhabited and those building, recording the number of windows, type of roof and number of rooms occupied by each family.  Each house is also classified according to its overall condition.  The number of out-offices and farm buildings attached to each household is also given. This information is recorded by the enumerator, who provided summaries of the returns for each townland and street, including the religious denomination of occupants. These summaries include a list of heads of household, thus providing a nominal index for each townland. (Figure 3)

Data

Using the Census Reports for 1881 and 1911 the information in relation to population and number of inhabited houses was obtained for each of the townlands of the civil parish of Bective for each census: 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, and 1911. The corresponding figures for the county of Meath and the whole of Ireland were also obtained from the same sources. (Figure 4) (Original material in appendix)

To obtain the number of habitable houses the total number of habitable and uninhabited houses for each census was abstracted and added together. An alternative approach would be to use only the inhabited houses and disregard the uninhabited house figures. This would reduce the average number of persons per house. In Bective civil parish while the number of house uninhabited in 1911 was only four, 4% of the total houses; in 1881 there were seven houses uninhabited, 9% of the total houses. The reason the houses were uninhabited would need to be investigated. For the purpose of this study it was decided to use the number of habitable houses (i.e. inhabited and uninhabited houses).

There seems to have been confusion with regard the location of houses. A note in the 1911 census stated that the enumerator reported that some houses which properly belonged to Balgill townland were included in Bective townland in 1901. The enumerator did not know the boundaries of the townlands and the enumerator was different for the 1901 and the 1911 census. On personal investigation of the actual household returns the largest house in the parish, Bective House, was recorded in Bective townland in 1901 census and Balgill townland in the 1911 census although it is actually located in Grange townland. In the 1911 census the family and a large number of servants were recorded in the house while in 1901 there was only a housekeeper and a very small number of staff. This large number of people would affect the number of people per habitable house in these censuses. As the household returns do not survive for earlier census then it is difficult to access whither this had an impact on other census.

TownlandBective Parish Houses
 18411851186118711881189119011911
Balbradagh1918171719181817
Balbrigh66456467
Balgill1088877918
Bective26218111281912
Cloncullen44642344
Dunlough55444433
Gillstown1213171614111415
Grange1213191417151314
Total9488837981708690
         
Meath3166225283216341927218299172981624216184
Ireland138104711084861036113992910972365939898932479930889
         
TownlandBective Parish Population
 18411851186118711881189119011911
Balbradagh14192908398888565
Balbrigh4231273445293529
Balgill7256513534333474
Bective1421204655553510255
Cloncullen262628114151615
Dunlough3127241718201310
Gillstown6771666660505562
Grange81791097071424558
Total602502441371385312385368
         
Meath1838281407481103739555887469768976749765091
Ireland81751246552385578996754123775174836470475044587754390219

Figure 4: Table displaying number of habitable houses and population per townland in each townland of the civil parish of Bective and habitable houses and population figures for county Meath and Ireland.

Source: Census of Ireland, 1881; Census of Ireland 1911.

Analysis

Bar charts are used to show the population and number of houses in the civil parish of Bective. (Figures 5 & 8).

The population of Bective parish declined overall during the period under study but there were periods when it rose. From 1841 to 1871 the population declined, then rose for the census of 1881, then fell in 1891, rose in 1901 and then fell again in 1911. The number of houses in Bective followed an almost similar pattern.

To examine the changes in population and see if Bective civil parish is representative of Meath or Ireland the percentage change in population between the census periods can be calculated. The table and bar graph figures 6 and 7 display the results.

Percentage change in population from previous census
 1851186118711881189119011911 
Bective-16.6-12.1-15.93.8-19.023.4-4.4 
Meath-23.4-21.6-13.4-8.4-12.1-12.0-3.5 
Ireland-19.9-11.5-6.7-4.4-9.0-5.2-1.5 

Figure 6: Percentage change in population from previous census

The graph and table show that while Bective parish did basically follow the downward trend of population, there were two noted exceptions in the 1881 and 1901 census Bective actually recorded an increase. The population of Bective parish fell from 602 in 1841 to 368 in 1911, a fall of 39% while Meath’s population fell by 65% and Ireland’s fell by 46%. With such a small population number in Bective parish it is likely that you are going to get exceptions and unrepresentative results.

Figure 9 shows that there are also differences with regard to the change in habitable houses between Bective and the county and national figures. The number of houses in Bective over the period 1841-1911 hardly fell, ninety-four in 1841 and ninety in 1911 while the figures for Meath fell by 49% and Ireland’s figures fell by 33%. While Bective’s house numbers hardly fell its population fell considerably thereby decreasing the number of persons per habitable house.

The number of occupants per house can be calculated by dividing the population by the number of houses. A similar calculation may be carried out for the county and for Ireland. This results in table (figure 10) and these figures can be plotted on a graph, (figure 11). From these figures and graph it would appear that the figures for the civil parish of Bective are comparable to the figures for Meath and Ireland.

 Average number of persons per habitable house
 18411851186118711881189119011911
Bective6.45.75.34.74.84.54.54.1
Meath5.85.65.15.04.84.44.24.0
Ireland5.95.95.65.55.35.04.84.7

Figure 10: Average number of persons per habitable house 1841-1911.

Figure 11: Average number of persons per habitable house 1841-1911.

All three areas show a decline in the number of people per habitable house from approximately six per habitable house in 1841 to approximately 4 per habitable house in 1911. The figures for Ireland are at a higher level than Meath and Bective from the 1851 census onwards.

This decline in the number of people per house has continued to the present day. The average number per house in Meath in the 2006 census was 3.0 with 53,938 houses and a population of 161,533.[3]

Conclusion

Bective civil parish displayed a decline in population over the period 1841-1911 but its number of houses remained relatively stable. County and national figures for both categories showed a significant decline. Possibly because of the small number of the sample of Bective parish there were a number of significant differences in how the population and habitable house numbers changed in Bective in comparison to the county and national figures. Further investigation would need to be made with regard to Bective to see why these differences occurred. However all three figures show a significant decline in the numbers of person per habitable house in the period.

Bibliography

Census of Ireland, 1881, part i, showing area, houses and population; also the ages, civil or conjugal condition, occupations, birthplaces, religion and education of the people, vol. i, Province of Leinster, H.C. 1881 [C. 3042], xcvii.

Census of Ireland, 1911, part i, showing area, houses and population; also the ages, civil or conjugal condition, occupations, birthplaces, religion and education of the people for each county; and summary tables of each province, vol. i, Province of Leinster, H.C. 1912-3 [Cd. 6049], cxiv.

Census of Ireland, 1911 General Report, with Tables and Appendix. H.C. 1912-3 [Cd. 6663]

Central Statistics Office: http://www.cso.ie/statistics/numprivhseholds.htm [viewed 15 December 2008]

Crawford, E. Margaret. Counting the people: A survey of the Irish censuses, 1913-1911 (Dublin, 2003)

Lewis, Samuel. A topographical dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), 2 vols.


[1] Samuel Lewis, A topographical dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), i, p. 190.

[2] E. Margaret Crawford, Counting the people: A survey of the Irish censuses, 1913-1911 (Dublin, 2003)

[3] http://www.cso.ie/statistics/numprivhseholds.htm [viewed 15 December 2008]