COLERAINE

COLERAINE, a sea-port, borough, market and post-town, and a parish, in the barony or district called the town and liberties of COLERAINE, county of LONDONDERRY, and province of ULSTER, 24 ½ miles (E. N. E.) from Londonderry, and 118 ¼ (N.) from Dublin; containing 7646 inhabitants, of which number, 1978 are in the parish of Killowen, and 5668 in the town. This place derives its present name from Cuil-Rathuin, descriptive of the numerous forts in the vicinity, and is by some writers identified with the Rath-mor-Muighe-line, the royal seat of the kings of Dalnaruidhe. The original town, now called Killowen, on the western bank of the river Bann, and which subsequently became the chief or shire town of the county of Coleraine, is of very remote antiquity; and in 540 had a priory of Canons Regular, of which St. Carbreus, a disciple of St. Finian, and first bishop of Coleraine, was abbot. This establishment continued to flourish till the year 930, when Ardmedius, or Armedacius, was put to death by the Danes; it was, together with several other churches, plundered in 1171 by Manus Mac Dunleve, since which period no notice of it occurs till the year 1213, when, with the exception of the church, it was destroyed to furnish materials for a castle which was erected here by Thomas Mac Uchtry and the Gaels of Ulster. The county of Coleraine is described as having extended from the river Bann, on the east, to Lough Foyle on the west, and as having formed part of the possessions of O'Cahan, from whose participation in the rebellion of the Earl of Tyrone, in the reign of Elizabeth, it became, with the whole province of Ulster, forfeited to the crown.

James I., in 1613, granted this district to a number of London merchants, who were in that year incorporated by charter, under the designation of the "Governor and Assistants of the New Plantation in Ulster," and from that period the name of the county was changed into Londonderry. The Governor and Assistants, generally called the Irish Society, were by their charter bound to build the town of Coleraine, to people it, to enclose it with a wall, and to establish a market, within seven years from the date of their charter, by which were granted to them the entire abbey of St. Mary, its site, and the lands belonging to it, together with the old town, now Killowen, and all its appurtenances. But this condition appears to have been very much neglected, for Pynnar, in his first survey, in 1619, says, "that part of the town which is unbuilt is so dirty that no man is able to go into it, especially what is called, and should be, the market-place." The same writer, in his second survey, dated 1625, says, — "The town of Coleraine is in the same state as at the last survey; only three houses are added, which are built by private individuals, the society allowing them £20 a piece. The walls and ramparts are built of sods; they do begin to decay, on account of their narrowness; the bulwarks are exceedingly little, and the town is so poorly inhabited that there are not men enough to man the sixth part of the wall." So unpromising was the condition of this settlement that, in addition to the sum of £20, large portions of land were allotted for each tenement, and long leases at nominal rents were offered to all who would undertake to build houses.

A conspiracy of the natives having been formed to seize the place, in 1615, military stores were sent hither from London; and by a vote of the common council, a citadel was built for its defence in the following year; it was a strong fortress, commanding the ferry, and was kept in repair and well garrisoned by the Irish Society, till the erection of the bridge in 1716. The bridge, which was wholly of wood, was so much injured by floods that it fell in 1739; and in 1743 a new bridge was built, with pillars and buttresses of stone, towards the erection of which the Irish Society gave the timber and £2050 in money; in 1806 it was widened, at the expense of the county, by transverse beams supporting a foot-path of four feet on each side. The growth of the place was exceedingly slow, and so little had its trade advanced that, in 1633, the customs of the port, for the half year ending on Lady-day in that year, amounted only to £18. 9. 8 ½. On the breaking out of the war in 1641, the town was attacked by a body of 1000 insurgents, but was vigorously defended by the garrison and inhabitants, amounting to 200, who defeated the assailants. It was taken by General Monk for the parliament, in 1648, but was afterwards given up to Sir Charles Coote. On the advance of the forces of James II. into the north, in order to repress the Protestant party, Mount-Alexander, Rawdon, and other leaders, stationed themselves with a force of about 4000 men at Coleraine, which they fortified and kept possession of with a view to prevent the Irish from passing the Bann. They were here joined by Lord Blaney with his party from Armagh; and though for a time they repulsed the enemy, yet the Irish, after a successful skirmish, passed the river in boats, and the party stationed here finding the place no longer tenable, fled by various routes to Derry, in order to take possession of it, before the Irish should cut them off from their last place of refuge. The subsequent history of the town consists of little more than a succession of disputes in the corporation, and between that body and the Irish Society, relative to their respective rights, privileges, and possessions: the Society enclosed the quay and made the port duty free, in 174l.