DUNGARVAN

DUNGARVAN, a sea-port, borough, market and post-town, and a parish, in the barony of DECIES-WITHOUT-DRUM, county of WATERFORD, and province of MUNSTER, 22 miles (S. W. by W.) from Waterford, and 97 ¾ miles (S. W. by S.) from Dublin, on the road from Waterford to Cork; containing 12,450 inhabitants, of which number, 8386 are in the town and borough. This place, formerly called Achad-Garvan, of the same import as its present appellation Dun-Garvan, derived that name from St. Garvan, who in the 7th century founded an abbey here for canons regular of the order of St. Augustine, of which there are no vestiges.

Raymond le Gros, one of the earliest English adventurers, in 1174, brought hither the plunder he had taken in Offaly and Lismore, which he put on board some vessels he found lying at anchor; but, being detained by contrary winds, was attacked by the men of Cork, whom he repulsed with the loss of eight of their vessels, with which he sailed away in triumph. Soon afterwards the town, which then formed the frontier barrier of the dependencies of Waterford, was, together with other territories, totally surrendered to Henry II. by Roderic, Sovereign of all Ireland; and a castle was erected for its defence by King John, who is also supposed to have surrounded the town with a wall strengthened with towers. The same monarch granted the custody of the castle, and of the territories of Waterford and Desmond, to Thomas Fitz-Anthony, at a yearly rent of 250 marks, but retained the fee in the Crown; during the minority of Edward I., it was granted to John Fitz-Thomas at a yearly rent of 500 marks, but was subsequently recovered by Edward in a judgment against Thomas Fitz-Maurice, his cousin and heir, and in 1292 given to Thomas Fitz-Anthony.

In 1447, the castle, honour, lands, and barony of Dungarvan, together with other extensive territories, were granted to John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury; but the unsettled state of affairs during that period prevented the improvement of the town either in extent or importance. In 1463, an act was passed at Wexford, setting forth that, "whereas the lordship of Dungarvan was of old the greatest ancient honour belonging to the King in Ireland, and that by war and trouble, and want of English governance, it is for the most part totally destroyed; for the relief and succour whereof it is ordained that the portreeve and commonalty, their heirs and successors, may have and enjoy all manner of free grants, liberties, privileges, and customs as the tenants and inhabitants of the honourable honour of Clare in England enjoyed, with a further power to take customs of all kinds of merchandise bought and sold within the franchises, as the mayor and commons of Bristol did, to be yearly expended on the walls and other defences of the town, under the inspection of the Hon. Sir Thomas, Earl of Desmond, and his heirs." By another statute of the same parliament, the entire fee farm of the town was granted to the said Earl during his life.

In the 4th of Henry VIII., an act was passed confirming the castle and all its dependencies to the Crown: but in the 26th of this reign the manor was granted to Sir Pierce Butler, who was likewise created Earl of Ossory, and appointed seneschal, constable, and governor of the castle and manor of Dungarvan, into which the Earl of Desmond had forcibly intruded. In the reign of Edward VI., Robert St. Leger, brother to the Lord-Deputy St. Leger, was confirmed in the government of the castle, to which he had been appointed in the preceding reign, on condition of keeping a proper ward in it; and other constables for the crown were subsequently appointed with extensive powers and emoluments, to one of whom, Henry Stafford, a commission of martial law, extending over the whole county of Waterford, was directed, in the first year of the reign of Elizabeth.

In 1575, the Lord-Deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, came from Waterford to this place, where he was met by the Earl of Desmond, who, with great professions of loyalty, offered his services in reducing the country to obedience; but towards the close of the year 1579, when Sir William Pelham, then Lord-Justice, was at Waterford, the Earl led a large insurgent force to this place, with which the 400 foot and 100 horse, which had been sent against him, were unable to contend. In the 2nd of James I. the manor was granted to Sir George Thornton, but subsequently was with the castle, by act of parliament, vested in the Earl of Cork, from whom it descended to its present proprietor, the Duke of Devonshire.

In the 7th of his reign, James, in reward of the loyalty of the inhabitants during the reign of Elizabeth, granted them a new charter of incorporation; but early in the rebellion of 1641, they broke their allegiance, and took part with the King's enemies; in March 1642 the town was, however, taken by the Lord President of Munster, who placed in it a royal garrison, but it was soon after retaken by surprise, and the English inhabitants were plundered. The insurgents, while in occupation of this place, exported merchandise to France, and in return received warlike stores for fortifying the town and castle, of which they kept possession till 1647, when they were taken by Lord Inchiquin with a force of 1500 foot and the same number of horse.

The town remained in the possession of the Royalist party till December 1649, when Cromwell, having abandoned the siege of Waterford, advanced to besiege it; after a regular investment and a few days' siege, in the course of which several neighbouring fortresses were taken by detachments from his army, the town surrendered at discretion. It is said that Cromwell ordered all the inhabitants to be put to the sword, but recalled his mandate in consequence of a female drinking to his health as he entered the town, which, with the exception of the castle and the church, he saved from being plundered by his troops. The charter of the inhabitants was renewed by Richard Cromwell in 1659, and in 1689 a new charter was granted by James II., which, on the accession of William, was annulled.