KILL

KILL, a parish, partly in the barony of SOUTH NAAS, but chiefly in that of SOUTH SALT, county of KILDARE, and province of LEINSTER, 3 ½ miles (N. E.) from Naas, on the road from that place to Dublin; containing 2493 inhabitants. A commandery for Knights Hospitallers was founded at Kilhill in the 13th century, by Maurice Fitzgerald, and chapters of the order were held here in 1326, 1332, 1333, and 1334; it existed till the Reformation, when it was granted to John Allen. The parish comprises 9986 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £7897 per annum: the soil is of good quality and principally under tillage. It includes the merged parish of Kerdiffstown, or Cardifftown, comprising 670 acres. The village of Kill consists of 113 houses, and has a neat appearance. Bishopscourt is the handsome residence of the Hon. F. Ponsonby; and here is the seat of Mrs. Hendrick, in the demesne of which are the picturesque ruins of the old church of Kerdiffstown.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Kildare, episcopally united to the rectory of Lyons, and held with the impropriate parish of Whitechurch; the rectory is partly impropriate in the Earl of Mayo and partly appropriate to the vicarage. The tithes amount to £696. 13. 6., of which £305 is payable to the impropriator, and £391. 13. 6. to the incumbent; and the entire tithes of the benefice amount to £468. 10. The church is a very neat structure, with a square tower and lofty spire, built in 1821 by aid of a loan of £2000 from the late Board of First Fruits, and recently repaired by a grant of £144 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners: it has an organ, which was given by the Earl of Mayo. There is a glebe-house, with a glebe of 16a. 1r. 36p. In the R. C. divisions the parish is partly in the union or district of New-bridge, and partly the head of a union, comprising the remainder of Kill and the parishes of Lyons, Bodenstown, and Furnace, and containing a chapel at Ard-clough, in Lyons, and one at Kill, which is a remarkably neat building, with a tower and spire, completed in 1826.

In the village is a school of about 30 children, under the trustees of Erasmus Smith's charity; the school-house, an ornamented building, is kept in repair by the Earl of Mayo. There are also two other public schools, in which are about 90 children; and in two private schools are about 50 children; Here is a large moat; and about a mile eastward is Heartwell, formerly a castellated mansion surrounded by a fosse. Numerous skeletons have been found in turning up the ground. Near Heartwell is a rivulet, on the bank of which are extensive depositions of calcareous tufa, which are hardened by exposure to the air, and although very porous are sometimes used in building. Extensive ramifications of stalactite are also found.