MONAGHAN CORPORATION

The corporation, by the charter of James I., consists of a provost, 12 free burgesses, and an indefinite number of freemen, assisted by a recorder, two serjeants-at-mace, and other officers. The provost is annually chosen from the free burgesses on the festival of St. John the Baptist, and sworn into office on that of St. Michael; the burgesses are elected, as vacancies occur, from the freemen by a majority of their own body, by whom also freemen are admitted by favour only; the recorder and serjeants-at-mace are chosen by the corporation at large, but no recorder has been chosen since 1815, when the last, who was also the first serjeant-at-mace, died. The corporation continued to send two members to the Irish parliament till the Union, when the borough was disfranchised.

The court of record, ordained by the charter to be held every Monday, with jurisdiction extending to five marks, has not been held for the last 50 years. The assizes for the county are held here, also the quarter sessions four times in the year, and petty sessions every Tuesday. There is a chief constabulary police force stationed in the town. The county court-house, situated in the centre of the town, is a handsome modern building of hewn stone, containing spacious court-rooms and all requisite offices, and in every respect well adapted to its purpose. The county gaol, completed in 1824, and situated on an eminence near the entrance to the town, is a handsome semicircular range of building, containing 75 single cells, and 11 rooms with more than one bed each, with appropriate day-rooms and airing-yards, in one of which is a tread-wheel applied to the raising of water for the supply of the prison; there are a male and female hospital, a chapel, and a school; the prison is well adapted for classification, and under very good regulations.

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