NEWCASTLE

NEWCASTLE, or NEWCASTLE-juxta-LYONS, a parish (formerly a parliamentary borough), in the barony of NEWCASTLE, county of DUBLIN, and province of LEINSTER, 2 miles (N. W.) from Rathcoole; containing 1100 inhabitants, of which number, 397 are in the village. A charter, dated March 30th, 1613, was granted to this place by James I. whereby it was erected into a corporation, consisting of a portreeve, 12 free burgesses, and a commonalty, with power to appoint inferior officers; to hold a court of record for pleas to the amount of five marks, and to be a guild mercatory and the portreeve to be clerk of the market. In 1608, a grant was made to James Hamilton, Esq., to hold a market here on Thursdays, and fairs on the feasts of St. Swithin and All Saints, and the day after each; and in 1762 the portreeve and burgesses obtained a grant of a market on Mondays, and fairs on May 9th and Oct. 8th. All of these markets and fairs are discontinued. The borough also sent two members to the Irish parliament, but it was disfranchised at the Union. There is a dispensary in the village, and it is a constabulary police station.

Agriculture is in a high state of improvement: the principal crops are wheat, oats, and potatoes. There are good quarries, the stone of which is used for building and repairing the roads. The Grand Canal passes through the parish. Part of the demesne of Lyons, the splendid seat of the Rt. Hon. Lord Cloncurry, is in the parish: the other seats are Athgoe Park, the residence of Mrs. Skerrett, one part of which is an old castle, erected at a very early period, and in the grounds is the tower or keep of Colmanstown, and an old burial-place; Newcastle House, the seat of Alex. Graydon, Esq.; Newcastle, of the Very Rev. Archdeacon Langrishe; Peamount, of C. E. Kennedy, Esq.; Colganstown, of J. Andrews, Esq.; and Newcastle, of O. Moore, Esq.

The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Dublin, and was made the corps of the archdeaconry of Glendalough by an act of the 8th of Edward IV. (1467); it is in the patronage of the Archbishop.

The tithes amount to £250. A small plot of ground in Myler's Alley, Dublin, measuring 1r. 24p., on which some houses stand that are let on lease at £18. 9. 2. per ann., belongs to the archdeaconry: the gross annual value of the dignity is £418. 9. 2. There is a glebe-house, and a glebe of 16 acres, to which 2a. 3r. 17p. were added on the enclosure of the common. The church was erected about the 15th century, and is chiefly remarkable for its fine eastern window, which was removed to it in 1724, when the building underwent a thorough repair; the ivy which covers the walls contributes also to its picturesque appearance: a grant of £180 has been lately made by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners towards its repairs. The church has an annual economy fund of £3. 8. 10.

In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Saggard; in the village is a neat chapel, with a belfry, erected in 1813 at a cost of about £1500. There is a school in connection with the Board of National Education. In the village are the ruins of three old castles.