SYDDAN

SYDDAN, a parish, in the barony of LOWER SLANE, county of MEATH, and province of LEINSTER, 4 miles (S. E.) from Nobber, on the mail coach road from Dublin to Londonderry; containing 1212 inhabitants. This parish formed part of the possessions of the abbey of St. Thomas, Dublin; the tithes and advowson were granted in the 2nd of Eliz. to Thomas Manners, gent. It comprises 5061 ¾ statute acres, nearly equally divided between pasture and tillage; the soil is of good quality and agriculture improving; some of the pasture land is particularly fine. Lime and marl, found in the low grounds at a small depth beneath the surface, form the chief manure; there is no bog. Some coarse yarn is spun here, and coarse linen cloth is woven for the Drogheda market. Petty sessions are held on alternate Mondays.

The gentlemen's seats are Keiran House, the residence of J. Norris, Esq.; Moortown, of Gorges Henzill, Esq.; and Mentern, of A. Sallary, Esq., adjoining which is a corn-mill.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Meath, united by act of council, in 1734, to the vicarage of Killeary and the rectory of Mitchelstown, and in the patronage of the Crown and the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in J. P. Eyton, Esq., of Holy well, in Wales.

The tithes amount to £336. 18. 5 ½., of which £253. 16. 11 ¼. is payable to the impropriator, and £83. 1. 6 ¼. to the vicar; and the gross value of the benefice, tithes and glebe inclusive, is £291. 3. 9. The glebe-house is half a mile from the church, and was built in 1788 at a cost of £484, of which £100 was a gift from the late Board of First Fruits, and the residue was defrayed by the then incumbent. The glebe comprises 20 acres, valued at £30 per annum, and there are glebes in each of the other parishes of the union. The church was built in 1753; it is a neat edifice, and for its repairs the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently granted £180.

In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of a union or district, comprising this parish and those of Killeary and Innismott: there are three chapels in the union, two in Killeary and one in this parish at Newtown, with a school adjoining, in which about 100 children are taught; there is another school at Greenhill, in which are about 20 children.