After he qualified as a doctor from Queens University Belfast grandad William set up practice as a GP in Rathfriland. He and Agnes are buried in the local Presbyterian church there. Grandad became a prominent member of the local Orange Order. I can recall his paraphernalia of office (including a ceremonial sword) which my father had stashed in the "glory hole" under the stairs at our house on South Promenade! Presumably as a result of his prominent role in the organisation he became a target for the local IRA activists and on one occasion an attempt was made to kidnap him while on the way to a late night home visit. Grandad had thought there was something fishy about the telephone call and had requested a police escort and thus the kidnap was foiled which is just as well as otherwise I might not be here to write this!
Michael, Owen and myself outside Grandad's house
September 2009
Grave at Rathfriland
Here is a description of Rathfriland by Samuel Lewis in his
Topographical Dictionary of Ireland of 1837:
RATHFRILAND, a market and post-town, partly in the parish of DRUMBALLYRONEY, but chiefly in that of DRUMGATH, barony of UPPER IVEAGH, county of DOWN, and province of ULSTER, 16 1/2 miles (W.) from Downpatrick, and 57 1/4 (N.) from Dublin, on the mail road from Newry to Downpatrick; containing 200 . inhabitants. This town was founded, soon after the Restoration, by Alderman Hawkins, of London, to whom, in acknowledgment of his very important services during the parliamentary war, Chas. II. granted the whole of the extensive manor, which is now the property of his lineal descendant, Gen. Meade. The benevolent alderman, at his own cost, provided food, clothing, and lodging for 5000 Protestant royalists, who, during the calamitous progress of the war, had fled to London for protection; collected in England £30,000 for the purchase of corn, wearing apparel, and other necessaries for the support of such as had not been able to effect their escape; and, with the assistance of a few of his friends, raised the sum of £45,000 for the public service and the use of the king. The town is situated on an eminence, previously the site of an ancient fortress, about three miles to the north of the Mourne mountains; and consists of a spacious square, and five principal and several smaller streets, containing together 447 houses, which are in general well built and of handsome appearance, surrounding the crown of the hill. The principal streets communicate with five great roads from different parts of the county, but, from the acclivity of the site, form steep entrances into the town, from which in every direction are extensive and interesting views of the surrounding country. A considerable traffic is carried on with the adjacent district, and the town itself is the residence of numerous respectable families. The market is on Wednesday and is amply supplied; and fairs are held on the second Wednesday in April (O. S.), the Wednesday after Trinity, the second Wednesday in September (O. S.), and the second Wednesday in December. The market-house is a handsome building in the centre of the square; the lower part is appropriated to the use of the market, and the upper part contains accommodation for holding courts. A constabulary police force is stationed in the town, and petty sessions are held on alternate Fridays. The manorial court, with which has recently been incorporated that for the manor of Gilford, is held on the first Tuesday in every month before the seneschal; its jurisdiction extends to pleas of debt to the amount of £100, which may be recovered by civil bill process. The parish church of Drumgath, a small neat edifice with a tower on the north side, is situated on the south side of the square: it was originally founded by Alderman Hawkins, and rebuilt in 1818. There are also in the town a spacious R. C. chapel, and places of worship for the Society of Friends, Presbyterians, Covenanters, and Wesleyan Methodists, and a dispensary. On the very summit of the hill round which the town is built are some slight remains of the ancient castle of the powerful sept of the Magennises, Lords of Iveagh, commanding the entire country for ten miles round; a modern house was erected on the site in 1812, when, in digging the foundation, many small cells were discovered, in some of which were found human bones, pieces of armour, coins, and other relics.
And here are two extracts from the Rathfriland and Hilltown list by P J Rankin, published by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society in 1979.
Hugh Magennls was living 'very cyvillle and Englishe-like in his house' at Rathfriland ln the later 16th century, a tower house of which nothing but part of the base remains. But the town itself was not founded until soon after the Restoration, when in acknowledgement of his services in the parliamentary wars, Charles II granted the whole of the extensive manor to Alderman Richard Hawkins of London. The town and manor passed in course of time to Miss Theodosia Magill, first Countess of Clanwilliam, and from her to her son General Robert Meade. The Meade family are still the town's landlords. The Hawkins family had a house and demesne at Lissize, just outside the town to the north-west. This presumably fell into disuse following their marriage with the Magills of Gill Hall. in the early 1700s.Early- and mid-19th century guide books refer to the nearly-obliterated remains of the old Magennis castle at the summit of the hill, close to where the water tower stands today. But after the 1641 Rising the castle was dismantled and the inn and other chief houses built with its materials. A 'Scheme for the Improvement of the Estate and Town of Rathfriland', prepared by Henry Waring in March 1764, recommended that all proper methods be taken to promote and encourage the linen market; that a market house be immediately built; that renewable leases for lives be made of the tenements, then ruinous. In contrast to Banbridge and Tandragee, turbary was contiguous and plentiful: this would affect the rents at which property would let, and Miss Magill could fix each rent as appropriate. Probably as a result, a market house was built, but still in 1846 there was apparently but little trade in the town.In earlier times known as Insula Magennis, on 'the steep acclivities' of its little hill 'rising out of the surrounding bog' like a small medieval city, the town has caught the imagination oi succeeding generations. R.L. Praeger, Lady Mabel Annesley, Richard Rowley have all known its spell: 'it seemed to be always in sunshine'. Helen Waddell, writing of Ballygowan over the hill, caught exactly the exciting quality of this part of Down: 'in the summer afternoons my bachelor uncle, as crusted as one of his apple trees, limped about the fields in the dusk, with the moon hanging over the Mournes, and said there wasn't a place like it in the country'. And why should the Union Jack floating from the tower of the church, now as when Lady Mabel Annesley lived under the shadow of the hill, seem a happy and not a provocative thing?The plan of the town is simple, consisting of a square of streets crowning the hill, and five streets which fall away steeply on all sides to the patchwork of lush greens, mountains and distances beyond. Light and airy, most of the stucco is painted in fresh clear colours, and behind the street frontages one is constantly aware, through archways and entries, of the wealth of good rubble-stone backs of buildings, tanneries, stores and warehouses.Few buildings are individually of the highest quality, but it is a case of the effect of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Brash intrusions have so far been kept at bay in Church Square, Main Street, Downpatrick Street and Caddell Street, at least since the building of the Northern Bank, and it is to be hoped that the place will not succumb now. And thankfully too, 20th-century commercial pressures have not as yet resulted in the town sprawling endlessly down the hills to the farmlands around.Several of the shops and premises in the centre are empty. One hopes that lifting of the security restrictions will bring further life, and that modernisation and updating will respect the hitherto largely-unspoiled inherited architectural character. The appearance of the town is nevertheless spoiled at many places, Church Square, Newry Street, John Street to name a few, by most unsightly electricity poles and gather-ups of the neighbourhood's wires. A small thing which gives pleasure while walking around - the little oval convex enamelled street numbers still on many of the house and shop doors.
Church Square, Rathfriland:
The whole square is of group value; its constituent parts vary in architectural quality, but the form and appearance of each part is important. In the centre is the Market House, a handsome mid-Georgian block. The lower part, according to Lewis, was appropriated to the use of the market, the upper part had accommodation for holding courts. The centre three-bay portion appears to date from about 1770, the single-bay estension at either end from 1949-51, designed by Major Reside of Rostrevor. Upper windows all Georgian glazed, four-panes wide plus narrow side panels. Some ground-floor arches are blank, others have windows - some regrettably with 1950s type horizontally-paned casement windows - but one old Georgian-glazed window remains. Gabled roof. Roughcast, alternating quoins round arches and at corners, those of the 1949-51 extension being of cement. Carved stone on south wall, depicting an eagle and inscribed 'JWM 1951'. North wall has upstairs three bays of paired windows with narrow side panels; south wall is two-bay. In 1860 the arches at the southern end were still open, as was that at the north end on the west side.Also in the Square is the War Memorial, commemorating both World Wars: an obelisk of granite blocks, but not particularly inspired. In the corresponding position at the north end of the Square stood a pump. The market is still held in the Square every week, and dues paid to the Meade family. A house at the corner of Church Square and Newry Street, perhaps entry no. 28 above, 3 Newry Street, may have been used by Theodosia Magill, the house at Lissize having been given up earlier in the century: certainly this same house in the town was later used by Crane Brush, when agent to the estate. The local Hell Fire Club is also reputed to have used it.From the square at Rathfriland on top of a steep hill, five streets with stepped terraces fall away sharply on all sides. Before the combustion engine, the cheery residents usually walked home, getting out of their traps and carts to spare the ponies. The town has a mid-week variety market in the square and 3 livestock sale days a week. During the nineteenth century potato famine, the market house (1770) was used as a soup kitchen though Rathfriland was spared the worst, since cereals as well as potatoes were grown locally. Four substantial Presbyterian churches are testimony to past differences of opinion. The old Quaker meeting house is now a scout hall, and the small shop with pointed windows on the first floor was originally the town's Methodist chapel. A very prominent funnel shaped water tower occupies the high point in the riverless town, near the site of a sixteenth century Magennis castle, now vanished. This part of County Down has distinguished connections with pioneer Canada. The intrepid Catherine O'Hare, mother of the first European child born west of the Rockies was herself born in Rathfriland in 1835. She and her husband, Augustus Schubert, joined 200 Overlanders who went west in search of gold, and blazed the trail for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Rathfriland has not yet erected a memorial to this remarkable woman, though in Kamloops city park British Columbia is named after her, and Armstrong also has a monument.
Saintfield Town - this photo was taken in 1910 and shows Main Street looking west from the square
Another view of Saintfield circa 1960
Back garden at Slievenamaddy Ave
Saintfield 1964 - the man isn't a relative as far as I know!
