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POR
The lord of the manor has power to appoint a senes-
chal, and to hold courts leet and baron; and also a
court of record, the former for the recovery of debts not
exceeding 40s., and the latter for the determination of
all pleas or actions wherein the debt or damage does not
exceed the value of £200. There being no prison with-
in the manor, all decrees or executions issuing from
these courts are directed against the goods of the de-
fendant; an appeal from the decision of these courts
lies to the judge of assize on the circuit. The courts
are held in a suite of rooms, well adapted to the purpose,
above the market-house. Petty sessions are held every
Wednesday in the market-house, at which six magis-
trates frequently attend.
Two churches were built in the town at the time
of the settlement, dedicated respectively to St. Michael
and St. Paul, in the reign of Wm. III., and endowed
severally with a rent-charge of £40 late currency re-
served upon lands let in perpetuity; St. Paul’s was ap-
propriated to the French and Flemish settlers, and
St. Michael’s to the use of English Protestants in the
town; in consequence of this arrangement the former
of these is called the French church, and the latter the
English. The income of the French church was aug-
mented with £50 per ann. by parliament many years
since; and the late Board of First Fruits increased the
stipend of the minister of the English church to £100
per annum. It is in the diocese of Kildare, and in the
patronage of the Bishop. The English church, situated
on the eastern side of the square, has a handsome spire;
the French church is in the street leading westward
to the river, and till within the last twenty years divine
service was performed in the French language. In the
R. C. divisions Portarlington is the head of a union or
district, called Portarlington, Emo and Killinard, and
comprising parts of the parishes of Clonehorke and Cool-
banagher, and the parish of Lea, with the exception of
the townland of Inchcoolley. Chapels are respectively
situated at Portarlington, Emo and Killinard: that in
Portarlington having been found too small for the in-
creasing congregation, a new chapel is now being erected
near the old one, and, when finished, will be a hand-
some edifice in the pointed style; the principal front
will consist of a tower, with pinnacles at each angle and
surmounted with a fine spire, 140 feet high. There is
also a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. Two
free schools, one for boys and the other for girls, main-
tained by grants made by the Earl of Galway, are kept
in a house that was once a boarding-school for young
gentlemen: there are also two schools supported by
subscription and aided by the Board of National Educa-
tion, in which are about 160 children of both sexes;
and a Sunday school, commenced many years since by
some ladies of the town, and carried on by gratuitous
teachers, A mendicity institution, with a fund of about
£300 per ann., raised by subscription, has done much
towards diminishing the pressure of extreme poverty
in the town. A savings’ bank, opened a few years since,
has now a capital of deposits from the poorer classes,
amounting to £6100. A loan fund, which commenced
with a capital of £100, is operating very beneficially:
Col. Armstrong, and Chidley Coote and Maunsell Dames,
Esqrs., have taken an active part in its formation. A
dispensary is supported in the usual manner. About
a mile to the south of the town is Spire Hill, so called
VOL. II—465
POR
from the erection of an obelisk on it by the late Vis-
count Carlow, for the purpose of giving employment to
the poor in a season of scarcity: the flatness of the
surrounding country renders it visible at a great dis-
tance; the sides of the hill are richly wooded, and it has
winding walks through the plantations to its summit.
The more remarkable seats in the vicinity are Wood-
brook, the residence of Major Chetwood; Indiaville, of
Capt. C. L. Sandes; Lawnsdoun, of Lieut.-Col. Robt.
Moore; Rathleix, of Jas. Dunne, Esq.; Doolagh, of M.
Dames, Esq.; Garryhinch, of Chas. Joly, Esq.; Hunt-
ingdon, of Capt. C. Coote; Labergerie, of J. D. Clarke,
Esq.; Barrow-bank, of J. W. Johnstone, Esq.; Anna-
moe, of Capt. Chas. Hendrick; Clonehurk, of H. War-
burton, Esq.; and Benfield, of L. Dunne, Esq. A chaly-
beate spring in Mr. Shewcraft’s grounds is said to be
efficacious in scorbutic cases; its chief component parts
are nitre and sulphur. Portarlington gives the title of
Earl to the Dawson family.
PORTCLARE, a manor, in that part of the pa-
rish of ERRIGAL-TROUGH which is in the barony of
CLOGHER, county of TYRONE, and province of ULSTER:
the population is returned with the parish. This an-
cient district, which comprises 3000 acres of arable
land and extends over the present towns of Aughnacloy
and Augher, including the districts of Lismore and
Garvey, with all the intermediate country, was granted,
in 1613, by Jas. I. to Sir Thomas Ridgwaie, Knt., and
confirmed in 1665 by Chas. II., who changed the name
of the manor from Portclare to Favour Royal, by which
it is at present known. A spacious and handsome man-
sion, called, after the estate, Favour Royal, was erected
here by the proprietor, in 1670, but being destroyed in
1823 by an accidental fire, a larger and more magnifi-
cent structure was erected in 1825, by John Corry
Moutray, Esq., its present resident proprietor. This
mansion is situated on the bank of the river Blackwater,
and is built of freestone found on the estate, in the
Elizabethan style, highly embellished with a noble por-
tico, and with elegant architectural details; the demesne
comprises 740 acres of fertile and highly cultivated
land, and is finely diversified and richly wooded. Within
it Mr. Moutray has erected a handsome cruciform
church, in the later English style, with a square tower
rising from the north-eastern angle, forming an interest-
ing and beautiful object in the grounds, and correspond-
ing in character with the house. It is built of the free-
stone procured on the estate, and was completed at an
expense of £1000, for the accommodation of the in-
habitants of the neighbourhood, who have no other
church within a distance of three miles. The living is
a donative, in the patronage of the founder, who has
endowed it with £50 per ann. charged on his estate, to
which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have added
£30, making the stipend of the minister £80 per annum.
The church was consecrated on the 3rd of July, 1835,
and is designated St. Mary’s, Portclare.
PORTERIN, or PORTRUN, a parish, in the barony
of ATHLONE, county of ROSCOMMON, and province of
CONNATJGHT, 3-½ miles (S. E.) from Roscommon, on the
river Shannon: the population is returned with Kil-
lenvoy. It comprises 1133¾ statute acres, of which
1092, consisting of good arable and pasture land, are
applotted under the tithe act; and it contains a quarry
of excellent limestone, which is extensively worked and
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