Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

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manity and theology here, previously to entering May-
nooth; several complete the whole course of their studies
in this establishment. Of the other schools, the princi-
pal are those established in 1803, by the Rev. Edmund
Rice, in connection with the society called the order of the
Christian Brethren, and in which are generally from
600 to 700 boys, who are taught chiefly by young men
who, from religious motives, have devoted themselves to
the instruction of the poor without receiving any pecu-
niary remuneration. The principal female school is
conducted by the Sisters of the Presentation Convent,
who gratuitously instruct about 400 girls. A school,
also for the gratuitous instruction of poor females, has
been established near the Ursuline convent on the road to
Tramore.
A neat range of houses with two returns, facing the
grand. entrance of the cathedral church, and called the
Widows’ Apartments, was, according to the inscription on
a marble tablet over the central house, founded by the
Right Rev. Dr. Hugh Gore, for the use of clergymen’s
widows, and erected, in 1702, by Sir John Mason, Knt.,
surviving executor of his lordship. By this will £1200
was bequeathed for building an asylum and purchasing-
lands for the maintenance of ten poor clergymen’s
widows, to each of whom he assigned £10 per annum.
Connected with the meeting-house of the Society of
Friends is a house of refuge for aged and reduced mem-
bers of that body. The leper hospital was founded
about the year 1211 or 1212, by King John, who incor-
porated it tinder the designation of the master, brethren
and sisters of the leper-house of St. Stephen, and
granted the society a common seal; he also endowed it
with the house and several other buildings in St.
Stephen’s parish, and with the oblations and offerings
of that parish, with lands at Poleberry without St. John’s
gate, and with the lands of Leperstown, in the barony
of Gualtier, containing 500 plantation acres; also with
the tithes of Carrigbrahan. The Poers, Lords of Car-
raghmore, endowed an hospital adjoining the leper-
house, which circumstance has led to an erroneous
opinion that the Poers were either the original founders
of the leper-house of St. Stephen, or that they endowed
at least one. ward in that establishment. In the middle
of the last century, when leprosy had become of very
rare occurrence, the corporation shut up the house; but
legal proceedings being instituted against them by the
Rev. Dr. Downes, a decree was obtained for appropriat-
ing the funds of the charity to the relief of the sick
and maimed poor. Under this decree an infirmary was
built for the reception of 50 indigent patients, and
the funds afterwards increasing, a magnificent hos-
pital was erected in the suburbs, capable of receiving
more than 400 patients, but the average number sel-
dom exceeds 40. The government is vested in a mas-
ter, appointed by the corporation; and the medical
attendants, housekeeper, and inferior servants are ap-
pointed by the master, subject to the approval of the cor-
poration. The rent-roll of the estates is about £1300, but
the actual receipts are only about £1000 per annum;
and the annual expenditure, including the salaries of
physician, surgeon, and others, nearly approaches that
sum. The Holy Ghost hospital was originally a monas-
tery of Friars Minor, founded in 1240 by Sir Hugh Pur-
cell; after the settlement of the French Huguenots in this
city, a part of the building was appropriated to their use
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as a place of worship, and still bears the name of the
French Church; the steeple is yet entire; andin the vaults
beneath are several curious monuments, but the inscrip-
tions are now illegible; among these is the tombstone
of Sir Patrick O’Neill, a colonel in the army of Jas. II.,
who served in the battle of the Boyne, and dying of his
wounds, was buried in this church. At the Reformation,
Henry Walsh purchased the site and all the possessions
of this dissolved monastery, for the sum of £150.13.4.,
and founded the present hospital for a master, brethren,
and the poor, to whom he gave it in trust at a rent of
only 8s. The brethren were incorporated by an act of
the 36th of Hen. VIII., providing that the master and
his successors should be appointed by the heirs of Pa-
trick Walsh, Esq., who should nominate three or four
secular priests to celebrate divine service in the hospital,
and have the nomination of at least 60 of the sick, in-
firm and impotent folk of both sexes; that all persons
thus nominated should be a corporation for ever, with
power to possess lands of the value of £100. This
patent was confirmed by Elizabeth, in the 24th of her
reign; over the entrance of the hospital is a tablet re-
cording its foundation in 1545, and its repair and en-
largement in 1741 and 1743. The master has for several
years been appointed by the corporation, in concurrence
with the descendants of the Walsh family, who reside at
Cratava, one of the Canary islands; the inmates are at
present all women and of the R. C. religion. The build-
inghas a modern front erected against the ancient monas-
tery, and on each side of the entrance is a flight of steps
leading to the apartments, which are over the cemetery,
and consist of a long narrow room or gallery lighted
from above, and partitioned off for beds on one side
throughout the whole length; and an inner cham-
ber, forming the whole of one wing: these rooms are
terminated by the upper portions of two pointed arches,
and contain some curious ancient sculpture and a font.
The other wing of the hospital contains the chapel, a
long gallery like the former, with an altar decorated
with some curious ancient sculptured figures: divine
service is regularly performed here, in compliance with
the direction of the founder: there are at present 50
females in the institution. The property of the hospital
consists of several houses and plots of ground in Fac-
tory-lane, the Mall, Colebeck-street, the Quay, and
Lombard-street; the lands of Priors Knock, in the
liberties of Waterford, containing 31 acres; certain
tithes of the parish of Kilmocahill, in the county of Kil-
kenny; the tithes of Kilmaguage, in the county of Wa-
terford; and a house and garden in Broad-street, Bristol,
now the White Lion Inn, which, though a valuable pro-
perty, produces only a rent of £6. 10., having been let
on lease in the reign of Elizabeth, renewable for ever,
and for the renewal of which it does not appear that
any fine has been exacted. The present income from
all these sources does not exceed £385.
The Fever Hospital was established in 1799 and was
the first institution of the kind in Ireland, and the second
in the united empire: it arose from very small begin-
nings, but progressively increased, and the present
building is capable of admitting 150 patients, for whose
accommodation it possesses every requisite convenience:
there are two attending physicians, with salaries of £40
each, and one resident apothecary, with a salary of
£84 j it is supported by subscription and local assess-