Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

COM
and Lords Cowley and Maryborough. No part of the
abbey now exists, but a chapel to the south of its site
is the burial-place of the Bellew family. The parish
contains 4793 statute acres, principally under tillage, and
of moderately good quality; there is no bog or waste
land. At Pilltown are some quarries containing indica-
tions of copper, and in which some fossils have been
found. The branch of the great northern road through
Balbriggan runs through the parish, which will also be
intersected by the Dublin and Drogheda Grand Northern
Trunk railway. The principal seats are, Bettystown, the
residence of R. Shepheard, Esq.; Eastham, of F. Ander-
son, Esq., Pilltown, of T. Brodigan, Esq.; Mornington
House, of G. F. Blackburne, Esq.; Beabeg, of H. Smith,
Esq.; Mornington, of Burton Tandy, Esq.; Beamore,
of J. Cooper, Esq.; Farm Hill, of W. Walsh, Esq.;
Triton Lodge, of C. Segrave, Esq.; and Cowslip Lodge,
the property of G. H. Pentland, Esq.
The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Meath,
united by episcopal authority, in 1826, to the vicarage
of Kilsharvan, and in the patronage of the Marquess
of Drogheda; the rectory is partly impropriate in W.
Dutton Pollard, Esq., of Castle-Pollard, and partly ap-
propriate to the vicarage of St. Peter’s, Drogheda, as part
of the tithes were purchased by the late Board of First
Fruits as an endowment for that vicarage. The tithes
amount to £165, the whole of which is payable to the
impropriators: the union is also called Mariners’ town,
and the gross value of the benefice, including tithes
and glebe, is £81. 4. 6. The glebe-house was erected
about twenty years since by J. Brabazon, Esq., who
presented it to the parish, with £1000 to pay the rent
to the heirs after his decease. He also granted a glebe,
comprising 10 acres of profitable land, which, with the
glebe-house, is valued at £35 per annum; and there is
a glebe of 3½ acres at Kilsharvan, valued at £12 per
annum. The church is a neat structure in good repair,
built in I8O9, by aid of a gift of £600 from the late
Board of First Fruits. In the R. C. divisions the parish
forms part of the union or district of St. Mary, Drog-
heda; and there is a small chapel at Mornington, in
which is a school of about 20 children. There is also a
pay school at Beamore, of about 30 children. On the
beach at the mouth of the Boyne, which is a level strand,
is an ancient building, called the “Maiden Tower,” with
a small obelisk near it, called the “Lady’s finger;” it
serves as a landmark for vessels bound to Drogheda.
From the records of the corporation of Dublin, it
appears to have been erected in the reign of Elizabeth,
and was probably so called in compliment to Her
Majesty. At the Maiden Tower is a pool called the
Long Reach, which extends a quarter of a mile inland,
where vessels may lie at low water. A little north of
the church is an ancient rath, where Colpa is said to
have been interred; and the church of Rath-Colpa is
alluded to in the ancient Irish records. The mouth of
the Boyne, anciently called “Inver-Colpa,” was fre-
quented by foreign merchants at a remote period; and
some are of opinion that St. Patrick, on escaping from
his captivity, here found a vessel to convey him to the
continent.
COLRY.—See CALRY.
COLUMBKILL.—See CULLUMKILL.
COMBER, or CUMBER, a post-town and parish,
partly in the barony of UPPER, but chiefly in that of
390
COM
LOWER CASTLEREAGH, county of DOWN, and province
of ULSTER, 14 miles (N. by W.) from Downpatrick,
and 91 (N. by E,) from Dublin 5 containing 8276 inha-
bitants, of which number, 1377 are in the town. St.
Patrick founded an abbey here, of which nothing is now
known. Brien Catha Dun, from whom the O’Nials of
Clandeboy descended, and who fell by the sword of Sir
John de Courcey, about l201, also founded an abbey to
the honour of the Blessed Virgin, and supplied it with
monks of the Cistertian order from the abbey of Alba-
landa, in Carmarthenshire. John O’Mullegan was the
last abbot, and voluntarily resigned the abbacy in
1543. The site and lands were granted, in the 3rd of
Jas. I., to Sir James Hamilton, afterwards Lord Clan-
deboy, whose successors used the greater part of the
materials in erecting a mansion near the town, called
Mount Alexander, which is now a heap of ruins, and
the parish church occupies the site of the abbey.
This place derives its name from the river on which
it is situated, and which flows into Strangford Lough,
on the east side of the parish. The town, which
is tolerably well built, forms three streets and a
large square, on the road from Belfast to Down-
patrick. Messrs. Andrews and Sons have an exten-
sive bleach-green here, where 20,000 pieces of linen
are finished annually, principally for the London
market; they have also large flour-mills and corn
stores. There are two distilleries; one of them, which is
the property of Messrs Millar & Co., is among the
oldest in the North of Ireland, having been erected in
1765. The tide from Strangford Lough flows to within
half a mile of the town, and at a trifling expense might
be made very beneficial to it. Great advantages would
also result from the erection of a pier near Comber
water foot; vessels of 200 tons might then come in with
every tide. Coal is at present brought up in small lighters,
but the principal fuel is peat; there is a very extensive
bog, called Moneyreagh, or the Royal Bog, from which
great quantities are sent to Belfast and other places.
Fairs are held on Jan. 5th, the second Monday in April,
June 19th, and Oct. 28th, principally for farming horses
and cattle. Here is a constabulary police station. A ma-
norial court is held here every third Thursday, for the
manor of Comber, or Mount Alexander, which has juris-
diction in debts not exceeding £2 over 30 townlands in
the parish of Comber, Barnemagarry, in the parish of
Kilmud, and Ballycloghan, in that of Saintfield. There
is also a court for the recovery of debts not exceeding
£20 late currency.
The parish, which includes the ancient parish of Bal-
lyricard, comprises, according to the Ordnance survey,
17,420 statute acres, of which 16,134 are in Lower Cas-
tlereagh; about 20 are common, 117 water, and 150 or
200 bog; the remainder is arable and pasture land, of
which three-fourths are under tillage. Agriculture is
in a very improved state, and the soil is very productive.
There are some good quarries of freestone, equal in fine-
ness and durability to the Portland stone; and coal has
been found in three places, but no mines have been
opened. There are several gentlemen’s seats, the prin-
cipal of which are Ballybeen, the residence of J. Birch,
Esq.; Ballyalloly, at present unoccupied; Killynether
House, the residence of T. M c Leroth, Esq.; and Max-
well Court, of J. Cairns, Esq. The living is an impro-
priate curacy, in the diocese of Down, and in the patron-