Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

ABB
ABBEYLEIX, a market and post-town, and a parish,
partly in the barony of FASSADINING, county of KIL-
KENNY, and partly in the barony of MARYBOROUGH-WEST,
but chiefly in that of CULLINAGH, QUEEN’S county, and
province of LEINSTER, 7 miles (S. S. E.) from Mary-
borough, and 47½ miles (S. W.) from Dublin; containing
5990 inhabitants, of which number 1009 are in the town.
This place, called also Clonkyne Leix, or De Lege Dei,
was the site of a monastery founded about the year 600,
but of which there is no further account till the year
1183, when it was refounded and dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin by Conogher or Corcheger O’More, who
placed in it monks of the Cistertian order from Baltin-
glass, in the county of Wicklow, and was himself in-
terred within its precincts. It maintained a high degree
of reputation; and the town adjoining it, which took its
name from the abbey, gradually rose to be the principal
place in the territory of Leix, now Queen’s county. In
the 5th of Elizabeth, the abbey and some of its posses-
sions, which were large, were granted to Thomas, Earl
of Ormonde, and now form part of the estate of Viscount
De Yesci. The town is situated on the mail road from
Dublin, through Athy, to Cashel, and contains about
140 houses, of which the greater number are neatly
built: the late Lord De Yesci caused the old town to be
entirely rased, and laid out the present on a more eligible
site. There are two woollen manufactories; a large
worsted-mill and factory has been recently established
near the town, which affords employment to about 200
persons in combing, weaving, and spinning yarn; and
on the river Nore, which passes near the town, is a
boulting-mill. The market is on Saturday; and fairs
are held on Jan. 26th, March 17th, May 5th, July 20th,
Sept. 20th, and Nov. 4th. The market-house is a good
building. The quarter sessions for the county are held
in the town in June and December; petty sessions are
held every Saturday; a court is also held by the
seneschal of the manor; and here is a chief constabulary
police station. The sessions-house is a commodious
building, and a new bridewell has been erected.
The parish comprises 11,974 statute acres, as applot-
ted under the tithe act: there are about 400 acres of bog
and 300 of woodland; the soil is in general light and
sandy, and the system of agriculture is improving.
Limestone of very good quality abounds, and is quarried
for building and for burning into lime; there is also a
curious freestone quarry, and excellent potters clay is
found here. The gentlemen’s scats are Abbey Leix,
the residence of Viscount de Yesci, a spacious and hand-
some mansion pleasantly situated in a demesne of about
1135 statute acres, embellished with thriving plantations
and with timber of stately growth; Bellview, of W. Bell,
Esq.; Thornberry, of Capt, Croker; Farmley, of—Roe,
Esq.; Rathmoyle House, of E. B, Handcock, Esq.; and
Oatlands, of J. Ferguson, Esq. The living is a vicarage,
in the diocese of Leighlin, and in the patronage of Vis-
count De Vesci, who is impropriator of the rectory. The
tithes amount to £507. 18. 10¼. of which £338. 9. 2¾.
is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the
vicar. The parish church, recently erected, is a very
handsome building, in the later English style, with a
vaulted roof of stone and an elegant spire: the old
church, which has an endowment by Lord De Vesci, is
not generally used. The glebe-house was built in 1810,
for which the late Board of First Fruits gave £400; the
4
ABB
glebe comprises 5 acres. In the R. C. divisions this
parish is partly in the diocese of Ossory, but chiefly in
that of Leighlin; the former in the union or district of
Ballyragget, and the latter the head of a district, com-
prising also the parish of Ballyroan, and containing a
chapel in each. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan
Methodists. There are a parochial and an infants’ school,
a work school for girls, and another aided by subscription,
together affording instruction to nearly 300 children:
a school-house was erected for the parochial school by
Lord de Vesci, at an expense of £250: there are also
two pay schools. An almshouse for poor widows is
maintained by Lady De Vesci; and a dispensary and an
infirmary are supported in the usual way. The tomb of
Malachi O’More, with an inscription, is in the gardens
of Lord De Vesci, near the site of the old abbey. There
is a fine chalybeate spring in the parish.
ABBEYMAHON, a parish, in the barony of IBANE
and BARRYROE, county of CORK, and province of MUN-
STEK, l½ mile (E. S. E.) from Timoleague; containing
3563 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the north-
west side of Courtmacsherry bay, on the south coast:
it formerly constituted part of the parish of Lislee, from
which it was separated on the erection of an abbey by
some Cistertian monks, which stood close to the shore,
and was endowed by Lord Barry with 18 ploughlands,
but was not entirely completed at the general suppression
of monasteries, when its possessions were seized by the
Crown and granted to the Boyle family, and are still the
property of the Earl of Shannon. The parish com-
prises 3475 statute acres: the land is in general
good, and under an improving system of tillage:
there is a considerable extent of bog, which supplies
plenty of fuel. The ordinary manures are sand and
sea wrack afforded by the shore of the bay, in collecting
which, during the season, numerous persons find em-
ployment. The living is an impropriate cure, in the
diocese of Ross, and in the patronage of the Earl of
Shannon, in whom the rectory is wholly impropriate,
and who allows the curate a voluntary stipend; the
tithes having merged into the rent, the parish is now
considered tithe-free. There is no church; but divine
service is regularly performed in a private house licen-
sed by the bishop. In the R. C. divisions this parish
is the head of a union or district, comprising also Lislee,
Kilsillagh, and Donoghmore, and containing two chapels,
situated respectively at Abbeymahon and Lislee. The
parochial schools are principally supported by the Cork
Diocesan Association; the school-house was given by
C. Leslie, Esq. There are also a Sunday school and a
hedge school. The ruins of the abbey consist of the
walls of the church, which are tolerably entire, and a
square tower mantled with ivy.
ABBEYSHRULE, or ABBEYSHRUEL, a parish, in
the barony of ABBEYSHRULE, county of LONGFORD,
and province of LEINSTKER, 1½ mile (S.W.) from Colehill, on the
road from Longford to Moyvore; containing 1233 inhabitants. It
is situated on the river Inney,
which divides it into two parts, connected by a stone
bridge of ten arches; and derives its name from the
monastery of, or Shruel, founded here prior to
the tenth century, and refounded for monks of the
Cistertian order and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, by
O’Ferrall, according to Sir James Ware’s conjecture,
about the year 1150 or 1152. The monastery subsisted