Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

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and is rapidly increasing in opulence and importance.
News-rooms are supported by subscription, and assem-
blies are held occasionally. At a short distance to the
east is Northland Lodge, the seat of the Earl of Ranfur-
ley, and in the immediate neighbourhood are many gen-
tlemen’s seats, which are noticed in the account of the
parish. The principal trade of the town and neighbour-
hood is the manufacture and bleaching of linen, for
which it has long been celebrated; there are several
bleach-greens on a large scale, all in full operation; the
manufacture of earthenware and fire-bricks, for which
there are large potteries within three miles of the town,
is extensive: there is a large distillery, which annually
consumes 29,000 barrels of grain, and not far from it
are some extensive flour-mills. A flourishing trade is
also carried on in wheat, flax, oats, and barley. The
Drumglass collieries, one mile distant, are the most ex-
tensive, in the North of Ireland; they were formerly
worked without much success, but are now conducted
by the Hibernian Mining Company and have been ren-
dered productive of great benefit to the town and neigh-
bourhood; the coal is of good quality and is procured
in great abundance; the demand is ample, and the prices
moderate from the competition of English and Scottish
coal, which are brought hither by the Lagan and Newry
navigations and by Lough Neagh. There are also iron-
works, and some extensive lime-works near the town.
The markets, originally granted in 1587, by Queen Eli-
zabeth, to Hugh O’Nial, Earl of Tyrone, and in 1612
by Jas. I., to Sir Arthur Chichester, are held on Tues-
day and Thursday; the former for grain, and the latter
for brown linen, yarn, cattle, pigs, and provisions of all
kinds, with all of which it is very extensively supplied.
Fairs, granted in 1611 by Jas. I. to Sir Arthur Ghiches-
ter, and in 1705 to T. Knox, Esq., are held on the first
Thursday in every month. The market-house,.sham-
bles, grain stores, and provision sheds are commodious
and well adapted to their use. A chief constabulary
police station has been established in the town, which
is the head-quarters of the constabulary police force of
Ulster, for whose accommodation a police barrack has
been built. The inhabitants under the title of the “Pro-
vost, Free Burgesses, and Commons of the borough of
Dungannon,” received a charter of incorporation from
Jas. I., in l6l2, by which the site of the town, with three
parcels of land called Crosse, Brough, and Ferneskeile,
(with the exception of the castle, and a space of 500
feet around it, in every direction, from its walls), was
created a free borough, and the corporation made to
consist of a portreeve, twelve free; burgesses, and com-
monalty. The portreeve is chosen annually, and has
power to hold a court every Friday for the recovery of
debts not exceeding five marks, but this court has not
been established. The charter also conferred the right
of returning two members to the Irish parliament, which
was exercised till the Union, since which period it has
returned one member to the Imperial parliament. The
right of election, formerly in the portreeve and bur-
gesses, has, by the 2nd of Wm, IV., cap. 88, been vested
in the resident freemen and £10 householders, The
liberties of the borough comprised the whole of the
townlands of Drumcoo and Ranaghan, a considerable
portion of the townland of Gortmenon, and three small
pieces in three other townlands, comprising together
about 836 statute acres; but not being connected with
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the elective franchise, a narrower boundary has been
drawn round the town, containing 224 statute acres, of
which the limits are minutely described in the Appendix.
In 1836 the number of registered voters was 197,
consisting of 11 free burgesses and 186 £10 house-
holders: the portreeve is the returning officer, A court
for the manor of Dungannon, granted in 1621 by
Jas. I. to Arthur, Lord Chiehester, and now the pro-
perty of the Earl of Raufurley, is held once in three
weeks, and has jurisdiction to the amount of £20
extending over 40 townlands. General sessions of the
peace for the division of Dungannon, which comprises
the baronies of Dungannon and Clogher, are held here
and at Clogher, alternately, twice in the year; and
petty sessions are also held once a fortnight before the
county magistrates. The court-house is a spacious and
handsome building, erected in 1830; under it is the
bridewell, containing a day-room and four large cells for
male prisoners, with a yard, day-room, and cells for
female prisoners; the same accommodation for debtors,
and apartments for the keeper.
The church of the parish of Drumglass having been
destroyed in the wars during the reign of Elizabeth, a
new church was erected by Sir Arthur Chichester in the
town of Dungannon, in 1610, This building, which
was nearly destroyed in the war of 1641, wan restored
in 1672, and was rebuilt in 1690, since which time it
has been considerably enlarged, and is now a handsome
edifice with a lofty octagonal spire. There is a R. C.
chapel in the town, also places of worship for Presby-
terians in connection with the Synod of Ulster and the
Seceding Synod, and for Wesleyan Methodists. The
free grammar school, or Royal College, was founded by
letters patent of Chas. I., in 1628, which gave in trust
to the Primate of Armagh and his successors six town-
lands in the parish of Clonoe, for the support of a, school
at Mountjoy, in that parish; but this place being only
a garrison, the school was, after many years, removed to
‘Dungannon, and the first account we find of it is in 1726,
nearly a century after its foundation, when it was held
in a lane near High-street, where it continued till 1786,
when the present college was erected by order of Pri-
mate; Robinson, who a few years before had erected the
college of Armagh. The building comprises a centre
and two deeply receding wings, erected at an expense of
£4626. 8.2., of which £2000 was given from the Primate’s
private purse. It is situated on a gentle eminence on
the east side of the town, on grounds comprising 9
acres purchased by Primate Robinson and given to the
school. The establishment is conducted by a principal
and three classical assistants, two English masters, and
drawing, French, and music masters, and is adapted for
100 pupils; the masters take private boarders and day
scholars; at present there are no scholars on the foun-
dation, The lands with which it is endowed comprise
3900 acres, producing a rental of £1430, and are under
the management of the Commissioners of Education,
who, in their report for 1834, state that “considerable
improvement, has been effected in the condition of the
tenantry and appearance of their farms;” and there is
every prospect that the rental will be nearly doubled
in a few years. The principal, who is appointed by the
Lord-Primate, has a salary of £500 per annum and
£100 for assistants; £400 per ann, was appropriated,
in 1834, to the founding of ten exhibitions in Trinity