What is recorded here

Mountmellick defied early cartography, absent from the 1563 and 1656 maps yet granted a Royal Licence in 1631 for Saturday markets and annual fairs. It emerged as an English colony beside a frontier garrison on the Owenass River, later hosting a Quaker settlement and a substantial Williamite force during the conflicts of 1691. The town transformed from invisible dot into a bustling border stronghold, proving that human ambition often draws lines cartographers forget.

No town is depicted in Mountmellick on the 1563 Map of Laois and Offaly, nor does Mountmellick appear as a town on the Down Survey (1655-6) map of Laois prepared by Sir William Petty. In 1631 the town was granted a Royal Licence to Sir Robert Loftus so that he could hold a Saturday market and two annual fairs in Mountmellick. In 1659 William Edmundson and others settled in Mountmellick where they established a Quaker settlement amongst the English colony. In an entry dated 1669 in the diary of William Penn it is stated that Mountmellick was originally an English colony set up alongised a frontier garrison, which had been situated on the bank of the Owenass River (Dunne, p. 11). In 1685 the town had grown and was now included in a set of maps produced by Sir William Petty. In 1691 there was a Williamite garrison in Mountmellick consisting of 300 infantry and 50 calvary, along with about 120 local militia. The presence of a church of Ireland chapel of ease in Mountmellick can be traced back as far as 1665, the year in which George Clapham, Rector of Mountmellick died. This chapel was repaired in 1736 and again in 1807. Archaeological monitoring in Patrick St. was carried out by Martin Byrne in 2002 under excavation licence no. 02E0231. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 17 December 2007

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