LIFFORD — Lifford,townparks (clonleigh South Ed)

Described in the Urban Survey of Donegal as 'Like most of Donegal's plantation towns Lifford owes its existence to its strategic location, at the meeting of the rivers Murne and Finn, and at the beginning of the River Foyle. There was no bridge and throughout the seventeenth century the river crossing was negotiated by ferry. The town is also located in an area of particularly good agricultural land and was described as early as 1623 as "seated in the richest soil of all the north, the country about it champaign" (Butlin 1976, 149). Its strategic significance was evident before the plantation period, however, and it was here that the O'Donnells built a castle in the fifteenth century (this castle is located in Co. Tyrone). The earl of Essex arrived here in 1574 as part of his ill fated Ulster expedition and formally restored it to Hugh O'Donnell (Hayes McCoy 1976, 97). Ten years later, in 1584, Perrott proposed it for the site of an English garrison if Ulster was to be subdued. Perrott's proposals went unheeded, however, and it was not until 1600 when it was captured by Dowcra's forces, under the command of Niall garbh O'Donnell that it fell into English hands. By 1600 there was evidently some form of settlement in the vicinity of the fort. A contemporary account describes it as : "some eighty houses set in a plain green upon the river side and encompassed by an old ditch" (CSPI 1600-1, 93). Evidently the settlement was substantial enough by 1603 for Sir Henry Dowcra, governor of Lough Foyle, to be granted the right to hold a market there. Shortly after the flight of the earls Lifford was ear-marked for plantation and on 27 october 1611 the village of Liffer with the fort, "commonly called captain Brooke's Fort" and about 500 acres of land were granted to Sir Richard Hansard for 21 years. He received the grant on condition that within five years he should allot portions of land to 60 inhabitants for the erection of houses with gardens and 200 acres for a common (Ir Rec Comm 1830, 182). The fort was excluded from a new grant of 31 jan 1612, when Hansard was given licence to hold a Monday market and two annual fairs, while the number of colonists he was to settle was halved to "30 persons, English or Scots, chiefly tradesmen to be the burgesses" (ibid. 206-7). Lewis (1837, ii, 260) adds that in addition he was to set aside 100 acres for the keep of 50 horses, should His Majesty think proper to assign a garrison to the town. Hansard evidently invested a sizeable amount of his personal income in the town. By 1611 he had built some twentyone half-timbered houses and thirtyseven cottages of one hearth each were constructed about the same time (Rowan 1979, 347). In the same year, 1611, Pynnar described Lifford as having : "a good and strong fort built of lime and stone, with bulwarks, a parapet, and a large ditch of good depth cast above it on the river side, with a storehouse for victuals and munition, a gatehouse and a drawbridge…..There is another small fort in the town rampiered and ditched, about which are certain houses built of good timber after the English manor, which serve for the use of a gaoler and to keep prisoner…Upon view of the town we found it well furnished with inhabitants of English, Scottish, and irish, who live by several trades" (quoted in Butlin 1977, 89). By 1622 the town had at least 54 houses and a male population of about 100, making it one of the more successful plantation boroughs in Ulster (Hunter 1981, 60-1). Sir Richard Hansard died in 1619 and left an unusual bequest, recorded on his monument in Lifford parish church, making financial provision for the corporation (Hunter 1971, 55), for building a church and school, and for the salaries of the schoolmaster and the officers of the town. It is a remarkable demonstration of the founders interest in the welfare of his town. In the census of c. 1659 the adult population is given as 44 English and Scots, and 24 Irish making a total of 68' (Bradley & Dunne 1989, 50-2). The physical layout of the town is described in the Urban Survey as 'The core of the seventeenth century Lifford was concentrated on the Diamond and on the street running SW from it towards the modern bridge, then the site of a ferry. It was presumably in this area that the twentyone houses, built for Sir Richard Hansard by 1611, were located. The presence of a burgage plot pattern on the street running NW from the town, past Ballyduff House, suggests that it too may be of seventeenth century origin. Indeed it may have been the location of the 27 cottages referred to in 1611. In 1603 Sir Henry Dowcra was granted the fight to hold a weekly market at Lifford while in the incorporation charter of 1612 it is stated that the market should be held on Mondays. The market place was evidently located in the Diamond. An account of 1600 refers to Lifford as having "some eighty houses" (CSPI 1600-1, 93). There is no information on the form of these houses, however. By 1611 there were some 21 half-timbered houses in the town and 37 cottages, while in 1622 the town had at least 54 houses. Evidence for inns is indicated by the fact that the inhabitants of Lifford were "able to give entertainment to passengers" shortly after the foundation of the town (Robinson 1984, 173). An account of the settlement, written in 1600, describes it as lying beside the river and "encompassed by an old ditch" (CSPI 1600-1, 93). An outline of these defences is shown on a map, prepared perhaps to accompany this account, now in the library of Trinity College Dublin (Ms. 1209 (17)). No trace of this ditch now survives' (Bradley & Dunne 1989, 53-4). Excavation Number : 93E0008 A series of trial trenches was cut in the vicinity of Lifford Courthouse in January on behalf of the Lifford Association for Tourism, Commerce and Heritage. The trenching was carried out in the rear of the courtyard and nothing of archaeological value was uncovered with the possible exception of a mortared stone wall which retained a steep bank of sand and gravel. The wall lay 6m-9m in from the modern bank of the river Foyle and it is probably of relatively recent origin. The fill of the trenches was largely made up of sands and gravel and suggest that the Foyle has been considerably narrowed since the plantation town was established in the 1600s. Neil O'Flanagan, ADS Ltd., Powerhouse, Pigeon House Harbour, Dublin 4.