Indicated — Unknown Townland

The present St. Werburgh's Church of Ireland church was opened in 1759, on the site of St. Werburgh's medieval parish church which in 1179 was the property of the Holy Trinity Priory (McNeill 1950, 3). This earlier church was destroyed by fire in 1311. Speeds map of 1610 shows 'werbers church' (Gillespie 1973, 33). In 1630 a church on the site was described as in good repair. It was enlarged in 1662 when a tower was built at its W end (Wheeler and Craig 1948, 38; Bradley & King 1987, 129; Clarke 2002, 18). According to Robinson (1914, 132-7); 'St. Werburgh's [DU018-020090-] had, as we have seen, two chapels - the Lady Chapel [DU018-020066-] and St. Martin's Chapel [DU018-020068-]. They were not, as was often the case, merely a part of the church fenced off by wooden screens, like the former Kildare Chapel in Christ Church Cathedral; they were buildings standing north and south of the chancel. That on the north was St. Martin's Chapel, and it gave its name to St. Martin's Lane, a short lane between the church and Castle Street, which disappeared only in the eighteenth century. Each chapel was lighted by a single window; at their east ends they had images of the Blessed Virgin and St. Martin, which seem to have stood, not in recesses, but upon brackets or 'thrones' affixed to the wall. The floors were tiled, and were strown with rushes on special occasions. Between these chapels stood the chancel, or 'hye quer,' [High Choir] as it was called, separated from the nave by the rood-screen. On the top of this screen was the rood-loft, to which access was given by a flight of steps. Above the loft ran a transverse beam, upon which a row of candles formed the rood-light. Above the rood-beam stood the rood, or great crucifix, supported on either side by the figures of the Blessed Virgin and St. John. The floor of the church was paved. Over this pavement rushes were strown before the great Feast days. The Vicar of the Parish, or, as he is called in the accounts, 'the paroche preste of St. Warborowes', lived in a small chamber attached to the church, for which he paid rent to the parish. In addition to the priests there was a parish clerk, who likewise rented a 'lowe chambyr' attached to the church, and who is found once or twice receiving payment from the parish funds. Timber was cut and carted from Castleknock and Drimnagh, or, in Elizabethan days, brought by ship from Wexford. Stones were carted from an unnamed quarry near Dublin. Slates were water-borne to the quay of Dublin. The Church wardens of St. Werburgh's seem to have bought their slates by the ship load, and to have sold those that they did not need for the church. Amongst those who bought slates from them we find, besides private persons, St. Nicholas' Church (1510-11), the Austin Friars (1495-6), and the Petty Canons of St. Patrick's (1510-11). Lead for the gutters of the church came, like slates, by ship to the quay, and was weighed at the city crane. About the year 1520 the church was unroofed, and a new roof made. We read in the earlier accounts of two church bells. One scs bell,' that is, the ' saunce' or ' sanctus' bell, was that which hung usually in an external bell-cot on the gable over the chauncel arch. The other is the 'sacring-beli' which hung within the church, probably on the rood-screen, and was rung at the end of the Consecration Prayer, or 'prayer of sacring' in the Mass'. On Speed's 1610 Map of Dublin City, the medieval church of St Werburgh (41) is shown with a residential and/or bell-tower on the W end of the church facing onto St Werburgh's Street. No surface remains visible of the medieval parish church or either chapel which stood on the N and S sides of the chancel of St. Werburgh's church (DU018-020090-). In the porch of the present church is the 16th-century Purcell double tomb (1500-1520) originally in the church of St. Mary del Dam and moved to St. Werburgh's in the late 16th-early 17th century. The male is shown in full plate armour of late Gothic type while the female is dressed in a pleated gown, girdled at the waist by a belt decorated with rosettes. There are three side panels; the E end portrays an archbishop, an enthroned madonna and child on abbess and an ecclesiastic; the N panel portrays Appolonia, Holy Trinity; St. John the Baptist, St. John and St. Paul with four unidentified figures and the W panel shows an archbishop, St. Francis, a damaged recess, St. James and St. Peter (Hunt 1974, 142-4). The church was described by Wheeler and Craig (1948, 38-41) as in pre-Norman times; 'this parish was dedicated St Martin of Tours, and the church stood a little S of the present site. The first English church of St Werburgh Was erected near the end of the XIIth century. The remains of St Martin's church are said to have been still visible in 1529. In the XVIth and even the XVIIth centuries St Werburgh's had chapels of St Martin, Our Lady and St Catherine. At the Reformation the parish of St Marie del Dam was annexed to that of St Werburgh by Archbishop Browne. More recently, those of St John and St Bride, were also added. The church was enlarged in 1662, acquiring at that time a square tower at the E end. In 1715-1719 it was rebuilt to the designs, it is said, of Colonel Thomas Burgh, architect of Trinity College Library. The facade to Werburgh Street (or what remains of it) dates from this time. In 1729 an octagonal W tower was added, and in 1731 a wooden dome and cross, by the munifcence of Drs Synge and Delany. Some idea of the church as it appeared at this time may be gained from the print in Brooking's map, 1728. Six bells were acquired in 1748, since dispersed. On November 9th, 1754, a fire destroyed the roof, dome, organ, pews and galleries, and burst forth afresh on November 12th. The church as we have it now is largely the fruit of the rebuilding. The architect is unknown, but Thomas Tunney was the plasterer, Andrew Goodwin did the oak woodwork, and Michael Maguire the stucco in the chancel. The church was reopened in 1759, and in 1768 the tower and spire, of 160ft., was added. The tower and spire of St Werburgh's constitute one of the most lamentable losses we have to record. The gallery is carried on doric pilasters. At the W end is the Viceregal pew, distinguished by a fine royal arms in relief (1767), flanked by good carved panels. Two crowns stand on brass posts on either side. The church is the parish church of the Castle, Above and behind is the organ, purchased from Henry Miller of College Green in 1767, a very handsome instrument, the case probably designed by John Smith, who inserted the upper gallery for school children, which extends on either side of it, resting on fine fluted ionic pilasters. In the N staircase-lobby are some monuments from St John's, Fishamble Street (g.v.), and in the S, some from St Bride's (g.v.), notably two which concern the philanthropist Thomas Pleasants, of the Stove Tenter House and Pleasants' Asylum. Here also is the recumbent altar tomb of the 6th or 7th Earl of Kildare. It was originally in either the Monastery of All Hallows (Trinity College) or the church of St Marie del Dam. Until 1663 it remained in a pew in St Werburgh's, and in 1715 it was rebuilt into the S wall, whence it was rescued in 1914, and assumed its present position. There are 27 vaults beneath the church, of which the most notable occupants are Sir James Ware, the historian, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald, whose captor, Major Sirr, rests in the churchyard. The pulpit, a very fine piece of Francis Johnston Gothic, carved by Stewart, was brought here from St John's, Fishamble Street, in 1877. It came originally from the Chapel Royal. The present lectern embodies the shaft of the older St Werburgh's pulpit'. See attached section of Rocque's 1756 Map of Dublin showing St Warburghs C. and graveyard shown immediately attached to the E end of the church accessed from a laneway running down the S side of the church. See attached section