Courthouse in Unknown Townland

'Four Courts' courthouse on the E side of St Michael's Hill annotated 'Four C.s' on Rocque's Map of Dublin dated 1757 where it is depicted immediately to the S of Christchurch Cathedral (DU018-020270-) in the parish of St. Michael's. On this map the building is shown standing immediately N of the parish boundary with St Nicholas Within which is depicted as a red line. Clarke (1978, 30) recorded that that was originally a late 16th century stone house called 'Dean's Stable' which was the 'dean's house' that was closed on 'construction of four courts'. Kenny (1986, 121) recorded that; 'the old Four Courts were housed in a simple and plain structure, measuring about eighty feet [24m] from north to south and fifty or sixty feet [18m] from east to west'. According to the Four Courts website; 'The courts moved back across the Liffey in 1608 to a new home in the grounds of Christ Church and in the adjoining Christ Church Place. By the end of the 17th century the space proved inadequate and the offices of the courts and the legal records remained dispersed. The courts were in a very dilapidated condition and the architect William Robinson was commissioned to rebuild them. Despite Robinson's efforts, by 1775 the Four Courts were in ruins again and a decision was made to build a new structure on the present site. In order to gain entry to the old Four Courts, visitors had literally to go through 'Hell'. Christchurch was at one time surrounded by a warren of narrow lanes and alleyways. One of these passages to the west of the cathedral known as 'Hell' is said to have taken its name from underground cellar known by the same name. A large wooden statue of the devil adorned the arched entrance to the alley' (https://www.courts.ie/four-courts). Kenny (1986, 107) stated that, ‘the Four Courts were situated from 1608 to 1796 in a warren of streets and alleys lying immediately south-west of Christ Church Cathedral’. Gilbert (1854 Vol. 1, 133) recorded that in 1608 the courts moved from the, ‘house called the Innes’ to the house of the Deans of Christ Church. In 1623 Luke Gernon, second Justice of Munster wrote that, ‘the Courts of Justice are kept in a large stone building, parcel of Christchurch, which is built in the forme of a cross, at the fourre ends are the foure courts well adorned, the middle is to walk in’ (Falkiner 1904, 351; Kenny 1986, 112). In 1627 the King signed a 1,000 year lease so long as the courts should sit there to hold, ‘all those the four several chambers or rooms called the Four Courts, situated within the precincts and liberties of the said church, for and to the end and use of Keeping Her Majesty’s Courts of Justice therein’ (ibid., 112). Around 1633 the Court of Wards moved out of Christchurch and across the River Liffey into the King’s Inns (Gilbert 1854, Vol. 1, 134-5). The Remembrancer, and the Clerk of the Pleas kept offices at Christchurch until 1695 (ibid., 147-8). In the second quarter of the 17th century the courts continued to sit within the precincts of Christchurch known as ‘Christchurch Yard’, in a building which was not entirely devoted to the administration of justice. Underneath it was a warren of rooms and cellars which were let by the Dean and Chapter to various tradesmen (Kenny 1986, 115). In 1633 Dr. John Bramhall complained to Archbishop Laud of Canterbury that the vaults of Christchurch has been ‘made into tippling rooms’. In 1671-2 an advertisement offered ‘the moderate recreation of all civil persons, called the Wheel of Fortune, that all person may venture at my shop in Christ Church Yard, under the Four Courts, for pewter or other goods’ (Cal. S.P. Ire. 1671-2, 125). In the 17th century the space now occupied by Christchurch Place and a large railed portion of the southern precincts of the cathedral then included the Four Courts (Kenny 1986, 116). According to Kenny (ibid.), ‘it was in the cramped space between those houses [on the north side of Skinner’s Row] and Christ Church that the Four Courts stood. It was there that they were reconstructed in 1695’. In this year William Robinson, Survey-General and architect of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, rebuilt the Four Courts at Christchurch which consisted of an octagonal-shaped dome that is barely visible in Francis Place’s sketches of Dublin in 1698. The building at Christchurch ended its life as courthouse in 1796 when the new Four Courts opened at its present location in November of that year (Kenny 1986, 123). According to Kenny (ibid. 124) 'In 1826 the Wide Street Commissioners swept away the north side of Skinner's Row and about the same time nearly all of what remained of the old Four Courts was demolished. Yet Gilbert claimed to have seen a fragment of the old building in 1854 and there is reason to believe that some of the foundations are still in place today. During the restoration of Christ Church, in 1881, the architect Thomas Drew wrote of a recent minor excavation in which he had discovered the foundations of the old Four Courts, largely "borne above the peat stratum on great beams or cradles of massive oak .. . The great oaken beams were sound and hard". He drew a ground-plan of Christ Church as it might once have been. The west wall of the King's Bench was claimed by him to rest on certain remains of the old east wall of a monastic common house. The remainder of the Four Courts had stood over what, in his opinion, was once the cloister garth. That area now once more resembles a simple cloister on the south side of Christ Church Cathedral'. See attached section of Rocque's Map of Dublin 1757 showing courthouse annotated 'Four Cts.' taken from https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b530637730/f1.item.r=DUBLIN%20DUBLIN.zoom Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of update: 11 November 2022