Crumlin — Unknown Townland

Listed as Settlement in the Dublin RMP of 1998. This disused St. Mary's Church of Ireland church (1817) incorporates a W tower of a medieval church (DU018-038001-) of the royal manor of Crumlin. In the field to the E of the medieval church stood the site of a possible motte castle (DU018-038004-). In 1336, the king granted to John Fitzwilliam Jordan, for his life, the manor of Crumlin, as an ancient royal demesne. In the same year he constituted Thomas Smithe Seneschal of the lordships of Newcastle of Lyons, Crumlin, and Saggard, for five years; and in the following year granted to the natives and tenants of Crumlin and their heirs 122a. of land, with the appurtenances in said manor, at the rent of £6 17s. 3d., provided they and their heirs, within ten years, and at their own expense, caused the town to be enclosed against the attacks of enemies (D'Alton 1838, 696). In 1495 the Court of Crumlin recorded that Richard Walsh of Crumlin yeoman; 'have given, granted and by this present charter confirmed to John Shirofe of Dublin, husbandman, two messuages, fifteen acres and a half of arable land in Crumlin and within the tenure of the same; of which two messuages one lies in length as far as the common street of the town of Crumlin going towards .... on the south, and to the land of John Cruce on the north, and in breadth lies between the land of John Welles on the west and ... on the east, and the other goes in length as far as the street of the said town on the east and as far as the gate there which goes to Drumnagh on the western part, and in breadth lies between the messuage of John Willis on the north and the messuage of Robert Barnewall on the south' (Curtis 1929, 42-3). After the death of John Shirofe; 'the said messuages shall remain to the parish church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Crumlin in pure and perpetual frankalmoign for making and keeping a wax light before the image of the B.V.M. in piety in the aforesaid church forever' (ibid., 43). In 1594 the Court of Crumlin recorded the following details about the cleaning of a town ditch; 'It is ordered by the consent of the homagers that betwene this and the first of August next comyng every cottier shall fynd one man and. every termor and freeholder twoe for the cleansing of a ditch in the Towne. The constables and John Hales and Richard Bughill are appointed indifferent for setting downe the day forclensing thereof. And anyone doing contrary this order shall forfeit vid sterling to be disposed by the said constables and assistauntes for supplying the wante of the laboure' (Curtis 1929, 141). In 1596 the Court of Crumlin recorded that; 'John Lawles and William Purcell are appointed to supervise a ditch (fossatum) near Chamberlen's gate [in dispute] between Rich. Hoyle and Neil Dowlane, and to report to the next court' (ibid. 144). In the 16th century there was a castle in Crumlin, the precise location of which has not been identified. This manorial settlement appears to have stood beside a medieval routeway as shown on the 17th century Down Survey map of Newcastle and Uppercross barony (Hibernia regnum). The parish of Crumlin stood within the manor of Newcastle Lyons and was a prebend of St Patrick’s Cathedral (Foley 2013, 22). Before the death of the archbishop of Dublin, Laurence O’Toole, in 1180, William Brun was granted lands in Killester in north Co. Dublin. One of the witnesses on a couple of the deeds relating to this transaction was Osbert Trussell (Osbert Russell), whose descendants became prominent tenants on the manor of Crumlin and this family eventually adopted the surname Crumlin (ibid. 60). In 1212 William Crumlin paid £16 in pepper for the lands of Crumlin, possibly because he was several years in arrears by this date (ibid. 68). In 1216, William Fitz John of Harptree, held Crumlin who according to Foley (2013, 35) 'is likely that he or perhaps his father held lands on this manor since the time of the invasion or shortly after and appears to have been a descendant of the owners of Richmont Castle in Harptree Coombe in Somerset, England'. At the time of the conquest of Ireland, William Harptree, son of William and grandson of John granted the church of Crumlin to his clerk Robert (ibid.). In 1528, Gerald Fitzgerald, ninth earl of Kildare, held four messuages and twenty-six acres in Newcastle Lyons; he also held a hundred acres and a castle in Athgoe, a grange on the same manor, and he had another castle in Crumlin, along with one messuage and a hundred acres' (Foley 2013, 185). In 1593, there was land in Crumlin called ‘Earl’s ground’, and this is likely to have been the property previously belonging to Gerald Fitzgerald.” It is possible that this land in Crumlin is the 122 acres that was part of the king’s original royal demesne (ibid., 186). In 1646 Robert Ussher the younger, was granted a license to hold two fairs annually at Crumlin, and a few years later the children of the latter, Arlander and Mary, appear as the occupants of a house in the village (Ball 1906, 140). Foley, A. 2013 The royal manors of medieval Co. Dublin : crown and community. Four Courts Press Dublin. See attached RMP map showing the zone of the possible medieval settlement relating to the medieval royal manor of Crumlin. Rocque's 1760 map of Crumlin showing the cluster of dwellings around the medieval church of Crumlin and the 17th century Down Survey map of Newcastle and Uppercross barony showing the church and two other buildings which may be the castle and manor house, standing beside a medieval routeway depicted with a dotted line (Hibernia Regnum). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 5 January 2023