Mill — cloth in Mountrath (maryborough West By.)

The precise location of the 17th century linen mill in the town of Mountrath has not been ascertained. In 1628 Sir Charles Coote obtained for Mountrath a grant 'of two weekly markets and two fairs, and established a very extensive linen and fustian manufactory, which in the war of 1641, together with much of his other property here, was destroyed' (Lewis 1837, vol. 2, 395). In the 1642 deposition of Isaac Sandys a resident of Mountrath who stated that 'Sir Charles, was deprived and robbed of broad cloths, serges, bays, wools, worsted, dying stuff, woollen yarn, looms, tenters, harness, horses' (Lodge vol. 2, 65). The same deposition records that 'Philip Serjeant, of the same place [Mountrath], Gent. overseer of his linen and fustian works, tells us that about 10 December, 1641, he was deprived, robbed and despoiled at Mountrath of fustians [coarse cloth made of cotton and flax], linen cloth, and cotton yarn, worth £716 9s. Sterl.' (Lodge vol. 2, 65).