Dublin in the 1680s

Author(s): Angus J. L. Winchester

Reviewed work(s):
Source: History Ireland, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jan. - Feb., 2007), pp. 48-51
Published by: Wordwell Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27725569 .
Accessed: 16/05/2012 15:00

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Wordwell Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to History Ireland.

http://www.jstor.org
 SOURCES

Dublin in

the 1680s

Angus J. L.Winchester
details a first-hand
description of Restoration
Dublin by a Cumberland
gentleman and lawyer,
Thomas Dent?n, now
available in print for the
first time.

Florty ago Gerald Simms penned a detailed

years Above: Portrait of Thomas Dent?n. (Tullie House Museum,

word-portrait of the city of Dublin as itwas on the Carlisle)

death of Charles II in 1685. Taking as his starting
t point the maps of the city prepared by Bernard de Right: Marble effigy of his patron, Sir John Lowther, in Lowther
Gomme in 1673 and Thomas Phillips in 1685, and church, Cumbria.

drawing on a wide range of documentary evidence, he

reconstructed the topography, economic and cultural life of
Dublin as it grew rapidly in size and prosperity during the date of his visit is not stated but itmust have been between
later seventeenth century. He was unaware then of Thomas 1684 (the year of the fire at Dublin Castle and the opening
Denton's of the city, which lay buried at the of the Kilmainham Hospital, both of which events he
description
back of a manuscript?a topographical 'perambulation' of records) and 1688, when he handed his completed
Cumberland and Westmorland?written in 1687-8. manuscript to Lowther. His list of the leading members of
the Irish judiciary takes account of James IPs Catholic
Thomas Dent?n appointments of 1687, suggesting that, whatever the date of
Thomas was an antiquarian and topographer by
Dent?n his visit, he had attempted to bring his account up to date
inclination, who had been commissioned by the powerful for Lowther.

Cumbrian landowner Sir John Lowther of Lowther to write Denton's perambulation of the city provides a rare first
a full description of the county of Cumberland. Dent?n hand description of Dublin over 300 years ago. It begins on
exceeded his brief by appending not only an account of the the city's eastern edge at Ringsend, on Dublin Bay, where
neighbouring county of Westmorland but also descriptions ships could anchor:
of the Isle of Man and of Ireland. Most of his account of
Ireland was lifted verbatim (or in a condensed paraphrase) 'Heremost passengers take shipping to which place from
. . .
from William Camden'? Britannia, published in English in Temple Barr people of all fashions are hurried by a
1610, but embedded within it is a detailed description of Ringsend coach for a penny. It is a little tumble cart
Dublin, drawn from Denton's personal observation during a drawn with one horse, with a seat in the end like an
visit to the city, where his son was a customs officer. The open chariot, which holds 3 persons.'

48 History IRELAND January/February 2007

 Expanding city
Dublin's population was expanding rapidly in the later
seventeenth century and probably exceeded 50,000 by the
1680s. It had long burst out of the confines of itsmedieval
walls and, with the suburbs on both sides of the Liffey, took
the form of an oval, three miles long by two wide and larger
in circumference than any city in Britain, London excepted.
The city Dent?n portrayed was sophisticated and
prosperous but, like all cities, wealth came with an
underbelly of teeming poverty. As a lawyer and a
gentleman, he gave prominence to the civic, judicial and
governmental ?lite, but his account is particularly

?n? "
remarkable in the way that it populates the city's streets
^^^ V .X v^SEs?-l^^lH with ordinary people.
He devoted most words to the city's major buildings.
Dublin Castle 'is not large, nor beautiful; itwas lately burnt
[in April 1684], but rebuilt again'. Trinity College 'hath 3
quadrangles, the 1st being the best like Trinity College in
Cambridge, but not so large. The chapel is 20 yards long;
large gardens, orchards & a park for the fellows' horses'. In
Christ Church Cathedral the music caught his attention:
'They sing better in this quire than in the King's Chapel'. In
"'? >i"*
" St Patrick's Cathedral, 'a spacious church arched over the
n^mi. ^MJLm.'" ^HBr
roof with stone, with an high square steeple wherein hang
6 tuneable great bells, the same note with those in Christ
Church', he noted the massive, towering Boyle monument,
which he described as the 'noble monument of the late earl
The city was entered along Lazy-hill (Lazers' Hill, now of Cork & his countess & children'. His account also
Townsend Street), 'a long street by the river side . . .well provides evidence of the re-emergence of Catholicism under
built & inhabited by merchants, common brewers, maltsers, James II:he recorded the 'new Popish chapel & small priory
&c.', and Essex Street, 're-edified in a very uniform manner, for Dominican-friars' on the south side of the castle gate and
with cloister on each
side, when the earl of Essex was the fact that Judge Alexander's house on the north of the
deputy' (Arthur Capell, earl of Essex, had been lord river had been converted into a nunnery.
lieutenant of Ireland from 1672 to 1677). This long suburb
led to the medieval walled city, from which other built-up Kilmainham Hospital
areas extended on all sides. Dent?n arranged his Dent?n dwelt in detail on the newly built Kilmainham
perambulation by describing in turn the section of city and Hospital (now the Royal Hospital), which lay to the west of
suburbs focusing on each of the seven gates in the city walls. the city, beyond the built-up area, and opened for maimed

Left: 1685 map of

Dublin by Thomas
Phillips. (National
Libraryof Ireland)

History IRELAND January/February 2007 49

 'p .

soldiers in 1684. The fashionable symmetry of its fa?ades Social geography

made a deep impression: it was 'of so regular & uniform a His comments on the sort of people who lived in different
frame' that, as well as having an east fa?ade facing the city, parts of Dublin enable us to reconstruct something of the
'it hath also a front to the south & west sides'. The north social geography of the city in his day. Castle Street was 'the
side, which contained the chapel, hall and master's most considerable street in the town, where the richest
lodgings, had 'large arched windows like church windows'. merchants, goldsmiths, mercers & other tradesmen of
By contemporary standards its scale was huge: eminent dealing dwell'. It also had the most taverns,
because it lay close to the courts. The lawyers ('gentlemen of
'120 yards square within the walls, four stories high & the long robe, Chancery clerks & attorneys') were
cloistered on 3 sides of the quadrangle & galleries above concentrated in St Nicholas Lane. The narrow streets
stairs. Within each cloister & gallery there are ten leading off St Patrick's Street were inhabited by 'clothiers,
chambers & 4 beds in every chamber.' weavers, dyers and a number of handicrafts men'. Close by,
Francis Street and the Coombe contained 'all the worsted
Other public buildings included the new Tholsel at the spinners, weavers & mercers, who sell druggets & other
corner of Skinner's Row. This municipal building, which Dublin stuffs (the chief manufacture of the town)'. These
Simms described as 'the pride of the corporation', doubled textile workers, he noted, were 'generally nonconformists'.

as city hall and merchants' exchange. Dent?n described it The city's ?lite were increasingly moving out to the
thus: 'It's underneath an open exchange, in the east corner suburbs by the time of Denton's visit. St Stephen's Green,
in the court, & above stares a council chamber & treasury'. laid out in the 1670s, was particularly fashionable. Dent?n
Of the city gaol or house of correction in the New Gate he described it as 'a flat square piece of ground near 500 paces
commented that 'the prisoners howl in the most hideous over, with pleasant gravelled walks on each side [of] the
manner, when any coach or gentry pass through the same, square; guarded with a brest wall & shaded with lime trees'.
like a den of wolves; and the poor women sing their ah! Three sides of the square were built up and some of the
hone [i.e. 'achone', a lamentation]
. . .with such a doleful houses were grand indeed: on the north side Sir Abell Ram,
sweetness, that it forces compassion from those who pass who had been lord mayor of Dublin in 1684-5, had 'a
by'. double house like a paradise for beauty'. On the east side
Of particular interest are his descriptions of the Lord Roscommon had a house 'with large gardens; the
economic and social character of individual streets. He farmer makes it a treating house of pleasure'. Sir Robert
noted exactly where the markets were held on the western Reading had 'a fine house' on the west side with a tennis
side of the city. Thomas Street, leading west from the walled court in the next street. The south side of the Green
city, had markets every Wednesday and Saturday: fuel (coal remained unbuilt and lay open to 'the prospect of a pleasant
from Edough, Co. Kilkenny, peat and furze) at the low end woody country under the Wicklow Mountains'.
of the street; 'hay, straw, grass, herbs & salads according to Particularly rapid growth had taken place north of the
the season' in the middle section; and corn, meal and malt river in the 1670s and 1680s. Until 1670 only a single bridge
at the high end. In New Row (outside the walls between linked the city to the old settlement of Oxmantown on the
Newgate and Ormond's Gate) was a market for leather, north bank of the Liffey; by Denton's time there were three.
shoes and milk, 'both sweet & sour (for churned milk, The expanding north bank suburbs contained tangible
which they call bonny clabber, is the chief food of the expressions of royal and governmental power. Near the
common people both, in the city & country)'. Within modern Four Courts stood the King's Inns ('the public inn
Newgate itself linen and lace were sold, and there was a where the judges & principal council dine in term-time &
daily stocking market in High Street. diverse of them lodge'). To the west, beyond the 'military
yard', lay Phoenix Park ('the King's Park'), with its 'pretty
 1C.

. ........
...
...
..........

eg

14 I;

'A.,

Ems

:.q
Et?
.... ....
!.. .7

Left: Dent?n dwelt indetail on the newly built Kilmainham

Hospital (now the Royal Hospital), opened for maimed soldiers

in 1684. (David Davison Associates)

Above: Thomas Dinely's 1680 view of Trinity College, which
'hath 3 quadrangles, the 1st being the best likeTrinity College in
Cambridge, but not so large'. (National Library of Ireland)

Right: The Boyle funerary monument in St Patrick's Cathedral,

described by Dent?n as the 'noble monument of the late earl of

Cork & his countess & children'. (David Davison Associates)

lawns, shady groves and pleasant banks all along the north
side of Liffey'. Itwas 'much finer & larger than Hyde Park' in
London, in Denton's estimation. In the park stood the king's
house called 'the Phoenix' and Chapelizod, 'the present lord
president's house'. The north bank of the river was a
fashionable area, containing features that catered for the
urban ?lite and reflected the taste and fashions of London.
Between the city's bluecoat hospital and the river lay 'a large *'^w wj P*

bowling-green 200 yards long with a terrace walk &

banqueting house at each end', and close by was Smithfield
('a new market like those in London'), which mimicked
London in its name and function.
Dublin was beginning to share in the urban renaissance
of the later seventeenth century. Dent?n captures the vigour
of a proud and bustling metropolis with a wealthy and
fashionable ?lite and fine public buildings. Such expressions
of civic, ecclesiastical and judicial power are the staple fare of
travellers' journals and modern guidebooks alike. Where
Thomas Denton's perambulation of Dublin differs from
most early modern topographical accounts is in its
systematic description of the city's streets, enabling us to
catch a glimpse of the lives of ordinary Dubliners in the
1680s, whether the weavers, the market traders or the
prisoners in New Gate, howling 'like a den of wolves'. 5

Angus J. L. Winchester lectures in history at Lancaster University.

Further reading:
J.G. Simms, 'Dublin in 1685', Irish Historical Studies 14
(1964-5).
A.J.L. Winchester and M. Wane (eds), Thomas Dent?n: A
Perambulation of Cumberland 1687-8 (Woodbridge, 2003).

History IRELAND January/February 2007 51