The Whitewashed City (Volume 1)
The Whitewashed City was written by a former Clerk of Session here in Lissara Tom Hewitt and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the copyright holder. Currently Chapter 1-3 have been uploaded and more are to come but that could be any time due to time constraints but if you are interested in seeing more please get in touch.
(Updated July 24)
Contents
1 In the beginning
2 The advent of the Anglo Normans, and the arrival of the Scots
3 The Major-General Price transport revolution
4 Edward Southwell Trotter
5 The village expands
6 Education
7 Law and order
8 Development of commerce in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
9 The butter and egg men and the coming of the railway
10 The Carlisles
11 An eventful decade, 1839-49
12 Crossgar and the outside world
13 Into the Twentieth Century - the First World War
14 Into the Twentieth Century - Home Rule agitation
15 Into the Twentieth Century - Partition
16 Tobar Mhuire 79
(Updated July 24)
Contents
1 In the beginning
2 The advent of the Anglo Normans, and the arrival of the Scots
3 The Major-General Price transport revolution
4 Edward Southwell Trotter
5 The village expands
6 Education
7 Law and order
8 Development of commerce in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
9 The butter and egg men and the coming of the railway
10 The Carlisles
11 An eventful decade, 1839-49
12 Crossgar and the outside world
13 Into the Twentieth Century - the First World War
14 Into the Twentieth Century - Home Rule agitation
15 Into the Twentieth Century - Partition
16 Tobar Mhuire 79
CHAPTER 1 - In the beginning
The parish of Kilmore lies partly in the Barony of Upper Castlereagh and partly in the Barony of Kinelarty. It was the ancient ecclesiastical centre of this part of Co. Down.
According to Fr. O’Laverty’s extensive history of Downe and Connor it was likely to have been established around 800 A.D. and was a mensal parish of the Bishops of Nendrum, later known as Mahee Island. It is thought to have been founded by one of those bishops, called Moran, and was referred to in ancient papal records as Kilmore Moran. Records of the ancient church are scanty, but in the Terrier, a periodical which records the dues liable to be paid to the bishop the following account appears:-
“Eclesia de Kilmore Moran is the bishop’s mensal. The vicar pays in proxies six shillings and eight pence; in refections six shillings and eight pence; in synodals two shillings, it further adds, Kilmore Moran, five quarter lands having seven chapels.”
In one of these quarter lands lies the town of Crossgar.
The location of six of these chapels can be verified with reasonable certainty, by the existence or remains of ancient burial grounds. But the seventh, referred to as the lost chapel of Kill Glaise, cannot be traced to any burial ground. It is thought to have been somewhere along the bank of the river in the townland of Clontaghnaglare. O’Laverty tells us that by tradition this chapel was built by St. Patrick and left in the care of two of his disciples Glasicus and Liberius.
I like to ponder betimes that our little river the Glasswater was so named as a result of this association.
Another chapel pertinent to the story of Crossgar is one that may have been in the grounds of Crossgar House, now Tobar Mhuire, where there was an ancient well Tobarmurre (Mary’s well). This well is not apparent today but I have boyhood recollections of a stream of crystal clear water issuing from the demesne just below the main entrance gates to Tobar Mhuire and running along the “trinket” into the drainage of the village. I have no doubts that this was the overflow from the ancient spring of that well which had been long filled in.
The school house in Killinchy Woods was built on the site of an ancient burial ground and may have been the site of one of the seven chapels. An entry in the Terrier has this to say regarding it:- “Killinsee in the Coille, one mensal, pays nothing”! Very recently John McConnell late of Killinchy Woods told me that when digging in the “green” at the school some seventy-five years ago he unearthed part of a human skull. Likely verification if any were needed that the site had been a burial ground centuries ago.
In the 17th and 18th centuries this area of east Downe would have been heavily wooded.
The name Kilmore (coille mor) in Irish means the big wood. The townland of Killinchy in the Woods, as the name implies, was also heavily wooded.
Through this dense woodland the little Glasswater River wound its way from the environs of Carsons Dam to unite with the Ballynahinch River at Kilmore Bridge and thence by the Annacloy Water to form the River Quoile and disgorge its accumulated waters into Strangford Lough. From Carsons Dam to Kilmore Bridge the Glasswater gathers the excess surface water from the townlands of Creevy, Clontinaglare, Killinchy Woods, Crossgar, Lissara and Lisnamore.
As well as providing natural drainage and a well defined border line for some of these townlands through which it flowed, the Glasswater did present an unwelcome impediment for travellers who wished to travel between the older established towns like Killyleagh and Ballynahinch by an ‘as the crow flies’ route.
This was all O’Neall territory and some time in the sixteen hundreds a small bridge was thrown across it. This bridge became known as Ever Oge’s bridge, so named probably because the chieftain of the territory at that time was Ever Oge O’Neall. In time of course by common usage it became corrupted to Everogues Bridge and was so designated up to the 1800s in several surveys following on from the appellation applied by Taylor & Skinner who mapped the roads of Ireland in the 1700s.
The name Crossgare was only applied when Edward Southwell Trotter decided to make his residence in Crossgare and as the local landlord wished to develop a village around his residence of Crossgar House. In pursuance of his ambition he placed a notice in the local press of Dec 10 / 1823 headed:-
A new fair at Crossgare Formerly known as Everogue’s Bridge and informing the country at large that “a fair Custom Free for the sale of cattle of all descriptions will be held on the second Wednesday of May 1824, to be continued on the same day of each alternate month at Crossgar, situate midway between the post towns of Downpatrick, Ballynahinch, Killyleagh, Saintfield and Killinchy. On the days before mentioned a yarn market will be opened at 9 o’clock.”
According to Fr. O’Laverty’s extensive history of Downe and Connor it was likely to have been established around 800 A.D. and was a mensal parish of the Bishops of Nendrum, later known as Mahee Island. It is thought to have been founded by one of those bishops, called Moran, and was referred to in ancient papal records as Kilmore Moran. Records of the ancient church are scanty, but in the Terrier, a periodical which records the dues liable to be paid to the bishop the following account appears:-
“Eclesia de Kilmore Moran is the bishop’s mensal. The vicar pays in proxies six shillings and eight pence; in refections six shillings and eight pence; in synodals two shillings, it further adds, Kilmore Moran, five quarter lands having seven chapels.”
In one of these quarter lands lies the town of Crossgar.
The location of six of these chapels can be verified with reasonable certainty, by the existence or remains of ancient burial grounds. But the seventh, referred to as the lost chapel of Kill Glaise, cannot be traced to any burial ground. It is thought to have been somewhere along the bank of the river in the townland of Clontaghnaglare. O’Laverty tells us that by tradition this chapel was built by St. Patrick and left in the care of two of his disciples Glasicus and Liberius.
I like to ponder betimes that our little river the Glasswater was so named as a result of this association.
Another chapel pertinent to the story of Crossgar is one that may have been in the grounds of Crossgar House, now Tobar Mhuire, where there was an ancient well Tobarmurre (Mary’s well). This well is not apparent today but I have boyhood recollections of a stream of crystal clear water issuing from the demesne just below the main entrance gates to Tobar Mhuire and running along the “trinket” into the drainage of the village. I have no doubts that this was the overflow from the ancient spring of that well which had been long filled in.
The school house in Killinchy Woods was built on the site of an ancient burial ground and may have been the site of one of the seven chapels. An entry in the Terrier has this to say regarding it:- “Killinsee in the Coille, one mensal, pays nothing”! Very recently John McConnell late of Killinchy Woods told me that when digging in the “green” at the school some seventy-five years ago he unearthed part of a human skull. Likely verification if any were needed that the site had been a burial ground centuries ago.
In the 17th and 18th centuries this area of east Downe would have been heavily wooded.
The name Kilmore (coille mor) in Irish means the big wood. The townland of Killinchy in the Woods, as the name implies, was also heavily wooded.
Through this dense woodland the little Glasswater River wound its way from the environs of Carsons Dam to unite with the Ballynahinch River at Kilmore Bridge and thence by the Annacloy Water to form the River Quoile and disgorge its accumulated waters into Strangford Lough. From Carsons Dam to Kilmore Bridge the Glasswater gathers the excess surface water from the townlands of Creevy, Clontinaglare, Killinchy Woods, Crossgar, Lissara and Lisnamore.
As well as providing natural drainage and a well defined border line for some of these townlands through which it flowed, the Glasswater did present an unwelcome impediment for travellers who wished to travel between the older established towns like Killyleagh and Ballynahinch by an ‘as the crow flies’ route.
This was all O’Neall territory and some time in the sixteen hundreds a small bridge was thrown across it. This bridge became known as Ever Oge’s bridge, so named probably because the chieftain of the territory at that time was Ever Oge O’Neall. In time of course by common usage it became corrupted to Everogues Bridge and was so designated up to the 1800s in several surveys following on from the appellation applied by Taylor & Skinner who mapped the roads of Ireland in the 1700s.
The name Crossgare was only applied when Edward Southwell Trotter decided to make his residence in Crossgare and as the local landlord wished to develop a village around his residence of Crossgar House. In pursuance of his ambition he placed a notice in the local press of Dec 10 / 1823 headed:-
A new fair at Crossgare Formerly known as Everogue’s Bridge and informing the country at large that “a fair Custom Free for the sale of cattle of all descriptions will be held on the second Wednesday of May 1824, to be continued on the same day of each alternate month at Crossgar, situate midway between the post towns of Downpatrick, Ballynahinch, Killyleagh, Saintfield and Killinchy. On the days before mentioned a yarn market will be opened at 9 o’clock.”
The original Everogues Bridge was not as one might suppose on the same site as the present river crossing. Only recently John Savage of the New Line told me that his father Pat who had a vast store of local knowledge had told him that the original bridge was about the corner of the Lislea housing estate (about 100 yards north-east of the present crossing) where the river course turns sharply to the right. Childhood memories were immediately awakened by this revelation, for I could once again visualise the river banks as I remembered them composed of large flattish stones and sloping gradually to the bed of the river mid-stream. Only now did I become aware that I had been looking at the remains of the original Everogues Bridge, the first structural artefact on the site of the future village of Crossgare.
But of course when I paid a visit to the spot to confirm my memories, I found the evidence I had hoped to find had been obliterated thanks to progress in the form of the Quoile drainage scheme undertaken after the 1939/45 war to improve drainage and reduce flooding.
Progress is not always kind to archaeological pursuits.
But of course when I paid a visit to the spot to confirm my memories, I found the evidence I had hoped to find had been obliterated thanks to progress in the form of the Quoile drainage scheme undertaken after the 1939/45 war to improve drainage and reduce flooding.
Progress is not always kind to archaeological pursuits.
Site of original Everogue’s Bridge, in modern housing estate
From examination of the topographical features of the land towards Killyleagh I have concluded that the original road between Killyleagh and Everogues for travellers to Ballynahinch would have run parallel to the present Killyleagh Street, but some 200 yards nearer the north: crossing the Derryboye Road at a point on the Crossgar side of the ninth green on the present golf course, skirting round the very high ground of Watson’s hill (McCalla’s Cut), and the equally high ground at Cluntagh, to the more level ground of Derryboye, Tullyveery and Shrigley.
Those were the days of horse transport when steep inclines were to be avoided, so, having regard to the topography of the area approaching Everogues, one can reasonably conclude that the road was directed at the river so that the approach to the bridge would form an angle of 90° to it.
I believe that this original Everogues Bridge was erected at a point quite close to the new bridge erected in the 1990s to service the housing development known as Rademon Avenue.
In his dictionary of Irish Place Names the compiler, Patrick McKay, suggests a possible association of the Irish name “An Chrois Gherr” - “the Short Cross” in English, with the ancient well known to have been evident by the overflow of excess water as mentioned earlier. No remains of “An Chrois” are known in the townland of Crossgar. This may point to the possibility of a more mundane origin for the name “Short Cross” (i.e. Crossgar) and could be derived from a reference to the river crossing in the form of the original bridge thrown across the Glasswater in the 1600s. This bridging of the river would have made travelling between Killyleagh and Ballynahinch, two very ancient towns, considerably shorter than the alternative routes which would have been via Downpatrick or Saintfield.
Fr. O’Laverty in his history of Down and Connor, in suggesting the possible sites for the seven chapels of Kilmore Moran simply states: “another of the seven chapels may have been in the grounds of Crossgar House, where there was an ancient well called Tubbermurre.” The name of Crossgar House was changed to that of Tobar Mhuire (Tubbermurre) by the landlord James Cleland, when he rebuilt his residence after the original house was burned in the 1860s.
From examination of the topographical features of the land towards Killyleagh I have concluded that the original road between Killyleagh and Everogues for travellers to Ballynahinch would have run parallel to the present Killyleagh Street, but some 200 yards nearer the north: crossing the Derryboye Road at a point on the Crossgar side of the ninth green on the present golf course, skirting round the very high ground of Watson’s hill (McCalla’s Cut), and the equally high ground at Cluntagh, to the more level ground of Derryboye, Tullyveery and Shrigley.
Those were the days of horse transport when steep inclines were to be avoided, so, having regard to the topography of the area approaching Everogues, one can reasonably conclude that the road was directed at the river so that the approach to the bridge would form an angle of 90° to it.
I believe that this original Everogues Bridge was erected at a point quite close to the new bridge erected in the 1990s to service the housing development known as Rademon Avenue.
In his dictionary of Irish Place Names the compiler, Patrick McKay, suggests a possible association of the Irish name “An Chrois Gherr” - “the Short Cross” in English, with the ancient well known to have been evident by the overflow of excess water as mentioned earlier. No remains of “An Chrois” are known in the townland of Crossgar. This may point to the possibility of a more mundane origin for the name “Short Cross” (i.e. Crossgar) and could be derived from a reference to the river crossing in the form of the original bridge thrown across the Glasswater in the 1600s. This bridging of the river would have made travelling between Killyleagh and Ballynahinch, two very ancient towns, considerably shorter than the alternative routes which would have been via Downpatrick or Saintfield.
Fr. O’Laverty in his history of Down and Connor, in suggesting the possible sites for the seven chapels of Kilmore Moran simply states: “another of the seven chapels may have been in the grounds of Crossgar House, where there was an ancient well called Tubbermurre.” The name of Crossgar House was changed to that of Tobar Mhuire (Tubbermurre) by the landlord James Cleland, when he rebuilt his residence after the original house was burned in the 1860s.
CHAPTER 2 - The advent of the Anglo Normans, and the arrival of the Scots
Several centuries before Crossgar as a settlement of population was even contemplated, when Kilmore was still the centre for habitation, religion and culture, it might be interesting and enlightening to try to picture the living condition and character of the people of Downe in order to get some idea of the broader canvas upon which later developments would be imposed.
After Pope Adrian IV invited Henry II of England to occupy our island, covetous eyes of adventurers, anxious to secure a part of the riches the country could provide were turned upon Ireland.
The Pope’s aim as stated in the Papal Bull was:- For extending the limits of his church, checking the torrent of wickedness, reforming evil manners, sowing seeds of virtue, and increasing the Christian religion.
And so, for a payment of one penny per house per annum Ireland was delivered into the waiting arms of Henry II of England and his King’s Knights.
But one has to wonder was there a hidden agenda behind such a generous gift. Writing at the end of the seventeenth century, an observer called Eachard, in his book entitled The Exact Description of Ireland, published in 1691, lists one of the characteristics of its people as “light of belief”. So was Henry’s power also to be used to subdue a characteristic tendency to insubordination to all authority by the “native wild Irish”?
The South and West of the country were conquered and plundered by the soldiers Henry left behind when he had re-embarked at Waterford, but the north-east corner, or Ulster, was more intractable and was not finally conquered until 1171 when John De Coursey defeated the Irish army at Downpatrick and became the virtual ruler of Ulster.
As was then expected of him, he rewarded the leaders of his Anglo-Norman followers with large swathes of this county of the rolling hills. So Anglo-Norman families like the Savages, the Copelands, the Whytes, the Ridels, the Mandevilles, the Jordans etc. settled here in Co. Down and became the dominant ruling race for the next three to four centuries.
But the “native wild Irish” of Eachard’s description still to a greater or lesser extent maintained their own culture and form of government. This was based on tribal custom and was known as Tanistry.
Irish land belonged, not to a king, but to the people who, in the lifetime of the chief, elected a Tanist to succeed him. The tenants rented land to graze their stock according to the size of their flocks. These flocks were driven anywhere in the territory in search of pasture, without let or hindrance of fences or boundaries.
It is interesting to find that Tanistry was also the system of local arrangement under which the people of nearby Scotia had a local government system.
The Scots Celts from Ireland frequently invaded the territory of their Celtic neighbours the Picts across the twenty odd miles of water of the North Channel, and eventually imposed the name of Scotia on their territory previously known by the older name of Alba.
These Scots whom Eachard calls the “native wild Irish” were more fully described by him as follows:- “They are of middle stature, strong of body, of a hotter and moister nature than many other nations, of wonderful soft skin, they excel in nimbleness of body, they are reckoned of a quick wit, prodigal and careless of their lives, given to fleshly lusts, light of belief, kind and courteous to strangers. They are very much delighted with musick, but especially the harp and bagpipe.”
As to the daily routine of these residents of Ireland Eachard observes:- “Their way of living is after a very odd sort. Having no great employments, for they are given to idleness above measure and count it the greatest riches to take no pains, and the most pleasure to enjoy their liberty.”
But as the decades and centuries went by, after years of dominance time was running out for the old planted Anglo-Norman families in Co. Down.
The English had declined temporarily in interest and wealth, and as a result the heads of these old families found it increasingly difficult to maintain their former dominion.
In his book Two Centuries of Life in Down, John Stevenson describes their plight thus:- “Threatened increasingly by the Irish, attacked sometimes by neighbours of their own race, left to fight the King’s battles if it did not suit the policy of the Lord Deputy to defend them against the King’s enemies, and treated as rebels if they made war without authority.” Is it any wonder that they eventually elected to adapt to the social parameters of the “native Irish” and live under whatever constraints those parameters imposed?
In Queen Elizabeth’s time many of the native chiefs held the English monarch in contempt, refusing to accept patent rights for land which they had obtained and held by the sword.
Some of them, however, recognising the growing power of England, made terms with the monarch and received grants in return. Among these were the O’Neils of Clandeboy. With these grants they proceeded to fortify their territory which included the highly desirable north and east of Co. Down.
They then proceeded to live according to their native system of Tanistry.
By this system about 1589 the Tanist’s rights passed from Sir Con McNeil Oge O’Neil to his cousin Con McBrian Fertagh O’Neil, the last chief of the Claneboy branch whose lands were soon to fall into the hands of the Scots planters Montgomery and Hamilton.
From 1570 until the actual Scots settlement proper, hungry eyes were turned upon Co. Down where what was regarded as a “semi-barbarous people” were in possession of a rich land producing a vast amount of wealth, on large tracts of fertile land with rivers well stocked with fish, well wooded and watered. These hungry eyes were mainly those of their neighbours just across twenty odd miles of the North Channel in Scotia.
The events by which Con O’Neil lost his estates are somewhat murky. During the closing years of Elizabeth’s reign James Hamilton and a colleague called Fullerton started a school in Dublin to teach Latin. But they were suspected of being more than just teachers. Many in the ageing Queen’s inner circle of courtiers suspected they were really working to ensure the succession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne.
When Elizabeth died in 1603 and James was declared King of the British Isles, Hamilton considered that he should be rewarded for his loyalty. But Montgomery Laird of Braidstaines in Ayrshire had forestalled him. Before Elizabeth’s death by manipulating a very shady affair he managed to convince Con, that very dissolute chief of the O’Neil clan in Down, that he was in danger of being impeached as a rebel. Con was imprisoned in Carrickfergus castle but it would seem under somewhat lax custody.
The substance of the plot it would appear concerned the misappropriation of some barrels of wine which O’Neil’s servants were bringing from Belfast to their chief’s home in Castlereagh. Meeting with a company of soldiers who were alleged to have tried to dispossess them of their goods, a fracas occurred and one of the soldiers received a wound which proved fatal.
This comparatively low key affair was exaggerated to make it appear that Con was in rebellion against King James, who had meantime been crowned King of England, Scotland and Ireland.
Having convinced O’Neil that he was in grave danger, Montgomery offered to help him to escape.
To do this he used a friend, Thomas Montgomery, who owned a sloop trading between Carrick and the Clyde, to transport the frightened Con to Scotland and thence to London. He then offered to use his influence with the new King to get him released, but only if Con would give him half of his rich lands. This O’Neil agreed to do, and Montgomery representing this to James, the King lightheartedly gave Montgomery a grant over the whole of the O’Neil estates.
Hamilton however was watching and anxious for a share of this desirable land. His colleague, Fullerton, who was very much in favour with the King, succeeded in getting James to alter his favours. The result was that Montgomery and Hamilton got one third each of the territory, whilst O’Neil retained possession of the remaining third.
This display of skulduggery angered Montgomery intensely, but as the grant was still a very generous one he prudently acquiesced in the change of terms lest he lose the King’s favour.
This change of ownership and topographical boundaries was an early portent of the kind of future development to which much of East Down would be subjected in years to come and which would include the establishment of a town known as Crossgare. But the immediate effect upon these two contestants for wealth and power was the beginning of a lifelong bitter enmity between the two Scots.
After Pope Adrian IV invited Henry II of England to occupy our island, covetous eyes of adventurers, anxious to secure a part of the riches the country could provide were turned upon Ireland.
The Pope’s aim as stated in the Papal Bull was:- For extending the limits of his church, checking the torrent of wickedness, reforming evil manners, sowing seeds of virtue, and increasing the Christian religion.
And so, for a payment of one penny per house per annum Ireland was delivered into the waiting arms of Henry II of England and his King’s Knights.
But one has to wonder was there a hidden agenda behind such a generous gift. Writing at the end of the seventeenth century, an observer called Eachard, in his book entitled The Exact Description of Ireland, published in 1691, lists one of the characteristics of its people as “light of belief”. So was Henry’s power also to be used to subdue a characteristic tendency to insubordination to all authority by the “native wild Irish”?
The South and West of the country were conquered and plundered by the soldiers Henry left behind when he had re-embarked at Waterford, but the north-east corner, or Ulster, was more intractable and was not finally conquered until 1171 when John De Coursey defeated the Irish army at Downpatrick and became the virtual ruler of Ulster.
As was then expected of him, he rewarded the leaders of his Anglo-Norman followers with large swathes of this county of the rolling hills. So Anglo-Norman families like the Savages, the Copelands, the Whytes, the Ridels, the Mandevilles, the Jordans etc. settled here in Co. Down and became the dominant ruling race for the next three to four centuries.
But the “native wild Irish” of Eachard’s description still to a greater or lesser extent maintained their own culture and form of government. This was based on tribal custom and was known as Tanistry.
Irish land belonged, not to a king, but to the people who, in the lifetime of the chief, elected a Tanist to succeed him. The tenants rented land to graze their stock according to the size of their flocks. These flocks were driven anywhere in the territory in search of pasture, without let or hindrance of fences or boundaries.
It is interesting to find that Tanistry was also the system of local arrangement under which the people of nearby Scotia had a local government system.
The Scots Celts from Ireland frequently invaded the territory of their Celtic neighbours the Picts across the twenty odd miles of water of the North Channel, and eventually imposed the name of Scotia on their territory previously known by the older name of Alba.
These Scots whom Eachard calls the “native wild Irish” were more fully described by him as follows:- “They are of middle stature, strong of body, of a hotter and moister nature than many other nations, of wonderful soft skin, they excel in nimbleness of body, they are reckoned of a quick wit, prodigal and careless of their lives, given to fleshly lusts, light of belief, kind and courteous to strangers. They are very much delighted with musick, but especially the harp and bagpipe.”
As to the daily routine of these residents of Ireland Eachard observes:- “Their way of living is after a very odd sort. Having no great employments, for they are given to idleness above measure and count it the greatest riches to take no pains, and the most pleasure to enjoy their liberty.”
But as the decades and centuries went by, after years of dominance time was running out for the old planted Anglo-Norman families in Co. Down.
The English had declined temporarily in interest and wealth, and as a result the heads of these old families found it increasingly difficult to maintain their former dominion.
In his book Two Centuries of Life in Down, John Stevenson describes their plight thus:- “Threatened increasingly by the Irish, attacked sometimes by neighbours of their own race, left to fight the King’s battles if it did not suit the policy of the Lord Deputy to defend them against the King’s enemies, and treated as rebels if they made war without authority.” Is it any wonder that they eventually elected to adapt to the social parameters of the “native Irish” and live under whatever constraints those parameters imposed?
In Queen Elizabeth’s time many of the native chiefs held the English monarch in contempt, refusing to accept patent rights for land which they had obtained and held by the sword.
Some of them, however, recognising the growing power of England, made terms with the monarch and received grants in return. Among these were the O’Neils of Clandeboy. With these grants they proceeded to fortify their territory which included the highly desirable north and east of Co. Down.
They then proceeded to live according to their native system of Tanistry.
By this system about 1589 the Tanist’s rights passed from Sir Con McNeil Oge O’Neil to his cousin Con McBrian Fertagh O’Neil, the last chief of the Claneboy branch whose lands were soon to fall into the hands of the Scots planters Montgomery and Hamilton.
From 1570 until the actual Scots settlement proper, hungry eyes were turned upon Co. Down where what was regarded as a “semi-barbarous people” were in possession of a rich land producing a vast amount of wealth, on large tracts of fertile land with rivers well stocked with fish, well wooded and watered. These hungry eyes were mainly those of their neighbours just across twenty odd miles of the North Channel in Scotia.
The events by which Con O’Neil lost his estates are somewhat murky. During the closing years of Elizabeth’s reign James Hamilton and a colleague called Fullerton started a school in Dublin to teach Latin. But they were suspected of being more than just teachers. Many in the ageing Queen’s inner circle of courtiers suspected they were really working to ensure the succession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne.
When Elizabeth died in 1603 and James was declared King of the British Isles, Hamilton considered that he should be rewarded for his loyalty. But Montgomery Laird of Braidstaines in Ayrshire had forestalled him. Before Elizabeth’s death by manipulating a very shady affair he managed to convince Con, that very dissolute chief of the O’Neil clan in Down, that he was in danger of being impeached as a rebel. Con was imprisoned in Carrickfergus castle but it would seem under somewhat lax custody.
The substance of the plot it would appear concerned the misappropriation of some barrels of wine which O’Neil’s servants were bringing from Belfast to their chief’s home in Castlereagh. Meeting with a company of soldiers who were alleged to have tried to dispossess them of their goods, a fracas occurred and one of the soldiers received a wound which proved fatal.
This comparatively low key affair was exaggerated to make it appear that Con was in rebellion against King James, who had meantime been crowned King of England, Scotland and Ireland.
Having convinced O’Neil that he was in grave danger, Montgomery offered to help him to escape.
To do this he used a friend, Thomas Montgomery, who owned a sloop trading between Carrick and the Clyde, to transport the frightened Con to Scotland and thence to London. He then offered to use his influence with the new King to get him released, but only if Con would give him half of his rich lands. This O’Neil agreed to do, and Montgomery representing this to James, the King lightheartedly gave Montgomery a grant over the whole of the O’Neil estates.
Hamilton however was watching and anxious for a share of this desirable land. His colleague, Fullerton, who was very much in favour with the King, succeeded in getting James to alter his favours. The result was that Montgomery and Hamilton got one third each of the territory, whilst O’Neil retained possession of the remaining third.
This display of skulduggery angered Montgomery intensely, but as the grant was still a very generous one he prudently acquiesced in the change of terms lest he lose the King’s favour.
This change of ownership and topographical boundaries was an early portent of the kind of future development to which much of East Down would be subjected in years to come and which would include the establishment of a town known as Crossgare. But the immediate effect upon these two contestants for wealth and power was the beginning of a lifelong bitter enmity between the two Scots.
Present-day bridge over Glasswater River
Modern bridge near site of original bridge
CHAPTER 3 The Major-General Price transport revolution
The series of events which brought the village of Crossgare into existence began in the early half of the eighteenth century.
Early in the 1700s Major General Nicholas Price left his seat at Hollymount to found the family seat at Saintfield. By the “care and industry of the General” the town of Saintfield was developed, and according to Walter Harris’ “Ancient and Present State of the County Down” the General opened and made passable the road from Belfast to Down; encouraged entrepreneurs in the growing linen industry and its ancillary tradesmen to settle there; and put the town of Saintfield on the map.
In “Walk about Saintfield”, published by the Down Museum, it is stated that Nicholas Price bought Tonaghneave from James Hamilton in 1709. This Irish name, meaning “saintly field” was anglicised to “Saintfield” in 1712.
Convinced that good roads were a necessary accompaniment for good internal commerce, a new bridge was built over the Glasswater river at Everogues with a new direct road passing over it from Saintfield to Downe.
Now for the first time a direct road existed between the fast growing port and commercial centre of Belfast and the ancient ecclesiastical centre of Downe, leading to the prosperous district of Lecale and the ports of Ardglass and Newry.
Prior to this Nicholas Price transport revolution, travel between Belfast and Downe had been by either of two routes. The passenger coach went by Finnabrogue, Killyleagh, Killinchy and Comber, while the mail coach went by Annacloy, Kilmore, Listooder and Saintfield.
With this new road and a new bridge over the Glasswater all traffic, mail and passenger, combined to use it.
Nicholas Price must be regarded as one of those pioneers who foresaw the necessity for good passable roads for the success of the internal commerce in Co. Down.
He was also sufficiently ambitious, interested and able to promote his ambition. This is borne out by letters and reports of surveys at the time.
In 1744 writing from Downpatrick to Gloucester Mrs. Delaney wife of the Dean of Down makes this observation, “The weather is so bad that I don’t believe we shall be able to set out for home tomorrow as we designed; not that we have anything to apprehend from the roads, for I never travelled such fine roads as are all over this country.”
And following the passing of the Turnpike Act for the upkeep of the roads, the Dublin Society speaks of the effect as remarkable, for it says:- “We shall here take notice of a late improvement among us, which is a great ease and benefit to inland commerce, that by means of the Turnpike Acts we have the finest roads in Europe, and perfect gravel walks from one part of the Kingdom to another.”
In this part of Down, still awaiting the development of Everogues / Crossgare, a Topographical Survey of the County of Down published in Dublin in 1746 says of Downpatrick:- “the linen manufacture spreads here as it does in other places in the county”, and of Killyleagh:- “Here the linen manufacture has spread to advantage and the fine white thread made in it is remarkable.”
At this time the only building near Everogues Bridge was Dan Quinn’s public house. In order to determine the original site of this building I was able to consult some old maps of the Kilmore, Lissara and Crossgar townlands which were kindly given to me by the late John McRobert of Rademon.
These maps were prepared by a Jas Savage, Surveyor, and are authenticated by his signature. They cannot be dated precisely, but must have been drawn prior to 1792, since the original Kilmore Parish Church is shown in the glebe lands of the Rectory and within the old graveyard in Carnacally.
That church was replaced by one built, largely at the expense of Arthur Johnston of Rademon House, in 1792, and was taken down and re-erected in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra some years ago.
Early in the 1700s Major General Nicholas Price left his seat at Hollymount to found the family seat at Saintfield. By the “care and industry of the General” the town of Saintfield was developed, and according to Walter Harris’ “Ancient and Present State of the County Down” the General opened and made passable the road from Belfast to Down; encouraged entrepreneurs in the growing linen industry and its ancillary tradesmen to settle there; and put the town of Saintfield on the map.
In “Walk about Saintfield”, published by the Down Museum, it is stated that Nicholas Price bought Tonaghneave from James Hamilton in 1709. This Irish name, meaning “saintly field” was anglicised to “Saintfield” in 1712.
Convinced that good roads were a necessary accompaniment for good internal commerce, a new bridge was built over the Glasswater river at Everogues with a new direct road passing over it from Saintfield to Downe.
Now for the first time a direct road existed between the fast growing port and commercial centre of Belfast and the ancient ecclesiastical centre of Downe, leading to the prosperous district of Lecale and the ports of Ardglass and Newry.
Prior to this Nicholas Price transport revolution, travel between Belfast and Downe had been by either of two routes. The passenger coach went by Finnabrogue, Killyleagh, Killinchy and Comber, while the mail coach went by Annacloy, Kilmore, Listooder and Saintfield.
With this new road and a new bridge over the Glasswater all traffic, mail and passenger, combined to use it.
Nicholas Price must be regarded as one of those pioneers who foresaw the necessity for good passable roads for the success of the internal commerce in Co. Down.
He was also sufficiently ambitious, interested and able to promote his ambition. This is borne out by letters and reports of surveys at the time.
In 1744 writing from Downpatrick to Gloucester Mrs. Delaney wife of the Dean of Down makes this observation, “The weather is so bad that I don’t believe we shall be able to set out for home tomorrow as we designed; not that we have anything to apprehend from the roads, for I never travelled such fine roads as are all over this country.”
And following the passing of the Turnpike Act for the upkeep of the roads, the Dublin Society speaks of the effect as remarkable, for it says:- “We shall here take notice of a late improvement among us, which is a great ease and benefit to inland commerce, that by means of the Turnpike Acts we have the finest roads in Europe, and perfect gravel walks from one part of the Kingdom to another.”
In this part of Down, still awaiting the development of Everogues / Crossgare, a Topographical Survey of the County of Down published in Dublin in 1746 says of Downpatrick:- “the linen manufacture spreads here as it does in other places in the county”, and of Killyleagh:- “Here the linen manufacture has spread to advantage and the fine white thread made in it is remarkable.”
At this time the only building near Everogues Bridge was Dan Quinn’s public house. In order to determine the original site of this building I was able to consult some old maps of the Kilmore, Lissara and Crossgar townlands which were kindly given to me by the late John McRobert of Rademon.
These maps were prepared by a Jas Savage, Surveyor, and are authenticated by his signature. They cannot be dated precisely, but must have been drawn prior to 1792, since the original Kilmore Parish Church is shown in the glebe lands of the Rectory and within the old graveyard in Carnacally.
That church was replaced by one built, largely at the expense of Arthur Johnston of Rademon House, in 1792, and was taken down and re-erected in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra some years ago.
Pre-1792 map, showing Everogue’s bridge
The map of Crossgar townland at Everogues Bridge shows the farm of one Manus Quinn covering ground on both sides of the Glasswater river and is undoubtedly the farm upon which the pub known as Dan Quinn’s was situated. These premises are shown to be on a site at the junction of Killyleagh Rd and Downpatrick Rd and would approximate to the site now occupied by the Community Centre building and yard. This original building on the Manus Quinn farm, as shown by the pre-1792 map, would appear to have been at a point near where the derelict house, once owned by Robert James Shields in Killyleagh Street, now stands.
This position has to be regarded as that of the original Dan Quinn’s Public House.
Derelict house in Killyleagh Street, site of original Dan Quinn’s pub
So the Nicholas Price transport revolution signalled the emergence of Everogues as a place in the mind of the travelling public. It was no longer just a river crossing but a place to stop and enjoy the heat of a blazing fire on a cold frosty morning, and perhaps warm the innards with a drop of hot usquebaugh; while one waited for the horses to be attended to, one could partake of some refreshments and in time the stop would be referred to as the Carman’s Inn.
But with the new Everogues Bridge and the new road carrying the combined mail and passenger traffic from Downe to Saintfield and Belfast, the original position of the Dan Quinn pub was somewhat “off the beaten track” and so it may reasonably be assumed that the business found it more advantageous to move to its new site on the main road, now Downpatrick Street. This change of site and the increased traffic was much to the advantage of Dan Quinn’s, situated as it now was halfway between Downe and Saintfield and ideal for what modern tour couriers refer to as a comfort stop.The building on this site as remembered by the writer in the 1920s was “a storey and a half” and like most of the other houses of that period whitewashed.
The proprietor was Nicholas Burns who later sold the business and premises to John Jennings from Broclough. He continued to run the public house and also a funeral undertaking service until his death in 1960. The business was then carried on by his widow until 1968 when her son Peter took over. Peter rebuilt the premises in modern style in 1970 and afterwards sold to Dan McAlinden, the present proprietor.
So Dan Quinn’s pub, already well-known before the village of Crossgar existed, still remains, albeit with a more modern façade, to serve the needs of travellers and locals alike as we venture into the third millennium.
Beneficial as this trade was to the traveller and innkeeper alike, it was by its very nature transient. What was needed was something of a more permanent presence at Everogues. This in time was provided by the vagaries of some of the Presbyterian worshippers of East Down.
When James Hamilton received his reward of one third of Con O’Neil’s territory from King James, he set about organising it in a businesslike manner. He employed a surveyor called Raven to prepare maps of his immense estates showing their extent and content and marking out land for letting to his new tenants who came largely from the Lowlands of Scotland, anxious to seek their fortunes in this new land of opportunity. These new tenants were largely Presbyterian in origin and so from the early 1600s a strong Presbyterian presence was built up in the north and east of Co. Down.
But Hamilton’s thirst for land appears to have been insatiable. In 1610, for “a good valuable consideration” he purchased the territory of the Dufferin from the Whytes and, as shown by Raven’s survey of Hamilton lands in 1625, he was also in possession of much of the remaining one third of the O’Neil land remaining in the ownership of the dissolute spendthrift Con, who seems to have frittered away most of it over the years. These tenants of the last of the O’Neil chiefs in Ulster were now destined to live under the rigorous ownership of the Scots rather than the more liberal regime of the Tanist tribal rules to which they had hitherto been accustomed. This would inevitably be resented.
The County of Downe was divided into twelve baronies during Elizabeth’s reign. The baronies of Kinelarty and Dufferin are the two of these twelve of interest when seeking the origins of the village of Crossgare.
Knox, in his history of County Down, quotes a rather quaint description contained in an ancient manuscript in the British Museum. This manuscript refers to conditions during the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553) in these two baronies. After describing the adjacent Maginnis territory in quite complimentary terms it then proceeds:- “Next to that countrye is McCartans countrye, a man of small power, wherein are no horsemen but kearne, which countrye is full of bogges, woodes and beareth with the Captain of Lecaill. “The next to that countrye is the Dufferyn whereof one John Whight was landlord; the same countrye is no great circuit, but small, full of woodes, water, and good land meet for Englishmen to inhabit.”
No wonder James Hamilton was able to get the Dufferin on the cheap, which he did despite his claim to have paid “a good valuable consideration.” “I knew thou wert an hard man” might have been said justifiably by contemporaries who had any dealings with James Hamilton.
The purchase of the Dufferin from the Whytes put Hamilton in possession of the entire western hinterland of Strangford Lough from Castlereagh to Inch parish and adjoined the McCartan territory in which the future town of Crossgar would rise.
Hamilton also brought able Presbyterian ministers as pastors for his new tenants. Initially these were installed in Episcopal pulpits and a degree of toleration existed, but when bishops arrived who were not prepared to tolerate nonconformist ideas, this Prescopalian period, as it was later referred to, came to an end and many had to flee to Scotland to escape imprisonment and fines imposed by the Bishops Courts, far beyond what they might reasonably be capable of paying.
Nevertheless most of these stiffnecked Presbyterians and those faithful ministers who remained in the country conducted clandestine worship and hedgerow schools very much as their Roman Catholic neighbours were wont to do.
When General Munro was sent with a Scottish army to help quell the rebellion of 1641, he had with him five Presbyterian ministers who were pastors to various regiments in his army.
When the rebellion was subdued and some semblance of order restored, these ministers set up four Sessions within the army with four officers of Presbyterial outlook as elders. These ministers and elders formed the nucleus of the first Presbytery which was erected at Carrickfergus on June 10 1642. What eventually then became the Synod of Ulster was governed by the General Assembly at Glasgow.
One of the pillars upon which the Presbyterian form of church government is built is the inalienable right of a congregation to choose its own minister by majority vote.
The passing of the Patronage Act by the Parliament at Westminster in 1712, and its imposition upon the General Assembly at Glasgow, meant that a minister could be appointed arbitrarily by a local landlord or other grandee against the wishes of a congregation. This brought into being the Secession Church and as was inevitable this church soon took root in Ulster.
Patronage was not a problem here in Ulster, but coinciding with the disagreement about patronage in Scotland, a “new light argument” was emerging in the Synod of Ulster. These “new light” doctrines were propagated by Professor Simson, who held the Chair of Theology in Glasgow University where many of the ministers of the Synod of Ulster were instructed. Central to his teaching was the priority to be given to individual conscience.
A clerical gathering known as the Belfast Society had been founded in 1705 and attracted many of the more intellectually gifted younger ministers in the Synod. Led by Abernethy of Antrim and Haliday of Belfast, this new theology was widely debated and was attracting much support.
Adherents of these “new light” doctrines were occupying the pulpits of Killyleagh, Downpatrick, Clough and Kilmore, and many worthy hearers in these congregations in rejecting these new ideas which they were hearing on the Sabbath set up a praying society at Ballydugan outside Downpatrick.
In time they sought a more central site for such a widely scattered people and were offered a site in the townland of Lissara. There the infant Secession congregation built its first church around 1775 at a cost of £150·00 on the site now occupied by St. Joseph’s Primary School. This money was raised largely by the efforts of Thomas Newell of Barnamaghery, a family name still registered in the rolls of Lissara congregation. One cannot escape the thought that the choice of the Lissara site must have been influenced, in addition to its centrality, by the new access roads presented by courtesy of Nicholas Price.
So Everogues bridge was becoming most familiar territory for Presbyterians from a wide area of East Down.
But what of their Roman Catholic neighbours?
The centre for worship in the eighteenth century for the Roman Catholic folk of Kilmore parish would still have been Kilmore Moran. To Father Richard Curoe must go the credit for the far-sighted decision to erect a new church at Everogues bridge on a piece of ground owned by the Killen family of Clontaghnaglare in 1798 / 1800. Father Curoe was one of the last of those priests who had conducted worship with only the heavens as a canopy and at an altar consisting of a Mass rock or a pile of sods. He was responsible for erecting the old chapel in Kilmore in 1785 and the old chapel at Killyleagh as late as 1832 only 12 years before he died at the venerable age of 102 years.
His decision to move the centre of worship from the historically traditional Kilmore Moran to that then obscure patch of open ground called Everogues bridge must have been a very brave one since it would have run contrary to all traditional thought. Nevertheless he was given the foresight to realise that with a changing social pattern and the advent of good access roads, the prosperity of his congregation lay in what would be the developing village of Crossgare.
Fr. Curoe must at the time have been aware of the political and social unrest that was imminent and which had built up over the years of the 1790s. This unrest was eventually to culminate in the rising of the Presbyterians of north and east Downe under the banner of the United Irishmen. This rising which led in this neighbourhood to the Battle of Ballynahinch would have been a deterrent to a man of lesser determination than Fr. Curoe.
When the rising took place, Crossgar as a place of residence was non-existent. As already stated however, the Presbyterian Secession congregation of Lissara had been founded in 1775, with its place of worship on the present site of St.Joseph’s Primary School. The infant congregation had shared a minister with the Secession congregation of Ballynahinch. This joint charge was dissolved after the death of Rev. John Sturgeon in 1792, and the Rev. Samuel Edgar was appointed to the Ballynahinch congregation.
It is not surprising therefore, because of the previous history of these two bodies, to find that the Rev. S.Edgar was invited to dispense Communion at the Everogue’s Bridge congregation on Sunday, June 10, 1798. This duty he undertook with great trepidation, having recently heard that his brother-in-law, Hugh McKee of the Yeomanry, had been burned alive in his home at Saintfield along with his entire family.
The original Roman Catholic chapel at Everogues was sited slightly to the left of the present chapel of the Immaculate Conception and St.Joseph which was erected by Fr. Connor in 1870.
So Everogue’s became a familiar congregating ground for both Presbyterian and Roman Catholic folk, and the scene was set for its development if and when a person with ambition and sufficiently wealthy to boot should wish to create a residential settlement.
Such a one appeared in the person of Edward Southwell Trotter.
So the Nicholas Price transport revolution signalled the emergence of Everogues as a place in the mind of the travelling public. It was no longer just a river crossing but a place to stop and enjoy the heat of a blazing fire on a cold frosty morning, and perhaps warm the innards with a drop of hot usquebaugh; while one waited for the horses to be attended to, one could partake of some refreshments and in time the stop would be referred to as the Carman’s Inn.
But with the new Everogues Bridge and the new road carrying the combined mail and passenger traffic from Downe to Saintfield and Belfast, the original position of the Dan Quinn pub was somewhat “off the beaten track” and so it may reasonably be assumed that the business found it more advantageous to move to its new site on the main road, now Downpatrick Street. This change of site and the increased traffic was much to the advantage of Dan Quinn’s, situated as it now was halfway between Downe and Saintfield and ideal for what modern tour couriers refer to as a comfort stop.The building on this site as remembered by the writer in the 1920s was “a storey and a half” and like most of the other houses of that period whitewashed.
The proprietor was Nicholas Burns who later sold the business and premises to John Jennings from Broclough. He continued to run the public house and also a funeral undertaking service until his death in 1960. The business was then carried on by his widow until 1968 when her son Peter took over. Peter rebuilt the premises in modern style in 1970 and afterwards sold to Dan McAlinden, the present proprietor.
So Dan Quinn’s pub, already well-known before the village of Crossgar existed, still remains, albeit with a more modern façade, to serve the needs of travellers and locals alike as we venture into the third millennium.
Beneficial as this trade was to the traveller and innkeeper alike, it was by its very nature transient. What was needed was something of a more permanent presence at Everogues. This in time was provided by the vagaries of some of the Presbyterian worshippers of East Down.
When James Hamilton received his reward of one third of Con O’Neil’s territory from King James, he set about organising it in a businesslike manner. He employed a surveyor called Raven to prepare maps of his immense estates showing their extent and content and marking out land for letting to his new tenants who came largely from the Lowlands of Scotland, anxious to seek their fortunes in this new land of opportunity. These new tenants were largely Presbyterian in origin and so from the early 1600s a strong Presbyterian presence was built up in the north and east of Co. Down.
But Hamilton’s thirst for land appears to have been insatiable. In 1610, for “a good valuable consideration” he purchased the territory of the Dufferin from the Whytes and, as shown by Raven’s survey of Hamilton lands in 1625, he was also in possession of much of the remaining one third of the O’Neil land remaining in the ownership of the dissolute spendthrift Con, who seems to have frittered away most of it over the years. These tenants of the last of the O’Neil chiefs in Ulster were now destined to live under the rigorous ownership of the Scots rather than the more liberal regime of the Tanist tribal rules to which they had hitherto been accustomed. This would inevitably be resented.
The County of Downe was divided into twelve baronies during Elizabeth’s reign. The baronies of Kinelarty and Dufferin are the two of these twelve of interest when seeking the origins of the village of Crossgare.
Knox, in his history of County Down, quotes a rather quaint description contained in an ancient manuscript in the British Museum. This manuscript refers to conditions during the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553) in these two baronies. After describing the adjacent Maginnis territory in quite complimentary terms it then proceeds:- “Next to that countrye is McCartans countrye, a man of small power, wherein are no horsemen but kearne, which countrye is full of bogges, woodes and beareth with the Captain of Lecaill. “The next to that countrye is the Dufferyn whereof one John Whight was landlord; the same countrye is no great circuit, but small, full of woodes, water, and good land meet for Englishmen to inhabit.”
No wonder James Hamilton was able to get the Dufferin on the cheap, which he did despite his claim to have paid “a good valuable consideration.” “I knew thou wert an hard man” might have been said justifiably by contemporaries who had any dealings with James Hamilton.
The purchase of the Dufferin from the Whytes put Hamilton in possession of the entire western hinterland of Strangford Lough from Castlereagh to Inch parish and adjoined the McCartan territory in which the future town of Crossgar would rise.
Hamilton also brought able Presbyterian ministers as pastors for his new tenants. Initially these were installed in Episcopal pulpits and a degree of toleration existed, but when bishops arrived who were not prepared to tolerate nonconformist ideas, this Prescopalian period, as it was later referred to, came to an end and many had to flee to Scotland to escape imprisonment and fines imposed by the Bishops Courts, far beyond what they might reasonably be capable of paying.
Nevertheless most of these stiffnecked Presbyterians and those faithful ministers who remained in the country conducted clandestine worship and hedgerow schools very much as their Roman Catholic neighbours were wont to do.
When General Munro was sent with a Scottish army to help quell the rebellion of 1641, he had with him five Presbyterian ministers who were pastors to various regiments in his army.
When the rebellion was subdued and some semblance of order restored, these ministers set up four Sessions within the army with four officers of Presbyterial outlook as elders. These ministers and elders formed the nucleus of the first Presbytery which was erected at Carrickfergus on June 10 1642. What eventually then became the Synod of Ulster was governed by the General Assembly at Glasgow.
One of the pillars upon which the Presbyterian form of church government is built is the inalienable right of a congregation to choose its own minister by majority vote.
The passing of the Patronage Act by the Parliament at Westminster in 1712, and its imposition upon the General Assembly at Glasgow, meant that a minister could be appointed arbitrarily by a local landlord or other grandee against the wishes of a congregation. This brought into being the Secession Church and as was inevitable this church soon took root in Ulster.
Patronage was not a problem here in Ulster, but coinciding with the disagreement about patronage in Scotland, a “new light argument” was emerging in the Synod of Ulster. These “new light” doctrines were propagated by Professor Simson, who held the Chair of Theology in Glasgow University where many of the ministers of the Synod of Ulster were instructed. Central to his teaching was the priority to be given to individual conscience.
A clerical gathering known as the Belfast Society had been founded in 1705 and attracted many of the more intellectually gifted younger ministers in the Synod. Led by Abernethy of Antrim and Haliday of Belfast, this new theology was widely debated and was attracting much support.
Adherents of these “new light” doctrines were occupying the pulpits of Killyleagh, Downpatrick, Clough and Kilmore, and many worthy hearers in these congregations in rejecting these new ideas which they were hearing on the Sabbath set up a praying society at Ballydugan outside Downpatrick.
In time they sought a more central site for such a widely scattered people and were offered a site in the townland of Lissara. There the infant Secession congregation built its first church around 1775 at a cost of £150·00 on the site now occupied by St. Joseph’s Primary School. This money was raised largely by the efforts of Thomas Newell of Barnamaghery, a family name still registered in the rolls of Lissara congregation. One cannot escape the thought that the choice of the Lissara site must have been influenced, in addition to its centrality, by the new access roads presented by courtesy of Nicholas Price.
So Everogues bridge was becoming most familiar territory for Presbyterians from a wide area of East Down.
But what of their Roman Catholic neighbours?
The centre for worship in the eighteenth century for the Roman Catholic folk of Kilmore parish would still have been Kilmore Moran. To Father Richard Curoe must go the credit for the far-sighted decision to erect a new church at Everogues bridge on a piece of ground owned by the Killen family of Clontaghnaglare in 1798 / 1800. Father Curoe was one of the last of those priests who had conducted worship with only the heavens as a canopy and at an altar consisting of a Mass rock or a pile of sods. He was responsible for erecting the old chapel in Kilmore in 1785 and the old chapel at Killyleagh as late as 1832 only 12 years before he died at the venerable age of 102 years.
His decision to move the centre of worship from the historically traditional Kilmore Moran to that then obscure patch of open ground called Everogues bridge must have been a very brave one since it would have run contrary to all traditional thought. Nevertheless he was given the foresight to realise that with a changing social pattern and the advent of good access roads, the prosperity of his congregation lay in what would be the developing village of Crossgare.
Fr. Curoe must at the time have been aware of the political and social unrest that was imminent and which had built up over the years of the 1790s. This unrest was eventually to culminate in the rising of the Presbyterians of north and east Downe under the banner of the United Irishmen. This rising which led in this neighbourhood to the Battle of Ballynahinch would have been a deterrent to a man of lesser determination than Fr. Curoe.
When the rising took place, Crossgar as a place of residence was non-existent. As already stated however, the Presbyterian Secession congregation of Lissara had been founded in 1775, with its place of worship on the present site of St.Joseph’s Primary School. The infant congregation had shared a minister with the Secession congregation of Ballynahinch. This joint charge was dissolved after the death of Rev. John Sturgeon in 1792, and the Rev. Samuel Edgar was appointed to the Ballynahinch congregation.
It is not surprising therefore, because of the previous history of these two bodies, to find that the Rev. S.Edgar was invited to dispense Communion at the Everogue’s Bridge congregation on Sunday, June 10, 1798. This duty he undertook with great trepidation, having recently heard that his brother-in-law, Hugh McKee of the Yeomanry, had been burned alive in his home at Saintfield along with his entire family.
The original Roman Catholic chapel at Everogues was sited slightly to the left of the present chapel of the Immaculate Conception and St.Joseph which was erected by Fr. Connor in 1870.
So Everogue’s became a familiar congregating ground for both Presbyterian and Roman Catholic folk, and the scene was set for its development if and when a person with ambition and sufficiently wealthy to boot should wish to create a residential settlement.
Such a one appeared in the person of Edward Southwell Trotter.
1834 map of Crossgar