Chronology of Dublin, 1700-1799

1700

An Act of Parliament passed on 4 March 1704 prohibited Irish Catholics from buying land, obtaining a lease for longer than 31 years and decreed that Catholic estates be divided among all sons - unless the eldest joined the Established Church.

The Registration Act which came into force on 23 June 1704 required all Catholic priests in Ireland to register in court, to furnish two £50 bonds for good behaviour, and not to leave the county in which they were registered.

A General Sessions of the Peace sat in the Tholsel, Dublin, on July 13 1704, to discuss the registration of Popish Priests in the City of Dublin.

All registered Catholic priests in Ireland were required, from 30 August 1709, to renounce the claims of the Stuarts to the thrones of England and Ireland - only 33 out of 1,089 complied.

The first foundations for a new library at Trinity College, Dublin, were laid on May 12 1712. The building has an open ground floor which, because the ground was liable to flooding, left library space on the first and second floors.

Jonathan Swift was installed as Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, on June 13 1713.

Edmund Byrne, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, was arrested by ‘priest-hunter’ John Garzia on 1 June 1718 - the trials ended on 13 November when Garzia failed to appear as a witness.

A severe storm near Templeogue on 17 July 1719 burned hayricks and killed horses and cows.

The British House of Commons proposed on 10 August 1719 that all unregistered priests in Ireland should be branded on the cheek - it didn’t go ahead.

On 1 January 1726 there was heavy flooding in Dublin, killing 37 horses in the City Stables.

The Dublin Gazette was probably the first newspaper in Ireland to be published by a woman. A note in number 680 brought readers the news that the printer, Richard James, had died on 2 March 1727. The issue also carried a note reading: “Printed by and for Alice James, at Newton’s Head in Dame Street.”

Esther Johnson, friend of Jonathan Swift, ‘Stella’ in his writings, died on 27 January 1728.

Jonathan Swift, author of Drapier’s letters against the issuance of Wood’s Ha’pence in Ireland, received the freedom of the city of Dublin on 13 February 1729.

Sir Richard Steele, essayist and playwright, died on September 1 1729.

The ‘Dublin Society for Improving Husbandry, Manufactures and Other Useful Arts’ was founded by Thomas Prior and Thomas Molyneaux in TCD on 25 June 1731 - it later became the Royal Dublin Society.

Dr. Edward Ford, one of those attempting to stop rowdyism by Trinity College, Dublin, students, was shot dead on the university campus on March 9 1734. Dr. Ford, had earlier fired a shot at students who were stoning his windows. Firearms had been banned from the College four years earlier.

In his will, dated May 3 1735, Jonathan Swift, left his ‘whole fortune in the city (Dublin)and trust for the building and maintaining of an hospital for idiots and lunatics.’

Dubliner Jonathan Swift was presented with the freedom of the city of Cork on 20 January 1736. A defender of native industry he advised people to “burn everything English but their coal”.

On 11 September 1739 “Donnybrook bridge was thrown down, as also Enniskerry Bridge near Power’s Court .. several ricks of hay with many chairs, stools and tables were seen floating in Donnybrook river.”

In a letter on April 19 1741 to Dr. Thomas Prior, Dublin, the Bishop of Cloyne, Dr. George Berkeley, wrote of the famine which was then raging. “The distresses of the sick and poor are endless. The havoc of mankind in the counties of Cork, Limerick and some adjacent places hath been incredible. The nation, probably, will not recover this loss in a century. The other day I heard one from the county of Limerick say that whole villages were entirely dispeopled.

George Frederic Handel conducted the first performance of his Messiah on 13 April 1742, in the New Music Hall, Fishamble Street, with the help of the choirs from St. Patrick’s and Christ Church. The £400 proceeds were given to Mercer’s Hospital, the Charitable Infirmary and for the relief of prisoners.

The Royal Hospital for Incurables opened in Donnybrook on 23 May 1744.

Dr. Bartholemew Mosse opened the first maternity hospital in the British Isles in George’s Lane, Dublin, on March 15 1745. The hospital, opened using his own money, could only cater for ten woman at one time. Mosse wrote that “every woman to have a decent bed to herself and to be provided with all manner of necessities and the greatest imaginable care will be taken of her and her new-born infant from the time she is admitted and until well able to leave the hospital, and all without the least expense to her.” During the first year 109 children were safely deliver and only one woman died, a remarkable achievement for the time. Mosse’s vision was eventually realised in the building of the Rotunda Hospital.

Jonathan Swift, 77, author of Gulliver’s Travels, died, aged 77, on 19 October 1745. He left his entire estate to establish a hostpial for the psychiatrically ill. He was keen that his hospital be situated close to a general hospital because of the links between physical and mental ill-health. St. Patrick’s Hospital was built beside Dr. Steevens’ Hospital. When it opened in the 1750s, less than 20 patients were admitted, most staying for life - today (1995) it has 300 beds and treats 2,500 patients each year, most of whom are discharged within a matter of weeks.

John Wesley, founder of Methodism, preached his first sermon in Ireland at St. Mary’s Church, Mary Street, Dublin, on August 9 1747.

The foundation stone of the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, was laid by the Lord Mayor of Dublin on July 9 1751. The hospital was completed in 1757.

An entry in Faulkner’s Dublin Journal, dated February 29th 1752, reads: “Lately died in the Barony of Iveragh and County of Kerry Daniel Buee McCarthy, Esq., of a very ancient family, in the 112th year of his age. He buried four wives. His fifth wife, now a widow, he married when aged 84 and she but 14, by whom he had about twenty children. He was always a very healthy man and no cold ever did affect him. For these seventy years past when in company he drank plentifully of rum and brandy, which he called ‘naked truth’. His custom was to walk eight or ten miles on a winter’s morning over mountains, with greyhounds and finders, and seldom failed to bring home a brace of hares. He was an honest gentleman, and inherited the social virtues of the ancient Milesians.”

16 April 1752 saw the start of the first regular coach service from Dublin to Belfast, the six-horse carriage covered the 100 miles in three days.

The Irish Lord Lieutenant commanded a general Fast and Humiliation for 17 February 1757 to implore God’s blessing and assistance in the struggle then going on between England and France.

On 10 November 1757 Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, was struck by lightning and a pinnacle was destroyed.

The first 52 expectant mothers were admitted to Dr. Bartholemew Mosse’s ‘Hospital for Poor Lying-in Women’ (later known as The Rotunda) on 8 December 1757. The official opening was performed by the Viceroy, the Duke of Bedford.

Dr. Bartholemew Mosse, founder of the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, died in Cullenswood House, Ranelagh, on February 16 1759. The British Government later granted his widow £1,000, in “consideration of the merit of her late husband in regard to the poor’. The Hospital itself was less generous, it ordered “that she will quit the House by Michelmas”.

Oliver Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield was published on 27 March 1766.

The Good Natured Man, by Oliver Goldsmith, was first performed at Covent Garden, London, on January 29 1768.

The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith was published on May 26 1770.

Oliver Goldsmith, Irish writer, notably She Stoops to Conquer and The Vicar of Wakefield, died in London, on April 4 1774.

Four Dublin packet ships were among those sunk during a storm on 29 October 1775.

Luke Gardiner’s Catholic Relief Act of 14 August 1778 enabled Catholics to take leases for 999 years and to inherit on the same basis as other denominations.

Catherine McAuley, founder of the Mercy Congregation (the Sisters of Mercy), was born on November 11 1778 in Stormanstown House, near Ballymun, Dublin, and spent most of her life in the city and county of Dublin. In 1882 she inherited the estate, over £25,000, of an elderly couple who she had cared for for 20 years. Two years later she bought a site in Baggot St. and constructed a large building which provided schooling for poor children, accommodation for orphans and shelter for women who were homeless and unemployed. The house became known as the House of Mercy and Catherine lived there from 1828. In 1830, aged 52, Catherine, with two of her companion, entered the Presentation novitiate and was professed 15 months later in 1831. The House of Mercy became the first Convent of Mercy and Catherine became Mother Superior of the new Mercy Congregation. During the remainder of her lifetime, eleven convents of the Sisters of Mercy were established throughout Ireland and two in England. Physical exhaustion led to her death in the Baggot Street Convent on 11 November 1841. Today the charitable work of the Mercy Congregation continues in all five continents with between 12,000 and 15,000 Sisters. She was declared venerable by Pope John Paul II in 1990.

The first regiment of the Irish Volunteers was formed in Dublin, under the command of the Duke of Leinster, on 12 October 1779.

Architect James Gandon arrived in Ireland on 26 April 1781 to begin work on the Custom House.

The Bank of Ireland opened at Mary’s Abbey, Dublin, on 25 June, 1783.

Richard Crosbie made the first balloon flight from Irish soil from Ranelagh Gardens, Dublin, to the North Strand on 19 January 1785. Crosbie had actually intended to cross the Irish Sea but landed as night approached.

The inaugural meeting of the Irish Academy (later Royal) was in Charlemont House on May 3 1785.

Richard Crosbie’s second attempt to cross the Irish Sea in a balloon failed on May 12 1785 when the balloon failed to lift him. His place was taken by a lighter volunteer, Richard McGwire, he came down in the sea ten miles off Howth.

Richard Crosbie’s third unsuccessful attempt to cross the Irish Sea in a balloon took place on July 19 1785. He took off from Leinster Lawn, Dublin, made to the Welsh coast, was blown off course in a storm and was eventually rescued from the sea by the barge ‘Captain Walmitt’.

Faulkner’s Dublin Journal of 3 January 1786 noted “Saturday last there fell the greatest shower of hail ever remembered in this city, some of the hailstones were as large as a small bullet.”

The first Royal Mail coach from Dublin arrived in Cork on July 8 1789. The bright red coaches were exempt from all turnpike charges and claimed precedence over all other road users. The journey took 31 hours and cost two guineas per passenger (inside), one guinea (outside). Passengers were permitted 14 pounds of luggage and small packages were charged at two shillings and two pence each.

The Charlemont Packet sailing from Holyhead to Dublin sank with the loss of 104 people on 22 December 1790.

The Society of United Irishmen was set up in Belfast on October 14 1791 to demand rights for Catholics.

The Custom House, Dublin, opened on 7 November 1791.

The first meeting of the United Irishmen was held on November 9 1791 in the Eagle Tavern, Eustace Street, Dublin. The tavern was also the meetling place for such groups as the Constitutional Club, Dublin Volunteers, Whigs of the Capital and Freemasons.

The first Irish convicts to be transported to New Zealand arrived on November 26 1791.

The first cricket match was played in the Phoenix Park on August 1 1792.

The foundation stone of St. Teresa’s Church, Clarendon Street, Dublin, was laid on October 3 1793.

The Ballast Board secured a three-year lease on premises in Sackville Street (O’Connell St.) on January 1, 1794. Rent was 100 guineas a year and the premises was ‘to be constituted and appointed the Ballast Office of the Port of Dublin’.

The statutes of Dublin University (Trinity) were altered in 1794 to allow Catholics to take degrees.

General Arthur Dillon, an Irish soldier, was guillotined in Paris on April 14 1794.

The Grand Canal Docks (Ringsend Basin) was opened on April 23 1796 by the Lord Lieutenant, Viscount Camden, aboard the yacht Dorset. The Dublin Journal reported that ‘their excellencies landed and partook of a Grand Dejeuner, prepared in marquee tents on shore for above 500 people.’

Edmund Burke, Irish statesman and orator died on July 9 1797.

On 7 February 1798 fog was so dense in Dublin that a number of carriages were driven into the Liffey.

Irish patriot Lord Edward FitzGerald, betrayed by Francis Mangan, was wounded during his arrest on 19 May 1798. He died on 4 June.

Landowner and landlord Sir Edward Crosbie, brother of the first Irish balloonist Richard, was hung at Carlow Jail on June 5 1798 for ‘traitorous and rebellious conduct, in aiding and abetting a most villainous conspiracy for the overthrow of his Majesty’s crown, and the extinction of all loyal subjects’. He was beheaded and his head was placed on a spike outside the jail - it remained there for three years before being returned to the family. However it was Thomas Myler, his butler and stewart, who had been involved in the 1798 Rising. He disappeared in the wake of the Rising and it was only years later that he made a statement exonerating his old employer. It read, in part, ‘Sir Edward was never a United Irishman … if the United Irishmen happened to be mentioned to him in ordinary conversation he would remark: ‘Ah, they are foolish people. I pity them. The kindness of my good master to me was partly the cause of his ruin and he lost his life for what he had had no hand, act or part in.” Myler, it transpired, had worn a coat given to him by Sir Edward on the night of the Rising in Carlow and, he believed, someone had mistaken him for his employer.

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