Historic town

The National Monuments Service's description

Located in a low-lying position on the W bank of a S-N portion of the River Shannon, and close to a fording point of that river. Although a church called Cill Srianain or Cill Trenain was probably at this location in 1310, the town of Jamestown was established when it was incorporated by charter in 1622. The walls were built by Sir Charles Coote to a specification which required a rectangular circuit of 160 perches around the main street, two main gateways, a postern gate, and four corner-bastions (dims c. 370m N-S; c. 150m E-W) (Kerrigan 1980-81; 1995, 79). A government report of 1622-3 stated that ‘a range of 6 or 7 English houses of lime and stone’ had already been built and more were under construction. Coote erected a wooden bridge (LE031-082007-) south of the town which was still extant in 1683 (Logan 1971, 327) but this was replaced with a stone bridge by 1730. The town was besieged, but not captured, by rebels in 1641-2 (Mac an Ghalloglaigh 1965, 448-50), but a Franciscan house was established in the district probably after 1645 (MacNamee 1954, 231), and a meeting of Catholic prelates was held at Jamestown in 1650 (Mooney 1946, 5-8) after it had fallen to Catholic Confederate forces in 1648 (Kelly 2019, 207). The Down Survey barony map (1656-8) depicts the rectangular walled town with houses extending on either side of the road N to Carrick-on-Shannon, and also a second bridge from N of the town to Charlestown, Co. Roscommon. This bridge was never built and the map is merely a projection as it was intended to found a county town for Co. Roscommon at Charlestown across the river which never came to fruition (Bradley and Dunne 1988, 20). Jamestown had a population of 238 c. 1659 (Pender 1939, 559). The town was captured for King William by Col. Lloyd in 1689, and retaken by Patrick Sarsfield in the same year as it was an important crossing point of the River Shannon (Wauchope 1992, 78-81).

The extent of the town can be gauged from the plots depicted on the 1835 edition of the OS 6-inch map, and the remains of the town wall. It was a rectangular enclosed area (dims c. 275m N-S; c. 110m E-W) with a single N-S street. The surviving remains consist of the North Gate (LE031-082001-), two sections of town wall (LE031-082002-), the church (LE031-082004-) and a star-shaped fort (LE031-082005-) which overlooks the town from a drumlin to the W. The site of the Franciscan house (LE031-082006-) is also within the walls, although its location is less certain. Archaeological testing has so far failed to recover features associated with the early occupation of the town, although the base of the town wall on the west side has been found through excavation (01E1191) in at least one place (Ryan 2002). Archaeological testing (E002895) during 2007 along the main street provided evidence of earlier cobbled surfaces (D 0.35m) overlying an organic layer with fragments of pottery , glass, oyster shells and bricks, flecks of charcoal and bone, dating to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There was a cobbled road surface and drain at the S end (Delaney 2010). (Butler 1935; Loeber 1982-3; Logan 1971; Bradley and Dunne 1988, 19-31)

See the attached image from the Down Survey map (N at left), which is reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland (Ms 717).

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 17 October 2019
Amended: 3 January, 2020

References

Logan, J. 1971 Tadg O'Roddy and two surveys of Co. Leitrim. Journal of Cumann Seanchas Breifne (Breifne Historical Society) 4 (14), 318-34.

Loeber, R. 1982-3 A gateway to Connaught: the building of the fortified town of Jamestown, County Leitrim, in the Era of Plantation. Journal of the Military History Society of Ireland, 15, 149-52.

Mac an Ghalloglaigh, an t-Athair D. 1965 1641 Rebellion in Leitrim. Journal of Cumann Seanchas Breifne (Breifne Historical Society) 2 (8), 441-54.

MacNamee, Rev. J.J. 1954 History of the diocese of Ardagh. Dublin. Browne and Nolan.

Kerrigan, P.M. 1980-82 Seventeenth-century fortifications, forts and garrisons in Ireland: a prelliminary list. The Irish Sword 14, no. 54, 3-24, no. 55, 135-56.

Kerrigan P.M. 1995 Castles and fortifications in Ireland 1485-1945. Cork. The Collins Press.

Bradley, J. and Dunne, N. 1988 Urban archaeological survey - county Leitrim. Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Butler, Rev. J. 1935 Why Jamestown was fortified. Journal of the Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Archaeological Society 1 (5), 75-81.

Wauchope, P. 1992 Patrick Sarsfield and the Williamite war. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.

Ryan, F. 2003: Jamestown. Town Wall. In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2001: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 226, No. 735. Bray, Wordwell

Delaney, D. 2010 Jamestown. Post-medieval town. In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2007: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 287, No. 1084. Dublin, Wordwell