House - 17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

On the N side of Main St., at the eastern end. A ‘Mansion House’ is mentioned in Sir John Everard’s will of 1623 (Everard 1988, 347). On the 1703 Grace map (O’Keeffe 2003, map 6) this house is depicted in a stylised manner as a substantial two-storey house with a central doorway with steps up to it and a central rectangular feature beneath the eaves, perhaps a window or plaque. The roof is slated and has one large and one smaller central chimney and a possible octagonal chimney, surmounted by a ball finial, on either gable, similar to those on the almshouse (TS070-040003-) across the road (ibid.). The 1708 Grace map (O’Keeffe 2003, map 7) appears to be slightly more accurate. Once again there is only a large doorway depicted at ground level, perhaps suggesting that this was a storage level and that the residential quarters were at first-floor level where there are three windows, and above at attic level where there are also three windows (ibid.). It is depicted as having three chimneys, one at either gable and one centrally placed (ibid.). In 1750 the Everard properties in Fethard were sold to Thomas Barton, a wine merchant from Bordeaux, who replaced the Everard manion with a new house which was completed by 1763 (O’Keeffe 2003, 5). It is possible that some of the original mansion house was incorporated in the new build. This house was converted into a barracks in 1805 and continued as such until destroyed in 1922 during the Civil War (ibid., 6). The last remnants of the 18th-century house were removed in the 1960s (ibid.).

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 10 March 2015

References

O'Keeffe, T. 2003 Historic town atlas no. 13: Fethard. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy.

Everard, R. H. A. J. 1988 The family of Everard. The Irish Genealogist 7, (3), 328-48.