House - 17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

17th century house that was known as "Ginkel's House" named after the Dutch General Godart de Ginkel who took part in the 1691 Siege of Athlone and who for a while resided at this house. This structure was built c. 1626 and demolished in 1939 and originally appears to have been built as the residence of John Waple (Murtagh 1994, 15). This may be the same residence as mentioned in a 1619 land grant to Thomas Waple which included the 'gardens, and curtilages, near the market place, 32 yards [29.2m] broad and 48 [43.9m] long, lately John Brandan’s and Tho. Waple’s' (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 421). In 1912 the house was described as located 'at the corner of Northgate Street, in which it is said the Dutchman-the famous general "who seems to have had no idea of chivalry"-lived at the time of the siege of 1691' (Mitton 1912, 179-80). The house was three storeys high and appears to have had a cellar or undercroft. The house was entered through a round arched door, approached from the street via a short flight of steps. The door had an external hood moulding with the date 1626 in false relief set into the spandrels of the arch. The moulded jambs ended in a chamfered stop decorated with a fleur-de-lis topped hourglass motif (Bradley et. al. 1985, 25-7).

Compiled by: Rachel Barrett and Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload/revision: 10 December 2013

References

Murtagh, H. (ed.) 1994 Athlone. Irish Historic Towns Atlas, No. 6. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy.

Mitton, G. E. (ed.) 1912 Black's guide to Galway Connemara and the west of Ireland. London. Adam and Charles Black.

Bradley, J., Halpin, A., and King, H. 1985 Urban archaeological survey - county Westmeath. Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I - Irish patent rolls of James I: facsimile of the Irish record commissioners' calendar prepared prior to 1830, with foreword by M.C. Griffith (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 1966)