Seaforde House

THE FORDES WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY DOWN, WITH 20,106 ACRES

The family of FORDE or FFORDE, of Seaforde, County Down, originally from Wales, were for several generations seated at Coolgreany, County Wexford.

NICHOLAS FORDE, of Coolgreany, who died in 1605, married Catherine White, and had five sons, viz.

Clement, dsp 1617;
MATHEW, of whom presently;
Christopher;
Francis;
Lucas.

The second son,

MATHEW FORDE (c1590-1652), of counties Dublin and Meath, wedded, in 1621, Eleanor Macartan, and had issue,

Henry;
NICHOLAS;
Ann; Catherine.

Mr Forde succeeded to the estates and obtained a grant of Kinelarty, alias Macartan's Country, County Down, from THOMAS, 1ST VISCOUNT LECALE, dated 1637.

The second son,

NICHOLAS FORDE, of Killyleagh, County Down, a barrister, his heir and successor at Coolgreany, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Adam Loftus, Knight, of Rathfarnham, and was succeeded by his only son,

MATHEW FORDE (c1647-1709), of Coolgreany and Loughinisland, MP for County Wexford, 1695-9 and 1703-9, High Sheriff of County Down, 1706, who wedded Margaret, daughter of Sir George Hamilton Bt (fourth son of James, 1st Earl of Abercorn), by Mary Butler his wife, daughter of Thomas, Lord Thurles, and sister of James, 1st Duke of Ormonde.

Mr Forde left at his decease (with two daughters, the eldest of whom, Lucy, wedded, in 1695, Sir Laurence Esmonde Bt, of Ballynester; and the younger, Jane, John Walsh, of Shanganagh), an only son and heir,

MATHEW FORDE MP (1675-1729), of Seaforde, MP for Downpatrick, 1703-14, who removed from Wexford to his estates in County Down.

Mr Forde built the mansion house and village of Seaforde, where his descendants have since uninterruptedly resided.

He served in parliament from 1703 until 1713, for the borough of Downpatrick.

Mr Forde espoused, in 1698, Anne, daughter of William Brownlow, of Lurgan, and had issue,

MATHEW, his heir;
Francis, of Johnstown;
Arthur (Rev), Rector of Lurgan;
Jane; Letitia; Margaret.

He was succeeded by his eldest son,

MATHEW FORDE (1699-1780), of Seaforde and Coolgreany, MP for Bangor, 1751-60, High Sheriff of County Down, 1729, who married firstly, in 1724, Christine, daughter of John Graham, of Platten, County Meath, and had issue,

MATHEW, his successor;
John, a major in the army;
William;
Edward, settled in Liverpool;
Arthur, a military officer;
Pierce, barrister;
Charity; Anne; Elizabeth.

Mr Forde wedded secondly, Jane, widow of Sir Timothy Allen, and died in 1780, when he was succeeded by his eldest son,

MATHEW FORDE (1726-95), of Seaforde and Coolgreany, MP for Downpatrick, 1761-76, High Sheriff of County Down, 1752, who espoused, in 1750, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Knox, of Dungannon, and sister of Thomas, 1st Viscount Northland, and had issue,

MATHEW, his heir;
Anne; Elizabeth; Jane; Charity.

Mr Forde was succeeded by his only son,

MATHEW FORDE (1753-1812), of Seaforde and Coolgreany, who rebuilt the mansion at Seaforde, High Sheriff of County Down, 1803, who married firstly, in 1782, Catherine, eldest daughter of the Rt Hon William Brownlow MP, of Lurgan, MP for County Armagh, and had issue,

MATHEW, his heir;
WILLIAM BROWNLOW, succeeded his brother;
Thomas Arthur;
Arthur;
Francis Charles;
Anne; Isabella Jane Octavia.

Mr Forde wedded secondly, in 1811, Sophia, daughter of the Very Rev Stewart Blacker, Dean of Leighlin, but had no further issue.

He was succeeded by his eldest son,

MATHEW FORDE JP DL (1785-1837), of Seaforde and Coolgreany, High Sheriff of County Down, 1820, MP for County Down, 1821-6, who espoused firstly, in 1814, Mary Anne, only child of Francis Savage, of HOLLYMOUNT and Ardkeen, County Down; and secondly, in 1829, the Lady Harriet Savage, third daughter of Henry, 2nd Earl of Carrick, and widow of Francis Savage.

Colonel Forde was colonel of the Royal North Down Militia, a magistrate, and deputy lieutenant of County Down, which county he represented in parliament, 1821-26, and was High Sheriff, 1820.

He died without issue, and was succeeded by his brother,

THE REV WILLIAM BROWNLOW FORDE JP DL (1786-1856), of Seaforde and Coolgreany, Rector of Annahilt, County Down, who married, in 1812, Theodosia Helen, daughter of Thomas Douglass, and had issue,

Matthew Thomas (1816-47), High Sheriff of Co Down, 1840;
WILLIAM BROWNLOW, of whom hereafter;
Francis Savage;
Charles Arthur;
Thomas Douglass, father of WILLIAM GEORGE;
Selina Charity; Elizabeth Theodosia Catherine; Harriette Anna.

Mr Forde was succeeded by his second son,

THE RT HON WILLIAM BROWNLOW FORDE JP DL (1823-1902), of Seaforde, MP for County Down, 1857-74, High Sheriff of County Down, 1853, who espoused, in 1855, Adelaide, daughter of General the Hon Robert Meade, second son of the 1st Earl of Clanwilliam; though died without issue, and was succeeded by his nephew,

WILLIAM GEORGE FORDE (1868-1922), of Seaforde, Major, Royal Irish Rifles, High Sheriff of County Down, 1909, who married, in 1898, Sylvia Dorothea, daughter of Major Alexander Frederick Stewart, and had issue,

THOMAS WILLIAM, his heir;
DESMOND CHARLES, succeeded his brother;
Sylvia; Cynthia Dorothea.

Major Forde was succeeded by his elder son,

THOMAS WILLIAM FORDE DL (1899-1949), of Seaforde, Major, Coldstream Guards, High Sheriff of County Down, 1934, who died unmarried and was succeeded by his brother,

DESMOND CHARLES FORDE DL (1906-61) of Seaforde, Lieutenant-Colonel, Coldstream Guards, High Sheriff of County Down, 1950, who married, in 1938, Margaret Bertha Meriel, youngest daughter of the 6th Viscount Bangor OBE PC.

Colonel Forde divorced in 1947 and married secondly, in 1948, Kate Alexandra York, widow of Lieutenant-Colonel George William Panter MBE, of Enniskeen, Newcastle, County Down.

His only son,

PATRICK MATHEW DESMOND FORDE JP DL (1940-2010), married the Lady Anthea Lowry-Corry, eldest daughter of the 7th Earl of Belmore and the present Earl's sister.

Patrick and Lady Anthea's daughter, Emily Louise, married Peter Mackie in 1995.

They have three sons: Mathew, Charles and Finnian.

SEAFORDE demesne, beside the village of Seaforde in County Down, is an exceptionally beautiful 18th century designed landscape, incorporating two lakes and fine views of the Mourne Mountains.

The estate comprises just over 1,000 acres today.

It is largely walled and has its origin in the late 17th century, when it was called Castle Navan.

The house remained in its original form until about 1890, when Colonel William Brownlow Forde replaced the curving Ionic portico with the more austere enclosed porch, and removed the Georgian glazing throughout the house and inserted plate glass.

The original glazing was reintroduced in the late 20th century.

The present house, of 1816-20, is a rather austere but impressive neo-classical, east-facing block of seven bays and three storeys over a basement, the top storey being treated as an attic above a dentil cornice.

There is a five-bay entrance front.

The fan-lighted entrance door was originally under a gracefully curving single-storey portico with coupled Ionic columns; however this gave way to a large, enclosed, pilastered porch with plate-glass windows in the late 18th century.

The mansion is faced in sandstone ashlar, and was built for Mathew Forde (1785-1837), possibly to designs of the English architect Peter Frederick Robinson.

Inside, the hall is deep and commodious with fireplaces.

The principal staircase has handsome brass balusters in a separate hall at the side.

The saloon is bow-fronted and flanked by the dining-room and library, a room of singular beauty.

The present mansion replaced an earlier house, burnt in 1816, which lay just north of the present stable-yard.

In the early 18th century this house was the focus of a formal demesne, with straight avenues aligned on the house running due south and east.

A straight, tree-lined embankment with footpath flanked the east side of the lake (the Upper Lake), depicted in a watercolour by Mrs Delany, dated 1740.

Her illustration shows the surrounding banks of this lake to have been well planted with trees, but it is evident that most of Seaforde’s magnificent naturalised landscaping belongs largely to the later 18th century and was probably the work of the great landscape gardener, John Sutherland.

Its creation involved putting down extensive woodlands, especially to the north; planting clumps, belts and screens; and laying down a network of long, winding drives, including the present entrance drive.

A bog was drained close to the main avenue and a lake [the Lower Lake] was dug in its place.

The large walled garden, lying north-east of the house, seems earlier than the landscape park and is probably of mid-18th century date.

The main entrance into the demesne, on axis with the village street, was built in 1833; but in the period 1795-1805, designs for gates and screen in this position had been commissioned by Mathew Forde’s father, also called Mathew (d. 1812) from both Samuel Wooley and Charles Lilly, but these had never been executed.

Circa 1825, Peter Frederick Robinson produced at least six different entrance design proposals.

The design eventually selected was a Greek-Revival sandstone composition, comprising a central carriage arch, surmounted by a pediment and flanked by flat arch pedestrian gates and quadrant wings.

He also designed the chaste Grecian gate lodge to the rere; this is also of sandstone, symmetrical in design and original in form.

At this time Forde employed Robinson to rebuild parts of the village (once called Naghan), apparently including the well- known almshouses.

Robinson may have been involved in building the tunnel and re- modelling part of the stable-yard offices of ca.1720 to the south-east of the house.

The architect, John Lynn, was commissioned to build the Ballynahinch or North gate lodge and screen in the late 1820s, a small three-bay single-storey Classical house with hipped roof and arch-headed openings.

In 1839, the ‘Big Wind’ caused considerable damage to the demesne woods, with a reported loss of 60,000 trees.

Two years earlier, the Rev William Brownlow Forde (1786-1856) had succeeded to the property on his brother’s death.

He decided that the Lecale Hunt, founded at Seaforde in 1768, should cease being run as a private family pack and become subscription based.

However, he allowed the hunt to continue housing its harriers at Seaforde and for this purpose the Mr Forde, in 1841, built a huntsman’s house and a hexagonal kennel block with hipped roof, one of the most remarkable buildings of its kind in Ulster.

The Lecale Hunt was disbanded in 1887 owing to a lack of hares, but the kennels continued to be used by the East Down Hunt.

The nearby ‘Pheasantry’ gate lodge, a picturesque 1½-storey dwelling, was built a few years later and served as a gamekeeper’s house.

From the late 1850s, Colonel William Brownlow Forde embarked on major improvements to the demesne.

He added the east range to the stable yard ca 1865; and also built an imposing farm-yard complex, known as the Lower Farm Yard, on a new site at the west edge of the park in 1858-59, together with a nearby gate lodge which replaced an earlier lodge across the road.

The latter is a single-storey, three-bay house, possibly the work of the Belfast architect, William Moore.

An identical lodge, again replacing an earlier lodge on the opposite side of the road, was built at the eastern, or Downpatrick, gate of the demesne on the Newcastle Road in about 1861-2, though its large carriage piers date to ca 1800.

During the 1860s a small farm field on the south of the demesne were swept away to allow the park to expand up to the road.

Nearby, a whole terrace of village houses was demolished, so that the grounds of the agent’s residence, ‘The Lodge’, which historically was part of the demesne, could expand to the main street.

This residence, a late Georgian villa of one storey over a basement, was also remodelled and enlarged ca 1860.

There was further demesne ‘rationalisation’ in the 1860s to the north-west, where the hazel bank farm was brought into the demesne and its fields removed.

Late Victorian and Edwardian garden improvements at Seaforde include the creation of a rock garden ca 1902, near the sluice of the Lower Lake; in recent decades this area in woodland has been cut back, replanted and redesigned, notably with an attractive iron bridge added.

The late Victorian period witnessed a remodelling and enlargement of the imposing glass- house on the south-facing dividing wall to the garden.

The northern section of this garden, whose northern wall is curved, was historically always devoted to kitchen provisions; but the lower, southern section became a fully ornamental garden by late Victorian times and boasted a large formal ornamental layout with lawns, urns and formal beds.

There had been a south-facing glass-house here from at least the 1830s, but this was re- modelled substantially some time later, perhaps in the 1860s, and given a large central section, which itself was enlarged in the late 19th century.

The garden and its glass-houses had become derelict by the 1960s, but in the 1970s the present owners embarked on a major clearance, removing the glass-house ruins, and creating a new garden in which Irish yew and urns from a former generation are incorporated.

There is now a large hornbeam maze with an arbour and statue of Diana in the centre; while a Mogul-style tower (built 1992), a Gothic arbour, a small herb garden and a colony of Echium pininana now occupy the glass-house site.

Flanking floral borders contain the National Collection of Eucryphias.

The northern section of the garden contains a commercial nursery, established after the Fordes acquired the remaining stock of the famous Slieve Donard Nursery.

The Butterfly House here, built in 1988, houses a good collection of tree ferns and tropical plants. Outside the walled garden, on the south side, there is ‘The Pheasantry’, a verdant and secluded undulating grassy area that began life as a pleasure ground in late Victorian times.

It now incorporates a pond, high exotic trees and shrubs, including recent introductions collected in the wild by the late Patrick Forde.

Among the plants here are an enormous Rhododendron arboretum, a superb Crimean pine (Pinus nigra caramanica) and a good collection of azaleas.

The walled garden, butterfly house and ‘pheasantry’ grounds are open to the public at specified times; the rest of the demesne and the house are private.

 First published in June, 2010.