Monday 19 October 2020

Lissen Hall

THE HELY-HUTCHINSONS OWNED 766 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY DUBLIN

THE RT HON JOHN HELY-HUTCHINSON (1724-94), an eminent lawyer and statesman of Ireland (son of Francis Hely, of Gortroe, County Cork, by the daughter of Christopher Earbury), married, in 1751, Christiana, daughter of Lorenzo Nickson, of Munny, County Wicklow, and niece and heir of Richard Hutchinson, of Knocklofty, County Tipperary (in consequence of which marriage he assumed the additional surname of HUTCHINSON), and had issue,
Richard Hely, cr EARL OF DONOUGHMORE ;
John, successor to his brother as 2nd Earl;
FRANCIS, of whom we treat;
Augustus Abraham;
Christopher;
Lorenzo;
Christiana; Mary; Prudence; Margaret.
Mr Hely-Hutchinson's wife, Christiana, was elevated to the peerage, in 1783, suo jure, in the dignity of BARONESS DONOUGHMORE, of Knocklofty, County Tipperary.

The third son,

FRANCIS HELY-HUTCHINSON (1759-1827), MP for Dublin University, 1790-98, Naas, 1798-1801, wedded Frances Wilhelmina, daughter and heir of Henry Nixon, of Belmont, County Wexford, and had issue,
John, 3rd Earl;
Henry, Lieutenant-Colonel;
COOTE, of whom hereafter;
George;
Richard;
Anne Louisa; Catherine Henrietta; Charlotte Sophia; Louisa Frances.
The third son,

THE HON COOTE HELY-HUTCHINSON, Captain, Royal Navy, espoused, in 1834, Sophia, youngest daughter of the Rev Sir Samuel Synge-Hutchinson Bt, and had issue,
Samuel, died in infancy;
JOHN, of whom we treat;
Francis Henry;
Sophia Dorothy.
Captain Hely-Hutchinson died in 1842.

His third son,

JOHN HELY-HUTCHINSON JP DL (1826-1919), of Seafield and Lissen Hall, County Dublin, High Sheriff of County Dublin, 1872, married, in 1865, Mary Louisa, eldest daughter of Robert Tottenham, of Annamult, second son of Charles Tottenham, of Ballycurry, County Wicklow, and had issue,
COOTE ROBERT, his heir;
Richard George, a military officer;
Ethel Mary; Cecil Frances Katharine; Eleanor Blanche.
The elder son,

COOTE ROBERT HELY-HUTCHINSON OBE (1870-1930), Lieutenant-Colonel, Reserve Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, wedded, in 1914, Julia Harriet Vere, daughter of William Clayton Browne-Clayton, and had issue,
JOHN;
Michael;
David Coote;
Mary Caroline; Julia Louisa.
The eldest son,

JOHN HELY-HUTCHINSON (1914-85), died unmarried.


LISSEN HALL, Donabate, County Dublin, was constructed in at least two different periods.

The original house was a long, plain, gable-ended dwelling of the late-17th or early 18th century.

Slightly later, though still in the first half of the 18th century, Lissen Hall was extensively remodelled and a new front built at right angles to the earlier house to form a large T-shaped building.

The new five-bay façade shows a typical mid-Georgian design, with a tripartite door-case and a Venetian window above.

Lissen Hall (Image: Historic Houses of Ireland)

The tripartite arrangement is repeated on the upper storey, where the central window is flanked by two blind sidelights.

There are projecting bows, with semi-conical roofs at either end, while the walls of the façade continue upwards without a cornice to form a parapet, adorned with urns and eagles.

These embellishments were clearly aimed at replicating Mantua, a neighbouring house now long demolished, which faced Lissen Hall across the tidal estuary of the Meadow Water.

Architectural drawings from 1765 can be seen in the house, which at that time was owned by John Hatch, MP for Swords in the old Irish Parliament before it voted itself out of existence in 1801.

Lissen Hall later passed to the politically influential Hely-Hutchinson family, of nearby Seafield House.

In the 1870s the grounds comprised 78 acres.

In 1950 Terence Chadwick purchased Lissen Hall from the Hely-Hutchinsons, and it was subsequently inherited by his daughter, Lady Davis-Goff, of Ballinacor.

As a result Lissen Hall has been sold only once in over two hundred and fifty years.

The Irish Times has published an interesting article about the Hely-Hutchinsons.

First published in January, 2018.  Donoughmore arms courtesy of European Heraldry.  Select bibliography: Irish Historic Houses Association.

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