Templepatrick

EDITED EXTRACTS FROM THE TOPOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF IRELAND, 1837

TEMPLEPATRICK, a parish, partly in the barony of Lower, but chiefly in that of Upper Belfast, County Antrim, four miles from Antrim.

This place is said to have derived its name from a preceptory of Knights Templars established here at a very early period, but of its foundation or its history nothing is recorded.

The parish, in form nearly triangular, comprising also within its limits the ancient parishes of Carngrany, Ballymartin, and Umgall, was granted, in the reign of JAMES I, to Sir Arthur Chichester, and afterwards regranted to Roger Norton.

At the hamlet of Dunadry, "the middle fortress," one mile from Templepatrick, a sharp action took place in 1648 between the English and Scottish forces, in which the celebrated Owen O'Connolly, who commanded the former, was mortally wounded.

The parish comprises, according to the Ordnance Survey, 13,261½ acres, a considerable proportion of which is mountain land, though affording good pasturage for sheep; there is but a small tract of bog, scarcely yielding sufficient fuel for the use of the inhabitants.

The system of agriculture is beginning to improve under the auspices of Lord Templetown, the proprietor, who has subdivided the larger townlands, increased the size of the farms, drained and brought into cultivation great quantities of wasteland, laid out the whole valley from the castle to the river Sixmilewater as lawn and pasture ground, upon which large numbers of cattle are fed, planted a great number of trees, and whitethorn hedges, and made many other improvements.

Near the village is the venerable mansion of Castle Upton, formerly called Norton Castle, after Sir Robert Norton, by whom it was founded in the reign of ELIZABETH I, and now the seat of the Viscount Templetown: it occupies the site of the ancient preceptory, and is in the castellated style of architecture; it is at present being restored from the partial dilapidations it had suffered from time to time.

The weaving of linen and calico, and the making of hosiery are carried on in several of the farmhouses, supplied with limestone raised on the spot; there are also numerous quarries of basaltic stone, which is obtained in abundance.

Though there are fairs in the parish, two of the largest in the country are held on its borders, one at Parkgate, a mile to the north, and the other at Oldstone, two miles to the west.

This parish appears to have been one of the earliest Presbyterian settlements in Ireland; on the introduction of a Scottish colony into Ulster, Josias Welsh, grandson of the Scottish reformer, John Knox, is said to have obtained possession of the church, from which he was ejected in 1631 by the Bishop of Down and Connor, for nonconformity; he was, however, reinstated by Archbishop Ussher, and died in 1634.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Connor, and in the patronage of the Marquess of Donegall, in whom the rectory is impropriate: the tithes amount to £365, of which £70 is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the Vicar.

There was no church from the time of the Reformation till 1827, when the present church, a small edifice with a tower at the west end, was erected on an elevated site, at an expense of £830, a gift from the Board of First Fruits.

There are three places of worship for Presbyterians.

There are four National Schools, situated at Lyle's Hill, Ballypalady, Ballyutoag, and Mallusk; and a school at Carngrany, founded in 1811 by the trustees of Erasmus Smith's charity, and partly supported by them, and partly by the Hon Colonel E W Pakenham.

Of the ancient preceptory nothing remains except what is included within the walls of Castle Upton (the crypt under which is in a perfect state, and the finely groined roof in good preservation), and the cemetery of the ancient temple church, in which are the tomb of the Rev Josias Welsh, and the mausoleum of the Templetown family.

Carn Greine, near Roughfort, County Antrim (Green Collection/NMNI)

In a field at a short distance from the mail road to Antrim is Cairn Grania, a remarkably fine monument of antiquity: it consists of ten large tabular stones, supported on upright pillars in the manner of a cromlech, but ranged in a straight line of 41 feet in length in a direction from north-east to south-west; the stone at the north-eastern extremity is rather low, and every succeeding one increases in elevation towards the south-western extremity, where the tabular stone is of very large dimensions and supported on five upright pillars.

Various conjectures have been entertained as to the origin of this interesting relic; the name literally implies "the Heap of the Sun."

Not far from this heap is one of the mounds or forts so frequently found in this country; it appears to have been very extensive and of great elevation, but has been much diminished and disfigured by the removal of the sand, of which, intermixed with common field stones, it was originally formed.

Near Dunadry is a very perfect circle of large stones, and there are several other raths in the parish.