The Dawsons of Dartrey

The Elizabethan Adventurer

This is the first part of a series of column on the Dawson family of Dartrey.

People of my generation can only wonder what the Dawson Family Estate was like in its heyday. The busy farmlands where the tenants worked hard, or the daily bustle of servants employed in Dartrey Castle, the Dawson’s homestead formerly known as Dawson Grove House with its beautiful, planned gardens. Amongst the staff employed, there were the indoor employees, for example, cooks, domestic servants, and an ever-dependable butler, and of course the outdoor workers, amongst whom were coachmen, gardeners, farmhands, and the land steward.

Recently, my wife, and I, went on a lovely Sunday walk around the famous Black Island with our family, and in my mind, I could almost hear the clatter of approaching horse hooves and coach wheels accompanied by the rattling chains associated with this mode of transport that once travelled the avenues at Dartrey. These laneways were once were lined in beech trees. I remember an occasion in the 1980s when Charlie Gallagher, the Cavan footballer, accompanied our family on walk to Black Island and with his assistance we hoped to locate the famous Dawson Mausoleum.

The Mausoleum was dedicated to Lady Anne Fermor Dawson, the first wife of Thomas Dawson, Viscount of Cremorne. She died prematurely, at the age of 35 years and her devasted husband commissioned the Georgian Temple in her memory.

Elizabethan adventurer

Shortly, before the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, an earlier Dawson ancestor, also named Thomas Dawson, set out from Spaldington, Yorkshire and travelled across the sea, to Armagh, Ireland. Thomas Dawson fitted the role of the romanticised ‘Elizabethan adventurer’, a man driven by discovery, potential danger, and a desire to make his fortune in a new land.

Queen Elizabeth I's lovely governor, the Earl of Sussex, remarked that he often had wished for Ireland to be ‘sunk in the sea’, for Ireland they feared could be used as a landing point for continental armies intending to establish a base from which to attack Britain.

Not everyone who arrived mingled with the native Irish. The system of surrender and regrant established under Henry VIII remained in force during Elizabeth I's reign whereby the native Irish lords were made to hand over their property and then had it returned to them having sworn allegiance to the English crown.

Successive attempts to colonize Eastern Ulster and parts of Munster took place during Elizabeth I's time on the throne. Thomas Dawson’s family connection to Yorkshire is highlighted in the publication, ‘Yorkshire Notes and Queries’, edited by J. Horsfall Turner, and published in 1888. In his discussion on the Dawsons of Dartrey, Horsfall Turner noted: ‘Thomas Dawson, of Armagh, (the father of John and grandfather of Walter Dawson, who died in 1701), stands at the head of this branch.’

During the rule of the first Stuart King, James I, (he succeeded to the throne following the death of Elizabeth I), Thomas Dawson of Armagh was made a Burgess of that great town, a town, which in 1994 became a city. By the way, this was the same King James who had Guy Fawkes arrested in 1605 during the famous Gun Powder Plot beneath the London Parliament. The next recorded name in the Dawson family line is that of a grandson of Thomas’s, named John Dawson of Armagh who married Annie Richardson and who were the parents of Walter Dawson. John Dawson died in 1691. His son, Walter died in 1704.

Dartrey

The Dawson family’s connection to Dartrey can be traced back to the 16th century. An account by the University of Galway on the Landed Estates records stated: In 1672, a descendant of Thomas Dawson, named Walter Dawson ‘married Frances a daughter (and only child) of Richard Dawson, a Cromwellian soldier (and cousin), and through this marriage’ Walter obtained ‘the estate Dawson’s Grove in county Monaghan.’ In 1667, Richard Dawson had been granted an estate in the baronies of Cremorne and Dartrey of over 4,150 acres,’ consisting of 31 townlands mainly in the parish of Ematris, in the barony of Dartrey.

In 1667, Richard was granted a legal title by Charles II to over 4,150 acres in the baronies of Dartrey and Cremorne, situated on the outskirts of present day Cootehill. The lands in the barony of Dartrey, Co Monaghan, were formerly owned by the McMahon Clan and now under the control of the Dawsons. The estate’s stately home became known as Dawson's Grove. The name Richard is repeated a number of times on the family tree. The Irish Aesthete records the arrival of the Dawsons as follows: ‘Richard Dawson, a Cromwellian cornet of horse, assembled the nucleus of the family’s estate in the 1650s and 1660s through the acquisition of thirty-one townlands, based around a property called Dawson’s Grove on the banks of a chain of lakes separating counties Cavan and Monaghan.’

Walter and Frances had a son, whom they also named Richard, probably called after the aforementioned Richard, his maternal grandfather and according to a book published in 1874 and titled, ‘Family Records with biographical sketches and other memoranda of various families and individuals bearing the name Dawson or allied to families of that name’, compiled by Charles C. Dawson, stated that: Richard Dawson (1723-1776) became an Alderman of Dublin, becoming an MP for Kilkenny and also becoming an ‘eminent banker’. The book noted that the members of the family ‘excluded from succession to their ancestors’ title and estates’ in accordance with the law of primogeniture had instead entered ‘the army or navy, or took holy orders’ and thereby those descendants were assimilated ‘back into the common walks of life'.

We must give mention to the McMahons too, who were formerly the Gaelic Lords of Airghialla (before 1585 Monaghan was known as Airghialla). But with the arrival of the Anglo-Normans and subsequent English rule, lands up until then under native Irish control were to change hands during the various plantations and resettlements that followed.

Over the years, more acreage was added to the Dawson’s estate through the purchase of further properties that previously had been issued to Cromwellian soldiers.

The next time you consider going out for walk, think about visiting Dartrey Forest, and if you want to try going on a slightly longer trek, then do the walk around the Black Island. When you do, perhaps, take a moment to spare a thought for all the amazing history that lies on our doorstep.