The Church of St. Saviour's, Drogheda

County Louth Archaeological and History Society

The Church of St. Saviour's, DroghedaAuthor(s): Matthew KellySource: Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, Vol. 9, No. 4 (1940), pp. 346-351Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27728520 .

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ije C?jurcf) of g>t, ?mbi?ur'si, JBrog?jeba.

By Matthew Kelly, N.T.

The study of the leases in the White Parchment Book of the Drogheda Corpor ation unfolds in its own authentic way much of the history of the ancient buildings of the town.

To my mind the study of leases and title deeds is in fact the only true guide to

the earnest historian. Having been unable to get much information on the above

church, I turned to the leases to see what information they could impart. From

them I have come to the conclusion that the Church of St. Saviour's stood behind

the site at present occupied by the Saxone Boot Coy., Messrs. Hipps, Ltd. and

Connolly Brothers in Shop Street.

By the inquisitions of 1611 it was found that "

the Priory of the Blessed Virgin of Duleek had been entitled to a cellar in St. Saviour's Dock under St. Saviour's

Church/' and in 1674 a lease was granted to Hugh Fowkes it being then called "

a ruinous church on St. Saviour's Quay."

Both the findings of the Inquisition and the lease prove conclusively that St.

Saviour's Church was situated close to the river on the south west side of Shop Street, St. Saviour's Quay being in all probability situated on the site of Mr. McNamara's

seed store and leading from Shop Street to St. Saviour's or possibly beyond it to

Wellington Quay. At a General Assembly of the Corporation before Thomas Dixon, Mayor, on the

nth November, 1656, it was ordered that Richard Burnell, Thomas Stoker, Aldm.

Robt. Heely and Joseph Wherloe "

doe carry away their several proporcons of

dunge lyinge upon the Backe lane leadinge from Booth St. (Shop St.) to St. Saviour's

Church which is a common nuisance and hurtfull to their neighbours at or before the

ist December next upon paine of forty shillinge to the poore." I have been unable to actually find the exact position of this lane but it would

not be a wild assumption to place it midway between Dyer Street and St. Saviour's

Quay.

Again in 1687 a lease was granted unto Fr. Hugh Thally, alias Jonson, for the

resident fathers of ye Society of Jesus in Drogheda of one ruinous church on St.

Saviour's Row called by the name of St. Saviour's Church together with the said

Church-yard and ye house commonly called Bridewell for 99 yeares to commence at

Easter next for yearly rent of 6/8.



ST. saviour's, drogheda 347

I have been unable to find further mention of St. Saviour's Row but perhaps the

Backe lane referred to in the previous lease and St. Saviour's Row were one and

the same.

An interesting point about Fr. Thally's lease is the inclusion in it of the Bridewell

Through the leases this Bridewell has been called many names, i.e., the house of

Correction, the Gaol, the Guildhall, etc. At a General Assembly held 27th April, 1677, it was ordered that the Old House of Correction of St. Saviour's be repaired at

the Corporation's charge, the next publique worke of the Tholsell."

*&&$

Although Fr. Thally was granted a lease of this Bridewell it was on the condition that the Fathers of the Society should find another suitable house in town to be used as a House of Correction. An interesting sidelight showing the interest shown by the

Corporation of this year 1664 in the Catholic Churches of the town is given in the

following lease :

8th July, 1664. "

A lease granted unto Jos. Whorley for 61 years of a house upon the North Key sometimes sett to one Travers and a little house on the same key, standing on the



348 COUNTY LOUTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

slip and a little croft thereunto belonging sometimes lett unto one Choinan paying viii li fyne towards building of a gallery in St. Saviour's Church."

The following lease gives a clearer understanding of the exact site of the church :

12th August, 1745. A lease sealed unto Charles Caldwell of all that piece or

parcell of Ground situate lying and being in the town of Drogheda containing in

front on the east to Shop St. forty feet and one quarter on the south to Corporation Ground in the possession of John Carroll fourteen feet on the north to the holdings of James Domville twelve feet and bounded on the west with the ruins of St. Saviour's

Church and also the scite, circuit and precinct of the said ruined church of St. Saviour

excepting the vault or cellar under the same being the inheritance of the Right Honourable the Earl of Drogheda and all that piece or parcell of ground lying west

ward of from the said church thirty nine feet and three quarters and in breadth

adjoining the estate of Patrick Fleming twenty four feet and a half., all of which

premises are more particularly meared and described in a map or survey lately made

thereof.

Unfortunately I have not been able to unearth this map but from the measure

ments in the lease it seems clear that the church stood "

forty feet and one quarter "

to the west of Shop Street. This "

forty feet and one quarter of ground seemed to

have the appellation "

Mary ffoot "

as can be seen from the following lease :?

1716. "

A lease sealed unto George Blacker Aldm. of a spott of ground or

passage leading from Shop St. to St. Saviour's Church-yard in Mary ffoot in length

forty five foot backward from the front of his dwelling house for sixty one years and to leave good and sufficient passage for the water to run out of Shop Street down to

the River Boyne during said terme."

Mary ffoot had been mentioned earlier in "

the lease sealed unto Patrick

Delahoyd in the year 1688 of a shop and loft on St. Saviour's land at St. Mari's foot and the ould walls thereunto adjoyning for 61 years.

And again from Fr. Gogarty's "

Council Book of the Corporation of Drogheda "

we read that "

the Corporation paid ?150 on the 10th April, 1730, in purchasing Mr. Newton's Houses in Mary-foot."

Before leaving the site of the church it would be well to mention that the Guildhall stood in close proximity to the river, probably on the corner site now

occupied by Mr. McNamara's grocery establishment as the following lease indicates :

1701. A lease sealed unto Mrs. Elizabeth Graves of one house and garden and hill without St. Laurence Gate called the Green Hills and a small parke opposite to the same on the otherside of the highway leading to the bridge at Green Hills called the Flaggery Parke, the sellor under the north side of the Tholsell in West St., the

shop and standing under the balcony in West St. and a little wast room under the stone stairs going up from the Key to the Guildhall. This Guildhall was demolished as was also the little waste room upon the building of the bridge in 1722.

D'Alton informs us that on the building of this bridge, not the present structure, it was found necessary to demolish portion of this Church. I am inclined to disagree




with this statement as the Church could not in my estimation be so close to the

bridge as to necessitate its demolition. That portion of it was demolished is true, the cause being different as the following direction of the Corporation indicates :?

2nd January, iy22. " Whereas the East Gable End of St. Saviour's is in a

ruinous condition and in great danger of falling to the great danger of the neighbours thereunto adjoyning it is therefore ordered that Mr. Mayor employ workmen to pull down as much of the same Gable-end as shall be thought convenient and that he sign an order on the Treasurer for the same."

In endeavouring to fix the site of the Church I find it necessary to mention that some public buildings were situated in close proximity to it. I have already men

tioned the Guildhall as being situated on the site now occupied by Mr. McNamara's

grocery establishment. On the west of the Guildhall was a marshalsy for debtors as can be seen from the following minute :

12th April, 1618. Anthony Hughes was elected Marshall of the Corporation

Marshalsy to continue during the corporation's pleasure and Mr. Mayor is desired to

take a bond of ffive hundred pounds ster ffrom him and Hugh Fowkes, Richard

Griffith to be bound with him in the said bond to secure the corporacon from all

escapes and other damage that may happen by his undue ?xecution of the said office. And whereas the said Hugh Fowkes hath built a house on the west of the Guildhall which is convenient for a marshalsy and hath made a passage to the same through the west terrott of the Guildhall. Itt is ordered for the time being that the marshall

shall enjoy the benefitt of that passage and the use of that terrot and that he bee

oblidged to keep conveniency in his dwelling house for prisoners committed for debt.

Beyond this Marshalsea there was a school-house as the following minute

indicates :

24th April, i6gi. Ordered that the present schoole master shall enjoy the house of St. Saviour's Key where he now keeps schoole dureing the schole house being used for their majesties stores (after Battle of Boyne) and that Captain Hall doe remove

out of ye said house by ist May next.

Ravell's map although giving the approximate position of St. Saviour's could not be expected to give the details of houses and lanes around it. I have endeavoured to reconstruct that portion west of Shop Street in detail in the following map.

The period in which St. Saviour's was erected is not known. D'Alton sets its foundation as about the thirteenth century, which in all probability is correct. He bases his assumption on the fact that in that century Alan Proudfoot gave two

messuages in this town to the Prior of Lanthony in frankalmoigne forever on the consideration of his finding two chaplains daily to serve this church. The fact that Alan Proudfoot endowed it is sufficient evidence to prove that it was built soon after the Norman Invasion, this endowment also proves that it was a Chantry by the fact that he asks the Prior of Lanthony to find two chaplains to serve the church daily.

Now as a Chantry we know that it must have been attached to some other church in the town. At first I was inclined to think of St. Mary's but on reading Fr. Murray's



350 COUNTY LOUTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

very able article on Chantries and the Chantry System of Co. Louth I revised my

opinion. Fr. Murray gives the rules and regulations governing Chantries and the

legal formalities which were necessary for the establishment of a Chantry. In trying then to find to which Church in Drogheda St. Saviour's was attached I kept in mind

one of these legal formalities, i.e., the rigid provision for non-infringement of the

rights of the parochial Church. Turning then to the history of the parochial church

I find that it was collegiate and that the Prior of Lanthony had not alone been

granted the Carmelite Church of St. Mary's and the Priory of the Blessed Virgin of

Duleek, but also the Church of St. Peter's. About the year 1430 an interesting

inquiry was held in St. Peter's before Primate Swayn, after an appeal to Rome,

relative to the tithes and right of fishing in the Boyne ; the adverse claimants were

the Prior of Lanthony for his vicars of St. Perer's, Drogheda, Colpe and Mornington and the Prior of Louth for the vicars of Termonfeckin and Kilclogher. There is ample evidence to prove that many Chantries were attached to St. Peter's. In the year

1452 Primate Mey with the consent of his dean and chapter united his mensal tithes

of Rathcoole in Co. Louth and his portion of the Church of Drummin for ever to the

Chantry of St. Anne's Chapel within this church with the object of maintaining a

greater number of priests to pray for the souls of him, his predecessors and successors.

About the same time the Old White Parchment Book informs us that Thomas Burgess of Dublin granted to the Corporation of Drogheda for ever twenty acres of arable

land, meadow and pasture with the appurtenances in Corballis in the barony of

Duleek for the sustentation of a chaplain at Our Lady's Altar in this church. There

was also a second chantry here to the Blessed Virgin and another to St. Catherine.

Knowing then of the chantries attached to this church it is not unreasonable to

assume that the Church of St. Saviour's was one endowed by Alan Proudfoot and

granted to the Prior of Lanthony to be attached to his Church of St. Peter's. It is

quite obvious that the four churches I have particularly mentioned, viz., St. Mary's,

St. Peter's, St. Saviour's and Priory of the Blessed Virgin of Duleek had some

connection between them. This connection being that they had been vested in the

Prior of Lanthony. Furthermore we have already seen that the Priory of the

Blessed Virgin of Duleek had been entitled to a cellar in St. Saviour's Dock. The

appellation of a strip of ground between St. Saviour's and Shop Street was St. Mari's

ffoot. Thus showing that the guiding hand of the four churches was the Prior of

Lanthony. I'm quite sure that in future issues of the Journal Fr. Murray will

unearth many other facts re the Chantries of this town which will, I'm sure, involve

the deeper history of St. Saviour's.

In the sixteenth century Ecclesiastical Courts were frequently held here before

Cormac Roth, Archdeacon White and others.

July 17th, 1571. In St. Saviour's, Drogheda, before Cormac Roth, Dominus

James Whitberry, Chaplain of St. Peter's, Drogheda, sued Nicholas Cristor for

assault alleged to have been committed in the Chapel of St. Anne in the aforesaid

(previously mentioned) just immediately after Dominus James had celebrated Mass,




The witnesses were Anisia Hekly (wife of John Wynall), Margaret Ny Moloney and

Anne Barnivale. Case continued.

December 3rd, 1520. In church of St. Saviour's, Drogheda, before Master Thomas

Noter, Commissary of the V.G. of the Lord Primate. Thomas Palmer of Tolaghaling

(Tullyallen) sued for a declaration of marriage between himself and Anisia Gowen of

the same parish per verba de present? contractum and that the subsequent marriage between Anisia and Nicholas Conyell be declared null and void. It appeared that

the marriage between Nicholas and Anisia had been celebrated the previous Saturday in the House of Dominus Hugh Conyll near St. Saviour's Church, Drogheda.

This fact that Fr. Hugh Conyll lived in a house near St. Saviour's also goes to

prove that the church was a Chantry. These ecclesiastical courts were continued

as can be seen from the Cromer and Dowdall registers (excerpts from which have

appeared in earlier editions of the Journal) throughout the sixteenth century. Is it a coincidence that a school-house should have had its site on St. Saviour's

land or was it included in the endowment. Fr. Murray in his article previously referred to states that the endowment often included such other duties as choir

membership in a collegiate church, curate in an outlying district, chaplain to an

adjoining hospital or, more frequently than all, schoolteacher and librarian in a

secondary school. Of course my reference to the school is in 1691 and I cannot

definitely state that it had been a school before that.

Another point worth considering is, did the proximity of the House of Correction

to the Church show that the ecclesiastical courts held in St. Saviour's at one time

overshadow the civil courts. Fr. Murray states that even the civil courts employed the clergy?frequently some of the chaplains?to arbitrate disputes, etc. Perhaps

that is the explanation of the House of Correction being in that particular place. The Church fell into ruin early in the eighteenth century and as we have seen

from a lease earlier in this article, was caused to be demolished by the Corporation on the 2nd January, 1722.



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The Church of St. Saviour's, Drogheda