Context

In the aftermath of the Nine Years War, 1595-1603, King James VI and I decided to move to carry out a plantation of settlers in Ulster. The Plantation aimed to colonize Ulster as a way to control, anglicize, and “civilize” Ulster. The official plantation began in 1609 when approximately half a million acres of arable land were marked out for settlement. The counties included in the plantation included Armagh, Cavan, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Donegal, and Derry/Londonderry. As part of the conditions of settlement, colonists were required to be English-speaking, Protestant, and loyal to the king. Some native Irish were granted land, but the overall native Irish reaction was hostile. The Plantation led to the founding of many Ulster towns, and it created a lasting Ulster Protestant community with ties to Britain. The Plantation of Ulster would leave a profound mark on Irish history, shaping the region’s demographics and cultural landscape.

The Mercers’ Company was one of the twelve great companies of London. The Mercers were first in the order of precedence established in 1515. The Worshipful Company of Mercers is still active today and their website at http://www.mercers.co.uk includes a history and a bibliography of relevant works. The Mercers’ Company is a livery company focused on being a philanthropic force for good. They describe themselves as having a rich history dating back over 700 years with ‘philanthropy as the common thread between our past, present and future’. Today, the Mercers Company, a charity, distribute over £10 million annually to charitable causes to improve people’s lives, strengthen organisations and contribute to societal change.

As the plantation was formulated it was agreed that part of the county of Derry/Londonderry which had been vested in the Irish Society by Charter from the Crown, should be divided into twelve parts, and that each of the twelve principal Companies should have one part to be determined by lot. The Irish Society thus conveyed their lot to the Mercers’ Company, erecting it into a manor, subject to the conditions on which the City had undertaken the plantation.

Prior to the Ulster Plantation the area was the borderland between the O’Neills of Tyrone and the O’Cahans of Derry. The area was part of the 42 townlands granted to the Mercers’ Company by the Honourable the Irish Society which had been set up by James 1 of England to colonise Ulster in 1609. It was a somewhat lawless district. In correspondence to King James, it was reported that:

‘There is a place within your realm known as Greanaghan [Granaghan] some four miles west of Dunglady Fort within which many robberies and murders have been committed against the poor settlers. If your majesty could see fit to build a fort for the protection of these poor people, it would be much esteemed’.

During the 1641 rebellion Swatragh was situated on the strategic route between Coleraine and Armagh. During that unrest reinforcements for the army of General Robert Monroe were successfully ambushed at Ballydullaghan, located between Swatragh and Garvagh.

Additonal maps are located at the Lambeth Palace Library (London) including ‘A breife Survey of the present state of the Plantation of the County of London Derry [Londonderry] Taken by us Sir Thomas Phillips Knight and Richard Hadsor Esquier by Vertue of his Majestie’s Commission under the great Seale of Ireland, bearing date the 30th day of July last, in that behalfe to us directed, beginning the tenth day of August 1622 and ending the tenth day of October next followin

The Books of Survey and Distribution were compiled around 1680, largely the result of the wars of the mid-seventeenth century, most notably  the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, and when the English government needed reliable information on land ownership throughout Ireland to carry out its policy of land confiscation. In this example here we see the breakdown of lands owned by the Mercers Company in the parish of Kilrea. Others mentioned in the document include Major George Carey and Lieutenant Tristian Beresford.

The Mercers Company, in keeping with many landed estates at the time engaged with middlemen in order to farm and let their lands. This example of Alexander Stewart, one of the most prominent middlemen on their estates, shows a 1751 Indenture between Stewart and the Mercers. The document contains a wealth of local information  and is located in the National Archives of Ireland (Lodge/10/503).

Newspapers are a great source of information for examining life on the Mercers Estate during the late 18^th Century. Above a newspaper advertisement for the letting of the Water Corn Mills of Upperland and Swatragh, part of the Mercers Estate, by Alexander Stewart, middleman. All proposals for letting were to be sent to Stewart’s agent, Mr Paterson who had offices in Magherafelt and Kilrea, suggesting that he collected rents from tenants in these two locations.

Below this example from 1802 suggest hardship for some in the wake of the 1798 rebellion when one Maurice McCloskey was apprehended for stealing ’10 pieces of linen cloth’ the property of John O’Neil of Swatragh. The sentence in this instance was ‘execution’.

Another crime in Swatragh, this time from 1818 when a horse the property of Nugent Reynolds was stolen. Reynolds was a publican in the village, but it is not known where his premises were. Was it at present day Friels?

By the early 1830s the Mercers Company looked to retrieve their holdings from middlemen. This was a practice adopted across the country as landlords realised that they had let land on long term leases which offered little change to up the rent during more prosperous periods. In this example from 1830 the townland of Bovidee [now Bovedy in the parish of Tamlaght O’Crilly] containing some 700 acres was available for rent, under leases which dated to 1782.

Evidence of the support the Mercers Company gave to local religious bodies in the Swatragh/Kilrea area abound in their archives. This example from 1833 highlights how William Holmes their agent was influential in this regard. In the early 1840s the Mercers did so on a greater level than before.

The Irish Poor Law Inquiry of 1835-1836

Despite investment from the Mercers Company, there was significant distress in the area in the 1830s. This was evident from the testimony of William Robert Holmes, the Mercers Company land agent before the Irish Poor Law Inquiry of 1835-1836. The evidence given to the Inquiry suggests that although desertion of children had decreased there were still issues of child welfare and that poverty was the lot of many.

The first Ordnance Survey of Ireland was carried out in the 1830s and the below map shows the development of Swatragh and by extension the Mercers estates at the point.

On the eve of the Great Famine the British governments inquiry in the state and occupation of land in Ireland, commonly referred to as the Devon Commission, reported on the many inadequacies which fuelled social problems. Amongst the thousands of pages in testimony that the commission compiled included evidence from the Rev John Brown DD and Creighton Hutchinson Esq in Kilrea about the management and tenure of land on the Mercers estates.

By the early 1840s Holmes had been replaced by George Bicknell as agent. There was renewed interest and focus on the part of the Mercers Company seen in the building of Churches (below) and at schools in Kilrea and Swatragh. In 1848 advertisements were placed in newspapers seeking suitable candidates for the role of schoolmaster as these schools.

The input of the Mercers Company during the period 1830 to 1850 was considerable and when placed against the experiences of many in Ireland at that time, their efforts were extremely commendable. Here, it is best to quote James Stevens Curl, The Londonderry Plantation, 1609-1914: The History, Architecture, and Planning of the Estates of the City of London and Its Livery Companies in Ulster, published in 1986 which gives the best account of this progress:

The Company was involved in charitable donations by then, and gave £20 to the new institution for the Deaf and Dumb of Ireland. Two schools erected by Sampson at Carhill and Swatragh for £110 14s. 5d. and £145 1s. 7d. attracted a Company donation of £38 7s. 6d. Grants were also given towards the repair of the Presbyterian church at Kilrea in 1829, and by 1830 the Company was giving full and careful consideration to future policies when it regained control of its estate.

There was much work to be done when the Mercers took control, for Robert Barnard had noted that Kilrea should be reformed ‘not indifferently, but altogether, for a worse Town in every respect is not to be found in the North of Ireland’. He urged that education should be improved so that ‘children now in a state of brute ignorance and more resembling the offspring of savages than inhabitants of a civilised state will be instructed in their duty to God and to Man’. From that time on the Company did everything in its power to improve the estates and the lot of its tenants. Out of an annual rental of about £10,000 approximately £4,000 per annum was ploughed back into improving the estate. Between 1831 and 1890 the Company built four schools and rebuilt three more. Churches were built at Kilrea (for £7,000) and at Swatragh (for £2,280) both proposed in 1838. Two dispensaries were provided, and £400 per annum was allowed towards the running of schools. Various contributions were made to the Derry Central Railway, drainage schemes, road works, and other improvements in communications. Responsibilities were encouraged by the case brought by the Skinners against The Irish Society in 1832.1° From 1831 the Mercers’ Company exercised complete control over developments. All public buildings were erected at the expense of the Company, but houses were built by individuals, their elevations being controlled by the Company and its servants (see Plates 34-6). Leases were granted on terms that would encourage the building of substantial houses. Stone was quarried near Movanagher, and building materials were made available. Valuations were prepared by Charles Stewart and by Armstrong in 1833. Strict controls over middens were written into leases, and draconian powers to demolish houses without the consent of owners were assumed to ensure the common good. The Company also determined to assist in the repair of places of worship. Plans and estimates of a new Police Barracks were prepared, and attention was given to a new policy of assisted emigration to thin out the overpopulated countryside. Two schools were immediately planned for the Kilrea Division of the Proportion.

At the very outset the Deputations of the Company were determined to remove sheds and poor houses in the interests of building decent dwellings to conform to appropriate standards of architecture and sound building. Resident medical men were established at Kilrea and Swatragh, and Turnbull prepared estimates for new buildings and machinery at the Corn Mill and Grain Market. Charles Stewart was appointed Bog Bailiff to ensure the bogs were fairly and properly cut: his duties included weekly visits to these bogs. Holmes was instructed to proceed with the building of the mill and market buildings, and to improve the streets and roads. Finance was allocated for several charities, dispensaries, and clothing for the poor. Plans and estimates were prepared by William Barnes for a new villa (£500), Port Wall (£100), Market-House (£1,300), and Police Barracks (£350). A Branch dispensary at Swatragh was agreed,’ and Barnes was instructed to design another villa.1?” On 30 October his designs were displayed before the Court.!28 The fact that a resident Agent was based in Kilrea had an immediate effect on morale. Holmes had power of attorney, and was effectively a resident landlord who was instantly approachable by tenants. As a salaried official he was reasonably independent and unbound by considerations of personal gain. In order to establish the Agent as a Person of Quality the Company determined to erect the substantial Manor-House for his occupation to be set in parkland and to have adequate outbuildings and servants’ quarters. The Agent was also leased land so that he qualified as a Grand Juror, and was Chief Magistrate of the Manorial Court. He was provided with staff, and had access to legal advice, land-surveyors, valuers, and specialists. Finance was handled through the Provincial Bank at Coleraine. So great was the improvement in conditions and intent that tenants wrote a letter to the Company expressing their satisfaction at the new valuations of properties, and approving the abolition of Bog-Fees, Leet-Money, and ‘other feudal exactions’.1”? The reletting of the estate involved the Company in a considerable reduction of rental, and large sums were spent on roads, plantations, churches, schools, salaries, and charitable donations.

An ecumenical concern for fairness seems to have permeated the Company in the 1830s, for in 1836 donations for re-thatching the Roman-Catholic church at Craigavole were made, and in 1837 land at Swatragh for the building of the new Roman-Catholic church was given. The thatched church at Craigavole must have been the predecessor of St Eugene’s, the five-bay lancet hall of basalt, with a tower with quatrefoil pierced parapet and corbelled finials circular on plan. This modest early-Victorian building also has a gallery set on cast-iron columns, but its original box-pews have been replaced by modern bench-seats of singular banality. In the same year a small house was erected at Swatragh, and a lodge for the Agent’s house at Kilrea was built.1*? 1837 was a year of great building activity. Turnbull was instructed to proceed with the construction of a wharf, and it was decided to instruct Barnes to prepare a development plan for Kilrea so that all buildings would conform in height and shape with a coherent architectural scheme. Holmes was requested to buy up more property in Church Street for improvement, and plans for a Presbyterian meeting-house and burial-ground were approved, to cost £1,067. At this point the Minutes are quite clear, for Barnes reported that the »working-drawings of the Kilrea Presbyterian church were ready, and it was Turnbull who was authorised to prepare cut stone so that the building should not be delayed. Designs for houses in Maghera Street and for ‘residences for shopkeepers’ in Church Street were produced. A residence for a banker at Kilrea was thought desirable. The Company was at pains in all its deliberations that the style and class of house should be carefully considered, and that the building of ‘inferior houses’ should be prohibited. Barnes was instructed to go to Kilrea in July 1837 to arrange for the completion of the Presbyterian church there, to the costs of which both the Company and The Irish Society contributed.

1841 Advertisement for the letting of ‘a good house’ in the village which was to be used as an ‘Inn’ for Travellers. Such an advertisement suggests that Swatragh was a place that many people passed through or that would need accommodation.

The ambitious programme of improvements carried out by the Company is of singular interest, for it began as soon as the Mercers regained direct control of their Proportion. The period from 1831 to 1851 shows the greatest progress, necessitated by the period of torpor, exploitation, and neglect that had existed before. The entire estate was to benefit from the new and philanthropic concern for the inhabitants, while huge strides were made in agricultural management and forestry. Not least among the improvements was the creation of modern Kilrea and Swatragh. Initially changes were proposed by the Agent, by interested local persons, and by the Deputations that visited the estate at regular intervals, but after 1837 a permanent Committee of Improvement was established that was charged with originating and implementing change for the better. This Committee had direct control of 60 per cent. of the spending of annual income on the Proportion.’®! The Company’s first task on resuming control had been to define and record the accurate boundaries and extent of the two Divisions of the Proportion, and to iron out disputes and ownership problems. Certain mineral rights, such as quarries, were re-established, and a policy for the development of natural resources was set up. Improvements in agricultural management and methods were urgently needed, including a crash-programme of land-drainage and reclamation. Demolition of unsound and unhygienic structures was a top priority, together with the erection of properly constructed and designed buildings that would enhance the appearance of the estate. Religious buildings, schools, teachers, medical care, industries, improved communications, and attention to public health were all deemed essential. Considerable discussions with representatives of the Ironmongers’ and Skinners’ Companies, and with the freeholders of adjoining lands, together with a full examination of deeds and records, and the comprehensive surveying of the Proportion, enabled the precise extent of the Proportion in its two parcels to be established. The Company ‘gained’ much land as a result of this important exercise. Rights over the stone quarries at Slaghtneil and Knockoneil were reaffirmed, exploitation of the brick-clay at Movanagher and Claragh began, and some attempts to explore the possibilities of water-power were made, although these attempts were only half-hearted, despite the successful use of water-power at Upperlands by Clark. Agricultural improvements included the amalgamation of farms into larger units, the introduction of drainage and reclamation schemes, conservation policies for boglands, and a plan for treeand hedgerow-planting. The infrastructure was improved by new roads and bridges, and advances in breeding livestock, developing hardier plants from good seed, and encouraging a more scientific approach to tillage ensured a better and more profitable agriculture. For a great part of this G. V. Sampson deserves the highest praise. Grants were also given to the Agricultural School at Templemoyle, and youngsters were encouraged to attend this institution to learn the most advanced techniques of modern farming.

Like other Companies, the Mercers established dispensaries and paid the salaries of doctors at Swatragh and Kilrea, and built a Fever Hospital at the latter town in 1847. It also set up a hospital at Ballyreagh near Portstewart where patients could bathe and benefit from the sea air. An attempt to provide a Workhouse at Kilrea by the Poor Law Union was resisted as Coleraine, Ballymoney, and Magherafelt had Workhouses, but the dispensaries and medical staff were maintained on the Company’s payroll until responsibility for attendance on the poor passed to the Poor Law Unions.

The Market-House at Swatragh (in 1984 McGuigan’s garage) was also erected in the 1830s and consists of a four-bay open front subdivided by cast-iron Tuscan columns (identical to those at Kilrea), with the other three walls of basalt with brick dressings. The street front has stone piers at each end. Once again Barnes was the architect, and Turnbull the Clerk of Works.

It was believed that this building in Swatragh would be merely ‘an ornament’.

This handsome, low, two-story building betrays the hand of Barnes yet again, and dates from the 1830s. Until 1842 the Minutes refer to this as ‘Dr. Mooney’s house ” and indeed it was the dispensary and surgeon’s house for only a few years. Negotiations then began with one Dunlop with a view to convert it into an inn: this was accomplished by 1845, and further alterations were made in the late 1840s. Dr. Mooney was the Company’s surgeon on the spot, and was responsible for the medical care of the poor on the estate. The Deputation of 1847 considered the inn at Swatragh to be in an ‘excellent position’ (Plate 50), and that the building was capable of being enlarged by the addition of more rooms.

The Report of this Deputation was highly critical of the state of affairs in Ireland. The land was only producing half of what it was capable, and in the Swatragh Division the farms were all wretched except for the lands managed by Alexander Clark at Upperlands.

The policy of encouraging emigration had failed as there were still far too many people on land that could not support them. The need to establish employment for the poor was of paramount importance. Both Kilrea and Swatragh were in a disgraceful state, and a programme of cleansing was of immediate concern.

The poor harvests and failure to pay rents resulted in several evictions in the 1880s, and there was some Land League agitation, especially in the Swatragh area. —– Visit of Michael Davitt, founder of the Land League to Swatragh.

1848

Iimprovements carried out by the Mercers and their agent, Bicknell (as shown below)

*** For a full account of the impact of the Great Famine on Swatragh and the surrounding area see report carried out by Dr Ciaran Reilly and Dr Anthony Farrell in 2022 ***

Post Famine period

The situation on the Mercers estate changed greatly in the 1850s in the post Famine period and there was

A government report of 1858 noted that:

‘The majority of the tenants are Presbyterians. The mountainous part of the estate is occupied by RC’s. The Mercers estate is situated around Kilrea on the east centre of the country. It consists of forty townlands, containing 21,152 acres. The government valuation of 1858 was 11,658£. Kilrea is the principal town and has a population of 924. The only other town is Swatragh, a village with 219 inhabitants. There are no leases on the estate. Every tenant is required to sign a special agreement, whereby three months notice to quit can determine the tenancy’.

Advertisement, 1855, for a schoolmaster in Swatragh

1868 publication on the Irish Land Question and the London Companies

By the late 1860s the land question had taken centre stage in many respects in Irish politics and would remain a significant theme thereafter. In 1868 RH Dolling was the agent of the estate and provided the following evidence to a commission of inquiry into the London companies and their lands in Ireland.

Tensions high on the estate- With the economic downturn and land agitation spreading across the country, the Mercers Company found itself at the centre of a protracted case in 1877 when 34 tenants were threatened with eviction. See below newspaper extracts referring to the case:

Continued trouble on the Mercers Estates

1878 Dinner given by the Mercers

Opposition to Home Rule

In the mid-1880s the issue of Home Rule came to the forefront of Irish politics as the First Home Rule Bill was debated in the House of Commons in 1885. The bill was ultimately defeated and two more bills would follow in 1893 and 1912. In 1885 (as seen below) the Mercers Company took an Anti-Home Rule stance, instead opting to support the union. The below newspaper account supported the company’s stance believing that they ‘have done their part’.

1886 Public Unrest

Tensions over Home Rule, coupled with the Land War of the early 1880s and the so-called ‘Plan of Campaign;

1890

An in-depth survey of the Mercers’ estates in Ireland is undertaken but little about Swatragh is provided in evidence. However, the report is very detailed and outlines the company’s future position in the county. For more on this and other information about the Mercers Company, see below a note on researching the Mercers Company.

1891 Sale of the estates

1895 Still proposing changes locally

1895

1896

1897

1897

1897

1905

1908-1909

Under the terms of the 1903 Irish Land Act, also known as the Wyndham Act, Irish tenants were presented with the opportunity to purchase their holdings outright from landlords, who in turn were compensated. On the Mercers Company estates many tenants took the opportunity to do so including in Swatragh, John Friel (see below):

The End of the Mercers Company in Swatragh

Swatragh school ceased to be a school in 1962 and fell into disrepair, and in 1963 the time had come for the Company to sever all connections with the estate. It was no longer possible, it was felt, to take any real interest in the property by then, and the small income was not sufficient to generate any funds for real help to be given to the former estate as a whole. Similarly, the tenants resented that rents were paid to a distant landlord in London who appeared to take no interest in their welfare. In that year, therefore, the Worshipful Company of Mercers decided to sell the estate or to transfer it to trustees or to an administrator for the benefit of the district. It was suggested that The Irish Society should take on this role, and the residue was transferred to that body in 1965 subject to suitable arrangements being made for the last Agent, Miss Kidd, who was in reality only a rent-collector.

Further Reading

Sources for further study of the Mercers Estates in Swatragh/Kilrea

In the absence of visiting the Mercers Company Archives in 2023-24 during the scope of this research project, it should be pointed out that many of the company’s annual reports are available online through website such as the Haiti Trust ( https://www.hathitrust.org/ ) and archive.org (https://archive.org/details/texts )

1890 Report on the management of the ‘Irish’ estates of the Mercers Company

1884

An account of the mystery of mercers of the City of London, otherwise the Mercers’ Company by Watney, John, Sir, 1834-1923 (London, 1914)

And again through www.archive.org see Whereas the worshipful Company of Mercers

(London,1699)

PRONI (Public Records Office of Northern Ireland)

Printed volume of minutes for the Mercers’ Company at Kilrea, Co. Derry, 1609-1633, D. 2436

Account book of the Mercer’s Company, relating to Kilrea area of Co. Londonderry, Aug. 1857 – Oct., 1859. D590

Records of the administration of the Mercers’ Company estate at Kilrea, Co. Derry; Irish Society minutes for 1899-1909, and a diary of the Company’s deputation to Kilrea, 1847.

Lambeth Palace Library

MS 634

Carew Manuscript

‘A breife Survey of the present state of the Plantation of the County of London Derry [Londonderry] Taken by us Sir Thomas Phillips Knight and Richard Hadsor Esquier by Vertue of his Majestie’s Commission under the great Seale of Ireland, bearing date the 30th day of July last, in that behalfe to us directed, beginning the tenth day of August 1622 and ending the tenth day of October next following.

1v-2. * A gennerall platt of the 12 proporcions

4v-5. * A platt of a fortificacion in lieu of that in ye market place in the Citty of London Derry

7v-8. * A platt of the Cittie of London derrie

10v-11. * A platt of the forte of Colemoore

13v-14. A platt of the Gould Smythes [Goldsmiths] lands

16v-17. A plat of the Gould Smythes buildings

19v-20. A platt of the grocers landes

22v-23. A platt of the grocers buildings

25v-26. A platt of the Fishmongers landes

28v-29. A plat of the Fishemongers buildinges

31v-32. * A plat of Sir Thomas Phillips lands

34v-35. A platt of Sir Thomas Phillips buildinges

37v-38. A plat of the haberdashers landes

40v-41. A plat of the haberdashers buildinges

43v-44. * A plat of the Clothworkers lands

46v. A plat of the Clothworkers buildings

49v-50. * A plat of the towne of Colrane [Coleraine]

52v-53. A plat of the marchantailors [Merchant Taylors] lands

55v-56. A plat of the marchantaylers buildings

58v-59. A plat of the Iron mongers [Ironmongers] landes

61v-62. * A plat of the Iron mongers buildinges

64v-65. * A plat of the mercers landes

67v-68. A plat of the mercers buildinges

70v-71. * A plat of the Vintners landes

73v-74. * A platt of the Vintners buildinges at Balleaghe [Bellaghy]

76v-77. A plat of the Salters landes

79v-80. * A plat of the Salters buildings

82v-83. A plat of the Drapers landes

85v-86. A plat of the Drapers buildinges

88v-89. A plat of the Skinners landes

91v-92. A plat of the Skinners buildinges

94v-95. A plat of the harbor of Calebeg [harbour of Killybegs]

97v-98. A further image – no title

The cartographer was Thomas Raven.

Kernohan, J.W., M.A. The Parishes of Kilrea and Tamlaght O’Crilly: a sketch of their history, with an account of Boveedy Congregation.  Coleraine: by the author, 1912; reprinted 1993.  FS Library book 941.62/K1 H2kj. Its appendix includes a muster roll of 1631 of British men on the Mercer’s estate, the Hearth Tax list of 1663, and a list of Protestant householders in the parish in 1740.

Architect

BARNES, WILLIAM #

Born: 1807 Died: 1868

Architect, of London, for whom see Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 (RIBA 2001), I, 118. William Barnes, a pupil and sometime partner of GEORGE SMITH , was architect, with Smith, to the Mercers’ Company, and thus responsible for various buildings on the Mercers’ estates in Co. Derry, mostly in Kilrea, from the 1830s until the 1860s. He also designed the National Bank headquarters in Dublin (1842-1845).

National Archives of Ireland

The National Archives of Ireland also has a series of indentures relating to the Mercers Company’s dealings with the aforementioned Alexander Stewart (see an extract below- note the spelling of Swatragh as ‘Swootray’

Public Records Office of Northern Ireland

British Parliamentary Papers

Above, an report from an 1884 government inquiry into the London companies which details the acreage of land and location of each portion of the Mercers Company estates.

1861 Parliamentary report (above) showing the religious background and profession of people from the Census of Ireland.

Sample from the 1835-6 Poor Law Inquiry showing the variety of answers given to the question of poverty in Ireland