Durhamstown is located in the civil parish of Ardbraccan, to the west of Navan.  Durhamstown has been spelled differently over the centuries including 'Dormstown', 'Durmstown' and 'Dorreanstown'.  One of the two most populous townlands in Ardbraccan civil parish, the population peaked at 713 in 1851. Described as an old fortified residence in 1837, Durhamstown Castle is reputed to be one of the oldest inhabited houses in Meath.  Mulligan described Durhamstown as comprising of an early two storey stone house with a series of vaulted compartments on the ground floor.  Parts of the building date to the fifteenth century.  The square tower consists of four-storeys with the ground floor having four vaulted chambers with inserted windows.  The original castle is believed to have had another storey which was knocked as a result of a fire.  A 19th century single storey wing was added to the north of the old house.  The original building is of medieval origin and is probably a tower house of the fifteenth century.

The building is reputed to have been in the hands of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, in the sixteenth century.  For his zeal in suppressing the northern insurrection in 1572 he was created Earl of Essex. He offered to go to Ulster and establish a colony there.  At that time Ulster was completely under the dominion of the O'Neills, led by Brian MacPhelim O‟Neill, Turlough Luineach and Sorley Boy McDonnell.  Initially Devereux was compelled to entrench himself at Belfast against the O‟Neills.  In October 1574 he treacherously captured MacPhelim at a conference in Belfast and had him and family members executed in Dublin.  He also massacred several hundreds of Sorley Boy's following, chiefly women and children, who had hidden in the caves of Rathlin Island.  While in Ireland he is said to have come into ownership of a large estate including Durhamstown Castle. Returning to England in 1575 he was determined to retire but Elizabeth persuaded him to be Earl Marshall of Ireland.  Three weeks after he arrived back in Ireland he died of dysentery.  The Earls of Essex continued to hold lands in the Navan area until at least the nineteenth century.

In 1598 the name Dorren or Derran is recorded at Derranstown, this is probably Durhamstown. Thomas Jones became Bishop of Meath in 1584 and ruled the diocese for twenty one years.  During his time in Meath he succeeded in acquiring for himself much of the property of the confiscated monasteries.  Dean Swift described him as "that rascal Dean Jones."  Residing at Ardbraccan he virtually gave away or claimed all the lands which had been confiscated from the monasteries.  Anti-Catholic in his stance, Jones was held responsible for the execution in 1591 of a Catholic schoolteacher, Michael Fitzsimons, whose property at Forrowes in Meath later came into his ownership.  In 1605 Thomas was elevated to Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor.  Bishop Jones's son, Sir Roger, managed to hold onto this alienated property including the lands which had belonged to the monastery at Navan.

Roger Jones, of Durhamstown, was made Baron Jones of Navan and Viscount Ranelagh in 1628.  Sir Roger Jones of Durhamstown married Frances, daughter of Sir Gerald Moore, Viscount Drogheda.  Roger Jones was Member of Parliament for Trim from 1613 to 1615 and in the 1640 commanded the royal army in Connacht.  His son, Arthur, married Catherine Boyle, daughter of the Great Earl of Cork, one of the biggest landgrabbers of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century.  Catherine was the older sister of Robert Boyle, the devisor of Boyles Law. Arthur was involved in the administration of Ireland and made a huge amount of money as he managed to obtain the entire tax take for Ireland in return for a lump sum to Charles, which was said to have been used to pay for his mistresses.  Arthur's son, Richard, was Vice Treasurer of Ireland in 1674 and Paymaster General to the Army.  William of Orange made him a Privy councillor in 1691.  He was involved in a political row with the Earl of Essex.  The Viscounts Ranelagh had their seat at Monkstown, Co. Dublin and continued to hold property in the Navan area into the nineteenth century.  In the 1780's Gaynor Barry was in residence at Dormstown.  Mr. Gibney is recorded as owner in 1802.

The Roberts family became associated with Durhamstown through Rev. John Roberts who was rector of Rathcore from 1802 to 1826.  John Roberts was the son of the Venerable John Roberts, archdeacon of Merioneth and lived at nearby Oatlands.  His son Thomas Lewis Roberts and family were in residence at Durhamstown in 1837. The house and yard were re-developed in the middle of the nineteenth century. Few Irish people realise the influence of Ireland on the development of the game of croquet. Some of the modern rules of the game of croquet were produced by local gentry who lived at Durhamstown and two neighbouring estates in the 1850's.  The game later spread from Ireland to Britain.  In 1876 Thomas L. Roberts of Dormstown held 505 acres of land in Meath county.  Thomas died in 1880 and he was succeeded by his son John Richards Roberts who married one of the Everards of Randlestown.  In 1911 gentleman farmer, John R. Roberts, his daughter, Maud, sister Anna and two female servants were in residence.  The house had sixteen rooms and sixteen outbuildings including two stables, a coach house, a harness room, a cowhouse, a dairy, a piggery, a fowl house, a barn, a turfhouse, a potato house, a workshop, a shed and a forge.

Source: meath-roots.com.

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