Pollock Family of Mountainstown House

located north of Navan at Castletown is a wonderful Queen Anne house with a well maintained courtyard and estate.  Home to the Pollock family, Mountainstown House is not near any mountain or town and probably derives its name from a mounting post or halt, according to Rowan and Casey.  Maurice Craig described Mountainstown as a somewhat naïve but charming building.

Samuel Gibbons lived at Mountainstown in the early eighteenth century.  It appears that the house was originally built for Richard Gibbons about 1720.  In the late eighteenth century his only surviving child, Anne Gibbons, sold it to John Pollock, whose family had been renting the estate for some time.  John Pollock was the third son of John Pollock, a Newry linen merchant.  Pollock became a solicitor in Dublin and agent for the Duke of Devonshire, one of the largest landowners in Ireland and was a Dublin based solicitor.

In 1813 the main block of the house was extended by a long two storey gabled wing built on to the southwest corner and converting the house to an L-shaped plan.  The Venetian doorcase bears the Pollock coat of arms.  Today the derelict remains of Kilshine church is situated opposite the main gates of Mountainstown House.  John Pollock rebuilt the church in 1815 and presented the parish with a silver chalice.  Kilshine Church was closed in 1958 and was deconsecrated and the furnishings removed.  The Pollock memorial tablets were erected in Donaghpatrick Church.

The 1798 rebels passed through the Mountainstown and Georges Cross area.  There are a great number of Croppie graves in Mountianstown estate.  In 1998 a multidenominational service was held to commemorate the hundreds of United Irishmen from Wexford who fought at the battle of Knightstown Bog on 14th July 1798.  A stone plaque was erected to commemorate those who died.  The Pollocks of Mountainstown took an active part in the commemoration ceremonies.

John Pollock died in December 1826 leaving an only son, Arthur, born 1785.  Arthur Hill Cornwallis Pollock spent much of his early years travelling Europe.  Arthur was High Sheriff of Meath in 1809 and died in 1846. In 1835 Mountainstown House, the seat of Mr. A.H.C. Pollock was described as being surrounded by beautiful planting and ornament ground.  North of the house was a small fishpond for ornament.  In the farmyard there was a small pond and two fine spring wells. Situated in the northwest of the townland was a beautiful decoy, in which ducks, teel and widgeon were caught.

Arthur was succeeded by his son, John Osborne George Pollock, who was born in 1812. He was a justice of the peace and a deputy lieutenant of the county. He served as High Sheriff for the county in 1854.

John died in 1871 and was succeeded by his sons, Arthur Henry Taylor and John Naper George.  In 1876 Arthur Pollock held 848 acres in county Meath and Maria Pollock of Mountainstown held 1174 acres in county Meath. John Naper George married Anna Josephine Barrington of Limerick.

Dying in 1905 John was succeeded by his eldest son, also named John, born 1896.  Anna Josephine lived on until 1947, surviving her husband by forty years.  John Pollock served during World War I in the North Irish Horse and died in 1966.

There was also a large amount of material on the Irish Pollock families showing their descent from the main family, including written histories on the Pollocks of Newry, Balleyedmond, Balleymagregrechan and Mountainstown, and showing the descent of James Knox Polk, the 11th President of the United States of America from the Irish Pollocks.  A house in Scotland, called Mountainstown, is home of a Pollock family but there is no clear relationship with the Meath Pollocks.  President Polk may be related to the Pollocks of Scotland according to one source.

Source: meath-roots.com