Navan & District Historical Society

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Churchtown

Churchtown

The Parliamentary Gazetteer 0f Ireland, 1844-1845 Vol. 1

CHURCHTOWN, a parish in the barony of Lower Navan, 3 1/4 miles south west of the town of Navan, co. Meath, Leinster.  Length, 3 miles; breadth, 1 1/2; area, 1,336 acres.  Pop., in 1831, 448; in 1841, 509, Houses 89.  The land is partly bog and partly good tillage ground.  The seats of Churchtown and Philpotstown, the property respectively of the Kellet and the Young families, are situated near each other, and about 4 miles southwest of Navan.
The little square tower, called Churchtown castle, is said to have been built by a Mr. Warren. This parish is a chapelry, or vicarage, and part of the benefice of Ardbraccan, in the dio. of Meath.  The vicarial tithes are compounded for £9 4s. 7 1/2d., and the rectorial for £43 l6s. 11d.; and the latter are impropriate in Miss Reynel.

The Roman Catholic chapel has an attendance of 800; and, in the Roman Catholic parochial arrangement, is united to the chapel of Moymet.  In 1834, the Protestants amounted to 12, and the Roman Catholics to 450; and a daily school at Dunderry was aided with £2 10s. a year from Lord Ludlow, and £1 Is. from Lord Killeen, and had on its books 83 boys and 39 girls.

Churchtown House

Churchtown House is located on the Bohermeen road from Dunderry.  In 1836 the house was located near the centre of the townland and was the residence of the Widow Kellett.  Attached to the house was good offices, gardens, an orchard and a large farm.  The townland was the property of the Earl of Ludlow of Ardsallagh.  In 1911 Eliza Smith, widow, aged 96, was living at Churchtown House.  The house had fourteen rooms, five windows to the front and sixteen outbuildings.

Source: meath-roots.com

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The Lewis Topographical Directory was first published in 1837 in two volumes, with an accompanying atlas.  The first edition is available online.  A second edition was published in 1842.

Lewis relied on the information provided by local contributors and on the earlier works published such as Coote’s Statistical Survey (1801), Taylor and Skinner’s Maps of the Road of Ireland (1777), Pigot’s Trade Directory (1824) and other sources.  He also used the various parliamentary reports and in particular the census of 1831 and the education returns of the 1820s and early 1830’s.  Local contributors were given the proof sheets for final comment and revision.  The names of places are those in use prior to the publication of the Ordnance Survey Atlas in 1838.  Distances are in Irish miles (the statute mile is 0.62 of an Irish mile).

Churchtown, a parish, in the barony of Lower Navan, county of Meath, and province of Leinster, 3 miles (N. N. E.) from Trim; containing 448 inhabitants.  This parish is situated on the road from Ardbraccan to Trim, and on that from Athboy to Navan, and is separated from Clonmacduff by a small river: the land is principally under tillage, and has a substratum of limestone.  The principal seats are Philpotstown, the residence of John T. Young, Esq.; and Churchtown, of Mrs. Kellett. It is in the diocese of Meath, and is one of the six parishes which constitute the union of Ardbraccan; the rectory is impropriate in the representatives of Miss Reynell, of Killynan.  The tithes amount to £53. 1. 6 1/2. per ann., of which £43. 6. 11. is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the incumbent.

In the R. C. divisions the parish is united to those of Clonmacduff, Moymet, Tullyhanogue, Rataine, and Kilcooly, called the union of Dunderry, or of Churchtown and Moymet, in each of which latter places are chapels; that of Churchtown is situated at Dunderry bridge.  There is a school at Dunderry, aided by annual donations from the Earl of Fingall and Earl Ludlow.  Some small remains of the old church exist, with a burial ground attached.