Navan & District Historical Society

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Kilshine

Dowdstown House, Kilshine

Dowdstown House is located in north-east Meath, in the civil parish of Kilshine, 2 kilometres north west of Clongill Crossroads. According to Casey and Rowan Dowdstown is a gentleman farmer‟s house, erected in 1793 by Francis Crewe, whose initials are inscribed on the datestone. The house is a simple gabled block, two storeys over basement. Rowan and Casey describe the doorcase as being “very fine.” Dowdstown House is in the south centre of the townland. The townland in 1835 was the property of Mr. Cruice of Belgard, Co. Dublin. In the 1850s Thomas Blake was renting the house and lands from Patrick H. Cruise. Alterations to the house and its environs have occurred since it was constructed. A new entrance from the south east has been constructed and the woodland near the house has been removed.

Source: meath-roots.com

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A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837

KILSHINE, a parish, in the barony of MORGALLION, county of MEATH, and province of LEINSTER, 7 miles (N. by W.) from Navan, on the road from Dublin to Kingscourt; containing 654 inhabitants.  This parish was the scene of a skirmish during the disturbances of 1798.  It comprises 1369 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, three-fourths of which are under a good system of tillage; there is some bog.  Petty sessions are held at George’s Cross every Monday.  Mountainstown House, the handsome residence of A. H. C. Pollock, Esq., is situated in a fine demesne of 300 plantation acres.  The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Meath, united by act of council in 1809 to the rectory of Clongill, and in the patronage of the Crown and the Bishop, the former having one turn and the latter two.  Although the rectories are thus nominally united, they are held by two incumbents.  The tithes amount to £92. 6. 2., and the value of the benefice is £284 per annum.  The church, which is a very neat structure with a spire, was rebuilt by a gift of £800 from the late Board of First Fruits, in 1815. The glebehouse is in Clongill, where there is a glebe of 21 acres, valued at £63 per annum, besides a glebe in this parish of 7 acres, valued at £21.

In the R. C. divisions it forms part of the union or district of Castletown-Kilpatrick.  There is a national school, in which about 90 children are educated, and to which Sir W. Plunket de Bathe, Bart., subscribes £15 per annum, besides allowing a house and ground.

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The Parliamentary Gazetteer 0f Ireland, 1844-1845, Vol. 2

Kilshine, a parish in the barony of Morgallion, 4 1/2 miles south of Nobber, co. Meath, Leinster. Length, westward, 3 miles; breadth, 1; area, 1,543 acres, 2 roods, 10 perches, of which 160 acres, 2 roods, 28 perches lie detached.  Pop., in 1831, 654; in 1841, 609. Houses 114.  The surface consists of good land; and has an extreme altitude, at the site of the church, of 263 feet.

A large proportion is occupied with the parks and woods of Mountainstown, the handsome demesne of H. C. Pollock, Esq.; and a district in the east is occupied with the demesne of Knightstown. The roads from Nobber to Navan and Trim pass across the parish.
Kilshine is a rectory, and part of the benefice of Clongill, in the dio. of Meath.  Tithe composition, £92 5s. lOd.; glebe, £27 10s.  The church was built in 1812, by means of a gift of £738 9s 2 3/4d. from the late Board of First Fruits.  Sittings 80; attendance, from 10 to 35. In 1834, the Protestants amounted to 20, and the Roman Catholics to 655; and a daily school at Knightstown was salaried with £15 from the National Board, and £13 and other advantages from Sir William de Bath, and had on its books 46 boys and 34 girls.
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Slater’s Directory, 1894

Kilshine, a parish in co. Meath, barony of Morgallion, union of Navan, diocese of Meath, 2 miles north northwest from Wilkinstown station on the Midland Great Western railway, 7 miles north west from Navan, containing 4 townlands. Mountainstown is the seat of the Pollock family. For Protestant purposes this parish is united to Clongill.  There is a National school. The area comprises 1,543 acres; the population in 1891 was 190.

Private residents:

Pollock, Major Arthur, Mountainstown.

Pollock, John N. S. J.P. Mountainstown

Farmer:

Callaghan, James, Knightstown.