Sion House

Sion House

Sion House in Navan, County Meath was one of the residences of the Dunville family and it was used by them as a base for their pursuit of hunting.  It was probably bought in the late 1870s by Robert Grimshaw Dunville (1838-1910), who became head of the Dunville family when his uncle William Dunville died in 1874.

Robert Grimshaw Dunville’s son, John Dunville Dunville (1866-1929), was brought up partly at Redburn House in County Down and partly at Sion House.  In 1892 he married Violet Anne Blanche Lambart (1861-1940) who also lived in County Meath, at Beau Parc.

John Dunville was Master of the Meath Hounds from 1911 to 1915, succeeding John Watson of Bective House, who was Master of the Meath from, and the Earl of Fingall, who was Master of the Meath until 1911. John Dunville served for many years in the old Meath Militia (5th Battalion Leinster Regiment), gaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, which he subsequently kept as his title: Colonel John Dunville.

John Dunville was Chairman of the whisky distillers Dunville & Co., Ltd., a keen hunter and a ballooning enthusiast.  In the First World War he served in the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Air Force, for which he was awarded the C.B.E.

Two years after the death of John Dunville, his eldest son and heir, Robert Lambart Dunville (1893-1931), also died.  It was probably in the early 1930s, after the death of Robert Lambart Dunville, that Sion House was sold to the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul, for use as St. Martha’s College of Agriculture and Domestic Science.

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Sion House before and after the Dunville family

Peter Metge was one of the Huguenots, members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France, who fled France for Ireland in the late seventeenth century.  He settled in Athlumney and built Athlumney House, where his family continued to live during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  Members of the family became Members of Parliament and achieved high positions in the Judiciary and the Treasury.

In 1836, when Peter Ponsonby Metge was living at Athlumney House, his brother John Charles Metge married Eliza Ibbetson Cole.  It was probably soon after their marriage that John and Eliza Metge built Sion House and started living there.  Sion House is six hundred metres to the east of Athlumney House.

When Peter Ponsonby Metge died in 1873, Athlumney House passed to his nephew Robert Henry Metge, who was the youngest son of John and Eliza Metge.  The Metges probably left Sion House at about this time.  By 1879, Sion House had been bought by the Dunville family.

In the early 1930s St. Martha’s College of Agriculture and Domestic Science was established at Sion House by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul, and it functioned there until 1982.

There is now a primary school on the site, consisting of a three storey primary school building with twenty-seven classrooms, two two storey primary school buildings each with sixteen classrooms, and a single-storey eight-classroom special school building.  Sion House and the main entrance gates are protected structures.

Source: Archaeological Desktop Assessment, 18 November 2011, for the St. Martha’s Campus Development, authors Antoine Giacometti BSc MA MIAI and Siobhán Duffy BA MSc.  The Assessment was commissioned by the Department of Education and Skills before the construction of the new school on the site, and it can be downloaded from MediaFire.

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1901 Census Information for County Meath, Parliamentary Division North Meath, Poor Law Union Navan, District Electoral Division Navan Rural, Townland or Street Alexander Reid, Barony Skreen, Parish Athlumney, House 9 [Sion House], enumerated by Constable James Grier.
Robert Grimshaw Dunville (1838-1910), Jeannie/Jeanie Dunville née Chaine (1842-1914), their visitors and servants.

Name and Surname	Relation to Head of Family	Religious Profession	Age (last birthday)	Rank, Profession, or Occupation	Particulars as to Marriage	Where Born
Robert G. Dunville	Head of Family	Church of Ireland	62	Company Director D.L. J.P. [Deputy Lieutenant, Justice of the Peace]	Married	Belfast
Jeannie Dunville	Wife	Church of Ireland	58		Married	Co. Antrim
Frances Kearney	Visitor	Church of Ireland	50		Widow	Dublin
Mary Kearney	Visitor	Roman Catholic	21		Not Married	London
Thomas Dalton	Butler Domestic Servant	Church of Ireland	32	Butler	Not Married	London
John Griffin	Domestic Servant	Church of Ireland	20	Footman	Not Married	Brighton
William Craig	Domestic Servant	Presbyterian	17	Pantry Boy	Not Married	Co. Antrim
Ellen McChestney	Domestic Servant	Presbyterian	28	Lady’s Maid	Not Married	Co. Down
Jane Griffith	Domestic Servant	Church of Ireland	50	Housemaid	Not Married	Co. Tyrone
Fanny Martin	Domestic Servant	Church of Ireland	25	Housemaid	Not Married	Co. Derry
Jane Walker	Domestic Servant	Church of Ireland	23	Housemaid	Not Married	Co. Down
Jane Wherry	Domestic Servant	Presbyterian	26	Cook	Not Married	Co. Down
Elizabeth Mundell	Domestic Servant	Presbyterian	24	Kitchenmaid	Not Married	Co. Antrim
Sarah McClure	Domestic Servant	Moravian	18	Scullery Maid	Not Married	Co. Antrim
Education (all): Read & Write

1901 Census Information for County Meath, Parliamentary Division North Meath, Poor Law Union Navan, District Electoral Division Navan Rural, Townland or Street Alexander Reid, Barony Skreen, Parish Athlumney, House 10, enumerated by Constable James Grier.
Landholder Robert Grimshaw Dunville (1838-1910).

Name and Surname	Relation to Head of Family	Religious Profession	Age (last birthday)	Rank, Profession, or Occupation	Particulars as to Marriage	Where Born
Edward Barnes	Servant	Church of Ireland	28	Coachman	Not Married	Norfolk
Thomas Maxwell	Servant	Presbyterian	24	Stable Helper	Not Married	Co. Antrim
Samuel Farrar	Servant	Church of Ireland	24	Stable Helper	Not Married	Wicklow
Dennis Gaskin	Servant	Roman Catholic	20	Stable Helper	Not Married	Co. Carlow
Patrick Darby	Groom Servant	Roman Catholic	30	Groom	Not Married	Co. Meath
Education: Read & Write, except Patrick Darby: Read

1901 Census Information for County Meath, Parliamentary Division North Meath, Poor Law Union Navan, District Electoral Division Navan Rural, Townland or Street Alexander Reid, Barony Skreen, Parish Athlumney, House 11, enumerated by Constable James Grier.
Landholder Robert Grimshaw Dunville (1838-1910).

Name and Surname	Relation to Head of Family	Religious Profession	Age (last birthday)	Rank, Profession, or Occupation	Particulars as to Marriage	Where Born
John Gunner	Head	Church of Ireland	25	Gardener	Not Married	Co. Down
Education: Read & Write

In the 1901 Census, Robert Grimshaw Dunville (1838-1910) was the Landholder of the houses numbered 9 to 11.

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1911 Census Information for County Meath, Parliamentary Division North Meath, Poor Law Union Navan, District Electoral Division Navan Rural, Townland or Street Alexander Reid, Barony Skreen, Parish Athlumney, Constabulary District Navan, Sub-District Navan, House 13.
Violet Dunville (1861-1940).

Name and Surname	Relation to Head of Family	Religious Profession	Age (last birthday)	Rank, Profession, or Occupation	Particulars as to Marriage	Where Born
Violet Dunville	Head of Family	Church of Ireland	48			Dublin
Frederick Brown	Domestic Servant Butler	Church of England	38	Domestic Servant	Single	England
Charles Bunstead	Footman	Church of England	25	Domestic Servant	Single	England
Wilfred Killmister	Footman	Church of England	21	Domestic Servant	Single	Jersey
Bertram Marshall	Hall boy	Church of England	14	Domestic Servant		England
Henry Healy	Valet	Roman Catholic	49	Domestic Servant	Single	Ireland (Co. Meath)
Minnie Read	Lady’s Maid	Church of England	43	Domestic Servant	Single	Kent
Jane Hanna	Cook	Church of Ireland	44	Domestic Servant	Single	Co. Down Ireland
Mary Black	Housemaid	Presbyterian	40	Domestic Servant	Widow	Co. Down Ireland
Ada Agnes	Housemaid	Church of England	22	Domestic Servant	Single	England
Margaret Fitzgerald	Kitchenmaid	Church of Ireland	21	Domestic Servant	Single	Co. Tyrone Ireland
Sarah Craig	Scullerymaid	church of Ireland	19	Domestic Servant	Single	Co. Down Ireland
Education (all): Read & Write

In the 1911 Census, John Dunville (1866-1929) was the Landholder of the houses numbered 12 to 16.

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Sion House

Sion House is located near Johnstown, Navan. The house was erected in the middle of the nineteenth century.  It does not appear on the first O.S. maps in the 1830s.  The house was held by the Metge family.  In 1854 John Metge held a house and sixty-nine acres of land from Frances Metge at Alexanderreid townland.  R. H. Metge, M.P. lived there in the early 1880’s.

The Dunville family became associated with Navan in the 1880’s.  Robert Grimshaw Dunville acquired Sion.  The Dunville family ran a whisky blenders business in Belfast.  Robert Grimshaw Dunville became chairman in 1874.  He was High Sheriff of County Meath in 1882.  In 1901 Robert G. Dunville and his wife, Jeanie, were in residence at Sion.  The house had twenty six rooms, eight windows to the front and eleven outbuildings.

In 1890 Robert’s son, John Dunville, was appointed Private Secretary to the Duke of Devonshire.   John Dunville had had served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Fifth Battalion of the Leinster Regiment.  In 1892 John Dunville married Violet Anne Blanche Lambart, the fifth daughter of Gustavus William Lambart, of Beau Parc. County Meath.  In 1911 Violet was living at Sion.

They had four children: Robert Lambart Dunville, John Spencer Dunville, William Gustavus Dunville and Una Dunville. Second Lieutenant John Spencer Dunville died from wounds he received at Epehy in France in 1917. He was protecting an N.C.O. of the Royal Engineers who was cutting wire which had been laid by the enemy.  The Victoria Cross was awarded to him posthumously.  His father, John Dunville, received the medal from King George V at Buckingham Palace in August 1917. John Dunville was Master of the Meath Hounds from 1911 to 1915. John Dunville was president of the Irish Aero Club in 1912.  In 1910 he crossed from Ireland to England in less than two hours.

Robert Grimshaw Dunville died in August 1910 and his son John Dunville succeeded him. John Dunville died in 1929.

In July 1936 St. Martha’s College of Agriculture and Domestic Science, Sion, Navan, in charge of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul was opened at Sion.  In 1941 An Taoiseach Eamon de Valera and the Minister for Agriculture, Dr. James Ryan, paid a visit to St. Martha‟s College. This college operated until the 1980’s.

Source: meath-roots.com