On the ‘Fitzwilliam Trail’ in Cambridge colleges and in Dublin’s squares

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge ... founded thanks to the generosity of a benevolent Dublin landlord (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

A few weeks ago, I met an old school friend, Frank Domoney, at Pembroke College in Cambridge, and we had lunch at the Anchor at Silver Street Bridge, enjoying the riverside view and the manoeuvres of the punts on the River Cam.

Punts and Silver Street Bridge at the Anchor in Cambridge ... the beginning of an afternoon on the ‘FitzWilliam Trail’ Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

On the opposite side of the river stands Darwin College, once the home of Charles Darwin’s son, the astronomer and mathematician Sir George Darwin (1845-1912), who lived in the old mill by the Mill Pond.

Geoffrey Chaucer mentions the Mill Pond at the beginning of ‘The Reeve’s Tale’ in The Canterbury Tales, and this was once the only crossing over the River Cam for vehicles on this side of Cambridge.

Tracing the Fitzwilliam connections

Richard FitzWilliam (1745-1816), 7th Viscount FitzWilliam ... gave his name to museums and colleges, streets and squares, in Cambridge and Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

However, the main reason for my visit to Cambridge that sunny day though was to trace some places associated with the Fitzwilliam name. The Revd Dr Humphrey Fitzwilliam, a Fellow of Pembroke College, was Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University when he died in 1503. But the Fitzwilliam name, now a commonplace throughout Cambridge, dates from the generosity of an Irish peer, landlord and antiquarian, Richard FitzWilliam (1745-1816), 7th Viscount FitzWilliam, who owned large estates in Dublin.

A quiet corner in Trumpington Street, opposite the Fitzwilliam Museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The Fitzwilliam Museum was founded in Cambridge when he left his library, art collection and £100,000 to Cambridge University at his death in 1816. And the museum in turn has given its name to a restaurant, a street, a house, a pharmacy and a college.

‘The Search for Immortality’ – an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge – ends this month (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Richard FitzWilliam was born in 1745, and was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, receiving his MA in 1764. In 1776, Richard succeeded his father as 7th Viscount FitzWilliam, and along with the family title inherited his large estates in Dublin.

The Irish peerage titles of Viscount FitzWilliam, of Merrion in the County of Dublin, and Baron FitzWilliam, of Thorncastle in the County of Dublin, were created by Charles I in 1629 for his ancestor, Sir Thomas FitzWilliam (1581-1650). The FitzWilliam family is recorded in Dublin from as early as 1210, and by the time Thomas FitzWilliam was born, his family was one of the wealthiest and most powerful in the Pale. The family seat was at Merrion House, Co Dublin, and they also owned Merrion Castle and Baggotrath Castle, both of which have long since disappeared.

Baggotrath Castle stood on the present Baggot Street in Dublin, but was a casualty in the wars of the mid-17th century. The ruins were demolished in the mid-19th century, and the site is now occupied by 44-46 Upper Baggot Street, facing Waterloo Road.

Merrion Castle, which fell into disrepair around 1710, probably stood opposite Merrion Gates, on the site of Saint Mary’s Home and School for the Blind. The castle was replaced by Merrion House, where Richard FitzWilliam’s father died in 1776, but was demolished 200 years later in 1976.

Designing Georgian squares

The FitzWilliam and Merrion names remembered in Dublin and Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The FitzWilliam titles became extinct in 1833 with the death of the ninth viscount, Thomas FitzWilliam. But Richard FitzWilliam is still remembered in Cambridge for his generosity and in Dublin for his foresight in developing two of the city’s Georgian squares.

FitzWilliam lived mainly in Richmond, London, but he frequently visited his home at Merrion House near Dublin. Merrion Square was laid out by his father in 1762, and in 1791 Richard secured an Act of Parliament to enclose the centre of Merrion Square.

Fitzwilliam Square was designed by Patrick and John Roe in 1789 and was laid out in 1791-1792 as leases and plots were made available by the FitzWilliam estate. An Act to enclose the centre of Fitzwilliam Square was passed in 1813.

When Lord Fitzwilliam issued the leases for his square, he ensured that houses were built in a uniform manner, imposing strict conditions and controls, although the squares had a variety of builders and owners. The leases set the height and number of storeys, the type of windows and the front façade materials, and ensured that the exteriors presented a uniform typical Georgian elevation.

Another FitzWilliam family

The former Market House in Dwyer Square, Tinahely, Co Wicklow ... the FitzWilliam family of Coolattin House rebuilt the villages of Carnew and Tinahely (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Richard FitzWilliam’s family is often confused with the FitzWilliam family that came to Ireland with William FitzWilliam, who was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1571. His descendants came to own 91,800 acres in Ireland, with large estates in Co Wicklow, Co Wexford and Co Kildare, including Shillelagh, a town planned as part of the FitzWilliam estate in the 17th century, and Coolattin House, built as their country seat around 1800.

This second FitzWilliam family rebuilt the Co Wicklow villages of Carnew and Tinahely in the 19th century. Carnew Castle was re-roofed and modernised for the Revd Richard Ponsonby, later Bishop of Derry and brother-in-law of Earl FitzWilliam, when he became the Rector of Carnew in 1813.

A later rector, the Revd Henry Moore, built the high castle wall. But Moore strongly opposed FitzWilliam plans for an interdenominational school in Carnew. Moore took his case to court and won a ruling that allowed him to build a Protestant school on the only site available – the corner of the churchyard. A petulant FitzWilliam was swift to react – he evicted the Rector of Carnew from Carnew Castle.

When a coat-of-arms was designed for the future Fitzwilliam College in the 1880s, the two FitzWilliam families in Ireland were confused once again

Despite sharing the same name and similar titles, the two families were not related, and the FitzWilliams of Co Wicklow were descended from a family with origins in Northamptonshire. Yet, when a coat-of-arms was designed for the future Fitzwilliam College in the 1880s, the two families were confused once again.

A Cambridge bequest

Fitzbillies, the famous cake shop and bakery at 51-52 Trumpington Street, beloved of Cambridge undergraduates and best known for its Chelsea buns (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

When Richard FitzWilliam, Viscount Fitzwilliam, died in 1816, he left his large Irish estates to his first cousin’s son, the 11th Earl of Pembroke. But his large art collection and library went to the University of Cambridge, along with £100,000 to house them. His generosity led to the foundation of the Fitzwilliam Museum, built on lands acquired from Peterhouse and a good starting point for our ‘Fitzwilliam trail’ in Cambridge that afternoon.

Across the street is Fitzbillies, the famous cake shop and bakery in Trumpington Street that is best known for its Chelsea buns. The shop and restaurant ceased trading unexpectedly last year, but were saved this summer by a husband-and-wife team, Tim Hayward and Alison Wright.

Fitzwilliam House, Trumpington Street, was built in 1727 ... this house known as Fitzwilliam Hall from 1874 and then Fitzwilliam House from 1922, and is known once again as Fitzwilliam House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

Also opposite the museum, Fitzwilliam House stands between the Peterhouse Master’s Lodge and Fitzwilliam Street. The house was built in 1727, and only became a lodging house for undergraduates in 1869. It later became Fitzwilliam Hall in 1874 and then Fitzwilliam House in 1922, taking its name from the museum. In 1960, Fitzwilliam House moved to new premises in Huntingdon Road, and became Fitzwilliam College in 1966.

The Fitzwilliam Pharmacy opposite the Fitzwilliam Museum, with the original Fitzwilliam House next door on Trumpington Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Nearby, the Fitzwilliam Pharmacy stands on the corner of Trumpington Street and Fitzwilliam Street. The sign over the door says “G. Peck & Son Dispensing Chemists Est. 1851,” but the listed Grade II* building is older, dating from the early 18th century, perhaps even before the young Richard FitzWilliam was an undergraduate at Cambridge.

Fitzwilliam Street ... a charming Cambridge sidestreet running from the Fitzwilliam Museum to Darwin College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Fitzwilliam Street runs from the Fitzwilliam Museum to Darwin College. The street marks the northern boundary of the mediaeval Priory of the Gilbertines or White Canons, established around 1307. Charles Darwin, a former student at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and the author of On the Origin of Species (1859), lived at No 22 Fitzwilliam Street in 1836-1837 after his return from the Beagle. Most of the houses on the street are now used for student accommodation.

Charles Darwin once lived at No 22 Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We walked on through the streets of Cambridge, stopping briefly at Magdalene Bridge or “Mag’s Bridge,” to admire the punts again and to think of the new responsibilities facing Archbishop Rowan Williams at Magdalene College, before pressing on to Fitzwilliam College, our last stop on the Fitzwilliam Trail.

A brief stop at Magdalene Bridge while walking through Cambridge from the Fitzwilliam Museum to Fitzwilliam College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Fitzwilliam House moved in 1960 to this site on Huntingdon Road on land that once belonged to the Darwin family. It is a stark modern building that has been compared to an opulent Middle Eastern palace and described as “a snail’s-shell pattern” and “a riot of sculptural invention.”

Fitzwilliam College Library ... the college, with its stark modern buildings, has been described as “a riot of sculptural invention” (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

I caught a bus back into the centre to visit to the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies at Wesley House, and to visit Sidney Sussex College around the corner in Sidney Street. There was a little time to spend a book token that was a gift after preaching in the chapel in Sidney Sussex earlier this year, before catching the train to Stansted Airport for the last flight to Dublin.

Legacies in Dublin

Georgian Doors in Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Merrion Square remains the most extensive piece of Georgian architecture in Dublin. In 1930, the Pembroke Estate leased the square to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, which had plans to build a cathedral in the square. However, the plans never bore fruit; the square was transferred to the city and opened to the public in 1974.

The square’s most-visited monument is a statue of Oscar Wilde, who lived at No 1 from 1855 to 1876. Other resident of Merrion Square include Daniel O’Connell (No 58), Sheridan Le Fanu (No 70), WB Yeats (No 82) and AE (George William Russell, No 84).

Fitzwilliam Square is kept under lock and key ... could it be opened for its bicentenary next year? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Lord FitzWilliam retained the plots of No 4 and No 5 Fitzwilliam Square until his death in 1816. Past residents of the square include Henry Roe, the distiller who underwrote the restoration of Christ Church Cathedral (No 2), William Dargan, founder of the Irish Railways and the National Gallery (also No 2), the artist Jack B Yeats (No 18), Robert Lloyd Praeger, founder of An Taisce (No 19), Mainie Jellett, abstract artist (No 36), the Pym family, including Joshua Pym who twice won the men’s singles at Wimbledon, in 1893 and 1894 (No 50), and Lawrence Edward Knox, the founder of The Irish Times (No 53).

Fitzwilliam Square was the original home of the Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club and the central garden became an international focus during the late 19th century, when the Lawn Tennis Championships of Ireland were first held on the open grass. The garden in the centre of the square has not changed since it was first laid out in 1813, and the pathways, the planted trees and the shrubberies remain intact as they were almost two centuries ago. The large grassed open area is still used for tennis in the summer, and the pathways, the planted trees and the shrubberies remain intact as they were almost two centuries ago.

A 150-year lease expired in 1963, ending a link with the square’s commissioners and the early days of the square. Eventually, the garden was leased to the Fitzwilliam Square Association for another 150 years. But the square remains closed to the public, the gates are padlocked and signs outside warn the curious that this is private property.

Merrion Square celebrated its 250th birthday this year. It seems an appropriate way celebrate the 200th anniversary of Fitzwilliam Square by opening it to the public.

Canon Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism and Liturgy, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This essay and the photographs were published in the November 2012 edition of the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough) and the Diocesan Magazine (Cashel and Ossory)

This post was updated on 21 July 2013 with the photograph of Fitzwilliam House, Trumpington Street

Searching for Pugin and finding the cobbler baronet

A field of rapeseed is reflected in a pool outside Coolkenno, Co Wicklow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

Having met one of Pugin’s descendants, Jim Thunder, in Dublin last week, I went on the Pugin trail again this afternoon, looking for a church in Tullow, Co Carlow, said by some historians to have been designed by AWN Pugin (1812-1842) in 1830s.

But I also wanted to see Mount Wolseley, which had once been the home of a branch of the Wolseley family from Wolseley in Staffordshire, half-way between Lichfield and Stafford.

Mount Wolseley House, outside Tullow, Co Carlow ... ancestral home of Field Marshal Viscount Wolseley and Frederick York Wolseley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Mount Wolseley House is the ancestral home of the brothers Field Marshal Viscount Wolseley, one of Britain’s most important military leaders, and Frederick York Wolseley, in whose Birmingham factory the first British-designed car was built in 1895.

The first of the Wolseley family to come to Ireland was William Wolseley from Wolseley, who fought alongside King William at the Battle of the Boyne. William bought the 2,500 acre estate of Mount Arran from Charles Butler, Earl of Arran, and renamed it Mount Wolseley. When William Wolseley died unmarried, the estate passed his nephew Richard Wolseley, who was MP for Carlow from 1703 to 1713 and a younger brother of Sir William Wolseley, 5th Baronet, of Wolseley, Staffordshire.

Tradition says that groups of trees in the parkland surrounding Mount Wolseley were planted to depict the positions taken up by the Duke of Wellington’s troops at the battle of Waterloo. Mount Wolseley was rebuilt by Sir Thomas Wolseley in 1864.

Probably the most famous of all the Wolseleys was Frederick York Wolseley, who along with Herbert Austin created the world’s first mechanical sheep shears and in 1895 started producing one of Britain's most famous car marques – the Wolseley. The name dominated the British motor industry for eight decades until 1975, when the last car with the famous Wolseley name was produced.

The gates and gate lodge leading to Mount Wolseley ... sold in 1925 for £4,500 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

When Sir John Richard Wolseley (1834-1874) died aged 40, he was succeeded in the title by his brother Sir Clement James Wolseley, probably the last of the family to live at Mount Wolseley. The estate was sold for £4,500 in 1925 by Sir John’s daughters to the Patrician Brothers, who were founded in Tullow in 1808 by Bishop Daniel Delaney.

Meanwhile, the Wolseleys’ title of baronet began to pass out in an ever-widening circle of distant cousins. In all five successive holders of the title died without heirs. A title that had once been held by family members in various positions in the church, the army and the diplomatic service, eventually passed in 1950 – following the death of the Revd Sir William Augustus Wolseley – to a cobbler from Cheshire. He had been earning £5.10s a week, and became the 12th baronet as Sir Garnet Wolseley.

Sir Garnet later moved to Canada, where he died in 1991. The presumed 13th baronet, Sir James Douglas Wolseley, 13th Baronet, who was born in 1937, has not successfully proven his succession. His name is not on the Official Roll of the Baronetage, and so the baronetcy is considered dormant since 1991.

In 1994, Mount Wolseley was bought by the Morrissey family and it has since been developed into a four star hotel and 18-hole championship golf course. Today, the house and gardens are private, but can be viewed from the entrance gate beside the hotel.

The Roman Catholic Parish Church in Tullow ... the attribution to AWN Pugin appears to be without foundation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

From Mount Woseley, we drove back into Tullow to see the church attributed to Pugin and closely associated with Bishop Delaney, the founder the of the Patrician Brothers.

The Roman Catholic Church in Tullow was described by Samuel Lewis in 1837 as having a “very fine tower and spire, lately added” and the church was attributed to Pugin by Thomas P Kennedy in his paper ‘Church Building’ in the History of Irish Catholicism (Vol. 5, 1970, p. 35). However, the church in Tullow never seems to have been designed by Pugin.

The story of the Church of the Holy Rosary, Tullow, dates back to 1798 when Bishop Daniel Delaney secured the site for a house, church and convent, later agreeing to a lease from a local landlord named Doyne.

The church, first known as the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was built in a cruciform shape by Bishop Delaney and was completed in 1805. The spire was added by a Father Nolan in 1833, and two side altars and the two stained glass windows were installed in 1857.

In 1872, Bishop Lynch, the coadjutor Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin who lived in Tullow, laid the foundation stone of the neighbouring convent chapel. Three years later, at a dedication ceremony on Rosary Sunday, 3 October 1875, Cardinal Cullen renamed the church. At the end of the 19th century, the church was redecorated and a High Altar of alabaster and marble was erected as a memorial to Bishop Lynch.

The original High Altar, carved in alabaster and marble, has been retained in the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The church was extended in 1940 by adding two flat-roofed side aisles that transformed the building from a cruciform shape to its present almost square shape. The sanctuary was rearranged in the 1970s by Richard Hurley, and a major renovation in the 1980s saw the removal of the much patched original roof of 1805 and the flat roofs of 1940, replaced with one structure. The present building incorporates walls from 1805 and the 1940-1941 extensions.

A new oak altar was installed in 2000 and matching sanctuary furniture and a baptismal font were installed in the following years. On the side walls there are plaques in honour of Bishop Corcoran and Bishop Delaney. A stained glass window also recalls Bishop Delany and the two religious orders he founded, the Patrician Brothers and the Brigidine Sisters.

Saint Columba’s Church in Church Street, Tullow ... the present church was built in 1830-1831 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The Church of Ireland parish church nearby has monuments and windows recalling the Wolseley family of Mount Wolseley.

Saint Columba’s Church in Church Street just off the Market Square, is the third or fourth church on this site. An 11th century granite stone baptismal font from Saint Austin’s Abbey which is now in the grounds of Saint Columba's Church, near the west tower. Local tradition tells of an underground passage starting in the graveyard leading to Saint Austin’s Abbey south of the River Slaney.

A church dating from the 1530s was replaced by a later building in 1737. The present church was built in 1830-1831 at a cost of £1,669. This church, designed by Thomas A Cobden (1794-1842), is a four-bay single-cell early Gothic Revival church, with buttresses. The tower has a turret and crenellated belfry, built on an octagonal plan. Inside, the church retains a group of wall monuments from the earlier buildings, including the Nevill Monument.

The octagon on the tower of Saint Columba’s Church, a trademark of Cobden, also inspired Pugin and may have been inspired by Ely Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Cobden was born in Chichester, but worked mainly in Co Carlow and Co Wexford. His works include the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Carlow, Duckett’s Grove, Ballykealy House, near Ballon, and Wells House, Co Wexford, built for the Doyne family. His octagons in Saint Columba’s, Tullow, and in Carlow Cathedral recall the octagon tower in Ely Cathedral, which also inspired Pugin ‘s design for the chapel at the Loreto Convent in Rathfarnham.

Some monuments from the earlier churches survive inside the present church, including a memorial erected in 1745 to General Clement Nevill, who fought at the Siege of Derry and carried the colours for William of Orange at the Boyne in 1690. He was a nephew of Sir Charles Wolseley of Wolseley, Staffordshire, and of Mount Wolseley, Tullow.

The stained glass East Window, telling the story of the Sermon on the Mlount, was erected in 1907 by the Wolseley family to commemorate Sir John Richard Wolseley, who died in 1874, and his wife Frances, who died in 1907.

Evening lights behind the former Market House, now the library, in Tinahely, Co Wicklow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

From Tullow, we went to Rath Wood House, on the Carlow-Wicklow borders, for a late lunch, before driving east through Coolkenno in Co Wicklow to the attractive villages of Shillelagh and Tinahely.

Shillelagh is a planned town, built as part of the FitzWilliam estate at nearby Coolattin House. Nearby is the largest remaining oak forest in Ireland. Tinahely, on the banks of River Derry, was rebuilt in the early 19th century by Lord FitzWilliam after it was burnt during the 1798 Rising.

Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam (1745-1816) also founded the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, with its name to a square and streets in Dublin, and his name has also been continued in Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge – a name chosen by the students in 1887.

The Public Library in Dwyer Square, Tinahely, was formerly the town market house. The two-storey market house has granite dressings and arched windows with fanlights. The front of the building has a three-arched arcade at the ground floor with single arches in the adjoining walls. At the rear of the building, a double external stairway gives access to the first floor. The building is capped by a small square cupola with an ogee-hipped copper-clad roof. There is a clock and a weather vane. Tinahely’s local people have included the playwright Sebastian Barry and the late Bishop Noel Willoughby.

From Tinahely, we drove north through Aughrim, Ballinaclash, Rathdrum, Glenealy and Rathnew, before joining the M11 and returning to Dublin. The bank holiday weekend was coming to an end.