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The office of the surveyor general in Ireland in the eighteenth century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
Extract
The story of the Surveyors General in Ireland in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is interesting and at, at times, picturesque. Two of them (William Molyneux and Arthur Dobbs) have been — exceptionally for Irish architects — the subject of full-length published biographies. One of them (Arthur Jones Nevill) was one of only five members to be expelled from the Irish House of Commons in the eighteenth century. A motion to expel another (Sir William Robinson), admittedly after his retirement as Surveyor General, was defeated, the House satisfying itself with committing him to custody in Dublin Castle, and with resolving on 16 October 1703 that he was ‘unfit for any publick Employment in this Kingdom’. For the architectural historian there is the added interest that these men were responsible for the design and erection of remarkable buildings: the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, the Royal (now Collins) Barracks in Dublin, parts of Dublin Castle, and at least one building of European significance, Edward Lovett Pearce’s Parliament House in Dublin. The background to such architectural commissions is inextricably connected with the history of the office of Surveyor General, yet this history has not, until now, been clarified.
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- Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1995
References
Notes
1 Simms, J. G., ed. Kelly, Patrick, William Molyneux of Dublin 1656-1698 (Blackrock Co. Dublin, 1982)Google Scholar, and Clarke, Desmond, Arthur Dobbs, Esquire, 1689-1765 (London [1958]Google Scholar.
2 See Craig, Maurice, Dublin 1660-1860 (London, 1952), pp. 166-67Google Scholar, and Craig, Maurice, The Architecture of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1880 (London, Dublin, 1982), pp. 285-88Google Scholar. This article corrects some claims made — on this author’s advice — in Crookshank, Anne, ‘The Visual Arts, 1603-1740’, in A New History of Ireland, ed. Moody, T. W. et al (Oxford, 1976-), IV Google Scholar; Eighteenth-century Ireland 1691-1800, ed. Moody, T. W. and Vaughan, W. E. (1986), pp. 471-72Google Scholar. References to an eighteenth-century ‘Dublin branch of the British Board of Works’, in ‘The Office of Public Works, its origin and development’, Oibre. . .Bulletin of the Commissioners of Public Works, no. 1 (March 1964), p. 30, repeated in Oibre... no. 15 (July 1982), p. 3, are groundless. See, too, Heard, Ruth, Public Works in Ireland 1800-1831, M.Litt. thesis, University of Dublin, 1977 Google Scholar, chap. 1.
3 lam greatly indebted to Dr Kenneth Ferguson for many helpful suggestions and in particular for his assistance in formulating this paragraph.
4 PRO Northern Ireland, Bowes to Rigby, 5 September 1758, Calendar of Bedford Papers, T2915/5/35.
5 Commons Jour., VIII, 458.
6 National Archives, Dublin, letters patent, 18 May 1759, 2D-59-111, and Lib Mun, part 2, p. 114; for copies of the King’s letter of 26 April 1759 see PRO SO.1.21 f. 191 and T.14.13. p. 386.
7 For the 1700/1 and 1746 commissions see Lib Mun, part 2, pp. 113-14; a copy of the King’s letter of 26 March 1746 is at PRO, SO. 1.19 f. 278.
8 See note 6 above.
9 Commons Jour., VI, app cxii.
10 Lib Mun, part 2, p. 113.
11 Commons Jour., IV, app cclxvi, where all the quotations in this paragraph are found.
12 British Library, dispatch from the Lords Justices, 21 December 1706, Add 9717, f. 98.
13 The royal, vice-regal and public buildings involved included Dublin Castle, the Parliament House and the Four Courts, and certain buildings in the Phoenix Park such as the Bailiffs (late Chief Secretary’s) Lodge and the Park gate lodges. They did not include such public buildings as the Dublin Custom House (under the control of the Revenue Commissioners) or the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. It is difficult to know if there was a well-defined list of buildings on which the Surveyor General was entitled by his patent to work, though we know that even if there was, exceptions could be made, as when Surveyor General Burgh was bypassed by Edward Lovett Pearce for the new Parliament House. The buildings on which Burgh worked as Engineer and Surveyor General between January 1705/6 and September 1707 are listed in his accounts at PRO WO.55.1984; among the non-military buildings other than those noted above are the King’s House at Chapelizod and the council Chamber and Treasury in Essex Street, Dublin.
14 Lib Mun, part 2, p. 114.
15 Irish Architectural Archive, Eyre to Rigby, 15 February 1759, ‘Private Letter Book 1750 to 1765, T. Eyre’, 86/149.
16 For letters of appointment see PRO WO.55.1984 (Burgh’s); WO.8.2f. 136 (Pearce’s); WO.8.3 f.89 (Nevill’s); WO.8.4ff.21, 181 (Eyre’s).
17 Irish Architectural Archive, ‘The General Accompt of Thomas Eyre. . .’, 86/149.
18 Trinity College Dublin, ‘A State of the Master Genii of the Ordnance’s Case, as to his having all Enginrs: under his Command’, 22 November 1710, ms1179.
19 Dublin City Library, Pearse Street, Dublin, Establishments for 1702, 1728, 1747, Gilbert Collection nos. 154, 158.
20 See note 16 above.
21 British Library, Coghill to Southwell, 4 February and 1 March 1728/9, Add 21, 122 ff. 64, 66.
22 PRO, copy letters patent, 16 January 1730/1, WO.8.2. f. 136.
23 Chatsworth, Molesworth to Duke of Devonshire, 17 December 1740, Devonshire papers first series, 281/2.
24 On the Nevili affair and its wider implications see O’Donovan, Declan, ‘The money bill dispute of 1753’, in Penal era and golden age, ed. Bartlett, Thomas and Hayton, David (Belfast, 1979) pp. 55–87 Google Scholar and McCracken, J. L., ‘The conflict between the Irish administration and parliament 1753-6’, Irish Historical Studies, 111, no. 10 (September 1942), pp. 159-79CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The affair stimulated an entertaining pamphlet war e.g. Court and no country. . .or, the history of Sir Arthur Vantrype [Nevill]. . .printed next door to the sign of the church, with Sodom and Gomorrah in the pulpit (1753).
25 PRO Northern Ireland, Rigby to Duke of Devonshire, 17 October 1758, Calendar of Devonshire papers, T3158/1605.
26 PRO, copy of King’s letter, 31 March 1761, SO.1.22 f. 54.
27 PRO, copy of King’s letter, 30 October 1761, SO. 1.22 f. 95; this letter was subsequently revoked by the letter of 11 August 1762 (see note 28 below), which, however, left forts and fortifications with the Ordnance; Kildare’s memorial is at PRO SO. 1.22 f. 69.
28 PRO, copy of King’s letter, 11 August 1762, T 14.14. p. 163, SO. 1.22 f. 125, and Lib Mun, part 11, p. 115.
29 Commons Jour., VII, app cclxiv-cclxv; the text of this commission in Lib Mun, part 11, p. 115 is incorrect: in referring to the appointment of ‘Commrs and Overseers of all our Palaces or Houses in Ireland’ it seems it is transcribing inaccurately more plausible references in Commons Jour., VII, app cclxiv to ‘Commissioners and Overseers of all our Barracks.. .and Comptrollers and Examiners of the Expence and Execution of all Buildings and Repairs. . .and of all Bills, Charges, and Expences whatsoever, for the Furniture or Maintenance of our Castle of Dublin, or any other of our Palaces or Houses, in our said Kingdom of Ireland’.
30 PRO, copy of King’s letter, 31 December 1762, SO. 1.22 f. 137; see too PRO, Lords Justices to Muster Master General of Ireland, 19 April 1763, WO. 8.5 ff. 17-20.
31 e.g.33 Geo III, C34 and 39 Geo III, c26; see too The twelfih report of the commissioners appointed to enquire into the fees, gratuities, perquisites, and emoluments, which are or have been lately received in certain public offices in Ireland. . ., H.C. 1812, v. 191.
32 PRO Northern Ireland, Nevill to [Edward Weston?], 15 April 1749, Calendar of Wilmot Papers in Derbyshire Record Office, T 3019/1317; M’Cleaver, Sawney, Ireland in tears. . ., (London, 1755), p. 30 Google Scholar
33 Molyneux, Capel, An account of the family and descendants of Sir Thomas Molyneux, Kt. . . (Evesham, 1820), p. 63 Google Scholar. For more precise details of the agreement between Molyneux and Robinson see Loeber, Rolf, A biographical dictionary of architects in Ireland, London, 1981, pp. 76, 89Google Scholar.
34 British Library, ‘The Petition of Thomas Burgh. . .’, Add 21, 137, ff. 21, 22.
35 PRO Northern Ireland, Nevili to [Edward Weston?], 15 April 1749, Calendar of Wilmot Papers in Derbyshire Record Office, T 3019/1317.
36 ibid., which is the source for all quotations in this paragraph.
37 Irish Architectural Archive, Eyre to William Hamilton, 25 December 1761, ‘Private Letter Book 1750 to 1765, T. Eyre’, f. 102, 86/149.
38 Irish Architectural Archive, Eyre to Speaker Ponsonby, 12 January 1762, ‘Private Letter Book 1750 to 1765, T. Eyre’, f. 104, 86/149.
39 Irish Architectural Archive, ‘The General Accompt of Thomas Eyre...’, p. 148, no. 86/149; Eyre was appointed in 1752, so 1753 was his first full year in office, and no money was issued in 1762, the year in which his office was abolished.
Material from the Public Records Office is British Crown copyright and is reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Britannic Majesty’s Stationery Office; material from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is published by permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records.