The Construction of Johnstown
In about 1725, Joseph Bunbury
built a house at Johnstown which architectural
historians have described as 'a detached
four-bay two-storey double-pile house with
dormer attic on an asymmetrical plan with
projecting chimney breasts'. Bence-Jones claims
that the house was built on the site of a
monastery (Bence-Jones 1978, p.161). The two
recorded archaeological sites at this immediate
location are the castle site and a graveyard. No
archaeological remains of a monastery site per
se have yet been identified at this location or
in the immediate vicinity.
Joseph Bunbury who settled at
Johnstown, was married on July 1st 1713 to
Hannah Hinton, a daughter of the Venerable
Archdeacon Dr. Edward Hinton, Dean of Ossory. In
November of that same year, Joseph, a former
High Sheriff of County Carlow, and his brother
Benjamin, the then High Sheriff, were drawn into
a controversy over an apparent fixing of a
result in the election of that year.
Joseph began to make an increasing impact in
Carlow at this time, purchasing a substantial
interest in the town itself. The Dublin Land
office contains a memorial of a mortgage dated
March 12th 1713 between John Green 'of the town
of Catherlogh, Gent' and 'Joseph Bunbury of
Johnstown'.
Having had a lifelong fear of land
law ever since I purchased Wylie's magnum opus,
I do not understand the actual linguistics of
the memorial. However, it seems that, for £165
pounds, Joseph purchased the estate right, title
and interest on 'all that tenement and plot of
ground situated in Dublin Street in the Town of
Catherlogh', as well as a tenement and plot 'in
Southcott Lane in the town of Catherlogh along
the River Barron'.
Among the witnesses was his
younger brother, Thomas Bunbury. Another
deed, dated June 5th & 6th 1717, concerns a
memorial of mortgage 'by way of lease and
release between Hugh Fagan of Kilewick, co.
Carlow, gent of the one part and Joseph Bunbury
of Johnstown, co. Carlow Esq. of the other
part'. By this deed, Fagan 'conveyed unto Joseph
Bunbury part of the lands of Rathdean, co.
Carlow, lately Wentworth Harman’s part
containing 130 acres profitable land'.
The lease
also covered 'the lease for three lives
renewable for ever made to the premises by
Wentworth Harman to Richard Butler, Gent who
assigned the same to Hugh Fagan to hold unto
Joseph Bunbury, his heirs and assigns during the
three lives in the lease'. Once again, Thomas
Bunbury of Cloghna was a witness, as was John
Smith, Publick Notary in the City of Dublin.
Read more about
the
Bunbury family
Source: Turtle
Bunbury website.