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Public building and colonial policy in Dublin, 1760–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2016

Murray Fraser
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Extract

To contemporaries living in late eighteenth-century Dublin it was apparent that a major architectural transformation was taking place in the Irish capital (Fig. 1). Fine squares and streets of brick-parapeted terraced housing were being built faster than ever, particularly to the north-east and south-east of the city. Many of the public buildings were being either rebuilt or reclad in the garb of the latest neo-classical fashion. The explanation offered by subsequent commentators for this surge in Dublin’s development — that it was the display by the Anglo-Irish élite of the prosperity and national pride they had recently forged for Ireland, and that it arose directly from the legislative freedoms won in 1782 by ‘Grattan’s Parliament’ (named after the great Patriot leader) — still persists in recent architectural histories. Whether this interpretation is satisfactory, or whether more emphasis needs to be placed on the colonial condition of Ireland at the time, requires investigation. Recent Irish historical writing has questioned the traditional assumptions about ‘Grattan’s Parliament’, and has instead suggested that the closer system of ‘management’ begun under the viceroyalty of Lord Townshend (1767–72) represented the decisive break in late eighteenth-century Irish history. This change in colonial policy sought to return effective rule to the Westminster government and its representatives in Dublin Castle, and was achieved by regaining control over the Irish Revenue Board and by buying a loyal party in the Irish Parliament.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 28 , 1985 , pp. 102 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1985

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References

Notes

1 The main works refered to herein are Craig, M., Dublin 1660–1860 (1952)Google Scholar; Craig, M., The Architecture of Ireland: From the Earliest Times to 1800 (1982)Google Scholar; McParland, E., ‘The Wide Streets Commissioners; Their Importance for Dublin Architecture in the Late C18th-Early C19th’, QBIGS, 15, no. 1 (January-March 1972), 1–32 Google Scholar; McParland, E., ‘The Public Works of Architects in Ireland during the Neo-classical Period’ (PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 1975)Google Scholar.

2 The nature and achievements of ‘Grattan’s Parliament’ are questioned in Beckett, J. C., The Making of Modem Ireland (1966), pp. 225, 223 Google Scholar; Johnston, E. M. Ireland in the Eighteenth Century (1974), pp. 155–56 Google Scholar; Lee, J. ‘Grattan’s Parliament’, in Farrell, B. (ed.) The Irish Parliamentary Tradition (1973), pp. 149–59 Google Scholar; McDowell, R. B., ‘The Protestant Nation 1775–1800’, in Moody, T. W. and Martin, F. X. (eds), The Course of Irish History (1967), pp. 232–47 Google Scholar; Malcolmson, A. W., John Foster: the Politics of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy (1978), pp. xvi, xx–xxi Google Scholar, 193, 372–73. For emphasis on the changes made under Lord Lieutenant Townshend see Bartlett, T., ‘The Townshend Viceroyalty 1767–72’, in Barlett, T. and Hayton, D. W. (eds), Penal Era and Golden Age: Essays in Irish History 1690–1800 (1979), pp. 88–112 Google Scholar; Johnston, E. M., Great Britain and Ireland 1760–1800: A Study in Political Administration (1963), pp. 5 Google Scholar, 11–12, 72, 270–71.

3 Bartlett, T., ‘Viscount Townshend and the Irish Revenue Board 1767–73’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 79/C/6 (1979), 153–75 Google Scholar; Johnston, E. M., op. cit. (1974), pp. 132–37 Google Scholar.

4 M. Craig, op. cit. (1982), ch. 14; Summerson, J., Architecture in Britain 1530–1830 (1953), pp. 447–50 Google Scholar.

5 A contemporary estimate by Sir Petty, William, quoted in M. Craig, op. cit. (1952), p. 21 Google Scholar.

6 Cullen, L. M., Anglo-Irish Trade 1660–1800 (1968), p. 11 Google Scholar; Cullen, L. M., An Economic History of Ireland since 1660 (1972), p. 85 Google Scholar.

7 M. Craig, op. cit. (1952); McParland, E., op. cit., QBIGS (1972)Google Scholar.

8 Compared with J. Summerson, Georgian London (1945), Youngson, A. J. The Making of Classical Edinburgh (1966), pp. 43–51 Google Scholar etseq.; Neale, R. S., Bath 1680–1850, A Social History (1981), pp. 214–19 Google Scholar, 249–60.

9 G. Semple, A Treatise on Building in Water (1776), p. 27.

10 WSC MAPS no. 329.

11 HOCJNL, 6 (16, 20, 21 and 23 December 1757, 18 February, 1 March, 24 April 1758).

12 For detailed history of the Wide Streets Commission see Fraser, M., ‘Public Building and Colonial Policy in Dublin, 1760–1800’ (MSc thesis, University College, London, 1983 Google Scholar) and E. McParland, op. cit. (1972). The main primary sources are the extensive drawings and minutes held by the Dublin Corporation’s Archive Department.

13 For instance in E. M. Johnston, op. cit. (1974), pp.91-131.

14 WSC MINS, 1 (19 December 1760, 26 June 1762).

15 T. Bartlett, op. cit. in T. Bartlett and D. W. Hayton (eds) (1979); E. M. Johnston, op. cit. (1974).

16 WSC MINS, 1 (28 July 1764).

17 HOCJNL, 8 (19 November 1765).

18 E. McParland, op. cit. (1975); McParland, E., ‘James Gandon and the Royal Exchange Competition’, JRSAI, 102, pt 1 (1972), 58–72 Google Scholar.

19 McParland, E., op. cit. (1975), p. 36 Google Scholar.

20 E. McParland, op. cit., JRSAI (1972); J. Gandon (Jnr) and Mulvany, T. (eds), The Life of James Gandon (1846, reprinted 1979 Craig, M. ed.), pp. 25 Google Scholar etseq.

21 GIL MSS, 135.

22 E. McParland, op. cit., JRSAI (1972); J. Gandon (Jnr) and T. Mulvany (eds) op. cit. (1846/1979), p. 33.

23 WSC MINS, 2 (16 June 1772).

24 PRO, SP 63/436 (11 September 1772).

25 Ibid. (11 September 1772).

26 T. Bartlett, op. cit., Proceedings of the RIA (1979).

27 HOCJNL, 9 (Appendix, 303–04).

28 Chambers, W., A Treatise on Civil Architecture (1759), p. i Google Scholar.

29 Ibid., p. ii.

30 Ibid., p. i.

31 McParland, E., op. cit., QBIGS (1972), p. 9 Google Scholar.

32 Quoted in Considerations on the Removal of the Customs House Humbly Submitted to the Public (Dublin, 1781).

33 PRO, SP63/442 (24 March 1774).

34 Ibid. (14 May 1774).

35 Ibid. (25 May 1774).

36 For economic aspects see Cullen, L. M., op. cit. (1972), pp. 73–76 Google Scholar and Refausse, R., ‘The Economic Crisis in Ireland in the 1780s’ (PhD thesis, Trinity College, Dublin, 1982), pp. 1 Google Scholar, 146–47, 182–87. For political developments and the rise of the Volunteers see especially O’Connell, M. R., Irish Politics and Social Conflict in the Age of the American Revolution (1965)Google Scholar.

37 Beresford, W. (ed.), The Correspondence of the Rt. Hon. John Beresford, 1 (1854), 40 Google Scholar (13 April 1779).

38 For an account of Beresford’s activities at the time see Malcolmson, A. W., op. cit. (1978), pp. 35–43 Google Scholar.

39 Recorded in J. Gandon (Jnr) and T. Mulvany (eds), op. cit. (1846/1979), pp. 42 etseq.

40 Ibid., pp. 42–45.

41 PRO, T 14/16 (1 January 1781).

42 W. Beresford (ed.), op. cit., 1 (1854), 157 (27 January 1781).

43 BL Add MS 34,418, fols 15–20 (13 August 1781).

44 Ibid. (13 August 1781).

45 Ibid. (13 August 1781).

46 W. Beresford (ed.), op. cit., 1 (1854), 166–67 (18 August 1781).

47 BL Add MS 34,418, fols 45–46 (21 August 1781).

48 W. Beresford (ed.), op. cit., 1 (1854), 167–70 (27 August 1781).

49 Ibid., 1, 165–66 (8 August 1781); J. Gandon (Jnr) and T. Mulvany (eds), op. cit. (1846/1979), pp. 56–57.

50 W. Chambers, op. cit., p. 64.

51 Ibid., p. 75.

52 J. Malton, A Picturesque and Descriptive View of the City of Dublin (1799, reprinted 1978), item on Customs House.

53 From a letter by Gandon, James, quoted in Anon. Letters Addressed to Parliament (Dublin, 1787), p. 47 Google Scholar.

54 PRO, T14/16 (1 January 1781); PRO, SP 63/442 (14 May 1774); PRO, SP 63/475 (10 August 1781); BL Add MS 34, 418, fols 15–20 (13 August 1781).

55 HOC JNL, 14 (Appendix, 234).

56 NLI MSS 15954 and 16353 (23 October 1786).

57 Quoted in S. Reamonn, History of the Revenue Commissioners (1981), p. 29.

58 GIL MS 135 (6 February 1803, 14 October 1804, 22 October 1805).

59 Ibid. (6 February 1803).

60 PRO, SP 63/480 (8 March 1782).

61 Ibid. (8 March 1782).

62 M. R. O’Connell, op. cit. (1965), pp. 294–96 etseq.

63 PRO, SP 64/480 (19 March 1782).

64 Ibid. (8 March 1782).

65 Ibid. (8 March 1782).

66 PRO, T14/16 (28 March 1782).

67 WSC MINS, 4 (23 April 1782).

68 PRO, HO100/1 (27 March 1782).

69 W. Beresford (ed.), op. cit., 1 (1854), 233 (27 October 1782).

70 PRO, HO100/12 (28 April 1784).

71 WSC MINS, 7(1 December 1786).

72 Ibid., 11 (20 June 1793), 15 (30 May 1799).

73 Ibid., 7 (15 December 1786).

74 Ibid., 6 (iojanuary 1785).

75 Ibid. (28 February 1785).

76 E. McParland, op. cit., QBIGS (1972), p. 12.

77 WSC MINS, 10 (13 April 1792).

78 Ibid., 9 (13 April 1789).

79 Ibid., 7 (2 March 1787).

80 Ibid., 11 (1 February 1793).

81 NLI MSS, Maps 16 G 10.

82 WSC MAPS, no. 363.

83 WSC MINS, 11 (1 February 1793).

84 Ibid. 11 (9 April 1793).

85 Ibid., 12 (2 August 1793).

86 For example, ibid. 13 (27 April 1795, 26 January 1796).

87 Ibid., 14 (17 March 1797).

88 Ibid., 15 (25 May 1799).

89 Ibid., 17(8 April 1802).

90 J. Summerson, op. cit. (1945), p. 126.

91 J. Lee, op. cit. (1973), p. 150.

92 Ibid., p. 159.

93 This supports recent historical research, which has tended to show the varied and indecisive workings of all areas of colonial policy. See particularly McDowell, R. B., Ireland in the Age of Imperialism and Revolution 1760–1801 (1979). p. 132 Google Scholar; Bartlett, T., op. cit. in Bartlett, T. and Hayton, D. W. (eds) (1979), pp. 109–12 Google Scholar; and for economic policy, L. M. Cullen, op. cit. (1972), pp. 34, 37–39, and Cullen, L. M. ‘The Irish Economy in the Eighteenth Century’, in Cullen, L. M. (ed.), The Formation of the Irish Economy (1967), p. 19 Google Scholar.