All Saints, Newtowncunningham

The Parish of All Saints, Newtowncunningham, Co. Donegal, lies along the east shore of Lough Swilly, south of Inch Island. Newtowncunningham is half way between Letterkenny and Derry. At the time of the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century, the area was planted by the Cunningham family, hence the name of the villages of Manorcunningham and Newtowncunningham.

All Saints Church was built in 1722 as a private chapel for the Forward Family of Castleforward, and was consecrated on All Saints' Day, 1st November that year. On the 9th December 1728, it became a chapel of ease in the Parish of Taughboyne. At the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, 1870, All Saints district was separated from the Parish of Taughboyne, and it became a parish in its own right.

All Saints Church possesses one of the two lych gates in the Dioceses of Derry and Raphoe, the other being at Baronscourt Church, County Tyrone. It was erected in 1920 to commemorate the Rev. Alexander George Stuart and his wife, Christine Emma of Bogay House, Newtowncunningham. Sadly in recent times the gate has been subjected to an attack by ghastly individuals.

Bogay House was given to the Rev. Thomas Pemberton, Rector of Taughboyne for use as a rectory about 1800. Mrs Stuart was a sister of the Very Rev. Edward Bowen, Rector of All Saints, 1868-1886, and Dean of Raphoe, 1882 until his death in 1897.

There is a three storey tower at the west end of the church which is surmounted by corner finials. It was built in 1808. A stone in the interior west wall records the presentation of the clock in the tower by the Rev. Robert Blackmore Rankin, Rector of All Saints, 1885-1917. Also in the porch are two crosses which came from the grave of Lt. Col. A.G.Stuart who was killed at Westroute in Flanders in 1916 during the Great War.

The nave is lit by four windows in the south wall and three in the north wall. Each has two lights with clear lattice panes and Y tracery. There are five windows with coloured patterned glass in the sanctuary. The central window has two lights and cusped tracery.

The baptistery is in the south-west corner of the nave. It was erected in 1992 in memory of a nine-year old Audrey Christine West who was killed in a car accident in 1991. The vestry room is to the left of the nave.

The stone pulpit has marble columns, and inscribed upon it are the names of the four Evangelists. It is on the left side of the nave, outside the chancel. The wooden eagle lectern commemorates Dean Bowen. There is a two manual electronic organ with pedals.

The chancel was built in 1896. The two marble steps into it were erected in 1905 in memory of Isabella Kerr. The reredos commemorates those that fell in the Great War. The names of the former are inscribed on the left side of the altar, and those of the latter, on the right. The prayer desk in the sanctuary was given in thanksgiving for the survival of a serious illness in infancy of Stephen Devenny in 1991.

The three classical monuments on the north wall commemorate the Forward Family. The Rt. Hon. Ralph Howard of Shelton House, Arklow, Co. Wicklow, 1st Viscount Wicklow, M.P for the County of Wicklow, married Alicia, daughter of William Forward of Castleforward in 1755. William Forward, who built the church, is commemorated on a monument over the vestry door. He died in 1770. Alicia is commemorated in the middle monument  William, son of Ralph and Alicia Howard became the third Earl of Wicklow, and in 1780 he assumed the surname and arms of the Forward family. The other monument on the north wall commemorates his wife Eleanor, who died in 1807.

On the south wall is a memorial in the baptistery to Audrey West, John Gordon Bowen, brother of Dean Bowen, brother of Dean Bowen who died in 1891, and his wife Harriet who died in 1885 are commemorated on a brass plaque.

There is a memorial to Dean Bowen, and above it, his Father, the Rev. Edward Bowen, Rector of Taughboyne, 1819-1867, is commemorated. Another memorial commemorates the Rev. A.G.Stuart and his wife Christine and the family. Their son Lt. Col. Alexander Stuart who was killed in Flanders in 1916 is commemorated. There is also a memorial to the Rev. R. B. Rankin. William Forwards gravestone is set into the south wall.

Baronscourt Parish Church

Baronscourt was originally a district curacy in the parish of Ardstraw. The parish church, high in the west Tyrone hills six kilometres to the south-west of Newtownstewart, was consecrated on 24th March 1858. It has one of the two lynch gates in the Dioceses of Derry and Raphoe, the other being at All Saints, Newtowncunningham, Co. Donegal. It was erected by the second Duke of Abercorn in memory of his mother. Over the gate are inscribed the words, "I am the resurrection and the life saith the Lord".

The church is more English in style and character. It is entered through a porch in the south wall. The entrance doors commemorate Samuel and Margaret Compton, 1993. The window in the west wall has coloured lattice glass.

There are two windows in the south wall, which have two lights and geometrically patterned lights above, and richly coloured lattice panes.

In the north wall, the first window depicts St. Matthew and St. Mark on the left, and St. John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist on the right.

 The window commemorates Louisa Jane, Duchess of Abercorn who died in 1905.

The second window depicts King David and the Prophet Micah on the left, and the Prophets Isaiah and Zechariah on the right.

They commemorate James, 1st Duke of Abercorn who died in 1885.

In the ceiling there are dormer windows of three lights each and lattice panes.

  The east window has three lights and tracery.

The east section depicts faith and commemorates Ronald Douglass Hamilton who died in 1867.

The central section, Charity, is in memory of Beatrix Francis, Countess of Durham who died in 1871.

The right section, Hope, is in memory of Elizabeth, Countess of Edgecombe.

The vestry room is north of the chancel. In the sanctuary, the Ten Commandments are inscribed on each side of the east wall. These, and the tiling of the chancel, commemorate Louisa Jane, Duchess of Abercorn.

The pulpit is on the left and the prayer desk is on the right. The brass eagle lectern was presented by Bishop William Alexander and others in memory of James, 1st Duke of Abercorn, K.G.

The beautifully decorated chamber organ also commemorates Louisa Jane, Duchess of Abercorn. It was built by the Positive Organ Company of London.

There are numerous monuments in the church which commemorate the Hamilton Family, Dukes of Abercorn.

Baronscourt House, surrounded by it's estate and gardens, is amongst the grandest neoclassical houses of its kind in Ireland. It was built between 1779 and 1781 by James Hamilton, eighth Earl of Abercorn. He died in 1789, and was succeeded by his nephew, John James who became the first Marquess of Abercorn in 1790. Following the destruction of Baronscourt by fire in 1796, the house was completely rebuilt. It has been altered a number of times ever since.

The Hamiltons have lived at Baronscourt since before 1566. Their ancestry can be traced far further. For example, an ancestor, James Hamilton was 1st Earl of Arran at the beginning of the 16th century. The first Earl of Abercorn, James Hamilton, was a grandson of the second Earl of Arran. He died in 1617. Another ancestor, James Hamilton (1559-1643), was Viscount Clandeboye. James Hamilton, the sixth Earl of Abercorn (1656-1734), took part in the Siege of Derry in 1689, and was created Viscount Strabane in the Irish Peerage.

James Hamilton, (1811-1885), eldest son of James, Viscount Hamilton, was the first Duke of Abercorn. He succeeded  to the title of Marquess of Abercorn in 1818 on the death of his grandfather, the first Marquess.

The above picture shows the grave of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn. He was the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and as such, he presided over the installation of the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), as a Knight of the Order of St Patrick in 1868. He was raised to the Dukedom as the first Duke of Abercorn on 10th August 1868.

The above picture shows the grave of the 2nd Duke of Abercorn.

The third Duke was the first Governor of Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1945. His Grace, the fifth Duke of Abercorn, the present holder of the title, was made a Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter by Her Majesty the Queen in June 1999.

Two points of extreme curiosity that one should make a note of when visiting Baronscourt Church.

1. Ruby Studded Communion Rails.

2.

The grave of a member of the Hamilton Clan. The date is somewhat peculiar.

Acknowledgement:

The Earl-Bishop is indebted to the Rector of Baronscourt Parish Church, The Rev. Ivan Dinsmore.

Tamlaght O' Crilly "Lower" Church (St. Nossonus)

Tanlaght O'Crilly Lower Church is five kilometres to the east of the Upper Church, in the village of Inishrush. Upon the division of the parish of Tamlaght O'Crilly in 1775, it was constituted a Perpetual Curacy. In that year, the Earl Bishop built a small church at his own expense. This was rebuilt in 1815. Tamlaght O'Crilly Lower became a parish in 1883.

The church is entered through the porch at the base of a louvered tower. There are two blind windows in the west wall, and a window with coloured glass in the west wall of the tower. Inside the church is a three bay hall, with three windows in the south wall and none in the north wall.

These windows all have square-paned coloured and opaque glass.

The east window depicts the Good Shepherd. It commemorates the Rev. Samuel Scott Frackelton, Rector of Tamlaght O' Crilly Lower from 1883 until his death in 1911.

The chancel step extends westwards on both sides of the nave, to form a podium for the baptistry adjacent to the north wall. The pulpit and the prayer desk are on the left side of the chancel.

The prayer desk and chair are in memory of William Greer who died in 1977. The Holy Table and the chair on the left side of the sanctury are both in memory of James and Elizabeth Kissick, 1992.

The lectern commemorates Robert McCullough, 1968. There are two chairs and a credence table on the right sanctuary. The organ is on the right of the chancel.

A monument commemorates Reserve Constable William James Greer who was killed in 1977, and another, Trooper John Smyth of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers who was killed in 1917 during the Great War. On the south wall are memorials to James Courtnenay and his wife, Marths, 1899,

and to John Patton who died in 1927, his wife Sarah who died in the same year, and Archibald Patton who died in France in action in 1917.

On the east wall of the sanctuary, there is a memorial to Elizabeth, wife of the Rev. Samuel Frackleton, who died in 1914, and on the south wall of the sanctuary is a memorial to those who fell in the first and second world wars.

Tamlaght O'Crilly Upper and Lower were reunited in 1963.