ASSEY, or ATHSY, a parish, in the barony of
LOWER-DEECE, county of MEATH, and province of
LEINSTER, 4 miles (S.) from Navan, on the river Boyne;
containing 108 inhabitants. The land, though not rich,
is tolerably productive; a considerable portion is under
tillage, and the remainder is good grazing land. Bellinter,
the seat of the Rev. J. Preston, is situated in a wellwooded
demesne of more than 800 acres, stretching
into the adjoining parish of Balsoon. The living is a
rectory, in the diocese of Meath, to which the rectory
of Balsoon was united by diocesan authority in 1826,
together forming the union of Assey, in the patronage
of the Crown: the tithes amount to £62. 15. 4½., and
the gross amount of tithes of the benefice is £132.
There is neither church nor glebe-house in the union,
the occasional duties of which are performed by the incumbent
of Kilmessan, who receives £24 per annum,
besides the glebe, which consists of three acres, valued
at £6 per annum. The Commissioners of Ecclesiastical
Inquiry, in 1831; have recommended that the two
parishes be formed into one, to be called the parish of
Athsy, and that a church and glebe-house for a resident
minister be erected. In the R. C. divisions this parish
forms part of the union or district of Dunsany and
Kilmessan.