NEWTOWN-LIMAVADY, a corporate, market-town and
post-town (formerly a parliamentary borough), in the
parish of DRUMACHOSE, barony of KENAUGHT, county
of LONDONDERRY, and province of ULSTER, 12¾ miles
(E. N. E.) from the city of Londonderry, and 131 (N.
by W.) from Dublin, on the road from Londonderry to
Coleraine; containing 2428 inhabitants. The district
in which the town stands was anciently the
territory of the O'Cahans or O'Canes, the head of a
powerful and warlike sept, whose castle on the brow
of a romantic glen was called Lima-vaddy, or "the
Dog's Leap." The estimation in which these chieftains
were formerly held appears from the fact that Dermod
O'Cahan was summoned by Edw. II. to attend him with
his forces on his disastrous expedition against Scotland.
He went, but instead of joining the army of the invader,
was found in the ranks of the Scottish king at the battle
of Bannockburn. After the general forfeiture of Ulster,
in 1608, arising out of the attainder of the Earls of Tyrone
and Tyrconnel, Sir Thomas Philips, surveyor of the
forfeited estates, obtained a grant of 1000 acres in
this district, on which he erected a castle and a bawn
on the eastern bank of the Roe, on a spot near the
site on which a town, named Ballyclose, now a suburb
of Newtown-Limavady, previously existed. The town
took its name from the circumstance of its modern
erection; and to distinguish it from several others, it
acquired the adjunct of Limavady from its contiguity
to O'Cahan's castle. It increased rapidly under the
fostering care of its founder, who, in 1610, brought
hither 25 English families. In 1613 the town obtained
a charter, which is stated to have been granted on the
petition of the inhabitants and for the better plantation
of Ulster. By this charter the inhabitants were incorporated
under the name of "the provost, 12 burgesses
and commonalty," and a court of record was created, of
which the provost was to be judge, and also to be clerk
of the market and collector of the tolls and customs,
which he retained for his own use: it also conferred a
licence for holding a market on Monday, and a fair on
July 1st (to which three others were added a few years
afterwards), granted 300 acres of land for a common,
and 375 for the maintenance of a free school, to be
erected at Limavady, and the right of sending two
members to parliament; a discretionary power of
electing freemen was given to the provost and burgesses
by the same charter. In the war of 1641, the castle
was besieged by the Irish army under Col. O'Nial, but
the garrison under Capt. Philips, the governor, supported
by many of the townspeople, among whom were
some women, held out during the entire winter, until relieved
by the approach of the parliamentary forces under
Col. Mervyn, who routed the besieging army with much
slaughter: the castle, however, was subsequently taken
by the Irish and burnt, together with the church and
the entire town. A new town sprang up from the
ruins, which suffered a similar fate in the war of 1688,
being burned by the army of Jas. II. on its retreat from
Derry. It was again rebuilt after the Revolution, and
some of the houses then erected are still standing. The
borough was disfranchised at the Union, from which
period the corporation has declined; the only official
proof of its existence being the collection of the tolls
and customs, which was relinquished in consequence of
the resistance given to the payment of them: on the
death of the provost some years since, no successor was
appointed, and the corporation may now be considered
extinct. The land granted for commonage seems to
have merged in the general estate on its sale by the
Philips' family, in the reign of Chas. II. The school was
never founded, nor can any particulars be procured relative
to the lands set apart for its endowment. The
borough and manor courts are discontinued, and the
place is now, like all the rest of the county, governed by
the magistrates and the police.
In point of size the town is the third in the county
and the first in the barony. It comprises four principal
and several smaller streets; three of the streets are
large and well built. There is a handsome sessions-
house, where the general sessions for the county are held
in June and December, and petty sessions on alternate
Tuesdays; adjoining it is a small bridewell. It is a constabulary
police station, which is provided with a good
barrack in one of the main streets. The market-house
is a large, old, inconvenient building, over an arch which
connects two of the principal streets. Large and commodious
grain stores and shambles were erected in
1820, by Edw. Boyle, Esq., who also established grain
markets on Tuesday and Friday, which are well attended
and productive of much advantage to the town and
neighbourhood: connected with these buildings is a
news-room, well supplied with journals and periodicals.
The Monday market is the mart for cattle, butter, and
flax: the potato market is held in an adjoining street.
The fairs are held on the second Monday in February,
March 28th, June 13th, July 12th, and Oct. 29th:
they are all well attended and largely supplied with
cattle of every description: that of February is a great
horse fair. Distillation is carried on extensively in
the neighbourhood. A dispensary in the town is maintained
in the usual manner. The church, which is
the parochial church of Drumachose, is a large and
handsome edifice, built in 1750 on the site of a former
one, and enlarged in 1825 by the addition of an aisle,
by a loan of £200 from the late Board of First Fruits:
it now consists of a nave and a north aisle, in the
Grecian style. In the suburb of Ballyclose are meetinghouses
for Presbyterians in connection with the Synod of
Ulster, and with the Remonstrant and Associate Synods:
near the church is a meeting-house of the Wesleyan
Methodists. Of the castle built by Sir Thos. Philips
nothing now remains: the site is pointed out as being
in the grounds and gardens of the Lodge, at the northwestern
extremity of the main street. The environs of
the town are extremely beautiful: to the north-west is
the rich vale of Myroe, extending to the shores of
Lough Foyle; to the east and north-east the lofty range
of Benyevenagh, and to the south the summits of
Donald's Hill and Benbradagh, beneath which ia spread
out the vale of the Roe, with its numerous plantations,
villas, mills, and bleach-greens, the rich foliage of the
oak woods and the plantations of Roe Park, the beautiful
residence of Edm. Chas. McNaghten, Esq., and the
other seats interspersed throughout the district, which
are noticed in the article on the parish, as are also the
schools.