BALBRIGGAN, a sea-port, market, and post-town,
and a chapelry, in the parish and barony of BALROTHERY,
county of DUBLIN, and province of LEINSTER,
15 miles (N. by E.) from Dublin; containing 3016 inhabitants.
According to Ware, a sanguinary conflict
took place here on Whitsun-eve, 1329, between John
de Bermingham, Earl of Louth, who had been elevated
to the palatine dignity of that county, Richard, Lord
De Malahide, and several of their kindred, in array
against the partisans of the Verduns, Gernons, and
Savages, who were opposed to the elevation of the earl
to the palatinate of their county; and in which the
former, with 60 of their English followers, were killed.
After the battle of the Boyne, Wm. III. encamped at
this place on the 3rd of July, 1690. The town, which
is situated on the eastern coast and on the road from
Dublin to the North of Ireland, owes its rise, from a
small fishing village to a place of manufacturing and
commercial importance, to the late Baron Hamilton,
who, in 1780, introduced the cotton manufacture, for
which he erected factories, and who may justly be regarded
as its founder. It contains at present about 600
houses, many of which are well built; hot baths have
been constructed for visiters who frequent this place
during the bathing season. In the environs are several
gentlemen's seats, of which the principal is Hampton
Hall, the residence of G. A. Hamilton, Esq. The inhabitants
are partly employed in the fishery, but principally
in the cotton manufacture; there are two large
factories, the machinery of which is worked by steamengines
and water-wheels of the aggregate power of 84
horses, giving motion to 7500 spindles, and spinning
upon the average about 7400 lb. of cotton yarn per week.
More than 300 persons are employed in these factories,
to which are attached blue dye-works; and in the town
and neighbourhood are 942 hand-looms employed in the
weaving department. The principal articles made at
present are checks, jeans, calicoes, and fustians. The
town is also celebrated for the manufacture of the finest
cotton stockings, which has been carried on successfully
since its first establishment about 40 years since; there
are 60 frames employed in this trade, and the average
produce is about 60 dozen per week. There are on the
quay a large corn store belonging to Messrs. Frost & Co.,
of Chester, and some extensive salt-works; and in the
town is a tanyard. The fishery, since the withdrawing
of the bounty, has very much diminished: there are at
present only 10 wherries or small fishing boats belonging
to the port. The town carries on a tolerably brisk
coasting trade: in 1833, 134 coal vessels, of the aggregate
burden of 11,566 tons, and 29 coasting vessels
of 1795 tons, entered inwards, and 17 coasters of 1034
tons cleared outwards, from and to ports in Great
Britain. The harbour is rendered safe for vessels of
150 tons' burden by an excellent pier, completed
in 1763, principally by Baron Hamilton, aided by a
parliamentary grant, and is a place of refuge for vessels
of that burden at ¾ tide. A jetty or pier, 420 feet long
from the N. W. part of the harbour, with a curve of
105 feet in a western direction, forming an inner harbour
in which at high tide is 14 feet of water, and
affording complete shelter from all winds, was commenced
in 1826 and completed in 1829, at an expense
of £2912. 7. 9., of which the late Fishery Board gave
£1569, the Marquess of Lansdowne £100, and the remainder
was subscribed by the late Rev. Geo. Hamilton,
proprietor of the town. At the end of the old pier there
is a lighthouse. The Drogheda or Grand Northern
Trunk railway from Dublin, for which an act has been
obtained, is intended to pass along the shore close to
the town and to the east of the church. The market is
on Monday, and is abundantly supplied with corn, of
which great quantities are sent to Dublin and to Liverpool;
and there is a market for provisions on Saturday.
Fairs are held on the 29th of April and September,
chiefly for cattle. A market-house was erected in 1811,
partly by subscription and partly at the expense of the
Hamilton family. The town is the head-quarters of
the constabulary police force of the county; and
near it is a martello tower with a coast-guard station,
which is one of the nine stations within the district
of Swords. Petty sessions for the north-east division
of the county are held here every alternate Tuesday.
The chapelry of St. George, Balbriggan, was founded
by the late Rev. G. Hamilton, of Hampton Hall, who in
1813 granted some land and settled an endowment,
under the 11th and 12th of Geo. III., for the establishment
of a perpetual curacy; and an augmentation of
£25 per annum has been recently granted by the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners from Primate Boulter's fund.
In 1816 a chapel was completed, at an expense of
£3018. 2. 2., of which £1400 was given by the late
Board of First Fruits, £478. 15. 2. was raised by voluntary
subscriptions of the inhabitants, and £1139. 7.
was given by the founder and his family. This chapel,
which was a handsome edifice with a square embattled
tower, and contained monuments to the memory of R.
Hamilton, Esq., and the Rev. G. Hamilton, was burned
by accident in 1835, and the congregation assemble for
divine service in a school-room till it shall be restored,
for which purpose the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
have lately granted £480. The living is in the patroBAL
nage of G. A. Hamilton, Esq. There is a chapel belonging
to the R. C. union or district of Balrothery and
Balbriggan, also a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists.
The parochial school and a dispensary are in
the town. See BALROTHERY.