The History of the County of Dublin

In 1611, John Fagan passed fresh patent for the town and lands of Feltrim, a mill and 240 acres, Effernock, 54 acres, Mabestown, 106 acres, &c. ; all which he had inherited from his father Richard ; but John's descendant, Christopher, forfeited these paternal estates in Cromwell's time, to which, however, he was restored in 1663, by a decree of the Court of Claims, adjudging him an innocent Papist, and giving him his former possessions in tail male, including the above lands, as also others in Coolock, Bullock, Dalkey, and considerable estates in Lusk, of all which he died so seised in 1682, and which, together with about 1400 acres in the barony of Duleek, were wholly forfeited by his son Richard in the confiscations of 1688. On that event, and on the death of his brother Peter without issue, his sister, Lady Strabane, having previously, in 1684, obtained a grant of the reversion of these estates expectant on the old entail, to her son Claude, Lord Aber- corn, they would have vested accordingly in his family, but appear to have been reassumed by the crown.

The ancient residence here was one of the numerous localities, named as having received the unfortunate James the Second in his flight from the Boyne, and the chamber was at no very remote period confidently shewn, where he passed the weary hours of one wretched night.

In 1699, the trustees of the forfeited estates complained in an official Report, that so hasty had been several of the grantees or their agents in the disposition of the forfeited woods, that vast numbers of trees had been cut and sold for not above (,</. a-piecc; and in particular, they stated that the like waste was still continuing on the lands of Feltrim, within six miles of Dublin, and the woods of O'Shaughnessy in the county of Galway.

In 1703, Folliott Sherigley had a grant of the town and lands of Feltrim, Eflernock, and Mabestown, 325 acres, " the estate of Richard Fagan, attainted;" and in 1728, this denomination was returned as comprising 221 acres, of which the tithes of corn and hay were stated to be payable to the economy fund of St. Patrick's cathedral. Immediately after which, the lands passed into the possession of the Bever family, whose descendant, Edward Bever of Feltrim, was enabled by a private act of parliament in 1760 to make leases thereof, and otherwise to charge the premises—At this time Hoffsleger had his celebrated flower-garden here.

About Feltrim the botanist will find fedia den- tata, oval-fruited corn salad ; agrostis vulgaris, common bent grass; jasione montana, common sheep's bit; sedum acre, wall pepper; agrimonia eupatoria, agrimony; galeopsis ladanum, red hemp nettle; a variety of the thymus serpyllum, wild thyme with white flowers; draba verna, common whitlow grass ; geranium columbinum, long-stalked crane's-bill; geranium lucidum, shining crane's-bill; polygala vulgaris, milkwort; poterium sanguisorba, salad burnct; saxifraga tridactylotes, rue-leaved saxifrage, flowering in May ; fedia olitoria, lamb's lettuce, flowering from April to June ; allium arenarium, sand garlic. On the adjacent lands a variety of the galeopsis tetrahit, common hempbane with white flowers; orchis viridis, frog orchis ; plantago media, hoary plantain.—On the rocks, arabis hirsnfa, hairy wall

cress ; urccolaria contorta, ; and in the hedges,

trifolium officinalc, melilot.

Between this place and Swords, is a holy well, dedicated to St. Wereburghe, a saint of the seventh age, daughter of Wilfere, King of Mercia. " In her," as her biographers write, " was mingled the royal blood of all the chief Saxon kings, but her glory was the contempt of a vain world even from her cradle, on the pure motion of the love of God."

The Family Of Fagan,

so intimately connected with this locality, is of high antiquity in Ireland, and much distinguished in its annals, as well as in the history of other countries.

In the year 1022, died Flan O'Fagan, archdean of Durrow in the King's County, " a man in real estimation for goodness, wisdom, and exemplary piety." In the thirteenth century the name was established as one of tenure in Meath, as the ancient denominations of Faganstown and Derry-Fagan testify ; and there the Fagans early connected themselves with the de Lacys ; the Plun- ketts, ancestors of the Earls of Louth; the Barnewalls of Cricks- town, ancestors of the Viscounts Kingsland, and the Barons of Turvey and Trimlestown. About the year 1275, Nicholas de Hynteberg and others confirmed to Sir Robert Bagod a certain stone house with all its appurtenances of wood and stone, situated within the walls of the city of Dublin, and in the parish of St. Martin near St. Werburgh's gate, which had been theretofore the land of William Fagan, together with a certain tower beyond said gate.

In 1334, Richard Fagan had a pension of twenty marks charged on the treasury of Ireland, in consideration of his good services against O'Reilly and Bermingham, and in 1343 had a further grant of part of the lands forfeited by bis father-in-law, Sir Hugh de Lacy, for the term of his own life and that of his son John. This John was in 1358 high sheriff of the liberties of Meath, and in 1373 was appointed governor of the castle of Trim. In 1402 Nicholas Fagan was one of two commissioners deputed to collect state supplies in the barony of Morgallion, and in 1423 Sir John Fagan was constituted high sheriff of the liberties of Meath, and received a writ of mandamus to muster the forces of his district, in order to repel the incursions of the O'Conors and O'Reillys, " the avowed enemies of the English Pale." His son, Richard Fagan, was in 1457 high sheriff of the liberties of Meath, and in the following year obtained a pension of twenty marks, on account of the heavy expenses he had sustained in the king's service during his employment.

Christopher Fagan, the representative of the Meath line and the inheritor of their estates, was involved in the civil wars that arose in Ireland during the reign of Henry the Seventh, and in par- tirular in the assertion of Perkin Warbeck's title to the crown. This Christopher was (with as it is said four of his sons) slain at the siege of Carlow, and having been attainted, his estates were on inquisition of 1494 ascertained, and subsequently granted over to the Aylmers, Barnewalls, and other nobles of the Pale. John, the youngest son of Christopher, escaped the fatal field where his father and his brothers perished, and flying to Cork, intermarried about the year 1514 with the daughter of William Skiddy of Skiddy's Castle, by whom he had Thomas Fagan, afterwards one of the citizens of Cork, who not only opposed the proclaiming of King James, and the entrance of the Lord Mountjoy into the city, but even took forcible possession of Skiddy's Castle.

To return to the line of Christopher,—his eldest son Riqhard, who fell with him at Carlow, left a son, Thomas Fagan, who acquired the estate of Feltrim, and had two sons, Christopher and Richard; the former was one of the sheriffs of the city of Dublin in 1565, and again in 1573, as was the latter in 1575, and Lord Mayor in 1587. In 1604 this Richard obtained a pardon of alienation for himself and his son and heir John Fagan of Feltrim, and dying in 1609, was buried in the family vault at St. Audeon's. John intermarried with Alicia, the daughter of Walter Segrave, by whom Ive had issue four sons. A short time after the decease of his father he surrendered his estates to the Crown, and not only obtained a new grant thereof by letters patent in 1611, but also got a grant of several lands in the county of Wexford in 1637. His eldest son, Richard, intermarried with Eleanor Fagan, the heiress of the Meath estates, by which event all the estates of the Fagan family vested in the house of Feltrim. By her he had Christopher Fagan who succeeded thereto, but was declared a forfeiting proprietor during the civil wars of 1641. On proof, however, of his innocence, he was in 1670 decreed to the possession thereof, qualified into an estate in tail male. The other three sons of John Fagan were Thomas and George, who both died unmarried, and John, who became the founder of the Munster line, the last representatives of the Fagans of Feltrim.

In tho charter of King James the Second to Old Lcighlin, in 1688, Hugh Fagan was named one of the burgesses, as was Richard Fagan iu that granted in the ensuing year to Swords, and the same monarch, in 1690, presented the Rev. James Fagan to the vicarages of Dowestown and Castlecor.

To revert to John, son of John Fagan and Alice Aylmer, before mentioned as the founder of the Munster line, he married Bell, daughter of William Knowles, of Waterford, and died about the year 1683, leaving three sons, William, Christopher, and James. The latter passed after the Kevolution into the Spanish service, where he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. William, the eldest son, died without issue, leaving all of his property that escaped confiscation in 1689, (for he too espoused the cause of James the Second,) to his next brother, Christopher, who had also adhered to the same cause, was a captain in Lord Ken- mare's regiment of infantry, fought at Aughrim, was comprised in the capitulation of Limerick in 1691, and retired thence, at the invitation of Lord Kenmare, to the county Kerry, where he died in 1740, leaving issue, Patrick Fagan, and other sons. Patrick died in 1770, leaving a very numerous family, some of whom have signalized themselves in various quarters of the globe. Christopher, the eldest, entered the French service, became a chevalier of the order of St. Louis, and a very distinguished officer, and died in London, in 1816, without issue. Stephen, the second son, was an eminent merchant in Cork, and died in 1811, leaving issue as hereafter mentioned. Robert Fagan, the third son of Patrick, became a merchant at St. Kitt's ; and his son Christopher is now Adjutant-General in the India service. Another son, James, became Quartermaster-General at Grenada, where he was killed in a duel. A fifth, John, left issue—two sons ; George, who became Adjutant-General in India, and Christopher, a Brigadier-General. Stephen, the second son of Patrick, above alluded to, left two sons, Patrick and James ; the former, by his wife, Miss Hussey, of Dingle, left several children, the eldest of whom, Doctor Stephen Fagan, appears to be now the representative of the Fagan family ; while James, by his wife, Ellen Theresa Trant, left two sons, William and Charles, and two daughters, Eli/a and Susan. The elder brother of this line, William Fagan, is settled as a merchant in Cork, intermarried in 1827 with Mary, the only daughter of Charles Addis, of London, and by her has issue, sons and daughters.