KNOCKTOPHER,
a town and parish (formerly a parliamentary borough), in the barony
of KNOCKTOPHER county of KILKENNY, and province of LEINSTER,
10 miles (S.) from Kilkenny, on the road to Waterford;
containing 1518 inhabitants, of which number, 475 are in the town.
This place
was the principal residence of the Butlers, Earls of Ormonde,
of whom James, the second Earl, in 1356, founded a monastery
for Carmelite friars, of which the fIrst prior, Henry Brown,
received two parts of the temporalities of the see of Ossory,
then in the King's hands; and the last prior, William, was made
bishop of that diocese by Edw. VI. The site and revenues of the establishment,
at the dissolution, were granted by Hen. VIII. to Patrick Barnwell;
and a regrant of the abbey and lands was made subsequently by Jas. I.
to Sir Nicholas White, Knt., from whose representatives the ancestor
of the present proprietor, the Rev. Sir Hercules Richard Langrishe,
purchased them. In 1365, the same Earl obtained from Edw. III. the grant
of a weekly market and several fairs; and the town appears to have enjoyed
the privileges of a free borough by a kind of prescriptive right, which
was acknowledged in a charter of Jas. II. that never came into operation.
The castle was taken in 1649 by the parliamentarian forces commanded
by Cromwell in person, and by his orders was immediately demolished.
The inhabitants
first sent members to the Irish parliament in 1661, and continued to
do so till the Union, when the borough was disfranchised. The inhabitants
by prescription chose a portreeve, chiefly for the election of their
representatives, and in the charter of Jas. II. the corporation is styled
the "Sovereign, Burgesses, and Commonalty" but since the Union
every municipal right has become extinct. It is at present merely a
village, containing about 80 houses, of which several are neatly built,
and has a penny post to Thomastown, and a constabulary police
station, Both market and fair have been discontinued,The
parish is chiefly under tillage; limestone abounds, and lead ore is
frequently found in the vicinity.
Adjoining
the village is the seat of the Rev. Sir Richard Langrishe, Bart.,
an ancient mansion, part of which was the old abbey. The living is a
rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Ossory, united by act of council,
in 1676, to the rectories and vicarages of Kilneddy, Aughaviller,
Kiltorkin, Dernahensy, Kilkeril,
Kilkeasy, and Donemagan,
together forming the union of Knocktopher, in the patronage of
the Bishop. The tithes amount to £200, The glebe-house is situated
on a glebe of 16 acres, and there are other glebe lands in the union,
comprising 25 acres. The church, for the repairs of which the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners have recently granted £114, is a neat edifice with
a spire.
In the
R. C, divisions the parish is the head of a union or district called
Ballyhale, comprising also the parishes
of Derrynahinch, Aughaviller,
and Kilkeasy, and part of the parishes of Burnchurch,
Jerpoint, and Kells; and containing five chapels, of which
the chapel of Knocktopher is a neat edifice, lately built by
a Carmelite friar, which, with his house adjoining it, cost about £2000
: a Carmelite friary is about to be established here.
About
150 children are taught in two public schools, of which one is supported
by the rector and one by Miss Langrishe : and there are three
private schools, in which are 250 children. There is also an allotment
of 12 acres of land, given, by an enclosure act, for the commons of
Knocktopher, to found a parochial school; but the appropriation has
been neglected and the ground has been taken possession of by the peasantry.
There
are some remains of the ancient abbey, consisting of two arches of one
of the aisles, together with the tower of the church, which in the lower
part is square, and in the upper octangular, There are no remains of
the castle, but the mount and the fosse are still entire.
