Adamstown or Murnevan parish, county Wexford, Ireland, Lewis, 1837 description ©Jane Lyons

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descriptions from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837

ADAMSTOWN, or MURNEVAN, a parish, in the barony of BANTRY, county of WEXFORD, and province of LEINSTER, 6 miles (E.N.E.) from New Ross, on the road from that place, by way of Old Ross, to Enniscorthy; containing 1857 inhabitants.

It comprises 7941 statute acres: the surface is diversified with gentle elevations, contrasting strikingly with the rocky hill of Carrigburn in the vicinity; the land is chiefly under an improving system of tillage; limestone for manure is brought from New Ross.

Merton, the seat of T. Annesley Whitney, Esq., is in this parish.

The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Ferns, to which part of Inch, called Newbawn, has been united time immemorially, together constituting the corps of the archdeaconry of Ferns, in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes of the parish amount to £410 13s. 1d., and of the benefice, to £770 17s. 9d. The church, towards the erection of which the late Board of First Fruits gave £500, in 1805, is a neat edifice, in the later English style, with a square embattled tower; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have lately granted £259 for its repair. There are two glebes, containing 13 acres, of which 10 acres are held under the Earl of Rathdown, at a rental of £6, which is paid to the master of the parochial school ; and on this portion are situated the church, glebe-house, and school premises. The glebe-house was built by Archdeacon Barton, in 1803, by aid of a gift of £100 from the same Board.

The parish is within the Roman Catcholic union or district of Newbawn : the chapel is a spacious and handsome edifice, with a tower 56 feet high, built by local subscription, and is one of the largest in the diocese.

A parochial school-house, in which about 60 boys and 20 girls are taught, with apartments for the master, was lately built at the expense of the Earl of Rathdown and Archdeacon Barton. There are also two private pay schools, in which are about 70 children; and a Sunday school, under the superintendence of the Protestant clergyman.

Here are the remains of a castle, built in 1556 by Nicholas Devereux and his wife Katherine, as appears by a Latin inscription on a shield over the gateway, which is also charged with the armorial bearings of that family: they consist of a square tower in the centre of a quadrangle surrounded by a high wall flanked with turrets at the angles. In the ancient burial-ground is a Roman cross, supposed to be of considerable antiquity.