Image: Extract from OS First edition 6” to 1 mile Sheet 25 showing the town of Wicklow, the harbour and Black Castle. (Wicklow Local Studies library).

The history of settlement in the area of Wicklow town stretches back to at least a Viking settlement around the ninth and tenth centuries. With the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, Henry II gave the Black Castle and its surrounds to Strongbow in 1173. This would have involved a charter, and burgage plots. These are attested by 1199. But the tumult of history has made drawing any direct lines of ownership impossible. It was only in 1603, when the English colonial government needed new boroughs to support its numbers in the Irish parliament that a new charter was issued.

Head of the borough

The head of the borough was known as the Portreeve and the council officials were burgesses.  After the first Wicklow charter was issued, Sir William Ussher was made the head of the borough, and William Parsons, Murrough McTeige Oge (Byrne), William Dowdall, Patrick Conway, John Wolverston, James Byrne, Richard White, Laughlin Doyle, Murrough McCallowe (Byrne), Donnogh McThomas (Byrne) and John White were made the first burgesses. It was up to them to attract people to live there, and to develop it into a profitable town.

Earliest record

We do not have the minutes from the years 1603 to 1662. There are no town records from the time of the 1641 rebellion. And even though the cover of this volume states that it contains records from 1659, they are not to be found in it. What the Cromwellians got up to in Wicklow is not available to us in borough minutes. It is only after the king, Charles II, was restored to the throne, that we have a window into what was happening in the town.

Parcels of land

By that time, much of the land within the borders of the borough had been leased to the leading men of the day. Of great interest to us is the fact that, when parcels of land were being leased, the boundaries of those plots were very well described and measured. On the basis of this information, it should be possible for a cartographer to draw a very precise map of the town in the late 1600s, now that the necessary data is more accessible.

Image: Wicklow Urban District Council circa 1922 with Wicklow Town mace, courtesy of John Finlay.

Mace

One of the first things that the burgesses did was to purchase a new mace. A ceremonial mace is a symbol of authority. If there had been one before 1650, it would have had a crown on it.  For this reason, it would have been disposed of by the Cromwellians. We do not know if they had a mace made for Parliamentarian rule. If they did, it would have been removed with the return of the king.

The Restoration

Otherwise, the two most common items of business in the first few years of the Restoration were the leasing of land and petitions for men to be made ‘free of the town’ or made freemen. Again, we do not know how the Parliamentarian burgesses would have dealt with land ownership. Were Royalists stripped of their deeds?

Freemen

But what was still very pertinent was gaining the freedom of the town. Without it, one could not trade or sell there. If a petitioner was accepted, there was a charge, called a fine, initially of 13 shillings and 4 pence, for admission, an oath to be taken, and the man’s trade was noted. Men higher in society were often not charged for admission, but their status - gentleman, esquire, knight, etc., was noted.

Taxes

The burgesses also were responsible for levying specific taxes on the people of the town, to be used for repairing the roads and town buildings, or for building or replacing buildings such as the market house, the school house, and the guard house. The building of the bridge to the Murrough also required public money. They likewise collected rents and tariffs on goods coming into the port.