FOR a long time forgotten and well known in Ireland are the Canons Regular of St Victor, or as they are sometimes styled the Victorines. Yet once they were very firmly established in our midst, and had large Irish possessions.
What must have been their most desirable monastery, on account of beauty of situation and its proximity to Dublin, is St Wolstan’s, the ruins of which are still to be seen at Celbridge. Just where the river Liffey has passed the village begin, on the one side, the lands of Castletown Manor, and on the other those of St Wolstan’s.
The ruins are, we may say, on the banks of the river, and about midway between Celbridge bridge and that other old bridge built by John le Decer, Mayor of Dublin, in 1308, still called Newbridge. The ruins which now exist prove the priory to have been of considerable extent. There remain two gateways, one tower, and two fragments. One can still ascend the tower, and mount to the top of the gateway, by stone steps in good preservation.
There are also a few little compartments off these stone staircases. Another tower, referred to in the Ordnance Survey letters, was thrown down, about 1840, on account of its unsafe condition. From the appearance of the ruins, the old monastery might have been a quadrangular building, enclosing a large courtyard; this was a common form of Norman monasteries.
Tradition has it that St Wolstan’s was connected by an underground passage with the Church of Donacumper. The remains of this church now form a very pretty and striking ruin in a graveyard on the left hand side of the main road from Lucan to Celbridge. Donacumper must have a history of its own prior even to the establishment of St Wolstan’s, because from the Book of Armagh we learn that every church called Domnach was founded by St Patrick himself, and there he spent a night. In this ruin are to be seen the walls of a nave and wing. The wing seems to have been added to form a mortuary chapel, and in it can still be seen the relics of an ornamental window. Almost under the window, inside the church, is an open vault and a broken slab, lying haIf buried at its entrance, records that it was once the ” family burial and sepulchreI place of the Alen family, of Alen Court.” This vault is said to have originally been part of the underground passage leading from the church to the monastery. It is full of bones and skulls; and, if it is an underground passage, far ingress is barred by a stone wall seemingly not too long built.
The Canons Regular of St Victor had their origin in the celebrated Abbey of St Victor, of Paris. This abbey was built by Louis the Great, King of France, about the year 1113. It was dedicated to St Victor, who suffered martyrdom at Marseilles under the Emperor Maximin. William of Champeaux, the master of the unfortunate Abelard, was then Archdeacon of Paris, where he was engaged teaching philosophy. Tired of the vanity of the world, with the consent of the king he retired to his new abbey, taking with him, for his chief disciples, persons of singular piety and great erudition. They bound themselves to live under the rules and constitutions of Canons Regular, of which they took the habit, and on account of the patron of the place they called themselves Canons Regular of St Victor.
The original constitution of the order was very strict. According to it. meat was never allowed in the refectory, manual labour was part of the rule, strict silence had to be observed, and communication with one another should be only by signs; the abbots were forbidden the use of a cross or mitre, and they were not to frequent the courts of princes. Hibert, seventh abbot of St Genevieve, Paris, one of the houses of the order, got permission from Pope Gregory IX (1227) to wear a mitre, cross, and other episcopal ornaments. Other abbots followed suit, and by degrees a little laxity crept in. The English war which disturbed France during the reign of King John (1199) especially tended towards encroachments on the strict observance of the rule; for soon afterwards we find that all the houses of order had become lax except the original one of St Victor, which still remained faithful.
According to the testimony of Louis VIII of France, there were forty-four abbeys of Victorines in the early part of the thirteenth century. The dress of the order was a white serge habit with rochet worn over it, and a large black cloak was used when walking out. The choral dress, in summer, was a surplice above the rochet, with a hood hanging over the shou1ders; and, in winter, a large black cope, with a cape and hood. The dress of the first canons was simply an alb, which reached almost to the feet; and in choir they wore also on the head a black hood, lined with skin of the same colour; and the hair was shaved according to the fashion of the monastic tonsure. In the beginning, lay brothers were received into the order, and they wore a habit of a dark colour; but in after times there were no lay brothers. Golden rays in a blue sky formed the arms of the order, and the shield was a ducal crown, surmounted with a mitre and cross.
The Victorines were in high repute in England and Ireland, and in both these kingdoms they had representatives in the Upper Chambers of Parliament. The Priory of St Wolstan’s was founded in 1202, by Adam de Hereford, and it got its name on account of the then recent canonisation of St Wolstan, Bishop of Worcester. De Hereford gave to Richard the first prior, the lands on the river Liffey, and the Church of Donaghcumper. Donaghcumper is usually taken to mean domnach, a church; and comair (old form, compair), a confluence of water; but, as is remarked in the Ordnance Survey letter, there is no confluence of water nearer than that of the Rye and the Liffey, two miles and a-half distant, unless the meeting of two very small streams not far off is referred to. It would not seem farfetched to think that the real meaning is domnach, a. church; and comphairteac, accessor, or comphairtidhe (pr. comfairee), a. companion.
The people about call the place Donaghcumper, Donaghcumfer, and Donaghcumfert.
The church must have been prior to the foundation of the monastery, and a gift in itself, separated, probably, from the grounds on which the monastery stood by a public road, and connected with it by a long underground passage; therefore, it would not at all be unlikely that the name means the companion or accessory church. It may be said that the name comes from the time of St Patrick. Domnach, in relation to the place, certainly dates from that time; but there is no reason to prevent us believing that the distinguishing title might not change with a serious change of circumstances. In the beginning the possessions of the priory were simply some hundreds of adjoining acres, including the Church of Donaghcomper.
By degrees, through gifts and purchase, the monks became owners of almost the whole present Catholic parish of Celbridge, as well as some land at Leixlip, not included in that boundary. For instance, we read that in the year 1271, William Randesham or Ravesham, Seneschal to Fulk, Archbishop of Dublin, granted to the priory the lands of Tristledelane, with the appurtenances thereunto belonging, in Franckalmoigne: he increased the number of canons, and obliged them to celebrate duly his and his wife’s anniversary, on which day they were to feed thirty poor men, or to give them, in lieu thereof, one penny each, under penalty of one hundred shillings, to be paid to the Archbishop on every such failure, and a further penalty of one hundred shillings to be expended on the Cathedral Church of St Patrick.
In 1310, a certain Nicholas Taaffe, presented for ever to Stephen, the prior at the time, the Manor of Donaghcomper. In 1314, the Churches of Stacumney and Donaghmore were granted to the sole and separate use of the prior. The Church of Killadoon also at one time belonged to the priory.
The history of St Wolstan’s, as a monastery, extends from 1202 to 1536. In this year Henry VIII. seized upon it and all its belongings, and the enumeration of these in the Inquisition includes Straffan, Kildrought, Donaghcumper, Stacunney, Donaghmore, Killadoon, Castledillon, Tippers. town, Laughlenstown, Coolfitch, Simondston, Ballymakelly, Ardrass, and Kilmacreddock. Whether Straffan Church, the ruins of which are still to be seen in the graveyard there, ever belonged to St Wolstan’s, it is difficult to know. The monks certainly owned six acres of land in Straffan, but there is no mention of the church. However, it is reasonable to suppose that this six acres included the site of the present ruin. There must have been, at least, six small outlying churches connected with the monastery, Donaghcomper, Stacumney, Donaghmore, Kilmacreddock, Killadoon, and the little Chapel of St Patrick, at Ardrass. These are all now within the boundary of the Catholic parish of Celbridge, Richard Weston was the last prior, 1536; and by special arrangement he was allowed a residence in the monastery for the remainder of his life, together with a small annual sum for support. There is a place near St Wolstan’s at present called Weston-park.
On the 1st of December, 1538, the priory with all its possessions, and the Manor of Kildrought, was granted for ever, at the annual rent of two knight’s pay to Alen of Norfolk, Master of the Rolls, and afterwards Lord Chancellor.
The Manor of Kildrought, the present Castletown, was separated from the priory only by the river Liffey. It had been for a. few hundred years in possession of the Geraldine family, and evidently from the proximity of the estates there had sprung a very friendly feeling between the Earls of Kildare and the monks. It is recorded in Archdall, that in 1390 died Maurice, Earl of Kildare, a munificent benefactor to this house (St Wolstan’s). John Alen, Master of the Rolls, was a relative of the unfortunate Archbishop Alen of Dublin. They were both at the time practically English officials, and together with Robert Cowley, the chief solicitor, they worked on the fears of Henry VIII., so far as to persuade him that the Earl of Kildare was an enemy to the English crown in Ireland. Hence, arose the circumstances which led to the rebellion of Silken Thomas. After his execution at Tyburn, in 1537, the Manor of Kildrought was confiscated to the crown, and in 1538 it was given, with St Wolstan’s, to this John Alen, in requittal for his seeming great anxiety about the interests of the king.
St Wolstan’s remained then in the Alen family till the year 1752, when by a decree of the Court of Exchequer it was sold, and purchased by Dr Robert Clayton, Bishop of Clogher. He bequeathed it to his niece, Anne, the wife of Dr Thomas Bernard, Bishop of Killaloe. Dr Clayton greatly improved the house, which had been built from the ruins of the abbey, after the design of Mr Joshua Allen. This Allen was no relation of the St Wolstan Alens, but was an ancestor of Viscount Allen. He was a man well known for his skill in architecture, and amongst other things planned a house at Sigginstown, in the Co Kildare, for the tyrannical and unfortunate Earl of Strafford.
During the rebellion, and for about the first thirty years of this century, St Wolstan’s was a Protestant school.
There is a well near the river still called the Scholar’s Well, noted for the purity of its water. Near this well there can be seen what the people about say is the largest bone and the longest stone ever found in a river. The bone is fanshaped, and the stone is like a thin trunk of a tree standing upright.
Not far from the well is also a monument erected to the memory of Robert Clayton. It is a large vase, standing on a square pedestal, on which are the inscriptions:-
Rena.scentur
Quae jam cecidere
Cadent quae nuno aunt
As dying yet we live. May 1, 1756.”
“P. M. B.
Roberti Clayton
Clogherensis episcopi
& Catherinae Donnellan
Conjugis optima.
It does not appear that the Alena whilst in St Wolstan’s ever formally became Protestants. In an inquisition of Elizabeth we find that certain lands were taken from Sir John Alen, evidently because he would not conform; and in a list of Catholics from whom land was confiscated in Cromwell’s time, we read the name of Lady Alen of St Wolstan’s.
The last of the Alens connected with St Wolstan’s was one who spent a good part of his life in France. There he was called the Count de St Woostan. He was an officer in the regiment of Berwick, and fought with the famous Irish brigade in the battle of Fontenoy, 1745. He afterwards went to India with Lally, famous as a member of the same brigade, and remained with him through all those engagements and adventures there, for which afterwards he suffered so much. In consequence of the active part this Count de St, Woostan had taken with the French in their wars with the English both in Europe and India, he lost all rights to his Irish possessions; and, as we have seen, they were sold by the Court of Exchequer in 1752. The Count died at Amboise, in 1782.
From a collateral branch of this Alen family the Howards of Norfolk derive their additional name of Fitzalen. St Wolstan’s, and its adjoining church, Donaghcomper, seem to have been not only the centre of religious life for a large district around, but a centre of social activity.
Tradition holds that the market was held in front of Donaghcomper Church; and, as far as investigation goes, it is hard to find any other church from which the town of Celbridge derives its name.
The old name of Celbridge was Kildrought, the church of the bridge (droichet), of which this latter was a translation, and Kil was made Cel. Of course the more correct appellation would be domnach; but it is easy to understand how the common people travelling along this main road, and recognising Donaghcomper as an important market-place, would be constantly referring to it. They would call it the church of the bridge, it being near the bridge and kill, the more familiar and easy name for a church rather than domnach, just as we find in other places such familiar terms as the cross chapel or the kill chapel, rather than church.
The present town of Celbridge only really commenced its existence with the advent of the Dongan family to Castletown, in 1616, and whatever little importance the place had for some hundred years before must have been simply its connection with St Wolstan’s and Donaghcomper. Even so late as 1690 we have in one of the State papers registering the popish priests, James Warren, described as parish priest of Dennycomfert.
St Wolstan’s has now been for a considerable time in possession of the Cane family, and the present owner, Captain Claud Cane, shows his appreciation of the place by his continuous residence here, and the amount of labour which he employs in connection with it. He has the ruins nicely railed in, keeps the grounds in perfect order, and is much respected by the people of the district.
M. F. HOGAN, CC Celbridge.
Irish Ecclesiastical Record Volume 31-1892
Ardclough Community Council 