Athy Borough Council / Athy Town Commissioners

The earliest record of corporate governance of Athy is the charter granted by Henry VIII in 1515.  Granted at the request of Gerald, 7^th Earl of Kildare, the charter entitled the inhabitants of Athy to erect walls around their settlement, the cost of which was to be financed by customs collected on goods sold in Athy.  Provision was also made for the election on the 29^th of September each year of a town Provost who had overall responsibility for regulating activity within the boundaries of the Borough.  An important privilege granted by King Henry to the people of Athy was the right to hold a market “in a place deputed or ordained by Gerald, Earl of Kildare”.  To this day the market continues to be held each Tuesday in the area originally called “Market Square” but which is now known as “Emily Square”.  The “Emily”  commemorated in the name of the town’s fine public open space is Lady Emily Lennox, Duchess of Leinster and wife of the first Duke of Leinster. 

The 1515 charter may not be the first formal incorporation of the medieval settlement of Athy, but it remains, pending further research, the earliest known charter.  A further charter was granted by King James I in 1613 and this was to remain in place until the disbandment of the Borough of Athy in 1840.  The passing of the Act of Union some 40 years earlier had deprived the twelve members of Athy Corporation, who were appointed by the Duke of Leinster and held office for life, from nominating two members to represent Athy in Parliament.  For the loss of this privilege the Duke of Leinster, and not Athy Corporation, was compensated with the payment of £13,800, with a further £1,200 going to Lord Ennismore who as William Hare of Tivoli in Cork had purchased the Athy Parliamentary seats from the Duke three years previously.

With the abolition of Athy’s Borough the local people who had never before been able to participate in local government were able to elect Town Commissioners to regulate the town’s affairs.  A total of 21 Commissioners could be elected for that purpose and in 1842 the first Town Commissioners took office.  No election was required as the number of available seats equalled the numbers nominated.  Amongst those deemed elected was the local Parish Priest, Fr. John Lawler and the local Church of Ireland Rector, Rev. Frederick Trench.  Two local doctors also sat as the first Town Commissioners.  Dr. Thomas Kynsey was subsequently elected the first Chairman of the Commissioners while his colleague Dr. Thomas Ferris was also a Town Commissioner. 

One of the first acts of the new Commission was to agree valuations for properties in the town, which valuations were to be the basis of raising rates to finance its operations.  A perusal of the very first list of road works authorised by the new Town Commissioners gives an interesting insight into local placenames no longer in use today.  Tea Lane, the Turnpike, Tan Yard Lane and Higginsons Lane, are some of those place names which apart from Higginsons Lane have long passed from local memory.

At the second meeting of the new Town Commissioners it was agreed to provide a bell for the new clock donated by Lord Downes of Bert House.  The clock was installed in the Town Hall and soon thereafter the bell which had been used in St. Michael’s Church in Emily Square then under demolition was purchased by the Commissioners.  Both the clock and the bell today grace the north face of the Town Hall.  Another early decision taken by the Commissioners was the retention of the services of the town bellman at a wage of 2 guineas a year and the appointment of Thomas Sheill who was himself one of the 21 Commissioners to hold the position of Town Clerk.

It’s worthy of note that in the first ten years of its working life Athy Town Commissioners found it necessary to raise finance by way of imposing rates on only two occasions.  The first time was in 1842 when a total of £30.15.6 was levied on the town and again in 1851 when the sum of £50 was required to be collected in rates.  A large proportion of the Commissioners revenue came from payments for the weighing of farm produce at the public weighing scales in Emily Square.  The Commissioners had a weigh bridge for weighing straw and a beam scales for weighing other farm produce.  Everything sold in the market had to be weighed on the Town Commissioners scales and the weight registered on an official ticket issued by the Weighmaster.

Another source of revenue for the Town Commissioners was the monthly auction of manure which the Commissioners had the right to collect from the streets of Athy.  Road cleaning was of a most rudimentary kind and was primarily concerned with the collection of manure which was kept between auctions at Green Alley and in the Potato Market at Emily Square.  Manure collecting was carried out all year around, but during the summer months the Town Commissioners provided a watering cart which sprinkled water around the streets in order to keep down the dust.

The Commissioners were in office for six years before the issue of cleaning the streets of the town in addition to collecting manure was first considered.  The cost conscious Commissioners appointed a three man deputation to consult with the Board of Guardians who had responsibility for the recently opened local Workhouse.  Their purpose was to enquire on what terms the paupers in the Workhouse would sweep the streets of Athy from 10 o’clock each morning.  That time was chosen so as not to interfere with the ancient right of householders to gather up manure in front of their premises - an important concession at a time when gardens were cultivated on a regular basis. 

The Board of Guardians were apparently less than sympathetic to the Town Commissioners requests and in January 1849 the Town Commissioners agreed to employ two men to keep the streets clean.  The men who were provided with wheelbarrows were the first outdoor staff employed by the Commissioners but soon thereafter the range of services provided in the town developed to include the laying of sewers and the paving of streets.

The first ever election to the Town Commission was held in July 1847 when 28 candidates contested the 21 seats.  Only occupiers of property rated at £5 or upwards were entitled to vote and candidates had to be occupiers of premises rated at £20 or more.  These requirements gave a very limited franchise but at least they represented a vast improvement on the non elective system which operated prior to the abolition of the previous Borough Council. 

The poll toppers in 1847 with 105 votes each were local mill owner Henry Hannon and the Parish Priest, Fr. John Lawler.  It is interesting to note that voting took place in the Courtroom of the Town Hall, with each voter announcing in public the candidates he wished to vote for.  The secret ballot would not come until the passing of the Ballot Act of 1872.

Something rotten in the borough of Athy

An enquiry concerning the first Catholic to be appointed town clerk of Athy sent me revisiting material I extracted from the minute books of Athy Borough Council, Athy Town Commissioners and Athy Urban District Council almost 30 years ago. Jimmy O’ Higgins was the acting town clerk who facilitated my research at a time when I was still living in Dublin by permitting me generous access to the council records. I remember trawling through those leather-bound minute books for months on end, deciphering as best I could the handwriting of the many clerks who over the centuries had the duty of keeping the council records. It was an extremely difficult task but nevertheless a rewarding one for the wealth of information obtained which helped to put flesh on the skeleton which up to then made up my knowledge of Athy, its people and their common history.

The lady who called to me during the week had a grandmother whose only brother she claimed was the first Catholic town clerk of Athy. His name was Patrick Hickey. The years he held the position were not known, but perhaps uniquely he subsequently became a Christian Brother.

Patrick Hickey, she said, was later viceprovincial of the Christian Brothers order in Australia and died in Bath, England, where he is buried. By strange coincidence, I had been visiting Bath just two days previously so on a number of fronts my interest was aroused by the enquiry.

The first local authority for the town of Athy was that established under Henry VIII’s charter of 1515 and revamped as Athy Borough Council by virtue of King James’s charter 98 years later. Controlled by successive earls of Kildare and later on their elevation to the dukedom of Leinster by the premier duke in Ireland, Athy Borough Council was what was known as “a rotten borough”. It was so termed because the franchise was vested in 12 burgesses nominated by the head of the Leinster family and seldom, if ever, did any of these burgess office holders reside in the town over which they exercised completed control. The borough council was abolished with many other Irish “rotten boroughs” in 1840.

The first elected Athy local authority was comprised of 21 locals sworn in as town commissioners in July 1847. I never fail to be surprised when reading through the list of the first town commissioners to find the names of the parish priest and the Church of Ireland rector amongst the commission members, as well as no less than three local doctors. The first town clerk appointed was Henry Sheill and the commissioners retained an office in his house at Leinster Street for several years until the Duke of Leinster made available what was the old Record Court as offices for the town commissioners. This he did in 1865 and the room given to the council was located on the south-east wing of the town hall at ground floor level. The commissioners swapped rooms with the Mechanics Institute 22 years later and so ended up in the small room in the south west side of the town hall directly opposite the caretaker’s apartment, where the council offices remained until new offices were provided at Rathstewart.

Reading through the extracts I took from the council minute books, I was pleasantly surprised to find how strong were the elected members when dealing with perceived inefficiencies on the part of council officials. Henry Sheill resigned after 23 years service, as did John Roberts, the town inspector of nuisances, when the commissioners resolved “that in future should the public pumps not be kept in proper order the month’s salary of the town clerk and the inspector of nuisances be stopped”. Following Sheills’s departure, the town clerkship became vacant on three occasions over the following nine years, ending with the appointment of Patrick Hickey as town clerk on the 5 May 1879 at a salary of £20 a year. Given the information I received last week, this is undoubtedly the man described to me as the first Catholic appointed as town clerk of Athy. Given the text of the following resolution passed by Athy town commissioners in April 1865, it is quite likely that all the previous holders of the offices were non- Catholics. After all, were they likely to be otherwise if the elected members were moved to send this motion to the House of Commons in London:

“We, the town commissioners of the ancient and loyal town of Athy, feeling in common with our fellow countrymen the insulting and degrading tendencies of the obnoxious oaths and declarations which are still required to be taken by Catholics and Protestants in order to qualify them for the acceptance of municipal office, most earnestly pray that your Honourable house will take into consideration that such oaths had their origin in a period of gross bigotry and persecution. In an age of enlightenment like the present and now more than 30 years after Catholic Emancipation, your petitioners earnestly entreat that these obnoxious oaths may be erased from the statute books”.

Patrick Hickey, whom I believe lived in Emily Square, resigned as town clerk in 1882 presumably to enter the Christian Brothers. His subsequent career is not known to me but hopefully some more research will help to complete the story of the man who, it is claimed, was the first catholic to occupy the town clerkship of Athy town.

A number of intriguing entries in the council minute books make interesting reading and gives some flavour of life and conditions in Athy of 150 years ago. In August 1856, two commissioners, Mark Cross and Henry Hannon, were asked to wait on the magistrates “relative to the scandal of public prostitution” in the town. The problems caused by the ladies of the night was still exercising the minds of the town commissioners two years later when they caused to have public notices posted throughout the town with the following warning:

“Caution to persons keeping any place of public resort within the town for the sale of refreshments of any kind who knowingly supplies any common prostitute or resorting therein to assemble and continue in his premises after this notice will be prosecuted according to law”.

Nine months later, Thomas Roberts was appointed assistant to John Roberts for the purpose of prosecuting public prostitutes and street beggars at a salary of four shillings per week with a bounty of two shillings and six pence for each prostitute convicted. I am afraid the unfortunate Mr Roberts was unable to collect many half crowns after the local magistrates stated “that in prosecuting a prostitute, a man should also charge them with an offence to him rather than to summons her alone as it requires his evidence with that of Mr Roberts to ensure a conviction”.

In August 1868, Pat Walker, who had previously worked for the town commissioners as a road sweeper (officially called a “scavenger”), was appointed to a position, the title which was not given but which merited him being provided with a coat and a hat. He was “to remove off the streets, and when necessary bring them before the magistrates, all vagrants, beggars and prostitutes, to ring the bell whenever required, to keep order in the market and to assist the bailiff in hindering forestalling in the purchase of fowl”, all of which he undertook to do for the wage of six shillings a week.

Business obviously was not sufficient to keep him in his new position as within 12 months he was back to his old job as “town scavenger” earning four shillings a week. However, this job merited in addition to the coat and hat already supplied to him a new pair of trousers and a waist coat all courtesy of the Town Commissioners.

From town clerks to Christian Brothers, scavengers, vagrants and prostitutes, it’s amazing what can turn up amongst the dusty records of Irish municipal government.

Tolls and Charges and Athy Borough Council

Last week I wrote of the first Town Commissioners elected by the ratepayers of Athy who replaced the Borough Corporation abolished by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1840. The first Corporation members had been appointed following Henry VIII’s Charter of 1515 and those appointed held office for life. In it’s early years the borough of Athy was primarily concerned with fortifying the town and paving the streets. Finance was provided through the tolls and customs collected by borough officials at the Tuesday market and the five annual fairs held in the town. It would seem that in time these monies originally destined for public works in the town were appropriated by the Dukes of Leinster.

The Corporation which had extracted custom and tolls on fairs and market days since 1515 continued to do so throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. At the commencement of the 19th century the following rates of custom were collected.

ARTICLE MARKET DAY FAIR DAY

Covered Standings with soft goods 10d. 1/8
Flat Standings 6d. 1/=
Standings for hand won cutlery 3d. 6d.
Prize or cast cloths standings 1/1 1/1
Hatter standings 1/8 1/8
Breeches makers standings 10d. 10d.
Brogue makers standings 2d. 6d.
Hawkers 2d. 6d.
Each load of wooden Ware 4d. 6d.
Each car with pigs, calves or lambs 6d. 6d.
Each car with one pig, calf or lamb 1d. 1d.
Each car with coals or culm ½ d. ½ d.
Each carcase of Pork, Bacon or Mutton 1d. 1d.
A strange butchers car standing 4d. 4d.
Bacon or salt meat per tub or table 2d. 2d.
Earthen wares per load 4d. 4d.
Calves, sheep, pigs or lambs each 1½ d.
Horses, mares, mules or asses each
Black Cattle, half to buyer, half to seller
6d.
4d.

The customs were let each year to the highest tenderer, with the successful person having the sole right to collect them within the town on the Market and Fair days. In the last five years of the corporations existence the tolls were collected by toll collectors appointed and paid for by the Corporation. The toll and custom receipts were paid to the Duke of Leinster, on what authority it cannot now be ascertained.

Another source of finance were payments for cranage. A public weighing scales was located in the Market Square and to it came the farmers and dealers who bought and sold their produce by weight. The schedule of cranage charges for 1817 indicate that ½d. was charged for weighing corn, malt, flour, butter, wool hides, coals, culm under 100 lbs. weight, and 1d. over that weight. Potatoes were weighed free of charge while 1d. was paid for weighing meat carcasses.

Apart from the yearly election of officers and nominating the parliamentary representatives when called up to do so, the Borough Council was of little benefit to the people of Athy. Whatever tolls and customs were collected were transferred to the Duke of Leinster, thereby reducing the Boroughs capacity to carry out improvements to the town. Presumably the Sovereign and his officials adopted some rudimentary policy in relation to the cleaning of the town. Certainly no Borough staff were so employed but householders may have been required to keep pavements and streets in front of their premises in a tidy order. The Borough did accept responsibility for public lighting in the town at some stage during the 18th century and by 1820 it had 30 public lamps which were maintained and lit by the town lamp lighter at a cost in 1824 of £22.00 per annum. Water pumps were also provided throughout the town, four being available to the public by 1800. By 1824 the town had taken to itself further Fair rights exercisable on different dates throughout the year while to the Tuesday Market operated by Charter the town now added a market on Saturdays. The Markets were particularly handicapped by the imposition of tolls at the Toll Gate at the entrance to the town on the Athy Castlecomer road. The resulting fall off in business in the town no doubt prompted the then Duke of Leinster in 1824 to propose to the town corporation the abolition of customs and tolls hitherto collected on his behalf on the two weekly market days. The taxes were still to be imposed and collected on Fair days while on market days only coal and culm were to be subject to custom. The retention and indeed the doubling of the custom on coal and culm to 1d. was justified on the grounds that being a trade carried on between the collieries and Dublin, its payment would not interfere with the town of Athy or the Duke of Leinster’s Estate. The Dukes proposal provided for the retention of the Cranage charges from which he suggested a scale of payments for the various Corporation officials, while the extra ½d. custom on coal and culm was to fund a suitable salary for the town Sovereign. The salaries adopted by agreement of the Borough in 1824 were :-

Deputy Sovereign £30.0.0.
Town Clerk £11.7.6.
Billet Master £ 2.5.6.
3 Sergeants at Mace £6.16.6.
Bellman £ 2.5.6.
Weightmaster at Crane £15.0.0.
Weightmasters helpers £ 5.0.0.
Weight master (coal and culm) £10.0.0.
Receivers on Fair Days £1.10.0.
3 Assistants on Fair Days £1.10.0.
4 Collections at other Custom Gates £ 3.0.0.
4 Assistants £1.10.0.
Collector of Market Square £1.10.0.

Park of the Dukes proposal was the setting up of a Committee comprised of townspeople to advice the Sovereign on matters relating to the cleansing and lighting of the town. Although this was agreed the records do not indicate whether the Committee was ever established.