Extract from Maziere Brady’s ‘Clerical and Parochial Records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross

Pages 190 and 191, concerning the parish of Kinneigh, 1700 to 1847:

 

….. Vicars Choral. Kinneigh Church is out of repair. Divine service once a fortnight at Inniskean, by Mr. Patrickson.

“Munday, May 27, 1700. I went to Kineigh; the parish church stands three miles distant from Ballimony to the N. N. W. The west end of the church is cover’d, but the wall-plates give way; the partition betwixt that part of the church which is cover’d and the east end, which is uncover’d, is not plaster’d. A high round tower stands in the S. W. corner of the church-yard. A door was in the north side of the church, and, it is thought, opened into a vestry. ‘Tis supposed this church was formerly a cathedral. The church-yard, being an acre, is well inclos’d with a stone wall. About 30 acres of glebe lie round the church of Kineigh. The country about Kineigh is indifferent coarse. Mr. Woods, and Mr. Ware, and *Mr. Woodley live in this parish.

Towards the north, at about a mile distance from the church of Kineigh, begins the parish of Inchigeelah. There is no church northward of Kineigh Church nearer than Macromp, which is seven miles distant. Kineigh Church ought to be kept in repair, and divine service, at least, continued once a fortnight. Kineigh parish is worth to the Incumbent about fifty pounds per an. The lands of this parish belong chiefly to the Lord of Corke’s brother. The country about Kineigh is indifferent coarse. But few Protestants live to the north of Kineigh. A stone is in the S. W. corner of the Church of Kineigh, counted very sacred, which the Irish solemnly swear upon. This church is accounted amongst the Irish very sacred. The Vicar’s house, built with stone and thatch’t, is standing, and there are the ruins of a barn and stable. There is a tradition amongst the Irish that formerly in the church-yard there was a well that had great medicinal virtues, and that the concourse of people being very chargeable to the inhabitants, they stop’t it up. Half a plowland of Kineigh, lying near the church to the west, belongs to the Bishop of Corke, and contains about 60 English acres, indifferent coarse land. The Vicar of Kineigh has half the tithes of Kineigh. The Chantor of Corke has one rectory, and the Vicars Choral another. These two rectories are nearly equal in value.” (Downes’ Tour.)

1718. Nov. 6. Mr. Andrew Symes appears as V. Kinneigh. [ V.B.]

         He was also Precentor of Ross, q.v.

1720. Samuel Broome appears as V. Kinneigh. [V.B. D.R.] And he took a second collation on 15th Feb., 1731, on becoming Chancellor of Cork, q.v.

1768. Sept 19, John Kenney, a.m.. V. Kinneigh, per mortem Broome. [D.R.] In 1796 hr became P. Kilbrogan, q.v.

1769, March 4. Michael Tisdall, a.m., V. Kinneigh. [F.F.] In 1781 he became Archdeacon of Ross, q.v.

1781, June 8, Stephen Baggs, a.m., V. Kinneigh. [F.F.] In 1782 he became E. V. Myros, Ross, q.v.

 

 

 

1782. April 1.  Meade Swift, a.m., V. Kinneigh. [F.F.] He took afterwards the name of Dennis, and in 1796 became a Vicar Choral of Cork, q.v.

 

           1794. September 3, Armiger Sealy, Curate, and Edward Wood and Alexander Nicholls, Churchwardens, petition the bishop to consecrate the new church, built near the foundation of the old church by the Commissioners of First Fruits, and it is accordingly consecrated same day, under the name of Christ Church. [D.R.]

 

1796, January 7. Thomas Kenney, a.b. V. Kinneigh. [F.F.] In 1801 he became P. Donoughmore, Cloyne, q.v.

         1799, Sept 1. Kenny memorials for permission to build a glebe-house; and the Bishop approves on 15th  Nov., 1800. [D.R.] The house was built, but no charge for it was ever made on his successors.

 

1801, Nov. 4. John Kenney, ll.d., V. Kinneigh [F.F.] He was also P. Kilbrogan, q.v.

1815, March 10, Abraham Hamilton, a.m., V. Kinneigh, vacant by death of Kenney, and certified under 500 pounds per annum in value. [D.R.]

                     1830. The Protestant population is 392.

                     1837, Kinneigh: a vicarage, with cure, 10 miles long by 6 broad, containing 13,539 a. 2r. Gross population 5,706. Two Curates employed at stipends for the senior of L69 4s. 7 ½ d. Brit., and for the junior of L75 Brit. per annum. Composition for the vicarial tithes, L450 ; 45 ½ a. of glebe, valued at 20s. per acre, L45 10s.; subject to visitation fees, 11s.; diocesan schoolmaster L1 11s. Kinneigh glebe house, built in 1798, under the old Acts, but at what costs unknown, as it was defrayed out of the private funds of the builder, without subjecting his successor to any charges on account of the house, which is reported to be unfit for residence, having originally been intended for offices. Incumbent is non-resident ; he resides occasionally on his other benefice, but more generally att Florence Court, being domestic chaplain to the Earl of Enniskillen. One church, capable of accommodating 120 persons, built in 1790, at the expense of L461 10s. 9 ¼ d. Brit., granted as a gift by the late Board of First Fruits. No charge on the parish in 1832 on account of the church. Divine service is celebrated once on all Sundays and on the principal festivals. The sacrament is administered monthly and on the three great festivals. The rectorial, consisting of one moiety of the tithes, compounded for L450, are appropriate and divisible in equal moiety between the Chantor and the Vicars Choral of the Cathedral Church of St. Finbarre’s, Cork. [Parl. Rep.]

                     Abraham Hamilton, from 1801 to 1815, was R. Clonmany, Derry ; from 1815 to 9th February 1847, R. Kinneigh ; and …….

 

 

Extract from Charles Smith’s History of Cork, first published in 1750:

 

Pages 190 and 191:

 

Iniskeen.  Six miles north from Cloghnakilty, is Iniskeen, a village consisting of about 38 houses. It takes its name, according to tradition, from Kean Mac Moile More, an ancestor of the O’Mahonys ; it has a good weekly market on Thursdays. This manor belonged to the earl of Cork ; it is very large, containing no less than four score plowlands, and lies on both sides of the Bandon river. In this village, they carry on the pernicious trade of distilling whiskey spirits; about three miles west, there is a manufacture of earthenware, the clay for which is brought from the county of Kerry. The lands here are mostly under meadow and pasture; there is likewise some corn, and no inconsiderable quantity of flax ; but from Iniskeen, to the village of Nuce’s-town, the country is, for the most part, mountainy and rocky, being covered over with heath, furze, and fern. To the north of Iniskeen, is the ruined church of Kineigh, with a remarkable round tower, about 70 feet high, and 124 feet from the west end of the church; contrary to all others of the kind, the first storey is in the form of an hexagon, but the other five storeys above it, are round. I shall mention more of this tower in another place.

Six miles west of Bandon, a little east of Iniskeen, is Palace-Anne, an handsome large well-built house of Roger Bernard, esq., with kitchen and pleasure gardens, good orchards, and other large plantations. On the south side of the Bandon river, is Warrens-brook, a good house, with improvements, of Mr. Warren. Two miles to the west, on the north side of the river, is Connors-ville, the house and seat of Mr. William Connor, esq. ; the improvements are but in their infancy. On the other side of the river, is Pheal, a good house of Mr. Wade ; and on the same side is the castle of Ballinacarrigy, built by Randal Oge Hurley, or, as some say, by his wife. In the wars of 1641, the castle was noted pass, being then esteemed indifferent strong, and was, at that time, garrisoned by the English. To the south of it, is the small castle of Ballinward, also built by the Hurley’s.

 

 

Charles Smith on the Round Tower:

                  Kinneigh steeple is six storeys high, each eleven feet, nine inches and is different from all other round towers I have heard about. The first storey is a regular hexagon, each being ten feet four inches; from this storey it is to the top quite round, being in the whole seventy four feet four inches high. It stands one hundred and twenty four feet from the west end of the ruined church and it is remarkable that the doors of most of these towers face the west entrance of the church or churchyards….

 

(This is as quoted in Tony Brehony’s book ‘West Cork – “a sort of history, like…”, first published in 1997. Tony used the 1815 edition of Smith’s book as his source. This book also contains a drawing of the round tower, church and glebe house.

From the condition of the church, which looks far from ruined, I would guess that this drawing was done in the early 1800s, with the church being the structure built in 1794. It has a spire at the east end. This might explain why the round tower was turned into a belfry when St. Bartholomew’s, which had no belfry at all, was built in 1856 and Christ Church was demolished..

The glebe house in the drawing beside the round tower is also shown on the 1837 Ordnance Survey map, although by now the ‘new’ rectory had been built a few hundred yards to the east and also appears on the map. Lewis’s topographical directory of 1837 suggests the new glebe house, built in 1798 according to Brady, was not really habitable, as it had been built primarily as offices.

I remember visiting the rectory at Kinneigh once when I was a child. The annual school sports were held on the lawns to the front of the house about 1953, just before the present rectory was built.

More usually, the sports were held at the old rectory at Ballymoney, where the Forbes family lived. The sports were usually preceded by the annual scripture examination. The annual Christmas party was also held at the old rectory at Ballymoney, complete with a visit from Father Christmas.)

 

Smith also suggests that round towers were built as places in which to imprison wrongdoers, rather than the more popular notion that they were places of refuge from marauding Danes. ‘Turris” is the Irish for penance, and is also the Latin for tower. Apparently, the more serious the crime, the higher up the tower the wrongdoer was imprisoned and he worked his way downwards, spending a fixed term at each level until he finally emerged to seek forgiveness in the neighbouring church.

Perhaps the towers were built primarily as prisons but also served as places of refuge from the Danes.

 

From Donald Wood:
I read with interest the Kinneigh Union website and hope the attached adds a little to the fund of historical knowledge of the parishes.

My ancestors farmed in West Cork from the 1600s until the 1950s and a keen interest in family history has allowed me to gather some information on the history of the local parishes. I attach a transcript from Maziere Brady's book on the Clerical and Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, covering Kinneigh parish between 1700 and 1847. I'm afraid I only have copies of those two pages, sent to me some years ago by a cousin. The preceding page on the 1600s would make interesting reading.

While I have lived in England for most of my adult life, I was born in Kinneigh parish, in Munigave East townland on the farm next to where Sam Kingston, author of the article on the Round Tower, lives, and I was baptised in Kinneigh church in November 1945.
I went to school at Ballymoney between 1951 and 1957, in the old building that is now used as a community hall. Mrs. Daunt was the principal. School was on the first floor in two rooms, separated by a partition. An outside stone stairway, now demolished, gave access to the schoolrooms. Mrs. Daunt's elderly widowed mother, Mrs. Willis, lived underneath, on the ground floor. Mrs. Daunt had also lived there when she first came to Ballymoney as a single person.

As far as I can gather, the church in Kinneigh was not used for Church of Ireland worship, probably between the 1640s, when the great rebellion raged, and 1794, when a new church was built.  Before 1641, many English families, beginning in 1588, had settled the Bandon valley. Kinneigh and Ballymoney formed the western edge of the western edge of this settlement, with garrisons at Enniskeane, Castletown and Newcestown forming the 'frontier defenses'.
When Bishop Dives Downes visited Kinneigh in May 1700, he described a ruined church with services being conducted in a hall in Enniskeane. Half a century later, Charles Smith, in his history of Cork, recounts that the church is still in a ruined state.
On the 1837 map, the church at Kinneigh is shown situated in the middle of the old graveyard. This building was completely demolished when St. Bartholomew's was built in 1856 and, apparently, the stones from the older church were used to build the wall round the graveyard.

Protestant burials only started there with the opening of the new graveyard in the early 1900s. Before that, families of the parish used the churchyards of the surrounding parishes. Along with other families of the parish, my grandfather, Richard Wood, bought a family plot. You performed the ceremony when his daughter's ashes (Eileen Farrington, along with those of her husband, were interred close by in October of this year).