Wednesday 21 September 2022

Dawson of Castledawson

The family of DAWSON was established in Ulster in 1611 by

CHRISTOPHER DAWSON, of Acorn Bank, Westmorland, who was father of the Rt Rev Robert Dawson (1589-1643), Lord Bishop of Clonfert, and

THOMAS DAWSON, of Temple Sowerby, Westmorland, who purchased the lands at Castle Dawson, County Londonderry, during the reign of of CHARLES I, 1633, from George and Dudley Philips, and was father of

THOMAS DAWSON (c1630-83), Commissary of the Musters of the Army in Ireland, who had issue,
John;
THOMAS, his heir;
Richard;
JOSHUA, succeeded his brother;
Anne.
The second son,

THOMAS DAWSON (c1654-1732), of Castle Dawson, MP for Antrim, 1695-9, married Arabella Upton, of Castle Upton, and had issue, a son, THOMAS, who died in 1704 at the siege of Gibraltar.

He was succeeded by his brother,

JOSHUA DAWSON (1660-1725), of Castle Dawson, MP for Wicklow, 1705-14, who wedded, ca 1695, Anne, daughter of Thomas Carr, and had issue,
William;
Charles;
ARTHUR, his heir;
Joseph (Rev);
Mary; Anne Elizabeth; Eleanor; Arabella.
Mr Dawson was succeeded by his eldest son,

WILLIAM DAWSON (-1779), of Castle Dawson, Surveyor-General of Munster, Collector of Dublin, who wedded, ca 1739, Sarah Mary, daughter of Thomas Newcomen, and had issue,
ARTHUR, his heir;
Sarah Elizabeth.
The son and heir,

ARTHUR DAWSON (1745-1822), of Castle Dawson, MP for Newtownards, 1775-6, Carlow, 1776-83, Middleton, 1783-97, Banagher, 1798-1800, espoused, in 1775, Catherine, daughter of George Paul Monck by his wife, the Lady Aramintha Beresford, and had issue,
GEORGE ROBERT, his heir;
Henry Richard (Very Rev), Dean of St Patrick's;
Aramintha; Maria; Louisa; Isabella.
Mr Dawson was succeeded by his son,

THE RT HON GEORGE ROBERT DAWSON (1790-1856), of Castle Dawson, who married, in 1816, Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Peel Bt, of Drayton Manor, Staffordshire, and had issue,
ROBERT PEEL, his heir;
George Beresford;
Henry;
Francis Alexander;
Frederick.
Mr Dawson was succeeded by his eldest son,

ROBERT PEEL DAWSON JP MP (1818-77), of Moyola Park, High Sheriff of County Londonderry, 1850, MP for County Londonderry, 1859-74, who wedded Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Charles, 1st Baron Lurgan, and had issue, a daughter,

MARY DAWSON, who married, in 1872, Lord Adolphus John Spencer Churchill Chichester, younger son of Edward, 4th Marquess of Donegall, and had issue,
ROBERT PEEL DAWSON SPENCER, his heir;
Edward Brownlow Dawson;
Augustus John Bruce MacDonald Dawson.
The eldest son,

ROBERT PEEL DAWSON SPENCER CHICHESTER JP DL (1873-1921), of Moyola Park, married, in 1901, Dehra, daughter of James Ker-Fisher, and had issue,
Robert James Spencer (1902-20);
MARION CAROLINE DEHRA, of whom presently.
Mr Chichester's only daughter,

MARION CAROLINE DEHRA CHICHESTER (1904-76), of Moyola Park, espoused firstly, in 1922, Captain James Lenox-Conyngham Chichester-Clark, and had issue,
JAMES DAWSON, Baron Moyola;
Robert (Robin) (Sir);
Penelope.
She married secondly, in 1938, Charles Edward Brackenbury.


MOYOLA PARK, Castledawson, County Londonderry, is a noble, two-storey, 18th century house of coursed rubble with ashlar dressings.

It has a five-bay entrance front and a three-bay pedimented breakfront.

There is a three-sided bow in the side elevation; a solid roof parapet; flush quoins.

This is a well designed and attractively situated demesne parkland, through which the River Moyola flows.

There are good stands of mature trees in shelter belts and woodland.

Although extensively remodelled in the mid-19th century, the demesne has early 17th century origins.

The property was acquired by Thomas Dawson from Sir Thomas Phillips in 1622, and at some time afterwards a house was built close to the present chapel of Ease.

By 1835, little remained of this building 'but foundations of the walls and terraces'.

A second house, built by Joshua Dawson in 1694 and possibly remodelled in 1713, was located some distance to the north-east.
This had an associated formal landscape, including a straight lime avenue approach (still present) and avenues of Scotch firs; a Pinus sylvestris Scotia mentioned in Elwes & Henry, Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Vol. III (1908), as being 80ft high and 11ft in girth in 1906 may be part of the early 18th century landscape.
There are four of these original trees remaining.


South-east of the 1694 house there was also 'an ancient avenue three miles in length opening to a magnificence view of Lough Neagh to which it extends'.

The adjacent town seems to have been created in its present form from 1710-14; it was in 1710 that Joshua Dawson built the Mansion House in Dublin's Dawson Street.


The present house at Moyola, known originally as The Lodge, was built in 1768 for Arthur Dawson (1698-1774) on a new site north-west of the 1694 house.

The informal parkland was subsequently created as a setting for this house.

Planting by Arthur Dawson's nephew, Arthur Dawson (1745-1822), is referred to in the Register of Trees in County Londonderry 1768-1911, supplementing the exisiting ancient oak woodlands.

Paired yews on the riverside walk may belong to this period.

However, it was Arthur's son, the Rt Hon George Robert Dawson (1790-1856), brother-in-law to Sir Robert Peel, who remodelled both the house and the parkland and renamed it Moyola Park.

This work was largely undertaken during the 1840s and early 1850s.

Most of the parkland planting to the south and south east of the house belongs to this era, as does the suspension bridge and village gate lodge.

Exotic planting from this time includes a cryptomeria known to have been planted in 1851.

Additional gate lodges at the Hillhead entrance and at the Drumlamph entrance were added in the 1870s by Colonel Robert Dawson, from whom the property passed to the Chichester family through marriage.

In the 20th century, woodland areas and a disused quarry were cleared for ornamental gardens created from the 1960s to the north of the house.

These are fully maintained and often open to the public for charity.

A football playing field and an associated building occupies an area west of the lime avenue; while part of the southern portion of the park is now a golf course linked to the Gravend golf course west of the river.

First published in April, 2012. 

12 comments :

Unknown said...

Dear Sir,
I am interested in your statement that Christopher Dawson came from Acorn Bank. I have not been able to find any reference to the family of Dawson at Acorn Bank. The family of Dalston held the property from the dissolution of the monasteries for several centuries. “In the interval Temple Sowerby was held by Robert, Lord Clifford, by way of escheat. The manor was held by the Hospitallers until the dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII, who granted it to Thomas Dalston, eleventh in decent from the first of that name of Dalston in Cumberland. It remained in the Dalston family until the 18th century.
The name of the house is recorded as Acorn Bank in 1615, when "Sir Christopher Dalston of Acorn Bank was knighted by King James I," and by that name the old manor house was known until a few years ago when it was changed by the present owner to Temple Sowerby Manor.” It is now owned by the National Trust and the name has reverted to Acorn Bank.

I would dismiss the reference to Acorn Bank totally were it not for a poem written about the Session of Parliament of 11 June 1628 in which MPs debated whether the House should formally name the Duke of Buckingham in their Remonstrance to the King as the cause of the grievances afflicting the nation. There are two lines:
“Nay saith bawlinge Dawson I will sacrafice
my life for him, and out of the dores hee flyes”
There is a footnote to this Dawson reference which says:
“Dawson: Sir George Dalston.”

However, the coat of arms of the Dalstons is significantly different, being: or. chevron gu. between 3 daws heads erased beaked of the field.
I would be very interested to have your comments on this.
Regards

Timothy Belmont said...

How fascinating. I shouldn't dismiss it entirely because, in my experience, scions or cadet branches of some families changed the spelling of their name for whatever reason, likely, quite simply, to distinguished themselves from their cousins.

Burke's clearly have had it on the authority, presumably, of the Dawsons of Castledawson.

I'd be most interested myself if this conundrum can be remedied.

Tim Ferres

Timothy Belmont said...

Hello Keith Dawson, this lineage is perplexing, though intriguing. I've read in some articles that a Dawson came from Kendal.

I concur with you.

I'd remove the reference to Acorn Bank, though feel that there has to be some family connection.

Unknown said...

Hello your Lordship,
If we consider what we know about Christopher Dawson's other son,Bishop Robert Dawson, about whom there is less argument, it would lead us to Kendal.
Wiseman, W G (1990)in "Robert Dawson (1589-1643) Bishop of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh." Published by Academic Journal Offprint from - Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, Volume XC says that he was born in Kendal. Alumni Cantbridgiensis agrees.
He returned to Kendal during the 1641 uprising. He died, according to Wiseman, "at his father's house in Kendal" and was buried in Kendal church.
This seems to make a strong case for Kendal.
Kind regards,
Keith

Unknown said...

Hi Keith.

According to my memories of family, Kendal and Westmorland are mentioned a lot. I remember now departed family also talking of Acorn Grove.
If still interested I can check papers.

Kind Regards
Andrew Dawson.

Krystal Dawson said...

Hey umm... I'm looking into my family history with just my grandma's stories to go off of. Stories I don't remember clearly. My last name's Dawson and my Grandma wass named Dawson too. Diana Dawson was her name, her mother was Martha Dawson, her father was John Dawson, she sometimes had an Irish accent when she got frustrated and she told me all kinds of stories that I might be able to pick apart to figure out my heritage but I don't know where to start, just that Ireland calls to me so badly I listen to Celtic Woman and Blackmore's Night to relax cuz it sings to me in a way nothing else does. I want to learn about my Irish Heritage but I have NO idea where to start... My Twitter is @GQDraconic so if you can help please get into contact. I don't know what to do...

Andrew said...

I note that Miss Chichester married a Brackenbury. I wonder if he is a Nottinghamshire Brackenbury with a connection to Holme Pierrepont Hall?

Roy Bailie said...

Dear Lord Belmont, Thank you for this article. My great grandfather, Robert Hastings b.1853 (married Maria Madden and had two children William and Jeannie) lived in the Drumlamph gatehouse. He was a groundsman for the estate. I recently visited the gatehouse and was welcomed in by the current tenant who showed me around inside and also gave me a tour of the woodland beside the Moyola river right up to the main house. Wonderful to see where our ancestors lived. I am currently completing a book on my ancestry - hope to complete by March 2023. Your articles have been very useful to me in adding detail to my account. Your work is much appreciated. Regards, Roy

Roy Bailie said...

https://www.facebook.com/400368657473475/posts/lady-moyola-survived-northern-irelands-worst-ever-recorded-aviation-crashit-has-/611690039674668/
An article on Facebook about an airplane crash from which Lady Moyola survived but her first husband did not. Thought it might be of interest.

Timothy Belmont said...

Hello Roy, weren't we at Brackenber together? Good to hear from you! How fortunate that you had a tour of the house and grounds. If you'd consider coming to the annual BHS dinner we could meet up. Tim.

Margaret Todd said...

Dear Lord Belmont,
a few years ago we purchased a silver edged blotter from an antique shop in Devon
On one corner is a 6 pointed etoile and the motto Toujour Propose.
I was aware that it would have at sometime in the past belonged to the Dawson family.
While renewing the blotting paper today I thought I would do a bit more research and discovered it was the CastleDawson branch of the family and came across your interesting site. What make it more interesting for me is that we live near Chichester and of course The Duke of Richmond and Gordon who was until recently the Earl of Gordon Lennox.

Timothy Belmont said...

Margaret, I'm very glad that the blog has been helpful, and for your interesting anecdote. Tim.