Dromantine House is now a retreat and conference centre and belongs to the SMA
see:
The history of Dromantine estate dates back to
the middle ages. The ancient Irish clan of Magennis dominated most of South
County Down from the 14th - 17th century and owned vast tracts of land in that
area, including what is now Dromantine Estate. Following the political upheavals
of the early 17th c. one of the Magennis clansmen, Murtagh, became the owner of
an estate of 4200 acres within the precinct of Clanagan
Magennis Coat of arms
In 1741 the Manor of Clanagan passed from
Magennis ownership to that of a Scottish Family called Innes. In 1806 Arthur
Innes built the original part of the existing house in Neo-classical style.
When he died in 1820 he left a magnificent house within a beautifully
landscaped demesne complete with a newly formed lake. His grandson, Arthur
Charles Innes, became the owner of the property and in the 1860s extended the
original house (now called Dromantine House) making it even more stately and
imposing. In the early 20th c. the fortunes of the Innes family waned and they decided to dispose of Dromantine. In 1922 it was bought by Samuel McKeever
Innes Coat of Arms on Stained-Glass at Dromantine
At the same time the Society of African Missions
(SMA) which was based in Cork was looking for a suitable property in which to
prepare their students for missionary work in Africa. Under the guidance of Fr.
Maurice Slattery the SMA bought Dromantine House and the 320 acre estate in
1926. It was their seminary until 1972 and during these years about 600 young
men were ordained priests and went from Dromantine as missionaries to Africa.
1611 Arthur Magennis
receives Dromantine in ‘re-grant’.
1737 Dromantine put
up for sale.
1741 John Innes of Scotland
buys Dromantine.
1808 Building of the
present house.
1810 Construction of
the lake.
1859 Extensive
construction work on House.
1865 Work on House
completed.
1922 Dromantine House
bought by Samuel McKeever.
McKeever Coat of arms
1926 The Society of
African missions buys Dromantine.
1927 First eleven of
587 priests ordained.
1931 St Patrick’s
Wing built.
1935 St Brendan’s
Wing built.
1936 Work begins on
Chapel.
1959 St Colman’s and
Assembly Hall opened.
1974 Dromantine
closes as a Seminary.
1975 Dromantine opens
as a Retreat Centre.
1998 Major renovation
work begins.
2001 Renovation work
completed.
Dromantine House
Innes Crest and Motto on a Fireplace at Dromantine
The Millennium Stained-Glass Window by Ann Smyth is shown on:
The Millennium Stained-Glass Window at Dromantine
The details in the smaller shields are either religious or heraldic or local. The second row shows the McKeever arms, a thistle and the Magennis arms. The background in the Magennis arms is red as opposed to the green above.
The third row shows the SMA motif along with a chalice and a cross.
The vine leaves represent the local Clarke family who moved to Bordeaux.
The Irish presence in the area is well documented,
not least by Renagh Holohan in her book The Irish Chateaux: In Search of the
Descendants of the Wild Geese. The Irish have been an influence in Bordeaux
since defeat at the Boyne and Limerick drove the Irish Jacobites abroad. Their
names live on in streets and chateaux, even when the latter have changed
ownership.
The name Clarke is still attached to an
18th-century chateau bought and restored by Baron Edmond de Rothschild. Chateau
Clarke was founded by an ancestor of Patrick Clarke de Dromantin, a resident of
Bordeaux, who, since his retirement from the aeronautical industry, has been
researching and writing the history of the Clarke family in France and their
place in the wider historical context of the Irish in Europe.
His house in a quiet residential area of Bordeaux
is filled with ancestral portraits, genealogical charts and photographs of the
present generation of Clarkes. "I am a Jacobite," Patrick told me.
"The Dromantin is from Dromantine, near Newry." The name was familiar
to me as the former headquarters of the Society of African Missions. Patrick
had visited it as part of his research for Les OiesSauvages:
Mémoiresdu'unefamilleirlandaiseréfugiéeen France (1691-1914) and Les
réfugiésjacobitesdans la France du XVIIIe siècle (both published by Bordeaux
University Press). Patrick, who subtitled his second book L'exode de touteune
noblesse pour cause de religion, found it a delicious irony that Dromantine had
ended up in the possession of the Society of African Missions, whose founder
was, of course, a Frenchman.
The first Clarkes to arrive in France were three
sons of James Clarke and Anne O'Sheill sent by their parents to live with their
maternal uncle, Luc O'Sheill, a gun merchant who had settled in Nantes. Thoby
(aged 21) stayed in Nantes; James (aged 14) went to Martinique. The youngest,
12-year-old John - Patrick's direct ancestor - went to Bordeaux. His son, Tobie
Clarke, bought a wine estate in Listrac in the Medoc in 1771, but died the same
year. Jean's grandson, Luc Tobie Clarke, a Bordeaux magistrate, built a house
on the estate in 1810 and called it Chateau Clarke. The wine retains the name,
although the estate was sold and Luc Tobie's house was demolished in 1955.
"De Dromantin" was added to the family
name by Patrick's grandfather - "for reasons of vanity," Patrick says.
"It sounds more noble." As to the origins of the name Clarke and its
connection to Dromantine, Patrick's correspondence with archivists in Dublin
and Belfast turned up a will, dated May 13th, 1672, of Thomas Clarke of
Drementian (sic) in which he bequeaths to his wife the townlands named as
Lisadeane and Dromhirre in Co Armagh, and a third of his land in Drementian. In
later documents it is spelled Dromantine.
Thomas was the father of James Clarke, who became a
freeman of the city of Dublin and a municipal councillor under James II. It
seems James Clarke also lost everything after the Battle of the Boyne. The
letter presented to the French authorities in Bordeaux, requesting French
nationality for Jean (John) Clarke as "refugiéen France à cause de la Religion",
says his father was a cavalry captain who, having been imprisoned, and having
lost all his property and good standing, died of grief - "et
samèreaussi." I thought it a sad little footnote. A line from a poem
drifted into my head - "you feathered with the wild geese our
despair. . ." but I couldn't remember the rest
of the poem or who wrote it. I think it was about Patrick Sarsfield. Maybe some
reader will recognise it. James Clarke's sons prospered in France. Patrick, his
great, great, great grandson is proud of him.
For the period 1672 to 1690:
ReplyDeleteMurtagh Magennis of Greencastle, son of Art Gallagh Magennis of Corgary.
Murtagh was a merchant with extensive leasehold interests in Counties Louth and Armagh, where he had a lease of the Earl of Castlehaven’s estate in the Barony of Orier. Murtagh married Mary the daughter of Thomas Clarke of Dromantine. The dowry was £200. In return Murtagh demised to Thomas the townland of Ballybleagh. Murtagh joined the Jacobites and was subsequently outlawed.
Murtagh and Mary’s son was later mentioned in the 1753 will of Arthur Magennis (the last of the Corgary and Castlewellan Magennises).
there you go..
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