The Tholsel, Dublin

The Tholsel
An illustration of the tholsel in c.1790 by James Malton [1]
Location	Skinner's Row Dublin 2
Coordinates	53°20′34″N6°16′16″W / 53.342860°N 6.271182°W / 53.342860; -6.271182
Height	27 metres (89 ft)
Built	First version in 1200s "New tholsel" 1311 Re-built 1681
Demolished	1809
Architectural style(s)	Classical, Baroque
Owner	Dublin Corporation
Location of The Tholsel in Central Dublin

The Tholsel was an important building in Dublin which combined the function of civic hall, guildhall, court and gaol. It was located on Skinners Row within the old city walls of Dublin, Ireland. It existed in various forms from after the Norman invasion of Ireland until it was finally demolished around 1809. It was one of the most important and imposing buildings in medieval Dublin and was a secular focal point within the city walls situated at a major crossroads close to Dublin Castle, St Patrick's Cathedral and Christchurch Cathedral. It was the first of several tholsels which were constructed in the major cities and towns of late medieval Ireland and the Dublin tholsel also housed the first public clock in Ireland on its tower from 1466. ^{[2] [3] [4]}

History

Early history

There are mentions of the tholsel as far back as 1311 being called the 'new' tholsel, indicating that earlier building had been constructed. ^[5]

In 1343, the tholsel is again mentioned when there was a charter granted by Edward III which set an exemption from the portion of tolls due to the King so that the burghers of the city could repair the building. ^[6]

In 1395, Gerardus Van Raes was appointed keeper of the Dublin Tholsel for life. He was granted the keep of both the upper and lower gaol in that tholsel indicating an increasing number of prisoners. The upper keep was usually reserved for debtors while the lower keep was for felons and more serious criminals. ^[7]

In 1590, Archbishop of Dublin Adam Loftus addressed the lord mayor and Corporation of Dublin at the tholsel and requested the use of the old Priory of All Hallows to establish a university. He was granted permission and two years later he established Trinity College Dublin on the site. ^[3]

In 1597, the condition of the building, already weakened by a great cleft in the eastern flank, deteriorated under the force of the Dublin gunpowder explosion. ^[8]

From 1641-48 the Parliament of Ireland met at the tholsel. The parliament was transferred here from the Castle because some of the parliamentarians were suspected to sympathise with the rebels and might try to seize the castle, which held important stores of weapons and munitions. ^[9]

Reconstruction of 1681

An engraving of the tholsel with tower and weathercock taken from Charles Brooking's map of Dublin (1728).

Sketch of the Dublin Tholsel by Thomas Dineley or Dingley (1680-1)

The last tholsel building was completed around 1681 and was finally occupied by Dublin Corporation and the Merchants' Guild in 1682. ^{[11] [12]} It is unknown who designed the building although various masons including a William Rothery are recorded as having worked on it at various stages. ^[13] In 1683, the exchange of Dublin was transferred from Cork House to the tholsel. ^[14]

In his study of Protestant Dublin in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Robin Usher describes the building as roughly square in plan and abutted on one side by houses. The elevations consisted of an arcaded ground storey, open to the elements on the north and western sides with a fenestrated piano nobile above. The city assembly and the board of alderman met in richly ornamented rooms over the ground floor loggia, itself fitted out as the merchants’ exchange. Two statues sculpted by William De Keysar depicting King Charles II, and his brother, James Duke of York, along with the royal coat of arms faced the building to the front. ^[15]

The tholsel features as one of the most notable of the 25 illustrations in James Malton's A Picturesque and Descriptive View of the City of Dublin and is one of the few structures depicted which does not remain standing as of 2020. The building is shown facing directly onto Skinner's Row at the corner of Nicholas Street near the Church of St. Nicholas Within with an adjacent lane named Ram Alley running alongside as well as the property of Robert Thomas, Tallow Chandler at 1 Skinner's Row. Records indicate that this was historically accurate with the business of Robert Thomas in situ at the adjacent property around the time of Malton's illustration in 1791. The illustration shows the building without a tower, cupola or weather vane which had all been lost in the previous decades as the building gradually degraded and fell out of functional use. ^[16]

Voting in the 1713 Irish general election took place at the Tholsel (then considered a Whig stronghold), rather than at the Blue Coat School, setting off a chain of events which lead to the Dublin election riot. ^[17]

In 1718, persons broke into the tholsel and slashed the painting of George I with knives. ^[18]

Its ultimate demise came with the construction of the Royal Exchange and the migration of all major trade and mercantile operations to this more grand and spacious commercial building in 1769. ^[19]

Various plans for replacements were drawn up with a site at the old Custom House on Essex Quay earmarked for a new design by Benjamin Eaton in 1797 while another design by Richard Johnston in 1805 was proposed for further upriver alongside a new marshalsea to replace the City Marshalsea. ^{[20] [21]}

The building was latterly used as a courthouse until it was demolished in 1809. ^[3] At that point, the corporation took a lease of 100 years of City Assembly House on South William Street from Richard Cranfield. ^[22]

Clerks of the Tholsel

The Clerk of the Tholsel or Town Clerk was one of only two elected officials of Dublin Corporation, the other being the Recorder of Dublin. ^[23]

List of Clerks of the Tholsel

Year	Clerk of the Tholsel	Deputy Clerk of the Tholsel	Notes
1354	Richard Colman
1493	Richard Allon
1563	John Dyllon [24] or Dillon
1607	Sir Thady Duffe
1626	John Malone
1644	Sir Thady Duffe		Employing a William Whyte.
1650	John Preston [25]
1656	Patrick Tallant
1659	Patrick Tallant
1660	Patrick Tallant
1662	Patrick Tallant
1663	Richard Blondevile	Richard Blondeville
1664	Philip Croft	Philip Croft
1665	Sir William Davys [26]
1668	Philip Croft
1670	Sir John Totty [27]
1671	Sir William Davys		A disagreement between the Lord Lietenant, John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, the mayor and the aldermen around the rules for regulating the corporation and the admittance of Catholics resulted in the Lord Lieutenant being recalled in May 1672.
1672
1673	Sir John Totty		Formerly the mayor of Dublin.
1674	Philip Croft
1677	Philip Croft
1680	Philip Croft
1683	Philip Croft
1686	Philip Croft	Rowland Savage
1687	John Kearney
1692	Philip Croft
1693	Thomas Twigge
1701	Thomas Twigge		Thomas Twigge died on the 26th of April 1702 having said to have served as the Clerk for 9 years.
1702	Jacob Peppard		Jacob Peppard appointed on the 10th of April 1702.
1705	Jacob Peppard
1711	Francis Skiddy	Francis Skiddy
1713	Charles Atkins
1724	Jacob Peppard [28]
1725 - 1739	Thomas Gonne [29]

See also

• Church of St. Nicholas Within, Dublin
• Church of St Nicholas Without, Dublin
• St. Werburgh's Church, Dublin
• Dick's Coffee House
• Recorder of Dublin

Notes

1. "Tholsel, Dublin". The Art Institute of Chicago. 1793. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
2. "A reminder of Dublin's Tholsel building". Come Here To Me!. 21 September 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
3. Frank Hopkins (2003). Rare Old Dublin: Heroes, Hawkers & Hoors. Mercier Press Ltd. pp. 54–55. ISBN   978-1-86023-154-4.
4. "Dublin's civic buildings transcript". Dublin City Council. 28 October 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
5. Gilbert, Mulholland; Weldrick, John Francis (1889). Calendar of Ancient Records of Dublin In the Possession of the Municipal Corporation of that City. Vol. 1. J. Dollard. p. 110.
6. Gilbert & Weldrick (1889). 1889. p. 17.
7. Gilbert 1854, p.  162: "Among the Patent Rolls of Richard II. is recorded a grant in 1395 to Gerard van Raes of the office of keeper of the Tholsel, or gaoler to the King, in the city of Dublin; granting him also both the upper and lower gaol in the aforesaid Tholsel;"
8. "Dublin's Great Explosion of 1597". History Ireland. 25 January 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
9. MacNeill 1917, p.  408: "From 1641 till 1648 the Parliaments met, not in Dublin Castle, but in the Tholsel, with an occasional meeting in the old Custom House, situate on the banks of the Liffey, at the end of Parliament Street, the reason of the change from the Castle being that some of the members, of whom no fewer than forty were expelled, might be disaffected and their presence in Dublin Castle a source of danger."
10. Galway, Moore Institute @ NUI (9 May 2018). "Ireland Illustrated: View a Record". NUI Galway. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
11. "1682 – Tholsel, Dublin". Archiseek - Irish Architecture. 9 December 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
12. "In Exchange". The Irish Aesthete. 17 May 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
13. "ROTHERY, JOHN - Dictionary of Irish Architects". www.dia.ie. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
14. Cusack, Mary Francis (1 August 2022). "An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800". DigiCat. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
15. R. Usher (13 March 2012). Protestant Dublin, 1660-1760: Architecture and Iconography. Springer. ISBN   978-0-230-36216-1.
16. Toby Barnard; Bridget McCormack (24 January 2020). Archives of the Tholsell Court, Dublin. Four Courts Press. ISBN   978-0-9505488-7-6.
17. Simms, J. G. (1986). War and Politics in Ireland, 1649-1730. Hambledon Press. pp. 280–281.
18. "Michael Mitchell". Library of Ireland. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
19. McParland, E (1972). "James Gandon and the Royal Exchange Competition, 1768-69". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 102 (1): 58–72. JSTOR   25509772.
20. "CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, THOLSEL & CITY MARSHALSEA (PROPOSED) Dictionary of Irish Architects -". www.dia.ie. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
21. "CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, THOLSEL &C. (PROPOSED) Dictionary of Irish Architects -". www.dia.ie. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
22. Society, Irish Georgian. ">City Assembly House - a history". IGS Craft (en-IE). Retrieved 4 December 2023.
23. "Stanyhurst, Richard"  . Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
24. John Thomas Gilbert (15 November 2012). Historic and Municipal Documents of Ireland, A.D. 1172-1320: From the Archives of the City of Dublin, Etc. Cambridge University Press. pp. 11–. ISBN   978-1-108-04887-3.
25. "Country House Hotel Navan | Navan Hotel | Bellinter House". www.bellinterhouse.com. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
26. Ball 1926, p.  : "[W. Davys] became clerk of the Tholsel 1665;"
27. Bagwell 1916, p.  111: "Sir John Totty lost his position as clerk of the tholsel "
28. Lucas (M.P.), Charles (1748). "The Complaints of Dublin: Humbly Offered to ... William, Earl of Harrington ... By Charles Lucas ." Dublin printed. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
29. "The Gonne family". www.pastpresented.ukart.com. Retrieved 25 November 2020.

References

• Bagwell, Richard (1916). Ireland under the Stuarts and under the Interregnum. Vol. 3. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. OCLC   458582656. – 1660 to 1690
• Ball, Francis Elrington (1926). The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921. Vol. 1 (1st ed.). London: John Murray.
• Gilbert, John Thomas (1854). A History of the City of Dublin. Vol. 1. Dublin: James McGlashan.
• MacNeill, John Gordon Swift (1917). The Constitutional and Parliamentary History of Ireland till the Union. Dublin: The Talbot Press.