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THE DOCKLANDS - SIR JOHN ROGERSON
'Dublin Docklands - An Urban Voyage’ is a work in progress, commissioned by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, and due to be completed in the autumn of 2008. The following tale represents research undertaken for the project which may or may not be used in the final book.
A MYSTERIOUS ORIGINAL
The founding father of the Dublin Docklands was Sir John Rogerson, a wealthy merchant, ship-owner, property developer and sometime Lord Mayor of Dublin. Remarkably little has yet been published about the man; he receives no mention in The Oxford Companion to Irish History (2007). Indeed, if it were not for the unexpected evolution of the Docklands since 1987, there is every chance that all trace of Sir John would have disappeared into the murky past from which he emerged. His rise was not unlike that of William 'Speaker' Conolly although even in the Speaker’s case, we at least know who his father was. Those who knew Rogerson described him as ‘an Original’.[1]
THE NEW ELITE
We do not know when or where Rogerson was born. As a merchant he was apparently as well known in London’s Lombard Street as he was in the Dublin Tholsel, so perhaps he was a pure bred Londoner. He was certainly living in Dublin by 1674 when listed as one of the first parishioners to attend the new church of St Andrew’s, just off Dame Street.[2] Among the other parishioners were Sir John Temple (a barrister, later Speaker of the Irish House of Commons) and Sir Maurice Eustace (Lord Chancellor), for whom Temple Bar and Eustace Street were named. The young Rogerson must have also taken a keen interest in what St. Andrew’s parishioner Major Henry Aston had to say in regard to his actions, circa 1680, in reclaiming and developing the river around present day Aston quay[3] These men represent the new Dublin elite in the late 17th century.
ALDERMAN ROGERSON
During the latter days of Charles II’s reign, John Rogerson emerged as one of the leading Aldermen in Dublin’s Assembly, the group charged with overseeing the City’s trade – matters like weights and measures and shipping schedules. Members of the Assembly were elected by the City’s freemen who themselves all belonged to the trade guilds. The Assembly met once every quarter and consisted of the Lord Mayor, two Sheriffs, 24 Aldermen, 48 Sheriffs’ Peers and 96 Commoners.
The North Lotts Project
In 1684, Alderman John Rogerson was one of the winning contestants in the ill-fated North Lotts project of 1682. The North Lotts comprised an approximate rectangle bounded on the south by the present day Custom House and North Wall Quays, on the east by a line from where the East Link Toll Bridge runs and to the north by the North Strand, Fairview and part of the Clontarf Road. Under the direction of Lord Mayor Sir Humphrey Jervis, the City Assembly had the area surveyed and then divided into 152 lots. The idea was to host a lottery for Assembly members and other select officials – with each lot up as an award. It was not unlike Zimbabwe in 2000 when Robert Mugabe won the State lottery. However, nothing is ever that easy. One of the conditions of the award was that the winner had to guarantee the protection of his lot against flooding. At the time, the area of the North Lotts was frequently flooded at high tide so this was a big ask. The project proceeded uncertainly but, by 1686, it was apparent that the scheme was a flop. The land grants were too complex and the idea of individual landowners protecting individual lots was a non-runner. The 1682 North Lotts project was declared null and abandoned.
Lord Mayor of Dublin
In 1693, the Assembly selected Rogerson to succeed Sir Michael Mitchell as Lord Mayor of Dublin.[4] This was the year in which the Amish were founded, the dodo became extinct and, while Ireland had been subjugated since the defeat of the Jacobites at the Boyne in 1689, the Williamite Wars continued to rage in Europe. Sir John seems to have had a hand in the running of the King’s Hospital secondary school in Dublin at about this time.[5] His tenure as Lord Mayor lasted from Michaelmas 1693 to 29 September 1694, aka the civic year.
Knighthood from my lord romney
On June 12th 1693, he was knighted by Henry, Viscount Sydney, Lord Deputy of Ireland. The following year, Sydney was created Earl of Romney. Curiously these two men appear together again in 1698 when Rogerson secured the northern suburbs of the City of Cork with Romney owning the lands on the south. It seems these lands had been appropriated by the Council and a ‘Captain Conelie, the ingineer’ commissioned to build a barracks. On 7th September, Conelie was given an indemnity ‘against my Lord Rumney and Sir John Rogerson and all other person that shall trouble or molest him on account of the same’.[6] Romeny was the author of the original letter inviting King Billy to take the throne, for which he was created Viscount Sydney and later Earl of Romney. He would later lose favour in the Court of Queen Anne and died aged 63 ‘a proud but drunken man’ in April 1704.
Jacob Newman & the Poddle
In 1694, Dublin’s outgoing Lord Mayor, Sir John Rogerson, was given a lease of land in the vicinity of the Council Chamber near the mouth of the Poddle. One imagines Sir John was the sort of man who had followed this small river right up to its source in Cookstown, above Tallaght, down through Kimmage and Harold’s Cross to its arrival at the Liffey. He also doubtless noted the ingenious way in which a previous owner of the Poddle by name of Jacob Newman had reclaimed the Poddle estuary north of Dame Street. Newman was a land speculator, perhaps the earliest in the history of Dublin. People had been reclaiming land from the rivers since Viking times but never on the same scale as that undertaken by Newman. A far-seeing man, Newman realized reclamation was the way forward. He gradually purchased the lands along the Poddle and began filling them in with rocks (etc, from where). Between 1606 and 1620, Newman reclaimed sufficient land from the river to create some 2.5 hectares of land in the heart of the young city, including modern day Parliament Street, Essex Street, Wellington Quay, the old Custom House Quay and parts of Temple Bar. Newman died in 1634. Three years later, Dublin’s merchants were tumbling over themselves to impress his widow, Rose Newman, and so perhaps gain a site to set up new customs facilities and goods-handling depots. Rose was a daughter of James Barry, a merchant who had been Alderman and Sheriff of Dublin during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. By 1673, the reclamation of the south side of the river had reached Hawkins Street.
The Missing Years
Little is known of Rogerson’s activities between 1694 and 1713, save for his brief ownership of the north Cork riverside and the acquisition of the Poddle mouth. He was appointed Sheriff of Dublin from 1707-8, serving under Lord Mayor John Pearson.
Sir John Rogerson’s Quay
In 1713, Dublin Corporation leased Sir John Rogerson and his heirs the fee farm estate rights to approximately 133 acres of slob land on the south bank of the Liffey channel, otherwise referred to as ‘the Strand betwixt Lazy Hill and Ringsend’. Also known as ‘Rogerson’s Ground’, this grant contained all the land bounded by the Liffey, the Dodder and modern Bath Avenue, including Grand Canal Street, Denzille Street, Sandwith Street and Creighton Street. There was also a narrow strip of land just east of the Dodder, bounded by the spit of Ringsend. In July 1713, he gave notice of his intention to ‘very speedily take the Strand’. The City’s main concern was that the quay be located sufficiently far back to widen the channel. (1713 was the era of Lord Mayors Sir Samuel Cooke and Sir James Barlow). A committee was appointed in 1717 ‘to see the said Strand staked out between the anchorsmiths shop and Ringsend point’. The mighty project commenced in 1716. Part of the project involved the construction of a river wall from the bridge at Ringsend to a point near Creighton Street. This is known today as Sir John Rogerson’s Quay.[7] To achieve this, they built two walls – one facing the river and a second back wall behind it, then filled the space between with rocks, gravel and sand dredged from the river. The dredging simultaneously deepened that part of the river channel. The river material did not come free – Rogerson paid the City three-pence per ton for it. When the going rate for dredge material fell in 1720, he was granted a reduction of cost to two-pence a ton. As J.W. de Courcy notes, ‘the project was the largest and possibly most significant privately funded development project in the history of the Liffey’.
Mercer’s Ground
In 1712, shortly before Sir John Rogerson secured his riverside property, the ground immediately west of his came under the control of John Mercer. This ‘parcell of the Strand’ encompassed an area now bordered by Townsend Street and Poolbeg Street. Its original grantee, Philip Croft, had planned to build a quay here but, while attending to other business in England, some rapscallions appear to have nabbed ‘many boat loads of stone’ from his land which were carried away to make malthouses in Wicklow. Mercer duly took up the baton, planning a river wall of 100 perches (or 700 yards) long that would have run right up to Rogerson’s Quay. It was to include arched openings leading to his own private wharf, Mercer’s Dock, and two existing wharves along Lazar’s Hill at Nichol’s Quay and Crosse’s Quay. Work began in 1713 but ill-health seems to have put paid to Mercer’s ambitions and he died in 1718. The City took over the construction of the wall while his dock passed to his widow, Grace Mercer. In 1741, she and Luke Gardiner were awarded a lease for ever of the George’s Quay property, including the proposed site of Mercer’s Dock.
The Dispute with John Vernon
In order to build his Quay, Sir John Rogerson ordered a large quantity of stones John Vernon of Clontarf. However, Vernon seems to have messed up the order and, as well as the desired large stones, he delivered a considerable quantity of undersized stones. These were dumped in the river just off the Quay. Rogerson requested Vernon remove them. Vernon declined. The Ballast Office were concerned that these stones were proving ‘a great nuisance’ to every ship and gabbard that passed . The matter went before the City Assembly. On April 9th 1716, Thomas Marlay (later Chief Justice) delivered his diplomatic opinion that the City should remove these stones at their own cost.[8]
The Fountain & THE FERRYMAN
The first building on Rogerson’s Quay was, appropriately enough, a pub. The Fountain Tavern is said to have been built in 1718. This is not to be confused with a pub of the same name near Christ Church referred to by Dean Swift in the 1730s, or the Fountain Tavern in London that dictionary guru Dr Johnson used to frequent. That said, I can find no further reference to The Fountain anywhere but de Courcy's book. According to its own website, The Ferryman comprises two listed Georgian buildings and claims to date to the 1780's when owned by Lord Cardiff.
Brooking’s Map of 1728
It is not known if or when Sir John ever felt compelled to smash open a bottle of champagne and celebrate the opening of his Quay. One suspects a few lively nights down at The Fountain. It was almost certainly finished by the time he passed away in 1724. When Brooking etched his map of Dublin four years later, he indicated that the Quay was complete, but his description of the Quay’s eastern end was unquestionably vague. Perhaps this was due to a change of plan, by which the new wall turned suddenly at a right angle right where the River Dodder meets the Liffey, running along the Dodder to the bridge at Ringsend. This short section was presumably reconstructed when the entry lock system for the Grand Canal Docks was built in 1795.
A Slow Starter
Rather like the present-day Ocean Bar, The Fountain Tavern may have had to wait a while before it had any seriously regular customers. Rogerson’s Quay was not an immediate success. Skeptics derided the commercial value of the land behind the Quay, which was prone to flooding in severe storms. Gabrielli Ricciardelli’s 1759 painting of a ‘A View of Dublin from the Sea’ depicts Rogerson Quay as a roughly surfaced strip dotted with people and horses. The land behind it consists of water-logged marshlands and a meadow of haystacks. On 28th January 1792, the Dublin Chronicle reported that: 'His Grace, the Duke of Leinster, went on a sea party, and after shooting the breach in the south wall, sailed over the low ground in the south lots ad landed safely at Merrion Square’. This came about when part of the wall collapsed, allowing ‘a dreadful torrent’ to break through into ‘the lower grounds, inundating every quarter on the same level as far as Artichoke Road’. Communication with Ringsend and Irishtown came to a halt; ‘the inhabitants are obliged to go to and fro in boats’.
The Hibernian Marine School
Walking along Rogerson’s Quay’s today, one can see two riverine heads poking out of a brick wall. [Where exactly!] These heads, salvaged from Carlisle Bridge, mark the original site of the Hibernian Marine Society’s School ‘for the Children of Decayed Seamen’. Also known as the Marine Nursery, this was amongst the earliest buildings to arrive on the Quay, built between 1770 and 1773 and said to have been designed by either Thomas Cooley or Thomas Ivory. It was located between Cardiff’s Lane and Lime Street, with the foot road to Ringsend running directly alongside it. The School was a hefty structure, all stone – 300 feet at front and back, 547 feet on the west, 633 feet at the east. The expense of the building amounted to £6,600 and was paid for by the Irish Parliament. The grant-aided Hibernian Marine School was designed to educate and maintain up to 160 boys, the sons of sea-farers who lost their lives or became otherwise impoverished while serving with the Royal Navy or Merchant Navy. Once admitted they were given a nautical uniform and taught reading, writing, arithmetic and navigation. At the age of 14, these boys were then apprenticed to masters of merchant vessels or sent on board Royal Navy ships. James Malton’s drawing of the school from 1796 shows the Quay at low-tide. A boat is under construction in Matthew Cardiff’s shipyard next door. A coach is arriving in from the city and a lone horseman surveys all. Men are at work hauling in a raft and a couple of boats are resting on a sandbank. Perhaps Malton caught the Quay on a quiet day but it would seem that business was by no means booming in 1796. The number of pupils peaked at 120 in 1799 with a low of just 15 in 1845. Much of the building was destroyed by fire in 1872 and the school was relocated to Merrion Street and ultimately became the present-day Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Clontarf. The original building became a commercial premises but gradually disappeared. [9]
Rogerson’s Quay in 1800
Hammond states that the Marine School was flanked on the east by one of Cardiff’s shipyards and on the west by Burnett’s Marine Hotel. He also mentions Williamson and Lloyd’s rope-works as being nearby. Cardiff’s yard seems to have been the most easterly limit of the Quay before the Grand Canal Docks opened in 1796. Neither Faden’s map of 1797 nor Bligh’s surveys of 1800 – 1803 indicate any major development along the Quay by this stage.
Member of Parliament
Sir John apparently represented both the City of Dublin and the borough of Clogher in the Irish Parliament but I have not yet confirmed this.
Private Life
Sir John Rogerson’s wife Elizabeth was the youngest daughter of Emmanuel Proby of St. Gregory, London. Her grandfather, Sir Peter Proby, was Lord Mayor of London in 1622, while her uncle Sir Heneage Proby was sometime MP of Buckingham.[10] Her mother Mary was the daughter of London merchant John Bland. Their country residence was ‘The Glen’ or ‘Glasnevin House’ located just outside the village of Glasnevin. Rogerson also built the village church and allegedly made a few pennies from the tithes.[11]
Rt Hon John Rogerson, Chief Justice of Ireland
Sir John Rogerson died in 1724 and was succeeded by his eldest son and namesake who would become known as the Right Hon John Rogerson, Chief Justice of Ireland from 1727 until his death in 1741.[12] John came to the Bar in 1702, became Solicitor General of Ireland in 1714 and Recorder of Dublin in the same year. He was appointed Attorney General in 1720 and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in 1727. John de Courcy could find no reference to his involvement in his fathers work. He married Elizabeth Ludlow, daughter of Stephen Ludlow and aunt of the 1st Earl Ludlow. He died in 1741, leaving one son, also John Rogerson, who died unmarried, and at least four daughters, Elizabeth, Hannah, Frances and Arabella.[13]
John Rogerson of Carlow
I believe Judge Rogerson’s only son, John Rogerson, later moved to County Carlow and settled at Bettyville, Rathvilly, Co. Carlow. It is curious that George Halpin Junior, the engineer, was married in Rathvilly in 1868. It also happens to be my home village today. Bettyville was the home of Benjamin Disraeli, uncle and namesake of the Prime Minister, in 1810. This John Rogerson is mentioned in 'The History and Antiquities of the County of Carlow' by John Ryan:
Here lieth the body of John Rogerson, late of Bettyville, in the county of Carlow, Esq, who departed this life on Sunday May the 8th anno domini 1785 aged 66 years. Possessed of a noble fortune he did not dissipate it in luxury or extravagance but during his lifetime expended the greatest part of his income in acts of most extensive charity and munificence. Dying unmarried and not having any near relations who had a natural claim upon him, he bequeathed £4,000 to the different charitable foundations in the city of Dublin and the residue of his estates to that very patriotick and extended charily, the Protestant charter schools of Ireland. Resolved that in his death the orphan and the poor should not feel the loss of so liberal a benefactor
The Creighton Inheritance
The bulk of Judge Rogerson’s considerable wealth passed to his eldest daughter, Elizabeth Rogerson. This included Rogerson's Quay and property in Great Denmark Street. At the time of her father’s death, Elizabeth was twelve years married to Abraham Crichton - or Creighton, subsequently 1st Baron Erne of Crom Castle, son of Maj.-Gen. David Crichton and Katherine Southwell. Her dowry had been worth £5000 but was considerably enhanced by this inheritance.[14] The Creighton name is recalled in Creighton Street, connecting City Quay and Hanover Street East, although it is not named on Brooking’s map of 1728 or Rocque’s map of 1773. Elizabeth died on 6 August 1761, leaving three children - Abraham Crichton (d. 29 Aug 1810), John Crichton, 1st Earl Erne of Crom Castle (1731 – 1828) and Charlotte Crichton (1738 – 1819). The 1st Earl Erne had his Dublin town house in Great Denmark Street, and died there in 1828, after which it was sold. By 1796, Rogerson’s estate ‘immediately within [Rogerson’s] wall’ was in the possession of Luke Gardiner and representatives of the late Richard Benson. The Rogerson’s remaining Dublin properties continued to be in the possession of the Erne family, and continue to be recorded in the papers, until the 1940s.
The Jephson Connection
Hannah Rogerson married A. Jephson, MP. I know no more.
The Cotter Connectiobn
Arabella Rogerson married Sir James Cotter, 1st Bt., son of James Cotter and Margaret Mathew, in 1746. Sir James was MP for Askeaton. His father, James Cotter of Annsgrove, Co Cork, was executed on 7 May 1720 at age 30, as a Jacobite. Sir James and Arabella had four sons – the Rev George Sackville Cotter (d. 1831); Rogerson Cotter; Sir James Laurence Cotter, 2nd Bt (1748 – 1829) and Edmund Cotter (1749 – 1770).
The Leslie Connection
Frances Rogerson married Robert Leslie of Glaslough and was mother to Charles Powell Leslie. See the Castle Leslie website for more on this.
Thanks to Michael Purcell, John de Courcy, Niamh Moore, Dr. Mary Clark (City Archivist, Dublin City Archives) and others.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The Antiquary, Jan 1880, E. Stock, p. 177 – 179, a letter by Lady Bellasys in 1712.
[2] This was built on the site of the subsequent Gothic structure o St. Andrew’s Church, where Dublin Tourism are headquartered. The church-land was formerly an ‘old bowling green’ given by the Earl of Meath.
[3] A history of the city of Dublin, John Thomas Gilbert
[4] Rogerson was succeeded as Lord Mayor by George Blackhall.
[5] 'The Foundation of the Hospital and Free School of King Charles II’, Frederick Richard Falkiner (1906), p. 112, 115, 123.
[6] Journal of the Very Rev. Rowland Davies, LL.D. Dean of Ross, (and afterwards Dean of Cork,) from March 8, 1688-9, to September 29, 1690 By Rowland Davies, Richard Caulfield. (1857, Camden Society, p. 169)
[7] The Quay is sometimes known as John’s Quay but for the purposes of this book it is Rogerson’s Quay.
[8] Dublin City Assembly Rolls - Extracts from the Calendar of the Ancient Records of Dublin 1716, Roll XIXm.36b.
[9] ‘The Beauties of Ireland Being Original Delineations, Topographical, Historical, and Biographical, of Each County’ (1825), p. 164.
[10] Sir Peter Proby was also a forbear of the Earls of Carysfort who owned Glenart Castle in Co Wicklow.
[11] Richard Mant’s ‘History of the Church of Ireland’ (1840), p. 350.
[12] In Dublin, 1660-1860 by Maurice James Craig, he erroneously describes the founder of the Quay as the same man who became Chief Justice. Sir John’s younger son William Rogerson died prematurely. William had married Alice, fourth daughter of Sir Thomas Molyneux of Castle Dillon, Co. Armagh. After his death, his widow was married secondly, in May 1727, to Richard Wolseley. Richard was created a Baronet of Ireland in 1744 and died in 1788. ‘A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire’, John Burke.
[13] Wikipedia maintains that Sir John has many direct descendants living in London, including John Rogerson who has a career in television post-production as a respected sound mixer. There may also be a connection to Dr John Rogerson, Scots physician to Catherine the Great.
[14] PRONI papers
