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Templepatrick. Co Antrim
This is a most sacred Irish spot for it was in in the 5th Century St. Patrick himself set up a Chapel baptising locals at the local Holy Well. The Chapel would have been roughly where the Mausoleum is in the centre of the cemetery inside the grounds of the now Castle Upton, these people arrived some 1100 years later but must be congratulated for looking after the ancient heritage of the Irish people these past 400 years, regardless of who they are or where they came from. An interesting wee story is that when the strangers began blasting for a quarry some 100 years ago it caused the Holy Well to dry up, but mysteriously the whole quarry was suddenly flooded, machinery lost,.. some say the wee folk were angry at them, and sure you know the little people loved St Patrick.
Castle Upton itself behind the wall (right) in top picture. Castle Upton, formerly called Norton Castle, after Sir Robert Norton, by whom it was founded in the reign of Elizabeth, but more on that and the other side to the 'Upton's' in my forth coming Book.
Historical Archivist Peter Garland at the grave of William Orr, United Irishman who was hanged in 1797 and is buried at Templepatrick, we have the local Presbyterian communiuty to thank for the installation of the stone plaque noting Orr's grave there , as for almost 200 years no marker marked his place of rest.
THE EXECUTION OF WILLIAM ORR
Though Orr’s death occurred in the year 1797, that event was connected with the movement which culminated in 1798. William Orr, of Farranshane, near Antrim, was convicted of the administration of illegal oaths on what was afterwards shown to be perjured evidence, and for which he was condemned to death. The execution was postponed from time to time, and when it drew near, according to the testimony of James Kirk, of Whinpark, who received his information from his father, Samuel Kirk, a warm loyalist friend of the condemned man, Orr, was buoyed up by the jail officials with the belief that he would not really be put to death at the time appointed for his execution, but only partially so. And by some means or other this belief was shared by Orr’s relatives. Accordingly, the friends - James Kirk’s father being one of them- received the body, immediately after the execution at the jail at Carrickfergus, for the ostensible purpose of burial, and then set out for Orr’s late home at Farranshane. When they had proceeded a short distance only, a halt was made, and the body was taken into a house, or other convenient place, and bled, which operation was expected to indicate the presence of life and restore circulation. Samuel Kirk not only witnessed the bleeding but examined Orr’s neck, and found it broken, and then resuscitation was therefore impossible, he then stated, as gently and sympathetically as he could, this conviction to the brother of the deceased, who was fondly clung to the hope of restoration, saying, “ No Jamie, he can’t be revived; his neck is broken; he is dead”, when the poor fellow sank to the ground as though he had been struck with a weapon. The party then made its way to Farranshane, and the body was subsequently buried in the old burial ground at Templepatrick.
Jemmy Hope, United Irishman, On Templepatrick
I attended public worship with the members of a seceding congregation in the parish of Templepatrick, in the County of Antrim, in which there were two congregations, one in the village where the Rev. John Abernethy was minister, and the other near Lyles Hill, taught by the Rev. Isaac Patten, where I was baptized. One day I heard Mr. Patten explaining the 83rd Psalm, and praying for the downfall of Turk and Anti-Christ, and for the purging of the blood that lay unpurged on the throne of Britain, and also for the downfall of Pope and Popery, which latter prayer composed part of his devotions every Sabbath. But when the Royal Bounty was extended to our ministers, then the destruction of Pope and Popery became the principle supplication of the poor northern sinners to the throne of divine grace; the throne of Britain, according to the fanatical notions of those times, was purged and purified in the smoke of the blood then beginning to be shed in the woods of America, and in fairs and markets in Ireland, particularly in the County Armagh; then Mr. Patten began praying for the stoppage of the effusion of Protestant blood, but from the impression of his former instructions on my mind, I used to think of the stoppage of the effusion of human blood when attempting to join him in prayer.
These thoughts began to expand when I saw the regiments of fine looking fellows, driving off to be slaughtered in America, and heard the ‘Break-of-Day Boys’ boasting of the indulgence they got from magistrates for wrecking and beating the papists, as they called their neighbours, and the snug bits of land that their friends got when the papists fled to Connaught, and the fun they had, when committing depredations, for which warrants lay out against them, of which they had always notice, in time to escape. Our parish was inhabited by settlers from Scotland, some of whom had fled from persecution in their own country, of which my grandfather was one.
When King William landed, they joined his interest, and dreaded the natives, of course, who had all left our parish but two families of the name of Neill and Tolan, who were servants in Castle Upton during the siege of Derry, and respected by the Upton Family for many years for their fidelity during that war.
The parish of Templepatrick was thus cleared of all the natives who were Catholics, and was very thinly inhabited, even within my own memory, to what it is now. The republican spirit, inherent in the principles of the Presbyterian community, kept resistance to arbitrary power still alive, though selfishness prevented its proper direction, and indeed men to do to “others what they would resist if done to themselves.”
The American struggle taught people that industry had its rights as well as aristocracy, that one required a guarantee as well as the other; which gave extension to the forward view of the Irish leaders. The war commenced between the claims of the plough and the sword, fiction became arrayed against reality, the interests of capital against those of labour, and the rich lost sight of their dependence on the poor. Society was disjointed, and there was no guarantee for the preservation of the rights of industry. The claims founded on fiction, however, predominated, and ranks arose in such disproportion that mankind seemed divided into different species, each preying on the other; from necessity, with the exception of a few enlightened men, in every rank, who deprecated those evils, and looked forward to a better state of things. James Hope.
It would be disrespectful of me not to mention that members of the Henry Family are buried in the Mausoleum in the cemetery. Should you ever go to pay homage at this sacred spot, remember this adjoins a private family home and that aspect should be respected.