MOORECHURCH

MOORECHURCH, a parish, in the barony of UPPER DULEEK, county of MEATH, and province of LEINSTER, 4 miles (N. W.) from Balbriggan, on the mail-coach road from Dublin to Belfast; containing 1009 inhabitants.

The parish comprises 4860 statute acres, of which 4562 ¼ are applotted under the tithe act; two-thirds of the land are arable, and one-third pasture, and about 56 acres are woods and plantations. Agriculture has greatly improved; the land in the eastern part of the parish is of very superior quality, and noted for the neatness of the hedgerows. Near Dardistown is a good flour and corn-mill; and in the vicinity is a small tuck-mill.

The principal seats are Dardistown Castle, the residence of H. Osborne, Esq.; Mosney House, of G. Pepper, Esq.; Claremount, of B. Clare, Esq.; Moorechurch, of G. Yates, Esq.; and Claristown, of James Ennis, Esq. The coast is here a broad shallow strand, in view of which are the Cargee rocks, off the Dublin coast, dry at half-tide, and on which a beacon is fixed. It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Meath, forming part of the union of Julianstown; the rectory is impropriate in George Pepper, Esq.

The tithes amount to £550, of which £450 is payable to the impropriator, and £100 to the vicar; the glebe comprises 9 ½ acres, valued at £28. 18. 6. per annum.

In the R. C. divisions it is part of the union or district of Stamullen; there is a neat chapel at Sarsfieldstown; where also are remains of an ancient stone cross. Ruins of the old church exist; and in the burial-ground is a tomb-stone to the memory of Jane Sarsfield, Dowager Baroness of Dunsaney, who died in 1597.