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From: Alison Causton <>
Subject: [ARMAGH] Armagh Guardian: County Armagh Assizes - Mar 1845 - Part 1
Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 07:59:25 -0400


Armagh Guardian: County Armagh Assizes - Mar 1845 - Part 1
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The following article was transcribed from The Armagh Guardian (4 Mar
1845; microfilm), by permission of The British Library.
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NOTE: This article is very long and shall be published in several
parts. Part 1 identfies the Grand Jury struck for the business session
of these quarterly assizes, then describes the report & subsequent
discussion of the Roads report given by the County Surveyor.
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COUNTY ARMAGH ASSIZES.
---------------------
On Wednesday morning last, THOMAS MORRIS JONES, Esq.,
attended at the Court-house, in this city, for the purpose of
forming the Grand Panel, when the following gentlemen
answered to their names:--
1 William Verner of Churchill, Esq., M.P., Foreman.
2 Lord Viscount Mandeville, of Tandragee Castle.
3 Maxwell Close, of Drumbanagher Castle, Esq.
4 Sir George K. Molyneux, of Castledillon, Esq.
5 Walter M'Geough Bond, of Derrycaw, Esq.
6 Wm. Blacker, of Carrick, Esq.
7 Robert W. Cope, of Loughgall House, Esq.
8 James M. Caulfield, of Hockley, Esq.
9 James M. Stronge, of Tynan Abbey, Esq.
10 Arthur Cope, of Drumilly, Esq.
11 John Robert Irwin, of Carnagh House, Esq.
12 Marcus Synnot, jun., of Ballymover, Esq.
13 James Harden, of Harry-brook, Esq.
14 William Jones Armstrong, of Fellows Hall, Esq.
15 William St. John Blacker, of Mullabrack, Esq.
16 Edward Wellington Bond, of Bondville, Esq.
17 Joseph Atkinson, of Crowhill, Esq.
18 John Porter Harris, of Ashfort, Esq.
19 Maxwell Cross, of Darton, Esq.
20 William Blacker, of Gosford, Esq.
21 William Paton, of Armagh, Esq.
22 Thomas Dobbin, of Armagh, Esq.
23 John Hancock, of Lurgan, Esq.

The Grand Jury having retired for the discharge of the fiscal
business, H. L. LINDSAY, Esq., read the

REPORT OF THE COUNTY SURVEYOR OF ARMAGH TO THE
GRAND JURY ASSEMBLED AT THE SPRING ASSIZES, 1845.

Mr. FOREMAN, MY LORD AND GENTLEMEN.--In making
a Report to you of the fiscal position of this County, I have to
state that, though the extent of road is greatly increased, the
amount of expenditure will not be augmented. The applications
for roads and bridges, &c., amount to £6,950, a large portion
of which is for the repairing of Parish roads, which are rapidly
increasing in extent, so much so, that it has been found necessary,
in several instances, to curtail the expenditure on the broad
roads, in order to keep the amount of the County taxation
within moderate limits, and to pursue an economical course in
the entire system. The consequences are, that the average
mileage expenses of repairing the roads is annually becoming
less. The circumstances will, I trust, remove the feelings
which existed, that the farmers' roads were unattended to, while
money was freely expended on the broad roads.
I have now to state my opinion with respect to the applications
for new works. In the barony of Tureny there is an application
for a short and necessary piece of new road, to avoid a steep hill
on a cross road near Benburb.
In the Barony of Upper Fews there is an application for a new
road from Crossmaglen to Castleblayney, in this County; upon
which I reported, on its being certified at last Assizes.
In the Barony of Lower Orier there is an application for
reducing a hill on the coach road from Tandragee to Portadown--
a work of much importance for the improvement of that road.
There is another very important application for improving the
part of the road from Mountnorris to Newry, by reducing the
Five-mile-hill, and widening the road across the Gall bog. This
is a work of great necessity, as it is absolutely dangerous to
pass over the road in its present state.
On the other applications I will state my opinion, as you will
be proceeding with the business, and will now take up another,
but not less important subject, that of the due expenditure of
the public money; and in doing so I feel great regret in being
obliged to state, that all I can say, in endeavouring to urge
contractors to the performance of their duties, and all I can do
is making them feel, not only the pecuniary loss they sustain, but
the penal responsibility they incur, by not attending strictly to
their contracts; still the duties are unperformed, and I am, in
consequence, in that disagreeable position, that I have no
substantive reason to bear me out in certifying a great mass of the
accounts. I am the more fully convinced of the feeling that, in
my mind, must exist, with regard to roads, that public money
ought to be obtained at a very cheap rate, as on my late circuit
over the county, covering a period from the middle of November
to near the middle of January, I scarcely met an individual
performing public work; this during a period of the year when
roads require particular attention, and when they are most subject
to floods, and the sudden effects of frosts, and when there
was a sum of nearly £10,000 to be accounted for, perfectly
astonished me, particularly so, when I considered that I had given
due notice of the time of inspection. The contractors seemed
to have altogether forgotten that I was going over the county
examining their contracts, and not only to look after the
expenditure, but to see that full and adequate value was given for
£10,000. This being the case, I had to awake them from their
slumbers, and that by what means ? by those that common sense
would immediately dictate--the withholding of payments, and
I hope, and trust, that in a short time an effort will be produced,
beneficial to the public, and of no disadvantage to the individuals,
as if they were to spend their time, at a proper period of
the year, in attending to the roads, which they afterwards
uselessly waste in looking after me for certificates for unfinished
work, the roads would be kept in order, and I would be able to
say, that nothing could afford me greater pleasure, than to be
able to certify every matter in its due course, as I would thereby
have the county business in a legitimate and laudable course of
action, and the entire arrangement would be so sytematic as to
create no individual annoyance.
Hoping that I have not been prolix, I have the honor to be,
Mr. Foreman, my Lord, and Gentlemen, your very obedient
servant,
HENRY L. LINDSAY, County Surveyor.
Armagh, 26th Feb., 1845.

On the Report having been received,
Mr. HANCOCK, addressed the Grand Jury at considerable
length, making especial reference to the custom of charging
fees for the filling of Road Contractors certificates, &c., which
he (Mr. H.) held to be obnoxious to the public generally, and
calculated indirectly to interfere with the proper management
of that part of the county business. He meant not to make any
charge against the County Surveyor or his assistant ; but the
practice was anything but judicious, and he doubted not but
that it exercised more or less influence on the Road Contractors,
who felt it a heavy burden. On the motion of Mr. HANCOCK,
a committee was appointed to investigate the matters alluded
to, and report accordingly.
Nothing particular occurred in the Barony presentments,
which occupied the Grand Jury for the remainder of the day.
...
[.../continued under Part 2]
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This reprint is intended SOLELY for the non-commercial use of family
historians, with the sincere hope that a Lister may find the content
useful. I am not descended from the person(s) mentioned herein.
**Please refer any questions arising from this article to the general
readership of the NIR-ARMAGH mailing list.**

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