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Killiney History | October 14, 2024

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Merton Lodge (now Ballycarbery)

Merton Lodge (now Ballycarbery)
NameMerton Lodge (now Ballycarbery)
Previous NamesKilliney Lodge
AddressKilliney Hill Road
Year Builtc. 1829
On 1888 mapYes
Last Modified: 12 Feb 2024 | author

1843 Map


Published map of 1843 showing Killiney Lodge (Merton Lodge). Glenfield was later demolished to make way for The Grove which was built c. 1852

Court case of 1837

Report which appeared in The Freeman’s Journal on 15 November 1837:

LAW INTELLIGENCE. ROLLS’: COURT -YESTERDAY. EXTRAORDINARY APPLICATION FOR A CHARGE OF PERJURY.

Elizabeth Clements by David Tobin, her nearest friend, v. Southwell and Swanzy, &c.

In this case Mr. Collins, Q.C., appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. Litton, Q. C., for the defendants.

A motion was made in the cause, on Saturday, on behalf of the plaintiff, for an order from this court to set aside certain subpænas and attachments issued by the defendant Southwell, and the order was granted with costs of application. The case then was as follows:- The plaintiff, who claimed to inherit, by will, the property of the Hon. Mr. Southwell, her father, had a series of litigations with Robert Henry Southwell, Esq., her brother, and others, in which she always appeared by her next friend, viz., in the first instance by Mr. Joseph Gibson, and subsequently by David Tobin, Esq., solicitor, of Killiney Lodge. In all those litigations Mr. Samuel Swanzy, who is clerk of the crown in Cavan, had been solicitor to the defendant, and in some cases he was himself a defendant. In filing an answer to Mrs. Clements’s bill, Mr. Swanzy had done so as if Mrs. Clements had joined the said Joseph Gibson as next friend; nevertheless he (Mr. Swanzy) as stated in the present case on the affidavit of the said David Tobin, filed an affidavit which said that Mrs. Clements had acted in all the former proceedings, as well in that honourable court as in the Court of Exchequer, as femme sole, and had not joined any one as next friend. The present motion, therefore, was that the affidavit of Swanzy be taken off the file for perjury, and handed over to the clerk of the crown or commission, and that he be held amenable to the court; and they (the plaintiff and next friend) engaged themselves to prosecute him under that charge at the ensuing commission. The affidavit of Mr. Tobin, moreover, stated that he (Swanzy) was well aware that Clements is the name of plaintiff’s husband, who at present lives and holds a commission in a regiment on a foreign station; and that from all circumstances he must have been perfectly convinced, in contradiction to the words of his affidavit, that the said Mrs. Clements had never acted as a femme sole in her proceedings in the courts.

Mr. Litton Q. C. for the defendant, applied to the court to let the motion stand over, as his client bad been under the necessity of leaving town on the preceding day for Cavan, owing to the sudden indisposition of a very near friend. He was prepared to show the truth of this statement; and from the nature of the proceedings against his client, which were evidently instigated. by no very commendable feelings, he was sure his lordship would be willing to grant the ap. plication he made.

His Honour said, that where such a charge was brought against so respectable a solicitor of that court, as Mr. Swanzy, who, moreover, held a responsible public situation, he would be most anxious to give him every opportunity to carry on his defence.

Belfast Commercial Chronicle 12 January 1835


Description from ‘Illustrated Irish Incumbered Estates’ by Mary Cecelia Lyons 1993

Illustration of Merton Lodge and adjoining The Grove used for sales purposes in 1855. NA 1A/3/35:36

Sale: 19th of June, 1855

No descriptive particulars of Merton Lodge were given in the rental. These two properties on the Killiney Hill Road were auctioned on behalf of Joseph Hines, a bankrupt, and his main creditor, George Clarke. They were both bought by John Fitzgerald, for £900-0-0. These two applotments remained in the hands of John Fitzgerald, and subsequently his widow, until 1926.


List of occupiers from Thom’s and other sources

1829 David Tobin advertising for loan of £200 to be secured on the property

1831 James Adamson (To Let advert mentions David Tobin and Rev. Alan Bell)

1834 Mrs. Elizabeth Clements Southwell & David Tobin (Killiney Lodge listed in Watson’s Almanack)

1837 Mrs. Clements Southwell (Killiney Lodge)

1843 Mrs. Clements (Post Office Directory, Killiney Lodge)

1858 J. A. Huddlestone esq (Post Office Directory, Merton Lodge)

Occupancy  of Merton Lodge from Thom’s Directory: 1861-1925

1861-1864  J. A. Huddlestone, Esq. (who  moved to an adjacent property named Undercliff)

1865-1866  Vacant

1867       William Henry, Esq. (who  moved to an adjacent property named Strathmore)

1868-1869  Vacant

1870       The Rev Robert Stavely, Incumbent of [Holy] Trinity Church, Killiney

1871       Vacant

1872-1877  Charles Dawson, Esq.

1878-1887  Mrs  Battesby

1888-1889  H. Ormsby Rose, Esq.

1890-1897  P. J. Tuohy, Barrister-at-Law with the Board of Works

1898       Mrs  Grey

1899-1905  Mrs  Martin

1906-1908  Vacant

1909       Miss Elizabeth Percy

1910-1913  The  Misses Elizabeth and Lucy Percy

1914       Vacant

Thom’s lists this property as vacant until 1922, but the rating field-books continue to list tenants after that one year’s vacancy:

1915-1920  George  S. Waterlow

1920-1924  Thomas H. Green

1925       Patrick Brady. Thom’s continues with a subtenant:

1922-1925  Mrs Anne  Allardyce

Both The Grove and Merton Lodge were bought by  George S. Waterlow, whose address was given as Loughgall, Co. Armagh, in 1926. Waterlow continued to lease The Grove, but demolished Merton Lodge immediately after purchase. Its land was merged with The Grove’s. The Merton Lodge applotment was partially resurrected in the late 1950’s, when Thady O’Sullivan, of the Gresham Hotel, acquired some of the land and built a bungalow on the site.


Images from The Court of the Commissioners for Sale of Incumbered Estates in Ireland, Estate of George Clarke June 1855

Auction Notice of 19th June 1855
Description of Rental
Map of Estate
Detail from map

The map above shows the single storey house with simple projecting entrance porch to the front elevation as can be seen in the perspective view. The footprint remans the same in the 1888 map with the exception of a small extension to the Northern gable.


Notice of house to be let , 27th July 1831

From Dublin Evening Mail 27th July 1831

Description of house dated 23rd September 1852 from auction notice

Freeman’s Journal 23rd September 1852

Ordnance Survey map of 1888

Extract from Ordnance Survey sheet XXVI.7 1888. “County Dublin,” held by Ordnance Survey Ireland. © Public domain. Digital content: © Ordnance Survey Ireland, published by UCD Library, University College Dublin

A sad tale about a deceased resident of Killiney Lodge Hotel, 1851.

From The Dublin Weekly Nation 18th January 1851

Newspaper cuttings

Earliest recorded mention of Killiney Lodge from Saunders’s Newsletter of 15th May 1829
Mrs. Clements Southwell resident in August 1837