Co. Down

<p>Newry, a port and commercial town near the borders of counties Down and Louth, was the largest householder borough in Ireland and had a population said to be equally divided between Catholics and Protestants. The principal personal interest in the borough belonged traditionally to the Viscounts Kilmorey (Needham) who possessed a large estate near and in the town, together with the local turbary (the right to cut turf on common land).

<p>The principal property interest in the householder borough and county town of Downpatrick belonged to the Southwells, an Anglo-Irish family whose base was in Limerick. In 1776 one of their number, Edward Southwell, succeeded to estates in Gloucestershire and the distinction of becoming 20th Baron (de) Clifford. From 1777, when he died, until the end of this period his heir, another Edward, was the nominal patron of the borough, although in practice his interest declined and fell under the control of his relations, the Rowley family of Leitrim, and, by 1812, of his agent, Miller.

<p>Of the populous and prosperous commercial centre and port of Newry, straddling the county boundary between Armagh and Down at the head of Carlingford Bay, John Curwen* observed that it ‘has the appearance of opulence, and in the pursuit of trade and business many appeared to be earnestly engaged’, while another traveller, Henry Inglis, noted that this ‘respectable-looking town ... enjoys the rare distinction of having no wretched suburbs dragging their miserable length from every outlet’.<fn>J.C. Curwen, <em>Observations on State of Ireland</em> (1818), ii.

<p>The unincorporated port and county town of Downpatrick, on the south bank of the River Quoil, was reckoned to be in a thriving condition and enjoyed several improvements in this period, including the provision of lighting.<fn><em>PP</em> (1831-2), xliii. 41; (1835), xxviii. 353-6; S. Lewis, <em>Top. Dict. of Ireland</em> (1837), i.