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| Springhill House | |
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| General information | |
| Type | House |
| Location | Moneymore,County Londonderry, Northern Ireland |
| Coordinates | 54°41′10″N6°39′22″W / 54.686°N 6.656°W /54.686; -6.656 |
| Construction started | c.1680–1689 with notable extensions c.1765 and c.1820 |
| Governing body | National Trust |
Springhill is a 17th-century plantation house in thetownland of Ballindrum nearMoneymore,County Londonderry in Northern Ireland. It has been the property of theNational Trust since 1957[1] and, in addition to the house, gardens and park, there is a costume collection.[2]It is open from March to June, and September on weekends, and is open to the public seven days a week during July and August.[3]
This 17th-century unfortified house was built about 1680-1695 and was originally surrounded by a defensivebawn. Around 1765 two single-storey wings were added and the entrance front was modified to its present arrangement of seven windows across its width.[4]
The Conyngham family had come fromAyrshire in Scotland in about 1609, possibly fromGlengarnock and the first of the family in Ulster was said to have been one of the family of theEarls of Glencairn. Alexander Conyngham, Dean of Raphoe, ancestor of the laterMarquesses Conyngham, was probably a near relative – his son SirAlbert Cunningham's portrait[5] is at Springhill and notSlane Castle.[6] They were granted lands underJames I'sPlantation of Ulster inCounty Armagh andCounty Londonderry. The early history of the family is something of a mystery. Mina Lenox-Conynham asserted that a document previously held in thePublic Records Office in Dublin asserted that the lands at Ballindrum (later Springhill) were in Conyngham hands as early as 1609, but she believed this record to have been destroyed during theBattle of Dublin and the shelling of theFour Courts[6] It is believed that some form of farm dwelling was constructed on the estate in the second quarter of the seventeenth century (probably on the site of the present carpark) but this was destroyed during theIrish Rebellion of 1641.
William Conyngham I (referred to in family documents as "the elder") was a colonel in theIrish rebellion of 1641 and one of Cromwell's Commissioners for County Armagh and held land at Drumcrow[7] in the county and property in the town of Armagh itself. He was granted new title deeds by Cromwell in 1652, 'the old ones having been destroyed in the recent wars'. He died in 1666, whenHigh Sheriff of County Londonderry. In 1676 his widow lived in a house on the north side of Armagh with a garden anda little parke calledGarreturne.[8]
Marriage articles between William Conyngham II (known to the family as "Good Will") and Ann Upton ofCastle Upton nearTemplepatrick executed 168, stated that he was required "to build a convenient house of lime and stone, two stories high ... with necessary office houses" for his wife-to-be. It is widely believed that the present house owes its origin to this document thoughdendrochronological examination of the roof timbers on the central part of the house date the beams to after 1690. At this time, many of the surviving outbuildings along with the rare Dutch styled gardens were created.
From William Conyngham II, the estate passed to George Butle in 1721. George was the son of William Conyngham II's sister Anne, who had married David Butle. George thereupon adopted the name Butle-Conyngham. Under the terms of the Plantation Grant, he reconstructed the village ofCoagh in about 1755, naming the main square Hanover Square in deference toGeorge II.
From George Butle Conyngham, the estate passed to his eldest son, Colonel William Conyngham of the7th Dragoon Guards (known as the "Black Horse" regiment) in 1765. Col William added the two wings to either side of the house as a nursery and ballroom respectively.
Col. William Conyngham died without issue in 1784. The estate passed to his brother David Conyngham who also died childless four years later. As a result, the estate then passed to the son of their sister Ann who had married Clotworthy Lenox ofDerry, grandson of James Lenox, Alderman of Derry[9] (Mayor of Derry 1693 and 1697), remembered as one of the leaders of theSiege of Derry[10][11] and the city's Member of Parliament 1703–1713. Col. George Lenox, upon inheriting the estate, adopted the name Lenox-Conyngham and his descendants lived in the house until 1961. George served underCastlereagh in theIrish Volunteers but, after being betrayed by Castlereagh, resigned his commission in disgrace in 1816. As a result of this, combined with his depressive nature, he committed suicide later that year. His 2nd wife Olivia (4th daughter ofWilliam Irvine of Castle Irvine, County Fermanagh) is said to haunt the house to this day[12] and is reputed to be the best documented ghost in Ireland. George Lenox-Conyngham married as his first wife Jane Hamilton of Castlefin, by whom he had a son and heir William Lenox-Conyngham. Jane's mother was Jean Hamilton, daughter of John Hamilton of Brown Hall County Donegal; Jean married John Hamilton ofCastlefin County Donegal, and after his death married George Lenox-Conyngham's uncle William Conyngham.[13]
From George, the house passed to his eldest son William Lenox-Conyngham in 1816. He had been a talented lawyer in Glasgow but left his legal career to run the estate. In 1818 he married Charlotte Staples, daughter ofJohn Staples ofLissan House near Cookstown. John Staples was a respected lawyer and member of theIrish House of Commons. Staples first wife was Harriet Conolly ofCastletown House in County Kildare. The descendants of their eldest daughter Louisa Anne inherited Castletown House after the death ofLady Louisa Conolly in 1821. His second wife was Henrietta Molesworth, daughter of Field MarshalRichard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth. Their son Thomas Staples became the 9thLissan Baronet.
During William Lenox-Conyngham's tenure, the estate was drained and improved and a large well-appointed dining room was added to the rear of the house, complete with a 17th-century Italian chimneypiece salvaged fromFrederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol'sBallyscullion House nearBellaghy which was demolished in about 1825.
When William Lenox-Conyngham died in 1858, the estate passed to his eldest son Lieutenant Colonel SirWilliam Lenox-Conyngham who had married Laura Arbuthnot, daughter of George Arbuthnot of Elderslie[14] (Founder of the Indian bank,Arbuthnot & Co) in 1856. Her father's elder brother wasSir William Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet,Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Sir William Lenox-Conyngham was highly involved in military matters and was knighted (Knight Commander of theKCB) byQueen Victoria in 1881.[15] During his tenure, the estate was largely sold off under thePurchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1885 and theLand Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 and was reduced to around three hundred acres. Finances became a grave concern for the family. Sir William was the last Agent ofThe Drapers' Company, overseeing their remaining estate in Northern Ireland, which had been extensive and includedDraperstown andMoneymore.
By the time of Sir William's death in 1906, there was little left of the estate and as a result of some unwise investments, his son Lt. Col. William Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham found financial matters very trying. In 1899 he married Mina Lowry of Rockdale nearCookstown inCounty Tyrone. She was the last member of the family to live on the estate and she continued to do so even after the death of her son and theNational Trust taking over in 1957, until her own death in 1961. Col. William Arbuthnot fought in both theBoer War andWorld War I and his younger brother Lt. Col. John Staples Molesworth Lenox-Conyngham was killed in action atGuillemont during theBattle of the Somme,[16] on 3 September 1916, personally leading the 6th BattalionConnaught Rangers over the top and into the attack armed only with an ancient revolver. He is buried atCarnoy in France.[17] The two wooden crosses that marked his grave were returned to Ireland and now lie insideSt Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, next to his memorial.[18]
William Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham died in 1938 and the estate passed to his elder son Capt. William Lowry Lenox-Conyngham who led the localHome Guard during theSecond World War as a result of being invalided out of theNational Defence Corps in 1940. Realising that the finances of the family were now in terminal decline and recognising that neither he nor his brother had any children to carry on the direct line, William Lowry entered into negotiations with theNational Trust in 1956 with a view to handing over the house. This had followed a chance meeting withNancy, Countess of Enniskillen who had presentedFlorence Court inCounty Fermanagh to the Trust the previous year. In the event, he signed his will bequeathing the house and estate to the National Trust only three days before his death in 1957.
William's uncle George Hugh Lenox-Conyngham married Barbara Josephine née Turton whose mother Lady Cecilia was the daughter ofJoseph Leeson, 4th Earl of Milltown ofRussborough County Wicklow. They had two sons Denis Hugh and Alwyn Douglas and two daughters Cecilia Laura and Eileen Mary, born in Edinburgh. Their father had, like previous members of the family, been educated in Edinburgh, in George's case atFettes College where he was the first former pupil to return as a school master. After being Housemaster of Kimmerghame House, he became a priest. His first living was atDenver, Norfolk, then he was appointed Rector ofLavenham, a living that was held by his old Cambridge CollegeGonville & Caius. Eileen, Denis, their mother Barbara and aunt Alice Lenox-Conyngham travelled on the Titanic.[19][20]
Following the death of William Lowry in 1957, the head of the family became Captain Alwyn Douglas Lenox-Conyngham RN, his elder brother Denis having died in China in 1928, whilst serving with his regimentThe Cameronians. His eldest son Charles Denis Lenox-Conyngham, former managing director ofBlue Funnel Line and chairman ofSealink is the current head of the family.
Upon adopting the property, the National Trust undertook a large-scale programme of restoration and re-construction adopting the orthodoxy of 1950s conservation practice which saw the Victorian smoking room demolished, large portions of the house stripped back to stone and all the rooms re-arranged to reflect their appearance when first constructed.
The house today contains a vitally important and almost complete collection of one family's occupation for three hundred years. In the Gun Room can be found one of the largest surviving 18th century wallpaper schemes surviving in the UK (Chinese wallpaper from the 1720s), along with a "long gun" dating to about 1680 which was presented to Alderman James Lenox after theSiege of Derry. Present is a six-inches-long muzzle-loader and two late 18th-Century blunder busses.
A 1920 catalogue of the library prior to the National Trust acquiring the property was compiled by Mina Lenox-Conyngham who played a key role in both the dispersal and the preservation of Springhill’s book collection.[21] The Library contains one of the most important collections of 17th and 18th century books in Ireland and is composed of around 3000 volumes, the oldest of which is a small Latinpsalter of 1541.[22]
In the old laundry can be found the largest costume collection in Northern Ireland (established byViscount Clanwilliam[clarification needed] in 1960) and a selection from the collection is displayed annually in the costume museum.
The bedroom contains an intriguing medicine chest, once owned by the 3rd Viscount Molesworth.
Springhill was used for the location of the three-part adaptation ofEugene McCabe's modern Irish classic,Death and Nightingales, first broadcast in November 2018, featuring as the home of landowner Billy Winters.
The National Trust ownedBeetling Mill is a sister property of Springhill.
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