St. Nicholas Within is a former Church of Ireland parish church in Dublin city, Ireland. It was located at the corner of Nicholas St. and Christchurch Place, where part of its entrance may be seen next to the Peace Park. The term may also refer to the civil parish in the

barony Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...

of Dublin City which was one of nine and a half baronies in the old County Dublin.Placenames Database of Ireland: St. Nicholas Within.
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The church

The original church was built in the 11th century by Bishop Donat and was dedicated to

St. Nicholas of Myra Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-day Demre ...

, the patron saint of sailors. It received its name during the episcopate of Alexander de Bicknor (1317–1349), when the parish of St. Nicholas was extended outside the city so as to include the Manor of St. Sepulchre and the

Deanery of St Patrick The Deanery of St Patrick was one of several manors, or liberties, that existed in Dublin, Ireland since the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century. They were town lands united to the city, but still preserving their own jurisdiction. ...

. The parish was divided into two parts: St. Nicholas Within the Walls and St. Nicholas Without. The church fell into disrepair in the 17th century, and was rebuilt in 1707. By 1835 it was again having problems, and it was unroofed, although a chapel in the church, St. Mary's, continued to be used until 1847. It was planned to demolish the church and build a new one. However, this was never done, and the parish united with that of St. Audoen in 1867.

The parish

The parish is mentioned in Pope Celestine III's Bull of 1191, listing prebends. The parish was the smallest parish in Dublin, measuring , 11 perches. At the time of its unification with St. Audoen's the population of the parish was 1,838, of which only 184 belonged to the established (i.e., Church of Ireland) church. The parish corresponded to the civil parish of the same name.

The cemetery

The greater part of the graveyard was taken over by Dublin Corporation when building the Tholsel nearby. All that remained was a passage to the vaults. The names of those interred are available in the parish registers. *

Nathaniel Catelyn Sir Nathaniel Catelyn (c. 1580 – 1637) (whose family name is also spelt Catlyn or Catlin), was a leading English-born politician and judge in seventeenth-century Ireland. He was Speaker of the Irish House of Commons in the Irish Parliament of 1 ...

, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, was buried here in April 1637. * Alexander Montgomery (1686–1729), soldier and politician from County Donegal, was buried here on 22 December 1729. * Sir Robert Doyne (1651-1733), former

Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas The chief justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland was the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, which was known in its early years as the Court of Common Bench, or simply as "the Bench", or "the Dublin bench". It was one of the s ...

, was buried here in 1733.

Chantry of St. Mary

In 1469, King

Edward IV of England Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

gave John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester permission to found a chantry in honour of God and the Blessed Virgin Mary and to have masses said for the benefit of the founders and all the departed. It was established in St. Nicholas Within in the chapel of St. Mary and was under the authority of the Provincial of the Augustinian Friars of England. After the dissolution of the monasteries, chantries in parish churches in England were abolished, but no act was passed to abolish them in Ireland; some continued to function according to the use of the Church of Ireland. In this way, the chantry of St. Mary continued to function, as a

sinecure A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is an office, carrying a salary or otherwise generating income, that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval chu ...

, until 1882. Some years earlier the Parliament of Ireland had given Edward Somerton — justice of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland) — permission to found another chantry in St. Nicholas.

Notable parishioners

During the

Interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin '' ...

(1650s), Daniel Hutchinson, Thomas Hooke,

John Preston John Preston may refer to: Politicians * John Preston (died 1434), Member of Parliament (MP) for Sussex * John Preston (c. 1578 – c. 1642), MP for Lancaster * John Preston (alderman) (1611–1686), mayor of Dublin in 1654 * John Preston (died ...

and Richard Tighe, all served as alderman, were all Mayors of Dublin, and all worshipped at Dr Samuel Winter's independent congregation meeting at the Church of St. Nicholas Within. (Hooke like Hutchinson was an elder of the church.)

Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Edwards may refer to: Musicians *Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, pseudonym of bandleader Paul Weston and his wife, singer Jo Stafford *Jonathan Edwards (musician) (born 1946), American musician ** ''Jonathan Edwards'' (album), debut album ...

(1615–1681), from Denbighshire, Wales became curate at this church in 1661. He went on to become Archdeacon of

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

Notes

References

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