Lamberton House

By Patrick F. Meehan

Lamberton House is described on Page 198, Volume I of Canon O'Hanlon's History of Queen's County - "Lamberton Park, finely wooded and picturesquely surrounded with wide ranges of scenery." On page 628 of the same History Volume II, it is described as follows:

"Lamberton, in the Barony of Maryborough, is the seat of Sr John Sydd Bart. The house has a commanding aspect and takes in all the prospect of the Dysart Hills and the Rock of Dunamase. The entrance to the Demesne is elegant, the offices are planned with greater convenience than I have seen before and the gardens and shrubbery are certainly in as good a style as any in the country. The host houses and fruiteries are in uncommon taste and elegance. I think Lamberton is altogether the neatest and best laid down demence in the county.
This was originally taken from Sir Charles Coote's Statiscal History of Queen's County (Pages 97-98) supplemented Anthologia Hibernica Volume I Pages 216 to 220.

The picture of Lamberton was taken by the late Very Rev Fr Edward O'Leary, PP., M.R.I.A. Portarlington who helped with the Very Rev Matthew Lalor, PP, Mountmelljck to compile and edit the manuscripts of Canon O'Hanlon's Queen's County and have Volume I published in 1907 and Volume II in 1914.
The original Lamberton House was built during the reign of King James I by Charles Lambert 1St Earl of Cavan and 1st Viscount Kilcourse. He died in 1660 and was buried in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. He was succeeded by his eldest son Richard 2nd Earl of Cavan who sat as M.P. for Kilbeggan 1647 to 1649.
He married twice, was a Jacobite and sat in the Parliament of King James III. He died in May 1691 and was buried in St Peter's Church, Maryborough, where a monument was erected to his memory. His eldest son Charles, who was born in Maryborough in 1649, returned to Ire land after the defeat of King James II, claimed his estates and assumed the title of 3rd Earl of Cavan. The entailment of Lambert Estate to the heirs male was broken and he took his seat in the Irish House of Lords as 3rd Earl of Cavan on the 27th October 1692. He married Castelina daughter of Henry Gilbert of Kilminchy Castle, Maryborough and sister of St Ledger Gilbert, M.P. for Maryborough.

He died 5th December 1702 and was buried in St Patrick's Cathedral. Succeeded by his son Richard as 4th Earl of Cavan who as born in Lamberton House in 1676. He joined the army of King William III, served in Spain, Portugal and the West Indies. On his return to Ireland he became Lieutenant Colonel of the Guards Regiment and Governor of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin. He married Margaret, daughter of Captain Richard Trant, Governor of the Barbadoes and niece of Sr Patrick Trant, Lord Lieutenant and MP for Queen's County in the Parliament of King James II and later 1st Viscount Maryborough. His daughter, the Lady Hester Lambert married in 1738 Warner Westenra, Burgomaster and MP for Maryborough of Heath House, The Great Heath of Maryborough. He died in 1737 and was buried in St Peter's Church, Maryborough. His widow died in 1742 and was buried with him.

He was succeeded by his son Ford 5th Earl of Cavan, who married Mary, daughter of Richard Edgeworth of Longwood, Co Meath. She died in 1766 and was buried in St Michan's Church, Dublin. He died 29th September 1772 and was buried with his wife. He left an only daughter the Lady Elizabeth who married Sir Michael Dromice Bermont. She sold the estate to Sir John Tydd.
A distant cousin, Richard, succeeded as 6th Earl but not to the estate.
Frederick 9th Earl of Cavan was Home Rule MP for South Somerset, 1885 to 1892 and in 1894 became Knight of the Order of St Patrick. The Earls of Cavan had no English title and therefore could not sit in the British House of Lords but could sit as MP at Westminster. Sr John Tydd Baronet sat in turn as MP in the Irish Parliament for Maryborough 1778 to 1783 and Ballinakill 1790-1797, MP for Ardfert, Co Kerry 1783 to 1790. In 1798 he was elected MP for the City of Clogher but resigned on been appointed Escheator of Leinster and Sir Jonah Barrington of Cullenagh Castle, Maryborough was elected in his place. The same year he was elected MP for the borough of Fore, Co Westmeath. In 1799 he became Escheator of Munster and again had to resign.

A friend of Henry Grattan, he was opposed to the Act of Union, but took no part in the debates and abstained in all the Union votes. He died in 1805 and was buried in St Anne's Church, Dublin.

His mother was Elizabeth, the daughter of Pierce O'More of Loran, Queen's County. Sir John married Diana, the daughter of Benjamin Bunberry of Tipperary by his wife Mary, daughter of John Kelly of Maryborough. He had no issue and left Lamberton to his wife for her lifetime and then to his cousin Judge Archer More who as MP for Tralee voted against the Act of Union.
The Judge who died in 1846 left Lamberton to his son the Rev John Tydd Moore, Dean of Elphin.
Sir Walter Scott stayed in Lamberton with Judge Moore.
The Dean sold Lamberton to James Butler, younger son of James 13th Baron of Dunboyne.
It was then purchased by the Sweetman family.
The following, published in Leinster Express 9/10/1957, was an extract from the Irish Times:

Lamberton Park, near Maryborough, the home of the Count and Countess of Meeus and their three charming children, is a fine old seventeenth century mansion in beautiful wooded surroundings.

It recalls the Sweetman family in whose possession it was for nearly a century. There were four brilliant daughters in the family -Mrs Blundell, who wrote "Peasant Stories Around Ireland" under the nom-de-plums "M. E. Francis"; Gertrude, a gifted musician and close friend of Paderewaki and Lady Butler of "Roll Call" fame as well as Mrs Egerton Castle, the youngest daughter, and mother of the present Countess de Meeus, who, with her husband, wrote several works of fiction.

Elenanor, the poetess, died in Lamberton Park and left the residence and estate to her niece, the Countess, who tells me that she and her husband intend to make their home there. After their marriage they resided for fifteen years in their beautiful house on the outskirts of Brussels, which they still maintain
The Count de Meeus, a most charming host and gifted cellist, comes of a noble Belgian Catholic family. He served through the war with distinction. It will be interesting to recall that his brother, Colonel Count de Meeus, brought over the Belgian jumping team to the Horse Show this year.

The Lamberton estate comprises about five hundred acres, and the Count and Countess, ardent believers in Ireland's future, have introduced an intensive agricultural programme on the most up-to-date lines, including wheat and beet growing, fruit, vegetables and flowers, cheese and butter-making, cattle, sheep and poultry keeping. The table is supplied with the products of the farm, including delicious bread from wheat grown on the estate and ground in one of the old stone mills in the locality.
The Countess de Meeus is a very charming person, highly accomplished, and deeply attached to her family. She has adapted herself to her new surroundings with enthusiasm, and she and her husband share the desire of seeing closer relations established between Ireland and Belgium.

- "Irishman's Diary" in the "Irish Times".

During World War lithe Count de Meeus had a charcoal factory which gave a great deal of employment. In 1943, the All-Ireland Ploughing Championship was held on the estate. The Sweetman family and later the Count and Countess de Meeus had their own Private Oratory in the house and they later had their own Chaplain, the late Fr Rouget, later CC to Moore Abbey Hospital, Monasterevan, Co. Kildare.

At the end of the war the De Meeus family returned to Belgium. The estate was sold to David Frame of the Hamond Lane Foundry in Dublin. They demolished the historic mansion for the lead, marble and timber. The Laois County Council bought the ruin and used for road filling - thus perished the only Queen Anne mansion in Laois.

Hamond Lane later sold the estate to a number of local farmers including the late Paddy Hume who opened Lamberton Dairy in the out offices of the mansion. Mr Hume later sold his holding to the late William Conroy, who built a bungalow on the site of the mansion. The main part of the estate is now owned by Mr Ted Conroy.

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