Portnashangan

PORTSHANGAN, or PORTNESHANGAN, a parish, in the barony of CORKAREE, county of WESTMEATH, and province of LEINSTER, 4 miles (N. N. W.) from Mullingar, on the mail coach road to Longford; containing 463 inhabitants Lough Hoyle washes the south-western parts of the parish, which comprises 2340 statute acres, mostly under tillage and pasture, there being only a small quantity of bog. Here are quarries of a fine black stone, used also for flags. Petty sessions are held at Knockdrin every Tuesday. On its eastern limits stands Ballinagall, the seat of James Gibbons, Esq.; it is a modern mansion, erected at a cost of £30,000, in one of the finest and most richly wooded demesnes in the county. Woodlands is the residence of W. Moxton, Esq., agent to Lord Forbes; Mountmurray, of Alex. Murray, Esq.; and the glebe-house, of the Rev. H. Daniell.

It is a rectory, in the diocese of Meath, forming part of the union of Portlemon; the tithes amount to £92. 6. 1½. The glebe-house was erected in 1826, at an expense of £784. 12. 4. British, of which £184. 12. 3¾. was a loan and £415. 7. 8½. a gift from the late Board of First Fruits, and £184. 12. 3¾. was a gift from J. Gibbons, Esq.: there are two glebes, one of 5¾ statute acres, valued at £5. 5.; the other of 4 statute acres, valued at £10. 10., per annum. The church of the union is in this parish: it is a handsome building, in the Gothic style, surmounted with a spire erected in 1824, at an expense of £2908, of which £1892 was contributed by Jas. Gibbons, Esq., (who also gave the site), £277 by Sir Richard Levinge, and £738 was a gift from the late Board of First Fruits. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Multifarnham. The parish school is aided by subscriptions annually from the incumbent and the Earl of Granard, and is endowed with £700 by Mr. Gibbons, who built the school-house, and £5 per ann. from Lord Forbes, who gave the land. There is a private school also, in which 15 boys and 8 girls are educated. At Mountmurray are remains of an ancient castle.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.