The history of Westport House, built in 1731

By Tom Gillespie

COLONEL John Browne (c. 1640 to 1711) was the first of the Brownes of Westport House to settle in the area.

A lawyer and also a colonel in the army of the Catholic King James II during the Williamite War, he was prominent in drafting the 1691 Treaty of Limerick which ended the war.

He was second son of Sir John Browne, first Baronet of the Neale. He was also the great-grandson of John Browne, born in Sussex, who came to Mayo in 1580 as part of the Elizabethan conquest of Mayo and who described himself as the first Englishman ‘in living memory’ to settle there.

Colonel Browne acquired vast estates in Mayo and Galway, and built the first Westport House on the site of a ruined castle which had once belonged to the old Gaelic O’Malley family.

He married Maud Burke, daughter of Theobald Burke, who was the third Viscount Mayo and descendant of Pirate Queen Grace O’Malley.

Westport, at this time, was called Cathair na Mart - stone fort of the beeves. Browne’s son, Peter (1670 to 1724), built Westport Harbour.

Peter’s son, John (1709 to 1776), named after his grandfather, decided on the ambitious project of removing the old Cathair na Mart village to make a landscaped parkland around the newly commissioned Westport House and then of building the new planned town of Westport.

This project was continued by his son, also Peter (1730 to 1780).

John Browne (1709 to 1776) was brought up a Protestant in order to retain the family estates.

He was elevated to the peerage in 1760 with the title Baron Mount Eagle; he was later made Viscount Westport in 1768 and finally created Earl of Altamont in 1771.

According to The Story of Mayo, by Rosa Meehan and published by Mayo County Council in 2003, the Earl conformed to the ideals of the English agriculturist Arthur Young (1741 to 1820), supporting innovative agricultural practices and the development of the linen industry locally.

His grandson, John Denis (1756 to 1809), supported the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland through the Act of Union in 1800 and was created the first Marquis of Sligo - the title of Mayo was already in use.

In the 1980s, the 10th Marquis of Sligo, the late Jeremy Ulick Browne, opened the house and grounds to the public and some years ago it was taken over by the Hughes Group of Westport.

Commissioned by John Browne, Westport House is one of the great Georgian houses of Ireland.

It was built in 1731 of grey limestone in the Palladian style and to the design of Richard Castle (1690 to 1751), an architect of German origin whose name was originally Cassels.

He became one of the most prolific architects of the period and popularised Palladian architectural principles.

He designed such great houses as Russborough House in Co. Wicklow, Carton House in Co. Kildare and Leinster House, seat of the Oireachtas.

Originally Westport House consisted of a single, east-facing block house of two storeys, with seven bays, over a half-sunken basement, built with quality cut stone and designed with small windows, making the house appear larger.

After his marriage to Elizabeth Kelly, heiress to sugar plantations in Jamaica, Peter, the second Earl of Altamont, enlarged the house considerably by adding a further three sides to it, probably to the design of Thomas Ivory.

The house was now a square built around an open courtyard, which was later enclosed with a roof.

Howe Peter Browne (1789 to 1845), second Marquis of Sligo, had a passion for archaeology.

One of his better known exploits was his involvement in an excavation in Mycenae in 1812, during which the two great 3,000-year-old columns from the doorway of the Treasury of Artreus were removed.

He spent four months in jail for bribing British sailors to assist with the transportation of these antiquities.

The columns remained in the basement of Westport House until 1906 when the sixth Marquis presented them to the British Museum in exchange for replicas. In 1943, these replicas were erected on the south-facing side of the house.

The entrance to Westport House is through the central facade in the original east-facing block, dating from 1731.

The entrance is composed of a tripartite arrangement of door and window openings under a pediment, an arrangement prominent in many of Richard Castle’s designs. Below the pediment and above the door and windows are three carved masks of satyrs.

In the 18th century, mahogany replaced oak as the preferred wood for furniture.

The mahogany in the two matching dining-room doors came from the family’s estate in Jamaica.

A large dish-ring decorated in rococo style was part of the dining-room’s table setting, which contributed to an impressive display on the table by elevating the dishes and also serving the practical function of keeping hot dishes from marring the expensive mahogany surface.

The Brownes of Westport were well connected and would have attended such royal events as the accession of George IV (1762 to 1830) to the throne.

On these ceremonial occasions at the English Court, formal dress was worn, with the ladies wearing coronets.

One of the latter survives from the time, probably first worn by the Marchioness of Sligo.

The shamrocks in the coronet represent the fact that it was worn by the holder of an Irish title.

Sophia-Charlotte, mother of Howe Peter, was the daughter of Richard Howe (1726 to 1799), First Admiral of the Fleet.

Through his mother, Howe Peter had an entree to the royal family and he befriended the Prince Regent, the future George IV, who was a generous patron of the arts and later became godfather to Howe Peter’s eldest son.

Howe Peter, although better remembered for his interest in Regency high life and archaeology, had another side to his character.

As Governor of Jamaica, he was presented with a silver candelabrum in 1828 in recognition of his support for the emancipation of slaves in Jamaica.

The candelabrum is decorated symbolically at its base with a former slave holding up a child (pictured), suggestive of a new found freedom.

The stem of the candelabrum is a palm tree, with its fronts extending from a central branch decorated with Neoclassical inspired bell flowers, surrounded by a pineapple.