Castle Chichester, Whitehead, County Antrim, Ireland

Notes:
The only "relic of old decency" remaining at present in the popular and favourite waterplace of Whitehead is Castle Chichester. It is not old as the pyramids of Egypt or the Irish Round Towers go, but it is over 300 years since its hoary stones were first set up with mortar where Islandmagee joins the mainland. One Moses Hill, a lieutenant in Sir Arthur Chichester's troop of horse, is credited with its construction, doubtless to maintain and confirm Chichester's new acquisition of the fertile slopes of Islandmagee, for the MacDonnell power was not entirely broken in the Glens nor their claims abated. Moses had suffered rout and defeat at their hands, and Chichester's brother had lost his head in the woods of Altfracken to a MacDonnell sword stroke, no matter how his alabaster effigy in Carrick's old church might look to the contrary. Sir Moses, as he became, thus exercised a careful discretion, little knowing that by so doing, he was helping to establish his race so firmly in Ulster that in future years the best of "the ransomed hills of Down" from Lagan water to Newry river were to be the heritage of the Marquis of Downshire, for a few generations at any rate, until they would fall back again into the hands of those who tilled them.



Sir Moses called his stronghold, Castle Chichester, after his chief, just as Chichester called his big mansion at Carrickfergus, Joymount, in honor of his commander Lord Mountjoy, as the great fort on the banks of Lough Neagh was also named. Charlemont was named after Sir Charles Blount, afterwards Lord Mountjoy, and we have other more recent similar appellations, such as Jennymount and Dollymount. this Islandmagee Castle was sometimes called the Marshall's Castle, Sir Moses Hill being Provost Marshall of Ulster. A manor was created and known as the Manor of Castle Chichester, including the lands of Portmuck, Islandmagee, Drumalis and Olderfleet. Some trade grew up around the Castle in the seventeenth century principally with Scotland, and mails were frequently despatched to Portpatrick, on the coast of Galloway, and cattle shipped there for such commodities were more plentiful in Ulster than across the channel, then as now. The less legitimate trade was carried to the caves and ports of Islandmagee and was as profitable, or more so, than the open ventures under the walls of Castle Chichester. The caves of Islandmagee were well known to Sir Moses, for he had stampeded there to hide in safety for sometime, after the successful MacDonnell onslaught at Altfracken. Hill's Cave is still known, and there are Hill's in Islandmagee at the present day, but the Magees were wiped out at the Gebbin Cliffs in 1641.



Sir William Brereton mentions having passed over from "the Portpatrick" to Islandmagee in 1636, just as many thousands of Scotch settlers did for years and years of that century, to inhabit the fertile lands of Antrim and Down, and trade in the fast rising town of Belfast. ROBERT BRICE occupied the Castle for sometime, being a prosperous trader with the land of his origin, issuing trade tokens in 1671 with the inscription "Robert Brice, Castle Chichester." He died in 1676, after adding to his wealth by a prosperous sojourn in Dublin, being succeeded by his son Hugh. Robert's father was the Rev. Edward Brice, the first Presbyterian minister of Ballycarry. He showed an easy aptitude, ably assisted by the education and upbringing of a comfortable manse, of meeting a situation of much promise, and adapting himself thoroughly to prosperous business activities. In 1720 Charles Brice was in the Castle, and the last Brice who resided, and died there in 1796, was Edward Brice, Surveyor of the Port of Belfast. Subsequently it was occupied as a coast guard station before it became what it now is, simply a feature of the landscape.

Residence

Matches 1 to 1 of 1

	Last Name, Given Name(s)	Residence	Person ID
1	Brice, Robert of Castle Chichester		I0949