St. John’s Augustinian Priory – Newtown

Located on the eastern edge of the town of Trim, on the south bank of the River Boyne across the ancient St. Peter’s bridge, is the Priory of St. John the Baptist. It was established in c.1202 by Simon Rochfort, Bishop of Meath, for the Fratres Cruciferi, known variously as the Crutched, Crossed and Crouched Friars. The Augustinian friars of this order, who specialised in the care of the sick, and who were devoted to the redemption of Christian captives, were so named after the crucifix-topped wooden staffs that they carried. Arriving in Ireland some years before 1176, they were in possession of the Hospital of St. John Without the New Gate in Dublin, which is thought to have been based on the Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem.

A grant of alms in 1281 from the manor of "Magathtreth" contains one of the first recorded mentions of the priory. In his 'Topographical Dictionary of Ireland' of 1810, Nicholas Carlisle wrote: "We are told that this was a truly magnificent building, and it is probable that the Parliaments of Trim were holden in the great hall of this house. The walls are still in being". The site evolved during the period of over three hundred years into a significantly fortified and defended establishment.

Following the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, King of England, on the 16th July 1539, Laurence White, the last Prior, surrendered the Priory and all of its possessions. From an inventory of the site, it consisted of a church, two towers, a hall, a storehouse, a kitchen, a brew-house, two granaries, a pigeon-house, and a haggard, or stack-yard, for storing corn and hay.

It was granted to Robert Dillon and subsequently came into the possession of the Ashe family. At the time of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 it was granted to one of King William’s officers. Tradition has it that he never took possession of it as, on his first night there, he saw a horrid vision and felt the whole weight of the priory on his breast. At dawn the next day he ordered his horse and rode away, never to return.

In 1849, in his ’The Beauties of the Boyne and Its Tributary the Blackwater’, Sir William Wilde described what were then the remains of the site: "A few hundred yards further on, beyond the old bridge, on the southern side of the river, are the castle-like remains, consisting of a large square keep, immediately adjoining the bridge, with square towers at two of its angles; and somewhat lower down the river, but connected with it by a range of buildings, we meet a second, smaller tower. Besides these, the walls of this extensive enclosure contain the ruins of a small chapel, with a beautiful triple window; and also a large, circular turret by the roadside, which probably commanded the gate. This must have been an important post, as it commanded one of the approaches to Trim." He went on to state: "The Hospital or Priory of St. John the Baptist stood here, and some of the remains which still exist within the general enclosure were erected in the 13th century for friars of the order of Cross-bearers, or Crouched Friars".

Today, the visible remnants of this once-powerfully defended ecclesiastical settlement include the intact three-storey keep, with is various arrow-slits, its two machicolations on the west-facing front façade, and its two square observation towers, as well the partial remains of the eastern tower. Of the main body of the church, all that is left is the outline of the nave and chancel, which measures 35.66 meters (117 feet) long and 7.3 meters (24 feet) wide. The large pointed three-light window, as described by Wilde, still dominates the eastern gable wall.

During an archaeological excavation in 1984, the remains of a 15^th century rood screen and a doorway in the gable end of the nave were uncovered, as well as a small vaulted room inside what was most likely the main hospital building. A chute for disposing of waste material into the river was also revealed.

In the south-western corner of the site, the circular roadside turret would once have been connected to the main keep by a defensive wall, no trace of which now remains above ground. A low section, running eastwards from the turret, which would have formed the enclosure’s southern boundary, can still be seen.

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This national monument is protected in accordance with the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014