In 1837, Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland described Rathangan like this:
RATHANGAN, a market and post-town, and a parish, partly in the barony of EAST OPHALY, but chiefly in that of WEST OPHALY, county of KILDARE, and province of LEINSTER, 14 ¾ miles (W.) from Naas, and 30 (S. W. by W.) from Dublin, on the road from Kildare to Edenderry; containing 2911 inhabitants, of which number, 1165 are in the town, which is entirely in the barony of West Ophaly, and near the Grand Canal, and in 1831 contained 215 houses. ...
It is a chief station of the constabulary police, and has a market on Monday, and fairs in June, and on Aug. 26th and Nov. 12th. The parish comprises 8872 statute acres, as applotted tinder the tithe act: the principal seat within its limits is Tottenham Green, that of Geo. Tottenham, Esq. The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Kildare, being the corps of the prebend of Rathangan in the cathedral of Kildare, and in the patronage of the Duke of Leinster and the Bishop, of whom the former has the right of presentation for two turns and the latter for one: the tithes amount to £553. 16. 11. The glebe-house was erected in 1810, by aid of a loan of £625 and a gift of £100 from the late Board of First Fruits; and there is a glebe comprising 29a. 2r. 26p. The church is a neat edifice with a handsome tower; the whole is in excellent order. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Kildare. The chapel is a spacious building: there is also a meeting-house for the Society of Friends. In a school under the National Board, and one supported by Lord Harberton, about 200 children are educated; and there are three private schools, in which are about 120 children. There is a dispensary in the town, supported in the usual manner.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Rathangan, in and County Kildare | Map and description, A Vision of Ireland through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofireland.org/place/27947
Date accessed: 05th November 2024
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