Editing Celbridge (section)

==History==
===Origins===
There is evidence of 5,000 years of habitation, as evidenced by beads and quern stones in the [[National Museum of Ireland|National Museum]] from [[Griffinrath, County Kildare|Griffinrath]] ({{coord|53.34891|-6.57386|type:city_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline}}), and the nearby high ground sloping down to the [[River Liffey|Liffey]]. Research has linked Celbridge with the [[Slí Mór]] possibly crossing the Liffey at a ford located below the site of the mill directly east of the bridge rather than at [[Castletown House]], as previously thought. 

The etymology of [[Donaghcumper Church]] (church of the confluence, "Domhnach" is one of the earliest Irish words for church) ({{coord |53.33902|-6.52699|type:city_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline}}.) suggests it may have existed as a monastic site from the 5th century. 

Folklore and heroic literature associate the north bank of Celbridge with both [[Saint Patrick]] (hill and church of uncertain antiquity in [[Ardrass, County Kildare|Ardrass]]) ({{coord|53.32595|-6.57772|type:city_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline}}.) and [[Saint Mochua]] (c570), who was associated with a church in [[Tea Lane Graveyard|Tea Lane]] ({{coord|53.33892|-6.54708|type:city_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline}}.), and a well on the site of the current mill where pagan converts were baptised.

===Parish of Kildrought===
The original Kildrought parish church (built 14th century, burned 1798) stood in the present graveyard at Tea Lane and houses the mausoleums of the Dongan and Conolly families. It was granted by the Normans to the Abbey of St Thomas in Dublin. [[Donaghcumper Church]] (c1150) had windows of cut stone inserted into the building in the 14th century. Its ruins are extant in the main graveyard in Celbridge, and members of the Alan family are buried in the church vault.

The old parish of Donaghcumper consisted of the modern townlands of Parsonstown, Rinnawad, Ballyoulster, Commons, Coneyboro, Coolfitch, Donaghcumper, Elm Hall, Loughlinstown, Newtown, Reeves, Simmonstown, Straleek and St. Wolstans. Pre Norman churches served the adjoining parishes in Donaghcumper ({{coord |53.33902|-6.52699|type:city_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline}}.) and [[Stacumny, County Kildare|Stacumny]] ({{coord|53.33448|-6.50152|type:city_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline}}.) (mentioned 1176, burned 1297, held in 1308 by a parson, Waleys) to the east, Adherrig or Aderrig further to the east (Athdearg or Red Ford, church first mentioned 1220) ({{coord|53.34084|-6.48816|type:city_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline}}.), [[Kilmacreddock]] ({{coord|53.36520|-6.52734|type:city_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline}}.) to the north east, the tiny parish of [[Donaghmore, County Kildare|Donaghmore]] (plundered 1150, mentioned in letter 1190) further to the north ({{coord|53.37695|-6.55422|type:city_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline}}.), [[Laraghbryan, County Kildare|Laraghbryan]] (plundered 1036 and 1171) ({{coord|53.38181|-6.61351|type:city_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline}}.) to the north west, and [[Killadoon, County Kildare|Killadoon]] ({{coord|53.32752|-6.55663|type:city_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline}}.) to the south.

The modern [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] parish of Celbridge and Straffan comprises the medieval parishes of Kildrought and [[Straffan]], as well as the former parishes of [[Stacumny]], [[Donaghcumper]], [[Killadoon]], [[Castledillon]] and [[Kilmacredock]]. The parish of [[Stacumny]] (Teach Cumni) originally included the townlands of Ballymadeer, Balscott and Stacumny. Killadoon from Cill an Dún may get its name from the earthen mound that still stands by the gate leading into the grounds surrounding Killadoon House. On the left-hand side of the avenue, as you enter through the gate, there is an overgrown churchyard with some headstones. [[Killadoon]] parish embraced the present townlands of Ardrass, Ballymakeally, Crippaun, Killadoon, Killenlea and Posseckstown. [[Kilmacredock]] is the smallest of the medieval parishes. A roofless ruin is all that remains of the original church. It is named for Redoc, who had a son who established a religious foundation southwest of the present town of Leixlip. Bellingham family members were buried in a vault in the floor of the building, but their remains were removed in the mid-20th century.

===Town of Kildrought===
The town of Kildrought or Kildroighid developed around the castle, monastery and mill of Kildrought which [[Thomas de Hereford]], the Norman Lord of Kildrought erected early in the 13th century. The one long street running between the de Hereford Castle and lands of Castletown, and the mill, had taken shape by 1314 when Henry le Waleys was charged at a Naas court of "breaking the doors" of houses in the town of Kildrought and by night "taking geese, hens, beer and other victuals" against the will of the people of the town.	
		
By the time of the Down Survey (1654–1656) the population was 102 and the Dongan family were in possession of all the land in Celbridge. Killadoon House was the home of John Dongan's brother in law [[Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell|Richard Talbot]] Earl of Tyrconnell. Dongan died at the Battle of the Boyne and is buried in Tea Lane cemetery. Talbot died immediately before the Siege of Limerick. His widow remained in Killadoon, outliving the two men who took over the town from her husband and John Dongan, [[Esther Vanhomrigh|Bartholmew Van Homrigh]] and [[William Conolly]].

===Kildrought to Celbridge===
The present day houses in Celbridge Main Street and town centre were built over a period of two hundred years. [[Celbridge Abbey]] was built in 1703 by a Dutch Williamite emigre, [[Esther Vanhomrigh|Bartholmew Van Homrigh]]. He was appointed Chief Commissioner for Stores in Ireland for the victorious allied forces of [[William III of England|William III]] and [[Mary II of England|Mary II]] who defeated the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] alliance, and enforced the [[Treaty of Limerick]] in 1691. He moved to Kildrought Manor in 1695. When [[William Conolly|William "Speaker" Conolly]] purchased the rundown Castletown Estate in 1709 from [[Thomas Dongan]], the restored [[Earl of Limerick]] and later [[List of colonial governors of New York|Governor of New York]], he complained that "all the Earl's tenants were beggars". Conolly built his new mansion at Castletown, cleared the existing tenantry and began to develop the town. Improvers and speculative developers followed Conolly to Celbridge. The new leases were granted on condition that the builders erect substantial stone houses with gable ends and two chimneys, replacing mud cabins and waste ground.	
		
Existing mercantile buildings such as the 17th-century [[List of market houses in the Republic of Ireland|Market House]], where the town's first school was based in 1709, were incorporated into the expanding mill complex of buildings near the bridge. Developers began to survey e green field sites to the north east of the bridge in the direction of Castletown House. The result was to move the axis of Celbridge away from the bridge, corn and tuck mill and road to St Mochua's church to a new Main Street.	
		
The old Irish name Cill Droichid (Kildrought), meaning the church of the bridge, was anglicised first to Cellbridge and then, after 1724, to Celbridge. Swift in his letters to [[Esther Vanhomrigh|Vanessa]] always named the place "Kildrought", but she replied from "Celbridge".

Celbridge's 18th-century bridge had to be rebuilt after it was destroyed in a flood in December 1802.<ref>The Morning Chronicle (London, England), Friday, 10 December 1802; Issue 10471.</ref>