page_title: Jamestown, County Leitrim
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Jamestown, County Leitrim / History
caption_attribution_description: English: "This obscure Franciscan friary is extremely remarkable in the annals of Ireland, for being the place where the Roman Catholic prelates assembled, August 6th, 1650. The forces of parliament had been every where successful, and a gloomy darkness hungover the affairs of the king and Catholics. The clergy, without consulting the government, met at Jamestown town, and nominated commissioners to enter into a treaty with any foreign power, who was ready to aid them .. their names and titles: Hugh O'Reilly, Archbilhop of Armagh. John Burk, Archbishop of Tuam, John Culenan, Bifhop of Raphoe, Eugene Swiny, Bifhop of Kilmore, Francis Kirwan, Bishop of Killala, Nicholas French, Bishop of Ferns, and Procter for Thomas Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin, Antony Geoghegan, Bishop of Clonmacnoise, Walter Lynch, Bishop of Clonfert, and Proxy for Edmund O'Dempfey, Bishop of Leighlin, Arthur Magines, Bishop of Down and Connor, and Proxy for the Bishop of Dromore, Hugh Burk, Bishop of Kilmacdough. William Burk, Provincial of the Franciscans, James, Abbot of Cong, and Commissionary of the Canon's Regular of St. Augustian, Thomas Keran, Abbot of Boyle, Charles Kelly, Dean of Tuam. Bernard Egan, Proctor for the Provincial of the Dominicans. Richard OKelly, Prior of Rathbran, Thady Egan, Provost of Tuam, Luke Plunket, Apostolic Prothonotary, Rector of the College of Killeen in Meath, and Chaplain to the Leinister army, John Dowly, Abbot of Kilmanock, and one of the Proctors for the chapter and clergy of Tuam, Walter Euos, Apostolic Prothonotary, Treasurer of Ferns, and Proxy for the Provoft of the Collegiate Church of Galway."
context_page_description: Jamestown is a village on the banks of the River Shannon in the south of County Leitrim, Ireland. It lies some 5 km east-south-east of the county town, Carrick-on-Shannon. It was named after King James VI & I.
  Jamestown was built as a walled town during the Plantation of Leitrim for early to mid-seventeenth-century English settlers alongside the earlier settlement of Cill Srianáin, which had included an abbey. It used to be on the main Sligo to Dublin road and was known for the narrow pillars of the arch of the old town gate that straddles the road in the centre of the village. The arch was damaged by a passing lorry in the early 1970s and the top was removed. In recent years at Christmas a lighted skeletal arch has been erected by the local community.
  Two pubs and a church mark the centre of the village, close to remains of the boundary walls.
  Jamestown lies beside the Shannon with its own quay and is a popular stopping point for boats. Navigation for cruisers is not possible downstream of Jamestown, boats being required to use the Jamestown Canal and Albert Lock, which links to the Shannon south of Drumsna
context_section_description: The Plantation settlement was created by Royal Charter from King James VI & I in 1621, and was founded in 1622 as a plantation town carrying into action the decision of 1620 to plant County Leitrim with loyal English settlers. It was granted to Sir Charles Coote, a Devonshire Planter, who fortified it with walls twenty feet high and six feet in thickness, enclosing an area of about 4 acres (16,000 m²) which contained a castle. It had an area of 200 acres (0.81 km²) under its liberty.
  A stone cross over a small gate (constructed by Murtagh O'Dowd, local blacksmith), outside the old town gate, leads to the remains of a Franciscan friary of the Friars Minor. The Franciscan friary of the Friars Minor was not founded until the occupation of Jamestown in 1642 by the O'Rourke Clan. A synod held here in 1650 repudiated The 1st Marquess of Ormonde, the former Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and excommunicated his followers. In 1713, an elderly Father Connor Reynolds "of Jamestown in the county of Leitrim" exiled in Spain since 1681, was captured hiding in a trunk on a fishing boat arriving at Dungarvan port and imprisoned at Waterford gaol.
  The Borough with a very restricted franchise returned two members to the Irish Parliament until the Act of Union with Britain in 1801. Among its parliamentary representatives were Sir Charles Coote (1634–1660), John Fitzgibbon (1776; he was later elevated to the peerage in 1789, eventually becoming Earl of Clare in 1795), and Richard Martin, "Humanity Dick".  The surnames Butler and Clyne are particularly numerous in the Jamestown area.
  Throughout at least the nineteenth century and for much of the twentieth century, a number of annual fairs were held at Jamestown on- 28 May, 8 July, 1 September, and 20 December. In 1925, Jamestown village comprised 15 houses, 4 being licensed to sell alcohol.
caption: Ruins of Jamestown Friary, 1791
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