[NOTE: Regarding the author of the biography presented here, Helen C. Black was a late-19th century journalist and writer who interviewed the women authors and first published these interviews as biographical sketches under the “Notable Women Authors of the Day” title in 1893 (including the interview of May Crommelin). It was republished in 1906 with a few additional sketches added. More recently, Troy Bassett and Catherine Pope put this all together again, but now also with footnotes and profiles of those women in the appendix. So, much of what we have in our website covers the original write-up, but without the later notes and profiles.]

DONAGHADEE (location of Carrowdore Castle) - see upper Right hand corner of map above
Cherois-Crommelin 1818+
Built by Nicholas de la Cherois Crommelin. Owned by the author May de la Cherois-Crommelin. (M. Bence-Jones, A Guide to Irish Country Houses, London, 1988.)

Source

Source

(Lineage of Nicholas de la Cherois Crommelin's wife, Elizabeth: Thomas Mullins, 1st Baron Ventry, born 25 October 1736, who was created a baronet 7 December, 1797; and elevated to the peerage of Ireland, 31 July, 1800, as Baron Ventry, of Ventry, in the county of Kerry. The 1st baron died 11 January, 1824, aged eighty-eight.
His lordship married 5 October 1757, Elizabeth, daughter of Townsend Gun and his wife Elizabeth Blennerhasset, of Rattoo, co Kerry. Townsend Gun was the eldest son of William Gun and his wife Catherine Townsend, 3rd daughter of Colonel Richard Townsend. Elizabeth Blennerhasset was 2nd daughter of "Black Jack" Blennerhasset and the niece of Dorcas (Crumpe) Blennerhasset.
The children of Thomas Mullins and Elizabeth Gunn:
* William Townsend Mullins, 2nd Baron Ventry, born 25 September 1761; married 1st, 12 July, 1784, Sarah Anne, daughter of Sir Riggs Falkiner, Baronet, and by her (who died in 1788) had issue,
* Anna married in 1811 Richard Orpen Townsend, of Ardtully, co. Kerry, son of Richard Orpen, and great-grandson of Richard Orpen of Killowen,
* Elizabeth, married 17 December 1810, Nicholas de la Cherois Crommelin, of Carrowdore Castle, Down, and died 1820, leaving issue.)

The Dobbs Family:
John Dobbs arrived in Ireland in 1596 with the army of Sir Henry Dockwra, and married Margaret, the only child of John Dalway of Ballyhill. Dobbs built a small castle on the land, his family prospered and took on an active role in the affairs of Carrickfergus, a service that continues to the present day through a line of sheriffs, town mayors, MPs and Lord Lieutenants. Arthur Dobbs was born in 1689 and had a long and distinguished career, becoming in turn Mayor of Carrickfergus, an MP and Surveyor General of Ireland. Regarded as an ‘improving’ landlord he was fascinated with the ‘New World’ and exploration. In 1753 he was appointed Governor of North Carolina where he was respected as a fine administrator who served his new state with great vigour. He was instrumental in encouraging the emigration of the Jackson family whose son was to become one of America’s greatest Presidents. Castle Dobbs remains the home of the Dobbs family, and its members are still very prominently involved in the life of the town and the affairs of the Borough and County.
Copied from Famous people.

Donaghadee is a growing town on the coast of County Down, 6 miles from the historic monastic town of Bangor and approximately 20 miles from Belfast.

The town has had a long and chequered history. It would appear to have been first known as 'Domhnach Daoi' in Irish - 'The Church of St. Daoi'. In possible association with the founders of the great abbey in Bangor in the 6th Century, it has certainly been a centre for Christian worship for well over 1,000 years.

There has always been a natural 'coming and going' between the North East of Ireland and the South West of Scotland. After the Reformation therefore, 'it was only to be expected that Donaghadee, the nearest seaport in Ulster to the Scottish Mainland, should have one of the first Presbyterian congregations'. (A History of Congregations in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland).

First Presbyterian, Donaghadee, traces its post-Reformation origins back to 1642 (the same year as the formation of the first Presbytery in Ireland at Carrickfergus). In the religious confusion and controversy of the 17th century the first two rectors named as incumbents in the local Church of Ireland are the same men recognised as the first two ministers in 1st Donaghadee. After the religious disruptions in 1661 a new 'Meeting House' was built at Killaughy (just outside the town), followed in the early 18th Century by a move by the congregation to another new building in what is still called Meeting House Street, in the town centre. The present building was erected in 1824.

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