BALLITORE – Donation of vauable map to Ballitore Library and Museum

The accompanying dedication for the Brookings Map in Ballitore

Map of Dublin

by

Charles Brooking, 1728

This map referred to by Mary Leadbeater (neé Shackleton) in her Annals of Ballitorre (1766) has been donated by the Chinn family to the Ballitorre Quaker Library and Museum in memory of  Kathleen Elizabeth Chinn  (neé Shackleton) 1925 – 2000, born at the Rectory in Carlow. She lived her early life at Glen Mona Moone, married in 1957 and moved to Bedford, England. She was laid to rest at  St Mullin’s Church Timolin alongside her husband Hillary William Chinn  (1926-1994), who took a very keen interest in the Quaker and Shackleton heritage of Ballitore.

This map is referred to in the final Paragraph on Page 28 of the Annals of Ballitore (1766) ‘I hardly recollect the ancient mansion; the large room like that apartment which in similar residences in Yorkshire is called "the hoose"  (neither parlour or kitchen ) in which was a closet, and in that closet an owl; the parlour where the afternoon meeting was held, with its sashdoor opening into the garden, and the map of Dublin ornamented by pictures of its re-markable buildings, &c. over the chimney-piece.’  

Before cleaning and conservation work was carried out. The original map is 145 cm x 61 cm

Charles Brooking’s map of Dublin is almost as famous for its accompanying cartouches as it is for its early survey of the capital. County Kildare Library and Arts Service are extremely grateful to Richard Chinn for donating the map in accordance with his mother’s wishes. It has been carefully cleaned and conserved by Liz D’Arcy and is now framed and mounted for visitors to see in Ballitore Library and Quaker Museum. This is the original map that hung above the fire-place in Abraham Shackleton’s house in Ballitore. Abraham Shackleton, a native of Yorkshire, had opened a boarding-school in 1726 in Ballitore which was to establish the village as a famous place of learning. Its most famous student was Edmund Burke.

Charls Brooking was the father of the famous painter of the same name. He had moved from England to Dublin in the 1720’s and his map of the city was published in 1728. He died in 1732.

The map includes cartouches of most of the famous buildings of the city and the coats of arms of the various artificers. No doubt it was used in the education of the young pupils at Ballitore and and Kildare Co. Library and Arts Service appreciates the generosity of the Chinn/Shackleton family in returning it to its early home.

Kildare County Library and Arts Sevice are grateful to Richard Chinn and his family for the generous gift of a 1728 Map of Dublin which had once proudly hung above the fire place in Abraham Shackeltons House in Ballitore.