Ramsfort House, Gorey, County Wexford
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 237. (Ram/IFR; Errington, Bt, of Lackham Manor/PB1917) The splendid mansion built by Col Abel Ram to the design of George Semple was bombarded and then burnt during the Rebellion of 1798. It was replaced by a modest early C19 two storey house with an eaved roof and two three-sided bows, built on a different site. Later in C19, a wing was added in Francois Premier style; later again, by which time Ramsfort had become the seat of Sir George Errington, MP, 1st (and last) Bt, a further addition was made in a style showing the influence of Norman Shaw; with stepped and curvilinear gables, mullioned windows, an arcade carried on piers and columns along the ground floor and a corner turret with spire and a belvedere of timber open-work. Small Romanesque and Italianate chapel with campanile tower in grounds by lake. Now a school.”
Detached three-bay (two-bay deep) two-storey country house, extant 1820, on a U-shaped plan with single-bay full-height bows on engaged half-octagonal plans. Extended, 1868. Sold, 1870. Extended, 1872-3. Sold, 1890. Resold, 1895. Occupied, 1901. In occasional use, 1911. Sold, 1936, to accommodate alternative use. Resold, 1983. “Restored”, 1990. Hipped slate roof on a U-shaped plan with half-octagonal slate roofs (bows), roll moulded clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks on rendered bases on axis with ridge having thumbnail beaded stringcourses below capping, and remains of cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on overhanging eaves having timber consoles retaining cast-iron downpipes. Replacement rendered walls on rendered chamfered plinth with concealed cut-granite flush quoins to corners. Remodelled square-headed central window opening in tripartite arrangement with timber mullions, and concealed red brick block and start surround framing two-over-two timber sash window without horns having one-over-one sidelights. Square-headed window opening (first floor) with cut-granite sill, and concealed red brick block-and-start surround framing timber casement windows behind cast-iron balconette. Square-headed window openings (bows) with cut-granite sills, and concealed red brick block-and-start surround framing two-over-two (ground floor) or six-over-six (first floor) timber sash windows without horns. Set in landscaped grounds including terraces centred on flights of ten lichen-covered cut-granite steps.
Appraisal
A country house erected for Stephen Ram MP (1744-1821) representing an important component of the domestic built heritage of north County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, one succeeding an eighteenth-century house destroyed by insurgents following the defeat of Colonel Lambert Theodore Walpole (1757-98) at Toberanierin (Lewis 1837 I, 665), confirmed by such attributes the deliberate alignment ‘commanding an extensive view [of] a noble deer-park [and a] finely wooded and watered demesne’ (Wilson 1820, 432); the symmetrical footprint centred on a much-modified doorcase; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression with the principal “apartments” defined by polygonal bows; and the decorative timber work embellishing a slightly oversailing roofline: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the continued development or “improvement” of the country house as an extraordinary architectural “mélange” with those works attributed to Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-80) of London working (1868) in a “François Premier” style; and Benjamin Thomas Patterson (1837-1907) of Dublin working (1872-3) in an Italianate Tudor style (Williams 1994, 380). Having been reasonably well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, including crown or cylinder glazing panels in hornless sash frames: meanwhile, contemporary joinery; an arcaded staircase hall attributed to John McCurdy (c.1824-85) of Dublin (O’Dwyer 1989, n.p.); Classical-style chimneypieces; and decorative plasterwork enrichments, all highlight the artistic potential of a country house having historic connections with the Ram family including Abel Ram (c.1775-1832), one-time High Sheriff of County Wexford (fl. 1829); and Stephen Ram DL (1818-99) ‘whose debts…were largely due to the more than princely style of his dealings with architects’ (Bassett 1885, 363-5); William Millar Kirk (d. 1884), ‘late of The Park Gorey County Wexford’ (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1884, 416); and Sir George Errington MP (d. 1920), one-time High Sheriff of County Wexford (fl. 1901).
https://archiseek.com/2016/ramsfort-gorey-co-wexford
1873 – Ramsfort, Gorey, Co. Wexford
Architect: Daniel Robertson / T.H. Wyatt / Benjamin T. Patterson
Constructed in several stages after the previous house by George Semple, on a nearby site, was destroyed in the 1798 rebellion. The earliest stage is the early 19th century house, possibly by Daniel Robertson with bow windows. In the 1860s a wing was added in a French Empire style by Thomas Henry Wyatt, with the final stage by Benjamin Thomas Patterson added a couple of years afterwards. It gives the entire house an eclectic visual appearance. It’s final form, as illustrated, was complete by 1872-73. After being sold in the 1930 for use as a school, it became a residence again but now sadly falling into disrepair despite the valiant efforts of the owner.
Featured in The Wexford Gentry by Art Kavanagh and Rory Murphy. Published by Irish Family Names, Bunclody, Co Wexford, Ireland, 1994.
p. 181. Ram of Ramsfort.
p. 184. Rev Dr. Thomas Ram built his mansion in Gorey in 1630 in the town, but his son Abel Ram disliked it and moved to another site not far from the town, called Ramsfort a short time later, where a mansion was built in a beautiful park setting. The original house in turn became an Inn, a barrack and a row of dwelling houses.
p. 185. The house was occupied by Eneas Kavanagh, a noted Confederate of the time, who was settling an old score by occupying the lands of his ancestors despoiled of their patrimony in the plantation.
Apparently Eneas about about 100 men attacked the house which was defended by Abel Ram but after a few days Abel escaped and went to Lady Esmonde, who was living nearby in Ballnastragh, for help. She was unable to be of assistance, but one Richard Shortall of Enniscorthy accompanied Ram back to his house where he found Eneas and his party in possession of Ramsfort, and robbing and violently spoiling and carrying away oxen, cows, sheep, corn and household stuff. Abel and his wife and children were driven out. Eneas continued to live at the estate until the coming of Cromwell.
Abel Ram and his family went to England for a time, but returned after the Cromwellian invasion. They seem to have settled for a time in Dublin bcause Abel Ram, the son of Abel who came back from exile, was Mayor of Dublin in 1684. This man was knighted in the same year as he was Mayor and seems to have moved back to Gorey around that time. He died in 1692. Apart form his eldest son Abel, he had four other sons, who all went to Trinity College and one of whom, George, was High Sheriff of Wexford in 1710. In addition he had five daughters.
Sir Abel Ram was succeeded by his son Abel, who was very bitter towards the local Gorey patriots and the family became most vigilant in seeking out subversives. Abel, an MP for Gorey in 1692 and High Sheriff for Wexford in 1709, was the person to whom Miles Bolan reported in [p. 186] connection with the discovery and apprehension of persons suspected of enlisting in the services of the Pretender – James II – just prior to the Jacobite Rebellion in 1714.
p. 186. Col George Ram was instrumental in bringing in the Gorey Palatines, many of whom made up his local regiment, the Wexford Militia. The Palatines came from Germany to avoid religious persecution. Doynes of Wells are also credited with settling Palatine families.
p. 187. The family successor was Abel Ram Jr, born 1705. He became a linen merchant and a famous botanist.
p. 188. A descendant, Stephen, and his family converted to Catholicism in the mid 1800s. The estate and house had to be sold by Stephen Ram in 1870.
p. 189. Stephen married Mary Christina Casamajor, a Spanish lady of Royal Spanish descent and this is no doubt the reason he became a Catholic.
p. 191. The Rams [Stephen, above] had a house in Paris at the time and were living there. Only the youngest child was born a Catholic and all the others were received into the church at later dates. The Cliffes of Bellevue who were related to the Rams were so influenced by Stephen’s decision to become a Catholic that they too joined the church and became Catholics.
… Arthur Archibald Ram married Blanch Tottenham. Blanch became a Catholic prior to the wedding. His daughter Ram Kerr was born in 1902 and her mother died three months after her birth. Her father died in 1905 and he was survived by his brothers Abel and Edmund, and sisters Elizabeth and Mary Eleanor.
see http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2018/08/ramsfort-house.html
THE RAMS OWNED 1,813 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY WEXFORD
In the Kingdom of Hanover, on the east side of the River Seine, was the Principality of Grubenhagen, which signified a wood or forest belonging to the Gubes family.
In this country there were mines of silver, copper, and lead, belonging to the Hanoverian crown; the chief of these mines was Rammelsberg, a high mountain near the town of Goslar, in Hanover, 25 miles south of Wolfenbüttel.
The mines were discovered by one RAM, a hunter, whose horse’s foot struck up a piece of ore in the year 972, from which circumstance Rammelsberg had its name; and the Emperor OTHO got a company of Franks from Frankenberg, who understood minerals, to refine the metal.
A branch of the family were residents of the city of Utrecht in the 15th century; and probably, at a much earlier period, one of them, François, Baron de Ram van Hagedoorn, colonel of an infantry regiment, died there in 1701, leaving two daughters.
THE place whence the English branch of this family derive latterly is Halstow, in Kent.
SIR JOHN RAM, Knight, of Halstow, Kent, living in 1442, was father of
THOMAS RAM, living in 1472, who was father of
WILLIAM RAM, living in 1503, who had issue,
FRANCIS, his heir;Thomas, Mayor of London, 1577;
Margaret.
The eldest son,
DR FRANCIS RAM (1537-1617), of Windsor, Berkshire, had by Helen his wife a large family.
Dr Ram resided subsequently at Hornchurch, near London, where a handsome monument was erected in memory of his wife and children.
One of his sons,
THE RT REV DR THOMAS RAM (1564-1634), Lord Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, born at Windsor, Berkshire, educated at Eton College, and at King’s College, Cambridge, whence, having taken the degree of Master of Arts, he went to Ireland as Chaplain to Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex, in 1599.
The next year he was appointed Dean, first of Cork, and then of Ferns.
Dr Ram was consecrated Lord Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, 1605.
On the plantation of Wexford, 1615, by JAMES I, he obtained a grant of lands, which descended to his children.
He married firstly, Jane Gilford, widow of Mr Thompson, and had issue,
Thomas (Very Rev), Dean of Ferns, dsp;
Grace; Susan; Jane; Anne.
The Bishop wedded secondly, Anne, daughter of Robert Bowen, of Ballyadams, Queen’s County, and had further issue,
Robert (Rev);
ABEL, of whom hereafter;
Henry;
Elizabeth; Grace.
His lordship died of apoplexy in Dublin, 1634, at 70 years of age, during the session of a Convocation there, whence his body was conveyed to Gorey, County Wexford, and deposited in a “fair marble tomb in a chapel built by himself.”
He also built the bishop’s house at Old Leighlin, and other structures at such places where he received any profits, for the benefit of his successors, and recovered the manor of Fethard to the see of Ferns.
His third son,
ABEL RAM, of Ramsfort and Clonattin, succeeded to the estates and espoused Eleanor, daughter of the Rt Rev Dr George Andrews, Lord Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, and had issue,
ABEL, his heir;
Andrew;
Jane; Frideswide; Anne.
Mr Ram died in 1676, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR ABEL RAM, of Ramsfort and Clonattin, High Sheriff of Dublin City, 1673, Lord Mayor of Dublin, 1684, who married, in 1667, Eleanor, daughter of Stephen Palmer, of Dublin, and had issue,
ABEL, his heir;
Stephen;
George;
Joshua;
Andrew;
Samuel;
Thomas;
Ellinor; Elizabeth; Rebecca; Cassandra; Anne.
Sir Abel died in 1692. His fifth son,
ANDREW RAM, of Ramsfort, MP for Duleek, 1692-8, married and had issue,
ABEL, his heir;
Humphreys, MP, father of STEPHEN;
Andrew, MP for County Wexford, 1755-60, Duleek, 1761-90;
Mr Ram died ca 1698, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
ABEL RAM (1669-1740), of Ramsfort, MP for Gorey, 1692-1740, who dying without issue, bequeathed by his will the Clonattin portion of his estates to his brother, ANDREW, and the Ramsfort portion to his nephew,
STEPHEN RAM (1744-1821), of Ramsfort, MP for Gorey, 1764-90, who married, in 1774, the Lady Charlotte Stopford, sixth daughter of James, 1st Earl of Courtown, and was father of
ABEL RAM (c1775-1832), of Ramsfort, High Sheriff of County Wexford, 1829, who wedded, in 1818, Eleanor Sarah, only daughter of Jerome Knapp, of Charlton House, Berkshire, and was father of
STEPHEN RAM DL (1819-99), of Ramsfort, High Sheriff of County Wexford, 1842, who espoused, in 1839, Mary Christian, daughter of James Archibald Casamajor, Madras CS, and had issue (with several daughters),
Stephen James, died unmarried;
Edmund Arthur, dsp;
Abel Humphrey, dsp;
ARTHUR ARCHIBALD, of whom we treat.
The youngest son,
ARTHUR ARCHIBALD RAM (1852-1905), married, in 1899, Blanche Mary, eldest daughter of Arthur Loftus Tottenham, of Glenfarne Hall, County Leitrim, and had an only child, MARY CHRISTIANA, born in 1902.
RAMSFORT HOUSE, the magnificent mansion built by Stephen Ram MP to the design of George Semple, was bombarded and burnt during the Irish rebellion of 1798.
It was replaced by an early, two-storey 19th century house with two three-sided bows and an eaved roof.
The second house was erected on a different site.
At some later stage in the 1800s a wing was added in Francois Premier style.
Sir George Errington, 1st (and last) Baronet, MP for Longford, 1874-9, purchased Ramsfort thereafter and another extension was added, with stepped curvilinear gables, mullioned windows, an arcade surmounted on piers and columns along the ground floor.
This final addition terminated with a corner turret, spire, and a wooden belvedere.
A small chapel in the Romanesque-Italianate style was built in the grounds at the lake.
Ramsfort operated as a school from the early 1930s until the 1980s.
Thereafter it was sold to the Phelan family.
Ramsfort House ‘in death throes’
February 26 2014
THE OWNER of the historic Ramsfort House in Gorey has said the building is now in ‘its death throes’ following damage to the roof in the recent storm.
Basil Phelan has worked for years to keep the house habitable, but is fighting a losing battle.
‘The wind got to the roof of the house in the front, and took some tiles off,’ he said. ‘It was unbelievable to see the damage. Once the wind got into it, that was the end of it. This is enough to finish it,’ he added. ‘The house is in its death throes. It’s on its last legs.’
He said he has sought small public funds to help make the house weatherproof, but none have been forthcoming.
There was also extensive damage in the grounds, which include 200 year-old gardens.
‘A kind of a tornado came in through the gate and uprooted around 30 trees,’ he said. ‘We have so many big trees here, and we’re lucky a lot more didn’t come down.’
Parts of Ramsfort House date back to 1794, and from the 1930s to the early 1980s, it was known as Coláiste Garman.
Basil bought the house from the State in the 1980s, and spent thousands trying to maintain and repair it.
The house was a one-time home of the Ram family, a family that played a major role in the development of Gorey.
Irish Historic Houses 