RCB Library Notes
Finglas Vestry Book Launched
The third volume in the Representative Church Body Library’s Texts and Calendars series was officially launched on Saturday 5 April in St Canice’s parish church, Finglas where the Rector of Finglas, Santry and Glasnevin, the Revd David Oxley, presided. The principal speaker at the launch was the Dublin City Archivist, Dr Mary Clark.
The vestry records of the united parishes of Finglas, St Margaret’s, Artane and the Ward, 1657-1758, edited by Dr Maighréad Ní Mhurchada, an acknowledged expert on the history of Fingal, is an edition of the vestry minute book of the Church of Ireland parish of Finglas with an introduction, appendices and index. The volume contains, as well as the minutes of the vestry, the accounts of the churchwardens, lists of the parish cess, and records of baptisms, marriages and burials for the years 1658-84.
This book will be of interest to those concerned with the church, local communities and rural life in the early modern period and, in particular, to those who are interested in the local history of north County Dublin. It has been published by Four Courts Press at €55 and is available through bookshops, as are the two earlier volumes in the series, The vestry records of the parish of St John the Evangelist, Dublin, 1595-1658 and The vestry records of the parishes of St Catherine and St James, Dublin, 1657-1692 both of which were edited by Professor Raymond Gillespie, NUI Maynooth.