Paper 302
Lecture – 2014
Author – Skehan, Elaine
Report by: Oona Roycroft
Synopsis:
A very well-researched paper with illustrations which gives an account of the arrival of the Taylor family with the building of Headfort House in Kells Co. Meath, for Thomas Taylour, 1st Earl of Bective. Subsequently the family built Dowdstown House and later Sir Robert Taylor built Prospect House, later renamed Ardgillan Castle, in Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.
One of the family, Thomas, was Chief Surveyor and Deputy to Sir William Petty, who conducted the Down Survey. The paper also gives details of the lives of many illustrious members of the family, and the people who married into it.
Ardgillan was sold in 1962 to a German industrialist.
