History

Quakers began to move to Ireland from 1654, after the English Civil War.  Ballymurrin Farmstead was built from about 1668.  The house has been lived in for almost 350 years; much modified, yet keeping its essential form.

The farmstead and burial ground offer a fascinating legacy, invoking the life and struggles of new settlers in Ireland during a calamitous period for religious communities, both Catholic and Protestant.

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“I expect to pass through life but once.  If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”  

William Penn 1644-1718 (an influential pacifist Quaker & founder of Pennsylvania)

Fleeing Persecution

William Bates, for example, who lived in the house in the 1670s, was imprisoned in the Black Castle in Wicklow for attending Quaker meetings in the town.  He later Upon release, and to escape persecution, he, with his family, emigrated to America.  He leased land in Newton Creek, New Jersey, from William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, and an influential Quaker.

A watercolour by an unknown artist entitled

The Landing of Penn at Dock Creek

in Pennsylvania

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'Ballymurrin Quaker Farmstead' EirCode A67 PX56