In June 1776 a fire broke out which consumed “two good dwelling houses, and the market house”. One or both of the houses were the Gilberts’. After this the space left by the buildings on the Black Hole Tenement and the site of the Market House was used by traders on market and fair days as somewhere to display their ways. (The Middle Row tenement was rebuilt between 1785 and 1818 – see below.)
In July 1776, a lease was signed between Jonathan Gilbert and Patrick Caulfield. Jonathan let to Patrick “all that tenement now in his possession … in the town or Lurgan, Middle Row near the Market House”. The lease was from the “twenty fifth day of March last”. There is no mention of the fire or any damage.
In 1785 there was another renewal of the Black Hole lease. Jacob Kirk had died and Frances Gilbert had married John Turner of Lurgan (who is later described as a shoemaker). By a “mesne assignment” John Turner had become entitled to the premises contained in the original lease. He nominated the life of Henry Gilbert, son of “the late Jonathan Gilbert of Lurgan”, aged 25 years, to be inserted in the place of Jacob Kirk. The other two lives were still John Gilbert and Frances Turner (née Gilbert).
[Could this Henry Gilbert, aged ~25 in 1785, be the same Henry Gilbert of Lurgan who died in 1847 aged ~90? And did John Turner renew the lease for the Black Hole tenement even though it was derelict and unused?]
On the back of the lease there are notes which say that “Francis Turner died about the middle of 1799 about[?] July” and “John Gilbert son of Henry Gilbert of Lisnagrew died 20th March 1815”.
In 1818 Jonathan Gilbert of Castleblaney sought a renewal of the plot of ground described in the 1695 lease (the Middle Row tenement, not including the Passageway to the Black Hole). Jonathan was “by mesne assignment or otherwise … in possession of all and singular the aforesaid premises”. Because all the original lives had died, Jonathan nominated his three brothers, “John Gilbert now of the age of twenty years or thereabouts, Henry Gilbert aged sixteen years or thereabouts and Thomas Gilbert aged fourteen years or thereabouts, all of or near Castleblayney”.
This 1818 lease mentioned that “the late John Turner of Lurgan shoemaker built and erected a dwelling house of stone and lime and lately dwelt and resided therein until the time of his decease”.
In 1825, Henry Gilbert, “who claims the premises granted by the least of 1717 and lastly renewed in 1785”. This was the Black Hole Tenement, and Henry Gilbert had obtained permission from the Brownlows to build a new house/shop which was to extend twenty feet out onto what was the site of the old market house. He wanted to “throw a proper front towards the entrance of the town, and to make what he calls a decent finish to that part of the street”.
In about June 1825 Henry started work on the new building by laying down materials and excavating the foundations. However, on the 26th July he received a letter from his neighbour Robert Trail saying, “take notice that I hereby caution you against digging up or otherwise disturbing that part of the public street…”
Brownlow wanted to honour his agreement with Henry Gilbert but at the same time did not want to upset Robert Trail or the other inhabitants, so he (or his agent) wrote to seek the opinion of George Tomb (solicitor?). Tomb wrote back and summarised that neither the Gilberts nor the Brownlows had done anything with the property since the fire of 1776 and that “49 years is quite sufficient to establish a public right, and that the premises must be considered part of the street, consequently that any person erected buildings upon it will be liable to an indictment for a nuisance.” He went on to said that “Mr Gilbert thro’ whose negligence (or the negligence of his ancestors)” had failed to act upon the property, but he “may very well contest the matter with Mr Trail, and it may be worth his while to try the experiment.” Other than this George Tomb advised Brownlow not to get involved.
There’s nothing to say whether or not Henry Gilbert managed to complete his building and as far as I can see there are no more leases after 1825.
