Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Amateur architect and dendrologist, of Avondale, Col. Wicklow, for whom see Edith Mary Johnston Liik, History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800 (Ulster Historical Foundation, 1992), IV, 388-389. Samuel Hayes was on the committee responsible for the extension of the House of Commons, for which JAMES GANDON  JAMES GANDON was asked to prepare plans in 1786. It is not clear who was actually responsible for the design as executed, only that Gandon considered himself badly treated in the affair.(1) Hayes also prepared a design and later wrote to Gandon asserting that 'the introduction of niches under the small pediments in the west front…was the only part adopted from your plans…Except the windows, the building is finished exactly after my first sketch…a design as much as possible in the manner of Sir William Piers[sic] and Mr Burgh, a kinsman of mine and of the Speaker's, who were both concerned in the façade to College-green, and for which reason among others, I wished to have the western front as much as possible in the same style'.(2) He was no supporter of Gandon's (3) and in January 1788 introduced a motion in the House of Commons summoning Gandon to the House to be questioned on the design and cost of the Four Courts.(4) Hayes designed the Market House at Monaghan (1791-2).(5) A letter from the steward at Coollattin, Co. Wicklow, to Earl Fitzwilliam, 5 January 1790, states that 'Mr Hayes' who 'draws very well, is to be asked for an opinion' on the siting of the new Flannel Hall at Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow.(6) It is not unlikely that Hayes was at least partly responsible for the design of his own house at Avondale, Co. Wicklow (1779).(7) A design for a mausoleum, signed 'SH May 1785' in the collection of Simon Lincoln may also be in his hand. He was a subscriber to the First Volume of the Instructions given in the Drawing School established by the Dublin-Society (Dublin, 1769) and to Pool and Cash's, Views…in the City of Dublin, published in 1780.

Hayes planted many trees at Avondale and in 1794 published A Practical Treatise on Planting: and management of Woods and Coppices. He may possibly also have written the anonymous Hints on Planting (1773).   Writing some twenty-five years after his death, Hely Dutton described him as being 'held dear to the memory of every lover of planting and polished manners'.(8)



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Ray Desmond, Dictionary of British & Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists (1994).

(1) For this complicated story see T.J. Mulvany, ed., The Life of James Gandon (1846),112-118, and E.McParland, James Gandon(1985), 84-87.
(2) Mulvany, op. cit, 117.
(3) See McParland, op. cit., 94-96.
(4) Mulvany, op. cit., 100-102.
(5) C.E.B. Brett, Court Houses and Market Houses of the Province of Ulster (UAHS, 1973), 96-7,94(illus.)
(6) Notes made by R.B. Wragg, University of Sheffield, 1971, from Fitzwilliam Papers, Sheffield Library (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).
(7) Mark Bence-Jones, Burke’s Guide to Country Houses. Volume I, Ireland. (London, 1978), 15(illus.).
(8) Hely Dutton, A Statistical and agricultural survey of the county of Galway  (1824), ? (Section 16). 


4 work entries listed in chronological order for HAYES, SAMUEL (COL)


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Building: CO. WICKLOW, AVONDALE
Date: 1779
Nature: SH may have been at least partly responsible for design. Designed 'Woodhouse' in grounds. before 1794.
Refs: S. Hayes, A Practical Treatise on Planting and the Management of Woods and Coppices by S.H. Esq. MRIA (1794), 67(illus.); Mark Bence-Jones, Burke’s Guide to Country Houses. Volume I, Ireland. (London, 1978), 15(illus.).

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, COLLEGE GREEN, PARLIAMENT HOUSE
Date: 1786-1793
Nature: SH involved in design of extension to House of Commons.
Refs: T.J. Mulvany, ed., The Life of James Gandon (1846),112-118; E.McParland, James Gandon(1985), 84-87.

Building: CO. WICKLOW, RATHDRUM, FLANNEL HALL
Date: 1792
Nature: SH makes proposal for centre bays of hall.
Refs: Drawing, 'Design of an elevation of the centre of the Flannel Hall in Rathdrum, June 1792 by SH Avondale' in Fitzwilliam Papers, Sheffield Archives, WWM MP 22C (slide in IAA)

Building: CO. MONAGHAN, MONAGHAN, MARKET HOUSE
Date: 1792
Nature: Designed by SH for Gen. Robert Cunninghame.
Refs: C.E.B. Brett, Court Houses and Market Houses of the Province of Ulster (UAHS, 1973), 96-7,94(illus.);  Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013), 471,Pl.69.

Author Title Date Details
Hayes, Samuel A Practical Treatise on Planting and the Management of Woods and Coppices by S.H. Esq. MRIA 1794 Dublin, 1794. (3rd edition, Dublin: Sam. Jones, 1822. Facsimile edition, Dublin, 2003.)