Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Clergyman and amateur architect, who designed or improved several houses and churches. Daniel Augustus Beaufort was born in London in 1739, the only child of Daniel Cornelius Beaufort, a Huguenot refugee and Calvinist minister, and his wife, Esther Gougeon, from La Rochelle. His father moved to Ireland under the auspices of the Earl of Harrington, who became Lord Lieutenant in 1747, and was appointed rector of Navan, Co. Meath. Daniel Augustus, after graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1759, was ordained in 1763 and succeeded his father as rector of Navan in 1765, holding the living until 1818. In 1767 he married Mary Waller of Allenstown, by whom he had seven children; his eldest surviving daughter, Fanny, married Richard Lovell Edgeworth. In 1790 he was presented by John Foster to the vicarage of Collon, Co. Louth. He died in 1821.

Beaufort was a man of wide interests which included architecture, topography and agriculture. The Royal Irish Academy owed its foundation in a great measure to him. His interest in architecture from an early age is evinced by the fact that he subscribed to the Rev. John Payne's Twelve Designs of Country-Houses, which was published in 1757. His design for Collon church (1811-13), inspired by King's College chapel, Cambridge, is probably the best known of his architectural enterprises.

See WORKS and BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References

All information in this entry is from C.C. Ellison, The Hopeful Traveller: the life and times of Daniel Augustus Beaufort (Kilkenny: Boethius, 1987), which includes a select bibliography. Other accounts of Beaufort's life may be found in the Oxford DNB, W.G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913) and the entry by Linde Lunney in Dictionary of Irish Biography, ed. by James McGuire and James Quinn, 9 vols. (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 396-7.


10 work entries listed in chronological order for BEAUFORT, DANIEL AUGUSTUS (REV.)


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Building: CO. MEATH, ARDBRACCAN
Date: 1772-1775
Nature: DAB and Thomas Cooley involved in design, James Wyatt having provided preliminary design in 1773. DAB supervises erection of house. For Henry Maxwell, Bishop of Meath.
Refs: Signed elevation of gates,1772, front and rear elevations and plans (see The Architecture of Ireland in Drawings and Paintings, (NGI, 1975), nos. 9,10) in collection of David Maher, Ardbraccan (formerly in Farnham Collection, NLI); Georgian Society Records V, 98; J.N. Brewer, The Beauties of Ireland (1825 & 1826), II, 189;  C. C. Ellison, 'Remembering Dr Beaufort', BIGS 18 (Jan-Mar 1975), 13-14;  C.C. Ellison, The Hopeful Traveller (1987), 90; Christine Casey & Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (1993), 113-4.

Building: CO. MEATH, BEAUPARC
Date: 1778
Nature: Addition of quadrants, for Charles Lambart.
Refs: Christine Casey & Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (1993), 157

Building: CO. WESTMEATH, MOYLISCAR, CHURCH (CI)
Date: 1787
Nature: DAB provided plan for improving same for - Rochfort.
Refs: Journal of Rev. D.A. Beaufort, 1787, p.7.

Building: CO. MEATH, KILLEEN CASTLE
Date: 1802
Nature: Proposed additions attr. to DAB. For Arthur James, 8th Earl of Fingall.
Refs: Drawings in IAA Murray Collection, no. 898-900 (see Murray Collection catalogue, pp. 270-271,275-276)

Building: CO. LOUTH, COLLON, CHURCH (CI)
Date: 1811-1813
Nature: New church in Tudor perpendicular gothic style..
Refs: Collon Parish Records; microfilm of plans and accompanying letter from DAB, 1811, in PRONI,MIC1/163/2;  copy of letter from Foster to Beaufort, 2 Apr 1811, in PRONI D207/36/60;   J.C. Curwen, Observations on the state of Ireland (1818), ?;  T.K. Cromwell, Excursions through Ireland (1820), ?; DNB; Samuel Lewis, A Topographical dictionary of Ireland (1837), I; 388;  C.C. Ellison, The Hopeful Traveller (1987), 85-89; Christine Casey & Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (1993),218-9,Pl.100

Building: CO. MEATH, NAVAN, FAIR GREEN, CHURCH OF ST MARY (CI)
Date: 1815-1816
Nature: Alterations.
Refs: Ardbraccan & Navan parish records; W. Papworth's notes, RIBA Drawings Coll PA.W/IND.1; ; C.C. Ellison, The Hopeful Traveller (1987), 89; Christine Casey & Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (1993), 428; part of exterior illus. in Claude Costegalde & Brian Walker, The Church of Ireland: an illustrated history (2013), 318.

Building: CO. MEATH, CHARLESFORT (KELLS)
Date: ?
Nature: Interior rearranged by DB.
Refs: Mark Bence-Jones, Burke’s Guide to Country Houses. Volume I, Ireland (London, 1978), 81; Christine Casey & Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (1993), 293

Building: CO. MEATH, ARDBRACCAN, CHURCH (CI)
Date: ?
Nature: Rebuilding of church under Bishop Maxwell (1766-1798)
Refs: Ardbraccan & Navan parish records; C.C. Ellison, The Hopeful Traveller (1987), 90; Christine Casey & Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (1993), 20(illus.)

Building: CO. ARMAGH?, ARMAGH?, EDEN?
Date: ?
Nature: Alterations to plan of 'house for Tisdall'
Refs: ?

Building: CO. TYRONE, DUNGANNON, GLEBE HOUSE
Date: ?
Nature: -
Refs: Beaufort's travel journal, 1807, p.9

Author Title Date Details
Beaufort, Daniel Augustus MS. travel journals 1764-1766, 1779, 1787-1788, 1807-1808 1764-1810 TCD Library.
Beaufort, Daniel Augustus MS. travel journals 1779-1780, 1792-1794 1779-1794 Huntington Library, San Marino, California, Sir Francis Beaufort Collections.
Beaufort, Daniel Augustus MS. diaries 1781-1792, 1818-1820 1781-1820 TCD Library.
Beaufort, Daniel Augustus MS. diaries 1776-1781, 1796-1805, 1812-1814, 1820-1821 1781-1821 Huntington Library, San Marino, California, Sir Francis Beaufort Collections.
Ellison, Cyril C. 'Remembering Dr. Beaufort' 1975 BIGS 18, No. 1 (Jan-Mar 1975), 1-36.
Ellison, Cyril C. The hopeful traveller: the life…of Daniel Augustus Beaufort 1987 Kilkenny: Boethius Press,1987.