Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Inspector-General of Barracks in Ireland, architect and topographical draughtsman. Robert O'Callaghan Newenham, who was born in 1770, was the thirteenth child of Sir Edward Newenham, of Belcamp, Co. Dublin. He became an architect and property developer in Limerick, where he was responsible for the development of the Crescent, Richmond Place, and the adjoining Newenham Street. In 1805 he was appointed an Inspector General of Barracks in Ireland, a post which he held until it was abolished in 1830. On his tours of inspection he made drawings of antiquities, buildings and scenery, some of which were lithographed by J.D. Harding and published in numbers of eight views each in 1826. They were republished as two volumes in 1830 under the title Picturesque Views of the Antiquities of Ireland. Newenham showed two views at the exhibition of the Cork Society for Promoting the Fine Arts in 1816 and a further four (including an 'architectural view') at the Mechanics' Institute Exhibition in Cork in 1828.(1)

Newenham married his cousin Susanna Hoare in 1795. Their daughter Eliza married THOMAS DEANE  THOMAS DEANE in 1827. After his wife's death in 1832, Newenham lived with his daughter and son-in-law in their house at Blackrock, Co. Cork. He died in 1849. He was commemorated by his grandson THOMAS NEWENHAM DEANE  THOMAS NEWENHAM DEANE in the left-hand light of the central window in the north choir aisle of St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, which Deane presented to the cathedral while he was in charge of the restoration programme of 1864-1870.(2)



References



(1) ALEI III, 506-7.
(2) Frederick O'Dwyer, The Architecture of Deane and Woodward (Cork University Press, 1997), 368-369; Benjamin Woodward is commemorated in the right-hand light.