Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Engineer, of Enniskillen and Dublin. Richard Hastings Frith, who was born circa 1815, came from a family of builders and architects in Enniskillen.. He was living at Islandview, Enniskillen, in early in December 1844, when he was appointed a district surveyor for Co. Dublin from a field of eighteen candidates.(1) He was attached to No. 1 District from 1847 until 1855 and to No. 3 District from August 1856 until his retirment in 1865. He was one of a group of officials from Dublin who attended the banquet to mark the opening of the Birkenhead Street Railway on 30 August 1860.(2) He was the inventor of Frith's patent double valve and the author of a pamphlet on 'The Drainage and Water Supply of Dublin'.(3)

In 1847 Frith, acting on behalf or the Royal Irish Academy, conducted excavations of the tumulus at Dowth, Co. Meath. Although praised  by the Academy for his work, no report was ever published.(4)

Frith died at the age of fifty-eight on 17 December 1873,(5) and was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin. He was married twice: first in Dublin in 1851 to Maria, née Sewers;(6) second in Athenry, Co. Galway in 1863 to  Lavinia, née Lambert, who survived him.(7)

ICEI: elected member, 1847;(8) council member 1852,1855-1863.(9)
RIA: member by 1863.(10)
Geological Society of Dublin: reads paper on the volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands, 1861.(11)

Addresses:(12) Islandview, Enniskillen, 1844;(13) Balbriggan, 1848; Balbriggan House, Balbriggan, 1849; Balbriggan and 87 Marlborough Street, 1856; 53 Leinster Road Rathmines, 1863; 51 Leinster Road, Rathmines, 1863;(14) 19 Dawson St, 1870.(15)

See WORKS and BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 176-177, which gives the fullest account of Frith's career.


(1) Armagh Guardian, 3 Dec 1844.
(2) DB 2, 1 Sep 1860, 324.
(3) IB 9, 15 Nov 1867, 298-301.
(4) Peter Harbison, 'In Retrospect: The Royal Irish Academy's only archaeological excavation: Dowth in the Boyne Valley', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature Vol. 107C (2007), 205-213 (information from Brendan O'Donoghue, 2015).
(5) Inscription on gravestone in Mount Jerome Cemetery (B.O'D.); his death is recorded in TICEI 11 (1874-76), Report of Council 1875, 2.
(6) Irish Genealogy, www.churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie (last visited Feb 2016).
(7) www.familysearch.org.
(8) IB 12, 15 Aug 1870, 197.
(9) TICEI 5 (1855-58), 37; Jones, citing Thom's directories.
(10) DB 5, 15 Oct 1863, 172.
(11) DB 3, 15 Mar 1861, ?.
(12) From Thom's directories unless otherwise stated.
(13) See note 1, above.
(14) DB 5 15 Oct 1863, 172.
(15) See note 7, above.


5 work entries listed in chronological order for FRITH, RICHARD HASTINGS


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, LITTLE BRAY, COMMONS
Date: 1860-61
Nature: Sundry works for Bray Commons Commissioners.
Refs: DB 2, 1 Dec 1860, 380; 3, 1 Jan 1861, 391

Building: CO. WICKLOW, BRAY, HARBOUR
Date: 1861
Nature: Designed by RHF.
Refs: DB 3, 1 Jun 1861, 531

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, SANDYMOUNT, BRIDGE OVER RIVER DODDER
Date: 1863
Nature: Completed.
Refs: DB 5, 15 Dec 1863, 205

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DEAN'S GRANGE, CEMETERY
Date: 1863-64
Nature: Supervises work at.vaults under mortuary chapels for Catholics and Protestants. Builder: M. Gahan, Whitechurch. Estimated cost £353.12s.7d.  Cemetery consecrated, 12 Dec 1864.   'Two mortuary chapels and twelve family vaults have been  erected therein, and there is space for 20,000 single graves.'
Refs: IAA, PKS B02/27, A03 (Dec 1863, p.97v), L01 (pp.560,563);  Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette 6, no. 66 (20 Dec 1864), 264.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, BLACKROCK, MAIN ST
Date: ?
Nature: Improvement works.
Refs: Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 176

Author Title Date Details
Frith, Richard Hastings Macadamized streets compared with paved streets 1857 Dublin, 1857. (Information from Brendan O'Donoghue.)
Frith, Richard Hastings 'On the economy of scavenging and repairing the streets of Dublin compared with that of scavenging and repairing the streets of Lambeth' 1858 TICEI 5 (1855-58), 105-115. (Paper read to ICEI 14 Apr 1857.)
Frith, Richard Hastings [Irish Metropolitan Railway Bill] 1863 DB 5, 15 Oct 1863, 172. (Letter to editor.)
Frith, Richard Hastings The Drainage and Water Supply of Dublin 1867? Dublin: R.S. McGee, 1867?