Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Co-architect with WILLIAM GILLESPIE  WILLIAM GILLESPIE to the ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS , 1860-1870. William John Welland was born circa 1832, a younger son of JOSEPH WELLAND JOSEPH WELLAND , successively architect to the Board of First Fruits and to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and his wife Sophia Margaret, née Mills. He was the second of Joseph Welland's sons to attend Trinity College, Dublin; he was admitted to the college on 1 July 1850,(1) awarded the Diploma in Civil Engineering in 1854,(2) the BA degree in 1855, and an MA in 1879.(3) Whether he entered the architect's department of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners directly after leaving Trinity is not recorded; by 1860 he was said to have worked there 'for some years'.(4) He had become principal assistant by 1859, when drawings signed by 'Joseph Welland & Son' first start to appear.

Two months after Joseph Welland's death in March 1860, William John Welland and WILLIAM GILLESPIE WILLIAM GILLESPIE , a district architect within the organization, were appointed joint architects to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.(5) Other aspirants to the post had included 'practitioners in England, Belfast, Cork, and Dublin…amongst them some Roman Catholics',(6) but 'A Churchman' suggested in a letter to the Irish Times that candidates of calibre would have been deterred by the 'absurd condition' that they would be required to work exclusively for the Commissioners, 'absurd, because of the miserable equivalent offered in the way of salary; to wit, £600'.(7) Welland and Gillespie held the post until the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland on 31 December 1870. Welland was later appointed architect to the General Prisons Board(8) and was still in the post at the time of his death, on the 23 January 1896.(9) He had married Mary Elizabeth Irwin on 19 March 1863.(10)

RIAI: 'Mr Welland Junior' attends ordinary meeting as visitor, 23 March 1850;(11) elected fellow, 21 May 1863;(12) council member, 1868-69 or 70;(13) resigned, 1875;(14) 'William Welland' elected member, 13 Dec 1878.(15)

Addresses: Work: 24 Merrion Street Upper, 1860-1870; 8? College Street, 1878? ; Prisons Board, Dublin Castle, 1881 until death
Home: 8 Waltham Terrace, Blackrock, 1865-1873; Tudor Lodge, Ballybrack, 1874 until death.

For WORKS see WELLAND & WELLAND & amp; GILLESPIE. GILLESPIE.



References



(1) Alumni Dublinenses.
(2) R.C. Cox, compiler, Trinity College School of Engineering: 'Graduates' in Engineering 1843-1992 (1993), unpaginated.
(3) See note 1, above.
(4) DB 2, 1 May 1860, 245.
(5)   Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette 2, no. 11, 15 May 1860, 289;  B 18, 9 Jun 1860, 368.
(6) B 18, 9 Jun 1860, 368.
(7) See note 4, above.
(8) He is designated as such in Thom's Directory for 1881 but not in that for 1880.
(9) Calendar of Wills, National Archives of Ireland, http://www.willcalendars.nationalarchives.ie/reels/cwa/005014909/005014909_00722.pdf (last visited August 2017);  Irish Times, 25 Jan 1896. 
(10) www.familysearch.org.
(11) RIAI general meeting minutes, 23 Mar 1850, ?.
(12) RIAI council meeting minutes, 8 May 1863, 5; general meeting minutes, 21 May 1863, 127.
(13) Thom's transcripts from lists of RIAI officers in Thom's directories.
(14) RIAI council meeting minutes, 6 Dec 1875, 192.
(15) RIAI council meeting minutes, 28 Nov 1878, 215; general meeting minutes, 13 Dec 1878, 271.


4 work entries listed in chronological order for WELLAND, WILLIAM JOHN


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Building: CO. MONAGHAN, DRUM, CHURCH (CI)
Date: 1860
Nature: Addition of S aisle.
Refs: Signed, dated drawing in RCB Library, portfolio 3A; DB 2, 1 Sep 1860, 330; illus. in Clergy of Clogher (Ulster Historical Foundation, 2006), Part 1, 44; Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013), 320.
 

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, WERBURGH STREET, ST WERBURGH'S CHURCH (CI)
Date: 1877
Nature: Repewing. Contractor: James Jones, Harcourt St.
Refs: Rev. S.C. Hughes, The Church of S. Werburgh, Dublin (1889), 42-3

Building: CO. DUBLIN, KILLINEY, CHURCH OF ST MATTHIAS (CI)
Date: 1880a
Nature: Addition of chancel and transept. WJR presented with gold watch  for having given his services gratuitoulsy as architect of chancel and transpet lately added to church, Mar? 1880..
Refs: Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette 22, no. 14, 3 Apr 1880, 280;  Étain Murphy, A Glorious Extravaganza: the history of Monkstown Parish Church (2003), 381

Building: CO. OFFALY, TULLAMORE, CORMAC STREET, COUNTY GAOL
Date: 1888
Nature: Tenders invited for erecting warders' houses for General Prisons Board, Apr 1888.  (Architect not named, but WJW was architect to the Board.)
Refs: Irish Times, 23 Apr 1888.