Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Surveyor and agent to the second Marquess of Downshire at Edenderry, Co. Offaly. James Brownrigg, son of the surveyor JOHN BROWNRIGG  JOHN BROWNRIGG and his wife Elizabeth (née Campbell) was born in 1780 or 1781, probably in Edenderry.(1) He joined his father in business and succeeded him as the Marquess of Downshire's agent in 1800.   He planned the Catholic church in Edenderry, circa 181?,(2) and and may have been the author of an anonymous unexecuted project for Edenderry market house dated 1813.(3)  He  also appears to have made plans for Dundrum Harbour, Co. Down.(4) Two plans for remodelling the wings of Ardbraccan House, Co. Meath, dated 1800, among the Castletown House drawings, bear a signature which may be 'Js: Brownrigg'.(5) 

James Brownrigg died of typhus fever on 4 July 1817 at the age of thirty-six and was buried in the new graveyard at Edenderry church, leaving a widow, Harriott.(6)  He is described as 'thoughtful and humane' by Maguire, and, according to his father, his funeral attracted a large crowd, 'consisting of all the respectability of the country, and the lower classes in thousands'. The inscription on his tombstone records that he also acted as agent to 'several other persons' and was captain of the Cooleystown Yeomanry. 



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from W.A. Maguire, 'Missing Persons:  Edenderry under the Blundells and the Downshires, 1707-1922', in Offaly: History and Society (Dublin: Geography Publications, 1998) and from the entry on John Brownrigg by C.J. Woods in Dictionary of Irish Biography, ed. by James McGuire and James Quinn, 9 vols. (Cambridge University Press, 2009), I, 941.

(1) See note 6, below.  He does not appear to be the same person as the James Brownrigg, son of John and Catherine Brownrigg, who was baptised in St Thomas's church, Dublin, on 4 July 1777 (R. Refaussé, Register of the parish of St Thomas, Dublin (1994), 64.
(2) Downshire Papers PRONI D671/A5/7.
(3) Downshire Papers PRONI D671/P6/10.
(4) Downshire Papers PRONI D671/A5/8.
(5) IAA, Guinness Collection, Acc.98/068.5/4/1-2; there are also decorative designs for Ardbraccan by J. Brownrigg in NLI, Portfolio 34, lot (1269) (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).
(6)   Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead in Ireland 4 (1900), 96. Harriott may have been his widow by a second marriage, as the marriage of a James Brownrigg, born about 1779 in Edenderry to Elizabeth Hort (or Hoart) at St Peter's Church, Dublin, in 1804 is recorded in www.familysearch.org .  I


2 work entries listed in chronological order for BROWNRIGG, JAMES


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Building: CO. MEATH, ARDBRACCAN
Date: 1800
Nature: Survey of stable yards and kitchen offices and farm yards in wings showing proposed alterations. Perhaps by JB. For Thomas Lewis O'Beirne, Bishop of Meath.
Refs: 2 plans, signed Js:[?] Brownrigg/1800 in IAA, Guinness collection, Acc. 96/068.

Building: CO. OFFALY, EDENDERRY, MARKET HOUSE
Date: 1813
Nature: JB may be author of design for same.
Refs: Unsigned plan in PRONI, Downshire Papers, D671/P6/10.