Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Selected: CO. WICKLOW, RUSSBOROUGH

Name: LAFRANCHINI, PAOLO *
Building: CO. WICKLOW, RUSSBOROUGH
Date: 1741
Nature: Saloon ceiling and perhaps library ceiling attr. to Paolo and Filippo Lafranchini by Palumbo-Fossati.
Refs: Carlo Palumbo-Fossati, Gli Stuccatori Ticinesi Lafranchini in Inghilterra e in Irlanda nel Secolo XVIII (Fondazione Ticino Nostro, Lugano, 1982), 67-68, pl.42 (for a discussion of the plasterwork at Russborough,  see C.P. Curran, Dublin Decorative Plasterwork of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (1967), 36-37).

Name: CASTLE, RICHARD
Building: CO. WICKLOW, RUSSBOROUGH
Date: 1742
Nature: About two miles from the town, on the road to Baltinglass, is Russborough, the elegant seat of the Earl of Miltown: the mansion, erected after a design by Mr.Cassels, architect of the Bank of Ireland, is in the Grecian style, and consists of a centre and two wings, connected by semicircular colonnades of alternated Ionic and Corinthian pillars, and presenting a noble façade of hewn stone 700 feet in extent...'(Lewis).  Attr. to RC by Wright, Neale, and Knight of Glin. For Joseph Leeson, M.P. (later Earl of Miltown)
Refs: G.N. Wright, Guide to Co. Wicklow (1822), 149;  J.P. Neale, Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland (2nd series, III, 1826), no. 61;  Samuel Lewis, A Topographical dictionary of Ireland (1837), I, 213;   The Knight of Glin, 'Richard Castle, architect, his biography and works' in BIGS 7, no. 1 (Jan - Mar 1964), 32-38

Name: BINDON, FRANCIS
Building: CO. WICKLOW, RUSSBOROUGH
Date: 1742-1743
Nature: New house for Joseph Leeson, MP.  Attr. to FB in obituary in Faulkner's Dublin Journal (followed by Curran) and to FB and Richard Castle by Sadleir, Knight of Glin and Craig.
Refs: Faulkner's Dublin Journal, 4-8 Jun 1765; C.P. Curran, Dublin Decorative Plasterwork of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (1967), 36;  Thomas Sadleir, 'Richard Castle, Architect', JRSAI 41 (1911), 243;  The Knight of Glin, 'Francis Bindon', BIGS, 10, Nos. 2 & 3, Apr-Sep 1967, 11;  Maurice Craig, The Architecture of Ireland from the earliest times to 1880 (London & Dublin, 1982), 188-9.

Name: MONRO, -
Building: CO. WICKLOW, RUSSBOROUGH
Date: 1826a
Nature: Alterations 'lately' carried out under the superintendence of 'Mr Monro' for Joseph Leeson, 4th earl of Milltown. (D. Griffin thnks alts. may have consisted of lowering of windows and possibly also erection of riding school.)
Refs: Neale, Views, 2nd series, III (IX), 1826, No. 61