| Description |
The original house ‘Bessmont’, sometimes spelt Bessmount, dates from the early 1800s and is marked and named on the 1st edition 6 inch Ordnance Survey map (1836) with a walled garden to the south. It was the home of a branch of the Montgomery family and was inherited through marriage by the Nixons. In the 1830s it was the residence of A. Nixon Montgomery. In 1840 it was acquired by John Hatchell, High Sheriff of Monaghan in 1843 and his daughter held the house in fee circa 1860. The buildings were valued at £46. The house was elaborately re-modelled in an ornate style possibly to the design of an unknown architect in the late 1860s for the owner William Henderson and became known as Bessmount Park. William Henderson was married to John Hatchell’s daughter Frances Maria Isabella. Mrs Henderson, described as a widow, was living in the house in 1901 and a retired doctor Edward Taylor in 1911. This house continues to be a fine residence. |
