The Northeast Coast

When Sir Hugh Montgomery came in May 1606 all that remained of the town founded by the Normans were the ruined walls of the old priory and the stump of an old castle from the O'Neill era.

A town was a good investment for its owner and he received money from various sources such as ...

The rents of houses and lands in town parts.

A toll was paid on every item sold in the markets and fairs held every year fines paid at the various courts were given to the magistrate (the landowner) money came from licences which were needed by the craftsmen in the area tenants were forced to use the manor mill to grind their grain, a proportion of this went to the miller who in turn paid a rent to the landlord

Montgomery benefited from all these.

He built his defended house and bawn in the grounds of the old priory and he added a tower and steeple to form the official church of the community.

The market place was at the meeting place of the main roads, Greenwell Street, from Portaferry and the Ards, Chapelbrae Street (Movilla Street). From Donaghadee to Bangor. The place was confirmed by the building of the market cross in 1637.

The merchant and traders houses spread up High Street to Pound Street in a continuous line broken by archways giving access to vehicles and animals. These access archways are still numerous. A house at number ten Mill Street bore the date 1693.

The great school of Newtown was established around 1620 where golf, archery and football were introduced. This is the first reference to golf in Ireland. The little town which originated in 1606 grew steadily until it had about five hundred houses.

Source 20

In the springtime of 1606 (between Greyabbey, Newtown and Donaghadee) no more than thirty cabins, ruined churches and a stump of an old castle in Newtown could be found. Sir Hugh Montgomery had brought with him several craftsmen such as smiths, masons and carpenters. They soon made cottages and shelters for themselves from the variety of trees that were there. They made a shelter for Hugh out of the old castle stump and got supplies from Belfast. In the summer they were supplied twice a week from Scotland as Donaghadee was about three hours sail from Port Patrick.

William Montgomery had heard it said that in June, July and August 1607 people from Stranraer hired horses in Donaghadee and came to Newtownards to sell goods. They would stay for two or three hours and return home to Scotland the same day. These people were not discouraged by the reports of many wolves and wood kern.

They did not forget Gods place in their lives so in 1607 Sir Hugh Montgomery and his servants made sure there was a roof placed on part of the old priory to be used as a church. In 1608 Sir Hugh was able to bring over two or three Chaplin's to serve the parishes in the planted areas.

The harvests of 1606 and 1607 were good and there were good stacks of grain. The use of sea ore was so effective as dung they had surplus grain to sell to the new planters who were arriving. Sir Hughs wife built water mills in all the parishes and had farms at Greyabbey and Coiner as well as Newtown. She got men to plough and harvest from those settlers who had no land and gave them some grass to graze their cows or sheep on. She also gave them a house and a small garden plot to grow flax and potatoes in return for their labour.

Everybody worked very hard ploughing and digging building and planting setting fruit trees and orchards and gardens. Old women spun and young women knitted and there was no stress or arguing lawyers or Scottish and Irish feuds between clans of families.

Source 21

The first charter was granted in1613 by King James I. The town owes its existence to the Anglo-Norman policy of building castles to control conquered territories. John De Courcey established one such strong point where Castle Gardens mill stood. It was first officially known as Villa Nova De Blaethwyc (the