John Le Decer

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John Le Decer (died 1332)[1] was a fourteenth-century Mayor of Dublin, who had a notable record of charitable works and civic improvement.

Since the surname is not a common one, it is possible that Robert le Decer, Sheriff of Dublin City in 1280, was a relative of John.[original research?]

John Le Decer served as mayor on six occasions, in 1302, 1305, from 1307 to 1309 and in 1324.[2] He was a man of considerable wealth, and carried out a number of noted public works "at his own expense".[3] His most striking project was the marble cistern he built in 1308.[4][5] This held Dublin's main water conduit in Cornmarket, adjacent to St. Audoen's Church in the centre of the medieval city, a work "such as was never seen here before".[3][6] It was commonly called "Le Decer's Fountain",[5][7] and is so described on the 1400 map of St. Audoen's Church and parish. He set up Dublin's so-called "Lucky Stone" (a ninth-century grave marker) there, reputedly so that everyone who drank from the cistern should have good luck; it had previously been situated inside St Audoen's.[8]

St. Audoen's Church and arch (1400) with the cistern, "Le Decer's fountain", marked in the centre of the map, to the left of the church

In 1308 he built a bridge over the River Liffey, called New Bridge, near St. Wolstan's Priory, about halfway between Celbridge and Leixlip, County Kildare.[9] He also built "at great expense" a bridge over the River Tolka at Ballybough, northeast of Dublin city, in 1313, but this was destroyed by floods not long afterwards.[10] During a time of famine (probably the Great Famine of 1315–1317), he hired three ships to go to France and buy corn, which he distributed to the poor of Dublin.[3] He also made a free gift of corn to the Prior of Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin, who lacked the money to buy it.[3] He is described, in William Camden's Britannia (updated by Richard Gough c.1790), as an "excellent magistrate".[11]

He was also generous in his support for religious houses,[1] paying for the building of a new chapel in the Priory of Kilmainham, and for extensive works in the Monastery of Saint Francis. The Franciscan monastery, founded in 1235, was situated on present-day Francis Street in Dublin city centre, but all trace of it has vanished. It was his custom to entertain the monks of Saint Francis to dinner once a week.[3] It was in the chapel of this monastery that he was buried in 1332.[1][12]

He was married and had at least one daughter, Elena, who married Robert de Meones,[13] of the prominent Anglo-Irish De Meones family who gave their name to the suburb of Rathmines in south Dublin. They had at least one son, John de Meones, who served three terms as Mayor of Dublin between 1331 and 1338.[14]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Warburton, Whitelaw & Walsh 1818, p. 364.
  2. ^ Berry 1910, pp. 49, 54–55.
  3. ^ a b c d e Dublin Penny Journal 1833.
  4. ^ Warburton, Whitelaw & Walsh 1818, p. 166.
  5. ^ a b Hughes 1941, p. 73.
  6. ^ Warburton, Whitelaw & Walsh 1818, p. 167.
  7. ^ Berry 1891, p. 559.
  8. ^ Leeper, Alexander History of St Audoen's (by the rector) Dublin 1873
  9. ^ Harris 1766, p. 258.
  10. ^ Harris 1766, p. 260.
  11. ^ Dublin Penny Journal 1833, p. 2: "in Gough's Camden, Vol IV. p. 48 [..] In justice to the memory of this excellent magistrate".
  12. ^ Harris 1766, p. 265.
  13. ^ Crooks 2009, p. 144.
  14. ^ Crooks 2009, p. 145.

Sources[edit]

  • Berry, Henry F. (1910). "Catalogue of the Mayors, Provosts, and Bailiffs of Dublin City, A.D. 1229 to 1447". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature. 28: 47–61. JSTOR 25502777.
  • Berry, Henry F. (1891). "The Water Supply of Ancient Dublin". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 5. 1: 557–573. JSTOR 25507821.
  • Crooks, Peter (2009). "Negotiating authority in a colonial capital: Dublin and the Windsor Crisis, 1369–78" (PDF). Medieval Dublin. IX: 131–151.
  • Harris, Walter (1766). The History and Antiquities of the City of Dublin, from the Earliest Accounts. Dublin: Flinn and Williams.
  • Hughes, L. J. (1941). "Main Street, Dublin". Dublin Historical Record. 3 (3). Old Dublin Society. JSTOR 30080036.
  • "John Le Decer, Mayor of Dublin". Dublin Penny Journal. 2 (54): 10. 1833. JSTOR 30003181.
  • Warburton, John; Whitelaw, James; Walsh, Robert (1818). History of the City of Dublin, from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies.
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