The Lordship or Manor or Reputed Lordship or Manor or by
whatever other name the Lordship of Slanes may be know or
called in the Administrative County of Down, Province of Ulster,
Northern Ireland was once held either by conquest, gift, forfeiture,
redistrobution, confiscation or purchase. The Manor of Slanes
dates from the conquest of
Ulster by Henry II (1180); and, has a pseudo- feudal plantation
origin.
John Fitz Nicholas of Slanes is
the first recorded holder of the Manor. Fitz Nicholas of Slanes
entered into rebellion with Edward Bruce (1318) which ended
in failure at the Battle of Faughart. For his bad Judgement
Fitz Nicholas was forced to forfeit his lands. Three (3) years
later, Edward II granted the
Lordship to the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem.
When Henry VIII closed the monastaries (1539),theLordship
of Slanes stayed a Crown Possession until seventy-eight (78)
years later when James VI & I granted Slanes to Sir
Arthur Savage.
William Hmilton of Newcastle purchased the
Lordship of Slanes sometime before 1627. The Manor passed
into the patrimony of the Hamilton family until the death
of James Hamilton of Bangor in (1709).
It then passed into the patrimony of the Ward family with
the marriage of Anne Hamilton to Micheal Ward
(1709). The Ward family retained The Lordship of Slanes until
(2001) when it was sold by William Maxwell David Ward,
Viscount Bangor to Ronald C. Bridges of Slanes
the
current Lord of Slanes.