Callan in 1836

CALLAN, partly in the barony of Kells and partly in the barony of Shillelogher in the county of Kilkenny in Ireland, a decayed borough 80 English miles S.S.E. from Dublin and 8 miles from Kilkenny city.

Callan formerly returned a member to the Irish parliament, and at the time of the union George Lord Callan received £15,000 compensation for the loss of the borough.

The corporation consists of a sovereign, freemen, and burgesses, whose chief revenues arise from some very obnoxious tolls on all provisions entering the town.

A town court is held here every Monday, with jurisdiction to the amount of 40 shillings; but there is neither gaol nor bridewell, nor any charitable institution, with the exception of a free-school under the superintendence of a committee.

The population are principally Roman Catholic, and in the parish, town, and liberties amount to 6,111, making 1,205 families, of whom 580 are chiefly employed in agriculture, 349 in trade or handicraft, and 246 not included in either class, but chiefly paupers.

The streets are unpaved, and the mail-coach is allowed twelve minutes extra in passing through.

There is no inn in the town, and the state of poverty in which many hundreds of the inhabitants exist is truly frightful.

On a mountain near the town is a stone bearing an inscription in Ogham characters which has been the subject of much dispute among Irish antiquarians.

Callan is the property of Lord Clifden.