Jamestown, County Leitrim
Jamestown is a village on the banks of the River Shannon in County Leitrim, Ireland. It lies some 5 km east-south-east of the county town, Carrick-on-Shannon.Jamestown was originally built as a walled plantation town for seventeenth-century English settlers. It used to be on the main Sligo to Dublin road (N4) and was known for the narrow pillars of the arch of the old town gate that straddles the road in the centre of the village. The arch was damaged by a passing lorry in the early 1970s and the top was removed. In recent years at Christmas a lighted skeletal arch has been erected by the local community.Two pubs and a church mark the centre of the village, close to remains of the boundary walls.Jamestown lies beside the Shannon with its own jetty and is a popular stopping point for boats. Navigation for cruisers is not possible downstream of Jamestown, boats are required to use the Jamestown Canal and Albert Lock (River Shannon) which links to the Shannon south of DrumsnaHistoryThe settlement was created by Royal Charter of James I in 1621, and was founded in 1622 as a plantation town carrying into action the decision of 1620 to plant Leitrim with loyal English settlers. It was granted to Sir Charles Coote, a Devonshire Planter, who fortified it with walls twenty feet high and six feet in thickness, enclosing an area of about 4 acres (16,000 m2) which contained a castle. It had an area of 200 acres (0.81 km2) under its liberty. The Borough with a very restricted franchise returned two members to the Irish Parliament until the Act of Union with Britain in 1801. Among its parliamentary representatives were Sir Charles Coote (1634–1660), John Fitzgibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, (1776) and Richard Martin (M.P.), "Humanity Dick". The surnames Butler and Clyne are particularly numerous in the Jamestown area.
