Ballee

The parish church and a table from Clonmellon

Samuel Lewis described Ballee’s Church of Ireland in 1837 as a plain, towerless building erected in 1749 on earlier foundations. ^[2]

A later furnishing has its own journey: former rector Ian Poulton recalled that the parish acquired a Communion Table from the closed church at Clonmellon, County Westmeath, in 1995. Collected from storage at Athboy, it was restored and installed in Ballee. His account records a practical example of church furnishings finding a new home when another congregation’s building closed. ^[3]

The Non-Subscribing meeting house

Ballee’s Non-Subscribing Presbyterian congregation occupies a separate meeting house on Ballee Road. Its denomination dates the present building to 1721, making it another longstanding place of worship within the rural settlement. Lewis’s 1837 survey also recorded a substantial Presbyterian meeting house associated with the Remonstrant Synod. The two accounts connect the surviving congregation with a religious tradition distinct from the neighbouring Church of Ireland parish. ^{[4] [2]}

Bequests for the parish poor

Lewis recorded several charitable gifts associated with Ballee. In 1798, itinerant dealer J. Dunn left £100 to provide income for Presbyterian poor in Down and Ballee. A later gift from Mrs Kelly of Loughkeland financed the purchase of a house in Downpatrick, whose annual rent was distributed at Christmas. These arrangements supported people through property income rather than a single payment, linking rural Ballee with trustees and buildings in the nearby town. ^[2]