John Le Decer

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

He was mayor in 1302, 1305–06, 1307–09 and 1324–26. He was a man of considerable wealth, and was praised for carrying out important public works at his own expense. His most striking project was the marble cistern he built in 1308 to hold Dublin's main water conduit in Cornnarket, adjacent to St. Audoen's Church, a work "such as was never seen here before". It was commonly called "Le Decer's Fountain", and is so described on the 1400 map of St. Audoen's Church and parish.

St. Audoen's Church and arch (1400) with the cistern (fountain) built by John le Decer clearly marked on the left

He built two bridges over the River Liffey: at Newbridge, County Kildare, thus giving the town its name, and at St. Wolstan's Priory, near Celbridge, County Kildare. 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. During a time of famine (likely 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.

He was also generous in his support for religious houses, paying for the building of a new chapel in the Priory of Kilmainham, and for extensive works in the Monastery of Saint Francis. The monastery 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. It was in the monastery that he was buried in 1332.

He was married and had at least one daughter, Elena, who married Robert de Meones, of the prominent Anglo-Irish De Meones family, who gave their name to Rathmines in south Dublin. They had at least one son John, who was three times Mayor of Dublin in his turn, between 1331 and 1338.

Sources[]

  • Crooks, Peter (2009). "Negotiating authority in a colonial capital: Dublin and the Windsor Crisis, 1369–78" (PDF). Medieval Dublin. IX: 131–151.
  • "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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