17th century In 1661,
Sir Hercules Langford, 1st Baronet bought Lynch's Castle located on the Summerhill demesne in County Meath and many other townlands from The Rt Rev. Dr.
Henry Jones, the Lord Bishop of Meath who had been awarded it by
Oliver Cromwell. Fourteen years prior in 1647, the surrounding area had formed the battlefield for the
Battle of Dungan's Hill. Earlier, John Rowley came to Ireland during the reign of
James I, as sole agent for the building of the towns of
Derry and
Coleraine for the London Society. Upon the incorporation of the city of Derry in 1613, he was, by charter, appointed first
Mayor of Derry city. He was later knighted for his services at the time of the Restoration. He also married Mary, daughter of Sir Hercules Langford, 1st Baronet. One of Rowley's daughters, Anne, married
Sir Tristram Beresford, 1st Baronet, ancestor to the family of Tyrone. Another daughter, Mary, married
James Clotworthy, and by him had an only daughter, who married
Robert FitzGerald, 19th Earl of Kildare, and who was grandmother of Lieutenant-General
The 1st Duke of Leinster. He only left one son,
Hercules Rowley and via his son's marriage to Frances Upton, his only son and heir,
Hercules Langford Rowley, married in 1732, Elizabeth Ormsby, later created
The 1st Viscountess Langford. It is likely the family still lived at Lynch's Castle until this time.
18th century In the 1730s Langford Rowley constructed the vast Palladian Baroque house at
Summerhill. Later in 1743, Langford also acquired what was to become
Langford House on
Mary Street in Dublin city as his town residence while sitting in parliament.
Robert Adam was engaged in 1765 to carry out an interior redecoration and interior remodelling of this house. At the same time he was also commissioned to complete an extension to the already sprawling Summerhill house however these designs composed of a quadrant link connecting two wings, were ultimately never executed. Summerhill House was damaged by fire during the
Irish Rebellion of 1798.
19th century In 1845, the Parliamentary Gazeteer and other sources describe the house as being in a state of decline, with much of its extensive mature woodlands having been removed. The house and estate had been inherited in 1854 by
The 4th Baron Langford (1848–1919). He engaged the architect
John McCurdy to restore parts of the house in 1869. The
Empress of Austria visited Summerhill in February 1879 for a six week holiday for the purposes of hunting. When she was on one hunt in
Dunshaughlin, as they came to Maynooth they came across two men repairing a demesne wall of the Catholic seminary. As the deer they were hunting jumped into the land of the college, the empress followed without knowing where she was going and nearly jumped on the President of the college, Professor
William Walsh, who later became the
Archbishop of Dublin and
Primate of Ireland. Throughout her trip she was accompanied by
George "Bay" Middleton who was widely rumoured to be her lover. On 13 November 2010 one famous riding whip appeared in a country house auction in Slane Castle held by Adams. This whip was owned by the Empress and was given to Robert Fowler who was the Master of the Meath Hounds at the time of her stay in Summerhill. The whip had been lost and had been found not long before the auction in Rahinston House. The whip was found in a mahogany presentation case with a silver crest plate bearing the Imperial Arms of Habsburg. The whip was estimated at €3,000-€5,000 but reached a total of €37,000.
20th century A the time of the 1901 census, Hercules Edward Rowley, 4th Baron Langford is recorded at the house with his wife and three children. At the time of the 1911 census, Lord Langford is listed as head of the family at the house with 9 servants but none of the family are there. The house suffered problems when farm hands went on strike and damaged farming equipment in 1919. Republican workers and farm hands were evicted from their homes and after months of agrarian agitation eventually on 4 February 1921, the
Irish Republican Army invaded and took the estate and distributed the lands and farms around the house equally amongst the workers and their families, before they set the house on fire where it was mostly destroyed. He was succeeded by his son, the young 5th Baron (1894–1922), who died prematurely and was in turn succeeded by his elderly cousin, Colonel William Chambre Rowley, who became the 6th Baron. In 1922,
Colonel The 6th Baron Langford (1849–1931), who had only inherited the
barony the previous year, sought compensation from the
Government of the Irish Free State. After three years of negotiation with the Compensation Board, a sum of £43,500 was paid to Colonel Lord Langford, approximately one third of the value of the house and contents destroyed in the fire. The elderly Lord Langford invested the money in
gilt-edged stocks and moved to
Middlesex in England. Even in a ruinous state, the house was still said to be one of the architectural wonders of Ireland and made the house even more romantic in some minds much like the ruined
Seaton Delaval. The calcinating of the external limestone gave it a more patterned and less harsh look similar to rustication in a way that can be seen at
Russborough House. Summerhill House stood as a ruin until it was totally demolished in 1970. ==Architecture==