Notes

Drogheda was one of eight Irish urban areas listed as not part of any barony in the county reports of the 1851 census, being named there as 'orough of Drogheda'. Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) says "in 1220 ... the Boyne, which now intersects the town, formed the boundary between the counties of Meath and Louth, and the two portions of the town on its opposite banks constituted separate boroughs. ... The two boroughs continued till the reign of Henry IV. to be separately governed by their respective charters, and each had its separate corporate officers, from which circumstance the merchants frequenting the town were burdened with the payment of tolls and customs to both corporations, dissensions and debates were daily springing up between the two bodies, and in their contests blood was often shed and many lives were lost. To put an end to these evils, Henry IV., by charter dated Nov. 1st, 1412, with the consent of the burgesses and commonalties, united both boroughs under one corporation, and erected the town, with the suburbs on both sides of the river, into a county of itself.