Batt— Gold Nuggets found in Co. Wicklow. old 
by the peasantry before the 15th October, or by the Government 
between that date and the 8rd—4th November when his letter was 
written. 
As affording some clue to the discovery and original owner- 
ship, an account of it in the Grentleman’s Magazine,’ however, states 
that it was found in September, 1795, and was the joint pro- 
perty of eight labourers. 
It can scarcely therefore be identified with a nugget which 
was said to have long been used as a weight in a shop, in the belief 
that it was copper ore, till it was bought by a tinker and sold to a 
jeweller in Capel-street for a large sum. Of this tale there are 
several variants.” The following account by Mr. W. H. Jones, 
has been received through Mr. G. H. Kinahan :— . 
“T know_of no record of the quantity of gold found unless 
that given in ‘Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary.’ I always 
heard of a large nugget being found by a tenant of Mr. Wm. 
- Graham, of Ballycooge. It was used by the finder as a weight 
to weigh wool, until a pedlar called and offered a high price 
for it. The man began to think it valuable, and declined to 
part with it, but brought it to Mr. W. Graham, his landlord, and 
gave it to him. Mr. Graham presented it to Lord Meath, and 
Lord Meath presented it to the Dublin Society Museum, where 
there is a model of it, I understand, at present. Inever heard of a 
nugget being found at Coolballintegart. The Graham family 
have all died out, and I am quite certain that they left no 
written record; they were not people likely to keep a diary; 
indeed, according to report, poor Shemus McGlinnon, who found 
the nugget, got little by it.” 
At a meeting of the Royal Geological Society of Ireland held 
on the 11th January, 1865, Mr. J. Knight Boswell stated that he 
was told by a family named Byrne, farmers at Croghan Kinshela, 
some thirty years previously, that in the upper part of one of the 
rivers they found a mass of metal, about a pound and a-half in 
weight, which they supposed to be copper. It remained for several 
years in their possession, and was used by them as a weight; but 
at length it was disposed of to a travelling tinker who carried it to 
1 Vol. 66, pt. i., 1796, p. 8. 
» Journ. Roy. Geol. Soc., Ireland, vol. xi. (New Ser., vol. i., Pt.i.), 1865, p. 99. 
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