Ratoath. No charter is extant for this borough, which in 1790 was:
a Manor, sending Members to Parliament and of a date, not superior in antiquity to Duleek. It has been always considered a close Borough, though from the nature of its constitution it certainly should be free. The families of Reading and Piers had first this Manor in their hands. At last, after some fluctuations of property, it rests under the absolute control of Gorges Lowther (1273), Esq. at present one of the representatives for the County of Meath. It is regularly exposed to sale, these manorial voters implicity obeying the mandates of their master, nor daring to think for themselves.311
In 1783 the manor had 400 inhabitants and in 1773 it was said that Gorges Lowther 'purchased it from Noah Webb of Dunshaughlin',312 probably in the 1730s - he was first returned for Ratoath in 1739. Ratoath was disfranchised at the Union and, as Lowther died in 1792, the compensation was paid to his grandson and namesake, Gorges Lowther.
