ALFRAY, EUCLID

Architect or surveyor who made survey drawings of Dublin Castle in January 1767.(1) Euclid Alfray had been clerk to HENRY KEENE  HENRY KEENE in 1760. Keene became architect to the Barrack Board in Dublin in 1761, while, in March of the same year, Alfray was appointed overseer for the construction of the Powder Magazines at Purfleet, Essex. Alfray was dismissed from this post in 1765 after a dispute over the measuring of copper work,(3) and was in Dublin by the end of that year, working for his former master Keene.(3) 'Mssrs. Alfray & Johnston' appear to have acted as clerks of works for the construction of buildings 'in and about the demesne' of the Archbishop's Palace at Armagh in the early 1770s. An abstract of bills for the building of the palace, offices and nearby buildings in the 'Report of the Commissioners for valuing the buildings etc. on the demesne of the See of Armagh' of 25 October 1775(4) records reimbursing them for bills which they had settled with various craftsmen. The marriage licence bond of St Luke Alfray, gentleman, of Drumcondra, Dublin, to Elizabeth McGough, dated 1775, is in the National Archives.(5) Alfray may be connected with the English architect and surveyor Robert Alfray (fl. 1722ca-1736ca), for whom see Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (3rd edn., 1995).

(1) Plans in OPW collection, believed transferred to National Archives; photographs in IAA, inv. no. 9/15 P1,2.
(2) Information about Euclid Alfray from P. Guillery & P. Pattison, 'The Powder Magazines at Purfleet', The Georgian Group Journal 6 (1996), 40-41; Alfray appeared with Keene and other members of the Building Committee of the Guildhall, High Wycombe, in a conversation piece by Robert Pyle, painted in 1760 and destroyed in a fire at Buxted Park, Sussex.
(3) JHCI VIII, lxxx (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc.2008/44; ref. to be confirned by F. O'Dwyer).
(4) PRONI DIO/4/40/5/9.
(5) Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 (Eneclann CD-ROM), Document ID 818).