About 1610, during the Plantation and at a time when the area was sparsely populated by Irish Gaels,[REF] the lands of Lurgan were granted to the English lord William Brownlow and his family.
A workhouse was built in Lurgan and opened in 1841 under the stipulations of the Poor Law which stated that each Poor Law Union would build a workhouse to give relief to the increasing numbers of destitute poor.