Rothe house was built in 1594. It illustrates how the merchants of Kilkenny lived over their shops and how the streets of the city were lined with arcaded footpaths. The footpath ran within the five round-headed arches the full length of the east frontage and the shop occupied the remainder of the ground floor; the basement, lighted by a series of small windows on the west side, was the store; the living quarters occupied the lofty first floor and the bedrooms were in the roof. Most of the evidence for the arrangement of the living quarters was lost in the nine-teenth century, when Timothy O'Hanrahan carried out extensive alterations, but the two original fireplaces and the numerous windows suggest that the first floor was divided into several rooms; the oriel window is modern restoration based upon the tip of the supporting stone corbel which had survived the alterations and the other windows are based upon remains of the original stonework. John Rothe FitzPiers and his wife Rose Archer belonged to minor branches of two of the leading civic families of medieval Kilkenny. When he died in 1619 business was already being carried on by some of his eleven children and their families. The house is traditionally associated with the National Ecclesiastical Assembly convened by Bishop Rothe, who was a cousin of John Rothe, in May 1642. This meeting was attended by all the Catholic Bishops of Ireland with representatives of the clergy. It led to the formation of the Parliament of the Confederation in October 1642. The Rothe family paid dearly for their association with the Confederacy. The house was forfeited in 1653 and the Rothes transplanted to Connaught. An Ormonde connection secured a reprieve in 1660 but the house passed finally from the family in 1691. The survival of the building may be partly due to the fact that it became a school in the 18th century. The house was bought by Kilkenny Archaeological Society in 1962, restored (under the supervision of Perey Le Clerc) and opened as a museum and library in 1966.