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THE COUNTY AND CITY
CORK
REMEMBRANCER;
OR ANNALS
COUNTY AND CITY OF CORK.
BY
FRANCIS H. TUCKEY.
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
CORK: OSBORNE SAVAGE AND SON, PATRICK STREET.
MDCCCXXXVII.
CORK:
JACKSON, PRINTER, SOUTH MALL.
etsTs
r RE FACE.
The design of tlie following -work was suggested by former publications of a similar character; in 1783 Mr. J.Fitzgerald published the first Cork Remembrancer; in 1792, Mr. A. Edwards published the second ; the present attempt is the third. We believe our city has furnished the only examples of such compilations. Indeed our predecessors in this path, accompanied their local anecdotes with a general chronicle of the world, which, however, we have rejected from oiu* plan, as being rather inappropriate. Our book is therefore, for the most part, a mere collection of trilling incidents, vvliich occurred in the city and county of Cork ; but frivolous as the facts detailed, may appear to many, they often present more vivid images of other times, than graver details; similar trifles of our own time fi.nd their places in the newspapers, and are allowed to be, at least, amusing ; and although those of other times lose part of their attractions by their remoteness, they yet derive from the same source, an interest of another kind, and may Avell claim a compiler's labour.
The introductory essay prefixed to the "work, is, in a great measure, an attempt to deduce important truths from trivial facts. Some of its conclusions will probably be found to have been hastily formed, and many valuable points of view may have been overlooked ; but " non omnia jwssumus omnes.''^ It is hoped that some interest has been imparted to the subject by the manner in v.hich it has been treated.
Subjoined is an appendix of documents, abstracts, lists &c., most of which have, at least, the merit of novelty, and may prove acceptable to some of our readers.
^ vjf c! t)
SUBSCRIBERS' NAMES.
Adams, Roger Allen, Henry, Cloyne-house Armstrong, Rev. Dr. Dublin Armstrong, John do.
Armstrong, John Strong, do. Atkins, George Auchmuty, Miss, Dubliti
Barber, Osborne Edward
Barry, G. Standish, M.r. Lemlara
Bastable, Daniel, Dublin
Beamish, George, do.
Beamish, Rev. Samuel
Beamish, John Newman
Becher, Rich.H. Hedges, Hollybrook
Bennett, B.. Deputy Recorder of Coi'k
Bennett, William Colburn
Berkeley, Major-general, Clifton
Berkeley, Robert J. Dublin, 2 copies
Besnard, Julius Caesar
Besnard, John, Jim. Sunday' s-well
Bowden, R. W.
Bowen, John, Oakgrove
Bradford, William
Brady, Rev. F. Temple, Bandon
Browne, Henry, Yonghal
Bull, Joshua, Cittadella
Bull, James,
Bullen, John
Bushe, the Lord Chief Justice, 2 copies
Bushe, Rev. Charles, Castlehaven
Butt, George, m.d, Cloyne
Carmichael, Andrew, Dublin
Carnegie, James, North Esk, 3 copies
Carr, Robert,
Casey, Mrs.
Chatterton, Sir William A. Bart.
Chatterton, J. C. Lieut. -col. 4th D.G.
Chatterton, James, Ballina?nou(//it
Cleary, Simon
Cogan, James Carr
Colburn, John
Connellan, Daniel
Coppinger, William R.
Corker, Frederick Ware
Corker, Thomas Ware
Cork Library,
Cotter, Rev. John R. Innoshannon
Cotter, Rev. George E. Glenvieio
Cotter, Richard Baily
Cotter, Nelson, K. Dublin
Cotter, John, AsJiton
Cotter, George Sackville
Cramer, John T. Rathmore
Creagh, Michael, Dublin, 3 copies
Crofts, Rev. William, Rathpcacon
Croly, Daniel
Crooke, Richard
Cummins, Nicholas
Curtis, Joseph Lindsay
Curtis, M.D.
SUBSCKIBERS NAMES.
Davies, riovvlanj
Davis, R. G. Dnwidiah, Killeagh
Davis, Mrs. T. Dublm, 3 uopios
Daunt, George, Neuhoroiigh
Daunt, William
Dawson, William
Deane, William
Deaves, Thomas •
Denny, James
Dovvden, Richanl R. Sunday' s-ivell
Dowlin, John
Dunscombe, Nicholas, Mount Desert
Dunscombe, Nicholas
Dunscombe, Thomas Shaw
Easton, William
Edden, R. W.
Egan, Rev. John
Egan, Carbery
Evans, James
Evans, Thomas R.
Evans, Julius BesnarJ, m.d.
Exham, Richard, Sen.
Exham, Richard, Jun.
Exham, Thomas
Eyre, Robt. Hedges, Macroom Castle
Fagan, William, Feltrlm Fairtlough, Rev. S. Ayhena<jh Glebe Fisher, Denis O'Callaghan Fisher, William Allen, Bandu/t Fitzslmons, Henry Foott, William, 2 copies Foree, John Franklin, Denham Franklin, Robert Franks, Thomas, Dublin Fuiflong, Charles, Fermoij
Galway, Edward, Dublin
Galwey, Edward, Mallow
(ialwey, William
Gamble, Michael
Garde, Richard Davis, Dublin
Garde, John Davis, do.
Good, Charles
Good, Jonathan IMorgan
Gould, John
Gould, Edmund
Gray, Rev. Rowland D. Landscape
Gregg, William Vcrling
Haines, Charles Y. m.d. Blackrock
Haines, Humphrey
Hallaran, Rev. William, Macroom
Hallaran, Mrs. do.
Flallaran, J. Charleston, Midleton
Hamblin, Daniel
Hardy, Simeon H, Dublin
Hardy, Charles
Hare, William Richard
Harris, Captain William
Harris, William Prittie, Blackrock
Harrisson, Alderman Thomas Fuller
Harvey, Reuben
Haynes, Samuel
Henry, Thomas Elder, Dublin
Herrick and Hamblin,
Hewson, Rev. Maurice, Cloijne
Kingston, Rev. J. l.l.d. C'oyne, 2 c.
Hingston, Rev. James, Sans Souci
Hingston, Miss, Cloyne
Hingston, George Cottev
Hingston, Francis B. Bandon
Hitchcock, William, Dublin
Hodder, George, Fountainstown
Hodder, Francis, Ballea Castle
Hodder, ?ilrs. do.
Hodder, Peter, Lieut. R.N.
Hodder, Michael, Lieut. R.N.
Hodder, Edward, Lieut.
Hodder, John
Hodder, George John
Hodder, Samuel, Ringabella
Hodnett, Thomas
Hull, Richard E. Lemcon
Hunt, James, Alduorth, Malloic
Humphreys, Daniel, Midleton
Jenkins, William, Dtiblin Johnson, George
SUBSCRIBERS NAMES.
Johnson, Thomas
Johnson, Rev. Benjamin Burton
Jonps, Henry
Jones, Lewis, Donmjhrook
Kcleher, William
Kift, John Thomas DuhKn, 2 copies
Kift, Mrs. do.
Kift, Thomas, do.
Kilt, William A. do.
Kift, Miss
Lander, William
Lane, Richard James, Duhlin
Lane, Denny, 2 copies
Leahy, Nicholas
Leahy, John, Dublin
Leslie, Henry J. do.
Leslie, Rev. John, Carew's Wood
Leycester, Joseph
Lindsay, John, Alaryvllle
Litchfield, Miss
Litchtield, John, Factory Hill
Lloyd, William J. Duhlin
Long, Mrs.
Long, John
Long, William
Lowe, George Bond, Clogher
Lowe, William
Madden, D. Owen, Dublin, 2 copies
Maginu, Rev John, Castletownroche
Martin, Aylmer R. Mayfield
Martin, Mrs. do.
Mahony, Dan.
IMahony, Martin
M'Carthy, Jeremiah
M'Carthy, Daniel
M'Carthy, Alexander
M'Carthy, Eugene
Martin, Mrs. Richard, Duhliti
M'Mullen, John, do.
M'O'Boy, Michael
M'Swiney, Justin
Meade, Richard, Dublin
Meagher, Daniel
Milward, Henry
Minhcar, James Moore, Alexander Morgan, Thomas Morphy, Edward, Tralee Morrogh, Robert, 2 copies Mullins, Thomas, Dublin Murphy, Francis Murphy and O'Connor
Nash, Rev. William, Barnstead
Newman, William G. Dubl'.n
Newman, Richard M. T. du.
Noblett, Henry
O'Callaghan, Henry, Kadrid
O'Callaghan, Denis, Cahirduggan
O'Callaghan, William, Dublin
O'Connell, John
O'Donoghue, R. J. Kilnardrish, 2 c.
0' Grady, Jeremiah
Orpen, Richard J. T. Duhlin
Orpen, Basil, Duhlin
0' Sullivan, Morty
Otley, John, Woodfort
Parker, Thomas, Carrigrohan Parker, Richard Neville
Parker,
Parker, William D'Estcrre
Parks, Edward
Peard, Henry H. Fermoy
Perrier, William Lumley
Perry, Richard J.
Phair, James C. BrooModge
Pollock, John, Youghal
Pyne, Rev. John Lawless, Cloy tie
Pyne, Jasper, Ballyvolane
Radcliffe, Jonas,
Reeves, Richard, Dublin
Roe, Thomas
Rogers, Robert
Rogers, Thomas
Rogers Rev. W. Cloyne
Rothe, Rev. R. Mackloneigh Glchc
Royal Cork Institution,
Ryder, Rev. J. B.
SUBSCRIBERS KAMES.
SaJleir, Major G. V. Sherijff- of Cork
Sadleir, Rev. Henry, Bantry
Salmon, George S. T. 0. D.
Sampson, Richard, Blackroch
Samuels, Henry, Dublin
Shaw, Bernard Robert, Motikstown
Smith, Rev. J. Aghahollogue
Smyth, John, Dublin
Spearing, Alderman Andrew
Spratt, Richard, Baltida7iiel
Stanford, John, Dublin
Stephens, John
Stopford, Rev. W. Abheyville
Sugrue, Francis
Tangney, Thomas
Thorley, William
Townsend, Samuel P. Garrycloyne
Townsend, Edward R. m.d.
Townsend, Horatio, Woodside
Tracy, Bernard
Travers, Robert
Tuckey, Mrs.
Tuckey, Thomas
Tuckey, Rev. James H. Kinsale
Tuckey, John Thomas, 2 copies
Tuckey, Mrs. Martha
Tuckey, Miss M. May field
Tuckey, Charles H. R.M. Carloiv
Twiss, George, Brookdale
Vincent, Nicholas
Vincent, Robert, Sheriff of Cork
Vincent, Mrs. Robert
Vincent, Miss
Vincent, Robert, Jun.
Walker, Francis
Wallis, Major James, Cove
Walsh, John
Warren, Robert, Castle Warren
Webb, Mrs.
Webb, John, l.l.d.
Welland, Rev. W. Cloyne
Welstead, Mrs.
Wemyss, Captain
White, James G. Kilburn
White, William Preston
White, .fames
Windele, J.
Wise, Henry B.
Wise, Thomas, Dublin
Wood, George A. do.
Wood, Benjamin
Wood, Atfiwell
Woodley, Francis
Woodley, Richard, Jun.
Woodley, Francis, Leeds
Woodroffe, Mrs.
SUBSCRIBERS OMITTED IN THE FOREGOING LIST.
Atkin, John Drew,
Berkeley, Miss, Midleton, Bethara, Sir Wm., Knt. Dublin,
Cane, Major,
Casey,
Chatterton, Thomas,
Conroy, Ordnance Survey,
Coyle, John,
Deeble, Benjamin,
Foott, Richard, Gould, Richard,
Hill, James, Youghal, Hoare, Edward,
Jennings, Thomas,
Latouche, Mrs. J. Digges, Dublin. Lee, Miss,
Reeves, Thomas Somerville, Roche, Miss,
Sainthill, Richard, Spread, Palms Westropp, St. Leger, Antony, Stavelly, Rev. Robert, Dublin,
Taylor, John.
ERRATA. .
Page xii, line 24,/£»- "twenty-four,' read "thirty-two."
xxiv, line 32, /or "comprized," read "coinprisod."
xxiv, hue 34, /or "English government," read "yoke of Eiiglit.h
government."
xxxi, line lU,/or "justiciary," read "justicar."
xxxi, line 17, for "later" read "latter."
xxxi, line 35, /or " comprizing," read "comprising."
x!i, line 29, and page lii, line 69, for " 1568," read " 15G9."
xli, line 31, /or "the corporations of Dublin, Cork, Limerick aud
Waterford," read " cities, towns or boroughs, or to their inhabitants, if situated within their franchises.
• xlii, line 15, and page Iviii, lines 24 & 37, for " 1570," read "15G&."
• xlv, line 6, for " 1570," read " 1569."
xlvii, line 39,/or " forbcrunce," read "forbearance."
Ivi, line 5, /or " his," read " Sidney's. "
Iviii, line 24,/or "'fifteen months," read "two years and three months"
Ixii, line 1,/or "compromizing," read "compromising."
■ Ixviii, line 29, for " to," read " at."
Ixxxi, line 16, dele the asterisk.
Ixxxii, line 4, for "possee," read "posse."
Ixxxiv, line 27, for " Catfort," read "the friary garden."
xciii, line Id, for "sects," read "sect."
xcix, line 6, fur "to," read "at."
cv. line 28, for " surpriziugly," read "surprisingly."
16, line 26, /or " Henry," read '' Edward ;"
23, line 2d, for "they," read "Barrett "
34, linrSO, this paragraph should be inserted under the year 1571,
at which time Campion wrote.
41, line 33,/or "Clarendon," read "Clarence "
80, line 8, /or '' Becher," read " Broiincker."
91. line 9, /or "Pentou," read " Fenton."
95, line 22, for '• Knockinass," read " Knockninoss."
• 132, line 12, for "hung up." read "hang them up."
147, Ime 1 1,/or "ovens," read "Ovens."
227, line 22, ufler " assizes," read " at Limerick."
247, line 6, /or " Cashel," read " Cahir."
555, line 1,/or " Richard," reod "Edward."
304. line ^7, for " Polrnt," read " Polent."
308, line 33,/or " Vandeleur," read " Vandeleuen."
309, line 4.0, for " 1G79," read " 1670."
313, line 15, /or " common's," read " commons "
316, in the note, /or "Carew's," rtad "Carews."
318, line 20, for " Saros," read " Saroo."
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
Irish historical subjects have long laboured under peculiar disadvantages. Our countrymen are not proud of their history. The tumultuary expeditions and treacherous insurrections of their forefathers, prosecuted without steadiness or perseverance, and conducted without prudence or ability, were invariably succeeded by disgrace and discomfiture, and whatever trifling exceptions appear to have occurred, were manifestly accidental, and were soon severely retaliated. In other countries the Irish have proved as efficient soldiers as those of any nation : they fought with uncommon bravery at the battle of Stoke in England, in 1487: those who served under the earl of Montrose, in the reign of Charles the first, were his main support in all his brilliant victories; yet in almost all the contests between the English and Irish in this country, the latter were defeated by very inferior numbers : like the Scotch highlanders in Montrose's army, they had well known retreats at hand, to which they were too ready to retire. Hence our imaginative countrymen, captivated with the splendid and heroic, and overlooking the solid and the useful, finding in a survey of their authentic history, little that can administer to their pride and vanity, no glorious victory, no signal example of military prowess, no bright spot in the long series of their sanguinaiy annals, on which the mind, thirsting after glory, can rest with exultation or complacency, are too apt to treat the subject with neglect, and ashamed of the undeniable state of facts, despairing to obtain the admiration of the world, they eagerly seek for a miserable substi- tute, its pity and charitable consideration. They descant with earnestness upon the wrongs they have endured, the disadvantages under which they have laboured, and the obstacles which have been opposed to the development of their true national character; and yet their minds are unable to rest without some flattering
X INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
support, however feeble and irrational. Like the drowning man who catches at a straw, our national writers still cling with fond infatuation to their Phoenician origin, and the literary glories of their early monastic seminaries. It is far from our intention to disparage the investigation of our remotest antiquities ; but we cannot help lamenting, that a childish vanity should still urge our antiquarians into an almost exclusive devotion to such subjects, tainting their judgment with credulity, and generating a distaste for the study of later times, in which materials become more abundant and authentic.
The distinction of races has long been obliterated by the distinctions of religion. The Roman Catholics of all surnames are perfectly united, and have been intimately blended by inter- marriages. It is probable that very few (if any) families of pure native blood are in existence. The proportion also in which the blood of foreigners is diffused among the people is very large. On a glance at the names of the late forty shilling freeholders of some baronies of the county of Cork, the native Irish surnames seemed to preponderate but little. It is unreasonable then any longer to regard the aboriginal race as peculiarly the Irish people : all are descended from Danes and English, as well as from Irish. The invading races brought with them those qualities which established their preeminence in many kingdoms of Europe ; and as a large portion of their blood flows in the veins of perhaps the whole Irish people, the nation generally may well look back with pride, to the steady bravery of these their imdoubted ancestors, and the sturdy defence which a few of them in the pale and in the towns main- tained for ages, against vastly sviperior numbers of the Irish, who on the entire were no contemptible foes. We have no wish to depreciate the native Irish ; if they were light, inconstant, and incapable of prosecuting great enterprizes, they were on the other hand, endowed in a superior degree with the more generous and graceful qualities of human nature. Their warm hearts and fine imaginations are a valuable infusion in the general character, and we are convinced that a mixture of both races is capable, after suitable cultivation, of producing a compound more excellent than either.
In reality, the history of Ireland, when philosophically studied, possesses an interest of a very peculiar kind. The condition and
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XI
relations of the different septs, races, and ninnicipal communities, were most uncommon and unusual ; presenting human nature under a wholly different aspect from any that appears in the history of other nations ; furnishing much information that is very curious and instructive, and many particulars that are highly honorahle to the civilized portion of the people, many indications of a noble and uncompromising spirit of liberty, at a time when England was sunk in the most abject political slavery. It is our purpose in the following pages, to take a comprehensive view of the general nature of the different sections, parties and interests, into which the inhabitants of the county of Cork have from time to time been separated, with occasional references to such events of other parts, as may serve to illustrate our subject, or render more complete our picture of manners and ideas.
When the English first arrived in this island, the natives of the county of Cork, as well as of the rest of Ireland, were extremely barbarous, and like other barbarous nations, were continually engaged in local wars and petty quarrels, assassinations and perfidy of all sorts. They were stimulated to outrages by the hopes of pillage and riot, and were led on by chiefs whose constant aim was to exalt themselves at the expense of their neighbours, by every means however savage or dishonorable. In such a state of society, population was necessarily scanty. To this we may attribute the facility with which the English at first obtained possession of their lands ; for land was little valued at a time when constant depopulations had provided ample room for all parties ; and it seems too that the natives did not very keenly resent, nor were much surprized at, that sort of treatment which they were accustomed to experience from one another. The English indeed assumed a right to the whole country, and king Henry II. affected to grant the whole kingdom of Cork, except the city and a tract belonging to the Ostmen of that city, to two great men of the invaders ; but this was more than he could effectually bestow, and the invaders were obliged to compound with the natives, and accept less than one-third of the territory granted.
When fom' Irish kings at a long subsequent period submitted to Richard II., and consented to receive instruction in manners and civility from an English tutor, they must have been simple as well as barbarous. Their teacher told Froissart that they submitted
Xll INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
to the king "more through love and good humour, than by battle or force."
The natives were at first most imperfectly armed ; even the inhabitants of walled towns who were of foreign race and more civilized than the Irish, fought with stones and spades, and were of course, as well as the aborignes, beaten by very infei-ior numbers of the English. But as the latter did not follow up their first successes with rapidity, the Irish were enabled to attain some improvement in the use of arms, and having gradually encreased in power, contrived to maintain their own laws and barbarous independence throughout a great part of the island, for more than four hundred years.
When the English first arrived here, Dermod M'Carthy was king of Cork or Desmond- His name has descended to our times and is widely diffused, as are indeed most of the Irish surnames of that period, which are mentioned by historians. The Irish were perhaps the only barbarous people who adopted the general use of surnames, and this they did as early as any people of modern Europe. A late writer* indeed with strange ignorance asserts that the native Irish at the present day, use no surnames ; an assertion which might mislead future enquirers, if uncontradicted.
The kingdom of Cork, which included parts of. the present counties of Waterford and Kerry, was before the arrival of the English divided into twenty-four cantreds. Smith gives rather a confused account of the ancient divisions : in fact they were continually changing. In the year 1 346, we find mention of the following cantreds in the county of Cork. M'Kill, (Imohilly,) Olethan, Fermoy, Muskridonegan,Kenalech, Kerry, Kynnalbek, Kynnaletherthragh, Obakun, Muscrymytyn, Courblyan, O'Glas- syn.(i) The names of some of these are manifestly identical with those of some modern baronies.
The English settlers adopted the feudal system for their defence, and submitted to the jurisdiction of itinerant justices, for about a century and a half; while the natives, in their quarters, continued
* Rees' Cyclopaedia — article Surname. Among the Welsh, surnames were not in use at all, even among persons of the highest rank, before the reign of Henry VIII.
(1) Rot. Cane,
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Xlll
to use the old Irish laws. The prevalence of these laws was never regulated by local boundaries, but by the distinctions of race, which continually fluctuated with the encroachments of both parties. After the invasion of the Scots under Bruce, the power of the crown declined, and the English lords of the county began to disregard the yoke of government; most of them became open marauders, waged war upon one another, and wasted the country. Coroners were so roughly handled and intimidated, that they refused to execute the duties of their office. ^'^ Loyal subjects were unable to derive any profit from their lands : one John Lombard who held the castle of Gynes in this county for the king with thirty plowlands for ever, at the small rent of forty shillings for this large estate, was unable to pay even that small sum, and petitioned the crown, stating that scarcely any tenants could be induced to inhabit the land, by reason of the frequent invasions of English and Irish malefactors and rebels, and that those few who attempted it would pay little or no rent, and were so impoverished by hostile invasions and depredations, that they designed to abandon their holdings. (^^
The inhabitants of the country parts must have been very san- guinary and treacherous, for in the reign of Edward II., the peaceable inhabitants of the city of Cork were invested with power todisarm all strangers entering their city; a right which they found it necessary to enforce strictly, even until the close of the sixteenth century.
It was optional with the great men, whether they would be subjects of the king or not. If they formally agreed to submit to the authority of law, they received such protection as the govern- ment could afford, otherwise they were left to defend themselves as best they could. Richard oge Barrett having agreed before the lord justice to abide by the law, and his enemies having notwith- standing taken the law into their own hands, and assailed him with force, a mandate was issued by government ordering them to for- bear, provided Barrett were ready to abide by the law as he had promised. (^) This plainly implied a permission to right themselves by force, in case Barrett should be as lawless as themselves.
(1) Rot. Cauc. {■>) ib. (3) ib.
XIV INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
To suppress in some degree the disorders of the county, the government promoted a sort of patriarchal system, copied no doubt from the Irish customs ; thus the king granted licence to Gerald Caunton to chastise those of his family for whose good behaviour he would stand security; and when they afterwards invaded and plundered the loyal men of the county of Cork, he was com- manded by government to cause restitution to be made, and to chastise those who were culpable, according to his licence :(i) thus also David Roche was authorized to arrest all insurgents of his surname and lineage, and to imprison and judge them. (2) By giving such powers to great men, the government preserved them as allies, and maintained the semblance of its authority.
The important office of sheriff of the county, was usually com- mitted to one of the most powerful inhabitants, chiefly of the family of Barry, who in return for the additional power thus conferred on him, was induced to lend his own influence for the collection of the king's revenue, and the support of his nominal superiority against actual insurgents ; but in the enforcement of order amongst the great men themselves, or in the execution of law process, was neither able nor perhaps willing to afford much assistance. In fact, against those who chose to set the law at defiance, the govern- ment could only act as a separate power, and make reprisals ; thus Reynaud Caunton having imprisoned Barry and Staunton, two "magnates" of this county, his son and kinsman were seized by government as hostages to induce the enlargement of Barry and Staunton. (3)
We find an instance of a felon committed to the Cust^^J of a bishop of Cork; (*> from which we may infer that the felon was a powerful man, and that the bishop, from his sacred character, was considered better able to secure his prisoner than the sheriff, who Was more liable to be attacked by the felons partizans. However for the better securing the persons of powerful felons of this county, they were frequently placed in the custody of the mayor and bailiffs of the city of Cork, which was a fortified place, secure from attack. ^^^
Nevertheless, there were in those times regularly appointed conservators of the peace in the different cantreds of this county:
(l)Kot. Caiic. (2)ib. (3)ib, (4) ib. (5) ib.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XV
part of their duty was to array all able bodied men of their respective cautreds, for the suppression of private wars between the great men, and the punishment of idle soldiers who plundered and murdered through the county. (U But this was a weak provision and produced no amendment.
The lords of the county were gradually weakened by their mutual broils : at last those who were worsted availed themselves of the assistance of the Irish ; and these latter finding the oppor- tvinity favourable, contrived eventually to expel many of the English and repossess themselves of their lands, but pursued a system of barbarous and bloody warfare, murder, and robbery : and the English who remained, following the same courses, and adopting the laws and customs of the Irish, the whole county was reduced to a state of anarchy. Peculiar hostility was directed against the the loyal and peaceable towns, whose inhabitants, shut up within their walls, their lands wasted, their trade destroyed, were reduced to poverty and almost ruined ; and so desperate was their condition, and so little help did they expect from the king's government, that as a last resource, the people of Cork, Youghal and Kinsale, pe- titioned the administration, representing their miserable condition, requesting that they might be furnished with competent com- manders, and promising that if this I'equest were granted, they would rise at their own expense against the lords and chieftans, and punish their enormities ; but if it should be refused (as they plainly expected,) they threatened to complain to the government in England. *
But the English pale, a district of about twenty miles round Dublin, was as much as the government could hold in subjection. We are accustomed to imagine that the wars with France di\'erted the attention of England from this country ; but it is likely that under any circumstances, little at that time could have been done
* This letter was addressed to the earl of Rutland and Cork, in the reign of Henry IV. Cox suggests that this must have occurred some years later, when the duke of York, who had also the above titles, was chief governor. But it is unlikely that he would be addressed by his inferior titles ; and the person here meant was probably Richard Plantagenct, earl of Rutland and Cork, who lived at the earlier period.
(])Rot. Cane.
XVI INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
towards the reduction of Ireland. The English armies were led out by feudal lords, who expected advantages to themselves from war. France was an improved kingdom, where victory might be followed by the submission of a people, civilized, accustomed to the comforts of life, and afraid of a renewal of their calamities ; where valuable estates might be enjoyed, or where at all events plunder and rich ransoms might be hoped for. Ireland was a country in the lowest state of poverty. The English nation had greatly improved in comfort and civilization since the time of Henry II, and would not be so easily captivated with barbarous regions, as their ances- tors in that king's reign ; neither would they find the Irish so wholly unacquainted with improved methods of fighting. Nothing could be expected from plunder: the country was so intersected with woods and bogs, and the bodies of the Irish were so hardy and active, that a victory over them was attended with no con- siderable result: most of them could escape to inaccessible places: war could neither impoverish nor incommode them ; it was their pastime, and though they were not steady in battle, they were ever ready to renew it. This was well known to their English adver- saries, who worn out with toil and attacked with diseases, and seeing no advantage to be gained by a continuance of hostilities, were ever ready to accept their faithless submissions ; while they, enjoying themselves in their woods and morasses, would wait for favourable opportunities, and suddenly issue from their retreats, reiterate their outrages, and devastate those lands which the English had spent so much blood and treasure in acquiring. To reduce the Irish at that time, would have demanded the power of a wealthy and despotic government, which in imitation of the Homans, could establish fortified military stations at small intervals, through the country, keeping them well garrisoned, under governors invested with arbitrary and absolute power, and taking care to ensure regular supplies of provisions by the help of a standing army. But the English had no idea of a government founded on any but feudal principles : any other was contrary to the ideas of the times ; and even if it were suggested, it would in the first outlay, have proved far too expensive for the pecuniary resources of those times. If any mode of reducing Ireland to law and order, were deemed at all feasible, there can be no doubt that the imperious spirit of Henry VIII. furnished as he was with power and resources, would
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XYll
have required something more than empty acknowledgments of his superiority. We cannot argue its feasibihty from the success of the first adventurers, for the Irish had not then the use of arms ; nor from the final success of EHzabeth, for many circumstances of the country were then changed; it was become more accessible by the destruction of woods •/ the inhabitants in many parts were improved in comforts and civilization, and could feel some love of quiet, and some willingness to acquiesce after defeat, as the least of two evils. But notwithstanding these encreased facilities, such were the long duration and enormous expense of these wars, that if the queen could have foreseen them, there can be little doubt, that,rather than encounter them, she would have made almost any concessions to the natives. To form a true idea of the impracticability of the Irish, we should think of the Caff'res and Ashantees of the present day, and ask ourselves, whether the whole force of the British empire could bring them to submit to law and order, before the lapse of many generations, and whether it would be worth our while to attempt with them, what the English are blamed for not attempting in Ireland.
It is the fashion also to repi'oach the English with refusing the benefits of English law to the Irish races. They had however the best reasons for their conduct. Though the Irish may have occasionally shewn a readiness to receive the benefits of English laws, they had no idea of incurring their obligations. This was well known to their opponents, who clearly saw that if men of their ungovernable natures were allowed the advantage of legal forms, their outrages must have gone unpunished : even in civilized communities, martial law, or some sort of summary proceeding is sometimes found expedient; but against the Irish it was of indispensible necessity, for the preservation of existence ; and besides it is a fact that Irishmen found no difficulty in obtain- ing special grants of the right to use English laws : the rolls of chancery are full of such grants, many of them made to persons of inferior condition. Mr. Hallam is of opinion that the government however willing to make English laws general, was restrained by the selfish policy of the powerful lords of English race ; quite forgetting that if the Irish really wished to receive and abide by
(1) Moryson. 2
XVlll INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
those laws, their power being a full counterpoise to that of the others, could effectually have supported the government in that or any other equitable measure. In tnith the government was restrained only by deference for the opinion of parliament : it was not until the Irish were totally broken, that this measure could safely be attempted ; and then it was accomplished by a mere judgment of the king's bench, without considting parliament at all.
The adoption of Irish laws and customs by the English race, has been called degeneracy by writers of subsequent times, who attended only to the coexistence of disorder and anarchy with these customs ; but they were probably as conducive to civility, as the feudal law, administered by petty rulers unrestrained by any common sovereign. Even in England where the crown was comparatively powerful, the picture of manners is by no means flattering. The nobles were the chief perpetrators and abettors of crime, and so numerous and powerful were malefactors in the reign of Edward I., that the ordinary ministers of justice, (like the coroners of the county of Cork,) were afraid to execute their office, and the king was obliged to adopt an extraordinary remedy for the evil.C^ But to descend much later; even in the reign of Richard II., there were general confederacies in crime formed by the nobility, and pardons were extorted from the king for the most enormous crimes. C"^) Hume observes that during the wars of the roses, all we can distinguish with certainty through the dark cloud which covers that period, is a scene of horror and bloodshed, savage manners, arbitrary executions, and treacherous dishonorable conduct in all parties. Much as we may condemn the arbitrary government of the Tudors, it seems to have been the means by which civilization made its principal advances among the English. In Ireland that family never gained any encrease of authority in civil government ; and to this we may attribute the distraction and bloodshed which prevailed in the greater part of the country until the close of the reign of Elizabeth. During all that period no law existed but that of the sword : the grand pursuit of hfe was the plunder of cattle, the burning of houses, and the murder of their hmiates; and so incorrigible did the inhabitants appear, that
(1) Hume. (2) ib.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XIX
St. Leger, who held an important command in this country in the reign of Henry VIII., gravely discusses in one of his despatches, the propriety of endeavouring to exterminate the Irish, but concludes it to be impossible, chiefly on account of their amazing faculty of enduring calamities and privations.*
The lords of both races were both actors and abettors in the enormities that were committed : cattle were the great object of plunder : and as they were almost the only sort of moveable property, scarcely any other sort of theft was known. To protect their cattle, and probably also that of their tenants, seems to have been a principal object with the lords and gentry. A great castle with its ballium, like those of the Anglo-Normans, would not have answered this purpose, as it would aflbrd refuge only to the cattle of its neighbourhood. Hence we find the whole county studded with castles of a small size : the barony of Fermoy, formerly the property of the lords Roche, is very full of them, and this was probably the reason why Sydney found it in the reign of Elizabeth, the best inhabited part of the county of Cork. These castles are said to be so placed that each is visible to those next it, forming a chain of signal towers : We have ourselves, in passing through that district observed three to which this remark is applicable. The castle of Ballincolly, about five miles westward of the city of Cork, is an interesting specimen of such castles. The ballium or bawn is of an irregular shape, adapted to the rocky elevation on which it stands, and consists of a strong wall nearly five feet thick, and about fifteen feet high, enclosing a space of from seventy to a hundred feet across ; the space on the top was defended by a parapet; there were flights of steps leading to it in different places ; the wall near these steps being much thicker than else- w'here, to afford room to those passing on the top ; at the bottom of the parapet are small holes for shooting through, and larger ones near the ground. The u.se of flanking towers seems to have been hardly known to the builder ; there is however one at the south east corner, but weak and ill adapted to the purpose, and a smaller one near it, whose use is not easily conjectured. In the north wall which is on the top of a rock, are three handsome high
* State papers.
XX INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
cut stone loop holes, one of them double,* Through these it was probably intended to enjoy the prospect during intervals of quiet, as well as to annoy besiegers at other times. It is remark- able that this wall is so constructed in its whole extent, as to incline and overhang somewhat towards the inside : the area within is in its natural state, rocky and very uneven : the tower or keep (if it deserves the name) stands at one side within the enclosure, and was built without any view towards strength, the chief reliance seeming to be placed in the strength of the outer wall : it is nearly square, about sixty feet high, and aboiit fifteen in diameter ; all the floors are of stone on solid arches, as a preser- vative against fire : in order to support them, the two walls on which they rest are much thicker than the others : the stair-case is spiral, and so narrow, that it rather resembles a chimney ; and the rooms are so small, that it is hard to conceive how persons of any consideration could endure such a residence : they are wholly destitute of windows, even to the top, and the extremely narrow loop holes are hardly sufficient to admit air enough for breathing. There was evidently however, a hexagonal sti-ucture near the tower, partly formed by a projection of the wall of the ballium, and furnished with a window : this may have been the hall where guests were entertained. A large mass of the wall of this latter building, about five or six feet thick, was lately overthrown, (evidently by gun-powder) : other parts also were injured; but it was found more advantageous to procure stones from the adjacent rock.
Such seems to have been the style of most of these castles, though the bawns were usually square and were better flanked : the masonry is generally compact and firm, but the stones are of very moderate size ; in many instances the towers only remain, and they closely resemble that which we have been describing, but are generally larger and stronger, the walls being commonly about four feet thick. Kilgobbin castle on the Bandon river is a fine tower, thirty feet by thirty-two, and about ninety feet high : it
* Mr. R. O'Callaghan Newenham, in his Views in Ireland, represents them as Gothic windows. He also represents a high buttress at one of the corners of the tower, which never had existence. In his view of Glanworth castle, the central tower is more than twice as high as the reality. He co- pied probably from some old sketch takcu when the tower was perfect.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXI
contains only two vaulted floors; hence the rooms are very lofty. The walls are five feet and a half thick, at a height of six feet from the ground. These towers usually stand alone, at a distance from towns, and from their height and lonelines-s, present a striking and melancholy picture of a former state of society.
Some of the great lords however had castles of much larger size; MacCarthy huilt Kilcrea and Blarney castles in the fifteenth century. The towers of these remain perfect; the latter is a quadrangle of sixty- five feet by thirty-nine, and about eighty feet high, with projecting machicolated battlements; but it is almost as ill provided with air and light as the smallest; all the loop-holes are very narrow, and a small window was admitted at only one side, which stands on the brink of a precipice. The other fortifications of this castle were destroyed by king William's army. It is stated in Pacata Hibernia, that its walls were eighteen feet thick; but these may have been ramparts.
We may presume that the ballium or bawn was formerly an appendage, or rather an essential part of every castle ; but from the disappearance of the bawns of many, it seems probable that they were often slightly built, particularly if the tower itself were strong; perhaps indeed they were often mere earthworks, within which cattle might be driven for safety, the tower (if strong) being- relied on for the final defence of the garrison : at least we know that it was not unusual to form earthworks round villages, for the protection of cattle. ^'-^ In the ruined tower at Keen, opposite Castle-Townsend, there is a very curious contrivance for annoying assailants who might come so close as to be secure from the shot of the loopholes ; there is a gradual depression in the wall, commenc- ing about five feet from the ground, and shaped like a vertical angle, the vertex opening into the second room of the tower, by a hole at the first vault, through which men at arms in that room could annoy all persons close to the walls.
Notwithstanding the comparative order and peace which for several years succeeded the civil wars of Elizabeth, the uncom- fortable habitations which we have been describing continued to be made use of so late as 1644, when BouUaye le Gouz, a French- man, travelled in Ireland, — we shall give his description hereafter.
(1) Stut. 36, Henry G, Chap. 2.
XXU INTRODUCTORY ESSAY,
However, a much more extensive and improved style of building was introduced in the reign of Elizabeth, as appears from the instance of Kanturk castle, of which Smith gives two views. Mount Long castle, built in 1631, according to a date visible in the stucco some years ago, and Burn Court castle in the county of Tipperary, forfeited in the year 1641, were smaller buildings of nearly the same kind ; both were quadrangles with square towers at the corners, but all the walls, both of the central building and the towers, were sui'mounted by gables, to the great detriment of their aj^pearance. These castles were without any contrivance for defence, except that in the first there were wide loop holes instead of windows in the basement story, and also in some of the gables ; at Mountlong the windows of the central room of the first floor are divided into six compartments of stone, and the castle to a near observer has a remarkably striking appearance, partly arising from its plan, and partly from the strength and plain beauty of the cut stone work ; the building has however been so weakened by some person who lately forced away the oaken lintels, that it cannot be expected to stand much longer: one of the towers has fallen. The loop-holes and com- partments of the windows were further narrowed with iron bars : the cornice of the principal room is ornamented with figures, representing scriptural subjects and field sports ; there remains a half-burned lintel, which in some degree countenances a tradition, that the owner Mr. Long, having sustained a defeat, his daughter in despair set fire to the castle. Monkstown castle, built in 1638, is on a nearly similar plan ; it is furnished with machicolations at the tops of the corners. Carrigrohane castle was a large house with four gables and large windows, but was defended at the top of two of the corners by projections, perforated with round holes for small arms. Ballea castle, forfeited in 1641, is of irregular shape like the portion of a rectangle called the gnomon : at present it greatly resembles an ordinary old fashioned house with gables ; it was however defended with rude machicolations at the corners, two of which remain ; the windows are said to have been formerly very small ; but by their enlargement and the addition of others, it has become a good house. There were no vaulted floors in these castles : the walls were about four feet thick. White castle near Kinsale, is stated in Lewis's topographical dictionary to have
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXIU
been built in 1497; this date must ajjply to some former building, for the ruins which remain are those of a small ordinary house, furnished with machicolations like the others.
"\\'e confess we have examined closely very few of the castles of this county, of which Smith enumerates three hundred and sixty; but we think we have seen enough to justify the general conclu- sions which we have arrived at, regarding their construction ; and we are not without hopes that this work may stimulate others to contribute towards preserving from oblivion those numerous evidences of a very peculiar state of society; not by the publication of inaccurate views, intended only for picturesque effect, such as have hitherto almost exclusively appeared ; but by accurate repre- sentations, with plans explahiing their size, strength, and construction, and the probable purposes of each part, such as may throw light on the modes of life pursued by their inmates. The plates in Pacata Hibernia should never be depended on as repre- sentations of the buildings intended. They seem to have been roughly sketched from memory ; thus in the plan of Castle ni Park, are represented two tall narrow towers, though in fact they are nearly of a cubical shape, being still partly complete to the parapet. They are quadrangles of thirty feet by twenty- five,* and about twenty-five or thirty feet high ; their walls are four feet thick ; they are pierced with loop-holes, and served to flank a sort of barrack, sixty feet long and about fifty broad, consisting of buildings round three sides of a very small court yard, which in the above plan is represented as very large, while in the same plan the buildings to make room for it, appear most incorrectly contracted to very narrow dimensions. The whole is surrounded with ramparts thirteen feet thick, defended by four bastions, each of which has only one flank; but the parapets on the faces of the bastions at the other sides were pierced with oblique loop-holes, as a substitute for other flanks. The angles of the bastions are rounded at the extremities. The whole is faced with a wall three feet thick, the parapet being a foot and a half thick. The large works which encompass the above, though represented in Pacata Hibernia, were not in existence 'till after the wars related in that work. They have
* In giving measurements, we disregard fractious of a foot.
XXIV INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
all the appearance of having never been finished, though we believe Smith somewhere states the contrary. Two of the bastions and the intervening curtain shew the remains of a thick stone facing ; but as some of the spaces between this and the earthen mound are not filled up, and as no traces of a wall are perceptible in the other parts, we conclude that the works never were finished. We are the moi"e minute in describing these particulars, in order to shew the incorrectness of the views in Pacata Hibernia ; and because it is probable that Castle ni Park is the oldest instance of the use of bastions in Ireland. It seems to have been a fortification belonging to the town of Kinsale. There is a narrow fosse or passage, protected by walls of earth, leading from it to the edge of Kinsale harbovu-, where there stands a curious fortification, consisting chiefly of a platform defended by a very thick wall, with large intervals for great guns. There is here also a curious vaulted apartment mider the side of the hill. We may take this opportunity to observe, that Smith's descriptions are very incorrect. He tells us that BallincoUy castle was flanked with towers at each angle. His account of Glanworth castle is a piece of gross exaggeration.
The invention of cannon has rendered castles almost useless for defence ; but cannon did not make their appearance in Ireland before the close of the fifteenth century; and for a long time afterwards could be little used in so impassable a country. From this cause castles were considered available for defence until the wars of 1641, when their untenableness became apparent; yet if we consider the magnitude of those purposes to which iron is applied in the present day, it seems not very Utopian to look forward to the time, when a small iron castle of suitable construc- tion, may be found to be as tenable as stone castles formerly were, or even more so.
The Earl of Desmond, whose territories comprized a third part of the county of Cork, was the first of English race who avowedly threw off the English government; having a palatine jurisdiction over his estates, his authority became enormous : he assumed the state of an independent sovereign, and refused to attend the parliaments of the Kingdom. The influence of his successors continued to encrease, until at last it seemed to overspread the greater part of this county. Sir Henry Sidney gives a lamentable
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXY
description of the state of this part of the kingdom in tlie year 1567. The villages were burned; the churches ruined; the bones of those who had died by murder or famine lay in the fields. Even the principal inhabitants seemed reduced to great misery. They had, however, little idea of cultivated life : the example of lord Louth, who accompanied Sidney to Cork in 1575, did much to persuade them "to leave their barbarity, and to be ashamed of their wilful misery." "They seemed" says Sidney, "in all appearance, generally to loathe their vile and barbarous manner of life." Indeed most of those of English race, would at all times have been glad to embrace English laws and manners, if in so doing they could obtain the protection of govemment.O Deprived of this, they were fain to seek such protection as Irish law might afford, by conforming to the habits of their too power- ful neighbours.
The principal towns of Ireland were founded by the Danes or Ostmen ; we may suspect that others had a similar origin from their hostility towards the inhabitants of the country, which seems to have been transmitted to them from the earliest times. We are told that the city of Cork was a marshy island, which the Danes took possession of, and surrounded with walls ; l)ut it is also asserted that it took its rise from a school or monastery established by saint Finbarr, at lough Eire, in the sixth century,* to which such numbers flocked from all parts, that it changed a desert as it were into a large city. The south-west suburb of Cork is at present only about one hundred yards distant from a small lake called "the lough"'; and in the same quarter of the city, on a rising ground, stands the cathedral church of saint Finbarr, at no great distance from the lough, and very near the river Lee, which encompasses the flat part of the city. The vicinity of a number of marshy islands
* St. Nessau who was educated at this school under St. Finbarr, died according to the annals of the four masters in 551. Ware tells us that St. Colman, whose father Lenin was a discii)le of Finbarr, died in 604. These dates seem to agree pretty accurately as to the time when St. Finbarr flour- ished. Yet Ware in another place says, that he founded the cathedral of Cork in the early part of the 7th century — a date which we may fairly reject as many years too late.
(1) State papers, anno. 1515. 3
XXVI INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
might have given a name to the city:* indeed part of it might have been built on them before the arrival of the Danes : however, a colony of that people, in the ninth century, took possession of a portion of these marshes, and surrounded it with walls, and the importance thus given to the place was perhaps sufficient to extend its name to the other part, even though it bore a different name before. That there was a settlement of the natives on the hill before the arrival of the Danes, seems to be confirmed by the fact, that a round towerf formerly stood near the cathedral ; for it is generally admitted, that these towers were built by the natives; if it required, any further proof, we might adduce the case of the round tower of Glendalough, in the coimty of Wicklow, which stands in a bleak barren spot in a hollow of the mountains, where no foreigners would dare to settle, exposed as they would be to perpetual incursions of the natives, descending from an unknown and inaccessible country, and removed to a distance from naviga- tion and commerce.
* The word Cork signifies a marsh. f Of all the conjectures which have been hazarded respecting the uses of these towers, that which supposes them to have been built as an abode for anchorites, seems to us the most extraordinary. All other abodes in this country were of timber, a material which we presume would last as long as any anchorite. It is said that they could not have been built for beacons, as they are generally in low situations ; this supposes that beacons could only be intended for conveying intelligence to distant parts, like modern tele- graphs; but they might answer very useful though much less extensive purposes. We know that the natives were continually engaged in petty wars with each other, and that petty marauding expeditions were very frequent. Under such circumstances the people would naturally live in towns and villages for mutual protection, and one of the most desirable provisions for their security would be the early and certain intelligence of the approach of enemies. Their village would be built for the sake of water, good soiL and shelter, in the low grounds, concealed we may suppose, by woods, from the surrounding country. During the day the inhabitants would be scattered through their lands, attending to their flocks and herds, or their sports, while in the mean time their habitations, attacked by a party of enemies, might be burned, their wives, children, and effects destroyed or carried off before any preparations could be made for defence. They probably had neither the knowledge nor the means necessary for surrounding their settlements with walls : these too would require to be defended by a large and permanent body of townsmen remaining within ; and this would not have suited the manners of the Irish, who followed no mercantile or sedentary pursuits. Watch
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXVll
It appears that at the time of the EngUsh invasion, Cork consisted of two separate towns, one being the original settlement of the natives, on the hill to the south of the river, where the round tower stood; and the other being the fortified island, inhabited by the Danes or Ostmen : for king Henry's grant before alluded to, mentions the Ostmen of the city of Cork, and the cantred of land belonging to them. They were therefore a separate community, distinct from the rest of the townsmen. This will reconcile the account of the city being built and fortified by the Ostmen, with the other accounts whifch we possess of Cork being the capital city of MacCarthy, prmce of Desmond, and of its being sacked by the Danes long after it is said to have been built and fortified by them : as we can understand these latter facts to be related of the town on the hill belonging to the Irish, which, be it obsen'ed, was in after times called old Cork, as appears from the map in Pacata Hibernia, where the cathedral is called "the cathedral church of old Cork"; but the island only
towers were therefore necessary for their safety : they were built in the village itself, however low its situation, in order to be used in the place where intelligence of the approach of enemies must first arrive : they were high enough to overtop all the trees, so that signals might be seen and trumpets clearly heard from them, at a sufficient distance round the village, to recal the scattered inhabitants : they were all provided with four apertures at the top, from which the announcements could be made : they were built of solid masonry to resist assaults, and the entrance was placed at a considerable height from the ground for the security of those within, who could at their leisure beat off all attempts to enter, or destroy those entering, with stones. Meantime the inhabitants would pour in from all sides, to attack the enemy, and save or recapture their goods and families. If the attack were made on cattle grazing at a distance, or on parties of the inhabitants, instead of on the villages, the village itself was the most central point for a general muster, and therefore in all cases the most proper site for the tower. Trumpets have been dug up in some of the towers; these instruments, according to the foregoing hypothesis, were better adapted for conveying intelligence than signals ; for the height of the tower would prevent the sound from being suppressed, while the view of it would, in many places, be intercepted by distant trees ; but both might be available. Bells also might have been used with advan- tage, if the inhabitants possessed them. These towers might have been useful for defence against the Danes, as long as that people made their incur- sions in moderate numbers. It is possible that the villages might have been surrounded by embankments, in which case the whole would closely resemble the castles which wc have described above.
XXVm INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
being fortified, and defended by the river, it was the only part which subsisted in 1545, according to the map of tlie city in that year, annexed to this work ; the part called old Cork, with the exception of the cathedral, having probably been destroyed long before by the wars of the neighbouring lords.
The Danes being probably acquainted by their experience abroad, with the best mode of fortifying themselves, surrounded their settlements with walls. At one tune they succeeded in subduing the whole of Ireland; but they were afterwards conquered in the country parts, and were able to maintain only their fortified towns, with more or less extent of territory. They formed however, potent septs in themselves, at various times, according to their power and temporary success ; and their governors or kings, as they called them, were deemed suitable alliances for the great native families: but their communities becoming gradually weaker, and applying themselves to commerce, they found it advisable to live as far as possible in peace with the natives; and as their kings had probably been only military conmianders, the towns at last became little republics, and were sometimes at war, and sometimes in alliance with the natives, and sometimes tributary to them; but were always of more relative importance in the country, than the towns of most other parts of Europe. These latter owed the rise of their importance to the patronage of their kings, who, wishing to rear a counterpoise to the power of the barons, raised the towns- men from the former servitude in which the lords had held them, and granted them immunities and domestic jurisdictions. A sense of their own importance was consequently of very slow growth : their representatives in the parliament of England continued to a very late period in great awe and submission to the will of their superiors ; but in Ireland the origin and subsequent state of their independence being totally different, their comparative importance in the social scale was much greater, as will presently appear; though at the time of the English invasion, having been settled in the country for some centuries, and being then engaged in the peaceable pursuits of trade, and accustomed only to the warfare of the natives, they were remarkably deficient in the means of resis- tance. We find the men of Cork attacking the English with spades and stones ; and it is not to be wondered at, that they were easily subjected with the rest of the country : yet as their avoca-
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXIX
tions were peaceable, and required protection and security, they found no ditliculty in acknowledging their dependance on the king of England, having been accustomed at various times to acknowledge the superiority of the neighbouring chiefs. They seem to have willingly transferred their allegiance from the one to the other, and were soon amalgamated with the English settlers, who were originally of the same race as themselves.
However, the disorders of the country parts being unfavorable to their prosperitv, and growing worse in succeeding times by the laxity and weakness of government, the old hostility which the towns bore to the inhabitants of the country was perpetuated. The protection which they expected from the English power was with-held, and they were again thrown upon their own resources, as before the arrival of the English. Union and good order and their walls enabled them to secure themselves against the barbarous lords of the country ; but their lands were wasted, their traffic with the country interrupted, those who dared to trade with them were put out of the protection of their lords, and were consequently robbed and murdered with impunity. Trade and commerce were by these means discouraged, and the towns kept in comparative poverty. Under such circumstances it is not possible that they should regard the inhabitants of the country in any other light than as objects of abhorrence and contempt, as well as of fear : no reverence for territorial aristocracy could be known in their communities ; and the remarkable letter of the citizens of Cork, already mentioned, shews that they regarded the lords and chiefs of the county as the chiefs of savage tribes in foreign countries are at tl:iis day regarded by civilized settlers on their coasts.
The free spirit communicated to the towns by their independent existence at various times, and their frequent hostilities as separate states with the territorial lords, and by their having always enjoyed the direction of their internal government, however they might have been occasionally tributary, is the only principle by which we can account for the deference with which they were treated by the early English government. It was always thought necessary to ask their consent to the imposition of taxes, many years too before similar respect was shewn to the towns of England. — In 1201, king John issued writs, humbly intreating a parlia- mentary subsidy from, 'amongst others,) the knights, citizens,
XXX INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
merchants, and burgesses throughout Ireland/') In 1244, an equaHzation of weights and measures in all the cities and towns of Ireland was directed; but for effecting it, the justiciar was ordered first to call a council of all the discreet burgesses of Ireland/2^ In 1254, the queen regent issued a writ, humbly beseeching a subsidy, and addressed to (among others) the citizens and burgesses of Ireland. This was eleven years before the occuiTence of any similar mention of the commons in England, and furnished Petyt with an argument in favor of the antiquity of their authority in that kingdom, which could not, he conceived, have been of later growth than in Ireland, However, this pre- tension has long been universally abandoned by English writers, who are now content to date the first appearance of the commons in parliament in the year 1265. A statute was passed in 1269, by the three estates in Ireland, for regulating weigbts and mea- ures. In 1275, the justiciar of Ireland was directed to induce the different estates of parliament, including the commons and merchants, hij such means as should appear most likely to succeed, to grant certain customs on goods. '3;
The word " parliament" originally meant "a parley," because the king or his ministers was obliged to parley or negociate with the commons about supplies. Thus Thomas de Clare, and John de Saundford, the escheator of Ireland, were directed in 1282, to hold a conference and treaty (colloquium et tractatum) in the king's name, with the abbots, priors, and other religious men ; with the citizens, burgesses, merchants and communities of the cities, boroughs, and trading towns of Ireland, and with certain other persons named, respecting the granting of a loan of money for the king's use, either separately or conjointly, accord- ing to the ability oi' the persons or communities, and to admonish and induce them to it, in the most diligent and cautious manner they couldX^^
The following curious account of the proceedings of a parley or parliament is preserved among the records. In the year 1300, letters were issued requesting a subsidy to carry on war against
(1) Gale's corporate system — appendix. The words are " non consuetud- inarie sed aniabiliter rogamus," &c.
(2) ib. (3) ib. (4) ib.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXXI
the Scots : a writ of summons was addressed to all the nobles, requiring their personal and pecuniary aid; writs were also issued to all the cities and horoughs throitqhout Ireland ; and the justiciar summoned A general parliament at Dublin : all the prelates and magnates were to come in person, the communities of the counties by two, three or four, elected by them for this purpose, and having special power as if all were present ; and in like manner the communities of the cities and boroughs by two or three, &c.
But first the justiciary determined to address the mayors and more honest men of the cities and boroughs, respecting the subsidy. He first went to Drogheda, and shewed the King's letter, directed to the mayor and community of that borough, and after he had held a diligent treaty with them, they granted 240 marks. He then went to the other cities and towns ; among the rest, to Cork and Youghal. The former granted 240 marks ; the later £40 and five hundred fishes, worth a hundred shillings.
After this the magnates and communities came to tlie parliament in the manner required ; and divers of them, excusing themselves from granting the subsidy, begged of the justiciar that he would go through the districts, promising their assistance towards the subsidy which the communities in person might grant, and that the}", the magnates and prelates, would then contribute with them. The justiciar consented, and having treated with the commons of the counties, &c., received grants from each; the county of Cork, exclusive of its trading towns, gave £200.(1)
The government of the city of Cork was depute<l by Henry II to two of the invaders, Cogan and Fitz-Stephen, during pleasure; but this arrangement seems to have been unsuited to the state of the inhabitants, and only tempoi'ary ; for soon after, in the same king's reign, his son John, then lord lieutenant, granted the city and certain fields to the townsmen of Cork ; from which it is to be presumed, that they were then a municipal body, having the direc- tion of their own affairs. King Henry III, granted them the city with certain lands outside it, (comprizing possibly the cantred of the Ostmen,) at a yearly rent of 80 marks, and conferred on them certain privileges and immunities, assimilating their constitution to that of English corporations. This however, was only a continu-
(1) Gale.
XXXll INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
ation, (not a commencement as in other countries) of their domestic government; they afterwards received grants of other privileges from time to time : that which authorized them to disarm all strangers entering their city, was a curious support and sanction of their isolated existence. In 1 333, a privilege was granted to the town of Kinsale to make war upon the Irish; this was contained in its lirst charter, that of Edward III, which informs us that this town was then surrounded by Irish enemies, and English rebels ; that these had often by sea and land assaulted it, and that the burgesses had always obeyed the king's orders in repelling them. It states also, that the walls were ruinous, and the burgesses not able to repair them. These statements shew that the inhabitants of Kinsale had been a municipal community long before ; but we find no account of its foundation. It plainly appears that a high value was set upon the towns ; that they were conciliated and cher- ished by government, as the only seats of law and order, and the main support of the king's authority in these parts. The favors shewn to them were very remarkable, and very much in derogation of the royal authority. Spenser was of opinion, that in his day great public inconvenience resulted from their excessive privileges.
Youghal must have been a municipal town long before the charter of Edward IV,* for we find mention of its superior or sovereign in 1360 ;(1) it was, as we have seen, one of those towns which granted a parliamentary subsidy in 1300. In 1373, it was called on by government to send six representatives to a sort of council or parliament, to consult on important aftairs. In 1377, it sent representatives to a parliament, as did Kinsale in \366.{'^) These towns however, were often omitted in summoning parlia- ments, but the city of Cork always held a prominent place in the national councils.
In considering the circumstances in which the towns were placed, we cannot fail to perceive a striking similarity between their situation and that of the Greek settlements on barbarous
* Both Youghal and Kinsale were nominally the property of their lords, to whom they paid chiefries, as Cork did to the crown. Their independence was probably, like that of Cork, conferred or continued by their early owners as the most expedient policy.
(1) Rot. Cane. (2 ib.)
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXXlll
coasts. Yet the latter were generally prosperous and powerful, while the towns of Ireland were comparatively poor and weak. In 1 38 1 , Cork was so impoverished by its lawless neighbours, that some of the principal citizens resolved to go away : and it was found necessary that the mayor and bailiffs should forcibly detain them for the defence of the city. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of towns were not unpractised in military expeditions : they were usually called on to attend hostings; and in some instances, as iu those of Dublin and Drogheda, fomied the most effective part of the armies of government. Hence it is not easy to account for their unhappy condition. We might suppose that they would have engaged in military expeditions on their own ac- count, and have advanced in power and importance like the Grecian colonies. Government, which showered privileges and favours on them, as the bulwarks of its own power, would hardly have denied its approbation to the reduction, by every means, of the common enemies of both ; and yet we have met with only one instance since the arrival of the English, of a warlike expedition having been fitted out by any town on its own account, and at its own discretion. In 1537, the city of Waterford des- patched a naval armament, consisting of three vessels and four hundred men, against the castles of O'Driscol, a chieftain of this county, and without much difficulty succeeded in reducing and destroying them. They also destroyed his villages, and ravaged his lands, set fire to his town of Baltimore and broke down another of his castles there, and returned with some booty to Waterford. Their sole aim however was retaliation for outrages committed against one of their trading vessels. They seem to have had no ulterior object, no hope of conquest or permanent acquisition. A Greek city in such a case would probably have repaired and garrisoned the castles, and made them the citadels of colonies; or would at least have continued to amass wealth by similar naval enterprizes, until the resources and magnitude of their state, secure within walls, should have so far encreased, as to enable them to meet the barbarians in the field. Such expeditions however in order to be profitable, should be extended like those of the early Greeks to distant and unobnoxious quarters. This to be sure would be mere piracy, the expediency or propriety of which, perhaps the towns of Ireland did not comprehend ; and as they never gained
4
XXXIV INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
power by such means, land enterprizes continued always to exceed their ability. Sometimes indeed they could issue from their walls ■with effect. In 1571, the mayor of Cork gained a victory at the head of the citizens, for which the queen presented him with a collar of S S. As to the walled towns of the inland parts, they were all destroyed in a terrible invasion of Murrough O'Brien, about the reign of Edward IV. Among them were Mourne and Buttevant, two ancient corporations.
The land which anciently belonged to the citizens of Cork, was in 1462, understood to extend a mile "from both parts" of the city. So much at all events had then remained to them. It was called " the suburbs" ; but had some years before been totally laid waste by the Irish; in consideration of which, the king forgave them all arrears of rent, and granted them a certain custom called cocquet, for rebuilding their walls ; and this they were to receive until they could travel a mile round the city in safety.
In the middle ages, the cities of Europe were agitated by violent intestine factions. Within their walls stood many castles, in which the principal citizens resided, and which were built for security against sudden ebullitions of popular violence. We find no account of a similar state of things in our cities and towns. Yet we know that John Skiddy, in 1 445, built in the main street of Cork, the castle called after his name. It was a large high tower similaj- to those of the country, and remained until 1785.* It is hardly possible that the citizens could quite so soon have been divided by the claims of York and Lancaster, which some years afterwards aroused all Ireland. However, in 1492, the city of Cork, very imprudently took the lead in support of Perkin Warbeck. The result was, that Walters, a principal citizen, was summoned to Dublin by the Irish parliament, was there seized, sent to London, tried and executed. The city was involved in
* We have seen the will of Edward Roche, merchant of Cork, made in 1626, which bequeathes "the small castle called the Parentiz, in the city of Cork." What sort of building this may have been we are unable to say; but there seems no reason to conclude with Mr. Crofton Croker, that stone houses were called castles, except in Ulster, where we have heard that the castles built in accordance with the conditions of king James Ist's grants, were merely houses with bawus.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXXV
the disgrace, but goverumeut considered it expedient very soon to restore its privileges.
In Queen Elizabeth's time this city was a populous little trading town, of an oval form,(l) inferior in size to Dublin, Watcrford, or Limerick, ('-) encompassed with the channel of the river, which also crossed it, and not accessible except by bridges ; " lying along as it were in one direct street, with a bridge over it. '"(3) Its port was much frequented by strangers, both for the advantage of fishing in the harbour, and for the purposes of trade, by which the city was chiefly maintained. (4) The inhabitants were very industrious and pretty opulent ;(o) they were merchants, and great travellers themselves ; and great numbers also of strange merchants daily resorted to Cork, to trade with them. The City was walled round about and well fortified for defence against the Irish. (G) The inhabitants were so beset with enemies on all sides, that they were obliged to watch their gates day and night, as if they were besieged,(7) keeping them shut at service times, at meals, and from simset to sunrise ; not suiFering any stranger to enter with his weapon, but obliging him to leave it at a lodge appointed: "they walked out at seasons for recreation, with strength of men furnished: "'(8) the mayor and bailiffs governed according to the laws of England. Hooker seems to insinuate that this was the cause of the hostility of the surrounding country ; however this may be, the citizens kept themselves entirely aloof from their neighbours, and married entirely among themselves, never even matching their daughters in the country; almost all the citizens were consequently related in some degree or other :(9) particular suniames became so frequent, that those who bore them were additionally designated by patronymics fomied of the syllable " fitz". Those of similar names were a species of clans, acting together in bodies, and forming separate interests. In 1603, the Meades and Golds insisted on refusing the lord lieutenant an entrance into the city. The Galways, Verdons, and Martels opposed them.
(1) Camden. (2) Stanihurst. (3) Camden. (4) Hooker. (5) Staiiiluirst.
(G) Hooker. (7) Hooker, Camden, Campioa. (8) Campion.
(9) Campion, Camden.
XXXVl INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
The reluctance of the citizens to ally themselves with the inhabi- tants of the country, is exactly in accordance with the feelings of the pale, where the meanest of the English race disdained the alliance of the greatest Irish families. (1) Nothing can more clearly shew the difference of the degrees of civilization, which prevailed in the towns and in the country ; yet such is the perverseness of human nature, that the heads of extensive families in the city of Cork, even when merchants, affected the absurd title of " captains of septs," ( capitaneus SUCH nation'is), and are so designated in deeds of that period. (2)
The barbarous lives of the gentry of the county, whom the citi- 2ens despised, naturally by contrast rendered trade most honourable among the latter. The principal citizens though mostly merchants, were owners of extensive estates in the country, on which, it is need- less to say, they never resided, but dwelt in the town, both for the sake of security and society, and the prosecution of their mercan- tile avocations, which they doubtless regarded as most honourable, as well as profitable, not perhaps, (at least in their own estimation,) unlike the inhabitants of Tyre, " whose merchants were princes, whose traffickers were the honourable of the earth."
Though they avoided intermarriages with the inhabitants of the countiy, they received the inhabitants of other towns as their equals. There seem to have been intimate connexions and interchanges of citizenship between the townsmen of Cork and Kinsale : many principal families of both places bore the same surnames ; as Galway, Martel, Roche, Meade, &c. There is a latin inscription in the chancel of Kinsale church, placed there in 1558 by Patrick Mede, who there describes himself as a burgess and often sover- eign of Kinsale, and citizen of Cork. Sir Dominick Sarsfield, chief justice, was of a Cork family; yet when created a viscount, chose the title of Kinsale ; which however being preoccupied, he was obliged to forego for that of Kilmallock. Meadestown and Ballymartle, the estates of the Meades and Martels, lay between Cork and Kinsale. The Roches had large estates near Kinsale, and also in the city of Cork, which came by descent from them to the Kearneys, together with the collar of S S. before mentioned, given by Queen Elizabeth to Maurice Roche, mayor of Cork,
(1) Stanihuvst. (2) Roehc MS.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXXVll
Some of these families had castles on their estates, as Meades- town, a castle of the Meades: Pouhielong or Shippool castle,* huilt by the Roches ; Garrycloyne castle belonging to the Sarsfields viscounts Kilmallock. These castles were probably necessary for the protection of the tenants and cattle of the estates ; but we are not to conclude that they v/ere the usual residences of their owners, who, as citizens, must have despised the barbarism of the country, and preferred the society of the towns. This conclusion is sup- ported by a manuscript list of the ancient natives and inhabitants of the city of Cork, drawn up in 1652, f among whom we find Daniel, viscount Kilmallock, the owner of Garrycloyne castle, and John Meade, of Meadestown. Yet peace and security had prevailed in the country for many years previous to 1641. The estates of the others are not mentioned. William Meade, esq. , is named in the list. lie was probably the same person who is mentioned in the peerages as the ancestor of the earl of Clanwilliam, and as being the owner of an estate called Ballintobber, near Kinsale, on which, however, it appears by this list, he did not think fit to reside. We may take this opportunity to observe, that the investigation of family history is of more use than is commonly supposed ; it often contributes to throw liglit on the history of mankind and human nature ; we have endeavoured to press it into our service ; but our materials are very scanty. We would earnestly urge our countrymen, on
* Shippool castle is a strong building; its walls are G feet thick, and terminate in gables : ithasa Vav^c machicolatcil projection atone of the corners, not at the top as was usual afterwards, but towards the mi<klle ; it shews a slight transition from the ancient, to the more modena and convenient style of castles. In our account of these buildings, we omitted the Anglo Norman style, familiar to the first English invaders. We believe that the county of Cork contains only one specimen of it; at least only one that is on a scale of strength and magnitude equal to that of the Norman keeps. It is Lohort castle, built in the reign of king John, the walls of which are 10 feet thick. Those who wish for a full account of this sort of building, may consult King's treatises in the "Archceologia."
f The Roman Catholic inliabitants of Cork were expelled from the city in 1641. The above list contains their names, many of which arc distin- guished by one of these marks, "in" or "o," meaning doubtless in or out, that is, in or out of the city — in (wc presume) the year 1G52.
XXXVm INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
all occasions to collect and preserve from destruction, such ancient documents as may fall in their way ; they are peculiarly valuable in this country, where the revolution of manners has been so recent and remarkable. It would be a great advantage if the early wills in the registry of Cork were copied into books, and open to the public : they commence in 1606. It is much to be regretted, that the labours of the record commissioners in Ireland have been suspended. This work has derived great advantage from their publications.
Sir Henry Sidney made a jouniey through the kingdom in 1567; and from his letters to the English government, we learn many particulars regarding the condition of the towns at that time. The county of Tipperary was then in a state of devastation, and its corporate and well walled towns, Clonmel, Cashel, and Fethard in great distress : their inhabitants were as men besieged, and ready either to famish within the walls, or abandon the places ; all trade and commerce was at a stand ; the country people dared not bring any thing to the towns, nor dared the townsmen issue from their walls, to buy any thing in the country, from the danger which both incurred of being plundered and killed. Of Cork, Youghal and Kinsale, he tells us that they were greatly impaired and in the high way to utter ruin, if her majesty, by speedy redress and ministering of justice did not prevent it. Limerick was so impaired in wealth since he saw it in queen Mary's reign, chiefly by reason of the spoils committed or permitted by the earl of Thomond, as to fill him with astonishment. Galway he fovmd rather to resemble " a town of war, frontering upon an enemy, than a civil town in a country under one sovereign": "they watch," says he, "their walls mightily, and guard their gates daily, with armed men." They attributed their miseries to the disorders of the earl of Clan- rickard's two sons, young boys, (whom he had by two wives both living,) each striving to be acknowledged as heir of his father, who at the same time was likely long to live.
However, the towns seem not to have been prevented from im- proving with the rest of Europe in civilization and internal order. Stanihurst, in his account of the Irish, desires the reader not to impute any barbarous custom he should mention, to the citizens, townsmen, and inhabitants of the English pale ; and Sidney calls them nurseries of civilitv.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXXIX
Amidst the jipqietual disaffection of the surrounding country, tlie loyalty of the towns continued unshaken. Sidney, speaking of the towns of Tipperary, says, "these towns (not only these now in speech) but all others, n-hcresoever the)j he in this realm, are your highness' forts and garrisons, and yet they cost you nothing the keeping of them, but rather render unto you service and rent. They are in effect the only monuments of obedience, and nurseries of civility in this country, to the overthrow of which all the tyran- nous potentates and licentious subjects of this your realm apply their uttermost endeavour, as the only obstacles against their out- rageous devices" : It is manifest from this, that the Irish en- couraged the murders and robberies which were committed on townsmen and all who attempted to trade with them, as a means of bringing them to ruin, being unable to reduce them by force.
Sidney was received and entertained in a very honourable manner by the city of Waterford : he found it in a flourishing state ; the people civil and industrious. These were the natm^al results of the reduction some time before, of the lords of the county to some order ; whom however Sidney found inclined to relapse and ready as he expresses it, to play the part of the washed swine in returning to her foul puddle.
He tells us that Cork, Youghal, and Kinsale were walled, and places of great moment for her majesty's service, and that the king of Spain with 3000 men and £20,000, could dispossess her of all Munster and Connaught, or oblige her to employ 20,000 men and £200,000, to recover and defend them ; and earnestly recom- mends to her, to take care " for the conservation of her towns, as the loss of them would be the loss of the whole country.''
Going from Cork to Limerick, he met further instances of the loyalty of the towns : being in danger from the earl of Desmond's men, he received from the town of Kilmallock, a reinforcement of eight or nine score of well appointed footmen ; and was soon after joined by three hundred more, whom the city of Limerick sent to meet him: "This partly I write," says he, "to the end your majesty should have regard to these your towns ; they are the only force that your majesty hath to tmst to out of the English pale of this your realm."
In 1 575, he made another progress through the kingdom, and on this occasion also was well pleased with the loyalty of the towns;
Xl INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
his letter expresses gratitude to the city of Waterfortl, praises their loyalty, and recommends them to the lords of the council, as deserving of thanks and favor. He vi^as in fact received with the utmost enthusiasm, as we learn from Hooker, who also tells us that he was received hy the city of Cork in the best manner the citizens could, ''with all humbleness, and with all such triumphs and other shews and tokens of good will and dutifulness, as they could give, without grudging or complaining,either of the townsmen or soldiers." Sidney also represents the loyalty and devotion of Cork and Limerick, as entitling them to equal favor with Water- ford; "for truly," says he, "they are pieces of great regard, and greatly shall their willingness to serve the government here, advance the service of our sovereign."
The towns however, were more led by i*egard for their interest, than by any feeling of duty ; they received Sidney perhaps rather as a sort of ally, than as their sovereign's viceroy. The state of the country shewed them his weakness ; but though his power was small, it was useful for their j)rotection, in combination with their own : had they been more powerful, they might themselves have kept their lawless neighbours in check, and if successful, would probably have thought it strange that go\ernment should expect any obedience from those whom it failed to protect ; but now they required assistance, and they received it with that gratitude which an oppressed state always exhibits towards a useful ally.
Towns thus left in a great degree to themselves, and regulated internally by the republican government of their corporations, surrounded by barbarian lords whom they despised ; seeing nothing of the power of the crown, and little of its interference, and that little conducing only to their advantage, and exercised doubtless with a careful deference to their good wills and pleasures, must needs have entertained very stubborn notions of rights and liberties, probably even from the Danish times, without interruption. — History has preserved a remarkable instance in the case of Water- ford. This city was by charter exempted from attending hostings, unless the king or any of his sons were present in person. In 1569 Sidney being encamped near Clonmel, and expecting a battle, wrote to the corporation of Waterford, requiring the assistance of a few soldiers only for three days, "who," says Hooker, "did very insolently and arrogantly return an answer by way of dispu-
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xU
ling tlieir liherlies with her majesty's prerogative, and so sent him no aid at all." This occurred in the interval between the two loyal receptions given to Sidney at Waterford, and was so little imputed to disloyalty by him, that he makes no mention of it, nor does it at all abate his gratitude to this city, for its zealous attach- ment during his second sojourn there. Even Hooker allows the citizens the full merit of their loyalty in their reception of the lord deputy ; but seems unable to comprehend how loyalty and the assertion of rights by the subject, could be compatible. After giving an account of their privileges by charter, rewards granted to their meritorious ancestors, he proceeds to make allusion to their refusal of soldiers, and warns them " to continue in the like obedience as their ancestors; otherwise not to brag of their worthi- ness, or glory of their values ; that it woidd little avail them ; and then adduces the example of the Jews, who were visited with judgments for disobedience to their princes ; warns them not to examine their prince's authority, nor decipher his power, nor compare their privileges with his authority, nor dispute their liberties with his prerogative; "for notwithstanding," says he, "your privileges, liberties, and grants be great and many, yet they cannot abate nor impugn the least part of the prince's pre- ixigative, which is so great as nothing can be greater ; * * * because he is God's minister, especially when it concemeth the interest of her majesty's imperial crown of that land, the suppres- sion of rebels and traitors, and the delivering of yourselves and that realm from the enemies and rebels."
Cities capable of displaying so much firmness on occasions of this sort, could hardly fail to exhibit a similar spirit through their representatives in parliament. In 1568, an act was passed gi-anting the queen a subsidy of 13s. 4d. for every occupied plowland in the kingdom, except the lands belonging to the corporations of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford. This exemption seems to indicate more than common activity and influence on the part of their members. The counties which elected members, were greatly mider the authority of a territorial aristocracy, most for- midable to government ; yet if we can judge from some of Sidney's expressions, the lesser gentry of the pale at least were men of independence. In 1569, the queen, at the instance of the earl of Orniond, required Sidney to further the passing of an act of
5
xlii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
parliament for tlie interest of the carl, but unjust towards his tenants. Sidney seemed sadly perplexed ; he says, " In this I will not hinder any bill, that he, (Ormond), shall put up ; but many gentlemen, that have lands of his in the English pale, in fee-farai and otherwise, think themselves narrowly touched in this ; and therefore I judge the bill will hardly pass ; but if it pass not, I know not how to compel them."
Over parliaments freely returned by such constituencies, govern- ment could have little authority ; but by having in its own hands the selection of sherifls, it could directly influence the returns. In the parliament of the second of Elizabeth, the laws against Roman Catholics, v.'ho formed almost the whole population of the kingdom, were carried after a violent opposition, and by means of whose nature we may form some conjecture from what took place in the subsecpient parliament of 1570.
Sir Henry Sidney, a governor of great vigoiu', had concei'\"ed the design of proceeding against the Irish with more effect than his predecessors had done, and of reducing them to some order and obedience. The supplies which he was allowed from England were totally inadequate for such an object ; but being resolved on his favourite measures, he determined also that resources should not be wanting. As to the means by which these were to be procured, he was not over scrupulous. The difliculties which he had to contend with were of no ordinary kind ; for besides that his military operations were on a more extensive and vigorous scale than those of his predecessors, the prices of provisions had greatly risen of late. However, supplies were to be obtained at all hazards ; and as he considered his projects well adapted to procure solid advantages for the loyal portion of the people, he was unable to understand how they could object to any course which he should adopt for the furtherance of such salutary designs. He at first succeeded in persuading the people of the pale to support the army, by assurances of ultimate payment of their expenses ; but receiving no aid from the queen, he was imable to make good his promises. "lam" says he, " hated of all here ; of the nobility, for deposing their tyranny ; of the merchant, for that by my per- suasion he hath so far trusted the soldiers, as not receiving his money is become bankrupt, (and indeed so are some); of the gentleman, for that he cannot get his rent of his tenants, through
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xliii
tlieir keeping of soldiers ; the husbandmen cry out of me, and will do no work, for that they are never paid for so long bearing the soldiers. "(1)
It had been usual to support the army and the expenses of the chief governor's household by a contribution known by the name of cess. This was somewhat similar to wliat was called in En- gland, purveyance, with however an important difference: purvey- ance was a prerogative of the crown to take provisions for the use of the army, at prices fixed before the discovery of America, and far below their real value ; while cess was a voluntary sale of provisions at prices annually agreed on between government and the nobility and gentry of the pale. In the reign of Henry VI., purveyance had been made illegal in Ii'eland, by act of parliament. It was declared that resistance to purveyors should be lawful, and that the quartering of men or horses on the king's subjects without their consent, should be accounted treason. However, in order to protect the government from the extortions of farmers in times of emergency, a custom had arisen for the nobility and gentry to fix annually the prices which government should pay, and this had always been acquiesced in by the farmers. But as this only afforded pix)tection from extortion, or at best conferred but moderate advantages on the government, it was little valued by Sidney in his present exigencies, and he forthwith proceeded to place cess on the same footing with the English system of purvey- ance ; that is, to take supplies of provisions, not at prices to be fixed in the usual manner, but at those which formerly had been agreed to before the late rise of prices : The people resisted, the army was consequently ill supplied, and became disorderly. " It was," says Sidney, " the price growing higher, and the soldier more insolent in exactions on the poor famiers, that provoked this kicking and spurring.''(2) "It must be confessed," says he, " that soldiers are no angels, nor yet among men the harmlest creatures. "(3)
His plans thus failing through the opposition of the pale, he hoped to derive support from the authority of parliament, which comprized members from other parts of the kingdom ; but in order if possible to ensure success, he judged it necessary that the repugnance of the representatives from the pale should be
(1) Sidney's letters, p. 13. (2) ib. p. 152. (3) ib. p. 181.
Xliv INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
neutralized by a supply of obsequious members from other parts. The distant corporations were, as we have seen, iu a manner isolated from the rest of the kingdom : their attention was confined to the free government of their little local communities ; and as they regarded the lords of the county as their implacable enemies, so they seem as yet to have regarded the government as invariably their friend. Between them there had been hitherto no conflicting interests, no political jealousies ; they had for centiuies been the natural allies of each other, against English rebels and Irish enemies; the penal laws were as yet unexecuted, and perhaps unknown, or despised as impracticable in their localities. From all these causes the towns entertained no apprehensions of encroach- ments on their liberties ; they knew little probably of the general politics of the kingdom, and took little interest in the subject of legislation. The custom, expensive at that time, of sending representatives to parliament, was by them esteemed a burthen from which they were not unwilling to be excused ; the journey to Dublin was difficult and dangerous, and they considered it a boon to be allowed to return as their representatives strangers resident in that city. It was indeed contrary to law to return any person to parliament, who was not a resident of the town which returned him; but this law had generally, at least in England, and proba- bly also in Ireland, been evaded, or had fallen into some disuse, and this circumstance afforded Sidney an opportunity in a great degree to mould a parliament in accordance with his wishes. He contrived,* (doubtless in a great degree through the agency and management of sheriffs,) that Englishmen should sit as represen- tatives for many of the corporate towns, men who had acquired in their own country very abject notions on the subject of the prero- gative, and were therefore fit instruments for his purpose. His efforts however were unable to influence the elections within the pale, where his views were understood. The members returned by that portion of the kingdom seem to have been quite aware of his object, and prepared for a conflict : they were probably sensible of the means by which the penal laws had been lately enacted, in opposition to the wishes of the nation ; means which may have
* That Sydney was the coutiiver of this proceeding may be inferred from the iudinnation which it rui»ed against his government.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xlv
been similar to those now used. As these means consisted in the mwrepresentatiou of the distant cities and towns of the kingdom, inchiding, as may be presumed, those of the county of Cork, it becomes interesting to us to know how far Sidney's contrivance was attended with success.
The parhament met on the 17th January 1570, and proceeded quietly to the election of a speaker. The government party put forward Stanihurst, recorder of Dublin, and succeeded in opposi- tion to the others, who would have chosen sir Christopher Baruewall. On the following day the opposition finding that they were likely to be outnumbered, opposed the introduction of general business, until the legality of the elections should be considered. Barnewall their leader, whom Hooker admits to be somewhat learned, stated their objections ; first, that towns not corporate, returned members ; secondly, that some sherifis and mayors returned themselves ; and thirdly, that a number of English strangers were returned by towns, some of whom were wholly unknown in the places which returned them, and none residing as by law required. These questions were discussed for four days : neither party would yield: "the more words the more choler," says Hooker. At last they agreed to refer the questions to the lord deputy and judges. These functionaries admitted the two first objections, but disallowed the third, affirming that the proper course was to impose penalties on the sheriffs. This decision, from the great numbers of English present, seemed to have still left the opposition in a minority. That party remaining dissatisfied and disbelieving the messenger, Lucas Dillon the attorney-general, was sent to re-assure them ; but he being, as we shall find, a high prerogative lawyer, received no credit, and the opposition insisted that the judges themselves should come before them and declare their opinions in person. The speaker disregarded their demand, and ordered a bill to be read. The opposition would not allow it to proceed, but " rose up in a disordered manner,'' says Hooker, far differing from their duties in that place, and as contrary to that gravity and wisdom which should be hi them." And yet, with submission to Hooker, there has not been even at the present day any other mode settled, by which an illegal majority, returned by corrupt sheriffs, can be resisted ; for government can appohit sherifis as corru[)t as they please, and an illegal majority, being the
xlvi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
sole judges, can prevent their returns from being questioned. Ou the next day to pacify the opposition, the two chief justices, the queen's Serjeant, and the attorney and solicitor-general, came and gave their confirmation to the decision. There were however lawyers in the house who differed with them in opinion ; and though the opposition were silenced for the present, they soon manifested their discontent in other ways.
The government party proceeded with two bills, one for the repeal of Poyning's act for that session ; and the other for granting an impost on wines. These bills met with a violent resistance ; Poyning's act had been passed for the pui-pose of obstructing native lord lieutenants in using the power of government, to procure the enactment of laws for their own purposes. It provided that no act should be passed without the previous concuiTcnce of the council in England, and therefore by refusing its temporary repeal, the opposition threw difficulties in the way of all bills not already certified from England. Their resistance proved success- fvil, and the other bill was then brought forward. It met with similar treatment, but at last was read. "In this matter," says Hooker, "they shewed themselves veryfroward, and so unquiet that it was more like a bear-bating of disordered persons, than a parliament of wise and grave men." This however is irreconcila- ble with what follows, for he tells vis that when he saw " these foul misorders and overthwarting," he stood up and prayed liberty to speak to the bill ; and ample liberty it appears was given him and a patient hearing. He began with a preface of some length, then taxed them with ingratitude to the queen ; told them that the repeal of Poyning's law which they refused was for their own good, and that as to the other bill which they so disliked, her majesty of her own royal authority might establish it without any of their consents, as she had already done in England ; but that of her courtesy she pleased to have it pass with their consents, that she might have trial of their dutifulness. He then taxed them with ingratitude to the lord deputy. Notwithstanding these foolish reproaches and slavish doctrines the parliament patiently allowed him to proceed, when he produced various instances from history of judgments on ungrateful nations, and pronounced that the like would fall on them to their confusion ; "and when," according to his own account, "he had spent a long time in this matter, and
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xlvii
proved the same by sundry histories of other nations, he proceeded to the bill, which by sundry reasons and arguments he proved to be most necessary." He then sat down, and some of the opposi- tion rose for the purpose of replying; "but the day was so far spent above the ordinary hour, being well near two o'clock in the afternoon, that the speaker and the court rose up and departed." In all these proceedings we can perceive nothing resembling " bear-bating."' The true character of the proceedings seems to be this, that the opposition, apprehending that they would be outnumbered by a majority, of whose legality they were not satis- fied, endeavoured to prevent a division, by protracting the debate indefinitely. Hooker's timidity however seems to have distorted his mental vision. The indignant murmurs at his unconstitu- tional doctrines, which reached his ear at the rising Of the house, made him apprehensive for his personal safety ; and he was, he tells us, " by some of the best of that assembly, (meaning perhaps some of his English fellow courtiers,) conducted to the house of sir Peter Carew," where he then resided; being agent to that gentleman.
In the meantime the lord deputy, surprized at the long sitting of the house, sent privately to ascertain the cause of it ; but the doors had been closed by direction of the speaker, in order that Mr. Hooker's speech should meet no interruption from any persons coming in or going out ; and when the events of the day were aftei*- wards commimicated to the lord deputy, he thanked God, says Hooker, who had raised up unknown friends to him in that place.
The next day sir Clii'istopher Barnewall and the lawyers of the English pale, who (according to Hooker's assertion,) had conferred together, stood up and desired a hearing, " who," says our author, *' leaving the matter in question, did in most disorderly manner inveigh against the said gentleman, affirming, avouching and
PROTESTING, THAT IF THE WORDS SPOKEN HAD BEEN SPOKEN IN ANY OTHER PLACE THAN IN THE SAID HOUSE, THEY WOULD RATHER HAVE DIED THAN HAVE BORNE WITHAL ; UpOU whicll
the speaker, supported by the government party, imposed silence on them, and required that if they had any charge to make against Mr. Hooker, they should bring it in writing the next day. According to our present ideas, the disorderly conduct of these members consisted in their too onlcrbj forberance in postponing
Xlviii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
their charges, instead of interrupting Hooker tlie day before in the midst of his opinions, so derogatory to the rights and dignity of the house. But the rules of order were not then settled, either in England or Ireland. The government party pressed the speaker to apply a remedy to what they were pleased to consider disorders. The speaker proceeded to do so, and choosing to be guided in this, by the usages of the English parliaments, requested instruction regarding them, which was immediately volunteered by Hooker, but without supplying any thing much to the purpose. This very prejudiced and unprincipled writer gives us no further account of this parliament than as follows. " The monday following, sir Christopher Barnewall and his complices having better considered themselves, were quiet and contented, and the parliament begun with some troubles, had its continuance and end with better success." The two contested bills were passed in subsequent sessions ; whether any propositions of the govern- ment were altogether rejected, we are not directly infonued: nor was Hooker a person likely to infomi us ; he shews on all occasions a remarkable anxiety to throw a veil over the miscarriages of government. His words "better success," however, seem to imply very moderate approbation ; and from Sidney's speech on dissolving the parliament, as reported by Campion, there is great reason to believe that this assembly concurred in the general sentiments regarding cess ; disapproved of his proclamation on that subject as illegal, and declined to furnish him with any supplies by way of substitute for cess, to enable him to reduce the Irish countries, being satisfied with the present extent of English dominion, and persuaded that the marchers were as well able to repel the Irish, as those of England were, to repel the Scotch borderers. It appears also from Campion that a pamphlet had been dispersed in the streets of Dublin, impugning the cess, and attacking several members of the government by name for their conduct in the matter; upon which Sidney issued some proclamation of an offensive nature, which produced a general ferment, as is evident from his expressions. " Many a good fellow," said he, " talks of Eobin Hood, that never drew in his bow, and many an idle head is full of proclamations, and conceiveth certain far fetches, able hi his ivccning to wield a realm.'''' This was on the 12th of December 1570, Sidney left Ireland in Slarch following.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xlix<
'J'his parliament renewed for ten years from September 1566, a subsidy which had been granted for a like period in the preceding reign, of 1 3s. 4d. on every plowland. The words of the act strongly confirm the inferences w'hich we have drawn from Sidney's speech, and make it manifest that tlie commons interfered to prevent his irregular exactions, which they call by the odious name of coyne and livery. The subsidy was renewed, as the act expresses it, for joy that he had put in suspense "that grievous and intolerable exaction of coyne and livery, the fretter of our lives and substance ; and in consideration to be henceforth delivered from it." Coyne and livery were oppressive Irish exactions, repeatedly declared illegal by parliament, but often put in practice by the government in cases of emergency, and submitted to, from the extreme necessity of the case. But the pale had lately enjoyed comparative peace and prosperity, (1) and saw no present necessity for irregular taxation. Sidney's taking provisions without payment, in fact amounted to coyne and livery. At all events the parliament by adopting these temis, covertly made his conduct appear in the most odious light. Yet, the act, adopting the terms of the former one, exempted from the subsidy, cmd from coyne and Iwenj, those lords and gentlemen who were obliged to attend hostings.
He resumed the government in 1575, determined to adhere to his former policy ; and without resorting to parliament, whose support was not likely to be obtained, he vigorously renewed his compulsory exactions. As the events which resulted are of great interest, and as they are very carelessly treated by the historians, we shall without apology present the reader with a more particular account of them than has hitherto been afforded.
He first proceeded to impose a tax on the land in lieu of cess, and as he met opposition, and apprehended that complaints of his conduct would reach the queen, he chose to anticipate his accusers, and wrote to inform her of the discontent, representing artfully that the cess was a prescriptive payment in kind for support of soldiers, stating also the number of beeves &c., required by custom, but making no mention of a price or of any payment to bemade in return and then proceeds. "If the inhabitants be suitors
(1) Campion.
6
1 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
to compound and deliver money in lien of the grain and beeves, that then there is no more demanded of them than such rates and prices as the market yieldeth." Here then, instead of supplying grain, beeves, Szc. at the market price, they were compelled to pay the market price of so much grain, beeves, &c. But this repre- sentation could not long be supported, and he soon after gave the matter another colouring; he vv'rote thus ; " cess is a prerogative of the prince, and an agreement and consent by the nobility and council to impose upon the coiuitry a certain proportion of victual of all kinds at a reasonable rate, and as it is c-ommonly termed, the queen's price ; so that the falling and rising of prices makes the matter easier or heavier to tlie subject." " The soldier,"' says he, "could not pay above the rate he did for his victual, and yet of necessity he must be found at that price." Assuming thus, that independently of all agreement, the farmers were bound to supply the army for less than the market prices, Sidney required that instead of so doing they should make certain pecuniary payments, amounting, (as he represents it,) to live marks per plowland, or about two pence per acre. But he met more difficulties than he expected. The lawyers of Ireland were in general as zealous in the assertion of public liberty as those of England were m its denial. We have already observed the noble stand made by those of the English pale in parliament. Most of the judges were of like prin- ciples and gave great perplexity to Sidney,
Many of the nobility and gentry had, in pursuance of the statute, obtained special freedoms from taxation, in consideration of their attendance at hostings. Sidney now abolished these free- doms by a proclamation, and proceeded to charge all the land alike with cess. The statute was expired. It made no allusion to cess, imless we take coin and livery to include it ; however, Sidney obscurely argues that his right to cess was undoubted, because the exemptions mider the statute were expired. The matter became the subject of a formal legal argument ; Sidney in his letter endeavours to make it appear that the question in debate was whether the exemptions allowed by the statute were still in force, notwithstanding its expiration. " It was adjudged says he, by the lord chancellor {an Englishman,) and sir Lucas Dillon, that they could not justly any longer claim any freedom by force of said statute, none of the rest professing the laws
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 11
willingly agreed to that judgment, and yet not any of them all able in learning nor reason to maintain probable argument to the contrary.'Xl) He praises the lord chancellor for defending cess more like a counsellor at the bar than a jndge on the bench, and laments that the queen's counsel stood all the while still and mute, and urges the sending over of two English lawyers to be chief justice and attorney-general. (2)
The grounds on which the rest of the lawyers dissented, seem to be kept out of view in these letters of Sidney ; but we can easily collect from his subsequent letters, that they relied on the before mentioned statutes of Henry VI, and on the common law, which declared all taxes illegal without consent of parliament. The perplexity which the judges gave Sidney appears in a much earlier letter of his, (3) in which he desires that the queen should send three lawyers, two to be chief justices, and one attorney-general; 'this,' he says, "is so necessary, that if I should Avrite a whole quire of paper only on this point, I were not able to express the necessity of it ; but in few terms this I assure your lordships, there is none here so meet for their places, as is to be wished, only sir Lucas Dillon excepted, who is chief baron." Dillon we may remember, was- attorney-genei'al at the time of the parliamentary struggle.
The repining at the cess, he represents(4) to have been "stirred up by certain busy headed lawyers and miscon tented gentlemen, who bear not the burthen, but the farmers who would willingly contribute if the gentlemen would suffer them." That the farmers however were the first impugners of cess is evident from the expressions before quoted.* In another place too he says expressly
* He tries to support his misrepresentation by the instance of Mcath, where he says the inhabitants were willing to contribute; but this was a frontier county, where the inhabitants were greatly exposed to the inroads of the Irish, and would of course be glad that all the pale should be taxed for their defence. (5) In 1575, he says he found this county cursedly scorched on the «utsiJc, and that most of the baronies of the borders of Westmeath were sore spoiled. (G) Besides, these counties were accustomed to coutribute specially, and had been therefore exempted from subsidy by the act.
(1; Sidney's letter, p. 152. (2) ib. p. 1G7. (3) ib. p. 109. (4) ib. p. 151. (5) ib. p. 81. (G)ib. p. 81.
Hi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
that the leaders acted upon an humour to plane the muItitude.iX) Such are the inconsistencies of uncandid statenients.
There were two lawyers who distinguished themselves in this struggle ; Scurlocke, (who had heen attorney-general, but had been displaced in lord Sussex's government, according to Sidney, for negligence and wilfulness, or what others perhaps would call independence,) and Netterville, whose father had been a second justice of one of the courts. Scurlocke threatened the sheriff of Meath, that if he should levy any cess at the command of the lord deputy or otherwise, he would indict him of treason. Netterville went about denouncing cess as illegal, and asserting that such and such noblemen agreed with him in opinion ,C^) not perhaps with perfect tiaith, for lord Slane afterwards disclaimed his assertion as to him.
Sidney held a conference with the malecontents, and endeavoured to bend them to his views by persuasion ; representing the necessity of cess, and the imreasonableness of their opposition ; but his endeavours were wholly fruitless. * Then denied they flatly,' says he, " that they would agree to any cess, alleging that it was 7viU, and contrary both to reason and law, to impose any charge upon them without parliament or grand council. Finally they said they were English * subjects, and if they could not have remedy at my hands, they would seek it at your majesty's". (3)
* The vvonl " English," is used here, not in its ordinary sense, in reference to England, but to the English pale, in contradistinction to the Irish countries, as they were called, where the Brohon law was used, and where English law and order being rejected, it was not thought fit that English rights should be extended. The malecontents of the pale were well pleased that arbitrary taxes should be imposed on these districts, and on one occasion declared that the support of the army ought to be laid upon the Irish ; (4) doubtless because it was the outrageous conduct of the Irish that rendered an army necessary.
On these accounts the word "Englishman" ordinarily meant one who was entitled to use, and did use English law ; thus sir Henry CoUey, (whose descendants have attained great note under the name of Wellesley,) was called an Englishman, (5) though his family were Irish, as far as can be traced. The peerages begin with his father, and presume that he was a native of England ; but this is a mistake ; his grandfather, Robert Cowley, was
(1) Sidney's letters, p. 196. (2) ib. p. 17'J. (3) ib. p. 181. (4) ib. 1st June, 1577. (j) Lodt:o'» peerage.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Hii
The nialecontents not doubting that the maxims of liberty were as fmnly established in England as among themselves, resolved to appeal to the queen. This they undertook with the fullest confi- dence of success. They appointed as their agents the before named Scurlocke and Netterville, with another lawyer named Buniell, of whose character Sidney speaks very favorably, " but for hln meddling with Iter uiajestij s prerogative y iS)
bailiff of Dublin in 1515 ;(2) he was afterwards a confidential servant of the earl of Ossory or Ormond, as was also his son Walter Cowley. (3) Their subsequent advancement was doubtless owing to the power and interest of the Butler family. Robert continued in their service until about 1.537, when he became master of the rolls in Ireland; but in 1542, king- Henry VIII. wrote to the lord deputy and council, that Cowley was a man seditious and full of contention and disobedience, and ordered him to be dismissed from his office. Walter Cowley was made solicitor-general for Ireland ; but was dismissed in 1546. The editors of the state papers observe that he was a tool in the hands of chancellor Allen. He was for some time a prisoner in the tower of London. His son Henry above mentioned, was knighted by sir'Henry Sidney. Their family seems to have been settled in Ireland from remote times : a John Cowley was made ganger of Ireland by Henry VII. John Cowle, (probably the same person, as the final syllable ley is often in records written ^e,) was commissioned in the reign of Henry VI., to provide bread, wine, &c. for the table of the earl of Ormond, lord lieutenant of Ireland ; and as far back as the reign of Edward III. Thomas CoUeye had a grant of the office of ganger of w'ines for England, Ireland and Wales. (4)
The word servant, applied as above to the Cowleys, had formerly a very different meaning from that which we at present attach to it. Hollinshed's chronicler, who applies it to Robert Cowley, treats him at the same time as a gentleman of weight and influence. The same author applies it to Thomas Canon, secretary to Skeffiugtun the lord deputy. Sir Henry Sidney, writing to his brother-in-law the earl of Leicester, mentions the kind reception given to him at Kenil worth, by, (as he expresses it,) "my cousin Thomas Bloiint, and other your lordship's servants there." Advising counsel were kept in permanent service, at salaries or wages. (5) In an Irish statute, (6) mention is made of William Overy esquire, servant to James, earl of Wiltshire and Ormond. It is well known that great noblemen in England, at this time affected the state of sovereign princes, and would allow none but gentlemen by birth, to fill the offices of their household. The Cowleys seem to have been of that class of the citizens of Dublin, who are complained of in the act 10th
(1) Sidncj's letters, p. 179.
(2) Ilollinshed. (3) State papers. (i) Rot. Cane.
(5) Iii>h act, lUth Hear} VII., chap. G. (G) ib. chap. 3.
liv INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
A large sum of money, (supposed to amount to £1000) was subscribed for the expenses of the deputation, which was also armed with letters of remonstrance, signed by one viscoimt, five bai'ons, four knights, and nine gentlemen, in the name of the English pale.
The queen referred the matter to her English council. At this time, purveyance in its most oppressive form was in England an established prerogative of the crown, and therefore, as might be expected, the council considered that in this affair the prerogative was attacked, and so reported, declaring their opinion that it must be maintained.
We may conclude that the agents behaved with a boldness unprecedented in England, for they were all committed to the Fleet prison, and the queen wrote to Sidney, rebuking him for his past forbearance, and ordering him to imprison all who should persist in avowing that the cess was not warranted by the prerog- ative. She also ordered him to displace "such of her learned men as were present, and forebore to stand in maintenance of her prerogative."
Sidney on receipt of these orders sent for the lords and gentlemen who subscribed the letters, and some other persons whom he suspected as promoters of the opposition. On appearing before him, they behaved with all their former fearlessness. " They affirmed boldly," says he,''" in 2^ lain speech, without any sticking, that no cess could be imposed but by parliament or grand council, and whatsoever was otherwise set down by us was against law. He could not find, he says, any disposition in any one of them to confer how to lessen the charge of cess, and make the burden more
of Henry VII., chap. 6, as hired retainers of great lords, and probably had been so for some generations, as we find the above mentioned John Cowle or Cowley was employed in the service of the same family of Butler. The address used by the earl of Ossory was thus, " to my trusty servant Robert Cowley," and once thus, " to my trusty and right loving councillors Robert Cowley and Walter Cowley. Lord Butler wrote thus, " to my assured friend Robert Cowley," and subscribed himself, "yourawne James Butler," yet the above Robert Cowley wrote to Wolsey in ] 528, complaining that the office of justice of the common-pleas in Ireland, was given to one Gerald Aylmer, menial servant to the earl of Kildare, and that " other divers mean offices," were also given away. (1)
(1) State papers.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Iv
easy, "othenvise than in this sort, to have the cess totally taken away, and referred to their considerations what they thought good and expedient to be done therein at the next assembly of parliament*'. (I) Upon this he committed them all to prison.
When the queen heard of their deportment, she sent for their agents, and holding a similar conference with them, 'found them,' says Hooker, " of like disposition, being as a fit cover to the pot, very froward, arrogant and wilful," whereupon she removed them from the Fleet to the tower, thereby intimating that their offence was of the nature of high treason.
Sidney in a subsequent interview with his prisoners, found them, (to use his own words,) bent in the end to a certain kind of more arrogant wilfulness and stubborn stoutness, refusing to acknow- ledge their offence, or confess their error, in impugning the prero- gative ; though at a second examination he tells us they did both, and that he, "marvelling at it, found in the end, it grew from some of their complices that were committed in England ; and that he found a letter from Netten'ille to lord Howth, which carried such matter in their conceits, as made them all alter their fonner opinions; and that as the writing was obscure, containing no good meaning towards the lords of the council in England, he sent it to them to have Netterville questioned as to its meaning. "(2)
In a letter to the queen, of the same date as that which contains the foregoing, Sidney says only that some of these men made submission, and to these he declared her majesty's commiseration, but still as appears, kept them in confinement. That most of them continued their " stubborn stoutness,"' is plain from other passages particularly Waterhouse's letter, two months later, hereafter quoted.
Previous to this, Sidney had brought many of the ignorant Irish lords and degenerate English, to agree to pay an annual rent to her majesty,(3) but now the earl of Desmond and other lords of Munster finding thelegality of cess questioned in the pale, began to apply the same reasoning to themselves and forthwith declined to pay, or allow their tenants to pay any more rent. The earl also shewed symptoms of a design to rise in rebellion : a foreign reinforcement under James Fitz-]\Iaurice was expected.
(1) Skhiev's letters, p. 19G. (2) lb. p. 197. (3) ib. p. 183.
Ivi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
Letters which arrived in England from Minister gave general alarm. Some Irishmen who resided in England and attended the court of the queen, and who were of such power and influence that their concurrence in the cess was afterwards found indis- pensable, plainly expressed their discontent at his proceedings. These things, combined with the obstinacy of the prisoners in Dublin castle, which still continued (though two months had elapsed since Sidney had represented them to have expressed contrition,) made some settlement of the cess question appear of great importance in England. (1) Sidney's prudence was impugned in detaining such personages in the castle. His own opinion was that the public dangers would be lessened by their detention. He was provoked at the cautious policy recom- mended by many; (2) he endeavoiu-ed to persuade them that there was no real danger to be apprehended from the leaders; that the people would willingly have consented to the cess, had not the lords forbidden them ; that when the latter were commit- ted, " the people were ready with one voice to cry out upon them for their resistance." This is hardly reconcileable with his former assertion that ''the lawyers, to please the nmltitude, repaired to complain," and "that it was the insolency of the soldiers, in exactions on the poor farmers, that provoked this kicking and spxirring." Indeed it is clear that the loyalty of the people was not what Sidney relied on ; for he proceeds to say that even *' if they and their factious sectaries would rebel, they dare not, as long as there is an army here." However, it is probable the people did so express themselves to Sidney, and laid the blame on the gi'eat lords and gentry. Lying or wheedling, (as Moryson calls it,) was at this time a characteristic vice of the Irish, and even at the present day it is too prevalent among the lower classes. Sidney probably believed them ; he knew that the loyalty of the inhabi- tants of the pale was never questioned ; but as none of the govern- ment party could comprehend how loyalty and constitutional resistance were compatible, they could not avoid imputing a rebellious disposition to the lords and gentry of the pale, and when subsequent events proved their mistake, they exhibited a sort of awkward amazement. Hooker's perplexity is ludicrous. After
(1) Waterhouse's letter to Sidney, in Sidney's letters, p. 210. Hooker. (2) Sidney's letter to the earl of Leicester.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ivii
lU'tailing how widely the rebellion spread, he says ; " might it not well be presumed (and as it was so doubted) that the cause being like, they should also be combined and linked alike? and might not the whole world judge that neither barrel was the better lierring ? And vet notwithstanding, it fell in the end to a better eftect; for the lords and inhabitants in the English pale, since the time of the conquest by king Henry II, and since their first arrival in this land, it hath not been lightly known that they had broken their faith and their allegiance, and not to rebel in any wars against the crown of England and the kings of the same, saving now in respect to save their purses, rather than meaning any breach of duty had overshot themselves. "(1)
However, the conduct of the malecontents did not appear in an unfavourable light to all the English. The struggle seems in every way to have excited attention among them. The resolution of the prisoners in Dublin castle became a topic of conversation ; it was told how they made a sport of their restraint ; and from the faint glimmerings of constitutional feelings which made their appearance about this time in England, we may fairly suppose that an admiration of their heroism was there felt by many. The principle of Sidney's measures began to be discussed : some even of his friends declared their opinions against the cess : others openly condemned him and his agents in England; and even those who murmured only (2) at his imprudence, were yet a weight in the scale of opposition.
Queen Elizabeth has been praised for not attempting to impose taxes without consent of parliament; with how much justice appears from these events. The truth is, the battle of the consti- tution was fought in Ireland. These with other Irish events of which no accounts have reached us, were in all probability the original springs of those slight popular impulses, which appeared at this time in the English parliaments. We have many striking modern instances of the rapid and sudden transmission of demo- cratic sympathies from one nation to another, on the occurrence of particular events.
That the queen dreaded the contagion seems very likely; for in the parliament which met in England almost immediately after
(1) Hooker. (2) Watcrliouse's leUcr to Sidney, in Sidney's letters, p. 210.
7
Iviii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
the dissolution of that Irish assembly, in which the question of non-residence of members in the places which returned them, was so hotly discussed, a bill was brought in to legalize the ordinary usage, it being of the utmost importance to the maintenance of the queeru's influence in parliament, that obsequious courtiers should be admissable as members, though non-residents of the places which returned them. This bill met some opposition, but was committed by a majority, after which it seems to have been dropped, for what reason cannot now be known ; but the relation of the two events in regard to time is remarkable. The discussion of the cess question in England seems to have inspired the queen with fear and caution. The Irish agents were now released from the tower, a circumstance which must be attributed to a fear lest the sympathy of the English should be aroused ; for it was done on pretence of infection there, which was no good reason, as they could have been removed to another prison.* So little intimidated however, were they, that they immediately after came to court, without asking for license, "for which rash part," says Waterhouse, *'(the infection and offence considered,) Mr. Secretary gave them such a welcome as they returned in post," but it was expected in London that they and their adherents would shortly renew their petition: 1 which shews that they had come to court for that purpose.
* It is remarkable that the energetic display of public spirit in the Irish parliament of 1570, preceded, by about fifteen months the assembling of that English parliament, in whose proceedings, according to Hume, we may observe the faint dawn of the spirit of liberty among the English. A few of its members shewed some resolution, but they met every discouragement from the rest of the house; they proposed some changes in religious observan- ces, and objected to restraints imposed on foreign trade ; but the queen insisted that these subjects belonged to her prerogative, and must not be treated of in parliament; and after prohibiting one member from attending in the house, and severely reprimanding another for his temerity, she terrified the whole body into an acquiescence in her pretensions. >Several subsequent manifestations of impatience appeared in parliament during the reign of Elizabeth, but were without much difficulty suppressed by that princess.
When we consider that one of the most prominent topics of discussion iu the Irish parliament of 1570, was the presence of great numbers of Englishmen in the house, and when we consider the constant presence of a small English army in this country, it cannot seem strange that the spirit of liberty should at this time, and perhaps some time before from similar causes, have been (1) Waterhouse's letter.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. lix
Some sort of submission seems to have been made by the prisoners in Dublin castle or some of them. Hooker, as may be expected, represents it as full and final, and as a complete triumph of govern- ment. But in whatever form it was made, it turned out mere empty words, and the struggle began again. Sidney says, *' that the lords, knights and gentlemen, after signing the submission,
making its way from Ireland into England. It is impossible to account for its introduction in any other way. It could only arise, either from a long and uninterrupted concurrence of fortuitous circumstances as in Ireland, or from the gradual dissemination of philosophical writings on the subject, as in France ; or from the example of another country. The two first causes had then no existence in England ; but communication with Ireland was mani- festly very extensive, and the example furnished there, was very striking and quite adequate to produce a strong impression. It was a species of example which more modern history has shewn to be remarkably influential. Little more however, resulted from it in Elizabeth's reign, than the general discus- sion of the subject, and occasional expressions of impatience in a very humble and abject tone. It is not until the reign of her successor, that we are to look for instances of much firmness in the commons. There had occurred a little before her death, an important circumstance, which, judging from a modern example, in all probability contributed greatly to promote the introduction of free principles into England. The queen in 1599 sent an army of twenty -two thousand men into Ireland, which continued there for several years. We have all heard of the importation of republican principles from America to France by the army, and it is not too much to suppose that the army of the queen, one of the largest which had ever been levied iu England, imbibed in Ireland new political ideas and doctrines and brought them into England ; they fought side by side, and associated with the loyal Irish, who were accustomed to speak without reserve of their rights and liberties, and of their full resolution to maintain them, and who by their conduct shewed that even under religious disabilities, a spirit of independence was compatible with loyalty. They were not, it is true, engaged in a war on the side of democracy; but the influence of conversation and political deportment cannot have been less on that occasion, than in the more modern instance, where a difference of language must have interposed almost insuperable impediments to a communication of sentiments.
It is certain that the ancient constitution or rather law of England contained valuable provisions for the liberty of the subject, but none for its security. In England liberty had its rise before the existence of the house of commons. To ensure its stability, it was necessarj-notonly that the houseof commonsshould exist, but also that it should exercise a main weight and authority in the state, without which liberty was only a temporary accident. That the house of com- mons had ever, before the period of which we have been treating, possessed any real weight, may fairly be questioned. When we find them remonstrating with
Ix INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
being called on to set down a cess for the next year, refused to put their hands to the book of agreement, as they had agents in England engaged on the subject."
He afterwards summoned the lords and gentlemen of the pale, as well as those who had before refused to subscribe to the cess, "last agreed on," as others of note, such as were before committed
Edward III, for admitting ton many women and bishops about his pei'son; and ■when on the king expressing his displeasure, we find them adjudging to death the member on whose motion they had been persuaded to this act of presumption, it is impossible for a moment to imagine that they possessed any sense of their own w eight, or any real sjiirit of independence ; and the semblance of these qualities, which appears in some of their proceedings, must be attributed to causes not in themselves. They felt themselves under the protection of the house of lords, whose power had originally extorted the liberties of the nation, and they acted W'ithout fear under the auspices of such a body; aping its endea- vours, and sometimes outstepping them ; sometimes impeaching persons who were as obnoxious to the lords as to themselves ; sometimes acting as the tools of aristocratic factions ; occasionally rising in their pretensions according to the difficulties of the crown Whenever they appear to take a lead, their spirit may easily be resolved into a sort of vanity ; into the officiousness of upstarts in office, forward to affect a little power wliile they safely may, and gain a little transient importance, but quite prepared to sink into their former nothingness, on the first intimation of the displeasure of their superiors. — This they did not often experience ; for the sovereign having the lords a far mightier antagonist in view, regarded the meddling of the commons with little concern; and anxious to get money, humoured their assurance with concessions which the sutferance of the lords could at any time, according to the established practice of govenment, enable him to resume. And when in the course of events the power of the lords was annihilated, the commons, deprived of their pro- tection, relapsed without a struggle, into that insignificance from which they had only in appearance emerged. If they had really possessed any sense of their own authority or importance, their constituents must have possessed the same. A flame so universal could not have silently and suddenly expired; nor have been extinguished without at least some slight explosions.
A remarkable passage has been quoted from a paper drawn up by Cecil in 1569, to prove that constitutional principles were energetically prevalent in England in the reign of Elizabeth, and at a period somewhat earlier than that to which we have assigned tbeir first dissemination. Nothing can shew more strongly how we may be deceived by an expression. By comparing this passage which occurs in Haynes' state papers, p. 586, with other passages in the same work, pages 580 and 589, we find that it alludes to those of the low^er classes who favoured the pretensions of the queen of Scots, and hoped for some improve- ment in government or in their condition from a change of sovereign. They probably resembled the followers of Tyler and Cade.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixi
for impugning the cess, and conferred with them ; and after various delays and excuses, they deUvered in a submission, which being disapjiroved of, they said they would make no other. They refused one drawn by the attorney-general, being directed by Nugent, second baron of the Exchequer, brother of lord Delvin. They said that they would not do a thing so prejudicial to themselves, and their posterity. Next morning, he tells us, he remonstrated and dealt with them together and apart; first with the meaner, then with the better sort ; with the learned by them- selves, and the simple by themselves ; " but all were framed to one bent; most of them answered, that what the lords would do, they would follow : they were but inferiors, and therefore they would do as their betters did. They relied most upon lord Delvin, who seemed to be the chief ringleader.''(') After this unsuccessful remonstrance, he committed them to prison, and imposed fines on them.(2)
Here we have the I'emarkable circumstance of a judge acting as leader and adviser in opposition to the crown, and of lords and gentlemen submitting with devotedness to fines and imprisonment, relying with undoubting confidence on the support and co-opera- tion of their less powerful fellow countrymen outside, who were equally determined to withhold payment of the cess, and who though they might lay the blame of their refusal on their superiors, did so evidently with the full consent and concurrence of the latter, who as being better able, were also quite willing to bear all the punishment and all the censure.
This was Sidney's last endeavour. The Irish had in the mean time taken up an additional weapon of attack. They charged him with peculation and extravagance. A great outcry was raised by the malecontents and other men of note, that he had wasted her majesty's revenue.(3) The queen gave attention to these charges. Sidney, in reply, gave an account of his expenses, (-1) though from his letter of advice to his successor, (5) it is plain that he had spent more than his allowance. The charges seem from secretary "Wylson's letter, to have been fully believed by the queen's govern- ment. (G) At all events they afforded a decent pretext, on which
(1) Sidney's letters, 11. 237. ('2) ilj- (3) Hooker.
(4) ttiduey's letters, p. 220. (r.) ib. p. 280. (0) ib. y,. 213.
Ixii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
she might yield without compromizing her prerogative ; but it was not until after Sidney's final and ineffectual attempt to enforce compliance, that she thought fit to retire upon this subterfuge. She then finally resolved to abandon her attempts, without how- ever appearing to do so ; and recalled him for the purpose as it were of receiving an account of his conduct. " It is meant," says secretary Walsingham,(t) "that the colour of your revocation shall be to confer about some plot for the diminishing said charge, and to satisfy her, touching the exceeding the proportion allotted unto you." The liberation of the prisoners in Dublin Castle was next judged expedient, but it was contrived that it should seem to be the act of Sidney himself. Accordingly, Walsingham writes(2) him a private letter, advising him as a friend, " to leave a content in the minds of the Irish subjects, before he should repair to England, and to put in execution the plot set down by their agents; and with regard to the noblemen and gentlemen long since com- mitted to prison ;" he recommends him in general terms "to deal with them as favourably as he may, following the example of tho mercy of her majesty, and for that in these troublous times, a general discontentment of the subjects of that land may prove of dangerous consequence."
In the meantime, the gentry of the pale with a sullen reckless- ness, resolved to encounter the severest losses, rather than seem to acquiesce in the encroachments of the crown. Eory Oge with his Irish rebels invaded the pale, and met with no opposition but from some English soldiers in the queen's pay. The inhabitants entirely withheld their assistance from government, and permitted the rebels to commit "most execrable outrages" (3)on their property, "without hue or cry, or any following of any other person in effect" says Sidney, "than of the English soldiers." For the first time, Sidney seems to have felt alarmed. He says, "the discontentation of the lords and gentlemen is a matter of more consequence, because we see them, as it were, dulled into a kind of senseless obstinacy, as appeareth in the matter of submission to your ma- jesty ; wherein how they stand upon form more than upon any reasonable ground, your majesty hath already understood by the report of me your deputy. * * * We see that either their own
(1) Sidney's letters, p. 231. (2) ib, p. 244. (3) Hooker.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixiii
careless consideration of themselves, or their dejected minds giveth scope to the rebels to do the hurts which have been done in the pale, and could not have continuance, if they did not (for lack of will and endeavour to resist) show a kind of consent or allowance of their own harms. 'XO
History can present no finer example of disinterested patriotism than the events here related. The chief men coolly encountering the queen's indignation ; paying heavy fines, and enduring tedious and indefinite imprisonment: the rest of the gentry and inhabi- tants submitting deliberately to the destruction of their homes and their property by the rebels ; and all for the assertion of a public principle ; for the advantage of their posterity rather than of them- selves ; motives seemingly unintelligible to Sidney, when he tells us that they " stood upon form more than upon any reasonable ground"
It was now resolved to accept the cess in such form as the Irish should consent to ; but recent events had rendered their consent more difficult to be obtained than ever. Sidney found it necessary to obtain the concurrence not only of the resident lords and gentry, but also of those who resided in England attending her majesty at court, " without which," he says, " the composition for cess can grow to no perfect conclusion ;"('^) and the queen even thought it necessary that it should be confirmed by parliament,(3) this however was dispensed with.
Thus ended this momentous aflfair ; but there remained in the minds of the inhabitants of the pale a strong distrust of the inten- tions of government. A parliament was convened in 1585, in which the opposition party mustered so strong, that every general measure proposed on the part of the government was defeated, and among them a bill for the suspension of Poyning's law. — Even the ordinary subsidy of 13s. 4d. on every plowland was rejected, and it was not thought prudent to bring forward a bill for imposing a duty on wines.
The subject of religion was now begining to absorb all others. The course pursued by government was most absurd, and proved the source of all those violent dissentions, which have afflicted this country for so many generations. There was perhaps no
(1) Sidney's letters, p. 252. (2) ib. p. p. 252 ami 253. (3) ib.
Ixiv INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
country in Europe into which the Reformation could liave been at tliat time introduced with more ease and certainty by the ordinary exertions of preachers than Ireland. The church of Rome had at that time but a frail hold on the affections of the people in most parts of the country. Even Keating confesses that the "rude and unpolished part of the i^eoiAe dcsjyised the discipUne of the churcli., and denied the authority of their ecclesiastical superiors T Such a confession of a zealous roman- ist shews how little respect or regard was at the time felt for his church by that class of the population, who must have been the most nvmierous ; indeed their disregard must have followed almost necessarily from the debauched and barbarous lives of the priests, "who with their wives and children, had their dwelling in the churches, where they feasted and rioted. "(t) Keating was unable to deny these customs of the priests; but tells us that they were practised only in the most uncivilized part of the kingdom, and by a sort of clergy, who pretended to he exempt from the authority of ecclesiastical superiors, and placed heyond the reach of church discipline. This is a most remarkable admission, and almost amounts to an assertion, that the religion of Rome was disclaimed in the most uncivilized parts of the kingdom. But be- sides, in many extensive districts, such was the prevalence of war and bloodshed, that no clergy of any sort were to be found. — " There was, says Hooker, scarce a God known, and if known, not at all honoured in the land, for the churches for the most part were all destroyed and uncovered, the clergy scattered, the people untaught, and as sheep without their pastors wandering without instruction."
Sidney gives an equally dismal account of the state of religion. "Surely," says he, "there was never people that lived in more misery than they do ; nor as it should seem of worse minds ; for matrimony among them is not regarded ; * * * perjury, robbery, and murder are counted allowable. Finally, I cannot find that they make any conscience of sin ; and doulitless I doubt whether they christen their children or no, for neither find I place where it should be done, or any person able to instruct them in the rules of a christian ; or if they were taught, I see no grace in them to
(1) Camden.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. IxV
R)llo\v it, and when they die, I cannot see they make any account of the world to come."'
Under such circumstances all grounds of jealousy and resent- ment ought to have been carefully suppressed. But this was little considered. In the Irish countries where law could not be enforced even in civil affairs, the very name of the penal law raised as great a storm as its execution elsewhere, and furnished the inhabitants with a pretext for rising in rebellion, in which it was so often their happiness to be involved. The multitude of course cared nothing for the cause in which they were engaged. They followed their leaders to the field according to old custom; but the declared purpose of the war soon changed national into religious antipathy; and the calamities endured, exasperated the sufferers of all orders into bitter hatred of their enemies, under the new denomination of protestauts, and thence into corresponding hatred of protestantism itself.
Contrary to expectation, the pale and the towns joined the side of government. Though they distnisted the administration and regarded religious coercion as a monstrous evil, the predominance of the Irish seemed incalculably worse. The one seemed open to mitigation by the influence of reason and the experiment of their loyalty. The other threatened them with hopeless anarchy and ruin. However, as the war drew towards a close, the prospect of indulgence began to fade, and though weary of its continuance, they dreaded its termination as the commencement of severity.(l) Their forebodings were too fully realized. By joining in the sup- pression of the rebellion, they had mainly contributed to that total reduction of the Irish which extended English dominion through- out the whole island ; but at the same time, so consolidated the power of government and so annihilated all enemies, that their good-will and services so inestimable in former times, were now no longer valued. The hopes which they had placed in their perse- vering loyalty were finally dissipated, and they found when it was too late, that they had been engaged in forging their own chains.
As English law had never been considered to have any force in the Irish districts, which were beyond the controul of goverment, so it was never imagined that the statutes of parliament could have
(1) Moryson.
Ixvi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
force in those places. It seems veiy probable that a similar exemption was loosely attributed to remote counties when unre- presented, and that many laws expressed generally, were intended only for the pale. Thus, though the writ of conge d' elire was abolished by the parliament of the 2d of Elizabeth, it was not imagined that the new law could apply to so remote a place as Armagh ; for the election of pnmate, which soon followed, was obliged to be post-poned on account of the absence of several of the chapter. A similar understanding probably prevailed with regard to the penal laws which were enacted by the same parlia- ment, and which at the time of their enactment it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to enforce at a distance from the pale. Cork was one of the counties unrepresented in that parliament. However, after the lapse of some years and a change of circum- stances, this distinction, if ever it existed, was forgotten, and the penalties of the law were vmhesitatingly enforced, wherever it was found practicable.
On perceiving how they were requited, the towns, especially of the south, made a desperate effort to shake off the restraint. They had as yet very little to complain of, being hitherto allowed the private exercise of their religion ; but having been long accus- tomed to govern their own communities without external controul, they could ill brook the present interference. On the death of the queen, they forcibly restored the Romish worship and its public ceremonies. The city of Cork even refused to proclaim king- James. Its inhabitants announced their sentiments with all that unnecessary insolence which a spirit of democracy usually engen- ders. They refused to obey any government but that of the mayor. The mayor compared himself to the doge of Venice. Whether in their conduct towards protestants, they were actuated by intolerance, or merely by a spirit of retaliation, seems uncertain. They shot at the bishop's palace and killed a clergyman. One Fagan abused every protestant whom he met, and reviled sir Gerald Herbert, for not doing reverence to the cross, which he carried about in procession. Yet their outcry was for liberty of conscience, an expression which seemingly comprises a principle of general application.
The Irish countries, as yet free from the infliction of the penal law, and lately subdued by a confederation of their enemies, felt
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. IxVU
no inclination to assist the towns ; and a large army being still in the country, the latter were at last intimidated into submission. The government proceeded to enforce the law with severity, and in Dublin, exceeded the letter of the statute; upon which the inhabitants of the pale with their usual precise notions of consti- tutional rights, presented a bold remonstrance ; but intelligence of the gunpowder plot just then arrived, and threw a dark shadow over their cause, which really so far as they were concerned seems to have been generous and constitittional. Some rebellions also in the remoter districts, where the operation of the statute could hardly as yet have penetrated, soon after followed and completed the disgraces of the catholic cause.
The lord president of Munster, whose office it had been to exercise arbitrary jurisdiction in the Irish districts, now by the express command of the king extended his authority to the towns, and first took the city of Cork under his paternal care. This was in the year 1606. Finding that the mayor, aldennen and others, would not be persuaded to attend the service of the refomied church, he imposed on them heavy fines not warranted by law, and condemned them to imprisonment during pleasure. He then deposed Sars field the mayor, for refusing to take the oath of supremacy ; and a new mayor being chosen who toc^ it without scruple, Sarsfield was required to deliver up the ensigns of his office ; but hesitating to comply, he was fined £500 for his con- tempt, and adjudged to suffer imprisonment during his majesty's pleasure. Some months afterwards, other persons having refused to attend divine service, were fined £100 each, and ordered to be imprisoned during his majesty's pleasure ; and their goods were sold for payment of the fines. Similar proceedings were afterwards adopted in other towns.C)
Protestant settlers were now becoming numerous and powerful in the country. All advancement was confined to them by the operation of the statute ; and they were resolved by every means in their power, to continue the depression of the catholics, and preserve their own monopoly. Being powerful from their advan- tages as -well as from their numbers, they enabled the king by his mere fiat to establish such measures as tended to strengthen and
(1) Gale's corporate system.
Ixviii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
preserve the new interest in the country. The parliament was new modelled in order to o\ erwhelm the old catholic opposition party. Seventeen nev/ counties were formed in the conquered districts, and a number of new boroughs were created in insigniticant places, where the English interest was predominant. In 1612, it was determined to call a parliament, with representatives from all these new places. The lords of the pale with their usual free spirit, addressed a letter to the king, representing the impropriety of this proceeding. At the same time agents were despatched from the pale into every province, to support the elections in opposition to government. The Romish clergy preached the cause of religion. The greatest exertions were made ; but in the end it was found that the malecontents were in a minority. A violent scene ensued, and the lord deputy prorogued the parliament.
Agents were despatched to the king by the recusants of the pale, and a liberal contribution was raised to defray their expenses; but their pretexts were constitutional, and as might be expected, they received no satisfaction from the king or council ; their cause involved the interests of popery, and they received no support or countenance from the English people. On their return, the par- liament refused to acquiesce in the decision of the king. The lord deputy, perplexed by the difficulties which surrounded him, assumed a moderate and conciliatory demeanour. The catholics of the pale, hoping that the change in the tone of government, was the harbinger of indulgence to their religion, were so far mollified, that both parties consented to postpone the considera- tion of the disputed returns ; and as soon as several bills had been passed and a liberal subsidy granted, the lord deputy, by dissolving the parliament, set the question to rest.
From henceforth the representatives from the pale and old towns became a powerless minority in the house of commons, and the old constitutional spirit of Irish parliaments was overborne by the influx of the English interest. But the stmggles of the enlight- ened patriots of the kingdom, had been neither brief nor feeble. They are described in the following contemptuous terms by Mory- son. " Eut the English Irish in all parts, (and especially in the pale) either by our too much cherishing them since the last rebellion, (in which we found many of them falsehearted) or by the king's religious courses to reform them in their obstinate addic-
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixix
tion to popery, (even in those points which oppugned his majesty's power,) or by the fuUness of bread in time of peace, (whereof no nation sooner surfeits than the Irish) ; were grown so wanton, so incensed, and so high in the instep, as they had of late mutinously broken off a parliament called for the public good and reformation of the kingdom, and from that time continued to make many clamorous complaints against the English governors, (especially those of the pale against the worthy lord deputy and his ministers) through their sides, wounding the royal authority."
The civilized catholics being now embarked in the same cause with the rude Irish, began to be confounded with them, and were henceforward visited with every disgrace and obloquy, which the latter alone merited ; and being as it were merged in the mass of the nation, who were ignorant of all the principles on which a govern- ment ought to be conducted, they experienced the most galling contempt from the parties in power. The administration became very arbitrary and vexatious in civil as well as religious matters. The protestant inhabitants seem to have been in no respect displeased with the violent government which now followed, so long as they saw it exercised in the suppression of popery and the promotion of their own advancement. They even eulogized its author Strafford ; though on learning the disposition of the English parliament, they suddenly turned round and supported that body in all its vindictive measures, their grand aim being the strengthening of the English interest in this country by means of the friendship and support of the leading parties in the sister kingdom ; to which purpose they finally sacrificed the legislative independence of Ireland.
In fact the principles of liberty and of the constitution were so freely asserted by the catholics of the pale, that they seem to have contracted a taint in the eyes of the protestants in Ireland, at the very time when their kinsmen in England were working out their freedom with perseverance. They were here regarded as the peculiar tenets of rebels and papists, and were little counte- nanced by the dominant part}'. The recusants of the pale seem to have been sensible of this disadvantage, and endeavoured by their moderation and ready concurrence in granting supplies to remove the injurious impression. They persevered for }cars in a loyal though discontented deportment, hoping that
IxX INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
such conduct would in the end meet its reward. It ia probable that their example was not without its weight in the provinces. The influence of knowledge and civilization is very great. By their superiority in tliese advantages, they were the natural leaders of the recusants ; and this was probably the cause of the continu- ance of peace throughout the kingdom, which to Leland appeared so extraordinary, that he labours to account for it. When how- ever their moderation had been tried for many years, and been requited with an increase of hatred on the part of the protestants, the other and more numerous portion of the nation, the semibar- barous Irish took the business into their own hands, and as might be expected from their ignorant and brutal character, followed it up with atrocious crimes and egregious follies, so far outstepping the bounds both of humanity and right reason, as to justify in a great degree the heavy hand which was afterwards laid upon them. The proceedings of their convention, a sort of parliament which was afterwards established, shew them to have been ignorant of the first principles of human affairs, and utterly unfit to obtain a share in the government of their country ; while their savage bigotry and murderous rancour plainly rendered the country uninhabitable to their less sanguinary adversaries, without the total exclusion of the nider inhabitants from power for some generations. It is not here meant to justify the courses which provoked their religious ferocity, or the heavy penalties subsequently imposed on the exercise of their religion ; but when we reflect that the inhabitants of the pale and the towns alone had an opportunity of acquiring some knowledge of govern- ment and the piinciples of the constitution, it cannot seem very unreasonable, that the great body of the peojjle, so long withheld by their own barbarous wishes from a share in the government, and therefore destitute of all rational ideas on such subjects, as their convention fully proved by its extravagance and folly, sliould for some time longer be excluded from a participation in power, at least during the season of their unmitigated and avowed intolerance.
We may here take occasion to remark, that the towns with their characteristic old republican feelings refused to be taxed by the convention ; and like separate governments, levied contribu- tions on themselves for the use of the catholic cause.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixxi
When wo consider the moderate extent of the city of Cork in the reign of Elizabeth, we may naturally be surprised at its ancient importance, in comparison with the other towns of the county. But the truth is, that in the time of Elizabeth, it had suffered a very great decline: the island, which is said to have then comprised the city, was not more than about one-third of a statute mile in length, and its breadth was only about one-third of its length, — dimensions, which would seem to give it little pre-eminence over Kinsaleand Youghal, as contained within their ancient walls. It is true, our accounts of it before Elizabeth's reign are very meagre and imperfect; but enough remains to assure us, that it had previously been of much greater extent; we have already seen good reason to infer that the most ancient part of the city stood on the hill, to the south of the island, and that it was destroyed in the wars of the barbarous lords ; and we learn from the charter of king Edward IV, that Cork had, a few years previously to its date, possessed suburbs extending a mile from both parts of the city, and that they were about that time burned and destroyed by the invaders. As they were burned, Ihey must have consisted in a great degree of buildings; and this will give us some idea of the real extent of the city in ancient times, it being by this account upwards of two miles in length, including the island. Doubtless those buildings were interspersed with gardens, as we find to have been usual even within the walls, so late as the reign of Charles I. As to the locality of the suburbs, we may conclude that the northern one coincided with that part of the present city, which lies between north bridge, and the junction of the ]\Iallow road with the old Dublin road ; for this was the only great outlet from the city on that side, and must naturally have attracted the buildings along its course, while the steepness of the hills on either side would prevent improvement from branching off laterally. The southern suburb, which must have been identical with the original town on the hill, probably extended to the lough, and perhaps to a greater distance towards Kinsale, although in its modern increase it has not yet reached the above point, owing to the poverty of the inhabitants in that quarter, and the badness of the approaches to it. It is amusing to speculate on the probability, that the lough, which now presents so retired and rural appearance,
9
Ixxii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
may have been anciently surrounded by a densely inhabited suburb.
At the close of the reign of Elizabeth, the citizens seem to have had no definite ideas of established constitutional rights of individuals ; for though they showed a strong spirit of insubordination on her death, yet finding themselves unable to wage war against her successor, they submitted without remon- strance to the usurpations of his government. The queen had some years before arranged a system of martial law to be executed in Munster, that is, we conceive, in such parts of the province as were reputed to be Irish districts, and without tlie pale of English law. By this it was provided, that no person should have the benefit of trial by jury, unless he possessed a freehold ; and now, on the submission of the citizens to the accession of James I, this ordinance was enforced against such of those engaged in the late opposition to the proclaiming of the king, as happened to have no freeholds ; and strange to say, no dis- content seems to have been manifested at the time on this groimd. In fact, when the citizens found themselves deprived of their old isolated independence, and that the authority of the general government was extended over them, they probably conceived that the evil was but little enhanced by the mode in which that authority might be exercised.
Indeed it seems very manifest that they had little notion of any rights or liberties distinct from the rights and liberties of their city, which they governed with little knowledge of the laws of England, and with a very wide exercise of their discre- tion ; and even after their humiliation in their contest with the crown, they continued for many years to make laws for tb.eir local government, almost as unlimited in their nature as the laws passed in parliament : they imposed taxes and duties ; fixed the penalties to be paid by those who might refuse the offices of mayor and sheriff; prohibited owners of ground outside the walls from erecting buildings on it, if injurious to the defensive strength of the city ; compelled strangers to enter into bonds and make oath to observe the local laws ; interfered even in transactions of commerce, imposing conditions on the purchase of merchandize ; and attached the punishments of fine and imprisonment to the infringement of their enactments. Indeed
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixxiu
so decided was their impressiDii that they formed a separate state in themselves, that the principle is, as it were, taken for granted in the preambles to some of their laws, as in the following instance taken from a bye law passed on the 28th of Sept., 1610 — "Forasmuch as in all commonwealths the citty or chief place thereof is most to be respected and regarded not only in fortifying and maintaining the same, but also in foreseeing and preventing of future inconvenience that might ensue thereunto, and especially in not permitting nor any way tolerating of any building to be made or erected near unto the same, whereby it might in any way prejudice, annoy, or be hurtful unto the said citty in action or jurisdiction, whereof our forefathers were careful and provident, as we see by the precedents they left us, &c."
However, after the reduction of the citizens under the power of King James, they appear to have regarded the king's government as an external power, whose requirements (which were only occasional) it would be dangerous to dispute. The towns of Ireland in general continued very obsequious until the rebellion, when they resumed their separate existence ; but the city of Cork was held in the dominion of government or of the protestants during the wars of that period, and was unable to take any part in the proceedings of the Roman Catholics.
Indeed it is very probable that the sense oilegal rights, even of the inhabitants of the pale, which shevi^ed itself with so much energy in the reign of Elizabeth, was of very recent growth. In an address of Stanihurst, the speaker of the house of commons, to sir Henry Sidney, delivered the 12tli December, 1570, we read the following passage. " In mine experience, who have not yet seen much more than forty years, I am able to say that our realm is at this day an half deal more civil than it was, since noble men and wor- shipful, with others of ability, have used to send their sons into England to the law, to miiversities or to schools."*" It was pro- bably this recent improvement in education that disseminated more distinct ideas of law and constitutional rights among the leaders of the people, and opened their eyes to the danger of
* Campion.
Ixxiv INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
allowing the establishment of bad precedents; for though their ideas of law mvist in some degree have becen accjuired in England, where o'jsequious principles preponderated ; yet it was not unnatnral for them to import from that country, such maxims of law as were not inconsistent, and to reject those doctrines of the prerogative which the state of society in their own coun- try, rendered them incapable of understanding : doctrines which while they acknowledged the authority of law, were at the same time subversive of all law, and were certainly too refined and sophistical for the rude Irish. It is plain that they received much enlightenment from England. Their previous habits of liberty had probably been grounded on little more than an idea of a right to resist oppression, arising from a knowledge of their own power, and of the weakness of government, — an idea continually fos- tered by the turbulence of the times. Still it may seem extraordi- nary that the independent spirit of the pale was not confined to the powerful aristoci'acy. But we may observe, that in the factious wars and broils of neighbouring lords, the commons must attain importance. Their assistance was necessary to their leaders, whose power from time to time tottered beneath the attacks of their neighbours, and who therefore found it necessary to en- courage their followers with every imnumity, and indeed impu- nity ; and this sort of indulgence had prevailed to such a ruinous extent in Ireland, that Sidney found the Ormond family, who were earls palatine, wholly unable to govern their districts. Agreeably to these views it has been observed, that the wars of the roses tended powerfully to enfranchise the villains in England by rendering their assistance necessary to the prevalence of each faction.*
* In Ireland where loc.il wars were perpetnal, we find no traces of villanage at any period. There are, it is true, a few estates of copyhold tenure in the island, but it is probable they had a conventional origin, in imitation of the English system, at an early time, when the illegality of such an origin was little understood. At a period long subsequent, a similar but less successful attempt was made by the Cromwellian settlers to introduce a tenure like that of copyhold by granting leases for lives, with covenants for perpetual renewal, on payment of fines. We have seen one instance, of the date of 1709, in which a heriot or best beast is made payable on the death of every tenant, which increases the resemblance, and in a mortgage of the same lease made in the following year, the tenant's estate is actually called a copyhold. It
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixxv
The barbarous mode of life pursued in the Irish districts, appears to have continued even among many of the higher classes, until they were supplanted by English proprietors, after the wars of 16 II. Boullaye le Gouz, a Frenchman who travelled through Ireland in 164 1, says, " The castles or houses of the nobility consist of four walls extremely high thatched with straw, but to tell the truth they are notliing but square towers without windows, or at least having such small apertures, as to give no more light than there is in a prison. They have little furniture, and cover their rooms with rushes, of which they make their beds in summer, and of straw in winter. They put the rushes a foot deep on their floors, and on their windows, and many of them ornament the ceilings with branches. They are fond of the harp on which nearly all play."
However, long before this time, improvement had begun to make rapid advances. On the overthrow of the Desmond family in the reign of Elizabeth, English gentlemen obtained extensive grants of the forfeited lands, on condition of planting them with English tenants on a military system. At the close of her reign the country began to enjoy tranquillity; the feudal authorities being broken, and the crown having become strong, peace and security were the natural results. The merchants of Cork ventured to reside without the walls; and suburbs began to appear again. In a petition of the citizens dated 1630, we find a requisition, " that whereas, the whole city of Cork being the shiere city of the county of Cork, containing only two small parishes, and there being four dissolved abbeys, viz. — Gill Abbey, St. Dominick's abbey, St. Angustin's abbey, and St. Francis's abbey, with their possessions, lying within the ancient franchises and liberties, where there are many merchants residing, and the trade of merchandize more used than in a great part of the said city, that those abbeys, with their possessions and inhabitants, may be within the jurisdiction and government of the officers of the city, to the end they may be liable to contributions, both for
has been said that the duke of Orniond was the ori^nnator of this sort of lease, but there seems good reason to duubt it, for instances of it earlier than those attributed to that nobleman have been pointed out.
Ixxvi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
his majesty's service and the public charge of the city, the rather for that many of purpose dwell within the possessions of these abbeys, to be free from sesse of soldiers, and other public charges." During this period, Sir Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, acquired by his talents and industry very large estates in the county, and contributed more than any other man to introduce order and civilization ; but the commotions which began in 1641, obliterated every improvement. The man- sion houses, which had begun to supersede the old narrow towers, having floors of timber, and no contrivance for defence (if we except the machicolated projections which some possessed) seem to have been almost all burned.
After the rebellion of 1641, a large portion of the land was given to the private soldiers of the parliamentary army in small divisions, many of whom sold their allotments to other persons, as protestant merchants of Cork and other towns, at prices which scarcely amounted to half their present annual value. A large portion also fell to the adventurers, or those who had advanced money to carry on the war against the Irish, on the faith of being repaid by forfeited estates. Finally the officers received the remainder of the land by grants, each of which was made to two or three, in trust for themselves and a specified number of others, in the proportion of the sums due to them. These estates, the trustees either divided among themselves and the others for whom they held them, or settled with the latter by payments of money, keeping the land themselves, or by such other private arrangements as they thought proper. Besides the officers, many of the adventures and purchasers from soldiers obtained grants to themselves for the security of their titles. The passing of these grants to officers and others, commenced in 1666, and continued for several years through the delay occasioned by the investigation of the several claims. Some Ro)nan Catholics who proved their innocence were allowed to retain their lands, but a greater number who were equally innocent were excluded^ it being found that the remaining lands were scarcely sufficient to satisfy the protestant claims.
The lands set apart for the officers were distributed by lot without regard to proximity. Many, on obtaining them, sold the whole or such parts as were distant from their adopted
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixxvii
settlements to otlier protestants, chiefly merchants, in towns. Afterwards came the forfeitures of the rcvohition, Vvhicli completed the destruction of the old Eoman Catholic families. The estates forfeited on this occasion were sold by auction. The purchasers were protestants.
So complete was the revolution of property produced by these events, that the gentry of this county became almost wholly protestant, and the Roman Catholic religion, or an Irish surname, became in latter times prima facie a mark of inferior station. We are unable to recollect more than two Roman Catholic fiimilies now existing in tliis county, whose estates escaped these confisca- tions, namely the Coppingers, of Barryscourt, and the Barrys, of Lemlara. There were however some others who since conformed to the established religion. The peasantry, with the exception of a few inaccurate dabblers in antiquity, have very oljscure traditionary recollections of these changes, and regard the present proprietors with the full veneration usually attached to ancient rank ; nor can we perceive in them any propensity towards detraction on these accounts, notwithstanding the bitter- ness of political and religious dissentions. It is a mistake also to suppose that the peasantry preserve the title deeds of their families: we have made enquiry on this pointand find the fact tobe very much the contrary: indeed it would be impossible to preserve for so many years such frail articles as family documents hi such places as the cabins of the peasantry. The case mentioned by Mr. Weld, in his guide to Killarney, is a singular exception. However, the families of forfeiting persons have not always been depressed so very low as has been supposed. Nevertheless we have heard of few instances in which they have preserved their title deeds, and in such cases they have done so more by chance than design. In the mean time the succeeding links of their pedigrees have become obscure ; and their ancestral claims (except in the case of a few remarkable aboriginal families,) are by their countrymen unnoticed and unknown.
At the head of the ancient families of this county who preserved their estates through all the convulsions of the country may be placed the Barrys earls of Barrymoro. They were descended from a brother of Geraldus Cambrensis, the first English historian of this country, and obtained their estates by a grant to
Ixxviii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
Philip do Bany, made by his uncle Robert Fitzstephen to whom Henry the Second had granted half the kingdom of Cork. They also received grants of forfeited estates at the restoration ; but portions of their original possessions descended to the present times in the form of chiefrents, so small even as two pounds per annum out of a townland. The earldom became extinct by the death of the last earl, and the other titles virtually so, for though multitudes of the name and lineage unquestionably remain, the evidences of pedigree are so defective that no successor can be ascertained.* The estates have come by sale into various hands. f
Very large estates in the county belonged to a junior branch of this family descended from the fourth earl, and afterwards came by will to the late John Smith Barry, esq., together with large estates in England. The estates in this county are believed to amount to about £20,000 a year. How so large a property came to be separated from the earldom, if indeed it were ever annexed to it, we are unable to say.
In Smith's time there subsisted a branch of the Barrys who had been seated at Eathcormac for five hundred years, and sat in the upper houseof Parliament so far back as the 30th year of Edward 1st, anno 1302. They became extinct in the principal branch about the year 1760, J and the estates fell to coheirs descended from two sisters, Catherine Barry, wife of Samuel Hartwell, esq., and Ann Barry, wife of lord chancellor Brodrick, first viscount Midleton. The coheirs § in 1771 sold their estates for £59,000, and the purchasers Eobert and Nicholas Lawless, esqrs., of Dubhn, sold them in 1774 to William Tonson, esq, for £68,000.
* Unlike English biironies in fee, the ukl Irish peerages are foiiml to have adhered to the male line, uotwithstaiuling the occurrence of female heirs.
We have never discovered anything to countenance the supposition that the followers of sopts adopted as in Scotland the surname of their chieftains without being of the same male lineage,
f A large estate near Castlelyons was sold in 1GS5 by the Earl and his tenant to James Cotter, esq. The whole purchase money was £3,020, some- what more than twice the present annual value.
J The male line is now represented by the Barrys of Ballyclough.
§ These were captain Brodrick Hartwell, E.N., grandson of Catherine Barry ; and James St. John Jeffreys, esq., of Blarney, John, first Lord
O'Neil, Freke, and Mrs. Brodrick, descendants of the Hon. St. John
Brodrick, only son of Ann Barry.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixxix
The I?oclies, viscounts Fcrmoy, one of the original English families of this county, forfeited their honours and lauds in 1641. A branch of the family was seated at Ballymolgole, or Ballymagooly, so far back as 1344, when William de lloche of this place was made sheriff of the county of Cork. Ballyma- gooly, with an extensive mountainous tract adjoining, was sold in 1683, by a Theobald Eoche to James Cotter,* esquire, for a sum of £2,782, which is little more than its present annual value. The whole was soon after erected into a manor by patent. The families of Roche of Trabolgau and Dunderrow or Holly-hill, whose ancestors had been leading citizens of Cork, seem to have retired to their estates about the reign of James the first. The large property of the Dunderrow branch, came by an heir general to the Kearneys of Garretstown. On the death of the late James Kearney, esquire, his cousin Mr. Rochfort, succeeded to all his estates, and at his death bequeathed them to Mi*. Cuthbert, of Cork, whose sister he had married.
The families of Barrett, Condon or Caunton and Fitzgibboa were anciently of so much note and power, that they gave names to the cantreds or baronies which formed their seigniories. It is probable they had lands or chiefries throughout the entire of these districts. We have not heard of any ascertained male descend-' ants of these families, though their names are very common. The Fitz-Geralds seneschals of Imokilly, (men of great i30wer,) were also involved in the common forfeitures, but their line stills subsists at Castle Richard.
The de Courcys lords Kingsale are one of the most ancient English families of the county : they claim descent from the famous de Courcy, earl of Ulster, together with a privilege, said to have been conferred on that personage, of wearing their hats in the presence of royalty. We learn however from Giraldus Cambrensis, that the earl died without lawful issue ; and the legend relating to the privilege seems to be of comparatively "modern mvention ; but the privilege itself has been several times recognised by our sovereigns, as it perhaps ever will be, as an innocent pretension The de Courcys had formerly great pos-
* Mr. Cotter was afterwards knighted, and became a conspicuous mililary cliaracter in the wars of the Revolution,
10
IXXX INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
sessions in the county of Cork. In the reign of Edward III., the estates Milo de Courcy, chiefly the manor of Ringroan, which was of great extent, passed into other famiUcs hy co-heirs, yet this manor afterwards belonged to the lords Kingsale ; how- ever, so far back as the reign of Elizabeth, and perhaps long be- fore, these lords were noted for their poverty,* a circumstance which, by keeping them in obscurity, probably preserved them from attainders. It is said that on the death of the twenty-fourth lord in 1 759 without male issue, his sons-in-law, Mr. O'Grady and Mr. M'Carty, forcibly held possession of the estate in opposition to the legal rights of the next heir male, and that the sheriff of the comity was unable to put the new lord Kingsale into possession, until he had assailed the castle (perhaps Ringroan) with artillery on the land side, and the cannon of a ship of war from the river. We will not, however, guarantee the truth of this anecdote.
With respect to families of Irish descent, it appears to us that the information which is attainable, is little to be rehed on, except perhaps, with regard to families of great and historical note. The bards who have left us their genealogies were paid flatterers, and, as we know that their patrons lived in mortal fear of their enmity, it may be inferred that they had little regard for truth. The early portions of their pedigrees being palpable fables, we have the less reason to rely on the other parts composed mider the pressui'e of dependence ; and at all events, we must infer that many links of illegitimacy have been glossed over, in a country and an age in which that defect was not considered an insuper- able bar to succession. When the bards found it necessary to give an honorable account of the origin of catholic surnames, which were not Irish, and were not known to be English, as those of Plunket, Coppinger, &c., they referred them to the Danes, as more reputable, and much less odious than the English, without however, attempting to furnish the links so far back. This is persisted in even at present, although there were no surnames in the Danish times, and although the language of the Danes from which those names seem to have been derived, was essentially the same as the Saxon.
In the annalsf will be found the names of some of the English
* Qampion. f Page57i
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixxxi
families of the county, who in the reign of Elizabeth, had fallen into some decay through oppression. The family deeds of one of these (the Tyrrys) are still preserved. They ascend to the reign of Henry VI., and are in the possession of Dominick Sars- field esquire of Doughcloyne, who has also a great mass of documents relating to the Sarsfiekls and their estates. Such collections are invaluable; and it is to be regretted that no per- sons of competent industry have yet been found to elucidate their contents.
Prior to the forfeitures, the law of primogeniture was strongly counteracted by the influence of Irish customs.* It became usual to divide the inheritance among all the sons, and at the close of the 17th century we find this custom assigned as the cause of the family pride and idleness of the younger members of families. It was remarked that men who succeeded to a pittance however miserable,* relied on their pretensions and disdained to engage in trade.
For many years succeeding the Revolution, the people, though riotous and lawless, were powerless and unpretending : old per- sons can remember when individuals of the lower classes would not dare to resent an insult, or even a blow or a kick from a gentleman. The magistrates were doubtless very arbitrar\% which, though objectionable in a constitutional point of view, must have been eventually useful in producing habits of obedience to authority. In 1750, Arthur Hyde esquire, a magistrate of this county, let some land to a neighbouring clergyman, without having obtained the possession from the former occupants ; one of these, a miller, having a lease of a mill made to him by a former tenant of Mr. Hyde, for a longer term than his own, which had expired, made objections to give it up. We have before us a letter of Mr. Hyde's to the clergyman, which, considering the gross illegality of the course which he directs, seems character- istic of the times. " If," says he, " he attempts to remain there
* The fallowing is a curious illustration of tlio extensiou of Irish usages to land of English tenure : — In 1585, John Cotter, of Coppingerstown, having land to the amount of 174 acres, made it over to his son, on condition however, that he should divide and share it with his cousins aftor the manner of their predecessors.
Ixxxii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
without your approbation, I'll indict him, and gaol him ; who- ever you're disposed to set to, give him possession ; and if the other attempts to withhold the possession, let him lodge infor- mations, a warrant will issue, and TU send a possee to lay him by the heels ; such an audacious fellow is not to be treated with the least tenderness,"
While the lower classes were so tightly governed, it cannot be supposed that the claims and pretensions of the Roman catholics, as such, would be much attended to. That body was reduced to utter debility : resistance on their part seems to have been regarded as an absurdity, and the mere expression of their opinions on party questions was held to be an impertinence. la 1768, on the anniversary of the battle of the Boyne, about a dozen persons ventured to appear in the streets of Cork with white lilies in their hats, in contempt of the occasion, but were dispersed and caned by some gentlemen ; and another person, who is called by the newspaper of the day, " an ignorant little fribble," nar- rowly escaped a severe discipline, from which nothing, we are told, but his insignificancy could have protected Irim.
The great prevalence of duelling and drinking bouts in the last century, promotes an impression that the Irish gentry of that period were very unpolished, and that their subsequent improve- ment must have arisen from the legislative union with Eng- land. It should be remembered, however, that the improvement of manners, in England, has been very considerable; and it cer- tainly does not appear that the disparity between the two countries in this respect, was formerly greater than it is at present, even though we allow Fielding's squire Western to be a caricature. A late baronet, who was educated in England, and resided there till his arrival at manhood, and moreover was an accomplished scholar, found himself, on his father's death, about seventy years ago, under the necessity of coming to Ireland to visit his estates in this county. He did so with extreme reluctance, and with a determination to retire as soon as possible from a country which he believed to be insufferable as a residence; but on his arrival, he found to his astonishment that the gentlemen mere well hred, and rode in their carriages^ and quite resembled those of Eng- land. The result was, that he made this country his residence during the course of a long life. This anecdote, which may be
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixxxiii
relied on to the letter, shews also the extreme ignorance of the English of that period in all that related to the state of Ireland. We no*v return to the affairs of tlie city. From the year 1609, when the city books commence, to the expulsion of the Roman catholics in 1644, the corporation appears almost exclu- sively of that denomination. Some protestants indeed, were occasionally admitted to the freedom, but they were mostly statesmen, or official j^ersons of distinction, who had no interest in local afiairs. There were not more than five or six protestants of a private sort admitted during the above period. After the expulsion of the Roman catholics, the city continued without any civil government imtil 1655,* when Sir William Fenton, Maurice Roche, Christopher Oliver, John Morley, and John Hodder, ancient freemen, assembled together, and chose John Hodder to be mayor.f They then proceeded to create a great number of protestant freemen, sufficient evidently to out- vote the Roman catholics, should they return. The first admis- sions remaining! took place on the 16lh of May, 1656. They were continued on the 17th, 19di, 24th, and 31st of May, 6th of June, and afterwards at longer intervals. The franchise was con- ferred on great numbers gratuitously, but to many also it was sold, for sums varying from £1 to £10 or £ 12. This sale of the fran- chise was quite in accordance with old practice. On the 31st of May, 1656, the corporation embodied the various artificers into guilds, in several of which separate trades somewhat similar to each other were incorporated together under the name of one of them. Thus were formed the several guilds of blacksmiths, of merchant tailoi-s, of tanners, of whittawers, of carpenters, of freemasons, of goldsmiths, of cordwainers, of butchers and of porters. On the 6th of June following, was formed the guild of
* In the catalogue of mayors this is dated 1G5G, which is more likely.
t We take this fact from Smith — the book from which he derived it is not forthcoming.
J The first leaf of the book of admissions is lost; but as the subsequent leaves contain twelve admissions each, the first certainly did not contain more: but probably less, as part might have been occupied with a title ; the pages remaining, comprise all the protestants who became mayors and sheriffs, ex- cept those of the year 16jG.
Ixxxiv INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
clothiers, and on the 29th of October, 1657, the guild of barber- chirurgpons. Considerable sums were paid for these incorpora- tions.' By these means, and by selling the freedom,* a sum of £297 10s. was obtained before the close of the year 1656.* In selecting for the offices of mayor and sheriff, no distinction seems to have been made between those who had obtained their free- dom gratuitously, and those who had paid for it. In October, 1685, Mathew Savory, Zacharia Trebusheth, and Peter Segen, were admitted to their freedom gratis, " for that these were per- secuted protestants, and forced to fly their country on account of their religion, the persecution being then hot in France." Similar admissions occurred occasionally afterwards, but com- prise none of the French names which since became noted in the city.
In the year 1686, the Irish protestants being terrified by the conduct of the government, many of them transferred their resi- dence to England. Of those who remained, some were en- rolled in the new corporations, as remodelled by James II. in 1689, and constituted a third part of those bodies. King James, however, and all his proceedings, were soon overturned, and the former system restored, but not without great losses to many of the citizens, partly by the temporary sequestration of their estates, and partly, no doubt, by the destruction of houses during the seige of Cork, by the duke of Marlborough. The effect of the duke's cannon may still be seen along the lower part of the bastion of the fort at Barrack-hill, which was battered from Catfort.
In succeeding times, notwithstanding the wide diffusion of the franchise, the council, or board of aldermen, contrived to en- gross all power to themselves. The form of choosing the mayors was thus : twelve of the council, with one of the sheriffs, went hito the castle, called Cork castle, (then standing) and there nominated threef of the burgesses (the candidates) to the free- men, in court of d'oyer hundred, who were to choose one of the
* The guilds are now remembered only by tradition ; but they were in full vigour in 1737.
+ Two centuries before this, the mayor and bailiffs proposed three persons, of whom the commons elected one to be mayor, — See p. 285.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. IxXXV
three to be mayor for the ensuing year. It was charged against the council, that two of the three were stalking horses, unfit to be elected through some iucajiacity, and that the favourite scarcely ever failed in being elected. The sheriffs were elected in a similar way. It appears also, that the common council had assumed the power of disposing of the public money, without the consent of the commons, and that the court of d'oyer hundred was reduced to a mere cypher. At last, about the year 1718, when matters were carried with a high hand by the board of aldermen, supported by the public money, and by the oflicers who felt themselves bound to support the power which appointed them, a struggle was set on foot by some of the citizens, who made up a fund among themselves, and recurring to the charters of the city, asserted the rights of the commons, and finally suc- ceeded in establishing them. The struggle continued from 1718 to 1721, and must have been very violent. It was at one time in- tended that parliament should decide the difference, but by the interposition of persons at both sides, matters were adjusted ; and then, " for the first time in the memory of any man living," as the writer* tells us, the court of d'oyer hundred proceeded to fill up the . vacancies in the common council on the 20th January, 1721, and elected three burgesses to complete it to the number of twenty-four.
On the 5th of February, 1721, they proceeded to make by- laws for tlie future regulation of their proceedings. They ordained, that in future none of the public money should be dis- posed of, nor any money borrowed on the credit of the corpora- tion, without a vote of the court of d'oyer hundred ; that the mayors should in future be selected from five burgesses instead of three, and that these five, instead of being proposed by the council, should be drawn by lot from the whole body of resident burgesses : and that in the election of sheriff, the commons should be at liberty to put forward a candidate. They made various other regulations for the management of public affairs ; and thus was an important revolution effected without legislative interference.! The party which combined, subscribed funds and
* The rights of the freemen of the city of Cork asserted, ami the several abuses and usurpations of the constitution poiuled out, printed in 1759.
t lb.
IxXXvi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
by their zealous exertions succeeded in eftecting these changes was the germ of that famous body called the " friendly club" which has ruled the city to the present day.
A satirical writer,* who wrote in 1737, and seems to have been of no party, but rather a misanthrope, slightly alludes to these contentions. After designating the majority of the council as cyphers, and asserting, that " any artful intriguing figure, by joining himself to a good many of them, will swell the number and sway aside to whatever he has a mind to carry," he tells lis, that the commons, after great contentions, " at length having shot all the arrows in the whole quiver of malice at each others- constrained the council to submit, and enacted by-laws for pre- venting the disposal of the public money by the common council alone.
Disputes however, soon after arose between the council and commons, respecting the right of originating grants of the public money, and, doubtless, upon minor topics. On the subject of the court of d'oyer hundred, Alexander the coppersmith says, that there, instead of a multitude of hearers, you find a hundred speakers, and that it might be properly called a court of confu- sion. It is to be regretted that he declines entering upon the politics of the city; but even the words in which he dechnes it may be thought to throw a little light on the subject. He says, " to speak exactly of this court and the common council, and of the cause of their eternal clashing, it would be absolutely neces- ■ sary to say something of the two parties that sprung from the ballast act, because by the superiority either may have in the corporation, aref in a capacity to influence the most considerable affairs of the city. But the conclusion is not only still recent amongst us, but a particular detailof the views, interest, "briguing meetings," violent speeches, and warm replies of the individuals of this court and council, would perhaps, raise stale dissensions, and kindle a flame that is almost extinguished."
We shall now proceed to give a picture of society in Cork, as drawn by Alexander the coppersmith, whose pamphlet we have
* Remarks on the religion, trade, government, police, customs, manners, and maladies of the city of Cork, by Alexander the coppersmith. Printed by George Harrison, 1737.
t Sic.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixxxvii
already quoted. He most impartially sneers at all religious denominatioHS, and yet, unlike men of that stamp in the present day, he is but little disposed to tolerate popery. He divides the religion of Cork (as appeared from the public edifices for worship") into episcopacy, presbytery, quakerisni, anabaptism, huguenotism, hypocrisy, and popery. Of the first he says, "As the king, lords and commons have ngreed upon the first to be the most laudable mode of Christianity, I think every wise man must acknowledge, that in obedience to an act of parlia- ment we should be all of the established church." He pronounces the persecuting zeal of presbyterianism as bad as popish cruelty. He tells us, that as quakerism wars against human nature it can be of no duration ; and that the anabaptists from the uncomforta- bleness of their dipping can never rise into power sufficient to do mischief. He passes over the huguenots, as he would not reproach a set of exiles in their misery. He then inveighs against the hypocrites, both protestant and Roman catholic.
He tells us that the views and interest of the five first conspire the ruin of the last, (the Roman catholics) whom they look upon as a monster that would devour their liberty, religion and trade. He is amazed at "the imprudence of the papists, running openly into every branch of trade, and talking big upon change, and permitting the importation of such cargoes of priests who swarmed about the city." He predicts that their bold monoply of home and foreign trade would create such popular clamour, that at last they would be controuled by an act of parliament.
As to their manner of carrying on trade, however, he speaks of it with abhorrence ; and in explanation of the means by which they engrossed it, he tells us that through wealth, pride, envy, mutual oppression, protestant indolence, and popish vigilance, the trade of the city had been forced from its natural course into another channel within a few years ; that the most considerable branch of our trade had been the export of great quantities of beef to our plantations to supply the French, with whom we trafilcked jn some uninhabited island before Irish ships were obliged to touch first in England ; but that then the French in galleys of four or five hundred tons came hither themselves always consigned to a popish factor, *' whose relations and correspondence," says he, '* were abroad and union at home, whose diligence being more
11
IxxxVill INTIIODUCTORV ESSAY.
and luxury less than protostants, will at last swallow uj) the trade and suck the marrow of this city, and like the ivy, will grow to be an oak, and prove absolute in their power over the conimerco of those on whom they should be dependant for bread, and" he proceeds "as a certain baronet observed about four years ago, J/ow nccHi'c do men of thai religion live in despite of the law, whilst protestants look idhj on and hy an easiness of temper pecidiar to themselves, suspend the execution of the laws which never required, no not at their first maMng, a more severe executioti than at this day. By running away with this profitable branch, not only the prejudice they do a protestant trader, but the benefit arising to popish dealers and tradesmen is destructive of the pro- testant interest of the city. From the mutual kindness of all men under oppression and a natural hatred of their oppressors, they deal with and always employ one another. If a papist at the gallows wanted an ounce of hemp he'd skip the protestant shops and run to Mallow-lane to buy it ; and as the jurisdiction they acknow- ledged is abroad, they would live independent of the state at home, where they poison all things they touch. They have no regard to posterity ; they consider nothing but the present ; their schemes are always big with cunning, they want ingenuity (ingenuousness) the life of business. In all works, regardless of the future, they mar the best undertakings, to make Avhat they can of every thing now."
By this he evidently meai^s, that instead of being anxious to establish an honourable character and a settled trade, they regarded only immediate profits, and enhanced them by false- hood and fraud, by the aid of which also their competition became ruinous to protestant traders. " They dishearten," says he, " all industry, which when beggary is the reward of, idleness and painfulness are of equal value. The legs of that trade will surely have the cramp whose feet are kissed by a papist, and the most growing factory, the minute it is mimicked and attempted to be carried on by them, I would instantly give up, pronounce its ruin, and without hesitation, sign its death- warrant." These passages might perplex us, were it not for the subsequent mention of false weights and adulterations by Avhich they were enabled to ruin the honest trader.
Of Mallow-lane, he says, "This suburb, by various acts of
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Ixxxlx
cozenage, its happy situation and possession of the weigli-liouses, has branched itself into such business as ahnost overtops its mother, which in time, hke hairs, in appearance dead, will by being quic t in water, turn into snakes, and in continuance get stings and do much mischief. This should surely awaken the jealousy of all, to find the root impaired and the city impover- ished, to the enriching a set of upstart beggars most of whom want even common honesty." He condemns the erection of the weigh-houses in this lane, and prefers even Gallows-green for that purpose, "because every country fellow who has generally something to buy when he sells his butter, must of necessity stalk through the whole city, where he has an opportunity of gaping at every shop, which then has an equal chance of receiving his money." *' Pray," says he, " is it not a very inicomfortable sight for any protestant shop-keeper of this city, to behold thatch and a skylight edified into cant windows and slat, wherein a flat footed Milesian shall have the impudence to have his table graced with a chaplain and pinched diaper, and in a pair of protestant scales shall outweigh the city, and raise himself from thongs and lank hair to pumps and a periwig. * * * They buy as dear, retail cheaper, live better and grow richer than other fair dealers in the city. This they perform by false weights and adulterating their wares."' He then relates a piece of knavery of a butter buyer, and proceeds. "They rob a man of his purse, and never bid him stand. Highwaymen defy, but Mallow-lane men pretend justice. As the very fragments ofthr- rogueries of this lane would feast all the bites in the kingdom, it would be an endless work to publish them all." He thou yj^
furnishes us with a model of a butter buyer, under the designation of maitre Coquin, " who," he says, " would ride fifty miles to execute a cool deliberate act of butter roguery," and then concludes the subject of j\Iallow-lane, " that nursery of villainy, which should be suftered to continue no longer, but presented and removed as a nuisance ; for when honesty was sick in Glanfiesk, she crawled to Mallow-lane to die, and gave her last groan among the butter buyers."
He passes the following strictures on the conchu-t of the pastors of every flock in this city, which he says, were eounnunicated Ic him : —
XC irs'TKODUCTORV E.SSAV.
1. — lie ijiiys, tlioy dill not endeavour with all their might la gain the good Avill of their liock, but were ill livers ; that they ought to get their good will by walking uprightly, not by crouching.
2. — That in their preaching they were too lavish of words- to enforce the reverence due to themselves,
3. — -That they were not courteous, and that some possessed false gravity. " As to the younger dealers in divinity/' says he, "of whom this city is pretty well stocked, they belie the register book, ante-date their age, set their faces in a frame, and plait their brows into such an affected sadness as makes Christianity look uncomfortable."
4. — That they catechise not in the elements of religion, which it was their duty to perform, unless they had a flock of old sheep without lambs. "Thus," says he^" many who are well skilled in the dark backshambles of divinity, for want of this catechising, lose their way in the main street of religion."
5. — That they visit not the sick of purse as well as of body and soul, and take no pains to heal fractured neighbours by cordial interpositic«is.
This writer denies the legality of the power exercised by the aldermen of the ward, of whom there were then six, who (.iispensed justice each in a separate precinct or v/ard ; and he charges them with leaving blank warrants with their wives, to be used in cases of contempt of summons, without regard to the necessity uf proving the contempt on oath.
His book contains some passages relative to the staple court, which, as it has fallen into some oblivion, requires a little notice. We learn that the society of the staple was originally founded for the regulation and support of the woollen manufacture, and was authorized by charter to erect a weigh house and build store houses for the staple commodities, and to receive all customary fees, profits and rights to be disposed of for the benefit of the mayor, constables and society of the staple. When our author wrote, it appears that the authority of this society was, as he expresses it, nearly defunct, and that, like fame, it was only the echo of its former actions. "For," says he, " the very founda- tion upon which the staple stood, is sapped by the irresistable force of various acts of parliament, and even in London, which
INTRODUCTOUY ESSAY. XCl
Has the parent that supported it, it'.s nut only detiinet, but its very memory is forgot, for the woollen manufaeture having run into another channel, that fountain was dried up."' "Thus" con- tinues he, "I ha'i'e often marvelled at the high hopes some have , conceived, and the great profits and pleasure they have proposed from the duties their power coidd fasten upon popish commodities, and what severities they thundered against the dealers of that religion, who stand as secure from the bolts of the staple as the staple is from the pope's bull." "And indeed," says he, "after the strictest scrutiny I could make into any privilege they can squeeze out of their charter, I really find that they have a right merely to exist, and meet by courtesy in the city court, where by the power of custom they may shut their door, talk of tlieir grants, swallow their sack, and do nothing.
As a consequence of his previous remarks on the authority of aldermenof the wards and rights of the staple, he infers the unlaw-