CHAPTER XVII
Reign of Henry VIII. A.D. 1509 to A.D. 1547.
HENRY the eighth succeeded his father, at the age of eighteen years.
Nicholas Maguire, bishop of Leighlin, died in 1512 His life was written
by Thomas Brown, a secular priest, who was his chaplain. He himself
wrote the life of his predecessor, Thomas Halsay, doctor of the civil
and canon laws, (which degree he obtained in a foreign university), a
native of England, but the pope's prothonotory for Ireland, succeeded
Maguire. He was promoted to the bishopric by pope Julius II., at the
instance of Christopher Bambridge, cardinal archbishop of York, and then
resident ambassador at Rome from king Henry VIII. He assisted at the
Lateran council in the years 1515 and 1516; his vicar general Charles
Kavanagh, abbot of Duisk, governing the diocese in his absence. It
seems, that Halsay never saw his diocese; having died in England in the
year 1521. On the 3rd of February in that year Hazard, prior of
Christ-church, as custos spiritualium of the see of Dublin granted to
Cornelius, dean, and Charles de Wyche, chancellor of Leighlin, the
spiritual jurisdiction of that diocese during the vacancy. He was buried
in the church of the Savoy hospital, where the following inscription was
to be seen on his monument: Hic jacet Thomas Halsay, Leghlinensis
Episcopus, in Basilicá S. Petri Rome, Nationis Anglican poenitentiarius,
summte probitatis vir; qui hoc solum post se reliquit, vixit, dum vixit
bane. Translation into English " Here lieth Thomas Halsay, Bishop of
Leighlin, penitentiary** to the English nation at St. Peter's in Rome, a
man of great probity, who left only this character behind him: he lived,
while he lived, well." Under the same tomb lies the body of Gavin
Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, in Scotland, who died of the plague in 1521.
NOTES** There is a difference between a penitentiary and a confessor.
The latter la every pariah priest who hears ordinary confessions ; but a
penitentiary was originally an officer appointed by the bishop to go
through the towns and villages of his diocese in Lent, and to absolve
the weak, impotent, and poor from such cases as were reserved only to
his own absolution Maurice Doran, or O'Deoran, was the next bishop of
Leighlin; he succeeded in 1523. He was either a Franciscan or Dominican
Friar, was born in Leix, in the Queen's county, and was distinguished by
the probity of his principles and the power of his eloquence as a
preacher. His answer to those who advised him to replace the expenses of
his election, by the imposition of double subsidies on his clergy, is
worth recording: Se velle suos, dum tondeantur, non deglubi That he
would have his flock shorn, not flayed. He governed this see but one
year and eight months; at the end of which time (in 1525) he was
barbarously murdered by his archdeacon, Maurice Kavanagh, on the high
road, near Glen-Reynold. The bishop had reproved Kavanagh for insolent
obstinacy and other misconduct, and threatened him with further
correction; on which the resentment of the latter led to the bloody
deed. The murderer was afterwards apprehended, and, by command of the
lord deputy, Gerald Fitz- Gerald, earl of Kildare, was hanged on a
gallows erected at the spot where he had committed the atrocious act.
His bowels were afterwards taken out and burned.
Mathew Sanders follows in the list of bishops of this see. He was
born near Drogheda, and was consecrated bishop of Leighlin, in 1527, in
consequence of a provision of Pope Clement VII, dated 11th April in that
year. He rebuilt the choir of the cathedral of St. Laserian, and erected
and glazed the south window. A.D. 1524. The patent of Gerald, earl of
Kildare, at this time lord deputy, declares, that he shall support the
government of Ireland with the revenue of the country; that he shall not
take coin and livery, except at hosting; that his soldiers shall be
content with flesh, bread, and ale on flesh days, or two pence in lieu
of it, and fish or butter on fish days, or two pence in lieu of it; the
foot soldiers shall be content with three half-pence per diem in lieu of
said allowance: boys shall be content with what they caught, or a penny
instead, and each trooper shall take but twelve sheaves of oats per
night, or two pence in lieu thereof.
About the year 1532, John Allen, formerly clerk of the council, and
then master of the rolls, was sent on a mission to the king by the
government in Ireland. He had instructions to acquaint the king with the
weak state of the settlers, the limited dominion of the king, and the
chief causes of the unhappy circumstances of the British interest. We
shall give his representation, as it embraced an account of the
condition of our district at the time. He states to his majesty, that
neither the English order, tongue, or habit, nor the king's law, are
used or observed beyond a distance of twenty miles from the capital. The
causes of this state of things were, he said, as follows: the extorting
of coin and livery, and accepting of cuddies for remission of the
punishment due to murder, assaults, and felonies: the want of English
inhabitants, such as those who formerly had arms and servants to defend
the country: the expulsion of the English tenants, and, of late, taking
the Irish instead, who can live without bread or good victuals; but who
will agree to pay a higher rent, and become vassals, which the English
cannot bear: the overgrown jurisdiction of the nobility: the black rent
extorted by the Irish. These were the grievances submitted by the master
of the rolls, and it is a remarkable fact, that some of them remain
grievances at the present day.
Baron Finglas, who wrote in this reign, has some observations and
suggestions on the state of the country, to which we shall give a place
here, as they contain matter pertinent to our subject. "The four saints,
that is to say, St. Patrick, St. Colomb, St. Braghane, and St. Moling,
which many hundred years ago made prophecy, that Englishmen should have
conquered Ireland; and said, that the said Englishmen should keep their
own laws, and as soon as they should leave, and fall to Irish order,
then they should decay; the experience whereof is proved true. " First,
our sovereign lord the king should extend his gracious. power, for the
reformation of Leinster, which is the key and highway for reformation of
the remnant; and it is situated in an angle betwixt Waterford and
Dublin, wherein no mere Irishmen dwell, but the Kavanaghs, of whom
MacMorrough is captain, which cannot make horsemen pass two hundred, and
the Byrnes and Tooles, which cannot make one hundred horsemen, besides
the Irish inhabitants of their country, which be but naked men, as Kerne,
which were not in this hundred years more feeble to be conquered, than
they are now.
“To alleviate the king his charges to the reformation of Leinster,
there be divers abbeys adjoining to these Irishmen, which do give more
aid and supportation to these Irishmen, than to the king or his
subjects, part against their wills, which may be suppressed and given by
our sovereign lord the king to young lords, knights, and gentlemen out
of England, which shall dwell upon the same, besides other divers
manors, piles, and castles upon the borders, as hereafter following.
First the king's grace to give to one good English captain the abbey
of____________ " To another the castle of Leighlin, with the lands
adjoining. To another the castle of Catherlogh, with a barony adjoining.
To another the manors of Rathville and Clonemore,* with a barony to the
same."
The baron continues his suggestions for the amelioration of the
country, in the following terms : " The shire of Uriell (Louth) to cess
forty Kerne, the counties of Kildare and Catherlogh six score Kerne, and
their captains to be elected, and every captain to have their little
guidon"
That no Englishman of the land wear overslip Irish coat and hood on
pain of an hundred shillings toties quoties. " Whensoever the deputy
with his guard or other retinue come within any of the four shires, J
then the livered in the country and in the borough towns by the king's
harbinger shall be paid for every yeoman, horse and Kerne's meal, two
pence, and for every boy a penny a meal, and for every six sheaves of
oats a penny, every peck of oats sixpence, a gallon two pence; and that
they shall have such meat and drink as the husbandman hath, on whom he
is livered, and to take one manner of flesh sodden without waste,
neither to drive him to buy none, or other victuals; and that they play
no riot or evil order on pain of their lives."
“That every husbandman having a plough within the English pale, shall
set by the year twelve ashes in the ditches and closes of his farm, on
pain of two shillings”. " That no man having a plough of his own buy any
corn upon pain of forfeit twelve pence against every peck that he so
buy, until his own corn be all spent”. “That no Irish minstrels, rhymers,
shannaghs, or bards, be messengers to derive any goods of any man
dwelling within the English pale, upon pain of forfeiture of all their
goods, and their bodies to be imprisoned at the king's will. " That no
merchant buy no corn in sheaf upon pain of forfeiture of the same. "
That no merchant's wife use any tavern of ale upon pain of twenty
shillings, Mies quolies, as often as any of them do the contrary; but
let them be occupied in making of woollen cloth and linen. " That no ale
be sold above two pence the gallon, upon pain of eight pence, toties
quoties."
That all borough towns have good lodging to lodge the king's subjects
therein; and that the king's officers of the same town see that the
people be well lodged, and that they shall have victuals plentiful for
their money, and good cheap, and that they shall have six sheaves of
oats for a penny, and a peck of oats for six pence. "
That the borough towns be made sure and fast, and the customs yearly
be well bestowed upon the walls and ditches of the said towns on their
proper costs, six days in the month of March every year from
henceforward, to repair and make fast their walls and ditches. "
That there be but one maker of aquavita (or whiskey) in every borough
town, upon pain of six shillings and eight pence, toties quoties, as
many as do the contrary."
These suggestions of the baron throw considerable light on the state
and circumstances of our district, and of the country in general, in the
reign of Henry VIII.
In 1534, Lord Thomas Fitz-Gerald and others rose in rebellion. He had
at one time in his possession six of the chief castles in the kingdom,
of which that of Carlow was one. He was finally made prisoner and
beheaded, A.D. 1537.
A parliament was held on the 1st of May, 1537, at which the important
Act of Absentees was passed, by which Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk,
and lord Berkeley, his co-partner, were deprived of the county of
Carlow, which they inherited from Thomas de Brotherton, to whom allusion
has been already made. (8) We shall give an abstract of this document,
which closely affected the county of Carlow. The act commences thus: "
For as much as it is notorious and manifest, that the king's land of
Ireland heretofore being inhabited, and in due obedience and subjection
to the king's most noble progenitors, kings of England, who in those
days in the right of the crown of England, had great possessions, rents,
and profits within the same land, hath principally grown into ruin,
desolation, rebellion and decay, by occasion that great dominions,
lands, and possessions, within the tame land, as well by the king's
grants, as by course of inheritance, and otherwise descended to noblemen
of the realm of England.
Especially the lands and dominions of the earldoms in Ulster and
Leinster, who having the same both they and their heirs by process of
time, demoring within the said realm of England, and not providing for
the good order and surety of the same their possessions there, in their
absence and by their negligence’s suffered those of the wild Irishry,
being mortal and natural enemies to the kings of England, and English
dominion, to enter and hold the same without resistance, the conquest
and winning whereof in the beginning, not only cost the king's said
noble progenitors charges inestimable, but also those to whom they said
land was given, then and many years after abiding within the said land,
nobly and valiantly defended the same against all the king's said
enemies, and also kept the same in such tranquility and good order. The
kings of England had due subjection of the inhabitants there, the laws
obeyed, and of their revenues and regal were duly answered, as is any
other where within the realm of England, and after the gift or descent
of the said lands, possessions, and dominions, to the persons aforesaid,
they and their heirs absented themselves out of the said land of
Ireland.
Within the realm of England, not pondering nor regarding the
preservation thereof, the towns, castles, and garrisons appertaining to
them fell into ruin and decay, and the English inhabitants there in
default of defence and justice, and by compulsion of those of the
Irishry were exiled, whereby the said king's progenitors lost as well
their dominion and subjection there, as also all their revenues and
profits, and the said enemies by readopting or attaining the said lands,
dominions, or possessions, were elevated into great dominion, power,
strength, and puissance, for the suppressing of the residue of the
king's subjects of this land, which they daily ever since have
attempted, whereby they from time to time usurped, and encroached upon
the king's dominions, which hath been the principal cause of the
miserable estate, wherein it is at this present time, and those lands
and dominions by negligence, and in default of the very inheritors,
after this manner lost, may be good example to the king's majesty now
being, intending the reformation of the said land, to foresee and
prevent, that the like shall not ensue hereafter. When the noble prince
Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, and the lord Berkeley, his coparcioner,
claim and hold as their ancient inheritance, the seignories and
lordships of Catherlagh, (here other persons and their possessions are
named). Several lands and possessions within the said land, which both
they and their antecessors and predecessors, in semblable wise, not
regarding the defence nor good order of the same, divers times not only
have suffered the king's enemies to encroach and enter into their
dominions and possessions.
The recovery thereof, the king's highness that now is, his father and
grandfather, at divers and several seasons, have been put to inestimable
charges, and the same so by them attainted, the said inheritors and
possessioners have entered again into the said lands and possessions,
taking the profits thereof for a season, without provision making for
any defence or keeping thereof in good order, but making leases of
divers their holds and manors, to the late earl of Kildare (allusion is
here made to Kildare's rebellion, and the expense attendant on the
recovery of the castle of Carlow, and other places from him). Also
considering that the persons aforesaid, having heretofore the same lands
and possessions at their own disposition and order, perceived little
profit thereby, and yet by their negligence and misorder thereof, and
especially with the counties of Catherlagh and Wexford, being places
privileged by the king's said most noble progenitors, that the lords
thereof may keep and hold all manor pleas with the same, by occasion and
under pretence and colour whereof, the king's laws, writs, or other
processes be not obeyed, neither any other law or justice there used or
administered for the quieting and good Order of the king's subjects,
inhabitant* within the same, was in default, as well thereof as of a
governor to rule, order, and guide them, the king.'s enemies have
therein sewadge, all murders, robberies, thefts, treasons and other
offences, remain there unpunished, the king's wards, reliefs, escheats,
and all other his profits and revenues, being withdrawn, and the
service, strength, and assistance of the said subjects is greatly
minished, and for these and other divers hurts and enormities which been
like to ensue to the common weal of the said land, to the prejudice of
our sovereign lord the king and his heirs, by the misorder of the lands
and possessions belonging to any of the persons aforesaid, and in
respect of the inestimable charges which the king our sovereign lord
hath sustained, and apparently hath occasion to sustain, for and about
the conquest and recontinuance of the same out of his enemies'
possessions, by authority and reason wherof, albeit that his grace hath
lawful and sufficient right to all the said seignories, lands, and
possessions, and that if his grace would take of the inheritors and
possessioners of the same, the arrearages of the two parts of the yearly
profits thereof, by reason of their absence out of the said land,
contrary to the statutes thereof provided, the same would countervail
the purchase thereof: yet for corroboration of the right and title of
our said sovereign lord the king, and his heirs which he hath to all the
said lands, dominions and possessions; be it enacted, established, and
ordered by the king our sovereign lord.
The lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present
parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the king,
his heirs, and assigns, shall have, hold, and enjoy, as in the right of
the crown of England, all honours, manors, castles, seigniories,
hundreds, franchises, liberties, county palatines, jurisdictions,
annuities, knight's fees, advowsons, patronages, lands, tenements,
woods, meadows, pastures, reversions, remainders, rents services,
parsonages, vicarages, dismes, tithes, oblations, pensions, and all and
singular other possessions, hereditaments, and all other profits as well
spiritual as temporal whatsoever they be, which they said duke and his
comparcioner — (and others named) — all such right, title, interest,
use, possession, leases, rents, annuities, offices, and fees, as they
have in or to the premises or any parcel thereof, as if this act had
never been made." Then follows a proviso, preventing prejudice to
particular persons named; and a clause, enacting that obligation, &c.,
for the payment of rent out of the premises, he void. Thus was the
county of Carlow drawn from the possession of the duke of Norfolk. Great
part of it was afterwards granted to the Ormonde family, as will
hereafter more fully appear.
It has frequently happened, that great events have arisen from very
trifling causes. Of this, the Act of Absentees is an instance. Its
origin is thus handed down to us. The king was about promoting Aylmer,
chief justice of the common pleas, to the rank of lord chief justice of
the king's bench, when the earl of Shrewsbury (at the request of his
tenants in Waterford or Wexford) opposed the appointment, alleging, that
Aylmer was a silly, frivolous fellow, and unfit for such an office. The
king on hearing this, reprimanded Lord Cromwell for recommending such a
coxcomb to him. Cromwell, in reply, begged of the king to speak to
Aylmer, assuring his majesty, that he was misinformed. The king
consented, and Aylmer having appeared, he asked him the cause of the
decay of his dominions in Ireland. Aylmer answered, " that it was
because the stated men, who used to reside and defend their own estates
and countenance their tenants, did now generally dwell in England, and
left Ireland a prey to the natives: but that if his majesty would oblige
the stated men to residence, or seize their estates to his own use, he
would soon find a reformation." The king, pleased with this advice,
thanked Aylmer, and assured him the matter should be attended to in the
next parliament.
At the same period the following laws were enacted: 1, That the
clergy shall pay annates or firnt fruits ; that is, a year's profit, and
shall pay or compound before possession. 2, An act to suppress all
tributes, pensions, and Irish exactions, claimed by the Irish from towns
or persons, for protection. 3, An act for the suppression of abbeys. 4,
An act for destroying the weirs on the river Barrow, &c. 4, That no
subject shall be shaved above his ears, or wear glibs,(9) or crommeals
(moustaches), or linen died in saffron, or above seven yards of linen in
their shifts ; and that no woman wear any kirtie, or coat tucked up, or
embroidered, or garnished with silk, nor laid with usker after the Irish
fashion; and that no person wear mantles, coats, or hoods after the
Irish fashion, (except women, horse-boys, cow-hoys, and soldiers, at the
rising out and hosting, all which may wear mantles); and that everybody
shall endeavour to learn the English language and conform to the English
fashion, &c.*
On the 12th of May, 1537, the lord deputy (Leonard, lord Gray)
attacked the Kavanaghs, and compelled MacMorrough, their chief, to
submit and give hostages.
At a parliament held on the 5th February, 1541, it was enacted, that
electors in counties must have a freehold worth clear forty shillings
per annum, on pain of one hundred shillings; that the elected in
counties, cities, and towns must be resident ; and that the sheriff
shall forfeit one hundred pounds if he make a return contrary to this
act, and the party returned one hundred pounds more. A.D. 1542. The lord
deputy and council established the following temporary regulations by
proclamation, on the 12th July. That no horseman shall keep more garsons
or boys than horses, on pain of twenty shillings. That there be no more
exactions to maintain horse, foot, or kernes, or for the purpose of
waging internal war; and that coin and livery be no more taken, unless
by the deputy's order at a general hosting; that, nevertheless, the
captain of the county must have the usual contribution of the county,
for his own defence, and that of the public. That noblemen shall have
but twenty cubits or bandies of linen in their shirts; horsemen,
eighteen; footmen, sixteen; garsons, twelve; clowns, ten; and that none
of their shirts shall be dyed with saffron, on pain of twenty shillings.
No historians, mummers, or players to be permitted at Christmas, or
Easter.
This year, the O'Birnes of Wicklow submitted to the lord deputy, and
covenanted to find one hundred and twenty gallow- glasses (10) and their
servants for three months, when the counties of Carlow and Kildare do
so.
The act passed in 1537 for the suppression of religious houses, did
not remain a dead letter on the statute book. The government actively
engaged in the work of carrying its provisions into effect. There seem
to have been but three monastic establishments in our county at this
period, viz, Killarge, Tullow, and Leighlin-bridge. It is now for us to
notice the proceedings relative to them.
Nicholas Plunket was the last commendator, or preceptor of Killarge.
An inquisition taken on the Wednesday next after the feast of St.
Brandan, 33rd king Henry VIII, finds him seized of a castle and three
messages in Frereton, with two messages, one hundred acres of arable
land, and fifty-six of pasture and underwood in Courtown, annual value,
besides reprises, five pounds sterling; one hundred and sixty acres in
the said town of Russelstown, and sixteen acres in Tullowphelim, annual
value, besides reprises, four shillings; also the following rectories
appropriated to the said preceptor, Killarge, which extendeth into
Killarge, Frereton, and Courtown of Killarge, Russelstown, Betherestown,
Curdinheth, and Ballyurayn, annual value, besides reprises, eight pounds
sterling; Kylmakhill, which extendeth into Kylmakill, Carydagh,
Castlecoyle, Grangewelt, Poleston, Ballyshordan, and Ballynewaly, annual
value, besides reprises, seven
There can be very little doubt, that this is the Freineston, at which
the priest and congregation were burned, as lately noticed ; and from
the subsequent details, I am quite convinced, that it is the present
Friarstown, and that Killarge (also called Killergy) is the present
Killerig. Very probably, the priest and church above alluded to,
belonged to the preceptory of Killarge. The various ways of writing the
name of the same place observable in the Irish annals, leads to great
confusion and obscurity, and it much to be regretted.
pounds sterling; also Powerston, in O' Ryan's country, annual value,
besides reprises, twenty shillings. And another inquisition taken in
March, same year, nude, that the said commendator was seized of fourteen
acres of land in Miganne; all the said lands and rectories lie and are
situated in the county of Carlow. The estate of this establishment was
granted to Sir Gerald Aylmer.
William was the last prior of the Carmelite monastery at
Leighlin-bridge. By an inquisition taken on the Friday next after the
feast of conception of the blessed Virgin, 34th king Henry VIII., the
said William was found seized of a church and belfry, dormitory, hall,
two chambers and a kitchen, with a cemetery and a garden, containing one
acre; also twenty-four acres of pasture, and an eel weir in Leighlin,
annual value, besides reprises, two pounds, six shillings, and eight
pence. An inquisition, 3rd, Edward VI., finds, that the prior was also
seized of four acres of arable land near Clowe's orchard, in this
county, annual value, besides reprises, sixteen pence. This house seems
to have been converted to military purposes, more of it presently.
An inquisition taken on the Friday next after the feast of the
conception of the Virgin Mary, 34th, king Henry VIII., finds the
possessions of the friary of Tullow to be as follows, viz., a church and
belfry, dormitory, hall, three chambers, a kitchen, &c., forty-four
acres of arable land of the small measure in Tullowphelim, and sixty
acres of arable in Mallardiston, all in this county, annual value,
besides reprises, twenty-six shillings and eight pence. The estate of
this establishment was granted to Thomas earl of Ormonde. A.D. 1545.
This year, Cahir or Charles MacArt Kavanagh of Polmonty, and Gerald
MacCahir Cavanagh of Garryhill, had fierce contentions about their
territory. A pitched battle ensued, when one hundred on each side were
killed, but Cahir MacArt finally prevailed and secured possession of the
disputed estate.
We learn, that at the close of this reign, MacMorrough was granted
compensation for his black rent in the shape of a pension from the king.
King Henry VIII Died on the 28th January, 1547, in the thirty-eighth
year of his reign and fifty-sixth of his age.
("Spelling are as seen in the book")
CHAPTER XVIII
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