Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History Read online

  bridewell. Originally the name of a sixteenth-century London prison, the term came to describe a prison, a prison for vagrants or a house of correction.

  Bright clauses. Provisions in Gladstone’s Landlord and Tenant Act (1870) which enabled tenants to purchase their holdings in the Landed Estates Court with the assistance of an advance of two-thirds of the purchase price from the Board of Works. The loan was to be repaid over 35 years at 5%. The scheme was conceived by John Bright who had prompted similar provisions in the earlier Irish Church Act (1869).

  British Relief Association. A philanthropic society founded in January 1847 to relieve distress in remote areas of Ireland and Scotland. About £470,000 was raised in England, America and Australia, a considerable portion of which derived from subscribers responding to the issuing of a ‘Queen’s Letter’ in which Queen Victoria appealed for aid for Ireland. Victoria herself contributed £2,000. Unlike the Quakers, the British Relief Association did not establish an administrative structure in Ireland to disburse aid. It chose to channel its funds through the British treasury which loaned and granted money to the most distressed unions. Count Strzelecki, the association’s Irish agent, clashed with Charles Trevelyan, the treasury secretary, over the manner in which the money was distributed but succeeded in diverting only a small proportion of the funds towards feeding needy schoolchildren in the west. Trevelyan’s control over the destination of aid was unfortunate in that he was able to apply it for purposes that would otherwise have required exchequer funding. By autumn 1848 – when the need for relief was increasing – the association’s funds were all but exhausted and it began to wind up its Irish operation. As well as feeding schoolchildren, the British Relief Association aided 22 distressed unions and part-aided a further 25. (Kinealy, This great calamity, pp. 161–2 passim.)

  broadcast. The sowing of seed by hand.

  Brotherhood of Arms of St George. A force established by the Irish parliament in 1474 comprising thirteen nobles, 120 archers and forty horse to assist in the defence of the Pale. To finance the force a tax of twelve pence in the pound (poundage) was imposed on goods being transported into and out of Ireland. This short-lived force was abolished in the 1490s.

  Brunswick constitutional clubs. Rabidly anti-Catholic clubs which appeared following O’Connell’s by-election victory in Clare in 1828. They were opposed to the granting of Catholic emancipation and committed to the belief that only through solidarity and unity could Protestant interests be safeguarded. The name was taken from the duke of Brunswick who presided at a dinner at which the idea for such clubs was first floated. They were a mirror image of the Catholic Association even to the extent of collecting a ‘Protestant rent’. About 200 clubs were formed with a largely aristocratic membership. Brunswick clubs replaced the lodges of the Orange Order which had been outlawed in 1825 along with the Catholic Association under the Unlawful Societies Act (6 Geo. IV, c. 4). After the granting of Catholic emancipation the clubs gradually declined as the Orange Order (legal again since the expiration in 1828 of the Unlawful Societies Act) became the vehicle through which anti-Catholic feeling was channelled. (Haddick-Flynn, Orangeism, pp. 231–3, 235; O’Ferrall, Catholic emancipation, pp. 207–209.)

  buannacht, bonnacht, bonnaught, bonaght. (Ir.) The free quartering of mercenaries on the country by a Gaelic lord as a cost-free stratagem for retaining a standing force. In the sixteenth century the quartering of troops was replaced by a tax (bonaght beg) which was proportionally levied on every ploughland. English commentators often confused the terminology so that the mercenaries themselves became known as bonaghts. Buannacht was known and employed as coyne and livery within the Pale. See coshering.

  buckram. Coarse linen cloth stiffened with glue.

  budge, buge. Lambskin fur with the wool outwards which was used to trim jackets.

  bulk. A ship’s cargo.

  bulk, to break. To unload or partially unload a ship’s cargo.

  bulkies. A municipally-controlled police force which operated in Belfast from 1816 until 1865 when it was abolished and its policing duties assumed by the Irish Constabulary. (Griffin, The bulkies.)

  bullaun. (Ir., bollán, a small bowl) A quern or stone containing a bowl-shaped depression into which grain was poured and ground with a stone pestle.

  bundle. Of linen yarn, 60,000 yards.

  bundling. A custom which enabled an engaged couple to sleep together and enjoy the comfort and warmth of the marriage bed but without engaging in sexual intercourse.

  bungal. (Ir., bonn geal, white groat) A Tudor silver groat known in Irish as a bonn geal and anglicised as ‘bungal’.

  burials. After the Reformation Catholics continued to be buried in their local graveyards although by law these were now in the custody of the Established church. Until 1824 it was believed by some Protestants that Catholic and dissenter burial services were prohibited in Church of Ireland graveyards and the only service that could be performed was that prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer. By 9 Will. III, c. 1 (1697) burials within the precincts of former monasteries, abbeys or convents where divine service was not celebrated were forbidden but in rural areas this was ignored. In the cities Catholics were interred in their local graveyards and had prayers recited over their graves by Catholic priests. Local Protestant ministers raised no objections to this practice because they received burial fees without having to perform a service. In September 1823, at the instigation of the archbishop of Dublin, the sexton of St Kevin’s church in Dublin, intervened in the burial of Arthur D’ Arcy to forbid the recitation of graveside prayers by a priest. Catholics were outraged and a government attempt to legislate its way out of the embarrassment with the Easement of Burials Act (5 Geo. IV, c. 25, 15 April 1824) actually worsened the situation. The Catholic Association attacked as intolerable the provision that non-Anglican clergymen must apply to the Church of Ireland minister for permission to assist at gravesides and embarked on a campaign to purchase distinctly Catholic burial sites. Within a few years both Goldenbridge (1829) and Glasnevin (1832) were operative and Church of Ireland ministers were left to rue the sexton’s meddling as the well of burial fees dried up. (FitzPatrick, History; O’Brien and Dunne, Catholic Ireland, p. 51.)

  burgage. The holding of a burgess, recognisable by a narrow street frontage and a long narrow garden behind the house.

  burgess. A town inhabitant or citizen of a borough with full citizenship rights. Statute conferred a considerable array of privileges on burgesses, the most important of which included the granting of burgage holdings at an annual rent of one shilling per annum, the right of burgesses to own their own hundred court and the entitlement to a share in common fields. This set of privileges was known as the law of Breteuil. The offer of burgess status during periods of colonisation was probably a lure to attract settlers. Members of municipal corporations, usually to the number of 12 or 13, were also known as burgesses and possessed important privileges in relation to the election of parliamentary representatives. See borough.

  burning and paring. See bettimore.

  buddachan. (Ir.) A measure of oysters containing 360 oysters. One bushel contained two-and-a-half buddachans and weighed one hundredweight.

  bushel. A measure of capacity and weight characterised by great regional diversity. In terms of capacity the bushel is equivalent to four pecks, eight gallons or 32.239 litres. The imperial bushel, established in 1826, contains 80 pounds liquid measure or 60 pounds in weight, the Tudor Winchester bushel slightly less at 77.6 pounds. See barrel.

  butt. A cask for wine or ale, the capacity of which varied according to the commodity. A butt of ale contained 108 to 140 gallons whereas a butt of wine contained 126 gallons. Two hogsheads were equivalent to a butt or pipe and two butts or pipes were equivalent to a tun.

  butlerage. See prisage.

  buying. See ceannuigheacht.

  byre dwelling. A one-roomed house in which animals are stabled at one end and people inhabit the other. Known as a ‘long house’ in En
gland. (O’Neill, Life, pp. 12–13.)

  C

  c. See cap.

  cadastral. Of or having to do with the extent, boundaries, value and ownership of real property. Cadastral surveys such as Griffith’s Valuation were conducted for taxation purposes.

  caddow. A coarse, woollen blanket or covering.

  cairn. A mound of stones heaped over a prehistoric tomb.

  caiseal. A rath or ring-fort enclosed by a bank or banks of stone and usually located in areas of stony ground. Also known as a cathair.

  calabar, calaber. The fur of a red squirrel.

  calendar. 1: Roman. There were twelve months in the Roman calendar, each of which was subdivided into calends, ides and nones. Calends was always the first day of the month and nones the ninth day before ides counting both days. As ides fell on either the thirteenth (all months except March, May, July or October) or the fifteenth, nones always fell on the fifth or seventh. Dates were reckoned according to the number of days forward to each one. Thus, IV Non. Jan. was 2 January, nones being the fifth. Calends was reckoned in relation to the next month, III Kal. Jan. being 30 December 2: Gregorian. In 1752 the inaccurate Julian calendar was replaced in Britain and Ireland by the Gregorian calendar which had been operative in Catholic Europe since 1582. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar was attended by two significant adjustments. The discrepancy between the Julian and Gregorian calendars was resolved by advancing the calendar 11 days and the civil and religious year was reconfigured to commence on 1 January rather than 25 March. This latter change has historiographical implications in terms of dating events prior to 1752. To avoid confusion historians normally cite the year according to new style and the day and month according to the old. Thus a contemporary document dated the 15 February 1641 (old style) is modernised as 15 February 1642 (new style). An alternative is to write 15 February 1641/2. See regnal years 3: A chronologically-arranged catalogue or repertory of abstracts of documents (and sometimes documents in their entirety) which serves as an index or finding aid for documents of a given period.

  Calendar of state papers relating to Ireland. A 24 volume series containing abstracts of selected correspondence largely from officials in Ireland to the king and organs of government in England for the period 1509–1670. The originals can be found in the State Papers Ireland collection (SP60–63, SP65) in the Public Record Office, London, and on microfilm in the National Library, Dublin. Correspondence for the period 1671–1704 is included in the 81 volume Calendar of state papers, domestic. (Calendar of state papers; Calendar of state papers preserved.)

  calends. See calendar, Roman.

  caliver. A light arquebus-type firearm which, unlike the arquebus, was not rested on a support or tripod when in use.

  calotype. The name given by Charles Fox Talbot to the photographic process invented by him in 1841. Also known as the Talbotype, the photograph was produced by the action of light upon silver iodide, the latent image being subsequently developed and fixed by hyposulphite of soda. The calotype was ousted by Archer’s collodium process, paper giving way to glass and a substratum of collodion. (Chandler, Photography.)

  Calvinism. The doctrines and practices derived from the religious teaching of John Calvin (1509–1564). These include a belief in the superiority of faith over good works, that salvation is achieved solely by the grace of God, that only the elect will be saved (predestination), that the bible is the sole authority for Christian teaching and that all believers are priests. The Calvinist concept of universal priesthood was realised in a presbyterian ministry rather than an episcopal or hierarchical church organisation. See Independents, Presbyterian, regium donum, Synod of Ulster.

  Cambrensis Eversus. The work of John Lynch (1599–1673), a Catholic priest and historian, Cambrensis Eversus (1662) refutes the biased portrayal of Ireland presented by Topographia Hiberniae and Expugnatio Hibernica, the works of the twelfth-century Pembrokeshire historian, Giraldus Cambrensis (1146–1223). Cambrensis’ writings remained in manuscript form until they were published by William Camden in 1602. Their publication fuelled existing anti-Irish sentiment in England and attracted a critical response from Geoffrey Keating (1634) and from Lynch who had fled into exile in France in 1652 following the surrender of Galway. Lynch, whose pseudonym was Gratianus Lucis, also published Alinithologia, an apologia for those confederates who sided with Ormond against the Rinuccini faction. See Foras feasa ar Éirinn.

  Cambrensis, Giraldus. See Expugnatio Hibernica and Topographia Hiberniae.

  Camden, William (1551–1623). English antiquarian and the author of Britannia, a topographical survey of Britain and Ireland (1586 and enlarged later), and Annales rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha, a two-volume account of the history of Ireland and England under Elizabeth (completed 1617). Only 35 not very reliable pages were dedicated to Ireland in the first edition of Britannia but accuracy improved in later editions when Camden was assisted by James Ussher.

  Campion, Edmund (1540–81). Campion, an English Jesuit martyr, wrote the Histories of Ireland in Dublin in 1569. It was first used by Stanihurst in Holinshed’s Chronicles (1577) and was published by Sir James Ware in 1633. The work is heavily pro-Old English as one might expect for Campion was a guest of Old English families for two years from 1570–1.

  canebeg. (Ir., cáin beag, small tax) A small tributary entitlement of the wife of a Gaelic lord out of certain lands.

  canon. 1: A priest who lived like a monk 2: In Ireland, a minor member of the cathedral chapter, such as the vicars choral but prebendaries were also canons. The canons were responsible for the conduct of religious services in the cathedral 3: A general ecclesiastical rule or decree governing the conduct of public worship 4: The list of acceptable scripture books.

  canonical portion. A kind of death duty levied by the church on a deceased woman. The taking of mortuaries on the death of married women was forbidden in 1621.

  canting. The auctioning of leases of land by private bids. In nineteenth-century Ireland this encouraged prospective tenants to bid beyond their means.

  cantred. A barony. In Irish, tricha-cét.

  cap. (usually c.). Chapter, as in 23 Vict., cap. 27 which means the twenty-seventh chapter of the statutes enacted in the twenty-third year of the reign of Queen Victoria. See regnal years.

  capell lands. Gaelic spatial measure. In Kilkenny, three capell lands were equivalent to a ploughland or about 100 acres. In Tipperary, the equivalent of 20 great acres, each acre containing 20 English acres. See great acre.

  capias. A writ commanding the sheriff to perform an arrest or seizure, so-called because the warrant contains the instruction ‘That you take’ or ‘Thou mayest take’. The four forms of capias were:

  Capias ad respondendum, employed to compel attendance at court.

  Capias ad satisfaciendum, after judgement, a warrant to jail a defendant until the plaintiff’s claim had been met.

  Capias utlagatum, a warrant to arrest an outlaw. Capias in withernam, a warrant to seize the chattels of a person who has made an illegal distraint. See witherman.

  capital. The head of a column which is located at the top of the shaft.

  capital messuage. The manor house.

  capite, in. Land held directly from the crown without an intermediary ownership. The tenant was known as a tenant-in-chief or chief tenant and was liable for the feudal incidents of wardship, marriage, relief and escheat. Together with other ancient tenures, tenure in capite was abolished in 1662 (12 Chas. II, c. 24) by Charles II. See Tenures Abolition Act.

  capstone. The flat stone or cover-slab which was supported by a number of large vertical stones and covered in a mound of smaller stones to form a cairn.

  Capuchins. An austere, reforming offshoot of the Franciscans, the Capuchins (in full, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, abbreviated OFM Cap.) were founded in 1525 and arrived in Ireland in 1615. They were committed to an even stricter adherence to the rule of poverty than the observants. The name derived from the fou
r-cornered hood they wore, the cappuccio. See conventualism.

  Caravats and Shanavests. Two conflicting groups which flourished in Munster and some Leinster counties between 1806–11. Formerly regarded as a faction-fighting phenomenon, the struggles of Caravats and Shanavests is now interpreted as a physical expression of the tension that existed between landless labourers (Caravats) and small farmers (Shanavests). Economic factors such as the collapse of grain prices, a shift from tillage to livestock and a rise in cost and decline in availability of conacre land worsened the plight of labourers whose numbers had increased disproportionately since the beginning of the century. The outrages and feuding associated with the Caravats and Shanavests were perpetuated by other secret societies attempting to control conacre rents and improve labourers’ wages. See Ribbonism, Whiteboys. (Ó Muireadhaigh, ‘Na Carabhait’, pp. 4–20; Roberts, ‘Caravats’, pp. 64–101.)

  card. 1: To comb wool 2: Carding was a vicious lacerating of the back perpetrated by members of agrarian secret societies against those regarded as enemies. It was inflicted by raking the back with a wool comb. (Beames, Peasants, p. 80.)

  Carew Manuscripts. A vast archive of documents assembled by Sir George Carew (1555–1629) during his service in Ireland as master of the ordnance and president of Munster. The originals are preserved in Lambeth Palace and the Bodleian Library but many have been calendared. Carew’s sojourn in Ireland in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries embraced the period of the Nine Years War, making his papers an invaluable source for the study of the period. (Calendar of the Carew manuscripts.)

  carrageen. An edible seaweed also used to make jellies, aspics, blancmanges and beverages.

  carrow, carrughes. (Ir., cearrbhach, a gamester) An itinerant gambler. According to Edmund Spenser, carrows were ‘a kind of people that wander up and down to gentlemen’s houses, living only upon cards and dice’. In 1571 Sir John Perrot directed that all carrows, bards and rhymers were to forfeit their goods and chattels and be placed in stocks until they had committed themselves by way of surety to forsake their respective trades.