Ancient Baronage of Ireland, with a Comparative Examination Into The
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I LLINO I S UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN PRODUCTION NOTE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Brittle Books Project, 2011. COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION In Public Domain. Published prior to 1923. This digital copy was made from the printed version held by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was made in compliance with copyright law. Prepared for the Brittle Books Project, Main Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by Northern Micrographics Brookhaven Bindery La Crosse, Wisconsin 2011 f .+ f4;4 . "4Y+ 4 ti DJ>7Y2, z;;"=. ,. : t4 .T r t r: _4. i r ri iV& c Wt y ;, . 1,<. 1 4 2 4 r , rt .; \ ,_ y r 'V 1> . 7 _ , ._ i , ( . : , ._ Li kYt t.: . :is / y 4 Tl f '' ti 1. f f .4 s' )S ,q , a i , y ._ 1?* '. L ':F a:j rC' :V t44 4 r' r 3(' °4,+t ;,,; , *AR ,'SL.r. : o4 'p / /"t j f, F 1 }4 tom,. I...-: . ,I Vit : ' Y ' . ; i,. 1 ' NT ' -' s ', t . ; t. Y I4:. / "' 1 4S y II'.. sN /1 ; S-2 . 46. 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"For the Lords Temporal, though there are yet but few, yet was their number less before King Henry VIII. was styled King of Ire- land. For since that time, divers of the Irish nobility, and some de- scended of English race, have been made Earls and Barons." P. 186. -Inaugural Speech of Sir John Davis, when elected Speaker of the Irish House of Commons in 1613. Printed Collection of Original State Papers in the Royal Library,presented to the British Museum. -Hibernia. TO THE DUKE OF LEINSTER (BARON OF OFFALEY); THE MARQUISSES OF LANSDOWNE (LORD OF KERRY), ORMOND (BARON OF ARKLOW), AND WESTMEATH (LORD OF DELVIN); THE EARLS OF FINGALL (LORD OF KILLEEN), AND HOWTH (LORD OF HOWTH); THE VISCOUNTS BARRY OF BUTTEVANT, ROCHE OF FERMOY, AND GORMANSTON (LORD OF GORMANSTON); AND THE LORDS KINGSALE, SLANE, AND DUNSANY. My LORDS, Having, by his Majesty's command, proved before the high legal officer, to whom his Majesty was most graciously pleased to refer my claim to the dignity held from time imme- morial by my ancestors, and that.public functionary having officially reported, that I am the heir male of the Lords Birmingham of Athenry, Premier Barons of Ireland, I hold my peerage by precisely the same right by which you all, as heirs- male of the persons first en- nobled, hold your ancient dignities; namely, by the usage and law of Ireland, the sole regulator of the ancient peerage of Ireland. By one of the provisions of the A~t of Union, it is declared that no peer of Ireland shall have the privilege of voting for representative peers, A2 until he shall have proved his right to do so at the bar of the House of Peers. To this form, therefore, we must all submit when we wish to exercise that particular privilege. But this law does not, in any way, deprive those amongst you, who have inherited your peer- ages in strict accordance with the law of Ire- land, and who have not yet thought it neces- sary to claim that privilege, from enjoying all the other privileges attached to your birthright. To you, my Lords, any explanation of the indefeasible right from which you derive that noble inheritance, is unnecessary; but as mis- representations upon the subject have been studiously circulated, it has become necessary to meet them by a plain statement of facts, which, although familiar to your Lordships, and well known in Ireland, may perhaps be new to the generality of the English public. I have the honour to be, My Lords, Your faithful and obedient servant, Dalgan House, ATHENRY County of Galway, 1st July 1833. ***The usage adopted at the election of representative peers for Scotland, of summoning the whole roll of ancient peers, whether in the present enjoyment of their dignities or not, will explain the principle upon which I have inserted the full list of the ancient Barons, to whom I address myself. ANCIENT BARONAGE OF IRELAND, S' Sc. THERE does not exist either in England, Scot- land, or Ireland, any positive law or enactment regulating the descent of peerages. That ques- tion has therefore always been decided, either by the general usage, or lex loci, of each country; or by the terms of the instrument by which each peerage was created, if it can be produced; or by precedents, in individual cases, of a former course of descent varying from and controlling the general rule with regard to those particular peerages. In England, where, owing to the regu- larity and care with which the public records have been preserved, the date and mode of cre- ation of every peerage can be proved by record, the descent of the great majority of its peerages is regulated by the limitations contained in their respective patents of creation. The remainder, which are termed peerages by writ, or in fee, as they originated in a form peculiar to the usage of England, so their descent has also been regu- lated solely by the same rule. A royal writ of summons to a commoner selected by the king to attend the Parliament of England, followed by obedience to that summons, has, without any intimation of any ulterior intention or effect contained in the terms of that writ, been en- abled, by the mere force of usage, to create an 6 hereditary peerage; and the same law of usage has determined the descent of the dignity so created to the lineal heirs, whether male or female, of the person so ennobled. The Committee of Peers selected by the House of Lords, to enquire into and report upon the nature of the dignity of the Peerage, (cer- tainly the highest authority upon such a sub- ject,) after the most elaborate investigation, state it to be their opinion that until the reign of Richard II., no peerage was considered in England to be inheritable, as of right, by a female. " From this and many other corresponding circumstances," they say in their 3rd Report, p. 195, " there seems ground to infer that the dignity of the Peerage was not at that time (11th Edward III.) considered as being capable of being claimed as the right of a female by descent; but on failure of heirs male, whether there was only one, or there were many heirs female, the dignity was considered at the king's disposal." And again, p. 209 : " The recital in this patent, that 'William Earl of Suffolk had died without heirs male, without mentioning whether he had left heirs of the body of his father or not, may perhaps be deemed to shew that the grant of a dignity to a man and his heirs was then (9th Richard II.) considered as a grant to heirs male only, unless the king .should think fit to extend its operation to heirs general." In treating of baronies by writ, these noble reporters state, that " it seems to be only an inference of law derived from usage, which has extended the operation of such a writ beyond the person to whom it was directed." In their 4th Report, p. 341, they say: "The first decision on the subject seems to have been in 1673, on the claim of the dignity of Lord Clifton; and the House, by referring the case to the consideration of the Judges, may be con- sidered as having had doubts what ought then to be deemed the law on the subject, and as having treated the question as a question of difficulty. Before that decision the law cannot be deemed to have been clearly settled; but on what ground the Judges gave their opinion that the honour descended from Jarvis Clifton to his daughter and heir, does not clearly appear; and if they had before them all the cases in which the heirs of a person summoned, had not been afterwards summoned, they must have conceived that those heirs had been unjustly deprived of their right of inheritance, unless they fixed on some point of time when they conceived usage had created a new law on the subject." Thus we find that the usage of England forms the sole rule and law for regulating the descent of English Peerages. In their 1st Report, p. 391, the Lords' Com- mittee state that: " In the 5th of Richard II., an ordinance was made, giving further sanction to the recognition of rights founded on usage in forming the legislative assemblies of the realm." That the ancient law of Scotland, derived equally " by inference" from its general usage, coincided with the ancient law of England in limiting its peerages to heirs male, was decided by the House of Peers ii 1762, in the'case of the Scottish Peerage of Borthwick.