Freeholders of Kilfenora Diocese in 1601 Luke Mcinerney Independent Scholar
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A List of Freeholders of Kilfenora Diocese in 1601 LUKE MCINERNEY Independent Scholar ABSTRACT This paper presents a list of freeholders of Kilfenora Diocese in County Clare from 1601. The fortuitous survival of this list shows a snap-shot of Gaelic social hierarchies and landholding in an area almost wholly unaffected by anglicizing changes. The value of the list is its survey of land denominations and proprietorship and its focus on the church lands of the Corcomroe division of the diocese. It is speculated here that the list was compiled by a cleric at the cathedral chapter of Kilfenora and that its purpose was to ascertain church lands and property in order to put the administration of the diocese—including its revenues from the diocesan temporalities— on a more sure footing. –––––––––– Printed here for the first time is a list of chief freeholders in the northwest County Clare diocese of Kilfenora. The list was compiled possibly by a member of the cathedral chapter, in the year 1601, making it one of the earliest of its kind for County Clare. The list provides a rare glimpse of landholding among Gaelic freeholders in Kilfenora Diocese for a period beset by ecclesiastical and administrative change. It shows a diocese that had yet felt the full effect of the reformation and the encroaching anglicizing policies of the English Crown and its local supporter, Donough O’Brien, fourth earl of Thomond, and principal Gaelic loyalist of north Munster. Kilfenora diocese comprises eighteen parishes, and the greater part of it encompasses the ancient territorial division of Corcomroe and the Burren.1 The list is important because it shows a snap-shot of Gaelic landholding in an area that had not experienced colonization, displacement, or plantation, unlike other Gaelic lordships from the late-sixteenth century. The list transcribed here aids in understanding the ecclesiastical economy and landholding in one of Ireland’s most westerly and smallest dioceses. County Clare is an interesting and instructive area of focus because it was ruled by a loyalist Gaelic family, the Thomond O’Briens. Anglicization came about not because of a military conquest The author wishes to acknowledge the helpful advice of Dr Katharine Simms and Brian Ó Dálaigh in the preparation of this paper. 1 The parishes of the diocese are: Kilfenora; Killaspuglonane; Killilagh; Kiltoraght; Kilmacrehy; Kilshanny; Kilmanaheen; Clooney; Killeany; Kilcorney; Kilmoon; Killonaghan; Drumcreehy; Gleninagh; Noughaval; Rathborney; Oughtmama; and Carran. On the ancient territorial boundaries see: Seán hÓgáin, Conntae an Chláir: a triocha agus a tuatha (Baile Átha Cliath: Oifig an tSolathair, 1938). 60 EOLAS but rather by the co-operation of the O’Briens [Uí Bhriain], who sought English title to lands and administrative reform that favored their seigniorial position as members of the Irish peerage.2 Military service on the side of the Crown during the Nine Year’s War and the holding of high office, such as Donough O’Brien’s appointment as President of Munster (1615–1624), enabled the main branch of the Thomond O’Briens to continue to wield authority west of the Shannon in the family’s traditional sphere of influence. The anglicization process in County Clare may be traced to the establishment of English administration after Sir Henry Sidney, the Lord Deputy, progressed through Thomond in February 1576. On his circuit, he abolished the ancient customs of “coigny, kernetty and bonaght”3 and forced Conor O’Brien, the third Earl of Thomond, to acquiesce authority of the earldom to the New-English administration. This anglicization included the introduction of new forms of governance through the cooperation of the third, and later the fourth, earls of Thomond. Many of these new anglicizing reforms are articulated in the Munster Council Book,4 which charts those changes in law and tenurial conditions that were to have such a lasting and important effect on the economic, religious, and cultural practices in a region where, only several decades earlier, the Gaelic “fighting and feasting” culture prevailed.5 Another trend favoring anglicization was the introduction of the Established Protestant Church. Although its roots were to remain shallow in County Clare, by the 1620s, thanks largely to the efforts of John Rider, Bishop of Killaloe (1612–1632), Protestant parishes were operating, and the outward signs of a functioning Church began to take shape. The rebuilding of Bunratty parish church by its lay patron, the earl of Thomond, helped promote the cause of Protestantism in the county and gave it powerful lay backing.6 From around this time, the Protestant clergy increasingly were New-English benefice-holders rather than Gaelic clerics, and the episcopacy at both Killaloe and 2 On the transformation of noble culture in Ireland, including among the titled Gaelic lords, see: Jane Ohlmeyer, Making Ireland English: The Irish Aristocracy in the Seventeenth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012). 3 J. S. Brewer & William Bullen Esq., eds., Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts Preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, 1575–1588 (London: Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer, 1868), 116–7. 4 See: Margaret Curtis Clayton, ed., The Council Book for the Province of Munster c. 1599– 1649 (Dublin: IMC, 2008). 5 Ohlmeyer, Making Ireland English, 220–1. 6 Ohlmeyer, Making Ireland English, 151. 61 Freeholders of Kilfenora Diocese 1601 Kilfenora was held by English incumbents. The conversion of the main branches of the O’Briens to Protestantism in the late-sixteenth century went some way in enabling anglicized change to proceed and not undermine the religious or secular interests of the family, while also expanding their potential marriage unions with Protestant noble families. As a result of these changes in the administration of law and church governance, Donough O’Brien, fourth earl of Thomond, buttressed his authority by securing English title to lands, and did so by exploiting his extensive kin and clientage network. The earl’s hand was greatly strengthened in Thomond as a result of the introduction of Common Law and the expanding writ of Crown authority; such changes gave him freedom to consolidate his estates and privileged position without wholly abandoning his Gaelic role of head of the Uí Bhriain lineage.7 The earl was also responsible for the introduction of New-English and Dutch settlers in the early seventeenth century to spur mercantile growth in the newly-founded market towns of Sixmilebridge, Ennis, and Kilrush. His actions, which amounted to local colonization and commercialization, not previously experienced in Thomond, dispossessed many of his Gaelic followers. Commensurate with the anglicizing processes in County Clare, landholding and ownership was changing as Gaelic society was being modified by the consolidation toward powerful landholding magnates. These magnates had extensive mensal estates, control of which made them absolute owners of the soil, and their status was enhanced by a large train of followers,8 tenants, and dependent freeholders. Such a trend can be identified in County Clare where, from the mid-sixteenth century, the Uí Bhriain extended their landholding and sought to hold it under English title.9 This was achieved through the creation of the earldom of Thomond and the development of a system of manors and baronial courts on the Uí Bhriain [later O’Brien] estates. Following their ennoblement by King Henry VIII, the Uí Bhriain/O’Briens concluded 7 On Donough O’Brien, fourth earl of Thomond, and the anglicizing changes he initiated, see: Brendan Kane, The Politics and Culture of Honour in Britain and Ireland, 1541–1641 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 158–80. 8 An example are the O’Kellihers, “followers of the family of the O’Briens.” See: James Frost, The History and Topography of the County of Clare (Dublin: Mercier Press, 1893; reprt. 1978), 281. 9 On the political and religious changes of the Uí Bhriain (O’Briens) after receiving the grant of the earldom of Thomond in 1543, see: Brian Ó Dálaigh, “From Gaelic Warlords to English Country Gentlemen: The O’Briens of Thomond 1543–1741,” The Other Clare 25 (2001): 40–2. 62 EOLAS a number of agreements with lesser Gaelic lords that cemented their position as paramount overlords.10 The Thomond O’Briens were unique in that they were of Gaelic noble stock and received an English-titled grant of an earldom, while continuing to maintain a Gaelic retinue. Reminiscent of that, the will of the fourth earl instructs his heir not only to nurture his English tenants but also to nurture the “gentlemen and inhabitants of Thomond,” a clear reference to the dependents and traditional followers of the O’Briens.11 Kilfenora and the 1601 List Historically, the diocese of Kilfenora was concomitant with the territorial polity of the Corcu Modruad [Corcomroe]. This kin-grouping pre-dated the expansion of the Dál gCais into that part of the county, with the latter usurping the independent kingship of the Corcu Modruad and establishing their own royal fortress called Cathair Findabrach. This event was recorded in the annals under year 1055 when the Dál gCais, led by the Uí Bhriain, attacked Corcomroe and burnt their stone church of Kilfenora (Cill Findabrac).12 Dál gCais incursions into Corcomroe were not new, and the burning of Kilfenora was the culmination of three hundred years of incursions to subject the Corcomroe kings to the overlordship of the Dál gCais kings.13 From the mid-eleventh century, the ruling dynasties of the Corcu Modruad became vassal-tributaries of the Uí Bhriain, and their former kingship was transformed and downgraded into two lordships held by the leading dynastic lineages, the Uí Lochlainn [O’Loughlins] and the 10 Three such agreements survive: The c. 1570 agreement with the Meic Conmara, the 1582 agreement with the Uí Chonchobhair, and the 1591 agreement with the Uí Lochlainn.