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Kilkenny, Wexford, and Cashel, were obliged to submit in their turn. The publication of a general amnesty had, however, for a time, a tranquilising effect. This was the last official act of Lord Mountjoy, who shortly after returned to England. He was accompanied by Tyrone and O'Donnell, who were well received by the King. On this occasion Hugh O'Neill was confirmed in his honors and possessions, and Rory O'Donnell, brother to Red Hugh, who died in Spain, was created Earl of Tyrconnell. English law was now first introduced into the territories of these noblemen. Still the horrible persecution went on; in 1604, Redmond Galcorg, Bishop of Derry, and VicePrimate, was killed by the English soldiers-Analecta.

At this time a terrible pestilence, which was brought over from England, raged throughout Munster, and carried off three hundred of the citizens of Limerick. James Galway was mayor, for the second time; and David, son of Nicholas Comyn, and Thomas, son of Patrick Creagh, were bailiffs.'

Sir Arthur Chichester, the succeeding Viceroy, re-established the long disused custom of circuits in Munster and Connaught; and as an extension of Royal favor, Corporations were granted to several towns. The rising hopes of the Catholics in the tolerant principles of their new King were soon rudely blighted by the issuing of a proclamation, promulgating the act of Uniformity, and commanding the "Papist" clergy to depart from the kingdom. He had already sent orders to Dublin that the Act of Supremacy should be administered to all Catholic lawyers and justices of the peace, and that the laws against recusants should be strictly enforced; a commission was issued calling on respectable Catholics to watch and inform against such of their co-religionists as did not frequent Protestant churches, and some Catholics who had remonstrated and petitioned for religious liberty were committed to prison; Sir Henry Blunkard was President of Munster, and Edmond Fox being mayor of Limerick, was deprived of his office three weeks before Michaelmas day, for refusing to take the oath of supremacy and not going to church. Andrew Creagh Fitzjasper was chosen mayor in the place of Fox, for the remainder of the year, and this Creagh was the first Protestant mayor of the city. Fox was eleven months mayor-Creagh one month. Dominick Fitz Peter Creagh and James Woulfe were the bailiffs.2 Creagh was succeeded by Edmond Sexten, who had Christopher FitzEdward Arthur and Peter FitzThomas Creagh, bailiffs.3

In the year 1605, the customs of tanistry and gavelkind were abolished by judgment in the King's bench and the Irish estate thereby made descendible according to the course of the common law of England. In the year 1606, in order to atone for the severity of the proclamation against the Catholic Clergy, and to "quiet and oblige the Irish," as Cox expresses it, the king issued out a commission of grace under the great seal of England, to confirm the possessors of estates in Ireland, against new claims of the crown, by granting new patents to them. This if fairly carried out, was a very desirable and necessary measure, for a may be easily imagined, a great confusion of titles to estates had been occasioned by the troubles, and various changes which had happened in the kingdom, and whoever could not make out a clear and indisputable title to his estate, which considering the circumstances of the nation, for some time past was scarcely possible to do, lay completely at the mercy of the crown, and had no remedy except to compound

1 Arthur MSS.
2 Arthur MSS., White's MSS.
Cox, Hib. Ang. Davis's Reports.

3 Arthur MSS.

Ibid.

with the king on whatever terms he could, and to get a new grant of his estate. Hence the enquiries into defective titles, which took place in the early part of the reign of King James. These inquisitions were first proposed in the causes of MacBrian Gonagh, O'Mulryan and other septs in Limerick and Tipperary, who had expelled the old English colonies planted there, whose heirs not being known, the lands had escheated to the crown; most counties in Ireland afforded abundance of similar cases. Even of those who had imagined they had settled their possessions by composition, having covenanted to take out letters patent, the greater number had neglected to do so, and holding their lands only by the indenture of the composition made with Sir John Perrott, and not having performed the stipulations they stood in need of new grants to give them a lawful title to their estates. There was also a failure or alleged failure in an infinite number of other cases. This was an age of adventurers and projectors. Every body was at work in trying to find out flaws in people's estates; the Pipe rolls and the Patent rolls were searched for reserved rents and ancient grants, and no means left untried to force gentlemen to a new composition, or to the accepting of new grants at higher rents than before. It was not to be expected that the fair domains of O'Neill and O'Donnell, would escape the greed of these covetous projectors. The claims of O'Neill to the princely possessions of his ancestors were disputed under English laws, he was harassed by legal enquiries into title, until at last he was compelled to leave the country, partly by means of law fictions, and processes calling on him to appear and answer in the cause of the Protestant Bishop of Derry, against Hugh Earl of Tyrone, partly by a conspiracy, supposed to have been concerted against him by Cecil, but which was put into execution by Christopher St. Laurence, Baron of Howth, who entrapped the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, the Baron of Delvin and O'Cahane into a plot into which they may readily be believed to have fallen by the representations made by Howth, of the probability of new penal enactments against Catholics. This is the opinion of Mr. Moore3 and others, but it is extremely probable that the plot was contrived by Cecil, the artful author of the Gunpowder plot, and that the flight of the Earls was exactly what the government wanted, who immediately declared them rebels, and proceeded to confiscate their vast possessions in six counties of Ulster. O'Neill and O'Donnel with their families, sailed from Rathmullen on Lough Swilly, for Normandy, from which they proceeded to Rome, enjoying a pension from the Pope and the King. O'Donnell died the following year, O'Neill in 1608; Maguire at Geneva in 1608. The flight of the Earls, which may be said to have terminated the independence of Ireland, took place in 1607.

1 Carte's Ormonde, II. 264.

2 Carte's Life of Ormonde, ubi supra.

3 History of Ireland, vol. iv., p. 453, &c., &c.

♦ Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, vol. ii., p. 430; Anderson's Royal Genealogies, London, 1736.

CHAPTER XXI.

PERSECUTIONS ON ACCOUNT

OF RELIGION.EXECUTION OF JOHN BURKE, BARON OF BRITTAS.-A NEW CHARTER.-INDENTURE OF PERAMBULATION. -THE BATTLE OF THE MAYORS.

In the year 1609, according to some authorities, according to others' in 1610, occurred the cruel execution of John Burke, Baron of Brittas, who was adjudged to a terrible death, and all his property confiscated for the use of the king, merely because a priest had been found celebrating mass in his house. His life and death were holy. Being offered, says Carve, the restitution of all his goods and a remission of the sentence passed on him, if he would only embrace the Protestant faith, he is said to have replied, "I prefer far to save my soul, to become possessor of the entire world." His grand-daughter, Honora was married to the illustrious defender of Limerick, Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, and after his death at Landen in Flanders, to the Duke of Berwick.2

We extract from Rothe's Analecta, translated in the White MSS. a detailed account of this event, which is the best possible commentary on the pretended toleration of the hypocritical pedant, who now occupied the throne of England.3

1 Carve, a Tipperary man and notary apostolic, refers this event to 1610 in his "Annals of Ireland," page 315.

2 See O'Daly's History of the Geraldines, and Hibernia Dominicana, p. 565, where his daughter, a sanctified Dominican nun, is said to have died in 1646.

3 This illustrious champion of his faith was descended from such a noble family, and was possessed of so plentiful a fortune, as that Sir George Thornton, one of the chief governors of Munster, thought him to be a great match for his daughter, Grace Thornton, to whom the Lord Brittas was married, and had nine children by her. He formed a purpose of going to Spain, in order the more freely to enjoy the benefits of the Catholic religion, which at this time was greatly persecuted in Ireland; but his design being discovered to his father-in-law, Sir George, he so effectually managed with his fellow-governor, Sir Charles Wilmot, as entirely to prevent the Lord Brittas's departure. Being thus destuted in his journey he more fully and publicly performed all acts of the Catholic religion, by going openly to mass, assisting at sermons, having mass said in his own house, whither all the neighbours resorted to hear it; his domestic affairs he left entirely to his wife, and devoted himself entirely to religion, by harbouring and supporting ecclesiastics and religious persons, especially those of the order of St. Dominick. This, his conduct, being represented in a new light to Charles Mountjoy, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in his passage to Limerick, he thereupon forfeited the Lord Brittas's estate, and it was with the greatest interest and difficulty it was afterwards restored to him. He no sooner got possession, but he prepared a large hall in his house of Brittas for performing divine service therein the following Sunday, which was the first Sunday of October, and whither all those of the sodality of the rosary came to perform their devotions. When the President was informed of this, he sent one Captain Miller with a detachment of horse to apprehend Lord Brittas, just as divine service was going to begin. The congregation was alarmed, and through fear dispersed up and down; the Lord Brittas, with his chaplain and three or four servants, retired into a strong tower adjoining his house, into which they denied Miller or his troop admittance. The President made handle of this to have him proclaimed as rebel, which laid the Lord Brittas under the necessity of seeking shelter in foreign countries; to effect this he went to a distant seaport, in hopes of meeting with a ship to transport him, but he was disappointed, which made him seek for shelter in the inland country; but the edicts against him being published everywhere, he was discovered in Carrick, and apprehended by the magistrate of that town and confined in jail.

When his wife, who was with child, visited him in his confinement, his entire entertainment with her was inculcating on her the principles of the faith, the devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and that she may avoid all commerce with heretics; he, by her, wrote letters to father Edmond Hallaghan, the director of the Sodality, entreating him to have care of her instruction, and though she was big with child, by her husband's orders, she travelled from Carrick to Waterford, and from thence to Kilkenny, in quest of said director. The Lord Brittas, by the President's orders, was removed from Carrick to Limerick, where the President was to hold a court in a short time. On his trial the President assured him that he neither thirsted after his life, nor his estate, both which he should have, provided he conformed to the Protestant faith and religion; but the Lord Brittas absolutely refused to comply, or forsake the true religion he was educated

On the 3rd of March, 1609, King James I. granted a charter to Limerick.' The city was erected into a county, and the bailiffs were created sheriffs. This charter, and the proceedings subsequently taken, constitute matter of the highest importance in the History of Limerick. An inden

in. The two Lord Justices, whose office it was to try him, having remorse of conscience, evaded it, whereupon the President, with despotic authority, ordered Dominick Sarswell, the King's attorney, to try him, which he did, contrary to the dictates of his conscience. He asked the Lord Brittas if he would conform, as it was the King's pleasure, but was answered by him that he knew no king or queen who renounced the law and faith of the King of kings; thereupon Sarswill declared him guilty of high treason, and pronounced sentence of death against him, that he should be hanged, beheaded, and quartered, which sentence the said Brittas received with a joyful and cheerful countenance. When he was brought to the place of execution outside of the city, he behaved with the greatest devotion and composure, as if going to feast. When he was hanged, Sir Thomas Brown, and many other gentlemen, interceded with the President, that he should not be quartered, and their request was granted; his friends conveyed his body into town, and he was buried in St. John's church, Limerick, the 20th of December, in the year 1607. So far Rothe, who gives the date two years earlier than Carve.

His daughter, Eleanor Bourke, became a Dominican Nun, and died in 1646 in the Irish Dominican Nunnery of Lisbon, in the odour of sanctity.

On the 28th of July, 1618, Theobald De Burg, a relative of the above John Bourke, who married a daughter of the Earl of Inchiquin, was created Baron of Brittas by James I.; but he and Lord Castle Connell being in the Rebellion of 1641, were attainted and fled to France. On the accession of James II. they were restored to their estates, which they had forfeited. In the rebellion of 1688, they were again attainted, and lost their properties.

Brittas Castle was on the river Mulchair, in the Parish of Caherconlish.

This Charter recites the great sufferings of the city of Limerick in the rebellion of the Geraldines, their assistance to the King, in the war in Ulster, and in anticipation of the future services of the inhabitants toward the crown, proceeds to declare the city of Limerick a free city of itself. It grants to the mayor, bailiffs, and citizens, and inhabitants of the city, to be a body politic and corporate, by the name of the mayor, sheriffs and citizens of the city of Limerick, with the usual power to hold lands, to demise or assign them, to plead and be impleaded by their new corporate name. It confirms all their former possessions in the most large and ample manner, by whatever corporate name enjoyed, or by whatever legal title, grant, or proscription acquired. The Charter then proceeds to make the city of Limerick a county of itself, as already referred to under the head of "Limits," excepting thereout the King's Castle and the precincts thereof, one lower room under the Tholsel used as a common gaol for the county, and also the site of the Abbey of St. Francis and its precincts, being a fit place for holding the Assizes and Sessions for said County of Limerick, and confers full power for perambulating these boundaries. This Charter enables the mayor, sheriffs, and citizens to choose "one of the more honest or discreet citizens," to the office of mayor, to be chosen as theretofore; directs that instead of two bailiffs two sheriffs shall be chosen, and points out the mode of their election, and how vacancies in the office, by death or amotion, are to be filled up. It directs that all persons thereto free citizens shall continue so to be, and that in all things they shall be ordered and governed as formerly. It enables them to choose as many aldermen, serjeants at mace, and other officers as usual. It confers an exclusive Admiralty jurisdiction, both criminal and civil, over so much of the river Shannon as extends three miles north east of the city to the mouth of the main sea, with all creeks, banks, and rivulets within their limits; gives power to hold a Court of Admiralty or Record every Monday, before the Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen, any three or more of them (of whom the Mayor and Recorder are to be two), who were to keep the peace at the Shannon within these limits; to receive recognizances, to take fines and amercements, waifs, royal fish and other royal prerogatives, with a non-intromittent clause as to the Admirals of England and Ireland. A Society of merchants of the staple was incorporated by this Charter, by the name of "the Mayor, Constables, and Society of Merchants of the Staple of the City of Limerick;" with the privileges and franchises of the Merchants of the Staple of Dublin and Waterford. This Charter further constituted the Mayor, Recorder, and four of the Aldermen (a class first noticed in this Charter), Justices of the Peace for the county of the city; the four Aldermen to be annually elected as therein mentioned and thereafter noticed; and empowered any three or more of them, of whom the Mayor and Recorder were to be two, to hear and determine within the city, at all times to be appointed by them, all felonies and other crimes, except treason, misprision of treason and murder, and do all things in relation thereto as belonged to the office of Justice of the Peace. This Charter also granted to the Corporation all fines, escheats, and amercements, in as ample a manner as the Corporations of Dublin, Waterford, and Cork enjoyed the same, except such royal fines as should be imposed on the sheriff or coroners of the said county of the city of Limerick; the fines as granted, (except as aforesaid) to be collected by their own officer, to be applied to the repair of the walls, bridges, and other necessary uses of the city; and lastly, it enabled them to hold lands, &c. to the value of £40 per annum, notwithstanding the statute of mortmain.

ture of perambulation' was made on the 31st August, 1609, between Donat, Earl of Thomond, Bernard, Lord Bishop of Limerick, Sir Francis Barkley, Knight, and Sir Thomas Browne, Knight, on the one part; and the mayor,

1 The indenture recites letters patent dated 3rd of March, 6th James I. and states that the Commissioners have perambulated, measured, limited, meared, and bounded unto the said mayor, sheriffs, and citizens, three miles of land, and they declare the said county of the city of Limerick to extend and reach to the bounds of all parts, according to the admeasurements, as they are hereinafter declared, and that the under written towns, castles, lands, and hamlets, and other places named for mears, limits, and bounds, are the extreme bounds, limits and true mears of the said city-three miles from the exterior of the said city, east, west, and south.*

The first bound, mear, or limit, from St. John's Gate, is and doth extend to the new small hillock, round, or moat, made by the causea on the west of Killcowline, betwixt Roshard on the east, and Gortdromagh, west, Gortnehowyle, north-west, all which is the mear of Kilcowline and Walshestown.

The second mear, or bound, is another round which draweth from the first, eastward, standing upon the hill south-east of Carrigparson; the town and lands of Carrigparson lieth within the same, toward the city.

The third mear, or bound, is at the Shannon, directly from the castle of Downashe upward, drawing along the small current or water of Aghanenegorte, and so as the said brook or water runneth east to the moore called Maen Cnockenrewe, so directly to Ballibarrie, leaving the town and castle out, but not the land of Ballybarrie, within the said compass, and the bound to go through the next ford by West Skarte Iree, the towns of Coole Ilenan, Carromartine, Cloneclive, the Gransagh, Garren Ikie, Garrinoe, Cnockenrewe, Clonetwnyh, Aghbegge, Carotanevoye and Careonebellye, and so from Ballybarrie, making directly to the former round or moate, standing on the hill by East Carrigparson aforesaid, within which bound these towns are contained, viz., the two Killonans, Conyheigh, Newcastle, Callagh Itroye, Curraghkip, Ballyreine, Lyshlian, Kilbane, Bealaghennolyne, Bealasymon, Cowell, Sheynan, Kilpatricke, Garriglasse, the Renaghe, Dromrave, Ardmore, Cnockananto, Touryne, Carrigparson, Carnarrie; Walshe his Towne, Balibrowne, Balliogarhie, the Parke Drowmbanyhs; the mear, limit, and bounds, taken from Mongerett-gate, in Limerick, goeth directly to Ballinecurugh, and so directly to the two Mongeratts, Clough Kettine, and so to Brienduffe O'Brien his mill, called the Mill of Claren Icokye, from the said mill to the ford of Cloghtokie, from the ford of Cloghtokie to the ford of Anagh frestie, as the brook or water between both fords runneth, including the Town and Lands of Cloghtokie aforesaid, wholly to be of and in the county of the city of Limerick, from the ford of Anagh Irestie to the ford of Leyme Ineigh, as the water or brook between both fords runneth from the ford of Leyme Ineigh to the church and trees of Cnock negawell, from the church of Cnocknegawell along to the stone in the middle of the moore, holding direct course by the hedge of Cnockballinevrahir, and to the height of the same, and by the dyke or hedge directing up the hill along to the moate on the top of the said Hill of Ballinebraher, from the said moate on the top of Cnockballynebraher to the town of Ballinebraher, and through the land that goeth through the middle of the said town, and so along through the lane, southward, by Caher Ivaghellie, including all the lands thereof, to be of and in the county of the said city of Limerick, and so along the highway called Boherbane, close by the land of Lykydowne, leaving the ploughland of Boherhod and Ballyneffrancke without the said mears and bounds, from the lands of Luckdown to the eastward of Carrigmartin, from Carrigmartin downward the lowe waie, westward to the Hedge of Walshestowne, belonging to the Lord Bourcke, where there is a moat erected, and from thence to the first moat above declared, erected at the causea of Kilcowline, which is the first mear or bound assigned in length from the said city of Limerick, the mear taken from the mills of Brienduffe's, called the mill of Claun Icekie, drawing to the north-west as the watercourse thereof runneth through the Bog of Campire, and then leading to the bog directly, to the

* This admeasurement of 1609, which created the county of the city, "three miles every way, in and through the County of Limerick, from the exterior part of the city walls," does not include the North Liberties; and the boundary east, west, and south, exceeds the limit of three miles as prescribed by the Charter. The North Liberties are on the County of Clare side of the river. Their limits are at equal distances from the city, varying from one to three statute miles. They are referred to, and in part defined in the Inquisition taken A.D. 1615, and Epitonus, pp. 138-9, 40. The South Liberties extend on the County of Limerick side of the Shannon in every direction, from four to five statute miles. Whether that part of the river Shannon, between the confines of the Liberties and the sea, is part of the county of the city, has been questionable, but it is generally considered to be so. Offences committed on the river, between the confines of the Liberties and the sea, are triable, and have been tried in the city in one memorable capital instance, in particular, hereafter referred to. In 1854, the late Alderman Henry Watson, Mayor, accompanied by the Corporation, sailed to Scattery Island, where he exercised Admiralty rights. On this occasion, a Revenue Cruiser, then in the Shannon, saluted the Corporation Steam-boat, which was also saluted as it passed Cratloe, the residence of the late Augustus Stafford, Esq. M.P.

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