by Joseph Byrne
Census of Ireland circa 1659. Edited by Seamus Pender and published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission, the Census of Ireland circa 1659 is now accepted to be the poll tax parish aggregates for 1660. It records the name and rank of local ‘tituladoes’ or gentry and the number of persons (English and Irish) above the age of 15 years in each parish. It also lists the principal Irish names and their number in each barony. L. M. Cullen has suggested the application of a multiplier of three to poll tax lists to generate a rough indication of parochial populations. Given the demographical uncertainties of seventeenth-century Ireland, however, computations based on this formula must be treated with caution. The poll tax records for the counties of Cavan, Galway, Mayo, Tyrone and Wicklow, together with all but three baronies of Meath are missing. (Pender, A census; Cullen, ‘Population’.)
certiorari, writ of. A writ issuing out of king’s bench or chancery wherein the king desires to be certified of any record made by any court of record or by certain officials such as the sheriff or coroner.
cess. A tax derived from the term ‘assess’ which originally referred to a range of government impositions, notably purveyance, cartage and six-day labour. Coyne and livery (the quartering of troops on the inhabitants of an area) was also, strictly speaking, a cess and proved highly controversial within the Pale in the sixteenth century. Cesses such as purveyance (the governor’s right to purvey supplies to maintain his household and retinue) only became objectionable when the king’s price fell significantly below the market value of the goods being purveyed and when its incidence increased. Latterly cess was synonymous with tax or rates as in parish or county cess.
cessation. In September 1643 a tactical cessation of hostilities was agreed between the marquis of Ormond, commander of royalist forces in Ireland, and the confederate Catholic rebels. The cessation enabled Ormond to transfer troops to the beleaguered Charles I in England and provided the confederates with an opportunity to regroup. Neither side benefited greatly from the ceasefire. In protest, royalist commanders such as Inchiquin and Coote defected to parliament and the confederates, by inadequately supporting Montrose (the Scottish royalist commander), failed to lure Monro’s Scottish army out of Ulster and back to Scotland. The confederates also blundered in their choice of overall commander, opting for Castlehaven and overlooking the claims of their better generals. The cessations were renewed periodically but despite two attempts to negotiate a peace (the first in 1646 was frustrated by Rinuccini, the second in 1649 came too late in the day to withstand Cromwell) the confederates and the royalists failed to construct an effective military opposition to the parliamentary forces. See Catholic Confederacy
cestui que trust. A person who has the trust of an estate committed to him for the use (benefit) of another.
cestui que use. The beneficiary of a trust to use.
cestui que vie. A person for whose life an estate is granted.
cf. (L., confer) A footnote convention inviting the reader to compare such-and-such a view with the one expressed in the text.
chaffe house. A term used in the books of the Civil Survey (1654–56) to denote a cottage thatched with hay or straw.
chafing dish. A vessel or saucepan used for heating food or water.
chain. A measuring line used in land surveying. Originally chains of varying lengths were employed but Gunter’s chain (1624) became the standard. It measures twenty-two yards or four poles (perches) and is divided into 100 links, each link of 7.92 inches. An area of ten chains long and one chain wide equals one statute acre.
chalybeate spring. A spring containing iron.
chamberlain. An official of the royal household who exercised control over admission to the royal chamber and therefore controlled access to the king’s person. He also administered the household and supervised the king’s private estates.
chamfered. Carved or sculpted, specifically the creation of a diagonal surface by bevelling a square edge.
champion ground. (Fr., champagne, open field) 1: Countryside dominated by the openfield system of agriculture and nucleated settlements 2: Level, open country.
chancel. The eastern part of a church which contained the high altar, also known as the choir. It was reserved for the clergy and choir. The tithe-owner, whether institutional, clerical or lay, was responsible for the maintenance of the chancel, the upkeep of the nave being the responsibility of the parishioners.
chancellor. A member of a cathedral chapter, usually third in rank behind the dean and precentor, who acted as secretary. He served as the parish priest in the parish attached to his dignity or office, was responsible for the cathedral school and keeper of the cathedral records. In the ecclesiastical province of Tuam the chancellor was styled ‘provost’. In England the chancellor and vicar-general was usually the same person but in Ireland this was not so.
chancellor, lord. Originally the monarch’s notary or secretary, he was, after the chief governor, the senior official in the Irish administration. He was a member of the justiciar’s (later the privy) council, custodian of the great seal and head of chancery, the secretariat from which all important documents, writs and grants were issued. He was also responsible for government records (a function later transferred to the deputy-chancellor or master of the rolls). By the sixteenth century chancery had developed an equity division to deal with disputes concerning land and debt for which the common law provided no remedy. Until 1801, when the master of the rolls was given judicial power, chancery cases were determined by the chancellor sitting without a jury. The process involved was lengthy, cumbersome and expensive. The plaintiff drew up a bill of complaint to which the defendant filed an answer. The plaintiff responded with a replication which was countered by a rejoinder. This correspondence was examined by the chancellor who could compel either party to produce relevant documents or respond to oral interrogation. His decision issued in the form of a decree. After 1801 the chancellor heard cases on appeal from the master of the rolls but from 1856 he was joined in his appellate jurisdiction by a lord justice of appeal in chancery and in 1867 a second judge or vice-chancellor was appointed to hear cases of first instance.
chancery, court of. Chancery emerged in Ireland in the thirteenth century with the appointment of Ralph Neville, the English lord chancellor, to the Irish chancery in 1232. It functioned principally as the secretariat of the English administration, the department where important documents, writs and letters patent were prepared, sealed and enrolled but it also developed an equitable jurisdiction in disputes for which no remedy lay at common law. The twofold division of chancery as a court of equity and secretariat was completed by the sixteenth century. Chancery holds the distinction of being the only court for which original records survive, some bundles of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century pleadings and answers and books of recognisances having escaped the fire in the Public Record Office in 1922. These, together with nineteenth-century calendars of chancery bills and decrees, are held in the National Archives. Letters patent, the instrument by which the crown conferred grants of land, leases, privileges and office, were required to pass the great seal which was in the custody of the lord chancellor, the chief executive of chancery. While the England chancery maintained a sophisticated system of record-keeping with many sub-divisions, in Ireland there were but two: the patent and close rolls. Even that distinction rapidly fell into desuetude and all perished in 1922. However, calendars of the patent rolls prepared for the Irish Record Commission by James Morrin and John Erck have been printed. The National Archives also holds John Lodge’s transcripts of the patent rolls which contain material not included in the calendars. (Connolly, Medieval record sources, pp. 14–18; Erck, A repertory; Morrin, The patent rolls.)
chanter. A chorister, also known as precentor, the leading singer in a chantry and a member of the cathedral chapter.
chantry. 1: An endowment for the chanting of masses usually for the soul of the founder of the endowment 2: A chapel with such an endowment. See guilds, religious.
chapel of ease. A dependent chapel constructed to meet the needs of an expanding population or to cater for parishioners living some distance from the parish church.
chapelry. The jurisdiction of a chapel.
chapman. A pedlar, especially of chapbooks.
chapbook. A popular and inexpensive book hawked by chapmen. Usually of about four pages and illustrated with woodcuts, chapbooks contained ballads, poems, folklore, nursery rhymes, accounts of criminal sensations, in fact anything that would satisfy the public need for light reading.
chapter. The corporate body which managed the property and revenue of a cathedral. There is no evidence to suggest that cathedral chapters after the English model of four dignitaries existed in Ireland before the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169. It was only in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries that Norman and Irish bishops began to adopt the structure of English secular cathedrals. Chapters in the ecclesiastical provinces of Dublin and Cashel comprising a dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, prebendaries and canons were established by about 1225 and in every diocese in Ireland the archdeacon was a member. The dioceses of Meath and Connor remained without chapters throughout the medieval period, the functions of the chapter being exercised by the archdeacon and clergy. In the provinces of Tuam and Armagh the four dignitaries model was adopted but later simplified. In Tuam the typical chapter comprised a dean, provost (chancellor), archdeacon, treasurer (or sacrist) and at least six canons or prebendaries although in some dioceses the number of canons was indeterminate. An exception was Kilmacduagh which retained the English model and here, too, the chancellor was styled ‘provost’. An even simpler form existed in Armagh province where most chapters consisted of a dean, archdeacon and canons. Armagh also contained a number of chapters (Clogher, Derry and Raphoe) that were completely unendowed although there were sufficient benefices to support a chapter. Downpatrick was unique in possessing a Benedictine monastic chapter. Each cathedral had a parish or number of parishes attached to it, the revenue from which went to maintain the offices of the chapter. Some officials were required to act as parish priests in the parishes tied to their stalls/office but elsewhere the spiritual duties were performed by a vicar or curate. Cathedral duties such as keeping service were also required of some dignitaries. Chapter revenues accrued from the rents and renewal fines on leased cathedral lands and from the rectorial or great tithe of certain parishes. (Nicholls, ‘Medieval Irish’, pp. 102–111; Hand, ‘Medieval cathedral’, pp. 11–14.)
chapter-house. The place of assembly of a cathedral chapter.
charge. In heraldry, a device borne on an escutcheon.
charnel-house. A building in a cemetery which received the bones of the disinterred when new graves were dug.
charter. A royal writ conferring rights and privileges such as perpetual grants of lands, liberties or manors.
charter schools. Charter schools originated in the Irish charity school movement of the early eighteenth century, a voluntary system which enrolled children of all denominations but provided instruction in the Protestant faith. A key figure in the movement was Dr Henry Maule who founded the Society in Dublin for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1717. Charter schools were so called after George II’s 1734 charter which established the Incorporated Society for Promoting English Protestant Schools in Ireland. Hugh Boulter, archbishop of Armagh, was instrumental in securing the royal charter which enabled the society to solicit donations and bequests. Its activities were boosted in 1747 when the Irish parliament granted it the licensing duty on street hawkers. An annual parliamentary grant was voted from 1751 to 1831 which amounted to in excess of £1 million in the 80 years of its existence. Blatantly proselytising, the schools accepted only Catholic children between 1775 and 1803. The practice of removing Catholic children from their parents to a distant area so that conversion could more easily be achieved was particularly resented. By the 1820s only 34 charter schools were operating and the society was attracting increasingly hostile attacks from Catholic clergy. In educational terms its results were deemed far from satisfactory and many of the pupils were underfed, poorly-clothed and cruelly treated. The charter school system withered as the Dublin administration lost faith in its ability to provide adequately for the educational needs of the poorer classes. After 1832 charter schools were reserved for Protestants of all classes and the quality of educational provision improved. (First report of the commissioners of Irish Education inquiry, HC 1825 (400) XII; Milne, The Irish charter schools.)
chartulary. 1: A register of charters and title deeds, as of a monastery 2: The place where records were kept.
chattel. Personalty as opposed to realty.
chasuble. A sleeveless outer vestment worn by a priest at mass.
chevaux de frise. (Fr., Friesland horses) Originally revolving bars studded with stakes or spikes employed as a defence against cavalry, the term is also used retrospectively to describe a projecting wall of rocks forming the defensive outworks of a hill-fort.
chevron. In heraldry, a gable-shaped band on an escutcheon.
chief. In heraldry, a broad band across the top of an escutcheon.
chief clerk of the court of king’s bench. A sinecure of the chief justice and nominally the principal officer of the court in all matters relative to civil suits, his duties included the enrolment of pleadings and judgements on the civil side of the court but were usually delegated to attorneys.
chief governor. The senior crown official in Ireland who was known in pre-Tudor times as the justiciar, custos, king’s lieutenant, deputy king’s lieutenant, deputy justiciar and later as the lord lieutenant, lord deputy or viceroy. See county governor. (Ellis, Reform, pp. 12– 31; Otway Ruthven, ‘The chief governors’, pp. 227–36; Wood, ‘The office’, pp. 206–38.)
chief place. In England, the king’s bench; in Ireland from the twelfth to the late fourteenth century, the justiciar’s court (forerunner to the Irish king’s bench).
chief rent. 1: Crown rent 2: Rent payable by a freeholder to the manorial lord.
chiefry. A tribute or rent owed to a Gaelic overlord by his vassals.
chief secretary. Although nominally ranking below the lord lieutenant, the chief secretary was the most important government official in the Irish administration in the nineteenth century. He was effectively the prime minister of Ireland and responsible for the introduction of a vast range of legislation on a broad range of key issues to the extent that enactments were often subsequently popularised under his name. Goulborn’s Act and the Balfour acts are all named after the chief secretaries who introduced them in the house of commons. His frequent absence from the country meant that the bulk of the work in the chief secretary’s office was actually carried out by under-secretaries who supervised the administration of almost every public department in Ireland. The National Archives holds the vast range of correspondence (dating from 1790) which passed through the chief secretary’s office, an archive which survives to this day because the records were stored in the State Paper Office when fire consumed the Public Record Office in 1922. See police. (Flanagan, ‘The chief secretary’, pp. 197–225; Hughes, ‘The chief secretary’, pp. 59–72.)
chirograph. A writing in which the text is duplicated and then divided through the letters of the word ‘chirograph’ (or by indent) into two identical parts so that if a dispute should arise later the joining of the two proves them authentic.
choir. The chancel of a church.
Christian Brothers. A lay, Catholic teaching order founded in Waterford in 1802 by Edmund Rice (1762–1844) to provide elementary education to the children of poor families. Within ten years the Brothers had established additional schools in Cork and Dublin and in 1820 they gained papal recognition as the ‘Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools of Ireland’. Shortly afterwards Rice was elected superior-general of the new order, a post he retained until he retired in 1838. In 1827 brothers in Cork seceded from the order to form a distinct diocesan congregation, the Pre
sentation Brothers. With the exception of a brief period in the 1830s, the order remained aloof from the national school system and its attendant grants and payments because the rules of that system would have had to be profoundly modified to accommodate schools so totally immersed in Catholic doctrine and observance. Thus, Christian Brothers’ schools were funded by public subscription and church-door collections and only entered the national system after independence. The order established secondary schools throughout the country and founded communities in Africa, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. Avowedly nationalist, the Brothers’ schools educated many of the future separatist and post-independence leaders of Ireland. (Keogh, Edmund Rice.)
Chronicles of Ireland, The. A didactic work written by Sir James Perrot, son of Sir John, lord deputy of Ireland (1584–88), which narrates events in Ireland in the late sixteenth century in the hope that lessons might be learned by posterity. It opens with a treatise on historiography, describes the customs and habits of the native Irish and criticises the central administration. Perrot never finished the chronicles which end in 1608 prior to the plantation of Ulster, a process he intended to cover in the work. From a historical point of view the principal value of Perrot’s writing derives from the liberal access he had to contemporary records and to the protagonists in the events he describes. (Wood, The chronicles.)
