Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History

by Joseph Byrne

  landjobber. In eighteenth-century Ireland, a lease speculator or rentier, usually a non-farming tenant who took advantage of periods of rapid inflation in land values to invest in leases. See middleman.

  Land Law (Ireland) Act (1881). Following on the heels of the recommendations of the Bessborough Commission (1880), this act (44 & 45 Vict., c. 49) gave statutory recognition to the claim for fair rent, free sale and fixity of tenure. In doing so it recognised the principle of dual ownership of land. The Irish Land Commission, a legal tribunal, was established to arbitrate a fair rent between landlord and tenant which became legally binding for a period of 15 years. Tenants were granted a judicial tenancy with provision for rent review and renewal every 15 years and the free sale of their interest in their holding was conceded (subject to the landlord’s entitlement to first call on purchase). Initially the act was a success – about three-quarters of qualifying tenants took advantage of its provisions – and rents were reduced on average by about twenty per cent. Excluded from the provisions of the act, however, were a large number of tenants who held an acre or over, 150,000 leaseholders (who had to wait until the 1887 Land Law (Ireland) Act to have their rents fixed) and 130,000 tenants in arrears. See Kilmainham Treaty. The Land Commission assumed the land purchase functions hitherto carried out by the Board of Works under the 1870 Landlord and Tenant Act and the proportional advance on the purchase price of a holding was increased to three-quarters, repayable over 35 years at 5%. The commission was also empowered to purchase entire estates and sell off parts to the tenants. Despite these inducements, take-up was limited as the conditions of sale remained too stiff for the majority of tenants.

  Land Law (Ireland) Act (1887). Promoted by Arthur Balfour, the 1887 Land Law (Ireland) Act (50 & 51 Vict., c. 33) overhauled the 1881 Land Law (Ireland) Act, extended the protection available to tenants and brought leaseholders within the remit of the fair rent jurisdiction of the Irish Land Commission. Under this and the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act of the following year, an additional £5 million was added to the sum provided for land purchase under Ashbourne’s Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1885. Balfour, a Conservative, believed the wholesale transfer of land from landlords to tenants would resolve unrest in Ireland, the effect of which would be to create a conservative small farmer society with a vested interest in peace and stability. Thus the 1887 and 1888 acts were followed by the ‘Balfour Acts’, Arthur Balfour’s Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, and his brother Gerald’s Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1896.

  Land Law (Ireland) Act (1896). See Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891.

  Land League. Founded in 1879 by Michael Davitt, the Land League aimed to secure rent reductions and the right of tenants to purchase the freehold of their holdings. The boycott and non-payment of rent were the principal weapons employed in the campaign for land reform. Gladstone’s Land Law (Ireland) Act (1881) and Balfour’s Land Law (Ireland) Act (1887) and Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act (1891) took the steam out of the struggle by initiating the process that was to transform Ireland into a land of peasant proprietors. The Land League lasted until 1881 and was exactly contemporaneous with the Land War. (Bew, Land; King, Michael Davitt; O’Neill, ‘The Ladies Land League’, pp. 122–133; Palmer, The Irish Land League.)

  Landlord and Tenant Act (1870). Gladstone’s attempt to improve the plight of tenants, this act (33 & 34 Vict., c. 46) legalised Ulster tenant-right wherever it existed and provided for compensation for improvements made by the tenant and for disturbance on a tenant’s giving up the land. Tenants, however, wanted security of tenure rather than compensation after eviction and unscrupulous landlords circumvented the compensation clause by jacking up rents, forcing tenants into arrears and then claiming the arrears against any improvements. Shortage of land meant that there was a ready supply of prospective tenants willing to venture at the new rent. Tenants who sub-let or let for conacre without permission from the landlord or his agent were prohibited from seeking compensation. The scale of any compensation was based not on the rent but on the value of the tenant’s interest. If tenants went to court the best they could hope for was monetary compensation but whether they succeeded or failed in the court they were compelled to surrender the land. The act contained what became known as the ‘Bright clauses’, named after John Bright, president of the Board of Trade and an ardent advocate of tenant proprietorship. He devised a purchase scheme whereby if a landlord and tenant agreed on a sale price for the tenant’s holding, application could be made to the landed estates court for the sale of the holding to the tenant. The Board of Works would then loan up to two-thirds of the price conditional upon the repayment over 35 years of the sale price plus an annuity of 5%. Bright had suggested a similar scheme a year earlier which was incorporated in the Irish Church Act. In the event, neither the compensation measure nor the provision for tenant purchase proved successful. Landlords could still raise rents, tenants evicted for arrears remained helpless and those holding on leases of 31 years had no right to compensation if their lease was not renewed. As regards the Bright clauses, few tenants had the economic muscle to effect purchase and in any case the whole process depended upon the willingness of the landlord to sell. Only 469 loans were made under the purchase scheme, a figure considerably less than the number who purchased under the Irish Church Act. Although generally regarded as irrelevant to the economic and social conditions pertaining in Ireland at the time, Gladstone’s first land act was a precursor to his second and more substantial reforming Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881. See Bessborough Commission.

  Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment (Ireland) Act (1860). Known popularly as ‘Deasy’s Act’ after Richard Deasy, attorney-general for Ireland (1860–1), the Landlord and Tenant Act (23 & 24 Vict., c. 46) attempted to simplify, consolidate and amend the law regulating the landlord-tenant relationship in Ireland. The act was based on four bills introduced in 1852 by Joseph Napier, attorney-general for Ireland (1852–3). It created a new landlord-tenant relationship by enacting the principle of free trade in land and establishing a contractual relationship rather than one based on tenure and reversion. Underpinning the legislation was the view that land is the exclusive property of the landlord and the tenant’s interest was simply that of an individual who had agreed to pay a sum of money for the use of the land for a limited period. This favoured the landlord at the expense of the tenant in that the tenant had no choice in the matter. The act increased facilities in the matter of proceedings in ejectment and tightened the law of ejectment for non-payment of rent and on notice to quit. See Land Law (Ireland) Act (1881) which revisited the landlord-tenant relationship to the tenants’ advantage.

  Land War (1879–82). A campaign to secure land reform which began in 1879 with the founding of the Land League by Michael Davitt. Using the twin weapons of the boycott and a ‘No Rent’ campaign, Land Leaguers sought to compel the government to introduce measures to facilitate peasant ownership. An outbreak of famine in the same year, falling prices and an acceleration in the number of evictions gave momentum to the campaign which was accompanied by agrarian outrages and assassinations. Prime Minister Gladstone’s response, the Land Law (Ireland) Act (1881), was inadequate and failed to end tenant resistance. When Parnell was jailed in October 1881 for sedition he issued a ‘No Rent’ manifesto. Faced with a slide into anarchy the government compromised and amended the 1881 act to include retrospective rent reductions for 130,000 tenants (Arrears of Rent Act, 1882). Balfour’s 1887 Land Law (Ireland) Act and Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act of 1891 extended the security offered to tenants by Gladstone’s land acts and initiated the process of tenant-purchase that was to transform landownership in the country over the next few decades. See Kilmainham Treaty.

  Larnian folk. A mesolithic hunter-gatherer people, largely east-coast dwellers, so called after Larne, Co. Antrim, where Larnian implements have been collected in numbers from raised gravel beaches in the locality. Larnians constituted the second wave of human colonisation when they appeare
d in Ireland c. 8,000 years ago. Their origin remains obscure. Larnian implements were heavier than those of the Sandelians and had carefully re-worked edges. The heavy Larnian axes made forest clearance possible for camp-sites but not, apparently, for agriculture.

  last. A measure of weight, capacity or quantity, the precise value of which differed according to the commodity being measured. In terms of ship’s cargo a last was equivalent to two tons or 4,000 pounds. A last of wool weighed 4,368 pounds or twelve sacks. A last of gunpowder, however, was equivalent to 2,400 pounds. Twelve barrels of ale, cod or herrings (10,000 fish) and 12 dozen hides equalled a last. A last of grain was formerly equivalent to 12 quarters but latterly 10 (80 bushels).

  lastage. (OE, hlaest, a load) 1: A load tax levied on shipping by the last 2: Ship’s ballast.

  La Tène. A Swiss archaeological site at Lake Neuchatel that has given its name to a phase in Celtic culture beginning about 500 bc and ending with the eclipse of the Celts by the Germans and Romans in the century before Christ was born. La Tène handiwork is characteristically abstract, consisting of spirals, round shapes and S-shapes that were applied in symmetrical patterns to ornaments and monuments. In Ireland evidence of La Tène art did not appear before c. 300 bc, the most famous example being the Broighter hoard (Co. Derry) which included a model boat complete with fittings, two torcs, a bowl, a collar and two plaited wire chains, all in beaten gold. (Raftery, La Tène.)

  latimer. A professional interpreter widely employed in Ireland during the early years of the Anglo-Norman invasion but gradually dispensed with as the settlers became more familiar with the Irish language.

  latitat and bill of Middlesex. (L., latitat, lurks) A writ issued out of king’s bench to the sheriff of another county stating that the defendant cannot be found in the county of Middlesex and supposes him to have fled into some other county and lies concealed there. The writ commands the sheriff to apprehend the defendant and present him to answer at the king’s bench. Latitat was a legal fiction employed to attract business to the king’s bench which would otherwise have come within the jurisdiction of another court.

  latitudinarian. A term used to describe certain seventeenth-century Anglican clerics who argued from reason rather than tradition. Beyond the key tenets of accepted doctrine they allowed for latitude on other teachings. They were the equivalent of the nineteenth-century broad church movement.

  latten. A hard, mixed yellow metal resembling brass.

  Laudabiliter. A papal bull (also known as the Donation of Ireland) issued in 1155 by Adrian IV which authorised Henry II of England to intervene in Ireland to reform the Irish church. The authenticity of the bull has been the subject of dispute although it is clear that Henry was considering an incursion into Ireland at the time the bull was issued. Whatever else it authorised, the bull did not grant hereditary possession of Ireland to the king of England and it was subsequently refuted. See Constantine, Donation of. (Norgate, ‘The bull Laudabiliter’, pp. 18–52; Sheehy, ‘The bull Laudabiliter’, pp. 45–70; Watt, ‘Laudabiliter’, pp. 420–432.)

  law adviser. A nineteenth-century appointee and experienced member of the bar who advised the attorney general and the solicitor general on legal issues. He was also retained to offer legal advice whenever the senior law officers were abroad. The office appears to have been discontinued from 1883 when the lord lieutenant instructed magistrates to desist from seeking advice from the legal adviser to the government.

  law merchant. A body of principles and customs regulating merchants and their transactions. It originated in the need to safeguard from harassment foreign traders who did not enjoy the protection of local law and to provide some form of security in which traders could negotiate contracts and conduct their commercial dealings. Principally based on Roman law, law merchant was carried wherever traders went and was uniform throughout Europe. It formed the basis of modern commercial law. At local level, fairs and markets were regulated by the court of piepowder which was operated by the person who was entitled by letters patent to hold the fair.

  Law Society of Ireland. The representative body which, by statute, regulates the education, admission and professional standards of Irish solicitors. It evolved from the Society of Attorneys which met in 1774 in response to legislation which aimed to regulate the morals, education and qualifications of solicitors seeking admission as attorneys. The society underwent several name changes in the nineteenth century. It was known as the Law Society in 1831 and as the Society of Attorneys and Solicitors ten years later. Although granted a royal charter of incorporation in 1852, the honour was only formally recognised in 1888 when the society was re-styled Incorporated Law Society of Ireland. Then, as now, it aimed to promote and protect the rights and privileges of attorneys and to ensure respectability to the profession and advantage to the public. In 1994 it adopted its current name.

  lazar house, lazaret. A leper hospital of which there were a large number in medieval Ireland. They were maintained through bequests and endowments of land.

  lazybed. A raised ridge, two to eight feet wide, thrown up by the spade for the cultivation of potatoes. To some commentators this was indicative of the indolence of Irish peasant farmers. Charles Trevelyan, assistant secretary of the treasury and controller of the purse-strings during the Great Famine, thought the term reflected the ease of the Irish way of growing potatoes but lazybeds were also to be found in Cornwall and parts of Scotland. It is now regarded as an efficient approach to have adopted where soils were too heavy to be worked and set out as drills. It was well-suited to the small fields and wet and rocky soils where draught animals and heavy ploughs were impractical even if they could have been afforded. The spade, however, was excellent in these conditions. (Evans, The personality, pp. 40–1; Trevelyan, The Irish crisis, p. 6.)

  Leabhar Branach. The poem book or duanaire of four generations of the ruling sept of the O’Byrnes of Gabhal Raghnuill, Co. Wicklow, containing poems dating roughly from 1550–1630. The poems were composed by 35 different authors (mostly Leinstermen) and deal largely with military exploits, liberality, quarrels, sickness and death. Fiachaidh Mac Aodha (Fiach McHugh), slain in 1597, is the subject of no less than 28 poems, his father Aodh Mac Seáin, 18, and his son Feilim Mac Fiachaidh, 13. Leabhar Branach offers valuable insights into the outlook, policies and culture of a Gaelic lordship during the period in which Tudor and Stuart governments destroyed the power of the Gaelic lords. (Mac Airt, Leabhar Branach.)

  Leabhar Cloinne Aodha Buidhe. A five-part seventeenth century compilation of poetry, genealogy, rights and annals concerning the O’Neills of Tyrone. It comprises An Leabhar Eoghanach (lore of the Tyrone O’Neills), Ceart Uí Néill (the rights and renders due the O’Neills), Geinéalach na gCollach (genealogy and lore of the McDonnells of Antrim), Duanaire Cloinne Aodha Buidhe (the poem book of the O’Neills of Clandeboye) and the annals of the Clandeboye O’Neills. (Ó Donnchadha, Leabhar Cloinne.)

  Leabhar na gCeart. (Ir., the Book of Rights) An eleventh-century compilation of tributes owed to the seven provincial overlords (Munster, Connacht, Ailech, Airgialla, Ulster, Meath and Leinster) by their tributary vassals. Beginning with the king of Cashel, the tributes of each king are recorded in verse. (Dillon, Lebor, p.xlvi.)

  Leabhar na hUidhre. (Ir., Book of the Dun Cow) The oldest extant manuscript written entirely in Irish. Comprising 138 folio pages of vellum, it was compiled c. 1100 ad by Maelmuiré Ceilechair (d. 1106 ad) and appears to be closely associated with St Ciaran and Clonmacnoise. The contents are a mixed bag of historical romances and poems from the pre-Christian and Christian eras. It opens with a fragment of Genesis followed by an elegy on the death of St Colmcille, stories from the Ulster Cycle, the wanderings of Máel Dún’s ship in the Atlantic, imperfect copies of Táin Bó Cuailnge and the destruction of Bruighean Da Dearga, a history of the great pagan cemeteries of Ireland, poems by Flann of Monasterboice and tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Leabhar na hUidhre is held in the library of the Royal Irish Academy. (O’Curry,
Lectures, pp. 182–6.)

  leas, leyes, lays. Land rested from tillage by being set out to meadow or pasture.

  lease. A grant of property for a fixed period (either for years or the lives of named individuals) in return for rent and conditions or services which are noted in the lease.

  lease for lives. A lease perfected for the lifetime of three named persons. It was in the tenant’s interest to select names judiciously in order to maximise the duration of the lease. Hence, the names often include those of the sovereign or young children.

  lease for three lives renewable forever. A lease which permitted, upon payment of a fine, the insertion of a new name whenever any of the three named persons dropped (died). Effectively it created a perpetuity and approximated the status of fee simple or freehold. The Devon Commission, which estimated that one-seventh of tenanted land in Ireland was held under such leases, heard that the lease for three lives renewable forever originated after the seventeenth-century confiscations and settlements when grantors (often absentees) employed them as a means of asserting their proprietorship periodically while enjoying rents and renewal fines. The 1849 Renewable Leasehold Conversion Act (12 & 13 Vict., c. 105) gave legal status to such leases by enabling the lessees to acquire the fee-farm grant (freehold) from the lessors subject to a rent that was to be the old leasehold rent plus an estimated sum based on the average annual value of renewal fines.

  lease and release. A form of conveyance that emerged around 1600 to supersede the feoffment and the bargain and sale as the most popular instrument of conveyance until its abolition in the nineteenth century when the 1845 Real Property Act (8 & 9 Vict., c. 119) introduced the modern deed of conveyance. There were two stages to this instrument. First the grantor perfected a lease to the grantee for a year at a nominal rent (a peppercorn or bauble) making the grantee a tenant. On the following day the grantor released his rights in the property to the grantee making him full owner. The release effectively meant that the grantor conveyed his fee simple reversion to the grantee, placing him in possession of the fee simple. Unlike the bargain and sale and feoffment the lease and release was a convenient private yet legally valid conveyance.