Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History

by Joseph Byrne

  prey, to make a. (Ir., creagh) To conduct a cattle-raid. Cattle raids were conducted for the purpose of stealing cattle or to exact a lawful tribute but also to acquire new vassals or clients by impressing the local inhabitants with a demonstration of military prowess.

  Pride’s purge. On 3 December 1648 Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly prevented the entrance to the English house of commons of about 100 MPs who were considered to be in favour of making concessions to the King. The remaining 200 or so members formed what was known as the Rump or the Long Parliament.

  primary sources. Historical evidence which emerges at the same time as the event to which it relates is called a primary source. Secondary sources are those which appear after the event they pertain to. This apparently neat distinction requires some qualification. A history of the Great Famine written in the twentieth century is a secondary source for the nineteenth century but a primary source for twentieth-century thinking.

  prime serjeant (king’s serjeant). A professional law officer of superior rank, the office of king’s serjeant at law first emerged in Ireland with the appointment of Roger Owen in the 1260s. From the seventeenth century there were usually two or three serjeants at any one time, known respectively as prime serjeant, second serjeant and third serjeant. They acted as prosecutors and defenders of the king’s pleas in Ireland and represented the king’s interests in various capacities such as initiating actions to recover rents or lands or enquiring into homicides. As senior law officer of the courts they often replaced judges but were generally occupied in drafting documents or administrative tasks. In Elizabethan times the office of prime serjeant was eclipsed by that of attorney-general but it resumed its former precedence under the Stuarts and retained it until the post was discontinued in 1805. (Hart, A history).

  primogeniture. (L., primogenitus, first born) The common law principle of succession to a family estate by the eldest son. The purpose of such preference was to retain estates intact and to prevent excessive subdivision, a practice which, if repeated widely, would dilute the economic and social power of individual families and weaken the whole fabric of landed society. Primogeniture also made it relatively easy to monitor the services and duties owed by chief tenants to the crown. See Quia Emptores.

  prison forte et dure. A punishment imposed on a suspect to extract a confession or secure evidence, prison forte et dure consisted of perpetual imprisonment, starvation and ultimately death. From the time of Henry IV it was replaced by peine forte et dure or pressing to death.

  privateer. A privately-owned, armed ship, furnished with a letter of marque (government licence) to capture and plunder enemy merchant vessels.

  privy council. Originally an advisory body to the chief governor comprising a number of selected ministers, the privy council developed into the senior administrative and executive body in Ireland from 1534 until the Act of Union. It was distinct from the more general king’s council (curia regis) which included lesser officials and peers. To curb over-powerful chief governors (such as Garret Mór FitzGerald), the Tudors, as they had done in England from the accession of Henry VIII, reserved the right to appoint those of its choosing to the council together with the six reserved appointments of chief governor, lord chancellor, treasurer, master of the rolls, secretary and keeper of the privy seal and chief justice. Moreover, the governor was required not to act against the members’ advice. In the absence of the governor the council was presided over by the chancellor and empowered to conduct state business. Although up to 24 members could be nominated to the council usually only about half that number, largely senior officials, attended meetings. Under the Tudors the council began to exercise executive functions, advising, performing routine administrative business and implementing instructions from London. It continued to act in an appellate capacity after its judicial business was transferred to the court of castle chamber. Until legislative independence was conceded in 1782 the privy council exercised control over parliament through the powers granted it by Poynings’ Law to amend, alter or veto bills prepared by parliament. Later it was completely eclipsed by the rise to prominence of the chief secretary.

  privy seal. See seals.

  prisage, prizage. Also known as butlerage, prisage was a tax on wine in Ireland and the hereditary perquisite of the Butlers of Ormond through the possession of the title of King’s Butler.

  probate. The judicial process by which a will purporting to be the last will of a deceased person is declared legally valid. If so adjudged, the will is then admitted to probate and the executor can begin to dispose of the estate. From the twelfth century testamentary jurisdiction lay with the church (the Established church after the Reformation). Wills were proved in the consistorial court of the diocese in which the deceased had lived. If, however, the deceased had an estate worth £5 or more in a second diocese, testamentary jurisdiction lay with the prerogative court of the archbishop of Armagh. With the passage of the Probate Act in 1857 (20 & 21 Vict., c. 8) jurisdiction in the matter of wills was transferred to a civil court of probate in Dublin, the principal registry, and a nationwide network of eleven district registries. See nuncupative will, wills. (ffolliott and O’Byrne, ‘Wills’, pp. 157– 80.

  proctor. 1: The Irish parliament before the Reformation comprised three houses, the lords, commons and the lower clergy or clerical proctors. The proctors paid a heavy price for their rejection of the Henrician ecclesiastical reforms for Henry directed parliament to legislate for their extinction (28 Hen. VIII, c. 12) 2: Attorneys in the admiralty court were known as proctors 3: For tithe-proctor see tithe-farmer.

  proffers. Twice yearly, at Michaelmas and Easter, sheriffs were required to present themselves at the court of exchequer to settle their accounts by paying whatever money they had collected during the preceding months. These payments were known as proffers and they were recorded in the memoranda rolls under the heading proffra.

  prohibition, writ of. A writ issuing out of king’s bench commanding a judge or any party to a suit to cease from prosecuting a case on the grounds that the case did not belong to that jurisdiction.

  promontory fort. A fort located on a coastal headland or mountain spur, the landward approach to which is secured by a fosse and bank.

  prône. (Fr., prôner, to address a congregation) A book of prepared sermons.

  protection leasing. A practice in Ulster in the eighteenth century whereby the head landlord guaranteed the leases held by undertenants from a middleman were the middleman’s lease to be sold on. The undertenants were also relieved of any liability for arrears owed by the middleman.

  Protectorate. The title of the government of the British Isles and Ireland for the period 1653–59 when the successive heads of state, Oliver Cromwell (1653–58) and his son Richard (1658–9), were styled Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.

  prothonotary. 1: A chief clerk in the courts 2: An official in common pleas who reported to the court on matters referred to him by it. He taxed costs, informed the court of its practice and of the state of causes in it, received moneys paid into the court and disbursed them. In medieval times he entered pleas on the rolls, work later done by the master.

  province. See composition, cúige, custody, presidency, provincial councils.

  provincial. The superior of all the houses of a religious community within a given province or district.

  provincial councils. Provincial councils were established in Munster and Connacht in the late 1560s in an attempt to establish crown authority and extend common law jurisdiction. Headed by a president, the provincial councils included bishops, leading magnates and some lawyers. The president had a small military force and could impose martial law. Although charged with the task of drawing the local magnates closer to the crown and away from Gaelic customs and exactions, local conditions were not amenable to such a programme. Instead the presidents managed to undermine some lords, alienated others and rebellions broke out in the south and west. The expense of restoring order proved too great for Elizabet
h and the councils were allowed to lapse. From 1575 Lord Deputy Sidney embarked on a new conciliar programme by which the original goal of extending common law and crown authority to all parts would be achieved by composition.

  provost. Prison-keeper, prepositus, mayor, one in charge, director.

  provost-marshall. Officer in charge of the provost guard or military police.

  psalter. A book of psalms. The earliest surviving Irish manuscript is the Cathach Psalter which dates from c. 560 ad and was written at Iona. It comprises 58 leaves and contains psalms 31 to 106. It is held by the Royal Irish Academy.

  Public Instruction, Commissioners of (1835). Just four years after a national system of primary education was introduced in Ireland commissioners of public instruction were appointed to investigate ‘the state of religious and other instruction and the means of affording the same’. They produced two reports. The first comprises a statistical inquiry into educational provision and the second contains details of existing schools in each benefice, their funding, school attendance and form of instruction. The impact of the introduction of national school system in 1831 on local educational provision can be charted by comparing parish entries in the commissioners’ reports with those contained in the second report of the Irish Education Inquiry (1824– 7). See Education Inquiry (1824–27). (Public Instruction.)

  public records. See National Archives.

  puisne judge. (Pronounced ‘puny’) A lesser-ranking judge below the lord chancellor, lord chief justice, master of the rolls and the lord chief justice of common pleas.

  pur autre vie. An estate held for the life of another person.

  purchase of current rents. The strength of the market in landed property can be gauged by calculating the multiples of annual yearly rent required to effect purchase. During the strong market conditions of the 1830s land sold for an average of 25 years purchase of current rents, i.e., the annual rent multiplied by 25. The post-famine collapse in the market value of land is reflected in the fact that land sold for as little as ten to 15 years purchase of annual rents in the 1850s.

  Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act (1885). Sponsored by Lord Ashbourne, the Irish lord chancellor, this was the first major statutory provision for land purchase. Under this legislation (48 & 49 Vict., c. 73), the Irish Land Commission received £5 million for the purchase of land by agreement. When an agreement to sell was reached the commission advanced the entire purchase price to the tenant, the loan to be repaid over 49 years by an annuity of 4%. The act proved unpopular with landlords because a deposit of one-fifth of the purchase price was retained by the commission until the annuities repaid by the tenant were equivalent to that sum. Only then was the deposit disbursed to the vendor. This defect was not remedied until the Wyndham Act was enacted in 1903.

  Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act (1891). The Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act (1891) and the Land Law (Ireland) Act (1896) are known as the ‘Balfour Acts’ because they were introduced successively by the Balfour brothers, Arthur and Gerald, when each held the office of chief secretary. The acts proposed the introduction of a new system for underwriting the purchase of holdings by tenants. Under the first act (54 & 55 Vict., c. 48) the landlord was paid from a guaranteed land stock equal in value to the purchase price but repayment of the annuities was to be ensured by varying the amount of interest charged and by providing for additional insurance payments. £33 million was voted to finance the scheme but it proved unpopular with both landlords and tenants, the former because the value of the stock fluctuated and the latter because they found it difficult to calculate precisely their annual commitments. The 1896 amending act (59 & 60 Vict., c. 47) ameliorated these difficulties by increasing the repayment period to 73 years and by reducing the amount of the annuity at the end of each decade of the first 30 years repayment. Despite this, only £13 million was advanced from the fund and applications declined in 1898. Over 46,000 tenants purchased their holdings under the acts, almost double the number who had purchased under the land acts of 1885, 1887 and 1888. A notable feature of the Purchase of Land Act of 1891 was the establishment of the Congested Districts Board with the remit to relieve poverty in the west and south of the country. See Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1885 and Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887. (Pomfret, The struggle, pp. 263–271.)

  puritanism. A Calvinistic Protestant reform movement which flourished in England in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Puritans were so called because they wished to purge the Church of England of residual Catholic ritual, vestments and iconography. They believed in predestination, that they were God’s elect and they sought to extend their vision and morality to embrace the nation. Their attempts to re-shape the Established church (and measures taken by Archbishop Laud to impose conformity) contributed to the outbreak of civil war in England in 1642 and the Puritan Revolution. Presbyterians, a puritan sect, were initially welcomed in Ireland by the Calvinist-leaning Church of Ireland and Presbyterian ministers were given church livings. In the 1630s they came under severe pressure from Wentworth, the lord deputy, who was intent on securing uniformity under the Established church and again after the Restoration when their refusal to give public assent to the revised Book of Common Prayer led to their expulsion. Other puritan sects also established themselves in Ireland to form a heterogeneous group known as non-conformists. See Uniformity.

  purlieu. A deforested tract on the margin of a royal forest.

  purlins. Horizontal beams that run the length of a roof. They are supported by the main rafters (trusses) or transverse walls and they, in turn, support the ordinary rafters.

  purparty. 1: Land held in purparty is land held jointly with someone else 2: A share of an inheritance.

  purpresture, pourpresture. An illegal encroachment upon or enclosure of public or private property.

  pursuivant. A junior herald and royal messenger. In Ireland there were four pursuivants: Athlone and St Patrick numbers 1, 2 and 3.

  purveyance. The crown right to requisition goods at a price below the market rate whether the seller was in agreement or not. Originally the right to pre-empt food and procure transportation, it was extended to Ireland to provision the chief governor’s retinue.

  putlock hole (puthole, putlog hole). A hole intentionally left in the face of a wall under construction to permit the insertion of a small timber (putlock) as a support for scaffolding and not subsequently filled when the structure was completed.

  Pynnar’s Survey. In 1619 Nicholas Pynnar, a servitor and undertaker in Ulster, was directed to survey and make a return of the progress of the Ulster plantation and the performance of the undertakers, servitors and natives in fulfilling their responsibilities under the scheme. An unfavourable report in 1615 by Sir Josias Bodley and a second (in 1616) alerted the planters to the possibility of forfeiture should they fail in their plantation duties and some proceeded to complete unfinished building work and introduce more British settlers. Pynnar acknowledged that progress had been made but considerably less than had been expected given the liberal terms the settlers had received. He found that there remained a great want of buildings and that all but the Scots had refrained from ploughing, the English fearing a native uprising and the Irish being uncertain of their stay on the land. Not only had the natives not been removed from those areas owned by English and Scottish settlers but the City of London had found it more profitable to rent to the Irish than to introduce British tenants. These violations of the plantation agreement enabled Charles II to proceed to confiscate their holdings, a consequence forestalled by the surrender of their letters patent and acceptance of others subject to a doubling of the original rents and a fine of thirty pounds per 1,000 acres. See Irish Society. (Hill, An historical account, pp. 445–590.)

  Q

  quadrans. (L.) A farthing.

  Quakers. The Quakers, or Religious Society of Friends, were non-conformists who appeared in Ireland in the mid-seventeenth century. They repudiate the authority of scripture, emphasising instead the ‘inward
light’ or ‘inner voice of God speaking to the soul’. They do not outwardly observe the sacraments as other Christian churches because for them baptism and the eucharist are spiritual affairs. Their outspoken rejection of formal church services, the sacraments, church buildings and an ordained ministry together with their opposition to oath-taking, bearing arms and tithe elicited repressive measures from both the Cromwellian and Stuart administrations. By the close of the century, however, that position had changed and they were treated with greater leniency. In 1715 Quaker principles were considered when the militia bill was passed and practical toleration was extended to them under the 1719 Toleration Act. They practiced their faith relatively freely and from 1723 were allowed to participate in the courts without taking oaths. Their reluctance to take oaths, however, ensured that they remained barred from government posts. Favourable treatment was afforded the numerically small but wealthy Quakers as long as they did not impinge upon the privileges of the Established church. Their principled opposition to tithe was a major source of conflict during the eighteenth century and they suffered some financial and property losses but very few were jailed. Quakers are highly regarded in Ireland for their charitable work, notably their energetic philanthropy during the Great Famine. Quaker meeting-houses, where quarterly and monthly meetings are held, are simple structures. The monthly meeting is the principal gathering of Quakers and deals with administrative matters such as property and finance. Membership and individual concerns are dealt with, together with matters referred from the annual meetings. Quakers have kept excellent records from the seventeenth century, including births, marriages and burials. (Goodbody, Guide; Grubb, Quakers; Wigham, The Irish Quakers.)

  quamdiu se bene gesserint. (L., during good behaviour) Under their patent of appointment Irish judges held office during the king’s pleasure (durante beneplacito nostro). In England this form of tenure was fiercely opposed by the English parliamentary opposition in the seventeenth century because it was associated with the royal prerogative and because the Stuarts made liberal use of the powers of summary dismissal to pack the bench with their supporters. In 1701 it was enacted that a judge’s commission should continue in force quamdiu se bene gesserint (during good behaviour) and he could only be removed by the king if an address was presented to him by both houses of parliament. The position in Ireland, however, remained unchanged until 1782 when agitation by the ‘patriot’ party yielded the enactment (21 & 22 Geo. III, c. 50) that secured the independence of Irish judges and placed them on an equal footing with their British counterparts.