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further, they found that "the said quarter of Kilfore is meared and bounded on the east with the four sessioches of Shandan" (now the townlands of Shannon Lower and Shannon Middle); on the west with the quarter of Magherashan walley (now Magherashanvalley); on the north with the quarter of Argery (now Argery Hill);1 and on the south with the quarter of Balliboggan (now the townland of Ballybogan 2) and the quarter of Magherecreagh (now Magherareagh, in the parish of Donaghmore).3

This Inquisition was preparatory to the patent of the estate, that Sir Henry, now Lord Folliott, obtained on the 9th of April, 1622, which in the recital specifically mentions "the quarter-land of Kilfore, called the Grange of Kilfore, alias Manister-Kilfore, with the appurtenances, and the several sessioghs, called Sessiogh Tample alias Shraghmore; Gorteinorine alias Carrigmoore; Gortnagor; Dromreny; Drumanatwoer alias Munnimore; Anamullyn; Mahershanvally; Carrigeilan alias Carriglasky; Lessecreedy; Lismullaugh; Tibbredbrocke alias Tibberbrocke; Killulloo alias Legenebrade alias Lissmanedoighell; with all the tithes great and small."

And, finally, on the death of Lord Folliott, November 10th, 1623, an Inquisition, post mortem, was held on March 1st, following, wherein was found that he died possessed of the quarter of Kylfore, alias Monaster-Kylfore, with its appurtenances.5

In process of time the bulk of the Ashroe and Ballyshannon estates passed into the Connolly family, while the outlying portions— such as the Grange of Kiltyerne, now known as Kiltierney, in the County of Fermanagh," a townland of 323 acres, which is at this day walled in as the Deer Park of Castle-Archdall, and has the remains

1 The quarter of "Argery Hill" is marked on the Ordnance Survey near the middle of sheet 17, with elevation of 506 feet, where it is the focus of several subdenominations.

2 So named from the family of O'Bogan, who were herenaghs of it. The real name is Tech-na-comaince, of the Calendars, at May 28-"house of the sanctuary," called Tegnagomark in the Taxation of 1300; Tachnekomeryke, in 1397; and marked the Sanctuary in Mercator's two maps. See Colton's Visitation, p. 71; and Mart. Doneg., pp. 140, 141; Ord. Surv., sheet 79.

3 Inquis. Ulton., Donegall, Jac. i., No. 10.

4 Calend. Rot. Pat., Jac. i., p. 541 a.

5 Inquis. Ulton., Donegall, Jac. i., No. 13.

Ord. Surv., sheets 6, 11. Cill Tigernaigh is in the parish of Magheraculmoney, and derives its name from St. Tighernach, founder and bishop of Cluain - Eois, now Clones. See Mart. Doneg., April 4 (p. 94), and Four Mast. (ed. O'Donovan), at 1602 (vol vi., p. 2329).

of an ancient church, with a venerable cemetery-were disposed of, as was Kilfore also, a large portion of which, tithe free, fell to the Maxwell family of Birdstown.

When Dr. William King was Bishop of Derry, he instituted a very searching visitation of his diocese, the result of which is still on record. Herein be states of Clonleigh :- "There were anciently two Chappelsof-Ease in this parish, viz. Tehumrick, or Ballybogan, formerly a parish, and Kirkminster, a religious house, but of what sort I cannot learn." Again :-"There is a considerable impropriation in this parish, called Kirkminster; it belongs to Mr. Alexander Maxwell of Strabane. It contains about one-seventh of the parish." Previously to this, in "the Complaint of the Clergy," which is entered in Bishop Downham's "Visitation Book," it is stated, that "In the parish of Clonley, the great tithes in one quarter, called Monaster, detained by the Lord Folliott, the inhabitants, exempting themselves not only from the parish of Clonley, but also from the Diocese of Derry." And down to the date of Disestablishment, the Kilmonasters, Legnabraid, and Gortin South (Maxwell property), being "abbey lands," were exempt from the payment of tithe rent-charge.

Clonleigh is a parish containing 12,364 acres, in the barony of Raphoe, the ancient Tir-Enna, which, with Ardmiodhair, formed the original patrimony of O'Dogherty, who in later times extended his territory northwards into Inishowen, and dispossessed the occupants who were of the Cenel-Eoghain. The river Foyle, which bounds it on the east, divides it here from the County of Tyrone; but Clonleigh, though in the County Donegal, is, as well as all the parishes of Inishowen, in the Diocese of Derry, being an early indication of Cinel-Owen authority in this region. The river Finn, flowing eastwards, joins the Foyle south of Lifford. Further north the Deel1 enters the Foyle, in the same direction, on the eastern edge of the parish and county, and is crossed at Ballindrait (Baile-an-drochait) by the bridge formerly known as the Droichet-Adhamhnain (Adamnan's Bridge).

Almost all the ground with which this Paper deals is comprised in sheet 70 of the Ordnance Survey. On the north bank of the Deel we find the townland Ballymonaster (town of the monastery), 144

1 The Irish dael, "a cock-chafer," in reference to the blackness of the water. The Scotch settlers have made the hybrid name Burndale, and so it appears in M'Crea's County Map, of 1801; but the Ordnance Survey has restored the true name, Deele River. The same word gives name to Glenealy in Inishowen. See Reeves, Adamnan, pp. lxiv., 405.

acres. Opposite it, on the south bank, is Kilmonaster (church of the monastery) Lower, 213 acres, wherein is the site of the short-lived abbey, with its churchyard; and south of this again is the adjoining townland of Kilmonaster Middle, 258 acres.

Situated here on the extreme south-east of the county, the abbey was at a considerable distance from its mother church-forty miles, or more, in a direct line. The identification of it was long impeded by a careless error of Alemand's, who found Kill-fothuir in Jongelin, and turned its initial into H. This was in 1690. His translator, Captain John Stevens, in 1722, repeated the error; Harris,3 again, in 1764, transmitted Hilfothuir without correction; Archdall, in 1786, stereotyped it; and his editors of 18735 loaded the page with irrelevant matter, and left Archdall's inheritance as they found it.

2

The name of Kilfore conveniently expresses the true form, which has come down to us in the stages that I have recited-Kill-fothuir, 1137; Kylfiore, 1588; Kilfoore, 1608; Kilfaugher, 1609; Kilfore, 1621; Manister Kilfore, 1622; Manister Kylfore, 1623; Kirkminster 1690; Kilmonaster, present name.

Sir James Ware had no means of learning, either from Irish or English records, the existence or name of this abbey, and being unacquainted with Jongelin, there is no notice of Kill-fothuir in his Antiquitates Hibernica, either first or second edition."

1 Histoire Monastique D'Irlande (Par. 1690), p. 198.

2 Monasticon Hibernicum (Lond. 1722), p. 205.

3 Ware's Works, vol. ii., p. 275.

4 Monasticon Hibernicum (Dubl., 1786), p. 99.

5 Monasticon Hibernicum (Dubl., 1873), vol. i.,

p. 193.

Chap. xxvi., Donagall, pp. 186, 187, first ed. (1654); second ed. (1658), pp. 216, 217.

VII.

ON THE BOOK OF ARMAGH.

BY THE RIGHT REV. DR. REEVES, Bishop of Down & Connor and Dromore; President of the Academy.

[Read APRIL 27, 1891.]

VENERABLE BEDE relates, under the year of our Lord 664, that a multitude of nobles, as well as those of inferior rank-de gente Anglorum-who fled from England during the prevalence of the Great Mortality, betook themselves to Ireland, where they found a cordial welcome. His words are :-" Quos omnes Scotti libentissime suscipientes, victum eis quotidianum sine pretio, libros quoque ad legendum, et magisterium gratuitum præbere curabant." From which we may fairly gather that, in the middle of the seventh century, the multiplication of books had largely taken place in Ireland, and to this end, that the art of writing had been practised for a sufficiently long period to guarantee ease and elegance to the work. And so honourable did the title of scribe become, that in the Annals it is often used to enhance the celebrity of an abbot or bishop; nay, we sometimes find in the recital of honours, the "accomplished scribe" represented, with the dignity of bishop or abbot, or both, as an accident of office. And when, in process of time, instruction was added to the practice and teaching of penmanship, the more honourable title of Ferleighinn," "vir lectionis" or "prælector," was adopted, corresponding in office and function to the magister and magisterium of Bede, or the scolasticus quidam de gente Scottorum,* as the teacher is elsewhere designated by the same historian. And thus it came to pass in Armagh, which was a seminary of great and early repute, that the last recorded scribe appears at the year 846,

1 Hist. Eccles. Gent. Anglor., lib. iii., cap. 27.

2 On the offices of Scribe and Ferleginn, see Colgan, Tr. Thaum., pp. 631, 632. 3 On these terms, see Appendix No. xvii. of Smith's edition (Cantab., 1722), p. 746; and Hussey, in loco, p. 170.

Hist. Eccles. Gent. Anglor., lib. iii., cap. 13.

R.I.A. PROC., SER. III., VOL. II.

H

and the first Ferleighinn, or Lector, at 894, with succession under the latter title, down to the time of the Invasion.

During this long period there subsisted in Armagh a series of learned men, whose honour, as well as monastic service, was to multiply books, and supply the literary requirements of a studious community. Accordingly, it is recorded at the year 724,' that "St. Colman hUamach (of the cave,' probably a recluse), Scribe of Armagh, died."1 Again, at 731, that "Ferdomhnach, Scribe of Armagh, died."3 At 807, that "Torbach, son of Gorman, Scribe, Lector, and Abbot of Armagh-observe the order of his officesdied." Next comes the compiler and writer of the book which I hold in my hand, with his very autograph, so varied in its contents, and so exquisite in its execution, consisting originally of 221 vellum leaves, or 442 pages, now less the first leaf, and four leaves in another part of the volume, all written in double columns. The loss of the first leaf is to some extent compensated for by the recent discovery of its contents in a foreign manuscript; and the other deficiency is the four leaves in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, containing the matter between the word ad-or-a-verunt, in chap. xiv., ver. 33, and the words quod dictum est per Essaiam profetam, in chap. xxi., ver. 4, that is, according to the modern numbering of the folios, between 416 and 45 a, the two insets of quaternio ii. These leaves were wanting before the manuscript passed from the hereditary keeper, for there is a memorandum in a small hand of the sixteenth century on the upper margin of folio 45, hic multa desunt; and Edward Lhwyd, writing, about the year 1707, observes: "Nota quod in Evangelio secundum Matthæum desiderantur quatuor (ut ego existimo) folia, videlicet a versu tricesimo tertio capituli decimi quarti usque ad versum quintum capituli vicesimi primi," There is no other chasm, and the volume is otherwise as complete as it was the first day.

1 An. Ult., 724 (p. 177, ed. Hennessy); F. Mast., 720 (vol. i., p. 318, ed. O'Donov.).

2 The Irish name of Cloyne is Cluain uaṁa, which has led to some confusion. See Mart. Doneg., at Nov. 24 (p. 317).

3 An. Ult., 731 (p. 186); F. Mast., 726 (vol. i., p. 324).

4 An. Ult. 807 (p. 292); F. Mast., 807 (vol. i., p. 420).

5 Preserved at Brussels, formerly at Wurtzburg. The supplemental portion is printed in pp. 20-24 of the Vita S. Patricii, edited with great learning and skill by the Rev. Edmund Hogan for the Analecta Bollandiana, and in a separate form, Bruxelles, 1882.

• O'Conor, Rer. Hib. SS., tom. i.; Epist. Nuncup., p. lvii.

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