CHAP. XIX.

Reign of Queen Mary, A.D. 1553, to A.D. 1558.

MARY, eldest sister of the deceased king, ascended the throne. In 1554, Travers, bishop of Leighlin was deprived of his see by George Dowdal, archbishop of Armagh, William Walsh, bishop of Meath, and Thomas Leverous, bishop of Kildare, because he was a married man. The term of his life, or the place of his residence after deprivation, are not known; but Sir James Ware believes, that he died in the reign of queen Mary. Thady Dowling, chancellor of Leighlin, gives him the character of a cruel, avaricious man, and an oppressor of his clergy.

Thomas Field, or O'Fihel, a Franciscan friar, and a native of the county of Cork, was appointed in the place of bishop Travers by a papal provision.

By an inquisition taken the first year of queen Mary, it was found that, the abbey of Abbington, county Limerick, (of which John O'Mul-Ryan was the last abbot), possessed the rectory of Tullowphelim, in the county of Carlow, annual value, besides reprises, four pounds sterling, Irish money.*

On the 9th of February, 1555, Charles MacArt Kavanagh was created baron of Balian for life. After his death, his brother Dermot had the same title. It is worthy of note, that Charles MacArt was also nominated captain of his sept or nation; thus giving him all the ancient jurisdiction of a chieftain, after he became lord of parliament.

The honours bestowed on the chief did not, however, ensure the loyalty of the clan. In May, the Kavanaghs, and others, invaded the northern part of the county of Dublin; but the citizens of the metropolis, after great slaughter of the rebels, drove one hundred and forty of them to Powerscourt castle, which they made an attempt to defend. On the appearance, however, of Sir George Stanley, with a military force, they surrendered at discretion, when seventy-five of them were hanged in Dublin, and the remainder pardoned.+

On the 19th June, 1557, a parliament enacted, that nobody shall make aquavita (whiskey) without licence under the great seal, excepting noblemen, gentlemen, and freemen of towns that send members to parliament. This was designed to spare corn, and prevent dearth.

Queen Mary died on the 17th November, 1558.

* Archdall, Monast. Hib. p. 809. † Cox.

CHAP. XX.

Reign of Queen Elizabeth, A.D. 1558, to A.D. 1603.

Elizabeth, only surviving child of Henry VIII., succeeded her sister, in the twenty-fifth year of her age.

fifth

By an inquisition taken at Carlow, in the month of March, and year of the present reign, it was found, that Gerald, earl of Kildare, father of Gerald then earl, was seized of several messuages, lands, and hereditaments, viz., town and lands of Dromeroo, Powerstown, Gurtyne, and Garrane, vulgarly called the land of Theobald Butler; Mirtellestown, &c. All these premises reverted to the hands of Henry VIII.

A.D. 1565. Sir Henry Sydney, K.G., appointed lord deputy. The state of the country is represented as most deplorable at this time. The people reduced to the greatest poverty, the soldiery licentious and unpaid; the Kavanaghs, Birnes, and others, domineering and devastating at will. In short, it appears, that at this time neither life nor property of the well-disposed subject was secure.*

At this period, Gerald, eleventh earl of Kildare, was joined in commission with the earl of Ormonde, Field, bishop of Leighlin, and others, for the reformation of religion.

Thomas Field, bishop of Leighlin, died the Friday before PalmSunday, 1567; having governed this see twelve years. He was buried in the same tomb with his predecessor Sanders.†

Daniel or Donald Kavanagh was advanced to the see in the year of the decease of bishop Field. The letters patent by which he was appointed bore date the 7th May, and ninth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was consecrated at St. Patrick's, cathedral, by Hugh Curwin, archbishop of Dublin. He made long leases of many parts of his diocese, reserving only small rents to his successors; and died on the 4th April, 1587. On the 6th June following the death of this prelate, the queen granted the see of Leighlin in commendam, during the vacancy, to Peter Corse, archdeacon of Leigblin.

The diocese remained vacant for two years after the death of bishop Kavanagh, being reduced by him so much in income as to be no longer an object worthy of acquisition. At length, in April, 1589, Richard Meredyth, a native of Wales, and master of arts in the university of Oxford, was appointed to the see of Leighlin. He was at the time dean of St. Patrick's, and rector of Loughrea, in the diocese of Clonfert. The queen's letters patent for his promotion, and for holding the deanery of St. Patrick's in commendam, bear date the 30th April, and thirty-first year of her reign; the poverty of the see being the cause of annexing the deanery to it. He was chaplain to Sir John Perot, lord deputy of Ireland;

Hooker. † Harris' Ware.

on whose account he suffered greatly. In 1589, the year of his advancement, he was committed prisoner to the tower of London, and fined about the same time 20007. in the star chamber; but the particulars of his offence are not known. In 1592, he assigned to the queen three hundred marcs* per annum out of the issues of his deanery, for ten years, in commutation of the fine. He repaired the episcopal house of Leighlin; and died in Dublin, on the 3rd of August, 1597; where he was buried on the north side of St. Patrick's church, under a marble monument, near the steeple. This monument being decayed by time, three of his descendants, viz., Richard Meredyth of Shrowland, in the county of Kildare, Esq.; Charles Meredyth, dean of Ardfert, and Arthur Francis Meredyth, of Dollardstown, in the county of Meath, in the year 1734, erected a new monument to his memory, at their joint expense. (11)

of

Another vacancy of nearly three years occurred on the death of the preceding bishop. In the year 1600, Robert Grave, dean of Cork, was advanced to the bishoprics of Leighlin and Ferns, the latter being at that time unfilled. Bishop Grave was, in the year his elevation, shipwrecked in the harbour of Dublin. From this period, the sees of Leighlin and Ferns have been always conferred on the same person. A step suggested, no doubt, by the detriment lately done to the revenues of the former diocese.

Nicholas Stafford, chancellor of Ferns, succeeded Grave in both bishoprics, by letters patent, dated the 19th July, in the forty-third year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was consecrated on the 18th of March, 1600, and the same day restored to the temporalities.

A.D. 1567. This year, Sir Peter Carew, of Mohonesotreie, in the county of Devon, knight, descended of a noble family, laid claim to large estates in Ireland. The ancestors of this personage had been barons of Carew in England; marquises of Cork, barons of Idrone, and lords of Maston Twete, and of other seigniories in Ireland. Having ascertained the strength and justice of his title to the property as above stated, he acquainted the queen and council with his claim, and prayed that he might have their permission to follow and recover the same. His request was granted, together with letters from her majesty and the council to the authorities in Ireland, desiring them to aid and assist him, by access to the records in Dublin castle, and every other means within their power. Sir Peter Carew then repaired to Ireland, and after satisfactory search, exhibited a statement of his claim, (before the lord deputy and council,) to the barony of Idrone, then in the possession of five of the Kavanaghs, who pretended a right to it, derived from their ancestors both before and since the conquest. The case was fully examined by lord chancellor Weston, the three chief judges, and several others of the council, when a decree

The value of a marc, or mark, was two-thirds of a pound sterlingthirteen shillings and four pence.

passed in favour of Sir Peter Carew; not merely upon evidence of the inquisition taken 18th Richard II. (already noticed), but upon several other records, by which it was fully manifest, that the Carews answered in the court of exchequer for the rents and royal services due for the said barony, till they were dispossessed in time of common rebellion by the MacMorroughs alias Kavanaghs, who pretended a title to it by descent from Dermot MacMorrough, last king of Leinster; of which title they offered no proof. The decree, indeed, observes, that such pretended title could not be true; inasmuch as Dermot had but one daughter and heir, who was married to Strongbow, of whom the said Kavanaghs were not descendants.*

A.D. 1568. This year, Sir Edmund Butler, seneschal to his brother, the earl of Ormonde, joined the earl of Desmond and others in rebellion. He was urged to this course by the appointment of a commission to make inquiry concerning several illegal acts charged against him, and partly from attachment to the Irish, and to the Roman Catholic cause. The lord deputy proclaimed him and his confederates, traitors, and transmitted orders to Sir Peter Carew, knt., (then resident at his castle of Leighlin-bridge, of which he was governor), to march against the rebels. Sir Peter promptly obeyed, and first assaulted the castle of Cloghgrenan, in our county, (belonging at that time to Sir Edmund Butler), which he speedily seized, and distributed the booty, there found, to his soldiers. He then marched to Kilkenny, attacked a body of two thousand rebels, killed four hundred of them, and thus concluded the war there. He was assisted in these proceedings by Captain Henry Davells, to whom we shall again have oc

casion to make allusion.

The Kavanaghs resident on the boundaries of Sir Peter Carew's district were united with the Butlers in this rebellion; but so completely were they harassed by this able and active commander, that they were reduced to submit themselves at discretion to her majesty's mercy, and give hostages for their future peaceable conduct.†

In 1569, Sir Edmund Butler of Cloghgrenan obtained pardon from the lord deputy, through the intercession of his brother, the earl of Ormonde. It appears, however, that considerable obstruction was thrown in the way of this amnesty, by the choleric temper and violent demeanour of Sir Edmund himself. For, when brought before the lord deputy, (on the 16th October), he cast many reflections on that personage, charging him with partiality, with refusing justice, and, in short, attributing the late rebellion to his misgovernment. As might be expected, this language led to his committal as a prisoner in the castle of Dublin; from which, however, he shortly afterwards effected his escape, by means of a small rope, which unfortunately broke when he was three yards from the ground. So much disabled was Sir Edmund by the fall,

that he could proceed but a short distance, and was obliged to remain all the ensuing night immersed to his chin in water, in order to elude his pursuers.* In about three months afterwards, theearl of Ormonde again brought him, and the rest of his brothers, before the lord deputy and council at Dublin, when they were all pardoned after a brief confinement. This clemency was owing to the favourable feeling entertained towards the earl by the government, and perhaps in some degree to the partiality of the queen, who by her mother was related to the Butler family, and frequently boasted of the loyalty of that noble house.

A.D. 1571. Sir William Fitz-William was appointed lord deputy this year. He framed many salutary regulations for the government of the country; which not being relished by the Irish, they again "began," as Hooker says, "to play their pagents." And first in this insurrectionary movement, was Bryan MacCahir Kavanagh, of Knocking, in the county of Carlow, who, having, as he stated, suffered certain injuries from Robert Browne, of Malkenram, immediately commenced a series of tyrannical acts, outrages, and devastations in the country; among the rest, several towns were burned by him. Robert Browne, it seems, lost his life. The gentlemen of the county of Wexford, being grieved at the death of Browne, and Sir Nicholas Devereux, knight, his uncle, feeling particularly indignant at this circumstance, they all rose in arms against the Kavanaghs, and collected as great a force as lay within their power. The same was done by Bryan Mac Cahir, and thus the country was reduced to a state of ferment and insecurity, to which no issue appeared but a pitched battle. engagement, in effect, soon afterwards occurred; when Bryan MacCahir, with fewer numbers, contrived, by superior skill and generalship, to overthrow his opponents. Thirty county of Wexford gentlemen of rank were, on this occasion, killed. An Englishman of rank, afterwards seneschal of Wexford, narrowly escaped by mounting a horse behind another man. The Wexford gentry made some subsequent efforts at retaliation, but, by degrees the difference died away.

An

About two years afterwards, Bryan MacCahir made humble suit to the lord deputy for pardon, submitted himself fully, and confessed in writing the disorders he had caused, and the outrages he had committed: adding, however, that the quarrel was not caused or commenced by him. Pardon was granted to him by the government; and his subsequent peaceable and proper conduct fully manifested that it was not improperly bestowed. Bryan MacCahir was son of Charles, the son of Arthur, which Arthur was by king Henry VIII. made a baron for the term of his life.† He was a man of great power in the counties of Carlow and Wexford. The said Bryan MacCahir was a younger son of Charles, but distinguished for his superior judgment and bravery; so much so, that although there were many able men in the sept of Kavanagh,

Cox. Hib. Ang. vol. i. p. 335.

+ Hooker, Chron. of Ir.