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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS
BEING
THE FIFTH PART
OF
A HISTOEY OF COUNTY DUBLIN
AND
AN EXTRA VOLUME
OF THE
iHopal ^ocictp of ^dntiquaric.^ of ^B^^f^*^"^
1917
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HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS
BEING
T
rtlE FIFTH PART
OF
A HISTORY OF COUNTY DUBLIN
AND
AN EXTRA VOLUME
OF
®I/e §0pl <^0rirtir 0f ^utrquurics of Ir^Iauir
BY
FRANCIS ELRINGTON BALL
HON. LITT.D., DUBLIN
DUBLIN FEINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
FOK THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUAKIKS OF IRELAND
1917
PREFACE
The Council desires to preface this volume with the following explanation.
HowTH AND ITS OwNERS, published as an Extra Volume by the Eoyal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, forms Part V of Dr. F. Elrington Ball's "History of County Dublin." The previous volumes of the History were published as follows : — Part I, commencing with the parish of Monkstown, in 1902 ; Part II, in which Donnybrook was the first parish described, in 1903 ; Part III, commencing with the parish of Tallaght, in 1905 ; and Part IV, Clonsilla being the first parish described, in 1906. '' Howth and its Owners " differs from the preceding Parts in dealing with a single parish, one that possesses great interest on account of its position and its traditions. The Castle of Howth, perhaps the most beautifully situated residence in County Dublin, is of much historic importance. Its owners, the feudal Barons of Howth, played a notable part in the various scenes of Irish history. Their chief manor was conterminous with the present parish of Howth. It is one of the few manors that have remained in the hands of its original Lords from the time of the Anglo- Norman Conquest.
The long delay between the appearance of Part IV and the present volume is due to a request made to the author, in
715475
vi HOWTH AND ITS OWNEES.
1908, to undertake the publication of an edition of Swift's Letters upon which Mr. Caesar Litton lalkiner was engaged at the time of his death. No editor so well qualified as Dr. Ball could be found, and he generously laid aside his History to take up that work.
When the author found himself once more free to resume his History, the European War had broken out, and his own outlook had been darkened by the death of those who had been beside him in the inception of the book, especially one most near to himself who was hoping to see its completion, and who was taken from him on the eve of the publication of the last volume of Swift's Letters. For a time these circumstances prevented the consideration of any literary undertaking. But the " History of County Dublin " was too important a work to be allowed to stand unfinished longer than was absolutely necessary; and on the solicitations of his friends Dr. Ball consented to consider seriously its completion. He has now entered on the task ; but for the reasons which, by his own wish, have been only briefly touched upon, he decided that the publication of the further volumes should take a difierent form from the previous ones. The present volume was, therefore, ofl'ered to our Society to be brought out as an Extra Volume, with this important difference from other Extra Volumes — that the whole expense of publication has been defrayed by the author, and that the Society has not been called upon in any way. The Society is greatly indebted to Dr. Ball, who has further intimated his intention of completing the History in two more volumes, with a general review and index, which he likewise intends to be published by our Society on the same generous terms as the present work.
PREFACE. vii
The Council has been asked by the autlior to convey his most grateful thanks to all who have given him assistance. To the late and to the present owner of Howth he is indebted in an especial degree. Without the assistance of the late Earl of Howth, and of his successor, Commander J. C. Gaisford St. Lawrence, the volume could not have been written. To Lady Margaret Domvile he is under much obligation for the kind manner in which she placed her knowledge of the history of her family at his disposal. To Miss Mahaffy he is no less indebted, and the volume owes much to her intimate acquaintance with the peninsula and its traditions. Finally, the author has requested the Council to record his deep sense of the generous friendship of Mr. T. J. Westropp, the President; Mr. E. C. Pt. Armstrong, Professor Pt. A. S. Macalister, and the Honorary General Secretary, Mr. Charles MacNeill.
CONTENTS.
Chapter i'age
I. Introduction, ...... 1
II. In Early Times, . . . . .9
III. The Middle Ages, . . . . .23
IV. In Plantagenet and Tudor Times, . . .40 V. Under Elizabeth, . . . . .68
VI. In Jacobean Times, . . . . .88
VII. The Commonwealth and the Restoration, . .112
VIII. In the Time of Swift and Grattan, . . .127
IX. As A Packet Station and After, . . . 145
APPENDIX.
A. Confirmation of circa 1188, . . , .155
B. Confirmation of circa 1190, . . . .156
C. Cadets of the House of Howth, 1200-1400, . . 157
D. Rectors and Prebend.yries of Howth, 1200-1400, . 158
E. Rectors and Prebendaries of Howth, 1400-1600, . 159
F. Cadets of the House of Howth, 1400-1600, . . 160
G. Rectors and Prebendaries of Howth, 1600-1700, . 161 H. Cadets of the House of Howth, 1600-1800, , . 161
I. Rectors and Prebendaries of Howth, 1700-1800, . 162
K. Parish Priests of Howth, 1600-1800, . .163
L. The Furniture of the House of Howth, 1746-52, . 164
M. Rectors and Prebendaries of Howth, 1800-1900, . 167
N. Parish Priests of Howth, 1800-1900, . . 167
0. Inscription on the Tomb at Howth, . . .168 Index, ........ 169
ILLUSTRATIONS.
The illustrations marked with an asterisk are from drawings or photographs by the President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Mr. Thomas Johnson Wcstropp, M.A.
A Prospect of the House of Howth, circa 1735, from an oil-painting in Howth Castle,
The Gateway Tower and the Keep,*
The Sword of Howth ,'^'' ....
Plans of the Gateway Tower and the Keep,"^'
Plan of the Baily Fort,*
St. Fintan's Church, from a photograph hy Mr, T. F
Geoghegan, .....
Euins on Ireland's Eye before restoration, from a wood
cut in Miss Stokes's " Early Christian Architecture
in Ireland," .....
Device on Tomb — Emblems of the Passion,''-'
The Cromlech, and the Site of the Early Castle, from
drawings by Gabriel Beranger, preserved in the
Eoyal Irish Academy, ....
Deed concerning the Church, circa 1235, preserved in the
National Museum of Ireland, Corr Castle,* ..... Plan of St. Mary's Church,* Tomb — Effigies and Inscription,* Arms on Tomb — Plunkett and St. Lawrence,* . Tomb — East and West ends,* Tomb — South side,* .... Tomb — North side,* .... Plan of Corr Castle,* .... The Bells of St. Mary's Church,* The Inscription on the Tomb, deciphered and drawn by
Professor R. A. S. Macalister, litt.d., see p. 168, St. Mary's Church and the College,'''
Frontispiece.
PAGE
to face 1
5
to face 7
. 12
to face 15
18 22
to face 23
to face
to face to face
27 28 31 37 39 41 42 43 45 48
to face 5 1 to face 59
HOWTH AND ITS OWNEES. xi
<;!orr Castle — East side,'^' ....
Corr Castle — Eecess on third floor,*
Dragon at Entrance to the Castle Gardens,*'
Gateway and Tahlet, .....
The Castle, circa 1780, from an engraving in Thomas
Milton's Views of Irish Seats, The Castle, circa 1820, from a drawing by George Petrie
preserved in the National Gallery of Ireland, Arms on Tomb — Fleming, ....
The Harbour, from a drawing by Miss Stokes, . The Castle from the West, from a photograph by Mr. T. F. Geoghegan, ......
The Castle from the East, from a photograph by Mr. T. F. Geoghegan, ......
Bishop Montgomery and his Wife, from portraits in Howth Castle, .....
Arms on Tomb — White,* ....
The Hall of the Castle, from a photograph by Mr. T. F.
Geoghegan, ...... to face 115
Thomas, Lord Howth, 1671-1727, and William, Lord
Howth, 1727-1748, from portraits in Howth Castle, to face 125 The Harbour, circa 1790, from a print by Walker, after Wheatley ; and the Rescue of an Aeronaut, from a mezzotint by Ward, after Barralet, . . . to face 129
Nicola, wife of Lieut. -Gen. R. Gorges, and Lucy, wife of
William, Lord Howth, from portraits in Howth Castle, to face 135 Swift's Chair, preserved in Howth Castle, . . . 137
The Honble. William St. Lawrence, from a portrait in
Howth Castle, . . . . . .140
Thomas, first Earl of Howth, and William, second Earl
of Howth, from portraits in Howth Castle, . . to face 143
Freedom-Box presented to first Earl of Howth, . . .144
Thomas, third Earl of Howth, and William, fourth Earl
of Howth, from portraits in Howth Castle, . . to face 147
The third Earl in the Hunting-field, and Peep-o"-Day Boy,
from oil-paintings in Howth Castle, . . . to face 153
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HOT^^TH AND ITS OWNERS.
CHAPTER I.
INTKODUCTION.
The peninsula of Howth, which is about three miles long, forms the extremity of the north-eastern boundary of Dublin Bay. It rises abruptly from the sea, and attains to an elevation of over five hundred and fifty feet. As its isthmus is flat and narrow, it appears from a distance to be completely surrounded by water. It is the most striking feature of the coast-line of the county of Dublin, and gains additional attraction from an island, of pyramidal shape, known as Ireland's Eye, which lies close to its northern shore, and is visible across the isthmus from the south.
In the blue waters of the Irish Sea the peninsula and the island are singularly picturesque objects as the light and shade throw into relief the grey of their rocks, the brown of their withered bracken, and the green of their grassy slopes. In all ages the peninsula has been celebrated for its cliff and moorland scenery. The poets of the Fianna period proclaimed it the loveliest hill in Erin's isle ; and a word-painter of our own day' has found a theme in the grandeur of its caverned shores, in the wild beauty of its gorse-clad hill-sides, and in the brilliant hue of the rhododendrons that attain perfection in its valleys.-
1 Sir Samuel Ferguson.
'-Writing in the "Irish Times" of June 14, 1902, an American visitor said : — " It may seem presumptuous for an American to call the attention of Irish people to one of the beauties of their own country, but he hears so much said of Continental attractions that he is led to wonder if Dublin people realize that one of the most beautiful sights in Europe lies at their very door. Ireland itself is the dreamland of the world, but it is worth u trip across the Atlantic merely to spend an afternoon
B
2 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
On a first view the peninsula seems to have more connexion with the present than the past. As it is approached from the west by its isthmus modern villas and places of worship are alone seen, and within its limits houses of the last century are every- where most conspicuous. In addition, an artificial harbour on its northern shore, and a light-house at its eastern extremity, tend to increase its association with later times. But a closer inspec- tion shows that the peninsula contains many ancient remains, indeed, more than any other area of the same size in the county of Dublin, and affords much scope for archfeological and historical research. A cromlech recalls the primeval age ; a fortified head- land, the days of the Celtic monarchy ; an early sanctuary, the dawn of Christianity ; and the varied architecture of a castle and church, whose foundations were laid nearly seven centuries ago, the changes of subsequent periods. To the evidence of an event- ful past afforded by these relics, the place-names make addition, and establish a close connexion with the Scandinavian invaders, from whose tongue the names of the peninsula and its island are derived.
The peninsula and isthmus are now divided into seven townlands — Burrow, Censure, Howth, Howth Demesne, Quarry, Sutton North, and Sutton South ; and these townlands, together with Ireland's Eye and some islets and foreshore,^ form the present parish of Howth. Within the townland of Howth, which embraces the eastern half of the peninsula, lie the town of Howth, the ruins of the mediaeval church, and the fortified headland ; within the townland of Howth Demesne, which embraces the north-western part of the peninsula, lies the seat of the lord of the soil, with the cromlech in its immediate vicinity ; within the townlands of Censure and Sutton North and South, which embrace the south-western part of the peninsula, lie the finest
among the rhoiiodendrons at the Howth demesne. It is the fairyland of childhood called into brief and beautiful reality. I have travelled in most parts of the world, and have seen the greater part of the show] places on the Continent, but nothing of the sort can equal in fantastic and sumptuous beauty tliis hanging garden at tlie Howth demesne. It is a pity that anyone who can visit Urnvth should miss a sight that is unsurpassed on this side of the Indian Ocean."
^ Thulla Island, the Islands, Sutton Oyster Bed, and the Estuary.
INTRODUCTION. 3
cliff scenery,' and the primitive church ; within the townlands of Burrow and Quarry, which embrace the isthmus and a strip alono- the northern shore of the peninsula, lie two motes ; and on Ireland's Eye there are the remains of another primitive church.
With the exception of Censure, Howth, and Sutton, these divisions are modern. In an extent of the parish in the sixteenth century the townlands are given as Balkyll, Balstreight, Correston, Houthe, Modaxton, PoUardiston, Shenshire, and Sutton ;" and in an extent in the eighteenth century tho town- lands are given as Bodeen, Censure, Howth, Kitestown, Studdwalls, and Sutton.'' The lands of Balkyll, Balstreight, and Correston are now portion of the townland of Howth Demesne. Those of Balkyll lie in its south-eastern angle, those of Balstreight lie along its northern side, and those of Correston, which are marked by a ruin known as Corr Castle, lie in its north-western angle. The lands of Bodeen, Kitestown, and Studdwalls are now included in the townland of Howth, Of Modaxton and PoUardiston all trace is lost.
The derivation of these place-names provides an interesting study. As already mentioned, Howth (i.e. the head) and Ireland's Eye (i.e. Eria's islet) are of Scandinavian origin, as is the Naze or Nose of Howth. Balkyll (i.e. the town of the church), Balstreight (i.e. the town of the strand). Censure (i.e. the eldest),* Correston (i.e. the town of the round hill), and Bodeen are of Irish origin, In connexion with the natural features of the peninsula, many Irish names are also found. Amongst the names of the hills there occur the Ben (i.e. peak) of Howth, Carrickbrac (i.e. the speckled rock), Carrickmore (i.e. the big rock), Loughoreen (i.e. the lake of the cold spring), and
1 Especially near the Needles or Candlesticks, two pointed rocks, which are said to be the reraains of a rockj^ headland that has been worn into these fantastic forms by the action of the sea. See article (with woodcut) signed P[etrie] in the " Dublin Penny Journal," i, 165.
- Fiant, Edw. VI, no. 86.
3 Mason's " History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 64.
* It is possible also that the name may be derived from a proper name, or have arisen fiom rejection of the land for its bad quality.
B 2
4 HOWTH AND ITS OWXEES.
Shelmaitin (i.e. Martin's seed).^ Amongst the names of the streams, of which there are four, there are found Balsaggart Stream (i.e. the stream of the priest's town) and Coulcour Brook (i.e. the brook of the foamy nook) ; ' while the designations of other objects include the names Balglass (i.e. the town of the stream), Balscadden Bay (i.e. the bay of the town of the herrings), Casana Eock (i.e. the rock of the paths), Coolmine (i.e. the smooth corner), Cush Point (i.e. the foot), Drumleck (i.e. the ridge of the flagstones), Dunbo (i.e. the cow fort), Glenaveena (i.e. the glen of the Fianua), Kilrock (i.e. the rock of the church), Knocknabohill (i.e. the boys' hillock), Lough Leven (i.e. the lough of the elms), and Eellig (i.e. the cemetery).^ On Ireland's Eye there occurs the name Carrigeen (i.e. the little rock),* and a diminutive island near it is known as ThuUa (i.e. the mound or the addition).
But amidst its manifold interests, the peninsula's chief claim to fame arises from its owners, whose residence as well as tenure began at the time of the Anglo-Norman settlement, and has con- tinued without interruption until the present day. The history of the St. Lawrences, ennobled for countless generations as Lords of Howth, is indeed one of which any family might be proud, and shows a loyalty to the home adopted by them in distant ages such as has been seldom, if ever, surpassed. When the State has called upon them they have been always ready to render assist- ance in the field of battle or in the council chamber, and their services have won for them high distinction ; but it seems as if they had been moved by a sense of duty rather than by ambition,.
' Amongst other names of hills there are found — Barren, Dun, Middle, and Signal Hill.
^ The other two streams are called Bloody Stream, and Whitewater Brook. There are eight wells known as Balsaggart, Barrenhill, Bawn, Black Jack's, Juan's, Priest's, St. Fintan's, and Tunnel Well. Two petrifying wells are mentioned by Rutty (" Mineral Waters of Ireland," p. 3.51), one under the churchyard, the other, ''the Howth dropping well," on the east side of the peninsula.
' Amongst other names of natural objects are found — Black Heath, Call Hole, Cross Garvey, Flat Hocks, Fox Hole, Gaskin's Leap, Green Ivj-, Highrooni Bed, Hippy Hole, Lion's Head, Mudoak Rock, Piper's Gut, Puck's Rock, Red Rock, Sheep Hole, the Stag, Webb's Castle Rock, and Worm Hole. See Jour. Roy. Soc. Ant., Irel., xxiii, 445-54.
* The other names are— Rowan Rocks, Samphire Hole, Seal's Cave, the Stags and the Steer.
INTEODUCTION. 5
and as if, when their work was done, they had hastened back to their peninsula, esteeming it, like the woman of old, the highest privilege to be permitted to live amongst their own people.
The story of the St. Lawrences describes the founder of their house as a man of almost superhuman achievement in martial enterprise, whose banner was a sure token of victory to his friends and of defeat to his enemies. A likelihood of much knightly valour in the early generations of the family finds support in the fact that two swords are prominent in the St. Lawrence arms, and that a great two-handed one, which has belonged to the family from time immemorial, is one of the most prized possessions in their ancestral home ;^ and the position which the founder of the
The Sword of Howth.
house and his more immediate descendants occupied in Ireland points to his having had behind him traditions. According to the St. Lawrence story he was a brother-in-law of the renowned Anglo-Norman conqueror of Ulster, John de Courcy, and joined that illustrious man, as a consequence of vows made in the church of Rouen, in many campaigns abroad and at home. A halo of romance is thrown round his head by attributing to him originally the name of Tristram, and by seeking to establish a connexion between him and the hero of the Arthurian legend, and the adoption of the patronymic borne by his descendants is explained by the suggestion that the conquest of Howth was granted to him
1 It is mentioned in *' An Historical Essay on the Dress of the Irish," by J. C. Walker, Dublin, 1788, p. 116, as " a two-handed sword, wielded with great success by a baron of Howth." In Lodge's "Peerage," iii, 180, it is claimed to be the sword used by the founder of the house of St. Lawrence. But of. James Drummond's "Ancient Scottish Weapons."
6 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
on the feast of St. Lawrence.' But of his origin and career prior to his arrival in Ireland nothing can be said with certainty.
During the eighteenth century much error crept into the St. Lawrence pedigree, and in the earlier generations a number of mythical owners of Howtli were introduced. But a note made by the learned Archbishop Alen in the early part of the sixteenth century shows that the succession accepted in his day was nearly the same as that obtained from contemporary sources. His note reads as follows : —
Genealogia de Sanguine Dominorum de Houth a Con- questu — Nicholas 3 =^ et Almaritius 2 ^ ac Adam 2 '^ etiam Christopher 2 ^ cum Stephano, Eoberto, Edwardo, quoque modo heres apparens, quorum ordo successionis talis est N. A. A. A. A. N. S. C. R. N. C. et E. hodie 1533.- As the succeeding pages will show, the succession is now established to have been : —
Lords of Houih.^
circa 1180 Almeric. 1526-1542 Christopher.
circa 1187 Nicholas. 1542-1549 Edward.
circa 1200 Almeric. 1549-1558 Richard.
circa 1250 Henry. 1558-1589 Christopher.
circa 1270 Nicholas. 1589-1607 Nicholas.
1290-1325 Adam. 1607-1619. Christopher.
1325-1334 Adam. 1619-1644 Nicholas.
1334-1404 Nicholas. 1644-1649 Thomas.
1404-1435 Stephen. 1649-1671 William.
1435-1462 Christopher. 1671-1727 Thomas.
1462-1486 Robert. 1727-1748 William. 1486-1526 Nicholas.
' It has been also stated that the change of name was made after a battle at Clontarf by a member of the house who commanded an army in it, and had made vows to the Saint that if successful he would assume the Saint's name. Lodge's "Peerage," iii, 180.
■ Alen'B " Liber Niger," Trinity College copy, f. 662, «. d.
' In a note Lodge ("Peerage," iii, 180) mentions that it was formerly asserted that the owners of Howth had possessed their estate without diminution or increase from the earliest time, that they had never suffered an attainder, and that the estate and title had never descended to a minor or second son. But the last claim cannot be sustained.
GATEWAY TOWER
KEEP (UPPER FLOOR)
INTEODUCTIOK 7
Earls of Howth.
1748-1801 Thomas. 1822-1874 Thomas.
1801-1822 William. 1874-1909 William.
The seat of the St. Lawrences, known as Howth Castle, has stood on its present site, not far from the isthmus on the northern shore of the peninsula, for seven hundred years. It comprises a great mass of buildings, and contains structures of various periods. It is approached from the east through a courtyard, on the north side of which lies an ancient gateway and the stable-yard, and on the south a wing containing a chapel and various apartments. The front shows an elevation of two stories over the ground-floor, and a lofty flight of steps leads to the hall, which is on the first floor. To the north of the hall is the dining-room, and to the south the billiard-room. In a wins' extending to the south-west lie the drawing-room, library, and other reception-rooms.'
At first search is made in vain for any sign of an early origin. " Nothing but modern-looking turrets, rough-cast and white- washed," says the President of the Eoyal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland,* " are to be seen through the thick mantle of ivy with which the Castle is covered, and it is only on close examination that in the . south-west corner of the Castle, to the left of the entrance, the keep or chief tower of the ancient fortress is revealed. At the north-west angle of the keep, in a small turret, the original staircase is found, and in the north-east angle in a corresponding turret, which was vaulted throughout its stories, curious rude corbelling is visible. The stairs were composed of rude stone steps, without any newel or stone-cutting such as occurs even in small peel towers in the west of Ireland, but a neat pointed doorway leads into the upper story of the Castle. Six steps higher there is one of the original window-slits, now built up, and ten steps more lead to the summit of the keep. Excepting in the case of the south-west turret, which is apparently of eighteenth-century
1 The library, which is in a tower at the end of the wing, was designed for the present owner of the castle by Mr. E. L. Lutyens, under whose direction extensive alterations and additions have been made. See "Houses and Gardens by E. L. Lutyens," described by Lawrence Weaver, p. 272.
2 Mr. T. J. Westropp, m.a.
8 HOWTH AND ITS OWXEKS.
date, the original crenellated battlements and slab-gutters are retained. The north-west or staircase turret has a small, straight Might of steps leading from the main stairs to the top, wliich affords a fine view, over the Castle gardens and park, of the sea and Ireland'.s Eye. This turret is seven feet eight inches north and south, and six feet ten inches east and west, while the main tower is twenty-three feet four inches long from this turret to the south wall along the battlement. The chimneys, which rest on corbels far down the face of the walls and block up the battle- ments, are plain, and a window of oblong shape which has been built up, was without ornament.
" A gateway tower, which lies to the north-east of the Castle and is now unused, is also of the mediaeval time. It consists of a gloomy round-vaulted passage, eleven feet eight inches wide, and over twenty-seven feet deep, with two little guard-rooms only lighted by slits, which splay inwards and outwards, and by small doorways. Over the vault, the side wall of which is five feet eight inches thick, there are two stories. The windows in them have been probably renewed, but a turret at the north-east corner and the battlements are possibly of the same date as the main portion of the gateway."'
Beyond the gateway tower, farther to the north-east, the Castle gardens slope down to the sea. They were laid out more than two hundred years ago, and are intersected by beech hedges, which are remarkable not only for the size to which they have grown, but also for the radiating plan which was adopted in planting them, A summer-house forms the centre, and alleys through the hedges afford marine vistas of great beauty. The hedges have been kept closely clipped, and the effect of the vistas is increased by their being seen through " walls of gleaming leaves, tender green in spring, deep green in high summer, and glorious sheen of copper at the fall of the year."^
' Cf. " Archaeologia," xixviii, 173.
• .See " Howth Castle," by Lawrence "Weaver, in " Country Life " for July 1, 1916.
( 9 ) CHAPTER II.
IN EARLY TIMES.
The size of the cromlech which lies within the demesne of Howfch, and the absence of megalithic monuments from the rest of the northern part of the county of Dublin, go far to prove that in the most remote past the peninsula was recognized as a place of extraordinary importance. It is estimated that the roof- rock of this cromlech weighs no less than seventy tons. This weight is a third more than that of the roof-rock of the great cromlech near Rathfarnham, at Mount Venus,^ which of the cromlechs in the county of Dublin is the specimen most nearly approaching the dimensions of the Howth one ; and it is only exceeded in the case of the roof-rocks of two other cromlechs in the whole of Ireland.^
But the annals and legends of Ireland leave no doubt that from the beginning of things human the peninsula has been one of the well-known places of Ireland. Under the name Benn Etar, or the peak of Etar, the peninsula comes into notice with the commence- ment of the history of Ireland, and is a landmark in the dimness that surrounds the advent of the earliest colonists. At a period which approximates to the time of the Flood, the Grecian parri- cide, Partholon, is said to have settled on the plain of Etar, and there the great multitude of his followers, who according to tradition were buried at Tallaght,^ are supposed to have perished.* By one legend the origin of the name is attributed to the time of the Firbolgs, the successors of the Partholonians, and is said
1 See " History of County Dublin," iii, 49.
2 See Borlase's " Dolmens of Ireland," ii, 376, and Journal, R.S.A.I., ii, 40. To the sketch of this monument, made in 1775, Gabriel Beranger appends the following note : — " The cromlech at Howth called by the country people ' Fan ]\IcCool's quoit,' had six supporters, off which it was thrown down by some violent shock ; it is com- posed of grit of a peculiar kind, in the grain of which are seen large pieces of marble and various coloured stones .... Its situation is in a field at the foot of a rocky mountain at the back of Lord Howth's improvements." (Gabriel Beranger's Sketch Book in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy.)
3 See " History of County Dublin," iii, 3.
* Irish Texts Society's Publications, iv, 163.
10 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
to have been connected with the wife ot one of the five chieftains, under whose conduct the Firbolgs came from Greece :
Five wives they brought hither,
The five sons of Dehi without stain,
The fiflli t'anious woman was
Etar, the splendid and stately ;
'Twas she died here, first of all
Before the wife of any King, 'tis well known,
Of prief for long-limbed radiant Gand,
In Benn Etar suddenly.'
But according^ to another lesjend the name Benn Etar is derived from a chieftain of later times, Etar the son of Etgaeth. He was a great warrior, known as far as " the shores of Alba," and is said to have possessed " in wealth and plenty " the penin- sula on whose summit he found his last resting-place. At the time of his death Etar had to wife a lady " tierce as to prowess of spears," called Mairg, from whom the Slieve Margy hills are said to have derived their name ; but an alliance with the radiant Aine, daughter of Manannan, and one with a lady called Bethi, are also ascribed to him. The name of the last lady is said to have been borne as well by a daughter of Mairg by a former marriage ; and this Bethi is said to have given her hand to a son of Etar by a former marriage, Aes by name, and to have perished with her husband tragically in the pool of the Liftey.-
At the commencement of the Milesian settlement, which is approximated to the time of Moses, the erection of a fortress upon the peninsula is recorded liy the Four Masters. It was similar to one then placed upon Dalkey Island,' and its erection above " the great waved sea " is attributed to a chieftain called Suirge :
Dun Sobairce* was afterwards erected, By brave Sobairce of the wliite side ; Deilinis hy Segda with clieerfulness : Dun Etar by Suirge, the slender.^
1 Gwynn's "Metrical Dindshenchas," iii, 113 ; cf. "Revue Celtique," xv, 330; "Folk Lore," iv, 495.
-Gwynn's "Metrical Dindshenchas," iii, 105, 115, 161, 496; cf. "Revue Celtique," xv, 330; O'Flaherty's " Ogygia," 1685, p. 271; "Trans. Ossianic Society," i, 74, n. 3.
» See " History of County Dublin," i, 79.
* Dunseverick in Antrim.
'■> " Trans. Ossianic Society," v, 277 ; cf. Four Masters, a.m. 3501, Book of Lecan, p. 01.
IN EAELY TIMES. 11
Coming down after a lapse of many centuries to the begin- ning of the Christian era, Benn Etar appears as the abode of a monarch of Ireland called Crimthann, or Criffan, as the name is pronounced. His fame lingers more in fable than in fact, and is preserved chiefly in connexion with an expedition made by him across the seas, about which marvellous things are told. On this expedition he is said to have been accompanied by a female sprite, whose care for his welfare earned him the appellation of " Nair's champion," and from it to have brought back spoils of precious metal sparkling with gems. But there is doubtless some basis of reality in the tale, and the golden chariot and chess-board, and all-conquering sword and spear, may be taken as symbolical of Crimthann's wealth and authority, and indicative of the prosperity and importance of Benn Etar in his time. There, as tradition has it, his bones lie buried in a valley between Shel martin and the Dun Hill, and cairns on those hills, the one on Shelmartin being represented now by a modern pile of stones, have been connected with his memory.'
By the Ordnance Survey the fortified headland at the eastern extremity of the peninsula, where the Baily Lighthouse stands, has been marked with his name, and its remains deserve more attention than they have hitherto received. "As was usual in forts of the kind," says the President of the Koyal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland,- "the builders selected a position where natural features contribute to the defence. They found two deep gullies across a long headland, with a pyramidal rock at the end, and strengthened this natural fortification by fencing the gullies on their seaward faces with earthworks. On the outer gully the earthworks have been greatly defaced by modern roads, fences, and walls ; but along the more northern portion of the gully there still exist two lines of mounds, each over twenty feet in width, with an intervening fosse about fifteen feet in width, which are dimensions that constantly recur in the fortified headlands on the south and west coasts of Ireland. A road connecting with the
1 Four Masters, a.d. 9 ; Gwynn's '' Dindshenchas," lii, 121.
2 Mr. T. J. Westropp, m.a.
12
HOWTH AND ITS OWXEPuS.
main road l(> the lighthouse lias been cut through these earth- works, and on the southern side of the main road a single rampart only remains. It has been nearly removed, but sufficient exists to show that it rdn in a curve across the back at the top of the slope inside the mounds and fosse. The outer ward, which, so far as can be seen, contains no middens or undoubtedly early earthworks, is at its northern side over seven hundred and fifty feet across : but it is irregular. On the inner gully remains of a rampart which seems to have been single are still to be found.
THE BAILEY FCaT. HOWTH
C MODERN BUILDINGS OMITTED)
Some portions are five or six feet in height, and twenty-seven feet in thickness ; but along the steeper part and the northern cliff the entrenchment was slight. Indeed, at the latter place it might be considered a late fence only for a midden of limpet and periwinkle shells, which are evidently of great age, in the embankment at the head of a path leading down to an old quarry. The inner ward, which measures seven hundred and ninety feet, extends from the hollow to the Lighthouse, and on the rock now occupied by that trium])!! of modern engineering
IN EAELY TIMES. 1
o
skill, where a midden similar to the one just mentioned was found, stood the citadel or keep of the ancient fort. In the county of Waterford, at Dane's Island and Island Hubbock, and in the county of Clare, at Bishop's Island, there were similar entrenchments on the land, with nearly detached rock citadels, smaller in size, but more impressive from their greater height."
But with regard to the position on the peninsula of Crimthann's dwelling there can be no certainty. As his dun is said to have been visible from the county of Meath/ its site seems more probably to have been on the northern than on the eastern side. To a height on the northern side, over the harbour, on which part of the town of Howth has been built, the place-name Dunbo, or the fort of the cow, has been attached, thus identifying it as the scene of an ancient historic tale called the " Siege of Etar." This tale, which is one of the compositions of the cycle of the Red Branch Knights, is contemporaneous with Crimthann's period. The dun mentioned in it was large enough to contain seven hundred cows as well as the defenders, and strong enough to resist for many days the attacks of an armed host. The besieged were Ulstermen, to- whom the tale attributes the erection of the dun, and they are said to have been forced to take refuge on Benn Etar through the exactions of a fellow-countryman called Athairne the Importunate, from whose use of hurdles to bring his prey across the Liffey Dublin is said to owe its original name, Athcliath. The tale dwells at length on the outrages committed by Athairne, who was a poet, but, in the character attributed to him, greatly belied his calling, and it gives little information about the events at Benn Etar. Amongst the few incidents mentioned as taking place there are that the Red Branch hero Cuchulain defended with spears a gap, which he disdained to fence, and that his foster-son,who- was only overcome by three hundred heroes, guarded the entrance to the dun.^ While excavations were being made forty years ago- on the supposed site of Athairne's dun, a cist and various traces of burials were found, and in connexion with these discoveries it.
1 Westropp's "Ancient Forts of Ireland," Trans. R.I.A., xxxi, 593; Proc. xxiv, c. 274.
'^ "fievue Celtique," viii, 47; O'Curry's "Lectures on Irish History," p. 266; "Trans. Ossianic Society," v, 170. In the eighteenth century it was believed that.
14 HOWTH AXD ITS OWNERS.
was mentioned that the site had been originally surrounded on three sides by the sea,'
The next person mentioned in connexion with the peninsula is the hero of the Fenian cycle of Irish literature, Finn MacCumhaill, who flourished in the third century. While sitting in the east, " over the sea at the hill of Etar," he is said to have seen a vision of the future invasion of Ireland, and the peninsula is represented as a resort of his followers, who set out from it to the disastrous battle of Gabhra, and as one of the places to which Finn MacCumhaill assigned a special guard under the command of some of his captains. There also his affianced bride, Grainne, is said to have sought refuge with her lover, Diarmuid, in a cave, which has been identified as one of those near Drumleck Point, and his grandson, Oscar, found a wife in Aideen, daughter of Angus of Benn Etar. In the apocryphal tales of that period there are also frequent references to the peninsula, and there is indication that it was then a noted port and hunting-ground in stories which tell of a proud fleet, from which a giantess landed on the peninsula, and of a great chase, in wliich a son of the King of Britain joined on the hill. With the Fenian period local tradition loves to connect the great cromlech. According to one legend it was a quoit thrown by Finn MacCumhaill from the Bog of Allen, and according to another it was raised to mark the resting-place of Aideen, who died of grief for the loss of her husband, Oscar, in the battle of Gabhra' : —
Imperfect in an alien speech,
"When, wandering here, some child of chance
Throiigli pangs of keen delight shall reach 'I'lie gift of utterance,
Howth had been a seat of Druidical worship, the Mona of Ireland, and that Athairne belonged to a college of their bards :
In early times for solitude so famed,
That here our bards their soft asylum chose,
"Whose song divine the savage soul reclaimed, And martial manners soothed to sweet repose.
(" Howth, a Descriptive Poem," by Abraham Bosquet : Dull., 1787.) Cf. Thomas Milton's "Views of Irish Seats," Dubl., 1786.
iProc. R.I.A., X, 331.
2 O'Curry's "Lectures on Irish History," passim; "Book of Howth," p. 7; "Trans. Ossianic Society," i, 74 ; iv, 84 ; vi, 88 ; Journal E.S.A.I., xxiii, 451.
Y.
f.
m EARLY TIMES. 15
To speak the air, the sky to speak,
The freshness of the hill to tell ; Who roaming bare Benn Etar's peak
And Aideen's briary dell, And gazing on the cromlech vast
And on the mountain and the sea, Shiill catch communion with the past,
And mix himself witli me.i
By Ptolemy, who has shown it on his map as an island, the peninsula is called Edrou Heremos, or the desert of Edros ;2 but it is said by Camden* to have been at one time covered with oaks, although it was in his time bare of trees. Camden's view is also taken in two Irish quatrains which have been thus translated :—
Hill that beyond every tulach is verdant-surfaced,
"Whose summit is green-treed and tremulous ; Eminence famed for sword-blades, forest-clad, gentian-growing ;
A hill variegated, having jutting points and flowing mane ; Hill the most beautiful that dominates Ireland's coast-line ;
Sweetly melodious there is the gull over the sea ; To us the leaving of it is an act of pain.
Lovely and pleasurable hill of Etar.*
Further support is given to the opinion that the peninsula was less bare in early times than now in verses which are said to have been written by three bards who chose the scenery of Howth as the subject of a competition for supremacy. These verses have been thus translated : —
r.
Delightful it is to be at Benn Etar,
Truly melodious it is to be upon its \\ hite fortress, A hill ample, shipful, populous,
A peak in wine, in cairns, in feasts abounding ; A bill on which Fionn and the Fianna used to meet,
A hill where horns and cups overflow, A hill to which O'Duibhne, the dauntless,
Brought Grainne from her close pursuers ; A wave-green hill surpassing each tulach.
And its green- tree tapering summit ; A hill of cairns, wild garlic and fruit-trees ;
A variegated, pinnacled, woody hill; The loveliest hill in Erin's isle,
A hill brighter than the gull on the shore. To part is sore grief to me.
The delightful, pleasant Benn Etar.
1 " The Cromlech on Howth," by Sir Samuel Ferguson, Dublin, 1861.
- JournalR.S.A.I.,xxiv, 128; Joyce's " Irish Names of Places " (ed. 1870), p. 104.
' "Britannia," ed. Richard Gough, iii, 658.
* O'Grady's Catalogue of Irish MSS. in British Museum, p. 524.
16 HOWTH AND ITS OWXEES.
II.
Oft beneath the giassj' hill are seen
Champions and sails ^vitLout debility, Till the gunwales of their keelins^ ships are level
With the deathful waves which dash against the tall cliffs. Beautiful its j)lain8 and tall i)eaks.
And its lands overhanging the stormy waves, Till it reaches the cairn of the gentle Fionn
From the delightful mansion of lofty Etar.
III.
A hill exceeding in height all tulachs,
Each peak eoually green and steep ; A hill covered with herbs and plants,
A steep hill covered with woods and wild garlic. There are seen from the top of its peaks
Ships laden and heroes falling ; A plank is driven through the ship's side
By tlie violence of her dash against the tall cliffs ; Woe it is the bonds that are broken
By the fierce might of thy visit, And that a wave bursts with a heaving crash
A rib in the overladen vessel.^
Soon after the dawn of Christianity in Ireland heralds of God's love established themselves on the peninsula and its island. They were induced to do so, as in many other places similarly circumstanced, by the hope that isolation would secure for them safety ; but their dream was before long dispelled, and their proximity to the sea was found to be a source of danger rather than of protection. With the island three holy men, DichuU, Munissa, and Neslug, are identified. They were the sons of one Nessan, who traced descent from Cathair Mor, King of Ireland, and from them the island hitherto called Inisfaithleen, or the grassy or elder island, and Inisereann, or Eria's island, became known as Inis-meic-Nessan, or the island of the Sons of Nessan. They are said to have been disciples of a saint famous in the Celtic Church, St. Maidoc of Ferns, and by him Dichull was placed in charge of the monastery of Clonmore.*
In the martyrologies the sons of Nessan are recorded to have been men of exceptional piety and love of peace. " They loved
' " Trans. Ossianic Society," vi, 89.
' O'Hanlon's "Lives of Irish Saints," iii, 373; and authorities cited by him;, also "llevue Celtique," xvi, 60.
IN EARLY TIMES. 17
soft prayer to Christ, did the sons of Nessan from the isle," says the Martyrology of Oengus, and "against every miserable slaughterous conflict be Nessan's three saintly sons," says the Martyrology of Gorman. During the seventh century, in which they are believed to have flourished, there was much warfare to depress them, and in the middle of that century a battle raged on Howth, round Crimthaun's stronghold. It was between Conall and Ceallach, the sons of Maelcobha, and Aenghus, son of Domhnall. Conall and Ceallach, who were descendants in the northern line of Niall of the Nine Hostages, were then joint kings of Ireland, and Aenghus was a rival for the throne. The result was a victory for the kings, and not only was Aenghus killed, but also Cathasach, son of Domhnall Breac, who is believed to have been a relation of Aenj^hus, and next in succession to him.^
Fifty years later the navigators of a British fleet are said to have taken refuge during a storm on the island home of the sons of Nessan, and during their detention there to have slain the king of a neighbouring territory. As an ancient legend tells us, " This Irgalach (for so the king was named) was slain, after having in the night before he was killed himself seen the manner of his death. On the morrow of this vision, therefore, Irgalach came forth, and, standing upon a high rock, heard a loud voice cry, " Spread yourselves over the country round about, and burn and scorch and harry it." Then he saw great bands and companies that spoiled the land, and he came and stood abreast of Innis-meic-Nessan, where at that self-same hour a British fleet was by a great tempest constrained to refuge. Of which Britons a certain warrior likewise had in the past night a dream : as it were a herd of wild boars that grunted about him, and the largest boar he had killed with a javelin-stroke. A presage verified exactly, for that boar signified Irgalach, and the rest of the herd his retinue of sinners ; and with a single javelin-cast Irgalach there and then was destroyed by that warrior."^ In the later part
1 Four Masters, under G'le ; cf. " Chronicum Scotorum," p. 91. - 0' Grady's " Silva Gadelica," Trans, and Notes, p. 443; Adamnan's "Life of St. Columba," ed. Wni. Reeves, p. liii, and authorities cited by them.
C
18
HOWTH AND ITS OWNEliS.
of the last century a cist containing human remains was discovered on Ireland's Eye, and it was suggested that these might have been the remains of Irgalach. It was argued that, although indicating a Christian mode of burial, the circumstances of the interment tended to prove that the body was not that of a cleric, and that a piece of iron, which was found in the grave, and which was thought to resemble part of a sword, pointed to the body having been that of a warrior. >
Ruins ox Ireland's Eyk hefoke Eestoration.
The only church on Ireland's Eye of which anything is known cannot have been the oratory of the sons of Nessan, and has been assigned to so late a date as the twelfth century. It consisted of a nave and chancel, with an arch and a round-headed doorway, and was unique in its design, inasmuch as over its chancel, which was vaulted, there rose a small round tower. Its ruins existed on Ireland's Eye in the early part of the last century, and an attempted reproduction now occupies their site. According to a ground-plan in Lord Dunraven's " Notes on Irish Architecture,"'^ the nave and chancel were rectangular buildings, the nave being
1 Proc. R.I.A., X, 332.
- Ed. Margaret Stokes, i, 68.
m EARLY TIMES. 19
thirty-four feet long externally by ten feet three inches wide internally, with walls two feet eight inches thick, and the chancel was eleven feet long by thirteen feet three inches wide externally. The doorway, which was in the western end, is shown to have been three feet wide, and in the north and south walls of the nave a window-slit is marked, and also in the east and north walls of the chancel. As the late Dr. Cochrane, one of the esteemed Presidents of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, and Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Ireland, has mentioned in a learned paper on the " Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Howth,"^ in the reproduction of the ruins the nave and chancel deviate from the rectangular, and are of smaller dimensions than those of Lord Dunraven's plan.
With Ireland's Eye and the father of its saints there has been associated a seventh-century copy of the Gospels. This manuscript, which is illuminated, is preserved among the treasures in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, and came to that Library through Archbishop Ussher.^ It has been recorded by Archbishop Alen that the manuscript was held in such veneration that men scarcely dared to take an oath on it, the common belief being that God's vengeance had fallen upon those who had sworn falsely upon it ; and in connexion with it a curious legend has been preserved by the same authority to the effect that on being tempted by an evil spirit Nessan pursued his assailant over the sea and ordered him to enter the northern cliffs of Howth, where his most horrid image remains affixed in stony form on Puck's Rock.'
About the same period that the sons of Nessan settled upon Ireland's Eye, a holy man called Fintan established himself on the southern side of the peninsula of Howth. As Dr. Cochrane remarks in the paper to which reference has been made, it is impossible owing to the number of saints called Fintan to identify with certainty the particular one whom Howth claims as its patron. His monument survives, however, in a ruined church on the southern side of the peninsula at the base of Shelmartin. This
1 Journal E.S.A.I., xxiii, 396. - Ibid., p. 404.
2 The passage is printed in Warburton, Whitelaw, and Walsh's " History of Dublin," ii, 1266, but cf. Liber Niger A' 73, A- 192.
C 2
20 HOWTH AND ITS OWXEES.
church is a simple oblong building, with a belfry rising over the gable of its western wall. It deviates from the rectangular, measuring internally on the north sixteen feet six inches, on the south sixteen feet eight inches, on the east seven feet seven inches, and on the west eight feet one inch. In the opinion of Dr. Cochrane it is of late date, and comprises the remains of a primitive oratory and of a mediaeval church of larger dimensions. Amongst the details Dr. Cochrane describes the east window, which has a semi-circular head and is grooved for glass ; windows in the north and south walls near the north-west and south-east angles ; the doorway, which is in the western end and has a pointed arch ; a recess in the north wall and two recesses in the south wall, which are constructed of stones cut for other pur- poses ; and a small circular window, which is made out of a solid block, and has four short arms grooved, over the doorway. He suggests that there may have been originally a group of churches on the site, and draws attention to the disproportion of the belfry to the rest of the building as indication of more enthusiasm than discretion on the part of its designer.^ Besides this church some of the Howth place-names denote a connexion with early Cliristian worship. The site of a cairn in the eastern part of the peninsula, on what is known as the Black Heath, bears the name of the Cross, ancj was formerly known as St. Patrick's Cross ; and a field in the southern part of the demesne, in which remains of an ancient settlement have been found, bears the name of Cross Garvey (i.e. the rough cross).^
The invasions of the Norsemen began in the closing decade of the eighth century, and fell with exceptional severity on the Dublin coast. At first the islands suffered most, and it is not until more than twenty years had elapsed that a descent on Howth is recorded. It was evidently a notable one, and denoted a new departure. Hitherto the raids had been directed mainly against property, but now human beings were the spoil, and a world of misery is revealed in the laconic entry of the Four
'Journal U.S.A. I., xxiii, 3S6 ; cf. Archdeacon Walsh's " Fingal and its Churches," and *' Dublin Saturday Magazine," ii, 49. - Journal U.S. A. I., xiii, 30G ; Proc. R.I. A. x, 330.
IN EAELY TIMES. 21
"Masters under the year 819 : — " The plundering of Etar by the foreigners, who carried off a great prey of women." The Irish .appear to have retained a hold on the peninsula after the Norsemen had established themselves in Dublin. In 866 a prince of a territory north of Dublin, known as Bregia, Elann son of Conaing, is called by the Four Masters " the great King of Etar," and in 891 the heir apparent to that princedom, Cinaedh son of Flannagan is said to have died on the peninsula at Carrickbrac.^ But the disuse of the Irish " Etar " as the name of the peninsula, and substitution of the Danish " Hoved," show that the peninsula must have become one of the Norsemen's chief seaports, and in 897 it is recorded that Danes from Dublin were besieged on Ireland's Eye, when flying to Scotland.'' As the Danish section of the 'invaders gained a footing in the adjoining parish of Baldoyle, it ^may be assumed that Howth saw something of the conflict between them and the Norwegian section, and in the tenth century Howth ^was the scene of a struggle for the sovereign power in Dublin, in -which Amlaib, " the hundred-strong," gained the victory. In the :same century, in the year 960, his son is "said to have descended mpon the peninsula by sea with the help of a captain called -Lagmann for the purpose of plunder.^ But indications of actual ■ occupation of the peninsula by the Norsemen are not wanting. Too much significance, perhaps, ought not to be attached to the .fact that ancient remains on Carrickbrac are known as the Danish .fort, but the names of several families connected with the pen- . insula bespeak a descent from the Northern invaders. More particularly is this the case in regard to a family called Harford, -whose members are still found there in considerable numbers. They exhibit a character worthy of their forbears, and are distin- guished as a race by their tall stature, fair complexion, and bright blue eyes.''
M
1 Four Masters, passim ; cf. " Annals of Ulster.
2 Todd's " W;ir of the Gaedhil with the Gaill," p. Ixxxiii ; cf. Annals of the -Four Masters and of Ulster.
3 Gwynn's "Metrical Dindshenchas," i, 52, and Four Masters under 960; cf. Todd's "War of the Gaedhil," xev, n. 1.
■* The other names which have been suggested as denoting descent from the Norsemen are Thunder, Waldron, and Rickard.
09
HOWTH AND ITS OWNEES.
Not long before 1014, the year of the memorable battle of Clontarf, King Malachy invaded the territory of the Norsemen, and burned the country as far as Howth. At Howth he is said to have encountered their force, and to have gained the victory ;. but on his return from this expedition he was defeated by them at Drinan, near Swords.' Although the actual conflict did not extend so far, much of the horror of the deadly battle of Clontarf reached Howth. The northern pirates had left there their boats, and after the battle the peninsula was a place of refuge for the fugitives.'^ In spite of this defeat, it was not until the middle of that century that the soverei„aity of the Norsemen was finally broken in Fingal. No sooner had it ended than war broke out among the Irish themselves, and the men of Leinster encoun- tered the men of Munster at Howth. Under the year 1087 the Four Masters^ thus record the result of the battle : — " The battle of Rath-Etar between the men of Leinster and Munster, where Muircheartach Ua Briain and the men of Munster defeated the Leinstermen, and Domhnall son of Maelnambo and Diarmaid Ua Briain and Enda son of Diarmaid, and where a great slaughter was made of the Leinstermen together with the son of Murchadh Ua Domhnaill, Lord of Ui Drona, and Conall Ua Ciarmhaic, and Ua Neill of Maghda(ihon."
1 Four Masters under 1012; cf. Lebhar Gabhala, R.I.A.MS., p. 224.
* Todd, op. cit., pp. clxxii, 156.
* Cf . Orpen's " Ireland under the Normans," i, 207.
Device ox Tomh.
A A
/ t'^w,,.,-! i^.-..
. . O < /^f i ^tifJ, li aJ gr. f/etf.
I ' .
THE C'K'OMLKCH
A
r
i I 0 \V T 11 . ffi'OIKl \ icvj , J/ifWr?ti/
QJ \.\'^ /,/,/•/
Till-: snt: of vna early castle
( 23 )
CHAPTER III.
THE MIDDLE AGES.
It was under the Anglo-Norman settlement that the founder of the house of St. Lawrence entered into possession of Howth, He bore as his Christian name the remarkable one of Almeric/ and, as has been already suggested, he had probably inherited or earned distinction before he saw the shores of Ireland.^ His title to Howth was no sub-infeudation, but a direct grant from the Crown, and his associates were men of the first rank. With John de Courcy, the conqueror of Ulster, either through relationship or association in arms, he was undoubtedly closely allied. About the time that he was appointed chief governor of Ireland, that notable invader selected Almeric to act as a witness of a deed, in company with the Archbishop of Dublin and other clerics and lay- men of high degree f and during the conquest of Ulster he con- firmed a grant of lands in the county of Down made by Almeric to the Abbey of Downpatrick,*
The story of the family to which reference has been made is drawn principally from the Book of Howth, a sixteenth-century compilation of annals, historical tales, and legends, which is preserved in the Lambeth Library, and has been printed in the
' Miss Yonge says ("Hist, of Christian Names," ed. 1884, pp. xxiii, 331) that "Almeric " is equivalent to the Italian " Almerigo," the name from which "America" is derived.
- It has been stated (Journal U.S. A. I., xxxvii, 349) that the St. Lawrences derived their name from a place called St. Laurent in Normandy, but no authority for the statement is given. The surname of St. Lawrence seems to have been at that period not uncommon in France and also in England (uf. D'Alton's "Hist, of Co. Dublin," p. 156; "Genealogist," N.S., xvii, 27; "Topographer and Genea- logist," iii, 178). The English St. Lawrences, who were originally resident in Hampshire, appear to have had connexion with Ireland. In 1173 one of them claimed corody for the son of the King of Cork for one night, and in 1179 Cecilia, wife of Eobert de St. Lawrence, accounts for two marks of gold of her promise touching Ireland. (Sweetmau's Calendar, 1171-1252, nos. 39, 55.)
^ Dr. Lawlor's Calendar of the Liber Niger of Christ Church, no. 9, and Christ Church Deeds, no. 10.
* " Monasticon Anglicanum," vol. vi, pt. ii, p. 1125.
24 HOWTH AND ITS OWXEES.
Carew Series of State Papers, but doubt has been thrown on its authority, owing to the compiler drawing inspiration from the Arthurian legend, and stating that Almeric was promised by John de Courcy half his conquests.^ So far as is known Almeric possessed no land in Ulster, except what he gave to the Abbey of Downpatrick, and Howth can hardly have been considered a com- pensation for half of John de Courcy's conquests. It is also to be observed that the compiler of the Book of Howth makes no attempt to explain the substitution of the name St. Lawrence for Tristram, the theory as to its connexion with the festival of St. Lawrence having been derived apparently from some other source. In the Book of Howth elaborate descriptions are given of the five battles which Giraldus Cambrensis mentions' as fought by John de Courcy in Ulster, and in each case the founder of the house of Howth is placed in the forefront, accomplishing wonderful deeds and uttering heroic speeches. It is said that John de Courcy's forces disembarked on their arrival in Ireland at Howth, and encountered there terrific resistance,^ and that a battle, which Giraldus Cambrensis has described as fought at the bridge of Newry, took place at the bridge of Howth. As John de Courcy was unable from some cause or other to leave his ship, the com- mand is represented as devolving on Almeric, who "stalworthy and knightly did use himself." According to the, Book of Howth he proved the victor in the battle, during which no less than seven of his sons, uncles, and nephews were laid low, and, as " his part of the conquest at the beginning " was given Howth, together witli other property, which is not specified. By tradition the Irish name of Newry, An lubhar, in the corrupted form Evora, has been given to a bridge near the gate of the present castle, and the rivulet which it crosses bears the name of the Bloody Stream,^ but
1 Dr. Round's "Peerage and I'edigree," ii, 273, and " Antiquary," vii, 196 ; viii, 21,116. - " Expugnatio Hibernica," ii, xvii.
' " Book of Howth," p. 92. Mr. Orpen (" Ireland under the Normans," ii, 16) :'ay8 that the district about Howth must have been subdued long before de Courcy landed.
* Near the bridge human bones, an anvil, and horse furniture were found at the beginning of the nineteentfi century. See Warburton, Wbitelaw, and Walsh',- " History of Dublin," ii, 1257 ; cf. R.I.A. Proc. x, 330.
THE MIDDLE AGES. 25
its size discredits the idea of its having been spanned by a bridge at so early a period.
In the Book of Howth great exertions are attributed to Almeric during John de Courcy's campaign in Ulster. On more than one occasion he was severely wounded, and his mastery of strategy enabled John de Courcy's small force to confront successfully a force ten or fifteen times as great. In the words of his biographer/ " God and his enemies could report that amongst a thousand knights Sir Almeric might be chosen for beauty, stout stomach- head, and stalworthness, for he was stout and sturdy to his peer, and humble and full of courtesy to his inferiors, and nothing would yield but in the way of gentleness." Finally, his biographer tells us* that Almeric met his death in Connaught while encountering twenty thousand men under King O'Conor with thirty horse and two hundred footmen. " They fought so that never was seen in field that fought better than they did altogether. There was none amongst those few that ever gave back one foot from the captain unless it were braving lying with the dead, and scarce then, if he had any memory of himself. There Sir Almeric and his men at length altogether were slain in a ground less than a stang in breadth ; . . . part of them being dead and cold did stay themselves up upon their feet, standing with their spears and two-handed swords in their hands, that much did trouble their enemies in the fight to overthrow them that dead were."
Notwithstanding a great slaughter of his sons, uncles, and nephews, which is said to have taken place on his first landing in Ireland, the founder of the house of Howth had, according to his biographer, a phalanx of relations near him in all his subsequent engagements.^ Amongst these, four receive special mention — a son called Nicholas, " a brave and worthy knight," who survived no less than nine wounds received in one battle ; and three nephews : Lionel St. Lawrence, who was slain while displaying
1 " Book of Howth," p. 94. 2 Ibid., p. 107.
3 It is said ia the " Book of Howth," p. Ill, that two of his sons were killed when John de Courcy was taken prisoner on a Good Friday in church, hut the story of John de Courcy's capture has been pronounced to be devoid of authority.
26 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
extraordinary bravery in the defence of a pass ; Geoffrey Montgomery, who bore his uncle's standard, and acted as his mentor; and Roger le Poer, who is described as a great man in Ossory.
In Abneric's time the castle of Howth did not occupy the present site, but stood further to the east, nearer to the sea, on land on which a martello tower now rests, at the head of the- eastern pier of the modern harbour. That site guarded the best natural refuges for shipping, and in the eighteenth century, when the mound on which the early castle stood still remained, its situation was thus described : —
A stately mole commands euch little port,
A rock its base, crowned with a conic mound ; This a stronghold appears, or Danish fort,
Its counterscarp and rampart j-et are found.
As will be seen from the sketch, the remains of the mediaeval church of Howth were close to the mound, and a stream, which has disappeared, flowed between them : —
With mournful sound close by the hallowed walls,
A little cataract shoots forth its store ; Clear of the rock its silver torrent falls.
And foaming glides its passage to the shore.
A rampart to the north sustained the fort,
Which overhung the sea, long since withdrawn ;
And there secured lay once the little port, In time converted to a pleasant lawn.'
The castle in Almeric's time was, doubtless, of wood, like the one depicted on the Bayeux tapestry, and depended for defence on the fosse and banks by which it was surrounded. The mound on which it stood is described in the title of the sketch'' as " a cairn or burying-place of the pagan Irish kings and nobility " ; and it is possible that Almeric may have found a tumulus and raised his castle upon it, but the site is not favourable to that theory.
' "Howth, a Descriptive Poem," by Abraham Bosquet, Dubl., 1T87. - It is preserved in Gabriel Berangei 'a Sketch Book in the Iloyal Irish Academy,, and is said to be from one by General Vallancey.
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DEED CONXEKNING TFII'; flURCH
1 1 IK I 1235
THE MIDDLE AGES. 27
Nicholas, Lord of Howth, who escaped his father's fate through being at the time in EngLand on " business to the king,"^ succeeded on his father's death to Howth. His reign was, however, a short one. His father was alive in 1186, and it was not more than a year or two after that time that Nicholas executed a deed con- firming Howth and its appurtenances to his son, who was called after his grandfather, Almeric, So far as is known, this is the last occasion on which Nicholas is mentioned. The deed con- firming Howth to his son was witnessed by no less than nineteen persons, including the Archbishop of Dublin, John de Courcy, and members of the families then owning Castleknock, MuUingar, Leixlip, Kinsaley, Clontarf, and Malahide.^ The only other reference to Nicholas is as witness to a deed conveying land to St. Thomas's Abbey in Dublin, and some confirmation of his father's part in the Connaught expedition may be found in the fact that the grantor had served in the army in that part of Ireland, and gave the land to the abbey in pursuance of a vow which he had made during a grievous distemper contracted there.^
The last two witnesses to the deed by which Nicholas con- firmed Howth to his son are Eichard de Castello and Eobert de Cornewalsh or Corr-na-waleis, " the hill of the "Welshmen." The former was, no doubt, the keeper of the primitive castle, and the latter the head of a clan of Welshmen, who guarded the approach to the peninsula from the mainland. As will be seen in the next century, the lands near the isthmus were described as the town of
1 "Book of Howth," p. lOS.
^ See Appendix A.
3 "Register of St. Thomas's Abbey," p. 38. The other M'itnesses to the deed are Geoffrey de Oostentin, Robert the Forester, Lionel de Bromiard, and Richard de Bromiard, and persons of these names were alive in the period assigned to it. Geoffrey de Oostentin was enfeoffed in Meath prior to 1286, and lived into the next century. (See Orpen's "Song of Dermot and the Earl," p. 229). Robert the Forester witnessed a deed during John de Courcy's tenure of the office of justiciary, 1185-90. (See ** Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey," i, 125). Lionel de Bromiard is mentioned in a confirmation of Eugenius, Bishop of Clonard, 1174-1194, as having given certain advowsons to St. Thomas's Abbey, and his nephew Richard was one of the witnesses to the deed by which the advowsons were conveyed (" Register of St. Thomas's Abbey," pp. 21, 262).
28
HOWTH AND ITS OWXEES.
Cornwalsh, and the designation of Corr, now attached to the ruined castle which stands upon them, was probably the place-name long before the occupation of the Welshmen.
Almeric the second had succeeded his father as Lord of Howth before 1190, when he was granted a royal confirmation of the lands as freely and quietly as his father had held them for the service of an armed horseman. The grant was executed by the future King John, then Lord of Ireland and Earl of Mortain, at
CoKR Castle.
Bury St. Edmunds, and was attested by several witnesses from Ireland, including the Archbishop of Dublin and the owners of Castleknock and Raheny.' From deeds in which his name is found, either as grantor or as a witness, the second Almeric would appear to have ruled the peninsula for the next fifty years. In one of these deeds, which are seven in number, he is described
' See Appendix B. The date of this deed, iis well as of the one by which Nicholas confiimed Almeric in the possession of the peninsula, has been determined by the movements of the Archbishop of Dublin, John Comyn. See " Diet. Nat. Biog.," xi, 4.55.
THE MIDDLE AGES. 29
as " Lord Almeric de Howth," and in another as " Sir Almeric de Hovvth, Knight." In a grant to the Priory of All Hallows of such claim as he might have to the neighbouring lands of Baldoyle, Almeric the second mentions his wife Johanna, and accepts as compensation their admission to the fraternity of the priory church, which secured for them the prayers of the monks, and other spiritual benefits.^ Another deed in which Almeric the second appears as the grantor concerns an exchange of land between him and the vicar of the church of Howth, and refers to his relations with the clergy, which appear to have been before that time far from amicable. He undertakes, as well by an oath as by the deed, and subject to a penalty of forty shillings, that, for the future, he will not rise up against his clerics "contrary to justice," or lay violent hands on others unless in self-defence.' In the remaining five deeds Almeric the second appears as witness to transactions affecting the adjacent lands of Baldoyle, Kinsaley, and Donabate.^
It is evident that prior to the execution of the second of these deeds the church of Howth, which was dedicated to St, Mary and is now in ruins, was at least in part erected. It consisted eventually of a nave and chancel, with an aisle and chantry on its southern side. In Dr. Cochrane's paper* much pains have been taken to find support for a theory that the aisle was the nave of a. church erected in the early part of the eleventh century by the Danish prince, Sitric, on the model of Saxon churches in Northumberland. But documentary evidence is altogether absent,' and other archaeologists are not in agreement with Dr. Cochrane as to the design and stonework bearing resemblance to Saxon buildings. The nave and chancel are in length eighty-five feet three inches, and in width at the east end seventeen feet two inches,
' Butler's " Register of All Hallows," p. 51.
- A translation of the deed appears in the Journal R.S.A.I., xxvi, 15. Besides this deed. Lord Howlh would appear to have formerlj' had in his possession other charters connected with the church. See " Life of Sir John Gilbert," p. 250.
3 Butler's "Register of All Hallows," p. 53; Christ Church Deeds, no. 40; Dr. Lawlor's Cal. of the Liber Niger of Christ Church, no. 104 ; " Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey," i, 77, 199.
^ Journal R. S. A. L, xxvi, 1.
' Cf. Sir James "Ware's "Antiquities and History of Ireland," Lond., 1705, p. 64,
30 HOWTH AND ITS OWXEKS.
and at the west end sixteen feet; and the aisle and chantry are in length ninety-five feet, and in width at the east end seventeen feet two inches, and at the west end eighteen feet six inches. An arcade of six arches divides the church, but it shows traces of being the work of various periods, as the arches are dissimilar, and exhibit transition from the round-headed to the pointed arch. From marks on the gables Dr. Cochrane conjectured also that the church liad in its history borne roofs of no less than four different designs. There are in all fifteen windows. The east window of the chancel is debased perpendicular, but in the nave there is at the west end an Early-Englisli window of two lights which, in Dr. Cochrane's opinion, has not always stood in its present place. In the chantry at the east end there are the remains of a fine window, which Dr. Cochrane assigns to the fourteenth century, and pronounces to be a vigorous example of tracery work ; and in the aisle, at its western end, there is a window of similar design to the one in the chancel. Under it there is a porch, on which Dr. Cochrane relies for his theory as to the Saxon origin of that part of the church ; and on the southern side, at the west end, there is another porch of Early-English architecture. Over the western end of the nave a belfry-gable rises with openings for three bells and a stairway approaching them.
The castle used by Almeric the first is mentioned in the agree- ment with the vicar, which describes the eastern boundary of the land given by Almeric the second to him as a stream fiowing into the sea between the church and " tlie old castle." Before that time this castle had evidently been superseded by one on the present site; and the effect of the exchange of land with the vicar was to add to the demesne to the west by reducing it to the east, where the former castle had stood. The land given by Almeric to the vicar is said to have comprised twenty-five acres of his demesne, bounded on the east by the stream just mentioned, on the south by the road from Clontarf, on the west by an artificial division, and on the north by the sea ; and in return for it he received from the vicar fifteen acres of land near liis gate towards the town of Cornwalsh.^
1 In his paper Dr. Cochrane has taken a different view as to the situation of this land, but the site of " tlie old castle " was unknown to him.
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THE MIDDLE AGES. 31
By this deed Almeric the second granted also to the vicar various privileges to augment his income, and one of these shows that the fishing industry was as important to Howth then as it is to-day, and that the owner of Howth received a great revenue from it. According to the terms of the deed, Almeric being moved thereto by piety, granted to the vicar pardon from all customs due to him in respect of one fishing-boat, and undertook that the remission should apply not only to the owner of the boat, but also to the fishermen in it, who were not to be obliged to sell to Almeric fish unless they wished to do so, and were to receive the full market value in the port without any difficulty or delay. Another of the covenants shows that turf was then obtained for the purpose of fuel on the peninsula. It provides that the vicar's men and tenants should be free from all servitude and exaction, and should have turf and pasture for their animals, as other men on the peninsula, and should traffic through the whole of Almeric 's land quietly and without impediment. Lastly, Almeric promised to allow his own men to work for the vicar for hire when he did not himself require them.
Henry appears to have succeeded the second Almeric as Lord of Howth, but knowledge of him is only gained from a deed executed about 1248, in connexion with land in the parish of Castleknock belonging to the Priory of All Hallows, to which his name is appended as a witness.^
From the middle of the thirteenth century to the end of the fourteenth century, the owners of Howth are constantly mentioned in the Irish records. They were foremost in the life of their country, and no less active in military than in civil avocations. By degrees cadets of the house, who were more generally known by the surname of Howth than by that of St. Lawrence, settled out- side the peninsula ; and towards the close of the thirteenth century
1 Butler's "Register of All Hallows," p. 61. The date of this deed has been determined by the names of two of the other witnesses. Lord Eadulph de Fingal and Richard de Finglas. The former is mentioned as -witness of a deed of the year 1149 (Dr. Lawlor's, Cal. of the Liber Niger of Christ Church, no. 113), and the latter is found acting with Philip de Rath, who appears as a witness to a deed of the year 1247. (Butler's "Register of All Hallows," p. 6G ; Christ Church Deeds, no. 59.)
32 HOWTPI AND ITS OAVNEES.
they are found displaying varied activities throughout the counties that afterwards formed the EngHsh Pale. To Louth they appear to have been more particularly attracted, and in it they have left their name imprinted on one of the townlands that lie on the Meath border.'
The history of the owners of Howth in the mediaeval period tends to show that their castle was one of the most important dwellings in the neighbourhood of Dublin ; but alterations in later times have left little remains of it, and no certainty can be felt as to its extent or design. Similarly, their possession of the right of court leet and court baron proves that they possessed the fullest manorial jurisdiction ; but of their administration of the manor, or of the life upon it, no information has come down to us. For many generations tlie entrance to the peninsula continued to be held by the Cornwalsh family. During the thirteenth century they are mentioned as suffering from illegal exactions on the part of the owners of the adjacent lands of Eaheny, and as supplying the army with cows ; and in the fourteenth century they are seen, like the lord of the soil, engaged in legal conflict with the Priory of All Hallows respecting the manor of Baldoyle, and acting as custodians of the port of Howth.*
The evidence of the importance of the port at that period arrests attention, and the number and size of the ships that found shelter in the small harbour under the first castle are not a little surprising. In 1315 it was considered necessary to appoint as many as four persons to prevent ships sailing from Howth without the permission of the Government ; and eight years later as many as ten were appointed to prevent the exportation of food,' while
' See Appendix C.
- In 1218 Eaj-niund le Cornewaleis appears, in 1238 Richard Corwalense, in 1260 and 1280 Gilbert le Waleys, in 1307 Luke le "Waleys, and in 1323 Henry le Waleis. "Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey," i, 211, 214, 468, 494 (cf. for date of deed on p. 211, Christ Church Deed, no. 489, on p. 468, ibid., nos. 22 and 23, on p. 494, ibid., no. 506, and on p. 214, "Register of All Hallows," p. 53); Sweetman's Calendar, 1252-84, no. 1890 ; Butler's " Register of All Hallows," p. 52, and Gilbert's " Hist, and Munic. Doc," p. 375.
3 Gilbert's "Hist, and Munic. Doc," p. 375; Mem. Rolls, 16 Edw. III. The names were in 1315 Nicholas Mole, John Reyner, Radolph de Seton, and William Seton, and in 1323 John Amory, Ralph Mole, William le Vilers, Alexander Savage,
THE MIDDLE AGES. 33
in 1335 one of the largest class of vessels of that period, known as a cog, which was cast away on the Cornish coast while carrying hides to Normandy, is said to have hailed from Howth, and later in that century the Howth ships were used for the exportation of corn in very large quantities.^ In 1348 a pestilence, that laid waste Dublin and Drogheda, is said to have been brought to Howth by some of the numerous persons landing there, and to have spread thence to the larger towns.^ It was then the custom for ships going to Drogheda to lie at Howth until the merchants paid for the cargo and provided a pilot to undertake the navigation to Drogheda, which was considered a dangerous port,^ and ships from Liverpool engaged in the conveyance of Irish labourers to England, which was a contraband traffic, used sometimes to resort chere.* Of the Howth port the chief governors began early to make use. In 1380 Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, and in 1389 Sir John Stanley, landed there, and in 1403 the boy Lord Lieutenant, Prince Thomas of Lancaster, took ship there after his first visit to Ireland.^ As in later times, the reputation of the Howth fishery stood high, and towards the close of the four- teenth century one of those engaged in it was appointed to buy fish for the chief governor, in whatever part of Ireland he might be.'
Of the inhabitants, other than the lords of the soil and the Corn Walshes, during mediaeval times, little is known. From the fact that at the close of the thirteenth century John de Sutton is bracketed on a jury with one of the St. Lawrences^ it is probable that a family named Sutton resided on the southern lands of the peninsula called by that cognomen.* By the rectors, who were
Henry le Waleis, Ralph de St. Lawrence, John Mole, Osbert Midwyst, Oliver de Kilbarroek, and John Forde.
1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1334-38, p. 147, 1399-1401, p. 236.
2 D'Alton's " Hist, of Co. Dublin," p. 133. » Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1358-61, p. 114.
« Plea Roll, 232, m. 2.
5 " Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey," ii, 284 ; Cal. Pat. Rolls, Irel., pp. 144, 177 ; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1401-05, p. 390.
6 " The King's Council in Ireland," ed. Rev. James Graves, p. 163. ' Sweetman's Calendar, 1285-92, p. 440.
8 In 1297, Ririth de Howth appears as attorney in a plea of debt, in 1306 Simon de Estham of Howth was deprived of a cow by the purveyors of the justiciary, and in
D
34 HOWTH ANT) ITS OWNERS.
prebendaries of St. Patrick's Cathedral, it is improbable that the peninsula was often visited ; and the names of only two vicars, Walter de Suell, who held the cure when the church is supposed to' have been built, and William Young, who held the cure in 1327, have come down to us. During the fourteenth century the Howth prebendaries are notable for the zeal with which they seek preferment in England and leave to reside out of Ireland, and in one instance a prebendary is found within four mouths of his appointment making arrangements to transfer into England his spoils in the shape of victuals for his household, and horses, goshawks, and falcons for his own use. Not a little remarkable also is the persistency with which the Popes tried during that century to intrude nominees of their own into the prebend, and the small success which attended their efforts.'
Nicholas, Lord of Howth, is found in possession of the lands in 1264, and before that time in consideration of military service he had obtained the accolade.'- Notwithstanding the grant made by Almeric the second to the Priory of All Hallows only some forty years before, Nicholas had renev/ed the claim to the lands of Baldoyle, and in the year 1270 extorted a sum of forty marks from the monks in consideration of abandoning legal pro- ceedings which he had instituted against them.* He was no less prominent in civil than in military life, and is found acting as a juror and a justice of the gaol delivery. In the former capacity he served in an inquiry regarding the erection of a church in Dublin by the Carmelite Order, and in the latter capacity he liberated an Englishman who was charged with the death of an Irishman — an exercise of judicial authority for which he was relegated to the Castle of Dublin,*
1305 Stephen de Packer of Howth, a memher of a family trading with Gascony. was charged with felony. Mills's "Justiciary Rolls," 1295-1303, p. Ill; 1305-07, pp. 157, 251, 484.
' See Appendix D.
= " Liber Niger," A' 400 ; " Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey," i, 473.
» " Register of All Hallows," p. 52. '
* Sweetman's Calendar, 1252-84, nos. 1609, 2113. See for other references to him '• Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey," i, 508, 509 ; Christ Church Deeds, nos. 114, 115 ; Mills's "Justiciary Rolls," 1303-07, p. 257.
THE MIDDLE AGES. 35
Adam had before 1291 succeeded Nicholas as Lord of Howth, hut his right of succession was apparently recognized not without difficulty. Between the years 1285 and 1290 Nicholas on six occasions paid a fine for trespass in an increasing amount at the suit of Adam, and in 1286 Adam paid likewise a fine on two occasions.^ This dispute was also probably accountable for the appearance of Nicholas in the year 1286 before the Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer to make a statement on oath in regard to his tenure of Howth. In that statement he mentioned that his ancestors had held the lands and tenements of Howth under the charter granted by King John to the second Almeric, and that they were accustomed to make suit to the county of Dublin; and he testified that both he and his ancestors had rendered service at the gate of Dublin Castle in respect of their property.' It is probable that Nicholas's successor was an Adam de Howth, who, with his wife Mabel, was forced in 1282 to surrender sixteen acres in the town of the Castle of Howth to Alice, daughter of Eoger de Crumba ;^ but the eldest son of Nicholas's successor was not born until 1296, and his mother's name was Isabella.* She is said to have been a daughter of William Pilate, a cadet of a Hertfordshire family, who had settled in the county of Meath, and her sister is claimed by the Cusacks of Gerardstown as an ancestress.*
Like his predecessor, Adam was active in civil life. During the years 1305 and 1306 he served on live juries in trials before the justiciary. Two of these were criminal trials, the charges being the receiving of stolen property, and the harbouring of a felon ; and three were common pleas, namely, a suit touching the fishery at the Salmon Leap, a suit against an ex-mayor of Dublin for detaining the corporation seal, and a suit against a merchant of Dublin for evading customs on wine which he had landed at Dalkey. He is also found acting as witness in connexion with property in Finglas parish, and as surety for inhabitants of
>■ Sweetman's Calendar, 1285-92, paisim. ^ '* Book of Howth," p. 227.
3 Plea Eoll, 10 Edw. I. * Patent EoU, 18 Edw. II.
^ Lodge's "Peerage," iii, 184.
D 2
36 HOWTH AND ITS OWXEES.
Malahidc accused of unlawful possession of wreck of the sea, and serving as sheriff of Dublin and Meath.' But, unlike his pre- decessor, Adam does not appear to have been inspired with military ardour. In several expeditions of his time the service by which he held Howth was commuted, and there is no evidence of the honour of knighthood having fallen to his lot.^
Distinction on the field of battle is, however, said to have been won by a scion of the house of Howth, another Almeric, at the close of the thirteenth century. According to the Book of Howth,^ he was one of a band of Irish knights who went then to the assistance of Edward the First in his wars with Scotland, and he proved himself not the least valorous of this company of young men, who, we are told, bore the bell everywhere they went in Scotland, and were well accepted and rewarded by their sovereign. No less romantic than brave, Sir Almeric is said to have challenged at the north side of Edinburgh one Robert de Wallace to mortal combat for the hand of the Lady Amerus, daughter of the Earl of Rosse, and, after disposing of his rival, displayed what his panegyrist represents as marvellous constancy in never for- saking the fair lady, for whom he had, we are told, pined for no less than five years.
During Adam's time Howth saw a remarkable exhibition of ecclesiastical rivalry, A great question of that day was as to the right of the Archbishop of Armagh to bear his cross erect in the province of Dublin, and watch appears to have been kept to prevent such a manifestation of supremacy. In the year 1313, on the day after the Annunciation, a new Archbishop of Armagh landed at Howth, and seeing, as he thought, an opportunity of stealing a march on his episcopal brother, he rose during the night, and set out towards Armagh, with his cross raised on high. His triumphal progress suffered, however, a rude interruption at the Priory of Grace Dieu, where he encountered some of the Archbishop of Dublin's retainers, and the chronologers tell us
> Mills's "Justiciary Rolls" 1295-1303, 1305-07, passim; 39 Kept. D. K.R.I. , 69. 5 Sweetman's Calendar, 1293-1301, nos. 259, 442 ; 1302-07, p. 85. ^ p. 125.
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TOMB - EFFIGIES AND INSCRIPTION
THE MIDDLE AGES. 37
that his exit from Leinster was made in confusion, with the emblem of his authority laid very low/
Adam the second succeeded Adam the first in the possession of Howth as his eldest son. In the year 1325, on March 25, the lands owned by Adam de Howth, deceased, were taken into the king's hands, and on April 3 following they were granted to his son Adam, who was stated to have been at least twenty-eight years of age on the previous feast of All Saints.* Shortly after- wards Adam the second admitted the right of his mother Isabella to a third of the manor of Howth as her dowry ,^ and granted the vicar of Howth portion of his demesne, estimated at thirty acres, which was probably the same land as his predecessor Almeric had granted to the vicar of his day.*
The culmination of the historic feud between the Berminghams and the men of Uriel, the assassination of John Bermingham, Earl of Louth, and his kinsmen, occurred in the lifetime of the second Adam ; and according to the Book of Howth,* which gives a realistic account of the circumstances, a member of Adam's family, William Howth, avenged afterwards two of those assassinated. One of these is said to have been the owner of Malahide, Eichard Talbot, whose daughter William Howth had married, and the other was •one of the Berminghams, called Almeric. The assassins were, according to the Book of Howth, two brothers, John Gernon and Eoger Gernon ; and about a week after the slaughter, when the Gernons were returning from Dublin, where they had gone to sue for pardon, they met " beneath the hills from Gormanstown to Drogheda," William Howth with one of his brothers called Walter, and what an annotator calls " shrewd talk between gentlemen " •ensued, with the result that William Howth challenged John Gernon to single combat. William Howth is described as a young
1 "Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey," ii, 342.
^ Patent Roll, 18 Edw. II. There was possibly further dispute about the succession. See 42 llept. D.K.R.I., p. 52.
' Plea Roll, Edw. II, no. 1.50.
* Memoranda Roll, 2 Hen. YIl, 17. It is stated that this grant, which was effected •on May 1, 1327, was made by an Almeric de Howth ; but the entry is confused, and there seems no doubt that the grant was made by Adam de Howth the second.
5 p. 152; cf. Gilbert's "Viceroys," p. 172.
38 HOWTH AND ITS OWNEES.
man of twenty-three, of slight stature, and John Gernon as the strongest man in Ulster, but William Howth prevailed, and slew him, and, refusing aid from his brother, challenged subsequently Roger Gernon, and after a long fight also slew him.
Nicholas, who, on the death of Adam the second, succeeded ta Howth in 1334 as his eldest son,' was at the time of his father's death only thirteen years of age, and his mother, whose Christian name was Scholastica, long survived, marrying as a second husband Robert Tyrell, Lord of Castleknock, with whom, in 1370, she perished of plague.^ At first the care of Nicholas's person and fortune was committed to the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Thomas Louth/ but before long Louth was relieved of the trust, and " for urgent reasons touching the King " the wardship and marriage of Nicholas was entrusted to John Plunkett of Beaulieu. A usual result followed : the ward was married to the guardian's daughter, and Alicia Plunkett became the wife of Nicholas.* Por seventy years Nicholas held the estates and honours of his family. He is said to have been a man of " singular honesty,"* and he attained to a high position in the State. His name appears as a member of all the great councils of his time, as one of the guardians of the peace for the county of Dublin, and as a supervisor of the rebuilding of the great bridge in Dublin over the Liffey.*
Legal proceedings, which were instituted in the year 1384 at Carlow against Nicholas Howth and Margery, his wife, indicate that Nicholas married a second time." These proceedings, which concerned dower, were instituted by one of the Taaffes of Braganstown, where the Earl of Louth was murdered, and afford corroboration of the Book of Howth.* According to it, for some
1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, Irel., pp. 39, 40.
2 Ibid., p. 101 ; " Book of Howth," p. 169. •^Ciil. Pat. Kolls, Irel., p. 40.
* Patent 9 Edw. III. It has been, however, calendared as a Roll of Edward II, which has led previous writers on the Howth pedigree into error. Cal. Pat. Rolls,. Irel., p. 20.
* "Ancient Irish Histories," ii. 19.
« Lynch's "Legal Institutions," pp. 320, 323; Lodge's "Peerage," iii, 185; " Chartulary St. Mary's Abbey," ii, 425.
' Plea Roll, 8 Ric. II. ^p. 155,
THE MIDDLE AGES.
39
years after the encounter between William Howth and the Gernons, whenever the Howth family and the men of Uriel met in Dublin or Drosjheda swords were drawn with disastrous consequences to the men of Uriel, until at length, in order to secure peace, the head of the Taaffe family married his daughter to one of the Howth family, and gave much land with her. From other legal proceedings Nicholas is found to have been, in 1347, the defendant in a charge of unlawfully disseizing from a tenement in Sutton one Geoffrey Montgomery, no doubt a descendant as well as namesake of Almeric the first's standard-bearer, and with him there was joined as defendant John Howth, who is elsewhere described as of Ballymadrought, near Swords.*
The opening of the fifteenth century saw the end of Nicholas's long life. Although, as will be seen, the house of Howth took an active part in the later dissensions of the Eoyal family, there is no indication that the accession of Henry the Fourth was regarded by it with any concern. Owing to his position, Nicholas must have been brought into contact with Kichard the Second during his visits to this country, but he seems to have transferred his allegiance to Henry the Fourth without scruple, and to have entertained the king's son, Prince Thomas of Lancaster, who before embarking signed more than one patent at Howth.
1 Plea Roll, 20 and 21 Ed« . III.
Akms on Tomb.
( 40 ;
CHAPTP^.R IV.
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOK TIMES.
The period covered by this chapter was a critical one for the Anglo-Irish, and eventful in the history of the owners of Howth. It opens with the Wars of the Eoses, passes on to the revolt in favour of Lambert Simnel, and closes at a time when England was rent asunder by the wars of religion. The distinguished part played by the owners of Howth under the later Plantagenet sovereigns is marked by a great altar-tomb, which was then raised in the parish church to one of the most illustrious of the St. Lawrence line. The tomb bears on its slab, which measures seven feet two inches long, and three feet eleven inches broad, the effigies of a kniglit and a lady, and its ends and its sides are elaborately carved.
" The knight is shown in armour," says the Keeper of the Irish Antiquities in the National Museum,' "wearing a pointed bascinet. His head rests upon a cushion ; his feet are supported by a hound couchant. He is represented in what appears to be a camail of mail, an archaic feature at that period, when one expects to find a plate gorget, or possibly a standard or collar of mail. A skirt of mail appears below tlie end of his body armour. His sword is worn in front in the fashion prevalent in the latter part of the fifteenth century. The lady lies on the knight's right side. She is shown wearing the horned head-dress fashionable at that period, and a full gown with many pleats. Her head and feet rest upon cushions. The hands of both figures are shown lying flat, palms downwards, on the breast, a position that was doubtless adopted by the sculptor to avoid carving the hands clasped in high relief, in the usual attitude of prayer. Hound the edge of the slab
1 Mr. E. C. R. Armstrong, f.s.a..
IN" PLANTAGENET AND TUDOE TIMES.
41
there runs an. inscription which has been deciphered by Professor E. A. S. Macalister ;* and which shows that the tomb was erected in memory of Christopher St. Lawrence, Lord of Howth, who died in 1462, and his wife, who was a daughter of the house of Plunkett of Eatoath.
Tomb — East End.
" The ends of the monument are divided into four arched niches •decorated with floriated work. The east end contains effigies of St. Peter and St. Catherine, and of an ecclesiastic and an abbess,
m
Tomb — West End.
possibly meant for St. Patrick and St. Brigid. The outer niches of the west end are each filled with the figure of an angel w ith a
' See Appendix 0, p. 168.
42
HOWTH AND ITS OWNEKS.
censer, and the inner niches contain carvings of St. Michael and the dragon and the CruciSxion. The sides of the tomb are divided into six similar niches on each side. These niches are empty, but
a
between their arched floriated heads are carved shields of arms, except in one case where the emblems of the Passion are inserted. Commencing on the south side and passing from right to left, the
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOR TIMES.
43
first shield contains the arms of St. Lawrence impaling those of Plunkett, the Plunkett arms being reversed and differenced with an annulet ; the second an indented chief, which may stand for the
O I o
arms of Butler or le Poer ; the third the Plunkett arms ; the fourth the arms of Fleming ; and the fifth the arms of Cusack. On the north side the first shield contains the arms of Bellew ; the
44 HOWTH AND ITS OWNEES.
second a doubtful coat which ma)' represent the arms of Barry or possibly Hussey ; the third the arms of St. Lawrence ; the fourtli the arms of White ; and the fifth the emblems of the Passion."'
Such references to the peninsula as occur in the period under review relate prhicipally to the port. Its importance then for mercantile traffic is evidenced in the care taken by the Corporation of Dublin that goods landed at Howth should not escape the pay- ment of dues to them. The right to exact the same custom on goods landed there as on goods landed at Dublin was confirmed to the Corporation by Henry the Sixth, and when later on the owner of Howth disputed their right, the whole power of the Corporation was put in motion in its defence.* Amongst passengers landing at Howth in the fifteenth century we find Sir John de Grey, who held the sword for a brief period f Eichard, Duke of York, whose viceroyalty gained for him great popularity in the Pale ;* and Sir Edward Poynings, whose name is familiar in connexion with the limitation of the powers of the Irish Parliament f and amongst those sailing from it we find a Chief Baron, James Cornwalsh, who was possibly one of the old Howth clan.^ In the sixteenth century we find sailing from it, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, Sir Edward Bellingham" and Sir James Croft,^ and in the reign of Mary, the Earl of Sussex. **
There is some reason to believe that in the opening years of Henry the Seventh's reign the owner of Howth resided at Killester,'° and it is possible that opportunity may have been then taken to adapt the Castle of Howth to the expanding ideas of
• Even three hundred years ago difficulty was found in determining the families to which some of the arms helonged. See notes "in the church of Howth taken the 11th of September, 1584," in Trinity College Library, MS. 581, 72. The date on the tomb was then said to be 1430. A description of the tomb, with a wood-cut of the effigies, by R. A., appeared in " The Dublin Penny Journal," ii, 72. In his "Essay on Gothic Architecture in Ireland," p. 177, Thomas Bell has made an attempt to prove that the tomb is Elizabethan.
* Ancient Records of Dublin, i, 143 ; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1441-46, p. 101.
2 Gilbert's " Viceroys," p. 323. * Ibid., p. 353. » I/mL, p. 450.
« Cal. Pat. Rolls, Irel., p. 243. ' Fiant, Edw. YI, no. 426.
8 Ibid., no. 1162. « Cal. S. P., Carew, 1515-74, p. 278. '0 "Book of Howth," p. 177.
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOR TIMES.
45
that time, but no certainty on the question is attainable. Even at that early period the Castle appears to have been provided with cannon ;^ and after Silken Thomas's rebellion it withstood a somewhat formidable attack made upon it by the Irish tribes."
Besides the Castle of Howth two other residences of consider- able dimensions stood in the sixteenth century on the peninsula. The first of these was Corr Castle, which belonged to the family of White, and the other, which stood on the lands of Sutton, belonged to the family of Hackett.^ The remains of Corr Castle have been thus described by the President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland :^ — " They consist of an oblong tower, four stories high,
m^^.
STAIR TURRET.
Entrance onstcondL floor
N.£- CORNER ^
CoKR Castle.
nineteen and a half by twenty-two feet outside, and thirteen and a half by fifteen and a half feet inside. The third story has a stone floor which rests on a vault still bearing the mark of the wicker centering over which it was built. For some reason which is not apparent, this vault covers only part of the space, leaving an opening the whole length of the south wall. Indeed, defence seems not to have been considered by the builders ; no murder- hole or loops command the door, nor are there any machicolations.
1 Letters and Papers, Ric. Ill and Hen. VII, ii, 300.
- *' Book of Howth," p. 193.
' In 1550 "William Whytof Corrystonand Michael Hacketof Sutton are mentioned in connexion with the manor of Ward, in which the St. Lawrences had an interest. Fiant, Edw. VI, no. 493.
* Mr. T. J. Westropp, m.a.
46 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
although a corbel fora chimney to the east might easily be mistaken for one. A small turret, eight by five and a half feet, con- tains the spiral stair, which commences about seven feet from the ground at the level of the ground-floor. The basement of this turret, which forms a small room, and was probably the porter's lodge, is corbelled like the turret rooms in Howth Castle, and is lit by unglazed slits. The north-east angle of the main tower has a bold chamfer for about six feet up, with a defaced floral finial. The only other carving is a rude human face on a projecting stone in the east wall. The windows are very plain, oblong with chamfered edges, save the south window of the top room, which has a well-cut trefoil light with ogee curves and an angular hood. " The basement has a single window to the south and east ; a second one to the east below the staircase, which looked into the porter's room, is closed. Rude ambries remain on most of the floors. The doorways, as a rule, are pointed, and have bolt-holes, but no trace of large bars. The second and third floors have, to the south, windows with seats to each side ; the third floor has other smaller windows to the north and east, and a neat, flat- arched recess to the south. There was a garde-robe in the south- west corner of the second and third floors ; the doors of the garde- robe and of the stair-case opened back into the shallow recesses in the wall. The stairs are of far better execution than are usually seen in the peel and church towers of the Dublin district, and, though without a newel, the steps are neat and well set. They number forty in all, and lead to the battlements, which command a fine view of the sea, similar to the one from the chief tower of Howth Castle, and also of the southern side of the peninsula. The doorways, which open to the upper stories at the sixteenth and twenty-ninth steps, are also well cut. The remains of the projecting piers of doors, and an angular mark on the north side, show that a wing two stories high adjoined the tower on that side, the entrance to the upper story from the tower being by a pointed doorway, now built up, beside the lower doorway of the tower stair-case."'
1 Cf. Archaeologia, xxxviii, 172, and "The Irish Builder" for 1898, pp. 91, 98, 108.
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOR TIMES. 47
The erection of the altar-tomb led probably to extensive structural changes in the church. Before the erection of the altar-tomb the church appears to have consisted of a nave and chancel, with an aisle on the northern side of the nave, to which the aisle was nearly equal in length. On the erection of the altar-tomb the chancel in which it was placed was converted into a chantry, and a new chancel seems to have been built on its northern side in continuation of the aisle, which became the nave in the new arrangement. By tradition the church is designated an abbey church, but the only ground for the supposition that it had a higher status than a parochial one is to be found in the name, " The College," which is attached to a building near its southern side. This building is similar in its architectural features to the later chancel, and would appear not improbably to have been erected at the same time as a residence for the clergy whose duty it was to officiate in the chantry.*
As it contains a window of similar design to that in the later chancel, the belfry gable was also probably erected at the same period. The bells which filled the three opes are still preserved in Howth Castle, and bear the following inscriptions : —
(1) Jesu Criste misserere noibs.
(2)- Sancta Maria ora pro nobis ad Filium.
(3) Nicholas Mun Cir of Mebiginer.*
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the prebendaries of Howth, who were chiefly men of Irish birth, looked for preferment in Ireland rather than in England, and contented themselves with such promotion as the deanery of their own cathedral and the archdeaconry of their diocese afforded.^ Of the vicars, the name of only one, Nicholas Carney, who was appointed in 1532, has come down to us ; but a chaplain, John Joy of Howth, who is mentioned in 1549 as a trustee for Lord Howth, was probably one of the clergy serving in the church.
1 See "Warburton, "Whitelaw, and Walsh's " History of Dublin," ii, 1260 ; Huband Smith's " Day at Howth," p. 26.
- See Thomas Bell's " Gothic Architecture in Ireland," p. 174.
2 See Appendix E.
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IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOK TIMES. 49
Stephen, who succeeded to the title and estates in 1404, on the death of Nicholas, Lord of Howth, was probably his grandson. He appears to have married in 1387 Elinor, daughter of Sir Robert Holywood of Artain, which manor he held subsequently as a trustee.' In 1410 he was appointed, with Richard Eochford, to take tithes of Howth for the expenses of the Lord Deputy;- in 1415 he is mentioned as paying rents for the lands of Kilbarrack f and in 1421 he was required to render homage for Howth and for the lands of Stapolin in the parish of Baldoyle, which he did also in succeeding years.* It was during his time, in the autumn of 1425, that Chief Baron Cornwalsh took ship at Howth, and that in the summer of 1427, Sir John de Grey landed there, and possibly enjoyed his hospitality before proceeding to Swords, where he was sworn into office next day.'
Christopher, who as son and heir of Stephen, Lord of Howth, came into possession of the peninsula in 1435 and did homage as its owner in 1437,* exhibited capacity and courage, and gained much renown in the troublous times in which he lived. His character is first conspicuous in his assertion of his rights as Lord of Howth, and in his management of his property. Within a few years of his succession he made a claim to all wrecks of the sea upon the peninsula,' and contested the right of the Crown to have as a royalty a grampus, twelve feet long, which had been thrown upon it, pleading that from time immemorial his predeces- sors had been seized of all porpoises, grampuses, and herring-swine found there.* During a great council held in 1450 he appeared as patron of one Richard Ingram, a miner and refiner, who "at great and insupportable cost and labour " had worked in Ireland divers mines of silver, lead, iron, coal, gypsum, and millstone, and was granted leave himself to search within his lordship of Howth for tin or lead ore, and if a mine was found to take the profits for
1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, Irel., pp. 135, 257. ^ Ibid., p. 196.
3 Mem. Roll, 2 Hen. V. * Ibid., 8 Hen. V, and 2 and 4 Hen. VI.
5 Cal. Pat. RoUs, Irel., p. 243; Gilbert's " Viceroys," p. 323. « Cal. Pat. Rolls, Irel., p. 257 ; Mem. Roll, 15 Hen. VI. ' Mem. Roll, 20 Hen. VI. 8 Lynch's " Legal Institutions," p. 148.
E
50 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
three years, subject to a royalty of six shillings and eight pence.' Some years later he retaliated vigorously on some inhabitants of Wicklow for imposing on him salt wliich they liad unlawfully obtained, and caused them to be declared outlaws,' and he souglit the aid of the Irish Parliament to free lands, in which he had an interest, from unjust taxation, and secured legislation in liis favour.*
But his great qualities are early seen also in regard to affairs of State. Before 1442 he had been knighted,* and ten years later he was appointed a member of the king's council/ and became foremost in protecting his county as well by sea as by land against the enemies of the king. In April, 1455, he was com- missioned to exact from those using the port of Howth tolls to defray the cost of protecting the shipping from the attacks of '* Frenchmen, Bretons, Scots, and divers other nations " ; and he supervised the erection of barriers on the bridges of Lucan and Kil- mainham and at various fords, by which Irish enemies and English rebels were wont to cross the Liffey by night and to descend on Fingal to rob, kill, and destroy the king's liege people.* In the following October he was joined with the Archbishop of Dublin, the Abbot of St. Mary's, and the Priors of Kilmainham and Christ Church, in strengthening the liands of a sheriff of Dublin county under whose weak rule the march was likely to be destroyed, and three years later he was joined with the Prior of Kilmainham and the Abbots of St. Thomas's and St. Mary's in reporting on the conduct of the Walshes of Carrickmines, which was then regarded in very diverse lights.'
Christopher became no doubt known to Richard Duke of York, the father of Edward the Fourth, on his arrival as Lord Lieu- tenant. It was in his time, in the summer of 1449, that the Duke landed at Howth, accompanied by his wife, the Rose of Raby, and attended by a strong body of soldiers;** and from that time
1 Dr. Berry's " Statute Rolls," Hen. VI, pp. 279, 285.
2 Ibid., p. 547. ^ Ibid., p. 519. * Mem. Roll, 20 Hen. VI.
* Dr. Berry's " Statute Rolls," Hen. VI, p. 375.
♦ Ibid., pp. 313, 315. ' Ibid., pp. 367, 561. « Gilbert's "Viceroys," p. 353.
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOR TIMES. 51
Christopher stood high in the Duke's favour. When the Wars of the Roses broke out, Christopher followed the Duke to England and joined his standard ;' and he was, no doubt, prominent amongst the earls and homagers who flocked round the Duke on his return to Ireland in the autumn of 1459, after the desertion of his followers at Ludlow.- In the enactments of the Parliament which the Duke called then in Ireland, Christopher's name is mentioned several times : first, as a commissioner to adjudge com- pensation to persons suffering from the neglect of the guardians of the coast, then as one excepted from an act of resumption, and, lastly, as an officer of the Crown who proposed to accompany " the high and puissant prince, Richard, Duke of York," on his return to England.' The office held by him was that of Constable of the Castle of Dublin, and a further grant of it was made to him by Edward the Fourth in consideration of his services.*
During the lifetime of Christopher the Howth title appears to have been first recognized as an hereditary honour, giving its holder a right to a seat in the Upper House, and to be enrolled amongst the barons of Ireland. The place assigned to its holder was immediately after the Baron of Killeen and before the Baron of Trimlestown, whose name was entered on the roll in 1461.* It is not improbable that the names of Lord Howth and Lord Killeen were added to the roll at the same time and for the same cause, namely, loyalty to the Duke of York. With Christopher Plunkett, Lord of Killeen, Christopher St. Lawrence, Lord of Howth, was connected by fealty, as the Lord of Killeen was overlord of Kilbarrack, then held as part of the Howth estate, and also by the nearer tie of marriage, as his wife was a member of the Plunkett family. As his eldest son's age proves, he must have been married prior to his succession to Howth, and in the year 1435 he is found actingjas trustee with the first Lord Killeen.® Besides Howth and
' Mem. Roll, 36 Hen. VI. ^ Paston Letters, ed. James Gairdner, i, 505.
3 Dr. Berry's " Statute Rolls," Hen. VI, pp. 673, 723, 793. 1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1461-67, p. 54.
5 Cf. " Complete Peerage," iv, 27; Lynch's " Legal Institutions," pp. 148, 336, .337, 344.
• Cal. Pat. Rolls, Irel., p. 257.
e2
52 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
the lands of Kilbarrack, Christopher owned at the time of his death other lands and tenements in the counties of Dublin, Meath, and Louth, and in tlie town of Drogheda.' One of these holdings at Eatoath came to him through his wife, the lady commemorated with liin:k on the altar-tomb, and after his death, when she had remarried with one Anthony Percy, she was a party to a suit in regard to that property.' As the inscription on the altar-tomb records, Christopher's death took place in 1462.
Christopher's family reaped a rich harvest from his services to the White Eose. Besides his eldest son Eobert he appears to have had five sons — William, who became possessed of Stapolin, and was appointed in his father's lifetime Admiral of Ireland;' Thomas,, who was given a few months after his father's death an annuity of twenty marks from the manor of Eatoath ;* Almeric, who was appointed before his father's death Clerk of the Bolls in Ireland, and who was afterwards described as of London f Lionel, who became, while a student at Oxford, prebendary of Howth and precentor of St. Patrick's Cathedral ;* and Walter, who was a barrister, and became successively Attorney-General and Chief Baron of the Exchequer in this country.'
Eobert, who succeeded to the title and estate as his father's eldest son, and who is said to have been twenty-eight years of age at the time, olitained livery of his inheritance by authority of Parliament, and not by the usual process of common law.* He added to the position which he enjoyed as his father's son good abilities, and before succeeding to Howth, while residing apparently in a more northern part of the county, he had shown himself one on whom the State could rely. In 1455 the collection of the tolls in ihe ports of Eush, Rogerstown, and Portraine was committed to
"' Dr. Berry's " Statute Eolls," Edw. IV, p. 2^3.
2 Mem. Iloll, IS Edw. IV ; Ric. III.
3 Br. Berry's "Statute Rolls," Edw. IV, p. 313; Exchequer Inquisition, Co. Dublin, Ilen. VIII, no. 31 ; Brit Mus. ILirl. MS., 112.), 104.
^ Cal. Put. II.'IL^, 1461-67, p. 198.
* Ihid., 1452-61, p. 639 ; 1461-67, p. 284.
* Mrs. Green's " Making of Ireland and its Undoiui:," p. 290 ; Mem. Roll, 37 Hen. VI ; Dr. Berry's •' Statute Rolls," Edw. IV, p. 377.
7 See infra. » Dr. Berry's " Statute Rolls," Edw. IV, p. 233.
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOR TIMES. 53
"him ; in 1456 he is mentioned as having served as sheriff of his county ; and in 1460 he was appointed to take an account of drainage work at Balrothery.'
After his father's death his interest in local affairs did not abate. In 1464 he was responsible for a levy for further forti- fications of Kilmainham Bridge, and in 1465 he was engaged in organizing the militia." The protection of the coast was also in his charge, and during the feast of the Circumcision following he 'Came into conflict with three Breton merchants, who were coming to Ireland under the King's protection to sell wine, salt, and iron. When he descended upon them, they were in a French ship called the " Mary," which was lying under Lambay, and they accused him of assaulting them, putting them to flight, and following them " by force and arms " to the port of Drogheda, and of depriving the master of the ship of an anchor valued at twenty shillings. He was brought before the mayor of Drogheda, together with twenty mariners and a yeoman, and acquitted; but, owing to a ■dispute with the corporation about his property in Drogheda, he could not get his acquittal recorded, and had to appeal to Parliament for a ratification of it.'
The distracted state of Ireland after the Wars of the Roses rendered the path of a public man no easy one, but Robert took the line that the king's government must be carried on, and did not allow any change of policy to abate his loyalty to the York dynasty. What part he took in the obscure events that preceded the execution of the Earl of Desmond of that time cannot be determined with certainty. While the Earl of Desmond was Lord Deputy, Robert appears to have received the honour of knighthood, and to have been the Earl's host at Howth, where in the summer of 1464 letters patent were issued by the Earl;* but there is indication that before the year 1467, when the Earl of Desmond was superseded by the Earl of Worcester, he had lost faith in him. The Earl of Worcester, whose fame as a scholar is tarnished by his cruelty to the FitzGeralds, landed at Howth, and
1 Dr. Berry's " Statute Rolls," Hen. VI, pp. 313, 465, 747.
* Ibid., Edw. IV, pp. 265, 347. s j^,-^,^ p 447^ * ^^^^^^ p_ 317^
54 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
in the proceedings of the Parliament which was called by him, and which decreed the Earl of Desmond's attainder, Robert is men- tioned as excepted from an act of resumption, and as a witness to letters patent which were issued during the session.' A few years later, in 1472, he joined with the seventh Earl of Kildare, who had become Lord Deputy, in establishing the Brotherhood of St. George, an order consisting of the Lord Deputy and twelve knights, and having as its object the maintenance of an armed force for the defence of the Pale,- but when the Earl of Kildare's supersession was in turn found desirable, Robert was again one of those on whose loyalty the Crown could depend.
The height of royal favour to which he had attained is shown by a second marriage, which he made a few years later, and in which the King must have had a part. His first wife had been an Irish lady, Alice, daughter of Nicholas White, of Killester, through whom the Killester lands came to the St, Lawrences ;^ but. his second wife was an English lady of the highest rank, Joan, daughter of Edmund Beaufort, second Duke of Somerset, a grandson of John of Gaunt, by his wife, Elinor, daughter of Ptichard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. The marriage was no- less remarkable on account of tlie lady's Lancastrian descent than of her rank, but as both her parents were dead, it is probable that she had been a ward of the King, and that her hand was at his disposal. The marriage was, no doubt, contracted during a visit to England, for which Robert obtained leave from the Irish Parliament in 1475, and it took place in the summer of 1478. The Earl of Kildare had been superseded shortly before, and his successor, Henry Lord de Grey, appears in the list of the lady's trustees, which is headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and several of the great officers of state,*
A curious glimpse of life at that period is caught in connexion with the dispute about the dues payable to the Corporation of Dublin, which occurred in the winter of 1481. It appears that up to that time their right to exact dues on goods landed at
1 Dr, Berry's " Statute Rolls," pp. o41, 593 ; Gilbert's "Viceroys," p. 385.
• " Complete Peerage," iv, 272 ; Gilbert's " Viceroys," p. 396.
' Mem. Roll, G & 7 Hen. VII. * Cal. Pat. Rolls, Irel., p. 269.
O
o u
a:
H
Q
It
X
o
D X
><^ '-4^
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOE TIMES. 55
Howth had not been questioned, but on the arrival then of a ship from Milford, laden with coal, Eobert said they should have no custom on its cargo, and set at defiance, first the servants of the bailiff, and afterwards the bailiff himself. Finally, the mayor, council, aldermen, and commons were only stopped from setting out in a body to Howth to enforce their demands, by Eobert's son and heir being sent " in pledge " to the mayor, and an agreement to abide the award of arbitrators, who found that " the mayor and citizens should enjoy the custom of the haven in time to come for evermore."^
A few months before the death of Edward the Fourth, in January, 1483, Eobert was appointed Chancellor of Ireland. He had possibly been at one of the Inns of Court in London, and he had gained some experience of legal administration in Ireland in the offices of Clerk of the Common Pleas of the Exchequer and Chancellor of the Green Wax, which he had previously held. His patent was issued in January, 1483, and his appointment may have had some connexion with a licence of absence granted to him by the Irish Parliament in 1481, when he intended " in the name of our blessed Creator to go into the noble kingdom of England for certain matters there to be done." A new patent was issued to Eobert in May, 1483, by Edward the Fifth, and in July following by Eichard the Third ; but the office of Chancellor was only held by him afterwards for a few months.'
In the spring of 1486 another licence to leave Ireland was granted to him,^ and probably he went soon afterwards to England, where his death, which occurred before 1488, took place.* He was buried in London in the church of the Black Friars, a church in which some of England's highest nobility were laid, and was given a place of no little honour, for the list of burials records that " in the choir lyeth the Lord Howth of Ireland."*
By his first wife he had two sons, Nicholas and William, and
' "Ancient Records of Dublin," i, 143.
- Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1476-85, pp. 335, 348, 363; Camden Series, Ix, 41; Brit. Mus., Harl. MS., 433, 14, 24.
3 Plea Roll, 2 Hen. VII. * See infra. ^ "ArchEeologia," Ixiii, 82.
56 HOWTH AXD ITS OWNERS.
by his second wife, who survived liiin many years, and married as a second husband liichard Fry,' he had three sons, Thomas, who was a barrister and became a Justice of the King's Bench,* Walter, and Christopher, who was in holy orders, and became Archdeacon of Glendalough," and two daughters, Genet, who married Thomas FitzSimons, Recorder of Dublin, and Anne, who married Walter Golding.
Nicholas, who succeeded to the title and estate on the death of Robert Lord of llowth as his eldest son, was almost immediately called upon to exercise his judgment upon a matter of the greatest moment, the validity of the claims of Lambert Simnel, and exhibited more discernment than the majority of the chief men of the Pale, influenced possibly by his connexion through his step- mother with Henry the Seventh, According to the Book of Howth* he perceived from the beginning that the affair was "a mad dance," and sent over a messenger to tell Henry of the revolt against his authority, and of its " doers and maintainers." In refusing to countenance the revolt Nicholas was allied with the Archbishop of Armagh, but for some reason which is not apparent they are included in a list of leading men in Ireland pardoned afterwards by the King,* and when Sir Richard Edgecombe was sent over to deliver the pardons Nicholas took before him the oath prescribed for Lambert Simnel's followers.*
Not long after Sir Richard Edgecombe's mission, which was executed in the summer of 1488, the peers of Ireland were sum- moned to England to attend upon the King, and were kept for a considerable time at Court. In consequence of the part which he had taken, Nicholas was free from any constraint, and he is said to have delighted the courtiers by his Irish wit. He is described as
' She married R. Fry in 1489. He died in 1504. She died 11 August, 1.518. Cf. Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII; i, no. 347; iii, nos. 55, 102.
' See infra. ' Fiant, Edw. VI, nos. 93, 162. * "Book of Howth," p. 189.
* Letters and Papers, Hie. Ill and Hen. VII, ii, 370.
* Harris's " Hibernica," p. 37. It is remarkable that two of Nicholas's relations appear to have been amongst Lambert Simnel's followers. " Great Darcy of Flatten," who married Nicholas's aunt (Lodge's "Peerage," vi, 202), bore Simnel on his shoulder, and Nicholas's uncle, "William, was amongst tliose who made their fealty before Sir Richard Edgecombe.
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOE TIMES. 57
■telling an English peer, who shook with terror on seeing the axe under which the heads of his father and grandfather had fallen, to serve God and fear his Prince and all would be well ; and as saying to Lambert Simnel, who waited on the Irish peers, when he offered him wine, " Bring me the cup if the wine be good, and I shall drink it off for the wine's sake and mine own sake also, and for thee, as thou art, so I leave thee, a poor innocent." Finally, when the time of departure came Nicholas is said to have been clothed for the journey in the King's apparel, and given three hundred pounds in gold, accompanied by the King's thanks ; but his com- panions, who had been reduced to a state of penury by their attendance at Court, were sent off without any provision, and had to make their way home in the guise of mendicants.^
Although he had been the chief supporter of Lambert Simnel's claims, the Lord Deputy, Gerald FitzGerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, was not displaced, and in the summer of 1490 Nicholas joined in representing to the King that it was impossible for the Lord Deputy to obey his command to attend at Court, owing to the danger of an attack upon the Pale, and the variances that existed amongst the leading Anglo-Irish.'* These variances centred in the rivalry between the Butlers and the Geraldines, but two years later the Earl of Ormonde's representative. Sir James Butler, and the Earl of Kildare reconciled their differences so far as to shake hands through an opening in a closed door in St. Patrick's Cathedral. At that time, according to the Book of Howth,^ Nicholas entertained Sir James Butler in his mother's house at Killester, and resented an attack ^vhich Sir James Butler thought fit to make at dinner on the Earl of Kildare's conduct. " I swear by our Lady of the north church of Howth," quoth Nicholas, "that butler, nor wine-drawer, nor tapster is not in Ireland, but I daren't stand to defend this quarrel, and if your lordship be so stomached, and would ease your heart, let us both take a boat, and go to yonder island of Clontarf, there to ease your stomach and mine, for our companies here are not in- different." Whereat Sir James Butler is reported to have departed
1 "Book of Howth," p. 190.
2 Letters and Papers, Ric. Ill and Hen. VII, i, 377 ; ii, xxxvi. ^ p. 177^
58 HOAVTH AND ITS OWNERS.
in a fury, saying that Nicholas's " stout and bullish nature " would end his days before the natural time.
About the same time a quarrel between Nicholas's brother, William, and a brother of Sir James Butler had a more serious ending. William is said to have been " the boldest man of his hand in the realm," and to have often put his brother, when con- tention arose between tliem, " in hazard of his life," and he gave proof of his prowess in his encounter with Sir James Butler's brother. It took place at Kilmainham Bridge, and William not only slew there his opponent, but also seven men by whom he was accompanied.'
Before the scene at Killester the second rising in Ireland against Henry the Seventh, tlie revolt in favour of Perkin Warbeck, had begun, and the Earl of Kildare had been superseded in the office of Lord Deputy. Subsequently, in the autumn of 1493, commissioners who were sent over from England required him, together with a number of the chief men of the Pale, to enter into recognizances to suppress the insurgents,^ and a visit was paid by liim to England in order to make his peace with the King. Nicholas, who was one of those required to enter into recognizances in the sum of two hundred pounds, appears to have accompanied him to England, and in the following January he was knighted, together with Lord Slane, in the King's Chamber at Westminster.*
In the month of October, 1494, Sir Edward Poynings, who, as has been mentioned, landed at Howth, arrived, and, together with him a thousand soldiers, and a number of Englishmen, who were appointed to the principal judicial offices,^ but the rising in favour of Perkin Warbeck was not suppressed for many months. What part Nicholas took in its suppression is not known, but his uncle, Walter, was prominent in assisting the forces of the Crown. Amongst the payments by the State in the summer of 1495 is an item for the conveyance by ship, presumably from Howth, of arms and cannon wliich had belonged to Eobert Lord.
1 '• Book of Howth," p. 196. - Gilbert's " Viceroys," p. 447.
3 Cal. Pat. Koils, liel., p. 270. Shaw's " Knights of England," ii, 28. ^ Gilbert's " Viceroys," p. 450.
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOR TIMES. 59
Howth, as far as Dublin, with the carriage on land to the cellar of Walter Howth ; and in the following November there is another item for the carriage of arms and gunpowder from the cellar of Walter Howth to one of the Dublin inns.^
Walter St. Lawrence, or Howth, Nicholas's uncle, had been appointed Attorney-General in May, 1491, and is mentioned as having represented his family in two prosecutions in the preceding year. One was against Walter Hamlyn of Beaulieu in the county of Louth, for having by force and arms, namely, with bows, swords, and arrows, despoiled Thomas Howth of Eichardstown, in the same county, of a fishing net, and the other was against a fisherman of Howth, Thomas Keatinge, who was accused of forestalling the market, and buying four cowhides for eighteen pence. Both these prosecutions were initiated in the Court of Exchequer, and to the chief seat in it Walter St. Lawrence was subsequently promoted. He did not long hold, however, the place of Chief Baron, for his death is recorded in the Christ Church obits to have taken place on January 25, 1503.'
When the Earl of Kildare, once again Lord Deputy, made his expedition to Connaught, in August, 1504, against Ulick Burke, Nicholas is represented in the Book of Howth as acting the same part as the founder of his house, and engineering victory for the Earl of Kildare's army in the battle of Knockdoe.^ " O good God,'* cried he to four of the leaders who advised retreat, " by our blessed Lady that blest in the north church of Howth, you four might have spoken these words in some other ground than this is, and our enemies now beinw in sidit." His assistance did not end in speech, and his place in the tight was in the main battle, where he commanded the billmen, and was ever found the foremost. After holding the office of Chancellor of the Green Wax for a time* he was appointed on the accession of Henry the Eighth, in 1509, like his father, Chancellor of Ireland, but, also like his father, only held the great seal for a very brief period. Towards the close of his
1 Letters and Papers, Ric. Ill and Hen. VII, ii, 300, 303.
2 Mem. EoUs, 6 and 7 Hen. VII ; Christ Church Deed, no. 369 ; Christ Church Obits.
3 " Book of Howth," pp. 181-85. * Mem. Rolls, 12 Hen. VII.
«0 HOWTH AXD ITS OAVNEKS.
life he became much embroiled in disputes between the Butlers and the Geraldines,^ and when Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, was sent over in 1520 as Viceroy, Nicholas is said to have been dismissed from the council on that account, but to have been soon restored as one " above all •other worthy to be of the King's privy council, and so continued to his end."- His death took place on July 10, 1526.'
Nicholas is said to have been married three times, namely, to Genet, daughter of one of the Lords of Killeen ; Anne, daughter of Thomas Berford ;* and Alison, sister of Walter Fitzsimons, who was Archbishop of Dublin from 1484 to 1511.* His last wife appears to have been married to him in February, 1505, and to have survived him.* By his first wife he had a son Christopher and four daughters : Alison, who married, first, John Netterville of Dowth, and, secondly, Patrick "White of Malassin ; Elizabeth, who married Thomas Netterville, a Justice of the Common Pleas ; Elinor, who married Sir Walter Cheevers of Macetown, and Anne, who married Thomas Cusack of Gerardstown. By his second wife he had two sons Almeric and Ptobert,'' and a daughter, Catherine, who married Sir John Plunkett of Beaulieu. And by his third wife he had a son Walter,* and a daughter, Marian, who married first. Sir Christopher Nugent, secondly, Sir Gerald FitzGerald, and thirdly, John Parker, who was sometiihe Master of the Eolls."
Christopher, who succeeded to the title and estate on his father's death, was then a man of middle age, and had been long married. His wife. Amy Bermingham, was a daughter of his fatlier's second wife by a previous marriage, and through the death of her brother she became owner of much property in Dublin county, including Baldongan and the Ward.'" Before his
^ Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII ; iii and iv, passim.
« " Book of Howth," p. 191.
' l"'xchequer Inquisition, Co. Dublin, lien. VIII, no. 29.
* Of Kilrow, Co. Meath. She was widow of Bermingham of Baldongan.
* She was the daughter of Robert Fitz Simons, and widow of Nicholas Ciieevers.
* E.Kchequer Inquisition, Co. Dublin, Hen. VIII, no. 30. She is said to have married secondly a Plunkett of Loughcrew.
' See infra. * See infra. ^ Repertory Chancery Decrees, Hen. VIII, no. 19. i» Mem. Roll, 3 Hen. VIII.
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOR TIMES.
61
succession to Howth Christopher resided at Baldongan, and had served as sheriff of his county, and had been knighted.' Not long after his father's death he is said to have proceeded with a great force against Brian O'Connor, Chief of Offaly, on his invading the Pale, and taking prisoner the acting Lord Deputy, Lord Delvin ; but he and his men had only to march back again, as Lord Delvin's life was spared on condition that his capture should not be avenged.* By Silken Thomas Christopher was regarded as a dangerous opponent, and after the murder of Archbishop Alen at Artain Christopher was himself taken prisoner at Howth by the
insurgents. It is said that during the anarchy that ensued on the- rising Ilowth was spoiled by the O'Tooles and O'l^yrnes, and that- the Castle would have been burned only for vigorous resistance on the part of the occupants, who killed or wounded many of the- raiders.^ But judging by Corr Castle, which was doubtless built
1 Mem. Roll, 8 & 16 Hen. VIII.
' " Book of Ilowth," p. 192 ; Mr. Bagwell's " Ireland under the Tudors," i, 151.
3 " Book of Howth," p. 193.
€2
HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
before then, the strength of the building played also a part in its successful defence.
Like the other leading men in the Pale, Christopher assented to Henry the Eighth's claim to supremacy in the Church, but no spoil from the dissolved religious houses fell to him. He is said by Lord Leonard Grey to have been, in common with other Irish peers, deficient in " wit and men " ; but as few persons found favour with Lord Leonard, little heed need be given to his judg- ment.* He appears to have been active in the House of Lords, and on the council, of which he was a member,- and was able to
RECESS ON THIRD fLOOR
Cork Castlk.
impress his individuality on the great English statesman of his day, Thomas Cromwell, whose assistance he invoked in litigation, in which he was involved with the Archbishop of Dublin, concerning the ownership of Ireland's Eye, and which terminated two days before Nicholas's death in a decree against him. The letter in which he appealed to Cromwell was written in the winter of 1537, not long after Lord Leonard had made his disparaging report on the Irish nobility, and conveys the impression that Christopher was well known to Cromwell, and had more claim on his attention than could be secured by a gift of hawks which
* Letters and Papers, lien. VIII, vol. xii, j)t. i, no. 1066. - Ibid., X, no. 938 ; xvi, nos. 9.3.5, 1044.
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOK TIMES. 63
accompanied the letter, and had probably been bred on Ireland's Eye.^
In order probably to exhibit their acquiescence in the changes of the time, Christopher's three sons, to whom his title passed in succession, entered Lincoln's Inn as students at an unusually late time of life. The eldest, Edward, entered in 1540, the second, Eichard, in 1541, and the third, Christopher, in 1544.^^ At the time of his admission Edward had been married twelve years, but he submitted to the ordinary discipline of the Inn, and in the year after his admission he was named as escheator, an officer chosen from the students whose duty it was to provide fuel and torches on special occasions. His youngest brother, Christopher, appears to have remained long in residence, and ten years after his admission, in the summer of 1554, he is mentioned as having incurred the displeasure of the authorities by wearing a beard, which he was ordered to remove within eleven days on pain of expulsion.' It is impossible to say to what extent Christopher's sons were influenced by the doctrines of the Reformed Church. The second, Eichard, held the title during the closing years of Edward the Sixth's reign and the whole of Queen Mary's, and seems to have succeeded in serving both Sovereigns with equal fidelity and acceptableness.
There is no doubt, however, that Christopher's uncle Thomas St. Lawrence, who occupied a great position then in the govern- ment of Ireland, was a strong opponent of the Reformation. After a long residence in Lincoln's Inn, which he entered in 1503, and of which he was still a member in 1515,* he returned to practise at the bar of Ireland, and in 1532 was appointed Attorney-General.* Two years later he was raised to the bench, as second Justice of the King's Bench,* with a seat on the council, then a most unusual honour for a puisne judge.'' His devotion to the Church had been
' Letters and Papers, vol. xii, pt. ii, no. 1194; Repertory Chancery Decrees, i, 6, 20; cf. Eutty's "Natural Hist, of Co. Dublin," i, 297.
- In 1537 a Ralph St. Lawrence had entered the Inn. See Appendix F.
3 Lincoln's Inn Register and Black Book, i, 258, 261, 310.
* Ibid., i, pp. 134, 176. ^ Morrin's Pat. Rolls, i, 5.
« Fiant, Hen. VIII, no. 44.
■^ Letters and Papers, Hen. NIU, passim; cf. Cal. S. P., Irel., 1586-88, p. 101.
64 HOWTH AND ITS OWXEES.
displayed at the time of the murder of Archbishop Alen, to whom he had afforded refuge in the castle of Artain, which had come into his possession as guardian of its owner, Thomas Holywood, who was then a minor;' and although he continued on the bench and on the council tliroughout the reign of Edward the Sixtli, lie was foremost on the accession of Queen Mary in inciting a revolt against the bishops appointed by her brother.- As his death took place within a few months of her accession, he did not, however, long enjoy her rule.*
Besides the three sons already mentioned, Christopher had a fourth son called John, who appears in the year 1566 to have been residing at Baldongan, and to have been leader of the militia in that part of the county ;* and three daughters : Joan, who married Eobert Preston of Ballimadon ;* Alison, who married first, George FitzGerald, and secondly, William Heron ;* and Margaret, who married a member of the Cashell family. Christopher's brother, Almeric, appears to have survived him, and to have occupied Killester, in respect of which an Almeric St, Lawrence contributed to the hostings in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign.'' His two other brothers are remarkable as having been respectively in tlie service of the heads of tlie rival houses of FitzGerald and Butler. Eobert, who became summoner of the Court of Exchequer, is mentioned as having been sent in 1516 by Gerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, with the head of the chief of the O'Tooles to the mayor of Dublin, and as having been given by that nobleman a hackney ;® and Walter figures in the will of James, ninth Earl of Ormond, made in 1543, as his " right well-
1 Cal. S. P., Carew, 1515-74, p. 100. Moriin's Pat. Rolls, i, 2.
2 Mr. Bagwell's " Ireland under the Tudors," i, 386. ' Exchequer Inquisitions, Co. Dublin, Mary, no. 1.
•Haliday Manuscripts, pp. 178, 179. In 1556 a John Ilowth is mentioned as husband of Phelix Thole: in 1561 a John Howth of Dublin sued Ann Howth of Portmarnock for bark ; and in 1664 a John Howth of Dublin had a cow stolen from him. Chancery Decrees, Phil, and Mary, no. 28 ; Eliz., no. 43 ; Fiant, Eliz., no. 592.
* Fiant, Eliz., no. 5020.
* Ibid., nos. 3683, 4315.
' Haliday Manuscripts, pp. 13, 162.
8 Fiant, Hen. VIII, no. 49 ; Warburton, "Whitelaw, and Walsh's " Hist, of Dublin," i, 185; "Hist. MSS. Com. Kept.," is, pt. ii, p. 282.
IN PLANTAGEXET AND TUDOR TIMES. 65
beloved servant," to whom he bequeathed an annuity of twenty nobles.'
Edward, who succeeded to the title and estate on the death of his father, which took place on April 20, 1542, has left no mark on the history of his time. He appears to have resided prior to his succession to the title at Baldongan, and owned in right of his wife, Alison, daughter of James FitzLyons, much property in the counties of Dublin and Meath. She was allied to him in a prohibited degree, and before their marriage, which took place in 1528, a licence had to be obtained.^ By her Edward had a son, Richard, who died as a child, and two daughters, Anne, who married Bartholomew Dillon of Keppoch,^ and Alison, who married her cousin John Golding. In 1545 Edward is mentioned as a member of the council, and in the same year he obtained a decree against the Corporation of Drogheda in a suit touching the ownership of *' seven stone shops " near the bridge of that town.* His death took place on July 2, 1549, in Dublin.
Richard, who succeeded as heir presumptive on his brother's death, had resided previously at the Ward.* He proved himself eminent as a soldier, and was a leader in all the military expedi- tions of his day. He had probably seen service first under Lord Deputy Bellingham, who, as an ancient retainer of the Howth family has recorded,^ " wore ever his harness as did all those whom he liked of," and he was sent by Bellingham's successor, Sir James Croft, into Lecale with a hundred horse to banish the Scots.'' It was probably his knowledge of Richard that led Bellingham to select Howth as the place of his departure in the winter of 1549, when he sailed from Ireland never to return ; and possibly the same reason led Croft, three years later,
'Lodge's " Peerage," iii, 192. Cf. Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. xii, pt. i, no. 920.
2 Lodge's " Peerage," iii. 193, 195. ^ Fiant Eliz., no. 3000.
^Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII, vol. xxi, pt. i, nos. 427, 920: Repertory- Chancery Decrees,!, 14. According to D'AIton, "Hist, of Co, Dublin," p. 136, Donald Dubh, head of the MacDonald elan, died in Edward's time at Howth, but according to the " Die. Nat. Biog.," xxxv, 39, he died at Drogheda.
5 Fiants, Edw. VI, nos. 157, 493. « " Book of Howth,",p. 195.
' Haliday Manuscripts, p. 281.
F
G6 HOWTH AND ITS OWXEKS.
in the winter of 1552, to follow Bellingham's example.' In annals compiled by the ancient retainer, who had been Richard's foster-father,^ it is recorded that in 1553 Kichard attacked with only a small force the great Shane O'Neill when the latter was preparing to invade the Pale, and that a few days later Richard penetrated into O'Neill's country and carried off' much prey. Further military service on Richard's part is indicated by a pardon to a number of soldiers which was granted in 1555, and in which he appears as their commander.^ On his arrival as chief governor in 1556 the Earl of Sussex recognized Richard's capacity, and assigned him the command of the rear of his ainiy in his first expedition against the Scots, to which Richard contributed in respect of his tenure of Howth four mounted archers/ Of that command the jealousy of Marshal Bagenal deprived him, with very lamentable results, says the Howth annalist, to those whom he led. At Glenarm, however, during a night " terrible of wind, of rain, of hail, of thunder, and of wild fire," Richard's opportunity came, and he crowned himself with glory in a raid on the enemy's herds.*
But in civil life Richard was also prominent, and acted as a commissioner of gaol delivery on one occasion in the counties of Meath, Kildare, and Westmeath. He was a justice of the peace for the county of Meath as well as for the county of Dublin, and was also entrusted with the levying of subsidy. In the summer of 1558 he was appointed by the Earl of Sussex, who when going to England in the previous December had selected Howth as his place of embarkation, to be one of the guardians of the Pale ; and owing to the vigilance shown by him and Viscount Baltinglass " no harm there was committed."" Like his father he was involved in litigation with the Church, in respect of the tithe of the parish of Ward which the rector of Finglas claimed, and like
1 Fiants, Edw. VI, iios. 426, 1162. - " Book of Howth," p. 195.
* Fiants, Philip and Mary, no. 86.
♦ "Book of Hosvth," p. 197; Haliday Manuscripts, p. 13.
' "Book of Howth," p. 198 ; cf. Cal. S. P., Carew, 1515-74, p. 261.
• Moniu's Pat. Rolls, pa.'isim; Fiants, Philip and Mary, no. 222; Cal. S. P., Carew, 1515-74, p. 278 ; " Book of Howth," p. 199.
IN PLANTAGENET AND TUDOR TIMES.
67
his father was defeated/ He married the Dame Catherine EitzGerald,- but appears to have had no children. His death took place in the autumn of 1558, probably at Drogheda, where a monument to his memory formerly stood in the Cord Cemetery.'
1 Repertory Chancery Decrees, i, 47 ; cf. Acts of Privy Council, 1556-58, p. 71. - She married as a second Imsband Nicholas "Wogan of Rathcoffy. Chancery Decree, Eliz., no. 102.
^ D'Alton's " Hist, of Drogheda," i, 119. See for cadets at. that period Appendix F.
f2
( 68 )
CHAPTER V.
UNDER ELIZABETH.
A STORY of an heir of the house of Howth having been carried off by a Sea Queen to the western shores of Ireland, and of his ransom having been a promise of perpetual hospitality in the hails of Howth Castle, is widely known. In the popular imagination it is the most important event in the history of Howth, and forms a link between the peninsula and the Virgin Queen, in whose reign the Sea Queen flourished. The Sea Queen, Graina Uaile by name, was a most remarkable woman, who fulfilled the motto of her race, terra marique potens, and was able to impress not only the Irish Government, but also Elizabeth herself, with a sense of her power.^ The story tells that about the year 1575, on her return from a visit to Elizabeth, Graina Uaile landed at Howth, and proceeded as far as the Castle gates, which she found closed. On learning that the gates were closed because it was the dinner hour,, she is said to have expressed great indignation at what she con- sidered a dereliction of Irish hospitality, and meeting on her way back to her ship the heir of the house, who was then a child, she retaliated, according to the tradition, by seizing him and carrying him off to her home in the county of Mayo, where he was detained until a promise was given that the gates should never be shut again at dinner-time, and that a place should always be laid at the table for a guest.
Modern research has shown that the date of Graina Uaile's visit to Elizabeth's court was eighteen years later than that assigned to it in the story,' and the story has been therefore deemed to be unfounded. But without direct evidence to controvert it, tradition should not be lightly set aside, and the possibility that an incident such as the tradition relates may have occurred
' See " History and Archaeology ot Clare Island," by T. J. Westropp, m.a., p. 41, et passim. • Ibid., \). ■±'1.
UNDER ELIZABETH. 69
is beyond dispute. Although she did not go to Elizabeth's court at the time mentioned, " the dark lady of Doona " did come a year later to Dublin to see Elizabeth's representative, Sir Henry Sidney ;^ and at that time the heir to Howth in the second genera- tion was a child. For many generations a picture in Howth Castle was believed to represent the abduction of the heir,* but it is now said to represent the flight of the Israelites from Egypt. It shows a group of men and women in the midst of cattle, sheep, and dogs, and has as its principal subject a woman mounted on a white horse, who is receiving an infant into her arms, while above them the sky opens, and a figure appears in the clouds.
But, apart from this story, Howth affords an interesting study •during the Elizabethan period. Its town was then accounted one •of the largest and best in the county ;' and its port, which was provided with a quay,* continued to be used for passenger, and to some extent mercantile, traffic. At Howth several of the •chief governors in Elizabeth's reign are recorded to have either embarked or disembarked. There on two occasions, in 1561 and 1562, her first Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Sussex, took ship for England,' and there after appointment to the office of chief -governor, in 1594 Sir William Russell, and in 1600 Lord Mountjoy landed.* From Howth, amongst other places, Elizabeth's Master of the Rolls, John Parker,' who was a great promoter of Irish industries, was given licence in 1564 to export wool f and in the same year a ship that had been engaged in piratical exploits •was ordered to be delivered to a tenant of Lord Howth to use in
1 "History and Archaeology of Clare Island," p. 41. It 'W'ill be seen at this reference (note 5) that Duald Mac Firbis, in his "Great Bi)ok of Genealogies," ■assigns the incident to the fifteenth century, and says that it was Hichard O'Cuairsci, or Richard of the Bent Shield, who, between 1469 and 1479, " took the Lord of Benn Etar and brought him to Tyrawley."
- "Warburton, Whitelaw, and Walsh's "Hist, of Dublin," ii, 1258. A plaster Tepresentation of the incident, which is also preserved in Howth Castle, is modern.
3 " Description of Ireland in 1598," ed. by Eev. E. Hogan, p. 37.
* Cal. S. P., Irel., 1606-08, p. 269.
* " Liber Munerum," pt. ii, p. 3.
* Cal. S. P., Carew, 1589-1600, p. 221 ; Irel., 1599-1600, p. 499.
^ He has been already mentioned as husband of a daughter of the house of Howth. ■Supra, p. 60. 8 Fiant, Eliz., no. 92.
70 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
the Queen's service.' Towards the close of Elizabeth's reign Spanish pirates made themselves much dreaded; and in 1592,. about harvest time, one lay without interference near Howth, watching for one of the Queen's ships, called the " Popinjay," and finally sailed triumphantly through the sound of Dalkey, and took two English ships.'- As appears from references to two shipwrecks at Uowth, the peninsula was regarded in Elizabeth's reign as a great danger in the navigation of ships coming to Dul)lin. The first of these shipwrecks, which occurred in 1560, involved the loss- of the " Michael of Hilboy," and much merchandise ; and the second, which occurred in 1579, resulted in the loss of nine passengers and their horses.^
At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign comfort began to be considered by the owner of Howth, and a mansion was added to the ancient keep. This mansion was, no doubt, of a semi-fortified type, like the castle of Eathfarnham, which was erected some years later by Archbishop Loftus. Though probably not all occupying their original place, three tablets, which were affixed near it, still remain at Howth. They bear the St. Lawrence arms impaled with those of the Plunketts. To a daughter of that house the Lord Howth of Elizabeth's time was married, and the largest of the three tablets has, as well as their arms, their initials and an inscription : IDNS DEVS MISEIJIT*' NEI (probably Standing for Jesus Dominus Deus miseritus est nostri). This tablet, which boi-e also formerly the date 1564,* is over an arched gateway, through which the stable-yard is entered from the north, and it seems not improbable that an entrance to the courtyard of the Castle was constructed in 1564 at this point to supersede the use of the vaulted passage tlirough the mediaeval gateway tower, which aftbrded little room for vehicles. What portions of the present buildings date from^ that time cannot be determined with certainty, but the hall and kitchen appear to have been amongst them.
With the exception of the Archbishop of Dublin, the Lord of
' Haliday Manuscripts, p. 148.
2 Cal. S. P., Irel., 1592-96, p. 93.
2 Repertory Chancery Decrees, i, 77 ; Cal. S. P., Irel., 1574-8'), p. 195.
♦ Warburton, Whitelaw, and Walsh's "Hist, of Dublin," ii, 1258.
UNDER ELIZABETH.
71
Howth was then the first of " the men of power and name " in the county ,1 and his possessions in it were extensive and far-reaching. To the north lay his manor of Baldongan, with the lands of Rogers- town and Balscadden, and to the west his manor of Ward ; while the manor of Howth had attached to it the lands of Kilbarrack and Killester, besides scattered holdings in other places.^
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Gateway and Tablet.
Christopher, who succeeded in 1558 to the title and estate on the death of his brother Richard, is the most striking figure in the line of the Lords of Howth during the sixteenth century. His force of character is shown in the fact that his nomination to the council was simultaneous with his succession to the title,' and
1 Cal. S. P., Irel., 1601-03, et Add., p. 697 ; Carew, 1601-03, p. 447.
' Lodges " Peerage," iii, 198. 3 Moriin's Pat. EoUs. i, 396.
72 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
that his assistance in the government of Ireland was considered indispensable by most of those to whom Elizabeth entrusted the sword.' Of his early life little is known. As has been already mentioned, he became in 1544 a student of Lincoln's Inn, and as late as 1554 he appears to have been a member of it, but in 1556 he is mentioned in connexion with the Ward,- and was then resident there, as his brother Richard had been prior to his succession to the title. He must have been then married for more than ten years. ^ His wife, Elizabeth Plunkett, was a daughter of Sir John Plunkett of Beaulieu, and possibly a house in the parish of Eaheny, which her father is said to have held in 1551, from Lord Howth, mav have had some connexion with their marriage.*
The ability of the blind lord, as Christopher was called, probably from defective eyesight, seems to have been chiefly shown in the capacities of a counsellor and diplomatist. For the first twelve years of Elizabeth's reign his name is constantly appended to the proclamations as a member of the council, at which his first appearance was made in December, 1558, when the news of Queen Mary's death arrived. In 1561 he was employed by the Earl of Sussex to carry on negotiations with Shane O'Neill,* and in the winter of 1562 he was sent by Sussex, with two other members of the council, to discuss with Elizabeth and her ministers the measures to be taken in the government of Ireland.* Accord- ing to the Book of Howth,'' the latter mission was one which others were reluctant to undertake, and required no small talent as a courtier. It was only by much perseverance that the three messengers carried their point with the Queen, and it is evident that they had no little difficulty in overcoming her antipathy to them on the ground of their Irish birth, which was revealed at the first audience, by her asking Lord Howth if he was able to speak the English tongue. By Lord Justice Arnold the blind lord was no less trusted than by Lord Sussex, and he was one of those
' Haliday Manuscri[)ts, jorMsiw. ^ Morrin's Pat. Rolls, ii, 176.
•* His son was of niairiageable age in 1559. See infra.
* D'Alton'a "Hist, of Co. Dublin," p. 109.
5 Cal. S. P., Irel., 1509-73, p. 175. « Ibid., pp. 210, 213. '' p. 201.
UNDER ELIZABETH. 73
employed by him to hold a parley with the chief of the O'lieilly clan on the borders of the Pale.^ Later on Sir Henry Sidney, while Lord Deputy, made use of him in further negotiations with O'Neill.^
But he had a reputation also as a man of action, and before a general hosting against Shane O'Neill in the autumn of 1560, he was appointed " chief and general captain " of the forces in Dublin county.* To this hosting he contributed in respect of Howth, in addition to his own services, three men and transport.* In 1563 he accompanied the Earl of Sussex on one of his journeys to the North, and rendered him notable assistance. With the help of the men of Dublin he brought Sussex safely through the dangerous Moyrie Pass, near Newry, and he was one of the commanders at Dungannon in an engagement with O'Neill, which lasted all day until " the woods so rang with the shot that it was strange to hear."^ Again, three years later, in 1556, in a general hosting against Shane O'Neill, under Sir Henry Sidney, he is found serving in person and contributing six archers on horseback, and is reported to have done good service in exacting retribution for the burning of many villages and districts in the Pale.®
The Government did all they could to bind to them the blind lord and his relations, who were then regarded as " people of very great birth, alliance, kindred, riches, and friendship."' Soon after his succession to Howth, in !May, 1561, Queen Elizabeth announced her intention of confirming to him his title, and nine years later, in February, 1570, Lord Deputy Sidney conferred on him at Drogheda the honour of knighthood.^ But a time came when the interests of the Government and those of the chief men of the Pale conflicted, and, notwithstanding the efforts of the
' Haliday Manuscripts, p. 142; cf. Cal. S. P., IreL, 1509-73, p. 276, and Mr. Bagwell's "Ireland under the Tudors," ii, 50. 2 "Book of Howth," p. 205.
* Haliday Manuscripts, p. 86. * /Airf., pp. 89, 91.
* Cal. S. P., Carew, 1515-74, p. 349 ; " Book of Howth," p. 201. « Haliday Manuscripts, p. 162; Cal. S. P., IreL, 1509-73, p. 319. "> Lodge's "Peerage," iii, 195.
8 Cal. S. P., Carew, 1515-74, p. 311 : Shaw's "Knights of England," ii, 74.
74 HOWTH ANL> ITS OWKERS.
Government to attach him to their side, the blind lord was found foremost in defence of his own class.
To the part taken by him in the conflict there are many- references in the Book of Howth. As a note in it records, it belonged to him ;' and in the opinion of Dr. Round* it was com- piled under his direction, and contains references to himself, which, although written in the third person, are his own com- position. As appears from it, as well as from the state papers, the conflict became in a great degree a personal one between the chief men of the Pale and the Lord Deputy, Sir llenry Sidney. " This Sir Harry," says the Book of Howth,' " was very severe and upright in judgment, and yet a friendly gentleman to his own friends, very courteous, sober, wise, and free of his own nature, so was he when he would be in a rage a very lion in speech, and soon after appeased when he did call himself to remembrance, as witnessed the Lord of Howth." This occasion was no doubt one on which the Lord Deputy endeavoured to force the chief men of the Pale to submit to taxation in consideration of the Crown forgoing its right to call a hosting : " the first day the Lord Deputy was in a great rage, and threatened the gentleman to the Castle of Dublin, but the morrow after, the Lord Deputy did well allow the gentleman's request, and did confess that he and the council did commit an error, and so promised upon his honour the like should not be in his time."*
But in the next encounter, which concerned the right of the Crown to levy cess without the assent of Parliament, the Lord Deputy proved the victor. It came to a head in 1576, when the blind lord and the other chief men of the Pale laid their cause before the privy council in England, continued through- out the next year, when they were for a short time prisoners in the Castle of Dublin, and terminated in 1578, when they were for five months kept in close confinement in the same place.* During the latter imprisonment " the charges of diet and fees "
1 p. 260, n. §. ■>■ "The Antiquary," vii, 196-99.
' " Book of Howth," p. 527. ■• Ihid., v. 209.
* Cal. S. P., Caiew, 1575-88, arid Irel., 1574-85, passim ; Marquis of Salisbury's Manuscripts, ii, 154 ; Earl of Egmoni's Manuscripts, i, 8 ; " Book of Uowth," p. 214..
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UNDEll ELIZABETH. 75
pressed heavily upon them, and a sample of those paid by the blind lord has been thought worthy of preservation in the Book of Howth :' " his confinement 40^. ; his diet for twenty-eight days £14 13s., by composition at 2'2d. sterling per diem £12 12s. sterling."
Throughout these proceedings the blind lord is represented by the Book of Howth as the spokesman for his fellows.^ But they are admitted not to have been in every instance as amenable to his leading as could have been desired ; and in the contention about enforcing taxation in lieu of a hosting, " one of the greatest as he thought himself," Sir Christopher Barnewall, of Turvey, is said on the first day to have recanted, and to have complained that " the Lord of Howth spoke more than was desired him to speak." At " that gentleman's word " the others are said to have been grieved, and the moral is drawn that " every man should beware to speak for the commons, for some one will halt and flatter, as there it did appear by this gentleman."^
The disagreement between the blind lord and Sir Christopher Barnewall may have had its origin in private as well as in public concerns. A year after his succession to the title the blind lord had entered into an agreement with Sir Christopher Barnewall that his eldest son, Nicholas, should marry a daughter of Sir Christopher Barnewall's called Margaret, and that Sir Christopher Barnewall's eldest son, Patrick, as soon as he reached the age of fourteen, should marry his daughter Mary.* But, although apparently married to the young lady assigned to him at the appointed time, Patrick Barnewall proved recalcitrant, and finally instituted, in 1579, proceedings for a dissolution of the marriage, which was granted.^ For the fulfilment of the agreement Sir Christopher Barnewall had bound himself in the sum of a thousand pounds, and the blind lord felt the breach of covenant so strongly as to impose on his son the obligation of recovering half the amount specified in the bond, which, as will be seen, his son did.
At the time the divorce proceedings were instituted by
' p. 217. » "Book of Howth," p. 209. 3 Ihid., p. 209.
* Chancery Decree, Eliz. no. 633. » Fjant, Eliz., no. 3558.
76 HOWTH AND ITS OWNEKS.
Patrick Barnewall, the blind lord's relations with his own wife liad become so unhappy as to lead to their separation. In 1578 he was ordered to pay her eight pounds a month until the variance should be ended ;^ and in the following year charges of infidelity, and even cruelty, led to proceedings against him in the Castle Chamber, which corresponded to the Star Chamber in England. On his first appearance in that court, in the month of May, 1579, the blind lord secured the conviction of one of his servants for perjury in allegations of immorality which he had made against him, but two months later he was himself convicted of beating his wife with great barbarity because she had protested against " his dissolute life." In addition, he was convicted of beating one of his daughters until, it is said, he caused an ague, from which she ■died, and also of beating one of his servants who had sought to befriend his wife.^ Fines to the amount of a thousand pounds were imposed, and their non-payment led to his imprisonment for more than six months, when he was only released " to save the word of the Lord Chancellor," with whom he had negotiations that are not clearly explained.^
With Lord Deputy Perrot, in the year 1585, the contest about the cess was renewed, and accusations of ill-faith were made against him by the blind lord and other Irish peers. Subsequently the blind lord retracted what he had said, and 'as one of the last acts of his life he sent a present of an intermewed goshawk to Perrot.^ Three weeks before the mention of his present to Perrot, on August 16, 1589, the blind lord had made his will,* and probate of it was granted on November 20 following, just a month after his death, which took place on October 24, 1589. The sole member of his family named in it is his eldest son, and it was his wish that no one except his said son should " intermeddle with his goods and chattels." Besides his son, he mentioned his servant, Richard Hanlon, to whom he left a farm
> Hist. MSS. Corn., Kept. 15, App. iii, p. 287.
2 Earl of Egmont's Manuscripts, i, 11.
^ Cal. of S. P., Carew, 1575-88, 157, 223.
* Cal. of S. P., Irel., 158G-88, pp. 9, 20 ; 1538-92, p. 235.
5 In the Prerogative Collection.
UNDER ELIZABETH. 77
and some live stock ; his page, Lawrence, to whom he left his grey horse and his cape, which was of the same colour ; and one Belle White, to whom he left a house for her life.
It was by the blind lord, as has been seen, that a mansion house was added to the ancient keep, and Howth Castle, as we know it to-day, is probably a monument to his energy and pre-eminence amongst its owners under the Tudor and Stewart dynasties. He has been described by Dr. Round' as a typical Elizabethan gentleman, and in a careful analysis which Dr. Round has made of his part in the compilation of the Book of Howth, attention is specially drawn to the pride which he took in his family. It is manifested in the Book of Howth by reference to a conversation with gentlemen in Sir Henry Sidney's train, who excelled in heraldry, about noble Englishmen in Ireland ;' and it is further proved by his erection of the mansion, and by his placing near it the tablets with his own and the Plunkett arms. In addition, he appears to have built a house at Raheny as a dower house, and placed on it a tablet, which has been lately brought from Raheny to Howth Castle, and which bears, like the tablets already mentioned, the St. Lawrence and Plunkett arms impaled, with the initials C. and E., and the date, 1572. In addition to the blind lord's pride in his family, Dr. Round draws attention to his avidity in gathering information, which was- combined with a remarkable want of historical perspective and extraordinary credulity, and to his resentment of insinuations of disloyalty in the case of the Anglo-Irish.
His will is prefaced by a more than formal acknowledgment- of his un worthiness : " First I bequeath my soul to Almighty God, my maker and my redeemer, whom I, most cruel and wicked sinner, have diversely offended and transgressed His law and commandments, for which I, with all humility and penitence
1 <' The Antiquary," vii, 19S.
2 " Book of Howth," p. 21. No doubt the bliud lord's informant was chiefly the Rev. Robert le Conimaundre, rector of Tarporley in Cheshire, who came in Sir Henry Sidney's train, and is known as the author of a valuable manusci'ipt entitled the ' ' Book of Heraldry and Other Things." See C. Litton Falkiner's " Essays relating to Ireland," p. 208.
78 HOWTH AXD ITS OWNEKS.
therefor, most willingly crave mercy and pardon, and beseech Him to be merciful unto me, and forgive me my sins and wicked- ness." But at the same time his life would appear to have been one of much public usefulness, and until the year of his death his name was included in all the commissions for taking the muster and keeping the peace in his county. The charges against him of cruelty can hardly have been baseless, but his misconduct was probably a temporary ebullition of passion. His early life with Elizabeth Plunkett seems to have been happy. As has been seen, he was careful that she should be commemorated as well as himself in all his undertakings, and the blessing of a quiver over- flowinrf with children was not wanting. It is also certain that on her death, the date of which is unknown, another lady, Cecily, daughter of Henry Cusack, an alderman of Dublin, was found willing to take her place.^ Writing in the lifetime of the blind lord, Stanihurst says^ that the " Baron of Howth, signifying the disposition of his mind, speaketh in this wise :
" Si redamas, redaino, si spernis, sperno. Quid eigo? " Non licet absque tuis vivere posse bonis r "
The blind lord had no less than fourteen children, but of these only four sons, Nicholas, Thomas, Leonard, and Kichard, and one daughter, Margaret, are known to have survived him. Thomas appears to have been killed on October 2, 1600, in an engagement between the forces of the Crown and those of O'Neill at the Moyrie Pass.' Leonard, who in a funeral entry is mentioned as the blind lord's third son, died on November 7, 1608, having made a will on the preceding day,* in which he refers to his wife, Ann Eustace, and his daughter Elizabeth, and shows his devotion to
1 She married secondly John Barnewall of Monkton in co. Meath and thirdly John Fiiiglas of Wt'stpalstown in co. Dublin. To her will, which is dated August 1, 1635, she appended on August 12, 1636, a codicil which she desired should have " the same force, vigour, and virtue in law.'' In it she directed that her executrix should keep her month's mind and year's mind according to the usual custom of the country, and should bestow some alms "at those terms " upon the poor, and expressed her M-ish that her will should not be perused by many but by "such as it doth concern, and that after her burial." Cf. Chancery Decree, Eliz., no. G85 ; Jac. I, no. 110.
* Ilolinshed's " Chronicles," vi, 65.
3 Cal. S. P., Carew, 1601-03, p. 496.
■* It is preserved in the Dublin Collection.
UNDER ELIZABETH. 79
agricultural life by mention of his " choice cow " and of his sheep, as well as of his ploughman, to whom he leaves " a couple of corn." Richard is referred to in 1575 in connexion with a deposition made by him against the Earl of Kildare,' and was one of the beneficiaries under his brother Leonard's will; and Margaret is also named in her brother Leonard's will as the recipient of his *' stone jug double gilt." In 1583 she was residing at Derindell, and was apparently then unmarried, but she was married twice, first to "William Fitzwilliam of Donamore, and secondly to Michael Berford of Kilrow, who died before 1603. She died February 16, 1620.-
Nicholas Lord Howth, who succeeded the blind lord as his eldest son, had been knighted a year before his father's death, in May, 1588,^ and was at that time a man well advanced in years, with many children. He had been twice married, first, as has been already mentioned, to Margaret, daughter of Sir Christopher Barnewall, of Turvey, and, secondly, to Mary, daughter of Sir Nicholas White, of St. Catherine's, His second wife had been previously married to Christopher Darcy of Flatten, and before his succession to the title Nicholas had for a time resided at the latter place. In 1583 and 1584, when he was appointed a commissioner for the muster in the county of Meath, he is described as of Flatten, and subsequently, in 1587, as of Osbertstown.*
Like his father, Nicholas was devoted to the interests of the Fale, and did not always find it easy to reconcile that tie with the requirements of the Government — a difficulty which was accentuated in his case by his more or less open profession of the Roman Catholic religion. A few months after his father's death he was appointed a guardian of the Pale during the temporary absence of the Lord Deputy, Sir William Fitzwilliam, in the west of Ireland f but he was soon afterwards alienated from the Government by joining in charges made against the Chief Justice of the Common Fleas, Sir Robert Dillon. The originators of these
1 Cal. S. P., Iiel., 1574-88, p. 72.
- Cf. Funeral Entry and Chancery Decrees, Eliz. no. 331, 753,
3 Shaw's " Knights of England," ii, 86.
* Fiants, Eliz., 4149, 4461, 5019, 5084. = Fiant, Eliz., 5387.
80 HOVV^TH AND ITS OWNERS.
charges were members of the Nugent family, to whom Nicholas was distantly related,' but he was probably induced to take the part he did by his father-in-law, Sir Nicholas White, who com- plained that the malice of Sir Robert Dillon against him knew no end.' Nicholas is first mentioned in connexion with the charges against Sir Eobert Dillon in the year 1591,' and for the next two years was constantly in the company of Lord Delvin, the head of the Nugent family. They appear signing letters together at Lord Delvin's seat in Westmeath,^ attending together before the council,* and collecting evidence together at Howth.* Lord Delvin speaks in one of his letters of injuries done to Nicholas by Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam,^ but Nicholas does not seem to have harboured any feeling of resentment, and is recorded to have exclaimed on an offer from the Lord Deputy to leave them alone with the council : "No, God forbid, my Lord, that we should mistrust your Lordship in any matter that concerns the Queen."*
Under the next Lord Deputy, Sir William Russell, Nicholas re-established himself in the good opinion of the Government, and gave proof of his loyalty to the Crown. He had the good fortune to be the first to greet Sir William Russell, as Sir William landed at Howth, and also passed the night of his arrival, July 31, 1594, in the Castle ;' and in the following February, on Sir William Russell's return from an expedition against the O'Byrnes, Nicholas was foremost in offering congratulations and assistance.^" His assistance was accepted, and two months later he accompanied Sir William Russell on a further expedition against the O'Byrnes," and rendered such service as entitled him to the thanks of the Queen. '-
• By the marriage of Marian, daughter of Niehohis l.ord Howth, (d. 1526), to Sir Christojilier Nugent. There is a curious genealogical tree made by Lord Burghley showing the descent from that marriage. See Cal. S. P., Irel., 1601-03, et Add. p. 650.
' Cal. S. P., Irel., 1588-92, pp. 256, 276. 3 j^i^,^ p. 412.
* Ibid., pp. 419, 445; 1592-96, p. 102.
5 Cal. S. P., Carew, 1589-1600, p. 02 ; S. P., Irel., 1592-96, passim.
« Cal. S. P., Carew, 1589-1600, p. 79.
' Cal. S. P., Irel., 1588-92, p. 576. « Ibid., 1592-96, p. 23.
9 Cal. S. P., Carew, 1589-1600, p. 221. i« Ibid., p. 227.
11 Ibid., p. 228. 12 Cal. S. P., Irel., 1592-96, p. 317.
UNDER ELIZABETH. 81
During the rising under Tyrone the Government received from him great support. In the autumn of 1598 he was one of the few men of the Pale who came to their aid,^ and he was given then a commission with the Sheriff to execute martial law in his county.^ A year later he was the only one to respond to a call upon the militia, and brought to the assistance of the army two hundred foot and horse that he had raised. These troops were so deficient in equipment as to be useless, but in a parley that ensued with Tyrone his advice proved of value, and contributed to securing a truce. Of all the men of the Pale, the Lords Justices said, he was the only one deserving of notice, and a letter of thanks to him in the Queen's name was suggested as " a comfort and an encouragement."'
At the same time his eldest son, Christopher, who succeeded him, was making a name for himself and bringing additional distinction to the house of Howth. He is first mentioned as serving in the spring of 1595 with his father against the O'Byrnes, of whom he effected a notable capture.* The greater portion of the next year he spent in England at the Queen's court, and during that time he appears to have been knighted.* He returned to Ireland, where he landed in January, 1597, with a commission in the regular army, and was subsequently appointed commander of the garrison at Cavan, with a fee of ten shillings per day.® Power to execute martial law was entrusted to him, and in a letter from Lord Dunsany, who married a sister of his mother, there is reference to the good services rendered by him on the border of Cavan.' During the spring of 1598 he was engaged against Tyrone's confederates in Leinster, and acquitted himself so well that his valour was brought under the notice of the privy council in England, with a suggestion that an assurance of their " thankful acceptance of his service " might be sent to him.* He
1 Cal. S. P., Irel., 1598-99, p. 342. - Fiant, Elizabeth, no. 6260.
3 Cal. S. P., Iiel., 1599-1600, pp. 284, 292, 298.
* Cal. S. P., Carew, 1589-1600, pp. 229, 230.
* Marquis of Salisbury's Manuscripts, vi, 214, 558.
6 Cal. S. P., Carew, 1589-1600, p. 254 ; Irel., 1598-99, p. 5.
7 Fiant, Elizabeth, no. 6164 ; Marquis of Salisbury's Manuscripts, vii, 475.
8 Cal. S. P., Irel., 1598-99, p. 121.
G
82 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
continued throughout that year to assist in the operations against Tyrone's confederates, and in the winter was sent to the relief of Maryborough, and subsequently was stationed at Kells.'
When the Earl of Essex landed in Ireland in April, 1599, Sir Christopher St. Lawrence was in command of the garrison at Naas, with authority to execute martial law over a large extent of country,' and thence accompanied Essex in May on his expedition to suppress the rebellion in southern Ireland. During that expedition he performed two gallant exploits. The first was near Athy, where he swam across the river Barrow to rescue horses that had been carried off from the army, and returned in triumph with the horses and the head of one of the marauders, and the second was at Cahir, where he was instrumental in preventing the escape of the garrison. lie accompanied Essex also in August on his ill-starred expedition to Ulster, and is mentioned while at Niselerathy, near Louth, as being in command of five hundred horse and fifty foot.^ At that time, in commending a suit which Sir Christoplier made to the Queen and her privy council, Essex, who had possibly made his acquaintance in England, speaks of him as " a very gallant, able servant to her Majesty, and his own dear and worthy friend 'V and in the following September he communicated to him his secret departure from Ireland, and gave him a place amongst the few who attended him to Elizabeth's court.
Sir Christopher St. Lawrence possessed a typical Irish char- acter, and was no less impulsive than brave. In the autumn of 1598 " it was current both in court and country above ten days together" that he had slain Sir Samuel Bagenal about "the lie or such like brabble " ;* and while on the way with Essex to the Palace of Nonsuch, he is said to have proposed to engage in single combat Lord Grey de Wilton and Sir Eobert Cecil, whom
» Cal. S. v., Irel., 15!)8-99, pp. 411, 457. ^ Fiants Eliziibelh, nos. 6281, 6282.
3 Cal. S. r., Irel., 1599-lGOO, pp. 57, 58, 14G; Carew, 1589-1600, pp. 304 323; Ilanington's " Nugae Amiquae," ed. T. Park, pp. 270, 277, 298 ; Marquis of Salisbury's Manuscripts, ix, 145, 147, 148.
* Marquis of Salisbury's Manuscripts, ix, 287.
^ Jobn Chamberlain's Letters, ed. Sarah Williams, p. 23 ; Cal. S. P., Doni., 1598-1601, p. 110.
r.
X H
UNDER ELIZABETH. 83
Essex had reason to believe were hostile to him, the former on the road and the latter in the sacred precincts of the Court.' A few weeks after Essex had been committed to the care of the Lord Keeper, Sir Christopher pledged publicly Essex's health and his enemies' confusion, and on being called to account, not only stood to his words, but also said that he would fulfil his promise if anyone attempted to disparage Essex's character. According to rumour at the time, " Lord Treasurer did school him, but nothing else was done to him," and a courtier, who took him to task while he was in bed, discreetly retired on being informed by Sir Christopher that what he had said " he would maintain with his sword in his shirt against any man." "^
Meantime Sir Christopher and the other Irishmen who had accompanied Essex were received by the Queen, and, although told that they had made " a scornful journey," were accorded a gracious reception, calculated to ensure their loyalty in the future. A few days later Sir Christopher was brought before the privy council and accused of having uttered threats apparently against Sir Robert Cecil, which he denied " with great reverence to the place, but passionate as a soldier." He was taunted with being an Irishman, and with great dignity made the following reply, which many have since echoed : " I am sorry that when I am in England I should be esteemed an Irishman, and in Ireland an Englishman. 1 have spent my blood, engaged and endangered my life often to do her Majesty service, and do beseech to have it so regarded." On being told finally to return to his command in Ireland, he begged leave to continue for a time in England, where he had private business of much moment, and represented the smallness of his charge in Ireland.^ His conduct and repre- sentations appear to have made a most favourable impression, and he was permitted to postpone his return to Ireland for two months, and granted by the Queen, in consideration of the good report which had been made to her of him, arrears of pay long due. When leaving London he was commended by the Queen to
1 Camden's " Anuals," iii, 795.
■^ Collins's " Letters and Memorials of State," ii, 133, 136.
'^ Ibid., pp. 134, 137.
G 2
84 HOAVTH AND ITS OWXEIIS.
the Lords Justices of Ireland as one who had " well deserved in her service," and for whom she desired " good grace and counten- ance "; and he was so much in favour with Sir Robert Cecil that, five days after his return to Dublin, in January, 1600, he was able to appeal confidentially to him for help in regard to his arrears, payment of which was refused to him, notwithstanding the Queen's letter.'
A month later, on February 26, 1600, Lord Mountjoy arrived in Ireland, as Essex's successor. As he landed at Howth it fell to the lot of Nicholas to be the first to receive him, and as in the case of Sir William Eussell, to entertain him that night in the Castle. With such confidence did he inspire Mountjoy that in the following May he was appointed to govern his county during Mountjoy's absence in the North, and was said by him to be " one of the best of the nobility."- His reputation was further enhanced by the singular discretion and ability which he dis- played that summer on a mission to the Queen's court on behalf of the inhabitants of the Pale, who were at that time groaning under the maintenance of the army, and found that " if there were no rebel to spoil them, the army would consume them."^ He made, like his son, a favourable impression on the Queen, and on his return to Ireland was vindicated by the issue of proclama- tions covering the grounds of his complaints. From a letter which he wrote to Sir Eobert Cecil, it appears that such practices as littering horses with corn, extorting money and drink, and abusing and beating the people, were proved against the soldiers, and, no doubt, the inhabitants of the Pale blessed Lord Howth for his interference, although some of the officers, who said that their horses were starved under the new regulations, asserted that the contrary was the case.*
Although the Irish officials had not been too well pleased at the idea of the mission, the Queen's reception of Nicholas caused it to be regarded in a very different light. On his return to
' Cal. S. P., Irel, 1599-1600, pp. 227, 321, 344, 413, 424. ' Cal. S. P., Irel., 1599-1600, p. 499 ; IfiOO, pp. 204, 301. 3 Acts of Privy Council, 1599-1600, p. 507. ^ Ciil. S. P., Irel., IGOO, pp. 326, 428 ; lGOO-01, p. 170.
UNDER ELIZABETH. 85
Ireland they found that only for his efforts in moderating " the wilfulness of the Pale," the most serious results would have followed, and were loud in praise of his great worth, as well in private life as in the many employments, "martial and civil," which he had held under the Crown.^ His inclusion on the council board was recommended by Mountjoy, and Dublin county and its marches were placed in his sole charge. In discharging that trust he is said to have been active in putting the county in arms, and " in his own person very stirring to go from place to place to see the straits and passages manned, using all diligence he could to defend the country according to the trust reposed in him."-^
His son, Sir Christopher St. Lawrence, was constantly em- ployed during Mountjoy's government as a colonel, and greatly increased his reputation as a soldier, although still bearing the character of a wild Irishman. Before Mountjoy arrived it was reported that " the Lords of Ormond and Thomond and Sir Christopher St. Lawrence were dangerously hurt in a brawl .amongst themselves"; and in April following, when the Earl of Ormond was taken prisoner by the O'Mores, and Sir Christopher was sent with reinforcements to Kilkenny, it was expressly provided that his part was to lead the troops, and not to take oharge of Ormond's " sorrowful lady."^ During that summer, while fighting against the O'Mores with Mountjoy, Sir Christopher captured an immense number of cattle, sheep, and goats ; and in the following October, while fighting against Tyrone, he was wounded at the Moyrie Pass, where his uncle Thomas had been killed.'' In the early months of 1601 he was at Mountjoy's right hand in military operations in the central districts of Ireland, and had " a very hot skirmish " with Captain Tyrell, one of Tyrone's partisans, at the pass which bears Tyrell's name in the county of
1 Ciil. S. P., Irel., 1600, pp. 303, 431.
2 Ibid., 1600-01, pp. 15, 58.
3 Cal. S. P., Dom., 1598-1601, p. 392 ; Irel., 1600, pp. 88, 97 ; Carew, 1599-1600, p. 378.
* Cal. S. P., Irel., 1600, pp. 396, 460 ; Carew, 1589-1600, p. 465.
86 HOWTH AXD ITS OWNEES.
Westmeath. Althuugli .smarting under neglect in regard to promotion, he was said l>y ]Mountjoy to have acted " the part of an lionest man," and he was promised by ^Mountjoy a certificate of his good service to the Queen.^ In writing to one of the Irish officials Sir Christopher says that he prays God Mountjoy will not forget his promise, for he has lost his blood often for the Queen, and thinks that she has never heard of it, but concludes his letter by wishing his friend good fortune, and himself and his comrades money and little rest, for he knows that as long as a soldier could go he should never stay still/ In August he was with ]Mountjoy in the North of Ireland, in command nominally of seven hundred and fifty men ; and in the autumn he was sent into Munster to oppose the Spaniards, and was present at the siege of Kinsale.^ During the early part of 1602 he appears to have been stationed in Dublin, but in July he was appointed Governor of Monaghan, and went there to take charge of the garrison.^ His rule was of short duration, for according to Fynes Moryson,^ Mountjoy found it necessary to recall him in October, in order to settle differences between him and his second in command. He had been there, however, long enough to gain the love of many of the inhabitants in Monaghan and the adjoining counties of Cavan and Fermanagh, and he was alleged to have tried to make the northern border of the Pale a dependency of his own.'' Some mysterious negotiations are said to have taken place at the same time between him and Tyrone, and accusations of disloyalty and tyrannical conduct to the later English settlers were afterwards made against him.' He con- sidered himself maligned, and on November 5 wrote to Cecil, begging leave to go to England " for the repairing of his reputa- tion," and saying that he would return next day if Cecil wished.
' Cal. S. r., Irel., 1600-01, pp. 227, 228.
2 Ibid., p. 203. ^ Ibid; 1601-03, pp. 13, 148, 165.
* Ibid., pp. 487, .520, 52:!. * " Itinerary," pt. ii, pp. 225, 245.
e Cal. S. 1'., Irel., 1606-08, pp. 94, 535.
' Mr. BagweU's " Ireland under the Tudors," iii, 433 ; Cal. S. P., Irel., 1606-08, 226 ; 1608-10, p. 190.
UNDER ELIZABETH.
87
as he had no suit to make, but only wanted " to speak with his Honour " ; and in the following January Mountjoy wrote to Cecil that Sir Christopher desired military employment in some other country, and recommended that he should be allowed to seek it, as many Irish swordsmen would be certain to follow him, and if as many as two thousand could be induced to do so, the estab- lishment would be saved a hundred thousand pounds.^
1 Cal. S. P., Irel., 1601-03, pp. 511, 554.
Arms on Tomb.
( 88 )
CHAPTER VI.
IN JACOBEAN TIMES.
The Jacobean age has left little mark on the county of Dublin, either in regard to its buildings or the history of its families, and in the case of Howth an exception to the rule is not found. There is not any trace of Jacobean work in the Castle, but it is probable that an alteration in the structure was made during the reign of Charles the First, as Swift alludes in one of his references to Traulus to the fact that Traulus's great-grandfather, the designer of the Earl of Strafford's mansion near ISTaas, left his name inscribed on one of the chimneys :
And at Howth to boast his fame, On a chimney cut his name.^
Of the other buildings on the peninsula in Jacobean times the only one mentioned, besides Corr Castle, which had been enlarged by an annex with a thatched roof, is a house on the lands of Sutton. It is described as " a good English-like stone house." It was roofed with slates ; and as it was rated as containing six chimneys, half the number in Howth Castle, it must have been of considerable size. Its out-otfices were roofed with tiles, and its courtyard, or bawn, was surrounded with a stone wall." As will be seen in the next chapter, the site of this house is now occupied by the modern Sutton House.
During the seventeenth century Howth was less used as a port, owing to ships being larger and facilities for embarkation and disembarkation being greater elsewhere ; but the fishery retained its importance, and the fishermen proved their skill and fearlessness in the conveyance to England of letters in open row- boats, when all other means of communication failed. It had been long recognized that, when the saving of time was of supreme
The Legion Club. - Civil Survey.
o
03
IN" JACOBEAN TIMES. 89
importance, Howth had the advantage over other ports, and in the reign of James the First one Captain Pepper was wont to resort there from Holyhead with a packet-boat, which passed to and fro, "like a light horseman, before all others," but which envious people said was only " a baggage-boat."' But sometimes the winds proved too contrary for ships like it, or other obstacles intervened, and then the Howth fishermen proved their worth. In the opening years of Charles the First's reign their bravery was ■severely put to the test, as pirates infested the Channel, and inflicted much loss and damage upon shipping. Writing in his diary on July 20, 1630, the Great Earl of Cork says- :—" White of Howth, being by me employed in his open boat from Howth to Holyhead to carry my letters to the Earl of Kildare and my son {expressing they should be very careful how they took their passage hither, for that the pirates were in the channel), delivered my letters there, brought me a certificate, and returned this day, to whom Henry Staines's man gave, by my order, 5^." Two years later, on July, 23, 1632, the Lords Justices wrote to England that •" the subjects " dared not venture to sea, and told how their very good lord, the Lord Baron of Howth, witnessed " from his island " one Nutt chasing two ships, and stopping them with his shot.^ In the next year the position had not improved, and a pirate took, in the bay of Dublin, a bark of Liverpool, in which there was " a trunk of damask, and other linen," belonging to the Earl of Strafford.* The pirates succumbed to the strong rule of that masterful viceroy, who stationed at Howth the " Ninth Whelp," -and armed her with four brass guns f but the winds were beyond his control, and still remained a difficulty. Writing in May, 1634, he tells one of his officials, who was coming from London, that he has sent a row-boat to await him at Holyhead, and that, if the winds do not permit the post-bark to put out, he is to ^entrust the letters which he has with him to the boatmen.' Ten
' Cal. S. P., Irel., 1606-08, p. 454.
^ " Lismore Papers," ser. i, vol. iii, p. 44.
3 Cal. S. P., Irel., 1625-32, p. 671.
* Earl of Cowper's Maiiiscripts, ii, 11.
5 Cal. S. P., Irel., 1633-47, pp. 20, 116.
^ Hist. MSS. Com. Eept. xi, App. pt. vii, p. 243.
90 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
years later, when the ships of the ParHament had established a blockade of Dublin, the Eoyalists found in the Howth fishermen gallant allies, and entrusted to them their despatches, which by no other means could reach their destination.^
In the owners of Howbh a gradual change from the old order to the new took place, and Anglo- Irish traits were superseded by those of the later Eno-lish settlers. This assimilation of character was due in a great degree to the frequent visits paid by them to the Entflish Court, as well during the reisrn of James the First as during the reign of Elizabeth, and to their alliances to ladies of English birth. Although they complained of want of means, a high standard of living was maintained in the Castle. Within its hospitable walls on more than one occasion the viceroy made a prolonged stay, and, from a chance reference in the records of the Guild of Tailors in Dublin,^ it appears that Lord Howth's entourage included a band of musicians, whose assistance was sought at civic entertainments. The reference in the reign of Henry the Eighth to hawks being bred at Howth shows that the owners began early to evince an interest in sport, which has brought to their later generations wide fame and popularity. Before the seventeenth century liad long opened there is evidence that the peninsula had become a noted centre for fox-hunting, and the mention of a greyhound shows that hares also afforded sport.?
For other residents in Howth one turns naturally first to the records of the churches ; but these are meagre, and give little help. To what extent the prebendaries resided on the peninsula there can be no certainty. In the year 1630 the prebendary seems to have been in sole charge of the cure, but at other times a curate is mentioned — in 1615, Martin Cod ; in 1639 Eusebius Roberts ;. in 1644, Humphrey Vaughan ; and in 1645, John Butler.^ A reference to the parish priest of Howth in the reign of Elizabeth shows that even then the Roman Catholic residents were not without spiritual consolation.' But, as the Bishop of Canea states in his " Histories of Dublin Parishes,"* it was not until the
' See infra. - Informiition kindly supplied by Dr. Beriy.
* See infra. ^ See Appendix G.
* Mr. Bagwell's " Ireland under the Tudors," ii, 15. * Part xv, p. 54.
IN JACOBEAN TIMES. 91
reign of James the First that his charge was defined. The parish priest was then a notable man, the Rev. William ShergoU, who, in 1631, was advanced to " the Prebend of Howth, in St. Patrick's Chapter," and who was during the Confederation a consulting divine. He signed himself " Professor of Divinity, Prebendary of Howth, and Vicar-Forane of Fingal," and to the high place which he occupied in the affections of the people of that district many wills of that period bear witness. Before the reign of James the First, Corr Castle had passed from the Whites to Lord Howth,' and was occupied by the blind lord's son, Eichard,- who had married one of the Cosby s of Abbey leix. The bearer of the Earl of Cork's letter, Michael White by name, was probably a cadet of the family that owned Corr Castle. His will, and that of his father, are on record, and show that " a great fishing boat, with all things thereunto belonging," was their chief possession.^
When James the First ascended the throne, Nicholas, the son of the blind lord, was still in possession of the Howth title and estate, and able to take an active part in the movement that began then for a toleration of the Roman Catholic religion. The chief promoter of that movement was Nicholas's brother-in-law. Sir Patrick Barnewall. At the time he succeeded to the title Nicholas had not been on good terms with Sir Patrick, and in consequence of the non-fulfilment of the agreement that Sir Patrick should marry his sister, he instituted a suit for the recovery of half the amount for which his father-in-law had bound himself. A decree was in 1595 given by Archbishop Loftus as Chancellor of Ireland in favour of Nicholas, and although Sir Patrick sought to upset it by subterraneous methods, it was upheld by the privy council of England.^ During the next few years Nicholas and Sir Patrick seem to have made up their differences : in 1600 Sir Patrick accompanied Nicholas to England in his mission on behalf of the Pale, and from that time they appear to have been close friends.
^ Ulster's Visitation in 1607. ^ See infra.
3 The wills of Thomas and Matthew White, dated 1629 and 1633 respectively, are in the Dublin Collection.
■* Chancery Decree, Eliz., no. 663 ; Acts of the Privy Council, 1595-96, p. 117;. 1596-97, pp. 7, 28.
•92 HOWTH AND ITS OWNERS.
"When the movement for toleration had attained its height in the autumn of 1605, Nicholas was entertaining the Lord Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, at Howth, whither Chichester had been driven by the plague which was then raging in Dulilin.' During the six weeks that Chichester was his guest, Nicholas used to accompany him to the door of the church on Sundays, but would not attend worship,- and approved of the petition which was presented to Chichester in November, protesting against inter- ference with the exercise of the Roman Catholic religion. On the arrest of Sir Patrick Barnewall and others for the promotion of the petition, Nicholas boldly asserted still further his devotion to the Roman Catholic religion by joining in a letter to the Earl •of Salisbury, as Sir Robert Cecil had tlien liecome, complaining of their imprisonment.'
As long as the plague was virulent the government of the •country was conducted from Howth. There Chichester issued his warrants, and there, as he tells