Catalogue description COUNTY of CARLOW.

Devices for the ordering of the Cavenaghes, the Byrnes, Tooles, and O Mayles for such lands as they shall have within the county of Carlow, and the marches of the same county, and also of the marches of the county of Dublin.

(1.) He that is now called McMorughe and every one of the gentlemen of the Cavanaghes have certain lands appointed to them and the heirs of their bodies, to hold of the King by knight service, some by a whole knight's fee, some by half a knight's fee, some by the fourth part, and some by the sixth part, after the rate of the land appointed to them.

(2.) It shall be lawful to each of them to make freeholders under them.

(3.) None of them to be "obeisant to any other of them," but to the King's Majesty only, or to such as shall have the rule there under his Highness.

(4.) Every gentleman's freeholder to be obedient to his Lord, unless he do not keep his duty of allegiance to the King.

(5.) Every gentleman to pay a small yearly rent "for a knowledge to his Majesty.

(6.) Considering "how miserably the gentlemen and men of war do handle the poor husbandmen with coyne and livery in those parts, and also forasmuch as the said gentlemen's countries are not marching upon any Irishmen, but that the counties of Dublin, Kildare, and Kilkenny do lie between them and the said Irishmen, it is thought they should no more need to charge the poor tenants with coyne and livery than the county of Dublin;" and therefore the King will not allow the said gentlemen to take coyne or livery of any of his tenants, or to keep or wage any galoghglas or kerne; and the countries shall be charged with such impositions only by the Deputy "in time of great need, and when he shall put the like upon the county of Dublin.

(7.) All the said gentlemen to answer the King's Lieutenant or Deputy in all times of war, as the gentlemen of the county of Dublin do.

(8.) As no part of the county of Carlow is above 45 or 46 miles distant from Dublin, where the King's courts are kept, it is thought convenient that his writs should run there, like as they do in cos. Dublin, Meath, Uryell, and Kildare.

(9.) All the King's holds and fortresses within the said countries, that is to say the castles of Carlagh, Leyghelyn, Duske-Abbaye, Balkynglas, Fernes, Tynterne, Arclowe, and Wyclowe, to be occupied and kept by such as his Highness or his Lieutenant and Council shall appoint; and no man of inheritance dwelling beyond the water of Barowe to keep or meddle with any of them.

(10.) "All the gentlemen and inhabitants of those countries do clearly relinquish and leave all their Irish apparel, save only their harness and habiliments of war in time of need, and go arrayed of such sort as those of the county of Dublin do.

(11.) "That all the Byrnes be ordered of like sort as the Cavenaghes, and that the Toles and O'Mayles be in like manner ordered.

(12.) As the county of Waterford has no Irishman dwelling within it, and is environed by the main sea, by "the river that cometh to the city of Rosse, which is not passable but only by boat," by the county of Kilkenny, which is wholly under the Earl of Ormond, and by the lordship of Dongarvan, which the said Earl now has of the King's gift, it is thought that all its inhabitants should not only answer the King's writs, but also wear English apparel, and that coyne and livery should not be levied upon the King's subjects without licence of the Deputy and Council.

(13.)"It is thought that the premises being well handled and finally brought to perfection, which never was so like to be done as now, as well for the good inclination it doth appear, by the Council's letters, the gentlemen of the Cavenaghes, Byrnes, and Toles be of, as also for the good strength the King's Highness hath now of mere Englishmen in those parts, much to his Majesty's costs and charges, ready to chastise offenders, that the rest of Englishmen of Munster, as the Earl of Desmond and his kinsmen, the White Knight, [John FitzGerald.] the Lord Barry, [John Viscount Barry.] the Lord Roche and such others as reckon themselves for Englishmen, would, for their own commodity and for their heirs after them, with good will follow the same, being assured that the King's Majesty's Deputy will at all times help with his Highness' power in that land to defend them for their duties to be done to his Majesty. Finally it is thought that, those parts being reduced to this good order, the rest of the Burkes will call themselves Englishmen, and the King's kinsmen will ensue the said order, and consequently the rest of all Irishmen of that land will follow the same for their own commodity; and nothing shall sooner bring them thereunto than the good handling of the said Cavenaghes, Byrnes, Toles, and O'Mayles.

Endorsed.

See "State Papers," II. 447.

Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, ed. J. S. Brewer & W. Bullen (6 vols., 1867-73), vol. I, document 113.