Catalogue description BERNARD O'CHONOUR.

This record is held by Lambeth Palace Library

Details of
Title: BERNARD O'CHONOUR.
Description:

Arbitrament and concord between Lord Leonard Grey, Viscount of Grayne, Justiciary, and the Council of Ireland, of the one part, and Bernard Occhonour, chief of his nation, of the other part, promulgated at Dublin, 20th January 1535, 27 Henry VIII., by the undersigned arbitrators, and (in those things wherein they disagreed) by the said Lord Justiciary and the Earl of Ossory, the superior and final definers of this arbitrament, nominated, elected, and deputed with the assent of the said O'Chonour.

 

(1.) O'Chonour shall be quit and exonerated from making any amends for the damages which he committed in the retinue of Thomas FitzGerald, son of Gerald late Earl of Kildare, from the 1st August next before the arrival of Sir William Skeffington, late Lord Deputy, and his army in Ireland, till the day of his arrival; with these exceptions: that he shall restore all Englishmen whom he detains as prisoners, receiving five marks for each of them, as compensation for his expenses; that he shall dismiss the son of Francis Harbart, on sight of the King's letters to his Council; and that he restore all animals of the English which can be found within his dominions, and permit any Englishmen to enter into his country to seek their animals; and if they should be compelled to give "fastnes" in order to prove where their animals are, he shall restore it.

 

(2.) After the arrival of the Deputy and the army, O'Chonour adhered to Thomas FitzGerald against the King, and received him and his goods into his subterfuge, by occasion whereof the King was put to great expenses, and the said Thomas committed many damages upon the King's subjects, and assisted to destroy castles and other buildings within the King's dominions. We estimate the whole damages at 5,000 marks, but we know that the said Bernard and all under his dominion are unable to make entire restitution, and therefore we reduce the amends to 800 cows or martes of three years of age, good and fat, or, instead of each cow or marte, 6s. 8d., half of which payment shall be made at the feast of St. Philip and St. James, and the other moiety at the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula next.

 

(3.) He shall also restore the goods of David Sutton, which have been carried away since the peace which the Earl of Ossory made with him near Rathangan after Easter last.

 

(4.) Also he shall restore the coach, coach horses, and goods of the Lord Justiciary, carried away since the peace concluded at Castle Jordane.

 

(5.) As to the demands which the Bishop of Meath has against him, he shall stand to the arbitration of the Abbot of Trym, Gerald McGeralde, and another of his own people. If the three should disagree, he will stand to the final judgment of the Lord Justiciary.

 

(6.) He shall make oath on the Eucharist and that venerable relic called the staff (bacculo) of Jesus, faithfully to express all the silver vessels, jewels, arms, horses and mares, writings, and other goods, bombards and other warlike instruments, which he has of the goods of Gerald, late Earl of Kildare, and those which he received from the said Thomas or his sisters or any other person, or which were carried in any other manner into his dominion or elsewhere, and when requested he will permit and compel all under his dominion to take a similar oath. Whatever should be confessed by such oath, or otherwise proved, he will restore without any delay to the assigns of the King.

 

(7.) Whereas he and his predecessors in times past, for the defence of the English near them, and particularly for their subsidy, aid, and service to the King and his Deputies, were accustomed to receive from the King and his Deputy every year, a fee, gift, or reward of sixty marks; nevertheless he and his predecessors and their kinsmen so oppressed and invaded the King's subjects as often as they obtained power to do so, that at length they subjected their goods and lands to tribute. It is arbitrated that henceforth all tributes and rents called black rents, which have not been continually paid to the same Bernard and his predecessors for forty years past, shall cease. With regard to those tributes or black rents which before [the said] 40 years were paid by the King's subjects to the predecessors of the said Bernard and to him; as the King, (having been lately provoked against him because, after all the Irish had refused to support the said Thomas, he at last received and assisted him,) by his letters directed to the Deputy and Council, expressly commanded them not to permit the said fee of sixty marks or any tributes or rents to be paid to the said Bernard, under pain of forfeiture of life, lands, and goods to the party contravening:--we will that such tributes and rents as were paid 40 years ago shall remain unpaid until he obtain the King's permission to receive them. Also, notwithstanding the said mandate of the King, hoping that the said Bernard will be faithful to the King, we arbitrate that he shall have his stipend from the day on which he delivered his hostages to the Deputy at Castle Jordane, and that it shall be received annually under these conditions.

 

The King's subjects, for the purpose of trading, or for their other necessary causes, shall be permitted quietly to pass through his dominion and there to remain. All persons coming from other parts to the King's Court, or to the Deputy or Council, or contrariwise from English parts to those parts, shall pass through his country without injury. Also, if the Deputy with his army or otherwise shall decree to pass through the dominion of O'Chonour to any other parts, he shall be allowed to do so without hindrance from Bernard or his kinsmen, and he shall there make proper roads for their passage, as was the custom there in the time of Gerald, late Earl of Kildare, and his father. He shall not permit any enemy of the King to come through his dominions to invade the subjects of the King, nor will be exact expenses or victuals, purchases (emptiones), or exactions from any of them. He shall not adhere to any Irishman or other enemy of the King. He will not receive into his country or subterfuge any of the King's subjects against the King or his officers, but permit them to be taken. As often as he shall be warned by the Lord Deputy, he will rise up at his own expense with a banner of horsemen and a banner of footmen well armed. All captains of the Irish on the confines of the said Bernard, who, at the time when the aforesaid Gerald, Earl of Kildare, or his father was Deputy, were under the peace of the King, shall remain under the same peace in future, without contradiction or impediment of Bernard or his successors. All lands adjacent to the manor of Rathangan shall remain to the King in as great liberty as Gerald, late Earl of Kildare, held them after the death of his father. The like arrangement shall be observed for the lands which the said Earl otherwise had in right of the castle and manor of Lye.

 

Contemp. copy.

Date: 20 Jan 1536
Held by: Lambeth Palace Library, not available at The National Archives
Former reference in its original department: MS 603, p. 115
Language: Latin
Physical description: 4 Pages.
Unpublished finding aids:

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 71.

Have you found an error with this catalogue description?

Help with your research