Catalogue description THE O'BIRNES.

Indenture made at Dublin, 4 July 34 Henry VIII.--Thady O'Birne, captain of his nation; Darius O'Birne; Thady Juvenis O'Birne; Dowlyn O'Birne; John, son of Remund O'Birne; Brian O'Birne; Terence O'Birne; Donogh McBraune O'Birne; Donogh O'Birne; Gerald O'Birne; Shane O'Birne; Morgho O'Birne; Calagh McEdmonde Togh O'Birne; Cahir McTeg O'Birne; Braune McMalaghlyn O'Birne, and other nobles of their nation, inhabiting a certain country between the Wynde Gates and the town of Arclowe in the county of Dublin, humbly submitted themselves to the King, his Deputy, and Council.

(1.) They have long followed the manners, usages, and habits of foresters and wild Irish, but now they renounce them all for ever, earnestly petitioning that by the King's letters patent they may be accepted and reputed as Englishmen and the King's lieges.

(2.) They petition the King to grant them by letters patent their lands and tenements, to be held by knight service.

(3.) That their country may be erected by authority of Parliament into a county, with the name of the county of Wicklow, so that the King may henceforth constitute a sheriff there, and other officers.

(4.) They grant to the King that their country shall be divided into eighty ploughlands, and that the King shall have every year 3s. 4d. for every carucate in the name of a subsidy; also that the King shall have the town and castle of Wicklowe free and totally exonerated from their impositions.

(5.) They surrender up to the King, his heirs and successors for ever, their manor and castle of Newcastle McKenygan, with the demesne lands of the same manor, the metes and bounds of which two persons on the part of the King and two on their part shall define.

(6.) The King and his farmers shall enjoy all lordships, manors, rectories, and other possessions in the said country lately appertaining to divers monasteries and now belonging to the King by authority of Parliament; and all beneficed persons shall have their benefices without molestation.

(7.) When it shall seem necessary to the Deputy and Council to take into pay armed footmen called galloglasses, then, as often as the counties of Kildare and Catherlagh shall be burthened with the support of Scots, the said country shall be bound to support 120 Scots with their servants for a quarter of a year; so that the said country in that year shall be exonerated from the aforesaid subsidy. In case they should violate the conditions contained in this submission it shall be lawful for the Lord Deputy to burthen the said country every year for a quarter of a year with the said 120 Scots.

(8.) Also they will send to the King and his Deputy in every hosting 12 horsemen and 24 footmen well armed and victualled, under the penalty of forfeiting for every horseman deficient 20s., and for every footman 6s. 8d.; and on every sudden occasion they will rise up with the Deputy for one, two, or three days and nights with the whole band of men of war of the said country.

(9.) Also, whereas there reside and are supported in the said country at the common expense twenty-four footmen with their accustomed servants, called "kerne tigh," who are wont to serve the captain of the country there, it is granted that Captain O'Birne now being, for one year after the date of these presents, shall have them as he before had them at the common expense of the country, provided that the said footmen shall be from time to time attendant on the sheriff, assisting him in making distraints and apprehending malefactors. On the lapse of the year, if Captain O'Birne or the said footmen have not well conducted themselves, then the Lord Deputy and Council in the next year shall appoint other footmen in their place at the common expense of the said country, and commit the government of them to whomsoever they please.

(10.) No gentleman of the said country shall have other (sic) footmen at the expenses of others, unless he retain them in his own house at his own expense; except the sheriff, who may have ten or twelve footmen at his own expense and that of his friends, for the execution of his office. After a general convocation of all the footmen of the said country, which shall take place as soon as possible, any footman who remains there idle without a lord or sufficient surety answerable for him, shall be apprehended and committed to prison.

(11.) Also they agree that if any of them contravene this submission, and especially if he return to the manner of the Irish, or conspire with the Irish and others to impede the reformation of the Irish, he and all favouring him shall forfeit their lives, lands, and goods.

This submission the Lord Deputy and Council have ratified, provided that the King should accept it within one year.

Contemp. copy.

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 170.