Documents from the Thomond Papers at Petworth House Archive1 ...

Documents from Thomond Papers, Petworth House Archive
Set against this context the 1638 petition by Daniel O Mulconnery
recounts the transfer of the Uí Mhaoilchonaire lands at Ardkyle to the
earl of Thomond in 1618, in exchange for poorer lands at Shandangan in
Kilmurry parish. Ironically this occurred two years after Muiris, father of
Daniel O Mulconnery, drew up an agreement that allowed the transfer
of Daniel Annierie Mc Nemarra’s land to the earl of Thomond for his
transgression of horse stealing, 82 and one year before Muiris witnessed
an agreement for the transfer of John O Muldowney’s (Seán Ó Maol
Dhomhnaigh) land at Ballyhybroacharan to the earl. 83 Muiris must have
undertaken this activity in his capacity as secretary to the earl, a point
noted in the answer to Daniel O Mulconnery’s petition which sets down
five reasons to disavowal the petition. 84
Daniel O Mulconnery’s petition notes that prior to the forced exchange of
lands by Donough O’Brien, fourth earl of Thomond in 1618, Daniel’s father
Muiris (ie. ‘Morish’) had conveyed the lands of Ardkyle, Carhowlegane
(Carrownalegaun) and Crevagh to non-kin in order to retain them for
usage and protect their title, possibly as a stratagem designed to evade
compulsory acquisition by the earl. In a telling remark the petition notes
that ‘Donat, late earl of Thomond, having a great desire to gain and acquire
the said lands …in regard that they lay convenient and near to his land of
his manor of Bunratty …in the year 1618 [Muiris] was forced to give possession
…to the said Donat.’ 85 Parallels can be drawn with the Uí Nialláin
family of Ballyallia, a learned medical kindred, and the Mac Fhlannchadha
brehon lineage of Killilagh parish in Corcomroe, both of whose leading
kinsmen were allied to Donough O’Brien and prospered through their
relationship with the earl: Dr James Neylan and Boetius Clancy benefited
from adapting to the introduction of English law in Co. Clare as Neylan
received lands from the dissolved Ennis Friary 86 and Clancy represented
‘A sixteenth century bardic poem composed for Seán Mac Conmara, Lord of West Clann
Chuiléin’ in Seanchas Ard Mhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, xxi
(2010), pp 33–56.
82 (PHA Ms C.13.36). See petition reproduced in the appendices of this paper.
83 James Hardiman (ed.), ‘Ancient Irish Deeds and Writings Chiefly relating to Landed Property
from the Twelfth to Seventeenth Century: With Translation, Notes and a Preliminary Essay’,
pp 94–95.
84 The chief points of disavowal relate to the legitimacy of the exchange and that it was
transacted by mutual consent. The answer refutes Daniel’s view that the lands at Shandangan
were ‘not worth above £60’. The answer also makes a curious reference to the 1624
inquisition post mortem of Donough O’Brien, fourth earl of Thomond, in that Muiris was
‘one of the jury who found the defendant seised’ of Ardkyle. We find ‘Mauris O Milcounry
de Shandangan’ a juror on the 1624 inquisition, as noted earlier in this article. See ‘The
humble petition of Daninel oge O Mulconnery’, [1638] (PHA Ms 540), in the appendices of
this article.
85 ‘The humble petition of Daninel oge O Mulconnery’,[1638] (PHA Ms 5402).
86 R.W. Twigge, ‘Edward White’s Description of Thomond in 1574’, p. 84. In the 1574 survey of
castles in Co. Clare it notes ‘Th[e] abbaye of Inish’ was held by ‘James Nellan’. James Nellan
was also credited with possessing Ballyally and Ballycarroll tower-houses. Ibid, p. 79.
21