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

Archivium Hibernicum
Historians would be well served by greater recourse to this repository
of material. It is hoped that the documents reproduced here encourage a
more detailed survey and publication of Petworth material pertaining to
the Thomond estates. Examples for future work that could be commended
to the historian include a translation of the 1624 Latin inquisition post
mortem of Donough O’Brien, fourth earl of Thomond, and a transcription
of the 1619 inquisition into the earl’s lands. Publication of further documents
contained in the archive would be of great benefit, not least because
the historiography of Co. Clare would be much advanced by more frequent
reference to this extraordinary archive.
contrast to the will of Murrough O’Brien in 1551 which does not mention any individuals
from outside of Thomond. See Brian Ó Dálaigh, ‘From Gaelic Warlords to English Country
Gentlemen: The O’Briens of Thomond 1543–1741’ and Brian Ó Dálaigh, ‘A comparative study
of the wills of the first and fourth Earls of Thomond’ in North Munster Antiquarian Journal,
xxxiv (1992), pp 48–63. For articles that touch on the life and actions of Donough O’Brien,
fourth Earl of Thomond, see Andrew O’Regan, Thomond and the Tudor Crown: Enforced
Change in a Gaelic Lordship (Unpublished PhD thesis, UCD, 1987); and Brendan Kane,
The Politics and Culture of Honour in Britain and Ireland, 1541–1641, Cambridge University
Press (Cambridge, 2009) pp 158–180. The latter contains references to the earl’s interest in
asserting legitimacy through genealogies and divining points from antiquarian works in
advancing his political aspirations. Also note the evidence presented by the earl in 1601 as to
why Thomond should not be annexed to Connacht. Various points can be evinced, including
the similarity of Irish spoken in Thomond and Munster, and the etymological origin of the
place-name Thomond: ‘Twoghwene’ viz north Munster, purported, and so continued these
1,300 years’. One wonders whether the evidence submitted owes its precision to a member
of the Mac Bruaideadha family, possibly Tadhg mac Dáire Mac Bruaideadha, employed by
the earl. See J.S. Brewer & William Bullen Esq. (eds), Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts
Preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, 1601–1603, pp 171–176.
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