Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History (11 page)

Catholic rent
. The payment of one penny per month by Catholics which broadened the membership of the
Catholic Association
. Initiated by Daniel O'Connell to finance the association's activities, it enabled ordinary Catholics to identify with and buy into the struggle for emancipation and to demonstrate the strength of their constituency. The Dublin administration recognised the dangers implicit in the success of the Catholic rent scheme. Writing in 1824, William Gregory, an under-secretary, feared it would open ‘a direct communication between the popish parliament (the Catholic Association) and the whole mass of the popish population'. (Bartlett,
The fall and rise
, pp. 329– 333.)

ceannuigheacht
. (Ir., literally, buying) Protection money paid to a Gaelic overlord to fend off cattle raids.

censer
. A thurible or container in which incense is burned.

census
. Decennial censuses were conducted in Ireland from 1821. A census conducted during 1813–15 by William Shaw Mason proved unsatisfactory because the administration was placed in the hands of county grand juries which did not have the competency nor the will for the task. Only ten counties submitted complete returns so that the accuracy of the final tally of 5,937,856 is questionable. Shaw Mason had greater success in 1821 when he employed tax collectors as enumerators but both his and George Hatchell's 1831 censuses remain suspect because the enumerators had no maps to guide them and some (remote) areas were not counted. Enumerators may also have over-counted in 1831 in the belief that they were to be paid in proportion to the numbers enumerated. From 1841 police constables were employed as enumerators and provided with the new ordnance survey maps on which administrative boundaries were defined. The census of 1841 differed radically, both in concept and structure, from earlier censuses. The 1841 commissioners believed that a census should serve the purpose of a social survey as well as fulfilling its traditional role as an enumerator of population. Accordingly, they sought data on such areas as housing, education, farmers' resources, emigration and the value of agricultural produce. It broke new ground by including a 74 page analysis of mortality by Sir William Wilde, complete with over 200 tables. The 1851 census was the most comprehensive census ever undertaken in the world to that date. It appeared in ten volumes: a single volume general report, a volume for each province, one each on agriculture, education and the national age profile and three volumes on disease and death. A valuable addition was the inclusion of data from the 1841 census to facilitate comparisons. With few exceptions, the census returns for 1821–1851 perished in the fire in the
Four Courts
in 1922 and later censuses were destroyed by government order. The printed statistical aggregates and reports, however, contain a vast range of localised data and constitute a key source for nineteenth-century local studies. The individual returns for the censuses of 1901 and 1911 remain intact and can be viewed at the National Archives.
See
pension
for extant 1841–51 census extracts produced after 1908 to validate pension claims. (Crawford,
Counting
.)

Census of Ireland circa 1659
. Edited by Seamus Pender and published by the
Irish Manuscripts Commission
, the
Census of Ireland circa 1659
is now accepted to be the
poll tax
parish aggregates for 1660. It records the name and rank of local ‘tituladoes' or gentry and the number of persons (English and Irish) above the age of 15 years in each parish. It also lists the principal Irish names and their number in each barony. L. M. Cullen has suggested the application of a multiplier of three to poll tax lists to generate a rough indication of parochial populations. Given the demographical uncertainties of seventeenth-century Ireland, however, computations based on this formula must be treated with caution. The poll tax records for the counties of Cavan, Galway, Mayo, Tyrone and Wicklow, together with all but three baronies of Meath are missing. (Pender,
A census
; Cullen, ‘Population'.)

certiorari
, writ of
. A writ issuing out of
king's bench
or
chancery
wherein the king desires to be certified of any record made by any court of record or by certain officials such as the
sheriff
or
coroner
.

cess
. A tax derived from the term ‘assess' which originally referred to a range of government impositions, notably
purveyance, cartage
and
six-day labour. Coyne and livery
(the quartering of troops on the inhabitants of an area) was also, strictly speaking, a cess and proved highly controversial within the Pale in the sixteenth century. Cesses such as purveyance (the governor's right to purvey supplies to maintain his household and retinue) only became objectionable when the king's price fell significantly below the market value of the goods being purveyed and when its incidence increased. Latterly cess was synonymous with tax or rates as in
parish
or
county cess
.

cessation
. In September 1643 a tactical cessation of hostilities was agreed between the marquis of Ormond, commander of royalist forces in Ireland, and the confederate Catholic rebels. The cessation enabled Ormond to transfer troops to the beleaguered Charles I in England and provided the confederates with an opportunity to regroup. Neither side benefited greatly from the ceasefire. In protest, royalist commanders such as Inchiquin and Coote defected to parliament and the confederates, by inadequately supporting Montrose (the Scottish royalist commander), failed to lure Monro's Scottish army out of Ulster and back to Scotland. The confederates also blundered in their choice of overall commander, opting for Castlehaven and overlooking the claims of their better generals. The cessations were renewed periodically but despite two attempts to negotiate a peace (the first in 1646 was frustrated by Rinuccini, the second in 1649 came too late in the day to withstand Cromwell) the confederates and the royalists failed to construct an effective military opposition to the parliamentary forces.
See
Catholic Confederacy

cestui que
trust
. A person who has the trust of an estate committed to him for the use (benefit) of another.

cestui que
use
. The beneficiary of a trust to
use
.

cestui que vie
. A person for whose life an estate is granted.

cf
. (L.,
confer
) A footnote convention inviting the reader to compare such-and-such a view with the one expressed in the text.

chaffe house
. A term used in the books of the
Civil Survey
(1654–56) to denote a cottage thatched with hay or straw.

chafing dish
. A vessel or saucepan used for heating food or water.

chain
. A measuring line used in land surveying. Originally chains of varying lengths were employed but Gunter's chain (1624) became the standard. It measures twenty-two yards or four poles (perches) and is divided into 100 links, each link of 7.92 inches. An area of ten chains long and one chain wide equals one statute acre.

chalybeate spring
. A spring containing iron.

chamberlain
. An official of the royal household who exercised control over admission to the royal chamber and therefore controlled access to the king's person. He also administered the household and supervised the king's private estates.

chamfered
. Carved or sculpted, specifically the creation of a diagonal surface by bevelling a square edge.

champion ground
. (Fr.,
champagne
, open field) 1: Countryside dominated by the openfield system of agriculture and nucleated settlements 2: Level, open country.

chancel
. The eastern part of a church which contained the high altar, also known as the choir. It was reserved for the clergy and choir. The tithe-owner, whether institutional, clerical or lay, was responsible for the maintenance of the chancel, the upkeep of the nave being the responsibility of the parishioners.

chancellor
. A member of a cathedral
chapter
, usually third in rank behind the
dean
and
precentor
, who acted as secretary. He served as the parish priest in the parish attached to his
dignity
or office, was responsible for the cathedral school and keeper of the cathedral records. In the ecclesiastical province of Tuam the chancellor was styled ‘provost'. In England the chancellor and vicar-general was usually the same person but in Ireland this was not so.

chancellor, lord
. Originally the monarch's notary or secretary, he was, after the
chief governor
, the senior official in the Irish administration. He was a member of the justiciar's (later the
privy
) council, custodian of the great
seal
and head of
chancery
, the secretariat from which all important documents, writs and grants were issued. He was also responsible for government records (a function later transferred to the deputy-chancellor or
master of the rolls
). By the sixteenth century chancery had developed an equity division to deal with disputes concerning land and debt for which the common law provided no remedy. Until 1801, when the master of the rolls was given judicial power, chancery cases were determined by the chancellor sitting without a jury. The process involved was lengthy, cumbersome and expensive. The plaintiff drew up a bill of complaint to which the defendant filed an answer. The plaintiff responded with a replication which was countered by a rejoinder. This correspondence was examined by the chancellor who could compel either party to produce relevant documents or respond to oral interrogation. His decision issued in the form of a decree. After 1801 the chancellor heard cases on appeal from the master of the rolls but from 1856 he was joined in his appellate jurisdiction by a lord justice of appeal in chancery and in 1867 a second judge or vice-chancellor was appointed to hear cases of
first instance
.

chancery, court of
. Chancery emerged in Ireland in the thirteenth century with the appointment of Ralph Neville, the English lord chancellor, to the Irish chancery in 1232. It functioned principally as the secretariat of the English administration, the department where important documents, writs and letters
patent
were prepared, sealed and enrolled but it also developed an equitable jurisdiction in disputes for which no remedy lay at common law. The twofold division of chancery as a court of equity and secretariat was completed by the sixteenth century. Chancery holds the distinction of being the only court for which original records survive, some bundles of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century pleadings and answers and books of recognisances having escaped the fire in the Public Record Office in 1922. These, together with nineteenth-century calendars of chancery bills and decrees, are held in the National Archives. Letters patent, the instrument by which the crown conferred grants of land, leases, privileges and office, were required to pass the great
seal
which was in the custody of the lord chancellor, the chief executive of chancery. While the England chancery maintained a sophisticated system of record-keeping with many sub-divisions, in Ireland there were but two: the patent and
close
rolls. Even that distinction rapidly fell into desuetude and all perished in 1922. However, calendars of the patent rolls prepared for the
Irish Record Commission
by James Morrin and John Erck have been printed. The National Archives also holds John Lodge's transcripts of the patent rolls which contain material not included in the calendars. (Connolly,
Medieval record sources
, pp. 14–18; Erck,
A repertory
; Morrin,
The patent rolls.
)

chanter
. A chorister, also known as precentor, the leading singer in a
chantry
and a member of the cathedral
chapter
.

chantry
. 1: An endowment for the chanting of masses usually for the soul of the founder of the endowment 2: A chapel with such an endowment.
See
guilds, religious.

chapel of ease
. A dependent chapel constructed to meet the needs of an expanding population or to cater for parishioners living some distance from the parish church.

chapelry
. The jurisdiction of a chapel.

chapman
. A pedlar, especially of chapbooks.

chapbook
. A popular and inexpensive book hawked by chapmen. Usually of about four pages and illustrated with woodcuts, chapbooks contained ballads, poems, folklore, nursery rhymes, accounts of criminal sensations, in fact anything that would satisfy the public need for light reading.

chapter
. The corporate body which managed the property and revenue of a
cathedral
. There is no evidence to suggest that cathedral chapters after the English model of four dignitaries existed in Ireland before the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169. It was only in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries that Norman and Irish bishops began to adopt the structure of English secular cathedrals. Chapters in the ecclesiastical provinces of Dublin and Cashel comprising a
dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, prebendaries
and
canons
were established by about 1225 and in every diocese in Ireland the
archdeacon
was a member. The dioceses of Meath and Connor remained without chapters throughout the medieval period, the functions of the chapter being exercised by the archdeacon and clergy. In the provinces of Tuam and Armagh the four dignitaries model was adopted but later simplified. In Tuam the typical chapter comprised a dean, provost (chancellor), archdeacon, treasurer (or sacrist) and at least six canons or prebendaries although in some dioceses the number of canons was indeterminate. An exception was Kilmacduagh which retained the English model and here, too, the chancellor was styled ‘provost'. An even simpler form existed in Armagh province where most chapters consisted of a dean, archdeacon and canons. Armagh also contained a number of chapters (Clogher, Derry and Raphoe) that were completely unendowed although there were sufficient benefices to support a chapter. Downpatrick was unique in possessing a Benedictine monastic chapter. Each cathedral had a parish or number of parishes attached to it, the revenue from which went to maintain the offices of the chapter. Some officials were required to act as parish priests in the parishes tied to their stalls/office but elsewhere the spiritual duties were performed by a vicar or curate. Cathedral duties such as keeping service were also required of some dignitaries. Chapter revenues accrued from the rents and renewal fines on leased cathedral lands and from the rectorial or great
tithe
of certain parishes. (Nicholls, ‘Medieval Irish', pp. 102–111; Hand, ‘Medieval cathedral', pp. 11–14.)