Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History (25 page)

franchises, riding the
. The act of traversing the boundaries of an area of jurisdiction at regular intervals to prevent the boundaries from being altered or forgotten. In the city of Dublin this was carried out triennially and included the delimitation of the maritime boundary by the casting of a spear as far as possible into the sea.

Franciscans (Friars Minor)
. Founded by St Francis c. 1207, the Franciscans first appeared in Ireland in Youghal and Cork c. 1224 and spread quickly throughout the country after Richard Ingleworth, head of the custody (province) of Cambridge arrived in 1231–2. In Ireland the order experienced the dissension that existed elsewhere in Europe between reforming observant Franciscans who sought a literal and austere interpretation of the simple rule of poverty of St Francis and conventuals who espoused a more liberal position. By 1538 the majority of friaries were observant. In the fourteenth century racial discord between Gaelic Irish and Anglo-Irish friars created tensions within the order which was governed by Anglo-Irish provincials until William O'Reilly emerged as provincial in 1461. After this Gaelic friars dominated and the Franciscans became powerful opponents of the Reformation and Tudor expansion. Although the order was suppressed and its friaries sequestered, the Franciscans continued to operate in the environs of their former houses. They opened continental seminaries at Louvain and Rome to train priests for service in Ireland.
See
conventualism. (Millett.)

Franciscan Third Order Regular
. The Third Order Regular developed from the Third Order Secular, societies of lay men and women who wished to live the Franciscan life but could not profess their vows in the First Order (the Friars Minor) or the Second Order (the nuns) on account of their married status. The rule of the Third Order Secular bound members to fasting and abstinence, prayer, confession and communion, works of charity, assembly for religious instruction and simplicity of dress. The Third Order Regular adopted this rule and added the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The first evidence of their presence in Ireland comes from an indult sent by Martin V in 1426 and by the fifteenth century there were over 40 houses. The order appears to have been principally engaged with pastoral work and in educating boys and was largely concentrated in Gaelic areas. It declined significantly after 1600 and was extinct by 1635.

frankalmoign
. Literally, free alms, frankalmoign was an ecclesiastical tenure in which no fealty was owed and the service to be rendered was the duty to pray for the lord's soul.

frankhouse
. A free hospital operated by the
knights hospitallers
.

Frankpledge, View of
. A medieval method of social control by which each member of a
tithing
was responsible in law for the good behaviour of the other members. Described by Holdsworth as ‘a system of compulsory collective bail fixed for individuals not after their arrest for crime but as a safeguard in anticipation of it' it is uncertain as to what extent it was actually realised on the ground in Ireland. (Holdsworth,
English law,
i, pp. 13–17).

frater, fratry
. A refectory.

Fratres Cruciferi, Crucigeri
, Canons OSA of the Holy Cross, Crutched Friars
. A congregation of
Augustinian
hospitallers which emerged in the twelfth century in Italy, the
Fratres Cruciferi
(the cross-bearing friars) founded at least 15 monastery-hospitals in Ireland in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries to serve the poor and infirm. The hospitals were maintained by endowments, bequests and indulgences. As well as the brethren, some of the houses had sisters who worked in the hospitals and appear to have had some involvement in the management of the institutions. They were not military hospitallers like the
Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem
or the
Knights Templars
. (Brook,
Register
.)

Frauds, Statue of
(1695). This statute (7 Will. III, c. 12) was enacted to prevent fraud in relation to trusts,
wills
and contracts for the sale of land by requiring written evidence of the devise. Henceforth all devises of land, including assignments, grants, trusts and wills must be in written form or risk being declared void.

freehold
. Tenure in
fee simple
. Freehold land was, and is, a parcel of land held for an indefinite time, as distinguished from a leasehold which is held for a specified period. It generally required the payment of a fixed sum, the
chief rent
or fee-farm rent, and attendance at the manor court. A
heriot
was payable on the death of a freeholder and the heir owed an
entry fine
to enter the land.

freeman
. In medieval times, a citizen possessing personal freedom unlike a serf or
betagh
. Freemen could take actions in the common law courts on their own behalf unlike the unfree who relied on their lord or the
custom of the manor
in the case of manorial courts.
See
advowry. Once admitted to the freedom of a corporate town and entered on the register of freemen, a man was permitted to practice his trade and vote in parliamentary elections. Freedom was attained through the completion of an apprenticeship, through descent from one's father, by marriage into the family of a freeman or by grace of the mayor and corporation. In Dublin freedom was obtained through the
guilds
. After the
Newtown Act
(1747) abolished the requirement that freemen must reside within the corporation boundary, the majority of freemen were absentees who appeared only at election time.

freemasonry
. Irish freemasonry originated in the 1720s with the founding of a grand lodge to oversee local lodges. In its early years the order was riven by tensions between Jacobite and Hanoverian masons and grand lodge authority was not fully accepted by local lodges for over a century. Masonic association with Enlightenment scepticism and rational inquiry encouraged its growth and, despite papal condemnation, Catholics comprised the majority of Irish freemasons in the late eighteenth century. Daniel O'Connell was initiated in 1799 but subsequently distanced himself from the order. Membership crossed class boundaries to include tradesmen, farmers as well as the gentry and nobility. Masonic groups like The Order of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of Ireland copied their structure from the craft guilds, the new freemason passing successively by initiation through the three craft degrees of entered apprentice, fellow craft and master mason. There were also many side and higher orders and degrees. The rituals of initiation and the form of meetings were complex and suffused with images drawn from the building trade. Masonic processions on the feast of St John the Baptist persisted into the early 1800s and were attended by displays of lodge regalia and flags. The use of secret rituals, passwords, signs and handshakes together with its exclusively Protestant composition in the nineteenth century encouraged lurid speculation about the true purpose of the order but such practices and symbolism were copied by many other brotherhoods including the Orange Order and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Like Orangeism and Hibernianism, freemasonry provided a social and mutual aid network to members. (Buckley and Anderson,
Brotherhoods
; Crossle,
Irish masonic records
; de Vere White, ‘The Freemasons', pp. 46–57.)

friendly society
. With their guild-like structure and, in some instances, quasi-masonic rituals and regalia, friendly societies emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as mutual-aid associations to protect members against expenses incurred through sickness and death. Many employed doctors to provide free medical attention to members and their families, covered funeral expenses and paid death benefit to the bereaved. Members contributed their dues at weekly meetings which were also important social occasions. In 1831 there were over 280 registered friendly societies in Ireland, 119 of which were located in Dublin. The popularity of the friendly society was boosted by the introduction of the National Insurance Act (1911) which legislated for sick benefit and old age pensions for workers who paid an insurance stamp. The act permitted registered friendly societies to collect national insurance payments and to use them to enhance society benefits. After the First World War the increasing involvement of the state in welfare issues and the growth of insurance companies reduced the importance of friendly societies but the support they provided to members continues to be offered by trade and credit unions and in-house company medical aid schemes. (Buckley and Anderson,
Brotherhoods
.)

frist
. To grant a delay or respite to a debtor in order that he might pay off what he owes.

fuidhir
. (Ir.) In Gaelic society, a ‘stranger-tenant', often an outlaw or ‘broken man' who came from another tribe and sought the protection of the chief. Although he might be granted cattle and land, his was a tenancy-at-will and could be dispensed with summarily. Within Gaelic society he occupied the lowest strata and was despised by other tribesmen.

fulacht fia
. (Ir., roasted deer) Recognisable by mounds of burnt stones in marshy locations,
fulachtaí fia
are ancient cooking spots at the sites where summer hunting parties bivouacked. They usually contain dug-out trunks or plank-lined pits where water was heated by hot stones.

full
. To cleanse, thicken and soften woollen cloth by washing, shrinking and beating it with wooden mallets or hazel rods, working with the hands or trampling to leave a short pile across the surface.

fuller's earth
. A hydrous silicate of alumina employed in the cleansing of cloth.

fulling mill
. A riverine mill where cloth was thickened and cleansed, examples of which are recorded in Ireland as early as the thirteenth century.

funeral entries
. The records of funerals of deceased members of families who were entitled to bear heraldic arms. They form part of the heraldic archives of the
Ulster King of Arms
(since 1943 the Genealogical Office) and contain a record of the name and issue of deceased persons, illustrations of their arms and details of the order of funeral processions for the period 1588 to 1691. The genealogical material contained in the funeral entries was important for arms were hereditary and such records were invaluable in cases of dispute. The funeral entries are held by the Genealogical Office and are available on microfilm in the National Library.
See
herald.

furlong
. (Literally, furrow long) Originally the length of a commonfield furrow which varied regionally according to the area of the acre in use. The usual length of a furrow is 40 perches which is equivalent to 220 yards, imperial measure. It probably derived from the distance a plough team could plough before resting.

furze
. Furze was cultivated for cattle fodder and for firewood in locations where fuel was scarce. (Lucas,
Furze
.)

fustians
. Blankets or clothes which went under and over the bedsheets.

gabbard
. A barge.

Gaelic League
.
See Conradh na Gaeilge
.

gaffer
. An agent who organised a group of his relations and neighbours to travel to England to reap in the nineteenth century.

gale day
. A gale was a periodic payment of rent which in the nineteenth century was payable twice yearly on 1 March and 1 September, the gale days. A ‘hanging gale' was permission to be six months in arrears in the payment of rent, a concession granted to enable a tenant to establish himself.

gallicanism
. Originally the policy and doctrine of a group within the French Catholic church which sought to limit papal authority in secular affairs, considered the pope to be subject to ecumenical councils, believed papal infallibility on doctrinal matters to be subject to the affirmation of the whole church and favoured the right of secular rulers to make episcopal appointments and receive the revenue of vacant sees. Gallicanism appeared in Ireland in the seventeenth century amongst
Old English
Catholics who expressed a willingness to repudiate the authority of the pope over temporal affairs as a bartering tool to lessen penal impositions on Catholics. In the
remonstrances
of 1661 and 1666 prominent Old English Catholics strove to demonstrate their loyalty (and secure themselves under the Restoration land settlement) by acknowledging that all subjects were bound by the supreme authority of the king in civil and temporal affairs and by repudiating the right of any foreign power to discharge them from their allegiance. The Catholic clergy, however, overwhelmingly opposed this view. Gallicanism re-appeared in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when a minority of bishops and lay Catholics favoured a British government veto over the appointment of bishops to assuage Protestant fears and accelerate the granting of
Catholic emancipation
. Gallicanism was suspected of
Maynooth College
because the early teaching staff came from France and because the college was beholden to the administration for grants.
See
ultramontanism. (Bowen,
Paul Cardinal Cullen
, pp. 30–84.)

gallon
. A Gaelic unit of spatial measurement employed in Co. Cavan, equivalent to 25 acres.

gaol delivery, commission of
. A commission issuing from
king's bench
to have those detained in jail delivered up to the justices of
assize
for the determination of their cases.

garderobe
. A toilet, usually overhanging a castle wall.

Gardiner's Relief Act
.
See
relief acts.

garron
. A small, hardy draught horse.

galleting
. A decorative feature on house walls created by the insertion of contrasting stones into the mortar.

gallowglass
. (Ir.,
gall óglach,
foreign soldier) Gaelic mercenary foot-soldier of Scottish descent who fought with a distinctive long-handled battle-axe or sparre.