Templepeter
parish, Co. Carlow: some historical notes
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
The medieval parish of
Templepeter is situated about five miles south-east of Carlow town in the
Barony of Forth. The early history of the parish is unknown. The surviving
monuments show that the townland of Ballintrane was the most popular settlement
location in the parish. In Ballintrane there are two fulacht fiadh, two
enclosures and one ringfort. Elsewhere at Ballymogue there is an earthwork. The
other townlands in the parish, viz., Clonmacshane, Kilbrickan and Templepeter
do not appear to have any visible monuments but may have archaeological
features under the surface. The other townland of the parish, Graiguealug is
divided between three parishes and it in full extent has three enclosures along
with later castles/tower houses.[1]
Outside of West wall of the church from the south-west
The
temple name
The name of
Templepeter, church of Peter, would suggest an early date for religious
practice in the parish. The common name for a parish church features the word
‘kil’ in the place-name if it doesn’t take the townland name. The word ‘temple’
is not usually seen in an isolated environment. At the religious complex at St.
Mullins you have two separate churches called Temple Mor and Temple na nBo. At
Clonmacnoise there is Temple Dowling and Temple Ciaran.[2] Many
of these churches were dated to the 1050 to 1200 period. Only a detail
archaeological survey of the fields surrounding Templepeter church could
establish if the church is an isolated building or part of a larger complex.
Templepeter church and surrounding area
Templepeter
church
The church of
Templepeter is situated within an irregular shaped graveyard which is surrounded by a granite wall of cut stone blocks. The church is described as a rectangular structure aligned east-west and
measuring 13.2 meters by 7 meters. At 92.4msq Templepeter is a fare size church
for a small parish (1,045 statue acres). In the thirteenth century Templepeter
was in the manor of Forth, property of the Marshal family before 1247 and the
Bigod family after that until 1306. In 1247 the manor of Forth was worth £53 5s
2d making it second only to Old Ross as the most valuable part of the Liberty
of Carlow.[3]
Line of the absent north wall with headstones within the church
The church is built of
un-coursed mortared large granite boulders with cut stone at the corners.
Templepeter parish is rich in granite stone. In 1987 only the west wall and
part of the south wall survived (mainly rebuilt).
South-east corner of the nave
The absence of a visible chancel
area suggested that the church was built before the Normans or the parish was
too poor to afford a chancel area. Yet we should not so quickly discount the
existence of a chancel area. The east wall of the nave is for the most part
removed and eight feet east of the wall is an area enclose by a low wall reserved
for a number of Nolan family burials. A small archaeological dig in the area
between the church and the burial area of the O’Nolans would be of importance
in understanding the history of Templepeter church. In the fifteenth century
some unknown patron did invest in the church by purchasing a plain octagonal
font.[4]
Ground plan of Templepeter church and the O'Nolan grave enclosure
Before the Norman
Conquest, Templepeter was situated in the territory of Fortharta Uí Nualláin,
Forth of O’Nolan.[5]
Descendants of this Gaelic O’Nolan nation made their burial place at the east
end of Templepeter church, the important part of the church, in what could have
been a chancel area. The fifteenth century some unknown patron (may be an
O’Nolan lord) invested in the church by purchasing a plain octagonal font.[6]
The surviving church at
Templepeter has few architectural details apart from the large corner stone’s
particularly at the south-east corner. There is a possible south doorway about
ten feet from the west wall. The surviving structure shows no obvious window
sites but parts of the south wall have been reconstructed. It is very possible
that at least one south window was previously located in the reconstructed
area.
Templepeter
parish
If the surviving
structural evidence gives us little information on Templepeter church, the
documentary evidence gives us even les information about the parish. The names
of the incumbents of the medieval vicarage of Templepeter are few and far
between. This is mainly due to the absence of any diocesan register. It is also
due to the stability of the parish that nobody made a petition to the Pope for
the benefice. The papal registers in Rome provide the main body of evidence on
the Irish medieval church and they are silent about Templepeter until the late
fifteenth century.
Map of Templepeter parish
In 1495 the parish of
Templepeter was variously spelt as Tpemplo
Pedit, Templopedit, Templopedi, alias Kylnelada. The parish
was worth five marks in 1495 and was occupied by Odo Ohedean. It was said that
Odo Ohedean claimed to be the vicar was without title or support in law and
that he held the vicarage for about seven years (starting c.1488). On 20th
November 1495 Thady Occurruyn, cleric of the Diocese of Leighlin, received a
papal mandate to have the precentorship of Leighlin (occupied by David Omurray)
along with the rectory of Caruasuan (occupied by David Omurray, worth three
marks), and Myshall (occupied by Donald Omillan, worth six marks) with the vicarage
of Templepeter. The archdeacon of Glendalough with the dean of Ossory and
Nicholas White, canon of Ossory, were commissioned to decide if Thady Occurruyn
should have all four benefices. Sometime before 1495 Thady had received
dispensation as the son of a priest and an unmarried woman to be promoted to
all even sacred orders.[7]
A few days before, on 7
November 1495, Thady Occurruyn, as vicar of Berrac (Barragh), had procured a
papal mandate to have the vicarages of Myshall (occupied by Patrick Ocurruyn)
and Ballon (occupied by Henry Omilain). In this papal letter Thady Occurruyn
was son of a deacon (in 1495 an archdeacon) and an unmarried woman. Myshall
vicarage was then worth three marks and under the patronage of the rector and
Thomas Wall. The difference in the name of the Myshall vicar and the value of
the parish possibly occasioned the second letter of the 20th
November.
The vicarage of Ballon
was worth four marks and was under the patronage of Glascarrig priory in Co.
Wexford. The treasurer of Leighlin along with Cornelius Obroyn and Gerald
Mardul, canons of Leighlin, were to judge the matter.[8]
In November 1502 Thady
Occurruyn occupied the vicarages of Kalyn (Killeen in Killabban, Co. Laois) and
Kerrach (Curragh in Killeshin, Co. Laois) in the Diocese of Leighlin without
any title or support in law. Also in 1502 Henry Omyllayn occupied Kellasna
(Killeshin, Co. Laois) vicarage without any title. Edmund Omillayn, cleric in
the Diocese of Leighlin procured a papal mandate for the three vicarages with Maurice
Offaellayn, canon of Limerick as the judge.[9]
It is not known how
long after 1495 did Thady Occurruyn hold Templepeter as the parish disappears
from the records. In the secular world there are few references to Templepeter
parish. It would appear that the parish was within the area of the O’Nolan
lordship. When the O’Nolan chief surrendered his lands under the surrender and
regrant scheme of the Tudor government it would seem that a third part of his
lands were retained by the government. In 1550-51 the crown made a lease to
Edmund O’Leyne and John Barry of Freeton, of considerable lands across County
Carlow including a third part of the townlands of Templepeter, Ballintrane,
Kilbrickan, Ballymogue and Clonmacshane.[10]
In 1562-3 Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, was granted the former
possessions of many religious houses in Counties Kildare, Kilkenny, Tipperary
and Carlow. At the same time he received secular lands in these counties. At
Templepeter Thomas Butler received a third part of each townland in the parish.[11]
Arable farmland north of Templepeter church
Templepeter
parish in the nineteenth century
Templepeter parish does
not feature often in later surviving documents. In the 1821 census there were
116 inhabited houses in the parish of Templepeter containing 121 families. Living
in these houses were 328 males and 352 females.[12] By
1837 the population of the parish had declined to 349 people.[13]
As the nineteenth
century progressed the parish of Templepeter continued to decline in
population, falling from 234 in 1851 to 159 in 1861 and the number of dwelling
houses fell to 27 with 2 uninhabited houses. Only Kilbrickan recorded an
increase in population from 7 to 12 people. These 12 people all lived in one
house.[14]
Long before the
nineteenth century the medieval church of Templepeter was abandoned with the
Protestant population going to Dunleckney for services and the Catholic
population going to Nurney or Newtown. Archaeological excavations would carry
the story of medieval Templepeter further but for the moment we must leave the
story as told until that other day.
Granite wall surrounding the graveyard at Templepeter
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End of post
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[2]
Tomás Ó Carragáin, Churches in Early
Medieval Ireland (Yale University Press, 2010), pp. 200, 307
[3]
Goddard H. Orpen, Ireland under the
Normans, 1169-1333 (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2005), vol. III, p. 81
[4] http://webgis.archaeology.ie/historicenvironment/
accessed on 2 July 2016 for Templepeter in Carlow
[5]
Margaret Murphy, ‘Roger Bigod and the lordship of Carlow, 1270-1306’, in Lordship in Medieval Ireland: Image and
Reality, edited by Linda Doran & James Lyttleton (Four Courts Press,
Dublin, 2007), p. 82
[6] http://webgis.archaeology.ie/historicenvironment/
accessed on 2 July 2016 for Templepeter in Carlow
[7]
Anne P. Fuller (ed.), Calendar of entries
in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters,
Vol. XVI, Alexander VI: Lateran Registers part one: 1492-1498 (Stationery
Office, Dublin, 1986), no. 457
[8]
Anne P. Fuller (ed.), Calendar of Papal
Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Vol. XVI, no. 456
[9]
Anne P. Fuller (ed.), Calendar of entries
in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters,
Vol. XVII, Part 1, Alexander VI: Lateran Registers part two: 1495-1503
(Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 1994), no. 982
[10] Tudor fiants, Edward VI, no. 719
[11] Tudor fiants, Elizabeth, no. 504
[14]
British Parliamentary Papers, Census of Ireland 1861, part 1, Co. Carlow,
Barony of Forth, Templepeter parish
