Sunday, July 24, 2016

Templepeter parish, Co. Carlow: some historical notes

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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[1] http://webgis.archaeology.ie/historicenvironment/ accessed on 24 July 2016 Templepeter area
[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

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Colligan church and parish, Co. Waterford

Colligan church and parish, Co. Waterford

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

The medieval and civil parish of Colligan lies in the Barony of Decies without Drum in mid County Waterford. The main road from Dungarvan to Clonmel passes along the western edge of the parish. The parish was also known by the name of Kilcrecan, Quylgan and Coledan.[1]

Colligan medieval church - doorway - nave - chancel arch

Early inhabitants

People have lived in the valley of the Colligan River since early times. The quite sheltered valley offered fresh water and protection from the harsh winds to grow their crops. In the townland of Knockanpower are the remains of a horizontal mill to process the grain crops.[2] Also in Knockanpower are three earthworks marking the sites of former human activity.[3] The townland of Garryduff also has an earthwork along with three fulachta fiadh and a rectangular enclosure.[4] Carrowgarriff More also has the site of an earthwork.[5]

The church

The medieval church of Colligan stands on the west bank of the Colligan River within a subrectangular graveyard. The foundations of the nave and chancel have been restored and are separated by a 9 foot height pointed chancel arch (Width 1.75m & height 2.75m). The pointed arch has a chamfered rib within. Colligan parish may have been small in size and wealth yet the arch shows that the medieval people of that place made great efforts to have a church worthy of beautifying the glory of God. Much of the fabric of the church is lost but it too must also have had wonderful architectural features. Perhaps it lies under the plaster of surrounding houses or in the nearby Catholic Church.

The Chancel arch looking east

Detail of the chancel arch


Canon Patrick Power measured the nave at 36 feet long by 14 feet wide (13.05m E-W & 6.4m N-S) and the chancel as 18 feet by 10 feet wide (7.05m E-W & 4.6m N-S). The entrance doorway was in the south wall of the nave which was the usual location in early Irish churches. A pot quern, sillstones and a ballaun stone are in the church ruins.[6]

Plan of Colligan church

A particularly interesting feature of the medieval church of Colligan is its situation. At the Reformation the buildings and property of the medieval parish church passed to the new Protestant Church of Ireland. The membership of the new Church was very small as the vast majority of the Irish people remained as members of the Roman Catholic Church. Consequently most of the medieval parish churches were left fall into ruin. After the Act of Union of 1801 the Church of Ireland began a programme of building new Protestant churches beside, or on the foundations of, these ruined medieval churches. Colligan is an exception to this construction programme as the ruined medieval church is a short distance north of the Roman Catholic parish church for Colligan, the church of St. Anne.

Modern Catholic church from the medieval church 

The parish

In medieval times Colligan was a constitute parish of the plebania of Dungarvan.[7] It is not known when the parish was formed. Many of the parishes in the Diocese of Lismore in the area of modern South Tipperary were formed by 1250 and it is likely that Colligan parish was formed sometime in the previous hundred years. In about 1302 the parish was valued at £2 with the papal tenth worth 4s.[8] In 1660 the rectory was in the patronage of the Earl of Cork and he had the right of presentation which right passed to his descendants, the Dukes of Devonshire.[9] It is likely that in medieval times the patronage of Colligan parish was also in lay hands.

The names of the incumbents of the medieval vicarage of Colligan 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 Colligan until the sixteenth century.

In 1516 Thady Mackrad held the perpetual vicarage of Colligan with the rectory of Clonea. This Clonea was in the area east of Dungarvan, by the sea, known as Clonea Strand. The other Clonea in Co. Waterford, known popularly as Clonea Power near Carrick-on-Suir, was in medieval times known as the parish of Mothel.

Location of Colligan and Clonea

In April 1516 Thady Mackrad received papal letters to have the deanery of Lismore (worth 24 marks). Unfortunately the value of Colligan parish was not stated in the papal letter.[10] It is not clear if Thady Mackrad was successful at acquiring the deanery position. Another later vicar of Colligan in the sixteenth century was Nicholas Kellehin who in 1588 was vicar of Lisnakill. Thereafter the succession list of vicars doesn’t begin in earnest until 1615 with John O’Hea.[11]

In 1298, Thomas FitzMaurice of Shanid, Co. Limerick, held ownership of most of Colligan parish. The half villata there used to earn 40s yearly for Thomas but in 1298 was in waste. Nobody would rent the land due to robbers nor could any income be got from the parish.[12] During the minority of Thomas’s heir the king held his estates but it would seem that the escheator fared no better at earning money from Colligan as the Fitzgeralds.[13] Ownership of the parish passed from Thomas to his son, Maurice FitzThomas, 1st Earl of Desmond. It later descended to the Fitzgeralds of Dromana.

In the turbulent years of the Tudor period the ownership of Colligan parish and its different townlands changed with the rise and fall of Tudor power in Ireland. In October 1566 Richard Lookar, merchant of Waterford, was granted the tithes from Knockanpower townland with many other townlands in County Waterford along with the rectory of Dungarvan and its plebania chapels including Colligan. In 1559 Richard Lookar was bailiff of Waterford city. In August 1576 John Lookar, gent of Waterford, received a new grant of that given to Richard Lookar.[14]

In February 1572 John Thickpenny was granted the rectory (sic. vicarage) of Quylgan, alias Colligan along the possessions and parishes formerly belonging to Molana Abbey. There is no evidence that Molana Abbey did own the advowson of Colligan parish. John Thickpenny also received the tithes of Garrycloyne townland in the parish.[15]

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Thomas Fitzrichard Fitzgerald, gent of Pallas, Co. Limerick, held ownership of the townland of Garryduff in Colligan parish with other townlands around Co. Waterford. At some unknown date he mortgaged these townlands for £136 to James Fitzthomas Sherlock. In 1592 Gerald Fitzrichard Fitzgerald, brother of Thomas, was granted the right of redemption after proving that Thomas’s son, Richard, was a bastard and died in rebellion against the Queen which was always not a good thing. But Gerald Fitzgerald didn’t gain possession as in 1591 Garryduff was granted with all the other Waterford lands of Fitzgerald to Richard Beacon as Fitzgerald was attained.[16]

By 1640 Sir Richard Osbourne of Knockmoan held the townland of Garryduff as part of the manor of Knockmoan. At that time the townland contained half a ploughland at 90 acres and was worth £5 7s 6d.[17]

Chancel area and east side of archway

The biggest landowner in Colligan parish in 1640 was Garret Fitzgerald of Dromana. He held two ploughlands of the parish where the total parish measured three and one half ploughlands. The Fitzgerald lands included the townlands of Colligan, Garrycloyne and Knockroe and measured 660 acres (of which 90 acres arable and 290 acres pasture), worth in total £33 9s.[18] In 1663 Thomas Ronan of Youghal claimed to have inherited a lease (made in 1639) of his father, James Ronan, of land at Colligan from the Fitzgeralds for fifty-one years at £10 per annum.[19] Sir Richard Osbourne of Knockmoan had a lease from 1633 of one and half ploughlands of Colligan and Garrycloyne from the Fitzgeralds for fort-one years at £20 per year.[20]

Other landowners of Colligan parish in 1640 included David McDonnagh of Knockpoery (Knockanpower) held the half ploughland in that townland (150 acres) and which was worth £13 2s 6d. He paid 15s in chief rent to the earl of Cork. The final townland in the parish was Caherowgariffe (Carrowgarriff), containing half a ploughland (75 acres) and was worth £4 9s. This townland was owned by Philip McGrath of Curaghnesledy, in Modeligo parish.[21]

In 1660 the five townlands in Colligan parish contained the following number of taxpayers. Knockanpower had 16 people, Knockroe (15 people), Garrycloyne (11 people), Colligan (9 people) and Garryduff (7 people). All these taxpayers were of the Irish nation.[22] In 1662 many of these taxpayers were named in the Subsidy Roll of County Waterford. In that year Knockanpower had 7 taxpayers, Knockroe (9 taxpayers), Garryduff (3 taxpayers), Colligan (2 taxpayers) and Garrycloyne (one tax payer). Sixteen of the taxpayers were husbandmen while five were yeomen and one gent, John McDavid of Knockanpower.[23]

In the 1830s Colligan parish was measured at 3,679 acres with just over one thousand people. The tithes then amounted to £135 of which the rector received £90 and the vicar the balance.[24] A list of the successive vicars of Colligan of the Church of Ireland faith was compiled by Rev. William Rennison.[25] Further particulars of Colligan parish, with a list of Roman Catholic pastors, was included by Canon Patrick Power in his history book of the united diocese of Waterford and Lismore.[26]

Colligan church from the south showing doorway and arch

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[1] Canon Patrick Power, ‘Obligationes Pro Annatis Diocesis Waterfordiensis et Lismorensis’, in
Archivium Hibernicum, vol. XII (1946), p. 15; Tudor fiants, Elizabeth, no. 1687; H.S. Sweetman (ed.), Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland (5 vols. London, 1875-1886), vol. 5, p. 305
[2] Michael Moore (ed.), Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford (Stationery Office, Dublin, 1999), no. 1286
[3] Michael Moore (ed.), Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford, nos. 1170, 1171, 1172
[4] Michael Moore (ed.), Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford, nos. 351, 352, 353, 1113, 1303
[5] Michael Moore (ed.), Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford, no. 1061
[6] Canon Patrick Power, ‘The Ancient Ruined Churches of Co. Waterford’, in the Journal of the
Waterford and South East of Ireland Archaeological Society, Vol. III (1897), p. 77 ; Michael Moore (ed.), Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford, no. 1337
[7] Canon Patrick Power, ‘Obligationes Pro Annatis Diocesis Waterfordiensis et Lismorensis’, in
Archivium Hibernicum, vol. XII (1946), p. 15
[8] H.S. Sweetman (ed.), Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland, vol. 5, p. 305
[9] Rev. W.H. Rennison (ed.), ‘Joshua Boyle’s Accompt of the Temporalities of the Bishoprick’s of Waterford’, in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Volume 35, p. 28; Samuel Lewis, Topographical Directory of Ireland (London, 1837), p. 388
[10] Anne P. Fuller (ed.), Calendar of entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Volume XX, 15131521, Leo X, Lateran Registers, part one (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 2005), Vol. XX, No. 626
[11] Rev. W. Rennison, Succession list of the Bishop, Cathedral and Parochial Clergy of the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore (1920), pp. 89, 141
[12] H.S. Sweetman (ed.), Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland, vol. 4, p. 261
[13] Thirty-Eight Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland, p. 40
[14] Tudor fiants, Elizabeth, nos. 956, 3133; Niall Byrne (ed.), The Great Parchment Book of Waterford (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 2007), p. 135
[15] Tudor fiants, Elizabeth, no. 1687
[16] Tudor fiants, Elizabeth, nos. 5536, 5683
[17] R.C. Simington (ed.), The Civil Survey A.D. 1654-1656 County of Waterford, Vol. VI with appendices (Stationery Office, Dublin, 1942), p. 46
[18] R.C. Simington (ed.), The Civil Survey A.D. 1654-1656 County of Waterford, Vol. VI with appendices, p. 45
[19] Geraldine Tallon (ed.), Court of Claims: Submissions and Evidence 1663 (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 2006), no. 374
[20] R.C. Simington (ed.), The Civil Survey A.D. 1654-1656 County of Waterford, Vol. VI with appendices, p. 46
[21] R.C. Simington (ed.), The Civil Survey A.D. 1654-1656 County of Waterford, Vol. VI with appendices, p. 46
[22] Seamus Pender (ed.), A Census of Ireland, circa 1659 (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 2002), p. 335
[23] Julian C. Walton, ‘The subsidy roll of County Waterford, 1662’, in Anaclecta Hibernica, No. 30 (1982), pp. 66, 67
[24] Samuel Lewis, Topographical Directory of Ireland (London, 1837), p. 388
[25] Rev. W. Rennison, Succession list of the Bishop, Cathedral and Parochial Clergy of the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore (1920), pp. 141-2
[26] Canon Patrick Power, Waterford and Lismore: a compendious history of the united diocese (Cork University Press, 1937), pp. 187, 189