The medieval exchequer at Carlow
Niall C.E.J. O’Brien
Introduction
In medieval Ireland there
was no fixed centre of government. No seat of government like a capital city
which we would today think of as part of the furniture of a modern state.
Instead the chief ministers and their civil servants travelled around the
country conducting the various affairs of government. It was only the exchequer
and the common bench which were normally located in Dublin ,
around the area of Dublin
Castle
Yet decentralisation was not
how officials in fourteen century Ireland saw the situation. Their
idea of going to Carlow was to create a new capital. The choice of Carlow as
the effective seat of government was made sometime before 1361. Dublin was the
acknowledged seat of government since the early days of the Anglo-Norman
invasion and many were happy to live and work there. The problem was the two
areas of Leinster that remained under Irish
control.
Land of Leinster
The Anglo-Normans had early in
their invasion gained control of the much of Leinster .
But two areas of the present day province stood out as Irish controlled
districts: The Wicklow Mountains and the western fringes of Leinster bordering
the Shannon . In the first area the Irish
families of O’Bryne, O’Toole and MacMurrough, amongst others, were often
attacked by the Anglo-Normans and the Irish were not too slow to return the
visit. Yet still the newcomers failed to take control of the Mountains and Norman
settlement seems to have stopped at the 600-foot level.
On the west side of Leinster , the newcomers initially made good settlements
in modern Laois. Part of the area was included in Kildare and part in Kilkenny.
Yet Irish families such as the O’More maintained a presence that grew as the
English area declined from 1315. The further west into Offaly you went the less
Anglo-Norman people you would find. Here families like O’Carroll, MacCochlan
and O’Melaghlin kept up a real and ever present threat to the new order. Moving
northwards into present day Westmeath and Longford other Irish families like
McGeoghegan and O’Farrell came out from the declining Norman shadow as the
fourteen century wore on. These Irish along the Shannon were aided and enbolded
by a Connacht that from 1340 lost the little English identity that the Normans had earlier tried
to impose.[2]
The location of Carlow was not
just a convenient place from which to strike the Irish of the mountains or those
along the Shannon but was a more natural place
for the English to be. It was here along the Barrow River Ireland .[3]
The exchequer moves to Carlow from Dublin
By September 30, 1361 Robert
Holywood, one of the remembrancers of the exchequer, was already located in
Carlow. He had with him a small armed force to defend the town and the
exchequer offices within. A few days later, on October 19, the sheriff of Dublin was ordered to
provide two strong carts to transport tables and other necessities to Carlow.
Materials were also needed to rebuild the castle and provide further office
accommodation for the exchequer.[4]
It was intended that during
the Michaelmas term of 1363 that the common bench would relocate to Carlow.
This decision was subsequently postponed as there were as yet no facilities to
store the rolls in the town. Concerns were also expressed that the town was not
a safe location for the bench as the Irish made frequent attacks. Further bad
news came to postpone the transfer when the exchequer temporarily returned to Dublin .[5]
By 1364 the exchequer had
returned to Carlow yet it was not a safe homecoming. The newly appointed
treasurer, John de Troy, was given three men at arms and six arches for his protection.
The patent roll said that this was for the duration of the war. Yet the same
document freely admitted that ‘the place of the exchequer of Ireland at Karlak, being as it were
on the frontier of the Irish rebels, there is no safe access to it by the
king’s lieges’.[6]
Medieval exchequer at work
Complaints and problems
Other exchequer officials
complained about the scarcity of provisions and that the price of food was
unreasonably high. During periods of high military activity like in 1306 and in
1362 the price of certain commodities like wine increased considerably. Lionel
of Clarence had to introduce a maximum selling price for wine in 1362 at eight
pence a gallon. Two years later in 1364 the government had to introduce an
ordinance to regulate the price of corn, meal, peas, beans, salt and charcoal.[7] Despite
these measures the cost of living in Carlow still generated complaints from
exchequer officials. During the financial year 1364-1365 the government paid
gifts and rewards to various ministers to compensate them for this high cost.
This compensation was also to cover the loss incurred when Carlow was recently
burnt and destroyed by the king’s enemies.[8]
In the following financial
year further extra payments, amounting to £38 12s 6d were paid to fifteen
exchequer officials. This equals to a 50% increase onto their normal annual fee
and salary. Examples of such payments include John Hurst, chancellor of the
exchequer, who got £1 13s 4d onto his annual fee of £3 6s 8d; Robert de
Holywood, chief baron, got £10 onto his fee of £20 while Thomas de Quikeshull,
chief engrosser, got an extra £5 onto his annual fee of £10.[9]
These wage increases did not
solved the cost of living issues at Carlow. One could even say that the
increases only encouraged local suppliers to increase their prices and so get
the maximum amount of an official’s wages. In 1373 complaints were made that
the sellers of bread, meat, beer, hay and wheat-straw were continuing to charge
excessive prices. Female brewers were particularly singled out as leading the
vanguard with high prices for poor product. It was said that these female
brewers were selling weak beer at 1½d per gallon. Officials calculated that
with the going price for oats and malt in the Carlow area it was possible to
sell good beer for 1d per gallon. In response the barons of the exchequer
issued an ordinance to set maximum selling prices for corn, poultry, eggs, hay
and animal meat.[10]
This ordinance seems to have
had limited effect or enforcement was not rigorous enough to effect change. In
the financial returns for the year 1375-1376 we learn that life in Carlow was still
a very costly affair. In response the government again increased wages. The
wages of all exchequer officials with the exception of the treasurer were
doubled after the move from Dublin
to Carlow. This was because life in the marches was more expensive than if the
exchequer stayed in Dublin .
In the foregoing year, extra payments amounted to £77 18s 4d.[11]
In the eight years to September 1384 a total of £865 12s 9½d was paid in extra
wages to exchequer officials. This payment for the most part was to cover their
stay at Carlow.[12] In the
following eight months to April 1385 these extra payments amounted to £62 11s
1d.[13]
The two years up to May 1388 saw £259 17s 6d paid in extra payments.[14]
In the fifty months up to September 1393 £267 1s 8d was paid in extra payments
to exchequer officials.[15]
Some of the report costs of
the Carlow exchequer would have occurred even if the exchequer stayed in Dublin . For example in
April 1385 there was included in the annual cost of parchment, wax and ink, a
bill for new gates for the town of Carlow with new locks and other necessities.[16]
The town may well have needed these new gates even if no government offices
were within. If the exchequer stayed within Dublin such renewal and maintenance
expenses would also have occurred.
Many years before, during the
Bruce invasion of Ireland ,
Martin de Fyssacre was charge with five crossbowmen to defend the exchequer
house because of a threat by Irish felons to burn the house. This charge cost
£14 for the one year from April 30, 1316 to March 31, 1317.[17] During
the War of Independence (1919-21) the Irish felons successfully burnt one the
exchequer houses when they burnt the Custom House in Dublin .
Carlow Castle - home of the medieval exchequer
Difficulties of collect taxes
The more central location of
Carlow in the English part of Ireland
did not always help in the collection of taxes. In 1375 a jury swore that the
citizens of Cork
could not come to the exchequer without ‘a great posse of armed men’ because of
various tribulations and ‘risks of the roads’.[18]
Many government and county
officials gave various excuses over time, for not going to the exchequer at
Carlow. In 1373 the new seneschal of Meath, James de la Hide, could not go to
take his oath there because of the threat of imminent war in Meath. One of the
barons of the exchequer, William de Karlell, had to go to Tristernagh to
administer the oath.[19]
Some excuses for not going to
Carlow did have some merit. In the spring of 1374 the sheriffs of Cork and Limerick said
they could not come to the exchequer because of local wars and the dangerous
roads. These excuses didn’t always have firm foundation. An inquiry by the exchequer
found that no wars of consequence occurred in those counties and the bishop of Limerick was able to get to Carlow without too great a
difficulty. Yet by May serious war gripped Limerick
and Clare.[20]
Carlow in the land of war
During the 1370s the peaceful
life around Carlow became threatened once again by the rebel Irish nations of
MacMurrough and O’Byrne. In 1373 MacMurrough attacked Carlow and took the
constable of its castle prisoner. Reinforcements were ordered by the council to
Carlow while Robert de Assheton, chancellor of Ireland and justiciar made a parley
with the Leinster Irish.[21]
The treasurer, Master John Colton ordered that Roger Gabiard and 23 companions
stand guard in a ward at Carlow from October to December 1373 to defend the
town and the exchequer within. This cost amounted to £31 16s in wages at 6d per
day.[22]
In those troubled times,
payments to officials were delayed in processing while extra money had to be
paid to exchequer officials at Carlow. During the financial term of 1372-1375,
Master John Colton, treasurer of Ireland , was paid £100 to cover
arrears in his annual pay of £40 plus extra money for his expenses while at
Carlow. In the same financial term, a total of £245 11s 3½d was paid to
ministers as an extra to their normal pay because they attended the Carlow
exchequer.[23]
Other exchequer officials gave
what was to them very costly support to the exchequer at Carlow. In the
financial year 1375-1376 we learn that William, son of Simon Lawless, clerk,
had supported the exchequer for the past seven years, both in vacations and
when open for business. This support was providing six horse and foot soldiers
to defend the exchequer and the wider population. During the recent attack on
Carlow, William’s house and goods were burnt with the result that William
couldn’t maintain himself or his men. The government granted him £6 13s 4d as
compensation and as a reward for past services.[24]
Approaching the end days at
Carlow
In November 1386 Arthur
McMurrough was admitted to the king’s peace and the exchequer at Carlow could
do their job without threat of war. McMurrough was to pay 20 marks per quarter
while at peace. Some of this money arrived at the exchequer and when in October
1390 McMurrough again was admitted to the king’s peace some hopes of better
times to come were raised. Yet no sooner was this done than life came crashing
down again. By July 1391 a year of arrears was due and McMurrough broke the
peace. In that year we are told that McMurrough and O’Kerwill planned a general
conquest of County
Carlow
Cost of the exchequer staying in
Dublin
Having observed the costs and
extra costs of the exchequer at Carlow it is well to note that there were costs
in having the exchequer in Dublin
also. Despite the size and aura that surrounds the place and name of Dublin Castle
Following the burning of the Dublin suburbs by the
Scots in 1316 the exchequer started from Easter term 1317 to rent some houses
in the city centre from Robert de Wyleby at £5 per annum.[27] Robert
de Wyleby was an important person in medieval Dublin . He first appears as a citizen in 1282
and by 1311 was a witness and member of the commonalty.[28]
This situation continued for
many years. Robert de Wyleby was paid rent from Easter 1317 to the start of
1331.[29]
From Easter term 1331 Alice, the widow of Robert de Wyleby continued to receive
the rent of £5 for the few houses.[30] The
records show that Alice de Wyleby got £2 10s in the Easter term and another £2
10s in the Michaelmas term of each subsequent year from 1331 to 1339.[31]
The records between 1339 and
1346 do not record any rent paid for buildings used by the exchequer. In the
period from Christmas 1346 to Easter 1347 Walter de Istelep was paid £2 for
rent while from June 24, 1347 to Michaelmas 1347 John Taillour received £2 rent
for the exchequer houses.[32]
There after John Taillour got the rent. The amount of this rent varied through
the years. In 1347-49 John Taillour got £6; in 1349-50 £5; in 1350-56 £24 (i.e.
£4 per year); in 1356-57 £4; in 1356-58 £6 (still £4 per year); in 1358 £2; and
in 1359-60 £4. With the exchequer move to Carlow the rent fell in 1360-61 to
£2.[33]
When the exchequer went back temporarily
to Dublin in 1363 John Taillour got the rent he previously received and arrears
since Easter term 1361 which amounted to £8 in total. In 1364 the exchequer
relocated to Carlow again and John Taillour received no money for renting
houses to the exchequer.[34]
The exchequer leaves Carlow
The exchequer stayed in Carlow until 1394. On October 2, 1394, King
Richard II arrived at Waterford. Here he stayed for three weeks before moving
northwards along the Carlow Corridor. On October 28 he attacked the MacMurrough
in the woods around Leighlin and two days after the Irish of Leinster
submitted.[35]
Richard summoned a parliament
for Dublin on
December 1. We have no account of its deliberations. Before the parliament met
an executive decision had already been made to remove the exchequer and common
bench from Carlow to Dublin .[36]
The exchequer stayed in Dublin for many of the
succeeding years as the area under its effective control decreased. Sometimes
it did venture out beyond the city walls. The financial accounts for 1444 to
1446 record that the exchequer held proceedings at Drogheda .
It appears the exchequer stayed there for three days at a cost of £26 15s 9d.
This cost did not include wages but rather referred to the material costs such
as carting the books from Dublin
and building facilities in the town along with pasturing five cows for the
three days among other items.[37]
===========
End of post
==========
[3] Linda Doran, ‘Lords of
the river valleys: economic and military lordship in the Carlow Corridor,
c.1200-1350: European model in an Irish context’, in Lordship in Medieval Ireland: Image and Reality, edited by Linda
Doran and James Lyttleton (Four Courts Press, Dublin , 200), p. 99
[6] Calendar of Patent Rolls,
Edward III, 1364-1367, p. 23; Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven, A history of Medieval Ireland
[7] Philomena Connolly, ‘The Irish Memoranda Rolls: Some Unexplored
Aspects’, in the Irish Economic and
Social History Journal, vol. 3 (1976), p. 67
[8]Philomena Connolly (ed.), Irish Exchequer Payments (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 1998),
p. 516; Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven, A history of Medieval Ireland
[10] Philomena Connolly, ‘The Irish Memoranda Rolls: Some Unexplored
Aspects’, in the Irish Economic and
Social History Journal, vol. 3 (1976), p. 67
[19] Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven, A
history of Medieval Ireland
[20] Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven, A
history of Medieval Ireland
[25] Charles McNeill (ed.), ‘Harris Collectanea’, in Analecta Hibernica, No. 6 (1934), p. 447
[28] John T. Gilbert (ed.), Calendar
of Ancient Records of Dublin (19 vols. Dublin
[29] Philomena Connolly, Irish Exchequer Payments, pp. 259, 262,
268, 275, 278, 284, 286, 292, 300, 304, 312, 316, 323, 331-2
[31] Philomena Connolly, Irish Exchequer Payments, pp. 338, 344,
348, 367, 372, 382, 388, 401, 612, 619
