Ballybrommell
in medieval Carlow
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
The townland of
Ballybrommell lies in the parish of Fennagh in the Barony of Idrone East in
County Carlow. The townland is situated a few miles east of Leighlin Bridge and
a few miles west of Ballon and a few miles north of Fennagh. Ballybrommell has
an area of just over 373 acres.
Bremyll
family
The townland of
Ballybrommell takes its name from an Anglo-Norman family called Bremyll who
came to Ireland sometime after the Norman invasion of 1169. In 1189 William
Marshal married Isabel de Clare, the daughter and heiress of Richard de Clare,
Earl of Pembroke and Lord of Leinster. Between 1207 and 1213 William Marshal
almost continuously lived in Ireland. It was in this time that the settlement
and development of the Lordship of Leinster really took off.[1] The
Bremyll family possibly helped in this development. They acquired lands in the
modern-day Counties of Carlow and Kilkenny such as at Ballybrommell and
Jerpoint.
Looking east across the townland of Ballybrommell
First
references of Bremyll: Robert Bremyll
The first reference of
the family comes from 1247, at the partition of the Lordship of Leinster, when Robert
de Breml held one third of a knight’s fee at an unspecified location.[2] The
five sons of William Marshal all died without leaving any male heirs and thus
the large Lordship of Leinster along with marshal property across Wales,
England and France was divided among the five daughters of William Marshal. The
eldest daughter, Matilda Marshal received the Lordship of Carlow. She had
married Hugh le Bigod (d. 1225) as her first husband in 1207. After Hugh le
Bigod died she secondly married William, Earl Warenne who died in 1240. Matilda
Marshal died in 1248 and was succeeded by her on Roger le Bigod, 4th
Earl of Norfolk and Marshal of England.[3]
Thus Robert de Bremyll became a knight tenant of Roger le Bigod.
About 1250 Robert de
Bremel witnessed a charter relating to Donaghmore in the Barony of Fassadinin
in County Kilkenny.[4]
This charter was a grant of a third part of five carucates by John son of
Vincent de Everus to Roger de Penbroc. John made this grant even though he
didn’t have seisin of the land which formerly belonged to his mother Lady Alice
de Hereford.[5]
Sibyl
Bremyll
Sometime about 1261
Sibyl Bremyll, widow, and Susannah, her unmarried daughter, made a quit claim
on fifteen acres in Kilbrothyn in the New Town of Graiguenamanagh. These fifteen
acres were granted to Sibyl by her brother Elias Bremyll on the occasion of her
marriage with Michael O’Morgan. At the same time Sibyl quit claimed an acre in
Fanken and other rents at that place.[6]
Geoffrey
Bremyll
On 24th June
1293 Nicholas, Bishop of Kildare, received a licence to remain in England at
which he appointed Laurence de Athy and Geoffrey Bremyll as his attorneys in
Ireland until the following Pentecost.[7]
The public road cuts Ballybrommell into two unequal parts
Another
Robert Bremyll
In 1307 Robert de
Bremyll of Foth (Fotheryd) held one third of a knight’s fee at Ballyscandil. It
would seem that Ballyscandil was the original name for Ballybrommell.[8] The
one third of a knight’s fee was held by the service of one mark when called
upon.[9] This
reference to Robert de Bremyll in 1307 occurred as part of the various
inquisitions post mortem following the death of Roger le Bigod, Earl of
Norfolk, Marshal of England and Lord of the liberty of Carlow.[10] Robert
de Bremyll was one of the twenty-six and more jurors who attended the
inquisition taken at Carlow on 8th April 1307 and gave evidence as
to the lands and castles held by Roger le Bigod. A second inquisition was held
the same day into the knight’s fees and advowsons held by Roger le Bigod.
Robert le Bremyll did not attend this inquisition although some jury members
attended both. This second inquisition simply repeated that Robert de Bremyll
held one third of a knight’s fee at Ballyscandil.[11] After
1307 Eric St. John Brooks could find no further references to the family of
Bremyl or information on their fee.[12]
In 1302 Roger le Bigod
surrendered his Irish estates to King Edward I because Roger was bankrupt and
needed to be bailed out by the government. King Edward granted the estates back
to Roger to be held for life after which they would revert to the crown if
Roger left no heirs of his body. Roger le Bigod had died on 11th
December 1306 leaving no children (no heirs of his body) and his brother, John
le Bigod, as heir general. But because of the clauses in the royal grant John
le Bigod was left with little and the bulk of the Bigod lands in England, Wales
and Ireland reverted to the crown.[13]
In June 1307, Alice,
the widow of Roger le Bigod, received from the crown a number of knight’s fees
in the Lordship of Carlow, along with the advowson of Old Ross and a number of
manors and farm land to hold as her dower lands. The fee of Robert de Bremyll
did not form part of this grant as thus he remained a tenant of the crown. Part
of the farm land received by Alice le Bigod included the demesne lands, meadows
and pasture of Fothered.[14]
We don’t have more detailed information to determine if Robert de Bremyll held
any property at Fothered of Alice le Bigod.
The use of the name of
Ballyscandil in 1307 rather than Ballybrommell shows that the Bremyll family
had their main residence somewhere else. The 1307 inquisition tells us it was
in Forth or Fothered. The barony of Forth lies to the east and north of Ballybrommell. In fact the northern boundary of Ballybrommell forms part of the barony boundary. In 1307 there was a castle and town at Fothered with
demesne land and free tenants in the surrounding countryside.[15] By
1660, and possibly long before that, the name of Ballybrommell was in official
use.[16]
Medieval
ruins
The present townland of
Ballybrommell has no evident medieval ruins which supports the family of Bremyll
living elsewhere. Yet there is evidence for medieval ruins in the townlands
surrounding Ballybrommell. The townland of Ballytarsna has a ruined castle of
uncertain date and documentary evidence from the seventeenth century places a
castle in the townland of Clonmacshane.[17] Today,
Ballybrommell has an area of 373 acres but what was its extent area in medieval
times is unknown. It is possible that Ballybrommell could have embraced some of
the surrounding townlands where medieval ruins exist or existed in the past.
Ballybrommell and surrounding townlands
Kilkenny
association
Sometime before May
1289 Robert de Bremyll made a gift of a carucate of land in the neighbourhood
of the old town of Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny, to Geoffrey Calf for which Geoffrey
paid yearly 16 pence to Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, and
his wife Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward I. Geoffrey Calf also gave a penny at
Easter and Michaelmas which Robert de Bremyll used to receive. Geoffrey Calf
performed the usual suit at the manorial court and to the manorial mill.[18] After
Gilbert’s death Joan received the new and old town of Jerpoint and held same
until her death in 1307. She was succeeded by her son, Gilbert de Clare, Earl
of Gloucester and Hertford. This Gilbert de Clare was killed at Bannockburn in
1314 and his lands were divided his three sisters. The new and old town of
Jerpoint passed to Hugh d’Audley and Margaret de Clare.[19]
Thus the Bremyll gift to Geoffrey Calf passed to new landlords.
The family of Bremyll
were also associated with Brablestown, in the parish of Dungarvan in the Barony
of Gowran in County Kilkenny.[20]
Origin
of the family of Bremyll
The surviving records
are not sufficient enough in detail or extent to determine from where the
Bremyll family came from before they settled in the Carlow/Kilkenny area in the
decades after the Norman invasion. Records in England have people with the
surname of Bremyll in many different counties.
In 1255 Richard de
Bremel with four others recognised the rights of the Abbey of St. Augustine’s,
Bristol, to lands in Almondsbury and Winterbourne while asking that the abbey
recognise their grazing rights after the harvest had been reaped.[21] In
1291 John de Bremel was a juryman at the inquisition into the consequences that
would result if Emelina Longespee gave 10 librates of land to the warden of the
Chapel of St. Katherine of Warmberch in Wiltshire.[22] Sometime
before 1390 Thomas Bremel held a messuage with curtilage adjacent to Lacock in
Wiltshire.[23]
In September 1415 William Bremell of the Diocese of Bath and Wells was ordained
deacon and priest to St. Frideswide’s Priory in Oxford.[24]
On 3rd September 1538 Thomas Bremell of Stocklinch Ottersey in
Somerset left instructions in his will to be buried in the local churchyard and
that the residue of his property should go to his wife, Joan.[25]
There is a civil parish
and village called Bremhill in Wiltshire which in about 1445 to 1540 was known
as Bremyll and in 1226 as Bremleshill. Bremhill is located two miles north west
of Calne and four miles from Chippenham.[26]
Did the Bremyll family of Ballybrommell take their name from this place? We may
never get to answer that question. Instead what we do know is that about 700
years after the Bremyll family lost association with Ballybrommell their name
continued to attach itself to the place despite all the changes and generations
of people who came after them.
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End of post
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[1]
Goddard Henry Orpen, Ireland under the
Normans 1169-1333 (Four Courts, Dublin, 2005), vol. II, pp. 202, 222
[2]
Eric St. John Brooks (ed.), Knights’ Fees
in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny (13th-15th
Century) (Stationery Office, Dublin, 1950), p. 90
[3]
Goddard Henry Orpen, Ireland under the
Normans 1169-1333, vol. III, pp. 80, 84
[4]
Eric St. John Brooks (ed.), Knights’ Fees
in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny, p. 91
[5]
Edmund Curtis (ed.), Calendar of Ormond
Deeds (6 vols. Stationery Office, Dublin, 1932), vol. 1, no. 109
[6]
Eric St. John Brooks (ed.), Knights’ Fees
in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny, p. 91 quoting information from
Duiske Charters, no. 62
[7]
H.S. Sweetman (ed.), Calendar of
Documents relating to Ireland (5 vols. Kraus reprint, 1974), vol. 5
(1293-1301), p. 10
[8]
Eric St. John Brooks (ed.), Knights’ Fees
in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny, pp. 90, 91
[9]
H.S. Sweetman (ed.), Calendar of
Documents relating to Ireland, vol. 5 (1302-1307), p. 174
[10]
J.E.E.S. Sharp (ed.), Calendar of
Inquisitions post mortem preserved in the Public Record Office, Vol. IV, Edward
1 (Kraus reprint, 1973), no. 434 (pp. 304, 309)
[11]
H.S. Sweetman (ed.), Calendar of
Documents relating to Ireland, vol. 5 (1302-1307), p. 173, 179
[12]
Eric St. John Brooks (ed.), Knights’ Fees
in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny, p. 91
[13]
Goddard Henry Orpen, Ireland under the
Normans 1169-1333, vol. III, p. 84
[14]
H.S. Sweetman (ed.), Calendar of
Documents relating to Ireland, vol. 5 (1302-1307), nos. 672, 673
[15]
J.E.E.S. Sharp (ed.), Calendar of
Inquisitions post mortem, Vol. IV, Edward 1, no. 434 (p. 305)
[16]
Seamus Pender (ed.), A census of Ireland
circa 1659 (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 2002), p. 357
[18]
Paul Dryburgh & Brendan Smith (eds.), Handbook
and Select Calendar of Sources for Medieval Ireland in the National Archives of
the United Kingdom (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2005), p. 261
[19]
Goddard Henry Orpen, Ireland under the
Normans 1169-1333, vol. III, pp. 91, 96
[20]
Eric St. John Brooks (ed.), Knights’ Fees
in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny, p. 91
[21]
David Walker (ed.), The Cartulary of St.
Augustine’s Abbey, Bristol (Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological
Society, vol. 10, 1998), nos. 449, 451
[22] Edward
A. Fry (ed.), Abstracts of Wiltshire Inquisitions
Post Mortem, A.D. 1242-1326 (British Record Society, London, 1908), p. 186
[23]
Kenneth H. Rogers (ed.), Lacock Abbey
Charters (Wiltshire Record Society, vol. XXXIV, 1979 ), no. 211
[24]
A.B. Emden, A Biographical Register of
the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500 (3 vols. Oxford University Press,
1957), vol. 1, p. 259
[25]
Mary Siraut (ed.), Somerset Wills
extracted by A.J. Monday (Somerset Record Society, vol. 89, 2003), p. 45
[26] http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getcom.php?id=29
accessed 18 January 2015; Calendar of
Patent Rolls, Henry VI,1441-1446 (U.I.O.W.A.), p. 379
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