Castlewarden and Oughterard:
history of a medieval manor
Niall C.E.J. O’Brien
The medieval manor of Castlewarden, including the vill of Oughterard in
the parish of Oughterard lies in the northern end of County Kildare. Before the
Norman invasion of 1169 Castlewarden formed a
part of the Irish kingdom
of Uí Fáeláin
Adam de Hereford in Ireland
As part of the sub-infeudation of Leinster in the 1170s, the cantred of
Offelan was divided into three parts. Adam de Hereford was given the cantred of
Offelan nearest to Dublin
and the middle of the cantred. Maurice Fitzgerald got the area around Naas and
north to the borders of Meath thus splitting de Hereford’s lands into two
parts. Meiler Fitz Henry got the western third of the cantred.[3]
Adam subsequently divided this large area into three parts. To his brother John
he gave Kill, Kildrought, Clonshanbo and Mainham. Adam’s other brother; Richard
got Dowings in the barony of Otymy. Richard’s son, Henry later became lord of
Otymy. Adam de Hereford retained Leixlip, Cloncurry and Oughterard for his own
use.[4]
Adam de Hereford came over to Ireland in about 1169 with the first
Norman invasion. He led the successful Norman raid upon the monastic city of Lismore in 1173. As the
Norman fleet waited at Youghal to sail to Waterford
city, an Ostman fleet came from Cork .
Adam led his men to victory in which the Ostman leader was killed.[5]
Adam de Hereford received other lands in Ireland including a grant from
Strongbow of half the cantred and vill of Aghaboe in north Ossory. The other
half was comprised the see-lands and chief seat of the bishop of Ossory until
the bishop’s chair was later moved to Kilkenny. This grant to Adam was
witnessed by his two brothers.[6] To
the east Adam received the area around Tullow, Co. Carlow which he gave to his
brother John. Hugh de Lacy built a motte there for John de Hereford but the
land didn’t stay long in the family. In 1185 King John granted it to Theobald
fitzWalter and it remained in Butler
hands throughout the medieval period.[7]
In about 1176 Adam took a lease from Richard Tyrell of land in Louth and
Limerick.[8]
Among the later land grants that Adam de Hereford got was for the district
around Rathdowney, in the medieval county
of Kilkenny and now within County Laois Leinster in 1247, Rathdowney was
held by Stephen de Hereford, the son of Adam.[10]
For the defence and better management of his estates, Adam built a
castle at Leixlip and mottes at Cloncurry and Castlewarden.[11]
Stephen de Hereford left no surviving children and thus his estate
passed to his sister Auda who had married William Pipard of Ardee, Co. Louth.[12] Sometime
after 1247 the de Hereford manors of Leixlip, Rathdowny and Castlewarden passed
to the Pipard family.
Castlewarden under the Pipard
family
In January 1276 Sir Ralph Pipard was at Ardee in County Louth conducting
estate business. By early February he had moved south to Castlewarden where he
made a number of agreements with his tenants. Sir Ralph gave a twenty year
lease to William de Stacumeny of the forty acres at Stacumeny which was
formerly held by Master William de Bakepus (escheator of Ireland c.1264). The
rent was set at 40s per year.[13]
Another indenture of agreement, made at the same time, was between Sir
Ralph and six burgesses of Oughterard. In this, Sir Ralph leased to them; forty
acres of arable land in the manor of Castlewarden; twenty acres of tilled
ground called Boue, near Bishop’s Court; ten acres near Kilwarden and ten acres
on the east side of Kiltome for twenty years. The rent for this was twenty
crannocs of wheat at the feast of All Saints and twenty crannocs of oats at the
feast of the Purification of St. Mary.[14]
A third indenture of agreement made at Castlewarden on 22 February 1276
related to the lordship of Rathdowney. In this agreement Sir Ralph leased to
eight tenants of Rathdowney, the lordship of same for fifteen years. The deal
also included Rathdowney mill, the toll on ale and pasture of the herbage in
his wood nearby. For this the tenants were to pay 13 marks silver per year.[15]
The different methods of calculating the rent in the three deeds is
interesting as is the information about a mill and tilled land. Clearly
Castlewarden and Oughterard were in good condition at that time
A grant of various lands in Ireland from Sir Ralph Pippard to his son,
John Pippard in June 1294 makes it clear that Castlewarden was described as a
manor while Oughterard was described as the vill of Hochtarad. Other property
included in this grant was the lordship of Rathdowney, Co. Laois; the manor of
Leixlip, Co. Kildare, the manors of Ardee and Manfieldstown in County Louth.
John was to pay 500 marks for these properties. In May 1297 John Pippard return
these Irish lands to his father. In this latter agreement Castlewarden was
described as the castle and manor of the Ward.[16] In
that same year of 1297 an inquest at Kildare from that Ralph Pipard held
Leixlip, Cloncurry and Castlewarden by the service of two and a half knight’s
fees from Isabella, wife of the late William de Vescy. Ralph was to do homage
and service while rendering 100s for scutage when the royal service runs.[17]
The ownership of Eustace le Poer
The lands of Eustace le Poer appear to have been highly profitable. When
various Irish magnates gave loans to Edward I to pay for the Scottish war
effort, the Earl of Ulster gave £5,000 followed by Eustace le Poer who gave
£1,340 15s 9d.[18] The
Earl was by far the largest landowner in Ireland at the time and so for le Poer
to give a fifth of what the Earl gave must mean that le Poer’s relatively small
estate generated good income and profits.
Later on, during the treasurership of Alexander de Bicknor (c.1307-14)
money was paid out to various Irish magnates from campaigning in Scotland. The
Earl of Ulster received £1,000 while Edmund le Botiller and Eustace le Poer
both got £200. Other magnates, like le Poer’s kinsman, John le Poer, baron of
Dunhill, got £100 or less.[19]
By 1309 the manors of Castlewarden and Oughterard were in waste with no
castle of consequence upon the estate. In that year, John le Blount, bachelor
from Cornwall petitioned the king for a grant for life of the manors, in
consideration of his good service to Edward I in the wars in Scotland and
Ireland. Le Blount promised to pay the extent for the manors but wanted £3 9s
7d to be remitted because much of the manors were in waste.[20]
In about 1316 Arnald le Poer wrote to Edward II asking for the remainder
of the 100 marks of land at Castlewarden and Oughterard. He had only received
£32 worth of lands so far. By the same letter Arnald asked for a grant of
Courton and Glascarn near Torghel. These lands had been unprofitable for the
previous twelve years because they were occupied by Irish felons.[21]
Castlewarden Golf Club covers much of the old manor site
Arnold le Poer died in 1329 and was succeeded by his Eustace le Poer II
who thus became head of the le Poer family of Kells, Co. Kilkenny. Owing to the
death of some heads of other branches of the extended le Poer lineage, Eustace
became the acting head of the whole le Poer lineage in Counties Kilkenny and Waterford . The first half
of the fourteenth century was an unsettled period and Eustace ‘proved
disastrously unequal to the difficult tasks confronting him’.[22]
Eustace le Poer was unable to control various branches of the lineage
and they took the opportunity to advance their own position which usually meant
outrages against the civil authorities. The assassination of the sheriff of Tipperary in 1338 was sited
against him as was his own involvement in the attack on the seneschal of
Kilkenny, Oliver de la Freigne. The Dublin
administration sent a military force against Eustace and the le Poers to
control the violence. Eustace was arrested and imprisoned in Dublin . At this juncture Eustace was
compelled to surrender his lands in counties Dublin and Kildare.[23]
Following his release, Eustace le Poer tried to rehabilitate himself to
the Dublin administration and served brief with the king’s army in France
during the early 1340s. Yet by the mid 1340s Eustace again faced the problems
of loyalty. Branches of the le Poer linage again commented acts of violence
such that Ralph Ufford, the justiciar, visited Waterford and executed a number of le Poers.
This and other events alienated Eustace from the government and he joined the
then rebellion of Maurice fitz Thomas, first Earl of Desmond.[24]
In 1346 Thomas Smothe, his wife Alice and their son Thomas sent a
petition to the King and Council on their claim to the manor. They stated that
Eustace le Poer had given them the land on a lease for life before he failed to
produce the Earl of Desmond. When the lands were taken into the King’s hand by
the justiciar he seemed to be unaware of the grant to Thomas or maybe decided to
ignore it. The justiciar, Ralph de Ufford, subsequently gave the manor in fee
farm to William de Burton.[25]
In the following year a rendering of Smothe’s petition suggests that the
lease from le Poer was made after he was release from prison. The London text
of Smothe’s petition also tells us that Thomas Smothe wanted not just the
restoration of the manors but the income from same while the lands were in the
king’s hand. The dating of the various events was, therefore, not just
important for Thomas Smothe so that he could recover the property, but for the
government to avoid incurring unnecessary costs and lost of income. A writ was
sent, in March 1347, to the justiciar asking for the date when le Poer was
mainprised for the Earl of Desmond and the date of conveyance to Smothe.[26]
Matters improved for the petitioners as the year progressed. The Earl of
Desmond went to England and surrendered himself to the government. With this
action, the restrictions of Eustace le Poer were lifted, provided he paid a
fine for breaking his mainprise. On 15 September 1347 a writ was issue from Calais ordering that the Smothe family be restored
according to the laws and customs of Ireland .[27]
Return to Royal ownership
The Black Death had a large negative impact upon much of the economic
life within the English area of Ireland. Tenants on many manors died and often
left only minors to take over. A good number of labourers also died or took
advantage of labour shortages across the economy to move to places were higher
wages could be more easily got. These population reductions left fewer people
to work the land and consequently production of agricultural produce declined.
This decline caused an increase in commodity prices as product became scarcer
and led to government officials to demand a bigger quantity of victuals from
royal and other manors so as to maintain adequate supplies for the army.
By July 1354 many royal manors in Counties Dublin and Kildare began to
feel the pressure and found it difficult to pay their rents due to the king.
Thus they petitioned the king for relief and special protection. In this they
were successful but the economic and social pressures were still there on the
day after as they were on the day before. The only difference was that
government officials were to treat the royal manors with sympathy and less of a
heavy hand.[28]
The Earls of Ormond acquire
Castlewarden
On February 16, 1412 King Henry IV formerly granted the manor of Castlewarden
and Oughterard to Thomas Butler, Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem
in Ireland and deputy to the lord lieutenant of Ireland, in fee simple for one
rose every year on the feast of St. John the Baptist.[29]
The Hospital had a previous interest in the manor since the days of Adam de
Hereford.
Shortly after, Castlewarden passed to James Butler, fourth Earl of
Ormond, though the Hospital maintain an interest in the manor for many
generations. Just before the dissolution of the monastery, the Hospital had
granted its land at Kilwarden, part of Castlewarden to Thomas and Mary Allen.
The Allen family were well represented in the area as nearby at Oughterard
there lived Robert Allen in 1537 while Richard Allen lived there in 1561.[30]
Meanwhile, in March 1414 Earl James of Ormond appointed Thomas Harbrig
as constable of his caste at Cloncurry and seneschal of his Kildare manors
including Castlewarden and Oughterard. Thomas was to get a fee of 100s per year
along eighty-two acres of land. With the troubled nature of the times, the Earl
agreed to pay the cost of twelve archers.[31]
By 1428 Castlewarden had passed to the St. Leger family. In that year
William St. Leger granted it, along with other properties, to Henry St. Leger
of Kilkenny and his heirs.[32]
Sometime later Castlewarden reverted to the crown. At the parliament
held before Thomas, Earl of Desmond in 1465 the manor was granted to Desmond’s
cousin, Gerald Fitzgerald. The grant included the lordship of Oghteryne, Co.
Kildare, the manor of Turvey, Co. Dublin and the manor of Blackcastle in Co.
Meath, all former Ormond properties. In a rental taken at the time, the so
called lordship of Castlewarden and Oughterard generated an income of 40 marks.[33]
James Butler, fifth Earl of Ormond, was created Earl of Wiltshire in the
English peerage in 1449 and was in favour at court holding many government
positions in Ireland and rising to becoming Lord Treasurer of England in 1459.
In these good times, Earl James received a grant from the king of the manor of
Castlewarden with the vill of Oughterard.[34]
Yet the good times were not to last. The War of the Roses was taking its
victims and Earl James was captured by the Yorkists at the battle of Towton. He
was later beheaded at Newcastle in 1461 when his title and lands were declared
forfeit.
For an account of the English lands of the Earls of Ormond see = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2016/07/english-estates-of-earl-of-ormond-in.html
In 1480 Thomas, seventh Earl of Ormond, received a resumption of his
title and lands in Ireland. Included in this deed was the manor of
Castlewarden, the vill of Oughterard and the manor of Donnada, Co. Kildare. The
three properties were valued at £20 Irish of which the king was due two thirds
and with 9 marks to Ormond. This division of the income was because Ormond was
an absentee living in England. Such absentees had to give two thirds of their
Irish revenue to help the government’s defence costs in Ireland.
Establishing Ormond’s rights in a practical manner in north Kildare was
another matter. The Earl of Kildare had for many years seized the rents from
Ormond’s properties by force.[35] Fifteen
years later the Dublin government included the Kildare properties in an Act of
Resumption. Sir James Butler offered to act as deputy in Ireland for
Earl Thomas and help secure the Ormond inheritance.[36]
Castlewarden in the early sixteenth
century
At about this time of 1500 a rental of Oughterard has survived. It lists
the names of about sixty tenants where the total rental is given as £5 6s 8d.
The tenant’s surnames are a mixture of English and Irish names. Among the
English we find Grant, Fleming, White, Tobin, Brown, Elyot, Anwell and Nangle.
The Irish names include; O’Dwyer, O’Byrne, O’Haly, O’Kenwan and O’Henan. The
highest rent of 18d was paid by William Anwell.[37]
In 1504 Earl Thomas made efforts to gain control of his Co. Kildare
lands. The Earl of Kildare, who was father in law to Ormond’s cousin, Sir Piers
Butler promised to give assistance if the lands were granted to Sir Piers. It
would appear that Ormond established control. By an indenture of 24 December
1505, Earl Thomas granted his cousin, Sir Piers Butler various lands in Co.
Kildare including the manor of Castlewarden and Oughterard. This was reissued
in July 1509 when we learn that Sir Piers was to pay the Earl one third of the
issues of the manors. Yet we also learn that the grant is void if Sir Piers can
not establish possession or if he should go into arrears with the rent.[38]
Many obstacles could prevent Sir Piers from getting possession like the Earl of
Kildare, the change of favour by the government, Ormond’s cousin filing a claim
or the local Irish and English residents preventing entry.
It appears that the Earl of Kildare held some property in the vill of
Oughterard in the 1530s. A survey of the earl’s property, taken after his
attainder for treason shows the earl receiving 2s per annum rent for houses and
eighteen acres of arable land from Patrick O’Kelly. The Earl of Ormond was due
4s rent from this property. Oughterard is not mentioned in the Kildare rental
of 1518 yet is it difficult to say if this was because the compilers of the
rental forgot to include it or that the Earl of Kildare had to legal claim
until after 1518.[39]
Passed to the Ormond heirs
general
In a long indenture made in February 1528 the manor of Castlewarden and
the vill of Oughterard were granted to Dame Anne St. Leger, Dame Margaret
Boleyn, Thomas, Viscount Rocheford and Sir George St. Leger along with other
Irish property. In return the latter four acknowledged the right of Sir Piers
Butler, Earl of Ossory and his son James to various properties in Tipperary and Kilkenny
including Kilkenny castle.[40] If
the cousins established possession of Castlewarden their enjoyment was not
without interruption. An unsigned letter of 1535 tells Piers, Earl of Wiltshire
and Ossory that Castlewarden and Oughterard suffered along with other Butler
property in Kildare and Dublin during the Kildare rebellion. It was stated that
the Northmen had attacked the two places.[41]
Also during the 1530s, the title of the heirs general to Castlewarden
was questioned by the government. When the estates of the Earl of Ormond were
declared forfeit in May 1536, his Kildare lands were granted to the heirs
general. Yet a jury assembled in Duleek in August 1537 could not say how or
from whom the heirs general held the lands of Castlewarden, Oughterard and
Clintonscourt.[42]
An inquisition held e few months later before the barons of the
exchequer, found that George St Leger and Margaret Boleyn held Castlewarden and
Oughterard in joint ownership. We learn from the inquisition that Richard
Aylmer operated a watermill for use by the tenants of Oughterard and that the
heirs held jointly another watermill at Castlewarden which was leased to
Bartholomew Dillon for a certain term of years in October 1532. For the better
management of all the former Ormond estates in Counties Dublin, Meath and
Kildare, the heirs general had appointed Sir John Barnewall, Lord Trimleteston
and Patrick Barnewall of Feldeston as stewards for life.
In common with standard practice George St Leger had granted the manors
of Castlewarden, Oughterard and Clintonscourt in February 1533 to ten trustees
for the use of Anne St Leger, his wife and for their son, John.[43]
Castlewarden back with Earl
Ormond
The Earls of Ormond had lived for many years in England and the
Polestown Butlers acted as their deputy in Ireland. Yet when the Act of
Absentees was passed in May 1536 the title of Earl of Ormond revert to the
crown along with the great bulk of Ormond’s Irish property. Sir Piers Butler, Earl
of Ossory launched a difficult campaign against strong opposition to recover
his title and lands.
A few years later, in 1538, Henry VIII made a grant to Sir Piers Butler,
Earl of Ossory and (since February 1538) of Ormond of various former Butler
properties around Ireland including Castlewarden and Oughterard.[44] The
valuations on the manor at the time was £8 7s 7d for Oughterard and £13 13s 2½d
for Castlewarden. When compared to the valuation of other properties like
Kilkenny (£27 2s 10½d), Carrick-on-Suir (£12 10s 3d) Rathville, Co. Carlow (£75
2s 8d) and Rush, Co. Dublin
(£66 10s 9d), then Castlewarden was not in the high value league.[45]
Yet as we will see later, the various Earls of Ormond regarded it as an
important stopping point between Kilkenny and Dublin .
Kilkenny castle
Sir Piers Butler died in 1539 and so his son James, now Earl of Ormond,
inherited the estate. James appointed Patrick Barnewall of Fieldston as
seneschal of all his manors in Dublin ,
Meath and Kildare which included Castlewarden. It is unclear who leased the
eighty acres at Fensithe, parcel of Castlewarden which was held by George Shaw
in July 1547.[46]
A deed from March 1540 tells us that Ormond let to Thomas O’Molawne
(O’Molone), husbandman, one measure in Oughterard for twenty five years at an
annual rent of 4 marks. The land included all moors, pastures and meadows
belonging to it and if Thomas planted corn he could reap and bind it without
contradiction or paying any extra rent. Thomas could also let the land to
tenants to farm.[47]
Thomas’s surname those not appear in the rental of Oughterard of c.1500, quoted
previously, and would suggest that he was a new comer to the area.
The great corn growing days of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
had ended. Pasture and stock raising was the main farming activity with corn growing
as an optional extra. Thomas O’Molawne was born a husbandman and an Irishman, a
reflection of the changing population in what was once the English part of
Ireland.
James, Earl of Ormond found Thomas O’Molawne to be a good and pleasing
tenant. In November 1543 he gave Thomas a lease for 21 years at 49s per year of
more land in Oughterard. On this occasion Thomas got a house with appurtenances
in Oughterard, over forty-six acres of arable land, three acres of meadow and
half of the lord’s demesne. The inclusion of arable land would suggest some
corn growing was still practiced. It would suggest that the Earl previously
grew corn under his own management but perhaps found it hard to get labour to
harvest it or to make a good profit. The new lease also gave Thomas extra
responsibilities. He was to provide a horse and one horse-keeper for when the
Earl or his heirs should be in Kildare or Dublin .[48]
This latter provision of a horse appears to be common in leases of
outlining manors. A lease in 1459 between the priory of Llanthony by Gloucester and Robert
White instructed the latter to provide feed for the horses of the steward and
the prior’s servants when they came to superintend the manor of Chirton,
Wiltshire.[49]
If Earl James found Thomas O’Molawne to be a good man, not everyone in
Oughterard was so honour at that time. An inquisition before the Barons of the
Exchequer found that in February 1543 Patrick Kelly from Oughterard, serjeant,
travelled to Blackhall, Co. Kildare and used extortion to acquire a brass dish
and tripod from one resident while collecting his stipend and got another
tripod from Thomas Gaydon of Sherlockstown by forced means.[50]
At around the same time other Irish people visited Castlewarden for non
neighbourly purposes. In the poem called “The battle-roll of Aodh mac Seaáin” a
host of places across the counties of Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow, Offaly, Laois,
Kildare and Dublin
are mentioned as raiding locations for Aodh O’Byrne. Between the years 1548 and
1579 this Irish chief extracted cattle, sheep and “black rents” from this large
area of Leinster . Castlewarden is listed as a
target location under its Irish name of Caislen Bharruin. In fact in the days
before the Norman invasion the O’Byrne territory of North Kildare
Despite these events, the next Earl of Ormond, Sir Thomas Butler also
found north Kildare to be an enjoyable place to be. In his lease of
Castlewarden and Clintonscourt, Co. Kildare along with property in Co. Dublin,
to Thomas Long, the Earl asked for victuals for two horses and two horse-boys
to be provided. The Earl further wanted a hall to be built at Castlewarden as a
place to stay on his way to Dublin or returning home. This 1555 lease mentioned
the castle at Castlewarden so that the proposed hall must be more in keeping
with modern tastes of comfort.
The lease to Thomas Long was for four named lives or 41 years at an
annual rent of £14 8s. The four names were for John White, William Browne,
Richard Blake and Philip Jordan. It is not clear if these were local people to
the north Kildare area or from some other part of the Ormond earldom. Further
parts of the lease allowed Thomas Long to plant grain and harvest it for his
own profit.[52]
It is possible that this Thomas Long of the Ormond deeds was the same
person, or the father of Thomas Lang who lived at Castlewarden in 1560. This
latter man acquired the castle and lands of Haroldsgrange, Co. Dublin ,
in that year, from Bernard Fitzpatrick, baron of Upper
Ossory for thirty years.[53]
In about May 1566 a fragment of a petition comes to light among the
state papers in London. The petitioner desired to have the manors of Arklow,
Rathvilly and Clonmore; the villages of Huttonreade, Castlefarnam and
Oughterard; the lordship of Blackcastle and the villages of Ballydongan and
Balliscaddan.[54] These
were various properties owned by the Earl of Ormond yet were burdened by heavy
state taxation during his absence. A letter on 30 November 1566 from Queen
Elizabeth to Lord Deputy Sidney says that ‘No other cesses other than the
customary ones are to be levied on his lands, manors or lordships of Arklow,
Tully, Rathvilly, Clonmore or Blackcastle’.[55]
Castlewarden and Oughterard formed part of the Ormond estate entrusted
to trustees in 1571 and again in 1576.[56]
At that time, it would appear that parts of Castlewarden were in a poor state
of preservation. In a lease of 1572 between Earl Thomas and Patrick Gough of Dublin , the latter rented
the Old Mill at Castlewarden amongst other property, which was ‘a place where
sometime thee was a mill called the mill of Castlewarden.[57]
This entry would suggest that the old mill was then in ruins and only carried
old commercial rights as the mill of the manor.
About the same time we learn that Oughterard was treated as a manor in
its own right. In 1576, Gerald Sutton of Castle Kildrought, Co. Kildare held of
the manor of Oughterard an unknown number of messuages, twelve gardens and
forty-four acres from the Earls of Ormond by fealty.[58]
Another tenant around that same time and a possible cousin of Sutton was Roland
Eustace; Viscount Baltinglass, who held a messuage and sixteen acres at
Oughterard from Lord Ormond by rent and suit of court.[59]
A few years later David, son of Gerald Sutton along with Edmund and
Thomas Eustace were attained from the rebellion by Viscount Baltinglass, the
brother of Edmund. By an inquisition before the Exchequer Barons in June 1586
we are told that David Sutton was seized of ten acres and two messuages in the
Clonynge near Oughterard. This property was previously held by Walter Fitzsimon
of Clonynge and others.[60]
Occasionally, stray documents relating to Castlewarden and Oughterard appear
like the 1584 bond of £47 from Oliver Lambert of Dublin to George Greene of
Castlewarden.[61] Happily
some more information can be provided on George Greene. He was a farmer of
Castlewarden with Thomas Dongan and together they witnessed the transfer of the
Ormond earldom from the trustees of 1571 to William Fitz Robert Purcell in
October 1593 for thirty-seven years. They agreed that Castlewarden should be
part of the transfer and paid one penny, each, to Purcell for the conveyance.
Giles Allen, an alderman of Dublin, was the farmer of Oughterard and he paid 3d
sterling for the same conveyance to Purcell.[62]
In January 1595 George received a new lease of Castlewarden with its
castle and lands for 31 years at an annual rent of £21 8s. The rent had increased
by £7 since the lease of 1555 yet the provision of victuals for the two horses
and two horse-boys had remained the same.[63]
Another stray document from an inquest post mortem conducted in
September 1587 that Thomas Aylmer of Lyons had enfeoffed his estate to trustees
in April 1574. Part of the estate included property rented from Lord Ormond on
the latter’s manor of Cloncurry and some unspecified property at Oughterard. A
later Aylmer
document from February 1603 stated that part of this latter property included
that new mill of Oughterard.[64]
Another stray landholding comes from 1589, as part of a list of
forfeited patents in which we find that Henry Heron, an assignee of the late
William Heron held one messuage with garden and certain lands at Carne,
Giblenston and Outrande (Oughterard), Co. Kildare from the crown at 37s in
annual rent.[65]
A few years later, in 1599, John Horsfall, bishop of Ossory, and others
recovered Ormond’s property from the trustees led by Robert Rothe. The manors
of Oughterard, Castlewarden and Donadea Cloncurry formed part of the recovered
estates, along with £85 of rent from the barony of Oughterany and Clintonscourt.[66] In
the feoffment by Thomas, Earl of Ormond of his property in 1614 to trustees
headed by Sir Nicholas Walsh, the lands of Oughterard are mentioned along with
rents and services due from Donadea Cloncurry and Clintons Court, Co. Kildare.[67]
The church and rectory
In 1541 Stephen Creman was vicar of Castlewarden and Oughterard. At that time the church at Castlewarden was said to be in need of repair.
On December 12, 1576 Anthony Power, gent got a lease from the crown of
the rectory of Oughterard, late parcel of the abbey of St. Thomas the martyr,
Dublin along with two rectories in County Kilkenny. The lease was for thirty
years and to start after the interest of Sir Henry Radcliff had ended. The rent
was £18 per year which was partly to be paid by corn.[68]
Conclusion
After 1600 Castlewarden and Oughterard entered the modern age and a
different world and an account of those times awaits another day. Today (2016) much of the old medieval manor site is covered by Castlewarden Golf Club. For now we
conclude the medieval story of Norman knights and great Earls as the local
people continue on as they always do.
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End of post
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[1] Paul MacCotter, Medieval Ireland : Territorial, Political and Economic
Divisions (Dublin
[2] Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven,
‘The medieval county
of Kildare
[3] Paul MacCotter, Medieval Ireland
[4] Goddard Henry Orpen, Ireland under the Normans
1169-1333 (Dublin
[5] Richard Roche, The Norman invasion of Ireland
(Dublin, Anvil, 1995), p. 110; Goddard Henry Orpen, Ireland under the Normans 1169-1333, vol. 1, pp. 330-1
[6] Goddard Henry Orpen, Ireland under the Normans Dublin , 1932), vol. 1, no.
1
[7] Linda Doran, ‘Lords of the river valley: economic and military
lordship in the Carlow Corridor, c.1200-1350 – European model in an Irish
context’, in Linda Doran & James Lyttleton (eds.), Lordship in Medieval Ireland :
image and reality (Dublin
[10] Goddard Henry Orpen, Ireland under the Normans
[11] Goddard Henry Orpen, Ireland under the Normans
[12] H.S. Sweetman (ed.), Calendar
of documents relating to Ireland ,
1171 – 1307 (5 vols, P. R. O., London, 1875 – 86 and reprint, Liechtenstein, Kraus-Thomson, 1974), vol. 2 (1252-1284), no. 978
[17] H.S. Sweetman, Calendar of
documents relating to Ireland
[18] Philomena Connolly, ‘List of Irish entries on the Memoranda Rolls
of the English Exchequer, 1307-27’, in Analecta
Hibernica, no. 36 (1995), p. 187
[19] Philomena Connolly, ‘List of Irish entries on the Memoranda Rolls
of the English Exchequer, 1307-27’, in Analecta
Hibernica, no. 36 (1995), p. 202
[20] Philomena Connolly, ‘Irish material in the class of Ancient
Petitions (SC8) in the Public Record Office, London
[21] Philomena Connolly, ‘Irish material in the class of Ancient
Petitions (SC8) in the Public Record Office, London
[22] Ciaran Parker, ‘Paterfamilias and Parentela: the le Poer lineage in
fourteenth-century Waterford
[23] Ciaran Parker, ‘Paterfamilias and Parentela: the le Poer lineage in
fourteenth-century Waterford
[24] Ciaran Parker, ‘Paterfamilias and Parentela: the le Poer lineage in
fourteenth-century Waterford
[25] Philomena Connolly, ‘Irish material in the class of Ancient
Petitions (SC8) in the Public Record Office, London
[26] Philomena Connolly, ‘Irish material in the class of Chancery
Warrants Series I (C81) in the Public Record Office, London’, in Analecta Hibernica, no. 36 (1995), p. 156
[27] Philomena Connolly, ‘Irish material in the class of Chancery
Warrants Series I (C81) in the Public Record Office, London’, in Analecta Hibernica, no. 36 (1995), p.
157
[29] Edmund Curtis, Calendar of Ormond Deeds, vol. III, pp.
368, 390. The deed on page 368 suggests that Earl James received Castlewarden
directly but the deed on page 390 would support Thomas Butler as first
recipient.
[30] Margaret C. Griffith, Calendar
of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the
Exchequer prepared from MSS of the Irish Record Commission (Dublin, Irish
Manuscripts Commission, 1991), H VIII 93, 143 (15), Eliz 14
[39] Gearoid Mac Niocaill (ed.), Crown
Surveys of Lands 1540-41with the Kildare rental begun in 1518 (Dublin,
Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1992), pp. 146, 232-357
[42] Margaret C. Griffith, Calendar
of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the
Exchequer, H VIII 103
[43] Margaret C. Griffith, Calendar
of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the
Exchequer, H VIII 106
[45] J.S. Brewer & William Bullen (eds.), Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts at Lambeth (Liechtenstein
[46] Margaret C. Griffith, Calendar
of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the
Exchequer, E VI 3
[49] John Rhodes (ed.), A calendar
of the Registers of the Priory of Llanthony by Gloucester
[50] Margaret C. Griffith, Calendar
of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the
Exchequer, H VIII 166
[51] Sean Mac Airt (ed.), Leabhar
Branach: the book of the O’Byrnes (Dublin
[53] Margaret C. Griffith, Calendar
of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the
Exchequer, E 77
[54] Bernadette Cunningham, Calendar
of State Papers, Ireland ,
Tudor Period 1566-1567 (Dublin
[55] Ibid, no. 309
[58] Margaret C. Griffith, Calendar
of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the
Exchequer, Eliz 82
[59] Margaret C. Griffith, Calendar
of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the
Exchequer, Eliz 133
[60] Margaret C. Griffith, Calendar
of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the
Exchequer, Eliz 167. Clonynge was Clownings in the parish of Whitechurch,
Co. Kildare.
[61] Brian C. Donovan &
David Edwards (eds.), British Sources for
Irish History 1485-1641 (Dublin, Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1997), p. 52
[64] Margaret C. Griffith, Calendar
of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the
Exchequer, Eliz 180, A 49
[65] Margaret C. Griffith, Calendar
of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the
Exchequer, Eliz 193 (15)
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