Family succession to Dunleckney vicarage in 1441

Family succession to Dunleckney vicarage in 1441

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

On 26^th April 1441 John Omolmohy (O’Moloney) received a papal mandate to become the next vicar of Dunleckney vicarage in the Diocese of Leighlin. Unlike many other people who went to Rome to seek an Irish benefice, John Omolmohy did not bring true or false accusations against the incumbent or claim that the occupier held the benefice without proper title. Instead John Omolmohy was simply trying to succeed his father, Thomas Omolmohy, the then incumbent of Dunleckney.[1]

Clerical succession

Hereditary clerical succession was one of the most striking figures of the medieval Irish church. It was one of the abuses cited by the reformers in the twelfth century. In 1250 the Bishop of Ossory complained to the Pope about the practice of succession within a family to monastic houses and parish churches. The adoption of clerical celibacy could have led to the almost disappearance of the practice. But the accession of Pope John XXII in 1316 eliminated all the progress. The pressing financial needs of the Avignon papacy meant new ways of raising money had to be implemented. One of these ways was the sale of dispensations. Thus the bar to clerical succession within a family was made ineffective once the necessary fees were paid to the papacy at Rome or Avignon.[2]  

Dunleckney medieval church

Dunleckney

Dunleckney, known as the church of St. Mary de Arone, alias Dunalhac, was in 1486 valued at less than 12 marks sterling.[3] In 1441 the vicarage was also called Kyldrynach and was valued at less than 8 marks.[4] This difference in values may reflect the different economic conditions of the times, but in 1441, it possibly was just a case of suppressing the value of the parish so as to reduce the amount of taxation due to Rome. The new incumbent into a parish was obliged to pay the first year’s revenue (annatis) of the benefice to the papal camera.[5]

The large church at Dunleckney was at the caput of the barony of Dunleckney and therefore chief seat of the de Carew family, heirs of Raymond ‘le Gros’ Fitzwilliam Fitzgerald. Before 1207 the advowson of Dunleckney was granted to the nunnery of Graney in Kildare by William de Carew.[6] The de Carew family held Dunleckney until the 14^th century but towards the end of the century lost the area to Irish families such as the Kavanaghs.

John Omolmohy

John Omolmohy was the son of Thomas Omolmohy, vicar of Dunleckney, and an unmarried woman. To succeed his father, John Omolmohy had first to get a papal dispensation as the son of a vicar to be promoted to all, even holy orders and obtain the right to hold a benefice even with cure of souls. After a lapse of some reasonable time John Omolmohy could succeed his father. To affect the changeover, Thomas Omolmohy resigned Dunleckney to the Pope through his proctor, Maurice Ofeyd (O’Fay), a priest of the Diocese of Derry.[7] It is likely that Maurice Ofeyd was active in Rome as agent for a number of petitioners and may not necessarily have known the Omolmohy family personally.

On 26^th April 1441 a papal mandate was issued to the Bishop of Valva, and the archdeacon of Leighlin along with Thomas Layles, a canon of Leighlin to affect the immediate succession of John Omolmohy.[8] It is not known for how long John Omolmohy held Dunleckney. The next vicar of the parish to appear in the records was in 1486 when Donatus Oduyling held it.[9]

Bibliography

Brooks, E. St. John, Knight’s fees in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny in 13^th-15^th Century (Stationery Office, Dublin, 1950)

Connolly, P., Medieval Record Sources (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2002)

Nicholls, K.W., Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland in the Middle Ages (Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2003)

O’Brien, N.C.E.J., ‘Dunleckney Vicarage under challenge in 1486’, in Carloviana: Journal of the Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society, No. 65 (2017), pp. 132-134

Twemlow, J.A. (ed.), Calendar of entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, Vol. IX, 1431-1447 (Stationery Office, London, 1912)

Twemlow, J.A. (ed.), Calendar of Papal Registers Relating To Great Britain and Ireland, Vol X, 1484-1492 (Stationery Office, London, 1960)

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[1] Twemlow, J.A. (ed.), Calendar of entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, Vol. IX, 1431-1447 (Stationery Office, London, 1912), p. 192

[2] Nicholls, K.W., Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland in the Middle Ages (Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2003), pp. 106, 107

[3] Twemlow, J.A. (ed.), Calendar of Papal Registers Relating To Great Britain and Ireland, Vol X, 1484-1492 (Stationery Office, London, 1960), p. 125

[4] Twemlow (ed.), Calendar of Papal Registers Great Britain & Ireland, Vol. IX, 1431-1447, pp. 192, 193

[5] Connolly, P., Medieval Record Sources (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2002), p. 40

[6] Brooks, E. St. John, Knight’s fees in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny in 13^th-15^th Century (Stationery Office, Dublin, 1950), pp. 60, 61

[7] Twemlow (ed.), Calendar of Papal Registers Great Britain & Ireland, Vol. IX, 1431-1447, pp. 192, 193

[8] Twemlow (ed.), Calendar of Papal Registers Great Britain & Ireland, Vol. IX, 1431-1447, p. 193

[9] Twemlow (ed.), Calendar of Papal Registers Great Britain & Ireland, Vol X, 1484-1492, p. 125; O’Brien, N.C.E.J., ‘Dunleckney Vicarage under challenge in 1486’, in Carloviana: Journal of the Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society, No. 65 (2017), pp. 132-134