We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
Between the Reformation and catholic emancipation a succession of statutory and other provisions was framed by the authorities in Dublin and London with the intention of enforcing religious conformity Persons who refused to conform were rendered liable to various disabilities and penalties of a severe nature. Discrimination became widespread in the first half of the eighteenth century with what were collectively known as the penal laws. These contained general provisions which touched all citizens in relation to many aspects of their lives, especially the holding of land. But from 1537 there were also specific measures aimed at particular groups, including the legal profession. These measures ensured that appointments to the bench could continue to be manipulated on the basis of loyalty to the established church. Long after the first relaxation of the penal laws, catholic lawyers who refused to conform were still excluded from the higher ranks of the legal profession. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which statutory and other requirements, introduced from 1537 onwards, were effective in excluding Roman Catholics from legal practice and in achieving outward religious conformity among lawyers between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
1 Bradshaw, Brendan, The dissolution of the religious orders in Ireland under Henry VIII (Cambridge, 1974),Google Scholar app. 1, Ball, F.E., The judges in Ireland, 1221–1921 (2 vols, London, 1926), i, 130 Google Scholar; S.P Hen. VIII, iii, 321–2.
2 Ball, , Judges, 1, 197, 199–200, 203–5Google Scholar; Bradshaw, , Dissolution, pp 33, 93Google Scholar; Cregan, D.F, ‘Irish catholic admissions to the English inns of court, 1558–1625’ in Ir. Jurist, 5 (1970), p. 97 Google Scholar
3 Edwards, R.D., Church and state in Tudor Ireland: a history of penal laws against Irish catholics, 1534–1603 (Dublin, 1935), pp 36–7Google Scholar
4 Edwards, , Church & state, p. 62 Google Scholar; Bradshaw, , Dissolution, pp 58–65 Google Scholar; Ellis, Steven, Tudor Ireland: crown, community and the conflict of cultures, 1470–1603 (London, 1985), pp 131–2Google Scholar; 28 Hen. VIII, c. 16, (Stat. Ire.), which was moved in 1536 but not passed until 1537 (S.P. Hen. VIII, ii, 370, n.).
5 For an overview of recent work, see Ellis, , Tudor Ireland, pp 183–228 Google Scholar; Lennon, Colm, ‘The counter-reformation in Ireland, 1542–1641’ in Brady, Ciaran and Gillespie, Raymond (eds), Natives and newcomers: essays on the making of Irish colonial society, 1534–1641 (Dublin, 1986), pp 75–92, 221–4, 242–3.Google Scholar
6 P.R.O., S.P.Ire. 60/10/33; S.P. Hen. VIII, iii, 321–2; Cal. S.P Ire., 1509–73, p. 60.
7 28 Hen. VIII, c. 15, esp. ss 1, 3, 19 (Stat. Ire.); Corcoran, Timothy, State policy in Irish education (Dublin, 1916), pp 15–17 Google Scholar
8 Ball, , Judges, 1, 125–6, 196–207Google Scholar; Canny, N.P, The formation of the Old English élite in Ireland (Dublin, 1975), pp 9–15.Google Scholar
9 28 Hen. VIII (1536), c. 13, s. 6 (Stat. Ire.); Hayes-McCoy, G.A. ‘The royal supremacy and ecclesiastical revolution, 1534–47’ in New hist. Ire., 3, 60–61.Google Scholar
10 3 & 4 Philip and Mary (1556), c. 8, s. 1 (Stat. Ire.); Hayes-McCoy, loc. cit., p. 66.
11 2 Eliz., c. 1, s. 9; ibid., c. 2 (Stat. Ire.); 1 Eliz., c. 1, s. 7; ibid., c. 2 (Stat. of realm); Ellis, , Tudor Ireland, pp 210–11.Google Scholar
12 The state letters of Henry earl of Clarendon, lord lieutenant of Ireland (Oxford, 1763), i, 113 (Mar. 1685–6); ‘The oath of royal supremacy’ in Cal. S.P Ire., 1606–8, pp cii–cviii; Edwards, , Church & state, pp 186–8Google Scholar; Ball, , Judges, 1, 233–4Google Scholar; Pawlisch, H.S., Sir John Davies and the conquest of Ireland: a study in legal imperialism (Cambridge, 1985), p. 42 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ellis, , Tudor Ireland, pp 219–20, 287Google Scholar; Williams, Penry, ‘The council in Munster in the late sixteenth century’ in I.C.HS. Bull. no. 123 (1961).Google Scholar
13 Fiants Ire., Eliz., nos 221, 222, 224, 227
14 Fiants Ire., Eliz., nos 5831, 5939; Saxey to Viscount Cranbourne, n.d. (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603-6, pp 219–20).
15 Cal. S.P Ire., 1603–6, pp 298–300; Desid. cur. Hib., i, 453–7; Black Book (MS record of King’s Inns for 1607–1730), ff 3, 173–173v; Duhigg, Bartholomew, History of the King’s Inns (Dublin, 1806), pp 108–10,Google Scholar although Duhigg is generally unreliable; Beckett, , Mod. Ire. (2nd ed., revised, 1981), p. 50 Google Scholar; Pawlisch, , Sir John Davies, p. 41.Google Scholar
16 Barnaby Rich, ‘Remembrances of the state of Ireland, 1612’, with notices by Litton Falkiner, C., in R.I.A. Proc., 24 (1906–7), p. 131 Google Scholar; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1608–10, p. 422; Ball, , Judges, 1, 221–2, 233–4, 238–44Google Scholar; Pawlisch, , Sir John Davies, pp 41–2Google Scholar; Prest, W.R., Rise of the barristers (Oxford, 1986), pp 82, 102.Google Scholar
17 5 Eliz., c. 1, s. 4 (Stat. of realm).
18 This emerges clearly from my current research work on the history of the King’s Inns before 1850, which is being completed as a doctoral thesis at Trinity College, Dublin.
19 33 Hen. VIII, sess. 2, c. 3, s. 3 (Stat. Ire.).
20 Baker, J.H., ‘The English legal profession, 1450–1550’ in Prest, W.R. (ed.), Lawyers in early modern Europe and America (London, 1981), pp 27–35Google Scholar; Baker, J.H., The legal profession and the common law (London, 1986), pp 91, 127–35Google Scholar; Prest, , Rise of the barristers, pp 114–15.Google Scholar
21 Tremayne to Sydney, June 1571 (P.R.O., S.P Ire., 63/32/66), cited in Canny, N.P, The Elizabethan conquest of Ireland: a pattern established, 1565–76 (Hassocks, 1976), p. 19.Google Scholar Cregan, , ‘Irish catholic admissions’, p. 98,Google Scholar and ‘IriSh Recusant Lawyers in politics in the reign of James I’ in Ir. Jurist, v (1970), p. 308, does not distinguish between a call to the bar and being admitted to practice.
22 Prest, W.R. The inns of court under Elizabeth I and the early Stuarts (London, 1971), pp 174–86Google Scholar; Parminter, Geoffrey, ‘Elizabethan popish recusancy in the inns of court’ in I.H.R. Bull., special suppl. 11 (1976)Google Scholar; Fischer, R.M., ‘Privy council coercion and religious conformity at the inns of court, 1569–84’ in Recusant History, 15 (1981), pp 305–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23 Prest, , Rise of the barristers, pp 211–17Google Scholar; Cregan, ‘Irish catholic admissions’, passim.
24 Cal. S.P Ire., 1574–85, p. 277; Cregan, , ‘Irish recusant lawyers’, p. 309 Google Scholar; Pawlisch, , Sir John Davies (1985), pp 41, 104Google Scholar; Pawlisch, H.S., ‘Sir John Davies’ law reports and the case of proxies’ in Ir. Jurist, 17 (1982), p. 376.Google Scholar
25 Prest, , Inns of court, p. 177 Google Scholar; Cal. S.P Ire., 1574–85, p. 268.
26 Bedwell, C.E.D., ‘Irishmen at the inns of court’ in Law Magazine and Review, 5th ser., 37 (1911–12), pp 268–77Google Scholar; Prest, , Inns of court, p. 36 Google Scholar; Richardson, W.C., A history of the inns of court (Baton Rouge, [c. 1975]), p. 11.Google Scholar
27 Moryson, Fynes, ‘The commonwealth of Ireland’ in Falkiner, , Illustrations, pp 278, 317Google Scholar; Hughes, Charles (ed.), Shakespeare’s Europe: Fynes Moryson’s itinerary (London, 1903), p. 229.Google Scholar
28 Canny, , Formation of the Old English, p. 29 Google Scholar; Silke, J.J. ‘The Irish abroad, 1534–1691’ in New hist. Ire., 3, 613 Google Scholar; Lennon, , ‘The counter-reformation’, p. 83 Google Scholar; Cal. S.P Ire., 1611–14, p. 394.
29 Lodge, , Peerage Ire. (1789), 5, 44–8Google Scholar; D.N.B., art. on Barnewall; Fiants Ire., Eliz., no. 260. Pawlish, , Sir John Davies, pp 110–13,Google Scholar mistakenly describes Barnewall as the son of the king’s Serjeant and also states baldly that he was a lawyer; but neither D.N.B., the published lists of admissions to the English inns of court nor Cal. S.P Ire. suggests this.
30 Loftus to Walsingham, 5 Apr. 1582 (P.R.O., S.P Ire., 63/91/14); Cal. S.P Ire., 1574–85, p. 359.
31 P.R.O., S.P Ire., 63/5/51–60; Cal. S.P Ire., 1509–73 (Mar. 1562), p. 189, nos 51–60.
32 Cal. S.P Ire., 1601–3, with addenda 1565–1654, p. 649; Black Book of King’s Inns, ff 143–144V (20 June 1609); ‘Lord Chancellor Gerrard’s report of Ireland’ in Anal. Hib., no. 2 (1931), pp 132–3, 138, 158; Walsingham letter-bk, pp 20, 25; Burnell and Nettervil papers, etc. (Lambeth Palace MS 628); Brady, Ciaran, ‘Conservative subversives: the community of the Pale and the Dublin administration, 1556–86’ in Corish, P.J. (ed.), Radicals, rebels and establishments: Historical Studies XV (Belfast, 1985), pp 17–27 Google Scholar
33 Cregan, , ‘Irish recusant lawyers’, pp 309–11Google Scholar; Pawlisch, , Sir John Davies (1985), pp 110–13Google Scholar but see above, n.29; Canny, N.P From reformation to restoration: Ireland, 1534–1660 (Dublin, 1987), pp 101–3Google Scholar; Cal. S.P Ire., 1603–6, pp 67, 78.
34 Cal. S.P Ire., 1603–6, p. 134.
35 Ibid., p. 261
36 For Talbot, see Cal. S.P Ire., 1611–14, p. 403; Cal. Carew MSS, 1603–24, p. 271, Cal. anc. rec. Dublin, ii, 438, 454, 506. For Bolton, see Ball, , Judges, 1, 330–32.Google Scholar For Meade, see Cregan, , ‘Irish recusant lawyers’, p. 309.Google Scholar For Everard, see above, n. 15. For others, see Cal. S.P Ire., 1603–6, pp 367, 374, 416, 443; Beckett, , Mod. Ire., pp 41–2Google Scholar; Clarke, Aidan, ‘Pacification, plantation and the catholic question, 1603–23’ in New hist. Ire., 3, 192.Google Scholar
37 William Lynch, Repertory to records of the exchequer, 1 James I to 1 Charles II (London College of Arms MS, shelf 7/8E, f. 37).
38 Cal. S.P Ire., 1603–6, pp 374, 438; Cal. S.P Ire., 1606–8, p. 128; Ball, , Judges, 1, 313.Google Scholar
39 Black Book of King’s Inns, ff 1, 2v, 10v; Ball, , Judges, 1, 236–8, 315–17Google Scholar; Clarke, , ‘Pacification, plantation & the catholic question’, p. 190 Google Scholar; Ford, G.A., The protestant reformation in Ireland, 1590–1641 (Frankfurt, 1985), pp 42–57.Google Scholar
40 Power, Thomas, ‘The “Black Book” of King’s Inns: an introduction with an abstract of contents’ in Ir. Jurist, 20 (1985), pp 139–40Google Scholar; Black Book of King’s Inns, ff 2–6, 171–3; Clarke, loc. cit., pp 214–15.
41 Rich, ‘Remembrances’, pp 130, 138.
42 Cregan, , ‘Irish recusant lawyers’, p. 311,Google Scholar Pawlish, Sir John Davies, p. 41; Cal. S.P Ire., 1611–14, pp 350, 433, 434, Moody, T W, ‘The Irish parliament under Elizabeth and James I in R.I.A. Proc., 45 (1939), sect. C, p. 58.Google Scholar
43 Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, p. 255 (20 Oct., 11 James I, 1613); Extracts from the rolls (Maynooth College, Reneghan MSS, iii, 407, 612).
44 Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, p. 278 (13 James I); Reneghan MSS, iii, 612.
45 Cal. S.P Ire., 1603–6, p. 261, Cal. anc. rec. Dublin, ii, 438, 454; Ball, , Judges, 1, pp 247, 330–32.Google Scholar
46 Commons’ jn. Ire., i, 47; Moody, , ‘The Irish parliament’, pp 62–3.Google Scholar
47 Black Book of King’s Inns, ff 4, 7v; Lists of patentee officers, 2 vols (P.R.O.I., Lodge MSS la.53.75, i, f. 148), which is fuller than Liber mun. pub. Hib., pt 2, p. 76; Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, pp 267, 292; Ball, , Judges, 1, 338.Google Scholar
48 Bliss, Alan, ‘The English language in early modern Ireland’ in New hist. Ire., 3, 546–7, 559Google Scholar; Beckett, , Mod. Ire., pp 37–8.Google Scholar
49 Cal. S.P Ire., 1633–47, pp 10, 264, Patentee officers (P.R.O.I., Lodge MSS, i, ff 148–9; Lib. mun. pub. Hib., pt 2, p. 76); The earl ofStrafforde ’s letters and dispatches, ed. Knowler, William (2 vols, London, 1739), i, 83 Google Scholar; Clarke, Aidan The Old English in Ireland, 1625–42 (London, 1966), pp 119–20.Google Scholar
50 Hughes, , Shakespeare’s Europe, pp xxi–xxiii, 229.Google Scholar
51 Clarke, Aidan (ed.), ‘A Discourse between two councillors of state, the one of England and the other of Ireland (1642) from B.M., Egerton MS 917’ in Anal. Hib., no. 26 (1970), p. 163 Google Scholar; Prendergast papers (King’s Inns MSS, iii, 222–3).
52 Sibthorpe, Christopher A friendly advertisement to the pretended catholickes of Ireland: declaring. . the king ’s supremacy .. consonant to the doctrine delivered in the holy scriptures (Dublin, 1623)Google Scholar; idem, A reply to an answer which a popish adversary made to two chapters in a friendly advertisement… (Dublin, 1625), especially the dedication to the reader; idem, A surreplication to the rejoynder of a popish adversary (Dublin, 1627), pp 4, 8–9, 12–15.
53 Cregan, , ‘Irish catholic admissions’, pp 96, 99, 104.Google Scholar
54 Prest, , Rise of the barristers, pp 81–2, 102.Google Scholar
55 Canny, , Formation of the Old English, pp 32–3Google Scholar; Cregan, , ‘Irish recusant lawyers’, p. 313 Google Scholar; Clarke, , ‘Pacification, plantation & the catholic question’, pp 219–25Google Scholar; O’Malley, Liam ‘Patrick Darcy, Galway lawyer and politician, 1598–1668’ in Cearbhaill, Diarmuid Ó (ed.), Galway, town and gown, 1484–1984 (Dublin, 1984), p. 93.Google Scholar
56 Clarke, , Old English, pp 30–31 Google Scholar; Silke, J.J ‘Irish scholarship and the renaissance, 1580–1673’ in Studies in the Renaissance, 20 (1973), pp 203–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lennon, , ‘Counter-reformation’, p. 83.Google Scholar
57 Cal S.P Ire., 1647–60, pp 308–12; the suggestion at p. 312 that the date of this document might be 1635 to 1639 appears to be inconsistent with its contents; Clarke, , Old English, p. 31.Google Scholar
58 Cal. S.P Ire., 1647–60, p. 100.
59 Cal. S.P Ire., 1625–32, pp 156–7; Clarke, , Old English, pp 36–7Google Scholar
60 Cal. S.P Ire., 1625–32, pp 332–8; Acts privy council, 1627–8, p. 428; Strafforde’s letters & dispatches, i, 317; Clarke, , Old English, app., pp 242–3Google Scholar; Cal. S.P Ire., 1625–32 (20 June 1628), p. 353; Càl. S.P Ire., 1660–62 (19 Oct. 1661), p. 445. Kearney, H.F, ‘The court of wards and liveries in Ireland, 1622–41’ in R.I.A. Proc., 57 (1955–6), sect. C, p. 39,Google Scholar indicates that the new form of oath, which was also to be taken by suitors in the court of wards, was being administered there by November 1628.
61 Power, ‘Black Book’, pp 141, 151, Black Book of the King’s Inns, ff 17–18 (1628).
62 Strafforde’s letters & dispatches, i, 317 (6 Oct. 1634).
63 Ibid., pp 102–3, 248, 300.
64 Lords’jn. Ire., i, 36–7
65 Strafforde’s letters & dispatches, i, 368, 451, 454, 465, 493–7; ii, 98, 113.
66 Cal. S.P Ire., 1633–47, pp 317–22; Commons’ jn. Ire., i, 162–3; Cal. S.P Ire., 1660–62, pp 445–6.
67 Borlase, The history of the execrable Irish rebellion (London, 1680), pp 17, 313Google Scholar (Lord Lowther’s speech at the opening of the high court of justice, at the trial of Sir Phelim O’Neal, 1652).
68 Commons’ jn., ii, 300, 307; H.M.C., rep. 11, app. 7, p. 307; Lords’ jn., iv, 428.
69 Records of Lincoln’s Inn: black books (London, 1898), ii, 360, 362.
70 Gilbert, , Ir. confed., 3, 284, 295, 317Google Scholar
71 Temple, John Sir, The Irish rebellion of 1641 (London, 1646), pp viii, 76.Google Scholar
72 The articles of peace (Kilkenny, 1648), no. 8; Borlase, Irish rebellion, p. 50,Google Scholar app; Gilbert, , Ir. confed., 4, pp lxvi, 313 Google Scholar; Comment. Rinucc, i, 480; ii, 577
73 Borlase, , Irish rebellion, app., pp 69–70, 76.Google Scholar
74 Barnard, T.C. Cromwellian Ireland (Oxford, 1975), pp 67–71, 249–81,Google Scholar Black Book of King’s Inns, ff 139, 145ν for Henry Cromwell who is not included in Edward Keane, Phair, P.B. and Sadleir, T.U., King’s Inns admission papers, 1607–1867 (Dublin, 1982)Google Scholar; Dunlop, Commonwealth, i, 2; Cal. S.P Ire., 1647–60, p. 850.
75 Cal. S.P Ire., 1660–62, p. 445; The rule books (Petty bag), 1662–1852 (P.R.O.I. MSS), included records of lawyers taking oaths and being called to the bar but this and similar evidence was lost in the destruction of the P.R.O.I, in 1922 ( Wood, Herbert, A guide to the records deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland (Dublin, 1919), pp 51, 54).Google Scholar
76 Prendergast papers (King’s Inns, Prendergast MSS, iv, 96); Cal. S.P Ire., 1625–32, p. 353; Cal. S.P Ire., 1660–62, pp 445–6, 635; Ball, F.E. ‘Some notes on the Irish judiciary in the reign of Charles II, 1660–85’ in Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., 7 (1901), p. 34.Google Scholar
77 Cal. S.P dom., 1691–2, p. 68; Black Book of King’s Inns, f. 282 (1698); Ball, ‘Some notes’, pp 40–41.
78 Nary, Cornelius, ‘The case of the Roman Catholics of Ireland represented to both houses of parliament, 1724’ in Reily, Hugh, The impartial history of Ireland (London, 1749), p. 119 Google Scholar; Simms, J.G., Jacobite Ireland, 1685–91 (London, 1969), pp 8–9, 257Google Scholar; King, William, State of the protestants (Dublin, 1730), p. 63 Google Scholar; Clarendon and Rochester correspondence, ed. Singer, S.W (2 vols, London, 1828), 2, 121,Google Scholar for quotation.
79 Clarendon letters (B.L., Add. MS 15895, ff 315, 317, 326 (May 1686)); Clarendon & Rochester corresp., i, 356–7, 361–2; Ball, , Judges, 1, 300–1Google Scholar; King, , State of the protestants, pp 58–77 Google Scholar; Simms, , Jacobite Ireland, pp 25–33, 189.Google Scholar
80 Simms, J.G. The treaty of Limerick (Dundalk, 1961), pp 19–24 Google Scholar; English historical documents, viii, 765–70; Cal. S.P dom., 1695, p. 190 for articles of Galway, no. 12.
81 Calendar of the Inner Temple records (5 vols, London, 1896–1949), iii, 260–63, 265.
82 William Molyneux, The case of Ireland stated (1698; repr. with intro. by Simms, J.G. and afterword by Donoghue, Denis Dublin, 1977), pp 92–5.Google Scholar
83 3 Will. & Mary, c. 2 (Stat. of realm); Nary, , ‘The case of the Roman Catholics’, p. 132.Google Scholar By consenting to be governed directly by an act of the English parliament, Irish protestants had prejudiced their own legislative independence and were quickly reminded of the implications of what they had done ( McGuire, J.I. ‘The Irish parliament of 1692’ in Bartlett, Thomas and Hayton, D.W (eds), Penal era and golden age: essays in Irish history, 1690–1800 (Belfast, 1979), p. 8).Google Scholar
84 Beckett, J.C., Protestant dissent in Ireland, 1687–1780 (London, 1948), pp 29, 40.Google Scholar
85 Cal. S.P dom., 1697, pp 190, 195.
86 Ibid., pp 48–9, but see below, n. 104; Brady, John (ed.), ‘Remedies proposed for the Church of Ireland, 1697’ in Archiv. Hib., 22 (1959), p. 168,Google Scholar where an anonymous writer, believed to be Bishop Dopping, complains between 1693 and 1697 that ‘there’s wanting a statute to prevent papists being bred up in our inns of court; for it is observed that there are now a greater number than ordinary breeding up to the law; and the popish lawyers have upon all occasions been the chief managers of their politics and the main fomenters of all disturbances; and help to keep up the spirits of that party, which otherwise would sink and cause many of them to fall in with the protestant interest’
87 10 Will. III, c. 13 (Stat. Ire.).
88 Simms, J.G. The Williamite confiscation in Ireland, 1690–1703 (London, 1956), pp 45–51 Google Scholar; Cal S.P dom., 1697, p. 429; Cal S.P dom., 1700–2, p. 396; Cal. treas. bks, 1700–1, p. 318.
89 Ball, , Judges, 1, 362 Google Scholar; 2 Anne, c. 6 (Stat. Ire.); Simms, J.G. ‘The making of a penal law (2 Anne, c. 6), 1703–4’ in I.H.S., 12, no. 46 (Sept. 1960), p. 105 Google Scholar; Beckett, , Mod. Ire., pp 157–8.Google Scholar
90 Plowden, , Hist. Ire. to 1800, 1, app. cii, pp 215–16Google Scholar; Simms, , Treaty of Limerick, pp 9–10, 16.Google Scholar
91 6 Anne, c. 6; 8 Anne, c. 3 (Stat. Ire); Simms, , ‘Making of a penal law’, p. 118 Google Scholar; Simms, J.G. ‘The establishment of protestant ascendancy, 1691–1714’ in New hist. Ire., 4, 16–21,Google Scholar O’Byrne, Eileen (ed.), The convert rolls (Dublin, 1981), pp vii–xvi.Google Scholar
92 Black Book of King’s Inns, f. 322. The order is undated and does not appear as part of the record of any particular meeting. Duhigg gives it as May 1704 (Duhigg, History of King’s Inns, p. 258). The date may have been cropped when Duhigg had the Black Book of King’s Inns rebound (Rec. comm. Ire. rep., 1811–15, pp 321, 444). But for a note of caution as to his use of the records see Kenny, Colum ‘Counsellor Duhigg, antiquarian and activist’ in Ir. Jurist, 21 (1986),Google Scholar forthcoming.
93 Berman, David ‘The Irish counter-enlightenment’ in Kearney, Richard (ed.), The Irish mind (Dublin, 1985), pp 121, 129.Google Scholar
94 Howard, G.E. Popery cases (Dublin, 1775), pp 211–12Google Scholar; Lecky, , Ire., p. 283 Google Scholar; O’Byrne, Convert rolls, p. xiv.
95 Anon., , The conduct of the purse in Ireland (London, 1714), pp 14, 25.Google Scholar There is a copy in T.C.D.
96 Nary, ‘Case of the Roman Catholics’, pp 121, 132Google Scholar; O’Byrne, Convert rolls, p. xvii.
97 Boulter, Hugh Letters written to several ministers of state (2nd ed., 2 vols, Dublin, 1770), i, 182–3Google Scholar (Mar. 1727).
98 Ibid., i, 183–5 (Mar. 1727).
99 1 Geo. II, c. 20 (Stat. Ire.); Simms, , Treaty of Limerick, p. 15 Google Scholar; Boulter, , Letters, 1, 183–5Google Scholar; Black Book of King’s Inns, f. 353r; Power, ‘Black Book’, p. 211
100 Mathias Reily to benchers of King’s Inns, 29 Nov 1752 (Gilbert Library, Robinson MSS 35, p. 89): Wood, , Guide to the records, pp 51, 54Google Scholar; ‘Ballad on the Irish bar, 1730’ in N.& Q., 2nd ser., ix(Jan.-June 1860), p. 216. I am grateful to Prof. W.N. Osborough for having drawn this ballad to my attention.
101 3 Geo. II, c. 23 (Stat, at large (1729)); 7 Geo. II, c. 5 (Stat. Ire.); Robson, Robert, The attorney in seventeenth-century England (Cambridge, 1959), pp 8–13 Google Scholar; Hogan, Daire, The legal profession in Ireland, 1789–1922 (Dublin, 1986), pp 15–16 Google Scholar; Wood, , Guide to the records, pp 78, 91, 104Google Scholar; O’Byrne, Convert rolls, p. xv
102 O’Byrne, Convert rolls, p. xv; Wall, Maureen ‘The age of the penal laws’ in Moody, & Martin, , Ir. hist. (2nd ed., 1984), p. 219 Google Scholar; Duhigg, , History of King’s Inns, p. 283 Google Scholar for quotation; Duhigg’s own father appears to have been a convert ( Kenny, Colum ‘Counsellor Duhigg, antiquarian and activist’ in Ir. Jurist, 21 (1986),Google Scholar forthcoming).
103 Lecky, , Ire., 1, 276–7Google Scholar; Howard, G.E. Popery cases (Dublin, 1775).Google Scholar
104 Duhigg, , History of King’s Inns, p. 460 Google Scholar; Robson, , The attorney, p. 76,Google Scholar n. 2. An observation on the effectiveness of penal laws by Blackstone, who favoured restrictions on catholics, may not apply to Ireland ( Blackstone, William, Commentaries upon the laws of England (Dublin, 1776), 4, 56–7Google Scholar; Hogan, , Legal profession, p. 15,Google Scholar and review of same by Hand, Geoffrey in Ir. Jurist, 20 (1985), p. 427).Google Scholar
105 Wall, Maureen The penal laws, 1691–1760 (Dundalk, 1961), pp 24–7Google Scholar; Beckett, , Mod. Ire, pp 213–14.Google Scholar
106 Lecky, , Ire., 1, 136–7, 248–86Google Scholar; Wall, Penal Laws, passim; Corish, P.J. The catholic community in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Dublin, 1981), p. 73 Google Scholar; Cullen, Louis ‘Catholics and the penal laws’ in Eighteenth-century Ireland, 1 (1986), pp 25, 26, 29.Google Scholar
107 Parl. reg. Ire., i, 245–6.
108 21 & 22 Geo. III, c. 32 (Stat. Ire.); Admission of benchers, etc., 1741–92 (King’s Inns MSS, pp 159, 161); Brown, J.B. An historical account of the laws enacted against the catholics both in England and Ireland (London, 1813), pp 334–7Google Scholar
109 32 Geo. III, c. 18 (Stat. Ire.).
110 32 Geo. III, c. 21 (Stat. Ire.); Wood, Guide to the records, p. 104.Google Scholar
111 Earl of Clare to Hardwicke, late July or early Aug. 1801 (B.L., Hardwicke papers, Add. MS 35766, f. 90).
112 O’Connell, Maurice (ed.), The correspondence of Daniel O’Connell, 1792–1847 (8 vols, I.M.C., Dublin, 1972–80), i, 14, 23–5Google Scholar; Pension book of Gray’s Inn, 1669–1800 (London, 1900), p. 371, Statement of the regulations of the four inns of court as to the admission of students, etc., p. 7, H.C. 1846 (134), xxxiii, 309.
113 Duhigg, , History of King’s Inns, pp 258–9.Google Scholar
114 Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1829 (c. 7), ss 10, 12, 25; Promissory Oaths Act, 1871 (c. 48), schedule; Offices and Oaths Act, 1867 (c. 75), s. 1, Stat. Law Revision Act, 1950, schedule (Stat. parl. U.K.).
115 Ball, , Judges, 2, 274–7, 297, 305, 314, 320Google Scholar; Burke, Oliver The history of the lord chancellors of Ireland, 1186–1874 (Dublin, 1879), pp 327–8Google Scholar; Hogan, , Legal profession, p. 3,Google Scholar and review of same by Hand, Geoffrey in Ir. Jurist, 20 (1985), pp 427–8.Google Scholar
116 Delany, V T.H. Christopher Palles (Dublin, 1960), p. 31.Google Scholar
