Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History

by Joseph Byrne

  Peace Preservation Act (1814). Chief Secretary Peel introduced the Peace Preservation Act (54 Geo. III, c. 131) in 1814 following an outbreak of agrarian unrest. It provided for the establishment of a uniformed peace preservation force (peelers) to be deployed to any district which had been proclaimed as disturbed by the lord lieutenant. The force possessed a hierarchical military-like structure and operated under a salaried police magistrate who was directly responsible to the administration in Dublin Castle. As the cost of maintaining the force was borne by the disturbed district, it was unpopular with ratepayers and local magistrates were reluctant to have their areas proclaimed. Instead they opted to call in the army and invoke the provisions of the Insurrection Act (54 Geo. III, c. 180, 1814). Under this legislation magistrates were permitted to declare a dusk to dawn curfew and suspend trial by jury. In 1817 an amending act (57 Geo. III, c. 50) provided for exchequer subvention of up to two-thirds of the maintenance cost of the force in a proclaimed district. The peace preservation force was poorly paid, badly trained and organised and had a reputation for partisanship. It had served in 16 counties by 1822 when a national constabulary was created and was revived briefly during the tithe war of the 1830s. In 1836 it was amalgamated with the county police force to form the Irish constabulary. See police.

  peck. A measure of capacity used for dry measures such as corn, normally the fourth part of a bushel or two gallons but which varied regionally and according to the goods being measured.

  pediment. The triangular space over a Greek portico.

  ‘Peel’s brimstone’. Indian corn. In November 1845 Sir Robert Peel arranged for the purchase and importation of Indian corn (yellow meal) as a cheap and nourishing substitute for the blighted potato crop. Poorly-prepared Indian corn caused stomach problems which, together with its yellow colour, resulted in it being called ‘Peel’s brimstone’.

  Peep O’Day Boys. A precursor of the Orange Order, the Protestant Peep O’Day Boys was a violent sectarian movement which emerged in Armagh in the 1780s partly in response to the enactment of Catholic relief acts and partly because of industrial and land issues related to the linen-weaving industry. They conducted early morning raids on the houses of Catholics, supposedly for the purpose of seizing arms – which Catholics were forbidden to have under the penal laws – and sabotaged linen-weaving equipment. The activities of the Peep O’Day Boys drew a response from the Catholics in the form of the Defenders. In 1795 the two groups clashed at the Diamond near Loughgall, after which the victorious Protestants adjourned to Loughgall to form the Orange Order.

  peers, trial by. (L., judicium parium suorum) A trial not by a jury of one’s peers but one in which the judges are the equals of the accused.

  peine forte et dure. The practice, which continued as late as the eighteenth century, of pressing to death for refusal to plead to a serious felony. It consisted of placing weights upon the body of a suspect until he agreed to plead or died from the pressure. Sometimes to speed up the process a sharp piece of rock, timber or iron was placed under the back. In 1740 Mathew Ryan was pressed to death in the market-place of Kilkenny for refusing to plead in a case of highway robbery. To the question why one would choose to submit to such a harrowing death – and few did – rather than plead before a jury, the answer is that in such cases the suspect did not die a convicted felon and consequently suffered no escheat of land or forfeiture of chattels. Standing mute in cases of treason or misdemeanour, however, was regarded as equivalent to a confession. See prison forte et dure.

  Pelagianism. The doctrine of Pelagius, a British (or possibly Irish) monk of the fourth and fifth centuries, which was vigorously opposed by St Augustine and condemned by Pope Zozimus in 418. Pelagius denied the doctrine of original sin, claiming that Adam’s fall did not stain his posterity. He maintained that human nature was essentially good and that we are capable of good without the assistance of divine grace. God had gifted us with a free will and we chose good or evil voluntarily. St Augustine claimed that man was dependent on the grace of God and could not save himself by his own efforts.

  Penal Laws, Popery Laws. The penal laws are usually taken to refer to the series of legislative enactments passed between 1691 (when Catholics were excluded from parliament) and 1727 (when they were completely disfranchised). In reality Catholics had been paying for their adherence to Rome in recusancy fines and gradual exclusion from public office since the mid-sixteenth century. The new impositions were copied from existing laws in England but the Irish laws were not as harsh as those in England. What made them unique in Europe was that here they were imposed by a minority on the majority. The laws were designed to ensure Protestant ascendancy in all spheres of life and to render Catholics incapable of providing support for a Stuart restoration. Punitive laws against Catholic priests and bishops aimed to eradicate Catholicism within a generation by halting the entry of priests from abroad and preventing new ordinations in Ireland. In 1695 Catholic education, both at home and abroad, was forbidden and Catholics were not permitted to bear arms or own a horse worth £5 or more (7 Will. III, c. 4–5). Two years later all bishops and regular clergy were banished although parish clergy were permitted to remain (9 Will. III, c. 1) and by early 1698 almost 450 clergymen had been transported. In 1703 (2 Anne, c. 3) every Catholic clergyman entering Ireland after I January 1704 became liable to the same penalties imposed on bishops and regular clergy by the 1697 act. The severest anti-popery legislation was enacted in 1704 (2 Anne, c. 7) when parish clergy were required to register and enter a bond with two sureties of £50 to be of good behaviour on pain of transportation. Catholic clergy were limited to one per parish and the entry of others into the country was prohibited. They were also required to take an oath of abjuration renouncing the Stuart claim to the throne. Few clergymen took the oath, encouraged as they were by the pope’s recognition of the Pretender as the rightful king of Great Britain and Ireland. Public religious celebrations such as patterns and pilgrimages were declared riotous assemblies and participants liable to be fined or whipped. Catholics were prohibited from buying land, making leases for more than 31 years and leasehold rent was fixed at two-thirds the yearly value of the land. The estates of deceased Catholics were to be partibly (equally) divided among the male heirs but where the eldest conformed the entire was to devolve to him. The status of any Catholic landowner whose heir conformed was immediately reduced to that of a life tenancy. Catholics could not act as guardians and Protestant guardians were required to bring up all minors as Protestants. The Test Act, a clause appended to the 1704 legislation, disabled Catholics and dissenters from holding office and from practising law, excluded them from serving on grand juries, from municipal corporations and from service in the army or the navy. In the field of commerce, Catholics were excluded from guild membership because of the requirement to swear the oath of supremacy but were permitted to hold an associate membership (See quarterage). In 1708 the Registry of Deeds was established to prevent Catholics from perfecting transactions specifically outlawed by the earlier legislation. A year later a legal procedure (8 Anne, c. 3, 1709) was introduced whereby a Protestant who detected a fraudulent transaction by a Catholic could acquire the Catholic’s interest in the transaction. In reality many of the ‘discoveries’ that flowed from this act were collaborative arrangements concocted between Catholics and their Protestant intimates to ward off the possibility of hostile discoveries. See discoverer. In the same year voters were required to take an oath of abjuration denying the pope’s authority. A number of Catholics took the oath and continued to vote until the franchise was withdrawn in 1727. The penal laws imposed severe disabilities on Catholics but it is now generally regarded that those which pertained to worship and the clergy were only intermittently enforced and within decades the clergy, including the bishops, were operating freely throughout the country. Catholic landowners were considerably hamstrung by the enactments concerning land and inheritance and those that excluded them from politics and state office. Not surpri
sing, then, that throughout the eighteenth century there was a steady stream of conformism. See convert rolls. The first steps in securing the repeal of penal legislation were initiated in 1760 with the founding of the Catholic Committee. Piecemeal legislative relief acts began to emerge towards the end of the eighteenth century but penal legislation remained in force until the passing of Catholic emancipation bill in 1829. Even then Catholics were not raised to parity with their Anglican countrymen. The offices of viceroy and lord chancellor and membership of the municipal corporations (until 1840) remained closed to them. (Cullen, ‘Catholics under the penal laws’, pp. 23–36; McGrath, ‘Securing the Protestant interest’, pp. 25–46; Wall, The penal laws.)

  pension. The 1908 Old Age Pension Act (8 Edw. VII, c. 40) provided for a pension of five shillings weekly for necessitous people over 70 to be paid through local post offices. The Local Government Board became the central pension authority and claims were investigated by excise officers. As the registration of births was not a legal requirement before 1864 septuagenarians found it difficult to advance proof of age. The census returns for 1841 and 1851, however, were available and for a small fee an official search of the records could be undertaken to ascertain whether the claimant was of age. Although the individual returns for 1841–51 were destroyed in 1922, the pension search records survived and these are available in the National Archives.

  pension list. In addition to the civil list, the Irish exchequer funded a pension list which throughout the eighteenth century constituted a part of the patronage system by which government supporters were rewarded for their service. Foreigners, including French residents in England and German royalty – who had performed no service to Ireland – were also given annual pensions charged on moneys voted for public services. In 1756, for example, yearly pensions of £5,000 and £2,000 on the Irish establishment were awarded to the Princess of Hesse-Cassel and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick respectively. Against the background of an exchequer deficit, restrictions on foreign trade and the burden of a disproportionate military establishment, the pensions list represented a major grievance throughout the century. It more than doubled between 1755 and 1777, rising from £38,000 to £89,000. In 1790 critics of the pension list introduced a pension bill in the Irish house of commons but it was defeated for the very fact that there were 108 members of the house in receipt of salaries or pensions from the government. Three years later a new pension bill (33 Geo. III, c. 34) barred all future pensioners from parliament, excluded from the house all those who held pensions during pleasure or for a term of years and the pension list was slashed from £120,000 to £80,000. Many pensioners, however, were still in place some years later to vote through the Act of Union. See Place Act.

  peppercorn. A nominal rent usually associated with a grant of land in perpetuity, though the lessor remained technically the owner.

  perch. Also known as a rod or pole, the imperial perch is equal to five and a half yards. The Irish perch was 21 feet or seven yards which accounts for the difference between the statute acre and the Irish or plantation acre. See acre.

  Periodical sources for the history of Irish civilisation. Properly, Sources for the history of Irish civilisation: articles in Irish periodicals, this series serves as a companion to Manuscript sources, both of which were edited by Richard J. Hayes. Periodical sources is an index of over 280,000 articles, poems and reviews dealing with the intellectual life and cultural activities of the country which were published in about 120 learned Irish periodicals from 1800 to 1969. Science, philosophy, history and other fields of study are included. Entries are catalogued under the headings: persons, subjects, places and dates. Excluded were articles from trade journals, popular periodicals and journals dealing with current affairs. Articles from Irish language periodicals were not considered because these were already covered in R. I. Best’s Bibliography of Irish philology and of printed Irish literature and Hayes’ own Clár litrídheacht na nua-Gaedhilge.

  perpendicular style. The third and most prolonged style of Gothic architecture, the perpendicular style is characterised by the employment of vertical lines and features, ornamented flying buttresses, large tracery windows and the maximum use of doors and windows. This style did not appear in medieval Ireland but figured prominently in the nineteenth-century Gothic revival. See pointed style, decorated style.

  peruke-maker. A wig-maker.

  pesane, pesante. A gorget of mail attached to a helmet.

  Peter’s pence. Money paid as a tax or voluntary contribution to the papacy. Formerly, an annual tribute of one penny out of each Catholic household.

  petition. The modern right of appeal was unknown in medieval and early modern law. If no fault could be found in the record of the case either in the pleadings, the issue or the verdict, the decision of a court could not be altered. See error, writ of. However, anyone aggrieved by his treatment before the courts or denied a remedy to his suit could petition the king in his council for justice to be done. The king, as fountain of justice, was regarded as having a residue of judicial power in his hands to grant relief to his subjects, the prerogative. In medieval times petitions were usually delegated to the chancellor, a practice which led to the emergence of the equitable jurisdiction of the court of chancery. In Tudor times a sub-committee of the king’s council hearing petitions for justice metamorphosed into the court of star chamber (castle chamber in Ireland) which was barred from hearing cases involving real property. Despite the emergence of a plethora of courts, individuals and bodies continued to present their cases to the sovereign. Catholic associations were particularly active from the middle of the eighteenth century in alerting the crown to the considerable disabilities under which Catholics laboured. See Catholic Petition, remonstrance.

  Petrie, George (1790–1866). Dublin-born antiquarian, artist and musicologist. As a teenager Petrie developed an interest in the antiquities of Ireland and began sketching and documenting field monuments and buildings. He travelled extensively throughout the country studying, sketching and describing ruins and collecting traditional airs. Between 1835 and 1846 he was employed by the Ordnance Survey where he met Eugene O’Curry and John O’Donovan. Petrie designed the distinctive Celtic-style type used in O’Donovan’s translation of the Annals of the Four Masters. In 1845 his Essay on the origin and uses of the round towers of Ireland was published as The ecclesiastical architecture of Ireland. In 1855 he edited The Petrie collection of ancient airs of Ireland. (Stokes, The life.)

  petronel. A large pistol used by horse-soldiers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was fired with the butt resting against the chest.

  petty jury. The trial jury at the assizes as opposed to the the jury of indictment, the grand jury. Petty juries, unlike modern juries, were expected to have some knowledge of the defendant’s character and of circumstances relating to the case.

  petty sergeanty. A tenure in socage which required the tenant to supply the king annually with a sword or spurs, or perform some such service of a non-personal nature. See grand sergeanty.

  petty sessions. Until the passage of the District Justices Act in 1923, petty sessions were the equivalent of the modern district courts, their remit being the trial of lesser offences. See justice of the peace.

  Philosophical Society (1683–1708). See Dublin Philosophical Society.

  phytophthora infestans. Potato blight, an airborne fungal disease which attacked the potato crop in the United States, in many European countries and in Ireland (with devastating effect) from 1845. Thought to have been transported from South America to Europe with cargoes of guano (a fertiliser composed of bird droppings), blight propagated rapidly in that year’s moist, sunless summer. It struck repeatedly throughout the remainder of the century (and remains with us today) but with significantly reduced impact. Demographic pressure had eased, better strains of potato were sown and a preventive copper-based spray was developed.

  picard. A large sailing vessel or barge used for coastal or river trade.
>
  piepowder, court of. (Fr., pieds poudrés, dusty feet) A market court which regulated weights and measures and resolved disputes, especially those involving travelling traders so they could journey on to the next market to sell their wares. It was operated by the person entitled by right (letters patent) to hold the market.

  pigeon-house. Dovecote, columbarium.

  Pigott forgeries. A series of letters fabricated between 1887 and 1889 by Richard Pigott, a Dublin journalist, which purported to show that Charles Parnell was linked to agrarian terrorism. The truth emerged when Pigott cracked under cross-examination in February 1889. Subsequently he fled to Madrid where he committed suicide. (Lyons, Charles Stewart Parnell, pp. 368–9.)

  pile. In heraldry, a triangular wedge with the point near the base of the escutcheon.

  pillowbeere. A pillowcase.

  piment. A wine flavoured with spices.

  pinder. The keeper of the manorial pound.

  pinfold. The manorial pound where strays were held pending the next session of the manor court.

  pinnace. A light sailing ship or tender providing logistical support to warships.

  pipe. 1: A wine casket 2: A unit of capacity containing half a tun, two hogsheads or four barrels.

  pipe rolls. Records of the court of exchequer, the pipe or treasurer’s rolls contained the annual statements of receipts, allowances and arrears of sheriffs, escheators, customs collectors, guardians of royal manors, seneschals and bailiffs. They were known as pipe rolls because they were wrapped around hollow cylinders or pipes. In 1861 there were 184 Irish pipe rolls in existence, comprising the returns of the receipt and expenditure of the royal revenue, the escheators’ and sheriffs’ accounts which contained many references to land grants, the value of ecclesiastical lands taken into the king’s hands by vacancy, exemplifications of the Statute of Westminster against absentees, accounts of laymen’s lands taken into the king’s hands, prisage of wine, king’s customs and revenues, quit-rents, wardships and escheats. The pipe rolls were destroyed in 1922 but NLI MSS 760–1 contain Sir William Betham’s extracts from the pipe rolls Henry III – Elizabeth I. Some of the material formerly contained in the Irish pipe rolls can be accessed in the English pipe rolls because the Irish treasurer’s accounts were audited at Westminster. (Connolly, Medieval record sources, pp. 20–22; Davies and Quinn, ‘The Irish pipe roll’; PRI reps DK, 35– 54.)