by Joseph Byrne
Popery, Report on the State of (1731). In 1731 the Irish house of lords, at the instigation of Archbishop Boulter, appointed a committee to investigate the state of popery in Ireland. Basing its findings on returns submitted by Protestant clergymen, sheriffs and magistrates in the localities, the committee reported that there were 892 regular mass-houses and 54 private chapels served by 1,445 priests, 51 friaries with a total complement of 254 friars, 9 nunneries and about 549 popish schools operating in Ireland. It claimed that 229 mass-houses had been constructed since the death of George I and that papists were openly attending mass. The original returns were destroyed in the Public Record Office in 1922 but the report had already been published in the first four volumes of Archivium Hibernicum (1912–15) and in the Journal of the house of commons of the kingdom of Ireland, iii (Dublin, 1727– 52).
popish plot. See Titus Oates.
portal dolmen. A neolithic, single-chambered tomb distinguished by tall upright portal or entrance stones, a lower backstone and a large capstone. Some portal dolmens can be found at the end of long cairns and others were elaborated to accommodate small burial chambers in the sides of the cairn. Thus they are are related to court cairns. There are about 150 examples of portal dolmens in Ireland where they occur mostly in Ulster.
portcorn. A rent in kind, usually of corn (wheat, bere, malt and oatmeal), owed by tenants to monasteries and abbeys. After the monastic dissolution port-corn rents were reserved to the crown and granted to the lord lieutenant, master of the rolls, lord chief justice and the presidents of Munster and Connacht. Tenants were allowed offset the value of these renders against their crown rents. (Simington, The Civil Survey, pp. xxviii–xxxi.)
portion. A settlement created for the benefit of the offspring of a deceased landlord that was payable when they attained majority or upon their marriage. It was usually raised by a mortgage on the property or rentcharge.
portioner. A tenant-farmer who paid a fixed portion of his produce to the landlord in lieu of a money payment.
portionary. Where the income of a medieval cathedral was divided in fixed proportions between a fixed number of dignitaries, the canons were known as portionaries.
portreeve (portrieve). Synonymous with mayor or sovereign, the chief officer of a municipal corporation and enforcer of town regulations.
posse comitatus. (L., the power of the county) The power possessed by the sheriff to summon all men above the age of fifteen to attend and assist in executing the process of the law or perform other acts in maintaining the law.
postea. (L., afterwards) A record of the proceedings and verdict of a trial.
postern. 1: Any gate or door in the wall of a castle or fortification other than the main entrance 2: A sallyport or escape route.
post-house. A house along the post routes where horses were changed.
potato ground. A ready-manured field leased for a one-year term to cottiers to grow potatoes. See conacre.
potwalloper. A pejorative term used to describe a person invited to reside in a ‘potwalloping’ borough shortly before a parliamentary election to vote as the resident magnate required. It derived from the requirement that, in addition to a residency of six months (one year from 1782), all electors must have a family and have cooked a meal within the borough precinct to qualify for the franchise. Until 1793, when the franchise was extended to include Catholics, voting rights were restricted to Protestant five-pound householders. There were 12 ‘potwalloping’ boroughs in Ireland (Swords, Knocktopher, Rathcormack, Dungarvan, Lismore, Baltimore, Antrim town, Lisburn, Randalstown, Tallow, Newry and Downpatrick) only four of which (Newry, Downpatrick, Lisburn and Dungarvan) survived the Act of Union.
pottle pot. A two-quart pot or tankard.
poundage. 1: Any payment of so much per pound upon the cost of any monetary transaction 2: A duty on imports and exports of so much per pound, usually of the order of 12d., originally granted to the crown for defence purposes. In Ireland in the the late fifteenth century, it was the custom of 12 pence in the pound levied on imports and exports to finance a small permanent standing force known as the Brotherhood of Arms of St George. See tonnage 3: The right to impound wandering cattle. The levy paid to retrieve impounded animals was known as poundaging.
Powis Commission. A royal commission appointed in 1868 to investigate the national system of primary education and to make recommendations for reform. The commission was chaired by the earl of Powis and comprised 14 members, seven Catholics and seven Protestants (including two Presbyterians). Reporting in 1870, the commission felt that the academic progress of schoolchildren had been much less than it ought to have been and recommended the introduction of a system of payment-by-results whereby a portion of a teacher’s salary would be determined by the performance of each child under examination and a satisfactory level of attendance. They proposed a measure of compulsory attendance for those children in towns who were not actually at work, the abolition of model schools, the ending of the distinction between convent schools and national schools in the matter of state subvention and the ending of the controversial involvement of the Commissioners of National Education in editing schoolbooks. Local areas, according to the commission, should contribute one-third of the state grant to schools or have it rated locally. Finally, it proposed that schools should be permitted to become denominational in areas where two schools, one Protestant, one Catholic, had been in existence for three years and where the average attendance of each was at least 25. These schools were to be free of religious regulation beyond permitting the withdrawal from religious education classes of children of the minority religion. In effect, the commission was proposing to licence denominational schooling in the very areas where conditions were propitious for mixed schooling, thereby destroying the founding principle of the system. In reality this had no bearing on the de facto situation as the system had already hardened into a denominational one. The recommendations of the Powis Commission were partially implemented but not with any great success. Payment-by-results increased school attendance but also introduced a mechanical rote-learning approach that was discontinued within a few decades. The National School Teachers (Irl.) Act (1875) introduced a complex mechanism for increasing local contributions but that too was a failure. A partial compulsory education bill was passed in 1892 but it applied only to towns and made allowances for children to help with farming and fishing. The eight-volume Powis report contains the commission’s report, minutes and analysis of evidence and special reports on model, training and agricultural schools. The sixth volume contains a national educational census showing the number of pupils actually present in each primary school on 25 June 1868. See Belmore Commission and Education, National System of. (Powis; Coolahan, Irish education, pp. 24–33.)
Poynings’ Law (1495). A law (10 Hen. VII, c. 4) introduced to strengthen royal control and limit the independence of the Irish chief governor by requiring him to apply for a licence to hold parliament. He was obliged to submit all bills to the king and his council and have them approved and certified under the great seal before parliament could sit. Since parliament could not meet without prior approval of proposed bills and since bills could not be transmitted for approval once parliament was in session, this measure severely restricted the ability of the Irish parliament to originate legislation. In practice this proved inconvenient and by 3 & 4 Philip & Mary, c. 4 (1556) Poynings’ was amended to permit additional bills to be transmitted to England after parliament had assembled. This allowed for the seventeenth-century initiative of transmitting ‘heads of bills’ which enabled either house to originate legislation. Bills transmitted from Ireland remained subject to amendment and veto by the privy councils of Ireland and Britain but parliament determined which bills, in whatever condition they were returned, made it into the statute books. Faced with the threat of war with both France and America, Poynings’ Law was amended in 1782 (21 & 22 Geo. III, c. 47) and a degree of legislative independence permitted. Henceforth bills were transmi
tted ‘without addition, diminution or alteration’. The crown retained the power to veto legislation, a power never subsequently exercised. See statute, Yelverton’s Act. (Edwards and Moody, ‘The history of Poynings’ law’, pp. 415–24; Clarke, ‘The history of Poyning’s law’, pp. 207–22; Kelly, ‘Monitoring’, pp. 87–106.)
pracas. A type of harrow.
praecipe, writ of. See right, writ of.
Praemunire, Statutes of (1353, 1393). Introduced by Edward III (27 Edw. III, c. 1, 1353) as a sop to popular feeling against foreign clergy, the first statute of Praemunire legislated against papal interference in appointments to church positions in England. It forbade appeals to Rome in disputes over patronage and the exercise of legal and financial jurisdiction by the pope in England without royal consent. It was an offence punishable by forfeiture to assert papal supremacy over England as it was for a dean and chapter who failed to act on royal instructions regarding appointments to vacant sees. The later statute (16 Richard II, c. 5, 1393) forbade on pain of forfeiture the presentation of suits cognisable by English law in a foreign court. It was aimed at those who ‘purchased or pursued in the courts of Rome or elsewhere any translations, processes and sentence of execution, bulls, instruments or any other things whatsoever which touch upon the king, against him, his crown, and his regality whereby the king’s court was hindered in its jurisdiction over pleas of presentment’. Actions under both statutes were initiated by a writ of praemunire to the sheriff to summon the person so accused. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Praemunire restrained the ability of Irish Catholic bishops to discipline errant clergymen for the aggrieved cleric could immediately initiate or threaten an action against what was, in effect, the illegal exercise of foreign jurisdiction. Praemunire was repealed in Britain in 1967. See congé d’élire.
preacher’s book. A Church of Ireland record of parish worship which includes the date and type of service, the preacher’s name, the amount of the offering, the number of people in attendance and the number receiving communion.
prebend. (L. praebere, to supply) An endowment from the rents, fees and tithe of a parish which provided the living of a canon or member of a cathedral chapter.
prebendal parish. A parish set aside to support a cathedral prebendary.
prebendary. A member of the chapter of a cathedral (such as a canon) who held a prebend. Prebendaries were called after the parish that provided their living.
precentor. The chapter member responsible for worship in the cathedral. This could involve leading and directing the choir or congregation in the singing of hymns.
predial (praedial). Predial tithe was exacted on the profits of the land and accrued from crops such as cereals, vegetables and fruit. Tithe on major crops such as wheat, barley, oats and hay were paid to the rector and was known as the great tithe. Small tithe, including the predials vegetables and fruit, the mixed tithe (small animals and animal products) and personal tithe (the fruit of labour and industry) were owed to the vicar.
pre-emption. The right of purchasing before another. In other words, the right of first refusal.
Premonstratensian canons. Founded by St Norbert at Prémontré in France, the Premonstratensian canons adhered to the rule of St Augustine with some borrowings, including the wearing of a white habit, from the Cistercians. The first Irish Premonstratensian house was founded at Carrickfergus in the late twelfth century. In all about a dozen abbeys, priories and dependent cells were established by the early 1300s in Co. Antrim and the western counties of Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon and Galway. By the seventeenth century all had been suppressed. (Flood, ‘The Premonstratensians’, pp. 624–31; Gwynn and Hadcock, Medieval religious houses, pp. 201–7.)
prepositus. (L., put before) Literally, someone put before others, the term refers to the mayor, portreeve, sovereign or seneschal of a municipal corporation.
prerogative courts. Courts operating alongside the common law courts which arose out of the curia regis (king’s council) to deal with cases for which no remedy existed at common law or particular areas in which the regular courts would not deal. They were known as prerogative courts because through them the king exercised his discretionary power as sovereign to provide justice to his subjects. They were also a valuable source of royal revenue and, strictly administered, proved effective weapons in enforcing the sovereign’s will. Chancery, the first and most enduring prerogative court, emerged in the thirteenth century. Other prerogative courts such as the court of castle chamber (the Irish star chamber), the court of wards and liveries, the court of high commission and the courts of the presidents of Munster and Connacht appeared in the sixteenth century but were gone by the close of the seventeenth. They disappeared because they came under two-fold attack from the common law courts (which resented the loss of business) and from a parliament which bristled at Charles I’s use of the star chamber and high commission to enforce his policies. Only chancery survived into modern times. See provincial councils.
prerogative and faculties, court of the. A post-Reformation innovation designed to restructure and police the Church of Ireland, the royally-appointed court of faculties inquired into titles to hold benefices, sanctioned deprivations and licensed pluralities. It granted faculties and dispensations, a jurisdiction previously exercised by the papacy. From 1571 jurisdiction in testamentary matters was added to the commissioners’ responsibilities in those cases where a testator held an estate in excess of £5 (bona notabilia) in a second diocese. Where a testator also held property in England the will was proved in the prerogative court of the archbishop of Canterbury and a copy proved in Ireland. It became the supreme ecclesiastical court of the Church of Ireland when James I established the court of the prerogative and faculties in 1622 and placed the archbishop of Armagh at its head. This arrangement survived until 1856 when the court lost its testamentary jurisdiction to the newly-established civil court of probate. It lapsed entirely with the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869. See consistorial court.
Presbyterian. A member of a distinctively-structured reformed faith which claims scripture to be the final authority in religious matters, that all members of the church are equal under Christ, that the ministry has been given to the entire church and which, in its earlier history, embraced predestination. Calvinism provides the key doctrinal basis for Presbyterianism. The Calvinist belief in universal priesthood is manifested in the rejection of episcopal control in favour of equality between lay elders and ministers at all levels of the church from kirk session to presbytery to synod to general assembly. Ministers are chosen by the elders and salaried by the congregation. All officers are elected. After the Reformation the Church of Scotland became Presbyterian and Scottish Presbyterians carried the faith with them into Ireland in the seventeenth century. As the Church of Ireland was a Calvinist-leaning, minority church on the island, Presbyterians were welcomed and their ministers were provided with livings. Presbyterianism experienced a surge in growth following the 1641 rebellion and new presbyteries were established. Moves to enforce religious uniformity, initiated by Wentworth in the 1630s and accelerated after the Restoration, resulted in the expulsion of Presbyterian ministers from the Anglican church (see Uniformity). William III’s gratitude for their support against the Jacobites yielded an increased regium donum and the religious freedom they enjoyed was secured legislatively by the passing of the Toleration Act in 1719. However, the power and influence of the Church of Ireland ensured that Presbyterians were to suffer, though less severely, the disabilities inflicted on Catholics by the penal laws. The Test Act (1704) led to their exclusion from public office and from membership of the boroughs until it was repealed in 1780. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Presbyterianism was riven by Arianism and by the controversy over the issue of subscription to the Westminster Confession, the Presbyterian confession of faith. When obligatory subscription was imposed 17 ministers left to form the Remonstrant Synod and in 1840 the Synod of Ulster merged with the Seceders (a pro-su
bscription body which had seceded earlier over that issue) to form the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. See New Light, Southern Association.
presbytery. (L., presbyter, an elder) A Presbyterian church council formed by all the ministers in a district together with representative elders from each congregational session. Although the congregation is responsible for electing the minister, the approval of the presbytery (which also supervises the ordination, installation, transfer and removal of ministers) is required. It exercises religious, financial and legal authority over all the congregations within its district and acts as an appellate court for cases arising in the sessions. See General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, synod.
presentment. 1: A formal statement or indictment of finding by a grand jury as to whether a prima facie case existed for a prosecution to proceed. Grand juries retained this judicial function until their abolition in 1924 when direct trial by jury was introduced 2: The grant of a grand jury towards the construction or repair of a road or building. Such grants were financed by the county cess and were considered before a committee of the grand jury at presentment sessions.
presidency. See provincial councils, composition.
prest. A loan or advance of money. Irregular and delayed payments to the Irish administration’s standing force in the sixteenth century encouraged desertion and indiscipline which the administration tried to forestall through the payment of small prests to enable the troops to feed themselves.