Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History

by Joseph Byrne

  saker. 1: A siege cannon weighing about 1,500 pounds which fired shot of 5.5 pounds 2: An early modern, light artillery piece used on ships.

  salient. In heraldry, a creature in the act of springing with the hind legs on the ground.

  salfás money. Imported English groat or half-groat coins which bore the profile or half-face of Henry VII and Henry VIII.

  sally. (L., salix) A willow tree, the rods of which were used for basket-making and, when twisted into scollops, to secure thatch to a roof.

  sallyport. An opening in a castle wall to enable soldiers to sally forth against an enemy.

  saltire. In heraldry, an ordinary comprising the crossing of a bend and a bend sinister, a device identical to St Andrew’s cross.

  saltpetre. Potassium nitrate, the chief constituent of gunpowder. Saltpetre commonly was used as a preservative.

  Sandelians. A mesolithic hunter-gatherer people, claimed to be the first inhabitants of Ireland, so called after Mount Sandel on the River Bann where discoveries of microliths (used for harpoon barbs) and small axes possibly up to 9,000 years old were made. Unlike Neolithic peoples the Sandelians did not have the implements to clear forests for agricultural purposes and were restricted to hunting and fishing along the shores of rivers, lakes and the sea and the collection of nuts. Pottery and art were apparently unknown to them. (Woodman, Excavations; Idem, ‘A mesolithic’, pp. 92–100.)

  savings clause. A clause appended to letters patent obtained under the Restoration Act of Settlement which reserved to named persons or their heirs certain rights such as jointure, annuities and even eventual restoration. The intention was to protect the entitlements of innocent relatives of landowners who forfeited their estates during the 1641 rebellion. It is not certain to what extent, if any, claimants were able to enforce savings clauses when they fell due.

  say. A light, delicate woollen or serge cloth. Also known as ‘bluesay’.

  scavenger. A person hired by a civil parish to clear the streets of filth.

  scollop. (Ir., scolb, a thin or split rod) A rod twisted at the middle, bent double like a staple and used to pin thatch to a roof.

  scraws. (Ir., scraith, a sod) Sods used in roof construction. They were laid, vegetation upwards, on the timber framework as an underthatch and sometimes as the sole roof covering.

  scriptorium. (L.) A building attached to a monastery where manuscripts were copied.

  scutching. A stage in the process of preparing flax for linen-making. Following a period of submersion in water (retting) and drying, the flax stalks are beaten or scraped to rid them of woody fibre.

  scutage. A payment, also known as royal service, exacted in lieu of knight-service (military service) and owed by all tenants-in-chief. In the fifteenth century scutages were levied with the consent of parliament or the privy council to finance a general hosting or raise additional troops. (Otway-Ruthven, ‘Royal service’, pp. 37–46.)

  seal. Seals were used to authenticate documents and, in the case of royal seals, to signify the monarch’s consent. They played a crucial role in the functioning of the administration. The principal seal was the great seal, the deputed authority of the crown, which was kept by the lord chancellor. Depicted on the great seal or seal of majesty are royal insignia and the image of the monarch seated. As the chief governor was constantly moving and the chancellor could not always be in attendance, the chief governor’s private seal was used to activate the great seal and pass letters patent in the case of royal grants of lands or commissions. From 1560 a second royal seal, the signet or privy seal, was introduced and assigned to the keeping of the secretary of state to the privy council who accompanied the chief governor on his travels. All letters containing the chief governor’s warrant were sealed by the secretary of state or keeper of the privy seal and then carried to chancery where they passed the great seal. The chancellor was forbidden to issue letters patent without having first received the governor’s sealed fiant. (Jenkinson, ‘The great seal’, pp. 293–340.)

  seam, seme. A horse-load or eight bushels.

  seanchas. (Ir.) History or lore.

  seanchaí. (Ir.) A storyteller, historian or genealogist.

  searcher. A customer or exciseman who boarded and inspected a vessel to uncover dutiable goods. See gauger.

  Seceders. A group of conservative Scottish Presbyterians who broke away from the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1733 when the loss of their right to choose ministers resulted in an increasingly liberal church. Seceders believed that ministers and ordinands should subscribe to the Confession of Westminster and when they appeared in Ireland in the 1740s they provided an alternative to the non-subscribing Synod of Ulster. They had their own synod, the Secession Synod, and remained a distinct group until 1840 when, with the re-imposition of compulsory subscription by the Synod of Ulster, both synods merged to form the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. (Stewart, The seceders.)

  secondary schooling. In nineteenth-century Ireland there was no state system of secondary education and what was available was provided by a small number of voluntary schools. When the national system of education was introduced in 1831 many schools which had been providing intermediate education ceased to do so because the new Board of Education would only support primary education. In 1837 the Wyse Committee recommended the provision of a centrally-funded non-denominational system of intermediate education but until the passage of the 1878 Intermediate Education Act (41 & 42 Vict., c. 66), second-level education was available only in the Protestant diocesan, royal (1608) and Erasmus Smith (1669) schools, Kilkenny College (1685), academy schools such as Belfast Academical Institution (1810) and a small number of Catholic secondary schools run by religious orders such as the Christian Brothers, the Jesuits, the Sisters of Mercy and the Loreto Sisters. The 1878 act created an unpaid board of commissioners to promote intermediate education. It was funded by the interest on the surplus revenue of the disestablished Church of Ireland, by a grant from the customs and excise and additional aid was provided from 1914 under the Intermediate Education Act (4 & 5 Geo V, c. 41). To avoid criticism that it was bolstering denominational education, the government proposed to indirectly aid schools by conducting annual examinations, rewarding successful candidates with scholarships and certificates and by paying results-based fees to school managers. Examinations were held at three levels: junior, middle and senior (and at preparatory level from 1890). Prize-giving led to an enlargement of the range of subjects on offer within the schools and helped establish uniformity but, as with the primary system, payment-by-results led to a mechanistic approach to teaching. In 1899 the Palles Commission criticised the narrow examination programme on offer and acknowledged the heavy burden placed on schools by the payment-by-results system. Palles, nevertheless, recommended a modified payments-by-results system. Public examinations would be retained but grants would be paid in block rather than on the basis of individual examination results. In the following year the commissioners opted instead to fund schools by means of capitation grants and made provision for the appointment of school inspectors. Between 1881 and 1911 the number of intermediate schools rose only slightly from 488 to 489 but the number of pupils doubled from 20,000 to 40,000, figures which represented but a tiny fraction of the school-age population. (Coolahan, Irish education, pp. 52–82.)

  Second Reformation. A Protestant missionary attempt at the mass conversion of Catholics in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Many societies, including the aggressively proselytising London Hibernian Society (1806), the Hibernian Bible Society (1806), the Sunday School Society (1809), the Religious Tract and Book Society (1810) and the Irish Society for Promoting the Education of the Native Irish through the Medium of their own Language (1818) emerged during this period. Some, like the Religious Book and Tract Society – which distributed over four million tracts in ten years – attempted conversion through the printed word. Others, including the London Hibernian Society, established schools to provide a fre
e elementary and religiously partisan education. Others again dispatched itinerant preachers, including Irish speakers, to convert the Irish from superstition and ignorance. The drive to convert Catholics was fuelled by the belief that, properly communicated, God’s word would triumph over the ignorance and superstition of Catholicism. Second reformers claimed spiritual authority from scripture, apostolic descent from St Patrick and a civilising mission authorised by the state. The mission to rescue the Irish from the errors of popery sparked a pamphlet war. As the second reformation gained momentum missions were conducted and Catholic priests were publicly confronted, souring relationships already strained by the struggle for Catholic emancipation, tithe grievances and the debate over an appropriate educational system for the nation. In terms of numbers, the gains were short-term and largely erased by a vigorous pastoral response from the Catholic church. (Bowen, The Protestant crusade.)

  secretary hand. A distinctive hand-writing style employed in drawing up legal and official documents between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Secretary hand is characterised by considerable variation in letter form, the frequent use of abbreviations (which often appear as dashes or squiggles), erratic spelling and the absence of punctuation. Considerable practice is required before documents in secretary hand can be read fluently but several useful guides have been published to assist the reader. Gooder and Alcock are particularly useful in explaining form and content. (Gooder, Latin; Alcock, Old title deeds.)

  secretary of state. In 1560 Elizabeth I ordered the appointment of a secretary of state to the privy council to act as custodian of the privy seal or signet, the instrument that authenticated the chief governor’s warrants and activated the great seal of Ireland. The secretary of state was required to correspond with the privy council in England about developments in Ireland. In addition to overseeing the work of the clerks of the council he had the power to commit for treason or sedition and, later, to order the postmaster-general to open letters. By the eighteenth century the post had become a sinecure – the only remaining duty being to affix the signet to fiants – and the office was abolished in 1802. (Wood, ‘The offices’.)

  sectary. A member of a heretical group, the term was commonly applied to Protestant dissenters such as puritans during the seventeenth century.

  secular. Unlike the regulars who are based in monasteries, secular clergymen perform their religious duties within the communities to which they are appointed.

  sedilia. A stone seat, usually on the south side of the altar, used by the clergyman at moments of reflection or rest during mass.

  seigniory. Lordship.

  seisin, seizin. The possession of a freehold estate. Seisin did not necessarily imply occupation as the land could be leased.

  seisin, livery of. In land conveyancing livery of seisin, effectively the legal delivery of freehold property into the possession of another person, refers to the physical entry onto the land by the purchaser and the symbolic handing over of a piece of turf or keys. Purchasers often appointed attorneys to perform this act. See feoffment and livery, to sue out.

  seisin, primer. The crown entitlement to take, hold and enjoy the profits of an estate during the interval between the demise of a chief tenant and the suing out of livery, the payment of relief and the rendering of homage by his heir. See livery, to sue out.

  sejant. In heraldry, a creature seated on its haunches.

  select committee. During the nineteenth century parliament became increasingly concerned with all aspects of daily life and to fulfil its legislative function it needed to become knowledgeable about the matters on which it was to legislate. An investigation by a select committee was one of the means employed to acquire this knowledge. Membership was cross-party and representatives from both houses of parliament were eligible to participate although the majority of members and the chairman were drawn from the government party. Select committees had no executive powers but they were able to send for persons, papers and records pertinent to their investigations and any subject of the United Kingdom could be summoned to Westminster Palace to give evidence. Committee reports contain the actual report, the proceedings and (if taken) minutes of evidence heard by the committee. The minutes of evidence often provide detailed information on conditions in the localities. In the late nineteenth century the select committee ceased to be the main investigative tool as major inquiries were delegated increasingly to the royal commission or departmental inquiry.

  selion. A strip of ridges in the open field system of agriculture.

  seneschal. 1: A mayor, portreeve or sovereign 2: A steward, the most senior manorial official.

  serjeant-at-law. A law officer who spoke on behalf of his client at litigation hearings. He made the formal complaint or claim on behalf of the plaintiff or responded for the defendant. Serjeants (narratores) were engaged and briefed by attorneys who performed all the preparatory legal work in the case, including the selection of appropriate writs to move the case forward to the next stage and ensuring their clients were present in court. In Ireland judges were chosen from the body of serjeants although English serjeants were also eligible and some judges had never served as serjeants – they were simply appointed serjeants on the day of their elevation. Serjeants were later nominated to replace judges of assize by the Dublin administration. In Ireland the last serjeant was appointed in 1919. See prime serjeant. (Brand, ‘The early history’, pp. 15–50.)

  services. With the exception of the king or queen who were at the apex of the feudal pyramid, all tenants owed services to their immediate superiors. These included personal attendance, provision of knights or soldiers, farm produce, labour service and rent. See feudal incidents.

  servitor. A royal official, usually a military officer, who was rewarded for service in the Nine Years War with a grant of confiscated land in Ulster. Unlike undertakers, servitors were permitted, at a surcharge of 50%, to take Irish tenants. They were required to reside on their estates for five years, to introduce a quota of able-bodied English or lowland Scottish colonists, to construct a bawn and to maintain a supply of arms for defensive purposes. See Pynnar’s Survey.

  sesona. (L.) A large field planted with only one crop at a time in the medieval three-field system of agriculture. (Simms and Fagan, ‘Villages’, p. 93.)

  sessiagh. (Ir.) A Gaelic unit of spatial measurement which was equivalent to 20 acres in Tyrone and from 8–20 acres in Donegal. See acre, gnieve.

  session, kirk session. Comprising ministers and elders, the session is the governing board of a Presbyterian congregation. It oversees religious and church matters, supervises the election of ministers, advises on the reception of new members and exercises church discipline. Each congregational session sends representative elders to the presbytery, the district church council.

  Settling of Ireland, Act for the (1652). The Cromwellian act by which the claims of adventurers and arrears of pay due to soldiers were to be met by the confiscation and re-distribution of vast tracts of Irish land. Under the act the lives and estates of 105 named rebels were excepted from pardon as were the estates of persons who had not demonstrated ‘constant good affection’ to parliament, clauses which were sufficiently all-embracing as to ensure that almost every Catholic estate was liable to sequestration and their owners liable for transplantation.

  settle bed. A settle, saddle or press bed was an item of furniture that served as a seat during the day and was opened at night to form a bed. (O’Neill, Life, p. 20.)

  Settlement, Act of (1662). The Restoration act (14 & 15 Chas. II, c. 2) which attempted to resolve the conflicting claims of Catholics who sought restoration to their former estates and Protestants who wanted to freeze the Cromwellian land settlement and retain the lands they had acquired during the interregnum. The hopes of both were doomed as there was not sufficient land in Ireland to meet all claims. The act established a court of claims to process claims of innocence of rebellion (and hence entitlement to restoration) but within months it closed amidst fe
ars that too many Catholics were being restored and before even a fraction of the scheduled cases had been heard. In the end Catholics succeeded in modifying rather than over-turning the settlement and success or failure in regaining former estates was determined by service to or influence within the royal court, legal acumen and economic factors rather than on questions of innocence or complicity in the war. (Arnold, The restoration.)

  severalty, holding in. A holding in a person’s own right without being joined in interest by another.

  several fishery. A fishery in which the rights are vested wholly in the owner and in which the public or riparian (riverside) landlords have no rights.

  sexton. A sacristan.

  shambles. A meat and fish market.

  Shanavests. See Caravats.

  share, ploughshare. The sharp, pointed wooden or metal blade of a plough that opens the ground. See coulter, mouldboard plough, ard plough. (Mitchell, The Shell guide, pp. 143–4.)

  sharecropper. A tenant farmer who receives seed, tools and land in credit and who works the land in return for an agreed share of the produce. See metayage.

  sheela-na-gig. (Ir., possibly síle na gcíoch, hag of the breasts) A medieval carved representation of a grotesque naked female in a provocative pose often found in the exterior walls of a church. Sheela-na-gigs may have served the didactic purpose of alerting the faithful to the consequences of licentiousness. (Kelly, Sheela-na gigs.)