_(To the Editor of the Mirror.)_
The original deed, of which the subjoined is a translation, was found among
some old records in Birmingham Tower, Castle of Dublin, when that building
was taken down in the year 1772. It is in Irish, neatly written on a long
scroll of parchment; forty-two seals are attached to the side, but the only
signature is that of the chief at bottom. This document, among other
curious matter, furnishes us with a proof, that the chiefs of clans were
_elective_, contrary to the opinions of modern authors, and more especially
of our modern historical novelists; which latter speak of them as
_hereditary feudal lords_, and even talk of their estates descending to
their daughters; although under the system of clanship, females could not
inherit, and no man could have more than a life interest in his estate.
Here we have an instance of a chief divesting himself of the dignity of
office, and joining in the transfer of it to another, when such transfer
was considered likely to further the interests of the clan. It is also
interesting, as showing the manner in which the English government in
Dublin proceeded in the subjugation of Ireland, by embroiling its septs
with one another.
The _Mac Ranalds_, or _Magranals_, (as the name was usually written,) in
English, Reynolds, the principal parties to the deed, were a clan who
possessed the territory of _Munterolish_, in the county of Leitrim,
subordinate to O'Rourke, who was lord paramount of the county; and the
lords justices having, by this deed, detached them from the interest of the
latter, immediately marched an army into his country. O'Rourke, after a
protracted, but ineffectual resistance, was made prisoner and sent to
London, where he was executed, in the early part of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth; "going to death," says Camden, "with as little concern as if he
had been merely a spectator." The county was then declared a forfeiture to
the crown, and the estates of its old proprietors (including those of the
Magranals among the rest) parcelled out among a colony of English settlers,
then for the first time seated in the county. This is the first document
known, in which Leitrim is spoken of as a county; and it is generally said
not to have been made such till the time of James I.; it was more anciently
known as the territory of _Briefné O'Rourke_.
Although Henry II. is said to have conquered Ireland, the dominion of the
English monarchs there was little better than nominal prior to the reign of
James I. Great pains had been taken by different sovereigns to reduce the
Irish to a perfect submission to the English crown; and English colonies
had, from time to time, been planted, with that view, in different parts of
the country; these colonies, however, in a generation or two, had uniformly
"degenerated," as the phrase was; that is, had become Irish, both in
manners and feelings, using the Irish tongue, and even coining for
themselves Irish surnames, as if desirous of forgetting their English
origin. Henry VIII. was the first English monarch who assumed the title of
_king of Ireland_; and his daughter Mary set about the conquest of the
country in earnest, by reducing the countries of _Ive Faily and Leix_,
which were formed into the King's and Queen's Counties, so called in
compliment to the queen, and her husband, Philip of Spain. Her lord deputy,
Sir Anthony Bellingham, writing on this occasion to her highness, says that
he "had made good progress in _civilizing_ the barbarous inhabitants of
those counties, having reduced their numbers to less than one hundred
fighting men."
The territory of Leitrim, though as yet uninvaded, was at the same time
declared a county; and the Magranals, who had probably no wish to be
"civilized" on Sir Anthony's plan, appear to have endeavoured to avert the
coming storm, by employing an agent in Dublin, at an immense expense,
considering the scarcity of money in Ireland in those days, "to advocate
their cause with the lords justices and council:" or, in plain English, to
crave permission to be allowed to remain in quiet. The person chosen was
one of their own sept, John Magranal, a soldier of fortune, who, having
served in the English army in the subjugation of the King's and Queen's
counties, had been rewarded with a grant of the forfeited lands of Claduff,
in the former county, and was supposed to stand well with the lords
justices. Him they elected their chief. With what success he advocated
their cause has been already stated.
The late George Nugent Reynolds, the dramatist, was a member of the sept of
the Magranals; as was the notorious Tom Reynolds, the informer, well known
in the history of the rebellion of 1798.
There is a copy of this deed in the library of the Duke of Buckingham, at
Stow.