(Vol. vii., p. 332.)
MR. ELLACOMBE will find some account of this personage, who was Prior of
Kilmainham, and for several years served the office of Lord Justice of
Ireland, in Holinshed's _Chronicles of Ireland_, sub anno 1325, _et
seq._: also in "The Annals of Ireland," in the second volume of Gibson's
_Camden_, 3rd edition, sub eod. anno. He was nearly related to the lady
Alice Kettle, and her son William Utlawe, al. Outlaw; against whom that
singular charge of sorcery was brought by Richard Lederede, Bishop of
Ossory. The account of this charge is so curious that, for the benefit
of those readers of "N. & Q." who may not have the means of referring to
the books above cited, I am tempted to extract it from Holinshed:
"In these daies lived, in the Diocese of Ossorie, the Ladie
Alice Kettle, whome the Bishop ascited to purge hir selfe of the
fame of inchantment and witchcraft imposed unto hir, and to one
Petronill and Basill, hir complices. She was charged to have
nightlie conference with a spirit called Robin Artisson, to
whome she sacrificed in the high waie nine red cocks, and nine
peacocks' eies. Also, that she swept the streets of Kilkennie
betweene compleine and twilight, raking all the filth towards
the doores of hir sonne William Outlaw, murmuring and muttering
secretlie with hir selfe these words:
"'To the house of William my sonne
Hie all the wealth of Kilkennie towne.'
"At the first conviction, they abjured and did penance; but
shortlie after, they were found in relapse, and then was
Petronill burnt at Kilkennie: the other twaine might not be
heard of. She, at the hour of hir death, accused the said
William as privie to their sorceries, whome the bishop held in
durance nine weeks; forbidding his keepers to eat or to drinke
with him, or to speake to him more than once in the daie. But at
length, thorough the sute and instance of Arnold le Powre, then
seneschall of Kilkennie, he was delivered, and after corrupted
with bribes the seneschall to persecute the bishop: so that he
thrust him into prison for three moneths. In rifling the closet
of the ladie, they found a wafer of sacramentall bread, having
the divel's name stamped thereon insteed of Jesus Christ's; and
a pipe of ointment, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon which
she ambled and gallopped thorough thicke and thin when and in
what maner she listed. This businesse about these witches
troubled all the state of Ireland the more; for that the ladie
was supported by certeine of the nobilitie, and lastlie conveied
over into England; since which time it could never be understood
what became of hir."
Roger Outlawe, the Prior of Kilmainham, was made Lord Justice for the
first time in 1327. The Bishop of Ossory was then seeking his revenge on
Arnold le Powre, for he had given information against him as being--
"Convented and convicted in his consistorie of certeine
hereticall opinions; but because the beginning of Powres
accusation concerned the justice's kinsman, and the bishop was
mistrusted to prosecute his owne wrong, and the person of the
man, rather than the fault, a daie was limited for the
justifieing of the bill, the partie being apprehended and
respited thereunto. This dealing the bishop (who durst not
stirre out of {386} Kilkennie to prosecute his accusation) was
reputed parciall: and when by meanes hereof the matter hanged in
suspense, he infamed the said prior as an abettor and favourer
of Arnold's heresie. The Prior submitted himselfe to the trial."
Proclamation was made, "That it should be lawful for anie man ... to
accuse, &c. the Lord Justice; but none came." In the end, six
inquisitors were appointed to examine the bishops and other persons, and
they--
"All with universal consent deposed for the Prior, affirming
that (to their judgements) he was a zelous and a faithfull child
of the Catholike Church. In the meane time, Arnold le Powre, the
prisoner, deceased in the castell; and because he stood
unpurged, long he laie unburied."
In 1332, William Outlawe is said to have been Prior of Kilmainham, and
lieutenant of John Lord Darcie, Lord Justice.
This Bishop of Ossorie, Richard Lederede, was a minorite of London: he
had a troubled episcopate, and was long in banishment in England. I have
met with his name in the Register of Adam de Orlton, Bishop of
Winchester, where he is recorded as assisting that prelate in some of
his duties, A.D. 1336. He died however peaceably in his see, and was a
benefactor to his cathedral. (See Ware's _History of Ireland_.)