[This statute legally abolished the ancient code of the Irish, called
the Brehon laws, and was passed in a parliament held at Kilkenny in the
40th Edward III., under the government of Lionel, Duke of Clarence,
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. By this act, the English are commanded in
all controversies to govern themselves by the common laws of England,
so that whoever submitted himself to the Brehon law, or the law of the
Marches, is declared a traitor. Among other things the statute enacted
that "the alliaunce of the English by marriage with any Irish, the
nurture of infantes, and gossipred with the Irish, be deemed high
treason." And again, "If anie man of English race use an Irish name,
Irish apparell, or any other guize or fashion of the Irish, his lands
shall be seized, and his bodie imprisoned, till he shall conform to
English modes and customs." This statute was followed by the 18th Henry
VI. c. i. ii. iii., and the 28th Hen. VI., c. i., with similar
prohibitions and penalties. These prohibitions, however, had little
effect; nor were the English laws universally submitted to throughout
Ireland until the time of James I., when the final extirpation of the
ancient Brehon law was effected.]
_Kenne of Kenne._--Can any of your Kentish correspondents inform me to whom
a certain Christ. Kenne of Kenne, in co. Somerset, sold the manor of
"Oakley," in the parish of Higham, near Rochester; and in whose possession
it was about the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth or commencement of
James I.?
The above Kenne, by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Roger
Cholmeley, and widow of Sir Leonard Beckwith, of Selby, in co. York,
acquired possession of the same manor in co. Kent.
After the death of his first wife, he married a Florence Stalling, who
survived him. He died in 1592.