88 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 169. 



Ismay Plunkett ; the second, to Maud O'Toole, was 

 contracted under peculiar circumstances. The 

 law of Ireland at the time prohibited the inter- 

 niarria^jes of the English with the natives without 

 royal licence therefor being previously obtained, 

 and not even did the licence so obtained wash out 

 the original sin of Irish birth ; for, as in this in- 

 stance, Maud, having survived her first husband, 

 on marrying her second, Patrick Hussey, had a 

 fresh licence to legalise that marriage. It is of 

 record (i2o^. Paf. 21 Henry VII., C.H.), and proves 

 the second marriage of Sir William clearly : yet it 

 is not noticed in any of the peerage books, which 

 derive his issue from tiie first wife, and not from 

 the second, as Lynch gives it, that issue being 

 Gerald the eldest son, Walter the second, and 

 Alison a daughter. 



Gerald had a special livery of his estate in 1 539 ; 

 Walter the second son became Bishop of Kildare 

 in 1531, and died its diocesan in 1539 (see Ware's 

 Bishops) ; and the daughter Alison intermarried 

 with John Cuaack of Cushington, co. Meath. 

 (Burke's Landed Gentry, Supp. p. 88.) 



Gerald, according to all the peerage books, 

 married Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas 

 Fitzgerald, who was Lord Chancellor of Ireland 

 in 1483, and had issue William, his eldest son, 

 Lord of Dangan, who married Elizabeth Cusack, 

 of Portrane, co. Dublin, and died previous to 

 1551 (as I believe is proveable by inquisitions of 

 that year in the office of the Chief Remembrancer, 

 Dublin), leaving Gerald, his eldest son and heir. 

 An inquiry taken in 1579 as to the extent of the 

 manor of Dangan, finds him then seised thereof 

 (Inquis. in C. H. 23 Eliz.'). Previous to this he 

 appears a party in conveyances of record, as in 

 1564, &c. He had a son Edwai-d (not mentioned 

 in the peerage books), who joined in a family 

 conveyance of 1599, and soon after died, leaving a 

 son. Valerian Wellesley. Gerald himself died in 

 1603, leaving said Valerian, his grandson and heir, 

 then aged ten (Inquis. 5 Jac. I. in Bolls Office), 

 and married, adds the Inquisition ; and Lynch, in 

 his Feudal Dignities, gives interesting particulars 

 of the betrothal of this boy, and his public repu- 

 diation of the intended match on his coming to 

 age. This Valerian is traced through Irish 

 records to the time of the Restoration ; he mar- 

 ried first, Maria Cusack (by whom he had William 

 Wellesley, his eldest son), and, second, Anne 

 Forth, otherwise Cusack, widow of Sir Ambrose 

 Forth, as shown by an Inquisition of 1637, in the 

 Rolls Office, Dublin. 



William Wellesley, son and heir of Valerian, 

 married Margaret Kempe (Peerage Books), and 

 by her had Gerald Wellesley, who on the Re- 

 storation petitioned to be restored to his estates, 

 and a Decree of Innocence issued, which states 

 the rights of himself, his father, and his grand- 

 father in " Dingeri." This Gerald married Eliza- 



beth, eldest daughter of Sir Dudley Colley, and 

 their first daughter was baptized in 1663 by the 

 name of Margaret, some evidence, in the courtesy 

 of christenings, of Gerald's mother being Mar- 

 garet. (Registry of St. Werburgh's.) Gerald was 

 a suitor in the Court of Claims in 1703 : he left 

 two sons; William the eldest died s. p., and was 

 succeeded bj' Garrett, his next brother, who died 

 also without issue in 1728, having bequeathed all 

 the family estates to Richard Colley, second son 

 of the aforesaid Sir Dudley Colley, and testator's 

 uncle, enjoining upon said Richard and his heirs 

 male to bear thenceforth, as they succeeded to the 

 estates, the name and arms of Wellesley. 



This Richard C6lley Wellesley married Eliza- 

 beth, daughter of John Sale, LL.D. and M.P., by 

 whom he had issue Garrett Wellesley, born, as the 

 Dublin and London Magazine for 1735 announces, 

 " 19th July," when " the Lady of Richard Colley 

 Westley was delivered of a son and heir, to the 

 great joy of that family.^' This son was father of 

 the Marquis Wellesley and of the Duke of Wel- 

 lington ! John D'Alton. 



48. Summer Hill, Dublin. 



CONSECBATED rings rOR EPILEPSY. 



(Vol. vi., p. 603.) 



Sir W. C. T. has opened a very interesting 

 field for inquiry regarding these blest rings. 



St. Edward, in his last illness (obiit January 5, 

 1066), gave a ring which he wore to the Abbot 

 of Westminster. The origin of this ring is sur- 

 rounded by much mystery. A pilgrim is said to 

 have brought it to the king, and to have informed 

 him that St. John the Evangelist had made known 

 to the donor that the king's decease was at hand. 

 " St. Edward's ring " was kept for some time at 

 Westminster Abbey, as a relic of the saint, and 

 was applied for the cure of the falling sickness or 

 epilepsy, and for the cramp. From this arose the 

 custom of our English kings, who were believed 

 to have inherited St. Edward's powers of cure, 

 solemnly blessing every year rings for distribution. 



It is said, we know not on what authority, that 

 the ring did not always remain at Westminster, 

 but that in the chapel of Havering (so called from 

 having the ring), in the parish of Hornchurcb, near 

 Rumford in Essex (once a hunting-seat of the 

 kings), was kept, till the dissolution of religious 

 houses, the identical ring given by the pilgrim to 

 St. Edward. Weaver says he saw it represented 

 in a window of Rumford Church. 



These rings seem to have been blessed for two 

 different species of cure: first, against the falling 

 sickness (comitialis morbus) ; and, secondly, against 

 the cramp (contracta membra). For the cure of 

 the king's evil the sovereign did not bless rings, 

 but continued to touch the patient. 



