247 
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1859. 
James Huntuorn Toop, D. D., President, in the Chair. 
Wirt D. Moors, M. B., was elected a Member of the Academy. 
Rey. Charles Graves, D. D., communicated a ‘‘ Geometrical Method 
of representing the sums or differences of Arcs of any curves whatso- 
ever.” 
The Rey. the Prestprent exhibited to the Academy an ancient deed 
in the Irish language, and read a translation of it made by Mr. Curry. 
It was an agreement of the nature of a mortgage between Domhnall, 
son of John, son of Mac Con (i.e., Mac Namara), and Domhnall, son of 
Lochlainn O’Slattery. Slattery had given a loan to Mac Namara and his 
brothers, of seven marks and an half, valued at fifteen cows in calf, and 
a bay steed, worth an unga, or ounce of sever. The security given by 
Mac Namara was his share of the lands of Bally Slattery, now Newgrove, 
near Kiltannon, county of Clare; and the covenant or condition of the 
mortgage was, that no person could redeem the land except Domhnall 
Mac Namara himself, or his son, or his son’s son. The deed was executed 
on the fair-green of Killinagh. Witnesses, Sioghda, the Mac Namara, and 
his sons, Finglin and Mac Con; Mora, daughter of Donnchadh O’ Brian; 
the clan (or family) of Cumeadha Mac Lochlainn Mac Namara, and many 
others of the tribe, who were consenting parties on both sides. The 
deed was made in 1502. 
But the document exhibited to the Academy was not the original, for 
the transcriber adds, in continuation (and this clause is evidently in the 
same handwriting as the remainder of the deed) :—‘“‘ And it was thus I 
found it in the old charter, in presence of Teige Mac Clanachy* and of 
Flaithri Mac Flanachy.” 
And then follows, in a different hand, of the seventeenth century, 
and not in Irish characters, the attestation :—‘‘ Copia vera examinata 
cum originali.”’ 
The most curious thing to be noted in this deed is that the value of 
the loan is given not only in money, seven marks and an half, but also 
in the ancient valuation, cattle; and we are told that seven marks and 
an half, or nearly £5 (the mark being 13s. 4d.), were equivalent to 15 
cows in calf, and a bay steed, which of itself was worth an ounce of 
silver. This gives us a curious criterion for estimating the value of 
money in Ireland in the year 1502. 
The following is the original Irish of this deed, with a trans- 
lation :— 
* It is to be observed that Mac Flanachy and Mac Clanachy are different spellings 
of the same name, the correct orthography being Mac Flanchadha. It is curious, as il- 
lustrating the loose orthography of the period, to find the same name spelt differently in 
the same line. 
