162 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



pay twelve pence Irish for every Sunday or holiday, which amounts not to 

 three pounds sterling for a whole year, they would make a scorn both of the 

 Statute and of the proclamation : so that law and prerogative must go 

 together in this and other towns." He also, in a letter to Salisbury, 1 gave as 

 an additional reason that they had not in Ireland the penal laws which they 

 had in England, imposing a forfeiture of £20 a month and the like, and were 

 therefore obliged to have recourse to the prerogative. In the case of the 

 poorer class, who were left to the Grand Jurors, these latter frequently 

 refused to present, and were prosecuted in the Court of Castle Chamber and 

 heavily fined. The gentry of the English Pale, Lords Gormanston, Trimleston, 

 Howth, and others, strongly protested against these mandates, and asserted 

 that the Castle Chamber had never been used as a "Spiritual Consistory." 

 Lord Gormanston, Sir P. Barnwell, and Christopher Flatisbury were 

 imprisoned. Their resistance apparently dealt a fatal blow at the mandates, 

 for we hear nothing more of this irregular procedure ; and the Government 

 were reduced to subjecting the juries who failed to present bills against the 

 recusants to fines and imprisonment by the Castle Chamber. These were 

 continued in the reign of Charles I ; and Strafford, at his trial, justified his 

 action against recusant jurors. 



It will be sufficient to note briefly others of the more important 

 cases which came before this Court. In 1577 Christopher Barnewell, 

 Visct. Baltinglass, and others of the nobility and gentry of the Pale, strongly 

 protested against the payment of cess, and were heavily fined. 2 In 1579 the 

 Lord Baron of Howth was convicted in this Court of beating his wife 

 without " lawful cause declared," but only, as appears, because she misliked 

 his dissolute life and neglect of her, who had borne him fourteen children ; the 

 first beating causing her to keep her bed for a fortnight, and the second 

 " ere she was well recovered of the former," being so cruel that two " sallye" 

 rods, provided for the purpose, were both worn to the stumps and her skin 

 so taken away that for many days she could not abide any clothes to touch 

 her. His daughter Jane and the butler also received a severe beating at his 

 hands, and he was fined £1000, which was afterwards reduced to £500. 3 



In 1581-2 the jury in the Court of Common Pleas, who, contrary to the 

 evidence, acquitted Morishe Fitz James of aiding and assisting Viscount 

 Baltinglass and other rebels, were fined £100 apiece and ordered to stand in 

 the pillory. In 1586 Henry Ealand, late sheriff of Co. Boscommon, was 

 found guilty of divers extortions and oppressions during his term of office ; 



1 Cal. State Papers (Ireland), 1603-6, p. 370. 



2 Egmont Papers (Hist, MSS. Com.), vol. i, pt. 1, pp. 5, 7. 

 3 Egrnont Papers (Hist. MSS. Com.), vol. i, pt. 1, pp. 11, 12. 



