O'Hanlon — On the Booh of Clonenagh. 9 



Kerry and in other parts of the country. The aged Earl of Ormonde, 

 in a letter to Sir Robert Cecil, and which is dated December 2, 1601, 

 remarks that Crosby's real surname was Mac-y-Crossane, and that his 

 ancestor had been chief rhymer to the O'Moores and O'Connors. This 

 corrupt individual crept into rank and importance, like many of the 

 renegade Irish, who were employed about that period in low official 

 situations, as interpreters, spies, and informers. He received the title 

 of Sir Patrick Crosby* 



Ballyfin originally formed a part of the demesne lands belonging 

 to the O'Moores, Chieftains of Leix.f In Queen Elizabeth's time this 

 estate is said to have been granted, for services rendered her, to Patrick 

 Crosbie, Esq.| His great-grandson, Sir John Crosbie, Bart., espoused 

 the Eoyal cause of Charles I., and he was attainted afterwards by Act 

 of Parliament. Although King Charles II. became, entitled to his 

 great estate in 1663, this attainder was never reversed. Ballyfin was 

 granted after the Restoration to Periam Pole, Esq., who was a brother 

 to Sir John, and second son of Sir William Pole, of Shute, in Devon- 

 shire. The Castle of Ballyfin, erected by the Crosbies, had been pulled 

 down by this grantee, who erected a more modern house on its site. 

 This latter mansion was destroyed by fire, probably towards the close 

 of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century. His 

 son afterwards rebuilt it. We are informed that John Crosbie, a 

 bishop of Ardfert, § well versed in the Irish language, was the first in- 

 habitant of Ballyfin, and that he thus named the locality. || 



The writer of this paper is strongly induced to believe, that the 

 "Book of Clonenagh," and other relics belonging to its monastery, had 

 been in the possession of the Crosbies, or Crossans. In any case it would 

 appear, through some means, those objects subsequently passed into the 

 keeping of the Pole family. The grounds on which such an opinion 

 has been formed must now be related. It is probable, that the old- 

 est extant copy of the "Book of Clonenagh," if not the original, was the 

 MS. preserved at Ballyfin. Eor various reasons, it is not likely to have 

 been the copy used by Dr. Keating while compiling his Irish History. 

 But hitherto neither one nor the other has been recovered ; and how 

 important the "Book of Clonenagh" must prove for the elucidation of 



* See Aenghus O'Daly's "Tribes of Ireland," edited by John O'Donovan, LL.D., 

 M.E.I. A, Introduction to the Poem pp. 24, 25. 



f In the "Anthologia Sibei-inca," for July 1794, vol. iv., there is a copperplate en- 

 graving and view of Ballyfin House, as it appeared at that date, and accompanying 

 it follows, "A Description of Ballyfin, the seat of the Honourable William "Wesley 

 Pole, Esqr. " See pp. 1, 2. 



+ From an Inquisition taken at Maryborough in the reign of James I. ; and on 

 the 10th of August 1616, certain possessions were granted also to Patrick Crosbie 

 and to his heirs. This grantee was probably identical with him named in the text. 

 See "Inguisitionum Cancellariae Ribernia Repertorium," vol. i. ; "Lagoiice Com. Re- 

 gina," No. 5. 



§ See notices of him in Harris's Ware, vol. i. ; " Bishops of Ardfert" p. 523. 



|| See "Anthologia Hibemica'" for July, 1794, vol. iv., p. 2. 



R. I. A. I'ROC. — VOL. I., SER. II.. POL. LIT. AND ANTIQ. 



