432 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
I hazard the conjecture of a mis-writing for Vill-burgensis = Burgess of 
the town (of Old Leighlin), as occurs elsewhere on the tomb. 
On the south side of the altar-tomb of William O’Brin is carved a 
shield, bearing the upper portion of three animals—‘‘ two and one,” 
as the heralds say—probably intended for demi-lions, but more resem- 
bling foxes ‘‘rampant,”’ and ‘‘ couped”’—their tails escaping in the 
operation. Above this is the name 
Sidaline) Welipee Lee MEE 
to the left, turned upside down, with a blank space before it unoccu- 
pied; possibly intended for a Christian name. 
Now it is curious that, according to Burke’s General Armory 
(1878 ed.), the Byrnes and O’Byrne arms, as borne by the notorious 
chieftain Fiach M‘Hugh O’ Byrne, chief of the name temp. Elizabeth, 
and the Cabinteely and Wicklow Byrnes, were: a chevron, between 
three dexter hands. I have before me a woodcut of ‘‘The Byrns’ 
Arms,”’ in Francis-street, Dublin, where was the drinking ‘‘ Spaw,” 
figuring in an advertisement thereof in the Public Gazetteer of March 
24-8, 1761, which exhibits the three hands separated by the chevron, 
surmounted by the mermaid crest as assigned to all the same families. 
On the other hand, all the O’Briens, from the monarch who fell at 
Clontarf to the Thomonds and Inchiquins, bore three lions, but they 
were ‘‘ passant guardant,” and ‘‘in pale,” that is at full length, one 
over the other. In fact, the nearest resemblance in name and bearings. 
in the Armory to the arms on the Leighlin tomb is in the coat assigned 
by Carney, Ulster, in 1684, to James Brien, viz., ‘‘ Gu., three lions, 
passant, two and one, or.’’ But these were passant; so the question 
as to which family the arms at Leighlin belonged must remain in . 
abeyance. 
Having thus tried to establish the sense of the inscriptions, some- 
thing must be said about their subjects. 
In the first place, one naturally looks for the family or stem-name. 
We find in these inscriptions, besides many Christian names, two such 
surnames, each given in two forms, different in spelling, but really 
identical, viz. y’Brian and O’Brin, with Chavanagh and Kewanagh. 
The prefix y in the former represents the Irish Uo or U, and was 
superseded by the modern O’. (See Reeves, Kec. Ant., 370.) In the 
second couple the beginnings and endings vary, but the name is one, 
hodie Cavanagh. The form Kewanagh is frequently found in con- 
temporary writings. The transposition of the final g and 4 may be for 
phonetic reasons. The former coupled names might be supposed to 
be the Elizabethan form of O’Brien ; but, apart from Dr. Joyce’s 
assurance, which in itself would suffice, we have conclusive evidence 
that the family described is that of the O’Byrnes, which, with the 
Cavanaghs, were the most numerous and powerful clans in the neigh- 
bourhood of Leighlin. An example of the name O’Birn, or O’ Byrne, 
