Falkiner — The Counties of Ireland. 173 



of England would, in his opinion, have heen no better than a 

 mockery: "For without sherifls, law would be a dead letter ; " and 

 without a shire there could he no sheriff. That there were sheriffs 

 in Henry's reign Harris considers proved by the language of a patent 

 to one Kicholas de Benchi, directed to all archbishops, bishops, 

 sheriffs, &c. ; and that shires were known in Ireland prior to the 

 tenth year of King John is shown by a patent of the seventh of 

 that reign, in which the County of "Waterford is distinguished from 

 the City of that name. In further support of his thesis, Harris 

 also argues that the division of Connaught into the two counties of 

 Connaught and Roscommon is of earlier date than King John's 

 counties ; that Leix and Offaly were reckoned in Kildare, and other 

 portions of the Queen's County in Carlow, prior to the reign of Philip 

 and Mary ; and that there were unquestionably sheriffs of Down and 

 JS'ewtownards, of Carrickfergus and Antrim, and of Coleraine, long 

 prior to the division of Ulster into counties under Elizabeth. But 

 though he would be a bold antiquarian who would venture to contro- 

 vert a proposition maintained by the erudition of "Ware, the authority 

 of Ware's laborious editor is hardly so formidable. It may at least 

 be said that if the shiring of Ireland was really accomplished by 

 Henry II., all substantial traces of it have perished; and the historian 

 must be content to start with King John. 



As has just been noted, there is no conclusive evidence now extant 

 of the formation by King John of the twelve counties traditionally 

 ascribed to him. And it is certain that though these divisions were 

 probably known as separate geographical areas, they cannot in several 

 instances, if in any, have formed counties in the modem administrative 

 sense till a date considerably later than King John's reign. ^ For it 

 must be remembered that the earliest grants of territory by Heniy II. 

 were in the natui-e of counties palatine rather than of ordinary counties, 

 though the term " palatine " nowhere occui's in any early instrument ; 

 and of the twelve counties imputed to King John, five formed part of 

 the single liberty or palatine county of Leinster. In order to follow 

 the process of the development of our Irish counties, it is essential to 

 have regard to this fact and to the consequences flowing from it. It is 

 therefore necessary to consider the origin of the institution of counties, 

 and the difference, in the extent and natiu'e of their respective 

 jurisdictions, between simple and palatine counties. 



^ See Hardiman's "Notes to the Statute of Kilkenn}- " in <' Tracts relating to 

 Ireland," ii., p. 102. 



