394 Proceedings of the lloijal Irish Academy. 



marks; 1 acre of beans, 40 pence ; 6 acres of oats, 20s. ; 2 acres of wheat, half 

 a mark; cows were worth 5s. each; Sheep, 6 pence; lambs, 3 pence; goats, 

 6 pence ; kids, 2 pence, and hogs, 6 pence. At Moycro (Croagh), Co. Limerick, 

 Hugh Purcell had oxen worth each 3s. ; sheep, 6 pence; cows, 3s. ; hogs, M. 

 Horses were each 5 marks, and mares, 10s. ; foals, 2s. ; and cloth M. an ell 

 in Limerick and Kerry in 1299 ; and a he-goat in Kerry was worth 8 pence.' 

 In one more instance, at Lough Gur, in 1314, Eobert de Dundonald gave 

 Thomas Perpont 8 cows worth | a mark each ; 2 " aifers," 5s. ; 1 horse, 10s. 

 and 20 acres of corn, £4, besides other grain.' Limerick, like Dublin, had 

 close ties with Bristol, which continued as late as 1401. Thomas Balbeyn, by 

 his will, left Thom Cor Castle, in the suburbs, to the commonalty, should his 

 brother Henry, living at Bristol, not choose to remove to Limerick.^ The 

 city charters date : John, 1199 ; Edward I, 1291 and 1303 ; Henry IV, 1400 ; 

 Henry V, 1413 ; Henry VI, 1423, 1429 ; Henry VIl, 1489 ; Edward VI, 1551 ; 

 Ehzabeth, 1577, 1582 ; and James I, 1609. 



AYateefoed. — A Norse colony, imder Sitric, settled here in 853, naming 

 it " Vedrisfiordr." It was walled, but so poorly that when Cellachan, king of 

 Cashel, attacked it (936-952) his men " leaped over it." The ring-tower is 

 alleged to date from 1003. Waterford was a great resort of ships, and, when 

 besieged in 1137 by Diarmait, king of Leinster, and Conchobar, king of 

 Thomond, the Danes of Wexford and Dublin came to its relief in 200 ships. 

 The ring tower is attributed to 1003. The town was taken by the Anglo- 

 Normans in 1171. The Ostmen seem to have been transplanted to the 

 neighbouring Villa Oustmannorum under curious circumstances if we can 

 credit the finding of a jury in 1311 : It appears that about 1171 one Eeginald 

 Mac Gillemory, a very rich and powerful man, dwelt at Eenaudes eastel near 

 the port of Waterford, where a mote, ancient and deserted, remained in 1310. 

 King Henry fitz Empress was expected to land for the conquest of Ireland, 

 so Eeginald had long iron chains made which he stretched from the said 

 mote across to the Dunbrody bank in the liberties of Weyseford. When 

 Henry took the city, he and his supporters were tried and hanged, the rest 

 of the " Dustmen " in Waterford were expelled and lands given to them in 



1 See CD. I., 1295 and 1299, pp. 8, 246 (under 1301, p. 255, we get a valuable price-list of 

 trees. 200 npple-trees, £20 ; 100 pear-trees, £10 ; 30,000 great ash-trees, £200 ; 1000 great alders 

 worth £60) ; and Plea Roll No. 105 of Henry II, 134, mem. 19 ; Plea Roll No. IIC, mem. 47 (1318). 

 The prior of St. Mary's, Rathkeale, "vi et armis," took on Thomas Purcell's lands, of Croagh, 

 Co. Limerick, 30 pigs, each 4s. ; four others at half a mark; also giain, &c., worth 46s. Ibid., 

 mem. 51, Richard de Clare and others, when opposing the Bruce's ai-my in Co. Limerick, took 

 90 cows, worth 20s. each, on the lands (if Any. 



• Arthur iiss. in M. Lenihan's " Limerick," and " Journal Eoy. Soc. Ant. Ir." xxvii, p. 38. 



' Besides the general authorities, see " Black Book of Limerick" (ed. Rev. J. MacCaffrey), and 

 Ilistories of Fitzgerald, Lenihan, Begley, &c. 



