Armstrong — Some Matrices of Irish Seals. 471 



" The Exempt Jurisdiction of Newry and Mourne owes its origin to a 

 monastery which before the Eeformation was established at Newry, and of 

 which the Abbot was what is termed a mitred abbot. The instrument 

 under which the jurisdiction was founded is not now forthcoming, nor is its 

 date known ; it must have been some Papal bull or grant, and it was 

 undoubtedly of very remote antiquity. The meaning of an exempt jurisdic- 

 tion is that a certain district and the clergy within it are wholly outside 

 episcopal control. In the present case the Abbot and not any bishop was the 

 spiritual governor. Like all the monasteries, the Newry house was dissolved, 

 and the Abbot ceased to exist at the Reformation, and all the possessions of 

 the monastery were transferred to the Crown. These possessions were by the 

 Crown originally conferred upon one of the Bagnall family, from whom the 

 present Lord Kilmorey derives part, and the Marquis of Anglesey derived 

 another part. The Kilmorey family have always not only claimed, but 

 actually exercised, an exempt jurisdiction over the same territory as the 

 Abbot. They have a Court, appoint a Vicar-General, formerly gave probate 

 of wills, and granted letters of administration to intestates, and continued to 

 do this until the Irish Probate Court Act, A.D. 1857, abolished all other 

 testamentary jurisdiction. . . . The Abbot had no power to administer the 

 rite of confirmation. It is still more certain that Lord Kilmorey has none. 

 Accordingly the Primate is at intervals invited within the exempt jurisdiction 

 to confirm the children of Newry parish, and the Bishop of Down confirms 

 those of the other parishes." 



In the " Ancient and Present State of the Co. of Down, 1744," p. 90, it is 

 stated that the Abbey was called the Abbey of Newry, and in the foundation 

 Charter " Ibar Cyn tracta, i.e. the flourishing Head of a Yew-Tree."' It is 

 added that according to native tradition there were two yew-trees in the 

 grounds of the Abbey, and hence the name Monasteriutn de viridi ligno. The 

 same work states that the episcopal jurisdiction was exercised by the Temporal 

 Proprietor on the dissolution of the Monasteries, and at that time by Robert 

 Needham, Esq., the owner of the town and manors. It is added that the seal 

 of the Court is " a mitred Abbat in his Alhe, sitting in a Chair, and supported 

 by two Yew-trees, with this Inscription, viz. Sigillum ezempiae Jurisdictionis 

 de viridi ligno, alias, Neivry et Mourne." 



Matrices of later Seals of the Roman Church. 



The collection also contains a few matrices of ecclesiastics of the Roman 

 Church. Eor much information about these I am indebted to the kindness 



See Joyce, " IrishNames of Places," 1910, voL i, p. 512. 



