214 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



same volumes, in Dr. Eeeves's hand, deposited by him in the Library of 

 Trinity College, were made as a first step in the execution of his design. 

 With them are placed transcripts of the Eegisters of Swayne, Prene, and 

 Cromer, written by an amanuensis under Dr. Eeeves's direction, and drawn, 

 not from the originals, but from the eighteenth-century copies. In these the 

 documents are not in all cases arranged in their original order, and the text 

 is not free from clerical errors. 



Thus the Library of Trinity College owes to the labour and the generosity 

 of Dr. Eeeves a copy of the entire series of the Armagh Eegisters.' It may 

 be added that it possesses a second copy of the Eegister of DowdaU,^ made 

 apparently in the eighteenth century by the scribe to whom we are indebted 

 for a copy of the Eegister of John Alan, Archbishop of Dublin.^ 



The first volume of the Armagh Eegisters opens with two imnumbered 

 leaves of vellum, the first of which contains Acts of Archbishop David 

 Mageraghty(l-'i35-1346), and the second certain proceedings of the commissary 

 of the Chapter of Armagh, during the vacancy of the see caused by the death of 

 his successor, Ai-chbishop Eichard Fitz Ealph (1346-1360). Upon these follows 

 a table of contents, written on paper about the year 1600 ; and then three 

 leaves of vellum, containing Acts of the latter part of the archiepiseopate of 

 Milo Sweteman (1361-1380). These are stray leaves from a volume, or 

 volumes, now lost. The first of them bears the number 147. After them 

 come 52 leaves, numbered in a later hand 1-29, and 31-53. The number 30 

 does not appear, either throrxgh loss of a leaf or through clerical error. These 

 leaves are of paper, with the exception of ff. 32, 33, 51, 52, 53, which are of 

 vellum. They are followed by a fresh table of contents, and leaves numbered 

 1-68, and described by Ussher in a note written on a fly-leaf as the Eegister 

 of Nicholas Fleming. AVith these, which obviously at one time formed a 

 volume apart, we have now no concern. 



The earlier part of the present volume is generally known as the Eegister 

 of MUo Sweteman, and the designation, if not quite accurate, is convenient. 

 It is evident that at some period the portion of it which consists of consecu- 

 tively numbered leaves formed a separate volume. But a cursory examination 

 proves that it is a mere fragment of Sweteman's Eegister. We have in it 

 36 documents which may be assigned with certainty or high probability to 

 the year 1365 ; 47 which may be placed in 1366, and 47 also in 1367. But the 

 years 1362-1364 are represented by only 8 documents; 1368-1370 by 17 

 each; and the period 1371-1380 by no more than 26. Moreover, it is clear 

 that several of the later documents have come down to us through the accident 



' The sferies, in thirteen volumes, is numbered 5.57 in Dr. Abbott's Catalogue of 3fSS. 

 » MS. 588 (N.2.11). 3MS. 5.54 (F.1.8). 



