280 



1*} o,.;endings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the story of Kilmainham again becomes a blank. Eut as connected 

 with the Anglo-Norman invaders, it re-opens at the earliest possible 

 moment. The charter by which the Knights of St. John originally 

 derived their title to the lands of Kilmainham has long been lost. 

 But its existence was conclusively established so far back as the year 

 1261, in a suit heard in the Court of Prince Edward (Edward I) as 

 Lord of Ireland, between the Mayor and Commonalty of Dublin 

 on the one hand, and the Prior and Brethren of the Hospital of 

 St. John of Jerusalem on the other. The citizens having ejected the 

 Hospitallers from a piece of land on the banks of the Liffey, which 

 they claimed under their city charter as part of the liberty of Dublin, 

 the knights were put to the proof of their title. The latter then 

 averred that the Hospital of Kilmainham had been enfeoffed of the 

 disputed lands before the citizens of Dublin had themselves become 

 enfranchised, by a Charter given them by Henry II, which they put 

 in evidence. The jurors found in favour of the Hospital, and they 

 set out in their finding with remarkable precision a complete abstract 

 of the Hospital's title. For they found that Richard Strongbow 

 formerly enfeoffed the Prior and Hospital of Kilmainham of all the 

 land of Kilmainham with its appurtenances ; that subsequently 

 Henry II. enfeoffed Hugh Tyrel the Elder of Kylmehanok and its 

 appurtenances, with half the water of the Liffey, *'as far as the 

 watercourse near the gibbet " ; that Hugh TyreP in turn enfeoffed 

 the Prior and Hospital, with Kylmehanok^ and the fishery rights 

 annexed to it ; and, finally, that King Henry confirmed the grants of 

 Strongbow and Tyrel, excepting these grants from those to the 

 citizens of Dublin, which latter the jurors expressly found to have 

 been made subsequent to those in favour of the Knights of St. John."' 



^ Hugh Tyrel had been granted Castle Knock by Hugh de Lacy : 

 " Castle Knock in the first place he gave to Hugh Tyrel 

 "Whom he loved so much." 

 See " The Song of Dermot and the Earl," translated and edited by Goddard 

 Orpen, 1. 3132, p. 229. 



2 Kilmehanok is so spelled in most of the authorities. The correct form 

 appears to be Kilmehauok ; in Sweetman's Calendar, i., p. 22, it is given as 

 Kilmehafoch. 



^ Que jurata dicit quod predicti maior et communa disseisiverunt predictum 

 priorem, sicut hreve dicit, quare dicit quod Eicardus Stranghowe quondam 

 feoffavit priorem et domum de Kylmaynan de tota terra de Kylniaynan cum 

 pertinenciis. Postea venit hie Henricus, rex, avus domini regis nunc, et feoffavit 

 Hugonem Tyrel, seniorem, de Kylmehanok cum pertinenciis, cum medietate aque d& 



