292 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academij. 



of Kilmainham have lately made a pool there, whereby the city and 

 citizens are much damnified, their fishery is totally destroyed, 

 because the pool prevents the fish from ascending, and their boats can 

 no longer pass up and down as they used to do."^ The Justiciary was 

 directed to rectify this abuse by enlarging the river ; but the feud 

 between the City and Hospital — in the course of which the 

 Hospitallers broke the citizens' nets, while the citizens retaliated by 

 destroying the Hospitallers' mill — does not appear to have been 

 composed until after the Hospitallers had successfully vindicated their 

 title in the courts, when, as already mentioned, an amicable arrange- 

 ment was made as to the future exercise of the fishing rights. At 

 the period of the litigation in the thirteenth century between the 

 Hospital and the City, the interest of the Knights of St. John in the 

 LiSey Salmon fisheries was confined to the waters of the river above 

 the city. But a century later, when the annexation of Clontarf had 

 brought them whatever rights the Templars had been wont to exercise 

 at its mouth, the Hospitallers were careful to vindicate their title to 

 the tithe of salmon there taken. Among the Christ Church Deeds is 

 an agreement with reference to the tithes of salmon taken at Poolbeg, 

 in settlement of a suit brought by the Hospitallers against four takers 

 of salmon there, under which the title of the Hospital to such tithes 

 was acknowledged, notwithstanding that Sir Robert Dowdall, the 

 Lord Chief Justice of the day, had lield a lease for several years of the 

 farm of the manor of Clontarf. ^ 



A further glimpse into the domestic economy of the Knights of 

 St. John in Ireland is afforded by the institution of guest-houses or 

 hostelries attached to the various Preceptories in the more important 

 towns. The Hospitallers, pursuant to the Charters in that behalf 

 granted to both the military Orders, had establishments in Dublin and 

 the principal towns, to which the Knights could resort for accommo- 

 dation in their journeys. In Limerick, Trim, and Ardee, among other 

 places, these guest-houses existed. The agreement of the Prior and 

 Brethren of Kilmainham with Henry Marshal, the custodian of their 

 Liher Hospes, or guest-house, in Dublin, gives us some insight into the 

 nature of the arrangement between the brethren and their inn- 

 keepers, besides indicating the kind of accommodation provided in an 

 inn of the better sort at the close of the thirteenth century. This 



* Sweetman's Calendar of Documents" (1171-1251), p. 149. 

 2 Appendix to the 20th Eeport of Deputy Keeper of Tublic Records in 

 Ireland, p. 91. 



