Wood — The Templars in Ireland. 



331 



•of the Pope at the murder of Becket, had vowed to make a pilgrimage 

 to the Holy Land in person, at the head of a powerful army, and to 

 provide for the support of 200 Templars. It may have been in part- 

 performance of this vow that he granted lands in this country for the 

 maintenance of the Knights, whom it is likely he brought in his train. 

 The date of the grant is not accurately known, but it was confirmed 

 by Kings Eichard, John, Henry III, and Edward I, and the original 

 charter was produced in evidence by the Master of the Templars in 

 Ireland, in the famous case between him and the Abbot of Dunbrody 

 about Crook, in County Waterford.^ In fixing the date of the original 

 deed of Henry II, we find an important factor in a deed chronicled in 

 the Chartulary of S. Mary's Abbey, 1185, in which two of the signa- 

 tories were Giraldus Cambrensis and Walter, Templar of Clontarf.'-^ 

 This proves that already, at that date, the preceptory of Clontarf, one 

 of the lands granted by the King, had been founded. That the 

 Templars, however, were in Ireland before this date is shown by a 

 Christ Church Deed (No. 468), where two of the witnesses were 

 Archbishop 0' Toole and Matthew the Templar. ISTow, the Arch- 

 bishop died an 1180, while the internal evidence shows that the deed 

 was made circa 1177. Accordingly, we may conclude that Henry 

 issued his charter to the Templars between 1172 and 1177. 



This deed of Henry II was a grant in frankalmoign — i.e., on 

 condition that the grantees prayed for the soul of the grantor and his 

 ancestors. The lands, &c., comprised in this grant were the vill of 

 Clumtorf (Clontarf), Crocum (Crook), with ten carucates of land, the 

 vill near Waterford whose church is dedicated to S. Barry, a small 

 marsh between the King's houses and the sea near Waterford, mills 

 near Waterford, mills in Wexford, the church of S. AUoch, 

 with the land belonging thereto, and Agnile, burgess of Wexford, 

 with all his chattels.^ This is the only royal grant to the 

 Templars in Ireland on record, but the nobles and feudal lords 

 followed the royal example, and gave grants to the Older for 

 the good Tof their souls. I have given in Appendix A a list of 

 such Templars' lands as I have been able to trace, with the autho- 

 rities in each case. It will be suflSlcient to enumerate here their 

 manors, so as not to interfere with the narrative by considering all 

 the small portions of land, chapels, &c., of which they were at one 



1 Cal. Irish Documents, 1285-1292, No. 622. 



2 Chartulary of S. Mary's Abbey, vol. i., p. 173. 



3 Cal. Irish Documents, 1171-1251, No. 85; 1285-92, p. 329. 



