Wood — The Templars, in Ireland, 



339 



always of noble blood; but it is not clear if this condition was insisted 

 on in later times. In Ireland, they were apparently Anglo-lS'ormans! 

 Many came oyer from England, while in the case of those received 

 into the Order here, their names, such as Adam de Langeport and 

 Robert de Pourbriggs, show an Anglo-Norman origin. But with 

 regard to the servientes no such certainty exists. As mentioned 

 aboye, the French text of the rules of the Order allowed this body 

 to be recruited from the citizen class. Is it possible that the natiye 

 Irish were enrolled in their ranks ? In Plea Roll No. 76 (33 & 34 

 Ed. I, m. 27) we find an entry of the payment of £10 by the 

 Master of tlie Templars for himself and all his men of Clonaul for 

 all trespasses. Fortunately, the scribe has set out their names, which 

 are as follow : — loghlyn o dufgyr, Tathug o dufgyr, Gillicrist Palmer 

 Kynagh, Donghoth o Kynagh, William Boy o molryan, Tathug car- 

 rach molryan, Dermod leche o molryan, maloghelyn o molryan, 

 Auulyf Kynagh, Kenedy o Kynagh, makyn mol K [ ] ogher o bolan, 

 John Kynagh, Simon Bouelk, James Pannebecer, Bysyn fil' John, 

 Gill' God molreny, [ ] moy rayne, [ ]. Who were these men ? 

 Probably not free tenants, as they were usually Anglo-Normans. It 

 does not seem improbable that these were servientes attached to the 

 preceptory. If this theory is correct, and the Templars did fill up 

 the ranks of their followers in Ireland from the natiye Irish, it is 

 likely that these attendants followed them to the Crusades. We 

 know that drafts of the Order left this country for Palestine, for the 

 Pope issued a mandate to the Archbishop of Dublin (on complaints 

 from the Templars) not to extort money from those going to the 

 Holy Land, as they were free from the Constantinople subyention. 

 Perhaps those drafts included the Irish referred to by Tasso : — 



Sono gl' Inglese sagittari, ed hanno 

 Gente con lor ch'e piu vieina al polo : 

 Questi dair alte selve irsuti nianda 

 La divisa dal mondo ultima Irlanda. 



Tasso, Ger. Lib., canto i. 



It would be only reasonable to expect that men placed in such a 

 high position as the Templars, endowed with such liberality, and 

 favoured with such immunities, should have left a considerable mark 

 on the history of their times. But the only reference to them in 

 the Irish Annals states the fact that in 1183 the Orders of the 

 Templars and the Hospitallers were confirmed, i This, however, is a 



^ Annals of Ulster ; Grace's Annals ; Clyn's Annals ; and Chartulary of 

 S. Mary's Abbey, vol. ii., p. 305. 



