342 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the riglit they had, or might have, in the lands as heirs of the 

 Templars. 1 



In 1298, the jurors of County Kildare presented the Master for 

 having no horses ready at Kilcork, " sicut assessi fuerunt."^ There 

 is no record of further proceedings, but he was probably acquitted, as 

 the Order was not liable for such service. In the same year and 

 place the preceptor of Kilcork was presented for having killed a cow 

 belonging to Alice, daughter of Thomas flecher.^ 



Another important case arose upon an action of quare impedit 

 brought by Matilda la Botillere against the Master of the Templars, in 

 1302, for preventing her presenting a fit person to the vicarage 

 of Carlingford. The Master produced a deed by which Matilda de 

 Lacy had granted to the Order the lands of Coly and the right of 

 presentation to the Church of Carlingford. Matilda replied that 

 there was a rectory as well as a vicarage attached to the church, and 

 that the deed of Matilda de Lacy had only given the Master the right 

 to the rectory; but the Master showed to the satisfaction of the Judge 

 that the vicarage was an appurtenance of the church. Accordingly 

 the custodian of the spiritualities of the Archbishop of Armagh was 

 ordered to admit a fit person presented by the Master. Matilda was 

 fined six marks, of which forty shillings were to be given to the clerks, 

 and the rest to the Templars.* 



In 1302, the Master complained against John Wodelok, Sheriff of 

 Dublin, Roger Prude, and John Halfheued, not only for seizing and 

 selling 16 cows, 6 heifers, and 279 sheep, but for doing so at a lower 

 valuation than was right. Their defence was that they had been 

 ordered by the Exchequer to levy 20 marks on the said Master. The 

 Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer, being called, pleaded that 

 the Master had been fined in that sum before brother ^Yilliam de Bos, 

 prior of the Hospital of S. Jolm of Jerusalem, and lieutenant of the 

 Justiciar, for not supplying horses and men-at-arms. Thereupon 

 William de Bos was called, and he said it was true that he had sum- 

 moned all the religious to appear for the assessment of horses and men 

 for the defence of the country, and that the Preceptor of Clontarf had 

 appeared for the Master, and shown that he and his predecessors had 

 always been free from such service by royal charter, and that conse- 



^ Chartulary of S. Mary's Abbey (Gilbert), vol. ii., p. Ixxxvii. 

 2 Plea Eoll, 26 Ed. I, Roll 30, m. 9. 

 Ibid. 



*Ibid., 30 Ed. I, Eoll 64, m. 19. 



