Wood — The Templars in Ireland. 



363 



Mona) belonged first to the Knights Templars. However, the Master 

 of Mora, as it was called, was a witness to the above-mentioned deed 

 of the Prior of the Hospitallers; and in the taxation of 1302, the 

 church is entered as belonging to that Order. 



It would take a considerable space to enumerate all the places 

 which have been dignified with the appellation of Templars' lands. 

 In some cases, as those mentioned above, the tradition or legend can 

 be proved to be wrong. But in other cases where neither proof 

 nor disproof is forthcoming, we need not contemptuously reject the 

 tradition. Besides the possibilities I have mentioned above of land 

 formerly held by the Templars being exchanged or granted away, 

 there must be many cases where the knights were allowed to hold 

 land free of rent to the lords of the soil, to whom, on the suppression 

 of the Order, the land would naturally revert. As an instance of this, 

 I may cite the lands of Coulmacsaury in County "Waterford. Here 

 the Templars held 16 acres of demesne lands from the Bruys family. 

 On account of the minority of the heir, the lands were for some 

 years administered by the Crown ; and so we come to have a record of 

 the Templars being settled there, of which otherwise we should havo 

 been in complete ignorance. 



I have endeavoured in this paper to set out carefully all the 

 Icnown facts about the history of this remarkable Order in Ireland, 

 and by the investigation of hitherto unpublished material to make 

 some addition to our knowledge of Ireland, and especially to the effect 

 in Ireland of one of the greatest, if not the greatest, tragedy of the 

 Middle Ages. Of the published matter which dealt with my subject, 

 I have had to reject much which appeared to me to rest upon no 

 authoritative basis, to say nothing of those statements which I found, 

 on inquiry, to be absolutely devoid of truth. I desire here to express 

 my deep obligations to many friends who have either indicated fresh 

 sources of information or enabled me, by their knowledge, to avoid 

 tliose numerous pitfalls which are so apt to engulf the unwary 

 historian. 



APPENDIX A. 

 Possessions of the Templars in Ikeland. 

 County Caelow. 



Father Grange of {Forth)} — After the dissolution this land was 

 farmed out, at the request of Maud de Clare, Countess of Gloucester 



1 Meiuomnda Roll, Excheq., 4-5, Ed. II, m. 48/. 



