Berry — History of the Religious Gild of S, Anne. 35 



in the Hunting of the Romish Fox^ the following four causes are 

 assigned as tending to hasten his end : — 



1. His reforming of Ireland into our English station. 



2. Procuring subsidies by parliament at Dublin during his govern- 



ment. 



3. Setting up the Star Chamber. 



4. Eagerness in searching into this gild. 



Three aldermen of Dublin — Carroll, Jans, and Malone, brethren 

 and tenants of S. Anne's gild — are declared to have been active 

 enemies of Strafford. 



The commission and return mentioned above are not now among 

 the public records, nor would they appear to have been em^olled in 

 Chancery. They were, doubtless, preserved in the council office, and 

 must have been consumed, together with other proceedings in the 

 matter, in the calamitous fire of 1 7 11 . It is more than probable that 

 whenever the mass of Strafford's papers and letters preserved at 

 Went worth Woodhouse, in Yorkshire, shall have been reported on by 

 the Historical MSS. Commission, very important documents con- 

 nected with this inquiry into S. Anne's gild, which caused that 

 statesman so much anxiety, will be discovered. Meanwhile, the 

 account of the proceedings in the Hunting of the Romish Fox^ is 

 valuable and important ; all the more so that the narrative was 

 compiled from papers and memoranda of sir James Ware, a most 

 accui'ate historian, himself one of the commissioners of investigation. 



One of the deeds bears the following endorsement : — "28 pieces 

 perused by Mr. Alexander and Mr. Atherton, by order from the 

 Councell Table, 10 July, 1634"; and a lease of 1639 contains a 

 recital that Andrew Clerke (lessee) had, in obedience to an order of the 

 Lord Deputy and Council, dated 31 May, 1638, delivered to S. Anne's 

 gild a former fee-farm grant, for the purpose of its being cancelled. 



The following is a list of the gild tenants, specified in the return 

 to the commission, and there is a note to the effect that several others 

 held premises, whose names had not been discovered at the date of the 

 return : — 



Sir Patrick Brown, knight, 

 Patrick Brown, 



Plunkett, alderman. 



Thomas Ball. 



\ See cap. viii., " The foundation of S. Anne's guild in Dubb'n, with the cheats 

 of that Fraternity found out." 



