CITY OF LONDONDERRY. 
foundation of which it will be proper to give some account in this place. That there were any- 
fixed episcopal sees, or uninterrupted successions of bishops in Ireland, previously to about the year 
1118—when at the council of Rath-Breasail, by the influence of the power of Rome, the island was 
regularly partitioned into dioceses, and their boundaries fixed—may be, perhaps, doubted,—though 
something approaching to a regular succession may be found in the successors of Saint Patrick, 
at Armagh, and notwithstanding that the general fact of the existence of more ancient fixed bi¬ 
shoprics has not been hitherto questioned. This, however, is not the proper place for entering on 
the evidences of a question of so much importance and magnitude. It is enough for the present 
purpose to state, that the greater part, if not the whole, of the church property in the present 
county of Derry appears from the charter, and the several inquisitions relative to church property, 
first taken by the English in the county, to have been anciently- of the nature of termon or 
erenach lands, enjoyed by the several septs in course of gavelkind , without being subject to 
any episcopal jurisdiction, or control. Thus in the inquisition taken in the city of Londonderry, 
on the 1st of September, 1609, the jurors find that “ touchinge the severall names of herenagb, 
termon, and corbe, the said jurors doe uppon their oathes finde and present that all termon and 
herenagh land within the said countie was att the first given by Collumkill, and the succeeding 
abbotts, unto the severall septs, before any busshopps were knowne to be in this countrie ; and 
that the said land was free and had the priviledges of sanctuarie and other liberties, and was 
enjoyed by the sept in course of gavelkynde.” This is further corroborated by the inquisition 
taken at Limavaddy 7 , on the 30th of August, in the same year, by a jury composed of fifteen Irish¬ 
men of the principal septs of the country, viz., “ and further, touchinge the originall and difference 
of corbes and herenaghs, and of the termon lands of the said countie of Colrane, the said jurors 
doe, uppon their oathes, finde and say, that Donell Me. Hugh O’Neale, kinge of Ireland, [anno 
633], did, longe before any bushopps were made in the said kingdome of Ireland, give unto 
certaine holy men, whom they call Sancti Patres, severall portions of land and a third parte 
of all the tiethes, to thend they should say praiers, and beare a third parte of the chardge 
of repairinge and mainteyning the parishe church, thother twoe third parts beinge borne 
by the parson and viccar, to whom the rest of the tiethes is yerrly paied, and alsoe for 
their owne honor and sustentation; and that afterwards the said holy men did give unto severall 
septs, severall proportions of the said lands, and placed one or more of them in everie parishe, and 
withall gave unto him a third parte of the tiethes of that parishe, to hould both the said land and 
the third parte of the tiethes, for ever, accordinge to the course of tanistrie, free from all exac¬ 
tions, and that for that cause the land was called termon or free, and the tennant thereof some 
tymes called corbe and sometymes herenagh, and that the said corbe or herenagh was to beare 
a third parte of the chardge in repairinge and maymteyning the parishe church, and that the said 
portion of land, and the thirde part of the tiethes soe contynued free unto the corbe or herenagh, 
for many yeares, untill the church of Rome established busshopps in this kingdome, and decreed 
that everie corbe or herenagh should give unto thebuslropp (within whose dioces he lived) a yerely 
pension, more or less, accordinge to his proportion out of his entire erenarchie, consistinge of the 
said land and the said third parte of the tiethes, and that thereunto the said corbes and herenaghes 
submitted hemselves, but held their herenaghie free for ever, and could not be removed by any of 
the temporale or spirituale lords, oy [or] other person whatsoever.” 
As these inquisitions, then, clearly refer to a period anterior to the existence of any fixed 
episcopal jurisdiction in this county, as well as to the subsequent time in which the bishopric 
was established, and its revenues settled and defined, there is solid ground for the conclusion, that 
this important innovation was an immediate result of the decree of the Rath-Breasail council 
already spoken of. At that synod—over which, in corroboration of the inquisitions, it may be well 
to state that Gelasius, the first papal legate in Ireland, presided—it was fixed that the bishopric 
of Raphoe, or Derry, as it is sometimes improperly called, should extend from Gap T2ua6 
(now Ballyshannon) to Sputrh bpoin, and from Capn ^lap to Spuirh bpoin. The bishopric of 
Ardstraw or Rathlury from SliaB lap^a to Capn jlap, and (northwards) from LocCpui to 
6eann RhoiBne, now Benevena in Magilligan). The diocese of Connor (eastwards) from 
6eann phoiBne to Cop buipj, (now Tor-point in Antrim); southward from TTlupBolj, 
(now Murlough bay), to the harbour of Snam Gijneac, '(now Belfast Lough), and from 
^jlean Eige—the vale of the Newry river—to CobBa ^eapmumn. It is not easy now to 
ascertain the modern names of all these ancient places—but for our present purpose there is 
enough of them known to shew that the portion of the present diocese of Derry, situated to 
the west of the river Foyle, belonged to the bishopric of Raphoe or Tirconnell, and the portion 
east of the Foyle had been divided between the bishoprics of Ardstraw or Rathlury 7 , and 
Connor—the former, as nearly as can be ascertained, comprising the district west, and the latter, 
the district east of the river Roe. Shortly after this settlement, the seat of the bishopric of 
Tyrone, which comprised the greater portion of the present county of Derry, appears to have 
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