Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History (50 page)

Pynnar's Survey
. In 1619 Nicholas Pynnar, a
servitor
and
undertaker
in Ulster, was directed to survey and make a return of the progress of the Ulster plantation and the performance of the undertakers, servitors and natives in fulfilling their responsibilities under the scheme. An unfavourable report in 1615 by Sir Josias Bodley and a second (in 1616) alerted the planters to the possibility of forfeiture should they fail in their plantation duties and some proceeded to complete unfinished building work and introduce more British settlers. Pynnar acknowledged that progress had been made but considerably less than had been expected given the liberal terms the settlers had received. He found that there remained a great want of buildings and that all but the Scots had refrained from ploughing, the English fearing a native uprising and the Irish being uncertain of their stay on the land. Not only had the natives not been removed from those areas owned by English and Scottish settlers but the City of London had found it more profitable to rent to the Irish than to introduce British tenants. These violations of the plantation agreement enabled Charles II to proceed to confiscate their holdings, a consequence forestalled by the surrender of their letters
patent
and acceptance of others subject to a doubling of the original rents and a fine of thirty pounds per 1,000 acres.
See
Irish Society. (Hill,
An historical account
, pp. 445–590.)

quadrans
. (L.) A farthing.

Quakers
. The Quakers, or Religious Society of Friends, were non-conformists who appeared in Ireland in the mid-seventeenth century. They repudiate the authority of scripture, emphasising instead the ‘inward light' or ‘inner voice of God speaking to the soul'. They do not outwardly observe the sacraments as other Christian churches because for them baptism and the eucharist are spiritual affairs. Their outspoken rejection of formal church services, the sacraments, church buildings and an ordained ministry together with their opposition to oath-taking, bearing arms and
tithe
elicited repressive measures from both the Cromwellian and Stuart administrations. By the close of the century, however, that position had changed and they were treated with greater leniency. In 1715 Quaker principles were considered when the militia bill was passed and practical toleration was extended to them under the 1719
Toleration Act
. They practiced their faith relatively freely and from 1723 were allowed to participate in the courts without taking oaths. Their reluctance to take oaths, however, ensured that they remained barred from government posts. Favourable treatment was afforded the numerically small but wealthy Quakers as long as they did not impinge upon the privileges of the Established church. Their principled opposition to tithe was a major source of conflict during the eighteenth century and they suffered some financial and property losses but very few were jailed. Quakers are highly regarded in Ireland for their charitable work, notably their energetic philanthropy during the Great Famine. Quaker meeting-houses, where quarterly and monthly meetings are held, are simple structures. The monthly meeting is the principal gathering of Quakers and deals with administrative matters such as property and finance. Membership and individual concerns are dealt with, together with matters referred from the annual meetings. Quakers have kept excellent records from the seventeenth century, including births, marriages and burials. (Goodbody,
Guide
; Grubb,
Quakers
; Wigham,
The Irish Quakers
.)

quamdiu se bene gesserint
. (L., during good behaviour) Under their patent of appointment Irish judges held office during the king's pleasure (
durante beneplacito nostro
). In England this form of tenure was fiercely opposed by the English parliamentary opposition in the seventeenth century because it was associated with the royal prerogative and because the Stuarts made liberal use of the powers of summary dismissal to pack the bench with their supporters. In 1701 it was enacted that a judge's commission should continue in force
quamdiu se bene gesserint
(during good behaviour) and he could only be removed by the king if an address was presented to him by both houses of parliament. The position in Ireland, however, remained unchanged until 1782 when agitation by the ‘
patriot
'
party
yielded the enactment (21 & 22 Geo. III, c. 50) that secured the independence of Irish judges and placed them on an equal footing with their British counterparts.

quare impedit,
suit of
. A form of writ issued in cases of dispute regarding the presentation to an ecclesiastical benefice.
Quare impedit
required the defendant to state why he hindered the plaintiff from presenting to the benefice.

quarter (quarterland)
. 1: A territorial unit with field boundary. 2: A spatial unit of measurement comprising 90–480 acres in Donegal, 120 acres in Connaught (4 cartrons = 1 quarter), 360 acres in Munster (3
ploughlands
= 1 quarter), 240 acres in Longford, Tyrone Fermanagh and Coleraine and 200–400 acres in the Pale. Four quarters were equivalent to a
ballybetagh
. 3: In terms of volume, a quarter was equivalent to eight bushels.

‘quarter acre clause'
. Introduced during the Famine with the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1847 (10 & 11 Vict., c. 31, sections 4–18), the penal quarter acre clause or ‘Gregory Clause' declared occupiers of more than a quarter of a statute acre ineligible for relief. Thus starving tenants of small-holdings were faced with an invidious choice. They could surrender their sole means of subsistence in return for relief, retain their holding and starve or they could emigrate. Sponsored by William Gregory, a Galway landlord and Co. Dublin MP, the clause was approved by landlords who felt that it militated against unnecessary claims on poor relief (which they would have been required to fund through the
poor rate
). Moreover, landlords were absolved from paying the full poor rate where circumstances forced a destitute family to surrender a holding valued at under £4. Some used the tenants' inability to pay rents to launch a campaign of eviction, thereby sparing themselves the burden of poor rates which lay heaviest on areas where there was a high proportion of holdings valued at under £4. Coupled with a sharp rise in evictions, the quarter acre clause advanced the amalgamation of small-holdings in many areas at the cost of great human misery.
See
outdoor relief, relieving officer. (Kinealy,
This great calamity
, pp. 216–227.)

quarterage
. The quarterly payments of guild members to their guilds. The payment of quarterage plus an admission fee known as ‘intrusion money' was the means by which Catholics (and other non-freemen), excluded from civic life by the imposition of oaths, were permitted to exercise their trades or crafts in their native cities in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Quarterage entitled them to an associate membership of the guilds known as the quarter-brother or quarterer. Quarterers had no right to participate in guild elections and were ineligible for office. As quarter-brothers far outnumbered the numbers of brothers, their contributions played an important role in keeping the guilds solvent. Catholics resented the demand for quarterage and challenged the legality of its imposition. From the middle of the eighteenth century they began to default and attempts to enforce payment through the courts were rebuffed by the justices. It now appeared that the privileges and rights claimed by the guilds and corporations of Ireland were contrary to the law. The guilds changed tack and between 1767 and 1775 tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to have their demands enshrined in legislation. The active opposition of the
Catholic Committee
on behalf of Catholic tradesmen proved too strong for a system that was already in decline throughout Europe and, with the exception of Dublin, had collapsed in Ireland by 1800. (Wall, ‘The Catholics', pp. 61–84.)

quarter days
. The days on which tenancies began and ended. The four quarter days,
Lady Day
(25 March), Midsummer Day (24 June), Michaelmas Day (29 September) and Christmas Day (25 December), were the days on which rent fell due, although leases usually stipulated 25 March and 29 September for such payments (1 March and 1 September by the nineteenth century). In Gaelic Ireland, the traditional quarter days were Lughnasa (1 August), Samhain (1 November), Imbolg or St Brigid's Day (1 February) and Bealtaine (1 May).

quarter-sessions
. The quarterly county court presided over by the
justice of the peace.
It originated in an instruction to the justices of the peace in a county to meet in session four times yearly. Trial was conducted in the same manner as the
assize courts
. The accused was presented by the
grand jury
and tried by the
petty jury
. Serious crimes were usually referred from the quarter-sessions to the judges in the assize courts.

Queen's Colleges
. In 1845 Robert Peel proposed for Ireland a state funded non-denominational system of third-level education to be known as the Queen's Colleges, a measure designed to detach moderates, especially Catholic clergymen, from Daniel O'Connell and weaken the push for repeal of the union. Colleges free of religious tests and departments of theology would be established in Belfast, Cork and Galway, staffed by crown-appointed professors. Catholic bishops were divided on the issue. Some favoured acceptance provided they were granted a degree of control at board level, the appointment of Catholic professors to certain departments and public funding for the teaching of Catholic theology. Others rejected the colleges outright. In the end the issue was decided in Rome where papal
rescripts
forbade Catholic clergy to teach or take office in the colleges and discouraged the attendance of Catholic students. Opposition to the Queen's Colleges was re-stated at the
Synod of Thurles
in 1850 and, in a counter-move, the Catholic University of Ireland was established in 1854. The scheme went ahead, nevertheless, under the umbrella of the Queen's University of Ireland (from 1879 the Royal University) but it was not a success. Neither, however, was the Catholic University and the debate on how to create a university system to meet the conflicting demands of the different denominations without, from the administration's point of view, public endowment of denominational university-level education continued for decades. The 1908 universities bill (8 Edw. VII, c. 38) represented a compromise between church and state that was broadly acceptable to all. Two new universities were created, the National University of Ireland (which consisted of three colleges at Cork, Galway and the reconstituted Catholic University – now known as University College Dublin) and the Queen's University, Belfast, both of which were to be publicly funded and non-denominational. What made the previously unacceptable acceptable, apart from legal guarantees against proselytism, was the recognition by the churches that the
de jure
non-denominational status of their institutions counted for little when compared with the
de facto
denominational profile of the respective staffs and students. The National University of Ireland, together with the associated
Maynooth College
, became effectively a Catholic university. Queen's became Protestant (largely Presbyterian). (Coolahan,
Irish education
, pp. 105–130; Kerr,
‘A nation of beggars'?
, pp. 282–309.)

querela
. A complaint, action, suit, accusation or charge.

querent
. Plaintiff, complainant.

quern
. A bullaun (Ir.,
bollán
) or hollowed stone which, with the aid of a stone pestle, was used for grinding corn. A saddle quern was a roughly rectangular piece of stone with a curved upper surface along which another stone or rider was rubbed back and forth over the grain.

questing
. The right to gather alms at the altar after mass. Oliver Plunkett disapproved of the practice, conducted by the Dominicans and Franciscans, because he felt it discouraged attendance at mass.

questman
. A sidesman or church-warden's assistant.

Quia Emptores
(1290). This statute (18 Edw. I, cc 1–3) was an attempt to secure the interests of the crown and greater feudal lords in their feudal entitlements. Excessive sub-infeudation made it difficult to track feudal services and so
Quia emptores
forbade sub-infeudation by chief tenants and alienation to mortmain but permitted free tenants to alienate their land by substitution without the lord's consent provided the services owed to the lord were divided proportionally among the substitutes.

quick
. Trees, especially hawthorn, set to form a hedge, so called because the hedge was composed of living or quick-growing trees.

quinzaine
. The fourteenth day after a feast.

quitclaim
. A deed renouncing all claims to a property.

quit-rent
. 1: A rent payable to the crown on forfeited land which had been distributed under the Restoration land settlement acts of 1662 and 1665. In Munster it was levied at a rate of 23/4
d
. per acre, in Ulster 2
d
., in Connacht,11/2
d
. and in Leinster 3
d
. 2: When labour services were commuted to money payments and combined with rent the total money payment owed became known as quit-rent. It was called quit-rent because the tenant was now quit of his obligations to service.

quit-rent office
. The agency established after the Restoration to collect quit-rents that were payable by the new owners of all land forfeited after the Confederate War of 1641–52. The quit-rent office also assumed responsibility for little parcels of forfeited land (the ‘plus acres') which remained in the king's hands after the
adventurers
and soldiers had received their grants as well as those forfeited lands which had not been distributed by the time of the Restoration in 1660.