Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History (56 page)

sheriff's peer
. In Dublin, a freeman who had served as sheriff. A vacancy among the aldermen was filled from a list of four sheriff's peers supplied by the aldermen and elected by the commons.

shieling
. A bothy, booley-hut or cabin of stone or turf erected for summer pasturing in the mountains.

shire
. (AS,
scir
) A county. Shiring was the means by which royal writ was extended throughout the realm. In England it was the administrative unit above the ‘hundred', in Ireland above the barony.
See
county. (Otway-Ruthven, ‘Anglo-Irish', pp. 1–28.)

shovelboard
. A game of push penny.

shrive
. Anciently, to confess one's sins

Sick and Indigent Roomkeepers Benevolent Society
. Founded in Dublin in 1790 by a group of small businessmen living in the area of Charles St West behind Ormond Quay, the Roomkeepers Society was (and remains) a non-denominational, non-political charitable body for the relief of the distressed during periods of crisis. Originally members subscribed 2
d
. per week or 8
s
. 8
d
. yearly which entitled them to recommend deserving persons for relief. Deserving persons were those of good character who had never begged but who, through unforeseen circumstances, had been reduced to poverty. Relief was given in the form of food or money. The society divided the city into four districts, each with a president and – from 1799 – a committee of trustees composed of residents of that district. The committees examined recommendations for relief submitted by members and organised visits to verify the claims therein. Subsequently a report was issued to the petitioning member detailing what action (if any) had been taken on foot of the recommendation. The society's headquarters was at Palace Street near Dublin Castle for over 200 years. Currently it operates from 34 Lr Leeson Street, Dublin. (Lindsay,
Dublin's oldest charity
.)

sidesman
. A man who took the collection at divine service.

sign manual
. An autograph signature, especially that of the monarch, which authenticates a document. The royal sign manual was written in the upper left-hand corner of a document.

sinecure
. An office with no duties for which one was paid.
See
non-cure.

sinister
. In heraldry refers to the left side of a shield from the point of view of the person bearing it.

Sites and Monuments Record
(SMR). The official record of an identified archaeological site or monument. SMRs are the records of Dúchas in the Republic of Ireland and the Environment and Heritage Service in Northern Ireland. Each site has a unique identification number which is linked to site description files, excavation reports, archaeological finds, drawings, photographs and bibliographical references. SMRs for sites in Northern Ireland can be accessed through the Monuments and Buildings Record facility in the Environment and Heritage Service building, 5–33 Hill Street, Belfast, during office hours on weekdays. A more limited service is provided in the Republic in the form of appointment-only visits to the former Dúchas headquarters in St Stephens Green, Dublin. (Brannon, ‘The built heritage', pp. 116– 127.)

sittings
. The legal year has been divided into four terms or sittings since Anglo-Saxon times. Hilary term began in early January and ended before Easter. Easter began eight days after Easter Sunday and ended on the eve of Ascension day. Trinity began eight days after Whit Sunday and ended in early July. Michaelmas began on the Tuesday after the feast and ended at Advent. By the nineteenth century the terms were dictated by statute (Hilary, 11–31 January, Easter, 15 April – 8 May, Trinity, 22 May–12 June and Michaelmas, 2–25 November) but as the statutory terms were too short to process all the cases coming before the courts a system of out of term sittings or ‘after sittings' was introduced in 1856. ‘After sittings' enabled cases of
nisi prius
which had been heard at the
assize courts
out of term to be tried before the central courts. The terms were re-styled ‘sittings' under the Judicature (Ireland) Act, 1877, and after independence the duration of sittings was extended. Hilary now lasted from 12 January to 31 March, Easter from 15 April to 18 May, Trinity from 1 June to 31 July and Michaelmas from 12 October to 21 December. Vacations, the intervals between sittings, are called Easter, Long (Summer) and Christmas.

Six Clerks
. Officials in
chancery
who acted as agents for solicitors practicing in that court. They gained a monopoly of the right to act as attorneys in chancery and solicitors were obliged to employ them to appear on court records as representing their clients. Their income, which was derived from fees paid by solicitors for copies of documents filed in the court, helped make the cost of litigation in chancery prohibitive and led ultimately to their (amply compensated) demise in 1836 (Wm. IV, c. 74).

six-day labour
. In 1613 an act for repairing highways and cashes (11–13 James I, c. 7) placed responsibility for road maintenance on the civil parish. The legislation required all landowners, tenants, cottiers and labourers to give six days free labour annually for road-building, using equipment supplied by the parish. In 1710 (9 Anne, c. 9) parliament tightened the earlier legislation to prevent evasion, enlarged the geographical area within which free labour was to be provided and lengthened the annual labour season. Henceforth labour duty could be exacted within a two-mile radius of the parish boundaries and the labour season, originally from Easter to 24 June, was extended to 1 August. Equipping the workers remained a function of the parish
vestry
which was entitled to levy the parish for the purpose. Six-day labour was unpopular and was discontinued after 1760 (33 Geo., II, c. 8) when grand juries assumed responsibility for funding road maintenance through the
county cess
.

skein
. (Ir.,
scian
) A dagger or knife.

skillet
. A large cooking pot.

sláinte
. (Ir.) Protection extended by a Gaelic lord to a lesser lord or client on payment of a fee or tribute.
Slánuigheacht
was the protection itself.

slean
. (Ir.,
sleaghán
) A narrow spade with a wing-bladed shaft for cutting turf.

slide car
. A wheelless cart used for farmwork.

slipe
. A sled.

sliocht
. (Ir.) Sept or branch of a clan.

Smith, Erasmus
. A London
adventurer
who received large estates in Ireland following the 1641 rebellion, Erasmus Smith vested some of his land in trust for the establishment of a number of grammar schools in Ireland. Following the Restoration the trust was granted a royal charter to construct grammar schools at Drogheda, Tipperary and Galway. As the income from the vested land exceeded the sum required to fund the grammar schools, the trustees secured an act of parliament in 1723 which enabled them to grant-aid the establishment of ‘English' or primary schools wherever a landowner so wished and by 1824 there were over 100 such schools in existence. (
Ninth report of the commissioners of the Board of Education,
appendix, HC 1810 (194 X. 315; Ronan,
Erasmus Smith
.)

snaphance
. An early spring-operated flintlock.

socage
(common or free socage). A form of land tenure which required the payment of rent but did not comprehend the feudal incidents (obligations) of
wardship, marriage, relief, escheat
or licence to alienate. The
Tenures Abolition Act
of 1662 abolished all forms of feudal tenure leaving just one, common socage (later known as
freehold
).
See
alienation.

Society for Promoting the Education of the poor in Ireland
.
See
Kildare Place Society.

Society of United Irishmen
.
See
United Irishmen.

sock, toll and theam
.
See
sac and soc, toll and theam.

sodalities
.
See
guilds, religious.

Solemn League and Covenant
. An agreement reached between the Scots and Charles I's parliamentarian opponents in September 1643 to advance the Reformation and uphold the rights of parliament. Under the terms of the treaty the Scots were to dispatch a 20,000 strong army to England to be paid for by a parliamentary levy. In return, the Long Parliament (the
Rump
) promised to abolish the episcopacy of the church in England and to debate the future of Protestantism at Westminster. Both parties interpreted the covenant differently. The Scots, leaning heavily on the religious terms, foresaw the establishment of Presbyterianism and the abolition of episcopacy. The English, however, interpreted it as a civil arrangement, a move to secure the rights of parliament.

sole right
. The claim in 1692 by the opposition in the Irish house of commons that parliament had the ‘sole right' to originate financial legislation. Constitutional as well as venal motives lay behind the revolt which eventually frightened the
lord lieutenant
into proroguing the house. A concern for greater parliamentary control over taxation, administrative corruption, the belief that Catholics were being treated too leniently and a sense of grievance among some MPs that they had been bypassed in the distribution of patronage all played a part in the controversy. The sting was drawn, however, in 1695 with better management of the house, the co-option of leading agitators into high office, the introduction of new anti-Catholic legislation and a government compromise on the right to initiate money bills.
See
Poynings' Law. (Connolly,
Religion
, pp. 75–6; McGuire, ‘The parliament of 1692', pp. 137–49.)

soum
. A unit of grazing of mountain commonage. The term is synonymous with
collop
or cow's grass.

souperism
. The practice during the Great Famine among some Protestant zealots of offering material benefits in return for religious conversion. Acceptance of such benefits was known disparagingly as ‘taking the soup' because Catholics were required to attend Protestant service or bible class to be fed. Souperism was not practised widely and conversions were short-lived. Temporary converts were known as ‘soupers' or ‘jumpers'. (Bowen,
Souperism
.)

souterrain
. An underground passage and chamber or a series of passages and chambers constructed usually (though not exclusively) within an enclosure (
rath
) and which may have served as a place of refuge during an assault or as a storage chamber for food. (Clinton,
The souterrains
.)

Southern Association
. The non-subscribing southern wing of the
Presbyterian
church formed when the congregations of Cork, Wexford, Limerick, Bandon, Clonmel, Waterford, Sligo and Tipperary joined with the Dublin congregations in 1696. From 1708 Queen Anne granted £800 per annum (the ‘English Bounty') to the southern congregations. Unlike their northern brethren – whose origins were Presbyterian and Scottish, the background to the Southern Association was Independent and English, circumstances which led to theological and structural differences between the two wings. The Southern Association was less hierarchical than the
Synod of Ulster
, did not claim binding authority over its members, adopted a congregational form of organisation and regarded synods as consultative rather than prescriptive assemblies. Northern Presbyterians also believed the southern congregations to be tainted by
Arianism
. In 1809 the Southern Association was re-styled the Synod of Munster when the non-subscribing Presbytery of Munster united with the Southern Presbytery of Dublin. In 1854 the southern body joined the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland
which had been formed earlier by the merger of the Synod of Ulster and the
Seceders
.

sovereign
. The senior official in a municipal corporation. Also known as the mayor,
portreeve
or
seneschal
.

spaldrick
. A thatcher's rake-like comb.

spalpeen
. A seasonal migratory labourer.

spandrel
. The triangular space between the curves of two arches and the moulding or framework enclosing it.

sparre
. A heavily-armoured Scottish mercenary soldier, so-called after the long-handled battle sparre (axe) he bore. A sparre was accompanied by a man acting as his harness bearer and a boy to carry his provisions.
See
gallowglass, redshank.

sparver
. A canopy or wooden frame over a bed from which a curtain hung.

speaker
. The officer and spokesperson for the house of commons whose functions include the controlling of debates and the arrangements of the house. The speaker is elected by the house and has no vote in a division except in cases of a tie where he/she has a casting vote.
See
undertaker (2).

spurtle, aspurticle
. A long, two-pronged fork used to press thatching material into the roof.

squaring
.
See
striping.

squire
. Originally a young man of good birth who attended upon a knight. Under the feudal system he ranked below the knight.

stallage
. 1: The liberty to erect stalls in a market 2: The fee payable for so doing.

stang
. 1: A rood, rod or perch associated with open field strips. It was equivalent to to a quarter acre or 40 square perches 2: A linear rood was five and a half yards or 5.029m.

Stanihurst, Richard
(1547–1618). Born in Dublin, Stanihurst was educated at University College, Oxford where he was a student of
Edmund Campion
and subsequently became tutor to Garret FitzGerald (son of the eleventh earl of Kildare). His
Description of Ireland
and account of Ireland during Henry VIII's reign form a considerable portion of the history of Ireland in
Holinshed's
Chronicles
(1577). Stanihurst's favourable treatment of the Kildare rebellion landed him in trouble with the English privy council and he was compelled to revise the text. His treatment of the native Irish was not objective – though it mellowed in his later years – and he repeats some of the fabulous tales of Giraldus Cambrensis. He was heavily criticised by both Geoffrey Keating and Sir James Ware. In the second edition of the
Chronicles
(1587), John Hooker supplemented Stanihurst's history with material he compiled from contemporary Irish administrative records. Stanihurst translated Virgil's
Aeneid
into English but thereafter wrote only in Latin. His pseudo-historical
De rebus Hibernia gestis
was published in 1584, followed by
De vita S. Patricii Hiberniae apostoli
three years later. (Lennon,
Richard Stanihurst
.)