Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History (63 page)

villate
. A land measure equivalent to 100–120 acres, also known as a
carucate
or
ploughland
.

villein
. A serf or unfree peasant bound to a lord or estate. The Gaelic equivalent was known as a
betagh
, or in Latin as
hibernicus, nativius
or
betagius
.

Vincent de Paul, Society of St
. A voluntary, charitable society founded in Paris in 1833 by Antoine-Frederic Ozanam to provide short-term relief to the poor in times of distress. The provision of financial and other assistance through a system of home and institutional visitation has been a consistent feature of the society's work since its establishment in Ireland in 1844. Latterly, the SVP has adopted a more proactive approach to the issue of poverty. Counselling and budgeting services, resource centres, hostels for the homeless and drugs projects are the visible evidence of a policy which aims to promote self-sufficiency and personal initiative.

virgate
. An early English land measure, usually equivalent to about 30 acres but which varied regionally between 20 and 40 acres.

visitation, episcopal
. It was the duty of every Church of Ireland bishop to visit the parishes in his diocese yearly to oversee the activities of his ministers, examine the condition of church buildings and receive a briefing on lay adherence and devotion. The records of these visitations, which were performed more frequently and more conscientiously in some dioceses than others, are contained in visitation books which list the benefices, the clergy, the patron and parish officials, outline the physical condition of the church and church buildings and note the extent of the
glebe
. The vicar-general sometimes deputised for the bishop at visitations and in the nineteenth century visitations were replaced in some areas by annual convocations or synods of the diocesan clergy. The records of Anglican visitations are held in the Representative Church Body Library. Throughout the eighteenth century and long after the penal religious laws had fallen into disuse, Catholic bishops remained cautious about keeping records. Nevertheless, the evidence contained in Archbishop Butler's visitation book suggests that by the middle of the century they were conducting parochial visitations to inquire into the state of church buildings and furnishings, clerical discipline, education and religious life in the localities. Where visitation records survive they should be found in the relevant diocesan archives.
See
visitation return. (Ronan, ‘Archbishop Bulkeley', pp. 56–98; Dwyer, ‘Archbishop Butler'.)

visitation, heraldic
.
See
herald.

visitation, metropolitan
. The triennial supervisory visitation of the
metropolitan
or archbishop of all the
suffragan
sees in his province. Until the visitation was completed to the satisfaction of the archbishop all the ecclesiastical powers of the suffragan (excepting ordinations and confirmations) were suspended.

visitation, regal
. Regal or royal visitations were conducted by commissioners appointed to investigate the state of the Anglican church in the dioceses. Under Elizabeth I they were used to inquire into the property of the various episcopal sees. Commissions were also issued in 1607, 1615, 1622 and 1633–4 and the reports of the commissioners provide valuable information on Church of Ireland clergy and help to explain why the task of enforcing religious uniformity proved unattainable. Four volumes of manuscript transcripts of regal visitations (1615–1634) are preserved in the National Archives and some printed versions can be found in the journal
Archivium Hibernicum.
(Phair, ‘Seventeenth-century regal visitations', pp. 79–102.)

visitation return
. A report made by parish clergy prior to a visitation by the local Catholic bishop. It was a formal account of the state of the church and religious practice in the parish with additional information on social and economic conditions. From the middle of the nineteenth century the return was made on printed forms. Where they have survived visitation returns should be found in diocesan archives.

Volunteers
. Founded in Ulster in the late 1770s to oppose a French invasion, the Volunteer organisation was a largely Protestant body of gentry, farmers and businessmen. Against a background of war with the American colonies, France, Spain and Holland, the government acquiesced in its formation and supplied it with arms. The movement grew rapidly, principally because it enabled its members to parade in public in colourful uniforms and perform useful policing duties. Later it became a vehicle for articulating concerns about the national interest and its strength ensured that its views could not be ignored. The combination of foreign wars and the parading of the Dublin corps of the Volunteers outside parliament in 1779 enabled Grattan to extract legislation for free trade from the government. The Volunteers continued to hold reviews but largely avoided political intervention during the next few years, a moderation which provoked a radical minority to secede to form an independent corps under Napper Tandy. In February 1782 a Volunteer convention at Dungannon denounced the British claim to legislate for Ireland. This demonstration of popular opinion, coupled with the shock defeat at Yorktown some months previously, contributed towards the successful parliamentary agitation for the repeal of the
Declaratory Act
and the amendment of
Poynings' Law
.
See
Yelverton's Act. After 1782, as Volunteer demands became more radical, the aristocrats were frightened away and its influence declined. The movement enjoyed a resurgence following the French Revolution but government action to suppress the Ulster Volunteers together with the Gunpowder and Convention acts of 1793 and the raising of the
militia
led to its virtual disappearance.
See
Convention Act. (Smyth, ‘The Volunteers', pp. 113–36; Ó Snódaigh,
The Irish Volunteers
.)

voyder
. An early rubbish bin.

waif
. 1: Something loose and straying 2: The right of the manorial lord to any items of property (including animals, stolen goods and
jetsam
) which were found apparently ownerless and which remained unclaimed after due notice was given.
See
stray.

waiter, tide waiter
. A customs official who met and examined ships arriving on the tide.

wake
. The practice of laying a corpse out at home whereupon friends and neighbours spend the night mourning and consoling relatives.

ward
.
See
watch and ward.

wardship
. A feudal incident. The sovereign was entitled to the guardianship and custody of chief tenants who succeeded to their inheritance in minority. This involved the administration of the estate and the right to arrange marriage. Usually the crown sold the wardship to the highest bidder and the purchaser was entitled to receive the profits from the estate and a marriage fee. After the Reformation guardians were also required to raise wards in English habit and religion and have them educated in Trinity College, Dublin. Chief tenants could avoid this eventuality by vesting their estates in family intimates using a conveyance known as a trust or feoffment to
use
. The
Tenures Abolition Act
(1662) extinguished the
feudal incidents
and the necessity for such conveyances.
See
livery, to sue out and
ousterlemain
.

Wards and Liveries, Court of
. A financial court which derived from Henry VIII's desire to increase crown revenue from the
feudal incidents
of
wardship, marriage
and
relief
. Established statutorily in 1540–2 (32 Henry VIII, c. 46 and 33 Henry VIII, c. 22), the court of wards emerged because of the growing practice among chief tenants of making feoffments to
use
to avoid the incidents. The granting of monastic lands to laymen following the
dissolution
increased the number of chief tenants and therefore the possibility of increasing crown revenue. On reaching full age a ward was not to pass livery without reference to the court of wards. As a result, liveries were united with wardships in the court and the office of master of liveries merged with it. In Ireland a regular court of wards and liveries was formalised in 1622. It was concerned with revenue arising out of wardship and livery, matters touching the levy or discharge of debts due to the crown, concealments of tenure, refusal of marriage and the levy of consequential fines, inquisitions
post-mortem
, interpretation of uses and wills and problems of land law whether in the interests of the crown, wards or tenants. Writs of
inquisition
post-mortem
were issued to determine whether the incoming heir to a tenancy-in-chief was a minor. The court was abolished by the
Tenures Abolition Act
of 1662. (Treadmill, ‘The Irish court', pp. 1–27; Kearney, ‘The court of wards', pp. 29–63.)

warden
.
See
church-warden.

warren, connywarren
. A rabbit colony. Rabbits were introduced into Ireland by the Anglo-Normans who constructed warrens and farmed the rabbits as a source of food and clothing.

wash mill
. 1: A mill race where sheep are washed 2: A mill where lime was applied to leather after it was shorn of hair and washed 3: A machine where limestone and clay were mixed in the process of brick-making.

waste
.
See
year day and waste

watch and ward
. The system of night and day security which operated from medieval times. Statute required every collection of three or more English houses to appoint a constable to keep watch during the winter nights. The watch operated during night-time and the ward was responsible for daytime security. Originally all adult males between the ages of 15 and 60 were expected to serve in rotation without payment but from 1750 some watchmen demanded and received recompense for their services. From 1719 grand juries and justices of the peace were required to erect watch houses and equip watchmen with watch-bills, halberts or staves. An annual levy of 3
d
. on all householders was exacted to pay for the equipment (6
d
. from 1723). At sunset watchmen were stationed at town gates and at key locations in the town where they observed the streets and called the time on the hour. They were empowered to stop and examine suspects, detain any who failed to give a good account of themselves and present them before a magistrate the next day. Catholics were not excluded from the watch although there was provision to mount a purely Protestant watch during periods of unrest. Each of Dublin's 21 civil parishes had its own poorly-funded and notoriously inefficient watch. Unchecked public disorder led to the creation of a centralised permanent
police
force in 1786 which, after several attempts at reformation, metamorphosed into the
Dublin Metropolitan Police
in 1838. (Herlihy,
The Royal Irish Constabulary
, pp. 21–23.)

wattle
. A frame of upright stakes intertwined with twigs used to make fences, walls or roofs.

way, waia, wey, weigh
. A measure of dry goods that varied regionally and according to the type and quality of the goods being weighed. In England a sack of wool weighed 364 pounds and two ways of wool were equal to a sack, making a way of wool equal to 182 pounds. A way of cheese, however, weighed anything from 224 to 330 pounds. A way of salt was equivalent to 25
quarters
.

wedge tomb
. Dating from the Bronze Age, the east-west aligned wedge tomb comprises a long, main burial chamber, higher and wider at one end and covered by a sloping, flat-slab roof. Wedge tombs often contain an ante-chamber or portico which is separated from the main chamber by a large slab. Although usually single-chambered, some wedge tombs have a second, smaller chamber at the eastern end. (Ó Ríordáin,
Antiquities
, pp. 62–66.)

weights and measures, keeper of
. A government official whose duty it was to enforce weights and measures regulations.

Westminster, Confession of
. The
Presbyterian
confession of faith. Modelled on the
Irish Articles of Religion
, it was drawn up by the Westminster Assembly which met in Westminster Abbey between 1643 and 1649. The confession declared scripture the sole doctrinal authority and affirmed predestination (the belief that ‘some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foredained to everlasting death'). It contains reformed views of the sacraments and the ministry. The issue of subscription to the Westminster confession divided Presbyterians over the next two centuries. A requirement that ministers and ordinands to the ministry subscribe to the confession created dissension within the
Synod of Ulster
for some Presbyterians disapproved of its theology and others rejected human formularies as a test of faith. A minority who favoured compulsory subscription seceded from the synod in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, however, the position was reversed. Subscription was made compulsory and the liberal
New Light
group which opposed subscription withdrew to form the
Remonstrant Synod
.

wether
. A castrated ram.

Whately Commission
.
See
Poor inquiry.

wherry
. A fishing vessel, a yawl.

Whig
. A term derived from the Scots Gaelic for a horse thief and applied disparagingly to those in the seventeenth century who opposed royal absolutism. Whigs favoured a more limited constitutional monarchy, upheld the principles of the ‘glorious revolution' and, in Ireland, pressed for stiff measures against Catholics and Jacobites. Comprised largely of aristocrats and wealthy middle-class individuals, Whiggism began to crystallise into a political party from about 1784 under Charles James Fox because of the American War of Independence and the emergence of William Pitt the Younger's
Tory
party. By this time the Whigs had begun to develop reforming social and political policies and had come to articulate the views of religious dissenters and industrialists. In the nineteenth century the term ‘Whig' began to fall into disuse and was replaced by ‘Liberal'.
See
regency crisis, whig club.