Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History (9 page)

c.
See
cap.

cadastral
. Of or having to do with the extent, boundaries, value and ownership of real property. Cadastral surveys such as
Griffith's Valuation
were conducted for taxation purposes.

caddow
. A coarse, woollen blanket or covering.

cairn
. A mound of stones heaped over a prehistoric tomb.

caiseal
. A
rath
or ring-fort enclosed by a bank or banks of stone and usually located in areas of stony ground. Also known as a
cathair
.

calabar, calaber
. The fur of a red squirrel.

calendar
. 1: Roman. There were twelve months in the Roman calendar, each of which was subdivided into calends, ides and nones. Calends was always the first day of the month and nones the ninth day before ides counting both days. As ides fell on either the thirteenth (all months except March, May, July or October) or the fifteenth, nones always fell on the fifth or seventh. Dates were reckoned according to the number of days forward to each one. Thus, IV Non. Jan. was 2 January, nones being the fifth. Calends was reckoned in relation to the next month, III Kal. Jan. being 30 December 2: Gregorian. In 1752 the inaccurate Julian calendar was replaced in Britain and Ireland by the Gregorian calendar which had been operative in Catholic Europe since 1582. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar was attended by two significant adjustments. The discrepancy between the Julian and Gregorian calendars was resolved by advancing the calendar 11 days and the civil and religious year was reconfigured to commence on 1 January rather than 25 March. This latter change has historiographical implications in terms of dating events prior to 1752. To avoid confusion historians normally cite the year according to new style and the day and month according to the old. Thus a contemporary document dated the 15 February 1641 (old style) is modernised as 15 February 1642 (new style). An alternative is to write 15 February 1641/2.
See
regnal years 3: A chronologically-arranged catalogue or repertory of abstracts of documents (and sometimes documents in their entirety) which serves as an index or finding aid for documents of a given period.

Calendar of state papers relating to Ireland
. A 24 volume series containing abstracts of selected correspondence largely from officials in Ireland to the king and organs of government in England for the period 1509–1670. The originals can be found in the State Papers Ireland collection (SP60–63, SP65) in the Public Record Office, London, and on microfilm in the National Library, Dublin. Correspondence for the period 1671–1704 is included in the 81 volume
Calendar of state papers, domestic
. (
Calendar of state papers; Calendar of state papers preserved.
)

calends
.
See
calendar, Roman.

caliver
. A light arquebus-type firearm which, unlike the
arquebus
, was not rested on a support or tripod when in use.

calotype
. The name given by Charles Fox Talbot to the photographic process invented by him in 1841. Also known as the Talbotype, the photograph was produced by the action of light upon silver iodide, the latent image being subsequently developed and fixed by hyposulphite of soda. The calotype was ousted by Archer's collodium process, paper giving way to glass and a substratum of collodion. (Chandler,
Photography
.)

Calvinism
. The doctrines and practices derived from the religious teaching of John Calvin (1509–1564). These include a belief in the superiority of faith over good works, that salvation is achieved solely by the grace of God, that only the elect will be saved (predestination), that the bible is the sole authority for Christian teaching and that all believers are priests. The Calvinist concept of universal priesthood was realised in a presbyterian ministry rather than an episcopal or hierarchical church organisation.
See
Independents, Presbyterian,
regium donum
, Synod of Ulster.

Cambrensis Eversus
. The work of John Lynch (1599–1673), a Catholic priest and historian,
Cambrensis Eversus
(1662) refutes the biased portrayal of Ireland presented by
Topographia Hiberniae
and
Expugnatio Hibernica
, the works of the twelfth-century Pembrokeshire historian, Giraldus Cambrensis (1146–1223). Cambrensis' writings remained in manuscript form until they were published by
William Camden
in 1602. Their publication fuelled existing anti-Irish sentiment in England and attracted a critical response from Geoffrey Keating (1634) and from Lynch who had fled into exile in France in 1652 following the surrender of Galway. Lynch, whose pseudonym was Gratianus Lucis, also published
Alinithologia
, an apologia for those confederates who sided with Ormond against the Rinuccini faction.
See Foras feasa ar Éirinn.

Cambrensis, Giraldus.
See
Expugnatio Hibernica
and
Topographia Hiberniae
.

Camden, William
(1551–1623). English antiquarian and the author of
Britannia, a topographical survey of Britain and Ireland
(1586 and enlarged later), and
Annales rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha
, a two-volume account of the history of Ireland and England under Elizabeth (completed 1617). Only 35 not very reliable pages were dedicated to Ireland in the first edition of
Britannia
but accuracy improved in later editions when Camden was assisted by James Ussher.

Campion, Edmund
(1540–81). Campion, an English Jesuit martyr, wrote the
Histories of Ireland
in Dublin in 1569. It was first used by Stanihurst in
Holinshed's
Chronicles
(1577) and was published by Sir James Ware in 1633. The work is heavily pro-Old English as one might expect for Campion was a guest of Old English families for two years from 1570–1.

canebeg
. (Ir.,
cáin beag
, small tax) A small tributary entitlement of the wife of a Gaelic lord out of certain lands.

canon
. 1: A priest who lived like a monk 2: In Ireland, a minor member of the cathedral chapter, such as the
vicars choral
but prebendaries were also canons. The canons were responsible for the conduct of religious services in the cathedral 3: A general ecclesiastical rule or decree governing the conduct of public worship 4: The list of acceptable scripture books.

canonical portion
. A kind of death duty levied by the church on a deceased woman. The taking of mortuaries on the death of married women was forbidden in 1621.

canting
. The auctioning of leases of land by private bids. In nineteenth-century Ireland this encouraged prospective tenants to bid beyond their means.

cantred
. A barony. In Irish,
tricha-cét
.

cap
. (usually c.). Chapter, as in 23 Vict., cap. 27 which means the twenty-seventh chapter of the statutes enacted in the twenty-third year of the reign of Queen Victoria.
See
regnal years.

capell lands
. Gaelic spatial measure. In Kilkenny, three capell lands were equivalent to a
ploughland
or about 100 acres. In Tipperary, the equivalent of 20 great acres, each acre containing 20 English acres.
See
great acre.

capias
. A writ commanding the sheriff to perform an arrest or seizure, so-called because the warrant contains the instruction ‘That you take' or ‘Thou mayest take'. The four forms of
capias
were:
Capias ad respondendum,
employed to compel attendance at court.
Capias ad satisfaciendum
, after judgement, a warrant to jail a defendant until the plaintiff's claim had been met.
Capias utlagatum,
a warrant to arrest an outlaw.
Capias in withernam,
a warrant to seize the chattels of a person who has made an illegal
distraint
.
See
witherman.

capital
. The head of a column which is located at the top of the shaft.

capital messuage
. The manor house.

capite, in
. Land held directly from the crown without an intermediary ownership. The tenant was known as a tenant-in-chief or chief tenant and was liable for the
feudal incidents
of
wardship, marriage, relief
and
escheat
. Together with other ancient tenures, tenure
in capite
was abolished in 1662 (12 Chas. II, c. 24) by Charles II.
See
Tenures Abolition Act.

capstone
. The flat stone or cover-slab which was supported by a number of large vertical stones and covered in a mound of smaller stones to form a cairn.

Capuchins
. An austere, reforming offshoot of the Franciscans, the Capuchins (in full, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, abbreviated OFM Cap.) were founded in 1525 and arrived in Ireland in 1615. They were committed to an even stricter adherence to the rule of poverty than the observants. The name derived from the four-cornered hood they wore, the
cappuccio
.
See
conventualism.

Caravats and Shanavests
. Two conflicting groups which flourished in Munster and some Leinster counties between 1806–11. Formerly regarded as a faction-fighting phenomenon, the struggles of Caravats and Shanavests is now interpreted as a physical expression of the tension that existed between landless labourers (Caravats) and small farmers (Shanavests). Economic factors such as the collapse of grain prices, a shift from tillage to livestock and a rise in cost and decline in availability of
conacre
land worsened the plight of labourers whose numbers had increased disproportionately since the beginning of the century. The outrages and feuding associated with the Caravats and Shanavests were perpetuated by other secret societies attempting to control conacre rents and improve labourers' wages.
See
Ribbonism, Whiteboys. (Ó Muireadhaigh, ‘Na Carabhait', pp. 4–20; Roberts, ‘Caravats', pp. 64–101.)

card
. 1: To comb wool 2: Carding was a vicious lacerating of the back perpetrated by members of agrarian secret societies against those regarded as enemies. It was inflicted by raking the back with a wool comb. (Beames,
Peasants
, p. 80.)

Carew Manuscripts
. A vast archive of documents assembled by Sir George Carew (1555–1629) during his service in Ireland as master of the ordnance and president of Munster. The originals are preserved in Lambeth Palace and the Bodleian Library but many have been calendared. Carew's sojourn in Ireland in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries embraced the period of the Nine Years War, making his papers an invaluable source for the study of the period. (
Calendar of the Carew manuscripts
.)

carrageen
. An edible seaweed also used to make jellies, aspics, blancmanges and beverages.

carrow, carrughes
. (Ir.,
cearrbhach
, a gamester) An itinerant gambler. According to Edmund Spenser, carrows were ‘a kind of people that wander up and down to gentlemen's houses, living only upon cards and dice'. In 1571 Sir John Perrot directed that all carrows, bards and rhymers were to forfeit their goods and chattels and be placed in stocks until they had committed themselves by way of surety to forsake their respective trades.

carruca
. (Med. L., a plough) A heavy plough with an iron
share, coulter
and
mouldboard
employed in Ireland in areas of English influence during the middle ages.

cartage
. 1: The obligation of a tenant or vassal to provide carts for transporting the lord's goods 2: The levying of carts for the transportation of supplies as, for example, when a general
hosting
for the defence of the Pale was declared. In the fifteenth century carts were levied at a rate of one cart for every four
ploughlands
.

cartboote
. The right without payment to procure timber from the manorial woods for the purpose of repairing or making carts.

cartouche
. An ornamented tablet, usually elliptical, surrounded by scrolls or vines and bearing an inscription or coat of arms.

cartron
. A unit of spatial measurement, equivalent to 30 acres in Connacht and 60 acres in Longford.
See
acre.

carucate
. (Med.L.,
carruca
, a plough) Nominally, the amount of land a team of eight oxen could plough in a year, usually equivalent to 100– 120 acres. In 19 Edward III a carucate was declared to be 100 acres but it varied considerably on account of soil quality and could contain up to 180 acres. Also known as a
villate
or
ploughland.

cashel
.
See caiseal, cathair
.

cassock
. The black outer garment or frock worn by a clergymen.

cast
. 1: Equivalent to three fish. Forty-two casts were equivalent to a
hundred
(126) and five hundreds were equivalent to a
mease
(630) 2: In falconry, refers to a couple of hawks which is the number of hawks released or cast off at a time.

castle chamber, court of
(Star Chamber). The court of castle chamber was a
prerogative court
rather than one based on common law procedures. It commenced operations in the sixteenth century, the first clerk of the court being appointed in 1563. It was a juryless, inquisitorial court, formally presided over by the
chief governor
with the assistance of the
lord chancellor
and exercised jurisdiction over serious infringements of the law such as official corruption, treason, riot, perjury, libel, fraud, forgery, refusal to produce
recusants
and conspiracies. Such offences were outside the remit of the regular courts and affected good government and the administration of the law. Castle chamber was a popular and speedy court and less expensive to litigants than the regular courts. As a court associated with the royal prerogative it attracted the wrath of parliament and was abolished in England by the Long Parliament. It was never formally abolished in Ireland but lapsed during the
Commonwealth
. Attempts were made to revive it after the Restoration but the house of commons objected and it simply disappeared. The officers of the court continued to draw their salaries until 1701. (
Report on the manuscripts of the Earl of Egmont;
Crawford ‘Origins'; Wood, ‘The court'.)