The 1601 Letter from the Privy Council & the Jacobean Patent Grants (pp. 116–118)

Page from the Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts, 1601-1603, showing the entry for the Privy Council's 31 July 1601 letter to the Lord President of Munster — The published calendar entry for this letter: *Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts, 1601–1603*, ed. J. S. Brewer & William Bullen (Lambeth Palace Library, London, 1870), pp. 115–116, entry 221, dated 31 July 1601 — almost certainly the very source the 1905 article's editorial note credits to "the Carew MSS. in the Lambeth Library." Click through for the fuller Google Books scan.

Immediately after the pedigree narrative ends, the article pivots to documentary proof: a 1601 letter from the English Privy Council backing a petition by Maurice Hurly of Knocklong, followed by the Jacobean patent grants that appear to have resulted from it. This is the same Maurice Hurly named earlier in the pedigree as father of Sir Thomas, the first baronet.

Pages 116 (cont.)–118

Copie of a Letter from the Lords of Her Majesty's Council to the Lord President of Munster on behalf of Maurice Hurly, of Knocklong.

"After our heartie commendations to your Lordships. Whereas, the bearer hereof, Maurice Hurly, a man well recommended to us by your Lordship, hath preferred a petition to us, declaring that being seized of certain [p. 117] Landes named in the petition herein inclosed, which were time out of minde ancient free landes, and soe alwaies reputed and taken untill late years by means of some of the freeholders of that countie in ease of themselves and their tenants. Some parte of said landes were and are, as he allegeth, unjustly charged by divers exactions and county impositions, to his great charge and impoverishment, and humbly praieth that if he shall make good proofe of his information either before your Lordship or such as you shall appoint in that behalf, he may have confirmation of that freedom by her Majesty's Letters patent, wherein he is now a suitor, that for the better reinhabiting of his said Landes now waste he may have direction from us to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, that a Markett once a week and a fair twice a year, may be erected and granted to be holden at Knocklongy, parcel of the Landes aforesaid, and whereas, lastly, he maketh humble suit in respect your Lordship knoweth, as he saith, what envious and most hateful desire both the Irish and all the Traitors and Rebells of Munster do beare him for his dutiful affection and good disposition towards her Majesty's service in the said province, and considering that for the good of the countrie and daylie annoyance of the rebells he hath been at such great charge and cost of warding the said castle of Knocklong during the last rebellion in Mounster as his small abilitie cannot longer maintaine or beare, that he may therefore have our direction unto your Lordship, finding his suggestion in that behalf true, to allow him, if you shall find it convenient, a reasonable number in pay for the better warding and securing thereof. We therefore having considered of his said requests and being verie willing to relieve him in all his just and lawful causes, have thought good hereby to praise and require you who can best judge of these demands, to examine if the aforesaide landes were of ancient freedom and alwaies reputed soe and known, and whether also, you think the granting of the said Markett and fair convenient and for the good of the countrie or prejudicial to other Marketts, if any there be thereunto adjoining—and of your Lordship's examination and opinion both of the one and the other to certifie the Lord Deputy that he may take order accordingly for grant to be made to the Petitioner in that behalf. As to the latter part of his petition, for allowance of men for warding of his castle, we only refer the consideration thereof, as occasion is or may be to your Lordship, from whom, we doubt not, the Petitioner shall receive therein such satisfaction as is meete and agreeable both to the convenience of his demands and his own good desert, and soe we bid your Lordship right heartilie farewell. From the Court at Greenwich, the laste of Julie, 1601."

"Yr loving servants,
Thos. Egerton, W. Knollys, C. Buckhurst, E. Worcester,
T. Fortescue, Nottingham, Ro. Cecyll, T. Herbert.
"To the Lord President of Munster."

[p. 118] Note. A copy of this letter, from the Carew MSS. in the Lambeth Library, was given to me by the Rev. A. B. Rowan. Sir George Carew was President of Munster in 1601.

"Grant from the King to Maurice Hurly, of Knocklonge Castle, in Limerick Co., to hold free of any cess or any contribution whatever, the following landes in the Limk. Co. and in the County of the Rope whereof he is hatefully seized, viz.: The town and landes of Knocklonge, 1 ploughland; Garrencaharra, 1 ploughland; Downe Common, Brianstown, Moorestown, Carrowenstown, Garryhenod, 1 ploughland. Which several parcels have been of ancient time free land and not chargeable with any contribution whatever, altho' of late years during the wars and troubles of these parts, some parts of them have been charged and burthened with impositions contrary to the ancient freedoms thereof."—Patent Rolls, fourth year of James I., No. 97.

111½. "Grant of late possessions to Maurice Hurley."—Patent Rolls, fifth year of James I.

The bracketed page citations above ([p. 117], [p. 118]) mark the original page breaks. We have corrected one apparent scanning/printing error: the note crediting the source of the Carew MSS. copy reads "Rev. A. B. Nowan" in our scan, which we take to be a misreading of "Rowan" — almost certainly the same Rev. Arthur Blennerhassett Rowan, Archdeacon of Ardfert (1800–1861), who separately transcribed the Blennerhassett family manuscript known as Black Jack's Book in 1855. We have silently corrected the name in the transcription above; the original spelling as scanned is preserved here in this note for the record. Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are otherwise reproduced exactly as printed, including the antique spellings ("Markett," "soe," "praieth") and the irregular "111½" numbering of the second patent entry, which appears to be the author's own citation shorthand rather than an official record number.

Historical Note — the Nine Years' War Context

The letter is dated the last day of July 1601, from the royal court at Greenwich — a few months before the Battle of Kinsale that October, the climactic engagement of the Nine Years' War (1593–1603) between the English crown and the Gaelic Irish lordships led by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. Munster was heavily contested territory throughout the war, and the letter's own language reflects that: it credits Maurice Hurly's "dutiful affection and good disposition towards her Majesty's service" and the cost he bore "warding the said castle of Knocklong during the last rebellion in Mounster," and it notes the resentment this loyalty earned him from "the Irish and all the Traitors and Rebells of Munster." In other words, this is a Gaelic Irish family (the O'Hurlys, per the article's own bardic-genealogy chapters) that had thrown its support behind the English crown during the reconquest of Munster, and was petitioning for confirmed land title, market rights, and a garrison allowance as its reward. Sir George Carew, named in the editorial note as President of Munster in 1601, was the crown's chief military and civil officer in the province during exactly this period, and was central to the eventual defeat of the Munster rebellion.

Historical Note — the Signatories

The letter is signed by eight members of Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council: Thomas Egerton (Lord Keeper of the Great Seal), William Knollys, Thomas Sackville, Baron Buckhurst (Lord Treasurer), Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester, John Fortescue, Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham (Lord Admiral, victor over the Spanish Armada), Sir Robert Cecil (the Queen's principal secretary of state), and a Herbert (most likely William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, or a kinsman). This is a substantial slice of the English government's senior leadership lending its name to a single Munster landowner's petition — a measure of how seriously the crown treated the loyalty of Irish landholders during the closing years of the war.

Historical Note — Why the Patent Rolls Citations Matter

The two Jacobean grants above are cited to the "Patent Rolls, fourth year of James I., No. 97" and "Patent Rolls, fifth year of James I." These were the official Irish chancery enrolments, kept at the Public Record Office of Ireland in the Four Courts, Dublin. On 30 June 1922, at the outbreak of the Irish Civil War, the building was shelled and burned, destroying the great majority of Ireland's historic public records — including, as far as is known, the original Irish patent rolls themselves, in most cases back to the thirteenth century. What survives of them today is mostly indirect: earlier calendars, abstracts, and transcripts made by researchers before 1922, of which this 1905 CHAS article's citations are themselves a small example. That makes the two brief entries transcribed above — a bare grant description and an even barer one-line citation for "111½" — more valuable than their length suggests: for these particular grants, this article's quotation may be at or near the closest thing to a surviving copy of the original wording, since the underlying roll itself is very likely gone. (Ongoing projects such as CIRCLE and Beyond 2022 have worked to reconstruct the lost chancery rolls from calendars, transcripts, and copies scattered across other archives, but a reconstruction from secondary sources is not the same as the original enrolment.)

Glossary

Cess: A form of local tax or levy, historically imposed in Ireland to provision crown forces or fund county administration; being "free of any cess" was a valuable exemption, as the grant to Maurice Hurly makes clear.
Patent Rolls: The official chancery records of grants, charters, and appointments made under the crown's Great Seal. A citation like "fourth year of James I." dates the grant to the fourth regnal year of that king's reign (1606–1607) rather than to a calendar year. The Irish patent rolls themselves were destroyed in the 1922 Four Courts fire (see the note above); they survive today mainly through calendars and abstracts made before that date.
Ploughland: An old Irish land-measurement unit (also called a "ballybetagh" or "carucate" in other contexts), representing roughly the amount of arable land a plough team could work, and used here to describe the parcels confirmed to Maurice Hurly.