[p. 121] Note. The ancient estate was unquestionably Knocklong, the seat and estate of his ancestors for centuries, and of which, being faithful to his lawful sovereign, he was plundered by the usurper, who gave him an estate in the County of Galway, which his son, Sir William, also faithful to his sovereign, James II., forfeited in 1691. I may well say they were faithful to the House of Stuart, and were ruined by their fidelity.
"A.D. 1690. While the main army lay encamped at Golden Bridge, Mr. John Grady, of Corbray, in the County of Clare, arrived, and among other things, told that the Irish had already began to set fire to the greater part of the County of Limerick, and that Lord Brittas, Lord Lieutenant of the County, and Sir William Hurly, his Deputy Lieutenant, had the greatest share in those burnings."
—Harris, Life of William the Third, folio, page 348.
"The English army marched from Carrick to Golden Bridge, three miles from Cashel, where Sir John Grady, of Corbray, in the County of Clare, arrived with some intelligence respecting the posture of strength of the Irish army. He stated that Lord Brittas and Sir William Hurly were devastating the country."
—Fitzgerald's History of Limerick, vol. ii., page 332.
In the Irish Parliament, 1689, an Act was passed, entitled "An Act of supply for his Majesty James the Second, for the support of his army," and in the list of Commissioners for carrying that Act into effect appear the names of Lords Castleconnell and Brittas, Sir John Fizgerald, and Sir William Hurly, Baronets, as Commissioners for the Co. of Limerick.
I have copied the following extract from a very scarce work in the Dublin Library, entitled "List of Claims," as they are entered with the Trustees at Chichester House, in Dublin, on or before August 10, A.D. 1700; printed in 1701. "No. 931. Sir John Hurly, Baronet, a minor, by Bryen McBrien, his guardian, as son and heir of Sir William Hurly, Bart., the estate of Meinalibeg, Shanballytyne, and Corlack in fee tail special after the death of claimant's mother, Dame Mary O'Brien, alias Hurly, in virtue of marriage articles dated June 19, 1682, and witnessed by James Lord Dunboyne, Thomas Butler, and Jno. Hurly." "This claim was not allowed."
[p. 122] "In the engagement at Thomond Gate, six hundred of the Irish perished in this sanguinary contest, besides one hundred and fifty who were forced over the bridge; while Colonels Skelton, Hurly, sixteen other officers, and above one hundred privates were taken prisoners."
—Fitzgerald's History of Limerick, vol. ii., p. 370.
Dean Story, in his interesting and now very scarce Account of the Civil Wars in Ireland, states that in the attack at Thomond Gate Lt.-Col. Hurly was wounded. Story was Dean of Limerick.
The Martyrdom of Archbishop Dermod O'Hurly
"Dermod O'Hurly, Archbishop of Cashel, was the first martyr this year, 1583, in Ireland. He studied at Louvain and in Paris with celebrity, and was Professor of Law in the former of these universities. He went afterwards to Rome, where he was kindly received by Gregory the Thirteenth, who appointed him Archbishop of Cashel. Full of zeal for the salvation of his brethren, he set out, after his consecration, for Ireland, where he found all things in a state of anarchy. The see of Cashel was held by Miler Magrath, an apostate monk of St. Francis; the altars were overthrown, the Catholic clergy left without an asylum, and were forced to assume women's apparel. All, however, did not diminish the zeal of the new Bishop of Cashel. He taught in the Catholic houses, and confirmed the faithful in their religion, making no distinction of province or diocese. Being with Thomas, Lord Baron of Slane, in the County of Meath, he was recognized by the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, who sent intelligence of his discovery to Adam Loftus, the Chancellor, and Henry Loftus, the Treasurer. They immediately gave orders to the Baron to send them the prelate in chains. He had, however, escaped; but the Baron, dreading the rigour of the laws enacted against those who harboured priests, pursued him as far as Carrick-on-Suir, where he was arrested, in September, at the Earl of Ormond's, and brought a prisoner to Dublin. He was loaded with chains and confined in a dungeon till Holy Thursday of the following year, when he was brought before the Chancellor and Treasurer. They tried every means to make him renounce the Pope's authority and to acknowledge that of the Queen, who would appoint him to the see of Cashel; but the perseverance of the holy prelate in the ancient religion and his firm adherence to the authority of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, caused the most cruel tortures to be inflicted upon him. He was hanged on the 7th of June without the city before daybreak, in order to avoid any tumult which so inhuman a spectacle might produce among the people."
—The Abbé MacGeoghegan's History of Ireland, vol. viii., p. 481.
"Thomas Hurly, Bishop of Emly, founded a college for secular priests, and died at a very advanced age in 1542."—Beaston's Political Index, vol. iii., and Postchaise Companion.
"Presentation of Donough Ryan chaplain to the perpetual deanery of the Cathedral Church of Emly, vacant, inasmuch as Richard McBryan [p. 123] and William O'Hurly, incumbents, hold the same by the authority of the Bishop of Rome."—Patent Rolls, thirty-fourth Henry VIII., 42, 9, 24 Aug.
"Presentation of Edmond Hurly, notwithstanding his minority and defect of clerical orders, to the Chancellorship of the Cathedral of Emly, and to Kiltite and Clonbine, Vics. Emly Dioc., vacant and in the King's gift, Jure Devoluto, or otherwise, and united for this town only on account of the smallness of their incomes and their mutual proximity."—Patent Rolls, sixth of James I.
"Presentation of Randal Hurly, notwithstanding his minority and defect of clerical orders, to the Chancellorship of the Cathedral of Emly and to Egilishcormick Chaplaincy and Disertlouras Vic., Emily Dioc., vacant and in the King's gift, Jure Devoluto, or otherwise, and united for this town only on account of the smallness of their incomes and their mutual proximity." Patent Rolls, sixth James I., 17th Dec.
Annabella Browne, the elder sister of Joan Browne, wife of Sir Thomas Hurly, married, first, William Apseley, of Limerick, by whom she had two daughters, co-heirs—Mary Apseley, who married Sir Thomas Browne, of the Hospital, in Co. Limerick, brother to Sir Nicholas Browne, of Ross, ancestor of the Lord Kenmare, by whom she had two sons and five daughters. Joan Apsley, her second daughter, was the first wife of the first Earl of Cork, but left no issue. This Apsley married afterwards Captain Thomas Spring, the first of that family who came to Kerry as an Undertaker in the reign of Elizabeth, and by him had two sons and five daughters.
Dermot O'Ryan, see page 25, was Master of the Rolls in the County Palatine of Tipperary.
Inquisitions Preserved in the Rolls Office
- Mauricius Hurly, Charles I., 1629, Co. of Limerick.
- Mauritius Hurly, Charles I., 1629, Co. of Tipperary.
- Thomas Hurly, Charles I., 1635, Co. of Limerick.
- Gulielmus Hurly, Co. of Galway.
- Randal Hurley, Charles I., 1631, Co. of Cork.
- Downell McTeige Hurly, Charles I., 1644, Co. of Cork.
- Mauritius Hurly, Charles I., 1637, Co. of Limerick.
In 1649 Monsignor Rinuncini, Archbishop of Fermo, President of the Catholic Confederation, Kilkenny, wrote to the General of the Jesuits praising Father O'Hurley, S.J., rector of the Limerick College; and Father Nidier, Visitor, describes him: "The Rector, Limerick, is Father William O'Hurley, aged fifty, of noble and ancient stock, devout, charitable, humble, and learned."
In 1697 Thomas Hurley, by payment of 3,200 florins, founded Bourses in the university of Louvain for the education of his next of kin, and then for natives of Limerick and Tipperary.
(To be continued.)
This closes the first installment of Vol. XI (pp. 105–123); the article resumes a year later at pp. 177–183 (Sections 13–16, below), and again a full year after that in Vol. XII (Sections 17–21). The miscellany closing this installment moves quickly between sources of very different reliability — the Thomond Gate and Williamite War citations are drawn from named, checkable published histories (Harris, Fitzgerald, Dean Story); the Patent Roll citations point to genuine record classes, though we have not independently verified each specific entry; and the account of Archbishop Dermod O'Hurley's martyrdom, quoted from the Abbé MacGeoghegan's eighteenth-century history, compresses and simplifies a well-documented episode (the Archbishop was in fact tortured at Dublin Castle under direct order of the Dublin government before his execution, a detail the excerpt here omits) — see the note below.