Some Account of the Family of O'Hurly

21. Wills: Randal Hurly (1628) & William McRandell Hurley (1641)

Journal of the Cork Historical and Archæological Society, Vol. XII, 2nd Series (1906), pp. 86–88

The article closes, across its two volumes and four installments, exactly as a document-driven family history should: with two wills transcribed in full. Both testators appear elsewhere in this series — Randal Hurly of Kilmallock's will names sons Thomas, Morris, Symon and Andrew and connects to the Knocklong branch's pedigree (Sections 5 and 9); William McRandell Hurley of Ballinwarde is the same man named repeatedly in the Down Survey tables at Section 18. Immediately after the second will, the printed journal moves on to an unrelated article ("A Side-Light on Irish Clerical Life in the Seventeenth Century"), which is where this transcription project ends.

Pages 86–88

Will of Randal Hurly, 1628.

[p. 86] At Kilmallock, 1st Feb., 1628. I, Randall Hurly of Kilmallock, Burgess, do make this my last Will. I appoint my son and heir, Thomas Hurly, sole exor. I bequeath to my wife, Eliza Rosh, the stone house and garden, besides the lands of Baligidyn-Edy. I bequeath to my son, Morris Hurly, the stone house which I have in the High Street of Kilmallock, where my father did dwell. I bequeath to my third son, Symon [p. 87] Hurly, a tenement I have in the Church land. I bequeath £40 to be bestowed for my soul as my brother, Morris, shall think fit. I leave to my brother, William, £1. I bequeath to my sister, Ann Hurley, £10. I appoint my brother, Andrew Hurly, and my cousin, Jasper Kerny, overseers of this my Will.

(Signed) Randal Hurly.

Witnesses, Edward Fitzharris, Wm. Gannan, Teige O'Connor.

Proved 13th Novr., 1628.

Will of William McRandell Hurley, 1641, Diocese of Cloyne.

In nomine Dei Amen. I, Willia McRandell Hurley of Ballinwarde, Doe bequiett my soule To the Almightie God and my Boddie to be buried in the pish Church of Killmyne, or where my son Willia thinketh fitt, I bequiett and leave unto my son and heier Willia oge Hurley, To his heiers for evr all my Estate in all my lands which I nowe possesse, or which I ought To possesse, saveinge and reservinge unto my second son David McWillia and the heiers Males of his Boddie Lawefullie Begotten, or to begotten, the five Gnyves of Cassilloskie, the two Gnyves of Lettir, and foure Gnyves of Cahirconvoy, payeinge all Rents or reservations that is expressed in a ffeoffment by my formerlie past unto the saide David, and for want of such Issue Males Lawefullie Begotten, or to begott [    ] by the saide David ye remainder of this I leave him to revert unto my son and heier Willia oge Hurley. And alsoe I doe Bequiett and leave unto my daughter Ellinore ny Willia the sume of one hundred poundes ster. when shee is to be maried, upon my son Willia oge Hurley towards her preferment, I Do alsoe Bequiett and leave unto my five other yonge Daughters in Equall Division, equallie to be divided Amongst them the sume of 'one hundred poundes ster: upon my son and heier Willia oge Hurley and the saide hundred poundes to be paide in the next Insueinge five yeares after my death, viz. twentie poundes in each yeare of the said five yeares, and allsoe I Doe bequiett and leave my Legacie unto my five daughters formerlie mentioned, Two partes of all my Cowes and horses saveinge the parte I Bequietted allreaddie, and Equallie to be divided Amongst them in Equall Division and the other third parte of the saide Cattle I Doe bequiett And leave unto my nowe maried wife, and allsoe I Doe bequiett, and leave my Legacie unto my son Morish Hurley all the moneyes Due unto me by specialties or be what meanes they shall appear due unto me uppon Creditors Directlie or undirectlie the one moytie or halfe of all my Corne nowe groweinge upon Ballinwarde and the other moytie or halfe I Doe leave it unto my maried wife, I Doe bequiett and leave unto my said son Morish, and unto my saide married wife, three Cropes of the newe sanded Land, nowe upon Ballinwarde, and Two Cropes of the Wheate stumble land upon Ballinwarde afforesaide, formerlie bequitted unto my son and heier and allsoe I bequiett and leave unto my son and heier Willia oge Hurley four silvr Cupes of the olde makinge That I had in the tyme of his mother my first maried wife which Cupes I have in this tyme, and nowe I leave unto my wife the other two Cupes I had in her one time dureinge her life, Condicionalie to dispose of them to one of my sons after her death, and furthermore As I shall A[ ]swere before God That the Estate that I made unto my son Willia is the true ffeoffment, and allsoe the ffeoffment That my son James [  ]th or my wife with a reservation that all things may be to my last [  ]ill and Testament. It was onelie Invented and Antidated—Antidated for To destroy the Estate of my son and heier Willia oge Hurley and allsoe I Doe Testifie that will or ffeoffment That my son James hath Touchinge anie division of lands is but meere ffraude and Deceite and donne by the persuadeinge of his mother and others, Allsoe I doe revoke all former wills or

[p. 88] Testaments, and I nowe beinge of pfect witt and memorie, though not stronge in boddie, doe freelie, Clearlie, and absolutelie leave and bequiett all my lands which I hold in fee semple unto my son Willia oge Hurley, and his heieres saveinge and reservinge for my son David as is above mencioned, I doe bequiett and leave my son and heier Willia oge Hurley my sole executor of this my last will and Testament, and Willia McRandell hurley als duffe ovrseer ovr my yonge Children, To ovrsee theire partes of this my Will and Testament. As wittnesseth my hand the Aleventh of August, 1641.

Willme Hurley.

Being prsent whose names Insue—Dermitius collom; Sharles Carthy; Cahir Carthie; Morish Hurly; Donat Charte.

Jurat' coram mgro Ludovico Vigours p noiato executor 12° 8 bris 1641.

William McRandell Hurley's will is transcribed here exactly as printed, preserving the original's phonetic and inconsistent spelling throughout ("pish" for parish, "ffeoffment," "boddie," "aleventh," and so on) rather than normalizing it, since the spelling is itself evidence of the period and the scribe rather than a simple error to correct. Several short passages are bracketed with blank space in the original printing (marked here with [  ]), apparently representing words illegible or missing in the source manuscript at the time of transcription in 1906, not omissions of ours. The closing Latin probate note ("Jurat' coram mgro Ludovico Vigours...") gives the swearing date in the old regnal/calendar convention as "12° 8 bris 1641" — the 12th of the 8th [Latin-numbered] month, i.e. October, 1641, using the older Latin month-naming convention (October as the "eighth" month, counting from March).

Historical Note — Two Wills, One Turning Point

Read side by side, these two documents bracket a single, brief window of prosperity for the Hurley family before the upheavals of the 1640s. Randal Hurly's 1628 will is an ordinary, untroubled document: modest cash bequests, a stone house passed to a second son, the routine business of a prosperous burgess of Kilmallock. William McRandell Hurley's will, made in August 1641, is a different matter — drawn up hastily, preoccupied with defending the inheritance against a specific accusation of fraud by his own son James and James's mother, its language anxious and repetitive in a way the 1628 will's is not. It was sworn just weeks before the outbreak of the 1641 Rebellion (23 October 1641) that would shortly draw the Hurley family of Ballinacarriga and elsewhere into the outlawries and forfeitures documented throughout this series (Sections 18–20). Whether or not William McRandell Hurley anticipated the wider rebellion, his will captures a family already under strain on the eve of it.

Glossary

Feoffment
A formal conveyance of land, historically completed by the symbolic transfer of a clod of earth or twig ("livery of seisin") in the presence of witnesses; used here of an earlier land settlement William McRandell Hurley made for his son David, and which he accuses his son James of having fraudulently backdated.
Fee simple
The most complete form of land ownership recognized in English and Irish common law, giving the holder the right to pass the land on to heirs without restriction — as distinct from a life interest or an entailed estate.
8 bris (Octobris)
An abbreviation of the Latin "Octobris," using the old convention (common in Latin legal and ecclesiastical dating) of numbering months from March, so that October falls as the eighth month.

End of the Transcribed Article

This concludes "Some Account of the Family of O'Hurly" as it ran in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archæological Society: four installments across two volumes and two years (1905–1906), from the legendary Milesian origin-claim through documented pedigrees, primary-source land records, and, finally, two family wills. Immediately following this section in the original 1906 volume, the journal moves on to an unrelated piece, "A Side-Light on Irish Clerical Life in the Seventeenth Century," which lies outside the scope of this transcription project.

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