donn for any other religious work, within the corporacion or francheses of the same. In Wittness whereof, wee the Maior, Sheriffes, free Burgesses and Coumonalitye have heereunto putt our coumon seall; Given at our Toulsell of Gallway, the twentie day of September, in the yeare of our Lord God one tousand, six hundred, fiftie and one."-Orig.

The following document, relating to the same foundation, may be considered curious, as describing the particular divisions and dimensions of the old church alluded to.

"A true relation and returne of the undernamed persons, qualified by the Mayor and Prior of the said Convent, to try the particulars that were demolished and pulled doune of St. Dominickes abbey, otherwise called our Ladie's Church, in the West Francheses of Gallway, upon presseing occations, in order to the preservation of this Toune against the Parlement forces under the comaund of St. Charles Coote, now incamped aboute this Towne, 10° Augusti 1651.

"Ittim first, there are sixtie seaven feete longe in the side of the church, next the doore. In the side oppositt to the same, from the pincle of the stiple, sixtie fower foot longe. From the stiple to the pincle of the queere, seaventie fower foote longe. Fortie fower foote in breath, betweene both the wall, with fower arches in the midle, in the bodie of the church.-Twenty two foote broade in the queere betweene both the wales. In the chapel, towards the north, nyneteene foote longe, sixteene foote broade, and twelve foote in hight in the wall. In the wale of the bodie of the church and queere, twenty three foote in hight to the battlement, and the wale in tickness two foote and nyne enciis.-Lasorous house is twentie seaven foote longe, twenty foote broade, eighteen foote high, with two chimneys, six windowes, one of which is two lights and the rest one light.-In the bodie of the church three windowes of three lights, and two gables of three lights. In the chaple three windowes of three lights, and one gable of three lights.-One gable of five lights in the pinicle of the queere, one gable of two lights in the side of the queere, six windowes of one light in the north side of the queere, and one window of two lights in the north (south) side.—All this, besids the battlement and breast wall of the same, together with a small stiple, the most of all being made of hued stone, weare demolished and pulled downe as aforesaid. If any of the said battlement or hued stones be brought home for the use of St. Nicholas' Church, payment or satisfaction is to be made to the said religious order. "WALTER BROWNE FITZ-MARCUS. CHRISTO: BODKIN. ALEXANDER LINCHE. MARTIN FRENCH, CHAMBERLYNE [ ]."—Orig.

For a view of "Our Lady's Church," taken before it was so demolished, see the great 2 N 2 map

map of Galway, made A. D. 1651, and preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. On the above compact, John O'Heyn (for whom see Harris's Ware, vol. ii. p. 295), writes as follows: "Ecclesia erat vetustissima, sed a Fundamentis destructa est ex Concilio Catholicorum Civium, ne Inimicus Cromuellus, obsessurus eundem Locum, Fortalitium sibi faceret in illa Ecclesia. Ex communi tamen Consensu totus Magistratus spopondit, quod, advertante Pace, totus Conventus reædificaretur in Forma priori, Expensis Civium, et si sperata Tranquillitas affulsisset in Patria, id facerent proculdubiò, erant enim valdè pii, et potentissimi Divitiis multis accedentibus ex ingenti Commercio maritimo, quo hic Locus exuberat specialiter præ reliquis Regni Partibus."-Epilog. p. 22.

NOTE Y. See page 109, note (m).

"Mageoghegan family."

In A. D. 1567, the head or chief of this great and ancient Irish family was Conly Mac Geoghegan of Kinaleagh (Cineal Fiachach) in Westmeath; respecting whom Queen Elizabeth, in that year, directed the following letter (now first printed) under her sign manual and signet, to the lord deputy and chancellor of Ireland.

"Elizabeth,

"By the Quene.

"Right trusty and welbeloved, wee greete you well. Wheras Conley Mac Geoghegan of Kenaleagh, our faithfull and lowinge subject, hath humbly submitted himself to our trustie and welbeloved Sir Henry Sidney, knight of our order, and deputy of our realme of Ireland, recognising himself as a faithfull subject to us and our crowne, offringe to surrender his estate for him and his sequele, and to receave from us an estate according to our pleasure. We in consideration of his said submission and offers, are pleased to accept and allow him as our liege man and faithfull subject; and are pleased that he shall receave from us these graces and speciall favors in maner and forme followinge. First, that the said Conley Mac Geoghegan deliver unto you our said deputy, a full and pleyne particular, note and extent of all the manors, castells, lordshipps, landes, tenements, signories, rules, rents, duetyes, custumes, and comodities whereof he is by any maner of meane seised at this present. And after, we will and order, that our chauncellor shall accept and receave of the said Conley Mac Geoghegan, by dede to be inrolled in our court of Chancery within that our realme of Irland, the submission of the said Conley Mac Geoghegan, and the surrender and resignation of his name of Conley Mac Geoghegan, and of all the said manors, castells, lordships, seignoryes, rules, hereditaments, comodities, and profits, with all and singular their appurtenances. After which submission and surrender so made, our pleasure is, that you our said deputy cause our letters patents, under our great seale of that our realme, to be

be made to the said Conley Mac Geoghegan during his lyfe; the remaynder to his sonne Rosse alias Roger and the heyres males of his body; and the remainder after them to the heyres males of the body of the said Conley lawfully to be begotten, of all the said castells, manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, to hold of us, our heires and successors, in capite by knight's service, and yeldinge, payenge, contributinge and doinge to us, our heires and successors, all souch rents, services and attendance, as now by any lawe, composition, use or custome he is bound or might have, with souch words of variance as to you our said deputy, by assent of the said Conley Mac Geoghegan, shalbe thought convenient. Neverthelesse, yf it shall seeme necessary to our said deputy to alter or change the said rents, duties and attendance, which the said Conley is presently holden to doe, into other kynds meeter for our service, we authorise you so to do. Item, our pleasure is, in consideration that all manner of obedience is by the said Conley Mac Geoghegan, for him and his, offred to us, that is due from a good and faithfull subject, that the said Conley and his said heyres males of his body, their issues, ofspringe, posteritie, sequele, servants, tenants and followers, shall to the uttermost of their powers, contynue for ever faithfull, true and loyall subjects to us, our heires and successors, as others our subjects of that realme are bounden by their allegiance to do: And, in like manner, shall accept, obey, effectually accomplishe and fulfill the statutes, lawes, writts, processe and ordinances of us our heires and successors. And if you our said deputy and counsayll there thinke necessary to deale with the said Conley more particularly, we are pleased that you shall and may add to the said letters patents so to him to be made, such farther articles and covenants on his parte to be observed by him, his said heires, sequele and followers, for their better instruction how to behave themselves towards us our heires and successors, and to all other our lovinge subjects, as to you shalbe thought mete and convenient. In consideration whereof let it be expressed in the said letters patents, that we accepte him, his said heires, posteritie, servants and followers, into our protection, to be used, supported, favored, maynteyned and defended as any outher of our lovinge subjects, and to be free and exempt from the exactions, servitude and oppression of all others, contrary to our lawes, demandinge any thinge of him or them. Yeven under our signet, at our Pallais of Westminster, the last day of February 1567, in the tenth yere of our reigne.

"To our trustie and welbeloved our deputy and chauncellor of our realme of Ireland for the tyme beinge, or to the justices. of our said realme, and our chauncellor there."-Rot. Pat. de ann. 11°. Eliz. d.From the original roll.

Conly

Conly Mac Geoghegan had by his third wife, Margery Nugent, daughter of Christopher lord Delvin (Delbhna), Hugh boy (buidhe, or the yellow) Geoghegan, who died 10th June 1622, leaving Art or Arthur Geoghegan of Castletown in the county of Meath, Esq., named in the note, p. 108, his son, who married Giles or Julia (also named therein), daughter of James Mac Coghlan, and had Hugh his eldest and Edward or Edmond his second son, also named in the note as joint patentee with his mother Giles, in the letters patent or grant there referred to, bearing date 15th May 1678. In this grant, the castle and lands of Bunowen, &c. were limited to Giles for her life, remainder to Edward and his heirs male, remainder to Edward Geoghegan the younger, grandson and heir to Art, and his heirs male, remainder to Conly Geoghegan late of Lerha and his heirs male; with remainder to Francis earl of Longford and his heirs for ever, according to a deed of settlement made by said Art, of those lands, dated 22nd June 1666. By privy signet dated at Whitehall, 20 Oct. 1677, the King directed Giles and Edward her son, to pass certificate and patent of the lands alloted to said Art in Connaught, in common with other transplanters, pursuant to the Act of Settlement. Rot. Pat. 29° Car. II. 3 p. f.

Edward Geoghegan the patentee of Bunowen, was succeeded by his son Charles, whose eldest son, Edward, died A. D. 1765, aged 73 years. His son Richard succeeded, and conformed to the Protestant faith on 18th April, 1756; the certificate of which conformity, numbered 28 for that year, is preserved in the Rolls' Office, Dublin. He appears to have been a lover of science, and a man of enterprizing genius. Soon after his conformity, he visited Holland to ascertain the Dutch method of reclaiming land from the sea; and on his return home he succeeded in recovering a considerable tract of the lands of Ballyconneely near Bunowen, by erecting a weir or dam to oppose the encroachments of the ocean. On this work he placed the following inscription: "Hos terminos, Deo favente, posuit mari Richardus Geoghegan, qui persæpe corruentem aggerem luctando restituit, pauca ducens solertiæ ac perseverantiæ esse impossibilia. Opus perfectum fuit anno Domini, 1758." This gentleman was enthusiastic respecting his Milesian origin; and he was often heard to declare, that, although not the "chief of his name," yet that he prized his ancient Irish descent beyond the pedigree or title of the proudest peer of France or England. In A. D. 1780, he erected a conspicuous octagonal building, on the site of the "old fortress of a down (dun) on the top of the hill" of Doon, mentioned, p. 109, by our author, as a monument to commemorate the concession of free trade to Ireland, as appears by the following inscription thereon: "Deo liberatori Hiberniæ, A. D. 1780, has aedes consecravit, anno eodem, gratus et laetus, R. G." He died 4th Jan., 1800, aged 83 years. His eldest son and heir, John, assumed the surname of O'Neill only, by virtue of the Royal sign manual,

manual, dated 19th Dec., 1807; and was succeeded by his eldest son and heir, John Augustus, the present talented and accomplished proprietor of Bunowen; who, the elder branch having failed, is now the head or chief of the Milesian family of Mageoghegan of Ireland.

NOTE Z. See pp. 112, 113, note (').

"Imay, Ballymac-Conroy, Castle of Down." The island of Imay or Omey (called also in old writings Imaith and Umma, but the meaning of the word does not appear), is situate on the western coast of Iar-Connaught, and gives name to the parish of Omey. This parish is bounded north by that of Ballinakill, east by Ballinakill and the parish of Moyrus, south by Moyrus and the parish of Ballindoon, and west by the Atlantic ocean. The island of Omey is mentioned at an early period of our ecclesiastical history. The account of the erection of the monastery founded there by St. Fechin in the seventh century, and referred to, ante, note, p. 112, is here translated from the Latin of Colgan, as follows:

"On a certain night, the holy man being in the monastery of Easdara [Ballysa dare in the present county of Sligo], was by an angel admonished in his sleep, that it was the divine will that he should go to a certain island of the ocean, which is called Imaidh [Omey], situated in the western district of Connaught. St. Fechin obeys the admonitions of the angel, and, with the intention of gaining many souls to Christ, and increasing the monastic institute, he, accompanied by some disciples, sought the island just mentioned, where he proposed to dwell and build a church. But the inhabitants, by the suggestion of the Devil, endeavoured by all means to exclude him; whence, at night, they, several times, cast into the sea the spades, axes, iron tools, and other instruments which his monks used in the work of building; but as often as they were thus cast, so often, being cast back on shore, they were found by the monks in the morning. But when the man of God and his monks, thus meeting with the opposition of the people, persisted in continual labours, watchings and fasts, and the people, hardened in malice, denied them all nourishment, at length two of the brethren perished, being exhausted through want. But St. Fechin, having poured forth for his servants a prayer to the Lord, in complying with whose will those who were thus exhausted had perished, merited that they should be recalled to life. And when the rumours of the occurrence had reached the ears of the king, Guarius the son of Colman, he took care that sufficient nourishment in meat and drink should be brought to St. Fechin. He added also his royal phial, which even to this day is called Cruach Fechin. Afterwards, all the islanders, being converted to Christ, were baptized by St. Fechin, and they consigned themselves and their island to the use and service of St. Fechin and his successors. The man of God founded another monastery in a neigh

bouring