Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History by Joseph Byrne Read Free Book Online Page B

ecclesiastical courts . Proof of entitlement to benefit of clergy was determined by a test of the defendant’s ability to read the first verse of the fifty-first psalm. Thus literate laymen could plead their clergy because, being literate, they had the potential to be clergymen. Claims for benefit of clergy were not allowed for misdemeanours and in the eighteenth century were prohibited in cases of murder, larceny and house-breaking. Benefit of clergy was rescinded piecemeal in the eighteenth century and abolished outright in the nineteenth (9 Geo. IV, c. 54, 1828).
    bent grass . A shore grass which binds sand and prevents drifting. Bent or Marram grass was formerly employed for a variety of domestic purposes. As thatching material marram was not long-lasting and required regular maintenance. Lengths of braided marram stitched together were used as ceiling material to prevent soot and other small bits of roof debris falling on members of the household as they slept. More commonly marram matting did service as carpeting.
    bere (also bare, bear). Coarse barley.
    besant . A silver coin used in the middle ages worth between one and two shillings.
    Bessborough Commission (1880). A royal commission under the chairmanship of the earl of Bessborough tasked with investigating the working of Gladstone’s flawed Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act (1870) . Gladstone’s act had introduced a tenant-purchase scheme, legalised tenant-right wherever it existed and provided for compensation for improvements or disturbance. Bessborough’s key recommendation, the concession of fair rent, free sale and fixity of tenure – led to the enactment of the 1881 Land Law (Ireland) Act which gave statutory recognition to the ‘Three F’s’ . (Bessborough.)
    betagh . (L., betagius , Ir., biatach , provider of food) 1: Serf, servile tenant on a manor, the lowest social group in the economy of Anglo-Norman Ireland. These were the most numerous group within a manor’s population. They were bondsmen , almost invariably Irish and were similar to the unfree villeins of medieval England. They were unable to seek redress in the king’s courts except through their lord and usually lived in a nucleated settlement some distance from the manor. See advowry 2: The Gaelic law texts describe betaghs as base clients who contracted to provide the lord with food-rent, winter hospitality ( cuddy ), manual labour and military service in return for an advance of livestock or land. The contractual nature of the relationship meant that the betagh could withdraw from the agreement provided he returned the lord’s advance with deductions for the services he had already supplied. Thus the liberty of the betagh in the Gaelic system was not as circumscribed as that of the betagh on a Norman manor. (Mac Niocaill, ‘Origins’, pp. 292–8.)
    Betham, Sir William (1779–1853). Sir William Betham, Ulster king of arms , supervised the construction of an alphabetical index to wills proved in the prerogative court , produced brief genealogical abstracts (over 37,000) of most of the wills that pre-dated 1800 and extracted outline pedigrees from them. Betham’s industry assumed enormous importance with the large-scale destruction of original testamentary material in the Public Record Office (now National Archives ) in 1922. His original notebooks were acquired by the Public Record Office with the exception of volumes of pedigrees which can be seen at the Genealogical Office. (Phair, ‘Sir William Betham’, pp. 1–99; Guide to the Genealogical Office. )
    bettimore . (Ir., beiteáil ) The paring and burning of sods in marginal areas to increase the fertility of the soil. This practice resulted in temporary improvements in yield but the land quickly returned to infertility. See paring and burning.
    bill . See civil bill.
    birnie, byrnie . An early version of the chain mail shirt, forerunner to the hauberk.
    Birrell’s