and the chiefe Magistrate was termed a Consul which name may intimate that it was a Roman towne But when Bishop Herbert surnamed Losenga for that he was composed of Leafing and Flattery the third Prelate that by evill meanes and Simony climbed up to this Dignity had removed his seat from hence to Norwich it fell againe to decay and as it were languished Neither could it sufficiently bee comforted for the absence of the Bishop by the Abbay of Cluniac Monkes which by his meanes was built This Abbay Hugh Bigod built out of the ground For so writeth he in the Instrument of the foundation I Hugh Bigod Steward to King Henry by his graunt and by the advise of Herbert Bishop of Norwich have ordained Monkes of the Order of Cluny in the Church of S. Mary which was the Episcopall seat of Thetford which I gave unto them and afterwards founded another more meete for their use without the Towne Howbeit even then the greatest part of the Citty that stood on the hithermore Banke by little and little fell to the ground the other part although it was much decayed yet one or two Ages agoe flourished with seaven Churches besides three small religious Houses whereof the one was by report erected in the memoriall of the Englishmen and Danes slaine here For hard by as our Historians doe record Edmund that most holy King a litle before his death fought Seaven houres and more with the Danes not without an horrible slaughter and afterwards gave over the battaile on even hand such was the alternative fortune of the Field that it drave both sides past their senses By Waveney the other River of those twaine that bound this Shire and runneth Eastward not farre from the Spring head thereof are seene Buckenham and Keninghall This which may seeme to have the name left unto it of the Iceni is the Seat of that most honourable Family of the Howards whose glory is so great that the envy of Bucchanan cannot empaire it As for the other so named as I take it of Beech trees which the Saxons called Bucken it is a faire and strong Castle built by William de Aubigny the Norman unto whom the Conqueror had given the place and by his heires that were successively Earles of Arundell it descended to the Tatsalls and from them by Caly and the Cliftons unto the family of the Knevets These are of an ancient house and renowned ever since Sir Iohn Knevet was Lord Chancellour of England under King Edward the Third and also honourably allied by great marriages For over and beside these of Buckenham from hence sprang those right worshipfull knights Sir Thomas Knevet Lord Knevet Sir Henry Knevet of Wiltshire and Sir Thomas Knevet of Ashellwell Thorpe and others This Ashellwell Thorpe is a little Towne nere adjoyning which from the Thorpes in times past of Knights degree by the Tilneis and the L. L. Bourchiers of Berners is devolved at length hereditarily unto that Sir Thomas Knevet before named As for that Buckenham aforesaid it is holden by this tenure and condition that the Lords thereof should at the Coronation of the Kings of England be the Kings Butlers that day Like as a thing that may beseeme the noting in Charleton a little neighbour village Raulph de Carleton and some one other held lands by this service namely To present an hundred Herring-Pies or Pasties when Herrings first come in unto their Soveraigne Lord the King wheresoever he be in England But this river neare to his spring runneth by and by under Disce now Dis a prety towne well knowne which King Henry the First gave frankely to Sir Richard Lucy and hee straightwayes passed it over to Walter Fitz-Robert with his Daughter of whose Posterity Robert Fitz-Walter obtained for this place the liberty of keeping Mercat at the hands of King Edward the First From thence although Waveney bee on each side beset with Townes yet there is not one amongst them that may boast of any Antiquity unlesse it bee Harleston a good Mercate and Shelton that standeth farther of both which have given surnames to the ancient Families of the Sheltons and Harlestons but before it commeth to the Sea it coupleth it selfe with the river Yare which the Britans called Guerne the Englishmen Gerne and Iere of Alder trees no doubt so termed in British wherewith it is overshadowed It ariseth out of the mids of this Countrie not farre from Gernston a little Towne that tooke name thereof and hath hard by it Hengham which had Lords descended from Iohn Marescall Nephew by the brother to William Marescall Earle of Penbroch upon whom King John bestowed it with the Lands of Hugh de Gornay a Traitour and also with the daughter and coheire of Hubert de Rhia From this Marescals it passed in revolution of time unto the Lord Morleis and from them by Lovell unto the Parkers now Lords Morley A little from hence is Sculton otherwise called Burdos or Burdelois which was held by this Tenure That the Lord thereof on the Coronation day of the Kings of England should be chiefe Lardiner Joint-neighbour to Sculton is Wood-Rising the faire seate of the Family of Southwels which received the greatest reputation and encrease from Sir Richard Southwell Privie Councellour to King Edward the Sixth and his Brother Sir Robert Master of the Rowles More Eastward is to be seene Wimundham now short Windham famous for the Albineys Earles of Arundell there enterred whose Ancestor and Progenitor William D' Albiney Butler to King Henry the First founded the Priory and gave it to the Abbay of Saint Albans for a Cell which afterward was advanced to an Abbay Upon the Steeple whereof which is of a great height William Ke◠one of the Captaines of the Norfolke Rebels in the yeare of our Lord 1549. was hanged on high Neither would it bee passed over in silence that five miles from hence standeth Attilborrough the seate of the Mortimers an ancient Family who being different from those of Wigmor bare for their Armes A Shield Or Semè de floures de Lyz Sables and founded heere a Collegiat Church where there is little now to bee seene The Inheritance of these Mortimers hath by marriage long since accrued to the Ratcliffs now Earles of Sussex to the Family of Fitz-Ralph and to Sir Ralph Bigot But returne we now to the River The said Yare holdeth not his course farre into the East before he taketh Wentsum a Riveret others call it Wentfar from the South into his streame upon which neere unto the head thereof there is a foure square Rampier at Taiesborrough containing foure and twenty Acres It may seeme to have beene a Campe place of the Romans if it be not that which in an old Chorographicall Table or Map published by Marcus Welserus is called AD TAUM Somewhat higher upon the same River stood VENTA ICENORUM the most flourishing City for a little one in times past of all this
Penbroke by vertue of King Edward the Third his Brieffe The Copie whereof I thinke good to set downe heere that wee may see what was the right by heires generall in these honorary Titles Rex omnibus ad quos c. salutem The King to all unto whom c. Greeting Know yee that the good presage of circumspection and vertue which wee have conceived by the towardly youth and happy beginnings of our most welbeloved cozin Laurence Hastings induce us worthily to countenance him with our especiall grace and favour in those things which concerne the due preservation and maintenance of his honour Whereas therefore the inheritance of Aimar of Valence sometime Earle of Penbroke as hee was stiled deceased long since without heire begotten of his body hath beene devolved unto his sisters proportionably to be divided among them and their heires because we know for certaine that the foresaid Laurence who succeedeth the said Aimar in part of the inheritance is descended from the elder sister of Aimar aforesaid and so by the avouching of the learned with whom wee consulted about this matter the prerogative both of name and honour is due unto him We deeme it just and due that the same Laurence claiming his Title from the elder sister assume and have the name of Earle of Penbroke which the said Aimar had whiles he lived Which verily we as much as lyeth in us confirme ratifie and also approve unto him willing and granting that the said Laurence have and hold the prerogative and honour of Earle Palatine in those lands which hee holdeth of the said Aimars inheritance so fully and after the same manner as the same Aimar had and held them at the time of his death In witnesse the King at Mont-Martin the thirteenth day of October and in the thirteenth of our Raigne After Laurence succeeded his sonne John who being taken prisoner by the Spaniards in a battaile at sea and in the end ransomed died in France in the yeere 1375. After him followed his sonne John who in a running at Tilt at Woodstocke was slaine by Sir Iohn Saint Iohn casually in the yeere 1391. And it was observed that for five generations together in this Family I know not by what destiny the father never saw his sonne Now for default of his issue there fell very many possessions and faire revenewes into the Kings hands as our Lawyers use to speake and the Castle of Penbroke was granted unto Francis At-Court a Courtier in especiall great favour who thereupon was commonly called Lord of Pembroke Not long after Humfrey sonne to King Henry the Fourth before he was Duke of Glocester received this title of his brother King Henry the Fifth and before his death King Henry the Sixth granted the same in reversion a thing not before heard of to William de la Pole Earle of Suffolke after whose downefall the said King when hee had enabled Edmund of Hadham and Iasper of Hatfield the sonnes of Queene Katharin his mother to bee his lawfull halfe brethren created Iasper Earle of Penbroke and Edmund Earle of Richmond with preheminence to take place above all Earles For Kings have absolute authority in dispensing honours But King Edward the Fourth depriving Iasper of all his honours by attaindour and forfeiture gave the Title of Pembroke to Sir William Herbert for his good service against Iasper in Wales but hee shortly after lost his life at the battaile of Banbury Then succeeded his sonne bearing the same name whom King Edward the Fourth when hee had recovered the Kingdome invested in the Earledome of Huntingdon and bestowed the Title of Penbroke being surrendred upon his eldest sonne and heire Edward Prince of Wales A long time after King Henry the Eighth invested Anne Bollen to whom he was affianced Marchionesse of Pembroke with a mantle and Coronet in regard both of her Nobility and also her vertues for so runne the words of the Patent At length king Edward the Sixth adorned Sir William Herbert Lord of Caerdiffe with the Title of Earle of Penbroke after whom succeeded his sonne Henry who was Lord President of Wales under Queene Elizabeth And now his sonne William richly accomplished with all laudable endowments of body and minde enjoyeth the same Title This Family of the Herberts in these parts of Wales is honourable and of great antiquity As lineally propagated from Henry Fitz Herbert Chamberlaine to king Henry the First who married the said kings Paramor the mother of Reginald Earle of Cornwall as I was first enformed by Robert Glover a man passing skilfull in the study of Genealogies by whose untimely death that knowledge hath sustained a great losse There are in this Shire Parishes 145. CARDIGAN-SHIRE FRom Saint Davids Promontory the shore being driven backe aslope Eastward letteth in the Sea within a vast and crooked Bay upon which lyeth the third Region of the Dimetae in English called CARDIGAN-SHIRE in British Sire Aber-Tivi by old Latine Writers Ceretica if any man thinke of King Caratacus this may seeme a conjecture proceeding out of his owne braine and not grounded upon any certaine authority and yet wee reade that the worthy Caratacus so worthily renowned was the Soveraigne Ruler in these parts A plaine and champion Country it is Westward where it lyeth to the Sea as also on the South side where the River Tivie separateth it from Caermarden-shire But in the East and North sides which bound upon Brechnock and Montgomery-shires there is a continued range or ridge of hils that shoot along yeelding goodly pasture ground under which there be spread sundry large Pooles That in ancient times this Shire as the rest also of Wales was not planted and garnished with Cities but with little cottages it may bee gathered by that speech of their Prince Caratacus who being taken Prisoner when he had throughly viewed the glorious magnificence of Rome What meane you saith he when yee have these and such like stately buildings of your owne to covet our small cottages Howbeit the places heere of most Antiquity let us breifly view over The River Tivie which Ptolomee calleth TUEROBIUS but corruptly in stead of Dwr-Tivius that is The River Tivie issueth out of the Poole Lin-Tivy beneath the hils whereof I spake before first cumbred as it were with stones in the way and rumbling with a great noise without any chanell and so passeth through a very stony tract neere unto which at Rosse the Mountainers keepe the greatest Faire for cattaile in all those parts untill it come to Strat-fleur a Monastery long since of the Cluniack Monkes compassed about with hilles From thence being received within a chanell it runneth downe by Tregaron and Lhan-Devi-brevi built and so named in memoriall of David Bishop of Menevia where he in a frequent Synode refuted the Pelagian Heresie springing up againe in Britaine both by the holy Scriptures and also by a miracle while the earth whereon he stood as he preached arose
a mercate towne well knowne which river watereth Stokesley a little mercate towne likewise that hath a long time appertained to the Noble family of Eure. Beneath which places Wharton Castle belonging in times past to the Barons Menill and Harlsey to the family of Hotham and afterward to Stragwaies now wrestle with old age and hardly hold up their heads The mouth of Tees aforesaid suspected in times past of sailers is now found to be a sure road and harbour and to give direction for safe accesse and entrance unto it there are erected on both sides thereof within our remembrance high turrets with light Foure miles from this Tees mouth standeth Gisburgh on high now a small towne but whiles it stood in flourishing estate it was right glorious for a very faire and rich Abbay built by Robert de Brus Lord of the place about the yeere of our Salvation 1119 and for the common buriall place of all the gentry and nobility in this tract which also brought forth Walter de Heminford no unlearned Historiographer This verily is a passing good place and may well for pleasantnesse delightsome variety and rare gifts of Nature contend with Puteoli in Italy which in regard of healthy situation it also farre excelleth The aire is mollified and made more mild by the mountaines seated betweene it and what way the sea yeeldeth a cold and winterly disposition the soile fruitfull and plenteous in grasse affordeth delectable floures a great part of the yeere and richly aboundeth with vaines of metall and Alum-earth of sundry colours but especially of ocher and murray likewise of iron out of which they have now begunne to try very good Alum and Coperose Which with learned skill and cunning not many yeeres since Sir Thomas Chalâ—ner Knight a learned searcher into natures workes and unto whose charge our most high and mightie King hath committed his son Prince Henry the lovely joy and delight of Brittaine first discovered by observing that the leaves of trees were of a more weak greene colour here than in other places that the oakes had their rootes spreading broad but very eb within the ground the which had much strength but small store of sappe that the earth standing upon clay and being of divers colours whitish yellowish and blew was never frozen and in a cleere night glittered in the pathes like unto glasse Not farre off Onusbery or Rosebery Topping mounteth up a mighty height and maketh a goodly shew a farre off serving unto sailers for a marke of direction and to the neighbour inhabitants for a prognostication For so often as the head thereof hath his cloudy cap on lightly there followeth raine whereupon they have a Proverbiall Rhime when Rosebery Topping weares a cap Let Cliveland then beware a clap Neere unto the top of it out of an huge rocke there floweth a spring of water medicinable for diseased eies and from hence there is a most goodly and pleasant prospect downe into the vallies below lying a great way about to the hils full of grasse greene meddowes delightsome pastures fruitfull corne fields riverets stored with fish the river Tees mouth full of rodes and harbours the ground plaine and open without danger of inundation and into the sea with ships therein under saile Beneath it standeth Kildale a Castle of the Percies Earles of Northumberland and more Eastward Danby which from Brus also by the Thwengs came unto the Baron Latimers from whose heire descended the Willoughbeies Barons of Brooke But this Danby with other possessions was sold to the Nevills of which family Sir George Nevill was by King Henry the sixth called among the Barons to the Parliaments under the name of Lord Latimer in whose progenie and posterity this dignity hath continued unto our daies There remaineth nothing else heere for me to note but that the Barons Meinill held certaine lands in this shire of the Archbishops of Canterbury and for the same the Coigniers Strangwaies and Darcies descended from them are bound to performe certaine service to the said Archbishops And whereas the King of England by his Prerogative shall have the Wardship these bee the very words of the Praerogative of all their lands who hold of him in chiefe by Knights service of which themselves as tenants shall be seized in their Demesne as of Fae the day whereon they die of whomsoever they held by the like service so that themselves notwithstanding hold of the King any tenement of the ancient demesne of the Crowne unto the full and lawfull age of the heire Yet are excepted these Fees and others of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Durrham betweene Tine and Tees c. so that they may have the Wardship of such lands although elsewhere they held of the King Farther within the country among the mountaines of Blaca amore there offereth it selfe besides wandering beakes and violent swift brookes which challenge the vallies every where as their owne to passe through no memorable thing unlesse it be Pickering a good bigge towne belonging to the Dutchy of Lancaster situate upon an hill and fortified with an old Castle unto which a number of small villages lying there round about doe appertaine whereupon the country adjoyning is commonly called Pickering Lith The Libertie of Pickering and Forest of Pickering the which King Henry the Third gave unto his younger sonne Edmund Earle of Lancaster Wherein neere unto the river Darwent standeth Atton that gave name unto the right noble family of the Attons Knights descended from the Lords Vescy the inheritance of which family was by the daughters parted betweene Edward Saint Iohn the Evers and the Coigniers Now from Edward Saint Iohn a great portion thereof came by a daughter to Henrie Bromflet Which Henrie verily was summoned to the High court of Parliament by these expresse termes elsewhere not to be found in Summons Our Will is that both yee and your heires males of your body lawfully issuing be Barons of Vescy Afterwards that title passed away by a daughter to the Cliffords On the otherside foure miles from Pickering neere unto Dow a swift running riveret lieth Kirkby-Morside hard unto the hilles whereof it had that name a Market towne not of the meanest reckoning and the possession sometime of the Estotevilles Behind these Westward Rhidal lieth low a goodly pleasant and plentifull vale adorned with three and twenty Parish-churches through the mids wherof runneth the river Rhie A place as saith William of Newburrough wast desolate and full of horrour before that Walter Espec had granted it to the Monkes of the Cluniak order and founded there an Abbay In this vale is Elmesly seated which if I deceive not my selfe Bede called Vlmetum where that Robert called de Rosse surnamed Fursan built a Castle nere unto which the river Recall hideth it selfe under the ground More beneath hard by the river side standeth Riton an ancient possession of the ancient familie of the Percihaies commonly
therein bee with the narrowest thrust close and pent together yet such is the convenience and commodiousnesse of the haven that for wealth fresh trading and frequent resort it is the second City in all Ireland and hath alwaies shewed a singular loialty fidelitie and obedience to the Imperiall Crowne of England For ever since that Richard Earle of Pembrok wanne it it hath continued so faithfull and quietly disposed that it performed at all times safe and secure peace unto the English on their backes whiles they went on in the conquering of Ireland Whence it is that the Kings of England have granted unto it very many and those right large Franchises which King Henry the seventh augmented and confirmed because the Citizens had demeaned themselves most valiantly and wisely against that Mock-Prince Perkin Warbeck who being a young man of base condition by hoising up the full sailes of impudence went about to mount up aloft unto the Imperiall diadem whiles he a meer suborned counterfeit tooke upon him to be Richard Duke of Yorke the second sonne of King Edward the fourth This countie of Waterford together with the city King Henry the sixth gave unto Iohn Talbot Earle of Shrewsbury aforesaid by these words which because they testifie the valerous vertue of that most martiall Knight to the end that vertue might have the due honour thereto belonging I thinke it worth my labour and haply any man else would deeme no lesse to put downe out of the Record which may be Englished thus We therefore saith the King after other eloquent termes penned by the Secretaries of that age when there was but simple Latin weighing with due consideration the valiant prowesse of our most deere and faithfull cousin John Earle of Shrewsbury and of Weisford Lord Talbot Furnivall and Le Strange sufficiently tried and approved even unto his old age in the warres aforesaid upon his body no lesse bedewed with sweat many a time than embrued with blood and considering in what sort our Countie and Citie of Waterford in our land of Ireland the Castle Seigniory Honour Land and Baronie of Dungarvan and all the Lordships Lands Honours and Baronies with the pertinences within the same County which by forfeiture of rebels by reversion or decease of any person or persons by escheat or any other title of law ought to come into our hands or our progenitors or in the same to be by reason of the hostile invasions of our enemies and rebells in those parts are become so desolate and lye so much exposed to the spoiles of warre wholly as it were wasted that they turne us to no profit but have and doe redound oftentimes to our detriment in this regard also that by the same our Cousin our foresaid land of Ireland may the more valiantly be defended in those parts against such attempts and invasions of our enemies and rebells doe ordaine promote and create him Earle of Waterford together with the stile title name and honour thereto belonging And because as the highnesse of his state and degree groweth all things consequently of necessity grow withall upon our speciall grace certaine knowledge and meere motion and for the estate of the Earle himselfe our Cousin to be maintained in more decent manner we have given granted and by these our letters confirmed unto the same Earle the County aforesaid together with the foresaid stile title name and honour of Earle of Waterford yea and the foresaid City with the fee ferme of the same the Castles Lordships Honours Lands and Baronies with the pertinences within the County likewise all and every sort the Manors Hundreds Wapentakes c. all along the sea coast from the towne of Yoghall unto Waterford City aforesaid To have and to hold the foresaid County of Waterford the stile title name and honour of Earle of Waterford and the City Waterford aforesaid the Castle Seigniory Honour Land and Barony of Dungarvan and all other Lordships Honours Lands and Baronies within the said county as also all and every the foresaid Manors Hundreds c. unto the above named Earle and the heires males issuing out of his body to have I say and to hold of us and our heires by homage fealty and the service of being and to be our Seneschall or Steward and that his heires be the Seneschals of Ireland to us and our heires throughout our whole land of Ireland to do and that hee doe and ought himselfe to doe in the same his office that which his predecessors Seneschals of England were wont to doe hitherto in that office for ever In witnesse whereof c. But when as whiles the Kings of England and the Nobles who had large and goodly possessions in Ireland were much busied and troubled a long time first with the warres of France and afterward with civill warres at home Ireland lay in manner neglected and the State of English there falling still to decay was now in manner come to nothing but the Irishry by occasion of the others absence grew exceeding mighty for to recover these losses and to abate the power of the Irish it was ordained and enacted by the States of the Realme in Parliament that the Earle of Shrewsbury for his absence and carelesnesse in maintaining of his owne should surrender into the hands of the King and his successors the Earledome and towne of Waterford the Duke of Norfolke likewise the Baron Barkley the heires generall of the Earle of Ormond and all the Abbats Priors c. of England who had any lands should surrender up all their possessions unto the King and his successors for the same absence and neglect THE COUNTY OF LIMERICK HItherto have wee gone over the Maritime counties of Mounster two there remaine yet behind that bee in-lands Limericke and Tipperary which wee are now to goe unto The county of LIMERICK lieth behinde that of Corke Northward betweene Kerry the river Shanon and the county of Tipperary A fertile countrey and well peopled but able to shew very few places of any good account and importance The more Western part of it is called Conilagh wherein among the hills Knock-Patric that is Patricks hill mounteth up of a mighty height and yeelding a pleasant prospect into the sea beholdeth afarre off the river Shanon falling with a wide and wast mouth into the Vergivian or Ocean Under which hill a sept of Fitz-Giralds or Giraldines lived honourably a long time untill that Thomas called the Knight of the Valley or of the Glin when his gracelesse sonne that wicked firebrand suffered death for to set villages and houses a fire is by the lawes of Ireland high treason because himselfe advised his sonne and set him on to enter into these lewd actions by authority of the Parliament was disseized of his goodly and large possessions The head City of this county is Limerick which Shanon a most famous river by parting his chanell compasseth round about The Irish call it Loumeag and
Lord of the kingdome of Scotland But none other answer could he have than this if I may speake the words out of the very authenticall Records Sequatur coram Iustitiariis de Banco Regis c. that is Let him sue before the Iustices of the K. Bench let him be heard and let justice be done But that which he could not obtaine by right Sir William Montacute his kinsman for come he was of the race of the Kings of Man wonne by his sword For with a band of English mustered up in hast he drave all the Scots out of the Iland But being by this warre plunged deeply in debt and not having wherewith to make some paiment thereof he mortgaged it for seven yeeres to Antonie Bec Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of Jerusalem and made over the profits and revenues thereof unto him yea and soone after the King granted it unto the said Antonie for tearme of life Afterwards King Edward the second passed a grant thereof unto his minion Piers Gaveston what time as he created him Earle of Cornwall and when the said Piers was rid out of the way hee gave it unto Henry Beaumont with all the domaine and regall jurisdiction thereto belonging But shortly after the Scots under Robert Brus recovered it and Robert Randulph that right warlike Scot like as a long time after Alexander Duke of Albany used to stile themselves Lords of Man and bare the same coat of Armes as did the later Kings of Man namely three armed legges of a man linked together and bending in the hammes such for all the world as the Isle Sicilia gave the three legges naked in like forme in her coines of money in old time to signifie three Promontories Notwithstanding before time the Kings of Man used for their armes as we have seene in their Seales a ship with the saile hoised up with this title in the circumference Rex Manniae insularum that is King of Man and of the Islands Afterward about the yeere 1340. William Montacute the younger Earle of Salisbury wrested it by strong hand and force of armes from the Scottish who in the yeere of our Lord 1393. as Thomas Walsingham saith sold for a great summe of money Man with the crowne thereof unto William Scrope Who being for high treason beheaded and his goods confiscate it came unto the hands of Henry the fourth King of England who granted this Iland unto Henry Percy Earle of Northumberland as a conqueror triumphing over William Scrope whom he as yet a private person had intercepted and beheaded when he aspired to the crowne with this condition that himselfe and his heires should when the Kings of England were enstalled and crowned carry before them that sword which the said Henry wore by his side what time he came backe againe out of exile into England commonly called Lancaster sword But I think it good to set this down out of the Record in the very words of the K. himself De nostra gratia speciali dedimus that is Of our speciall grace we have given and granted unto Henry Earle of Northumberland the Isle Castle Pile and Seigniory of Man and all the Ilands and Lordships to the said Isle belonging which were Sir William le Scropes Knight now deceased whom in his life time we conquered and have decreed him so to be conquered and which by reason of our conquest of him we tooke into our hand as conquered which conquest verily and decree in our present Parliament with the assent of the Lords Temporall in the same Parliament being as touching the person of the foresaid William and all the lands tenements goods and chattels of his as well within our kingdome as without at the petition of the Communalty of our kingdome stand confirmed c. To have and to hold unto the said Earle and his heires c. by service of carrying at the daies of our coronation and of our heires at the left shoulder and the left shoulder of our heires either by himself or a sufficient and honourable Deputy of his that sword naked which we ware and were girt with when we arrived in the parts of Holdernesse called Lancaster sword c. But in the fifth yeere following the said Henry Percie entred into open rebellion and the King sent Sir Iohn Stanley and William Stanley to seize the Isle and castle of Man the inheritance whereof he granted afterward to Sir Iohn Stanley and his heires by letters Patents with the patronage of the Bishopricke c. And so his heires and successours who were honoured with the title of Earles of Derby were commonly called Kings of Man From Man untill we come to the Mull of Gallaway we meet with none but very small Ilands But after we be once past it in the salt water of GLOTTA or Dunbritton Frith appeareth the Iland GLOTTA whereof Antoninus maketh mention which the Scots now call Arran whereof the Earles of Arran in Scotland were stiled and neighbouring unto it is that which was in times past named Rothesia now Buthe of a sacred Cell which Brendan erected for so they terme a little Cell in Scottish thence come we to Hellan in times past called Hellan Leneaw that is as Iohn Fordon interpreteth it The Isle of Saints and to Hellan Tinoc that is The Isle of Swine and these Ilands are seen in the same Frith or Forth But of these I have spoken before Without this Bay or Frith lye a number of Ilands very thicke together which the Scots themselves that inhabite them call Inch-Gall that is haply The Isles of the Gallicians the English and the rest of the Scots The Western Isles the writers of the former age HEBRIDES but the ancient Ethnickes Bettoricae and Giraldus other where Inchades and Leucades Pliny Solinus and Ptolomee name them EBUDAS HEBUDAS and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which names have some consonant affinity with Epidium the promontory of Britain opposite unto them and an Isle among these so named The reason of the name I cannot picke out unlesse I should thinke they were so called because there groweth here no corne or graine For Solinus writeth that the inhabitants of these Ilands are not acquainted with corne and live onely upon fish and milke and Eb eid in British soundeth as much as without corne The inhabitants as saith the same Solinus have no skill or knowledge of corne they live of fish and milke onely They all have but one King For how many soever they be they are severed one from another by a narrow enterflow of the Sea betweene The King hath nothing that hee may say is his owne all things are common to them all and held hee is to equity by certaine lawes and lest hee should for covetousnesse swarve aside from the truth by his poore estate he learneth justice as who hath no house furniture and provision of his owne but all his maintenance is from the common coffer No woman is he allowed to have in
minde that this Ithancester was that OTHONA where a Band of the Fortenses with their Captaine in the declination of the Romane Empire kept their station or Guard under the Comes or Lieutenant of the Saxon-shore against the depredations of the Saxon Rovers For the altering of OTHONA to ITHANA is no hard straining and the situation thereof upon a Creeke into which many Rivers are discharged was for this purpose very fit and commodious and yet heere remaineth a huge ruine of a thicke Wall whereby many Romane Coines have beene found It seemeth not amisse to set downe how King Edward the Confessour graunted by a briefe Charter the keeping of this Hundred to Ranulph Peperking which I will willingly heere annex to the end that wee who sift every pricke and accent of the law may see the upright simplicity and plaine dealing of that age And thus goeth the tenour of it as it was taken forth of the Kings Records in the Exchequer but by often exemplifying and copying it out some words are mollified and made more familiar Iche Edward Koning Have given of my Forrest the keeping Of the Hundred of Chelmer and Dancing To Randolph Peperking and to his kindling With heorte and hinde doe and bocke Hare and Foxe Cat and Brocke Wild Fowell with his flocke Partrich Fesant hen and Fesant cocke With green and wilde stob and stocke To kepen and to yemen by all her might Both by day and eke by night And Hounds for to hold Good and swift and bolde Four Greahounds and six racches For Hare and Foxe and wild Cattes And therefore ich made him my booke Witnesse the Bishop Wolston And booke ylered many on And Swein of Essex our Brother And teken him many other And our Stiward Howelin That by sought me for him This was the plaine dealing trueth and simplicity of that age which used to make all their assurances whatsoever in a few lines and with a few gilt Crosses For before the comming in of the Normans as wee read in Ingulphus writings Obligatory were made firme with golden Crosses and other small signes or markes but the Normans began the making of such Bils and Obligations with a Print or Seale in wax set to with every ones speciall Signet under the expresse entituling of three or foure Witnesses Before time many houses and land thereto passed by grant and bargaine without script Charter or Deede onely with the Landlords sword or helmet with his horne or cup. Yea and many Tenements were demised with a spurre or horse-cury-combe with a bowe and some with an arrow In the Creeke of Blackwater which as I said closeth the North side of this Hundred and is stored with those dainty Oysters which wee call Walfleot Oysters their run two Rivers that water a great part of the Shire Chelmer and Froshwell The River Chelmer flowing out of the inner part of the country which is woody runneth downe first by Thaxted a little Mercate Towne seated very pleasantly upon an high rising hill also by Tiltey where Maurice Fitz-Gilbert founded in times past a small Abbay unto Estanues ad Turrim now Eston which noble Gentleman sirnamed De Lovaine inhabited as descended from Godfrey of Lovaine brother to Henry the Sixth of that name Duke of Brabant who being sent hither to keepe the Honor of Eye his posterity flourished among the Peeres of this Realme to the time of King Edward the Third when the heire generall was married into the house of Bourchier Thence it glideth downe to Dunmow of old time called Dunmawg and in the Tax booke of England Dunmaw a Towne pleasantly situate upon an hill with a prety gentle fall Where one Juga founded a Priory in the yeare 1111. But William Bainard of whom Juga held thus we finde it written in the private history of this Church the Village of little Dunmow by felony lost his Barony and King Henry the First gave it to Robert the sonne of Richard sonne to Gislebert Earle of Clare and to his heires with the honour of Bainards Castle in London which Robert at that time was King Henries Sewar These be the very words of the Author neither doe I thinke it lawfull for me to alter or reforme them otherwise than they are although there be in them some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a putting or mistaking of one time for another a thing that we meet with otherwhiles in the best Historiographers For there had not beene as then any Earle of Clare in the family of Clare Now let us for a while digresse and goe aside a little on either hand from the River Not farre from hence is Plaisy seated so called in French of Pleasing in times past named Estre the habitation both in the last yeeres of the English Saxons and also afterwards of the great Constables of England as witnesseth Ely booke At this towne the first William Mandevill Earle of Essex beganne a Castle and two Princes of great authority Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester and Earle of Essex who founded heere a College and Iohn Holland Earle of Huntingdon brother to King Richard the Second by the mothers side deprived of lost honorable title of Duke of Excester when they could not keepe a meane betweene froward stubbernesse and servile obsequiousnesse found thence their subversion For Thomas upon his rash and head-strong contumacy was on a sudden violently carryed from hence to Calice and there smothered and John for a seditious conspiracy was beheaded in this place by King Henry the Fourth that hee might seeme to have beene justly punished by way of satisfaction for the said Thomas of Woodstocke of whose death hee was thought to bee the principall practiser and procurer From thence passeth Chelmer downe not farre from Leez a little Abbay of old time founded by the Gernons which at this day is the chiefe seat of the Barons Rich who acknowledge themselves for this dignity beholden to Richard Rich a most wise and judicious person Lord Chancellor of England under King Edward the Sixth who in the first yeere of his raigne created him Baron Rich. A little beneath standeth Hatfield Peverell so denominated of Randulph Peverell the owner thereof who had to wife a Lady of incomparable beauty in those daies the daughter of Ingelricke a man of great nobility among the English-Saxons This Lady founded heere a College which now is in manner quite plucked downe and in a window of the Church whereof there remaineth still a small part lyeth entombed She bare unto her husband William Peverell Castellane of Dover Sir Payne Peverell Lord of Brun in the County of Cambridge and unto King William the Conquerour whose Paramore shee was William Peverell Lord of Nottingham But now returne we to Chelmer which by this time speedeth it selfe to Chelmerford commonly Chensford where by the distance of the place from CAMALODUNUM it may seeme that old CANONIUM sometimes stood This is a good bigge Towne situate in the
of the country beganne to make a new chanell at Clowcrosse in the yeere 1599. Neere unto this banke aforesaid we saw Crowland which also is called Croyland a Towne of good note among the Fenne-people the name whereof soundeth as Ingulph the Abbat of this place interpreteth it as much as A raw and muddy Land A place as they write much haunted in times past with I wot not what sprites and fearefull apparitions before that Guthlake a right holy and devout man led there an Eremits life In whose memoriall Aethelbald King of the Mercians founded to the honour of God at his great charges in the yeere of our Salvation 716. an Abbay very famous both for opinion of the religious life of the Monkes and also for their wealth Concerning which take heere if you please these Verses of Foelix a Monke of good antiquity out of the life of Guthlake Nunc exercet ibi se munificentia Regis Et magnum templum magno molimine condit At cum tam mollis tam lubrica tam malè constans Fundamenta palus non ferret saxea palos Praecipit infigi quercino robore caesos Leucarúmque novem spacio rate fertur arena Inque solum mutatur humus suffultáque tali Cella basi multo stat consummata labore His bounty now the King doth there bestow An Abbay faire with much expense to reare But seeing that the waterish Fenne below Those ground-workes laid with stone uneath could beare So quaving soft and moist the Bases were He caused piles made of good heart of oke Pitch't downe to be with maine commanders stroke Then nine leagues off men sand in Barges brought Which once fast ramm'd by painfull workmans hand Of rotten earth good solid ground was wrought On which for aye such workes might firmely stand And thus by this devise of new plantation The Church stands firme and hath a sure foundation If I should exemplifie unto you out of that Monke the Devils of Crowland with their blabber lips fire-spitting mouthes rough and skaly visages beetle heads terrible teeth sharpe chins hoarse throats blacke skinnes crump-shoulders side and gor-bellies burning loines crooked and hawm'd legges long tailed buttockes and ugly mishapes which heeretofore walked and wandered up and downe in these places and very much troubled holy Guthlake and the Monkes you would laugh full merily and I might bee thought a simple sily-one full worthily Howbeit in regard of the admirable situation of this place so farre different from all others in England and considering the Abbay was so famous I am well content to dwell a while in the description of these particulars Amid most deepe Fennes and standing waters in a muddy and miry ground this Crowland lyeth so shut up and divided round about from all entrance that there is no accesse to it unlesse it bee on the North and East side and that by narrow Cawsies Seated it is for all the world if I may resemble great and small things together like unto Venice Three streets it hath and those severed one from another by water courses betweene planted thicke with willowes and raised upon piles or postes pitched and driven downe deepe into the standing waters having over them a triangle Bridge of admirable workmanship under which for to receive the fall of the waters meeting in one confluence the Inhabitants report there was a pit sunke of a mighty depth Now whereas beyond the Bridge in solum mutatur humus as that Monke said that is The mould is chaunged and is become firme and solid ground there stood in times past that famous Abbay and the same verily taking up but a small plot of ground about which all save where the Towne standeth is so rotten and moorish that a man may thrust a pole downe right thirty foote deepe and round about it every way is nothing but a plot of reeds and next unto the Church a place planted with Alders Howbeit the Towne is well enough peopled with Inhabitants who have their Cattaile a great way from the Towne and when they are to milke them they goe in little punts or boats that will carry but two a peece which they call Skerries yet the most gainfull trade they have is by taking fish and catching of water-foule and that is so great that in the moneth of August they will spread a net and at once draw three thousand Mallards and wilde Duckes and such like together and these pooles or watery plots of theirs they use to terme their Corne fields for they see no Corne growing in five miles any way In regard of this their taking of fish and fowle they paid yeerely in times past to the Abbat as now they doe to the King three hundred pounds of our money The private History of this Abbay I list not to relate seeing it is commonly extant and to be seene out of Ingulph now printed and published yet my minde serves me well briefely to record that which Peter of Bloys Vice-chancellour to King Henry the Second reported at large as touching the new building of this Abbay in the yeere of our Redemption 1112. to the end that by this one president wee may learne by what meanes and helpes so mighty so huge and so faire religious houses were raised and built up in those times Ioffrid the Abbat obtained of the Archbishops and Bishops in England An Indulgence for the third part of penance enjoyned for sinnes committed unto every one that helped forward so holy a worke With this Indulgence he sent out Monkes every way and all about to gather money wherewith when hee was now sufficiently furnished to the end that hee might have an happy beginning of this worke from some happy names of lucky presage hee solemnely appointed the day of Saint Perpetua and of Saint Felicity on which he would lay the first foundation At which day there came flocking in great numbers the Nobles the Prelates and Commons of all the Country thereabout After the celebration of Divine Service and Anthems sung in parts Abbat Ioffrid himselfe layed the first Corner stone Eastward then the Noble men and great persons every one in their degree couched their stones and upon the said stones some laid money others their sealed Deeds of lands Advousons of Churches of Tenths of their Sheepe and of the Tithes of their Churches of certaine measures of wheat and of a certaine number of Workemen as Masons and Quarriers whom they would pay The common sort again and towneships for their parts offered with chearefull devotion some money others one daies labour every moneth untill the worke were finished some the building of whole Pillars others of the bases to the said Pillars and others again to make certaine parts of the wals striving a vie who should doe most This done the Abbat after hee had in a solemne speech commended their devout bounty to so holy a worke granted unto every one of them the fraternity of his Abbay and the participation besides of all
his Kingdome divers authors affirme to have granted by his Charter or Patent Ireland and England both unto the Church of Rome to be held of it ever after in fee and to have received it againe from the Church as a Feudatarie also to have bound his successours to pay three hundred Markes unto the Bishop of Rome But that most worthie and famous Sir Thomas Moore who tooke the Popes part even unto death affirmeth this to be false For hee writeth that the Romanists can shew no such grant that they never demanded the foresaid money and that the Kings of England never acknowledged it But by his leave as great a man as hee was the case stood otherwise as evidently appeareth by the Parliament Records the credit whereof cannot bee impugned For in an assembly of all the States of the Realme in the reigne of Edward the third the Lord Chancellour of England proposed and related that the Pope would judicially sue the King of England as well for the Homage as the tribute which was to be yeelded for England and Ireland to the performance whereof King Iohn in times past had obliged himselfe and his successours and of this point which hee put to question required their opinion The Bishops desired to have a day by them selves for to consult about this matter the Nobles likewise and the people or Communaltie The day after they all met and with one generall accord ordained and enacted That for asmuch as neither King Iohn nor any other King whatsoever could impose such servitude upon the Kingdome but with the common consent and assent of a Parliament which was not done and whatsoever he had passed was against his oath at his coronation by him in expresse words religiously taken before God Therefore in case the Pope should urge this matter they were most readie to the uttermost of their power to resist him resolutely with their bodies and goods They also who are skilfull in scanning and sifting everie pricke and tittle of the lawes cry out with one voice That the said Grant or Charter of King Iohn was voide in Law by that clause and reservation in the end thereof Saving unto us and our heires all our Rights Liberties and Regalities But this may seeme beside my text Ever since King Johns time the Kings of England were stiled Lords of Ireland untill that King Henrie the eighth in the memorie of our fathers was in a Parliament of Ireland by the States thereof declared King of Ireland because the name of Lord seemed in the judgement of certaine seditious persons nothing so sacred and full of majestie as the name of King This name and title of the Kingdome of Ireland were by the Popes authoritie what time as Queene Marie in the yeere 1555. had by her Embassadours in the name of the Kingdom of England tendred obedience unto the Pope Paul the fourth confirmed in these words To the laud and glorie of almightie God and his most glorious mother the Virgin Mary to the honour also of the whole Court of heaven and the exaltation of the Catholike faith as the humble request and suite made unto us by King Philip and Queen Marie about this matter wee with the advice of our brethren and of plenarie power Apostolicall by our Apostolicall authoritie erect for ever Ireland to bee a Kingdome and endow dignifie and exalt with the title dignitie honour faculties rights ensignes prerogatives preferments preeminencies royall and such as other Realmes of Christians have use and enjoy and may have use and enjoy for the times to come And seeing that I have hapned upon those Noblemens names who first of all English gave the attempt upon Ireland and most valiantly subdued it under the imperiall crowne of England lest I might seeme upon envie to deprive both them and their posteritie of this due and deserved glorie I will set them downe here out of the Chancerie of Ireland according as the title doth purport The names of them that came with Dermot Mac Morrog into Ireland Richard Strongbow Earle of Pembroch who by Eve the daughter of Morrog the Irish pettie King aforesaid had one only daughter and she brought unto William Mareschall the title of the Earldome of Pembroch with faire lands in Ireland and a goodly issue five sonnes who succeeded one another in a row all childlesse and as many daughters which enriched their husbands Hugh Bigod Earle of Norfolke Guarin Montchensey Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester William Ferrars Earle of Derby and William Breose with children honours and possessions Robert Fitz-Stephen Harvey de Mont-Marish Maurice Prendergest Robert Barr. Meiler Meilerine Maurice Fitz-Girald Redmund nephew of Fitz-Stephen William Ferrand Miles de Cogan Richard de Cogan Gualter de Ridensford Gualter and sonnes of Maurice Fitz-Girald Alexander sonnes of Maurice Fitz-Girald William Notte Robert Fitz-Bernard Hugh Lacie William Fitz-Aldelm William Maccarell Humfrey Bohun Hugh de Gundevill Philip de Hasting Hugh Tirell David Walsh Robert Poer Osbert de Herloter William de Bendenges Adam de Gernez Philip de Breos Griffin nephew of Fitz-Stephen Raulfe Fitz-Stephen Walter de Barry Philip Walsh Adam de Hereford To whom may be added out of Giraldus Cambrensis Iohn Curcy Hugh Contilon Redmund Cantimore Redmund Fitz-Hugh Miles of S. Davids and others The Government of the Kingdome of Ireland EVer since that Ireland became subject unto England the Kings of England have sent over thither to manage the state of the Realme their Regents or Vice-gerents whom they tearmed in those writings or letters Patents of theirs whereby authoritie and jurisdiction is committed unto them first Keepers of Ireland then afterwards according as it pleased them Iustices of Ireland Lievtenants and Deputies Which authoritie and jurisdiction of theirs is very large ample and royall whereby they have power to make warre to conclude peace to bestow all Magistracies and Offices except a very few to pardon all crimes unlesse they be some of high treason to dub Knights c. These letters Patents when any one entreth upon this honourable place of government are publikely read and after a solemne oath taken in a set forme of words before the Chancellour the sword is delivered into his hands which is to be borne before him he is placed in a chaire of estate having standing by him the Chancellour of the Realme those of the Privie Councell the Peeres and Nobles of the kingdome with a King of Armes a Serjeant of Armes and other Officers of State And verily there is not looke throughout all Christendome againe any other Vice-Roy that commeth neerer unto the majestie of a King whether you respect his jurisdiction and authoritie or his traine furniture and provision There bee assistant unto him in counsell the Lord Chancellour of the Realm the Treasurer of the Kingdome and others of the Earles Bishops Barons and Judges which are of the Privie Councell For Ireland hath the very same degrees of States that England hath namely Earles Barons Knights
either by dint of sword conquered or by surrender gat the whole into his owne hands and was the first that was stiled Earle of Ulster but when his great exploits and fortunate archievements had wrought him such envie that through his owne vertues and other mens vices he was banished out of the Realme Hugh Lacy the second sonne of Hugh Lacy Lord of Meth who had commandement to pursue him by force and armes was by King John appointed his successour being created Earle of Ulster by the sword of which honour notwithstanding the same King afterward deprived him for his tumultuous insolency and hee was in the end received into favour againe But for the sounder testimony hereof it were good to exemplifie the same word for word out of the records of Ireland Hugh de Lacy sometime Earle of Ulster held all Ulster exempt and separate from all other counties whatsoever of the Kings of England in chiefe by service of three Knights so often as the Kings service was proclaimed and be held all Pleas in his owne Court that pertaine to a Iustice and Sheriffe and held a Court of Chancery of his own c. And afterward all Ulster came into the hands of our Soveraigne Lord K. Iohn by the forfeiture of the foresaid Hugh unto whom after that K. Henry the third demised it for terme of the said Hughs life And when Hugh was deceased Walter de Burgo did that service unto Lord Edward K. Henries son Lord of Ireland before he was King And the same Lord Edward feoffed the aforesaid Walter in the said land of Ulster to have and to hold unto the same Walter and to his heires by the service aforesaid as freely and wholly as the above named Hugh de Lacy held it excepting the advowsons of Cathedrall Churches and the demesne of the same also the Pleas of the Crowne to wit Rape Forstall Firing and Treasure Trouve which our soveraigne Lord K. Edward retained to himselfe and his heires This Walter de Burgo who was Lord of Conaght and Earle of Ulster begat of the only daughter of Hugh de Lacy Richard Earle of Ulster who after hee had endured many troubles and calamities died in the yeere 1326. Richard had issue Iohn de Burgo who departed this life before his father having begotten upon Elizabeth sister and one of the heires of Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester William who succeeded after his grandfather This William being slain by his own men when he was young left behind him a little daughter his only child who being married unto Leonell Duke of Clarence bare one daughter likewise the wife of Edmund Mortimer Earle of March by whom the Earledome of Ulster and Seigniory of Conaght came unto the Mortimers and from them together with the kingdome of England unto the house of Yorke and afterward Edward the fourth King of England adjoined it unto the Kings Domaine or Crowne land And when as at the same time England was divided into sides and factions whiles the civill warre grew hot and the English that abode here returned out of Ulster into England to follow the factions O-Neal and others of Irish blood seized these countries into their own hands and brought them to such wildnesse and savage barbarisme as it exceeded In so much as this province which in times past paied a mighty masse of money unto their Earles scarcely ever since yeelded any coin at all unto the Kings of England And verily in no one thing whatsoever pardon this my over-boldnesse have the Kings of England beene more defective in piety and policie than that they have for these so many ages seen so slightly to this Province yea and to all Ireland in the propagation of religion establishing the weale publike and reducing the life of the inhabitants to civility whether it was for carelesse neglect sparing or a fore-cast of dammage or some reason of state I am not able to say But that the same may be no longer thus neglected it seemeth of it selfe by good right to importune most earnestly being an Iland so great so neere a neigbour so fruitfull in soile so rich in pastures more than credible beset with so many woods enriched with so many mineralls if they were searched watered with so many rivers environed with so many havens lying so fit and commodious for failing into most wealthy countries and thereby like to bee for impost and custome very profitable and to conclude breeding and rearing men so abundantly as it doth who considering either their mindes or their bodies might be of singular emploiment for all duties and functions as well of warre as of peace if they were wrought and conformed to orderly civility I Intimated even now that I would speak touching the O-Neals who carried themselves as Lords of Ulster and I promised not long since a friend of mine that I would write of their rebellions raised in our age And verily I will performe my promise to his Manes whom whiles he lived I observed with all respect and being now in heaven I will not forget Thus much onely I will promise by way of Preface that I have compendiously collected these matters out of my Annales and here conjoined them which there are severed and divided according to their severall times and withall that whatsoever I shall write is not upon uncertaine rumours but gathered summarily from out oâ— their owne hand writings who managed those affaires and were present in the actions And this will I doe with so sincere an affection to the truth and so uncorrupt fidelity that I doubt not but I shall have thanks at their hands who love the truth and desire to understand the late affaires of Ireland and not incurre the blame of any unlesse they be such as having done ill take it not well if themselves be accordingly censured THE O-NEALES AND THEIR REBELLIONS IN OUR TIME TO say nothing of that GREAT NEALE who ruled by force and armes in Ulster and a great part of Ireland before the comming of Saint Patricke nor of those in the middle times who were but of meane note and memoriall to speake of this family after the arrivall of the English in Ireland lay close and obscure in remote lurking corners unlesse it were when Edward Brus brother to Robert King of Scotland named himselfe King of Ireland For then in a troublesome time Dovenald O-Neale started and rowsed himselfe out of his lurking holes and in his missives unto the Pope used this title in his stile Dovenald O-Neale King of Ulster and in right of inheritance the undoubted heire of all Ireland But after these stirres and troubles were laid this new King soone vanished away and Dovenalds posterity pluckt in their hornes and hid their heads untill that whiles England was all in a combustion kindled by the furious firebrands of civill warres betweene the houses of Yorke and Lancaster for the Imperiall Crowne those English that served and lived here abandoning Ulster and
third day of February Also in the parts of Ireland the frost was so vehement that Aven-Liffie the river of Dublin was so frozen that very many danced and leaped upon the Ice of the said river they played at foot-ball and ran courses there yea and they made fires of wood and of turfe upon the same Ice and broyled herrings thereupon This Ice lasted very many dayes And as for the snow also in the parts of Ireland that accompanied the same frost a man need not speake any more seeing it was knowne to lye on such a wonderfull depth This hard time of weather continued from the second day of December unto the tenth day of February the like season was never heard of before especially in Ireland MCCCXXXIX All Ireland was generally up in armes Item an exceeding great slaughter there was of the Irish and a number of them drowned even 1200. at the least by the meanes of the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Desmond and the rest of the Geraldines in the parts of Kernige Item the Lord Moris Fitz-Nicolas Lord of Kernige was apprehended and imprisoned by the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Desmond and died in prison being put to strait diet for that he openly went out and rebelled with the said Irish against the Lord King of England and against the Lord Earle Item a number of the O. Dymcies and other Irish were killed and drowned in the water of Barrow by the English and the hot pursuit of the Earle of Kildare Also a great booty of cattell of sundry sorts and such a booty as had not been seen in the parts of Leinster by the said Lord Thomas Bishop of Hereford and Justice of Ireland and with the helpe of the English of that country was taken from the Irish in the parts of Odrone in the end of February MCCCXL The said Bishop of Hereford and Justice of Ireland being sent for by the King returned into England the tenth day of Aprill leaving in his place Frier Roger Outlaw Priour of Kylmaynon Also this Sir Roger Lord Priour of Kylmainon Justice and Chancellour of the said land died the thirteenth day of February Item the King of England granted by his letters patents unto Iohn Darcy the office of Lord Justice of Ireland for terme of life MCCCXLI Sir John Moris Knight came Lord Justice of Ireland in the moneth of May as Lievtenant unto Iohn Darcy in the foresaid land Item this wondrous prodigie following and such as in our age had not been heard of before hapned in the county of Leinster where a certain waifaring man as he travelled in the Kings high way found a paire of gloves fit as he thought for his owne turne which as he drew upon his hands forthwith instead of a mans voice and speech he kept a strange and marvellous barking like unto a dogge and from that present the elder folke and full growne yea and women too throughout the same county barked like bigge dogges but the children and little ones waughed as small whelpes This plague continued with some 18. daies with others a whole moneth and with some for two yeeres Yea this foresaid contagious malady entred also into the neighbour shires and forced the people in like manner to barke Also the King of England revoked all those gifts and grants that by him or his father had bin conferred by any meanes upon any persons whatsoever in Ireland were they liberties lands or other goods for which revocation great displeasure and discontent arose in the land and so the land of Ireland was at the point to have beene lost for ever out of the King of Englands hand Item by the Kings Councell there was ordained a generall Parliament of Ireland in the moneth of October To the same Parliament Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Desmond came not Before which time there was never knowne so notable and manifest a division in Ireland between those that were English by birth and English in blood The Maiors besides of the Kings cities in the same land together with all the better sort of the Nobility and Gentry of the said land with one consent upon mature deliberation and counsell had among other their conclusions decreed and appointed a common Parliament at Kilkenny in November to the utility and profit both of the King and the land before named without asking any counsell at all of the Lord Justice and the Kings officers aforesaid in this behalfe Now the Lord Justice and the rest of the Kings Ministers in no wise presumed to come unto the same Parliament at Kilkenny The Elders therefore of the land aforesaid together with the Ancients and Maiors of the cities agreed and ordained as touching solemne Embassadours to be sent with all speed unto the King of England about relieving the State of the land and to complaine of his Ministers in Ireland as touching their unequall and unjust regiment of the same and that from thenceforth they neither could nor would endure the realme of Ireland to be ruled by his Ministers as it had wont to be And particularly they make complaint of the foresaid Ministers by way of these Questions Imprimis How a land full of warres could be governed by him that was unskilfull in warre Secondly how a Minister or Officer of the Kings should in a short time grow to so great wealth Thirdly how it came to passe that the King was never the richer for Ireland MCCCXLII The eleventh day of October when the moone was eleven dayes old there were seen by many men at Dublin 2. moones in the firmament well and early before day The one was according to the course of nature in the West and appeared bright the other to the quantity of a round loafe appeared in the East casting but a meane and slender light MCCCXLIII St. Thomas street in Dublin was casually burnt with fire upon the feast of S. Valentine Martyr Item the 13. day of July the Lord Ralph Ufford with his wife the Countesse of Ulster came Lord chiefe Justice of Ireland Upon whose entring the faire weather changed sodainly into a distemperature of the aire and from that time there ensued great store of raine with such abundance of tempestuous stormes untill his dying day None of his predecessours in the times past was with griefe be it spoken comparable unto him For this Justicer bearing the office of Justice-ship became an oppressor of the people of Ireland a robber of the goods both of Clergy and Laity of rich and poore alike a defrauder of many under the colour of doing good not observing the rights of the Church nor keeping the lawes of the kingdome offering wrongs to the naturall inhabitants ministring justice to few or none and altogether distrusting some few onely excepted the inborne dwellers in the land These things did hee still and attempted the like misled by the counsell and perswasion of his wife Item the said Justice entring into Ulster in the moneth of March through a Pas called Emerdullan
that hee should be apprehended and brought unto William King of Scotland that with him he might be kept in prison And Olave lay prisoner in irons and chaines almost seven yeeres In the seventh yeere died William King of Scotland after whom succeeded his sonne Alexander Now before his death he gave commandement that all prisoners should be set free Olave therefore being enlarged and at liberty came to Man and soone after accompanied with no small traine of Noblemen he went to S. James and after he was thus returned Reginald his brother caused him to marry a Noble mans daughter of Kentyre even his owne wives whole sister named Lavon and gave him Lodhus in possession to enjoy Some few daies after Reginald Bishop of the Ilands having called a Synod canonically divorced Olave the sonne of Godred and Lavon his wife as being the cousin german of his former wife After this Olave wedded Scristine daughter of Ferkar Earle of Rosse For this cause Reginalds wife Queene of the Ilands was wroth and directed her letters in the name of Reginald the King into the I le Sky unto Godred her sonne that he should kill Olave As Godred was devising meanes to worke this feat and now entring into Lodhus Olave fled in a little cog-boat unto his father in law the Earle of Rosse aforesaid Then Godred wasteth and spoileth Lodhus At the same time Pol the son of Boke Sheriffe of Sky a man of great authority in all the Ilands because he would not give his consent unto Godred fled and together with Olave lived in the Earle of Rosses house and entring into a league with Olave they came both in one ship to Sky At length having sent forth their spies and discoverers they learned that Godred lay in a certain Iland called St. Columbs Ile having very few men with him misdoubting nothing Gathering therefore about them all their friends and acquaintance with such voluntaries as were ready to joine with them at midnight with five shippes which they drew from the next sea-shore distant from the Island aforesaid some two furlongs they beset the Isle round about Godred then and they that were with him rising by the dawning of the day and seeing themselves environed on every side with enemies were astonied but putting themselves in warlike armes assaied right manfully to make resistance but all in vaine For about nine a clocke of the day Olave and Pol the foresaid Sheriffe set foot in the Iland with their whole army having slain all those whom they found without the enclosure of the Church they tooke Godred put out his eyes and gelded him Howbeit to this deed Olave did not yeeld his consent neither could he withstand it for Bokes sonne the Sheriffe aforesaid For this was done in the yeere 1223. The Summer next following Olave after he had taken hostages of all the Lords and potentates of the Isles came with a fleet of 32. saile toward Man and arrived at Rognolfwaht At this very time Reginald and Olave divided the kingdome of the Ilands between themselves and Man was given to Reginald over and beside his owne portion together with the title of King Olave the second time having furnished himselfe with victuals from the people of Man returned with his company to his portion of the Iland The yeere following Reginald taking with him Alane Lord of Galway went with his souldiers of Man to the Iland parts that hee might disseize his brother Olave of that portion of land which hee had given unto him and bring it under his owne dominion But because the Manksmen were not willing to fight against Olave and the Ilanders for the love they had to them Reginald and Alan Lord of Galway returned home without atchieving their purpose After a little while Reginald under pretence of going to the Court of his Soveraigne the Lord King of England tooke up of the people of Man an hundred Markes but went in very deed to the Court of Alan Lord of Galway At the same time he affianced his daughter unto the son of Alan in marriage Which the Manksmen hearing tooke such snuffe and indignation thereat that they sent for Olave and made him their King MCCXXVI Olave recovered his inheritance to wit the kingdome of Man and of the Ilands which his brother Reginald had governed 38. yeeres and reigned quietly two yeeres MCCXXVIII Olave accompanied with all the Nobles of Man and a band of the strongest men of the country sailed over into the Ilands A little after Alan Lord of Galway and Thomas Earle of Athol and King Reginald came unto Man with a puissant army all the South part of Man they wasted spoiled the Churches and slew all the men they could lay hold of so that the South part of Man was laid in manner all desolate After this returned Alan with his army into his owne country and left his bailiffes in Man to gather up for him the tributes of the country But King Olave came upon them at unwares put them to flight and recovered his owne kingdome Then the people of Man which before time had been dispersed every way began to gather themselves together and to dwell with confidence and security In the same yeere came King Reginald out of Galway unlooked for at the dead time of night in winter with five ships and burnt all the shipping of his brother Olave and of the Lords of Man at Saint Patrickes Iland and suing to his brother for peace stayed forty daies at the haven of Ragnoll-wath Meane while he won and drew unto him all the Ilanders in the South part of Man who sware they would venture their lives in his quarrell untill hee were invested in the one halfe of the kingdome On the contrarie part Olave had the Northren men of the Isle to side with him and upon the 14. day of February at a place called Tingualla there was a battell strucke betweene the two brethren wherein Olave had the victorie and King Reginald was by some killed there without his brothers knowledge And certaine rovers comming to the South part of Man wasted and harried it The Monks of Russin translated the body of King Reginald unto the Abbey of S. Mary de Fournes and there enterred it was in a place which himselfe had chosen for that purpose After this went Olave to the King of Norway but before that hee was come thither Haco King of Norway ordained a certaine Noble man named Huâ—bac the sonne of Owmund for to bee King of the Sodorian Ilands and called his name Haco Now the same Haco together with Olave and Godred Don Reginalds son and many Norwegians came unto the Ilands and at the winning of a fort in the Iland Both Haco chanced to be smit with a stone whereof he died and lieth buried in Iona. MCCXXX Olave came with Godred Don and the Norwegians to Man and they divided the kingdome among themselves Olave held Man and Godred being gone unto the Ilands was slaine in the
propriety but by turnes hee taketh for to use whomsoever hee fancieth whereby hee neither can have his wish nor hope of children Of these Islands the common people affirmeth there bee 44. whereas in truth there are many more Pliny wrote that there were 30. of them But Ptolomee reckoneth up but five The first is RICINA Pliny calleth it RICNEA Antoninus RIDUNA now termed Racline and I think it should be read in Antonine Riclina for cl easily maketh a d by joining a c at the backe unto it A small Iland this is butting full upon Ireland knowne unto the ancient writers for that it lieth in the very narrow sea betweene Ireland and Scotland famous at this day for no cause else but for the overthrow and slaughter of the Scottish Irish who otherwhiles possessed themselves of it and were thrust out by the English under the conduct of Sir William Norris in the yeere 1575. The next is EPIDIUM which by the name I would ghesse with that excellent Geographer Gerard Mercator lay neere unto the promontorie of the Epidii and to the shore And seeing there standeth apparently in the same situation an Iland called Ila of good largenesse and of a fruitfull plaine and champion soile I dare avouch that this was Epidium or the Isle of the Epidii for in some places it is read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This carrieth in length 24. miles and is 16. miles broad so plentifull of cattell wheat and heards of red deere that it was the second seat next unto Man for the King of the Ilands as it is at this day of the Mac-Connels who herein have their Castle at Dunyweg Betwixt Ila and Scotland lieth Iona which Bede tearmeth Hy and Hu given by the Picts unto the Scottish Monkes for propagating and preaching of the Gospell among them where stood a Monasterie famous by reason of the Scottish Kings tombes and the frequent conversing of holy men therein among whom Columba the Apostle of the Picts was the principall of whose Cell the Iland also is called Columb-Kill like as the man also himselfe by a compound name was termed Columbkill as Bede witnesseth And here at length as some will have it a Bishops seat was ordained in Sodore a little towne whence all the Iles were also called Sodorensis for that it is reckoned to be in his Diocesse Then have you MALEOS that Ptolomee writeth of now called Mula whereof Plinie seemeth to make mention when hee saith Mella is reported to bee 25. miles larger than the rest For so we read in the most ancient edition of Plinie printed at Venice whereas in the Vulgar copies in steed of Reliquarum Mella is read Reliquarum nulla that is None of the rest c. The Eastern HEBUDA now called Skie from hence lieth out in a great length over against the shore or coast of Scotland the Westerne HEBUDA bending more Westward is now called Lewis the Lord whereof is Mac-Cloyd and in the ancient history of Man is named Lodhus full of steep and craggie little hills stony and very slenderly inhabited howbeit the largest of them all from which Eust is dis-joined with a very narrow wash All the rest save onely Hyrtha are of small account being either very stony or else inaccessible by reason of craggy cliffes scarce clad with any green-sord Yet the Scots purchased all these with their ready mony of the Norwegians as I have said before as if they had beene the very buttresses or pillars of the kingdome although they reape very small commodity thereby considering that the inhabitants the ancient true Scots or Irish being men of stout stomackes and desperate boldnesse will by no meanes be subject to the severity of lawes or awed by justice As touching their manners apparell and language they differ nothing at all from the wild Irishry of whom we have spoken before so that wee may easily know thereby that they be one and the selfe same nation originally They that beare the sway and doe rule in these Ilands are the families of Mac-Conel Mac-Alen whom others terme Mac-len Mac-Cloyd of Lewis and Mac-Cloyd of Harich But the mightiest house of them all is that of the Mac-Conels who glory in their pedegree as derived from Donald who in the reigne of Iames the third stiled himselfe King of the Ilands and with all kinde of cruelty in most savage and barbarous manner plagued Scotland which notwithstanding his sonne being outlawed paied deerely as forced to submit his whole estate absolutely unto the Kings will and pleasure and had of his gift some possessions assigned to him in Cantire In the foregoing age of this stocke there flourished Donel Gormy Mac-Conell that is The blew haply so surnamed of his apparell He had issue two sonnes Agnus Mac-Conell and Alexander he who leaving this barren and hungry Cantir invaded the Glinnes in Ireland Agnus Mac-Conell aforesaid was father of Iames Mac-Conell slaine by Shan O-Neale and of Surley Boy upon whom Queene Elizabeth of her bounty bestowed lands in Rout within Ireland Iames Mac-Conell had issue Agnus Mac-Conell of whom I have spoken before between whom and Mac-Clen there was such a deepe and inveterate hatred that the force of consanguinity was never able to quench the feud but that they polluted themselves most wickedly with one anothers bloud From the Haebudes if you hold sailes along by the shore toward the North-east you may at length discover the ORCADES now called ORKNEY being thirty Ilands or thereabout sundred by the Ocean which hath his walke and current betweene them A certain ancient fragment so calleth them as one would say Argat that is as the same interpreteth it Above the Getes but I would rather expound it Above Cath for it lyeth over against Cath a countrey of Scotland which of the Promontory they use to call Cathnesse the inhabitants whereof seeme to be named amisse by Ptolomee CARINI for CATINI In Solinus his time no man dwelled in them but overgrowne they were Vinceis or Iunceis herbis that is With binding or rushy weeds but now inhabited indeed they are yet destitute of woods bearing barley good store and altogether without wheat Among these Pomonia famous for an Episcopall See is the principall called by Solinus POMONA Diutina for the length of the daies there now the inhabitants tearme it Mainland as if it were the continent or maine adorned with the Bishops seat in Kirkwale a little towne and with two castles it yeeldeth plenty of tinne and of lead OCETIS also is reckoned by Ptolomee in number of these which now we ghesse to be named Hethy But whether Hey which is counted one of these be Plinies DUMNA or no I could never yet resolve Surely if it be not I would thinke that Faire Isle the onely towne whereof for it hath but one they call Dumo is that Dumna rather than with Becanus judge Wardhuys in Lapland to be it Iulius Agricola who first of all sailed round about Britaine with his fleet discovered out
Bishop of the heathen rites and ceremonies after he had once embraced Christian Religion First of all profaned this Temple the very habitation of impiety by launcing a speare against it yea he destroyed it and as Bede writeth Set it on fire with all the enclosures and Isles belonging unto it From hence something more Eastward the River Hull bendeth his course to Humber which River hath his spring head neere unto Driffeild a Village well knowne by reason of the Tombe of Alfred that most learned King of Northumberland and the mounts that be raised heere and there about it The said River hasteneth thitherward not farre from Leckenfielde an house of the Percies Earles of Northumberland neere unto which standeth the dwelling place of a very famous and ancient Progeny of the Hothams at Schorburg together with the rubbish of an old Castle of Peter Mauley at Garthum And now approcheth the River Hull neerer unto Beverley in the English Saxon tongue called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Bede seemeth to name the Monastery in Deirwand that is In the word of the Deiri a great Towne very populous and full of trade A man would guesse it by the name and situation to be PETUARIA PARISIORUM although it affordeth nothing of greater antiquity than that John sirnamed de Beverley Archbishop of Yorke a man as Bede witnesseth both godly and learned after he had given over his Bishopricke as weary of this world came hither and ended his life in contemplation about the yeere of our Redemption 721. The Kings held the memoriall of this John so sacred and reverend especially King Athelstan who honoured him as his tutelar Saint after he had put the Danes to flight that they endowed this place with many and those very great priviledges and Athelstane granted them liberties in these generall words All 's free make I thee as heart may thinke or eye may see Yea and there was granted unto it the priviledges of a Sanctuary so that bankrupts and men suspected of any capitall crime worthy of death might bee free and safe there from danger of the Law In which there was erected a Chaire of stone with this Inscription HAEC SEDES LAPIDEA Freedstoll DICITUR .i. PACIS CATHEDRA AD QUAM REUS FUGIENDO PERVENIENS OMNIMODAM HABET SECURITATEM That is This seat of Stone is called Freedstooll that is The chaire of Peace unto which what Offender soever flieth and commeth hath all manner of security Heereby the Towne grew great and daily there flocked hither a number to dwell as inmates and the Townesmen for conveyance of commodities by sea made a chanell for a water course out of the River Hull sufficient to carry boats and barges For the chiefe Magistracy there it had twelve Wardens afterwards Governours and Wardens And now by the gracious grant of Queene Elizabeth a Major and Governours More Eastward there flourished Meaux Abbay so called of one Gamell borne at Meaux in France who obtained it at William the Conquerours hands for a place to dwell in and heere was founded an Abbay for the Monkes of the Cluniacke order by William Le Grosse Earle of Aulbemarle to bee released of his vow that hee had made to visite Jerusalem A little lower runneth out in a great length Cottingham a country Towne of husbandry where by licence granted from King John Robert Estotevill the Lord thereof built a Castle now utterly fallen to ruine Which Robert was descended from Robert Grondebeofe or Grandebeofe a Baron of Normandy and a man of great name and reputation whose inheritance fell by marriage to the Lord de Wake and by a daughter of John de Wake it came to Edmund Earle of Kent who had a daughter named Joane wife unto that most warlique Knight Edward Prince of Wales who so often victoriously vanquished the French in divers places The River Hull aforesaid after it hath passed sixe miles from hence sheddeth himselfe into Humber and neere unto his mouth hath a Towne of his owne name called Kingston upon Hull but commonly Hull This Towne fetcheth the beginning from no great antiquity For King Edward the First who in regard of his Princely vertues deserveth to bee ranged among the principall and best Kings that ever were having well viewed and considered the opportunity of the place which before time was called Wike had it by right of exchange from the Abbat of Meaux and in lieu of the Beasts stals and sheepe pastures as I conceive it which there he found built a Towne that he named Kingston as one would say The Kings Towne and there as wee reade in the Records of the Kingdome hee made an haven and free Burgh the Inhabitants thereof also free Burgesses and he granted divers liberties unto them And by little and little it rose to that dignity that for stately and sumptuous buildings for strong block-houses for well furnished ships for store of Merchants and abundance of all things it is become now the most famous towne of merchandise in these parts All which the inhabitants ascribe partly to Michael de la-Pole who obtained their priviledges for them after that King Richard the Second had promoted him to the honour of Earle of Suffolke and partly their gainfull trade by Island fish dried and hardened which they tearme Stockfish whereby they gathered a maine masse of riches Hence it came to passe that within a little while they fensed their City with a bricke wall strengthened it with many Towres and Bulwarkes where it is not defended with the river and brought such a deale of coblestones for ballais to their ships that therewith they have paved all the quarters and streets of the towne most beautifully For the chiefe Magistrate it had as I have beene enformed first a Warden or Custos then Bailives afterward a Major and Bailives and in the end they obtained of K. Henry the Sixth that they might have a Major and a Sheriffe and that the very towne should be a County as our lawyers use to say incorporate by it selfe Neither will I thinke it much to note although in Barbarous tearmes out of the booke of Meaux Abbay as touching the Major of this City William De la Pole knight was beforetime a merchant at Ravens-rod skilfull in merchandise and inferiour to no English merchant whatsoever He making his aboade afterwards at Kingston upon Hull was the first Major that ever the said towne had he began also and founded the monastery of Saint Michael hard by the said King-ston which now is an house of the Carthusian or Charter-house monkes And he had for his eldest sonne Sir Michael De la Pole Earle of Suffolke who caused the said Monasterie to bee inhabited by Carthusian Monkes And verily William De la Pole aforesaid lent many thousand pounds of gold unto King Edward whiles hee made his aboade at Antwerp in Brabant wherefore the King in recompence of the said
gold made him Lord chiefe Baron of his Exchequer conferred upon him the whole Seignorie or Lordship of Holdernes together with other lands belonging unto the Crown and that by the Kings Charter yea and ordained that he should be reputed a Baneret Yet if any man make doubt hereof the Recordes I hope may satisfie him fully in which William De la Pole is in plaine tearmes called Dilectus Valectus et Mercator noster that is Our wellbeloved Valect and our Merchant now Valect to tell you once for all was in those daies an honorable title as well in France as in England but afterward applied unto servants and gromes whereupon when the Gentry rejected it by changing the name they began to bee called Gentlemen of the Bedchamber From Hull a Promontorie runneth on forward and shooteth out a farre into the sea which Ptolomee calleth OCELLVM wee Holdernesse and a certaine monke Cavam Deiram as it were the hollow Country of the Deirians in the same signification that Coelosyria is so tearmed as one would say Holow Syria In this Promontory the first towne wee meet with in the winding shore is Headon in times past if wee list to beleeve fame that useth to amplifie the truth and which for my part I will not discredit risen to exceeding great account by the industry of merchants and sea-faring men from which so uncertaine is the condition as well of places as of people it is so much fallen by the vicinity of Hull and the choaking up of the haven which hath empoverished it that it can shew scarce any whit of the ancient state it had Although King Iohn granted unto Baldwin Earle of Aulbemarle and of Holdernesse and to his wife Hawis free Burgage heere so that the Burgers might hold in free Burgage with those customes that Yorke and Nichol that is Lincolne Yet now it beginneth by little and little to revive againe in hope to recover the former dignity There standeth hard by the Pomontorie an ancient towne which Antonine the Emperour called PRAETORIVM but we in our age Patrington like as the Italians have changed the name of a towne sometime called Praetorium into Petrovina That I doe not mistake herein both the distance from DELGOVITIA and the very name yet remaining doth prove which also in some sort implieth that this is the very same that in Ptolomees copies is written PETVARIA corruptly for Praetorium But whether this name were given it either from Praetorium that is the hall of Justice or from some large and stately house such as the Romans tearmed Praetoria it doth not appeare for certaine The inhabitants glorie much yet as touching their Antiquity and the commodiousnesse of the haven in ancient times and they may as well glorie for the pleasantnesse thereof For it hath a most delectable prospect on the one side lieth the maine sea brimme upon it on the other Humber a famous arme of the sea and over against it the fresh and greene skirtes of Lincoln-shire The high way of the Romans from the Picts wall which Antonine the Emperor followed here endeth For Ulpian hath written that such high waies commonly end at the sea at rivers or at Cities Somewhat lower standeth Winsted the habitation of the Hildeards knights of ancient descent and higher into the Country Rosse from whence the honorable family of the Barons Rosse tooke their name like as they were seated there in times past and hard by the sea-side Grimstons-garth where the Grimstons for a long time have lived in good reputation and a little from hence standeth Rise the mansion house in old time of certaine noble men bearing the name of Falconberg And then in the very necke of the promontorie where it draweth in most narrow into a sharpe point and is called Spurnhead is KELNSEY a little village which plainely sheweth that this is the very OCELLVM mentioned by Ptolomee for as from OCELLVM Kelnsey is derived so Ocellum doubtlesse was made of Y-kill which as I have said before signifieth in the British tongue a Promontory or narrow necke of land From Spurn-head the shore withdraweth it selfe backe by little and little and gently bending inward shooteth Northward by Overthorne and Witherensey two little Churches called of the sisters that built them Sisters kirks and not farre from Constable-Burton so called of the Lords thereof who being by marriages linked to right honorable houses flourish at this day in great worship and out of which familie Robert as wee read in the booke of the Abbay of Meaux was one of the Earle of Aulbemarls knights who being aged and full of daies took upon him the Crosse and went with King Richard in his voiage toward the holy land Then by Skipsey which Dru the first Lord of Holdernesse fortified with a Castle When the shore beginneth to spread againe and beare out into the sea it maketh roome for a bay or creeke that Ptolomee calleth EYAIMENON GABRANTO VICORUM which the Latin Interpreters have translated some PORTUOSVM SINVM that is the barborous Creeke others SALVTAREM that is the safe Creeke But neither of them both better expresseth the nature of the Greeke word than the very name of a little village in the nouke thereof which wee call Sureby For that which is safe and sure from danger the Britans and French men both terme Seur as wee Englishmen sure who peradventure did borrow this word from the Britans There is no cause therefore why we should doubt but that this creeke was that very EYAIMENON of the GABRANTOVICI who dwelt there abouts Hard by standeth Bridlington a towne very well knowne by reason of Iohn of Bridlington a poeticall monkish prophet whose ridiculous prophesies in Rhime I have read albeit they were not worth the reading And not farre from hence for a great length toward Driffield was there a ditch cast up and brought on by the Earles of Holdernesse to confine and bound their lands which they called Earles Dyke But whence this little nation here inhabiting were named GABRANTOVICI I dare not search unlesse happily it were of goates which the Britans tearme Gaffran and whereof there is not greater store in al Britain than hereabout Neither ought this derivation of the name to seeme absurd seeing that Aegira in Achaia borroweth the name of goats Nebrodes in Sicily of fallow Deere and Boeotia in Greece of Kine and Oxen. That little Promontory which with his bent made this creeke is commonly called Flamborough head and in the Saxon tongue Fleam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Authors who write that Ida the Saxon who first subdued these Countries arrived here Some think it took the name from a watchtowre which did by night put forth a flame or burning light for to direct sailers into the haven For the Britans retaine yet out of the provinciall language this word Flam and Mariners paint this creeke in their sea-cards with a blazing flame on the