The succession list of the Archbishops of Armagh, 1348-1939

Armagh amongst the Irish

The compromises necessary in the administration of a diocese which was half in the King's country and half in that of native princes. The cathedral itself was in a part which did not acknowledge the King's sway. In these circumstances there grew up a division of the diocese into "Armagh amongst the English" and "Armagh amongst the Irish." Archbishop Swayne, who was of the English section, seldom set foot in the Irish part of his diocese. His administration was mainly conducted from Termonfechin, Co. Louth. A fair number of documents are dated from Dromiskin and Drogheda, but hardly any from Armagh city. The control of the Irish part was exercised through the medium of the Dean of Armagh who was for most of this period Denis Occulean.

There are frequent references to those still somewhat shadowy figures, the herenachs and the co-orbs. There are also several interesting references to native tenure, which seems to be recognised as an alternative to the ordinary feudal method. There are of course innumerable cases of raiding by Irish clans which showed no respect to buildings associated with religion if they were in the hands of their enemies, and are reported to have carried off on one occasion a missal and vestments. Indeed, raiders did not always respect the property of ecclesiastics of their own race, for an Ó Neill is charged with plundering Dean Occulean's lands and killing his men.

Irish pilgrimages and practices

There are references to pilgrimages to Rome and to St Patrick's Purgatory at Lough Derg, the latter by a foreigner. After the death of Bishop Cornelius O'Farrell of Ardagh, a letter is addressed to a woman and her son, the latter of whom bears the same name as the bishop, calling on them to return what was called the principalia, that is to say the deceased bishop's horse, cup and ring. The Archbishop endeavours from time to time to enforce clerical celibacy, which is apparently not observed by some of his suffragan bishops. A peremptory admonition on the subject is addressed to the Bishop of Down.

The first references to the Armagh registers occur in the early 17th century when they were used by Archbishop James Ussher as source material for historical research. Ussher obtained access to the registers at an early stage in his career. His purpose was to obtain historical precedents and illustrations, and his miscellaneous notebooks in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.

Papers about the diocese of MEATH , province of Armagh, date from 1399 and 1614-1975. There are visitation and related returns for 1693 (also comprising Armagh and Derry), 1850, 1865, 1868, c.1870 and 1974-1975. A particular feature are papers about the rectory and rectorial glebe of Athboy, Co. Meath, which constituted part of the income of the Archbishops of Armagh, including: the original and a non-contemporary copy of Pope Boniface IX's bull of 1399 confirming the rectory to Primate John Colton, a letter to Primate Beresford about a trust financed out of the income from the rectory, 1851, and deeds about the disappropriation of the rectory from the primacy, 1852-1854. There are papers about the following individual parishes in the diocese of Meath: Trim (which Primate Ussher was empowered to hold in commendam with the prebend of Castleknock, archdiocese of Dublin), 1614; Trim (which Ussher was empowered to hold in commendam with Finglass, archdiocese of Dublin), 1619; Ratoath, 1690; Kinnegad, 1755; Kilkenny West, 1801; Killucan, 1836; and Castlepollard, 1869.

Largely formal documents relating to the Archbishops of Armagh are dated 1431, 1642, 1800, 1822, 1862 and 1872-1977 and consist largely of certificates, patents, commissions, etc, relating to the election and enthronement of Archbishops of Armagh or to the appointment of commissaries to act during a period when an archbishop was temporarily absent.
Leases of the lands of the archdiocese of Armagh, etc., run from 1627 to 1872, and include leases of the Archbishop's estates outside the archdiocese (notably 'Black Abbey in the Ards', Co. Down, 1639). Noteworthy are early 18th-century proposals for leases and leases, which document the dealings of the Archbishops with some of their major 'gentleman' tenants, eg the Stewarts of Killymoon, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, and the Conynghams, later Lenox-Conynghams, of Springhill, Moneymore, Co. Londonderry. Also present is a lease from Primate Hugh Boulter to the Board of Ordnance of premises for a barracks in Armagh, 1736. In addition to the estates of the Archbishop, the leases relate to those of the Vicars Choral, the Governors and Guardians of Primate Robinson's Library, etc. Many of them - and particularly those which come in the form of abstracts of leases, were bound or copied into volumes, and so have become intermingled with other material of less immediate relevance.
Title deeds and inquisitions relating to the archdiocese of Armagh are dated 1606-1724, 1770, 1778, 1818 and 1820, and relate to the see lands of the archdiocese of Armagh and the estates of ecclesiastical institutions within the archdiocese, including the Co. Down estate of the Vicars Choral of the Cathedral Church of Armagh . This last was purchased by Primate Thomas Lindsay for the Vicars Choral in the period 1707-1724, the relevant papers being present in this section of the archive. Also present are copies of grants and inquisitions relating to lay landowners with conflicting property and jurisdictional claims to the Archbishops of Armagh , including Walter Bagenal and Sir Toby Caulfeild, 1612.

Visitation and other returns and papers about the clergy of the archdiocese (as distinct from the province) of Armagh run from 1633 to 1973. A set of 80 returns to parliament, 1776-1777, from incumbents of the archdiocese of the state of their parish churches and of sums recently expended on repair and improvement; these vary in detail, but some of them contain a good deal of information for the architectural historian. Other material comprises oath-rolls, c.1700-1959, and other papers about oaths, declarations and nominations, 1817-1973 (with many gaps), and various non-contemporary compilations giving information about clergy of the archdiocese. [PRONI] Visitation and other returns and papers about the clergy of the archdiocese (as distinct from the province) of Armagh run from 1633 to 1973.

Visitation, rental and account books relating to all-Ireland date from [1617?], 1622, 1659, 1693, 1700-1704 and 1715-1737. The item of [1617?] is 'A book of taxation [to the crown] of some ecclesiastical livings in the kingdom of Ireland' in all dioceses of Ireland; with an index of dioceses at the back.

Another volume contains, at the front, a 'State of the temporalities and churches of Armagh in 1622', and, at the back, a 'Charge and discharge of the forfeited tithes in the diocese of Killaloe for the yeare 1700-[1704]'.

The next is a volume of 1659 described on the front-fly leaf as 'A book made up in the time of the usurpation, with this title, viz. "Bishops' lands of Ireland and of other dignitaries, extracted out of ancient records thereof, and compared with what is in present charge, 1659"'.

Then follows a volume entitled (and living up to this description) an 'Account of the state of the different dioceses in Ireland in 1693', pursuant to an order from the Lords Justices of Ireland.

There is a very miscellaneous volume covering the period 1715-1737 and itemising renewal fines, duty payments, fiats for faculties, briefs, proceeds from impropriate tithes, etc, for the metropolitan province of Armagh and also for the archdiocese or dioceses of (in order of appearance in the volume during the period 1715-1720) Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Ferns, Ossory, Waterford, Clogher, Tuam, Clonfert, Cashel, Cork, Cloyne, Killaloe and Elphin.