Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History (48 page)

Poynings' Law
(1495). A law (10 Hen. VII, c. 4) introduced to strengthen royal control and limit the independence of the Irish
chief governor
by requiring him to apply for a licence to hold parliament. He was obliged to submit all bills to the king and his council and have them approved and certified under the great
seal
before parliament could sit. Since parliament could not meet without prior approval of proposed bills and since bills could not be transmitted for approval once parliament was in session, this measure severely restricted the ability of the Irish parliament to originate legislation. In practice this proved inconvenient and by 3 & 4 Philip & Mary, c. 4 (1556) Poynings' was amended to permit additional bills to be transmitted to England after parliament had assembled. This allowed for the seventeenth-century initiative of transmitting ‘heads of bills' which enabled either house to originate legislation. Bills transmitted from Ireland remained subject to amendment and veto by the privy councils of Ireland and Britain but parliament determined which bills, in whatever condition they were returned, made it into the statute books. Faced with the threat of war with both France and America, Poynings' Law was amended in 1782 (21 & 22 Geo. III, c. 47) and a degree of legislative independence permitted. Henceforth bills were transmitted ‘without addition, diminution or alteration'. The crown retained the power to veto legislation, a power never subsequently exercised.
See
statute, Yelverton's Act. (Edwards and Moody, ‘The history of Poynings' law', pp. 415–24; Clarke, ‘The history of Poyning's law', pp. 207–22; Kelly, ‘Monitoring', pp. 87–106.)

pracas
. A type of harrow.

praecipe
, writ of
.
See
right, writ of.

Praemunire
, Statutes of
(1353, 1393). Introduced by Edward III (27 Edw. III, c. 1, 1353) as a sop to popular feeling against foreign clergy, the first statute of
Praemunire
legislated against papal interference in appointments to church positions in England. It forbade appeals to Rome in disputes over patronage and the exercise of legal and financial jurisdiction by the pope in England without royal consent. It was an offence punishable by forfeiture to assert papal supremacy over England as it was for a
dean
and
chapter
who failed to act on royal instructions regarding appointments to vacant sees. The later statute (16 Richard II, c. 5, 1393) forbade on pain of forfeiture the presentation of suits cognisable by English law in a foreign court. It was aimed at those who ‘purchased or pursued in the courts of Rome or elsewhere any translations, processes and sentence of execution, bulls, instruments or any other things whatsoever which touch upon the king, against him, his crown, and his regality whereby the king's court was hindered in its jurisdiction over pleas of presentment'. Actions under both statutes were initiated by a writ of
praemunire
to the sheriff to summon the person so accused. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
Praemunire
restrained the ability of Irish Catholic bishops to discipline errant clergymen for the aggrieved cleric could immediately initiate or threaten an action against what was, in effect, the illegal exercise of foreign jurisdiction.
Praemunire
was repealed in Britain in 1967. See
congé d'élire.

preacher's book
. A
Church of Ireland
record of parish worship which includes the date and type of service, the preacher's name, the amount of the offering, the number of people in attendance and the number receiving communion.

prebend
. (L.
praebere
, to supply) An endowment from the rents, fees and
tithe
of a parish which provided the living of a
canon
or member of a cathedral
chapter
.

prebendal parish
. A parish set aside to support a cathedral
prebendary
.

prebendary
. A member of the chapter of a
cathedral
(such as a canon) who held a
prebend
. Prebendaries were called after the parish that provided their living.

precentor
. The chapter member responsible for worship in the cathedral. This could involve leading and directing the choir or congregation in the singing of hymns.

predial (praedial)
. Predial
tithe
was exacted on the profits of the land and accrued from crops such as cereals, vegetables and fruit. Tithe on major crops such as wheat, barley, oats and hay were paid to the
rector
and was known as the great tithe. Small tithe, including the predials vegetables and fruit, the mixed tithe (small animals and animal products) and personal tithe (the fruit of labour and industry) were owed to the
vicar
.

pre-emption
. The right of purchasing before another. In other words, the right of first refusal.

Premonstratensian canons
. Founded by St Norbert at Prémontré in France, the Premonstratensian canons adhered to the rule of St Augustine with some borrowings, including the wearing of a white habit, from the
Cistercians
. The first Irish Premonstratensian house was founded at Carrickfergus in the late twelfth century. In all about a dozen abbeys, priories and dependent cells were established by the early 1300s in Co. Antrim and the western counties of Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon and Galway. By the seventeenth century all had been suppressed. (Flood, ‘The Premonstratensians', pp. 624–31; Gwynn and Hadcock,
Medieval religious houses
, pp. 201–7.)

prepositus
. (L., put before) Literally, someone put before others, the term refers to the mayor,
portreeve, sovereign
or
seneschal
of a municipal corporation.

prerogative courts
. Courts operating alongside the common law courts which arose out of the
curia regis
(king's council) to deal with cases for which no remedy existed at common law or particular areas in which the regular courts would not deal. They were known as prerogative courts because through them the king exercised his discretionary power as sovereign to provide justice to his subjects. They were also a valuable source of royal revenue and, strictly administered, proved effective weapons in enforcing the sovereign's will.
Chancery
, the first and most enduring prerogative court, emerged in the thirteenth century. Other prerogative courts such as the court of
castle chamber
(the Irish star chamber), the court of
wards
and
liveries
, the court of
high commission
and the courts of the presidents of Munster and Connacht appeared in the sixteenth century but were gone by the close of the seventeenth. They disappeared because they came under two-fold attack from the common law courts (which resented the loss of business) and from a parliament which bristled at Charles I's use of the star chamber and high commission to enforce his policies. Only chancery survived into modern times.
See
provincial councils.

prerogative and faculties, court of the
. A post-Reformation innovation designed to restructure and police the Church of Ireland, the royally-appointed court of faculties inquired into titles to hold benefices, sanctioned deprivations and licensed pluralities. It granted faculties and dispensations, a jurisdiction previously exercised by the papacy. From 1571 jurisdiction in testamentary matters was added to the commissioners' responsibilities in those cases where a testator held an estate in excess of £5 (
bona notabilia
) in a second diocese. Where a testator also held property in England the will was proved in the prerogative court of the archbishop of Canterbury and a copy proved in Ireland. It became the supreme ecclesiastical court of the Church of Ireland when James I established the court of the prerogative and faculties in 1622 and placed the archbishop of Armagh at its head. This arrangement survived until 1856 when the court lost its testamentary jurisdiction to the newly-established civil court of
probate
. It lapsed entirely with the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869.
See
consistorial court.

Presbyterian
. A member of a distinctively-structured reformed faith which claims scripture to be the final authority in religious matters, that all members of the church are equal under Christ, that the ministry has been given to the entire church and which, in its earlier history, embraced predestination.
Calvinism
provides the key doctrinal basis for Presbyterianism. The Calvinist belief in universal priesthood is manifested in the rejection of episcopal control in favour of equality between lay elders and ministers at all levels of the church from kirk
session
to
presbytery
to
synod
to general assembly. Ministers are chosen by the elders and salaried by the congregation. All officers are elected. After the Reformation the Church of Scotland became Presbyterian and Scottish Presbyterians carried the faith with them into Ireland in the seventeenth century. As the Church of Ireland was a Calvinist-leaning, minority church on the island, Presbyterians were welcomed and their ministers were provided with livings. Presbyterianism experienced a surge in growth following the 1641 rebellion and new presbyteries were established. Moves to enforce religious uniformity, initiated by Wentworth in the 1630s and accelerated after the Restoration, resulted in the expulsion of Presbyterian ministers from the Anglican church (see Uniformity). William III's gratitude for their support against the Jacobites yielded an increased
regium donum
and the religious freedom they enjoyed was secured legislatively by the passing of the Toleration Act in 1719. However, the power and influence of the Church of Ireland ensured that Presbyterians were to suffer, though less severely, the disabilities inflicted on Catholics by the
penal laws
. The
Test Act
(1704) led to their exclusion from public office and from membership of the boroughs until it was repealed in 1780. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Presbyterianism was riven by
Arianism
and by the controversy over the issue of subscription to the
Westminster Confession
, the Presbyterian confession of faith. When obligatory subscription was imposed 17 ministers left to form the
Remonstrant Synod
and in 1840 the
Synod of Ulster
merged with the
Seceders
(a pro-subscription body which had seceded earlier over that issue) to form the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland
.
See
New Light, Southern Association.

presbytery
. (L.,
presbyter
, an elder) A
Presbyterian
church council formed by all the ministers in a district together with representative elders from each congregational
session
. Although the congregation is responsible for electing the minister, the approval of the presbytery (which also supervises the ordination, installation, transfer and removal of ministers) is required. It exercises religious, financial and legal authority over all the congregations within its district and acts as an appellate court for cases arising in the sessions.
See
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, synod.

presentment
. 1: A formal statement or indictment of finding by a
grand jury
as to whether a
prima facie
case existed for a prosecution to proceed. Grand juries retained this judicial function until their abolition in 1924 when direct trial by jury was introduced 2: The grant of a grand jury towards the construction or repair of a road or building. Such grants were financed by the
county cess
and were considered before a committee of the grand jury at presentment sessions.

presidency
.
See
provincial councils, composition.

prest
. A loan or advance of money. Irregular and delayed payments to the Irish administration's standing force in the sixteenth century encouraged desertion and indiscipline which the administration tried to forestall through the payment of small prests to enable the troops to feed themselves.

prey, to make a
. (Ir.,
creagh
) To conduct a cattle-raid. Cattle raids were conducted for the purpose of stealing cattle or to exact a lawful tribute but also to acquire new vassals or clients by impressing the local inhabitants with a demonstration of military prowess.

Pride's purge
. On 3 December 1648 Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly prevented the entrance to the English house of commons of about 100 MPs who were considered to be in favour of making concessions to the King. The remaining 200 or so members formed what was known as the
Rump
or the Long Parliament.

primary sources
. Historical evidence which emerges at the same time as the event to which it relates is called a primary source. Secondary sources are those which appear after the event they pertain to. This apparently neat distinction requires some qualification. A history of the Great Famine written in the twentieth century is a secondary source for the nineteenth century but a primary source for twentieth-century thinking.

prime serjeant
(king's serjeant). A professional law officer of superior rank, the office of king's serjeant at law first emerged in Ireland with the appointment of Roger Owen in the 1260s. From the seventeenth century there were usually two or three serjeants at any one time, known respectively as prime serjeant, second serjeant and third serjeant. They acted as prosecutors and defenders of the king's pleas in Ireland and represented the king's interests in various capacities such as initiating actions to recover rents or lands or enquiring into homicides. As senior law officer of the courts they often replaced judges but were generally occupied in drafting documents or administrative tasks. In Elizabethan times the office of prime serjeant was eclipsed by that of
attorney-general
but it resumed its former precedence under the Stuarts and retained it until the post was discontinued in 1805. (Hart,
A history)
.