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said lands upon settlement of the said plantation, he humbly prayeth your
honours to direct a missive letter to the now earl of Thomond requiring him
to answer the premises and show cause wherefore your petitioner should not
be restored to the said lands to him estated as aforesaid and the said earl enter
to the said lands exchanged and he shall pray, etc….
Endorsed: Copy of the petition of Danyell oge O Mullconry 29 November 1638
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Instructions to answer Daniell O Mulconrys petition
[PHA 5402]
First to answer that the exchange was made by mutual consent, and at the
earnest desire of the petitioner’s father, who was willing to remove himself
further off for his ease and better convenience in regard of his extraordinary
expenses (as he pretended) suffered so near Bunratty by visitations
of friends and others unlooked for and in respect of the goodness of the
exchange to him given.
That the lands given in exchange was at the time of making thereof, as
good in value and of as good or better considered and greater quantity than
the lands of Ardkeile, and the rest by the petitioner under challenge.
That the exchange stood firm without question till the death of the late
Earl who died seised of the premises and by whose death the defendant as
his son and heir entered thereunto had his livery for the same, and is ever
since quietly possessed, and that the petitioner’s father was one of the Jury
that found the defendant seised.
4. That the said late Earl presently after the said exchange past, the same by
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letters patent from the late Majesty King James of famous memory, under
whose title the defendant also holdeth the said lands.
That there was no such estate made to the petitioner as he pretends, will
prove hereafter manifest for no such thing was every thought of neither
will the petitioner’s father as the defendant believeth acknowledge any
such thing; and if any deed or feoffment be now produced the defendant
hopes to prove it forged and merely intended by the petitioner thereby to
gain some composition from the defendant to relieve his present necessities
having run himself into extraordinary debts and other extravagant
troubles by his unthrifty and dishonest courses, whereby the greater part of
the lands exchanged to his father are enjoyed or by him otherwise disposed
off. That there was no compulsory or coercion used towards the petitioner’s
father (as the petitioner falsely and scandalously urgeth) is undoubtedly
certain; for besides the reason of convenience sought by his father to gain
the said exchange (who was not also ignorant of his majesty’s paramount
title to the lands questioned). He likewise considered the advantages he
might gain thereby, by endearing and insinuating himself into the late
Earl’s love and service; who accordingly preferred him before his betters
and employed him in his secretes occasions, wherein he was not forgetful
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