Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

KIL
beate spas, but not of much strength, exist near St.
John’s bridge on the Nore, near the marble hill on the
same river, and at Jerpoint Abbey. In the Castlecomer
collieries there are also some weak chalybeates, and
others are to be found dispersed through the county.
Springs of very pure transparent water are also nume-
rous; most of them are named after some saint, and
have a patron annually held near them.
KILKENNY, a city and,
including Irishtown, a coun-
ty of itself, and the seat of
the diocese of Ossory, locally
in the county of KILKENNY,
of which it is the chief town,
and in the province of LEIN-
STER, 24 miles (N. E. by N.)
from Clonmel, and 57½ (S.
W.) from Dublin, on the
river Nore and the mail
coach road to Cork; con-
taining 23,741 inhabitants. This place is supposed by
some writers to have derived its name from Coil or
Kyle-Ken-Ni, “the wooded head, or hill, near the river;”
and by others, with more probability, from the dedica-
tion of its church to St. Canice, on the removal of the
ancient see of Ossory from Aghavoe to this place, about
the year 1052, which had been originally founded at
Saiger, now Seir-Keran, about 402. Of the earlier his-
tory of the town little is recorded previously to 1173,
when Donald O’Brien, King of Thomond, assembled his
forces to dispossess the English invaders under Strong-
bow, who had established themselves and erected a
fortress here soon after their landing in Ireland. On
this occasion Strongbow retreated to Waterford, and
abandoned the castle to the enemy, by whom, together
with the town, it was demolished, and the surrounding
country laid waste. In 1192, the English appear to
have settled themselves firmly at this place; and in
1195, William Le Mareschal, who had succeeded to
Strongbow’s possessions, rebuilt the castle on a larger
scale and restored the town, which became one of the
principal residences of his successors and the head of
the palatinate of Kilkenny. About this time arose that
portion of the present town which is more especially
called Kilkenny, and which was more immediately con-
nected with the castle, in contradistinction to the ori-
ginal town on the opposite bank of a small river flowing
into the Nore, called Irishtown. Each had its separate
and independent municipal government, the former
under the lords of the castle, and the latter under the
bishops of Ossory, who ceded a portion of it to William
Le Mareschal, by whom the burgesses of Kilkenny
were incorporated and endowed with many privileges,
among which was exemption from toll in all his terri-
tories of Leinster. Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester
and Hereford, marrying a daughter of William Le
Mareschal, obtained as her dower the county of Kil-
kenny, which subsequently passed by marriage again to
Hugh, grandfather of Thomas Le Spencer, from whom
it was purchased by James Butler, third Earl of Or-
monde. A great council of the barons of the English
pale was held here in 1294; and in 1309 a parliament
assembled at this place, in which severe laws were
enacted against such of the English settlers as should
adopt the Irish customs; and anathemas against all
109
KIL
who should infringe them were denounced in the
cathedral by the Archbishop of Cashel and other pre-
lates who assisted on that occasion. In 1317, Lord
Roger Mortimer, justiciary of Ireland, and the English
nobles, held a council here to deliberate on the most
effectual means of opposing the ravages of Edward
Bruce; and an army of 30,000 men was assembled,
and great numbers of families sought refuge in the town
under the general alarm. Parliaments were held here
in 1327 and 1330, when an army assembled here to
drive Brien O’Brien from Urkuffs, near Cashel; in 1331
a parliament was adjourned to this place from Dublin,
and in 1341 a grand meeting of the principal nobility
took place, assisted by the chief officers of the king’s
cities, to petition for the better government of Ireland.
Parliaments were also held in 1347, 1356, and 1367, at
which last, held before Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the
celebrated statute of Kilkenny was enacted; and also
in 1370 and 1374, in which latter Sir William de
Windsor was sworn into the office of Lord-Lieutenant.
Letters patent were granted in 1375 to the burgesses,
and renewed in 1384, authorising them to appropriate
certain customs for building and repairing the walls;
and in 1399, Richard II., on his progress through the
south of Ireland, arrived from Waterford at this place,
where he was entertained for fourteen days by the Earl
of Ormonde. Robert Talbot, a kinsman of the earl’s,
in 1400, encompassed the greater portion of the town
with walls; and in 1419 the townsmen received a grant
of tolls for murage. During the contest between the
houses of York and Lancaster, the town was taken and
plundered by the Earl of Desmond, who was an ad-
herent of the latter; and in 1499 the burgesses, headed
by their sovereign, marched out in aid of the Butlers
against Tirlagh O’Brien, but were defeated. The last
parliament held in the town was held in 1536, and was
adjourned to Cashel; but this place still continued to
be the occasional residence of the lords-lieutenant,
and the chief seat of their government, for which pur-
pose Hen. VIII. granted to the corporation the site and
precincts of the Black friars’ monastery, on condition of
their furnishing certain accommodation free of expense
to the chief governor of Ireland, when in Kilkenny;
from which they were subsequently released on pay-
ment of a fine of £70. Sir Peter Carew, in his pro-
gress to resist the aggressions of the Butlers and Des-
monds, in 1568, took possession of the town, which
was soon after invested by Fitz-Maurice, brother of
Desmond; but the spirited conduct of the garrison
compelled him to retire.
In the parliamentary war of 1641 this place was
distinguished as the theatre of contention; it was seized
by Lord Mountgarret, and in the following year a
general synod of the Catholic clergy was held here, and
a meeting of deputies from the confederate Catholics
from all parts of the kingdom took place in the house
of Mr. R. Shee, in the present coal market. The lords,
prelates, and commons all sat in the same chamber;
and the clergy who were not qualified to sit as barons
assembled in convocation in another house; and a press
was erected in the city, at which were printed all the
decrees of the synod. On the arrival of Rinuncini, the
Pope’s nuncio, the city and suburbs were placed under
an interdict, for accepting the peace which had been
concluded at this meeting; and in 1648 a plot was dis-