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several rights of both boroughs, but, to obviate the dis-
putes that arose from having two corporations in the
same town, constituted them one body corporate under
the designation of “The Sovereign, Burgesses, and
Commonalty of the Town of Kilkenny.” Jas. I., in
1608, made the towns of Kilkenny and Irishtown, with
the parishes of St. Mary, St. John, St. Canice, and St.
Patrick, a free borough, and in the following year granted
additional privileges, erected the borough into a free
city, under the designation of the mayor and citizens
of the city of Kilkenny, and constituted the city and its
liberties a distinct county, to be called the county of the
city of Kilkenny. Chas. I., in 1639, granted to the
mayor and citizens the monasteries of the Black and
Grey friars, with several rectories and other posses-
sions; and Jas. II. gave the citizens a new charter, which
never came into operation, the city being governed by
the charter of Jas. I. Under this charter the corporation
consists of a mayor, two sheriffs, 18 aldermen, 36
common-councilmen, and an indefinite number of free-
men, assisted by a recorder, treasurer, two coroners, a
town-clerk, four serjeants-at-mace, and other officers.
The mayor, who is also custos rotulorum, escheator,
clerk of the market, and master of the assay, is chosen
annually from the aldermen by the aldermen and coun-
cilmen, on the next Monday after the 24th of June,
and has power to appoint a deputy, during illness or
necessary absence, chosen from such of the aldermen
as have served the office of mayor. The sheriffs are
elected annually from the common-councilmen by the
aldermen and councilmen, on the same day as the
mayor. The aldermen are chosen for life from the com-
mon-councilmen by the mayor and aldermen; and the
common-councilmen are chosen from the freemen by
the aldermen and councilmen, who also appoint the
recorder, and the treasurer and town-clerk are ap-
pointed by the corporation. There is also a corpora-
tion of the staple. The freedom of the city is obtained
by birth, marriage, servitude, and favour of the cor-
poration. The burgesses of Irishtown still continue
to elect their portreeve annually under the direction of
the Bishop of Ossory; he is clerk of the market, and
presides in his court held weekly for the recovery of
debts under 40s., but has no magisterial jurisdiction.
Each borough returned two members to the Irish par-
liament; Kilkenny first in 1374, and Irishtown at a
much earlier period; both continued to do so till the
Union, when Irishtown was disfranchised, and the
£15,000 awarded in compensation was paid to the
Board of First Fruits, to be applied to the uses of that
fund. Since that period the city has sent only one
member to the Imperial parliament. The right of elec-
tion, previously in the freemen of the city and 40s.
freeholders of the county of the city, was, by the act of
the 2nd of Wm. IV., cap. 88, vested in the resident
freemen and £10 householders, and in £20 and £10
leaseholders for the respective terms of 14 and 20 years;
the 40s. freeholders retain the privilege only for life.
The number of registered voters at the close of 1836
was 808. No alteration has taken place in the electoral
boundary of the borough, which is co-extensive with the
county of the city: the sheriffs are the returning officers.
The mayor, recorder, and all the aldermen who have
served the office of mayor, are justices of the peace, and
under their charter hold quarterly courts of session, with
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criminal jurisdiction within the county of the city;
and a court of record, called the Tholsel, for the deter-
mination of actions to any amount exceeding £20, every
Tuesday and Friday. Assizes for the county of the city,
and for the county at large, are held here twice in the
year; and quarter sessions for the county of Kilkenny
are held in rotation with the towns of Castlecomer, Tho-
mastown, and Urlingford. A peace preservation force
is stationed in the city, the expense of maintaining
which, for 1835, amounted to £712. 15. 10. The
court-house, called Grace’s Old Castle, contains courts
both for the city and for the county at large, and is a
spacious and handsome modern building, occupying
part of the site of the ancient castle of the family of
Grace, of whom William Grace, or Le Gras, its first
founder, was seneschal of Leinster and governor of
Kilkenny. The city gaol is a badly constructed edifice,
containing seven cells, but not adapted to the classifica-
tion of prisoners. The county gaol is a spacious modern
building of stone, a little to the west of the city: it
contains 48 cells, is well arranged for classification, and
has a tread-mill and a well-conducted school.
The SEE of OSSORY, which,
like that of Meath, takes its
name from a district, was
originally established at Sai-
ger, now Seir-Kieran, in the
territory of Ely O’Carrol,
about the year 402, by St.
Kieran, after his return from
Rome, where he had re-
mained 20 years in the study
of the Christian faith, and
had been consecrated a
bishop. He was accompa-
nied on his return by five other bishops, who also
founded sees in other parts of Ireland, and after presid-
ing over this see for many years is supposed to have
died in Cornwall, as stated by the English martyrolo-
gists. Of his successors, who were called Episcopi Sai-
gerenses, but very imperfect accounts are preserved.
Carthag, his disciple and immediate successor, died
about the year 540, from which period till the removal
of the see from Saiger to Aghavoe, about the year 1052,
there appears to have been, with some few intervals, a
regular succession of prelates. The monastery of Agha-
voe was founded by St. Canice, of which he was the
first abbot, and in which he died about the year 600;
and after the removal of the see from Saiger, there is
little mention of the bishops of Aghavoe, in whose suc-
cession there is a chasm of 73 years till the time of
Donald O’Fogarty, who was consecrated in 1152, and
assisted at the synod of Kells held under Cardinal
Paparo, as vicar-general and bishop of Ossory. Felix
O’Dullany, who succeeded him in 1178, removed the see
from Aghavoe to the city of Kilkenny, as a place of
greater security, where he laid the foundation of the
cathedral church of St. Canice, which was continued at
a great expense by Hugh Mapelton, and completed by
Geoffrey St. Leger, about the year 1270. Bishop St.
Leger gave to the vicars choral his manse and lodgings,
formerly the episcopal palace, previously to the erection
of the palaces of Aghor and Dorogh; and William
Fitz-John, who succeeded in 1302, appropriated the
church of Claragh to the abbey of St. John the Evange-