Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Pococke's Tour in Ireland in 1752 (Author: Richard Pococke)

entry 53

On the 24th I took a little ride, but the weather did not favour. Mr. Darcy came to see me and brought an invitation from the Grand Jury to dine with them, but I was engaged to the Wardens; that Gentleman spent the even with us. A very remarkable thing happened there in relation to one of the Lynches, so long ago as that he was the fourth or fifth Mayor of the town: His son was coming in a ship from Spain, murder'd the Spanish Captain, brought the ship into Galway and sold the goods. When this fact came to his father's knowledge, the son was tried by the father and condemned, who sat on the bench, and intercession being made for him; he bid the persons come to him in the afternoon, and when they return'd they saw the son hanging out of the chamber window. This house remains as a specimen of an inferior sort of building, and over the door is a death's head and bones of a skeleton. I examined some of the records of the Town;—found that in 1511 butter was a penny a pound and a hundred of Eeles here sold for two pence and a Cod for a half-penny; in 1526 a carpenter and man's pay was two pence a day with diet. When six and eight pence only was allowed for the Mayor's dinner the twelve Aldermen and such others as he should ask, and there was such a

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plenty of fish in 1701 that a thousand Herrings were sold for eight pence. In 1646 they condemned a book as against the King, entitled Disputatio Apologetica et Manifestiva de Jure Regni Hiberniae pro Catholicis Hibernis adversus Haereticos. There is an order that no corn be burned or scortched in the town. In 1632 the oath of Supremacy and Conformity in Religion being required the Mayor and officers resigned, and others were chosen who took the oath. In 1649 they had the plague. In 1654 the Irish were dismissed from all offices, and English protestants chosen in their room. In 1691 the Town surrender'd to Genkle on the 26th of July. Having mentioned the Bishoprick of Annadown or Enaghdun, it is to be observed that the Bishoprick of Mayo was united to it in 1210. The Bishoprick of Enaghdun was long disputed by persons who pretended a right to it from about 1250 to 1318. In the Episcopal Register at Exeter I find Bishops of Annadown suffragans to the Bishop of Exeter in the following years viz.
  1. Henry . . . in 1395 and 1398.
  2. John . . . 1438.
  3. Thos . . . 1458.