A Repertory of the Inrolments on the Patent Rolls of Chancery, in Ireland; commencing with the reign of King James I. Edited by John Caillard Erck

Part I. Dublin

: JAMES M'GLASHAN, 21, D'O LIER-ST RE E T. W. S. ORR AND CO., LONDON; FRA8ER AND CO., EDINBURGH. MDCCCXLVI. DUBLIN: PRINTED BY ALEXANDER IHOM, 87, ABBEY-STREET.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. The continuation of this work is in the course of publication ; this first volume will end, with a repertory to the rolls of the seventh year of James, the First, inclusive. -o THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE VISCOUNT MORPETH, M.P., &c, S,c, &c. My Lord, So many years have elapsed between the design and execution, the conception and accomplishment, of this work, since I first had the honor of bringing it under your notice, that it may be necessary to explain the circumstances, which induced the undertaking and have caused the delay of its publication. The work, which was conceived and commenced during your Lord ship's administration of Irish affairs, has for its object — to rescue some part of the most important of our National muniments from the com parative oblivion and obscurity, which, by reason of the difficulty of access, the labour of research, and the expense of official constats, they now lie involved — and, whatever light it may throw on our public records, in directing either the pursuits of the liistorian, the antiquarian, or of the legal practitioner, it is to your Lordship they must feel them • selves principally indebted for the encouragement afforded, and the facility of access accorded to me, in extricating and evolving their con tents, from the rubbish of technical phrases, wordy parantheses, and the legal forms of diction.

The prosecution of the work, has been the resource and relaxation of my leisure hours, — when relieved from the details of official duties, of an onerous and imperative nature — and the preparation of the materiel, no less than the revision and correction of the press, have united to retard the publication of a compilation ; which, to be accomplished within any reasonable time, could only be effected by untiring and unremitting assiduity. In inscribing the commencement of my labours in this undertaking to your Lordship, I owe it, apart from all other considerations, as a small, though insignificant, expression of my esteem and gratitude for the invariable kindness and friendship, I have, on all occasions, experienced from your Lordship. Beyond the interest, if not importance, that may attach to some of the articles, as illustrative of the present compared with former times; the work has nothing, its accuracy excepted, to bespeak your favor — but, professing to be a faithful expositor of the public record, and recommended to consideration by the care and expense bestowed by the Legislature in the preservation of such documents ; to no one can it he, more appropriately, addressed than to your Lordship, the name and deeds of whose family are not only blended and interwoven with the ancient muniments of the kingdom, but also conspicuously associated with the recorded transactions of this country ; the destinies of which, have, in later years, been presided over by your Lordship, in no uneventful period of its history.

I have the honor to be, My Lord, With sincere esteem and respect, Tour very faithful Servant, JOHN C. ERCK. Dublin, Merrion-squart, South. 10tt Novtmber, 1846. [ ■•>■ ]