up into manors. In each manor the chief lord had a castle, the head of the manor, and a certain extent of land in demesne, worked by servile or semi-servile labour, while other portions were held by free tenants, either by Knight's service, or for fixed rents with various defined obligations towards the lord.[1]
In the sixteenth century this state of things persisted in outline, although much overgrown and disguised by Irish usages, and by innovations which had grown out of the lawless state of the country. On the demesne lands of the lord lived a mass of cultivators, mostly of Irish origin, all tenants at will, or at best holding by Irish custom, which would not be recognised by English law. Many of these were still for all practical purposes serfs, and looked on as such both by Irish and English; for villeinage lasted in Ireland long after it had disappeared in England, and was finally only abolished by Chichester in 1604—5. Others were in a better position, the descendants of the Betagii of the earlier inquisitions. These, though unfree according to English ideas, may have ranked among the native Irish as of free status, and economically may have been in a fairly good position, with rights of inheritance, and security against eviction, based on Irish law. Others again may have been to all intents and purposes personally free, belonging to recognized Irish free clans, but not having any permanent landed estates.
- ↑ Details about many of these manors in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries will be found in Begley's Diocese of Limerick.
