156 SLANE BLANK [Smarts.— 'fit* ov»m of this Peerage is obscure.(») Its possessor ill 14S9 was one of the nine Barons [I.] then sum. by Henry VII. to Greenwich,(t>) and was then ranked immediately before Lord Delvin [I.] and after Lord Kerry [I.] In some of the early Paris, however (particularly in that of 2 Eliz.) this Barony is placed (apparently erroneously) immediately afttr that of Delvin, a Barony which can hardly be reckoned to have existed before 13S9. The warrant, 1 Jan. 1615, of the Commisioners for executing the office of Earl Marshal places the Barony of Kerry, next immediately above this Barony of Slane, which would consequently thus take prece- dence of the Barony of Delvin. It is on record that Simon Fleming, the possessor of the Barony of Slane (who d. 1370) sat in Pari, as junior to Sir Kobert Preston, Baron of Gormaustoii [I.] whose Peerage cannot be placed higher than 1363. Between the dates then of 1868 and 1370 this Peerage! 0 ) should, according to that precedency, have been created, and altho' such raukiug is no conclusive proof, this period has been taken as the starting point.] Barony [I.] f. Sift Simon FLEMING, of Slane on the river Boj-ne, I 13G5 ? c "" 'Wi s ' am ' u - of Baldwin Lk Fleming, ( ll ) of the same, by Matilda, da. of Sir Simon de Gknevii.le (which Baldwin was sum. to, tho' possibly not present at, the celebrated Pari, at Kilkenny in 1309), we, his father iu 1335, being then a minor J was, in 1346, Conservator of the Peace for co. Meath. aud had livery, 21 Jan. 1348 9, "of the burgh, harooy, and town of Slane." lie sat in Pari. [1.], temp. Ed. 111., tho' below( c ) Lord Gormanston [I.] and his creation as an Irish Peer, BARON ( r ) SLANE, maybe assumed as being about ]3b'. r >. He in. Cecilia, da. of Thomas CHa.uI'EIINOW.NE, of Modbury, Devon. He d. Oct. (1370), -UEd.llI. Inq. p. mortem. (») See vol. i, p. 171, note "c," tub " Athenry " for some observations on the early Irish Baronies as Peerage dignities, to which the following remarks may be added from an able article in the " Quarterly Jltvieu" for Oct. 1S93, inasmuch as they reconcile the apparent contradiction that the first three Baronies [Athenry, Kiugsale aud Kerry] were created iull72 (as held by the " Lord's Commissioners " in 1813) when more trustworthy evidence would make the date much later. — " The origin of the difficulty is, we would suggest, that whereas, in England the ' creation ' of a Barony is reckoned to date from the tirst proved writ of summons, in Ireland the writ of summons has been comparatively ignored, and dignities traced to the earliest period at which their possessors were Barons by tenure. ThiB principle, tho' pressed upon them, has always been rejected by our own House of Lords, so that the apparent superior antiquity of Irish over English Baronies has no foundation in fact." ( b ) See vol. i, preface p. iii, note "a." ( c ) In "Lynch" pp. 195-211, will be found a very full account of this Barony of Slane. ( d ) This Baldwin was s. and h. of Richard Le Fleming, of Slane, by Mary, da. of Nicholas Martin, of Dartingtou, Devon, which Richard (who d. 1301), was a descendant of Archembald Le Fleming (said to have been of Bratton, co. Devon), who accompanied Hugh Lacy, the elder, to Ireland, from whom lie received a grant of 20 Knights fees in Meath, afterwards called the Barony of Slane aud Newcastle. The various accounts of this descent are however very contradictory. The pedigree in the case of " George Bryan, Esq.,' - a claimant of the Barony in 1830, differs eutirely from the one in the rival claim (shortly after that date) of " James Fleming, of Monkstown, co. Dublin, Esq " and neither of them apparently deserve much credence. (») Act of Pari. (1460), 88 Hen, VI., aud (1462), 2 Ed. IV. This precedency, however, was never acquiesced iu by the Lords Slane, who appear to have absen- ted themselves from Pari, till the cause of dissension was removed by Edward IV., who created Lord Gormanston [I.] a ViBcount [I.] It must be confessed that had it not been for the express declaration iu these Acts of Pari. (1460 and 1462) one would have been inclined to have assigned to the the Barons of Slane the pre- cedency over Gormanston. ( f ) See vol. i, p. xviii (preface) note " a," and p. 172, note " f ' sub " Athenry " as to some distinction between " liaru " and " Ihmtitlttt " iu the early Irish Barouies.
