"F. Colmanus O'Shaughnessy, S. Theologiæ Magister Alumnus Athenrier sis Cænobii oriundus e præclarissima Familia de Gort in Galviensi Agro, Conacia cujus Nobilitatem antiquitatem et Integritatem qui non novit Hiberniam non novit. Lovanii in Ordinem Fratrum Prædicatorum ex Officiali Militari Cooptatus ibidem Studia confecit atque docere incepit Anno 1706. Missionibus Apostolicis Hiberniæ maturus eoque profectus laudabiliter se gessit Sermone et peculiari Morum Candore in plurimis Conacia Regionibus ingenti cum Animarum Fructu prædicans. Die 30 Aprilis, 1726 in Comitiis Dublinii celebratis electus fuit Provincialis in locum Stephani nostri Mac-Egan Episcopi tunc Clonmacnoisensis nuperrime laudati. Anno 1736, à Clemente XII., Pontifice Maximo renunciatus fuit Episcopus Ossoriensis vulgo Ossory in Lagenia sub Metropoli Dubliniensi atque Dublinii in Monialium nostrarum Aedibus Sacris consecratus a D. Joanne Linegar ejusdem Urbis Archipræsule assistentibus F. Stephano Mac-Egan mox laudato Midensi et F. Michael Mac-Donogh, Kilmorensi Episcopis ex ordine nostro ut ex nuper dictis liquet assumptis. Anno 1744 defuncto Patruele suo Tribuno Gulielmo O'Shaghnussy in Galliarum Partibus quo pater ipsius Rogerius Regem Jacobum secutus fuerat Anno 1691, cam ob Causam Castro suo Allodiali Gortensi amplissimisque circumjacentibus Prædiis ultra Summam bis Mille et quinquies centum Librarum Sterlingarum id est decies Mille Scutorum Romanorum annuatim valentibus privatus a Principe Arausicano nuncupato Gulielmo III. qui eadem concessit Equiti Thomæ Prendergast durante duntaxat vita laudatorum Rogerii et Gulielmi O'Shagnussy isto inquam Gulielmo defuncto Colmanus noster O'Shaghnessy etsi jam Episcopus Litem inchoavit qua Familiæ suæ Primipilus Dublinii in Curia Communium Placitorum contra tunc et adhuc existentem Equitem Thomam pariter Prendergast primo dicti filium ad Bona illa hæreditaria recuperanda atque Præsule nostro e vivis sublato in jure successit Germanus ipsius Frater Robocus O'Shaghnussy Armiger hujusque nunc succedit Filius Josephus O'Shaghnussy Armiger. Eques autem Thomas Prendergast acriter se defendit non quidem Justitia Causæ suæ sed Pecunia et Potentia unus quippe est e Senatoribus Regni in Parlamento sedens insuperque Regni a Sanctioribus Consiliis ad Differentiam Domini O'Shaghnussy qui Fidei Catholicæ est Cultor suisque hæreditariis Bonis exutus."-pp. 505, 506.

The Lord Bishop of Ossory died in France in 1748.

III. Roebuc, or Robert, who became Chief of his name, on the death of his elder brother Colman, Lord Bishop of Ossory. He married Eleanor, eldest daughter of Ulick Burke, Esq., of Ower, and his wife Catherine, daughter of Stephen Lynch, Esq., of Doughicska, by his wife Eleanor, daughter of Sir John Browne, of the Neal, ancestor of the Lords Kilmaine. This Chieftain claimed the estates of his sept in 1744, and died on the 8th of August, 1754, having had issue-

I. Joseph.

II. William.

III. Mary.

IV. Catharine.

V. Ellis.

VI. Eleanor.

Joseph O'Shaughnessy, the eldest son, who succeeded his father as Chief of Cincal Aodh, also claimed his hereditary estates, and a protracted lawsuit ensued in consequence. On the 15th of June, 1769, the Court decided against him. The unfortunate Chieftain then became a Protestant, in name only, bought his younger brother William's claim, and, being assisted by his friends and relatives, appealed to the English House of Lords to have the decision reversed; but on the 16th of February, 1770, his case was dismissed, and thus this ancient and aboriginal sept were unjustly deprived of their inheritance; a family of whom De Burgo says, in his Hibernia Dominicana,''Cujus nobilitatem antiquitatem et integritatem qui non novit Hiberniam non novit.'

Arms-Argent, a castle triple-towered azure.
Supporters-Two lions, or.

Crest-Over an Esquire's helmet an arm in armour, the hand holding a long spear, all ppr.

Motto-Fortis et stabilis.

THE SEPT OF PRENDERGAST.

6

The family of Prendergast, to whom the neat town of Gort owes its origin, is one of the oldest Anglo-Norman septs in Ireland. Its patriarch, Maurice Lord de Prendergast, near Haverford, West, landed in Ireland on the 2nd of May, 1169, in the interest of his noble kinsman Richard de Clare, the great Earl of Pembroke, surnamed Strongbow. He is styled Nobilis' by Dowling; Vir probus et strenuus,' by Geraldus; a gentleman born and bred,' 'a righte valiaunte captain,' a lustie and hardy man,' by Holinshed; and his doings with his honourable conduct towards a native Irish prince, MacGilla Phadruig, Prince of Ossory, and Chieftain of the sept of Fitzpatrick, fill a very interesting part in the celebrated poem on the Conquest of Ireland,' originally supposed by Sir George Carew, the President of Munster, to have been composed by O'Regan, the Secretary of Dermod MacMurrogh, King of Leinster, and which was lately republished in the original Norman-French, by Francisque Michael. This Sir Maurice, who was of Welsh origin, was a brave and worthy knight; and in reward for his many eminent services, received a grant of the lands of Fernegenelan, to hold the same by the service of ten knights. In 1207; John, King of England, and Lord of Ireland, seeing that the nobles of Meath and Leinster were strongly opposed to giving effect to the royal writs of rights, &c., &c., &c., sent mandates to Walter, Robert, and Hugh de Lacy, Knights, Lords of Ulster and Meath, Sir Richard de Tuite, Sir Philip

de Prendergast, &c., &c., wherein his Majesty expressed his surprise that they should attempt to establish a new form of trial without his assent, or seek his Justiciary to deliver to them, without his orders, what had been taken at the hands of the Crown by royal precept; and he commanded not to 'default' towards him their lord; and declared, with God's and his rights, he will acquire according to time and place.'

In 1229, King Henry III., summoned Sir Gerald de Prendergast as one of the Fideles' of Ireland to a military muster, about to be held at Portsmouth, for service in Brittany.

In 1244, King Henry again summoned Sir Gerald to attend in the war with Scotland. The said Sir Gerald made a grant of the Abbey of Canons Regular, at Enniscorthy (of which he was patron), to be a cell of the noble house of St. Thomas á Becket in Dublin. In 1230, Thomas de Prendergast was slain by the Irish. In 1242, the List of the Barons and Knights of Connaught contains the name of this Sir Gerald.

In 1278, Jeffrey de Prendergast sued Paganus de Hinteberg for the estate of his mother in lienera, in the county of Limerick, by wager of battle, which was fought according to all the formalities of the time, and the appellant gained the day.

In 1326, Jeffrey de Prendergast was one of the Commissioners of Array for Kilkenny county, and also for Tipperary.

In 1329, Gerald de Prendergast was slain. In 1356, King Edward committed to Thomas Hamilton the custody of the manor of Drongan, of which Philip de Prendergast had died scised, to hold during the minority of Robert, his son and heir. In 1328, John, the son of Gerald Prendergast, was appointed Guardian of the Peace in Tipperary, with power and commission' to raise men-at-arms therein.

In 1414, Robert Prendergast was Abbot of the Mitred House of the Blessed Virgin in Dublin.

In 1585, Edward Prendergast was one of the Representatives in Parliament for the county of the Crosses of Tipperary.

In 1646, James Prendergast, Esq., of Tallivellan, was one of the Confederate Catholics of Kilkenny.

The Royal Declaration of Gratitude, contained in the Act of Settlement, includes Ensign John Prendergast.

In 1677, Jeffrey Prendergast received a confirmatory grant of 1,104 acres of land in Mayo. In the same year, Walter Prendergast had a confirmatory grant for the castle of Kinkelly,' and 136 acres in the same county. In 1691, Ensign James Prendergast, of Harristown, county Kilkenny, was outlawed, as was James Prendergast, Esq., of Butlerstown, county Wexford. Thomas Prendergast, Esq., of Ballyfernogue, and Nicholas Prendergast, Esq., of Enniscorthy, were attainted. Geoffry Prendergast, Esq., forfeited his estates in Galway and Mayo. After the last siege of Limerick, in 1691, Edward Prendergast, Esq., Lieutenant-Colonel in Hugh Sutherland's Regiment

of Horse, went to France, where he was appointed to the same rank in Colonel Sheldon's Regiment of Horse.

Sir Maurice de Prendergast, Knt., who died Prior of Kilmainham, the chief house of the Knights of St. John, of Jerusalem, in Ireland, left several sons, of whom Gerald was founder of the family called Mac Morres, who anciently held the barony of Clanmorris, in the county of Mayo, with the chief seats of Brees and Castlemacgarrett, at the time of the composition of the province of Connaught, under the Lord Deputy Sir John Perrott, while Philip, the eldest son, was ancestor of the existing Prendergasts. His successor Gerald loft two daughters, co-heiresses, of whom the eldest carried the barony of Kerricunihy, near Cork, and the lordship of Beauver, to her husband, Sir John de Cogan, from whose descendants, styled Lords Cogan of Beauver (or incorrectly Belvoir), it came to the Desmond Fitzgeralds; whilst the youngest married Sir Maurice de Rochfort, also summoned to Parliament in her right, and gave him the lands of Duffrin and Enniscorthy, in Wexford. Gerald de Prendergast thus leaving no male issue, the representation of the family devolved on the line of his brother William, who acquired the lordship of Newcastle near Clonmel, in exchange for other lands, from Ralph de Wygornia, temp. King Henry III. On this estate, his direct male descendant, Harris Prendergast, Esq., Q. C.. eldest son of the late Sir Jeffrey Prendergast of the Gort family, still possesses a chief rent. Though not Peers of Parliament (their estates lying in the palatinate of the Earls of Ormonde) the Newcastle Prendergasts were deemed Barons, and held the same rank as the Comerfords, Barons of Danganmore. In the old Harleian MSS. preserved in the British Muscum, Nos. 1,425 and 5,866, they are placed among the Feudal Barons, and above the Commoners: indeed, above the Barons of Dunboyne.

In the List of Peers in the British Museum, Add. MSS. 4,814, compiled about the year 1670, Prendergast, Lord of Clonmell, by some of Corke alsoe,' is placed at the head of the Viscounts and Tyny King-at-arms, to King James II., also styles him 'Viscount.' See Add. MSS., No. 4,814.

Jeffrey Prendergast, Esq., of Newcastle, married Joan, co-heir to the Right Hon. Lord Cahir, by his second wife Ellen Fitzgerald, granddaughter of Thomas, twelfth Earl, and sister and heir of James, thirteenth Earl of Desmond, and, therefore, heir general to the Tipperary Berminghams, known as MacFcaris More. The title of Cahir being granted in fee, she was heir to that dignity; for claiming which, however, her grandson James Prendergast was slain at Cahir Castle, by Edmond, third Lord Dunboyne, who had married the heir of Thomas, second Lord Cahir of the new creation. This Jeffrey's eldest son Thomas, marrying Lady Eleanor Butler, sister of Walter, eleventh Earl of Ormonde, had three sons-James, who married the daughter of Sir John Fitzgerald, of Dromana, Knt., but was slain by Lord Dunboyne, on the 12th of December, 1627, for which that nobleman was tried by the House of Lords, but acquitted, the Lord Dockwra only voting him guilty. This James having died without issue, and Robert, the next brother, being of unsound

mind, Edmond inherited the property. He was afterwards deprived of the family estates by Cromwell, but recovered a portion of them at the Restoration. He was succeeded by his eldest son Jeffrey, the father of James, who raised a regiment for the service of James II, and of Edmond, who was Lieutenant Colonel of the King's Regiment of Horse in the Irish Brigade-a regiment known as Sheldon's, then Nugent's, and afterwards FitzJames', and highly distinguished at Cremona, Mantua, Spires, and Malplaquet. Jeffrey's brother Thomas, who married the heiress of the attainted Lord Condon, of Cloghlea, was father of Jeffrey, from whom the existing Prendergasts derive; and of Thomas, the first of the family, who was created a Baronet, who possessed the estates of the aboriginal sept of O'Shaughnessy.

Sir Thomas Prendergast being an adherent of King James, fought on the side of that monarch during the civil war, and, being a brave soldier, was induced by Captain Porter (who afterwards betrayed his confederates) to join in a plot to restore King James to his throne. But finding that the scheme had been against that Monarch's intention, turned into one for the assassination of William III., he took steps to save the King's life, which, eventually led to the discovery of the whole plot, as fully detailed in King James's Memoirs (Dalrymple), and more recently by Lord Macaulay, where it will be seen that his conduct, under very difficult circumstances, was that of a man of probity and honour. In return for this service, he was permitted, as well as his family, to enjoy such portions of their forfeited estates in Tipperary, as had not already been granted away; and in the following year, 1697, Colonel Gustavus Hamilton, afterwards Viscount Boyne, who had been given the estate of Captain Roger O'Shaughnessy, of Gortinsiguara, Chief of his name, forfeited in 1690, having received a larger property in exchange, Gortinsiguara was granted to Thomas Prendergast, Esq. In 1699 he was created a Baronet of Ireland, by William III., and was also knighted. He was M. P. for Monaghan, from the first year of Queen Anne's reign, to his death, which took place at the great battle of Malplaquet, 1709, where he was slain, having been previously raised to the rank of Brigadier-General on the 1st of January in that year. He married Penelope, only sister of William, Earl of Cadogan, K. T., &c., who succeeded the famous Duke of Marlborough, as Commander-in-chief of the British forces, by whom he had issue—

I. Sir Thomas, who succeeded his father.

II. Juliana, who married the Right Hon. the Earl of Meath, but had no issue.

III. Elizabeth, who married, first, Sir John Dixon Hamon, Bart.; and secondly, Charles Smyth, Esq., M. P., by whom she had issue.

Sir Thomas Prendergast, the second Baronet, succeeded his father in the O'Shaughnessy property. He was Postmaster-General for Ireland, M. P. for Chichester in the English Parliament, through the interest of his relative the Duke of Richmond, and M. P. for Clonmel, in that of Ireland, the ancient property of his family being in that neighbourhood. Sir Thomas, who was a