A fiant was a writ issued to the Irish Chancery mandating the issue of letters patent under the Great Seal of Ireland. The name fiant comes from the opening words of the document, Fiant litterae patentes, Latin for "Let letters patent be made". [1] Fiants were typically issued by the chief governor of Ireland, under his privy seal; [2] or sealed by the Secretary of State, who served as "Keeper of the Privy Seal of Ireland", just as the English Secretary of State did in England. [3] Fiants dealt with matters ranging from appointments to high office and important government activities, to grants of pardons to the humblest of the native Irish. [4] Fiants relating to early modern Ireland are an important primary source for the period for historians and genealogists. [5] The Tudor fiants were especially numerous, many relating to surrender and regrant. [2] A fiant often provides more information than the ensuing letters patent recorded on patent rolls. [6] There are also fiants for which the patent roll does not list any letters patent, either because none were issued or because those issued were never enrolled, through accident or abuse. [7] Prior to the Act of Explanation 1665, letters patent were enrolled (if at all) after they were granted; under the act, the fiant was enrolled first, and the letters issued afterwards. [8] Thereafter the rolls, which were catalogued in the 19th century, give the same information as the original fiants.
The Public Record Office of Ireland (PROI) held Chancery fiants from 1521 (Henry VIII) up to 1891 (Victoria), [2] as well as Crown and Hanaper fiants (1619–1873), [9] Privy Council of Ireland fiant books (1711–1832), [10] and Signet Office (Chief Secretary for Ireland) fiant books (1796–1830). [11] The originals were destroyed in the 1922 explosion in the Four Courts. The fiants of the Tudor sovereigns had been calendared and published from 1875–90. [12] [13] An 1820s manuscript calendar of the fiants of James I and Charles I is available in the PROI (now the National Archives of Ireland). [14]
The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive franchise, similar to the unreformed House of Commons in contemporary Great Britain. Catholics were disqualified from sitting in the Irish parliament from 1691, even though they comprised the vast majority of the Irish population.
The Great Seal of the Irish Free State is either of two seals affixed to certain classes of official documents of the Irish Free State :
A privy seal is the personal seal of a reigning monarch, used to authenticate official documents of a personal nature, in contrast to a great seal, which is used for documents of greater importance.
The Great Seal of Northern Ireland is the seal used for Northern Ireland. The great seal is in the possession of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The Great Seal was created by the Irish Free State Act 1922 on the creation of Northern Ireland for possession by the Governor of Northern Ireland to "be used for all matters in Northern Ireland for which the Great Seal of Ireland was theretofore used".
The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, the duties of the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General for Ireland were taken over by the Attorney General of Ireland. The office of Solicitor-General for Ireland was abolished at the same time for reasons of economy. This led to repeated complaints from the first Attorney General of Ireland, Hugh Kennedy, about the "immense volume of work" which he was now forced to deal with single-handedly.
His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executive power in conjunction with the chief governor of Ireland, who was viceroy of the British monarch. The council evolved in the Lordship of Ireland on the model of the Privy Council of England; as the English council advised the king in person, so the Irish council advised the viceroy, who in medieval times was a powerful Lord Deputy. In the early modern period the council gained more influence at the expense of the viceroy, but in the 18th century lost influence to the Parliament of Ireland. In the post-1800 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Irish Privy Council and viceroy Lord Lieutenant had formal and ceremonial power, while policy formulation rested with a Chief Secretary directly answerable to the British cabinet. The council comprised senior public servants, judges, and parliamentarians, and eminent men appointed for knowledge of public affairs or as a civic honour.
Letters close are a type of obsolete legal document once used by the Pope, the British monarchy and by certain officers of government, which is a sealed letter granting a right, monopoly, title, or status to an individual or to some entity such as a corporation. These letters were personal in nature, and were delivered folded and sealed, so that only the recipient could read their contents. This type of letter contrasts with the better-known letters patent.
The term "chancery hand" can refer to either of two distinct styles of historical handwriting.
The patent rolls are a series of administrative records compiled in the English, British and United Kingdom Chancery, running from 1201 to the present day.
Robert Braybrooke (1336/7-1404) was a medieval cleric and King's Secretary. He was Dean of Salisbury and Bishop of London.
William Honnyng (1520–1569) was an English Member of Parliament and Tudor Court official who served as Clerk of the Signet and Clerk of the Privy Council under Henry VIII and Edward VI.
The Clerks of the Signet were English officials who played an intermediate role in the passage of letters patent through the seals. For most of the history of the position, four clerks were in office simultaneously.
A chancery or chancellery is a medieval writing office, responsible for the production of official documents. The title of chancellor, for the head of the office, came to be held by important ministers in a number of states, and remains the title of the heads of government in modern Germany and Austria. Chancery hand is a term for various types of handwriting associated with chanceries.
Aughrim is a townland in the Parish of Tomregan, Barony of Tullyhaw, County Cavan, Ireland.
The Principal Secretary of State, or Principal Secretary of the Council, was a government office in the Kingdom of Ireland. It was abolished in 1801 when Ireland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union 1800.
Thomas Cantock, Quantock or Cantok was an English-born cleric and judge in medieval Ireland, who held the offices of Bishop of Emly and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
The Great Seal of Ireland was the seal used until 1922 by the Dublin Castle administration to authenticate important state documents in Ireland, in the same manner as the Great Seal of the Realm in England. The Great Seal of Ireland was used from at least the 1220s in the Lordship of Ireland and the ensuing Kingdom of Ireland, and remained in use when the island became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922), just as the Great Seal of Scotland remained in use after the Act of Union 1707. After 1922, the single Great Seal of Ireland was superseded by the separate Great Seal of the Irish Free State and Great Seal of Northern Ireland for the respective jurisdictions created by the partition of Ireland.
The Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper was a civil servant within the Irish Chancery in the Dublin Castle administration. His duties corresponded to the offices of Clerk of the Crown and Clerk of the Hanaper in the English Chancery. Latterly, the office's most important functions were to issue writs of election to the Westminster Parliament, both for the House of Commons and for Irish representative peer in the House of Lords.
The Crown Office, also known as the Crown Office in Chancery, is a section of the Ministry of Justice. It has custody of the Great Seal of the Realm, and has certain administrative functions in connection with the courts and the judicial process, as well as functions relating to the electoral process for House of Commons elections, to the keeping of the Roll of the Peerage, and to the preparation of royal documents such as warrants required to pass under the royal sign-manual, fiats, letters patent, etc. In legal documents, the Crown Office refers to the office of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery.
Alan Cooke was a distinguished civilian lawyer and politician of the seventeenth century. Born in England, he spent many years in Ireland as the surrogate judge of the Irish Court of Admiralty. He also sat in the Irish House of Commons in two Parliaments, and for a time he was a figure of some political importance.
Year | Report No. | Appendix No. | Command paper | Reign | Dates | Fiant Nos. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1875 | 7th | App X | C. 1175 | Henry VIII | 1521–47 | 1–548 |
1886 | 18th | App VI p.147 | C. 4755 | Henry VIII | 1521–47 | 64a..548 [6793–6797] |
1876 | 8th | App IX | C. 1469 | Edward VI | 1547–53 | 1–1257 |
1886 | 18th | App VI p.148 | C. 4755 | Edward VI | 1547–53 | 159a..1147a [6798–6807] |
1877 | 9th | App IV | C. 1702 | Philip and Mary | 1553–58 | 1–276 |
1886 | 18th | App VI p.150 | C. 4755 | Philip and Mary | 1553–58 | 277–279 [6808–6811] |
1878 | 11th | App 3 | C. 2311 | Elizabeth | 1558–70 | 1–1614 |
1880 | 12th | App V | C. 2583 | Elizabeth | 1570–76 | 1615–2935 |
1881 | 13th | App IV | C. 2929 | Elizabeth | 1576–83 | 2936–4253 |
1883 | 15th | App I | C. 3676 | Elizabeth | 1583–86 | 4254–4935 |
1884 | 16th | App II | C. 4062 | Elizabeth | 1586–95 | 4936–5973 |
1885 | 17th | App IV | C. 4487 | Elizabeth | 1596–1601 | 5974–6564 |
1886 | 18th | App VI | C. 4755 | Elizabeth | 1601–03 | 6565–6792 |
1889 | 21st | App III | C. 5835 | Elizabeth | 1558–1603 | Index A-C |
1890 | 22nd | App VI | C. 6180.i | Elizabeth | 1558–1603 | Index D-Z |