Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/278

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. II. OCT. 1, 'i

FiTzSTEPHEN FAMILY (9 th S. ii. 169). ! am of opinion that the descent of the Fitz- Stephen race in Ireland can only be traced through the Earls of Barrymore and the other various descendants of this Anglo-Nor- man family.

"Robert FitzStephen had two sons, Rudolph and Meredak (who died in Cork, 14 March, 1179/80, greatly lamented), and was slain in 1185 with Milo de Cpgan the younger by treachery, having, ac- cording to Giraldus Cambrensis, but a little before married the daughter of Milo de Cogan." Smith's 'History of Cork.'

This description seems to dispose of any probability of lineal descent from Robert ; but through his sister descendants of the family of FitzStephen may yet be traced in Ireland, although the race appears to be extinct in England.

"In 1179 this Robert FitzStephen donated three cantreds in the co. of Cork [of which presently] to his sister's son, Philip de Barry." Smith's 'History of Cork.'

It is a singular coincidence well worth record- ing that there is still extant, and in perfect preservation, in the Public Record Office, London, the identical confirmatory charter of these particular cantreds,* viz., O'Leathan or Ui-Liathain, Muscherie Donegan, and Killede, made in 1209 by King John to William de Barry, son of the aforesaid Philip. Thii document, or membrane as it is called, wa signed at Woodstock, anterior to that oi Magna Charta at Runnymede, of which latter historic parchment there is now no trace whatever, although the simple record of th past still lives. (See 'Rotuli Chartarum, 9 Johann., vol. i. p. 172, Pub. Record Office London.)

We hear of a famous descendant of this William de Barry (who may be called the founder of the great family of that name through Mr. Crofton Croker, who mentions that

"the castle of Buttevant [from which town the Barrys took their Viscountcy] was the chief resi dence of the clan of Donegan, who rejected everj offer of the English to surrender it, and repulsec every attempt to take it ; but it was ultimate!) surprised and taken by David de Barry, who gainei it through the treachery of a soldier of the garri son." 'Researches in the South of Ireland,' b Thomas Crofton Croker, 1826.

This David ("Sir") de Barry was Lon Justice of Ireland anno 1267. He subduec the MacCartys, in the county of Cork, whic! family then held supreme rule over th numerous other Munster chiefs as kings o Desmond. Sir David de Barry

hundred villages (Tuckey's ' Cork Remembrancer '
 * A cantred is as much land as contains on

founded Buttevant Abbey, and enlarged the evenue of that of Ballybeg, founded by his grand- ather, the aforesaid Philip de Barry." Smith's- History of Cork.'

Dr. John O'Donovan, M.R.I.A., the highly minent antiquary (see 'Irish Topographical 'oems,' xix.), informs us that this ancient Celtic race of Donegan, after a lapse of nigh upon seven hundred years, and in spite of numerous confiscations, sufferings, and other Usabilities which were common to the Mun- ter families, "is still extant." Therefore, jven upon the ancestral acres, under the un- pretentious frieze coat, descendants of the ancient chiefs, although for centuries deprived of their birthright, are yet to be found ; and Dr. O'Donovan states that " Dr. James Donegan, the author of the ' Greek-English Dictionary,' a native of Charleville " (some of whose relatives have been intimately asso- ciated with Cork since about the middle of bhe last century), is also a scion of this old Milesian sept.

"Dr. Donegan practised in London as a medical doctor from 1820 to 1835, and wrote his well-known Greek and English Lexicon at Hindley Hall, near Wigan, Lancashire, in 1841 (when in bad health), as the guest of Sir Robert Holt Leigh, a classical scholar."

Perhaps this information, quite outside the imperfect reply to the question regarding the FitzStephen family, may prove of some historic interest. CELTIC.

Robert FitzStephen held half the kingdom of Cork by gift of King Henry II. It is said that he died without issue, and that Cork fell to his two nephews, Raymond Carew and Miles Cogan. FitzStephen 's arms appear on the Carew monument in Exeter Cathedral, on the Earl of Totnes's tomb in Stratford -on - Avon Church, and in a stained-glass window in my house, through my representing the Earl by descent from his only sister, Mary, but not according to modern rules of heraldry, for Raymond, surnamed le Gros, left no legitimate issue, and my ancestor, Odo Carew, inherited FitzStephen's lands, which Sir Peter Carew recovered in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He, Sir Peter, also held the Barony of Odrone, which descended to his nephew, George, Earl of Totnes, the last Baron Odrone. P. A. F. S.. might consult Sir John Maclean's 'Biography of Sir Peter Carew,' published by Bell <fc Daldy, London, 1857, 8vo., and the 'Carew Papers,' by the Earl of Totnes, published by the Record Commission. H. H. D.

' COMIN' THRO' THE RYE ' (9 th S. ii. 66, 197). That Burns referred to the Rye Water, a stream in the Cunnynghame division of Ayr- shire, and not, as generally supposed, to a field