People, Place and Power – The Grand Jury System in Ireland

39 Contents of a presentment book Presentment books contain a wealth of information about many aspects of a county’s society. Printed abstracts, the most common surviving records, were generally produced in a fairly standard format. Most opening pages list the names of the justices, the high sheriff, the members of the grand jury, and the date of the assizes. After this, the presentments are listed. Some presentments were chargeable against the whole county (to be funded by all cess payers) and others against the local barony (funded only by taxpayers in that district). The region to be taxed (county or barony) is clearly identified for each presentment, usually by grouping the presentments under headings. County charges included: salaries for county officers, county printing costs, payments for transporting prisoners, funding for bridges and repairs to main roads, and money for the upkeep of county buildings such as schools, session houses, infirmaries and the county gaol. Repairs to local and regional roads and payments to barony constables were charged against the individual baronies. A wide variety of tasks appeared under a county’s presentments; notable curiosities include payment for killing ‘vermin’, including otters, magpies, ‘scald crows’, foxes and rats (Fig. 15). Fig. 15. Payment to Peter Keeffe (5 shillings) for killing an otter, Co. Wexford, summer 1818. Wexford County Archive, Grand Jury Presentments, County Wexford, 1817-23 (WXCA/P 436). A typical example of a presentment is shown in Fig. 17, approving the repair of a short section of the road between Athlone and Longford. The individuals responsible for organising the task are named (George Ledwith and William Sandys esquires), the repairs are detailed (224 perches [about 1.2 kms] ‘of the great road’ from ‘the cross road leading from Athlone to Ballymahon’ to the bridge at Shrule), and the road surface specified (‘repairing & gravelling twelve feet wide’). The £14 required was to be charged against the county and delivered to the county treasurer. Although Ledwith and Sandys were authorized to organize the job, the work would have been performed by day labourers. It is important to note that a grand jury could only specify repairs within its own county, and it is common to see presentments being approved, conditional on a neighbouring county making a comparable presentment if a proposed improvement crossed a county boundary.

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