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

41 Presentment books can contain hundreds of presentments approving infrastructural improvements and their importance to researchers is clear. If an unbroken series of presentment books is available then changes over time can be examined, but even individual volumes present a wealth of information for local, social, cultural, economic and family history research. The spring 1799 Clare presentment, for example, reveals the potential of these sources for researchers (Table 4). First, we are presented with the names of the justices (Hon. Justice Day and Mr Prime Sergeant Daly), the high sheriff, George Studdert of Kilkishin, and the twenty-three man grand jury, which included the county’s MPs, Hugh Massey, the jury foreman, and Hon. Francis Nathaniel Burton. Though Catholics could be jurors at this time, we can be reasonably confident that most, if not all, of the twenty-three were Protestant. The 309 presentments listed in the volume deal with various aspects of daily life in Clare, from 16 cases of compensation for malicious ‘houghing’ of animals (cutting their hamstrings), to approval for 100 kms of roadworks. The total amount approved came to £5,576 for this single assizes sitting, approximately €7 million today. 47 This sum was on the low side for the county; the average spring cess between 1793 and 1804 was almost £8,300, and in spring 1806 it reached £16,000. Table 4. Abstract of presentments approved for Co. Clare, spring 1799. Barony No. of presentments Perches, road Charges Barony tax County at large 76 0 £1,220:4:7 ½ Bunratty 34 2,623 £548:5:2 £790:11:7 Burren 10 965 £228:15:7 £357:2:4 ¾ Clonderlaw 16 1,527.5 £246:6:11 1/2 £399:3:6 ¾ Corcomroe 19 1,710 £381:19:7 £487:8:8 ¾ Ibrickan 21 1,840 £314:11:8 £445:6:4 ¼ Inchiquin 24 1,956 £429:4:3 ½ £749:2:0 ½ Islands 19 1,713 £367:4:6 £476:15:8 ½ Moyarta 22 2,625 £483:18:10 £602:16:2 ½ Tulla 52 4,505.5 £861:12:7 ½ £1,268:1:4 ½ Houghing 16 £269:8:1 ½