Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History (64 page)

whig club
. Following the
regency crisis
, whig clubs were formed in Ireland to press for the continued independence of the Irish parliament, the eradication of corruption in the administration and modest parliamentary reforms. The involvement of ‘patriots' such as Henry Grattan and Lord Charlemont together with up to 90 Irish MPs gave the movement considerable weight but by contemporary European standards theirs was a conservative liberalism.

Whiteboys
(1761–5). An eighteenth-century secret agrarian society, so called because they wore white shirts over their clothes and white cockades. Whiteboys agitated against the spread of pasture,
tithe
and the price of
conacre
land. The movement first emerged in the early years of George III's reign with the spread of pasturage. A hike in cattle prices following an extended outbreak of cattle murrain in Europe accelerated the process. From 1758 – when free importation of cattle into Britain was granted for five years – huge areas of land were turned over to pasture, commons were enclosed and peasants evicted. Whiteboys reacted forcefully to the enclosure of commons. They destroyed fences, dug up ground, houghed (hamstrung) cattle and sent threatening letters. Whiteboys also opposed the rate at which tithe was exacted. The iniquity of the tithe system under which Catholic peasants were compelled to support a body of (frequently non-resident and hostile) Anglican clergymen was compounded in 1736 when the Irish house of commons condemned
tithe agistment
on pasturage for dry and barren cattle and effectively exempted rich graziers from tithe, thereby throwing an increased burden on the poor. Whiteboys waged war against the
tithe-farmer
, struck their own tithe rates and warned tithe-payers against exceeding those rates. They also seized arms to furnish their escapades. As a result tithe was not paid over large areas and landlords feared to distrainfor unpaid rent and avoided impounding trespassing cattle. In 1765 parliament declared all Whiteboy activities to be capital offences and grand juries were empowered to levy compensation on disturbed baronies. Magistrates were empowered to search for arms and compel witnesses and suspects to answer on oath on pain of imprisonment but many cases collapsed in court through intimidation or bribery. Whiteboyism, which was strongest among the Catholic peasantry, the landless and the poor of Munster and parts of Leinster, declined for a number of reasons. Repression and the enrolment of large numbers of volunteers under the direction of magistrates checked the movement and the struggle for survival after the drought and harvest failure of 1765 together with a smallpox epidemic in 1766 sapped its energy. (Donnelly, ‘The Whiteboy movement', pp. 20–54.)

Wide Streets Commission
. Founded in 1758 (31 Geo. III, c. 3), the Wide Street Commission was a statutory planning body which radically altered the streetscape in several parts of the city of Dublin. It began in 1758 by clearing away a confused streetline and warren of houses between the Royal Exchange (now City Hall) and the furthest downstream bridge, Essex Bridge, to create Parliament Street. Later came the planning of the Sackville Street – Carlisle Bridge – Westmoreland Street line which, by way of a reconstructed Dame Street, connected with the first project in Parliament Street. The commission laid out a pattern of broad straight thoroughfares and transformed the Tudor and Stuart city into Georgian Dublin. It was abolished in 1849 (12 & 13 Vict., c. 97) and its powers were vested in Dublin Corporation which retains the commission's records in its archives. (McCullough,
A vision
.)

widow's dower
. Also known as
jointure
, it was the entitlement of the widow of a chief tenant to one-third of the estate of her deceased spouse during her lifetime. In the eighteenth century it was usually an annual allowance equivalent to one-tenth of her dowry.

Williamite Confiscation
(1690–1703). The confiscations which followed the defeat of the Jacobites in the war of 1689–91 led to a decline of one-third in the proportion of land held by Catholics in Ireland from 22% in 1688 to 14% by 1703. This was a relatively mild decline when compared with a proportional Catholic loss of two-thirds after the earlier Cromwellian and Restoration settlements and was largely attributable to the fact that William was anxious to transfer his forces to the continent. To do so, however, he was forced to treat generously with Jacobites who were still in arms at Limerick and Galway. All who were admitted to the benefit of the articles of Limerick and Galway secured their estates (almost one-half of the land in Catholic hands in 1703 was held by
articlemen
). Others were pardoned and, with the war concluded, the government had no appetite to prosecute Jacobites who had not yet been outlawed. Less fortunate were those who were in France when the siege of Limerick ended, those who had been killed or taken prisoner in battle and the many Catholics who had submitted after the defeat at the Boyne. These, together with those who opted to leave and fight in France, suffered forfeiture of their estates.
See
Limerick, Treaty of. (Simms,
The Williamite
.)

wills
. Until the seventeenth century the feudal rule of succession by
primogeniture
made it legally impossible under common law to devise freehold land by will. Nevertheless a landowner could achieve precisely the same effect by conveying his property in trust to family intimates to dispose of upon his death according to the uses declared in his will.
See
use. In 1634 the Irish Statute of Wills (10 Chas. I, sess. 2, c. 2) permitted for the first time the transmission of freehold land by will provided the testament was in writing. No signature or witnesses were required until the
Statute of Frauds
(1695) enacted that all wills involving real estate be signed by the testator in the presence of three witnesses who must also append their signatures in the testator's presence. It was always legal to bequeath personalty (moveable goods or chattels) and oral bequests were regarded as valid until the 1837 Wills Act (7 Will. IV & 1 Vic., c. 26) which required all wills of realty and personalty to be signed and witnessed by two people in each other's presence. Until 1858 testamentary jurisdiction lay with the
ecclesiastical courts
. Thereafter responsibility for proving wills was transferred to a civil court of probate, the Principal Registry in Dublin, whose records (but not the indexes) were consumed by the fire in the Four Courts in 1922. This was a great loss for wills and inventories offer rich pickings to historians re-constructing the social and economic world of earlier societies. The loss was partly mitigated by the acquisition of testamentary extracts compiled from probate records in the nineteenth century by
Sir William Betham
and others and an extensive collection of wills has been assembled by the National Archives courtesy of solicitors' offices throughout the state.
See
probate, use. (Berry,
Register
; ffolliott and O'Byrne, ‘Wills', pp. 157–80; Phair, ‘Sir William Betham', pp. 1–99.)

Windsor, Treaty of
(1172). A concord between Henry II and Rory O'Connor wherein O'Connor acknowledged Henry as his overlord and agreed not to upset the status quo by disturbing those areas, including Leinster and that part of Munster from Dungarvan to Waterford, where the Norman conquest was most complete. O'Connor was to make a tribute of one hide from every ten animals slaughtered. For his part, Henry recognised O'Connor as king of Connacht and empowered him to judge or remove any of that province's lords who rebelled against either man or who refused to pay tribute. When necessary he could call on the assistance of the constable. Henry also announced his intention to make his son, John, king of Ireland. The treaty was broken by Henry in 1177 when he took counties Cork and Limerick into his own hands and granted away Desmond and Thomond.

‘wings'
. Sops to Protestant sensitivities contained in the unsuccessful 1825 Catholic emancipation bill, so called because they were intended to help the bill fly through parliament. They proposed the payment of Catholic clergy from state funds (thereby increasing government leverage over the church) and the disfranchisement of the forty-shilling freeholders. Daniel O'Connell agreed to the ‘wings' to facilitate the bill's passage through parliament. He was criticised for sacrificing the franchise and the issue split the Catholic movement but he recovered. In an open letter the English reformer William Cobbett denounced O'Connell and asked the Irish freeholders: ‘Did you … ever dream that Emancipation could possibly mean disfran chisement?'
See
veto controversy.

winnow
. To remove the chaff from the grain by fanning.

withernam, capias in
. A writ for reprisals or compensation. In an action of
replevin
where goods were unlawfully seized and removed from the jurisdiction of the sheriff so that he was unable to return them to the plaintiff, a writ of
capias in withernam
was issued directing him to seize goods in lieu of those taken and deliver them up to the aggrieved party.

woad
. A herb of the mustard family, the leaves of which were used to make a blue dye.

Wood's halfpence
. In 1722 a controversy arose over the granting of a
patent
to the English iron merchant William Wood to mint an Irish halfpenny. Fearing a debased coinage with the profits going to English speculators and resenting the absence of an Irish mint, the Irish ascendancy raised hell over the issue and the patent was withdrawn. Jonathan Swift helped frustrate the proposal by penning the critical
Drapier's Letters
.

wool-fells
. Unsheared sheepskins.

workhouse
. Workhouses were constructed under the Poor Law Act (1838) for the relief of the poor. They were located centrally in each
poor law union
and 163 were built in the nineteenth century.
See
poor law.

workhouse test
. A principle adopted to ensure that only the genuinely distressed would apply to the workhouse for relief. Conditions within the workhouse were designed to be less attractive and therefore ‘less eligible' than conditions outside. The dietary regime was monotonous and inferior and daily life was characterised by regimentation, discipline and hard labour.

worsted
. A fabric made from closely twisted yarn that was spun from long staple wool to produce a smooth compact finish. It was used for carpet-making, knitting and embroidery.

wreck of the sea
. Goods or cargo cast ashore by the sea from a stricken vessel which were properly crown property but frequently granted to subjects and monastic institutions as a franchise.

writ
. 1: The written command of a law court (judicial writ) or sovereign. Writs were used by the crown to convey grants of lands, to grant commissions or to convey instructions in the form of
charters
, letters
patent
and letters
close
. All writs had to be accounted for. Local officials such as the sheriff must return the writ endorsed with details of action taken in the case 2: A summons used to commence an action (original writ). Until the nineteenth century no action could commence in the common law courts without the issuing of a writ from
chancery
. Specific writs applied in each legal action and failure to select the appropriate writ, however conclusive the evidence, was a guarantee that the suit would fail. Writs were also prohibitively expensive.
See certiorari
, civil bill, error,
forma pauperis, habeas corpus, mandamus, withernam
.

Wyndham Act
(1903). Sponsored by George Wyndham, secretary of state for Ireland, the Irish Land Act (3 Edw. VII, c. 37, 1903) remedied a major deficiency in the earlier
Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act
(1891) which had tied landlord income from the sale of their holdings to government stock. In the intervening years the value of such stock had decreased by a fifth and landlords were disinclined to sell in such circumstances. Wyndham's act replaced the stock with cash payments and, as an added incentive, a 12% bonus on the purchase price was offered. The act abolished the guaranteed deposit stipulation that had been introduced by the 1885
Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act
and which had also proved unattractive to landlords. Henceforth, the land commissioners, through their agents, the estates commissioners, were empowered to purchase whole estates rather than individual holdings. Once agreement was reached between a landlord and his tenants on the terms of the sale and the necessary paperwork completed, all documentation was submitted to the commissioners for consideration. If satisfied, the commissioners advanced the entire purchase price in cash and vested the holdings in the tenants in
fee simple
subject to repayment at the rate of 31/4% over 681/2 years. £150 million was allocated by the government to fund the scheme and about 220,000 holdings were purchased. Two succeeding acts improved the plight of poorer tenants. Under the Evicted Tenants (Ireland) Act (7 Edw. VII, c. 56, 1907) the estates commissioners were given the power of compulsory purchase to acquire the holdings of evicted tenants and reinstate them. Birrell's
Irish Land Act
(1909), which authorised the compulsory purchase of land in congested districts, resulted in the acquisition of 600,000 acres and the sale of 50,000 holdings.

yawl
. A fishing vessel, a wherry.

year day and waste
(Fr.,
ann jour et wast
). A
feudal incident
and a form of
escheat
. The crown was entitled to receive and hold the land of an attainted felon for a year and a day and to profit (waste) its natural resources, in other words, to exact as much profit from the estate for the duration of a year and a day.

Year of Grace
.
See
evangelical revival.

Yelverton's Act
. The 1782 act (21 & 22 Geo. III, c. 47) which, following the repeal of the
Declaratory Act
by the British parliament a month earlier, amended Poyning's Law (1495) and established the legislative independence of the Irish parliament. Henceforth the power of the
lord lieutenant
and the privy councils of Ireland and Britain to alter or originate bills for Ireland was removed. The king retained the power to suppress legislation but neither he nor the parliament at Westminster could alter bills approved by both houses of parliament. A year later the Renunciation Act (23 Geo. III, c. 28) confirmed the right of the Irish parliament to legislate exclusively for Ireland. Yelverton's Act was named for Barry Yelverton, MP for Carrickfergus, who first moved the bill.
See
‘patriot' party.