Arborealis

[ arbor : tree ] + [ borealis : northern ]

Memorials of Irish deeds: selected transcripts & extracts, with surname indexes, 1708–1943

Home > Records > Irish Deeds

Image of the Registry of Deeds office, King's Inns, Dublin, in which Memorials of Irish deeds are housed.
King’s Inns, Henrietta Street, Dublin, in which building is also housed The Registry of Deeds. Photograph by “informatique” (2007); edited by Alison Kilpatrick (2021). Digital image online at Wikimedia Commons commonswikimedia.org (accessed 31st Jan. 2021); posted under Creative Commons Licence CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. — Readers are encouraged to visit the Creative Commons link, to learn what rights and restrictions attach to re-use of this image.

The Memorials of Irish Deeds section is under reconstruction. (26th Nov. 2023)

This section of Arborealis contains indexes and selected transcripts of Irish deeds, which have been filed as memorials (handwritten copies or extracts) in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin.

Contents :

Introduction :

Registration of all memorials of Irish deeds and conveyances arose from the Irish government’s Act, the 6th Anne, cap. 2, s. 3. As a result, any transaction involving land was recorded from April 1708ff. 1 The nature of these transactions ranged from leases and sub-leases, sales, mortgages (employing land as security) to marriage settlements and, less frequently, wills.

Unfortunately, Penal Laws 2 were also enacted which delimited a significant proportion of the population —Roman Catholics and for a time, Presbyterians— from equal participation in the laws governing ownership or leaseholds of land. It was only after more than one hundred years of incremental repeals of the penal laws and land agitation that this system was finally upended in the 1880s. 3

Readers might find these pages on Arborealis useful for interpretation of the Memorials: a short-list glossary of legal terms and an outline of the Irish statutes governing the registration of deeds.

What is a memorial?

A “memorial” of a deed is a partial copy or restatement of the deed. A restatement usually takes the form of a summary, abstract, or extract. Occasionally, a memorial provides a nearly complete transcript of the original text, yet it is still a memorial. The legal steps for writing the required components, witnessing the memorial, and presenting it for registration, and other specifications were enshrined in legislation—for which, see “Irish statutes (1869)” in the Quick Links section, below.

Since a memorial is not the original deed (the primary source), but rather a summary, extract, or near copy of that document, a memorial is a secondary source of evidence for research. The consequences of our reliance upon memorials as a secondary source are several, for example: errors can be made during the preparation of a derivative of that document, whether a summary, abstract, near copy, or full transcript; and many memorials included only the minimum reporting requirements, giving a less complete snapshot of the transaction than is found in the more detailed memorials. For prime examples of rather opaque language, see the link to our blog article, “for the considerations therein mentioned,” listed in the Blog Articles section, below.

Quick links to other pages :

Scope of Irish deeds covered :

Most of the indexes and transcripts pertain to Alison Kilpatrick’s family history research interests. However, some of these might be of interest to other family and local historians.

These family history interests define the geographic scope of these memorials, the majority of which fall within the barony of Dungannon in county Tyrone. Memorials for townlands elsewhere in the county of Tyrone and in the counties of Armagh, Monaghan, and Tipperary will also be included.

The earliest reference found dates back to the third quarter of the 17th century, and our eventual objective is to trace ancestral interests in registered deeds into the early 19th century.

Notes about the transcripts & extracts :

  1. 1708 was the first year in which memorials (handwritten copies) of deeds were required to be filed in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin. However, a small number of the earliest memorials contain references to years pre-dating 1708.
  2. Date of execution versus date of registration:—Each memorial contains two dates:
    1. the date of execution, which was the date on which the original deed (of which the memorial is a handwritten copy) was signed and the transaction described therein was completed; and
    2. the date of registration, on which the memorial (copy) was filed in the Registry of Deeds. On rare occasions, a memorial was registered on the same date that the deed was executed (signed). Normally, however, there was a short interval of days or weeks between the signing of the deed and the registration of the memorial.
  3. For each transcript, the transcriber has inserted footnotes which are hyperlinked to “Transcriber’s notes” at the bottom of the page.
  4. Please cite your sources. Look for “Source citation for this page” in the End Notes published at the bottom of every page on Arborealis.

Blog articles :

See also :

  • Eustace, P. Beryl. Registry of Deeds Dublin. Abstracts of Wills. Dublin: Stationery Office.
    • Vol. I, 1708–1748 (pub. 1956)
    • Vol II, 1746–1785 (pub. 1954)
  • Ellis, Eilish and P. Beryl Eustace, eds. Registry of Deeds Dublin. Abstracts of Wills. Vol. III, 1785–1832. Dublin: Stationery Office for the Manuscripts Commission, 1984.
  • Family Search, Int’l. – Transcripts of memorials of deeds, conveyances, and wills, 1708–1929 ?. familysearch.org
  • Reddan, Nick, Project Webmaster. Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland irishdeedsindex.net, a volunteer website managed by Mr. Reddan.
  • Phair, P.B. “Guide to the Registry of Deeds.” Analecta Hibernica. No. 23 (1966), pp. 257, 259–276. Dublin: The Irish Manuscripts Commission, Ltd.
  • Walsh, Patrick. Introduction to the Memorials and Transcription Books at the Registry of Deeds tailte.ie/registration/. An tÚdarás Clárúcháin Maoine / Property Registration Authority, with the Irish Research Council / An Chomhairle um Thaighde in Éirinn, Trinity College Dublin / Coláiste na Tríonóide, Baile Átha Cliath, and University of Glasgow.
  • Wikpedia. History of English land law. en.wikipedia.org (accessed 7th Jan. 2024).

Footnotes :

  1. Furlong, John Smith, and Edmund R. Digues Latouche. “Registration of Deeds.” Chapter II in, The Law of Landlord and Tenant as Administered in Ireland. Vol. I. Dublin: Edward Ponsonby, 1869. (pp 456–71). ↩︎
  2. Wikipedia. Penal laws (Ireland) . en.wikipedia.org ↩︎
  3. See: O’Neill, Thomas P. “The Irish Land Question, 1830–1850.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. Vol. 44, No. 175 (Aug. 1955), pp. 325–336. ↩︎

End notes :

Source citation for this page: Kilpatrick, Alison. Irish deeds: Indexes and selected transcripts, 1708–1943. Published to Arborealis, online at arborealis.ca/records/irish-deeds/, accessed [insert date].

All rights reserved. © Alison Kilpatrick.

Updated 7th Jan. 2024.