Library Forum

Sheila, in your post of 24/6/2019 re Thomas McNamara of Glandree, you have implied that the earlier Tithe Applotment Books' measurement of acreage is in Irish acres and the Griffiths Valuation' measurements are in English acres. Can you kindly clarify for me where Griffiths makes this distinction clear, or where your knowledge of the fact is gleaned?

many thanks, Kerry

Hi Kerry

Yes, I have found a couple of sites that say that Irish acres were used in Tithes and that statute acres (English acres) were used in Griffith’s Valuation. But first I should explain that, in the case of Ayle, Upper, I wasn’t comparing Tithes with Griffith’s - I was comparing the particulars regarding Ayle, Upper, which were provided to anyone interested in buying the McNamara estate i(1850), with the acreage given in Griffith’s Valuation (1856).

When an estate, which was up for sale by the Encumbered Estates Court, was advertised in the newpaper, there was a line at the bottom of the ad saying that the particulars were available from so-and-so (some solicitor’s office). The link I gave in my posting was to the particulars given for Ayle, Upper. Those particulars show who the sitting tenants were and what kind of tenancies they held – some tenancies were due for renewal each year, one was for 3 lives. Older tenancies were tended to be more secure than the newer ones. This kind of thing was of interest to buyers.

Irish acres were often used in advertisments because people in Ireland thought in terms of Irish acres. Although the statute acre (English acre) had been the official measure for 100 years, Irish acres were still used in conversations between older farmers right up to the 1950s. As for the Irish mile – some people maintain that the Irish mile never went away!

Tithes (see fourth paragraph): http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarc ... utmore.jsp

Griffith’s (see box on the right): https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com ... fiths.html

Sheila

Again, many thanks to you Sheila - for your prompt response & helpful clarification.

kind regards, Kerry