every reasonably
old family in this generation to collect and set down what should be
remembered about their ancestors for the unborn to come.

My contribution does not profess to be very exhaustive, but it will
serve for want of a better.

When a man claims to be descended from Irish kings, it generally means
that his forbears were bigger scoundrels than he is, for they were
cattle-lifters and marauders, whilst his depredations are probably
disguised under some of the many insidious forms of finance. Just as
every Scotsman is not canny and every American is not cute, so every
Irishman is not what the Saxon believes him to be. But there can be
little doubt what type of men these ancient Irish sovereigns were, and I
regretfully confess I cannot trace my descent from them.

The family of Hussey was of English extraction, according to that rather
valuable book _The Antient and Present State of the County of Kerry_, by
Charles Smith, 1756--the companion volumes dealing with Cork and
Waterford are much less precious. Personally I always understood that
the Husseys hailed from Normandy, as will be seen a few pages on, but
tradition on such a point is not of much value.

Anyway the family of Hussey settled in very early times at Dingle, and
also had several lands and castles in the barony of Corkaquiny.

Dingle was the only town in this barony, and it was incorporated by
Queen Elizabeth in 1585, when she granted it the same privileges which
were enjoyed by Drogheda, with a superiority over the harbours of Ventry
and Smerwick. The Virgin Sovereign also presented the town with L300 for
the purpose of making a wall round it.

The Irish formerly called Dingle Daingean in Cushy, or the fastness of
the Husseys. One of the FitzGeralds, Earl of Desmond, had granted to an
ancestor of my own a considerable tract of land in these parts, namely,
from Castle-Drum to Dingle, or as others say, he gave him as much as he
could walk over in his jackboots in one day. That Hussey built a castle,
said to be the first erected at Dingle, the vaults of which were
afterwards used as the county gaol.

There is mention of this in the grant of a charter to Dingle by King
James I. in the fourth year of his reign: 'The house of John Hussey
granted for a gaol and common hall to the corporation.'

A grim interest lurks in the fact that the dedication of Smith's
_History_ to Lord Newport, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, recites that
'this Kingdom, my lor