* *

TRANSLATION OF AN IRISH DEED OF GIFT.

_(To the Editor of the Mirror.)_

The original deed, of which the subjoined is a translation, was found among
some old records in Birmingham Tower, Castle of Dublin, when that building
was taken down in the year 1772. It is in Irish, neatly written on a long
scroll of parchment; forty-two seals are attached to the side, but the only
signature is that of the chief at bottom. This document, among other
curious matter, furnishes us with a proof, that the chiefs of clans were
_elective_, contrary to the opinions of modern authors, and more especially
of our modern historical novelists; which latter speak of them as
_hereditary feudal lords_, and even talk of their estates descending to
their daughters; although under the system of clanship, females could not
inherit, and no man could have more than a life interest in his estate.
Here we have an instance of a chief divesting himself of the dignity of
office, and joining in the transfer of it to another, when such transfer
was considered likely to further the interests of the clan. It is also
interesting, as showing the manner in which the English government in
Dublin proceeded in the subjugation of Ireland, by embroiling its septs
with one another.

The _Mac Ranalds_, or _Magranals_, (as the name was usually written,) in
English, Reynolds, the principal parties to the deed, were a clan who
possessed the territory of _Munterolish_, in the county of Leitrim,
subordinate to O'Rourke, who was lord paramount of the county; and the
lords justices having, by this deed, detached them from the interest of the
latter, immediately marched an army into his country. O'Rourke, after a
protracted, but ineffectual resistance, was made prisoner and sent to
London, where he was executed, in the early part of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth; "going to death," says Camden, "with as little concern as if he
had been merely a spectator." The county was then declared a forfeiture to
the crown, and the estates of its old proprietors (including those of the
Magranals among the rest) parcelled out among a colony of English settlers,
then for the first time seated in the county. This is the first document
known, in which Leitrim is spoken of as a county; and it is generally said
not to have been made such till the time of James I.; it was more anciently
known as the territory of _Briefne O'Rourke_.

Although Henry II. is said to have conquered