[Sir] James Ware (1594-66)


Life
b. Castle St., Dublin; collected Irish manuscripts and commissioned Dubhaltach Mac Firbisigh to translate many of them; knighted, 1629; appt. auditor-gen. of Ireland, 1632-49 and 1660-66; issued The Historie of Ireland (1633), compiling works of Meredith Hanmer, Edmund Campion, and Edmund Spenser (A View), using the manuscript copy in the possession of Archbishop Ussher, and censuring some of Spenser’s more extreme pronouncements and appealing to the ‘good effects of the last thirty years’; MP Dublin University, 1634-37, and 1661; [viz., Cashel and Tuam];
 
issued Archiepiscoporum Casseliensium et Tuamensium vitae (1636) and De praesulibus Lageniae (1638);issued De Scriptores Hiberniae (1639), otherwise History of the Writers of Ireland (Latin edn., 1639; English 1764), listing native and settlers in separate volumes; appt. Privy Councillor in 1639, and afterwards Auditor-General in Ireland; sent on mission to Charles I at Oxford, 1644 and awarded hon. DCL, Oxon.; imprisoned in tower of London, 1644-45 and was held in England, 1647; banished from Dublin by Michael Jones, 1649; lived in London, 1651-60; issued De Hibernia et Antiquitatibus eius Disquisitiones (1654); also De Hibernia et Antiquitatibus eius (London 1658), in which he speaks of the Irish diet as ‘meagre - milk, butter and herbs for the most part - meadow trefoil, water cress, common sorrel ad cochlearia’;
 
the work includes an illustration of Lough Derg and St Patrick’s Purgatory; returned to Dublin at the Restoration as Auditor-General, 1660; issued Rerum Hibernicarum Annales 1484-1558 (1664) and Rerum praesulibus Hiberniae (1665); collated the manuscript Book of Armagh for his edition of the Confession as S. Patricio adscripta Opuscula (1656); d. Dec. 1666; bur. St. Werbergh St.; The Annals of the Affairs of Ireland (1705) with a Brief Chronology from 1602 to the present date appeared posthumously under his name, though probably issued by his son Robert; his entire works were translated by Walter Harris, who married his grand-dg., as The Whole Works of Sir James Ware (1739-64). RR ODNB DIW DIB CAB JMC FDA OCIL

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Works
Ecclesiastical history
  • Archiepiscoporum Casseliensium et Tuamensium vitae; duobus expressae commentariolis. Quibus adjicitur historia coenobiorum, Cisterciensium, Hiberniae (Dublin 1626), 1 vol. 4o. [s.t. as Vitae archipiscorum Casseliensum et Tumansium].
  • De præsulibus Lageniae, sive provinciæ Dubliniensis (Dublin: Soc. Bibliopolarum MDCXXVIII [1628]) [infra].
  • Bedae Venerabilis Opera quaedam theologica nunc primùm edita [...] (London: [printed by] S. Roycroft; [sold by] Roberti Clavell 1693), 380pp. [infra].

See also The Hunting of the Romish Fox, and the quenching of sectarian fire-brands: being a specimen of popery & separation, collected by the Honourable Sir James Ware [...] out of the memorials of eminent men both in church and state - viz. [Archbishops] Cranmer, Parker, Abbot, Laud, Usher, Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Cecil, and others; and now published for the publick good by Robert Ware (Dublin: Printed by J. Ray, for Will. Norman [...] 1683).

Irish History
  • ed., The Historie of Ireland, collected by three learned authors, viz., M[eredith] Hanmer, E[dmund] Campion, and E[dmund] Spenser [published by Ware in 3 fol. vols.] (Dublin: by the Societie of Stationers 1633) [infra].
  • De Scriptoribus Hiberniae Libri Duo [2 vols.] (Dublin 1639), and Do. [facs. edn.] (Farnborough Hants [UK] 1966) [see note]
  • Librorum manuscriptorum bibliotheca Jacobi Waraei, equitus catalogus (Dublin 1648).
  • De Hibernia et Antiquitatibus ejus ... Disquisitiones ... (London 1654), with engraving by W. Hollar [infra; another edn. 1658].
  • St Patricii qui Hibernos ad fidem Christi convertit adscripta Opuscula; Opera et studio, J. Waraei, Eq. Aur. (London 1656).
  • Rerum Hibernicarum annales ... 1485-1558 (Dublin 1664).
  • Antiquitatum Britannicarum & Hiberniceum, in hoc opere expositarum ([1670]), pp.509-1196 [19cm; without pub. place or pub. name; copy in London UL]
 
 
Later editions
  • Robert Ware, trans. & ed., The Antiquities and History of Ireland: The Life of Sir James Ware Prefixed, containing 1: His inquiries [..]; 2: His annals [..]; 3: His commentaries [..]; 4: His two books of the writers of Ireland [..]; 5: By way of appendix ... discourse of Sir John Davi[e]s. (Dublin 1705) [infra].
  • Walter Harris, ed., The Whole Works of Sir James Ware concerning Ireland, revised and improved (Dublin 1739-64), and Do. [rep.] (Amsterdam: Da Capo Press 1971) [infra].
  • History of the Writers of Ireland, 2 vols. [trans. of De Scriptoribus Hibernia (1764).
  • Ancient Irish Histories, the Works of Spenser, Campion, Hanmer, and Marleburrough, 2 vols [prev. publ. as The Historie of Ireland, 1633] (Dublin: Hibernia Press 1809) [Vol. 1 [Spenser & Campion] available at Internet Archive - online]..

b
[See Listings for Works of Sir James Ware at the National Library of Ireland ]
  • Notebook of Sir James Ware, containing annals 1623-47, and extracts from MSS. and printed books relating to Irish history, especially ecclesiastical.- held at Trinity College Library (Dublin) as Ms. 6404. Also No. 27 in the Clarendon Catalogue Catalogi MSS. Angliae et Hiberniae Vol. ii, Pt. II - at NLI - online.
  • Collections by Sir J. Ware, antiquarian, and by way of journal, 1623-47 (1874) at NLI - online.
  • Transcripts from the collections of Sir James Ware. Extracts, dates, and obits in Latin and Irish from the Annals of Ulster, 462 - 1544, lists of bishops, etc. at NLI - online.
  • Copy, in two volumes, of transcripts made by Sir James Ware from the Carew manuscripts, containing papers on the plantation of O’Carroll’s country and Co. Longford 1619, extracts from the Annals of Ulster, genealogies, the White Book of Kilkenny, etc. - at NLI Catalogue - online.

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Bibliographical details
De præsulibus Lageniae, sive provinciæ Dubliniensis. Liber vnus. Iacobo Wareo authore (Dublini: Ex officina Societatis Bibliopolarum, Anno. M.DC.XXVIII [1628]), [8], 104, [4]pp.; rep as. De Praesulibus Hageniae, sive Provinciae Dublin i ensis (Dublin: Samuelis Dancer 1665), [12], 283pp.

Bedae Venerabilis Opera quaedam theologica/ nunc primùm edita nec non historica antea semel edita accesserunt Egberti archiespicopi Eboracensis Dialogus de ecclesiasticâ institutione et Aldhelmi episcopi scireburnensis Liber de virginitate ex codice antiquissimo emendatus (Londini: Typis S. Roycroft, LL. Oriental. typographi regis: Impensis Roberti Clavell: ad insigne Pavonis in Coemeterio D. Pauli, 1693), [10], 369, [1]pp. 4o. [21cm]. CONTENTS: Expositio Geneseos libris III - Expositio in Canticum Abacuc Prophetae - Historia de vitis Abbatum Wiremuthensium & Girwiensium, necnon epistolae duae insignes; accessit Egberti Dialogus de ecclesiasticâ institutione, ex antiquis codicibus mss. emisit & notis illustravit Jacobus Waraeus - S. Aldhelmi Liber de laudibus virginitatis.

The Historie of Ireland, collected by three learned authors, viz., M[eredith] Hanmer, E[dmund] Campion, and E[dmund] Spenser [published by Ware in 3 fol. vols.] (Dublin: by the Societie of Stationers 1633), also as “Histories of Ireland” [sic] in Walter Harris, ed., Works of Sir James Ware (Dublin 1739-46 [recte 1764]) [cited under ‘Authorities’ in Bradshaw Cat., 1916];

Do., rep. as Ancient Irish Histories, 2 vols. (Dublin: Hibernia Press 1809), 24cm [Vol. 1: Spencer’s view of the state of Ireland, and Campion’s Historie of Ireland; Vol.2; Doctor Meredith Hanmer’s Chronicles of Ireland, and 4; Henry Marleburrough [or Marlborough]’s Chronicle of Ireland]; and Do. (NY: Kennikat Press [1970]), 2 vols. [Each author q.v. in RICORSO except Marleburrough - see note, infra.]

De Scriptoribus Hibernia (1639); rep. in trans. [by Walter Harris] as History of the Writers of Ireland 2 vols. (1764). CONTENTS: Vol I. Such Writers Who Were Born in the Kingdom; Vol. II. Such who, though Foreigners, enjoyed Perferments or Offices there, or had their Education in it ...’. [see R. Alspach, 1959, p.46.]

See also De Scriptoribus Hiberniae Libri Duo [2 vols.] (Dublin 1639), and Do. [facs. edn.] (Farnborough Hants [UK] 1966); also publ. as Historiographorum aliorumque scriptorum Hiberniae commentarium: or, a history of the Irish writers. Collected not only from the best Books, and most authentic Accounts we have in Print, but also from several curious Manuscripts and Archives in the most eminent Libraries in Europe (Dublin: printed for and sold by sold Ebenezer Rider in George’s-Lane 1736), [4], 80pp. [COPAC]

De Hibernia & antiquitatibus ejus, disquisitiones: In quibus, præter ea quæ de Hiberniâ antiquâ explicantur, mores & consuetudines Hibernorum, tàm veterum, quàm mediorum temporum, describuntur. Unà cum formâ imperii eorum, nummis, academiis, episcopatibus & coenobiis; necnon Ostmannorum in Hibernia rebus gestis, & coloniis ex Anglia & Wallia in Hiberniam emissis, tempore Henrici II, sub quo, insula Anglici juris facta est / Authore Jacobo Waræo Equ. Aur (Londini: Typis J. Grismond, impensis Jo. Crook & Thomas Heath., MDCLIV [1654]), [14], 253, [1]pp., ill. [map; metal and wood-cuts, 8o.] Also, Editio secunda / emendatior & quarta parte auctior. Accesserunt rerum hibernicarum regnante Henrico VII ; annales, nunc primum in lucem editi. (Londini: Typis E. Tyler, impensis Jo. Crook 1658), 8o [17x11 cm.]

The Antiquities and History of Ireland, Now first published in one volume in English; and the life of Sir James Ware prefixed, 1 vol. (Dublin: Printed by A. Crook, printer to the Queens most Excellent Majesty, for E. Dobson in Castle-Street, and M. Gunne at Essex-Street-Gate 1705), ill. [front. port., pls., map.], 32cm [various pagings; each sect. has special t.p., the first two dated 1705, the last three 1704]. Contents: “Inquiries concerning Ireland, and its antiquities”; “The annals of the affairs of Ireland”; “A commentary of the prelates of Ireland”; “Two books of the writers of Ireland”; “Historical relations: or, A discovery of the true causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued, by Sir John Davies”.

Do. [London edition, as] The Antiquities and History of Ireland by the Right Honourable Sir James Ware, Knt. Containing 1. His inquiries into the antiquities of Ireland, ... 5. By way of appendix is added that ... discourse of Sir John Davis ... Now first published in one volume in English; and the life of Sir James Ware prefixed (London: Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill [...] and Jonathan Robinson [...] MDCCV [1705]), [16]; [4], 164, 163-170, 167-172, [10]; [4], 60, 57-76, 164, 64, 175-196; [4],70, 44, 37, [1], 37-55, [1], 28; [4], 23, 20-42, [4]; 59, [3] p., [5] leaves of plates: ill. [map, port.]; fol.

Do. [another edition, as] The Antiquities and History of Ireland by the Right Honourable Sir James Ware, Knt. [1714] Containing I. His inquiries into the antiquities of Ireland, illustrated with copper cutts, &c. II. His annals of Ireland from the first conquest by the English ... III. His commentaries of the prelates of Ireland, from the first planting of Christianity there, to the year 1665 ... IV. His two books of the writers of Ireland ... V. By way of appendix is added that rare and admirable discourse of Sir John Davis [i.e. Davies], Knight, of the cause why Ireland was no sooner reduced to the obedience of the crown of England. Very useful for all persons who are desirous of being acquainted with the ancient and present estate of that kingdom. Now first published in one volume in English; and the life of Sir James Ware prefixed (London: Printed for R. Robinson, at the Golden Lyon 1714), [770]pp.; various pagings, each part with t.p. and imprint (Dublin: Printed by Andrew Cook, for Matthew Gunne ..., 1704-1705), ill. [engrav. maps [some fold.] & pls. incl. engr. front. port. of Queen Anne; fol. [31 cm].

The Whole Works of Sir James Ware concerning Ireland, Vol. I. Containing, The history of the bishops ... [3 vols.] (Dublin: for the author by E. Jones 1739) [folio copy presented to Marsh’s Library by the editor, Walter Harris].

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Criticism
Kathleen Hughes, ‘A Manuscript of James Ware, British Museum, Additional 4788’, Proc. RIA ser. C., 55 (1952-53), pp.111-16; also NHI, III.; see also Russell K. Alspach, Irish Poetry from the English Invasion to 1798 (Phil: Pennsylvania UP 1959), p.46 & .95f.; Michael Herity, ‘Rathmulcah, Ware and Macfirbisigh’, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 33 (1970), pp.49-53 [contrasting antiquarian traditions represented by these].

 

Commentary

John Bernard Trotter (Walks in Ireland, 1819):

In Ireland, Elizabeth tried an experiment which she was induced [543] to make by narrow and prejudiced advisers; not merely to establish the reformed, but totally destroy the Catholic religion in Ireland. The words of Sir James, Ware deserve attention on the subject. Speaking of her first parliament in Ireland, he says “At the very beginning, this parliament, her majesty’s well-wishers, found that most of the nobility and commons were divided in opinion about the ecclesiastical government; which caused The Earl of Sussex to dissolve them, and go over to England to consult her majesty on the affairs of this kingdom. These differences were occasioned by the several alterations which had happened in ecclesiastical manners within the compass of twelve years. The Earl of Sussex having been in England some months, returned again, and took his oath as lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Within three weeks after which came letters from her majesty to him, signifying her pleasure for a general meeting of the clergy of Ireland, and the establishment of the Protestant through the several dioceses of the kingdom."

The Bishop of Meath rejecting all the offers of government, was imprisoned and then deposed. The queen thenceforth assumed the power of nominating all bishops; and thus, by a stroke of pure despotism, seized on all the temporalities of the Irish church, expelled the old possessors and introduced men agreeable to [544] court in their stead. She did not forrm a new church establishment, and divide the temporalites, which might have been done, or permit the old one, as under Henry the Seventh, to secure to her the affections of the people, but deprived the most eminent, learned, and pious men of which Christianity could boast, of all rank, support, and protection under that English government, which their body had so long aided and strengthened.

“These alterations,” says the impartial Ware, “in church and state, so affected the Roman Catholics in Ireland, especially the natives, that (being encouraged by the pope and king of Spain, who promised to send them some assistance) they rose up in a great body, under Shane O’Neal, and rebelled against her majesty, consuming all before them with fire and sword, wherever they came within the English pale. So that Queen Elizabeth had now a hard task upon her hands, what with Francis the French king, and Mary queen of Scots; what with Philip king of Spain, and the pope, with his excommunications, besides her enemies and rebels in England and Ireland.”

Having commenced with injustice, Elizabeth was compelled to continue with persecution. The Catholic clergy were not allowed even to meet or sleep within the gates of Dublin; and all the inhabitants were ordered to attend the [545] new religion, on pain of being fined each Sunday! That venerable body, which had done so much to civilize Ireland, to resist petty despots, and introduce the English government, was now consigned to the utmost misery and degradation, by Elizabeth!

The horrors which followed this great, but, in this point, ill-advised queen’s whole plan of misgovernment, I have often had occasion to allude to and describe! An enlightened historian of England thinks she acted contrary to her own connviction, in the affair of religion! What a pity; if her exalted mind was chained down by the rancorous hand of any mercenary or misguided party!

—Trotter, in Walks through Ireland in the Years 1812, 1814 (London: Sir Richard Phillips 1819), pp.-543-45


Sir John T. Gilbert, History of Dublin, Vol. 1 (1854): ‘Ware always maintained in his house an Irish amanuensis to interpret and transcribe Gaelic documents, and at the period of his death, Duald Mac Firbis, the most learned native historiographer of the time, was resident with him in that capacity. / While in Ware’s house in Castle St., Mac Firbis translated the ‘Registry of Clonmacnois’, and the Annals of Ireland by 1443 to 1468, the latter of which, together with his ‘History of the Tribes and Customs of Tigeragh’, has been published by the Archaeological Society. Four years after Ware’s death, our “antiquities received an irreparable blow” by the murder of Mac Firbis at Dunflin in Sligo. / The manuscripts which Sir James Ware had collected with great trouble and expense were brought to England by Lord Clarendon in the reign of James II, and afterwards sold to the Duke of Chandos, who was vainly solicited by Swift in 1734 to restore them to Ireland. On the Duke’s death, the documents passed to Dean Milles, who bequeathed them to the British Museum, where they now form the principal portion of the collection known as the Clarendon Manuscripts. / Sir James Ware was succeeded as Auditor-General by his eldest son James ... [&c.;] (p.5.)

[Q.auth.,] ‘The Diocese of Ross in the Sixteenth Century’, in The Irish Ecclesiastical Record (Dec. 1864) [1st iss.], pp.1-36: ‘The Lives of the Irish Bishops, published by Ware, in 1665, and rewritten by Harris in the beginning of the last century, have been long regarded as authentic history; and the statements of these learned writers have been generally accepted without hesitation, being supposed to rest on ancient and indubious documents. It is thus, to take a quite recent example, that the Rev. W. Maziere Brady, D.D., in the third volume of his Records of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross (London, 1864), adopts, with only a few verbal variations, the whole narrative of Ware regarding St. Fachnan and his successors in the see of Ross. Nevertheless, many of his statements are inaccurate, and some of them, too, are wholly at variance with historic truth. At the very threshold of our present inquiry we meet with one instance which alone should suffice to render us cautious in accepting the assertions of such historians, when unconfirmed by other authorities.

“One Thady” (Ware thus writes), “was Bishop of Ross on the 29th of January, 1488, and died a little after; but I have not found where he was consecrated. One Odo succeeded in 1489, and sat only five years. He died in 1494.” (Ware, p.587; Brady, Records [... &c.], Vol. III., p.139.)

‘How many errors are contained in these few words! This Thadeus was never Bishop of Ross, and so far from Odo being appointed in 1489, he was already Bishop of the see on the accession of Pope Innocent VIII, in 1484. A letter of this Pontiff addressed to Odo, Bishop of Ross, on 21st of July, 1488, has happily been preserved, and it presents to us the following particulars connected with the see. No sooner had the see of Ross become vacant by the demise of its Bishop about 1480, than Odo was elected its chief pastor, and his election was duly confirmed by the Vicar of Christ. A certain person, however, named Thadeus MacCarryg, had aspired to the dignity of successor of Saint Fachnan, and as he enjoyed high influence with the civil authorities, he easily obtained possession of the temporalities of the see. Several monitory letters were addressed to him from Rome, exhorting him to desist from such an iniquitous course; but as these were of no avail, sentence of excommunication was fulminated against him by Pope Sixtus, and promulgated in a synod of the southern Bishops, held in Cashel in 1484; it was repeated by Innocent VIII. in 1488. Thus, then, the individual who is described by Ware as Bishop of Ross, was merely an usurper of the temporalities of the see, whilst the true Bishop, Odo, continued to govern the diocese till his death in 1494.’

Note: The ensuing text quotes a letter from Henry VIII to the Pope regarding the voluntary retirement of the aged bishop of Ross and the appointment of a Cistercian at his behest - offering the letter as "a solemn condemnation of the subsequent rebellion of that monarch against the authority of the Vicar of Christ", viz., Ex Regia nostra apud Richemontem die xvii. Julii, 1517 (Theiner, Monumenta, &c., p.520.)

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Thomas King Moylan, ‘Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars’, in Dublin Historical Record (March 1938), p.11-18, making reference to an account of the ninth admonition to Dublin Mayors on swearing in, which Warburton copied from Robert Ware who has it presumably from Sir James Ware’s papers (‘an honest antiquarian’ in comparison with ‘the scratchings of Robert ‘Ware’s busy pen’) [p.11].

William J. Maguire, Irish Literary Figures, Vol. 1 [& only] (1945), on Thomas D’Arcy Magee, whose History of Ireland is based largely on Ware’s manuscripts, wrote that he was ‘a great, persevering book-worm, and sincere receiver and transmitter of truth.’

George A. Little, Dublin Before the Vikings (1957), Little constructs a list of pre-Scandinavian Dublin bishops from Ware’s Bishop’s of Dublin and others such as Dr Colgan, Ussher, etc. [19]. Also: To some earlier writers the Colgan-Ware list of bishops had proved so delusive that they declared it apocryphal, if not worse. The fact that MacFirbisigh (a hereditary historian of great repute) was Ware’s secretary and is believed to have supplied them with much of his early Irish history had no weight with them. They were trapped, apparently, into the error by the fact that there was no separate dioceses of Dublin until after the Norman conquest ... [a] judgement based on diocesan conventions not practised contemporaneously. [96] Little counters this by quoting his own Brendan, where he says that ‘in early Ireland the title bishop indicated rank without charge (op. cit., p.208). He adverts in a footnote to the same argument in Ryan, Irish Monasticism, p.82. [97]. Further: Harris, Ware’s Bishops of Dublin, pp.303-06, contains list of bishops (also in Dalton, History of the Archbishops of Dublin, Vol. 1, p.16ff.) These, augmented from Colgan’s Acta Sanctorum and the Annals of the Four Masters, are: Livinius (Molibba), d.633; Wiro (Bearaidh), d.650; Desibod, d.675; Gaulafar, d.?; Rumold (Rumself), d.775; Sedulius (Siadhal Mac Luath), d.675; Cormac, d.840. Dates calculated by Shearman, in Loco Patriciana. [97-98]. (See also under Quotations, infra.)

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Maurice Craig, in Dublin 1660-1860; cites his History and speaks of Harris as being ‘unjustifiably’ regarded as first Dublin historian. Rerum Hibernicarum Annales (Dublin 1664), cited in Clarke, Early Irish Stage, ‘The History and Antiquities of Dublin collected from Authentic Record and the MSS. collection of Sir James Ware’, MS. De Rebus Eblanae 74, 75, Gilbert Collection, Pearse Street Library Dublin.

W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984), notes that British Museum Add. ms 481 f. 157v-8r is Robert Ware’s trans. of his father Sir James Ware’s Latin account of the teaching of a ‘newe grammar’ by Richard Owde at St Patrick’s Grammar School in Dublin in 1587, and the ensuing controversy, arbitrated in favour of the older grammar of Lily (1540) by Archbishop Loftus since ‘diversities of grammars would be destructive of learning’. [21]

Robert E. Ward, et al., eds, Letters of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare (Cath. Univ. of America Press 1988), Ussher and Ware called into question the existence of writing in pre-Patrician Ireland, had done irreparable damage to Irish historiography and had lent credence to the prejudice that before the coming of Christianity the Irish were savages. (p.xxiv.)

Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986): Edmund Campion fled from England and stayed with his erstwhile Oxford acquaintance Richard Stanyhurst, producing a History of Ireland in manuscript there in 1596, which he revised in an initial version of 1571. the MS was published by Sir James Ware in 1633, but by that date, Stanyhurst’s Description of Ireland, printed in Holinshed’s Chronicle of 1577, was already based upon it [45]. Ussher, his mentor; established Dublin family; claims pride of place as first important historian of Ireland of non-Gaelic descent; ed. and published older texts by Campion, Spenser, and Cambrensis; employed Duald MacFirbis [Mac Firbisighe] as scribe, translator and amanuensis; friend of Bochart, with whom he stayed in Paris during the interregnum; donated Bochart’s Hierozoicon to TCD Library; exploded Giraldus’s descriptions of Ireland in De Hibernia et antiquitatibus eius disquisitiones (London 1705): ‘Admonendus est etenim lector, Topographiam eam caute legendam, id quod ipse Giraldus quodammodo fatetur in apologia quam habemus in prima sua praefatione in librum Expugnationis Hibernicae, cum ob fabulosa, iam dicta Topographia inserta, insimularetur ... Atqui non posssum non mirari viros aliquos huius seculi, alioqui graves & doctos, figmenta ea Giraldi, mundum iterum pro veris, obstrusisse. Plurimi addi possent ex aliis authoribus, quae aliorum etiam industriis relinquimus.’ [‘The reader should be warned that Topography is to be read with caution, as Giraldus himself somehow states in an apology which we find in his first preface to the book of the Conquest of Ireland, where he refers to charges of having inserted fabulous material in his aforementioned Topography ... And all the greater is my amazement to see some men of the present day and age, otherwise grave and scholarly, again obstrude those fictions of Giraldus on the world as if they were facts. Many more examples to the same effect could be added from other authors, but that I leave to the industry of others. [61-62] Also bibl. The Antiquities and history of Ireland (London 1705).

Norman Vance, Irish Literature, A Social History (Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1990), p.26, Complex literary tradition indicated by surviving manuscripts ... first charted in Sir James Ware’s De Scriptoribus Hiberniae; made distinction between writers born in Ireland and [those] who made later contact, both generously classified as Irish; cultural legitimation of the English in Ireland by assimilating their writings to a partly purpose-built, pluralist Irish literary tradition; ... Two hundred years later Walter Harris’s augmented English version, The Writers of Ireland (Dublin 1746) was invaluable to Thomas D’Arcy McGee in writing his Irish Writers of the Seventeenth Century (Dublin 1946).

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Quotations

The Annals of the Affairs of Ireland of Sir James Ware (1705) from the first conquest by the English in the reign of Henry II, unto the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth by [Sir James Ware, Knight, together with a continuation of the most memorable transactions there, from the end of the Reign of Elizabeth unto the present time (Dublin: Andrew Crook, for M. Gunne in Essex St and E. Dobson at the Stationers Arms in Castle St, 1705). [Prob. issued by his son.]
[Prefatory remarks], ‘I am of Opinion, many things worthy to be known, and hitherto unheard of, very pertinent to the History of the times of King EDWARD, and Queen MARY, might be added out of the Manuscripts in that incomparably well furnish’d, and inestimable COTTONIAN Library at Westminster; but, to my sorrow, I neglected whilst I was in England, thence to enrich my Collections. Yet in these which I now Present, I have not only deliver’d Matters of Fact, but also (according to Sempronius A[ff]ellio’s advice to Agellius) have added as far as I could learn, the Reason and Design of thir being done; from whcih Maxims may be drawn, which may be of no small Utility to the Public.
 I have touched upon Ecclesiastical Affairs very sparingly ... hardly to be separated ... It was never my Intention to obtrude Frauds and Falsehoods for Truths, Yet, wherever I may, through Credulity, have been Imposed on, I shall upon friendly Information, most willingly acknowledge and Correct My Mistakes; For I always esteem’d it a most commendable Quality, and the most worthy of a Free-Man, to be always a Proficient in the Truth; and modestly without odious Reflections, to Communicate the same to Posterity. [&c.]’
The account proper begins with an Introduction:
‘Dermot King of Leinster, Song of Murchard, having committed a Rape upon Dervorgill the Wife of Tigernach O Roirk King of Brefinia, Tigernac[h] in Revenge, deals with Rodrick O Connor, at that time King of Ireland, to fall upon Dermod with their United Forces ... This was in the Year 1167. [1] The book is organised as year by year chapters, to 1602 [Chap. XLV], between half a page and two pages extent, though the last is five. Note also the section headings running from page to page, among which ‘the Life and Death of George Brown’. An additional section by [?his son or Harris?] beginning p.175, and entitled ‘Gesta Hibernorum’ [running head] takes the form of a two column ‘Brief Chronology’, beginning, King James Proclaimed in Dublin. Ó Rourk submits to him, for Anno 1603, and continuing to 1702, in a Protestant patriotic vein, with entries such as, ‘General Ginkel departed to great Applause’ and mac-Cabe and four of his Men hanged at the Naas’. Note Oct. 19, 1691, Hagan and his Crew take the benefit of the Proclamation. He is afterward Murdered by Rapparees. [191].

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Ware’s Preface to A View of the State of Ireland by Edmund Spenser (1633) [rep. in Hibernia Press Edn. of 1809].

How far these collections may conduce to the knowledge of the antiquities and state of this Land, let the fit reader judge: yet something I may not passe by touching Mr. Edmund Spenser & the worke it selfe, lest I should seeme to offer injury to his worth, by others so much celebrated. Hee was borne in London of an ancient and noble family, and brought up in the Vniversitie of Cambridge, where (as the fruites of his after labours doe manifest) he mispent not his time. After this he became Secretary to Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton, Lord Deputy of Ireland; a valiant and worthy Governour; and shortly after for his services to the Crowne, he had bestowed upon him by Queene Elizabeth, 3000 acres of land in the Countie of Corke. There hee finished the latter part of that excellent poem of his Faery Queene, which was soone after unfortunately lost by the disorder and abuse of his servant, whom he had sent before him into England, being then à rebellibus (as [a] Camdens words are ) è laribus ejectus & bonis spoliatus. He deceased at Westminster in the yeare 1599. (others have it wrongly 1598.) soone after his returne into England, and was buried according to his owne desire, in the collegiat Church there, neere unto Chaucer, whom he worthily imitated, (at the costes of Robert Earle of Essex,') whereupon this Epitaph was framed,

Hie prope Chaucerum situs est Spenserius, illi
proximus ingenio, proximus ut tumulo.
Hic prope
Chaucerum Spensere poeta poetam
conderis,, § versu quam tumulo propior.
Anglica te vivo vixit plausitq poesis,
nunc moritura timet te moriente mori.

As for his worke now [b] published, although it sufficiently testifieth his learning and deepe judgement, yet we may wish that in some passages it had bin tempered with more moderation. The troubles and miseries of the time when he wrote it, doe partly excuse him, And surely wee may conceive, that if hee had lived to see these times, and the good effects which the last 30 yeares peace have produced in this land, both for obedience to the lawes, as also in traffique, husbandry, civility, & learning, he would have omitted those passages which may seeme to lay either any particular aspersion upon some families, or generall upon the Nation. For now we may truly say, jam cuncti gens una sumus, and that upon just cause those ancient statutes, wherein the natives of Irish descent were held to be, and named Irish enemies, and wherein those of English bloud were forbidden to marry and commerce with them, were repealed by [c] act of Parlament, in the raigne of our late Soveraigne King James of ever blessed memory.

His proofes (although most of them conjecturall) concerning the originall of the language, customes of the Nations, and the first peopling of the severall parts of the Hand, are full of good reading; and doe shew a sound judgment. They may be further confirmed by comparing them with Richard Creagh’s Booke de linguâ Hibernicâ, which is yet extant in the originall manuscript, & althogh mixed with matter of story, leaning too much to some fabulous traditions, yet in other respects worthy of light.

Touching the generall scope intended by the author for the reformation of abuses and ill customes, This we may say, that although very many have taken paines in the same subject, during the raigne of Queene Elizabeth, and some before, as the [d] author of the booke intituled Solus populi, and after him [e] Patrick Finglas, cheife Baron of the Exchequer here, and afterwardes cheife Justice of the common pleas, yet none came so neere to the best grounds for reformation, a few passages excepted, as Spenser hath done in this. Some notes I have added, although not intending any, untill the fourth part of the Booke was printed.

Footnotes: [a] Annal. rer. Anglic. & Hibern. pag. 729, edit. 1625. [b] Ex Bibliotheca Remi in Christo patris D. Jacobi Vsserij Archisp Armachani. [c] Vid. lib. Statut. Hibern. edit. Dubl. an. 1621. pag. 427. [d] Floruit sub. initium reg. Edw. 4. [e] Floruit sab. Hen. 8.

Gaels & Gauls: ‘The ancient Irish called all foreigners, especially their neighbours, Gauls, as the Jews once called all foreigners Grecians.’ (Antiquities and History of Ireland, Dublin 1705, p.3; quoted in George A. Little, Dublin Before the Vikings, Dublin: M. H. Gill 1957, p.171.)

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References

Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies, Vol.II [of 2] (London & Dublin 1821), pp.622-26

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The taste which he discovered for antiquities, introduced him, while at college, to the notice of the celebrated Usher, who soon became much attached to him; and ilf his work “De Primordiis,” took occasion to announce M the public what might be expected from Ware’s exertions. He had commenced collecting MSS. and making transcripts from such as he could procure access to in the? libraries of antiquaries and genealogists, and from the? registers and cbartularies of cathedrals and monasteries, in which he spared no expense. The collections of Usher; and of Daniel Molyneux, Ulster king at arms, were constantly open to him, and from their rich stores he derived considerable advantage. After exhausting whatever resources Ireland afforded, he went to England in 1626, where lie was introduced by Usher to Sir Robert Cotton; who admitted him to his valuable library, and formed so intimate a connexion with him, as to keep up a constant correspondence during the remainder of his life. The materials with which he furnished himself from the Cotton collection, the Tower of London, and other repositories; (many of which, in his hand-writing, are preserved in the [621] library of Trinity college,) enabled him on his return to Ireland, to publish a history of the Archbishops of Cashel and Tuam; and two years after, of the Archbishops of Dublin; both which be afterwards incorporated in his larger account of the Irish bishops. In 1628, he went again to England, carrying with him several MSS. which he knew would be acceptable to Sir Robert Cotton; and in this second journey, added considerably to his own collections, through his acquaintance with Selden and other men of research and liberality. On his return home in the following year, he was knighted by the lords justices; and in 1632, he succeeded his father in his estate, and in the office of auditor-general. The duties of his new office, and his attendance at the privy council, to which he was called by Lord Wentworth, afterward Earl of Strafford, did not, however, prevent him from continuing his antiquarian labours. In the following year he published “Spenser’s View of the State of Ireland,” dedicating it to the lord deputy; as he did afterwards “Hanmer’s Chronicle,” and Campion’s “;History of Ireland.” His Account of the Writers of Ireland, which has since been so ably enlarged and improved by Mr. Harris, who married his grand-daughter, appeared first is 1639.

[622 ...]

During the remainder of the troubles, Sir James remained firmly attached to the king’s interests, and was high in the confidence and friendship of the Marquis of Ormonde; and when Dublin was surrendered by the king’s orders, in June 1647, he was considered a man of such consequence, as to be insisted on as one of the hostages for the due performance of the treaty. In consequence of this, he repaired to London; where he remained till the hostages were suffered to depart, after which be returned {625} to Dublin, living in a private situation, as he was deprived of his office, till Michael Jones, the governor of Dublin, jealous of his character and consequence, sent him a peremptory order to transport himself beyond seas into any country he pleased, except England. He retired to France in April 1649, where he spent some time at Caen, and afterwards at Paris, contracting an acquaintance with the most learned men in both places. His exile, however, was not of long continuance; in 1651 he came to London, by licence of the parliament, on private business, and two years afterwards went to Ireland to look after his estates. The leisure which he now enjoyed was devoted to his favourite studies, the return to which was consoling as well as gratifying; and he remained in Ireland till tbe Restoration, with the exception of occasional journies to London, to superintend the publication of his works; the art of printing being then in a very low condition in Ireland. In 1654, be published the first edition of his Antiquities, of which an enlarged and improved edition appeared in 1658, together with a collection of the works ascribed to St. Patrick.

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See full-text copy in RICORSO > Library > Criticism > History > Legacy - via index or as attached.

Charles Read, A Cabinet of Irish Literature (3 vols., 1876-78), narrates that he was imprisoned in Tower of London on his way to Ireland in 1684; exchanged, and captured again at surrender of Dublin in 1647; 2 years in London prison; lived 2 more years in France after 1649. ‘The Camden of Ireland’; his Antiquitatibus began to appear with his Lives of the Bishops in 1626 (London); bur. St. Werburgh’s St.; CAB selects passage on ‘Surnames of the Ancient Irish,’ ‘The Origin of the Irish’ (”the posterity of Japhet”), and ‘A Life of St. Patrick’ (which begins by remarking that the biographer’s pen has so far unhappily “fallen into weak and injudicious hands.”); all in Harris’s translation. NOTE that Justin McCarthy, Irish Literatre (1904) , excerpts same essays.

Dictionary of National Biography, calls Ware an Irish historian, MA TCD, 1616; collected Irish MSS and studied Irish history and antiquities; knighted 1629; auditor gen. of Ireland, 1632-49?; mission to Charles I at Oxford, 1644; hon. DCL Oxon., prisoner in Tower, 1644-45; hostage in England, 1647; banished from Dublin by Michael Jones, 1649; resided in London, 1651-60; returned to Dublin, 1660; published important contributions to Irish history and biography, 1626-65. See also Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica, Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. II, pp.622-36. DIW compares him with Micheál O’Cleirigh [chief of the Four Masters].

Alan Eager, A Guide to Irish Bibliographical Material and Some Sources of Information (London: Library Association 1964), lists History of the Writers of Ireland, 2 bks [i.e., vols.], 1) those born in that kingdom, 2) foreigners who enjoyed preferment or office, or were educated in it; continued to the present date by Walter Harris, 2 vols. (Dublin 1764).

Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1 selects De Hibernia et Antiquitatibus Ejus ... Disquisitiones, trans. Robert Ware, 264-65 [the passage deals chiefly with Cormac, son of Culinan, who was both king and bishop, and his death at the battle of Moy-albe, XVI Aug. 908; his authorship of Psalter-Cashel ‘which is yet extant, and in great esteem’; version in Ware’s possession, manuscript (antient parchment’ called Psalter Narran [Saltair na Rann]; Ware makes reference to reading ‘in a certain MS of Cotton’s library’ a version of the death of Cormac’; also Irish Annals; discusses Irish tonsures, but resigns the topic to Ussher in his Antiquities of the British Churches, and Prosperus Stellartius in his book on crowns and tonsures]; notes at 175 [Ware’s heavily edited version and truncated version of Spenser’s View, 1933; for comm. see Rudolf Gottfriend, ed., Spenser’s Prose Works, Vol. IX and variorum ed. of Spenser’s works (Johns Hopkins UP 1949); Ware’s ed. held sway until replaced by Renwick’s 1934]; 236 [Ware collected MSS and used native scholars Mac Firbisigh and Tadhg Ó Rodaigh; his MSS descended to his son, a less tolerant author who nevertheless translated his works in 1705]; 867n., 880, 978n, 1015n.; Note also that he is cited in connection with the ‘Book of Rosse or Waterford’ [1608], known to him as the source of the Entrenchment of Rosse, in Norman French [FDA1 150]. BIOG., 273, James Ussher his uncle. WORKS & CRIT [as supra].

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Catalogues

British Library holds J. Wariae equitis aurati de Hibernia et antiquitibus eius disquisitiones, editio seconda &c. [...], containing Spenser’s View of the Present State of Ireland; Historie of Ireland by three learned authors, Hanmer, Campion, and Spenser, with Marrleborrough’s Chronicle of Ireland (Soc. of Stationers, Dublin 1633); Ancient Irish Histories, Hanmer, Campion and Spenser (Hibernia Press, Dublin 1809, reprinted from 1633 edn.; [UU Lib Cat. - MOR 4 DA 905.W26]. Also De Scriptores Hiberniae, 2 vols. (Dublinii 1639); and Collected Works, inc. ‘Writers of Ireland’ (Dublin 1739, 1746, 1764); Antiquities and History of Ireland ... with His 2 books of the Writers of Ireland ... added ... that rare and admirable discourse of Sir John Davis [sic] (London 1704-05; [OS 4 DA940.W26 [Dobson, Dublin 1705]). Some other works incl. Archiepisc. Casseliensis ... quibis adjicitur Historia Coenobiorium Cisterciensum Hiberniae (Dublin 1626); De Praesulibus Hiberniae (Dublin 1665), and De Praesulibus Lageneniae sive Provinciae Dublinensis (Dublin 1628); Hunting the Roman Fox ... a specimen of popery and separation, writings of Sir James Ware collected by R[ichard] Ware (Dublin 1683). A library catalogue was issued in 1648.

Hyland Books (Cat. 224; Dec 1996), lists The Antiquities and History of Ireland, Containing 1: His Inquiries ...; 2: Annals of Ireland ... 3: The Prelates ...; 4 Writers ...; 5: Historical Relations by Sir John Davies (Dublin 1705/4), 4 pls., incl. pl. of Hibernia; preliminaries and ‘Encouragement’ [single vol.]. Also, The Works of Sir James Ware Concerning Ireland, Revised & Improved; Vol. 1, Containing the ... Bishops ... (Dublin: E. Jones 173), 1-660pp. [Bradshaw 1473]; Vol. II, Containing 1. Antiquities ..; 2. The Writers (Dublin: S. Powell 1750) (8)+1-384+(4)pp., port. & 20 pls. [Bradshaw 450]; [Vol. III], The Writers (Dublin: A. Reilly 1746) (2)+354++(5)pp., with index [Bradshaw 1460], this copy formerly the property of Anthony Dopping. Also, The Works of Sir James Ware, Concerning Irlnad, revised and improved; Vol II: The Hisotry & Antiquities of Ireland ... The Writers of Ireland (Dublin 1764) [Bradshaw 460], ports. and 21 pls.; list of plates; large paper copy; Writers bearing a title-page imprint of 1746 [£200].

Ulster Libraries: UNIV. OF ULSTER LIBRARY (Morris Collection) holds Ancient Irish Histories, the Works of Spencer, Campion, Hamnerr and Marlburrough [sic] (Hibernia Press 1809). BELFAST CENTRAL LIBRARY holds Antiquities and History of Ireland (1705); Ancient Irish Histories, Sir James Ware’s collection of Hamner, Spenser, and Campion (1633, 1809). BELFAST LINENHALL LIBRARY holds Antiquities of Ireland, 1764 ([being] Works, v. ii).

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Notes
Who was Henry Marleburrough/Marlborough?: Otherwise called Henry of Marlborough, he was a clerk and vicar in 15th c. Ireland who wrote a series of 12 "annals" largely based on earlier records but culminating in an account of events within the Pale and the doings of the Irish Parliament up to 1435. He is often included in the title-descriptors of Ware's Historie of Ireland - frequently cited in this longer form: "The Historie of Ireland, collected by three learned authors viz. H. Hanmer, E. Campion, and E. Spenser. (H. Marleburrough's chronicle of Ireland. Published by Sir J. Ware. (1633). To this some information has been added in the COPAC entry for a copy in the British Library which lacks some pages (i.e., pp.123-26 in the Spenser section):

Few MS. notes. "The several histories are bound in the following order: 1. Spenser's; 2. Campion's; 3. Hanmer's, with Marleburrough's continuation." (COPAC - online; 26.06.2024.)

Marlburrough’s portion of the Historie is not available in digital form and too rarely quoted to be copied here. Yet these remarks suggests that it is little more than an attempt to update Hanmer’s Chronicle - which was unfinished at his death, as Ware writes in his prefatory remarks on Spenser. Yet Marlburrough’s part is commonly described as "annals", with more material details about their composition in the Dictionary of Irish Biography (RIA 2004; online since 2009) - which may be summarised as follows:

The author named Henry Marleburrough in Ware’s Historie of Ireland (2 vols. 1633) is said to be a member of an Anglo-Irish family settled in Ireland since the early 13th century; he was rector of Kylladown, later rector of Balscadden, 1412, and vicar of Donabate; on two occasions he nominated attorneys to represent his interests in England; noted as author of seven books of annals about England and Ireland up to 1421, included in the histories of Ireland collected by Sir James Ware; contains material copied from other works but also original work on evernts of his own lifetime; informatiave about the Pale and the parliament in Dublin, a description of which concludes the work; his death is noted in the Book of obits and martyrology of the priory of Holy Trinity, Dublin, as occurring on 12 May but no year is given; a final entry in his chronicle refers to September 1435 but may have been added after his death. (See David Beresford, "Henry of Marleburrough", in Dictionary of Irish Biography, RIA 2009 - online.)

One of the listing of Ware’s Historie in the printed Catalogue of the British Museum Library [BML/BL] (1957) - not reproduced in the online version incorporated in COPAC [now Discover Libraries] offers the following notice:

J. Wariae equitis aurati de Hibernia et antiquitibus eius disquisitiones, editio seconda &c. [...], containing Spenser’s View of the Present State of Ireland; Historie of Ireland by three learned authors, Hanmer, Campion, and Spenser, with Marrleborrough’s Chronicle of Ireland (Soc. of Stationers, Dublin 1633).

It is clear here that Marleburrough’s contribution is labelled “Chronicle”, just as in fact Hanmer’s is - and this might well lead to the confusion. Yet a separate title page, as with the others in Vol. I (i.e., Spenser, Campion) should bear the name of Annals since this is indeed the name picked up by the historians. [BS ad interim 26.06.2024.]